Jinglebonesnewyearsresolution - Tumblr Posts
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
MARY POPPINS RETURNS (Dir: Rob Marshall, 2018). New Year’s resolution is going well. Second movie of the year Mary Poppins Returns. The second best Mary Poppins movie I have seen. (Third best if you include Saving Mr Banks.) 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com
THE SECRET OF THE LOCH (Dir: Milton Rosmer, 1934). My quest to watch as many movies as I can in 2019 continues with movie number 3: The Secret of the Loch. It’s a little bit ancient, a little bit silly and a little bit entertaining. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com
THE MALTESE FALCON (Dir: John Huston, 1941). Fourth movie of the year; the daddy of film noir and an absolute classic The Maltese Falcon. Also, one of the rare occasions when a remake is superior to the original. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com
THE MALTESE FALCON (Dir: Roy Del Ruth, 1931) Movie number 5; the original version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, which I guess makes it the grandaddy of film noir. Lacking both the charismatic presence of Humphrey Bogart and the sheer style of the 1941 version, it is still entertaining enough and being made pre Hays Code means it’s a little bit saucier than the remake! 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com
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
KING OF THIEVES (Dir: James Marsh, 2018) My quest to watch as many movies as I can in 2019 continues with movie King of Thieves. Based on the true story of the Hatton Garden safe burglary of 2015, King of Thieves is something of a sweary throwback to the British crime caper films of yore. The Italian Job’s Michael Caine stars as criminal mastermind Brian Reader and, as his criminal cohorts, is supported by a top notch cast including Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent and various other Harry Potter cast members. The real-life crime was as audacious as its perpetrators were ultimately careless and is neatly told here against the London locations on which it took place. While King of Thieves won’t change cinema history it is stylish, old-fashion (in a good way), frequently humorous and well worth a watch! 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com
BORN YESTERDAY (Dir: George Cukor, 1950) Movie of the year number 8, Born Yesterday, is an absolute classic. Judy Holliday’s recreation of her Broadway role as the uneducated mistress of bent junk magnet Broderick Crawford is one the greatest comedic performances in cinema history. Maybe the greatest. Completing the trio of fine star performances is William Holden as the journalist who Crawford hires to smarten Holliday up. All three are excellent but the movie is really Holliday’s; deservedly winning her the Best Actress Oscar in a tough category including heavyweights Bette Davis (All About Eve) and Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard). Perhaps slightly betraying its stage origins, this is still a cinematic gem with Cukor handling the intelligent razor sharp Garson Kanin dialogue with his usual class. Born Yesterday is truly classic Hollywood at its finest. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com
ALL ABOUT EVE (Dir: Joseph L Mankiewicz, 1950). Fasten your seatbelts for movie number 9: All About Eve. This backstage drama made cinema history with 14 Oscar nominations, a record it held for almost half a decade until Titanic equalled the feat in 1998. Both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter we’re nominated in the Best Actress category, although both went home empty handed (see previous post). In truth the movie is more of an ensemble piece, with above the title Celeste Holm and George Sanders equally important to the narrative. Mankiewicz’s highly quotable screenplay is witty and waspish by turns and, as director, he elicits excellent performances from the entire cast, including a pre-stardom turn from ingénue Marilyn Monroe. 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
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
THE LOVES OF JOANNA GODDEN (Dir: Charles Frend, 1947). I will admit to knowing little about movie number 12 before watching. Yet The Loves of Joanna Godden is an Ealing Studios production of some pedigree, with a screenplay by H E Bates and music by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Somewhat atypical of Ealing, Joanna Godden is a romantic period piece starring Googie Withers as a young woman who inherits a sheep farm and is determined to make it a success without the aid of a husband. This proto-feminist plot is unusual in post-war British cinema and especially so from Ealing whose protagonists are almost always men. This is certainly to be commended. As is the beautiful Romney Marsh locales and the realistic depiction of the devastation caused by an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. It is perhaps here where Joanna Godden most belies its Ealing roots as the studio was paramount in the British documentary and social-realist movement. Watching Miss Withers juggle the duel concerns of lambing and of finding or fending off potential suitors is not exactly thrilling; yet the film is enjoyable and worth a watch as an unusual release from the years when Ealing was at the peak of its powers. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com