The Gay Divorcee (1934)

Ohh, wonderful wonderful silly movie.  
Guy meets girl...

Mimi (Rogers) gets the end of her dress stuck in her aunt's trunk as her aunt locks it.  Guy (Astaire) comes by and saves her by quite shockingly ripping her dress.  He is smitten.  She runs away.  He spends weeks in London standing on the sidewalks and starting at every woman's face to find her until he finally rear-ends her car by accident.

Girl runs from guy...

Every silly dance movie needs a high speed car chase.

Guy pursues girl...

Lucky thing that Guy thought to buy a "Road Closed" sign at a sporting goods store.  What a good way to bring a high speed car chase with one's beloved to a halt.

Girl starts to fall in love...

After losing Mimi again, Guy happens to find her at an ocean resort.  She is there to try to secure a divorce from the geologist husband she hasn't seen for years.  He is there with his lawyer friend who is helping Mimi to secure the divorce.  But of course Guy does not know Mimi is the woman his friend is helping.  Guy is charming and sweeps Mimi off her feet.

Girl becomes convinced guy is a gigolo (rather, a correspondent)...

The plan that Mimi's lawyer has concocted to secure her divorce involves her spending the night with a hired male "correspondent" and then getting caught by some detectives.  Guy unknowingly says the code phrase to Mimi that the correspondent is supposed to use to find her, and Mimi is furious that Guy is not really interested in her but is there for a job.  One of many many similar jobs.

Everyone dances...

They even twirl up onto chairs and over tables.

Happy ending...

Dancing solves all problems, of course!

I hope I get to see this again.  It's now my favorite Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire movie.  Four stars!

Ocean's Eleven (1960)

Danny Ocean (Sinatra) gets together with his eleven buddies from World War II to put together a huge Vegas heist. After much work to assemble the crew (really a huge portion of the movie), the heist is pulled off. Then hilarity ensues following their discovery by a soon-to-be-stepfather of one of the crew. With three singers, Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr., there are even a few musical numbers thrown in. I'm not feeling like I have a lot to say about this movie. I saw it during my last week of school...I fell asleep and had to re-watch large chunks of it a few days later. So, while I did think it was a good movie, I'm not really feeling inspired to say much.
So...three stars.  And I would see this again due to the wonderful ending about which I will say nothing so that it can be a surprise for anyone who has not yet seen it.

Lifeboat (1944)

This Hitchcock drama begins with a German U-boat bombing an American ship. As the ship goes down in the opening shots, we see a fabulously dressed Connie Porter (Tallulah Bankhead) adrift in a lifeboat, filming everything for an article she wants to write. She is soon joined by other survivors of the blast, including an engineer, a steward, a nurse in training, a woman with a dead baby, and even the captain of the now sunk German U-boat. They drift together for weeks. But despite what you may hope for, and despite the fact that there are so many pros to eating a number of the characters, no one even considers eating anyone else in Lifeboat.

Connie Porter: Apparently the actress is a diva just like her character. Probably wouldn't taste so good, but it might have been good to get her and her complaints about losing her luggage out of the way.

Kovak: So annoying. From the moment he steps on the boat he is arguing and wanting to kill or abandon other survivors. Eat him.

Gus Smith: Not so tasty. Gimpy leg, eventual gangrene. Ick. "What good's a hepcat with one gam missing?"

Mrs. Higley: She sadly jumps off the side of the boat and drowns herself after the death of her baby, is attached to the boat by a rope, and they cut her free. Did no one think to save her for later?

Mrs. Higley's dead baby: Inappropriate to comment.

Alice MacKenzie: Do not eat. She's a nurse. More valuable to have her alive.

Stanley "Sparks" Garrett: Could never have been eaten. The actor, Hume Cronyn went on to star in Cocoon and Batteries Not Included. Too important to eat.

Joe: Token wise black character. Plays a mean flute and prays...too valuable to eat.

Rittenhouse: Too sinewy. Probably not a good first choice of a meal.

Willy (the German captain): Oh, definitely to be eaten. He was trying to bring the boat to a German supply ship from which they would all surely have been sent to a concentration camp. And he had secret supplies he did not share.

But as I said, no one gets eaten. For tales of cannibalism, skip Lifeboat and take a Criminal Law class in law school.

The 39 Steps (1935)

Similar to Hitchcock's later movies Saboteur and North by Northwest, The 39 Steps is about a man who is accused of a crime he did not commit and then dragged into intrigue in order to clear his name, saving some people and possibly the world along the way.  The major difference: No one scales a national monument.  This time the hero is Richard Hannay.  During a performance by the amazing "Mr. Memory," Hannay meets a spy who runs to him for protection and then is murdered in his home.  Hannay must flee to avoid being arrested for her murder.  While on the run, he falls in hate with a lady on a train who gives him away, tries to complete the spy's mission, and then rediscovers and eventually falls in love with the lady from the train.  They hate each other so much, you just know they'll end up together.

The first time I watched The 39 Steps I couldn't get past the way that our hero treated his leading lady. He was obnoxious. I finished the movie, declared him to be a jerk, and reported to my dad that it was far from being my favorite Hitchcock. It's a few years later now, and thanks to my dad making me watch this movie again, I can now give it three stars and say that yes, I would see it again.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Depending on my mood when watching this movie, I either laugh a lot or feel vaguely depressed.  Ahhh, nuclear humor.  David has a friend who says he judges people's intelligence based on whether or not they laugh at this movie.  I will definitely see this movie again (hopefully in a good mood if it happens to be with David's friend), and regardless of my mood, I can give the movie four stars.

I give you the highlights:

Peter Sellers:

and Peter Sellers:

and Peter Sellers:

and the finale:
Watch it.

Young at Heart (1954)

Do not be fooled by Doris Day's cheeriness, nor by her silly songs on the beach.  Do not be fooled by the light-heartedness of three sisters playing music in the parlor and laughing about men.  This movie is actually dark and tortured.  The Tuttle sisters are all so happy in their lovely Connecticut home, playing music with their father, having witty conversations with Aunt Jessie (Ethel Barrymore), and laughing about their men.  When a composer named Alex arrives to stay, all is still happy and frivolous. Even the fact that all three sisters fall for Alex does not seem serious.  But enter Barney (Frank Sinatra), a troubled pianist, and all goes downhill fast.  Lori Tuttle (Doris Day) ditching Alex at the alter to run off with Barney is only the beginning of the horrifying drama.  Oh, one star.  I was annoyed with this movie and the characters long before it got dark.  The star is because Frank Sinatra sings multiple songs.  I will not see this again, but I am curious about the 1938 movie Four Daughters, of which this movie was apparently a remake.

From Here to Eternity (1943)

I think I was supposed to love this movie. I have certainly heard it mentioned a lot. I think the problem is that I just don't tend to enjoy war movies (I Was a Male War Bride notwithstanding). How did I not know that this movie involved the bombing of Pearl Harbor? How did I not know so many sad things would happen? I thought it was a love story...

Is this not the only picture anyone ever shows us from the movie?  It is definitely mostly a war movie.  So I guess I will not be seeing it again, but I will give it four stars for being cast entirely of brilliant actors and actresses.

My ambivalence toward war movies allowed me to get the following things done:

*Start sweet potato fries.
Wait, is this a war movie?  How did I not know this was a war movie?  Is that BurtLancaster or Montgomery Clift?

*Organize spice drawer.
Debra Kerr's husband is a real jerk.  Who's going to have an affair with Deborah Kerr?  Oh, Burt Lancaster.  Why does everyone want Montgomery Clift to box so much?  Why are they torturing him like that until he agrees to be on the boxing team?  What's the big deal?

*Make ingenious cardboard inserts to keep spice drawer in order.
So that famous scene on the beach is only five seconds?  Hey!  That's Donna Reed!!!  Is she a cooch dancer, or just a companion?  Oh, Montgomery Clift, does Donna Reed really love you?

*Prepare dinner.

Oh Frank Sinatra.  Things just aren't going to end well for you.  You can't run off and get drunk during guard duty.

*Eat dinner.
Oh no!!!  Oh no!!!  Frank Sinatra!!! I didn't know this was going to be a sad movie!!!

*Pack up left-overs to put them in the frig.

Hey, it's the night of Dec. 6th.  The Japanese are about to bomb, aren't they.  How did I not know this was a Pearl Harbor movie?  Oh no!!!  Why is Montgomery Clift doing that???  Why is he being so stupid?  Now everyone's going to be unhappy.  It's one of those movies.

If all of that sounded a little disjointed, it's because that's how my viewing was.  Thank you to my roommate Barbara for being so willing to answer all of my, "Wait, wait, what just happened?"s.  Maybe I should give the movie another chance.