----I watched:
The Gay Bride (1934) Carole Lombard, Chester Morris, Zazu Pitts. THE Gold Digger of the 1930's. Carole is really good as a woman who wants everything (in writing) from the men who flock around her. She is an actress and her man of the moment is a gangster, which doesn't concern her as long as she is in the will. Morris is a bodyguard the boss has watching her every move. He's on to her and their spats are very clever and entertaining. One of the best Lombard comedies I've seen. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025163/
Top Hat (1935) Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers. One of the first and best of the duo's films. And one of the first to have the troup of great character actors in support: Eric Blore, Edward Evertt Horton, Helen Broderick, and the wonderful Erik Rhodes as Alberto (I'm so pretty) Beddini. "Dancing Cheek To Cheek" and the title number are worth watching the whole film for, but it's all lots of fun. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027125/
Ruggles Of Red Gap (1935) Charles Laughton, Zazu Pitts. Fish out of water story of a English mans man who is won in a poker game and ends up in the west in Red Gap in Washington State. The town is full of characters, of course, and eventually Ruggles loosens up and begins to get used to the freedom. When he decides he can own a restaurant, he has found his American dream, and alls well that ends well. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026955/
Three Loves Has Nancy (1938) Janet Gaynor is child like as a country girl who comes to the big city. Shes looking for her bridegroom who left her waiting at the church. She enlists author Malcome (Robert Montgomery), who she met when he was on a tour promoting his latest book, to help her find him. His friend Robert from next door, also his publisher, falls for sweet Nancy (she's a good cook) which makes Malcome jealous. Sort of a screwball comedy. The leads are likeable. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030867/
Fools For Scandal (1938) Carole Lombard, Fernand Gravet. Screwball comedy that makes even less sense than usual. At one point the leads begin singing a song, and whistling. Evidentally quite a few songs were written for the film by Rogers & Hart and discarded. Story of an actress visiting Paris who is picked up by a layabout who then proceeds to stalk her, while her fiance(Ralph Bellamy) barges in and out from time to time, is just not that amusing. But the stars are likeable so spending 90 minutes with them is not unbearable. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030145/
Our weather moderated this week so was able to plant some pretty flowers in my porch boxes and patio containers. Good to be out side.
April 26, 2009
April 20, 2009
Taxes filed. Garden cleanup started. Patio straightened up and cushions in rockers. Narcissus all in bloom. But wind and rain forced me indoors and this week I watched:
Swing Time (1938) Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers are great! The film of theirs I watch most often. Great songs, cute story and the spectacular number "Bojangles Of Harlem." Here it is on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6cLbk9k8BI
Regardless of what our sensibilities of today think of Astaire in black face, in the era of the film it was a fact of life. And the dancing is great. As a tribute to Bill Robinson, which Astaire asserted in later years, it is wonderful. In his prime he must have been a delight to watch on stage. All time favorite. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028333/
Double Indemnity (1944) Barbara Stanwyke, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson. Just about a down and dirty as it got. Scheming and cigarettes, and double dealing, suspicion. Dames and mugs and murder. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036775/
A Shot In The Dark (1964) Peter Sellers, Elke Summers. Not nearly as funny now as it was in 1964 when we saw it the first time. Some chuckles. And Herbert Lom as Cpt. Dreyfus is priceless. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058586/
The Natural (1984) Robert Redford, Glenn Close. A sentimental favorite about a game I used to spend lots of time on every summer. My Dad took me to my first pro game and taught me to keep score in the program. Heaven. Some of the love and feelings come through in this film of a country boy leaving home with high hopes of a career and the disaster that happened. A fable that we wish would come true. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058586/
The Departed (2006) Leonardo diCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson. Well 3 years later and I still like this story of double dealing and revenge among lawmen and the Irish mafia. Undercover plants on both sides. Very interwoven stories. The deep undercover of diCaprio makes it almost impossible for him to survive. And although of the main characters, Wahlberg is the one that lives, I really despised him all through the film. Wonder if that is what Scorsese wanted. Great cast in even small roles. The rats survive. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/
Bordertown (2006) Jennifer Lopez is a reporter on a Chicago newspaper that gets an assignment to investigate women being killed on the Mexican border towns where large factories have been opened. Martin Sheen is the editor who sends her . Once she gets there and talks to the one girl who survived and can identify the guys who raped and tried to murder her, she is in constant danger. Antonio Banderas is a local newspaper publisher who helps her. It is a sad and maddening story and since there is no resolution in real life, there is none in the film. The open borders for people and jobs and drugs and guns just go on. Sad. Lopez is good but I've seen her better. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445935/
Religulous (2008) Bill Maher. As one who has questioned and asked some of the same questions Maher asks in his film, I really enjoyed this a lot. Organized religion became hard for me to take seriously with one scandal after another. I am religious. But I belong to no group anymore. So Bill skewing all the different organizations made me laugh a lot. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815241/
The last full week of April - the cruelest month - and I haven't a pot of pansies out yet. Much too cold and windy so far. But hope springs eternal - and maybe this week.....
Swing Time (1938) Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers are great! The film of theirs I watch most often. Great songs, cute story and the spectacular number "Bojangles Of Harlem." Here it is on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6cLbk9k8BI
Regardless of what our sensibilities of today think of Astaire in black face, in the era of the film it was a fact of life. And the dancing is great. As a tribute to Bill Robinson, which Astaire asserted in later years, it is wonderful. In his prime he must have been a delight to watch on stage. All time favorite. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028333/
Double Indemnity (1944) Barbara Stanwyke, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson. Just about a down and dirty as it got. Scheming and cigarettes, and double dealing, suspicion. Dames and mugs and murder. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036775/
A Shot In The Dark (1964) Peter Sellers, Elke Summers. Not nearly as funny now as it was in 1964 when we saw it the first time. Some chuckles. And Herbert Lom as Cpt. Dreyfus is priceless. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058586/
The Natural (1984) Robert Redford, Glenn Close. A sentimental favorite about a game I used to spend lots of time on every summer. My Dad took me to my first pro game and taught me to keep score in the program. Heaven. Some of the love and feelings come through in this film of a country boy leaving home with high hopes of a career and the disaster that happened. A fable that we wish would come true. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058586/
The Departed (2006) Leonardo diCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson. Well 3 years later and I still like this story of double dealing and revenge among lawmen and the Irish mafia. Undercover plants on both sides. Very interwoven stories. The deep undercover of diCaprio makes it almost impossible for him to survive. And although of the main characters, Wahlberg is the one that lives, I really despised him all through the film. Wonder if that is what Scorsese wanted. Great cast in even small roles. The rats survive. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/
Bordertown (2006) Jennifer Lopez is a reporter on a Chicago newspaper that gets an assignment to investigate women being killed on the Mexican border towns where large factories have been opened. Martin Sheen is the editor who sends her . Once she gets there and talks to the one girl who survived and can identify the guys who raped and tried to murder her, she is in constant danger. Antonio Banderas is a local newspaper publisher who helps her. It is a sad and maddening story and since there is no resolution in real life, there is none in the film. The open borders for people and jobs and drugs and guns just go on. Sad. Lopez is good but I've seen her better. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445935/
Religulous (2008) Bill Maher. As one who has questioned and asked some of the same questions Maher asks in his film, I really enjoyed this a lot. Organized religion became hard for me to take seriously with one scandal after another. I am religious. But I belong to no group anymore. So Bill skewing all the different organizations made me laugh a lot. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815241/
The last full week of April - the cruelest month - and I haven't a pot of pansies out yet. Much too cold and windy so far. But hope springs eternal - and maybe this week.....
April 12, 2009
WWII, a western, a wedding & an island---
---this week I watched:
The Bridge Over The River Kwai (1957) Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Haykawa. Great David Lean film of the British prisoners of the Japanese in Malaysia during WWII, who are forced to build a bridge. Showing, as the doctor exclaims at the end, the "madness" of war. Marvelous casting and acting. Great location photography. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050212/
Nims Island (2008) Abigail Breslin, Jody Foster, Gerard Butler. Enjoyable fable of a young girl and her father and their adventures and troubles when the father is lost in a storm and our little heroine has to cope and find help from her favorite novelist. Perfect rainy afternoon film for youngsters and anyone who likes the sea, beaches and animals. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410377/
Rachel Getting Married (2008) Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Debra Winger. Disappointing story of a young woman on furlough from drug rehab going to her sisters wedding. Upper class fol-de-rol with various members of the extended family, and a weird group of musicians, wedding planners,. etc. Hathaway is a spoiled, bratty, self-centered woman who we are to feel something for, but I just wanted to slap her now and then. Winger as her mother is fine as a woman disconnected from her children, and their big scene together is well done, but we should have had more resolution. The reveal comes and goes so quickly, we don't know how we feel - shocked? Sorry? Understanding? It needed a bit more for me to feel anything other than glad it was all over. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1084950/
Appaloosa (2008) Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger. When is a western not a western. When there is no big fistfight. When there is no humor or old codgers talking. When a gal comes in on a train and meets up with two strangers and goes to bed with one the same day. And she's supposed to be a lady? The scenery is purty. Mortensen is too. Jeremy Irons as the rancher villain almost steals the picture from the two lawmen. 8/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800308/
Still chilly and damp and not good for working in the soil and planting gardens. Waiting for Ma Nature to put on her spring finery and settle down for a spell.
The Bridge Over The River Kwai (1957) Alec Guinness, William Holden, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Haykawa. Great David Lean film of the British prisoners of the Japanese in Malaysia during WWII, who are forced to build a bridge. Showing, as the doctor exclaims at the end, the "madness" of war. Marvelous casting and acting. Great location photography. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050212/
Nims Island (2008) Abigail Breslin, Jody Foster, Gerard Butler. Enjoyable fable of a young girl and her father and their adventures and troubles when the father is lost in a storm and our little heroine has to cope and find help from her favorite novelist. Perfect rainy afternoon film for youngsters and anyone who likes the sea, beaches and animals. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410377/
Rachel Getting Married (2008) Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Debra Winger. Disappointing story of a young woman on furlough from drug rehab going to her sisters wedding. Upper class fol-de-rol with various members of the extended family, and a weird group of musicians, wedding planners,. etc. Hathaway is a spoiled, bratty, self-centered woman who we are to feel something for, but I just wanted to slap her now and then. Winger as her mother is fine as a woman disconnected from her children, and their big scene together is well done, but we should have had more resolution. The reveal comes and goes so quickly, we don't know how we feel - shocked? Sorry? Understanding? It needed a bit more for me to feel anything other than glad it was all over. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1084950/
Appaloosa (2008) Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger. When is a western not a western. When there is no big fistfight. When there is no humor or old codgers talking. When a gal comes in on a train and meets up with two strangers and goes to bed with one the same day. And she's supposed to be a lady? The scenery is purty. Mortensen is too. Jeremy Irons as the rancher villain almost steals the picture from the two lawmen. 8/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800308/
Still chilly and damp and not good for working in the soil and planting gardens. Waiting for Ma Nature to put on her spring finery and settle down for a spell.
April 05, 2009
Three of the best.....
---this week I watched three very good films:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000; China "Wo hu cang long") Chow Yun Fat, Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh. Perfect blend of action, romance, great score, locations and cast. Story of two couples; one the experienced and wise warriors; the other the young, impetuous and unthinking, and how their actions bring great harm and unhappiness to them all. Beautiful location shooting in China by director Ang Lee adds to the story. He also took great care that the history and details of life in the era of the story was spot on. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046303/
Torpedo Run (1958) Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine. WWII story of submarine captain who is dedicated to sinking the fearsome Japanese air craft carrier that led the attack on Pearl Harbor. Tense scene when the sub is going through the gate and mines into the harbor. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052303/
Shane (1953) Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, Jean Arthur, Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance. One of the great westerns. Perfectly cast in every role. Gorgeous locations. Story of the stranger who rides up to the farm of the Staretts and becomes emeshed in their lives and the lives of the whole community. Classic conflict between farmers and ranchers, has a great fistfight between the toughs at the saloon and Starett and Shane. Palance has hardly any lines, but his menace as Jack Wilson the hired gun, is palpable. The cold blooded killing of one of the farmers is one of the most dreadful to watch in films. Watched on TCM, the host talked about Director George Stevens spending over a year on the final editing of his film. He also spent far more time with his actors getting just the performance he wanted in each scene, no matter how long it took. Thank goodness. All that care and devotion has made Shane a special film for all time. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046303/
We are back to a very cold, rainy and dismal period for our first week of April. Well, the song says "April showers bring May flowers." I'm all for that!
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000; China "Wo hu cang long") Chow Yun Fat, Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh. Perfect blend of action, romance, great score, locations and cast. Story of two couples; one the experienced and wise warriors; the other the young, impetuous and unthinking, and how their actions bring great harm and unhappiness to them all. Beautiful location shooting in China by director Ang Lee adds to the story. He also took great care that the history and details of life in the era of the story was spot on. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046303/
Torpedo Run (1958) Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine. WWII story of submarine captain who is dedicated to sinking the fearsome Japanese air craft carrier that led the attack on Pearl Harbor. Tense scene when the sub is going through the gate and mines into the harbor. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052303/
Shane (1953) Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, Jean Arthur, Brandon deWilde, Jack Palance. One of the great westerns. Perfectly cast in every role. Gorgeous locations. Story of the stranger who rides up to the farm of the Staretts and becomes emeshed in their lives and the lives of the whole community. Classic conflict between farmers and ranchers, has a great fistfight between the toughs at the saloon and Starett and Shane. Palance has hardly any lines, but his menace as Jack Wilson the hired gun, is palpable. The cold blooded killing of one of the farmers is one of the most dreadful to watch in films. Watched on TCM, the host talked about Director George Stevens spending over a year on the final editing of his film. He also spent far more time with his actors getting just the performance he wanted in each scene, no matter how long it took. Thank goodness. All that care and devotion has made Shane a special film for all time. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046303/
We are back to a very cold, rainy and dismal period for our first week of April. Well, the song says "April showers bring May flowers." I'm all for that!
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