---and murder most foul. So far this month I have watched:
Million Dollar Baby (1940) Priscilla Lane, May Robson, Jeffrey Lynn, Ronald Reagan. Cinderella story with May playing the godmother and Reagan/Lynn playing the princes. Rich old lady from America, living abroad, decides to find the heir who should have benefited from the riches made from business interests of her father, long dead. He was swindled by Robson's father. Lynn is American lawyer from firm handling the search and the million dollars involved.. Reagan is piano playing guy the girl, who is the heiress, is goofy about. (?) I don't get it either. LOL 90 minutes of silliness, but Priscilla is a doll, and May - cranky and tolerable. Men are ciphers. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033910/
Sullivan's Travels (1941) Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake. A favorite, watched on a yearly basis. The first of writer/director Preston Sturges 8 nearly perfect comedies. He gathered a group of character actors for his troupe and they appeared in almost all of the films. Political satire that is still relevant today. In this one, a famous director starts out on the road to find what it's like to be homeless and poor in the Depression America. Makes it's points with quiet humor. Perfect, IMHO. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034240/
The Palm Beach Story (1942) Joel McCrea, Claudette Colbert, Mary Astor, Rudy Vallee. Great cast about a woman with strange ideas of how leaving her husband to find a rich man will help him out. Off she goes on a train with the "Ale & Quail Club" on the way to Florida. Some of the funniest scenes in a screwball comedy, and they are just getting started. Mary Astor almost steals the film as the rich man's crazy sister on her 3rd or 4th husband, who hones in on hubby who flew down to intercept wifey with her new rich man. The puzzled looks in the end scene is priceless. Another of Sturges films I watch yearly. Great song, Goodnight Sweetheart, still popular during WWII. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035169/
Nobody Lives Forever (1946) John Garfield, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Walter Brennan, Faye Emerson. A returning GI from WWII, who left his 50 thousand with his blond babe, finds she has 'invested' his money with her new lover at their nightclub. He gets tough and gets in back and he and sidekick, George Tobias, head to California. He connects with some of his old team of swindlers who have a rich widow (Fitzgerald) lined up. They need a smooth front man and John (Nick) is up for doing it, on his terms. Things go slightly off when he starts to fall for her. A nourish romance. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038780/
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1947) Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison George Sanders, Edna Best. So romantic and a wonderful music score by Bernard Herrman. When I am near the ocean where it is crashing on rocks, I hear this music in my mind. Lucy and Capt. Gregg are great lovers, to never touch each other. It can be done, and this film proves it. There is an explanation for why he haunts, and then decides to help this young widow and her little daughter (early Natalie Wood). Uncle Neddy (Sanders) hits on the lovely widow and breaks her heart, but all ends well. His lovely wife, played by Anna Lee, tells Mrs. Muir "you see, it has happened before." And she takes their children and leaves him alone and blubbering at a dinner Mrs. Muir sees him at years later. Lee, in her one scene, is quiet dignity and understanding. Beautiful black and white cinematography. Another I watch yearly. 10/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039420/
One More Tomorrow (1946) Ann Sheridan, Dennis Morgan. Alexis Smith, Jack Carson. Based on a Philip Barry play. Free lance photographer(Ann), turns down rich playboy(Dennis) and goes off to Mexico to work. On the rebound, he marries scheming haughty beauty(Alexis) and goes to live in the country, taking big-city pal man-Friday (Carson), with him. Friction with the Mrs. so Carson is shipped back to big town. Wife and his Dad make him miserable so when former love returns, he wants to get back together, but she says not so fast. Enjoyable ensemble acting from Warner's. Lovely title song played throughout and at the fade. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038802/
D.O.A. (1950) Edmund O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler. Exciting film about a normal guy who goes off on vacation, checks in to his hotel, has a drink with at party across the hall - and ends up murdered. Now his task is to find out who did this to him. As he races around San Francisco looking up clues and people, it is fun to see the location shots of the city the was it was in 1949 when the film was shot. I was a kid just out of high school when this came out and it was just a small filler movie, but boy it took off and was a big hit. Wonderful tension and O'Brien, in the role of a lifetime, makes us want so bad for him to live. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042369/
Cast A Dark Shadow (1955) Dirk Bogard, Margaret Lockwood, Kay Walsh, Kathleen Harrison. Dirk is the charmer who has married an older woman but seems genuinely fond of her as the story begins. She has called the estate attorney to the home to have her will revised to leave everything to her young husband. But things go bad and from from her death for the rest of the story, we are never quite sure what this scoundrel will do. Or whether he is a bit nuts or just diabolical. Dirk is always fun to watch, but this is not one of his best. The three women are very good. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050233/
Ransom! (1956) Glenn Ford, Donna Reed, Juano Hernandez, Leslie Nielsen. Another favorite I watch yearly. Loosely based on the early '50s Greenlease kidnapping In Kansas City, of the young son of the rich car dealership family, who was killed before the ransom was even requested. I live in the area and heard and read about the case daily for months. Ford has never been better and he and Hernandez in the breakdown scene is so good, I cry to this day. I still cannot believe Hollywood did not recognize Glenn before he died. A great star. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049656/
Dear Heart (1964) Glenn Ford, Geraldine Page. Angel Lansbury. Lovely little romance between mature people. She is attending the annual convention of the Postmasters, and he is coming to a job in NYC after living on the road for years. She is like a big puppy, friendly and getting into everything and everyones way. He is brimming with good feelings. They meet and they meet and they meet. And eventually he realizes what she has known for a while - it's love. They are both just marvelous with this little sweet story. And Lansbury steals her scenes and has one of my favorite lines "I just want to pick up the phone because Phillis is done with doing!" 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057999/
Breakout (1975) Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid. Based on a true story of a rescue from a Mexican prison out in the countryside. A copter is set down in the exercise yard. Truth is stranger than fiction. How true the actors are to the real people is questionable but who cares? There are chases, explosions, and so forth. Bronson plays it light with good humor. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072737/
My viewing of films later than 1975 will be posted soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment