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445,616 | 1,048,771 | 30,216 | 5 | Limp comedy lacks whatever luster it had as a Broadway play . . . | If the pleasure of watching GINGER ROGERS , DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS , JR . and LEE BOWMAN in their prime is enough for you , you won't mind watching this feeble little comedy about a vacationing girl in a typical girl meets boy , girl loses boy , girl wins boy kind of affair . And whatever laughs come along are few and far b... |
447,037 | 1,048,771 | 217,653 | 5 | Moderately interesting look at Niagara Falls . . . | I wish I could rate these James FitzPatrick Travelogs higher than I do , but frankly they're really as dull as can be . These shorts that he produced have all the luster of the sort of documentaries we had to watch in the school auditorium when I was a kid . Dry , humorless , dull . The only redeeming thing here are th... |
447,156 | 1,048,771 | 43,633 | 5 | Capra running on empty . . . except for a song . . . | When the best thing about a BING CROSBY / JANE WYMAN film is a song called " In the Cool , Cool , Cool of the Evening " , you know you're in trouble . What is supposed to be harmless fluff is pretty empty fluff at that . And why anyone is surprised that Jane Wyman can carry a tune with the best of them , mystifies me .... |
446,599 | 1,048,771 | 43,632 | 5 | A dull teen role for Margaret O'Brien after her MGM days were over . . . | I've never been a big admirer of MARGARET O'BRIEN , so it should come as no surprise that I disliked this dull teen-age story about a budding romance at summer camp ( based actually on a Herman Wouk novel about a Jewish boy growing up in New York City ) - - but even I have to admit that there was very little she could ... |
445,350 | 1,048,771 | 61,107 | 5 | Forgettable except for one chilling scene . . . | TORN CURTAIN has to be on the lowest rung of the ladder when judging Hitchcock films . How it manages to be such a dull espionage tale with stars like PAUL NEWMAN and JULIE ANDREWS in the leads , is practically incomprehensible . But I suppose most of the trouble has to be blamed on the script . Hitchcock himself gave ... |
447,034 | 1,048,771 | 213,770 | 5 | Bill Robinson becomes owner of a nightclub . . . | At a time when his presence in A-films was not quite established , BILL ROBINSON appeared in this short subject which I found moderately interesting . I was waiting for his tap dancing sequence and it was a good one , but the story is a trifle about him gambling the owner in a crap game and getting the chance to strut ... |
445,447 | 1,048,771 | 240,685 | 5 | Orphan girl is lonely at the orphanage . . . | Mawkish , sentimental nonsense about a little orphan girl ( SHARON MacMANUS ) , who for some strange reason doesn't want a married couple to know that she does indeed want to be adopted by them . Sharon is the matchstick thin little girl with the big sad eyes who danced with Gene Kelly in a famous scene from of " Ancho... |
445,579 | 1,048,771 | 43,618 | 5 | Harmless fluff but the plot is old hat . . . | Any movie that gives me a chance to watch VERA-ELLEN dance is worth giving it a view , in my opinion - - so I watched this little musical comedy pairing her with charming David NIVEN . It's the old mistaken identity theme played to the hilt by a cast that includes CESAR ROMERO as a harried musical producer with financi... |
446,369 | 1,048,771 | 21,622 | 5 | Ronald Colman and the age factor . . . | I can't think of any other actor from the Golden Age of films who was miscast as many times as he was because of the age factor . So it was with RONALD COLMAN who was already forty by the time he played the idealistic young doctor of ARROWSMITH opposite stage star HELEN HAYES . To his credit , he was still playing roma... |
445,977 | 1,048,771 | 105,265 | 5 | Beautiful to look at but shallow all the way . . . | If you could cite gorgeous cinematography as the saving grace of a movie , this would be the one to choose . Obviously , director ROBERT REDFORD meant this to be a tribute to the glories of the environment , being the radical conservationist that he's turned out to be . And as such , it does succeed - - for it's a beau... |
446,048 | 1,048,771 | 39,279 | 5 | Nothing subtle about this comedy / mystery . . . but it's not too bad . . . | ADELE JERGENS is a pampered movie star who gets a crate delivery that turns out to have a body inside it - - a studio costume designer she had recently argued with . She tries to persuade newspaper man GEORGE BRENT not to tell police right away , but he does and the plot gets a little more absurd after that , with JOAN... |
447,124 | 1,048,771 | 232,963 | 5 | Typical ' 30s-style band leader Vitaphone short from Warner Bros . . . | Just about every popular band during the ' 30s and ' 40s had their own short subject and this one is dedicated to Woody Herman and his Orchestra . He and his band give the swing treatment to a number of oldies , beginning with " Carolina in the Morning " which he sings , a tricky dance number with two sisters doing " T... |
445,806 | 1,048,771 | 47,883 | 5 | A humorous take on our superstitions . . . | This short subject from the ' 50s takes a look at our superstitious nature and displays a number of them for our amusement . Among the many : Ouiji boards , crystal ball , hand palm reading , sediment teacup , wizards instead of doctors , spilling salt over left shoulder , walking under a ladder , Friday the 13th , the... |
447,955 | 1,048,771 | 489,664 | 5 | TNT premiere showing of " Shattered " . . . | The producers of BUTTERFLY ON A WHEEL ( a / k / a SHATTERED in U . S . ) , didn't have enough faith in their project to seek widespread theatrical distribution of the finished film - - even though it had GERARD BUTLER fresh from his box-office triumph in " 300 " . Instead , they went a more direct route - - directly to... |
447,666 | 1,048,771 | 30,302 | 5 | Definitely not one of Shirley's best . . . below average vehicle . . . | There is such a lackluster quality about JUST AROUND THE CORNER - - everything from script to performances to the songs - - is below average . And Shirley is not quite as cute as the story wants her to be - - clearly , she is starting to develop into a chubby preteen youngster with just a modicum of talent left over fr... |
447,950 | 1,048,771 | 39,293 | 5 | Sugar-coated trifle with sweet ( rather than sexy ) Taylor . . . | ELIZABETH TAYLOR's fans are really the only ones who will find any reason to watch CYNTHIA , a sugar-coated confection about a sickly girl churned out by MGM for the fast developing teen who was turning into a woman almost overnight . Here , at fifteen , she's still got a lot of her girlish charm , exhibits a modest si... |
447,829 | 1,048,771 | 198,551 | 5 | America's propaganda to boost WWII morale . . . | Propaganda was sometimes pretty heavy-handed during the WWII years and " I Am An American " demonstrates this point to perfection . It's about as flag waving as you can get , but taken in the context of those war years , it's understandable that every major studio in Hollywood was coming up with films of this ilk . It ... |
446,793 | 1,048,771 | 47,898 | 5 | Cult oddity is watchable but crippled by bad acting . . . | Any monster tale featuring BELA LUGOSI in a starring role has got to be watchable , at least for some unintentional laughs . BRIDE OF THE MONSTER doesn't disappoint . It's typical Ed Wood nonsense , filmed on a very low budget with actors who are only occasionally competent and some that are downright bad . TOR JOHNSON... |
445,798 | 1,048,771 | 26,466 | 5 | Amusing bits but painfully unfunny cornball one-liners dominate the film . . . | The man who provided Disney with the voice for Prince Charming in SNOW WHITE is the leading man here , HARRY STOCKWELL , father of Dean and Guy Stockwell . He's an unphotogenic man with a splendid voice , but it's easy to see why he never made it in films . He's totally unphotogenic and lacks whatever charisma is neede... |
445,931 | 1,048,771 | 39,283 | 5 | Dr . Ordway can't take a vacation from crime in Paris . . . one of the weaker entries . . . | This Dr . Ordway story has to be one of the weaker entries in the series . First of all , there's too much exposition going on for the first half-hour , all talk and no action . The plot involves art forgeries , art dealers , a painter who specializes in making copies of original art , and a knife-throwing act - - all ... |
445,531 | 1,048,771 | 83,767 | 5 | Tacky , absurd , funny horror anthology has its moments . . . | It all depends on your sense of humor , but this is meant for horror fans who like their fright sprinkled with laughs as the absurd takes priority over logic . It's the kind of horror anthology you'd expect from writer Stephen King , who also plays a nerdy hillbilly in one of the five sequences . LESLIE NIELSEN stars a... |
446,752 | 1,048,771 | 39,244 | 5 | The music is brilliant - - the story is a test of endurance . . . | If you love classical music , CARNEGIE HALL will give you an earful . Some of the great performers of the time are seen in concert , such as Leopold Stokowski conducting Tchaikovsky's " Symphony in E Minor , " Artur Rubenstein doing Chopin's " Polonaise " and " The Ritual Fire Dance " at the piano keyboard , Jascha Hei... |
445,541 | 1,048,771 | 34,936 | 5 | Story strives to be " a poor man's Citizen Kane " . . . | The pitfalls of blind hero worship are examined at length in KEEPER OF THE FLAME with SPENCER TRACY as an intrepid reporter trying to find out what dark secrets are behind all the repressed household members who refuse to divulge much information about a dead patriot . Most secretive of all is KATHARINE HEPBURN as the ... |
446,187 | 1,048,771 | 303,816 | 5 | Mindlessly juvenile horror film gets worse as the plot unwinds . . . | Whatever horror is in store for the mindless young vacationers in CABIN FEVER is exactly what they deserve . This is the kind of tale that gets off to a slow start , introducing a bunch of unlikeable main characters before we start getting to the gore . Nothing subtle about this one . It goes downhill after the first h... |
447,777 | 1,048,771 | 52,391 | 5 | Weak murder yarn wastes everybody in the cast . . . | Once again GEORGE SANDERS is a cad who tries to set up STEWART GRANGER for the murder of Sander's unfaithful wife . DONNA REED is the pretty female lead , Stewart's loving wife , who cannot believe Granger is capable of murder and stands by him , for the most part , during the proceedings . All of it is given stylish B... |
447,182 | 1,048,771 | 47,348 | 5 | More gripping than the 1932 version directed by Robert Florey . . . | Although not in the same league with Warner's HOUSE OF WAX , at least this version of the Edgar Allen Poe story has some interesting ingredients that make it passable entertainment . First and foremost , the always dependable KARL MALDEN as a sinister man terrifying Paris with his ape and a pleasant supporting cast tha... |
447,863 | 1,048,771 | 22,495 | 5 | Murky B & W wildlife footage and overlong safari story . . . | TRADER HORN is somewhat of an endurance test to watch . The first hour is a compilation of animal wildlife footage filmed entirely on " The Dark Continent " , which looks even darker in the murky B & W cinematography on display here . The plot doesn't pick up until the first hour is over , thanks to the entry of EDWINA... |
445,904 | 1,048,771 | 39,581 | 5 | Disastrously bad movie is dull and depressing . . . | It's too bad THE LONG NIGHT couldn't have been a short one . This is a disastrously dull movie with HENRY FONDA and BARBARA BEL GEDDES both playing implausibly motivated people who fall in love at first sight . Fonda plays another one of his " everyman " roles but is more of a lost puppy than usual in this depressingly... |
445,466 | 1,048,771 | 35,766 | 5 | First of the " Crime Doctor " movies with Warner Baxter . . . | It's odd that CRIME DOCTOR ( ' 43 ) , the film that started the B-film series at Columbia , is one of the least involving of the Dr . Ordway stories . The first half-hour is pretty dull before the film takes on any real interest in the amnesia background of Baxter's character . His development from complete amnesia to ... |
447,284 | 1,048,771 | 56,908 | 5 | A glamorized , minor league " Snake Pit " full of melodramatics . . . | THE CARETAKERS represents what would have happened to THE SNAKE PIT if it hadn't been based on a semi-autobiographical novel and photographed with the accent on realism instead of Hollywood glamor . Every bad cliché imaginable is present in THE CARETAKERS ' script , and there are vague reminders that stand out as the p... |
445,535 | 1,048,771 | 303,361 | 5 | Slow moving creepfest is not for the faint hearted . . . | Lucky McKee wrote and directed this sluggish creepfest that has ANGELA BETTIS as a girl suffering from severe pangs of loneliness who is driven to kill in order to satisfy her need to have friends . She intends , of course , to become a Miss Frankenstein by creating a friend out of the body parts of those she kills . I... |
447,353 | 1,048,771 | 30,120 | 5 | Fast moving mystery / comedy , slick , smart dialog . . . | FAST COMPANY is a minor mystery / comedy about Joe Sloane , a book dealer who plays part time detective to solve a crime involving a crooked book deal . MELVYN DOUGLAS has a great time with the comedy aspects , delivering some tart lines with authority and FLORENCE RICE makes a nice impression as his ever loving wife .... |
447,351 | 1,048,771 | 91,799 | 5 | Why bother ? . . . . | After a stunning opening at a monastery in which a nun accidentally falls to her death from a church tower in an effort to stop a suicidal novice , PSYCHO 3 settles into a mediocrity it never recovers from . It's not that it lacks style . The Bates Hotel looks as run-down and seedy as it ever did in B & W and ANTHONY P... |
447,958 | 1,048,771 | 35,726 | 5 | Light hearted Boston Blackie caper with same old formula . . . | Once again Boston Blackie puts one over on the police who wrongly accuse him of a crime he never committed . He uses his wits and ingenuity to outwit them at every turn - - each episode more incredible than the one before . But it's entertaining in a formula way , with CHESTER MORRIS obviously enjoying himself as Black... |
446,239 | 1,048,771 | 22,501 | 5 | Poor Kay Francis suffers and suffers in another potboiler . . . | This is one of those KAY FRANCIS weepies that was so popular with audiences in the ' 30s ( don't ask me why ) . She suffers because she falls in love with an unethical Spaniard ( RICARDO CORTEZ ) who falls madly in love with her while her husband is away in India . Her foolish husband didn't want his wife to join him a... |
447,842 | 1,048,771 | 245,407 | 5 | Bad mixture of comedy / tragedy / drama without a resolution . . . | For the first forty-five minutes one gets the feeling CRUSH is a comedy with some digs at sex and the single woman . Then , when the heroine ( ANDIE MacDOWELL ) falls abruptly in love with the organist at a funeral ( and has mad sex on a gravestone ) , the film starts to veer into more serious territory as her two best... |
447,330 | 1,048,771 | 91,790 | 5 | A formula for what's wrong with films of the ' 80s . . . | PRETTY IN PINK actually has a storyline that was done with more style and wit back in the ' 30s , only then it was called ALICE ADAMS - - about a girl from the wrong side of the tracks , ashamed of her home surf but dying to mix with the right social set and wanting to impress a wealthy boyfriend . Here it's the same s... |
445,640 | 1,048,771 | 25,785 | 5 | Time-worn and tedious . . . should have been called " The Braggart " . . . | SPENCER TRACY does about as well as can be expected in the role of a braggart who spends money that he doesn't have and marries the prettiest girl in town , MADGE EVANS , who worships him before she learns about his true nature . He seems to be an impractical man but the script has him conjuring up a " get rich quick "... |
445,729 | 1,048,771 | 56,937 | 5 | An overstuffed turkey , opulent but induces drowsiness after first 45 minutes . . . | If it hadn't been the tabloid headlines screaming about the love affair between ELIZABETH TAYLOR and RICHARD BURTON on the set of CLEOPATRA in Rome , it's unlikely Fox would have released this epic without trimming even more than they did . It still doesn't work . The trims were not enough and the film is a boring mess... |
446,373 | 1,048,771 | 30,090 | 5 | Louis Hayward in a sort of reverse replay of " A Yank At Oxford " . . . | Apparently all it takes to not fit in at West Point is to be an American who was reared among English aristocracy and to have an attitude problem that puts others off - - a certain vanity , cockiness and arrogance that your West Point roommates just won't tolerate . What stretches credibility is that any cadet would be... |
447,783 | 1,048,771 | 443,284 | 5 | Not quite enough on her Selznick stardom in GWTW . . . shown on the new GWTW DVD . . . | What's really surprising about VIVIEN LEIGH is that she was chosen to play Scarlett O'Hara after what was really an unimpressive and veddy British appearance in A YANK AT OXFORD , sporting pencil thin eyebrows of the period and wearing unflattering hairdo and dowdy clothes . Nothing in that performance could have induc... |
445,961 | 1,048,771 | 30,194 | 5 | A witless plot . . . and a waste of good Technicolor . . . | The only real compensation for watching THE GOLDWYN FOLLIES is the pleasing Technicolor - - but , unfortunately , none of the plot is believable nor are any of the characters likely to resemble anyone in real-life Hollywood . There are some worthwhile bits . The opera sequence with HELEN JEPSON is well done - - includi... |
447,098 | 1,048,771 | 22,430 | 5 | Vintage crime drama . . . give me " Public Enemy " any time . . . | Strictly a curiosity piece from Warner Bros . , this early crime drama with a sermonizing WALTER HUSTON as a D . A . , is so full of annoying and clichéd moments that it seems far longer than its 68 minutes running time . Everything about it is so dated , it's hard to recommend it as anything but a museum piece . ( Tri... |
447,180 | 1,048,771 | 35,829 | 5 | Missing most of the Broadway songs but tailored for Kelly , Ball and Skelton . . . | Obviously what was good for Broadway audiences was not always good for film - - especially when censorship demanded certain changes . Thus , when MGM decided to make a screen musical out of DU BARRY WAS A LADY , they had to jettison most of the score and keep a few Cole Porter numbers just to satisfy the censors . The ... |
445,605 | 1,048,771 | 30,183 | 5 | Jane Bryan and Ronald Reagan star in Warner potboiler . . . | Just another one of those Warner Bros . B-films from the ' 30s where , if the truth were told from the beginning , the whole sorry story could have been cleared up without all the melodramatic fuss rendered here by the fast talking and very dated screenplay . But then we'd have no excuse to see RONALD REAGAN in one of ... |
447,901 | 1,048,771 | 30,184 | 5 | 1930's programmer is strictly fluff for teen-aged girls . . . | For starters , ANNE SHIRLEY , wearing a dark bathrobe with white collar design , looks exactly like Olivia de Havilland in an early scene from THE DARK MIRROR . I always thought they resembled each other strongly , but never more so than in this film . The story is the same old trite stuff about the petty squabbles amo... |
447,294 | 1,048,771 | 22,453 | 5 | Garbo / Gable chemistry wasted on weak romantic plot . . . | GRETA GARBO fans will undoubtedly forgive the screenplay which has Greta and CLARK GABLE romantically involved in an on again / off again relationship that is the basis for the whole movie . And , of course , Garbo's favorite cinematographer , William Daniels , is behind the camera making sure that she gets her fair sh... |
446,974 | 1,048,771 | 39,671 | 5 | Narration has a sense of humor . . . | This color short accents the use of micro and macro-photography , so that we can see what a powerful microscope sees when looking at certain plants , animals and insects . It spends most of the time inspecting the insect world of colorful flowers and how some of them trap the bugs feeding on them . We get a close inspe... |
445,892 | 1,048,771 | 25,830 | 5 | Poverty row western is more of a puzzlement than entertaining . . . | JOHN WAYNE is slim and lithe as a cowboy who anoints himself sheriff after the bad guys rub too many of the town's citizens out . From then on it's like watching a Hopalong Cassidy movie except this one is from Lone Star and is obviously a poverty row project with a few interesting moments for anyone who stays with it ... |
446,097 | 1,048,771 | 25,833 | 5 | STINGAREE is a curious misfire . . . | The red flags went up the moment I spotted William A . Wellman's name as the director of this hybrid western / musical which has RICHARD DIX as an Australian bandit named " Stingaree " who also happens to be a noticeably ungifted song writer responsible for some of the numbers IRENE DUNNE is forced to sing in this film... |
447,339 | 1,048,771 | 35,784 | 5 | Sinister George Zucco has dual role in low-budget horror flick . . . | Clearly a film to play the lower half of a double bill , DEAD MEN WALK is a low-budget entry in the horror genre defeated by its stilted dialog and contrived situations . It's painfully dull and on the level of an Ed Wood film with amateurish acting from everyone except Zucco . Zucco plays a bad doctor who comes back a... |
446,774 | 1,048,771 | 30,145 | 5 | Blooper outtakes made me want to see this ' 38 film . . . | Only because CAROLE LOMBARD and FERNAND GRAVET ( he played Johann Strauss in " The Great Waltz " ) are shown enjoying themselves during a blooper moment on the dinner set of FOOLS FOR SCANDAL ( in The Big Breakdowns of ' 38 ) , did I want to see this romantic comedy . Turns out not to be quite the lark I expected , eve... |
447,080 | 1,048,771 | 39,659 | 5 | Implausible and contrived story of blind pianist finding love . . . | If there's one thing to be said for NIGHT SONG , it's that at least it does put the spotlight on some nice classical music . But you have to wonder what they were thinking when they dreamed up a story that has blind pianist DANA ANDREWS being wooed by a woman ( MERLE OBERON ) who , in order to get close to him , preten... |
447,334 | 1,048,771 | 25,850 | 5 | Antiquated Warner musical is short on charm . . . creaky is the word . . . | Despite a competent cast of players and the Vitaphone Orchestra doing their best to give the music a turn-of-the-century beer garden sound , SWEET ADELINE does nothing to indicate that musicals would find favor with the public in a big way . The old-fashioned Broadway play has been fashioned into an old-fashioned early... |
445,197 | 1,048,771 | 53,017 | 5 | Interesting but depressing . . . sad to see Montgomery Clift's frailty . . . | LONELYHEARTS is the story of a " Dear Abby " sort of columnist , unwillingly assigned to the job of helping the helpless losers who write to him ( MONTGOMERY CLIFT ) by a cynical newspaper editor ( ROBERT RYAN ) . Ryan is so despicable that you have to wonder if he patented these roles during the heyday of his career .... |
447,994 | 1,048,771 | 22,357 | 5 | The only real surprises are in the cast , not the plot . . . ( POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD ) . . . | THE SECRET SIX looks like an antiquated crime film , despite some of the comments here talking about " MGM gloss " . It doesn't have any gloss and it doesn't compare favorably to the tougher Warner Bros . crime dramas of the same period . The only surprises here are in the odd casting choices . RALPH BELLAMY ( Mr . Nic... |
447,788 | 1,048,771 | 53,219 | 5 | A quickie capitalizes on the popularity of the original . . . | BRETT HALSEY is one of those handsome young actors from the ' 50s who never quite made it to stardom , and following the trend of other such actors , he fled to Europe where he found a niche for a decade or so in adventure films . He was certainly a competent enough actor and it's a shame Fox never groomed him for majo... |
447,132 | 1,048,771 | 47,209 | 5 | Inferior remake of " The Lodger " has Palance as The Ripper . . . | Based on " The Lodger " by Marie Belloc Lowndes , this is another take on the Jack the Ripper legend that takes place in Victorian London's West End side . Sinister looking JACK PALANCE is perfectly well cast as the young man seeking lodgings in a rooming house during a period when the city is aghast over a series of b... |
447,669 | 1,048,771 | 29,992 | 5 | Abbreviated with many ludicrous changes and badly cast . . . | Reginald Owen does an acceptable job as Scrooge , although one can easily spot the age make-up necessary to transform him into Ebenezer Scrooge . But this version is unforgivable for the many scenes cut from the story and for the foolish additions that have been added , especially during the film's first twenty minutes... |
446,129 | 1,048,771 | 18,037 | 5 | Sentimental tale has historic value as a transition to sound . . . | To think that the world trembled when THE JAZZ SINGER was announced as a " talkie " musical and opened to huge crowds when it premiered , is to realize how far the cinema has come since this primitive showing . Actually , the story of THE JAZZ SINGER has a lot in common with Al Jolson's real saga told in THE JOLSON STO... |
445,777 | 1,048,771 | 39,425 | 5 | Good neighbor policy with Mexicans gets a workout . . . | People must help the land produce crops , according to the agriculturalist at the center of this documentary about helping Mexican farmers make the best use of the land and farming techniques . " You're poor because the land is poor , " he tells the people that he and his wife are helping to plough the land . The whole... |
445,395 | 1,048,771 | 57,026 | 5 | Unsuccessful film is well acted by Mel Ferrer in title role . . . | EL GRECO tackles the life of the famous artist who spent most of his life in Toledo , Spain and whose paintings are marked by his unique style of portraying church figures and the common man . But this film is a weak attempt that lacks substance in telling the painter's story which , for dramatic conflict , involves hi... |
447,133 | 1,048,771 | 47,199 | 5 | Follow-up to " Miranda " is showcase for Glynis Johns . . . | I never saw MIRANDA but this is a lively sequel to that film with GLYNIS JOHNS again playing the saucy mermaid with her usual charm . Glynis is a flirtatious mermaid who takes the place of a schoolteacher for a couple of weeks , determined to find a better husband for her than the stuffy fiancé she's engaged to . They ... |
445,683 | 1,048,771 | 39,485 | 5 | Uneven performance by Paulette Goddard in a central role . . . | AN IDEAL HUSBAND starts off with cinematic flourish as it introduces its main characters , but soon settles down to become the drawing room Victorian comedy intended . PAULETTE GODDARD as Lady Cheveley , has a central role as a scheming aristocrat who blackmails HUGH WILLIAMS over a past indiscretion involving a stock ... |
445,207 | 1,048,771 | 47,191 | 5 | Long , long comedy is more exasperating than funny . . . | It must have seemed like a dream ticket : put Lucy and Desi in an MGM comedy , give it color and plush settings , hire Vincente Minnelli to direct , and let them play facsimiles of their Lucy and Desi TV show personalities for much longer than half an hour . Then see the money pour in . Well , it might have looked good... |
446,532 | 1,048,771 | 74,455 | 5 | A murky mess of horror is strictly a cheap exploitation film . . . | It's sad to see that people with reputations as professional as CAROLYN JONES , MEL FERRER and NEVILLE BRAND agreed to star in this Tobe Hooper exploitation film , as cheap and lurid as any slasher from the ' 70s . There's a very non-subtle use of red over most of the scenes to remind us of the blood-letting to come . ... |
445,728 | 1,048,771 | 53,214 | 5 | Remarkable only for Webb again playing the father of a brood of children . . . | CLIFTON WEBB , given the chance to " act " in LAURA , THE RAZOR'S EDGE and other fine films , is the Clifton Webb the public wanted to see . He made his mark as Mr . Belvedere in a number of Belvedere films and audiences loved him . But Fox did him a disservice by forcing him to play the remarkable man in this film , a... |
446,938 | 1,048,771 | 217,399 | 5 | MGM musical short on Franz Liszt's unhappy love affair . . . | It's hard to judge a short that was cut from 37 minutes to 17 minutes for U . S . showings as a two-reel short . A DREAM OF LOVE uses sets that look suspiciously like left-overs from a Jeanette MacDonald / Nelson Eddy musical . IAN COLIN as Franz Liszt lifts his tenor voice in song very effectively ( that is - - whomev... |
445,181 | 1,048,771 | 70,040 | 5 | Too uneventful . . . fails to make a point with nothing more than haunting imagery . . . | I have to confess that I had to stop watching more than halfway through because tedium overcame my ability to concentrate on more of this sensitive film from Spain about youth and lost innocence . At least that's what I think the filmmaker was trying to develop , but the theme remained pretty obscure up until the point... |
445,187 | 1,048,771 | 39,461 | 5 | Dismal romantic fantasy , syrupy , boring and unworthy of its stars . . . | This is truly awful stuff from MGM for two of its most popular stars during the forties - - and even the presence of CAMERON MITCHELL in a supporting role - - where he must listen and listen to VAN JOHNSON rambling on and on about his childhood past and his attachment to sweetheart JUNE ALLYSON , doesn't save the film ... |
446,911 | 1,048,771 | 65,700 | 5 | Controversial film way ahead of its time in sophistication . . . | ENTERTAINING MR . SLOANE is certainly an uneven adaptation of the Joe Orton play , but it does create a few sparks with the performances of BERYL REID as Kath , PETER McENERY as Sloane and HARRY ANDREWS as Ed . The trio is involved in a three-way affair with Mr . Sloane who charms them both with his good looks and appa... |
447,923 | 1,048,771 | 39,456 | 5 | Lucy stars as scatterbrained wife with some bright ideas . . . | There's a lot of the Lucy Ricardo personality in the wife LUCILLE BALL plays in HER HUSBAND'S AFFAIRS - - only here the husband who gets exasperated with her brainstorms is FRANCHOT TONE . It starts out with an amusing idea about a scientist MIKHAIL RAHSUMNY whose embalming lotion can be used to remove beards without s... |
447,596 | 1,048,771 | 87,332 | 5 | Bill Murray comedy is a silly cult classic but not screamingly funny . . . | I never did find this one screamingly funny , as some Bill Murray fans obviously do . It's got a preposterous story with some good special effects ( for those slimy , jello-like green images ) and if quirky characters are your thing , you'll find plenty of them among the cast of characters . But a wittier script by Bil... |
445,891 | 1,048,771 | 5,078 | 5 | Lurid silent melodrama with DeMille touches . . . | THE CHEAT is interesting only from the standpoint that it's an early silent film from Cecil B . DeMille and the fact that the most realistic performance is given by Japanese actor SESSUE HAYAKAWA , famous now for his work in films like THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI . Even at a young age , he could give glowering glances... |
447,058 | 1,048,771 | 56,983 | 5 | Unpromising beginning for Coppola . . . slow , tedious horror film . . . | For a movie about an axe murderer , DEMENTIA 13 gets off to a lumbering start before the first brutal murder occurs at the first half-hour point . Before that , the story moves along at a snail's pace with some plotting as murky as the low-budget photography . There is no hint anywhere of the raw talent involved with F... |
446,196 | 1,048,771 | 43,288 | 5 | Pirate nonsense with tomboyish Jean Peters swaggering with a sword . . . | Fox must have had a lot of left-over sets from Tyrone Power's THE BLACK SWAN ( and a trunkfull of period costumes on hand ) when they decided to film ANNE OF THE INDIES . It provides JEAN PETERS with a flashy role as a lady pirate ( a la Ann Boney ) , but her swagger seems more like the pose of a well-rehearsed actress... |
445,582 | 1,048,771 | 39,500 | 5 | Foolish comedy is all in vain . . . incredibly naive mixture of fact and fantasy . . . | GINGER ROGERS plays another one of her fluttery sapheads with a little girl voice and manner that becomes irritating after the first ten minutes . She's caught in a script full of trouble - - because none of it makes a good deal of sense . Supposedly , her crush as a girl on a boy who played Indian games with her , has... |
447,134 | 1,048,771 | 126,950 | 5 | Crime caper comedy is trivial stuff . . . | . . . but sufficiently amusing if you like British comedies from the ' 50s . A thief hides his loot in an old barge while two nosy old ladies watch from their window . Plot complications ensue when he tries to retrieve the loot later on in the West-End section of London . The bungled attempts of the burglars provide mi... |
447,419 | 1,048,771 | 78,767 | 5 | Every imaginable cliché of the horror film in supposedly true story . . . | By the time the end credits roll on THE AMITYVILLE HORROR you feel as though you've been taken in by deception . Yes , it's based on a true story ( at least that's what the Lutz family claimed in the book they wrote ) , but it has been turned into the kind of horror film that keeps repeating every cliché of the standar... |
447,921 | 1,048,771 | 43,299 | 5 | One small step up the ladder for Marilyn Monroe . . . | This is one of those conventional comedies of the ' 50s in which the righteous triumph over big bad corporate America , with MONTY WOOLLEY as a man who becomes indignant when forced to retire and goes about hatching a plan to draw attention to the subject of forced retirement . The theme isn't conventional , but the tr... |
446,910 | 1,048,771 | 65,777 | 5 | A blurry commentary on the danger of isolationism . . . | Maddeningly slow-moving account of an aristocratic Italian family during the onset of World War II who conveniently ignore what is going on in the world beyond their fabled garden of contentment . It's all rather prettily photographed so that a dreamlike spell blurs much of the story and keeps the audience just as isol... |
447,261 | 1,048,771 | 35,675 | 5 | Nancy Walker's film debut . . . she steals the spotlight from Ball . . . | Here's a movie I adored when I was a kid , thrilled by " Buckle Down Winsocki " , the spirited song sung at a military academy by a bunch of singing , dancing and marching cadets . But seeing the film now , is a real letdown . It's below par in every department . At second glance , it's really a minor musical with HARR... |
446,408 | 1,048,771 | 30,017 | 5 | Benchley demonstrates the art of underplaying . . . | You have to be a ROBERT BENCHLEY fan to appreciate his dry humor , especially when he deals with the even drier subject of this supposedly humorous sketch about a scientist talking about his latest find - - " the newt . " We never actually see what he's talking about . He makes several efforts to reach into a tank full... |
445,182 | 1,048,771 | 30,019 | 5 | No wonder Dick Powell longed to change his screen image . . . | During his early Warner career , DICK POWELL found himself playing the leading juvenile role over and over , sometimes with pleasant results . HARD TO GET ( ' 38 ) with Olivia de Havilland at least showcased him in a daffy , colorful comedy role that he handled adeptly and had only a couple of songs to sing . It was re... |
445,468 | 1,048,771 | 29,864 | 5 | Offbeat film has absurd central character in title role . . . | John Huston co-authored the script for THE AMAZING DR . CLITTERHOUSE and whatever fun he was having with the concept of a respected doctor who turns to crime in order to become a method criminologist by joining a hoodlum gang of thieves , it doesn't quite jell . At no time does director Anatole Litvak let us know that ... |
447,264 | 1,048,771 | 39,819 | 5 | Betty Grable is the prim and proper Miss Pilgrim . . . not good box-office . . . | THE SHOCKING MISS PILGRIM was one of the few BETTY GRABLE movies that did not bring them in at the box-office , probably because her famous legs are not in display in this story about women in the work force , circa 1870s . Instead , the usually bubbly Miss Grable is seen in demure costumes , although her blonde hair i... |
447,488 | 1,048,771 | 29,884 | 5 | Smoothly played but uneven mystery is disappointing . . . | MELVYN DOUGLAS is debonair , WARREN WILLIAM is clever and sophisticated , and VIRGINIA BRUCE is decorative but bland as a lovely blonde , but ARSENE LUPIN RETURNS is pretty much a replay of the original film " Arsene Lupin " with little variation in plot and theme . The supporting cast includes such dependable actors a... |
446,574 | 1,048,771 | 39,843 | 5 | Foolishly over-exaggerated comedy on becoming a star in Hollywood . . . | I usually like the Joe McDoakes comedy series " So You Want To . . . " , etc . , but this one takes the cake for carrying absurdity to the extreme . It's one thing to spoof show business and the workings of Hollywood's movie factories , but to present McDoakes as a wanna be actor who makes life hellish for director Ant... |
447,342 | 1,048,771 | 39,853 | 5 | Tiresome story depends heavily on Loy / Powell chemistry . . . | It was inevitable that " The Thin Man " series would run out of steam eventually and this last entry is probably why both Powell and Loy never made another one . The background for this mystery is a gambling boat with jazz musicians giving the film a very dated look because of all the jive talk , circa 1940s . And as u... |
446,888 | 1,048,771 | 64,782 | 5 | Lee Marvin reprises his " Cat Ballou " characterization . . . | PAINT YOUR WAGON is one of the messiest musicals I've ever seen on screen , but there are a few compensations among the cast of non-singers in the principal roles . One , is getting to hear HARVE PRESNELL do a nice professional job on " They Call the Wind Maria " in one of the film's opening musical numbers - - and the... |
446,086 | 1,048,771 | 39,848 | 5 | Routine , lackluster follow-up to ' The Adventures of Rusty ' . . . | Malicious gossip about a war veteran ( STEPHEN DUNNE ) is at the center of this routine story in the Rusty series starring TED DONALDSON as the boy who tries to befriend the veteran only to have the friendship cut short by an accident involving explosives that hurt Rusty . STEPHEN DUNNE gives an earnest , likable perfo... |
447,267 | 1,048,771 | 26,043 | 5 | Breezy romantic comedy with fast talking Gable and Bennett . . . | CLARK GABLE and CONSTANCE BENNETT never seem to run out of fast talk and wisecracks , giving this romantic comedy / mystery a lift simply by lending their star presence to a breezy newspaper tale that seems to be the forerunner of more substantial news stories like THE FRONT PAGE or HIS GIRL Friday . It has a strictly ... |
445,483 | 1,048,771 | 35,460 | 5 | Synthetic casting of MGM stars as lazy fishermen in seaport town . . . | There are two standout features of this film version of John Steinbeck's TORTILLA FLAT . One is the improbably beautiful HEDY LAMARR as a Portugese girl , showing more fire and spirit than usual in an unusual role ( for her ) . The other is FRANK MORGAN , who in an exquisite sequence set in a forest , does an unforgett... |
446,285 | 1,048,771 | 29,845 | 5 | Daffy comedy puts Lucy in some highly improbable situations . . . | Personally , I've always felt that the best comedies were the ones where you could actually believe in the situations - - in other words , the events are things that could have happened . THE AFFAIRS OF ANNABEL is funny in spots , but hasn't got a single moment that is in touch with reality . JACK OAKIE plays a schemin... |
446,886 | 1,048,771 | 29,842 | 5 | Comic book adventures of Polo on a lavish B & W budget . . . | This is the film that cost LANA TURNER ( in a bit role ) her eyebrows which never grew back . Other than that , it has no distinction whatsoever except that it provides a nice comic book excursion into the past with lavish sets of Oriental splendor but little else for compensation . Still , it's watchable enough thanks... |
447,781 | 1,048,771 | 39,865 | 5 | Horses , horses everywhere . . . and hardly a story in sight . . . | RONALD REAGAN must have enjoyed his role in STALLION ROAD as a veterinarian . He spends most of his time on horses , as does his leading lady , ALEXIS SMITH , more tomboyish than usual and not the frozen ice princess she usually played . Not much plot development during the first half-hour , although it's obvious that ... |
445,867 | 1,048,771 | 29,925 | 5 | Fontaine during her B-film early phase toiling in forgettable programmers . . . | At a time when Fontaine's sister had reached overnight stardom in ' 35's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and CAPTAIN BLOOD , JOAN FONTAINE was in the starlet phase of her early career at RKO . She was very pretty and showed a modest amount of talent , but nobody suspected that in a few short years she would come into her own... |
445,461 | 1,048,771 | 136,746 | 5 | City of Quebec celebrates a winter carnival during Mardi Gras . . . | Canadian CARNIVAL is a rather dry little B & W documentary highlighting a few of the escapades at a winter carnival in Quebec with random scenes of the various activities culminating in a fireworks display on the final day . Shown are French Canadian kids making up their own games on ice ; sled dogs racing to the finis... |
446,378 | 1,048,771 | 35,553 | 5 | The natives are restless tonight . . . | And you'll spend a restless twenty-five minutes or so before HEDY LAMARR makes her spectacular entrance and says , in a tone she obviously thought would nail her half-breed , dark-skinned character , " I am Tondelayo . " For the remainder of my review , I'll quote the article I wrote on HEDY LAMARR for FILMS OF THE GOL... |
445,657 | 1,048,771 | 29,940 | 5 | Too bad it doesn't live up to its simple title . . . | Madcap screwball comedy doesn't get any madder than BOY MEETS GIRL which has JAMES CAGNEY and PAT O'BRIEN as two oddball screenwriters who play their annoying characters to the hilt . DICK FORAN plays an actor looking for a good story ( lots of luck ) , claiming he gets fan mail from a lot of people who can't even writ... |
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