Humphrey Bogart stars in "In A Lonely Place" (1950)

It's remarkable thinking that In a Lonely Place is 71-years-old this year. The older I get, the older classic Hollywood gets, and yet, many of their films never truly seems to age. They remain timeless, which, unfortunately, is more than can be said of many of our current day films that just sort of swirl down the drain and vanish into the sewers.

Go to my Classic Hollywood page to find all my Classic Hollywood reviews!

Bogart plays Dixon Steele, a screenplay writer in Hollywood, but one with a bit of a mad temper on him, and a propensity to loathe any of the books that directors want to hire him to adapt for the silver screen. One late night, he actually takes a cute little cloakroom girl named Mildred Atkinson (Martha Stewart) home for no other reason than she has read the book that he's been hired to adapt and he has no interest in reading it. So he brings her home so she can simply give him a rough synopsis of the story. She, of course, is suspicious of him at first, but then settles in eagerly to her storytelling. She finishes and he sends her home, or rather, around the corner to catch a cab, and he goes to bed, after making eye contact with his lovely neighbor across the way, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame).

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Movie Review: Titanic (1953)

I actually thought I had seen this film before this weekend, but I hadn't. Believe me, I would have remembered it.

Before I get started, let me just say that the film is lovely in its own way, full of wonderful Hollywood stars and lots of talent. There's no denying the skill of Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, or a frighteningly young Robert Wagner. They're all actors of the highest caliber and I respect each of them individually and jointly for the performances they gave in Titanic.

However, what the audience experiences in this 1953 film called Titanic is not a true representation of the sinking. Oh, maybe it's faithful enough, but it's hard to tell from the bare bones we see of the actual sinking of the ship. I realized afterward that Titanic from 1953 is very like Titanic from 1997 in some aspects. It tells you a story that takes place on board Titanic, but it is not the story of the sinking of Titanic. I never thought to differentiate between the two things before, but I have now, and it's true.

Go to my Classic Hollywood page to find all my Classic Hollywood reviews!

So, really, this film delivers depending on what the audience wants. The James Cameron film from 1997 and the 1953 Titanic both have merit. They've woven a story of individuals and relationships and tales told about people that may or may not have been on the ship. It's A Night to Remember from 1958 that gives the audience a mostly faithful rendering of what actually happened without flowery relational drama, and I will discuss that film in another post in a couple of days.

For now, we will stick to Titanic from 1953, what worked, what didn't work, and why I cried at the end.

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Angela Lansbury and Raymond Burr in Please Murder Me! (1956)

Angela Lansbury has been synonymous with Disney and Jessica Fletcher for so long that it's hard to remember that she was an actress long before she ever jumped on the Disney bandwagon. It's even harder to realize that she played some pretty unpleasant characters. She was the "other" woman opposite Judy Garland and John Hodiak in Harvey Girls which I love and reviewed HERE. She was also absurdly cast as Elvis Presley's mother in Blue Hawaii and even as Queen Anne in The Three Musketeers that starred Gene Kelley as D'Artagnan.

And now I've seen her in an even more startling deviation, as accused murderess in the 1956 black and white film noir Please Murder Me! opposite Raymond Burr.

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Award Winners for a REASON: The African Queen (1951)

The African Queen (1951)

starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn

I'm back! I can't believe it's been almost a year since I last posted on this blog. Taking a break from certain things proved to be necessary for my emotional survival this last year. We're had a lot of upheaval at work and just overall stress and the last thing I needed was the additional weight of trying to write movie reviews on a regular basis. But I'm back and willing to give it my best shot.

The basics haven't changed. I'll still be watching and discussing classic film and actors.

However, I've also decided to incorporate modern movies set in the era of old Hollywood. Those can be loads of fun. Like, right now, I'm rewatching Zodiac, which is of course about the Zodiac Killer and takes place in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Not a classic movie, but set in the right era. It'll be a fun expansion since I really do love movies set in the era of classic Hollywood, period.

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Movie Review: Forever Darling (1956)

Forever Darling (1956)

starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and James Mason

co-starring Natalie Schafer

Forever Darling is described by many viewers as a romantic fantasy, and I guess that hits the nail pretty much on the head. It also happens to be the 60th anniversary of this film this year (OH MY GOSH) and so I couldn't go without reviewing it!

Newlyweds Susan and Lorenzo Vega are very much in love after 2 months of marriage. 2 years of marriage find them still in love, but she's not all dolled up in her negligee and makeup when he leaves for work anymore. After 5 years of marriage, Lorenzo has to see himself out the door in the morning while Susan snores away upstairs.

Yah, they're heading downhill fast. Especially after an argument at dinner when Susan's cousin Millie, and her husband Henry Opdyke belittle Lorenzo's desire to test run his mosquito killer himself in an experiment that would take him and Susan out of the country for 2 years. All the years of compressed frustration against Millie's interference in his and Susan's marriage comes spewing out in glorious style. The only problem is that Susan is furious and after the dinner is over, the two of them have a righteous row that ends in him bunking downstairs in the office and her sobbing in the bedroom.

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TCM Presents . . . "On the Waterfront" On the Silver Screen

ON THE WATERFRONT, Marlon Brando, 1954

When it comes to Classic Cinema the average viewer usually has only three choices.

1. Wait until the movie hits TCM and pray you're home.
2. Grit your teeth through the skips and jumps and frame freezes on the library copy.
3. Dig out your wallet and actually buy the DVD (blu-ray if you're REALLY lucky).

If you're like me, which hopefully you are, then you've spent more than your fair share of time hoping and waiting for your favorite classic movie to actually hit DVD in a remastered format. There was never really any hope beyond the basic opportunity to view, in this case my favorite classic movie, On the Waterfront (1954) on anything other than your typical television screen on your typical DVD.
Except that TCM has finally, and I do mean finally, done something spectacular.

I'm a fan of Fathom Events at the theater. They can be loads of fun depending on what you're seeing. I saw Singin' in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, and the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy as Fathom events, plus some special Elvis in Concert night.

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Movie Review: The Meaning of Self-Worth in Sabrina (1954)

A friend of mine mentioned the other day how she's giving up self-criticism for Lent since the season just started. And it got me thinking about the importance of self-worth, which kind of goes hand-in-hand with the concept of self-criticism.

Oh my gosh, when I think of all the hours I've spent doubting my own self-worth, I'm tempted to cringe a little bit. But I don't think I really had a clear vision of what lacking self-worth looks like until I rewatched Sabrina from 1954. If you watch classic movies then you've probably seen it, especially if you love Audrey Hepburn like I do.

But I'll be honest, the film never sat really well with me. Apart from the total miscasting of Humphrey Bogart (who I also love) and William Holden (meh) as Sabrina's love interests, the story itself always gave me a resulting sense of melancholia.

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Brando: Last Post for June (sadly posted on July 2nd)

This post contains: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), and Guys and Dolls (1955).

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Brando: Sayonara (1957)

Brando and Miiko Taka in Sayonara

I love Japan, almost everything about it, which is probably why my perspective on Sayonara has changed from the first time I watched it, ohhhh, some odd 5 years ago. I understand the Japanese culture better now, enough to realize that Brando's character, Major Lloyd Gruver, is fortunate that he didn't insult the entirety of the nation with his passionate pursuit of a Japanese national.

The film takes place in 1951, a significant time because the war had only been over for a few years and there was still extreme tension between America and Japan. Brando approaches the character of Lloyd Gruver with his usual dedication to detail, which explains the Southern accent that has been deemed nearly flawless. Lloyd is stationed in Japan not because he wants to be there, but because a three star general, friend to his family, and father to the girl he's engaged to marry, wants him there. So, his tour in Korea is cut short and Lloyd finds himself in Japan. It doesn't take long for issues to arise between Lloyd and Eileen, played by the attractive Patricia Owens.

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Brando: The Wild One (1953)

Marlon Brando & Mary Murphy in The Wild One

I like rebels, or at least the idea of the rebel as Hollywood depicts it. Marlon Brando really started the trend, followed by the all-too short life and acting career of James Dean. Dean often attributed his look in Rebel without a Cause to Marlon Brando's reckless behavior in The Wild One from 1953. You could even say that there wouldn't have been a James Dean if Marlon Brando hadn't first blazed the trail to the ideal rebel.

Rebels are scary because they thumb their noses at society's demands and expectations. In his "other" life, Johnny Strabler is an normal citizen. But on the weekend, he's the leader of a biker gang that heads out on country roads seeking something to sooth their restless nature. In The Wild One, Johnny's gang literally takes an entire town hostage, partly because Johnny's reluctant to leave, partly because of external circumstances where they can't leave, and partly because a rival gang shows up raring for a fight.

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