365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 334 -The Awful Truth

The Awful Truth (1937) is the movie that invented Cary Grant. Up until this time he was a first rate actor appearing in dramas and comedies, but in The Awful Truth, with the help of director Leo McCarey, Grant invented the light comedy persona that he would use and develop in every film that followed. After 1937 when it came to light comedy there was Grant and every one else. He became the master of the double take and the slow burn. His responses to situations around him enhanced any comic antics he was involved with. After The Awful Truth he would go on to make Bringing Up Baby, Arsenic and Old Lace, Holiday, His Girl Friday, My Favorite Wife and The Philadelphia Story, all perfect examples of the Grant style of comedy at work. 

The Awful Truth is about a young couple, Lucy (Irene Dunne) and Jerry (Cary Grant) who discard their marriage and go their separate ways in search of true love. But they can't resist sabotaging each other's new relationships because, deep down, this couple knows they were made for each other. Grant's dead on comic timing is a perfect match for Dunne's brilliant comedic talents. The two can be seen at their best during the custody battle for their dog (Asta from The Thin Man).

The Awful Truth was based on a play by Arthur Richman and had two previous film versions made in 1925 and 1929. The movie was remade in 1953 as the musical "Let's Do It Again". Nominated for five Academy Awards and listed as one of the top 10 films of 1937 The Awful Truth endures as a comedic battle of the sexes.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 333 - Mr. Lucky

Released in 1943 Mr. Lucky is a romance set in the early days of WWII. Cary Grant is Joe "the Greek" Adams, a gambler, crook and con man. In order to avoid the draft and keep his gambling ship going he steals the identity of one of his men, Joe Bascopolous, who was declared 4-F. His underhanded partner Zepp responds to his draft notice, but fails the physical.

In an effort to raise dough Joe sets his eye on a war relief organization. He plans to convince them to run a charity gambling event, with him in charge, and steal all the proceeds. Along the way he meets socialite and volunteer Dorothy Bryant (Laraine Day). Joe becomes entangled with Dorothy and as his romantic interest build it seems becomes unlucky at everything else. His partner Zepp is not happy with Joe's new outlook on life and takes steps to ensure the gambling proceeds end up in his hands.

The movie is told through one long flashback. It opens with a lone woman standing on a pier in the midst of a foggy night. A merchant marine sailor (Charles Bickford) relates the tale of the woman and the ship "The Briny Marlin" to a new night watchman and the story of Joe unfolds.

Grant is at his most charming, playing the role with a cockney accent and using lots of "gangster slang". The film is directed with a sure hand by H.C. Potter, who would also direct Grant in Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House. The movie is a bit of a war propaganda film, but when you consider it was made directly after the U.S. entered WWII that can be understood.

For a long time the movie had disappeared from home video and was unavailable to collector's. It was originally released on VHS by RKO Video, but after they folded the rights went to Warner Bros. who has recently added the film to their Archive Edition and the film can be made to order on DVD or downloaded for viewing.

An early type of film noir, the movie is an excellent romantic melodrama and great viewing for Grant fans.

At The Movie House rating *** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 332 - The Next Three Days

The Next Three Days asks (and answers) how far a man will go to save the things he loves. The film stars Russell Crowe as a husband and father, who as a last resort, decides to break his wife out of prison.

The tagline states "What if you had 72 hours to save everything you lived for?" but the film does not cover a span of 72 hours it covers three years in the life of this couple. The movie opens with Russell Crowe driving a car, his face splattered with blood and he appears to be in a state of high anxiety. We hear, but don't see someone breathing who seems to be in serious medical distress. The sound of the breathing becomes shallow and then stops. Then a title card comes on and we flash back three years and see the story unfold. 

John and Lara Brennan (Elizabeth Banks) are a happily married couple with an orderly life that all comes crashing down when Lara is arrested for murder. The films jumps forward in time and Lara is incarcerated for murder while the appeal process works it's way through the court. Their son Luke has grown considerably so it is obvious a couple of years have passed. We learn the appeal process has failed and Lara and John's lawyer tries to get John to consider the evidence objectively. In a flashback we see Lara commit the murder, but John is not convinced of what the evidence is telling him and believes in his wife's innocence. He begins to realize the only way he can be with her is to break her out of jail.

After seventy minutes the movie catches up with the opening seen and we learn who is dying in the back of the car and why. Then the movie moves forward in time. Lara gets notified she will be transferred to a state prison within the next three days (hence the title). John realizes that if he is to proceed with his plans he only has 72 hours to make it work. 

The pace of the movie in the last thirty minutes picks up dramatically as John executes his plan and the three of them make a run for freedom. But the excitement of the final scenes can't make up for the languid pace of the ninety five minutes that came before. 

As a procedural the film works. It is interesting to watch the planning process. There are some good turns by actors Liam Neeson and Brian Dennehey in supporting roles and Russell Crowe is excellent as an ordinary man driven to do extraordinary things. But the overall premise of the film is to preposterous for the good acting to support. Crowe plays a middle aged junior college English teacher who, with the help of some books and the Internet, becomes a man of action who buys illegal guns, passports and plans an elaborate prison break that eludes prison guards, the Pittsburgh police, Pennsylvania State Police and Homeland security. How is this possible? Where did these latent skills come from? Because he is Russell Crowe he does these things and the film just asks the audience to believe it is possible. The film really stretches credulity to far when it the English teacher engages in a gunfight against a meth dealer in order to obtain cash for his plans.

The movie ends with a final flash back that really feels like a cheat. Up until the last ten minutes we only have the husband's belief that his wife is innocent. The crime we observed in a black & white flashback showed her actually committing the crime she was jailed for. The film would have been much more interesting if it left her guilt or innocence ambiguous. Was she guilty? Was his wife in reality a murderer? And did that not matter to him when he breaks her out of prison? Instead the film has a detective return to the scene of the original crime and, this time in color flashback, he visualizes the murder the way it really occurred letting the audience know that John was morally justified in the actions he took to save his family.

The Next Three Days is an fair movie (with a bad title) that is based on a French film called Pour Elle (Anything For Her). It has some strong acting and an electrifying final 30 minutes so I recommend it with reservations.

At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars 

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 331 - The Tourist

Angelina Jolie stars as Elise Clifton-Ward, a mysterious woman the British secret service is tailing in Paris. It appears they are following her in the hopes she will lead them to a mysterious embezzler and her lover, Alexander, who has stolen billions of dollars from a European gangster. 

On a train to Venice Elise sits down with a stranger, a tourist named Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp). Frank is a math teacher from Wisconsin who is traveling abroad for the summer holiday. Elise hopes to mislead both the police and the gangsters who are following her into thinking she is meeting Frank because he is the mysterious Alexander, this way while they are busy following Frank, she can get away to meet her lover.

This thrust Frank into a highly dangerous situation where he is being pursued by many men, being shot at and generally having his life in continuous danger. In the meantime he seems to have fallen in love with the mysterious Elise.

The film came together very quickly last year. Jolie and Depp both had gaps in their schedule. A script and director were ready and the location was set. Filming took a brief 58 days in the city of Venice and Paris. From start to finish including post-production the movie was made in 11 months. I would say that kind of "express" film making shows up on the screen. There is a definite lack of energy. There seems to be no chemistry between Depp and Jolie and Depp continuously looks like he just woke up and hasn't had time to comb his hair and wash his face. The movie combines elements of comedy and drama but fails to find the correct balance. For a mystery or thriller there is a complete lack of suspense. 

It was great to see Steve Berkoff back on the screen. he plays the gangster Reginald Shaw but most will remember him as General Olov in the Bond Film Octopussy, Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop and Adolph Hitler in War and Remembrance. Even with a straight forward mob boss role Berkoff adds his signature touch of menace and steely determination.

The Tourist strives to follow in the footsteps of such great films as North By Northwest and Charade but misses the mark by a mile.

At The Movie House rating ** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 330 - Finding Neverland

It has been six years since I visited Neverland with Johnny Depp in Marc Foster's Finding Neverland. This magical film achieves the one of the hardest things in film making, it transports the viewer inside the imagination of a man. The films magic is in the transitions from reality to fantasy that occur seamlessly throughout the film.

Johnny Depp plays playwright and author JM Barrie in this semi-biographical film about the man who introduced the world to Peter Pan.

By happenstance Mr. Barrie meets a group of boys playing in the park and they spark his imagination. He befriends them and their mother Slyvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet) who is a widow. He likes all the boys, but is most taken by Peter Davies (Freddie Highmore), a troubled boy who still grieves after his father. Mr. Barrie becomes a playmate and surrogate father figure to the family, much to the displeasure of his wife Mary (Rhada Mitchell) and Mrs. Davies mother Mrs. Emma du Maurier (Julie Christie).

Despite the scandal his association with the widow and her family causes, Mr Barrie writes a play about Neverland and boys who don't want to grow up. Mr. Barrie's producer (Dustin Hoffman) does not know what to make of this new work featuring pirates, fairies and crocodiles, but the genius of it is revealed on opening night.

Finding Neverland is a wonderful film that explores the magic of the imagination and the strength of the human heart. 

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 329 - Hereafter

I am on the fence about Hereafter, a supernatural drama that explores the afterlife starring Matt Damon and directed by Clint Eastwood.

The film itself is extremely well made, which one comes to expect from Eastwood. And the cast does excellent work. The film tells the story of three people and their experience with death. George, an American psychic, living in San Francisco who can connect with people who have passed on. Marie (Cecile de France), a French journalist who has a vision of the afterlife when she is almost drowned in a tsunami and twin brothers Marcus and Jason (Frankie and George McLaren) connected by an auto accident. 

As these three separate groups of people search for answers about life after death their lives will eventually be combined as they search for meaning in their individual experiences.

This is Eastwood's first foray into supernatural territory and I don't know if I had expectations for a Sixth Sense style movie or something more of a suspense thriller. The film is a straight forward drama that deals with the subject of life after death in an intelligent manner, yet I felt the film was slow and had no compelling story to carry me along. The most dramatic moments in the film, the tsunami, occur in the first 10 minutes and the film seems to be a let down after that. There are notions of a romance and the films resolutions are uplifting but I felt it took way too long to get there. 

I am going to recommend the film because it challenged my expectations of what this type of movie should be like. it handled its subject matter with grace and dignity and left me with something to contemplate. I am not sure how a film that felt so lacking in substance could do this but it did. I suggest you see it for yourself because, in the end Clint Eastwood always delivers work of excellent technical quality and for that alone it is worth seeing.

At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 328 -Mildred Pierce

With the upcoming release of HBO's mini-series of Mildred Pierce I felt it was time to take a look at the original again. 

Mildred Pierce was the role Joan Crawford was born to play. A hard working divorcee who will stop at nothing to giver her daughter the very best, only to see the girl turn against her in every way.

Adapted from the novel by the great James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice) Mildred Pierce is classic American film noir with a strong feminine hero and beautiful black and white cinematography by Ernest Haller. Directed with a strong hand by Micheal Curtiz the film also stars Jack Carson, Ann Blyth, Zachary Scott and in a classic wise crackin' broad role, Eve Arden.

Nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Crawford won the award for Best Actress. Mildred Pierce is an American classic and if you plan on watching the HBO series you should check out the original first.

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 327 -Father of the Bride

One of my earliest memories about movies is watching Jane Eyre on television and my mother pointing out that the little girl dying of pneumonia was a young Elizabeth Taylor. I remember seeing such films as National Velvet and Father of The Bride, and it was a big event when the movie Cleopatra was broadcast on TV.

I chose father of the Bride as my tribute to Elizabeth Taylor because this is the film that launched her adult career in Hollywood. Their are two shots in the film, when she is first shown wearing her bridal dress and a close-up of her face at the altar that simply take my breath away. She was at her most beautiful and radiant in this film. This was years before her status as a celebrity became more important than her work as an actress.

Father of the Bride is a hilarious, classic comedy about the trials and tribulations of a father preparing for the wedding of his only daughter. The movie belongs to the great Spencer Tracy, but Taylor steals every scene she is in. Tracy became America's father figure in this film and Joan Bennett the perfect housewife. The film is a heart warming view of American family life at the beginning of the 1950's.

At The Movie House rating **** stars.

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 326 -Love and Other Drugs

Love & Other Drugs is an adult romantic comedy starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. Directed by Ed Zwick it's an adult "rom com" because of the explicit nudity from both stars. The audience is treated to multiple shots of Anne Hathaway topless and of Jake's buttocks. The pair have great chemistry and look great together, but the movie follows the standard Hollywood 4- step formula for a romantic comedy and simply falls apart in the middle. 

Step 1.) The "meet-cute"- the duo meet and are strongly attracted to each other, but resist getting involved for various reasons.

Step 2.) Fall in love. - Despite their best intentions the couple fall heavily for each other and become romantically involved. But still try to avoid romantic entanglements.

Step 3.) The misunderstanding -  The couple have a fight and end the relationship. usually because of a misunderstanding that could be resolved with one or two simple sentences. The movie will spend 20 minutes with the separated couple pining for each other.

Step 4.) The romantic reunion - With an amazing amount of style or panache one of the pair will proclaim love for the other (usually in public) and the pair will unite in true love for ever.

Every unoriginal romantic comedy out of Hollywood for the past twenty years has followed this formula and very few do it well. Love & Other Drugs starts off very promising but gets bogged down by the formula; an attempt to make a statement about the pharmaceutical industry; and an annoying supporting character who's only function is to provide comic relief.

Watch the film if you want to see the great chemistry between Jake and Anne, otherwise skip it.

At the Movie House rating ** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 325 -Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

PBS was broadcasting the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert this evening and after watching it I was in the mood for a musical for the night's movie. After some contemplation I chose Sweeney Todd.

Adapting a popular musical to film is a big challenge. A talented director must keep the closeness and the connection that an audience forms with a live performance and yet open the film up to the possibilities of film. This is not an easy task and can go drastically wrong. Just check out the recent film versions of The Producers, Phantom of the Opera and Rent to see what I mean.

When done correctly you will have the Jets and the Sharks singing and dancing on the streets of New York City, or Sister Maria singing her heart out in an alpine meadow on top of a mountain. 

Movies have advantages that the stage does not, and in a musical like Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are just the trio to utilize those advantages to there fullest possibility.

Sweeney Todd is not an easy musical to work with. The complex score has been compared to an opera and in fact, the stage productions only has about 20% dialogue. Everything else is sung. Johnny Depp had to learn to sing for the role and he does very well with Sondheim's challenging lyrics and harmonies. His voice is not great but it is perfectly suited to a singing maniacal barber. Director Tim Burton opens up the play and creates an authentic London with just the right amount of gloom

A Unique challenge for the musical is the blood and gore. On stage the musical is a kind of Grand Guingol of camp horror, but on film the black humor is missing and the special effects allow for some truly gory moments that are a little too real. This musical has a lot of blood in it.

And the blood never looked redder than it does on the high def Blu-ray disc. The audio and video are superb, just what one comes to expect from the standard bearer in home video.

If you did not see Sweeney Todd in theatres it is definitely worth checking out at home. It's bloody good.

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

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 324 -Cavalcade

Cavalcade was nominated for and won the Best Picture Oscar in 1933. If it was not for that distinction Cavalcade probably would have disappeared into the history of film long ago. The movie is an early epic that tells the story of the British Marryot family at the turn of the 20th century. The film opens a few minutes to midnight on December 31, 1899 and as it unfolds, we follow the family as their lives are touched by the significant events of the first 30 years of the new century.

Based on the play by Noel Coward the movie is very stagy and has the unique acting style present in films during the early days of talkies. The actors speak in an overly dramatic style, that makes them appear as if they are over acting. They frequently talk into the camera and out to the audience, instead of to each other, just as they would do in a live theater production. This style is especially notable in the closing monologue by Diana Wynyard, who plays the mother and is the main star of the film.

The film is episodic in style with title cards used to depict the passing of the years. We see everything that happens through the reactions of Mrs. Marryot as the family is touched by death, disaster and war. The movie is essentially a high-class soap opera. Two notable items of mention are the movies attention to period detail and the unique montage used to depict the optimism that turned to the horror of WWI. Cavalcade is also one of the first Hollywood films to feature the Titanic disaster. The movie also stars Una O'Connor the great character actress familiar to audiences today for her work in The Bride Of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man and The Adventures of Robin Hood. Herbert Mundin, who appeared in Robin Hood with O'Connor, also stars in Cavalcade as her husband, the family butler and later on, a pub owner.

Without the notoriety of an Oscar win Cavalcade would have slipped into obscurity long ago, while other films from the same year have endured and gone on to become classics and standards by which other films are measured.

Other movies nominated for Best Picture in1933 that have proven to be more enduring include:

I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang

42nd Street

Little Women

There are also a few films that were overlooked by the Academy in 1933 but have become classics and been loved by audiences ever since:

King Kong

Babes In Toyland (aka March Of The Wooden Soldiers)

The Mummy

Dinner At Eight

Duck Soup

The Invisible Man

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

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 323 -Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House

Everyone remembers Cary Grant as the suave, handsome romantic lead who starred in such great films as To Catch A Thief, An Affair To Remember and North by Northwest. But he was at his best when he was doing comedy. Grant was the master of the slow burn and the double take. His reaction shots to the shenanigans surrounding him were always priceless. He elevated movies such as Operation Petticoat, Bringing Up Baby and Arsenic and Old Lace to comic genius with his perfect timing.

Mr. Blanding Builds His Dream House is one of Grant's best comedies, partly because of the superb work of his co-stars Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas and partly because the subject matter is still relevant to every home owner who ever undertook a remodeling job.

Mr. Blanding, a Madison Avenue advertising executive, is tired of living in his cramped New York City apartment. He gets the idea to by a fixer-upper in Connecticut and relocate his wife and kids there. His best friend Jim warns him about doing something like this without thinking about it first. But Mr. & Mrs. Blanding proceed with a full head of steam until, with his job and marriage in danger, Mr Blanding's dream house becomes his own personal nightmare.

In 2000 the American Film Institute ranked the film 72nd on it's list of 100 best comedies.

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

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 322 -My Wild Irish Rose

Fictional bio-pic of early twentieth century Irish crooner Chancellor Olcott. Dennis Morgan stars and sings his way into your heart with some beautiful tunes. Standard "B" picture film churned out by Warner Brothers in the 1940's. Not seen very much anymore because of the extensive use of black face in the minstrel show scenes. Fun in spots but way too long. Available as a made to order DVD from Warner Archives or look for it on TCM around St. Paddy's Day. Only for die hard fans.

At the Movie House ** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 321 -The Quiet Man

The quintessential "Hollywood" Irish movie tells the tale of an American, John Wayne, who returns home to Ireland to settle down. he carries with him a dark secret that may come between him and his chosen bride Mary Kate Danaher when he refuses to stand up and fight her bully of a brother Squire "Red" Will Danaher.

Directed by John Ford and also starring Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, Mildred Natwick and Ward Bond the film is a delight from start to finish. I make it a tradition to watch it every St. Patrick's Day.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 320 -Dancing at Lughnasa

Dancing At Lughnasa is a bittersweet story about five Irish sisters. The story takes place in 1936 and is narrated by Micheal Evans, who was a young boy when the story takes place and lived with his mother, her four sisters and their older brother a retired priest, in a small cottage in County Donegal.

Once again Meryl Streep turns in another outstanding acting performance. But her co-stars Micheal Gambon, Catherine McCormack, Kathy Burke, Sophie Thompson and Brid Brennan are equally as good, if not as well known. 

The film takes place over the course of one summer, during the pagan feast of Lughnasa. As autumn approaches change is in the wind and it will come time for this family to reap what it has sown over the years.

At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 319 - Evelyn

Me mom recommended this film to me a while back and it just goes ta show ya, you should always listen to your mother!

From 2002 Evelyn had a limited release in the US around the holidays. It stars Pierce Brosnan as a down on his luck father, who perhaps spends more time in the pub then he should. When his wife leaves him for a dandy the courts declare that he is unfit to care for his children and put them in orphanages. The movie tells of his fight to change the law and have his children returned to him. The film is based on the auto-biographical book Evelyn: A True Story by Evelyn Doyle and tells the story of her father, Desmond Doyle's fight with the Irish Government in the mid-1950's

Outstanding performances by the primary cast and the authentic Irish locations elevate this story and make it worth watching.

At the Movie House rating *** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 318 - City Lights

City Lights is one of the last great silent movies and I am ashamed to admit, until now, I had never watched it in it's entirety. The opening title card tells us it is a story of romance in pantomime, but it is so much more. It is a hilarious, eloquent tribute to the nature of love. Chaplin once again appears as the Little Tramp and what he does is nothing short of pure comic genius. The balance between comedy and drama is perfect. The series of set pieces are brilliant and the film is nothing short of breath taking because you are laughing so hard. A delight from start to finish.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 317 - The China Syndrome

I noticed the Retroplex channel (part of the Starz network) was showing The China Syndrome and with the news from Japan fresh in my mind, I decided to take another look at this award winning film from the 1970's.

Released in March 1979 the films timing was credited with it's huge box office success. Twelve days after it's release the accident at Three Mile Island occurred and suddenly everyone was talking about nuclear reactors and nuclear accidents.  Since then there has been Chernobyl and now of course, Japan.

The movie does not necessarily say that nuclear energy is unsafe, but makes it clear that in the hands of for profit companies one can never be sure if the interests of public safety or the shareholders will come first.

What really holds up the film is the outstanding performances from Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda. They are two great actors and marvelous together. Also outstanding  is Wilford Brimley in one of his great character roles. The China Syndrome is dated but still worth a look.

At the Movie House rating *** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 316 - Darby O'Gill and the Little People.

Before he was James Bond Sean Connery had great success the 1960 Disney romantic/fantasy comedy Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Another delightful film about magical leprechauns with Albert Sharpe as Darby a man who is wise in the ways of the little folk or a touch full of blarney. With wonderful songs and magical special effects that still hold up today, this is a delightful Disney classic.

At The Movie House rating *** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 315 - Captains Courageous

I was in the mood for a classic so I popped 1937's Captains Courageous in the DVD player. Besides the great Rudyard Kipling story and the fine performances from Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Freddie Bartholomew, Mickey Rooney, Melvyn Douglas and John Carradine the film also gives an authentic view of what it must have been like to fish off the Grand Banks before machines replaced the men.

At The Movie House rating ****

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 314 - The Luck Of The Irish

With St. Patrick's day upon us it's time to visit some favorite Irish films both old and new. The Luck of the Irish is a romantic fantasy from 20th Century Fox released a year after their big hit Miracle On 34th Street. This time it's Tyrone Power who comes to believe in the magic of leprechauns with the help of sweet Irish lass Anne Baxter. Cecil Kellaway received an Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as an over grown leprechaun. 

At The Movie House rating **1/2 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 313 - Pygmalion

Pygmalion is on my list of unseen Oscar nominated Best Pictures. TCM was showing it so I set my Tivo and when I came home from work I had this delightful British romantic comedy to watch. If you have seen My Fair Lady then you have seen Pygmalion. The films are almost identical minus the singing and dancing. My Fair Lady is a direct adaptation of Bernard Shaw's play and film. The charm in Pygmalion is the great Wendy Hiller in one of her first roles as Eliza Doolittle and Leslie Howard as Professor Higgins. 

In My Fair Lady I was always bothered by the age difference between Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. When he appeared in the musical on Broadway he was 48. By the time the film was made he was 56 and just appeared to old to be courting Audrey Hepburn. In Pygmalion Howard, at 45, seems much more suitable to be attracted to the young Miss Doolittle, played by Hiller at the age of 26.

The film itself is a marvel of the English language and full of Shaw's trademark wit.

At the Movie House rating ****

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 312 - The Green Hornet

I had a chance to catch up with The Green Hornet in 3-D and was so glad I didn't spend a dime to watch this film. It didn't know if it wanted to be a serious super-hero film or a comic spoof of one so it settled for a bizarre hybrid where it felt like the entire cast was involved in some inside joke they were keeping from the audience. The joke was the film was 90% junk with about 10% humor and smart ideas. And the #D effect completely unneeded and visually distracting.

At The Movie House rating *1/2 stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 311 - The Fugitive

Watching the Bourne Identity films reminded me of one of the greatest chase films ever made, 1993's The Fugitive with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Nominated for Best Picture, The Fugitive showed how a tight compact thriller could be made that would be both a crowd pleaser and a great film. One of the best adaptations of a popular TV show. I purchased the Blu-ray at a bargain price and this was the first time I viewed it. Superior sound and picture.

At the Movie House rating ****

The List of Best Picture Nominees (and Winners) to be Viewed

Here is the complete list of Best Picture Nominees and Winners that I plan on watching before the next Academy Awards, in February 2012. Since writing the list I have watched Broadway Melody, Grand Hotel and Pygmalion. There are a few films, such as The Champ, Blossoms in the Dust, The Diary of Anne Frank, In Old Chicago and David Copperfield, which I believe I may have already seen, but I can't distinctly recall them so I left them on the list. My biggest concern is that some of the early films from the 1930's will be difficult to find.

The Fighter

127 Hours

Winter's Bone

The Hurt Locker

An Education

Precious

There Will Be Blood

Babel

Letters From Iwo Jima

My Left Foot

Platoon

Children Of A Lesser God

The Mission

Out Of Africa

The Killing Fields

A Passage To India

A Soldier's Story

The Dresser

Reds

Atlantic City

Tess

The Deer Hunter

An Unmarried Woman

The Turning Point

Bound For Glory

Barry Lyndon

Nashville

Lenny

A Touch Of Class

Cries and Whispers

Sounder

The Emigrants

Cabaret

Nicholas and Alexandra

Five Easy Pieces

Z

Anne Of A Thousand Days

Romeo and Juliet

Rachel, Rachel

Alfie

The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming

The Sand Pebbles

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Darling

Ship of Fools

Dr. Strangelove

Zorba the Greek

America, America

Fanny

Sons and Lovers

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Nun's Story

Room at the Top

Separate Tables

Peyton Place

Sayonara

Friendly Persuasion

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing

The Rose Tattoo

Three Coins In The Fountain

Ivanhoe

Moulin Rouge

Decision Before Dawn

A Streetcar Named Desire

King Solomon's Mines

Battleground

The Heiress

A Letter To Three Wives

Twelve O'Clock High

Hamlet

Johnny Belinda

The Red Shoes

The Snake Pit

Crossfire

Henry V

The Razor's Edge

The Yearling

Anchor's Aweigh

Since You Went Away

Watch on the Rhine

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Heaven Can Wait

The Human Comedy

In Which We Serve

Madame Curie

49th Parallel

The Magnificent Ambersons

The Pied Piper

Random Harvest

Wake Island

Blossoms in the Dust

Hold Back The Dawn

The Little Foxes

One Foot In heaven

All This, and Heaven Too

The Great Dicttator

Kitty Foyle

The Letter

The Long Voyage Home

Our Town

Dark Victory

Love Affair

Ninotchka

Of Mice and Men

Wuthering Heights

You Can't Take It With You

Alexander's Ragtime Band

The Citadel

Four Daughters

Grand Illusion

Jezebel

Pygmalion

Test Pilot

Dead End

The Good Earth

In Old Chicago

One Hundred Men and a Girl

Anthony Adverse

Dodsworth

Libeled lady

Romeo and Juliet

Three Smart Girls

Alice Adams

Broadway Melody of 1936

David Copperfield

The Lives Of a Bengal Lancer

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Les Miserables

Naughty Marietta

Ruggles Of Red Gap

The Barretts of Wimpole Street

Cleopatra

Flirtation Walk

The Gay Divorceee

Here Comes the Navy

The House of Rothschild

Imitation of Life

One Night of Love

Viva Villa!

The White Parade

Cavalcade

A Farewell To Arms

Lady For a Day

Little Women

The Private Life of Henry VIII

She Done Him Wrong

Smilin' Through

State Fair

Grand Hotel

Arrowsmith

Bad Girl

The Champ

Five Star Final

One Hour With You

Shanghai Express

The Smiling Lieutenant

Cimarron

East Lynne

Skippy

Trader Horn

All Quiet On The Western Front

The Big House

Disraeli

The Divorcee

The Love Parade

The Broadway Melody

Alibi

The Hollywood Revue of 1929

In Old Arizona

The Patriot

Wings

The Racket

Seventh Heaven

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 310 - Double Feature: The Bourne Supremacy & The Bourne Ultimatum

At The Movie House rating ****

At The Movie House rating ***1/2

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 309 - The Bourne Identity

At The Movie House rating *** 1/2

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 308 - Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel **** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 307 - Broadway Melody

At The Movie House rating *** stars

The Best Picture Winners

The annual Academy Awards are over and all the Oscars have been distributed. The King's Speech was named Best Picture, the 83rd film to bestowed this honor since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began handing out awards in 1927.

In total 485 films have received the nomination to be chosen Best Picture of the year and a recent tally shows that in all my years of movie watching I have seen 312 of them, or just under 65%. That leaves 173 films unseen. As I finish my attempt to watch a movie a day for a year I am beginning a new project.

My goal is to see every film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. I want to try to complete this before the Academy Awards in February 2012. It will be challenging since some of the films nominated in the past have slipped into obscurity and are not available on home video and a rarely screened.

An example of this is The Pied Piper. This 1942 WWII adventure story about an elderly English gentleman who helps lead children out of France during the Nazi invasion was released by 20th Century Fox and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Cinematography. The film has never had an official VHS or DVD release. I will have to hope TCM decides to show it, or do some searching on the Internet for a copy.

Amongst the films I have to see are some stand-outs, which as a movie buff, I am ashamed to admit I have not seen. The list includes such films as Reds, Nashville, A Streetcar Named Desire (shame on me), Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, There Will Blood and Babel. I also need to catch up with three of this year's nominees, The Fighter, 127 Hours and Winter's Bone.

The list also includes twelve Best Picture winners. Seven of these are from the  early days of Oscar; Wings, Broadway Melody, All Quiet On the Western Front, Cimarron, Grand Hotel, Cavalcade  and You Can't take It With You. But four on the list are modern movies; including last year's winner The Hurt Locker. I also need to see Out Of Africa, Platoon and The Deer Hunter. The twelfth film is 1948's Hamlet starring Laurence Olivier.

Of the 173 movies I need to watch 71% were made prior to 1960. My track record for films after 1960 is much better. For Instance from 1990 to 2005 I have seen all 75 films nominated during that fifteen year period.

I will get some support from Turner Classic Movies. They are screening Broadway Melody, Grand Hotel and Cavalcade. I have set my Tivo to record all three.

I am looking forward to my exploration of Oscar's past and seeing what films have stood the test of time and what films never deserved to be nominated.

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 306 - Double Feature - A Star Is Born (1937)

Over the years I have seen parts of the original A Star Is Born (1937) but I have never watched it end to end. So when TCM was showing it I decided to program the Tivo and record it. The 1954 version with Judy Garland is one of my favorite films and I can see where the inspiration comes from. It's very hard to judge this film on it's own merits since I have seen the re-make so many times. 

Frederick March and Janet Gaynor are both excellent in the roles of Norman Maine and Vicki Lester. The storytelling is simpler, the way it was in early Hollywood films, but the depth of emotion is there. 

The film is in the public domain, but the print TCM showed was crisp and clean. A Star Is Born has the honor of being the first color film to be nominated for Best Picture ( it lost to The Life Of Emile Zola) and 74 years later the film still holds up as a sentimental (if somewhat hokey) romance and inspiration to follow your dreams.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 306 - Bambi

I am down to the final 60 days of my 365+ movies in 365 days. Finding time to watch movies and blog about them while working ad a manager in a movie theatre has proved challenging. It was much easier to watch movies and blog when I wasn't working. I wanted to do some blogging about this year's Oscar race, but couldn't mange the time. Oh well there's always next year. 

Today's movie is the Disney animated classic Bambi. When the new Walt Disney Museum opened in San Francisco I visited it and I was able to see the Multiplane Camera Disney invented to make Bambi. The camera is a marvel of invention and stands over three stories tall. While watching Bambi I was able to understand how the animator's created such stunning depth in each scene.

Bambi is newly released in Blu-ray HD and the color and sound are stunning. The film offers elements of Fantasia as the images and music are woven together to create a beautiful tapestry of sight and sound. The film still brings an emotional tear as Bambi loses his mom to the hunters and the  scenes between the two stags, Bambi and the dogs and the raging fire are stunning in their dynamic animation.

I know many people view Disney films as kids movies, but Walt Disney and his team created some of the most beautiful motion pictures of the 20th Century and Bambi is one of them. being able to see Bambi, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Fantasia and Pinocchio in such stunning clarity is reason enough to get a Blu-ray player.

At The Movie House rating **** stars

Bambi Through The Ages

The poster above is from the original 1942 release of Bambi. Between 1942 and 1988 Bambi was 

re-released to theatres multiple times. here are some of the posters used to market the film.

1940's 

1940's 

1950's

1960's

1970's

1980's and home video

365+ Movies In 365 Days: Day 305 - Unknown

Liam Neeson is the screen's new action hero. In Unknown he proves that his success in the film Taken was not a fluke. Neeson carries himself very well and he reminded me of Harrison Ford in The Fugitive, another unlikely character forced into being a man of action.

Neeson is Dr. Martin Harris, arriving in Berlin with his wife to give a lecture at a bio-tech convention. When he accidentally leaves his briefcase at the airport and returns to retrieve it his taxi is in an accident and plunges into the river. When he awakes from a coma four days later his memory is fragmented. Or maybe it's everyone else, because he remembers who he is, but no one else, including his wife seems to know him. In fact his wife is with another man named Martin Harris who seems to share all the same memories as the first Dr. Harris.

Paranoia begins to build when Harris thinks he is being followed. The female cab driver won't talk with him about the accident and his doctor thinks he may have suffered serious brain damage. As Harris tries to put together the puzzle of his life some very troubling things begin to emerge.

Unknown is highly reminiscent of the Bourne Identity, including the excellent European locations. Setting the film in Berlin adds to the characters sense of isolation, confusion and strangeness. Nothing is familiar to him, including who he is. The movie also stars January Jones as the wife, Diane Kruger as the taxi driver and Aidan Quinn as the second Martin Harris.

Unknown is a very solid thriller that is elevated by Liam Neeson's performance. There are no ridiculous shoot-outs with bullets that never hit anyone. There is an extremely well edited car chase through the streets of Berlin and many finely choreographed and shot fight scenes. The film almost stretches plausibility to the breaking point, but does succeed in tying up loose ends and giving a satisfying conclusion to the mystery. Definitely worth a look.

At The Movie House rating *** stars