Beulah Bondi

[7] Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston square off in this western about a father and daughter fighting over who will control the future of the family’s sprawling cattle ranch. The relationship begins as a loving, mentoring one, but transforms into a battle between master manipulators. When Huston hangs a belligerent squatter who’s also Stanwyck’s childhood paramour, they cross the point of no return. The Furies …

[8] Jimmy Stewart gives a career-defining performance in this Frank Capra classic about a celebrated boy scout leader (Stewart) who gets chosen to fill a deceased senator’s seat in the U.S. congress. His party assumes Stewart will be a doting yes-man, seriously underestimating his sense of duty and patriotism. When he introduces legislation that conflicts with a corrupt land deal, the party tries to take …

[7] Cary Grant and Irene Dunn star as a couple whose marriage is on the verge of collapse. The reason is explained through a series of flashbacks, as Dunn listens to records that contain songs of special significance in their lives. We learn how they met (at a record store no less), and how they desired to start a family. Tragedy strikes during an earthquake …

[7] When a small plane goes down in a South American jungle, the passengers and pilots must work together to repair the vehicle and get it back in the air before native headhunters attack. Back from Eternity is a remake of 1939’s Five Came Back, both films directed by John Farrow. The cast this time around includes Anita Ekberg (La Dolce Vita), Robert Ryan (The …

[5] Robert Mitchum headlines this William Wellman flick about a family battling their personal demons while also trying to hunt and destroy a near-mythical black panther that is preying on their cattle during a deadly snowstorm. Mitchum plays one of three brothers, along with William Hopper and Tab Hunter. Mitchum and Hopper go off into the blizzard to kill the panther, but the family’s just as …

[6] Walter Huston and Jimmy Stewart star as a father and son at odds with one another in the years preceding The Civil War. Huston’s a preacher and Stewart’s character wants to pursue the earthly profession of medicine. Beulah Bondi earned an Oscar nomination playing the mother torn between the two of them. And I’m somewhat torn about the movie. I love Huston, Stewart, and …

[5] Bette Davis marries Errol Flynn and moves to San Francisco, but their happy marriage begins to disintegrate when he can’t support the couple and turns to drinking. It may be the writing more than the performances, but there’s not much chemistry between Flynn and Davis (who hated each other in real life). The film sticks primarily with Davis’ character, short-changing the subplots revolving around …

[8] Leo McCarey won the best director Oscar for The Awful Truth, released the same year, but told the Academy they’d awarded him for the wrong picture. He may be right. Make Way for Tomorrow is a disarming, bonafide love story between an elderly couple (Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi) who are forced to separate when the bank forecloses on their home. The film is …