The Glass Key (1942) Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Brian Donlevy. Politicians and their fixers and dames. Good yarn in the hands of the pros. The top of the bill. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034798/
My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready. Fair suspense tale. Woman succures a job through an employment agency and goes to the home of the wealthy woman who hired her as a personal secretary. When she goes to sleep that night and wakes up and is told she is the daughter in law of the same woman, Mrs. Hughes. The son, Ralph, and all the servants try to convince her she has had a breakdown and really is Marian Hughes. She is kept in a licked room, with a window looking down to the rocky coast of the sea. How will she escape? Tightly scripted and well acted for a second feature on the bill. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037932/
Riff-Raff (1947) Pat O'Brian, Anne Jeffreys, Walter Slezak, Percy Kilbride. Confused story and dull acting by the cast. A "B" movie to fill the bill at the Bijou back in the day. Something about oil maps and the Canal zone. And a 'fixer' and assorted thugs and dames. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039772/
The Naked Jungle (1954) Charleton Heston, Eleanor Parker, William Conrad. I always liked Heston better as a man of the more recent times, as opposed to the biblical epics. This is a good old pot boiler, with repressed sex, fighting a force of nature - his bride - and the Marabunta...Nature's deadliest force, a column of army ants , 2 miles wide and 20 miles long. And it is headed straight for the plantation he spent 20 years carving out of the jungle. Well, it is going to be a fight to the death and who will win? Saw it in '54 and it still is a favorite - jes 'cause! 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047264/
Marnie (1964) Tippi Hedren, Sean Connery, Diane Baker, Louis Latham. Just about my favorite of the later Hitchcock films. Marnie steals money. Lots of money from lots of employers. Finally caught by Mark Rutland when she steals from his company, he has her trapped into marrying him or she will be turned over to the police. He is intrigued by her and also she is a babe. So he tries to figure her out on the honeymoon cruise. But she won't play. Such a sexy scene and what a kiss in Marks office while she is taking some off hours dictation. During a storm, she is so frightened he goes to comfort her and starting at her forehead and runs his lips down her entire face to her lips for a lingering kiss. Extreme closeup, Well! Talk about heat! Clothes on, no pawing and pulling at each other, but very sexy. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058329/
Emma (1996) Kate Beckinsale, Mark Strong, Samantha Morton. Made for TV the same year the Paltrow movie was shown in theaters. And the updated version Clueless was released in 1995. Do producers all have a brainstorm at the same time? This Emma is so sure of herself in the meddling she is doing with the life of her friend, and Mr. Knightley so right to dress her down for putting false hopes in the head of a "young woman of no connections and dubious lineage." Love Mark Strong as the older man who loves, and waits for the right time, to declare his love for his willful friend. The cast of English actors are all perfect in their Jane Austin world. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118308/
The Town (2010) Ben Afflect, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner. Rewatch. Commented on earlier. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840361/
Date Night (2010) Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Mark Walberg. Suburbanites go into NYC for a dinner date and goes to a top restaurant where you book a table months in advance. Which they did not. Off to the side trying to decide what to do, a name is called over and over and no one answers. So they do. Big mistake. Even though they have a great meal, and lots of wine, they are confronted at the end of the meal by 2 men who ask them to come outside. Thinking it is management about the table they took they go willingly. But these guys are goons working for an outfit that wants the flash drive the couple they posed as have, and are in deep dodo to the boss. They get out of one mess after another and at the end when they collapse on their front lawn, safe again, we are glad. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1279935/
Greenberg (2010) Ben Stiller. I knew I probably would not like this film but since it won Independent Spirit Awards last year, decided to give it a try. Did. not. like. one. thing. about. it! Stiller is so annoying to me I almost quit at the half way point. A guy who has been in a mental hospital is house sitting at his brothers. He looks up his annoying friend. He has conversations and sex with his brothers assistant. She is also annoying. He has a party and it makes no sense. I wanted to scream. 5/10 and that is generous! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1234654/
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