Reviews

For me it was a blast. Reminds me of the Golden girls gay brother episodes ten years later at least On a nostalgia channel tonight.

The bar has the feel of a cocktail lounge. The gay man that Maude picks to educate Dr Harmon is very believable.

Hostility and ignorance were very much part of reality for gay people

There was generally nothing supportive on TV. In media. No openly gay celebrities. With several exceptions.

Gay marriage was a dream.

Orange juice reference may be odd to younger viewers Now that I'm a senior voice of wisdom and experience

So Conrad Bain's hysterical response to hand holding Isn't exaggerated

Funny and positive episode. Right on Maude!

This is by far my favorite Christmas themed film. The Bishop's wife is a close second but I love this film and can watch it over and over. Every performance is perfect.

If Sullavan had a volatile temper then somehow she used that to great affect.....Stewart is so young and so appealing. Sullavan is actually hearbreaking at times.

Her scene with Stewart in the restaurant is a gem ...should be studied by every acting student for its perfection. Stewart's hurt is tenable at her mean put down of him. They are perfect. Frank Morgan is wonderful. I was amazed that the actor who played Otto Frank , Schildkraut is the fop in this picture....and an odious character. I can't praise this film enough.....my colleague introduced this film to me and we showed it to HS students. They responded well though they HATE black and white films. So that says something for its timelessness and it enduring appeal.

At times it peaked my interest but it often became tiresome....and requires some suspension of disbelief....the life long friendship of the two men being one. Perhaps it would have been possible to disguise having a relationship with one's best friend's girlfriend....with the girlfriend rebuffing sex with her ostensible boyfriend while having sex with the friend...but I didn't buy it. Staying friends as their lives evolve in disparate ways doesn't read true. Later on I had trouble believing that a woman is desperate to get her unworthy boyfriend to marry her. Not a woman who was as seemingly successful and as stunningly beautiful as Ann-Margaret's character. The women are treated poorly in this film. The men are as another review says, not really likable or invite sympathy. Least of all the Jack Nicholoson character. My assumption is that it was close to the actor in characterization. I assumed before seeing it that it was entirely set in the seventies so surprised that it attempted to follow lives from post WWII to the seventies. As a reflection of changing awareness of women, of the relationships between men and women it doesn't strike me as representative of the seventies.....the final scene with Rita Moreno ....well who is this character she plays? We never learn. She plays Indian classical music as her choice of music. Is that a clue? Is she supposed to be of Indian background? Is that some kind of in joke of the use of this music not for mind blowing experience of awareness but rather something quite carnal? And unpleasant at that. The film ends on a sour note for its characters. That in itself is okay if the film convincingly took us there. I don't believe it does. It's a dated period piece....not a bad film....not great either.

There's so much funny in this I give it the full ten,

putting aside how Jerry is always meeting by chance the most beautiful women who all return his interest... I like his interaction with her.

The comparison of the flying experience in first class or business compared to regular seating is so true, I have to admit with Jerry once you've had the other you can't return to coach.

JL Dreyfuss handles the comedic side of a horrible journey stuck in the middle seat perfectly. "They're serving cookies!" Dreyfuss was so forgettable on SNL and here she's a stand out. Her contretemps with the flight attendant about missing the meal service ..... The same with her exchange with the flight attendant in first class. The show really cast some great people in small roles.

Jason Alexander has some good moments here too with the crook being arrested and the Time magazine....and how he unexpectedly encounters this man again....

Good episode showing the cleverness of the writers and in depicting an experience many of us can identify with ...horrible plane travel.

As it happens,

I"m the right age to remember Bozo...I guess many cities had their own Bozo....

George's obsession with Bozo, his cowardice....very funny. The Firefighter asking how does he live with himself.

The other funny plot line is Toby.....the actor is great playing her....her getting on Elaine's nerves, "she's demented." OR was it deranged? Anyway I wait for Elaine's delivery of that line.

The way she heckles and throws off Jerry.

The prop comedian. Reminds me of seeing Paul Reubens at Caroline's in the Eighties.

Not that crazy about Kramer's long monologue about the pinky toe.

Overall a funny episode.

The whole business about George's bromance with Tony is very funny given how it's been established how George has homosexual panic at the thought he might be turned on by a guy....as in the masseur in another episode. "IT moved."

The George character is perfect in this....from the backward cap to the offer to go bowling to the offer to make sandwiches for the rock climbing trip. And jealous that Kramer will take time away from him and Tony.

When after.... he's told to "step off" and George's plaintive, oh, Tony, no...

for a show that played around with gay themes before it was cool to do so and to do so with such an obnoxious character as George in so resolutely a heteroseuxal show....ground breaking. After all Ellen's horrible sitcom got cancelled when she came out.

An average looking guy, Jerry was able to have one beautiful woman after another romancing him each week. Talk about suspending disbelief. Kramer and George too.

Overall all very funny, I wish they'd brought Tony back for at least one more episode.

Unlike Seinfeld who as part of the comedy act says he would never wear used clothing because he's a germophobe, I wore thrift clothes for a good part of my life....including from "Rudy's."

Only Jewish writers would write an episode of making out during Schindler's List. Instead of going to a nice hotel since Jerry can afford a Cadillac for his father, to have intimacy with his one Jewish girlfriend during the run of the show....

Not my kind of joke....but okay, I tolerate it, otherwise I"m with Helen and Morty's outrage.

And the girl's father.

Never really accepted the Irish American actor playing Morty as a Jewish father, but he can be funny.

There have been numerous shows about Irish American families. Any of them cast Jews as Irishmen? The late Theodore Bikel? Jackie Mason?

I"m with Sarah Silverman. On this.

Yeah, I love this episode. The whole business of selling Frank's cabana wear at Rudy's.

This is the first time I watched Seinfeld as a new show. I was so amused by the cleverness of the episode and its difference from other sticoms that I began watching.

ON the other hand, I don't like any other the early season episodes.

What is different for a younger viewer: having to wait to use a public pay telephone.

The Cartwright reference. I love when the manager calls out Cartwright....

Plan 9 from Outer Space....

I can hear David's voice over as one the table of older customers when Elaine goes over to eat off their plate on a dare.

Very cleverly written and in real time.... J L Dreyfuss's sitcom with unknown and very annoying Steve Carrell in real time was terrible.

Had I seen any other of the early episodes, I"d have passed on this show.

Finally from fifty years ago I watched this film on TCM...

And I have no idea to what degree it keeps to the reality of the two criminals.....seems to stretch credulity.

I found Clyde's sexuality peculiar....it suggests he's got a gay side....he won't have sex with her....and he seems attracted to Michael J. Pollard's character. So that was interesting for the times...on the cusp of Stonewall. (Yes, there's the scene where apparently he had his first time with her...why? For Beatty's stud image?)

They did a lot to popularize thirties style in the sixties but Dunaway's hair is completely 1960's fashion. The BBC would never have allowed this.

Character actors all good and add a lot to the film...particularly Hackman.

The final shoot out is worth the wait...it was violent for the sixties. Maybe even shocking.

Glad I saw it fifty years late.

Seinfeld the series stands up and this is another off kilter episode.

The whole business about returning the sports jacket for "spite" is one of the funniest scenes with Jerry in the entire series. The humor from ignoring Jerry first at the Andover Shop and then at the outdoor cafe, once with a man and once with Elaine is also another bit of genius. Add to that the parking lot where not only can't one get your car when you need it, "we ask you to bear with us" but doubles as an on going hooker pick up spot is priceless. And I'm not so sure that the far west of Manhattan is a place for such activities in 2021....given the development such as Hudson Yards. I always enjoy this episode when it's repeated.

Squirting grapefruit in the eye becomes an episode....

I look up these episode for the supporting actors....curious who they are and what they've done since. In this case I looked up Brian McNamara "James."

He made it on at least one more episodes about "the sponge."

I watch these episode over and over and start to look at the set...what cold cereal is in the cupboard. And the cast members other than the principals.

In every way this film is gripping, moving, suspenseful, horrifying and beautifully performed. I'd never seen this ground breaking film nor did I think I'd want to spend several hours watching a film about Nazis. From the beginning I couldn't turn away. So many years after the time and events of this film it is chilling. It's been many years since I've seen The Damned and that film may not be an accurate comparison but the evil portrayed is done so that I feel the danger and the inhumanity of the German occupation. And its depravity. Outstanding performances. The children included. Anna Mangnani.... I can't describe her scene without it being a spoiler. The resistance leader. The courageous Father. Depravity versus the most enduring of mankind's needs ...to be free. Given the state of the world that struggle continues in places where equal courage is needed to be defiant. This is no antique. It is as brilliant as when first released.

Horrible.

Watched it as part of Horror films curated by Mario Cantone on TCM for month of October.

As camp it's drek.

Were it camp, I'd have enjoyed it.

And it has no other value. Certainly not suspenseful or even horrific with those dummy heads. Horrific is perhaps only JC in that get up at the beginning of the film when we are supposed to believe she's only a few years older than Lee Majors (his best work.) And then later on in that some ugly get up.

Yikes what a horrible film.

This movie is so satisfying for a few good reasons:

Jeanne Moreau

It's clever

It's suspenseful

It's not predictable

Other views have written fine analyses of the film. I'd never heard of it and it was just shown on TCM Noir Alley. I figured it was worth checking out as their first foreign language addition to the series which I typically watch anyway. But some films don't grab me and this one did. The two stories seem unconnected but they come together brilliantly. And yes, I looked away for a few seconds and missed something pivotal. So I need to watch this film again at some time.

Being trapped in an elevator for days is one of my nightmares. This film is worth ten out of ten. Really exceptional and I like how Jeanne Moreau is filmed and how she seems to be doing very little except walking and having cars miss her as if she's invincible while doing a lot. And how she addresses the camera particularly at the conclusion is memorable.

I continue to be intrigued by the perfection of this film. For story telling, this film is superb. Every aspect of it goes to build the characters and the plot. There are so many expertly played scenes...some of them seemingly less important. Child actor Robert Blake is great as the child begging Bogart's Dobbs to buy a lotto ticket. The meeting between Holt's Curtin and Dobbs. The meeting between Walter Huston and Bogart. And the film continues to unfold expertly in John Huston's cinematic eye. I hadn't seen the film for many years and just rewatched it on DVD. So many of the details of the film, I'd forgotten. Everything that happens builds to Bogart's psychotic, suspicious breakdown where he is sure that all are plotting against him. Tim Holt deserves more recognition for his contribution to the power of this film. At the start he seems a callow personality but as the film progresses he grows in stature as man of strength and honesty. Walter Huston's saving of the young Indian child may seem like an unnecessary diversion to some but I found it fascinating and just adds to our understanding of the character's wisdom. And of course that ending has that twist of fate that seems inevitable as we watch it, but the first time I recall I was astonished. It's an ensemble film in which the actors really play their roles in synch with one another. Let me also add a word for Bruce Bennett's Cody,the interloper, the intruder for whom they felt the need to dispose of. His character was so articulate that I thought is this reasonable to expect in these circumstances? But then the dialog throughout the film is heightened at times and at others has the rich, power of how folks actually speak. I enjoy this film throughly and it gives me a lot to ponder about the circumstances of these mens' lives and the struggle to achieve a better life...certainly a more comfortable life as Bogart's character expounds. I think it's Bogart's most nuanced and complex performance...although I note in one scene at the beginning he gives this the kind of facial tick that became a part of anyone doing an imitation. All in al great acting combined with superb dialog, story telling and directing.

John Payne leads a great ensemble cast. Equally compelling is the performance by Preston Foster as the jaded ex cop who seeks a pay out at the expense of the underworld criminals he believes are expendables. Also expendable is Payne's character who is framed as being part of a bank heist. This is the great film noir iconic character of the man caught in a nightmare beyond powers he controls. This character is released by the police for lack of evidence tying him to the heist and he spends the rest of the film clearing himself. Like Dick Powell, John Payne is able to completely cast himself in an entirely new veil of gritty darkness and in so doing shakes off the nice guy song and dance man. He's an imposing, handsome man who wins over the audience as the wronged man on a quest. The actors cast as the villains are a great collection of physical types that embody sleaziness. Preston Foster is truly menacing from the moment he demeans and roughs up the first of the villains he traps in his web of deceit. It's astonishing how he can carry off a veneer of honesty by being totally dishonest with his daughter as well as his sordid malevolence as exhibited in his malfeasance. The daughter is the one jarring note. She has good enough reason to buy into her father's warning that Payne is a no good ex con, especially after Payne gripped her arm hurting her , seemingly in a play to protect her. So it's predictable who is going to fall into whose arms at the end. Good job by the actor who plays the saucy Mexican at the hotel who is trying to hawk "souvenirs." She might be politically incorrect as a stereotype of a Mexican who may have more to sell than cheap earrings. And she's in "brown face." But this is minor in a great, satisfying film noir.

The plot device is hokum and utterly fantastic and not in a good way. I don't like either Robert Taylor or Lana Turner in this film and I'm cold to their supposed beauty. Turner's opening where she appears to be a smart, perceptive woman is undercut by all that happens after. Women come off pretty stupid in this film. They are all cipher man centered drones and particularly drawn in by Robert Taylor's allure. Van Heflin is interesting but what he's doing here is unclear other than be a drunk, gay man who is also in love with Taylor. He doesn't humanize Taylor. One shot of Heflin bleary eyed and boozily approaching the camera is an odd moment that adds to his character's complete dissipation. Watch for the character actors. Taylor's "niece" is priceless as a hood teenager as is her very NYC working class mother. The pawnshop owner who makes an $11 dollar sale just as he's closing is another fine turn. His honest $ is compared to the high rolling Taylor's Eager. The dog for whom Taylor is indifferent puts in a good performance. Stupid Julio who pulls off his staged murder for Turner. Barry Nelson does a good job as Taylor's turncoat who meets a particularly bizarrely staged and dreary demise. Worth checking out just to see what a stinker it is. If you can spare two hours of your life.

I stayed with this hoping for something and it delivered squat. I actually got hooked in the beginning which would have made a very good movie...when Dunne is essential in getting coworkers "the girls" to support a strike against her boss, never seen, of a chain of restaurants. The first part of the film sets up a smart, working women facing the exploitation of the bosses....and she is pursued by the union rep, a handsome man. Instead she becomes tied up in a subsequent dreary plot with Boyer. The first part of the film is charming and interesting and she's an arresting character. Even he is mildly interesting. The slice of 1939 life they partake of is very well played: going to the piers where people are cooling off pre AC, helping a kid who's skinned his knee, lost his pants held up by rope. He's pushing his friend in a go cart. After setting up an interesting film they are caught in a storm. Held up in a church. Which holds up the film. Even that is passably interesting. Finally, we meet Boyer's mad wife who isn't so addled when away from her mother and her minder. She wants her husband. And Dunne as a good woman in a 1939 movie, isn't going to fight her for him. This is all trite. Had it been a light, romantic comedy built around striking women it would have been a good film. A film about a strong, smart woman leading a strike. As it is...I guess this is what is called condescendingly "a woman's film" like today's "chick flicks" and it's a bore.

I'd never heard of this film so I watched it last night on TCM, a premiere. So when I saw one and a half stars I thought this isn't going to be great but still out of curiosity. It represents a generation before me so they'd have to weigh in on its authenticity. I stuck with it as much as I could and finally gave up...although I kept thinking isn't that Candy Darling? Isn't that the guy who starred in WKRP.....Ben Mankowitz only mentioned Rue McClanahan and Fannie Flagg in his intro.

Truly a miserable character who aired and spouted nonsense.

Patsy Kelly shows herself to be a very good dancer, and very funny when she goes into a a sort of hi de ho routine which Todd cuts short. It's actually a fun look at the world of radio in the early thirties at L O C O which is supposed to be located in New York. When the actors of the broadcast refuse to play animal characters in an insipid play Todd and Kelly take over. Todd is "spring" and Kelly is "groundhog" among other characters. Kelly gives a very wacky reading making the most of the dopy dialog. Todd plays "spring" straight to no effect. The audience takes this play as an uproarious farce. It's comical. I like the Kelly and Todd pairing. Kelly is a good comedian who is nearly forgotten and that's too bad. She sang...she danced. The Randall Sisters sing a ditty in an odd western or southern twang which is a curiosity in this short. The Sons of the Pioneers have little to do. If Roy Rogers is among them, I missed him. I'll have to watch again.

Howdy Doody is beloved by people of my generation. The characters were inventive, they were funny, they taught lessons about human nature and the different kinds of of people the kids would encounter as they grew older. The interaction between the the cast and the puppets made this exceptional with only Kula Fran and Olly having that same unique spirit. I'm writing this because the child on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is watching and screams when his grandfather shuts it off, only to have it turned on again. I only remember watching this show on Saturday mornings from 10 to 11AM. The boy on MMM is watching in the evening in 1956. That might be a small error of the show because that's when I was watching. In college in 1969 or early 70, Buffalo Bob toured campuses. The auditorium or gym was packed. Everyone loved this show.

I watched this on CUNY TV. I was curious and stayed because it had enough elements to be entertaining. Ralph Cooper is handsome and likable. I didn't even realize that Lena Horne was the beautiful singer. I thought she was a Lena Horne knock off. She seems to have been required to slim down and had better glamour treatment in Hollywood films. Interesting because of its use of black actors and performers in ways they couldn't be shown in film other than those made for black audience. Talented singers and dancers and a window into what the TOBA houses were like in the south. And an extended snake oil routine of the rural south. Even the diner with its ham and eggs special is interesting as an historic window on life eighty years ago. I'm glad Lena Horne was able to make it out of this niche market even if she was still relatively isolated in the roles she could play.