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Reviews
The Real Charlie Chaplin (2021)
Charles Chaplin was wonderful
I saw most of Charles Chaplin's greatest films in the Sixties on PBS out of Chicago. Watching this movie reminded me of how great his movies were even after the silent movies were long gone and out of fashion. Charles was a complicated man of great genius who also had his dark side. He was no saint; he was a man! Even now some of the imagery in his masterpieces have a haunting, poignant effect to them.
I very much enjoyed this movie.
The Green Years (1946)
Irish Catholic lad growing up in Proestand Scotland.
Dean Stockwell and Charles Coburn makeup an outstanding team in "The Green Years." Dean plays Robbie Shannon, an orphaned Irish child, who is sent to Scotland to live with his deceased mother's austere Scottish family. His Irish ethnicity, as well as his Roman Catholic faith, prove to be burdensome until his old grandfather teaches him to stand his ground and be a man. The boy later on uses an inheritance from his grandfather to pay for his medical student fees. A very enchanting coming of age tale.
Boy Racer (2018)
Enchanting Yarn
I really enjoyed "Boy Racer," a very short film from Celtic Badger Media Films, a production company from Ireland. The story is very enchanting and joyful. It revolves around the daydreaming of a young boy who discovers his grandfather's racing car in the garage. I highly recommend this film for people with children.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1973)
Kirk is two-faced
I watched this made-for-television when it was first aired in the spring of 1973. I remember it clearly because it was shortly before I graduated from high school. I watched with my parents. I really enjoy the productions: songs and all.
I watched the movie again on youtube after forty-seven years from the first time I had viewed it. I still really enjoyed the production: songs and all. I think Kirk Douglas was able to pull-off a very likeable Dr. Henry Jekyll, as well as a very menacing Mr. Hyde.
The supporting cast of British actors was brilliant.
Murder Most Foul (1964)
My second facorite in the series
Murder Most Foul is my second favorite in this series of four starring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Jane Marple, ancient sleuth and lover of mysteries. Putting the murder mystery movie to a backdrop of a murder mystery stage play was a wonderful idea. Both Dame Margaret and Ron Moody chew up the scenery in this wonderful film.
Murder She Said (1961)
Great fun
This is my favorite Miss Jane Marple movie of all-time. Dame Rutherford rules as the ancient sleuth. A great supporting cast and just the right of humor mixed with chills makes for a great movie.
Mersey Boys: A Letter from Al Moran (2019)
Ginny, John and Al
This is a delightful film from Ireland, starring Jessica Messenger as Ginny, Robert Bourke as John Lennon and Fiach Kunz as Al. What a really cool idea about a chance encounter between the soon-be-to-famous rock and roller and an uptight American professor in an English pub. A beautiful barmaid is the catalyst of the film. This is a story begging to made into a feature!
Mersey Boys: A Letter from Al Moran (2019)
Ginny, John and Al
This is a delightful film from Ireland, starring Jessica Messenger as Ginny, Robert Bourke as John Lennon and Fiach Kunz as Al. What a really cool idea about a chance encounter between the soon-be-to-famous rock and roller and an uptight American professor in an English pub. A beautiful barmaid is the catalyst of the film. This is a story begging to made into a feature!
The Working Man (1933)
Office fun during he Depression
I really enjoyed this movie about a businessman (George Arliss0 putting a shoe company back on its feet to compete with their arch-rivals which happens t be run by his nephew. The movie makes note to the Great Depression raging in the background when companies were folding and people were losing their jobs at record numbers. This film looks at the people trying to keep their companies afloat during the hard economical times. Bette Davis, playing the part of spoiled rich girls, is very beautiful, as well as very likeable in this film. A good potboiler.
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
Like the Raymond Burr version better
I watched both versions of the original Godzilla and I enjoyed the one with Raymond Burr much better. The first film focused too much upon the uninteresting love triangle. The long scenes with the elderly professor ruminating about saving Godzilla from destruction was goofy considering how dangerous the creature was proving to be. Also, why was the island boy who lost his parents on Odo island suddenly in Tokyo with the professor and his doctor.
Catch Us If You Can (1965)
A mixture of blast and bleakness.
I remember what a big deal the city of Kenosha made when "A Hard Day's Night" played at the Orpheum downtown theater. "Having a Wild Weekend," on the hand, blew through the area before I had a chance to see it. I think I have watched the movie from start to finish maybe four times in forty years. I like the film but it's no "A Hard Days Night."
1) The Beatles were far superior to the Dave Clark Five musically by the time the two movies were released.
2) Ringo as a leading character is vastly more enjoyable than Dave Clark's moody Steve.
3) The Beatles played their film for comedy while the Dave Clark Five went for mood.
4) The 4 Beatles had distinctive characters while the Dave Clark Five had one leading man and 4 bland supporting actors.
5) A hard day's Night moves rapidly while "Having A Wild Weekend" drags much of the time.
However, I still like "Having a Wild Weekend." Dinah was a cute little number and Steve had James Bond-like qualities. The costume party scene was a rave. The hippies being rounded up by the British army was a foreshadowing of the near future.
Lo straniero di silenzio (1968)
Tony Anthony as the smiling American with a fast draw!
I admit I have been a major Tony Anthony fan for years. His wise guy American cowboy with the fast gun was known as the Stranger. The Stranger took on large gangs of vicious outlaws in for movies from 1965 to 1975....and he always won! However, he usually rode off in the sunset as broke as ever...and as dirty! In this film, the Stranger wanders to Japan to collect $20,000 for a valuable scroll. Instead of making his fortune, the Stranger finds himself in the middle of a feud between two feudalistic Japanese clans who are terrifying the peasants of Osaka by their bully boy antics. Of course, the Stranger is beaten and humiliated before winning his war!
Get Mean (1975)
Not sure what it was all about, but I enjoyed it!
This is an extremely bizarre movie that is still a great deal of fun. A cowboy delivers a beautiful princess to Spain for $1,000 and the promise of more. However, it is a strange Spain full of medieval Vandals and Moors fighting with swords, muskets and cannons. There are magical elements to the story that makes things even more outlandish. At one point the cowboy starts howling like a wolf. Later on, he turns black. It is still great fun to watch. Tony Anthony, once again, takes on incredible odds, and still wins!
Shin Gojira (2016)
Distasteful Nationalism at the Core but Still Good
I am a a life-long Godzilla fanatic and I really enjoyed this reboot. In fact, it may very well be the greatest Godzilla movie of all-time. The movie focused mainly upon the Japanese response to the state of emergency caused by the arrival of the atomic waste-reptile-God upon the shores of their nation. This movie is a very human take on what would happen if such an event took place in reality. I lived in Japan for five years and I grew to love the land and its people. I greatly admire they're sense of teamwork to overcome adversity. On the other hand, the overwhelming nationalism of the race was off-putting at times and this movie is an example of Japan patting Japan upon its' back. There's also a very blatant anti-Americanism in the film that seemed a bit excessive to me. Damned if we do, damned if we don't step up to the plate to deal with a crisis. You can substitute Kim Jon for Godzilla for a clearer picture of the real message here.
Young Cassidy (1965)
A Voice of the poor Dubliners
I saw this movie many years ago shortly after reading all of Sean O'Casey's memoirs (Mirrors in my Hallway) and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the movie. Rod Taylor was perhaps too robust and handsome to play the part of the thin and bespectacled Irish writer but he did a capable job. My favorite part of the movie was when the three Cassidy brothers got into a pub brawl with a team of hurly players. I remember thinking that in the books Sean had no real liking for his brothers.
The depiction of the hard-pressed folks of Dublin is very realistic and grim. After years of English oppression the Irish nation was ready to boil over into one final uprising to free their land from John Bull's tyranny.
Oddly enough, Sean O'Casey spent much of his life as an exile in England. His writings like "Shadow of a Gunman" and "Juno and the Peacock" were produced in the Twenties and he never recaptured the magic once he left his native land.
I'd recommend the movie for St. Patrick's Day viewing because of its' Irish nationalistic theme.
Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three Hour Tour in History (2001)
It made me cry
I have to admit this is the first movie to make me cry in many years. The final few minutes of the film was very powerful, especially when Jim Backus played his last scene.
I remember this program when it originally aired back in 1964. It was fun seeing the behind the camera action of these 7 actors who were stuck on that desert island in the vast Pacific.
I highly recommend this film to fans of the old show. It was great to see Bob Denver (Gilligan), Dawn Welles (Maryann) and Russell Johnson (the Professor) together after so many years. I think the bittersweet emotions they were experiencing was passed on to the audience.
We all have gotten older but the castaways are still together and trying to find away back to civilization. I hope they are forever on that island.
All That Money Can Buy (1941)
I just showed it at a college
I gave a ten minute presentation upon this movie and the original short story by Stephen Vincent Benet. I had an audience of roughly twenty people: faculty and students. Afterwards many of them came up to me to tell me how many they enjoyed the movie.
Walter Huston, in the role of the Devil, chewed up the screen with his cigar smoking and his wicked smile. Old Lucifer has never been so much fun; and he's an American original in this film as Benet intended.
Edward Arnold, a hail and hearty character era from the 30's and 40's, played a robust and earthy Daniel Webster, Senator from Massachusetts. His duel with the Evil One in a court room full of the damned from American history is priceless.
An all-star cast does an outstanding to keep this film compelling and timeless.
Saiyûki (1960)
Still contains some magic years later
I saw this movie maybe three times in the early Sixties at movie theaters. I absolutely loved the movie, especially the final battle between Alakazam the monkey and Gruesome the bull. I didn't see the movie again until about twenty years when I watched it on television when I was living in Boston, circa 1980 I remember being very disappointed in the film. Now in 2017 I have seen the movie after another gap of over thirty-five years, and I love it again.
A child can identify with Alakazam's selfishness and mischief. An adult can identify with Alakazam's pilgrimage to maturity. I like the oriental setting and the Buddhist-like imagery in the film. I liked Dee Dee's love and loyalty for her monkey boy. She braved a snow storm to bring him food when he was in prison. She was encouraging him to be braver and wiser.
Great fun!
In the Money (1958)
Needed More of Eddie LeRoy
"In the Money" in the very last feature-film in the Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys saga that spanned from 1937 to 1958 and included 80 or 90 movies. It is incredible body of cinema work to leave behind by one comedy team.
I recently watched the entire Bowery Boys series on Turner Classic Movies (2016-2017). The old snap, crackle and pop wasn't present in the final few years of the series.I think it would have been a good move on the director's part to incorporate Eddie LeRoy more into Hunt Hall's comedy routine. He was a very likable little guy with spectacles.
I think David Gorcey's Chuck would have been a better foil to Hall's Sach than Stanley Clement's Duke. However, the series was burnt to a crisp by 1958, and happily it ended with this movie.
Ah, Wilderness! (1935)
Turn of the century coming of age film
I read somewhere that playwright Eugene O'Neill never saw this film version of his play, "ah, Wilderness." That's a crying shame, for I think he would have enjoyed this dandy film. Any film that features Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery and Mickey Rooney has to be worth a watch. All of the male and female actors in this movie would have made O'Neill proud. The action takes place in a small town in Connecticut, a few years after the turn of the century. WW 1, Prohibition, the Great Depression and WW 2 are all safely in the future. The USA is still a young, innocent and hopeful nation in the early days of the 20th century. It a time of trolleys, pianos in the parlor, first kisses in the and and 4th of July picnics. It is a time long lost and forgotten. The movie makes the viewers wish that they could go back into the past to a simpler time and place.