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James Stewart reunites with his Harvey director, Henry Koster, in this 1962 comedy, which is charming enough even though it doesn't seem quite up to the level of talent involved. (The screenwriter is the legendary Nunnally Johnson--writer and director of The Three Faces of Eve, among many other titles--and the music is by Henry Mancini.) But it is pleasant, summery entertainment with Stewart and his screen wife, Maureen O'Hara, taking their urban family to a crumbling, seaside house for a vacation. The film was calculated to pull in older fans with Stewart as well as draw in a younger crowd that would enjoy the fairly extensive beach scenes with pop-star Fabian. Stewart is deft with the easy jokes about bad plumbing and such, and golden in several nice moments where he gets to play an attentive dad to his kids. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Very funny movie.
This is an enjoyable movie, with some very funny scenes and lines. One of my favorite lines takes place in the scene when Jimmy Stewart's shy daughter is at a dance, being the wallflower, and none of the boys ask her to dance. He asks Fabian to ask his daughter to dance (for a $5.00 fee). While they are dancing, Maureen O'Hara (his wife in the movie) asks "How did you find that boy?" and Jimmy Stewart answers "I yelled out 'Joe' to a group of boys. There is always at least one Joe in a group!"

Very Funny!
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation and Harvey are two of the funniest Jimmy Stewart movies. Vacation is especially fun because of the relationship between Maureen O'Hara and Jimmy. You will not be disappointed with this movie.

cute movie!!!
My wife loves the scene in this movie when Lauri Peters and Fabian sing "cream puff,shortcake" at the pizza place.Lauri is so cute trying to hide her braces.

Wonderful Jimmy Stewart at his comedic best!
I am still amazed at the number of people who haven't seen this movie! Mr. Stewart even narrates, here and there, throughout the story, this wonderful tale of his summer vacation with his family at a rented beach house, along with the family maid. There is a running gag throughout the picture about the plumbing and the maid misunderstands the English language, and Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs try very hard to understand their adorable teen-age daughter (Lauri Peters) who falls in love with an adorable boy (played by none other than Fabian!), who shows up at the local dance and then there's a son who prefers to watch westerns on TV all day and night. There's a sexpot neighbor that lives in a nearby beach house who attempts to read War and Peace, and later the Hobb's daughters show up with the misbehaving grandchildren and want nothing to do with "Boompa", otherwise known as Mr.Hobbs! Don't miss the scene when Jimmy Stewart bird-watches with his son-in-in-law's boss and learns "the proper walk". The chemistry between Maureen O'Hara and James Stewart is so wonderful, it's no wonder they were so successful in several films together! She is so convincing as the jealous wife, especially when Jimmy innocently tries to help his son-in-law's boss's wife (Marie Wilson) while she is in the shower and runs into trouble........don't miss it, you'll laugh all the way through this marvelous movie. Let's hope Twentieth Century Fox soon gives us a widescreen DVD version with extras, like an interview with Maureen O'Hara & Lauri Peters!

Very cute family movie
You can enjoy this with the kids and everyone. Good clean funny entertainment, that will make you laugh and remember a more innocent time. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

A powerful, emotional rollercoaster ride!
All the actors are great in this "tear jerker" movie. Susan Hayward is beautiful and lovable. Vera Miles is beautiful, but she is intolerable and a drunk!--proves how good an actress she is. John Gavin is effective as he portrays the man caught between these two women. If you want a great movie to watch over and over and to shed tears every time you watch it, this is the one!

GONE IS THE ROMANCE
Okay, folks...clearly this movie was made for another time, another decade, another life....it's 1961, and Ross Hunter has churned out these weepers for years now. The audiences wanted a love affair that appeared "heavenly," "bad," etc. Sure John Gavin is a cad..he never bothers to tell Susan Hayward that he's married and has two children. Sure, Vera Miles is the ultimate bitch---cold, calculating, unloving, and an alcoholic to boot. Sure Gavin should get a divorce in spite of Miles' threats. Sure the kids are hokey and unconvincing actors. Too many gowns, too many starry eyed I love yous...but isn't this what movies like BACK STREET are all about. No matter what, one can't deny the tissue factor when hunky Gavin lies dying in his bed, and when the children ask if they can visit Rae.
This isn't cinematic history folks..it's just a glitzy and moving tearjerker, which will probably stand the test of time.

TEARSTAINED IN MINK
Susan Hayward and Lana Turner battled it out on the screen in the early 1960's for the heavy weight crown of tearstained mink queen of the movies. What was left for an actress over 40 in 1961 but the highly glamorous gloss of a Ross Hunter picture or the grand gargoyle glamour of something like "Baby Jane"? Not much. To be a female movie star of a certain age at that time in Hollywood and to some extent even today meant only one thing, you're Over The Hill baby.
Both actresses had done their best work during the preceding two decades. It was Lana of the tawdry emotions versus hard Hayward of the rat-a-tat Brooklyn delivery always punctuated with a Garlandesque gesture. With films like "Ada", "Stolen Hours" and "Where Love Has Gone", Hayward wins the crown.
"Back Street" is the jewel in this crown. The essential Hayward tearjerker with all the required elements, an impossibly beautiful mannequin of a leading man for her and the audience to project their dreams upon. A truly wicked wife for him to make it almost impossible to denounce Hayward for coming between them, and two throwaway children to soften the tragic end of the film in one final surge of violins and Kleenex. All of this played out in the glamour capitals of New York, Rome and Paris provided by Universal's backlot (and a few lovely locations in Monterey County doubling for the Italian coast). Add to the mix the highly sophisticated costumes of the early 60's and sets of stunning beauty, all strung together to one of the most lyrically beautiful scores ever written for this genre. The result is the glossiest most improbably romantic film of her career that can be taken today in one of two ways, high camp comedy or lush romance. It all depends upon your point of view.
In support of Miss Hayward there is Virginia Grey as her older (and I mean much older!) sister Janenee. She provides throughout the picture the image Rae "All small letters, very chic. Smith, carries of what an ideal marriage and family means. She hits all the right notes as the loving sister who pushes Rae out of her small mid-western life in Lincoln Nebraska and into the world of high fashion in New York.
Reginald Gardner is the perfect picture of the perfunctorily gay designer Dalian who helps her to make her name and sends her off to Europe, or at least around the corner to the "Rome" set. His is just an extension of the Franklin Pangborne harmless gay man of the early years of movie history. Elegant sophisticate always ready with a bon mot and a hanky. He is alarmingly memorable in the role.
John Gavin, more beautiful than Rock Hudson and with a better body, is Paul Saxon, the spineless Ken Doll upon which Rae drapes all her dreams as if he were a mannequin to dress for each love scene. But with such a man around she and the audience need nothing more than what appears. He is the perfect vessel to dream about, create a personality for, and waist a good twenty years loving while passing up the opportunities presented for a real life.
About a quarter of the way into the film the fun arrives in the cool resplendent form of Vera Miles as Liz (perhaps the screenwriter chose that name to make a subliminal connection with the then scandalous Elizabeth Taylor) Saxon, wife to Paul. She is given all the attributes of a monster, alcoholic, unfaithful and a lousy mother. (Sounds like the tabloid "Liz" we all know and love.) She is perfectly designed to make us love Rae and her sad little back street affair. For there was just no other way to get around the taboo of infidelity in those days but to have a Liz on hand. Her confrontation with Rae is supremely bitchy and utterly wonderful.
As the beautiful Rae Susan Hayward plays one of her few completely sympathetic characters in her long and lustrous career. She approaches Rae as if this was a chance to win a second Oscar and in fact in the scene where she calls late one night from Rome back home on Thanksgiving she is magnificent. Her beautiful bourbon flavored voice is used to accentuate her loveliness in every scene. Her trademark gestures are at a minimum and only called into play when they are most needed. She carries the improbable picture on her perfect shoulders and gives a fine and detailed performance that is perfection in the soapy atmosphere of Europe. A few of the many highlights is the scene where she finds out that Paul is married, the phone call from the hospital and the race to the airport in Lincoln early on in the film. She is stunningly dressed in gowns by Jean Louis that are smart and very contemporary to what the ladies are wearing on the red carpet today. David Webs beautiful jewelery complements her and adds a feel of true richness to the picture.
As I mentioned earlier the score by Frank Skinner is perfection and punctuates the drama in so many ways that are essential in this movie.
The direction by stalwart David Miller is right on target. He should know how to do it, after all he did the same for Joan Crawford in "The Story of Esther Costello" and "Sudden Fear", as well as Doris Day in "Midnight Lace" and Lana Turner in "Diane".
This all was helmed by the master of the genre, Producer Ross Hunter who defined the genre with such hits as "Imitation of Life", "Portrait in Black", and "Madam X".
"Back Street" remains to this day the shinning beacon of the last gasp of the woman's picture where women were smart, strong, self-made in a mans world and all the while ever glamorous in tearstained mink.

Sidesplittingly funny
This movie must have arrived in garbage rather than film cans, and via the sewage rather than the postal system. Susan Hayward, pace an earlier reviewer, was possibly the worst actress in Hollywood history, which is saying something. She makes such simple, everyday acts as answering the phone or walking to her car seem fraught with unseen danger: in fact, she makes Anne Bancroft seem positively restrained. The terminally stolid John Gavin is ideally cast as her "lover" - for comedic purposes. This couple has an unsettling way of looking like Oedipus and Jocasta. Add to this the impossible-to-underrate Vera Miles (in the role she was spawned to play) and the two most unattractive child actors ever as her whelps, mix in some of the most horrid injuries ever inflicted upon the music of Johannes Brahms, and you have the single funniest movie ever made in the most ridiculous of all Hollywood modes.
That this was made AFTER the death of Buddy Holly and not long before the Bay of Pigs should make you laugh even harder.
There is not a sincere frame anywhere in this abortion. If you take it seriously, you should not be allowed in public unsupervised.

Back Street
I believe this is one of the best movies of all times. It is an emotion-evoking movie. The dialogue is clear and decisive and above all there is no vulgarity throughout the film. It is the type of movie that can tirelessly be seen over and over again. The story could be anybody's life. The acting is very convincing. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

An Early Solo Classic from Jerry Lewis
Long before "Mr. Mom" or "Kramer vs. Kramer", Jerry Lewis made a great argument for fathers to have as much say in the raising and nurturing of their children as mothers. This delightful comedy (with just enough drama added in for good measure) is about a man who goes beyond expectation to care for three baby girls who are left at his doorstep.

Moreover, this is not merely a comedy, but a musical, with songs that deserve the right to be as well remembered as any from "The Wizard of Oz" or "The Sound of Music".

This, among other Jerry Lewis classics, should be issued on DVD, but until they are VHS still looks pretty good.

Excellent and I'm not even a big Jerry Lewis fan!
This is one of my all-time favorite movies and I'm not even a big Jerry Lewis fan. My children and I laugh until we're crying every time we watch this movie.

From the other reviews you know it's about a guy trying to take care of baby triplets on his own. It's an EXCELLENT family movie with a sweet story as Clayton Poole (Jerry Lewis) does everything in his power to take care of these little girls. Sure, it's hilarious but it also has a strong family theme as the Clayton, the babies' aunt and grandfather do whatever they can to do what's best for the babies. Even the mother realizes in the end that the babies are what's most important.

There is definitely something for everyone in this movie.

Why, oh why don't they put it on DVD???

Ohhhh!, Baby!
It's tough to choose which Jerry Lewis movies is my favorite, but I have to start with this one. It's sweet, darlin' and romantic all rolled up into one. It's about Clayton Poole (Jerry Lewis) a bumbling TV repairman, who by surprise becomes an adopted father to triplet baby girls. Clayton's former girlfriend turned movie star, Carla Naples (Marilyn Maxwell) springs the surprise when she leaves them on his doorstep. Noble Clayton tries to keep everything a secret but all mayhem cuts loose. And Clayton's other love interest Sandy Naples (Connie Stevens) helps Clayton out of his dilemma and from the suspicions of their father Gigi (Salvatore Baccaloni). I'll leave the ending for you to see. If you love the wacky antics of Jerry Lewis and romantic comedy by all means go for it!

Jerry is funny!
My children and I love this movie! Jerry is funny and adorable. This is definatly one of his best (it's so hard to pick a favorite!)In the movie Gerry is left to raise tripplet girls who are babies until there mother finishes shooting a film in which she star's. In the funny and famous style that only Jerry can do he makes it heaps of fun that you never get tired of watching. A good clean, funny movie for everyone.

Whoa Baby!
This video is awesome. My kids love to watch it and laugh hilariously. It is great for all ages (even me). It is about a man (Jerry Lewis) who is stuck helping raise 3 babies and it is really funny. If you buy this video, you won't be sorry. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Hilarious!
Another downright funny Stan Laurel-Oliver Hardy classic that will keep you laughing so hard you'll barely be able to watch the show. Ollie, heartbroken, drags Stan with him to the French Foreign Legion, where it quickly becomes clear that they weren't meant to be soldiers. Hardy ends up making a horse of himself. Funny scene: the boys try to fly an airplane (with predictable results).

Laurel and Hardy at their most bleakly Beckettian.
'The Flying Deuces' plumbs depths of despair that almost reach the tragic pitch of a Buster Keaton. From the opening sequence, where a lovestruck Ollie has his marriage proposal turned down by a French waitress who laughs at him with her friends behind his back, the comedy is soured by very real pain. The rest of the film sees the pair trying to drown Ollie's sorrows, so, appropriately, images of water humorously recur. This is especially ironic in that the action's bulk is set in the Moroccan desert, with Laurel and Hardy joining the Foreign Legion, only for the duration needed, they think, for Ollie to 'forget'.

Perhaps the desert suggests the emotional barrenness searing Ollie's soul; perhaps the film is merely having a laugh at the contemporary FL hit 'Beau Geste'. In support of the former conjecture is the film's best sequence, which takes place just before they leave for Africa. Stan flippantly asks his miserable friend why he doesn't just drown himself. Ollie takes him up on the idea, but insists Stan join him - how could he live without his old comrade, people staring at him without Ollie there to 'explain'. The business with the Sisyphean rock-weight to which they are both tied; the intrusions of an escaped monster-shark; the discussions about reincarnation (Ollie wants to come back as a horse); and the prolonged leavetaking, all make it difficult to tell where comedy ends and tragedy begins.

The film is full of brilliantly resonant sequences and images like this, such as the laundry episode, Stan wandering through an endless vineyard of clotheslines, and ending up on a mountian full of dirty linen; or the boys trying to rest only to be barked at by guards who are precursors to Beckett's malevolently unseen authorities. The gloriously inappropriate musical interludes, such as a choreographed 'Shine On Harvest Moon' at the height of a chase sequence, includes Stan playing harp on the eve of their execution for desertion, the instrument ominously looking like a gallows with numerous 'strings'/nooses.

It's a shame the humour isn't up to the ideas (the script was co-written by Harry Langdon) - the sparse funny moments bejewel long stretches of tedium, and the film climaxes with an interminable action sequence that is neither exciting nor witty. Worse, the print's quality, even on supposedly 'restored' DVD, is atrocious and presumably irredeemable, full of scratches, black-outs and missing shots - anything longer than a mid-shot is an impenetrable blur. Yet even this flaw can add inadvertant eerieness to the film - when the boys are arrested, their faces disappear against the desert bleach, like a strange surrealist tableau, or a James Whale fantasy.

Note that this item from Kino is the RESTORED EDITION
Just an FYI: I notice a lot of reviews from earlier editions of "Flying Deuces" are turning up here... I just want to reiterate that THIS new version from Kino is RESTORED-- you won't see a better print of this movie unless one turns up after this is released. Ignore the reviews here that mention "Madacy," "Platinum," "Good Times," etc. ... this is the NEW Kino RESTORED version, and you're gonna' love it! :)

Finally, an excelleent print of this film!
There are many versions of "Flying Deueces" on the market since it is a public domain film. They range from atrocious to just okay. Finally, Kino does all U.S. Laurel & Hardy fans a service by releasing a stunning print first released a few months ago on DVD by a French company. I highly recommend it!

The film itself is fast-moving and highly amusing, as you'd expect from Laurel & Hardy. It has an interesting history-- the team did it away from their home studio in the midst of contract negotiations, and Hardy met his future wife while shooting-- she was a script girl on the set. It's one of my favorites. Also included are two Laurel & Hardy rarities: "The Stolen Jools," which was an all-star short featuring Laurel & Hardy as well as Edward G. Robsinson, Buster Keaton, the Our Gang ("Little Rascals") kids, Wallace Beary, Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and more. The other rarity is "Tree in a Test Tube," one of only 2 films the team made in color (the other being the lost feature, "The Rogue Song"). This was a wartime short done for the government about the importance of wood.

With so little Laurel & Hardy available on DVD in the US, this is a welcome addition. Pick it up if you're looking for laughs, smiles and a bit of cinema history! :)

Vintage Laurel and Hardy
"The Flying Deuces" (1939) was the only non-Hal Roach production in which Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy maintained a fair amount of creative control -- a quality largely absent from most of their 1941-45 output. After leaving Roach in 1940, the team's brilliance was tarnished by Fox and MGM's assembly-line approach to visual comedy. It's a shame that independent producer Boris Morros and RKO didn't retain Stan and Ollie's services after the success of "The Flying Deuces," which is a minor classic in their filmography. Though lacking the high production values of the best Roach features, this Foreign Legion escapade remains a fast-paced romp with plenty of memorable routines and some charming musical interludes. Because of its public-domain status, "The Flying Deuces" is the most accessible Laurel and Hardy feature. As a result, there are numerous video releases that utilize re-edited, badly duped prints. The recent Alpha Video DVD is far from pristine, yet it offers the complete 69-minute feature. For once, the print quality is better than average while the soundtrack is fully synchronized. When you consider the plethora of budget DVDs on the market, the Alpha disc is among the better offerings. Hopefully, a first-generation 35mm print of "The Flying Deuces" will emerge on DVD in this lifetime. ... Read more

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Christmas in Connecticut is a holiday film that plays 365 days of the year. Barbara Stanwyck gives a brilliant, sardonic performance as Elizabeth Lane, a columnist for Smart Housekeeping magazine, whose enticing descriptions of the exquisite meals she prepares for her husband and baby on their bucolic Connecticut farm earns her fame as "America's Best Cook." A writer, she is; a cook, she is not. As she types the words, "From my living room window, as I write, the good cedar logs cracking on the fire..." the view is of clothes flapping on the line outside her bachelorette Manhattan apartment. An able supporting cast keeps her lie on life support: her editor, her stuffy and detestable architect suitor, and the wonderful "Uncle" Felix (S.Z. Sakall), an English-garbling Hungarian chef who provides the recipes that fill her column.

Cut to Jefferson Jones, a sailor adrift at sea for weeks after his destroyer is torpedoed. Memories of the food described in Lane's columns are central to his survival. After his rescue, as he's recuperating in a naval hospital, a marriage-minded nurse thinks she might nudge Jones to the altar if he could only experience a real domestic Christmas. And it just so happens that she was nurse to the grandchild of Alexander Yardley, the wealthy and powerful publisher of --you guessed it--Smart Housekeeping magazine. And so, she pens the letter that could unravel Lane's carefully constructed fraud. She writes to Yardley asking that Jones be included in America's ultimate Christmas--the one to be held at the Lane family farm in Connecticut. The pompous Yardley (ably portrayed by Sidney Greenstreet) believes the Lane myth and instantly sniffs a story that will send his magazine's circulation skyrocketing. And staring down a lonely holiday, he decides to join the Lanes for Christmas on the farm, too. Now, all Lane has to do is come up with a farm. And a husband. And let's not forget the baby. Christmas in Connecticut is classic screwball entertainment of the best kind, with its on-target skewering of social convention and house-of- cards-about-to-tumble tension: a perfect farcical vision of domestic blitz. --Susan Benson ... Read more

Reviews (28)

CLASSIC CHRISTMAS CARD.
A picture about Christmas in the country, a wonderfully funny, romantic Christmas. It bubbles over with merriment and radiates good cheer like a Christmas tree with all the lights lit. This is a surprisingly well-known film (they play it on television every year at Christmastime) and it's highly entertaining. Stanwyck is winning as Elizabeth Lane, (Betty Crocker personified) who writes a cooking column for a housekeeping magazine (in actuality, she knows nothing about either subject) When a soldier comes to her home for the holidays, she must either master the ways of housekeeping of reveal her incompetence. Dennis Morgan is very likable here and the creepy Reginald Gardiner is amusing as the man who tries to win over Stanwyck. The plot is thin as air and the direction is rather unsure, the script and pacing could have been better - but just sit back and enjoy this little flick - it never claimed to be a Sturges masterpiece. Also available in digital colorized version.

Stanwyck at her best!
Christmas in Connecticut is a romantic comedy all of you classic movie buffs will enjoy. It centers around a single working girl (Barbara Stanwyck) who writes a cooking column for a ladies magazine. Her writing is so convincing that her boss (Sidney Greenstreet) believes it all--husband, baby, and farm in Connecticut! So he arranges to have a sailor and himself invited to spend Christmas "on her perfect farm." What to do? Here she is, a gal who can "only cook on the typewriter." Well, bring along Uncle Felix to do the cooking. All goes well until she is asked to flip a flapjack. Did she do it? Well, wait and see. This movie is full of fun and romance (the old-fashioned kind). It's a holiday treat for young and old alike.

The best Christmas movie
Forget all the others that people think are "must sees" at Christmas time. This is the best and, seemingly, the least well known.

It is so funny to watch in light of today's Martha Stewart and other domestic "divas." A lot of the humor was probably risque for the day but, sadly, most youths today would have to have it explained to them.

The movie is a well written comedy of errors. The characters are interesting and not just one demensional as is so often the case in comedies. I found myself very involved with the story...cheering for my favorite characters.

If you only have time to see one Christmas movie this year do make it this one. You won't be sorry.

Great Christmas Fare
I look forward to seeing this romantic comedy of errors each year at Christmastime. Barbara Stanwick is superb, and it's great to see Sidney Greenstreet in a comedy. I just want to know...when is it coming out on DVD?!!

An underappreciated classic on par with "Wonderful Life"
I discovered this movie in my teens and have loved it ever since. It is a classic - capturing the mores of the era and the timelessness of a good farce. It is a shame that this movie has not enjoyed the great appreciation afforded "It's a wonderful life" and "Miracle on 34th Street." "Christmas in Connecticut is every bit as good - if not better, and not nearly as overplayed. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Since Adolf Hitler had the audacity to borrow his mustache from the most famous celebrity in the world--Charlie Chaplin--it meant Hitler was fair game for Chaplin's comedy. (Strangely, the two men were born within four days of each other.) The Great Dictator, conceived in the late thirties but not released until 1940, when Hitler's war was raging across Europe, is the film that skewered the tyrant. Chaplin plays both Adenoid Hynkel, the power-mad ruler of Tomania, and a humble Jewish barber suffering under the dictator's rule. Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, plays the barber's beloved; and the rotund comedian Jack Oakie turns in a weirdly accurate burlesque of Mussolini, as a bellowing fellow dictator named Benzino Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria. Chaplin himself hits one of his highest moments in the amazing sequence where he performs a dance of love with a large inflated globe of the world. Never has the hunger for world domination been more rhapsodically expressed. The slapstick is swift and sharp, but it was not enough for Chaplin. He ends the film with the barber's six-minute speech calling for peace and prophesying a hopeful future for troubled mankind. Some critics have always felt the monologue was out of place, but the lyricism and sheer humanity of it are still stirring. This was the last appearance of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, and not coincidentally it was his first all-talking picture. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (41)

Chaplin Talks!
"The Great Dictator" is an effective, if uneven, satire that displays Charlie Chaplin's mastery of pantomime and social commentary. This was his first talking picture and features his inspired dual role as Hynkel and the Jewish Barber. However, with the exception of Hynkel's globe dance and the barber's musical shaving technique, "The Great Dictator" doesn't utilize sound and silence nearly as well as Chaplin's masterpiece, "Modern Times." The barber's final speech remains stirring (if obviously out of character), but some dramatic elements seem awkward and don't blend well with the film's satiric fabric. In terms of story structure, Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux" works better -- and is more assured in terms of pacing and the utilization of sound. Regardless of its occasional flaws, "The Great Dictator" remains a memorable film with Chaplin in superb form.

Stongly Agree With Favorable Reviews
After just watching this picture I feel that this would have to be 5 STARS+. This movie was ahead of it's time in humor. I can't say that I am a huge fan of Charlie (only seen 3 films and some keystone shorts at this time) but he is a great comedian and a fine actor. Chaplin plays a duel role as The Great Dictator Adenoild Hynkel aka. Adolf Hitler and, a poor Jewish tramp that is in love with a girl called Hannah. The film has to keep from saying Hitler, Nazi, Mussolini, Italy, Germany, and other words that have to do with Axis because it was made a year and a half before the U.S.A. got involved in World War II. This is a WORLD of fun. BUY THIS DVD!!!! NOW

Serio-comic masterpiece---Hitler saw this one twice!
This film is an excellent piece of anti-axis propaganda in the guise of a hilarious satire of totalitarianism. Chaplin portays two characters who's resemblance to one another is merely coincidental. One is a Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomania with a jewish name, the other a Jewish barber with impeccable instincts for sussing out trouble. Overall, "The Great Dictator" attempts to demonstrate the idiocy of war. By turning the key players into buffoons, it portays the war machine as a circus. This film is much more than a lampoon of the Nazis, however. The silliest characature of all is of Benito Mussolini. Jack Oakie's portrayal of the Dictator of Bacteria, Benzino Napaloni, is the highlight of the film. He's like a stereotype of one of those "larger-than-life" tourists who bluster with absolute authority wherever he goes. It is really hard not to picture him in the loudest hawaiian shirt know to man. It is really obscenely funny. The interaction between the two dictators provides the most sustained lunacy in the film. Their attempts to one-up one another are just brilliant.

"The Great Dictator" does have an extremely serious side. There is an attempt to portray the plight of the displaced Jews with care and much pathos. It works, more or less. The Jewish Ghetto is given enough attention that the viewer develops a connection with them as they attempt to get on with their lives. Maurice Moscovitch as Mr. Jaeckel is particularly effective. Paulette Goddard plays Hannah as a rather dim, dreamy stumblebum. She's cute, but occasionally annoying. Sometimes, it feels like Chaplin has transported Hannah back to the Wizard of Oz--she speaks in that same half-whimpering, dreamy manner as Judy Garland's Dorothy.

Finally, this film certainly transcends any single political agenda. The only agenda one can associate with it is the aim to bring laughter to a world torn asunder by the vagaries of milatary posturings. It seems telling (to me, at least), that Adolf Hitler viewed this film twice. I have always been curious as to what his thoughts were on this total classic send-up of the great men of the Blood-Axis in their own time. Perhaps by the end of the first viewing, he perceived that Mussolini got the worst of it. Then he watched it again--this time with pleasure. If you can't laugh at yourself...

Relevant for Any Age
DVD is the perfect medium for many of Chaplin's films. He demanded a lot from his audience. Each film carries it's own message. Each section of a film addresses a part of that film's message. Every facet of a work has a purpose. He lightened the load through the use of humour. The viewer has to be thinking every minute though. It's possible to watch these films time and again, or to watch different segments repeatedly and keep finding something more. They really are that complex. Fortunately, the DVD medium makes doing that easy.

The Great Dictator is as relevant today as it was when it skewered Hitler and his gang of Fascist bigots back in 1940. It took aim at Hitler but its target could easily be any warmongering regime from any period of history. The parallels are all there. Chaplin addresses each of them and does it well. His character Hynkel is a bumbling and ineffective "leader". He's driven by greed. As the film unfolds it's obvious his greed is rooted in feelings of inferiority. The more his mouth moves the less he says. His economic policies are a disaster-to wage war he has to borrow money from the "enemy". He is petty beyond belief. Ultimately, without an "enemy" to point toward, he's nothing. His entire mantra-loss of liberty, racial persecution, lust for control and so on-is all for one thing: he has to cover the fact that he can't rise to the level of the most humble of those he torments. This is a fundamental truth about people who lust for conquest. Chaplin illustrates it brilliantly.

The film isn't perfect. Chaplin and his crew weren't entirely comfortable when working with sound. Many scenes have dialogue but lack background noise. It was a common fault of the time though. The players have an assortment of accents. The Tomanians (with the exception of Herring) sound British. As the Jewish barber Chaplin sounds British. Many of the Jews in the Ghetto sound Jewish but Palette Goddard as Hannah, sounds as if she came from Queens. There are at least a couple of interludes that interfere with the continuity of the film. These are small complaints though. There are many scenes that have never been bettered. One is the episode with the coins and the cakes. On its own it's pure comedic brilliance. Combined with the statement it makes about the utter ridiculousness of martyrdom for its own sake (not to mention the unwillingness of leaders to become martyrs) it's timeless. The scene with the cannon is a gem. The "ultimate" weapon is shown as the ultimate (and expensive) waste; this could easily be the Crusader Artillery System. The tenderness between Chaplin and Goddard is a thing of beauty. Jack Oakie is fabulous as a Mussolini clone. The scenes between him and Chaplin are hilarious. (Watch the scene with the hot mustard and do some thinking.) The innuendo in the film is brilliant. Who but Chaplin would conceive of Tomainia (after "Ptomaine, poisonous and putrefying organic matter), the "Sons of the Double Cross" or Hynkel's first name, "Adenoid"? The entire backdrop with its "Thinkers of Tomorrow" and other absurdities modeled on the vanity of the Dictator is amazing; it captures the madness completely. The ballet with the globe is beautiful and astonishing. The music representing the ideals for the greedy and the humble is identical. The message: people are alike. As is the norm for Chaplin he did it in a way that was subtle; it's the theme of the Grail Knight descending from Wagner's Lohengrin. Hitler loved Wagner's music. Chaplin would have known that. It's his way of saying Wagner's music wasn't to blame for Hitler's madness. There's more but this should give an idea.

What nobody seeing the film for the first time can be prepared for however, is the way it ends. I wasn't. I saw a few of Chaplin's films as a student but had missed this one. I was floored. His statement about the nature of the people who make war is valid in any age. It always will be.

Watch it and then look closely at the events of the present.

The genius of Chaplin.
One look at Charlie Chaplin's filmography leaves little doubt as to his genius. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoy all his films, even the more obscure ones that weren't necessarily box office hits. But of all his films I believe "The Great Dictator" to be his masterpiece. "The Gold Rush" may have been the film in which he wanted to be remembered, and it is certainly a great film, but this film is working on so many levels as to seem superior to me. Sufficed to say, I love satire. This film is loaded with satirical referrences and subtle and not-so-subtle wit and clever word-play as well as all the brilliant physical humor that initially made Chaplin famous. There is so much intelligence in this film that it is easy for me to praise and recommend. I could relate scenes that I absolutely loved, but there are too many to name; and I certainly don't want to ruin all the comedic surprises for those who have yet to see this film. Even after ten viewings I find myself laughing at Chaplin's antics: verbal and physical humor of the highest level. In fact, I guarrantee laughter. There is so much humor here, of so many varieties, that there is no doubt in my mind that anyone viewing this film for the first time with giggle, chuckle, then laugh heartily. Oh, how I envy those first-time viewers. What a magnificent film! Hail Chaplin! ... Read more

Reviews (8)

BETTY GRABLE , HELLO DOLLY (SISTERS)
BETTY GRABLE, this is 1945 Betty is Queen of Technicolor
Fox want to make a biog of the DOLLY SISTERS, Alice Faye is family bound Alice got a raw deal from Fox with Fallen Angel so she did a runner, Rita Hayworth was busy at Columbia so Betty had to settle for June Haver as co-star Haver was 10 years younger than Grable but it was Betty,s movie in Technicolor

Very promising but doesn't live up
Look alike June Haver and Betty Grable star together in this movie as two blonde sisters. The first hour was very entertaining with several silly songs. June and Betty make a great team. Their voices sound pretty good together.
But the last hour is such a drag. Like "For Me and My Gal", it destroys itself by entering war into the picture. My main complaint however is John Payne's character. He criticizes Jenny's (Betty Grable) career and comes across as a real jerk.
Reading up on what happened to the real Dolly Sisters, it wouldn't have much mattered if the war part was edited out anyway as this was very fictionized.
The only thing I gained from this movie was an appreciation more of Betty Grable's talents. It made me realize there were valid reasons for her success. June Haver is almost as appealing as Betty too. I'll be checking into their other movies. More like 2 1/2.

Great Musicals
One of the top musicals of the 1940s so what's taking so long to get it released on DVD format! More of Grable's films should be made available to enjoy, films like Mother Wore Tights, The Diamond Horse Shoe, Coney Island, I Wake Up Screaming (DVD).

Everything is great
The opening scene with turn of the century New York, the 2 little girls playing the Dolly sisters as youngsters breaking into an "impromptu" dance in the Hungarian cafe, dancing to Gypsy music, the cut to the adult June Haver and Betty Grable doing the same thing in more filled out peasant dresses and showing a lot of "million dollar legs"...Not too many actesses would want to be in an immediate comparison for cuteness with pretty little blond girls, but these two carry it off flawlessly.

The other songs, the scenes in Paris, the story of the romance with John Payne, how they showed the conflict (albiet a bit corny, but believable) of how both of them wanted to assert their individuality and still be together...

This is one of the best musicals I've ever seen. Family values and an adult story tastefully done.

In the "forgotten" old musicals category, I'd also recommend The Perils of Pauline with Betty Hutton, Cover Girl with Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth.

Jaw-dropping eye candy
The movie shows that Fox was often right up there with MGM when it came to musicals! Surely one of the most brilliantly designed, staged and costumed backstage musicals ever made. The two stars strut their stuff in enough feathers to eradicate several endangered species - and then get it on with a zest and verve that make you instantly fall in love with them. The Dolly Sisters were a vaudeville phenomenon that took the world by storm and although this is merely a typical romanticized Hollywood version of a show business bio it is well worth watching just to get the flavor of what they might have been like. Warning: the "Darktown Strutter's Ball" Follies Bergere number will seem racist by today's standards, but it is beautifully put together, and is one of the first instances of Hollywood even hinting that black women might take their place with the most gorgeous showgirls in the world (though they used white girls in dark makeup to make the point). Color, Music, Style- A+: Story, performances - OK See it for the still-amazing production numbers. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Sweethearts forever, MacDonald/Eddy.......
Sweeping lyrical scores, brilliant technicolor and staccato pace set the backdrop for this love story between wife Gwen(Jeanette) and husband Ernest Lane(Nelson). As wildly popular stage performers, they live a perpetual honeymoon, on stage and off - a touch syrupy for some but delightful for romantics. That the movie lacks a story line is unimportant - the scores and lavish productions more than compensate in this opulent Victor Herbert musical. Outstanding is the couple's poignant harmony singing "My Little Grey Home in the West". In that sequence especially, Nelson projects a fiery affinity for Jeanette that is actually palpable. This movie is well named.

Reel and Real Sweethearts Forever
Sweeping lyrical scores, brilliant technicolor and staccato pace set the backdrop for this love story between wife Gwen (Jeanette) and husband Ernest Lane(Nelson). As wildly popular stage performers, they live a perpetual honeymoon, on stage and off - a touch syrupy for some but delightful for romantics. That the movie lacks a story line is unimportant - the scores and lavish productions more than compensate in this opulent Victor Herbert musical. Outstanding is the couple's poignantly rendered harmony with "My Little Grey Home of the West". In that sequence, Nelson Eddy vividly projects a fiery affinity for Jeanette MacDonald that is actually palpable. The movie is well named.

Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy with A Touch Of Spice
"Sweethearts", would have to be along with the classic "Maytime", my absolute favourite of all the MacDonald/Eddy Operetta teamings at MGM. Blessed with this unforgettable team at their absolute peak, a breathtaking technicolour production, and veteran director W.S. Van Dyke in fine form, "Sweethearts", make most memorable viewing for all lovers of this team's work. It had the added bonus of presenting this popular team in a slight variation on their usual screen persona's with the usual sweetness and light at times being joined by some amusing tart dialogue and situations that showed these two performers in a different and very agreeable manner. Both performers respond to this partial change of pace with delightfully fresh and energetic deliveries that where most welcome extensions on their previous work together.

By 1938 Jeanette MacDonald in particular was anxious to at least partially escape the constant teamings that she had with Nelson Eddy. This didn't result from any personal dislike of Eddy but was simply her need to expand her dramatic range and put some variety into who she worked with. While their Box Office draw together at this time made a breaking up of the team unthinkable MGM decided to go all out with their new production of the 1913 play by Victor Herbert and make it unique for the MacDonald/Eddy team. A lavish budget was set which included the use of three strip technicolour which greatly enhanced the look and feel of the production and showed audiences for the first time the beauty of Jeanette MacDonald's colouring and Nelson Eddy's often overlooked masculine charm. It was the couple's first modern dress picture as well which considerably freed up their performances, in particular that of Nelson Eddy who was often accused of looking very stiff in his earlier period costumes. MGM also took the innovative step of hiring famed writer of wit Dorothy Parker and husband Alan Campbell to add a little spice to the proceedings in "Sweethearts", which resulted in the team positively shining under the lively dialogue and amusing situations far removed from their usual prim exchanges. "Sweethearts", chronicles the trials of famed husband and wife operetta team Gwen Marlowe (MacDonald) and Ernest Lane (Eddy) who as the film begins are celebrating their sixth anniversary as the sweethearts of America performing non stop in the top Broadway smash "Sweethearts". Unbeknown to the adoring public however Gwen and Ernest are tearing their hair out from the constant grind of the same show week in week out and of the unrelenting demands on what little leisure time they have to do radio broadcasts, personal appearances etc. When an aggressive Hollywood producer Norman Trumpett (Reginald Gardiner) makes an effort to lure the tired couple away with the promise of artistic and financial rewards in Hollywood the race is on by the Broadway show's manager Felix Lehman (Frank Morgan), to do whatever is possible to hold the couple in New York. Fed up with the constant demands on their time both jump at the offer to enjoy the California sun. The very amusing schemes to keep them from excepting the Hollywood offer however almost breaks up the couple with Gwen believing the Ernest is having an affair with their personal assistant Kay Jordan (Florence Rice). After seperating however the couple realise how much they do miss each others company and artistic give and take and see that they really are the sweethearts of popular public opinion and decide to stay together in the Broadway show.

Vintage MacDonald/Eddy material perhaps, but delivered with some of the wry observations about actors and producers and the "lure" of Hollywood in general one would come to expect from the witty pen of Dorothy Parker. Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy rarely have been in finer form than in this outing and the rapid fire direction of the famed Woody "One Take" Van Dyke is ideal for the fast moving and at times amusingly cynical storyline. The couple are given ample opportunity in between their verbal hijinks to deliver some of the superb operetta moments that one would come to expect in their work with the tile tune "Sweethearts" and "My Little Grey Home in the West" being standouts superbly staged. Being the "A" class production it was and starring one of Louis B. Mayer's favourite leading ladies "Sweethearts" glows in every department from lavish costumes, staging of incredibly elaborate production numbers to the beautiful colour photography which took out that year's special Academy Award for colour cinematography.

For any lovers of operettas and of the Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy teamings, "Sweethearts", is a treat that reveals some of their best work together. Their spicy dialogue and contemporary characters and settings show them in a refreshing new light and expands the range of what we have come to regard as their typical screen personas. Backed up by the MGM expertise you need not be a huge opera fan to appreciate this film. I cherish it as the magnificent effort in all aspects of film making that it undoubtedly is and see it as a sterling example of what the big Hollywood studios were capable of achieving at their peak. I am sure you will enjoy Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy working with the magical dialogue of Dorothy Parker in their delightful modern operetta "Sweethearts".

Beautiful romantic movie
Really enjoyed "Sweethearts". Mac and Eddy seemed to have a real romance going on in this particular movie. I loved seeing a movie of them in tech. color. Nelson didn't seem "wooden' in this movie at all, in fact thought he seemed to act very natural. They always seem to have a chemistry together that they didn't have in other films with other co-stars.

A VINTAGE VISUAL AND MUSICAL TREAT.
On the sixth anniversary of the enormously successful Broadway revival of Victor Herbert's operetta SWEETHEARTS, the show's stars Gwen Marlowe and Ernest Lane (Jeanette & Nelson, respectively) are still very much in love, but are tired of working constantly and yearn for a vacation away from the pressures of Broadway. Amusing complications follow. SWEETHEARTS was M-G-M's first three-strip Technicolor film, and the first colour film for either MacDonald or Eddy. Originally, when the filming began on 17 June 1938, it was partially shot in black & white. After two days, the footage was scrapped and the production was interrupted: filming began to commence in Technicolor. Why? There were huge production problems on NORTHWEST PASSAGE, which was to be the first full-length Technicolor feature for M-G-M. Originally Jose Iturbi was to make his acting debut in the film, however - for reasons unclear - he's not in the final released product. Iturbi made his film debut later, in 1944. Reviews of the day commended the use of colour in the film (Jeanette's beautiful golden-red hair was particularly praised) and Oliver Marsh & Allen Davey won a special AA for their Technicolor cinematography. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

The Houseguest Nobody Would Want
Monty Woolley stars as Sheridan Whiteside, a critic with a gift for insults and getting his way, who falls on the porch of the home of a family eager to meet him. He must stay with them while he recuperates, and they discover that having him around isn't the honour they thought it would be as he turns their house and life upside down. Bette Davis stars as his patient assistant who falls in love with a local would-be playwright, and Ann Sheridan stars as a two-faced actress in search of a good role. The performances are all excellent. Woolley blusters and puts down everyone with great style (especially his nurse, Mary Wickes), and Davis is excellent in a straight role that helps to keep the film from becoming too much of a farce and gives it some heart. The dialogue and one-liners are terrific, and the whole movie reminds you of what movie comedies used to be like.

A FINE COMEDY
A wonderful little movie in which Monty Woolley gives his classic interpretation of Sheridan Whiteside, THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER and stayed and stayed.....Bette Davis should be admired for taking the secondary role of secretary Maggie Cutler and for playing her so moderately and so well. Davis was thought by many to be misguided in accepting the decidedly secondary role, but in fact she gives one of her most attractive and unselfish performances - wry and witty, without demeaning herself in the rather stodgy romantic interludes. Reginald Gardiner is brilliant in his role as Carlton while Ann Sheridan is in fine faddle as Lorraine. Ruth Vivian is eerie as the formerly axe-wielding Aunt Harriet and Grant Mitchell and Billie Burke are the perfect flabbergasted hosts. Jimmy Durante pops in to cause assorted mayhem and sing at the piano: "Did you ever get the feeling that you wanted to go? And still get the feeling that you wanted to stay"? It may not make much sense, but it's fun. Originally, the great John Barrymore was to be cast as Whiteside, but he was sick and had trouble with his lines (he died in 1942); Laura Hope Crews was originally going to play Billie Burke's role but she died suddenly during production. Witty lines and great performances make this a special delight from 1941.

Shoddy adaption of a fine play
Kaufman and Hart's stage-play was a gem, hilarious and tightly constructed. Adapting it to film, however, drained much of the life out of it.

First of all, the film version comes across and formless and rambling. It's never clear what the central story is: is it the obnoxious houseguest vs. the owners of the house, or is it his secretary's love-affair, or is it something else? On stage, the division of the play into separate acts imposed a sense of order onto all of this, but in the movie its just stitched together. What's more, the movie adds brief scenes - Whiteside arriving in the town, the secretary skating with her boyfriend - that distract from the plot without adding anything.

Almost every good scene is defeated by incompetent choice of camera shots. Close-ups are brought in at inappropriate moments. The rhythm of the film is constantly in flux.

Monty Wooley does not, in my opinion, play the leading role very consistently. Some of the supporting performances are dreadful: the nurse, the young writer/newspaperman (one of the worst actors I've ever seen). Bette Davis is not bad, but her chemistry with Wooley is erratic; sometimes she laughs gently at him, other times she takes a hard-bitten cynical approach to his behavior. The problem is less with her than with the direction. Ann Sheridan and Billy Burke give the only really satisfying performances.

Bette Davis herself complained: "I felt the film was not directed in a very imaginative way. For me it was not a happy film to make--that it was a success, of course, did make me happy."

Why waste time watching this when you could be watching -
- watching Now, Voyager or Mr Skeffington?

Usually I like to watch a movie twice or even three times when I intend to review it. This one I just can't bring myself to give another chance. Monty Wooley was the star and so aggravating and predominating that Bette Davis' brilliant performance as his secretary was shadowed beyond recall. The best part that didn't involve Bette Davis was the climax when the lady got put into the mummy case. The only other good part that I recall was the skating scene with Bette and Boyfriend.

That is all I can bring myself to say about this. Watch it if you like, but I advise you to rent it first. Then you can make your own judgement.

cruzzardly fun
The scenery in the play was beautiful, but the actors got in front of it.
-Alexander Woollcott

The Stanley's of Mesalia, Ohio are quite honored to have the famous critic and radio personality Sheridan Whiteside come to dinner. Whiteside, an irascible, elitist, buzzard of a man is less thrilled. When he slips on
their front steps, is confined to a wheelchair, and effectively commandeers the Stanley house, no one's very happy. Soon the tyrannical Whiteside is dispensing flippant advice to the Stanley children, having octopus
and penguins delivered to the house, and dining with convicted murderers on loan from the state penitentiary.

On a more serious note (though still played for laughs, of course), he meddles in the nascent love affair between his devoted secretary (Bette Davis) and a local newspaper man (Richard Travis), who just happens to
be an aspiring playwright. When it begins to look like she'll leave his employee to marry her young man, Whiteside brings in a vampish gold digger, who thinks she'll get to be the lead in what Whiteside assures her is
the young man's masterful drama.

The whole thing is as madcap and zany as it gets, but the film is completely dominated by Monty Woolley as Whiteside. Woolley had played the role on Broadway too, a role that George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
based on the profoundly unpleasant but very powerful NY Times drama critic Alexander Woollcott. Rarely has egomania been more amusing, though it's sure to offend some sensibilities. In particular, he's just brutal
to his nurse, Mary Wickes, though she does get off a great line when she finally quits :

If Florence Nightingale ever had the misfortune to take care of you, she would have forgotten about founding the Red Cross, would have quit
nursing, and would have married Jack the Ripper.

Even less politically correct is a cameo by Jimmy Durante as a lecherous vaudevillian. But if these antiquated bits don't entertain you, there's a thoroughly modern homosexual subtext to the whole affair that's sure to
grab your fancy.

It begins with Woollcott, who at one point conceived a mad passion for Harpo Marx, unrequited we're told. Meanwhile, Woolley was Cole Porter's cruising partner, though the two supposedly parted ways because
Woolley only wanted to dally with black men while Porter was less finicky. Finally, there's a character in the film named Beverly Carlton, who's supposed to be Noel Coward. The movie's practically a prequel to
Can't Stop the Music.

Today's viewers can be excused for finding this classic both hoary and whorey, but it remains great cruzzardly fun and it's worth seeing just for Woolley's brilliant performance.

GRADE : B ... Read more

Description

Astaire teams up with Burns & Allen to bring some good ol' American music and mayhem to stately England.There, lovely Joan Fontaine pines for a husband and finds Astaire.Naturally, A Damsel in Distress becomes a lady in love.Enjoy George Gershwin's last completed score, including the pensive "A Foggy Day" amd "Nice Work If You Can Get It" plus the famed Astaire-Burns-Allen fun house dance and other inspired stepping-out that earned dance director Hermes Pan an Academy Award(R).Renowned "Jeeves" humorist P.G Wodehouse writes and George Stevens (Giant, Shane) directs. Year: 1937 Director: George Stevens Starring:Fred Astaire, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Joan Fontaine, Reginald Gardner, Ray Noble ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Damsel in Distress
If you've ever watched a Fred Astaire movie that included Ginger Rogers, and thought that the movie would be much better without Rogers, this is the movie to watch. The script and story line are much better than his early films and Joan Fontaine can actually act as opposed to Rogers usual stale performance. The music is excellent and entertaining. George Burns and Gracie Allen make the film that much more enjoyable. One of Fred Astaires best.

Just enjoy it - please!
This is one of the most delightful movies, and it preserves the flavor of Burns & Allen. Since we have so little film of Vaudeville, this movie shows us what we missed. The wiskbroom routine surely came from the stage, and the dialogue between Gracie and George and Fred surely came from the stage. Come on folks. Don't compare this film with Ginger and Fred. Its not supposed to be like Top Hat. I personally like Damsel more than Swing Time which doesn't feature enough dancing in the first hour. Sure Joan Fontaine is lost but she's only 19!! Look where she went from here. Get the movie, pop the corn and relax. This is a feel good, just dang fun movie, and you'll be happy you saw it.

a great film!
a great happy and ideal film. Fred Astaire and Joan Fontaine are great in it. think it deserves all the stars it can get. The dance number at the amusement fun house is one of the best and funnest and George and Gracie are adorrable in it. It's one of my favorites.

A FOGGY DAY IN LONDON TOWN.
The romantic life of Lady Alyce Marshmorton is the subject of much gossip and wagers among the servants of Totleigh Castle, the Marshmorton estate. To win a marriage "pool" which has been instigated by head domestic Keggs, Albert, a young servant of the estate, forges a love letter from Alyce to American comedy star Jerry Halliday, whom she had met briefly in a London taxicab.... A downright peculiar picture which works better than might be expected. Certainly Joan Fontaine was no musical performer, but the inventive, Oscar-winning choreography by Hermes Pan is stunning: the Fun House sequence is particularly memorable. The film fizzled upon its initial release in 1937. Apparently audiences felt that Fred without Ginger was like corned beef without cabbage: edible, but only if you're very, very hungry. The fine Gershwin standards A FOGGY DAY & NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT were introduced in this 1937 potpourri.

How Long, I Wondered, Could This Thing Last?
A Fred Astaire musical, with a book by P.G. Wodehouse and a score by the Gershwins. Who could ask for anything more? Plenty of people, as a matter of fact. This was Astaire's first flop, and the reasons are still obvious 60 years later. Without Ginger Rogers to stimulate and challenge him, he's forced to dance up a storm -- in and out of traffic, through the woods (twice), and inside a drum kit -- all in a vain attempt to pump some life into this fairy tale. The damsel in distress is Joan Fontaine, 19 years old at the time and grasping at pieces of the set in an apparent attempt to keep herself from fleeing in terror. Finally, and most fatally, there's a kid playing Young Albert who gives the most annoying performance in the entire history of musical film... he turns Wodehouse into the Ritz Brothers. On the plus side, Burns and Allen's vaudeville energy helps break up the tweedy, foggy, oh-so-classy atmosphere a little. As for the score, it's full of classics... so buy "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Gershwin Songbook" and skip the movie. ... Read more

Reviews (28)

CLASSIC CHRISTMAS CARD.
A picture about Christmas in the country, a wonderfully funny, romantic Christmas. It bubbles over with merriment and radiates good cheer like a Christmas tree with all the lights lit. This is a surprisingly well-known film (they play it on television every year at Christmastime) and it's highly entertaining. Stanwyck is winning as Elizabeth Lane, (Betty Crocker personified) who writes a cooking column for a housekeeping magazine (in actuality, she knows nothing about either subject) When a soldier comes to her home for the holidays, she must either master the ways of housekeeping of reveal her incompetence. Dennis Morgan is very likable here and the creepy Reginald Gardiner is amusing as the man who tries to win over Stanwyck. The plot is thin as air and the direction is rather unsure, the script and pacing could have been better - but just sit back and enjoy this little flick - it never claimed to be a Sturges masterpiece. Also available in digital colorized version.

Stanwyck at her best!
Christmas in Connecticut is a romantic comedy all of you classic movie buffs will enjoy. It centers around a single working girl (Barbara Stanwyck) who writes a cooking column for a ladies magazine. Her writing is so convincing that her boss (Sidney Greenstreet) believes it all--husband, baby, and farm in Connecticut! So he arranges to have a sailor and himself invited to spend Christmas "on her perfect farm." What to do? Here she is, a gal who can "only cook on the typewriter." Well, bring along Uncle Felix to do the cooking. All goes well until she is asked to flip a flapjack. Did she do it? Well, wait and see. This movie is full of fun and romance (the old-fashioned kind). It's a holiday treat for young and old alike.

The best Christmas movie
Forget all the others that people think are "must sees" at Christmas time. This is the best and, seemingly, the least well known.

It is so funny to watch in light of today's Martha Stewart and other domestic "divas." A lot of the humor was probably risque for the day but, sadly, most youths today would have to have it explained to them.

The movie is a well written comedy of errors. The characters are interesting and not just one demensional as is so often the case in comedies. I found myself very involved with the story...cheering for my favorite characters.

If you only have time to see one Christmas movie this year do make it this one. You won't be sorry.

Great Christmas Fare
I look forward to seeing this romantic comedy of errors each year at Christmastime. Barbara Stanwick is superb, and it's great to see Sidney Greenstreet in a comedy. I just want to know...when is it coming out on DVD?!!

An underappreciated classic on par with "Wonderful Life"
I discovered this movie in my teens and have loved it ever since. It is a classic - capturing the mores of the era and the timelessness of a good farce. It is a shame that this movie has not enjoyed the great appreciation afforded "It's a wonderful life" and "Miracle on 34th Street." "Christmas in Connecticut is every bit as good - if not better, and not nearly as overplayed. ... Read more

Description

Brian McLean is a ruthless bush-pilot in Canada. He offers some other pilots an opportunity of earning a lot of money, but he marries the girl-friend of one of them. After listening to Churchill's famous "Blood, Sweat and tears" radio address he and some other pilots decide to join the RCAF - and his superior is always the pilot who's girlfriend he has married. Due to this and the fact, that McLean doesn't like to obey he gets troubles. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

One of my Favorite James Cagney Films
This is one of my favorite James Cagney films because it somehow manages to intertwine an intricate plot into a very simple and patriotic story. More important however, it relies on one of my favorite film themes, that of the protagonist (Cagney) not making the transition from one era of personal glory into the next era where he becomes a stranger in his own world which has changed all around him. This film got two Academy Awards nominations for Interior Decoration (Ted Smith - Art Direction, Casey Roberts - Interior Decoration) and Color Cinematography (Sol Polito). Director Michael Curtiz visually does an excellent job with this script. It starts off in the beautifully filmed Canadian wilderness with Cagney in his usual reckless tough guy form. These early images stand for the strong individual nature of James Cagney's character Brian MacLean that is in itself based on the Cagney mystique. Gradually, MacLean and the other two main characters Johnny Dutton (Dennis Morgan) and Emily Foster (Brenda Marshall) make gradual transitions to reveal personality growth, stagnation and hidden revelations. This is a wartime film made in 1942 and the film intertwines the plot with patriotic sentiment quite nicely but stresses the practicality of creating and maintaining a proficient and professional military force if the job is to get done. The entire cast is wonderful and includes Alan Hale, George Tobias and Gig Young. Composer Max Steiner also once again turns in an insightful and intelligent score. There are some great flying scenes full of bravado, daring do and just plain out foolhardiness with Cagney leading his cronies in and out of the doghouse. This is a very entertaining film.

Nice patriotic formula movie
A hand full of Canadian bush pilots (James Cagney, Dennis Morgan, Alan Hale, George Tobias, and Reginald Gardiner) has a dream of owning their own airline. Naturally a girl (Brenda Marshall) gets in the mix. James Cagney has to sacrifice himself and money (by getting married) to save Dennis Morgan from marring this unreliable woman and losing his dream.
Through all kinds of misunderstandings the pilots all end up in the Royal Air Force planning to give it to those Nazis. Each pilot still brings his bush nature with him; for many that nature may mean their demise.

Looking For Redemption
James Cagney stars as yet another cocky character out to make fools of the Establishment. This time it's the Royal Canadian Air Force. Cagney, Dennis Morgan, Alan Hale, and George Tobias star as bush pilots in Northern Canada who feel their patriotic spirit roused during a radio speech by Churchill pumping up the British/Allied morale. They decide to enlist as pilots, only to find their age and attitude working against them. Cagney's need to do things his way leads to tragedy and in the end he must find some way to redeem himself. Although Cagney was given a chance by Warner Bros. in the early Forties to break out of his usual mould of character in several good films, this is a step back into his typical role. He's good, but we've seen it before (many times). The rest of the cast are solid, with Brenda Marshall, as the opportunistic girl caught between them, giving a surprisingly strong performance. The aerial work is fine, although it seems more remarkable due to the technicolor photography. The film is competently directed by Michael Curtiz, but it seems to be missing some of the energy he brought to other films. The film suffers from a "seen this before" quality. There's nothing particularly exciting or new about it.

Cagney Slumming Before "Yankee Doodle"
This was a project held in more or less utter contempt by it's star---one more justification for Cagney's decision to bail out of Warners for greener independent pastures."I didn't like this story the last four times I did it,and I don't like it now",said he when exec producer Hal Wallis proposed "Captains"---patriotic considerations may have persuaded him,and the fact it would be his first in Technicolor.This one is a must-see,or rather a must-have.It's Cagney improv---he couldn't care less about the story and doesn't care if we know it.When he's bored with dialogue(often),he breaks into Yiddish--in one scene,hapless Alan Hale's walking across the room and Cagney trips him(you can tell Hale didn't see it coming).Jim was pushing 43 when he made this,so there is at least tacit script recognition of his character's age---still,he's surrounded by an elderly lot of sidekicks---Reginald Gardiner,George Tobias,the aforementioned Alan Hale---these four are like a roving band of vaudevillians in the Canadian wild---one can imagine the group of them whiling away location hours singing "the old songs" Cagney loved so dearly.And,oh yes,they sing in the picture too.Other endearing moments---an extended night club sequence with chorous girls and a rousing rendition of the title song---wonderful! ---were there really clubs like this during the war?---if so,I was born too late.Let's not forget Brenda Marshall---so cold and passionless in "The Sea Hawk"---not here! She's a revelation---hot,sexy,ruthless---I love it when Cagney gives her the pay-off in their "honeymoon" suite---she rips open that cash envelope like a tigress---wowzers!---too bad she dumped the career when she married Bill Holden.There's not much combat in "Captains"---mostly aerial training stuff,but it's fascinating---and the gorgeous color really sugars it up.Cagney made a big mistake when he ditched Warners---his great years were essentially over when he pulled out of Burbank---only "White Heat" lay ahead to remind us of the glory days."Captains Of The Clouds" is a curtain call for the old "fun" Cagney of the thirties---and as such,it's a keeper. ... Read more

Description

Based on George Bernard Shaw's sparkling play, this satire of ancient Rome is a triumph of comic dialogue and acting.The fable of the tailor who removes a thorn from a lion's paw is retold magnificently with Maurice Evans as Caesar, Robert Newton as a hilarious zealot, and the radiant Jean Simmons. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

What a GOOD Movie!
This movie is highly entertaining and very funny. I had laughed at some scenes in this movie. Even kids will enjoy this movie.
"Androcles and the Lion" is about a meek tailor befriending a lion by removing a thorn out of his paw (his mean wife ran away though). Androcles named the lion "Tommy". The tailor, Androcles, gets captured by the Roman army because he's a Christian, and makes friends with a beautiful woman and a burly man named Fevvorus (sp?), among other Christians with them. The beautiful woman, named Lavina, falls in love with a Roman Captain (played by Victor Mature), but she still keeps her faith in God. Later when all the Christians arrived at the Colluseum where the fighting to kill the Christian men, and the lions are for the ladies to die, Fevvorus slays all the fighters and won the affections of Ceaser. Androcles was picked to be killed by the lions...and guess who he met? The lion named Tommy! Ceaser gets impressed once more because Tommy and Androcles danced together in the arena and the lion is tame. :) Ceaser finally lets all the Christians go free, Fevvorus gets to be a guard at the palace, and Tommy and Androcles walk the streets together at the end.
Very good movie and it's highly recommended!

Androcles The Great
This Hollywood adaptation of Shaw's play came as a very pleasant surprise indeed since as Shaw's plays are always about ideas, I was gratified to see those outlined in the play were faithfully retained in the film. It is also one of Shaw's wittiest tracts on behalf of his abiding belief in animal rights, (the theological debate about whether animals have souls being retained and convincingly presented), as well as his mistrust of any religious dogma that isn't constantly on the side of the here-and-now and the Life Force. Although obvious budget constraints show here and there, all concerned certainly display a grasp of what Shaw was trying to say, and acquit themselves with distinction in all department. Full of Shavian irony and compassion, (the sadness and poignancy in Shaw's work is seldom noted these days), it turns accepted values upside down and helps you on the road to thinking laterally and, hopefully, autonomously. Subversive stuff as always with Shaw! Highly recommended.

Very entertaining movie
A very funny, entertaining black and white movie. It's quite lively and I would recomend it! ... Read more

Reviews (12)

No Classic, But Lots Of Fun
For years, THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT was the butt of numerous jokes on Jack Benny's radio show. Thanks to those jokes, the film has gained a terrible re