The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Nick Smith (Cecil Kellaway), the middle-aged proprietor of a roadside restaurant, hires drifter Frank Chambers (John Garfield) as a handyman. Frank eventually begins an affair with Nick's beautiful wife Cora (Lana Turner), who talks Frank into helping her kill Nick, by "accident." But the best laid plans...cause hilarity to ensue.

Trivia: This caused a stir amongst 1940s audiences who were shocked when it seemed clear to them that John Garfield uses his tongue in one of his kissing scenes with Lana Turner. Lana Turner said that her turn as Cora Smith was "the role I liked best". It took 12 years to adapt the explicit material (by 1940 standards) of the novel into a screenplay tame enough to comply with the Production Code prevalent at the time.

Umm...What the heck does the title of this movie have to do with the actual movie? I mean, there is no postman, and the word postman is never even said, you have to wait till the last two minutes of the movie to figure it out and then it was still kind of "Huh?" Is this a generational thing? My postperson (got to be politically correct nowadays) would never even come to the door, if I have to sign for something, they just leave a note for me to come to the post office. Okay, I know it has to do with having to pay for your sins (What goes around comes around, you have to pay the piper, and all those other cliches). Okay, now for Lana Turner and those dresses. Everything she wears is white (except one notable exception where she wears black and thinks about killing Nick) but besides that, all white. I had heard that Lana Turner was really evil in this movie, or rather that she gained her bad girl reputation from this movie (she is known for her bad girl roles, but she only played the bad girl a few times) and I really started to wonder why, but she got worse (in a good way) as time went on and then I thought that one of the main reasons people gave her this reputation was that Nick, her husband was probably the nicest person every shown on film, this guy was a saint and they very casually plan to whack him.

Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

A musical portrait of composer/singer/dancer George M. Cohan (James Cagney). From his early days as a child-star in his family's vaudeville show up to the time of his comeback at which he received a congressional medal of honor from the president for his special contributions to the US, this is the life-story of George M. Cohan, who produced, directed, wrote and starred in his own musical shows for which he composed his famous songs as hilarity ensues.

Trivia: George M. Cohan chose James Cagney to play him. This was the very first black and white movie to be colorized using a controversial computer-applied process. Despite widespread opposition to the practice by many film aficionados, stars and directors, the movie won over a sizeable section of the public on its re-release. Many facts were changed or ignored to add to the feel of the movie. For example, the real George M. Cohan was married twice, and although his second wife's middle name was Mary, she went by her first name, Agnes. The movie deviated so far from the truth that, following the premiere, Cohan commented, "It was a good movie. Who was it about?"

This was a nice biopic. How could you go wrong with a movie about George M. Cohan because it would have to include his music. Now I know the film was released in 1942 near the start of the war and the George M. Cohan was a very patriotic person and wrote some great patriotic music like "Over There" and "Grand Old Flag" but this movie seemed to really try to pound in the fact the Cohan did a lot of "flag waving" as they call it. Not that that is a bad thing. I also noticed the Cagney had a funny little dance move where his legs were stiff and he leaned forward. Just seemed strange there for some reason. The DVD I had also had a special feature that was called a night at the movies which included a 1942 news reel, a short from the period and a Bugs Bunny Cartoon before showing the movie, which was nice.

Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

The world of freight handlers Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) and Chick Young (Bud Abbott) is turned upside down when the remains of Frankenstein's monster (Glenn Strange) and Dracula (Bela Lugosi) arrive from Europe to be used in a house of horrors. Dracula awakens and escapes with the weakened monster, who he plans to re-energize with a new brain. Larry Talbot, the Wolfman, (Lon Chaney, Jr.) arrives from London in an attempt to thwart Dracula. Dracula's reluctant aide is the beautiful Dr. Sandra Mornay. Her reluctance is dispatched by Dracula's bite. Dracula and Sandra abduct Wilbur for his brain and recharge the monster in preparation for the operation. Chick and Talbot attempt to find and free Wilbur, but when the full moon rises all hilarity breaks loose with the Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein all running rampant.

Trivia: Glenn Strange was playing the Frankenstein monster, but during shooting one day he tripped over a camera cable and broke his ankle. Lon Chaney, Jr. (playing the Wolf Man) wasn't working that day, so he put on the Frankenstein makeup/outfit and filled in for Strange in one scene where Dr. Mornay gets thrown through the window. So Chaney wound up playing two monsters in this movie. Ian Keith, the original choice for Count Dracula in Dracula (1931) , was originally considered for Dracula in this film. Bela Lugosi wasn't considered at first because the studio thought he was dead. When they learned Lugosi was alive, Lugosi's agent shamed the head of the studio into getting him the role by saying, "He is Dracula! You owe this role to Lugosi!" During the final chase scene, when Wilbur and Chick are standing in front of a door and the Frankenstein monster punches through it, Costello was off his mark and got hit on the jaw. The scene in which Wilbur is unknowingly sitting on the Frankenstein Monster's lap required multiple takes. The scene allowed Costello to improvise wildly, which caused Strange to constantly break up laughing during the takes. Although he would play similar vampires in other films since Dracula (1931), this would be only the second, and last, time that Bela Lugosi would play Dracula in a feature film. Three actors in this film had previously played the Frankenstein Monster. Aside from Glenn Strange who actually plays the role again, both Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. had experience under the flat top as well. This was the final Universal film to feature Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and the Wolfman, until Van Helsing (2004).

The Wolf Man gets no respect. In Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man he is the star of the movie but get second billing, this time he doesn't even make it into the title. Cracula also gets snubbed. Frankenstein has the smallest role of the three. In this movie Universal seemed to stack the deck as it were by pairng their three most famous monsters with the comedy team of Abbot and Costello. It was pretty fun to watch, Abbott and Costello are one of the funniest teams in movies, and teaming them with the monsters was a perfect fit.

Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man (1943)

Graverobbers open the grave of the Wolfman (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and awake him. He doesn't like the idea of being immortal and killing people when the moon is full, so he tries to find Dr. Frankenstein, to kill him, but Frankenstein is dead and only his Monster (Bela Lugosi) is alive and this one wants to live, not to die like the Wolfman.

Trivia: The Frankenstein Monster, played by Bela Lugosi, is mute in this film, even though Boris Karloff's monster spoke in the earlier Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Interestingly, Lugosi had refused the role in the original Frankenstein (1931) because he would have had no lines. Several photos exist showing the deleted scenes (the fireside chat between the Monster and Talbot beneath the icy catacombs of the castle for instance; where Talbot & the audience learn that the Monster is still blind). This has been confirmed by several sources, including screen writer Curt Siodmak. In the mid-'80s a search was made through the Universal Studio vaults for a print or negative of the uncut prerelease version. As of this date, it has not yet been found. When The Monster's dialogue was deleted (see Alternate Versions), also removed were any references to The Monster being blind - a side-effect of Ygor's brain being implanted into The Monster at the end of The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942). As a result, Lugosi's sleepwalker-like lumbering gait with arms outstretched is not explained and became the subject of ridicule. It also established the Frankenstein Monster-walk stereotype. Stuntman Eddie Parker doubled for Bela Lugosi in the action scenes, as well as the scene of the Monster being released from the ice, but in the climactic fight scene, he doubled Lon Chaney as the Wolfman, while stuntman Gil Perkins took over as the Monster.

This movie should really be named The Zombie Wolf Man Meets Frankenstein's Monster, but does that really matter? The story is about the Wolf Man, aka Larry Talbot, who is dead, well, at least he was for four years until the graverobbers opened his tomb during a full moon (bad idea when you are dealing with a werewolf, so being a member of the undead, he is a zombie. While on the otherside, Frankenstein is dead, for good, and only the Monster is left. So The Zombie Wolf Man Meets Frankenstein makes a lot more sense, doesn't it? Lon Chaney, Jr. again was great as Larry Talbot, but Bela Lugosi was a strange choice for the Monster, he is obviously shorter then Talbot.

The Wolf Man (1941)

Upon the death of his brother, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns from America to his ancestral home in Wales. He visits a gypsy camp with Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers) and Jenny Williams, who is attacked by Bela (Bela Lugosi), a gypsy who has turned into a werewolf. Larry kills the werewolf but is bitten during the fight. Bela's mother tells him that this will cause him to become a werewolf at each full moon. Larry confesses his plight to his unbelieving father, Sir John (Claude Rains), who then joins the villagers in a hunt for the wolf. Larry, transformed by the full moon, heads for the forest and a fateful meeting with both Sir John and Gwen. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The first transformation takes place with Talbot in an undershirt (although he is fully dressed in a dark shirt once on the prowl). Only the feet transform on screen in six lapse dissolves. In the second transformation there are eleven shots -- again of feet only. The third transformation features 17 face shots in a continuous dissolve. "Even a man who is pure at heart, and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright." This quote has been listed in some sources as an authentic Gypsy or Eastern European folk saying. Writer Curt Siodmak admits that he simply made it up. Nonetheless, the rhyme would be recited in every future Universal film appearance of the Wolf Man, and would also be quoted in Van Helsing (2004). (Albeit, slightly modified, "The moon is shining bright." rather than "The autumn moon is bright.") Larry's silver wolf-headed cane, the only known surviving prop from the movie, currently resides in the personal collection of genre film archivist Bob Burns. Burns, who was a schoolboy at the time, was given the cane head by the man who made it for the film, prop-maker Ellis Burman. The silver top of Larry's wolf-head cane was made of vulcanized rubber so none of the actors or stunt doubles would get injured if they were accidentally hit by it.

Another day, another horror classic. (Why do I seem to thing about horror after I watch Houston Texans games?) This movie really impressed me because of Lon Chaney. He is very good in his scenes as Talbot, a man who is afflicted with a condition that he knows will mean people die and you can really see the conflict in his acting. As in Dracula, where you don't see the fangs and The Mummy where you only see glimpses of the wrapping, in the Wolf Man you never see a werewolf movie staple. You never see the Moon.

Top 250 Challenge: 220

Out Of The Past (1947)
Number 187 on IMDb's Top 250

Jeff Bailey, small-town gas pumper, has his mysterious past catch up with him one day when he's ordered to meet with gambler Whit Sterling. En route to the meeting, he tells girlfriend Ann his story. Flashback: Once, Jeff was a private eye hired by Sterling to find his mistress Kathie who shot Whit and absconded with $40,000. He traces her to Acapulco...where the delectable Kathie makes Jeff forget all about Sterling... Back in the present, Whit's new job for Jeff is clearly a trap, but Jeff's precautions only leave him more tightly enmeshed...hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Gee, That's all the trivia I could find on this movie.

This movie has everything you would ever want in a Film Noir: The femme fatale that flips sides more then an Olympic gymnast, the private detective with a trench coat on and a cigarette struck in his mouth, the nosy cafe owner who talks too much, guns, dames, fist fights, murder, frame-ups, death by bullet, death by fishing lure, fadoras, snappy dialog, flashbacks, double crossed partners, the guy that has been in love with the hero's girlfriend since gradeschool who takes an opportunity to kill the hero but has a change of heart because he is actually a good guy, a Mexican bar, and a "deaf and dumb" boy who may be the smartest guy of the bunch. Did I miss anything? If I did, I guess you will have to see it to find out.

Next Up: The Lady Vanishes

Top 250 Challenge: 212

La Belle Et La Bete(1946)
Number 166 on IMDb's Top 250

"Once upon a time..." A half-ruined merchant lives in the country with his son Ludovic and his three daughters. Two of the daughters, Felicie and Adelaide, are real shrews, selfish, pretentious, evil (kind of Cinderella evil step-sisterish). They exploit the third daughter, Belle, as a servant. One day, the merchant gets lost in the forest and enters a strange castle. He picks up a rose for Belle, which makes the castle's owner appear. He is a monster, half-human (body) and half-beast (paws, head), and he has magic powers. He sentences the merchant to death, unless one of his daughters replaces him. Beauty sacrifices herself for her father and goes to the castle. Hilarity ensues. She will soon discover that the Beast is not so wild and inhuman after all.

Trivia: Philip Glass composed an opera perfectly synchronized to the film. The original soundtrack was eliminated, and he composed the opera to be performed along with the film projected behind the orchestra and voice talent. The Opera is included on the Criterion Collection DVD as an alternate track (I listened to a little of it, but not the whole thing). It took five hours for Jean Marais to put on his make-up as the Beast. The stream that the Beast tries to drink from when he is weak and dying is actually a sewage runoff behind the studio.

Well, I didn't realize how close the Disney version was to the story, except that they Disneyfied it by making the creepy servants (arms sticking out of walls, statutes that watch you, doors that open by themselves and talk, mirrors that talk, beds that make themselves) cute and lovable. As a fairy tale on film, this is a good adaptation, the castle did seem supernatural, but the ending was a little confusing. Read below if you want to see why.

Warning: Spoilerific Content Follows:

The Beast gives Belle a key to his treasure, which is eventually stolen (the key, not the treasure) by the guy who asked her to marry him, Avenant. Avenant goes to the castle to steal the treasure but instead of using the key, (he thinks the door may be booby trapped) he breaks in, meanwhile, back at the sewage runoff...*cough* stream, Belle has found the Beast dying because she didn't come back in time and his heart was broken (I'm guessing on the heart part) and she pleads with him to get better, but he says it is too late. Back to the treasure room, Avenant gets shot in the back by a statue guarding the treasure and as he is dying, he turns into the Beast. The Beast is looking pretty bad and Belle thinks he is a goner, but all of a sudden he leaps up and is a prince, But here is the weird part, he could be Avenant's twin (they were played be the same actor). He said the one way to save him was to get a loving look from a girl. Belle is kind of suspicious at first and mentions that it is strange that he kind of looks like a guy she once knew but quickly dismisses it and they fly off to his real castle for much whoopee making (I am guessing on that, too). A guy she once knew? He lived with her family! He had asked her repeatedly to marry him! She had just spent a full week around him! I mean, really, was she just trying to...Nope I have no idea what she was thinking, at this point she doesn't know that the real Avenant is dead, what was she going to say when she showed up at the house to let the Beast meet her dad? "Hey, Avenant, I decided to marry you, only not you really. Cheers!" Kind of creepy if you ask me.

Top 250 Challenge: 206

Shadow Of A Doubt (1943)
Number 141 on IMDb's Top 250

Young Charlie Newton not only shares a name with her favorite uncle, but a special bond. At times she feels the charming man is the only one who understands her need to be extraodinary and that she is better than the tiny town she lives in. So, when life is too dull she calls on him to visit. However the arrival of two detectives, one of whom becomes very close to young Charlie, and a series of unusal clues concerning the mysterious 'Merry Widow Murderer', causes her Uncle Charlie's behavor to begin to change. Young Charlie starts to suspect that the man she once idiolized is not what he seems and as her world shatters, she realizes that her life may be in danger. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Alfred Hitchcock often said that this was his favorite film. The name of the waltz that is referred to throughout the film is "The Merry Widow Waltz". Since the two main characters were named Charlie, the name Charlie is spoken approximately 170 times.

Once again the Master of Suspense delivers. It is very evident why Hitchcock has so many of his films in the top 250. He is able to sustain the suspense in this movie even though the plot could be described in a ten word sentence ("A girl finds out that her uncle is a murderer"). Great movie.

Top 250 Challenge: 204

Brief Encounter (1945)
Number 138 on IMDb's Top 250

Laura Jesson, a country housewife, bored with the security of her husband and family, goes into town once a week for shopping and a matinee picture. On one of her weekly excursions, she accidentally meets Dr. Alec Harvey in the waiting room of the railroad station. Both are early middle-aged, married, and have two children each.

Enjoying one another's company, they continue to meet weekly for a cup of tea in the refreshment room of the station while they await their respective trains home. They are soon dismayed to find their innocent and casual relationship quickly developing into love. For a while, they continue to meet furtively in cafes and cinemas, constantly fearing chance meetings with friends. After several meetings, they go to a room belonging to a friend of the doctor's, but their meeting is interrupted by the friend's unexpected return. Realizing that a future together is impossible and wishing not to hurt their families, they agree to part. The doctor is to leave for Africa. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Carnforth station was chosen partly because it was so far from the South East of England that it would receive sufficient warning of an air-raid attack that there would be time to turn out the filming lights to comply with wartime blackout restrictions. On initial release, the film was banned by the strict censorship board in Ireland on the grounds that it portrayed an adulterer in a sympathetic light.

This is one of those romantic forbidden love fails to overcome what is right and proper, i.e. not leaving their spouses, the proper british stiff upper lips and such, here here. It was a pretty good movie with a lot of proper english and stuff, for example, "This can't last. This misery can't last. I must remember that and try to control myself. Nothing lasts really. Neither happiness nor despair. Not even life lasts very long. There'll come a time in the future when I shan't mind about this anymore, when I can look back and say quite peacefully and cheerfully how silly I was. No, no, I don't want that time to come ever. I want to remember every minute, always, always to the end of my days." (be sure to read it in a british accent, if you didn't go back and read it right, go ahead, we will wait...hmm...hmm <---Humming...okay ready? Good). This movie is based on a Noel Coward play.

Top 250 Challenge: 203

Ladri Di Biciclette (1948)
Number 132 on IMDb's Top 250

Antonio Ricci, unemployed for over two years, is overjoyed when he's finally given a job putting up posters. There's a catch, though - he needs a bicycle as a requirement of the job, so he pawns the family linen to get a pawned bicycle back. He goes off to his first day's work, truly happy for the first time in years - and the title of the film gives away what happens next...then hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The actors in the film were all amateurs. Vittorio De Sica decided not to use professionals. There's a scene later in the movie where Bruno is nearly run over twice while crossing the street. This was absolutely unrehearsed - it was filmed on location and the two cars happened to pass by at that time.

Well, I didn't much care for this movie. It was slow paced and pretty much consistaned of the guy and his son walking around Rome looking for his bike. The guy gets more and more desperate and ends up doing something that really disappoints his son. Not my favorite by any means.

Top 250 Challenge: 202

The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Number 179 on IMDb's Top 250

Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to forecloseure. He catches up with them on his Uncles farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The production had a fake working title, "Highway 66", so that the shoot of the controversial novel would not be effected by union problems. Much of the dire straits portrayed in the film continued during and after the release of the movie. Henry Fonda, still struggling to became a big Hollywood star, tried to avoid being a contract player for 20th Century-Fox Studios because he wanted the independence to choose his own projects (an increasing number of stars at the time were trying to gain such independence). But when the much-coveted part of Tom Joad was offered to him, Fonda hesitantly gave in and signed a contract to work with the studio for seven years because he knew it would be the role of a lifetime. Noah Joad simply vanishes after the scene of the family swimming in the Colorado River. In the book, Noah tells Tom he has decided to stay by the river. In the film, his disappearance is never explained.

Well, this was a good solid film with tremendous acting. Jane Darwell was absolutly amazing as the touch hopeful Ma Joad who stuggled to keep the family together as it was falling apart. And then, of course, there is Henry Fonda as Tom Joad, dignified and proud. My favorite character was Grandpa Joad, but then he died on the first day of the trip! What the heck?

Top 250 Challenge: 193

The Great Dictator (1940)
Number 108 on IMDb's Top 250

During the last days of the First World War, a clumsy soldier saves the life of devoted military pilot Schultz. Unfortunately, their flight from the advancing enemy ends in a severe crash with the clumsy soldier losing his memories. After quite some years in the hospital, the amnesia patient gets released and reopens his old barber shop in the Jewish ghetto. But times have changed in the country of Tomania: Dictator Adenoid Hynkel, who accidentally looks very similar to the barber, has laid his merciless grip on the country, and the Jewish people are discriminated against. One day, the barber gets in trouble and is brought before a commanding officer, who turns out to be his old comrade Schultz. So, the ghetto enjoys protection from Schultz as a gesture to the barber for saving his life. Meanwhile, Dictator Hynkel develops big plans, he wants to become Dictator of the whole world and needs a scapegoat for the public. Soon, Schultz is being arrested for being too Jewish-friendly, and all Jews except those who managed to flee are transported into Concentration Camps. Hynkel is planning to march into Osterlich to show off against Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria, who already has deployed his troops along the other border of the small country. Meanwhile, Schultz and the barber manage to escape, guised in military uniforms. As luck would have it, Schultz and the barber are picked up by Tomanian forces and the barber is mixed up with Hynkel himself. The small barber now gets the once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak to the people of Osterlich and all of Tomania, who listen eagerly on the radio. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Charlie Chaplin got the idea for the movie when a friend noted that his screen persona and Adolf Hitler looked somewhat similar. Chaplin later learned they were both born within a week of each other, were roughly the same height and weight and both struggled in poverty until they reached great success in their respective fields. When Chaplin learned of Hitler's policies of racial oppression and nationalist aggression, he used their similarities as an inspiration to attack Hitler on film. Chaplin said that had he known the true extent of Nazi atrocities, he "could not have made fun of their homicidal insanity". According to documentaries on the making of the film, Chaplin began to feel more uncomfortable lampooning Adolf Hitler the more he heard of Hitler's actions in Europe. Ultimately, the invasion of France inspired Chaplin to change the ending of his film to include his famous speech.

This is a hard movie to figure out with the benefit of knowledge of what really happened. But if you realize that this movie was made in the first six months of the second World War an a full year before the "true death camps" were opened, it makes it a little easier to look at it as a great satirical movie. It lampoons the Hitler and the Nazis, while showing the residence of the Jewish Ghetto in a positve light. The scene where Chaplin plays with the inflated globe was one of his most famous, but I thought the very next scene where the barber shaves a man in time with Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5 was better, in fact I think it is the second best barber scene I have ever seen, behind The Rabbit of Seville. The speech at the end was controversial and many said it was politically motivated, I agree. The speech was completly out of character for the quiet barber and seemed to be saying, "okay, now that you have watched this movie, here is what you should take away from this experience" and to me seemed to say that everybody should stand up against the Nazis and fight back, which is quite interesting considering that it was released in 1940 way before America was dragged into the war at the end of 1941.

Top 250 Challenge: 188

Kind Hearts And Coronets (1949)
Number 137 on IMDb's Top 250

Louis Mazzini's mother's frequent tales of how her titled D'Ascoyn family shunned her after she eloped with an Italian commoner causes a simmering resentment in him. On being spurned because of his lowly status by his lifetime (if devious and fickle) sweetheart Sibella he decides to permanently remove all the D'Ascoyns standing between him and the Dukedom. There are eight of them: Duke Etherel (Alec Guinness), The Banker (Alec Guinness), Reverend Lord Henry d'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness), General Lord Rufus D'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness), Admiral Horatio d'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness), Young Henry d'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness), Lady Agatha d'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness), and Lord Ascoyne d'Ascoyne (Alec Guinness). Hilarity ensues. Becoming romantically involved with one of the widows he has created, he finds Sibella's jealousy could seriously threaten his grand design.

Trivia: In addition to the eight roles played by Alec Guinness, a painting may be seen in the Duke's castle showing an ancestor - a painting for which Guinness sat. The scene where six members of the D'Ascoynes family, all played by Guinness, are seen together took two days to film. The camera was set on a specially built platform to minimize movement. A frame with six black matte painted optical flat glass windows was set in front of the camera and the windows opened one at a time so each of the characters could be filmed in turn. The film was then wound back for the next character. Most of the time was spent waiting for Guinness to be made up as the next character.

This was a cute little movie. It is considered one of the best of the Ealing Comedies. Ealing Studios was a movie studio in England that made a series of critically acclaimed comedies in the forties and fifties. Alec Guinness really impressed me by playing eight different roles. It was fun to watch.

Top 250 Challenge: 186

Notorious (1946)
Number 97 on IMDb's Top 250

Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman), the American daughter of a convicted Nazi spy, is recruited by government agent T. R. Devlin (Cary Grant) to infiltrate a group of Germans who have relocated to Brazil after World War II. During her training, Alicia falls in love with Devlin; his feelings for her are tempered by his knowledge of her past. When Devlin is ordered to convince her to marry Sebastian (Claude Rains), one of her father's friends and a member of the group, to find out what he's plotting, he agonizes before choosing duty over love. Bitter at his betrayal, Alicia does wed Sebastian. Alicia accidentally and unknowingly stumbles upon the plot, but in the process leaves a clue that her husband traces back to her. Now Sebastian has a problem: he must silence Alicia, but cannot expose her without falling under suspicion with his fellow Nazis. He discusses the situation with his mother, who suggests that Alicia "die slowly", gradually by poisoning. The poison is mixed into Alicia's coffee and she quickly falls ill. Devlin becomes suspicious when she meets him and tells him that she merely has a hangover and yet shows signs of grave illness. He becomes further suspicious when she fails to report to their next meeting. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Alfred Hitchcock claimed that the FBI had him under surveillance for three months because the film dealt with uranium. Both Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman found the famous kissing scene quite problematic, according to Alfred Hitchcock, because of the complicated blocking that needed to be remembered in the several long takes that it took to shoot it. The legendary on-again, off-again kiss between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman was intended to flaunt then-current film code regulations that restricted the length of kisses to only a couple of seconds each.

Once again, Hitchcock makes the list. Seven of the top 100 belong to Hitchcock. In order they are: 13. Rear Window, 22. Psycho, 25. North By Northwest, 35. Vertigo, 76. Rebecca, 84. Strangers On A Train, and 97. Notorious. This one stands up just as well as the others. In fact, this movie has the most famous example of one of Hitchcock's MacGuffins. (What is a MacGuffin? Come back next week for my vocabulary lesson). Good Movie, Bergman was beautiful and Grant was debonair.

Top 250 Challenge: 180

Citizen Kane (1941)
Number 21 on IMDb's Top 250

Multimillionaire newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane dies alone in his extravagant mansion, Xanadu, speaking a single word: "Rosebud". In an attempt to figure out the meaning of this word, a reporter tracks down the people who worked and lived with Kane; they tell their stories in a series of flashbacks that reveal much about Kane's life but not enough to unlock the riddle of his dying breath. Hilarity ensues.

borrowed from John FordTrivia: The camera looks up at Charles Foster Kane and his best friend Jedediah Leland and down at weaker characters like Susan Alexander Kane. This was a technique that Orson Welles who had used it two years previously on Stagecoach (1939). Welles privately watched Stagecoach about 40 times while making this film. For the new footage in the opening newsreel to look suitably grainy, editor Robert Wise came up with the idea of physically dragging the footage across a stone floor and running across a cheesecloth filled with sand. These efforts went unappreciated in some quarters: one cinema distributor contacted RKO to complain about the film stock being of inferior quality and demanded a replacement print. One line by Kane, "Don't believe everything you hear on the radio," might be construed as a sly wink from Orson Wells to those who panicked upon hearing his radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds." When asked by friends how Kane's last words would be known when he died alone, Orson Welles reportedly stared for a long time before saying, "Don't you ever tell anyone of this."

This was, by far, the highest rated movie on my yet to see list. I was concerned about watching it because of all the aclaim that the movie has had. You know, stupid things, like what would it say about me if I don't like it? The last Orson Welles movie I watched, I didn't like (See Touch Of Evil). Okay, so back to the film. It was okay. It was novel in that the whole movie is told in flashback by several people whose stories overlap. The cinamatography was beautiful with a lot of reflections used, but the story was just okay, nothing special. So now the highest rated movie I haven't watched is The Manchurian Candidate at 69, which is being personally delivered to me all the way from Italy by my dear sister (she loves me).

Top 250 Challenge: 176

The Big Sleep (1946)
Number 101 on IMDb's Top 250

Private-eye Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) is hired to keep an eye on General Sternwood's youngest daughter, Carmen, who has fallen into bad company and is likely to do some damage to herself and her family before long. He soon finds himself falling in love with her older sister, Vivien, who initially takes a deep dislike to Mr Marlowe. However, the plot thickens when murder follows murder...Hilarity ensues...

Trivia: The scene where Bogart and Lauren Bacall make suggestive talk about horses was added almost a year after filming was otherwise complete, in an attempt to inject the film with the kind of risqué innuendos that had made To Have And Have Not (1944), and Bacall, so popular a few years earlier. Director Howard Hawks and star Humphrey Bogart got into an argument as to whether one of the characters was murdered or committed suicide. They sent a wire to author Raymond Chandler asking him to settle the issue, but he replied that he didn't know either. The question is left unresolved in the original novel by Chandler.

The cover says it all...Bogart and Bacall. Only Tracy and Hepburn could even compare in the world of hollyworld.

Top 250 Challenge: 166

His Girl Friday (1940)
Number 228 on IMDb's Top 250

Cary Grant is hard-boiled newspaper editor Walter Burns, Rosalind Russell his ex-wife and former star reporter. She wants to marry Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) and settle down to a normal life, but Burns has other ideas. When a convicted murderer escapes from the bumbling sheriff (Gene Lockhart) on the eve of his execution, Burns entices Johnson to cover one last story, and then the hilarity really ensues.

Trivia: Some memorable moments incorporate real life references: Burns tries to describe Bruce Baldwin (played by Ralph Bellamy). He ends up saying that he "looks like that film actor, Ralph Bellamy". Walter Burns (Cary Grant) refers to some horrible fate suffered by the last person who crossed him: Archie Leach. Grant's real name is Archie Leach and he ad-libbed the line. One of the first, if not the first, films to have characters talk over the lines of other characters, for a more realistic sound. Prior to this, movie characters completed their lines before the next lines were started.

This was a neat little movie to watch, but the dialog as so fast and so full of quick one-liners and off hand remarks that it left you exhausted just watching. The director Howard Hawks allowed ad libbing from his actors but Rosalind Russell was a little uncomfortable with doing that. She decided her character needed more lines so she hired a writer to write more lines for her to "ad lib" in her scenes, Hawks never realized this, but Cary Grant did and would ask Russell every morning, "So what have you got for us today?"

Top 250 Challenge: 155

The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Number 163 on IMDb's Top 250

Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn), is a wealthy "main line" Philadelphian socialite who has divorced C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) and is about to marry nouveau riche George Kittredge (John Howard). Wedding preparations are complicated when she is blackmailed into granting an exclusive story to tabloid reporter Macaulay "Mike" Connor (Jimmy Stewart) and photographer Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey). In exchange for letting the event be covered by Spy magazine, the antics of Tracy's philandering father will not be exposed. Dexter has helped cook up this scheme and does everything he can to derail the marriage because he still loves Tracy. As the wedding nears, Tracy finds herself torn between Mike, Dexter and George. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Jimmy Stewart had no plans to attend the Oscar ceremony the year he was nominated for this film. Just before the ceremony began, he received a call at home "advising" him to slip into a dinner jacket and attend the ceremony. He did and he received the award for Best Actor. This was in the days before an accounting firm kept the Oscar voting results secret. Jimmy Stewart himself was of the opinion that his Best Actor Oscar was "...deferred payment for my work on Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)". The film was shot in eight weeks, and required no retakes. Jimmy Stewart thought of hiccupping in the drunk scene himself, without telling Cary Grant. When he began hiccuping, Grant turned to Stewart saying, "Excuse me." The scene required only one take. During the scene you can see Cary Grant looking down and grinning. Since the hiccup wasn't scripted Grant was on the verge of breaking out laughing and had to compose himself quickly.

Okay, take the stars of Bringing Up Baby about a woman who wants to sabotage a man's wedding because she love him, switch it to a man wanting to sabotage the woman's wedding for the same reason, give them better characters but keep the chemistry, replace the leopard with another major star, and some more chemistry, take most of the madcap out of the humor, shake well, and you have this movie. This was just a wonderful movie. How can you go wrong with three actors like Hepburn, Grant, and Stewart.

Top 250 Challenge: 151

The Third Man(1949)
Number 46 on IMDb's Top 250

An out of work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies, and where a shortage of supplies has lead to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime's friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and that all the witnesses were Lime's friends, including the driver of the truck who ran over Lime, and Martins determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: Although David O. Selznick theoretically produced, the rest of the crew hated him and his ideas (he suggested once to Graham Greene that the film be called "Night Time in Vienna"). He had wanted to make the film "American friendly" with either Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart as Holly, and Robert Mitchum as Harry. However, one of the main reasons that he had been chosen to co-produce in the first place was simply so that it would be possible to have Orson Welles as Harry, as he was working for O. Selznick at the time.

This movie could have been called "Who killed Harry Lime?" This is clasic noir with it's use of shadows, amazing visuals, camera angles, dialog and acting. Joseph Cotton and Alida Valli sizzle as the down and out writer and the girl with a past who start to fall in love with each other while they search for the elusive truth of the third man. Orson Wells is also pretty good a Harry.