Joan Blondell, Deanna Durbin, Linda Darnell ---

Three great stars and their films.  This week I watched

Sinners Holiday (1930) Joan Blondell, James Cagney. Marked the movie debut of Cagney and it made him a movie star. He and Blondell had both starred in the stage play on Broadway, originally titled, "Penny Arcade." Al Jolson bought the rights and insisted that they repeat their performances in the movie version, although Cagney and Jolson never met in real life. The film was a hit and Cagney was called 'electrifying.' Story of gangsters, prostitutes, Penny Arcades, rum running and other assorted under belly of life at the time. A period piece to savor. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021381/

Footlight Parade (1933) Joan Blondell, James Cagney, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell. Great musical, one of Busby Berkley's fantastic bests, "By A Waterfall" is amazing. "Honeymoon Hotel", "Shanghai Lil" and other number not so well known make this a fun film from start to finish. Just 4 years after the studios were thrown for a loop by "sound" Warners makes this entertainment, which it is from start to finish. I always sit with a goofy grin and just enjoy the heck out of it. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024028/

He Was Her Man (1934) Joan Blondell, James Cagney, Victor Jory. Cagney is "Flicker" Hayes a bad guy, and Joan is Rose, a bad girl. They end up on the lam in a fishing village in California. Our bad boy, stays bad, but our bad girl tries to be good. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025226/

Dames (1934) Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, Zazu Pitts, Guy Kebbee, Hugh Herbert. About putting on a show and the rich man who decides it is immoral and his duty to get the "filthy" forms of entertainment off Broadway. Sound familiar? Fun to see Pitts, Kebbee and Herbert in top form here. Lovely song, "I Only Have Eyes For You" is used throughout, along with title song, and "Shuffle Off Too Buffalo." 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025028/

Nice Girl? (1941) Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, Robert Stack, Walter Brennan, Robert Benchley Small town girl falls for her fathers associate and gets in hair brained schemes, but all is well by the fade. Deanna sings "Love At Last," "Perhaps", and a lovely version of "The Old Folks At Home." Not her best, but worth it for the singing. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033950/

Fallen Angel (1945) Linda Darnell, Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Charles Bickford, Percy Kilbride. A con man/gambler gets thrown off a bus in a small burg in California and walks into a diner with a gorgeous babe as the waitress. She is like honey to this hive of male bees and soon our drifter is scheming to get his hands on enough money to satisfy the babe. Enter the 'good girl' who lives in a big ole house with her sister and plays the organ in church and they are rich. He decide to woo and win the blond and her sis and after he gets his hands of their money - it is bye-bye. But! Murder rears it's ugly head when our waitress Stella ends up dead. And the drifter (Eric) is the chief suspect. But June (his new wife) is true blue and knows he didn't do it. Dark shadows and gloom seem to come from the screen. Otto Preminger directed this and the great "Laura" also with Andrews. They will always have a place in the film records because of these films. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037691/

Please Believe Me (1950) Deborah Kerr, Robert Walker, Peter Lawford, Mark Stevens. Alison Kirbe of London, receives a telegram from Texas, that she has inherited a livestock ranch. It She decides to go see about it and meets men all on the make, trying to swindle her or keep her from swindling their clients. Mixups and assorted shouting matches and so forth - and a happy ending at the fade. Not very funny and the cast seems bored. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042848/
 
North By Northwest (1959) Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, Jessie Royce Landis. James Mason. Alfred Hitchcock's very entertaining film about an ad exec who is mistaken for a spy by another group of spies and has a heck of a time because of it. The first hour is one of the best set ups for a suspense film ever. This poor guy is kidnapped, has whiskey poured down his throat, stuffed behind the wheel of a car and sent down a winding road overlooking cliffs and the sea. And that's just the first 15 minutes. It just keeps you on pins and needles about what jam he will get in next and how he'll survive. Lots of great famous scenes, all the stars seem to be having a great time, and it is all done very well. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/

Bride Wars (2009) Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Candice Bergen. Dreams of best friends from childhood about heir weddings go horribly wrong. Love the girlie's and their wedding dresses. Story and script lets all the cast down but it's fun anyway. Call me crazy, but I'd rather see pretty girls acting silly in pretty clothes as opposed to scruffy dirty looking guys belching, scratching, peeing, cussing. But that's just me. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0901476/

"And the days dwindle down to a precious few; September....