Director: George Cukor
Writers: Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin
Starring, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy
Brown Bear Daughter says: Good movie. Very feminist, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the feminism was sort of undermined in the end when Spencer Tracy fakes tears in order to get Katherine Hepburn back, saying later that he only did what all women do. Ehhh.. I guess I think the wife (the one on trial) was sort of crazy, and I don’t believe that someone of the male sex is actually more likely to be exonerated from such a crime.
Mom says: Not bad, but I think neither the feminists nor the traditional marriage crowd would be completely pleased with this story of husband and wife who are both lawyers litigating against one another in the same court case. She says the woman who shot her adulterous husband should be acquitted because a man who did the same thing to his wife and her lover would be exonerated. He says the law is the law, and people shouldn’t be allowed to go around waving and shooting loaded guns at each other. I’m on his side.
However, when the characters in the film go on to argue about the nature of marriage itself, I’m not so sure I’m with Mr. Tracy/Assistant DA Adam Bonner nor with Ms. Hepburn/Amanda Bonner. He says something to the effect that marriage is not meant to be a competition and implies that defense attorney Bonner isn’t “fighting fair.” She says at the end of the movie that “there’s no difference between the sexes. Men, women, the same.” Nonsense. If it’s legal and the judge allows it, it’s fair in the courtroom. And of course there’s a huge difference between the sexes, thank the Lord.
According to IMDB, the movie screenplay was “inspired by the real-life story of husband-and-wife lawyers William Dwight Whitney and Dorothy Whitney, who represented Raymond Massey and his ex-wife Adrienne Allen in their divorce. After the Massey divorce was over, the Whitneys divorced each other and married the respective Masseys.” Adam’s Rib is comedy, so you can guess that the ending
Director: Billy Wilder
Writers: Screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler from the novel by James M. Cain
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
The entire movie is narrated by insurance salesman, Walter Neff, as he confesses into a dictaphone the terrible crime he has been led to commit. His partner in murder is Phyllis Dietrichson, a blonde bombshell who’s unhappily married to a grouchy and jealous oil executive, Mr. Dietrichson (we never learn his first name). Neff and Phyllis deserve each other, but Phyllis comes across as the more ruthless and cruel of the two. (According to IMDB, Barbara Stanwyck was the first choice to play Phyllis, but she was unnerved when seeing the role was of a ruthless killer. When she expressed her concern to Billy Wilder, he asked her, “Are you a mouse or an actress?” ) It was bit disconcerting at first watching the father of My Three Sons play a cad and a murderer, but Fred MacMurray was quite convincing in the role.
This is one of the few 1940’s movies I’ve seen that could give Hitchcock a run for his money. It’s well-plotted, the dialog is snappy and not too hokey, and the ending is good. I highly recommend this one to fans of Hitchcock and of film noir in general. Wilder plays with the lighting and camera angles with a finesse that made me a believer in his directorial skills. Barbara Stanwyck, by the way, is absolutely beautiful, a lot prettier than most of the other actresses of her day.
My urchins learned from this movie the meaning of the term “double indemnity” and the lesson that crime never pays. At least, I think that’s what they learned.
Walter Neff: Who’d you think I was anyway? The guy that walks into a good looking dame’s front parlour and says, “Good afternoon, I sell accident insurance on husbands… you got one that’s been around too long? One you’d like to turn into a little hard cash?”
Ummm, yeah, that’s who she thought you were, sucker.
The novella by James Cain was based on a “1927 crime in which a married Queens woman, Ruth Brown Snyder, persuaded her lover to kill her husband Albert after Albert had just recently taken out a large insurance policy with a double indemnity clause.” Ms. Snyder was executed at Sing-Sing on January 12, 1928 for the murder of Albert Snyder. Her accomplice, a corset salesman, also received the death sentence.
Has any one here read the Cain novel? Better or worse than the movie? Or just different?
Directors: Howard Hawks and Arthur Rosson
Writers: Borden Chase and Charles Schnee
Starring: John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, Joanne Dru, and Walter Brennan
Karate Kid says: This movie was about some cowboys on a cattle drive. They live next to the Red River, which is the river that makes up the border between Texas and Oklahoma. They owned the Red River Ranch, and decided to take their cattle to somewhere they could sell it. On their way, they will have a stampede, an ambush, and even a mutiny!
Mom says: I liked this one better than I did The Searchers, but the ending was lame. The writers were drawing on the imagery of herd behavior in which dominant males fight for leadership of the group. There are two young “bucks” on the cattle drive, Matt and Cherry. Then, there’s Dunson, the old but strong leader of the drive, who is also conservative and set in his ways and determined to be obeyed and feared, no matter what the cost. The tension between these three, but mostly between Matt and Dunson, who is Matt’s mentor and father figure, makes the movie go. But then, at the end, although Matt’s love interest, Tess Millay, has a great scene in which she tells them both off for acting like idiots, the tension just sort of drains off into anti-climax.
Still, it’s a good movie to watch with your kids if you’re learning about the cattle drive/cowboy era of U.S. history or if you just like cowboy movies. Dunson shoots or threatens to shoot a few men in cold blood basically for just getting in his way or challenging his authority, and that part was rather shocking to my youngest (and to me). The stereotype of savage Native Americans was still there, but not as prominent as it was in The Searchers. In Red RIver, the Indians are not characters, and the Indian attack is just a plot device to place another obstacle in the way of the cattle drive and give the hero a chance to be heroic. The one Native American character who is on the cattle drive with the cowboys is a part of the comic relief, not very believable or interesting.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Writers:Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder
Starring: Great Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, Ina Claire
Synopsis: Comrade Ninotchka, a Soviet diplomat, comes to Paris to work out the details of the transfer of some jewels to the “Soviet people.” At first, she is all business, cold ad without human emotion, only interested in being a good apparatchik and serving the people. After she meets Leon, a lawyer representing the Russian princess who also has a claim to the jewels, Ninotchka fals in love and changes into a real woman.
Mom says: According to IMDB, “Greta Garbo did not wear any makeup for her scenes where she is the stern envoy.” She also did not show any emotion or do any acting. Glamorous, yes. But if she can act, I couldn’t tell it from this movie. Then, the script itself was flawed, too. It required her to change from a robotic Communist automaton to a real woman on the strength of one pratfall by her suitor, Leon. I couldn’t see what made Leon show any interest in Ninotchka in the first place, other than physical beauty. Garbo plays the first part of the movie with no feelings whatsoever, and so is completely unbelievable. Then, in the second part where she falls in love the change is so sudden that I couldn’t believe in it either.
All of the urchins found this one boring and somewhat odd.
Just after watching this movie, I read some P.G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves, a collection of short stories in which Jeeves as usual saves the day. In one of the stories an adolescent boy (who is staying in the same house with Bertie and Jeeves) is infatuated with Greta Garbo:
I clutched the brow.
“Jeeves! Don’t tell me Thos is in love with Greta Garbo!”
“Yes, sir. Unfortunately such is the case. He gave me to understand that it had been coming on for some time, and her last picture settled the issue. His voice shook with an emotion which it was impossible to misread. I gathered from his observations, sir, that he proposes to spend the remainder of his life trying to make himself worthy of her.”
I either need a different introduction to Garbo, or I need to get inside the mind of a thirteen year old boy. Never mind. Strike the latter idea. The mind of a thirteen year old boy is not a place I could ever want to inhabit.
Director: John Ford
Writers: Frank Nugent from a novel by Alan LeMay
Starring: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Natalie Wood
Karate Kid says: The movie was about a girl getting captured by Indians, and some guys go out and try to find her. I don’t generally like westerns, but this one was OK. I do like John Wayne; he’s an awesome actor.
Z-baby says: I fell asleep so I don’t remember much about it.
Mom says: I’m with KK: as Westerns go, it was OK. John Wayne’s character, Ethan Edwards is a Confederate soldier, returned to Texas after the Civil War, but unreconstructed and bitter. When his brother’s family is massacred by the Comanches, Edwards is consumed with revenge. He and Marty, an adopted son who escaped the massacre, spend years searching for Debbie, the little girl that the Indians captured and took with them instead of killing.
The representation of Native Americans in the movie was appalling. The Comanches in the movie were bloodthirsty, savage, and completely irredeemable. And if a person was captured by the Indians and not rescued quickly, that person also became “infected” with Indian ways and either ended a savage or a gibbering idiot. Throughout the movie Edwards is not really as interested in rescuing Debbie as much as he is out for revenge. He’s fairly sure Debbie is either dead or unsalvageable. We discussed this bigotry about Native Americans after watching the movie, but it was hard to get across the points that yes, Indian massacres did happen, but no, not all Native Americans were brutal inhuman barbarians.
So the urchins and I have started a project for the summer. I’m big on projects. I’m not always so good at completing projects, but I’m good at thinking them up and good at starting. Committing myself to this project here on the blog might keep us on track. Or the urchins might enjoy the project so much that they clamor for more. Who knows?
The project goes like this: I’ve made a list of 100 classic movies. I compiled the list partly from My List of 107 Best Movies of All TIme, partly from the American Film Institute’s lists, partly from some lists of classic summer movies that I wanted to include. These are the 100 movies that we’re going to try to watch this summer. This is not a list of what I think are the best movies; some of these I haven’t ever seen. And I left out most of the movies that we have all already watched. I also left out a few good movies that I think are still too mature in content for my urchins, ages 18, 15, 13, 11, and 8. (Some of the ones on this list the eleven and eight year old won’t be watching.) We’ve already watched three of the movies on the list this week (reviews coming soon), so I showed them in bold type.
But these are the movies for the Great Movie Project 2010:
12 Angry Men
Adam’s Rib
All the King’s Men
Anatomy of a Murder
Apollo 13
The Apple Dumpling Gang
Back to the Future
Beach Party
The Best Years of our Lives
Big
The Big Sleep
The Black Stallion
Bladerunner
Bonnie and Clyde
Breaking Away
Caine Mutiny
Castaway
Cat Ballou
Charade
Citizen Kane
City Lights Double Indemnity
Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
Father Goose
Father of the Bride
Field of Dreams
Fly Away Home
From Here to Eternity
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
The Godfather
The Gold Rush
Gone With the Wind
Good-bye Mr. Chips
The Graduate
Grease
Guns of Navarone
Harvey
High Noon
Hoosiers
How Green Was My Valley
It Happened One Night
The King and I
Kramer vs. Kramer
Laura
Lawrence of Arabia
A League of Their Own
Lillies of the Field
The Longest Day
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Magnificent Seven
The Maltese Falcon
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
Meet Me in St. Louis
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Moon-Spinners
Night of the Hunter Ninotchka North By Northwest
Notorious
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Ordinary People
Out of the Past
Parent Trap
Paths of Glory
A Place in the Sun
Pride of the Yankees
Psycho
The Quiet Man Red River
Rocky The Searchers
The Secret of Roan Irish
Shane
Singin’ in the Rain
Sixth Sense
Sleepless in Seattle
Stand and Deliver
Stand By Me
A Star is Born
Strangers on a Train
Sullivan’s Travels
Sunset Blvd.
Swing Time
The Ten Commandments
Tender Mercies
The Third Man
The Three Musketeers
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
Unforgiven
The Verdict
The Winslow Boy
Witness for the Prosecution
Wuthering Heights
That’s 96. I can add four more. (Why 100? Because it’s a nice, round, even number?) Does anyone have a suggestion for numbers 97-100? It may be something we didn’t put on the list because we’ve all already seen it, but nevertheless suggest away.
Additions, informed by your comments and by this list at Mere Comments:
Desk Set
Penny Serenade
Rope
Come Back, Little Sheba
Books about Love, Romance, and Marriage Anatomy of a Marriage: Novels about Marriage The Love Letters by Madeleine L’Engle. Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins Random Harvest by James Hilton Green Mansions by WH Hudson. ““Our souls were near together, like two raindrops side by side, drawing irresistibly nearer, ever nearer; for now they had touched and were not two, but one inseparable drop, crystallised beyond change, not to be disintegrated by time, nor shattered by death’s blow, nor resolved by any alchemy.†Real Romance for Grown-up Women Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Yes. Heathcliff and Cathy were actually the worst of lovers –capricious, unfaithful while remaining bonded to one another, but let’s not quibble. “I am Heathcliff!” says Cathy, and what better description of the marriage of two souls is there in literature? Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Jane and Mr. Rochester are as radically faithful and loving in their own way as Cathy and Heathcliff imagine themselves to be. And they actually get together before they die, surely an advantage for lovers. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy are the epitome of lovers in tension that finally leads to consummation. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers. Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane are such a hesitant, battle-scarred pair of lovers that thye almost don’t get together at all, but that’s what makes the series of romance-within-a mystery novels that culminates in Gaudy Night so very romantic. They’ve used the same formula in TV series ever since, but Sayers is much better than any Remington Steele (Laura and Remington) or Cheers (Sam and Diane). And Ms. Sayers was even able to write a credibly interesting epilogue novel in Busman’s Honeymoon, which is better than the TV writers can do most of the time. At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon. Who says love is only for the young? Father Tim and Cynthia make it through thick and thin and through five or six books, still in love, still throwing quotations at one another. They’re great lovers in the best sense of the word.
My Love Song Playlist (very retro–70’s) The Twelfth of Never by Donnie Osmond. Cherish by David Cassidy and the Partridge Family. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As ev’ry fairy tale comes real
I’ve looked at love that way
I’ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It’s love’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know love at all. ~Joni Mitchell
I Honestly Love You by Olivia Newton John. Evergreen by Barbra Streisand. Can’t Help Falling in Love With You by Elvis Presley. Laughter in the Rain by Neil Sedaka. L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole.
“Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes;
Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.”
~Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Recommended Movies for Valentine’s Day Marty. “Ernest Borgnine (Oscar for Best Actor) stars as a 35 year old Italian butcher who’s still not married in spite of the fact that all his younger brothers and sisters have already tied the knot.” It Happened One Night. Clark Gable is a reporter in this romantic comedy about a run-away rich girl. Much Ado About Nothing. Kenneth Branaugh and Emma Thompson. The reparte between Benedick and Beatrice is so memorable that you may find yourself quoting Shakespeare in spite of yourself. My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I really loved the fact that Ian knew that he was not just marrying a girl but also her family. The Princess Bride. Romance at it finest and funniest. “That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying ‘As you wish’, what he meant was, ‘I love you.’ And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back.” You’ve Got Mail. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are a great pair. Romeo and Juliet. The Franco Zefferelli version.
Love Quotes
“There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.†~Trollope
“It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a short cut that way but it has been known to fail.†~Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
One advantage of marriage, it seems to me, is that when you fall out of love with him or he falls out of love with you, it keeps you together until maybe you fall in again.
~Judith Viorst
My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.
My beloved is mine, and I am his . . .
What are your favorites? Romantic movie? Romantic novel? Love song? Love poem?
This movie sounds good. Has anyone seen it?
Actually, Brown Bear Daughter went to see it with some friends from church and she said it was pretty good. She didn’t rave about it; however, she wants me to see it so that we can discuss.
Haitian author Edwidge Danticat: “My cousin Maxo has died. The house that I called home during my visits to Haiti collapsed on top of him.”
Sarah Palin on Rahm Emmanuel’s hate speech: “His recent tirade against participants in a strategy session was such a strong slap in many American faces that our president is doing himself a disservice by seeming to condone Rahm’s recent sick and offensive tactic.”
I tend to not agree that people should be fired from their jobs because of the words they use, no matter how crude, rude or socially unacceptable. However, Mr. Emmanuel really doesn’t get it, does he?
LONDON — Erich Segal, the Ivy League professor who attained mainstream fame and made millions sob as writer of the novel and movie Love Story, has died of a heart attack, his daughter said Tuesday. He was 72.More . . .
I haven’t thought about Love Story in ages, but I was one of those weepy teens back in the 70’s who came, saw, and cried. I have enjoyed seeing a much older (wiser?) Ryan O’Neal on the TV series Bones.
We watched a very old (1938) Alfred Hitchcock feature tonight, The Lady Vanishes. I ‘d say Mr. Hitchcock was still honing his craft when he made this particular movie, but it did have its moments.
Best line of the movie, delivered by a British cricket fan during the final shoot-out: “You know, I’m half-inclined to believe that there’s a rational explanation behind all this.”
The ending is a bit lame, but glimpses of later Hitchcock genius shine through anyway.
Brown Bear Daughter says: Good movie. Very feminist, which is not necessarily a bad thing. However, the feminism was sort of undermined in the end when Spencer Tracy fakes tears in order to get Katherine Hepburn back, saying later that he only did what all women do. Ehhh.. I guess I think the wife (the one on trial) was sort of crazy, and I don’t believe that someone of the male sex is actually more likely to be exonerated from such a crime. 
We watched a very old (1938) Alfred Hitchcock feature tonight, The Lady Vanishes. I ‘d say Mr. Hitchcock was still honing his craft when he made this particular movie, but it did have its moments.