Movie Tab II

6 month Collection Revisiting

City Slickers - - light and cheery. Didn't make me cringe much. Extra points for that. Good casting.

Zoolander - - hard to hate this movie even though it's empty and stupid. I still can stomach it but this may be the last time I do.

The Breakfast Club - moments of silliness never outweigh the precedent set by Hughes with his writing and casting. Great location. Love the blue neon strip accenting the otherwise beige school library. Not quite an art film on par with Risky Business as far as the look, but definitely right up there with innovation for teen comedy reinvention.

Sideways - - still makes me laugh and keeps me interested all of the way through. Love the performances and locations.

Big Trouble in Little China - - has everything. Strange movie but funny and great effects. One of my faves still.

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane - - suffers from stupid writing. Clay is capable of much more. He does a mean Jerry Lewis/Nutty Professor tick that thankfully gets a brief moment of screen time. Wish there was more physical comedy like this and not so much of his usual shtick.

The Amityville Horror - - Scares me every time. James Brolin's eyes are enough to give me nightmares. That guy really threw down some chops for his role. Creepy atmosphere. I am a grown man and when I saw this again, I took a bathroom break. As I walked through the dark kitchen to get there, I became overwhelmed with the feeling something was in the room with me. I forcefully started talking out loud and jerking forward quickly. Very weird. I got legitimately goosed.

The Hard Way - - kind of hard to dislike a John Badham movie starring James Woods and Michael J. Fox as crime fighters even if the movie is stupid.

The Return of the Living Dead - - this one gets super high points fropm me because of the comedy. James Karen is a punch in the gut with his manic overacting. Love the effects and the comedy as well as the location/atmosphere. It's a true classic made by much missed Dan O' Bannon.

The burbs' - - I like this movie more every time I watch it. Rick Duccomen, Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern..even Carrie Fisher and Courtney Gains..not to mention the Klopek's. Great late 80's comedy thriller and one of Joe Dante's best efforts, imo.

Land of Silence and Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1971) -
Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog, 1971) -
Oz the Great and Powerful (Sam Raimi, 2013) -
Hard Target (John Woo, 1993) -
Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973) -
Pumping Iron (George Butler, 1977) -
The Candidate (Michael Ritchie, 1972) -
Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971) -
Tower (Keith Maitland, 2016) -
La ronde (Max Ophüls, 1950) -

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

To Paris with Love (Robert Hamer, 1955)

Girl in Woods (Jeremy Benson, 2016)

+
Master of the House (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1925)

Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952)

Gambler Rock Hudson and two men (James Stewart & Arthur Kennedy) with questionable pasts attempt to have their way in Portland in the 1840s.
Nick Cannon: F#ck Nick Cannon (Jay Chapman, 2013)

Evening Classes aka Cours du soir (Nicolas Rybowski, 1967)

Oregon Passage (Paul Landres, 1957)

Being 17 (André Téchiné, 2015)

The doctor mother (Sandrine Kiberlain) of a teenager (Kacey Mottet Klein) examines him and the orphan (Corentin Fila) they’ve allowed to stay with them, and she learns from their multiple bruises that they’ve been fighting.
Paris (Cedric Klepisch, 2008)

Oleg and Strange Arts (Andrés Duque, 2016)

Boy (Nagisa Ôshima, 1969)

Cruel Story of Youth aka Naked Youth (Nagisa Ôshima, 1960)

Two amoral people come together and find what they call love in a turbulent relationship. He (Yűsuke Kawazu) utilizes the ability she (Miyuki Kuwano) has to get men to pick her up in their cars to extort them.
The Scarlet Coat (John Sturges, 1955)

A Penny a Peep (Ralph Staub, 1934)

The Last of the Mohicans (George B. Seitz, 1936)

+
Postcards from the Zoo (Edwin, 2012)

Abandoned at a zoo as a very young girl, young adult Ladya Cheryl grows up in a fantasyland of animals and rides until her life is magically changed and she’s introduced to the corrupt real world.
The Sense of an Ending (Ritesh Batra, 2017)

Final Descent (Mike Robe, 1997)

Creature (Fred M. Andrews, 2011)

+
The Boy from Geita (Vic Sarin, 2014)

-

In Tanzania, there is prejudice against albinos, often precipitated by village witch doctors, which results in their mutilation or death.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Castle of Sand (Yoshitaro Nimura, 1974) ; Art House Rating:



Let me slowly jump to the chase here and try to explain the difference between my two ratings. This film is considered worthy to be discussed along with Kurosawa's best. The reason for this, I imagine, is that it's something of an epic (143 minutes and covers about 35 years of time). It also is a film which starts out one way and then transforms itself into something resembling a completely-different kind of more-significant movie than you thought, and it utilizes extremely unique-and-personal music to tell its tale. I have to admit that although I vaguely remember the title, I really knew nothing at all about this film before I saw it. So I watched a Japanese police procedural/murder mystery, which I felt utilized an extremely-awkward storytelling style (hiding info, almost to a mystifying degree) and had two detectives who consisted of one who's a been-there/done-that-type of veteran and a youngster with tons of energy and lots of natural inquisitiveness. This accurately describes their personalities, and reading that, it makes them seem more interesting than they are. Anyway, the only reason we care (if we do) about these guys is because through some primitive CSI techniques, we learn something to do with a murder, and this somehow leads us to a pianist/composer and a leper. From here on, the film completely evolves into something resembling a commentary on a cultural social injustice, but equally important, it also seems to be this live concert given full of newly-composed orchestral music which comments on all the film's visuals (something along the lines of a score for a silent movie).

I'm apparently supposed to be overwhelmed emotionally, and I'll admit that the score is beautiful, but the film begins so awkwardly, and I also believe that it continues that same way while audaciously transitioning to a completely-different animal. Instead of feeling deep emotions about how the film turned out, I'm unfortunately wondering why it took so long (all the cop stuff is borderline amateurish to me, at least on a technical level) for me to feel like I didn't quite "get" the murder mystery part. I watched this because it was on the Noir List, and I may well rewatch this soon to decide if I have the problem, but at least I can understand how to rate movies in two different ways. Tell me which rating you agree with

Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)



Spectacular western epic about the first cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail is actually a thinly-veiled retelling of Mutiny on the Bounty. But years earlier, Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) breaks free from a wagon train with his longtime friend Groot (Walter Brennan), a wagon, a bull and some horses. Dunson tells his fiancee (Colleen Gray) to continue on with the train and that he'll send for her when he's ready. By the time the two men make it to the Red River in Texas, they realize that the wagons have been attacked by Indians. After the Indians attack them at night, young Matt arrives at their camp with a cow but he's half-crazy having witnessed the Indian attack on the wagon train before escaping. Years later, after the Civil War, Matt (played by Montgomery Clift as an adult) returns to help Dunson and Groot drive the herd of almost 10,000 cattle west to Missouri, although there are rumors that there's a railroad in Abilene, Kansas, which would eliminate the danger of Missouri raiders stealing the herd and killing the men. Dunson wants to take them to Missouri though and becomes despotic on the drive, causing many of the men to grumble and question his authority. Eventually, there is a mutiny and Dunson is left behind injured and embarrassed while Matt leads the herd to Abilene. Dunson vows to kill Matt once he recuperates and comes after him.

Red River is full of action, male bonding, Indian attacks, gunfights, fistfights and the recreation of a full-fledged cattle drive where all the principal actors actually are involved in transporting a huge herd. It's also a character study of a bitter man who hasn't reconciled himself to a new postwar world where he needs more help than he ever has before but is too proud to ask for it since it will make him seem weak. I'm not going to go into the details about the films ending which has been discussed here recently, except to say that it makes total sense to me and is the only ending I can think of which does in the light of the way the two main characters have been presented for over two hours of screen time. If you want to see a father kill his son in a western, go watch The Big Country where it makes sense, but don't ask an epic western about the founding of a great cattle empire to end with one of the founders dead over a stubborn old man's misplaced sense of pride.

The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961)



I've discussed this film many places around the site, including its own thread twice, so maybe this is overkill to mention it again, but I just watched it with someone who has never seen it, so I'll try to post something new and thoughtful, if I can. The bottom line for me is that this is the creepiest, scariest, most-unsettling horror film I've ever seen. The Innocents is so frightening because it's open to so many interpretations, and no matter which way you interpret it, it's just as disturbing as possible. It's based on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw which tells the story of a new governess, Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr), and her effect on two angelic children who seem to be far more mature than their ages would allow. The boy Miles (Martin Stephens) is sent home from school for being "an injury" to the other boys, and the girl Flora (Pamela Franklin) seems to realize that Miles is coming home before anyone else does. This is only the beginning of many incidents which seem to possibly have more than one explanation, and as the film progresses, it becomes more-difficult to decide what the truth of the situation is.

The photography is spectacular and the sound design awesomely conveys what could either be Miss Giddens' deepening madness or a presence of unspeakable evil which threatens to possess and corrupt the children in the form of two dead servants who formally helped to raise the children while freely carrying on an open S&M sexual relationship in front of them. Since the film was made in 1961, you have to pay attention to pick up all the plot nuances and possibilities, but all you have to have are eyes and ears to be transfixed and lost in another world of a large house full of rooms of whispers and scary "games" of hide-and-seek. Make sure you watch this one after it gets dark.

Love in the Afternoon (Billy Wilder, 1957) +



Love in the Afternoon is a classic Billy Wilder romantic comedy which isn't mentioned as often as many of his other classics. There could be many reasons, including the fact that Gary Cooper appears to be too old to limn the dashing playboy in the film, but most people love Bogie's casting against type in Wilder's earlier Sabrina. Perhaps younger audiences don't get all the jokes and references at the beginning and end of the film. Wilder, who always loved to use topical humor, has Audrey Hepburn's father, private detective Maurice Chevalier, narrate these scenes as if he were doing a Jack Webb/Joe Friday impression which is hilarious to Brenda and me but may mean nothing to others. There is also the fact that the film is all rather simple for a comedy which is over two hours long, but as usual with most very good films, it's all in the details.

The simplicity involves the fact that Hepburn's Ariane lives vicariously through her father's files which are all about other peoples' love affairs. One day, she tries to save the Cooper character from violence and becomes totally infatuated with him. The details here include that John McGiver (Breakfast at Tiffany's) has a sparkling cameo as a husband who hires Chevalier and then wants to put several bullets into Cooper. One of the funniest things about this movie is that Cooper has a Hungarian quartet known as the Gypsies who play appropriate mood music for him, not only in his hotel suite, but in boats on a lake and in the sauna too. But perhaps the greatest detail which this film has (and one which tops the ending to Sabrina) is that the actual ending is deeply-romantic and movingly-filmed by Wilder in what I would call one of his best-directed scenes ever.

The Story Of Molly X (1949) - Crime/prison drama with a message
Whistle Stop (1946) - Unremarkable mix of crime/romance

Ein Atem One Breath (Christian Zübert, 2015) -
The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! (Peter Lord/Jeff Newitt, 2012) -
Sommaren med Monika Summer with Monika (Ingmar Bergman, 1953) - +
Madagascar (Eric Darnell/Tom McGrath, 2005) - +

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"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room."

I'm tempted to watch this but my gf said it devastated her and the subject matter makes it sound like it will be tough to watch. I will at some point anyway.

I don't think that I'd consider it devastating or even particularly tough to watch. It does make you extremely aware of your own privileges as a person who can see and hear, though.

Yeah, what Iro said. You can handle it Camo.

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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton, 1947) -
Irréversible (Gaspar Noé, 2002) -
Silent Running (Douglas Trumbull, 1972) -
Anaconda (Luis Llosa, 1997) - +

White Peril (Don Horter, 1956)

From Hell It Came (Dan Milner, 1957)

The Cisco Kid (Luis Valdez, 1994)

Witness for the Prosecution (Billy Wilder, 1957)

+

Witness for the prosecution Marlene Dietrich tells her story to barrister Charles Laughton.
I Walked with a Zombie (Jacques Tourneur, 1943)

Leo Beers: World Renowned Whistling Songster (Nick Grinde, 1928)

Having a Wild Weekend (John Boorman, 1965)

Desire (Frank Borzage, 1936)

-

Sure, jewel thief Marlene Dietrich enjoys flirting with car salesman Gary Cooper, but you can bet she has an ulterior motive for trying to get closer.
Prick Up Your Ears (Stephen Frears, 1987)

Twelve Crowded Hours (Lew Landers, 1939)

+
My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985)

The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi, 2016)

A married couple (Shahab Hosseini & Taraneh Alidoosti), who are both performing in a stage play of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, become involved in an assault which morally echoes the themes of the play.
Nowhere to Go (Seth Holt, 1958)

The Return to Homs (Talal Derki, 2014)

-
Dynamite Pass (Lew Landers, 1950)

+
Save the Tiger (John G. Avildsen, 1973)

+

At a porno theatre, arsonist Thayer David consults with the owners (Jack Lemmon & Jack Gilford) of a failing L.A. clothing company about the fire they’re planning to collect on their insurance. Lemmon is also undergoing additional personal and marital midlife crises.
Sahara (Brian Trenchard-Smith, 1996)

Paris Frills (Jacques Becker, 1945)

-
Crashing Hollywood (Lew Landers, 1938)

My Name is Nobody (Tonino Valerii, 1973)

Old gunfighter Henry Fonda wants to quietly retire but is egged on by young admirer Terence Hill to go out in a blaze of glory against the Wild Bunch.

Kickboxer (Mark DiSalle and David Worth, 1989) -
Les hautes solitudes (Philippe Garrel, 1974) -
The House of Small Cubes (Kunio Kato, 2008) -
Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990) -
Pi (Darren Aronofsky, 1998) -
Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012) -
The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993) -
Stroszek (Werner Herzog, 1977) -
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (Sam Peckinpah, 1970) -
Batman (Leslie H. Martinson, 1966) -

Cobra vs. Ninja (1987) -



Richard Harrison with no moustache? Blasphemy! A pretty solid Godfrey Ho ninja film, albeit inferior to his ninja masterpiece Ninja Commandments.

Undefeatable (1993) -



Yet another Godfrey Ho masterpiece! Cynthia Rothrock versus protruding eyes "Anna!!!111" f*ckup! Glorious!

Robot Holocaust (1986) -



Feminist bitch, kinky domina, silly android (it feels like RFS-81 from Wizardry 8 was inspired by this character), floral Dark One, underground workers and more in this blasting party RPG! Best movie ever made!!!!1111111

Le bassin de J.W.[The Hips of J.W.] (1997) -



Not crazy about this Monteiro! The theatrical parts were pretty meh!

История Аси Клячиной, которая любила, да не вышла замуж [Asya's Happiness] (1967) -



Everybody in this film (apart from two or three professional actors) were amateurs. Their stories were particularly spellbinding.

杣人物語 [The Weald] (1997) -



A beautiful documentary on a few not-so-young people living in some sylvan area of Japan. It's thought-provoking how almost all of them want to be young again. Then comes the man telling the story of his pure, innocent love and then saying he just wants to see her once again. Touching.

Women in Love (1969) -



Not top-trier Russel to me. I wish the naked wrestling scene had two women instead of men. Oh, well...

Nashville (1975) -



Hailed one of the best American movies of the 70's, best Altman film and one of the best films ever made (high spot on many all-time lists). Well, it's not even the best Altman (that would be 3 Women), but it's a good film. The tension building towards the end was particularly well-done. You could see it coming, but it was effective all the same. I think it's too America-centered and less universal as long as the meaning goes and the songs are only alright. There is no Blakley & Wiseau & chickens mashup on YT. I'm disappointed again, Internet!

眠る男 [Sleeping Man] (1996) -



This is the kind of cinema I want to watch. Gotta check out other films from this director. I can't forget the penultimate shot.

Salomč (1972) -



Second best Bene (after Our Lady of Turks). A masterpiece of colour.

The Memory of Justice (1976) -



A almost five hours long documentary on war crimes! It's mainly focused on Nurnberg (Albert Speer is one of the interviewed people), but also tackles Vietnam (My Lai massacre) and French in Algeria. The style is Shoah-esque (or should it be the other way around, given this came out earlier).

N. a pris les dés... [N. Took the Dice...] (1971) -



This is just randomized Eden and After. Still great!

Don Giovanni (1970) -



Frantic dream comes true! Not amonst Bene's best, but still a great watch.

En la ciudad de Sylvia [In the City of Sylvia] (2007) -



The beauty of this lays in little details and aesthetics. It feels like a postcard from Strasbourg more than anything else.

Unas fotos en la ciudad de Sylvia [Some Photos in the City of Sylvia] (2007) -



A complementary piece to the movie above. Just photo stills and again the same theme of searching for lost love.

Ŕ flor do mar [Hovering Over the Water] (1986) -



Monteiro's second best from what I've seen so far. It's immensely beautiful both in its form and content. The latter is quite political, but not really in your face, which helps to forget about it and just gaze at the picturesque cinematography. The brief appearance of the director himself brings a comic relief.

Poesía sin fin [Endless Poetry] (2016) -



Almost as great as the first installment of the saga. Jodorovsky's surrealism is heartfelt and touching. Love the idea of the "shadows" passing objects etc. Can't wait for the next episode!

Gummo (1997) -



Had to get some sleep with this in mind, because I wasn't really sure about it, but in the end the film was very effective, even if it was made solely for the sake of shocking. I can understand why some people hate it, but I ended up loving it.

Трудно быть Богом [Hard to Be a God] (2013) -



Or the journey through Mud Inferno. A very tiresome movie. Dull to the point of being a chore to get through. It's very chaotic, which disturbs contemplation and forces you to feel every minute of its runtime. If German's goal was to make a vision of Middle Ages hell, he made a masterpiece. I wish it was somehow a less painful one.

半裸本番　女子大生暴行篇 [Naked Action: College Girl Rape Edition] (1990) -



I'm trying to watch every Hisayasu Sato film (and he made tons of them). This one isn't amongst his best, but his trademark atmosphere definitely IS there.

Welt am Draht [World on a Wire] (1973) -



Fassbinder does a post-Alphaville pulp sci-fi with (as always) great scenography and interesting camerawork (love the camera pan towards the end and them cheesy quick zooms).

Terra em transe [Entranced Earth] (1967) -



Again a very political film that through excellent cinematography, interesting ideas and some sort of abstractness (the place is fictitious country of El Dorado) rises to the level of masterpiece.

Les hautes solitudes (1974) -



No plot, no music. Nothing. Just people's faces. There should be a version with just Tina Aumont for 10 hours.

At Sea (2007) -



Astonishingly beautiful. Poetry on screen.

美人レポーター　暴行生中継 [Love Obsession] (1989) -



Just google Love Obsession 1989. The poster says F*CKING JAPANESE. That's about right. This has a super kinky and disturbing theme to it (not gonna spoil it) and intriguing message underlined by the last scene. And it's super dirty. Me likes.

コギャル喰い　大阪テレクラ篇 [Eat the Schoolgirl] (1997) -



If the previous movie wasn't disturbing enough for you, watch this one. Well, I found it... funny. Laughing at enema and intestines scenes made me question my sanity. Amazing pseudo-art ending!

Revolver [Blood in the Streets] (1973) -



It should be considered a crime against humanity to only have seen a couple of Poliziotteschi films. Well, I'm a criminal, but trying to change myself. Reed and Testi slain in this one. Sad ending!

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I think it's much better than "Three Women" (which I liked).. But you are right, this movie is very Americana... Notice how Barbara Baxley cares about NOTHING... "except the Kennedy boys... but they were different." Assassination of MLK (and others)... Vietnam just ended, but not really, as it stayed in the zeitgeist... The country lost purpose and direction, and settled for temporary distractions, or at least an attempt for materialist relief, or "The American Dream" to make it big as a pop-star, which at that time became the new "high". Most of the characters think they are important, and most will run over ANYONE.... except Kenny, of course, who is very courteous. There's a lot of class issues, and regional difference (LA Joan and her love of everything except her aunt).. I loved that there was another Vietnam veteran to show they aren't all the same... I wonder how much Mr. Green's sudden and only moment of anger triggers Kenny, or if it would just "happen" -- he seemed to have issues with his mother, and though he tries to fit in and belong, he doesn't necessarily conform, but tries to be a diplomat, and is rebuffed or laughed at by the rest...

Ben-Hur (William Wyler, 1959) -



It's rather interesting that the 1950s began and ended with two gargantuan American epics about Rome during the beginning of the Christian era and that Miklos Rozsa composed the scores to both films. 1959 saw Ben-Hur win 11 of its 12 nominations (Room at the Top beat it out for Best Adapted Screenplay) and to this day, that remains tied with Titanic and The Return of the King as the greatest winner of Oscars in a single year. Charlton Heston even won best actor, and even though I thought he was better in Planet of the Apes and The Big Country (another Wyler flick), Chuck does turn in a sincere and extremely-physical performance. The film is often criticized nowadays as being slow as molasses, and I'll admit that the first hour (or about one-fourth) is rather sluggish although it's certainly never boring. This section covers the birth of Christ and the remeeting after many years of Jewish nobleman Judah Ben-Hur (Heston) and his childhood best friend, the Roman Massala (Stephen Boyd). This sets up Judah being thrown into the Roman galleys as a slave and his mother and sister being imprisoned and later becoming lepers. Later on, Judah rescues a Roman general (Jack Hawkins) and becomes his adopted son, as well as the greatest chariot racer in Rome, so that when Judah returns to Jerusalem, he's able to challenge Massala in one of film's all-time classic action scenes.

Besides being about Ben-Hur and the use of 70MM Cinemascope, the film is a low-key presentation of the life of Christ who is occasionally seen in the distance or up close from behind. Jesus never speaks in the film, but his life parallels Ben-Hur's and actually makes sense of all of Judah's trials and tribulations. This is where Ben-Hur draws much of its power since it's one of the few films concerning the Christ which actually shows him actively doing anything without getting into trouble. Just about the biggest thing which Jesus does in this movie is to give Ben-Hur a drink of water when he was tired and thirsty, and this incident stays with Judah's life all the way until the crucifixion where he realizes that Jesus was that man who gave him a will to go on even though he didn't know him and couldn't comprehend why he helped him. Since Ben-Hur is basically a tale of revenge, this parallel story of Jesus and forgiveness just makes the whole thing play out much more complexly, as well as maybe giving your tear ducts a workout. Welshman Hugh Griffith gets extra points for playing an Arab who hires Ben-Hur to ride his white Arabian horses in the arena, and Finlay Currie is another connection to Quo Vadis; here he plays one of the three Wise Men who returns to seek out the grown Jesus and unhappily stumbles upon his horrifying fate.

Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy, 1951) +



Quo Vadis was made in 1951 before there were any widescreen film processes regularly used in filmmaking, but it's still crammed with action and spectacle. First off, and you may already know this, but I'm a huge fan of Deborah Kerr, and she may well look more beautiful here than she ever did. She plays a slave who was adopted by a Roman general who subsequently became a Christian, that underground sect where many of its members are condemned to death just by loving and following Jesus. Robert Taylor plays a Roman officer who is immediately smitten with the Kerr character but fears when he learns that she's a member of the Christian cult. This is the romantic plot which drives the film, but an even more-interesting subplot involves the crazed Nero (Peter Ustinov) who wants to be the greatest Emperor which Rome has ever seen, so if he has to burn down the city while composing a song to create a New Rome, so be it! Nero can even blame the Christians on the burning and send them all to the Colisseum where they will become victims of lions, tigers and bulls who would like nothing better than to rip them to pieces while the crowd roars for more and more blood.

Even though this film is shot in the more-squarish 1:33 ratio, it's crammed with action, not only involving the scenes in the Colisseum but also the spectacular burning of Rome where seemingly thousands of extras have to escape through blocked-off sewers and roads. Jesus is not actually in this film because he'd already been crucified, but Peter (Finlay Currie, again) and Paul (Abraham Sofaer) make appearances and have some lengthy scenes where they preach Christianity, mostly involving the Sermon on the Mount. This film runs about 170 minutes which is almost an hour shorter than Ben-Hur (when you include all that film's musical interludes when the film isn't actually playing). Together, they make for one gigantic representation of what Hollywood thought of Christianity as box office, as well as sex and violence tempered with a message of "love". The heroes or heroines always get the message while the insecure villains just never see it, all the way right up to their dying moments. I recommend both films, but as you can see, you have to be ready to invest a considerable amount of time in each, and if you have a problem with Christianity, even in its "formative stages", you may want to steer clear. However if that's true, I shudder to think of all the other problems you may have with watching certain movies.

Guys and Dolls (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1955)

Frank Loesser wrote the music for Guys and Dolls, and it's his most memorable collection of songs. (He also wrote the music for How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Hans Christian Andersen and Where's Charley?.) Joseph L. Mankiewicz adapted the film version and chose to emphasize the theatricality of the show by filming it entirely on soundstages. At first, this may prove a bit distracting, but after awhile, it turns out to be a good idea because it plainly tells you that you're watching a Broadway-based musical, so don't worry about people singing. After all, everybody knows it's a musical, right? The basic Damon Runyon plot of gamblers getting mixed up with the Salvation Army, intertwined with a pair of romances, is solid, and it's also fun to hear the Runyon dialogue delivered by Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra. Runyon's characters have a specific way of speaking which is both funny and unique.



Much has been made that the two leads can't sing, but I actually enjoy (a lot) Brando's "Luck Be a Lady" and Jean Simmons' "If I Were a Bell". Frank Sinatra has a big moment with "Adelaide" and Vivian Blaine does well with "Adelaide's Lament"; then the two get together for "Sue Me". I'm sure that everybody who ever sees this film remembers Stubby Kaye's "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat" near the end of the film.

OK. I can probably go into more detail, but I think I'm going overboard here anyway. The thing is that I have never had a problem with musicals. Growing up, they were always on the TV, and I lapped them up the same way I did my adventures, sci-fis, horrors, westerns. It never occurred to me that people singing on screen was anything stranger than people getting attacked by monsters from outer space. I find it weirder that people enjoy watching torture and dismemberment but think something's screwy when somebody sings and dances down the street. But as they say, to each, his or her own.