Monday, December 14, 2015

"Made For Each Other" (1939)

One of those movies that gives testament to the strength of Star Power. It starts off as an amiable, almost screwball comedy where a young lawyer (Jimmy Stewart) on the rise in his stuffy firm meets and marries an attractive girl (Carole Lombard) after knowing her for less than a week. But the story ambles and meanders from there as the newlyweds deal with all the tribulations of married life. The thwarted honeymoon, the overbearing mother-in-law, the important boss-comes-to-dinner-that-goes-all-wrong...we've seen it all before, but the leads make it seem so effortless (and fresh) that by the odd third act plot switcheroo that turns the whole enterprise into a weepy melodrama, you've bought into the whole shebang hook, line, and sinker. And that's due to our love for Stewart, the most gosh-darn likable guy ever to grace the screen, and Lombard, the ultimate mix of sexy, smarts, strength, and vulnerability. Wrap it all in David O. Selznick's luxe production and you've got a keeper.

Friday, December 4, 2015

"Keeper of the Flame" (1942)

This solid Tracy/Hepburn vehicle is one of their lesser known pairings. Does it reach the stellar heights of "Adam's Rib", "Woman of the Year", or "Pat and Mike"? Not nearly. But some aspects make it worth a looksee. Essentially a quasi-remake of Hitchcock's "Rebecca", we have another naive outsider entering a ridiculously imposing mansion and getting involved with the spouse of a recently deceased person who looms large in everyone's memory. Tracy is an ex-war correspondent who wants an exclusive interview with widow Hepburn. Her husband was a benevolent businessman and national war hero, a mashup of William Hearst and George Patton. But something seems Not. Quite. Right. As Tracy unpeals this mysterious onion you get both stars' undeniable screen presence under the deft direction of George Cukor and cloaked in ace cinematographer Billy Daniels' almost noir-like blacks and whites. If the denouement doesn't really hang together by the last reel, you have to consider the time the picture was filmed. Watch it for the star power and the sumptuous MGM production instead...and the film debut of Percy Kilbride!


Sunday, November 29, 2015

"High Society" (1956)

On first blush this was a terrible idea. To turn "The Philadelphia Story", one of the most deliciously urbane romantic comedies of all time, into a musical. Hmmm. But then they got one of the century's premier tunesmiths (Cole Porter), no slouch he in the wit department, and, not one, but two of the greatest voices in American popular song (Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra). And if that wasn't enough, they tossed in the 50's most elegant beauty (Grace Kelly) and the man who practically invented the art form known as jazz (Lous Armstrong). Okay, 'uncle'. It all works.  Now, this story of a privileged heiress on the eve of her  Newport wedding to a upper crust stiff and the complications that ensue when she has second thoughts about the altar has lost a lot of it's acerbic bite in the translation. But what went in are some glorious songs sung right by Ol' Blue Eyes, der Bingle , and company that are like manna from movie heaven. The "Now You Has Jazz" number with Crosby and Satchmo is, well, almost too good for words. Just. See. It.


Wednesday, November 18, 2015

"Baby Face" (1933)

Here's one of those Hollywood rags-to-riches stories that must have been so inspiring in the darkest days of the Great Depression. You too could overcome the nation's hard times and make it to the other side of prosperity. But another questionable message was being sent too, and that's the one that makes this Pre-Code artifact so fascinating. Tough as nails Barbara Stanwyck is a barmaid in her father's greasy spoon speakeasy. They run the place out of their grimy apartment and it's insinuated that good ol' Dad serves the factory worker clientele not just beers and hash but his good looking daughter too. One of her regulars gives the fed-up girl some advice, "You've got to use men for your own good!" And so she does. And does. And does. Stanwyck brazenly teases and flirts and beds every man that can get her one step higher on the social ladder, ultimately ending up a high class Park Avenue denizen. But at what price? It's a little creepy nowadays to watch a smart woman character whore her way to wealth and respectability but Stanwyck is so good having a high time controlling all those horned up dupes you can't help but admire her moxie by the end of the picture.


Sunday, November 15, 2015

"Baby Doll" (1956)

Let's see, Tennessee Williams' first original screenplay. Does he serve up his usual steamy stew of Southern Gothic sexuality, libidinous and repressed in equal measures? Well, for starters there's a 19 year old virgin bride (Carroll Baker) who sleeps in a crib and sucks her thumb like she's longing for, ahem, well let's keep going...she's just three days away from consummating her arranged marriage to a braying lunkhead (Karl Malden) who's so pent up he takes to leering at her through holes in the bedroom wall. Then there's the arch rival to Malden in the cotton gin game (Eli Wallach in a sly film debut). He sets his Big Bad Wolf lothario moves on Baker soon enough, but is he really after her post-pubescent charms or trying to get information on the culprit who burned down his cotton mill? This film detonated like an A-bomb in the middle of the buttoned down 1950's. Banned at the time by numerous cities and the Catholic League, it still has the audacious power to shock and titillate, all told with William's patented blend of hyper emotional dialogue dipped in sorghum soaked drawls. A first rate production design by twins (!) Richard and Paul Sylbert and canny direction by Elia Kazan are the icing on the whole sweet 'n salacious outing. Prepare to clutch your rosary.


Tuesday, November 10, 2015

"The Big Country" (1958)

What's in a name? Everything if you're talking about this quality western. Big story. Big cast. Big music. Big widescreen vistas. And most importantly, Big Theme. Gregory Peck, doing his stoic and taciturn best, is an educated gentleman from back East who comes out West to marry his fiancé (Carroll Baker), the bratty scion of a wealthy cattleman with a big ranch (Charles Pickford). How big? BIG. You know that because every character in the movie tells him. But trouble starts when Peck realizes he's caught in the bickering crossfire between his future father-in-law and another rival rancher (Burl Ives). These two old coots go at it tooth and nail, threatening and insulting each other 'til things get really dicey. Each has a son figure by his side, Charlton Heston and Chuck Connors, to further goad pacifist Peck into manning up and takin' sides. Now, given the era it was filmed, the whole movie can be read as a Cold War allegory (Will these two warring factions fight to the death and kill everybody along with them?), but it's just more fun to sit back and watch all these great actors play out the story against director William Wyler's wide screen panoramas. Lovely schoolteacher Jean Simmons is around to vie for Peck's heart, and Ives steals the picture--and took home the Oscar--for his blustery patriarch turn. Major points for some great Saul Bass titles and the justifiably iconic score by Jerome Moross. Just try and get the recognizable title theme out of your head. You will lose.


Sunday, October 25, 2015

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1941)

This film version of Robert Louis Stevenson's tale of a scientist's experiments with mind and body transformations via a laboratory potion was castigated and an embarrassing flop on it's initial release.
Many thought Spencer Tracy's two character performance was hammy and hamfisted. He even thought it would ruin his career! It's time for a rewrite. Let's start with the production. It got the full luxe MGM treatment.There's nothing like fog-blanketed Victorian London to set a moody tone and here you get those eerie cobblestoned passageways with a murderous cloaked madman flitting about the barred parks and side streets like a superhuman acrobat. Chillingly beautiful. And then the cast: Tracy brings a nuanced interpretation to the halved protagonist, more psychological than Freddie Kruger scary. Stevenson's idea of Everyman being a receptacle of Good and Evil is ratcheted up another Freudian notch. The Evil is our id, sexual repression leads to beastly carnality. The good doctor is torn between his virginal fiance, Lana Turner as a dewey Victorian Barbie doll, and the lustier bad girl, Ingrid Bergman as a hotly-totsy barmaid garbling a dubious Cockney accent. Each woman toys with his inner urges (given how stunningly beautiful they're filmed by lensman Joseph Ruttenberg, is it any wonder?) and each summons up that creepy ol' Mr. Hyde in some disturbing shock moments. But if there's one reason to see how legendary director Victor Fleming spins the yarn, it's in the Jekyll-to-Hyde mutation sequences. The images that are careening thru Jekyll's brain are so bizarro you wonder "How did this get past the Hayes office??" Need I say more than Tracy flogging two horses with a whip, one white, one black, who morph into galloping naked Turner and Bergman? If that doesn't get you to watch this underrated classic I don't know what will.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

"Sea Wife" (1957)

What is it about survivors lost at sea in a lifeboat that makes for good movie watching? It must be the enormity of powerful Mother Nature bearing down on those little people trying to eke out an existence despite all odds. We know someone--probably not all--will survive, so there's an element of suspense. Of course there's always little or no food or water, the unbearable sun, the long stretches of tedium where all you have to do is discuss Life...and don't forget sharks! It's all here as four strangers from a torpedoed steamship during WWII bob along in the Indian Ocean in a rubber raft...a beautiful young woman (Joan Collins), a British army officer (Richard Burton), a boorish racist of a businessman (Basil Sydney), and black seaman (Cy Grant). Things get steamier as Burton falls in love with Collins but she's got a Very Big Secret. You have to watch and see if he finds out what she's hiding before the castaways get rescued. (And do please overlook some of the special effects, they're a mite 1950's cheesy). In case you're wondering, Burton and Collins don't wed on the high seas, the title refers to an old sailor's term for mermaid, the men's nickname for La Joan when she takes a dip over the vessel's side.


Sunday, October 18, 2015

"Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" (1957)

John Huston directed this quasi remake of his very own "The African Queen". If the formula works, why mess with it? Here we have another two character adventure story with a prim woman and a rough around the edges man thrown together into hyper survival mode in an exotic locale during wartime. A nun (Deborah Kerr) and marine (Robert Mitchum) are the only castaways on a remote island in the South Pacific during WWII. Two polar opposites, they befriend each other and learn to survive even when the Japs land and takeover the island. Things get even knottier/naughtier as Mitchum starts falling for Kerr. Great suspense and terrific chemistry between the two leads (this is the first of four films they made together). Mitchum's own favorite of all his roles.


Saturday, October 17, 2015

"The Rose Tatoo" (1955)

Remember that episode of "I Love Lucy" where Lucy schemes to get a part in an Italian movie and she wants to emulate those lusty Italian actresses of the day so she ends up getting inspiration by stomping grapes in a vineyard? Well, Anna Magnani was one of those prime leading ladies of Italian neo-realism cinema and this movie brought that sensibility to Hollywood. It's a fine adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play (he did the screenplay), and he wrote the piece with Magnani in mind. How different she must have seemed from all the perfectly made-up and coiffed actresses of the time! Loud, unkempt, zoftig, with a face far from classically beautiful, she's totally refreshing and unforgettable. No wonder she walked away with Academy Award Best Actress honors that year. And if you come expecting Williams' usual mix of Southern Gothic sturm und drang told in poetic purple language, think again. This story of emotionally closed off widow opening herself up to a younger new love is happier and lighter in tone, an opera buffa set on the steamy Gulf Coast. Burt Lancaster is the clownish new paramour serving up a character you almost want to hate he's trying so hard to be likable, but before long he wins Magnani (and you) over. Yes, there's a lot of symbolism flying around--not one, but FOUR characters sport the title skin art--but with acting this good, all shown off in Oscar winner James Wong Howe's nuanced black and white cinematography, you'll go along for the earthy ride.




Tuesday, October 13, 2015

"Broken Lance" (1954)

An excellent cast in a re-telling of King Lear set in the Old West.  As in any version of this tragedy, it's all about the old man, and here it's a standout performance by Spencer Tracy as an ornery old cuss of a cattleman trying to deal with the sharp rattlesnake's tooth of his thankless children. But it's not a brood of daughters bickering over control of the ponderosa, it's four sons (Robert Wagner, Hugh O'Brian, Earl Holliman, and the eldest Richard Widmark). Tracy is effortless, by turns mean, stubborn, frightening, and tender (especially in his scenes with his Indian wife, the lovely Katy Jurado and his youngest half-breed son, his "Cordelia", the almost too handsome Wagner). And to thicken the plot's stew, Tracy must deal with a big mining company who is poisoning his land's water and has the state's shifty governor (E.G. Marshall) in its back pocket. A topnotch production  with director Edward Dmytryk making fine use of the widescreen Cinemascope vistas, plus a rousing western score by Leigh Harline.


Monday, October 12, 2015

"49th Parallel" (1941)

To some degree, all WWII movies made before and during the war are propaganda pieces. If the Allies didn't win the battle in the end there was always hope to fight another day. This engrossing thriller is of the latter kind but with a twist: the POV of the protagonists is of the Germans. A U-boat has made its way across the Atlantic to attack Canada's Hudson Bay. The sub is bombed and sunk but six survivors led by a hissable Lieutenant (Eric Portman) have the delusional idea that if they just march on across the continent they'll somehow get to Vancouver to be saved by the Japanese!
It turns into  road picture as they encounter (and terrorize) various types of Canadian citizens along the way...eskimos, lumberjacks, religious Hutterites, Indians, Mounties. Some are played by big name British talent in showy cameos. There's Laurence Olivier as a French Canadian lumberjack doing a wince-inducing Blacque Jacque Shellacque accent, Lesley Howard as an art loving writer, and Raymond Massey as a Canadian soldier. And while the agitprop is laid on pretty thick (one of the main goals was to foster American sympathy for the war effort), it all works because of the suspenseful setpieces where those likable Canadians keep outwitting the nasty Nazis. Who doesn't love kicking Jerry ass? Plus there's a simply gorgeous score by classical composer Ralph Vaughn Williams, his first of several for the cinema. Also look for a teenage Glynnis Johns as one of the Hutterite maidens.


Thursday, October 1, 2015

"Gun Crazy" (1950)

This justifiably famous cult noir is the grandaddy of all "young lover criminals on the lam" movies. Without it there would be no "Bonnie and Clyde", no "Badlands", no "Natural Born Killers". And although those stories pushed the boundaries of the scary mix of sex with violence, this tight, low budget character study still has the power to disturb and seem evergreen 65 years later. It's a simple plot: two aimless and alienated young people meet, fall in love, and begin a life of crime, leaving a murderous path in their wake before society sadly brings them down. The twist here is all in the title, the couple (John Dall and Peggy Cummins, both excellent), are each expert sharpshooters. Guns and gunplay are eroticized for these two walking ids. Shooting and killing are their sexual release. Credit goes to director Joseph H. Lewis for taking a B movie premise and pushing it into a bigger statement about America's fascination with firearms that's still sadly relevant today. Look for the famous long take bank heist with the two leads in cowboy outfits(!) Just terrific filmmaking.



Monday, September 21, 2015

"The Owl and the Pussycat" (1970)

The New Cinema of the 1970's had no room for slick picture-perfect rom-com's of Hollywood past. An Barbra Streisand's career was stalling in overblown gargantuan musicals (I remember one of MAD magazine's parody covers at the time, "On a Clear Day You Can Hear a Funny Girl Singing Hello Dolly Forever"). So this modest little comedy, basically just two characters and based on Bill Manhoff's hit Broadway play, was just what everyone needed. It was "adult", there were four letter words, nudity, sex, prostition, drugs, fetishes, all set in grimy, gritty Lindsay-era New York City. It was a little foul-mouthed and very funny. It was still boy and girl meet cute, hate each other, bicker, fall in love, bicker some more, and cue the happy ending. And the pairing of a staid pent up bookish guy who meets a flirty free spirit girl with sparks flying goes back to at least "Bringing Up Baby", but what puts this telling over the top is the pairing of a looser Streisand and her likable co-star, George Segal. You root for the sparring couple, and isn't that what romance pictures are all about? A young Robert Klein makes a good appearance, and extra points for the jazz rock score and end credit song by au courant band of the time Blood, Sweat, and Tears.



"Pale Rider" (1985)

By the mid-1980's the moribund western genre needed a much needed kickstart, a fresh approach to re-ignite interest in the classic filmic form. Along came Clint Eastwood--in his first western in nine years--with this very serious elegiac picture where he's essentially resurrecting his 'man with no name' persona. And maybe resurrect is the wrong word, since he's playing a specter risen from the dead--or is he? We're in gold mining country in northern California sometime after the Civil War. A land baron (snarly Richard Dysart) is terrorizing a small panning community with his rough riding goon squad led by his son (Chris Penn). He wants their land rights, they need a miracle. As if on cue, in rides a mysterious stranger on a pale horse (see Revelation 6:8, aka 'Death') with almost super human strength and sureshot gunslinging abilities to save them. Eastwood barely raises his voice above a low rasp. You get the feeling he's not only playing with the mythos of the movie western, he's goosing his own cinematic legacy. If you like your oaters heavy with symbolism and meaning, this is your ticket. If not, you still get all those great Hollywood tropes: gorgeous mountain vistas, galloping horses, violent gunfights on main street, cowering womenfolk...all painterly lit by photographer Bruce Surtees in sepulchral tones of grey, brown, ochre, charcoal, and black. A fine entry to the canon.


Saturday, September 19, 2015

"The Little Foxes" (1941)

Probably my favorite of Bette Davis' 1940's melodramas, a superb filming of Lillian Hellman's  play about greed, deception and their ultimate cost. She's the calculating and mercenary matriarch of a completely amoral turn-of-the-century family in the deep South. The main plot hinges on the double dealings amongst Davis and her two venal brothers (Charles Dingle, Carl Benton Reid) for the family business. It's a game of chess as they all try to outsmart the others for the financial spoils but completely blind to the effect it has on all the other 'good' members of the clan, Davis' daughter (wholesome Teresa Wright), the fragile sister-in-law (Patricia Collinge), and her sickly but defiant husband (Herbert Marshall). Intelligent script by Hellman is only aided by the dead-on direction of William Wyler. Watch for how he packs so much information in the frame, expertly utilizing cinematographer Gregg Toland's deep focus photography (he lensed "Citizen Kane" that same year). There's as much happening in the foreground and background as there is in the main center frame action. Davis plays it hard and bitter, with some scary kabuki-like white make-up, a mask hiding the cold heart underneath. Frightening and fascinating, the famous murder scene will give you chills.


Monday, September 7, 2015

"The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" (1946)

One of the fascinating aspects of film noir is how malleable a genre it is, how it can combine with other genres to supply endless variations on the tenets of the form. Here it takes the shape of a moody melodrama, but because it's noir, the family story at it's core takes on a lurid psycho-sexual undercurrent. In the lengthy prologue, three young teenagers are party to a Big Secret that involves murder. Almost twenty years later the girl is Barbara Stanwyck who has married one of the boys (Kirk Douglas in his fine feature debut). Van Heflin is the second boy who in coming back to town shakes up the past...and everyone's world. Blackmail, betrayal, old passions, and yes, more murder are on tap. And if that's not enough enter Lizabeth Scott, the poor man's Bacall, to turn the sordid love triangle into a messy rectangle. Lording over the whole steamy stew is Stanwyck in her usual nonpareil form. No one did the Ice Queen Bitch better than her. Watch how she emasculates the two symbolically impotent male leads with just her eyes! That's acting.  And she does it in a knockout wardrobe of Edith Head shoulder padded stunners to boot.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

"The Asphalt Jungle" (1950)

If you look way down deep into the blackest heart of film noir, near the nadir you'll find this grandaddy of all caper flicks. Every character's motivation is driven by the darker side of human nature, and that can only lead to tragedy. But oh what cinematic thrills await in the telling of the tale! All caper films follow the same basic formula, this one set the rules (and the high bar): a group of shady types, each with his own expertise, concoct a high stakes heist that must be executed with Swiss timepiece accuracy. What could go wrong? The answer is almost always plenty. But that's not even when the real drama begins. How do all these nefarious types divvy up the booty? As the saying goes, 'there's no honor among thieves'. A perfect ensemble cast (Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Same Jaffe,  Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, and making her slinky film debut, Marilyn Monroe), all somehow manage to make you care for these desperate people even as you watch them do despicable things to each other. Only that irascible devil of a director John Huston could pull off this witch's brew of movie malevolence. Must-see viewing for anyone who loves film.




Sunday, August 23, 2015

"The Toast of New Orleans" (1950)

Oh, the bittersweet tragedy of Mario Lanza. Nowadays merely a pop culture footnote, but for a brief few years in the middle 20th century he was as big as they come before his life was sadly cut short at only 38 years old. Blessed with chiseled Italian-American good looks and a thrilling tenor voice that could veer from Top 40 pablum to Puccini without breaking a sweat, his likable films brought accessible middle-brow culture to post-War America. Was he great actor? Not really. But my God, that Voice. This flimsily plotted musical is typical of his oeuvre. He's Pepe Duvalle, a rough 'n tumble creole fisherman in turn of the century Louisiana. When he's discovered by a New Orleans opera producer (the always game David Niven in a thankless role) slumming it in the backwoods bayous, it's a matter of time before he's the title overnight star. Along the way he flirts, bickers, and courts Niven's other protegé, pretty but snobby Kathryn Grayson. To hear these two duet, her lovely coloratura and his bell-clear tenor, in this film's huge hit "Be My Love" is thrilling movie heaven. Who cares if Sammy Cahn's wince inducing lyrics ("And hand in hand, we'll find love's Promised Land") are laugh-out-loud bad? These two sell it. Look for a very young Rita Moreno as a peasant ingenue who steals one of the big dance numbers, "Tina Lina".


Friday, July 24, 2015

"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.


Tuesday, July 21, 2015

"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.


Sunday, July 19, 2015

"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.


Sunday, July 12, 2015

"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.


Friday, July 3, 2015

"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."

 

Sunday, June 21, 2015

"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.


Sunday, June 14, 2015

"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?

 

Sunday, May 31, 2015

The Long, Long Trailer (1953)

What if you could watch an entirely new episode of "I Love Lucy" that was an hour and a half, in blazing Technicolor, and one that got Lucy and Ricky out of that cramped New York apartment set and out into the wide open spaces of the Rocky Mountains? Look no further, friend. What was surely an effort to cash in on the mega success of their TV show, this glossy MGM fluff piece gave fans more of what they loved from that screwball couple. Here they're newlyweds named Tacy and Nicky (rimshot!) on the cross country maiden voyage of their spanking new life on wheels, a 30 foot trailer home that's way, WAY too big for these neophytes. But this was no slouch production. They got Vincent Minelli to direct, who deftly handles some truly thigh slapping sequences. Yes, Miss Ball does her iconic slapstick and mugging (no one was better), but the surprise is that Desi Arnaz holds his own and has some good bits beyond is exasperated spitting mad Latin husband character. The movie's an innocent snapshot of a post-war America, flush with itself and enamored with it's cars, highways, and disposable income, too innocent to know of the all the turmoil that would show up in decades to come. Just laugh at the antics and funny cameos from scene stealers like Keenan Wynn and Marjorie Main, it's a DesiLu lovefest well worth the time.


Sunday, May 17, 2015

"The Producers" (1968)

The film farce that spawned the mega-successful Broadway musical adaption (and subsequent movie remake). It all spins off a hare-brained scheme: two loser theatrical producers want to mount the worst play of all time so that they can reap all the investment money when it will most assuredly bomb. High jinx ensue when, of course, it's a smash success. Oops.  The gawdawful play is titled "Springtime for Hitler", complete with a hippie-dippie Hitler (Dick Shawn) cavorting with goosestepping scantily clad chorinnes forming Buzby Berkely swastikas. Coming only 20 odd years after the Holocaust, the audacious irreverence has lost the cultural sting it probably had when first introduced. The "Oh my Lord, is this really going there?" daring now only seems like tame borscht belt schtick. First time director Mel Brooks doesn't help either. Crudely paced, he has no clue where to put the camera. What still works though--and the only reason to watch--is the go-for-broke performances of the two leads played by Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Their amped up baffoonish mugging is antic, grotesque...and hilarious. The best bits are the throw away lines and priceless asides. Great comic timing lasts forever. A dated relic good for more than a few belly laughs, see it.


Friday, May 8, 2015

"Side Street" (1949)

All the classic elements of noir reshuffled into a tight must-see delight. A little Everyman (mailman Farley Granger) is haplessly drawn deeper and deeper into a world of crime because of a two bit theft he knows he shouldn't have committed. All he wants is to squirrel away a little cash to take care of his pregnant wife (Cathy O'Donnell). But it's too late, he steals from the wrong bad guys. They want their money back and him dead. Oh, and the cops are hot on his trail too. Director Anthony Mann keeps the whole piece white knuckle taut and tense. It's like you're watching a poor mouse running for his life in a dangerous urban maze. The finale car chase literally takes a God's eye view of New York City, with all the players in a high speed chase through the steal and cement canyons. The soulless landscape is swallowing up humanity whole. Depressing? Yes. Superb movie watching? You bet.


Sunday, May 3, 2015

"Dancing Lady" (1933)

This schizophrenic grab bag of a movie can't decide if it wants to be a romance, a backstage melodrama, a full-on musical, or a slapstick comedy. And if the sum of the parts don't add up to a cohesive whole, none's the pity. The mega-watt star power of the leads gets it across the finish line admirably. Joan Crawford is here doing her patented working class girl bit. She was always great in those roles where nothing is going to stop her from making something of herself through sheer hard work and determination (a sentiment that played well during the Great Depression no doubt). Mr. Park Avenue Rich Guy (Franchot Tone) takes one look at her on stage and is smitten, but she'll have none of it. She's got other plans, to be a 'star' in legit theatre, even if she has to railroad her demanding director (Clark Gable) to do it. Oh, and maybe she's falling for him in the offing too. You can feel Crawford working her damnedest in all the singing and dancing numbers, God Bless her, but there's a reason she was never a musical comedy actress. It's her chemistry with Gable that's the thing to watch. They are unbelievably magnetic and goshalmighty are they are stunning in their closeups, the very definition of  what movie stars of the Golden Era embody. And if that's not enough you get Fred Astaire in his movie debut doing an odd Bavarian fantasy number with Crawford in blonde pigtails and he in lederhosen. Plus the Three Stooges as nitwit stagehands, Nelson Eddy crooning a big production number, and a cameo of a young Eve Arden in Southern accent. Something to please everyone.


Sunday, April 26, 2015

"A Free Soul" (1931)

It's the cast that make this a Hollywood melodrama of the finest order served thick and hammy. Just as they famously would eight years later in "Gone With the Wind", Clark Gable and Lesley Howard vie for the affection of a spoiled society girl. This time it's Adrian gowned and furred Norma Shearer who has to choose between the pantingly sexy mobster (Gable) and the wealthy--but somewhat stiff--WASP (Howard). But there's one more man in this boiling pot of emotions: Shearer's drunkard but brilliant trial lawyer, Lionel Barrymore. He won't accept his daughter slumming with the underworld cad Gable who's also his client. It all comes to a not-to-be-believed stunner of a courtroom scene with tensions and revelations galore. Barrymore probably won the Oscar for this canny bit of scene-stealing alone. Pre-code malarky but oh-so-watchable.


Sunday, April 19, 2015

"They Live by Night" (1948)

What makes the film noir genre so endlessly fascinating is the many variations on its heady thematic brew of alienation/crime/desire/psychosis. This fine example from first time director Nicholas Ray hits all those high notes and then some. Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donell are pitch perfect as two teenage country rubes who get caught up in a string of botched bank robberies with two ex-cons, Howard DaSilva and Jay C. Flippen. As the movie progresses you very much care for these kids who just want to escape to a better life but this being a nasty noir world, once you've been pulled into a life of crime it's pretty much a fast descent to a bad end. There have been many young criminal lovers-on-the-run movies since (the most famous, "Bonnie & Clyde", borrows extensively from it), but this one has an indelible place all it's own in that dark place where passion meets sin.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

"Anchors Aweigh" (1945)

This wartime musical has a thin hodgepodge of a plot but it boasts a smorgasbord of entertaining highlights. Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra are two sailors on shore leave for four days in Hollywood with one goal: girls, girls, girls. Kelly is the ladies' man and Sinatra the shy kid from Brooklyn who needs to be shown the romantic ropes. They meet and vie for the affections of aspiring actress Kathryn Grayson and her too-cute-for-words nephew, little Dean Stockwell who steals every scene he's in. Kelly shot to mega-stardom with this vehicle and it's easy to see why. He's charismatic, sexy, and his boundless athletic dancing is hard not to love, he draws you in like a tractor beam. By comparison, Sinatra is way overshadowed, he seems reticent, like he knows he's being outshined, but there's no denying he can still sell a handful of Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn numbers with that smooth baritone Voice. Grayson fulfills the requirements of lovely eye candy, plus she has a couple of faux operatic songs in her signature trilly coloratura style. The famous dance scene with Kelly jumping into an animated fairytale world and dueting with Jerry mouse still looks great.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

"The Divorcee" (1930)

That goody-goody Grand Dame of Hollwood, Norma Shearer, nabbed an Oscar by going bad in this pre-Code romance drama. She's a high-society It Girl who falls in love and marries New York's biggest catch (Chester Morris). All is well until an old flame of his turns up and he admits to some marital cheating. She decides that turnabout is fair play so she shacks up with one of his best friends. Then things really get unpleasant. Like most early talkies, it's a bit stagey and the acting is mannered, but the frank handling of sex, infidelity and equality of the sexes (in 1930!) make it a fascinating outing. And La Shearer gets to wear some stunning Adrian gowns through all that hand wrung suffering.


Sunday, March 29, 2015

"All That Money Can Buy" (1941)

This little-known film is almost unclassifiable, a sui generis fantasy/film noir mashup. Also known as "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and taken from a story by Stephen Vincent BenĂ©t of the same name, it comes from the same propulsive creativity in Hollywood studio filmmaking that birthed "Citizen Kane" in the same year. James Craig is a 19th Century farmer with a streak of bad luck and failing crops. Enter the Devil himself, Walter Huston as "Mr. Scratch", who offers Craig a life and fortune too good to pass up...only--you guessed it--he has to sign over a little thing called his soul. The only person to turn to is a wily politician and lawyer, Daniel Webster (the blustery Edward Arnold), who just might outwit the evil conniver in a fantasy court of law. Each scene and frame of the entire piece is filled with artistry and masterful direction. Kudos to director William Dieterle for helming a one-of-a-kind cinematic treat. Look for that "Cat People" vixen Simone Simon as the Devil's femme fatale luring Craig to his possible doom.


Monday, March 23, 2015

"With a Song in My Heart" (1952)

A fine musical bio-pic about the life of singer Jane Froman. Who, you ask? She was an extremely popular radio and nightclub personality who sang The Great American Songbook, those indelible songs of Rodgers, Hart, Porter, Gershwin, Kern, and others. She had a lovely bell-clear contralto voice that must've played well on the airwaves. But the real reason this film was such a huge success in it's post-War release was that her story was vintage American boosterism, a rallying cry for those overcoming unsurmountable obstacles and, by gosh, doing whatever it takes to win. On her way to entertain the WWII troops in Europe, her plane crashes just shy of the Portugal coast, badly crippling her legs. She would fight operation after operation, enduring great pain for the rest of her life. But despite this big setback--and in true Hollywood fashion--the show DID go on. Susan Hayward gives a modulated warm performance lip synching to the real recordings of Froman. Yes, there's a romantic subplot involving her first loveless marriage to her manager (David Wayne) and her affair with swoon-worthy soldier Rory Calhoun, but it's the musical numbers of some fine classics like "Blue Moon", "Embraceable You", "That Old Feeling", "Get Happy", etc, that make it so watchable. Look for a star making cameo of a very young and dashing Robert Wagner as a sad G.I. with PTSD.



Monday, February 16, 2015

"Advise and Consent" (1962)

Director Otto Preminger helms this classy political melodrama that while over fifty years old, doesn't date itself much. That's not necessarily a good thing. Sadly we still live with Washington's partisan backbiting, spineless congressmen, and Nixonian 'dirty tricks', all in evidence here. The ailing President (Franchot Tone) nominates a controversial senator to be the new Secretary of State (Henry Fonda). An all-star cast of congressmen--Walter Pidgeon, Don Murray, Peter Lawford, George Grizzard, Will Geer, Betty White(!)--all try to get their fingers in the pie, pro and con. Lording over the whole bunch like a fat nasty buddha is the deceitful and grandstanding Senator from the conservative South, Charles Laughton. The very symbol of oily politics, he's the standout performance. The plot is notable for one gay character being threatened with public outing, a ploy that would surely end their career (remember this is the early 60s), and we even get a peek into Hollywood's first depiction of a gay bar (spoiler: it looks like fun). All this and some beautiful titles by the great Saul Bass. Check it out.



Saturday, February 14, 2015

"Torch Song" (1953)

This is probably Joan Crawford's most famous camp classic, a near-parodic vanity piece that's wince inducing, jaw dropping...and delicious heaven for lovers of Bad Cinema. How to describe it? Too old for the role by ten years at least, she's Broadway's biggest musical theatre star in rehearsal for her latest (hopefully) boffo show. Demanding perfection no matter who in the cast she mows down, there's still cracks in her icy veneer. It's lonely at the top in her Manhattan penthouse, if only she had a man. Enter dashing and erudite Michael Wilding as the new company pianist, but he's--wait for it--blind. You heard that right. And if you can get past that, just wait for the musical numbers. There's a WTF doozy ("Two Faced Woman") where you'll be lunging for the rewind button to watch again as the entire cast performs in blackface(!) Crawford looks like Al Jolson doing an impression of Lena Horne. Priceless. By the end your feelings go out to Joan, you can feel her brittle tenacity as she swallows the role whole, God how she works hard, but you're sadly just watching the "Mommie Dearest" gorgon you think she might have been in real life and you pity the screen legend.



Saturday, February 7, 2015

"The Perils of Pauline" (1947)

No one would ever accuse Betty Hutton of being a subtle actress. She played every film performance at full tilt, a whirligig of manic energy and enthusiasm. Too obvious, a little cornball, but eventually she wins you over with that by-golly-gee-whiz gumption of hers. In the '40s she was a sunny antidote to the dark post-war films noir. Here she's the silent film star Pearl White who rose to fame in all those cliffhanging serials. It's a perfect vehicle for the athletic Hutton allowing her to recreate classic nailbiting scenes like the damsel on the railroad tracks, the runaway hot air balloon, and my favorite, tied to the log heading for the buzzsaw. Though it's a musical with some fine Frank Loesser tunes ("I Wish I Didn't Love You So"), the picture is really a fun send-up of the silent moviemaking days.

  

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

"Brute Force" (1947)

This very aptly named prison picture pulls no punches. Prisoner Burt Lancaster and his handful of cellmates have a foolproof plan to make The Big Break. There's one hitch and it's a huge one: the very nasty chief of guards is onto their scheme and he's gonna foil the plot and make their lives hell afterward. The usually sweet Hume Cronyn goes against type and throws himself into the role of this baddie, he's power-hungry and mean to the core. Director Jules Dassin cloaks the whole picture in a pervasive mood of hopeless melancholy punctuated with some nasty and unforgettable violence that you can't believe was depicted in the late '40s. The only relief is each man gets a pre-prison flashback to his life with a ladyfriend, so you get cameos with lovelies like Ann Blythe and Yvonne DeCarlo, but not for long, it's back to penitentiary purgatory and the what-will-happen-next story. Even if the anti-prison message is laid on thick this expertly crafted noir is well worth catching.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

"Far From the Madding Crowd" (1967)

The 1960's It Girl Julie Christie has a star turn in this very fine adaptation of Thomas Hardy's proto-feminist 19th century novel. She's a headstrong young woman who comes into a substantial inheritance, her wealthy uncle's working farm. In good time she manages to beguile three different suitors all at once, making her the Goldilocks of the English countryside. One is too cold, the older and stuffy land baron next door (Peter Finch); one is too hot, the smoldering army sergeant (Terence Stamp) who, ahem, makes good use of his broadsword; and the last, the earthy farmhand (Alan Bates) may be just right. It's all set in the achingly beautiful English countryside of Dorset and Wiltshire and the film feels as if it's looking ahead to the style of the best '70s cinema, it has a modern sensibility despite being a period costumer. Richard Rodney Bennett's score is a big plus too.


Wednesday, January 14, 2015

"Mister Roberts" (1955)


When Henry Fonda played the good guy his characters weren't just exemplars of honor--which in the wrong hands could veer to the treacly and pious--they were a tangible image of what we hoped we could be if faced with the same circumstances.  Here he's a frustrated WWII Navy lieutenant stationed on a mind-numbingly boring supply ship far from any real action in the Pacific Theatre. All he wants is some form of military purpose and meaning to his naval service. But make no mistake, this is no existential mood piece. It's a cleverly funny and poignant take on the toll war can take on the serviceman's psyche, clearly laying the foundation for "M*A*S*H" fifteen years later. Fonda's surrounded by a stellar cast of shipmates: a bafoonish martinet of a commander (James Cagney), the ship's wise doctor (William Powell), and the sex-starved Ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon, who almost steals the movie in an Oscar winning turn). Fonda played this role for two years on Broadway, fitting it like hand in glove. Watch as he makes it all seem so effortless, even ultimately as he--damn him!--makes us care so much when a gut-punch ending breaks our hearts.


Monday, January 12, 2015

"The Naked Spur" (1953)

One of the five great adult-themed westerns Jimmy Stewart made in the 1950's with director Anthony Mann. We often think of him as the honest and affable American Everyman but when you delve deeper into his output as an actor you realize he was at his best with characters who were battling really big inner demons. Here he's an ex-rancher on the hunt for an outlaw murderer, a smarmy smiling Robert Ryan with a big bounty on his head. It's unsettling to see him pursue this lout just to get the filthy lucre, you root for him but it leaves a sour taste. On top of that he's suffering from PTSD after his time in the Civil War AND he has to contend with some other ne'er-do-wells he meets along the way--a dishonorably discharged calvary officer (Ralph Meeker) and an opportunistic panhandler (Millard Mitchell)--who want to split this questionable windfall three ways. Leave it to Stewart to win our sympathies (and the heart of love interest Janet Leigh) despite the anti-hero baggage. It's all played out against the stunning Technicolor vistas of the Rocky Mountains. The juxtaposition of nasty people and beautiful scenery makes for fascinating viewing.


Wednesday, January 7, 2015

"David Copperfield" (1935)


You might think it folly to undertake the filming of Charles Dickens' beloved Bildungsroman, but this adaptation comes about as close to getting it absolutely right as anyone could hope. As young David, Freddie Bartholomew is scarily good; there's a reason boy-wise he was almost as popular as Shirley Temple in the '30s. Yet as good as he is, it's the rest of the cast that really shine as all those deliciously eccentric Dickensian characters with names like Peggotty, Chillip, Murdstone, and Gummidge. Best of all, W.C. Fields practically steals the entire picture as Mr. Micawber. He eschews his trademark child-hating boozer act and probably gives the most sincere and charming performance of his career. Classic storytelling with that expert MGM gloss.


"Carrie" (1952)


This is not the telekinetic frightfest of the '70s but a very fine adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's turn-of-the-century novel "Sister Carrie", starring Jennifer Jones as the put-upon title character and Laurence Olivier in a master class of heartbreakingly restrained acting. She's a midwestern farmgirl who finds nothing but tribulations when she moves to the big city. When she falls for Olivier, the manager of a plush restaurant, things start looking up but there's one big problem: he's married to ĂĽber-bitch Miriam Hopkins and she's not letting him go that easy. This being Dreiser material it's not only depressing, it's slit-your-wrists-stick-your-head-in-the-oven bleakness. It's all saved from teetering into soapland by that canny old pro, director William Wyler. There's not a false note in the perfect storytelling and period detail, plus there's David Raksin's moltenly beautiful score. 


"The Set-Up" (1949)


Sometimes you discover a movie and afterward you say to yourself, "Omigosh, where has this film BEEN all my life?" This little gem is not merely one of the the best boxing films ever, it's one of the best films in the whole film noir canon. Period. Robert Ryan is a sincere palooka, a decent boxer who never quite broke thru to title status and who's now getting just a little too old...but there's one more fight. Trouble is, his smarmy manager has told the local mob boss Ryan is gonna throw the bout, they just haven't told him. Given this is a nasty noir world, you know the tragedy's coming, you just don't know how bad it will be. Brace yourself, it's heartbreaking. Every boxing flick since owes a BIG debt to the way this film is expertly shot and edited (Mr. Scorcese, i'm looking at you). At a swift real-time of only 73 minutes, it's fast, filmic, punchy, and perfect. Don't miss it. 


"Up the Down Staircase" (1967)


It's a plot that never fails: a callow school teacher enters their first job with high idealistic hopes of shaping young minds, but they run head long into belligerent students and apathetic faculty. Somehow they pour their heart and soul into the calling and win over the whole school (see "Goodbye, Mr. Chips", "The Blackboard Jungle", "To Sir With Love", etc). The twist in this fine entry is that it's a young female English teacher, Sandy Dennis doing her patented Method-Acting winsomeness, all mumbles and hesitant stuttering. She's the fish out of water in a tough, dirty inner city NY high school. Episodic with all the clichĂ©s in tact (a gym dance, the sad quiet student, the class clown, the ugly duckling, a flirtation with a handsome teacher, the inevitable pulled switchblade), the best reason to see it is the Time Capsule peek into that simpler time. No smartphones, laptops, or internet to be found in the mid-'60s, unbelievable how teachers taught with only a book, a piece of chalk and a blackboard. 


"Night Nurse" (1931)


Equal parts woman's picture, crime drama, and social commentary, this tough pre-Code story goes for the jugular. The first half follows star Barbara Stanwyck as a novitiate nurse learning the ropes in a big city municipal hospital. With her best friend cracking wise beside her (the great Joan Blondell), they traverse the joys of the maternity ward and the horrors of the surgical theatre, all the while dodging passes from the leering residents. In the second half Babs gets employed by a wealthy family to be the nurse to their two young daughters. When she begins to suspect someone's out to kill the children for their inheritance, she turns from Florence Nightingale to Nancy Drew. That's when Clark Gable shows up as the smoldering chauffeur who may the the baddie at the heart of the scheme. Fast, fiesty, and fun. 


"Strangers When We Meet" (1960)


Kirk Douglas and Kim Novak make a striking couple in this nuanced 'Mad Men' era love story. The problem is that they're both stuck in loveless marriages to other people, he to a starchy wife (a surprisingly good Barbara Rush), and she to a limp passionless husband (John Bryant). Everything's fine in their secret tryst til a smarmy Walter Matthau shows up as the buttinsky neighbor who wants to blow their cover. For it's time, the screenplay is mature and frank, capturing the restless extra-marital urges of the WWII generation on the brink of the Free Love '60s. And for all you Mid-Century Modern lovers, the suburban sets and decor are to-die-for eye candy. 


"The Ghost Ship" (1943)


One of those paranoid thrillers where a young innocent is held captive by a psycho killer...it's usually a girl in an old house (see "Die, Die My Darling", "You'll Like My Mother"). The twist here is that it's a young man, Russell Wade, who signs on as 3rd officer on a merchant cargo ship with a kindly captain (Richard Dix). But when crewmen start dying under mysterious circumstances Wade starts to suspect his boss is the real loco en la cabeza killer. Some scary set pieces and a moody fogbound setting on the high seas make for some tense viewing.