[8] James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan star in this fluffy romantic comedy from director Ernst Lubitsch. Stewart and Sullavan play clerks at a Hungarian general store during Christmastime. Both are courting anonymous, romantic pen pals, with no idea that the love of their life is actually the person they argue with at work all the time. (If the plot sounds familiar, this movie has been …
[7] In this potpourri of Middle-Eastern folklore, a banished king (John Justin) and a street boy (Sabu) team up to stop an evil magician (Conrad Veidt) from marrying a beautiful princess (June Duprez). The Thief of Bagdad tries to combine everything you can imagine from “Arabian Nights”, including the Genie and the magic carpet. Disney certainly used this classic as a springboard for their own …
[5] Jean Arthur finds herself with two husbands after her first, presumed dead at sea, turns out to be very much alive. The genders are reversed, but the story is very similar to My Favorite Wife, a better film released the same year. Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, and Melvyn Douglas are usually reliable, but I didn’t care for their chemistry. I also had a hard …
[6] This particular adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s book ends on a morally ambiguous note (I don’t think children should ever be lied to), but the film is otherwise passable family entertainment. Jimmy Lydon does a decent job as Dan, the angry young man who comes to live with Jo March (Kay Francis) at her experimental school/farm for boys. The film works best when it …
[7] Walt Disney was somewhat ahead of his time experimenting with music and animation in Fantasia, an astounding achievement of artistry, craftsmanship, and innovation in animation. I dig Fantasia, but it’s an uneven mix. The host segments do not stand the test of time and it caters to an impossible audience by combining cutsey narrative segments with more abstract ones. The biggest eyesore for me …
[3] Clark Gable escapes the Devil’s Island penal colony and takes floozie Joan Crawford along for the ride. Along with a handful of other fleeing criminals, they rough it through the jungle and long days at sea to reach the mainland and freedom. Sounds like a great matinee movie, but then enters Ian Hunter, who plays a moralizing goodie-two-shoes escapee named Cambreau. At the height …
[7] In this romantic, seafaring adventure from director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca), Errol Flynn swashbuckles as a pirate hired by Queen Elizabeth I to thwart the Spanish armada. The Sea Hawk rises above Saturday matinee standards by integrating a healthy dose of political intrigue and cinematic panache. Flynn is terrific as usual, but there are also memorable performances by Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth and Henry …
[4] Bette Davis stars as a woman charged with murder. She claims it was self defense, but opposing counsel discovers a letter that threatens her verdict — a letter she wrote to the deceased on the day she shot him… four times. The Letter is directed by William Wyler and based on a play by W. Somerset Maugham. Wyler and cinematographer Tony Gaudio do their …
[10] John Ford directs John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of a destitute Oklahoma family who pile everything they own into a jalopy and head for California in hope of finding work and a new home. The Grapes of Wrath puts an exclamation point on stories about the Great Depression and the down-trodden. The film features a stellar cast, gorgeous photography by Gregg Toland, and enough …
[10] The day before her second wedding, a priggish socialite (Katharine Hepburn) entangles with her ex-husband (Cary Grant) and a tabloid journalist (Jimmy Stewart), causing an identity crisis that threatens to derail the ceremony. Does she really want to marry a man who sees her as an infallible goddess? Or does she want someone who will let her put her hair down and love her …
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