GBGoodies 2015 Movie Logbook

Silk Stockings (1957)

Peter Lorre in a musical? Cyd Charisse as a Russian? Strange, yes, but surprisingly, it works.

This movie is a dance movie above all else. The story is only okay, and the songs are good, but no real standouts, but the dancing is fantastic. Cyd Charisse's dancing in this movie is so good that she practically puts Fred Astaire to shame. (He pales in comparison to her and Janis Paige in his singing too.)

I love the song "Stereophonic Sound", but Janis Paige sings so much better than Fred Astaire that she overshadows him a lot.

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Pal Joey (1957)

This movie could possibly be Frank Sinatra's best movie. He's perfect for the role. He has nice chemistry with Kim Novak, and Rita Hayworth shines in her role too.

The movie has a great soundtrack of classic songs. (For some reason, I can picture Harry Connick Jr. being very good in a remake of this movie.)

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No Way Out (1950)

This is a very powerful movie about racism. This movie is so tense that you could cut the tension with a knife. This movie lays it all on the line with hateful racist words, which makes it a difficult movie to watch, but it does it very well.

This is a very early movie for both Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier, but it's easy to see why they both became such well-respected actors. They both give outstanding performances, but it's Richard Widmark who steals the movie.

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Detective Story (1951)

This is a very powerful movie that kind of feels like a dramatic version of the TV show "Barney Miller". It follows several detectives in a police station, but it focuses mostly on Detective Jim McLeod, played brilliantly by Kirk Douglas.

Kirk Douglas does a fantastic job of showing the emotional roller coaster that he's on in this movie. He plays the tough, by-the-book detective perfectly, and then he changes in an instant to show his soft side when he's with his wife. And we can even see the anger building up inside him through parts of the movie.

Eleanor Parker also gives a terrific performance as Detective McLeod's wife.

On a side note, it's amazing how much Kirk Douglas looks like his son Michael in this movie. (Michael Douglas definitely isn't the milkman's kid. )

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The Killing (1956)

This story seems a bit more straight-forward than most other Kubrick movies, however the movie flips around in time so much that it gets a bit confusing at times. The narration reminded me of an old police TV show, (I think it was "The F.B.I." with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. that had that type of narration.)

The problem with this movie is that none of the characters are likable. This movie kind of felt like an Oceans 11-type of movie, but one where you wanted all the conspirators to lose in the end.

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I've only seen Rio Bravo from your last set of entries and I liked that plenty. The Killing is on my watchlist and it sounds like I should add No Way Out.

Not many movies I know here ,but it is your logbook after all.

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I didn't know what to expect from this film either. It's one of Loretta Young's best performances. I like her and of course she's one of the most beautiful actresses ever to grace a screen, but she wasn't known for deep dramatic acting. But here she's great. Of course Cary Grant is always spot on in his movies.


Love, love this film. It scarred the heck out of me when I first seen it as a little kid on a late night showing. For the 1950s this has great special effects. You're right the characters don't really stand out but those Martians do! Very cool concept for aliens when at the time we normally got guys in rubber suits. This is one of my all time favorite classic 50s sci fi films....Oh and the Martian ships were also used in another sci fi film I love. Robinson Crusoe on Mars.


I either didn't see it or don't remember it.


This was one of my Top 10 Favorites. Like you say Cyd Charisse was an amazing dancer. She's my favorite female dancer. I love the juxtaposition of a stern unfeminine soviet military woman learning how to be elegant and graceful.


I've heard about this one but haven't seen it yet, you make me want to watch it now!

Great film! Widmark is one nasty racist in this film and like you say, him and Poitier give amazing performances. In real life Widmark was a gentle, family man who actively fought injustices and racism. He was an all around good guy and also once was my avatar in another life

I can't believe you said this reminds you of Barney Miller, the last time I watched this I told my wife that same thing. This film could easily go into my Top 10. Kirk Douglas and Elanor Parker are just amazing! What powerful performances! BTW did you notice Doctor Roger Korby from Star Trek 'What Are Little Girls Made Of' ?

Another great noir. Sterling Hayden is the king of the understated. He doesn't say much he just extrudes attitude.

Great list of films there GBG.

I'm not surprised that you haven't seen most of those movies, especially the musicals, but I'm kind of surprised that you haven't seen The War of the Worlds. I thought that was one of those classic movies that everyone has already seen.

Yeah, I started on my 1950's watchlist already, and I DVRed a few movies that I hadn't seen yet, so there's kind of a strange mix of movies that I watched recently.

I've seen The War of the Worlds a few times, but not recently. I remembered it being a lot scarier than it was this time. It's still a good movie, but I think this is one of those movies that holds up better in memories than it does in rewatches.


Unfortunately Hit the Deck just isn't very memorable, but it's worth seeing if you like musicals. Just don't expect it to become a favorite.


I think Cyd Charisse is the main reason to watch Silk Stockings. The movie itself is only okay, but she's amazing in it. And in a strange way, it's worth watching to see Peter Lorre too.


I read in the trivia for No Way Out that Widmark felt so bad about the things that his character said to Sidney Poitier that Widmark kept apologizing to him.


Yes, I did notice Michael Strong as one of the burglars. I think I actually recognized his voice before I recognized his face. There's something about his voice that's very unique.

I might have seen it, was there a scene where the 3 guy in a TV studio where a show was being filmed?

This was one of my Top 10 Favorites. Like you say Cyd Charisse was an amazing dancer. She's my favorite female dancer. I love the juxtaposition of a stern unfeminine soviet military woman learning how to be elegant and graceful.


I think Cyd Charisse is the main reason to watch Silk Stockings. The movie itself is only okay, but she's amazing in it. And in a strange way, it's worth watching to see Peter Lorre too.
Peter Lorre was funny. From what I heard he had a lot of drug and health problems latter in life. If I remember he didn't look very healthy in this film.

I don't remember a scene in a TV studio, but there were several scenes with stage shows. But like I said, the movie isn't very memorable. Gideon might remember this movie better than I remember it.


Lorre didn't look too healthy in a lot of his later movies. He gained a lot of weight too.

Holiday - This is actually my favorite of the their movies together (I don't really count "The Philadelphia Story" as I think it is more Hepburn-Stewart than Hepburn-Grant). There are movies that I think are really good and then there are the ones that I think are satisfying. And I thought "Holiday" was satisfying when I first saw it. That is the best way that I can describe it.

Rio Bravo - Love it.

Hit the Deck - I like it. But, then again, I like a lot of those musicals that are just simple ones. I don't need them to all be "An American In Paris" (which I am not too fond of). I especially liked Ann Miller's final dance bit.

I really like the music. I even own the soundtrack.

This movie was originally a Broadway show in the 1920's. And it is funny to hear a recording of "Hallelujah" from the 20's because it is so obviously a song from that period.

And this was all you had to say to get me to give you a big rep for your "Hit the Deck" post.

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My favorite Hepburn-Grant movie is The Philadelphia Story, but as you said, it's really more Hepburn-Stewart than Hepburn-Grant, so the next in line would be Bringing Up Baby. But while Hepburn and Grant were great together, I don't think the two of them together were the best pairing for either of them. (In other words, they both made their best movies with other co-stars.)

Katharine Hepburn's best leading man was obviously Spencer Tracy, but Cary Grant's best leading lady is a bit harder to narrow down. He didn't have just one terrific leading lady. He had many of them, but none of them became his regular co-star the way Hepburn did with Spencer Tracy.

I completely agree with you about Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant being paired together. I don't know if I said it here or somewhere else (I know I have said it more than once so I probably have mentioned it here ), but I always preferred Cary Grant with Irene Dunne. He was better with her, I thought. Although I think he was OK with Myrna Loy. And I loved him with Rosalind Russell. I think if they could've done more together, that would've been a perfect one for him.

In a way, I wonder why the studios didn't try to really find someone that they felt was a good leading lady for Grant (like Hepburn-Tracy, Astaire-Rogers or Loy-Powell). Unless they liked to vary the ladies. Maybe that was their plan.

But do you know who I would've loved to have seen with him? Greer Garson. I would've liked to have seen them in one movie together to see how they would've been as a couple.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)

This movie was only okay. For some reason, the story was changed to make it more of a strange love triangle between Dr. Jekyll and his fiancee, Beatrix, and Mr. Hyde and a barmaid, Ivy, and it just didn't work for me.

Mr. Hyde is supposed to be Dr. Jekyll's evil side, but I thought Spencer Tracy looked kind of goofy as Mr. Hyde, and he wasn't scary at all. I thought Ingrid Bergman was the highlight of the movie as Ivy. Her performance was terrific in an otherwise average movie.

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Picnic (1955)

The movie starts out kind of slow, but it picks up abut an hour into the movie, and it doesn't really let go after that. I actually preferred the secondary storyline, about the schoolteacher Rosemary, (Rosalind Russell), and the store owner Howard (Arthur O'Connell). It just seemed like more fun than the main storyline about Hal (William Holden) and Madge (Kim Novak), however the dance scene with Hal and Madge was great.

William Holden and Cliff Robertson are supposed to be college friends, but they don't look anywhere near the same age. Holden looks much older than Robertson, and I found that a little bit distracting at times.

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Witness to Murder (1954)

This movie is very good, but it feels like a Hitchcock wannabe movie.

One issue I had with the movie was that the woman who witnessed the murder seemed pretty intelligent throughout the movie, and then at the end, she makes a dumb decision.


I liked the way Barbara Stanwyck played the witness as a bold, intelligent woman, not as shy and afraid. If you like Hitchcock movies, give this movie a try.

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Please Murder Me! (1956)

This is a good suspense thriller with a nice twist about halfway into the movie. It stars Raymond Burr and Angela Lansbury, so it's basically, Perry Mason defending Jessica Fletcher when she's arrested for murdering her husband.

If you like suspense thrillers, it's worth watching.

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