Merrily We Live (1938)
Screwball comedy from the same year as
Bringing Up Baby, although not as famous as that film. The stars are Constance Bennett, Brian Aherne, Alan Mowbray, Billie Burke, Ann Dvorak, Clarence Kolb, and Bonita Granville. Some of these people were big stars of the era, especially Bennett, Aherne, Dvorak, Granville, and especially Burke, whom you'll remember as Glinda the Good Witch from
The Wizard of Oz.
This is a tale about a rich family where the mother (Burke) is really ditsy and has a habit of taking in bums and giving them jobs around the house. The bums end up ripping them off of this or that, the last bum having made off with the silverware. The butler is constantly packing his bag, threatening to quit, the oldest daughter is constantly staving off the attentions of her pushy ex-boyfriend, the younger daughter always offers to give out the latest house gossip for fifty cents (yep, big money back then), and the dad is somewhat shallow, rubbing elbows with senators and the like.
Into this household comes someone who is mistaken for a bum, and of course the mom sets him up right away with a job as the chauffeur. And that's just the beginning of the goofy happenings. And like a lot of the screwball comedies, there's a love story attached, and a case of mistaken identity. This is well-worth seeking out.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015)
Second film in the "Divergent" series, which picks up where the first left off, with Tris having made good her escape from the city, along with her love, Number Four, her brother Caleb, and total jerk Peter. They find sanctuary in Amity, a peace-loving compound. But things never stay peaceful in the dystopian world of the Divergent series. The escapees are constantly being hunted and those who help them are being hurt or killed. And there is a sort of MacGuffin in this one, one that revolves around Tris, although neither she nor the evil Jeanine know it...yet.
Shailene Woodley is good, again as the powerful and prone to violence Tris; Kate Winslet is pure evil, but nattily dressed as Jeanine; Theo James and Miles Teller are solid as Four and Peter, respectively; Octavia Spencer lends a strong presence as Amity leader Johanna; and new arrival Naomi Watts is on hand as Evelyn, someone who has a close relationship to someone in the story. This is another of those rare second installments of a series that makes me want to see the third. Doesn't really end on a cliffhanger as much as making you want to know "what's next?"
Re-watch:
Hooper (1978)
After the success of
Smokey and the Bandit, director Hal Needham and stars Burt Reynolds and Sally Field got together for this action-comedy about movie stuntmen. In a movie about stuntmen making a movie (is that meta?), you know there's going to be tons of action and stunts and that's what you get, but there's lots of laughs, too. This has Brian Keith, James Best, Robert Klein, John Marley, and Adam West along for the ride, too. In a small appearance, there's also Terry Bradshaw as a brawling fellow who gets into it with Reynolds and gang. And Bradshaw has a full head of hair! Excellent fun.
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