"White Christmas" (1954)

I've always called this the most NON-Christmas Christmas movie ever made. It's essentially another "hey, we've got a barn, let's put on a show!" musical. There's some WWII hokum that probably resonated more with audiences back then, but it's the amazing Irving Berlin score that saves the day...sung with the bell-clear voices of Rosemary Clooney and Mr. Christmas himself, Bing Crosby. What's with those garish Edith Head costumes and that painfully thin Vera Ellen?? Oh well, you've got a wisecracking Mary Wickes, so who cares?

"Ace in the Hole" (1951)

Billy Wilder's trenchant story of an amoral reporter (Kirk Douglas) who'll do anything to exploit his latest human interest story (how's this for timeliness: a miner trapped underground). The media run amok, fame, hype, our national pastime for manufactured 'news'...it's all here and skewered with a gimlet eye. A bomb on it's first release, amazingly prescient now. 

"The Guns of Navarone" (1961)

The huge success of this film ushered in a slew of WWII movies in the 60's & 70's wherein you had a ragtag bunch of misfit soldiers out to foil some nefarious Nazi plot to take over the world. A classy cast of Gregory Peck, David Niven, and Anthony Quinn must destroy two huge satellite guided cannons to save a key Allied island stronghold in the Greek isles. Ficticious claptrap? Yes. Entertaining? You betcha. Throw in Italian beauty Gia Scala and scene chewer Irene Pappas and you've got a winner. 

"The Hill" (1965)

Bleak and unrelenting, a study on man's capacity for violence and torture (both giving and receiving). Sean Connery stars in this WWII drama set in a British North African military prison...he and his fellow inmates suffer at the hands of cruel commanding officers all in the name of soldiering and war. Then things get really ugly. Still very timely...can you say "Abu Ghraib"? See it if only for Sidney Lumet's sharp, taught direction and the stunning bleached out black and white cinematography. Hard to watch but worth the time. 

"The Letter" (1940)

Bette Davis gets the full-gloss Warner Brothers treatment in this film adaptation of a Somerset Maugham play. She's a murderess wife of a rubber plantation owner, the always stolid Herbert Marshall. Was it self defense? Is she lying? Will her selfless lawyer, James Stephenson, save her from the death penalty? Who cares when the whole thing looks and sounds this good. Added bonus: Gale Sondergaard as Bette's nemesis in full Shanghai Lily Chinese getup; love that beaded curtain entrance! 

"Romance on the High Seas" (1948)

Despite her second billing to star Janis Paige, Doris Day steals this one in her film debut. It's a silly shipboard romance with Jack Carson and Don Defore but Doris gets to sing some devine Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn numbers like "It's Magic" and "Put 'em in a Box, Tie with a Ribbon (And Throw 'em in the Deep Blue Sea)". High-spirited fun.

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"Daisy Kenyon" (1947)

Joan Crawford at the height of her Star Power, all sharp eyebrows and shoulder pads. She's a working gal caught in a classic love triangle, torn between returning WWII vet Henry Fonda and sweet-talking married cad Dana Andrews. Who does she choose? Director Otto Preminger keeps you guessing in this smart woman's picture/film noir mashup til the last scene. 

"7 Faces of Dr. Lao" (1964)

God, I loved this movie as a kid (and still do). An odd mix of western, fantasy and allegory...with an acting tour-de-force by...wait for it...Tony Randall. Playing seven(!) roles, among them the titular traveling Chinese circus owner, he teaches various Western townfolk life lessons about themselves...some good, some bad, some scary. With Barbara Eden as the spinster school marm and some wonderful Ray Harryhausen stop-motion SFX (I was always mesmerized by the snake-haired Medusa). 

"Algiers" (1938)

Probably Charles Boyer's most famous role, the cad of the Casbah, Pepe LeMoko...a ne'er do well jewel thief longing for a life back in his beloved Paris and lusting after the incomparably beautiful Hedy Lamarr in her Hollywood debut as a tycoon's kept mistress. Cops, stoolies, urchins, exotic women and even a snappy song from Boyer, all among the rabbit warren of Algerian steets and alleys. Great fun. 

"The Woman Alone" (1936)

If you've never seen any of Alfred Hitchcock's early-career films made in England before Hollywood wooed him stateside, do yourself a favor and seek them out. One of the best is this brooding spy tale starring a hauntingly beautiful Sylvia Sidney who's married to older husband Oscar Homolka. What she doesn't know is that he's a hired gun saboteur...and his dirty dealings tragically encroach on their domestic life as small movie house proprieters. Several famous set pieces--a ticking time bomb, a brilliant dinner table murder--are simply not to be missed. 

"The Apartment" (1960)

Forget "Mad Men". This is the real version of sexual politics and dalliances in Kennedy-era corporate America...made AT THE TIME. Jack Lemmon plays a hapless drone at a mega insurance company in love with sweet elevator operator Shirley MacLaine...problem is, she's in love with big boss (and heel) Fred MacMurray. Surprisingly sad and funny, it's director Billy Wilder's love letter written with an acid pen. 

"The Little Foxes" (1941)

Bette Davis stole the plum Broadway role of venal Regina Giddons from Talullah Bankhead for this movie version. No matter, Lillian Hellman's play of a morally corrupt Southern family is slightly softened but still packs a whallup, due mainly to William Wyler's expert direction and Greg Toland's amazing deep focus cinematography. A handsome production that includes smarmy Dan Duryea and the lovely (as always) Teresa Wright. 

"Penny Serenade" (1941)

Sometimes a film can push so far into pathos the schmaltz turns gold. Witness this ultimate sudser with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant (one of his best performances)...the stars make this hokey thing work because we root for them as a couple; they meet cute, fall in love, then find themselves childless...and turn to a troubled odyssey with Beulah Bondi's odd orphanage. Throw logic out the window...and get your hankies ready. 

"I Remember Mama" (1948)

Usually, be wary of any picture that's known as 'heartwarming'...but this one lives up to it's reputation. Irene Dunne does an affecting turn as the titular matriarch of an immigrant Norwegian family in 1900's San Francisco. Lots of children, sick pets, tears, laughs, and lessons learned...all in that crazy Scandinavian accent ("he can go 'yump' in de bay!"). With a young and quite good Barbara Bel Geddes as the oldest daughter/narrator and George Stevens' fine direction. 

"Lured" (1947)

Before she became the iconic clown of TV, Lucille Ball made many solid pictures in the '40s where you can witness her dramatic acting chops, among them this nifty little film noir. A mad strangler is loose in London preying on young women thru the personal columns, and Scotland Yard recruits taxi dancer Lucy as bate to catch the culprit. Suave George Sanders shows up as the male interest. Smart direction by Douglas Sirk, with some nice comic touches thrown in. 

"Two for the Road" (1967)

Super stylish time skipping rom-com with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney playing a mod 60's couple falling in and out of love in picturesque south of France. Smart, sexy, filmmaking by director Stanley Donen makes you root for this couple even when they're marriage is on the rocks. The clothes are a fashion lover's dream and the lush Henry Mancini score doesn't hurt either. 

"Wake Island" (1942)

"Wake Island" (1942) Intense story of the small company of Marines who found themselves defending this in-the-line-of-fire Pacific outpost in the very early days of WWII. Led by stalwart general Brian Donlevy & featuring William Bendix & Robert Preston as bickering privates. But it's really all about trying smashing the evil Japs, LOTS of torpedoes, bombs, & aerial dogfights. 

"Johnny Belinda" (1948)

In the long tradition of Oscar winners who play physically challenged characters, Jane Wyman does a fine job as the deaf mute who survives social ousting, rape, and even a murder trial in bleak turn-of-the-century Nova Scotia. Thank God, kind doctor Lew Ayres is around to help. It's pure melodrama...but it really works. Nice, moody photography too. 

"How Green Was My Valley" (1941)

 This is the film that infamously beat "Citizen Kane" for Best Picture that year. Is it the better movie? No. Not by a long shot. But you can see why this lovely, emotional story of a poor Welsh family of coal miners struck a chord with Americans right on the eve of WWII. Despite the outside world tearing the family apart, they manage to stay close and have hope. The great John Ford wrings tears happy and sad throughout...and amazingly recreates the hills of Wales in Santa Monica(!) in stunning black and white photography. 

"House By the River" (1950)

A forgotten gem. Fritz Lang directs this gothic tale of murder in a Victorian river town with a sure, purple hand. Given the time it was filmed, it's eye-opening psycho-sexual creepiness makes it a disturbing must-see...and an ambiguous morality tale. 

"The Last of Sheila" (1973)

If you like a good whodunnit--and who dudn’t?-- then this acerbic and bitchy puzzle of a film is de rigueur viewing. In the best tradition of the genre, a group of suspects is plopped down in an isolated locale and the murderous hijinks ensue as clues, red herrings, and bodies pile up. Here, James Coburn plays a conniving Hollywood producer who gathers a group of his movie biz friends for a weekend of parlor games on his swanky yacht off the coast of France. But there’s an air of malice among the festivities; see, exactly one year prior all the attendees were present the night Coburn’s gossip columnist wife (the titular Sheila), was wickedly run down by a hit and run driver. Perhaps that murderer is now among the revelers? As the games progress, someone's not playing fair as the guests get bumped off one by one. This was the first and only produced screenplay by the estimable Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, a famous lover of word games, anagrams, and puzzles (his co-writer was Anthony Perkins-yes, that Norman Bates). The fascinatingly knotty plot (don’t even try to deduce the killer), is kept buoyantly afloat because it’s also a biting lampoon of all those awful denizens of LaLaLand. There’s the vapid starlet (Raquel Welch) and her leeching manager (Ian McShane), the has-been director (James Mason), the dried-up screenwriter (Richard Benjamin), and his mousy wife (Joan Hackett). Best of all is Dyan Cannon doing a lethal caricature of real life monster agent Sue Mengers. She’s got one terrific mad scene where her evil cackle curdles into a cry for help. Director Herb Ross keeps things moving along nicely in the stunning St. Tropez locations; there’s just the right amount of disturbing menace amongst the twisty doings and tart dialog. Kind of like what you’d expect at a Hollywood party filled with beautiful people…don’t turn your back or you’ll get stabbed. And who can resist a final ironic Bette Midler tune as the credits roll and you’ve just realized the answer to the caper has been staring you in the face all along?

"Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974)

One of my all-time favs. Ellen Burstyn plays a newly widowed mother trying to get her life back on track with a bratty son in tow...she finds friends and love (rancher Kris Kristofferson) while slinging hash at Mel's Diner. The unlikely director was Martin Scorsese who keeps things real and surprisingly off kilter, sometimes scarily so. Look for a pre-"Taxi Driver" Jodie Foster who steals the show. 

"Mildred Pierce" (1945)

THE quintessential Joan Crawford movie. What I find most interesting is that it's the perfect melding of two seemingly incongruous genres, 'the woman's picture' and 'film noir'. What becomes more fascinating is the contrast of the story (hard working mother Crawford- pitted against her ungrateful, venal daughter, Anne Blythe) with what we later found out about the star's real 'Mommie Dearest' life. But to heck with Christina...Joan's star power (she won the Oscar for this role) will win you over.

"El Dorado" (1966)

Late in his career director Howard Hawks essentially remade the same western 3 times with John Wayne...the amazing "Rio Bravo", the pretty good "El Dorado", and the so-so "Rio Lobo". If you love westerns (and I do) then you can't really go wrong with The Duke teaming up with old friend Robert Mitchum to save a rancher's acreage from nasty land baron Ed Asner (yes, Mr. Grant!) Also, dig the groovy score by Nelson Riddle...sounds like "Batman" gone country and western.

"Love Affair" (1939)

"Love Affair" (1939) Sappy, soapy, schmaltz...but it works due to an effervescent Irene Dunne and mega-suave Charles Boyer. The director, Leo McCarey, remade this twenty years later as the leaden "An Affair to Remember" with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr; avoid it. Go for the lighter touch of his first try. And don't miss the scene stealing Maria Ouspenskaya (say that three times fast) as the heart tugging granny. 

"Sahara" (1943)

Humphrey Bogart leads an Allied tank squad in WWII North Africa in a gritty, involving story, beautifully shot. By the end, the jingoism gets a tick thick...but consider the era. And, spoiler alert, the Nazis are defeated! But it's a good, dusty ride along the way.

"The Roaring Twenties" (1939)

Cagney and Bogart as arch enemies in this fine gangster/Probition tale. Rowdy speakeasies, tommy guns, and bathtub gin mixed to a frothy fizz. A great Gladys Cooper as a Texas Guinan saloon keeper & a wan Priscilla Lane sings. Don't miss the famous final scene on the church steps. 

"The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952)

Pure Hollywood hokum. But what fun! C.B. DeMille directs with usual Biblical bombast. The cast features a wooden Charlten Heston, but there's Betty Hutton, Gloria Graham, and Dorothy Lamour as friends/catfighters, Cornel Wilde with a Pepe LePew accent and Jimmy Stewart as a clown with a past. A nifty train wreck finale and Betty sings. A guilty pleasure. 

"Criss Cross" (1949)

A very solid film noir with a young Burt Lancaster and Yvonne DeCarlo (yes, Lily Munster) as the story's femme fatale...or is she? Toss in a tense armored car robbery gone awry and Robert Siodmak's cool direction set in the seedier side of '40's L.A. and you've got a very watchable genre piece.