THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940)
d: Ernst Lubitsch
CAST: James Stewart; Margaret Sullavan; Frank Morgan; Joseph Schildkraut
> my favourite movie of all time; the greatest romantic-comedy ever made; excellence in all aspects: acting, dialogue, bits of comedy business, flawless direction; the attempted suicide scene is handled so ideally that it doesn't jar, despite featuring in a 40's rom-com!!; Jimmy & Margaret are the best romantic duo ever; the famed "Lubitsch Touch" is on show and puts to shame the vast majority of rom-coms which came after this; a perfect film
Award-Worthy Performances
James Stewart & Margaret Sullavan; Frank Morgan; Joseph Schildkraut
BABY FACE (1933)
d: Alfred E. Green
CAST: Barbara Stanwyck; George Brent; Theresa Harris
> AKA Fuck Your Way to the Top; the essence of pre-code immorality in film; social comedy which is cynical to the point of being poisonous; "Crush All Sentiment" is virtually the movie's tagline; Barbara is the poor/tough girl who becomes the rich/hard girl; where'd she get the idea from? Fredrich Nietzsche!!; check out a foetal John Wayne wearing too much makeup; as usual, Barbara's performance shrivels everybody else's; shame her moral reform is inevitable; P.S. love the open-back dress Barb!
Award-Worthy Performance
Barbara Stanwyck
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973)
d: Richard Lester
CAST: Michael York; Oliver Reed; Richard Chamberlain; Frank Finlay; Raquel Welch; Faye Dunaway; Geraldine Chaplin; Charlton Heston; Christopher Lee; Spike Milligan
> pretty ordinary as an action swashbuckler but pretty good as a costume comedy; cast are having a great time and that comes through the performances (especially Raquel, who discovered in this movie that her metier was slapstick!!); love the asides (fave: "But I can't put my back into it. I've got piles.") and the disgruntled mumblings of the dwarfs; definitely a touch of the Monty-Pythonisms, and Spike is always a blessing
Award-Worthy Performance
Raquel Welch
SUNSHINE (2007)
d: Danny Boyle
CAST: Cillian Murphy; Chris Evans; Rose Byrne; Michelle Yeoh
> good premise: The Sun is dying so we send a group up to reboot it; story hikes along at a c'mon-keep-up pace; terrific set design and SFX which, of course, is the norm for these things; interesting ensemble cast is all fine but could do with a charisma injection; having said that though, the absence of a standard action movie star (no Tom; no Bruce) is a major plus; bit hard to tell at times (especially near the end) exactly what is going on, but it sure looks good; definitely a re-watcher
TORRID ZONE (1940)
d: William Keighley
CAST: James Cagney; Ann Sheridan; Pat O'Brien; Andy Devine
> the zenith of wisecracking movies: they fly thick and fast and funny right throughout; laughed out loud numerous times (which is rare for a Golden Age Warners flick); very un-PC Central American types with their Speedy Gonzalez accents add to the good-natured humour; three leads do their usual stuff (with Ann scoring highest because she has all the best lines); I expected a generic ripped-from-the-headlines action flick and got a fast-paced comedy instead... and was more than happy about it
Award-Worthy Performance
Ann Sheridan
THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON / PARADISE LAGOON (1957)
d: Lewis Gilbert
CAST: Kenneth More; Diane Cilento; Cecil Parker; Sally Ann Howes
> based on the play by the guy who invented Peter Pan; fun little satire of the English class system - master becomes servant & servant becomes master; Diane Cilento is a hoot!; always very enjoyable seeing upper-class twits getting their comeuppance; appealing scenery (deserted tropical island) in gorgeous technicolor; some added slapstick touches seem unnecessary; props and costumes are amusingly very Flintstones-like; a wry little entertainment
Award-Worthy Performance
Diane Cilento
MY BRILLIANT CAREER (1979)
d: Gillian Armstrong
CAST: Judy Davis; Sam Neill; Wendy Hughes; Robert Grubb
> it's all about Judy and that's more than okay; film moves along at a snail's pace (too slow / too little happens / too genteel) but as a pure character study of a strong-willed woman, it is superb; deals with Australia's greatest asset/detriment: our sense of isolation; life on a rural property is all about this, with art or booze being our usual escape options; gorgeous light, magpies gargling music, pretending to be British, a tendency towards roughhousing - sheer Australiana; just wish the story had a bit more heft to it
Award-Worthy Performance
Judy Davis
THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS (1974)
d: Peter Weir
CAST: John Meillon; Terry Camilleri; Chris Hayward; Bruce Spence
> refreshingly bizarre for Australia...or anywhere really; a satire of our consumerist society, similar in theme to 1978's Dawn of the Dead; a horror-comedy (very dark humour, naturally) tying in car-obsessives, small-town bizarros, demolition derbies and even involuntary medical experimentation; somehow still retains a primarily Aussie feel to the storytelling; always good to see many of our cinematic greats strutting their stuff together, but it's a shame that the protagonist is a walking void; the echidna-car has since become iconic; for those who are after something a little different
BROTHER ORCHID (1940)
d: Lloyd Bacon
CAST: Edward G. Robinson; Ann Sothern; Humphrey Bogart; Ralph Bellamy; Donald Crisp
> charming little movie about Eddie G the Ganglord who looks for something better in life and finds it in a monastery; unusual mixture of Warners crime film, sly comedy and social message movie; always love looking at what happens to Eddie G's hair when he gets clobbered; all players perform well (although Bogie doesn't seem to be in on the joke) and Ralph plays the typical Ralph part...he must've been sick to death of those!; the Sgt. Dibble-voiced Allen Jenkins drops out too early (he was always an asset in movies); not great Art, but certainly great fun
DANCE, GIRL, DANCE (1940)
d: Dorothy Arzner
CAST: Maureen O'Hara; Lucille Ball; Ralph Bellamy; Louis Hayward
> early feminist movie (y'know...men are fools + women must use all their feminine ways to get what they want etc); minor story about showgirls making it on-stage; wish it wasn't set in the dancing world though: too many ballet scenes to suit me; Lucy is right - she really can't sing, but watch her do another comedy warm-up for her TV show; Maureen is charming but only really kicks in when she does her Irish Firebrand routine; more historically significant (early female director and all that) than artistically, but still quite enjoyable
Award-Worthy Performance
Lucille Ball
Worst Movie-Viewing Experiences 10/11/15 - 5/12/15
THE CRIMSON KIMONO (1959)
d: Samuel Fuller
CAST: James Shegita; Glenn Corbert; Victoria Shaw; Anna Lee
> heralded as a lost masterpiece (probably because it is an early work of Fuller's...a cult director); starts with a stripper murder, becomes a plea for racial tolerance, ends with a surprise culprit; the wander through a bi-racial romance (without any kissing until the final scene) lessens the impact of the murder hunt to the point of actually not really caring whodunnit; Anna Lee stands out purely because she is the only actor who seems to be entirely comfortable; interesting Little-Japan-in-L.A. setting; not bad, but comes across as a pilot of an abandoned TV cop show; dated
CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN (1950)
d: Walter Lang
CAST: Clifton Webb; Myrna Loy; Jeanne Crain; Mildred Natwick
> wants to be quaint and charming, but doesn't get anywhere near it; a box-office smash in 1950 which proves that the public's taste has always been crap; Clifton Webb is fatally miscast: he just isn't up to a role which requires him to be cuddly and endearingly eccentric (and he is nobody's idea of a rampant reproducer or sexual stud); it really angers me to watch yet another film which totally wastes Myrna Loy; the phony/schmaltzy 1920's setting gives it that vague Disney feel, which just increases the sweetness of the whole thing; must have been used by China's One-Child policy-makers as propaganda
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