L'Armee De Ombres (aka Army Of Shadows) (1969)

Set in 1942 France during WWII, a small group of resistance fighters move between safe houses, work with the Allied militaries, kill informers and attempt to evade the capture and execution that they know is their most likely fate. Based on the novel by Joseph Kessel (BELLE DU JOUR) and directed by Jean Pierre Melville (LE SAMOURAI). Inexplicably, this 1969 French film was not released in the United States until 2006 when it was critically acclaimed by U.S. critics. It's a complex look at the inner workings of the French resistance during WWII and the intense conflict between loyalty, friendship and the distressing decisions that had to be made and feelings set aside. Jean Pierre Melville creates a perception of location and atmosphere that gives an authenticity to the proceedings. Featuring excellent ensemble work by Lino Ventura, Simone Signoret, Jean Pierre Cassel, Serge Reggiani, Paul Meurisse and Claude Mann.

Swing High, Swing Low (1937)

Set in Panama, a singer (Carole Lombard) falls in love with a trumpet player (Fred MacMurray) who has no ambition. He's happy the way things are but she pushes him toward success. Based on the play BURLESQUE by George Manker Watters and Arthur Hopkins and directed by Mitchell Leisen (TO EACH HIS OWN). This was the third of the four movies Lombard and MacMurray made together. One doesn't think of them as a team but they had a nice rapport and the chemistry was there. That harmony is the only successful thing about this hokey romantic comedy. It was probably hokey in 1927 when the play was first produced. Lombard's character is rather unpleasant here. MacMurray's trumpeter is happy in Panama with his modest success and his marriage but she pushes him into going to New York for fame and fortune even though she knows there's another woman (Dorothy Lamour) waiting to get her hands on him. Remade in 1948 as WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME with Betty Grable and Dan Dailey. With Charles Butterworth, Jean Dixon and Cecil Cunningham.

Troy (2004)

When Paris (Orlando Bloom), a prince of Troy, runs of with Helen (Diane Kruger), the wife of Menelaus the King of Sparta (Brendan Gleeson), the King's brother Agamemnon (Brian Cox) uses it as an excuse to start a war with Troy. Loosely, very loosely based on THE ILIAD by Homer and directed by Wolfgang Petersen (DAS BOOT). An atrocity that makes a travesty of Homer's epic. Where does one start? The movie has Hector (Eric Bana) kill Menelaus early in the movie when in THE ILIAD, Menelaus survives and takes Helen back to Greece. Here, Helen and Paris live happily ever after. Here, Agamemnon is killed by a Trojan high priestess (Rose Byrne) while he survived the war and was murdered by his wife when he returned to Greece. The Trojan War lasted ten years, Petersen has it last months. There are many more but I'll leave it at that. As Achilles, Brad Pitt is given a blonde dye job and he looks more like a Malibu surfer than a Greek warrior. As Helen, Diane Kruger is cute as a button but she couldn't launch a canoe much less a thousand ships and as Paris, the scrawny Orlando Bloom exhibits zero magnetism. In BEN-HUR (1959), when you saw that cast of thousands, they were real people, here they're obvious computer generated images which makes the battle sequences unimpressive. In THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964), when you saw the awesome Roman Forum, those were real buildings built for the film. Here, they're CGI background and look it. At three and a half hours, this is a real slog and badly acted (as Agamemnon, Brian Cox acts as if he were in a pirate movie and he's playing Blackbeard The Pirate). Unclean! With Peter O'Toole, Julie Christie, Sean Bean and Saffron Burrows.

The Kiss (1929)

A young boy (Lew Ayres) is infatuated with an older married woman (Greta Garbo). When he gives her an innocent kiss, her jealous husband (Anders Randolf) goes into a rage and begins beating the boy mercilessly. A shot rings out and the husband is dead. But by whose hands? Based on a short story by George M. Saville and directed by Jacques Feyder (KNIGHT WITHOUT HONOR). MGM was making the transition from silent films to talkies and THE KISS was one of their last silent movies. It was Garbo's last silent film and one of her biggest hits. However, it's not one of her better films. She is glorious, of course, and her presence elevates the film but it's a tired cliche ridden romance of an unhappily married woman staying in a loveless marriage to avoid scandal but it comes anyway. For Garbo fans only. With Conrad Nagel and Holmes Herbert.

Dead Of Night (1977)

An anthology of three short films dealing with the supernatural and horror: 1) SECOND CHANCE. A college student (Ed Begley Jr.) restores an antique car from the 1920s and when he drives it for the first time he finds himself transported to 1926! With Ann Doran and E.J. Andre. 2) NO SUCH THING AS A VAMPIRE. A woman (Anjanette Comer) wakes up with puncture wounds on her neck which leads her husband (Patrick Macnee) to suspect vampirism. With Horst Buchholz and Elisha Cook Jr. 3) BOBBY. A grieving mother (Joan Hackett) summons up the demons of darkness to bring her drowned son (Lee J. Montgomery) back from the dead. When he returns, he's decidedly different from the son she knew. All three stories have screenplays by Richard Matheson (SOMEWHERE IN TIME) and are directed by Dan Curtis (DARK SHADOWS). Curtis had hoped this would serve as a pilot for a proposed TV series of horror stories like NIGHT GALLERY but it was never picked up. The first story is innocuous and serves as a curtain raiser, the second one is a cheat but the third offers some mild terror (it's reminiscent of the excellent AMELIA segment of TRILOGY OF TERROR) with a nice twist.

Desire Under The Elms (1958)

A farmer's son (Anthony Perkins) bitterly resents his tyrannical mean spirited father (Burl Ives) and holds him responsible for the death of his mother (Anne Seymour) because of his treatment of her. When his father returns from a trip with a new young wife (Sophia Loren) and announces he will leave the farm to her, passions erupt but not in the way they expected. Based on the play by Eugene O'Neill and directed by Delbert Mann (MARTY). This is a fairly faithful rendering of O'Neill's version of a Greek tragedy. Contemporary reviews were unkind but despite flaws, I found it well done. Although Burl Ives is physically wrong for the role, that didn't bother me. The problem is that Ives is a limited actor and his performance here is too reminiscent of his other two 1958 performances, Big Daddy in CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and his Oscar winning turn in THE BIG COUNTRY. Perkins and Loren (her character rewritten as an Italian immigrant) are just fine. The strong underscore is by Elmer Bernstein. With Pernell Roberts, Frank Overton, Jean Willes and Rebecca Welles.

Merrily We Roll Along (2025)

The story of three friends: a composer (Jonathan Groff), a lyricist (Daniel Radcliffe) and a writer (Lindsay Mendez). The film begins in 1977 where the characters are at the lowest point in their lives and goes back in reverse order through the years ending in 1957 when they are their most hopeful about the future. Based on the 1981 musical by Stephen Sondheim by way of the 1934 play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart and directed by Maria Friedman. The 1981 musical was a flop receiving negative reviews and closing after 16 performances. Throughout the ensuing years, the musical has been fine tuned with rewrites on the narrative and songs being jettisoned and new ones replacing them. The movie which received a limited release last Christmas in theatres is a film of the highly praised Tony award winning 2023 revival with the original Broadway cast. Friedman filmed it in intense closeups and her stringent direction gives the musical a strong pulse that thrusts it ever forward. Groff (who won a Tony for his work here) gives an aggressive performance that is the linchpin of the show. A must for fans of musical theatre. Richard Linklater is currently filming a film version due to be released around 2039 (sic). Like his BOYHOOD, rather than age his actors, he's filming it in real time so that they are the age they are playing. With Krystal Joy Brown, Katie Rose Clarke and Reg Rogers.

Captain Kidd And The Slave Girl (1954)

Set in the 17th century, an Earl (James Seay) dispatches his mistress (Eva Gabor) to seduce the notorious Captain Kidd (Anthony Dexter) in order to discover where he has hidden his treasure. Directed by Lew Landers (DAVY CROCKETT INDIAN SCOUT). A generic pirate movie with all the cliches intact. Here, Captain Kidd isn't the cutthroat pirate that Charles Laughton played in the 1945 CAPTAIN KIDD. Instead, he's a dashing swashbuckling hero but the nondescript Anthony Dexter is no Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power so there's a blank space on the screen. The film was shot in color but the transfer I saw was in B&W but other than making the movie more visually pleasing, I doubt it would have made the film any better. With Alan Hale Jr., Lyle Talbot, William Schallert and Sonia Sorrell.

悲愁物語 (aka A Tale Of Sorrow And Sadness) (1977)

An aspiring young golfer (Yoko Shiraki) is groomed by her lover and manager (Yoshio Harada) to become a tournament winning champion golfer. When that goal is reached, she becomes a media celebrity pushed on by a corporate advertising agency and even gets her own television show. But it soon all turns ugly. Directed by Seijun Suzuki (TOKYO DRIFTER). In 1968, Suzuki was fired by his studio Nikkatsu because (they said) his films were incomprehensible and didn't make money. Embroiled in legal battles, he didn't make another movie for almost ten years. A TALE OF SORROW AND SADNESS was his "comeback" movie. Although kinetic and stylish, in most ways it's an atypical Suzuki film. Its nihilistic and surrealistic narrative which includes putting his exploited heroine through the wringer seems more Lars Von Trier than Suzuki. Yoko Shiraki's heroine is not only exploited by the men in the movie but also its female characters including the neighbor (Kyoko Enami) from hell. This is all in addition to having a ten year old brother (Tetsu Mizuno) with incestuous feelings toward her. By the time the blazing finale arrives, we feel we've been put through the wringer too. Bizarre but worthwhile, after all, it IS Suzuki. With Joe Shishido and Koji Wada.

Lo Spettro (aka The Ghost) (1963)

In turn of the century Scotland, a young wife (Barbara Steele) conspires with her lover (Peter Baldwin) to murder her wealthy paralyzed husband (Elio Jotta). But when the dead spouse's spirit returns, she begins to unravel. Directed by Riccardo Freda (I VAMPIRI). Freda had directed Steele and Baldwin in THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK the year before. I didn't much care for HICHCOCK and I found this Italian Gothic horror a much more accomplished film. Rich in atmosphere and superior costumes and art direction, it has the flair of the Roger Corman Poe movies he did for American International in the 1960s. The transfer I watched was newly restored in 4K from the original camera negative (shown at last year's Venice film festival) and it looked terrific. With Harriet Medin and Umberto Raho.

Listen, Darling (1938)

A young girl (Judy Garland) and her best pal (Freddie Bartholomew) will do anything to stop her widowed mother (Mary Astor) from entering a loveless marriage with the town's fuddy duddy banker (Gene Lockhart) ... including kidnapping her! Directed by Edwin L. Marin (TALL IN THE SADDLE). Corny as Kansas in August but perfectly delightful! It's all such nonsense but so likable that you just go with the flow. Garland sings a few songs including the lovely Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart which became one of the standards in her repertoire. Alas, talented young Freddie Bartholomew (just 14 years old here) never made the transition from child to adult star which is a pity. With Walter Pidgeon, Alan Hale and Scotty Beckett.

Levity (2003)

A convicted murderer (Billy Bob Thornton) is unexpectedly released from prison after serving a 22 year sentence for killing a convenience store clerk (Luke Robertson) in a failed robbery attempt. Haunted by his past, he is drawn to the sister (Holly Hunter) of the boy he killed. Directed by writer Ed Solomon (BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE) in his only directorial effort. Every once in awhile, I come across a good movie that was dismissed by the critics, movie audiences and even the studio (in this case Sony Classics) and I have to wonder why. I found this a potent drama about a killer looking for redemption both moving and absorbing. Yes, it was a bit heavy handed at times but its sincerity and commitment and four excellent performances more than compensate for its shortcomings. In addition to Thornton and Hunter, there's Morgan Freeman as Thornton's mentor with a dark secret of his own and Kirsten Dunst as a self destructive young woman. Worth seeking out. With Dorian Harewood, Catherine Colvey and Geoffrey Wigdor.