For the last week of August I watched these films on TCM:
Princess O'Rourke (1942) Olivia de Havilland, Robert Cummins, Jack Carson, Jane Wyman, Charles Coburn. A rom/com from the early war years. An air line pilot gets involved with a passenger who is scared of flying and keeps asking each crew member for another sleeping pill. She is so zonked out by the time they land, they can't get her awake. Our hero takes her home and she ends up in his P.J.'s. She, or course is the Princess and the road to getting our couple married in war-time Washington,D.C. is the story. Olivia is bored and it shows. She took a suspension but finally got meatier roles and two Oscars. Jack Carson is always good and steals scenes with regularity. Cummins, Coburn and Wyman are workmanlike. 6/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036277/
Laura (1944) Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson. Great noir mystery. A murder in a wealthy womans apartment has police Lt. Mark McPherson investigating and becoming increasingly enamored of the ladies portrait. A body, with the face blown away, was found in the foyer of the apartment in Laura's dressing gown. Her great friend, Waldo Lydecker, has identified the remains. As McPherson gets into the life of the victim, he finds almost all her friends and her cousin have a motive. One of the all time great noirs, with the great theme adding to the romance. Half way through, we have the big surprise and it is one of the great twists in films. Almost every part is done by a great actor. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037008/
Hondo (1953) John Wayne, Geraldine Page, Ward Bond, Michael Pate. Indians and a widow on an isolated ranch with a little boy. Big John as Hondo comes along needing a horse to get back to the report on the Indian activity. I found this western, which I had never seen, to be rather boring. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045883/
Rio Bravo (1959) John Wayne, Dean Martin, Angie Dickenson, Walter Brennan, Ricky Nelson. One of the all time great westerns. Sheriff John T., arrests the drunk who killed a townsman. His brother, a rancher with a big gang of hired hands, vows to come get him before the Marshall gets to town to take the prisoner to the big town and courthouse, for trial. Sheriff has his few men who are helping; an old guy with a bum leg, Stumpy. He watches the prisoner with orders to kill him if the jail is breached. His friend, the town drunk, who sobers up and is put at town border to take all guns from anyone coming into town and alert the sheriff if the gang comes. A young drifter who doesn't want to get involved but does. And a woman who is a gambler and the sheriff has ordered to leave on the next stage. Great setup for the final gunfight. 9/10
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053221/
Telefon (1977) Lee Remick, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, Tyne Daly. Major Grigori Borzov(Bronson), a KGB agent, is sent to the USA after a rogue secret agent, Dalchimsky(Pleasence). In an operation called Telefon, brainwashed and hypnotized agents were inserted into key industries and installations, to blow things up when they get a call and Robert Frosts poem with the lines "I have miles to go before I sleep" are said over the phone. It is detente and the KGB wants to stop him at all costs. Borzov has a photographic memory so knows all the names and info of the agents. He is helped by agent Barbara(Remick) who picks him up at the airport and off they go on a cat and mouse chase across the USA. Back at CIA headquarters is a computer nerd brainiac Daly, who seems to have a sixth sense about what is going on. This is a stylish spy story about a time in history when the threat of being incinerated had subsided enough to have some fun with spys. One of my guilty pleasures. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076804/
On FXHDtv:
Maid In Manhattan (2002) Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, Bob Hoskins. An enjoyable, for me, tale of a hotel maid who gets talked into trying on a wealthy womans clothes while cleaning the suite, and gets into a mixup with the guy running for senator(Fiennes). Ups and downs and a cute little boy who brings them together for the fade at the end. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252076/
Made Of Honor (2008) Michelle Monaghan, Patrick Dempsey. Best friends go everywhere together, can finish each others sentences, but don't date and are not romantically involved. Because he is a 'player' who beds all his dates or tries. When she goes to Scotland on holiday and meets the man of her dreams and gets engaged, surprise! he suddently decides she is his dream girl and HE wants to marry her. Give me a break. No woman would leave a tall blonde hunk, who also has 3 castles!, to go off with Mr. Can't Make Up His Mind! Absolutly lame! And Dempsey, with his squeaky voice, is an awful leading man. Monaghan is as tall as he is and their kissing scenes are a mess. No way, no how, Points for beautiful Scottish scenery. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0866439/
I have already picked out the TCM films I want to catch in Sept. And am picking some of my collection that I haven't seen in a long time to so I can decide to keep them or not. Onward to the 22nd and Autumn/Fall.
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