Hi my name is Nevaeh i am roy's granddaughter and guest blogger the movie i want to reveiw is (Home alone1) this is one of my favorite movies because it is about a kid who wishes to wake up with out his family and he does well the rest of his family is on a chistmas trip he at home alone living his best life because he did not wake up on time so the family forgot him the mom feels like she forgot somthing then finaly she rember's what it was her son kevin! So they try to get in hold with her son but there 2 to robber's they try every day to break in but kevin is to smart he set's up ton's of traps and it is a very funny comady fun to wach wiith my family! Thank you for reading this blog.

Roy's Best Classic Movie Kisses

A Streetcar Named Desire

Recently I saw a cable show titled “Ten Best Kisses in the Movies,” or something like that. They showed a lot of examples of kissing scenes from theatrical films from Gone With the Wind to Casablanca, to Ghost. They ended up giving the No. 1 spot to a last scene in The Notebook between Rachel McAdams (who?) and Ryan Gosling (who?). I don't take issue with what anybody else picks, I just know mine would be a lot  different. I mentioned this to my sister and she is encouraging me to blog about it. First, I have seen some wonderful love scenes with great kisses in movies right up to the present day. The internet is full of them. I'm not familiar with a lot of these movies, though, and anyway, I prefer to concentrate on films made before 1960 (at least for the present blog entry). Even here, there are many, many movies I've never seen or don't remember clearly, so I'll stick to films with which I'm familiar, and, in general, enjoy watching. As the song says, "... a kiss is just a kiss. ..," but let's face it, a movie kiss doesn't stand on its own. It occurs within the larger context of the movie in which it appears. Even so, an intense and effective love scene or climactic kiss can leave a lasting impression on the viewer and, over time become what we call memorable. I don't have ten films selected yet, but I'm trying out a new approach, using video clips rather than a lot of words, since a love scene should be seen rather than just talked about. I've selected four scenes and video clips. I will write a brief review for each, just to set up the scene, you can watch for yourself why I picked them.

1. First Movie Kiss: "The Kiss," or "May Irwin Kiss"(1896), was a brief film released the first year the Edison "Vitascope" motion picture projector came into use. Filmed at Edison's "Black Maria" studio, in New Jersey, the film re-enacted a late scene in the May Irwin stage play "The Widow Jones,"and depicts a kiss between popular actress May Irwin and actor John Rice. This film was the most popular of the  "Vitaphone" productions of that year, but it was also wildly controversial, sparking condemnation by clergymen and other, using words like "disgusting," and "a lyric of the stockyards."Remember, this was the Victorian era. Let's see what all the fuss is about.

               "Hey, Stella!"

2. A Streetcar named Desire(1951) Marlon Brando,Kim Hunter, and Vivien Leigh.   Drama. Set in the French Quarter in New Orleans, a faded southern belle, named Blanche DuBois, down on her luck has come to stay with her sister Stella, now Mrs. Stanley Kowalski. Stella's husband Stanley, a working class, brute of a man, is in stark contrast to Blanche's pretension to genteel refinement. Stella is much more down-to earth and nice, but the animal attraction she and Stanley have for each other is unmistakable. The Kiss: The friction between Stanley and Blanche develops quickly and when Stanley gets violent, Blanche retreats to her room and Stella runs away from Stanley, rushing upstairs to be consoled by her friend and neighbor Eunice. What follows is my pick for "steamiest" kissing scene. Watch.

 
               Kissing Scene on the Beach

 3. From Here to Eternity(1953). Burt Lancaster Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Philip Ober. Military Drama. This is a complicated story, set in Oahu, Hawaii, at Schofield Army Barracks and various locations in and around Honolulu. The plot revolves around an Army private named Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Clift), His First Sergeant, Milton Warden (Lancaster), the callous, selfish Company Commander, Capt. Dana Holmes (Philip Ober), and Holmes' wife, Karen (Kerr). (Frank Sinatra won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Private Angelo Maggio, Prewitt's wise-cracking, non-conformist buddy). Conflicts are many, including cruelty, infidelity, unrequited love, and murder. One of these centers on an adulterous affair between Sgt. Warden and Karen Holmes. The Kiss: Having had to sneak around to avoid being seen together, Karen and Warden make a date to go to the beach. Their ardor grows as they cavort in the surf with careless abandon, finally able to express their love freely. The ensuing love scene is guaranteed to make anybody's Top Ten list. Watch. 



4. On the Waterfront (1954). Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, and   Lee J. Cobb. Drama.  Hard-hitting complex melodrama about dockworkers on New York's waterfront and their conflicts with "mobbed-up" labor bosses. in the opening scene, Marlon Brando, as  ex-prizefighter-turned- longshoreman Terry Malloy, is an unwitting participant in the mob murder of a fellow longshoreman who was set to testify before the Crime Commission. As it turns outs, the victim was the brother of Edie Doyle, played by Eva Marie Saint (her film debut). Terry and Edie meet and eventually fall in love. She later finds out about the part Terry played in her brother's death and runs away from him. The Kiss: Terry goes to a distraught Edie's apartment to try to straighten things out, but Edie. still upset, resists. Check it out.

 

5. Red Dust (1932) Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Mary Astor, and Gene Raymond. Romance-Drama. Gable is the rough-cut manager of a rubber plantation in Indochina (now known as Vietnam) named Dennis Carson, whose routine is upset, first by the arrival of a tough, itinerant, lady of questionable repute named Vantine, played by Jean Harlow, and the subsequent arrival of a visiting engineer and his wife, Gary and Barbara Willis (Gene Raymond and Mary Astor). Dennis shares a mutual, obvious attraction to the sexy Vantine, and they play a little "slap-and-tickle," but his attention is quickly diverted to the beautiful, sophisticated Barbara. As for Barbara, she is trying to resist Dennis' animal magnetism for the sake of her nice-guy husband Gary (who seems oblivious to it all), but her resistance soon begins to crumble.This story was remade in 1953 by John Ford as Mogambo, set in Africa with (again) Clark Gable, Ava Gardner , and Grace Kelly in the starring roles. The Kiss:  Barbara wanders into the jungle and Dennis has gone after her, when they are caught in a sudden monsoon storm (Mary Astor looks great wet!). Look.

Two Classics on Netflix

Gene Tierney and John Lund

The Mating Season (1951).  Thelma Ritter, Gene Tierney,John Lund, and Miriam Hopkins. Comedy.

I chose this very under- appreciated comedy mainly because it showcases the talents of the delightful Thelma Ritter, one of my favorite comedic actresses.

Thelma Ritte

She plays Ellen McNulty, the down-to-earth, plain-spoken, middle-aged proprietor of McNulty's hamburger stand in Jersey City, a business she started with her late husband. trouble with the bank due to the overwhelming competition from two drugstores, Ellen, far behind on her mortgage payments, decides to pack it in, let the bank have the hamburger stand, and go to live with "my son, Val, who has a good job in Meridian, Ohio". What Ellen doesn't realize as she heads toward Meridian, is that Val McNulty (John Lund) has just met Maggie Carleton (Gene Tierney), daughter of a U.S. Ambassador, now deceased, and the girl of his dreams, and is making  preparations for their imminent marriage when he learns his mom is coming to see him. When Ellen arrives and learns her son is marrying into a privileged family and appears concerned that she'll embarrass him, her plans change. In a funny plot-twist, Ellen ends up posing as a cook in the couple's home, sleeping in the spare bedroom of their small apartment. Only her son knows the truth, having been sworn to silence by his mom, who wants to help out without burdening their marriage with a  mother-in-law in the house. Things are going along fine, until Maggie learns that her own mother, a snobbish social climber (Miriam Hopkins ), is coming to stay with them. This obvious complication is compounded by Val's lecherous boss, who used to date Maggie, and  a series of entanglements concerning Val's business interests, resulting in the threatening of the marriage's survival, but remedied by the intervention of Ellen and of the lecherous boss's father. A warm and engaging little comedy. Check it out.

Holley grimly awaiting German attack,

Battleground (1949). Van Johnson, John Hodiak, James Whitmore,George Murphy, Ricardo Montalban, Marshall Thompson, Denise Darcel. War.
Thiswas the first Hollywood war film about the so-called "Battle of the Bulge" released after the war, and considered by many as the best war film ever made. In mid- December, 1944, During World War II, German Panzer Divisions broke through the Allied lines in the Ardennes forest on a wide front in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, an offensive which has become popularly known as "The Battle of the Bulge". The 101st Airborne Division, known as "The Screaming Eagles," were dispatched to reinforce the troops defending the front. Some of these were eventually surrounded by German forces near the village of Bastogne, Belgium. They held out for weeks against vastly superior forces and were eventually relieved by General Patton's Third Army, afterwards referring to themselves as "The Battered Bastards of Bastogne."

The sun breaks and American planes are heard overhead.

The film is a fictionalized, but largely accurate account of a typical unit,  the fictional "I" Company of the 327th Glider Infantry Division.  The movie opens at a large Army encampment somewhere in France. Private Jim Layton (Marshall Thompson) a smooth-faced young soldier, fresh from training, is just reporting to his new platoon. He is largely ignored by the old timers, who only speak to him to tell him he is in their way. As the men prepare for an upcoming weekend pass to Paris, they are interrupted by the appearance of  happy-go-lucky Pfc. Holley (Van Johnson), who has just been released from hospital after having been wounded. The following morning, the men are awakened by their Platoon Sergeant, Sgt. Kinnie, played by James Whitmore ((The Shawshank Redemption), who informs them that "Nobody's goin' to Paris. We're movin' up", destination unknown, but "...they tell me it's gonna be cold". He also informs them that they will be traveling by truck , instead of gliders. When the trucks finally come to a halt, they are in the village of Bastogne, Belgium. As they pile out they are confronted by a couple of little girls, begging for "chocolate,..... cigarettes for mama!" An attractive woman named Denise (Denise Darcel)  then comes out of a house and the men react typically with whistles and catcalls.  the woman smiles, and invites them in French to come inside the house and warm up.  The men end up spending the night in the woman's house. Holley has romance on his mind, but is too tired to follow through, and beds down with the rest of the men wherever there's space. In the morning , they move out again, this time on foot.

The events that befall this platoon become a sort of composite of experiences, typical of infantry units across the Bulge area. As they approach the front, they experience their first hostile fire of the campaign. They are told to "dig in" and  they work hard to dig their foxholes, only to be told they are going out on patrol. This process repeats itself several times in the film. Just as the men settle in, they are moved out again. They are soon under  heavy bombardment, they are plagued by English-speaking German infiltrators in American uniforms, wet boots, frozen feet, snow, cold, and crummy rations. Some of their best, dearest friends and leaders are killed or wounded. Through it all,  even though they gripe and complain, they retain that "wise-guy" G.I. sense of humor, and a sort of fatalism that keeps them going. When I see, or think about this film, the one word that comes to mind is "SLOG". They slog through the countryside, slog through the snow, slog through through the constant cold, and generally just slog through the war. Great performances by some great actors make it a treat. Van Johnson sets the mood with his laconic, dry wit. Watch as Marshall Thompson goes from raw replacement to seasoned, if somewhat disillusioned old timer. James Whitmore got an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the grizzled, tobacco-chewing platoon sergeant, who doesn't smile until the very end.

"Now that ya mention it, 
it does sound like the patter of rain on a tin roof."

Watching the movie, it reminded me of  the cartoons of WWII cartoonist and war correspondent Bill Mauldin, that appeared regularly in newspapers of the day, so I had to include one of these along with shots from the film.

The top left photo above shows Van Johnson as Holley, grimly waiting to imminently be overrun by the Germans. Seconds later, in the next photo, Holley smiles and looks up as the sun finally breaks through, and the American planes can be heard, signaling the arrival of reinforcements and the end of the siege of Bastogne. Produced by the legendary Dore Schary, and directed by William Wellman (Westward, the Women), Battleground is an experience not to be missed.

I Am Woman, Part 1

Women characters in classic films offer some of the strongest, finest performances ever. My niece, Stephanie, has asked me to recount some of my favorite films with strong women’s roles. This is difficult, because there are so many that I admire.

     I selected these films as my “Best Of ” not only for the appearance of  a strong female character, but also because they provide good, solid, movie entertainment. They do not, therefore, necessarily, represent the top individual performance by an actress (or actresses), but, hopefully, give viewers the greatest “bang-for-the-buck,” as it were, in terms of a complete and satisfying movie-viewing experience. The performances, however, are top-notch and are among the very best available.

Here is my list:

1.     Westward the Women (1951). Denise Darcel, Robert Taylor, and Hope Emerson. Western. When a group of pioneer California settlers (somehow all, or most all, men), having successfully established their farms, decide they need wives, Robert Taylor is dispatched to  Chicago to find brides and bring them all out west at once. The women selected range from widows and immigrants to farmer’s daughters and a couple of prostitutes, disguised as respectable. The ensuing wagon-train trek westward is a true ordeal, typical of the frontier, with the women forced to perform the tasks usually done by men, such as mule-whackers and hostlers. The few trail-wise males hired to guide and protect the train introduce predictable complications. Lust, romance and violence plague the journey, but the women show their mettle, bear up, and rise to the challenge as they arrive at their destination fit and resolute, to fulfill their marriage contracts. Not a big fan of Robert Taylor, I liked him in his role as the trail boss who falls for one of the prostitutes. Denise Darcel is excellent as the prostitute, looking for a better life, who has set her cap for the boss, and Hope Emerson shines as the rawboned, profane, mule-whacker who bucks up the fainthearted ones on the trip west. Directed by William Wellman (Wings, The Call of the Wild), this is one of my favorite westerns, mainly due to its tribute to the strength, resilience, and resourcefulness of women.

Note: Denise Darcel died  Dec.23, 2011, age 87.

2.     Hobson’s Choice (1954). Brenda De Banzie, Charles Laughton, and John Mills. British Comedy. Directed by David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai), this is just about my favorite comedy. Charles Laughton plays Hobson, owner of a  prosperous boot shop in Salford, a nineteenth century English village. Hobson is a widower with three daughters. The eldest daughter, Maggie, played by Brenda De Banzie, is the mainstay of the business, managing its day-to-day operation and delegating daily tasks to the bootmakers in the workshop in the cellar and to her two younger sisters. Hobson is an habitual drunkard, spending much of his time at Moonraker’s, the pub across the street, swapping lies and gossip with his cronies.  Faced with domestic rebellion, as he sees it, Hobson decides to marry off the two younger girls. Maggie, at 30, he considers past marriageable age, plus he realizes she takes care of the business, leaving him free to pursue his intemperate lifestyle. Maggie, however, has other ideas and promptly proposes marriage to Will Mossop, the slow-witted, underpaid but masterful bootmaker who works in the cellar, and who is dumbfounded and confused by her offer, but slowly comes to accept. Maggie then dictates terms to her father to retain hers and Will’s services in the shop. Hobson adamantly refuses and the two leave to set up business on their own. Hilarity ensues when Maggie takes the bit in her teeth and resolutely proceeds to mold Will into an independent, responsible business man and husband, while Hobson fumes and blusters as his business and household decline. I defy anyone to keep a straight face as they watch Maggie manipulate everyone around her, all for their own good, Hobson’s defiant bumbling, and will Mossop’s wide-eyed amazement at his own self-realization.

3.     Adam’s Rib (1949). Katharine Hepburn, Judy Holliday, Jean Hagen,  Spencer Tracy, and Tom Ewell. Comedy. Husband and wife writers Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon crafted the screenplay for this fast-paced and raucous comedy, and there is more than a little material provided from their own relationship (such as the pet names “Pinky and Pinkie”). The story begins with wife and mother Doris Attinger (Judy Holliday) shooting her philandering husband Warren (Tom Ewell) at the apartment of the “other woman,” Beryl Caighn (Jean Hagen). Warren is critically, not fatally, wounded, but anxious to see his wife prosecuted for attempted murder. Prosecutor Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy ) and his lawyer wife Amanda (Katharine Hepburn) are first seen in their posh apartment, reading the newspaper over coffee, when Amanda sees the front-page item about Doris and her husband. She is intrigued by the case, but Adam is unimpressed by his wife’s contention that a woman should be accorded the same consideration as a man who shoots his wife’s lover in the name of the so-called “unwritten law” in defense of hearth and home. Arriving at the office, Adam learns that he has been assigned to prosecute the sensational case, while Amanda, unbeknownst to Adam, aggressively pursues the handling of Doris’ case and is retained to defend her in court. When Adam learns about this, in a funny cocktail- hour scene, he sees it as a personal betrayal by his wife, insisting that “No one has the right to break the law!” The trial proceeds with Adam visibly discomfited by his wife’s presence, becoming tongue-tied and distracted, Adam asks a prospective juror, “Have you ever served on a motion-picture projectionist before?” The action shifts back and forth between the courtroom and the Bonner apartment. Adam and Amanda are loving and playful at home and contentious and pugnacious in court. Doris Attinger and Beryl Caighn are two sides of the same coin as they each testify in their common provincial New York accent (Bronx?). Doris is the soft, feminine homemaker with a steel core when her home is threatened, while Beryl has a soft and feminine exterior,but hard and cynical inside. The outcome of the trial is unsurprising, but in a following scene, Adam turns the tables on Amanda in a hilarious twist on the opening scene. George Cukor directed this one, considered one of the best of the Tracy/Hepburn outings. Judy Holliday stands out as Doris, presaging her big breakthrough performance a year later in “Born Yesterday” with the same writers and Director.

4.     Now, Voyager (1942). Bette Davis, Gladys Cooper, Ilka Chase, Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, and Bonita Granville. Drama. William Wyler directed this intense melodrama with Bette Davis, in an Oscar-winning performance as Charlotte Vale, the repressed and introverted spinster daughter of Mrs. Henry Vale, an implacable, domineering Boston matron played dauntingly by Gladys Cooper. Charlotte is completely dominated by her mother, who controls all aspects of her life, down to her very frumpy, unflattering wardrobe, for which she is teased by her niece, June (Bonita Granville). Almost completely lacking in self-confidence and self-esteem, Charlotte elicits the sympathy of her concerned sister-in-law, Lisa Vale (Ilka Chase), who introduces her to a psychiatrist, Dr. Jaquith (Claude Rains), who runs  a sanitarium in Vermont. He finally persuades Charlotte to visit his sanitarium, where she undergoes a transformation, becoming self-assured and confident. With Lisa’s encouragement, Charlotte delays her return to Boston, choosing, instead, to embark on a cruise to South America. Aboard the ship, she encounters a kind, considerate, married man, named Jerry Durrance, played suavely by Paul Henreid. She learns from his traveling companions that Jerry is unhappily bound to a manipulative, jealous woman to whom he remains married because of his deep devotion to his adolescent daughter, Tina. Arriving in Rio de Janeiro, Jerry invites Charlotte to accompany him on an automobile tour to Sugarloaf Mountain. An accident with the car, causes them to miss their boat, and they are in Rio together for another five days, at the end of which, though they are now in love, they agree that it would be best not ever to see each other again and they go their separate ways. Finally returning home, Charlotte finds it necessary to stand up to her ailing mother and, after a time, her mother dies of a heart attack following a heated argument with Charlotte. Guilt-ridden, emotionally distraught, and mourning her lost love, Charlotte  returns to the Vermont sanitarium, where she is amazed to discover, as a patient there, Jerry’s unhappy daughter, Tina (Janis Wilson), with whom she almost immediately connects, since Tina has a domineering mother of her own. Obtaining Dr. Jaquith’s grudging permission, Charlotte becomes Tina’s mentor and friend, slowly restoring joy to both their lives. Tina remains unaware of Charlotte’s previous relationship with her father, and when he comes to visit, Jerry and Charlotte, though still in love, choose to be content with sharing just their common love for Tina, as Charlotte utters the closing line, “Oh Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the Moon. We have the stars.”

5.     The Women (1939). Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Mary Boland, Joan Fontaine, and Marjorie Main. Comedy/Drama. Adapted from the Clare Booth Luce stage play and directed by George Cukor, no men appear anywhere in the cast, though they are talked about at length. The plot deals with the lives of several privileged Manhattan women who contend with gossip, infidelity, and double- dealing. The principal character, Mary Haines, is played by Norma Shearer. She is the wife of a wealth, successful, and handsome man named Stephen Haines. Mary is slyly maneuvered by her catty, gossip-monger cousin, Sylvia Fowler (played by Rosalind Russell in an over-the-top, outrageous, and often humorous, performance), into “accidentally” overhearing rumors about an affair between Stephen and a scheming, opportunistic, perfume-counter girl named Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford). At first, dismissive of the gossip, Mary continues to focus on being a good wife to Stephen and a loving mother to their young daughter, Little Mary, played by Virginia Weidler (The Philadelphia Story). Later on, Stephen’s behavior leads Mary to suspect the truth of the rumors. She takes a vacation to Bermuda to ponder her life and marriage. Upon her return home, she confronts Crystal, who neither denies nor admits anything, but hints at the truth of the gossip. A hurt and humiliated Mary rashly decides to divorce Stephen and takes a train to Reno. On the train, Mary comes in contact with some other women who are going there for the same purpose, including an older, very wealthy woman, the Countess de Lave (Mary Boland). Ensconced at a dude ranch in Reno, operated by a gravel-voiced woman name Lucy (Marjorie Main), the women become better acquainted. Divorcing her fourth husband, the Countess is already being courted by a young, ambitious drugstore cowboy named Buck. While she awaits the conclusion of her divorce, Mary is surprised by the sudden arrival of her cousin Sylvia Fowler, who also has learned that her own husband has been unfaithful and is divorcing her. What she doesn’t kno, but soon learns, is that her husband’s lover, Miriam Aarons (Paulette Goddard) also resides at the Ranch while divorcing her present husband in order to marry Mr. Fowler, this fact precipitating a fight. After breaking up the fight, Mary calls Stephen in New York in an attempt to patch things up, only to be told that he and Crystal have been married. Two years later, while visiting her father, Little Mary overhears a conversation between Crystal and Sylvia, revealing that Crystal is now engaged in an affair with Buck, who is by now married to the Countess and who has become a radio star. Sylvia, still an incurable gossip and troublemaker, has wormed this information out of Crystal and is saving it for future use. At a party it all comes to a head, as Mary elicits the details of Buck and Crystal’s affair, and feeds them to Hedda Hopper, a real gossip columnist, who plays herself. The Countess also is told, and to make a long story not quite so long, Crystal’s plans are spoiled, and it seems likely that Mary and Stephen will get back together. Far-fetched and convoluted , but all in all, good fun and great entertainment! You can almost see the men, though they’re not here.        

My Top Ten Beginners List

The Best Years of Our Lives

Casablanca

Winchester '73

   
   I’ve had a request from my great-niece AshLee to post a blog listing my “Top 10” choices for “beginners” who may be interested in watching classic films, but are unsure of where to start. This is like red meat for someone like me who is always trying to get people interested in these older movies.

    I have been working on a rather extensive compilation of titles from different genres and have come up with more than 90 films that I can heartily recommend. I have selected one or two from each category, and I will make sure you get the bigger list at a later date, AshLee.

    
 Here is my list*, including names of the leading actors and actresses, and a brief summary of the plot line. I have numbered these titles, but I am not really into ranking movies, so I consider all of these to be of equal merit:

1.   The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Frederick March, Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, and Dana Andrews. Drama. Considered by many (including myself) to be the best film ever made, this is the story of three returning veterans of World War II , their adjustments to the realities of civilian life and the changes in circumstances, people, and themselves after four years of war. Top-flight dialogue, acting and directing. (Though I'm not into ranking, it's no accident that this tops my list)

2.   Casablanca (1942). Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains. Romance. Compelling tale of lost love and personal redemption amid the turmoil of European refugees seeking transit to America from Vichy-French Morocco, and complicated by Nazi persecution. Not just a classic, but an American icon!

3.   Captains Courageous (1937). Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Freddie Bartholomew, and Mickey Rooney (at about age 14). Adventure. Exciting seafaring adventure story about a spoiled rich boy (Bartholomew), who falls overboard from an ocean liner and does some rapid growing-up after being rescued by the crew of a Gloucester fishing boat. Wonderful coming-of-age fable.

4. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948). Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas. Comedy. Cary Grant is hilarious as a harried ad executive, husband and father. Fed up with his cramped New York apartment, he buys an old farm in Connecticut and contracts to build a big house for his family. The problems and complications just keep coming and so do the laughs. 

5. Winchester ’73 (1950). James Stewart, Shelley Winters, Stephen McNally, Dan Duryea. Western. Taut, gritty, intelligent yarn about the odyssey to recover a stolen gun and settle an old score. Filmed almost in my backyard, near Tucson, it has all the elements of a top-notch western action movie, including Indians, outlaws, cavalry troops, dance-hall girls, and plenty of gunplay. (Look for future stars Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis in minor parts)

6. Shadow of a Doubt (1943). Teresa Wright, Joseph Cotten, MacDonald Carey, Henry Travers. Mystery-Suspense. The young daughter of an all-American middle class, small-town family is thrilled when her long-lost favorite uncle comes to visit, until she comes to suspect him of being a cold serial-killer. Many tense moments ensue. Of all his movies, Alfred Hitchcock liked this one best. So do  I. 

7. Stalag 17 (1953). William Holden, Peter Graves, Harvey Lembeck. War.  Bill Holden is a fast-talking hustler, suspected of being a snitch in a P.O.W. barracks for Air- corps sergeants during WWII. He’s determined to find and expose the real rat. Considering the subject matter, this is a good-looking, serious, though often funny prison-camp tale. (I remember going to this movie with my mom, one of the few we saw together that didn't have Doris Day in it.)

8. The Secret Garden (1949). Margaret O.Brien, Dean Stockwell, Herbert Marshall, Elsa Lanchester. Family. Made an orphan by a cholera epidemic in India, young Mary Lennox is sent to England to live with her brooding Uncle Craven, a  widower who resides in a large, mostly empty mansion. Herself an imperious, demanding child, Mary  begins to be changed  by encounters with a cheerful housemaid named Martha and her little brother, Dickon, who communes with the forest creatures, and an apparently crippled cousin named Colin, a boy more spoiled than herself. The discovery of a secret, hidden, walled garden and their attempt to restore it, lead the children to an appreciation of beauty and the secret of the uncle’s grief. Simply enchanting. 

9. The African Queen (1951).  Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Morley. Adventure/Romance. Set in Africa at the outset of World War I, the story revolves around the adventures and misadventures of Rose Sayer, the spinsterish sister of an English missionary( Morley), and Charlie Allnut, the alcoholic captain  of a decrepit river steamer called the African Queen.  Rose's brother dies as a result of depredations by the Germans and Charlie insists they both flee aboard his boat. Charlie wants to lie low while the Germans are around, but Rose has very different ideas, opting to take action in support of the war effort. Romance and danger await them as they journey downriver into the unknown. (By the way, I'm watching this movie as I write.)
     Memorable line: A besotted Charlie Allnut to Rose Sayer after she calls him a liar and a coward. “. . . I felt sorry for ya. . . .Well, I ain’t sorry no more, you crazy, psalm-singin’, skinny old maid!" 

10. Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, and Jean Hagen. Musical Comedy. Tuneful, sprightly, farcical look at the early days of “talking pictures”. Gene Kelly and Jean Hagen are a silent movie couple, beloved by their fans, who can’t get along with each other. When sound comes in, it becomes obvious that Hagen’s voice is not suitable for dialogue, let alone singing. Debbie Reynolds is the ingénue with a silver voice who ends up dubbing Hagen’s lines and lyrics for the big new musical production while charming and captivating Gene  Kelly. Mishaps on the movie set, lively music, and laughter as well as Kelly’s iconic title dancing sequence and Donald O'Connor's comedic antics make this a delight to watch.

  * (I have all of these movies in my DVD library except for Numbers 8 & 10)   

           If you are a "beginner," or just someone who wants to explore these movies further, I also recommend that you check out the schedule of Turner Classic Movie (TCM) channel, particularly on Saturdays when they have the segment called "The Essentials," co-hosted by Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore. Each week they screen a film, considered "essential" to appreciating and understanding classic movies. This week, it is "To Have and Have Not," with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall ("You Know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together, and blow."). I'll be watching.

           I also suggest that you check the used bookstores that sell used DVDs. The one I like in Tucson has an extensive inventory of DVDs, and they have a "classic" section. I check them out, sometimes two or more times a month to see what has been added. I have found some real jewels that way.
          
           Anyway, I hope you make good use of the list, AshLee, and I'll get together with your Grandma on getting my big list to you guys.

       So long!
  

We Do Need Her

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

      I want to give a big shout out to my sister Betty for her __th birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SIS!      When you were a baby, I used to try to sell you to the corner storekeeper for eighteen cents. I’m so glad I didn’t close the deal, because I love you and value you beyond price.     You’re the reason I started this blog in the first place. It was your idea to begin with, and if it hadn’t been for your gentle urging, prodding, support, and untiring assistance, this turkey never would have got cooked! I really do enjoy doing this, Sis. It gives me an outlet to express my interest in, and passion for good movies, classic or otherwise, and you allow me to unload my somewhat feverish ravings on you and often help me organize my chaotic mental meanderings. Thank you for your help and encouragement.     Here’s a "movie" story for you. When you were about six, you and I went to the movies at the old Santa Fe theater in our neighborhood. That day, they held a talent show during the intermission between features (they mostly had double-features at that theater). You got up and entered the talent show on the stage. When your turn came, you sang “Jingle Bells” and won the talent contest! The big prize was a shiny fifty-cent piece.        It so happened that I had had my eye on a pair of ice-skates in the window of a local second-hand store, and they were asking exactly fifty cents for them. So guess who talked that little girl into financing a pair of skates for her big brother? Bingo! The problem was that when I finally got a chance to use those skates, I could never master them. My ankles were too weak, and I couldn’t stay on my feet long enough to get anywhere. So you have the last laugh, Sis.     Anyway, I wish you and your beautiful family a wonderful day today, and  hope you make the most of it. Thanks again for your abiding love and generosity of spirit. I love you very much.

‘Bye!

What is a Gangster Movie, Anyhow?

      
      I’ve been making some notes for a blog about “Gangster” movies, and I’m finding myself having trouble deciding exactly what that means. There are about 8 obvious choices of what I might call your “pure" gangster films, all made in the 1930s, starting with Little Ceasar (1931), and ending with The Roaring Twenties (1939). These deal most specifically with career criminals, their women, and friends and relatives who grieve for their lost souls and lives. They are played by such actors as James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and George Raft or Paul Muni (Scarface, 1932). Their girlfriends include Ann Sheridan, Jean Harlow, Mac March, Claire Trevor and Priscilla Lane, to name a few. These are the perennial favorites that we who love this stuff watch time and time again. 

     But there are a myriad of other films from all eras, dealing with crime or criminal activity that, though they may not strictly meet the above, narrow definition of “Gangster” movies, nevertheless offer top-notch performances, story, action, suspense, fine directing, and all the other elements that make movies spellbinding and entertaining. We subdivide these into types or “genres” and label them according to theme, style, mood, context, or environment and call them names, like "mob, or mobster movies, prison movies, cop movies, or ‘film noir’ movies.”  They typically involve characters like bank robbers, safe crackers, con-men (or women), convicts, prison guards (or “screws”), crooked cops, corrupt officials, ex-cons, outlaws, punks, mugs, pickpockets, Mafia types, and other distasteful, but colorful and interesting participants. Whatever we may call these films, the good ones meet the definition of “Classics” as I understand the term; that is, that they are enduring films that we want to see over and over again. In the 1940s, the list of leading actors and actresses expands to include not only Cagney, Bogart, et al, but also names like Alan Ladd, Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, John Garfield, Robert Young, Dick Powell, Victor Mature, Sterling Hayden, Ida Lupino, Audrey Totter, Veronica Lake, Virginia Mayo, Coleen Gray, Gloria Grahame, Jean Hagen and Ava Gardner. 

   The period is typified by great films such as High Sierra (1941), Maltese Falcon (1941); This Gun For Hire (1942); Murder, My Sweet (1944); The Killers (1946); Out of the Past (1947); Brute Force (1947); They Made Me a Fugitive (British,1947); The Set-Up (1949); and White Heat (1949). 
    The ‘40s also marked the advent of the concept of “Film Noir.” Many of the aforementioned films fit within that genre.

     In my next blog, I will explore the subject of  gangster classics in more detail,  examining and comparing individual films and how I feel about them, etc. In later blogs, I will look into the different decades and genres, from the 1950s, onward through the end of the 20^th century. Movies made since 1999 will have to wait their turn

That’s all  for now. Send in your comments and suggestions.