Executive Decision (1996)

When an airliner is hijacked by terrorists, an elite group of operatives are secretly placed on the plane midflight. Their mission: find and defuse a nerve toxin bomb destined for the U.S., then rescue the passengers. Directed by film editor Stuart Baird (STAR TREK: NEMESIS) in his directorial debut. A pulp thriller which seems cobbled together from past movies like JUGGERNAUT, DIE HARD and the AIRPORT movies. It's poorly written and acted but that doesn't mean it's not (crudely) effective. It accomplishes what it set out to do. As the "fish out of water" hero, Kurt Russell brings his mix of down to earth masculinity and everyman stand in to the cliched part while, thank heavens, the dreadful Steven Seagal is killed off early in the movie so we're spared his stoic non acting. As the head flight attendant, Halle Berry is used for her striking looks and not much else and as the terrorist leader, David Suchet is much more believable here then he ever was as Hercule Poirot. As usual for the period, there's an Islamophobic feel to the proceedings which I understand had been edited out of the European release. With John Leguizamo, Oliver Platt, Joe Morton, BD Wong, Len Cariou, Marla Maples and J.T. Walsh.

Untamed (1929)

After her father (Lloyd Ingraham) is killed, a young girl (Joan Crawford) is taken from the primitive South American jungle where she was raised to Manhattan where she is quickly turned into a civilized  wealthy heiress. Based on a short story by Charles E. Scoggins and directed by Jack Conway (LIBELED LADY). What a stinker! People sometimes forget that Joan Crawford was a star in silent movies. This was her first talkie. Someone at MGM thought it might be a good idea for her to sing and dance in her first talkie and she does ..... badly. The first portion of the film when she plays the exotic jungle girl, she's just awful doing what seems to be a Dolores Del Rio imitation. She's saddled with an annoying guardian (Ernest Torrence) with a stilted Scottish accent, who gives the worst performance in the film and that's some sort of achievement given the bad acting prevalent in the movie. The film was a big hit at the box office however and established Crawford as a popular star on the MGM lot. For Crawford fans only. With Robert Montgomery, Gwen Lee and Holmes Herbert.

Crime Club (1973)

A private investigator (Lloyd Bridges) receives a phone call from the son (Richard Hatch) of a woman (Barbara Rush) he was once in love with. The young man is in trouble and needs the investigator's help. But when he arrives on the scene, the boy has been killed in an auto accident ..... or was it an accident? Directed by David Lowell Rich (THE CONCORDE: AIRPORT 79). I'm a huge murder mystery fan but I found this whodunit routine and worse than that, sloppily written. In one scene, Bridges refers to someone being at the scene of the crime then several scenes later, at the crime scene, he expresses shock when he discovers that the person in question was AT the scene of the crime! Huh? The murderer was fairly easy to identify, too easy. The telefilm was a pilot for a proposed TV series about a group of amateur detectives (the other two were William Devane and Victor Buono) taking turns solving crimes but it wasn't picked up. With Martin Sheen, Cloris Leachman, Paul Burke, David Hedison, Belinda Montgomery and Alan Napier.

Kiss Of Death (1947)

A small time hoodlum (Victor Mature) is convicted for a jewel heist and sent to prison. Three years into his incarceration, he's double crossed by his shyster lawyer (Taylor Holmes) and accomplices. He makes a deal with the assistant District Attorney (Brian Donlevy) and is paroled but it's not that easy. Directed by Henry Hathaway (TRUE GRIT). A very good example of film noir done in a semi documentary style (pioneered by producer Louis De Rochemont in movies like THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET). Shot almost entirely on location in New York City in striking B&W by Norbert Brodine (13 RUE MADELEINE) to give a sense of realism to the film. To appease the censors, Patricia Morison's scenes as Mature's wife were deleted from the film as it featured rape and suicide. As the maniacal Tommy Udo, Richard Widmark made his film debut and received an Oscar nomination and while he almost seems too much, it's an effective performance. His shoving the wheelchair bound Mildred Dunnock down a flight of stairs while grinning is an iconic moment in film noir. With Coleen Gray, Karl Malden and Millard Mitchell.

The Ugly Dachshund (1966)

While his wife (Suzanne Pleshette) is a "mom" to a dachshund who just gave birth to three puppies, a husband (Dean Jones) yearns for a dog of his own. So he sneaks in a Great Dane puppy among the dachshund puppies. The problem is that as the puppies grow up, the Great Dane thinks he's a dachshund. Based on the book by Gladys Bronwyn Stern and directed by Norman Tokar (THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE). The Walt Disney live action, family friendly big screen comedies from the 1960s usually had Fred MacMurray in the lead. When Disney needed a younger leading man, Dean Jones inherited the parts. Jones and Pleshette are upstaged by the dogs here but they probably knew that when they were shooting the movie. If your idea of comedy is dogs destroying property and causing chaos then you should love this. I found the first doggie mayhem scene mildly amusing but an entire movie based on a one joke "dogs run amuck" theme gets tired very easily. For dog lovers only. With Mako, Charles Ruggles and Parley Baer.

I Found Stella Parish (1935)

Set in London, a blackmailer (Barton MacLane) shows up in the dressing room of a famous stage actress (Kay Francis) and threatens to expose her dark past. She goes into hiding with her young daughter (Sybil Jason) by fleeing to the United States, unaware a newspaper reporter (Ian Hunter) is hot on her trail. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy (QUO VADIS). A soap opera along the lines of MADAME X with Kay Francis as the mother forced to give up her daughter and reduced from being a great stage actress to working in burlesque and do LeRoy and Francis wring every teardrop they can! It's the kind of hokey kitsch that you could/should laugh at but strong enough that you can't help but get a lump in your throat! Kay Francis fans should eat this up. With Paul Lukas and Jessie Ralph.

Houdini (1953)

The life of legendary magician Harry Houdini (Tony Curtis) and his rise from a carnival performer to a world renowned magician. Based on the book HOUDINI by Harold Kellock and directed by George Marshall (DESTRY RIDES AGAIN). Who would imagine a movie about the life of Harry Houdini could be such a crashing bore? This highly fictionalized nonsense regurgitates every movie biography cliche imaginable. The film divides its time between the domestic tedium with Janet Leigh as Mrs. Houdini and Houdini's career. The film was popular with audiences (Curtis and Leigh were the "it" couple of young Hollywood at the time) but unless you're a fan of the two, the movie is a slog to sit through. With Torin Thatcher, Angela Clarke, Connie Gilchrist and Michael Pate.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025)

With her life literally crashing down around her, a psychotherapist (Rose Byrne in an Oscar nominated performance) attempts to navigate her child's (Delaney Quinn) feeding disorder, her absent husband (Christian Slater), a missing person (Danielle Macdonald) and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist (Conan O'Brien). Written and directed by Mary Bronstein (YEAST). If there's a reason to see this movie, it's Rose Byrne's fierce performance. Byrne throws herself so deeply into her character that it's often hard to watch. But boy, is this movie a colossal downer. As Byrne slowly slips into a spiraling breakdown, I thought it was going to end badly but suddenly, as if giving up, Bronstein puts a small band aid put over a raw and gaping wound as an optimistic sop and that's it! The movie is over. What? The movie hints that Byrne should never have been a mother, it's not natural to her but other than the suggestion, it doesn't investigate any further. Worth seeing for Byrne's magnificent performance but after it's over, don't be surprised if you head toward the liquor cabinet. With A$AP Rocky and Ivy Wolk.

Mr. Moto Takes A Chance (1938)

On a mission to unmask the leader of a military uprising in Tong Mai, a secret agent (Peter Lorre) finds himself deep in the darkest jungles of Asia posing as an archeologist. When an aviatrix (Rochelle Hudson) crash lands on the island, he suspects the crash was intentional. Based on the character created by John P. Marquand and directed by Norman Foster (KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS). The fourth entry in the eight Mr. Moto movie franchise is one of the weaker efforts. Filmed on a 20th Century Fox soundstage jungle, it's quite pedestrian. I prefer the Moto detective murder mysteries to the action adventures like this one. I found this entry to be on the silly side but its brief running time of one hour and three minutes makes it tolerable. With Robert Kent, Chick Chandler and J. Edward Bromberg.

Mr. Arkadin (aka Confidential Report) (1955)

A small time American smuggler (Robert Arden) is hired by a mysterious millionaire (Orson Welles) to dig into his past and discover his true identity as the millionaire has amnesia and no recollection of his life prior to 1927. Written and directed by Orson Welles (CITIZEN KANE). Apparently Welles never completed the film (creative control was taken away from him) and the movie has been released in several different versions and running times. There's a Spanish language version with Katina Paxinou and Suzanne Flon replaced by Irene Lopez Heredia and Amparo Rivelles respectively. The original U.S. release removes the film's flashback structure entirely. The transfer I saw is reputedly the closest to Welles' vision and runs one hour and 46 minutes. I suppose it's unfair to make any definitive comments on the film as Welles died in 1985 and this version was assembled in 2006. What remains is supremely tantalizing but near incomprehensible. But clearly the work of a master film maker. The only negative in the film is Robert Arden, whose amateurish performance is just terrible. With Michael Redgrave, Akim Tamiroff, Patricia Medina, Peter Van Eyck, Gert Frobe, Mischa Auer, Gregoire Aslan, Tamara Shayne and Paola Mori, who would become Welles' third wife.

Woman Of The Year (1942)

Two journalists working on the same newspaper are as different as night and day. Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) is an international political pundit and Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) is a down to earth sportswriter. They fall in love and get married and that's when their differences prove an impediment to a happy marriage. Directed by George Stevens (GUNGA DIN). The first pairing of Tracy and Hepburn, who would go on to make eight more films together. The chemistry is immediately apparent and Tracy (or was it Stevens?) brings out a sexiness in Hepburn that she never had before or since. While Tracy and Hepburn are wonderful here, the movie leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The original ending proved unpopular in previews so a new ending was written and filmed and it's downright offensive. Hepburn's character is punished for being a feminist and career woman so she's humiliated in the kitchen by showing her incompetence. She can't even make toast and what was funny when Lucille Ball did it on I LOVE LUCY is derogatory here. Ball's Lucy was ditzy which made it funny, Hepburn is an intellectual feminist getting her comeuppance for being a career woman rather than a housewife. With Fay Bainter, William Bendix, Roscoe Karns, Dan Tobin and Sara Haden.

Spin A Dark Web (aka Soho Incident) (1956)

A Canadian (Lee Patterson) living in London is trying to make a career as a prizefighter without much success. A chance encounter with an army buddy (Robert Arden) gets him a job with a local mobster (Martin Benson). But it's the mobster's deadly sister (Faith Domergue) who will lead him into a web of murder. Based on the novel WIDE BOYS NEVER WORK by Robert Westerby and directed by Vernon Sewell (CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR). An example of low budget British noir, efficient but routine. Domergue makes for a deliciously wicked femme fatale but the rest of the cast don't make much of an impression. To his credit, director Sewell manages to imbue the movie with a strong sense of place (London's Soho district), aided by Basil Emmott's (THE LONG HAUL) excellent B&W lensing. With Rona Anderson and Joss Ambler.