One of the great films of the Depression is on at 7 tonight on Turner Classic Movies. Gold Diggers of 1933 features one of the most stunning, haunting scenes of that period with Joan Blondell singing “Remember My Forgotten Man.” The whole dreamlike sequence, showing Blondell coming into contact with veterans marching in breadlines as they’d been shuffled off to war, is one of the great images in all of cinema. How’s that for a rec? I love the movie so much, it has a prominent scene in Infamous as George and Kathryn Kelly are waiting for the big ransom drop in a Kansas City movie palace. Catch the moment when the man reaches for the spent cigarette. Absolute genius. A longer essay on the movie can be found here. And check out the political origin of the song from the Roosevelt campaign and how it became an anthem of the Depression.
