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Highway Patrol: Christmas Story (1956)
Christmas in June?
This final episode of season one is - a Christmas episode? I have no idea what the reason was for this, other than these episodes are not supposed to be current, they are just recent tales of the Highway Patrol.
Two days before Christmas a man comes home from work and finds his wife and daughter are nowhere to be found. He eventually finds a note from the wife saying she's left him and that they should stay apart until they can speak civilly to one another. The man immediately starts phoning friends and family and finds out where his wife was going and that she would be staying in a motel that night. He departs, we assume, to find his wife and child.
Meanwhile, the wife has checked into a motel for the night. But when she awakens the next morning, her daughter is gone. She calls the Highway Patrol, but it is obvious to Dan Matthews that she is holding something back, and he guesses it is about her relationship with her husband, He guesses right. The motel owner says he saw a car matching the description of the husband's car across the road from the hotel between 3AM and 4AM. Once this case is over, Matthews really should investigate the motel for a connection to speed distribution as this motel owner seems to never sleep. But I digress. Also, a handkerchief belonging to the daughter is found across the road from the motel with blood on it. Complications ensue.
This episode is a little different from the rest as Dan Matthews actually jokes around with his fellow officers. But then Christmas comes but once a year, so don't get used to it.
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet: Christmas in October (1956)
There's some good physical comedy in this one
Ozzie and Harriet decide to get ahead of the Christmas season - as in two months ahead - and make out their Christmas cards and invitations to their Christmas party early. They also buy their Christmas gifts early. But then Ozzie has the problem of hiding his gifts to Harriet, Ricky, and David for the next two months presents itself. Also, if the Christmas cards got accidentally mailed, they would not only look crazy for sending them out in October, but there is also the fact that they put the date of their Christmas party as the 24th without specifying the month. Would anybody seeing that in October assume the Nelsons are having a Christmas party before Halloween? Watch and find out.
I was surprised to see this pop up on one of the "old TV show" channels, as I have not seen this series on TV before. Ozzie Nelson directed most episodes, and he used his knowledge of how the actual family interacted to great effect.
And who has a Christmas party on the evening of December 24th anyways? Most people are celebrating their own family Christmas at that point. Did people really have Christmas Eve open for parties 70 years ago?
Anna Christie (1930)
Garbo talks!...But unfortunately, so does everyone else!...
Chris is a sailor who owns a coal barge. He finds out that the daughter he hasn't seen since she was an infant, Anna (Greta Garbo), is coming to see him. What he doesn't know is that she had a childhood of abuse and molestation followed by her running away to St. Paul and becoming a prostitute. He says he left her in Minnesota for her own good, to grow up on a farm, but it seems the truth of the matter is that he just couldn't be bothered. As most such men do, he's very interested in his neglected child now that he's old and she's grown. One night Chris and Anna are out on his barge and rescue several sailors. Among them is Matt (Charles Bickford), an Irishman who takes a shine to Anna. But she's still struggling with her past. Complications ensue.
MGM was the only studio Greta Garbo ever worked for in America, and as a studio, MGM was late to the game of talking film. MGM was aware of the risk of putting Garbo before the microphones, and so they delayed her talking debut until 1930, and she actually made the last silent film MGM ever made. But making her character someone who grew up around Swedish Americans in Minnesota explains her accent and it suits her.
Anna Christie, like so many early talking films, is too talkie. Everybody, even tertiary characters, have endless dialogue. Everything is static. By this time the static camera was not such a problem, so I don't know why this comes off as a filmed play.
Garbo, who was always a film actress, seems to get acting in a sound film just fine, even if she does over-emote at times, as though she's still in a silent film and nobody can hear her. Bickford is a bit of a mystery though. He was a stage actor before sound came to films, yet you'd never know that by watching this. He'd made three films before this one - all with sound - so I have no idea what the problem was.
The one really bright spot here? Marie Dressler. She plays Chris's mistress and a former prostitute. Upon meeting Anna, she immediately figures out that Anna belongs to her union, so to speak, but she doesn't give Anna away. Marie Dressler is doing some outrageously good acting here. Her ability to make magic out of plain life jump-started her career.
I'd say this is worth your while for its place in film history.
Dragnet 1967: Community Relations: DR-10 (1968)
A well-intentioned time capsule
Officers Gannon and Friday are trying to persuade a group of community college students in East LA to join the LAPD. It's a diverse bunch, before the word "diverse" entered the vernacular, with a large number of African American students. They convince African American officer Dave Evans to talk to the group. Several of the students seem interested, but there is one heckler that questions everything. Later it is learned that several of the students were thinking of joining the force except for one thing that Gannon and Friday don't know - Dave Evans has put in his resignation! Complications ensue.
There are some things that date this episode - Such as one of the black officers referring to himself with what is now considered to be a slur. Also, note that one of the students in the community college classroom is a very mute O. J. Simpson in his first appearance on TV or film. I hope he didn't join up! Yikes!
It's pretty interesting from a historic point of view to look back on the problems black officers probably had in the late 1960s even when working on big city police forces in areas of the country that didn't have deep rooted and historic problems with prejudice. I'd recommend it.
The Wrong Way Out (1938)
Stop in the name of Murphy's Law!...
... although Murphy has some help here as the two lead characters are far from wise.
Two youngsters - their exact age is never stated, but from what's said they are not out of high school yet - want to get married right now. Both sets of parents object and refuse to sign consent forms to let them get married. The parents note their lack of any money or skills and say they want them to wait until they are out of (high) school. The two youngsters show their maturity by throwing a tantrum like they are three.
So they decide to elope because, unfortunately, unlike three year olds, they have drivers licenses, a car, and just enough money to get married but not enough to support themselves. Things go from bad to worse with them moving to crime when a drunk lawyer passes out in the restaurant where they work after everybody else has gone home. And the lawyer's pockets are flush with cash.
It's interesting that the two kids, when they are looking for jobs, meet a hiring manager that could have given them good jobs if the girl had known shorthand and the boy had been a draftsman. Both of those skills are obsolete today, although shorthand is still used in a few professions. Today you have to be out of college or be in one of the trades to have a chance of finding a good job.
You and Me (1938)
Never have I seen such an odd combination of genres...
It's a musical! It's performance art! It's a romance! It's a melodrama AND a comedy! It's a gangster picture! It's a morality tale AND an economics lesson! And it's about 15 minutes longer than it needs to be.
Mr. Morris (Harry Carey) owns a department store where he employs many men and women recently released from prison. Two such people are Joe Dennis (George Raft) and Helen Roberts (Sylvia Sidney). They meet at the store and fall in love. One night, they make a sudden decision to marry. The problem is that Joe is open about his status of being an ex con, but Helen hides that she is the same, and furthermore she is still on parole and her marrying is a violation of that parole.
Joe begins to wonder about his wife when he catches her in a couple of lies and when she won't let him look at a stack of papers that look like love letters but are in fact her parole cards. What he thinks might be another man is just Helen hiding her status as an ex-con. Meanwhile, baddie Barton McLane has wandered over from Warner Brothers to try and tempt all of the ex-cons working at Morris's Department Store into robbing it.
What makes it odd? The film opens with a half-sung, half-spoken, somewhat metatextual song that seems to be criticizing capitalism - odd for a production code era film. Also, there's a torch song number towards the middle that really has nothing to do with the plot. Then, when some of the ex cons have a reunion on Christmas day, there's another metatextual song that seems to be the ex-cons waxing nostalgic about their time in jail.
What's good about it? Raft and Sidney have great chemistry and it's one of Raft's better performances. Also, Warren Hymer is being well used as the rather dense but true friend of Raft who is having trouble figuring out Raft's moods.
This reminded me at times of a Greek Chorus mixed with an operetta, and a dash of Damon Runyon. Of course the director was the famous ( and quirky) Fritz Lang reviving one of his favorite themes of decent people being persecuted by the law. He made another film the year before with a similar theme starring Spencer Tracy and Silvia Sydney called "Fury". It was interesting to see a young Bob Cummings in one of his first films as one of the ex-cons. I wish they had given him more to do. If you are familiar with and a fan of Fritz Lang's work, you might like this. Or if you'd like to see just about every well-known character actor in Hollywood at the time all in one film, you may be entertained. Otherwise this film is an acquired taste.
Barton Fink (1991)
The Coen Brothers' strangest film
You are either going to love or hate this one, and I doubt you'll know which until it's over. Maybe you won't know even then.
In 1941, Barton Fink (John Turturro) is a successful Broadway playwright. Now that he's got some success under his belt, he says he wants to write plays for "the common man". But his agent has a tempting offer. A movie studio wants him to come to LA and write screenplays for 1000 dollars a week. The agent convinces him to go. Barton checks into the Hotel Earle, which has ornate decorations in the common areas, but is a dump from the standpoint of Barton's room. The heat has the wallpaper peeling off the walls. The sole decoration in Barton's room is the picture of a woman sitting on the beach, her arm raised to block the sun. Remember this picture - it's important.
Barton's first assignment is to write a "wrestling picture" starring Wally Beery. But Barton has writer's block for assorted reasons, one of them being that he knows nothing about this subject. So he stares at his typewriter with the dread an insomniac might stare at his bed. But then what seemed to start out being a film about how the studio system can beat the creativity and the confidence out of a successful writer changes course and becomes something that is completely surreal and even nightmarish by the end. I can really say nothing more specific than that without giving things away.
The Coens wrote Barton Fink when they were having writer's block trying to write Miller's Crossing because of the complexity of the plot. So did they manage to pack lots of symbolism into a tight, coherent package, or did they simply let their imagination run wild and undisciplined in an attempt to get back on track on the other film? I have no idea. I just know that I like it and - for me - it's great for repeat viewings.
One more thing - How can it be so hot in LA, and then suddenly WWII has started, which would make it December? Why is it Barton doesn't seem to notice WWII has started without being told and then really has no reaction. He really isn't plugged into "the common man" is he?
Yours for the Asking (1936)
Make it a 6.5!
Johnny Lamb (George Raft) operates a gambling house disguised as a farmhouse. One night a society lady (Delores Costello as Lucille Sutton) is tapped out for cash and wants to trade her jewelry for chips. He says nothing doing. When she tells him that her Palm Beach mansion will be foreclosed upon unless she can win a big pot at gambling, Lamb comes up with a different idea. He'll go in partners with her on his gambling operation and pay off the mortgage if he can move his casino into her house and if she will introduce him to her friends and teach him to operate with some class. At the end of a year he'll consider their debt paid and she will have her house back free and clear. Lucille agrees to this arrangement.
But Johnny's three street-wise rather crude friends don't like this new situation so much. They find out Lucille is in love with Johnny and they just assume it is reciprocated. Also, Johnny has been making them dress as servants at their casino jobs and they feel they've been getting the "high hat" from him because of Lucille's influence.
So the three "mugs" come up with a plan. They get two grifters (Ida Lupino and Reginald Owen) to pose as a wealthy society woman and her uncle. They want Lupino to get Johnny to fall in love with her and therefore reduce Lucille's influence on him.
But it works too well. Because Johnny was never in love with Lucille in the first place, he instantly gravitates to Lupino, and she and her grifter friend set out to fleece Johnny for all they can get. Meanwhile the three mugs are completely unaware of the grifting going on.
This was a light piece of fluff in spite of the unrequited love and the imposters taking advantage of Johnny. And although George Raft and Ida Lupino are front and center for most of the running time, it was a good ensemble effort. The trio of mugs was especially well cast with Lynn Overmann as the more subtle of the three, Edgar Kennedy as the ill-tempered grump, and James Gleason as the talkative brains of the three.
Delores Costello was good enough, but at this point she hadn't acted for about five years in the very early talkie days when actresses were still taught to annunciate very clearly in "Singin In the Rain" style. She still seems to have that habit.
Slow Horses (2022)
Interesting spy series
Jack Lowden is an eager young spy who screws up (or someone else did and he took the fall) so he's sent to Slough House, a Siberia for screw-ups in MI5 to do his time, led by a caustic, hard-drinking boss played by Gary Oldman.
This is based on the first of a whole series of books, though the real inspiration may have been the opportunity to treat the books a little like Hot Fuzz, the Edgar Wright comedy about a highly driven cop put to pasture in a quaint tourist village. This isn't quite as comic-at times it's quite serious-but the dynamic of an overachiever bored to tears by a crap assignment and unable to resist overachieving works as well. I've only seen two episodes, but given the cast (Kristin Scott-Thomas, Saskia Reeves, Jonathan Pryce, etc.) and writing so far, I'm in for however much of this they care to produce.
Seinfeld: The Pez Dispenser (1992)
An early example on Seinfeld of one item joining several plot threads
George is dating a concert pianist who he thinks might be too good for him. He is bothered by his lack of "hand" in the relationship. He's really worried after hysterical laughter occurs at one of her recitals and the woman takes it out on George, although she doesn't yet know that the laughing woman was Elaine.
Separately, somebody Jerry used to know has returned from LA a drug addict, and Jerry is being pulled into a planned intervention on the old acquaintance's behalf because he supposedly really respects Jerry's opinion.
What joins these two threads? Mainly, it's a pez dispenser that Kramer picked up at a flea market that has a Tweety Bird head and that he gave to Jerry. But also joining these threads is Kramer's Polar Bear Club - people who swim outside in the winter. Seinfeld even having more than one plot line is something that started during this season - season three - and something the show excelled at as the years went by.
As for George's girlfriend - She's much too serious and unforgiving to be with deeply insecure George. George needs the forgiving type.
Fun factoid - This episode of Seinfeld saved the pez dispenser company as, at the time, they were near bankruptcy and the buzz caused by this episode resulted in a huge surge in pez dispenser sales. In gratitude the company sent the main players pez dispensers with their own likenesses on them.
Snowed Under (1936)
A pleasant little trifle
The producer of a play is having trouble with playwright Alan Tanner (George Brent) in that he can't seem to finish the third and final act of a play that is due to go into rehearsals. He taps Alan's first wife, Alice (Genevieve Tobin), to go to Tanner's home in Connecticut to help him finish that play. She shows up, Alan is more than a little glad to see her, and it looks like the play is on its way to getting finished. But then the deputy sheriff (Frank McHugh) shows up with a warrant for Alan's arrest for non-payment of alimony to the second wife, along with said gold-digging second wife (Glenda Farrell) and her lawyer (John Eldridge). Then Alan's current girlfriend (Patricia Ellis) sneaks back into the house, refusing to leave. With the sheriff's car wrecked and a blizzard in progress, all of these people have to spend the night under one roof. Complications ensue.
The way this is set up - playwright whose life has spun out of control due to missing his first wife after having cheated with, married, and divorced a gold digging showgirl but who also has a new girlfriend who is really too young for him but is used to having her way because her family is wealthy - It could have been spun into a Douglas Sirk film if you wanted to take the plot outline and make a melodrama. But like I said, it is obvious from the farcical beginning this is going to be light entertainment all the way and you can pretty much see the end from the beginning. It doesn't outlast its welcome at 62 minutes and is a nice way to pass the time if you are recovering from a nervous breakdown without a serious tense moment in its entire running time.
Miller's Crossing (1990)
I found this hard to rate...
... because in typical Coen brothers style, this is a very unconventional tale told in an unconventional way.
It's the Prohibition era in some big city, probably in the northern United States. It seems like it is Chicago, but the entire structure of city government is corrupt right down to the cops, so the city is unnamed. Gangster Leo (Albert Finney) is in a perpetual fight for power with gangster Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito). Leo has the upper hand at the moment, but Caspar is planning to make big time trouble.
Leo's right-hand man Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) is confused. He keeps having sex with Leo's girl Verna, but he's obviously in love with Leo. With Verna, Reagan seems to be "anger bedding" her - to be euphemistic about this - as a means of proving to himself that Verna isn't worthy of Leo. There's almost a jealousy there - of Leo, not Verna. This confusion explains why he is so emotionally flat about everything and everyone except when it comes to Leo. That is where he shows true passion. He uses Verna for sex and for information, but at no time does Reagan do anything that indicates it runs deeper than that with her.
So why is it hard to rate? I found the bro-mance compelling, but to see the forest for the trees you have to wade through the over complicated plot with many supporting characters that just don't make an impression so that it is hard to keep track of what is going on. And the lingo - I suppose this is trying to be like an R rated WB 30s gangster picture, except I am a fan of such films and I simply can't understand what the gangsters are saying. They are using lots of expressions that were made up for this film. Example - "What's the rumpus?". What does that even mean?
On the positive side, the art design and cinematography are wonderful as is the choreography of the more important scenes. One supporting character who actually is memorable? John Turturro as Bernie Bernbaum, Verna's brother. He's both a bully and a despicable coward, depending upon whether or not he thinks he has the upper hand. And he is not nearly as clever as he thinks he is.
So I'd recommend this one, but if you want to get all of the details of the plot, you might need to watch it twice.
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
The title is ironic...
... since part of the allure is the mystery as to whether or not a true murder has been committed in the first place. There is a killing - but is it murder? That is what this courtroom drama is trying to determine.
Paul Biegler (James Stewart) is a country lawyer in Michigan who was once the local DA but must have lost reelection at some point. He seems to consider himself pseudo-retired, as he stays in just enough contract work to finance his true love - fishing. But then a lieutenant in the army (Ben Gazzara as Fred Manion) kills the man who raped his wife (Lee Remick as Laura Manion), is charged with murder, and Biegler has a big case on his hands.
Manion is a bit shifty - At first claiming he has the "unwritten law" on his side. But then when Biegler tells him there really is no such thing, Manion adjusts his story such that temporary insanity could be a plausible defense.
The truth is, it never is clear which was true - Did Manion truly temporarily lose it when he saw his wife brutalized by a rapist, or did Laura Manion get cold busted by her husband stepping out with another man with the result being that Lt. Manion lost his temper and killed the other man? Gazzara plays his part as arrogant and Remick plays her part as flirty, each shooting the other looks at various points that indicate they are keeping at least part of the truth to themselves. What keeps it interesting are the characters, the emphasis on the legal process, and the question I just posed that hangs over the entire proceedings. Although everyone is good, the judge is an absolute understated scream. You can tell he doesn't like having this high profile case in his courtroom, that like Biegler he'd rather be fishing, but he has a job to do and he'll do it fairly. Joseph Welch played the part of the judge, and the fact that he was actually an attorney gives the performance the needed authenticity.
James Stewart was supposed to star in "North By Northwest" in 1959, but Hitchcock was angry at him because Vertigo had been a commercial failure, calling Stewart too old. He then dumped Stewart for Cary Grant so that Stewart was available to do this film. In the end, everything worked out. All three films are now recognized classics, and I can't see anybody but Stewart with his folksy charm playing the lead in this film.
Seinfeld: The Red Dot (1991)
George simply can't leave well enough alone...
... He has to take any good situation he's in and push the envelope until he's destroyed that good situation. This episode established George for all time as the kind of person who just doesn't feel like he's progressing in life unless he is pulling some kind of ridiculous scam versus just the cynic and skeptic of the group he's been up to now.
George and Jerry show up at Pendant Publishing, Elaine's employer, where they are having their annual Christmas party. One of the readers has quit, so Elaine offers George the job - She's been put in charge of hiring for this position.
But George tries in his usual fumbling way to take advantage. First he buys a 600 dollar cashmere sweater that has been marked down to 85 dollars because it has a single red dot. He figures nobody will see it and he can pretend to be the generous guy by giving Elaine this sweater as a gift. Second, he has sex with the cleaning lady on his desk at his new job. Both of these little scams of his don't turn out the way he'd like.
In a separate thread, guest star David Naughton, who is a recovering alcoholic, gets his own cranberry juice mixed up with Elaine's cranberry and vodka drink and falls off the wagon. This caused Larry David to decide that the show couldn't leave the guy a raging alcoholic and thus had the show "invade" Jerry's closing stand-up to show that Naughton's character had regained his sobriety.
I did feel sorry for George when the head of the publishing company meets him and has an impromptu interview asking George what he reads. If you have ever been caught in such a situation it's always a temptation to lie. George claims he has read the obscure writings of that acclaimed author, Art Vandelay.
Payment on Demand (1951)
Sophisticated analysis of a marriage and divorce
Joyce Ramsey (Bette Davis) and David Ramsey (Barry Sullivan) have been married about 25 years, looking at the approximate ages of their two grown daughters. The oldest is about to get married to someone in society. The youngest (Betty Lynn) is in college and is dating a chemistry major with a Czech immigrant working class background - and seven brothers and sisters! Joyce's reaction to this situation exposes her snobbery.
David comes home from work and begins to dress for a society party he really doesn't want to go to. Joyce keeps quizzing him about what's bothering him, until he finally blurts out that he wants a divorce. Joyce is stunned and hurt. And no, he doesn't want to try and work it out. He packs a bag and moves into his athletic club. What are these athletic clubs that men always move into in the middle of the night on no notice and that always have room? I don't think they exist anymore. But I digress.
The rest of the movie both looks forward at what happens during the separation and divorce and looks back at scenes from David and Joyce's relationship from the time they were kids until present day. The key for David should have been at their wedding where Joyce toasts to wealth and David to happiness. I like how these flashbacks are done - the stage gets dark and then is reilluminated on some scene in the past. It's like a play in that regard.
But it's not a simplistic one-sided examination where all blame is laid at Joyce's feet. The worst thing she ever did was when they were starting out. A client with a big idea comes into the law office David shares with a friend, asking for the friend. Joyce convinces the new client that her husband is the better lawyer for what he wants. It's the difference between sending David on his way to the top and David continuing to dig ditches for a living. The truth of this doesn't come out until about a year later, and it ends the partnership between David and his friend, but it's just the beginning. Joyce continues to push and climb for David, even past the point that they need to worry about money at all. It's an obsession with her it seems. At a time when women could really have no career of their own, the very ambitious ones like Joyce were limited to advancing the careers of their husbands. The problem is that David is being pushed and shoved up this ladder to the point where there is deep resentment on his part.
The worst thing David does is to hide his unhappiness for years but wait until he has found an understanding girlfriend (Frances Dee) to dump his wife. He doesn't even admit this is going on until he is caught in the act by a PI after the separation.
Post divorce, Joyce takes a cruise and visits an old friend who is divorced herself and gets a glimpse of what true loneliness is. That and an apparent gigolo who becomes her shadow and is quite open about what he's up to and him being a married man with kids has her seeing her future and she does not like the view.
Joyce returns early from the cruise because her youngest daughter has decided to get married immediately to her now college graduate boyfriend. And, of course, David is also at the wedding. How will this work out? Watch and find out.
I'd recommend this one. It was a good later career role for Bette Davis, and she and Barry Sullivan had surprising chemistry. Also it was good to see Betty Lynn in something besides the Andy Griffith Show, which is the only other role I've seen her in.
La noia (1963)
a rather fascinating Italian film ...
...produced by Carlo Ponti, directed by Damiano Damiani, and starring Horst Buchholz as an untalented painter who gives up his "art" to pursue an elusive free spirit of a girl (Catherine Spaak) while sponging money from his mother, a wealthy countess.
The rather aimless plot simply shows the lovers at various locations and follows their constant bickerings and separations. He never paints again, and she refuses to get tied down by marriage or any formal relationships. Stars aside, the other interesting thing about this film is that the countess is played by Bette Davis in her follow-up film to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Davis wears a blonde or gray wig and seemingly borrowed her eyebrows from Joan Crawford.
Down Three Dark Streets (1954)
pseudo-documentary style noir...
...that shows how the FBI handles cases in addition to profiling three particular cases. In the process, it also shows some of the technology used by the FBI at the time.
Agent Zach Stewart (Kenneth Tobey) is assigned to these three cases. One case has to do with a known hijacker, robber and murderer named Joe Walpo who may be headed for Los Angeles. Another is the case of a young man who got caught stealing cars but refuses to give up the guys he works for because of a misplaced sense of loyalty plus the guys are scary and he's rightfully afraid of them. The third case has to do with a widow (Ruth Roman) who is being extorted for the ten thousand dollars in insurance money she got for her husband's death in a traffic accident. The unknown person who calls using a disguised voice is threatening her daughter's life if she doesn't cough up the cash.
When a woman calls saying she has information about one of Stewart's cases, Stewart and agent John Ripley (Broderick Crawford) show up to talk to the woman. When someone disappears out the back door, Stewart gives chase and is shot and killed by that person. The woman refuses to talk further. So now Ripley must solve Stewart's three cases - the titular "three dark streets" - to solve his colleague's murder.
Broderick Crawford plays the FBI agent in his usual TV style of acting, but he's fine for the role and the film is quite engaging. Highlights include Martha Hyer as Joe Walpo's girlfriend who isn't shy and isn't talking. She seems to be doing her best Shelley Winters imitation, but just lacks that "all of the brashness and va va voom that heaven and the production code allows" quality that Winters had.
Then there is Claude Akins as a big galoot who pushes around the spunky blind wife of the car thief and Jay Adler looking almost unrecognizable as the creepy uncle of the widowed extortion victim. William Schallert is a gas station attendant in Barstow who, for some reason that turns out to be a fatal mistake, does not wait until Joe Walpo pulls away from the gas station to try and notify the police in the opening sequence.
And just one more thing - In the extortion segment, Crawford's character tells Ruth Roman that extortionists say things to panic and isolate the victim and make them feel alone and that nobody can help them because that is how they make the victim more compliant with their demands. That's actually good advice when dealing with today's extortionists - otherwise known as internet scammers. Never do anything in a panic. Always think things through and ask yourself if what is being said to you makes sense. Would the sheriff's department REALLY call ahead and let you know they are coming to arrest you and then tell you that the whole thing could be cleared up with 1000 dollars worth of Apple gift cards?
Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938)
Make it a 5.5!
Elly Jordan (Dick Powell) is a musician from Brooklyn on his way out west. But he and the other two in his trio get caught riding in a boxcar for free and are tossed off the train somewhere in Wyoming. They come upon a dude ranch - a working ranch that also functions as a hotel/resort for "tenderfoots" seeking the western ranch experience. At first the daughter in the family, Jane Hardy (Priscilla Lane) thinks Elly is just another tramp and refuses his offer of working for food. Then she has second thoughts and hires Elly and his trio as musical entertainment.
Because the ranch is catering to easterners looking for that western authenticity, Jane teaches Elly how to talk, walk, and act like a genuine westerner. It works so well that when an agent on the verge of a nervous breakdown (Pat O'Brien) and his assistant (Ronald Reagan) show up for a relaxing stay at the ranch, they are completely taken in by Elly's act and sign him to a radio contract as Wyoming Steve Gibson, a genuine singing cowboy who can also rope and ride.
Complicating factors include the fact that Elly has a phobia of all animals - from the big ones you should be afraid of like bulls, to the tiniest creatures like gophers and canaries. Also, an actual singing cowboy at the ranch resents how well Elly is doing both career-wise and with Jane and knows that Elly is a city slicker. Complications ensue.
This is passable entertainment, but it seems like Warner Brothers was struggling for a reason to make this movie in the first place. It's like they realized they wanted a Dick Powell film so there would have to be a musical theme of course, but had to strain to come up with anything past that. So they added a Western theme - Powell had never done one of those before - and then strained to fill 75 minutes with .... something. As a result it has dull stretches and pointless stretches. 15 minutes could have been cut and it would have lost nothing.
Naughty But Nice (1939)
From haughty to naughty - Dick Powell at Warner Brothers
Professor Donald Hardwick (Dick Powell) only teaches about "serious music" even though his students are crazy for swing. While in New York he decides to stop by and see his aunt Martha (Helen Broderick) even though his other three aunts are outraged by the idea because years ago, when young, she eloped with a saxophone player. They consider this to be a scandal.
While visiting, Hardwick visits a music publisher and plays one of the songs he has written, which the publisher buys. Bu Hardwick is horrified when he hears his song as it has been reworked by the publisher into "Hooray for Spinach!" as a popular rather than classical song. This gets Hardwicke caught up in the music publishing industry with people who are shrewder than he and ultimately ends up in court with Hardwick falsely accused of plagiarizing the music of an early 20th century composer.
This was passable entertainment, and not as inane as most production code B comedy films from Warner Brothers in the 1930s. On the plus side, you have veteran comedienne Zasu Pitts as one of Dick Powell's aunts and Ann Sheridan as a conniving chanteuse early in her career. Because it IS early in her career, Gale Page is the love interest for Powell's character in this one, and unfortunately she just doesn't leave much of an impression. Allen Jenkins, usually a sign that a low-brow extravaganza is going to ensue, doesn't do that much damage here but instead does something that makes his character out to be not only an ignoramus, but a real heel to boot. And what's worse the plot has him paying no price for his behavior. I'm being intentionally vague here.
Dick Powell started his film career in 1932 with the WB hit "Blessed Event" where he played radio star Bunny Harmon as a practically mute character other than for his singing. All through his seven years at Warner Brothers, the studio leaned in on Powell's singing ability and put him in light musical properties. This, his last film at Warner Brothers, was no exception and caused him to leave the studio in search of more serious roles that he probably correctly assumed that he would never get at WB.
Mirage (1965)
It started out with such promise
David Stillwell (Gregory Peck) is in a high rise ofiice building where the power has gone out unexpectedly. He goes into a stairwell headed for the street when he meets a woman in the stairwell who greets him as though she knows him just from his voice. He's never seen her before. When they reach the street level and she can see his face she is insulted that he says he doesn't know her, because obviously they have been involved in the past. She then takes off down the basement stairs where he loses her.
Once Stillwell emerges outside, everybody he recognizes says that it's good to see him again after such a long time. He has no idea what they mean as he hasn't gone anywhere - He has always lived and worked in New York. He goes to his apartment and is accosted by an obnoxious little man with a gun who says "the major" wants to see him. He has no idea who that is. His refrigerator is completely empty like he really hasn't been in town for a long time. He manages to overtake the gunman, but things just get worse.
Stillwell realizes that, although he says he is a cost accountant, he has no idea how he became one and that he has spent the entire past two years alone - no friends, no loves, no family - at least in his memory. Plus he has no memory at all of what happened before the two years he's spent in his current job. And people keep showing up either trying to kill him or frame him for some serious crime. At this point I would normally say that complications ensue, but what I've described ARE the complications.
This film started out with such promise, given the fascinating circumstances I described. But then it gets bogged down. The transition point is a prolonged chase scene that goes on too long to the point that it becomes tedious where two hired gunmen - one of them being an alleged senior citizen who apparently can still do long distance running and does not LOOK like a senior citizen - chase Stillwell all over Manhattan.
The conclusion is ridiculous, and reminded me of the 1971 TV movie "Vanished" in that it started out with a great premise that resulted in a preposterous conclusion. I lay part of the blame on the year in which it was made - 1965 - midpoint of the 60s, with part of the film in the traditional mystery style - that would be the good part - and part of it stuck in the 60s peacenik, "get involved or you're a nowhere man" style of writing that doomed it. Being good at the former kind of movie-making doesn't mean you are capable of the latter. As for Diane Baker as the mystery woman - she should have sued over the dialogue she was given. It was gibberish.
With George Kennedy in a small but memorable role as a lean mean killing machine, Walter Matthau as a sardonic yet conscientious private detective, and Robert H. Harris as a psychiatrist with the worst bedside manner in the history of the world, I was disappointed, since Edward Dmytryk in the director's chair is usually the mark of quality. I gave this one a 5/10, because it was on its way to being an 8/10 until the last third of the film undermined the rest of it.
Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)
Well-crafted and well-acted but very depressing
A couple (Victor Moore and Beaulah Bondi), married for 50 years, are losing their home because they can't make the payments on their mortgage. They are 70, and apparently the husband was still working as a bookkeeper until he lost his job, and nobody is going to hire somebody who is 70, especially during the Depression. They have not been able to save any money, so they call their children to the house days before they lose it to the bank to figure out living arrangements. None of the children has room to keep more than one of the two, so the couple ends up separated by 300 miles in homes where they are not really wanted in the first place. And it just goes downhill from there.
The only bright spot in the film is the absolute love the couple has for one another. Through raising five children and what must have been hard times for them to get to the end of their lives and have nothing, back before medical bills could easily break you like they can today, they don't blame each other for their predicament, but instead blame themselves. If you've been lucky enough to be married for decades to somebody you not only love but like, you will appreciate the tenderness and authenticity in the performances of Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore. I actually never cared much for Victor Moore, but this was his finest hour.
As for the couple's children - Yes, for the most part they were truly awful, feeling "stuck" with their parents when they themselves are at middle age. I felt like Beaulah Bondi's character could have done more to get along with her oldest son's family and I wonder why she didn't realize that their friends did not come over to socialize with her and have her monopolize every conversation. I guess that comes from being old myself, not having any children, and realizing at this point in my life that, for the most part, I am just in the way. I think being childless you understand that more than if you have children of your own.
Ozu's Tokyo Story was inspired by Make Way For Tomorrow, and it oddly seems to have become more well known than its source material. Leo McCarey won the Best Director Oscar for "The Awful Truth", which was made the same year as he directed this film. Upon receiving the award he said: "Thank you, but you gave it to me for the wrong film." I would tend to agree. Thanks to Criterion for taking this obscure film out of mothballs and giving it the attention it deserves.
The Andy Griffith Show: The Shoplifters (1964)
Mayberry - where shoplifting is a major crime
Jim Weaver discovers his store is being robbed. He's not sure of the mechanism though. For sure it's not a man with a gun, but merchandise is disappearing. So is it burglary in the middle of the night or shoplifting? Andy surmises it must be shoplifting since a burglar would clean out the store in one fell swoop, not take things in drips and drabs.
So Barney decides to stake out the department store dressed like a mannequin in a hunting jacket and cap. It makes for some great fun in the store when a heavy smoker decides to look over the hunting jacket and when Leon - a mute five year old - recognizes Barney and offers him a sandwich.
The thing is, this time Barney's instincts are correct, but he just can't help himself from overreacting. Andy is there, though, to guide the arrest to its proper conclusion.
Recommended, with some great physical comedy from Don Knotts.
The Andy Griffith Show: The Song Festers (1964)
Good hearted Gomer
There is a show being planned by the local Mayberry choir, and it contains a solo. Barney has that part currently, but choir director Jim Masters lets Andy know that he isn't really satisfied with Barney's performance and would replace him if a better tenor came along. Andy gently lets Barney know this, so he can be emotionally prepared if it happens. And then one day Gomer is changing a tire in front of the building where the choir is practicing and casually joins them in song - with a magnificent tenor voice. Complication ensue.
Seasons three and four are peak Andy Griffith Show years in my humble opinion, because these are the years that both Barney Fife (Don Knotts) and Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors) are characters on the show. They played wonderfully off of each other. Barney is a guy without confidence but with tremendous bluster. As a result he overreacts to everything. If you praise him he inflates to twice his actual size - about 200 pounds. If he gets criticized by someone with authority he takes it very much to heart. And Don Knotts is wonderful at physical comedy - indicating Barney's inner turmoil with his gait, posture, and facial expressions.
Jim Nabors as Gomer is a different kind of guy. He has a good bead on where he is in life, and he's happy with his lot. He likes being a mechanic and doesn't aspire to more. As a result he is a ripe target for Barney's version of bullying, which is really just him trying to assert his authority. But Gomer is also very childlike, and though he accepts Barney's authority he has a way of asking questions and drawing conclusions that infuriate Barney.
It was always fun to see these two interact.
Under Suspicion (1937)
Square -jawed Jack Holt from his company wants to bolt
Robert Bailiey (Jack Holt) is planning to give his company to his employees versus selling it because he says he has plenty of money AND he has this egalitarian streak in him that would have gotten him in trouble with that little gang called HUAC 15 years from now, but I digress.
Everybody in the executive suite dislikes what Bailey is doing - all of his executives, some femme fatale character who might have been an old flame, and a couple of the wives of the executives. They are all afraid of how the stock might tank if the employees fumble running the company or the employees might decide they want a new group of executives. Plus there is a nephew of Bailey's who wants five thousand dollars. For the first time in their mutual lives, Bailey tells his nephew the kitchen is closed.
But then on his way to his hunting lodge Bailey is almost killed in an auto accident, then his private plane crashes with his pilot test driving and warming up the plane, and finally a bullet barely misses Bailey when he is inside his apartment. Bailey comes up with the idea of inviting everybody who has a motive for killing him to come to his hunting lodge for a few days. With the help of a recommended private eye (Purnell Pratt) and the PI's men disguised as servants, he plans to "smoke out" the person who is trying to kill him by giving each one an opportunity to finish the job.
This was a pretty engaging B mystery at just under an hour in length. It did keep me guessing and, in spite of the fact that only a couple of the actors including Holt were people I'd ever heard of before, it was pretty well acted. The only thing that got a bit tiresome was the bit about the chef who was proud of his cooking but whipped up food that was just awful. He was aiming at being the comic relief but just fell flat and the joke got old in a hurry.
Why didn't Bailey just have the PI guard him day and night until the papers giving the company to the employees were ready for him to sign, at which point killing him would have accomplished nothing? Because then we'd have no film! Still I'd recommend it, especially if you are a fan of 1930s Columbia stalwart Jack Holt.
Go Into Your Dance (1935)
The only film with both Al Jolson and Ruby Keeler
Broadway headliner Al Howard (Al Jolson) is known for taking off in the middle of a show and going on a bender, maybe not to return for days or weeks later. He does it one time too often and the Broadway producers get together and agree to never hire him again for causing so much financial loss over time.
His sister. Molly (Glenda Farrell) finds Al in Mexico, sobers him up, and gives him the news. He doesn't take it seriously at first, but then when he can't get another job he sees the direness of the situation. His sister gets him a partner - dancer Dot Wayne (Ruby Keeler) and he is able to get a spot in a revue based on the good reputation of Dot.
But then Al decides he wants to headline once again, so he gets the financial backing for his own Broadway show. Unfortunately, the only place he can get that money is from gangster Duke Hutchinson (Barton McLane). Even more unfortunately, the Duke's wife (Helen Morgan) and Al start playing around under the Duke's nose. Meanwhile, Dot has started to fall for Al, but he thinks of her as a kid. Complications ensue.
This turned out to be better than I at first anticipated, with lots of good numbers by Jolson with the standout being "A Quarter To Nine" and subplots that include a gangster angle and even a murder mystery involving someone who is wrongfully accused. There's also a short number that may have inspired Buster Keaton a year later. In it, Al is testing Dot's assertion that she can dance to any music. He plays a highland fling, a Russian song, and other international tunes in rapid succession as she tries to keep up. Keaton did something similar in one of his best sound shorts "Grand Slam Opera" in 1936.
With Patsy Kelly as a vaudevillian who keeps popping up and who badly wants to team with Al, and with baddy Barton McLane and Glenda Farrell in their first film together but not interacting at all, this is worth your time if you appreciate the Warner musicals of the 30s. And it's not even hampered that much by the onset of the production code.