The Grass is Greener (1960)

Oh, Cary Grant. Here he is, Victor, an English lord, living in a castle with his wife Hillary (Deborah Kerr). They have opened up their castle for tours in order to raise some money. When the rich American Charles (Robert Mitchum) wanders into the couple's private rooms, he says many creepy personal things to Hillary, causing her to fall immediately and inexplicably in love with him. An affair begins. Victor, well aware of his wife's feelings, encourages Hillary to go off to London where Charles is. Victor believes the only way for him to get Hillary back is to let her have her fling and then realize where her heart belongs.

The movie is full of infidelity and calm, lordly conversations. When Victor invites Charles to come and stay at the castle after Hillary's week long London trip draws to a close, Hillary and Charles quickly realize that Victor knows all. And that he knows that they know that he knows... Needless to say, hilarity ensues.

Two stars, because who doesn't love a good duel?

And because I own it... I will mostly likely see it again. The goal is to someday own all the Cary Grant movies I can get my hands on, whether I love them or hate them. According to carygrant.net there are at least 72.

Anchors Aweigh (1945)

So disappointing. Especially when I was so excited to see it... Yet somehow this movie won an Oscar for it's musical score AND was nominated for best picture. Fascinating. I am giving it one star for good singing. I suppose I will probably watch it again, because I own the Gene Kelly/Frank Sinatra box set, but Take Me Out to the Ball Game and On The Town will get many more viewings than this one.

Joe (Gene Kelly) and Clarence (Frank Sinatra) are on a four day leave from the navy. As usual, Kelly plays the womanizer and Sinatra plays his naive but adorable follower. Joe is trying to meet up with a mysterious Lola to make the most of his four days on shore, but is foiled first by Clarence following him to try to learn how to get a girl and second by a little boy (Donald Martin) who has run away from home to join the navy. Joe and Clarence are roped into bringing the boy home, where they meet Aunt Susan... the love interest.

Clarence asks for Joe's help to woo Aunt Susan, but of course another woman falls for Clarence, and Joe falls for Aunt Susan. I feel I can write that without giving anything away. This is a very predictable movie. Along with all the wooing, Joe and Clarence have promised Susan a singing audition they can't actually get for her, and the little boy becomes completely attached to Joe. Despite the fact that this movie won an Oscar for its score, I can't seem to remember any of the songs. There is a conductor, Jose Iturbe, who makes an appearance as himself in the movie... so I remember there was some good music...

Fun Science Fiction Fact: David was all excited that the little boy is played by Dean Stockwell, Al from Quantum Leap. We spent a little while rewinding trying to recognize his face.

Also please note that this is the second movie I have seen so far this year in which an actor cavorts with Jerry the mouse.
Gene Kelly just had to get a really odd dance sequence into this movie somewhere.

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

When we first meet Lou (Mae West) she is wearing a hat that looks like a giant Wooly Bear caterpillar. She is crass, she likes to invite men to "come up and see me anytime," and all the men want her. And she gives people the scariest looks.

This movie has it all: a saloon, an omnibus, giant hats, puffy petticoats, a whole lot of crooks, a very young Cary Grant with lots of eye make-up, and hard to understand accents. Lou sings in a saloon. She's having an affair with the owner, but Chick, a dangerous crook in prison, thinks she's waiting for him. Lou seems vaguely interested in every man who crosses her path, but she is becoming especially interested in Captain Cummings (CG), the mission director from next door. He's a different sort of man. Why he has any interest in Lou is more confusing. But he does.

When Chick breaks out of prison we get to worry momentarily about who Chick will knock off for revenge.   And we also wonder what has happened to the sweet young woman who tried to kill herself in the saloon because of a failed love affair. Last time we saw her the lady crook Rita was asking her, "Can you sing and dance? Have you ever heard of the Barbary Coast?" And who and where is the Hawk, a new detective in town everyone is worried about? And what do these crooks do? After 49 minutes I still wasn't sure what they were all trying to pull off. Lucky for me, someone else had more of an attention span for this movie and was able to decipher the intricacies of the plot:
http://www.doctormacro1.info/Movie%20Summaries/S/She%20Done%20Him%20Wrong.htm

Anyways, once I understood the plot points I'd missed, I was able to enjoy it when Rita caught her man assistant giving her diamond brooch to Lou and declaring his love...
...leading to more drama.

But do I really believe a Cary Grant character would fall for a Mae West character? Sorry. One star for brave hat wearing and drama. But I don't think I can give more stars to a movie that couldn't hold my attention or belief. Sorry again.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)

Having loved On the Town, I needed to see more Kelly & Sinatra films. A baseball musical turned out to be a great choice. Not only did it have the same two main characters, but it had a number of the same character actors as well. Oh, joy!

Eddie (Kelly) and Denny (Sinatra) are baseball players and vaudeville performers. At the beginning of the movie we get to see their last act of the vaudeville season before they rush off to Florida for spring training with the Wolves. Once back with the team, they sing the strangest song about their fake exploits while on the road with the vaudeville troop, featuring a verse about a college girl who was so love struck that she stopped studying and...
"Her teachers wouldn't pass her
so she just turned on the gasser
now the sweetest girl at Vasser's
in the cold cold ground."
And oddly enough, because Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelley can sing anything, it sounds nice.

Right after being welcomed back to the team, the men find out that a new owner, K.C. Higgins, will be arriving shortly to take over management of the team. Everyone is angry to the idea of being put under tighter control by a new owner. Of course in a comedic twist of fate, K.C. Higgins turns out to be a Katherine (Esther Williams). I have only ever seen one Esther Williams musical before (and loved it), so I did not recognize Katherine as Williams when she first showed up. It wasn't until the guys watched Katherine swimming in the pool as she sang "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" that I realized who I was watching.

Katherine plans to clamp down on the players, giving them fines for coming in late and even offering them baseball advice. Eddie can't stand this, and the movie goes on to follow the familiar plot of woo the woman and pretend to love her so that you can get her to do what you want. Denny is assigned the job of wooing Katherine, which he does quite easily by singing a song. Unfortunately for him he goes off to bed, and Eddie rushes off to finish the wooing job, also by singing to Katherine. Denny watches horrified as Eddie appears to be stealing his new girl, not believing his pal Goldberg that Eddie is only wooing in his name. "Then what, I suppose she'll kiss him, and he'll come back and kiss me." I started to get a little worried about how easily Katherine was fooled by Eddie's act. Then Katherine charged Eddie the $50 fine for breaking curfew, and I felt much better.

Then of course much hilarity ensues. Shirley (Betty Garrett) falls for Denny at a game and stalks him mercilessly, Eddie and Katherine appear to fall for each other, all as they dance, sing, play baseball, start fist fights, have clam bakes, lie to each other, get into trouble with gamblers, try to protect each other in all the wrong ways, have a great chase scene around the bases, and dance and sing some more.

Next time I go to a game, forget the Red Sox hat... it is finally time to break out my grandmother's old hats.

This picture does no justice to the technicolor pink in the movie. And this is just one of the many wonderful hats that Katherine and Shirley wear throughout the movie.
Four stars! Four stars! Yes, it's silly and sexist, but four stars! Must see again!

The Crimson Pirate (1952)

Can you:

1) Play "I have scurvy" so successfully that your unsuspecting target will board your ship, allowing you to then jump up and take prisoners?

2)Take flying leaps through the air and bounce off of building awnings to escape a pursuing army?

3) Wear a tight fitting ladies sweater and ballet shoes and still look like a swashbuckler?

4)  Accomplish the impossible with the help of your mute but acrobatic sidekick who communicates solely through charades?

5)  Seduce damsels in distress? ("If you knew it was bolted you must have tried it, and if you tried it, you must know why it was bolted.")

6)  Plan to swindle everyone for your own pirate purposes but become a noble swashbuckler instead?

Yes?  Then you may be one of these men:
The Crimson Pirate.  A must see.  Three stars.

Carefree (1938)

Watch this movie for the dancing. No matter the plot (which in this case is obnoxious but full of hilarity), Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire are worth watching. Fred Astaire can dance anywhere and while doing anything...

In Carefree Stephen (Ralph Bellamy) is dumped by his fiance Amanda (Ginger Rogers) and enlists the help of his good psychiatrist friend Tony (Fred Astaire) to convince her that she really does want to get married. Amanda dislikes Tony almost immediately after hearing his tape recorded diagnosis that she is a silly thoughtless female. While she eventually does agree to meet with him for analysis and help, she first spends some hilarious scenes insulting him while wearing great hats.

The fact that there is hypnosis involved in Amanda's treatments should be enough to draw even the non-dance lover to this movie.

Needless to say, much hilarity ensues, and Stephen does not necessarily get the help that he is looking for. Oh Ralph Bellamy.  Were you limited to a career in which you play the dopey guy who is left for a suave hero?  I have seen only three of your movies, so I just don't know.  But Irene Dunne preferred Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell preferred Cary Grant, and now Ginger Rogers prefers Fred Astaire.  To be fair, The Dunne and Russell characters had both been previously married to their Grant character co-stars, and you were a transition back to their marriages.  But Ginger Roger's Amanda treated you so poorly.  Wait... I have just learned (imdb.com) that Ralph Bellamy won a Tony for his 1958 portrayal of FDR.  I feel a little better.

Two stars for golf dancing and hypnosis by dancing. I'm sure I will find other Rogers & Astaire movies to entertain me in the future. And now for more dancing...

Sabrina (1954)

Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn) has spent years pining for David Larabee (William Holden). Her father is the Larabee family's chauffeur, and Sabrina has grown up on the outskirts of the Larabees' expensive lives, watching David from trees as he seduces woman after woman.

Being sent away to Paris for chef school is so horrifying that Sabrina attempts suicide. Luckily she is rescued by Linus Larabee (Humphrey Bogart), David's very serious older brother, and goes off to chef school as planned.

When Sabrina returns from Paris she is finally sophisticated enough to catch the eye of David. But when David's new infatuation with Sabrina threatens an engagement that was designed to benefit the family business, Linus steps in to try to derail their relationship by... spending lots of time with Sabrina and leading her to believe he is falling in love with her.

Does Linus really love her? And does Sabrina love David?

I am giving this three stars, partly just because I was so thrilled not to hate it like I did the remake with Harrison Ford. There are moments when I found myself cringing, terrified that Sabrina would get her heart broken in horrible ways. Because even if things work out all right in the end, there are some ways you just shouldn't manipulate your heroine!

Dangerous When Wet (1953)

Oh, a swimming musical. Why have I not been watching these?

The Higgins family is a family of swimmers. Every single morning Pa, Ma, Junior, Katie (Esther Williams), and Suzie jump up seemingly at the crack of dawn to do some laps in the local swimming hole.  And, it being a musical, they sing a wonderfully cheery song as they get ready to swim.  When Katie is spotted by a somewhat lecherous salesman one morning, the family ends up with the chance to swim in a race across the English Channel in order to promote his product.

Although the rest of the Higgins family deems the English Channel too cold, Katie continues to train.  One day, during a foggy training session she loses sight of her salesman coach in his rowboat and is pulled aboard the sailboat of the charming and dashing Andre (Fernando Lamas - who became Esther Williams's husband).

There are passionate looks, vows to stay away for the sake of the race, and several minor scandals.  On their first date Andre gives Katie a bikini as a gift!  Andre invites Katie over to his house to meet his mother, and his mother isn't there!  And she stays anyways!  And they go swimming together!

The movie even contains a dream sequence in which Katie swims with Tom and Jerry.

I searched and searched for a photo of the great goggles worn in the movie... no photo to be found. Just picture the most wonderful gigantic swim goggles imaginable... and then double their size. Oh how I want those goggles.

And then of course there is Katie's heroic swim.

Three stars. I would love to see this again. And bring on the Esther Williams movies. Are they all so wonderfully silly?

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Klaatu barada nikto.

A movie with a message. Will we Earthlings be able listen to Klaatu's message and change our violent ways so that we can escape destruction and join the galactic community? Ahhh, a movie that is able to deliver its message without showing us the slaughter of millions of people. Four stars. If you have seen the new version with Keanu, know that it is a VERY different movie, and you must go and see the original NOW.

Holiday Inn (1942)

I want to go to Holiday Inn. But only if they promise that they've given up on the blackface acts. Be prepared for a really racist celebration of Lincoln's birthday, featuring the line, "Who was it set the darkie free?" Seriously.

So, I don't want to be at Holiday Inn for Lincoln's birthday. But I do want to ride in a horse drawn carriage instead of a taxi to be there to see Marjorie Reynolds and Fred Astaire dance with each other. Or just to see Fred Astaire do his Fourth of July cherry bomb dance on his own.

When we meet them, Ted (Fred Astaire) and Jim (Bing Crosby) are friends and fellow dancers.  After learning that Bing has wooed away his fiancee, another dancer, Bing goes off to his giant house in the country where he begins to renovate and create Holiday Inn.   He plans to spend most of each year on vacation, opening the inn just for fantastic performances on holidays.  Bing meets Linda (Marjorie Reynolds) at a performance in the city, and she comes out to the inn to audition for him.  They rehearse for performances, fall in love, and sing "White Christmas" together.
Sadly for Jim, Ted shows up drunk, having lost his dancer girlfriend.  Jim is convinced that if Ted meets Linda, he will try to steal her away both for a dancing partner and a girlfriend.  Ted is just this kind of friend.  Ted does meet Linda...he dances with her drunk... but once sober he cannot remember what she looked like.  He spends the next year showing up for holidays to search for his mystery woman, and Jim does everything in his power to keep them from meeting again.
Much dancing and hilarity ensue.  (I'm probably taking a ballroom class this spring.  Can I please come out of the class dancing like this?)

So, I'm sure I'll see this again some other Christmas season.  There are so many parts I like.  If Lincoln's birthday had not existed, I would be giving the movie four stars.  How much can I forgive old movies?  Jury is out.