365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 122 - Summer's End Film Festival: Roman Holiday

If ever there was a movie that should open with "Once Upon A Time" this is it. Roman Holiday is a fairytale about a princess who runs away and falls in love. It is also one of the best romantic comedy/dramas ever turned out by a Hollywood studio.

If you are unfamiliar with the story it is a bout a princess, played by Audrey Hepburn, who is on a grand tour of the great cities of Europe. While in Rome she collapses under the pressure of the daily routine and mind numbing schedule and sneaks out in the middle of the night. It is no mistake that her escape resembles a jail break, because she lives in a type of prison. She wanders the streets of Rome for a bit before passing out from a sedative she was given before she left the palace. She is discovered by Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck), a reported for the American News Service. he does not recognize her but takes her home to avoid having her arrested by the police. The next day, when he learns who has been sleeping in his apartment he is on to the biggest scoop of the decade. In order to get a story he spends the day escorting her around Rome, doing the things she always wanted to do, a Roman holiday. Unfortunately the police are looking for her and their holiday must end. It becomes even harder when they realize how much their day together has meant to them. They kiss and discover it is very hard to say goodbye.

It is a perfect film. Everything from location, director, stars, writing, editing and cinematography fell into place to create this fanciful concoction of unrequited love. And the fact that love is unrequited is what makes the film so wonderful and poignant. There are three particular moments in the movie where the film sets the audience up for a typical happy ending, each time we anticipate that when we turn around the princess will be returning to the man she has fallen in love with, but it never happens. It can't happens. because as the movie says, "so often we have to live lives that do not make us happy.

I think the only thing that would have made the film better was if it was filmed in color. If you have never seen this gem from Paramount's golden age, I suggest you rent it.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 121 - Funny Face

Five years ago I was pretty much unaware of anything having to do with fashion. My first exposure was The Devil Wears Prada. Then I started watching Project Runway. I started becoming more aware of the history of fashion. I went to the YSL exhibit here at the De Young Museum. I saw a Lifetime movie about Coco Chanel and a documentary about Valentino. In a few years I had developed a basic overview of the history of fashion and the goings on in the world of fashion magazines. I mention all of this because today is the second time in two years I have watched the film Funny Face, starring Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire, and it is all about the world of fashion photography. The first was at home on DVD and the second was at The Stanford Theatre.

The movie also stars Kay Thompson, in a rare movie role, as Maggie Prescott fashion editor of Quality magazine. In an attempt to have fashion represent both beauty and intellect the photographer, Dick Avery (Astaire) and his models invade a counter-culture bookstore in Greenwich Village where Jo Stockton (Hepburn) works as a clerk. before you can say cheese, Hepburn has been discovered as new look and is whisked off to Paris for a whole new line of couture fashion made just for her and Quality Magazine.

Paris, of course is lovely, and everyone knows that when in Paris romantic complications will ensue. 

These complications are accompanied by some of George and Ira Gershwin's classic songs, including 

"S Wonderful", "Funny Face", "Bonjour, Paris" and "How Long Has This Been Going On" and wonderful Paris landmarks.

Astaire's character is based on famed photographer Richard Avedon and his work is used in the opening credits and in background photos, while Thompson's character is based on real life Vogue editor Diana Vreeland. 

The film has many iconic moments in it. In particular are the classic over-exposed shot of Audrey Hepburn's face that just highlights her facial features and the skinny black pant that Hepburn wears when she performs a Bohemian dance in a cafe. besides dancing Hepburn does all her own singing in the film. 

Astaire also does a classic dance number, this time with an overcoat and an umbrella. 

But both Hepburn and Astaire are upstaged by Thompson when she performs. She opens the film with the wonderful "Think Pink" and then performs a duet with Hepburn and a montage with Hepburn and Astaire.

Astaire and Hepburn are a romantic couple in the movie, but Astaire was 30 years her senior. This type of May/December pairings were standard for Hepburn, who was cast with some of the greatest leading men in movies including, Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Cary Grant, Burt Lancaster, Rex Harrison and Henry Fonda, all of whom ranged from ten to thirty years older than her. George Peppard in Breakfast At Tiffany's was the rare exception. It was not until 1966 when she made How To Steal A Million with Peter O'Toole that she started being cast with leading men that were around the same age as she was.

Sadly some of the technical components of the film don't hold up. There is a photo montage sequence in the middle of the film that looks old fashioned today. During two scenes that take place in a small churchyard it appears as if a filter was placed on the lens to give everything a soft, ethereal effect and it is distracting. Plus the print we saw was a bit faded, or maybe the bulb in the projector was not bright enough, but the film should have been vibrant and it was not.

At The Movie House rating *** 1/2

The Stanford Theatre

Today we drove 35 miles south to see a movie in the fabulously restored Stanford Theatre. Built in the 1920's and opened to the public on June 9, 1925, the Stanford Theatre currently shows classic Hollywood films from 1920 through 1965. The theatre was purchased and restored in 1987 by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and is operated by the non-profit Stanford Theatre Foundation.

Along with being a beautiful example of neo-classical Greek/Assyrian architecture, the theatre features original posters, lobby cards and other ephemera from Hollywood's golden age on display.  Going to see a movie here is like taking a step back in time. Even the popcorn had real butter.

I love watching movies and having the ability to watch movies on home video has made them accessible to larger and larger audiences, but I will continue to celebrate the act of going to see a film in a movie theatre. Seeing movies the way they are meant to be seen. On a large screen, in a dark theatre, filled with strangers, all sharing the same experience. Seeing a classic film with an audience is great because everyone there is a film buffs of some kind. They came their on purpose. They fans and they are there to enjoy a classic Hollywood moment. Recently when we went to see Singin' In the Rain at the Castro Theatre the audience actually clapped after the musical numbers as if it was a live show.

Every single large city should have a classic revival house and people should make an effort support the theatres and give themselves a treat by seeing a favorite movie, bigger than life, up there on the silver screen.

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 120 - Summer's End Film Festival: My American Cousin

My American Cousin is a simple, sweet coming of age tale about a young girl who is frustrated by her desire to get people to treat her as an adult. The story takes place on a rural ranch in British Columbia in the summer of 1959. Sandy Wilcox is at the awkward age of twelve going on 13, but she finds that all the adults in her world still treat her like she is ten, when she wants to be treated like she was 17. Her parents are not so eager to see her grow up. She is at constant odds against her parents, especially her mother.

The tension on increase when her American cousin, Butch Walker, shows up for an unexpected visit driving a big, red Cadillac Eldarado convertible. Butch tells his aunt and uncle he is on a "vacation".  For Sandy, Butch is instant access to the adult world. 

Butch's attitude is right out of Rebel Without A Cause and soon he is igniting sparks between him and his cousin, and another girl in town. 

If this movie had been made in Hollywood it would have featured outlandish situations, over the top comedy and much more open sexuality. Instead, made in Canada the film demonstrates that simple is best. Written and directed by Sandy Wilson the film is a memoir based on her childhood and it feels completely authentic. It features all the great songs of the era, and to signify how love mysteriously arrives, the song Some Enchanted Evening is featured as the underscore.

A warm, sweet, charming film that won multiple Canadian film awards when it was released, including the Genie Award for Best Picture.

At The Movie House rating *** stars.

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 120 - Summer's End Film Festival: The Day The Earth Caught Fire

Here is a film about global warming that was made before anyone knew what the term meant.

Unlike other movies about atomic bombs being tested this one isn't about giant monsters that run amok killing people. Instead the movie takes the premise that the U.S. and the Soviet Union coincidentally test two nuclear weapons on the same day on opposite ends of the globe. The force of the two huge explosions cause an 11 degree shift in the earth's axis and pushes it into a new orbit. One that is bringing it closer to the sun.

The movie is told as an old fashion investigative newspaper story. It starts off with unusual summer weather stories. Torrential rains, then an unending heat wave, sunspot activity and strange ground mist that blankets most of Europe.

Lead reporter Peter Stennings, played by Edward Judd and science writer Bill Maguire, played by Leo McKern, start putting the story together with the help of Jeannine Craig, a female phone operator, played by Janet Munro, who works inside the British Science Ministry.

The film is a low budget "B" picture shot on location in London. Cinematographer Harry Waxman uses excellent matte paintings to simulate the extreme weather occurrences. The film opens and closes with the city tinted in an orange glow to show the extreme heat that is building as the earth moves closer to the sun, then the film is told in flash back to 90 days earlier an details how the events begun.

The script is tight and the film is both extremely realistic and suspenseful. It is one of the best nuclear holocaust movies ever made.

At the Movie House rating ***1/2 stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 119 - Summer's End Film Festival: Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation

Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation is a movie left over from another era. It represents the idyllic view of America in the 1950's, when everyone lived in happy "Leave It To Beaver" type families. While Hollywood was turning out films featuring discontented teenagers like Rebel Without A Cause, Blackboard Jungle and West Side Story, the biggest challenge facing these parents are a son that watches too much TV and a daughter to shy to dance because she has braces on her teeth.

But the movie does not completely exist in a time casual. The movie mentions both the space race and Kruschev. The two married daughters are both having marital problems. One daughter's husband is out of work and the stress is fracturing their marriage. The other daughter has a conceited husband who has a wandering eye. Frequently the characters quote magazine articles about child rearing, psychology and modern sexuality, showcasing many new ideas that were already taking root in American society.

The film sets up the premise that the father is superfluous in his own home.That his family and children no longer need him for anything ore than his money. he is frequently portrayed as a klutz and a man not in control of events around him. But as the film unfolds we see that it is his wisdom that keeps the family together.

It's a very light comedy, along the vein of other films like Gidget or Please Don't Eat The Daisies. The comedy relies on Stewart as he reacts to the chaos his family creates. Stewart also supplies frequent narration to the events, giving comedic voice over to the outcome of events. The film has elements to appeal to both generations. Stewart and Maureen O'Hara for mom and dad and Fabian, Valerie Varda and rock and roll music for the kids.

The laughs are light hearted and the drama is heart warming. This film is as pleasant as a day at the beach.

At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars.

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 118 - Summer's End Film Festival: The Flamingo Kids

The Flamingo Kid starts out as a fish out of water story and ends up a coming of age movie. Matt Dillon plays Jeffrey Willis a poor young man from Brooklyn, who gets a summer job at an exclusive Long Island beach club called The Flamingo. There he falls under the influence of one of the members, a fast talking sports car salesman played by Richard Crenna. Jeffrey's dad, Hector Elizondo does not approve of the job, or the influence being around the club members is having on his sun. In the end its up to Jeffrey to decide which man has the better life lessons to teach him.

The movie works because of the strong performances by it's three male leads, particularly Dillon and Elizondo. They really feel like father and son. The movie rests on the relationships and emotional triangle formed by these three men. Rest of the movie is as pleasant and forgettable as a summer day at the beach. There are stock characters who supply some comedy, but nothing too over the top.

I enjoy the film because I get a nostalgic feeling for the Breezy Point Beach Club in Brooklyn, when I watch it. I remember driving over the Marine Parkway Bridge, just like the characters in the film.

At the Movie House rating **1/2 stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 117 - Summer's End Film Festival: Field Of Dreams

Is there anything that symbolizes summer better than baseball. How about row, upon row, of tall Iowa corn? Put them both together and you get a magical movie that shouldn't work, but it does.

Kevin Costner (in one of his best roles) plays farmer Ray Kinsella who hears a voice out in his cornfield. The voice tells him "If you build it, he will come" and offers Ray a vision of a pristine baseball diamond. Soon, with his wife's blessing (Amy Madigan) he is plowing under his corn and putting in a regulation size baseball diamond, infield, outfield, bleachers and lights. And he does come, the he is "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, played by Ray Liotta. And soon other players show up, until regular games are being played in Ray's cornfield.

But the voice is not done. Following further instructions Ray goes on a road trip to find a reclusive author named Terence Mann (James Earl Jones) and Moonlight Graham (Burt Lancaster) a rookie who never got his chance to play in the major leagues. All these men are brought together through the magic of baseball to fulfill their dreams.

The movie touches on many themes. Baseball as a metaphor for better times in America. And baseball as a symbol of our youth, passion and idealism. The movie touches on censorship and democracy. It is a movie about second chances at lost dreams and being true to yourself. The James Earl Jones character gives a speech about baseball in the middle of the film that made me sad to think of the state of baseball today. But it is an idealized view of the game. The Black Sox's scandal of 1919 shows us that money and baseball have always been intertwined.

Most of all Field Of Dreams is about family. The strong relationship between husband and wife and parent and child. But most of all it is about fathers and sons and how baseball has been known to bring them together. This is a film that makes grown men weep.

One of the nice things about the movie is that it makes no effort to explain the mystical elements that have voices speaking, or long dead ball players appearing out of the cornfield.

When he made this film Costner was on a role. He starred in The Untouchables, Bull Durham and No Way Out. All were critical and commercial success. But Field Of Dreams cemented his place as a leading man and box office winner. He gives a strong grounded performance as a man who is having inexplicable things happening to him.

James Earl Jones is also excellent, but it is Burt Lancaster who really shines. In is his last performance before he died he shows us everything that made him a Hollywood star to begin with.

The movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Score.  The film frequently appears on Top 10 lists for best sports films and best fantasy film.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 116 - Summer's End Film Festival: State Fair

Nothing says summer like a big State Fair.

In 1944 Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma was a big hit on Broadway. It was so popular that 20th Century Fox couldn't buy the rights to make a movie of it. So they did the next best thing. they hired Rogers and Hammerstein to write a new musical.

Fox dusted off the 1933 film State Fair and Rogers and Hammerstein created their only musical written directly for the movies. In 1945 the musical remake of State Fair was released to great acclaim. The film was notable for some excellent songs including the Academy Award winning "It Might As Well Be Spring". This is the only Oscar the song writing team ever won.

The film tells the story of the Frake family as they prepare to visit the State Fair. Mom hopes to beat out her snooty rival for best minced meat and dad hopes to have his hog win best in class. Daughter Margie (Jeanne Craine) hopes the fair will pull her out of her funk and her brother Wayne (Dick Haymes) is disappointed his girl can't go.

Once at the fair each of the family members embark on some adventures. Margie unexpectedly meets a newspaper man (Dana Andrews) on a roller coaster and is soon falling in love. And Wayne meets a big band singer and develops his own romance. These romantic entanglements will cause complications for the family as they spend their vacation at the fair.

All the performances are fine and there are a couple of chuckles, but the main reason for seeing this movie is to hear the wonderful Rodgers and Hammerstein music. Along with "It Might As Well Be Spring" the movie also features "It's A Grand Night For Singing" and "Our State Fair". The songs are instantly recognizable and don't be surprised if you find yourself humming along.

The film is an old-fashioned piece of nostalgia for a time in America that never really was. Nowadays so many people are full of longing for these innocent days, when they never really existed to begin with. Just one example is the fact that the fair takes place in 1945, but there his no mention of the war that just ended, almost as if it never happened.

20th Century Fox remade the film a third time in 1962. This time as a musical starring Pat Boone and Ann Margaret. To avoid confusion the 1945 version was retitled It Happened One Summer when it aired on television

At the time of this film Dana Andrews was one of the biggest names in Hollywood. He had starred in Laura and the following year he would be starring in The Best Years Of Our Lives. But by the 1950's he would be washed up, his career ravaged by alcoholism, he would be starring in "B" pictures like Zero Hour. he was able to recover from his alcoholism and finished his career in movies, daytime soaps and television guest appearances. he was also President of the Screen Actor's Guild.

At the Movie House rating **1/2 stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 115 - Summer's End Film Festival: Summertime

David Lean directed three of the movies great romance films, Brief Encounter, Doctor Zhivago and Summertime. 

Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? 

Summertime asks that question of Jane Hudson (Katherine Hepburn) an American woman on an extended summer vacation in Europe. In a series of watercolors the opening credits depict Jane traveling to London and Paris and, as the credits end, we pick her up on the Orient Express, bound for Venice. As she travels, she records everything with a home movie camera. But the camera also acts as a shield, keeping the world at a distance. In her hotel she is asked by the owner why she travels alone and she replies that she likes it that way, "she is the independent type." But soon we see she really does not wish to be alone as she presses the other guests to stay with her for a drink, but they all have engagements and soon she is left by herself. 

Every where she looks she sees couples. Venice, and Italy, are places of romance. She has already expressed a hidden desire that hopefully something magical will happen, yet when the opportunity presents itself in the Piazza San Marco,  she is to afraid to chance anything and she quickly scurries away.

That opportunity is the attention of Renato de Rossi (Rozzano Brazzi) a local merchant. Their paths cross again the next day and the next evening and soon he is making his affection for her known. She is soon swept off her feet in a whirlwind romance. But when she learns Renato is married she must choose between what she desires and what she believes to be the "correct" thing to do. During the film she buys a gardenia from a flower lady. She explains that she always wanted one, it was the flower she wanted to wear to her first dance, but her date couldn't afford it. Renato tells her that if you wait long enough eventually you can have the things you want. But later the gardenia accidentally drops into a canal and floats away, because sometimes you lose the things you want most.

The film is not just about the love affair between two people, it is also about a love affair with the city of Venice. David Lean captures the very essence of the city on film, including it's many moods and personality. He shows how easily it could be to lose yourself in this magical place.

The film has some abrupt changes in tone and most of that can be attributed to edits required to meet production codes at the time. The film was also found "morally objectionable in part" by the National Catholic Legion of Decency. By today's standards the film is old fashioned in it's depiction of romance.

The film has a poetic quality about it and Katherine Hepburn is superb as a woman "who is laughing on the outside, but crying on the inside." It made me want to go to Venice!

At the Movie House rating ***1/2 stars.

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 114 - Summer's End Film Festival: The Blob

Labor Day and the unofficial end of summer is just two weeks away. So starting today I am beginning a Summer's End Film Festival devoted to all things summer.

First up is the 1958 sci-fi classic The Blob. The film opens on two teenagers making out under a starry sky, on a hot Friday night, in the summertime. Suddenly a meteor streaks across the sky and crashes just beyond the next hill. The pair race to see it, but before they can get there an old man arrives at the crash sight first. He pokes at the meteor with a stick and it cracks open to reveal a pulsating gelatinous mass inside. Before you know it, the mass is covering his hand and he is crying out in pain. The two teenagers find the old man and take him to the doctor's house for medical aid. Left alone at the doc's house the mass consumes the old man, then the nurse and finally the doctor. It is now up to the two teenagers to warn a disbelieving town that there is a monster on the loose killing everything it it's path.

This low budget sci-fi thriller has become a classic film for multiple reasons. It features Steve McQueen in his first starring role and he plays the part with the same integrity and charm he would give every part. Filmed on location in Pennsylvania the film has a sense of reality and authenticity a studio film wouldn't have. And finally the movie is filled with memorable, iconic images. The blob oozing through the ventilation grate, or out through the projection holes in the movie theatre, the patrons running and screaming from the movie theatre and the mechanic attacked under the car are just a few of them.

At The Movie House rating ****

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 113 - Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

Scott Pilgrim is essentially a comic book on film. It's the first time that I ever felt a movie recreated the actual comic book experience on the big screen. The film stars Micheal Cera as Scott Pilgrim, who does what he always does, playing a shy, mousy dweeb, but nobody does it better. Scott falls for the new, cool girl in town Ramona. Unfortunately Ramona comes with baggage, seven exes that Micheal must battle in video game style smack downs.

The movie is based on a series of graphic novels I had never heard of and I could tell I was not the films target audience. But I found myself enjoying it immensely. The movie knows when to be hip and when to mock itself and the visual style is amazing. It captures the coolness factor Speed Racer failed to get two years ago. The film is a little long and becomes repetitious. It could have used two less evil ex-boyfriends.

This film is not for everyone. The generation that grew up on MTV and Nintendo will love it. Others may wonder what it's all about, but if it speaks to you, it will make you laugh.

At the Movie House rating ***stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 112 - Danger In The Skies - Part V: Air Force One

It was only a matter of time before they made an "airplane in danger" film featuring one of the most famous aircraft in the world, Air Force One. The movie, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, is almost saved by the performances of the films two leads, Harrison Ford as The President Of The United States and Gary Oldman as his nemesis, a Russian terrorist.

The movie is laden with every cliche, from every airplane, terrorist, political crisis movie you can find. In addition it has multiple endings with the plane flying on from one crisis to the next. Yet because of the work of it's two stars the movie is extremely watchable. It is completely predictable, but at the same time it engages the viewer into rooting for this gun toting President and the good old red, white and blue. I think it's because we have gotten so tired of seeing our politicians refuse to take any real action on anything, that we rally around President James Marshall as he takes on a plane load of terrorists.

Glenn Close as the Vice-President and Dean Stockwell as the Secretary Of defense give strong performances on the ground, but everyone else in the white house is reduced to reading standard crisis dialogue. One character even compares flying a plane to riding a bicycle, a line we heard in Zero Hour and Airplane. In addition the movie asks the audience to suspend disbelief a few times and too overlook some obvious CGI effects.

As big budget summer entertainment the films a hit, but it lacks the suspense of a really good thriller.

At the Movie House rating ** 1/2 stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 111 - Danger In The Skies - Part IV: Airplane

In 1980 Paramount Pictures released Airplane and afterwards every movie genre was open for ridicule. Mel Brooks invented the movie spoof with comedic takes on westerns, with Blazing Saddles and horror movies with Young Frankenstein, but when Jim Abrams and David and Jerry Zucker created Airplane they perfected it. This writing and directing team pulled out all the stops and threw every kind of joke they could  think of into the movie.

As I mentioned earlier this week, the film is a direct remake of the 1957 film Zero Hour. But then they added in rifts from Airport, The High And The Mighty, Airplane '75, Jaws, From Here to Eternity, Saturday Night Fever and even Knute Rokne, All American. There is no joke too stupid or sophomoric that they won't give it a try. The movie actually needs to be watched multiple times to get every visual gag and verbal pun that is thrown at the audience.

The movie also works well because of the brilliant casting. Instead of casting the movie with popular comedians, they hired well known actors famous for their dramatic roles. Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen and Lloyd Bridges were all cast against type. In addition, they played their roles with deadly earnest, delivering comedic lines in a deadpan manner, oblivious to the chaos around them and that made them even funnier. Nielsen had his career rejuvenated because of his part in Airplane and went on to play many comedic roles.

The jokes come a mile a minute and the film ended up with many signature catch phrases including the famous "Surely, you can't be serious? I am serious. And don't call me Shirley!" The films reputation has grown over the years and is on the AFI list of best American comedies.

I recommend a double feature of Zero Hour and then Airplane.

At the Movie House rating **** stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 110 - Danger In The Skies - Part III: Skyjacked and Executive Decision

From 1968 to 1972 there were close to a hundred attempted or successful hijackings of aircraft in the U.S. The hijackers usually wanted hostages so they could ask for money or for some political purpose, many wanted to be taken to Cuba. Because of the frequency of hijackings the Nixon administration put in security measures that remained in effect until 9/11.

Skyjacked, based on a book by David Harper, is a fictional account of one of these events. The film stars Charlton Heston and a cast of notables including Roosevelt Grier, Yvette Mimieux, James Brolin, Walter Pigeon and Claude Akins. The film is a competent thriller that manages to maintain suspense throughout.

The film is broken into three acts. The first is a mystery. Someone has planted a bomb on a flight from Oakland to Minneapolis and left a message in lipstick on the bathroom mirror. The suspects are narrowed down to one of the first class passengers. The bomber orders the plane to be flown to Anchorage, Alaska.
Charlton Heston as the Captain has no choice but to divert the plane while they try to figure out who it might be.

In act two the bomber is revealed, but now the plane must try to land at Anchorage Airport in zero visibility. The plane must be talked down, while avoiding collisions with nearby aircraft.

And finally the third act. the bomber orders the plane flown to Moscow, where he plans to defect and turn over the plane and it's passengers, including a U.S. Senator (Walter Pigeon) and an FBI agent who was smuggled aboard at Anchorage.

The movie bogs down under a couple of unnecessary flashbacks that tell of a past romantic relationship between Heston and the head flight attendant, Mimieux. These scenes could have been left out completely and the script would be tighter and less campy. Also the script puts Heston in the role of hero at the end and it really does not work, since he has the opportunity to get off the plane and leave the madman to the Russians, but over all it is well made and holds together.

I saw this film with my mom at the North Masspaequa theatre in 1972. I enjoyed it then and it's still pretty good.

At the Movie House rating **1/2 stars

Next up was a different sort of hijacking film. This time it's Muslim terrorist who have smuggled a bomb filled with DZ-5 nerve gas on board a 747and plan to use a it as a weapon of mass destruction by crashing it into Washington. The film stars Kurt Russell as an intelligence analyst and Steven Segal as an assault team leader.

In Executive Decision an assault team is able to sneak on board the hijacked 747 in flight and it becomes a race against the clock to disarm the bomb and stop the terrorists before the President makes an "executive decision" to shoot the plane down, passengers and all. Oddly the President never appears in the movie.

A movie like this needs to have a few of things going for it, in order to work. First it must have a good bad guy. The film accomplishes that by having David Suchet as the lead terrorist. The guy is scary even when he plays a good guy. Second, it must give the audience something unexpected to keep the suspense up. The film does this by killing one of the films stars 20 minutes into the movie. If that can happen, than anything can happen. And finally, what ever goes on, no matter how preposterous, must have some level of credibility that allows the audience to suspend disbelief and go with the story. The film does this too, by using dialogue to make sure everything is explained along the way.

The films major failure is the over the top ending, with the hero in the cockpit trying to land the 747 and creating a standard Hollywood scene of explosions and fire. It was an unneeded climax to a very suspenseful film.

The film was a big budget hit back in 1996. Turning a 747 into a weapon of mass destruction was also used by Tom Clancy in his 1994 best seller, Debt Of Honor. In the aftermath of 9/11 both of these fictional stories take on a new light.

At the Movie House rating ***

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 109 - Danger In The Skies - Part II: Airport

In 1970 Ross Hunter and Universal pictures ushered in the modern day disaster movie with the film Airport. Based on Arthur Hailey's best selling novel, this big budget film featured an all star cast and was a huge success at the box office. It is one of the few pre-1975 films to gross over $100 million at the box office. Adjusted for inflation the film would be the 42nd highest grossing film in Hollywood history. The film was a critical success and received ten Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.

The film features Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bissette, Jean Seberg, Helen Hayes, George Kennedy, Van Heflin, Maureen Stapelton, Barry Nelson, Dana Wynter, Lloyd Nolan and Barbara Hale.
The story focuses on an airport trying to operate during a major snow storm and a flight to Rome that has a suicidal bomber on board.

By today's standards the movie is an artifact. It represents a bygone era of travel and film making. In the movie passengers and non-passengers have easy access to jet ways. So easy in fact, there is a stowaway on board. Passengers smoke in the cabin and the crew smoke in the cockpit. The food service is on real china in first class and tourist. And, as you enter the terminal, you have an opportunity to purchase instant flight insurance at a concession booth. A ticket to Rome cost $474.00 and a Boeing 707 cost eight million. The film represents the height of the Jet Age, when air travel was both glamorous and accessible and people still dressed up to travel.

The movie also represents a type of movie making that was also going out of style. The ensemble melodrama with stiff dialogue and no cursing. Everything and everyone looked crisp and clean-cut. the movie has a slick look that disappeared from Hollywood films of the 1970's. The film also makes multiple use of the split screen technique popularized in the 1960's and went out of style soon after.

Arthur Hailey's books were well researched "potboilers" that took you inside a particular industry, airlines, hotels, banking, pharmaceutical, etc. and put ordinary people into crisis situations. He created multiple story lines with large casts of characters that all inter-twined and came together in the end. This formula worked well for his best sellers, but the movies made from them come off riddled with cliches and bad dialogue and Airport is no exception. Some of the characters and situations in the book were cut out for the movie, but it still leaves too many plot entanglements.The screenplay by director George Seaton gives the cast "B" picture quality dialogue to work with. The two leads, Burt Lancaster as the airport manager and Dean Martin as the pilot of the stricken plan come off the worse for it.

The film drags a bit in the center, but when the action heats up on the plane, things speed up and the last 45 minutes offer a modest degree of suspense.

I saw this movie when I was ten years old at the Pequa Theatre in Massapequa, NY. For all it's Hollywood cheese it still is an emotional favorite of mine. I love the score by Alfred Newman and the look and feel of the movie. I laugh at some of the line readings now, and at the acting style , particularly Van Heflin, but when Dean Martin declares "we've got the lights" I still remember being that ten year old kid in the sitting in the dark watching a very suspenseful movie.

At the Movie House rating *** stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 108 - Danger In The Skies Double Feature

Today was a double feature about airplanes in distress. First up was the 1957 film Zero Hour. When released this film was a high budget "B" picture about an airplane without a pilot. Dana Andrews stars as a passenger and former WWII pilot who is suffering from post traumatic stress who must safely land the plane. Sterling Hayden is his former commanding officer and now the Captain on the ground who must talk him down.

The movie is a straight forward melodrama with acceptable special effects for the time and the film would have slipped into obscurity except for the fact that the writers and director of Airplane used it as the blue print for the 1980 hit comedy. They purchased the rights to the film so they could lift dialogue and shots directly from the film. Essentially Airplane is a remake of Zero Hour played for big laughs.

It is impossible to watch Zero Hour without laughing because the images and lines from Airplane keep coming to mind. The movie itself is well made and Dana Andrews is particularly effective. By this time in his career his alcoholism had given him an aged haggard look that went well with his character.

The movie is based on a play by Arthur Hailey and he also adapted it into his first published novel. he went on to write the bestselling books Hotel, Airport, The Moneychangers and Overload.

At the Movie House rating **1/2 stars.

After Zero Hour I watched The High And The Mighty. This film has been on my must see list for many years. Ever since I first heard the theme song by Dimitri Tomkin.

For a long time it was the holy grail of out of print movies. It was last broadcast in the early 80's at the dawn of the VCR era and then pulled from distribution due to legal issues. Rare VHS copies taped off of AMC or Cinemax were sold on eBay. The movie was tangled up with John Wayne's estate and his production company for years. Even if the legal issues were sorted out there were concerns the movie would never be shown. The negative had suffered from water damage, fading color and there was a full reel missing. But an intense search and restoration was undertaken and the movie was restored and finally released to the public in 2005.

When you watch a movie like The High And The Mighty you can choose to watch it by today's standards and judge the movie accordingly or you can try to place yourself in the era the film was made and watch it by the movie making standards of the day. Either way it will always be an over wrought melodrama. It is also the first Airplane disaster movie made in Hollywood

The film starred John Wayne as a veteran 37 year pilot. He is now serving as a co-pilot on a commercial airliner flying between Honolulu and San Francisco. Robert Stack is his pilot and the remainder of the cast and crew are filled out by Hollywood "A" list and "B" list actors of the day. When an engine fails the plane is in danger of crashing into the sea. There is no turning back so the plane must try to make the perilous five hour flight to San Francisco. As the plane flies into destiny we learn about the lives of each of the passengers through (sometimes lengthy) flashbacks. We learn of lost love, failed dreams and possible new hopes as each passenger and crew member faces death. When the Captain gives into his fear, it is up to Wayne, who has already faced death, to help him snap out of it and bring the plane safely home.

The film is quaint by today's standards and overlong by any standard. But the acting and production values are very good. The film is one of the first to be released in CinemaScope and director William Wellman makes excellent use of the large screen size to make the plane appear small against the vast sky and still make the interior shots confining and a little claustrophobic.

The film was a huge success when it was released in 1954 and received multiple Academy Award nominations and it won an Oscar for the music score. It gave John Wayne a rare ensemble character role even though he had top billing.

At The Movie House rating *** stars

Farewell To At The Movies

Last night I watched the final episode of At The Movies. The show is going off the air after 35 years. The show began as a simple idea way back in 1975. Two critics with a love of film, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert got together and discussed the merits of films in current release. The show was called Sneak Previews and was broadcast on PBS stations. I think I began watching it in 1978. The show morphed and changed names and was eventually purchased and produced by Buena Vista Television (Disney) and ABC Broadcasting co.

Gene and Roger made film criticism accessible to everyone. their lively discussions encouraged people to think about movies in a different way. They championed great movies that would have disappeared without their recommendation.

They invented (and trademarked) the "Thumbs up/Thumbs down" method of movie rating and soon became celebrities in their own way.

After Gene Siskel died in 1999 Roger continued with a new partner Richard Roeper. Roper brought a younger, more hip point of view to the program and also engaged Roger in lively discussions.

When Roger became ill Richard Roper continued with alternating guest host, including the current host Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott. When it was clear that Roger was not going to return to the show Disney fired both Roper and Ebert and revamped the show for the 2008 season. They brought on two new hosts Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz to star and take the show in a fresh, new direction that would appeal to younger audiences. The show was a disaster. Lyons a  former host of Nickelodeon and E!TV had no film background and said the stupidest and most insipid things about film. Frequently Mankiewicz would sit there looking dumbfounded at what his co-host had just said. They tried to introduce all sorts of gimmicks that would appeal to the short attention spans of today's youth, but none of them worked.

In 2009 the show returned for it's final season with Micheal Phillips of The Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott of The NY Times in the critics chairs and the film once again became an intelligent discussion about movies. The show used the "See it, Rent it or Skip it" format to determine if a movie was worth investing your time. Both Phillips and Scott were educated in film and they had lively discussions and were building the same kind of camaraderie that Gene and Roger once had.




But in 2010 Disney announced that it was pulling the plug because the show was not profitable enough. So it was making a profit, just not enough so after 35 years a television institution has been cancelled.

Roger Ebert has announced that he will be working on producing a show with the same format so hopefully lively conversations about movies will continue. In the meantime I will always have fond memories of Gene, Roger and the rest of the critics discussing good and bad movies alike. They all deserve a big thumbs up.

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 107 - Salt

Today's movie was Salt, playing at the Century Tanforan Theatre in San Bruno.

A good chase movie has to have a few things going for it. It has to have a good set up, the chase has to seem real, the person running has to get battered and bruised a bit, they can't make it look to easy and most of all it has to move fast. Salt meets these criteria. It has an outrageous plot about Russian sleeper agents out to destroy America, but the whole thing is told in a fast pace that makes it all seem credible enough that you suspend your disbelief for an hour and a half minutes.

Angela Jolie stars as Evelyn Salt a CIA agent who may or may not be a Russian assassin. She does many of her own stunts and that is what gives the film it's credibility. She shoots, fights, runs, jumps and climbs as any good super agent can.

Leiv Schreiber also stars as her boss who can't bring himself to believe that she is really a double agent. The whole film is a compact 100 minutes from start to finish and keeps you on the edge of your seat most of the time. The ending is left open for a sequel and I am sure the studio hopes, a franchise.

At The Movie House *** stars

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 106 - Alfred Hitchcock's Alventure Malgache

Today's film was a short film made by Alfred Hitchcock during WWII. By the time war broke out in Europe Hitchcock had already moved to the United States. But he felt a need to contribute to the war effort so he returned to Great Britain in 1943 and directed two propaganda films for the British Ministry of Information.  Both films, Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache (Adventure In Madagascar) were aimed towards the French and were about the French resistance.

Aventure Malgache tells the two story of two men, a corrupt official and a lawyer who are on opposite sides. The official supports the new Third Reich supported Vichy government and the lawyer supports the allies. Their duel of personal animosity plays out on the island of Madagascar, during the early part of the war. The film is told in a flashback style by an actor discussing his role in the resistance.

the film has strong production values. The movie was made with French actors and technicians, all living in England and had fled France at the start of the war. The film itself is a curiosity. There are no other movies telling anything about how the war affected Madagascar or other Indian ocean countries. After the war the film was filed away at the British Film Institute and has rarely been seen until recently. In the meantime Hitchcock returned to Hollywood and resumed his career with Spellbound.

At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars (interesting but not worth seeking out unless you are purposely looking for examples of Hitchcock's early work)

365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 105 - Alfred Hitchcock's Rope

To celebrate Hitchcock's birthday I chose to watch Rope. This is a film I have not seen in over twenty years and felt it deserved a second look. It is a unique film and Hitchcock himself called it a "stunt film".
It is also the first time Hitchcock worked with James Stewart and is Hitchcock's first color film.

The film is a stunt because Hitchcock made the film without any edits. Every take is about 12 minutes long, the length of time it takes to expose a roll of film, and the camera never moves away from the characters. To change the film the camera would briefly pause on the back of a jacket or door and then the action would continue. It makes the film more like a stage play than a movie.

In doing this the audience becomes voyeurs to the action. Almost as if we are silent guest at the dinner party, yet we know the secret of what went on, because we were in the room when the murder was committed.

The film is rich in dialogue and Hitchcock's use of imagery to represent the themes of play, sex, food, ritual and murder. The rope in the film has a triple symbolism. It is used to bind up a pile of books, pointing to the boys past, their education and when they developed the idea of murder. It lives in the present, the weapon used to commit the murder and it indicates the future, for they will surely hang for the crime they have committed.

The stagy feel of the film will not be to every one's taste, especially to modern audiences, but the the film is unique even among Hitchcock's work and worth a look.

At The Movie House rating ***

Happy Birthday Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock's birthday is today. He was born in 1899 and had a film career that lasted from 1921 to 1976. He passed away in 1980 at the age of 80. He is probably the greatest and most well known film director. His name is synonymous with suspense, mystery and thrillers. Hitchcock's work has influenced generations of film makers and audiences.
he made more than fifty films in a career that lasted over 60 years. He changed the way movies were made and the way we watched them.

His first Hollywood film, Rebecca, won an Oscar for Best Picture. But, in the greatest oversight by The Academy Of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences, he was never awarded  a Best Director Oscar for any of his films. He was also a huge success in television and publishing.




I have seen most of his films, except his early British work,  and the few Hollywood films I have missed (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Under Capricorn, Stage Fright, The Wrong Man, Topaz, and Family Plot) I plan on screening in October, during my month of horror and suspense.

Hitchcock worked with some great collaborators. He made four films each with James Stewart and Cary Grant and his favorite female muses were Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman. He entrusted the musical scores of his movies to Bernard Hermann, whose sore for Vertigo is one of the best pieces of film music ever written. And his score for Psycho is known the world over and instantly calls to mind the image of a stabbing knife.

Hitchcock also delighted in making brief cameo appearances in his movies and at times had to use very clever ways to insert himself into the movie. The film Lifeboat, set on a small boat in the Atlantic Ocean was probably his biggest challenge, but watch closely and you'll see him.

Below I have listed my personal Top 10 Hitchcock films. In making the list I struggled on which films to cut. If I made the list longer I would have included To Catch A Thief, Dial M For Murder, The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes and Rope.

#10  The Birds

#9   The Man Who Knew Too Much

#8 Notorious

#7 Rebecca

#6   Rear Window

#5   Shadow Of A Doubt

#4   Strangers On A Train

#3   North By Northwest

#2   Psycho

#1   Vertigo