Guilty Pleasures: The Adventures of Hajji Baba

1954 Adventure
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Don Weis

Starring
John Derek
Elaine Stewart
Amanda Blake
Thomas Gomez
Paul Picerni
Donald Randolph
Rosemarie Bowe
Claude Akins

My Favorite Christmas Movie

White Christmas

1954 Musical

From Paramount Pictures

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Starring

Bing Crosby

Danny Kaye

Rosemary Clooney

Vera-Ellen

Dean Jagger

Mary Wickes

John Brascia

Anne Whitfield

REVIEW: Mary Poppins Returns

Directed by Rob Marshall
2018 Family Fantasy
2 hours, 10 minutes
From Disney

Starring
Emily Blunt
Lin-Manual Miranda
Ben Whishaw
Emily Mortimer
Julie Walters
Colin Firth
David Warner
Jeremy Swift
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
Meryl Streep
Dick Van Dyke
Angela Lansbury
and the children
Pixie Davies
Nathanael Saleh
Joel Dawson

Remakes: Destry Rides Again

Universal owned the rights to this Max Brand novel and made three versions of it in 1932, 1939 and 1954.  The 1939 film, of course, is the revered one and it deserves every bit of the praise.  It plays well to this day... I know because I just walked over from my easy chair to computer after having watched it.  Well, um, okay, I finished watching the 1954 version after glomming the 1939 one.  Trust me, I have never known this story as well as I do this very moment.

REVIEW: The Favourite

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
2018 Historical Comedy Drama
1 hour 59 minutes
From Fox Searchlight

Starring
Olivia Colman
Emma Stone
Rachel Weisz
Nicholas Hoult
Joe Alwyn

Sal Mineo

Boy oh boy, did he want to become a movie star.  Did he ever.  At a point in time, it's all he could think about.  There would be a time that his motivation was to make it about the work itself, but in the beginning and for some time afterward, it was about the money and the perks and the fame.  And he didn't want the bucks just for himself but for his family as well.  He wanted them to have luxuries and respect and pampering.  He knew that when his family said their last name was Mineo others would say... are you related to Sal Mineo?  What could be any better?

Good 50's Films: The Country Girl

1954 Drama
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by George Seaton

Starring
Bing Crosby
Grace Kelly
William Holden
Anthony Ross
Gene Reynolds
Jon Provost

Donna Reed

She was the symbol of gentle femininity through 40 movies, most of which were B efforts.  Donna Reed had good parts in two incredibly famous films, one of which would see her win an Academy Award for best supporting actress, and the other is a national treasure.  As the 1950's were winding down, she made the transition to television and put that gentle femininity to good use as one of TV's most famous moms.

Good 50's Films: Titanic

1953 Drama
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Jean Negulesco

Starring
Clifton Webb
Barbara Stanwyck
Robert Wagner
Audrey Dalton
Richard Basehart
Thelma Ritter
Brian Aherne
Harper Carter
Frances Bergen
Edmund Purdom

The Directors: Elia Kazan

The name Elia Kazan conjures many things for many people and always has.  He helped bring about a famous acting school, he was the go-to Broadway director of his day and he provided the movie industry with a basketful of classical films.  He was a producer and a writer, both of screenplays and novels.  

REVIEW: Green Book

Directed by Peter Farrelly
2018 Comedy Drama
2 hours 10 minutes
From Universal

Starring
Viggo Mortensen
Mahershala Ali
Linda Cardellini

Good 50's Films: Witness for the Prosecution

1957 Courtroom Drama
From United Artists
Directed by Billy Wilder

Starring
Tyrone Power
Marlene Dietrich
Charles Laughton
Elsa Lanchester
John Williams
Torin Thatcher
Henry Daniell
Una O'Connor
Ian Wolfe
Norma Varden
Ruta Lee

REVIEW: A Private War

Directed by Matthew Heineman
2018 Biographical War Drama
1 hour 50 minutes
From Aviron Pictures

Starring
Rosamund Pike
Jamie Dornan
Tom Hollander
Nikki Amuka-Bird
Stanley Tucci

Guilty Pleasures: Suddenly Last Summer

1959 Drama
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz

Starring
Elizabeth Taylor
Montgomery Clift 
Katharine Hepburn
Mercedes McCambridge
Albert Dekker
Gary Raymond
Mavis Villiers

REVIEW: Boy Erased

Directed by Joel Edgerton
2018 Drama
1 hour 54 minutes
From Focus Features

Starring
Lucas Hedges
Nicole Kidman
Joel Edgerton
Russell Crowe

Mitzi Gaynor

What a little firecracker she was in a handful of musicals in the 1950's.  She would be nearly forgotten perhaps had she not landed the lead in South Pacific in 1958.  When she quit films five years later she said it was because I wasn't very hot, I was just ordinary.  I don't think that was true.  She was an exquisite dancer, a good singer, she handled dramatic scenes well, she was lovely to look at, there was a vibrancy about her that was unmistakable... and yet there was something that didn't tie it all up.  We'll look into that.

REVIEW: Bohemian Rhapsody

Directed by Bryan Singer
2018 Musical Biography
2 hours 14 minutes
From 20th Century Fox

Starring
Rami Malek
Gwilym Lee
Ben Hardy
Joe Mazzello
Lucy Boynton
Aiden Gillen
Allen Leach
Tom Hollander
Aaron McCusker

Good 50's Films: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

1953 Musical Comedy
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Howard Hawks

Starring
Jane Russell
Marilyn Monroe
Charles Coburn
Elliot Reid
Tommy Noonan
George Winslow
Taylor Holmes
Norma Varden

REVIEW: Beautiful Boy

Directed by Felix Van Groeningen
2018 Drama
2 hours
From Amazon Studios

Starring
Steve Carell
Timothée Chalamet
Maura Tierney
Kaitlyn Dever
Amy Ryan
Timothy Hutton

Eva Marie Saint

Although her resumé might suggest otherwise, she has claimed she was never a workaholic and that she had interests far more important away from the movie business.  To her immense credit, one of those interests was her family which took second to nothing.  She clung tightly to her 65-year marriage and a son and daughter who meant everything to her.  She turned down roles that would have separated her from them and yet she made her mark in a town with far more ambitious people.

REVIEW: Halloween

Directed by David Gordon Greene
2018 Horror Thriller
1 hour 46 minutes
From Universal

Starring
Jamie Lee Curtis
Judy Greer
Andi Matichak
Will Patton
James Jude Courtney
Nick Castle
Haluk Bilginer
Jefferson Hall
Rhian Rees
Toby Huss

Burl Ives

He was larger than life... in more ways than one.  While he was a character actor in the movies, that description doesn't quite fit his enormous talent.  Frankly, he was a character long before he entered films.  He was an actor not only in films but also television, radio and the stage.  When Burl Ives spoke, you listened.  But he also sang and was considered a folk singer, troubadour or balladeer... you pick.  Perhaps no one I have written about in these pages has had a more colorful life. 

REVIEW: The Old Man and the Gun

Directed by David Lowery
2018 Crime Caper Comedy
1 hour 33 minutes
From Fox Searchlight

Starring
Robert Redford
Casey Affleck
Sissy Spacek
Tika Sumpter
Danny Glover
Tom Waits
Keith Carradine

REVIEW: First Man

Directed by Damien Chazelle
2018 Historical Biography
2 hours 21 minutes
From Universal

Starring
Ryan Gosling
Claire Foy
Jason Clarke
Kyle Chandler
Corey Stoll
Pablo Schreiber
Lukas Haas
Patrick Fugit

Good 50's Films: All I Desire

1953 Drama
From Universal-International
Directed by Douglas Sirk

Starring
Barbara Stanwyck
Richard Carlson
Lyle Bettger
Marcia Henderson
Lori Nelson
Maureen O'Sullivan
Billy Gray
Richard Long
Lotte Stein

REVIEW: Colette

Directed by Wash Westmoreland
2018 Historical Biography
1 hour 51 minutes
From Bleecker Street Media

Starring
Keira Knightley
Dominic West
Denise Gough
Rebecca Root
Eleanor Tomlinson
Fiona Shaw
Ayisha Hart
Robert Pugh

REVIEW: A Star Is Born

Directed by Bradley Cooper
2018 Musical Romance Drama
2 hours 15 minutes
From Warner Bros

Starring
Lady Gaga
Bradley Cooper
Sam Elliott
Andrew Dice Clay
Rafi Gavron
Anthony Ramos
Dave Chapelle

June Haver

Last month a movie fan and reader of this blog requested a posting on actress-singer-dancer June Haver.  I perhaps should have found a way to include her in our salute to the 1940's (her most prominent movie decade) but on the other hand she did make four films in the 1950's (the decade we're currently featuring) so let's have a go at it.

Jo Van Fleet

The other day someone called me a tough mother (he is delusional... I'm a pussycat) and as my movie-saturated brain works, I immediately thought of the character actress, Jo Van Fleet.  Not only is her career mainly a fifties thing (and aren't we highlighting the fifties as we type?) but in most of her films she was indeed a tough mother.  If she weren't a mother in some of them, she was still tough.   She was always tough... it's about all she knew how to be... on screen and off.

Good 50's Films: A Place in the Sun

1951 Romance Drama
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by George Stevens

Starring
Montgomery Clift
Elizabeth Taylor
Shelley Winters
Anne Revere
Keefe Brasselle
Herbert Heyes
Raymond Burr
Shepherd Strudwick
Kathryn Givney
Frieda Inescourt
Fred Clarke

Vittorio Gassman

Since we are saluting the 1950's these days, it's only proper that we include a piece on Vittorio Gassman, the world-famous Italian actor, director and writer who was equally at home on the stage as he was in movies.  He became famous in the U.S. in the early 50's when he impulsively married American actress Shelley Winters and made four films at MGM.  (Winters' bones would be rattling if she knew we're doing a piece on him before one on her.) 

Good 50's Films: Woman Obsessed:

1959 Romance Drama
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Henry Hathaway

Starring
Susan Hayward
Stephen Boyd
Theodore Bickel
Dennis Holmes
Barbara Nichols
Ken Scott
Arthur Franz

Cary Grant Films of the 1950's

The elegant one made 72 feature-length films from 1932 to 1966.  Far more than not were successes.  He retired at age 72, choosing to get out while he still could (he would live 20 more years).  His leading ladies had been getting younger and younger and he thought it was all looking a bit foolish.  But in the 50's he still had some good films to turn out as the following will remind you.

More B Leading Men

The following three men added a great deal to the climate of the supporting actor (not too far down the list) who also had leading roles in B movies.  If you were around in the 1950's you know them and if you are a big movie and old TV fan you're likely to know them.  It would be a rare indeed that at least one of them hasn't a flick on the tube every single day.  Collectively, they have made 310 movies so obviously we're not discussing them all.  Let's hit some highlights.

REVIEW: Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood

Directed by Matt Tyrnauer
2018 Documentary
1 hour 38 minutes
From Greenwich Entertainment

Starring
Scotty Bowers
Stephen Fry
Peter Bart

Good 50's Films: Niagara

1953 Film Noir
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Henry Hathaway

Starring
Marilyn Monroe
Joseph Cotten
Jean Peters
Casey Adams
Denis O'Dea
Richard Allan
Don Wilson
Lurene Tuttle

REVIEW: The Wife

Directed by Björn Runje
2018 Drama
1 hour 40 minutes
From Sony Pictures

Starring 
Glenn Close
Jonathan Pryce
Max Irons
Christian Slater
Harold Lloyd
Annie Starke
Elizabeth McGovern

The Directors: Vincente Minnelli

There is a line in his most honored film Gigi:  Play the game... be gay, extravagant, outrageous.  It should be on his tombstone because it so accurately depicts the father of the Hollywood musical, famous for his lavish sets, his stylish use of vivid color and richly romantic themes.  One of his trademarks is a dream sequences he's used in a number of of his films.  He was MGM's most prestigious, highest-paid director and made 29 films during his 20-year reign at the studio.

Good 50's Films: The Proud and Profane

1956 Romantic Drama
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by George Seaton

Starring
William Holden
Deborah Kerr
Thelma Ritter
Dewey Martin
William Redfield
Adam Williams

Howard Keel

His initial and most enduring fame came from being MGM's resident baritone in some of the studio's most popular musicals.  While MGM had famous musicals featuring dancers Kelly and Astaire and musicals starring female singers such as Judy Garland, MGM wanted someone on the level of Warner Bros' Gordon MacRae.  Enter Howard Keel.

Bogie's Films of the 1950's

The tough guy entered movies in 1930.  He made over three dozen in that decade, some of them quality films, but he didn't really hit the big time until 1941 with the first film noir, The Maltese Falcon.  From then on he scored a lot of hits.  He made 15 films in the 50's, an impressive output since he died in early 1957.  There are three classics, several very good ones, a few that didn't quite go the distance and one that stands among the worst films ever made.

Good 1950's Films: In a Lonely Place

1950 Film Noir
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Nicholas Ray

Starring
Humphrey Bogart
Gloria Grahame
Frank Lovejoy
Art Smith
Jeff Donnell
Carl Benton Reid
Robert Warwick
Martha Stewart

The Other James Stewart

By the time he became a movie star in England, it was decided that he would have to change his name because America already had quite a famous James Stewart.  The British James Stewart didn't like it one bit although he understood.  So he was renamed Stewart Granger but for his entire life he would be known by one and all as Jimmy. 

Good 1950's Films: Clash by Night

1952 Drama
From RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Fritz Lang

Starring
Barbara Stanwyck
Paul Douglas
Robert Ryan
Marilyn Monroe
Keith Andes
J. Carrol Naish
Silvio Minciotti

Flirting with Fifties' Fame

What these three women have in common is that they had some brief fame in the 1950's and then disappeared.  One was a good actress who opted for raising her kids away from the glare of Hollywood.  Another was an Oscar-nominated actress whose downward spiral culminated in suicide.  The third was a pretty ingenue who could never break out of that mold.  One other thing they have in common is that you may not have heard of any of them... age-depending.

Michael Rennie

He was a tall, handsome, bright British sophisticate with a beautifully smooth speaking voice who graced the screen, stage and television for 30 years.  True stardom, however, seem to elude Michael Rennie for all those years although his greatest claim to fame would come from his American films in the 1950's.

Good 50's Films: Angel Face

1953 Film Noir
From RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Otto Preminger

Starring
Robert Mitchum
Jean Simmons
Mona Freeman
Herbert Marshall
Barbara O'Neil
Kenneth Tobey
Leon Ames
Jim Backus
Raymond Greenleaf

Pier Angeli

At the dawning of the 1950's American movie studios caught on that Continental screen types were becoming very desirable.  MGM quickly hired two young actresses, Italy's Pier Angeli and France's Leslie Caron.  That introduction has always stayed in my mind for the simple reason that they are the first two European actresses that I can ever recall.  Leo roared about these two as the MGM publicity machine went into overdrive on both of them.  

Good 50's Films: Island in the Sun

1957 Drama
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Robert Rossen

Starring
James Mason
Joan Fontaine
Dorothy Dandridge
Joan Collins
Michael Rennie
Patricia Owens
Stephen Boyd
John Williams
John Justin
Diana Wynyard
Basil Sydney
Ronald Squire
Harry Belafonte

REVIEW: Woman Walks Ahead

Directed by Susanna White
2018 Western Biography
1 hour 41 mins
From A24

Starring
Jessica Chastain
Michael Greyeyes
Sam Rockwell
Chaske Spencer
Ciarán Hinds
Bill Camp
Rulan Tangen

RIP Tab Hunter

I was saddened that Tab Hunter died Sunday at age 86 at his home in Montecito (Santa Barbara), California, of cardiac arrest caused by a clot in his leg that moved to his lung.  All the obituaries on him have it right when they refer to him as the 50's Hollywood heartthrob.  He was indeed that... oh my God, yes.  One said his blond all-American good looks made him a matinee idol and poster boy for the Eisenhower era optimism.  Bingo.  

Esther Williams

Across town at 20th Century Fox Darryl F. Zanuck had a smashing success by hiring Norwegian Olympic ice skater Sonja Henie to his roster of stars and featuring her in 10 films where she twirled and romanced some of the studio's brightest stars.  MGM's Mister Big Deal, Louis B. Mayer, wanted his own cash cow so he had his talent scouts comb the Los Angeles area and one of them came up with a shapely swimmer by the name of Esther Williams.  Sonya and Darryl only wished for this kind of success. 

What If Kate Had Met Bette

Last week I had a long phone call with a Hollywood friend who clearly loves movies as much as I do and certainly knows his stuff.  We were chatting up those Golden Age stars when we got into a long discourse on Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn.  He
likes Bette just a teense more than Kate and it's arguably the reverse for me but we agree they are both a notch or two above most of the actresses of their time and most of whom have come since. 

Good 50's Films: The Big Heat

1953 Film Noir
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Fritz Lang

Starring
Glenn Ford
Gloria Grahame
Lee Marvin
Alexander Scourby
Jocelyn Brando
Jeanette Nolan
Adam Williams
Willis Bouchey
Robert Burton

Sterling Hayden

He was the original Hollywood hippie... a rebel with a cause.  His motivations for being an actor were all mercenary.  The more money he could earn, the bigger boats he could buy and the more he could take to sea.  It was the only place that made any sense to him.  On the water you learn the ropes and obey the rules.  Failure to do so can mean your last voyage.  It was simple and easy to understand.  

Remakes: The Rains Came

Both screen versions of Louis Bromfield's popular novel of forbidden love and disaster in colonial India took liberties from his work and they were also different from one another.  The 1939 film, The Rains Came, used the title of his book while the 1955 version was called The Rains of Ranchipur.  The disaster scenes, obviously the highlight, are done well and provide plenty of excitement in both of the 20th Century Fox films.

Good 50's Films: The Blue Veil

1951 Drama
From RKO Radio Pictures
Directed by Curtis Bernhardt

Starring 
Jane Wyman
Charles Laughton
Don Taylor
Joan Blondell
Richard Carlson
Cyril Cusack
Agnes Moorehead
Audrey Totter
Natalie Wood
Vivian Vance
Everett Sloane
Carleton Young
Dan O'Herlihy

Hitchcock Quiz

It's been a while since we've done a quiz.  This one is pretty easy, especially, of course, for Hitchcock fans.  Even non-fans should be able to nail a few.  What we have here are memorable scenes from 12 of the master's American films.  See how you do.  Answers in the next posting.  Ready?

Almost Famous III

After Ida Lupino left Warner Bros in 1947 she found that freelancing was not getting her enough of the kinds of scripts she wanted.  Then after her 1948 marriage to producer-writer Collier Young, they and a couple of friends decided to form their own company where she would not only produce but direct and write and occasionally star.  The decision was quickly made to make low-budget but hopefully profitable films.  Lupino's dream was also to discover new talent.  Here are three of them:

Good 50's Films: Bonjour Tristesse

1958 Comedy Drama
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Otto Preminger

Starring
Jean Seberg
David Niven
Deborah Kerr
Mylène Demongeot
Geoffrey Horne
Walter Chiari
Juliette Gréco
Martita Hunt

Julie Harris

She was one of the high priestesses of the American stage... let there be no doubt.  She would have probably considered television to be her second most valued medium for she delivered her fair share of celebrated performances, often as part of the prestigious Hallmark Hall of Fame.  Movies?  Aw, not so much.  In my opinion she made fewer than a half dozen very good films and probably popped in for movie work for the money.  We who truly love movies are just damned glad we got her when we could.

George Nader

I discovered George Nader in the pages of Photoplay, Modern Screen and any number of other movie magazines.  I did read the silly stories of performers who interested me but I was mainly in it for the photographs which I always found to be mega-colorful.  Some would be head shots that covered the entire page.  I am certain those photographs opened in me my love of beautiful eyes. 

Good 50's Films: Mister Roberts

1955 Military Comedy Drama
From Warner Bros.
Directed by John Ford & Mervyn LeRoy

Starring
Henry Fonda
James Cagney
William Powell
Jack Lemmon
Betsy Palmer
Ward Bond
Phil Carey
Nick Adams
Ken Curtis
Perry Lopez
Harry Carey Jr.
Patrick Wayne

The Directors: Anthony Mann

How could I not be smitten with a director who gathered his first blush of fame with film noir in the 40's and westerns in the 50's?  Let's get real here.  His true fame came with those westerns that began in 1950 and included five sublime ones with James Stewart (and three non-westerns) that are etched with noir and usually referred to as psychological westerns.

Five More "B" Westerns I Loved

The title says it all.  You've hardly had time to bathe and change clothes (cowboys rarely did that) from our first Five B Westerns postings and here we have five more.  Is this just going to go on and on, you may ask?  Well, no, this is it for the B westerns unless you write and beg for more.  My love of these films stems from my total immersion in westerns that featured Indians.  Let's git ridin'.

Good 50's Films: Johnny Guitar

1954 Western
From Republic Pictures
Directed by Nicholas Ray

Starring
Joan Crawford
Sterling Hayden
Mercedes McCambridge
Scott Brady
Ward Bond
Ben Cooper
Ernest Borgnine
John Carradine
Royal Dano
Paul Fix
Frank Ferguson
Rhys Williams

Western Character Actors

These character actors have populated so many westerns, particularly those in the 1950's and later, that fans of the genre would recognize the faces of many of them.  Some of you may recognize some of their names as well.  We aren't doing lengthy bios this time nor would I want to try your patience mentioning even most of their movies.  Let's face it, character actors have usually appeared in far more films than leading actors could possibly manage.  It's the photographs that may be the most fun this time.

Good 50's Films: The Searchers

1956 Western
From Warner Bros
Directed by John Ford

Starring
John Wayne
Jeffrey Hunter
Vera Miles
Ward Bond
Natalie Wood
John Qualen
Olive Carey
Ken Curtis
Harry Carey Jr.
Henry Brandon
Hank Worden
Walter Coy
Dorothy Jordan
Patrick Wayne

Audie Murphy and Wanda Hendrix

They were two tempestuous Lilliputians who had bad tempers, full enemy camps, unexceptional Hollywood careers, a brief marriage and short lives.  Audie Murphy gathered some fame for his decidedly B westerns but it was based on a greater fame as the most decorated war hero of WWII.  Wanda Hendrix, ever the southern belle, was gorgeous and sexy but is barely remembered at all.  Let's visit.

Five "B" Westerns I Loved

We'll admit that none of them rivaled Shane but these B movies are the very ones I flocked to in my youth and still watch whenever I get the chance.  Three of them, in fact, I have seen recently.  I cherish my afternoons, particularly if rainy with comfort food nearby, watching a colorful B western.  I'm saddled up and ready to go. Are you?

Good 50's Films: Shane

1953 Western
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by George Stevens

Starring
Alan Ladd
Jean Arthur
Van Heflin
Brandon De Wilde
Jack Palance
Ben Johnson
Edgar Buchanan
Emile Meyer
Elisha Cook, Jr.
Douglas Spencer
John Dierkes
Ellen Corby
Nancy Kulp

Westerns

You've been warned. The month has arrived that we're going to jaw about westerns.  Yep, pardner, the whole month.  That's gonna work out to nine postings... not nearly enough if you like westerns but far too many if you don't.  I appreciate that some of you may not be so fond of them... I've certainly heard it enough in my time.  I only know I was raised on them and some things, I guess, just stick with you.

Gordon MacRae

The guy could sing... about that there was never any question.  I think he had the finest, richest, mellowest baritone voice to ever hit the movies. (Stay home, Nelson Eddy.) Gordon MacRae practically raised me.  I never missed a single one of those sunny, nostalgia musicals he made at Warner Bros, mainly with Doris Day.  He was a singer who could act but unfortunately after musicals went out of style, especially his kind of musical, Hollywood didn't take notice of his acting abilities and they cast him aside.  I was very unhappy.  So was he.

Good 50's Films: The Nun's Story

1959 Drama
From Warner Bros.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Starring
Audrey Hepburn
Peter Finch
Edith Evans
Peggy Ashcroft
Dean Jagger
Mildred Dunnock
Beatrice Straight
Patricia Collinge
Ruth White
Barbara O'Neil
Colleen Dewhurst

Richard Egan

It's likely even he would have said that he never made it to the top of the Hollywood heap, never achieved the status that he might have once wished for.  But he was most certainly a durable leading man, able to carry a movie and I know (because I just looked it up) that I didn't miss a single film of his in the 50's.  

Remakes: Born Yesterday

Born Yesterday was a popular comedy that ran on Broadway for three years in the late 1940's.  It made a star of Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn, the ditzy, ex-chorus girl girlfriend of Harry Brock, a loud-mouthed, uncouth junk tycoon (Paul Douglas) who is in Washington to try to strike a deal with crooked politicians.  He hires a tutor (Gary Merrill) to teach his girlfriend some etiquette so that she may make a more favorable impression upon the political elite.

Good 50's Films: Oklahoma!

1955 Musical
From The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Starring
Gordon MacRae
Shirley Jones
Gene Nelson
Gloria Grahame
Charlotte Greenwood
Eddie Albert
Rod Steiger
James Whitmore
Barbara Lawrence
Jay C. Flippen

Good 50's Films: From Here to Eternity

1953 Romance Drama
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Starring
Burt Lancaster
Montgomery Clift
Deborah Kerr
Donna Reed
Frank Sinatra
Ernest Borgnine
Philip Ober
Jack Warden

James Dean: The First American Teenager

He was a renegade... an outsider... a con artist... an iconoclast.  He wasn't so much ahead of his time as he defined his time.  He wasn't an original because two others, Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando, hit the scene a little earlier, but the trio was original.  Hollywood had truly never seen anything like any of them.  Dean idolized both actors, recognizing that he had their same enormous talent and deeply troubling ways.

Movie-Making in the 1950s

Ah, at last we have made it to the 1950's, my favorite movie decade.  I could never dispute that the Golden Age of Hollywood, the 1930's and 1940's, was the best that was ever served up and I said as much when those decades were highlighted.  But for me there's never been any that tripped my switches like the fabulous fifties.  There's a good reason.

Good 80's Films: Ragtime

1981 Period Drama
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by Milos Forman

Starring
James Cagney
Howard E. Rollins Jr.
Elizabeth McGovern
James Olson
Mary Steenburgen
Brad Dourif
Mandy Patinkin
Kenneth McMillan
Pat O'Brien
Donald O'Connor
Robert Joy
Norman Mailer
Moses Gunn
Debbie Allen
Jeff Daniels

Good 80's Films: Longtime Companion

1989 Drama
From The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Directed by Norman René

Starring
Campbell Scott
Patrick Cassidy
Stephen Caffrey
Bruce Davison
Mark Lamos
Dermot Mulroney
John Dossett
Michael Schoeffling
Brian Cousins
Mary-Louise Parker

Good 80's Films: Empire of the Sun

1987 War Drama
From Warner Bros
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Starring
Christian Bale
John Malkovich
Miranda Richardson
Nigel Havers
Joe Pantoliano
Masato Ibu
Takataro Kataoka
Emily Richard
Rupert Frazer
Robert Stephens
Ben Stiller

Good 80's Films: American Gigolo

1980 Drama
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by Paul Schrader

Starring
Richard Gere
Lauren Hutton
Hector Elizondo
Nina Van Pallandt
Bill Duke
K Callan
Thom Stewart

Good 80's Films: Crimes of the Heart

1986 Comedy Drama
From Di Laurentiis Entertainment
Directed by Bruce Beresford

Starring
Diane Keaton
Jessica Lange
Sissy Spacek
Tess Harper
Hurd Hatfield
David Carpenter
Beeson Carroll
Sam Shepard

Good 80's Films: Silverado

1985 Western
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan

Starring
Kevin Kline
Scott Glenn
Kevin Costner
Danny Glover
Brian Dennehy
Linda Hunt
Rosanna Arquette
Jeff Goldblum
John Cleese
Lynn Whitfield
Ray Baker
Jeff Fahey
Joe Seneca
Amanda Wyss
Patricia Gaul
James Gammon
Richard Jenkins

Good 80's Films: Rocket Gibraltar

1988 Drama
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Daniel Petrie

Starring
Burt Lancaster
Suzy Amis
Patricia Clarkson
Frances Conroy
Sinéad Cusak
Bill Pullman
John Glover
Kevin Spacey
Macaulay Culkin

Good 80's Films: Steel Magnolias

1989 Comedy Drama
From TriStar Pictures
Directed by Herbert Ross

Starring
Sally Field
Dolly Parton
Shirley MacLaine
Olympia Dukakis
Daryl Hannah
Julia Roberts
Tom Skerritt
Dylan McDermott
Sam Shepard

Good 80's Films: Stand by Me

1986 Drama
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Rob Reiner

Starring
Wil Wheaton
River Phoenix
Corey Feldman
Jerry O'Connell
Kiefer Sutherland
Casey Siemaszko
Marshall Bell
Bradley Gregg
John Cusack
Richard Dreyfuss

Good 80's Films: On Golden Pond

1981 Drama
From Universal
Directed by Mark Rydell

Starring
Katharine Hepburn
Henry Fonda
Jane Fonda
Doug McKeon
Dabney Coleman
William Lanteau

Remakes: My Favorite Wife

Loosely based on Alfred Lord Tennyson's 1864 poem, Enoch Arden, these comical movies concern the return of a shipwrecked wife on the very day her husband marries another woman.  The husband has waited the appropriate seven years for her to be declared legally dead.  If that isn't complicated enough, she spent the entire time on a desert island with a hunky dude who'd like to make their relationship more permanent.  The laughs are aplenty as the husband tries to hide his first wife from his bride and the wife tries to hide her island companion from her husband.

Good 80's Films: Shoot the Moon

1982 Drama
From MGM
Directed by Alan Parker

Starring
Albert Finney
Diane Keaton
Karen Allen
Peter Weller
Dana Hill

REVIEW: Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool

Directed by Paul McGuigan
2017 Biographical Romance Drama
1 hour 45 minutes
From Sony Pictures Classics

Starring
Annette Bening
Jamie Bell
Julie Walters
Stephen Graham
Kenneth Cranham
Frances Barber
Vanessa Redgrave

Good 80's Films: Frances

1982 Biography
From Universal
Directed by Graeme Clifford

Starring
Jessica Lange
Kim Stanley
Sam Shepard
Bart Burns
Jeffrey DeMunn
Lane Smith
Christopher Pennock
Jordan Charney

REVIEW: Fifty Shades Freed

Directed by James Foley
2018 Romance Drama
1 hour 45 minutes
From Universal Studios

Starring
Dakota Johnson
Jamie Dornan
Eric Johnson
Eloise Mumford
Rita Ora
Luke Grimes
Brant Daugherty

Good 80's Films: The Mosquito Coast

1986 Drama
From Warner Bros.
Directed by Peter Weir

Starring
Harrison Ford
Helen Mirren
River Phoenix
Jadrien Steele
Conrad Roberts
Andre Gregory
Martha Plimpton
Butterfly McQueen

Good 80's Films: Witness

1985 Drama
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by Peter Weir

Starring
Harrison Ford
Kelly McGillis
Lukas Haas
Josef Sommer
Jan Rubes
Alexander Godunov
Danny Glover
Viggo Mortensen

Good 80's Films: The Man from Snowy River

1982 Adventure Drama
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by George Miller

Starring
Tom Burlinson
Kirk Douglas
Sigrid Thornton
Jack Thompson
Lorraine Bayley
Tony Bonner
Chris Haywood
Terence Donovan

Remakes: Kiss of Death

Without a doubt, Kiss of Death is a provocative title that has been used a number of times but we are referring only to the films that deal with a reformed criminal who, with the help of a kindly assistant district attorney, goes undercover to weed out a psychotic killer.  The original 20th Century Fox 1947 film noir is by far the best but the story spawned two remakes as well.

Oscar Nominations

We're gonna get down today.  I love movies and enjoy most everything I see at some level. I've never missed an Oscar show since it was first televised in 1953 but I'll tell you... Oscar nominations, which came out today, often annoy the hell out of  me.  The same, of course, extends frequently to the selection of certain winners and losers.

RIP Dorothy Malone

When I began my movie-going journey in the fifties, Dorothy Malone was frequently along for the ride.  I think I've seen just about every movie she ever made.  Truthfully it wasn't always her who was the draw but rather her films.  A great number in those days were westerns and there simply weren't too many I missed.

Good 80's Films: Tempest

1982 Comedy Drama Fantasy
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Paul Mazursky

Starring
John Cassavetes
Gena Rowlands
Susan Sarandon 
Molly Ringwald
Raul Julia
Vittorio Gassman
Sam Robards
Paul Stewart

REVIEW: Phantom Thread

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
2017 Romance Drama
2 hours, 10 minutes
From Focus Features

Starring
Daniel Day-Lewis
Vicky Krieps
Lesley Manville

REVIEW: Hostiles

Directed by Scott Cooper
2107 Western
2 hours, 14 minutes
From Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures

Starring
Christian Bale
Rosamund Pike
Wes Studi
Jesse Plemons
Rory Cochrane
Adam Beach
Q'orianka Kilcher
Timothée Chalamet
Ben Foster

REVIEW: The Post

Directed by Steven Spielberg
1 hr 56 mins
2017 Historical Drama
From 20th Century Fox

Starring
Meryl Streep
Tom Hanks
Sarah Paulson
Bob Odenkirk
Tracy Letts
Bradley Whitford
Bruce Greenwood
Matthew Rhys
Alison Brie
Carrie Coon
Michael Stuhlbarg
Jesse Plemons

Good 80s Films: Victor/Victoria

1982 Musical Comedy
From MGM
Directed by Blake Edwards

Starring
Julie Andrews
James Garner
Robert Preston
Lesley Ann Warren
Alex Karras
John Rhys-Davies
Graham Stark
Peter Arne

REVIEW: Molly's Game

Directed by Aaron Sorkin
2017 Biographical Drama
2 hours 20 minutes
From STX Entertainment

Starring 
Jessica Chastain
Idris Elba
Kevin Costner
Michael Cera
Jeremy Strong
Chris O'Dowd
Brian d'Arcy James
Graham Greene

REVIEW: Call Me by Your Name

Directed by Luca Guadagnino
2017 Romance Drama
2 hours 12 minutes
From Sony Pictures Classics

Starring
Armie Hammer
Timothée Chamalet
Michael Stuhlbarg