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OCT 23, 2006
CRIME WITHOUT PASSION (1934) USA B/W 72 mins.
Director: Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. With Claude Rains, Margo,
Whitney Bourne, Stanley Ridges, Esther Dale, Leslie Adams.
This
expressionistic un-Hollywoodized drama tells of a Nietzschean defense
lawyer whose flashy courtroom technique and shady manipulation of
evidence have earned him the title “Champion of the Damned.” Rains is
superb as the sadistic lawyer who gets involved in crime and tries to
clear himself by criminal methods.
FLESH AND FANTASY (1943) USA B/W 93 mins.
Director: Julien Duvivier. With Charles Boyer, Edward G. Robinson,
Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Benchley, Betty Field, Robert Cummings, Thomas
Mitchell.
This
three-part omnibus film is one of the classics of the macabre. First, an
ugly girl purchases a mask from a strange old toy shop and finds her
features transformed. The second episode based on Oscar Wilde’s “The
Crime of Sir Arthur Saville,” is an atmospheric gem in which a man’s
life is determined by a palmist’s prediction. In the third section, a
psychic trapeze artist is haunted by a woman.
NOV 20
BEDSIDE MANNER (1945) USA B/W 79 mins.
Director: Andrew Stone. With John Carroll, Ruth Hussey, Charles Ruggles,
Ann Rutherford, Grant Mitchell.
A neat little wartime comedy begins when medic Hussey picks up three
marines on her way to research work in Chicago. Acting, camera work, and
script are perfectly handled by director Stone in a trim production.
DESTROYER (1943) USA B/W 99 mins.
Director: William Seiter. With Edward G. Robinson, Glenn Ford,
Marguerite Chapman, Edgar Buchanan, Leo Gorcey, Regis Toomey.
A well-done wartime drama, with aging seaman Robinson being shown up by
a younger hotshot Ford. Of course, Eddie comes through in the end!
DEC 4
PASSPORT TO PIMLICO
(1949) GB B/W 85 mins.
Director: Henry Cornelius. With Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford,
Betty Warren, Hermione Baddeley, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Paul
Dupuis.
When an old charter is discovered in a small section of London claiming
the land still belongs to the Duke of Burgundy, the inhabitants decide
to secede from England. A hilarious comedy and highly original.
THE NAKED TRUTH [YOUR PAST IS SHOWING]
(1957)
GB B/W 92 mins.
Director: Mario Zampi. With Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount,
Dennis Price, Shirley Eaton.
Price is a blackmailing publisher of a tawdry expose magazine and two of
his victims are Sellers, a nasty TV personality and Terry-Thomas, a
racketeering peer. Oddball and very amusing.
JAN 22, 2007
A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT [NEVER TO LOVE] (1940)
USA B/W 74 mins.
Director: John Farrow. With Maureen O’Hara, Adolphe Menjou, Fay Bainter,
Dame May Whitty, Herbert Marshall,
C. Aubrey Smith.
A creditable remake of the 1932 Hepburn/Barrymore classic with
Menjou as a mentally ill man who suddenly regains his sanity and returns
home, with resulting fireworks. Scripted by Dalton Trumbo.
THE OTHER LOVE (1947) USA B/W 96 mins.
Director: Andre de Toth. With Barbara Stanwyck, David Niven, Richard
Conte, Maria Palmer, Joan Loring, Gilbert Roland.
When a beautiful woman finds out she is seriously ill she decides to
live the wild life with a gambler (Conte), not realizing doctor Niven
loves her. An enjoyable soaper, with Stanwyck front and centre.
FEB 19
MILLION DOLLAR LEGS (1932) USA B/W 61 mins.
Director: Edward Cline. With W.C. Fields, Jack Oakie, Lyda Roberti,
Susan Fleming, Andy Clyde, Ben Turpin, Dickie Moore, Billy Gilbert, Hugh
Herbert.
An indescribably wild, anarchic farce, set in a mythical (thank God)
country, where the strongest man gets to be President. See Fields lift
weights; see Lyda Roberti, the Polish bombshell, sizzle the scenery as
Mata Machree, the “hottest thing in all Klopstokia.” Somehow they all
end up at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.
HELLZAPOPPIN’ (1941) USA B/W 84 mins.
Director: H.C. Potter. With Ole Olsen and Chick Johnson, Martha Raye,
Mischa Auer, Jane Frazee, Robert Paige, Hugh Herbert.
Two screwballs unfold their own plot when their director tells them
they can’t make a movie without a story. Some moments here of inspired
lunacy, in a surrealistic, anarchic film like no other ever made. The
original show was a smash success on Broadway—in spite of the New York
critics.
MAR 26
STARS IN MY CROWN (1950) USA B/W 89 mins.
Director: Jacques Tourneur. With Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Dean Stockwell,
Alan Hale, Lewis Stone, Ed Begley, Amanda Blake, James Arness.
A gentle, moving story about a self-made parson and his effect on a
small Southern town. Prime Americana. Also, interesting for pre-Gunsmoke
casting of Arness and Blake.
WAGON MASTER (195O) USA B/W 86 mins.
Director: John Ford. With Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, Harry Carey Jr., Ward
Bond, Alan Mowbray, Jane Darwell, James Arness.
This eloquent Western eschews pomposity, self-consciousness, and,
stars. Two drifters Johnson and Carey, sign on to guide a Mormon wagon
train (led by Bond) to the Utah frontier. The film inspired the later TV
series, Wagon Train.
APR 16
MISS SUSIE SLAGLES’S (1945) USA B/W 86 mins.
Director: John Berry. With Joan Caulfield, Veronica Lake, Lillian Gish,
Sonny Tufts, Billy DeWolfe, Ray Collins.
A charming, turn-of-the-century comedy about a boarding house for
medical students run by Miss Gish, aka Slagle. With an excellent cast.
BELLES ON THEIR TOES (1952) USA COLOUR 89
mins.
Director: Henry Levin. With Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, Debra Paget,
Jeffrey Hunter, Edward Arnold, Hoagy Carmichael, Barbara Bates, Martin
Milner.
In this charming sequel to 1950’s “Cheaper by the Dozen,” and told
with a noticeably feminist point of view, Loy must struggle to support
(as well as raise) her maturing family. The early 1900s is beautifully
captured.
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