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My Favorite Movies (in no order)
Famous People I've Met Or Spoken With
My Fifteen Favorite Tyrone Power Films
The Handsomest Classic Era Actors (born before 1935) In No Order
Reviews
Beyond Tomorrow (1940)
A young couple gets help from beyond
Who are the cynics giving middling scores to this lovely film?
Some background: The story is written by Mildred Cram, who wrote An Affair to Remember, Susan Lennox, and many others. Her book, Forever, about reincarnation, was Tyrone Power's favorite book. Every new woman in his life was given it to read as a potential costar. But he never made the film.
Okay - Cram definitely believed in the spirit world and that the soul continues after death.
In this story, three elderly engineers (Charles Winninger, C, Aubrey Smith, and Harry Carey) live and have a business together. One Christmas night, they throw three wallets with $10 each out the window, each containing a business card, to see if anyone will come to their door.
Two arrive, a young woman, Jean (Jean Parker) working for a children's foundation, and an aspiring singer, James (Richard Carlson). They all become fast friends, including the men's Russian housekeeper and butler (Maria Ouspenskaya and Alex Melesh).
Tragedy strikes, and the three men are killed in a plane crash. Before being called to the other side, they remain in ghostly form and attempt to help the relationship of Jean and James., which runs into a problem (Helen Vinson).
Richard Carlson has a beautiful singing voice and is so handsome and appealing - he certainly had a good career, though maybe too lightweight for a film leading man. Jean Parker is lovely. They made a darling couple.
A beautiful, satisfying Christmas film that has introduced me to the drink Tom & Jerry - a definite for me this holiday season.
As for the movie, enjoy a little sentiment and a human story. We can all use it.
Going Places (1938)
Oh What a Horse Was Charley
Forget the silly plot - watch this for the wonderful music, including Jeepers Creepers, and the incredible Mutiny in the Nursery featuring Louis Armstrong (who has a major acting role), Maxine Sullivan, and the Dandridge Sisters (including a teenaged Dorothy).
One wonders if the thugs, Allen Jenkins and Harold Huber, singing Oh What a Horse was Charley Til He Got a Charley Horse, was any kind of inspiration for the singing thugs in Kiss Me, Kate.
The plot - well, as an advertising stunt, Dick Powell impersonates a famous horseman, Peter Randall, falls in love with Anita Louise, and ends up jockeying Jeepers Creepers who only responds to the song. The race has to be seen to be believed. And even then, you won't believe it.
See it for the musical numbers.
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Because their love...is all that heaven allows!
Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman star in All that Heaven Allows from 1955.
Wyman plays Cary, a recent widow with two adult children (Gloria Talbot, William Reynolds) who meets an arborist, Ron (Hudson), somewhat younger than she, and not of her social class.
There is an immediate attraction, but Cary faces disapproval from her family and friends.
I've always liked Rock Hudson but he never really floated my boat. The character he plays in this is so gentle, sweet, easygoing, devoid of artifice, and so darned good looking, Wyman would have had to have been comatose not to flip out over him.
This is such a lovely film, a real Douglas Sirk special with Wyman and Hudson giving heartfelt performances.
Good film about loneliness and what is really important in life.
Psycho (1960)
How to keep a generation of women out of the shower
Alfred Hitchcock is my favorite director, though I prefer his big budget films of the '40s and '50s, and his emphasis on suspense rather than horror.
That being said, his 1960 Psycho is certainly a fascinating film. The problem with it is simple: I can't remember my initial reaction to all the twists because I've seen it too many times. Oh, to go back and remember my terror during the shower scene or the big reveal at the end.
But I can't. Psycho starts out as a film about an unhappy woman who steals $40,000 from her boss and leaves town.
During a storm, she stops at the Bates Motel. Well, there are mistakes and then there are mistakes. Stealing the money was a mistake. Then there's entering the Bates Motel. Another level of mistake.
The film quickly becomes about something else. Hitchcock kills off what we assume is his star and goes in a different direction. Only Hitchcock.
As Norman Bates, Tony Perkins is a cute and underplayed Norman. We see the moment Norman's true colors begin to emerge. We want to say, okay, the rain stopped, you've eaten, you've met this crazy, you've heard his abusive mother. Time to go!
A master storyteller weaves a tale about a boy and his best friend- his mother.
Cast Away (2000)
A tour de force
A tour de force by Tom Hanks.
Hanks plays an international manager for Fed Ex, Chuck Nolan, who is on a plane that crashes at sea.
As the only survivor, he is marooned on an island. With no help coming, he has to learn to survive. Turns out it's a four year struggle.
This is an amazing movie - the idea of the isolation, the foraging for food, looking for items that can help him live and/or escape, the feeling of hopelessness - all very intense. Chuck is a man in love, a great job, and now his only focus is survival.
Hanks is superb!
This is a wonderful story of the human spirit, and frankly, it's something we need to remind ourselves of from time to time. We're pretty indomitable.
Charade (1963)
Stanley Donen in a Hitchcock mood
One of my all-time favorite films. The Hitchcock movie Hitchcock didn't make.
Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) is widowed and finds out that her husband Charles 1) was thrown off of a train in his pajamas; 2) had many passports under different names; 3) cleaned out their home before he died; and 4) has a quarter of a million dollars somewhere, wanted by three goons. And they think she has it. She enlists the help of a man (Cary Grant) who over the course of the film has several names. Friend or foe?
Beautifully cast, stylish direction by Stanley Donen, with a Parisian background, beautiful clothes by Givenchy, and a script full of humor and mystery, Charade has it all.
Crossing Delancey (1988)
delightful film
A young Jewish woman is pressured to find true love in Crossing Delaney from 1988, starring Amy Irving, Peter Riegert, Sylvia Miles, and Rosemary Harris.
Irving is Isabelle Grossman, a New Yorker involved with a small bookstore, where she has intellectual friends and rubs elbows with authors. She enjoys her life. However, her Jewish grandmother involves her with a yenta. The result is pickle maker Sam Posner (Riegert).
The entire cast is great - Sylvia Miles is hilarious as the matchmaker in a very showy role.
Loved the whole New York City atmosphere and the realistic situations -- being enamored of a jerk and thinking a pickle maker isn't quite what you had in mind.
Short Cut to Hell (1957)
Routine but Cagney directed
This is the only film directed by James Cagney.
In Short Cut to Hell, Robert Ivers plays a hit man paid off with counterfeit money, bringing police to his door. He hops a train to Los Angeles and winds up kidnapping a young woman (Georgian Johnson) who is the girlfriend of a detective (William Bishop).
Very routine and I struggled to stay involved.
Growing up I loved the TV series It's a Great Life which starred Bishop. I suppose if I saw it now I would find it silly, who knows. Sadly he died young.
I had never seen Georgann Johnson as a young and pretty actress. She was a wonderfully talented character actress.
The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1946)
Static noir
Real talky.
When a priest is found hanged, his good friend, a journalist (Lee Bowman) knows it isn't suicide and sets out to learn the truth.
It all has to do with two Bibles that the priest had in his possession, and everyone wants them. George McCready plays a missionary in search of them, and you know, because it's George McCready, that he's not a missionary and he's up to no good. A youngish Edgar Buchanan is also after them, as well as an attractive young woman (Marguerite Chapman).
The Bibles give the whereabouts of da Vinci painting to the fall of the walls of Jericho.
For as much talking as went on, I have to say the denouement was actually quite poignant.
This film for some reason is compared by some reviewers to the Maltese Falcon and Lee Bowman to a Cagney or Bogart. Lee Bowman had a very monotonous voice and as far as I'm concerned, not a lot of presence. He was, however, a pleasant actor.
Just an OK noir.
A little trivia: back in the good old days when there were collectors magazines, Marguerite Chapman was selling her own private Memorabilia collection.
Until I Kill You (2024)
Horrific story of abuse
Anna Maxwell Martin stars as real-life abuse victim Delia Balmer in Until I Kill You, a four part miniseries. Her abuser, Sweeney, is played by Endeavour star Shaun Evans.
Balmer is a bizarre woman, not very likable, who takes up with Sweeney, only to be abused by him until he nearly kills her. Her anger at the police for not helping her, her physical pain, her fear, her bitterness, her PTSD cause her to lash out at everyone. She feels as if she is already dead, and when the police ask for her help putting Sweeney away, she initially refuses. She relents, but then, faced with more injustice, she's sorry.
In spite of Balmer being such a difficult character, your sympathies are with her and the adjudication of Sweeney's various cases.
Very compelling story and a great lesson to always be vigilant and not too trusting. Such sad reminders of how we're forced to live in the world.
China (1943)
Why all the hate
Why the hate over this film? I have to disagree. Called a quickie B movie, getting as much work out of Alan Ladd as the studio could pre-stardom(?) - the site reviews go to town.
I wasn't aware that Ladd hadn't hit stardom when this film was made - that's baloney. A B movie? With that incredible opening scene and those effects? Starring Ladd, Bendix, and Loretta Young?
This is a propaganda film. Ladd plays an opportunist who sells oil to the Japanese. One night his truck is basically taken over by Young, who is a teacher, desperate to get her female students to safety.
Ladd of course winds up joining the fight after tragedy strikes. Some very exciting and sad scenes.
And yes, the Japanese are portrayed as monsters, as they are any time it is shown what they did to the Chinese people.
Young, Ladd, Bendix, Philip Ahn, and Marianne Quon give excellent performances as do the rest of the cast.
You may notice that Bendix and Ladd often worked together in films. They were best friends and neighbors.
Always interesting to see how Ladd's height is handled. Don't believe reports that he was 5'6" or 5'7". His nickname was Tiny when the average American male's height was 5'8".
Very good film, very absorbing.
Seven Sinners (1940)
Marlene makes the movie
Marlene Dietrich is drop-dead gorgeous as Bijou, an entertainer who keeps getting deported and depends on the kindness of men to fight over her, fight for her, and help her.
Now on the island of Boni Komba, Dietrich sings at the Seven Sinmers Cafe.
One of her suitors is tall, handsome John Wayne, just hitting it big after Stagecoach: another is very funny sailor Broderick Crawford, a doctor, Albert Dekker, Mischa Auer, and Oscar Homolka.
Delicately pretty Anna Lee - years later the elderly Lila Quartermaine on General Hospital - plays the daughter of the governor of the island.
Dietrich is at her most alluring in dynamite clothes and gowns, and her performances are delightful. She and Wayne have good chemistry.
Director Tay Garnett and crack photographer Rudy Mate capture the tropical atmosphere very well.
Entertaining.
Something Always Happens (1934)
Delightful
Ian Hunter stars in this British quota quickie, Something Always Happens from 1934, directed by none other than Michael Powell.
Hunter is Peter Middleton, a man down on his luck. He meets a street urchin (John Singer), and together they finagle room and board with a kindly landlady (Muriel George).
Looking to procure a foreign car for a millionaire, he meets a young woman, Cynthia (Nancy O'Neil) whom he assumes is also broke. In fact, her father owns a fleet of gas stations. When she learns he needs a job, she sends Peter to him without revealing her identity.
Cynthia's rather, Hatch, throws him out, but Peter gets the man's rival to agree to his money-making idea. Soon he's on top. He and Hatch are now rivals.
Very charming and entertaining British film.
F.B.I. Girl (1951)
A politician fears a crime will keep him from becoming elected
You want to talk about dated - the sight of people going through paper files of people's fingerprints - wow.
Something else dated - there was a time when someone planning to run for governor was concerned about an old murder he committed under another name being discovered when his fingerprints are run. I guess back then if you had a record, it would be difficult to be elected.
In order to keep his secret, the card with the fingerprints has to be stolen. Pressure is brought to bear on a man to make his sister steal the card.
Several murders follow.
Done in the semidocumentary style of the day, the film stars Cesar Romero, George Brent, Audrey Totter, and Raymond Burr.
One thing I noticed immediately- one of the members of a particularly awful TV act was none other than Hollywood Squares host Peter Marshall.
Cesar, Audrey, and George had seen better days as this was a strictly B movie. Raymond Burr was looking toward a bright future in television.
Always Goodbye (1938)
Little Black Sambo??
This is the book Barbara Stanwyck reads to the little boy in the movie. I actually had a copy of it. I only remember Sambo was black and there were a lot of pancakes.
The book was banned some time during my childhood for being racist. I just checked Amazon it's still out there - tons of different publications apparently somehow cleaned up.
I bring this up as a point of interest.
That out of the way, Always Goodbye stars Stanwyck, Herbert Marshall, Ian Hunter, and Lynn Bari.
Stanwyck plays a woman whose fiancé dies in an accident just as they are about to be married. She is pregnant at the time, and gives her child up.
Well, I don't have to tell you what happens.
Stanwick is lovely. Cesar Romero is annoying as a man who chases every woman he meets, and Lynn Bari is very uppity as the fiancé of the boy's adoptive father whose wife is deceased.
Stanwyck has played much stronger roles. I felt like this was a waste of her talent.
The child, Johnnie Russell, is still alive. He went into a he foreign service and at one point served as Ambassador to Oman.
This Thing Called Love (1940)
A platonic marriage
Rosalind Russell and Melvyn Douglas star in "This Thing Called Live" from 1940, also starring Bonnie Barnes, Allyn Joslyn, and Leo J. Cobb.
Russell plays Ann Winters, who writes for an insurance supplement. She wonders why, given the high cost of divorce, there is really nothing in place to prevent it.
Her idea is the couples should live together platonically for a period of time before actually committing to marriage. Since she has known her intended (Douglas) for a very short time, and he is dying to marry her, she manages to get him to accept this plan.
This is the 1940s, and I love the way they had to talk around everything. The movie has so many funny scenes, some slapstick, and some funny situations. The best is Douglas, trying to keep the fact that he has poison oak from Russell, and dancing as he scratches, telling her it's a new dance.
It's hard to miss with too such delightful talents. Russell, who could be tailored and efficient and tough, is very feminine and lovely here.
Highly enjoyable.
Lily in Love (1984)
How was this even possible
What were two tremendous actors, Christopher Plummer and Maggie Smith - two titans - thinking about when they agreed to make this film? Did someone offer them $1 million each?
Smith plays a screen writer married to an actor, and she has written a script and does not want him in the lead; she wants a younger actor. He disguises himself as an Italian actor, Roberto Terranova, and wins the lead in the movie. He spends the rest of his time being jealous as he sees his wife becoming attracted to Roberto.
This is absolutely ridiculous. I love both of them to the moon and back, but this premise just did not work.
This is an adaptation of the story The Guardsman, written in 1911 and done by Lunt and Fontaine in film in 1931.
I have seen Maggie Smith and so many character roles - she is truly beautiful in this, nice to see. He of course has always been stunning.
Arch of Triumph (1948)
Refugees in Paris pre-World War II
Arch of Triumph, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, is the story of refugees in Paris before World War II.
Charles Boyer is a refugee doctor, a man without a passport and living under an assumed name, Ravic. He wants to find and extract revenge from the Nazi torturer (Charles Laughton) who killed his lover.
Ravic meets and falls in love with a mysterious woman, Joan (Ingrid Bergman), but ultimately he is caught and deported. He leaves her with no hope of reconnecting. But he manages to get back into Paris, only to find she has moved on.
With a top cast and production values, rich in atmosphere and sad situations, this is a good but not great film.
Bergman and Boyer made this and the superior Gaslight together. One is distracted watching how the filmmakers covered up the height difference. Supposedly they were the same height, and Boyer wore lifts to seem taller. I doubt it - not the lifts but I suspect he was shorter and stood on boxes and raked floors.
She's absolutely gorgeous and very effective in her role. Handsome Boyer always had a way of being romantic but could have an air of detachment as well as invoking sympathy.
For me old films like this are always worth seeing.
Mystery of Marie Roget (1942)
Edgar Allen Poe mystery
Sadly I couldn't get into this.
The Mystery of Marie Roget is a Universal programmer starring Maria Montez, Patric Knowles, Lloyd Corrigan, and Maria Ouspenskaya.
Based on a true story that took place in the U. S., this Poe story is moved to France where Maria Montez goes missing, reappears, plans to kill her sister and then is murdered herself.
Lloyd Corrigan was very annoying. It didn't seem to me that Maria Montez had much to do. Not being that familiar with her, I expected more. I should know more about her. I was asked to do a TV interview about her at one point and read a book about her the night before. I guess most of it faded from memory. I do remember, she was married to Jean Pierre Aumont and died in the bathtub.
Nice atmosphere, though. And Patric Knowles is very likable.
The Saxon Charm (1948)
No charm there
Robert Montgomery stars as a ruthless producer, based on real-life producer Jed Harris, in That Saxon Charm from 1948.
First some trivia: Everyone loathed Jed Harris. Laurence Olivier based his physical appearance in Richard III on him. Allegedly Disney based the Big Bad Wolf's look on him. Who knows, but Richard III and the Wolf look alike.
John Payne portrays a playwright who becomes involved with Saxon (Montgomery), a very controlling individual who insists on rewrites and interrupting time with his wife Janet (Susan Hayward). Janet has already been warned about Saxon by his longtime girlfriend, portrayed by Audrey Totter. Meanwhile, as great a producer as he might have been, there are signs that he has lost his touch.
Nice, different performance by Susan Hayward as a loving wife, well played without the histrionics she was known for.
Many best friend worked for Elizabeth Montgomery's manager and knew her very well. I got the impression Saxon may not have been that much of a stretch.
Harry Morgan and Cara Williams, before they starred in Pete and Gladys, also appear.
Scandal: The Trial of Mary Astor (2018)
What a woman
Very good documentary on the struggle film star MaryAstor had after her husband got hold of her notorious diaries, and the two fought for custody of their daughter, Marylyn.
The daughter in question, Marylyn Roh, talks about her mother, as do Leonard Maltin, Molly Haskell, and others.
What emerges is the story of a strong woman under tremendous pressure, making a very big film at the same time she is supposed to appear at a trial to get custody of her daughter, and her willingness to give up her career if it meant, she could have her daughter back with her.
At one point, she goes to a department store and asks if she were looking for a job, would they hire her? They said they would be thrilled to hire her and would make them their European buyer. She then knew that she could continue the fight and have a way to take care of her child.
Asked by the top studio executives to settle the case, as they were sick of all the Hollywood scandals, she said no, it would have to play out, as she was in the fight for her child.
The beginning of Astor's life was very sad. She was a big star as a teenager, kept a virtual prisoner by her parents, and paid a very tiny allowance while they built a lavish home and lived a huge lifestyle. Her diary was the only outlet she had for her feelings.
I especially liked the description of the time, the 1930s, the novelty of a court case as compared to today, and how Mary's diaries and case knocked the Olympics off the front page of the newspapers.
As Haskell explained, people were not used to movie stars speaking as themselves. Everything they said in public was scripted. This made the diaries and the trial all the more interesting to the public.
Highly recommended. A fascinating woman, and if you aren't familiar with her films, you will want to become familiar after you see this documentary.
Washington Story (1952)
Washington in the '50s
Reporter Alice Kingsley (Patricia Neal) comes to Washington to do a story about the professional life of a congressman and is steered toward Congressman Gresham (Van Johnson) in Washington Story from 1952.
In actuality, Kingsley works for a tabloid, and she wants something juicy. Her attitude changes when he impresses her with his commitment and honesty.
Gresham is dealing with a problem- the constructive of a ship building facility, great for his constituents but with negative national implications. Voting against it will cost him the election.
Both Johnson and Neal are very good, Johnson with that great all-American boy presence and charm, and Neal, a wonderful actress with an earthy sexiness.
Entertaining and at least nowadays, total fiction.
In Person (1935)
Ginger is delightful
Beautiful, multitalented Ginger Rogers is -guess what - a beautiful and multitalented movie star in In Person from 1935, also starring George Brent.
After a nervous collapse, a popular film star, Carol Corliss, goes into hiding, donning an ugly duckling disguise. Her psychiatrist thinks time in a mountain cabin will do her good, and asks a outdoorsman (Brent) to accompany her.
At first he doesn't know who she is, but he discovers her identity soon enough.
Then her frequent costar (Alan Mowbray) shows up, declaring his love and wanting her to return to Hollywood.
Pleasant enough, but Ginger's singing and dancing really are the highlights. She and Brent have good chemistry.
The Pretender (1947)
Paranoia
Another W. Lee Wilder special. This one a study in paranoia.
Albert Dekker plays Ken Holden, the trustee of a woman's estate. He's robbing it blind, so like any good trustee he attempts to convince the heiress, Claire, to marry him. But she's in love with someone else.
Decker then does what any trustee would do, he has a hit put out on the fiancé. However, Claire breaks off the engagement and elopes with Kenneth.
Kenneth attempts to cancel the hit which is now on himself, but the thug who made the arrangements dies.
Holden spends the rest of the movie terrified, refusing to eat food that is served to him, instead hoarding food he has purchased and eating it in his room. His life becomes so concerned that she calls in her old fiancé, who is a doctor, played by Charles Drake.
People talk about the twist ending in the last W Lee Wilder film I saw, which I had figured out, either because it was an old plot or I had seen the movie before. In this case, I figured it out also. So there really wasn't any twist for me here either.
As the point of trivia, W Lee Wilder is the brother of our very own Billy.
Time Cut (2024)
A teen goes back to 2003
I kind of enjoyed this. It's a teen time travel movie.
On the 21st anniversary of the murder of a sister she never knew, a young woman, Lucy (Madison Bailey) accidentally winds up back on the date of her sister's (Antonia Gentry) death. Her death was at the hands of a serial killer, and there were other casualties. The murders were never solved, and the tragedy has hung over the town. In Lucy's case, her parents are overprotective and she is afraid she is going to miss out. I don't important internship as a result.
The big question all these time travelers have to ask: what happens if they change the future? The question is especially gripping here: If she saves her sister, would her grieving parents ever have had another child - namely, her?
Not without holes, and particular involving one character, but it's enjoyable. You can't really ask for a realistic time travel movie. We haven't figured out how to do it yet.