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.....