Movies I'll watch when they're on TV.

A great depiction of the pivotal battle of the Pacific war which occurs 6 months after Pearl Habor. Actual footage is used when possible.

If you're tired of your middle-aged life, you can get a do-over, courtesy of "The Company" who can recreate you with a whole new identity and a whole new look. But, things can go seriously wrong for the customer in this disturbing, underrated film.

A black comedy starring the velvet-voiced Dennis Price as the principal character, Louis Mazzini, who seeks to avenge the cruel treatment of his mother by her aristocratic family. His string of almost-perfect serial murders of those who stand in his way to become a Duke is the story he narrates from prison.

It took a viewing or two before I appreciated this comedy's underlying wholesome message of how even the weakest can stand up to cruelty and absurdity. Napoleon Dynamite is the ultimate nerd who, although he lives in a fantasy world to shield himself from brutal reality, finally shines because "he has his friend's back."

Ray Milland's portrayal of a hopeless alcoholic makes this movie worth watching. The ending is unrealistic but it really doesn't ruin the story.

An enthralling study of emotional repression in an English manor's head butler. In the soil, though, love is quietly blooming; but can it grow strong enough to free him in his waning years?

Alistair Sim is no one else to me except Scrooge. This movie has affected me since I was a kid. It's a timeless story of what repentance from sin looks like when it's genuine.

A detective falls in love with a brutally murdered woman. Her elderly mentor, who had brought her from obscurity into the world of high society, guides him as he pieces together the clues of her death. The trail stops cold when the murder becomes a case of mistaken identity and has to begin anew. Gene Tierney is perfect as the mysterious Laura, but it's Clifton Webb's movie by far.

A man is accused of murdering a rich spinster for her money who had fallen in love with him. His attorney is convinced he is innocent. His actress wife aids him by playing the most important role of her life.

Although Louis Jourdan is not among my favorite actors, I simply can't imagine a better one to fill the role of Andre LaTour, the faithful servant of the murdered Colonel Paradine whom Gregory Peck's character, Anthony Keane, is convinced is guilty of the crime. He is even more convinced his client, the exotic and aloof widow, is innocent.

One of Gregory Peck's best roles; but Dean Jagger, as the adjutant, is the anchor of the flight squadron whose endless bombing campaigns into Germany have them in tatters.

William Holden is the cynical screenwriter who accidentally falls into the life of an aging deluded silent film star. His inability to escape her and her wealth to embrace love with a poor working girl is tragic. Joe Gillis' fatal character flaw drives him to leave both of them to go back to Ohio, but he never makes it.

The Cold War had its victims just like a real war, only not as many. The bleak settings which were created for the even bleaker characters in this spy vs. spy drama reflect the cynical mood of the time. Richard Burton masterfully fills the role of a double agent whose persona of a washed-out, disillusioned ex-spy convince his enemies to take him as a defector. The courtroom scenes near the end are riveting.

My second favorite Holden film. The setting is a Prisoner of War camp in Germany. The story is about the Allied inmates struggling for normalcy and, of course, escape. Stalag 17 does what movies are supposed to do: make you feel good when a wrongly-treated main character is vindicated and when the bad guy gets his.

There is not a musical so grandly done like this, in my opinion. It's tense, it's poignant, it's charming, it's sad. It has some of the most beautiful songs ever sung on screen. It's taken from the Dicken's classic of an orphan who flees the harsh life in an orphanage only to fall into a nest of inner-city pickpockets. It's not over for him though as events lead him to a favorable end. It is the last of the great Hollywood musicals and one of its very best.

The USA could not have won the war in Europe without General George S. Patton and he could not have been portrayed by anyone except George C. Scott. Who can forget the opening scene of the General addressing his troops in front of a gigantic American flag?

Without this little masterpiece, a Robert Blake film would not be on this list. He plays an idealistic motorcycle cop who comes upon a crime scene that brings out his latent investigative talents. It's enough to promote him from the weary role of patrolling barren stretches of desert highways into detective work. He still has to face corruption where he doesn't expect it and what it will eventually lead to.

Bogart is at the top of his form as the nerve-shot Captain Queeg whose rigid and irrational behavior brings the crew of a WW2 Pacific minesweeper to the point of mutiny. Herman Wouk wrote the novel as a coming-of-age story of the fledgling Ensign Keith, but thankfully this emphasis is downplayed as the conflict aboard the USS Caine dominates the movie.

Dashielle Hammett, a former detective himself, deserved to have his invention of the hard-boiled detective immortalized on the screen by Mr. Film Noir, Humphrey Bogart. Sam Spade is hired by one of the greedy and murderous characters who are chasing a priceless artifact around the world. He can't back out because his partner was murdered at the start of the case and has to go where events lead.

Alert: Spoiler within. The second time I watched this movie (the first time, out of curiosity), I could see that behind all the vulgar noise of the two main characters was their invention of a secret son to cover their grief at not being able to have real children. They were tearing each other apart until at last they gave up the fantasy. A great allegory of how love is destroyed by delusion; but more, how delusion is destroyed by love.

Jimmy Stewart in one of his best roles defending a soldier accused of murder for killing a bar owner who raped his wife. He killed him all right, but his defense is that he was under "irresistible impulse." A non-actor, Joseph Welch as Judge Weaver, nearly steals the movie from Stewart and Geo C Scott by his witty down-home manner.

Spoilers within.

Alfred Hitchcock, as is usual with him, puts adulterers in a sympathetic light. The husband, Tony Wendice, played by Ray Milland, has conspired to have his unfaithful wife murdered by a man he has blackmailed into the deed, while having dinner with her American lover. The attempt goes wrong, but Tony maneuvers to have his wife, Margo, played by Grace Kelly, arrested for killing her assailant. The methodical Inspector Hubbard, played by John Williams, is as sharp as the case needs to vindicate Mrs. Wendice and expose her husband.

The corrupting effects of a man's evil deeds are transferred to a mysterious portrait. Dorian must keep it hidden because for him to remain young and healthy, the painting must grow ugly with his sins. It's a powerful allegory of the effect of one's evil on the soul.

An engaging depiction of the effect the transition between peace time to about 6 months past Pearl Harbor has on some Naval officers. The complex story lines of the characters are well played out against the dramatic backdrop of the early stages of the Pacific war.