reviewId int64 363k 588k | userId int64 33.9k 15.9M | itemId int64 1 1.42M | rating float64 1 10 | title stringlengths 1 10.9k ⌀ | content stringlengths 81 11.6k ⌀ |
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493,356 | 3,280,905 | 119,848 | 6 | Amusing Follow Up to the Two " Grumpies " | After the making of GRUMPY OLD MEN and GRUMPIER OLD MEN , the box office success of those two films made it evident that another film property co-starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau was needed . They found one property , THE GRASS HARP , where they shared one scene together . But then this film was made which was f... |
492,224 | 3,280,905 | 37,620 | 6 | Warner's last " big " role | Of the original Oscar winning actors ( prior to Lionel Barrymore , Fredric March and Charles Laughton ) , an unfair curtain of neglect has descended on them . In one case , Emil Jannings ( the first Best Actor winner ) , he only had himself to blame because he insisted on not only working for Germany in the Nazi period... |
493,243 | 3,280,905 | 41,386 | 6 | The novel had a better conclusion . | Unless one really digs Ayn Rand's philosophical theories , THE FOUNTAINHEAD will leave you pretty cold . Yet the film has it's fascinations . Cooper , Massey , and Neal manage to make their ridiculous dialog sound meaningful ( particularly Cooper's courtroom defense ) . King Vidor was able to have some fun with the sex... |
492,067 | 3,280,905 | 85,360 | 6 | The Big Nail and " The Bigger Lie " | It is somewhat sad that for all the interest shown regarding the South Pole ( the movie SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC , and the series THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH ) , the only film dealing with the great North Pole controversy of the same period is this mediocre retelling of the story from the point of view of die-hard Cook suppo... |
492,121 | 3,280,905 | 83,449 | 6 | Some Background on " The Missionary " | This is not the funny film it could have been . Given that Palin and Maggie Smith ( and Denholm Elliot ) were in the very funny " A Private Function " a short time after this film , this is slightly disappointing . I agree that Michael Hordern's brief appearance as the ultimately lost butler is the movie's finest momen... |
492,029 | 3,280,905 | 507,826 | 6 | The Dangers of Chokers | This should have been a better episode of ONE STEP BEYOND , but a fatal error was made with trick photography too early . At the start we see Michael Barry ( Sean McClory ) in a hospital bed , apparently on his last legs , explaining that he was innocent of the two deaths that were involved in the crime blamed on him .... |
492,461 | 3,280,905 | 719,257 | 6 | Forty Two Years Before the Declaration , and Fifty Three Before the Constitution | This is another episode of this anthology series which picked up stories from history and dramatized them . Again I never saw this one , so I regret not being able to discuss it in depth . But looking at the cast , including Thomas Mitchell and Reginald Denny ) , I suspect it may have been better than average . And the... |
492,924 | 3,280,905 | 39,931 | 6 | Mediocre history , but some nice moments . | Cecil B . DeMille had been doing a series of films about American History from 1937 ( THE PLAINSMAN ) to 1940 ( THE NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE - although actually it was a film regarding Canadian history instead ) . His two film in World War II were THE STORY OF DR . WASSELL , which is a war picture set in the far east -... |
491,600 | 3,280,905 | 39,694 | 6 | Hitchcock's Courtroom Fizzle | There are some films that are forever lost that one wishes still existed : the complete GREED and THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS ( Welles final cut ) for examples . In the cinema of Alfred Hitchcock , THE PARADINE CASE as he originally shot would have been of great interest . Whether it would have been better is another mat... |
492,105 | 3,280,905 | 28,033 | 6 | An Unforgotten , Tragic Footnote | The tragedy of the week and a half reign of " Queen " Jane Grey Tudor is one of the bizarre briefly successful coups that collapsed . Lady Jane Grey was a blood cousin of King Edward VI , and his two half sisters , Princess Mary and Princess Elizabeth . Edward VI is recalled today , if at all , for the novel by Mark Tw... |
492,158 | 3,280,905 | 514,521 | 6 | A Problem About British Humor . | This episode of the popular British comedy series illustrates a real problem regarding English ( and I suspect European and Foreign humor ) that Americans have been trying to deal with here since the age of Lenny Bruce . Although humor deals with discomforting images of people , humiliated or momentarily hurt in some m... |
492,031 | 3,280,905 | 550,290 | 6 | The Music Hall Scene | ABRACADAVER was a novel by Peter Lovesey about Sergeant Cribb and Constable Thackeray that deals with a homicide in a popular London Music Hall . My memories of this particular episode ( which you may notice I have saved for the end ) are somewhat limited . The idea of the plot is that the music hall artistes of the da... |
491,835 | 3,280,905 | 31,996 | 6 | The last moment was ridiculous | I am giving this film a " 6 " because of my fondness for Stephen Foster's melodies ( and my pity for his fate ) , and because - whatever one thinks of his racist " blackface " act , Al Jolson was a wonderful singer . If it had been shot as a concert film of Foster's best tunes , it would have been worth an " 9 " or eve... |
491,807 | 3,280,905 | 45,469 | 6 | An amusing take on the classic Stevenson novella | Despite the closing line of DR . JECKYLL AND MR . HYDE , the closing sentence " I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jeckyll to an end " , has never been true . I don't think any of Stevenson's stories ( including TREASURE ISLAND and KIDNAPPED ) ever generated as many plays or films or television treatments , with va... |
492,667 | 3,280,905 | 37,987 | 6 | A Series About Why We Should Not Be Crooked | Mildly interesting now - that's the best to say about this odd series of shorts made in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s . It is watched now because in some of the early episodes one catches glimpses of future mega-stars on the rise ( Robert Taylor popped up as an embezzler in one of them in the late 1930s ) . But the ... |
492,074 | 3,280,905 | 25,314 | 6 | Weak Arliss feature , but it has one interesting moment | Of the various Arliss biographies , THE IRON DUKE is the weakest one . It is about Arthur Wellesley , the Duke of Wellington , who is recalled for his excellent handling of the British troops in Portugal and Spain against the French in what is called " The Peninsula War " ( 1809 - 1813 ) , his leading the allied forces... |
493,234 | 3,280,905 | 20,902 | 6 | Buster enters the Sound Age - and plays Pagiacci | In 1928 Buster Keaton was convinced to sign a contract with MGM in which they would produce his films . As the first film under this contract was THE CAMERAMAN , which is a good Keaton film , it seemed to be a good idea . But Keaton's key man at M-G-M was Joseph Schenck , his brother-in-law . Schenck died . The head of... |
492,926 | 3,280,905 | 38,008 | 6 | A Voyage Into Danger | The Sherlock Holmes Series is actually fun for the fans of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce , but the individual films are a mixed bag as mysteries themselves . The best mysteries are THE SCARLET CLAW , THE HOUSE OF FEAR , THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES , THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES , SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH . T... |
493,304 | 3,280,905 | 31,611 | 6 | Pleasant Fluff - but little else . | There is a persistent rumor that Jack Benny only made one good film in his career : Ernst Lubitsch's TO BE OR NOT TO BE . Actually , the radio and television comedy star did make other comedies that were worth watching - most notably CHARLIE'S AUNT , IT'S IN THE BAG and LOVE THY NEIGHBOR ( both with Benny's radio feud ... |
492,409 | 3,280,905 | 25,227 | 6 | Has some potential . . . but little more | If you like surrealistic films , like Cocteau's or Salvador Dali's , THE HEARTS OF AGE may appeal to you . It certainly throws symbols around , but it is the work of two teenagers at a prep school , not of a major French 20th Century poet and film maker and a major Spanish artist . When the latter two put in symbols , ... |
492,228 | 3,280,905 | 31,536 | 6 | A film with a conclusion one has to see to believe | I wonder if the screenwriter for this film had somebody in mind as a model for the criminal Humphrey Bogart plays . In the 1920s and 1930s there was a major war between Joe Masseria and Salvator Marranzano for control of New York's criminal underworld . Marranzano , on the surface , seemed more modern to the younger cr... |
493,177 | 3,280,905 | 64,045 | 6 | Jack London - An American Original With a " Jules Verne " Problem | Jack London was a phenomenal writer , who came up from poverty and turned out some amazing books . These include ( but are not limited to ) THE SEA WOLF , WHITE FANG , THE CALL OF THE WILD . London is usually brushed aside today as a " kids " author . The same idiocy that relegates Jules Verne to be a writer for childr... |
491,686 | 3,280,905 | 748,582 | 6 | A 19th Century Art Collector ? | This was a run - of - the - mill WILD WILD WEST episode , but it is amusing because of a current art scandal going on today in California and Italy . If you have not been following the newspapers The Getty Museum has been negotiating with the Italian Government ( while legal action is going on in the Italian courts ) r... |
492,542 | 3,280,905 | 36,174 | 6 | Mr . Grant's Second Attempt to Break His Movie Image | It's entertaining enough to sit through , and it offers a light on a problem that would forever plague it's leading man , but let us face facts : MR . LUCKY was a World War II moral boosting propaganda film , and as such it is dated . It is set in a mindset for when the actual destiny of the war effort was unresolved ,... |
493,347 | 3,280,905 | 46,759 | 6 | The Man Who Popularized Trousers , and his one-time " Fat Friend " | Stewart Granger , in his prime , was damned by being too handsome and too British . It is fascinating to see the way he was used in films in England in the late 1940s and films in Hollywood in the 1950s . His countrymen recognized he was good looking , and muscular , but while he could play an adventurous rug dealer in... |
492,553 | 3,280,905 | 181,582 | 6 | What this tells an American of our image in Asia | I'm a little surprised I gave this a " 6 " , but it a smidge better than average . I'm not a fan of the Hong Kong - Korean - Japanese - Singapore " kung fu " or martial arts films . Most are basically garbage , but then most of the westerns that were made in Hollywood are not of the HIGH NOON or STAGECOACH or SHANE sta... |
492,927 | 3,280,905 | 38,048 | 6 | A Good Western , but one moment I shudder at | It is generally considered that the best of Errol Flynn's westerns was THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON , with DODGE CITY second best . SILVER RIVER has his most interesting western role - he's a greedy empire builder in it . VIRGINIA CITY has a plot that strains the mind ( and the only real U . S . patriot in the film is... |
493,238 | 3,280,905 | 58,154 | 6 | The title should have been " Witless " | I am going to give this lousy movie a " 6 " , mostly due to the acting of Debbie Reynolds , Tony Curtis , and ( best of all ) Walter Matthau in trying to lift the idiotic plot . Also it's a nod to Vincent Minelli , a director who when good is indeed good - but not here . I have nothing against sex in comedy : they go h... |
492,547 | 3,280,905 | 36,142 | 6 | Protecting A Center of Evil | I saw this odd " comedy " in the early 1970s when I was at college . It is not a great comedy - barely a passingly good comedy . But it has a situation in it that is still somewhat relevant , even if the characters have changed . The issue is : if you know a foreign government is evil and hates your country , your coun... |
492,395 | 3,280,905 | 81,229 | 6 | Chewbaca's Cousin in the Oregon Woods ? | When a horror film is done properly it grips the imagination ( and secret dread ) of the viewers , so that they admire the end result despite the fears it has resurrected . A good horror film can achieve these results even with the barest of film budgets ( such as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT a decade ago ) . One marvels at... |
492,044 | 3,280,905 | 121,610 | 6 | Paging Thornton Wilder | My memories of this production are over twenty years old now - it was pushed by PBS because it seemed a good production and the play by Johann Nestoy ( 19th Century Austria's greatest dramatist ) was the ancestor of Thornton Wilder's THE MERCHANT OF YONKERS turned into THE MATCHMAKER turned into HELLO , DOLLY ! It was ... |
491,876 | 3,280,905 | 46,903 | 6 | Savor a bit of Swedish History | I have commented before on the paucity of American films dealing with the history of Canada and Mexico ( our next door neighbors ) . We are easily receptive to films made here or in the British Commonwealth about the history of England , and then we have a tendency to enjoy films about the history of France . But then ... |
493,024 | 3,280,905 | 90,502 | 6 | Flawed History , but it had it's moments | I remember watching this series and trying to explain a critical short scene in it ( regarding Charles XII of Sweden and his fencing teacher ) to a friend of mine . Charles is a young man ( like his Russian opposite number Peter ) , but he has a small country of limited resources which by a fluke has become Europe's nu... |
493,307 | 3,280,905 | 111,941 | 6 | For Robert Pasterelli and Phil Leeds | Robert Pasterelli had been a fixture in the cast of MURPHY BROWN as Eldin , the artistic house painter ( and political liberal ) who is painting Murphy's home room by room ( each one with a special mural ) and acting as her political and social conscience . Then , in 1995 , his character was written out of MURPHY BROWN... |
492,864 | 3,280,905 | 25,501 | 6 | A Mighty Thud - Paging Burt Lancaster and Beau Bridges | Warner Beery made one really good film biography in his career : VIVA VILLA . If it did not catch the truth of the story of Francisco Pancho " Villa , it came close to giving a fascinating view of the personality that to many Americans remains ( with his associate Zapata ) the key figure of the Mexican Revolution of 19... |
492,707 | 3,280,905 | 222,666 | 6 | Possibly could have been called " Bloody Confusion " | 24 Hours in London is one of those films you have to watch to know you have seen it once . Then you never bother with it again . Gary Olsen plays " Christian " ( a misnomer if ever there was one ) , who is a sadistic crime boss centered in London at the start of the current millennium ( he and his second-in-command r... |
492,470 | 3,280,905 | 68,270 | 7 | An interesting introduction to the works of Kurt Vonnegut ( thru 1972 ) | When I went to college in the early 1970s the leading contemporary American novelists who were popular were Kurt Vonnegut and Richard Brautigan . Brautigan's TROUT FISHING IN America was very popular , but his subsequent writings failed to maintain his popularity . Not so Vonnegut , whose string of successes lasted far... |
492,116 | 3,280,905 | 28,216 | 7 | The Best Remembered Earthquake ? | The San Francisco Earthquake happened 99 years ago next week . Ironically it's anniversary is a few days after the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic , as well as the assassination of Abraham Lincoln . Forgotten is also the anniversary on April 27 of the explosion and burning of the steamboat Sultana in 1865 ( w... |
493,320 | 3,280,905 | 592,445 | 7 | Medicine and epidemics in the Early U . S . Republic | If the average American is asked about science in 18th and early 19th Century America , they will point to Benjamin Franklin who certainly was Mr . Scientist in his day . Dr . Franklin virtually created the study of electricity as we know it , and was recognized by his doctorate and membership in the Royal Society . Bu... |
492,697 | 3,280,905 | 225,758 | 7 | Nice photography and film , and some information on flowers and the ladies of Japan | It is the excellent film stock and photography of this Fitzpatrick travelogue that make it worthwhile to see in the year 2008 . By now most of the women shown in it have probably died , and one wonders how much modern Japan really resembles the society shown in this 1937 short . But it does have it's point . Fitzpatric... |
492,169 | 3,280,905 | 65,079 | 7 | Uneven but interesting tragic western | This was one of the westerns made in the 1960s and 1970s , including Ford's CHEYENNE AUTUMN and LITTLE BIG MAN which presented the westward expansion as the disaster it was to the Native Americans . Ford's film concentrated to the attempt of an entire tribe to flee to Canada to avoid being cooped up on a reservation . ... |
492,696 | 3,280,905 | 215,598 | 7 | The Beauties of the " Golden Gate " City | Another of the easy-to-take Fitzpatrick travelogues . This one I find most interesting in it's second half . The film has the great photography and film stock that we expect from Fitzpatrick , as he tells the story of the city of San Francisco from it's first appearance as a mission in 1769 to the modern day of 1940 . ... |
492,122 | 3,280,905 | 30,631 | 7 | A Nice , Forgettable Little Comedy | I recall that for many years this was the only one of Harold Lloyd's movies that occasionally turned up on screen in New York City . It is a passably funny film about an archaeologist who falls for the daughter of a tycoon and finds himself fighting the forces of Wall Street and fate itself to get the young lady . Lloy... |
492,177 | 3,280,905 | 23,900 | 7 | Pleasant on a wet , June , Sunday afternoon | Ambrose Bierce , that perceptive ( if dark ) critic of his fellow creatures and ( especially ) fellow Americans , wrote a pair of definitions in his DEVIL'S DICTIONARY . Academe ( the ancient Greek term ) was a place where wisdom and ethics were taught . Academy ( the modern version ) was a place where knowledge and fo... |
493,046 | 3,280,905 | 41,796 | 7 | France's First Revolutionary Dictator | The question will never be really answered : What was the exact set of goals of Maximillien Robespierre , lawyer from Arras , France , who was ( from July 1793 to June 1794 ) the central figure of public attention in France and the apparent dictator of the country ? We won't know because he failed in the end - in possi... |
491,884 | 3,280,905 | 72,608 | 7 | Sherlock and His Sibling | Gene Wilder is a very good comic actor , as witness his performance as Leo Bloom in THE PRODUCERS and other films like SILVER STREET . THE PRODUCERS was the first of three films he made with Mel Brooks , and the second and third ( BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN ) were spoofs of genres ( westerns and old Univers... |
492,810 | 3,280,905 | 43,955 | 7 | Against All Comers | THE RACKET is not a great film noir , but it is an interesting variant on the typical formula . In normal film noir , the central figure is isolated - he or she is struggling to survive a secret enemy or to prove his or her innocence of a capital crime charge . Think of Ray Milland in THE BIG CLOCK . Think of Bogart in... |
491,929 | 3,280,905 | 36,984 | 7 | Colman as Hafiz in old Baghdad | This is not a bad movie , but it is not an important one . Made in the last decade of Ronald Colman's active career as a movie star , KISMET seems to be an odd choice for him . Normally he was playing English gentlemen types - Rudolph Rassendyll in THE PRISONER OF ZENDA , or Robert Conway in LOST HORIZON or Dick Helgar... |
493,321 | 3,280,905 | 592,458 | 7 | The Explorer Who Helped Bankrupt His Host | This is the story of the meeting of two Western American Legends in California in 1846 . They were an ambitious ( and slightly unstable ) U . S . Army officer , and a wealthy Swiss born hacienda owner who was so far away from the local government as to be almost a sovereign ruler himself . They were Captain John Charle... |
492,727 | 3,280,905 | 35,317 | 7 | Dancing Men and the Professor | In the Universal series of modern Sherlock Holmes stories with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce , SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SECRET WEOPON is not one of the top films - although it is entertaining . I think the problem with it is that much of the film's " dueling " between Holmes and his nemesis Moriarty ( here played by Li... |
493,324 | 3,280,905 | 592,465 | 7 | The President Who Tried To Keep Fighting | One day this story should be told properly - it is a tale which would leave mixed emotions because of what the men involved believed it , and yet it showed great determination on the part of the central figure . On May 10 , 1865 , at Dansville , Georgia , a Union cavalry troop captured a number of suspected Rebels . Al... |
491,934 | 3,280,905 | 28,231 | 7 | Decent Hitchcock Movie , With a Confusion in Early Titles | SECRET AGENT is notable for being the only Hitchcock film with John Guilgud in it - and a young , dapper looking Guilgud at that . But most people recall it rather for the second ( and , regrettably , last appearance ) of Peter Lorre under Hitch's direction . It is also the only film by Hitch with Robert Young and Lili... |
492,354 | 3,280,905 | 63,220 | 7 | A Forgotten Christmas Television Show | This was an hour long television show of 1968 , the year I entered high school . I watched it because one of the stars was a favorite of mine : James Mason . Ironically the narrator was Kirk Douglas , Mason's co-star in the Walt Disney production of Jules Verne's 20 , 000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA . Note that the cast give... |
493,322 | 3,280,905 | 592,466 | 7 | The Events Leading to a Tragedy , August 1876 | James Butler Hickok made himself one of the great Western legends of his time , first as an ace Pony Express rider , than as a scout for the Union Armies in the Civil War , then as a gunslinger turned lawman ( the Marshall of Abilene , Kansas ) . He was a remarkably fast draw - there is a story ( it's hard to tell how ... |
493,151 | 3,280,905 | 556,803 | 7 | The Symbol of the Cowboy | I was never a total fan of DEATH VALLEY DAYS , most of which episodes were on television in the period when I was growing up . By the time of this episode in 1962 I was eight , and I watched it for a reason unconnected to liking westerns . The star of the episode was Alan Young , the comedian who was currently appearin... |
493,393 | 3,280,905 | 56,575 | 7 | The Only Doris Day - Cary Grant Film . . . and the Only One to Answer a Sports Trivia Question | Question : Name the film where Art Passarella , famous baseball umpire , tosses out five celebrities from a game . Answer : THAT TOUCH OF MINK . Passarella tosses out Mickey Mantle , Roger Maris , Yogi Berra , Cary Grant , and Doris Day from a game , because of some rule infraction caused by Day ( who is in the dugout ... |
492,112 | 3,280,905 | 85,729 | 7 | Reasonably Good Film - But Not Twain's Masterful Attack on " Superior Foreign Culture " | Samuel Clemens had made his newspaper reputation on the west coast by being on the scene in Honolulu when tales of a terrible shipwreck occurred . Shortly after he returned to San Francisco , Twain published his classic short story , " The Celebrated Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County " . Soon he was getting offers from ... |
491,717 | 3,280,905 | 38,961 | 7 | A Fair Introduction to a Popular Comedy Short Series | Because of television , most people in the baby boomer generation and since think of comedy shorts as restricted to Laurel & Hardy , the Three Stooges , the Little Rascals ( " Our Gang " ) , Charlie Chaplin , Buster Keaton , Harold Lloyd and that's about it . Actually there were plenty of short subject comedians about ... |
491,603 | 3,280,905 | 24,044 | 7 | Mr . Hearst and his Political Confusions . | In some way historians can argue that certain figures in our history should have had a chance to become President . Senator Robert Taft deserved an opportunity to show his abilities in that job , as did Senators Henry Clay and Daniel Webster and Robert La Follette . Mistakes , political miscalculations , and sheer chan... |
492,565 | 3,280,905 | 41,955 | 7 | Errol Flynn , Serious Actor | Because there is ( for the most part ) a sense of fun and adventure in the best of Errol Flynn's movies movie lovers tend not to see that he could perform well in dramatic fashion . I can site two examples : 1 ) In DAWN PATROL he starts cracking up under the stress and strain of his command position ; 2 ) In THEY DIED ... |
492,841 | 3,280,905 | 47,687 | 7 | A Joke Based On Wish Fulfillment | This movie is about my age . . . we both came out in 1954 . It was the height of the cold war , and the possibility of mutual annihilation by the West and East was there . It would not be laid to rest until it nearly culminated eight years later with the mushroom clouds of the Cuban Missile Crisis . And shortly after t... |
493,438 | 3,280,905 | 116,601 | 7 | The Tragedy of Old Age - and a wink at the once great Willie Howard | In CITIZEN KANE , Kane's most faithful associate and friend , Mr . Bernstein ( now Chairman of the Board of Kane's empire ) tells the reporter that aging is the only disease that nobody looks forward to the cure of ( i . e . death ) . I'M NOT RAPPAPORT is a look at just how ultimately dreary and awful old age becomes f... |
493,267 | 3,280,905 | 68,152 | 7 | Ah , those wonderful German / Swiss Banks | This film was made in 1970-71 , just as Americans were becoming aware that the great period of economic advantage over our adversaries from World War II was coming to an end . Banks in Germany and Switzerland were attracting attention because they were convenient for money laundering purposes ( although that term was n... |
491,734 | 3,280,905 | 751,940 | 7 | The Full Force of Stalinism Hits Russia | I actually did see this particular episode of the series . For a change the format did not seem out of place , probably because the interview of modern political leaders would fit into the 1930s . Except for one point : Joseph Stalin would have never agreed to that kind of journalism unless it was done by one of his he... |
491,654 | 3,280,905 | 68,108 | 7 | The First " Masterpiece Theatre " " Who Dunnit ? " | I have had mixed feelings about this series since I first saw it in the early 1970s . I read THE MOONSTONES in the late 1960s , and enjoyed Wilkie Collin's blending of a detective story with his social comments about Victorian hypocrisy and hypocrites . It was the first Collins ' novel I read ( THE WOMAN IN WHITE follo... |
492,950 | 3,280,905 | 112,705 | 7 | The Limits of A Good Cop ? | This is not the best Columbo episode , nor even my favorite , but it has one moment in it that I will always treasure . George Wendt has a chance here - finally - to move away from his lovable barfly " Norm " in CHEERS . Here he plays a hard working grasshopper type . He runs a horse farm , and has been grooming and tr... |
492,335 | 3,280,905 | 65,194 | 7 | A Commentary on Hogan's Heroes | This is a mildly amusing comedy that was made for television in 1969 and starred Eva Gabor , Ken Berry , and Werner Klemperer . In a sense , it suggests what might have happened under certain circumstances to Col . Robert Hogan at the hands of Col . Wilhelm Klink if Hogan's activities came to Klink's attention in 1946 ... |
493,226 | 3,280,905 | 68,119 | 7 | A Slight Let - Down after " Forsyte " | I remember seeing this series on public television in 1968 , while I was still attending high school in New York City . After the phenomenal international success of the first " Forsyte Saga " ( with Eric Porter , Nyree Dawn Porter , Kenneth More , Susan Hampshire , Martin Jarvis , Nicholas Pennell , and Michael York )... |
491,614 | 3,280,905 | 72,482 | 7 | Good Series based on Maugham's novel about hypocrisy and literary fame | CAKES AND ALE is a title based on a line from Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT . At one point , Sir Toby Belch is tired at the Puritan hypocrite Malvolio , who is quite the spoilsport regarding Sir Toby and his antics with the maid Maria and his friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek . " Just because thou art virtuous shall there be n... |
492,233 | 3,280,905 | 65,184 | 7 | Reasonably entertaining comedy handling a Mexican / American Sore Point | VIVA MAX takes its basic story from a single idea . Supposedly at reasonably placid relations with our southern neighbor Mexico ( the film was made in 1969 , so the problems of illegal immigrants from Mexico is not considered here ) , what would happen if a column of Mexican troops entered San Antonio , Texas , and ret... |
493,269 | 3,280,905 | 38,915 | 7 | A Brave Attempt To Explain The Unforgivable | Lillian Hellman was a committed political animal . Many in her day and since have attacked her for being too committed , and for being too left of center - and she was . However the majority of her most vituperous critics were also committed political animals , but too far to the right . Whether or not this includes Ma... |
492,281 | 3,280,905 | 35,151 | 7 | Cary and Ginger confront wicked Walter | This was not the best propaganda film from Hollywood during World War II . I would start that list with MRS . MINAFER or SINCE YOU WENT AWAY . Even LIFEBOAT would be ahead of it , despite having the services of Walter Slezak here as well . As is noted in many of the reviews of this thread , ONCE UPON A HONEYMOON is a t... |
493,399 | 3,280,905 | 23,985 | 7 | Eugene O'Neill Breaking Another Taboo . | In the 1920s American's greatest dramatist arrived on Broadway in the person of Eugene O'Neill . The son of a well remembered Shakespearean and Romantic actor ( the nightmare relationship of Eugene , his father James , his mother , and his older brother is the subject of his last play A LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT ) ... |
492,745 | 3,280,905 | 524,375 | 7 | Buddy Hackett in a dramatic western role | I saw this back in the 1960s when I had an on-again / off-again interest in the Barbara Stanwyck western series . What attracted me was watching one of my favorite funny-men , Buddy Hackett , doing a straight performance as one " Charles Sawyer " . From what I recall the blurb for the plot given above is not quite true... |
491,606 | 3,280,905 | 422,762 | 7 | Hostages for Bolivar | I saw this thirty four years ago on television , and it has never been shown since . It was a play by Emanuel Robles that was translated and rewritten by Lillian Hellman , and the cast , led by Keir Dullea as Montserrat and Rip Torn as Izquierdo ( the Spanish officer and torturer ) . It is Venezuela ( then part of the ... |
492,314 | 3,280,905 | 43,827 | 7 | Hope's First Glimmer of Trouble . | As an entertaining comedy for Bob Hope , MY FAVORITE SPY is one of the best films in his career . It is typical for his normal plot line - a glib , slightly sleazy coward is forced into some job in which he conflicts with dangerous types . He manages to bungle his way to victory . It was the plot line for MY FAVORITE B... |
491,789 | 3,280,905 | 33,226 | 7 | Guess who the figurative " hero " of this western is ? | It is 1864 and the Civil War entered it's crisis period . The North and South were locked into a war to the finish . In the summer of 1864 Grant changed his strategy , releasing Phil Sheridan into the Shenandoah Valley . Suddenly the South was having problems getting food for Lee's army . Furthermore Lee lacked new arm... |
492,587 | 3,280,905 | 47,679 | 7 | A Cunning Adversary | There should be a sub-genre in thrilling writing about the stories where somebody stumbles , accidentally , into witnessing a major crime but the perpetrator keeps countering each move with one of his or her own . The reviews on this thread keep referring to Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW , which certainly is the best known v... |
492,025 | 3,280,905 | 587,503 | 7 | Interesting variant on D . O . A . | While not one of the best episodes of GET SMART ( I miss Smart's chief enemy , Siegfried - Bernie Kopell - too much when he's not about with his assistant Starker ) , this episode always remained memorable to me because of the central plot - a take off on Edmond O'Brien's film D . O . A . If you recall that film , O'Br... |
491,872 | 3,280,905 | 38,991 | 7 | On the dangers of Clock Towers | Peter Cowie's THE CINEMA OF ORSON WELLES does not say much in favor of this film . He felt it was a minor work , and in a sense it is . Welles , having failed in Hollywood terms to produce a blockbuster box office success with KANE , AMBERSONS , and IT'S ALL TRUE , had demonstrated more success as a film actor ( JANE E... |
492,217 | 3,280,905 | 23,960 | 7 | A Social Drama Curiosity of the 1930s | This was the second of the series of re-released , long missing films shown on Wednesday , April 2 , 2007 on Turner Classic films . RAFTER ROMANCE had a good deal of pleasant humor still going for it , and A MAN'S JOURNEY has some wonderful performances and a good story . But DOUBLE HARNESS , although it has two good p... |
493,250 | 3,280,905 | 32,285 | 7 | Eddie and his " Pretensions " | I agree with another writer on this thread that this should have been a better film - but it suffered from a poor script . Until he became a major star ( possibly Hollywood's biggest star ) in the 1940s , Humphrey Bogart was doomed to rarely be more than a movie menace . Prior to HIGH SIERRA and THE MALTESE FALCON a ro... |
491,647 | 3,280,905 | 120,773 | 7 | Two For The Road . . . and Cut . | It is hard to believe it was only eight years ago that this , the last of the Lemmon and Matthau ( or Matthau and Lemmon ) films was made , and within four years both stars would be gone . One only wishes that their last film together had been more of a success . They had done first rate sequels before with GRUMPIER OL... |
493,054 | 3,280,905 | 37,150 | 7 | Miracles and Success | This is not a great film by any stretch . But it has it has it's interesting points . A minor comedy by Cary Grant , it came out just before his greatest performance as Ernie Mott in " None But The Lonely Heart " . Ernie was the last of a series of heels or near heels that Grant played in serious films from " Suspicion... |
493,358 | 3,280,905 | 50,419 | 7 | Gershwin , Paris , Astaire , Audrey Hepburn , Richard Avedon , and John-Paul Sartre | This 1957 musical is a little odd . It has a title based on an original 1920s Gershwin musical ( that included the title song ) which starred Fred and Adele Astaire . It was a musical and scenic valentine to France ( but only one tune in it deals with France - " Bonjour Paris ! " . It is a spoof on the modern fashion m... |
492,039 | 3,280,905 | 95,373 | 7 | An interesting misfire on the Lawrence - Lee play | This 1988 version of INHERIT THE WIND tried a slightly different approach to the story than the film or the 1965 versions . Apparently there was a deeper delving into the historical material ( and - unlike the period of the film and the first dramatic version on television - the resurgence of anti - evolutionary voters... |
493,150 | 3,280,905 | 556,756 | 7 | The Bet That Created a Future Industry | Although I did not watch DEATH VALLEY DAYS too frequently there were two episodes I recall because of the historical figures involved in them . One was the episode with Alan Young about John Stetson and his hats . The other is this episode which settled one of the great mysteries of the animal kingdom and created the n... |
491,804 | 3,280,905 | 19,735 | 7 | A Hero For 1920s Britain | When the first " Bulldog Drummond " stories came out in the 1920s , Great Britain was trying to come to grips with an anomaly : it had been one of the main allied victors in the Great War but the country did not feel like it won anything . It felt it had sacrificed too much . Britain in 1914 had ruled the waves . It ha... |
491,877 | 3,280,905 | 52,278 | 7 | Clark Gable's Twilight Quartet of Films | Between 1958 and 1961 Clark Gable appeared in four final movies that were somewhat unusual . Three of them were sex comedies , and the co-stars in them were far younger than he was . The fourth was a straight drama , which also had a female co-star who was far younger than him . These were BUT NOT FOR ME , TEACHER'S PE... |
492,968 | 3,280,905 | 48,034 | 7 | Van Johnson's love rival | This is not a great film , but it is better than many critics said it was when the 1999 remake came out . THE END OF THE AFFAIR was one of the key novels of Graham Greene in the 1950s that delved into his intense Catholicism . With a background of World War II , neighbors Maurice Bendrix and Sarah Miles ( Van Johnson a... |
492,961 | 3,280,905 | 28,511 | 7 | The Best of Maxwell Anderson | I like this film . It is an interesting retelling of a point of view regarding one of America's most controversial trials - the 1921 - 1927 legal ordeal of Nicolo Sacco and Bartholomeo Vanzetti for the murder of two men in a payroll robbery in Massachusetts . Both were Italian anarchist immigrants in the U . S . Both w... |
493,166 | 3,280,905 | 50,363 | 7 | An nice family travelogue picture | This film has a soft spot in me - the film was one of the first movies I ever attended in a movie house . Probably my parents took me to see it because Jon Provost was in it , and I was a fan of the series LASSIE . However it was on a double bill , and I believe it was with PETER PAN ( the first Disney cartoon I saw in... |
491,690 | 3,280,905 | 56,606 | 7 | Interesting , but weak remake | Roger Corman is ( in his way ) a genius regarding making effective films on a relatively small budget . In the late 1950s and through the 1960s he basically followed Edward Wood's " pioneering " in the use of name stars in his films . Unlike Wood , however , Corman knows how to direct and produce . You look at his movi... |
492,289 | 3,280,905 | 59,095 | 7 | Almost a glimpse into our future | I was only eleven when my family went to see this film and another foreign one ( I think it was JULIETTA OF THE SPIRITS , but I'm not sure ) . The film is simple - in a futuristic world there is an international competition that one can join , where if you succeed in killing ten competitors ( all trained assassins ) yo... |
491,909 | 3,280,905 | 184,808 | 7 | If You're Anxious For To Shine , In a High Aesthetic Line . . . | I discussed one of this series a few days back : RUDDIGORE with Vincent Price and Keith Mitchell . This series which came out in 1982 did all of the " Savoy " or " Gilbert & Sullivan " Operas that were 1 ) totally extant , 2 ) successful from the first day , and 3 ) were mostly produced by Richard D'Oyly Carte . This m... |
492,606 | 3,280,905 | 58,920 | 7 | An interesting scheme - from another film ? | In 1938 Rene Clair directed a movie called BREAK THE NEWS where Maurice Chevalier and Jack Buchanan are in the shadow of an egotistical female star , and stage Buchanan's disappearance , and possible murder by Chevalier to build up publicity for both men - only to have the scheme blow up in their faces when Buchanan ge... |
492,135 | 3,280,905 | 56,800 | 7 | The One Great Moment of International Cooperation That Was Lost | In 55 DAYS AT PEKING , Samuel Bronston tried to retell the story of how in 1900the Chinese decided to risk everything to get rid of foreign devils . Another comment on this board presented the story pretty fairly . For nearly one hundred years the Portuguese and then the British had made in roads into China , taking ov... |
492,511 | 3,280,905 | 23,800 | 7 | One bad tempered gorilla | This has it's moments as an early Pre-code Betty Boop . On Halloween a scarecrow finds a printed invitation to Betty's house for a party . He shows up , and after warming himself he assists her in setting up her home . Like most of the plots of Fleischer's cartoons , the initial structure is jettisoned for new incident... |
491,878 | 3,280,905 | 52,427 | 7 | This is my song . . . I can sing it tall and I can sing it long | I remember seeing this the first time when I was attending public school in Queens in the early 1960s . It was shown as a treat to the students at an extended G . O . assembly . I had not seen it when it came out in 1958 ( I was only four ) but I recall seeing Disney's PETER PAN about that time , so I cannot understand... |
492,272 | 3,280,905 | 604,413 | 7 | A Story Based On Truth | This episode of HOMICIDE : LIFE ON THE STREET was odd because it had been based on a true story that went the rounds between 1994 and 1998 . Steve Allan and Jayne Meadows are a married couple who always seem to be arguing and then go through a ritual when the argument gets very hot : Allan goes to a closet and pulls ou... |
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