Barbara Stanwyke day on TCM---

ENCORES:

The Big Heat (194) Glenn Ford, Gloria Graham, Jeanette Nolan, Lee Marvin. One of the best film noirs, and starring The Man; Glenn Ford. Watched often. 9/10    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045555/

A Night To Remember (1957) Kenneth More, Honor Blakeman. Another good film about the first voyage of the Titanic, hitting the iceberg, and the sinking. Accurate but emotionless. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051994/

Bullitt (1968) Steve McQueen, Don Gordon, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset. That chase is still crazy wonderful. But film is a bit muddled. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/

Raising Arizona (1987) Nicholas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman. Funny, funny, crazy funny! When life gets you down, watch this sweet, nutty film. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093822/

You've Got Mail (1998) Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Greg Kinnear, Dabney Colman, Awwwww! Another telling of The Shop Around The Corner. Luv it! 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128853/

Lantana (2001) Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey. I could not get interested in the stories of affairs, cheating, and a murder, which is almost a minor detail among the threads of this story. LaPaglia in an early cop role is good but it is almost a one note role and similar to his TV role in Without A Trace. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0259393/

Maid In Manhattan (2002) Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci. I just like the players and the play. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0252076/

Doubt (2006-I) Meryl Streep, Philip Seymore Hoffman, Amy Adams. Still riveting with outstanding performances. 9/10     http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0918927/

FIRST VIEWINGS:

Three pre-code films starring Miss Barbara Stanwyke.  She was a star at 23 and never looked back. 

Ten Cents A Dance (1931) Barbara Stanwyck, Ricardo Cortez, Sally Blane. Pre-code. Story of the taxi-dancers that were lined up for men to pick and choose among to dance with, for a dime. At the beginning to the depression, with lots of girls from the farms having to go to the city for work, some ended up like the girls in this film. Barbara marries a guy and sticks through thick and thin. Even though a rich guy is in love with her. Stanwyke was 23 and her name was alone above the title in all caps.   She had already been in many successful films and was sought after by other studios.  She was darling and touching.  8/10    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022469/

Illicit (1931) Barbara Stanwyck, James Rennie, Ricardo Cortez, Joan Blondell. She thinks marriage kills love, so they live together and act silly. Until he decides they should marry anyway. Trouble trouble. Barbara is so pretty and the gowns are something to see. Cortez is in love with her and I would have run away with him, but she sticks to hubby. Much like a stage play. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021992/

Shopworn (1932) Barbara Stanwyck, Regis Toomey, Zazu Pitts, Clara Blandick. 23 year old Missy was already billed above the title and for this film, in all caps. Story of a poor, hard working waitress in a small mining town who catches the eye a young wealthy college student. His Mom is horrified and does everything to stop the romance, including having the girl arrested and framed on morals charges. Sent to the work house for three months, she is the wiser when she gets out, leaves town for the bright lights, and gets a job as a chorus girl. Her rise in show business is swift and she gets somewhat even eventually. The early 1930's was a time of transition for films, from silent to sound, and from frivolous to stories about the struggle of the working class. I see this film and since I am an 80 year old woman, I see my Mother. She left a small farming community to find work. She was from a family of 10 children that had lost their farm. All had to leave home except the last 2 school age boys. This film about a poor girls struggle resonates with me and I'm sure in 1932, it did with the struggling shopgirls who were the targeted audience. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023464/

Solitaire Man (1933) Herbert Marshall, May Robson, Elizabeth Allan, Lionel Atwill. Story of a jewel thief and his partner and lover attending a weekend at a rich woman's house party. The usual, and not done terrbly well, but two of the 1930's greatest character actresses, Mary Boland and May Robson, are the best things in it and worth sitting through to see. 6/10   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024590/

Appointment In Berlin (1943) George Sanders, Marguerite Chapman, Alan Napier, Gail Sondergaard. Sanders stars as a disgraced RAF officer drummed out of the service for speaking out about the pacifist leaders of England. He is then recruited by the secret service to go to Germany as a spy. He meets his Nazi bosses sister, who seems to question her countries path. Sanders is put to work doing English radio propaganda broadcasts. He embeds code into each one to get messages back to headquarters. Gail Sondergaard plays a member of the underground. Sanders is his usual charming self and the film is okay. 6/10       http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035643/

Bertie & Elizabeth (2002) James Wilby, Alan Bates, Juliet Aubrey. Retelling of the royal family from before WWII to the wartime broadcast by "Bertie", rallying the British public during the blitz. Aubrey is especially good as his wife, Elizabeth. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310733/

White Noise (2005) Michael Keaton, Chandra West. His wife dies in a car crash and he gets garbled messages on a TV screen with 'white noise' and ghostly images. Really gets repetitive after a while, and the other characters he meets are a bore. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375210/

Dear John (2010/I) Amanda Seyfried, Channing Tatum, Richard Jenkins, Henry Thomas. Pretty people meeting, falling in love and parting. Thought the Tatum character was sort of a jerk at the end. But his relationship with his father who seems autistic was nice and caring. All in all, the first half where young love prevails is good. The last half not so much. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0989757/

Extremely Loud, and Incredibly Close (2011) Tom Hanks, Oskar Schell, Sandra Bullock. Story of a boy whose father was killed at the World Trade Center disaster. The boy was released early from school that day, and gets home to find 5 messages on the answering machine from his father telling them he is all right. But when the phone rings again, he can't bring himself to answer and listens as his father says his last words. A year later he is still angry and trying to figure things out, when he knocks a vase over in his fathers closet. It breaks and he finds a key with the word 'Black'. He is obsessed with finding what and who the key belongs to and starts a scavenger hunt of all the Blacks in the phone book. At times touching and other times puzzling, it ends on a positive note. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477302/