Movies, Mom & Me

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction.
    This movie was selected by Roger Ebert as one of his Great Movies. In addition, there are several articles at his site written by other admirers of this once-in-Charles-Laughton's-lifetime directorial masterpiece, if you're interested. Just pull a search of the title at Roger Ebert's website.
    Curiously enough, it appears, on the surface, anyway, that this movie is the first Classic Film Noir in my collection! I'm so surprised by this that I will, later, be scouring my inventory over there to the left and comparing it to a list (or more) that I hope will give me an idea how many Classic Film Noirs I've collected. Maybe I just missed the category because I wasn't sure about its attributes! Then, again, it could be I'm not attracted to this genre. I know, for instance, that every time I run across Double Indemnity, which is definitely Classic Film Noir, I always reject the possibility of obtaining it, chiefly because I've seen it and it left little impression on me.
    So saying, following are some linked lists to get me started:
      List of film noir titles
      Film Noir - List of Film Titles
      Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era 1940-1959
      The 100 Best Film Noirs of All Time
    I perused one of these lists, the shortest and the last, and discovered that, in fact, there are more than a few films in my collection that "legitimately" (in quotation marks because of the unsettled nature of the "What Is Film Noir" debate) classify as Film Noir, which comes as a surprise to me. The introduction to the first list (from Wikipedia) above mentions the following: "Film noir is not a clearly defined genre ..." and with its first paragraph links to another Wikipedia article which provides a (long) definition of Film Noir, admitting, at the outset, that, "The questions of what defines film noir, and what sort of category it is, provoke continuing debate."
    So, it seems, it's not that I don't like or collect Film Noir, I am placed squarely in the middle of film enthusiasts the world over who aren't quite sure what Film Noir is! That's a relief, I guess.
    You'll notice, as well, that the two middle lists come from the same source, and contain many of the same movies, although the second is more complete. This is a reminder, for me, that the definition of Film Noir is far from settled.
    Anyway, I remain as always, hopeful, and expect to provide more information on this film and the subject of Film Noir and Me later. A film enthusiast's work, it seems, is never done.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Actor Name	Role Name	Actor Name	Role Name	Actor Name	Role Name	Actor Name	Role Name
  Robert Mitchum	Harry Powell	Shelley Winters	Willa Harper	Lillian Gish	Rachel Cooper	Billy Chapin	John Harper
  Sally Jane Bruce	Pearl Harper	James Gleason	Uncle Steptoe	Evelyn Varden	Icey Spoon	Don Beddoe	Walt Spoon
  Peter Graves	Ben Harper	Gloria Castillo	Ruby Cooper	Paul Bryar	Bart the Hangman	Alexander Campbell	The Judge

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1953
    Directed by Charles Laughton.

Labels: Criterion6, film-noir1

# posted by gail @ 10:04    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction.
    DVD Savant has written some articles on this movie, including about its restoration. I've connected a link to a search of his site in the title of this post, but, below, I've linked each article individually, by title:
      The Restoration of Kiss Me Deadly
      Kiss Me Deadly Savant Blu-ray Review
      DVD Savant Review - Kiss Me Deadly
      Kiss Me Deadly - DVD Savant finds a lost conclusion to a classic Film Noir
      DVD Savant - The Lost Conclusion to a Classic Film Noir FOUND
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Ralph Meeker	Mike Hammer	Albert Dekker	Dr. G.E. Soberin	Paul Stewart	Carl Evello	Juano Hernandez	Eddie Yeager
  Wesley Addy	Lt. Pat Murphy	Maxine Cooper	Velda Wakeman	Cloris Leachman	Christina Bailey	Gaby Rodgers	Lily Carver/Gabrielle

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1955
    Directed by Robert Aldrich.

Labels: Criterion5, film-noir1, melodramaD

# posted by gail @ 22:53    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Richard Widmark	Skip McCoy	Jean Peters	Candy	Thelma Ritter	Moe	Murvyn Vye	Cpt Dan Tiger
  Richard Kiley	Joey	Willis Bouchey	Zara	Milburn Stone	Minoki	Parley Baer	heavyset HQ Communist

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1953
    Directed by Samuel Fuller.

Labels: film-noir1, goflexB, melodramaC, thelma-ritter, thriller4

# posted by gail @ 17:10    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Edward G. Robinson	Prof Richard Wanley	Joan Bennett	Alice Reed	Raymond Massey	DA Frank Lalor	Edmund Breon	Dr. Michael Barkstane
  Dan Duryea	Doorman Heidt	Thomas E. Jackson	Inspector Jackson	Dorothy Peterson	Mrs. Wanley	Arthur Loft	Claude Mazard/Frank Howard/Charlie the Hat-Check Man

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1944
    Directed by Fritz Lang.

Labels: film-noir1, goflexC, melodramaA

# posted by gail @ 16:38    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction.
    If you have a "thing" for Barbara Stanwyck, and I do, you might want to check out the following two articles containing in depth critical consideration and praise for her body of work: Utterly Modern: The Charisma of Barbara Stanwyck by Nell Minowand Bow down to Babs by Jim Emerson.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Barbara Stanwyck	Martha Ivers	Van Heflin	Sam Masterson	Lizabeth Scott	Antonia Marachek	Kirk Douglas	Walter O'Neil
  Judith Anderson	Mrs. Ivers	Roman Bohnen	Mr. O'Neil	Darryl Hickman	Child Sam Masterson	Janis Wilson	Child Martha Ivers
  Ann Doran	Bobbi St. John	Frank Orth	Hotel Clerk	James Flavin	Detective 1	Mickey Kuhn	Child Walter O'Neil
  Charles D. Brown	McCarthy	Blake Edwards	Sailor	Robert Homans	Gallagher	Gladden James	John

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1946
    Directed by Lewis Milestone.

Labels: barbara-stanwyck, film-noir1, goflexB, kirk-douglas, melodramaB, van-heflin

# posted by gail @ 09:57    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Joan Fontaine	2nd Mrs. de Winter	Laurence Olivier	George Fortescue Maximilian de Winter	Judith Anderson	Mrs. Danvers	George Sanders	Jack Favell
  Reginald Denny	Frank Crawley	Gladys Cooper	Beatrice Lacy	C. Aubrey Smith	Colonel Julyan	Nigel Bruce	Mjr Giles Lacy

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1940
    Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Labels: §5, alfred-hitchcock, Criterion4, film-noir1, melodramaA, psychological2, thriller3

# posted by gail @ 08:20    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Another sacrilegious write-up. I found it interesting to follow, but so little of it stayed with me that I had to look up the story line to see if I'd even watched it. I couldn't remember a thing. I'm not a good audience for old thrillers, I guess.
    Having said that, it does have some significant actors in it, like, for instance Dorothy Malone, so I decided it needed more than an abbreviated Actor/Role table.
    In addition, this is one of the few Humphrey Bogart movies that Mom slavered over when we'd watch it on TV. Frankly, I think Lauren Bacall did it for her. I remember her once saying, "What in the world did she (Lauren Bacall) see in the likes of him (Humphrey Bogart)?!? Ah, the innocence of the audience!
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Humphrey Bogart	Philip Marlowe	Lauren Bacall	Vivian Sternwood Rutledge	John Ridgely	Eddie Mars	Martha Vickers	Carmen Sternwood
  Sonia Darrin	Agnes Lowzier	Dorothy Malone	Book Store Owner	Regis Toomey	Chief Inspector Bernie Ohls	Peggy Knudsen	Mona Mars

  
    Originally published in this journal on 081416.
    One of Roger Ebert's Great Movies.
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1946
    Directed by Howard Hawks.

Labels: film-noir1, melodramaB

# posted by gail @ 01:17    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  It is probably sacrilegious of me to admit this, but I shrugged this one off. Maybe, for me, it's too dated. I didn't find it exciting, or funny, or, frankly, much of anything, but I watched it all the way through because I felt obligated to the worship of it.
    As well, this edition is the remake of the story. The first was released in 1931. So, you know, it isn't like the story, and the filming of it, wasn't popular. Roger Ebert christened it one of his Great Movies (see the link in the title, above). It just isn't my cup of tea, I guess.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Humphrey Bogart	Sam Spade	Mary Astor	Ruth Wonderly/Brigid O'Shaughnessy	Gladys George	Iva Archer	Peter Lorre	Joel Cairo
  Barton MacLane	Lt. Dundy	Lee Patrick	Effie Perine	Sydney Greenstreet	Kasper Gutman	Ward Bond	Det. Tom Polhaus
  Jerome Cowan	Miles Archer	Elisha Cook Jr.	Wilmer Cook	James Burke	Luke	John Hamilton	D. A. Bryan

  
    Originally published in this journal on 081416.
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1941
    Directed by John Huston.

Labels: film-noir1, melodramaA

# posted by gail @ 00:52    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Under construction.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Burt Lancaster	Joe Collins	Hume Cronyn	Captain Munsey	Charles Bickford	Gallagher	Ann Blyth	Ruth

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1947
    Directed by Jules Dassin.

Labels: §3, burt-lancaster, Criterion4, film-noir1, hume-cronyn, melodramaB

# posted by gail @ 23:00    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  This is a hard driving movie in which, in one way or another, all the characters are smarmy except for the one primary female character who gets belted by everyone's smarm and deals with it by leaving the vicinity of the smarminess, while the viewer, me, of course, hails her endurance and her strength. I suspect, when this movie was made, the point of it was to highlight all this smarminess, but, viewing it over half a century after its release, it is Susan's endurance which stays with me. Her brother J.J., her brother's "henchman" Falco, they are all so much spoiled meat against Susan's incorruptibility.
    Roger Ebert, by the way, christened this as a Great Movie. I have mixed feelings about this designation. Certainly, the acting and directing qualify, but, I don't know, the story, hmmm, well, I'll have to think about it, maybe watch it again.
    Still under Construction.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Burt Lancaster	J. J. Hunsecker	Tony Curtis	Sidney Falco	Susan Harrison	Susan Hunsecker	Martin Milner	Steve Dallas

  
    Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
    Release Date: 1957
    Directed by Alexander Mackendrick.

Labels: burt-lancaster, Criterion3, dramaE, film-noir1, journalism, melodramaC

# posted by gail @ 14:29    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  This movie was originally listed in the post Movies I've Seen, Do Not Own but Can't Forget. It was the first movie listed. As of today, I own it. Although I'll write more once I've watched the movie as my property (which I expect to do tonight), in the meantime I want to append what I wrote when I was jonesing for this movie:
    I saw this movie, initially, with my mom, probably on TCM, since, during her life, we had a cable TV subscription. It's been over a decade since I've had access to TCM, but it hasn't been that long since I've seen this movie. It initially intrigued me because I have had dental problems all my life. As a non-dependent adult, some of those problems have been exacerbated because dental care is too expensive for me to afford. This is part of the initial reason why Henry Fonda's character in this movie ends up in a position to be mis-identified by the police. Although the rest of the movie is thoroughly engrossing, this minor fact is what drew me into watching this movie more than once. I was, frankly, gob-smacked that inability to afford dental care was a rampant problem in 1956! Everyone, in these days of rallying for Medicare for All, rants about the disgusting inequity of health care in the U.S. Why does no one, anywhere in the world, rant about the long-standing unaffordability of dental care?
    There. That's done. More later.
  Update 5/24/21:  After having watched this movie last night, start to finish, I'm not sure I ever watched it in its entirety before. I discovered that I didn't remember quite a bit of it.
    What a movie! The story is subtly told. Henry Fonda's performance is appropriately understated. For most of the movie he looks like Everyman in a Stupor, and that's not a dis, that's a high compliment, as, how else could one look as someone who is, indeed, "The Wrong Man"?!? Balestrero, as played by Fonda, when being confronted by this absurd accusation, never, ever looks like he finally "gets it". When he is pulled back into his normal life, as he is often throughout the film, he looks and acts and appears to think like a normal working guy with a wife and family. When he becomes The Wrongly Accused, he is perpetually dumbfounded. It is hard not to think that, if he had not had a normal, job-home-family life to consistently fall back into, he would have gone as crazy as his wife. The three main lighting contrasts, sharp-dark for the accusation scenes, brightly lit for the home and personal investigative scenes and a kind of anticipatory light gray for the courtroom and lawyer's office scenes, are revelatory in themselves. The scenes with his lawyer and in the courtroom are especially delicious because he is in a legal situation in which he has no way of helping himself, and this is dramatised beautifully.
    I have to say, after watching it last night I think, if I had watched the movie before, it was likely snippets, during my companionship with my mother, never beginning to end, as I experienced it last night. It's impossible not to feel the jaws of a trap not set for Balestrero closing around Balestrero's soul.
    I have to admit to some disbelief of Rose Balestrero's reaction, although, since it's the telling of a true story, I suppose her reaction and her subsequent predicament happened. Perhaps I was raised in the wrong era. I can not only not imagine myself reacting that way to my husband being wrongly accused and tried, I know no one for whom Rose Balestrero's behavior would emerge in any situation, let alone one like this. I wonder if that's one of the differences of women being raised in an environment that emphasizes domesticity versus my having been raised in an environment that emphasized women's full participation in society (despite the fact that this was only partially achieved).
    Wonderful production, astonishing story (which the epilogue makes clear is, in fact, a true story), well acted, well staged, well directed, well produced, well done! This may not be the scariest movie Hitchcock ever made (although I'm willing to bet that, for people who have been through similar circumstances, it might be, and, as well, it packs the extra punch of being true), but it's way up there. Bravo, Alfred!
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Henry Fonda	Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero	Vera Miles	Rose Balestrero	Anthony Quayle	Frank O'Connor	Harold J. Stone	Det. Lt. Bowers
  Charles Cooper	Det. Matthews	John Hildebrand	Tomasini	Esther Minciotti	Mama Balestrero	Doreen Lang	Ann James
  Laurinda Barrett	Constance Willis	Norma Connolly	Betty Todd	Nehemiah Persoff	Gene Conforti	Lola D'Annunzio	Olga Conforti
  Werner Klemperer	Dr. Bannay	Bonnie Franklin	Young Girl	Tuesday Weld	Giggly Girl	Harry Dean Stanton	Dept. of Corrections Employee

  
    Here's the Wikipedia write-up on the movie.
    Release Date: 1956
    Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Labels: alfred-hitchcock, drama1, film-noir1, harry-dean-stanton, henry-fonda, melodramaC, mystery1, nehemiah-persoff, psychological1, suspense1, thriller1, tuesday-weld

# posted by gail @ 13:17    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  What can I say? This is a Bette Davis movie, so it's a favorite of mine. It's a heart wrenching story of two musicians played by Paul Henreid and Claude Rains vying for the love of another musician (Davis), one of them doing it very badly with a sharp edge of jealousy, one of them doing it out of confusion and anger. The end leaves you wondering if either suitor deserved her, or if she deserved either of them. Great story. Very involving.
  Update 8/15/2021:  I could not end this post without leaving a link to Happy Birthday, Claude Rains: A Few Words about ‘Deception’, an article that well describes my own rapture over Claude Rains and that of his work I've seen. This article makes me want to search out more.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Bette Davis	Christine Radcliffe	Paul Heinreid	Karl Novak	Claude Rains	Alexander Hollenius	John Abbott	Bertram Gribble
  Benson Fong	Jimmy	Richard Erdman	Music Student	Einar Neilsen	Orchestra Conductor Neilsen	Jean De Briac	Maitre d' Andre

  
    The Wikipedia write-up on this movie is here.
    Release Date: 1946
    Directed by Irving Rapper.

Labels: bette-davis, claude-rains, drama1, film-noir1, melodramaB, romance1, tragedy1

# posted by gail @ 23:23    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  I didn't know anything about this film when I first checked it out for viewing. I was on a binge, at the time, of watching movies that were made the year I was born and this was one of them. I barely remember any of the other movies I found (not a lot; our county library system is a bit short of 1951 films, even though there were plenty made, according to this list, 1,744, to be exact). This was not the only 1951 movie Kirk Douglas made, and it's not the only 1951 movie I own, but it's a doozy.
    If you think the late 1960's through the early-to-mid 1970's had the bead on socially relevant movies, watch this one. The behavior depicted (brilliantly, in my estimation) in this film is so ubiquitous, now-a-days, not only by individual journalists (of which there are many Chuck Tatums) but by entire media corporations, that many don't even realize there is a problem ... until, that is, they watch this 68 year old movie. If you entertain, even a little bit, a healthy skepticism of today's media, you should treat yourself to this movie.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Kirk Douglas	Chuck Tatum	Jan Sterling	Kirk Douglas	Kirk Douglas	Herbie Cook	Porter Hall	Jacob Q. Boot
  Frank Cady	Mr. Federber	Richard Benedict	Leo Minosa	Ray Teal	Sheriff Kretzer	Lewis Martin	McCardle
  John Berkes	Papa Minosa	Frances Dominguez	Mama Minosa	Gene Evans	Deputy Sheriff	Frank Jaquet	Sam Smollett
  Harry Harvey Sr.	Dr. Hilton	Bob Bumpas	Radio Announcer	Richard Gaines	Nagel	Bert Moorhouse	Josh Morgan

  
    One of Roger Ebert's Great Movies.
    Here's the link to the Wikipedia write-up for this film.
    Release Date: 1951
    Directed by Billy Wilder.

Labels: birth-year, Criterion1, drama2, film-noir1, journalism, kirk-douglas, melodramaB, political1, psychological1, suspense1

# posted by gail @ 11:24    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  This is the movie for which I bought the four-pack mentioned in the immediately previous post. I love this movie. I love the ambience and the mystery. I love that Laura isn't seen until the end of the movie. I love that the mystery woman doesn't know she's a mystery woman. I love the lanky, devil-may-care attitude of the man for whom Laura has become a mystery. Of course, they do make them "like this, anymore", but, whenever I watch and fall in love with an "old" move like this, I am ever grateful for DVD (et al) technology.
    P. S.: With this movie, I am initiating the category "detective". Not sure why I never thought of categorizing by that, before. I'm sure I must have movies that would fit nicely into that category. I only thought of it because this movie, however mysterious it may be, has a somewhat gentler presentation than a standard "thriller" or "suspense", but is something more than a "mystery". The story of the effort to "detect" Laura is the whole story.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Gene Tierney	Laura Hunt	Dana Andrews	Mark McPherson	Clifton Webb	Waldo Lydecker	Vincent Price	Shelby Carpenter
  Judith Anderson	Ann Treadwell	Dorothy Adams	Bessie Clary	Ralph Dunn	Fred Callahan	Clyde Fillmore	Ad Agency Owner

  
    One of Roger Ebert's Great Movies.
    In case you're curious, here's a link to the Wikipedia article about this movie.
    Release Date: 1944
    Directed by Otto Preminger.

Labels: detective1, drama3, film-noir1, melodramaA, mystery1, romance1

# posted by gail @ 19:16    0 comments    email......this post

• 
  Commentary:  Of course I was bound to own this movie! I am, after all a self-respecting movie maven-of-sorts. And, of course, it is this version I chose to own. Ingrid Bergman; Angela Lansbury; Charles Boyer; Joseph Cotten. Are you kidding? Is there any other version?!?
    This movie is not only a pure delight of a thriller, for me, I love the way it's done. The planning of the contrasts between outside and inside, light and dark, expansive and claustrophobic, are, yes, thrilling for me to watch. Angela Lansbury is a delicious tart. Ingrid Bergman is a surprisingly unshrinking violet. Charles Boyer plays against type so well, it's hard to remember his performances as a romantic male lead.
    The main reason I thought to buy it recently is because of the current craze for using the word "gaslight" and its derivatives, especially in news and commentary. When I hear these young ones using it, I chuckle internally. I'm sure a majority of these earnest politicos have no idea of the term's derivation. In fact, when I watch this movie, I often think of my niece, who shares my love of movies (and is an actor) and I partly bought the movie so I would have it the next time she visits because, you know, she's of the generation of people who is tossing this term around and I have a sneaking suspicion she doesn't know where it comes from.
    To this day, an utter gem of a movie. And, yes, the site to which I linked the title of this post gives a review of both the 1940 and 1944 movies. Mine is the 1944 version with Ingrid Bergman, although I've wished to see the 1940 one, just out of curiosity.
    By the way, I've linked Bergman's name to an article featuring interviews of three people done for Roger Ebert's site in 2015.
    

  Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role	Actor	Role
  Charles Boyer	Gregory Anton/Sergis Bauer	Ingrid Bergman	Paula Alquist Anton	Joseph Cotton	Brian Cameron	Dame May Whitty	Bessie Thwaites
  Angela Lansbury	Nancy Oliver	Barbara Everest	Elizabeth Tompkins	Emil Rameau	Maestro Guardi	Edmund Breon	General Huddleston
  Halliwell Hobbes	Mr. Mufflin	Heather Thatcher	Lady Mildred Dalroy	Lawrence Grossmith	Lord Freddy Dalroy	Jakob Gimpel	Pianist

  
    As well, just in case, here's the Wikipedia write up to this particular film.
    Release Date: 1944
    Directed by George Cukor.

Labels: angela-lansbury, drama3, film-noir1, ingrid-bergman, melodramaA, mystery1, period1, suspense1, thriller1

# posted by gail @ 17:35    0 comments    email......this post