Home In Indiana (1944)

A troubled and rebellious teen (Lon McCallister) is sent to live with his aunt (Charlotte Greenwood) and uncle (Walter Brennan) on a rundown former horse breeding farm. His love for horses helps him bond with his uncle and they attempt to turn a foal into a champion harness racer. Based on the book THE PHANTOM FILLY by George Agnew Chamberlain and directed by Henry Hathaway (NORTH TO ALASKA). This Technicolor homespun tale is part animal movie (think NATIONAL VELVET) and part young romance as sophisticated June Haver and tomboyish Jeanne Crain both attract McCallister's attention. It's the horse movie that features the more compelling storyline. The young players are attractive with enough spark (it's easy to see why Crain quickly became a popular fan favorite) to hold their own with the horses. It may be corn but there's enough impartial emotion that you don't have to feel manipulated when you get teary eyed at the film's end. The Technicolor cinematography by Edward Conjager (1943's HEAVEN CAN WAIT) was nominated for an Oscar and with a score by Hugo Friedhofer. Remade in 1957 as APRIL LOVE. With Willie Best, Charles Dingle, Robert Condon and George Reed.

Le Fate (aka The Queens) (1966)

An omnibus film featuring four comedic short stories revolving around four striking women. In the first, a young woman (Monica Vitti) is rescued from a rape attempt by a motorist (Renzo Giovampietro), who gets turned on by Vitti's detailed description of the rape attempt. In the second, an opportunistic tramp (Claudia Cardinale) uses her baby to con money from strangers. In the third, a bourgeois housewife (Raquel Welch) seduces her husband's friend (Jean Sorel) while her husband is asleep. In the fourth, a haughty rich socialite (Capucine) seduces her chauffeur (Alberto Sordi) whenever she's drunk but when sober can't remember what she did. The segments were directed respectively by Luciano Salce, Mario Monicelli, Mauro Bolognini and Antonio Pietrangeli. The first and fourth are the most successful. The Vitti segment flirts with crossing the line (rape just isn't amusing) but fortunately never quite does and Vitti is a delicious and sexy comedienne. The fourth one is quite poignant really. The elegant Capucine, almost always stiff in her dramatic parts, sparkles in her comedic roles (PINK PANTHER, WHAT'S NEW PUSSYCAT?) and she's a delight here as is Sordi as her besotted and befuddled chauffeur. With Enrico Maria Salerno, who provides a "twist" in the Vitti segment.

Oklahoma! (1955)

A cowboy (Gordon MacRae) has a mutual attraction with a farm girl (Shirley Jones) but an ominous farmhand (Rod Steiger) who works on the farm is determined to put his claim on the girl. This simple musical based on the groundbreaking Rodgers & Hammerstein stage musical of 1943 is at odds with the big screen treatment it receives here. Shot in the Todd-AO (a 70 millimeter format) process by Robert Surtees, it looks fantastic with a near remarkable depth for a non 3D film. But the large Oklahoma vistas (though it was actually shot in Arizona), elaborate ballet sequence (much more expansive than its stage versions) and sense of importance almost dwarfs the lovely musical at the heart of things. With the exception of Poor Jud Is Dead, the R&H score is chock full of memorable tunes that have almost all become standards. MacRae is adequate but Jones positively sparkles in her film debut. Directed by Fred Zinnemann and the memorable choreography by Agnes DeMille. With Gloria Grahame singing charmingly off key as Ado Annie, the graceful Gene Nelson who shines in the Kansas City number, Eddie Albert, James Whitmore, Charlotte Greenwood, Barbara Lawrence, James Mitchell and Jay C. Flippen.

The Geisha Boy (1958)

A magician (Jerry Lewis) on a USO tour to entertain troops in Japan becomes attached to a fatherless Japanese boy (Robert Hirano). The film is written and directed by Frank Tashlin (THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT) and the film is pure Tashlin. While Lewis is in peak form, the sight gags are clearly Tashlin's doing whether it's a sunburned rabbit, a bath house tidal wave or Lewis catching a baseball with his mouth. The film gets uncomfortably treacly in the last 20 minutes but up until then, it's quite funny and one of Lewis's superior vehicles. The film appears to have been shot in Hollywood (in VistaVision) but you could have fooled me as the Japanese locations look authentic. The score is by Walter Scharf. With Suzanne Pleshette (in her film debut), Sessue Hayakawa, Nobu McCarthy, Marie McDonald as a temperamental movie star, Barton MacLane and a scene stealing rabbit called Harry Hare.

Adventure In Sahara (1938)

An American pilot (Paul Kelly) joins the French Foreign Legion to get revenge on the sadistic commandant (C. Henry Gordon) who he holds responsible for the death of his brother. The Captain's cruelty eventually causes a revolt among the legionnaires. Directed by D. Ross Lederman (THE LONE WOLF IN MEXICO). The most notable name connected with this dimwitted potboiler is Samuel Fuller who wrote the story (but not the screenplay) that served as the basis of this film. It's sort of a MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY in the desert. Barely an hour long, there's not much to recommend. It's rather silly, not believable and generally badly acted. With Dwight Frye, Marc Lawrence, Robert Fiske and as the aviatrix girlfriend who just happens to crash her plane in the desert as Kelly is on a patrol, Lorna Gray.

The Iron Curtain (1948)

A Russian cipher clerk (Dana Andrews) for the Soviet Embassy in Canada and his wife (Gene Tierney, wasted in the dreary wife role) are content with their life in the West. When he and his family are ordered back to Moscow, he must make a life altering decision. Based on the actual case of Igor Gouzenko, a defector from the Soviet Union, whose exposure of the Soviet spy system and infiltration of secret agents into Canada made headlines. The film stays fairly close to the facts and attempts a faux documentary style but takes great dramatic license to make the film more of a thriller. Though based on reality, the film weakens its premise by having all the Russians (except for Andrews and Tierney) played so villainously that the actors practically hiss their lines and if they had moustaches, no doubt they'd twirl them! Surely, the Russians (even spies) were more subtle than that! Directed by the almost always engaging William A. Wellman (HIGH AND THE MIGHTY) for whom this must have been strictly a paycheck movie. For his score, Alfred Newman adapted the music of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Miaskovsky. With June Havoc as a slinky Soviet agent, Edna Best, Eduard Franz and Berry Kroeger.

Cette Sacree Gamine (aka Naughty Girl) (1956)

A nightclub owner (Bernard Lancret) must leave Paris quickly to evade police so he asks his star attraction (Jean Bretonniere) to look after his young daughter (Brigitte Bardot) until he can return. Complications and romance ensue. Written by Roger Vadim and directed by Michel Boisrond. Before she became an international sex symbol with AND GOD CREATED WOMAN, Brigitte Bardot starred in lightweight comedies like this one which closely resembles Frank Tashlin's SUSAN SLEPT HERE from two years before. Indeed, like the 1954 film, there's even a musical dream sequence (Bardot appears to be a decent dancer) and one can see Debbie Reynolds or Sandra Dee effortlessly playing Bardot's role in an American version. Still, despite all the farcical antics and the frantic efforts of the game cast, it plays like a tepid cup of tea rather than sparkling wine. Cinematography by Joseph C. Brun (ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW) who makes excellent use of the CinemaScope frame, particularly in a multi telephone conversation. With Mischa Auer (MY MAN GODFREY), Francoise Fabian, Michel Serrault and Raymond Bussieres who steals the film as Lancret's tart tongued butler.

Murder At The Vicarage (1986)

When a retired Colonel (Robert Lang) is found shot to death in the vicar's (Paul Eddington) study, there is no shortage of suspects. The man was universally disliked, even by his wife (Polly Adams) and daughter (Tara MacGowran). Based on the novel by Agatha Christie novel and directed by Julian Amyes. The first novel to feature Miss Marple, this is a decent if unimaginative adaptation. The details and the atmosphere of the sleepy village of St. Mary Mead are all perfect. But the whole venture seems rather lackadaisical with no real sense of mystery which is essential to a good whodunit. The acting seems rather bland on the whole with the exception, of course, of Joan Hickson as Miss Marple who once again embodies Christie's octogenarian heroine to perfection. But the characters seem so nondescript and the victim so unlikable that we really don't care much who killed him. With Rosalie Crutchley, Cheryl Campbell, James Hazeldine, Norma West and David Horovitch.

The Walls Of Jericho (1948)

Set in Kansas in the early 1900s, the friendship of an attorney (Cornel Wilde) and a newspaper publisher (Kirk Douglas) deteriorates when the newspaperman brings his new bride (Linda Darnell) into the small town of Jericho. She's scheming, manipulative and ambitious and will stop at nothing to further her husband's career. Based on the novel by Paul I. Wellman and directed by John M. Stahl (LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN). This is a wonderful, juicy melodrama along the lines of KINGS ROW and PEYTON PLACE. A small town seemingly respectable on the surface but when the layers are peeled, we find rape, murder, adultery, alcoholism, illegitimate children and political corruption! The kind of movie that if it were a book, you'd call a real page turner. While both Wilde and Douglas are both fine, it's the ladies who dominate the performances. Darnell is marvelous as the devious plotting wife, Anne Baxter as a still rare (it is the early 1900s) woman lawyer in a man's world, Ann Dvorak as Wilde's bitter and shrewish wife and Colleen Townsend as the girl on trial for killing the man who tried to rape her. Music by Alfred Newman. With Patricia Morison, Marjorie Rambeau, Henry Hull, Barton MacLane, Ann Doran and Gene Nelson.

The Raging Moon (aka Long Ago Tomorrow) (1971)

A cocky, working class amateur soccer player (Malcolm McDowell) contracts a virus that leaves him a paraplegic. At the home for the disabled he's sent to live, he finds himself attracted to a slightly older woman (Nanette Newman), also a paraplegic, who slowly breaks down his resentment. The first half of this film is fairly strong, examining the difficulties of adjusting to life as a paraplegic, before succumbing to a fairly conventional weepie. Still, one must give credit to director Bryan Forbes (who also wrote the screenplay) for keeping the maudlin aspect of it relatively in check. He doesn't shamelessly go for the tear ducts the way, say, something like LOVE STORY does. It's sentimental, yes but it's an honest sentiment. McDowell is very good (more than very good actually) but that's expected. The surprise is Newman's performance. Too often derided because of the "If you hire Bryan Forbes, you have to take the wife too" factor, she gives a delicate, effective performance, easily her best film work. The syrupy score by Stanley Myers is of no help. Also notable are Georgia Brown (Nancy in the original Broadway OLIVER!) and Barry Jackson as a married couple who work in the church run home. With Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Bayldon, Margery Mason and Gerald Sim.

The Living Daylights (1987)

James Bond 007 (Timothy Dalton) is assigned to assist the escape of a Soviet defector (Jeroen Krabbe) to the West. But shortly after his arrival in the West, Krabbe is kidnapped ..... seemingly by the Russians but 007 uncovers evidence to the contrary. The 15th entry in the James Bond franchise is a winner! Elegant and thrilling with just the right amount of polish, so good in fact that it's able to survive the fly in the ointment. Namely, Timothy Dalton in his debut as 007 replacing Roger Moore in the series. While not, perhaps, as weak as George Lazenby, Dalton is an anemic Bond. But the film contains some of the best moments in the Bond universe. Here, it's the Afghanistan section (handsomely shot by Alec Mills) which ranks with the best Bond sequences. This was the final Bond film to be scored by oo7's musical alter ego, John Barry but it's one of Barry's best Bond scores. The punchy title tune is sung by the Swedish group, a-ha. Maryam D'Abo makes for fetching Bond girl though she doesn't have much to do. Directed by John Glen. The rest of cast includes Joe Don Baker, Art Malik, John Rhys-Davies, Desmond Llewelyn, Geoffrey Keen, Walter Gotell and Andreas Wisniewski.

Lonelyhearts (1958)

An aspiring writer (Montgomery Clift) is hired by a newspaper and is assigned to write the "Lonely Hearts" column, dispensing advice to readers with personal problems. His cynical editor (Robert Ryan) taunts him for his idealism and challenges him to actually meet one of his readers which he does with disastrous results. Based on the novel MISS LONELYHEARTS by Nathanael West (DAY OF THE LOCUST) and directed by Vincent J. Donehue (SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO). The film doesn't follow the novel very closely, eliminating most of the book's dark humor. Still, even in its watered down version, it's an above average melodrama. Clift is about ten years too old for the part of the young cub and he looks used up. But both Ryan as his vicious tongued editor who enjoys verbally humiliating his wife and Myrna Loy as his abused wife are both quite good as is Maureen Stapleton (who received an Oscar nomination for her performance here) as a lonely but disturbed housewife. Perhaps a noble failure at best but often quite poignant. With Dolores Hart, Jackie Coogan, Frank Overton, Mike Kellin and Frank Maxwell.