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Reviews
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Boo Radley--American hero
I have lived with this movie, and the novel on which it is based, most of my life. My parents took us kids to see this movie first run, figuring the I was too young to understand the disturbing, crucial courtroom scenes about rape and racism. The parents were right. I fell asleep.
Scary movie for a little kid! Very Southern Gothic, beautifully shot. I was riveted during the early scenes with the kids. The scary Boo house and the soap figurines made a big impression on me. I slept though the middle of the movie, so at the very end, I thought the skulking but kindly Boo was still scary. I now realize that he's the most wonderful person in the story. He is the Mockingbird.
I read the book as soon as I could read, and again, skipped over just about everything but the kid portions of the novel. What great episodes, and what beautiful writing. Since then, I read the book at least once a decade and see the movie whenever I can.
Had I been a teen when the movie first came out I would have wanted to protest the "Stand up Jean Louise, your father's passin' by " scene--a little too adorable and grateful, is that Negro pastor. This movie's set in the lynch era, but it was released during the the brave civil rights era. Black citizens were laying their lives on the line at that time. Some White people were out there, but not nearly as many. So the movie's emphasis on the middle aged white dicty hottie lawyer, who will save us all, is a bit skewed.
All the posters who claim to love the book, yet say that the movie is enough, frustrate me. Please read the book once every decade of your life. You will have grown, and, strangely the book will have grown. And bless you posters for mentioning powerful characters in the book, like the horrible Mrs. DuBose, who never made it to the screen.
Since my last re-read, I am struck as never before, by Dill literally becoming sick about racism during the trial.
But such a rich book has to be condensed for movie length, and Mulligan and Foote have presented the best. Happy ending: Fishbellywhite alienated southerner loner kills racist with big knife because the racist attempts to kill a small girl dressed as a ham.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Librarians, Boogie Woogie
I watched this again yesterday. I've been sucked into watching this (sometimes up to eight times when it was still public domain) every December for about 40 years. It's that good.
I always enjoy this movie, but there are two and a half elements that stop me cold, leave me cold, make me not like the scenes I'm watching:
1) The climactic horror that Mary is a librarian. And presumably single. And wearing white lipstick before 1964. Alternate scenarios? An early death? An an abusive marriage? At least she wouldn't be an "old maid."
2) That the music in the bar sucks because George exists. I guess the "Bailey exists" music is coming from the juka boxa of final scene fame. Martini's is depicted as a reasonably earthy neighborhood bar otherwise, with forties guys in hats ordering shots, but their audio ambiance is Deanna Durbin. If George had not been born the bar would have been a tougher hangout, but there would have been a live piano player performing good boogie-woogie.
1/2) Since it's not integral to George not being born, this doesn't divert me quite as much: Annie's idiotic line about "savi'n' up for a divorce i'f'n I ever get married" is the sort of "humor" that mars movies up to the sixties. Capra has mitigated this somewhat, it's Annie's only embarrassingly stupid line, and he shows sane African-Americans, albeit only as as extras, in other scenes. For a brief example, an attractive, not overweight/mammyish, 40's "New Negro" lady donates money to the George basket soon after Annie's "comic" turn.
Love Crazy (1941)
Yarn Scene is great
This is a Myrna/Billy comedy. What's not to love?
We are not keen on slapstick. And William and Myrna are justifiably more noted for their sexy, character-based humor than for anything visual. But we think the yarn/turntable/drag scene is one of the great moments in movies. (And if you've been trolling this site, you know the scene was shot at the cost of a great mustache.)
Jack Carson's a plus too, as Willowby, Ward Willowby, though it's a hard sell to believe that anyone, (especially cute Myrna) could think of preferring him to William Powell. Jack Carson is the master of the obnoxious creep in all his movie appearances.
This is a great movie.
The Love Letter (1998)
Sorry, I've Got to flame it
I love "The Love Letter." That is, I love the very short, very romantic short story by Jack Finney.
Dan "Dark Shadows, what does that tell you" Curtis produced the TV movie. He cannot resist sensationalizing literary sources. I have, in my mid-seventies high school journal, blow by by blow reactions to watching the affront to Oscar Wllde that was his TV Movie of "Picture of Dorian Grey." I hated it because he changed major characters and situations from the good old Oscar Wilde original.
I hated this TV movie, because Curtis padded and distorted a gem of a very short story to sell to Hallmark. I watched it as one would watch a fascinating wreck.
Sorry I'm so loyal to original sources. If you're like me, you'll be annoyed by the Walter Wanger 1939 "Wuthering Heights" and treasure the high-Emily Bronte-content early 70's American International version.
Romantics--please read "The Love Letter." You'll love it.
One Way Passage (1932)
Unsung Gem with unhappy ending?
When I worked a graveyard shift, my supervisor, brightening (and waking) us up, asked "Quick! What are your top 5 favorite movies?" I instantly put "One Way Passage" on my list. I wasn't surprised when it wasn't on anyone else's list, this is an obscure gem.
The balance of melodrama and comedy is perfect; as it is in many thirties Warner Bros. dramas. It seems strange at first, but think it through. (For example, my ux Tom posits that Warners's unusual lug-n-mug filled western, "The Oklahoma Kid" is probably accurate, as most of the folks in the historical wild, woolly west moved from the wild East and could have talked like Cagney.)
The McHugh and MacMahon sub-plots are are not just comic relief from the romance, they are deftly integrated into it, and they become romantic co-conspirators. This adds to the appeal; the descriptions "chick flick," "weeper," "women's picture" can not apply.
The leads are sexy, gorgeous, and lovable. The crossed cigarettes tossed on the beach shows how the restraints on old movies resulted in delicious images. The crossed, broken cocktail glass image, at first seen quite early on in the movie, makes me question why IMDb Comments posters are saying this is movie has an unhappy ending (that's not a spoiler, is it?)