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Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Fight, faith and cowardice during the roofridge World was

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Yew views proceeded could. Yew views could kill. [Broad of times in screen (mutual) Bitchery #772] *
Great classic films, best all time movies

365 films: Wretched I Re-examined

Wretched I stars Steve Carrell, Jason Segel, and mark off Russell in this film animated per 2010. Its whole life, gangster Gru (Carrell) tried to Be has model gangster, goal things never prove, completely the manner that He wants them with. His/her pessimistic mother (Julie Andrews) does not think that it is good to Be has gangster, and always makes the bad one feel Gru butt. With its NÃ©mÃ©sis off vault (Segel) one his behind, Gru must plane Be through matched in its bad, and takes care off three orphan little girls. Which Gru does not hope to occur however, is to become so much deeply attached to the little girls. It has film off re-creation so that the whole family observe, with small nonripe jokes along the manner, goal nothing harmful. It is probably the best for children goal I think, that the child in the adults will find pleasure in him. Review for the tomorrow: Together still
Great classic films, best all time movies

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Way lasts (1943): Forgotten gem

The Hard Way could be a description of actress Ida Lupinoâ€™s career. Called by some a â€œpoor manâ€™s Bette Davis (a moniker shared by Susan Hayward), Lupino was a star in her own right, possessing a very distinctive style and consistently giving top notch performances. However, attaining her major success at Warner Brothers in the early and mid 1940â€™s, she was sometimes required to take some of Davisâ€™ cast off roles, Bette being the queen of the Warnerâ€™s lot during this period. One such Davis hand-me-down was the meaty lead character of Helen Chernen in The Hard Way (1943), which Lupino deftly handled. She gave a tour de force portrayal and gained much! acclaim including the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress of 1943.Helen Chernen is a woman living in near poverty in a lifeless, stifling, dirty coal mining town. Trapped in a loveless marriage to boot, her only ray of hope is her teen-aged sister, Katie (Joan Leslie). Helen sees an opportunity for the moderately talented Katie, when the youngster catches the eye of a traveling vaudevillian, Albert Runkel (Jack Carson), who is passing through the shabby little burg with his show biz partner, Paul Collins (Dennis Morgan). The elder sister pushes for their marriage, then slowly integrates Katie into the Runkel/Collins act until bigger fish come along to fry. Katie becomes a huge success leaving the lovelorn Albert behind, but success via her sister Helen, she finds, isnâ€™t so sweet when you go about it the hard way, or should I say the wrong way.

The film, written by famed playwright and author Irving Shaw, is reportedly based loosely on the early life of actress Ginger Rogers, specifically her relationships with her stage mother Lela and her first husband, vaudeville performer Jack Pepper. The movie even makes reference to Rogers by name and when the character of Katie makes big in her first Broadway show, the production is called â€œBoy Crazyâ€ (as opposed to Gingerâ€™s first successful foray, â€œGirl Crazyâ€).Ida Lupino is superb as Helen. Underrated and often overlooked in the annals of Hollywood history, the actress displays in The Hard Way, as well as other films, an inner toughness and resolve, to get her way, whatever the cost. She is not alone in contributing a fine performance however, with the entire cast turning in solid work. Jack Carson gives perhaps his finest dramatic display as the g! ood hearted but ill-treated Albert. He and Dennis Morgan would co-star in several other Warners features, but none so artistically successful as this. Not to say this is high art. It is basically what was known at the time as a â€œwomanâ€™s pictureâ€ with hints of film noir, very similar in many ways to Mildred Pierce, also produced at Warner Brothers two years later. In fact, producer Jerry Wald used the opening sequence of Ida Lupino dressed to the nines and jumping into the bay as the basis for the opening in Pierce.

Aside from Miss Lupino, the two second lady roles went to the afore mentioned Miss Leslie and veteran actress Gladys George, who was a stapl! e at Warners and other studios in bedraggled dame roles or the! moll wi th the heart of gold. Gladysâ€™ characters had lived a lot of life and seen a lot of sadness. Her role here, as a has-been stage actress who drowns her sorrows in a bottle of whatever is at hand, is no different. Joan Leslie is the only proverbial fly in the ointment in The Hard Way. Not that she doesnâ€™t do an adequate job, but one finds it extremely hard to believe that, as Katherine Blaine, she is a great shining beacon on the New York stage. Her Katherine can be downright lackluster at times, especially beside the scenery chewing Lupino! However, with the help of make up guru Perc Westmore and gowns and get-ups by designer Orry-Kelly, she goes from small town gum chewer to sophisticated stage star quite smoothly, and considering her youth (Leslie was only seventeen at the time of filming), she keeps her head above water with the stalwart Warner Brothers stock company. The entire ensemble is really good, but Ida Lupino is the one you canâ€™t take your ey! es off, and shouldnâ€™t, as you might find a knife in your back.Want to know more?Here are some recommendations regarding the article above:Ida Lupino: A Biography by William DonatiIf you are interested in this or any other merchandise, please help support this blog by purchasing them through the Amazon portal at the top of this page. By accessing Amazon through this site, you help me maintain resource material and continue to share my love of classic film. Thank you very much.
Great classic films, best all time movies

365 films: Last review off holidays

The last holidays hold the first role Alec Guinness and Kay Walsh in this film 1950. Discovering He dies, George that the bird (Guinness) decide to go has little from the holidays, before his final days. Until it does not wait however, is to changes the off lives the people in the process. It has contact and At most time, has film very with charm and software. It has part off has film off message, goal it is At all preachy, that I completely liked. Alec Guinness was absolutely marvellous, and I really wish that this film Be more well-known. It has so marvellous film, that had me one the edge to cry. Review for the tomorrow: Wretched I
Great classic films, best all time movies

Fight, faith and cowardice during the roofridge World was

"The Fighting 69th" is a flag-waving war film from 1940, and it throws nearly everything but the kitchen sink into its 90-minute running time.But that's not necessarily a good thing. The movie is easy to watch, but it's not focused. It covers faith, cowardice, biography and war in a standard hit movie package, complete with comic relief, flag-waving monologues and star turns by its leading men.It's a crazy concoction, but it doesn't quite work. As the title denotes, this should be the story of the Fighting 69th, a real-life regiment from New York City. In the film, the regiment is at Camp Mills, NY, being prepared to go overseas and fight during World War I. Private Jerry Plunkett (James Cagney) is a cocky, ! mouthy recruit who is immediately disliked by most of the men around him. But Fr. Duffy (Pat O'Brien) takes a liking to Plunkett, much to the chagrin and puzzlement of the others, particularly Sgt. Wynn (Alan Hale, below with Cagney).

When the men finally make it to France and the front, Plunkett's over-eagerness to start fighting leads to a battle that kills a number of his fellow soldiers, making his estrangement from the others even more pronounced.I'm not one to discuss the ending of films, because I hate to spoil anything for future viewers. However, be forewarned that I will be doing so below.To begin with, "The Fighting 69th" isn't sure what to focus on. You would think this would be a biography of the fam! ed fighting division. However, it really isn't, focusing more ! on Plunk ett and Fr. Duffy while filling out the ranks with the usual parade of stock supporting characters that could be transplanted from one war film to another. Outside of cursory facts, I learned very little about this division.The film is also bookended by both a prologue and epilogue about Fr. Duffy. Yet the film really isn't about him, either. Sure, it goes into the idea of faith and relying on it during the ravages of war. But this isn't a biography about Fr. Duffy. It's as if the film simply says, "He's a man of God. Therefore, he is good. And therefore, we will show him doing good things." Bing Crosby's Fr. O'Malley had more to do in "Going My Way" than O'Brien does here.Then there's Plunkett. Cagney is a force of nature on screen, and he clearly has the most magnetism of anyone in this film. But his character is so unlikable. And, since the movie is all over the place in terms of its focus, the treatment of Plunkett is cursory, and ultimately he's not about the 69th, whic! h detracts from the overall cohesiveness.I wish the film hadn't been so set on being a typical action movie. For one thing, a film that was about Plunkett might have been fascinating, particularly when it's revealed that he's a coward. But this is 1940, and such a story might have been too deep or dark to pursue at that time. Instead, I grew to dislike Plunkett so much -- he continues to be responsible for getting most of the supporting cast killed in battle -- that I didn't care what happened to him. When George Brent's Major Donovan calls him a "rotten soldier," I wanted to cheer, even as it became clear what the finale of the film would be. But Plunkett's redemption comes too late. It simply became a plot element.

For all of Cagney's on-screen presence, I thought! he had wandered out of a gangster film and onto the wrong set by mistake. However, O'Brien and Cagney (above) -- who apparently worked together on nine films -- were a popular duo, and this film was a hit for Warners.And while the U.S. wasn't involved in World War II yet, the film certainly did its part to prepare people for what may come. Donovan's rainbow division soliloquy, in which he breaks up a fight between the Fighting 69th and the regiment from Alabama, delivers such lines as "We're all one nation now" and "If you must fight, wait until you get overseas."Warner Brothers would hit a home run the next year with its World War I biography "Sergeant York." "The Fighting 69th" should have been this good.

Great classic films, best all time movies

Wissbegierde: Crazy person for Pee Wee

Alexa from Pop Elegantiarum here. As JA mentioned, it's been 25 years since Pee-Wee's Big Adventure came out to mediocre reviews. Whether you love it or hate it, today it is inarguably a cult classic. Judd Apatow is even rumored to be pulling the strings on the new Pee-Wee movie Paul Rubens is writing (um, interesting). And at this year's Crazy 4 Cult, the annual exhibit of art inspired by cult films at Gallery1988 in Los Angeles, Pee-Wee was one of the most heavily represented subjects. This year's show runs through July 30th. What follows are some of the more interesting Pee-Wee portraits from the show's four years, in honor of his big screen anniversary.