{"id":36386,"date":"2016-10-21T10:12:49","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T17:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=36386"},"modified":"2016-10-21T10:28:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T17:28:46","slug":"challenge-week-39-little-man-what-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/challenge-week-39-little-man-what-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Week 39: Little Man, What Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love that people have dug deep in this challenge and brought me some classic-era films that I not only hadn’t seen, but hadn’t even heard of! I’ve see a few Frank Borzage films but never really gotten the hype, so I was glad to get another chance to check him out – and spoilers, I got another one the following week, heh. Based on the strength of the two films, I need to reevaluate all the others I’d seen and dismissed, because I loved them both.<\/p>\n

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, Little Man, What Now?<\/em>. The two main characters are poor folks in Weimar-era Germany, and we first meet them at a gynecologist’s office. The doctor confirms Lammchen’s pregnancy, then takes just about all of Hans’ paltry salary in payment. The unmarried couple (the only real reason it deserves a Pre-Code tag) gets married secretly, because his boss is set on getting him to marry his daughter – without stringing her along, Hans is in danger of losing his position.<\/p>\n

\"tf-doctor\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Soon enough, that happens and the two move in with Hans’ step-mother, but are horrified that she seems to be running an upper-crust bordello. Hans continues to try and fail to get good enough work to support his soon-to-be-three family, and despairs of ever managing. Lammchen is endlessly hopeful and supportive, but there’s just not a lot of opportunity.<\/p>\n

Sounds kind of familiar.<\/p>\n

The film threatens occasionally to become maudlin or wallowing in self-pity, but Borzage directs with great sensitivity and instead you just really feel for this young couple, very much in love but very much unable to provide for their material needs. Not all the circumstances in the film are modern (today Lammchen would likely be working, too), but I’ve seen the look in Hans’ eyes in people today – people who just want to work and provide for their family but can’t find a job that pays enough and fits their skills, and who feel like a failure no matter how hard they try.<\/p>\n

\"tf-paper\"<\/p>\n

The film ends on a note of hope that could easily feel tacked on, but just felt wonderful and beautiful to me. Margaret Sullavan is an actress who often flies under the radar, despite a really excellent and fairly well-known turn in The Shop Around the Corner<\/em>, and she is luminous here. Douglass Montgomery, similarly, isn’t in very much past the Pre-Code era, but he’s heartbreaking and effective (due in no small part to how Borzage lights him).<\/p>\n

I didn’t know anything about this one going in it, and it’s easily become one of the ones I’ll remember with the most fondness.<\/p>\n

Stats and stuff…<\/h3>\n

1934, USA<\/em>
\ndirected by Frank Borzage, written by William Anthony McGuire<\/em>
\nstarring Margaret Sullavan, Douglass Montgomery, Alan Hale, Catherine Doucet<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m ranking all my Challenge films on Flickchart (as I do all the films I see), a movie-ranking website that asks you to choose your favorite between two movies until it builds a ranked list of your favorites. Just for fun, I will average out the rankings and keep a running tally of whose recommendations rank the highest. When you add a film to Flickchart, it pits it against films already on your chart to see where it should fall. Here’s how Little Man, What Now?<\/em> entered my chart:<\/p>\n

Little Man, What Now?<\/b> > Rhythm on the River
\nLittle Man, What Now?<\/b> > Mr. Sardonicus
\nLittle Man, What Now? < Frozen<\/b>
\nLittle Man, What Now?<\/b> > Belle de jour
\nLittle Man, What Now? < Stand by Me<\/b>
\nLittle Man, What Now? < It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Such a Beautiful Day<\/b>
\nLittle Man, What Now?<\/b> > The Love Trap
\nLittle Man, What Now? < The Cabin in the Woods<\/b>
\nLittle Man, What Now? < The Ladykillers<\/b> (1955)
\nLittle Man, What Now?<\/b> > Julia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Eyes
\nLittle Man, What Now?<\/b> > The American
\nLittle Man, What Now?<\/b> > The Dynamiter<\/p>\n

Final #660 out of 3708 films on my chart (82%)<\/p>\n

It is now my #1 Frank Borzage film, my #1 Margaret Sullavan film, my #2 Douglass Montgomery film, my #16 Pre-Code film, and my #5 film of 1934.<\/p>\n

Little Man, What Now?<\/em> was recommended by Jeremy Bond, a friend from Twitter.<\/p>\n

A few more screenshots…<\/h3>\n

\"tf-woods\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-newplace\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-bed\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love that people have dug deep in this challenge and brought me some classic-era films that I not only hadn’t seen, but hadn’t even heard of! I’ve see a few Frank Borzage films but never really gotten the hype, so I was glad to get another chance to check him out – and spoilers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3027],"tags":[3233,3232,3066],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/tf-feat-little-man.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36389,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/challenge-week-40-moonrise\/","url_meta":{"origin":36386,"position":0},"title":"Challenge Week 40: Moonrise","author":"Jandy","date":"November 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow. I had high hopes for this, as I've been heard good things about it (not from a lot of people, as it's pretty obscure), I loved the Frank Borzage film Jeremy gave me earlier (here's that review), and I generally like film noir no matter what. I was unprepared\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/tf-moonrise-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35339,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/letterboxd-season-challenge-the-smiling-lieutenant-1931\/","url_meta":{"origin":36386,"position":1},"title":"Letterboxd Season Challenge: The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)","author":"Jandy","date":"September 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is film 2 for the Letterboxd Season Challenge. The whole list of films I'm planning to watch is here. Week 2: 1930s Musicals Challenge: Watch an unseen 1930s musical Film I Chose: The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), directed by Ernst Lubitsch We're totally in my wheelhouse doing 1930s musicals, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/tf-Chevalier-Hopkins.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36268,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-34-the-long-memory\/","url_meta":{"origin":36386,"position":2},"title":"Challenge Week 34: The Long Memory","author":"Jandy","date":"September 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is one of the few films I hadn't heard of at all going into this challenge, even more surprising as it's an older film, and a noir to boot! The trick is it's British noir, and I'm not as familiar with that as I should be, so thank you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/john-mills-elizabeth-sellers-long-memory-xlarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/john-mills-elizabeth-sellers-long-memory-xlarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/john-mills-elizabeth-sellers-long-memory-xlarge.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/john-mills-elizabeth-sellers-long-memory-xlarge.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":36129,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/challenge-week-28-i-confess\/","url_meta":{"origin":36386,"position":3},"title":"Challenge Week 28: I Confess","author":"Jandy","date":"July 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It's pretty well-known among my friends and acquaintances that I'm a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan, so assigning me a Hitchcock film I hadn't seen was a kind of a gimme. This, I believe, was one of two American Hitchcock films I hadn't seen (now the only remaining American one is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/tf-feat3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35384,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/the-2016-movie-watching-challenge\/","url_meta":{"origin":36386,"position":4},"title":"The 2016 Movie Watching Challenge","author":"Jandy","date":"November 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple of years ago, a friend of mine did an amazing movie-watching challenge, where she solicited recommendations from fifty-two of her friends; they each gave her five movies to watch per week. Yeah, crazy right? Well, she ended up completing the challenge with only a brief delay, which was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/spirit-of-the-beehive-feat-e1448696911770.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35376,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/letterboxd-season-challenge-serpico-1973\/","url_meta":{"origin":36386,"position":5},"title":"Letterboxd Season Challenge: Serpico (1973)","author":"Jandy","date":"November 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Film 9 for the Letterboxd Season Challenge. The other films I plan to watch for the challenge are here. Week 9: Hardboiled Wonderland Challenge: Watch an unseen film from the Hardboiled Wonderland 1970s list of crime films. 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