Classic Films on Review

Born to Be Bad (1934)

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:20:50 -0400

For the past year I have been saying if I got the chance to go to film school and study film history I would love to focus on 1930s Pre- Code and Screwball comedy films. I love Pre- Code films they usually had really good stories and it is so interesting to see actors and actresses who I am so used to seeing being good and in sweet stories with happy endings being all bad and risqué. Born to Be Bad is one of those lovely Pre-Code films that really makes me wish I had become interested in classic films some time ago.

Loretta Young plays Letty Strong. Letty is a young mother in her early twenties with a seven year old son named Mickey. Her life has not gone in a great path: at fifteen she wound up pregnant with nowhere to go until a nice man who owned a bookstore took her and Mickey in. As Mickey grew up she taught him to lie and cheat and do whatever he has to to survive in the world. Letty brings many different men through her apartment and Mickey skips school do to what he wants. A truant officer brings Mickey home after he caught the boy walking the streets. Letty pretends to be a decent mother and yell at him but once the officer leaves she stops and definitely does not care. The bookstore owner, affectionately called Fuzzy Face, begs Letty to give Mickey some structure in his life. The boy is the talk of the town no one wants him around their kids. Letty does not care she thinks of herself and how she has gone through life she does not want her son to wind up like she did. In reality Mickey is heading towards life in jail eventually.

One day Mickey goes out roller skating. He grabs a string attached to the end of a truck. Letty sees him out the window and tells him to get away from the truck. Mickey disobeys his mother and as the truck pulls away he gets hit by a milk truck driving the opposite way. Letty runs out to her son worried that he may be dead. Mickey is alright he has a gash on his head and he is just shaken up. The man driving the milk truck is Malcolm Trevor (Cary Grant) who owns the milk company. Letty sees this accident as an opportunity to take the company to the bank and earn a lot of money by suing him. The plan almost works but it backfires when Malcolm’s attorney has evidence that Mickey has been perfectly fine and playing for the past few weeks. The court sees Letty has an unfit mother, which she really is, and takes her son away from her.

Now all Letty wants is her son back she is lost without him. In desperation she goes to Malcolm to get her son out of social services. Malcolm gets Mickey out but the boy has to live with him and his wife and Letty can come and visit him whenever she wants. Letty sees this arrangement as another way to get money out Malcolm and uses her son worse than before to do so.

Alright, so the story is not that mind blowing but I really liked it. This was the first time I ever watched Loretta Young in a film. I did not know what to expect from her and I found myself liking her acting a lot she was very believable. I have read about Young and know that she played the good girl roles and that she was very religious but I liked seeing her as the bad mother. She was sexy and seductive with Cary Grant and often wore revealing (1930s revealing, now) clothing. She knew what she wanted and had to do and she did it. Even though Letty was not a good mother I still rooted for her to be with her son and get him back because she really loved him but in the end she did what was right. Cary Grant’s role of Malcolm Trevor is a bit unusual for him; when Letty stays at his place for a few days he falls in love with her and he tells his wife. This is a role that is quite different from what we tend to see him play.

Born to Be Bad is one of a dozen Pre-Codes that are so good and makes me curse the Hayes Code and the Catholic Legion of Decency. This type of film would not be seen until twenty years later when the studios collapsed and the Code was thrown out the window. I can never help but wonder what films would have been like such as Hitchcock’s Suspicion and Rebecca or The Thin Man or Casablanca without the strict code. It is so much fun seeing characters that have “sinned” or are “no good” morally get away things and not have to pay. The story of Born to Be Bad and the character of Letty had a lot of potential and while the Hayes Code was not fully enforced when this was made they did hold back on many things or it felt as if they did.

Born to Be Bad is a Pre-Code not to be missed especially for Loretta Young’s performance

The Strawberry Blonde (1941)

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:46:58 -0400

“Hey fellas! Here comes the strawberry blonde!”

One day a friend and I were walking around New York City and we were walking down this one street when this tall, skinny girl with long black hair and dressed like she wants to get attention comes in front of us. There were a few guys working on something and they were all breaking their necks to get a glimpse of this girl. All my friend and I could do was laugh and wonder what on earth there was to this girl. The whole time we have just been seeing her from behind. Well when she turned around my friend and I just looked at each other and laughed because she was not that pretty!

In the film The Strawberry Blonde set in the early 1900s a couple of guys break their necks to get a look at the new girl the “Strawberry Blonde” and whistle at her as she goes by. The women they were all admiring and whistling at deserved it unlike the girl I saw because she just so happened to be Rita Hayworth playing Virginia Brush. Virginia knows she can get any man she wants and she does. One man who is interested in her is an aspiring dentist named Biff Grimes (James Cagney). All his life Biff has been getting the short end of the stick constantly getting the leftovers. He is friends with a man named Hugo Barnstead (Jack Carson) who is running a new organization that is making money. Hugo makes a date with Virginia and her friend Amy Lind (Olivia de Havilland).

Virginia and Amy could not be more different: Virginia is a spoiled brat whoand knows she is a hot thing and Amy is a nurse who wants to be seen as a tough cookie suffragist. Biff wants to get with Virginia so Hugo says that he can but that does not happen instead he ends up with Amy as planned. Biff is all a wreck and only has his mind on the Strawberry Blonde but then Amy turns him on his toes a bit with some of the things she tells him.

A few days later Hugo and Biff plan to take the ladies out on a boat ride with Hugo promising Biff he can be with Virginia for the day. They have the tickets but the limit the boat can hold is reached just as Biff and Virginia were about to board. Biff finally gets his chance to have the girl of his dreams to himself and has a great time. When they return home he asks her out but she tells him she is booked solid for the next few weeks with dates with other men. They make a date for three weeks from that Wednesday.

When the Wednesday for their date comes Biff cannot wait. Virginia on the other hand was ready to blow him off but after he says they were to go dancing and to a show she says yes. Well anyway she is a bitch and blows him off anyway that night after she marries Hugo that day. Biff is waiting in the park when Amy comes around. She went to tell him that Virginia got married. On the rebound he asks Amy if she would like to go steady with him and not too long after they get married. They do not have a lot money, Biff is working his way through correspondence school to be a dentist but in the meantime he is delivering milk at night.

One day while getting his father out of a brawl in a bar he sees Virginia for the first time in a long time. She invites him and Amy to her home for dinner the next night. The night of the dinner before Biff and Amy arrive Virginia tells Hugo to give Biff a job since Amy was her good friend once and Biff was his good friend too. Hugo gives Biff a job but because he is only out for himself and gets the not so bright good guy in trouble.

The whole film is told through a flashback but it is not bad as I often find films that use the device to be. It fit the story and gave it a satisfying ending. Biff’s realization that he really is a lucky man and he loves his wife can be seen as too over done but with the way the story goes it works and it is not corny.

The cast was so good they all worked together perfectly. This was the first time I have ever seen James Cagney in a film. I liked him as the small tough guy who is always getting the leftovers in life. He was not over the top with being too tough or too nice he was great. Now I cannot wait to really see him as the tough guy. Olivia de Havilland was outrageously adorable. The scene where she first meets Biff in the park is hysterical because you could never see her that way: when we are first introduced to Amy she has just gotten out of work and is in her nursing uniform. Right away she starts with the women’s suffragist talk; we are supposed to think she is this really tough cookie. She starts winking and being flirty with a guy she does not even know. When she and Biff are sitting together while Virginia and Hugo are off doing their own thing she tells him her mother was one of the original Bloomer Girls and that her aunt was an actress (which was a profession that used to be very risqué), she does not mind if a guy kisses her before they are engaged, and that she smokes when she gets bored. I was laughing with her in those scenes she was great. I have a whole new admiration for her. Of course later it turns out she was just kidding about everything but you cannot be mad she was so cute. I really liked de Havilland and Cagney together they acted perfectly with one another. Rita Hayworth was ok there were some moments where she got on my nerves. Her clothes were fantastic though.

I really liked how the film had Olivia de Havilland and Rita Hayworth play strong women. De Havilland was not the weak timid woman she usually played to this point. She was spunky even at the end she was being really cheeky and cute. She was feminine but did not take any crap. The film did not set to knock the women down a peg and I really liked that especially for the time it was made in. It makes fun of Women’s Rights at the beginning of the century but it does not outright and completely mock it.

One of my all time favorite directors Raoul Walsh directed the film. I love how he does not constantly focus on one actor or actress if they are all together in a scene. He had such a great touch at capturing his actors at their best.

I have to admit I was not expecting The Strawberry Blonde to be as good as it was. I thought it was going to be too dramatic but it was not all dramatic there were many bright, good moments especially between Olivia de Havilland and James Cagney. The story is very good it comes from a play entitled One Sunday Afternoon and was made into a film of the same name in 1933 starring Fay Wray and Gary Cooper. The Strawberry Blonde is adorable and has a lot of heart. It is a very good Classic Hollywood film and I definitely suggest seeing it.

The Strawberry Blonde is available on DVD.

Riptide (1934)

Sun, 19 May 2013 21:32:10 -0400

“Listen, you can write her off your next year’s income tax as an unavoidable”

If you have seen a Norma Shearer film you have pretty much seen them all. Shearer was “Queen of the Lot” at MGM and what people wanted to see from The Queen was melodramas. And boy did movie audiences get their fill of Norma Shearer melodramas in the 1930s. But unlike many of her films at the beginning of the thirties which were Pre-Code Riptide is her first Post- Code film.

Riptide has the most original beginning I have seen in classic films starting with Mary (Shearer) and Lord Philip Rexford meeting to go to a party. Their first meeting is odd because they were supposed to be on their way to a costume party where they had to dress like insects. They decide they look hideous and felt very uncomfortable so they skip the party. Mary goes to pick up Philip and they meet out of costumes. They are instantly drawn to each other and after a little flirting and eyes from Mary they kiss.

A few months go by and they cannot stand to be apart. Philip is supposed to leave to go back to England for business. He does not get on the ship instead he stays with Mary and they get married. Five years go by and they are happily married living in England with their daughter. One day Philip has to leave for business in New York. Mary cannot stand to be apart from him saying they have not been apart since they have been married. While they were talking Philip’s Aunt Hetty comes by to meet Mary. The two women hit it off perfectly and Hetty is next telling Mary she should go to the Riviera with her.

Mary goes to the south of France and has a great time. Also in the Riviera is Tommie Trent (Robert Montgomery) a man Mary used to hook up with every now and then in New York. Mary and Tommie have a fabulous drunken time together. Mary feels so light and free that she flips off a diving board into a pool fully clothed. Tommie tries to kiss Mary but she backs away but the rest of their time together she flirts with him. When she senses things are getting too much between them she leaves without saying goodbye. Tommie is not happy she left so back in his hotel room he decides to cut across the balconies to her room. He does not get to Mary’s room he falls from one of the balconies through a canopy. Mary goes to visit him in the hospital and she agrees to kiss him. Unfortunately a newspaper photographer gets a picture of them kissing and the next day their kiss is spread far and wide in the newspapers.

After this things get a little complicated. It becomes a big back and forth between Philip wanting to divorce Mary and then he does not but Mary is not sure she wants to go back to him but she is willing to work things out. The film gets to be kind of a pain at this point and because it is a post-code film you can guess the ending.

Norma Shearer has her moments where she is excellent and not over dramatic and then she has her over the top dramatic moments. I really enjoyed her scenes with Robert Montgomery when Mary and Tommie were drunk running around and dancing together. Shearer was really good at being silly but as I said at the beginning of this post she was known for her melodramas. I liked seeing her lighter side especially when she flipped into the pool. After the scene where she was caught kissing Montgomery she was back to being her over dramatic self. But I have to say she was a good actress and she does make the whole film. Out of all the films I have seen of her so far I think this was one of her best acted films. Shearer as Mary, just like in The Divorcee and A Free Soul, is very good at portraying sexuality and flirting which I feel a lot of actresses in her time could not pull off as convincingly as she did. I always feel like no matter what her sins are I want her to be forgiven and get back with the man she really loves. Her acting only enhances the film. You can almost feel her sexual tension and her desire for her leading man and that is what makes us want her to be sinful and lustful and why we root for her characters.

Robert Montgomery is always a joy to watch I always enjoy him in a film. I just wish that he was the leading man mostly because he seems to be the other man with Shearer (such as in The Divorcee) and he would have been so much more convincing it was difficult to see why Mary loved Philip so much.

Famed MGM costume designer Adrian made all of Norma Shearer’s gowns. He designed all of Shearer’s gowns while he was at the studio. I have issues with some of his designs the more I see of his costumes. Some of his costumes were just weird and over the top. There was one really questionable outfit Shearer wore towards the end of the film but for the most part her costumes were very pretty and were very typical 1930s- Art Deco clothing. There was one scene where Shearer was dressed in a nightgown and I have to say she looks stunning she had the perfect figure for it. Even in her other “racy” films prior to this she pulled off wearing “risqué” clothing to perfection.

Edmund Golding wrote and directed Riptide. I do not believe I have ever seen one of his films although the name sounds familiar. I think he did a great job directing the film he got some great close ups of Shearer and was really good focusing on the characters it was not all about the leading lady. The script was not bad but the plot got a bit confusing.

Riptide is typical Norma Shearer- MGM melodrama but it has some very amusing and well acted scenes. While the story lags in many parts there are many scenes, mostly when Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery are together, that pulls the film up. Riptide follows the typical 1930s marital strife plot but it should not be missed.

The Perils of Pauline (1947)

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 19:32:26 -0400

The Perils of Pauline is based on the silent actress Pearl White and her famous serials “The Perils of Pauline”. The film tells the story of how Pearl (Betty Hutton) went from working in a garment factory to a stage actress to a famous screen actress to the ending of her serials when the genre went out of favor.

Pearl works in a garment factory where she is none too happy. Her boss is a work horse never really giving the ladies a fair deal. One day a stage actress named Julia Gibbs (Constance Collier) comes into the factory after a dress of hers was made for a new show she will be performing that night. The owner will not allow Julia to pay for the dress with a check so he sends Pearl along to make sure Julia pays for the dress. Pearl is so excited she wants to be on the stage so bad all she wants is to be an actress. Since Julia was let getting to the theater the head of the acting company Michael Farrington (John Lund) sends Pearl onto the stage as an opening act. She sings a song called “Rumble Rumble Rumble” with such enthusiasm she nearly brings the house down.

With Julia’s help, Michael gives Pearl a chance on the stage but she keeps messing up and never performs to his standards. He is constantly yelling at her and bringing her down. While rehearsing for a kissing scene sparks happen between them and they begin to fall in love… or at least have some kind feelings for each other. The scene they rehearsed for does not go too well. Michael is furious with her but Pearl lets him have it and leaves the company. Julia standing behind Pearl leaves as well.

Julia’s agents give her a job in the movies. She is not thrilled about it but she takes it. Right from the moment she enters the set she is insulted by getting a pie in her face for the scene but the director does not tell her. Pearl is furious and trying to help her friend they accidentally walk through multiple sets including one with a lion. Pearl does not even realize she pushed a lion out of the way until the director tells her he will pay her one hundred dollars a week as an actress because of what she did with the lion.

Pearl becomes a star with her serials “The Perils of Pauline.” Every week Pauline comes close to death in a new adventure. Pearl does all her own stunts falling off of airplanes, jumping from buildings, being captured by bad guys. Meanwhile, Michael and Timmy (one of the members of the acting company) have not had it easy. The company folded and they were jobless. Pearl gives Timmy a job in her serials. Michael was working as a sideshow announcer when Pearl finds him after so long. Michael still thinks he has a chance as a serious actor and is reluctant to go into the movies. He becomes Pearl’s love interest in her shows and Timmy is the villain.

Michael falls in love with Pearl but after he becomes disillusioned with films and even Pearl he leaves her. Once again the two actors do not see each other for a long time. Michael is now a successful actor on Broadway. Silent serials went out of style leaving Pearl without a job so she moves to Paris where she is now a singer and dancer in a nightclub.

Besides Betty Hutton the cast to me is nothing really to brag about. Hutton was just incredible I seriously cannot believe the amount of energy and enthusiasm she had and put into her character. The Perils of Pauline is the reason MGM used her to replace Judy Garland in Annie Get Your Gun. If you watch the video I posted for “Rumble Rumble Rumble” you will see why they chose her for Annie. I really have nothing but love and admiration for Hutton she can go from being crazy and all over the place to being calm and dramatic the next being fantastic either way. She was the perfect example of the ideal entertainer she could literally do comedy and drama as well as musicals. I love her singing voice as well as her speaking voice.

The Perils of Pauline offers the Code-d version of the story of Pearl White. Of course the film ending has Pearl and Michael ending up together but in real life Pearl died in Paris when she retired from films after word got out her stunt double died doing one of her serials. The actress died from alcoholism and drugs. If this was made today of course we would see the sad, realistic version but this was made in 1947 at MGM so the ending had to be happy. I gotta say though I would rather see a happy ending.

The Perils of Pauline is a cute film. Betty Hutton is definitely worth sitting through the film for she is fantastic. Definitely see this film. It is available on DVD and the music numbers are available on Youtube.

Annie Oakley (1935)

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 12:27:12 -0400

“Toby Walker, you’re supposed to be a sharpshooter and you can’t even see a woman gal under your own nose.”
“I can see anything I’m aiming at.”

A while back I watched Annie Get Your Gun with Betty Hutton and Howard Keel. From liking this film I found out that Barbara Stanwyck played the character in the 1935 version of Annie Oakley. I found Stanwyck’s version and watched it.

Toby Walker (Preston Foster) has just been signed by Jeff Hogarth (Melvyn Douglas) to be the new sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill’s Rough Riders show. While in Cincinnati a challenge is set up to see if anyone can win a shooting match against Toby. MacIvor the owner of a hotel gets on the line to his friend in a small town who knows the person who shoots the quails for his kitchen. The hotel owner thinks the challenger is a man named Andy Oakley and is shocked that Andy is actually Annie (Stanwyck). He wants to call off the challenge but Jeff and Toby stick to it and have the challenge go on as planned. Annie is winning but she sees everyone is making fun of Toby for getting beat by a girl so she lets him win. But Jeff sees that Annie would be a great addition to Buffalo Bill’s show and signs her as well.

Bill is not too sure about Annie at first. All she seems to be able to do is shoot she does not have any theatrics. Toby helps her out with some stunts and by the time the show is over Annie is a hit. Toby does not really like the idea of Annie being billed before him so Bill and Jeff come up with an idea that they can do a Battle of the Sexes act. Annie can see Toby does not like this but he says he does not care just as long as he can be with her.

The two sharpshooters fall in love but keep it private and play up their “rivals” aspect of the show. Everyone even Bill and Jeff think Annie and Toby really are rivals. At a show in Annie’s home town, one of the locals goes to kill the Indian Sitting Bull by shooting him. Toby was in the chief’s teepee and got rid of the person before they got to Bull. Unfortunately the man’s gun went off right in front of Toby’s face temporarily blinding him in one eye.

At the show that day Annie has the announcer say that Toby is going to shoot a quarter out of her hand. Toby is upset he says he will not do it since he has not told anyone he cannot see straight. All the men in the stands and in the show start to pester him about being a pansy so he shoots. He misses the quarter and hits Annie’s shooting hand. The whole company thinks Toby hit her on purpose because she was more popular than he was. Annie knows he did not mean it they love each other and she trusts him. Toby is fired from the show.

Annie is heartbroken throughout the show’s trip through Europe. She wants to leave the show after it plays in New York. She misses Toby. Of course they get back together though and it is really cute how they get back together.

Barbara Stanwyck was so perfect as Annie. To me she is always the tough cookie and perfect that way. I just cracked up that she was supposed to be from the back woods of Ohio and she had a Brooklyn accent. Never saw Preston Foster in a film before this. He kept driving me nuts he reminded me Brut Reynolds and I hate Burt Reynolds. Melvyn Douglas was not front and center and was not really a good character but I liked him I like him in any film he does.

Annie Oakley is a good film and it is not very long at an hour and a half. Definitely suggest seeing it.

Devotion (1946)

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 19:53:14 -0400

“All our lives there has been too much left unsaid between us. Loving is the only thing that really matters, Charlotte. It’s worthwhile being hurt a bit to find that out.”

Last summer my brother Anthony had to read Wuthering Heights for his AP English class. My mom read it too so she could help him out with the story and he could have someone to talk it over with. By the time Anthony finished the book and watching a BBC production of the story I was so sick of hearing about Heathcliff and Cathy I wanted to scream. I seriously never want to read the book the story annoyed the hell out of me. Then I realized since the book was published how many other great literary novels and films (Gone with the Wind in particular in both mediums) were based off Emily Brontë’s literary masterpiece. I have seen the 1939 film version with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in a film class and wanted to scream my head off.

I love to read but I tended to stay away from literature with my preferences leaning towards mysteries, history books, biographies, and film books. But after reading Gone with the Wind I now have an interest in reading literature masterpieces… well ones I know I will understand, I do not have the patience to sit and try to decipher the meaning.

Now you may be wondering why on earth I am ranting about Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, and reading literature. Well two weeks ago when I was home by myself for the weekend I got to peacefully watch Devotion that I had recorded off of TCM. Devotion tells the (dramatized and romanticized) story of Branwell (Arthur Kennedy), Charlotte (Olivia de Havilland), and Emily Brontë (Ida Lupino) (as well as a little bit of their sister Anne). Branwell is like the black sheep of the family; he drinks too much and causes scenes when he is drunk. Charlotte wants to see the world in order to write her stories while Emily is very content to stay home on the moor near their Yorkshire home.

Charlotte, Anne, and Branwell get the opportunity to travel to London for a few months. While away a new priest named Reverend Arthur Nichols (Paul Henreid) comes to help their father at his church. He and Emily spend an awful lot of time together. They even fall in love a bit but there is no sharing of feelings between them. In time the three traveling Brontë siblings return home. The first time Arthur lays eyes on Charlotte he falls in love with her but she does not like him.

Branwell has not been behaving himself and feels awful he wants to do something nice for Emily and Charlotte. He sells one of his paintings and sends his sisters to school in Brussels to further their education as well as to teach. Charlotte is loving the experience and she is falling in love with the married school master. Emily misses the moor and England. She repeatedly has dreams of Death on a horse where she cannot see his face. She dreams of Death while in Brussels and she finally sees his face and to her this means she does not have time left and must go home.

Both sisters return home. Charlotte begins to see Arthur loves her and begins to fall for him. Emily is upset because now she will never be with him. She pours all her feelings about Arthur and her lost love into Wuthering Heights. Charlotte finishes writing Jane Eyre and has it published along with Wuthering Heights. Both books are huge successes. Charlotte lives it up in London with all the attention on her. But yet again she finds herself returning home and this time it is because Emily is very sick.

I know this is a very short description with not too much detail but I do not want to give away too much detail and the film was long. If you really want to know what happens to the sisters and brother look them up online.

I really, really liked the cast. I have never seen Ida Lupino in a film before and I found myself liking her a lot. Her best scene is when Emily was walking in the moors with Arthur. There is a house on the hill of the moor and she tells Arthur that she calls the abandoned house Wuthering Heights. Just then her vision of Death on his horse appears in the distance. The description was incredible and Lupino’s acting was superb. That scene I now count as one of my favorite scenes from a film it was just acted, filmed, and written so well. Lupino may have gotten top billing but the film definitely belonged to Olivia de Havilland. De Havilland was in the film the most and she was, as always, so amazing. She was adorable in one scene where Charlotte goes on a date with the married head master of the school in Brussels. They go on the Tunnel of Love ride and she wonders why they named the ride so. Well when they emerge they definitely found the reason! Their hair is a mess and their hats are out of place and de Havilland has the best look of bliss on her face. This was the first time I have ever seen Paul Henreid outside of his role of Victor Laszlo in Casablanca. I liked him as the reverend and I now see that he was a very good actor.

The film was finished filming in 1943 but was not released until 1946. At this time Olivia de Havilland was fighting Warner Bros. for adding extra time to the end of her contract with a suspension. Jack Warner held the film back for three years and gave the actress third billing in an attempt to damage her career. This is when she sued the studio going all the way to the Supreme Court and winning her case. After winning her case and leaving the studio de Havilland went on to win two Academy Awards. The de Havilland Decision is the reason why TV actors are only contractually obligated to a show for six years and no actor can sign a contract for longer than six years.

The score was created by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. I like Korngold’s scores they were always dramatic and fit perfectly with the stories of the films. He created a great score for Devotion especially in the scene where Emily is in the moor with Arthur looking at Wuthering Heights and sees Death on his horse.

Devotion, although a highly dramatized story based off the Brontë family, is very well done. The acting by all the actors is amazing, the writing is excellent, and the direction and cinematography are perfect. After seeing this film I am now thinking about giving Wuthering Heights a chance and I now would really like to read Jane Eyre (I find it funny that Olivia de Havilland played Charlotte who wrote the novel and her sister, Joan Fontaine was in the first film version of the story playing the main character). My brother liked Wuthering Heights, he likes anything with a tragic ending (except for Gone with the Wind he was so upset that Rhett and Scarlett did not get back together). I can always ask him if I am confused with the story. I do plan on getting Devotion on DVD and will be showing it to my brother.

Definitely see Devotion it is a very well made film but just remember it is a film telling of the Brontë family it is not going to be completely accurate.

Headline Shooter (1933)

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 16:05:46 -0500

“You gotta cold? No wonder you’re putting the freeze on me.”

Headline Shooter is about a newsreel camera man Bill Allen (William Gargan). Bill is a lady’s man and a hot shot with his camera work. He is the guy who gets to where the news is happening before anyone else and gets the best shots by the time all the other cameramen come. He even goes where other cameramen will not go.

While covering the Long Beach earthquake he meets a tough, wisecracking female reporter named Jane Mallory (Frances Dee). She gets in the way of one of his shots but he does not stay mad at her for long. Jane and Bill decide to work together she can do the reporting and write the story for his film story. They walk all over the city gathering all kinds of stories.

News cameraman and reporter see each other throughout the week. Bill begins to fall in love with Jane, he even tells her that he has been seriously thinking about her and that she is the only woman he has considered settling down with. Jane likes him as well but her father was a reporter she knows all about the long nights and the drinking he did to finish a story. She does not want that life and that is the reason why she is engaged to a banker down in Riverport, Mississippi named Hal Caldwell (Ralph Bellamy).

Jane leaves California for Riverport. After a traumatic incident where one of his cameraman buddies dies, Bill realizes that he cannot let Jane get away so he goes after her. When he gets down to her she has a nice sized ring on her finger. Bill could not have gotten to Mississippi at a better time. The levee breaks and he and Jane sees this as a great thing to cover. They go to where the levee broke and they find that the stone used to build the levee breaks apart very easily. Bill gets the flood on camera as well as Hal breaking the stones together. Jane interviews several people. On their way back to town Bill is forced to give his footage of the levee to town officials but he keeps the footage and gives them blank film. He says that the public has the right to know the truth of what happened. Unfortunately the mayor of Riverport kills himself over Bill’s film getting out to the public. Jane gets mad at him and and now without doubts know she is supposed to be with Hal.

Back in California, Jane goes to her office to resign so she can marry Hal and move with him to Riverport. As she walks out of her interview Jane is kidnapped by the gangster. Now Bill and Hal have to go look for her.

Of course they find Jane and I am sure you can guess who she winds up with in the end.

TCM aired the film as part of their Summer Under The Stars with one day being dedicated to Ralph Bellamy. Bellamy is only in the film for the last few minutes. Just as many of his parts to come he played the guy who initially has the girl but in the end he gives her up to the guy who really has the girl’s heart. I liked William Gargan I have never seen him in a film before this. I liked his character even if he was a womanizer he was not nasty about it and he was really nice to Jane. Alright now onto Frances Dee… she was so ridiculously adorable and so fabulous. She is definitely one of the most underrated actresses. I have seen so many films with her and she is excellent at playing so many different types of characters. Right from the moment Dee comes on screen she was a spitfire giving it right back to Gargan. She is the best at the end after Hal and Bill save her. As soon as everything is all clear she gets on the phone to her boss and tells her she has a big scoop for the paper. All excited Dee tells her boss “I witnessed my own rescue.” Gargan and Dee were very good together they had some good chemistry.

Max Steiner composed the score. Right off the bat you can tell it is a Steiner score if you have ever heard any of his scores. If you are a big film buff and really know Steiner’s score you will notice that his “Fanfares 1,2,3” from King Kong playing with the credits at the end.

Headline Shooter is a very good Pre-code film made by RKO. I came across this completely by accident I do not even know what made me look at the description but once I saw Frances Dee’s name of course I had to see it. But besides Dee being in the film it is really good. It is pretty odd how much it echoes today’s issues with journalism and news and the public having the right to know what is going on.

Headline Shooter was never released on VHS and it is not available on DVD. Keep an eye out on TCM’s schedule to see if the station ever airs it again. I definitely suggest seeing it.

Nothing But the Truth (1941)

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:18:43 -0500

“No, I don’t lose. That’s not a lie. That’s an opinion. If I said YOU were good-looking - That’d be a lie.”

Nothing But the Truth is the third pairing of Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. While The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers were in the same vain story wise Nothing But the Truth is a departure. Even though both of their previous films’ plots were pretty much the same they were still funny and entertaining. Hope and Goddard are very entertaining without a doubt but there are many aspects of the film that keep it from being all around amusing.

There really is not much to the plot and nothing really outstanding about it. Hope plays Steve Bennett who has joined a stockbroker firm down in Florida. As soon as he gets there his boss Ralston’s niece Gwen Saunders (Goddard) comes in with money. She got the money from running a scheme. Gwen gives ten thousand dollars in cash to Steve and he tells her he can invest it and get her double the money. He has no idea how she got it and does not ask because he has become smitten with her.

At a meeting with Ralston and his associates Steve says that no one has to lie someone can be an honest business man and tell the truth. Ralston and his associates offer Steve ten thousand dollars. Steve takes the bet so he can double Gwen’s money and right after the he agrees to the bet he sees Gwen walking out with one of the associates.

So now Steve is stuck with telling the truth for the whole day and Ralston and the others cruelly ask him personal questions that he has to honestly answer. Ralston even has him come on his private ship for a weekend with some important people. Gwen will be on the ship as well. Ralston continues to abuse Steve with the questions in front of the guest.

Once on the ship the whole film goes all over the place and gets too silly.

Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard were excellent despite a drawn out plot and really ridiculous moments. I will let it slid that Hope gets stripped of his clothes and has to put on a woman’s robe! There is not too much else I can say about the rest of the cast I did not really like their characters which I guess is the point.

Edith Head once again designed the costumes for Paulette Goddard as she did for many of the actress’s other films.

Nothing But the Truth has its moments where it is really funny and well done but most of the time I found it to be over the top and annoying. It was predictable mostly because Screwball comedy was on its way out and had been done so much previously. I do not mind the fact that I sat through it I am glad I sat through it, I am always happy to sit through a Paulette Goddard film because it seems a handful of her films are hard to find. I caught Nothing But the Truth on TCM when the station had Paulette Goddard as their actor of the day a few weeks ago and it is available on DVD through a Bob Hope collection called Thanks for the Memories. See the film if you can.

Land of the Pharaohs (1955)

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:23:07 -0500

“Yes, he will be remembered. The pyramid will keep his memory alive”

Ever since I was little I have had a great fascination with Ancient Egypt. I think it all started when I was little and I used to watch the Sesame Street video Don’t Eat the Pictures: Sesame Street Visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art where Big Bird and Snuffy have to help this little Egyptian kid who was cursed to live in a tomb on display in the museum answer a riddle so he can join his parents in the sky. Do not be shocked I recently watched that again for the first time in God knows how long. Anyway, Ancient Egypt was always my first historical and artistic love and still is. I scour through the History Channel and History International looking for any kind of programs on the time period.

Not that long ago my Uncle Frank, my grandpa’s brother, was talking about the film Land of the Pharaohs with Joan Collins. He was going on and on about the costumes and the sets and how gorgeous it is. Luckily he told me about it when TCM was airing it the same week so I recorded it. It is a dramatized fictional story mixed with some historical figures and events.

Land of the Pharaohs is about the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza by King Khufu (Jack Hawkins). He has just captured a group of people for slaves through his conquest of their lands. Khufu has reaped more gold than can be imagined. He does not want anyone touching it so he hides it in a cellar protected by guards. Khufu wants to take his treasure with him to the afterlife and does not want anyone to take it away from him. He has the best architects work on a maze and secret chambers to hide and bury him with his fortune. The architects he chose did not come up with any good plans. He remembers while he was invading the last country he was in there was an architect who built the greatest mazes and chambers he had ever seen he even offered a reward to his soldiers to capture this architect. The architect’s name is Vashtar and he and his son are chosen to work on the pyramid.

Fifteen years go by before the pyramid is near completion. In the mean time Pharaoh has gained a new wife named Nelifer (Joan Collins). Nelifer is no good. She wants Pharaoh’s treasure all to herself and she plots to have his first wife and child killed so she and her lover can become king and queen of Egypt and has all the treasure to themselves.

The plan almost goes over without a problem… almost.

The acting is so-so and stiff. I never saw Joan Collins in a film before I did not have any expectations set for her. Collins was not too bad but she is bad enough to cringe at times. Jack Hawkins as Khufu was not good he was stiff and looked amateur. The only person who had any acting ability was Sydney Chaplin as Nelifer’s lover. The oldest of Charlie Chaplin’s children had a successful stage career on Broadway so besides the fact that his father is one of the greatest actors ever Sydney Chaplin had legitimate acting abilities.

Howard Hawks the man known for his fantastic screwball comedies directed this film. This was a flop upon release (which is not that much of a shock) and after filming completed Hawks took a year off and it was the longest break between films he ever took.

Land of the Pharaohs is considered a campy, cult film and I can see why. But I liked seeing all the ancient Egyptian sets and scenery actually filmed in the country. The score by Dimitri Tiomkin is enough to sit through the film it is incredible. Land of the Pharaohs is worth sitting through at least once and if you ever do do not take it seriously just have fun with it.

A King in New York (1957)

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 14:34:00 -0500

“There are many things absurd these days…”

A King in New York is one of Charlie Chaplin’s films that attest to his genius. Many filmmakers who want to make something meaningful that has happened to them in their lives more than likely will make a politically, emotionally charged film that can get out of hand and become annoying as they try their very hardest to gain sympathy and push their beliefs on the audience. What makes Chaplin a genius in this film is that he shows how absurd McCarthyism was and America’s Communist witch hunt and even though he was a victim of this ridiculousness he handles it with great care he moves our sympathy not to him but to a little boy and his family.

King Shahdov (Chaplin) was a ruler of some European country. After the war there was a revolution and he was forced to flee to America. He is apparently a genius with his plans for nuclear energy to run his countrymen’s homes. If he can get it passed by an international nuclear committee he will become famous for his invention.

Shahdov refuses to speak about his country’s revolution and what he has done with his money. He will not give any interviews as well. A friend that he knows living in New York keeps insisting that he come to a party she is throwing at her apartment but Shahdov does not want to go. That all changes when he meets a young woman named Ann Kay (Dawn Addams), a television specialist, and she says that she is going to the woman’s party. Ann has manipulated the king in so many ways to go to the party. She desperately wants to get an interview with him and show him to the American people that she secretly has him tapped while sitting down to dinner with the other guests.

The tapping is aired live and Shahdov has become an overnight hit. The next day Shahdov is inundated with calls and messages wanting him to be the new advertising face of their company. He is reluctant at first but finally gives in when he and his butler begin to run out of money.

One day he visits a young boys’ school where he meets Rupert Macabee (Michael Chaplin) who is a political history buff. The former king and the young boy have an all out argument on politics. Shahdov can barely get a word in with Rupert so charged in his excellently backed argument. Shahdov really likes the boy and he gives back in a great way when Rupert has left school because his parents have been arrested for being Communists. A few days later Shahdov sees the boy walking on the streets and takes him in and cares for him by giving him warm clothes and even going out to get him a coat and some new clothes.

Unfortunately while the king is out the atomic committee comes to speak about his nuclear energy plans. Rupert tells the committee that Shahdov is his uncle so they do not ask too many questions as to why he is there. In his pretend family story he gets all charged up on his political history and he lets slip that he is a Communist. The committee men are outraged they do not want to deal with Shahdov if he is a Communist.

Soon Shahdov is falsely accused of being a Communist and is brought up in court. But he is let go after there is not enough evidence against him.

There are so many moving and touching and funny scenes throughout the whole film. In one scene Chaplin pantomimes his order to a waiter in a restaurant when he is seated in front of the drum and the waiter cannot hear him. There is also a little slapstick routine performed by two comedians at a restaurant. These scenes harken back to Chaplin’s silent film routines. There are other wonderful comedic touches that he does which I refuse to give away they are so brilliant. He was so fabulous in the scenes with his son Michael who played Rupert. The younger Chaplin was fantastic he was so good especially when he had his lines about politics. The scene where he and Shahdov duel over politics is one of my favorite scenes of the film he really did seem like his father was backing down to him. The ending was very touching where Shahdov returns to Europe and he promises to bring Rupert and his parents there one day to see him.

The scenes where Shahdov is accused of being a Communist were great. As I said at the beginning many filmmakers who make a personal film tend to always try to force their ideas and sympathy on the viewer. Yes, knowing Chaplin was not allowed back in America because of McCarthyism but he does not let that get in the way of the story. We do sympathize for Rupert and his family which is the point we are supposed to feel bad for these people who are Americans through and through but believed in a Socialist, equal America way before WWII. This is what I admire most about Chaplin he makes us sympathize with people and the story even if he does make his views known they are not thrown in our face. He made modern political people like Hitler and political movements/scandals look ridiculous which in hind sight they were/are.

I have yet to see a Chaplin silent but he was literally able to say so much and be so comedic with words that I am kind of holding off with watching his silents. I am sure they are just as fantastic as The Great Dictator, Limelight, and A King in New York but the first Chaplin film I ever saw was The Great Dictator where he speaks.

A King in New York is a film not to be overlooked. This is just one of the many films Charlie Chaplin made that attests to how brilliant a filmmaker he was he could literally do it all- write, direct, act, produce- and with the greatest care and intelligence. Everything about A King in New York is fabulous. I love his little touch of putting his son in the film as Rupert, he greatly added to the film’s perfection. This was the last time Charlie Chaplin would be the lead in his films and he definitely went out as an actor on top.

A King in New York is available on DVD as well as Youtube.

No Time for Comedy (1940

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 19:45:16 -0500

“I write plays.”
“Er, yes, I have a hobby, too. What I meant was, what do you do for a living?”
“Write plays. Anything wrong?”

No Time For Comedy captured my interest from its title and the pairing of its stars the very versatile and funny Rosalind Russell and James Stewart. I had a feeling this would be a comedy of sorts and it is. I did not know what to expect from the film especially from the pairing because I am now in the habit of associating Rosalind Russell with comedy and James Stewart either with an “aw-shucks,” wholesome kind of character or dark and twisty (thank you Hitchcock).

A new play is about to open on Broadway starring successful stage actress Linda Paige (Rosalind Russell). The play is about Park Avenue society. Linda, the director Morgan Carrell, and the backer walk into a bar and do not look too thrilled about the third act of the play. They feel the third act will tank the whole show. Back at rehearsal a tall, skinny, nerdy looking guy walks backstage. No one believes that Gaylord “Gay” Esterbrook (James Stewart) is the writer of the play. He does not look like a guy who could have written about New York high society. Finally someone recognizes him and lets him into the theater to watch the rehearsals. Gay sits in the theater seats when Linda comes to watch from the seats as well. At first she thinks he is part of the crew asks him to get her cigarettes. But then someone mentions that Gay is the writer and Linda feels a little embarrassed. The two get along well and she even takes him on the subway because she is afraid he will not last against cranky New Yorkers pushing and shoving their way home during rush hour.

The next night Gay is invited to dinner with Linda, Morgan, and the backer. The dinner does not go over too well. The backer first says he will back the play but then recants and pulls out of the play. Gay does not know about the decision so Linda pulls the cast together and asks them to go without pay until money comes in from the play and they all do.

After the play finishes Linda walks with Gay through Central Park to calm his nerves. They wait in the park until morning to read the play reviews in the morning paper. The reviews for Gay’s play are great they are filled with nothing but praise especially for the third act. Linda has come to love Gay for his small town boyishness and his sweetness. In the park she asks in so many ways for Gay to marry her. He is a bunch of nerves between the play and Linda being so nice to him. Gay and Linda marry and in the next three years Gay has written three more successful plays and all starring Linda.

Gay is no longer the small town boy of the beginning of the film. He is now a drunk sophisticate who goes on binges when he is writing plays. He and Linda are still happily married living in a nice house outside of the city. At a party one night Gay meets a woman who tells him that she has the ability to draw out a powerful latent talent he has inside him. He is enthralled by this woman because she is appealing to his want to write a serious play. Linda does not like this woman but she is never cruel to her. Gay’s involvement with this woman begins to threaten his marriage with Linda.

Now for the pairing of Russell and Stewart may seem a bit odd and it is but somehow it works. I have noticed in the few films I have seen Russell in that she tends to dominate the other actors/characters. Maybe this is just my observation but I see her kind of domination as her standing out as a good actress. Her dominance is never overbearing it is just stand out. But in No Time For Comedy Russell was not dominant she played her role just right. There were many scenes that I feel if any other actress had been playing them they would have been over dramatic and not have been sympathetic and caring enough. Near the end Linda and the woman Gay has been with confront each other. Russell kept the character cool in this situation and by doing this she made the character more sympathetic. I find that I am more sympathetic towards a wronged character (mostly it is with female characters) if they can keep calm and much of that is left up to how the actress/actor plays their character. Also near the end Gay is just insulting her after she has told him how he feels about the woman he is always hanging around with and she does not lose it at all but she does not really take it either. I really gained a new admiration and respect for Rosalind Russell in this film. James Stewart I felt was really good here. I am a sucker for seeing actors step out of their comfort zone or playing a character people are not used to seeing. I liked seeing a mean, drunken Stewart who at the end realizes he has done something really stupid. Russell and Stewart were great together although I do have to say there really was no chemistry between them.

I have to give a great amount of mention to the actress Louise Beavers for playing the actress/Esterbrook maid Clementine. The character was hysterical and Beavers was excellent. She had so many funny lines and moments it is hard just to name one. Some of her lines come fast so listen closely if you ever see this film.

The film was written by Jilius and Philip Epstein who would go on to write Casablanca. The serious play Gay wants to write is about all the injustices going on in the world with WWII having been underway in Europe for the past year. The brothers would write Casablanca in the same vain the following year showing the injustices and the plight of refuges trying to get out of Europe. It seems the war in Europe was very much on the minds of the Epstein brothers.

No Time For Comedy is a very good film and one that is excellently acted by the whole cast. I would not say the story is one of the best ever but it is good and helped very much by Rosalind Russell and James Stewart in the leads as well as a few of the supporting cast members. This is a film that should be watched by classic film fans.

No Time For Comedy is not available on DVD or to view on youtube. TCM recently aired the film so keep your eye out for it on their programming schedule.

Top Secret Affair (1957)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:52:38 -0500

“It’s against my religion. I’m a devout coward.”

Dorothy “Dottie” Peal (Susan Hayward) is head of Peale Enterprises which include TV, radio, and magazine publishing. She’s a tough, determined lady who does not back down when she wants something. Her magazine has been campaigning for a friend of her father’s as chair for the Joint Atomic International Committee but unfortunately the family friend does not get the job. Eisenhower himself has chosen a military comrade Major General Melville Goodwin (Kirk Douglas). Dottie is out for revenge. She cannot believe that someone she sees as chauvinistic and bullheaded as Goodwin got the job. Dottie immediately plans to smear Goodwin’s name by trying to find dirt on him. She invites the general to her house for the weekend for an interview. Her staffs set up a recorder in the living room and even hang up a portrait of the general to make it seem they have supported him for a long time.

The weekend starts off well but when Dottie and her staff cannot get any kind of dirt on the general they start to panic and begin thinking of things he said to twist. Goodwin is onto Dottie he knows there is some hidden agenda to what she is doing, he is determined to not give in. Dottie decides to make Goodwin loosen up by taking him out for drinks thinking she can get him drunk. Instead it is she who is getting drunk while the general is nice and sober. She then takes him to a restaurant and makes him sing to humiliate him. He does get humiliated but he does not show it and that night back at the house he packs his things. As he packs a drunken Dottie is out his window calling for him and throws a rock through the window. They have more drinks and Dottie becomes more intoxicated.

When she sobers up Dottie realizes that Goodwin is a very sensitive and caring man. The two spend some nice together alone in the pool house. The next morning Dottie is already to drop her smear campaign and write a nice article promoting Goodwin. But Goodwin says that he is not the marrying kind and blabs about how he had loved someone when he was overseas but she was a spy and had to be killed for what she knew. Dottie is furious over his leaving her. She has Goodwin’s story about the spy printed getting herself and the general into some major trouble.

Alright, so Top Secret Affair started off well but once Dottie stopped being the shrewd business woman to a woman in love letting her emotions get the best of her the film just tanked. This film is just one of the reasons why I cannot stand many films during the late 1940s and 1950s. America was so wrapped up in Communism and being patriotic it is almost sickening. Now let me back myself up and say that I consider myself a patriotic American but sometimes patriotism can go too far and get out of hand. I see the whole McCarthy era as one gigantic embarrassment in American history and because I find the whole thing ridiculous it bothers me to sit through anything that has to do with the senator and his hearings. Once I saw the film was about an American general I knew I was heading into a little bit of trouble. At the beginning the film was fun and sexy and really enjoyable then once the whole trial with Goodwin being accused as a traitor gets going I found myself mad and bored and really did not pay too much attention. I think really what it comes down to for me when I watch a film I really do not want to see modern issues thrown into the fold… “Art for art’s sake” I guess could be my motto on films. I just do not really see good stories in political themed films or thrillers.

Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas were so good together. I do not believe I have ever sat through a Kirk Douglas film before, I did not know what to expect from him but I found myself liking him he was perfect as a bull headed American general. Susan Hayward was fabulous. She always brought a tough side to her characters whether intentional or not and that toughness was perfect for this role.

My favorite scene was when Dottie was drunk and she was standing on the high diving board above her pool. She is ranting and raving about something and he is totally not listening. He knows she is going to fall in the pool so as she is raving on and on he starts to take off his jacket, shoes, and socks to go get her when she does fall in. Of course she falls in and he gets up from his chair and waits a bit besides the pool before jumping in. Later in the pool house as Dottie sobers up she realizes she is in a bathing suit so she asks Goodwin how she got in it. He tells her she put it on but she had to put it on twice because the first time it was backwards. He also lets her know that they played a game called “Navy” she made up where he was the battleship and she was the torpedo. Those two scenes are the best part of the whole film.

Top Secret Affair was originally intended to star Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart and followed the book more closely. By the time filming was to start Bogart was already dying from esophageal cancer and could barely speak so he backed out as well as Bacall who had to take care of him. When Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas were cast the script was rewritten to better suit the two actors. I can kind of see Bogart and Bacall playing the characters but then you have to think their version of the story was much different.

Top Secret Affair starts off well but does not end well which is a big letdown especially because Susan Hayward and Kirk Douglas were so great together and were doing wonderfully with the comedy. I wish Hayward and Douglas could have made another film together and one that did not have a weak ending. I will still give it a recommendation as a film to see since it does have its good points.

The Heiress (1949)

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:32:24 -0500

“He’s grown greedier over the years. Before he only wanted my money; now he wants my love as well. Well, he came to the wrong house - and he came twice. I shall see that he does not come a third time.”

I happened to find The Heiress on sale at Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago and of course I had to get it Olivia de Havilland is the star and she won an Academy Award for her role. And I have also for the past couple of weeks have been on a bit of an Olivia de Havilland kick thanks to Monty over at All Good Things when he had the actress as his Classic Movie Goddess of the Month in July. Monty had The Heiress listed as one of his essential films to see of de Havilland.

The Heiress is about a young woman named Catherine Sloper (de Havilland). Catherine is a quiet, naïve girl who lacks social skills and great beauty. Her father, Dr. Austin Sloper (Ralph Richardson), is not at all pleasant to his daughter. He keeps comparing the poor girl to her mother who was beautiful and sociable and had great talent for many things. Catherine’s aunt Lavinia Penniman (Miriam Hopkins) keeps telling her brother to be nicer to Catherine and not compare her to her mother. Whenever Dr. Sloper is mean to Catherine she goes further into timidity and awkwardness.

At a party one night Catherine meets a young man named Morris Townsend (Montgomery Cliff). He is very handsome and for the life of her she cannot figure out why he is following her and being nice to her. Morris dances with Catherine and even speaks to Dr. Sloper and Aunt Penniman. Aunt Penniman is totally smitten with Morris and is very excited to see a young man speaking to her niece. Dr. Sloper becomes very suspicious of the young man right off the bat. He reasons that the young man has no money and is only interested in his daughter because of her inheritance… and also because he cannot fathom any man being interested in his daughter since he thinks she is dull.

Morris starts coming over to the Sloper house every day after the party. Catherine is very shy and embarrassed over his constant coming over and his professing how much he likes her. After a while she begins to feel comfortable with him being around and becomes blinded by his love. Morris keeps sucking up to Dr. Sloper but still he only sees the young man as only trying to get at money since Morris has no job and is not looking for one.

Dr. Sloper decides to take Catherine to Europe for six months to get Morris off of her mind. If she still loves Morris in that time he will permit them to marry. Of course Catherine still loves him and she and her father leave their European trip early to get back home to New York. Once home and reunited with Morris, Catherine tells him that she wants to run away that night and marry him. Morris and Aunt Penniman had it planned that the two would marry the next day but Catherine cannot wait she wants to get married right away. She seems to make a mistake though by telling him that her father will disinherit her and she will not have the money she has been receiving from her mother’s death and what she will receive if the doctor dies. That night Catherine waits and waits for Morris to come with a carriage to take her away but he never comes and she does not hear from him for the next two years.

Dr. Sloper is happy that Morris is gone. As he and his daughter talk about what has happened he reveals to her what he thinks of her. He tells Catherine she is a coward and plain, no man will ever love her, she has no backbone and the biggest blow that she is not like her mother at all. Catherine finally realizes her father does not love her at all he is ashamed of her. She gets a backbone and for the first time she tells her father to write her out of his will so she will have no money. He confesses he only meant he will disinherit her as a threat he never intended to leave her without money. Now she is very angry with him because she is still hurt from Morris leaving and he never would have left her had it been for her father.

A few months later the doctor dies. Catherine never forgives her father for what he did and said to her that she does not even go to his side as he is dying. Not long after Morris comes back. Catherine has become a very bitter person and her bitterness comes out even more with Morris’s return.

Will Catherine go back to the man she once loved or does she finally see Morris Townsend as her father saw him: a gold digger?

While I will agree with Monty that this is a must see film I do not think it is an essential Olivia de Havilland film. Sure she won the Academy Award but I just cannot see how she won. De Havilland is nothing short of a great actress in any film she is in but I did not see how her performance as Catherine Sloper was enough to give her an Oscar. First of all, I think I may just be sick and tired of seeing her in period films. The woman did so many damn period films!!! In the beginning there is a scene of Catherine getting dresses and putting her slip or something on and I just though “Olivia de Havilland by this time must have been a pro at putting 1800s style clothing on.” Second, I thought she looked TERRIBLE! Seriously she looked like Gollum from Lord of the Rings! That was distracting I could not get over how awful she looked. The costumes were not bad at all but her hair and her lack of makeup did nothing for her. I think it was more the hairstyles than anything because when de Havilland played Melanie Hamilton she barely had any makeup on and she looked great but her hair here did not frame her face well at all. I apologize if this makes me seem shallow and mean but I was distracted by these things.

Montgomery Cliff I can take him or leave him… mostly leave him. I just did not like him and it was not because of his character. I do not like his acting. Apparently he did not like Olivia de Havilland’s acting and the two of them did not get along. You can see their complete lack of chemistry I mean yes I know that Catherine was shy and Morris was forcing himself into her life and they had nothing in common but to me there should have been a little chemistry between the actors. I think Cliff is overrated as an actor I do not really see anything great about him. I did manage to sit through I Confess with him as the star but that is only because the story was good and it is a Hitchcock film.

I had never seen Miriam Hopkins in a film before this. I thought she was good. Ralph Richardson was perfection as the evil, manipulative father.

The Heiress has a good story, I believe it is a little ambiguous. I did not know whether to believe if Morris really loved Catherine or if he was just always after his money and just left her because he meant well and did not want to get her in trouble or he was upset she would no longer be getting money. Olivia de Havilland, as I said, is nothing short of a great actress and she does give a good performance just not an Academy Award winning performance. Even though I could care less about Cliff I did like the cast they were all excellent in their parts. If you are a classic film fan The Heiress is one film that you should not pass up.

Cry Wolf (1947)

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:18:05 -0500

“Next time you hear some odd noise in the night, just follow the memorable custom of your sex and stick your head under the bedclothes.”

Cry Wolf is a Noir (if it can be classified as a Noir) that is not very well known. It stars two of Hollywood’s most classic actors Errol Flynn and Barbara Stanwyck. I had never heard of the film before I typed in Stanwyck’s name on Amazon to see what films of her’s were available on DVD. I was curious to see Cry Wolf not only for its title and plot but for the combination of Flynn and Stanwyck.

Sandra Demarest (Stanwyck) has gone to her husband’s family home for his funeral. She never would have known he was dead if she had not read it in the papers. As Sandra explains Jim married her for the sake of his inheritance to keep his uncle Mark (Flynn) from getting the money. From the moment she gets to the house Sandra senses something strange is going on. Jim’s casket is closed when he apparently died of phenomena and Mark and a family friend are suspicious of her and her marriage to Jim. They believe she is just some woman Jim knew and is after his great sum of money.

Jim’s sister, Julie, instantly takes to Sandra and reveals many things to her. Julie says that her uncle is untrusting and believes her uncle killed her brother because Jim did not do what Mark wanted him to do. Julie is scared to stay in the house by herself and one night she runs into Sandra’s room after hearing a scream coming from Mark’s laboratory. Someone usually tells Julie the screams are just a nightmare she has but Sandra also hears it. They go to investigate the scream but are stopped by Mark.

The next day Julie takes Sandra to look at Jim’s room. Sandra has been suspicious of Jim’s death since the day she came to the house and her suspicion was on overdrive once she started looking around the room. She notices Jim’s pipes are missing as well as his sport clothes in the closet. She finds out from the maid that Mark has food sent up to him at 10:30 every night through the dumbwaiter in the kitchen and it is brought down at two in the morning. Sandra decides to use the dumbwaiter to get into the lab. In the lab she hits a water cooler making it move when she hears a noise and hides behind the door Mark opens. He notices some things that are out of place but he just goes back into his lab.

Things go from bad to worse for Sandra. Julie kills herself out of insanity and Mark just sees her as a little experiment to which she slaps him for. Now Sandra has become more determined to find Jim and uncover why Mark is hiding him and what lies under his seemingly sinister demeanor.

The ending to the film is not good. The whole thing runs so smoothly with excellent suspense and tension and then the last ten minutes are not good, I would not say it sucks or its garbage it just ruins the flow.

I loved Barbara Stabwyck and Errol Flynn together. Everyone is so used to seeing Flynn as this debonair sword wielding good guy but he was so good as the sinister Mark Caldwell. From the moment he enters the film I loved him I thought his character was great. One reviewer on IMDB said that Flynn reminded them of characters George Sanders played and I have to agree and Flynn was so good at it. This role for him was so different and he got to play something different and it was great to see him stretch his acting talent. Barbara Stanwyck was so good. She was the tough chick that she loved to play who was also heroic and unafraid to uncover the truth. She leapt, climbed a fence and through an open roof window, and more. Stanwyck gives a great performance I enjoyed her very much.

Whatever you do when/if you watch the film do not think of the characters as their real ages. Stanwyck was forty years old and Flynn was thirty-eight years old. Mark was supposed to be Jim’s uncle and therefore older than Stanwyck’s character. I assume this situation is part of the story but I feel quite sure it is because a lot of times in classic films they usually made their actors and actresses ages much younger than they were.

I have never heard of the director Peter Godfrey before but I really liked his direction he did a fabulous job of creating tension and suspense through camera movements and angles. Godfrey created the tension by focusing and panning on details such as Sandra’s hand when she turned on the light in her room and following Mark as he goes to sit down next to Sandra. Some of the camera angles were fantastic. The cinematography was excellent as well. The score was perfectly composed by Franz Waxman who added a great deal more of tension to the film.

Cry Wolf starts off great and runs smoothly until the end. But do not let the end keep you from seeing the film. There are many great suspenseful moments to keep you enthralled and Barbara Stanwyck and Errol Flynn are great together.

Cry Wolf is available on DVD.

They Died With Their Boots On (1941)

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 16:09:00 -0500

“To hell … or to glory. It depends on one’s point of view.”

Hollywood loves to take stories from the pages of history and turn them into romantic mushed up love affairs or just totally mangle the way things unfolded. I think the only book or movie to ever mix both romance and history together perfectly was Gone with the Wind. At least Margaret Mitchell researched the Civil War, Atlanta and the south, and the customs of that time period and the film was faithful to the book. I despised Pearl Harbor to no end I thought it was horrible especially the “love triangle” (maybe it is more due to the fact that I HATE Ben Affleck and Josh Harnett with a passion). Pearl Harbor was trying to be Titanic and it failed miserably.

They Died with their Boots On is just one example of Hollywood taking a historic figure and turning that figure into a romantic, accidental hero who dies valiantly for the sake of his country. The historic figure being portrayed here is General George Armstrong Custer the famous Custer of Custer’s Last Stand. Errol Flynn plays the ill fated general. Custer starts off on the wrong foot at West Point when the film begins. He has the worst record ever in the school since he is always getting in trouble. One day at school he happens to meet a general’s niece named Elizabeth “Libby” Bacon (Olivia de Havilland) and they fall in love.

Custer gets to graduate from school early due to the Civil War. The professors/board of the college is reluctant to pass the poor student through but soldiers are needed desperately. They send the young soldier down to Washington DC to await assignment. He is not given one for some time and he grows anxious and impatient. Custer meets the head of the army and the man gets him a spot in the best cavalry. Along the lines someone messes up in the War Department and Custer is given the title of Brigadier General. He makes a good general leading his unit to a major victory.

In the mean time he meets Libby again and the two are still in love. They marry when he returns home from the war and he becomes the pride of the town. A few months go by and Custer turns to drink and he gets depressed with nothing to do. He wants to do something with his name and for it to mean something. Libby helps him out by talking to one of Custer’s superiors. The superior officer gets him a place out in the Dakota Territory at Fort Lincoln and Custer could not be happier.

Custer is in way over his head. An old enemy from school is causing trouble with his trading posts and the Indians attack left and right if they leave the fort. On top of it all the soldiers of the fort are all disorganized and constantly drunk. Custer changes that by closing down the saloon and keeping the Indians out of the fort. The unit keeps fighting the Indians but after too much fighting the Indians make peace telling Custer that they can have all the land they want except for the Black Hills to which Custer agrees. Unfortunately Custer’s old enemy and some government officials want the land to make a railroad and they break Custer’s promise to the Indians. Custer is furious but no one will listen to him.

The Indians and the unit wage a fight which will turn into Custer’s last stand. He does not want to fight but he feels it is his duty as a soldier of the United States.

This was the last film that paired Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland together. I wish their last pairing could have been in a better film but their scenes were very good and they were the only ones worth paying attention to. They were such an excellent pair you can see how great their chemistry was, well it should have been after having done nine films together. You can see they were giving this paring their all and it clearly shows especially in their last scene. By this time in her career de Havilland wanted to do other roles, roles she felt were more important and had more substance since she had become a star in her own right. I mean come on, two years previously she had just played her best known character Melanie Hamilton in Gone with the Wind and was even nominated for Best Supporting Actress I think she fully deserved to demand and want better roles. And seriously how much longer could she have gone on just playing Flynn’s love interest? Errol Flynn, being a good friend, fully supported her.

The supporting cast was very well made up. Hattie McDaniel played Callie, Libby’s maid. Sydney Greenstreet was Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott. Anthony Quinn was Crazy Horse.

Raoul Walsh directed the film. The guy was amazing. His films are always of the highest quality. Walsh got some great shots from close-ups of the actors to shots of the cavalry from high in the mountains. Max Steiner created the score and the man was (I believe) a total musical genius. His scores always add much more to a film.

I was bored to death with They Died with their Boots On. I really only paid attention to the scenes Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland were in together. I felt the film was way too long. I guess I did not like it too much because I am not a huge fan of Westerns. The film obviously has more battles, horse riding through deserts, and fighting while I like more of a story even a mushy romantic story.

They Died with their Boots On is definitely a romanticized historical drama (just go to IMDB and check out the long list of all the inaccuracies). I did not have a fantastic time watching it. It is not a god awful film but it was not the greatest. Check it out for the fact that it is the last film Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland made together and it is a Raoul Walsh film.

Little Women (1933)

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:32:30 -0400

“If wearing hair up means becoming a lady, I’ll wear it down until I’m 100 years old”

I can remember as a kid always watching the version of Little Women from 1994. I used to watch this movie a lot I can still remember some parts from the movie. Up until a few months ago I never realized that the 1994 version was the third telling of Louisa May Alcott’s story. The first time Alcott’s Civil War era story was brought to the screen was in 1933 starring Katharine Hepburn in the fourth film of her career.

Little Women tells the story of the four March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy (Frances Dee, Hepburn, Jean Parker, and Joan Bennett) and their mother Marmee (spring Byington). Their father, a preacher, is doing his duty fighting in the Civil War. The sisters are all different from each other but they all love each other very much and get along very well. Meg is the calm older sister, Jo is the spirited tomboy full of energy, Beth is shy and quiet, and Amy is outgoing and a very talented artist.

Before the war the family had money. Without the money they used to have life is a little hard for the sisters but they are each grateful to have each other. Jo and Meg each have a job and even Marmee has one in a shop selling things to soldiers. Jo helps out an old aunt and Meg is a governess. Jo is also a writer and she sells her stories to the newspaper.

The story of the March sisters is long but along the way they learn about life and love and loss and sacrifice. Jo is the central focus of the story. She is carefree with a great imagination. She is the rock of support for her sisters.

There are many scenes that I liked. One scene that was very nice is when Marmee reads the girls a letter from their father. After the letter is read they each make a promise to themselves to get over their burdens except for Beth. Jo and Meg miss having the money and the leisure to do what they want and Amy is always getting into trouble but Beth is so shy and so sweet that she does not have any burdens. I loved the scene when Jo is at her aunt’s house and the aunt tells her that she has missed a spot cleaning the railing and cannot go home until the rail is cleaned. Jo takes her dress wipes away a spot and when the aunt is her room she slides the down the railing to complete the dusting!

The cast is spectacular. The film belongs to Katharine Hepburn as Jo because she is Jo. Hepburn was the tomboy of Hollywood this is probably the only role that she played that was the closest to her in real life. Out the actresses playing the sisters Hepburn was the only one who was not stiff she really gave the role her all. I am not saying the other actresses were not great they really were but compared to Hepburn they were a bit stiff and seemed like they were holding back. I had this film downloaded because it is a Katharine Hepburn film and I had no idea that Frances Dee was in the film until I looked it up. Seeing Dee in the film was a great added bonus. I loved her as Meg… but then again when do I not like her in a film. She was very good next to Hepburn. I have never seen Joan Bennett in a film before and I greatly enjoyed her, she was adorable. Jean Parker I have never even heard of before but she was also good in her role. Apparently in the novel the girls range from sixteen to twelve but in real life Hepburn was twenty-six, Dee was twenty-four, Bennett was twenty-three, and Parker was eighteen.

George Cukor worked his wonderful magic directing the mostly female cast. This is one of many films Cukor and Hepburn would make together. Cukor knew how to direct women well, in 1939 he excellently directed The Women with Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Joan Fontaine, and Paulette Goddard. Genius composer Max Steiner created a beautiful score. Walter Plunkett provided the period costumes to perfection.

I have not read the novel Little Women but I would really like to. I like the story of a strong, loving, close family who through all of life’s ups and downs and heartache the sisters remained close to each other. It reminds me of me and my brothers we are all close and no matter what we all go through in life we are all there for each other. This version has the power to really reach out to the viewers and leave a powerful impression.

Definitely do not miss out on seeing George Cukor’s version of Little Women. It is a beautiful classic film with a strong female ensemble.

Third Finger, Left Hand (1940)

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 21:42:05 -0400

It has been a while since I have posted about a Myrna Loy film. I recently went on a Myrna Loy binge on Amazon I bought Third Finger, Left Hand and Wife vs. Secretary along with her incredible autobiography Being and Becoming which I finally found for under thirty dollars (actually with shipping and handling it came out to less than twenty). Ever since I saw a clip of Loy from Third Finger, Left Hand(which is posted in this review) I have had to see it. For a while the film was unavailable on DVD and Youtube only had the one part posted. But finally through the Warner Brothers Archive the film has become available on DVD and of course being such a huge Myrna Loy fan I had to have it.

Loy plays magazine editor Margot Sherwood Merrick. To the world she is Mrs. Merrick who married her husband while in Rio and she rarely sees him because he is always traveling. To herself and her photographer Gus she is just Margot Sherwood an unmarried but very successful magazine editor. Margot pretends to be married in order to avoid advances from the men she works with. She justifies this that if she did not pretend to be married she would have been fired by the jealous wife of the publisher since he is always hitting on his female employees. Only Gus knows she is not married because he writes letters to her pretending to be her husband.

One day Margot is supposed to be picking up her friend from a ship that has docked in New York. She goes on the ship and finds her friend’s room but the friend is not there. Margot thinks her friend has taken up painting since there are paintings all over the room. An art dealer comes in and he is a little rude so Margot fires back at him and tells him to get out. She finds out the friend left the ship in Havana and the room was given to a painter named Jeff Thompson (Melvyn Douglas). Jeff unhappily meets Margot and tells her he was waiting for two years to get his pictures looked at by the dealer. She promises to fix the whole thing and she does. To thank her Jeff takes her out for dinner.

Jeff never planned to fall in love with a girl from New York but he finds himself falling in love with Margot. She is even falling for him as well. He delays his train home so he can spend more time with Margot. At dinner one night Margot’s whole charade is blown. She never told Jeff about her scheme but when he finds out from one of her drunken friends who blabs about her “husband”. She does not even tell him the truth that she is not married she just continues with her lie. Margot blows the whole thing for herself when Jeff says a friend of his can find her “husband” and she describes a man in the restaurant and he notices.

The next day Jeff has Margot’s “marriage” checked out. Of course we know as the viewer she is not really married. He decides to get back at Margot by going to her house pretending to be her long lost husband. They both drive each other crazy trying to one up the other in annoyance. Margot has enough and she lets her attorney friend Philip know about her situation. Philip is in love with Margot he wants the whole matter to go away so he can marry her. He comes up with the plan that Margot and Jeff should go to Niagara Falls to get married and wait a few days for a divorce. Neither one of them likes the idea but they do it.

This being a 1940s romantic comedy no matter how mad Margot and Jeff may be with each other they cannot get the other off their mind and you can guess the ending.

Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas were great together. In the films I have seen with Melvyn Douglas he was very good at meshing with his female stars. To me it seems that he was able to go back and forth with his leading ladies with the same amount of wit and energy they were giving him (I do not know how to put Douglas’s pairings any better so I apologize for any confusion). Loy was so good as always. I liked how Margot did not really back down to Jeff which Loy was great at portraying because she always had that attitude or brought it to her characters. Neither one of the lead characters really backed down with each other even Douglas played that aspect well too. It is great to see that Loy got top billing since she was either second or third billed most of the time. With MGM I sometimes find their supporting cast members/characters to be too much but here I felt they were just right and not too over the top.

MGM added a nice little touch with a bit of the music: since they had a huge success with The Wizard of Oz the previous year and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was a big song in one scene you can hear the composer for the score added the music for the song in. They even have Loy humming it in another part.

So here is the clip of Myrna Loy from the film that made me really want to see it.

If you are a Loy fan and know her other roles pretty well I dare you not to laugh at that clip. In her autobiography Loy said her inspiration for this scene was her good friend Jean Harlow. After Margot pulls this whole scene before the fade out she plays with her gun pulling out into a string.

Third Finger, Left Hand is a cute film. The story is predictable but it is fun to watch Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas kind of battle each other wit for wit and annoyance for annoyance. Loy and Douglas became good friends in real life on this set and you can see they were friends by the way they acted in their scenes together. I think Loy and Douglas’s chemistry add a lot to the film and without that chemistry (even if it was other actors playing the parts) it would have been boring.

Heartbeat (1946)

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 22:27:35 -0400

Of all the Ginger Rogers films I have seen I have generally like them all. Heartbeat I can say is the only film of Rogers’s that I did not like. She plays an eighteen year old girl (yes eighteen when she was thirty-five years in 1946!!!), Arlette, who has run away from her boarding school in France. Arlette has entered a school for pickpocketers where she receives room and board. On her first pickpocket assignment she messes up and gets caught by an ambassador (Adolphe Menjou). The ambassador sees that she was a good pickpocketer and gives her an assignment or more like a bribe: she has to come to a party with him to pickpocket from someone or he turns her over to the police.

At the party Arlette has to pickpocket a young handsome diplomat named Roland Latour. She begins to fall in love with the diplomat. Arlette does her job and keeps Roland from getting in trouble with the ambassador. Roland is completely in love with Arlette but when she gets in trouble with the pickpocket school she runs to his house and he becomes annoyed with her.

But as in all “love” stories the two main characters wind up together at the end.

I was so bored with Heartbeat. I seriously could not get over the fact that Ginger Rogers was playing an eighteen year old when she was thirty-five. This is what Rogers looked like when she was nineteen years old:

And this is this is a promotional picture from the film:

Yeah a bit of a difference.

I was not into the story I felt that it was not well written nor was it well acted. Rogers was not too bad but she was not at her best and neither was Menjou and I always like his performances. The actor who played Roland Latour was never really popular and not in too many films. I did not like him at all.

I guess if you would really like give Heartbeat a try. I believe it is on Youtube right now because it is public domain (I have it in a one hundred pack of classic films).

Bringing Up Baby (1938)

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 23:13:24 -0400

“How can all these things happen to just one person?”

Bringing Baby Up is one of the ultimate Screwball comedies. The story is hysterically funny and with some of the best comedic dialogue ever written. The comedy never ends right from the beginning. You are either laughing, blushing, or smacking your palm to your forehead (or all three and at the same time) the characters are silly and nervously/skittishly energetic.

David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a zoologist with the most excitement in his life being the finding of a piece from a dinosaur so the prehistoric animal can be wholly put back together. His is engaged to Alice Swallow who just sees their marriage as a business arrangement and says that he must dedicate his whole life to his work with nothing interfering. They are to marry the following day.

David goes to play golf with a man named Alexander Peabody. He represents a Mrs. Carlton Random who is thinking about giving the museum David works a million dollars. While golfing David meets a very flighty and nutty young woman named Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn). She thinks David’s ball is his and plays it and she also thinks his car is hers. That night David goes to a restaurant to talk to Mr. Peabody again and explain about the golf game. Unfortunately Susan is there as well and she just complicates David’s life again.

The next day David receives his bone that will complete his dinosaur as well as a phone call from Susan. She tells him to come over that she has just been sent a real leopard! She trips while on the phone and David thinks the leopard has gotten to her so she plays it up and pretends the animal is attacking her. When David arrives at Susan’s place she is fine and the leopard is in her bathroom. She reads a letter from her brother Mark (who sent the animal from Brazil where he is hunting) explaining that the leopard’s name is Baby, he is tame and “’He’s three years old, gentle as a kitten, and likes dogs.’ I wonder whether Mark means that he eats dogs or is fond of them?” David has had enough and walks out but Susan along with Baby follow him. Susan talks to David outside telling him that she just needs his help bringing Baby to her aunt’s house in Connecticut. He agrees just to get the woman out of his hair so he cannot be annoyed by her and get married.

Well, the trip becomes more than David can handle. Susan drives him nuts, his bone gets stolen by her aunt’s dog George, and Baby gets loose in the town and both zoologist and crazy woman go on a night hunt for the leopard with the search ending with them both going to jail.

If I explain anymore it may get confusing and I do not want to ruin any of it because all the shenanigans Susan gets David in are so funny.

I adore Katharine Hepburn as Susan. After seeing her in so many dramas seeing her in a comedy is great. I think this was my first Hepburn film and I am so glad it was because while I do like her dramas she had an excellent touch for comedy (I do not believe I would have liked her so much had I seen her in a drama first). It is no wonder Hepburn was named the number actress of all time by AFI, she could really do it all. Cary Grant is a panic. I love him in comedies I actually prefer him in Screwball comedies than drama. He knew how to play a frazzled but kind of together character to perfection. Grant did so many little things like body movements and facial expressions that brought a lot more to his character and to the film.

The supporting character actors were also really good. In this point in her career Katharine Hepburn never made a comedy so RKO filled the film with comedic actors to help her out. I do not think she needed much help but with their skill at comedy they all made the film so much funnier.

Howard Hawks as always deserves so much praise as a director. He had such a great knack for getting so much great work from his actors. He knew how to make great comedies and capture so many sly little touches that if noticed add so much more to a scene. Hawks made smart comedies that have remained funny after so many years.

I remember the first time I watched Bringing Up Baby on TCM when they were airing some of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn’s films they made together. I had to see this because Cary Grant was in it. I was not really into Katharine Hepburn at the time but after this I became a fan. The next day I took my friend out to a DVD store with me and bought the film in a pack of Katharine Hepburn films released by TCM. I made my friend watch it with me that day and she was laughing so hard throughout the entire thing. I watched all the other films in the pack and I realized and saw the immense talent Katharine Hepburn had she could literally play any type of role and be amazing.

I guarantee if you have a silly sense of humor you will be laughing during the whole running of Bringing Up Baby. The film is available on DVD in the TCM pack I have or individually and I highly suggest seeing it… my advice is just to buy the DVD if you see it in a store you will not be sorry.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 14:04:27 -0400

“I wonder if there’ll be another time as good as this.”

I love to watch films that are based off books. Usually what happens I will watch the film first and then read the book. Also usually I can tell if the book will be good by watching the film (my case in points Rebecca, Gone with the Wind, Laura). Let me just say I will never give Ernest Hemmingway a chance because I find the films based on his books to be boring (well maybe besides The Killers which was based off one of his short stories) and such was the case with The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

The plot of the story is Henry Street (Gregory Peck) has been severely wounded while hunting on an African safari. As he waits for help with his wife Helen (Susan Hayward) he begins to feverishly flashback to the first love of his life. Cynthia (Ava Gardner) has haunted his memory for many years. They met in Paris before the war and it was love at first site for Henry.

Henry and Cynthia marry but he is restless after he writes and publishes his novel. He constantly wants to travel so he can gain material for his books. Henry’s constant need to travel takes a grave toll on Cynthia and their relationship and they split.

A few years later he meets a young countess but she cannot fill the void left by Cynthia. Henry found his former wife’s address in Spain and he writes to her. When she writes back the countess who is his fiancée sees the letter and gets mad. She knows that Henry does not really love her. Henry leaves the south of France where he has been living and heads to Spain to fight in their civil war with hopes of possibly finding Cynthia.

He does find Cynthia she is an ambulance driver. But when they see each other it is for the last time. The ambulance she was driving is hit by a bomb. Henry finds her and does not want to let her go but as he goes with the stretcher he is shot in leg for disobeying orders. His last view of the love of his life is of her desperately reaching out to him.

Henry spends the next few years wandering around Paris. He follows women around he thinks look like his lost love. One of the women he follows is Helen. They run into each other at a different time and that is when they get together. Henry has become a drunk running around with women.

Now in the jungle Henry realizes that he is not the failure he thinks he is with his novels and through Helen’s devotion he also realizes that he really loves her. He also now has the will to fight to stay alive until help comes.

I thought the film was going along great at the beginning and then it hit the middle and the end and it went to pieces. I have to give a lot of praise to Ava Gardner because I thought she was excellent and that her scenes were some of her best acting I have seen of her so far. Gardner is so beautiful that you can believe someone who loved her (either in the movies or in real life) could never get over her and it made her character and Henry’s haunting memory of her so believable. Gregory Peck was good he was not fantastic. I love Peck I think he is a great actor but maybe it was the character I did not enjoy him at all. Susan Hayward was as always fabulous. No film ever suffers horribly (unless it is The Conqueror) when she is in it. I was such a doof the whole time I was thinking “I wish Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward made another film together they could be so good in another film with different material” then my brain clicked and I remembered they were in David and Bathsheba together and I own it…. go me and watching movies at one in the morning.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is definitely not one of the greatest films I have sat through. I hate it when I find a film starting off pretty well and then by the middle it just bombs and becomes a hassle to sit through. I found watching the film unrestored more fun that paying attention to the story. If you are really interested give The Snows of Kilimanjaro a chance mostly for the cast.