Reviews

Lots of interesting visuals in this adaptation of Frank Herbert's famous sci-fi novel Dune. This epic sweeping sci-fi tale is given lots of importance for its fans including some big star power including Christopher Walken, Stellen Skarsgård, Javier Braden, Josh Brolin, Dave Bautista, Austin Butler, Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, and Florence Pugh.

Part two picks up where part one left off, joining Paul Atreides and his mother who are now imbedded with the Freman people and helping with their battle to stop the spice harvest and the control of the Harkonnen Family. We learn that the death of the Atreides family line was planned by the Emperor and with the death of Paul, Princess Irulan is set to marry Feyd-Rautha, who is set to take over Arrakis and it's spice trade from Beast Rabban, who has allowed a legendary leader of the Freman (Muad'Dib) to disrupt their lucrative spice trade with his rebel followers. Meanwhile, Paul isn't really dead and his mother has become "Reverend Mother" and she uses her power and influence to spread the belief that Paul is this mystical leader that the Freman have been waiting for to lead them to paradise...and she reveals a secret of her own to Paul.

"Power over spice is power over all!"

I liked the slow, quiet pacing of the film. I enjoyed some of the visuals, but at times I grew weary of the use of CGI. I confess that I am not the target audience for this film...my husband however is. As a fan of the novel, even he said he didn't really get anything new out of this film. Maybe it was better left in the format of a novel? I do like to support my local Pacific Northwesterners however...so, I am going to give this film as high a rating as I am able strictly in support of Frank Herbert...go read the book.

This is one of those kid movies with a young boy as the main character. David Gardner thinks he sees a ufo land near his house one night. His parents think that he just has an active imagination, but his dad promises to go check it out. Then the next morning his father has an injury to the back of his neck and is acting weird. Then he takes the mom to go look and she starts acting weird...also with a wound on her neck...then a teacher at school, the police, and a classmate. It seems aliens are taking over his town, when a sympathetic school nurse finally listens and believes his story they get the general at the local military base to step in and help.

I think kids, particularly boys might enjoy this film...but as an adult there wasn't much to recommend it.

This is film noir spoof that allegedly had the writers (Truman Capote) and director staying up all night to write the next day's scene. In the end that became obvious as it kind of falls apart a bit when they hit the shores of Africa. But comedy it is with Jennifer Jones playing a kooky blond Brit whose only real feature is the whopper of a story she can tell...truth is really not her thing and it leads to a group of six "business men" who are stranded in Italy with her and her husband to start mistrusting each other....well that and a murder of an associate back in London.

"I like to know who's making friends with my friends."

The cast is great but their chemistry always makes it seem like they are about to spin out into crazy town. The setting is predominantly this lovely coastal town in Italy. My favorite scenes are actually around a car that ends up pushed into the sea and a misunderstanding of two of our characters being dead.

I understand Bogart was in a car accident during the filming which caused some of his lines to need to be dubbed by none other than Peter Sellers! Excellent foreign backdrop and shifty foreign characters...by Jennifer Jones and Edward Underdown really take the cake as Mr and Mrs. Harry Chelm.

"You mean Mrs. Check is an unqualified liar?" "Well, let's say she used her imagination rather than her memory."

This probably should be on every classic film fan and noir fans list to see at least once. Definitely a recommendation for that.

This is an adorable coming of age story starring Shirley Temple as the Irish American Miss Annie Rooney. Having lost her mother, Annie lives with her father the dreamer Tim (William Gargan) and her retired police officer grandfather Grandpa Rooney, played by the always fabulous Guy Kibbee.

While on the way to a friends house for a get together and jitterbug dance party she and her friend Joey (Roland Dupree) run into Marty White (Dickie Moore). Marty is from a different social bracket, but seems to become instantly smitten with Annie. Not only does Annie teach him to jitterbug, but she speaks to him of Romeo and Juliet. It's not long before Marty sends her red roses and asks her to his birthday party, which creates all sorts of financial issues for Annie's family as her father has just become unemployed.

This is one of those feel good movies where everything works out...and it is notable as Shirley Temple's first on screen kiss. I hadn't really seen a picture of her in the throws of growing up and she is just as adorable as when she was pint sized. The dancing is a real highlight for me as a dancer and fun to watch. I also got a kick out of the slang and the adults attempts to catch on to the contemporary lingo. Just a fun film that I recommend to classic film fans.

"May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows your dead."-Grandpa Rooney.

This was a screw ball comedy set within an American Army base with a hospital where the female nurses outrank the enlisted men, which plays havoc on the dating opportunities. Our hero, Private Hogan (Jack Lemmon), has an idea. He approaches a local French business woman and they strike a deal...if he and his men repair her establishment to its pre-war state, they can throw a ball for the service men and nurses there.

This becomes a crazy event where everyone is pulling together to make it happen under the radar of Captain Paul Lock (Ernie Kovacs) and then counter to Colonel Rousch's (Arthur O'Connell) plan to have his own nightclub up and running for a visit from his brother.

Lots of the usual running around by Jack Lemon and an odd romance with nurse Lt. Betty Bixby (Kathryn Grant). It was fun to see Dick York as young Corporal Bohun and the best appearance was the high energy quirky jive talking Mickey Rooney as Master Sergeant Yancy Skibo, who really pulls through for the gang in the end.

And then there is the ball, which besides Mickey Rooney is the best part of this film.

I have seen better films by all of these comedic actors, especially Jack Lemmon, which keeps this off my recommendation list unless you are collecting post WWII comedies. For me it is in the didn't hate it, but didn't love it category.

Pretty straightforward romantic comedy from the 1950's starring the wonderful Claudette Colbert and the new to me Macdonald Carey. They play Miriam and Hugh Halsworth who are in the process of getting a divorce. Miriam is still living in the family's home with their daughter, son-in-law and new born granddaughter. I was delighted to see Robert Wagner as the son-in-law who played off Barbara Bates who played his young wife. Another delightful surprise is the young Marilyn Monroe, who plays a bit part as a side character...I feel like she was under used in this film as a distraction.

A large part of the comedy is around Hugh constantly showing up uninvited to the family home...and his concern over his garden roses that at one point he shows up at night to move! Their divorce is proceeding when their high school friend and Miriam's former boyfriend shows up wanting to pursue her again...this reveals an ancient secret around some dice used to win Miriam.

Claudette Colbert is the best part of this film and if you are a fan you just get it. Cute and fun, I think fans of early 50's romantic comedies will enjoy this. The one downside is the whole divorce storyline. I hate the normalization of divorce that I see in this film.

I watched this film under the title "Indiscretion of an American Wife", which was a highly descriptive and appropriate title. In the opening credits, the dialogue was credited to Truman Capote, the clothing to Chanel and the direction Vittorio De Sica...giving me very high hopes of this film based on the story "Terminal Station" by Cesarean Zavattini.

I feel like I was let down by the story and the two main actors, Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift. Yes, she is lovely but her performance was completely flat as was Montgomery Clift's. The story is of an American woman who visited her sister in Rome without her husband and daughter. She meets a young man who just graduated from college and the two have an affair. The story picks up when Mary is supposed to meet Giovanni but instead bails and runs to the train station calling her sister to bring her things in order for her to run away home. Giovanni looks for Mary and ends up finding her at the train station after calling her sister. At fist he is angry that she would leave and not saying goodbye to him, he desperately talks about their future that he envisioned and at one point he even slaps her. Eventually after parting and then Giovanni almost getting run over by a train in his desperation to get to Mary, the two get caught making love in an empty car. The are taken before the commissioner because the act was illegal...all of which is very tame by today's standards, but highly inappropriate and illegal at the time.

The story, dialogue and acting are not enough for me to recommend the film...but what I did enjoy and why you might watch the film is for the train station itself. Filmed almost entirely in the real Stazione Termini in Rome, the most interesting part of the film is actually the station and it's occupants. The occupants were everything from nuns, to families, to a whole passel of deaf orphans traveling with two massive carts full of mattresses...and none of this is explained, like was a deaf orphanage moving via the train? Most interesting part and the only reason to watch this otherwise lackluster film...oh and the Chanel costumes...Jennifer Jones wears one trading suit and it is not much to write home about.

I thoroughly enjoyed Bodkin and highly recommend it to mystery fans who like small town mysteries with quirky characters.

This was so much fun...it starts with an American podcaster named Gilbert Power, who is played endearingly by the funny Will Forte. He had success in his first podcast season solving a cold case. The key to his success was really the fact that he opened up emotionally and shared what he and his dying wife were going through. Since the first season his podcast has struggled, but he is on a trip sponsored by a British newspaper to look into a missing person's case in the small Irish town of Bodkin. To accompany him on this trip is a Pollyanna-like young assistant named Emmy (Robyn Cara) and a dour investigative journalist named Dove Maloney (Siobhán Cullen). Dove wants to be anywhere but playing sidekick to a fake journalist like the podcaster Gilbert.

The beauty of this small town mystery is all the quirky characters...like their driver Seán, who thinks he is an Albanian orphan adopted by his single mom and as such listens to Albanian rap music, Seamus who may or may not be a smuggler, Teddy who sings like an angel and is an amazing blacksmith...but has suffered a brain trauma, Maeve and Frank who live like hippies...or their own version of it "Peace, Love, and Pay your xxx debts.", a nun named Mother Bernadette who is running a nunnery that is more like a spa/yoga retreat, then there is the local boy Fintan who made big with his server farm etc and now is back home wanting to reinstate the town's Samhain...then there is the thespian undertaker...the list just goes on and on.

The town hasn't celebrated Samhain since three locals went missing twenty years prior on that night. This is the mystery that our gang of three is looking into. The podcasting element was entertaining, especially since they poke fun of it and it's popularity. The mystery was actually decent and I loved the twists and turns. The one character I found difficult to watch was Dove, her ends justifies the mean's attitude was really tiring and frankly watching her be downright cruel to people was not entertaining. The reverse was true about Seamus and his kind treatment of Gilbert especially over his troubles with his wife...which was surprisingly tender and heartfelt.

The comedy was great and we found ourselves laughing out loud...the mystery however is what really kept us involved till the very end. I loved seeing everything come together. I was able to solve parts of the mystery before they were revealed, but it didn't hamper my enjoyment.

"In Venice we say every house is haunted or cursed."

This film is visually stunning. The Venice backdrop is spectacular and the vintage sets and clothing really make this Poirot film for me. Based on the Agatha Christie book Hallowe'en Party. The story follows Poirot to a Halloween Party where a seance is performed by a medium (Joyce Reynolds-played by Michelle Yeoh) that his friend and author Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) wants him to discredit.

"I didn't ask to be what I am. Why I like the term "medium", sorry if middling. I'm not big or small. I'm not interesting at all."-Joyce Renolds, Medium

The cast was filled out with some other phenomenal actors like Jamie Dornan, Fernando Piloni, Kelly Reilly and child actor Jude Hill.

I think there are some overly harsh critiques of these Poirot films being done by Kenneth Branagh. I, for one, am loving them. I love the great actors being used. I love the beautiful period costumes. I love the exotic sets...and most of all I appreciate keeping Agatha Christie's great writing alive. (This includes presenting it to a new audience.)

The seance is to talk with a dead young woman who committed suicide, or did she? Assembled for the seance besides Poirot and the authoress are the young woman's mother, her doctor, her ex Fiance, and her nanny. Poirot manages to reveal hidden secrets thru the night as more deaths occur. I think mystery fans will really enjoy this film and I for one can't wait for more.

This film is a hilarious slapstick whose stars Barbara Streisand and Ryan O'Neal have amazing chemistry together. San Francisco is shown off beautifully particularly in an uproarious car chase that involves a "just married" VW bug driving into a Chinese parade dragon and eventually off a ferry pier. Barbara Streisand's character Judy Maxwell is a kooky fast talking college student who keeps getting kicked out of colleges for a variety of reasons. One thing leads to another and she inserts herself between Howard Bannister (O'Neal) and his fiancé Eunice Burns (Madeline Kahn) who are in town to secure Howard an endowment for his research...which involve rocks that he has in the same traveling bag that Judy has...as does a wealthy fellow hotel guest who is storing her diamonds in hers, and then there is a government official after a fourth identical bag with top secret files inside.

The switching of the bags is a big part of the film and it happens with such regularity that in the end I had no idea who had which bag! Judy is the other major source of comedy...she sneaks her way into things and seems to be the quirkiest of con artists, but the scene with the judge is my favorite scene of the film and it is the hilarious icing on this comedy cake.

I highly recommend this film to fans of screwball comedies. It took me by surprise and I loved it.

This ended up being a sweet comedy of a mother and son. I appreciated it more than I expected to. Barbara Streisand plays Joyce Brewster, the aging mother to Andrew Brewster (Seth Rogan), a biochemist who came up with a revolutionary cleaning product that is not only safe for the environment but made from food grade products like coconut and palm oil. He has a plan to shop his product to the likes of Kmart, Costco, and QVC in a cross-country road-trip. Unfortunately, his sales pitch is not garnering the sales he had hoped for. His trip begins with a visit to his mother's apartment in New Jersey.

His mom, Joyce, has been a widow since her son was eight or so and never dated since. It gave her plenty of time to be the stereotypical smothering Yiddish mom to her little boy Andy. While her son is visiting she shares that she was in a relationship when she met Andy's father and that when Andy's father proposed...she used that proposal to pressure on her other beau...Andrew. She was told you should name your child after someone you love very much...hence she named her son Andrew.

Andy gets it in his head to find his namesake for his mom and discovers that he is alive, unmarried and living in San Francisco...so he invites his mom along on his road trip. Joyce is thrilled to get to spend some time with her son...and as she said the most exciting place she has ever been is Florida.

Hot flashes, eating contests, fights, hotel shampoo, etc the comedy is there, but the joy in the film is the real relationship that is built between mother and son. I enjoyed this road trip more than I expected. In the end the two help each other and it is beautiful. There are some great actors that pop up along the way...but I recommend the film for Streisand and Rogan. They are great!

I really love Jerry O'Connell and this was watching just for him, but there was a surprising amount of star power on screen starting with Sam Elliot and Ricky Jay. Jerry plays the 17 year old Mac who is working for and idolizes his boss Bill Bell (Sam Elliot) and as fond as he is of Bill he dislikes the cook played by Ricky Jay equally if not more. Mac is spending the summer working in the mountains for the forestry services dynamiting and clearing a path. In the evenings he plays cards with Bill, who has a little trouble counting. In fact he has had so much trouble the card sharks in the local town have managed to clean him out constantly. This year for the of the season Bill has devised a plan to get even...and it involves the cook who is actually a professional card player.

The three best parts of this film are first Jerry O'Connell, second the amazing card handling and tricks, and third the beautiful mountains which I understand are my own Pacific Northwest mountains...gorgeous as always.

Told in a journal like manner, in the end it is a kind of coming of age as Mac will be 18 the next summer and everything will change. Sweet and family friendly, I think this is a fun "western" film for young boys.

I am not a big James Cagney fan and this is often reported to be one of his best films, with the final quote "I'm on top of the world, Ma!" re-quoted frequently.

I am a fan of film noir in general and what I did really appreciate about this film is not the violent gangster with mama's boy issues, but the techniques used by the undercover police officer starting with reviewing files on all of the prisoners before he goes undercover into the jail to determine if there is anyone who might recognize him...to the gas station mirror message.

The story is about a notorious and violent criminal with mama issues named Cody Jarret who initially robs a train with his gang, when the heat gets too high in California, he takes the fall for a small crime in another state. Then he breaks out of prison and assembles a gang to pull off a payroll heist at a petroleum plant.

There is some wonderful gangster and gangster mol acting in this film. Virginia Mayo who plays Cagney's wife Verna Jarrett, does an excellent job being particularly despicable...as does Ma Jarrett.

One complaint I have is that these crippling headaches come on as quickly as they leave in a very unrealistic manner.

This should be on Film Noir Aficionados "must see list", so it is a recommendation even though I will probably never watch it again.

Beautifully told story, based on the 1975 James Clavell novel with the same name, of feudal Japan. The story is told from the perspective of an Englishman who is shipwrecked and taken hostage. After watching a fellow shipmate be boiled alive, John Blackthorne becomes the fastest talking man on the ship. He also slowly endears himself to Lord Toranaga, who seems to be in a battle for power that he doesn't really want. He assigns a married woman named Mariko to be a translator for the smelly white barbarian they call Anjin.

Visually stunning, this story is about honor, sacrifice, loyalty, betrayal, the quest for power, survival, and strategy. It is almost like a beautiful game of chess, where pieces are sacrificed for the ultimate goal.

I think the series is worth watching for the production quality alone. It really is stunning. I appreciate that things aren't overly explained like the role of Christianity, and specifically the Catholic Church in Japan...as well as the animosity between the non-Catholic and Catholic Christians. This and so many other cultural differences are shown or alluded to in quiet or more subtle ways. This is not the most romantic of stories, but I think people who appreciate strategy and high production quality...as well as fans of Shogun itself, will enjoy this series and it is a recommendation from me.

I enjoyed this comedy more than I expected and that is in large part because of Alan Arkin who plays a straight laced dentist until he is roped in to Peter Faulk's character's crazy life. Dr. Sheldon Kornpett (Arkin) meets Vince Ricardo (Faulk) at his own house for a dinner with his soon to be in-laws. His daughter is marrying Ricardo's son. The always absent Vince seems odd and Sheldon tries to talk his daughter out of marrying his son Tommy. But when Vince shows up at Sheldon's dental practice asking him for a favor this is when the real hilarity ensues...the two end up on one of the strangest trips to South America with American treasury plates. Vince is claiming he is with the CIA...

"The key is not to get killed, that's the key to the (CIA) benefit program."-Vince

There is some surprisingly wonderful comedic acting in this film from not only the leads Peter Faulk and Alan Arkin, but Richard Libertini who plays a Venezuelan general and Ed Begley Jr who plays a CIA operative. It is worth watching and it will have you with high comedic energy all the way thru the eventual wedding. This is a recommendation to fans of comedy and Alan Arkin... I think you will be pleasantly surprised as was I.

I hope they make more of these because I thoroughly enjoyed watching both Holland Roden and Chris McNally. They were fun and funny, had great chemistry and enjoyable teasing banter. Holland Roden plays an efficient and fast-talking hotel concierge by day and a newspaper tipline operator by night named Maddie. Maddie is enthralled by the local crime and she listens to an app that has an algorithm that compiles all of the local crimes for her. Chris McNally is the newly promoted to detective Detroit police officer Beeks. These two meet when Maddie brings in the cryptic phone call about a planned jewelry heist. With little to no details, it is hard for Beeks to take Maddie seriously. When a jewelry store is actually robbed and a murder occurs, Maddie sets about doing her own investigation...which is somewhat thwarted by Beeks until his boss has then working together thanks to some good instincts on Maddie's part.

This sets up a great partnership and I loved the banter..."detective pawesome" and all. The mystery was decent and I enjoyed the supporting actors...particularly the Captain Nyland (Jill Teed) and the tech savvy Ethan (Riley Davis).

I enjoy Hallmark mysteries with Hannah Swensen's Murder She Baked, Aurora Teagarden Mysteries (the original), and Mystery 101 being my favorites. This is the first one that has given me promise in a long while. This is a strong recommendation from me to Hallmark mystery fans and I am really eager to see more.

Peter Lorre plays a naive, hopeful immigrant named Janos Szabo, who arrives to New York ready to work hard to earn money and bring his sweetheart to America to live the American Dream. A kind police officer named Jim O'Hara helps him find a cheap place to live and an opportunity to earn some money as a dishwasher. Unfortunately, the cheap apartment building burns down and a falling beam causes him to be trapped and badly burned. Janos survives but is horribly disfigured in the face. Because of this not only will no one employ him, but people generally cringe away or scream when they see him. After writing a letter back home to his sweetheart telling her to move on and not wait for him, Janos prepares to take his own life which is interrupted by a stranger and a thief named Dinky. Dinky kind of takes Janos under his wing and shows him kindness. Originally Janos is reluctant to steal, but eventually turns larcenous when he discovers that there may be a surgery that could fix his appearance...but it is very expensive. Even the temporary mask that they make for him is very expensive.

Janos is very clever and when he turns his hat to the life, he and Dinky's gang become very successful. So successful that the police are being turned in knots, including his former friend Lt. Jim O'Hara who has been put in charge of bringing this mysterious gang to justice. It's around this time that Janos quite literally bumps into a sweet blind woman named Helen. The two strike up first a friendship and then a romance.

Just when you think Janos' American dream is about to get back on track...things go horribly awry.

This was an interesting character study and noir that should be on all film noir fan's list. Peter Lorre puts on a tour de force as Janos and really engages the viewer in his character's plight. Enjoyable and a recommendation from me. It was a great story tool to have him meet a lovely blind woman.

Ava Gardner (Mary) is lovely in this film as she returns home to her small whistle stop town broke but still stirring up trouble between her two former beaus...the debonair club owning Lew Lentz (Tom Conway) and the two-bit loafing gambler Kenny Veech (George Raft). Thanks to some expensive gifts the sparks fly between Kenny and Mary. Sparks also fly between Lew and Kenny as the two compete for Mary's affections in the darkest love triangle I have seen in awhile. These three don't have a monopoly on jealousy either there is also a local waitress named Fran played by the lovely Jorja Curtright.

There is a lovely record "once again" thrown in to tug on the heartstrings as Mary and Kenny are forced to cohabit with their conbined families in Mary's house that she is in town to sell. Ava never looked lovelier than she does with her hair brushed out in her white satin dressing gown.

"There are some things a guy don't give up on without a fight."-Kenny

Passionate kisses and jealous fights abound in this noir that has a town Fair and an interesting murder with a frame-up. Worthwhile and a recommendation from me for noir fans...and fans of Ava Gardner.

Starving depression era artist Eben Adams meets a young enigmatic girl named Jennie skating in the park. He continues to have encounters with this young lady as she grows up. Jennie even asks him to wait for her, because she plans to marry him when she grows up. This hauntingly lovely girl becomes the painter's muse and he not only begins to make money selling his paintings but paints a lovely portrait of Jennie...giving the film it's title.

"I know we were meant to be together. The strands of our lives are woven together and neither the world nor time can tear them apart."-Jennie

Based on a book by Robert Nathan, this is an imaginatively creative story. I think romantics and classic film fans will adore this story in large part due to Jennifer Jones who plays Jennie Appleton. Joseph Cotton is good and surprisingly believable as the artist Eben, but Jennifer Jones is great as this breezy dreamy kid. The other actor that was a real stand out for me was Ethel Barrymore as the ever understanding and romantic spinster art dealer Miss Spinney. Strong recommendation from me...this is a film whose uniqueness should put it on every classic film fans "must watch" list. It is a romantic fantasy, but really is in kind of a category all it's own.

This is an interesting noir that is told in two time frames which are connected only by a handful of characters at the center of which is Martha Ivers, Sam Masterson, and Walter O'Neil. Martha is an orphan taken in by her cruel, severe, and wealthy aunt as a child. She is determined to run away but gets caught on her first attempt. In a fit of rage after her aunt kills her beloved cat, Martha pushes her aunt who subsequently falls down the stairs to her death. Her friend, son of her aunt's lawyer, Walter sees what happened but helps Martha tell a lie that the aunt fell on her own.

Fast forward to current times when a grown Sam Masterson gets a flat tire just outside of town and is forced to set foot in the childhood home that he ran away from all those years ago on the fateful night that Martha killed her aunt. Walter O'Neil is now in public office and married to Martha who has grown her aunt's substantial wealth tremendously. This becomes a meet up of childhood friends...only Walter and Martha both believe Sam is in town not by pure coincidence, or to catch up...but to extort them for money because they think he knows the truth. This begins a strange dance between the three former friends. Enter into the mix a recently paroled young lady played by Lizabeth Scott named Toni.

This is a bigger production than most film noirs...but a noir it is. It still has gritty characters, a great mol, and exceptional noir cinematography. Barbara Stanwyck is one of my favorite actresses, but her role in this film is really smaller than I expected. It is really Van Heflin's film. Kirk Douglas gets something in the middle as far as screen time goes as Walter O'Neil...but again it is Van Heflin's show and his chemistry with Lizabeth Scott sizzles.

This is a recommendation from me for film noir fans.

Nine year old Tommy is played wonderfully by the child star Bobby Driscoll. At the start of this film he is a lively, exuberant child playing with his neighborhood friends in an abandoned and boarded up building in their New York neighborhood. Tommy's imaginative storytelling becomes infamous enough that when he sees their upstairs neighbors murder a man, no one believes him...not his loving mother played by the lovely Barbara Hale nor his night shift working father played by Arthur Kennedy. The tension ramps up at every turn as Tommy is desperate to convince everyone of the truth and then as he is scared and trying to avoid the neighbors who he knows to be murderers!

This is an amazingly well acted and filmed noir thriller that I highly recommend to film noir fans. The cinematography and New York City scenes make this particularly worth the watch. Paul Stewart and Ruth Roman play the scheming and murderous neighbors. The story is told from Tommy's perspective which only adds to the tension and fear you experience as you follow Tommy desperate to do the right thing. My favorite line is when Tommy confirms with his mom that his Dad doesn't want him to tell a lie and then tells her that he can't say what she wants...because that would be a lie.

"You're as beautiful as ever, my dear, it just takes longer now."- Eduardo Acuña

This musical romantic comedy is packed with talent beyond Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire. It stars the incomparable Adolphe Menjou, Isobel Elsom, Gus Schilling, Leslie Brooks, Adele Mara, Barbara Brown and the amazing music of Xavier Cugat. The music was written by the team of Jerome Kern and my favorite lyricist Johnny Mercer. There are multiple numbers that will have you tapping your toes as well as the sweetly and sweepingly romantic number "I'm Old Fashioned", danced and sung by our two stars. (Well, Rita's part is dubbed by Nan Wynn.) I didn't know Rita Hayworth could dance...so this was a revelation to me. Apparently not only can she dance but she was born into a family of famous dancers, the Cansinos. The first pairing with Fred Astaire in the film You'll Never Get Rich is in fact what made her a star and Fred Astaire will go on to say that Rita Hayworth was his favorite on-screen dancing partner. He also dubbed her the first natural dancer he worked with since his sister.

The story follows New York's darling dancer Robert Davis (Fred Astaire) as he takes a vacation in Buenos Aires where he looses his money gambling at the horse track and tries to get a job with Eduardo Acuña at his hotel. The first obstacle is that he can't even get Mr. Acuña to see him because he is busy with one of his daughters' wedding. Robert does however run into a friend of his, the orchestra leader Xavier Cugat, who agrees to help him win over Acuña. This ends up being an utter failure and ends in an angry and somewhat forced audition in Acuña's office. Then there is Acuña's next oldest daughter who must marry before the younger two, Maria Acuña played by Rita Hayworth. Mr. Acuña comes up with an idea to send romantic notes to his daughter from an anonymous suitor who she, mistakes for Robert Davis. Thus leads to a great misunderstanding as these two eventually fall in love.

A large portion of the comedy is provided by the actor Gus Schilling, who plays Acuña's much abused secretary and nephew Fernando. The sets are lush and lavish as are the costumes...my personal favorite is Rita's white lace dress for the final scene. I really enjoyed some of the international costumes worn during a costume or "fancy dress" party thrown for the Acuña's anniversary.

Lovely musical that I had never heard of or seen and I highly recommend it to both musical fans and classic film fans alike. Rita was refreshing in this role and I thoroughly enjoyed her dancing!

I am able to separate now from then, and in doing so appreciated this film for the comedy it is. Dick Van Dyk plays Claude R. Fitzwilliam aka Fitzwilly, the beloved butler to a true New York blue blood the elderly Victoria Woodworth. The problem is "Miss Vicki" has gone through her inheritance from her father long ago and Fitzwilly, with the help of the rest of the staff, is pulling off some very creative cons in order to keep her in the life she is accustomed to...including covering all of her random donations to charities that tend to be very generous.

The staff has quite a few elaborate scams being directed by Fitzwilly, most of which involve robbing the rich or the large department store Gimbal's. I am not sure that I approve of the cons...I appreciate the sentiment of wanting to protect a sweet old lady, but I do not approve of stealing from others so this one oblivious uber-rich lady can continue to live a lavish lifestyle.

The comedy really involves all of the balls that Fitzwilly is juggling to keep all of these cons in play. Loaded with wild shenanigans the cast is what truly makes this film. There are so many wonderful comedic and character actors...John McGiver, Norman Fell, a young Sam Waterson...and the list goes on. Edith Evan's is a true scene stealer as Miss Vicki, she makes it hard not to absolutely be charmed by her.

This crazy scheme comes under threat when Miss Vicki hires an outsider played by Barbara Feldon, to be her secretary and help her write her dictionary for people who can't spell. Juliet requires some interesting handling, but eventually becomes wise to the scams going on around her.

I think fans of Dick Van Dyke will love this film and if taken not too seriously it is a hoot, slapstick at it's finest.

I kept waiting and waiting for Orson Wells to show up...which he doesn't do till the last third of this film, which means you spend a lot of time with these two young college students Artie Strauss and Judd Steiner. They set up their dynamic with Judd being intellectually arrogant, but lacking in social skills and Artie being the more skilled social navigator and the dominant in their relationship. Both boys have a certain amount of arrogance and they lack any other friends. The two bond...kind of over their disdain for others and attempt the perfect crime a kidnapping and murder of of a local boy named Pauline Kessler. A fellow law student and scholarship classmate named Sid Brooks is the one who really throws a monkey wrench in their plans and makes a deduction that gets the two killers caught. Artie and Judd both come from extremely wealthy families...which may be part of the problem as they lack empathy for others. Their families eventually hire the famous lawyer Jonathan Wilk who makes a very compelling argument against the death penalty.

The film is a take on the real Leopold-Leob murder case from 1924 Chicago...they thought they had superior intellect which enabled and entitled them to carry out the perfect crime. Real life lawyer Clarence Darrow gave a 12 hour summation at the hearing primarily about capital punishment being retributive vs transformative. The two boys did go to prison life plus 99 years...Leob was murdered in prison by a fellow inmate, but Leopold was released on parole, went on to marry and become a teacher.

This is a sad and disturbing film that just left me feeling uneasy about mankind in general. I can recommend this as a watch for anyone interested in our legal system here in the United States...no matter what side you agree with. Unsettling.

I read the original trilogy of books and enjoyed them for what they were and also enjoyed the original films in the same light...but this film felt wholly unnecessary. It was unremarkable and didn't add anything to the story. This follows the son of a general from an aristocratic family in "the capitol" as he is assigned to mentor a tribute in the current games. We meet the game maker Dr. Gaul, who is probably the most interesting character in this film...in all of her vile evilness. She is played well by Viola Davis, who made quite the vivid and unsettling character in this highly forgettable film.

Not a recommendation from me...just stick to the original films.