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492,180 | 3,280,905 | 60,588 | 10 | The Lone Figure On Top of the Staircase Facing the Armed Mob | The war against the Mahdists in the Sudan , the first modern confrontation between the so-called " Liberal / Christian " west and the " Arab / Islamic " east was the subject of several films , but one is KHARTOUM , concerning the initial incidents of the war , and several of the other are the several versions of FOUR F... |
492,729 | 3,280,905 | 37,794 | 10 | Orange Pips and Murders | Except for the first two Basil Rathbone / Nigel Bruce Holmes'films ( set in the 19th Century ) and THE SCARLET CLAW and SHERLOCK HOLMES FACES DEATH , THE HOUSE OF FEAR has the best plot of any of the series . Like the other films in the series it is stretching the original story ( let us say embellishing it ) . But the... |
492,046 | 3,280,905 | 514,542 | 10 | The Class System at Grace Brothers | In this episode it is the 20th Anniversary of Captain Stephen Peacock's ( Frank Thornton's ) years with Grace Brothers Department Store , and the floor walker is presented ( after some timing difficulties initially ) with a medal and the key to the executive men's room . The latter is singularly annoying to Mr . Graing... |
492,992 | 3,280,905 | 71,706 | 10 | In honor of the ill-fated Roy Kinnear | The plot of JUGGERNAUT is similar to other films , such as Frank Sinatra's earlier ASSAULT ON A QUEEN ( wherein his group threaten to torpedo the Queen Mary unless a ransom is paid ) . Here the great ship H . M . S . Britannic ( what an ill-fated name for a great liner : the real " Britannic " was the larger sister shi... |
492,995 | 3,280,905 | 37,800 | 10 | A Determined Young Woman Discovers There May Be More To Life | Wendy Hiller's career was a long one , first lucking out by appearing as the heroines in the first two Gabriel Pascal versions of Bernard Shaw's plays " Pygmalion " and " Major Barbara " , and then doing regular film and stage work . Along the way she would also get an Oscar for best supporting actress in " Separate Ta... |
492,016 | 3,280,905 | 100,405 | 10 | Princess Vivian and Prince Edward Save Each Other | The economic monsters of the 1980s and 1990s included vast corporate take-overs for the purpose of the selling off of corporate assets . Frequently the assets separately were more valuable than the corporate whole . That this lead to economic dislocation for the employees of the corporations rarely was considered by th... |
491,635 | 3,280,905 | 65,007 | 10 | The Ghosts of a Lost Flight | I remember when this television film came out in 1970 the big coverage in the newspapers and T . V . Guide regarding the story . It is based on an actual incident when a World War II bomber that had disappeared was discovered in the desert of North Africa where it had gotten lost . The discovery was twenty years after ... |
491,820 | 3,280,905 | 28,102 | 10 | Getting the spirit of Pelham Granville Wodehouse right ! | When one reads Wodehouse novels and short stories one is in a world of gentlemen's clubs , social lion aunts and tyrannical mothers , henpecked husbands , merchants who are overly proud of their products ( in one short story the rich uncle deals in jute and has a house decorated in models of birds made out of his produ... |
491,965 | 3,280,905 | 35,440 | 10 | Is Isolation Ever the Answer ? | David Charleston ( Michael Redgrave ) is an anti-Fascist who spent the entire 1930s warning the Western World of the threat of Nazi Germany , Fascist Italy , and Japan . But nothing was done , and in 1940 the world is teetering on the verge of falling into the hands of these three monstrous regimes . But Charleston has... |
491,610 | 3,280,905 | 35,446 | 10 | Swan Song in Warsaw | In 1940 the American public was shocked when Charlie Chaplin released his first all talkie movie THE GREAT DICTATOR , in which he lampooned Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini . Despite the new European war , we were yet still at peace with both Axis states . Hollywood , with rare exceptions ( BLOCKADE , CONFESSIONS OF A... |
491,897 | 3,280,905 | 47,396 | 10 | Looking at Urban Life . . . through binoculars and voyeurism | Some of Alfred Hitchcock's films date badly , or are flawed by script points he chose to ignore as " Maguffins " , or just are not his cup of tea . But REAR WINDOW is one great movie - a film that just never stops fascinating it's audiences as much as the world of that Greenwich Village enclave fascinates L . B . " Jef... |
492,886 | 3,280,905 | 128,853 | 10 | Laszlo's Play Makes It's Third Film Appearance | If you have been reading the last three reviews I did , this is the natural concluding review of the sequence . THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER , IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME , and SHE LOVES ME all were based ( in the central plot about two people at loggerheads in physical life , falling in love through anonymity in pen-pal ... |
491,703 | 3,280,905 | 31,968 | 10 | A Gallant Enemy Commander in the Great War | If one really wants to get a glimmer of what Conrad Veidt's career would have been like in American cinema but for the coming of World War II just as he came to Hollywood , look at his British films from 1934 to 1940 . In many respects his best work was done then - he had a wider variety of roles , and was not typecast... |
491,839 | 3,280,905 | 31,971 | 10 | The perfect western from Guy De Maupassant | In the 1880s the master of the French short story wrote a classic about the Franco Prussian War entitled " Boule De Suite " ( translation : " Ball of Fat " - a reference to the nickname of the heroine ) . It dealt with a coach of middle class Frenchmen traveling together in 1870 , who are captured by Germans ( it is du... |
491,605 | 3,280,905 | 69,865 | 10 | Another Don Siegel Thriller Masterpiece - and Walter Matthau Shows What His Villains Might Have Done | I always had a small wish , now totally impossible to consider doing . Up to the time Cary Grant died in the 1980s I wished he , Audrey Hepburn , and Walter Matthau could have re-shot the conclusion of CHARADES . Matthau played one of his excellent villains , although with comic moments . But after 1964 Matthau won a p... |
493,198 | 3,280,905 | 57,239 | 10 | Leslie Caron's Oscar Nominated Dramatic Role | This gritty little film is the victim of it's star's glitz . Leslie Caron has been identified with many classic films , but they tend to be musicals ( " An American in Paris " , " Lili , " Gigi " ) . Occasionally she is recalled for a dramatic performance - but it is usually " Fanny " which is pointed to , because the ... |
493,001 | 3,280,905 | 43,014 | 10 | Alright Mr . DeMille , I'm ready for my close-up . | It is among the best and most tragic exit lines in film . And it also leads directly to the best conclusion ( I feel ) in movies in terms of proper cinematography : the clouding of the focus as Norma Desmond descends the staircase into her madness . Rarely does a film end so satisfactorily and perfectly . SUNSET BLVD .... |
492,815 | 3,280,905 | 33,532 | 10 | Wonderful combination of Americana and Morality Tale | THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER was one of several films that appeared in 1940 - 41 that were eventually acknowledged as great films but were , in their day , hidden in the shadows of at least three or four other films : GONE WITH THE WIND , STAGECOACH , THE GRAPES OF WRATH , and CITIZEN KANE . These films were stretching... |
492,627 | 3,280,905 | 43,012 | 10 | This time Judy doesn't have to borrow a barn to put on a show ! | It was her last MGM musical , and one of her best . But she was really troublesome in the making of it , so MGM fired her and her career ( which included at least two more great performances ) never recovered in the movies . That is how SUMMER STOCK is recalled today - the film that wrote " finish " to Judy Garland's f... |
493,396 | 3,280,905 | 33,533 | 10 | Even Devils and Millionaires Need Tender Loving Care | John P . Merrick is the world's richest man , and owner of a department store in New York City like Macy's . He lives in a nice mansion in Manhattan with his butler George ( S . Z . Sakall ) , and conducts the daily running of his empires ruthlessly . He is the " Devil " in this movie , and would not care if anybody di... |
492,597 | 3,280,905 | 31,983 | 10 | An added poignancy with the years | Do people watch Astaire and Rogers films for more than the pleasure of their dancing and singing ? Both performed the dialog parts in their musical comedies well too , but most people think of their movies as a series of opportunities to see great dance numbers and to hear music by Gershwin , Kern , Berlin , Porter , o... |
492,047 | 3,280,905 | 514,482 | 10 | George Orwell visits Grace Brothers | With the rigidity of it's archaic rules , one would think the fictional department store Grace Brothers could not get more oppressive on it's staff . This episode demonstrates it can and would . Rumbold ( Nicholas Smith ) announces to the staff that there have been too many cases of shop lifting and pilfering in the st... |
493,020 | 3,280,905 | 60,665 | 10 | Henry VIII v . the man from Utopia | Except for Henry II and his family , and Richard III , the first monarch to really get center stage ( in terms of chronological history ) in motion pictures is Henry VIII . He has been in or near the center of at least seven or eight pictures ( including at least one biography ) . So far ( this list is far from complet... |
493,066 | 3,280,905 | 395,251 | 10 | Neat reworking and rewriting of an early classic | It is very rare for a film leader to have a second chance at his first big success . The closest I can think of is Alfred Hitchcock , making THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH in 1934 and again in 1956 , and reworking the plot of THE 39 STEPS in SABOTEUR and NORTH BY NORTHWEST . But Mel Brooks's experience with THE PRODUCERS is... |
491,967 | 3,280,905 | 55,100 | 10 | We're just wild about VIP ! | The second of the three Doris Day - Rock Hudson - Tony Randall romps , LOVER COME BACK actually is a slightly sharper film than it's closer rival PILLOW TALK , with SEND ME NO FLOWERS a bit behind them . The reason for this positioning is that PILLOW TALK did not really spoof anything ( Randall is producing a show and ... |
491,650 | 3,280,905 | 37,884 | 10 | Somebody Stole the Purse - for some booze ! | Up to THE LOST WEEKEND , Billy Wilder was a talented script writer from Austria , who had done ( after some noise and badgering ) several movies that he and Charles Brackett wrote the scripts for , but the way he felt they were intended . So Paramount let him go ahead and produce and direct their own films , and he pro... |
493,163 | 3,280,905 | 62,790 | 10 | Sometimes Mush History is more acceptable than reality | In 1936 Errol Flynn appeared in a film called THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE , directed ( at Warner Brothers ) by Michael Curtiz . It was a box office smash , guaranteeing the greatness of Warners adventure star Flynn in a series of swashbuckling films that would last until 1941 , and would remain imprinted on his car... |
492,880 | 3,280,905 | 25,316 | 10 | Capra , Claudette , and Clark - and an auto-gyro landing on the lawn | The first film to sweep the main categories of the Oscars ( of that time - 1934 ) was IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT . In it Clark Gable plays Peter Warne , a newspaperman who is having problems with his boss Joe Gordon ( Charles C . Wilson ) , when he latches onto one of the big scoops of his time . Willful Ellie Andrews ( Cla... |
492,847 | 3,280,905 | 27,260 | 10 | Boy , look who's the murderer in this film ! | Sequels are rarely as good as the first film in a series so AFTER THE THIN MAN is atypical . It actually fits the first film quite well ( almost not quite though ) . As THE THIN MAN ends , Nick and Nora ( William Powell and Myrna Loy ) are headed back to their home in San Francisco , accompanied by Maureen O'Sullivan a... |
493,047 | 3,280,905 | 42,810 | 10 | A Submarine Disaster Situation | Every now and then we are reminded of the so-called " silent service " - the submarine arm of the navy . It is hard to believe nowadays but active use of submarines in warfare is barely over one century old . There had been three attempts at getting submarines into warfare before the 1880s : in the American Revolution ... |
492,221 | 3,280,905 | 100,211 | 10 | A Serious Look at Axis Allies , and a chilling performance by Donald Moffatt | Costa - Gavros has never been afraid to voice his political views , come what may . This includes indicting the U . S . Government in MISSING for collusion in the behavior of the Pinochet regime's killing an American citizen . He also has spoken harshly about Greece's junta in Z and other governments . In MUSIC BOX he ... |
492,036 | 3,280,905 | 22,835 | 10 | Stevenson , Richard Mansfield , the Autumn of 1888 , and Frederic March | Three things of note happened with the Academy Awards in 1931 that were unique . For the first time in it's history the best picture of the year was a western , CIMMERON ( which , though dated by today's standards , cemented the stardom of Richard Dix and Irene Dunne ) . For years CIMMERON would be the only western to ... |
492,931 | 3,280,905 | 40,160 | 10 | The Problem of Publishers | For some reason ( despite a tendency to join forces to protect the first amendment's freedom of speech ) , movies tend to make publishers look venal and awful . Even that most sympathetic of publishers , Charles Foster Kane , is a megalomaniac ( albeit one robbed of a happy childhood ) . Look at the news publishers in ... |
491,908 | 3,280,905 | 14,142 | 10 | Lon as the great bell ringer | Let us face it - the 1923 version of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME is as good in it's way as the 1939 sound version with Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara . The only reason the Laughton version is better recalled now is that it is accessible to Americans born through or after 1927 : when movies starting talking . Just ... |
493,283 | 3,280,905 | 58,333 | 10 | Possibly the Best Corman film | When Edgar Allan Poe wrote THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH , I keep thinking he was thinking about some classic literature of the past . First , he is taking ( and inverting ) the basic plot of Boccacio's collection of short stories THE DECAMERON . If you recall , ten young people ( five men and five women ) of aristocrati... |
493,037 | 3,280,905 | 74,801 | 10 | The Kidnapping Murder That Will Not Die | Who kidnapped Charles Lindbergh Jr . in March 1932 from his home in Hopewell , New Jersey , and in kidnapping him apparently killed him , has never been totally settled . If it was , regular movies , or television movies like this one , or novels and plays and movies suggested by the story ( like MURDER ON THE ORIENT E... |
492,486 | 3,280,905 | 58,335 | 10 | The Italian Tracy & Hepburn ? | Starting with " Yesterday , Today , and Tomorrow " in 1963 , Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren began a series of films together that were the comic equivalents of the series of movies made by Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in the 1940s to 1966 . The comparison is an apt one , surprisingly , because the two set... |
492,488 | 3,280,905 | 29,682 | 10 | God Bless Their Happy Home | Thorne Smith is one of those novelists who were really popular for a decade or so and then either prematurely died ( like Smith ) or faded with their popularity . Today he is recalled for the creation of banker Cosmo Topper , and the ghostly couple of George and Marion Kirby , but they are remembered ( probably ) more ... |
491,626 | 3,280,905 | 42,752 | 10 | Second of the Maugham Short Story Trilogy | Made after QUARTET was , TRIO continued the quality of the earlier film versions of the short stories by Maugham . Here the three stories are THE VERGER , MR . KNOW-IT-ALL , and SANITORIUM . The first two are comic ( THE VERGER is like a prolonged joke , but one with a good pay-off ) , and the last more serious ( as he... |
492,783 | 3,280,905 | 27,214 | 10 | Robinson in " duel " roles | In 1933 Edward G . Robinson had finally essayed a comedy , THE LITTLE GIANT , with passable results . There he tackled the plot of a former racketeer discovering how unworthy the leaders of " good " society could actually be . The same type of a plot would be used again in Robinson's A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER . But in 19... |
492,573 | 3,280,905 | 84,582 | 10 | One Superior Whodunnit | Towards the end of his career , Robert Preston was extremely fortunate . He had demonstrated on Broadway that he was one of the top talents of his day , after having been buried in supporting parts for most of his career in Hollywood . " The Music Man " , " The Lion In Winter , " I Do , I Do " , " Mack And Mabel " , " ... |
492,604 | 3,280,905 | 25,272 | 10 | The House With The Red Shield | HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD concentrates on anti-Semitism , and the struggle of the Jews to get equality and recognition from their Gentile neighbors . It's presentation of the problem is simplistic , but given the time that this film was produced it was amazing that any attempt was made to attack anti-Semitism at all . In 193... |
492,494 | 3,280,905 | 49,601 | 10 | The Movie Version of the Sterling Drama about Big Business | There are two interesting changes in the film version of PATTERNS and the previous television drama version . First , Richard Kiley ( unlike Ed Begley Sr . and Everett Sloane ) was replaced in his part by Van Heflin . Secondly Begley's character Andy Sloane was changed in name to Bill Briggs . This may have been becaus... |
493,015 | 3,280,905 | 31,507 | 10 | The Jesse We Somehow Have Gotten to Want to Remember | It was the luck of Tyrone Power that he became the pet male star of Producer Genius Daryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox . He was constantly finding decent adventure film properties for Power to use , resulting in a huge public following for the star . Unfortunately in 1938 Power was lent to MGM to appear in the extravagan... |
491,765 | 3,280,905 | 40,102 | 10 | The Start of the Horrible Hubbards | Lillian Hellman , wrote her dramatic masterpiece , THE LITTLE FOXES , in 1940 . It is about Regina Hubbard , her brothers Ben and Oscar , her husband Horace Giddens and daughter Alexandra , and Oscar's wife Birdy and son Leo , and how the entire Hubbard clan ( except for the husband and daughter and Oscar's sad misused... |
491,899 | 3,280,905 | 113,862 | 10 | A Most Moving Teacher's Film | There are plenty of films about the effect of teacher's over the years on their students . The best known is GOODBYE MR . CHIPS with Robert Donat , but there are others ( GOOD MORNING , MISS DOVE , for example ) . The tragic personal life of the teacher as opposed to his or her dedication to the students is the subject... |
492,459 | 3,280,905 | 67,093 | 10 | Without Tradition Our Lives Would Be As Shaky as a Fiddler On the Roof | Solomon / Sholom Rabinowitz was probably the greatest Eastern European Jewish writer ( his closest competitor is Issac Peretz ) . In the late 19th Century , writing as " Sholem Aleichem " , he wrote a huge amount of short stories , novels , and plays . When he supposedly met Mark Twain at the start of the 20th Century ... |
492,831 | 3,280,905 | 60,165 | 10 | The Biggest Poker Game of All ! | One can make a case that Henry Fonda appeared in many westerns that were dramatic - mostly directed by John Ford . FORT APACHE , MY DARLING CLEMENTINE , YOUNG MR . LINCOLN , and DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK come to mind . One can add JESSE JAMES and THE RETURN OF FRANK JAMES and WARLOCK to this list too . But towards the end... |
492,058 | 3,280,905 | 45,012 | 10 | There's not much meat on her but what there is is cherce ! | The last six of the Tracy-Hepburn films each examined the relations of the two stars in settings where public attention was frequently occupied by other factors . STATE OF THE UNION looked at the pressures of a Presidential campaign on a failing marriage . ADAM'S RIB looked at the professional competition of a married ... |
492,881 | 3,280,905 | 29,604 | 10 | Before The Women There was Stagedoor | I have always found this wonderful film neglected and I can't understand why . It's director , Gregory La Cava , was highly respected for movies like RUGGLES OF RED GAP and STAGE DOOR in the 1930s , but never got the sort of notice he deserved . Students of film talk of the De Milles and the Wilders and the Lubitschs a... |
492,683 | 3,280,905 | 90,274 | 10 | Ask What You Can Do For Your Country ! | VOLUNTEERS was the second and last time Tom Hanks was teamed with one of the few television based comedians who could match him as a film actor : John Candy . They had been brothers in SPLASH , and VOLUNTEERS makes them fellow members of the Peace Corps . They proved to have good chemistry again here - but no follow-up... |
492,040 | 3,280,905 | 88,987 | 10 | A Worthy Cinematic Retelling of a Tragedy | Today , in the U . S . , there is a strong desire to restore the death penalty in homicide cases on most premeditated levels . In most states that have a death penalty it is only supposed to be used in murders of police officers and public officials . Certain states use it in any homicide case which fit the minimum for... |
492,858 | 3,280,905 | 22,958 | 10 | Nothing Ever Happens . . . etc . l | I still like this film . It has some grievous over-acting by Garbo as a ballerina on the skids . But the film works for all that . Grushinskaya has passed her prime as a ballerina , and her world weariness masks her awareness that her days of international greatness are over . She has nothing to look forward to - in fa... |
492,290 | 3,280,905 | 96,764 | 10 | Romanticism v . Reality | When this film came out in 1988 the criticism that followed was that while it had some great special effects , it was too long and too expensive , and did not make sense . But THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN , while certainly very expensive , may be among the best film adaptations and adoptions of a well known ficti... |
493,011 | 3,280,905 | 38,116 | 10 | The only made for the movies Rodgers and Hammerstein score | Shown tonight on the Turner Classic Film Network , the 1945 version ( second of three versions ) is the one that most viewers feel is the best of the versions . It happens to be the first musical version ( Will Rogers version was actually just a straight film ) , and is better than the 1962 version with Bobby Darin and... |
492,686 | 3,280,905 | 36,172 | 10 | Charles Coburn's Oscar : " Damn The Torpedoes . . . " | A brief historic note : On August 5 , 1864 a Union fleet commanded by Vice Admiral David Glasgow Farragut , attacked the Confederate Gulf Port of Mobile , Alabama . Farragut had a flock of new monitors in his fleet ( although he was aboard his flagship , U . S . S . Hartford ) , and one of the monitors , the U . S . S ... |
491,698 | 3,280,905 | 164,285 | 10 | A Bit of Graham Greene's Wit and Wisdom | SHADES OF GREENE was a wonderful little series based on short stories that Greene had written over the years . Each episode was just over an hour in length , and had such stars as John Guilgud , Leo McKern , Virginia McKenna , Paul Schofield , and Roy Kinnear in them . Many dealt with Greene's fascination with guilt an... |
492,673 | 3,280,905 | 60,410 | 10 | Buster Meets Becket | It was really somewhat unique in the history of film comedy . I can only think of one near miss on a similar level , and in that case the artist involved had made movies . Samuel Becket , dramatist , novelist , secretary to James Joyce , and Nobel Literary Lauriate , loved comedy . His first and greatest play , WAITING... |
492,000 | 3,280,905 | 31,725 | 10 | The Problems of Capitalism v . Communism solved by Parisian Champagne | If any film is chosen by most people as the typical Ernst Lubtisch comedy , it is NINOTCHKA . TROUBLE IN PARADISE is usually pointed at as his best comedy , and his best musical comedy is THE MERRY WIDOW with Chevalier and MacDonald , but NINOTCHKA is the elegant comedy of some point that people recall . I think the re... |
491,617 | 3,280,905 | 79,240 | 10 | Donald Sutherland's best corpse scene | This is a fun movie , and I recommend it with only two reservations which I'll get back to . Sean Connery rarely is in historic costume films ( the only two that come to my mind was " The Red Tent " and the " Indian Jones " movie that he made , and they are set in fairly modern times - 1928 and the 1930s to be exact ) ... |
491,956 | 3,280,905 | 25,164 | 10 | Like The Beat , Beat , Beat of the Tom-toms . . . . | The movies that paired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers between 1933 and 1949 ( the last one being an unexpected MGM feature , as the rest were all made by RKO ) remain one of the joys of movie lovers everywhere . The gracefulness of the pair as dancers was matchless ( although Astaire would later be said to have done be... |
492,387 | 3,280,905 | 125,439 | 10 | Can a diffident and shy travel bookstore owner find happiness with the reigning female movie star ? | With few exceptions that the public recall , both Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant have been singularly blessed in their film choices . My own recollection for Roberts was some unfair carping about her nice follow-up ( with Richard Gere ) to PRETTY WOMEN , RUNAWAY BRIDE . Basically a different storyline , the fans of the f... |
493,126 | 3,280,905 | 38,109 | 10 | Quite Good Early Psycho-Therapy Drama . . . And Dali Too ! | SPELLBOUND is one of Hitchcock's experiments that worked . If ROPE demonstrates some kind of technical experiment of minor interest that Hitch decided test out ( nine minute filmed sequences without breaks ) , SPELLBOUND was an experiment regarding dreams and psycho-analysis used in solving a murder mystery . It wasn't... |
492,296 | 3,280,905 | 362,387 | 10 | A Satisfactory Conclusion of a Rivalry to . . . Die For ? | SPOILERS AHEAD - SO BEWARE : Lana ( Maho Nonami ) and Nozomi ( Eiko Noike ) are the real " Odd Couple " . In fact they are far worse . Oscar wanted to ring Felix's neck , but he restrained himself . Lana and Nozomi find too much pressure from each other to maintain a civilized restraint . And one evening they find the ... |
492,178 | 3,280,905 | 34,272 | 10 | The Naval Hero and the Ambassador's Wife | Nations need their heroes , sometimes with great desperation . Such was the case in the series of wars from 1792 to 1815 which were fought between Great Britain and first Revolutionary France and then the First French Empire . Britain had to finance this series of wars , because the various major continental powers it ... |
492,999 | 3,280,905 | 51,658 | 10 | Gaston's search for domestic contentment | Although several of Vincent Minelli's films can be given consideration for being his best , particularly " An American In Paris " , " Meet Me In St . Louis " , " Some Came Running " , and " The Bandwagon " , a solid case can be made that " Gigi " is the best one . Based ( or developed ) from a novella by Colette , " Gi... |
492,404 | 3,280,905 | 79,336 | 10 | Three Cheers For the Guacamole Act of 1917 ! ! ! | The premise of this film is really simple : if two families are about to enjoy the union of their children in a marriage , is it not likely that the in-laws involved can come to depend and help each other out in times of need ? Most of us would probably say no , or want to know the extent of the help . However , when V... |
492,897 | 3,280,905 | 39,975 | 10 | Going My Way in New England | The success of Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald in GOING MY WAY would lead to the second of Crosby's three successful male teams ( the other two being Bob Hope and Fred Astaire ) . Oddly enough nobody ever thought of putting three of them or all four into the same film , but problems regarding budgets and a decent , se... |
492,247 | 3,280,905 | 86,879 | 10 | Did the aged composer kill his talented rival Wolfie ? | The 1980s was unique in that twice within two years the star of a three hour historical film ( playing the lead historical male character ) won the Academy Award for best actor in such a picture . Normally biographical films are considered box office poison , even the superior ones like Daryl Zanuck's " Wilson " in 194... |
493,394 | 3,280,905 | 34,182 | 10 | John Wayne's First Technicolor Film | THE SHEPHERD OF THE HILLS was made into a silent film in 1919 . Harold Bell Wright , the author of the story , was a popular novelist of the day , and a number of his stories were turned into films . He usually concentrated on stories regarding people who lived in mountainous regions ( one hesitates to call them hillbi... |
492,714 | 3,280,905 | 44,926 | 10 | A Man Who Proved That Size Does Not Make A Giant | His was a rather short life . He was born in 1864 and died in 1901 . But in the 37 years Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec helped change modern painting and advertising illustration , with a vivid but light line and an ability to capture movement . One of the best remembered Post-Impressionists , he managed to be the one to be... |
492,418 | 3,280,905 | 64,179 | 10 | It's Sad To Grow Old Alone | I recall when this film was first shown in 1969 , that excerpts of the " silent " film segments were shown on THE TONIGHT SHOW to give the public an explanation of what the spoofing was . The film is a spoof of " Dr . Jeckyl and Mr . Hyde " , but the spoof is also a salute to an early Stan Laurel satire ( without Olive... |
491,959 | 3,280,905 | 67,217 | 10 | We solve nothing ! We cure nothing ! ! | Patty Chayevsky was years ahead of most successful screenplay and drama writers in tackling sticky subjects . In this 1971 film he followed Sinclair Lewis and A . J . Cronin ( in respectively ARROWSMITH and THE CITADEL ) in looking critically at the world of medicine , although his target is centered on a special stage... |
492,478 | 3,280,905 | 36,135 | 10 | He Whips To Glory ! | James Mason ( like Richard Burton , Edward Arnold , and many other splendid actors - and actresses ) never received the Oscar for any of his performances . This is one of the unfair side issues regarding the Academy Awards , as a measuring stick to film stardom . Everyone who has seen Mason's performances ( and the oth... |
492,775 | 3,280,905 | 46,816 | 10 | Ironically , our Navy's best remembered " mutiny " | Historically there were two great United States Naval mutinies . In 1842 a naval sloop , the U . S . S . Somers , had a court martial for three crew members ( one , Midshipman Philip Spencer , was the son of Secretary of War John Canfield Spencer ) , which ended with their being found guilty and hanged . To this day th... |
493,240 | 3,280,905 | 44,876 | 10 | The Threat of Sidney Stratton ? | THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT , like I'M ALL RIGHT JACK , takes a dim view of both labor and capital . Alec Guinness is a scientific genius - but an eccentric one ( he has never gotten his university degree due to an . . . err . . . accident in a college laboratory ) . He manages to push himself into various industrial lab... |
492,185 | 3,280,905 | 39,941 | 10 | Such a Charming Radio Host and Guardian . . . | Years ago I actually saw a paperback version of the novel by Charlotte Armstrong that this movie is based on . . . and foolishly I did not buy it . That was before I saw it on television ( about 1979 ) . It rarely is shown , possibly because it's excellent title is overshadowed by two other excellent films THE UNINVITE... |
491,898 | 3,280,905 | 44,888 | 10 | Judy Holiday's Most Tragic Role and Aldo Ray's First Star Turn | THE MARRYING KIND is the saddest part Judy Holiday ever played because of one sequence in the middle of the film that is every parent's nightmare . I won't go into the details about that scene , except that when it winds up the way it does the audience has no idea of what is about to happen . George Cukor , if any dire... |
492,546 | 3,280,905 | 42,949 | 10 | In the Shadows of Klaus Fuchs and Nunn May | SEVEN DAYS TO NOON was the sort of topical film that could appear in Europe , but not in the United States in the years after World War II . There were American films about the atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki , but the story of atomic spies and ethical doubts were not in the cards for Hollywood from 1946 to ab... |
492,923 | 3,280,905 | 38,260 | 10 | One of the Best Kaye Vehicles | His first film success was in UP IN ARMS with Dinah Shore and Dana Andrews . But the first film that Danny Kaye made that has his real hallmarks is WONDER MAN . Kaye not only had the regular film plot to work with , but tackled cultural satire as well . From his performance of that tongue twisting tune " Tschaikowski "... |
492,479 | 3,280,905 | 55,597 | 10 | The Blackmailer's Charter | I doubt if many people know him . . . have you ever heard of Sir Henry Labouchere ? Labouchere was a prominent wealthy Victorian - Edwardian journalist and politician , who was radical in someways ( he was highly critical about the expenses in supporting the Royal Family ) , and was usually supporting the " Liberal Par... |
492,476 | 3,280,905 | 49,280 | 10 | The Dark Side of a Public Icon | Jose Ferrer's career has not been given the study that it deserves . In an industry that enjoys " firsts " it is rarely noted that if Emil Jannings was the first Oscar winner for Best actor , and first German to win that award , and if George Arliss was the first Englishman to win the Best Actor Oscar , and if Claudett... |
492,789 | 3,280,905 | 529,640 | 10 | What is the value of winning any contest if you go too far ? | This was a nice episode of BONANZA which was a balance between comedy and serious ethical problems . A bunch of Virginia City businessmen ( led by Edward Andrews ) decide to hold a contest for the most beautiful baby in town . Naturally every mother with a baby enters the contest . The judges include Hoss ( Dan Blocker... |
492,554 | 3,280,905 | 40,427 | 10 | A Year Before a Better Remembered Use of Urban Sewers in a Thriller | Only a year separates Richard Basehart's fleeing through the sewers of Los Angeles with Orson's Welles ' similar flight through those of Vienna . Yet although the flight of Basehart's Roy Martin has precedence over Welles ' Harry Lime , and both are terrific thrillers , more people are acquainted with THE THIRD MAN tha... |
493,197 | 3,280,905 | 58,092 | 10 | Cary Grant as a South Sea Island " Rat " | It was not quite what Cary Grant wanted , but it was certainly different . In his whole career he wanted to play a negative role - a person who was not debonair or likable but a villain . At time he was defeated by his own agent and the production studio from being a wife killer ( SUSPICION ) or a labor agitator suspec... |
492,877 | 3,280,905 | 536,361 | 10 | Now a trifle more bittersweet than expected | In 1962 the subject matter of this episode was funny . It still is , but there is a sense of sadness - only one year later the episode would never have been aired . . . or even written . The plot of this episode was that the Police Department has chosen Captain Block's Precinct for a special detail . President John Ken... |
492,834 | 3,280,905 | 20,640 | 10 | Hooray For Captain Spaulding , the African Explorer | The first two surviving Marx Brothers films were based on their second and third major Broadway successes : THE COCONUTS and ANIMAL CRACKERS . As early movies they suffer from the rigidity of the early talkies . Papers used as props on the set had to be wet in order for the crackling of paper to be reduced as much as p... |
492,448 | 3,280,905 | 62,407 | 10 | A Bumpy Road Trip In a 10 Year Marriage | TWO FOR THE ROAD is probably the least recalled of Audrey Hepburn's major movies . She is such a succulent elfin personality that most movie lovers think of her best work as between 1953 and 1965 . In those films , even if she is glamorous ( Holly Golightly or Regina Lambert ) she is fragile , confused , endangered , a... |
491,811 | 3,280,905 | 42,546 | 10 | The Pooka and the Dipsomaniac | The role of Elwood P . Dowd was played by Frank Fay on Broadway and in London - and to universal acclaim . Fay ( who had alcohol problems of his own ) could bring that aspect to the role ( Stewart brushes it when he goes to Mr . Cracker's bar ) , but Fay also showed ( from some of the descriptions I have read ) a muscu... |
491,752 | 3,280,905 | 685,625 | 10 | The Holmes Story that influenced Thomas Stearns Eliot | Recently I watched the Jeremy Brett & Edward Hardwicke version of THE MUSGRAVE RITUAL for the second time . THe first time was when it was shown in the U . S . originally in the 1980s , but now it was being repeated on channel 21 in New York on a Tuesday night . It holds up quite nicely , with a good cast including Jam... |
491,895 | 3,280,905 | 829,182 | 10 | A Warm Short Film About Religious Fervor and Acceptance | The Turner Classic Movie Channel occasionally has " A festival of shorts " , and I watched some of them tonight . The first one was this film starring Edmund Gwenn , Lumsdale Hare , and Hans Conried . Set in the Middle Ages , Gwenn is a struggling street performer - a juggler . He is trying to get to Italy before the w... |
491,818 | 3,280,905 | 51,201 | 10 | The Best of the Pre - 1970s Agatha Christie films ? | After the artistic success of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE , the only notable film based on Dame Agatha Christie's stories was a remake of LOVE FROM A STRANGER with John Hodiak and Sylvia Sidney as the ill-matched couple , but re-staged in the 1890s rather than 1930 England . Then , in 1957 , Billy Wilder made this product... |
538,477 | 3,717,154 | 110,857 | 1 | everything about me . . . . is real | the gang are all back this time in moscow in part seven in one of the least successful franchises of all time . the plot ( ha ! ) involves a video game and a Russian crimelord who wants to use the game as a key to do all diabolical things . . . . so the Russian police invite police academy to help them catch their man ... |
538,792 | 3,717,154 | 466,342 | 1 | put some hummus on it . . . | OK then , Julia Jones is a fat girl who just cannot find her true love . she works in her fathers diner and her life is going nowhere . one day she meets Grant and instantly becomes smitten . finding help with ' hitch ' ( ho ho ) she becomes more attractive after being pimped . so she ends up with Grant and they plan t... |
538,465 | 3,717,154 | 326,856 | 1 | i'm the J-Man . . . . | Tim and Nick are best friends , neighbours and co-workers , whose equal footing is suddenly tripped up when one of Nick's harebrained get-rich-quick schemes actually succeeds : Vapoorizer , a spray that literally makes dog poop , or any other kind for that matter , evaporate into thin air - - to where exactly is anyone... |
538,194 | 3,717,154 | 367,093 | 1 | murderers don't go home | in this sequel to the 1997 film , we are plunged straight into the action when a small group of the federation are being over run by bugs . when they find an abandoned watch tower , they decide to take a stand and fight the bugs . when the bugs have given up for a while , the crew discover Dax , who is locked up in a f... |
538,133 | 3,717,154 | 185,183 | 1 | do you want lunch ? ? | In the year 3000 , man is no match for the Psychlo's , a greedy , manipulative race of aliens on a quest for ultimate profit . Led by the seductive and powerful Terl , the Psychlo's are stripping Earth clean of its natural resources , using the broken remnants of humanity as slaves . What is left of the human race has ... |
538,669 | 3,717,154 | 206,926 | 1 | do you have to lay like that ? | based on Ben Eltons own experiences and book , Sam and Lucy are a couple who seem to have it all . The only thing they lack is the one thing they want most - a baby . They try everything in their efforts to reproduce , but all this hectic schedule achieves is improvement in their cardiovascular systems . Ovulation char... |
538,968 | 3,717,154 | 443,527 | 1 | good old Lionsgate . . . | The Hamiltons seem to be an ordinary American family , living in a small town in Northern California and dealing with the problems of everyday life . They've also been recently adjusting to the untimely death of their parents . David Hamilton , the oldest , has taken it upon his shoulders to pick up the responsibility ... |
538,275 | 3,717,154 | 415,679 | 1 | i was sick with bulimia | well . . this film concerns a guy who likes another girl and when he actually declares his love for the girl , he gets bit by a zombie . OK . this film is too much dependent on the far superior ' Shaun of the dead ' . it is very , very bad . it is so bad that i had to turn the movie off after i had seen on whole hour o... |
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