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She's Working Her Way Through College (1952)
A Very Good Remake With Good Music
Having read the other reviews and just seen the movie on TCM I can really recommend this movie as excellent entertainment. First and foremost the movie retains the terrific plots from the original "The Male Animal" where a university professor must fight for freedom in his class and fight the football hero for his wife.
I totally disagree that this musical is in any way less than the original. The climatic speech by Ronald Reagan makes the point that if he expels the showgirl then "they" can expel others based on their religion, race, or where they were born. This freedom was what Henry Fonda's character was also protecting. Both also had excellent "fights" with the football hero and I actually prefer Reagan's because it was more intellectual and sincere.
Virginia Mayo is a favorite actress of mine and even if she always had her songs dubbed in all her movies it did not deter from her dancing and acting. She was excellent in "Best Years of Our Lives", "Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N." and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"...all different types of roles but giving each character life and reality with no singing required.
Gene Nelson is excellent as the senior football quarterback who dances and sings for the heart of Virginia Mayo
just like he did in "Oklahoma". He shows some good acting ability, too, in the serious scene of finding Reagan drunk when he brought Virginia Mayo home and Reagan thought they were his wife and the football hero.
All together this movie is something to enjoy and feel good about when its over
something many critical acclaimed movies don't do.
Sister Mary Explains It All (2001)
Not a good comedy, not a good satire...just plain not good.
I am a Catholic taught in parochial elementary schools by nuns, taught by Jesuit priests in high school & college. I am still a practicing Catholic but would not be considered a "good Catholic" in the church's eyes because I don't believe certain things or act certain ways just because the church tells me to.
So back to the movie...its bad because two people are killed by this nun who is supposed to be a satire as the embodiment of a female religious figurehead. There is no comedy in that and the satire is not done well by the over acting of Diane Keaton. I never saw the play but if it was very different from this movies then it may be good.
At first I thought the gun might be a fake and the first shooting all a plan by the female lead of the four former students as an attempt to demonstrate Sister Mary's emotional and intellectual bigotry of faith. But it turns out the bullets were real and the story has tragedy...the tragedy of loss of life (besides the two former students...the lives of the aborted babies, the life of the student's mom), the tragedy of dogmatic authority over love of people, the tragedy of organized religion replacing true faith in God. This is what is wrong with today's Islam, and yesterday's Judaism and Christianity.
Jarhead (2005)
NOT an accurate Marine grunt portrayal, movie or book
I was an active duty Marine for eight years, '67-'75, with a tour in Vietnam. I just retired as an Army Reservist, '92-'05, with tours in Bosnia and Iraq. I saw the movie and read the first pages of the book because I thought the movie may have taken liberties with the book...not so. Swofford's story is one of total self-centeredness, not self awareness. In the book's first seven pages he writes of how he stole MRE's and other Marine's gear to have party money, so he is a thief. In the movie the small sniper Marine unit is not only left totally unguided by any rules of engagement but without higher authority control. Even the platoon sergeant is absent for great parts of the action which is totally absurd. The worse part of the book was how Swofford and his buddies, when notified of their alert for Gulf War I, rented war movies, particularly Vietnam era movies, drank beer and watch/replayed the rape scenes. This man may write well but why read him? In the movie they didn't say anything about watching/replaying the rape scenes...they just hyped the war fever of warriors.
Hangmen Also Die! (1943)
Truth in fiction
Because of the assassination and an incorrect investigation by the Nazi's a little town outside of Prague, where the Reichmarshall was shot, was totally destroyed and wiped off the map. All males over the age of 15 were killed by firing squad. All women went to labor camps and the children of Lidice who were thought be able to be Germanized were sent into adoption against their wills. As I watch the movie Hangmen Also Die, I haven't seen the conclusion and don't know if it the village's destruction is mentioned. Since I have a great grandmother who came from that village long before the war I wanted to have it mentioned here. I have visited the site of the village, restored after the war and a memorial built there. The Nazi's own records show the horror of their acts.