I record what I think are interesting movies every week. Here's where I comment on what I thought of them.

Monday, January 1, 9:45AM -- TCM.
The Man from Planet X ( '51). 50's Sci-Fi that isn't often shown on TV.

Comments: Grade C. Low budget flick with an alien that looks like a guy in a painted cardboard box and lots of fog to obscure the fact that there are no sets here. Still, the actors make an effort.

Tuesday, January 2, 3:00AM -- TCM.
The Rainmakers ( '35). Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey are an undeservedly forgotten comedy team. I anticipate wacky stuff.

Comments: Grade C. Minor W&W, which given their material, is very minor indeed. Still their schtick can be quite amusing. They play rainmakers in a rural drought area. They have a machine which supposedly makes rain, but one of the townsfolk, who wants to capitalize off the farmers' misfortunes, steals a magnet from the device..

Tuesday, January 2, 4:30AM -- TCM.
Silly Billies ( '36). More Wheeler and Woolsey, this time as dentists in the wild west.

Comments: Grade C+. More minor stuff, this time as dentists in the old west. Their idea of painless dentistry isn't one we hope to see performed on ourselves..

Tuesday, January 2, 7:00AM -- TCM.
Tanks a Million ( '41) plus others. One of a series of movies on today starring William Tracy as a soldier with a photographic memory. I'm also recording About Face ('42), Hay Foot ('42), Fall In ('42), Yanks Ahoy ('43), and Here Comes Trouble ('48).

Comments: Grade C+. In these movies, our hero uses his photographic memory to advance in the armed forces, and an antagonistic sergeant is his foil, falling prey to many pratfalls. These are short and amusing, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Wednesday, January 3, 4:45AM -- TCM.
Going Hollywood ( '36). A Bing Crosby Hollywood musical.

Comments: Didn't watch because I've seen it before.

Thursday, January 4, 3:00AM -- TCM.
The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock ( '59). Lou Costello without Bud Abbot, and one of Lou's last movies.

Comments: Grade C. Lou is a garbage man who falls in love and marries the daughter of the big shot in town. However, Lou is also a scientific genius who somehow enlarges his girlfriend/wife to 30 feet tall. A little too much to believe and not quite funny enough to get over it.

Thursday, January 4, 10:00AM -- TCM.
Eve Knew Her Apples ( '45). Besides the great title, this musical stars Ann Miller.

Comments: Grade C-. Unfortunately, Ann doesn't dance at all in this, and the story (a radio singer trying to get away from it all, and hiding away in a man's car) is extremely uninspired. Ann's singing (OK) and acting, not very good, doesn't rescue the picture..

Thursday, January 4, 1:00PM -- ENC.
Man of the House ( '05). Tommy Lee Jones and Cedric the Entertainer, two of my favorites.

Comments: Grade (could not finish). This movie is so stupid I deleted it about a half hour in. A total waste of time.

Friday, January 5, 1:30PM -- TCM.
The Honeymoon Machine ( '61). 60's "teen" movie with Steve McQueen.

Comments: Grade B. Steve McQueen, Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss, Dean Jagger, and a very funny Jack Weston star in this comedy in which Steve and Jim use an on-ship Navy computer to figure out how to win at roulette. Steve McQueen is a very good comic actor.

Friday, January 5, 7:00PM -- TCM.
Crossplot ( '69). An espionage film with Roger Moore.

Comments: Grade C+. This was basically a plot salvaged from Moore's old TV show, The Saint. Roger Moore is an ad exec who get's tricked into selecting a middle eastern model for his new ad campaign, and then gets involved in an assasination plot. OK, but nothing special.

Monday, December 11, 6:00AM -- TCM.
My Love Came Back ( '40). Supposedly a delightful comedy with Olivia de Havilland playing a violin student involved with two different guys.

Comments: Grade B+. Delightful comedy with engaging characters..

Thursday, December 14, 2:15AM -- TCM.
This Time For Keeps ( '47). Esther Williams! Swimming, music. How can it be bad.

Comments: Grade B. Not the best Esther, but it has singing and dancing..

Friday, December 15, 11:30AM -- TCM.
Postman's Knock ( '62). With a star named Spike Mulligan, can this be bad?

Comments: Grade D. Well, it could be bad and it is. Boring actually, and very British. I couldn't finish it..

Saturday, December 16, 3:15AM -- ENC.
Hostage ( '05). Bruce Willis stars in an adaption of a very good Robert Crais novel.

Comments: Grade B. As a hostage negotiator, Bruce screws up and a hostage gets killed. So he quits and becomes a small town police chief. Then, however another hostage situation arises and he has to overcome his fears and help. This is a movie in which Bruce can and does do a good job.

Wednesday, November 8, 8:00PM -- TCM.
A Girl, a Guy and a Gob ( '41). How can you pass up a title like that. It's Lucille Ball week, not my favorite, but I can't resist this.

Comments: Grade B-. Lucy is supposed to marry George Murphy, a navy seaman (the gob), but falls for Edmund O'Brien, the business executive. Murphy does a pretty good job of being a wacky seaman, but his chemistry with Lucy is nonexistent. Murphy's wacky family also seems forced.

Wednesday, November 8, 6:30PM -- TCM.
Miss Grant Takes Richmond ( '49). More Lucy, and another great title.

Comments: Grade C+. William Holden uses a real estate office as a front for a bookie operation, and hires the dumbest cluck he can find (Lucy) as his receptionist. However, she wants to help people, so gets him entangled in a housing project. If you really like Lucy, this is OK. Otherwise, so so.

Wednesday, November 8, 4:45PM -- TCM.
Seven Days Leave ( '42). More Lucy in a musical with several big bands of the day.

Comments: Grade C. Victor Mature in a musical??? Forgettable..

Thursday, November 9, 7:00AM -- TCM.
Easy to Wed ( '46). Van Johnson and Esther Williams. Who can resist.

Comments: Grade B. Any Esther is good Esther. Technicolor is a plus, and there is some swimming.

Sunday, November 12, 2:00AM -- TCM.
Free and Easy ( '41). Robert Cummings and Nigel Bruce as son and father who are both in search of rich ladies to marry.

Comments: Grade C. So forgettable I already have.

Sunday, November 12, 3:00AM -- TCM.
Two Sisters from Boston ( '46). Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, Jimmy Durante and Peter Lawford in a story of a burlesque singer who claims to her sister that she's in the opera.

Comments: Grade B. June Allyson is always an endearing and sympathetic figure, and Kathryn Grayson can sing. The plot's a bit dated (the outrage at a daughter appearing in burlesque), but the actors make up for it.

Sunday, October 29, 11:00AM -- TCM.
Two for the Road ( '67). Albert Finney and Audrey Hepburn live their lives through a series of road trips. A classic I have little memory of.

Comments: Grade B+. The movie very cleverly moves back and forth through time and shows us a more interesting time than we would have had had the scenes been strictly sequential. Very good '60s movie.

Tuesday, October 24, 6:00AM -- TCM.
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood ( '45). Abbott and Costello made most of their films for low-budget Universal. This is one of the few they made for another studio, in this case big-budget MGM.

Comments: Grade B. It's A&C, still black and white, and still good stuff, if you like them.

Friday, October 27, 3:15AM -- TCM.
High Flyers ( '37). Wheeler and Woolsey are perhaps an acquired taste today. But they are really wacky and funny, even in preposterously bad movies, like this one, probably.

Comments: Grade B-. This is pretty wacky stuff. A horrible plot made passable by a great scene of hundreds of police converging on a house and digging holes in the yard in an effort to find something valuable buried by the family dog.

Friday, October 27, 6:15AM -- TCM.
Two Guys from Texas ( '48). Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan star in what's probably a sequel to "Two Guys from Milwaukee," a movie that capitalizes on the similarities of these character actors.

Comments: Grade B. Jack is supposedly afraid of all animals, but gets psychoanalyzed into trying to steal Dennis' girlfriend. This is a wacky buddy movie in the vein of Hope and Crosby road movies. These guys aren't Hope and Crosby, but they are enjoyable nonetheless.

Friday, October 27, 9:30AM -- TCM.
Love and Learn ( '47). More Jack Carson, in a musical about an heiress helping out struggling songwriters.

Comments: Grade B-. This is Jack Carson without Dennis Morgan (Robert Hutton is the subtitute). And it isn't as good because of that. Hutton discovers his girlfriend is an heiress and doesn't like that, which is something I simply refuse to believe.

Friday, October 27, 11:00AM -- TCM.
The Time, the Place, and the Girl ( '46). More Dennis Morgan, in a comedy.

Comments: Grade B+. Carson and Morgan reprise their buddy roles in this very enjoyable film about two guys who want to open a nightclub and the opera singer family next door who don't like that kind of music. S. Z. Sakall, one of the regulars in Carson/Morgan movies, is quite funny in this.

Sunday, October 29, 4:00AM -- TCM.
They Got Me Covered ( '43). Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. Say no more.

Comments: Can't remember it.

Thursday, May 18, 2:30AM -- ENC.
XX/XY ( '02). Mark Ruffalo stars in a relationship movie in which a couple meet again after years apart. Well, it's got Mark Ruffalo, so how bad could it be?

Comments: Grade D. Bad indie movie. So bad I couldn't finish it.

Thursday, May 18, 2:45PM -- ENC.
Fresh Horses ( '88). Molly Ringwald as a back-woods 16-year-old who falls in love with a college student (Andrew McCarthy). It's also got Ben Stiller and Viggo Mortensen. But this one had me at Molly Ringwald!

Comments: Grade C+. Only that high because of Molly Ringwald. This is a really pretentious movie about rich and poor that hasn't survived the times well.

Monday, April 17, 3:50PM -- ENC.
Cellular ( '04). A thriller in which a woman calls a stranger on her cell phone to say that she's been kidnapped. We'll see.

Comments: Grade B+. No character development in this, but the plot keeps you constantly on edge, with the solution to each jam putting the characters in an even bigger jam. Fun stuff.

Tuesday, April 18, 5:30AM -- TCM.
Navy Blues ( '41). A comedy about girls and soldiers in Hawaii. Ann Sheridan and Jack Okie star, and Jackie Gleason makes his film debut.

Comments: Grade C+. This film illustrates that all old musicals and comedies weren't good. It's relatively unfunny, and the only good song was the one with the punchline, "when will I land abroad."

Wednesday, April 12, 6:15PM -- TCM.
My Favorite Spy ( '51). Bob Hope and Hedy Lamarr in the third and final "My Favorite" movie (after My Favorite Blonde and My Favorite Brunette).

Comments: Grade B-. It is Bob Hope, so there are the usual bits of him being a coward and chased through Casbahs. The catch here is that Bob's identical double is a master spy, and the baddie's think Bob is him.

Wednesday, April 12, 9:45PM -- TCM.
The Milky Way ( '36). Harold Lloyd in the silent area was a bigger star than Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, though now he is not as well remembered. This is a talkie in which Lloyd plays a milkman who accidentally knocks out a boxer, then becomes a boxer himself. This sounds like an earlier version of the 1946 film The Kid from Brooklyn, with Danny Kaye.

Comments: Grade B. Because I saw The Kid from Brooklyn first, I'm tempted to say that this is a ripoff of that film. Actually it's quite the opposite. This film predates Kid, but Kid uses every last plot element and gag. It's as if you were watching the same film with different actors. It's hard to say which is better because Harold Lloyd and Danny Kaye were both great physical comedians. But because the Lloyd movie was first, I'll have to give him the nod.

Wednesday, March 8, 7:00PM -- TCM.
Thrill of a Romance ( '45). Van Johnson and Esther Williams. Esther is always on my must-see list.

Comments: Grade B. Not much swimming spectacle here. But Esther is swept off her feet by a suave businessman. They marry, but before the can consume the union, he is called back to Washington on business. Left alone, she falls for Van Johnson. And, who wouldn't. Esther wears some great dresses in this movie..

Thursday, March 8, 8:00AM -- TCM.
Dancing Co-Ed ( '39). More Lana, this time as ringer in a bogus talent hunt.

Comments: Grade B. Delightful romantic comedy about a dancer (Lana Turner) who is placed in a college as a ringer so she can win a contest to become a movie star. Richard Carlson is a college newspaper reporter who tries to uncover the scam but becomes attracted to Lana. Lots of good supporting players here.

Monday, February 27, 12:00AM -- TCM.
Merrily We Live ( '38).This is supposed to be a screwball comedy, and it includes Billie Burke and Constance Bennett. It's about a screwy matron who keeps hiring hobos and ex-cons as servants. I might have seen this before, because it sounds familiar.

Comments: It turns out I've seen this before. It is good, with lots of screwball laughs. But I decided not to watch it again.

Wednesday, March 1, 2:00AM -- A&E.
Murderball ( '05). Just in time for the Oscars, this nominated documentary is about parapalegic rugby and the dudes who play it.

Comments: Grade B. This is enjoyable and informative, but the dudes are not as "out there" as advertisements would indicate. Obviously, it did not beat out the Penguins for the Oscar.

Monday, February 20, 5:00PM -- TCM.
One Hundred Men and a Girl ( '37). I'll watch anything with Deanna Durbin in it. This is about a struggling orchestra in the depression. It was a best picture nominee, and won the Oscar for best music score. Leopold Stokowski plays himself.

Comments: Grade C. This gets a lot of kudos as a good picture, but there's far too much orchestra playing and far too little plot. What's there is pretty thin, and the academy must have been entranced by Durbin's look and all the feelgood schmaltz.

Tuesday, February 21, 9:30PM -- TCM.
Nashville ( '75). Robert Altman at his Altmaniest. I remember it fondly, but I might be wrong.

Comments: Grade B-. Robert Osborne gushes all over this in his intro to the movie on TCM. But I found it to be too much bad singing and not enough plot. Altman's trademark use of talk-over by his actors is annoying and pretentious.

Wednesday, February 22, 1:30PM -- TCM.
Vivacious Lady ( '38). Ginger Rogers and Jimmy Stewart. A biology professor falls in love with a nightclub singer.

Comments: Grade B+. Ginger and Jimmy do make a great pair. They really connect and make for a pleasant romance.

Thursday, February 23, 7:00PM -- TCM.
The Facts of Life ( '60). A later Bob Hope movie that I hope is good despite having Lucille Ball costarring.

Comments: Grade B+. Actually, this has a fairly serious theme for a Hope/Ball comedy. They are each married to others but become attracted to each other when on a vacation their spouses can't attend. But do they divorce? At what consequences? There are lots of one-liners, but also some good acting..

Tuesday, February 14, 9:30AM -- TCM.
Step Lively ( '44). A Frank Sinatra musical, also with George Murphy. Some of said this is a remake of the Marx Brothers Room Service.

Comments: Grade B-. If it's a remake of Room Service, it's definitely not as funny. But the song and dance numbers are engaging, even if Sinatra is given too much of a teen hearthrob feel.

Sunday, February 19, 12:30AM -- TCM.
Meet Me in Las Vegas ( '56). Musical with Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse and lots of other stars of the era.

Comments: Grade B-. Interesting because of all the cameos of famous performers of the time. Dan Dailey is a down-on-his-luck gambler who can't can't lose as long as he holds Cyd Charisse's hand when betting. Cyd is good, but Dan gets downright annoying.

Cabin in the Sky ( '43). A Vincente Minelli musical featuring all black actors. Heaven and hell are battling for a woman's soul. This is supposed to be a classic and I've never seen it. It's got Ethel Waters, Lena Horne, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Luis Armstrong, and more.

Comments: Grade B. This is fun, with Ethel Waters as the wife, Eddie Anderson as the husband, and Lena Horne as the other woman. Ethel prays so hard to keep her husband alive that God grants her prayer, at least temporarily. Meanwhile, the devil's minions and God's fight for Eddie's soul. A wee bit (OK, a lot) farfetched, but the songs are good.

Friday, February 10, 2:30AM -- ENC.
American History X ( '98). Edward Norton, skinheads and racism. I've never seen this either.

Comments: Grade A. Norton is fabulous as a skinhead who discovers that the beliefs he's been taught (and those he taught to friends and his brother) don't reflect the reality that he experiences in prison. Very powerful portrayal.

Friday, February 10, 6:30AM -- TCM.
Three Musketeers ( '48). This is the Gene Kelly, Lana Turner version. I must have seen it, but I can't remember.

Comments: Grade C. This is good only for the Gene Kelly swordfighting, which is an amazing dance of jumping, leaping, and tunbling. The movie itself, despite having lots of stars and glorious color, is pretty boring..

Monday, January 30, 5:00PM -- TCM.
Petticoat Fever ( '36). It seems like it's Robert Montgomery month on TCM. This one's also got Myrna Loy, and it has something to do with Alaska.

Comments: Grade B+. Bob's a radio man in Labrador, and Myrna's plane crashes and she and her fiance are stranded at Bob's station. He's immediately enthralled and woos her mercilessly. He even brings out his tux. There are of them romping around (obviously a sound stage) in furs, and hokey-looking dogsleds where you never see the actual dogs. Funny, sometimes unintentionally, and fun.

Monday, January 30, 6:30PM -- TCM.
Piccadilly Jim ( '36). More Robert Montgomery, this time in an adaption of a P.G. Wodehouse novel.

Comments: Grade C+. Bob plays a cartoonist whose caricature work based on his true love's family upsets the family so much they move back to New York. He follows them but tries to keep them from knowing he's the artist. This is pretty thin and weak.

Monday, January 30, 10:00PM -- TCM.
Ever Since Eve ( '37). Guess what, more Robert Montgomery, plus Marion Davies in her final film.

Comments: Grade B. If nothing else, this is interesting for illustrating the attitude of the times. That is, that beautiful women can't keep jobs because men keep coming onto them at work. So, Marion Davies masquerades herself as a homely woman to get a secretary's job. Womanizing Robert Montgomery ends up as her boss. Marion's makup is VERY convincing. She is pretty homely. And a bit over the hill when the homely makup is off.

Monday, January 30, 11:30PM -- TCM.
Live, Love and Learn ( '37). Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell.

Comments: Grade C+. For some strange reason, Montgomery and Russell get married when she falls off a horse and into a picture he is painting. He's bohemian and she's upper crust, but she follows him into poverty so he can follow his muse. Which includes living in a small apartment with Robert Benchly. Of course, Robert is discovered and fall lure to big money, much to Russell's dismay.

Tuesday, January 31, 5:15AM -- TCM.
Fast and Loose ( '39). Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell in what's supposed to be like a "Thin Man" movie.

Comments: Grade C. This is a fairly forgettable mystery (I've already forgot most of it). It's not funny enough to be a good Montgomery movie, and not interesting enough to be a good drama.

Friday, February 3, 8:00PM -- DISC.
Grizzly Man ( '05). Werner Herzog profiles Timothy Treadwell, who was killed by one of the bears he studied. This got a lot of press when it came out.

Comments: Grade C. I lost interest in this fairly quickly. It does have lots of shots of Treadwell in very close proximity to grizzly bears. And just listening to Werner Herzog talk is always pleasant. But Treadwell was really wacko, and it was hard for me to make it through this thing.

Tuesday, January 24, 1:00AM -- AMC.
Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell ( '68). Gina Lollobrigida. What else do you need to say?

Comments: Grade B-. An Italian lady apparently had sex with three separate GIs during WWII and told all three they were the father of a daughter. Of course, they all sent support checks for 20 years. But when they have a reunion in Italy, all want to see Gina and daughter. She works hard to see that none meet. It's sort of funny, and it passes the time. But nothing fabulous.

Tuesday, January 24, 5:00AM -- TCM.
No More Ladies ( '35). A comedy with Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery. He is so great with the witty dialog.

Comments: Grade C+. Robert is an unfaithful husband who just can't stop philandering. He doesn't have my sympathy.

Tuesday, January 24, 7:45AM -- TCM.
Janie ( '44). A teenager falls in love with a private from an army base.

Comments: Grade B+. A teen comedy set during WWII, when everything was so much more innocent, at least on film. Joyce Reynolds is great as young Janie, who has boyfriend problems and who lets the entire company into her house for a party. Hattie McDaniel also stands out as the maid (didn't everyone have a black maid then?)

Tuesday, January 24, 9:30AM -- TCM.
A Date with Judy ( '48). Jane Powell comedy about a teen who thinks her father is having an affair with a latin dancer.

Comments: Grade B. Another fine comedy with Jane Powell trying to decide between a very young Robert Stack and Scotty Beckett. Wallace Beery makes a fine father. This movie features "A Most Unusual Day," even though I could swear I heard it somewhere else first.

Tuesday, January 24, 11:30AM -- TCM.
Impossible Years ( '68). A psychiatrist (David Niven) has a wild teenage daughter.

Comments: Grade B-. This is more like a 60's situation comedy than a movie. But it has some "risque" dialog about a daughter having sex and getting pregnant. David Niven is the suave, psychiatrist father who tends to drink a lot when problems happen that he doesn't want to deal with. Definitely a relic of the 60s.

Tuesday, January 24, 1:30PM -- TCM.
The Affairs of Dobie Gillis ( '53). Debbie Reynolds and Bobby Van in a classic comedy.

Comments: Grade B. This is a far-fetched comedy about college kids who apparently don't have to study or attend classes. But Debby and Bobby can sing and dance. Bob Fosse is in the movie too, and he REALLY can dance.

Thursday, January 26, 8:45AM -- TCM.
The Sky's the Limit ( '43). A Fred Astaire movie and I can't remember if I've seen it. So it's a must record.

Comments: Grade C. There's a reason I didn't remember this. It's pretty forgettable. Most Astaire movies have thin plots, but Fred's dancing and singing make up for the lack. This has only a minimum amount of music and dancing, and as a result the movie is relatively lackluster. Still, a little bit of Fred, especially dancing on a bar and smashing glasses with his feet, is a wonder to behold.

Friday, January 27, 4:30AM -- TCM.
I Love You Again ( '40). William Powell and Myrna Loy comedy. I've got to see it.

Comments: Grade B+. The Powell/Loy magic is there. Powell plays a con man who got hit on the head and got amnesia, then became a Casper Milquetoast good citizen and married. When he gets hit on the head again and remembers who he once was but not who was lately, the fun begins, especially when he tries to woo his wife back, who wants a divorce from the dull Powell.

Tuesday, January 17, 7:00AM -- AMC.
Man in Possession ( '31). This is a Robert Montgomery comedy, so it's on my list. He plays a goverment man who poses as a butler to watch a woman.

Comments: Grade B+. A great pre-code comedy in which a disgraced Montgomery, out of prison and cast out by his father, gets a job as a government bill collector and has to stand watch over a woman's house in case she should try to move or sell the possessions. By coincidence, the woman is his brother's fiance, and both the brother and the fiance think the other has money. Naturally, Montgomery falls for her, beds her!!, and eventually makes everything all right. For the voyeur, there are some nice bathtub scenes of Charlotte Greenwood, where you almost, nearly, barely get to see some of her goodies.

Tuesday, January 17, 8:00PM -- TCM.
Genevieve ( '53). I know nothing about this, but it's supposed to be a hilarious movie about Britains in a vintage car race.

Comments: Grade B+. Very enjoyable technicolor movie, written by William Rose, who also wrote It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming, and more. This is about two couples who drive old (1904 or so) cars in an antique car rally. The men get in a snit and decide to race back to London. Along the way, all sorts of troubles befall both..

Monday, January 9, 8:50AM -- ENC.
Running on Empty ( '88). I can't remember seeing this before, and the late River Phoenix stars. He's the son of radical Vietnam war protesters still in hiding, and as he starts to grow up, he wants to live a normal life.

Comments: Grade B-. Although relatively new, this has really become a period piece. Judd Hirsch and Christine Lahti are still on the run from a Vietnam era lab bombing seventeen years later and their oldest son (River Phoenix) wants to live a normal life and attend college. Phoenix was a wonderful actor who died too young, and Lahti is convincing as the mother. Hirsch is a bit unbelievable.

Comments: Grade C. This is mostly silliness and marginally funny physical humor surrounding a shipping clerk (Robert Montgomery) whose boss takes him along to a golf tournament (at Oakmont) to help the boss with his golf game. To avoid the embarrassment of being seen with a mere shipping clerk, the boss makes Montgomery pose as an executive. While there, Montgomery falls in love and elopes with Dorothy Jordan. The only redeeming qualities in this film are slightly risque musical numbers, Benny Rubin as Montgomery's sidekick, and Jordan's great scene when she, as daughter, admits to her father that she eloped with a mere clerk. That last scene is priceless.

Comments: Grade B+. The first two-thirds or so of this movie is terrific, with the Germans elaborately setting up a building, people, and even a radio station to convince James Garner that he's in post-WWII Germany. How Garner discovers it's not five years later is very clever too. It's just the later stages after he finds out that the story drags a bit and becomes more ordinary.

Comments: Grade B-. As with Titanic, you know what's going to happen before the movie starts. That is, almost everybody is going to die. What this movie tries to do is to use our knowledge to make us more sympathetic with the characters. For the most part, it doesn't work, and there really is no romance (or women, for that matter) in the movie. What saves this from being dreadful is Billy Bob Thornton as Davy Crockett. Thornton is an amazing actor and he singlehandedly saves this movie.

Comments: Grade C. Far-fetched trip around Europe by a Polish baron (Powell) who doesn't sound or look at all Polish, and a Russian countess (Rainer) who sounds only marginally Russian. Each secreted a message in a candlestick, and when these get stolen, they each want to get them back.

Comments: Grade C. There was a bit of inuendo, with hints about the bedroom and Francis in the bathtub. But mainly what's precode about this is that Powell plays an elegant jewelry robber who is sympathetic and gets away with it. In this movie, crime does seem to pay..

Comments: Grade B+. A cracking good soap opera. Dino plays sort of in character, sort of out as a hick but appealing politician with no idea he's being manipulated. Susan is a hard as nails prostitute he meets and marries.

Comments: Grade B. We also have Mr. Montgomery in this one. He, along with the great Frank Morgan and Nigel Bruce and others are part of the rich London set. Joan Crawford and her "butler" William Powell are part of a gang of theives who plan to rob one of the group. But Montgomery has fallen for Joan, and she for him.

Comments: Grade C-. This movie is one of the stupidest I've ever seen, with Polly Bergen seemingly a complete idiot, unable to see through the lamest of fast ones. Howard Keel has got chops, though, and he makes the movie almost watchable..

Comments: Grade B-. Ida Lupino doesn't usually do comedies. But here she is very appealing as a salesperson who lies about being married to a soldier just to get housing, only to get thrown into many more complications. William Prince is her romantic counterpart, and he's in over his head here. But Sydney Greenstreet is over the top, and Willie Best as Lucille the porter is quite funny.

Comments: Grade B. Tense and well-acted antithesis to the James Bond spy movies of the same era. The downer ending seems too contrived, however.

Comments: Grade C-. This spy movie doesn't have very much dialog, and it depends on George Segal's ability to convey emotion without speaking. Unfortunately, he's one-dimensional and unable to carry this off. He acts as if he were in a constant coma.

Comments: Grade C. This a bloated, relatively lame effort to transform Julie Andrews away from her goody two-shoes image. She even does a "strip tease," which is about as sexy as a junior high cheerleader. There's also very little chemistry between her and co-star Rock Hudson. She does sing a few pleasant songs, though.

Comments: Grade B+. This is a terrific movie which stands up well today. Caine is everything George Segal (see Quiller Memorandum) is not -- 60's cool, clever, witty. There are also some fine visual jokes with scene and camera juxtaposition. However, the film slows down considerably at the end of the movie when Caine is captured and interrogated..

Comments: Grade C-. The Wayans brothers look like weird space aliens dressed in their white girl outfits -- totally unreal. There are way too many fart jokes, and the plot is nonexistent. Other than that, there are a few funny moments. But this is basically a waste of time.

Comments: Grade (Did not finish). I know it's supposed to be great, but I have a hard time with subtitled movies, especially when there's a lot of symbolism floating around. I only made it through about a half hour. Life's too short.

Comments: Grade B-. This is a fairly corny romance in which Frank, Kathryn Grayson, and Peter Lawford all play shy underachievers who don't have enough gumption to go out and try to achieve their dreams. Frank falls for Kathryn, and so does Peter, and there's a romantic tangle. Plus, Jimmy Durante is there to vamp it up with the best of them. It's all OK, but it should be better than it was..

Comments: Grade B-. I give it that high a grade only because of Bing. The story line is very forced. Bing works for a newspaper and is on assignment in Europe to keep from marrying his fiance. Then he gets involved with kids in an orphanage and adopts and brings home two. But officials won't let him keep them unless he gets married in a week. Now he wants the fiance, but she doesn't want him because he stood her up so many times. If these people would just talk to each other, they could have solved this thing in the first reel. But, noooooo. Also, this thing is very sappy.

Comments: Grade B. This was probably quite controversial at the time. A divorced man (Bing) has sole custody of his son, but his remarried ex now wants joint custody. Bing is bitter and angry at her for leaving him and (probably) having an affair while they were still married. The son is caught in the middle. In this film, the good guys aren't so good, and the bad guys aren't so bad. Bing doesn't sing at all, except during the title credits. And definitely not light or romantic, but very interesting.

Tuesday, December 20, 1:00PM -- TCM.
Love Affair ( '39). A Leo McCary romantic comedy that he remade in 1957 as An Affair to Remember.

Comments: Grade C. This film hasn't aged well, both physically and in terms of content. The video is fuzzy and there are audio breakups. Also, the sensibilities aren't as appealing to modern audiences as they probably were in the '30s. An Affair to Remember is a much more engaging version.

Thursday, December 22, 5:00PM -- TCM.
A Christmas Story ( '83). I know TBS or somebody else is running this for 24 hours straight on Christmas Eve, but this one's got no commercials.

Comments: What can you say. This is always a kick to watch.

Sunday, December 11, 11:00AM -- TCM.
Christmas in Connecticut ( '45). I can't actually remember this, though I've probably seen it before. But it has Barbara Stanwyck and is supposed to be a screwball comedy.

Comments: Grade B+. Barbara is a magazine food columnist who portrays herself in her columns as a wife, mother, and wonderful cook, but who is none of those things. She gets in a bind when the publisher wants to invite a needy soldier and himself to her Connecticut home (which she doesn't have) for Christmas. Getting into and out of jams is quite funny and definitely worth watching.

Comments: Grade B-. This is one of those WWII comedies about three navy guys on leave. Two of them (a comedy team I didn't recognize) are dolts. The other is a ladies man with at least one girl in every port. This time, however, he has three; two he doesn't really want and one who doesn't really want him. It's all good harmless fun.

Comments: Grade C+. Jane Austin and all those class struggles and secret desires and sitting around and reading a lot. Blah, blah, blah.

Sunday, December 5, 6:15PM -- TCM.
Pennies From Heaven ( '36). Bing Crosby's in it, and that's all I need to know. But this might be a bit on the sappy side.

Comments: Grade B-. How times have changed! In this movie, a bum just out of jail befriends a young girl (maybe 10 or 12 years old), and everyone thinks that's fine. In addition, he encourages and helps her to stay out of school. Today this sort of plot would be the stuff of horror movies. Then, it was a sentimental family movie, probably helping Bing Crosby become the beloved figure he turned into. It also helped that Bing sings those sweet, sentimental songs.

Comments: Grade B. This is an interesting hollywood soap opera of the day, with Kirk Douglas as a washed up movie star being lured out of a mental institution by an old director of his (Edward G. Robinson) to work on a movie in Italy. The director struggles with his own failure, and with infidelity. George Hamilton, in an early role, is a young actor with his own demons. And it's got Cyd Charisse. It's directed by Vincente Minelli, which means it's interesting to look at and well done.

Comments: Grade B-. Ronald Regan is an artist famous for painting a woman known only as the Randolph Girl. Complications ensue when an advertising man (Eddie Bracken) wants to use the Randolph Girl (who's really a compilation of several women and doesn't actually exist) in an ad campaign. This is amusing purely for Bracken and Reagan. Otherwise, a bit dull.

Thursday, December 1, 6:15AM -- TCM.
Andy Hardy's Double Life ( '42). I'm sort of ho-hum about Andy Hardy movies, but this one's got Esther Williams in it, and I'll watch anything she's in.

Comments: Grade C. This was a run-of-the-mill Andy Hardy movie. That is, no believable plot, just a chance for Mickey Rooney to vamp. Esther is in the movie, but in a very minor role that doesn't salvage the film.

Friday, December 2, 12:00PM -- TCM.
The First Hundred Years ( '38). A Joan Blondell comedy about a boat designer who's resentful that his wife has a New York career. I like Joan and it sounds like one of those wacky ones I usually like.

Comments: Grade B-. Perhaps this was cutting edge at the time, but most of the conflict here is about whether a woman should have her own job and stay put or follow her husband if he needs to move to another town for his career. The not-so-surprise-ending is a bit of a cop-out.

Saturday, December 3, 6:30AM -- TCM.
The Major and the Minor ( '42). I know I've seen this, but I can't remember it. Ginger Rogers is also one of my favorites, so I've got to watch it.

Comments: Grade A-. Ah yes, this is classic Billy Wilder. Ginger Rogers is tired of New York and and doesn't have enough money for a train ticket home. So she masquerades as a 14-year-old girl and buys a less-expensive child's ticket. When the conductors get onto her, she hides in Ray Milland's sleeper and he buys into her as a child. Most of the rest of the movie is about her falling for him and yet still trying to be viewed as a child (not to get Ray in trouble for spending the night in his sleeper!). The romantic tension is great, as is the scene of Ray trying to tell Ginger about why she ought not let boys get to forward with her.

Comments: Grade B. This is Wheeler without Woolsey, and there probably aren't too many of those. I believe he quit making films shortly after Woolsey died. In this one, he plays a doofus but excellent football player who is signed by William Frawley to play for the Chicago Packers. The plot is really thin and very similar to other football movies (Harold Lloyd, Joe E. Brown), but Ring Lardner wrote the script, so witty repartee abounds. Eddie Foy Jr. is also in this. Unfortunately, Wheeler just isn't as good as Joe E. Brown.

Comments: I must have watched this, but it's been a while and I can't remember a thing.

Back