[8] Stanley Kramer (Inherit the Wind, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner) directs an impressive roster of talent in this dramatization of four Nazi judges on trial for war crimes in occupied Germany. Spencer Tracy leads the cast as the American judge summoned to preside over the case. While considering passionate arguments from the prosecution (Richard Widmark) and defense (Maximilian Schell), he spends his evenings developing …
[4] Burt Lancaster stars in this fictionalized account of the Nazis’ attempt to abscond with France’s most treasured paintings before the Allied Forces meet up with them. It’s up to Lancaster, playing a Resistance train station master, to head up an elaborate plan to dupe the Nazis and stop the train from leaving France without damaging it’s precious cargo. I love the idea of Resistance …
[6] This star-studded best picture Oscar nominee is credited for kicking off the boom of disaster flicks that plagued (or bedazzled?) the 1970s. It’s entertaining enough, though I much prefer The Towering Inferno. All of the Airport movies (there would be two more over the next seven years) are fun if for no other reason than watching major Hollywood stars and revered actors slumming it …
[5] Burt Lancaster stars as a conman promising rain for dollars to struggling farmers in the drought-ridden South. He almost gets away with his latest swindle, but burgeoning feelings for one of the farmer’s daughters (Katharine Hepburn) threatens to make an honest man of him. It’s a very atypical role for Hepburn, playing a spinster desperate for a man. But she pulls it off, despite …
[6] An Englishman finds himself prisoner on an island where a mad doctor is mixing human and animal DNA. The fine line between what is human and what is animal is one of my favorite subjects, so I love the original novella by H.G. Wells, and I enjoy all the film versions of the story — including the 1933’s Island of Lost Souls and 1996’s …
[9] This delicate fantasy about regret and second chances casts a powerful spell that brings many grown men to tears before the credits roll. To that effect, Field of Dreams is a beautiful indictment of the unspoken, unrequited nature of father-son relationships — the main ingredient in any male weepy. It helps that Kevin Costner is the lead. He has an ‘everyman’ quality that allows …
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