Lots of films; reviews later on some

Storms and cold kept me in watching movies all week, except for Christmas Day when my daughters collected me and we went to my sisters for dinner with the clan. Nice outing with everyone in a pleasant frame of mind.

So this weeks movies are:

The King & The Chorus Girl (1937) Joan Blondell, Fernand Gravey. Favorite theme of many rom/coms of the 1930's. A dethroned Prince(Gravey) in exile in Paris, is a lush who drinks all night and sleeps all day. His two courtiers/keepers devise a scheme to have a girl (Blondell) who is in the chorus at the Folies, who brushed off the Prince after he invited her to supper and then went to sleep, keep giving him a hard time to keep him interested. It works. Edward Everett Horton is his usual bumbling, funny self. The two stars are charming. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029082/

Sweethearts(1938) Nelson Eddy & Jeanette MacDonald The only one of their 8 co-starring films in technicolor. Funny and lots of lovely duets. The fashion show of Adrian clothes for Jeanette is beautiful. Show business tale of a starring couple in their sixth season of their hit show on Broadway, but they want to go to Hollywood. They both have their show business parents living with them, and trying to run their lives. When they come home from the show, the parents want to get around the piano and - sing some more. So go crazy or try Hollywood. Lots of twists and turns, and lots of music. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030817/

Bringing Up Baby (1938) Kathyrn Hepburn, Cary Grant. Screwball comedy to end all screwball comedies. He's an uptight scientist. She's a scatterbrained debutante. Her aunt is sent a tame leapard from South America. All of them end up at the aunts country house with George, the dog. George steals a rare bone which will finish a dinosaur project for the prof. They all end up in jail. Don't ask - just watch and enjoy the pros make magic. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029947/

Torvarich (1939) Claudette Colbert and Charles Boyer in one of the screw ball comedies of 1939 - a great year for all types of films. This one has a Grand Duchess and her consort, a Prince, in Paris broke but guarding the treasury sent out of Russia ahead of the revolution - millions while they are starving. They must take - horrors! - jobs! The cookoo family they end up with has some great character actors just having fun with this script. Lots of fun. 9/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029685/

The Amazing Mrs. Holliday ( 1943) Deanna Durbin sings - rescues orphans from China. She pretends to be the wife of a lost sea captain so she can get the children into the USA. She sings 3 songs and is lovely, but the story defeats her and Edmund O'Brien as her love interest leaves much to be desired. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035631/

Cluny Brown (1946) Charles Boyer & Jennifer Jones. Cluny Brown doesn't 'know her place.' Her uncle is a plumber and she just wants to have a go at those pipes. But after she goes to a mans apartment because his pipes are clogged, and he is having a cocktail party, her uncle sends her into service in the country. All she did was have a little too much wine and purr like a cat, and Mr. Belinsky (Boyer) wants to build her a mansion full of pipes for her to bang away on. A charming, funny, quirky fable. Every role has the perfect actor. Set in England at the beginning of WWII, the war is referenced but only in passing. This is about Cluny and learning to say "squirrels to the nuts." 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038419/

Come To The Stable (1949) Loretta Young and Celeste Holme. Lovely fable of two French Nuns who come to New England to build a hospital and a chapel on a hill, causing all kinds of amazing things to happen as people take on the nuns and their dream. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041257/

We're No Angels (1955) Humphrey Bogart(Joseph), Peter Ustinov(Jules), and Aldo Ray(Albert) are three escaped convicts from Devils Island, and how they come to be out of prison and in the store and home of the Ducotels, Felix(Leo G Carroll), Amelie(Joan Bennett) and Isabel((Gloria Talbet) on Christmas eve. Charming and whimsical tale for the holidays. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048801/

Donovans Reef (1963) John Wayne, Lee Marvin, Dorothy Lamour have Christmas on a tropical island. Beautiful scenery, Marvin and Wayne are having a lot of fun, and it goes down easy. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057007/

Christmas Vacation & DVD extras (1989) Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid. One of the favorite films for Christmas. The joys and frustrations of trying to have the whole family together on the big day. Enjoyed hearing the cast talk about the various scenes as we watched together. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097958/

Sleepless In Seattle (1993) Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks. A romantic comedy with the two characters never being together except for the last 5 minutes. But it works. Starts at the Christmas season and ends on Valentines day. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293508/

The Phantom Of The Opera (2004) Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson. If you love the music, romance, lush cinematography and a beautiful cast, this is a film to cherish. For the fifth Dec. 26th, I have been in a seat watching The Phantom, Christine and Raole play out the drama of the loved and the unloved. Butler is heartbreaking as the Phantom. His performance of the words to these songs shows the deep rage, longing and frustration of a lonely, half mad, man. Emmy Rossum is superb for a 17 year old doing this complex part. Wilson has one of the most beautiful lyric tenor voices I have heard. I am one of many women who was deeply affected by this production. Thank you Joel Schumacher. I am glad you remembered the great "The Red Shoes" and paid homage to that film with your opening and final scene of POTO, with the candle and the title pages. For me - POTO is still perfect.10/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293508/

P.S., I Love You (2007) Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Kathy Bates. Another of Butlers films that is good for the Christmas season. A romantic drama with comedy. A few laughs and a few tears. Like life. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0431308/

Finally got back to doing the reviews I left out last Sunday. Got the decorations all down and put in the garage so I can take my time getting them boxed. Had a warm day to do it and now it is freezing and windy again. Back to watching films by the fire.