Reviews

Kidman is overwrought and stiff as the mother in a locked-house mystery. The young actress playing her daughter is marvelous. She takes much of the film on her shoulders but alas, it's a bit much for her to handle. Kidman's character makes no sense from beginning to end, and her involvement in the "twist" ending comes as little surprise. Fionnulla Flanigan scores points as the omniscient maid. But, alas, the film needs Kidman to carry it, and she buries it instead.

Patrick Bachau is wonderful as the tempermental artist who cannot accept the fact that his ex-wife has fallen in love with another man, a psychiatrist superbly played by George Coe. Falk's real-life wife, Shera Therese shines brilliantly as Bachau's current wife. And Vito Scotti and Isabella Garcia-Lorca are both superb in supporting roles. This is one of the 20 best Columbo movies ever made.

Dr. Frankenstein, meet your monster! Mike Binder wrote, directed, and starred as a husband who gets to make his own bed only to find that he is no longer needed to lie in it! Mariel Hemmingway steals the film as the wife who takes charge after giving into hubby's desire to expand her sexual horizons. She looks fantastic too, and is incredibly sexy without ever actually revealing her breasts.

It is sweet justice watching the lesbian partners express the husband's insignificance by gently lowering their partner's head while ignoring his whines. Once he realizes how this has gotten out of hand, the results are surprisingly twisted and contorted to an hilarious extent. And the grand finale is priceless.

If it doesn't embarrass you to watch a movie about sex, this is a marvelous escape from grim realities.

Three terrific scenes doesn't make up for the plodding pacing of this self-important almost-epic. Martin and Anderson give the best performances and provide the only real tension in the movie as the second oldest and youngest brothers. If you love John Wayne westerns, even when he's fifteen years too old for his role, you will enjoy this one too. If not, watch Tall In the Saddle or Angel And The Badman or Rio Bravo or True Grit or McClintock instead. All are better acted, better paced, less pretentious, and more involving.

Bogart lobbied hard for his role, and comes close to pulling it off. This movie seems to attempt to mix and match styles and plotlines from "A Letter To Three Wives", "Miracle of the Bells", "The Red Shoes", "Le Grand Illusion", and "Mrs. Skeffington." Huh??? Only Edmond O'Brien comes off perfectly in his Oscar-winning role. And he and Bogie as co-narrators are the only characters whose souls are not cordoned off from the audience as if by panes of glass.

Brazzi, in particular, is an aloof and distant aristocrat who walks through the film in an ugly trance. Whose idea was it to cast normally likable Warren Stevens as an arrogant bully of a business mogul? His curiously enigmatic performance works against Ava Gardner's necessarily enigmatic one. Were Adolphe Menjou, Edward G. Robinson, and Lee J. Cobb all simply not available?

Finally, the camerawork is monotonously film-noir-ish despite the fact that in many scenes, an opulent style would have been far more appropriate and would have given the dark scenes far more dramatic impact.

Altogether, this is interesting to study as a cinematic student but tedious and off-putting to someone tuning into TCM expecting to be entertained by a Bogey movie.

Irene Dunne is irrepressible as a housewife who grows a money tree in her yard. Dunne truly is the show but gets plenty of able support. Dean Jagger is appropriately befuddle as her stuffy husband who finds himself fighting a moral dilemma all by himself. Richard Crenna is marvelous in a key supporting role. Not much substance, but an engaging way to kill an hour and a half.

Shirley MacLaine wastes her many talent in this throwaway movie. She has no chemistry at all with flat-as-a-pancake husband Yves Montand. The plot is ridiculous. Shirley plays a Lucille-Ball-type comedienne who wants her director-husband to take her seriously as an actress. So naturally, when he decides to go to Tokyo to film an authentic version of Madame Butterfly starring a real Geisha girl, she flies there and poses as one, and gets the job. Robert Cummings is too old to play Montand's "guy-type-guy" friend, but does what he can with a thankless role. Edward G. Robinson sleepwalks through his role which is okay because it's meaningless anyway. Unless you want a flavor for how Hollywood depicted Japan in 1962, this is one to avoid.

Charlton Heston is painfully miscast as a veteran quarterback who won't accept that it's well past time for him to hang up his spikes. Very few of his teammates look like football players. The melodrama concerning his relationship with wife Jessica Walter borders on the hysterical. Another humorous facet is the continued reference to the New Orleans Saints as perrennial Super Bowl champions even though they had never even won a playoff game until last year, their 36th year in the league. And, if you know football, there are many incongruous things going on. There is also the usual helping of 60's style montages endemic to bad movies of this era.

There are however, a few cute scenes.

Bruce Dern tries his best as Heston's erstwhile favorite wide receiver. John Randolph and G. D. Spradlin also contribute professional performances. Altogether, this is a really bad movie.

I was a teenager when James J. Walker was the Mayor of New York. Bob Hope doesn't look anything like him but catches the essence of his exuberant spirits and lack of responsibility very well. The narration by Walter Winchell adds just the right touch.

Paul Douglas is perfect as the Tammany boss. Hope is especially terrific in the dramatic conflict and emotional scenes with both Alexis Smith and Vera Miles. It makes me wish Hope did more straight-up dramas. It is especially a shame in retrospect, because after Beau James, Hope really never had the opportunity to make a good movie again (unless you count Critic's Choice which I don't).

If you enjoy nostalgic sad-and-funny movies about New York, this is one for you.

Patriotic Jagger and Hayes must confront the grim realization that son Walker is a Communist. The hysteria that follows seems ludicrous by today's standards. Trust me, it did then too, but in a different vein. Hayes is in her element, emoting to beat the band. Walker is appropriately opaque, but Jagger is spellbindingly awful.

What a waste of talent!

I cannot pretend to explain all the allusions and metaphors Renoir intended to convey with this impressionistic comedy. Paulette Goddard, as the main character, is magnificent. She conveys her feelings and thoughts through her diary, but in a manner that is always blurry and full of confusion. And speaking of confusion, Hurd Hatfield is on hand as the scion of the odd home. Burgess Meredith, Francis Lederer, and Irene Ryan all add terrific seriocomic support in their roles.

Be prepared to experience many conflicting feelings while viewing this film.

What a magnificent motion picture! Dorothy McGuire and Peggy Ann Garner give the greatest mother-daughter performances of all time. Betty Smith's book is a classic, and this film somehow manages to do it perfect justice in the first movie ever directed by Elia Kazan.

In many ways I feel privileged to be able to comment here because I may be the only "reviewer" in these pages to have been in Brooklyn very close to the time of this film (I was born in 1909). The film recaptures the feel, the mores, the neighborhood so magnificently, it is incredible. Every time I watch this movie, I feel as if I am revisiting my youth, albeit an idealized version.

Everyone who watches this movie should share it with the next generation of moviegoers. It truly is timeless.

Fast-moving, well-acted, and impeccably directed, this is my favorite John Wayne western of all-time although the Quiet Man is my favorite John Wayne movie. The plot is intelligent; the dialogue is crisp; the supporting characters are fascinating; and the chemistry between Wayne and Ella Raines is magnificent.

Well worth watching.

Colbert is well out of her element here, and cannot carry this tribute to WW II fighting nurses. The sentiment is commendable. The film is disappointing. It goes on and on, practically forever. It pulls no punches about the toughness of the action, which is laudable. But, it also gives us nothing to hold on to.

George Reeves and Sonny Tufts are unbearably stiff and feckless in the two leading male roles. Walter Abel is good as the tough commander.

I was disappointed when I first saw this, and recently wanted to see if it had improved with time. It hasn't.

This was the first movie produced by Dorothy Harrison, a respected member of Hitchcock's troupe. In the Hitchcockian tradition, it has many great scenes of incredible suspense. Ella Raines gives a brilliant performance throughout. There are also great supporting performances by Thomas Gomez, Elisha Cook Jr., the gentleman who plays the bartender, and the woman on Long Island who has lost her mind.

On the other side of the ledger, Siodmak's direction is wildly uneven. At times he seems to be making two totally different movies. Franchot Tone gives the most abominable performance of his otherwise distinguished career. Additionally, Alan Curtis is a real zero as the romantic lead.

So, the net result leaves the viewer with very mixed emotions. To this day, I wonder what was really going on between Tone And Siodmak because Tone's performance is simply impossible -- especially for such an accomplished actor.

This Ernst Lubitsch romantic comedy is a great celebration of turn-of-the-century New York. Don Ameche is magnificent as a scamp who feels he should go straight to hell upon his death. Laird Cregar ("His Excellency") makes the most outrageously perfect Satan of all time.

The film has an intimate sense of history and humanity. Allyn Joslyn is great has Ameche's priggish cousin. And Gene Tierney has the perfect chemistry with Ameche. Highly recommended.

Enter Laughing is based upon a book written by Carl Reiner on his own experiences breaking into show business. You would think that this would be hysterical, a worthy rival to the producers. But, this film declines to go in that direction. Instead, it is an delicately balanced blend of slapstick, satire, and pathos that suffers a bit from being a bit too gentle with its lead character.

A huge problem is the miscasting of Reni Santoni as Carl Reiner. Rob Reiner was in the film in a minor role. It remains a mystery to me why Rob was not given the lead; he is much more suited to it than the gentle Santoni.

Nevertheless, the supporting cast is terrific, most especially Elaine May, Jose Ferrer, Janet Margolin, Jack Gilford, Don Rickles, Nancy Kovack, David Opatoshu, and Shelley Winters. And, it will make you smile and titter, but not guffaw.

Jack Lemmon gets drunk, marries an Italian girl who popped out of a wedding cake, and speaks no English. What to do? Eddie Mayehoff, Claire Trevor, and Terry-Thomas are outstanding in this silly yet engaging and enduring comedy. Terry-Thomas is the ultimate gentleman's gentleman, and Eddie Mayehoff as Lemmon's lawyer who is also a hen-pecked husband is sheer brilliance.

This is an interesting movie about the members of a circus troupe trying to flee Communist domination while battling amongst themselves. Adolphe Menjou is spectacular as a down-on-his-luck government functionary. Gloria Grahame is chilling in her scenes. Richard Boone and Cameron Mitchell lend professional support.

Dick Powell is excellent as John Kennedy, a policeman who stumbles onto a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln en route to his inauguration. The history is not as muddled as others seem to indicate.

1. Lincoln did travel by train to his inauguration. 2. There were at least two confirmed plots by people who wished to have him assassinated. 3. Abraham Lincoln did have an aide throughout his administrations who was an ex-police officer named John Kennedy (Dick Powell's character in the film).

That is truth enough for backdrop to this impressive thriller. Ruby Dee is very impressive as a slave traveling on the train, and Marshal Thompson is quite good as a Southerner. Adolphe Menjou is terrific as the main bad guy, and Powell gives an earnest portrayal in the lead.

Anthony Mann directs the action very suspensefully, and the movie builds to its climax in interesting fashion.

Finally, the last line is a classic.

I've seen this movie 4 times and would gladly watch it again.

This story of a Broadway-area boarding house for women managed by a has-been actress is perfectly told and well-balanced.

Stage Door combines tragedy, comedy, profundity, drama, and romance in perfect proportions. La Cava never did it any better than this. The dialogue is letter-perfect, every syllable perfectly crafted. Duality and irony are pervasive in this film. The play within the movie relates to the actions outside in profound ways.

The acting of the ensemble (in the truest meaning of the word) is uniformly superb. Think about it --- Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Eve Arden, Ann Miller, Lucille Ball, and Gail Patrick Jackson trading pithy epithets, and pointed observations while trying to pursue careers and fulfilling lives. It doesn't get any better than this.

Wallace Beery is excellent as a poor immigrant wrestler who befriends waif Morley, but cannot keep her from the clutches of crooked promoter Cortez. The movie is badly dated. Many of its themes are now irrelevant. But, the acting is excellent, and a twist ending may surprise today's viewers.

A Farewell to Arms was a fairly controversial novel when it was published. When I first saw the movie, I was a little disappointed at how the movie understated the tone of Hemingway's irony, but thought it was excellently acted. Cooper, Hayes, and Menjou all give top-notch performances. The dialogue is not as pointed as it could be in a few key sequences. Overall, well worth watching.

What a waste of extraordinary talent and a beautiful venue. This movie is devoid of plot or characterization. It's one long bad improv sketch. Anthony LaPaglia, Elaine Stritch, Winona Ryder, Richard Gere, and a number of others are very talented actors, but you would never know it by this foolish excuse for a film.

Robby Benson and Annette O'Toole have good enough chemistry to make their unlikely pairing a crowd pleaser nonetheless. Benson is very good as the jock who is first coddled, then spurned, stirring the man within him. The movie has a great deal of fun with the special treatment given Jocks. Benson's work-study job is to turn the sprinklers on and off, but the sprinklers work automatically. Gail Strickland and (Director) Lamont Johnson are marvelous in small but hilarious supporting bits.

But the true star of the movie is G.D. Spradlin as the humorless and amoral hard-nosed basketball coach. Best exchange is when Benson says: "You're a great molder of character, coach" and Spradlin retorts, "You never asked me to mold your character." Spradlin is 100% true to his character as a John-Wooden-type of basketball coach. All in all, One on One shouldn't be taken too seriously but is quite enjoyable on its own terms.