I Earned a Nomination!!

A big thank you to Movies, Silently,  an excellent blog that I like to read which explores silent films(did you know that Hopalong Cassidy was a silent film hunk before he was a cowboy hero to baby boomers?)  Movies, Silently has nominated me for the Super Sweet Bloggers Award!  I was very surprised and humbled to receive this nomination.  It’s a nice affirmation to know that other bloggers are reading your work and appreciating it.

There are 5 steps involved in accepting this Super Sweet Bloggers Award.  I need to post the  award on my blog, answer 5 questions about myself, thank the blogger who nominated me, nominate 13 (a baker’s dozen) bloggers that I read for the award, and also notify the 13 that I have nominated them.  On to my 5 questions!

1. Cookies or cake?  Cookies would be my choice, either with a glass of milk, a cup of coffee, or a cup of tea.

2. Chocolate or Vanilla?  Chocolate, of course!

US Military ad praising Chocolate!

3. Favorite Sweet Treat?  Snickers bar, every time.  I love those Snickers ads, where someone who is cranky-the touch football player acting like Betty White-gets a Snickers bar to eat and then they’re back to their normal selves.

4.  When do you crave sweet things the most?  I do have more of a salt tooth actually-popcorn, chips, doritos, nuts,  but I do enjoy the sweets at holiday times: Christmas, Easter,  and Halloween.

5.  Sweet Nick Name?  When I was little, my dad called me “Pumpkin”.  Awww!

A sweet baby receiving kisses from Mom and Dad.

Time for me to send the Super Sweet Bloggers  Award on to the following blogs that I enjoy:

Classic Film and TV Cafe

Grand Old Movies

Riding the High Country

Knitted Notes

Film Noir of the Week

Thrilling Days of Yesteryear

Caftan Woman

Pioneer Woman

Tales of the Easily Distracted

MacGuffin Movies

Classic Movie Night

Do I Get a Redo

My Love of Old Hollywood

Pioneer Woman lives on a ranch and  is a blogger, photographer, cooking show host on The Food Network, and  homeschooling mom.   I enjoy her site-especially for the recipes!    Do I Get a Redo is by a friend sharing her journey as a wife, mom, and how her faith is growing and impacting her life.   Knitted Notes is written by a lady in Italy, who writes about classic movies she loves, her knitting creations, and politics in Italy.   The other sites I posted links for are dedicated fans of classic films; for some reason, my link wouldn’t let me highlight My Love of Old Hollywood, but do search the site out via google, bing, or whatever search engine you like.

My Classic Movie Pick: White Heat

1949 and James Cagney’s independent movie production company wasn’t faring so well.  Warner Brothers came calling, and he agreed to let them help produce and distribute a movie that they had the rights for and wanted him to star in, White Heat, a film noir and one of my favorites of this kind of film: gangsters, criminals, cops, untrustworthy women, and justice for all at the end.

Cagney plays Cody Jarrett, a criminal leader of a gang.  Cody is married to Verna( Virginia Mayo), his gorgeous and  younger wife.  Also in Cody’s life is his  Ma( Margaret Wycherly).  She is the most important person in Cody’s life, the one woman he always turns to when he has problems as she can usually come up with good solutions.  She is fully supportive of her son’s criminal ways, and when he is hit with those terrible headaches, only Ma can help him through them.

Verna not too happy that Ma Jarrett is a part of her married life to Cody.

Ma Jarrett helping Cody as one of those headaches comes on him.

Cody and his gang, living in California,  rob a train, killing the engineer and 3 other railroad employees.   The police eventually close in and track Cody and his gang.  Cody wounds Philip Evans(John Archer) a US  Treasury agent  on the chase to bring down Cody Jarrett.   Cody is tricky and smart, despite his ruthless ways and his psychotic antics, and he knows that an acquaintance has committed a robbery in Chicago  the same day as the train robbery in California.  Cody is able to use the robbery in Chicago as his alibi, claiming he did that crime.  He pleads guilty to that crime and gets 1-3 years in an Illinois state  prison.   Evans knows Cody is lying, so he sends in federal agent Hank Fallon(Edmund O’Brien) to pretend to be a criminal newly arriving at the prison and to be Cody’s cellmate.  Fallon is  to try and find out who the “fence” is on the outside, who is Cody sending money to for Ma and Verna and the gang.

Fallon undercover in the prison, trying to get to know Cody.

Meanwhile, Verna is tolerating Ma, barely, and  spending time with Big Ed(Steve Cochran), one of Cody’s gang members.  Big Ed tells Verna that he will one day run the gang and to do that, he has someone on the inside at that Illinois prison who will kill Cody for them.  Then they can be together, and get rid of Ma, too.  Unfortunately Big Ed’s plan goes awry, and Fallon sees Cody about to be killed by a prison workplace “accident” and saves Cody in the nick of time!

Verna and Big Ed making their plans.

This film has several memorable scenes and in the prison is one of the best: Cody’s complete psychotic  breakdown when he gets the news that Ma has died.  Cagney didn’t tell the actors in the scene that his big breakdown was coming and the look on Edmund O’Brien’s face is priceless-he is truly shocked and astounded at Cagney’s going berserk in the prison cafeteria.

Here comes that breakdown!

After Cody is hauled off to the prison’s infirmary because of  his breakdown,  he sneakily manages a prison breakout, taking Fallon with him.  Cody utterly trusts Fallon, not knowing that Fallon is really a federal agent with the US Treasury Department.  Big Ed learns that Cody is alive and has broken out of jail, and he is very afraid as is Verna.  They try to plan what to do if and when Cody reappears.  It is a great scene when Cody does reappear and confronts Verna, who lies to him about Ma’s death.  Big Ed gets his ultimate reward from Cody and then it is off to the next caper, robbing the payroll of a petroleum plant in Long Beach, California.

Cody gets a criminal pal to steal a tanker truck that picks up products from the petroleum plant.  He tells the gang that they will all hide in the truck, like a Trojan Horse, and be driven into the plant.  From there, they’ll rob the payroll office, and escape in the truck.  Fallon manages to get a message to Evans and a police ambush is set up at the plant, awaiting Cody and the gang’s arrival.  But darn the luck, the driver of the truck recognizes Fallon as an agent who arrested him several years ago!

Fallon manages to escape to the cop side of the oncoming battle at the petroleum plant and  Verna is immediately arrested.  It is now down to a shootout with Cody and his remaining gang members.  The last scene is memorable and Cody’s final line, “Made it Ma!  Top of the World!”,  is a tribute to great screenwriting, direction, cinematography, special effects,  and acting.

“Top of the World!”

I just can’t praise this movie enough.  Yes, some of the characters are horrible people, and you are glad when they get punished.  The acting is so good in this film, and James Cagney is just magnificent as Cody, an  evil criminal with a deep love for his Ma, and those terrible headaches!

White Heat was directed by Raoul Walsh, one of Hollywood’s best, and the screenplay was written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts.  The story came from Virginia Kellogg.  Max Steiner created the fantastic music that accompanies the action on the screen.  Kellogg, Goff, and Roberts were nominated for Best Screenplay at the 1950 Academy Awards.  In 2003, White Heat was admitted to the National Film Registry and it is in the top 100 of one of those AFI lists.

White Heat isn’t available on Netflix, but is available to buy or watch instantly on Amazon.  Tuesday, May 21, at 11:45 a.m. (CST) it will be shown on Turner Classic Movies, so set that dvr!

French movie poster for White Heat.

My Classic Movie Pick and for the Mary Astor Blogathon: The Hurricane

In 1936, writers Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall published their 7th adventure novel, The Hurricane.  Their 4th novel, Mutiny on the Bounty, published in 1932, had been  such a literary sensation that MGM turned it into a film in 1935 starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton.   This time around, studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn wanted to make a movie based on a Nordhoff and Hall novel  and he hired John Ford to direct this tale of wrong-doing, injustice, and  love, amidst the onslaught of a South Pacific hurricane.

Goldwyn made a promise to Ford, that he could make the film in the actual South Pacific and even wait for a real hurricane to come along and use footage of it in the film!  With Ford’s love of the sea and his penchant for realism in his films, he jumped at this chance.  Unfortunately,  only a few weeks after agreeing to make the film, Goldwyn contacted Ford and said he’d changed his mind about filming on location.  He told Ford to just put wind machines on a back lot at the studio and film it there.  That  caused Ford to lose interest in the film but thanks to a strong cast, script improvements by Ben Hecht,  and outstanding special effects by James Basevi, The Hurricane was a hit  and it still holds up to today’s audiences.

The two main characters are Dorothy Lamour as Marama, this being only her second film, and Jon Hall as Terangi.  Coincidentally, Hall was the nephew of James Norman Hall, one of the novel’s authors.  Mary Astor is Madame De Laage, the govenor’s wife and Raymond Massey plays the govenor.  C. Aubrey Smith is Father Paul and Thomas Mitchell plays Dr. Kersaint.  John Carradine plays a sadistic jailer and Jerome Cowan plays Captain Nagle.

The setting is the beautiful island of Manakoora.  Terangi is first mate on Captain Nagle’s trading ship.  Terangi also marries Marama, the daughter of Mankoora’s chief.  There is an elaborate and beautiful wedding ceremony and feast sequence where Governor and Mrs. De Laage are honored guests, and lovely leis are placed upon Mary Astor.  Father Paul is there to pray a blessing of thanks for the trading ship’s safe arrival and to perform the wedding.   The newlyweds happiness is short-lived.  While on a trading ship excursion to Tahiti,  a white man who is bullying Terangi gets a deserved punch in the jaw.  Unfortunately, the bully is a man with influence and he gets a Tahitian official to sentence Terangi to 6 months in prison.  Terangi’s friends go to Governor De Laage, the French Governor of Mankoora.  He is a hard-nosed, no nonsense, follow the letter of the law kind of guy.  He refuses to have Terangi brought back to Mankoora to be pardoned.  Even when Madame De Laage pleads with him to relent and bring Terangi back because his wife is expecting a baby, the Governor won’t listen.  After many escape attempts, Terangi manages to do so, but accidentally kills a guard in the process. He arrives back in Mankoora as a terrible hurricane is heading towards the island and in a selfless act, he ties his wife and daughter to a tree, then he ties a rope from that tree to the church, where  Mrs. De Laage, Dr. Kersaint, and Father Paul are sheltering, along with a large group of islanders.  Governor De Laage is out on the ocean on a schooner, hunting for the escaped Terangi.  Dr. Kersaint manages to head out to a canoe where a woman is in labor and he delivers that baby during the hurricane!  Terangi leads Mrs.  De Laage to the tree and ties her to its upper branches as he has done for his wife and daughter.  Father Paul won’t leave the church behind and tells all of them not to worry about him.  After the hurricane has blown through and utterly destroyed the island, we learn that Terangi and his family have survived, as well as Mrs. De Laage, Dr. Kersaint, and his tiny patient and the mother.  Governor De Laage can see with binoculars that Terangi is still alive, and that he has also saved Mrs. De Laage.  She, in turn, urges Terangi to grab a canoe and sail away with his wife and daughter.  When the Governor arrives at his wife’s side, he sees the canoe in the distance and she tells him it is just a log.  He knows it is Terangi, but embraces his wife and agrees that it is just a log.

In reading about Mary Astor and her career, I learned that she began acting in silent films in the 1920s.  She easily made the transition to talkies and was adept at playing in comedies or dramas.  Her role in The Hurricane was not that of the lead, but one of the co-starring parts.  With her elegance, and calm demeanor, she was the perfect choice to play the warm-hearted wife to a hard-hearted governor, such as the one Raymond Massey portrayed.

Mary Astor as Madame De Laage with Raymond Massey as Governor De Laage.

Director John Ford was known to choose one actor or actress to be the one that got “picked” on during the entire production run of a movie.  For whatever reason, Mary “won” that title during the filming of The Hurricane.  She reportedly took his jabs and comments with good humor and later said, “I think ‘laconic’ is a good word for John Ford and for his technique of direction”,…”No big deal about communication with John.  Terse, pithy, to the point.  Very Irish, a dark personality, a sensitivity which he did everything to conceal.”1

For the actual hurricane scene, Special Effects director James Basevi was given a $400,000 budget.  He spent $150,000 to build a native village on a back lot and then spent $250,000 to destroy it! The planning of the scene, the production of it, and the filming took 4 months.   Usually Basevi didn’t like to discuss how he made his special effects magic on any film, but The Hurricane was one film where he was quite open as to how he got that great scene completed.  His village set was 600 feet long with wharves, huts, a church, and palm trees.  The beach ran into a lagoon, which was actually a 200 yard-long tank. Across this tank were put up airplane propellors, mounted on towers to create the fierce winds.  Water from 12 fire hoses streamed in front of the propellors’ blades to send water and spray over the actors and the set.  Wave machines churned up the waters of the lagoon.  To show a tidal wave, Basevi let loose 2000 gallons of water down chutes topped by big tanks.2

A very kind soul has put the hurricane scene up on Youtube and  I have watched it over and over.  Those are really all of the main actors in that scene.  Mary Astor is soaking wet and trying to grasp that rope to safely get from the church to that giant tree, with Terangi leading her to safety.  It is a very impressive scene, and I am delighted to report that Turner Classic Movies will be showing The Hurricane on Wednesday, May 29th, at 11:00 p.m. CST.

To see an exciting film directed by John Ford and one of Mary Astor’s subtle and warm-hearted performances, set your dvrs and  don’t miss The Hurricane!

Terangi attempting to save Madame De Laage!

Thomas Mitchell as Dr. Kersaint, delivering that baby! Mitchell was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Hurricane.

The De Laage’s elegant dining room.

This blog was written in conjunction with The Mary Astor Blogathon, hosted by two great classic movie bloggers: Tales of the Easily Distracted and Silver Screenings.  If you visit their sites, you will read other wonderful blogs all about the wonderful Mary Astor.

Sources sited for this blog: 1 Davis, Ronald L., John Ford: Hollywood’s Old Master, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman and London, 1995. Page 88.

2Zinman, David, 50 Classic Motion Pictures:The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of: Vintage Films From Hollywood’s Golden Age, Limelight Editions, New York, 1992.  Pages 112-113.

Father Paul(C. Aubrey Smith) and Madame De Laage

My Classic Movie Pick: Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison

Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

About 6 years ago as I was channel surfing one Saturday afternoon and the children who needed to nap were napping and the older children were occupying themselves, I found a great film to view.   The film was released in 1957 by 20th Century Fox:  Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison and it  starred only  two people: Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum.   The film was directed by John Huston, who also wrote the screenplay with John Lee Mahin, adapting it from the 1952 novel of the same name by Charles Shaw.

The setting is 1943 on an island in the South Pacific.  Mitchum portrays  U.S. Marine Corporal Allison.  He had been on a submarine and as his reconnaissance team was preparing to leave the sub, a Japanese plane spotted them and rained down artillery.   The submarine’s captain was forced to dive and leave the Marines behind.  Allison manages to get to a rubber raft and after several days of drifting in the Pacific Ocean, he lands the raft upon an island.  As his dazed eyes search the beach for inhabitants, he can see a chapel and a figure clad all in white standing in front of the chapel.  Then he passes out.

Marine Corporal Allison drifting to the island.

When  Allison regains consciousness, he finds he has been removed from the raft and cared for by the person clad in white, a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr).  Sister Angela tells Mr. Allison, as she calls him, that she and  Father Phillips had been asked to leave Fiji and to find the priest who served at this island’s chapel and  take him back to Fiji with them.  When she and Father Phillips arrived at the island, they could find no inhabitants or the priest.  The natives who had sailed them to this island were frightened by the idea of being captured by the Japanese, so they left Sister Angela and Father Phillips stranded.   Just a few days later, Father Phillips, who was quite elderly, fell ill and died.  Sister Angela managed to bury him properly, and she informs Mr. Allison that she is only a novice nun, that she hasn’t taken her final vows  yet.  Allison laughs at that news and says that it’s just his luck, to be stranded on an island with a woman who turns out to be a nun!

Sister Angela explaining how she was stranded on the island.

For some time, they have the island to themselves and are starting to appreciate each other’s strengths in surviving while waiting to be rescued.  Allison shares with Sister Angela that he was an orphan and that he never knew what his real last name was, so he took the name “Allison” from the street sign that the orphanage was located on.  He joined the Marine Corps as soon as he could and allows as it’s the closest thing to a family that he’s ever known.  Sister Angela shares about her faith, but never is pushy about it with Mr. Allison.    One day, a group of Japanese soldiers arrive at the island and Allison and Sister Angela hide in a cave.  The Japanese soldiers have arrived to set up a meteorological camp and are there for several days setting up their equipment.   When Sister Angela cannot stomach eating the raw fish  Allison has been sneaking out to catch for them, he decides to sneak into the camp at night and steal food for Sister Angela.   He successfully steals some food and later that night they can see a naval battle happening in the distance.

Hiding in the cave

The Japanese soldiers leave the island and Sister Angela and Allison explore the soldiers’ supply hut.  It is full of  food supplies and sake.  Feeling like rejoicing over the supplies, Sister Angela makes a lovely meal for the two of them and serves the sake.  Mr.  Allison drinks too much of the sake and in a  dramatic moment, proclaims his love for Sister Angela, telling her that they don’t know how long they’ll be stuck on the island, that she hasn’t taken her vows, that they’ll be like Adam and Eve!  As he makes a move towards  her, Sister Angela tells Mr. Allison that she has made her decision to give her  heart to God.  As he continues to drunkenly stumble to her to grab her, Sister Angela runs into the jungle, despite a thunderstorm booming around her.  After a while, Allison comes out of his drunken state and feeling ashamed of himself, goes out into the jungle to find Sister Angela.  He finds her but she is feverish and quite ill.   In carrying her back to the Japanese supply hut, he sees that the soldiers  have returned so he quickly runs for the cave.   Knowing that a wet person with a raging fever needs to have the wet clothing removed and dry blankets for warmth,  Allison sneaks into the Japanese camp to steal some blankets for Sister Angela.   A Japanese soldier sees Allison and Allison has no choice but to kill the soldier and flee to the cave.  Other Japanese soldiers find their fellow soldier’s dead body and they know that someone else is on the island and they set fire to the vegetation in order to smoke that someone out.   Days go by and Sister Angela, her fever broken, finds herself lying in the cave, her nun apparel not on her, and blankets covering her.  She gives Mr. Allison a questioning look and he reassures her that he’s sorry for what he said to her when he was drunk, that he found her feverish and wandering in the jungle in the middle of a thunderstorm, that the Japanese had returned and he had to get her to the cave, and that he removed her wet clothes without looking, and then covered her with the dry blankets.  Sister Allison is touched by his apology and care of her while she was so ill.

Troubled and upset by Mr. Allison’s profession of love!

“We could be like Adam and Eve!”

A Japanese soldier out on patrol discovers the cave where the two have been hiding in.  Sister Angela and Mr. Allison know they have two choices: surrender or face a hand grenade being tossed in upon them.  Before they can make their decision, bombs begin landing on the island!   U. S. Navy ships have begun bombing the island before attempting a  landing.  Allison knows that the Japanese have 4 artillery pieces hidden in the jungle which will make it hard for the landing parties to be successful.  Telling Sister Angela that he has a task to do, that God has sent him this task, Allison leaves the cave and despite the risk to  his own life, he disables the 4 artillery pieces, getting wounded in the process.  The Americans successfully land and take control of the island.  Allison is being readied on a stretcher to be taken to the ship and receive medical treatment for his wound.  He tells Sister Angela that he understands her devotion and heart belonging to God and she reassures him that to her he will always be a close companion wherever her life takes her.  She walks alongside his stretcher as he is taken to the ship.

Caring for an ill Sister Angela.

Walking beside Mr. Allison as he’s carried to the ship.

Oh this is a great film!  The tense scenes of hiding out from the Japanese soldiers, wondering if they’ll be found out and what will happen to them if they’re caught.  The poignancy of the two characters developing feelings towards one another but not being able to act upon those feelings.   I found this film to be tough and tender, one that would appeal to the guys in an audience and to the ladies.

Trinidad and Tobago were the stand-ins for the island, during the filming.  The Catholic Church sent their National Legion of Decency representatives to watch the movie being filmed to ensure that no objective content between a  Marine and a nun would happen.  One day, as a joke, Mitchum and Kerr were shooting a scene and they grabbed one another and started kissing!  The National League rep was not amused!  The USMC provided actual troops for the landing scene and 6 Japanese men who happened to be living in Brazil at the time played the main Japanese soldiers. The film cost $2,905,000 to make and earned 20th Century Fox $4.2 million.  Audiences liked it and Deborah Kerr earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress,  director Huston and co-screenplay writer Mahin were also nominated for Best Writing, adapted screenplay.

Turner Classic Movies will be showing Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison on Saturday, May 18th at 5:00 CST.   It is available through Amazon and there is a two part look at the making of the film by Movietone News that someone has put up  on Youtube.

My Classic Movie Pick: The Odd Couple

When I came into the living room this evening, my husband was viewing something on his laptop computer and he kept chuckling and laughing.  I finally asked him what was so funny?  He told me that he was watching The Odd Couple, that Netflix Streaming had it on their movie list as of today, April 25th, 2013.   I was so glad to hear that this film was now available for streaming and our seventeen year old even chimed in with the comment that he would like to see it too.  

The Odd Couple, was first  a comedic play written by Neil Simon.  It opened on Broadway on March 10th, 1965 at the Plymouth Theatre and then moved to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre and remained there until it closed on July 2nd, 1967.  The play’s director was Mike Nichols, and the two main characters were played by Walter Matthau, as Oscar Madison, and Art Carney, as Felix Unger.   Since the play had been such a huge hit on Broadway, it was a no-brainer that the playwright, Neil Simon, would write the screenplay for the  film version of his play.   In 1968 the movie, The Odd Couple,  was released by Paramount Pictures.  Directed by Gene Saks, with Walter Matthau reprising the stage role of Oscar Madison and Jack Lemmon cast as Felix Unger.

This delightful comedy deals with two men, friends, both divorced, who decide for a time to share an apartment.  The comedy revolves around the clashing of their personalities.  Both Oscar and Felix are newspaper men.  Oscar is a sportswriter and Felix is a television news writer.   They have a weekly poker game on Friday nights and the movie begins with a depressed Felix wandering around New York City, contemplating suicide as his wife Frances has kicked him out of the home that evening.  Meanwhile, back at the weekly poker game, Oscar and his friends are getting worried as Felix is uncharacteristically  late for the game and after a phone call is made, they learn about  Felix being kicked out of his home.  Wondering outloud what they should do, worrying that this could drive Felix over the edge, in walks Felix, who breaks down in front of everyone  and tells them of his plight, that his wife Frances wants a divorce.   His friends try to cheer him up and Oscar suggests that Felix move in with him.   Felix cheers up and agrees to Oscar’s plan and tells Oscar to not be shy in letting him know if he is getting on Oscar’s nerves.

Worrying about Felix!

The Poker Game Buddies

The comedic moments begin to flow rapidly as we see that Oscar is a slob, with a filthy apartment, spoiled food in the kitchen, dirty dishes stacked in the sink, and messy clothes lying all over the place.  Felix, it is quickly revealed, is a neat freak, a gourmet cook, who loves to keep things neat and clean and organized.  These two friends begin clashing immediately and it leads to comedic gold.  The two friends begin to nag at one another in the way that long-married couples might do!  There are two British sisters, the Pigeon Sisters,  who live  in the apartment above Oscar and Felix’s apartment and the attempt to date the ladies ends in much sympathy for Felix and nothing but frustration for Oscar.  A visit to a diner leads to one of the film’s funniest moments when Felix has to clear his sinuses while the patrons in the diner are trying to eat their meals.  As Felix snorts and hums and makes ridiculous sharp, loud noises in his sinus clearing efforts, Oscar grows more embarrassed and angry as all eyes in the diner are on them!

Tears for Felix to Oscar’s dismay!

The Pigeon Sisters from upstairs

Many more antics ensue, but by the film’s end, the friends have truly come to terms with each other’s personalities and quirks.  Besides the two leads, the other characters in the movie are: John Fiedler, Herb Edelman, David Sheiner, and Larry Haines as the poker playing buddies, and   Monica Evans and Carole Shelley as the Pigeon Sisters.

At one point during the  talks about making the film version of the play, it was suggested that  Frank Sinatra and Jackie Gleason  play the parts of  Felix and Oscar!  I am very glad the movie was cast with Matthau and Lemmon.   The movie was a huge hit, one of the four top grossing movies in America for 1968.  Neil Simon was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing- Adapted Screenplay, the film was nominated for Best Motion Picture-musical or comedy at the Golden Globes, and both Matthau and Lemmon were nominated for Best Actor in a Motion Picture -musical or comedy at the Golden Globes.

Felix clearing his sinuses!

The movie was so successful that it led to a television series, in 1970, that ran for 5 seasons and aired on ABC.  It starred Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison and Tony Randall as Felix Unger.  I hope that Netflix Streaming will begin to air the televison version of this great comedy too!

For the Terrorthon: 1953′s House of Wax

When I was a kid, growing up in the 1970s, we had a great cable television station to tune into, Channel 50, which  beamed into our northwest Ohio home via Detroit, Michigan.   On Saturday afternoons  at 3:00 p.m., Channel 50 would air Chiller Theater.   My brother and I would tune in regularly and that is where I saw a horror movie that truly gave me a scare: 1953′s House of Wax, starring the wonderful Vincent Price.   Warner Brothers distributed this film, directed by Andre de Toth and produced by Bryan Foy.  Price’s co-stars were Frank Lovejoy, Charles Bronson, Carolyn Jones, and Phyllis Kirk.  House of Wax was a remake of an earlier Warner Brother’s  movie, 1933′s Mystery of the Wax Museum.   This newer version was the first film to combine technicolor with the 3-D filming technique.

Professor Henry Jarrod (Vincent  Price)  is  a creative, artistic genius when it comes to making wax sculptures of people.  He and a business partner, Matthew Burke (Roy Roberts)  have opened up a wax museum in New York City.  One evening, Burke visits the museum to appeal to Jarrod to make displays that depict infamous and evil people, to lure in more paying customers.  Jarrod refuses to make such exhibits.  He is an artist and doesn’t want to make such macabre displays!   Burke then  announces that if the  museum were to burn in a  fire, they would collect the insurance money.  Jarrod is horrified that Burke would suggest such a thing, decrying the plan because that would mean destroying “his friends”; it is at this point that the audience  knows that Jarrod is  a bit crazy, as he refers to his statues as if they are real, treating them with kindness and respect as he displays them.  Burke, ignoring Jarrod’s protests, sets the skirt of Marie Antoinette on fire and when Jarrod tries to put out the flames, Burke starts setting other exhibits on fire.  He and Jarrod have a fist fight and Jarrod is knocked out, falling onto the  Joan of Ark  display.  Burke then finds a flammable liquid to toss around the museum, and he also turns on the gas lights so that  natural gas will fill the place!   Jarrod awakens, tries to stop Burke, who does manage to flee.  Jarrod tries to stop the inferno, but a part of the building collapses on him and after the fire is over, his body isn’t found.    Seeing those wax figures begin to melt, to burn, to see their eyes pop out of their heads, to see their heads break off their bodies, and to see the bodies crumple in the flames,   to me as a child, that was a very, very  creepy scene!

So scary to me: Melting wax figures!!

Admiring his Marie Antoinette.

Time marches on and the film focuses on the two ladies in the story, Cathy Gray(Carolyn Jones) and Sue Allen(Phyllis Kirk).  The ladies are good friends, they room at the same boarding house,  and it just so happens that Cathy’s fiance is Matthew Burke!  Sue, herself, has a boyfriend, Scott Andrews(Paul Picerni) who just happens to be a  sculpter for a new wax museum that is opening under the direction of Professor Henry Jarrod!  Jarrod did  survive the fire, but his hands were permanently damaged, so he has had to turn to new artists to help with his sculptures, including another new assistant, who is a mute, Igor(Charles Bronson, but the credits will have his real name listed, Charles Buchinsky.)   Jarrod is also in a wheelchair, as the fire  damaged his legs.  One evening as Cathy is getting ready for a date with Burke, the camera cuts to Burke’s home and a dark, shadowy figure wearing a large hat  and a black cape sneaks into Burke’s home and strangles him!   Burke’s death by a sinister figure dressed in black, who sneaks in and out of the shadows, striking at night, that really  scared me as I watched the film!!   The police are called and Lt. Tom Brennan(Frank Lovejoy) and his assistant, Sgt. Jim Shane(Dabs Greer), are called to the scene of Burke’s murder.

The police are starting to ask questions.

Strangely, bodies begin to disappear from the morgues in New York City, including Burke’s murdered body.  Professor Jarrod has new exhibits being made ready for his museum.  Taking  his late business partner’s advice, the new  exhibits focus on  gruesome scenes of torture or death, some exalting horrible  people.   Sue  visits the museum with her  boyfriend, Scott.  Professor Jarrod is introduced to her and he is immediately drawn to Sue, saying she reminds him of  his Marie Antoinette figure.   It is obvious that upon meeting  Jarrod,  Sue has an intuitive dislike of the man and his museum, but she is tactful about hiding her feelings.  Days go by and one evening  that creepy, shadowy figure in black sneaks  into Cathy’s bedroom and murders her!  A couple nights later, that same shadowy figure steals  Cathy’s body from the morgue.  The shadowy figure happens upon Sue one night as she is walking home alone.  Sue senses she is being followed and with a glance over her shoulder, she sees the creepy figure moving quickly in the shadows, stalking her.  Fortunately she arrives safely to her destination.  The stalker tries to also harm Sue as she is sleeping, but her screams successfully drive the fiend away. Oh how those scenes worried me!!

Stealing Cathy’s body from the morgue.

Sue being stalked by the creepy, shadowy figure!

Sue’s screams scare away the stalker!!

Sue visits the museum again in order to wait for Scott to get off of work.  As she walks around, she notices that the Joan statue in the Joan of Ark exhibit looks a lot like her dead friend Cathy!  Sue shares her fear with Scott and they decide to go to the police.    Sue bravely decides she must find out what has happened to Cathy’s body so she goes alone to the museum and plans to hide there  to explore the Joan of Ark exhibit  after the museum  is closed for the  evening.    She discovers that the figure of Joan of Ark is really Cathy’s dead body!!!!    Professor Jarrod discovers Sue in his museum and with the help of Igor, catches her.  As Sue confronts Jarrod, hitting him with her fists, his face crumbles off in bits and his true face is revealed: a horribly scarred, burned visage is shown, and we know that Jarrod has been the shadowy figure creeping at night finding victims to murder and then putting them into  wax to be  sculptures for his museum!!!  Sue faints at the horrible sight of Jarrod’s face, and he orders Igor to take her below to the wax works.  We next see Sue, waking up from her unconscious state, to find herself chained inside of a long, wooden box with four, high sides.  Her wrists are chained down to the box’s bottom as are her ankles.   Jarrod explains that his plan is to cover her body in extremely hot wax, she’ll die, and then she’ll live on as his Marie Antoinette.  The tension builds as time will be running out for Sue as the wax increases in temperature and begins to flow through intricate tubing where it will soon empty on top of her!   Back at the police station, the officers and Scott and wondering where Sue is, as she didn’t meet them as planned.  As the wax gets hotter and hotter, the police finally get to the museum!  In the nick of time, the good guys arrive, break into the museum, rescue Sue, deal with Igor, and Jarrod gets his own hot wax treatment, by accident.

Cathy’s body is the Joan of Ark Statue!!

Examining the Joan of Ark statue.

Sue sharing her suspicions to the police.

As I pointed out earlier, this film was  a remake, of sorts, to an earlier Warner Brothers horror film, 1933′s Mystery of the Wax Museum.  I discovered in my research that the 1953 film is  available on a double-feature  dvd,  with the 1933 film.  Some more interesting factoids I discovered were that Jack Warner was reluctant to green light this project, but he finally did and the movie was made in 28 days at a cost of $618,000.  It made a great profit, $23,750,000!   Andre de Toth, the director, was legally blind in one eye, so 3-D effects he couldn’t see and yet for a 3-D film, it is one of the better ones.  Midway through the film is a famous scene of a paddle-ball player showing off his talents and talking right to the camera and aiming his paddle-ball there, one of the 3-D aspects of the film.  This was also the first horror movie Vincent Price starred in, and he did such a fantastic job with the part, that more and more horror parts started coming his way and through horror films he made a name for himself.   Carolyn Jones went on to famously play Morticia Addams in the television comedy The Addams Family, and Charles Buchinsky famously renamed himself Charles Bronson and went on to stardom in many action movies.

Professor Jarrod’s real face!

Telling Sue how she’ll die!

Vincent Price is excellent as Professor Jarrod.  Before he suffers from the fire, we can see his love for his art, his politeness to all he is in contact with, we see his decency as a person.  When the wax figures are first threatened with fire by Burke, we start to see the slight madness of Jarrod through his reaction to the threat.  It is a subtle turning of Price’s character, and he performs it so well.  The eerie scene of melting wax figures that seem human-like, the creepy, dark figure sneaking into people’s homes at night to kill them, the stealing of dead bodies at the morgue, the stalking and attempted harm to Sue, all of these elements helped to make 1953′s House of Wax a horror movie that truly scared me as a child.

A publicity still for the 3-D effects for House of Wax.

The Terrorthon is Coming!

My usual” Classic Movie Pick”  post for Friday  will be posted on Saturday, April 20th as I volunteered  to write  for a blogathon: “Terrorthon!”,  hosted by My Love of Old Hollywood and Wide Screen World.  Quite a few  classic film fans will be posting their   blogs  about a horror film that scared them as a child.  Don’t worry, my film choice is considered a “classic” and not one of those awful,  slasher films either.  Running from April 20th -April 24th, be sure to visit either My Love of Old Hollywood or Wide Screen World to read the great posts!

My Classic Movie Pick: My Movie Alphabet

 Mettel Ray Movie Blog is a site devoted to the love of movies  and an interesting challenge was posted there last weekend : Make an alphabetical list of your favorite movies, or actors and actresses, or directors, or all three topics.  I found it a fun and challenging list to make, and decided to focus on classic films that I think teens and young adults should see.   I  recently heard through the family grapevine  that my grown nieces and nephew, ( and a couple of nephew-in-laws) don’t like old movies because they’re too boring, so  I chose my list to challenge that opinion!  What follows  is My Movie Alphabet:

A-All Quiet on the Western Front- 1930 Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Best Director, Lewis Milestone.  Produced by Universal Studios.  Based upon the  novel by Erich Maria Remarque.    Starring Lew Ayres, in a star-making turn as a student who rushes to join the German army to fight in World War I,  only to gain disillusionment from the horrors of war.  Excellently told and a very moving film.  

B- Bringing up Baby- 1938 screwball comedy produced by RKO Studios.  Directed by Howard Hawks and starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, along with a leopard, aka the “Baby” of the title.   Madcap, rich lady chases around a shy, studious paleontologist; love and marriage are heavy on her mind.  Fast-paced,  hilarious film.  Did I mention the leopard??                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  C- Captains Courageous- 1937 adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s novel by MGM.  Directed by Victor Fleming.  Academy Award for Best Actor for Spencer Tracy.  Co-starring child actor Freddie Bartholomew.  Spoiled, rich brat falls overboard from an ocean liner and is rescued by a fishing vessel.  Before the brat can be returned to his father, the  brat learns about hard work, ethics, and life.  All of these elements turn the brat’s attitudes around for the better.

D- D.O.A.- 1950 film noir produced by United Artists.  Directed by Rudolph Mate.  Starring Edmund O’Brien and Pamela Britton.  An accountant is poisoned and has only 24 hours to find his killer.  Taut, suspenseful film, very well done noir.  Did I mention that there is no antidote for the poison??

E-The Enchanted Cottage- 1945 fantasy romance produced by RKO Studios.  Directed by John Cromwell.  Starring Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young.  Narrated by Herbert Marshall.  A veteran of World War II, his face disfigured, runs away to live in a secluded cottage near the New England coast.   He meets the homely, young woman hired to clean the cottage.  Will love bloom?  A very sweet, tenderly-depicted love story.

F-The Four Feathers-1939 British film based upon the novel by A.E.W. Mason.  Produced by London Films and distributed by United Artists.  Starring Sir Ralph Richardson, John Clements, and June Duprez.    During Queen Victoria’s reign, in 1895, a British officer decides to resign his commission and his 3 best friends send him a white feather apiece, calling him a coward.  His fiancee dumps him.  ( Her refusal to defend him is the fourth feather.)  He vows to regain their trust and make amends.   Great action and tale of redemption.  Filmed in technicolor and on location in the Sudan.  Better than the Heath Ledger version!!!

G- Gone With the Wind-1939 historical romance film produced by Selznick International Pictures and based upon Margaret Mitchell’s very popular novel.  1940 Academy Award winner for : Best Picture, Best Director(Victor Fleming), Best Supporting Actress(Hattie McDaniel), and Best Actress(Vivien Leigh).  Also starring Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Haviland.   Technicolor, with a glorious musical score, it’s the depiction of one lady’s romances, heartbreaks, and schemes, set before, during, and after the Civil War; set in Georgia.  Especially heartbreaking is the scene at Atlanta’s train depot with all of the wounded and dying soldiers lying in the dirt, a tattered Confederate flag waving in a breeze.  

H-Harvey- 1950 comedy produced by Universal International Pictures, based upon a Pulitzer Prize winning play, written by Mary Chase.  Directed by Henry Koster.  Starring  James Stewart and Josephine Hull.  Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd, a kindly, middle-aged gentleman who has for a best friend, a 6’3 and 1/2″ tall rabbit, named Harvey.  Only Elwood can see Harvey, and this is distressing to his sister and her daughter, as this is keeping them from joining the society of their community.  What will the ladies do to achieve their goal?  What will Elwood and Harvey do??  A fun story, well acted by the entire cast, including Harvey.  

I-The Invisible Man-1933 horror film based upon H.G. Well’s novel.  Produced by Universal Pictures.  Directed by James Whale.  Starring Claude Rains and Gloria Stewart(she was the “elderly Rose” in Titanic.)  I am including this film for it’s excellent special effects in depicting someone becoming invisible.  Brilliant scientist creates a concoction that makes him invisible.  Unfortunately, it messes with his mind and makes him diabolically evil, ruining his future with his fiancee.  Will the police and Scotland Yard catch him?  Will he go on terrorizing Great Britain, and possibly spread his plans of ruling the world?  Rains does a great job in his part and it put him on the path to stardom.

J-Jane Eyre- 1943 version of Charlotte Bronte’s  gothic romance novel, produced by 20th Century Fox.  Directed by Robert Stevenson.  Starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles.  Mr. Welles has such a rich and resounding voice and  that makes his portrayal of Mr. Rochester my hands-down favorite of all the Mr. Rochesters that have been portrayed in all the other Jane Eyre films.   Poor, orphaned Jane grows up and gets employed as a governess for the ward of Mr. Rochester, a rich but very moody and brooding man.  Love blooms between Jane  and Mr. Rochester, but at the wedding, a terrible secret is revealed!!

K-To Kill a Mockingbird- 1962 adaptation of the novel by Harper Lee.  Produced by Universal Studios.  Directed by Robert Mulligan.  Starring Gregory Peck, in his Academy Award winning performance for Best Actor.  Co-starring child actors Mary Badham and Philip Alford.  Look for a pale Robert Duvall as Boo Radley.  If I didn’t include this movie on my list, my own mother would probably refuse to speak to me!  You may have  read this book for an English class,  and you may have had to watch the movie, but watch it again for your own betterment and insight.  Moving story of a brother and sister, growing up in the segregated South during the 1930s, when their father accepts to take on the courtroom  defense  of a partially- crippled black man, accused of raping a white woman who herself, is from a dirt- poor family.  Honest in it’s portrayals of racism, misunderstanding of the mentally ill, and parental love.

L-The Lady Vanishes-1938- suspenseful  espionage British movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, before he moved to Hollywood.  Starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, and Dame May Whitty(the Lady of the title).  Rich, young, society gal boards a train for England, after vacationing in Europe.  Has a lovely chat and some tea with an elderly lady on the train.  After a nap, society gal can’t find the elderly lady.  Employees of the train and other passengers say they never saw an elderly lady on the train!  Society gal is determined to find out what is going on and a handsome music professor agrees to help solve the mystery.

M-The Maltese Falcon-1941 film noir  produced by Warner Brothers, based on the book by Dashiell Hammett.   Directed by John Huston.  Starring Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre.  A man is murdered.  A beautiful and frightened woman turns to private eye Sam Spade for help, as she is trying to locate her sister and a  statue of a bird, known as  The Maltese Falcon.  Two other men appear who also want  that statue.  What is so important about a statue that someone is willing to murder for it?  Someone isn’t being honest with Spade and he’s bent on finding out the truth.  Excellent, twisting story line, great acting, and Huston’s first directorial debut.  

N- Notorious- 1946 suspense and romance film produced by RKO Radio Pictures.  Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Starring Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, and Claude Rains.  American daughter of a convicted Nazi spy agrees to work with a U. S. government agent in order to become part of a group of Nazis now living in Brazil.  The daughter and the agent fall in love, but she has to join that Nazi group!  Then she has to let the leader of the group fall in love with her and marry him-yuck!!  Next, what is it about the wine bottles at a dinner that her husband hosts that the sight of the bottles drives one of the dinner guests to hysterics?  What might be hidden in the wine cellar?  Can her first romance with the agent be saved?  Great story line, well acted, and  Claude Rains as the Nazi leader,  he manages to make the audience feel sorry for him!

O- Oliver Twist-1948 British film version of Charles Dicken’s novel and produced by the Rank Organisation.    Directed by David Lean.  Starring Robert Newton, Alec Guiness(before he was ever Obi Wan Kenobi!!), Kay Walsh, and child actors John Howard Davies(Oliver), and a young Anthony Newley(The Artful Dodger).  This is my favorite version of Oliver Twist.  The cinematography is wonderful, full of grays and shadows amid the black and white.  Newton is sinister as Bill Sikes, and Alec Guiness is so good as Fagin; acting all sweet to Oliver, yet dangerous if crossed.  The only thing I don’t want to know…how did they get Bullseye, Sikes’s dog, to shake so much after Bill murders Nancy?  I mean it, don’t tell me!!!

P- The Parent Trap-1961 comedy drama produced by Walt Disney Studios.  Directed by David Swift.  Starring Maureen O’Hara, Brian Keith, and child actress Hayley Mills, portraying identical twins.  I have seen both versions of this clever film; this one and the  Lindsay Lohan version.  The latter one is good, and I liked it.  However, my favorite version is the original 1961 film.  As a mom of identical twin daughters myself, I just love the whole concept of this movie.  Twin sisters separated as toddlers when their parents divorce, are accidentally reunited at summer camp.  They make a promise to “trap” their parents into falling in love with each other again.  A fun, satisfying film.

Q- The Quiet Man-1952 comedy drama produced by Republic Pictures.  Academy Award winner for Best Director(John Ford) and Best Cinematography(Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout).  My late father-in-law recommended this movie to me and I am glad he did.  Filmed in lush technicolor, many scenes filmed in Ireland.  Starring John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Victor McLaglen, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond, Mildred Natwick, Arthur Shields, and Eileen Crowe.  Not a western, which Wayne is usually noted for.  He plays an American boxer, who has decided to leave America and live in the Irish town his parents were born and raised in.  He buys his ancestral cottage, angering a local squire who happens to be his new neighbor, and who also has a beautiful sister.  Wayne’s character wants to marry the girl but her bully of a brother says no.  Will love grow and a marriage happen?  Will the Squire learn to stop being such a bully?  Will Wayne’s character’s secret reason for leaving America be discovered?  A charming film.

R- The Adventures of Robin Hood-1938 actioner with romance and adventure, produced by Warner Brothers.  Directed by Michael Curtiz.  Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Haviland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Rains.  This is the best Robin Hood movie ever made!  Forget that version with Kevin Costner(Robin with an American accent???!!!)   In technicolor, with a gorgeous musical soundtrack.  Flynn is dashing as the Saxon hero, out to save King Richard’s throne; Richard, while returning from a  crusade, gets  kidnapped on his journey across France.  His conniving,evil, younger  brother,  Prince John,  wants to take over that throne.  Claude Rains is Prince John and he has a field day with the role.   Basil Rathbone is excellent as Sir Guy of Gisbourne, full of malice and hatred  towards Robin; their sword fighting scenes are epic and well-staged.  Olivia de Haviland is beautiful, the perfect Maid Marion.  Let this version forever erase the Kevin Costner one from your brain!!

S- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers-1954 musical produced by MGM.  Directed by Stanley Donen.  Starring  Jane Powell and Howard Keel.  The oldest of the seven Pontipee brothers goes to their nearest Oregonian town to buy supplies and to get a wife.  He succeeds but forgets to tell his new wife  that she’ll be sharing the cabin with him and his seven younger brothers.  The new wife is horrified as the brothers are rude, uncouth and unkempt.  She rolls up her sleeves and gets to work, cleaning up the cabin, cooking wholesome meals, teaching the brothers table manners, insisting that they clean themselves up, and teaching them how to court a girl.  On the next trip to town, the seven brothers see seven lovely ladies they would like to court.  Will the ladies’  town boyfriends allow this to happen?  Big brother, happily married, comes up with a crazy plan based on a story by Plutarch about the Roman soldiers and the Sabine Women, as a way for his heartsick younger brothers to catch their ladies.  This is a funny and  lively musical, filled with  great songs, and the dance at the barn-raising scene is a must-see.  

T-The Thing from Another World-1951 science fiction/horror production by RKO Radio Pictures.   Directed by Christian Nyby and an uncredited Howard Hawks.  Starring Margaret Sheridan, Kenneth Tobey, Douglas Spencer, Robert Cornthwaite, and James Arness(before he was ever Sheriff Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke).  Often known as “The Thing”, the plot concerns itself with an  Air Force crew and a group of scientists at a remote Arctic research station, forced to defend themselves from an alien creature who’s ship has crash-landed nearby.  The creature needs mammal blood for survival, whether that blood is from sled dogs or humans, it doesn’t care.  Survival and destroying the creature become of the utmost importance, but that pesky head scientist keeps insisting that he can reason with the creature, that it’s intelligent, and that they can all just become good friends.  Ha!

U- Up the Down Staircase-1967 drama produced by Warner Brothers, based upon the book by Bel Kaufman.  Directed by Robert Mulligan.  Starring Sandy Dennis.  Good story about an idealistic, young teacher and her first job, teaching in a New York City public high school.   As a former teacher myself, I think all young people should watch at least one movie from a teacher’s point of view!

V-Vertigo-1958 suspense & romance drama produced by Paramount Pictures.  Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Starring James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes.   A San Francisco police detective is forced into an early retirement due to his developing vertigo and a clinical depression.  A wealthy man hires the detective to work as a private investigator and follow around the man’s beautiful wife, who is acting strangely.  The wealthy man claims his wife is possessed, possibly by the spirit of her deceased great-grandmother.  Is the wife possessed?  Someone or several of the characters are untruthful.  Will the detective get well? Will he discover the truth?  A well-acted movie with a lot of twists and turns.

W-West Side Story-1961 musical based upon the Broadway hit.  Produced by Mirisch Pictures and distributed by United Artists.  Directed by Robert Wise.  Starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, and Russ Tamblyn.  Romeo and Juliet, retold and set in New York City.  Instead of the Montagues and the Capulets, we have the warring gangs, the Sharks-immigrants from Puerto Rico, and the Jets-immigrants from white Europeans.  Well-acted, lively dancing, beautiful songs with moving lyrics, and fast-paced songs with clever lyrics.  Even if you had to watch this in high school English class when you studied Romeo and Juliet, you owe it to yourself to see it again, at least once!

X- X the Unknown-1956 Science fiction/horror film produced by Hammer Studios, in England.  Directed by Les Norman and Joseph Losey.  Starring Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern, and Anthony Newley.  What could have been a mess of a movie is actually a well-acted one.  There is a mysterious radioactive ooze in the ground in Scotland.  The army is called out to investigate, and unfortunately the ooze is killing people or causing burns which eventually do the victims in.  It is up to a group of scientists to stop the ooze, and many of their plans are proving unworkable or uable to halt the stuff.  How many more people will become victims?  At times tense, a bit gross in depicting the victims, and the actors taking their parts seriously, all of these factors  make  a very good sci-fi/horror yarn.

Y-Old Yeller-1957 drama produced by Walt Disney Studios, based upon the book by Fred Gipson.  Directed by Robert Stevenson.  Starring Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker, and child actors Tommy Kirk and Kevin Corcoran.  A family striving to make a living on their Texas ranch post- Civil War.  One day a stray, yellow dog appears and soon is proving its worth around the ranch, even saving the little brother from a bear attack. The oldest boy grows to love that “Old Yeller” dog.  However,  one night Old Yeller is  attacked by a rabid wolf while defending the family.   With dad away on a cattle drive, it will be up to the oldest son to make the hard decision as to what to do with Old Yeller.   A rite of passage film, movingly told.  Keep the kleenaxes at the ready.   My only complaint is that the part of the little brother is so annoying in the movie, I wouldn’t have minded if the bear had got him!  

Z- Zulu-1964 action/drama produced by Paramount Pictures and Embassy Pictures.  Directed by Cy Enfield.  Starring Stanley Baker, Michael Caine, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsen, James Booth, and Nigel Green.  Narrated by Richard Burton.  Based on the  actual Battle of Rorke’s Drift when an outnumbered  group of 150 British soldiers fought valiantly to defend a mission outpost against an army of 4000 Zulu warriors.  This was Michael Caine’s first starring role and he is great in the part.  Stanley Baker is also outstanding as the engineering officer who is forced to take charge of the situation and use his brains and common sense in order to hold the mission.  An excellent, excellent film.  

My Classic Movie Pick: The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek

My classic film pick is one of the wackiest, funniest, romance-comedies ever made.  The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek was  written and directed by Preston Sturges, and released by Paramount Studios in January of  1944.  This movie has  a couple of surprising  plot twists and  when I first watched the film I was surprised that one of those  twists had made it past the censors!

The excellent cast includes:  Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, William Demarest, Diana Lynn, with guest cameos by Brian Donlevy and Akim Tamiroff, as well as a myriad of great character actors and actresses who were usually in Preston Sturges’s movies.

Betty portrays Trudy Kockenlocker, a high school graduated working girl.  She works at  Morgan Creek’s music store, helping shoppers listen to the latest records that have come in, and we meet her doing a funny lip-synch to a song sung by an artist with a very low,  bass voice.  A group of soldiers who  have stopped by the store  find Trudy’s lip-synching hilarious and they invite her to attend their farewell dance that night.  She assures them that she’ll be there and that she’ll be ready for all the fun.  As the soldiers leave the store, Norval Jones (Eddie Bracken)arrives.   Norval is a nervous guy, very polite, and it’s obvious that he is in love with Trudy, but she just considers him a good friend.  He asks Trudy to  go to the movies with him that night, but she tells him that she can’t because she has already planned on going to the soldiers’ farewell dance.  Trudy then remembers that her dad, Constable Kockenlocker(a great, grumpy performance by William Demarest), has forbidden her going to anymore of those soldiers’ parties.  Trudy really wants to go to the dance, and as Norval loves her, even though it’s not reciprocated, he agrees to pick her up that night, so that Trudy can tell her dad that she’s on a date with him.  Trudy’s plan is that she will drop  Norval  off at the movies and she’ll drive on to the dance.  When the dance is over, she’ll drive back to the movie theatre  and let Norval drive her home, arriving according to her dad’s curfew.

Norval asking Trudy to go to the movies.

Lip-synching for the soldiers.

Trudy goes to the dance, and she jitterbugs the night away, but unwisely, she decides to drink a lot of champagne, and during one jitterbug number, she is lifted too high and hits her head on a light fixture!  Time jumps ahead to 8:00 a.m. and  poor Norval has waited patiently for Trudy to arrive at the movie theatre!  Norval takes over the driving duties as he can tell Trudy is slightly hungover and confused as she can’t recall why she didn’t pick Norval up as planned.  When they arrive at Trudy’s house they are  greeted by a rampaging dad who races out the front door.  Constable Kockenlocker wants to throttle Norval for keeping his daughter out all night.  Trudy tries to calm her dad and tells him that they were at the movies, which doesn’t help as he knows the movie theater closes before midnight.  As he tries to grab Norval and beat him to a pulp, Trudy and her kid sister Emmy(Diana Lynn) grab their dad, and force him to the ground and pin him by sitting on him so Norval can escape!

Trudy enjoying herself at the soldiers’ party!

Officer Kockenlocker trying to get at Norval!

Later that day, Trudy starts to recall to Emmy bits and pieces about her fuzzy evening experiences.  Trudy recalls a wedding ceremony in front of a Justice of the Peace, but that she didn’t use her real name and she can’t recall who the groom was, just that he was a soldier!  There is also a wedding ring on the third finger of her left hand.  A few more weeks go by and Trudy discovers that she is expecting a baby!!  Norval comes to the rescue, not knowing that Trudy is expecting another man’s child, but as Trudy decides that she will need a husband, she encourages Norval’s love for her.  Then, she actually does fall in love with Norval, but she doesn’t want him to marry her when her first marriage is still legally binding, so the two of them hatch a crazy plan.  Trudy thinks the soldier she married had the last name of Ratzkiwatzki.  Norval, who is 4F, agrees to wear a relative’s old World War I uniform and then he and Trudy will drive 25 miles away to the Honeymoon Hotel and have the Justice of the Peace marry them.  After a week or two, Trudy can file for divorce from “Ratzkiwatzki”, and then she and Norval can have a proper wedding ceremony.   Simple plan, right? Wrong!  Norval messes up when signing the wedding license and writes his real name, not “Ratzkiwatzki” and the Justice of the Peace catches the mistake.  Police are called, Trudy has to fess up to her father about the soldiers’ party, the marriage, the baby on the way, that she really loves Norval who wants to marry her.  I won’t reveal the solutions to this crazy situation or even what the “miracle” is but if you do find this movie and watch it, I guarantee you’ll have an enjoyable time!

A publicity shot for The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek.

Trudy and Norval at the Justice of the Peace’s home.

The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek cost Paramount Studios $775,000 to make and earned them a nice box office profit of $9 million.  Audiences loved this nutty film and Sturges was nominated in 1945 for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.   In 2001, the movie was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and it was #54 on the American Film Institute’s List of Top 100 Comedic Films.    It was put on dvd in 2001 so one can purchase it via Amazon or Turner Classic Movies Shop TCM which is on their online site, and it is available to view through Netflix.  Turner Classic Movies also airs it so check their schedule, also on their online site.  Lastly, a kind soul put up some clips from the movie on Youtube.

My Classic Movie Pick: I Know Where I’m Going!

Decisions, decisions, decisions.  We all have to make them and they can be tricky, especially when a decision needs to be made and your head tells you one way you should go and your heart tells you another way.  Such a dilemma!  That is exactly the dilemma our heroine faces in the lovely romance film from Britain, 1945′s I Know Where I’m Going!

The movie opens with a montage of a little toddler girl, Joan Webster,  propelling herself around a living room in her family home.   Then we see Joan at age a 5, writing a bossy letter to Father Christmas informing him she wants silk stockings for Christmas!  Next,  we see  12 year old Joan with her stockings on and rushing across the street to get a ride home from the milkman instead of milling around the schoolyard with  her classmates.   Then we see Joan at 18, leaving work and getting her date to take her to a fancy restaurant instead of the movies.  At the end of this montage we see  Joan’s legs, stylishly dressed in silk stockings and heels, entering  a hotel lobby/restaurant.  Joan Webster(played by Wendy Hiller)  is the main focus of the movie’s plot.  Joan is a determined personality, she always “knows where she is going” and she so far has lived her life by that motto.  She graduated from school and has become an independent career woman.   The career has taken her into the stratosphere of business and before long she finds herself engaged to the owner of Consolidated Chemical Industries, Sir Robert Bellinger, one of the wealthiest men in England.  At the hotel Joan meets with her dad and over dinner informs him that she will be marrying Sir Robert the next day on the Isle of Kiloran, one of the Hebrides islands off the coast of Scotland.  Joan’s father is surprised and does comment that Sir Robert is the same age as himself, but that doesn’t seem to bother Joan.  Before she departs for the train station and her train to Scotland, she reminds her dad not to worry because she knows where she is going!

Joan telling her dad her plans to marry Sir Robert.

Next is a montage of dreams Joan has about her marriage to Consolidated Chemical Industries, interspersed with strange scenes of traveling to Scotland by train.  After Joan has traveled as far as she can travel in Scotland by train, she transfers to a bus and on that crowded bus she notices a handsome Naval Officer, Torquil MacNeil(Roger Livesey).   Joan and Officer MacNeil both exit the bus near the dock area of the village of Mull.  Joan asks a nearby boat captain if she can get a ride to Kiloran which one can see out in the distance from Mull’s docks.  The captain, Ruairidh Mhor(played by Finlay Curie), tells Joan that the weather is too fierce and no boats will be traveling to Kiloran until the next day, if the weather is better.  Joan is disappointed at this hindrance in her journey to the altar, and she reluctantly agrees to Officer MacNeil’s plan: that they stay overnight at his good friend Catriona’s(played by Pamela Brown) home.  At Catriona’s home, Joan is introduced to Colonel Barnstaple(C.W.R. Knight) a friend of Catriona’s, who is also staying at her home.  As Catriona and the Colonel fix dinner, Joan is delighted to notice a map of Kiloran on the wall and Officer MacNeil is able to tell Joan a lot of information about the island.  Later that night, as Joan is turning in, she has a short encounter with Officer MacNeil, who congratulates her on her upcoming wedding when she tells him about it, and he reminds Joan to count the beams on her ceiling and then pray a prayer so her wish can come true.  Joan prays for good weather so she can sail to Kiloran in the morning.  In the morning, as fast as she can, Joan readies herself for a trip to the docks and finds out that despite a sunny day, the gales are too strong for any boats to go out.  With Officer MacNeil’s help, they make arrangements to stay at a local hotel and decide to walk to the nearest coastal radio station  so Joan can place a call to Kiloran and talk to Sir Robert.  On the walk to the radio site, Joan and Officer MacNeil pass Moy Castle.  Joan has been reading up on the Hebrides and the area around them and knows that there is a curse on Moy Castle, a curse for the Lairds of Kiloran.  (Laird is Scottish for Lord and bestowed on the landowners of the Isle of Kiloran.)  Joan is eager to explore the castle, but Officer MacNeil refuses to go inside.  After Joan has explored Moy Castle, she emerges and begins to tease Officer MacNeil for being “chicken” and not wanting to explore and it is then that Officer MacNeil reveals that he is the current Laird of Kiloran and that despite what Joan may think, he has a healthy respect for this curse and he won’t step foot into that castle!

Joan praying for good weather.

Studying the map of Kiloran.

As the weather continues to misbehave, Joan and Officer MacNeil keep getting thrown together: she is invited to a tea held by some distant friends in the area and guess who is also a guest?  Officer MacNeil.  The Laird  is  invited to attend the 60th Wedding Anniversary of a local couple, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, and he invites Joan to attend with him.  We can tell that Officer MacNeil is growing fond of Joan, but being that she is engaged to another man, he doesn’t want to do anything to disrupt that part of Joan’s life.  At the anniversary party, a certain song is played, “The Nut-Brown Maid “.  Officer MacNeil explains the song to Joan, as it is one of his favorites, and when he gets to the lyric that the Nut-Brown Maid is the maid for him, he gives Joan such an intense look that she realizes that the Laird has fallen in love with her.  It is at this point that a son of the Campbell’s(John Laurie) thanks the Laird for coming and encourages him and his guest to dance, which Joan reluctantly agrees to.  After the party is over, Joan practically runs to her hotel room to not to  have to be near Officer MacNeil.  Joan realizes that she has a growing attraction and interest in Officer MacNeil, but this will destroy her plan of marrying Sir Robert.  What  a dilemma she finds herself in!

Love has struck!

In her desperation to be on Kiloran and get her marriage to wealthy Sir Robert over with, Joan sneakily asks a younger sailor, Kenny(Murdo Morrison) to take her  and that she will pay him handsomely and then he will have the funds to marry his sweetheart, Bridie(Margot Fitzsimmons).    Kenny agrees but right before he and Joan can take off in the motorboat, Officer MacNeil jumps aboard.  He has found out Joan’s hairbrained plan, as the weather is really bad, and he scolds her for using her access to money to bribe Kenny into taking her.  Joan informs him quite angrily that she doesn’t care, she has to get to Kiloran and that causes Officer MacNeil to insist on motoring the boat.  The trip proves treacherous, the waves are high, a storm is upon them, and the engine gets flooded.  Added to this danger is the fact that they are being drawn ever closer to the Corryvreckan whirlpool which could mean death for all three of them.  Officer MacNeil manages to get the motorboat engine repaired in the nick of time and they sail back to the docks of Mull.  Joan stomps off to her hotel room, refusing to speak to Officer MacNeil.

The dangerous boat trip to Kiloran.

The next day dawns with sunny skies, low breezes, and the bay very calm.  This is it, the day to sail to Kiloran and finally marry Sir Robert.  Joan is preparing to walk to the docks, her luggage has already been put onto the boat.  She meets Officer MacNeil one last time outdoors, on the path that leads to the docks.  He graciously wishes her well in her future life, and she thanks him.  Then Joan asks Officer MacNeil for one favor before she departs.  He asks what is it and she asks him to kiss her.  He gives her quite a kiss, and then she tells him good-bye.  Officer MacNeil is off on his walk and happens to pass by Moy Castle.  He decides that to be afraid of a centuries old curse is silly and he decides to explore the castle.  As we see him in the castle, a voice of a woman intones the curse of the Lairds of Kiloran.  Due to a long ago Laird catching his wife in an adulterous affair with another man, he had the wife and her lover bound together with chains and placed in the water-filled dungeon of the castle with only a stone for them to stand upon when the tide would rise.  Eventually, their strength waning, the lovers fell into the water and drowned.  The Laird and all of the male Laird descendants were cursed by the wife right before her death, that if a Laird walked into Moy Castle, he would be chained to a woman for the rest of his days.   When Officer MacNeil gets to the battlements of the castle, he hears bagpipers in the distance and then sees them approaching.  They are playing his favorite song, ” The Nut-Brown Maid” and marching right behind them is Joan!  She waves to him and runs to the castle and he rushes down to the entrance to greet her with an embrace.  Such a happy ending!

Various scenes from the movie.

The Laird exploring the castle and ignoring the curse.

I happened to stumble upon this film 5 years ago when it aired on Turner Classic Movies.  It left me in awe, not only the beautiful cinematographer’s shots of Scotland, but the strong plot, the  wonderful acting, it all  left me wondering why can’t Hollywood make as many good movies like this one anymore?  Even famed American director Martin Scorsese has  declared this film one of his favorites!   I Know Where I’m Going! was written and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the creative British movie magic makers at The Archers, their production company.  The movie was a large box office hit in Great Britain.   It is available to rent via Netflix, via Amazon’s instant rent it section or for purchase, and it does appear on Turner Classic Movies from time to time, and someone has put parts of it up on Youtube.  Don’t miss this wonderful romance film!  It is a movie that I don’t mind watching over and over again.