The Baron of Arizona (1949 - b/w) - Initially turned off because I thought it was a western, but it doesn't get to that until well over a way, and for a Lippert cheapie, Sam Fuller and Vincent Price treat it as an epic.
The Rat Race (1960) - Rote romcom with Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis.
The Subterraneans (1960) - Big budget beatnikery with Leslie Caron, George Peppard and Roddy McDowall. See also The Young Savages (1961 - b/w).
The Hellions (1961) - Forgettable African western with Richard Todd.
Flower Drum Song (1961) - Typical musical of the era, but with an all-Asian cast (bar African-Irish-American Juanita Hall looking like an Irish mammy named Bernie).
No Man is an Island (1962) - The sort of Filipino-shot trash usually with George Montgomery, but here it is Jeffrey Hunter.
A Ticklish Affair (1963) - Sub-Doris Day vehicle for Shirley Jones.
The Girl named Tamiko (1963)- France Nuyen plays the title role, but the actual lead is Laurence Harvey as a supposed Eurasian photographer. Forgettable.
Captain Newman, MD (1963) - Light military comedy drama with Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Bobby Darin - you know the drill, then Robert Duvall appears, acting in a completely different style.
The Iron Maiden (1963) - Alleged comedy with Michael Craig, Alan Hale Junior, Jeff "Aunt May" Donnell, Anne Helm and Noel Purcell, who I think is playing British. About a steam rally.
Very much in the mould of The Fast Lady (1962) and Father Came Too (1964), except without the baffling waste of the versatile Stanley Baxter, that master impressionist known for his female impersonations and grotesques, cast in the role of straight romantic lead.
Island of Love (1963)- Forgettable Greek-set comedy with Robert Preston, Tony Randall and Walter Matthau. One Oscar and another Felix.
A Gathering of Eagles (1963) - Dreary aviation soap with Rock Hudson,Rod Taylor and Mary Peach.
Tamahine (1963) - Nancy Kwan is a Polynesian schoolgirl in a boys' academy. That's the joke.
For Love or Money (1963) - Kirk Douglas-Mitzi Gaynor romantico.
Man's Favourite Sport (1964) - Rock Hudson goes fishing. He feigns romance with Paula Prentiss, but looks more interested in fishing.
See also A Very Special Favor (1965) with Hudson and Leslie Caron.
Honeymoon Hotel (1964) - Almost Beach Party-ish comedy with Nancy Kwan, Robert Goulet, Keenan Wynn and Elsa Lanchester.
Marriage on the Rocks (1965) - Routine Rat Pack comedy.
The Cincinnati Kid (1965) - How many times did Steve McQueen make this film?
Bus Riley's Back in Town (1965) - Michael Parks tries to be the new James Dean, in front of Ann-Margret.
Boeing, Boeing (1965) - Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis in tired airline farce. Jerry tries not to do his schtick, but he's still insufferable.
The Truth About Spring (1965) - Forgettable Disney-esque modern piracy romcom with James MacArthur and Hayley Mills. See also Pretty Polly (1967).
Red Line 5000 (1965) - James Caan in a Howard Hawks-directed AIP-esque car racer that is way too long.
Lady L (1965) - Bloated all-star Europud alleged comedy with Sophia Loren, Paul Newman and David Niven, directed by Peter Ustinov. Loren wears inaccurate old age makeup.
Never Too Late (1965) - Forgettable middle-aged pregnancy comedy with Maureen O'Sullivan and Paul Ford.
An American Dream (1966) - Bloated pornographic muzak with Stuart Whitman.
Made in Paris (1966) - Rote romcom with Ann-Margret.
The Taming of the Shrew (1967) - Burton and Taylor do Shakespeare. Like dinner theatre in Cleveland.
The Last Safari (1967) - Stewart Granger in colonial safari bullshit that demonises elephants and casts Gabriella Licudi as a comic relief, supposed mixed-race airhead, who ends up coming across as a Navin Johnson figure.
The 25th Hour (1967) - Anthony Quinn is in and out of the Nazis AND the concentration camp. Tired old Europud.
The Stranger (1967) - Routine Visconti artiness.
More Than A Miracle (1967) - Italian Cinderellasploitation with Sophia Loren and Omar Sharif.
Barefoot in the Park (1967) - Rote romcom with Redford, Fonda, Boyer and Herb "Big John/Stanley Zbornak" Edelman.
See also Any Wednesday (1966).
The Cool Ones (1967) - Sub-AIP garage rock comedy supported by Roddy McDowall and Robert Coote.
Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) - The possible father of modern British prestige cinema. And all the worse for it.
Three Bites of the Apple (1967) - David McCallum and Sylva Koscina in a romantic comedy about a British tour guide. The Italian Private Walker-esque spiv sidekick is Domenico Modugno, the Italian singer and actor and MP who was the first to sing Volare, while in the Eurovision Song Contest, no less.
First to Fight (1967) - Forgettable WW2 nonsense with Chad Everett, constantly soundtracked by a syrupy instrumental of As Time Goes By. Gene Hackman appears, at the point where he wasn't yet every dad's favourite actor, and is almost not-quite-recognisable. He looks like someone who looks like Gene Hackman, but not a complete doppelganger.
Arabella (1967) - Silly Italian romantic flapper comedy with Virna Lisi, James Fox, Margaret Rutherford and Terry-Thomas as several characters, one without a tache.
Nobody's Perfect (1968) - TV-esque naval com with Nancy Kwan and Doug McClure, and David Hartman.
Sweet November (1968) - Amiable romcom with Sandy Dennis and Anthony Newley (who as he matured, got less infuriatingly obnoxious).
Don't Just Stand There (1968) - Bland backlot-bound faux-French farce with Robert Wagner and Mary Tyler Moore. Features a "reparation du television" van.
Up the Junction (1968) - At least it's not by Ken Loach, but still insufferable Swinging London nonsense. Though seeing Dennis Waterman as the lead in a major motion picture, it could have been so good for him. Was the placing of director Peter Collinson's The Penthouse on a billboard deliberate?
Petulia (1968) - Dreary swinging London psychedelia actually set in San Francisco.
Rachel, Rachel (1968) - Joanne Woodward goes mad when seeing kids read Mad, and falls in love with him from Moon Zero Two.
Bandits in Milan (1968) - Solid Eurocrime, from DeLaurentiis. Refs to Perry Mason to Americanise it. Arguably the film that made Tomas Milian a star of the genre.
The Subject Was Roses (1968) - Dreary relationship drama with Pat Neal, Jack Albertson and Martin Sheen.
Mayerling (1968) - Colourful but overlong romance between Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve, with more overuse of Spartacus by Khacaturian than the Onedin Line and Caligula combined.
Isadora (1968) - Karel Reisz tries to channel Ken Russell,while Vanessa Redgrave horribly overacts.
Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968) - Slapsticky Doris Day vehicle.
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968)- Peter Sellers hippie shite.
A Place for Lovers (1968) - Forgettable, hackneyed romance with Mastroianni and Dunaway, by De Sica. Once seen as one of the worst films ever made, now forgotten. It's bad, but it's not so terrible that you remember it.
The Arrangement (1969) - Dreary business drama with Kirk Douglas, Faye Dunaway, Deborah Kerr, Richard Boone, and a random Batman-style BIFF! Boone plays Douglas' dad, despite being younger. They look about the same age.
Goodbye Mr. Chips (1969) - Old Peter O'Toole looks nothing like actual old Peter O'Toole. The songs are terrible. The main point of interest was noticing Tom "Compo's son" Owen as a schoolboy. Also a TV lies in the corner of old O'Toole's office. What did Mr. Chips watch? He probably despised ITV. A 60s Boots appears in the 30s scenes.
Alfred the Great (1969) - Utter flop for MGM, basically a hippyish attempt to an epic for the youth. For the longest time, it's just David Hemmings, Michael York and Prunella Ransome, Colin Blakely in the background, and Peter Vaughan appears briefly. Then, Ian McKellen and Vivien Merchant pop up. Shot in Ireland, and apparently did a lot of good for Galway and Westmeath. The trouble is most of the cast are unrecognisable, all in beards. And there's some good actors - Alan Dobie, Julian Glover, Julian "R. White's" Chagrin, Jim Norton, Christopher Timothy, Barry Evans, Henry Woolf but they could all be ginger hippies from Mullingar. Even McKellen has the look of a disaffected youth from Portumna who hates showbands.
The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) - Blunt teen romance with Liza Minnelli.
Winning (1969) - Paul Newman does his racing picture. Tired soaper.
The Appointment (1969) - Omar Sharif and Anouk Aimee in a tired piece of transatlantic tripe.
The Deserter (1971) - A peculiar hybrid of American and spaghetti western. Shot in Italy, Spain and Yugoslavia with a Yugoslavian lead in Bekim Fehmiu and produced by Dino de Laurentiis, but directed by Burt Kennedy, and costarring Richard Crenna, John Huston, Chuck Connors, Pat Wayne, Slim Pickens, and Ricardo Montalban as a pigtailed Indian wise man (Montalban was often cast as Native Americans, Hollywood producers not releasing that not all Mexicans are of native extraction, some are the children of Spanish immigrants), plus Woody Strode, a common sight in both countries' westerns, and the distinctly Italian Mimmo Palmara as a vicious Apache. Despite all the American western vets, it feels distinctly Italian, with Piero Piccioni's score and Aldo Tonti's atmospheric cinematography. Oh, and Ian Bannen turns up.
Which Way Is Up (1977)/Some Kind of a Hero (1982) - Mediocre Richard Pryor vehicles.
See also Bustin' Loose (1981) and The Toy (1982), where Pryor becomes a rich white kid's personal Spider-Man, and not even Wilfrid Hyde-White can save it.
Little Darlings (1980) - Wanted to see this since I was ten. Don't ask. It's a rather dreary film about 15 year olds Tatum O'Neal and Kristy McNicol trying to get laid while chain smoking. Soundtracked by the Bellamy Brothers.
Pretty Baby (1978) - It has no real plot. It's just "isn't Brooke Shields naked lovely?" No, no, it isn't. She's a kid. Her mother was a weirdo.
Atlantic City (1980) - It certainly captures the place, though weird to see Burt and co watching City-TV, a Canadian station.
The Nude Bomb (1980)- A massive ad for Universal studios, with placement for Battlestar Galactica and In God We Tru$t,that happens to have Maxwell Smart at the centre. And instead of Barbara Feldon, Sylvia Kristel and some others.
The Blue Lagoon (1980)- It looks nice, but it's hard to take seriously. Leo McKern is probably the best thing, but when he dies, Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins are left to carry. And they're not exactly stellar presences. And William Daniels is barely in it, either. And he and McKern are the two good solid presences.
Little Miss Marker (1980) - Walter Matthau, Julie Andrews and Tony Curtis is sub-Disney Universal cheapness. See also 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962), a previous version starring Curtis.
The Hollywood Knights (1980) - Barefaced American Graffiti imitation with Tony Danza and Michelle Pfeiffermenowitz.
It's My Turn (1980) - Bland romantic comdrama with Jill Clayburgh and Michael Douglas.
Seems Like Old Times (1980) - As forgettable as Foul Play was memorable.
The Competition (1980) - Dreary orchestral love story with Amy Irving and Richard Dreyfuss.
Paternity (1981) - Forgettable Burt Reynolds dramedy.
Petrole, Petrole (1981) - Baffling French comedy about OPEC.
Neighbors (1981) - Belushi/Aykroyd horror comedy. Annoyingly paced.
Stripes (1981) - Goofball idiocy. Despite the SCTV cast members involved.
Continental Divide (1981) - There's a stall selling Marvel and DC and Archie comics. I see a Star Trek comic, Sgt. Rock JLA, Ghosts... It's John Belushi and Blair Brown in an unremarkable romance.
I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can (1981) - Bland TV movie-like weepie with Jill Clayburgh, Nicol Williamson and Joe Pesci. See also First Monday in October (1981).
Mommie Dearest (1981) - A junky TV-level biopic of Joan Crawford with extra production values. Faye Dunaway plays Crawford as a grande dame guignol baddie, while Steve Forrest is his usual ronsealed self.
Only When I Laugh (1981) - Tedious Neil Simon with Marsha Mason and Kristy McNicol, very TV-movie ish.
Hospital Massacre (1981) - Alias X-Ray. It's an intriguing idea - a stalker in a hospital setting, but done so pedestrian that it becomes moot.
The Four Seasons (1981) - Average middle-aged dramedy with Carol Burnett, Sandy Dennis, Jack Weston and director Alan Alda.
Absence of Malice (1982) - Dreary courtroom drama with Paul Newman. Yes, another one.
Lookin' To Get Out (1982) - Forgettable Jon Voight-Ann Margret-Burt Young buddy comedy. Features in cameos Paul Daniels Show semi-regular Kris Kremo, Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy from the 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, and one Angelina Jolie Voight.
The Sting II (1983) - Ropey televisual (hey, that was the shop set used for Columbo - Dagger of the Mind) cash-in with Mac Davis and Jackie Gleason as not-quite-the-same characters as Redford and Newman. They are, but they have different names. Robert Shaw is now Oliver Reed, in interesting casting. The most interesting thing about the film.
One Deadly Summer (1983) - Overlong erotica with Isabelle Adjani.
D.C. Cab (1983) - Idiotic 80s comedy.
Hanna K (1983) - Arab-Israeli boredom with Jill Clayburgh and Gabriel Byrne when he was just an RTÉ soap actor.
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) - Oh God, visually stimulating but somewhat insufferable.
The Lords of Discipline (1983) - Rote American military academy story, but the thing is it's shot mainly in England, and some of it looks very American, but Ed Bishop has a big role and he is seen in what is clearly America, and it turns out, that though the film was based in Britain, they did fly Bishop out with the other actors to South Carolina. The likes of Stuart Milligan, Jason Connery, Rolf Saxon, William Hope, Matt Frewer, Tyso from the Tomorrow People and Simon Shepherd play recruits. Oh, and "Wild Bill" Paxton, as he is credited.
Racing with the Moon (1984) - Nostalgic, nondescript 40s-set teen movie with Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern and Nicolas Cage.
The Razor's Edge (1984) - It looks gorgeous, but it feels a bit too much Merchant-Ivory. Worth it to see Bill Murray and Peter Vaughan together as Yorkshire miners.
Best Defense (1984) - As shite as they. Dudley and Eddie Murphy in different movies.
Thursday 30 April 2020
Monday 27 April 2020
117
War Nurse (1930 - b/w) - As generic and predictable as the title.
Doughboys (1930 - b/w) - Buster Keaton in a foxhole.
The Last Flight (1931 - b/w) - Another post-WW1 drama about dreary pilots, with Richard Barthelmess.
Chances (1931 - b/w) - Rote WW1 drama with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Alexander Hamilton (1931 - b/w) - Another George Arliss biopic.
West of Broadway (1931 - b/w) - As generic as the title. With John Gilbert.
Silver Dollar (1932 - b/w) - Edward G. Robinson plays a Kansan gold-searcher.
The Wet Parade (-1932 - b/w) - Walter Huston alcoholism drama.
Are You Listening? (1932 - b/w) - Rote musical behind the scenes drama.
Ever in My Heart (1933 - b/w) - Rote wartime melodrama with Barbara Stanwyck and Ralph Bellamy.
Dinner at Eight (1933 - b/w) - A typical upper crust stage drama.
The House on 56th Street (1933 - b/w) - Kay Francis melodrama.
Broadway to Hollywood (1933 - b/w) - Typical backstage musical with Frank Morgan.
I Loved A Woman (1933 - b/w) - Kay Francis melodrama with Edward G. Robinson stiff in period garb.
Today We Live (1933 - b/w) - Joan Crawford war-romance. More of the same melodrama.
Captured (1933 - b/w) - Rote war drama with Leslie Howard.
Hell Below (1933 - b/w) - The same old naval battle with Walter Huston.
Heroes for Sale (1933 - b/w) - Interchangeable wartime drama with Loretta Young.
Queen Christina (1933 - b/w) - The typical 30s historical epic, with Garbo.
British Agent (1934 - b/w) - Leslie Howard-Kay Francis Soviet-set melodrama.
Operator 13 (-1934 - b/w) - Marian Davies escapes the Civil War by blacking up as a maid, and falls in with Gary Cooper. Just as terrible as it sounds.
Rendezvous (1935 - b/w) - Another interchangeable war drama with Rosalind Russell and William Powell.
General Spanky (1936 - b/w) - The Little Rascals are child soldiers in the Civil War. Yeah.
The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936 - b/w)/The Life of Emile Zola (1937 - b/w) - Similar biopics despite the differences in the lives of the people profiled. Both with Paul Muni.
The Gorgeous Hussy (1936 - b/w) - Joan Crawford is herself, amongst an all-star cast.
Conquest (1937 - b/w) - Typical Garbo, with Napoleon Charles Boyer-parte.
The Good Earth (1937 - b/w) - So unconvincingly Chinese it doesn't even feel like Earth.
The Shopworn Angel (1938 - b/w) - Rote melodrama (I do overuse rote) with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.
The Toy Wife (1938 - b/w) - Colonial tweeness.
A Yank in Oxford (1938 - b/w) - Typical MGM British tosh, except actually shot in Britain, with Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh. Jon Pertwee is an extra, apparently.
The US-shot spiritual sequel A Yank in Eton (1942 -b/w) with twenty-odd Mickey Rooney still playing a child is very hard to take seriously, though.
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938 - b/w) - Colbert, Cooper, feels so samey.
Marie Antoinette (1938 - b/w) - Norma Shearer does Garbo, alongside Tyrone Power and an out of place Robert Morley.
See also Madame Du Barry (1934 - b/w), with Dolores del Rio.
Wife, Husband and Friend (1939 - b/w) - Dreary opera drama with Loretta Young.
Young Tom Edison (1940 - b/w) - Mickey Rooney age 20 struggles as naughty schoolboy Thomas Edison. See also the much more serious Edison The Man (1940 - b/w) with Spencer Tracy and ad placement for CBS, ABC and WJR.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940 - b/w) - One of the proto-typical romantic comedies.
Pastor Hall (1940 - b/w) - Rote anti-Nazi propaganda Britpic with Wilfrid Lawson.
See also Contraband (1940 - b/w) with Conrad Veidt and the Foreman Went to France (1941 - b/w). Foreman spawned two further, more comedic Tommy Trinder vehicles, The Bells Go Down (1942 - b/w) and Sailors Three (1943).
Comrade X (1940 - b/w) - Clark Gable is horrible to Communist Hedy Lamarr.
See also the astrology cobblers of The Heavenly Body (1944 - b/w) with William Powell and Hedy.
Susan and God (1940 - b/w) - Joan Crawford sadly is not a cop who teams up with God.
Design for Scandal (1941 - b/w) - Generic screwballer with Rosalind Russell and Walter Pidgeon. See also The Feminine Touch (1942 - b/w).
Kathleen (1941 - b/w) - Shirley Temple tries to be grown up, age 12. Yikes!
Been watching a lot of MGM comedies that kind of blend into one. Third Finger, Left Hand (1940 - b/w), Hullabaloo (1940 - b/w) with Frank Morgan, Married Bachelor (1941 - b/w), I Love You Again (1940 - b/w) and Love Crazy (1941 - b/w, with Powell and Loy), This Time for Keeps (1942 - b/w), Sunday Punch (1942 - b/w), We Were Dancing (1942 - b/w), The Affairs of Martha (1942 - b/w) and Her Cardboard Lover (1942 - b/w) with Norma Shearer, Tish (1942 - b/w), Young Ideas (1943 - b/w), The Youngest Profession (1943 - b/w), Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1944 - b/w)/Lost in a Harem (1945 - b/w)/Rio Rita (1942 - b/w), Blonde Fever (1944 - b/w), The Sailor Takes A Wife (1945 - b/w), Twice Blessed (1946 - which predates the Parent Trap), She Went to the Races (1945 - b/w), My Brother Talks to Horses (1945 - b/w) and Little Mister Jim (1945 - b/w) with child actor Jackie Jenkins, Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945), Faithful in my Fashion (1946 - b/w), No Leave, No Love (1946 - b/w, with Van Johnson and British star Pat Kirkwood, the other alleged great love of Phil the Greek), the Show-Off (1946 - b/w), and the dire musicals I Dood It (1943 - b/w) and Esther Williams in Bathing Beauty (1948) with Red Skelton, The Bride Goes Wild (1948 - b/w).
And various Ann Sothern vehicles - Maisie (1939 - b/w), Congo Maisie (1940 - b/w), Ringside Maisie (1941 - b/w), Maisie was a Lady (1941 - b/w), Gold Rush Maisie (1942 - b/w), Maisie Gets Her Man (1942 - b/w), Maisie Goes to Reno (1944 - b/w), Up Goes Maisie (1946 - b/w), and Panama Hattie (1942 - b/w).
When Ladies Meet (1941 - b/w) - Garson vs Crawford.
Two Faced Woman (1941 - b/w) - Greta Garbo moans.
Come Live With Me (1941 - b/w) - Hedy Lamarr/James Stewart romance.
Devil and Miss Jones (1941 - b/w) - Rote though sparky shipbound romcom with Jean Arthur.
Pride of the Yankees (1942 - b/w) - Baseballs. See also The Stratton Story (1949 - b/w).
Tennessee Johnson (1942 - b/w) - Post-Civil War drama with Van Heflin a slightly Wellesesque presence.
The Vanishing Virginian (1942 - b/w) - Political drama with Frank Morgan.
Slightly Dangerous (1943 - b/w) - Feels very samey, this Lana Turner vehicle.
The Human Comedy (1943 - b/w) - Basically Andy Hardy in all but name, with Mickey Rooney and Frank Morgan.
Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938 - b/w) was a slog, despite Mickey and Judy Garland.
Madame Curie (1943 -b/w) - Rigsby's favourites Garson and Pidgeon are back.
H.M. Pulham, Esquire (1943 - b/w) - Routine drama with Robert Young.
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) - Treacly, always presumed it was a musical but there's only that one song.
3 Men in White (1944 - b/w) - Dr. Kildare without Kildare only Gillespie. See also Young Dr. Kildare (1938 - b/w).
Adventure (1945 - b/w) - Greer Garson is Greer Garson. Clark Gable is Walter Pidgeon.
Cynthia (1947 - b/w) - Forgettable teen comedy with Elizabeth Taylor.
Every Girl Should Be Married (1948 - b/w) - Cary Grant on autopilot.
Luxury Liner (1948) - Bland colour musical.
Strange Bedfellows (1965) - Generic romcom with Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida, a sequel-kinda to Come September (1961). Set in London, and with Edward Judd, Terry-Thomas and Arthur Haynes, but shot mostly at Universal Studios. They try very hard to make the European streets look like London. They clearly had a budget, so ads for Adam Faith, the Swinging Blue Jeans and the Hollies are placed about, a massive Vauxhall griffin on the wall, and footage of cinemas showing Tom Jones and a Boots' help but it still looks fake, and there's a lot of Cockernee mugging. There's a car chase about the backlot, where every little nook is used. Features a tabloid called the Daily Gazette, plus the Daily Echo, London Press, London Clarion.
Promise Her Anything (1966) - Silly Disney-esque comedy set in the US shot in England, with Warren Beatty and Leslie Caron handling an unruly infant.
Half A Sixpence (1967) - I am infuriated by Tommy Steele. And I despise Cockney singalongs (well, this kind of music hall nonsense - I quite like Chas and Dave and think Ain't No Pleasing You is one of the finest songs ever written).
Where's Jack (1969) - More Steele. This film is an average 60s Tom Jones knockoff, and like Sinful Davey (1968), it was shot in Ireland, and therefore my grandad tended the horses.
Urban Cowboy (1980) - Travolta does a film about country music fans and line dancing. Oh god! What's that sketch show he watches?
Ordinary People (1980) - Ordinary indeed.
Nijinsky (1980) - Forgettable ballet biopic. The only time Ronald Pickup is given bigger billing than Jeremy's Iron, and Frederick Jaeger and Vernon Dobtcheff are billed above Sian Phillips.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) - An erotic thriller with a budget, though nice to see copies of Doc Savage, the Avenger and Photoplay.
First Blood (1982) - The first quarter is great, then it gets samey. The thing about it, people forget is that it's almost an honorary Canadian tax shelter picture. It's set in Washington, but clearly shot in British Columbia. Even the TV station used is KVOS, a weird trans-national hybrid that served both Washington and B.C., and showed a mix of CBS programmes, being an affiliate of the Tiffany network, and BBC and ITV sitcoms. And the director is ex-CBC/BBC man Ted Kotcheff. Didn't realise the theme was written by former Matt Monro associate Hal Shaper. Man, we're all gonna miss Brian Dennehy.
Doughboys (1930 - b/w) - Buster Keaton in a foxhole.
The Last Flight (1931 - b/w) - Another post-WW1 drama about dreary pilots, with Richard Barthelmess.
Chances (1931 - b/w) - Rote WW1 drama with Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Alexander Hamilton (1931 - b/w) - Another George Arliss biopic.
West of Broadway (1931 - b/w) - As generic as the title. With John Gilbert.
Silver Dollar (1932 - b/w) - Edward G. Robinson plays a Kansan gold-searcher.
The Wet Parade (-1932 - b/w) - Walter Huston alcoholism drama.
Are You Listening? (1932 - b/w) - Rote musical behind the scenes drama.
Ever in My Heart (1933 - b/w) - Rote wartime melodrama with Barbara Stanwyck and Ralph Bellamy.
Dinner at Eight (1933 - b/w) - A typical upper crust stage drama.
The House on 56th Street (1933 - b/w) - Kay Francis melodrama.
Broadway to Hollywood (1933 - b/w) - Typical backstage musical with Frank Morgan.
I Loved A Woman (1933 - b/w) - Kay Francis melodrama with Edward G. Robinson stiff in period garb.
Today We Live (1933 - b/w) - Joan Crawford war-romance. More of the same melodrama.
Captured (1933 - b/w) - Rote war drama with Leslie Howard.
Hell Below (1933 - b/w) - The same old naval battle with Walter Huston.
Heroes for Sale (1933 - b/w) - Interchangeable wartime drama with Loretta Young.
Queen Christina (1933 - b/w) - The typical 30s historical epic, with Garbo.
British Agent (1934 - b/w) - Leslie Howard-Kay Francis Soviet-set melodrama.
Operator 13 (-1934 - b/w) - Marian Davies escapes the Civil War by blacking up as a maid, and falls in with Gary Cooper. Just as terrible as it sounds.
Rendezvous (1935 - b/w) - Another interchangeable war drama with Rosalind Russell and William Powell.
General Spanky (1936 - b/w) - The Little Rascals are child soldiers in the Civil War. Yeah.
The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936 - b/w)/The Life of Emile Zola (1937 - b/w) - Similar biopics despite the differences in the lives of the people profiled. Both with Paul Muni.
The Gorgeous Hussy (1936 - b/w) - Joan Crawford is herself, amongst an all-star cast.
Conquest (1937 - b/w) - Typical Garbo, with Napoleon Charles Boyer-parte.
The Good Earth (1937 - b/w) - So unconvincingly Chinese it doesn't even feel like Earth.
The Shopworn Angel (1938 - b/w) - Rote melodrama (I do overuse rote) with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan.
The Toy Wife (1938 - b/w) - Colonial tweeness.
A Yank in Oxford (1938 - b/w) - Typical MGM British tosh, except actually shot in Britain, with Robert Taylor and Vivien Leigh. Jon Pertwee is an extra, apparently.
The US-shot spiritual sequel A Yank in Eton (1942 -b/w) with twenty-odd Mickey Rooney still playing a child is very hard to take seriously, though.
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938 - b/w) - Colbert, Cooper, feels so samey.
Marie Antoinette (1938 - b/w) - Norma Shearer does Garbo, alongside Tyrone Power and an out of place Robert Morley.
See also Madame Du Barry (1934 - b/w), with Dolores del Rio.
Wife, Husband and Friend (1939 - b/w) - Dreary opera drama with Loretta Young.
Young Tom Edison (1940 - b/w) - Mickey Rooney age 20 struggles as naughty schoolboy Thomas Edison. See also the much more serious Edison The Man (1940 - b/w) with Spencer Tracy and ad placement for CBS, ABC and WJR.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940 - b/w) - One of the proto-typical romantic comedies.
Pastor Hall (1940 - b/w) - Rote anti-Nazi propaganda Britpic with Wilfrid Lawson.
See also Contraband (1940 - b/w) with Conrad Veidt and the Foreman Went to France (1941 - b/w). Foreman spawned two further, more comedic Tommy Trinder vehicles, The Bells Go Down (1942 - b/w) and Sailors Three (1943).
Comrade X (1940 - b/w) - Clark Gable is horrible to Communist Hedy Lamarr.
See also the astrology cobblers of The Heavenly Body (1944 - b/w) with William Powell and Hedy.
Susan and God (1940 - b/w) - Joan Crawford sadly is not a cop who teams up with God.
Design for Scandal (1941 - b/w) - Generic screwballer with Rosalind Russell and Walter Pidgeon. See also The Feminine Touch (1942 - b/w).
Kathleen (1941 - b/w) - Shirley Temple tries to be grown up, age 12. Yikes!
Been watching a lot of MGM comedies that kind of blend into one. Third Finger, Left Hand (1940 - b/w), Hullabaloo (1940 - b/w) with Frank Morgan, Married Bachelor (1941 - b/w), I Love You Again (1940 - b/w) and Love Crazy (1941 - b/w, with Powell and Loy), This Time for Keeps (1942 - b/w), Sunday Punch (1942 - b/w), We Were Dancing (1942 - b/w), The Affairs of Martha (1942 - b/w) and Her Cardboard Lover (1942 - b/w) with Norma Shearer, Tish (1942 - b/w), Young Ideas (1943 - b/w), The Youngest Profession (1943 - b/w), Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1944 - b/w)/Lost in a Harem (1945 - b/w)/Rio Rita (1942 - b/w), Blonde Fever (1944 - b/w), The Sailor Takes A Wife (1945 - b/w), Twice Blessed (1946 - which predates the Parent Trap), She Went to the Races (1945 - b/w), My Brother Talks to Horses (1945 - b/w) and Little Mister Jim (1945 - b/w) with child actor Jackie Jenkins, Her Highness and the Bellboy (1945), Faithful in my Fashion (1946 - b/w), No Leave, No Love (1946 - b/w, with Van Johnson and British star Pat Kirkwood, the other alleged great love of Phil the Greek), the Show-Off (1946 - b/w), and the dire musicals I Dood It (1943 - b/w) and Esther Williams in Bathing Beauty (1948) with Red Skelton, The Bride Goes Wild (1948 - b/w).
And various Ann Sothern vehicles - Maisie (1939 - b/w), Congo Maisie (1940 - b/w), Ringside Maisie (1941 - b/w), Maisie was a Lady (1941 - b/w), Gold Rush Maisie (1942 - b/w), Maisie Gets Her Man (1942 - b/w), Maisie Goes to Reno (1944 - b/w), Up Goes Maisie (1946 - b/w), and Panama Hattie (1942 - b/w).
When Ladies Meet (1941 - b/w) - Garson vs Crawford.
Two Faced Woman (1941 - b/w) - Greta Garbo moans.
Come Live With Me (1941 - b/w) - Hedy Lamarr/James Stewart romance.
Devil and Miss Jones (1941 - b/w) - Rote though sparky shipbound romcom with Jean Arthur.
Pride of the Yankees (1942 - b/w) - Baseballs. See also The Stratton Story (1949 - b/w).
Tennessee Johnson (1942 - b/w) - Post-Civil War drama with Van Heflin a slightly Wellesesque presence.
The Vanishing Virginian (1942 - b/w) - Political drama with Frank Morgan.
Slightly Dangerous (1943 - b/w) - Feels very samey, this Lana Turner vehicle.
The Human Comedy (1943 - b/w) - Basically Andy Hardy in all but name, with Mickey Rooney and Frank Morgan.
Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938 - b/w) was a slog, despite Mickey and Judy Garland.
Madame Curie (1943 -b/w) - Rigsby's favourites Garson and Pidgeon are back.
H.M. Pulham, Esquire (1943 - b/w) - Routine drama with Robert Young.
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) - Treacly, always presumed it was a musical but there's only that one song.
3 Men in White (1944 - b/w) - Dr. Kildare without Kildare only Gillespie. See also Young Dr. Kildare (1938 - b/w).
Adventure (1945 - b/w) - Greer Garson is Greer Garson. Clark Gable is Walter Pidgeon.
Cynthia (1947 - b/w) - Forgettable teen comedy with Elizabeth Taylor.
Every Girl Should Be Married (1948 - b/w) - Cary Grant on autopilot.
Luxury Liner (1948) - Bland colour musical.
Strange Bedfellows (1965) - Generic romcom with Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida, a sequel-kinda to Come September (1961). Set in London, and with Edward Judd, Terry-Thomas and Arthur Haynes, but shot mostly at Universal Studios. They try very hard to make the European streets look like London. They clearly had a budget, so ads for Adam Faith, the Swinging Blue Jeans and the Hollies are placed about, a massive Vauxhall griffin on the wall, and footage of cinemas showing Tom Jones and a Boots' help but it still looks fake, and there's a lot of Cockernee mugging. There's a car chase about the backlot, where every little nook is used. Features a tabloid called the Daily Gazette, plus the Daily Echo, London Press, London Clarion.
Promise Her Anything (1966) - Silly Disney-esque comedy set in the US shot in England, with Warren Beatty and Leslie Caron handling an unruly infant.
Half A Sixpence (1967) - I am infuriated by Tommy Steele. And I despise Cockney singalongs (well, this kind of music hall nonsense - I quite like Chas and Dave and think Ain't No Pleasing You is one of the finest songs ever written).
Where's Jack (1969) - More Steele. This film is an average 60s Tom Jones knockoff, and like Sinful Davey (1968), it was shot in Ireland, and therefore my grandad tended the horses.
Urban Cowboy (1980) - Travolta does a film about country music fans and line dancing. Oh god! What's that sketch show he watches?
Ordinary People (1980) - Ordinary indeed.
Nijinsky (1980) - Forgettable ballet biopic. The only time Ronald Pickup is given bigger billing than Jeremy's Iron, and Frederick Jaeger and Vernon Dobtcheff are billed above Sian Phillips.
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) - An erotic thriller with a budget, though nice to see copies of Doc Savage, the Avenger and Photoplay.
First Blood (1982) - The first quarter is great, then it gets samey. The thing about it, people forget is that it's almost an honorary Canadian tax shelter picture. It's set in Washington, but clearly shot in British Columbia. Even the TV station used is KVOS, a weird trans-national hybrid that served both Washington and B.C., and showed a mix of CBS programmes, being an affiliate of the Tiffany network, and BBC and ITV sitcoms. And the director is ex-CBC/BBC man Ted Kotcheff. Didn't realise the theme was written by former Matt Monro associate Hal Shaper. Man, we're all gonna miss Brian Dennehy.
Saturday 25 April 2020
100- mainly UA again
Be Yourself (1930 - b/w) - Forgettable Fanny Brice musical.
Abraham Lincoln (1930 - b/w) - Rote biopic with Walter Huston. Lots of Civil War nonsense.
One Romantic Night (1930 - b/w) - Rote romance with Lillian Gish.
Du Barry - Woman of passion (1930 - b/w) - Rote period drama with Norma Talmadge.
The Devil to Pay (1930 - b/w) - Ronald Colman melodrama.
Hell Harbor (1930 - b/w) -Routine island exotica with Lupe Velez.
Good Sport (1931 - b/w) - Forgettable early Fox drama.
Footlight Parade (1931 - b/w) - Rote Berkeley musical.
Kiki (1931 - b/w) - Mary Pickford warbles.
Corsair (1931 - b/w) - Maritime melodrama with Thelma Todd.
Indiscreet (1931 - b/w) - Gloria Swanson sings.
Abraham Lincoln (1930 - b/w) - Rote biopic with Walter Huston. Lots of Civil War nonsense.
One Romantic Night (1930 - b/w) - Rote romance with Lillian Gish.
Du Barry - Woman of passion (1930 - b/w) - Rote period drama with Norma Talmadge.
The Devil to Pay (1930 - b/w) - Ronald Colman melodrama.
Hell Harbor (1930 - b/w) -Routine island exotica with Lupe Velez.
Good Sport (1931 - b/w) - Forgettable early Fox drama.
Footlight Parade (1931 - b/w) - Rote Berkeley musical.
Kiki (1931 - b/w) - Mary Pickford warbles.
Corsair (1931 - b/w) - Maritime melodrama with Thelma Todd.
Indiscreet (1931 - b/w) - Gloria Swanson sings.
See also Perfect Understanding (-1933 - b/w)
One Heavenly Night (1931 - b/w) - Rote musical with Evelyn Laye and Leon Errol.
Arrowsmith (1931 - b/w) - Undistinguished medical jungle drama with Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes and Myrna Loy.
The Struggle (1931 - b/w) - Typical DW Griffith melodrama.
Street Scene (1931 - b/w) - Urban melodrama with Sylvia Sidney.
Tonight or Never (1931 - b/w) - Alleged comedy with Gloria Swanson.
The Unholy Garden (1931 - b/w) - Fay Wray crime melodrama.
The Silver Lining (1932 - b/w) - Basic 30s drama with Maureen O'Sullivan.
Hallelujah, I'm A Bum (1932 - b/w) - Al Jolson cobblers.
Sky Devils (1932 - b/w) - Rote aviation with Spencer Tracy.
Rain (1932 - b/w) - Another tropical melodrama, with Joan Crawford.
Queen Kelly (1932 - b/w) -Gorgeously photographed Gloria Swanson melodrama.
Cynara (1932 - b/w) - Rote faux-British melodrama with Ronald Colman and Kay Francis. See also The Masquerader (1933 - b/w).
Gallant Lady (1933 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Ann Harding and Clive Brook.
The Emperor Jones (1933 - b/w)- Awful racist tripe despite Paul Robeson. There's much deliberate caterwauling.
Secrets (1933 - b/w) - Western crossed with a period drama, with Mary Pickford and Leslie Howard.
Blood Money (1933 - b/w) - Rote gangster film from UA/20th Century.
See also Let 'Em Have It (1935 - b/w) and Looking for Trouble (1934 - b/w).
Advice to the Lovelorn (1933 - b/w) - Forgettable dating column programmer with Sterling Holloway.
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934 - b/w)/Pimpernel Smith (1941 - b/w) - Leslie Howard at his finest.
Moulin Rouge (1934 - b/w) - Rote musical with Constance Bennett and Franchot Tone.
Our Daily Bread (1934 - b/w) - Rote rural drama, by King Vidor.
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934 - b/w) - Rote installment with Ronald Colman, a sequel to Bulldog Drummond (1929 - b/w).
The Last Gentleman (-1934 - b/w) - Forgettable geriatrocomedy with George Arliss.
Red Salute (1935 - b/w) - Rote rural comedy with Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Young.
Clive of India (1935 - b/w) - Colonist bull.
The Wedding Night (1935 - b/w) - Routine melodrama with Gary Cooper and the forgettable sub-Dietrich/Garbo (lack of) charm of Anna Sten. See also Sten in We Live Again (1934 - b/w) and Nana (1934 - b/w).
Splendor (1935 - b/w) - Rote comedy possibly set in the UK, with Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins. See also The Richest Girl in the World (1934 - b/w) and These Three (1936 - b/w).
Cardinal Richelieu (1935 - b/w) - Rote biopic with George Arliss.
The Dark Angel (1935 - b/w) - Faux-British Merle Oberon/Fredric March melodrama.
Dodsworth (1936 - b/w) - Not unlike the above, with Walter Huston.
Dangerous Waters (1936 - b/w) - Routine actioner with Jack Holt.
The Last of the Mohicans (1936 - b/w) - Ludicrous. Bruce Cabot looks like a punk Ian Botham leading a bunch of transvestite Wednesday Addams cosplayers.
Come and Get It (1936 - b/w) - Joel McCrea Northern.
I Met My Love Again (1937 - b/w) - Henry Fonda/Joan Bennett romance.
A Star is Born (1937) - Janet Gaynor is annoying. She seems to age within five minutes. One minute, she's a convincing teen, then she isn't. Maybe from a distance, she is. It is weird to see Lionel Stander with jet black hair.
Woman Chases Man (1937 - b/w) - Forgettable romcom with Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea.
Stand-In (1937 - b/w) - Rote showbiz comedy with Joan Blondell, Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart.
Stella Dallas (1937 - b/w) - Rote Stanwyck melodrama.
Blockade (1938 - b/w) - Routine war romance with Henry Fonda.
Trade Winds (1938 - b/w) - Rote exotica with Fredric March.
The Cowboy and the Lady (1938 - b/w) - Goofy Gary Cooper/Merle Oberon western comedy.
There Goes My Heart (1938 - b/w) - Rote Fredric March drama.
Intermezzo - A Love Story (1939 - b/w) - Rote Hollywood weepie with Ingrid Bergman and Leslie Howard.
Mutiny on the Blackhawk (1939 - b/w) - Forgetttable pirate western with Richard Arlen and Andy Devine.
Captain Fury (1939 - b/w) - Faux-Australian western.
Winter Carnival (1939 - b/w) - Rote drama with Ann Sheridan.
Duke of West Point (1939 - b/w) - US college nonsense with Louis Hayward.
They Shall Have Music (1939 - b/w) - Forgettable musical with Joel McCrea.
The House Across the Bay (1940 - b/w)- George Raft fall of empire melodrama with the point of interest that Hitchcock did pickup shots.
Love on the Dole (1941 - b/w) - Deborah Kerr-onation Street.
Major Barbara (1941 - b/w) - Rex Harrison annoys me.
The Corsican Brothers (1941 - b/w) - Feels like a western, despite the French setting.
Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941 - b/w) - A distaff Mr. Chips.
A Gentleman After Dark (1942 - b/w) - Brian Donlevy tries to be George Sanders.
Johnny Come Lately (1943 - b/w) - Average rural newspaper drama with James Cagney. Hattie McDaniel plays "the coloured woman".
Du Barry was a Lady (1943) - Red Skelton tries to be Bob Hope.
Tender Comrade (1943 - b/w) - Ginger Rogers melodrama.
Friendly Enemies (1943 - b/w) - Rote propaganda.
The Hairy Ape (1944 - b/w) - William Bendix in Europe. Maritime pub melodrama with Susan Hayward.
Tomorrow the World (1944 - b/w) - Wartime mawk.
See also Since You Went Away (1944 - bw)/I'll Be Seeing You (1944 - b/w) and So Ends Our Night (1941 - b/w) .
Voice in the Wind (1944 - b/w) - Francis Lederer is a composer in this anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Southerner (1945 - b/w) - Renoir modern western.
Sister Kenny (1946 - b/w) - Faux-Australian medical soap with Rosalind Russell.
London Town (1946) - Extraordinarily terrible musical, a vehicle forcomic Sid Field, and an attempt to make a Hollywood musical for Britain. Petula Clark is the child lead. Field is baffling, and after years of reading about this terrible film, it proves to be worse than I imagined. It's a pandering, charmless colour spectacle. Did this inspire the London musical in Norbert Smith - A Life?
Intrigue (1947 - b/w) - George Raft exotic thriller.
New Orleans (1947 - b/w) - Rote variety show with Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.
This Dangerous Age (1949 - b/w) - Was sure I had logged this Myrna Loy-Roger Livesey-Richard Greene picture.
Loophole (1954 - b/w) - Rote B-thriller with Barry Sullivan, from Allied Artists.
Rooney (1958) - The titles proclaim "A British film, made at Pinewood Studios", but this is set in Dublin. There's plenty of shooting here. John Gregson's accent is vaguely Irish as the titular Gaelic Games-mad milkman, but nondescript, the likes of Noel Purcell and Jack MacGowran appear, and Barry Fitzgerald in his last major role. It's actually based on a Catherine Cookson novel, but it was thought that Tyneside was not an exportable setting. So instead we have Dublin, with Irish Press vans and ads for Jacob's. And the GAA. And I hate the GAA. Merchant's Arch plays a Garda station.
Son of Robin Hood (1958) - Fox colorama cash-in on the Richard Greene TV show with Al "David" Hedison, June Laverick, David Farrar, Marius Goring, Philip Friend, George Coulouris and Inigo Pipkin.
Claudelle Inglish (1960 - b/w) - Routine fallen woman melodrama with Diane McBain and Arthur Kennedy.
Le crime ne paie pas (1962) - The likes of Philippe Noiret and Richard Todd fail to enliven an enlarged pudding.
Sword of Lancelot (1963) - Glossy but nothingy Arthurian epic with Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, Brian Aherne, George Baker, Adrienne Corri, Richard "Alan off Emmerdale" Thorp
The Longest Hundred Miles (1967) - Doug McClure and Ricardo Montalban and Katharine Ross rescue some Filipino children. Rote jungle trash. But Montalban is always a convincing priest, but then he was a proper Catholic.
The King's Pirate (1967) - Cheerful though cheap and unimaginative 60s Universal backlot-bound pirate actioner, a shot for shot (with many of the same shots) remake of Against All Flags, with Doug McClure as Errol Flynn, Jill St John as Maureen O'Hara and Mary Ann Mobley as an Indian princess, and Diana Chesney as a Scottish nanny to the Indian princess.
The Name of the Game is Kill (1968) - Psychedelic horror with Jack Lord.
Wicked, Wicked (1973) - A really intersting curio. The ornate hotel setting, Arthur O'Connell as the whiskery old timer, and the songs - it sticks in the mind, even though the killer is unremarkable, but this was 1973, so maybe he wasn't then.
Fighting Back (1982) - Dino de Laurentiis' attempt at revenge for Cannon stealing Death Wish. Tom Skerritt is made to look like Bronson, but he's more charming and relatable than Charlie ever was. He's a corner shop owner whose wife miscarries thanks to gangs, so like a vengeful Arkwright, he goes out and forms a neighbour watch. The thing is, it ends being a lot tamer. It's a family drama with a revenge subplot, but in the end, there's no wife murder, no son killed. Which is refreshing. And Patti LuPone plays the wife. So, obviously, killing her would upset the Broadway crowd. It actually captures Philadelphia. Michael Sarrazin looks haggard. Yaphet Kotto plays Ivanhoe Washington!?!
Hold Up (1985) - Later adapted as Quick Change, an entertaining French-Canadian coproduction with Jean Paul Belmondo as a clown robber and Kim Cattrall in Montreal, plus local CTV affialites getting product placement.
One Heavenly Night (1931 - b/w) - Rote musical with Evelyn Laye and Leon Errol.
Arrowsmith (1931 - b/w) - Undistinguished medical jungle drama with Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes and Myrna Loy.
The Struggle (1931 - b/w) - Typical DW Griffith melodrama.
Street Scene (1931 - b/w) - Urban melodrama with Sylvia Sidney.
Tonight or Never (1931 - b/w) - Alleged comedy with Gloria Swanson.
The Unholy Garden (1931 - b/w) - Fay Wray crime melodrama.
The Silver Lining (1932 - b/w) - Basic 30s drama with Maureen O'Sullivan.
Hallelujah, I'm A Bum (1932 - b/w) - Al Jolson cobblers.
Sky Devils (1932 - b/w) - Rote aviation with Spencer Tracy.
Rain (1932 - b/w) - Another tropical melodrama, with Joan Crawford.
Queen Kelly (1932 - b/w) -Gorgeously photographed Gloria Swanson melodrama.
Cynara (1932 - b/w) - Rote faux-British melodrama with Ronald Colman and Kay Francis. See also The Masquerader (1933 - b/w).
Gallant Lady (1933 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Ann Harding and Clive Brook.
The Emperor Jones (1933 - b/w)- Awful racist tripe despite Paul Robeson. There's much deliberate caterwauling.
Secrets (1933 - b/w) - Western crossed with a period drama, with Mary Pickford and Leslie Howard.
Blood Money (1933 - b/w) - Rote gangster film from UA/20th Century.
See also Let 'Em Have It (1935 - b/w) and Looking for Trouble (1934 - b/w).
Advice to the Lovelorn (1933 - b/w) - Forgettable dating column programmer with Sterling Holloway.
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934 - b/w)/Pimpernel Smith (1941 - b/w) - Leslie Howard at his finest.
Moulin Rouge (1934 - b/w) - Rote musical with Constance Bennett and Franchot Tone.
Our Daily Bread (1934 - b/w) - Rote rural drama, by King Vidor.
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934 - b/w) - Rote installment with Ronald Colman, a sequel to Bulldog Drummond (1929 - b/w).
The Last Gentleman (-1934 - b/w) - Forgettable geriatrocomedy with George Arliss.
Red Salute (1935 - b/w) - Rote rural comedy with Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Young.
Clive of India (1935 - b/w) - Colonist bull.
The Wedding Night (1935 - b/w) - Routine melodrama with Gary Cooper and the forgettable sub-Dietrich/Garbo (lack of) charm of Anna Sten. See also Sten in We Live Again (1934 - b/w) and Nana (1934 - b/w).
Splendor (1935 - b/w) - Rote comedy possibly set in the UK, with Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins. See also The Richest Girl in the World (1934 - b/w) and These Three (1936 - b/w).
Cardinal Richelieu (1935 - b/w) - Rote biopic with George Arliss.
The Dark Angel (1935 - b/w) - Faux-British Merle Oberon/Fredric March melodrama.
Dodsworth (1936 - b/w) - Not unlike the above, with Walter Huston.
Dangerous Waters (1936 - b/w) - Routine actioner with Jack Holt.
The Last of the Mohicans (1936 - b/w) - Ludicrous. Bruce Cabot looks like a punk Ian Botham leading a bunch of transvestite Wednesday Addams cosplayers.
Come and Get It (1936 - b/w) - Joel McCrea Northern.
I Met My Love Again (1937 - b/w) - Henry Fonda/Joan Bennett romance.
A Star is Born (1937) - Janet Gaynor is annoying. She seems to age within five minutes. One minute, she's a convincing teen, then she isn't. Maybe from a distance, she is. It is weird to see Lionel Stander with jet black hair.
Woman Chases Man (1937 - b/w) - Forgettable romcom with Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea.
Stand-In (1937 - b/w) - Rote showbiz comedy with Joan Blondell, Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart.
Stella Dallas (1937 - b/w) - Rote Stanwyck melodrama.
Blockade (1938 - b/w) - Routine war romance with Henry Fonda.
Trade Winds (1938 - b/w) - Rote exotica with Fredric March.
The Cowboy and the Lady (1938 - b/w) - Goofy Gary Cooper/Merle Oberon western comedy.
There Goes My Heart (1938 - b/w) - Rote Fredric March drama.
Intermezzo - A Love Story (1939 - b/w) - Rote Hollywood weepie with Ingrid Bergman and Leslie Howard.
Mutiny on the Blackhawk (1939 - b/w) - Forgetttable pirate western with Richard Arlen and Andy Devine.
Captain Fury (1939 - b/w) - Faux-Australian western.
Winter Carnival (1939 - b/w) - Rote drama with Ann Sheridan.
Duke of West Point (1939 - b/w) - US college nonsense with Louis Hayward.
They Shall Have Music (1939 - b/w) - Forgettable musical with Joel McCrea.
The House Across the Bay (1940 - b/w)- George Raft fall of empire melodrama with the point of interest that Hitchcock did pickup shots.
Love on the Dole (1941 - b/w) - Deborah Kerr-onation Street.
Major Barbara (1941 - b/w) - Rex Harrison annoys me.
The Corsican Brothers (1941 - b/w) - Feels like a western, despite the French setting.
Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941 - b/w) - A distaff Mr. Chips.
A Gentleman After Dark (1942 - b/w) - Brian Donlevy tries to be George Sanders.
Johnny Come Lately (1943 - b/w) - Average rural newspaper drama with James Cagney. Hattie McDaniel plays "the coloured woman".
Du Barry was a Lady (1943) - Red Skelton tries to be Bob Hope.
Tender Comrade (1943 - b/w) - Ginger Rogers melodrama.
Friendly Enemies (1943 - b/w) - Rote propaganda.
The Hairy Ape (1944 - b/w) - William Bendix in Europe. Maritime pub melodrama with Susan Hayward.
Tomorrow the World (1944 - b/w) - Wartime mawk.
See also Since You Went Away (1944 - bw)/I'll Be Seeing You (1944 - b/w) and So Ends Our Night (1941 - b/w) .
Voice in the Wind (1944 - b/w) - Francis Lederer is a composer in this anti-Nazi propaganda.
The Southerner (1945 - b/w) - Renoir modern western.
Sister Kenny (1946 - b/w) - Faux-Australian medical soap with Rosalind Russell.
London Town (1946) - Extraordinarily terrible musical, a vehicle forcomic Sid Field, and an attempt to make a Hollywood musical for Britain. Petula Clark is the child lead. Field is baffling, and after years of reading about this terrible film, it proves to be worse than I imagined. It's a pandering, charmless colour spectacle. Did this inspire the London musical in Norbert Smith - A Life?
Intrigue (1947 - b/w) - George Raft exotic thriller.
New Orleans (1947 - b/w) - Rote variety show with Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.
This Dangerous Age (1949 - b/w) - Was sure I had logged this Myrna Loy-Roger Livesey-Richard Greene picture.
Loophole (1954 - b/w) - Rote B-thriller with Barry Sullivan, from Allied Artists.
Rooney (1958) - The titles proclaim "A British film, made at Pinewood Studios", but this is set in Dublin. There's plenty of shooting here. John Gregson's accent is vaguely Irish as the titular Gaelic Games-mad milkman, but nondescript, the likes of Noel Purcell and Jack MacGowran appear, and Barry Fitzgerald in his last major role. It's actually based on a Catherine Cookson novel, but it was thought that Tyneside was not an exportable setting. So instead we have Dublin, with Irish Press vans and ads for Jacob's. And the GAA. And I hate the GAA. Merchant's Arch plays a Garda station.
Son of Robin Hood (1958) - Fox colorama cash-in on the Richard Greene TV show with Al "David" Hedison, June Laverick, David Farrar, Marius Goring, Philip Friend, George Coulouris and Inigo Pipkin.
Claudelle Inglish (1960 - b/w) - Routine fallen woman melodrama with Diane McBain and Arthur Kennedy.
Le crime ne paie pas (1962) - The likes of Philippe Noiret and Richard Todd fail to enliven an enlarged pudding.
Sword of Lancelot (1963) - Glossy but nothingy Arthurian epic with Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, Brian Aherne, George Baker, Adrienne Corri, Richard "Alan off Emmerdale" Thorp
The Longest Hundred Miles (1967) - Doug McClure and Ricardo Montalban and Katharine Ross rescue some Filipino children. Rote jungle trash. But Montalban is always a convincing priest, but then he was a proper Catholic.
The King's Pirate (1967) - Cheerful though cheap and unimaginative 60s Universal backlot-bound pirate actioner, a shot for shot (with many of the same shots) remake of Against All Flags, with Doug McClure as Errol Flynn, Jill St John as Maureen O'Hara and Mary Ann Mobley as an Indian princess, and Diana Chesney as a Scottish nanny to the Indian princess.
The Name of the Game is Kill (1968) - Psychedelic horror with Jack Lord.
Wicked, Wicked (1973) - A really intersting curio. The ornate hotel setting, Arthur O'Connell as the whiskery old timer, and the songs - it sticks in the mind, even though the killer is unremarkable, but this was 1973, so maybe he wasn't then.
Fighting Back (1982) - Dino de Laurentiis' attempt at revenge for Cannon stealing Death Wish. Tom Skerritt is made to look like Bronson, but he's more charming and relatable than Charlie ever was. He's a corner shop owner whose wife miscarries thanks to gangs, so like a vengeful Arkwright, he goes out and forms a neighbour watch. The thing is, it ends being a lot tamer. It's a family drama with a revenge subplot, but in the end, there's no wife murder, no son killed. Which is refreshing. And Patti LuPone plays the wife. So, obviously, killing her would upset the Broadway crowd. It actually captures Philadelphia. Michael Sarrazin looks haggard. Yaphet Kotto plays Ivanhoe Washington!?!
Hold Up (1985) - Later adapted as Quick Change, an entertaining French-Canadian coproduction with Jean Paul Belmondo as a clown robber and Kim Cattrall in Montreal, plus local CTV affialites getting product placement.
Thursday 23 April 2020
103 - mainly UA
Idiot's Delight (1939 - b/w) - Spry comedy with Clark Gable, Norma Shearer and sexy Burgess Meredith.
Pride and Prejudice (1940 - b/w) - Greer Garson is miscast. Everything feels American. Olivier looks out of place.
Miss Polly (1941 - b/w) - Hal Roach featurette with Zasu Pitts.
See also Niagara Falls (1941 - b/w), All American Co-Ed (1941 - b/w), Broadway Limited (1941- b/w), Yanks Ahoy (1943 - b/w), Curley (1947 - b/w).
Fiesta (1941) - Color Hal Roach featurette starring Jorge Negrete.
That Hamilton Woman (1941 - b/w) - Brits make a typical Hollywood British drama. Churchill loved it. Of course, he did. It's patriotic dirgery.
Twin Beds (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for Joan Bennett and George Brent.
Young and Willing (1943 - b/w) - Rote ROMCOM with Susan Hayward and William Holden.
The Powers Girl (1943 - b/w)/The Fabulous Dorseys (1946 - b/w) -
Knickerbocker Holiday (1944 - b/w) - Thanksgiving musical with Nelson Eddy.
Guest Wife (1945 - b/w) - Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert.
The Great John L (1945 - b/w) - Forgettable boxing biography.
Getting Gertie's Garter (1946 - b/w) - As silly as the title. Allan Dwan B.
See also Up in Mabel's Room (1944 - b/w).
The Bachelor's Daughters (1946 - b/w) - Rote teen comedy.
Heaven Only Knows (1947 - b/w) - It's a Christian western starring Robert Cummings as an angel. As bad as that sounds.
Fun On A Week-End (1947 - b/w) - Annoying Eddie Bracken/Priscilla Lane vehicle.
My Dear Secretary (1948 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Kirk Douglas.
Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven (1948 - b/w) - Forgettable cowboy comedy with Guy Madison, Lionel Stander, Audie Murphy and Margaret Hamilton.
An Innocent Affair (1948 - b/w) - Rote Fred MacMurray vehicle.
Johnny Holiday (1949 - b/w) -Boys Town-alike with William Bendix and Hoagy Carmichael. Schmaltzy.
Cover Up (1949 - b/w) - More William Bendix.This time, CHRISTMAS NOIR!
Without Honor (1949 - b/w) - Dreary, noirish suburban melodrama.
Champion (1949 - b/w) - Rote boxing saga with Kirk Douglas.
A Kiss for Corliss (1949 - b/w) - David Niven looks out of place in this teen comedy with Shirley Temple whinging about Richard Widmark (he's not in the film- she's a fangirl). Her chirpiness is less annoying as an adult teenager, but still you can see that she was better off doing work for the UN. See also Miss Annie Rooney (1942).
The Great Dan Patch (1949 - b/w) - Always stunned to see sulky racing depicted as a massive spectator sport, and not the preserve of travellers on a motorway. Clarence Muse plays an accordion-playing narrator named Voodoo.
The Big Wheel (1949 - b/w) - Mickey Rooney racing tosh.
Impact (1949 - b/w) - Actually quite watchable seeing Brian Donlevy constantly beaten down. And Charles Coburn turns up.
Mrs. Mike (1949 - b/w) - Turgid Mountie melodrama with Dick Powell singing the Rose of Tralee.
The Crooked Way (1949 - b/w) - Almost-poverty row level noir with John Payne.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950 - b/w) - It's like a farce without jokes.
Once A Thief (1950 - b/w) - Cesar Romero and Lon Chaney Jr in forgettable noir.
Three Husbands (1951 - b/w) - Forgettable B-comedy.
Pardon My French (1951 - b/w) - Forgetttable Euro-comedy with Merle Oberon.
He Ran All The Way (1951 - b/w) - Typical noir with John Garfield nearly dead and Shelley Winters doing her swimming acting.
The Tragedy of Othello (1951 - b/w) - Starring Orson Welles as a Nigerian grandmother.
One Big Affair (1952 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Evelyn Keyes.
Confidence Girl (1952 - b/w) - Rote Tom Conway vehicle.
Chicago Calling (1952 - b/w) - So generic this Dan Duryea vehicle I swore I had seen it. See also The Underworld Story (1951 - b/w).
Without Warning (1952 - b/w) - Bland, starless noir.
The Fighter (1952 - b/w) - Attractive but sluggish Jack London Mexican boxing story with Richard Conte.
The Ring (1952 - b/w) - Rote Hispanic poverty drama.
The Captive City (1952 - b/w) - Rote noir exotica with John Forysthe.
The Steel Lady (1953 - b/w) - Dreadful WW2 trash.
Captain Scarlett (1953) - Threadbare colour Mexican swashbuckler with Richard Greene. Not indestructible.
The Joe Louis Story (1953 - b/w) - Rote biopic.
The Fake (1953 - b/w) - Passable British-B with Dennis O'Keefe, and John Laurie as a Scottish-American art expert.
Vice Squad (1953 - b/w) - Rote Edward G. Robinson crime yarn.
SABRE JET (1953 - B/W) - Forgettable aviation nonsense with Rex Kramer.
Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953) - Rote piracy with John Payne, Donna Reed and Lon Chaney. See also Bandits of Corsica (1953 - b/w)
No Escape (1953 - b/w) - Generic nightclub vehicle with Lew Ayres.
The Steel Cage (1954 - b/w) - Thought I'd be disinterested in this otherwise unimaginative prison flick featuring Maureen O'Sullivan, but then they add a sinister comedy chef who sings, played by Walter Slezak. If you wonder why I watch noir, this is why. Also with John Ireland, Lawrence Tierney and Arthur Franz. Alas, everything else is bog-standard.
See also the more generic Big House USA (1955 - b/w) with Broderick Crawford and Charles Bronson.
Go Man Go! (1954 - b/w) - Forgettable story about the Harlem Globetrotters. Even then, you can see Sidney Poitier has more star quality than Dane Clark. Sidney Poitier didn't have to do Hammer films.
Beachhead (1954) - Lush Hawaiian locations help lift this generic WW2 vehicle with Tony Curtis, and the inevitable Frank Lovejoy.
Return to Treasure Island (1954) - Utterly generic Tab Hunter vehicle devoid of action.
See also The White Orchid (1954 ).
Crossed Swords (1954) - Italian swashbuckling rota with Gina Lollobrigida and Errol Flynn, who if he had lived probably would have been doing lots of this schlock, and perhaps a giallo, some Eurospy films. It's a half-baked knockoff of Flynn's own Adventures of Don Juan, and coproduced with his old mucker Barry Mahon.
The Big Bluff (1955 - b/w) - By W. Lee Wilder, Billy's less talented brother and Fred Freiberger, the notorious showrunner, this is a predictably dull faux-Latino lover noir.
Top of the World (1955 - b/w) - Polar aviation nonsense with Dale Robertson.
The Kiss Before Dying (1956) - Dreary high school crime with Robert Wagner.
Chicago Confidential (1956 - b/w) - Rote "true" urban noir with Brian Keith.
Dance With Me, Henry (1956 - b/w) - Abbott and Costello not at their best.
Huk! (1956) - Generic tropicana shot in the Philippines with George Montgomery.
Emergency Hospital (1956 - b/w) - Forgettable UA schlock - feels like a TV pilot. See also Hot Cars (1956 - b/w) and Three Bad Sisters (1956 - b/w) and Crime Against Joe (1956 - b/w).
Crime of Passion (1957 - b/w) - Barbara Stanwyck women's picture diverts into noir, with Sterling Hayden and Raymond Burr.
Hell Bound (1957 - b/w) - Forgettable maritime peril with John Russell and Stuart Whitman.
Saint Joan (1957 - b/w) - Amongst the sea of British character talent (2nd billed Richard Todd), Richard Widmark and Jean Seberg seem at sea. He at least seems to be trying, as a simple-minded comedy monk but she's such an American teenager of the 50s.
Bailout at 43,000 (1957 - b/w) - Pine/Thomas move from Paramount to United Artists, but the same old aviation peril.
See also The Big Caper (1957 - b/w).
Hidden Fear (1957 - b/w) - Unexpected car/helicopter/bike chase through Copenhagen in this Danish-made programmer with John Payne and Alexander Knox.
Spring Reunion (1957) - Dreary school reunion melodrama with Dana Andrews.
Monkey On My Back (1957 - b/w) - Rote alcoholism story with Cameron Mitchell and a frighteningly fresh-faced Jack Albertson.
The Careless Years (1957 - b/w) - Dean Stockwell thinks he's James Dean.
Men in War (1957 - b/w) - As generic as the title.
The Girl in Black Stockings (1957 - b/w) - Junky noir with Mamie Van Doren, Lex Barker, and Anne Bancroft, and John Dehner in a cowboy hat.
Street of Sinners (1957 - b/w) - More pulpy junk.
The Mugger (1958 - b/w) - Undistinguished crime-B with Kent Smith and James Franciscus at his most Hestonesque.
Lonelyhearts (1958 - b/w) - Rote journo drama with Montgomery Clift, Myrna Loy and Robert Ryan.
Cop Hater (1958 - b/w) - Rote crime with Robert Loggia.
Kings Go Forth (1958 - b/w) - Natalie Wood plays mixed-race. As bad as that sounds. Overlong.
Counterplot (1959 - b/w) - Rote exotic thriller with Forrest Tucker.
Girls, Guns and Gangsters (1959 - b/w) - Rote crime with Mamie Van Doren and Lee Van Cleef.
Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959 - b/w) - Surprisingly not starring Mamie Van Doren.
The Rabbit Trap (1959 - b/w) - Forgettable family drama with Ernest Borgnine.
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959 - b/w) - Rote though nicely shot programmer with Steve McQueen.
Take A Giant Step (1959 - b/w) - Rote juvenile delinquency drama with the difference that the kid is Johnny Nash.
Cry Tough (1959 - b/w) - Rote juvenile deliquency with John Saxon as a Puerto Rican.
Pork Chop Hill (1959 - b/w) - Rote though efficient Korean War saga.
The Last Mile (1959 - b/w) - Rote crime saga with Mickey Rooney in prison.
Vice Raid (1959 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for Mamie Van Doren.
Pride and Prejudice (1940 - b/w) - Greer Garson is miscast. Everything feels American. Olivier looks out of place.
Miss Polly (1941 - b/w) - Hal Roach featurette with Zasu Pitts.
See also Niagara Falls (1941 - b/w), All American Co-Ed (1941 - b/w), Broadway Limited (1941- b/w), Yanks Ahoy (1943 - b/w), Curley (1947 - b/w).
Fiesta (1941) - Color Hal Roach featurette starring Jorge Negrete.
That Hamilton Woman (1941 - b/w) - Brits make a typical Hollywood British drama. Churchill loved it. Of course, he did. It's patriotic dirgery.
Twin Beds (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for Joan Bennett and George Brent.
Young and Willing (1943 - b/w) - Rote ROMCOM with Susan Hayward and William Holden.
The Powers Girl (1943 - b/w)/The Fabulous Dorseys (1946 - b/w) -
Knickerbocker Holiday (1944 - b/w) - Thanksgiving musical with Nelson Eddy.
Guest Wife (1945 - b/w) - Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert.
The Great John L (1945 - b/w) - Forgettable boxing biography.
Getting Gertie's Garter (1946 - b/w) - As silly as the title. Allan Dwan B.
See also Up in Mabel's Room (1944 - b/w).
The Bachelor's Daughters (1946 - b/w) - Rote teen comedy.
Heaven Only Knows (1947 - b/w) - It's a Christian western starring Robert Cummings as an angel. As bad as that sounds.
Fun On A Week-End (1947 - b/w) - Annoying Eddie Bracken/Priscilla Lane vehicle.
My Dear Secretary (1948 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Kirk Douglas.
Texas, Brooklyn and Heaven (1948 - b/w) - Forgettable cowboy comedy with Guy Madison, Lionel Stander, Audie Murphy and Margaret Hamilton.
An Innocent Affair (1948 - b/w) - Rote Fred MacMurray vehicle.
Johnny Holiday (1949 - b/w) -Boys Town-alike with William Bendix and Hoagy Carmichael. Schmaltzy.
Cover Up (1949 - b/w) - More William Bendix.This time, CHRISTMAS NOIR!
Without Honor (1949 - b/w) - Dreary, noirish suburban melodrama.
Champion (1949 - b/w) - Rote boxing saga with Kirk Douglas.
A Kiss for Corliss (1949 - b/w) - David Niven looks out of place in this teen comedy with Shirley Temple whinging about Richard Widmark (he's not in the film- she's a fangirl). Her chirpiness is less annoying as an adult teenager, but still you can see that she was better off doing work for the UN. See also Miss Annie Rooney (1942).
The Great Dan Patch (1949 - b/w) - Always stunned to see sulky racing depicted as a massive spectator sport, and not the preserve of travellers on a motorway. Clarence Muse plays an accordion-playing narrator named Voodoo.
The Big Wheel (1949 - b/w) - Mickey Rooney racing tosh.
Impact (1949 - b/w) - Actually quite watchable seeing Brian Donlevy constantly beaten down. And Charles Coburn turns up.
Mrs. Mike (1949 - b/w) - Turgid Mountie melodrama with Dick Powell singing the Rose of Tralee.
The Crooked Way (1949 - b/w) - Almost-poverty row level noir with John Payne.
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950 - b/w) - It's like a farce without jokes.
Once A Thief (1950 - b/w) - Cesar Romero and Lon Chaney Jr in forgettable noir.
Three Husbands (1951 - b/w) - Forgettable B-comedy.
Pardon My French (1951 - b/w) - Forgetttable Euro-comedy with Merle Oberon.
He Ran All The Way (1951 - b/w) - Typical noir with John Garfield nearly dead and Shelley Winters doing her swimming acting.
The Tragedy of Othello (1951 - b/w) - Starring Orson Welles as a Nigerian grandmother.
One Big Affair (1952 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Evelyn Keyes.
Confidence Girl (1952 - b/w) - Rote Tom Conway vehicle.
Chicago Calling (1952 - b/w) - So generic this Dan Duryea vehicle I swore I had seen it. See also The Underworld Story (1951 - b/w).
Without Warning (1952 - b/w) - Bland, starless noir.
The Fighter (1952 - b/w) - Attractive but sluggish Jack London Mexican boxing story with Richard Conte.
The Ring (1952 - b/w) - Rote Hispanic poverty drama.
The Captive City (1952 - b/w) - Rote noir exotica with John Forysthe.
The Steel Lady (1953 - b/w) - Dreadful WW2 trash.
Captain Scarlett (1953) - Threadbare colour Mexican swashbuckler with Richard Greene. Not indestructible.
The Joe Louis Story (1953 - b/w) - Rote biopic.
The Fake (1953 - b/w) - Passable British-B with Dennis O'Keefe, and John Laurie as a Scottish-American art expert.
Vice Squad (1953 - b/w) - Rote Edward G. Robinson crime yarn.
SABRE JET (1953 - B/W) - Forgettable aviation nonsense with Rex Kramer.
Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953) - Rote piracy with John Payne, Donna Reed and Lon Chaney. See also Bandits of Corsica (1953 - b/w)
No Escape (1953 - b/w) - Generic nightclub vehicle with Lew Ayres.
The Steel Cage (1954 - b/w) - Thought I'd be disinterested in this otherwise unimaginative prison flick featuring Maureen O'Sullivan, but then they add a sinister comedy chef who sings, played by Walter Slezak. If you wonder why I watch noir, this is why. Also with John Ireland, Lawrence Tierney and Arthur Franz. Alas, everything else is bog-standard.
See also the more generic Big House USA (1955 - b/w) with Broderick Crawford and Charles Bronson.
Go Man Go! (1954 - b/w) - Forgettable story about the Harlem Globetrotters. Even then, you can see Sidney Poitier has more star quality than Dane Clark. Sidney Poitier didn't have to do Hammer films.
Beachhead (1954) - Lush Hawaiian locations help lift this generic WW2 vehicle with Tony Curtis, and the inevitable Frank Lovejoy.
Return to Treasure Island (1954) - Utterly generic Tab Hunter vehicle devoid of action.
See also The White Orchid (1954 ).
Crossed Swords (1954) - Italian swashbuckling rota with Gina Lollobrigida and Errol Flynn, who if he had lived probably would have been doing lots of this schlock, and perhaps a giallo, some Eurospy films. It's a half-baked knockoff of Flynn's own Adventures of Don Juan, and coproduced with his old mucker Barry Mahon.
The Big Bluff (1955 - b/w) - By W. Lee Wilder, Billy's less talented brother and Fred Freiberger, the notorious showrunner, this is a predictably dull faux-Latino lover noir.
Top of the World (1955 - b/w) - Polar aviation nonsense with Dale Robertson.
The Kiss Before Dying (1956) - Dreary high school crime with Robert Wagner.
Chicago Confidential (1956 - b/w) - Rote "true" urban noir with Brian Keith.
Dance With Me, Henry (1956 - b/w) - Abbott and Costello not at their best.
Huk! (1956) - Generic tropicana shot in the Philippines with George Montgomery.
Emergency Hospital (1956 - b/w) - Forgettable UA schlock - feels like a TV pilot. See also Hot Cars (1956 - b/w) and Three Bad Sisters (1956 - b/w) and Crime Against Joe (1956 - b/w).
Crime of Passion (1957 - b/w) - Barbara Stanwyck women's picture diverts into noir, with Sterling Hayden and Raymond Burr.
Hell Bound (1957 - b/w) - Forgettable maritime peril with John Russell and Stuart Whitman.
Saint Joan (1957 - b/w) - Amongst the sea of British character talent (2nd billed Richard Todd), Richard Widmark and Jean Seberg seem at sea. He at least seems to be trying, as a simple-minded comedy monk but she's such an American teenager of the 50s.
Bailout at 43,000 (1957 - b/w) - Pine/Thomas move from Paramount to United Artists, but the same old aviation peril.
See also The Big Caper (1957 - b/w).
Hidden Fear (1957 - b/w) - Unexpected car/helicopter/bike chase through Copenhagen in this Danish-made programmer with John Payne and Alexander Knox.
Spring Reunion (1957) - Dreary school reunion melodrama with Dana Andrews.
Monkey On My Back (1957 - b/w) - Rote alcoholism story with Cameron Mitchell and a frighteningly fresh-faced Jack Albertson.
The Careless Years (1957 - b/w) - Dean Stockwell thinks he's James Dean.
Men in War (1957 - b/w) - As generic as the title.
The Girl in Black Stockings (1957 - b/w) - Junky noir with Mamie Van Doren, Lex Barker, and Anne Bancroft, and John Dehner in a cowboy hat.
Street of Sinners (1957 - b/w) - More pulpy junk.
The Mugger (1958 - b/w) - Undistinguished crime-B with Kent Smith and James Franciscus at his most Hestonesque.
Lonelyhearts (1958 - b/w) - Rote journo drama with Montgomery Clift, Myrna Loy and Robert Ryan.
Cop Hater (1958 - b/w) - Rote crime with Robert Loggia.
Kings Go Forth (1958 - b/w) - Natalie Wood plays mixed-race. As bad as that sounds. Overlong.
Counterplot (1959 - b/w) - Rote exotic thriller with Forrest Tucker.
Girls, Guns and Gangsters (1959 - b/w) - Rote crime with Mamie Van Doren and Lee Van Cleef.
Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959 - b/w) - Surprisingly not starring Mamie Van Doren.
The Rabbit Trap (1959 - b/w) - Forgettable family drama with Ernest Borgnine.
The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery (1959 - b/w) - Rote though nicely shot programmer with Steve McQueen.
Take A Giant Step (1959 - b/w) - Rote juvenile delinquency drama with the difference that the kid is Johnny Nash.
Cry Tough (1959 - b/w) - Rote juvenile deliquency with John Saxon as a Puerto Rican.
Pork Chop Hill (1959 - b/w) - Rote though efficient Korean War saga.
The Last Mile (1959 - b/w) - Rote crime saga with Mickey Rooney in prison.
Vice Raid (1959 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for Mamie Van Doren.
Inside the Mafia (1959 - b/w) - snooze.
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Dixiana (1930 - b/w) - Racists have fun in this period drama. The Criminal Code (1931 - b/w) - Rote crime saga with Boris Karloff and Walter Huston.
The Guilty Generation (1931 - b/w) - Rote crime drama.
Ditto the Barbara Stanwyck vehicle Ten Cents A Dance (1931 - b/w).
The Secret Witness (1931 - b/w) - Rote mystery.
Arizona (1931 - b/w) - Rote college drama with John Wayne.
The Pagan Lady (1931 - b/w) - Rote exotica.
The Lady Refuses (1931 - b/w) - Early RKO faux-British drama set in a world with American-accented bobbies. See also The Royal Bed (1931 - b/w
Their Mad Moment (1931 - b/w) - I find early pre-20th Century Fox films unimaginative. Though the Spider (1931 - b/w) looks gorgeous, but it's about stage magic, so it should.
The Good Bad Girl (1931 - b/w)/Parole Girl (1933 - b/w) - Mae Clarke makes the same film twice.
The Maker of Men (1931 - b/w) - Forgettable Columbia American football yarn.
The Big Timer (1932 - b/w) - Future British-based Americans Ben Lyon and Constance Cummings in a forgettable boxing flick. Utterly generic.
Three Wise Girls (1932 - b/w) - Rote Jean Harlow vehicle.
Vanity Fair (1932 - b/w) - Threadbare poverty row adap with Myrna Loy and Anthony Bushell.
Shopworn (1932 - b/w) - Rote early Barbara Stanwyck drama.
See also Ladies of Leisure (1930 - b/w).
Forbidden (1932 - b/w) - More of the same as above, but with Frank Capra at the helm.
Love Affair (1932- b/w) - Forgettable aviation romance with Humphrey Bogart.
Vanity Street (1932 - b/w) - Rote backstreet drama with Charles Bickford and Helen Chandler.
Virtue (1932 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien.
Attorney for the Defense (1932 - b/w) - Clarence Muse has to do black drama school acting in this tedious courtroom drama.
No More Orchids (1932 - b/w)- Forgettable drama with Carole Lombard. See also Brief Moment (1933 - b/w).
The Night Club Lady (1932 - bw) - Rote thriller with Adolphe Menjou.
The Final Edition (1932 - b/w) - Journalistic fluff with Pat O'Brien.
The Menace (1932 - b/w) - Tatty old dark houser with Bette Davis.
The Devil is Driving (1932 - b/w) - Rote drama with Edmund Lowe.
Keeper of the Bees (1933 - b/w) - Threadbare Monogram rural drama with Neil Hamilton.
Air Hostess (1933 - b/w) - Rote B-aviation drama. Forgettable even when you watch it.
My Woman (1933 - b/w) - Rote drama with Helen Twelvetrees.
The Woman I Stole (1933 - b/w) - Arab nonsense with Hay Wray.
What Price, Innocence (1933 - b/w) - Rote orphan drama with Jean Parker.
East of Fifth Avenue (1933 - b/w) - Rote drama set at a racecourse.
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933 - b/w) -
Ann Carver's Profession (1933 - b/w) - Rote legal thing with Fay Wray.
Cocktail Hour (1933 - b/w) - Rote shipbound romance with Bebe Daniels and Randolph Scott.
See also Whom the Gods Destroy (1934 - b/w).
Social Register (1934 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Colleen Moore. Uses the Tchaikovsky piece better known to all as the Paul Hogan Show theme.
The Lady is Willing (1934 - b/w) -British period roter with Leslie Howard.
The Most Precious Thing in Life (1934 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Jean Arthur.
Whirlpool (1934 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Jean Arthur and Jack Holt.
See also I'll Fix It (1934 - b/w) and Come Closer, Folks (1937 - b/w) and the crime drama The Best Man Wins (1935 - b/w).
Blind Date (1934 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Ann Sothern and Commissioner Gordon.
See also Don't Gamble on Love (1936 - b/w).
No Greater Glory (1934 - b/w) - Faux Hungarian kiddy flick about boy soldiers with a tragic end.
Pride of the Marines (1934 - b/w) - Juvenile naval nonsense with Charles Bickford.
Broadway Bill (1934 - b/w) - Rote racehorse comedy with Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy.
The Lone Wolf Returns (1935 - b/w) - Generic series tosh with Melvyn Douglas.
She Married Her Boss (1935 - b/w) - Rote Claudette Colbert vehicle.
Too Tough to Kill (1935 - b/w) - Forgettable mining crimer with Victor Jory.
She Couldn't Take It (1935 - b/w) - Rote 30s comedy with George Raft.
You May Be Next (1935 - b/w) - Rote mystery with Ann Sothern.
Party Wire (1935 - b/w) - Rote Jean Arthur vehicle.
Grand Exit (1935 - b/w) - Rote Edmund Lowe vehicle.
A Feather in her Hat (1935 - b/w) - Faux-British melo with Basil Rathbone.
After the Dance (1936 - b/w) - Rote romance with Nancy Carroll. See also Child of Manhattan (1933 - b/w) and Jealousy (1934 - b/w) and Springtime for Henry (1934 - b/w) with Nigel Bruce.
Pennies from Heaven (1936 - b/w) - Typical Bing vehicle.
Craig's Wife (1936 - b/w) - Rote Rosalind Russell drama.
Lady of Secrets (1936 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Ruth Chatterton.
Legion of Terror (1936 - b/w) - Rote Klansploitation with Bruce Cabot.
Alibi for Murder (1936 - b/w) - Forgettable crime story with William Gargan.
Shakedown (1936 - b/w) - Rote, unimaginative crime story with Lew Ayres.
The Man Who Lived Twice (1936 - b/w) - Rote crime vehicle with Ralph Bellamy. See also The Crime of Helen Stanley (1934 - b/w) and Before Midnight (1933 - b/w).
Counterfeit (1936 - b/w) - Rote crime fare with Chester Morris. See also Blind Alley (1939 - b/w) and I Promise to Pay (1937 - b/w).
More Than A Secretary (1936 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Jean Arthur.
Theodora Goes Wild (1936 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Irene Dunne.
Devil's Squadron (1936 - b/w)/Devil's Playground (1937 - b/w) - One at sea, one at air, but the same film with Richard Dix.
It's All Yours (1937 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for Madeleine Carroll and Francis Lederer.
The Shadow (1937 - b/w) - Not an adap of the pulp character but a rote mystery with Rita Hayworth. See also Homicide Bureau (1937 - b/w) and Girls Can Play (1937 - b/w).
Life Begins with Love (1937 - b/w) - Rote romcom.
Juvenile Court (1937 - b/w) - Rita Hayworth in execrable sub-Dead End Kids lark.
The League of Frightened Men (1937 - b/w) - Rote Nero Wolfe mystery.
Murder in Greenwich Village (1937 - b/w) - Rote action-comedy with Fay Wray.
Venus Makes Trouble (1937 - b/w) - Rote comedy with James Dunn.
Women of Glamour (1937 - b/w) - Rote mystery comedy with Melvyn Douglas.
Let's Get Married (1937 - b/w) - Rote comedy with Ida Lupino.
Who Killed Gail Preston? (1937 - b/w) - Forgettable British crime story with Rita Hayworth.
Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus (1938 - b/w) - Rote kiddy flick from the 30s. With Edgar Kennedy.
I am The Law (1938 - b/w) - Rote Edward G. Robinson vehicle.
Let Us Live (1939 - b/w) - Henry Fonda juvenile nonsense.
The Witness Vanishes (1939 - b/w) - Forgettable British-set Universal dark houser.
Coast Guard (1939 - b/w) - Randolph Scott drama, suddenly goes Arctic.
Golden Boy (1939 - b/w) - Rote boxing yarn with Barbara Stanwyck and William Holden.
I Live on Danger (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable, threadbare Pine-Thomas/Paramount actioner with Chester Morris. See also Law of the Underworld (1938 -b/w)
Jack London (1943 - b/w) - Flaccid yellowface-heavy biopic.
Gasoline Alley (1951 - b/w)/Corky of Gasoline Alley (1951 - b/w) - Interchangeable installments in a failed series based on the comic strip.
Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953 - b/w) - Italian drama with Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift doing it for De Sica.
The Bonnie Parker Story (1957 - b/w) - Rote 50s gangster trash, though efficiently directed by William Witney. A precursor to Corman's 70s gangster movies.
Hand in Hand (1960 - b/w) - Sweet kiddy friendship drama.
The Greengage Summer (1962) - Bland melodrama/travelogue with Kenneth More, Susannah York and Jane Asher.
The Wing or the Thigh (1976) - Beautiful Wonka-esque production design, and I really warm to Louis De Funés as a performer. He has magnetism. He can be infuriating, in his mania. But that was his gift. French comedy in the 70s had energy.
Foxbat (1978)- Intriguing, ambitious, watchable low-budget Bond knockoff made in Hong Kong by Northampton lad and ex-BBC Panorama editor Po Chih Leong, who later directed Ping Pong (David Yip's attempt at big screen stardom rather than playing the hero's dead sidekick) and the Wisdom of Crocodiles. With an ambitious international scale and an interesting, double-agent role for the lovely Vonetta McGee, some interesting stunt work and a fine Roy Budd score (shades of his theme for the Sandbaggers), it's not bad.
Beyond the Seventh Door (1987) - Strange shot-on-video Canadian proto-Cube starring Serbain Lazar Rockwood, a Tommy Wiseau-alike who resembles the leather jacketed lovechild of Mick Lally and Talfryn Thomas.
The Guilty Generation (1931 - b/w) - Rote crime drama.
Ditto the Barbara Stanwyck vehicle Ten Cents A Dance (1931 - b/w).
The Secret Witness (1931 - b/w) - Rote mystery.
Arizona (1931 - b/w) - Rote college drama with John Wayne.
The Pagan Lady (1931 - b/w) - Rote exotica.
The Lady Refuses (1931 - b/w) - Early RKO faux-British drama set in a world with American-accented bobbies. See also The Royal Bed (1931 - b/w
Their Mad Moment (1931 - b/w) - I find early pre-20th Century Fox films unimaginative. Though the Spider (1931 - b/w) looks gorgeous, but it's about stage magic, so it should.
The Good Bad Girl (1931 - b/w)/Parole Girl (1933 - b/w) - Mae Clarke makes the same film twice.
The Maker of Men (1931 - b/w) - Forgettable Columbia American football yarn.
The Big Timer (1932 - b/w) - Future British-based Americans Ben Lyon and Constance Cummings in a forgettable boxing flick. Utterly generic.
Three Wise Girls (1932 - b/w) - Rote Jean Harlow vehicle.
Vanity Fair (1932 - b/w) - Threadbare poverty row adap with Myrna Loy and Anthony Bushell.
Shopworn (1932 - b/w) - Rote early Barbara Stanwyck drama.
See also Ladies of Leisure (1930 - b/w).
Forbidden (1932 - b/w) - More of the same as above, but with Frank Capra at the helm.
Love Affair (1932- b/w) - Forgettable aviation romance with Humphrey Bogart.
Vanity Street (1932 - b/w) - Rote backstreet drama with Charles Bickford and Helen Chandler.
Virtue (1932 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Carole Lombard and Pat O'Brien.
Attorney for the Defense (1932 - b/w) - Clarence Muse has to do black drama school acting in this tedious courtroom drama.
No More Orchids (1932 - b/w)- Forgettable drama with Carole Lombard. See also Brief Moment (1933 - b/w).
The Night Club Lady (1932 - bw) - Rote thriller with Adolphe Menjou.
The Final Edition (1932 - b/w) - Journalistic fluff with Pat O'Brien.
The Menace (1932 - b/w) - Tatty old dark houser with Bette Davis.
The Devil is Driving (1932 - b/w) - Rote drama with Edmund Lowe.
Keeper of the Bees (1933 - b/w) - Threadbare Monogram rural drama with Neil Hamilton.
Air Hostess (1933 - b/w) - Rote B-aviation drama. Forgettable even when you watch it.
My Woman (1933 - b/w) - Rote drama with Helen Twelvetrees.
The Woman I Stole (1933 - b/w) - Arab nonsense with Hay Wray.
What Price, Innocence (1933 - b/w) - Rote orphan drama with Jean Parker.
East of Fifth Avenue (1933 - b/w) - Rote drama set at a racecourse.
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933 - b/w) -
Ann Carver's Profession (1933 - b/w) - Rote legal thing with Fay Wray.
Cocktail Hour (1933 - b/w) - Rote shipbound romance with Bebe Daniels and Randolph Scott.
See also Whom the Gods Destroy (1934 - b/w).
Social Register (1934 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Colleen Moore. Uses the Tchaikovsky piece better known to all as the Paul Hogan Show theme.
The Lady is Willing (1934 - b/w) -British period roter with Leslie Howard.
The Most Precious Thing in Life (1934 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Jean Arthur.
Whirlpool (1934 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Jean Arthur and Jack Holt.
See also I'll Fix It (1934 - b/w) and Come Closer, Folks (1937 - b/w) and the crime drama The Best Man Wins (1935 - b/w).
Blind Date (1934 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Ann Sothern and Commissioner Gordon.
See also Don't Gamble on Love (1936 - b/w).
No Greater Glory (1934 - b/w) - Faux Hungarian kiddy flick about boy soldiers with a tragic end.
Pride of the Marines (1934 - b/w) - Juvenile naval nonsense with Charles Bickford.
Broadway Bill (1934 - b/w) - Rote racehorse comedy with Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy.
The Lone Wolf Returns (1935 - b/w) - Generic series tosh with Melvyn Douglas.
She Married Her Boss (1935 - b/w) - Rote Claudette Colbert vehicle.
Too Tough to Kill (1935 - b/w) - Forgettable mining crimer with Victor Jory.
She Couldn't Take It (1935 - b/w) - Rote 30s comedy with George Raft.
You May Be Next (1935 - b/w) - Rote mystery with Ann Sothern.
Party Wire (1935 - b/w) - Rote Jean Arthur vehicle.
Grand Exit (1935 - b/w) - Rote Edmund Lowe vehicle.
A Feather in her Hat (1935 - b/w) - Faux-British melo with Basil Rathbone.
After the Dance (1936 - b/w) - Rote romance with Nancy Carroll. See also Child of Manhattan (1933 - b/w) and Jealousy (1934 - b/w) and Springtime for Henry (1934 - b/w) with Nigel Bruce.
Pennies from Heaven (1936 - b/w) - Typical Bing vehicle.
Craig's Wife (1936 - b/w) - Rote Rosalind Russell drama.
Lady of Secrets (1936 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Ruth Chatterton.
Legion of Terror (1936 - b/w) - Rote Klansploitation with Bruce Cabot.
Alibi for Murder (1936 - b/w) - Forgettable crime story with William Gargan.
Shakedown (1936 - b/w) - Rote, unimaginative crime story with Lew Ayres.
The Man Who Lived Twice (1936 - b/w) - Rote crime vehicle with Ralph Bellamy. See also The Crime of Helen Stanley (1934 - b/w) and Before Midnight (1933 - b/w).
Counterfeit (1936 - b/w) - Rote crime fare with Chester Morris. See also Blind Alley (1939 - b/w) and I Promise to Pay (1937 - b/w).
More Than A Secretary (1936 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Jean Arthur.
Theodora Goes Wild (1936 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Irene Dunne.
Devil's Squadron (1936 - b/w)/Devil's Playground (1937 - b/w) - One at sea, one at air, but the same film with Richard Dix.
It's All Yours (1937 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for Madeleine Carroll and Francis Lederer.
The Shadow (1937 - b/w) - Not an adap of the pulp character but a rote mystery with Rita Hayworth. See also Homicide Bureau (1937 - b/w) and Girls Can Play (1937 - b/w).
Life Begins with Love (1937 - b/w) - Rote romcom.
Juvenile Court (1937 - b/w) - Rita Hayworth in execrable sub-Dead End Kids lark.
The League of Frightened Men (1937 - b/w) - Rote Nero Wolfe mystery.
Murder in Greenwich Village (1937 - b/w) - Rote action-comedy with Fay Wray.
Venus Makes Trouble (1937 - b/w) - Rote comedy with James Dunn.
Women of Glamour (1937 - b/w) - Rote mystery comedy with Melvyn Douglas.
Let's Get Married (1937 - b/w) - Rote comedy with Ida Lupino.
Who Killed Gail Preston? (1937 - b/w) - Forgettable British crime story with Rita Hayworth.
Peck's Bad Boy with the Circus (1938 - b/w) - Rote kiddy flick from the 30s. With Edgar Kennedy.
I am The Law (1938 - b/w) - Rote Edward G. Robinson vehicle.
Let Us Live (1939 - b/w) - Henry Fonda juvenile nonsense.
The Witness Vanishes (1939 - b/w) - Forgettable British-set Universal dark houser.
Coast Guard (1939 - b/w) - Randolph Scott drama, suddenly goes Arctic.
Golden Boy (1939 - b/w) - Rote boxing yarn with Barbara Stanwyck and William Holden.
I Live on Danger (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable, threadbare Pine-Thomas/Paramount actioner with Chester Morris. See also Law of the Underworld (1938 -b/w)
Jack London (1943 - b/w) - Flaccid yellowface-heavy biopic.
Gasoline Alley (1951 - b/w)/Corky of Gasoline Alley (1951 - b/w) - Interchangeable installments in a failed series based on the comic strip.
Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953 - b/w) - Italian drama with Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift doing it for De Sica.
The Bonnie Parker Story (1957 - b/w) - Rote 50s gangster trash, though efficiently directed by William Witney. A precursor to Corman's 70s gangster movies.
Hand in Hand (1960 - b/w) - Sweet kiddy friendship drama.
The Greengage Summer (1962) - Bland melodrama/travelogue with Kenneth More, Susannah York and Jane Asher.
The Wing or the Thigh (1976) - Beautiful Wonka-esque production design, and I really warm to Louis De Funés as a performer. He has magnetism. He can be infuriating, in his mania. But that was his gift. French comedy in the 70s had energy.
Foxbat (1978)- Intriguing, ambitious, watchable low-budget Bond knockoff made in Hong Kong by Northampton lad and ex-BBC Panorama editor Po Chih Leong, who later directed Ping Pong (David Yip's attempt at big screen stardom rather than playing the hero's dead sidekick) and the Wisdom of Crocodiles. With an ambitious international scale and an interesting, double-agent role for the lovely Vonetta McGee, some interesting stunt work and a fine Roy Budd score (shades of his theme for the Sandbaggers), it's not bad.
Beyond the Seventh Door (1987) - Strange shot-on-video Canadian proto-Cube starring Serbain Lazar Rockwood, a Tommy Wiseau-alike who resembles the leather jacketed lovechild of Mick Lally and Talfryn Thomas.
Sunday 19 April 2020
100
Cross Examination (1932 - b/w) - Poverty row courtroom twaddle with HB Warner, serviceably done.
Lady with a Past (1932 - b/w) - Rote 30s drama with Constance Bennett. Not to be confused with the Claudette Colbert vehicle The Lady who Lies (1929 - b/w).
The Daring Young Man (1933 - b/w) - Forgettable Fox gangster comedy with James Dunn.
The Defense Rests (1934 - b/w) - Jean Arthur tries to stop her lover cheating. Duh.
The Personality Kid (1934 - b/w) - Dullsville boxing pic with Pat O'Brien.
Bottoms Up (1934 - b/w) - Generic musical comedy with Spencer Tracy.
Star of Midnight (1935 - b/w) - Rote mystery with Ginger Rogers and William Powell.
Big Business (1937 - b/w)/Borrowing Trouble (1937 - b/w) - Stupid family comedies about the Jones Family, from Fox.
The Doctor Takes A Wife (1940 - b/w) - Rote Loretta Young romcom with Ray Milland.
You Belong to me (1941 - b/w) - Thought I had seen this Fonda/Stanwyck teamup before. No, I'm not thinking of the Lady Eve.
The Thing Called Love (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable Rosalind Russell comedy.
See also My Sister Eileen (1942 - b/w).
Girls of the Road (1940 - b/w) - Early women in prison about girl hobos with Ann Dvorak.
Convicted Woman (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable crime B with a young Glenn Ford. See also Babies for Sale (1940 - b/w).
Escape to Glory (1940 - b/w) - Cheapskate Lusitania with Pat O'Brien.
The Fight for Life (1940 - b/w) - Maternity drama-documentary with Will Geer.
The Howards of Virginia (1940 - b/w) - Typical colonial gubbins with Cary Grant's silly ponytail.
She Knew All The Answers (1941 - b/w) - Rote Joan Bennett vehicle.
Ten Cents A Dance (1941 - b/w) - I remember David Thomson writing about forgettable B-musicals starring Jane Frazee. Well, here is one.
Our Wife (1941 - b/w) - Not right. With Melvyn Douglas.
See also Douglas in the Joan Crawford vehicle They All Killed the Bride (1942 - b/w).
Mr. District Attorney (1941 - b/w) - Republic quickie with Peter Lorre and Dennis O'Keefe who would appear in a later adaptation, which is even cheaper but Columbia-produced in (1947) with the same title, with Adolphe Menjou and George Coulouris.
Penny Serenade (1941 - b/w) - Cary Grant weepie.
Three Girls About Town (1941 - b/w) - Rote comedy with Joan Blondell. Thought I'd seen it before. That's how generic it is.
Lydia (1941 - b/w) - Generic period lushness with Merle Oberon and Joseph Cotten.
The Big Boss (1941 - b/w) - As generic a crime tale as they come.
Harvard, Here I Come (1941 - b/w) - Idiotic college comedy starring Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom.
Bedtime Story (1941 - b/w) - Even the title is generic in this Loretta Young-Fredric March vehicle.
I Was a Prisoner on Devil's Island (1941 - b/w) - As generic as the title.
Naval Academy (1941 - b/w)/Cadets on Parade (1942 - b/w) - Freddie Bartholemew is a wet blanket.
See also the similar annoying young boys' adventure of Adventure in Washington (1944 - b/w), with Dickie Jones, better known as Pinocchio.
The Men in Her Life (1941 - b/w) - Ropey ballet romance with Loretta Young.
Parachute Nurse (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable Columbia propaganda.
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1942 - b/w) - Watching this, you'd never know that Jackie Gleason would become one of the true greats of American comedy. Here, he is a young fat schlub who quips annoyingly every time. He had to age into himself.
Talk of the Town (1942 - b/w) - Jean Arthur irritates me. Here, she annoys Cary Grant and Ronald Colman.
The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942 - b/w) - Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes and Claire Trevor star in a film that's not sure if it's maritime adventure based on Jack London or a screwball comedy. Eventually, it is a melodramatic mess.
Appointment in Berlin (1943 - b/w) - Generic wartime adventure with George Sanders as Lord Haw Haw, newspapers called the London Sun and the London Ledger, and Alan Napier looking much the same as he would as Alfred.
Submarine Raider (1942 - b/w) - Rote propaganda.
The Lady is Willing (1942 - b/w) - Marlene Dietrich is out of her depth wooing busboy Fred MacMurray. Takes a sudden turn from comedy to medical melodrama.
Stand By All Networks (1942 - b/w) - Radio-themed mystery, but at least there is some nice setpieces with a flood. See also star John Beal in Key Witness (1947 - b/w)
First Comes Courage (1943 - b/w) - Generic war yarn with Merle Oberon.
City Without Men (1943 - b/w) - Maritime quickie with Linda Darnell.
Flight Lieutenant (1943 - b/w) - Generic air force action, that I'd swore that I'd seen before, but no, just because it has Glenn Ford and Pat O'Brien doesn't mean it isn't the same as before.
Meet the Stewarts (1943 - b/w) - One of those rote little films William Holden made before he became a proper star.
See also Miss Grant Take Richmond (1949 - b/w) with Lucille Ball.
There's Something About A Soldier (1943 - b/w) - Rote military comedy with Tom Neal. See also the rote mystery The Racket Man (1945 - b/w).
Glamour for Sale (1943 - b/w) - Bland musical comedy.
Sahara (1943 - b/w) - Finally, a Columbia action picture that's well paced, has endearing characters and actually looks like it was shot in the Sahara. Even Humphrey Bogart doesn't look out of place.
Power of the Press (1943 - b/w) - Rote Columbia cheapie.
See also Murder in Times Square (1943 - b/w) and The Missing Juror (1944 - b/w).
Secret Command (1944 - b/w) - Rote WW2 fare with Pat O'Brien.
They Live in Fear (1944 - b/w) - Tedious Columbia teen drama with a concentration camp survivor as a lead.
The Black Parachute (1944 - b/w) - Shonky Californian-looking Nazi nonsense with John Carradine.
The Impatient Years (1944 - b/w) - Bland Jean Arthur romcom.
The Whistler (1944 - b/w) - Interchangeable series quickie with Richard Dix.
Prison Ship (1945 - b/w) - Dreary Columbia war nonsense.
Over 45 (1945 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Irene Dunne and Charles Coburn. Weird seeing Alexander Knox as a leading man. See also Together Again (1944 - b/w).
No Place for A Lady (1945 - b/w) - Rote William Gargan mystery. See also Night Editor (1946 - b/w)
The Gentleman from Nowhere (1946 - b/w) - Rote mystery by William Castle.
Alias Mr. Twilight (1946 - b/w) - Utterly forgettable mystery from Columbia.
Gallant Journey (1946 - b/w) - Glenn Ford aviation averageness.
One Way to Love (1946 - b/w) - Bland train-board romance with Willard Parker. C-rate.
Shadowed (1946 - b/w) - Forgettable B-noir from Columbia.
The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1946 - b/w) - Ditto.
Blind Spot (1947 - b/w) - Rote noir with Chester Morris.
Framed (1947 - b/w) - Rote noir with Glenn Ford. See also the Christmassy Mr. Soft Touch (1949 - b/w) and The Undercover Man (1949 - b/w).
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947 - b/w) - Somewhat charming if cheap-feeling Monogram romantic comedy.
It Had to be You (1947 - b/w) - Much overuse of the eponymous song in this nonsensical comedy with Ginger Rogers and Cornel Wilde as an "Indian brave".
Her Husband's Affairs (1947 - b/w) - Comedy about magic beard growth with Lucille Ball.
Mine Own Executioner (1947 - b/w) -Burgess Meredith stars in this British thriller, that at least has some atmosphere and gloomy flashbacks.
Wreck of the Hesperus (1948 - b/w) - Cheapskate Columbia maritime drama.
The Best Man Wins (1948 - b/w) - Tedious western-set family film about frogs.
The Sign of the Ram (1948 - b/w) - Gothically stylish but slow faux-British mystery with Alexander Knox.
The Dark Past (1948 - b/w) - Rote noir with William Holden and Lee J. Cobb. Sure I'd seen this before.
The Mating of Millie (1948 - b/w) - Rote Glenn Ford romcom.
The Black Arrow (1948 - b/w) - Rote swashbuckler with Louis Hayward. See also The Return of Monte Cristo (1947 - b/w).
Anna Lucasta (1949 - b/w) - Paulette Goddard melodrama, more memorably remade with Eartha Kitt.
Prison Warden (1949 - b/w) - Bland vehicle for Warner Baxter.
And Baby Makes Three (1949 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Barbara Hale.
Tell it to the Judge (1949 - b/w) - Rote courtroom comedy with Rosalind Russell.
Air Hostess (1949 - b/w) - Bland Bunty comic-style drama, featuring Barbara Billingsley, sadly not speaking jive like her role in another air-related film.
Not to be confused with fellow Columbia cheapie Cafe Hostess (1940 - b/w).
Shockproof (1949 - b/w) - Rote noir with Cornel Wilde.
Barbary Pirate (1949 - b/w) - Forgettable Columbia B-exotica. See also The Woman from Tangier (1949 - b/w).
Johnny Allegro (1949 - b/w) - Rote guns and fedoras with George Raft.
Five Bloody Graves (1970) - Al Adamson western. So cheap it looks like it was made in 1957. But by Adamson standards, it is competent. It has a scene when a raid on a farmhouse is accompanied by the stock track by Johnny Pearson, the Awakening, better known as the News at Ten theme.
Lady with a Past (1932 - b/w) - Rote 30s drama with Constance Bennett. Not to be confused with the Claudette Colbert vehicle The Lady who Lies (1929 - b/w).
The Daring Young Man (1933 - b/w) - Forgettable Fox gangster comedy with James Dunn.
The Defense Rests (1934 - b/w) - Jean Arthur tries to stop her lover cheating. Duh.
The Personality Kid (1934 - b/w) - Dullsville boxing pic with Pat O'Brien.
Bottoms Up (1934 - b/w) - Generic musical comedy with Spencer Tracy.
Star of Midnight (1935 - b/w) - Rote mystery with Ginger Rogers and William Powell.
Big Business (1937 - b/w)/Borrowing Trouble (1937 - b/w) - Stupid family comedies about the Jones Family, from Fox.
The Doctor Takes A Wife (1940 - b/w) - Rote Loretta Young romcom with Ray Milland.
You Belong to me (1941 - b/w) - Thought I had seen this Fonda/Stanwyck teamup before. No, I'm not thinking of the Lady Eve.
The Thing Called Love (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable Rosalind Russell comedy.
See also My Sister Eileen (1942 - b/w).
Girls of the Road (1940 - b/w) - Early women in prison about girl hobos with Ann Dvorak.
Convicted Woman (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable crime B with a young Glenn Ford. See also Babies for Sale (1940 - b/w).
Escape to Glory (1940 - b/w) - Cheapskate Lusitania with Pat O'Brien.
The Fight for Life (1940 - b/w) - Maternity drama-documentary with Will Geer.
The Howards of Virginia (1940 - b/w) - Typical colonial gubbins with Cary Grant's silly ponytail.
She Knew All The Answers (1941 - b/w) - Rote Joan Bennett vehicle.
Ten Cents A Dance (1941 - b/w) - I remember David Thomson writing about forgettable B-musicals starring Jane Frazee. Well, here is one.
Our Wife (1941 - b/w) - Not right. With Melvyn Douglas.
See also Douglas in the Joan Crawford vehicle They All Killed the Bride (1942 - b/w).
Mr. District Attorney (1941 - b/w) - Republic quickie with Peter Lorre and Dennis O'Keefe who would appear in a later adaptation, which is even cheaper but Columbia-produced in (1947) with the same title, with Adolphe Menjou and George Coulouris.
Penny Serenade (1941 - b/w) - Cary Grant weepie.
Three Girls About Town (1941 - b/w) - Rote comedy with Joan Blondell. Thought I'd seen it before. That's how generic it is.
Lydia (1941 - b/w) - Generic period lushness with Merle Oberon and Joseph Cotten.
The Big Boss (1941 - b/w) - As generic a crime tale as they come.
Harvard, Here I Come (1941 - b/w) - Idiotic college comedy starring Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom.
Bedtime Story (1941 - b/w) - Even the title is generic in this Loretta Young-Fredric March vehicle.
I Was a Prisoner on Devil's Island (1941 - b/w) - As generic as the title.
Naval Academy (1941 - b/w)/Cadets on Parade (1942 - b/w) - Freddie Bartholemew is a wet blanket.
See also the similar annoying young boys' adventure of Adventure in Washington (1944 - b/w), with Dickie Jones, better known as Pinocchio.
The Men in Her Life (1941 - b/w) - Ropey ballet romance with Loretta Young.
Parachute Nurse (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable Columbia propaganda.
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1942 - b/w) - Watching this, you'd never know that Jackie Gleason would become one of the true greats of American comedy. Here, he is a young fat schlub who quips annoyingly every time. He had to age into himself.
Talk of the Town (1942 - b/w) - Jean Arthur irritates me. Here, she annoys Cary Grant and Ronald Colman.
The Adventures of Martin Eden (1942 - b/w) - Glenn Ford and Evelyn Keyes and Claire Trevor star in a film that's not sure if it's maritime adventure based on Jack London or a screwball comedy. Eventually, it is a melodramatic mess.
Appointment in Berlin (1943 - b/w) - Generic wartime adventure with George Sanders as Lord Haw Haw, newspapers called the London Sun and the London Ledger, and Alan Napier looking much the same as he would as Alfred.
Submarine Raider (1942 - b/w) - Rote propaganda.
The Lady is Willing (1942 - b/w) - Marlene Dietrich is out of her depth wooing busboy Fred MacMurray. Takes a sudden turn from comedy to medical melodrama.
Stand By All Networks (1942 - b/w) - Radio-themed mystery, but at least there is some nice setpieces with a flood. See also star John Beal in Key Witness (1947 - b/w)
First Comes Courage (1943 - b/w) - Generic war yarn with Merle Oberon.
City Without Men (1943 - b/w) - Maritime quickie with Linda Darnell.
Flight Lieutenant (1943 - b/w) - Generic air force action, that I'd swore that I'd seen before, but no, just because it has Glenn Ford and Pat O'Brien doesn't mean it isn't the same as before.
Meet the Stewarts (1943 - b/w) - One of those rote little films William Holden made before he became a proper star.
See also Miss Grant Take Richmond (1949 - b/w) with Lucille Ball.
There's Something About A Soldier (1943 - b/w) - Rote military comedy with Tom Neal. See also the rote mystery The Racket Man (1945 - b/w).
Glamour for Sale (1943 - b/w) - Bland musical comedy.
Sahara (1943 - b/w) - Finally, a Columbia action picture that's well paced, has endearing characters and actually looks like it was shot in the Sahara. Even Humphrey Bogart doesn't look out of place.
Power of the Press (1943 - b/w) - Rote Columbia cheapie.
See also Murder in Times Square (1943 - b/w) and The Missing Juror (1944 - b/w).
Secret Command (1944 - b/w) - Rote WW2 fare with Pat O'Brien.
They Live in Fear (1944 - b/w) - Tedious Columbia teen drama with a concentration camp survivor as a lead.
The Black Parachute (1944 - b/w) - Shonky Californian-looking Nazi nonsense with John Carradine.
The Impatient Years (1944 - b/w) - Bland Jean Arthur romcom.
The Whistler (1944 - b/w) - Interchangeable series quickie with Richard Dix.
Prison Ship (1945 - b/w) - Dreary Columbia war nonsense.
Over 45 (1945 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Irene Dunne and Charles Coburn. Weird seeing Alexander Knox as a leading man. See also Together Again (1944 - b/w).
No Place for A Lady (1945 - b/w) - Rote William Gargan mystery. See also Night Editor (1946 - b/w)
The Gentleman from Nowhere (1946 - b/w) - Rote mystery by William Castle.
Alias Mr. Twilight (1946 - b/w) - Utterly forgettable mystery from Columbia.
Gallant Journey (1946 - b/w) - Glenn Ford aviation averageness.
One Way to Love (1946 - b/w) - Bland train-board romance with Willard Parker. C-rate.
Shadowed (1946 - b/w) - Forgettable B-noir from Columbia.
The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1946 - b/w) - Ditto.
Blind Spot (1947 - b/w) - Rote noir with Chester Morris.
Framed (1947 - b/w) - Rote noir with Glenn Ford. See also the Christmassy Mr. Soft Touch (1949 - b/w) and The Undercover Man (1949 - b/w).
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947 - b/w) - Somewhat charming if cheap-feeling Monogram romantic comedy.
It Had to be You (1947 - b/w) - Much overuse of the eponymous song in this nonsensical comedy with Ginger Rogers and Cornel Wilde as an "Indian brave".
Her Husband's Affairs (1947 - b/w) - Comedy about magic beard growth with Lucille Ball.
Mine Own Executioner (1947 - b/w) -Burgess Meredith stars in this British thriller, that at least has some atmosphere and gloomy flashbacks.
Wreck of the Hesperus (1948 - b/w) - Cheapskate Columbia maritime drama.
The Best Man Wins (1948 - b/w) - Tedious western-set family film about frogs.
The Sign of the Ram (1948 - b/w) - Gothically stylish but slow faux-British mystery with Alexander Knox.
The Dark Past (1948 - b/w) - Rote noir with William Holden and Lee J. Cobb. Sure I'd seen this before.
The Mating of Millie (1948 - b/w) - Rote Glenn Ford romcom.
The Black Arrow (1948 - b/w) - Rote swashbuckler with Louis Hayward. See also The Return of Monte Cristo (1947 - b/w).
Anna Lucasta (1949 - b/w) - Paulette Goddard melodrama, more memorably remade with Eartha Kitt.
Prison Warden (1949 - b/w) - Bland vehicle for Warner Baxter.
And Baby Makes Three (1949 - b/w) - Rote romcom with Barbara Hale.
Tell it to the Judge (1949 - b/w) - Rote courtroom comedy with Rosalind Russell.
Air Hostess (1949 - b/w) - Bland Bunty comic-style drama, featuring Barbara Billingsley, sadly not speaking jive like her role in another air-related film.
Not to be confused with fellow Columbia cheapie Cafe Hostess (1940 - b/w).
Shockproof (1949 - b/w) - Rote noir with Cornel Wilde.
Barbary Pirate (1949 - b/w) - Forgettable Columbia B-exotica. See also The Woman from Tangier (1949 - b/w).
Johnny Allegro (1949 - b/w) - Rote guns and fedoras with George Raft.
Five Bloody Graves (1970) - Al Adamson western. So cheap it looks like it was made in 1957. But by Adamson standards, it is competent. It has a scene when a raid on a farmhouse is accompanied by the stock track by Johnny Pearson, the Awakening, better known as the News at Ten theme.
Wednesday 15 April 2020
140
Song o'my Heart (1930 - b/w) - John McCormack vehicle. Set and partly shot in Ireland, this is the kind of sentimental mawk that scarred Hollywood's depiction of us for decades.
Scotland Yard (1930 - b/w) - Cheapish WW1 mystery with Joan Bennett and Edmund Lowe.
His Woman (1931 - b/w) - Forgettable shipboard melodrama with Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert.
Strange Adventure (1932 - b/w) - Old dark ouser from Monogram with the dreadful black drama school acting of Snowflake.
By Whose Hand (1932 - b/w) - Railway comedy blandness with Ben Lyon
The Secret of Madame Blanche (1933 - b/w) - Faux-Brit Irene Dunne melodrama.
Adorable (1933 - b/w) - Janet Gaynor mittel-European musical. There is an adorable chefs sequence.
Peg O'My Heart (1933 - b/w) - Marion Davies is an Oirish gal in terrible MGM schlock.
The Count of Monte Cristo (1934 - b/w) - Rote adaptation with Robert Donat.
Steamboat Round the Bend (1934 - b/w) - John Ford helms a typical Will Rogers vehicle, with Stepin Fetchit.
Ladies Crave Excitement (1935) - Serviceable, workmanlike Mascot adventure.
Danger - Love at Work (1937 - b/w) - Routine Fox comedy. From Otto Preminger.
The Great Hotel Murder (1935 - b/w) - Early Fox programmer. Nowhere near as exciting. See also Grand Exit and the Lupe Velez vehicle Hot Pepper (1933 - b/w), all three with Edmund Lowe.
Red Lights Ahead (1936 - b/w) - Forgettable Chesterfield juvenile comedy with Andy Clyde.
The White Angel (1936 - b/w) - Kay Francis is an American Florence Nightingale.
Not to be confused with The White Sister (1933 - b/w) where Clark Gable romances Helen Hayes as a nun.
Wife, Doctor and Nurse (1937 - b/w) - Rote melo with Warner Baxter and Loretta Young.
Live, Love and Learn (1937 - b/w) - Typical family comedy.
My Favourite Wife (1940 - b/w) - Typical screwball.
The man I Married (1940 - b/w) - Rote Joan Bennett vehicle.
Girl in the News (1940 - b/w) - Rote British thriller with Margaret Lockwood.
Star Dust (1940 - b/w) - Rote Hollywood drama with Linda Darnell.
He Married His Wife (1940 - b/w) - Rote comedy with Joel McCrea.
Rise and Shine (1941 - b/w) - Jack Oakie football musical. So not my cuppa.
Life Begins at Eight Thirty (1942 - b/w) - Rote theatrical bluster for Monty Woolley.
Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942 - b/w) - Rote romance in gothic drag, with Linda Darnell, and the forgettable John Shepperd, who nevertheless as Shepperd Strudwick, had a long, decent career as a character actor and Broadway actor.
The Panther's Claw (1942 - b/w) - Poverty row mystery.
Time to Kill (1942 - b/w) - Rote Michael Shayne mystery with Lloyd Nolan, based on a Marlowe tale.
The Magnificent Dope (1942 - b/w) - Henry Fonda comedy, with Don Ameche. See also Girl Trouble (1942 - b/w).
Cairo (1942 - b/w) - Robert Young and Jeanette MacDonald and Ethel Waters in a musical that didn't even need to be in (modern) Egypt. It doesn't matter and it doesn't feel Egyptian.
Roxie Hart (1942 - b/w) - Rote comedy that inspired Chicago.
A Gentleman at Heart (1942 - b/w) - Cesar Romero B. See also Tall, Dark and Handsome (1941 - b/w).
The Postman Didn't Ring (1942 - b/w) - Bland Fox B comedy about stamp collecting.
Claudia (1943 - b/w) - Forgettable comedy with Dorothy McGuire. See also Claudia and David (1946 - b/w).
Whispering Footsteps (1943 - b/w) - Republic cheapie mystery. See also Strangers in the Night (1944 - b/w)
The Meanest Man in the World (1943 - b/w) - Jack Benny featurette.
A Royal Scandal (1943 - b/w) - Period fluff.
Secrets of Scotland Yard (1944 - b/w) - Republic nonsense, faux-patriotic British Nazi spying with a ludicrous scene where American-accented Scotland Yard men stand to God Save the Queen after a faux-Churchill speech on the BBC.
Her Favourite Patient (1945 - b/w) - Forgetttable UA cheapie romance.
Within These Walls (1945 - b/w) - Thomas Mitchell in a prison.
Captain Eddie (1945 - b/w) - Fred MacMurray aviation tosh.
I've Always Loved You (1946) - Lush but cheap-feeling stab at respectability from Republic by Frank Borzage.
Black Beauty (1946) - Tatty Fox adap that is seemingly set in both 1946 and the Victorian era, depending on when the crew are bothered.
The Late George Apley (1947 - b/w) - Rote turn of the century comedy of manners with Ronald Colman, Peggy Cummins and Richard Haydn.
Daisy Kenyon (1947 - b/w) - Rote Joan Crawford melo.
The Babe Ruth Story (1948 - b/w) - Monogram attempt to go legit, as Allied Artists.William Bendix looks lost, and the scene with the kid in bed miraculously cured is ludicrous. As bad as they say.
The Wonderful Urge (1948 - b/w) - Rote Tyrone Power/Gene Tierney romance comedy.
The Wake of the Red Witch (1948 - b/w) - John Wayne makes the same film again, another maritime melodrama. Costar Duke Kahanamoku, the Hawaiian Olympian swimming champ who invented modern surfing.
Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948 - b/w) - "And" Hugh Burden, Bonar Colleano and David Tomlinson in a lively riff on The Lady Vanishes.
Father was a Fullback (1949 - b/w) - Idiotic football-com.
Pinky (1949 - b/w) - Story of a mixed-race girl who passes for white. Except she's played by the lilywhite Jeanne Crain, who is so unconvincing (she has no soul - she looks catatonic in some shots) is that the only way this story works if it was a Navin Johnson situation. In fact, I'm sure Carl Reiner had to have seen this before the Jerk. She's even called Johnson. She was probably a relative.
HiJacked (1950 - b/w) - Rote Lippert trucker nonsense with Jim Davis.
Edge of Doom (1950 - b/w) - Farley Granger and Dana Andrews noir. Forgettable.
Customs Agent (1950 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for the forgettable William Eythe.
Our Very Own (1950 - b/w) - RKO teen melodrama with Ann Blyth and Natalie Wood.
No Sad Songs for Me (1950 - b/w) - Margaret Sullavan's last melodrama.
I'll Get You For This (1950 - b/w) - Rote British European-set crime drama with George Raft.
The Guy who Came Back (1951 - b/w) - Ropey football drama with Paul Douglas.
I Can Get It For You Wholesale (1951) - Dull Susan Hayward romance.
Saturday's Hero (1951 - b/w)/The Family Secret (1951 - b/w) - God John Derek was a hell of a non-actor. Both soppy dramas.
Japanese War Bride (1951 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Don Taylor, Shirley Yamaguchi and Cameron Mitchell.
The Brave Bulls (1951 - b/w) - How many matador films did Anthony Quinn do?
Payment on Demand (1951 - b/w)/Storm Center (1956 - b/w) - Bette Davis melodramas.
The Star (1952 - b/w) - Rote Bette Davis melodrama, about Hollywood, with Sterling Hayden.
One Minute to Zero (1952 - b/w) - Rubbishy Korean war with Robert Mitchum.f
Paula (1952 - b/w) - Loretta Young melodrama.
A Member of the Wedding (1952 - b/w) - Julie Harris as a twelve year old is like a lesbian with learning difficulties.
Bad for Each Other (1953 - b/w) - Rote bad girl noir with Lizabeth Scott and Charlton Heston.
See also Scott in The Company She Keeps (1951 - b/w).
The President's Lady (1953 - b/w) - Rote historical nag with Susan Hayward and Heston.
Cell 2455 Death Row (1955 - b/w) - William Campbell Columbia crime programmer.
Queen Bee (1955 - b/w) - Joan Crawford melodrama. See also Harriet Craig (1950 - b/w).
Pacific Destiny (1956 ) - Denholm Elliott finds love in Polynesia.
The Ambassador's Daughter (1956) - Bland romcom with John Forsythe and Olivia De Havilland.
Teenage Rebel (1956 - b/w) - Ginger Rogers is the mum in this JD melodrama.
Hold Back the Night (1956 - b/w) - Forgettable Allied Artists Korean war shambles.
Strange Intruder (1957 - b/w) - Post-Korean War noir shambles with Edmund Purdom and Ida Lupino.
The Young Don't Cry (1957 - b/w) - Sal Mineo melodrama.
The True Story of Lynn Stuart (1958 - b/w) - Rote crime drama with Betsy Palmer.
Herod the Great (1958) - Forgettable biblical knock-off with Edmund Purdom from Allied Artists.
Ten North Frederick (1958 - b/w) - Dreary Gary Cooper drama.
The Goddess (1958 - b/w) - Kim Stanley miscast as a Marilyn-type.
Jeanne Eagels (1958 - b/w) - Kim Novak stage melodrama.
Blue Denim (1959 - b/w) - Carol Lynley and Brandon deWilde teen mush.
The Big Operator (1959 - b/w) - Mickey Rooney and Mamie van Doren crime drama.
The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961 - b/w) - Unauthorised biopic of future B-movie producer Arch Hall Senior, starring Robert Mitchum. A routine post-Bilko army comedy. Ends with Hall with copies of Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.
Angel Baby (1961 - b/w) - Christian tent preacher juvenile romance with Salome Jens and George Hamilton, plus Burt Reynolds and Joan Blondell as proto-late-stage Shelley Winters.
Hitler (1962 - b/w) - Cheapo Allied Artists biopic. Richard Basehart tries his best, but he is physically too large and imposing for the title role. And it is very stagebound, with a few obvious California exteriors and when various cast from Hogan's Heroes appear in uniform, it is hard to take anything seriously.
Soldier in the Rain (1963 - b/w) - Forgettable Allied Artists comedy with Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason slumming it.
Tarzan Goes to India (1963)/Tarzan's Three Challenges (1963) - Jock Mahoney as Tarzan. He's too old, at 44, but his Tarzan is basically Da Tarzan. He's paired in both with Asian kids to be parental to. In India, he has "Jai the Elephant Boy" as himself, and Ricky Der in Three Challenges. I've seen Der in I Spy, where he was a snarky Asian-American kid, but here he is dubbed by either Denise Bryer or Olive Gregg, he has that Fruit Gums ad "middle aged woman doing eager English schoolboy voice" that was common in British films and telly until the early 90s. They are rote but colourful adventures. Tarzan Goes to India has genuine Bollywood talent such as Feroz Khan, but Tarzan's Three Challenges, though shot in Thailand casts Earl Cameron and Woody Strode as the supposed Thai characters, having already played African tribesmen in earlier films in the series, because Sy Weintraub liked to reuse talent.
Mara of the Wilderness (1965) - Family-friendly sexploitation about a girl raised by wolves found by Adam West.
The Peace Killers (1971) - Tawdry biker trash.
Blood Mania (1971) - Skanky Crown International horror.
What's Up, Doc (1972) - It's nicely wacky, but why couldn't be Kenneth Mars and Madeline Kahn be the leads?
Short Cut to Haifa (1973) - Perry King and Peter Ustinov are truckers - basically Androgynous Terence Hill and Kosher Bud Spencer.
Terminal Island (1973) - Prison island trash lifted to watchable by Stephanie Rothman's direction and some odd touches - such as the bee-sting-on-the-arse chase. Tom Selleck is the nominal hero. Has a weird spoken-word country theme.
Scum of the Earth (1974) - Routine schlocky, nasty exploitation about homicidal hillbillies.
Mister Deathman (1977) - Dull blaxploitation Bond knockoff with one David Broadnax terrible in the lead. A vanity project for the lisping, Tyson-voiced Broadnax, it also stars Stella Stevens and was shot in South Africa. Yeah.
Lady Streetfighter (1981) - The astounding Renee Harmon, middle-aged German-American lady Sonny Chiba stars in this strangeness - a kind of amateur action movie version of Sextette.
Five Element Ninjas (1982) - Swish and energetic, but I am not interesting in wuxia. They're the westerns of the east.
Jewel of the Gods (1989) - Ghastly but ambitious Indiana Jones-themed spinoff from the Gods Must Be Crazy, with stars Marius Weyers and Sandra Prinsloo.
Films that were logged late.
Detective Kitty O'Day (1944 - b/w)/The Adventures of Kitty O'Day (1945 - b/w) - Forgettable Monogram girl reporter comedies.
Right Cross (1950 - b/w) - Rote boxer yarn with Ricardo Montalban.
A Life of Her Own (1950 - b/w) - Lana Turner/Ray Milland melodrama.
Jim Thorpe -All American (1951 - b/w) - Burt Lancaster plays a Native American athlete. He looks like he got a slight tan in Torremolinos.
It's A Big Country - An American Anthology (1951 - b/w) - Forgettable morale booster. The Gary Cooper installment is basically a cigarette commercial.
Night into Morning (1951 - b/w) - MGM melodrama with Ray Milland and Nancy Reagan.
Washington Story (1951 - b/w) - Dreary political drama with Patricia Neal and Van Johnson.
The Girl in White (1952 - b/w) - Inaccurately titled medical drama with June Allyson and Arthur Kennedy.
My Man and I (1952 - B/W) - Southern melodrama with Shelley Winters and Ricardo Montalban.
Invitation (1952 - b/w) - Dorothy McGuire and Van Johnson in rote MGM women's picture.
Big Leaguer (1953 - b/w) - Bland baseballer with Edward G. Robinson.
The Girl who had Everything (1953 - b/w) - Televisual melodrama with Elizabeth Taylor, William Powell and Fernando Lewis.
Trial (1955 - b/w) - Interesting but drudging courtroom drama with Glenn Ford, but interesting to see Juano Hernandez as a judge.
I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955 - b/w) - Serviceable but uninteresting to me musical biopic of Lillian Roth (who was in Alfred Sole's Communion) with Susan Hayward and Eddie Albert.
See also Torch Song (1953) where Joan Crawford is so unlikeable that once she dons blackface and dresses as a mammy, you think, "She deserves that."
These Wilder Years (1956 - b/w) - Barbara Stanwyck melodrama with James Cagney and Walter Pidgeon.
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956 - b/w) - Epic boxing biopic with Paul Newman as Rocky Graziano.
Man on Fire (1957 - b/w) - Sentimental Bing Crosby tosh.
The Seventh Sin (1957 - b/w) - Dull Hong Kong-set drama with Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers.
The Young Stranger (1957 - b/w) - James MacArthur is an annoying young delinquent. See also On The Loose (1951 - b/w), also from RKO, a kind of distaff equivalent.
Edge of the City (1957 - b/w) - John Cassavetes acts in something that feels not unlike his own work, with Sidney Poitier.
Handle with Care (1958 - b/w) - Bland vehicle for Dean Jones.
I Accuse! (1958 - b/w) - Dull José Ferrer period drama.
Edge of Fury (1958 - b/w) - Cheapo beach noir from United Artists.
Girls' Town (1959 - b/w) - Mamie van Doren cheapie.
What A Whopper (1961 - b/w) - Silly Adam Faith comedy in Loch Ness.
The Tempest (1980) - The Amazing Orlando has a strange, immensely watchable presence, Heathcote Williams is like Charlie Chuck playing Tom Baker, Toyah is Toyah, Karl Johnson is weird, but not alien enough as Ariel, and Elisabeth Welch steals it, singing Stormy Weather.
Smooth Talk (1985) - Lolita variant with Laura Dern.
The Great Hotel Murder (1935 - b/w) - Early Fox programmer. Nowhere near as exciting. See also Grand Exit and the Lupe Velez vehicle Hot Pepper (1933 - b/w), all three with Edmund Lowe.
Red Lights Ahead (1936 - b/w) - Forgettable Chesterfield juvenile comedy with Andy Clyde.
The White Angel (1936 - b/w) - Kay Francis is an American Florence Nightingale.
Not to be confused with The White Sister (1933 - b/w) where Clark Gable romances Helen Hayes as a nun.
Wife, Doctor and Nurse (1937 - b/w) - Rote melo with Warner Baxter and Loretta Young.
Live, Love and Learn (1937 - b/w) - Typical family comedy.
My Favourite Wife (1940 - b/w) - Typical screwball.
The man I Married (1940 - b/w) - Rote Joan Bennett vehicle.
Girl in the News (1940 - b/w) - Rote British thriller with Margaret Lockwood.
Star Dust (1940 - b/w) - Rote Hollywood drama with Linda Darnell.
He Married His Wife (1940 - b/w) - Rote comedy with Joel McCrea.
Rise and Shine (1941 - b/w) - Jack Oakie football musical. So not my cuppa.
Life Begins at Eight Thirty (1942 - b/w) - Rote theatrical bluster for Monty Woolley.
Loves of Edgar Allan Poe (1942 - b/w) - Rote romance in gothic drag, with Linda Darnell, and the forgettable John Shepperd, who nevertheless as Shepperd Strudwick, had a long, decent career as a character actor and Broadway actor.
The Panther's Claw (1942 - b/w) - Poverty row mystery.
Time to Kill (1942 - b/w) - Rote Michael Shayne mystery with Lloyd Nolan, based on a Marlowe tale.
The Magnificent Dope (1942 - b/w) - Henry Fonda comedy, with Don Ameche. See also Girl Trouble (1942 - b/w).
Cairo (1942 - b/w) - Robert Young and Jeanette MacDonald and Ethel Waters in a musical that didn't even need to be in (modern) Egypt. It doesn't matter and it doesn't feel Egyptian.
Roxie Hart (1942 - b/w) - Rote comedy that inspired Chicago.
A Gentleman at Heart (1942 - b/w) - Cesar Romero B. See also Tall, Dark and Handsome (1941 - b/w).
The Postman Didn't Ring (1942 - b/w) - Bland Fox B comedy about stamp collecting.
Claudia (1943 - b/w) - Forgettable comedy with Dorothy McGuire. See also Claudia and David (1946 - b/w).
Whispering Footsteps (1943 - b/w) - Republic cheapie mystery. See also Strangers in the Night (1944 - b/w)
The Meanest Man in the World (1943 - b/w) - Jack Benny featurette.
A Royal Scandal (1943 - b/w) - Period fluff.
Secrets of Scotland Yard (1944 - b/w) - Republic nonsense, faux-patriotic British Nazi spying with a ludicrous scene where American-accented Scotland Yard men stand to God Save the Queen after a faux-Churchill speech on the BBC.
Her Favourite Patient (1945 - b/w) - Forgetttable UA cheapie romance.
Within These Walls (1945 - b/w) - Thomas Mitchell in a prison.
Captain Eddie (1945 - b/w) - Fred MacMurray aviation tosh.
I've Always Loved You (1946) - Lush but cheap-feeling stab at respectability from Republic by Frank Borzage.
Black Beauty (1946) - Tatty Fox adap that is seemingly set in both 1946 and the Victorian era, depending on when the crew are bothered.
The Late George Apley (1947 - b/w) - Rote turn of the century comedy of manners with Ronald Colman, Peggy Cummins and Richard Haydn.
Daisy Kenyon (1947 - b/w) - Rote Joan Crawford melo.
The Babe Ruth Story (1948 - b/w) - Monogram attempt to go legit, as Allied Artists.William Bendix looks lost, and the scene with the kid in bed miraculously cured is ludicrous. As bad as they say.
The Wonderful Urge (1948 - b/w) - Rote Tyrone Power/Gene Tierney romance comedy.
The Wake of the Red Witch (1948 - b/w) - John Wayne makes the same film again, another maritime melodrama. Costar Duke Kahanamoku, the Hawaiian Olympian swimming champ who invented modern surfing.
Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948 - b/w) - "And" Hugh Burden, Bonar Colleano and David Tomlinson in a lively riff on The Lady Vanishes.
Father was a Fullback (1949 - b/w) - Idiotic football-com.
Pinky (1949 - b/w) - Story of a mixed-race girl who passes for white. Except she's played by the lilywhite Jeanne Crain, who is so unconvincing (she has no soul - she looks catatonic in some shots) is that the only way this story works if it was a Navin Johnson situation. In fact, I'm sure Carl Reiner had to have seen this before the Jerk. She's even called Johnson. She was probably a relative.
HiJacked (1950 - b/w) - Rote Lippert trucker nonsense with Jim Davis.
Edge of Doom (1950 - b/w) - Farley Granger and Dana Andrews noir. Forgettable.
Customs Agent (1950 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for the forgettable William Eythe.
Our Very Own (1950 - b/w) - RKO teen melodrama with Ann Blyth and Natalie Wood.
No Sad Songs for Me (1950 - b/w) - Margaret Sullavan's last melodrama.
I'll Get You For This (1950 - b/w) - Rote British European-set crime drama with George Raft.
The Guy who Came Back (1951 - b/w) - Ropey football drama with Paul Douglas.
I Can Get It For You Wholesale (1951) - Dull Susan Hayward romance.
Saturday's Hero (1951 - b/w)/The Family Secret (1951 - b/w) - God John Derek was a hell of a non-actor. Both soppy dramas.
Japanese War Bride (1951 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Don Taylor, Shirley Yamaguchi and Cameron Mitchell.
The Brave Bulls (1951 - b/w) - How many matador films did Anthony Quinn do?
Payment on Demand (1951 - b/w)/Storm Center (1956 - b/w) - Bette Davis melodramas.
The Star (1952 - b/w) - Rote Bette Davis melodrama, about Hollywood, with Sterling Hayden.
One Minute to Zero (1952 - b/w) - Rubbishy Korean war with Robert Mitchum.f
Paula (1952 - b/w) - Loretta Young melodrama.
A Member of the Wedding (1952 - b/w) - Julie Harris as a twelve year old is like a lesbian with learning difficulties.
Bad for Each Other (1953 - b/w) - Rote bad girl noir with Lizabeth Scott and Charlton Heston.
See also Scott in The Company She Keeps (1951 - b/w).
The President's Lady (1953 - b/w) - Rote historical nag with Susan Hayward and Heston.
Cell 2455 Death Row (1955 - b/w) - William Campbell Columbia crime programmer.
Queen Bee (1955 - b/w) - Joan Crawford melodrama. See also Harriet Craig (1950 - b/w).
Pacific Destiny (1956 ) - Denholm Elliott finds love in Polynesia.
The Ambassador's Daughter (1956) - Bland romcom with John Forsythe and Olivia De Havilland.
Teenage Rebel (1956 - b/w) - Ginger Rogers is the mum in this JD melodrama.
Hold Back the Night (1956 - b/w) - Forgettable Allied Artists Korean war shambles.
Strange Intruder (1957 - b/w) - Post-Korean War noir shambles with Edmund Purdom and Ida Lupino.
The Young Don't Cry (1957 - b/w) - Sal Mineo melodrama.
The True Story of Lynn Stuart (1958 - b/w) - Rote crime drama with Betsy Palmer.
Herod the Great (1958) - Forgettable biblical knock-off with Edmund Purdom from Allied Artists.
Ten North Frederick (1958 - b/w) - Dreary Gary Cooper drama.
The Goddess (1958 - b/w) - Kim Stanley miscast as a Marilyn-type.
Jeanne Eagels (1958 - b/w) - Kim Novak stage melodrama.
Blue Denim (1959 - b/w) - Carol Lynley and Brandon deWilde teen mush.
The Big Operator (1959 - b/w) - Mickey Rooney and Mamie van Doren crime drama.
The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961 - b/w) - Unauthorised biopic of future B-movie producer Arch Hall Senior, starring Robert Mitchum. A routine post-Bilko army comedy. Ends with Hall with copies of Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.
Angel Baby (1961 - b/w) - Christian tent preacher juvenile romance with Salome Jens and George Hamilton, plus Burt Reynolds and Joan Blondell as proto-late-stage Shelley Winters.
Hitler (1962 - b/w) - Cheapo Allied Artists biopic. Richard Basehart tries his best, but he is physically too large and imposing for the title role. And it is very stagebound, with a few obvious California exteriors and when various cast from Hogan's Heroes appear in uniform, it is hard to take anything seriously.
Soldier in the Rain (1963 - b/w) - Forgettable Allied Artists comedy with Steve McQueen and Jackie Gleason slumming it.
Tarzan Goes to India (1963)/Tarzan's Three Challenges (1963) - Jock Mahoney as Tarzan. He's too old, at 44, but his Tarzan is basically Da Tarzan. He's paired in both with Asian kids to be parental to. In India, he has "Jai the Elephant Boy" as himself, and Ricky Der in Three Challenges. I've seen Der in I Spy, where he was a snarky Asian-American kid, but here he is dubbed by either Denise Bryer or Olive Gregg, he has that Fruit Gums ad "middle aged woman doing eager English schoolboy voice" that was common in British films and telly until the early 90s. They are rote but colourful adventures. Tarzan Goes to India has genuine Bollywood talent such as Feroz Khan, but Tarzan's Three Challenges, though shot in Thailand casts Earl Cameron and Woody Strode as the supposed Thai characters, having already played African tribesmen in earlier films in the series, because Sy Weintraub liked to reuse talent.
Mara of the Wilderness (1965) - Family-friendly sexploitation about a girl raised by wolves found by Adam West.
The Peace Killers (1971) - Tawdry biker trash.
Blood Mania (1971) - Skanky Crown International horror.
What's Up, Doc (1972) - It's nicely wacky, but why couldn't be Kenneth Mars and Madeline Kahn be the leads?
Short Cut to Haifa (1973) - Perry King and Peter Ustinov are truckers - basically Androgynous Terence Hill and Kosher Bud Spencer.
Terminal Island (1973) - Prison island trash lifted to watchable by Stephanie Rothman's direction and some odd touches - such as the bee-sting-on-the-arse chase. Tom Selleck is the nominal hero. Has a weird spoken-word country theme.
Scum of the Earth (1974) - Routine schlocky, nasty exploitation about homicidal hillbillies.
Mister Deathman (1977) - Dull blaxploitation Bond knockoff with one David Broadnax terrible in the lead. A vanity project for the lisping, Tyson-voiced Broadnax, it also stars Stella Stevens and was shot in South Africa. Yeah.
Lady Streetfighter (1981) - The astounding Renee Harmon, middle-aged German-American lady Sonny Chiba stars in this strangeness - a kind of amateur action movie version of Sextette.
Five Element Ninjas (1982) - Swish and energetic, but I am not interesting in wuxia. They're the westerns of the east.
Jewel of the Gods (1989) - Ghastly but ambitious Indiana Jones-themed spinoff from the Gods Must Be Crazy, with stars Marius Weyers and Sandra Prinsloo.
Films that were logged late.
Detective Kitty O'Day (1944 - b/w)/The Adventures of Kitty O'Day (1945 - b/w) - Forgettable Monogram girl reporter comedies.
Right Cross (1950 - b/w) - Rote boxer yarn with Ricardo Montalban.
A Life of Her Own (1950 - b/w) - Lana Turner/Ray Milland melodrama.
Jim Thorpe -All American (1951 - b/w) - Burt Lancaster plays a Native American athlete. He looks like he got a slight tan in Torremolinos.
It's A Big Country - An American Anthology (1951 - b/w) - Forgettable morale booster. The Gary Cooper installment is basically a cigarette commercial.
Night into Morning (1951 - b/w) - MGM melodrama with Ray Milland and Nancy Reagan.
Washington Story (1951 - b/w) - Dreary political drama with Patricia Neal and Van Johnson.
The Girl in White (1952 - b/w) - Inaccurately titled medical drama with June Allyson and Arthur Kennedy.
My Man and I (1952 - B/W) - Southern melodrama with Shelley Winters and Ricardo Montalban.
Invitation (1952 - b/w) - Dorothy McGuire and Van Johnson in rote MGM women's picture.
Big Leaguer (1953 - b/w) - Bland baseballer with Edward G. Robinson.
The Girl who had Everything (1953 - b/w) - Televisual melodrama with Elizabeth Taylor, William Powell and Fernando Lewis.
Trial (1955 - b/w) - Interesting but drudging courtroom drama with Glenn Ford, but interesting to see Juano Hernandez as a judge.
I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955 - b/w) - Serviceable but uninteresting to me musical biopic of Lillian Roth (who was in Alfred Sole's Communion) with Susan Hayward and Eddie Albert.
See also Torch Song (1953) where Joan Crawford is so unlikeable that once she dons blackface and dresses as a mammy, you think, "She deserves that."
These Wilder Years (1956 - b/w) - Barbara Stanwyck melodrama with James Cagney and Walter Pidgeon.
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956 - b/w) - Epic boxing biopic with Paul Newman as Rocky Graziano.
Man on Fire (1957 - b/w) - Sentimental Bing Crosby tosh.
The Seventh Sin (1957 - b/w) - Dull Hong Kong-set drama with Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers.
The Young Stranger (1957 - b/w) - James MacArthur is an annoying young delinquent. See also On The Loose (1951 - b/w), also from RKO, a kind of distaff equivalent.
Edge of the City (1957 - b/w) - John Cassavetes acts in something that feels not unlike his own work, with Sidney Poitier.
Handle with Care (1958 - b/w) - Bland vehicle for Dean Jones.
I Accuse! (1958 - b/w) - Dull José Ferrer period drama.
Edge of Fury (1958 - b/w) - Cheapo beach noir from United Artists.
Girls' Town (1959 - b/w) - Mamie van Doren cheapie.
What A Whopper (1961 - b/w) - Silly Adam Faith comedy in Loch Ness.
The Tempest (1980) - The Amazing Orlando has a strange, immensely watchable presence, Heathcote Williams is like Charlie Chuck playing Tom Baker, Toyah is Toyah, Karl Johnson is weird, but not alien enough as Ariel, and Elisabeth Welch steals it, singing Stormy Weather.
Smooth Talk (1985) - Lolita variant with Laura Dern.
Sunday 12 April 2020
99
Sarah and Son (1930 - b/w) - Routine melodrama with Ruth Chatterton and Fredric March, by Dorothy Arzner.
Follow Thru (1930 - b/w) - Forgettable golfing musical.
Fast and Loose (1930 - b/w) - Rote comedy with Carole Lombard and Miriam Hopkins.
The Royal Family of Broadway (1930 - b/w) - Baffling Broadway farce.
Street of Chance (1930 - b/w) - William Powell melodrama. See also Man of the World (1931 - b/w), For the Defense (1933 - b/w).
Monte Carlo (1930 - b/w) - Typical 30s Jeanette McDonald light operetta, with Jack Buchanan. See also The Vagabond King (1930 - b/w).
Dangerous Paradise (1930 - b/w) - Forgettable tropicana allegedly based on Joseph Conrad.
Laughter (1930 - b/w) - Paramount melodrama. See also Honey (1930 - b/w), The Night Angel (1931 - b/w) and The Devil's Holiday (1930 - b/w), Stolen Heaven (1931 - b/w), The Woman Accused (1933 - b/w) all with Nancy Carroll, star of college farce Sweetie (1929 - b/w).
Manslaughter (1930 - b/w) - Claudette Colbert drama.
See also Young Man of Manhattan (1930 - b/w), Three Cornered Moon (1933 - b/w), Tonight is Ours (1933 - b/w) and Torch Singer (1933 - b/w).
Tom Sawyer (1930 - b/w) - Primitive but average adap.
The Big Pond (1930 - b/w) - Chevalier romances Colbert. Someone sings Living in the Sunlight, Loving in the Moonlight.
See also Honor Among Lovers (1931 - b/w) and The Way to Love (1933 - b/w), BedTime Story (1933 - b/w), .
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931 - b/w) - CHEVALIER DOES MIDDLE-EUROPEAN OPERETTA. See also Love Me Tonight (1932 - b/w) and One Hour with You (1932 - b/w), with Jeanette MacDonald.
Once a Lady (1931 - b/w) - Hollywood romance with Ivor Novello. Not to be confused with Lady for a Day (1934 - b/w).
Tarnished Lady (1931 - b/w) - Thought I'd seen this Tallulah Bankhead vehicle before.
Bankhead is also in the dreary De Mille faux-Oriental The Cheat (1931 - b/w).
Up Pops the Devil (1931 - b/w) - Routine Carol Lombard vehicle.
See also the westernish I Take This Woman (1931 - b/w) with Carole Lombard.
Ladies of the Big House (1931 - b/w) - Sylvia Sidney goes to prison.
See also City Streets (1931 - b/w) - Sidney in a similar crime drama.
Paramount on Parade (1931 - b/w) - Proto telethon including Clive Brook as Sherlock Holmes versus Fu Manchu (Warner Oland).
Girls About Town (1931 - b/w) - Kay Francis romantic tosh.
Scandal Sheet (1931 - b/w) -Dreary newspaper drama with Kay Francis.
This is the Night (1932 - b/w) - Cary Grant and Roland Young, typical 30s parlour comedy.
See also Hot Saturday (1932 - b/w)
Strangers in Love (-1932 - b/w) - Rote romance with Kay Francis and Fredric March. See also 24 Hours (1931 - b/w).
Wayward (1932 - b/w) - -Meh.
This Reckless Age (1932 - b/w) - Dreary comedy by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
Make Me A Star (1932 - b/w) - Baffling Stuart Erwin cowboy comedy.
Broken Lullaby (1932 - b/w) - Lionel Barrymore European weepie.
The Night of June 13 (1932 - b/w) - Formulaic mystery with Clive Brook.
No Man of Her Own (1932 - b/w) - Typical Gable and Lombard romance.
Madame Butterfly (1932 - b/w) - Sylvia Sidney is a ludicrous geisha, as she romances Cary Grant.
The Phantom President (1932 - b/w) - Claudette Colbert and George M Cohan in blackface.
Guilty as Hell (1932 - b/w) - Rote mystery with Victor McLaglen, not to be confused with the depressing chronic alcoholic Sylvia Sidney melodrama Merrily We Go to Hell (1932 - b/w).
Sitting Pretty (1932 - b/w) - Jack Haley and Ginger Rogers vehicle.
From Hell to Heaven (1933 - b/w) - Short all-star almost-featurette with Jack Oakie, David "Harker" Manners, Carole Lombard, Roman Castevet, all at a racecourse. Dreary.
Gambling Ship (1933 - b/w) - Typical 30s shipboard romance.
Take A Chance (1933 - b/w) - Rote musical comedy with James Dunn.
The Eagle and the Hawk (1933 -b/w) - Aviation saga.
Golden Harvest (1933 - b/w) - Tedious rural drama with Richard Arlen. Nothing to do with kung fu.
Crime of the Century (1933 - b/w) - Rote mystery, almost Monogram-level, but Paramount.
This Day and Age (1933 - b/w) - Elderly teen drama from Cecil B. DeMille.
The Story of Temple Drake (1933 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Miriam Hopkins.
Murder at the Vanities (1934 - b/w) - Rote musical with mystery thrown in, and Victor McLaglen and Duke Ellington.
Wharf Angel (1934 - b/w) - Victor McLaglen hangs about a dock, feeling sorry for himself.
Come On, Marines (1934 - b/w) - 1930s genteel proto-sex comedy with Ida Lupino.
Kiss and Make Up (1934 - b/w) - Rote Cary Grant romance.
Crime Without Passion (1934 ' b/w) - Rote melodrama, though Claude Rains give good ghost.
Good Dame (1934 - b/w) - Sylvia Sidney vehicle. You know the drill. See also An American Tragedy (1931 - b/w).
Cleopatra (1934 - b/w) - It's extravagant, and Claudette Colbert has presence, but Warren William looks like a da at a toga party.
Shoot the Works (1934 - b/w) - I can see why Jack Oakie remained as a second banana. Another interchangeable musical.
All of Me (1934 - b/w) - Another rote romance with Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins and George Raft.
See also Dancers in the Dark (1932 - b/w), Two Kinds of Women (1932 - b/w) and Trouble in Paradise (1932 - b/w) with Hopkins and Hopkins and Gary Cooper in Design for Living (1933 - b/w).
Miss Fane's Baby is Stolen (1934 - b/w) - Baffling vehicle for one of the many toddler stars of the era, Baby LeRoy (as opposed to Baby Leroy - parents had notions). See also The Lemon Drop Kid (1934 - b/w).
Melody in Spring (1934 - b/w) - Forgettable musical.
Here in My Heart (1934 - b/w) - Forgettable Bing Crosby vehicle. See also College Humour (1933 - b/w), Too Much Harmony (1933 - b/w) and She Loves Me Not (1934 -b/w).
And We're Not Dressing (1934 - B/W) - Ah, so that's where the Love They Neighbour theme came from.
Bolero (1934 - b/w) - Ludicrous dance nonsense/wartime drama with Carole Lombard and George Raft. And Raymond Milland, as the Welshman is billed.
Private Worlds (1935 - b/w) - Stereotypical Claudette Colbert melodrama.
So Red the Rose (1935 - b/w) - Civil War nonsense with Randolph Scott.
Enter Madame (1935 - b/w) - More Cary, more operetta.
Wings in the Dark (1935 - b/w) - Rote aviation drama with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy.
The Glass Key (1935 - b/w) - Rough gangster antics with George Raft and Ray Milland.
Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935 - b/w) - Sylvia Sidney melodrama.
The Gilded Lily (1935 - b/w) - Typical 30s Paramount, Colbert, Milland, MacMurray. Set in London.
Hands Across the Table (1935 - b/w) - Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray romance, while Ralph Bellamy practices his wheelchair acting that would come in handy when he'd play Roosevelt.
Valiant is the Word for Carrie (1936 - b/w) - Rote rural drama from Paramount. Hattie McDaniel does her thing.
Wedding Present (1936 - b/w) - Romcom with Joan Bennett, Cary Grant
The General Died at Dawn (1936 - b/w) - Yellowfaced antics with Gary Cooper and Akim Tamiroff.
Midnight Manhunt (1945 - b/w) - Rote old dark houser from Paramount rather than Monogram, with George Zucco.
Daring Game (1968) - Throwaway Lloyd Bridges parachuting, feels like a TV pilot for a Mission Impossible knockoff. Produced by Ivan Tors.
Friday 10 April 2020
109 (mainly Paramount)
Jennie Gerhardt (1933 - b/w) - Rote melodrama with Sylvia Sidney.
The President Vanishes (1934 - b/w) - Nowhere near as exciting. Just Andy Devine and Arthur Byron talking to CBS. Plus early appearances from Sidney "Roman Castevet" Blackmer and Rosalind Russell.
The Scarlet Empress (1934 - b/w) - Dietrich does Garbo.
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934 - b/w) - Forgettable rural comedy with W.C. Fields.
Four Hours to Kill (1935 - b/w) - Rote 30s actioner with Richard Barthelmess.
The Crusades (1935 - b/w) - Alongside Nibelungen, feels like Cecil B. Demille invented the sword and sorcery movie. A discovery.
Rumba (1935 - b/w) - Extravagant musical with Carole Lombard and George Raft.
The Moon's Our Home (1936 - b/w) - Henry Fonda, Margaret Sullavan romance.
Hollywood Boulevard (1936 - b/w) - Rote showbiz-set drama with Robert Cummings and Marsha Hunt, with Gary Cooper cameoing.
College Holiday (1936 - b/w) Blacking up, dressing as a mammy and singing in a slurry voice. Jack Benny too. Not good.
The Maid of Salem (1937 - b/w) - Rote witchcraft melodrama with Claudette Colbert.
I Met Him in Paris (1937 - b/w) - Rote Claudette Colbert romcom. See also I Covered The Waterfront (1933 - b/w).
Swing High, Swing Low (1937 - b/w) - Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray in a jazz band. With Anthony Quinn as the Don. See also True Confession (1937 - b/w).
Easy Living (1937 - b/w) - Milland and Jean Arthur in a screwball comedy.
Hunted Men (1937 - b/w) - Rote Lloyd Nolan quickie.
This Way, Please (1937) - Rote musical comedy with Betty Grable.
Artists and Models (1937 - b/w) - Jack Benny musical. So deliberately goofy it even has Rube Goldberg.
Exclusive (1937 - b/w) - Fred MacMurray soap. With Frances Farmer, before she met Jacqueline Gurney Bouvier. See also the boxing saga Invitation to Happiness (1939 - b/w).
Internes Can't Take Money (1937 - b/w) - Joel McCrea is Dr. Kildare.
Night Club Scandal (1937 - b/w) - Routine crime B with John Barrymore.
Thrill of a Lifetime (1937 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for a musical comedy troupe called the Yacht Club Boys, with Betty Grable, Dorothy Lamour and the baffling Judy Canova (hillbilly cornpoke humour never travels well).
If I Were King (1938 - b/w) - Preston Sturges-written proto-The Court Jester with Ronald Colman and Basil Rathbone in medieval larks.
King of Gamblers (1938 - b/w) - Rote Lloyd Nolan crime-B. See also Prison Farm (1938 - b/w).
Romance in the Dark (1938 - b/w) - Wretched light operatics with John Barrymore. See also The Champagne Waltz (1937 - b/w).
The President Vanishes (1934 - b/w) - Nowhere near as exciting. Just Andy Devine and Arthur Byron talking to CBS. Plus early appearances from Sidney "Roman Castevet" Blackmer and Rosalind Russell.
The Scarlet Empress (1934 - b/w) - Dietrich does Garbo.
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934 - b/w) - Forgettable rural comedy with W.C. Fields.
Four Hours to Kill (1935 - b/w) - Rote 30s actioner with Richard Barthelmess.
The Crusades (1935 - b/w) - Alongside Nibelungen, feels like Cecil B. Demille invented the sword and sorcery movie. A discovery.
Rumba (1935 - b/w) - Extravagant musical with Carole Lombard and George Raft.
The Moon's Our Home (1936 - b/w) - Henry Fonda, Margaret Sullavan romance.
Hollywood Boulevard (1936 - b/w) - Rote showbiz-set drama with Robert Cummings and Marsha Hunt, with Gary Cooper cameoing.
College Holiday (1936 - b/w) Blacking up, dressing as a mammy and singing in a slurry voice. Jack Benny too. Not good.
The Maid of Salem (1937 - b/w) - Rote witchcraft melodrama with Claudette Colbert.
I Met Him in Paris (1937 - b/w) - Rote Claudette Colbert romcom. See also I Covered The Waterfront (1933 - b/w).
Swing High, Swing Low (1937 - b/w) - Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray in a jazz band. With Anthony Quinn as the Don. See also True Confession (1937 - b/w).
Easy Living (1937 - b/w) - Milland and Jean Arthur in a screwball comedy.
Hunted Men (1937 - b/w) - Rote Lloyd Nolan quickie.
This Way, Please (1937) - Rote musical comedy with Betty Grable.
Artists and Models (1937 - b/w) - Jack Benny musical. So deliberately goofy it even has Rube Goldberg.
Exclusive (1937 - b/w) - Fred MacMurray soap. With Frances Farmer, before she met Jacqueline Gurney Bouvier. See also the boxing saga Invitation to Happiness (1939 - b/w).
Internes Can't Take Money (1937 - b/w) - Joel McCrea is Dr. Kildare.
Night Club Scandal (1937 - b/w) - Routine crime B with John Barrymore.
Thrill of a Lifetime (1937 - b/w) - Forgettable vehicle for a musical comedy troupe called the Yacht Club Boys, with Betty Grable, Dorothy Lamour and the baffling Judy Canova (hillbilly cornpoke humour never travels well).
If I Were King (1938 - b/w) - Preston Sturges-written proto-The Court Jester with Ronald Colman and Basil Rathbone in medieval larks.
King of Gamblers (1938 - b/w) - Rote Lloyd Nolan crime-B. See also Prison Farm (1938 - b/w).
Romance in the Dark (1938 - b/w) - Wretched light operatics with John Barrymore. See also The Champagne Waltz (1937 - b/w).
Dr. Rhythm (1938 - b/w) - Sub-Marx Brothers musical comedy with Bing Crosby. See also Double or Nothing (1937 - b/w), The Star Maker (1939 - b/w) and Paris Honeymoon (1939 - b/w).
Never Say Die (1938 - b/w) - Rote Bob Hope vehicle.
J. Edgar Hoover's Persons in Hiding (1938 - b/w) - Rote gangster nonsense with Patricia Morison. The poster was in Halliwell's Filmgoers' Companion.
Professor Beware (1938 - b/w) - Harold Lloyd works best in short chunks. See also The Milky Way (1936 - b/w).
One Third of A Nation (1939 - b/w) - Typical tenement drama starring Sylvia Sidney and some called kid, also called Sidney, Sidney something or other. Sidney Lumet. Yes, that Sidney Lumet.
Cafe Society (1939 - b/w) - Rote Fred MacMurray romcom. See also Honeymoon in Bali (1939 - b/w), Remember the Night (1940 - b/w), Practically Yours (1944 - b/w) and Suddenly, It's Spring (1947 - b/w), and Hotel Imperial (1939 - b/w) with Ray Milland.
Rulers of the Sea (1939 - b/w) - Maritime drama with Douglas Fairbanks, Will Fyffe and Margaret Lockwood.
The Biscuit Eater (1940 -b/w) - Preachy interracial drama.
French Without Tears (1940 - b/w) - Rote British drama of the era, with Ellen Drew and Ray Milland, because Paramount.
I Want a Divorce (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable Dick Powell-Joan Blondell romcom.
Those Were The Days (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable period nostalgia with William Holden.
Arise My Love (1940 - b/w) - Rote romance with Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland.
SkyLark (1941 - b/w) - Anotther Colbert-Milland rotary.
Love Thy Neighbor (1940 - b/w) - Idiotic Jack Benny farce.
Nothing But the Truth (1940 - b/w) - Rote Bob Hope-Paulette Goddard vehicle.
Hold Back the Dawn (1941 - b/w) - Mexican-set soaper with Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland.
One Night in Lisbon (1941 - b/w) - Rote Faux British propaganda with Fred MacMurray, plus laughs and Marcel "the real Rabbi Jacob" Dalio. There's a chorus of "There'll Always be An England", which I discovered was cowritten by Ross Parker, who is in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dick Barton, The Saint, Department S...
Hold Back the Dawn (-1941 - b/w) - Rote De Havilland soaper.
New York Town (1941 - b/w) - Another interchangeable Fred MacMurray comedy, here with Akim Tamiroff, Mary Martin and Robert Preston.
Louisiana Passage (1941) - Interchangeable 40s musical - in color, with Bob Hope.
Take A Letter Darling (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable Rosalind Russell vehicle.
The Major and the Minor (1942 - b/w) - Silly pretend teen romance with Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers.
The Great Man's Lady (1942 - b/w) - Silly Barbara Stanwyck western with Joel McCrea.
The Fleet's In (1942 - b/w) - Rote Dorothy Lamour musical propaganda. See also True to The Army (1942 - b/w) with the excessively grating Judy Canova.
True to Life (1943 - b/w) - Rote screwballer, feels like songs were edited out, with Franchot Tone.
No Time for Love (1943 - b/w) - Rote Colbert/MacMurray comedy that nonetheless has probably the most gorgeous superhero sequence I have seen in a pre-1960s film and probably had more budget than an entire Columbia serial. The sequence is elegiac rather than tatty.
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944- b/w)/Our Hearts Were Growing Up (1946 - b/w) - Rote 40s youth comedies.
See also Henry Aldrich For President (1941 - b/w) and Henry Aldrich gets Glamour (1943 - b/w).
Going my Way (1944 - b/w) - Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald in a shamrock bowl of Irish American sentimental bull.
And Now Tomorrow (1944 - b/w) - The title says it all. Romantic drama with Alan Ladd and Loretta Young.
My Own True Love (1945 - b/x) - Faux-Gainsborough romance with Melvyn Douglas and Phyllis Calvert.
Kitty (1945 - b/w) - Faux British bodice ripper with Paulette Goddard and Milland.
Out of This World (1945 - b/w) - Eddie Bracken sings with the voice of Bing Crosby. That's the joke. Also with Parkyakarkus, the father of Bob Einstein and Albert Brooks.
Salty O'Rourke (1945 - b/w) - Alan Ladd in the perfect role for him - a jockey. Horse racing baffles and disgusts me.
Miss Susie Slagle's (1946 - b/w) - Routine Veronica Lake/Joan Caulfield comedy.
See also Isn't it Romantic? (1948 - b/w).
Variety Girl (1947 - b/w) - Hope, Crosby, Ladd, Lancaster, George Pal animation, Barry Fitzgerald, Gary Cooper, William Holden, Sonny Tufts, Lizabeth Scott, Sterling Hayden, Robert Preston, Veronica Lake, they're all in this mess. Basically an ad for Paramount. The actual lead, though you wouldn't know it is Deforest Kelley. Who would become a Paramount star, eventually.
Dear Ruth (1947 - b/w)/Dear Wife (1949 - b/w) - William Holden and Joan Caulfield makes the same film twice.
The Perfect Marriage (1947 - b/w) - Forgettable David Niven romcom.
Welcome Stranger (1947 - b/w) - Rote Bing Crosby performance, featuring Barry Fitzgerald doing the same performance he does In The Stork Club (1945 - b/w), a musical with Betty Hutton and Latino crooner Andy Russell.
Never Say Die (1938 - b/w) - Rote Bob Hope vehicle.
J. Edgar Hoover's Persons in Hiding (1938 - b/w) - Rote gangster nonsense with Patricia Morison. The poster was in Halliwell's Filmgoers' Companion.
Professor Beware (1938 - b/w) - Harold Lloyd works best in short chunks. See also The Milky Way (1936 - b/w).
One Third of A Nation (1939 - b/w) - Typical tenement drama starring Sylvia Sidney and some called kid, also called Sidney, Sidney something or other. Sidney Lumet. Yes, that Sidney Lumet.
Cafe Society (1939 - b/w) - Rote Fred MacMurray romcom. See also Honeymoon in Bali (1939 - b/w), Remember the Night (1940 - b/w), Practically Yours (1944 - b/w) and Suddenly, It's Spring (1947 - b/w), and Hotel Imperial (1939 - b/w) with Ray Milland.
Rulers of the Sea (1939 - b/w) - Maritime drama with Douglas Fairbanks, Will Fyffe and Margaret Lockwood.
The Biscuit Eater (1940 -b/w) - Preachy interracial drama.
French Without Tears (1940 - b/w) - Rote British drama of the era, with Ellen Drew and Ray Milland, because Paramount.
I Want a Divorce (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable Dick Powell-Joan Blondell romcom.
Those Were The Days (1940 - b/w) - Forgettable period nostalgia with William Holden.
Arise My Love (1940 - b/w) - Rote romance with Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland.
SkyLark (1941 - b/w) - Anotther Colbert-Milland rotary.
Love Thy Neighbor (1940 - b/w) - Idiotic Jack Benny farce.
Nothing But the Truth (1940 - b/w) - Rote Bob Hope-Paulette Goddard vehicle.
Hold Back the Dawn (1941 - b/w) - Mexican-set soaper with Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland.
One Night in Lisbon (1941 - b/w) - Rote Faux British propaganda with Fred MacMurray, plus laughs and Marcel "the real Rabbi Jacob" Dalio. There's a chorus of "There'll Always be An England", which I discovered was cowritten by Ross Parker, who is in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dick Barton, The Saint, Department S...
Hold Back the Dawn (-1941 - b/w) - Rote De Havilland soaper.
New York Town (1941 - b/w) - Another interchangeable Fred MacMurray comedy, here with Akim Tamiroff, Mary Martin and Robert Preston.
Louisiana Passage (1941) - Interchangeable 40s musical - in color, with Bob Hope.
Take A Letter Darling (1942 - b/w) - Forgettable Rosalind Russell vehicle.
The Major and the Minor (1942 - b/w) - Silly pretend teen romance with Ray Milland and Ginger Rogers.
The Great Man's Lady (1942 - b/w) - Silly Barbara Stanwyck western with Joel McCrea.
The Fleet's In (1942 - b/w) - Rote Dorothy Lamour musical propaganda. See also True to The Army (1942 - b/w) with the excessively grating Judy Canova.
True to Life (1943 - b/w) - Rote screwballer, feels like songs were edited out, with Franchot Tone.
No Time for Love (1943 - b/w) - Rote Colbert/MacMurray comedy that nonetheless has probably the most gorgeous superhero sequence I have seen in a pre-1960s film and probably had more budget than an entire Columbia serial. The sequence is elegiac rather than tatty.
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944- b/w)/Our Hearts Were Growing Up (1946 - b/w) - Rote 40s youth comedies.
See also Henry Aldrich For President (1941 - b/w) and Henry Aldrich gets Glamour (1943 - b/w).
Going my Way (1944 - b/w) - Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald in a shamrock bowl of Irish American sentimental bull.
And Now Tomorrow (1944 - b/w) - The title says it all. Romantic drama with Alan Ladd and Loretta Young.
My Own True Love (1945 - b/x) - Faux-Gainsborough romance with Melvyn Douglas and Phyllis Calvert.
Kitty (1945 - b/w) - Faux British bodice ripper with Paulette Goddard and Milland.
Out of This World (1945 - b/w) - Eddie Bracken sings with the voice of Bing Crosby. That's the joke. Also with Parkyakarkus, the father of Bob Einstein and Albert Brooks.
Salty O'Rourke (1945 - b/w) - Alan Ladd in the perfect role for him - a jockey. Horse racing baffles and disgusts me.
Miss Susie Slagle's (1946 - b/w) - Routine Veronica Lake/Joan Caulfield comedy.
See also Isn't it Romantic? (1948 - b/w).
Variety Girl (1947 - b/w) - Hope, Crosby, Ladd, Lancaster, George Pal animation, Barry Fitzgerald, Gary Cooper, William Holden, Sonny Tufts, Lizabeth Scott, Sterling Hayden, Robert Preston, Veronica Lake, they're all in this mess. Basically an ad for Paramount. The actual lead, though you wouldn't know it is Deforest Kelley. Who would become a Paramount star, eventually.
Dear Ruth (1947 - b/w)/Dear Wife (1949 - b/w) - William Holden and Joan Caulfield makes the same film twice.
The Perfect Marriage (1947 - b/w) - Forgettable David Niven romcom.
Welcome Stranger (1947 - b/w) - Rote Bing Crosby performance, featuring Barry Fitzgerald doing the same performance he does In The Stork Club (1945 - b/w), a musical with Betty Hutton and Latino crooner Andy Russell.
Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948 - b/w) - SameyParamount comedy with Wanda Hendrix and Barry Fitzgerald.
Song of Surrender (1949 - b/w) - Depressing musical with Claude Rains and Wanda Hendrix.
Sorrowful Jones (1949 - b/w) - That most cloying story, Little Miss Marker, with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball.
Red, Hot and Blue (1949 - b/w) - Rote Betty Hutteh (sic) vehicle.
September Affair (1950 - b/w) - Rote romance
Paid in Full (1950 - b/w) - Rote not-quite-a-noir drama, though Lizabeth Scott is devastating as always.
Somebody Loves Me (1952 - b/w) - Ralph Meeker sings. With Betty Hutton.
Carrie (1952 - b/w) - Rote romance in the period restaurant world with Jennifer Jones and Olivier.
The Country Girl (1954 - b/w) - Bing Crosby tries to do the tragic clown, William Holden is lost within the film and Grace Kelly is overshadowed.
Song of Surrender (1949 - b/w) - Depressing musical with Claude Rains and Wanda Hendrix.
Sorrowful Jones (1949 - b/w) - That most cloying story, Little Miss Marker, with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball.
Red, Hot and Blue (1949 - b/w) - Rote Betty Hutteh (sic) vehicle.
September Affair (1950 - b/w) - Rote romance
Paid in Full (1950 - b/w) - Rote not-quite-a-noir drama, though Lizabeth Scott is devastating as always.
Somebody Loves Me (1952 - b/w) - Ralph Meeker sings. With Betty Hutton.
Carrie (1952 - b/w) - Rote romance in the period restaurant world with Jennifer Jones and Olivier.
The Country Girl (1954 - b/w) - Bing Crosby tries to do the tragic clown, William Holden is lost within the film and Grace Kelly is overshadowed.
Manuela (1957 - b/w) - Turgid tropical melodrama with Trevor Howard, Elsa Martinelli and Pedro Armendariz. And because it's a Latino-themed British film, Roger Delgado.
Fear Strikes Out (1957 - b/w) - Rote baseball drama.
See also Bang The Drum Slowly (1973).
The Joker is Wild (1957 - b/w) - Depressing showbiz biopic with Frank Sinatra.
Wild is the Wind (1957 - b/w) - Seems like I saw this before. Magnani, Quinn, Franciosa. It feels so very familiar.
St. Louis Blues (1958 - b/w) - Great performances from Ruby Dee, Mahalia Jackson, Juano Hernandez. Nat "King" Cole, Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, and Barney Bigard. Not to be confused with the similarly authentic-feeling Too Late Blues (1961 - b/w).
The Party Crashers (1958 - b/w) -Rubbishy JD nonsense from Paramount.
Desire Under the Elms (1958 - b/w) - Rote turn of the century American tragedy with Anthony Perkins, Burl Ives and Sophia Loren.
But Not for Me (1959 - b/w) - Comedy I perceived as tragedy, with Clark Gable and Carroll Baker. A remake of the similarly baffling Sylvia Sidney drama Accent on Youth (1936 - b/w).
Career (1959 - b/w) - Shirley MacLaine/Dean Martin melodrama.
The Bliss of Miss Blossom (1968) - Routine British comedy with Shirley MacLaine and Richard Attenborough, written by Denis Norden, and being one of those people, John Cleese pops up.
Fear Strikes Out (1957 - b/w) - Rote baseball drama.
See also Bang The Drum Slowly (1973).
The Joker is Wild (1957 - b/w) - Depressing showbiz biopic with Frank Sinatra.
Wild is the Wind (1957 - b/w) - Seems like I saw this before. Magnani, Quinn, Franciosa. It feels so very familiar.
St. Louis Blues (1958 - b/w) - Great performances from Ruby Dee, Mahalia Jackson, Juano Hernandez. Nat "King" Cole, Pearl Bailey, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, and Barney Bigard. Not to be confused with the similarly authentic-feeling Too Late Blues (1961 - b/w).
The Party Crashers (1958 - b/w) -Rubbishy JD nonsense from Paramount.
Desire Under the Elms (1958 - b/w) - Rote turn of the century American tragedy with Anthony Perkins, Burl Ives and Sophia Loren.
But Not for Me (1959 - b/w) - Comedy I perceived as tragedy, with Clark Gable and Carroll Baker. A remake of the similarly baffling Sylvia Sidney drama Accent on Youth (1936 - b/w).
Career (1959 - b/w) - Shirley MacLaine/Dean Martin melodrama.
The Bliss of Miss Blossom (1968) - Routine British comedy with Shirley MacLaine and Richard Attenborough, written by Denis Norden, and being one of those people, John Cleese pops up.
Deep End (1970) - It feels sleazy, and because it was mostly shot in Germany, despite Jane Asher and John Moulder Brown, it has the feel of an Edgar Wallace krimi shot by a drunk crew.
Paper Moon (1973)/Daisy Miller (1974) - Peter Bogdanovich really wanted to make 30s films, but as a result, he feels like an old hack.
The Little Prince (1974) - It looks lovely, but it feels kind of empty. It needed an extra layer of darkness. And a great thouh, though. Fosse, Wilder, Ackland, Revill, Spinetti, Crowden.
Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York (1975)- Watchable but a bit Woodless Allen vehicle for Jeannie Berlin. However, Roy Scheider as her love interest looks like her da.
docTors
Paper Moon (1973)/Daisy Miller (1974) - Peter Bogdanovich really wanted to make 30s films, but as a result, he feels like an old hack.
The Little Prince (1974) - It looks lovely, but it feels kind of empty. It needed an extra layer of darkness. And a great thouh, though. Fosse, Wilder, Ackland, Revill, Spinetti, Crowden.
Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York (1975)- Watchable but a bit Woodless Allen vehicle for Jeannie Berlin. However, Roy Scheider as her love interest looks like her da.
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