El Orfanato (aka The Orphanage) (2007)

A young wife and mother (Belen Rueda, THE SEA INSIDE) returns to the orphanage where she was raised. Now shut down, she plans to re-open the orphanage as a haven for disabled children. But when her young adopted son (Roger Princep) disappears without a trace, she must delve into the dark secrets of the orphanage's past in order to find him. Stylishly and intensely directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and co-produced by Guillermo Del Toro, this is a wonderfully atmospheric "horror" film that, in the end, you're likely to find more poignant than frightening. But if you're looking for cheap scares and gore, you can pass on it. This elegant ghost story is in the style of ROSEMARY'S BABY and THE INNOCENTS with its emphasis on mood and style rather than providing "jump at you" scares. The evocative score is by Fernando Velazquez. With Geraldine Chaplin as a medium who helps unlock the orphanage's dark past. Let's hope Hollywood resists an attempt to remake it for the English language market.

The Rainmaker (1956)

In a drought ridden small western town, an "old maid" (Katharine Hepburn) must come to terms with her spinsterhood and the possibility of being alone for the rest of her life. But when a charlatan (Burt Lancaster) who claims he can make it rain rides into town, her life is changed. Based on the stage play by N. Richard Nash and directed by Joseph Anthony (who directed the original Broadway production), the film is opened up a little bit but wisely retains most of its theatrical origins which allows the actors to take center stage. The role of the con man Starbuck fits Lancaster like a second skin, if there was a role he was born to play, this is it. Hepburn is often cited for being miscast in this but I think it's her best performance of the 1950s (yep, that includes AFRICAN QUEEN and SUMMERTIME). She's funny, heartbreaking and poignant. Her beautifully played scene with Cameron Prud'Homme, who plays her father, where she realizes she's doomed to be an old maid is as fine a piece of acting as she's ever done. The excellent Oscar nominated score is by Alex North. With Wendell Corey, Lloyd Bridges, Earl Holliman, Wallace Ford and Yvonne Lime.

Summer Holiday (1948)

Set in the turn of the century small town Connecticut, a young boy (Mickey Rooney) graduating from high school struggles with puppy love and Marxist philosophies during the summer. This musical version of the Eugene O'Neill play AH, WILDERNESS! is quite charming in its depiction of small town Americana. For some reason, it's not a very well liked musical but I found its nostalgic simplicity endearing. Certainly it's not a great musical. The songs by Harry Warren and Ralph Blane aren't very memorable but they work quite well in the context of the film. The director, Rouben Mamoulian, handles the musical numbers ably enough and there's a marvelous sequence where Rooney picks up a floozy (Marilyn Maxwell) and takes her to a bar and as he gets drunker, she becomes more attractive. With the exception of Gloria DeHaven as Rooney's romantic interest and Maxwell, the rest of the cast aren't singers but they do very well with their talking songs in a style later perfected by Rex Harrison in MY FAIR LADY. The cast includes Walter Huston, Agnes Moorehead, Frank Morgan, Selena Royle, Butch Jenkins and Anne Francis.

Death Of A Scoundrel (1956)

After a wealthy financial genius (George Sanders) is found murdered, his rise and fall from a Czech emigre to ruthless businessman is recounted in flashback by the woman (Yvonne De Carlo) who knew him best. Written and directed by Charles Martin, this very black comedy (though I'm not sure it was intended as such) is quite entertaining. No one was better at playing a cad than George Sanders and this is surely his ultimate cad role. Lying, swindling, stealing, blackmailing and climbing his way to the top on the backs of several women and relishing it every step of the way without a conscience. The film gets all pious toward the end with its sermonizing but the journey there is wicked fun. The handsome B&W cinematography is by the great James Wong Howe (PICNIC) with a lazy, generic score by Max Steiner. The cast includes Zsa Zsa Gabor (the ex-Mrs. George Sanders), Coleen Gray, Nancy Gates, Victor Jory, John Hoyt, Werner Klemperer, Tom Conway (Sanders' real life brother playing his brother), Lisa Ferraday, Celia Lovsky, John Sutton, Morris Ankrum and George Brent whose part has been eliminated to the point of being a background player.

Life At The Top (1965)

After marrying the boss's daughter (Jean Simmons) in his climb up the ladder of success, a man (Laurence Harvey) finds that life at the top isn't what he wants after all. Based on the novel by John Braine and directed by Ted Kotcheff (WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S). Six years after ROOM AT THE TOP, this sequel shows the protagonist's disillusionment and disgust with the hypocrisy and emptiness of his chosen life. Harvey recreates his Joe Lampton from the earlier film but Jean Simmons replaces Heather Sears. As far as sequels go, this one is very good and Harvey manages to rouse himself out of his usual wooden stupor and actually give a performance. But his character's self pitying and whining hypocrisy, he has contempt for his upper class associates but he's reluctant to give up his comfortable lifestyle, begin to grate after awhile. When Simmons has an affair with another man (Michael Craig), our sympathies are entirely with her. There's a fine subtle score by Richard Addinsell. With Honor Blackman (who steals the movie) as a TV commentator who has an affair with Harvey, Donald Wolfit (who has the remarkable ability to overact while standing perfectly still), Robert Morley, Nigel Davenport, Margaret Johnston, Edward Fox, Allan Cuthbertson, Denis Quilley and Geoffrey Bayldon.

Bombay Talkie (1970)

A self centered, neurotic British writer (Jennifer Kendal) while visiting India has an affair with a married Bollywood star (Shashi Kapoor, married to Kendal in real life) who is equally vapid and selfish. Directed by James Ivory (A ROOM WITH A VIEW) and his usual team, producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, this is a rather tedious film with two unappealing characters getting together, breaking up, getting together again etc. for almost two hours until we no longer give a damn. They're so unlikable that they deserve each other but almost all of the characters in the film, including Kapoor's cuckolded wife (Aparna Sen), are so insipid that one can't feel any empathy for any of them. There is one exception: An aging Bollywood actress with a penchant for younger men played by Nadira who has more life in her than anyone else in the film. The film's opening credit sequence is clever with billboards around the city listing the film's credits along with drawings of its actors and crew. With Zia Mohyeddin, Utpal Dutt and the ubiquitous Helen, known as the Queen Of The Nautch Girls (she's appeared in over 500 films), in the film's amusing giant typewriter dance sequence.

Serenade (1956)

An aspiring opera singer (Mario Lanza, looking bloated) is discovered singing in a cafe in San Francisco. A predatory and manipulative society maven (Joan Fontaine) with a penchant for discarding men when she gets bored with them, helps build his career only to destroy him. Based on the 1937 novel by James M. Cain and directed by Anthony Mann (BEND OF THE RIVER). The film bears very little resemblance to Cain's book. In the film, Lanza falls in love with a matador's daughter (Sarita Montiel) but in the book, her character is a prostitute and Fontaine's character is a gay male. Too sizzling for 1956 audiences hence the whitewashing. Director Anthony Mann doesn't seem much interested in the proceedings nor the extended musicals sequences for Lanza's comeback vehicle (this was his first film in four years). The part, even if seemingly tailored for Lanza here, makes demands on Lanza as an actor that he is ill equipped to fulfill satisfactorily. Even in his singing, he seems to be trying too hard though his rendition of Puccini's Nessun Dorma is lovely. With Vincent Price, Vince Edwards, Joseph Calleia, Edward Platt, Harry Bellaver and Licia Albanese who plays Desdemona to Lanza's OTELLO.

Magnificent Obsession (1935)

When a wealthy playboy's (Robert Taylor) life is saved by the hospital's only pulmotor (a resuscitator), a beloved and respected doctor dies because of the lack of the pulmotor. The doctor's widow (Irene Dunne) and daughter (Betty Furness) resent him but he falls in love with the widow. When she is blinded in an accident, he feels responsible and is determined to redeem himself. Based on the Lloyd C. Douglas (THE ROBE) best seller, the John M. Stahl film was remade with much more resonance and artistry in 1954 by Douglas Sirk. This version has an overly generous amount of humor (much of it provided by the annoying Charles Butterworth) which only dilutes the drama. The humor also provides an inconsistency in Dunne's character. One scene has her bitter and hating Taylor's character because he is alive while her husband died then in the next scene, they're all romcom cute in a car. Taylor is fine when he doesn't try to act but when he does, it's wincing and he's especially terrible when he tries to act drunk. The religious references and imagery are also much more overt than in the 1954 film. The undistinguished score is by Franz Waxman. With Sara Haden and Ralph Morgan.

The Chase (1966)

A small Texas town bubbles over with a mixture of fear, anger and excitement when news reaches the town that an escaped prisoner (Robert Redford) is on his way home. Several of the townspeople are particularly affected including his wife (Jane Fonda) who is having an affair with her husband's best friend (James Fox), his mother (Miriam Hopkins) who has a sense of guilt of how he turned out, the bank vice president (Robert Duvall) who stole some money but let Redford take the fall and the sheriff (Marlon Brando) who must try to keep law and order as racism and vigilantism rear their ugly heads. This underrated film was poorly received both critically and financially upon its initial release but the passage of time has been kind to the film and slowly, but surely, the film's reputation is growing and justifiably so. Directed by Arthur Penn with a screenplay by Lillian Hellman (THE LITTLE FOXES) from a play by Horton Foote, it's Tennessee Williams territory with its portrait of a Southern sexual and violent hothouse. The film doesn't temper either its sexuality (wife swapping seems the town's favorite sport) or violence (a scene of Brando being brutally beaten was quite graphic for its day). The score is by John Barry. The huge cast includes Angie Dickinson, Martha Hyer, E.G. Marshall, Janice Rule, Henry Hull, Diana Hyland, Richard Bradford, Bruce Cabot, Jocelyn Brando, Eduardo Ciannelli, Lori Martin, Pamela Curran, Malcolm Atterbury and Clifton James.

Mrs. Santa Claus (1996)

Feeling neglected, Mrs. Santa Claus (Angela Lansbury) decides to take the reindeer for a ride but has a breakdown over 1910 New York City in which Cupid the reindeer is injured. Waiting for Cupid to recuperate, she has an opportunity to interact with the working class citizens of Avenue A and plays matchmaker between a Jewish immigrant (Debra Wiseman) and an Italian immigrant (David Norona) and starts a worker's strike at a children's sweat shop. The Disneyesque musical seems a cross between NEWSIES and OLIVER! at times. The forgettable disposable score by Jerry Herman (MAME) feels like rejects he pulled out of his trunk. There is one catchy and lively musical number Avenue A choreographed by Rob Marshall (who would later go on to direct the film versions of CHICAGO and NINE). The acting is uncomfortably broad (in particular Terrence Mann's cartoonish villain) as if the director (Terry Hughes) thought we or most probably the child audience wouldn't respond to subtlety. But its heart is in the right place and Lansbury gives it her all, the lady's a trouper! With Charles Durning as Santa Claus, Lynsey Bartilson, Rosalind Harris (FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) and Michael Jeter.

It Started With A Kiss (1959)

An Air Force sergeant (Glenn Ford) has a whirlwind romance with a dancer (Debbie Reynolds) in New York and they marry within 48 hours of knowing each other. But when he's shipped off to Spain and she joins him there, she realizes how little they really know each other and insists on a platonic marriage until they do. Directed by George Marshall (HOW THE WEST WAS WON), this bubbly adult comedy is quite open and frank about sex for its day (1959) and while not very original (one sequence is wholly lifted from Hawks' BRINGING UP BABY), it manages to be consistently amusing and Ford and Reynolds (who has a terrific scream) play off each other very well. Handsomely shot in CinemaScope by Robert Bronner (IT'S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER) on location in Spain. One of the film's key "characters" is a hideous one-of-a-kind red automobile especially designed for the film which was later painted black and used for the Batmobile in the BATMAN TV show. With Eva Gabor, Gustavo Rojo, Fred Clark, Harry Morgan, Edgar Buchanan, Carmen Phillips, Joi Lansing, Richard Deacon and Frances Bavier.

The Homecoming (1971)

Set on Christmas Eve during the 1933 depression, a poor Virginia mountain woman (Patricia Neal) and her children await the arrival of the father (Andrew Duggan) who, because of a lack of jobs, works 50 miles away and must make his way home for Christmas through terrible weather conditions. But as the evening falls, he still isn't home and she begins to worry. Loosely based on the Earl Hamner Jr. novel SPENCER'S MOUNTAIN (previously filmed in 1963) and later adapted into the popular television series THE WALTONS. I never watched THE WALTONS but I certainly hope the show was better than this. It's all sentimentally country folksy and doesn't come across as real at all. In addition, the film is saddled with a roster of horrid child actors playing artificial children, the kind of youngsters that exist in only in the movies and not real life. The best part of the film is a visit by Richard Thomas and Cleavon Little on Christmas Eve to a pair of eccentric spinsters beautifully played by Josephine Hutchinson and Dorothy Stickney. Directed by Fiedler Cook and there's a lovely muted score by Jerry Goldsmith. With Edgar Bergen, Ellen Corby (who like Richard Thomas would go on to do THE WALTONS) and William Windom.