Tyler's Cool Cinema Blog

  The 39 Steps (1935) is probably my second favorite Alfred Hitchcock film (after Vertigo ). It’s the movie I usually use to introduce my peers to vintage cinema. In fact, it was the first title we screened in May at my school’s newly launched Cinema Club—founded by my two best friends and me, a trio we affectionately call “The Three Musketeers.” This early Hitchcock thriller blends suspense with sharp wit, and it’s best experienced without too many spoilers. So I’ll tread lightly on plot details. The 39 Steps was adapted from John Buchan’s 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps , but Hitchcock, along with screenwriters Charles Bennett and Ian Hay, reimagined it into something far more cinematic—and, in my opinion, narratively stronger. Take the opening in the London music hall: the crowd is transfixed by a man called “Mr. Memory,” whose photographic recall is both amusing and, ultimately, crucial. This entire setup, including the character of Mr. Memory, was an invention of the film...

In my recent dive into Hollywood’s Pre-Code era—the brief, glorious window between the dawn of sound and the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934—I stumbled upon Call Her Savage , a 1932 talkie starring the one and only Clara Bow. I went in expecting melodrama, scandal and a bit of Pre-Code spice. What I didn’t expect was one of the earliest onscreen depictions of a queer-friendly space in a mainstream Hollywood film. And discovering this during Pride Month felt serendipitous in the best way. (More on that in a moment—trust me, it’s worth sticking around.) But first let’s talk about Clara Bow. If you're not already familiar, Bow was the “It Girl” of the 1920s—the original one, in fact. Her breakout performance in the 1927 silent comedy It earned her that moniker, and she quickly became a symbol of modern womanhood, sexual independence and flapper-era glamour. From 1927 to 1930, she  consistently ranked among the top two box-office stars in the U.S. Bow’s distinctive look—bo...