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492,904 | 3,280,905 | 41,615 | 8 | The Best 19th Century French Novel ? | It is impossible to do a perfect movie version of any novel . This is particular true about great novels . There have been huge numbers of versions of Les Miserables , The Hunchback of Notre Dame , Tom Jones , David Copperfield , War and Peace . . . you can add the titles . . . and while many are really impressive as m... |
492,391 | 3,280,905 | 21,508 | 8 | Even Screen Titans Have To Start Somewhere | Finally after many years this film has reappeared for evaluation by new audiences . It's about time . It was the only film that John Ford directed Humphrey Bogart in , and the only film that Bogie appeared with one actor he really respected ( who respected him ) : Spencer Tracy . Ford would eventually make THE LAST HUR... |
492,392 | 3,280,905 | 21,511 | 8 | And to Hell with Burgundy ! | The early sound films were in one sense a step forward and in another sense two steps back . If you look at the late silent films , like Chaplin's " A Woman Of Paris " or Murnau's " Sunrise " the stories are sophisticated , as is the acting and the directing techniques . But the films are mimed plays - we don't hear an... |
493,434 | 3,280,905 | 105,323 | 8 | I don't know who went here - William Howard Taft , William Jennings Bryan , WilliamTell - It doesn't matter , Their spirit is dead here ! | I will not try to determine what is the best film performance in Al Pacino's career , which included Donnie Brasso and Michael Corleone and Serpico . But his performance as Lt . Col . Frank Slade in SCENT OF A WOMAN must rank among his top ten performances . It was a surprise film performance that captured his second O... |
492,685 | 3,280,905 | 74,174 | 8 | Sportsmanship versus winning at all costs - Little League Style | I never was in the Little League . Probably it was just as well , as I never really got into any sporting activity until I discovered swimming . But my nephew was in the Little League in Connecticut , and his career was distinguished by being in the outfield , and enjoying looking at the sky and clouds , or the green g... |
491,861 | 3,280,905 | 33,022 | 8 | The End of the Road With Roach | It follows BLOCK-HEADS and A CHUMP AT OXFORD , two films that are hard to top . Not that SAPS AT SEA is a bad film - it is the last good comedy ( unless one insists on JITTERBUGS or another of the later films ) that Laurel & Hardy made . It's just that it is a toss-off little film , without the crazy destructive cresce... |
492,994 | 3,280,905 | 124,008 | 8 | Did it Happen Or Didn't it ? - The time warp at Versailles | Oddly enough this particularly interesting story never showed up on the old American series ONE STEP BEYOND . One could see John Newland delving into it and whether it was true or not . Ms Elizabeth Morrison ( Wendy Hiller ) and Ms Francis Lamont ( Hannah Gordon ) were two proper English ladies , Oxford graduates and e... |
491,663 | 3,280,905 | 266,391 | 8 | Historic truth ? , . . or Orson Welles ' posthumous revenge ? | When Pauline Kael did her celebrated combination of original research and character assassination , entitled " Raising Kane " , she mentioned that in the course of the final version of CITIZEN KANE that we have Orson Welles pruned out some events put into the script by Herman Mankiewicz . Mankiewicz , for example , wan... |
493,192 | 3,280,905 | 87,590 | 8 | The Price of Gallipoli : 1939 - 1945 | I have mentioned ( in reviewing the television film , CHURCHILL AND THE GENERALS ) that Sir Winston had a tragically inflated view of his ideas on military strategy . In particular his constant insistence that the way to win wars against a Continental power ( Germany ) was to attack Europe by it's " soft underbelly " .... |
492,480 | 3,280,905 | 50,233 | 8 | Mr . Bogarde's choice villainy | I watched this film this evening for the first time . It's a bit stagy at times ( understandable because of the movie's basis in a stage play ) . This has one bad effect - there is too much dialog in the conclusion , with Dirk Bogarde and Kay Walsh's final confrontation being too long as the psychological control see-s... |
492,962 | 3,280,905 | 39,583 | 8 | Another superb novella of Henry James | The basis of this movie is a Henry James novella entitled THE ASPERN PAPERS . In the story , the narrator is a publisher who is trying to find a trove of love letters that were supposedly written by one of early 19th Century America's great romantic poets , Jeffrey Aspern . His search takes him to Venice , where he ing... |
493,092 | 3,280,905 | 27,664 | 8 | The Events Leading to the Death of General Yang | Made the same year as DESIRE , THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN is closer to the norm of Gary Cooper's film image . Rather than the charm and humor of Borzage and Lubitsch's film , Lewis Milestone's movie concentrated on the straight and honest decent American that Coop played in westerns and adventure films . Here he is on a ... |
492,443 | 3,280,905 | 56,923 | 8 | A Wonderful Suspense Film - But I Would Have So Wanted to Change the Ending | I actually recall seeing CHARADE when if first the movie houses in 1963 , and it has remained a fond memory ever since - one of the examples of a clever plot with a good cast and a surprisingly adroit director . Stanley Donen is best recalled for his work in the late 1940s and early 1950s on several of the best MGM mus... |
492,566 | 3,280,905 | 35,754 | 8 | A Snipe at FANTASI | Nicely made Warner's Cartoon " Merrie Melody " from 1943 . The Warners ' Cartoon stable occasionally took a swipe at the far most prestigious Disney group across town . Here they decide to have a go at Disney's one attempt at grand art - his musical cartoon movie FANTASIA , which did episodes such as alligators and hip... |
492,781 | 3,280,905 | 58,756 | 8 | Peter Sellers as a concert pianist and would-be lover | It was 1964 and the great wave of fascination with Peter Sellers as an actor who could do anything well - could flesh out any character - was in full bloom . His films were growing an international audience that would culminate with his " Clouseau " performances and his multiple performances in DR . STRANGELOVE . But h... |
492,617 | 3,280,905 | 35,774 | 8 | Paging Private Schultz | Turner Classic Movies has a Saturday Morning " Cartoon " Alley hosted by Josh Mankiewicz . I happened to turn it on between 12 : 00 P . M . and 12 : 30 P . M . yesterday . They showed three Warner Brother Cartoons that were done for the morale of home audiences respecting the war effort in World War II . This was the f... |
493,088 | 3,280,905 | 637,534 | 8 | Belatedly , how it all started - with a boost from PRIVATE SECRETARY | There was a time that episodes of THE LUCI - DESI COMEDY HOUR were rerun almost every summer up to about 1969 ( about the time I entered High School ) . Then they vanished , and only reappeared in the last decade . Most of them held up fairly well ( like the episodes of I LOVE LUCY do ) , but some of them may seem odd ... |
493,087 | 3,280,905 | 637,535 | 8 | Probably the Least Remembered LUCY - DESI COMEDY HOUR | The casts in these productions still showed the considerable power and influence of the star - producers . If the likes of John Wayne , Robert Taylor , and William Holden popped up on the older television show I LOVE LUCY due to it's success and the creation of the DESILU Production firm , the COMEDY HOUR attracted lum... |
491,972 | 3,280,905 | 121,982 | 8 | The Mountain out of a Molehill Caper . | Walt Disney usually had good production standards , talented performers , and good production groups ( directors , etc . ) . In the last year of the Mickey Mouse Club he had this 19 week serial centered around his most attractive and talented Mousequetier , Annette Funicello . She plays a newly orphaned girl who moves ... |
491,910 | 3,280,905 | 32,049 | 8 | Nothing Like Olivier's film , but a good , workmanlike horror flick | There are several reasons to recall " Tower Of London " . It gave Basil Rathbone one of his few chances to portray a character that could be compared to Lawrence Olivier's portrayal in another film of the same character . It had a performance by John Rodion , Rathbone's illegitimate son , who tried to follow his father... |
491,753 | 3,280,905 | 102,416 | 8 | The Best of the Extended , Rewritten episodes of the " Brett " Holmes series | Doyle had never wanted to resurrect Holmes from his joint death with Professor Moriarty in THE ADVENTURE OF THE FINAL PROBLEM . However , financial considerations made him willing ( in 1901 ) to write THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES , which is still considered his best Holmes ' novel and possibly his best novel . But it ... |
492,564 | 3,280,905 | 37,414 | 8 | Atypical Flynn War Film | Errol Flynn always wanted to prove that he was a dramatic actor of range , not an athletic non-entity who was always demonstrating his abilities as a horseman , a fighter , or a swordsman . That his best adventure films did show him as more than just an acrobat he barely understood . He wanted to play normal types . Bu... |
492,456 | 3,280,905 | 25,768 | 8 | A Reasonably Amusing Early Technicolor Short | I've always had a problem with Leon Errol as a comedian . Although he had a big reputation from his years with the Ziefeld Follies , the payoff somehow never lasted with him as it did with fellow Ziegfeld comics W . C . Fields , Ed Wynn , Fanny Brice , and Will Rogers . He did have an active performing career up until ... |
493,369 | 3,280,905 | 33,553 | 8 | The Best Large Screen Version of DR . JECKYLL AND MR . HYDE ? | The 1931 version of DR . JECKYLL AND MR . HYDE was directed by Rouben Mamoulian , and it starred Fredric March in the dual title role . It won the star the Best Actor Oscar , the only time that award was won for a horror film role ( or a science fiction part ) . Mamoulian experimented at the start , and in one key sequ... |
491,657 | 3,280,905 | 39,589 | 8 | Lucy Trying to Find a Killer | For some reason LURED has not shown up on television very often . I don't know why , as it is well acted and directed . Possibly because of a flaw in the 1947 telling of the story that would be handled differently today . The villain is killing women because he cannot attract them like other men , and sees that they ar... |
492,538 | 3,280,905 | 85,107 | 8 | The Great Composer as Anti - Hero | I will admit that this miniseries was almost too much - but the subject was such an incredible one that the viewer who gave it a chance really got to appreciate the production . My only regret is that I saw the abbreviated version - not the nine hour version . Also , to keep in mind , this was the last role in the care... |
492,431 | 3,280,905 | 24,335 | 8 | Guardians of Law and Order | Stan and Ollie usually were at great odds with the defenders of law and order . In their early feature film , PARDON US , they end up in prison when Stan sells their first batch of prohibition booze to a police officer . In THE HOOSEGOW they are on a chain gang , and manage to make a visit by the state governor ( Jimmy... |
491,919 | 3,280,905 | 35,829 | 8 | Do I Love You Do I and " Friendship " remain in the film | It is a good musical , but it lacks . . . Cole Porter's score ? DU BARRY WAS A LADY was a successful Porter show , mostly due to the antics of it's stars Bert Lahr and Ethel Merman . Merman was pretty svelt in her early Broadway and Hollywood career , and she was able to play the role of May Daly as it really was writt... |
492,925 | 3,280,905 | 32,115 | 8 | James Hilton takes on " The Crippen Case " | James Hilton's track record in movies based on his novels is pretty good . LOST HORIZON , GOODBYE MR . CHIPS , and RANDOM HARVEST were turned into first rate films . RAGE IN HEAVEN was less successful . But there is also this fine tragedy about two simple people who are embroiled in circumstances that not only destroy ... |
493,106 | 3,280,905 | 53,054 | 8 | Sex , the farm , and the I . R . S . tax code | I have always liked this comedy as one of the few ever seriously trying to deal with the U . S . Government's yearly demand for taxes . Ever read a tax code ? : it is quite a trial to follow it's multiple clauses that our congressmen and senators push in to help their financial backers and various interest groups . Des... |
493,291 | 3,280,905 | 37,480 | 8 | Tom Seeks Love as a 1944 Hipster . | The " zoot - suit " era lasted roughly from 1939 to about 1946 . It's most permanent affect was to help spread " cool " lingo from extreme jazz lovers into the mainstream of the U . S . culture . But this probably would have happened anyway : the average person would have liked the music and picked up the various slang... |
492,891 | 3,280,905 | 62,671 | 8 | What you see in Bette is what you get | It's my favorite Davis performance post-BABY JANE among her horror films . THE ANNIVERSARY , with Bette as the evil but grand Mrs . Taggert . From the moment the film begins she is constantly in control , even in those scenes where she is not physically appearing . It is her wedding anniversary , and her three sons and... |
493,178 | 3,280,905 | 89,363 | 8 | Jamaica Inn , Take Two | This television version of the novel is actually closer to the story than the Hitchcock film of 1939 . In particular , my best memory of it was the handling of the actual head of the smuggler / wreckers . In the film it was Laughton playing a regency buck country squire ( who was in a purgatory because of the idiots wh... |
491,636 | 3,280,905 | 89,358 | 8 | A Nice Farewell Pairing for Gleason and Carney . | For some reason , despite repeated reunions in their " Honeymooner " roles as Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton , Jackie Gleason and Art Carney never appeared together in a straight ( or close to straight ) film until a year or so before Gleason died . Then they appeared in this made-for-television film about Prohibition Ame... |
491,850 | 3,280,905 | 39,657 | 8 | A Forgotten Filming of a Dickens ' novel | When Dickens wrote NICHOLAS NICKLEBY , his third novel , he was recognized as one of the leading writers of the age , but he was still learning his trade . PICKWICK was a comic masterpiece , but a picaresque novel . It had episodes that were actually short stories that could be taken out of the novel and published sepa... |
493,000 | 3,280,905 | 37,508 | 8 | What Did Cherry see in Monte Jarrad ? | THE OX-BOW INCIDENT was produced in 1943 to critical acclaim as a scathing look at vigilante justice , with well delineated characters . Two years later Gary Cooper produced ( for the only time in his career ) and starred in this film , ALONG CAME JONES , which dealt with some situations and themes that were remarkably... |
492,837 | 3,280,905 | 33,717 | 8 | Bogie reaches film stardom . | People mistakenly think that the two films that made Humphrey Bogart a star were " The Maltese Falcon " and " Casablanca " . In fact it is this film , made the same year as " The Maltese Falcon " and directed by Raoul Walsh , not John Huston and Michael Curtiz . Based on a novel by W . R . Burnett ( author of " Little ... |
493,413 | 3,280,905 | 134,744 | 8 | Edward as the Evil One | A nice little short subject , sometimes rerun on TURNER CLASSICS , it gives Edward Arnold his one chance at playing Satan . Coming only a year after Arnold faced Satan ( Walter Huston ) in ALL THAT MONEY CAN BUY , here Arnold had his chance to be compared to Huston , Laird Cregar ( HEAVEN CAN WAIT ) , Claude Rains ( AN... |
492,571 | 3,280,905 | 91,709 | 8 | Preston's Farewell Performance and an interesting look at the justice system | As I mentioned in FINNEGAN BEGIN AGAIN , OUTRAGE ! was Robert Preston's last performance on film . He plays Dennis Riordan , a man of quiet determination . His daughter was raped and murdered , and as a result his wife died of the horror and strain of the tragedy . But what made it worse was one of those legal technica... |
492,701 | 3,280,905 | 58,649 | 8 | Who killed the therapist ? | It was not that Stephen Boyd was a second stringer performer . He did do splendidly in those films that were written well , such as " Messala " in " Ben-Hur " , or as the Irish agent for the Nazis in " The Man Who Never Was " . He is an admirable foil for Tyrone Power in " Abandon Ship ! " But much of his work was in s... |
492,398 | 3,280,905 | 47,209 | 8 | Palance plays his " Jack " card | In 1944 Laird Cregar had appeared in the film version of THE LODGER which has generally been considered the best version of that film of the three versions ( although Hitchcock's silent version has it's admirers ) . Cregar's performance led to a follow-up film HANGOVER SQUARE , which proved to be his final performance ... |
492,550 | 3,280,905 | 35,612 | 8 | Robert as a false " Iron Guardist " on a British Secret Mission | Robert Donat is one of my favorite actors of the 1930s to 1950s . Despite a relatively small film output ( roughly 25 movies I believe ) Donat showed a wide variety of different parts , including comedy , historical , character studies , spy films ( including THE 39 STEPS for Hitchcock ) , and straight drama . He never... |
492,798 | 3,280,905 | 303,535 | 8 | A Nice Experience for only one season | This show never got the audience it deserved . With a bunch of talented character actors led by Avery Schrieber , Bob Dishy , Gabriel Dell ( whose name is not on the list on this thread ) , Valerie Harper , Hamilton Camp , Richard Libertini , and Alan Alda it lasted all of one big season on Saturday evenings around sev... |
492,126 | 3,280,905 | 41,363 | 8 | The Franco - Irish Invasion of 1798 | This film is a semi-comical adventure film starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr . as a charming , impoverished Irish aristocrat . Fairbanks Jr . has always been sidelined in most critics views . His father was one of the superstars of Hollywood in the high silent period from 1915 to 1929 , and even essayed a few interesting s... |
491,831 | 3,280,905 | 30,078 | 8 | Only a Gypsy Knows ' This is one of the large number of Paramount musicals for Der Bingle " in the 1930s and 1940s , that are mostly pleasant feasts for lovers of his crooning , entertaining in their own right , but forgettable after watching . They all have high points in them , but the films that people remember fo... | null |
492,739 | 3,280,905 | 5,078 | 8 | Hayakawa's Film Entrance | Sessue Hayakawa will always have a place in the hearts of film lovers for his role of the humiliated Col . Saito in THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI , who initially has that prisoner of war camp under control , only to lose it ( and face ) because his actual enemy , Col . Nicholson , takes over the building of the bridge f... |
492,619 | 3,280,905 | 24,465 | 8 | What benefits a man who gains the world , but loses his soul ? | Preston Sturgis ' THE POWER AND THE GLORY was unseen by the public for nearly twenty or thirty years until the late 1990s when it resurfaced and even showed up on television . In the meantime it had gained in notoriety because Pauline Kael's THE CITIZEN KANE BOOK had suggested that the Herman Mankiewicz - Orson Welles ... |
493,132 | 3,280,905 | 30,063 | 8 | A Slight , Charming Comedy From a Different Age | Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon did two movies together within two years . One is considered one of the great romantic films of all time , and the movie that made Olivier a great movie star ( and gave Oberon her best performance role ) : WUTHERING HEIGHTS . The other is this film , made in England a year earlier . TH... |
493,070 | 3,280,905 | 39,501 | 8 | Frank's Love Song to Roebling's Bridge , and his duet with Jimmy | It's a friendly film from MGM - I can't say it is the best of the early MGM Sinatra musicals ( ON THE TOWN is a good competitor ) , but it certainly gave Frank Sinatra his best part of the musicals . He was dominated in ON THE TOWN , ANCHORS AWAY , and TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME by co-star partner Gene Kelly ( in fact... |
492,776 | 3,280,905 | 50,985 | 8 | David v . Goliath in Sloughsborough | For people who think only of Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna as the " parents " of Elsa the Lioness in BORN FREE , watching them in this film shows they were more versatile than the better known movie suggested . Both were trained actors , and could handle comedy ( they could also handle the classics : try to find a ... |
491,998 | 3,280,905 | 22,274 | 8 | A Bit Better Than A Mere Curiosity | I saw this film once on the American Movie Classics Channel ( about 1999 ) . Laurel & Hardy gained an international audience in the silent film period , mostly due to the physical nature of their comedy , but also because it being silent the dialog could be covered from one non-English speaking country to another with ... |
492,172 | 3,280,905 | 37,595 | 8 | A Nice Seasonal Comedy , and Sidney Greenstreet finally gets a good comic role | Given the acting roles he played in the 1940s ( Casper Gutman , Signior Ferrari , Mr . Peters , Jerome K . Arbutny , Ex-Superintendent Grodman , Count Fosco , Titus Semple ) it surprises many of his fans to learn that originally Sidney Greenstreet made a name for himself in comedies in the West End and Broadway . He wa... |
492,026 | 3,280,905 | 22,279 | 8 | It's Pure Fluff . . . But What Delectable Fluff | Noel Coward created at least four comic plays that have staying power : " Private Lives " , " Design For Living " , " Hay Fever " , and " Blythe Spirit " . Three of them were turned into films , but the results are mixed . " Design For Living " was seriously bowdlerized by Hollywood , with a " bi-sexual " element elimi... |
493,004 | 3,280,905 | 20,112 | 8 | Our first visit to the Kingdom of Sylvania | It was really the film that established Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald as a musical comedy team - the first one of the American talkie period . They would make four films in the end ( THE LOVE PARADE , ONE HOUR WITH YOU , LOVE ME TONIGHT , and THE MERRY WIDOW ) . Four first rate early musicals . . . and they ... |
492,077 | 3,280,905 | 45,187 | 8 | Our First Great Composer ? | John Philip Sousa's position in American ( and World ) music is set in stone by now . Others have composed great marches ( the English composer Edward Elgar with his four " Pomp and Circumstance Marches " for instance , two of which are memorable ) , and such major composers like Wagner and Mendelsohn . But Sousa remai... |
492,466 | 3,280,905 | 43,299 | 8 | A Woolley . . . repeat . . . Woolley movie , not a Monroe flick | Monty Woolley's film career has not had as much discussion as it deserves . The one time head of Yale University's Drama Department , and close personal friend ( possibly lover ) of Cole Porter , had been involved in Broadway for many years . He was , for example , in the original cast of the Rodgers and Hart Musical O... |
491,633 | 3,280,905 | 248,261 | 8 | A Comic Who Was Almost Forgotten | I think the curtain of oblivion fell onto Charlie Chase for two reasons . One is noted by Walter Kerr in his THE SILENT COMEDIANS , where he points out that Chase always is too nattily dressed ( unlike Chaplin's Tramp , Keaton , Langdon , Fields , Laurel and Hardy ) . The other is the similarity of his film name to Cha... |
493,090 | 3,280,905 | 32,220 | 8 | The European Scene From 1939 To The End of June 1940 | This film is pretty good but oddly uneven . The script ( which Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder both worked on ) is about the adventures and experiences of soldier-of-fortune Ray Milland and reporter Claudette Colbert across western Europe from Spain to Germany and then to England . Colbert is working for an American ... |
493,225 | 3,280,905 | 39,808 | 8 | Poketa Poketa Poketa Poketa | It is generally known that this , the best known film made from a purely James Thurber story ( THE MALE ANIMAL was a collaborated play ) was not liked by Thurber . One can understand why . The actual short story is not at all like the film , except that the central figure ( Mr . Mitty ) keeps having extremely odd day d... |
492,144 | 3,280,905 | 45,408 | 8 | Leon Ames ' turn at bat | William Powell was such a great actor that to attempt to do one of his roles as well was highly difficult . His Nick Charles is light years more interesting ( in a handful of movies ) than the entire television series with Peter Lawford playing the same role . Occasionally an actor could duplicate his part as well as h... |
492,463 | 3,280,905 | 92,035 | 8 | The First American Film to discuss the American Revolution in the South | As a follow-up to his wonderful FOUR SEASONS , Alan Alda wrote , directed , and starred in SWEET LIBERTY - a film that explores the way movies unmake books and historical accuracy , and film productions on location upset local populations . It's a good follow-up film , but not as good as FOUR SEASONS because that film ... |
493,052 | 3,280,905 | 20,298 | 8 | Interesting Fragments - But the Von Stroheim Problem does show through | There is no denying that Erich Von Stroheim was one of Hollywood's greatest directors , and not only for the silent film period that he worked in . His best films transcend that . But in watching what is left of QUEEN KELLY one understands why he drove producers crazy and destroyed his directorial career . I had seen p... |
493,012 | 3,280,905 | 26,046 | 8 | Lost opportunities amidst a comedy from O'Neill with a bitter aftertaste | Eugene O'Neill remains , some fifty two years after his death and some eighty seven since his first plays appeared on stage , America's greatest dramatist . This is not hard to understand - no one ever dissected our personal miseries as well by laying bare his own tragedies . It is understandable that he rarely touched... |
493,239 | 3,280,905 | 24,183 | 8 | What is the Penalty For Murder in China ? | In the lyrics of one of their myriad show tunes , Richard Rogers put these words by Lorenz Hart poking fun at two prominent " golddiggers " of the 1920s - 1930s ; " Peggy Joyce has a hobby . All her husbands have gold . Lilyan Tashman won't go out with the ash man . . . . " Both Joyce and Tashman were Broadway personal... |
493,257 | 3,280,905 | 508,122 | 8 | A relative of Maxwell Freer perhaps ? | The episodes of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS were among the fondest memories of television fans from the 1950s , and since Hitch was involved in the production of the series ( and actually directed twenty or so episodes himself ) they were preserved more than most of the drama series of the 1950s . Only THE TWILIGHT ZONE ... |
491,808 | 3,280,905 | 41,085 | 8 | A nice little comedy with a murder mystery background | There is a comment about the title of this addition to the Abbott & Costello films that is a little unfair - but only a little . Entitled ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER , BORIS KARLOFF , some purists sniff that as Karloff is not the killer in the film , the title is as misleading as the later ABBOTT & COSTELLO GO TO... |
491,721 | 3,280,905 | 584,875 | 8 | When the greatest painting in the world vanished . . . | It is funny to see the name of William Conrad as director of this episode of G . E . TRUE . Conrad is best recalled as the original " Matt Dillon " on radio , or the television detective series hero " Cannon " , or the narrator on the " Rocky " and " Bullwinkle " cartoons , or in movies like THE KILLERS , BODY AND SOUL... |
492,215 | 3,280,905 | 507,837 | 8 | Shatner Before Captain Kirk | People tend to forget that William Shatner was fully active as a performer before he was Captain Kirk of the U . S . S . " Starship " Enterprise in STAR TREK . He was a military aide to Judge Spencer Tracy in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBURG , and was the troubled preacher in the American version of RASHOMON , THE OUTRAGE , oppos... |
492,030 | 3,280,905 | 507,824 | 8 | Did one of the Nazis Victims Strike Back ? | Years ago I was privileged to see Werner Klemperer on stage and after the same play . He was portraying the Russian composer Prokofief , in a play with Philip Bosco ( as Andre Zhdanov ) and Austin Pendleton ( as Shostakovitch ) and George Hearn ( as Joseph Stalin ) . The play dealt with Stalin trying to rebuild a shatt... |
492,071 | 3,280,905 | 29,929 | 8 | No That is Communism | This film reappeared on channel 13 in the 1990s when they did a series of comedies from Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s . In fact , to the tune of " The Jolly Fat Policeman " , they had a montage of scenes from the films to introduce the series of people laughing , including one of Gary Cooper chortling when watching ... |
491,809 | 3,280,905 | 35,555 | 8 | A & C return to that other popular entertainment medium of the 1940s | We think of Abbott and Costello as burlesque comics , but the medium that gave them the national exposure allowing them to go into film was radio . It was on radio that the sharpness of such routines as " Who's On First " was demonstrated to millions , laying the groundwork for the film audience that Universal benefite... |
493,357 | 3,280,905 | 107,050 | 8 | Our First Visit to Warbisha , Minnesota | There is a strange graft regarding the Matthau - Lemmon or Lemmon - Matthau " buddy " comedies . They start out on high notes with THE FORTUNE COOKIE and THE ODD COUPLE and then make a couple of comedies again with Billy Wilder together ( one is Wilder's version of THE FRONT PAGE ) which are not well received . They al... |
492,725 | 3,280,905 | 507,811 | 8 | Do we ever escape the truth ? | This episode of ONE STEP BEYOND dealt with a serious miscarriage of British justice , and the events that drove the man responsible to lose his mind . Donald Pleasance is a gifted barrister named Harvey Lawrence . He has been prosecuting a man for the murder of the man's unknown girlfriend , whose body or remains have ... |
493,407 | 3,280,905 | 26,097 | 8 | San Francisco's Experiment With Vigilantes ( 1851 - 1856 ) | In 1848 the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican - American War , with the secession of territory from Mexico to the U . S . of most of the current southwestern U . S . ( California , Arizona , New Mexico , any claims to Texas - as well as parts of Colorado , Utah , and Nevada ) . This was a war of conquest b... |
492,981 | 3,280,905 | 507,804 | 8 | The Fourth Survivor out of 1 , 800 + men ? | This episode is another of the interference of the supernatural in the lives of people involved in tragic events that appear fairly regularly on ONE STEP BEYOND . It actually rivals the stories about Lincoln's Assassination , Krackatoa , the San Francisco Earthquake , and the Titanic . People recall the voyage of Hitle... |
492,523 | 3,280,905 | 92,105 | 8 | The End of the Line , Harry and Archie | The 1980s was a period of transition as many great film legends died . Cary Grant , Bette Davis , Lawrence Olivier , Fred Astaire , Jimmy Cagney were just a few of those who left the scene . But there were attempts ( before the end ) to bring some of the great figures together . Bette Davis and Jimmy Steward made there... |
492,954 | 3,280,905 | 35,531 | 8 | Bringing a Nation at War Together | Today was the anniversary of Fay Bainter's birthday , so that Turner Classic Movies were showing a number of her films - many of which are rarely available for viewing . Earlier I reviewed THE SHINING HOUR , in which Bainter played a repressed spinster , older sister - with possible incestuous thoughts about her two br... |
493,395 | 3,280,905 | 45,317 | 8 | If Married Couples Had a Second Chance . . . . | In the early 1950s there were several episodic movies that came out of 20th Century Fox , two of which had early performances of Marilyn Monroe . The two were O'HENRY'S FULL HOUSE and this film , WE'RE NOT MARRIED ! The O'Henry anthology had stories that were funny ( " The Ransom of Red Chief " ) and stories that were ... |
492,753 | 3,280,905 | 550,296 | 8 | Jerome's Three Men . . . and Jack ? | The first novel of Peter Lovesey that I read was SWING , SWING TOGETHER , but when I read it in the late 1970s , I had not yet read THREE MEN IN A BOAT . If I had , a clever literary trick he used in that " Sgt . Cribb " Mystery , but one that ( unfortunately ) could not be used in this version for television , would h... |
492,187 | 3,280,905 | 25,883 | 8 | Well made movie soap opera story | The Turner Classic Network showed this film this evening , and it is well acted if a bit pat . Lionel Barrymore plays a company director who has been co-signing a series of checks that Edwin Maxwell ( one of his partners ) has been pushing on him as part of a scheme to save the firm during the depression . But he annou... |
492,208 | 3,280,905 | 550,299 | 8 | Hoist By His Own Petard | As mentioned when reviewing THE LAST TRUMPET , not all of the Sgt . Cribb episodes on " Mystery " were based on the actual novels by Peter Lovesey . Several like that one , THE CHOIR THAT WOULD NOT SING , and this one , THE HORIZONTAL WITNESS , were written by Lovesey for the television series . They usually kept up th... |
492,027 | 3,280,905 | 507,775 | 8 | The Problems of Warning About Impending Disaster | This was one of the episodes of ONE STEP BEYOND that dealt with a famous tragedy or disaster ( Lincoln's Assassination , Krackatoa , the Titanic Disaster ) . This one was about April 18 , 1906 , the day the St . Andreas Fault shook and San Francisco collapsed . David Opatashu is a bellboy at the Palace Hotel in San Fra... |
491,871 | 3,280,905 | 107,233 | 8 | A Resurrected Lost Work | It is by sheer luck sometimes that an artist's work survives . For centuries the works of the Greek dramatist Menander did not exist except for occasional quotes ( including " whom the Gods love die young " ) . But since 1905 one complete play , one nearly complete play , and five huge fragments exist to be studied by ... |
492,784 | 3,280,905 | 24,262 | 8 | Eddie Robinson and Comedy | It is generally conceded that Edward G . Robinson ( his memoirs tell us that the " G " was for " Gould " , but it was a made-up name , so he just left it a " G " ) was one of the finest actors in Hollywood history , who repeatedly missed out on deserved " Oscar " recognition , although he did get a career " Oscar " sho... |
493,073 | 3,280,905 | 1,164,621 | 8 | An enjoyable little short | Only about three minutes long , NIGHTWALKING is an exercise in mutual social fears that are groundless . A young woman is walking home late at night , and uses a short cut . A young man is walking home late at night along the same route in back of her . Both are strangers , but both might conceivably ( if they were int... |
492,446 | 3,280,905 | 47,437 | 8 | Bogie's Society Film | Tennis , anyone ? That trite statement actually comes from a play . It was spoken by a young , struggling actor of some rugged handsome looks , sometime in the 1920s . He said it with a now - famous trademark lisp . Yes Humphrey Bogart said that line . You see , when he started out in Broadway productions he was a ju... |
492,376 | 3,280,905 | 31,890 | 8 | George gets his " canonization " from Hollywood . | Leslie Charteris ' series of novels of the adventures of the slightly shady Simon Templar ( " The Saint " ) was brought to the screen in the late 1930s with the up and coming George Sanders as Templar . It was a careful choice - Sanders usually would play villains with occasional " nice roles " ( ffoliott in FOREIGN CO... |
492,104 | 3,280,905 | 52,948 | 8 | A Hollow Earth : Such a Curiosity | In the 1820s Captain John Symmes was writing pamphlets , and lobbying in Washington for a scheme for a major exploration expedition he wished to lead . A citizen of Ohio , Captain Symmes wanted the federal government to organize an expedition to go into the Pacific , then head for the south pole . And once there , Capt... |
492,308 | 3,280,905 | 37,823 | 8 | Everything but the kitchen sink ! | It's a pity that some of the one time classic works of popular culture are now dusty and distant to most of us . This is particularly true of that remarkable medium of radio . Radio had an impact from 1920 to 1960 , when it was replaced by television . Television assaulted radio with it's versions of talk shows and gam... |
492,143 | 3,280,905 | 24,314 | 8 | Let's Hear It For Dudley ! | Remember - before there was Sidney , there was Dudley . Dudley Digges is barely recalled today - because his heyday as a fixture in sound movies was the late 1920s and through the 1930s . Except for one major performance : the ship's good natured , if tipsy doctor in the 1935 MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY , most of his films ar... |
492,051 | 3,280,905 | 514,532 | 8 | Palmestry and Climbing the Corporate Ladder | This was an amusing episode of the series ARE YOU BEING SERVED ? that concentrated on the possibility of promotion in Grace Brothers Department Store , the class system , sexism , and reading palms . Mr . Rumbold ( Nicholas Smith ) has heard that there will be an opening in the Board Room , and Rumbold may be up for th... |
492,191 | 3,280,905 | 31,877 | 8 | Hey , " Joly " could act , and Tyrone's first real heel | It's a good film , but FUNNY GIRL is far better ( and with it's sequel FUNNY LADY , more on target ) . At least Streisand plays the role of Fanny Brice as Fanny Brice - not like Alice Faye who plays her as Rose Sergent - the " Rose of Washington Square . " This must have been a trend at 20th Century Fox when doing Faye... |
492,161 | 3,280,905 | 514,530 | 8 | This Was The Episode Where We Wondered About Mr . Humphreys | In the 8th Season of ARE YOU BEING SERVED ? there were a number of cast changes , such as two actors taking over the senior salesman slot in haberdashery , a new junior salesman ( Kenneth Berry ) and a new Mr . Grace ( Kenneth Waller ) . Into this flux there were occasions when the episodes of the long - running comedy... |
492,435 | 3,280,905 | 514,528 | 8 | As one's time at work runs out . . . . | There is an element in this episode of real tragedy . Arthur Borough's characterization of Mr . Ernest Grainger was always a subject of laughter because the poor man is so old and feeble . It looks like he can be knocked down by a tossed tape measure that Mr . Lucas throws to him , or even a piece of tailor's chalk . Y... |
492,050 | 3,280,905 | 514,543 | 8 | Mrs . Slocombe's brief rise in the world | In many of the episodes of ARE YOU BEING SERVED ? the issue of sexism comes up . Usually Mrs . Slocombe ( Mollie Sugden ) and Miss Brahams ( Wendy Richards ) find that the men bind together in a kind of chauvinist club against them when they present fairly reasonable requests . In this episode Mr . Mash ( Larry Martyn ... |
491,913 | 3,280,905 | 50,781 | 8 | And now the actual novel . . . . | No , it is not as great as the 1939 version . There was some spark in the 1939 version that captivates the audience to this day . It is sadly missing here - not that this film is dull . Far from it . The French have a habit ( a good one ) of producing movies based on their literary classics that generally show the actu... |
492,319 | 3,280,905 | 78,565 | 8 | A Nice Heaping Helping at Presidential Living in the White House ( 1911 - 1961 ) | This was a very good series , based on the memoirs of an employee at the White House from the Taft Administration through President Eisenhower's . It's obvious too that besides the book by Lillian Rogers Parks , there are also bits from other White House books that are frequently used by historians ( Leslie Nielson pla... |
493,138 | 3,280,905 | 410,477 | 8 | Where to catch this unknown work | THE PROFESSOR was supposed to be an attempt to make a short that broke from the character of the Tramp . He played Professor Bosco , who is the owner of a flea circus , and ( although dressed as an old tramp ) he has a large whip , which he flashes to keep his fleas in line . He has gone to a flop house to sleep , and ... |
492,896 | 3,280,905 | 83,211 | 8 | Charming documentary on television twenty five years ago | TOY BOATS - An odd sort of subject for a television documentary , but this was a little more than that . It was a look at a piece of social history , and how it reflected it's period . Between 1870 and 1920 or so there was a " golden age " of toys made mostly in Germany and England , particularly of models of ocean lin... |
492,843 | 3,280,905 | 41,107 | 8 | Mr . Milland's Longevity | Ray Milland managed to do something that few critics were ever willing to admire him for . He was a good looking man of Welsh ( not English ) ancestry , who could play members of the English upper class . But he was always willing to stretch a bit more than other similar actors . For one thing , he could play villains ... |
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