Barbara Stanwyke is Baby Face....

.....and is a marvel.

Baby Face (1933) Pre-code. Barbara Stanwyke, George Brent, Donald Cook. Bit part by John Wayne. Frank look at a girl from the slums, used by her father as a barmaid and implied he was pimping her out to the men who came to the bar.
SPOILERS SPOILERS
After he dies in a fight, she goes to the big city and finds a job in a bank as a file clerk and then proceeds to claw and sleep her way to the top floors of the building. The censors and heads of Warners made them reshoot the ending from Brent's suicide, to him surviving and he and Lily reunited and repentant. Thankfully a uncensored copy was found and this is what TCM showed and I have on video tape.
Good film with a great actress who was never given an Oscar but could do it all. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023775/


The Third Man (1949) Joseph Cotton, Valli and Orson Welles. Film noir and zither music. Great film. One of the Essentials. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/

Romancing The Stone (1984) Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas and Danny Divito. Adventure romance comedy! Still fun after all these years. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088011/

Vanity Fair (2004) Reese Witherspoon, Gabriel Byrne, Johnathan Rhys-Meyers. Beautiful costumes and set decoration. Filmed in the UK among the great homes and countryside, makes it all seem very real. Story of the rise from poverty of a female from servant to courtesan and finally marrying a Lord and going to India and adventure. As a character, Becky Sharp is deemed a gold digger and not admirable, but for me, with what women had to put up with to survive in those days, I find her - like Scarlett O'Hara - a woman who, just like any man, does what she has to to survive and prosper in the chaos of war. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0241025/

Angels & Demons (2009) Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor. Ayelet Zurer. More adventures with Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon who is ask by the Vatican to solve a murder and terrorist threat. Zurer is good as the woman scientist who helps. I was kept interested throughout, which wasn't the case with The DiVinci Code, which I thought boring. Better script here and much better female lead. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808151/

The Hurt Locker (2009) Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty. Very tightly edited film about a squad who goes out when called on to defuse bombs. They all just want to survive and get back home - and are counting down the days. Very good at setting up the missions and showing the bravado it sometimes takes to get the mission done. Which causes tension and friction among the members of the squad because most just want to go by the rules and not take any chances. The 3 male leads - the squad - are very good, showing the differences of these highly trained and motivated men. All 3 were equally good - but Renner got the nod of a nomination. Fine film. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/

Tonight the Independent Spirit Awards which are always fun to watch. Sunday the Oscars are given out and the Academy is trying to make the show more exciting for the TV audience. More films nominated for best pic and more stars as presenters. We'll see how it goes this time. We are having our pizza party and will watch the red carpet and as much as we can of the awards, before we fall asleep. Last year I made it through, but daughters both went on to bed. So heigh-ho, everybody.