Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

We're watching a legal movie so David can "study" for finals... Anatomy of a Murder.

Paul Biegler (James Stewart) is defending Lt. Frederick Manion, after Manion shoots and kills the man who raped his wife. Believe it or not, there are many funny moments in this film.

Lessons I learned:

*Lawyers have pretty books.

*Lawyers drink.

*There is no unwritten law. (Remember the pretty books.)

*Lap dogs like beer. It makes them sleepy.

*Always insist that your client and all related parties wear girdles. Attractive jiggling is not for the public.

*Everything goes in the docket.

*A jury can't really disregard what it's already heard.

*It's the role of the attorneys to provide the wisecracks in a trial.

*The prosecution will always object to "flagrant sneaking subterfuge" on the part of the defense.

*"People aren't just good or bad, they're many things."

*Cute furry animals can help your case, especially if they are smart enough to turn on and carry a flashlight.

*Research is important... You have to know your precedent.

*Buttering up the judge never hurts.

But David would point out that not everything in this movie was entirely proper. I think he's ready for finals. Three stars, and I would probably see this again. Maybe in preparation for the Bar.

To Be or Not to Be (1942)

A World War II comedy set in Poland complete with a play about Nazis, real invading Nazis, and actors in their Nazi costumes trying to get the real Nazis to think that they are Nazis, too. Funny movie. The acting troupe at the center of this movie is about to have their first performance of a play about Nazi Germany, despite some disputes amongst the actors. For example, "Heil myself," while deemed great for a laugh by the actor playing Hitler, is believed by the director to be un-Hilter-like. Unfortunately, the play is shut down, because the Polish war board is afraid the play will offend Hitler. When the Nazis invade, though, the costumes and sets of the canceled play come in handy in unexpected ways.

When the Nazis invade Poland, the acting troupe is in the middle of its own drama. It is performing Hamlet with husband and wife stars Maria and Joseph Tura (Carole Lombard and Jack Benny) in the lead roles. Maria has been recently introduced to a young aviator who has been to see all her shows. He's been sneaking back to her dressing room to talk with her every night when her husband goes into his "To be or not to be..." soliloquy. Joseph has noticed the audience getting up to let someone out, but has not yet put the pieces together. He just thinks he has experienced "What every actor dreads... Someone walked out on me." Joseph is spared from finding out about his wife's admirer by the announcement of war. The young aviator goes of to war...

The real hilarity begins when the young aviator discovers that a German spy is on his way to Poland to give the names of important resistance leaders to the Gestapo. The aviator returns to Poland (by plane and parachute) and enlists the help of Maria in foiling the spy. With Joseph's permission of course:

Josef Tura: Wait a minute. I'll decide with whom my wife is going to have dinner and whom she's going to kill.
Maria Tura: Don't you realize Poland's at stake?
Lieutenant Sobinski: Have you no patriotism?
Josef Tura: Now listen, you... first you walk out on my soliloquy and then you walk into my slippers. And now you question my patriotism. I'm a good Pole and I love my country and I love my slippers.

Enter many mistaken identities and rescue attempts. One of the best scenes involves a dead man and a false beard. I would definitely see this movie again, but it's probably only a two star movie... But who cares. One star for Carole Lombard, who was a funny funny lady, one star for the false beard scene, and one more for being so quotable. Three stars! "You can't have your cake and shoot it too."

The Lady Eve (1941)

I think Barbara Stanwyck is fantastic. She really makes this movie. Stanwyck plays Jean, a con artist who works with her father to woo men into losing lots of money to them at cards. On a cruise back to New York from South America, Jean and her father set their sights on the handsome yet bumbling herpetologist Charles (Henry Ford). I knew I was going to enjoy the movie, no matter how silly the plot, from the moment Jean started her narration of what all the other women she watched trying to pick up Charles must be saying. Jean, though, does not need a pick-up line. She very suavely trips Charles as he walks past her table, convinces him to walk her back to her cabin so she can change into new and undamaged shoes, and seduces him by suggesting he put the new shoes on her. From the moment Charles starts handling her feet, his eyes go all swimmy, and he is ready to follow her anywhere.

He follows her back to the dinner table, where Jean's father starts to set him up to lose a lot of money. And the courtship begins, with Charles bumbling over his words, and Jean delivering great lines like:

"I know what you meant, I was just flirting with you." and

"You're not going to faint, are you?"

The plot takes a quick turn when Jean announces that she is actually in love with Charles. She convinces her father not to take any of Charles's money, and she accepts Charles's marriage proposal. Unfortunately for Jean, though, the very morning after Charles proposes, someone tips Charles off to the scam. Charles won't believe that Jean is reformed or that she really does love him, and they part ways.

The rest of the movie involves a very complexly nutty scheme to get back at Charles. For as Jean says, "I need him like the axe needs the turkey." Jean goes to some pretty crazy lengths to get her revenge. I spent a lot of time wondering why she was bothering... and then everything made sense at the end of the movie. It will be a lot more fun if you don't try to predict what is going to happen!

Only two stars due to many tedious moments and the stupidity of the male lead (Barbara Stanwyck's great line delivery just isn't enough to make me believe that her character Jean actually cares anything for Charles), but I would see this again. It also really makes me want to investigate more Barbara Stanwyck movies.

Indiscreet (1958)

Cary Grant... Ingrid Bergman... "romantic comedy." Sounds like what I need right now. All in all, it was silly and not the best work by either of them, but it turned out to be an entertaining movie to watch while packing and doing school work. Really, the last part of the movie is where most of the comedy enters the picture. I chuckled at the ending line.

Anna Kalman (Bergman) has given up on finding the right man. Her most recent find, "the one who looked like a Greek statue," has turned out to be rather silly. Or in Anna's words, "He talked like a Greek statue. I don't think he knew more than a dozen words." Anna's sister doesn't seem to have a very good opinion of men herself, telling Anna, "I don't know what you expect from a man. You know there's a limit to how entertaining they can be." But Anna believes "they ought to be able to talk a little, simple sentences."

And then Philip (Grant) enters the room, and it's love at first sight for Anna. Philip is dashing, speaks clearly and intelligently about monetary policy while wearing enormous glasses, and is an excellent dinner date. Unfortunately, after their first dinner together, Philip admits, "I'm a married man, Miss Kalman." And thus begins the tortured staring at each other set to music, the long phone calls, and the secret dinners and late night drinks.

But, spoiler:

Philip, it turns out, has developed an insane way of dating without raising any expectations. "I don't care to be married," he says. "On the other hand, I have no intention of giving up women." Anna has found herself a catch. Hilarity and revenge ensue.

Two stars. If it weren't for the fact I own this movie as part of a box set, I probably wouldn't be tempted to see it again. For great Grant and Bergman, watch Notorious.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

"Oh Dexter, I'll be yar now... I promise I'll be yar." And with statement, the independent, smart, and funny Tracy Lord (played by Katherine Hepburn) gives in to her ex-husband (Cary Grant) and admits that women should be sweet and manageable and that she has been wrong to be so strong in the past. Warning: Although I do love some things about this movie, I'm not feeling very generous toward it at the moment. I forgot between viewings just how many painfully obnoxious moments there are.

The movie begins with Tracy preparing for her marriage to a second husband. The first marriage, we learn, ended because of Dex's (Grant's) drinking problem. A paper wants to do a story on the wedding (Tracy is high society), but Tracy is too private to allow photos. The paper's head honcho happens to have a story on Tracy's dad, who happens to be having an affair. He blackmails Dex into bringing a reporter and a photographer into Tracy's family home, promising to sit on the story on Mr. Lord as long as there's a story on the wedding. James Stewart plays the wonderfully sarcastic reporter who falls for Tracy. Much hilarity ensues, involving swimming, champagne, crooning, and huge hangovers.
My problem with the plot, is that we are later shown that Dex's drinking wasn't really the worst of things in Dex and Tracy's marriage. The worst of things was that Tracy was a "distant goddess," unable to accept frailty in others or to offer womanly warmth and support. First Dex tells Tracy this. Then James Stewart makes some statements confirming it...only he doesn't mind. He's new enough to like putting her up on a pedestal as a "queen." Then... final straw... Tracy's somewhat-estranged father returns from his affair with a young dancer in NYC and essentially blames Tracy for the fact that he had an affair.

And here it is, the most annoying part of the movie:

Mr. Lord: What most wives fail to realize is that their husband's philandering has nothing whatsoever to do with them.

Tracy: Oh? Then what has it to do with?

Mr. Lord: A reluctance to grow old, I think. I suppose the best mainstay a man can have as he gets along in years is a daughter - the right kind of daughter.

And then he goes on to explain. You see, Mr. Lord just needed a way to hold on to some of his youth, but instead of being blessed with a sweet young daughter to help him, he ended up with a harsh, shall we say "shrew," of a daughter who had a "prejudice against weakness." Seems she didn't like putting up with a constantly drunk husband or a dad who was off very publicly cheating on her mom.

Another way of looking at this movie is that it is in the "divorced, but will they find their way back together?" category of films. Cary Grant seems to be in a bunch of these. I believe the lesson in this film is that if you let yourself be tamed, yes, you can have a second chance. Despite my rants, I'm still giving this three stars, because the acting was fantastic, and I'm willing to put some blame on the time period in which it was made. And Dex does at least tell Tracy, "Be whatever you like, you're my redhead," and he has given up his drinking when he returns. Anyways, I know I'll see this and rant and laugh many more times.

P.S. - Something enjoyable that does not come with a rant:

With 12 movies on this blog already tagged with "odd precocious little girl," I can't believe one of them was not this movie. Virginia Weidler, as usual, plays the perfect "odd precocious little girl," from her early comment about the papers being "full of innundo" to her dramatic interpretation of a spoiled little rich girl, when she and Tracy try to mess with the reporters sent to do the story on Tracy's wedding.

And of course there's her comment about the fancy dress she wears to the wedding...

Mrs. Lord: I think that dress hikes up a little behind.

Dinah: No... I do.

I am a huge fan of Virginia Weidler.

Fiesta (1947)

Another Esther Williams film that doesn't even feature swimming? What does she do?
Bullfighting of course! My friend Yvonne and I sat down to watch this movie even after all of my warnings that a non-swimming movie in the Esther Williams box set volume 2 was bound to be scary. And we did have fun...

The story begins in a town in Mexico, when former star bullfighter Antonio Moralas meets his new baby daughter. He does very little to hide his disappointment that she is a girl. Even his assurance of, "Don't think I'm disappointed because she is a girl," is negated by his elation when a twin baby boy appears minutes later. "Gracias!" he tells his wife, and the whole staff is invited to drink to the baby boy. Even when the little girl grows up to be Esther Williams (playing Maria Morales), Mr Moralas only has eyes for his son, who he expects to become a great bullfighter like himself. Sadly for Mr. Moralas, though, his son Mario (Ricardo Montalban) is busy writing concertos that are "as beautiful as a hundred butterflies." Maria is the one who's interested in bulls.
The plot thickens when Maria sends Mario's concerto to a famous composer, the composer shows up to meet Mario the genius, and Mr. Moralas hides the visit from Mario so as not to distract him from bullfighting. When Mario learns of his father's deceit he runs off. Of course the only way Maria can think of to bring him back is to dress herself as her twin brother and enter bullfights in his name. Of course.

Questions raised:

Does a bullfight really end when you tap a bull on the head? And does that really make the bull just lie down and act pleasant? Or does that just work for Esther Williams? I assume the real thing ends with something more gruesome... Perhaps that's why the camera swings away right before she taps the bull on the head...

Wikipedia article on bullfighting

Two stars, because I'm feeling generous, and someone was doing a nice job working with the animals in the bull ring, but once was enough.

To Catch a Thief (1955)

Every once in a while it's nice just to watch a movie I already know I like. Enter To Catch a Thief, a Hitchcock film with great acting, great dialogue, and fascinating wardrobe choices. And of course Cary Grant is Cary Grant, looking suave even in a crazy red with white polka dots silk scarf wrapped around his neck.

But of course he is suave, not only is he Cary Grant, he is playing John Robie, a former jewel thief turned hero of the French resistance. Robie comes under suspicion after a string of jewel thefts, all bearing his famous mark. With the police on his tail, he escapes by boat to Cannes, where he makes his first costume change. And yes, he continues to look suave floating to shore in his new plaid bathing trunks.

A worried jewelry insurance agent convinces Robie to try to clear his own name by catching the copycat burglar. Robie is equipped with a list of the insured and any personal details that could help him to keep a good watch on then, prompting the well delivered, "I wish I'd known someone in the insurance racket when I went into the burglary business." Robie quickly settles into the Ritz Carlton Hotel under a fake name in order to befriend and keep an eye on the heavily jeweled Jessie Stevens. And there he meets her daughter Frances, played by Grace Kelly. Grace Kelly's dresses are honestly reason enough to watch this movie. Leaving aside whether or not I could pull any of them off, I want them. Especially this one:

In fact, the only outfit of hers in which I have no interest is the "bathing costume" below:

Robie is not put off by the bathing costume, though. What puts him off about Frances Stevens is when she reveals that not only does she know he's really Robie "the cat," but she believes he is in fact guilty of the current crime spree and... wants to join him. Robie just isn't interested in "women who need weird excitement."

Cary Grant climbing around on rooftops, Grace Kelly's dresses, a Hitchcock mystery to solve...I love this movie.

One more great line I couldn't work in above...

Jesse about her daughter Frances: "Sorry I ever sent her to that finishing school. I think they finished her there." Four stars, and I will definitely watch this again.

Song of the Thin Man (1947)

But first, a Thin Man marathon...

9:50 - The Thin Man

"a manhattan, you shake to a foxtrot..."

"Waiter, will you serve the nuts... I mean, will you serve the guests the nuts."

11:45- After the Thin Man

"Nick-oh-laas!"

*a long walk to a coffee shop and back...*

3:00 - Another Thin Man

"I wish my old lady were bats that way."

Asta acrobatics!

5:04 - Shadow of the Thin Man

"Daddy, drink milk!"

"But Daddy doesn't like milk."

7:09 - The Thin Man Goes Home

"Why did he herd us into the room like this?"

"...this is the way he always works."

and the finale... 9:04 - Song of the Thin Man

I waited so long to finish this series of films. I think I was worried I would be sad when there were no more "new" Thin Man movies left to see. (And maybe a little worried that I would be disappointed in the later films.) Not sad, though, because I am perfectly happy re-watching. Not disappointed, either. The Asta actors do more cutesy tricks in each film, now there is a child to provide occasional silly kid quotes, and maybe there's less drinking, but Nick and Nora are still Nick and Nora. And Nora even gets to participate more in this mystery. Nick doesn't shove her in any falsely directed cabs or lock her in any rooms to prevent her from helping. Good for him. So, while the first film is definitely my favorite, I will still give this movie three stars, and I'm sure I will see it again sometime. Not sure there will ever be another marathon, though.

The Big Sleep (1946)

Connie: "You're not very tall, are you?"
Marlowe: "Well, I try to be."

And so it begins... I love this movie. I could watch it over and over just for its great lines. As for the plot: When Detective Marlowe (Bogart) is called in to help a very wealthy man try to solve some of his messed up daughter's (the above Connie's) gambling problems, Marlowe becomes involved with deeper intrigue. And with Connie's sister Vivian (Lauren Bacall). Enter more great dialogue.
This movie has everything a great detective film should have, from a long and winding cast of characters who are never quite what they claim to be to a mysterious and sarcastic leading lady. I'm not sure I can say anything else about it without giving away plot twists!
"You begin to interest me, vaguely."
Four stars.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Inspired by a real-live almost filibuster (Bernie Sanders, December 10, 2010), David and I sat down to watch Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Jessica: So, what do you like about filibusters?
David: Well, I don't like faux filibusters, where it is used a procedural measure to block a vote without anyone actually having to get up and talk. Now a real filibuster, where one person or a group of people engage in a marathon of talking to draw attention to an issue they see as important, that has some appeal. As the announcer in Mr Smith says, free speech at its finest. That's kind of cool.

Jessica: What do you like about Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?
David: It's the classic David and Goliath story. An everyman against a political machine. And we all know Jimmy Stewart is great at playing the everyman. Also, it appeals to the vision of America as a country of ideas where the pen really is mightier than the sword or the pocket book.

Jessica: Tell us a little about Mr. Smith's cause.
David: Jefferson Smith is the head of the boy rangers, an organization clearly based upon the boy scouts. He would like to build a national boys' camp in his home state to be payed for in nickels and pennies sent in by boys all over the country. Unfortunately for Mr. Smith, the site where he would like to build the boys' camp is also the site of a proposed dam. The construction of this dam has been snuck into a bill by Jeff's fellow senator as graft. This of course means that Jeff starts asking inconvenient questions.

Jessica: What is your favorite part of Mr. Smith's filibuster?
David: When the page brings him a note from Saunders (Jean Arthur). I'm a sap. Just wait for it.

Jessica: May we watch many more political movies together.
David: I suggest The American President, although it's not a classic by the terms of this blog.

Four stars... would watch again.