"Footlight Parade" (1933)

If you had to describe to someone exactly what the wacky talent of famed musical director Busby Berkely was, you could show them this eye popping movie. It's a textbook example of his outlandish signature choreography, so over-the-top bizarro, you're still smiling while your jaw is dropping at the same time. Though Berkely didn't direct the whole picture--that credit goes to Lloyd Bacon--he did conceive and execute the three boffo musical numbers that finish the picture, essentially putting him on the Hollywood map as the master of Hollywood razzmatazz. James Cagney, in a role that could be Berkely himself, is the feisty empresario who creates live musical prologues for the big movie houses of the day (things were still in transition from Vaudeville). He's a manic genius who runs himself ragged coming up with more and more crazy numbers to top himself. He's so crazed for his craft that he overlooks the affections of his girl Friday, the always likable Everygirl Joan Blondell. Things race to the finale and those three musical set pieces ("Honeymoon Hotel", "By the Waterfall", and "Shanghai Lil") that have to be seen to be believed. All three are set to Tin Pan Alley tunes that bore into your brain like an earwig, just try and forget them the day after. With chorus girls and boys by the dozen, kaleidoscopic camera work, a water ballet that beats anything Esther Williams did by a decade, and some racy Pre-Code titillation, do yourself a favor and catch this one.

"The Thin Man" (1934)

Who'd have thought you could mash up the murder mystery detective story with the screwball comedy? Director W.S.Van Dyke pulled off this highwire act beautifully in this effervescent adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's last novel. To be sure, all the best ingredients are fully present in the source material. Nick and Nora Charles are the witty, wealthy, and stylish society couple who find themselves embroiled in a Manhattan whodunnit when the secretary of a mysterious scientist turns up dead and his daughter appeals to their crime fighting curiosity to find the killer (and her missing dad).  The fun is in the zippy execution as the red herrings, plot twists, and endless cocktails come at you as fast as the funny throwaway banter of the two leads, played by he incomparable pairing of William Powell and Myrna Loy. This is movie magic chemistry of the first order. It's refreshing to see a married couple so in love with each other; their teamwork is smart sexy fun. So popular, it spawned 5 (!) sequels. And let's not forget the scene stealing antics of their pet fox terrier sidekick, Asta. He's the perfect dollop of whimsy on the whole outing.

"Blow Out" (1981)

A very fine political thriller that looks better and better with each passing year. Director Brian DePalma deftly weaves together a tight plot that references the Kennedy assassination, the Chappaquiddick scandal, and the Watergate coverup. John Travolta is a sound man for cheap grind house slasher pictures. One night he's recording sound effects and witnesses a car careen off a bridge into a river. The two passengers are a governor making a bid for the White House, and his 'date', Nancy Allen. Travolta to the rescue; the politician dies and she lives. That's just the beginning of the twisty plot as the two stars, both never better, find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy coverup because they're The Couple Who Knew Too Much. DePalma has such a command of the whiz bang cinema toys of split screens, cross-cutting, sound effects, deep focus, etc, that each tense set piece will make you giddy. As a wry comment on the proceedings expert cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond bathes the whole production in inky blacks highlighted with reds, whites, and blues, an idea that sounds hokey but works in spades. Add Pino Dinaggio's heartbreaking and lush score and you've got a winner all around. Excellent movie craft becomes high art.

"The Secret of Convict Lake" (1951)

A taut western thriller. Pursued by a posse, Glen Ford leads a band of escaped convicts over the Sierra Nevada mountains in the dead of winter. They happen on a tiny settlement on the other side occupied only by a group of women, their menfolk are all away prospecting for silver. There's beautiful Gene Tierney waiting for her fiancé, bedridden but feisty matriarch Ethel Barrymore, and a frustrated old maid Ann Dvorak among them. A group of lonely women, a group of pent up men, a remote setting...you can cut the sexual tension with a knife. Ford is really a good guy, he's only trying to find the man that lied on the stand at this trial, but galldarnit, turns out he's looking for Tierney's fiancé (while he's falling for her at the same time). The hissable Bad Guy in the bunch is Zachary Scott making a play for Dvorak...or is he merely using her to find a hidden cache of loot? When all these personalities clash, the story keeps ratcheting up to a big gunfight finale. A great cast and some fine scenery. If you love westerns do catch this overlooked gem, it's supposedly based on true legends of the Northern California setting.

"The Women" (1939)

It's hard to decide whether this this film version of Claire Booth Luce's hit Broadway comedy is a high camp classic where everyone involved is in on the joke, or a repulsive misogynistic time capsule relic that should be buried once and for all. Maybe it's both. There's no denying there are some reasons to give a look-see. Norma Shearer is the maddeningly goody-two-shoes wife who finds out her philandering husband is seeing a conniving shopgirl (Joan Crawford) on the side. Her gaggle of friends and family offer either support or behind her back gossip, depending on who's present. The twist in the telling is that the cast is all women, there's not a XY chromosome in the whole picture. But because the film's famous tagline is "It's all about men!", you can bet the only topics discussed are how to get and/or keep your better half. Let's just say this picture fails The Bechdel Test any way you look at it. The fast paced dialog is bitchy, twitchy and oh-so-quotable, it's supplied drag queens with material for over 70 years. Credit that most famous of all 'women's directors', George Cukor, for keeping all the comedic catfights and shoulder crying at a breathless pace. And there's no denying the whole flick is stolen by Rosalind Russell who reaches for the comedy brass ring (and succeeds) as Shearer's shallow backstabbing best friend. Her lethal gossip mongering, temper tantrums, and slapstick physicality are the very essence of what's horrid--and funny--about female friendships. To top it off you get MGM's in-house designer Adrian, outfitting all the actresses in crazy over the top 1930s Schiaparelli inspired fashions...there probably wasn't a bow, button, frill, or sequin left in Hollywood after they finished this one. There's even a "what just happened?" Technicolor fashion show sequence plopped right in the middle of the black and white story just for the hell of it, as if to say "we know damn well ain't no man in this theatre, so enjoy the eye candy, ladies."

 

"Inferno" (1953)

A very fine and forgotten genre busting film. An adventure thriller, a quasi-western, and a Technicolor noir all rolled into one. Robert Ryan is a self-made millionaire who got there the hard way (and probably by bending the rules a little too). Before the credits finish rolling we learn that he's been left to die out in the desert mountains with a broken leg by his beautiful wife (Rhonda Fleming) and her lover, Ryan's business partner (William Lundigan). "It's not exactly murder if we just leave him there." What they don't count on is that Ryan is determined to survive this ordeal if it kills him. The whole film is a cross-cutting between the scheming couple, wringing their hands and dealing with the authorities who are starting to get suspicious, and Ryan keeping his wits and "MacGyvering" his way out of every scrap the unrelenting heat and landscape throw at him. What's fun is you get his voice-over commentary thoughts throughout, mostly about how he's gonna get revenge on those two who done him wrong. You don't really need it, but it gives Ryan double the acting challenge. The stunning Fleming and her mane of red hair are inferno enough, but add to it a gripping finale set amongst a blazing fire and the title more than pays off the whole filmic endeavor. Originally filmed for 3D, this must have been something, but it still plays well without a lot of hokey "Wax Museum" stuff thrown at the camera. Think of it as "Double Indemnity" in the Mojave. Solid entertainment.

"Cinderella Liberty" (1973)

The New Hollywood cinema of the late 1960's and '70's brought profound change to the high gloss perfectionism of the golden studio era that preceded it. The storytelling became grittier, more frank, closer to the honest messiness of real life. Language, sex, race, violence, were all depicted with a new openness. To wit, this small character study was the second adaptation of a Darryl Ponicson novel, the first being the highly successful "The Last Detail" with Jack Nicholson the year before. James Caan is an amiable sailor on shore leave in Seattle. He gets stuck in the town because the Navy has lost his papers, he's free to go as he pleases as long as he's back everyday by midnight (hence the title nickname given this kind of leave). He shacks up with a pool hustling hooker (Marsha Mason) who turns tricks in her fleabag hotel room. Her nine year old half black son sleeps on the couch in the other room while mom takes care of business. How's that for sordid realness? Caan and Mason have fine chemistry as they try to figure out what each of the want out of this tempestuous relationship. If the ending gets a little too pat and heartwarming, all's fine since you've come to care for these little people trying to eek out a life in the big bad world. Some fine atmospheric photography but Vilmos Zsigmond and contemporary score by John Williams add additional interest. There's even a love song penned by Paul Williams sung over a happy montage, what more do you need?