Movie Review Stop - silent, classic, new films on DVD ratings and reviews

Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) Film Review - Maureen O'Hara

2010-09-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Tale of two dancers, members of a female dance troupe struggling in the big city to get jobs and pay their bills. Good girl Judy O'Brien (Maureen O'Hara), beautiful and innocent Irish gal who says "the only thing I really care about is dancing", is devoted to her art as she practices ballet, but is forced to earn money dancing with the others in sequins and nightclubs that get raided. Roommate and friend (well, sort of) "Bubbles" (Lucille Ball), is sexy and interested in finding herself a rich man. She's not the best dancer but the troupe needs her 'cause she's the only one with "oomph". Bubbles dances a hot hula and gets hired for $25 a week at a Hoboken nightclub, but she's soon "discovered" and becomes a popular "burlesque queen" renamed Tiger Lily White. The burlesque theater where she works wants someone with class to be the warm-up performer for Lily/Bubbles - and Bubbles suggests her old pal Judy, who agrees to take the job for the money. Soon their act becomes a hit on Broadway as "Tiger Lily White and her little stooge". Judy bravely takes the stage each day, dances ballet, and gets herself booed by the largely male audience who beg for Tiger Lily to come out and perform. Lily/Bubbles does a number where a wind blows her clothes up and eventually off (while she stands behind the curtain, that is). Meanwhile a couple of men fit into the picture (don't they always) - one is wealthy Jimmy Harris (Louis Hayward), coming onto Judy but still carrying the torch for his soon-to-be ex-wife. The other, Steve Adams (Ralph Bellamy), falls for Judy in an elevator, chases after her in the rain, then later tries to meet her backstage, but she's just not interested - thing is, he's actually head of the "American Ballet Company", where she recently attempted to audition and chickened out!

Review - Directed by Dorothy Arzner, this is an entertaining backstage soap opera, with some enjoyable dance numbers - loved Lucy's hula, and also her "Jitterbug Bite" number is fun. Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball are both perfection in their opposing roles - and Maureen's character isn't *all* innocence, as the two end up in a rolling on the floor on-stage cat fight followed by appearance in night court. As a close to lifelong devotee of "I Love Lucy" (I'm sure I've been watching that show continuously since about the age of three or four), it's neat seeing Lucy SO young! The film comes across as pretty much a B-movie, but quite an excellent one - the quality of the black and white print of this, as screened on TCM, looked quite clear and nice. I have seen this one before, but not recently so it seemed pretty fresh for me. Rating - 8/10 stars

Cinecon 46 Review - 2010 Film Festival Report

2010-09-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

Have written up my report on Cinecon 46 which was at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California over the 2010 Labor Day weekend. Film reviews, ratings, plot summaries, etc. for the films screened.

Visit Cinecon 46 Review for my full report.

The Last Station (2009) - Christopher Plummer Helen Mirren

2010-07-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Following the last days of famed writer Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) in Russia, 1910. A young and innocent Tolstoy worshipper, Valentin (James McAvoy), arrives to become his new private secretary while Tolstoy's wife, the Countess (Helen Mirren), often disrupts the household in her pursuit to keep her husband from creating a new will that will entail the rights to all his literary works, including famous War and Peace, to the people (rather than her children). Meanwhile Valentin loses his virginity and falls in love with the liberated woman called Masha.

Review - Filmed on location in a lovely setting, the 1910 time period wonderfully set and costumed, the story is oh so slightly tedious, the fight over the will being the main thrust here. But - the acting is fabulous, especially Christopher Plummer as the aged Tolstoy and - wow, Helen Mirren is fantastic as his troubled and troublesome wife. James McAvoy is a personal favorite and heartthrob of mine, well done - the actress who plays Masha was miscast, in my opinion. An interesting historical drama, as a whole, well photographed and acted. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Thoroughbreds Don't Cry (1937) - Judy Garland Mickey Rooney

2010-07-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Horse racing melodrama/light musical, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. English teen Roger (Ronald Sinclair) heads for California with his grandfather Sir Peter Calverton (C. Aubrey Smith) to race their beloved prize horse "the Pookah" in the "American Cup". Roger sets out to recruit skilled, but cocky, jockey Timmie Donovan (Mickey Rooney) - known as a big "swellhead" - to ride the Pookah in the race. Roger heads into Mother Ralph's boarding house for jockeys, gets invited to dinner by niece Cricket West (Judy Garland), a teen with a great singing voice and ambitions to become a singer and actress (she's a bit of a show-off). After Roger gets poked around by all for his short pants and British accent, a couple of black eyes later and Timmie ends up agreeing to ride Roger's horse. They soon become good pals, but things start to go wrong when Timmie is tricked into believing his father is dying and in need of an expensive iron lung, and the only way to get the money for dad is to "throw a race". Dad is actually a professional gambler/bad man and not even ill, Timmy makes the Pookah lose in a preliminary race for America's Cup, then all seems lost when he ends up removed as a jockey and thrown off the course right before the big race. But luckily Roger has been taking jockey lessons from Timmy, and decides to go ahead and ride the Pookah in the race himself!

Review - A cute, light entertainment, the film boosted up by the star quality of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland (she received top billing here, though I would have liked to have seen her with a bit more to do), plus a great cast of character actors (Sophie Tucker as Mother Ralph/Aunt Edie is quite amusing here). Ronald Sinclair is very good too and gives a nice, realistic quality in his performance as the young Englishman, including a scene with some very innocent flirtations between him and Judy's character. Many scenes in the movie are filmed on-location at the brand new Santa Anita racetrack. Wonderful Judy shines, as usual, singing "Got a Pair of New Shoes" several times during the film, including the opening titles. Mickey Rooney energetically steals the film, as usual. Rating - 8/10 stars

Red Desert (1964) - Il deserto rosso - Antonioni directed

2010-07-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Italian language film, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Cold, industrialized cityscape with gritty, gray, lonely streets, rusted window frames, large, rundown factories spewing pollution, fishing ports with ghost-like ships that pass quietly by through the fog, large and looming, rusty and mysterious - and an attractive, deeply disturbed young woman (Monica Vitti) - a wife and mother - who faces mental illness after some sort of road accident a few years before. She seems unable to cope with the world around her, and sometimes views things in one color, the scene literally painted gray - or pink. She meets a friend (Richard Harris) of her husband at the factory where he works, then seems to keep meeting up with this new man, his almost lovestruck eye, a wee bit lustful, always there to observe her strange behavior.

Review - A very unusual film, weirdly visual, with striking imagery - the background music is often futuristic, sci-fi, machine-ish in nature. Is there some hidden meaning behind all this - or is the director trying too hard to be artsy and cool?! Ah, that's the rub. And what's behind the tiny fishing hut, the group of horny people, the quail eggs, and the almost orgy followed by odd, nearby ship quarantine? I found the film interesting, in any case - real weird, but oddly satisfying too. One of my favorite scenes was when the woman tells a story to her young son, the story visualized on the screen, with lovely isolated island, pink beach, a lone girl, and mysterious sailing ship - the prettiest scenery in the film is really, nothing but a story. The widescreen print of this film looked very nice, on Criterion Blu-ray. Rating - 9/10 stars

July Notes

2010-07-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

Okay - still trying to catch up with this. I am going to try posting each film on the day I see it, as I did when I started this blog. Seems like it was easier to keep up with that way. Starting with the film I watched today.

A Neckin' Party (1937) - Comedy Short Film Review

2010-04-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary and Review - "A Vitaphone Novelty". Short starring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, who play themselves. At a New York nightclub, Edgar meets up with Charlie, who's dressed to the nines after just inheriting $200, then after some brief comedy patter, they agree to fly to a ranch "below the border" where they are soon dressed and performing like a couple of singing cowboys and meeting up with a VERY flirtatious Mexican dancing girl named Lolita. Though she's agreed not to "look at any man", Lolita starts flirting with Charlie, prompting her extremely jealous boyfriend to invite Charlie to go on a "necking party" - with not exactly the intent that Charlie thinks. While Edgar is off chatting up Elmer "Mortimer" Snerd (more comedy patter) Charlie is getting a noose put around his neck! One reel short with mild humor throughout. No laughs out loud for me, but cute. Rating - 7.5/10 stars

Party Wire (1935) Film Review - Jean Arthur

2010-04-19T16:34:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Melodrama all set in the small town of Rockridge, where town gossips get their fix on the shared telephone line party wire everyone shares, eavesdropping on neighbor's conversations and spreading rumours like wildfire. Excitement hits town in the form of Matthew "Matt" Putnam (Victor Jory), back in town after seven years absence, with lots of money - and single! And apparently the only catch in town as all the young women - with mothers pushing behind them - are after him. But Matt visits his old pal Will Oliver (Charles aka Charley Grapewin), a man who likes to get drunk on his homemade applejack, and reunites (and sparks) with Will's now grown-up pretty daughter Marge (Jean Arthur). Marge's friend Roy is interested in her too, they both work on the church funds bookkeeping together (for some reason). But when Matt and Marge are seen going about town together, the gossip leads defeated Roy to decide to leave town - coincidentally, the same night some money has gone missing from the church accounts. Misunderstandings on the telephone leads the town gossips and old biddies to the mistaken notion that Roy was skipping town because he had gotten Marge pregnant! Many troubles loom for Marge, starting with her being fired from her job at the bank. All this leads her hero Matt to try and come to her rescue - by getting even with the whole town for doing her wrong.

Review - This is a real cute film, very entertaining. Okay, that Matt isn't exactly my ideal looks-wise, but he does seem like a pretty decent chap - of course, he actually has no interest in staying on in the tiny town (founded by his Gramps) until he meets Marge - and why not, she's Jean Arthur after all. As Matt's bedridden, ornery aunt tells him - "he's had his education, his fling, and his foolishness - now it's time to settle down - in Rockridge." The scenes of the old lady gossips getting their kicks listening in on everyone's phone conversations are kind of amusing, actually. Lots of really good character actors fill up this film, helping make this quite enjoyable. Of course, being the thirties, they never actually say the word pregnant or mention pregnancy - but we all get it anyway! Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Adventureland (2009) Film Review - Kennywood Park location

2010-04-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Coming of age romantic comedy set in Pittsburgh, the summer of 1987. About James (Jesse Eisenberg), just graduated from college and - a virgin, it is announced - who is forced to get his first summer job when his father gets transferred (and has less money). No experience, the only job he can get is as a carny operating games at local amusement park Adventureland. James meets several new friends working there that summer including fellow game operator, attractive Em (Kristen Stewart). He quickly becomes lovestruck over Em, but Em seems torn between him and married, a bit older park maintenance guy who she is busy sleeping with in his mom's basement (or sometimes in the back of his car!). Romance blossoms between James and Em, but James has a fling of his own when a sexy park dancer/ride operator comes onto him. Will this be the summer that James loses his virginity? and will he end up with a new love?

Review - This film came as a bit of a surprise - very good, with well done blossoming romance and fun setting, on-location filming done almost entirely in the old-fashioned amusement park (filmed at Kennywood Park, West Mifflin, near Pittsburgh, PA - yeah, I'd like to go there one day!). The two leads take their parts to heart and do a really good job here - especially Jesse Eisenberg, who brings a real vulnerability to the role, the expressions on his face really do make him look like a young man falling in love. The eighties period setting was done well, enhanced by a great soundtrack of eighties music (loved hearing one of my old, personal faves from the day "Don't Change" by INXS in the closing credits). Lots of other favorite songs too. Comedy elements are added by stars like "Freaks and Geeks" Martin Starr, as a geeky games worker, and Bill Hader, as the park manager. Great film. Rating - 9 to 9.5/10 stars

Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) - Film Review

2010-04-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Teen comedy/musical about TV/Disney sensation Hannah Montana. Seemingly normal teenage high school girl Miley (Miley Cyrus) dons a blonde wig and some cool clothes and secretly turns herself into her alter-ego, one teen pop sensation known as Hannah Montana. Her dad wants her to go to Tennessee for two weeks to celebrate her grandmother's birthday with the family - Hannah has other plans in NYC, but is tricked by smart papa into ending up on a flight straight to Tennessee and her little country hometown, Crowley Corners. Back home, Miley meets a good-looking teen cowboy and has some flirtations (remember, this is a Disney film), plus is busy trying to keep her alter-ego a secret, especially from a bloodhound-like reporter on her trail for his Brit rag publication. When they want to turn part of the landscape in town into a mall, a fund raiser is to be put on to keep this from happening - which escalates into an invitation for Hannah Montana herself to perform a concert to help raise funds - thing is, only close family knows Miley is Hannah - what if the town (or her new guy) were to find out the truth?

Review - This is cute, VERY light fare - perhaps I would have liked this better when I was ten, but I did find this entertaining. Some of the film is sort of silly slapstick-ish, but the story is well done, and there are some nice moments, I especially enjoyed the duet that Miley Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus (who plays her dad in the film) do in one scene for the song, "Butterfly Fly Away". The musical numbers, in general, were enjoyable to watch - I just always enjoy musicals, I guess. Okay movie - a good bet for the preteen gal set. Rating - 7/10 stars

I Love You, Man (2009) Film Review - Paul Rudd, Jason Segel

2010-04-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Comedy-"bromance". Newly engaged realtor, Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd), finds that his wife has an assortment of best gal pals to have for her bridesmaids but he has NO guy friends. So - he decides to try to find a new male friend he can ask to be Best Man at his wedding, and begins going on "man dates". Okey dokey. No luck finding that right new chum - until one day having an open house for the big property he's trying to sell - Lou Ferrigno's house - he meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel). Soon meeting up again for beer and fish tacos in Venice Beach, L.A., where Sydney has a house, they gradually become buddies - doing Rush songs together on guitar and bass in Sydney's "man cave" (hmm - do guys really have stuff like that?), getting drunk, telling intimate sex stuff to each other. Buds to the end. But is Peter's fiancee, Zooey (Rashida Jones), really up to having her man gone half the time doing guy stuff with Sydney?!

Review - Well, this ended up being fairly good - it had some laughs in it, cute story, all filmed on location in L.A. including the Venice boardwalk, Chinatown for an engagement party at Hop Louie (must go there one day soon), and the Grove. For a comedy, this wasn't a bad watch, was entertaining with lots of humor based around a man's relationship with another man being sort of like a romantic relationship - what with nervousness about calling for their first "man date", nervousness getting to know each other, saying the wrong things, making a break apart from each other and the like. Fun film good for some laughs. Rating - 8/10 stars

Old Acquaintance (1943) Film Review - Bette Davis

2010-04-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Soap Opera and rivalry following twenty years in the lives of two best gal pals. Successful novelist Katherine "Kit" Marlowe (Bette Davis) arrive back in her small hometown, after years away in NYC, to meet up with her old best friend, hot-tempered Millie Drake (Miriam Hopkins) and husband Preston (John Loder). Jealousy and envy seems to surround these two women as Millie, a housewife about to have a baby, has secretly been writing a book: she longs for a career as a writer, like her friend. She soon becomes a huge success writing romance novels, and as the years pass, Preston - not the kind of man who seems to enjoy his wife earning more money than he does (yeesh) - becomes an unhappy alcoholic whose only happiness is his daughter Dierdre and - yes - Kit. Preston and Kit had sparks the first moment they met, this has bloomed into love unfulfilled ten years later - Kit has also become sort of a mother figure to the daughter. But Kit sticks by her long-time friend even though Millie must be treated with kid gloves a lot of the time as she is given to being bad tempered, irrational, and rather juvenile. Preston leaves Millie, the years go by, and into WWII where Preston and Kit are both dating other people (Kit's is a youth ten years her junior), and Diedre has become a beautiful young woman - more soap to come!!

Review - Good fun, with lots of great acting as the great Bette Davis takes control of the film, but Miriam Hopkins also goes all out, acting UP a storm as drama queen Millie. Basically, a familiar plot - one woman has a career, one has a home and family - each sort of wants what the other has. Okay - a small complaint regarding something which is very common in films made in the 30s/40s, the silents too - when the film begins it is 1924, it moves forward to 1932, then into WWII and the clothing they wear in the film is all current day 1940s attire, no period costuming at all. Also, the way they age Bette to make her look forty-something in the later part of the film is to simply add a gray streak to the top of her head - hmm. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006) - Documentary Review

2010-04-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - More footage from the original "Grey Gardens" documentary from 1975 was used to create this new film. Lots more glimpses of eccentric but lovable mother and daughter, Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beales, and their semi-isolated life in their East Hampton beachside mansion, Grey Gardens. This film features lots more of Little Edie singing, dancing, posing, and making love to the camera with her eyes basically; Big Edie recites a couple of poems. The house has a small fire, a small batch of cute kittens is born, and there is more footage featured of the "Marble Faun", an Italian-American neighbor youth named Jerry who likes to hang about with the two women. They also receive a visit from a friend/palm reader who paints some rather unusual, kind of dark paintings!

Review - Okay, this documentary wasn't quite as good as the original, which obviously featured most of the best footage, but it was still very interesting and great to spend some more time with these two women - I really like them a whole lot, as obviously the two filmmakers, the Maysles brothers did. Little Edie flirts with them from her side of the camera quite often in the footage shown in this. We also get to see a whole lot more of Little Edie's wild costumes and headdresses (love it!) - amazing the combinations and ideas she comes up with! More skirts and scarves created out of shirts, more weird color combinations, more running about in that same 40s/50s looking bathing suit - - we even see Edie take the two filmmakers down to the beach, where she sunbathes and goes for a swim - lots of fun stuff. Very cool. Rating - 9/10 stars

April Notes - Catch Up Time !!

2010-04-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, no posts since February - time to catch up. I have piles of reviews all written up and on my computer but have become seriously behind in thinking about posting them here. I think I'll try to make a go of posting these now (over the next week that is, there's lots!). I'll try, but gosh - it's Robert Taylor day again on TCM starting this afternoon - so many movies to watch, so much to do, so little time!

Carrie (1952) Film Review - Jennifer Jones, Laurence Olivier

2010-02-01T14:35:00.000-08:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Soap opera following the downfall of a married man in love with another woman. Turn of the century small town girl, right off the farm, Carrie (Jennifer Jones) arrives in Chicago to, hmm, seek her fortune (or snatch a man). Moving in with her sister and family, she works at a shoe factory until an accident with the machine causes her to be fired. With no money or job, she seeks the help of a man/wolf named Charlie (Eddie Albert), who she met on the train into town. He helps her out by offering her money and his place to stay while he pretends to leave town (hmm). Soon she is living with Charlie and *hoping* he will marry her (oh gosh). Meanwhile, he has taken her out to dinner at a fancy Chicago eatery where she meets the successful, handsome manager, George (Laurence Olivier). George invites her to the theatre and is soon in fast pursuit of her, they quickly fall in love - thing she doesn't know yet, he is married - - and to a shrew of a wife! Carrie finds out and refuses to see him again - - so in desperate pursuit to get her for his own, he embezzles money from the restaurant and tricks her into going to New York, and then lies that he is divorced. Many troubles to follow.

Review - Following the complete downfall of a man in a bad marriage and in love with a younger woman (and who does *anything* it takes to get her) - - this film has more melodrama packed into two hours than most; sort of dark, but an entertaining watch. Liked this lots - and never saw it before! Rating - 9/10 stars

Love Letters (1945) Film Review - Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten

2009-12-16T11:17:00.000-08:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS - - - Romantic mystery/melodrama starring Joseph Cotten as Allen, a soldier off to war in Italy who has been writing love letters to a girl back in England named Victoria - thing is, he is writing them on behalf of his buddy Roger and Victoria has fallen in love with the letters AND the man who has written the letters (who she believes is her man Roger!). Oddly, Allen has fallen in love with Victoria too, a woman he has never seen or met. Well, Roger goes back to England and marries her, Allen is wounded in action and comes home only to find out that his friend Roger was killed in an "accident". Meanwhile, Allen has inherited a country house in Essex and arrives to live at the mysterious old house, complete with charming/eccentric (whichever way you want to look at it) old caretaker (Cecil Kellaway). Coincidentally, in a nearby village is where his love that he has never met - and his obsession: Victoria - happened to live - - but when he visits one day he is told she is dead. POSSIBLE SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS - - In London he meets and falls for a beautiful woman named just "Singleton" (Jennifer Jones) who has amnesia and can't remember anything about her past. But her friend Dilly knows the truth - which is told to Allen - Singleton is Victoria, who was in prison for a year for the murder of Roger and lost all memory of her past after the incident. Allen and Singleton fall in love and get married, though Allen is told that she must not be told the truth of her past, but the memories gradually start to come! How will this affect their romance, and will she ever find out that her Alan is the one who really wrote the love letters?!

Review - Okay, this film is about as soap opera-ish as you can get - very entertaining, though very predictable (though I may have seen this a long, long time ago and the memory of the film was somewhere in the back of my head). I liked the sort of mysterious background music and sweet, dreamy-eyed "Portrait of Jennie"-like acting style of Jennifer Jones in this. Neat house the Joseph Cotten character goes to live in in Essex. Joseph Cotten is one of my favorites, as is Jennifer Jones - I enjoy them paired with each other, they have a lot of chemistry together. Well, it seems rather far-fetched to think that a couple would fall in love just based on letters, yet they are both so attractive when they meet - why wouldn't they fall in love for real?! Rating - 8.5 to 9/10 stars

17 Again (2009) Film Review - Zac Efron

2009-11-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

Plot Summary - Fantasy-comedy about Mike (Matthew Perry), a thirty-something father of two teens who feels disappointed with his life - going nowhere in his job in pharmaceutical sales (they promote a bimbo - working there only two months - instead of him, a 16 year employee!) and on the brink of divorcing the wife he married after getting her pregnant his senior year in high school. Oddly, he is given a second chance when he visits his old school, encounters a strange janitor, and soon has fallen off a bridge and into something pretty weird - his body has become seventeen again (you knew that was coming!), but inside he's still the same man. Okay, now a teenager, Mike (Zac Efron), decides that this is his chance to try and do his life over - he decides to "go back to high school". Living with his longtime pal Ned, a sci-fi/fantasy geek to the core (you should see this guy's house!), he recruits Ned to pose as his "dad" and sign him up for school. Ned falls for the attractive female principal and Mike hopes to gain the success he once missed out on by joining the basketball team. But here's the twist - Mike's two teenage kids, Alex and Maggie, attend the same high school and he finds himself getting to know the kids he never really knew - and helping them out with their problems. Alex is being taunted by a bully, Maggie happens to be dating said bully (a real jerk). And meanwhile, Mike comes over to his new "friend" Alex's house and meets his mom (Leslie Mann), Mike's soon to be ex-wife, and he begins to see a side of her he had forgotten. Thing is, she thinks he's a teen!

Review - Okay, I thought this film was quite good, funny - very entertaining. I do always enjoy these sort of films - Freaky Friday, Big, etc. - body switching, age changing fantasy, that sort. This features lots of comic scenes involving Mike acting towards his children like a father - but they think he's just another kid at school, creating weird situations. Same with his relationship with the mom, he acts more like her husband than her son's friend. Mix-ups, confusion, it's all amusing. The film also features comedy in the form of an older man trying to think, dress, and act like a teenager. Rating - 9/10 stars

Love on the Run (1936) Film Review - Clark Gable

2009-11-09T17:13:00.000-08:00

Plot Summary - MGM romantic comedy about a reporter on the trail of a runaway bride (hm- doesn't that sound familiar?!). Mike Anthony (Clark Gable), reporter for the New York Chronicle, is in London to cover the story of debutante Sally Parker (Joan Crawford) and her wedding to a Russian prince named Igor. But running into her as she's running away on her wedding day, Mike enters her hotel room, comforts her in her tears, and offers his help - the two run off together, disguised as a Baron and Baroness, steal their small plane and oddly manage to fly all the way to France though, apparently, Mike has never flown a plane before! Now Mike is after getting "the biggest exclusive story of the year" for his newspaper, as the two are on the run. Barney (Franchot Tone), a rival reporter and semi-chum of Mike's, is chasing after the two like a bloodhound to get his own story - and also in hot pursuit to catch them is the Baron and Baroness, actually phonies, spies who are after this map that was found by Mike and Sally in the plane. At one point, Mike and Sally end up hiding away spending the night in a huge palace run by a crazy caretaker who thinks they are ghosts (and actually has a pet invisible dog friend). Mike and Sally's obviously approaching romance sparks here, but when Sally finds out he is a reporter, she leaves him. More troubles to come as they are soon at the end of the guns of the evil Baron/Baroness couple (better known as Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein).

Review - Okay, this film is sort of so-so with lots of stuff that doesn't really make that much sense - why is Mike so mean to rival reporter Barney, yet they are bunking together in the same hotel room at the beginning of the film? Why does Sally not even scream or wonder that much at a strange man entering her hotel room, even if he does look like Clark Gable? Of course, the plane flying sequence is pretty absurd - they can barely get the plane off the ground without killing a whole crowd of people but manage to fly to France, fearlessly, I might add! What is good in the film is three great stars of the golden age in one film - all doing a pretty good job of it too. Of course, Franchot Tone is one of my personal favorite actors from that era, though I would rather have seen him in the romantic lead than this sort of thankless role as Mike's object of tricks to get rid of him (locking him in the back of a truck, leaving him in the lurch with the bill unpaid in a French restaurant, tying and gagging him with the enemy in the next room, stuff like that). Saw this one before, but it just wasn't memorable enough for me to realize until halfway through the film. Similarities to "It Happened One Night (1934)". Rating - 6.5 to 7/10 stars

Forsaking All Others (1934) Film Review

2009-11-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

Plot Summary - Three friends since childhood in a love triangle - Mary (Joan Crawford) has been in love with Dillon (Robert Montgomery) since they were kids, Jeff (Clark Gable) has been in love with Mary since they were kids. Jeff arrives back in town from Spain with plans to ask Mary to marry him, until he finds out it's the day before Mary's wedding to Dillon! Mary seems to see Jeff as a sort of pal/uncle and asks him to "give her away" (she also sits on his lap, her "favorite seat in town" - okay, what's that all about?). Oddly, Dill runs off that night with former girlfriend Connie, a bitch who arrives to seduce him and he inexplicably bites, leaving Mary at the alter! Whoa. She runs off to stay with a friend (Billie Burke) in the Adirondacks and is soon quite the sports gal. Mary and Jeff are invited some weeks later by Connie to attend a party being thrown by herself and new hubby Dillon. Mary decides to go and spit in their eye sort of speak, as she means to look on her ex-fiance as "last year's hat". Well, that fails - married man Dillon keeps calling her and they finally get together for a fun day in the country with hamburgers, bicycles, and hi-jinks - still in love. They end up having to spend the night in the Adirondacks house, but no funny stuff (you know what I mean, this is the thirties). Jeff pretty much has backed off, as Dillon and Mary begin their romance again - what's next for these three?!

Review - This is a cute film, boosted up by three top stars of the thirties. I like the clip in the opening credits where the three walk towards the camera - her in bride dress, the two men dolls in top hat and tails. I did watch this to see favorite Robert Montgomery - woo, though his character is sort of a charming cad (don't really like to see him like that). Pretty good, fairly predictable, typical thirties light romantic comedy. Rating - 7.5 to 8/10 stars

Our Mother's House (1967) Film Review - Dirk Bogarde

2009-10-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Dirk Bogarde stars in this very strange, unusual British film about seven seemingly fatherless children whose mother dies and the kids, not wanting to get sent to the orphanage, bury her in the garden and continue to live on, attend school, etc. without telling anyone about her death. They build an odd shrine in the garden complete with her bedroom furniture and hold "Mother Time" prayer meetings - actually, more like seances as the oldest daughter (Pamela Franklin) contacts the mother and relays advice to the kids! The bunch start to go out of control a bit, forging mom's signature and cashing her weekly "check" at the bank, and dealing out harsh punishments like cutting off the long hair of the eight-year old-ish daughter. When the girl gets ill after the brutal haircut incident, they won't call a doctor - but the middle girl (family leader actually) gives the scoop that they actually have a father, a real beast apparently, and one of the boys contacts the man. Arriving on the scene one Charlie Hook (Bogarde), cockney horse-race gambler with a passion for women and hard drink. He takes over the family, the kids start to run wild, the middle daughter completely doesn't trust him - and with good reason as he secretly starts taking money out of the mother's savings account.

Review - Okay, this movie IS kind of weird and strange, but it's quite well done and memorable. I have seen this quite a few times before, but not in a number of years - I still remember that hair cutting scene, poor girl. The film has a sort of dark, gothic feel to it - school uniforms and large, rundown Victorian house adding to the atmosphere. Okay - what's with Dirk Bogarde's Moe-like haircut in this - seriously though, he's great as usual. Though Charlie isn't meant to be any kind of father figure, he comes across as really having a ball with these kids - I believe because Dirk Bogarde himself enjoyed making this film and working with the kids, it really does come across. Mark Lester appears in this film in the role of cute little stuttering Jiminee, expert at forging signatures! A memorable little music tune runs through this film that I still remember weeks later. Rating - 9/10 stars

The Servant (1963) Film Review - Dirk Bogarde

2009-10-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Unusual UK drama about a well-to-do young bachelor, Tony (James Fox), just returned from Africa, who hires a live-in manservant named Barrett (Dirk Bogarde) to work for him in his newly acquired London apartment. Barrett, seemingly the perfect gentleman's gentleman, takes pride in his cooking (especially his souffles), is knowledgeable on decorating (so advises on the decoration process for the new digs), is well groomed and well dressed. But as the film progresses, you oh so subtly see a sort of dark side to Barrett. Soon a conflict arises between Barrett and Tony's rather bitchy fiancee (Wendy Craig) who is really pretty rude to Barrett and wishes he could "live out". Barrett brings his "sister" Vera (Sarah Miles) in as the new maid, but it's pretty obvious that she's not exactly sisterly towards him - meanwhile, sexy Vera seduces vulnerable Tony and he's completely smitten, but when Vera and Barrett get caught in the act together, in Tony's bedroom no less, they are sacked. Barrett is not one to give up easily and soon has begged and lied his way back to work as Tony's manservant - and soon a very odd relationship has developed between the two men as the roles of master and servant have seemingly flipped.

Review - Filmed in black and white, with interesting, stylish photography (a number of shots taken into mirrors, stuff like that). Dirk Bogarde gives a great performance in this film - well, he's always good! One of my favorite actors - and very handsome to look at, I must say. The print of this, as screened on TCM, looked very good. Rating - 9/10 stars

Doctor in the House (1954) Film Review - Dirk Bogarde

2009-10-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - British comedy following the adventures of handsome, young Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) and his five years as a medical student at St. Swithins Hospital, London. From his arrival for his first term at medical school, lost, late to his first lecture, but soon shown the ropes by three students who keep returning year after year from failing their exams. These return students are more interested in girls, football, and the local pub than actually becoming doctors, it seems. Simon acquires living quarters at a boarding house where he is chased by the landlady's daughter, an aggressive and beautiful blonde - our Simon wants none of that so moves in with the three fellows into their messy rooms, complete with female fiancee of one of the guys who seems to share the bathroom. As our men progress through the school years we see them deal with practicing on patients, exams, women, stern doctors, and an even sterner nurse in the form of Sister Virtue. His friends try to find Simon a girl, he's more interested in his studies but does go out on a few failed dates, finally actually ending up liking a pretty nurse named Joy.

Review - Slapstick-ish comedy includes a skeleton on the bus and rescue of the school mascot (hideous stuffed gorilla) through the streets of London. Amusing, entertaining film boosted up by wonderful Dirk Bogarde, one of my personal favorites. Amusing comedienne Joan Sims appears in the tiny cameo role of nurse "Rigor Mortis", hehe. Filmed in Technicolor, with lots of location scenes in London - the print, as screened on TCM, looked nice. An enjoyable watch, I haven't actually seen this one in many years. A fun romp. Rating - 8.5 to 9/10 stars

The Soloist (2009) Film Review - Jamie Foxx

2009-10-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Los Angeles Times reporter Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr.), hanging in Pershing Square, meets a homeless man named Nathaniel (Jamie Foxx) who talks to himself in nonsense streaming sentences and plays the violin on the streets of L.A., and it turns out he was once a music student at Julliard, several decades before. Lopez decides to devote his weekly column to this man, tries to find out what lead him to this down and out state, and tries to help him. After the first column, a reader sends Nathaniel her cello, Lopez finds him a shelter where the instrument will be safe, and eventually finds him a small apartment. But what he really wants to do is help cure Nathaniel of his mental illness/schizophrenia, though an unwilling Nathaniel makes that a hard nut to crack.

Review - Nicely photographed in the L.A. streets, including some interesting and colorful overhead tracking shots. Interesting story and very well acted by all - Jamie Foxx is particular good in this film. The scenes of Skid Row are odd, kind of scary, colorful, dirty and realistic looking. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Fragments (2008) aka Winged Creatures - Film Review

2009-10-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - In a Southern California town, a gunman enters a diner/coffee shop and shoots victims at random; those left living through the ordeal are left living fragmented lives - stress and shock seemingly leading this small bunch to odd behavior patterns. First there's tween-age Annie (Dakota Fanning), struggling with the death of her dad in the incident, as she and her friend Jimmy (Josh Hutcherson) hid under the table they were eating at - - after the shooting, Annie becomes a religious fanatic, Jimmy won't talk. Then there's Charlie (Forest Whitaker), gunshot to the neck, wanders out of the hospital and straight to the Indian casinos where he begins a lucky gambling streak shooting craps. Waitress Carla (Kate Beckinsale) wasn't hurt physically in the incident, but begins to chase after the doctor who tended to the victims afterwards, who by coincidence was in the diner 20 minutes before the shooting. Meanwhile, Doc is busy sneaking drugs into his girlfriend's food to give her migraine headaches (huh?!).

Review - This film is well done and was fairly interesting, though the tale ended up being confusing with segments of the story that just never made sense or were explained. The film benefits from having a fine cast of actors and the style and on-location scenes look good. The plotline switches between the different characters and their reactions to this tragedy. The film also features Jackie Earle Haley as Jimmy's dad (pretty small role) and Jennifer Hudson as Charlie's daughter. Reasonably good, though flawed. Rating - 7.5/10 stars

De Luxe Annie (1918) Silent Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-10-05T16:55:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Silent crime melodrama. Julie and Walter Kendal (Norma Talmadge and Frank Mills) - she a sweetheart, wife and mother - he, a man interested in theories on crime, the causes and effects. Walter believes that a sudden shock can lead a person to a life of crime - his theory is about to be tested. One night he sets out to track a couple of baddies known as De Luxe Annie and Jimmy (Eugene O'Brien), who like to pull con games such as the "Old Badger" game and "De Luxe Book" game, on innocent victims. Walter undercover, arrives pretending he's interested in purchasing a deluxe edition of a classic book from Annie - the con underway, as Jimmy shows up pretending to be an angry husband wondering why a man is alone in the apartment with his wife; Jimmy asks for hush money to keep it out of the papers. Meanwhile, Julie at home has a nightmare her man is in trouble - so she heads over to help him, ends up knocked out from a fight with the bad people, then out into the night with amnesia - no memory of her past! Next thing you know she's cleaning rooms at a lodging house and happens to be cleaning up Jimmy's room, where she tries to steal a pile of dough and a watch - but he arrives to catch her holding his goods, and deciding she'd make a good little partner for his schemes, he recruits her to join forces with him to pull the De Luxe book game. So Julie heads into a life of crime, but still has vague notions in her head of a different past - she pinches a brooch she feels should be hers (and it was!), and in an action-packed finale Jimmie and Julie escape via ice skates to keep the hounds from tracking their scent, ending up at her own, forgotten house. Meanwhile hubby Walter has become aware that his wife has no clue who she is, and is pulling crimes - and he seeks to help her get the operation she needs to restore her memory.

Review - This is a worthwhile watch, a very melodramatic plot-line typical of the time period this film was made. There was some interesting photography and editing I noticed - one interesting shot I'm remembering is the superimposed image of Talmadge as Julie in one corner while she is having her nightmare. The print had some nitrate decomposition during one reel. Norma Talmadge, in this film, kept reminding me of current day actress Natalie Portman - very similar look. She does a very good job in her part in this film, I thought. AFTER NOTE: Okay - I recently saw the British film "Easy Virtue (2008)" and one of the actresses in this, Charlotte Riley, really did look exactly like Norma Talmadge - and now that I think of it, she was in the recent Brit version of Wuthering Heights, which I saw about a month before Cinecon 45 - it was her that I was reminded of while watching "De Luxe Annie". Rating - 8/10 stars

The Bride Comes Home (1936) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-10-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Screwball comedy love triangle. Grown-up wealthy girl Jeannette (Claudette Colbert) has to go to work 'cause her daddy's out of money. Her friend Jack (Robert Young) has just inherited three and a half million dollars and decides to start up a magazine - "The Man" ("for the working man") - with his brooding bodyguard Cyrus (Fred MacMurray) - hired for the last two years to finish all the fights that Jack starts. With a major crush on attractive Jeannette, Jack hires her to be Cyrus' assistant on the magazine. Cyrus thinks of her as just a rich society girl taking a job on a lark - so he treats her rough by giving her time-waster idiot tasks to complete, like counting names in the phone book. When he finds out she actually needs the job to eat - he feels bad, but the damage is done - she hates him. Well, in the way of all filmland - since she hates him, you just know they'll end up a couple. And so it is - despite all their bickering, they soon declare their love for each other. With plans to be married the next afternoon, she arrives at his bachelor apartment in the morning to find it a big, cluttered up, dirty mess. While she's cleaning up, Cyrus arrives early with the Minister (who is on a very tight time schedule) - but she's all dirtied up in housecleaning attire, won't marry him until she gets cleaned up, and a huge fight breaks out cancelling the marriage plans. Friend Jack steps in to lay claim to his longtime love - and, catching her on the rebound, she is convinced into marrying him. Now follows a wild race, screwball finale - with Cyril and Jeannette's dad racing on motorcycle to get out-of-town and to the home of the Justice of the Peace before Jeannette ends up married to the wrong fellow. Luckily Jeannette and Jack are in the process of being married by the slowest, most long-winded Justice of the Peace on record.

Review - With Claudette Colbert in the lead, it would be hard for this to not be a pretty good film - especially when you add on Robert Young and Fred MacMurray as her co-stars. The film is a nicely done romantic comedy with a bit of the screwball to it - - it is, oddly, a rarely seen film. One thing I must say though, I grew up on Fred MacMurray and Robert Young as father figure types being a young sitcom fan who spent lots of time watching old shows like "Father Knows Best" and "My Three Sons" - so it's still kinda hard for me to see these guys as romantic lead figures! The Justice of the Peace is amusingly played by Edgar Kennedy - and yes, he does his famous slow-burn in this. Rating - 8/10 stars

Two Nuts in a Rut (1948) Review - Comedy Short - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

Short comedy starring Schilling and Lane. After mistakenly lighting the end of the thermometer in his mouth instead of his cigar, a movie producer/talent scout gets sent to Palm Springs for a complete rest. At the resort hotel, he tells his assistant to keep it secret that they are Hollywood movie producers so that he doesn't get hounded by wannabee starlets. But - of course - the assistant lets it slip, and the girls are all over our man to get into the movies. So that he can finally get some peace and quiet, the hotel management changes his rooms to make it appear he has vacated the hotel - but everyone forgets to let him know! Meanwhile, a woman and her tough boxer hubby have checked in and occupied his old room. Of course our man arrives at his old room, immediately puts on his oversized nightgown (which actually belongs to the boxer), and gets into bed. Then just as the woman finds a strange man in her bed, boxer husband arrives punch-happy after a winning match, and our boy hides under the bed. Lots of slapstick to follow as she attempts to keep him hidden. This was screened at Cinecon 45 as a replacement for the Harry Langdon short "His Marriage Mix-up, which - in a mix-up - didn't arrive. This short was pretty funny, I must say - I laughed out loud several times. I can't say I've ever seen a Schilling and Lane short before - comedy team Gus Schilling and Richard Lane. Pretty darn good. Rating - 8 to 8.5/10 stars

Cinecon 45 Film Festival Summary - Movies, the Rest

2009-09-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Putting the other films I saw that didn't have a chance for a full writing.

Marker - coming

The Silencers (1966) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Swinging 60s spy comedy. Suave secret agent Matt Helm (Dean Martin) is called away from his 60s bachelor pad by his company ICE to get on the job chasing after some sort of crime organization, the gist of what they are up to escapes me at the moment. On his travels on this job, he - well, basically hooks up with curvaceous women - first a tall bombshell, then a kooky redhead (no, not Lucy) he meets poolside - she's a curvy klutz named Gail (Stella Stevens). Then there's also that dancing stripper (Cyd Charisse) who gets shot while performing onstage. While dying, she slips something to Gail - then Matt and Gail end up on a road trip together; she denies she's a secret agent for the other side but Matt and his bureau think she is. Helm is given a couple of cool, spy weapons by his agency to help him out when he comes against the bad guys - a backwards shooting gun and jacket with hand grenade buttons. This all comes in handy in the action-packed finale.

Review - Spy films are one of my least favorite film genres, so wasn't sure how I would like this one - but it turned out to be a lot of full color, widescreen fun! The film spoofs spy films like James Bond and includes action combined with comedy, plus lots of scantily clad, gorgeous women, sixties music, and Dean Martin driving along, his thoughts brought to life via smooth Dean Martin vocals. Cyd Charisse opens the film performing a striptease to the title theme song. I loved all the devices and mod sixties gadgets that fill out his "love nest" - a round, rotating bed that at the push of a button rolls across the floor, tilts up, and sends prone Matt Helm rolling into a giant lather-filled bathtub where dwells his "secretary", Lovey Kravezit - when he asks her to hand him the soap it contains a bottle of liquor. He also has a full bar set up in his car! I think seeing this on the big screen, at Cinecon 45, really helped this seem better, made it more "larger than life" which seemed to work for this film (it also seemed like the males in the audience were really appreciating all the sexy women in this) - don't know how I would feel about this one on a TV screen. Stella Stevens appeared in person at this screening. Review - 7.5 to 8/10 stars

Sunday Notes

2009-09-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

Well, nearly two weeks now since I first got this flu/cold - and I'm still sick! The last days I've kind of relapsed and feel worse than I did. Today, slightly better than yesterday. It's such a drag to be sick.
Anyway, I am still finishing up the Cinecon 45 reviews, slow-going still because I've been a bit bedridden last week, up and down sickness, ugh. I have several more films I'm finishing up the reviews for - then hopefully get them posted in the next few days. And then I still have a backlog of reviews for movies I saw in August to get posted.

Lover Come Back (1931) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Precode sex romp. Tom (Jack Mulhall) is juggling two women - while dating Connie (Constance Cummings), the nice secretary who works at his office, he is secretly also seeing flirty Vivian (and Viv says to her overbearing mother after he leaves "In a week I'll have a ring on my finger - and another ring in his nose" - whoa!). Connie's boss (Jameson Thomas) is a smooth-talking playboy bachelor with an eye for a shapely ankle; believing that a woman with ankles like hers shouldn't be hiding them under an office desk, he has already made an offer to her to be set up in a Park Avenue Apartment (and we all know what that means!), which Connie has turned down 'cause 1. she's a good girl. and 2. she's in love with Tom. But when Tom dumps her to marry Vivian, Connie decides to accept the offer! Life after marriage to Viv: - - Vivian decides her man isn't providing for her needs well enough - she wants a fancier wardrobe (she's tired of being dressed like a "shop girl") and a limousine. Against Tom's wishes, she goes to the office to ask his boss for a raise for her man - and, well, she's got shapely ankles too, so the boss not only offers a raise, but a promotion for Tom - which will mean Tom taking lots of trips out-of-town and "private" get-togethers with sexy Vivian. Vivian is all for it. But Tom is soon onto what his wife is up to, and old girlfriend Connie (who still loves him and doesn't want him to get hurt) tries to protect him from finding wifey Viv in a tryst with the boss.

Review - This film is a really fun watch - lots of pre-code dialogue and sexual innuendo flying about through the entire film. I really, really liked Betty Bronson, who plays Vivian, in this film. Wow - perfection in this part, just a real well done, memorable performance - she's a super cutie. By the way, lots of cute outfits to look at in this (yeah, I like clothes a lot!). And another by the way - if what you see in films was actually real then Park Avenue must have once been absolutely loaded with ladies being "kept" as it seems like I've seen an awful lot of films lately with women being set up in Park Avenue apartments! Just a real good film all around - a treat to see. Rating - 9 to 9.5/10 stars

Turn to the Right (1922) Silent Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - In a country town, Joe (Jack Mulhall) loves Elsie (Alice Terry) - but Elsie's father, Deacon Tillinger, doesn't approve of him and basically says he will horsewhip the young fellow if he comes around to see her. So Joe heads for the big city to seek his fortune. Soon involved in gambling on the horse races, he's actually been successful in saving up $2,000 in winnings! Joe decides to put all his winnings on a sure bet - "Firefly" at 10 to 1 - and, hey, Firefly wins. Unfortunately, a bad man has stolen 2,000 bucks from his own father's wallet and when the money is found missing, the blame is wrongly put on Joe who had oddly just placed a bet for the same amount. Joe not only loses his winnings, but is sent to the slammer for a year. Soon wearing stripes, he makes two prison buddies - Mugsy and Gilly - and doesn't let his family back home know what has become of him. Meanwhile, back home the greedy Deacon (he believes a "sucker is born every minute and the country is the place to find them") has convinced Joe's kindly old mother that it would be best for her to sell her peach farm to him and move into a shack. Joe and his two pals, all newly released from prison, end up back in town just in time to help get the property out of the clutches of the old cretin, and help make the farm a success - by using the peaches to make a fab jam! Muggsie and Gilly seem charmed by the town, especially when a couple of cute young gals spark an interest in them, and they decide to become "honest Joe's" as they all follow wise Mama's advise "just believe, and it will happen" - and it does!

Review - A rather charming, melodramatic silent film with touches of humor throughout - directed by Rex Ingram; the film is nicely photographed in a pretty rural locale complete with peach groves. I can't say Jack Mulhall is one of my favorite actors from the silent era, but thought he was actually appropriately cast in this particular role and did a nice job with the part (though, gosh darn, he's just lacking in the good looks department in my eyes). - - By the way, that man sure can pick the horses for a country boy! A pleasant, entertaining film. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Only the Brave (1930) Film Review - Gary Cooper

2009-09-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Civil War drama starring Gary Cooper as a Union captain who risks getting caught for desertion by leaving camp for 24 hours to visit his beloved, only to find her in the arms of another man. Bummed out on his return (and caught, by the way, though his punishment is not out-there harsh), he offers himself up to take a pal's place as a Union spy, which involves getting caught on purpose carrying fake dispatch papers, which will likely lead to sure execution by the Confederate army. Soon he's arrived at a Southern plantation full of Belles and Confederate soldiers indulging in dancing and the punch bowl. He makes efforts to get caught as a spy, but everything he tries - dropping his Union medal, refusing to participate in a toast, attempting to get caught in an office rifling through papers - fails! And meanwhile, plantation daughter Barbara (Mary Brian) - an ultra-flirtatious Scarlett O'Hara type Southern belle who's never been kissed - has been busy from his arrival trying to seduce him with her wiles. He ends up in her room at one point, where Barbara realizes he's a spy - but she's fallen for the handsome fellow and while he's doing his utmost to get caught by the officers, she's doing her best to keep him from getting caught! Eventually, he is caught and held prisoner despite her efforts, guarded by a grubby Confederate sentry who rambles on about what terrible creatures women are - when his guard leaves him alone to fetch himself some brandy, Barbara arrives and is caught kissing him. Will anyone be able to save the day for our man before he ends up facing the firing squad?

Review - I thought this was a pretty decent film - I normally enjoy Civil War era films, this one has a touch of humor in it to help spice it up. I liked the performance that Mary Brian gives here, with her cute Southern drawl. Gary Cooper is his tall, handsome, softly spoken self - always good. I actually didn't really think this film was as funny as some in the theater screening at Cinecon 45 seemed to think - I was quite amused by the loquacious sentry though. Not completely related to this particular film - - but hmm, I know people say that it's better to see films that are funny with a live audience - and it's true that sometimes I laugh more with an audience than a movie at home alone - but when I see a film and an audience is laughing hysterically at something that I don't find all so funny, it can just be annoying. A case in point, some action film with Eddie Murphy I saw in the early 80s (back when I saw ALL the new movies in a theater) and the audience was howling over car crash scenes and I was just left cold wondering why they thought it was funny. Excuse the ramble. Rating - 7.5 to 8/10 stars

Thanks for Everything (1938) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Henry Smith (Jack Haley) of Plainville, Missouri is declared the "Most Average Man in America" after winning a radio contest (sponsored by Puff Cigarettes) asking 100 poll questions. He becomes a hometown hero and starts to spend his $25,000 cash prize even before he's gone to NYC to be awarded it on the air. The powers-that-be behind the contest have decided our man would better serve their purposes if they could secretly follow his every move to get the dope on what the Average Man likes. So - they trick him into believing he has been disqualified, then hire him at the station so he can earn money to pay back what he owes back home. Jack Oakie is picked to room with him and take notes for use by research company Guidance, Inc. to make decisions toward what products to market. But Henry is distracted by girl troubles relating to his fiancee back home, and starts doing weird stuff that no average man would actually do (ketchup in his coffee, for one). When an ambassador wants to find out the statistics on whether the average man wants to go to war or not - Guidance, Inc. is on the job, and use poor Henry as the guinea pig. They get him sick via a poison ivy branch massage, then while he's bedridden and recovering they trick him with fake radio broadcasts and trick bombs outside the window to make him believe that War has started! When he finally races off to enlist, he's rounded up into the nut house where straitjackets are the norm.

Review - Okay, this felt like a B-comedy with a few songs - silly fun, nothing great, but mildly pleasant enough. However, the gist of the story revolves around men treating another man (our main character) badly, which just doesn't really make the film that endearing even if things do work out for him in the end - making him think he's lost his prize, infecting him with poison ivy, tricking him to think there's a War, all for the sake of their own profits - um, not so nice. Tony Martin appears singing the title song in this. I'm not sure how I really feel about Jack Haley carrying a whole movie - the actress who plays his girlfriend is out there forgettable. There are lots of thirties character actors to see in this, Charles Lane for one. A nice looking print, screened at Cinecon 45. Rating - 6.5 to 7/10 stars

Sunday Notes

2009-09-13T11:28:00.000-07:00

Continuing with writing up and posting my reviews for the films I saw at Cinecon 45 last weekend - posting here. Slow-going on this because I have been down with a really bad cold and even worse cough that has been worse this weekend than it has been all week (I literally coughed ALL night last night - I am worn out). I went to bed early last night (7 pm) to try and get some rest, then got up early (7:30 am) and managed to watch a movie "High School Confidential (1958)" that I happened to just catch at the beginning on TCM (I enjoyed the film - lots of campy fun - though really was too sick to write up any sort of review for it).

Hopefully I will feel well enough soon to get to watching my Netflix rentals (I have two recent films, plus the new Criterion release of "The Last Days of Disco (1998)" waiting to be watched). I am going to try to watch George O'Brien in "Fig Leaves" soon, plus I have stacks of silents on DVDs that I haven't watched yet, including that new Murnau, Borzage and Fox box set - and when am I going to get to watching my Houdini set which I've had for awhile now?!! Hmm - not movie related, but when will I ever get to watching my "That Girl" sets (I have season 1 and 2, so far) - when I was a kid I thought it would be great to be just like Ann Marie (you know - long, dark hair, work as an actress/model, a cool apartment, a devoted boyfriend, and so many groovy mini-dresses you never had to wear the same one twice).

The Dawn of a Tomorrow (1915) Film Review - Mary Pickford

2009-09-12T13:59:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Sir Oliver, the richest and unhappiest man in the world, has been informed by his doctors that he is hopelessly not long for this world. Spunky slum girl "Glad" (Mary Pickford) is the poorest and happiest orphan in London - checkered cap "Dandy" is her beau, who has plans to go on a robbery with a couple of mates. But Glad tells him she won't marry him unless he takes the honest route in life, and at the last minute he drops out of the scheme. The crime is committed and a murder occurs in the process - his two "pals" pin the blame on Dandy, who now must seek proof that he didn't even participate in the crime. Meanwhile, Mr. Oliver is saved by young Glad, who has encountered him as he's just about to end it all in the river.

Review - A melodramatic silent film that is sentimental and quite entertaining - Mary looks lovely and completely lights up the screen the minute she comes skipping on in her first scene. The film, as screened at Cinecon 45, had Swedish intertitles and a live translation was done as the film was going on, which was done very well (though the voice-out-loud does sort of take away the dream-like quality I like about silent films, when I'm not reading the title cards myself). The print as screened was tinted and looked good (though a touch too green in some scenes?!). The mood of the story, and especially the style of the dialogue, is so reminiscent of "A Little Princess" by Frances Hodgson Burnett (a book I am pretty familiar with) that while I was watching the film I kept thinking - this must have been written by the same writer as "A Little Princess", everything Mary's character says (via title cards) is so similar to the main character in that novel. Sure enough - when the film ended I looked it up, and The Dawn of a Tomorrow was, indeed, written by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Mary Pickford, is perhaps, my most favorite silent actress - it was really not possible for me to not enjoy this. A treat to see this rare film. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

South of the Boudoir (1940) Review - Charley Chase Short

2009-09-11T17:05:00.000-07:00

Charley Chase comedy short. Charley is offered a promotion, but in order to seal the deal his boss wants a home cooked meal - the same night as Charley's wedding anniversary, and the wife has already been told he's taking her to the Cocoanut Grove! When they are prepping the dinner in the kitchen, a fight breaks out as hubby breaks the dishes given to them by her mother - and wifey breaks the dishes given to them by his mother. She walks out and, while shopping, she runs into the boss and - unaware of who she is and obviously being some kind of a wolf - he invites her to dinner that night. Well, he ends up bringing her to her own home as his "date", and meanwhile Charley, in desperation to show his boss that he's a happily married man, has recruited a high-voiced gal he knows who works at some bar/cafe he frequents, to pose as his wife - and what do you think the wife thinks when she arrives to find a blonde wearing her dress?! Mix-ups and lots of slapstick to follow. Got some laughs out loud from this fun short - liked it lots. Charley Chase is great - by the way, if you like Charley, you might want to sign this online petition to release the Charley Chase Columbia shorts on DVD. (by the way, I signed this in June and haven't received any sort of junk emails or spam as a result, so it's safe.) Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Good Time Charley (1927) Silent Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - A ham actor named Charley (Warner Oland) thinks of himself as the next "Booth" but his theatrical troupe know him as "Good Time Charley". Hartwell (Montagu Love), the manager of the troupe, spends his free time hitting on Charley's attractive actress wife. One day, while Charley is on-stage, Hartwell's pursuit of her causes her to fall off a scaffolding and be killed. Poor Charley widowed - all he has now is his acting and his little 3-year old daughter Rosita. Cut to fifteen years later, Rosita (Helene Costello) is a star attraction in the show - a dancing and tumbling beauty. Bad man Hartwell has a grown son, described as a chip "of" the old block, who loves her. Hartwell, now a famous Broadway producer, hires Rosita to star in his show and she's soon a hit on Broadway. He refuses to take Charley into the show too - until he's forced to hire him in order to keep his star Rosita from quitting. After Rosita elopes with the son - Charley, thought of as "an old fossil", is kicked out right before his Opening Night debut. Oh dear! - things just go from bad to worse for him when, while forced to perform in rundown theaters to earn a living, he gets an illness and becomes blind. Out-of-work, but with a pal helping him out and money being saved towards a $1,000 operation that will cure him, he is visited by Rosita who has been pressed to ask her dad for money by her bum husband. Charley keeps his blindness and jobless status a secret from his daughter (he even goes so far as to tell her he is a huge success on Broadway) - and actually gives her his savings of 800 bucks, willing to sacrifice for her sake. And things just go downhill from there - for both Rosita and Charley too, until he ends up in an old actors home where Rosita is performing/helping out and the truth is finally revealed.

Review - An excellent silent melodrama, directed by Michael Curtiz - screened at Cinecon 45 with a very nice-looking print. The film includes some interesting photography and editing - notable in my memory is a tracking shot showing the different faces in the audience in close-ups as they watch Charley perform on stage near the beginning of the film. Also, Rosita's rehearsals for her Broadway debut are shown in an interesting montage of overlapping photography. The stand out, and what really makes this film such a good one, is the performance of Warner Oland as Charley, memorable and moving - he's just terrific, his eyes so expressive. Now, I have to say, I kept wondering why his character keeps insisting on keeping the daughter in the dark about his many problems - can't see why he doesn't just tell her about it from the start. Oh well, I guess that would have sort of nipped the plot in the bud. A quality film, well worth seeing - perhaps my favorite film screened at Cinecon 45. Rating - 9 to 9.5/10 stars

Strange Affair (1944) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD - - B comedy/murder-mystery in which an amateur crime solving husband and wife team, played by Allyn Joslyn and Evelyn Keyes, attend a banquet where a man at their table is suddenly found murdered sitting up in his chair. How did it happen? Our duo is on the case and a number of suspects come to light, including a mystery woman who sat at their table and turns out to secretly be the murdered man's wife! A sort of Thin Man film, without the cocktails. The thing that caught my attention more than anything else in this film was the wife's obsession with hats, so there's plenty of neat forties hats to look at - one piece of comedy in this film revolves around one of her hat's with a very long feather that keeps hitting men in the face (one man actually snips the end of it off). I actually have a collection of vintage hats and I have one from the late 40s/early 50s that has a long feather like that! Shemp Howard has a small, but funny part as a man who drives a laundry truck and keeps miscounting the towels while Allyn Joslyn is getting honey-do's from his wife via a Dictaphone. Cute film. Rating - 7/10 stars

Paid to Love (1927) Silent Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - When the king of a small European nation needs a loan for his country, he seeks help from the Americans. A banker arrives from America to approve the loan and immediately bonds with the King over his shirt (King: "Why the hell don't you fix your shirt?" Loan Man: "How the hell can I?"). The banker feels that in order to approve the loan they need to make the royal family more popular - which could be accomplished if the Crown Prince were to get engaged. A problem: the oh so handsome Prince (George O'Brien) is supposedly shy and has a one-track mind - automobiles! Feeling that "two old fools are better than one", the King and the Banker head to Paris to try and find a female to seduce the prince and get his motor going for the ladies. The two end up in this Apache Dance Club in Montmarte, where ultra-bored nightclub Apache dancers put on an act for tour buses that stop and fill the club with Americans seeking a glimpse of the wild side of Paris - fights, knifing's, etc., are all faked for the benefit of the suckers. The two men find a prospect - Dolores (Virginia Valli), one tough chick sporting a bullet hairdo and small, sharp knife tucked in her garter. They offer her 50,000 francs if she succeeds in seducing the unsuspecting Crown Prince, then send her on her way to pull her wiles on him - but on arrival she oddly faints through the door of his house during a rainstorm, then wakes up to find herself in his bed with ALL her clothes removed and drying (hmm, is he really as shy as they say?!). She is unaware of his identity and because he's one of those European royals who likes to go about wearing a uniform, she believes him to be a soldier in the King's Guard. When she heads out to find her mark, Prince Eric (William Powell), playboy cousin of the Crown Prince, gets his cousin out of the way so that he can seduce Dolores - and she mistakenly believes that the man she begins to romance is the Crown Prince. She begins to discover what a creep Prince Eric is, while at the same time the actual Crown Prince IS interested and they start to fall in love - the rub, how can they allow a commoner like her to actually marry a royal?!

Review - Directed by Howard Hawks, I thought this sophisticated silent romantic-comedy was quite good. Entertaining, with a good touch of humor throughout - love a scene where Powell is peeling a banana while secretly watching Valli undress - yeah, priceless. Enjoyed the Apache Club scene too - amusing, fun stuff. George O'Brien is oh so fit and good looking - not completely my usual type, but wooo - he *is* cute. My one complaint would be that I would have liked to have seen him given a lot more to do in this film, his part is sort of bland and - not enough screen time! After watching this film I was thinking that it really deserves a DVD release, it certainly has many worthwhile qualities to it. NOTE: the Imdb and other sources list Virginia Valli's character name as Gaby, but I remember Dolores and that is what my notes say too. To try and confirm this I did find more than one online source that had the name as Dolores, so I'm going with that for this review. Rating - 9/10 stars

Give Out, Sisters (1942) Film Review - The Andrews Sisters - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-10T13:45:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - WWII Andrews Sisters musical romp. A nightclub wants to put on a show starring the Andrews Sisters and the dancing teen troupe The Jivin' Jacks and Jills. Here's the rub - the leading female dancer, Gracie, is secretly an heiress under the guardianship of three middle-aged, spinster aunts who don't believe in someone in their clan showing their legs on a public stage. When a photographer snaps Gracie's photo and it gets plastered all over the papers, the news is out and the producers must get the permission of the aunts for her to dance in the show. One of the men behind the show goes to the aunts' house posing as a doctor and orders them into bed with fake illnesses and head bandages - at the same time The Andrews Sisters arrive at the house disguised as the three aunts to trick the producers into thinking they are giving their permission. Of course, the show does go on - and the aunts end up at a ringside table drinking Old-Fashioned's and soon finally give in as The Sisters and dancing troupers give out on stage.

Review - This fun and funny B musical-comedy kept me entertained. The singing and dance numbers are all enjoyable, especially The Andrews Sisters performing "The Pennsylvania Polka", and I totally got a kick out of the dance numbers performed by The Jivin' Jacks and Jills (including Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan) - there is also lots of humor throughout the film. I was particularly amused by the scenes with those three aunts - oddly, they wear what looked to me like 1880s/90s black dresses (were they wearing bustles?), though the trio don't appear to be much more than forty years old. The aunts think of the Old-Fashioned Cocktail as a glass of delicious fruit preserves (says one "I'm going to try the syrup") - hehe!. Okay, yes, I totally love musicals and found this to be an amusing, pleasant watch. For me, this one was the best of the several Andrews Sisters films that have been screened at Cinecon over the last few years. And gotta love the Forties - the youngin's always tried so hard then to be modern, cool and hip, always speaking the latest up-to-the-minute hep slang (well, I guess they still do). Cute movie. Rating - 7.5 to 8/10 stars

Hatter's Castle (1942) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Dark and brutal, with a likeness to both Scrooge and young David Copperfield's torment, Mr. Murdstone, black top-hatted James Brodie (Robert Newton) lurks about with cruel behavior towards family and co-workers alike - he's the meanest, most selfish man in town! He has built himself a castle on his income as town hatter, causing the townspeople to poke fun. He fires his shop assistant on one day's notice ("we're not married, you know" he growls), he treats his patient, trod-upon and sickly wife like a servant, he gets angry at his pretty and gentle daughter Mary (Deborah Kerr) for allowing an unwanted doctor (James Mason) in the house to treat the wife, and forces his teen son into constant study, chiding him for coming in second to a girl on some exam. Brodie is busy having an affair with a barmaid who has pushed her "brother", Dennis (Emyln Williams), for hire as his new assistant. This Dennis is very full of himself (and has lied about his experience, he's never even "ironed a hat") and when Mary comes into the shop, he comes on to her immediately (of course, dad is not at work when this occurs). When Brodie finds out his daughter picked up drops for her mother's illness from the forbidden doctor, he refuses to allow Mary to attend a ball (where both assistant Dennis and the doctor have plans to dance with her). Slimy Dennis goes to her house during the dance, while the parents are out, sneaks his way in with the lure of champagne, ballroom cakes, and music - and when the parents arrive back early, they hide in her bedroom. Well, this guy is no gentleman, and she ends up pregnant! Meanwhile, Brodie refuses an offer to buy the failing shop next door to him to expand his business - so the owner of said shop sells to a big hat emporium to get even. And thus begins the downfall of James Brodie (and that creepy Dennis gets his comeuppance as well) - with much tragedy to come!

Review - A well done, bleak and atmospheric British film, set in the 1870's. Robert Newton gives a fantastic, very memorable performance in this film - his character and speaking voice (and the piercing eyes under bushy eyebrows/cold-hearted/smirking and at the same time disgusted expression on his face) in this are haunting, just impossible for me to forget. James Mason's part in this as the doctor is not a large part, but has it's importance in the story - he looks very young and handsome, I must say. Deborah Kerr certainly holds her own here. A very well done recreation of a real-life storm and railway bridge collapse that occurred in Scotland in 1879 is featured as part of the movie's climax. The film as a whole is melodramatic and entertaining - really liked this one. (released in 1948 in the USA) Rating - 9/10 stars

Easy Living (1937) Film Review - Jean Arthur

2009-09-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Screwball comedy starring Jean Arthur as Mary Smith, NYC working girl who ends up with a sable coat on top of her head as she rides the upper section of a double-decker bus as it drives by a penthouse where wealthy banker J.B. Ball - aka "The Bull of Broad Street" - has just tossed the coat out the window 'cause his wife spent 58,000 bucks for new fur (and boy is her closet full of it!). When Mary tries to locate the owner of the coat, she finds Ball and he not only tells her she can keep the coat but takes her to a shop to buy her a fancy new hat to replace the now feather-damaged one she is wearing - lucky girl. Now here's something weird - when she arrives at her job at a boy's magazine (where works a slew of old bitties) sporting the new fur hat and coat, she is fired, seemingly 'cause she took presents from some man! Meanwhile, the hat shopkeeper has come to the wrong conclusion and let's the world know that the famous banker Ball is keeping Mary Smith as a mistress. She is found and offered luxurious rooms (gotta love that tub!) at the floundering Hotel Louis to help bring in new business (and given a real break on the price - $7 a week, plus daily breakfast). With not much more than a nickel to her name though, she heads to a local Automat where the good-looking busboy (Ray Milland) - who, coincidentally happens to be the rich son of Ball, working in an effort to prove to dad he can be a success on his own - sneaks her some free food, gets caught by security, and fired. A fight breaks out in the Automat leading to the food compartments to all fly open with free food for the taking - oddly causing the (hungry?) masses to run wild and food to start flying! While she continues to be be given gifts like gowns as Ball's mistress, romance sparks between her and young Ball.

Review - Smart and stylish, with screenplay by Preston Sturges (yes, I'm a fan) this film is quite funny - with some slapstick, that really great Automat scene, and other humorous stuff that made me laugh out loud. Wonderful Jean Arthur is one of my favorite actresses from the thirties/forties - she is perfect for this role. Okay - Edward Arnold as J.B. Ball is absolutely great in this film - loud, aggressive, straight talking, really funny. Of course, I always enjoy seeing character comic actor Franklin Pangborn, who plays the hat shopkeeper, on screen. Ray Milland doesn't appear in this film perhaps as much as I'd like, but his charm is still showing. Now where can I go to one of those thirties Automat's - I wonder if there is still one in existence - hmm, here's an interesting site about an Automat history book.

Rating - 9/10 stars

He Fell in Love with His Wife (1916) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Silent melodrama about married women Alida (Florence Rockwell) who leads a dull life sitting at home reading magazines and playing the harp - until - one fateful day when who should arrive at the front door, but her husband's wife of ten years (a real battle axe, I must say) and little girl. Bigamy! After her husband shoots the first wife's brother who is trying to strong arm him back to her, Alida escapes into the cold, dark night and ends up in the "poor house". The proprietor of this place has a buddy, James Holcroft (Forrest Stanley), who is a widower trying to run his farm on his own and is having trouble with a string of bad housekeepers. One is a slovenly, lazy old woman who can't cook and is caught throwing a dinner party for her relatives while Holcroft is supposed to be out of town. Another is a middle-aged blab who sits there rambling on to him while her tween-age daughter Jane does all the work. Alida is given a break and asked to become Holcroft's new housekeeper - but she worries that the neighbors will gossip when they see an attractive, younger female attending to his needs. So - and remember, this is 1916, so perhaps this isn't as strange a concept as it seems - she agrees to marry him, in name only, to hold back the gossip (the neighbors end up causing some trouble anyway!). Meanwhile Alida proves herself a great cook and housekeeper - and hey, she's kind of pretty and he's lonely and not bad looking either - they seem like they could be a match! And so - he starts to fall in love with his wife, and she with him. But trouble comes in the form of Alida's first hubby, who returns widowed and tries to force Alida to come back to him - with threats to kill her new man if she doesn't.

Review - Directed by William Desmond Taylor - partly known for his still unsolved murder in 1922. This film is a nicely done, entertaining step back into 1916 - a time period I love to see captured on film - the clothes, the furnishings, the past and it's charms. It is extremely melodramatic (especially the hand to the head, painful reaction Alida has when she finds out her man is a bigamist!), typical of films made in the teen era. I had to say something about the odd, memorable young actress who plays Jane - the character comes back later in the film to work in the house with Alida and actually proves a help in making our couple "a couple". The actress is extremely thin and wiry with large, awkward hands, and almost dizzy - like she's going to fall over (don't know if this was real, or meant to be a comic touch to the film). Near the end she gives a knowing look right into the camera - interesting. I really enjoyed this one (some cute cats in this movie, by the way). Rating - 8.5 to 9/10 stars

The Miracle Man (1932) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-09T09:18:00.001-07:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Pre-code drama about four con artists who join forces to pull con games on the streets to get people to hand over their money - John Madison (Chester Morris), his girlfriend/bad girl Helen (Sylvia Sidney), wisecracking, deadpan Harry (Ned Sparks), and The Frog (John Wray), who twists his body up Lon Chaney style to pose as a leg-dragging, deformed cripple. John must get out of town after pushing Boris Karloff over a stairwell - soon he's arrived in the small town of Meadville (reminded me of Peyton Place), where dwells "the Patriarch" (Hobart Bosworth), a faith healer with many local followers, especially the owner of the hotel where John has checked in. John makes plans for an elaborate scheme to rook dough out of the believers - and recruits his con gang to come to town to help pull it off. Helen arrives in town posing as the Patriarch's long unseen, innocent "grand-niece" (to pull off the deception she has to wipe off her heavy makeup, and boyfriend John says "now you look like you've never even seen a gin bottle" - hehe). She easily fools the Godly old Patriarch and moves in with him. Ned Sparks arrives sporting a fake cough - and The Frog drags himself to town too, both of them with plans to be "healed" by the Patriarch, then get money out of the suckers for a fake chapel. But when they arrive before the Patriarch to be healed, others arrive too - with real ailments - and a wheelchair-bound woman as well as a crippled little boy are both actually healed. Some of the con quartet begin to gradually become charmed by the town, the people, and the spirit of the Patriarch and change their evil ways.

Review - This is an excellent, moving film - it is set in a nice, small town, peaceful setting and was shown with a very good-looking print. I think Hobart Bosworth had some fun with his hoked-up part - I love him! Sylvia Sidney gives a very well done, memorable performance here - her face is so expressive. Robert Coogan, slightly plumpish younger brother of Jackie Coogan, plays the crippled lad - he's okay, though lacks the real charm that Jackie displayed on-screen. John Wray as The Frog - great job. Ned Sparks - gotta love him! Rating - 9/10 stars

Trial Marriage (1929) Film Review - Cinecon 45 Screening

2009-09-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - - Silent romp about Connie (Sally Eilers), a flirtatious young beauty who, though engaged to Oliver (Norman Kerry) - her 13th fiance - is the Scarlett O'Hara of the flapper era as she comes on to all the men at the party, and as they surround her for a dance gushes "I can't dance with all of you - so I'll dance *for* all of you", then proceeds to dance the Black Bottom in wild fashion. Her cousin Grace (Thelma Todd) has meanwhile arrived with a catch draped on her arms - one handsome doctor known as "Thor" (okay, his look is a bit heavy on the lipstick, but hey, it's the silent era). The four go on a country picnic and Connie steals Thor - they then agree to a "trial marriage": if either of them is unhappy in six months, they will divorce and be friends (and Grace then turns to boring Oliver for her romance). Into the marriage and Connie is bored 'cause her man's a success as a doctor and keeps getting called on emergencies leaving her home alone (hmm, perhaps she needs a hobby). While the doctor's out, Connie heads next door to a big charity party where she's recruited to boost up profits by dancing in a tent marked "Men Only" - she becomes the star attraction in front of the drooling male audience until - mad Thor arrives and finds out what she's up to. He gets a divorce - but doesn't know that she's pregnant! Well, the four oddly switch partners - Thor marries Grace, Connie marries Oliver - and Thor is kept in the dark about his young son, who he later meets and wishes were his own - yet believes the boy is the son of rival Oliver. Nothing seems to work out for this bunch romantically and eventually the inevitable happens - guess.

Review - An entertaining, fun late silent romantic comedy. Good-looking tinted print, lots of cute outfits to look at on the females. Thelma Todd looks great in this film, she really sparkles - both the ladies do, actually. Jason Robards Sr., who plays Thor, is a stud (yes, I like men who look like that - slim and pale). SPOILERS AHEAD - - Something that made me wonder - in the end, when Thor is introduced to the child as his dad, wouldn't this have been rather traumatic for a young boy who has for several years (his whole young life) believed a different man to be his father?! Yet the whole thing is played as a happy ending - a happy family reunited at last. Cute film. Rating - 8/10 stars

Cinecon 45 Film Festival Review - Hollywood, California

2009-09-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

Cinecon 45 Report - Well, here I am at home, back on the computer, and another Cinecon has come and gone (it all goes by so fast!) - I had a great time, as usual. Now here's the bad, nothing to do with Cinecon, just circumstances - - first, the weather was horribly hot for most of Cinecon (which is typical for Labor Day weekend, but yucky nevertheless). Second, I had to go home at four o'clock on the Saturday afternoon to attend a family obligation, so had to miss two films showing that evening I *really* wanted to see - the pre-code Afraid to Talk (1932) and silent film with Lon Chaney Broadway Love (1918) (I'm sad) - (I also missed The Last Bandit (1949) and Nightmare (1942), but since that was the late film I probably would have missed it anyway). Third, and this is the first time this has happened in the fifteen years I have been to Cinecon, I started getting a cough on Sunday but felt fine (I have had a sore throat for the last week plus, but attributed it to the bad smoky air that has been at my house from the wildfires) - on Monday morning I still felt fine but the cough was getting worse - by Monday afternoon, it seemed I had caught a fast-moving bug as I started to feel sicker and sicker as the afternoon went on until I finally just had to go home and miss the last movie (When I got home I tried a cure for myself - two Martinis and a shot of Slivovitz (white lightning!) - I'm sick, but not horribly bad today - it may have helped!). Here's a couple of good things - 1. the Egyptian Theatre, where all the screenings took place, didn't seem quite as freezing cold this year. 2. I didn't fall asleep during a single movie (and there is usually one each Cinecon).

My favorite silent film of the weekend (and I am very partial to the silents - I wouldn't mind if Cinecon screened nothing but silent movies!!): Good Time Charley (1927) starring Warner Oland - this was really good. Second favorite film: I also quite enjoyed Paid to Love (1926) starring handsome George O'Brien, Virginia Valli, and William Powell. I really did like all the silents screened except for, and now we get to my least favorite silent film shown, which was Spuds (1927), just not funny - too bad. My favorite talkie films were: Lover Come Back (1931), lots of pre-code fun, The Miracle Man (1932), a good watch, and Hatter's Castle (1942), Robert Newton's scary voice from this film is still in my head. Luckily, there was no real dud for me this Cinecon, but my least favorite talkie was: actually, the first feature film shown on the Thursday evening, Flame of Calcutta (1953) - though the Technicolor looked really nice, this just didn't catch me.

Here's this year's amusements or oddities as seen or heard on Hollywood Blvd - - the weird: there was a man who may have been homeless walking along with this bird hat thing on his head and he was sort of right behind me making these weird bird squawk noises (moved along faster to get away from him). The funny (well, not really): walking behind me at one point was a tourist man and his son - the son was reading all the names off the Walk of Fame stars as they walked along - at one point the kid said "Terence Stamp". Loud, Obnoxious Dad: "What did you say the person's last name is?" Kid: "Stamp, dad, Stamp". Dad: "Did you say Stamp?! Stamp? What sort of name is that for a guy to get stuck with, dude?! Stamp! What's his first name, Postage?!". Okey dokey. (Note: it starts to get kind of annoying walking along Hollywood Blvd with all those movie star tour bus guys pushing their leaflets and asking "Wanna take a tour?" every five feet! Musso and Frank's is one of my favorite restaurants, but think I'll be avoiding Hollywood for awhile).

The Cinecon bathroom phenomenon continues. Long lines at the men's room, no wait in the ladies's room. I heard women in the restroom commenting a number of times, quite happily, on this - while grumbles were heard while walking by the men's room line (sometimes snaking almost to the lobby). The only event I have ever been to where this happens.
Things I learned at Cinecon: 1. Some people don't seem to know how to turn off a cell phone. 2. Women seem to lose their memory when something shocking happens - like their husband has another wife, or they get beat up by a couple of con artists. 3. I find myself appreciating the comedy of Shemp Howard more and more as the years go by - I start laughing the moment he comes on screen now. 4. George O'Brien, though not exactly my personal "type", has got *It*. 5. Charley Chase is great (but I already knew that!). 6. Slut means "The End" in Swedish.

Full reviews coming for the films I saw over the weekend. Reviews are being posted on the Cinecon 45 page here.

*******

Convicted (1950) Film Review - Glenn Ford

2009-09-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Arrested for knocking a man unconscious in a fight over a woman at the "Hawaiian Club" bar, handsome young Joe Hufford (Glenn Ford) is put under arrest after the man dies. That man ends up being the son of a political big-shot, and the District Attorney, Knowland (Broderick Crawford) steps in to give Joe his assistance, even though he is prosecuting the case himself. Unfortunately, Joe has a bad attorney and is sent up the river for five years in state prison for manslaughter. Soon he's marching into his cell with the other convicts, working in the prison laundry, and hanging in the yard with the other prisoners. A planned prison break goes wrong when a known squealer named Ponti causes men to be killed by the guards - luckily Joe, who wanted in on the break in order to see his dying father, was in solitary for hitting a guard. Meanwhile, D.A. Knowland has been assigned as new warden of the prison and tries again to help Joe. He gives Joe a job as his personal chauffeur, which mainly entails Joe driving around the D.A.'s pretty twenty-something daughter Kay (Dorothy Malone). Romance blossoms (of course), but Joe, being really just a good guy, doesn't do anything like try to kiss her or something - he hopes for parole soon and a chance to get a new career and new start. Meanwhile the prisoners are forming a plot to murder Ponti the squealer, currently being protected by the warden with a soft job and bed next to his office.

Review - This is an entertaining prison melodrama, full of your usual prison/convict type scenes - nothing unexpected, really (even down to the warden's pretty daughter - seems to me that sort of plot comes up again and again, wonder how realistic that really is?! - and she's living at the prison, no less - lucky men). Broderick Crawford - well, he's just - Broderick Crawford - aggressive, likable, really good playing a D.A. Glenn Ford is just - hmm, so swoon-worthy with his dreamy eyes - woo. I really could just watch him all day. Liked this one. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Framed (1947) Film Review - Film Noir - Glenn Ford

2009-09-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Film noir in which out-of-work mining engineer Mike Lambert (Glenn Ford), arrives in town in a runaway truck with no brakes. Going into a local bar, the La Paloma Cafe (with secret gambling club upstairs), he meets beautiful blonde femme fatale/cocktail waitress Paula (Janis Carter). When he gets hauled into court for reckless driving, driving without a license, etc. as a result of the truck accident, Paula bails him out and, soon drunk at the La Paloma, puts him passed out into a hotel room. But it seems our blonde has a scheme of her own, along with married boyfriend/bad guy Stephen Price (Barry Sullivan), vice president of the local bank. The two have formed a plot to embezzle a quarter of a million dollars from the bank, and Paula has been working at the Cafe in order to find a match for Stephen physically - the big plan is to drive a car with his double over a curvy steep cliff, run off together with the cops believing the dead man in the car is Price, then live happily ever after. With the "same height and build" as evil Stephen, our Mike is their man. And so begins the plan, as Paula befriends Mike, then tries to lures him into their evil web!

Review - This is a very entertaining watch, a crime drama with some twists, lots of fun scenes and a - yes - smouldering hot Glenn Ford to look at - um, love his softly spoken manner and dreamy eyes, oh my goodness. Janis Carter gives a well done performance as your typical film noir femme fatale who manipulates men to get what she wants. Very good film. Rating - 9/10 stars

Mr. Soft Touch (1949) Film Review - Glenn Ford

2009-09-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Glenn Ford stars as Joe Miracle, first seen heading into San Francisco in a stolen car, a paper bag full of $100,000 cash on the seat. Seems he held-up the River Club, himself the former owner, but the club was taken over by mobsters. Joe meets up with friends, the Christopher's, a husband and wife, who have gotten him a ticket to get out of town day after next on a boat to Japan. Joe gets himself arrested for disturbing the peace so he can hide out in prison for a day, the cops mistake him as the husband Mr. Christopher (a wife beater, by the way) - but a young social worker, Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes), steps in and gets his sentence suspended, and Joe put into her custody. Off they go to stay at "Settlement House", a charity house for down and outers. Joe is soon putting up Christmas decorations, sleeping in the men's dorm (his gun tucked under his mattress), and helping with the neighborhood kids and street toughs (sort of like the Dead End Kids) at the house. Trying to keep himself hidden from the mob who are after him for the loot, Joe meanwhile is busy hitting on Miss Jones - but she thinks he's a married man!

Review - Cute film, all set around Christmas time so you could call this a holiday film. The film starts out looking like a film noir and later heads into sort of semi-comedy with just a touch of humor. Of course, I just love Glenn Ford - such a doll - so I pretty much enjoy all of his films. Evelyn Keyes is fine in this, though her part is a touch bland and the romance element minimal here. Rating - 8/10 stars

The Good Companions (1933) Film Review - Jessie Matthews

2009-08-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Early British talkie about three characters from different areas of England and walks of life, plus a theatrical troupe who all end up together in the Midlands small town of Rawsley. Older man, Mr. Oakroyd (Edmund Gwenn), just sacked, leaves his family (who want to take in a boarder) and hits the road heading south. Bespectacled spinster-looking Miss Elizabeth Trant - father recently deceased and she left with a pound a week income is being pushed to become a companion to earn her living. She decides, instead, to blow her income, and takes off for an adventure to parts unknown. The third is Inigo (John Gielgud), young master at a school for "sons of gentlemen", who is caught poking fun at an old bitty who runs the school (she likes to serve the staff Sheperd's Pie and prunes). He is asked to resign, so off he goes on his own adventure. The three each run into a character or two while on their individual road trips - a banjo player, a runaway husband and mistress, and a couple of crooks. Soon all three have ended up in the same spot - Rawsley, where they meet up and immediately bond with "the Dinky Doos" - - a broken-down troupe of entertainers who have been stranded in Rawsley without funds. Miss Trant hits upon an idea - use the rest of her money to back the troupe for ten weeks. Luckily, our Inigo happens to be an amateur song-writer/pianist and is given a job with the troupe, and Mr. Oakroyd is also assigned to do "odd jobs". Soon the lot of them are on the road, with the troupe re-dubbed (good troupers one and all) "The Good Companions". Inigo and pretty girl singer Susie Dean (Jessie Matthews) fight, therefore you know they'll soon be sparking - meanwhile, with ambitions to become a "star", Susie asks him to write her a song. Success for both could soon be on the way!!

Review - Entertaining, pleasantly humorous tale, based on a successful stage play by J.B. Priestley. I watched this as a fan of Jessie Matthews - she's very cute and charming, as usual - her part in this film doesn't really get going until the second half of the film, then she pretty much becomes the starring role, dancing and singing a few songs too. I did found the accents (for a few of the characters) hard to understand, but a mild problem at that. Sir John Gielgud is SO young in this, barely recognizable from his films made during his later years, like "Arthur (1981)". Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Cinecon 45 Classic Film Festival in Hollywood is Coming!

2009-08-27T17:09:00.001-07:00

Only one week until Cinecon 45 starts at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California. This is a classic film festival I have been attending for quite a few years now - five days in the dark watching silent, classic, and early sound films, many are rare and unseen for years - hurrah, that's what I love, the rarer the better. I am particularly interested in silent films from the teen era and very early silent films from the early 1900s. This festival is a great time, something I look forward to every year - movies and more movies!

Here's the film schedule for Cinecon 45.

So what's caught my eye - He Fell in Love With His Wife (1916), Larry Semon in Spuds (1927), De Luxe Annie (1918) starring Norma Talmadge, Paid to Love (1927), starring George O'Brien (oh yes!), Turn to the Right (1922), directed by Rex Ingram, Afraid to Talk (1932) starring Sidney Fox, Broadway Love (1918) starring Lon Chaney, Trial Marriage (1929) with Norman Kerry and Thelma Todd, Easy Living (1937) starring Jean Arthur and Ray Milland (I love them both), and YES, for us Mary Pickford fans The Dawn of a Tomorrow (1915) - just to name a few. There are lots of other silents, as well as pre-code and talkies from the 30s and 40s to be seen.

Click here for Cinecon 45 - information, film line-up, celebrity guests

Page Miss Glory (1935) Film Review - Marion Davies

2009-08-27T16:39:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Comedy in which a small-town, innocent girl named Loretta (Marion Davies) - dowdy in unflattering clothing, sensible shoes, little make-up, and a hat the completely covers her hair - arrives in NYC, her first trip to the big city. She gets herself hired on as chambermaid at a fancy hotel, the "Park Regis", and is soon cleaning rooms with her new sidekick, chambermaid Betty (Patsy Kelly). Soon the two are seen cleaning up the rooms of a couple of "floor crashers", con men Click (Pat O'Brien) and Ed (Frank McHugh), who are four weeks past due on their hotel bill and have been asked to vacate. Hearing of a radio beauty contest with a $2,500 cash prize being awarded for a photo of the "most beautiful girl", the two con-men go into their dark room and create a fake "composite" photo to submit. The photo of the girl who only exists in a photo "Dawn Glory" wins the contest. But now they are being chased down by the press, and various advertising sponsors who want to meet Miss Glory. Meanwhile, Loretta has developed a big schoolgirl style crush on world famous aviator, Bingo Nelson (Dick Powell), a rather dizzy (too many loop-the-loops, I guess), but good-looking flyboy. He arrives to stay at the Park Regis and falls in love with Dawn Glory's photo (while Loretta meets her dream man in person and swoons over him). Soon our flyboy has made an on the air proposal of marriage to Miss Glory (silly fellow) and Click and Ed recruit the maid Loretta to accept him over the air. Now here's the weird part - Loretta puts on a dress made to look like Miss Glory's in her poster, gets herself a "Dawn Glory" bob (the latest rage) and looks so much like the fake photo, she is recruited to play the part!

Review - Cute film, lots of silly fun. I love Marion Davies, she's SO funny and charming in this - and she really lets her hair down by appearing on screen for half the film in a maid's outfit, and dumpy appearance. Dick Powell is good in his part as the ditz aviator - they seem like a perfect match, actually. A number of well known character actors from the thirties also appear in this film - - and hey, Mary Astor is also in this, as the two con men's female sidekick/Ed's girl. Quite an amusing romp. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Polly of the Circus (1932) Film Review - Marion Davies

2009-08-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Pre-code melodrama starring Marion Davies as travelling circus girl Polly, "Queen of the Air", a flying trapeze artist who performs fifty feet up - with no net. POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Polly is distressed when the "conservative town" they are currently performing in makes them pin bloomers over her circus posters to cover her tights. While performing she is distracted by an unruly patron who shouts something about the poster and she falls. Taken to the minister's house across the street, the doctor says she can't be moved because of her injuries, so she must stay on until recovered. Well, as it happens, John Hartley the minister (Clark Gable) is young, very handsome, and not opposed to marriage. Two months later, Polly is still there, barely in need of a wheelchair, now reading the bible and in pursuit of our young reverend - and a romance blossoms between the two. Troubles come when the local Bishop (C. Aubrey Smith), who also happens to be John's uncle, reveals he thinks Polly unsuitable to be a minister's wife and that she will ruin him - he proclaims his nephew will lose his church if they marry. They do get married, then have to struggle for money as our minister loses his church and can't find another one. He ends up taking a low-pay job selling bibles, and won't let Polly help by returning to her circus job. Polly thinks of desperate measures in order to get her man back into the church!

Review - This is an entertaining film, though I didn't see a lot of chemistry between Davies and Gable. There are interesting scenes of circus life in the earlier part of the film what with all the clowns, bearded lady, giant elephant in pants, and smart-talking circus dwarf as played by "Little Billy" - not to mention flying trapeze act, my favorite part of any circus. There is a quite funny side character in this in the form of the minister's really crotchety manservant, played by Raymond Hatton. I was thinking while watching this that it would have been good as a silent film (and it actually was done as a silent, starring Mae Marsh). Rating - 8/10 stars

Blondie of the Follies (1932) Film Review - Marion Davies

2009-08-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Precode comedy/soap opera/love triangle starring Marion Davies as Blondie, NYC uptown tenement gal whose best gal pal Lottie (Billie Dove) gets a job in the Follies and has soon gone Park Avenue, wearing silver fox furs and very slinky robes (that seem just on the edge of popping open!) - apparently she's being kept by millionaire playboy Larry Belmont (Robert Montgomery). When Blondie goes to visit Lottie at her fancy Park Avenue digs, she meets handsome Larry and they hit it off, much to Lottie's distress. Soon Blondie is out on the town with Larry, getting drunk at a speakeasy, and worrying her family by staying out until dawn without phoning! Dad is mad. Larry thinks "she's cute", Blondie thinks the same about Larry (and me too!). But when Lottie declares her love for Larry, she also declares him hands off - Blondie, a good girl, backs off immediately. But that doesn't stop her from meeting her own older "sugar daddy", joining the Follies, and getting set up in her own Park Avenue apartment.

Review - This is a fun to watch, very entertaining film. The movie starts right off the bat with a rolling on the floor cat fight between Blondie and Lottie (they DO fight a lot, then make up throughout the film). Robert Montgomery is his usual charm boy self - I'm crazy for that handsome fellow!! Marion Davies is quite funny, her big blue eyes full of expression in this film. And - the two of them have loads of chemistry together, I must say. Fun party scene with Jimmy Durante as himself and Marion doing a spot-on imitation of Greta Garbo in "Grand Hotel (1932)". Zasu Pitts also appears in this film, as Blondie's sister (rather a small part, unfortunately). Nice looking print as screened on TCM. I liked this one a lot. Rating - 9 to 9.5/10 stars

Wuthering Heights (2009) Film Review

2009-08-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - UK TV adaptation of the classic novel by Emily Bronte. Gothic romance set on the Yorkshire moors of the early 19th century. POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - Master of the Gothic Yorkshire estate Wuthering Heights and kind father of young Cathy and Hindley Earnshaw, Mr. Earnshaw brings home a Liverpool street urchin who he dubs "Heathcliff". Heathcliff lives in the home as a brother to the kids - to Hindley's distress and to Cathy's happiness as a childhood romance quickly blossoms between Heathcliff and Cathy. The kids grow up, but when the dad dies, Hindley takes over as master of Wuthering Heights and banishes Heathcliff to work outdoors and live as a servant. Heathcliff won't leave and stays on to be treated like a dog by bad Hindley because now his romance with Cathy has become a great love between the two. Cathy is drawn to the wealth and lifestyle of nearby Thrushcross Grange, where she and Heathcliff are caught spying through the window at Edgar Linton and his sister Isabella. Injured by the dog while running away, Cathy is taken in to be treated and stays on at the Grange to recover. She likes this new lifestyle and decides to allow Edgar to pursue her, despite her love for Heathcliff. When she announces that Edgar has asked to marry her, Heathcliff runs away, returning three years later - the day after Cathy's wedding to Edgar Linton! Heartbroken, broody Heathcliff is now a rich gentleman who takes control of Wuthering Heights from Hindley, now a broken-down drunkard. Heathcliff brings a whirlwind of trouble to all around him, and Cathy, still in love with Heathcliff, is desperately miserable, especially when Heathcliff starts to go after sister Isabella.

Review - A sweeping, well done version with gorgeous photography done on-location in the Yorkshire moors. The house used for Wuthering Heights is suitably rambling and dark, the landscape around bringing life to the story. Tom Hardy portrays a very dark and brooding (but handsome, as he should be) Heathcliff indeed! Charlotte Riley is fine, and gives a well done, earthy portrayal of Cathy. I will always love the 1939 version of this story starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, but found this version very entertaining and well done. This film, being almost twice as long as the 1939 version, features more details of the story and includes the plotline that follows the three grown children of Hindley, Cathy, and Heathcliff and their respective spouses. I had a bit of trouble with the main character's Yorkshire accents, so missed part of the dialogue in places - but, of course, I know the story real well, so it was okay. Rating - 9 to 9.5/10 stars

Ballerina (2009) Film Review - Documentary

2009-08-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Documentary showcasing five Russian ballerinas from the renowned Kirov Ballet Company in St. Petersburg, Russia. One is a new recruit - first seen dancing solo for her graduation recital from a prestigous ballet school - she's immediately given her dream as she is hired on to join the Kirov's Corp de Ballet. Another is in her second year with the Kirov company, and is just starting to be given solo parts. Two magnificent prima ballerinas are also featured, and the fifth dancer featured is a great Prima Ballerina just making a comeback after two years off with a foot injury. The film includes rehearsal footage, behind-the-scenes at the Mariinsky Theatre where they perform, on-stage performance footage, and interviews with the ballerinas, dance company directors and instructors.

Review - Okay, I have been in love with ballet since seeing "The Turning Point (1977)" (still one of my all-time fave films) when I was a teenager, so perhaps I am pretty biased, but I found this documentary extremely interesting. All five women are talented and beautiful ballerinas, wonderful to watch dance. By the way, I happen to love all things Russian - the streets of St. Petersburg, the ballet, the gorgeous Mariinsky Theatre, it's all good! The film features voice-over narration done by Diane Baker. Rating - 9/10 stars

The Edge of Love (2008) Film Review - Keira Knightley

2009-08-23T09:54:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Romantic period piece set in London during the Blitz of WWII. Underground singer, the beautiful brunette Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley), is still loved by her childhood sweetheart, real life Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys). He's now married to blonde Catlain (Sienna Miller). The two women become best friends when Vera meets up with Dylan by chance in a London nightclub - and soon Vera, though stand-offish, is being pursued by a handsome soldier named William and the four become sort of an odd foursome. William is madly in love with Vera, especially after she sleeps with him after a terrifying bombing, and she agrees to marry him (though seemingly reluctant since he is going off to battle). With a baby on the way, Vera, Dylan, and Catlain return to Wales to live (with a bit of a love triangle to follow), while William is in Greece caught in the midst of horrendous battles.

Review - This is a stylish film, based around real incidents. Well done as a whole, with nice period costumes, art direction and location photography - though I must say that when I watched the trailer for this on the DVD (after the film) I thought "wow" - it looked like it would be such a great film in the trailer - and, well, just wasn't. I did enjoy this, but it did seem to be trying a wee bit too hard to be artsy (lots of camera shots into mirrors). How about those huge facial close-ups of Keira's gorgeous, perfect face - even on Blu-ray, she's flawless. Cillian Murphy, the actor who plays William, is a good-looker! (2009 release in USA) Review - 8/10 stars

Grey Gardens (1975) Review - Documentary

2009-08-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Documentary about oddly unusual mother and daughter "Big Edie" and "Little Edie", aunt and cousin of Jackie O, who live almost isolated away in "Grey Gardens", their rundown mansion in East Hampton. The two women, both Edith Bouvier Beale, are both somewhat eccentric, especially the daughter. Older Edie is approaching eighty years old, is mainly seen from her bed - covered with cats and clutter - and talking about her years as a trained singer - sometimes she breaks out in song. Little Edie, mid-fifties, never married, and distinguished for her wide variety of extremely odd headdresses she wears throughout the entire film - assembled from scarves, and more often blouses and sweaters, hooked and decorated with pins, often speaks of her lost life stuck in East Hampton for over twenty years (pretty much blaming mama), she seems full of regrets, yet it appears that it was really her own choices that lead to this all along. She often dances, sings, and flirts into the camera (and yes, even flirts briefly with the men filming the documentary - barely seen, but you hear them speak sometimes to the women). The two women often talk over each other, argue a lot, yet seem to be totally bonded. The house they live in is huge, very rundown (apparently less than it was a few years back), and is just full of cats and some raccoons too.

Review - This film is bizarre and totally fascinating, I really enjoyed watching this! I feel like the mom is just getting old and perhaps a bit cranky and demanding of her daughter - the daughter is really the one with perhaps some mental problems, yet like her too - Little Edie has such a vulnerability about her, she is a very interesting character. The film is entirely filmed in the great old house, the camera constantly focusing on the women - often in facial close-ups so you really see the emotions coming through on their faces. One part I enjoyed was seeing the women show the filmmakers old photographs of themselves, both of them were once beautiful young women living the society lifestyle - young Edie described in an old newspaper clipping as a beautiful deb that writes poetry. The women, yes, are rather strange, but you just have to love them - I enjoyed spending time with these two. Rating - 10/10 stars

Grey Gardens (2009) Film Review - Drew Barrymore, Jessica Lange

2009-08-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Based on a true story. In 1973, two filmmakers are busy making a documentary about two eccentric women, a mother and a daughter both named Edith, who live in a rundown, decaying mansion in East Hampton, New York called "Grey Gardens". We see the filming of their current day lives - mother Edith Bouvier Beale (Jessica Lange), an old bedridden woman obsessed with cats, younger "Edie" (Drew Barrymore), the middle-aged daughter who goes about with her head covered in a variety of oddball scarfs, headdresses made from blouses and pins, to hide her lost head of hair, and the mansion itself - cluttered, messy, dirty, with tons of cats (and a few raccoons) about, and a completely dead and wild, run-back garden. Interestingly, this is the cleaned-up version, as these two are seen at one point actually living in complete squalor until the Board of Health - and a famous relative step in: now here's the interesting fact - the two are aunt and cousin to Jacqueline Bouvier, who is to become first lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The film includes flashbacks to the 1930s/40s and into the 50s when young Edie, dominated by her flamboyant wannabee singer mother, tries to pull away from their society life (with mama at her heals pushing her to have her "debut" into society and find a wealthy man) and moves to NYC to become an actress/dancer, has an affair with a married political figure, and still ends up back at Grey Gardens, caring for her mother and basically hiding away from the world, in isolation, as the years go by.

Review - Absolutely fascinating dramatization of the lives of the two women who are featured in the classic documentary from the 1970s, "Grey Gardens (1975)". Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange are really fantastic and believable in this film - the makeup job to make them both age from the 1930s into the 1970s is expertly done. I enjoyed every minute of this, and - though I have been meaning to for a few years now (the DVD has been sitting in my Netflix queue for quite awhile now) - I still haven't seen the original documentary of this story, now I'm going to as soon as possible. Such an interesting story. This was a made-for HBO TV film, extremely well done. Rating - 9.5/10 stars

Tess (1979) Film Review - Roman Polanski directed

2009-08-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Directed by Roman Polanski - a sweeping, dark epic set in the English countryside of the 1880's, telling the tale of the downfall of a beautiful young woman named Tess (Nastassia Kinski). POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD - - The village parson informs Tess's father that their family, though downtrodden and poor peasants, are actually of knightly ancestry - descendants of a titled family, the d'Urbervilles. Tess's parents decide to send daughter Tess to make favor with a local, wealthy woman by the name d'Urberville. Tess arrives and meets the handsome, roguish son Alec who is immediately drawn to her beauty - soon Tess is hired on to work at their estate's poultry farm. Turns out this rich family are not actually related, as their title was purchased. Son Alec carries Tess off into the woods one day, seduces, and pretty much rapes her - Tess leaves and returns to her family, a baby follows who shortly dies. Tess sets out on her own to work on a dairy farm where she meets the good-looking (loved by every lady who works at the dairy) Angel (Peter Firth), noble son of a preacher. Angel and Tess fall in love, but after marriage he finds out her true "background" (obviously the fact she had a baby so was not "pure" is what really bugs this guy) and runs away to Brazil, leaving her without contact despite her efforts to write to him. Tess sets out, on her own again, working various horrible, dirty jobs. What will happen between her, her husband, and the man from her past?!

Review - A compelling watch, gorgeously photographed - every scene, filmed on-location in France to duplicate the English countryside and villages, looking like a picture postcard. Nastassja Kinski is at the height of her beauty - an absolutely gorgeous young woman. Something about her reminds me of a very young Ingrid Bergman (partly the similar accents). Okay - she's meant to be an English girl and has a subtle German accent - just ignore that. I loved the costumes in this, I must say. This film won several Oscars, including costume design, cinematography, and art/set direction - no surprise there. A lovely, inspired orchestral score by Phillipe Sarde accompanies the film, a good match to the story. The story, based on the classic novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy, is pretty dark (the poor girl!) but an entertaining watch. I haven't seen this film since the early 80s, so it was almost like seeing it for the first time. A beautifully done film - loved! (USA release 1980 for this) Rating - 10/10 stars

Sherlock Holmes (1922) Film Review - Barrymore

2009-08-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Silent drama starring John Barrymore (print from the collection of the George Eastman House). In England, on a country lane, we meet the future detective Sherlock Holmes (Barrymore) who is writing his observations in a little book (which includes his list called "my limitations": chemistry - profound; politics - rotten; boxing - splendid, etc. - hehe). Holmes encounters an attractive young lady, Alice (Carol Dempster), and becomes lovestruck - she is to figure into his story years later. As for now, Holmes is brought in by his pal Dr. Watson (who says Holmes is "a marvel at digging out things") to help at Cambridge, where young Prince Alexis has been accused by Scotland Yard of stealing "the Athletic Funds" - though the Prince proclaims his innocence. Holmes arrives and easily finds the real criminal, who ends up being a pawn of one powerful-minded, but evil and cold-blooded old cretin named Moriarty who lurks in the mysterious London quarter of Limehouse. Tragedy suddenly forces the Prince to return to his country as Crown Prince and give up his fiance, who, by an odd coincidence, is the sister of Holmes' memorable "Alice". Well - after meeting up with Moriarty, Holmes decides to make it his life's work to rid the world of that menace. Years pass and Holmes now resides at 221 Baker Street where he helps solve mysteries. His newest case involves his nemesis Moriarty, who is after some letters he wants to use to blackmail Prince Alexis. And who should have the letters but one Alice (Holmes still can't forget her) - he's on the case and still smitten!!

Review - Well, this is an okay film - I found John Barrymore to do a decent job as Sherlock Holmes, and liked the London setting which included snippets of real city footage from the era. I did find the film a bit too "talkie" and kind of muddled at times (particularly the end part), perhaps too many characters, too many inter-titles? The film features a lot of familiar faces from the silent/pre-code film era including Roland Young as Watson, Hedda Hopper, Louis Wolheim, and William Powell. The DVD I saw was from Kino and features a reasonable looking black and white print - pretty good contrast, some washing out in places (barely), a little bit of speckling in places. The score is nicely done organ music by composer Ben Model. Okay - the poor description of this film, totally inaccurate, on the Netflix envelope just makes me laugh - ridiculous! Where do they get these - inaccurate SO often. Rating - 6.5 to 7/10 stars

Push (2009) Film Review - Dakota Fanning

2009-08-11T13:44:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Action Sci-fi Thriller about a group of psychics in Hong Kong, all in pursuit of a woman, a briefcase, and the drug inside the briefcase. Dakota Fanning plays a thirteen-year old "watcher" (sees the future) who joins up with a twenty-something "mover" (moves objects with his mind, usually seen attempting to turn over dice to his advantage - played by Chris Evans) who is being chased by the "Division", some rather shady U.S. government organization that wants to create super-power psychics via a powerful drug that, when injected, usually kills the psychic. There's one psychic that the drug didn't kill - attractive woman (Camilla Belle) who is a "pusher", that is a pusher in the world of psychic powers - one who pushes fake memories into people's brains making them believe the memory is a real one. The majority of the film is a cat and mouse chase, often rather violent, between the Division, our psychics who want to stop the Division, and a group of evil Chinese psychics also after the case and drug for their own purposes.

Review - This film was okay, but pretty forgettable once over. It's sort of like the superhero world has crossed with the paranormal into a mess of people with a wide variety of psychic abilities divided into these groups: movers, pushers, watchers, sniffers, wipers, healers, bleeders, shadows - interestingly, there doesn't seem to be any overlap, each person seems to have only one superpower ability rather than a mix. I enjoyed the on-location shoot for this, entirely filmed in the very interesting looking streets of Hong Kong. Rating - 7/10 stars

The Black Cyclone (1925) Film Review - Rex the Wonder Horse

2009-08-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Another silent adventure-western/animal movie starring the beautiful black stallion, Rex the Wonder Horse. POSSIBLE SPOILERS HERE AND THERE - - In the wild lands where wild horses run lives a frisky little colt named Rex. Poor young Rex loses his mother early on, and must learn to grow up on his own, alone and lonely. Rex is soon grown and so begins a love story for him when he meets the white horse "Lady". Inseparable, the two of them, until trouble comes in the form of horse hunters looking to capture the best of the wild horses - and kill the worst (what jerks!). The two horses get caught in a stampede of wild horses trying to escape these men, and manage to make their own escape via a narrow ledge and into the hills, but they end up right in the secret retreat of an infamous crazy-eyed stallion known as "The Killer"! The Killer fights Rex and captures Lady for himself - - and meanwhile, in a nearby town called Pangle, cowboy Big Jim Lawson (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) is busy sparking with Jane Logan, a woman who has rejected the evil Joe Pangle: cattle thief, bully, and killer who now wants to get even with her: by killing Big Jim! A gunfight between the two men outside her ranch leaves Big Jim to run into hiding in the hills or face the wrath of Pangle's gang. Around this same time, our poor Rex has become trapped in quicksand - but luckily Jim is soon nearby to save his life. Now Rex attempts to seek Jim's help in rescuing Lady, but Jim seems to be kind of empty headed as to what this horse is after. Soon Rex helps out both Lady and Jim when wild animals lurk to kill (dangerous area that!).

Review - A cute, entertaining horse film. Rex the Wonder Horse is quite the horse!! The outdoor locations and scenery are nicely photographed and used to best show off the horses and the action - looks like they sort of cut in some of the same filmed scenes of the horses (and other stuff) several times (I kept thinking - that looks like the same shot they showed before!). The DVD of this film, from Televista, I will describe as pretty much like the other Rex movie I reviewed last week (decent enough looking print - I've seen far worse! - with some deterioration here and there; old-fashioned, sometimes catchy music score) - - (as to the name of this film - in a couple of scenes a man calls our black horse "black cyclone"). Rating - 7/10 stars

Two Lovers (2008) Film Review - Joaquin Phoenix

2009-07-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Love quadrangle. Strange, sometimes suicidal Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) lives at home with his parents and works at the family dry cleaning business. Leonard is soon matched up with stable and sane Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), daughter of family friends who are planning to merge businesses with the family. Sandra's crazy about Leonard - him, not so much so - especially after he meets his new neighbor, pretty, pill-popping, and extremely unstable Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow). Sandra is in love with Leonard, Leonard is in love with Michelle - but unfortunately for Leonard, Michelle is currently having an affair with her boss, a married lawyer, who she believes will leave his family for her (silly woman). Michelle obviously thinks of Leonard as just a "pal" as she is constantly calling and asking him for help with her "relationship", even going so far as to get Leonard to come along as the third wheel on a date with the lawyer she loves, so he can better help give her advice.

Review - This film was sort of entertaining - though nothing great. I didn't really care for the character of Leonard, or either of the women for that matter - so it was just sort of "who cares" as to what I thought about what happens to this bunch. I did like the New York City (Brighton Beach) on-location setting and enjoyed seeing Isabella Rossellini, who plays Leonard's mother, in this - so much like her mom, Ingrid Bergman! Rating - 7/10 stars

The King of the Wild Horses (1924) Silent Film Review

2009-07-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Hal Roach Presents - - Silent action western starring Rex the Wonder Horse as "The Black", king of the wild horses - he must fight to stay leader, and must also contend with that dreadful menace: man - his constant pursuer. In the far west, just north of the Mexican border, there's a Rancho where lives an older ill man and his two grown kids, Boyd (Charley Chase, billed as Charles Parrott) and Mary (Edna Murphy). Mary is being pursued by one Billy Blair (Leon Bary), cowboy, who seems to have something else he likes to pursue way more than Mary - he's determined to capture "The Black". Chase between man and horse, as Billy goes in relentless pursuit - trusty rope in hand - after the Black, through high-up rocky crevices and rugged crags - but our wild horse is just too smart (and nimble!). But then - a wild fire has horsie surrounded and Billy Blair helps save him - pals!! Meanwhile, back at the Rancho, the ranch foreman is a bad man who has been forcing son Boyd, who has become heavily in his debt, to steal from his own father to pay him back. Fast "Black" and Billy help save the day when bad man and Boyd head out one evening for one last "job".

Review - A pleasant little horse opera, titles by Roach Studios H.M. "Beanie" Walker. Rocky western landscape and pretty wild horses, beauties one and all, are nicely photographed - our Rex the Wonder Horse is a superstar! Some night scenes oddly look like bright daylight (!) - - a river rescue finale is well done. The DVD from Televista features a decent enough looking print (I've seen far worse!) with some deterioration here and there (and rolling in a few spots), but for the most part looked fairly good - - the music score is sort of sweet and old-fashioned, even catchy in places. Cute little silent, perhaps best if you like animal films. Rex the Wonder Horse was a 16 hands Morgan Stallion, according to the Wikipedia article on him - he's a beautiful animal. Rating - 7.5/10 stars

Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) Film Review

2009-07-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Shopaholic Rebecca (Isla Fisher) lives in New York City where she has an interview to work as a journalist at her dream fashion magazine, "Alette". The interview doesn't pan out, but she tries for another magazine at the same company and gets the job - at a financial journal called "Successful Saving", of all things! Even though she has maxed out most of her credit cards and is being chased by a gung-ho debt collector, she manages to write an article for the magazine that gets her fame under the moniker "the girl in the green scarf". Rebecca tries to control her out-of-control spending, but just can't seem to stop, even after being pressed into attending meetings of Shopaholics Anonymous by her best gal pal. She also begins a romance with her handsome boss (Hugh Dancy) with the cute Brit accent! Will her romance work out, will she get her dream job at Alette, and most importantly - will she ever be able to stop shopping?!

Review - Cute film - lots of cute, colorful outfits to look at, reasonably entertaining story filmed on-location in NYC. I enjoy these stories about fashion magazines (like "The Devil Wears Prada", "Ugly Betty") - this sort of plotline seems pretty popular these days. The actress Isla Fisher is an absolute ringer for actress Amy Adams both physically as well as her speaking voice. Joan Cusack and John Goodman are entertaining as Rebecca's thrifty parents. Rating - 8/10 stars

Phoebe in Wonderland (2008) Film Review

2009-07-25T16:31:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Drama about troubled nine-year old misfit, Phoebe (Elle Fanning), who becomes obsessed with "Alice in Wonderland", a story her mother (Felicity Huffman) is busy working on for her dissertation. Phoebe is picked on in school, and seems to have a growing problem with obsessive/compulsive behavior - she washes her hands compulsively, she spits at bullying children, and she can't seem to control her mouth as she parrots things people say to her and blurts out inappropriate words. Phoebe gets the part of Alice in a new production of "Alice in Wonderland", being put on at school by an eccentric drama teacher named Miss Dodger (Patricia Clarkson). Phoebe's odd behavior patterns seem only to be in control while she is practicing in the play - - in the real world, she sometimes imagines conversations with characters from Alice. She also befriends a young boy who has dolls and a baking set, and has tried out and gotten a part in the play as the "Red Queen"!

Review - The film is colorful and compelling, with a nice message about accepting those of us who are different. I enjoyed this a lot and thought Elle Fanning did a great acting job - very believable. Nicely done - looked real good on Blu-Ray! (I am SO loving my Blu-ray player!!) Rating - 9/10 stars

Saturday Notes

2009-07-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it's Saturday, it's oh so hot and humid outside (when is this heat wave going to end?!). I have become rather behind in posting my movie reviews here - about a month behind, actually. Written up already, but not posted (including several silent films). I'll try and post these reviews over the weekend so that I'm all caught up.

What Goes Up (2009) Film Review - Hilary Duff

2009-07-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Weirdish indie drama set in 1986 in New Hampshire, about a forty-ish reporter (Steve Coogan) who is sent to town to do a report on the Challenger Space Shuttle launch, his story to focus on the teacher who was going aboard. But our man quickly finds a story of a different high school teacher while there - one who had taught a group of outcast students who seemed to worship him and has just committed suicide. The reporter gets involved with the students as he begins to be sort of their new hero - especially a couple of the young girls, blonde and beautiful Lucy (Hilary Duff) and goth-ish Tess. But he better watch out - these chicks are underage!

Review - Well, this film is sort of dark and strange, and it wouldn't be bad - except the story is somewhat boring. And there's weird stuff like the kids stealing the teacher's coffin (with him in it) and turning it into a shrine on the ice and snow, and one of the young guy's, um, masturbating while watching a woman across the way breast feed her baby - sheesh. I don't know about this one - it had elements that were good, but as a whole - not all that good. By the way, the filmmakers didn't put much of an effort into this to make these characters look like their livin' in the 80s! Rating - 5.5 to 6/10 stars

The Ramen Girl (2008) Film Review

2009-07-15T16:26:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Indie film, set in Tokyo. Young, blonde, eager and American Abby (Brittany Murphy) arrives in Tokyo to be with her "boyfriend" who is now living there. But the boyfriend is just not that into her, leaves town and Abby high and dry in a strange city full of strange customs and ways. Not to mention, our Abby doesn't seem to speak a word of Japanese. But - she stays on as she suddenly finds herself drawn to the bustling ramen shop (noodle restaurant) across the street. Well - Abby decides she wants to become a Ramen Chef and asks the chef/owner of the shop to become her teacher. The chef is a grouchy, disagreeable Japanese older man who doesn't speak a word of English, likes to spout insults at her in Japanese, and doesn't even agree to teach her. But Abby is a real aggressive one and just keeps showing up, doing what he asks - which is mainly cleaning the toilet and floors. The two spend pretty much the entire film talking to each other without seemingly understanding each other - but a bond seems to grow somehow, anyway, as he finally begins to teach her to grow up as she learns the ways of making broth and assembling her bowls of ramen - with spirit!

Review - A sort of coming-of-age tale (except that this chick is already into her twenties) that is pretty interesting to watch, for the most part (though I found her aggressiveness kind of annoying sometimes - not to mention the chef, whose personality in sort of grating too). There is an obligatory love story between Abby and a handsome, young Japanese man she meets, but that part of the plot seems sort of thrown-in and doesn't give much to the story as a whole. I enjoyed the scenes in Tokyo (which I always think looks like such an interesting place) and the scenes inside the atmospheric, almost quaint little ramen shop which looked like a place I would like to eat! Rating - 7.5 - 8/10 stars

Crossing Over (2009) Film Review - Harrison Ford

2009-07-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Tales of immigration, set in L.A. and down to the Mexican border. The film interweaves several different stories including an immigration officer (Harrison Ford) who helps round up illegal immigrants out of a clothing sweat shop and ship them back to Mexico, but he seems sometimes to have too much heart for the job as he tries to help a young Mexican woman who is forced to leave behind her little boy. Other stories include a young Australian woman who wants to be an actress but finds herself forced to sleep with an immigration officer who is willing to "help" her get approved, a handsome young Jewish man (Jim Sturgess) from Britain who tries to pretend he's more religious than he is in his attempt for his green card, an Asian teen on the brink of becoming a citizen who gets mixed up with a bad gang about to commit a crime, and a fifteen-year old Arab girl who makes a speech in school that gets herself reported and rounded up for being a potential suicide bomber!

Review - I thought this film was quite good - all the stories were interesting to watch, as the film flips back and forth between the different characters and plotlines. Some of the characters from different stories end up in the same story, as the plot cleverly weaves together the various tales. Nicely done film. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Gran Torino (2008) Film Review - Clint Eastwood

2009-07-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Gruff and tough old Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) has just lost his wife and is living alone (just him and his dog Daisy) in his old house in a rundown Michigan neighborhood that has been taken over by mainly Hmong immigrant families. Walt uses a lot of ethnic slurs in his way of talking, and doesn't care for the changes that have taken place in the old neighborhood. He also doesn't really get along with his grown sons and grandchildren (jerks the lot of them, if you ask me) - but he finds himself getting involved with and soon befriending his next-door neighbor's teen son and daughter, Sue and Thao. Thao is having plenty of trouble with his cousin's Hmong street gang who are after him 'cause he won't join them (Thao even botched a feeble initiation attempt to steal neighbor Walt's prize 1972 Gran Torino, mainly kept shiny and slick in Walt's garage). Sue is sassy and smart-mouthed. Walt confronts the street toughs with his huge Korean War gun he keeps handy, joins the family for barbecue dinners, helps Sue and Thao out of scrapes with the various local hoods and toughs, and finds himself liking this family better than his own, all while overcoming his own built-in prejudices.

Review - A well done film, quiet and interesting - Clint Eastwood is great and pretty amusing with his no-holds barred language and gruff manner, he comes across as a likable fellow despite outward appearances and manner. I found the story involving, the on-location neighborhood scenes nicely done, and the relationships between the characters realistic. Rating - 9/10 stars

Revolutionary Road (2008) Film Review - Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio

2009-06-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Dark and complex drama set in the mid-1950s, following a couple (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) and their brittle personal relationship. Everyone considers Frank and April Wheeler a "special couple" - Frank and April think so too! But they feel like their life is in a rut, that they've bought into what everyone is "supposed" to do, and that is not what makes them happy - - they have a nice suburban Connecticut house, two kids, good job for dad in the city where he sits in a cubicle all day at a job he hates, takes martini lunches with co-workers, and seduces a cute young secretary with martinis, then sleeps with her - all a day's work. April comes up with an idea to spark some life into their marriage - have hubby Frank quit his job and the family move to Paris, where April plans to take a secretarial job while Frank "finds himself" - a novel concept for fifties America. The plan in the works, Frank plans to quit his job - but an unforeseen promotion and unexpected pregnancy may stand in the way of their goal.

Review - This is a great film - dark, yes, but SO well done - the acting, the 50s setting perfectly duplicated, the story so absorbing. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet give absolutely outstanding performances in this film. Liked the scene early in the film where Leonardo's character heads via train into the city - all men in hats and lots of vintage cars - cool. Boy there was a lot of smoking and martini drinking in this, by the way - liked the "Vito's Log Cabin" nightclub they went to in one scene! A superbly done film - loved the music score in this too, done by one of my most favorites - Thomas Newman, which matched this film to a tea! One of the best films from 2008, I thought. Rating - 10/10 stars

He's Just Not That Into You (2009) Film Review

2009-06-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Romantic comedy following the stories of a number of characters, male and female, the main story being about a gal named Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) who just can't seem to meet a fellow who will call her back after the first date! Becoming a bit stalkish, she meets a bar owner who starts to help her in her pursuit of meeting Mr. Right, by letting her know when her latest fellow is "just not that into her". Other stories: a man who meets a sexy blonde (Scarlett Johansson) at a quickie mart, where they exchange cards - thing is, he's married; - - a woman (Jennifer Aniston) desperate for marriage to her seven-year live-in boyfriend - thing is, he won't bite; - - a gal (Drew Barrymore) who communicates with all the men she meets via online or various mobile connections - never in person; plus assorted other characters who all seem to interconnect with each other.

Review - I thought this film was good - entertaining, not as totally good as I had hoped (based on the ads). Drew Barrymore has a pretty small part compared to the amount she was featured in the TV ad spots for this film, I must say. Typical sort of romantic comedy fare that seems to be being produced these days, cute, entertaining, but not great. Rating - 8/10 stars

The White Sister (1923) Film Review - Lillian Gish

2009-06-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Silent soap opera/tearjerker starring the great Lillian Gish. In Italy, in a great palace which dominates the city (along with Mt. Vesuvius) lives saintly Donna Angela (Gish) and her evil half-sister The Marchesa. While spending time in the fairy-like palace gardens, Angela dances to gypsy music and meets up with her love, the dashing Captain Giovanni Severini (Ronald Colman), over the garden walls. Soon Giovanni proclaims he is going to ask Angela's father for her hand in marriage - but unknown to Angela, her father has made arrangements to marry off Angela to the son of a Count, thus uniting two of Italy's oldest (and richest, I guess) families. POSSIBLE SPOILERS - -Plans are seriously altered though, when the father is seriously injured while "riding to hounds", and dies. The evil sister secretly burns the will (yeah, she's a bad one), so she is declared sole heir to the entire estate based on lack of a will. She then proceeds to kick her little sister out of the palace, proclaiming her own love for Giovanni and her personal hatred for Angela. Angela moves into a small house with her governess, and soon receives news that Giovanni is being sent by the War Department on an expedition to Africa. Sad news comes that the group he was leading were all massacred in the desert by Arabs. Poor, poor Angela is taken to the hospital of the White Sisters, in complete shock at her lost love who she was to marry on the day of his return. In his memory, she decides to help the world and become a nun aka "white sister". More soap to come! And what about that side plot - the older brother/professor of Giovanni is up at his observatory studying the volcano?!

Review - Okay, this was a good one - more melodrama and tears packed into one movie than you might ever desire - Lillian Gish is absolutely fantastic in this film. A long, involving silent film that I found very entertaining and nicely photographed. The scene where Lillian as Angela takes her final vows to become a nun is beautifully done. This film, as screened on TCM, featured a quite nice orchestral score done by Garth Neustadter. The film was tinted in some scenes, and looked reasonably good except for some scenes with a bit of decomposition. For Gish fans (like me!) this is a can't miss. Rating - 10/10 stars

New In Town (2009) Film Review - Renee Zellweger

2009-06-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Romantic comedy. A big Miami-based food company wants to make product changes and downsize a plant they own which is located in a small town in icy Minnesota - and they send executive Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger) there to get the job done. Lucy must quickly adapt to the cold weather, the unusual accents, and the small town environment. As the plant's newest manager, hard-driving Lucy ends up getting off on the wrong foot with the workers and the locals who live in this town that is so different from what Lucy is used to. She even manages to make an enemy of local hunk/Union rep. Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick Jr.). But after he rescues her after her car is trapped in a snow bank, Lucy begins to warm to him and in the way of all filmland, the couple that hates each other begins to have a romantic fling. Soon Lucy begins to take to the small town surroundings and the kindly, un-jaded attitudes of the townsfolk who are into stuff like scrapbooking, ice fishing, and making tapioca. When the Miami bigwigs decide to shut down the plant entirely, Lucy steps in to try and keep the plant open and save the day for everyone who works there.

Review - Cute and sweet film (aww - I like scrapbooking!) - I didn't get this review written up as much as I should have, but I enjoyed the film and always like Renee Zellweger, who is very good in this. I even thought there was some chemistry between her and Harry Connick Jr. Filmed in Canada in 50 degrees below icy temperatures, this was! Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Killshot (2009) Film Review - Mickey Rourke

2009-06-22T18:22:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Thriller about a half-breed Mafia hit man nicknamed "Blackbird" (Mickey Rourke) who, after making a big hit on the big Mafia daddy, hooks up with a wild young loser/killer named Richie Nix (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who is involved in blackmailing a realtor for 20,000 bucks. When the two head into the realtor's office hoping to get the dough, instead they find a couple there (played by Diane Lane and Thomas Jane), who are now witnesses. Blackbird doesn't like to leave anyone alive who's "seen his face", so the two bad men are soon after this couple to kill them. The FBI puts the couple into a witness protection program since they are the only ones who can connect the Blackbird's whereabouts at the time of the recent hit he committed. Cat and mouse chase between bad men and good couple to follow. The couple, previously on the brink of divorce, start to patch things up as they live in a new town with new identities and sleep in one double bed!

Review - Okay, this film was okay - boosted up by having really well done performances by Mickey Rourke and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Diane Lane is fine, as usual - the actor who plays her hubby is about as dull and nondescript as you can get (wonder at the casting there?!). The soundtrack went with the film quite nicely, the location settings were well photographed. Entertaining enough, nothing great. Rating - 7/10 stars

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008) Film Review

2009-06-17T17:40:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Teen romantic comedy all set on one night out and about on the streets of NYC. High schooler Norah (Kat Dennings) is out on the town with her best gal pal Caroline in search of her favorite band "Where's Fluffy?", rumored to be appearing at a secret night spot somewhere in New York City that night. Nick (Michael Cera) is a guy recently dumped by one Tris, third sort-of-gal-pal of the two girl's and recipient of Nick's CD mixes he makes for her in some sort of warped recovery effort. The girl's are all at a club that night where Norah comes on to Nick (who she's never met) in order to make bitchy Tris jealous. Soon Norah ends up on the town with Nick and his band members, all searching for "Where's Fluffy?, while drunken Caroline ends up in the back of the guy's van. Problems when Caroline disappears and Tris starts coming on to Nick again. But - Nick and Norah love all the same music - and hey, their first kiss made it look like they were a match!

Review - Cute movie, good music, and lots of on-location scenes in my fave NYC. Actor Michael Cera makes for a very likable character in all films I've seen him in - he seems nerdy, yet attractive - just the type I like (no, I don't have a crush, I just think he makes a nice match in these teen films). Rating - 8/10 stars

Valkyrie (2008) Film Review - Tom Cruise

2009-06-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - True story, set in WWII Germany. About a group of SS officers who have devised an elaborate plan to assassinate Hitler and seize control of the government to help end the War and atrocities. A leader is put in place to help pull off this plan in the form of a wounded Colonel, missing an eye and a hand, named Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise). He is even assigned the task of performing the killing of Hitler himself!

Review - This is an excellent, exciting film that kept me on the edge of my seat - especially since it all really happened! Cruise does a nice job here, as does the mainly British cast of well known character actors. I especially liked David Bamber (so delightfully smarmy as Cousin Collins in the 1995 BBC series "Pride and Prejudice") who plays Adolf Hitler - wow did it seem like he really was Hitler in the film! Good one all around. Rating - 9.5/10 stars

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941) Film Review - Alfred Hitchcock directed

2009-06-16T16:56:00.001-07:00

Plot Summary - Romantic comedy with a touch of screwball, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Married couple David and Ann Smith (Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard) have an agreement of never leaving the bedroom after a quarrel until they have made-up - even if it takes days! This is how we are introduced to this handsome looking couple. They set rules for each other and agree to answer questions honestly. When she asks if David would marry her if he had to do it all over again he says - well, "no". Well, oddly enough, that chance arrives sooner than they would think - seems through a technical glitch involving their marriage license, they were never really married. Ann finds out about the glitch the same day, but David doesn't know she knows. When he takes her out to their old favorite restaurant that evening, "Momma Lucy's" (which turns out to not have the charm they remembered - but, hey, the dinner is only 65 cents) he neglects to do the expected - ask her to marry him and get married that night (remember, this is the forties!). So - he is thrown out of the house and ends up living at his men's club and getting advise from a chum in the steam room. Soon Ann goes on a date and gets a salesgirl job at a department store. They proceed to try and make each other jealous and she's soon going out with his business partner, while David goes on a double date with the steam room pal and two floozies. The inevitable happens, you can probably guess!

Review - Hitchcock delves into comedy, and does a nice job of it - I found this film quite amusing, even laughed out loud several times (watching by myself). The star quality of Lombard and Montgomery really helps boost this film up - Robert Montgomery happens to be one of my absolute favorites, and he oozes his usual charm in this. I was amused by the part of Ann's mother who, of course, pushes daughter to come home to mama if hubby doesn't remarry her. Okay, there's an "I Love Lucy" with almost the exact plot as this film, including the restaurant not being the way they remember - hehe. Enjoyed the chipper, whistling background music in this film. Hmm - you really know this was the forties when Ann makes up a new rule for their hubby/wife partnership - "a wife should conduct herself to please her husband". And just wondering, why do men in old movies always have a club to go to when thrown out by the wife? Was this really the way it used to be - or just movie stuff?! Rating - 9/10 stars

American Madness (1932) Film Review - Frank Capra

2009-06-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Expertly done precode melodrama, directed by Frank Capra. At the Union National Bank, the board of directors want a merger so they can get bank president Tom Dickson (Walter Huston) out of controlling the bank - seems they think he has been giving out "idiotic loans" and is way too liberal with the bank's money. Dickson refuses to go ahead with the merger and insists his way - the belief in "faith" and trust - is the right way. Now Dickson is shown from the start to be a very likable guy, loved by all his employees as he seems to personally greet each one individually on his arrival. Meanwhile, a bank employee named Cluett is being hounded by evil loan sharks for a gambling debt - and they push him into helping them rob the bank! Hmm, this guy's a real winner (not!) - in addition to his gambling problems he is also a ladies man currently trying to seduce Dickson's rather neglected wife - and their "love-making" is witnessed by bank clerk Matt Brown (Pat O'Brien) who decides to visit Cluett and try to straighten out this mess the same night as the bank is robbed. Gossip girls on switchboard start a rumor the next day which leads to a big bank run! Chaos - madness!

Review - This film is quite a good one, parts reminiscent of the film "It's a Wonderful Life" (particularly the ending). The film mostly takes place inside the gorgeous art deco bank interior - there is no background music in the film, the style is stage play like. Walter Huston gives a really nice, appealing performance here as Dickson. Pat O'Brien has a rather small part, really. The main blondie switchboard operator (she of the high-pitched squeal) featured here and there briefly throughout the film is quite funny - actor Sterling Holloway is also seen a few times here and there as a bank worker - pretty amusing too. Well done. Rating - 9/10 stars

Platinum Blonde (1931) Film Review - Jean Harlow

2009-06-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Frank Capra directed, pre-code melodrama. Wisecracking newspaper reporter, Stewart "Stew" Smith (Robert Williams), is sent to the mansion of the wealthy, society Schuyler family to get the scoop on a breach-of-promise suit by a Follies girl against the family son. Settled for 10,000 bucks, but the girl in question retains some incriminating letters - the family attempts to bribe our newsman to hold back the story, but he won't bite. Somehow our reporter has gotten ahold of the letters (did I miss something?) and brings them over the next day, handing them over to the daughter, Anne Schuyler (Jean Harlow), who happens to be a platinum blonde beauty. They hit it off over tea and before you know it - this odd couple have eloped! Anne has ideas about turning her new hubby into a "gentleman". Stew wants his new wife to move into his flat - but she would prefer him to quit his 75 buck a week job and move in with her to live in the left wing of the mansion. Well, he's soon tucked in his room in the left wing with silk PJ's and his own valet, his fellow reporters start to call him "Cinderella Man", and he don't like it!! Forced into white tie and tails to attend society parties, he still retains a friendship with co-worker Gallagher, who the wife thinks is a male, but actually is a very beautiful young lady (Loretta Young) who happens to be in love with Stew! Stew's really the "spaghetti party" type of fellow anyway, how long will he stand for all this?!

Review - This seems to be a tale promoting a guy to just be a regular fellow rather than fall for that high society stuff. Predictable, but still entertaining - my one gripe is that I see little chemistry from the get-go between Jean Harlow's character and Stew the reporter. I love Jean Harlow, but it was hard to see her as being right in this society girl role. Interesting shot taken through the flowing water of a fountain, done in one scene. Rating - 8/10 stars

Passengers (2008) Film Review - Anne Hathaway

2009-06-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Mystery/thriller about a beautiful young therapist, Claire (Anne Hathaway), who is assigned to help a small handful of people who were the only survivors of a recent, horrific plane crash. Claire holds group therapy sessions and uncovers that some of the passengers remember a mid-air explosion, yet the airline's powers-that-be are insistent that it was pilot error rather than a mechanical failure of the plane. Claire searches for the truth as a mysterious man is seen watching their session through the window and later following a passenger, passengers begin to "disappear" (skipping sessions or?), an airline official follows Claire and pushes her to mind her own business, and Claire starts up a romance with a good-looking passenger named Eric (Patrick Wilson) who is being stalked by a mystery dog.

Review - This is a really excellent film that drew me in right from the start. Really interesting plot with some surprises as well. I can't say this wasn't in certain ways predictable, but still found it completely intriguing. Plus - I love Anne Hathaway! The way they filmed the plane crash, shown completely from the passengers and pilots point-of-view inside the plane rather than outside, is both realistic looking and frightening. Excellent film. Rating - 9.5/10 stars

Last Chance Harvey (2008) Film Review - Hoffman, Thompson

2009-06-08T16:39:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Love story about the unlikely match between two older, lonely people who live in two different cities and don't even seem that keen on each other at first glance. American Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) arrives in London to attend his daughter's wedding. Not exactly father-of-the-year, I guess, things don't really go the way Harvey hopes as his daughter (bitch,if you ask my opinion) tells him she would rather her step-father give her away. Harvey, busy businessman, decides to skip his daughter's wedding reception - but - he misses his plane home and at the same time, gets fired by his boss. Poor Harvey! But while getting a drink in an airport lounge he chances to meet a middle-aged London woman named Kate (Emma Thompson) and they start to form a friendship. She convinces him to attend the wedding reception, he invites her to go with him - then decides to postpone his trip back home as this spur-of-the-moment match-up seems to be possibly a love match in the making!

Review - Ah, I loved this one - quite romantic, and nice to see a story about a blossoming romance that features an older couple - it doesn't always have to be just about the thirty or under set, does it?! The whole story is helped along by top-notch performances by two great stars, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson, as well as nice on-location scenes filmed in my favorite town (at least of those I've been to so far), London. The film also includes a very nice soundtrack that enhances the film. Rating - 9.5/10 stars

Lost in Austen (2008) Film Review - Pride and Prejudice spin

2009-06-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Modern day Hammersmith, London gal, Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper), lives and breathes Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", her favorite novel. Oddly, she finds a young woman in her bathroom one day who has come through the wall and is about to change her life - and it's none other than Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bennet herself! Amanda slips through the same wall and into the 19th century world of the Bennet family, right into their upstairs hall, actually. She proceeds by staying at Longbourn (the Bennet home, for those not in the know) as a friend of Lizzie (while Lizzie is behind in the modern world doing who knows what!). Amanda can't get back home so begins living the story as told in "Pride and Prejudice". But, hey, remember - it's not that wise to mess with the space-time continuum, even in a fictional story apparently - she begins to 'cause the story to alter - starting with the unlikely marriage of Jane to, um, Mr. Collins. And - what do you think - in spite of her efforts to make sure handsome, proud Mr. Darcy (Elliot Cowan) will eventually end up with Lizzie - Amanda starts to fall for him herself. Things get real messed up, and none of the characters end up being entirely like Amanda always imagined them!

Review - Okay - this three-hour (made for British TV, I should think) film was quite entertaining. Not as good as film adaptations of the real "Pride and Prejudice", but cute and sometimes amusing. The characters and style of the film are all geared mainly to emulate the 1995 Colin Firth BBC version as well as elements I noted from the 2005 theatrical film version. There is a part near the end where Mr. Darcy actually goes back with Amanda through the wall and sees modern day London (and thinks he's dreaming on Opium!) - quite entertaining that. Enjoyable, mainly for Austen and "Pride and Prejudice" fans. Rating - 8/10 stars

The Runaway Bus (1954) Film Review

2009-06-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Goofy British comedy/mystery in which England is currently engulfed in a very thick fog which has stranded a mass of tourists at London airport. Bus driver Percy Lamb (Frankie Howerd) is assigned to drive a relief bus carrying five passengers plus a stewardess to a different airport. Meanwhile, some bad guys have stolen a bunch of gold bars from the airport bonded store and have stashed the lot in the boot of the bus. Off they go with goofball Percy at the wheel and a passenger out front to help guide them through the thick pea soup, as they seem completely lost off their route - nobody can see a thing! The odd assortment of passengers includes an aggressive old lady (Margaret Rutherford) with an umbrella that she likes to wield about, a small middle-aged man who loves flower seeds, an attractive blonde who is referred to as a "thrill queen" as all she does is read books about zombies and such and quote scenes from them (she's actually quite a dope), a business man who keeps roaming about outside the bus to investigate the area, and an off-duty pilot who spends his time chasing the stewardess. The thing is - one of these people on the bus is the mastermind behind the gold bullion robbery!

Review - This is quite a silly film, a rather broad comedy that is mildly entertaining - and a bit boring through the middle, actually. Singer (and one of my long-time favorites as well) Petula Clark appears in this in a non-singing role as the stewardess. The main bright spots in this are the scenes featuring favorite Margaret Rutherford - always rather a hoot! The majority of this black and white UK film is set at night in a whole lot of fog. Rating - 6.5/10 stars

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) Film Review

2009-05-28T15:16:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Odd and interesting fantasy/romance about Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), born in New Orleans as a baby who is an old man in his eighties but tiny like a baby (and looking pretty darn weird, I must say). His mother dead from child birth, Benjamin is abandoned by his father on the front porch of an old age home, where a black woman who works there adopts him as her own. Benjamin starts his life with all the ailments of an old person - at first he's got wrinkles, arthritis, rickety bones, sags and bags, balding head, and walks with a cane, but as he gradually gets older in years - he gets younger and more and more handsome physically!! A strange concept indeed - yet how intriguing! The romance - - Benjamin first meets Daisy (grown-up Daisy played by Cate Blanchett) when she is visiting her grandmother at the home - she a little girl, he a very old man, but they develop a life-long bond of friendship with love - and passion - to come, as his and her ages gradually meet in the middle, you could say.

Review - I enjoyed this close to three hour film - the film begins just after World War I and progresses to the current day. The story is related by character Daisy, now an old woman on her death bed, to her daughter (Julia Ormond) via a diary that was written by Benjamin. I enjoyed the way the period elements were done in this film - realistic costumes and time period feel helped draw me into each elapsing decade as Benjamin grows younger and younger. A few of the scenes were filmed to look like old film footage. Loved the Scott Joplin music, used in a few scenes (I love ragtime!). Rating - 10/10 stars

Bride Wars (2009) Film Review - Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson

2009-05-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Cute BFF/chick flick comedy about two best gal pals, Emma and Liv (Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson) who have grown-up together dreaming of their perfect June weddings at the Plaza in NYC. When they both get proposed to by their fellows, the gals hit the top wedding planner in New York (played by Candice Bergen) to plan their Plaza weddings. A mess-up causes both women's weddings to be scheduled on the same June Saturday - what to do? The Plaza booked in June for three years, how will the two best friends compromise and both keep their dream alive? Hmm, guess they can't. Neither will budge on the date, so the two become enemy Bridezillas, each trying to sabotage the other one's wedding. Yeah, pretty juvenile, but then this is comedy.

Review - This is a fun film, helped by having two excellent comediennes playing the lead roles - their relationship struck me as very Lucy/Ethel-like, and that I like - right down to the "one of us will have to switch her date", "yes one of us will" sort of chatter like in the Lucy and Ethel wear the same dress "I Love Lucy" episode. Again, like a Lucy episode, there is quite a bit of slapstick and silly antics involved here. The two guys who play the gals fiance's are real duds, luckily they don't get a lot to do in this film. I enjoyed the voice-over narration by Candice Bergen and the on-location filming done in New York City (which I love, love, love from afar). Rating - 8/10 stars

One Sunday Afternoon (1933) Film Review - Gary Cooper

2009-05-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Pre-code film starring Gary Cooper. On a Sunday afternoon, former rival Hugo Barnstead arrives at dentist Biff Grimes (Cooper) dental office to have a tooth pulled and Biff has ideas about "getting even" with Hugo (um - by gassing him to death!), who Biff believes once stole his girl. In flashback the story of the rivalry is revealed. The two men meet two gal pals in the park one day, Virginia (Fay Wray) and Amy. Both men are after Virginia, who seems a bit more flashy of the two women - - but cute and sweet Amy once had a childhood crush on Biff and still carries the torch for him. Amy chases after Biff (who is sort of a show-off, lanky bumpkin type - but cute) while Biff and Hugo chase after Virginia - but Hugo (the more successful of the two men) gets Virginia, as they get married by surprise and ride off for their honeymoon. On a lark, Biff asks Amy to marry him that same night (in a sort of warped way of getting even with Virginia, you might say). Marriage and hard feelings to follow.

Review - The film is based on a stage play and helped along by nice outdoor scenes in a quiet-looking, turn-of-the-century small town locale. This film was later remade into a film I have seen and enjoyed quite a few times, "The Strawberry Blonde (1941)" starring Rita Hayworth, Olivia de Havilland and James Cagney. This earlier version is also an excellent film, I very much enjoyed the performance of Frances Fuller as sweet and ever-loving Amy - she sure puts up with a lot from that Biff! Jane Darwell appears fairly briefly as Amy's mother - the print shown on TCM appeared to be edited as the character of Virginia's mother is credited in the titles, yet did not appear in the film (I thought there appeared to be something missing just before the sudden marriage of Hugo and Virginia). Good film. Rating - 9/10 stars

The Reader (2008) Film Review - Kate Winslet

2009-05-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Well done drama about a teenager who has an affair with an older woman with a dark secret and the life-long effects this affair has the man's psyche. In 1958 Germany, fifteen-year old Michael (David Kross) is ill on the streets where he is helped by a thirty-something woman named Hanna (Kate Winslet). Struck by her, he recovers and seeks her out - and so begins an affair despite their twenty-year age difference and seemingly different social and educational levels. Rushing to see her after school, their affair is driven not just by sex and baths but by her desire to be read to by him - all the classic novels. One day she has disappeared and he doesn't see her again - until SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT: forward to 1966 where Michael is a young law student who is taking a special seminar and attends a trial in which - surprise - Hanna, once an SS guard during the Holocaust, is being prosecuted for war crimes!

Review - I found this film an intriguing watch, quite romantic and passionate in the first half, and leading into the Holocaust part of the story which comes as somewhat of a surprise (at least if you know nothing of the film's plot, which is what I try to do by keeping away from film reviews and clips until after I've seen the movie). I did question a couple of things that these characters do in this film (SPOILER SPOILER: 1. why he doesn't speak up about her illiteracy during the trial, 2. why she "gives up" on herself at the end of the film), which came across as unrealistic to me. But, in any case, I did really enjoy this and found it to be an excellent and memorable film. Kate Winslet is great, as usual, as is Ralph Fiennes who appears as the grown-up man version of Michael - but I must say, actor David Kross, who plays young Michael is fantastic in this, why no Oscar nod?! Rating - 10/10 stars

Three Chumps Ahead (1934) Film Review - Thelma Todd, Patsy Kelly

2009-05-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Hal Roach/MGM Thelma Todd and Patsy Kelly short. POSSIBLE SPOILERS - - Thelma is in love - with Archie, a man with millions and yachts or so says he. Invited to the girl's apartment, Thelma dresses up and attempts to entertain Archie - he wants to just stay in (tired out from nightclubs, says he). He relates stories of his world travels while Patsy, who suspects he isn't who he says he is (good to have a gal pal that's bright and looks out for you, isn't it?!), wears her slippers (much to Thelma's distress), loudly cracks nuts, then prepares sandwiches in the kitchen fully loaded up with Limburger cheese. To occupy Patsy and get her out of the way, Archie phones up his brother (home on leave from the Navy and currently gambling in a local bar) and invites him over. Soon Archie sneaks Thelma away to a tavern to try and make his move on her - Patsy is too smart and they end up there too. Then Patsy, realizing the men don't have much cash (the men have secretly agreed with each other to one beer apiece), orders up a whole mess of food hoping the guys get beat up and thrown out by the big, mean, pug-faced waiter. It backfires, and in a scene that reminded me of that "I Love Lucy" where the girls end up washing dishes when the boys won't pay (Lucy and Ethel push for "equal rights" episode) - Thelma and Patsy end up, yeah, washing the dishes!!

Review - Okay, this episode had a touch of not so funny slapstick, but did have some cute interaction between the two gals. The restaurant half of the short I found to be more amusing than the first half. The short features recognizable Hal Roach studios music in the background (same used in "Our Gang" and "Laurel and Hardy" shorts). Okay - why is there always some convenient Limburger around in thirties comedies, readily available for comic shtick (if it smells that bad, why do the people keep it around I always wonder?!) I'm not sure about the meaning behind the title of this short as it relates to the plot!! Rating - 6.5 to 7/10 stars

Frost/Nixon (2008) Film Review - Frank Langella

2009-05-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

Review - Directed by Ron Howard. Didn't get this one written up, but it was real good - really held my interest. About the four-part interview that David Frost did with Richard Nixon in the 70s after he resigned as U.S. president. Quality acting by both Frank Langella as Nixon, as well as Michael Sheen as Frost. Excellent job on the period setting, by the way. Rating - 9.5/10 stars

The Wrestler (2008) Film Review - Mickey Rourke

2009-05-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Mickey Rourke stars as an aging wrestler - once an 80s wrestling superstar called Randy "The Ram" - who now appears in small-time matches and fan autograph appearances just to make ends meet. His body all worn out from years of abuse, a sudden heart attack and by-pass surgery forces him, unwillingly, to give up his career and take a job behind a grocery store deli counter. Friendship with a pole dancer/stripper (Marisa Tomei) at a local club he frequents, plus troubles re-establishing a non-existent relationship with his now grown daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) are in the mix.

Review - This is an absorbing film, a real character study into this man's world. Mickey Rourke does a phenomenal job playing this role - I'm not sure if he shouldn't have won the Best Actor Oscar over Sean Penn who won for "Milk" (both were excellent). That's sort of a sleazy strip club he goes too - Marisa Tomei does a pretty good job here as the typical film stripper with a heart of gold, so-to-speak. The film includes a number of rather bloody, violent wrestling scenes - ugh, hard to look at Mickey Rourke sometimes they've got him so messed-up and bedraggled looking in this. I thought this film was excellent and liked the heavy metal 80s music they used throughout this (yeah, in the early/mid 80s I definitely had a patch where my faves were Def Leppard, The Scorpions, Motley Crue, Ozzy). Rating - 9/10 stars

The Last Word (2008) Film Review - Winona Ryder

2009-05-10T15:51:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Sort of black comedy about a weird, reclusive sort of guy (Wes Bentley) - (deadpan-expression is his usual look) - who is a writer/poet currently running a web business called "The Last Word" in which he composes the, yeah, last words - sort of epitaphs - for people who are contemplating suicide. While attending one of his "clients" funeral (he does that a lot) he meets the victim's attractive sister, Charlotte (Winona Ryder), a dark horse indeed. She phones him and chases him, he - for some unknown reason - at first seems uninterested. Her stalking pays off (maybe it helped when she does the - um - deed with him in broad daylight on the roof of a downtown L.A. building in full view of hundreds of windows overlooking from other buildings) and soon they're a couple. She is a pretty weird chick too, yet they don't seem like that great a match - maybe it's 'cause he lies to her about what he actually does for a living and all his deceptions steer her the wrong way.

Review - Okay, I'm not super keen usually on black comedies - this was just okay. Ray Romano adds a bit of amusement to the mix as one of his clients, Wes Bentley is just too boring to make this interesting (yeah, I know, the character is supposed to be sort of boring - but hey, what can I say). Bland one. Rating - 6.5/10 stars

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) Film Review - Charles Laughton

2009-05-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Thirties comedy which begins in Paris, 1908, where an English valet named Ruggles (Charles Laughton) is won in a game of draw power by an American cowboy millionaire from a wild west town called Red Gap, Washington. Leaving his job as valet to a Lord (Roland Young), Ruggles begins his job working for Egbert and Effie Floud (Charles Ruggles and Mary Boland), the wife full of ambitions to turn her hootin' and hollerin' bumpkin hubby (who has a fondness for cowboy hats and tacky checked suits) into a gentleman. Ruggles gives him a makeover - new suit, spats, and a mustache trim, Egbert's soon looking like a swell - but just on the outside. Egbert and Ruggles hit a Paris sidewalk cafe, Egbert switches between calling him "Bill" or "Colonel" and insists Ruggles sit down and join him for a drink. Ruggles is the ultimate gentleman's gentleman and prefers to keep proper master and servant rank. But Egbert don't go for that kind of stuff and continues to treat his manservant like a pal. Soon they all head for Red Gap where the town mistakes Ruggles as a real colonel and family friend, and all the attention goes to Ruggles head. He feels important and decides he wants more from life than just being a servant - so he decides to open a restaurant in Red Gap. And meanwhile he befriends a town widow (Zasu Pitts) while attending a "beer bust" with his employer and she works in service too, could be a nice little romance for our Ruggles!

Review - This is a cute comedy with lots of nice performances. Roland Young is quite amusing as the Lord, Charles Ruggles kind of hoot in this cowboy role (Egbert and Effie come across as sort of the Beverly Hillbillies), and Charles Laughton plays a great English manservant (I like the expressions he gets on his face as the stiff servant while all is chaos around him!). And don't forget, as Ruggles says "Spats make the difference between a man well turned out and a man merely dressed". Good fun. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Peter Pan versus Peter Pan - Silent / Sound Versions

2009-05-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

I recently watched the silent and the later 2003 Disney version of "Peter Pan" back to back. Here's my run-down/comparison of the two films.

The earlier (silent) version has so much charm, I prefer that one. The Disney version is - well - just SO Disney (sometimes a bit over the top in silliness). The plot of the two films follows along fairly closely, including some of the same dialogue. However the Disney version seems to feature more stuff on the battle with Captain Hook and less on the relationships between Wendy, Peter, and the Lost Boys. I guess I prefer something which is more character driven, thus again my preference for the silent version. Another thing - while the later film features a young boy as Peter Pan instead of the typical actress playing the role, and he is quite appealing and does a good job in the part - - I really just love, love, love Betty Bronson as Peter Pan, just such a charming little pixie, her facial expressions and little jigs she dances - just great. The film score for the Disney version is fantastic, which helps in that score - the silent version also features nicely done music on the Kino video.

Review of 2003 Version, from my archive:

September 8, 2006 - Peter Pan (2003) - This started out seeming a bit too cartoonish and childlike for my taste, but I have to admit - after a bit, it caught me! The classic story by J.M. Barrie of Peter Pan, the boy who won't grow up, who whisks a young girl, Wendy Darling, and her two little brothers out their London window for a fly across the sky to Never Never Land. I really liked the casting of the two actors who play Wendy and Peter Pan - Jeremy Sumpter, as Peter, is especially "Pan-like" (looks like a real pixie!). This version was quite a bit more on the romantic end then the usual versions of this which have an adult female actress playing Peter. Very nice orchestral score in this, by the way. Rating - 8.5/10 stars

Peter Pan (1924) Film Review - Betty Bronson

2009-05-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - "A Fairy Play". Silent fantasy based on the play by J.M. Barrie. The story begins in the Darling nursery, where nurse Nana gets the three Darling children - Wendy (Mary Brian), John, and Michael - ready for bed. Nana happens to be a big dog (the family can't keep a regular servant 'cause the father is such a "fidget"). The children tucked into bed, when who should arrive at their bedroom window, which happens to be two flights up, but a moving ball of light and a boy who is looking for his shadow - Peter Pan (Betty Bronson) and his fairy friend Tinker Bell aka "Tink". Peter Pan is a little boy (played by a young woman) who doesn't want to be a man - he wants to stay a little boy and have fun forever, and so he does! Wendy and Peter become friends and he agrees to teach the three children to fly if she will go with him to the Never Never Land to be mother and tell stories to Peter and the Lost Boys. And fly they do (with the help of a little fairy dust), off to the Land full of mermaids and Redskins and pirates, arriving in the Make-Believe Forest where jealous Tink prompts the boys to shoot Wendy with an arrow. Wendy lives though, the boys build her a house, and the whole bunch engage in some fantasy play as Wendy pretends she's their mother. Meanwhile, evil and ugly Captain Hook (Ernest Torrence) holds a grudge on Peter Pan who apparently cut off Hook's hand and fed it to a crocodile. The pirates soon attack Peter, Wendy, and the lost boys, while back home the children's mom grieves and longs for the return of her own lost kids.

Review - This is an engaging fantasy, full of charm. The special effects done in this are done well enough for the time this film was made - especially the scenes featuring tiny Tinker Bell. Okay, so Nana is played by a man in a very fake looking dog suit (not to mention the other creatures in this, like the crocodile) - but I think that's all part of the fun, really. Betty Bronson is perhaps the most delightful Peter Pan ever - she's perky, she's cute, she dances and flies with oh so much charm. All the children do a great job in this film, and Anna May Wong appears much too briefly as the Indian girl, Tiger Lily. (Our Gang alert: Winston and Weston Doty, twins in very early Our Gang shorts, appear in this film.) The version I have of this is a Kino video tape, it includes a nice looking, mainly sepia tinted print and a really terrific orchestral score, composed by Philip Carli, which is a fine match to the feel of this story. Okay, I like this quote from the film - "Wendy, one girl is more use than twenty boys" - right on, Peter Pan! Do you believe in fairies - I think I do?! Tehehe Rating - 10/10 stars

Dark Matter (2007) Film Review - Meryl Streep

2009-05-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

Plot Summary - Based around true incidents, this is the story of a brilliant young Chinese grad student (Ye Liu) in cosmology who arrives in the United States to study under successful professor Reiser (Aidan Quinn), expert on the early universe. Our student strikes out on his own with his theories on dark matter that seems to contradict Professor Reiser's theory, causing friction between the two and leading the professor to say he's "not a team player". Um - well, they won't let the student use his progressive new theory for his dissertation and all this leads to a rather surprising conclusion.

Review - I found this film slow going, but somewhat interesting - the ending surprised me and made this film seem a bit better. I recalled about half way through the film that this was supposedly based on true incidents - - one of my pet peeves: I don't like it when a film doesn't state at the *beginning* of the movie that it is based on a true story. Meryl Streep appears in this as the student's wealthy patron, a woman who seems rather obsessed with Chinese culture. Sort of boring as a whole, the film does have some nice music in the form of familiar songs performed by a Chinese children's chorus, plus a touch of humor (intended or not) as the group of Chinese students relate to each other (their conservations are mainly in Chinese with English sub-titles). Rating - 7/10 stars

Just Pals (1920) Film Review - John Ford directed

2009-04-28T12:49:00.001-07:00

Plot Summary - Silent romance/adventure tale set in a small town on the border between Wyoming and Nebraska. Handsome but poorly dressed Bim (Buck Jones) is called by some the "town bum" - he's rather lazy, won't work, and is described as the "idol of the youths, bane of the elders" in this village. Bim loves from afar the pretty village school teacher, Mary (Helen Fergusun) - but he has a rival in the form of smartly dressed town cashier, Harvey. When Bim defends a poor runaway "hobo" boy who has been thrown off the train, Mary takes her first notice of Bim. Bim befriends the boy, Bill, and soon Bim has a new sidekick - Bim and Bill are pals! The town bitties make sure little Bill is sent to school and Bim wants to get a job so he can meet his new obligations towards raising the boy - he's told if he can get a uniform he can be a porter. Troubles for Bim, Bill, and Mary too are soon to come. Mary's main man Harvey pushes her into loaning him the school's "memorial fund" (creep), the boy is hurt after a fall from a moving train trying to get Bim that uniform (and ends up under the care of a shady doctor and his wife who seek a reward for the boy, and much to the kid's distress, dress him up in a Little Lord Fauntleroy suit!), and Bim gets mixed up with some desperadoes who want to rob the town safe.

Review - Directed by John Ford (Jack Ford in the credits of this), the DVD I saw of this is part of the Ford at Fox Collection and featured a nice looking black and white print and well done orchestral score composed by Jonathan and Alexander Kaplan that I thought fit the flavor of this film very well. I enjoyed the interaction of the characters in the film, especially the "two peas in a pod" relationship between Bim and the boy I thought was very well done (the young actor who plays Bill does a nice, engaging job here) - but I did think the story kind of broke down in the big action sequences in the later part of the film, which were a bit rambling and moving too fast. Nicely photographed with lots of outdoor scenes and tree shaded small town sidewalks. Why is the town bum named, of all things, "Bim" I was thinking (hehe). Entertaining enough for it's under an hour length. Rating - 7.5/10 stars