WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (Dir: Robert Zemeckis, 1988). My New Years Resolution Is To Watch More Movies!

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (Dir: Robert Zemeckis, 1988). My New Year’s resolution is to watch more movies! Made a start this afternoon with the greatest movie of the 1980’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis / Richard Williams, 1988). 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog: jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (Dir: Leo McCarey, 1957). Soon to be wed playboy Cary Grant and in-a-relationship Deborah Kerr engage in a chaste shipboard romance in movie number 10: An Affair to Remember. After some smart comedic attempts to avoid the attention of the fellow passengers, the couple arrange to rendezvous atop the Empire State Building six months later to circumstantiate their affair. Tragedy, however, intervenes before the lovers can reunite (hankies at the ready ladies). I am fully aware that this movie is considered a romantic classic and is loved by many (most famously Sleepless in Seattle director and co-writer Nora Ephron) but I, alas, am not among them. Yes, Milton Krasner’s Deluxe Color CinemaScope photography is beautiful. Yes, the leads are very attractive, although Grant at 53 was getting a bit long in the tooth to play these playboy types. But the addition of the toothsome children’s choir, some laboured shipboard farce and the manipulative sentimentality of the second half just doesn’t do it for me. It is certainly worth a watch for its leading players and some genuinely smart dialogue from McCarey and cohorts. If you like this sort of thing you may well love this glossy and glitzy cinematic equivalent of pink champagne. I personally would rather stick with Ephron’s superior rom com tribute Sleepless in Seattle. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

Happy Hobgoblin Day!

SATAN MET A LADY (Dir: William Dieterle, 1936). Hollywood’s second adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon is, in spite of the presence of Bette Davis, its weakest. Davis is reputed to have referred to this comedy take on the famous thriller as ‘trash’. That said, Ms Davis is never less than watchable and I could forgive her almost anything. Even trash. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

BIRDS OF PREY aka THE PERFECT ALIBI (Dir: Basil Dean, 1930).

Birds of Prey, released in the US as The Perfect Alibi, is an early British talkie co-scripted by director / producer Dean and A A Milne.

Based upon Milne’s play The Fourth Wall, this creaky thriller has little of the whimsical charm of Winnie the Pooh. Rather the story concerns the murder investigation, by Frank Lawton and Dorothy Byrd, of their uncle and guardian C Aubrey Smith.

In effect, Birds of Prey is a murder mystery in which the audience know the identity of the murder. As such, its mild thrills are to be gleaned from how and when the killers will be caught. The whole affair is rather jolly and somewhat predictable. However, Nigel Bruce, in a supporting role here as a blustering major, is always entertaining and keep an eye out for an uncredited appearance by future British film legend Jack Hawkins.

100+ movie reviews now available on my blog JINGLE BONES MOVIE TIME! Link below.

SUSPICION (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock, 1941). 
Cary Grant is a decidedly dodgy geezer and Joan Fontaine his timid bride who suspects him of murder in movie number 11: Suspicion. Let’s be honest; this is not quite top drawer Hitchcock. It is, however, very, very good. Lacking much of the gallows humour and nail-biting set pieces which characterise Hitchcock’s later work, this is still a thoroughly entertaining romantic melodrama-cum-thriller. Some slightly artificial Hollywood sets stand in for the English countryside, but otherwise the whole thing is beautifully shot and expertly played by a stellar cast, especially Nigel Bruce as Grant’s bumbling, naive business partner. Highlights include a grizzly conversation about autopsy over a chicken dinner, a t
ense game of ‘Anagrams’ and the single most suspenseful glass of milk in movie history! Great stuff! 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com