FIRST TIMERS:
Walking On Air (1936) Ann Sothern, Gene Raymond, Jessie Ralph and Henry Stephenson. Formula B musical about a rich girl who wants to marry one
guy and hires another to pretend to be a rich obnoxious count so her
father will reconsider his unfavorable view of the one she thinks she
loves. In the meantime, her father hires a bodyguard to keep her at
home and she is locked in her room. She throws her meals, that are
served on a tray of fine china and silver, out the window. Her pretend
suitor is really trying to be hired by a radio show and we get to hear
his audition and first broadcast. The 3 songs are forgettable and the
script is predictable. Ann is okay and Gene is his usual smarmy
sophomoric self. The two character actors steal the show. Which is a
dud. 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028479/combined
Babies For Sale (1940) Glenn Ford, Rochelle Hudson. Early Ford film concerns black market for babies and a young reporter who takes them on in an expose' article he writes. The connected real adoption agencies get him fired by threatening the paper with law suits. He continues investigating on his own, and eventually meets up with two of the girls who have lost their babies to the Doctor in charge of the place they had gone to for help. They manage to get foot prints of the baby that was sold to a rich couple and the originals made at the time of birth to show the child was really Hudson's child she had been told had died. Somewhat watered down because of the Hays code, still has a good story to tell. Ford is very good looking in his early films and is charming. Rest of cast is fine. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032231/combined
Framed (1947) Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry Sullivan, Edgar Buchanan. Guy blows into town driving a defective truck. He gets his promised money by strong arming the owner of the rig, who is not gonna pay. Goes to a bar and hooks up with a dame after getting drunk and passing out. She is looking for a patsy for her real fella, who is a banker married to the daughter of the owner of the bank. Who he doesn't love. As their plot is revealed as they use their mark, Mike, who they plan to kill in the bankers car as it misses a curve and crashes down a mountain ravine, but things don't go as planned. Or do they? Our femme fatale has a secret plan and Mike has to figure it all out. Pretty good noir. Carter is simply gorgeous and Glenn is in turn confused and a hardened gambler a la his role in Gilda. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039396/combined
The Undercover Man (1949) Glenn Ford, Nina Foch, James Whitmore. Interesting story of an IRS agent, Ford, who is appropriately professional and humorless at the same time, and Nina Foch as his wife has little to do but look concerned. Ford wants more time at home but he and his fellow agents hunker down in a small room going over books and leads. Barry Kelley, as the lawyer for the "Big Guy", in a thousand dollar suit, living in a mansion and driving a very sleek convertible car, steals the movie. As the master fixer he is simply superb. Based somewhat on the real gangster Al Capone and the G-men who brought him down, this is a pretty good B movie and while not exciting, keeps your interest. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042006/combined
ENCORE:
Article 99 (1992) Ray Liotta, Keifer Sutherland, Kathy Baker, Forest Whitaker, John Mahoney. Story about a group of doctors fighting the bureaucracy at a Veterans Hospital. When a patient needs a bypass operation but is given an Article 99, which is a denial of service letter, they get him admitted for something else and move him around until they can schedule the procedure. Keifer is the new yuppie doctor who is just going to serve his time before going into practice for himself. But he finds himself caring about an old vet who has been shifted around for a long time until he finally just wears out and dies. Very interesting film that is more relevant today than when it was released. Filmed in Kansas City, Missouri at an old hospital that was to be torn down, the scenery is gorgeous. On a hillside with the Liberty Memorial (the only WWI Memorial in the USA) down a long drive lined with maples in full fall color, it is a beautiful backdrop in contrast to the crowded and crumbling hospital. Cast are all very good. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101371/combined
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