Movies, Film, Motion Pictures and Cinema—Personal Writings and Reviews

I have loved the act of watching, writing about and simply enjoying movies since I was six years old. even though my first experience resulted in my aunt taking me out of the Roxy theater because the images of the horses in the western we were watching seemed to be coming off the screen towards me. From memory that is what happened, but was that the reality?

I have no uncertainties about going to the movies after that point from the time I really became involved with movies from my 10 years at home watching Saturday night at the movies to my first film classes at the university of North Carolina to every other venue I went to that movie show I have been enraptured.

The writings here are personal reflections from my years as a media librarian and thousands of hours in movie theaters in many places.

Even of more importance is how the Covid Pandemic and its restrictions forced most of us out of going to theatres for a short while, changing our viewing habits in many ways, those changes were positive because many of us enjoyed the patience of revisiting movies and TV memories thanks to Streaming Services from HBO to NETFLIX, to Amazon Prime and MUBI, and Criterion. Turner Classic Movies had much to do with getting us there.

• The Bear. 2021-2023. Directed by Christopher Storer, Ramy Yousef and Ayo Edibiri. . Jerry Allen White stars as Carmen a gifted young chef who returns to an extremely popular family sandwich shop to try revitalizing it after the suicide of his older brother the owner. Carmen must deal with resistance of family, the shop’s exuberant crew, the restaurant itself. The Bear was one of the most entertaining series on television. White and the rest of the entire cast are remarkable actors. The performances are all improvisational, natural and refreshing. The show allows the option of picking favorites from the cast which we have always done. Cast includes Ayo Edibiri as Sydney Adamu, Lisa Colon-Zayas as Tina Marrero, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie. Lionel Boss as Marcus, Abby Elliott as Natalie Berzatto, Matty Matheson as Neil Fak, Edwin Lee Gibson as Ebraheim, Gary Hendricks as Gary ‘sweeps’ Woods and Richard Esteras as Manny. Cinematography by Andrew Wehde. Score by J. A. Q. Art Direction by Lisa Korean. Emmys for directing, limited best limited series. Score, editing and lead actor (White), supporting actor, (Moss-Bacharach) and supporting actress (Aro Edibiri).

.

• BlacKKKmans. Directed by Spike Lee. Screenplay by Spike Lee, Kevin Willmott, David Rabinowitz, and Charlie Wachtel based on Black Klanman by Ron Stallworth. BlacKKKmans is Spike Lee working at peak form. In 1972 Ron Stallworth is the first black officer for the Colorado State Police. working as a filing clerk. After meeting Patrice Dumas the head of Colorado State’s BSM which has invited Stokeley Carmichael to a rally. Stallworth asks to be assigned to police the event but for obvious reasons, he convinces his white friend who faces the same kind of bullying and being belittled the other members of the force to be like his friend Stallworth. A wonderful cast made this film a superb satirical drama. Stallworth is played by John David, Washington, Laura Harrier is Patrice, Adam Driver is Flip Zimmerman and, Topher Grace is David Duke.

• The Brothers Sun.. Netflix. 2024. Directed by Kevin Tancheroen and Viet Nguyen. The show was created by Brad Falchuk and Byron Wu for Netflix. Michelle Yeoh is Eileen “mama” Sun a Taiwanese native who moved to Los Angeles to escape the life of a crime boss husband Big Boss. She deliberately wants to shield her younger son Bruce from all that. When attempts are made on Big Sun’s life back in Taiwan, he sends his older son Charles to LA to protect his wife and younger son, throwing everything into confusion. The Brothers Sun is an exciting comedy/drama filled with wit, style and violence. Justin Chien as Charles dominates the story giving it panache and rhythm. He is a killer with a passion for food—he has the soul and skills of a chef and a clever killer. Michelle Yeoh matches him by being fearless and determined in saving the life she’s struggled to build. One of the best martial arts works in recent memory. The Cast also includes: Joon Lee as Terence Lee, Bruce’s Korean American best friend a scatter brained drug dealer, and Highdee Kuan as a LA district attorney a childhood friend of Eileen’s. That the story is set in Taiwan and not mainland China or Hong Kong is an interesting detail.

• Condor. 2020-2022. Episodes directed by Andrew McCarthy, Jason Smilovic, Laurence Trilling, Kari Skogland,and Rachel Leiterman. Max Irons stars as Joe Turner, an agent in a CIA cyber station in Washington who arrives at work one morning assassins have arrived to kill everyone in the place. Irons is the only survivor and becomes part of the team assigned to track down the killers and whoever was behind it. This stylized updating of the Faye Dunaway and Robert Redford popular 1975 thriller Three Days of the Condor. Conder expands on the story giving it depth and a complexity. A first rate cast makes this an energetic enterprise. Cast includes Kristen Turner, Leem Lubani as Gabrielle, Mira Sorvino, William Hurt, Bob Balaban, Rose Rollins,, Brendan Fraser, Constance Zimmerman are a for fascinating .and provocative. Cinematography by Steven Cosens, Evan’s Brown and Jeremy Bennington. Note. there’s a surpriseing generosity among screenwriters in most of productions for the actors in a lot off the series and movies on the streaming networks. Condor has a credited cast of over 200 but a lot of them are lines that stand out or repeat appearances that we as viewers can remember. Even more impressive is how the cinematographers, set designers, costumers have staggering budgets that make the look of these programs spectacular to watch and enjoy.

• Ferrari. 2023. Directed by Michael Mann. Ferrari is a film based on the troubled life and career of the famous automaker Enzo Ferrari based on the biography by Brock Yates Enzo Ferrari: The Man the Cars, the Races and the Machine. Adam Driver’s performance in Ferrari is just one of several of his masterful performances in film during the last three years. As Ferrari he relives the life of the troubled brilliant automotive genius’s traumatic life expertly. The film has a solid cast supporting him including Shailaine Woodley, Penelope Cruz, Giuseppe Bonafati, and Gabriel Leone. Driver’s other noteworthy roles in The Blackklansman 2018 and Marriage Story 2019 both for which he received academy award nominations.. and his appearances in the last Star Wars Cycle as the magnetic Kylo Ren made him a popular star.

• Godzilla Minus One/ I us Color. 2023. Directed and written by Takasi Yamasaki . Special effects edited by Yamasaki .

• Lost Illusions. Directed by Xavier Giannoli. In French with English subtitles. An adaptation of Henri de Balzac’s masterpiece Illusions Perdu. A beautifully shot and staged adaptation of Balzac’s romantic melodrama about a young writer, seduced by a friend to test his skills as a volatile journalist. He succeeds beyond his greatest dreams but vanity and jealousy by his friend destroys him. The world he lives in is one of journalistis who write scurrilous and vicious reviews of literature for bribes from the highest bidder. Photography by Christophe Beaucarne. Screenplay Olivier Giannoli and Jacque Fieschie. Cast: Benjamin Voison as Lucien, Salome Dewaels as Coralie, Vincent Lacoste as Etienne, Cecile De France as Marie-Louise, Gerard Depardieu as Dauriat, Xavier as Nathan, Jeanne Balibar as La Marquise, and Loui-do Lenquesain as Finot. Benjamin Voison’s Lucien performance dominates the film and the lavish set design and beautifully photographed scenes and places add to the production.
• Marriage Story 2019. Directed and written by Noah Baumbach. My regard for Marriage Story rests almost entirely on the performances of its stars Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson. Words like nuance,subtlety. Instinct,and clarity fill my head. The story of two relatively young artists living in a privileged world and creating difficulties for themselves and their son is beautiful work. Baumbach’s direction and script and Randy Newman’s music make it all work too. The supporting cast— Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Julie Hagerty, Wallace Shawn put you in a a New York and Los Angeles other classy movies and directors had already created for lots of us.
• Monsieur Spade. AMC+. Directed by Scott Frank. Screenplay by Tom Fontana and Scott Frank and based on character created by Dashiel Hammett. Clive Owen’s embodies the famous Hammett character as if it was second nature to him. The complicated story has Sam mysteriously disappearing from San Francisco at some time doing WW II for France, where he became involved with the French resistance. He lives in a comfortable villa in the south of France where his reputation gets him entangled with nefarious circumstances. Is he working for himself or American or French or other interests?
• The Night Agent. Episodes are directed by several directors including Adam Arlin, Seth Gordon, Guy Ferland and Millicent Shelton. It’s based on a novel of the same title by Matthew Quirk. The Night Agent was a stunning Netflix limited series that helps define what binging is and has become. In two seasons the show’s energy, pace and delectable cast made it great fun. The story is that of a young FBI agent,Peter Sutherland who is forced into finding a mole at the highest levels of US government. The action is riveting and the storytelling rich in detail and intrigue. Gabriel Basso leads a wonderfully diverse cast that includes Lucianne Buchan as a Rose Larkin whose frantic call when she and ,her guardians come under attack are made to Sutherland, Fola Akins-Akinbola as Rose Larkin an ambitious secret agent assigned to the vice president’s daughter, Sarah Desjardin as Maddie the VP’s daughter, Eve Harlow and Felix Raei as two of the most intriguing assassins imaginable, D.B. Woodside as an professional agent assigned to Rose,, Hong Chau as the president’s chief of staff, Christopher Shyer as the VP, Kari as the president.
• The Night Manager. Directed my Susanne Bier and Georgi Banks-Davies. Screenplay by David Farr based on the novel by John Le Carre. An intellectually frightening adaptation of the Le Carre story. Tom Hiddleston is Jonathan a former army officer tasked to bring down a dangerously unscrupulous arms dealer called Dickie by all his men is played wickedly by Hugh Laurie. The action is savvy film making. Details, action, atmosphere are all well paced and like all major streaming productions felled with beautiful photography and settings. The supporting cast is especially expert and fun to watch.. with: Olivia as Angela Burr, Tom as Major Corky Corkoran. Also with Alistair Petrie, Natasha Little, douglas Hood, douglas Harewood and Antonio de La Torre.

• Parade’s End. Directed by Susanna White. Screenplay by Tom Stoppard an adaptation of Ford Maddox Ford’s Novel. Benedict Cumberbatch is the star of this elegant drama about the end of the Edwardian age before, during and after World War I. Cumberbatch’s masterly conservative second son of a powerful English family is matched by.

• Queen’s Gambit. Directed by Frank Scott. Written by Scott and based on a book by Walter Tevis.
• Reservation Dogs. Hulu. Various directors. 2021-2023. Cast: Devery Jacob’s, D’Pharoah Woon, LANE Factor, Paulina Alexis, Sarah Podemski, Zara McClarnon, Dallas Goldtooth, Gary Farmer, Bobby Lee as Dr. Kangaroo, Kirk Fox as Kenny Boy, and John as Leon.
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
• Shanty Tramp. Directed by Joseph Prieto. Story by K. Gordon Murray. Screenplay by Prieto and Ruben Guberman. Cast: Eleanor Vaille as Emily Stryker, Otto Schlesinger as her drunken father, Lewis Galan as Daniel, Bill Rogers as Preacher Fallows, and Lawrence Tobin as Biker Savage. This surprisingly brutal and sexually raw exploitation film is available on the MUBI network. The movie’s racial scenes and imagery are harsh and disturbing but it takes place in the 1962 deep south. An angry black dies while trying to leave town after sex with a slatternly Emily the drunkard’s daughter and his mother is left for dead after being attacked by a biker’s gang. Rough stuff.

• Sherlock. 2010-2014. Episodes have a variety of directors and screenwriters. Benedict Cumberbatch is Holmes and Martin Freeman Dr. Watson in this BBC decidedly modern adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories. Cast includes Rupert Graves as DI Gregory Lestride, Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty, Una Stubbs as Mrs. Stubbs, Amanda Abbington as Mary Moraston Watson’s partner later wife.

• Shogun. A series on Fox and Hulu based on the bestseller and popular 1980 miniseries by James Clavell who directed the original series. The new series was produced by. Cast includes Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Toronada, Cosmo Jarvis as Pilot Major John Blackthorn, Anna Sawai as Todo Marino, Tadanomu Asado, Takahiro Hido as Ishiro Kazinariand Tommy Bistowas Father Martin Alvito. Clavell’s production of Shogun May have been the most popular of the budding miniseries productions when it appeard in 1980. The role of Cosmo Jarvis was played by Richard Chamberlain. Unlike this new version the cast including the Japanese spoke English dialogue. Toshiro Mifune played Toronado. Yoko Shimda,as Todo Marino. Damien Thomas,Jonathan Rhys-Davies and Alan Badel played other key characters. The book and the series personal favorites. Clavell also directed two other movie favorites of mine from that period—The Seven Percent Solution and The Last Valley.

• Snowfall. Created by John Singleton. Various directors. Cast: Damsom Idris , Carter Hudsoon, Emily Rios, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Michael Hyatt, ALON Aboutboul, and Alejandro Edda.

• Vikings Valhalla. 2024. 2022-2024. Directed by various directors. The very idea of offering us some notion of the role of the Vikings in the discovery of Greenland and very probable excursions on North America is fascinating and defining the importance of Leif Erickson as one of the European discoverers completes our history. Erickson like the more familiar European discoverers were inventive and curious makers of maps, telescopes and navigation systems and tools (the compass).
• The Vikings created and written by Michael Hirst for Amazon Prime is a thrilling saga of almost mythical norsemen as conquerors and kings.

• Warriors . 2019. Netflix Series.

Movie Reviews

ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS.  1940.  110 minutes.   Biographical Drama.  Historical Drama.  Abraham Lincoln.  Directed by John Cromwell.  The story based on Robert E. Sherwood’s celebrated play covers the life of Abraham Lincoln through his love for the tragic Ann Rutherford, his rise as a lawyer, marriage to the ambitious Ann Todd and his debates with Stephen Douglas.  It ends with his election as President.  Raymond Massey, a tall, rangy British stage actor became a familiar to American film and theatergoers after he portrayed Lincoln in the stage and screen versions of Sherwood’s play.  Just as famous was Ruth Gordon’s performance as the proud and demanding Mary Todd Lincoln.  The play won a Pulitzer Prize, but its screen adaptation shows that it was a piece for its time.  Still, the film has an authenticity it is hard to deny.  Massey received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal.  The screenplay was adapted by Sherwood.  Photography was by James Wong Howe.  The cast includes:  Gene Lockhart, Mary Howard, Dorothy Tree, and Howard da Silva.  Note:  This was the third major film about Lincoln in the decade ending with 1940.  The other two- Young Abe Lincoln directed by John Ford and Abraham Lincoln which was directed by D. W. Griffith are also available in the Nonprint Collection.  An interesting footnote — in the same year he played this Lincoln role Massey also played a fascinating John Brown in The Santa Fe Trail.  

ABOUT LAST NIGHT.  1986.  113 minutes.  Romantic Comedy/Drama. Young Adult Comedy.  American Theater.  Mamet, David.  Directed by Edward Zwick.  Some young professionals living and working in Chicago undergo crises of identity and romance.  Based on a hard edged sexual satire by David Mamet, this screen version is fairly tame, whatever bite might have been in Mamet’s play did not survive this film adaptation.  The cast is earnest and capable. Demi Moore as Debbie, Rob Lowe as Danny, James Belushi as Bernie Litko, Elizabeth Perkins as Joan, George DiCenzo as Mr. Favio, Michael Alldredge as Mother Malone, Robin Thomas as Steve Carlton, Donna Gibbons as Alex, Megan Mullally as Pam and Patricia Duff as Leslie.  Notes:  Written by Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue based on the play Sexual Perversity in Chicago by David Mamet.  Cinematography by Andrew Dintenfass.  Music by Miles Goodman.  Songs by Thom Bishop, Joan Oates, Bob Seger, Jon David Souther, and Cynthia Weil.   Box-office gross:  $38,700.000.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.  1930.  79 minutes.  Historical Drama.  D. W. Griffith.  Walter Huston.  Stephen Vincent Benet.  <V100>.  Directed by D. W. Griffith.  Story:  A dramatization of the life of Abraham Lincoln from his early dies to his assassination in 1865.  By the time he did this film the great Griffith’s career was coming to a halt.  He had been working under the thumbs of studio production standards since the failure of his incredible Intolerance.  This, his next to last film does not fare well when compared to his great silent works.  As always he tries for authenticity, but what worked in the silent medium is static and slow in this sound film.  Walter Huston gives a fine performance as Lincoln.  With:  Una Merkel, as Ann Rutledge, Kay Hammond as Mary Todd Lincoln, Jason Robards, Sr. as Herndon, Ian Keith as John Wilkes Booth, Hobart Bosworth as Gen Robert E. Lee, Charles Crockett as the sheriff, William L. Thorne as Tom Lincoln, Gordon Thorpe as Tad Lincoln, Henry Walthall as Col. Marshall, E. Alyn Warren as Stephen Douglas, and Fred Warren as Gen U. S. Grant.  Notes:  Screenplay by Stephen Vincent Benet and Gerrit J. Lloyd.  Cinematography by Karl Struss.  Music by Hugo Riesenfeld.

ABSENCE OF MALICE.  1981.  116 minutes. Newspaper Drama.  Romantic Drama.  <V240>.  Directed by Sydney Pollack.  Story:  Drama about how a federal agent uses a Miami news reporter to plant a false story about the possible involvement of a liquor wholesaler in the Mafia business of his uncle.  The agent’s plans backfire when a friend of the business man commits suicide over one of the reporter’s stories.  Well acted, written and directed drama and one of the several fine performances by Paul Newman in the mid and late 1980s.  Newman’s work in this film and in Fort Apache, The Bronx, and The Verdict probably had as much to do with his finally getting an Oscar as his award winning role in The Color of Money.  There is an intense, nervy performance by Bob Balaban as the cold-blooded federal attorney.  Newman was Oscar nominated as were his co-stars Sally Field and Melinda Dillon.  With:  Luther Adler, Barry Primus, Josef Sommer, and Wilfred Brimley.  Notes:  Screenplay by Kurt Luedtke.  Original music by Dave Grusin.  Cinematography by Owen Roizman.  Oscar nominations for best actor (Newman), actress [Field], supporting actress (Dillon), screenplay.  Box-office gross:  $19,688,775.

THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR.  1961.  96 minutes.  Comedy.  Walt Disney.  Directed by Robert Stevenson.  An lovably forgetful college professor and inventor misses his third wedding date with his fiancée when he discovers, almost accidentally, a new substance with tremendous resilience — it allows the lowly basketball team to leap over its opponent to win a game; makes the professor Model-T fly and other things.  He dubs the new substance flubber.  Like many of the live action comedies of Disney this film is broad farce and sentiment combined.  The cast is competent and it will fit the bill as family entertainment very well.  A huge Disney hit.  Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk, Leon Ames, Elliott Reid, Edward Andrews, David Lewis, Jack Mullaney, Belle Montrose and Ed Wynn.  Screenplay by Bill Walsh based on a story by Samuel W. Taylor.  Music by George Bruns with orchestration by Franklyn Marks.  The song Medfield Fight Song by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman.  Photographed by Edward Colman.  Box-office gross:  $11,426,000.

ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS ANIMATED FILMS.  1984.  60 minutes.  <V979>.

• A collection of some of the more famous recent Academy Award Winning short subjects including:

T

• Moonbird, A magical nocturnal journey into a world of imagination, directed by John and Faith Hubley.  1959.

• Munro, Jules Ffeiffer’s satire of the army and the draft.  A little boy named Munro wreaks havoc on the service after being drafted.  Directed by Gene Deitch.  1960.

• The Hole, about a telling conversation on a New York City building cite.  Directed by John and Faith Hubley.  1962.

• Closed Mondays, about a drunk who wanders into an art museum — whose works seem to take lifelike form in the drunk’s presence.  Directed by Will Vinton.  1974.

• CRAC!, a vivid glimpse at the whimsical life of a rocking chair over a century’s time.  Directed by Fredric Back.  1981.

• Sundae In New York, a four minute film featuring a “clay chorus” including Frank Sinatra, Rodney Dangerfield, Woody Allen, and Mayor Koch.  Directed by Jimmy Picker.  1983.

• The entire program is sixty minutes long and was compiled by Dean Berko.  1984.    60minutes.

ACCIDENTAL TOURIST.  Romantic Comedy/Drama.  Eccentrics.  Novel Into Film.  <V2111>.  Directed by Lawrence Kasdan.  A travel guide writer seems to be in a catatonic state.  He has some difficulty adjusting to the brutal murder of his young son.  It affects his marriage which ends in divorce.  He becomes involved with a charming if slightly off-centered young woman named Muriel.  He must also deal with his eccentric family and their problems. Well acted, low-keyed drama based on the highly praised novel by Anne Tyler.  With William Hurt, Kathleen Turner, Donald Ogden Stiers, and Ed Begley.    Note:  Screenplay Frank Galati and  Lawrence Kasdan from the novel by Anne Tyler.  Cinematography by John Bailey.  Music by Frankie Adams, Wilbur Jones, and John Williams.  Awards:  Gena Davis won an Oscar for best supporting actress.  The film received nominations for best picture, screenplay and original score.  New York Film Critics Circle best film.  Golden Globe nominations for film drama and original score [Williams].  Box-office gross:  $30,416,000.

THE ACCUSED.  1988.  110 minutes.  Drama.  Rape.  Courtroom Drama.  <V2057>.  Directed by Jonathan Kaplan.  A young woman with a fast reputation is raped in a neighborhood bar while a crowd of other men egg on her attackers.  Based on a real case in Massachusetts in the early 1980s.  The film is dominated by the fine, controlled of rage of Jodie Foster as the woman who was raped in the presence of a heckling, boisterous crowd.  The case led to an unprecedented decision on the extent of participation in the witnessing of a crime.  With Kelly McGillis as Kathryn Murphy, Bernie Coulson as Kenneth Joyce, Leo Rossi as Cliff Albrecht, Ann Hearn as Sally Frazer, Carmen Argenziano as Paul Rudolph, Steve Antin as Bob Joiner ans Tom O’Brien as Larry.  Note:  Screenplay by Tom Topor.  Cinematography by Ralf Bode.  Music by Brad Fiedel.  Awards:  Foster won the best actress Oscar and Golden Globe award for her stunning performance.  Box-office gross:  $32, 078,000.

ACHILLES see BOYS IN LOVE

ADAM HAD FOUR SONS.  1941.  81 minutes.  Family Drama.  Novels Into Films.  Ingrid Bergman.  Directed by Gregory Ratoff.  Emilie Gallatin is a beautiful young woman brought to America by the Stoddard family to be the governess for the family’s four young boys.  They are surprised and pleased at her beauty and youth.  Emilie quickly becomes a favorite of the boys and charms both parents.  When the beloved Mrs. Stoddard dies suddenly it is Emilie who helps hold hearth and home together.  As WW I approaches the family undergoes changes that include temporary financial disaster, which forces them to move from their home and to send Emilie back, but when things recover, almost eight years have gone by and Emilie returns to run the house just as all of the boys go off to war.  David, a Canadian pilot brings home a beautiful war bride, Hester, whose scheming nature is divined by Emilie and the family’s maiden cousin, Phillippa.  The family must deal with Hester’s infidelity to David with Jack before all is righted.  Sentimental, well acted family melodrama.  Warner Baxter as Adam Stoddard, Ingrid Bergman as Emilie Gallatin, Susan Hayward as Hester Stoddard, June Lockhart as Vance, Helen Westley as cousin Phillippa, Fay Wray as Molly Stoddard.  The older boys are played by Johnny Downs as David, Robert ‘Buddy’ Shaw as Chris, Charles Lind as Phillip and Richard Denning as Jack.  As boys, Wallace Chadwell is Chris, Steven Muller is David, Billy Ray is Jack, and Bobby Walberg is Phillip.  Notes:  Written by Michael Blankfort and William Hurlburt from the novel by Charles Bonner.  Cinematography by J. Peverell Marley.  Music by W. Frank Harling.  Produced by Robert Sherwood.

ADAM’S RIB.  1949.    101 minutes.  Romantic Comedy.  Courtroom Satire.  Katherine Hepburn.  Spencer Tracy.  George Cukor.  <V101>.  Directed by George Cukor from a screenplay by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon.  A happily married couple, one a defense attorney and her husband, an assistant D.A. find themselves on opposite sides of a marital shooting case.  The case puts a comic strain on their relationship.  Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy made eight films together between 1942 and 1968.  Adam’s Rib and the later Pat And Mike, both written by Kanin and Gordon are clearly the best and most enjoyable of the famous couples efforts.  In Adam’s Rib Hepburn vaunted intelligence and spirit are matched with Tracy’s almost perfect steadiness and calm.  The film has a cast of wonderful characters not the least of which are Judy Holiday as the wife with a smoking gun in her hand, Tom Ewell as the philandering victim, David Wayne as a hopeful song writer and Jean Hagen as the femme.  Notes:  Photographed by George J. Folsey.  Music by Miklos Rozsa.  Awards:  Best Actress, N. Y. Film Critics’ Circle [Holiday].  Academy Award nomination for best original screenplay.  National Film Registry, 1992.

THE ADDAMS FAMILY.  1991.  102 minutes.  Charles Addams.  Horror Comedy.  Anjelica Huston is Morticia, Raul Julia is Gomez, Christopher Lloyd is Fester in this big film version of the Charles Addams comic strip. The film pays tribute to the TV series, but has its own style.   The entire cast is perfectly suited and the film is handsomely shot and designed but it really is only a fair entertainment.  It’s popularity among filmgoers may have had as much to do with the popularity of the Hammer video and the lack of substantial competition on movie screens.  With:  Christina Ricci.  Notes:  Photographed by Owen Roizman.  Screenplay by Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilaon.  Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.  Music by Marc Shaman.  The Addams Groove by Hammer.  Box-office gross:  $58,000,000.

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL.  1941. Saturday Adventure.  Serial.  Superheroes.  Comic Book Heroes.  <V812>.  Directed by Jon English.  A “chronicle of the world’s mightiest mortal.”  One of the more famous of the serial dramas from Republic Pictures in the 1930s and 1940s.  Tom Tyler is the intrepid hero.  These serials were camp as soon as they were released — they are obviously more so now.  Despite their datedness and campiness they are an easy evening or two entertainment.  Not to be taken seriously in any way, shape or form.  With:  Frank Coghlan Jr. as Billy Batson, Louise Currie as Betty Wallace, John Davidson as Tal Chotali, Nigel de Brulier as Shazam, Kenne Duncan as Barnett, Reed Hadley as Rahman Bear, Leyland Hodgson as Major Rawley, Tetsu Komai as Chan Lai,, Peter George Lynn as Dwight Fisher, Jack Mulhall as Howell, George Pembroke as Dr. Stephen Lang, Stanley Price as Owens, Ernest Sarracino as Akbar, Robert Strange as John Malcolm, Bryant Washburn as Harry Carlyle, harry Worth as Prof. Bentley, and Carleton Young as Martin.  Notes:  Screenplay by Norman Hall, Joseph F. Poland, and Sol Shore.  Cinematography by William Nobles.  Music by Cy Feuer.

ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN.  1939.  90 minutes.   Satires.  Life on the Mississippi.  Mickey Rooney.  American Literature.   Mark Twain.  Novels Into Film.   <V513>.  Directed by Richard Thorpe.  An MGM film of Samuel Clemens’ great satiric novel about the redoubtable Mississippi River youth.  By 1939 Mickey Rooney was well on his way to becoming the top box star in Hollywood.  Rooney, phenomenally talented starred in musicals, comedies, dramas and whatever else the studio though of.  This is a very enjoyable film of Huck Finn’s adventures thanks mostly to the inventiveness of Rooney and Rex Ingram’s dignity as Jim.  It has all the homespun values that Clemens himself might have found silly, but that MGM always presented when it made films of classic literature.  Walter Connolly as the King, Walter Connolly as the king are perfectly as these two classic con-artists.  Also with:  Lynne Carver as Mary Jane, Victor Kilian as pap Finn, Elizabeth Risdon s Widow Douglass, Clara Blandick as Miss Watson, Jo Ann Sayers as Susan, and Minor Watson as Capt. Brandy.  Notes:  Produced Joseph Mankiewicz.  Screenplay by Hugo Butler.  Cinematography by John F. Seitz.  Music by Franz Waxman.

ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD.  1938.    102 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Robin Hood Mythology.  Errol Flynn.  Olivia de Havilland.  <V141>.  Directed by Michael Curtiz.  The people of England become increasingly hostile to oppressive rule of Prince John, the brother of the noble Richard the Lion Heart (held captive in Europe after the Crusades).  Robin of Lockesley, who has become the leader of a band of generous bandits in Sherwood Forest.  They defy the authority of Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham until the return of Richard.  This is one of the most entertaining and exciting adventure films ever made.  At no time in his career did the ingratiating and athletic Errol Flynn seem so perfect a hero.  As Maid Marian Olivia De Havilland was perfect and Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains were perfect villains.  The color of the film is spectacular.  Korngold’s score received an Oscar.  Notes:  Photographed by Tony Gaudio, Sol Polito, and Howard Green. Screenplay by Seton I. Miller and Norman Reilly Raine.  Music is by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.  1939.    83 minutes.  Mystery.  Popular Fiction.  Sherlock Holmes.  A. Conan Doyle.  <V1208>.  Directed by Alfred Werker.  Story:  Dr. Moriarity, the arch nemesis of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, attempts to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London.  Holmes and Watson must find a way to stop him.  The resounding success of the first Holmes film to star the “perfect” Holmes — Basil Rathbone — led to this highly stylish and very enjoyable second film.  It is that rare case of the second film being better than the first in a successful series (and the first, The Hound Of The Baskervilles.  was quite enjoyable itself).  Nigel Bruce played the “perfect” Watson.  The cast includes Ida Lupino and George Zucco.  There were fourteen Rathbone-Bruce Holmes films in all, Adventures… and The Hound Of The Baskervilles were clearly the best in the series.  Cast includes Ida Lupino as Ann Brandon, Alan Marshal as Jerold Hunter, E. E. Clive as Inspector Bristol, George Zucco as Prof. Moriarity, Mary Gordon as Mrs. Hudson, Holmes Herbert as Justice, Arthur Hohl as Bassick Anthony Kemble-Cooper as Tony and Terry Kilburn Billy.  Notes:  Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck.  Screenplay by Edwin Blum and William A. Drake from characters created by Doyle.  Music by Cyril Mockridge.  Cinematography by Leon Shamroy.

ADVISE AND CONSENT.  1962.  140 minutes.  Political Drama.  Novel Into Film.  Henry Fonda.  <V1325>.  Directed by Otto Preminger.  Screenplay by Wendell Mayes from the best seller by Allen Drury.   A furious battle between political parties over the selection of a Secretary of State takes some unexpected turns, some of them tragic.  This is a long, long film based on a fat best seller about power and the abuse of power in Washington, D.C.  It is a lot of fun watching mainly because the actors — Henry Fonda as Robert Leffingwell, Charles Laughton as Sen. Seabright ‘Seb’ Cooley,  Charles Laughton as Sen. Franchot Tone as the President are a bunch of good old pros having as good a time as we do.    Advise and Consent, along with films like Fail-Safe, Dr. Strangelove, The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days In May, provided fine political melodrama during the ‘60s.  All of the films, in varying degrees, present, in retrospect, an astonishing view of how Hollywood dealt with Cold War politics.  There is a kind of raw sense of fear, paranoia, and eminent doom in the films.  Advise . . . had the extra benefit of sub-plot that had a U.S. Senator hiding a sexual past that he could only remove by an act of suicide. Also starring:  Don Murray as Sen. Brigham Anderson, Peter Lawford as Sen. Lafe Smith, George Grizzard as Sen. Fred Van Ackerman, Gene Tierney as Dolly Harrison, Franchot Tone as the President, Lew Ayres as the Vice President, Burgess Meredith as Herbert Gelman, Eddie Hodges as Johnny Leffingwell, Paul Ford as Sen. Stanley Dante, Inga Swenson as Ellen Anderson, Paul McGrath as Hardiman Fletcher, Will Geer as Senate Minority Leader, Betty White as Sen. Bessie Adams, Malcolm Atterbury as Sen. Tom August, and Edward Andrews as Sen. Knox.  Notes:  Screenplay by Wendell Mayes from the novel by Allen Drury.  Cinematography by Sam Leavitt.  Music by Jerry Fielding.  

AFFLICTION.  1998.  91 minutes.  Dysfunctional Families.  Drama.  Abusive Parents.  Novel Into Film.  Directed by Paul Schrader.  Nick Nolte gives one of his very finest performances as Wade Whitehouse a small town sheriff’s deputy whose mental balance appears to be slowly, irreversibly drifting away.  Wade’s memories of his abusive father have seeped into his soul in such a way that he can no longer determine reality with any clarity.  It sets him on a path towards self-destruction.  This is the most emotionally honest of all of Paul Schrader’s films, an honesty highlighted by the truly professional ensemble acting led by Nolte and the impressive James Coburn as the brutal Glen Whitehouse, an ogre whose domestic tyranny has made a mess of the psychological underpinnings of his sons’ lives.  With:  Sissy Spacek as Margie Fogg, Willem Dafoe as Rolfe Whitehouse, Mary Beth Hurt as Lillian, Jim True as Jack Hewitt, Marian Seldes as Alma Pittman, Holmes Osborne as Gordon LaRiviere, Brigid Tierney as Jill, Sean McCann as Evan Twombley and Wayne Robson as Nick Wickham.  Notes:  Screenplay by Paul Schrader from the book by Russell Banks.  Cinematography by Paul Sarossy.  Music by Michael Brook.  Academy Award for best supporting actor [Coburn].  Academy Award nomination for best actor [Nolte].  Box-office gross:  $6,100,000.  On DVD and VHS.

THE AFRICAN QUEEN.  1951.  105 minutes. Romantic Comedy/Drama.  Action Comedy/Drama.  John Huston.  Humphrey Bogart.  Katharine Hepburn.  Novels Into Film.   <V47>.  Directed by John Huston from a screenplay by Huston, James Agee and John Collier.  A crusty riverboat captain in Africa meets the spinsterish school teacher of a British missionary school.  When World War I breaks out the mission is forced to close.  The boat captain is hired to rescue the missionaries and the spinster and captain are instantly at odds.  Love and respect conquer all, and the Germans.  Huston and Bogart had several very notable collaborations.  This is one of the choicest of their efforts and it owes much to the comic by-play and incredibly photogenic eccentricities of Bogart and his leading lady Katherine Hepburn.  The film is funny, and surprisingly durable.  A wonderful star vehicle.  With:  Robert Morley as Rev. Samuel Sayer, Peter Bull as the Captain, Theodore Bikel as the 1st Officer, Walter Gotell as the 2nd Officer.  Note:  Bogart won his only Best Actor Oscar for his performance.  Story based on a novel by C. S. Forester.  Photographed by Jack Cardiff.  Music by Allan Gray.  Academy Award nominations for best actress [Hepburn], director, and screenplay adaptation.

AFTER HOURS.  1986.  100 minutes.  Urban Satire.  City Life.  Night Life.  V1193>.  Directed by Martin Scorcese.  A young computer analyst spends an incredibly weird night on the town in New York.  He meets and falls for a girl who leads him in directions that he never knew existed.  This was one of the most assured Scorcese films of the late 1980s.  It is witty, funny and as dark a comedy as the decade produced.  Griffin Dunne and Rosanna Arquette head a young, fascinating cast that includes Teri Garr, John Heard, and Linda Fiorentino among others.  Box-office gross:  $4,400,000.

AFTER DARK MY SWEET.  1990.  114 minutes.  <V2969>.  Mystery – Kidnapping — Murder Drama.  Directed by James Foley.  A punch drunk ex-boxer shows up in an Arizona town and haphazardly falls in with a couple who plan to kidnap the son of a wealthy couple.  The boxer has a personal code about this kind of thing, but its hard getting that across to the girl he’s fallen in love with and certainly to their partner in the kidnapping caper, a small time hustler called Uncle Bud.  Things go from bad to worse for these not-too-competent kidnappers.  The whole thing is botched, but the boxer tries to redeem something by setting the girl up as a victim, just like the kidnapped boy.  This film is told in rhythmic flashes back and forward.  It gets confusing at times, but it has a ton of noirish atmosphere.  Jason Patric is fine as the menacing, dangerous boxer with a soft spot for the unprotected.  Rachel Ward, Bruce Dern, and George Dickerson are the strangers who confuse his life by caring either too little or not at all.  Notes:  Screenplay by Foley and Robert Redlin based on a novel by Jim Thompson.  Music by Maurice Jarre.  Photographed by Mark Plummer.

THE AGE OF INNOCENCE.  1993.  138 minutes.  Romantic Drama.  Edith Wharton.  Directed by Martin Scorcese.  Daniel Day-Lewis plays Newland Archer “a New York lawyer whose frustrated love for Ellen Olenska, the separated wife of a dissolute Polish count . . . her unconventional and artistic nature is contrasted with the timid but determined calculations of Archer’s fiancée May, who, backed by all the authority of society, keeps him within her grasp and marries him” — from The Oxford Companion to English Literature.  Scorcese directs in a grand, classical style.  His camera moves as sinuously as Visconti’s does in his romantic epics.  The sets are magnificent, rich with the expensive clutter of wealth and privilege and the cast is superior.  Day Lewis is properly restrained as Archer (a performance not as effete as his character in Room With A View) and Michelle Pfeiffer as Ellen Olenska gives one of her best and most underrated performances.  Winona Ryder is fine as May Welland.  With:  Richard E. Grant as Larry Leffetts, Alec McCowen as Sillerton Jackson, Geraldine Chaplin as Mrs. Welland, Mary Beth Hurt as Regina Beaufort, Stuart Wilson as Julius Beaufort, Miriam Margolyes as Mrs. Mingott, Sian Phillips as Mrs. Archer, Carolyn Farina as Janey Archer, Michael Gough as Henry van der Luyden, Alexis Smith as Louisa van der Luyden, Jonathan Pryce as Riviere, and Robert Sean Leonard as Ted Archer.  Notes:  Screenplay by Jay Cocks and Martin Scorcese based on the novel by Edith Wharton.  Photography by Michael Ballhaus.  Music by Elmer Bernstein.  Academy Award nominations include best supporting actor (Ryder), art direction, original score, costume design and screenplay adaptation.  Box-office gross:  $31,421,099.

AGEE.  1988.  88 minutes.  Documentary.  Biography.  James Agee.  Directed by Ross Spears.  “AGEE is the story of James Agee, one of the most talented writers of our time.  A quintessentially American writer, driven by passions for work, friends, films, and ideas.  Agee established a reputation as both a lovable genius and as “a sovereign prince of the English language.  In his short luminous career James Agee worked as poet, journalist, film critic, screenwriter and Pulitzer Prize-wining novelist.  His work includes Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, The African Queen, A Death in the Family, and Agee on Film.  Agee’s story is told her by those who knew him best, including John Huston, Walker Evans, Robert Fitzgerald, Dwight MacDonald, Father Flye, and Agee’s three wives.  And of course, the film features the words of James Agee.”  Notes:  Academy Award nomination for best documentary feature.  Written and produced by Spears.  Cinematography by Anthony Forma.  James Agee’s Voice [in readings] was that of Earl McCarroll.  Music for James Agee by Kenton Coe.  

AGNES OF GOD.  1985.  90 minutes.  Religious Drama.  Psychological Drama.  Nuns.  American Theater.  <V1066>.  Directed by Norman Jewison.  Story:  In an isolated convent a murdered infant is found.  A court-appointed psychiatrist is sent to investigate the state of mind of the probable murderer, a young novitiate.  The film is well cast and generally well acted though its themes — the collision of doubts about faith with hysterical faith and fear are not the stuff of pure entertainment.  Sometimes it rings hallow and not a little hysterical.  With:  Anne Bancroft as Sister Miriam Ruth, Jane Fonda as Dr. Martha Livingston, Meg Tilly as Sister Agnes, Anne Pitoniak as Dr. Livingston’s mother, Winston Rekert as Detective Lagevin, Gratien Gelinas as Father Martineau, Jacqueline Blais as Sister David Marie, and Janice as Sister Mary Joseph.  Notes:  Screenplay by John Pielmeier from his play.  Cinematography by Sven Nykvist.  Music by Georges Delerue.  Awards:  Academy Award nominations for best actress (Bancroft), supporting actress (Tilly), score (Georges Delerue).  Box-office gross:  $25,600,000.

AH WILDERNESS! 1935.  98 minutes.  Comedy.  Americana.  Eugene O’Neill.  Directed by Clarence Brown.  Called a comedy of recollection, this film of O’Neill’s sentimental play about life in small-town America seems more like Booth Tarkington than O’Neill.  Lionel Barrymore is the independent minded publisher of a .  Wallace Beery as Sid, Lionel Barrymore as Mat, Aline MacMahon as Lily, Eric Linden as Richard, Cecilia Parker as Muriel, Spring Byington as Essie, Mickey Rooney as Tommy, Bonita Granville as Mildred, Charley Grapewin as Mr. McCamber, Frank Albertson as Arthur, and Edward Nugent as Wint.  Notes:  Screen adaptation by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich of Eugene O’Neill’s play of the same name.  Produced by Hunt Stromberg.  Photographed by Clyde Devinna.  Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons.

AIR FORCE.  1943.  120minutes.  World War II Drama.  Bomber Pilots.  <V619>.  Directed by Howard Hawks.  Story:  “On December 6, 1941, an American fighter (B17), the “Mary Ann: took off for the Pacific on a peacetime mission.  when attacked by the Japanese, her goal became to win the war for the free world.”  This film may be the prototype of nearly every film about bombers and their crews that came after it.  The crew is a cross section of film and sociological types — the very essence of what American war films are best at.  The Mary Ann’s crew includes John Garfield, Gig Young, Harry Carey, Arthur Kennedy, and John Ridgely.  Note:  The screenplay, by Dudley Nichols was Oscar nominated as was the photography by James Wong Howe, Elmer Dyer and Charles Marshall.

AIR FORCE ONE.  1997.  118 minutes.  International Terrorists.  Action Drama.  Directed by Wolfgang Petersen.  Harrison Ford is President James Marshall in this high-powered action drama about a terrorist who takes over the presidential plane.  Gary Oldman is Ivan Korshunov the dastardly leader of the band of terrorist, and he gives one of nice little nasty turns as a murderous international thugs.   High level testosterone revelry.  Ford’s President, like Bill Pullman’s in Independence Day is a former Air Force pilot hero and heroic efforts are expected of him.  Petersen manages the proceedings like a top-of-the-line CEO.  Efficient, effective, entertaining.   Glenn Close is Vice President Kathryn Bennett, Liesel Matthews is Alice Marshall the president’s wife and both have macho moments too.  With: Paul Guilfoyle as Chief of Staff Lloyd Shepherd, Xander Berkeley as Agent Gibbs, William H. Macy as Major Caldwell, Dean Stockwell as Defense Secretary Walter Dean, Tom Everett as NSA Advisor Jack Doherty, Jurgen Prochnow as General Alexander Radek, Donna Bullock as Press  Secretary Melanie Mitchell.  Notes:  Written by Andrew W. Marlowe.  Cinematography by Michael Ballhaus.  Music by Jerry Goldsmith and Joel McNeely.  Box-office gross:  $172,600,000 U.S./$139,900,000 International.  Academy Award nominations for best sound [Paul Massey, Rick Kline, D. M. Hemphill, Keith Wester] and editing [Richard Francis-Bruce].   Also available on DVD.

AL CAPONE.  1959.  104 minutes.  <V2661>.  Crime Melodrama.  Al Capone.  Gang Wars.   Directed by Richard Wilson.  Routine melodrama about the life of the famous scar faced Chicago gang chieftain notable for Rod Steiger’s vivid performance as Capone.  It’s a choice role for Steiger.  The story is over familiar, and 20th Century Fox must not have had the rights to some of the characters’ names — James Gregory plays a hard nosed, honest cop after Capone, and it is he who brings Capone to justice, not Eliot Ness.  With:  Fay Spain, Martin Balsam, Nehemiah Persoff, Murvyn Vye, Robert Gist, Lewis Charles, Joe de Santis and Sandy Kenyon.  Notes:  Screenplay by Malvin Wald & Henry F. Greenberg.  Photographed by Lucien Ballard.  Music by David Raskin.

ALADDIN.  1992.  90 minutes.  Fairy Tale.  Animation.  Walt Disney Production.   Directed by John Musker and Ron Clements.  With:  Robin Williams is the voice of genie in this hugely popular and charming Disney version of the Aladdin tale.  The film, along with the previous year’s best picture nominated The Beauty And The Beast have, in the eyes of many, has restored Disney to its animated glory days.  With the voices of Linda Larkin as Jasmine, Scott Weinger as Aladdin, Jonathan Freeman as Jafar, Frank Welker as Abu, Gilbert Gottfried as Iago, and Douglas Seale as the Sultan.   Notes:  Art Direction by Bill Perkins.  Edited by H. Lee Peterson.  Songs by Howard Ashman, Alan Menken, and Tim Rice.  Screenplay by Ron Clements, John Musker, Ted Elliott, And Terry Rossio.  Produced by Musker and Clements.  Academy Awards for best song A Whole New World (written by Menken and Rice — the end credits version of the song is sung by Regina Belle and Peabo Bryson) and best score (Menken).  Box-office gross:  $337,900,000.

THE ALAMO.  1960.  173 minutes.  <V2661>.  Western.  Historical Drama.  John Wayne.  Directed by John Wayne.  This film’s story is the famous one of the heroic last stand by Texans and American volunteers against the forces of Mexican General Santa Anna at the Alamo in 1836.   John Wayne produced, directed and stars in this film (he plays Davy Crockett) and obviously was much attached to the project, just as he would be at the end of the ’60s with his Vietnam film of The Green Berets.  Like the last mentioned film, The Alamo is more patriotic bunk and hokum than history.  It’s not boring, and many of us grew up on this kind of romanticized and myth making movie history.  It’s harmless but will not be to every viewer’s taste.  With:  John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey, Frankie Avalon, Patrick Wayne, Linda Cristal, Joan O’Brien, Chill Wills, Ken Curtis, Carlos Arruza, Jester Hairston, Joseph Calliea, and Richard Boone.  Notes:  Academy Award nominations for best picture, supporting actor (Wills), Photography (William H. Clothier), scoring, editing and sound (for which it won the award).  Music by Dimitri Tiomkin.  Screenplay by James Edward Grant.  Box-office gross:   $7,918,616.

ALEX IN WONDERLAND.  1970.  109 minutes.  Hollywood Satire.  Filmmaking.  Directed by Paul Mazursky.  Donald Sutherland is Alex, a Hollywood filmmaker, who, in the wake of his first big success is confronted with concerns of why he’s making films and what his next work should be.  His search for a new project sends him on a journey of discovery – of himself and the movie business.  This personal vision of a filmmaker on the rise and on the make is rich in humor and style.  Mazursky celebrates the stylistic quirks of Fellini, pays tribute to the new wave [in a loving cameo with Jeanne Moreau] and outrages us with the fantasies and dreams of his hero.  There are some fantastic imagery and images and some foolhardy ones, but Mazursky manages to retain control of everything he does.  A truly adventurous film from [and of] the early ‘70s.  The film’s final set piece sequence, a full fledged fire fight [as in Vietnam] on Sunset Boulevard is over the top but quite memorable.  With:  Ellen Burstyn as Beth, Meg Mazursky as Amy, Glenna Sergeant as Nancy, Andre Philippe as Andre, Michael Lerner as Leo, Joan Delaney as Jane, Neil Burstyn as Norman, Leon Frederick as Lewis, Carol O’Leary as Marlene, Paul Mazursky as Hal Stern and with cameos by Federico Fellini and Jeanne Moreau as themselves.  Notes:  Screenplay by Larry Tucker and Mazursky.  Cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs.  Music by Georges Delerue and Tom O’Horgan

ALEXANDER’S RAGTIME BAND.  1938.  105 minutes. Musical.  Irving Berlin, Salute.  Directed by Henry King.  Alice Faye as Stella Kirby, Tyrone Power as Roger Grant a.k.a. Alexander, Don Ameche as Charles Dwyer, Ethel Merman as Jerry Allen, Jack Haley as Davey Lane, Jean Hersholt as Prof. Heinrich. Helen Westley as Aunt Sophie, John Carradine as the Taxi Driver, Paul Hurst as Bill, Wally Vernon as Himself, Ruth Terry as Ruby , Douglas Fowley as Snapper and Eddie Collins as Cpl. Collins.  Notes:  Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck.  Written by Kathryn Scola, Lamar Trotti.  Photographed by Peverell Marley.  Musical direction by Alfred Newman.  Music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.  Songs include:  My Walking Stick, Blues Skies, Easter Parade, as well as the title tune. Academy Award nominations for best picture, Writing (original story), score, film editing [Barbara MacLean] and song Now It Can Be Told.

ALGIERS.  1938.  93 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Crime Literature.  Charles Boyer.  French Literature. Directed by John Cromwell.  Charles Boyer reprises the role of the elegant master criminal Pepe Le Moko he had created in the French language film Pepe Le Moko, cornered by French authorities inside the terraced city-within-a-city, the Casbah, in Algiers.  Nothing can draw him out until he falls in love with the beautiful Gabrielle around whom the cops set a trap to lure him out.  Quintessential romantic melodrama dominated by the worldly, magnificent performance of Boyer as Pepe and the almost ethereal beauty of Hedy Lamarr as Gaby.  Dark, smoky elegant cinema, shot in glorious black and white by the masterful James Wong Howe. With Sigrid Gurie as Ines, Joseph Calleia as Inspector Slimane, Alan Hale as Grandpere, Gene Lockhart as Regis, Walter Kingsford as inspector Louvain, Paul Harvey as Commissioner Janvier, Stanley Fields as Carlos, and Johnny Downs as Pierrot.  Notes:  Screenplay by John Howard Lawson with additional dialog by James M. Cain from the +novel Pepe Le Moko by Henri La Barthe.  Original music by Vincent Scotto and Mohamed Ygerbuchen. Art direction by Alexander Toluboff. Academy Award nominations for best actor [Boyer], supporting actor [Gene Lockhart], art direction [Tolubuf], and cinematography [Howe].

ALIAS JIMMY VALENTINE.  1915.  65 minutes.  Silent.  Crime Melodrama.  Directed by Maurice Tourneur.  One of the earliest gangster films by a major filmmaker, this is the simple story of a bad guy who comes clean.  Jimmy Valentine is a smooth operator, a safecracker who’s known as a genteel kind of gang leader.  When a job goes bad, Jimmy is sing to Sing Sing.  He is released from jail after a heroic deed and the daughter (who was the victim he rescued from a masher) of the Lt. Governor falls in love with him.  Once released, Jimmy gets a job at a bank and becomes a changed man.  He influences his ex-mates to do the same.  A persistent cop, who wants to nail Jimmy for a previous heist, tries everything he can to put him back in jail.  It all ends well.  The film is a handsomely photographed, mature piece of cinema.  It moves gracefully and Tourneur (who would later direct the original Cat People, Berlin Express and the ’50s adventure The Flame And The Arrow) has a smooth, cool style.  With:  Robert Warwick as Lee Randall – Alias Jimmy Valentine, Robert Cummings as Doyle a detective, Ruth Shepley as Rose Fay, John Hines as Red, Alec B. Francis as Bill Avery, Fred Truesdale as Lt. Governor Fay.  Notes:  Based on the play of the same name by Paul Armstrong.  Set design by Ben Carre.

ALICE.  1990.  106 minutes.  <V3099>.  Comedy.  Directed by Woody Allen.  Alec Baldwin, Blythe Danner, Judy Davis, Mia Farrow, William Hurt, Keye Luke Joe Mantegna, Bernadette Peters, Cybill Shepherd, and Gwen Verdon are the ensemble in this most recent Woody Allen concoction.  And it is just a concoction — a distaff Walter Mitty story with Farrow playing the lovely, well kept wife of a handsome, successful but two-timing husband (Hurt).  She relaxes, if she can, by shopping sprees, lunches and trips to the beauty spas but one day, feeling back pains she visits a mysterious Chinese acupuncturist.  To help her he gives her an elixir which does two things — make men fall madly in love with her, and, makes her invisible.  Both are circumstances which make her life a fanciful, fantastical.  This is an ever so slight film.  It’s good looking, smartly acted, et al but nothing startlingly new or fresh in the Allen oeuvre.  Notes:  Photographed by Carlo Di Palma.  Screenplay by Allen.

ALICE ADAMS.  1935.    99 minutes.  Romantic Drama.  Domestic Drama.  Booth Tarkington.  Novel Into Film.  Katharine Hepburn.  <V907>.  Directed by George Stevens.  Story:  Alice Adams is the intelligent, reasonably ambitious small-town girl born on the “wrong side of the tracks.”  She falls in love with the handsome son of the wealthiest family in town and must endure many small humiliations because of her background and her aspirations.  This film based on Booth Tarkington’s novel of the same name has a fairy tale ending, but it is one of the finest of Katherine Hepburn’s 1930s films and one of her very best performances.  Hepburn is excellent as the proud, ambitious young woman who discovers that intelligence and taste does not open as many doors in some communities as one might presume.  Her experiences and failures are depicted good-humoredly and we laugh at the silliness she and the other characters display.  The laughter is sad though.  A very fine film.  With:  Fred MacMurray as Arthur Russell, Fred Stone as Mr. Adams, Evelyn Venable as Mildred Palmer, Frank Albertson as Walter Adams,, Ann Shoemaker as Mrs. Adams, Grady Sutton as Frank Dowling, Charley Grapewin as Mr. Lamb, and Hedda Hopper (more famous as a Hollywood columnist) as Mrs. Palmer and Hattie McDaniel as Malena.  Note:  Director Stevens and Hepburn received Oscar nominations.  Tarkington’s books and stories were often used as film material by Hollywood movie makers.  This fine film and Orson Welles’ astonishing film of The Magnificent Ambersons may indicate that Tarkington’s social comedies are under rated.  Academy Award Nominations for best picture, best actress.   Screenplay by Dorothy Yost and Mortimer Offner.  Cinematography by Robert de Grasse.  Music by Max Steiner.

ALICE DOESN’T LIVE ANYMORE.  1974.    105 minutes.  Comedy/Drama.  Divorced Women.  Independent Women.  <V129>.  Directed by Martin Scorcese.  Story:  A woman, often abused by her husband, finds herself suddenly widowed when her husband dies in a trucking accident.  She and her young son decide to leave their Arizona home and look for something better.  Ellen Burstyn who plays Alice, was the driving force behind this film’s getting produced and its ultimate success.  In Alice she had the role of her career and made the most of it.  There are feminist themes in the film — independence, refusal to buckle under to dominating or brutal men — but mostly it is the story about a woman surviving on her own terms.  Strong film and excellently acted by all.  Young Alfred Lutter plays her son,  Kris Kristofferson plays a dream boat, and Harvey Keitel has some disturbing moments as a dangerous young man Alice meets before she falls in love with the Kristofferson character.  Cast also includes Harry Dean Stanton, Diane Ladd, Vic Tayback, Harvey Keitel and Billy Green Bush.  Notes:  Jodie Foster is also in this film.  She plays a friend of Lutter’s but she may not be recognizable — it is uncertain whether she’s playing a boy or girl. The screenplay was written by Robert Getchell.  Burstyn won the 1974 Best Actress Oscar.  Oscar nominations for best supporting actress (Ladd) and screenplay.  Box-office gross: $7,300,000.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND.  1951.    75 minutes.  Animated.  Walt Disney.  <V1994>.  Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, and Wielded Jaxon.  Story:  An animated version of Lewis Carroll’s many-layered satire.  Disney films don’t really have hard edges, even when they are based on strong works such as Carroll’s droll classic.  Never-the-less, this Alice is a masterful piece of classic Disney animation.  The voices of Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Sterling Holloway (The Cheshire Cat), Richard Haydn, and Jerry Colonna.  Note:  Oliver Wallace received an Oscar nomination for his musical score.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND.  1999.  129 minutes.  Adventure/Fantasy.  British Literature.  Children’s Literature.  Lewis Carroll.  Directed by Nick Willing.  This well cast and acted television production of Lewis Carroll’s classic story has some astonishing effects and stunning photography.  It is a whimsically presented production with some startling images.  Tina Majorino is a charmingly spunky Alice—depicting her as something than a wan blonde beauty, but a precocious, imperious kind of imp.  The use of musical numbers adds and detracts depending on the song and the singer.  Whoopi Goldberg is the Cheshire Cat, Miranda Richardson the Queen of Hearts, Ben Kingsley as Major Caterpillar, Christopher Lloyd as White Knight, Pete Postlethwaite as Carpenter, Martin Short as the Mad Hatter, Peter Ustinov as the Walrus, Robbie Coltrane as Tweedledum, George Wendt as Tweedledee, Gene Wilder as the Mock Turtle, Ken Dodd as Mr. Mouse, Jason Flemying as the Knave of Hearts, Simon Russell Beale as King of Hearts, Liz Smith as Miss Lory, Elizabeth Spriggs as the Duchess, Donald Siddens as the Gryphon, Joanna Lumly as Tiger Lily.  Christopher Lloyd’s White Night is a lovely piece of work by the actor.  He looks like every artist’s representation of Don Quixote and Lloyd, who often plays on his eccentric voice an looks, underplays this role nicely.  Notes:  Screenplay by Peter Barnes from Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.  Original music by Richard Hartley.  Cinematography by Giles Nuttgens.  On DVD and VHS.

ALIEN.  1979.  157 minutes.  Science Fiction.  Action Adventure.  <V102>.  Directed by Ridley Scott.  Story:  The crew of a huge mining space vehicle called the Nostromo, discovers dangerous, and deadly life forms in an abandoned mining camp.  One by one the murderous life form kills off the crew.  Ominous, dark and truly frightening space horror film, the very best of its kind.  Ridley Scott uses his actors, props and atmosphere to maximum effect.  Alien  is an especially well acted genre piece, but Sigourney Weaver, as Ripley created the first truly tough, macho woman in the history of the action genre.   She’s terrific.  The crew of the Nostromo have lived and worked in the void of space so long that they bicker in the troublesome, personal ways families do.  The monster is an obscenely vivid thing.  With:  John Hurt as Kane, Tom Skerritt as Dallas, Yaphet Kotto as Parker, Veronica Cartwright as Lambert, Harry Dean Stanton as Brett, Ian Holm as Ash, Bolaji Badejo as the Alien, and Helen Horton as the voice of Mother.  Notes: Produced by Scot, Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill.  Screenplay by Dan O’Bannion.  Cinematography by Derek Vanlint.  Music by Jerry Goldsmith and Lionel Newman.  Awards:  Academy Awards nominations for art direction [Roger Christian, Michael Seymour, Ian Whittaker].  Won Oscar for visual effects [Brian Johnson, Carlo Rambaldi, Nick Allder and H. R. Giger]  Box-office gross:  $40,300,000.

ALIENS.  1986.  138 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Science Fiction.  <V1350>.  Directed by James Cameron.  Story:  The lone survivor of the Nostromo crew (Officer Ridley in Alien [played by Sigourney Weaver], wakes up after fifty-seven years of suspended animation.  The company still wants answers about the fate of the Nostromo – or seems to, and coaxes Ridley into leading a troop of marines to the original mining station from which the Nostromo may have picked up the alien life form.  This sequel was even more popular than the than the original, though not as dark and introspective.  The director, also responsible for the brilliant high-tech Terminator created an atmosphere almost over-charged with action and pace.  Something’s always going on.  And just about everybody dies.  Nobody will be bored by this film whatever reservations they may have.  Weaver repeated her role as the strong-willed survivor Ridley.  The cast includes:  Michael Biehn as Cp. Dwayne Hicks, Carrie Henn as Newt, Lance Henriksen as Bishop, Paul Reiser as Carter Burke, Jenette Goldstein as Pvt. Vasquez,  Bill Paxton as Pvt. Hudson, Trevor Steedman as Pvt. Wierzbowski, Tip Tipping as Pvt. Crowe, Al Matthews as Sgt. Apone, and William Hope as Lt. Gorman.  Note:  The story idea for both films was created by Walter Hill who was also one of the original films producers.  Produced by Gale Anne Hurd.  Screenplay by Ronald Shusett. Cinematography by Adrian Biddle.  Music by James Horner.  Awards:  Weaver received an Golden Globe Oscar nomination for Aliens which also won a special effects Oscar.  The film also received Academy nominations for best sound.  The production design, makeup, sound, and visual effects were also nominated or British Academy Awards.   Box-office gross:  $81,844,000.

ALIEN 3.  1992.  115 minutes.  Science Fiction Horror.  Science Fiction.  Directed David Fincher.  Sigourney Weaver stars in the third, and probably last [so much for prognostications on franchise films], of this horror sci-fi film story about an extra-terrestrial beast whose greatest nemesis is a hard-edged, smart woman named Ridley.  In this version, the beast has invaded a penal colony, a place filled with hard, cruel men, and men with secrets.  Its a dark, somber film whose horrors are created by shadows and a atmosphere of relentless fear.   Fincher is the third ace action/genre director to helm the Alien series and his work here fits his preference for graphic depiction of terror.  Bringing bleak, stark fear to the screen are apparently a standard part of his cinematic credo.  Charles S. Dutton as Dillon, Charles Dance as Clemens, Paul McGann as Golic, Brian Glover as Andrews, Ralph Brown as Aaron, Christopher john Fields as Rains, Lance Henriksen as Bishop II.  Notes:  Photography by Alex Thompson.  Screenplay by David Giler, Walter Hill, and Larry Ferguson based on characters created by Dan O’Bannion and Ronald Shusett.  Original story by Vincent Ward.  Music by Elliot Goldenthal.  Box-office gross:  $54,927,174.

ALIEN RESURRECTION.  1997.  108 minutes.  Science Fiction.  Sequels, Serials.  Sigourney Weaver.  Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.  Sigourney Weaver is Ripley for the fourth time, in this dynamic and well paced entry in the Alien enterprise.  Though weak on story and characterization, the film, just as the series overall, thrives because of the shear presence and class of Weaver who makes it well worth a visit.  Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director, is a master at elaborately stylized and staged imagery  [see his films with Marc Caro City Of Lost Children and The Delicatessen].  The film has much of the same weird other-worldly ambiance of Jeunet’s other works but is considerably more accessible than those films.  The story is simple, kill the beasts or be killed.  With:  Winona Ryder as Annalee Call, Dominique Pinon as Vriess, Ron Perlman as Johner, Michael Wincott as Elgyn, Dan Hedaya as General Perez, J. E. Freeman as Dr. Wren, Brad Dourif as Gediman, Gary Dourdan as Christie and Raymond Cruz as Distephano.  Notes:  Produced by Bill Badalato, Walter Hill, David Giler and Gordon Carroll.  Written by Joss Whedon based on characters created by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.  Cinematography by Darius Khondji.  Box-office gross:  $47,760,925.

ALL ABOUT EVE.  1950.    138 minutes.  Satire.  Theatrical Satire/Drama.  Bette Davis.  Joseph Mankiewicz.  <V89>.  Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz.  Story:  Famous and popular Broadway star lets a seemingly harmless, star-struck fan become a confidante not realizing that she is a singularly ambitious young actress who would stop at nothing to take the star’s place.  As Margo Channing Bette Davis gives one of her most exhilarating performances.  The film is almost too witty.  It is one of the best American film comedies of any period even if it is about the pretensions of the THE-A-TUH.  The entire cast is marvelous — Gary Merrill, Celeste Holm, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Gregory Ratoff, Thelma Ritter, Hugh Marlowe, and in a very noticeable small role Marilyn Monroe.  Notes:  Davis was nominated but did not win Best Actress honors (Judy Holliday did).  The film did receive Oscars for best picture, best direction, best screenplay and supporting actor (Sanders).  Academy nominations for best supporting actress (two –Holm and Ritter), art/set decoration, scoring (Alfred Newman), photography (Milton Krasner).  The film’s sound recording and costume design also won Oscars.  Photographed by Milton Krasner.  Music by Alfred Newman.

ALL FALL DOWN.  1962, 110 minutes.  Coming of Age Drama.  Novel Into Film.  William Inge.  Directed by John Frankenheimer.  Clinton’s idolized his older brother Berry-Berry,  a reckless opportunistic drifter who has left home to escape his hapless, hysterical mother and his near alcoholic father.  When Clinton tries to bridge the differences between Berry-Berry and his parents he finds it an impossibly difficult task.  The boy’s  eyes are opened to his brother’s true nature when an attractive woman is added to the mix and the realities of his brother, thoughtless, wanton behavior is completely exposed.   Regardless of the depressing story and characters, this is a good film.  Brandon DeWilde’s, who made a career of playing characters like Clinton is on this occasion, especially good.  With:  Eva Marie Saint as Echo O’Brien,  Warren Beatty as Berry-Berry Willart, Karl Malden as Ralph Willart, Angela Lansbury as Annabel Willart, Constance Ford as Mrs. Mandel, Jennifer Howard as Myra, and Colette Jackson as Dorothy.  Notes:  Produced by John Houseman.  Cinematography by Lionel Lindon.  Music by Alex North.  Screenplay by William Inge, based on the novel by James Leo Herlihy.

ALL MY SONS.  1986.  120 minutes.  Family Drama.  Theatrical Plays, Adaptations.  Arthur Miller.  Made-For-Television Drama.  <V1635>.  Directed by John Power.  The son of a retired World War II bomber plane manufacturer loses faith in his father when he discovers that the planes made by his father’s company were defective.  His elder brother may have gone willingly to his death when he found that so many of his compatriots had died in the defective planes.  Arthur Miller’s play about the a trusting son’s calamitous discovery of his father’s fallibility was made into a film with in 1948 with Burt Lancaster and Edward G. Robinson.  It had the power of those two kinetic actors to rely on.  This version made for public television has the extremely fine performance of Aidan Quinn as the disillusioned Chris Keller.  The rest of the cast is sold with:   James Whitmore  as Joe Keller, Marlow Vella as Burt, Joan Allen as Ann Deever, Zeljko Ivanek as George Deever, Joanna Miles as Sue Bayliss, Layne Coleman as Frank Lubey, Marl Long as Lydia, Alan Scarfe as Dr. John Bayliss.  Notes:  Produced by John Blanchard and Michael Brandman.  Music by Conrad Susa.  Edited by Bill Goddard.

ALL OF ME.  1984.  93 minutes.   Role Reversal Comedy.  Novel Into Film.  <V3095>.  Directed by Carl Reiner.  Steve Martin plays Roger Cobb a happy-go-lucky bachelor who has a great job in a big time law firm.  His problem is that his boss wants him to handle an eccentric basket case named Edwina Cutwater (Lily Tomlin).  The terrible Edwina believes in the occult and believes that her karma will transfer to the body of a beautiful girl (Victoria Tennant), who is also the daughter of her fake guru.  To everybody’s real surprise, when Edwina passes on her spirit does find another body — that of Roger Cobb.  The casting of Martin and Tomlin as alter egos and opposites was pretty inspired.  Two more inventive comic actors have rarely played opposite one another.  Martin, ever fearless, has mannerisms and styles as Edwina/Roger that are totally hilarious.  One of the very finest comedies of the 1980s.  An absolute joy.  With: Richard Libertini, Jason Bernard, Madolyn Smith.  Notes:  Screenplay by Phil Robinson, based on the novel Me Too by Ed Davis.  Photographed by Richard Kline.  Box-gross:  $15,202,704

ALL OVER ME.  1997.  95 minutes.  Drama.  Teenaged Girls.  Gay Teens.  Women Directors.  American Independent Cinema.  Directed by Alex Sichel.  Claude and Ellen are two 15 year old girls, the best of friends, living in New York City.  Claude, big, warm, clumsy and sensitive is, like everyone, in love with the beautiful, blonde Ellen.  Ellen’s love affair with a neighborhood tough begins to tear at the rapport between the two girls.  Slowly, their relationship changes and they draw apart.  All Over Me is a first rate film about how young American girls grow up, change, fall in love, become women.  Very few films have dealt as seriously with these issues for young women and the Sichel sisters, director Alex and screenwriter Sylvia, have a clear, extremely informed grasp on their subject matter.  The cast, led by Alison Folland as Claude, Tara Subkoff as Ellen, Cole Hauser as Mark, Wilson Cruz as Jesse is first rate.  Folland, who was the insecure young survivor among the young friends in To Die For, is a remarkably gifted, uninhibited young actress.  Also with:   Leisha Hailey as Lucy, Pat Briggs as Luke, Ann Dowd as Anne, Gene Canfield as Stewart, Shawn Wayne Hatosy as Gus, Vinny Pastore as don, David Lee Russek as Dave.  Notes:  Written by Sylvia Sichel.  Original music by Navazio.  Cinematography by Joe DeSalvo.

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.  1930.  130 minutes.  World War I Drama.  Pacifist Drama.  German Literature.  Erich von Remarque.  Anti-war Drama.  <V551>.  Directed by Lewis Milestone.  Eager school boys in a small German city are all urged by their school master to volunteer to join the “good fight” for the fatherland.  They go off together to boot camp and finally to war.  In the field they meet with the true horrors of war, and discover the nonsense of the school master’s prattle.  This film of German novelist Erich von Remarque famous pacifist work is simply told and directed.  It’s simplicity is deceiving — it is one of the most emotionally satisfying films about war ever made.  It is filled with mawkish sentiment, but that works to the films advantage.  It’s message affected a whole generation of moviegoers in America and elsewhere. The characterizations, the eternal clichés of military fiction and film work well too.  Sometimes a really overpowering film.  With:  Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Beryl Mercer, and Ben Alexander.  Note:  Won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.  Photographed by Arthur Edeson.  Screenplay by Maxwell Anderson, Dell Andrews and George was also Oscar nominated.  A made for television was made starring Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine. in 1987.

ALL THAT JAZZ.  1979.  123 minutes.  Musical Drama.  Bob Fosse.  Filmmaking.  Theatrical Musicals.  <V449>.  Directed by Bob Fosse.  In flashbacks, the life of a famous choreographer and director is reviewed.  Bob Fosse’s quasi auto-biographical dance drama has a lot of snap and show business pizzazz.  Some of the director’s best (and most overused) choreography is in the film.  It is an extremely self-obsessed and egotistical film in many ways, but it ain’t boring.  Roy Scheider plays the compulsive, demanding Fosse like character.  With:  Jessica Lange, Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer, Cliff Gorman, Ben Vereen, and Ezerbeth Foldi.  Note:  The most enjoyable dance sequence may be that featuring the leggy Reinking and charming Erzebeth Foldi (playing the director’s young daughter).  The film received nine Oscar nominations:  best picture, actor (Scheider), direction, screenplay (Robert Allan Arthur and Fosse), photography (Giusseppi Rotunno), art/set decoration.  The film won editing and costume.  Box-office gross:  $20,030,000.

ALL THE KING’S MEN.  1949.  109 minutes.  Political Drama.  American Literature.  Robert Penn Warren.  <V1058>.  Directed, written and produced by Robert Rossen.  A film of Robert Penn Warren’s very, very fine novel based on the life of a politician bearing an extremely close resemblance to Huey Long.  A young aristocratic reporter finds himself working for a rough and tumble populist Louisiana Pol. This film was highly praised when it was released in the late ’40s.  It’s muckraking tone and stereotypical presentation made it a much more hysterical work than the book by leaps and bounds.  Admirers of the book may find it a shallow dramatization of a remarkable literary achievement.  The acting and direction are fine for what it is.  With:  Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark, John Ireland as Jack Burden, Joanne Dru as Anne Stanton, John Derek as Tom Stark, Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie Burke, Shepperd Strudwick as Adam Stanton, Ralph Dumke as Tiny Duffy, Anne Seymour as Lucy Stark, Katherine Warren as Mrs. Burden, Raymond Greenleaf as Judge Stanton, Walter Burke as Sugar Boy, and Will Wright as Dolph Pillsbury.  Note:  The film won Oscars for best picture, best actor (Broderick Crawford), best supporting actress (Mercedes McCambridge).  It received four other nominations – for supporting actor (Ireland), direction, and editing.  Photographed by Burnett Guffey.  Music by Louis Gruenberg.

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN.  1976.  135 minutes.  Historical Drama.  Nixon Administration.  Watergate.  Washington Post.  Woodward and Bernstein.  <V8>.  Directed by Sydney Pollack.  Story:  Two reporters for the Washington Post reluctantly cover a story about a break-in at the Democratic National committee headquarters by several Cubans.  What looked like an interesting petty crime escalates into the historic events that became known as Watergate.  Well acted, directed, and designed film based on the huge best seller by Post reporters Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s book about the Nixon-Watergate controversy.  With:  Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein.  Jason Robards plays Post editor Ben Bradlee.  With:  Martin Balsam as Howard Simons, Jack Warden as Harry Rosenfeld, Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat, Jane Alexander as the bookkeeper, Meredith Baxter as Debbie Sloan, Ned Beatty as Dardis, Stephen Collins as Hugh Sloan Jr. Penny Fuller as Sally Aiken, Robert Walden as Donald Segretti.  Notes:   Screenplay by William Goldman from the book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.  Original music by David Shire.  Original music by David Shire.  Cinematography by Gordon Willis.  Nominated for eight Academy Awards including best picture, director, supporting actress [Jane Alexander] and editing [Robert L. Wolfe].  Winner of four including best supporting actor [Robards], art/set decoration [George Gaines and George Jenkins], and screenplay adaptation..  Box-office gross:  $30,000,000.

ALL THE VERMEERS IN NEW YORK.  1991.  87 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Art and Finance in New York.  New York in the ‘80s.  Independent American Cinema.  Directed by Jon Jost.  Artist, filmmaker Jon Jost’s All the Vermeers in New York  is a stately photographed film ostensibly about a stock broker’s relationship with a beautiful French girl he meets in the Vermeer Room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The broker, Mark, is drawn to Anna, a girl he sees in the room because of her resemblance to a girl in one of the Vermeer paintings.  Anna lives with the spoiled daughter of wealthy businessman, and is an aspiring actress who longs to return to her simpler life in France before, she thinks, she becomes too mercenary.  Mark tries to form a relationship which Anna wants to escape, using money she has received from him.  The film is filled with graceful painterly images of the works of art, the city, the museum.  Jost’s camera eye and sensibility is strikingly like Antonioni’s is a film like The Passage.  The acting is fairly amateurish which doesn’t seem to detract from the knowing, inside-the-art-world tone and affect Jost seems to be trying for.  With:  Katherine Bean as Nicole, Emmanuelle Chaulet as Anna, Laurel Lee Kiefer as  Ariel Ainsworth, Stephen Lack as Mark, Gracie Mansion as herself, Grace Phillips as Felicity, Roger Ruffin as Max, Gordon Joseph Weiss as Gordon.  Notes:  Produced by Henry Rosenthal.  Music by Jon A. English.  Art direction, screenplay, cinematography and editing by Jon Jost.

ALL THIS AND HEAVEN TOO.  1940.  141 minutes.  <V2829>. Romantic Melodrama.  Woman’s Picture.  Bette Davis.  Charles Boyer.   Directed by Anatole Litvak.  This is the story of young governess who returns from England to her homeland France in 1846 to become the governess for a wealthy duke and duchess.  The home she enters is one that is in deep emotional turmoil largely because the duchess ignores the four children and is fiercely jealous of her husband’s attentions.  She becomes maniacally jealous and spiteful when she sees the winning way the girl, Henriette Deluzy-Desportes, has on her children and her husband.  The governess and the duke find out slowly that they are kindred spirits, and though they do not act upon their obvious love, they feel guilty.  When the duke apparently murders the duchess in a furious rage, both are charged with the crime.  The girl suffers most in the public eye, but the duke never admits to the crime and the girl is absolved.  This tale is told in flash back — Henriette is teaching French to a group of wealthy Boston school girls.  When word of her past seeps out she stymies it by telling the girls her story.  A weepy of major proportions but many will find it entertaining.  It’s very classy soap.  Bette Davis is the poor Henriette in this Warner’s pap and the elegant Charles Boyer is her restrained, proud lover.  With:  Jeffrey Lynn, Barbara O’Neil, Virginia Wiedler, Henry Daniell, Walter Hampden, George Coulouris, Helen Westley, Harry Davenport, Montagu Love, and June Lockhart.  Notes:  Screenplay by Casey Robinson from a novel by Rachel Field based on an incident in Paris in the 1840s.  Music by Max Steiner.  Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Cinematography (B/W) by Ernest Haller.  Box-office gross:  $1,466,000.

ALLEGHENY UPRISING.  1939.  81 minutes.  Colonial Drama.  Pre-Revolutionary Drama.  Historical Drama.  John Wayne.  Directed by William A. Seiter.  A band of pioneers in the Allegheny River Valley in New York, a decade before the Revolutionary War, come into conflict with unscrupulous Indian traders and the British forces led by a harsh colonial commander.  There rebellion is presented as a precursor to the future conflict.  It’s passably entertaining with Claire Trevor, John Wayne, George Sanders, Brian Donlevy, Wilfrid Lawson, Robert Barrat, John F. Hamilton, Eddie Quillan, and Moroni Olsen seeming to delight in their roles.  Notes:  Produced by Pandro S. Jackson.  Screenplay by P. J. Wolfson from the story The First Rebel by Neil H. Swanson.  Musical Score by Anthony Collins.  Photography by Nicholas Musuraca.

THE ALPHABET MURDERS.  1966.  91 minutes.  <V3103>.  Mystery.  Directed by Frank Tashlin.  Tony Randall plays the famous Hercule Poirot in this tongue in cheek adaptation of one of Christie’s Belgian super sleuth.  There is a mystery about a beautiful woman going about London, murdering men in alphabetical order, and Poirot is forced into action – though Scotland Yard would rather he not bother.  It’s rather tweedy ’60s movie making with Randall playing a part that probably was meant for someone like Terry-Thomas.  Only fair entertainment.  With:  Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg, Robert Morley.  Notes:  Screenplay by David Pursall and Jack Seddon and based on Agatha Christie’s The A.B.C. Murders.

ALTERED STATES.  1980.  102 minutes.  Science Fiction.  Novel Into Film.  Paddy Chayefsky.  Mind Altering Drugs.  Ken Russell.  Directed by Ken Russell.  Director Ken Russell’s work always had a hyperbolic, overzealous quality [something like that of Oliver Stone later].  This film, based on a novel by screenwriter & playwright emeritus Paddy Chayefsky is probably the most commercially accessible of Russell’s American films.  Altered States is a trendy, souped-up variation on themes explored in Robert Louis Stevens’ classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  William Hurt as Eddie Jessup is all energy and kinetic tics a perfect actor for this over paced melodrama.  The actors are all required to speak their parts as verbal slapstick and each and everyone of them seems to relish the chance to gobble up the high falutin’ dialogue.  Fun, pretentious, silly.  With:  Blair Brown as Emily Jessup, Bob Balaban as Arthur Rosenberg, Charles as Mason Parrish, Thaao Penghlis as Eccheverria, Miguel Godreau as Primal Man, Dori Brenner as Sylvia Rosenberg, Peter Brandon as Hobart, Charles White-Eagle as the Brujo, and Drew Barrymore as Margaret Jessup.  Notes:  Original music by John Corigliano.  Cinematography by Jordan Cronenweth. Academy Award nominations for best original score and best sound [Arthur Piantadosi, Les Fresholtz, Michael Minkler, Willie D. Burton].

AMADEUS.  1984.  158 minutes.  Biographical Drama.  Historical Drama.  Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Antonio Salieri.  Theatrical Plays.  <V808>.  Directed by Milos Forman.    While in an insane asylum, a former popular court composer recalls his almost megalomaniacal envy and hatred for the remarkable Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  Anthony Shaffer’s play about the venomous jealousy of Antonio Salieri for Mozart is the basis for this film.  Shaffer’s script for the film seems to be about the need for mediocrity to feed off of genius.  Salieri, brilliantly played by F. Murray Abraham, is presented as a man of mean spiritedness and wanton peevishness who can not understand “why God would bless such an impertinent monkey” with the voice of angels.  At the same time, Mozart is depicted as something like a obnoxious young punk who just happens to have been blessed (quite undeservedly) with unbounded musical talent.  Who is the hero of this film?  The musical sequences are phenomenally performed and the picture is beautifully designed and photographed (by Miroslav Ondricek, frequently Forman’s cinematographer).  With:  Tom Hulce as Mozart, Elizabeth Berridge as Constanza Mozart and Jeffrey Jones as the Emperor.  Note:  Won Academy Awards for best picture, director, actor (Abrahams), screenplay, and art direction, sound, make-up and costume.  Nominated for photography and editing.  Box-office gross:  $28,825,938.

AMARILLY OF CLOTHES-LINE ALLEY.  1918.  5 reels [70 minutes].  Silent Cinema.  Romantic Melodrama.  Mary Pickford.  Frances Marion.  Novel Into Film.  Directed by Marshall Neilan.  Mary Pickford plays the spunky cigarette girl Amarilly Jenkins in this story of the romance between a girl from ‘clothes-line-alley’ a working class part of San Francisco and the handsome Gordon Phillips, scion of a wealthy family.  When Amarilly rescues Phillips from an alley, after a brawl in the restaurant the girl works in, he invites her to come work for his proud society aunt and finds himself falling in love with the girl.  Amarilly, whose, bar tending beau, thinking she’s fallen for the rich guy, has split with her and she sadly returns his engagement ring.  The charming girl’s influence on the young man alarms his aunt who decides to invite all of Amarilly’s family to a society social, knowing that the mixing of the ‘haves’ and have nots, as intended and expected,  would fail.  Amarilly, proud of who and what she and her family are, returns to the alley to reunite with her beau.  Lovely romantic comedy, short and sweet.  Neilan does another excellent job of direction.  The best moments in the film involve the playful mockery Amarilly and her family make of the pretensions of the high society matrons.  In the end, Amarilly rejects Phillips with the neat aphorism –  “I don’t know if you really mix ice cream and . . . pickles.”  With:  William Scott as Terry McGowen, Norman Kerry as Gordon Phillips, Ida Waterman as Mrs. Stuyvesant Phillips, Margaret Landis as Colette King, Kate Price as Mrs. Jenkins, Tom Wilson as Boscoe McCarty, Fred Goodwins as Johnny Walker, and Herbert Standing as Father Riordan.  Notes:  Screenplay by Frances Marion from the novel by Belle K. Maniates.  Produced by Adolph Zukor,  Cinematography by Walter Stradling.  Also included on this video is a recently restored and re-discovered short film by Thomas Ince, The Dream.  1911.  Silent.  5 minutes.  The story is of a young newly wed couples mutual dream.  He dreams that he is a spendthrift who enjoys drink too much, he dreams that she is a fast and loose lady who drives him to suicide.  Each wakes when the dream goes that last step and revives their love.  Notes:  Directed by Thomas Ince and George Loane Tucker.  Also included is a preview of a documentary on the life and films of Mary Pickford written by Rita Mae Brown and hosted and narrated by Whoopi Goldberg.  With:  Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., Leonard Maltin, Jean Firstenberg [Director, American Film Institute], Janet Leigh.

THE AMATEUR.  1994.  105 minutes.  Comedy/Drama.  Satire.  American Independent Cinema.  Directed by Hal Hartley.  A beautiful, slightly eccentric woman happens upon a wounded man in an alley and helps him recover.  When he does, they discover that he has amnesia and can’t remember a single thing about his past.  What they don’t realize is that a couple of hit men, in the employ of a mysterious foreigner, are after him and anyone associated with him to recover a disc filled with some compromising information.  Who is this guy?  Why are their men aiming to gun him down?  Everyone associated with the amnesiac fears him, but he can’t remember why, and his new acquaintance, by happenstance, starts to help unravel the mystery of who he is.  An extremely convoluted, but clever and witty satirical look at melodrama and the subject of identity.  Martin Donovan plays the role of the mystery man Thomas, with bemused irony.  Isabelle Huppert is suitably eccentric as  the odd, quirky Isabelle, a former nun who is trying to write a dirty novel but can’t seem to get it quite right.  With:  Isabelle Huppert as Isabelle, Martin Donovan as Thomas, Elina Lowensohn as Sofia, Damian Young as Edward, Chuck Montgomery as Jan, Dave Simonds as Kurt, and Pamela Stewart as Officer Melville.  Notes:  Written by Hal Hartley.  Original music by Hartley and Jeffrey Taylor. Cinematography by Michael Spiller.  Box-office gross:  $864,442.

AMBASSADOR BILL.  1931.  68 minutes.  <V3173>.  Comedy.  Will Rogers.  Directed by Sam Taylor.  In the early ’30s, the two most popular stars for 20th Century Fox were a precious, precocious little singing and dancing child named Shirley Temple and a witty, cowboy humorist from Oklahoma (via the stage shows of Florenz Ziegfeld) named will Rogers.  This film, is one of Will Rogers’ most popular films of the period.  Its story is fairly simple — a homespun, common sense cattleman is sent to Sylvania as ambassador.  There he must make a commercial treaty with the powerful prime minister, a man who has forced the abdication of the king so that he can rule the country through the beautiful queen and her young son.  Ambassador Bill Harper’s arrival on the scene brings about some happy changes, after a hitch here and there.  The story is just a chance for Rogers to wow audiences with his easy going, charmingly caustic wit.  He is wonderful in this film.  The humor, very topical will require that one be a little aware of what the ’30s were like, and who was who but that’s part of the pleasure one derives from Rogers’ jokes.   With:  Marguerite Churchill, Greta Nissen, Gustav von Seyffertitz, and Tad Alexander.  Notes:  Screenplay and dialog by Guy Bolton.

AMERICA.  1924.  141 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  D. W. Griffith.  Historical Drama.  American Revolutionary Drama.  Directed by D. W. Griffith.  This late epic by D. W. Griffith is the master sentimentalist’s re-invention of the American Revolution.  Nathan Holden, an independent and ambitious young man from New England is sent by Boston leaders of the pending rebellion to offer the leadership of the American army to George Washington.  The gallant Holden travels to Virginia with his missive where he meets and befriends the beautiful daughter of the aristocratic Montagues.  Friction arises when Sir Ashley Montague, a friend of Washington’s (though a loyalist) thinks the young man has behaved badly.  Time passes and the Montagues find themselves moving from royalist camp to royalist camp until they fall into the hands of the degenerate renegade ‘royalist’ Capt. Walter Butler.  Only the heroic efforts of Holden and other true patriots saves them.  America is an entertaining historical epic filled with both the grace notes found in the best of Griffith’s  works but also with the historical liberties he so gladly took to make a point.  Good and evil, as usual in a Griffith story, were very black and white and he obviously identified with the elegantly aristocratic Montague family.  With:  Lionel Barrymore as Captain Walter Butler, Neil Hamilton as Nathan Holden, Charles Bennett as William Pitt, Carol Dempster as Miss Nancy Montague, Louis Wolheim as Captain Hare, Arthur Dewey as George Washington, Arthur Donaldson as King George III, Emil Hoch as Lord North, Sydney Deane as Sir Ashley Montague, John Dunton as John Hancock, Frank Walsh as Thomas Jefferson, W. Rising as Edmund Burke, Frank McGlynn, Sr. As Patrick Henry.  Notes:  W. W. Jones as General Gage, Hugh Baird as Major Pitcairn.  Notes:  Cinematography by G. W. Bitzer, Marcel Le Picard, Hendrik Sartov, Harold S. Sintzenich.  Musical arrangement by Joseph Carl Breil.

AMERICA AMERICA.  1963.  169 minutes.  Biographical Drama.  Greek Americans.  Immigration to America.  Directed by Elia Kazan.  Elia Kazan’s Greco/Turkish heritage is the source of this black and white film about the desire for a young Greek of Turkish extraction to come to America.  The film is earnest and sincere about the trials and tribulations of the youthful hero.  With:  Stathis Giallelis, Frank Wolf, Harry Davis, Elena Karam, Estelle Hemsley, Lou Antonio, Gregory Rozakis, Paul Mann, Linda Marsh, Robert H. Harris, and Katharine Balfour.  Notes:  Written by Kazan.  Photographed by Haskell Wexler.  Edited by Dede Allen. Costumes by Anna Hill Johnstone.  Music by Manos Hadjidakis with lyrics by Nikos Gatsos.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, director, screenplay.  Won Oscar for best art direction [Gene Callahan].  Golden Globe for best director and Most Promising Newcomer [Giallelis].

AMERICAN BEAUTY.  1999.  120 minutes.  Social Comedy.  Social Satire.  American Family Life.  Directed by Sam Mendes.  Kevin Spacey won the 1999 best actor Oscar as Lester Burnham, the burnt-out suburban husband and father whose life is altered by a sexual epiphany – the vision in his head initiated by the fresh young beauty of his daughter’s cheerleading best friend.  American Beauty is a new-age kind of cinema, elegant, stylized, sterile.  Mendes, an enfant terrible of the stage, is a talented director but there is a hallowness in his craft and in the script that gets under the skin.  Kevin Spacey’s performance as the consummate American jerk is more than notable, and though his character does appear to have a moment’s grace late in the film, the job of creating a contradiction,  a wasp nebbish, has succeeded too well.  Annette Bening stars as Caroline Burnham and Thora Birch is their daughter Jane each has their moments as do Wes Bentley as the misfit ‘filmmaker’ Ricky Fitts, Mena Suvari as Angela Hayes the American Beauty.  Also with:  Peter Gallagher as Buddy Kane, Allison Janney as Barbara Fitts, Scott Bakula as Jim Olmeyer, Sam Robards ad Jim Berkley, and Chris Cooper as Col. Fitts.  Notes:  Screenplay by Alan Ball.  Cinematography by Conrad L. Hall.  Music by Thomas Newman.  Musical direction by Chris Douridas.  Awards:  Academy Awards for best picture, direction, actor, original screenplay and cinematography.  Academy nominations for best actress [Bening], editing [Tariq Anwar] and original score.  British Academy Awards for actor, actress, cinematography, direction, editing, film with nominations for original screenplay and production design [Naomi Shohan].  Winner of Golden Globes and SAG awards for actor, actress.  Box-office gross: $129,700,000 U.S./$200, 100,000 International. 

AMERICAN DREAM.  1991.  98 minutes.  Documentary.  American Labor Movement.  Hormel Corporation Strike of 1984.  Meat Packing Industry, Austin, Minnesota.  Women Directors.  Directed by Barbara Koppel.  “American Dream follows the true-life story of workers on strike in America’s heartland:  Austin, Minnesota.  In 19984, the Hormel company saw a profit of $29 million.  That same year they offered it’s Austin meatpackers a salary cut form $10l69 to $8.25 an hour and a 30% cut in basic benefits.  The strike which followed pitted worker against management, worker against worker and even brother against brother..  Now, enter the community as it brought together and torn apart by outrage and discontent.  This powerful film takes you the heart of America – a heart that beats with anger, and a heart that beats with pride.”  Notes:  The film, was made in the context of the changing reaction by corporations to Unions and strikes in the first years of the Reagan Administration.  The town of Austin, Minnesota became embroiled in a bitter, divisive struggle over the salary and benefit cuts by Hormel.  Koppel’s camera follows workers, union officials, company officials and family of the Hormel Company over a period from the beginnings of the strike in 1984 through its after-effects in the late 1980s.  Among those interviewed:  Dozens of workers, Charles Nyberg [Chief Counsel, Hormel and Co.]  Richard Knowlton [President, Hormel & Co.], Jim Guyette [President, Local Union P-9], Ray Rogers [President, Corporate Campaign, Inc.].  Cinematography by Peter Gilbert, Kevin Keating, Hart Perry, Mark Peterson, and Matthew Roberts.  Music by Michael Small.  Produced by Barbara Koppel and Arthur Cohn. Edited by Cathy Caplan, Tom Heneke and Lawrence Silk.  Academy Award winning Best feature documentary, 1991.

AMERICAN GIGOLO.  1980.  117 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Male Prostitution.  Gigolos.  Directed by Paul Schrader.  Richard Gere is Julian Kay, an elegant L.A. male escort.  He’s on call for the well heeled, powerful women of Hollywood at a very high price.  Julian’s style, knowledge [he speaks five languages] make him very popular, something that doesn’t sit that well with some of his competitors.  Things are going well until he is framed for the murder of the wife of a kinky Palm Springs couple after some stolen jewelry is found in his car.  This morality play by Schrader is about wealthy, people swimming in moral ambivalence or decay.  The role of Julian Kay was created with John Travolta in mind, and when he bailed out, Gere got the role.  The film’s title as David Thomson suggests in his A Biographical Dictionary of Film may be the most brilliant thing about the film — it’s suggestive of so many things.  The part fits Gere like a glove — his sexuality is most definitely of a different source and heat than Travolta would have brought to the role.  At the same time, that easy, egocentric charm and grace of his also contributes to the overly world weariness the picture has [probably an affect deliberately desired by Schrader].  The film is stylish and intriguing, but, ultimately, lacking in emotional or even moral depth.  With:  Lauren Hutton, Bill Duke, Nina Van Pallandt, Hector Elizondo, Brian Davies, K. Callan, Patti Carr, David Cryer, Carole Cook, and Carol Bruce.  Notes:  Photographed by John Bailey.  Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.  Executive Producer, Freddie Fields.  Music by Giorgio Moroder.

AMERICAN GRAFFITI.  1973.  112 minutes.  Comedy/Drama.  Coming of Age Comedy.  Teenagers, 1960s.  America in the ‘60s.  <V166>.  Directed by George Lucas.  Story:  On the last day and night of their last year in high school the young people of a small California city look at the uncertainties of their futures and the loose ends of their lives in the middle 1960s.  This film was a surprise hit of 1973.  It was Lucas’ second feature.  The film is a gentle exercise in soft memory of the past.  It idealizes the coming of age period before the distressing emotional and societal blitzes of the 1960s.  American Graffiti has more charm than depth, but most will find those charms considerable.  It was also the first film to use, on its sound track, the music of the 1960s as an essential part of the that decade’s youth culture, thus setting the precedent used in countless subsequent movies from Coming Home through The Big Chill.  With a cast that included some young actors who would become much more famous in the next few years:  Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Richard Dreyfuss, Charlie Martin Smith, Cindy Williams and MacKenzie Phillips. Note: The cast also includes these actors in parts in which they could be easily missed — Suzanne Somers (the mystery girl in the white Cadillac), Harrison Ford, Bo Hopkins, Kathleen Quinlan, Joe Spano and Debralee Scott.  Wolfman Jack plays himself, more or less.  Notes:  Academy Award nominations for best picture, director, supporting actress (Clark), editing.  Screenplay by Lucas, Gloria Katz, and Willard Huyck.  Photographed by Ron Eveslage and Jan D’Alquen. Box-office gross:  $55,128,175.

AMERICAN HEART.  1993.  114 minutes.  Drama.  Seattle.  Father/Son Relations.  Directed by Martin Bell.  Jeff Bridges plays Jack Kelson, a man just released from five years in prison is unexpectedly greeted by his 14 year son [Edward Furlong].  The boy, wants only to connect with his father and not be farmed off to rural relatives.  They have a difficult relationship — the boy interferes with the man’s desire for personal space.  The father has difficulty acknowledging his growing concern and love for the boy.  This drama, an extension of the story of the wasted lives of young men in the great Northwest expressed in Bell’s prize winning documentary Streetwise.  The most impressive element of the film is the intensely felt and delivered performance by Bridges, one of the most adventurous and fearless actors in American films.  His Jack is a convincing portrait of a peculiarly American phenomenon — the loser as soulful dreamer.  With:  Lucinda Jenny, Tracey Kapisky, Don Harvey.  Notes:  Photography by James R. Bagdonas.  Screenplay by Peter Silverman from a story by Silverman, Bell and Marry Ellen Mark.  Music by Tom Waits.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS.  1951.  113 minutes.  Musical.  Gene Kelly.  Alan Jay Lerner.  Vincente Minelli.  Paris.  Romantic Musical.  <V156>.  Directed by Vincente Minelli.  Story:  A young American artist in Paris falls in love with a charming young girl.  He disregards the risks of losing the patronage of his wealthy and jealous benefactress.  Only a handful of musicals have ever won the Academy Award as Best Picture this was the second one and it was 20 years later.  It is a beautifully mounted film and has some of the most graceful and appealing dancing of any American musical.  Its only faults may be that it does have too much of that scrubbed “high faluting” tribute to high art (the ballet has its proponents and its adversaries) — otherwise it is nearly perfect.  The music is by George and Ira Gershwin and the screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner.  The cast includes Gene Kelly (who also choreographed), Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Nina Foch, and George Guetary (he sings Stairway to Paradise).  Other songs include ‘Swonderful, Love Is Here To Stay, and Nice Work If You Can Get It.  Note:  The film one Oscars for Best picture, story and screenplay (Lerner), scoring (Saul Chaplin and Johnny Green), Art direction, and costume design.  The only other musicals to win Best Picture Oscars — Broadway Melody (1930), My Fair Lady, The Sound Of Music, and Oliver!  Photographed by Al Gilks.  The last was given in 1968.  Box-office gross:  $4,212,776.

AMERICAN MADNESS.  1932.  75 minutes.  Depression Era Drama.  Bank Failures.    Walter Huston. Frank Capra.  Directed by Frank Capra.  Walter Huston is Thomas Dickson, an honest, fair-minded banker in who adamantly resists the efforts by his Board to force a merger on him.  The Board’s ultimate goal is to oust Dickson, thus bringing an end his generous loans to people in whom he has faith in as businessmen and home owners.  This justly famous early Depression film is one of the few which dealt openly with the issue of panic runs on banks and corporate greed during the crisis.  Huston’s Dickson is a man of integrity with a great deal of faith in what honest, hard working people can do to survive and make America work.  Huston is wonderful in this kind of role.  American Madness is the first of his films with a populist undertone.    With:  Pat O’Brien as Clark, Constance Cummings as Helen, Robert Ellis as Dude Finlay, Gavin Gordon as Cyril Cluett, Sterling Holloway as Oscar, Arthur Hoyt as Ives, Kay Johnson as Mrs. Phyllis Dickson, Pat O’Malley as Doctor Strong and Berton Churchill as O’Brien.  Notes:  Written by Robert Riskin.  Cinematography by Joseph Walker.  

AMERICAN PIE.  1999.  95 minutes.  Teen Comedy.  Sex Comedy.  Teenagers.  Directed by Peter Weitz.  Jim, Oz, Kevin, and Finch are a quartet of high schoolers who, in their senior year, make a pact to have each lose his virginity by prom night.  The film’s story is merely to get to that end, which it does with gross teenage sexual humor.  It’s not at all a new story or idea but the  young cast is fresh and inventive with Mena Suvari as Heather [contrast with her teenaged tease in American Beauty] and Chris Klein as the handsome jock Oz [reprising a role he did just as well in Election] seeming to catch the camera’s eye most often.  American Pie is filled with the kind of dumb, fun humor of There’s Something About Mary and was about as successful.  With:  Shannon Elizabeth as Nadia, Alyson Hannigan as Michele, Natasha Lyonne as Jessica, Thomas Ian Nicholas as Kevin, Tara Reid as Vicky, Sean William Scott as Stifler, Eddie Kaye Thomas as Finch, and Eugene Levy as Jim’s Dad.  Notes:  Screenplay by Adam Herz.  Cinematography by Richard Crudo.  Box-office gross: $101,700,000 U.S./$99,500,00 International.

THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT. 1995.  114 minutes.  Romantic Comedy.  Political Satire.  Directed by Rob Reiner.  Michael Douglas is Andrew Shepherd, a liberal U.S. President whose great popular with the electorate undergoes a complete change when he meets and falls in love with a beautiful environmental lobbyist named Sydney Ellen Wade [Annette Bening].  Their relationship becomes a cause celebre and a political grenade, when a pandering politician [Richard Dreyfuss] makes an issue of the President’s romance and his character in general.  This film is obviously aimed at addressing the character issues facing Bill Clinton as the first baby boomer President.  Andrew Shepherd is the man of integrity impugned by innuendo and suggestion and by the public’s apparent gullibility on non-essential issues.  It’s a innocent fantasy as political comedy but the cast is adept at this kind of stuff — Douglas, Bening, Dreyfuss head a witty, intelligent cast that includes Martin Sheen as A. J. MacInerney, Michael J. Fox as Lewis Rothschild, Anna Deavere Smith as Robin McCall, Samantha Mathis as Janie Basdin, Shawna Waldron as Lucy Sheperd, David Paymer as Leon Kodak, Anne Haney as Mrs. Chapel, Nina Siemaszko as Beth Wade, and Wendie Malick as Susan Sloan.  One finds oneself laughing pleasantly at the inside jokes.  Bening and Douglas do have a nice little spark as a romantic couple.  Notes:  Photographed by John Seale.  Written by Aaron  Sorkin.  Music by Mark Shaiman.  Box-office gross:  $65,000,000.

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE.  A collection of very early American Films most produced or directed by Edwin S. Porter.  Titles included:

• Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend.  190?  5 minutes  Silent.   Comic Adventure.  Directed by Edwin S. Porter.   A gentleman in top hat and tails overindulges in drink and food which results in a panoply of dreams and dream images.  A very fanciful, imaginative use of every trick possible early in the medium.  The Great Train Robbery.  1903.  8 minutes  Silent.   Western.  Directed by Edwin S. Porter.  The first blockbuster made for the cinema.  Edwin S. Porter’s film is generally regarded as the birthplace of narrative cinema and of the quintessential American genre, the western [see below however] The story of a daring train robbery, the escape and subsequent chase and capture of the bad guys created a sensation in 1903.  Life of An American Cowboy.  1903.  11 minutes  Silent.  Western.   Directed by Edwin S. Porter.  The narration of this obscure Porter film makes its claim as the first narrative film and the birth of the Western.  Apparently shot just months before its more famous “sequel.”   A gang of rowdy cowboys disrupt a town with their rough-housing and play.  Lots of fancy horse, rope and shooting tricks.  There is a stage coach chase  by Indians and the heroine and others are taken by the savages.  Of course, there is a rescue.  The Life of An American Fireman.  1903.  5 minutes  Silent.  Action Drama.  Firefighters.  Directed by Edwin S. Porter.   A day in the life of a fireman on the job.  He dreams of home and wife when the alarm arrives and the entire fire house crew rush into action.   Notes:  Photographed by Porter.  Poorest quality of the first films in this program.  The Eagle’s Nest.  1907.   4 minutes  Silent.  Melodrama.  Directed by Edwin S. Porter.   A star vehicle with H. B. Walthall as a woodsman.  The hero leaves his wife and child to go to his logging camp.  An huge eagle comes and scoops the child up and away to its aerie nest.  The wife, despondent runs to the hero and his men for help.  A rescue ensues.  The inter-titles are simple narrative – The Woodsman, The Eagle, The descent [to the nest where the hero and the huge bird do battle] and the finale – All’s well that ends well.  Print fair only.

AMERICAN TALE:  FIEVEL GOES WEST.  1991, 75minutes.  Animated Adventure.  Directed by Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells.  In the first American Tale, Fievel & his family came to America–land of opportunity and hope.  In the second film, the family has found it’s just too dangerous to stay in the city–especially since the evil Cat R. Waul and his band of cut throat cats are on the prowl.  So the family decides to move west in search of a better life–unaware that this trip west is another of Cat R. Waul’s schemes.  This is a passable film and children will like it.  Adults–especially those of us who grew up charmed by Walt Disney’s magic–will probably find it lacking.  Voices by:  James Stewart, John Cleese, Dom Deluise, Amy Irving, Jon Lovitz, Phillip Glasser.  Notes:  Music by James Horner.  Original songs by James Horner and Will Jennings.  Story by Charles Swenson and screenplay Flint Dille.

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.  1981.  97 minutes.  Horror Comedy.  Werewolves.  <V2457>.  Directed by John Landis.  Two American students wandering on the back roads of England are attacked by werewolves.  One is killed, the survivor becomes a werewolf.  The werewolf tale in the 1980’s took on many interesting incarnations (see The Howling) but this serio-comic venture is possibly director Landis’ best film, and least offensive film.  It’s combination of horror and sophomoric comedy was very effective and the film became an immediate cult favorite.  With David Naughton as David Kessler, who first gained attention as a dancing pitchman for Dr. Pepper  — I drink Dr. Pepper and I’m proud], Jenny Agutter as Alex Price, John Woodvine as Dr. Hirsch, Griffin Dunne as jack Goodman, Brian Glover as the chess player.  Note:  Screenplay by John Landis.  Cinematography by Robert Paynter.  Music by Elmer Bernstein.  The special effects of Naughton changing and Griffin Dunne’s disgustingly clever make-up are the work of Rick Baker who won a well deserved Oscar for the effort.  The effects are an essential element in the film’s appeal.  Landis, infamous for smash, bang endings with automobiles especially) comes up with another one of his patented auto carnage scenes in this film’s climax.  It’s the worst handled moment in the film.  There are guest appearances by Frank Oz, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.  Box-office gross:  $13,763,278.

THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY.  1964.  117 minutes.  Comedy.  Service Comedy, World War II.  <V2556>.  Directed by Arthur Hiller.  James Garner plays an American Naval officer whose chief responsibility is to make life as soft for the high ranking officers as possible behind the lines at the high command in England, including finding them women.  He is a self-admitted coward, so when his commanding admiral, suffering from stress since the loss of his wife, suggests that a film be made of the Navy’s landing on D-Day, and he wants Garner to shoot.  The story is motivated by Garner’s efforts to get out of a bad situation.  This film was very well received at the time of its release and popular (partly because of Julie Andrews’ appearance in her first non-musical film).  Not everyone will agree with its reputation.  The script by Paddy Chayefsky is preachy and smug.  It is clear that the screenwriter meant to write a film of wit and pace, but the jokes sound like pat speeches, the intellectual shavings of a lifetime writing.  It is imitation Shaw.  The whole enterprise reduces war and attitudes to smarmy cynical jokes and allusions.  Some will find it difficulty to laugh, others will be right in tune with Chayefsky’s “wit.”  With:  James Coburn, Melvyn Douglas, Joyce Grenfell, and Keenan Wynn.  Notes:  Based on a novel by William Bradford Huie.

AMISTAD.  1997.  152 minutes.  Historical Drama.  Slave Rebellions.  John Quincy Adams.  Steven Spielberg.  African-American History, Dramatizations.  Slavery, United States.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.  Intelligently produced, acted and directed historical drama from Steven Spielberg based on the incident of a slave revolt aboard the Spanish slave trading ship La Amistad in 1839.  The slaves are captured by U.S. Naval forces and imprisoned until a decision is reached on their status.  The subsequent trial became a anti-slavery cause celebre and ended up as an important test case in the Supreme Court in 1842 when ex-president [and congressman] John Quincy Adams agreed to represent the slaves and their leader Cinque, before a court dominated 7 to 2] by slave owning justices.  Controversy arose just prior to the film’s release when author/artist Barbara Chase-Riboud filed a copyright infringement suit against Spielberg and Dreamworks, the film’s producers, claiming her novel on the incident had been the source.  When Spielberg works with projects like Amistad, he is operating in the same stolid, waters as the master of the tasteful bio cum historical epic Richard Attenborough.  Ante-bellum American history [and literature] is a rich vein of dramatic and worthy subject matter for American filmmakers [Can anyone remember the controversy over plans to film Styron’s Confessions of Nat Turner in the late ‘60s?], especially slave rebellion.  An American film as powerful as Schepisi’s great and neglected Australian masterpiece The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith has yet to be done by a craftsman with the zeal and artistry of Spielberg.   Why didn’t he, instead, choose the more emotionally and intellectually challenging Benito Cereno?  With:  Anthony Hopkins is John Quincy Adams, Nigel Hawthorne is Martin Van Buren, Morgan Freeman is Theodore Joadson, Djimou Hounsou is Cinque, Matthew McConaughey is Baldwin, David Paymer is Secretary Forsyth, Pete Postlethwaite is Holabird, Stellan Skarsgard is Tappan, Razaaq Adoti is Yamba, Abu Bakaar Fofanah is Fala, Anna Paquin is Queen Isabella, and Tomas Milian is Calderon.  Notes:  Written by David H. Franzoni from the book Black Mutiny by William Owens.  Cinematography by Janusz Kaminuteski.  Original Music by John Williams.  Produced by Debbie Allen, Robert M. Cooper, Bonnie Curtis, Steven Spielberg and Colin Wilson.  Box-office gross:  $44,175,394.  Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor [Hopkins], cinematography, costume design [Ruth E. Carter], and dramatic score.  Try this Web Site for more information on the film, the historical facts and the court case:  

http:/www.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/Maritime_History/Ships/Amistad/

THE AMOROUS ADVENTURES MOLL FLANDERS.   1965.  126 minutes.  Satire.  Daniel Defoe.  British Literature.  Directed by Terence Young.  After the incredible success of Tony Richardson’s film of Fields’ great satire Tom Jones, (it was a critical and box-office success and won the best picture Oscar) film producers looked for more properties along the same line — bawdy classics that might appeal to mass audiences.  This film of Defoe’s masterpiece was the first post Tom Jones picture.  The story of the abandoned daughter of a transported (to Virginia) woman who is seduced, forced to leave her childhood protectors , and who, after a variety of moral and sexual trials, to thrive in London, is a pretty broad farce, but not very funny.  Kim Novak tries hard as the buxom Moll.  With: Richard Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Vittorio De Sica, Leo McKern, George Sanders, and Lilli Palmer.  Notes:  Screenplay by Denis Cannan and Roland Kibbee based on the works of Daniel Defoe.  Music composed and conducted by John Addison.  Photographed by Ted Moore.  

ANASTASIA.  1956.  104 minutes.  Historical Melodrama.  Ingrid Bergman.  Directed by Anatole Litvak.  Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen Hayes give first rate performances in this film about a woman who is passed-off by ambitious Russian émigrés as the soul surviving member of Czar Nicholas’ immediate family — his daughter Grand Duchess Anastasia.  The film has a grand, European style and scope but it’s most notorious as the return of Ingrid Bergman to the Hollywood fold.  Since her well publicized divorce from her first husband and subsequent torrid romantic liaison with Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini in the late ’40s, mainstream moviedom had all but abandoned Bergman.  When she was nominated for, and ultimately won the 1956 best actress Oscar, she was back for good.  With:  Akim Tamiroff, Martita Hunt, Felix Aylmer, Sacha Pitoeff, Ivan Desny, Natalie Schafer, Gregoire Gromoff, Karel Stepanoff, Ina de la Hague, Katherine Kath.  Notes:  Screenplay by Arthur Laurents from the play by Marcelle Maurette as adapted by Guy Bolton.  Music by Alfred Newman.  Produced by Buddy Adler.  Academy Award for best actress (Bergman).  Academy Award nomination for original score (Alfred Newman).  Photographed by Jack Hildyard.

ANATOMY OF A MURDER.  1959.  161 minutes.  Courtroom Melodrama.  James Stewart.  Otto Preminger.  Sexual Drama.  <V1224>. Directed by Otto Preminger.  Story:  The wife of a young Army officer, with a reputation for creating sexual tensions is raped.  The husband kills the attacker, supposedly in a state of jealous rage.  The lawyer the officer picks to defend himself is a homespun, former district attorney (whose sort-of retired) takes the case because it piques his interests.  Controversy surrounded this film because of the script’s use of undiluted sexual language — a no-no in American films up to this point.  Even watching the film now, one can sense why there was such an uproar over references to private parts and under garments.  It was pretty jazzy stuff for the “uptight” fifties.  It’s a professional piece of work by Preminger and all concerned — Screenwriter Wendell Hayes; Score by Duke Ellington; and acting by James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden, Arthur O’Connell, George C. Scott and as the judge, noted federal judge Joseph N. Welch.  Notes:  Academy Award nominations for best picture, actor (Stewart), supporting actor (two — Scott, O’Connell), screenplay, photography and editing.  Cinematography by Sam Leavitt.  Box-office gross:  $5,500,000.

ANCHORS AWEIGH.  1945.  141 minutes.  <V3165>.  Musical Comedy.  Frank Sinatra.  Gene Kelly.  Directed by George Sidney.  Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly star as two decorated out on the town in Los Angeles and Hollywood.  Frank is the shy, Gene the “wolf of the fleet.”  When the shy one tags along with the wolf, things take a decidedly unexpected.   Kathryn Grayson plays the sweet thing who appeals (at first glance), but of course she and the wolf fall for one another.   Jose Iturbi, Dean Stockwell (he’s the charming little tyke who makes all the romance possible), “Rags” Ragland, Pamela Britton, Billy Gilbert, Henry O’Neill, Carlos Ramirez, Edgar Kennedy, Leon Ames, Sharon McManus, and Grady Sutton co-star in this silly, cream puff of a movie.  Sinatra played the part he does in this film, the innocent yokel from the big city (or the Midwest) at least two other times It Happened In Brooklyn and of course in On The Town (also with Kelly).  Kelly dances (the best sequence is the famous one with Tom (of the animated Tom and Jerry duo).  Sinatra sings well but the songs are fairly inconsequential.  Miss Grayson sings too.  Kelly became a big movie favorite after the success of this film.  Notes:  Screenplay by Isobel Lennart.  Musical Direction by George Stoll.  Dances by Gene Kelly.  Frank Sinatra’s songs by Gus Cahn and Jules Styne.  Photographed by Robert Planck and Charles Boyle.  Box-office gross.  $4,778,669.

AND THE BAND PLAYED ON.  1994.  140 minutes.  DRAMA.  AIDS.  HIV.  Politics of AIDS.  Directed by Roger Spottiswoode.  Matthew Modine is Dr. Don Francis a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control who seeks to uncover the cause of the deadly virus which became known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or AIDS.  This film, based on the journalistic work and book of the same name by gay activist and reporter Randy Shilts’, is about the political and financial difficulties early researchers and gay activist were confronted with when the disease first emerged on the public scene.  With:  Alan Alda, Phil Collins, Richard Gere, Anjelica Huston, Steve Martin, Ian McKellen, Lily Tomlin, Glenne Headly, Richard Jenkins, Tcheky Karyo, Swoosie Kurtz, Jack Laufer, Donal Logue, Dakin Matthews, Richard Masur, Peter McRobbie, Lawrence Monoaon, Jeffrey Nordling, Saul Rubinek, Charles Martin Smith, Stephen Spinella, and B. D. Wong.  Notes:  Music by Carter Burwell.   Photography by Paul Elliott. Screenplay by Arnold Schulman from Randy Shilts’ best seller.  First broadcast on HBO.

AND THE SHIP SAILS ON … . 1984.  130 minutes.  In Italian with English sub-titles.  <V632>.  Directed by Federico Fellini.  Story:  A ship loaded with aristocrats, artists, and Serbian political refugees are returning to Italy just after the end of World War I. The wealthy patrons and artists are on board to celebrate the burial at sea of a famous opera star when the ship makes an emergency rescue of some Serbian refugees abandoned at sea.  A conflict of classes emerges.   There is a comic strip silliness about a great deal of Fellini’s work, especially in the later years.  Everything about his film characters seems exaggerated.  In this film the characters look like painted puppets or stylized clowns.  The imagery the director aimed for is probably achieved, and some of it, as is often the case with Fellini, is astonishing.  But this film will be most favored by Fellini aficionados.  Its strangeness may be a little too much for many others.  With:  Freddie Jones, Barbara Jeffords, Victor Poletti, Peter Cellier, and Elisa Mainardi.  

THE ANDERSON PLATOON.  1966.  64 minutes.  Documentary.  Vietnamese Conflict.  African-Americans in the Military.  Directed by Pierre Schoendorffer.  “The Anderson Platoon was an integrated combat unit in Vietnam led by a handsome black West Pointer, Lt. Joseph B. Anderson.  French producer Pierre Schoendorffer and his cameraman spent six weeks filming the men of the platoon as they ate, slept, fought and died.  The camera is constantly present on the faces, the tension, the frustration, anger, hopelessness and pathos of war.  Schoendorffer takes no sides politically but at the outset he “is on the side of the soldier.”  It is understandable.  He fought at Dien Bien Phu and was a prisoner for four months afterwards.  The Anderson Platoon is not so much about the Vietnam War as it is a direct confrontation with the quality of war — any war.”  Notes:  Best foreign documentary Academy Award winner for 1966.  Camera by Dominique Merlin.  Sound by Raymond Adams.

ANDY HARDY.  MGM made a series of films about Judge Hardy and his family, a series that the studio felt exemplified family life of the late ’30s and early 1940s.  This comic ideal made the young Mickey Rooney, the Andy Hardy of the series, the biggest box office star in movies for much of the early ’40s.  Metro used the series as a starting place for most of its young ingenues — Judy Garland, Lana Turner, Kathryn Grayson, Donna Reed, and Esther Reed for example — all of whom were cast as rivals of Andy’s true-love, Polly Benedict.  Despite the almost absurd idealization of family life the obvious charm and good humor will make-up for the lack of realism.  The regulars in the series were Rooney as Andy Hardy, Lewis Stone as Judge Hardy, Fay Holden as Mother Hardy, Sara Haden as Aunt Millie, Cecilia Parker as Marian (Andy’s older sister), and Ann Rutherford as Andy’s girl Polly.  The source of the characters in the series were the stories by Aurania Rouveral.  George B. Seitz was the director of nearly all of the films (the notable exception of those we have is …Spring Fever which was directed by the master of the quick competent MGM picture W.S. Van Dyke.  The Hardy family films in Nonprint include:

• LOVE FINDS ANDY HARDY.  1938.  92 minutes.  Directed by George B. Seitz.  Andy finds himself in a pickle over a couple of things — taking another girl to the Christmas dance and getting himself car.  When his pal Beasley asks him to take his girl Cynthia to the dance Andy sees a way to get cash for paying for the car he wants.  Meanwhile, young Betsy Booth has a long standing crush on Andy and complicates the picture some.  Sweet natured and typical of the crises that faced the energetic young Mr. Hardy.  With Lana Turner as Cynthia.  Note:  This film introduced the Betsy Booth character played by Garland.

• ANDY HARDY GETS SPRING FEVER.  1939.  86 minutes.   Directed by W.S. Van Dyke.  Polly Benedict is being visited by a young Naval officer and Andy falls in love with his substitute dramatic arts teacher.  At her encouragement, he authors the play that the school will put on at year’s end.  During the play the teacher’s lover shows up to patch up the quarrel that had forced them apart.  Andy is hurt, temporarily but regains his ever present self-confidence and Polly (whom he always splits up with for a short while).  The sub-plot of this one is the judge’s succumbing to a get-rich-quick scheme with a few of the other town leaders.  That ends up well too.  Notes:  Screenplay by Kay Van Riper.

• ANDY HARDY MEETS DEBUTANTE.  1940.  89 minutes.  Directed by George B. Seitz.  Andy, Polly and Beasley have to put the school magazine together.  They can’t come up with a cover story but decide on putting Andy on the cover when he boasts of knowing a New York deb.  When they do so, Andy has to come up with a picture of them together, but knows he can’t because he doesn’t know the girl.  Polly and Beaseley have him over a barrel when the judge has to take the family to New York with him when he goes to visit some big time lawyers about the Carvel orphanage.  Needless to say, Andy’s efforts to “put on the Ritz” backfires totally, while the judge finds that solving his case is not as easy as he thought.  Betsy Booth, forever with a crush on Andy, finally gets him out of a jam.  The judge wins his case when Mother Hardy gives him an idea.  Everything ends up okey-dokey in the end.  Notes: Diana Lewis appears as the hard to approach deb.  The screenplay is by Anna Lee Whitmore and Thomas Seller.  Judy Garland is Betsy Booth and sings “Alone” and “I’m Nobody’s Baby”.

• ANDY HARDY’S PRIVATE SECRETARY.  1941.  102 minutes.  Directed by George B. Seitz.  Andy, Polly, Beasley and the gang are making preparations for graduation.  Another new girl is on the scene in the shape of Kathryn Grayson, in her movie debut, who gets a job as the ever busy Andy’s secretary.  This girl and her brother are from “the other side of the tracks” but are bright and talented, like their underemployed father (Ian Hunter).  This story hinges around several little sub-plots — the judge’s efforts at getting the new kids’ father a job — and Andy’s pre-occupation with graduation causing him to fail his final English exam.  As usual, everything ends up well after the confusion dies down.  Notes:  Screenplay by Jane Murfin and Harry Ruskin.  Grayson sings two songs including Cole Porter’s neat “I’ve Got My Eyes On You”.

• LIFE BEGINS FOR ANDY HARDY.  1941.  102 minutes.  Directed by George B. Seitz.  After graduating from high school Andy wants to prove himself grown up.  He moves to New York to find work and success.  There, however, he comes face to face with some of the hardness of life.  Surprisingly, this film retains its “situation comedy” approach to life while also introducing an element of reality not generally seen in the series.  Andy faces hunger, unemployment, and designing women.  He also must deal with the death of a friend.  This is easily one of the most poignant of the Hardy family stories.  With:  Judy Garland as Betsy Booth, Ray McDonald, and Patricia Dane.  Note:  This was the last film (of three) with Garland as Betsy.

• ANDY HARDY’S DOUBLE LIFE.  1942.  99 minutes.  Directed by George B. Seitz.  All’s well with Andy, he has money in his pocket, a new car about to come back from a New York garage and two girls — as usual.  Polly wants to teach the over confident Andy a lesson, so she sets him up by getting a visiting friend of hers, a coed played by Esther Williams, to trap him.  Meanwhile sister Marian and her beau are having some trouble, and the judge has a hard case on his hand involving a young widow and her son (played by Bobby Blake who would grow up to become Robert ‘Baretta’ Blake).  Note:  Screenplay by Agnes Christine Johnston.

ANDY WARHOL’S DRACULA see  DRACULA

ANDY WARHOL’S FRANKENSTEIN see FRANKENSTEIN

ANGEL HEART.  1987.  112 minutes.  Melodrama.  Psychological Melodrama.  <V1604>.  Directed by Alan Parker.  Story:  A down and out detective is hired by a mysterious stranger to find a missing singer.  The trail leads the detective, Harry Angel, to the seductive world of voodoo and spiritual mysticism in New Orleans.  A crypto Faustian tale set ablaze by the superheated script and direction of the eclectic Alan Parker.  There is a lot of mystic nonsense but the film has incredible tension and it most certainly is not boring.  As the seedy, confused detective Harry Angel, Mickey Rourke shows his inclination toward playing desperate, off-the-wall characterizations.  Rourke, not much more than thirty, plays older often and well.  He is of an unidentifiable age in this film.  Robert denier plays the mysterious stranger (Louis Cypher?) and is quite cool and elegant.  With:  Charlotte Rampling Lisa Bonet, Charles Gordone, Socker Fontelieu, Brownie McGhee, Dann Florek, Elizabeth Whitcraft, and Michael Higgins.  Notes:  Screenplay by Alan Parker based on the novel by William Hjorstberg called Falling Angel.  Cinematography:  Michael Seresin.  Music by Trevor Jones.  Box-office gross:  $6,500,000.

ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES.  1938.  97 minutes.  Gangster Drama.  James Cagney.  Humphrey Bogart.  <V2127>.  Directed by Michael Curtiz.  One of the best of the famous Warner Brother gangster films from the 1930s.  At the center of the film is the electric, forceful performance of James Cagney.  He plays a tough young thug who rises to the top of gangdom before being caught.  He’s asked by his best friend from childhood, a priest (Pat O’Brien) to fall apart as he goes to the chair, just to save the kids back in the ghetto (the low point of the film).  Riveting and well-acted.  With:  Ann Sheridan, Humphrey Bogart, George Bancroft,  and the Bowery Boys (Huntz Hall, Leo Gore, Gabriel Dell, Billy Halop, and Bernard Punsley — all reprising their roles from Dead End.  The same young actors played these parts in several lesser films).  Screenplay by John Wesley and Warren Duff.  Academy Award nominations for best actor (Cagney), Curtiz, Original story by (Rowland Brown)

ANIMAL CRACKERS.  1930.  98 minutes.  Satire.  The Marx Brothers.  American Theater.  <V127>.  Directed by Victor Heerman.  At the swank party given by a wealthy matron, a prized painting is eyed by a pair of cafe society con-artists.  There plans go up in smoke when the four (4) Marx Brothers show up at the affair.  The first Marx Brother films, done at Paramount Pictures, were stage bound.  In fact, they were generally filmed in sound studios outside of New York City and not in California.  This film is opened up a little more their first film The Cocoanuts.  Regardless of how stagebound it seems at times Animal Crackers is hilarious.  Anarchy and nonsense ruled in the best Marx Brothers.  (The Marxeses were actually performing in the stage version of this film while they filmed their first film).  All four of the Brothers play in this film Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo (he was the male ingenue).  And from the beginning they used Margaret Dumont as their prime female foil.  Good fun for all.  With:  Lillian Roth and Louis Sorin.  Note:  The screenplay was written Morrie Ryskind and based on the Broadway he wrote with George S. Kaufmann.

ANIMAL FARM.  1954.  72 minutes.  Futuristic Drama.  Novel Into Film.  Animated Adaptations of Literature.  George Orwell.  <V1051>.  Directed by John Halas and Joy Batchelor.  Prize winning animated film version of George Orwell’s classic satire of collectivism, authority and greed.  The film does not have Orwell’s ending — it was too much for 1950’s audiences, but it is simple straight-forward animation and story telling.  Notes:  Narrated by Gordon Heath.  Screenplay by Batchelor and Halas with Borden Mace, Philip Stapp and Lothar Wolff.  Music by Matyas Seibert.  Produced by Louis de Rochemont.  Awards:  Berlin International Film Festival, 1955, Audience Poll winner.  Competing Film, Berlin, 1955.    Available on VHS and Laser Disk.

ANIMATION II.  1974.  74 minutes.  Documentary.  Produced and designed by Keith Sonnier.  A video program taped as computer image in Denver was created through a computer named “Caesar” used primarily to animate text and cartoons.  Sonnier utilizes the textures, colored bars, grid and radar screen face of the computer monitor to create his artwork.

ANNA CHRISTIE.  1930.  89  minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  American Theater.  Eugene O’Neill.  Greta Garbo.  Clarence Brown.  <V615>.  Directed by Clarence Brown.    In the sleazy waterfront bars in an anonymous port city, an ex-hooker falls in love with a simple, straight-talking sailor.  This tale, based on a play by Eugene O’Neill is more famous for its historic significance as the first appearance of Greta Garbo in talking pictures.  MGM’s advertising campaign “Garbo Talks” is as famous as the film.  On the film — it’s a slow moving vehicle that is carried magnificently by the entrancing performance of Garbo.  Her smoky, alluring voice — with the slightly disinterested Nordic accent made the great romantic silent star a popular star of the 1930’s.  Garbo would prove herself the greatest natural screen actress in film history.  With:  Marie Dressler, Charles Bickford, Lee Phelps, and George F. Marion.  Notes:  Photography by William Daniels.  Academy Award nominations for actress (Garbo), direction and photography.

ANNA KARENINA.  1935.  96 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Russian Literature.  Leo Tolstoy.  Greta Garbo.  Frederic March.  Directed by Clarence Brown.  The beautiful, faithful wife of a loving but stern Russian nobleman falls prey to desperate love when she meets and is pursued by a gallant officer of the Czar’s Cavalry.  Succumbing to his attentions she wrecks her life and loses the thing she treasures most, her son.  Tolstoi’s great novel is about many things and this film merely touches on most of them, reducing most of the work to pretty romantic melodrama.  On the matter of the love affair between Vronsky and Anna two more attractive or gifted actors could not have been improved upon.  Frederic March’s Vronsky is petulant and youthful but Garbo’s Anna has moments that are transcendent.  With:  Basil Rathbone as Karenin, Maureen O’Sullivan as Kitty, May Robson as Countess Vronsky, Reginald Owen as Stiva, Reginald Denny as Yashvin and Freddie Bartholomew as the Karenin’s son.  Also with May Robson and Maureen O’Sullivan.  Note:  The screenplay is by Clemence Dane and Salka Viertal, with additional dialogue and adaptation work by S.N. Behrman.  Music by Herbert Stothart.  Cinematography by William Daniels.  Produced by David O. Selznick.

ANNE OF A THOUSAND DAYS.  1969.  145 minutes.  Historical drama.  Directed by Charles Jarrot.  When the wife of King Henry VIII of England can not bear him sons, he looks elsewhere in his court for a suitable wife and settles upon the charming and vivacious young daughter of a courtier — Anne Boleyn.  The young woman refuses to accept the king’s favors, first because she loves another, and then because she will not settle for anything other than becoming Henry’s wife.  This film of the oft-told tale of the life of England’s robust king and his desires for a male heir is based on the play by Maxwell Anderson.  This is literate, stately and entertaining filmmaking.  The acting is first rate especially by Richard Burton as Henry and the lovely minx Genevieve Bujold as Anne Boleyn.   Also in the cast:  Irene Papas as Katherine, Anthony Quayle as Cardinal Wolsey, John Colicos as Cromwell, Michael Hordern as Thomas Boleyn, Katherine Blake as Elizabeth Boleyn, William Squire as Thomas More and T.P. McKenna as Norris.  Notes:  Screenplay by John Hale and Bridget Boland from an adaptation by Richard Sokolove.  Photographed by Arthur Ibbetson.  Music by Georges Delerue.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, actor (Burton), actress (Bujold), screen adaptation, cinematography (color), art/set decoration, sound, score and costume design (for which it won the Oscar).  Box-office gross:  $5,875,787.

ANNIE.  1981.  128 minutes.  Musical Comedy.  Broadway Musicals.  John Huston.  Comic Strip Characters.  Directed by John Huston.  Albert Finney is Daddy Warbucks, Carol Burnett is Miss Hannigan, and Aileen Quinn is Little Orphan Annie in this musical adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the famous satirical comic strip.  The film has a case of gigantitis, the last resort of movie people when they can’t trust simplicity.  It’s pretty hokey with a few good moments, here and there usually provided by Burnett, Peters, and the outrageous Tim Curry.  With:  Tim Curry, Geoffrey Holder, Edward Herrmann, Ann Reinking, and Bernadette Peters.  Notes:  Screenplay by Carol Sobieski based on the book play by Charles Strouse.  Photographed by Richard Moore.  Music by Charles Strouse.  Songs include Tomorrow, Maybe and Hard Luck Life.  Box-office gross – $37,316,783.

ANNIE HALL.  1977.  94 minutes.  Comedy.  Romantic Comedy.  Woody Allen.  Directed by Woody Allen.  The It Happened One Night of the second half of movie history.  This was the most celebrated of Woody Allen’s films, a wonderfully written, acted and directed romantic comedy.  Allen uses things from all of his previous films, his personal life, working in New York, Hollywood  — everything about the life and work of his main character Alvy Singer, a very successful Jewish comic and writer and his friends.  and produced the perfectly scripted story.  The films charm, wit, style and humor were perfectly balanced.   The casting was of course impeccable:  Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Carol Kane, Colleen Dewhurst, Christopher Walken, Janet Margolin and in small early roles Sigourney Weaver, Beverly DE Angelo, Shelley Hack, and Jeff Goldblum.  Notes: Screenplay by Allen and Marshall Brickman.  Photographed by Gordon Willis.  Academy Awards for best picture, actress (Keaton), director, screenplay.  Allen was nominated for best actor.  Box-office gross:  $19,002,366.

ANNIE OAKLEY.  1938.  90 minutes.   Westerns.  Barbara Stanwyck.  Annie Oakley.  Wild West Shows.  Women in the West. George Stevens.  <V1295>.  Directed by George Stevens.  A young backwoods girl proves to be a pretty formidable marksman.  Her notoriety gets her a starring part in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West extravaganza.  Barbara Stanwyck was one of the most gifted actresses of the 1930’s and 1940’s.  She usually played strong-willed independent women, or proud women fighting intense odds to succeed or find love.  She did few comedies and just as few westerns.  This tale of the sharp shooting Annie Oakley was her first western.  It is a pleasantly entertaining studio star vehicle and her leading men — Preston Foster and Melvyn Douglas — were often the leads for the great lady Stars of the time.  With:  Moroni Olsen, Andy Clyde and Chief Thundercloud as Sitting Bull.  Notes:  Screenplay by Joel Sayre and Derek N. Twist.  Cinematography by Roy Hunt.  

ANOTHER WOMAN.  1988, 81minutes.  Psychological Drama.  V-3946.  Directed by Woody Allen.  An accomplished philosophy professor feels compelled to take emotional stock of her life when she turns 50.  Her quest for truth causes leads to a personal odyssey of self-examination, discovery and acceptance, but also leads to the general unraveling of her present lifestyle.  Allen during his most Bermanesque period.  He even makes use of Bergman’s great cameraman, Sven Nykvist to elicit the mood and atmosphere he wants.  Gena Rowlands as Marion Post, Mia Farrow as Hope, Ian Holm as Ken Post, Blythe Danner as Lydia, Gene Hackman as Larry, Betty Buckley as Kathy, Martha Plimpton as Laura Post, John Houseman as Marion’s Dad, Sandy Dennis as Claire, David Ogden Stiers as young Marion’s Dad, Philip Bosco as Sam, Harris Yulin as Paul and Bruce Jay Friedman as Mark.  Notes:  Screenplay by Woody Allen.  Cinematography by Sven Nykvist.  Produced by Robert Greenhut.  Box office gross: $1, 563, 000

ANTHONY ADVERSE.  1936.  135 minutes.  Historical Romance.  Frederic March.  <V3327>.  Directed by Mervyn Leroy.  Frederic March is Anthony Adverse in this is fairly diverting filmization of Hervey Allen’s hugely popular 1930s novel about the bastard son of a corrupt Spanish nobleman, who grows up in a Catholic orphanage and, later, becomes the beloved ward of a Scottish merchant [who unknown to him, is his mother’s father].  The action is evenly paced with scenes in such diverse places as Cuba, the African slave coast and Spain’s Mediterranean trading coast. Romance is provided by Adverse’s love for the daughter of his benefactor’s servant, who bears him a son after their marriage.  When they are separated for a number of years she becomes a great opera star, and a mistress of Bonaparte. Also with: Olivia de Havilland as Angela Guisseppi, Claude Rains as Don Luis, Edmund Gwenn as John Bonnyfeather, Louis Hayward as Denis Moore, Akim Tamiroff as Carlo Ciba, Anita Louise as Maria, Donald Woods ad Vincent Nolte, and Gale Sondergaard as Faith Paleologus.  Notes:  Based on the best selling novel by Hervey Allen.  Music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.  Cinematography by Gaetano Gaudio.  Academy Awards for best cinematography, editing, musical score and best supporting actress [for Sondergaard, the first recipient of this Oscar].  Nominated for best picture.

ANTZ.  1998.  87 minutes.  Animated Comedy.  Ants.  Directed by Eric Darnell and Lawrence Guterman.  Woody Allen is the voice of the amusingly neurotic worker ant Z-4195 and Sharon Stone that of the feisty Princess Bala in this very charming and entertaining animated feature from DreamWorks.  The idea about doing a comic animated film with insects as the characters was alleged to have been a work in progress that DreamWorks exec Steven Katz ripped-off [the equally entertaining  A Bug’s Life which was released later to equal success] when he left Disney.  Whatever the case, Antz is a witty comedy and satire thanks to the cleverly written script Todd Alcott and Chris Weitz and the expert and professional delivery of the actors whose voices are the characters.  Z-4195 could have been a character written by Allen, in fact, this may be the first real ensemble casting of an animated feature.  Antz is a cartoon for adults [though children should find it thoroughly enjoyable].  The animation in Antz is first rate, it’s a remarkably good looking film.  The rest of the voices are fun to hear and readily identifiable especially Gene Hackman as General mandible, Sylvester Stallone a Weaver, Christopher Walken as Colonel Cutter, and Danny Glover as Barbados.  Also with:  Dan Ackroyd as Chip, Jane Curtin as Muffy, Anne Bancroft as the Queen, Jennifer Lopez as Azteca, John Mahone as the drunk scout, Grant Shaud as the foreman and Paul Mazursky as the psychologist.  Notes:  Original music by Gavin Greenaway, Harry Gregson-Williams, Steve Jablonsky, John Powell and Geoff Zanelli.  Edited by Stan Webb.  Box-office gross: US $90,700,000/   International $77,600,000

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY.  1999.  162 minutes.   Football Drama.  Sports and Athletes.  Sports Drama.  Professional Sports.  Directed by Oliver Stone.  Tony D’Amato, legendary pro football coach has some problems.  His team, the Miami Sharks is on a three game losing skein and his boss, ambitious young team owner and general manager, Christina Pagniacci, is becoming demanding about a win and maybe after the coach to quit.  Adding to his problem, during the game to avoid losing a fourth straight game the team’s quarterback goes down as does his backup.  D’Amato is forced to used third string QB Willie Beamen.  Beamen, anxious to start but inexperienced has to overcome his game day jitters and disdain for the team’s playbook.  Any Given Sunday is one of the most testosterone driven sports movies ever made.  It’s over the edge energy is almost overwhelming.  For a movie without huge special effects, it’s a remarkably loud film, full of high test Sunday afternoon action.  The Sharks are a team in crisis, a crisis revolving around  the conflict between an old school coach, a new age demanding manager, and a gifted, frustrated young black quarterback who thinks me first.  In the end ‘the game’ wins of course, but Stone and his crew headed by Al Pacino as D’Amato.  The film is entertaining but probably only to those among us who are sports fans and junkies.  Stone has cast an array of former NFL players and coaches in key supporting roles and cameos, and the actors selected look as buff as the jocks.  Cameron Diaz plays Christina Pagniacci –playing hard to be the boy her daddy wanted.  Dennis Quaid is Jack “Cap” Rooney the damaged QB, James Woods  is team doctor Harvey Mandrake [long without a deep conscience] and Jim Brown is Montezuma Monroe the driven Defensive coordinator.  The best performance in the film belongs to the surprisingly gifted comic actor Jamie Foxx.  Foxx is ferociously determined and single-minded as Willie Beamen.  His arrogance is both a badge and a shield to protect himself, all of which makes his performance utterly believable.  He’s effective in all of his scenes especially when he’s with Pacino and Lela Rochon [who plays his girl Vanessa Struthers].  Also with:  Matthew Modine as Dr. Allie Powers, Charlton Heston as The Commissioner, Ann-Margret as Margaret Pagniacci, Aaron Eckhart as Nick Crozier, John McGinley as Jack Rose, Lauren Holly as Cindy  Rooney, Lawrence Taylor as Luther ‘Shark’ Lavay, Bill Bellamy as Jimmy Sanderson, Clifton Davis as Mayor Tyrone Smalls, and Elizabeth Berkley as Mandy Murphy.  Notes:  Screenplay by John Logan and Oliver Stone.  Cinematography by Salvatore Totino.  Music by Richard Horowitz, Camara Kambon, Paul Kelly and Robbie Robertson.  Available on DVD.  Box-office gross:  $75,500,000 U. S. & $19,700,000 International.

ANY WEDNESDAY.  1966.  109 minutes.  Romantic Comedy.  Theatrical Plays.  Directed by Robert Ellis Miller.  Jane Fonda is Ellen Gordon, the beautiful, bubbly mistress of  the philandering executive John Cleeves.  Cleeves has one day of the week on his calendar for Ellen, every Wednesday, and he’s happy with the arrangement young Cass Henderson comes along and gums up the works by falling for Ellen.  Fonda recreates a role that Sandy Dennis played on Broadway.   There is nothing especially memorable about this sort of variation on The Apartment.  With:  Jason Robards as John Cleeves, Dean Jones as Cass Henderson, Rosemary Murphy as Dorothy Cleeves, Ann Prentiss as Miss Linsley, Jack Fletcher as Felix.  Notes:  Written for the screen and produced by Julius J. Epstein from the play by Muriel Resnik.  Music composed and conducted by George Duning.  Photography by Harold Lipstein.

THE APARTMENT.  1960.  126 minutes.  Sexual Comedy Drama.  Billy Wilder.  <V1708>.  Directed by Billy Wilder.    C.C. Baxter is a bachelor with a nice apartment in the city.  He is also low man on his corporate office totem pole.  Baxter sees a way up the ladder by making his “pad” available to other execs in the firm for trysts with their young “dates.”  Everything works out fine until Baxter falls for one of the more intelligent and independent girls.  This film has a hard, nasty edge to it.  Very few of the characters in the film are likeable.  The viewer is entertained by watching guys at the top treating everybody else contemptuously.  Its a strong, well acted film but not for every taste.  With:  Jack Lemmon, Fred MacMurray, Shirley MacLaine, Ray Walston, Jack Kruschen, and Edie Adams.  Note:  The screenplay was by Wilder and his most frequent collaborator I.A.L. Diamond for which they won an Oscar.  The film also won Academy Awards for best picture, director, editing (Daniel Mandell), and art direction (Alexander Trauner and Edward G. Boyle).  Oscar nominations for best actor (Lemmon) actress (MacLaine), supporting actor (Kruschen) and sound.  Photography by Joseph LaShelle was also nominated.  Box-office gross:  $6,604,708.

APACHE.  1954.  91 minutes.  Westerns.  Burt Lancaster.  Western Fiction.  Apache Warriors.  Directed by Robert Aldrich.  Burt Lancaster is Massai, a lone Apache warrior who escapes the train taking the defeated warriors of Geronimo to reservations in Florida.  The proud, noble warrior endures much to maintain his freedom at whatever cost.  Handsomely produced western which portrays interestingly non-stereotypical Indian characters.  With:  Jean Peters, John Dehner, Paul Guilfoyle, Walter Sande, Ian MacDonald, Charles Buchinsky [who would change his name to Bronson], John McIntire, Morris Ankrum, and Monte Blue.  Notes:  Screenplay by James R. Webb from the novel Bronco Apache by Paul I. Wellman.  Photographed by Ernest Laszlo.  Music by David Raksin.  Produced by Harold Hecht.

APPEARING NITELY.  1992.  72 minutes.  Lily Tomlin.  Comedy Sketches.  Stage production [1979] directed by Jane Wagner.  This is a film version of Tomlin’s Tony winning stage performance.  These extended excerpts from the show were filmed at the Huntington Hartford Theater, Los Angeles.  Tomlin’s improvisational genius is evident in this production as are her acting and emotional range.  The most extended skit is a reminiscence of her life growing up in Detroit — of the rebellious daughter and plain family.  She evokes comic memories of the ’60s — The Beatles, drugs, college, protests and marriage, then come the ’70s. Bonus footage is from the 1977 Tony Awards – I wanted to be a waitress skit and Crystal, Tumbling Tumbleweed, the independent minded roadie quadriplegic and Bobbi-Jeanine cocktail organist, doing Singin’ In the Rain number in 1977.  Notes:  Written by Wagner.  Produced by Tomlin.  Additional material by Cynthia Buchanan and Patricia Resnick.  Staged by George Boyd for HBO and directed for TV by Wendy Apple.

APOCALYPSE NOW.  1979.  153  minutes.  Vietnamese Conflict Drama.  Francis Ford Coppola.  Joseph Conrad, Adaptations.  <V128>.  Directed by Francis Ford Coppola.  An American officer is sent into the deepest jungles of Vietnam in search of a renegade American officer conducting counter-insurgency activities with natives without authority from the military command.  This parable, based loosely on Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”, is emotionally and aesthetically thrilling if somewhat bogus in its insights of the Vietnam war.  Coppola’s grand opera like staging of the scenes, and his use of startling, grandiose film images and flourishes make it an extremely interesting cinematic experience.  The film’s lush, rich photography, by Vittorio Storaro won an Academy Award.  With:  Martin Sheen as Capt. Willard, Marlon Brando as Col. Kurtz Robert Duvall as Lt. Col. Kilgore, Frederic Forrest as Chef, Sam Bottoms as Lance, Laurence Fishburne as clean, Dennis Hopper as the photojournalist, and Harrison Ford, Scot Glenn, G. D. Spradlin.  Notes: Academy Award nominations for best picture, supporting actor (Duvall), director, screenplay [by Michel Herr, John Milieus and Coppola], art/set decoration [Angelo Graham and George R. Nelson], and editing [Richard Marks].  Music by Coppola and Carmine Coppola.  Won the sound recording Oscar.  Box-office gross:  $37,980,163.

APRIL IN PARIS.  1952.  100 minutes.  Musical Comedy.  Doris Day.  Ray Bolger.  Directed by David Butler.  Doris Day, Ray Bolger, Claude Dauphin.  A slip up by a State Department bureaucrat creates a problem – in a cultural exchange with France, State had planned to send Ethel Barrymore to Paris but somehow, showgirl Dynamite Jackson is chosen.  S. Winthrop Putnam is the poor State Department schmuck responsible for the gaff, so he’s sent along to Paris to clear up the mess.  On the way, he and the svelte chanteuse fall in love.  One of the brightly colored light musicals from Warner Brothers in the early ‘50s which made Doris Day a big star.  The inimitable Ray Bolger is the hapless Putnam.  Not much to recommend this movie except the dancing of the two stars.  With:  Claude Dauphin as Phillipe Fouquet, John Alvin as Tracy, George Givot as Francois, Paul Harvey as Secretary Sherman, Eve Miller as Marcia.  Notes:  Musical numbers staged and directed by LeRoy Prinz.  Screenplay by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson.  Cinematography by Wilfrid M. Cline.  Songs include April In Paris and I’m Gonna Ring the Bell Tonight.

THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ.  1977.  121 minutes.  Social Drama.  Canadians.  Novel Into Film.  Jews in Montreal.  Canadian Literature.  Directed by Ted Kotcheff.  Richard Dreyfuss gives an inventively aggressive performance as the ambitious young Canadian Jew, Duddy Kravitz in this 1977 film. Duddy Kravitz is a young Montreal Jew on the make.  He wants desperately to become a big time dealer.  Duddy tries his hand at everything to succeed.  When he finds a perfect site for a resort (through his gentile girl friend), Duddy’s desire to get the land knows no bounds.  He alienates his cultured, rich uncle and friends.  With:  Micheline Lanctôt as Yvette, Jack Warden as Max, Randy Quaid as Virgil, Joseph Wiseman as Uncle Benjy, Denholm Elliott as Friar, Henry Ramer as Dingleman, Joe Silver as Farber, Zvee Scooler as Grandfather, Robert Goodier as Calder and Allan Rosenthal as Lenny.  Notes:  Written by Lionel Chetwynd from the novel by Mordecai Richler.  Original music by Stanley Myers.  Cinematography by Brian West.  Academy Award nomination for best screenplay adaptation.

APT PUPIL.  1998.  111 minutes.  Melodrama.  Former Nazis.  American Popular Fiction.  Stephen King.  Directed by Bryan Singer.  Todd Bowden is a bright young high school boy who has developed a fascination with the Holocaust and Nazis during the week the subjects are discussed in his history class.  Intuitive and intelligent, he begins following a old man whom he discovers may have been a former Nazi.  Kurt Dussander has been in the U.S. for nearly fifty years living a quiet life until the boy forces his way into his humdrum life.  The boy uses his knowledge about Dussander’s past to extort more and more information about the things he did, and saw in the death camps.  The old man if forced to comply.  Todd’s life at school begins to suffer as a consequence which leads to an opening for Dussander to gain the upper hand.  Tight, well acted, thriller about a young man’s obsession with the horrors of the holocaust, an obsession which turns into some kind of worshipful awe of the power of life and death men like Dussander held over their hopeless victims.  Brad Renfro gives an intense, convincing performance, holding his own with the skillful work of Ian McKellen as the cunning old man.  Also with:  Joshua Jackson as Joey, Ann Dowd as Monica Bowden, Bruce Davison as Richard Bowden, James Karen as Victor Bowden, Marjorie Lovett as Agnes Bowden, Heather McComb as Becky Trask, Mickey Cotrell as the sociology teacher, Elias Koteas as Archie, and David Schwimmer as Edward French.  Notes:  Screenplay by Brandon Boyce from a story by Stephen King.  Music by John Ottman.  Cinematography by Tom Sigel.  Box-office gross:  $8,800,000 U.S./$1,500,000 International.

ARABESQUE.  1966.  107 minutes.  Espionage Drama.  Romantic Intrigue.  Gregory Peck.  Sophia Loren.  Directed by Stanley Donen.  Gregory Peck is David Pollock and Sophia Loren is Yasmin Azir in this fairly charming espionage romp.  David Pollock is an American anthropologist teaching at Oxford who is recruited by a Middle Eastern leader to investigate the mysterious death of an Arab scholar.  The plot gets thoroughly convoluted and the screenplay misses its reach sometimes by trying to be too clever, but its a pleasant way to expend 90 plus minutes.  Loren is a dazzling comic actress and more than lightens the proceedings.  Silly, lovely star vehicle, smoothly helmed by Donen.  With:  Alan Badel as Besharaavi, Kieron Moore as Yussef, Carl Duering as Hassan Jena, John Merivale as Sloane, Duncan Lamont as Webster, George Coulouris as Ragheeb, Harold Kasket as Mohammed Lufti, and Ernest Clark as Beauchamp.  Notes:  Screenplay by Pierre Marton, Julian Mitchell and Stanley Price from the novel by Gordon Cotler.  Cinematography by Christopher Challis.  Music by Henry Mancini.  

THE ARISTOCATS.  1964.  79 minutes.  Animated Comedy.  Walt Disney Productions.  Directed by Wolfgand Reitherman.  Not classic Disney, but apparently a film well loved by a number of the fans of Disney animated features.  The story is that of a dastardly butler’s attempts to defraud a wealthy Parisian widow’s cats of their due inheritance.  His attempts to kidnap Duchess the cat and her kittens is thrawted by the smart alley cat O’Malley and his buddies.  With the voices of Phil Harris as O’Malley, Eva Gabor as Duchess, Scatman Crothers as Scat Cat, Paul Winchell as Chinese Cat, Lord Tim Hudson as English Cat, Vito Scotti as Italian Cat, Thurl Ravenscroft as Russian Cat, and with Dean Clark, Liz English, Gary Dudin and Nancy Kulp, Pat Buttram, and Hermione Baddeley.   Notes:  Story by Larry Clemmons, Vance Gerry, Ken Anderson, Frank Thomas, Eric Cleworth, Julius Svendsen ana Ralph Wright.  Directing Animators:  Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and John Lounsbery.  Music by George Bruns.

ARIZONA BUSHWHACKERS.  1967.  87 minutes.  Western.  Directed by Lesley Selander.  Colton, Arizona is getting a new sheriff, an ex-Confederate soldier named Lee Travis.  The idea has the town in an uproar, especially the boss of the local gang.  A  Professional western with a damned good cast of solid old professionals and good location photography.  The story also relates an interesting footnote to Civil War history.  In 1862 Lincoln authorized an arrangement where imprisoned Confederate soldiers could gain their release by volunteering for service on the frontier as Indian fighters or as deputy marshals and sheriffs in far flung western towns like the one depicted in the this film  With:  Howard Keel as Lee Travis, Yvonne De Carlo as Jill Wyler, John Ireland as Dan Shelby, Marilyn Maxwell as Molly, Scott Brady as Tom Rile, Brian Donlevy as Mayor Smith, Barton MacLane as Sheriff Grover, James Craig as Ike Clanton, Roy Rogers Jr. as Roy, Reg Parton as Curly, Montie Montana as Stage Driver and, Eric Cody as Bushwhacker.  Note: Photography by Lester Shore.  Music by Jimmie Haskell.  Screenplay by Steve Fisher from a story by Fisher and Andrew Craddock.  Produced by A.C. Lyles.  The narrator is the inimitable Jimmy Cagney.

ARIZONA STAGECOACH.  1942.  58 minutes.  Westerns.  Range Busters Series.  Directed by Ray Luby.  Ray Corrigan, John King, and Max Terhune are the Range Busters in this entry in a popular B series from the late ’30s and early ’40s.  The story in this entry in the series revolves around the rangers’ trying to find out who’s been robbing the Wells Fargo coaches with such regularity.  They stage a robbery to trap the real villain — the local Wells Fargo agent.  Also with:  Nell O’Day, Charles King, Roy Harris, Kermit Maynard, Carl Mathews, Slim Whitaker, Slim Harkey, Steve Clark, and Frank Ellis.  Notes:  Photography by Robert Cline.  Story by Arthur Hoerl.  Quality of tape is only fair.  Recorded at extended play and may not pause or search on some machines.

ARMAGEDDON.  1998.  150 minutes.  Science Fiction Action Melodrama.  Directed by Michael Bay.  This big, noisy, flag waving film about an asteroid about to smash into earth was released in the summer of ’98 not long after the earlier release of the more restrained drama  Deep Impact.  Armageddon has no pretensions to serious or weighty themes, its purely about sending disparate and raunchy batch of heroes up into space to kick the hell out of the asteroid barreling towards mother earth.  With Bruce Willis playing one of his no-nonsense kind of leads, the film accomplishes all it sets out to do and in damned boisterous fashion too.  Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck are the love interest [very striking pair] with Tyler playing Grace Stamper, Harry’s savvy, independent minded daughter and Affleck is A. J. Frost, a young version of Harry the iconoclast.  If you take the loudness and the souped-up gung-ho posturing you’ll probably enjoy this thing.  With:  Billy Bob Thornton as Dan Truman, Will Patton as Charles “Chick” Chapple, Steve Buscemi as Rockhound, Peter Stormare as Lev Andropov, Owen Wilson as Oscar Choi, Keith David as Gen. Kimsey, Chris Ellis as Walter Clark, Jason Isaacs as Ronald Quincy, Ken Hudson Campbell as Max Lennart, William Fichtner as Col. William Sharp, and Jessica Steen as co-pilot Jennifer Watts.  Notes:  Story by Jonathan Hensleigh and Robert Roy Pool.  Screen adaptation by Tony Gilroy, Shane Salerno, Jonathan Hensleigh and Jeffrey Abrams.  Original music by Trevor Rabin with additional music by Harry Gregson-Williams.  Cinematography by John Schwartzman.  Box-office gross: $201,578,182

ARMY OF DARKNESS.  1992.  77 minutes.  Horror Comedy.  Black Comedy.  Directed by Sam Raimi.  Alternate title:  Evil Dead:  The Army of Darkness.  Bruce Campbell is the stalwart, bemused hero Ash [for Ashley J. Williams, an erstwhile clerk in a S-Mart superstore] in this, the third in Sam Raimi, Sci-fi, horror, black comedies.  Ash is literally dropped into this mythic past where he is totally out of place.  Raimi shamelessly debunks a melange of genres while enjoying using whatever effects, tone, and style necessary to do so. Bruce Campbell’s smart-ass, anachronistic Ash is the good-humored center of all  the action.  With:  Embeth Davidtz as Sheila/Evil Sheila, Marcus Gilbert as Arthur, Ian Abercrombie as Wiseman, Richard Grove as Duke Henry, Michael Earl Reid as Gold Tooth, Don Campbell as Fake Shemp, Deke Anderson 1st Tiny Ash, Bridget Fonda as Linda, William Lustig as Fake Shemp.  Notes:  Screenplay by Sam  Raimi.  Cinematography by Bill Pope.  Music by Danny Elfman and Joseph Lo Duca.  Box-office gross:  $11,500,000.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS.  1956.  171 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Novel Into film.  Jules Verne.  <V2128>.  Directed by Michael Anderson.  Mike Todd’s grandiose film  based on Jules Verne’s classic action/adventure novel about the redoubtable Phineas Fogg, who, on a bet at his private club says he can go around the world in 80 days — in a hot air balloon.  David Niven is Fogg, Cantinflas is his man servant, and Shirley MacLaine is the girl.  The guest cast reads like a who’s who in Hollywood — Marlene Dietrich, Ronald Colman, Sir John Gielgud, Beatrice Lillie, Peter Lorre, Frank Sinatra and, as huge, 1950s spectacles often claimed, many more!!.  Note:  This film has dated some.  It also has a slightly unpleasant side — Niven plays Fogg as almost unbearably smug and condescending — it may not be noticed by young viewers who might enjoy the film.  It’s length may also be a problem for children.  Notes:  The screenplay by James Poe, John Farrow and S. J Perelman won an Academy Award.  The film also won Oscars for best picture, score (Victor Young), editing (Gene Ruggiero and Paul Weatherwax) and cinematography (Lionel Lindon).  Box-office gross:  $23,120,000.

THE ARRANGEMENT.  1969.  126 minutes  Romantic Melodrama.  American Popular Fiction.  Advertising.  Kirk Douglas.  Directed by Elia Kazan.  Kirk Douglas is Eddie Anderson.  Eddie Anderson, ace advertising man tries to kill himself while driving his flashy sports car on the L. A. freeway.  The man who seems to have everything is undergoing a crisis of spirit and values – the prototypical mid-life crisis of the successful, upper middle class American male.  Eddie Anderson, who had, in the time honored tradition, Anglicized his Greek name to succeed in the WASP world of high-powered, big money advertising has plenty of devils to fight.  He has come to hate what his work does and immediately after the accident, turns on the very ideas that had made him so successful.  He is alienated by his proud, beautiful trophy of a wife.  And, initially, he does everything he can to alienate his mistress [who would become the mother of his only son].  The story is told in layers of flashbacks, probably Kazan’s acknowledgment to the jump cutting style made fashionable by Richard Lester with his Beatles film.  The Arrangement, adapted by Kazan from his novel of the same name, is a fairly self-indulgent exercise.  Kirk Douglas, though quite kinetic and charismatic as the hero, is portraying a largely unpleasant character and characterization.   This is one of the earliest screen incarnations of the me generation on the screen.  With:  Deborah Kerr as Florence Anderson, Faye Dunaway as Gwen, Richard Boone as Sam, Hume Cronyn as Arthur, Michael Higgins as Michael, John Randolph Jones as Charles, Carol Rossen as Gloria, Ann Hergira As Thomna, William Hansen as Dr. Weeks, Charles- Drake as Finnegan, and Harold Gould as Dr. Leibman.  Notes:  Photographed by Robert Surtees.  Music composed and conducted by David Amram.  Screenplay by Elia Kazan from his novel of the same name.

THE ARRIVAL.  1996.  115 minutes.  Science Fiction.  Directed by David N. Twohy.  Zane Ziminutes.ki, a radio telescope operator in Arizona starts witnessing some strange transmissions from out of space.  When he reports the findings to his boss, he’s ordered to drop it.  He doesn’t and is fired but is inspired enough to continue to pursue the signals on his own.  His efforts leads him to a remote site, deep in Mexico, where he meets a beautiful American scientist Ilana Green, who has been drawn to the place by the same signals.  The couple finds themselves in the middle of an invasion by aliens.  Reasonably entertaining sci-fi melodrama that focuses attention on the kind of mania and paranoia lone observers might undergo before things work out.  With:  Charlie Sheen as Ziminutes.ki, Lindsay Crouse as Ilana Green, Richard Schiff as Calvin, Ron Silver as Gordian, Teri Polo as Char, Phyllis Applegate as Mrs. Roosevelt, Alan Coates as Terraformer, Leon Rippy as DOD #1, buddy Joe Hooker as DOD #2.  Notes:  Written by David N. Twohy.  Original music by Arthur Kempel.  Cinematography by Hiro Narita.  Box-office gross:  $14,000,000.

ARROWHEAD.  1953.  105 minutes.  Western.  Charlton Heston.  Western Literature.  W. R. Burnett.  Apache Wars.  Directed by Charles Marquis Warren.  Charlton Heston plays a veteran army scout whose bitterness against the Apaches is believed to be a detriment to the Army’s plans for making peace with the warring tribesmen.  When the rebellious and embittered son of the chief returns from an Indian school in the East, his return is seen as the return of mythical warrior from “out of the East” by his people.  The scout’s prophecy of treachery proves true.  Despite his constant warnings that the Apache are treacherous and do not really want peace, a troop of soldiers is sent out to parlay and gallop into a deadly ambush.  Hard edged, action packed western melodrama with Heston heading a professional, capable cast that includes:  Jack Palance, Katy Jurado, Brian Keith, Mary Sinclair, Milburn Stone, Lewis Martin, Frank de Kova, Robert Wilke.  Notes:  Screenplay by Charles Marquis Warren from the novel by W. R. Burnett.  Photographed by Ran Hennahan.

ARROWSMITH.  1931.  95 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Novel Into Film.  Sinclair Lewis.  John Ford.  Ronald Colman.  Helen Hayes.  <V1046>.  Directed by John Ford from a screenplay by Sidney Howard.  Story:  Sinclair Lewis’ novel about a fine young doctor’s confrontation with tragedy and personal traumas after he and his wife travel to a disease ridden island in the West Indies.  John Ford’s films of the 1930s and 1940s were marvels of well crafted movie expertise.  Arrowsmith is especially fine largely because of the consummate and professional acting led by the elegant Ronald Colman.  With:  Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy, Richard Bennett and Russell Hopton.  Notes:  Screenplay by Sidney Howard.  Cinematography by June Ray.  Oscar nominations included best picture, screenplay cinematography, and interior decoration.

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.  1942.  118 minutes.  Black Comedy.  Screwball Comedy.  Cary Grant.  Frank Capra.  Theatrical Plays.  <V1268>.  Directed by Frank Capra from a screenplay by Joseph and Philip G. Epstein.  Story:  Two dear old ladies induce elderly, lonely men into their Brooklyn home only, in perfect innocence, to poison them with elderberry wine.  This is a very hectic black comedy based on the hit play by Joseph Kesselring.  The film’s producers felt that while the War (WW II) was on the public might not accept a dark comedy about death.  They were not certain, in fact, that the finished product would sell.  They were right in box-office terms to wait — the film, when released was a huge popular success. Cary Grant, as Mortimer Brewster, is at his most frantic in this celebrated if somewhat overrated Capra film.  With Josephine Huddleston and Jean Adair as the dear serial killers aunt Abbey and Martha Brewer, Raymond Massey as the murderous cousin Jonathan, john Alexander as the wacky “Teddy Roosevelt” Brewster [ever charging around the house like its San Juan Hill], and the lovely Priscilla Lane as Mortimer’s betrothed, Elaine Harper.  The rest of the impressive cast  includes Jack Carson as Officer O’Hara, Peter Lorre as Dr. Einstein, Edward Everett Horton as Mr. Witherspoon, James Gleason as Lt. Rooney and Chester Clute as R. Gilchrist.  Note: The actual release date was in 1944.  Cinematography by Sol Polito.  Music by Max Steiner.  

ARTHUR.  1981.  93 minutes.  Romantic Comedy.  <V633>. Directed and written by Steve Gordon.  The scion and only heir of a fabulously wealthy family is a charming man — and a complete and total lush.  While shopping at a swank New York store he meets and falls in love with a young woman caught shop lifting.  This film was a total surprise to everyone when it was released.  Gordon’s fine, funny script was a perfect vehicle for the curious shticks of the film’s leading man Dudley Moore.  This is clearly his best performance and his best film.  The film is filled with funny good oddball types just as the 1930’s screwball classics the film salutes.  It provided Lisa Minelli with her most likeable role in some time.  The film’s chief asset is the marvelously funny performance by John Gielgud as Arthur’s butler, valet, and best friend.  It’s a marvel of understated, civilized acting and one of the most well deserved Oscars (best supporting actor) ever awarded.  With:  Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ted Ross, Jill Eikenberry, Steven Elliott, and Barney Martin.  Note:  This was Gordon’s first and only feature.  He died the next year.  The film’s pretty song “The Best That You Can Do” also won an Oscar for Christopher Cross.  Gordon was nominated for best screenplay.  Box-office gross: $42,000,000.

THE ART OF BUSTER KEATON.  Kino On Video has produced for distribution on video an incredible collection of the films of the great silent clown, Buster Keaton.  The series, three volumes of collected titles,  includes all of his full length features and many of the best shorter works.  The titles included:

Volume I [Tape No. 1]

• The Saphead.  1920.  93 minutes / 7 reels.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Herbert Blaché.  Buster Keaton is Bertie “The Lamb” Van Alstyne, good natured, slightly spoiled and in love.  No matter what he does, Bertie seems to sail smoothly through life until he is falsely framed of an illicit love affair by his devious, ambitious brother-in-law.  This comedy, a great stage success for Douglas Fairbanks, was Keaton’s first major full-length feature.  It’s a charming film though Buster’s stoic persona doesn’t quite match this particular type as well as Douglas [though his later variations on the type would be very fine indeed] who had perfected this kind of naïve sophisticate before he became the star of adventure films in the ‘20s.  Keaton is much more in his element when the role requires him to defy the laws of nature and gravity with his physical comedy.  With:  William H. Crane as Nicholas Van Alstyne, Irving Cummings Sr. As Mark Turner, Carol Holloway as Rose Turner, Beulah booker as Agnes Gates, Edward Alexander as Watson Flint, Jeffrey Williams as Hutchins, Edward Jobson as Rev. Murray Hilton, Jack Livingston as Dr. George Wainright, Helen Holte as Henrietta Reynolds and Odette Taylor as Mrs. Cornelia Opdyke.  Notes:  Written by June Mathis from the play by Bronson Howard and the novel by Victor Mapes and Winchell Smith.  Cinematography by Harold Wenstrom.

• The High Sign.  1921.  21 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline.  Quite by accident, Buster falls in with a group of murdering thugs and kidnappers known as the Blinking Buzzards.  Typically funny Keaton short where the physicals gags pile up on one another in rapid fire fashion.  Al St. John is another of those huge comic foils that are perfect counterpoint to the short but athletic Keaton.  There are some wonderful moments when the bad guys give chase to the hero through the mansion belonging the heroine’s father.  With:  Buster Keaton, Bertine Burkett Zane and Al St. John.  Notes:  Written by Cline and Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

• One Week.  1921.  19 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Buster Keaton and Eddie Cline.  Buster and his new bride proudly set about business of building their dream house – a prefab job with wacky instructions.  The couple weather their own incompetence and the elements in getting the house in order.  By the end of the week, they have suffered every kind of accident and disaster possible trying to build and live in their ‘cozy’ little cottage.  Very funny short.  With:  Buster Keaton, Sybil Seely and Joe Roberts.  Notes:  Written by Keaton and Cline.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Edited by Keaton.  Produced by Joseph Schenck.

Volume I [Tape No. 2].

• The Three Ages.  1923.  65 minutes. / 6 reels.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  <V340>. Directed by Eddie Cline and Keaton.  Man and woman through the ages as seen through the eyes of Buster Keaton.  The film is Keaton’s first full-length feature and is an irreverent satire of D.W. Griffith’s misguided masterpiece Intolerance.  In Keaton’s film, the hero tries to win the hand of the girl in different epochs of man — during the Roman Empire; in the age of Cave men, and in a the roaring ’20s.  A happy ending is had by film’s end in each segment.  A very auspicious beginning in full length features for the “great stone face.”  With:  Wallace Beery, Margaret Leahy, Joe Roberts, Lillian Lawrence, and Horace Morgan. Notes:  Screenplay by Clyde Bruckman, Jean Havez, and Joseph Mitchell.  Photographed by William McGann and Elgin Lessley.

• The Goat.  1921.  23 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Mal St. Clair and Buster Keaton.  Buster, mistaken for a killer called Dead Shot Dan, is chased all over town by the Chief of police.  When he meets his girl friend, she takes him home for dinner with the folks.  Guess who her dad is.  As usual, this Keaton effort is filled with marvelous examples of his physical prowess.  Joe Roberts (as the police chief], an actor often used in Keaton’s pictures, is a huge man and a wonderful foil and counterpoint to the lithe, athletic Keaton.  They pair off very well together.  With:   Virginia Fox as the Chief’s daughter, Malcolm St. Clair as Dead Shot Dan, Edward F. Cline, and Jean C. Havez.  Notes:  Written by Keaton and St. Clair.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

• My Wife’s Relations.  1922.  25 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Eddie Cline and Buster Keaton.  In this film, Buster is an amiable young man living in the ethnically mixed ghetto of a big city, who, when he tries to escape a little accident with a postman literally runs into trouble with a plumb matron at a street corner.  The lady takes him off to justice of the peace who, speaking only Polish, thinks the unlikely couple wants to marry.  Buster finds himself bullied by his spouse’s collection of brothers and her pa.  Typical Keaton entertainment with plenty of good physical gags.  With:  Joe Price, Joe Roberts, Wheezer Dell, Tom Wilson and Monte Collins.  Notes:  Written by Cline and Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

Volume I [Tape No. 3].

• Sherlock Jr.  1924.  56 minutes. / 5 reels.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Satire.  Directed by Buster Keaton.  Buster Keaton is a motion picture operator, falsely accused by his girl’s father of having stolen a watch.  The actual thief, had stolen and pawned the watch and slipped it into Buster’s pocket when it was discovered missing.  Distraught, the hero, tries to find ways to fix the situation.  While working in the projection booth at his theater during the showing of a romantic drama with a plot line similar to his circumstances.   In a reverie, he becomes enmeshed in the film’s story, the lovers on the screen become his rival and his girl and the situations he faces become those of the film’s characters.  Keaton, more than any of the other great comic artists of the silent era played with the film medium itself but never in more glorious and masterful a fashion as in this film.  It is a marvel of ingenuity and artistry, comedy and wit, style and substance.  Not only is it the greatest of Keaton’s films, it is one of the greatest films ever made.  Absolutely magnificent.   With:  Kathryn McGuire as the girl, Joe Keaton as her father, Ward Crane as the sheik/villain, Erwin Connelly as the butler/handyman, Jane Connelly as the mother, Ford West as the theater manager/Gillette, George Davis, Horace Morgan and John as conspirators and Ruth Holly as the woman in the candy store.  Notes:  Written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean C. Havez, Joseph A. Mitchell.

• Our Hospitality.  1923.    7reels/6,220ft.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  <V2395>.  Directed by Buster Keaton with John Blystone.  A funny satire of some Southern customs particularly feuding and southern hospitality.  The film opens with the deaths of two young men, caught up in a deadly feud whose cause has long been lost in the feuders’ collective memory.  The death of one of the men forces his father to rekindle the feud.  The other man leaves a widow and infant son.  That a film beginning this grimly would turn into one of Buster Keaton’s finest and funniest comedies is a tribute to the man’s genius.  The baby grows into a fine dandy from New York who comes back to the homestead to claim his father’s “estate”.  On the ‘train’ ride home he meets a pretty girl who invites him to dinner with her family.  That is where the fun begins.  Keaton’s physical gags were among the best in silent films.  He doesn’t milk his gags like Chaplin, Lloyd and the other great silent clowns  — he just let them happen.  With Natalie Talmadge, Joe Roberts, Ralph Bushman, Craig Ward, Joe Keaton, and Monte Collins.  Notes:  Story, screenplay and titles by Jean Havez, Joseph Mitchell and Clyde Bruckman.  Photographed by Elgin Lessley and Dev Jennings.

Volume II [Tape No. 1]

• The Navigator.  1924.  75 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Comedy.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Donald Crisp and Buster Keaton.  Just after shipping tycoon John O’Brien decides to sell his liner The Navigator, some spies try to insure that the boat never reaches its new owners.  They rig the ship so that is floats out to sea.  When O’Brien’s daughter Betsy stops by the boat to pick up some papers she finds herself marooned on a ship floating haplessly into oblivion.   Her one companion, wealthy playboy Rollo Treadway, who is delivered to the boat totally by mistake.  The two are faced with endless adventures a the only two denizens of the liner.  Charming comedy from Keaton.  With:  Buster Keaton as Rollo Treadway, Kathryn McGuire as Betsy O’Brien, Frederick Vroom as John O’Brien, Clarence Burton as a Spy, H. M. Clugston as a Spy and Noble Johnson as the Cannibal Chief.  Notes:  Written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean C. Havez, and Joseph A. Mitchell.  Cinematography by Byron Houck and Elgin Lessley.  Edited by Keaton.

• The Boat.  1921.  22 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Comedy.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton.  Buster Keaton, Sybil Seely and Edward F. Cline.   Buster and his family make every effort to lead as comfortable life as possible on his little  houseboat, the Damifino.  Needless to say, Buster and boat are constantly at odds.  Very funny short.  Damifino was a favorite nickname for boats in several Keaton features.  Notes:  Written by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.

• The Love Nest.  1923.  24 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Comedy.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton.  The Love Nest is a boat skippered by rough and tough sailor who ‘executes’ his crew for the flimsiest of mistakes made aboard ship.  When the hapless Buster is lost at sea while making a boat mail run, he is commandeered into service by the tyrannical captain.  Little does the captain understand how resilient his new crew member is.   As usual, Keaton provides some great physical and sight gags.  With:  Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts and Virginia Fox.  Notes:  Written by Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph Schenck.

Volume II [Tape No. 2]

• Seven Chances.  1925.  56 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Comedy.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Buster Keaton.  Buster Keaton is Jimmie Shannon a young stock broker who stands to inherit $7,000,000 if he is married by 7 PM on the day of his 27th birthday.  Jimmie, whose firm is in a real jam, is urged to marry to save he and his partner.  Jimmie’s problem is that he learns of this inheritance on said birthday and must find a bride quickly.  He wants nothing more than to marry Mary, the girl he loves but his proposal is handled so ineptly that she rejects.  His partner decides that he must try asking seven very eligible young socialites to be his wife.  They all refuse until they, and the whole town learn that he’s to inherit the fortune.  All ends well, but not before we are treated with a rich panoply of wonderful physical and visual gags.  One of Keaton’s best, beautifully directed and photographed.  Ruth Dwyer is Mary Brown, T. Roy Barnes is Billy Meekin, Snitz Edwards is an Attorney, Frances Raymond is Mrs. Brown, Jules Cowles is the hired hand, Erwin Connelly is a clergyman, and Jean Arthur is a receptionist.  Notes:  Written by Clyde Bruckman, Jean C. Havez and Joseph A. Mitchell from a play by Roi Cooper Megrue.  Cinematography by Byron Houck and Elgin Lessley.  Edited by Buster Keaton.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

• Neighbors.  1920.  56 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Comedy.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Buster Keaton.  Buster Keaton and Virginia Fox are two young lovebirds kept apart by their feuding parents.  As often is the case, the stunts by Keaton and his comic cast are astonishing, fresh and hilarious.  A very, very funny little known Keaton feature. Joe Roberts, Joe Keaton, Edward F. Cline and James Duffy.  Notes:  Written by Cline and Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

• The Balloonatic.  1923.  22 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Comedy.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Keaton.  Buster finds just about every athletic and outdoor endeavor he tries foiled.  When he is accidentally carried by an hot air balloon from town to a campsite and park he finds nature conspiring against him.  The canoe in this film is called Minnie-Tee-Hee, another naming gag.  The canoe also provides an opportunity for some of the best gags in the film.  June Haver is a delightful heroine in the piece.  Notes:  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Written by Edward F. cline and Buster Keaton.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

Volume II [Tape No. 3]

• Go West.  1925.  69 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Comedy.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Keaton.  Buster Keaton is Friendless, a hapless young man from the Midwest who has ridden the rails westward after finding life back east less than challenging.  He finds himself ‘left’ abruptly in the wide open range at a ranch where he somehow finds work as a hired hand.  The tenderfoot is in over his head on the range.  This is one of the few Keaton films where his physical play and gags are minimized for more pathos.  It’s a wistful, lolling, lovely film, and the tone of the film is enhanced by having shot the film in the California desert – the film has a spaciousness not unlike a John Ford film.  Friendless is befriended by a cow from who’s paw he’d removed a pebble, maybe creating the most interesting ‘romance’ in movie history.  In the end, Friendless is the hero, saving the rancher from ruin, leading a 1000 head of cattle to the stock yards in L. A. !! Classic ending.  With:  Howard Truesdale as the Ranch Owner, Kathleen Myers as the rancher’s daughter, Ray Thompson as the ranch foreman, Buster Keaton as Friendless.  Notes:  Cameo appearances by Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, Joe Keaton and Babe London.  Written by Raymond Cannon from a story by Keaton and Lex Neal.  Cinematography by Bert Haines and Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

• The Scarecrow.  1920.  18 minutes. Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Keaton.  Two roommates vie for everything, food, space, the same girl.  The film is filled with dozens of Rube Goldbergish gadgetry in the boys’ room.  The boys are two farm hands both of whom love the farmer’s daughter.  Every work day is a contest of wills over which of the two she’ll choose.  At one point, Keaton hides in the corn field and pretends to be a scarecrow with the expected results.  Fine and funny.  With:  Buster Keaton as the farmhand, Sybil Seely as the farmer’s daughter, Joe Roberts as the Farmhand, Joe Keaton as the farmer and Edward F. Cline as the preacher.  Notes:  Written by Cline and Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

• The Paleface.  1921.  20 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Keaton.  Keaton goes from being lunch for wild Indians to being their hero when he foils the plot of unscrupulous speculators to rob the Indians of their rights to rich oil wells.  Buster saves the day and wins the Indian princess.  Nifty little comedy with the usual array of funny pratfalls and physical gags.  With:  Buster Keaton and Joe Roberts.  Notes:  Written by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

Volume II [Tape No. 4]

• Battling Butler.  1926.  80 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Comedy.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Buster Keaton.  With:  Buster Keaton stars as Alfred Butler a pampered young millionaire whose father insists that he go off into the wild to gain more stature as a man – the boy is just too soft.  Off Alfred goes, with his devoted valet and all the comforts of home to rough it in the mountains.  Haplessly but inevitably he meets and falls in love with a lovely mountain miss whose huge brother and father disdain the slight Alfred until his valet passes him off as a champion lightweight boxer with the same name. That’s when the real fun begins.   Keaton at his athletic and deadpan best.  A truly charming comedy romance in the vein of Douglas Fairbanks’ wonderful comedies about well-heeled young dandies who gain respect after undergoing comically physical ordeals.  Keaton played this type quite well too – his first full lengthed film, The Saphead, was a similar role, passed up by Fairbanks who readily recommended Keaton.  With:   Sally O’Neil as the mountain girl, Walter James as her father, Budd Fine as her brother, Francis McDonald as Alfred Battling Butler, Mary O’Brien as his wife, Tom Wilson as his trainer, Eddie Borden as his manager and Snitz Edwards as Alfred’s Valet.  Notes:  Written by Al Boasberg, Lex Neal, Charles Henry Smith and Paul Girard Smith.  Cinematography by Bert Haines an Devereaux Jennings.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

• The Frozen North.  1922.  17 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Keaton.  A delightful film, of which only fragments exist. Keaton joyfully deadpans his way through parts satirizing the westerns of William S. Hart and the film villains portrayed by  Erich von Stroheim.  None of the great silent clowns poked as much fun at, or toyed with the medium as often or with the kind of mastery of Keaton.  Episodic as this film is, the technical aspects combined with Keaton’s daringly physical comedy are impressive.  With:  Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Sybil Seely, Bonnie Hill, Freeman Wood, Edward F. Cline.  Notes:  Written by Keaton and Cline.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

• The Haunted House.  1921.  20 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Buster Keaton.  Directed by Keaton and Edward F. Cline.  Buster Keaton plays a bank clerk who, by accident, helps put the bad guys out of business.  The chief clerk at the bank runs a counterfeiting ring and slowly is wiping out the little bank’s funds by trading the bad dollars for the good.  He and his gang are holed up in a big house in town that has been decidedly rigged to scare people off.  The ever resourceful Buster finds himself in the middle of things when the leader of the crooks tries to hang the crime on him.  As per usual, the physical gags are stunning in this trick and gag filled Keaton comedy.  With:  Virginia Fox, Joe Roberts and Edward F. Cline.  Notes:  Written by Edward F. Cline and Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

Volume III [Tape No. 1] 

•  The General.   1927.    82minutes.  /8 reels.  Silent.  <V308>.  Buster Keaton’s films have the look and feel of total Americana.  The handsome stoic “stone” face never changes regardless of the peril or absurdities surrounding him.  He is the penultimate clown as average Joe.  His greatest films reflect his stoic reserve as well as his enormous lack of fear.  He, as did most silent stars, performed all of his own stunts and he essentially designed and directed most of his work as well.  The General may be, after Sherlock Jr., his best.  The General in question is a train and Keaton is a Confederate engineer who helps save the day when he keeps the engine out of the hands of the federals.  The film is unreservedly funny.  A masterpiece.  With Glen Cavender, Jim Farley, Frederick Vroom and Marion Mack as the heroine.  Notes:  Directed by Keaton.  Photographed by J. Devereux Jennings and Bert Haines.  Also available on 16mm and as a single title.

• The Playhouse.  1921.  23 minutes.  Silent.  Directed by Keaton and Edward F. Cline.  A lovely, tongue-in-cheek film in which Buster plays nearly every role.  At an afternoon theatrical matinee Keaton plays most of the cast [all of the members of a vaudeville troupe, all of the musicians and, quite hilariously, a trained chimp!!!], every production and  technical crew member (all of which is corroborated by the playbill which has Buster Keaton’s name at every credit  The topper is that he’s also a couple of members of the audience in the house box seats – a prim and proper lady, a lollipop sucking juvenile and a teetering drunk.  Keaton’s skillful tendency to play with the medium is a joy to behold.  With:  Buster Keaton, Virginia Fox, and Joe Roberts.  Notes:  Written by Keaton and Cline.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.

• Cops.  1922.  18 minutes.  Silent.  Directed by Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton.  Keaton is an earnest young man to whom things just seem to happen to.  After a series hilarious mishaps and misunderstandings, the young man finds himself in the midst of a big parade.  When a radical throws a bomb on the scene, the young man catches it (just as he’s about to light a cigarette).  The young man, in turn rids himself of the bomb, throwing it amongst a parading bunch of policemen.  A hilarious chase ensues.  In his great Life magazine piece on silent comedy, James Agee noted how the great silent clowns  built their comedies as if building an edifice of humor – one gag followed another, each meant to top the other until the filmgoer is becomes hapless with mirth.  Keaton was a master of this kind of comic architecture and Cops is an early embodiment of this theory.  Very, very funny.  With:  Buster Keaton as the Young Man, Joe Roberts as the Police Chief, Virginia Fox as the mayor’s daughter, and Edward F. Cline as a Hobo.  Notes:  Written by Cline and Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.

Volume III [Tape No. 2]

• College.  1927. 66 minutes. [6 reels/5,916 ft.]  Silent.  Collegiate Sports Comedy.  <V345>.  Directed by James Horne.  Buster Keaton plays a college bound bookworm.  At his high school graduation the boy’s commencement address, The Curse of Athletics, he gives a tirade against his peers’ obsession with star athletes and athletic prowess, consequently alienating the girl of his dreams and his chief nemesis – the Saturday hero super jock.  At college he finds that his superior attitude is even less well received and discovers that the only way to win his sweetheart’s hand is to become a star athlete himself.  In the end the brainy klutz wins the girl, but not without many misadventures.  One of Keaton’s least known comedies it is just about as good as the best.  With Ann Cornwall as Mary Haynes the Girl, Flora Bramley as Her Friend, Harold Goodwin as Jeff Brown a Rival, Snitz Edwards as the Dean, Sam Crawford as the Baseball Coach, Florence Turner as A Mother.  Notes:  Screenplay by Carl Harbaugh and Bryan Foy.  Photographed by Dev Jennings and Bert Haines.

• The Electric House.  1922.  23 minutes.  Silent.  Directed by Keaton and Cline.  Buster Keaton, Joe Roberts, Virginia Fox, Joe Keaton, Myra Keaton, and Louis Keaton star in this comedy about a totally electric home.  After graduating from school [trade? High school? College?] Buster’s given a job working in a house filled with electrical gadgets of all kinds.  Push a button and even the bathtub might come to you.  When the man, Keaton won the job over comes to seek revenge on our hero,  the house full of gadgets seem to want to take their revenge too.  Lots of clever gadgetry and gags but not necessarily among the very best of Keaton.  Notes:  Written by Cline and Keaton.  Produced by Schenck.  Photographed by Lessley.

• Hard Luck.  1921.  22 minutes.  Silent.  Directed by Keaton and Cline.    With:  Keaton, Virginia Fox and Joe Roberts as Lizard Lip Luke.  This film was lost for more than 60 years, but it is one of Keaton’s own favorites of his shorts.  A young man, despondent for God-knows-what reason tries to commit suicide in a number of ways all of which end in comic failure.  Somehow he ends up among the society set at a country club where he participates in a fox hunt with the expected consequences.  There are some lovely stunts with the horse during the hunting sequences.  When a bandit, Lip Lizard Luke, and his minions arrive at the country club, Buster must provide some heroics.  The final scene, after the high dive into the pool, has not survived except for a still showing the film’s hero with his Chinese bride and children.  This Keaton has more of the traditional comic pratfalls common to silent film than most of later works would.  Note:  Written by Keaton and Kline.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Joseph M. Schenck.  Restored and re-titled by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill for Thames Silents in association with Raymond Rohauer.

• The Blacksmith.  1922.  21 minutes.  Silent.  Directed by Keaton with Mal St. Clair.  Buster is a blacksmith’s disaster prone assistant in this film which also features Joe Roberts as the smithy and Virginia Fox is a pretty miss who happens by [when Buster finds that the lady’s horse needs shoes, he asks the opinion of the horse, who, of course nods its approval or disapproval.  The horse has fittings just like any stylish miss looking for something to meet  her eye.  It’s a wonderful gag, not in the least bit overdone].  The hapless hopeful apprentice is, ultimately chased by his boss and angry customers.  Some nice physical gags and ingenious editing propel this Keaton entry along.  Notes:  Written by Keaton and St. Clair.  Photographed by Elgin Lessley.  Produced by Raymond Rohauer and Joseph M. Schenck.

Volume III [Tape No. 3] 

• Steamboat Bill, Jr. 1928.  69 minutes. [7 reels/6,400ft.].  Silent.  Directed by Charles F. Reisner.  Buster Keaton’s films are glories of simplicity and humor.  A steamboat owner in River Junction is being pressured by the richest man in town to give up his boat, the Stonewall Jackson.  He’s almost forced into bankruptcy.  When he discovers that his college educated son is coming to visit he expects an ally to help him combat the town big shot.  He’s very disappointed to see a very Easternized Bostonian.  The boy is all thumbs with the boat.  Just when he is about to be shipped back to Boston a huge storm comes up — his father, his father’s enemy, and the enemy’s daughter are endangered.  Young Bill saves the day and ends the feud.  He also gets the girl.  From such simple material as this Keaton has fashioned a wonderful film with, as usual, some of his best stunts.  With Keaton, the physical nature of his humor are absolutely necessary.  They all somehow, no matter how fantastic, still seem in the realm of the possible — all because Keaton himself seems so calm and rational.  Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a major silent comedy.  Notes:  Screenplay by Carl Harboaugh.  Photographed by Dev Jennings, and Bert Haines.  With:  Ernest Torrence, Tom McGuire, Marion Byron, Tom Lewis, and Joe Keaton.  1928.

• Convict 13.  1920.  20 minutes.  Silent.  Directed by Keaton and Cline.  Buster Keaton as the Golfer/Prisoner/Prison Guard, Sybil Sealey as Socialite and Warden’s Daughter, Joe Roberts as a Prisoner, Edward F. Cline as the Hangman, and Joe Keaton as the Warden.  Notes:  Written by Keaton and Cline.   Photographed by Elgin Lessley.

• Daydreams.  1922.  22 minutes.  Silent.  Directed by Keaton and Cline.  With:  Keaton, Renée Adorée, Joe Keaton, Joe Roberts, and Edward F. Cline.  Notes:  Written by Cline and Keaton.  Cinematography by Elgin Lessley.  

AS GOOD AS IT GETS.  1997.  138 minutes.  Romantic Comedy/Drama.  Jack Nicholson.  Directed by James L. Brooks.  Jacks Nicholson is Melvin Udall a clinically obsessive-compulsive writer whose oddball antics and mean-spirited nature drives everyone he knows nuts.  Melvin walks down the streets of New York assiduously trying to avoid contact with people and cracks on the sidewalk.  He nearly goads his fairly passive gay neighbor, painter Simon Bishop [Greg Kinnear], into   fits with his treatment of Simons pooch Verdell, and is generally rude.  The only person up to the challenge of dealing with Melvin is Carol Connelly [Helen Hunt], a waitress in the restaurant Melvin breakfasts at daily.  Carol coolly fights off his bad manners and rudeness until he becomes involved with helping her sickly child.  James Brooks has woven a story about these three lonely urban types into a crowd pleasing, popular film that a ton of Oscar nominations and one the awards for best actor (Nicholson’s 3rd) and best actress for Hunt.  It may take some viewers a little time to get used to Nicholson’s character, but after you do, you will find this a skillful romantic comedy/drama.  Nicholson re-enforces his position as the dominant star actor in American movies and Hunt, a very fine actress matches wits and screen time with him in style.  Kinnear was nominated for best supporting actor and his performance, may, in fact, be the best in the movie.  The film plays cute and sentimental but with just that tough enough of an edge that it doesn’t trap you.  With:  Cuba Gooding Jr. as Frank Sachs, Skeet Ulrich as Vincent, Shirley Knight as Beverly, Jesse James as Spencer Connelly, Yeardley Smith as Jackie, Lupe Ontiveros as Nora, Bibi Osterwald as the neighbor woman, and Ross Bleckner as Carl.  Notes:  Written by James L. Brooks and Mark Andrus from a story by Mark Andrus.  Cinematography by John Bailey.  Music by Hans Zimmer. Academy Awards for best actor [Nicholson], actress [Hunt]. Oscar nominations for best picture, supporting actor [Kinnear], original screenplay, musical or comedy score, and editing [Richard Marks].  Box-office gross:  $132,700,000 International/$146,100,000 Domestic.

AS YOU DESIRE ME.  1932.  71 minutes.  <V2705>.  Romantic Melodrama.  Greta Garbo.  Pirandello, Adaptations. Directed by George Fitzmaurice.  This film’s story seems simple enough — a beautiful cabaret singer is much admired by all the cafe society of Vienna, especially the men.  She is pursued by many among whom is the best friend of an Italian nobleman who has been pining for the young and innocent wife who had disappeared during the War.  Is the beautiful, willful Zara really the long lost wife of Count Bruno?  This film about amnesia and identity is from the pen of Pirandello but on celluloid it is highfalutin’ soap.  Garbo is magnetic in a blonde wig as a chanteuse, but she suffers more grandly here than any of her other early sound pictures.  Still, it is Garbo.   With Greta Garbo as Zara, Melvyn Douglas as Bruno, Erich von Stroheim as Salter, Owen Moore as Tony, Hedda Hopper as Madame Montari, Rafaela Ogiano as Lena, Warburton Gamble as the Baron, Albert Conti as the Captain, William Ricchiardi as Pietro, and Roland Varno as Albert. Notes:  Screenplay adaptation of a play by Luigi Pirandello written by George Markey.  Photographed by William Daniels.

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE.  1950.  112 minutes.  Crime Melodrama.  Film Noir.  John Huston.  Caper Drama.  Sterling Hayden.  Marilyn Monroe.  <V962>.  Directed by John Huston.  Story:  A heist is planned by Doc Riedenschneider, a master criminal just released from jail.  He contacts a small-time hood who fronts for a notoriously slick lawyer.  Riedenschneider pulls off the heist with an odd assortment of crooks and losers.  Huston’s 1940’s films had a different feel and style, a style whose substance was based on their original sources.  This film’s style extends more from his directorial senses.  It is smooth and evenly paced.  It is also very well acted.  Most American heist movies have followed the lines of this justly famous film.  With Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore, Anthony Caruso, Jean Hagen and, in her first major role, Marilyn Monroe.  Notes:  Screenplay by Ben Maddow and Huston.  Photographed by Harold Rosson.  Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor (Jaffe), direction, screenplay and photography.

AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD.  1991.  186 minutes.  Adventure, Melodrama.  Novel Into Film.  <V3373>.  Directed by Hector Babenco.  A missionary goes down to the Rain Forests of South America with his wife and young son.  There, they are assigned the task of bringing Christian faith to tribesmen who are being threatened by vested industries looking to take their lands.  The conflict of cultures, faiths and customs becomes too much for the missionary and an expatriate American adventurer of part Indian extraction.  Noble savages and environmentally correctness meet in the Rain Forests.  The one redeeming thing about the film is the noble intensity in Aidan Quinn’s performance.  The rest is silence.  With:  Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Tom Waits, Kathy Bates.  Notes:  Screenplay by Babenco and Jean-Claude Carriere from the novel by Peter Mathiessen.  Photographed by Lauro Escorel.  Music by Zbigneew Preisner.

AT THE CIRCUS.  1939.  87 minutes.  Comedy.  Satire.  Circuses.  Marx Brothers.  Directed by Edward Buzzell.  Groucho plays a shyster lawyer named A. Cheever Loophole, Chico is called Antonio, Harpo is Harpo, flunky for a strong man in this mildly amusing late Marx Brothers comedy about shenanigans and chicanery in a circus.  With:   Kenny Baker, Florence Rice, Eve Arden, Margaret Dumont, and Fritz Feld, and Nat Pendleton.  Notes:  Screenplay by Irving Brecher.  Musical direction by Franz Waxman.  Music by Harold Arlen.  Produced by Mervyn Leroy.  Photography by Leonard A. Smith.  Groucho sings Lydia, the Tattooed Lady and Harpo plays Blue Moon on the harp.  Florence Rice, the singing ingenue was the daughter of famous sports writer Grantland Rice.

ATLANTIC CITY.  1981.  105 minutes.  Crime Melodrama.  Romantic Melodrama.  Burt Lancaster.  Louis Malle.  Atlantic City.  <V70>.  Directed by Louis Malle.  Story:  An aging small-time hood leads a simple life with his long time lady friend.  Almost by accident he bumps into a scam by a group of young thugs.  The old numbers runner is emotionally revived by his participation in wrecking the scam.  This is a lovely, delicately structured comic parable about age, youth, and survival.  Set in the recently revived Atlantic City of the early 1980s it is filled with wonderful character types and is graciously and wittily written.  Far and away Malle’s best American made film and one of the finest films of the period.   Burt Lancaster gives a very fine, subdued performance as a man who finally gets to live out his fantasies of himself.  With:  Susan Sarandon, Kate Reid, Michel Piccoli, Hollis McLaren, Robert Joy, Al Waxman and, as himself, Robert Goulet.  Note:   Screenplay by John Guare.  Cinematography by Richard Ciupka.  Music by Michel Legrand.  The film received five Academy Award nominations including best picture, actor (Lancaster), actress (Sarandon), director (Malle), and screenplay (by John Guare). Box-office gross: $5,000,000.

ATOMIC CAFE.  1982.  92 minutes.  Cold War Documentary.  Nuclear War, Satirical Documentary.  Cold War Satire.  <V349>.  Directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader, and Pierce Rafferty.  This documentary of America’s and Americans’ response to the emergence of the Nuclear age and the Cold War in the 1950s is a compilation of official government footage and newsreel film about atomic power and nuclear weapons.  The film is good in its depiction the massive hysteria in American public and political opinion after the Soviets detonated their first atomic weapon.  The government’s instructional and training films on how to prepare with the possibility of nuclear disaster were taken seriously at the time, but time has made them incredible howlers.  The hilarity was never intended.  

AUNTIE MAME.  1958.  144 minutes.  Comedy.  Theatrical Plays.  Rosalind Russell.  <V3203>.  Comedy.  Directed by Morton DaCosta.  When young heir Patrick Dennis’ father dies, his only living relative is his mercurial aunt Mame Dennis who lives in New York.  She immediately takes the sweet-natured boy under her wings and offers him a life his stick-in-the-mud executor can’t fathom.  All is well until Mame loses her fortune in the Stock Market Crash of ’29.  She tries everything, including going into show business and fails until she meets and falls in love with oil millionaire Beauregard Burnside.  When Burnside dies [falling off an Alp], leaving Mame very well off, she watches Patrick grow up pretty straight-arrow too.  Rosalind Russell is the flamboyant perennial flapper Aunt in this film adaptation of Patrick Dennis’ popular book and the play adapted from the book.  Russell inhabits the role [which she also created on the stage] rather than playing it, and she plays it quite broadly.   The movie, as was the play is all show business but it does have some funny moments many of them provided by la Russell along with Coral Browne as Mame’s friend and drinking buddy Vera Charles and Peggy Cass as Mame’s hopelessly goofy maid Agnes Gooch.   With:  Forrest Tucker, Coral Browne, Fred Clark, Patrick Knowles, Lee Patrick, Willard Waterman, and Robin Hughes.  Notes:  Music by Bronislaw Kaper.  Screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green from the novel by Patrick Dennis as adapted for the stage by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. Photographed by Harry Stradling.  Academy Award nominations for best actress (Russell), supporting actress (Peggy Cass), color photography, color art/set decoration and editing. Box-office gross:  $9,300,000.  Auntie Mame was turned into a hugely popular stage musical starring Angela Lansbury which was in turn made into a movie with Lucille Ball as Mame.

AUSTIN POWERS:  THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME.  1999.  95 minutes.  Espionage Parody.  Comedy.  Directed by Jay Roach.  Austin Powers is a 1960s super spy somehow stranded in the 1990s.  Powers is in search of his evil nemesis, Dr. Evil, who has stolen his ‘mojo’ the secret to Powers’ unbelievable success with the opposite sex.  The two engage in a battle royal for the mojo and a few other things too.  The success of Austin Powers:  International Man of Mystery was surprising, but the near cult status the first film achieved once of video made it a phenomenon.  When this film was released, audiences flocked to it almost as frantically as they had flocked to the new Star Wars episode.  Mike Myers reprises his role as the irrepressible sex object Austin Powers and clearly relishes the role.  He also plays his arch rival Dr. Evil.  Heather Graham is a delight as his girlfriend, a spy in her own right, Felicity Shagwell.  Michael York as Basil Exposition, Robert Wagner as Number Two, Rob Lowe as Young Number Two, Verne Troyer as Dr. Evils little clone Mini-Me, and Seth Green as Scott Evil ham it up pretty good too.  It’s all very silly, tasteless, stupid etc. but funny often enough for most of us.  With:  Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson, Jerry Springer as themselves and Tim Robbins in a cameo as the President of the U.S.  Notes:  Screenplay by Myers with Michael McCullers.  Cinematography by Ueli Steiger.  Music by George S. Clinton.  Box-office gross: $205,400,000 U. S. &  $104,300,000 International

AUTHOR! AUTHOR!  1982.  110 minutes.  Comedy Drama.  Broadway Writers.  Directed by Arthur Hiller.  Ivan Travalian is a successful Broadway playwright with lots of kids and a beautiful wife who’ has fallen in love with another man.  Add to that his doubts about his latest play and you have a hectic romantic comedy/drama, one of the few comedies Al Pacino has ever made.  When the beautiful movie star Alice Detroit decides that she wants to work with Ivan, he finds himself falling in love again.  Author! Author! is passable entertainment thanks largely to the capable youngsters playing Ivan and Gloria’s children.  With:  Dyan Cannon as Alice Detroit, Tuesday Weld as Gloria, Bob Dishy as Finestein, Bob Elliot as Patrick Dicker, Ray Goulding as Jackie Dicker, Eric Gurry as Igor, Elvan Josephson as Bonnie, B. J. Barrie as Spike, Ari Meyers as Debbie, Alan King as Kreplich, Benjamin H. Carlin as Geraldo, Andre Gregory as J. J. and Richard Belzer as Seth Shapiro. Notes:  Written by Israel Horovitz.  Original music by Dave Grusin.  Cinematography by Victor J. Kemper.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN.  1974.    120 minutes  Social Drama.  African-American Women.  African-American Families.  Novel Into Film.  Made-For-TV Films.  Directed by John Korty.  This is an excellent dramatization of Ernest Gaines’ novel about a black woman, born in slavery, who lives through the history of Black Americans from the end of slavery through the turbulent Civil Rights decades.  The story is of family, hope, pride, and an individual’s coming to grips with a world that changed radically during her life time.  Cecily Tyson’s performance is one of the finest on film in recent memory.  With:  Odetta, Josephine Premice, Ted Airhart, Sidney Arroyo, Michael Murphy, Richard Dysart, Rod Perry, and Collin Wilcox Horne.    Note:  Teleplay by Tracy Keenan Wynn.  The program won nine Emmy Awards including Outstanding Drama and outstanding actress (Tyson).  

AVALON.  1990.  126 minutes.  <V2914>.  Drama.  Immigrant Drama.  Baltimore, Maryland.  Directed by Barry Levinson.  This is an episodic film about the Krichinsky family, who emigrated to America in the late 1910s and early ’20s.  At the center of the story is Sam Kirchinsky, the last and youngest of brothers from middle Europe to arrive.  He reaches Baltimore on the Fourth of July and is immediately enamored of the city and its charm.  The story shifts in time as Sam reminiscences to his grandchildren and great grandchildren, but it is mostly the narrative of how the second generation of Kirchinsky’s grow and develop, how their ambitions take them away from the old community of Avalon and forces changes in the traditional ways the family interacted.  The brothers’ sons Anglicize their names, and marry girls from different backgrounds.  They become different even though they respect and honor their parents’ lives.  This is a beautifully photographed film, one awash with graceful, lilting images of a romanticized past.  It is the life of a family remembered in shimmering, gleaming images, a past remembered in idealized bliss — and of course, a lie.  Avalon is one of Levinson’s Baltimore stories (like Diner and Tin Men before it) and like those films is handsomely constructed and almost flawlessly acted.  The cast, in fact, help give flavor and strength to Levinson’s sappy, sentimental journey — Armin Mueller-Stahl as Sam Kirchinsky, Elizabeth Perkins as Ann Kaye, Joan Plowright as Eva Kirchinsky, Aidan Quinn as Jules Kaye head a very fine cast. With:  Leo Fuchs as Hymie Kirchinsky, Lou Jacobi as Gabriel Kirchinsky, Eve Gordon as Dottie Kirk, Kevin Pollok as Izzy Kirk, and Israel Rubinek as Nathan Kirchinsky.  Notes:  Photographed by Allen Daviau.  Screenplay by Levinson.  Music by Randy Newman.  Box-office gross:  $15,700,000.

THE AWFUL TRUTH.  1937.  92 minutes.  Screwball Comedy.  Romantic Comedy.  Cary Grant.  Irene Dunne, Leo McCarey.  <V1143>.  Directed by Leo McCarey.  Story:  A sophisticated couple split up over a misunderstanding.  After getting divorced they still yearn for one another even though both have plans for marrying others.  How they finally get back together is the key to how the story develops.  With The Thin Man, My Man Godfrey, Bringing Up Baby,  and the incomparable It Happened One Night this Leo McCarey film represented the best of what became known as screwball comedy.  McCarey, one of the very best craftsman ever in Hollywood, surely knew his craft here.  A great romantic comedy.  With Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Ralph Bellamy, Joyce Compton, Alex D’Arcy, and Cecil Cunningham.  Note:  McCarey won the Academy Award for best director.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, actress (Dunne), supporting actor (Bellamy), screenplay (Vina Delmar) and editing.

BABY FACE.  1933. 1972 minutes.  Directed by Alfred E. Green.  Lily Powers is the daughter of bootlegger in the mining town of Erie, Pa.  She has led a hard life living in a dive for a home, and men have treated her roughly.  When her father is killed in an explosion she and her best friend — a black woman who cleaned bottles (and probably provided ‘other’ services) at their gin mill skip on the rails to New York.  Following the advice of a philosophic, cynical old German who lives and preaches Nietzsche Lily decides that Erie is too small for ambitions. She moves to the city and lands on her feet in front of the awesome Gotham Bank where she works her way up from one floor to the next getting closer to the top, every step of the way.  She uses men like tissue paper on her rise to wealth and power.  Barbara Stanwyckis wickedly funny and sexy in this tawdry melodrama about a woman on the make.  The film is not subtle in explaining how Lily rises to the top of things.  Sex and deceit help her gobble one man after another.  Baby Face is one of the types of stories the movies did so well between 1931 and 1933 until adverse publicity in the priggish press (not at the box-office) forced the start of the Breen office and self-imposed censorship by Hollywood.  Baby Face will show you how sexy, funny, and ribald movies were before the Breen Office put on the clamps, forcing “good taste” on the public.   With: George Brent, Douglass Dumbrille, Donald Cook, Margaret Lindsay, Henry Kalker, Margaret Lindsay, Arthur Hall, John Wayne, Robert Barrat, Douglass Dumbrille and Theresa Harris as Chico the bottle washer turned maid.  Notes:  Screenplay by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola. Photographed by James Van Trees.  Hollywood.

BABY DOLL.  1956.  115 minutes.  Directed by Elia Kazan.  Karl Malden, Eli Wallach, and Carroll Baker star in this deft, expert film about lust and deceit in the south. Based on Tennessee Williams 27 Wagons full of Cotton.  Eli Wallach plays a wily businessman, an outsider in a small southern town who sees through the sham business efforts of loser Malden.  He outfoxes Malden, by seducing his underage bride.  A wild, sexy carnival of a movie.  Wallach gives the most entertaining performance.  He plays a man who knows how to turn any opportunity to his advantage.  Malden is good as the cuckold who thinks he is a smart guy.  Baker makes an impressive debut.  With:  Mildred Dunnock, Lonny Chapman and Rip Torn.  Notes:  Screenplay by Tennessee Williams, based on his play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton.  Cinematography by Boris Kaufman.  The film’s themes were decidedly racy for ’50s movie audiences.  The Catholic Legion of Decency gave the film a C condemnation.  It is a mature movie with an insinuating tone, but not evil or morally deficient.  

BAD COMPANY.  1972.  92 minutes.   Civil War Comedy/Drama.  Directed by Robert Benton.  A satiric drama about the anti-war sentiments of Midwesterners who do not want to see their young sons drafted into the army late in the war.   The film is the first directed by Robert Benton, one of the writers of Bonnie and Clyde.    Jeff Bridges and Barry Brown as the competitive leaders of the young gang.  With:  Barry Brown, Jim Davis, David Huddleston, John Savage and Jerry Hauser.  Notes:  Cinematography by Gordon Willis.  Music by Harvey Schmidt.

BATMAN.  1989.  126 minutes. Directed by Tim Burton.  Burton’s conception of Batman was this dark, beautifully designed, exercise in style.  The film has a witty somberness (if that is possible).  Almost everything is in shadows and darkness.  Gotham itself is a gray, less than friendly sprawl. From this mirthless environment, our hero appears, an introspective, slightly bemused billionaire named Bruce Wayne who masquerades as Batman comes from the mists and grime of his crime-ridden city as a vigilant figure bent on driving evil from Gotham.  Burton was the perfect director for delivering this new age Marvel epic.  Casting Michael Keaton as Batman was a masterstroke.  Then, there is the master villain the joker, a homicidal monster with a streak of malicious humor, played shamelessly well by Jack Nicholson.  This is a fine film, adult escapism.  Despite its huge success, the film will not be to everyone’s taste.  With:  Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Billy Dee Williams, and Pat Hingle.  Notes:  Screenplay by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren from the comic script created by Bob Kane.  Songs written and performed by Prince.  Music score by Danny Elfin.  Photographed by Roger Pratt.  Box-office gross:  $150,500,000.

BATMAN RETURNS.  1992.  126 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Crime Melodrama.  Sequel.  Directed by Tim Burton.  In this sequel to the popular film, BATMAN the center of attention is on the guest “villains’ — Danny DeVito’s vile Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer’s elegant, sexy Cat Woman.  The mood of this second Batman film is even darker, if that is possible, than the original.  Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle, Michael Murphy.  Notes:  Music by Danny Elfman.  Photography by Stefan Czapsky.  Story by Daniel Waters and Sam Hamm.  Screenplay by Daniel Waters based on the Batman and other characters created by Bob Kane.  Box-office gross:  $154,641,326.

BATMAN FOREVER.  1995.  122 minutes.  Batman series.  Comic Strip Character.  Directed by Joel Schumacher.  Val Kilmer is the caped crusader a.k.a. Bruce Wayne (billionaire) in this third film based on Bob Kane’s comic strip character Batman.  Kilmer’s Batman is tongue-in-cheek, without the melancholy.  Schumacher goes for the gusto with this one.  There is action galore and with the kinetic, rubber-soled Jim Carrey as the Riddle he has a living, breathing human cartoon character.  With:  Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian and Chris O’Donnell as Robin add something to the proceedings but Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face is upstaged by the goofy clown Carrey.  With:  Michael Gough as Alfred.  With: Pat Hingle.  Notes:  Screenplay by Lee Batchler, Janet Scott Batchler, and Akiva Goldsman from a story by the Batchler.  Produced by Tim Burton.  Music by Elliott Goldenthal.  Photography by Stephen Goldblatt.  Box-office gross: $183,253,816.  Goldblatt’s cinematography was nominated for an Academy Award

BATMAN & ROBIN.  1997.  130 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Batman.  Comic Strip Characters on Film.  Directed by Joel Schumacher.  Arnold Schwarzenegger is Mr. Freeze/Dr. Victor Fries in this most cartoonish entry in the Batman series and the handsome, square-jawed George Clooney is Batman/Bruce Wayne.  Batman & Robin is loaded with bizarre characters (or at most, character sketches), weak on story, and filled with fantastic computer generated sets and action sequences might amuse children.  Hard-core Batman aficionados might night find it as appealing   The story line is elaborate in its silliness and its sentiments [it focuses on the near death of Batman’s faithful butler Alfred.  With:  Chris O’Donnell is Robin/Dick Grayson, Uma Thurman is Poison Ivy/Dr. Pamela Isley, Alicia Silverstone is Batgirl/Barbara Wilson, Michael Gough is Alfred Pennyworth, pat Hingle is Commissioner Gordon, Elle MacPherson is Julie Madison, John Glover is Dr. Jason Woodrue, Jeep Swenson is Bane, Vivica Fox is Ms B. Haven.  Notes:  Written by Akiva Goldsman.  Cinematography by Stephen Goldblatt.  Music by Elliot Goldenthal with songs by Billy Gorgan.  Box-office gross:  $107,300,000 Domestic, $120,300,000 International.

BELOVED.  1998.  172 minutes.  Drama.  Directed by Jonathan Demme.  Oprah Winfrey is Sethe in this impressively powerful adaptation of Toni Morrison’s prize winning novel about a mother’s horrific sacrifice.  The themes and subject matter of Beloved are so overpowering that the film could not possibly have been something that large numbers of patrons would pay tickets to see.  Though it was one of the most well received films of 1998, its commercial failure may have left an impression that the film did not succeed as a film.  Even for those among us who have not read the book, this story of a mother’s tragic sacrifice of her children to keep them free is stunningly effective.  Demme’s film uses a stream-of-consciousness style to relate a story of seeming madness and emotional horror.  Oprah Winfrey’s work as Sethe is first rate as is that of Danny Glover’s as Paul D. a man who returns from years of wandering, to offer succor to this distraught woman [and find it for himself].  The raw power of the film and the story is best expressed in the performances of Thandie Newton as the mad living apparition of Sethe’s sacrifice, Beloved.  Newton is a remarkable beauty and an equally daring actress and she gives a striking performance.  Kimberly Elise [who looks like a young Cicely Tyson – especially around the eyes and mouth] as Denver does lovely work as a young girl, coming of age in extreme emotional and psychic circumstances.  A very strong, and ultimately, underrated film.  With:  Beah Richards as Baby Suggs, Lisa Gay Hamilton as the younger Sethe.  Albert Hall as Stamp Paid, Irma Hall as Ella, Carol Jean Lewis as Janey Wagon, Kessia Kordelle as Amy Denver, Jude Ciccolella as the Schoolteacher, Anthony Chisholm as Langhorne, Dorothy Love Coates as M. Lucille Williams, Jane White as Lady Jones, and Jason Robards Jr. as Mr. Bodwin.  Notes:  Screenplay by Akosua Busia and Richard LaGravenese from the novel by Toni Morrison.  Cinematography by Tak Fujimoto.  Music by Rachel Portman.  Edited by Andy Keir and Carol Littleton.  Box-office gross:  $22,700,000.

BODY AND SOUL.  1924.  52 minutes. Directed by Oscar Micheaux.  An escaped convict shows up in the town of Tatesville, Georgia as a preacher much admired by the elder women of his flock.  One woman, the mother of an attractive young daughter is especially interested in having the Reverend wed the girl.  The girl is no stranger to the preacher’s deceptions.  The mother and other older ladies of the church are unaware of his philandering nature and his drinking.  Under the pressure to marry the man, the girl runs away to Atlanta.  When her worried mother finds her living in a hovel, she asks why, thinking that she had left home with their savings.  The girl with her dying breath finally convinces the woman of the preacher’s duplicity.  The bereaved mother returns home to face the minister and publicly rebuke him.  The congregation turns on the villain and drives him from town and the pulpit.  The mother’s grief is compounded by her dreams of a much happier life.  This is a fascinating film for many reasons not the least of which is the presence of the charismatic Paul Robeson.  Robeson plays the bad minister, and in a smaller part, the man that the girl loves.  There are some fascinating things in this film.  Micheaux, the most significant black filmmaker in the first half of the century had an excellent eye for detail and a good sense of the melodramatic.  His film is no better or worse than mainstream melodramas of the same stripe.  Body and Soul is like a passion play within a social melodrama.  Robeson who seems to be playing the same character he had just made famous on Broadway — The Emperor Jones — is an impressive presence.  Micheaux’s style is almost expressionistic at times and highly skilled.  Some of the films titles make intriguing use of racial terms.  There are also some subtle shots photographs that hang on the home of the mother and daughter’ Photographs of Booker T. Washington and of Abraham Lincoln hang in a place of honor like those of JFK and Dr. King that can be found in many African-American homes today, providing us with a fascinating little sociological sign-post.  With:  Laurence Chenault as Yellow Curly Hinds, Chester M. Alexander as Deacon Simpkins, Walter Cornick as Brother Amos, Marshall Rodgers as the Club owner (the title card refers to him as a “Negro” businessman) and with Lillian Johns and Madame Robinson as churchwomen.  Curiously, the mother and daughter, so central to the film do not have a credit on the screen but Theresa Russell and Mercedes Gilbert play them.  Notes:  The print we have of the film is in excellent condition.

BOOMERANG.  1992.  118 minutes.  Romantic Comedy.  African-American directors.  Directed by Reginald Hudlin.  This Eddie Murphy comedy, made after a two-year absence from the screen, was his attempt to break the smart-alecky comic persona that made him a hugely popular star.  Many critics handled this film much more roughly than it deserved.  For the first time in a Murphy film, women have key roles and his choice of women is impressively diverse.  Boomerang is a romantic comedy. Murphy plays a lady’s man who comes face-to-face with women who won’t let him have his way.  The screenplay has sensitivity about different black types [male and female] of surprising depth, even though the world created in the film is no more real than it was in a Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedy.  The cast especially Robin Givens (doing a good imitation of Faye Dunaway in Network) is bright and attractive.  Also with Halle Berry, David Allen Grier, Martin Lawrence, Grace Jones, Geoffrey Holder, Eartha Kitt, Tisha Campbell, and Chris Rock.  Notes:  Screenplay by Barry W. Blaustein and David Sheffield.  Photography by Woody Omens.  Music Score by Marcus Miller.  The score includes songs sung by Babyface, Dallas Austin and Grace Jones and sung by Boyz-To-Men and P.M. Dawn.  Music supervision by Bill Stehpney.

COLD TURKEY.  1971.  99 minutes.  Directed by Norman Lear.  A Madison Avenue PR whiz comes up with a big idea for a wealthy tobacco millionaire — why not offer a prize of $25,000,000 to the town in America that can get everyone in town to quit smoking for thirty days?  The idea is to get the public sentiments about smoking off the industry’s back, especially in light of the then recent ban of cigarette advertising.  After all, where can you find a whole town willing to give up smoking?  The industry would look like a champion and still not be likely to pay off.  In one small Iowa town called Eagle Rock an ambitious, and somewhat priggish, protestant minister convinces his town to take the tobacco company’s pledge.  Cold Turkey satirizes a great many things American — television, television advertising, the military-industrial complex, celebrity, John Birchers, and everything else in sight.  There are wild moments of biting satire in the film but mostly it is just very funny and clever.  The acting is first rate especially comics Bob and Ray (who parody Huntley and Brinkley, Cronkite, Paul Harvey to perfection).  Dick Van Dyke is tight and funny as the minister.  Tom Poston as the town’s aristocratic drunk, Barnard Hughes as a doctor, Jean Stapleton as the mayor’s wife, Vincent Gardenia as the mayor, Bob Newhart as the PR man, Pippa Scott as the put-upon wife of the minister, and Edward Everett Horton (in his last role) as the 91-year-old tobacco magnet all perform at peak comedic levels.  Notes:  Screenplay by Lear from a story by Lear and William Price Fox, Jr.  The films fine, witty score is by Randy Newman.  Cinematography by Charles Wheeler.  Box-office gross:  $4,968,840.  The film was actually made in 1969 and not released until later.

COLLEGE.  1927.  Directed by James Horne.  Buster Keaton plays a college bound bookworm.  At his high school graduation, the boy’s commencement address he gives a tirade against his peers’ obsession with star athletes and athletic prowess, consequently alienating the girl of his dreams and his chief nemesis – the Saturday hero super jock.  At college he finds that his superior attitude is even less well received and discovers that the only way to win his sweetheart’s hand is to become a star athlete himself.  In the end the brainy klutz wins the girl, but not without many misadventures.  Though one of Keaton’s least known comedies College is just about as hilarious as the best.  With Ann Cornwall, Harold Goodwin, Snitz Edwards, and Florence Turner.  Notes:  Screenplay by Carl Harbaugh and Bryan Foy.  Photographed by Dev Jennings and Bert Haines.  

THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS.  1991.  102 minutes.  Directed by Paul Schrader.  In Venice, a handsome young British couple is on a lovers’ holiday.  One night, they walk through the streets of the city in search of a restaurant for a late dinner.  In the winding streets and grottoes of the city they get lost until a middle-aged man approaches them and takes them to a hide-a-way, a place he owns.  He regales them with a tale about his past, but the man’s bizarrely suave behavior disturbs them.  When they see him in public later they hope he doesn’t recognize them, but he does.  They are, slowly, drawn into a strangely sensual and, menacing relationship with the man and his neurasthenic wife.  Intrigue and sexual tension abound in this classy melodrama.  It’s a stunning film cinematically — colors and light give it a painstaking beauty.  The actors are perfectly cast.   Christopher Walken plays one his subtle ghouls.   Natasha Richardson plays an independent minded woman in love with a beautiful man, who seems to be the reason that the Italian couple is drawn to the younger people.  Rupert Everett is the young man and Helen Mirren is eccentric older woman.  Notes:  Screenplay by Harold Pinter based on a novel by Ian McEwan.  Photography by Dante Spinotti, Music by Angelo Badalamenti.  

COOL HAND LUKE.  1967.  126 minutes.  Directed by Stuart Rosenberg.  One of the most popular of Paul Newman’s anti-hero films.  Luke, a loner antagonistic towards all authority is arrested for decapitating parking meters.  In prison he becomes a hero to his fellow in-mates and a pariah to the prison officials who intend breaking him.  Luke is portrayed and written as a pop Christ figure — the film has him posing as if on a crucifix and all but gives him stigmata.  When he dies he is clutched by a fellow convict in a scene that suggests a pieta.  Despite the obvious allusions the film is enjoyable because Newman is at home in his role of as a cunningly self-destructive man.  The impressive ensemble cast includes:  George Kennedy, J. D. Cannon, Robert Drivas, Lou Antonio, Strother Martin and Jo Van Fleet.  (The cast also includes a lot of then unfamiliar actors – Wayne Rogers, Joe Don Baker, Warren Finnerty, Morgan Woodward, Anthony Zerbe, Richard Davalos, Clifton James, and Dennis Hopper.  Notes:  Academy award nominations for best actor, supporting actor (Kennedy who won), screenplay (Donn Pearce and Frank R. Pierson) and original score (Lalo Schifrin).  Box-office gross:  $7,300,000.

DANGEROUS LIAISONS.  1988.  120 minutes. Among a pair of aristocrats in 18th century France a contest of wills takes place — they cynically manipulate romantic situations for the sheer thrill of it.  They succeed invariably until one of them falls in love.   What was the best film of 1988?  RAIN MAN won the Oscar but this elegantly staged, directed, written and acted costume drama might have been a more deserving winner. The cast — Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz, Keanu Reeve, and Uma Thurman — are marvelous.  Notes:  Based on the celebrated novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos written in 1782.  The film was also based on Christopher Hampton’s play (adapted for the screen by Hampton).  Academy Awards:  Screenplay (Hampton) and costumes.  Nominated for best picture and best actress (Glenn Close).  Photographed by Phillipe Rousselet.  Music by George Fenton.  Roger Vadim did a version of Laclos’ story in 1960 (see below).  See also VALMONT.  Box-office gross:  $15,000

DEAD MAN.  1996.  121 minutes.  Satirical Western.  Independent American Cinema.  Directed by Jim Jarmusch.   Johnny Depp is William Blake, a hapless young accountant who goes to Montana country in response to an ad for a bookkeeper by a mining baron.  His adventures while traveling to the place are harrowing in and of themselves, but his life goes totally haywire when he arrives in the muddy little town only to find that the place already has a bookkeeper.  He finds himself nearly broke and hopelessly at a loss for what to do next, when he draws the attention of a beautiful whore.  The lovelorn girl and Blake spend a sweet, blissful night. together.  The morning after proves disastrous – the girl’s lover, the only son of the man who had stiffed him on the job – returns and attempts to kill Blake and the girl.  Blake is the only survivor of the three – or is he.  He’s been badly shot, maybe fatally.  Blake becomes a walking dead man.  When unconscious, just after the shooting, he is saved (more or less) by an Indian with whom he begins an almost mystical escapade of crime and violence.  Dead Man is Jarmusch’ s best film.  It’s a sharply focused film parable, filled with wit and style, and some wickedly funny moments.   William Blake, the mild mannered, frightened man from the Midwest finds a core of courage and fearlessness in himself that’s absolutely heroic – it’s as if the bullet lodged near his heart was some source of renewal, an elixir releasing him from the routine.  The cast is first rate and Robby Müller’s black and white photography is truly stunning.  With:  Crispin Glover as Train Fireman, John Hurt as John Schoffield, John North as Mr. Olafsen, Robert Mitchum as John Dickinson, Mili Avitai as Thel Russell, Gabriel Byrne as Charlie Dickinson, Michael Wincott as Conway Twill, Eugene Byrd as Johnny “the Kid” Pickett, Gary Farmer as Nobody, Lance Henriksen as Cole Wilson, Iggy Pop as Salvatore “Sally” Jenko, Billy Bob Thornton as Big George Drakoufous, and Jared Harris as Benmont Tench.  Notes:  Photographed by Robby Müller.  Written by Jarmusch.  Music performed and composed by Neil Young. 

DEAD MAN WALKING.  1995.  122 minutes.  Drama.  Death Row Drama.  Capital Punishment.  Directed by Tim Robbins.  Susan Sarandon won a well-deserved Academy Award for best actress as Sister Helen Prejean in this superior film about the efforts to save convicted murderer Matthew Poncelet [played by Sean Penn].  The film is a remarkably even-handed study of the people caught in this emotionally charged case.  Neither Robbins’ script, nor his direction take a stance on either side of the argument.  It’s a work of rich detail, and strong emotional power because of that subtle objectivity.  A major film by the gifted Robbins, and superior to his directorial debut Bob Roberts which was a very superior work.  Sarandon may be the best screen actress in films right now and Sean Penn’s performance was just marginally bested by the extraordinary performance Nicholas Cage gave in his Oscar winning role in Leaving Las Vegas.  Very fine filmmaking. With:  Robert Prosky, as Hilton Barber, Raymond J. Barry as Earl Delacroix, R. Lee Ermey as Clyde Percy, Celia Weston as Mary Beth Percy, Liz Smith as Helen’s Mother, Scott Wilson as Chaplain Farley, Robert Maxwell as Lucille Poncelet, Margo Martindale as Sister Colleen, Barton Heyman as Captain Beliveau, Steve Boles as Sgt. Neal Trapp, Nesmitt Blaisdell as Warden Hartman, Ray Aranha as Luis Montoya, Larry Pine as Guy Gilardi.  Notes:  Written by Tim Robbins based on the book Dead Man Walking by Sister Helen Prejean.  Photographed by Roger Deakins.  Music by David Robbins.  Academy Award nomination for director.

DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS.  1995.  101 minutes. Directed by Carl Franklin.  Denzell Washington is Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, a war veteran from Houston who settled in post WW II Los Angeles because of the abundance of jobs.  Smart, independent, and cool under pressure “Easy” gets a job helping a hood track down a beautiful woman for a politician.  Easy unexpectedly finds himself deep in a Los Angeles mess.  This is director Carl Franklin’s second film (the first was the first rate action melodrama One False Move) and it is a work of an assured, confident master craftsman.  The film is a period piece about a Los Angeles of less than 50 years ago, a Los Angeles where a man of color had to confront prejudices not as explicit or as open as they were down south.  The miracle of this film, and in Denzell’s performance as Easy, is that Franklin doesn’t push those obvious facts down our throats.  The bigotry is there, the audience knows it, but is part of the texture of the world Easy lives in, it doesn’t drive the story, and it doesn’t smack us in the face.  Devil in the Blue Dress is a marvel of style, wit and grace.  The rest of the cast — Tom Sizemore as the smart thug Dewitt Albright, Jennifer Bea as Daphne Monet, Maury Chaykin as Matthew Terrell, Terry Kinney as Todd Carter, Mel Winkler as Jesse, and Albert Hall as Odell are picture perfect types for the detective genre.  The performance that knocks you for a loop, however, is Don Cheadle’s Mouse, a funny, cunning little killer whose moments on the screen just sizzle.  This is top notch movie making — first rate ensemble acting that goes down like fine wine and great jazz.  Notes:  Music by Elmer Bernstein.  Photographed by Tak Fujimoto [Fujimoto’s ability to evocatively photograph ’40s LA was evident in Goldie Hawn’s under rated Swing Shift].  Screenplay by Jonathan Demme and Edward Saxon based on Walter Moseley book of the same name. 

DOC.  1971.  92 minutes.  Western.  Doc Holliday.  Wyatt Earp.  Directed by Frank Perry.  Stacy Keach is Doc Holliday, Faye Dunaway is Kate, Harris Yulin is Wyatt, and Mike Witney is Ike Clanton in this revisionist ‘anti-western’ of the early ‘70s.  Director Frank Perry has taken the legend of Tombstone, the O. K. Corral and turned it into a parable of political corruption and ethical uncertainties.  Doc Holliday comes to Tombstone to meet his friend Wyatt Earp only to find Wyatt and his brothers engaged in a battle for the hearts and minds of the town.  Envy, cowardice, greed, and politics are the driving forces for the characters as envisioned by the makers of this film.  As the advertising campaign for the film suggested ‘they were two of the West’s most legendary heroes. . . until now.”  The message of the film is clear –  hero worship of these morally gray characters is to be intentionally derailed.  The myth must be debunked if not destroyed.  Keach is the least animated of all the famous actors and stars to play the much romanticized Doc Holliday in films [see Victor Mature in My Darling Clementine, Kirk Douglas in Gunfight at the O. K. Corral, Dennis Quaid in Wyatt Earp, and Val Kilmer in Tombstone].  As Doc’s whore Kate, Faye Dunaway is fine despite her anachronistic beauty and model’s cheekbones.  Harris Yulin embodies the filmmaker’s vision of Earp almost too perfectly.  With:  Denver John Collins as the Kid, Dan Greenburg as Clum, John Scanlon as Bartlett, Richard McKenzie as Behan, John Bottoms as Virgil and Phil Shafer as Morgan.  Notes:  Music composed and conducted by Jimmy Webb.  Edited by Alan Heim.  Photographed by Gerald Hirschfeld.  Screenplay by pate Hamill.DODSWORTH. 1936.  89 minutes.  Drama.  Sinclair Lewis.  John Huston.  William Wyler.    Directed by William Wyler.  Walter Huston stars in this film about a retired industrialist whose shallow, romantic wife yearns for adventurous affairs at the cost of their once happy marriage.  William Wyler was one of the most consummate craftsmen in the movies.  His film is often exquisitely produced, well-acted and intelligent.  He has made, quietly, some of the finest Hollywood films.  This film, based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis, is an excellent example of the best of Wyler.  It is dominated by Huston’s wry, natural performance.   Ruth Chatterton, Mary Astor, Paul Lukas and David Niven, Gregory Gaye, Maria Ouspenskaya, Spring Byington, Grant Mitchell and John Payne.  Notes:  Screenplay by Sidney Howard from his play based on Lewis’ novel. Academy Award nominations for best picture, best actor (Huston), supporting actress (Ouspenskaya), direction, screen adaptation, interior decoration (the only award it one), and sound recording

DOG DAY AFTERNOON.  1975.  125 minutes.  Urban Comedy/Drama.   Homosexual Lovers.  Bank Holdups.  Hostages.  Directed by Sidney Lumet.  On a hot August day in Brooklyn, a hard pressed, hard luck New Yorker decides to rob a bank.  The inexperience of Sonny (the robber’s name) and his accomplice Sal, leads to a particularly New York incident.  The bank robbers become temporary celebrity, stars of the Village Voice and the rest of the city’s media.  Sonny’s desire to gain control of his life becomes a botched robbery attempt.  This is the most New York oriented of Lumet’s films.  It is wickedly funny, and disarmingly sad.  Al Pacino as Sonny and John Cazale as Sal give wonderful performances.  James Broderick, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon.  Notes:  Screenplay by Frank Pierson.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, actor (Pacino), director, Original screenplay (for which Pierson won the Oscar), and film editing.  Box-office gross:  $22,500,000.

THE DOGS OF WAR.  1981.  104 minutes.  Soldiers of Fortune Melodrama.  Action Melodrama.  Popular Fiction.  Directed by John Irvin.  Christopher Walken plays Jamie Shannon, an intense, highly skilled mercenary hired by an international cartel to explore their options in an African Republic run by a crazed dictator.  After a surveillance trip, where he is brutalized by henchmen of the dictator, he returns to his employers determined not to assist them any further.  Pressed by personal and emotional considerations, especially after meeting the cartel’s corrupt candidate to replace the dictator.  Walken gives an excellent performance in this first rate adaptation of Frederick Forsythia’s novel The Dogs of War.  With Tom Brenner as Drew.  Colin Blakely as North, Hugh Milieus as Endear, Paul Freeman as Derek, Jean Francois Steven as Michel, JoBeth Williams as Jessie, Robert Urquhart as Capt. Lockhart, Winston Ntshona as Dr. Okoye, and Ed O’Neill [of Married with Children] in a small part as Terry, one of Shannon’s hired guns.  Notes:  Photographed by Jack Cardiff.  Screenplay by Gary DeVore and George Milkao.  Music by Geoffrey Burgon.

DON JUAN.  1926.  113 minutes.   Directed by Alan Crosland.  “Mr.” John Barrymore is the star of this late silent film about the amorous Spanish grandee.  In a prologue the audience is introduced to Don Juan as a child.  We see his mother, Dona Isobel, and her lover caught by his angry, shocked father, Don Jose.  The lover is imprisoned alive in the walls of the castle — Dona Isobel cast out into the streets.  As time pasts Don Jose’s home is filled with women he has seduced and then abandons — the young Don Juan a willing apprentice to this genteel debauchery.  When one of the spurned women fatally stabs Don Jose, his dying words to his son are to distrust the love of women.  Years past.  We next meet Don Juan in his luxurious palace in the Rome of the Borgias.  There he has many beautiful women at his beck and call and his reputation attracts the attention of the Borgia court, especially the beautiful Lucrezia. He, however, is interested in Adriana Della Varnese, the lovely and innocent daughter of an opposition count.  This film is an account of the intrigue that surrounds this love story.  As Don Juan, Barrymore, “the Great Profile”, plays him as a good-humored rake.  Barrymore seems to be playing Don Juan as an ironic hero (much in the same vein as Douglas Fairbanks would in his last sound film (The Private Life of Don Juan) — it’s a witty, stylish performance.  The film is handsome, wonderfully photographed and filled with romance.  As Adriana, Mary Astor is lovely, and Myrna Loy plays one of the exotic young women she seemed doomed to be typecast as, early in her career, especially in silent films.  With:  Jane Winto as Dona Isobel, John Roche, as Leandro, Warner Oland as Cesare Borgia, Estelle Taylor as Lucrezia, Mantagu Love as Count Giano Donati, Willard Louis as Pedrillo, Joseph Swickart as Duke Della Varnese.  Notes: Screenplay by Bess Meredyth, “inspired by the Legend of the Greatest Lover of all Ages.”  The score is performed by the New York Philharmonic.  Titles by Walter Anthony and Maude Fulton.  Photography by Byron Haskins.  Art Direction by Ben Carré.

DOUBLE INDEMNITY. 1944.  107 minutes.  Film Noir.  Billy Wilder.  James M. Cain.  Detective Fiction.  Barbara Stanwyck.  <V1434>.  Directed by Billy Wilder.  Film based on James M. Cain’s best seller about lust, greed and murder.  An insurance man commits the “perfect” crime for a woman, only to discover her greed and deceit.  Cain’s books made fascinating studies of the tawdry side of middle class existence.  His people are mercenary and amoral if not immoral.  The two main characters in this story, insurance salesman Walter Neff and the scheming Phyllis Dietrichson are a pair made for each other.  They were an affair and a murder waiting to happen.  Billy Wilder’s European cynicism permeates this film, and it would be a trait that would dominate the best, and worst of his films.  An absolute classic of the film noir genre.  With:  Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson, Jean Heather, Porter Hall, Tom Powers, Byron Barr, Richard Gaines and Fortunio Bonanova.  Notes:  Screenplay by Wilder and Raymond Chandler.  Photography by John Seitz.  Musical score by Miklos Rozsa.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, direction, screen adaptation, cinematography, sound recording, and scoring.

DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS.  1986.  103 minutes.  Satire, Beverly Hills.     Jerry Baskin, a down and out bum finds his way to the swimming pool of a wealthy Jewish businessman Dave Whiteman.  When Whiteman sees the man, presumably drowning, he dives in to rescue him.  After reviving the man Whiteman is interested in having him hang on around his house — he believes that the man may be a fount of wisdom.  Slowly but surely, Jerry charms and seduces the whole family.  One of the finest American comedies of the 1980s and one of Mazursky’s best.  The story is based on Renoir’s great dog faced comedy Boudu Sauve des Eaux (Boudu Saved from Drowning), about a rude, dirty bum who is “adopted” by a bourgeois family.  Jerry Baskin is not an ignorant, helpless victim but rather an intelligent, iconoclastic drop-out whose experiences, whether false or not, affect the lives of these spoiled people.  He energizes and unifies the family, their relatives, and their hired help.  Whatever the case, the film is a modern classic of life in the gaudy palaces of Beverly Hills.  With:  Nick Nolte, Richard Dreyfuss, Bette Midler, Little Richard, Tracy Nelson, Elizabeth Pena, Evan Richards and Mike as Maitisse, the dog.  Notes:  Screenplay by Mazursky and Leon Capetanos.  Photography by Donald McAlpine.  Music by Andy Summers.  The song “Once in a Lifetime” is by the Talking Heads.  The film was a great critical and popular success and also placed the Disney Company’s Touchstone pictures on the “adult” entertainment map.  Box-office gross:  $28,277,000.

DR. STRANGELOVE: OR, HOW I STOPPED WORRYING AND STARTED LOVING THE BOMB.  1964.  93 minute.  Directed by Stanley Kubrick.  An army general goes haywire and sets off the mechanism for a nuclear war.  Everybody is caught off-guard by the general’s move and as events escalate, the world in drawn closer and closer toward war.  A work of total and unmitigated hilarity, not unlike the zaniness of the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup.  It is amazing to think that the source for the film was a book (Red Alert) was actually closer in tone and them to Fail-Safe, and not intended as a comedy.  Kubrick’s decision to make a comedy was inspired.  The film reaches classic status as comedy, and the performances of Peter Sellers (as the President, Dr. Strangelove, and Captain Mandrake), Sterling Hayden as the nutso general, and George C. Scott as the General Turgidson are memorable comic turns.  The supporting cast is quite unforgettable too — Keenan Wynn, Slim Pickens, Peter Bull, Tracy Reed, and James Earl Jones.  Notes:  Screenplay by Kubrick, Peter George and Terry Southern.  Music by Laurie Johnson.  Photography by Gilbert Taylor.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, best actor (Sellers) and screenplay.  Box-office gross:  $5,000,000.

DRESSED TO KILL.  1980.  105 minutes.  Directed by Brian De Palma.  De Palma’s murder mystery involving a cheating wife, her son, and a psychiatrist. An exercise in style that is one of the most entertaining genre pieces of the last twenty years.  De Palma raids the movie past no more or less than most top directors, though he may be more obvious about it.  His “Hitchcockian” techniques are really his — he merely structures them around the Hitchcock style.  There is clearly more violence in the works of De Palma, more graphic and gratuitous than they need be, but they are necessary to the engines that motivate De Palma’s film — fear and sex.  There is a core of eroticism in this film that has not been rivaled by many films whatever their genre.  With:  Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Keith Gordon, Nancy Allen, John Lithgow, and Dennis Franz.  Notes:  Screenplay by De Palma.  Music by Pino Donaggio.  Cinematography by Ralf D. Bode.  Box-office gross:  $15,000,000.

DRUGSTORE COWBOY.  1989.  90 minutes. Directed by Gus Van Sant.  Story:  In Portland, Oregon in the early 1970s two couples go on a spree robbing drug stores and hospitals of pharmaceuticals.  They used the drugs to feed their habits.  The leader of the group, after one of the girls dies decides he wants to get out of the racket.  Everything about this film is surprising and satisfying from the photography of the lush, green far western settings to the depth of humor among this hapless set of junkies.  Best of all is the performance of Matt Dillon as the self-effacing ring leader of the group.  He delivers his lines with verve and a real sense of humor.  Kelly Lynch plays his wife with equal skill.  With:  James Remar (who plays a cop and not a thug or killer for a change) Max Perlich, Beah Richard’s, Grace Zabriskie, James Le Gros, Heather Graham, and in the part of a defrocked junkie priest, novelist William S. Burroughs.  One of 1989’s best films.

DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK.  1939.  103 minutes.  Directed by John Ford.  Henry Fonda is Gilbert Marlin a young man who seeks to make a home for himself and his family on the barely settled frontiers of the Mohawk Valley in New York in the mid-1750s.  Marlin brings his beautiful and aristocratic wife Lana or Magdelana [played by Claudette Colbert] into a world totally alien to the refined life she was used to but one that she comes to understand and love.  The couples’ hardships, like those of many other pioneers in the area is made even more burdensome by the attacks of hostile Mohawk tribes instigated by the French who want to keep the territory unsettled by the English Americans.   John Ford directed this stirring, beautifully photographed [in color], epic of Americans under duress and the spirit it took the settlers of the valley to fight their way out difficulties a message that played well in the late stages of the Great Depression and just as the world stood on the precipice of war.  Ford’s late ‘30s outlook of America’s past was decidedly more upbeat than some of his later, more famous works would be, but he was just really hitting his stride with this film, released in the same year as his great western classic Stagecoach.  Ford would also find a uniquely durable and reliable hero/star in Henry Fonda who would star in several of the director’s best films.  With: Edna May Oliver as Mrs. McKlennar, Eddie Collins as Christian Reall, John Carradine as Caldwell, Doris Bowdon as Mary Reall, Jessie Ralph as Mrs. Weaver, Arthur Shields as Rev. Rosenkrantz, Robert Lowery as John Weaver, Roger Immof as Gen. Nicholas Herkimer, Francis Ford as Joe Boleo, Ward Bond as Adman Hartman, Kay Laker as Mrs. Demmooth, and Russell Simpson as Dr. Petry.  Notes:  Screenplay by Lamar Trotti and Sonya Levien from the novel by Walter D. Edmonds.  Photographed by Bert Glennon and Ray Rennahan.  Music by Alfred Newman.  Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck.

DUCK SOUP.  1933.  68 minutes.  Political Satire.  Marx Brothers.   Directed by Leo McCarey.  The one truly great Marx Brother film.  Groucho is the amazing Rufus T. Firefly, while Harpo is the waif-like anarchist Pinkie and Chico is the scheming Chicolini in this wild lampoon.  Duck Soup represents the most sustained film example of the kind of anarchic humor and wit that the Marx Brothers produced at their best.  The Brothers Marx, and their clever scriptwriters have created a satire as wild and far ranging as any made in American movies.  The story is only a skeleton on which the brothers make mincemeat of nationalism and war.  Absolutely wonderful film, and very, very enjoyable comedy.  With:  Margaret Dumont as the oft and much-put-upon foil for the comic trio, [here called Mrs. Teasdale], Edgar Kennedy as the Lemonade Seller, Louis Calhern as Ambassador Trentino, Leonid Kinskey as the Agitator, George MacQuarrie as the First Judge, Raquel Torres as Vera Marcal, and Charles Middleton as the Prosecutor.  Awards:  National Film Registry.  AFI 100 Greatest Films.  Notes:  Screenplay by Bert Kalmar, Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman.  Cinematography by Henry Sharp.  Musical direction by Arthur Johnston.  Songs by Harry Ruby.  

THE DUELLISTS. 1977.  101 minutes.  Historical Drama.  Napoleonic Drama.  Duelists.   Literature, Adaptations.  Joseph Conrad.  <V109>.   Directed by Ridley Scott.  An elegantly done period drama about a fanatical form of honor.  Keith Carradine is D’Hubert and Harvey Keitel is Feraude a pair of Napoleonic officers who are locked in a seemingly endless series of duels for more than twenty years.  The aristocratic D’Hubert is at a loss for what was the cause of the duel, but he cannot shake the fanaticism of Feraude. Based on a short work of Joseph Conrad’s, the Duelists is the story of how an intense, almost neurotic officer prolongs an enmity with another man so deep that it seems to be his only source of life.  A stunning photographed, beautifully designed film.  It has an exquisite romantic tone and style.  The film is about how honor is distorted by one man, and how madness over such matters hides behind social grace and misplaced chivalry.  With:  Christina Raines as Adele, Edward Fox as Col. Reynard, Robert Stephens as Treillard, John McEnery as 2nd major, Albert Finney as Fouche, Diana Quick as Laura, Alun Armstrong as Lecourbe, Tom Conti as Dr. Jacquin, Meg Wynn Owen as Leonie, Gay Hamilton as the maid, Jenny Runacre as Mme. De Lionne and Alan Webb as the Chevalier.  Notes:  Screenplay by Gerald Vaughn-Hughes.  Photography by Frank Tidy.  Music by Howard Blake.  

E. T. 1982.  120 minutes.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.  The most popular and critically acclaimed of all of Steven Spielberg’s commercial magic.  The simple story of a young boy’s friendship and love for a stranded alien has become one of the most popular and beloved films of all time.  An almost perfect film, emotionally and cinematically satisfying, even a great film as well as a great entertainment.   With: Dee Wallace as Mary, Peter Coyote as Keys, Drew Barrymore as Gertie, Robert MacNaughton as Michael, and Henry Thomas as Elliot.  Also with:  K. C. Martel as Greg, Sean Frye as Steve, and C. Thomas Howell as Tyler.   Notes:  Trivia:  The voice of E. T. is supposed to be none other than Debra Winger?!?  Screenplay by Melissa Mathison.  Photographed by Allen Daviau.  Awards:  Academy Award nominations for best picture, director, screenplay, cinematography, sound, editing.  Oscars for music scoring, sound, and visual effects.  Also won N. Y. Film Critics best direction and picture.  Selected for the National Film Registry and AFI’s 100 Greatest American Films.  Box-office gross:  $360,000,000.

EMPIRE OF THE SUN.  1987.  154 minutes.   World War II, China.   Directed by Steven Spielberg.  Graceful, sweeping epic about the occupation of China by the Japanese.  The story is based on J.G. Ballard’s best seller about a young Briton who experiences the war in a Japanese P.O.W. camp.  The film is about the survival of this boy and others interned by the Japanese until the war’s end.  The film does indulge in epiphanies a little too often — Spielberg has been forced, with each new film–show critics and detractors of his “serious” filmmaker chops, resulting in overly meaningful cinematic mannerisms that are necessary to his special genius.  Regardless of those unhappy circumstance, much of this movies are a majestically beautiful film.  Young Christian Bale gives a stunning performance as to a supporting cast including:  John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers.  Notes:  Screenplay by Tom Stoppard.  Photographed by Allen Daviau, Music by John Williams.  Box-office gross:  $10,500,000.

ENEMIES, A LOVE STORY.  1989.  121 minutes. Directed by Paul Mazursky.  1949.  In New York City Herman Broder is married to a Polish peasant who wants to convert to Judaism to make him happy, and to have his child.  He also has a lover, a beautiful, intelligent woman who is obsessive in her love for him, and insanely jealous of his wife.  Herman’s problems multiply when he discovers that the wife he thought had died in the death camps is alive.  The lover believes she is pregnant, the second wife is pregnant, and the first wife is amused.  This Mazursky film is a jewel of romantic love and irony.  It is probably the best Mazursky film.  Rich in humor and detail about the first generation of Jews to survive the horrors of Nazism, it is also blithely entertaining and funny.  The film is peopled with intelligent, delightful monsters, but they are people than one can like, frailties and all.  The performances in the film are fresh and wonderful — Ron Silver, Anjelica Huston, Lena Olin, Margaret Sophie Stein, and Alan King.  Notes:   Screenplay by Roger L. Simon and Mazursky based on a novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer.  Photographed by Fred Murphy.  Production design by Pato Guzman.  Music by Maurice Jarre.  Academy Award nominations for best supporting actress – twice (Olen and Huston) and screenplay.  Box-office gross:  $7,300,000.

ERIN BROCKOVICH.  2000.  131 minutes.   Directed by Steven Soderbergh.  A twice divorced mother of three, down to her last penny, finesses herself a job with an attorney who had represented her in an accident case that they lost.  Erin Brockovich is smart, tough and full of native intelligence and when she happens upon some medical reports among property settlements with a powerful California utility company she begins her own investigation.  What she discovers is that hundreds of people in a community have been dying from diseases caused by the contaminated water in their town.  The contamination has spread through the ground water from the company’s plants runoff.   Brockovich’s efforts lead to a landmark damage suit against Pacific Gas and Electric.  Erin Brockovich is Julia Roberts’ most entertaining performance.  Under Steven Soderbergh’s smart direction, she embodies a character more complex than most she’s played in recent memory.  It’s a star turn of huge proportions and a role that Roberts clearly relishes. As Brockovich she’s dresses in sexy, tacky clothes that unsettle those she works with and her determination and drive are abrasive.  Erin’s ability to identify with the hard pressed, hard luck people is key to the ultimate victory over the corporate giant.  Soderbergh has fashioned a very entertaining piece of populist moviemaking and has worked with his remarkably charismatic star to make it all work.  With:  Albert Finney as Ed Masry, Aaron Eckhart as George, Marg Helgenberger as donna Jensen, Cherry Jones as Pamela Duncan, Veanne Cox as Theresa Dallavale, Conchata Ferrell as Brenda, Tracey Walter as Charles Embry, Peter Coyote as Kurt Potter, Scotty Leavenworh as Matthew, Gemmenne De La Pena as Katie, and Jamie Harrold as Scott.  Notes:  Screenplay by Susannah Grant and Richard LaGravenese.  Cinematography by Edward Lachman.  Music by Thomas Newman.  Produced by Danny De Vito and Michael Shamberg.

THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS.  1989.  116 minutes.  Romantic Drama.  Professional Musicians.  Directed by Steve Kloves. Two brothers, Jack and Frank Baker, are a professional cocktail lounge pianist.  They’ve been working together for 15 years but jobs are getting lean — they need to juice up the act somehow. They audition female singers but are resigned to finding nobody until a sultry blonde beauty calling herself Susie Diamond shows up.  And she can sing.  This third member of the troupe forces some serious changes in the brothers’ always tendentious relationship especially when Susie and Jack begin to fall in love.  This is a very fine film, beautifully acted and written.  Kloves, directing his first feature has a good eye and ear.  He also has as Susie, Michelle Pfeiffer who holds the screen like a great all-powerful magnet.  She received an Academy Award nomination for a very, very fine performance.  As Jack Baker Jeff Bridges is just as fine.  Beau Bridges has the best part of his career and makes the most of it.  Note: The photographer is by Michael Ballhaus.  Kloves also wrote the screenplay.  Box-office gross:  $18,100,000.

FIGHT CLUB.  1999.  139 minutes.  Directed by David Fincher.  Jack is a young man in his late ‘20s whose life seems to have come to a halt – his only passion seems to be buying Akia furniture for his nice condo.  His job bores him, he has no social life, and he’s an insomniac who fights off the inability to sleep by attending support group sessions for terminally ill patients.  These nightly sojourns offer minimal solace until he meets Marla Singer, a woman whom he sees at almost every session he attends – she’s doing exactly what he’s doing but Jack resents it.  He avoids meetings whenever he sees that Marla will attend them too.  Jack’s distress keeps building.  Then, on a business flight, he meets Tyler Durden, a man of his age with a worldview that’s miles away from his.  The two get on well.  When Jack returns from his business trip he finds that his apartment has been totally destroyed.  Almost subconsciously he calls Tyler for a drink.  They meet and decide to live together in a rundown old house Tyler rents.  The move is the beginning of a new existence for Jack.  Fight Club, based on a book by Chuck Palahniuk, is the penultimate mind-fuck movie.  David Fincher and screenwriter Jim Uhls have created one of the most viscerally exciting and cinematically challenging films of the late ‘90s.  Edward Norton as the whiny drudge Jack—that Midwestern twang of Norton’s, with its Jimmy Stewart like cadences and pauses is perfect casting while Helena Bonham Carter is really quite surprising as the punk-princess Marla.  The film’s real thrill comes from Brad Pitt’s absolutely stunning portrayal of the Tyler Durden, a man whose dangerous ideas and spurious motives evoke a spirit of danger and mayhem in Jack he didn’t know he possessed.  Pitt’s sexual energy and lean dangerous presence kind of explodes on the screen.  It’s unquestionably his funniest, wittiest and most physical performance.  Jack and Tyler’s symbiotic rapport make them a dynamic duo of leaders for the other desperate young men who follow them into the nether world of the fight club.  The club is a haven against the plastic, prettified consumer’s world these young men see on TV and in countless ads.  They form a unique and revolutionary cadre of disaffected youth with God-knows what.  Fight Club is, unquestionably, David Fincher’s best film.  Notes:  Screenplay by Jim Uhls.  Edited by James Haygood.  Awards:  Oscar nominations for sound effects editing [Ren Klyce and Richard Hymns.  Box-office gross:  $37,000,000 U.S. and $50,000,000 International.

FOOLISH WIVES.  1922.  14 reels/14,120ft.  Directed by Erich von Stroheim.  Von Stroheim was a worldly, sophisticated man, things clearly reflected in his films.  Von Stroheim also had an eye for depicting debauchery and depravity with subtlety and wit.  In his world of aristocrats and royalty licentiousness and amorality were to be expected.  None of his films may have shown this more than FOOLISH WIVES.  In Monte Carlo a dissolute Russian count and his two “cousins” are looking for means to scam the society set in Monte Carlo.  They get a skilled artisan to produce counterfeit franc notes.  Just as their plans develop, a rich American diplomat and his wife’s arrival in the city give their plans a boost.  A new scheme is hatched to entrap the wife and embarrass the couple into blackmail.  Plans work even better than expected but go awry when the jilted maid of the Russians’ household sets the place ablaze during a festive night of gambling.  There is also a subplot involving the counterfeiter’s daughter and the count.  FOOLISH WIVES is remarkable in its depiction of a sinister and amoral world beneath the glitter of life on the Cote D’Azure.  Von Stroheim depicts this way of life without flinching.  We see human nature in his films without excuses.  As with all of his films, the director was extravagant with his budget and his imagination.  He did not go to Monte Carlo, he practically rebuilt the place in Hollywood.  The film created a storm of controversy, as most of his films did.  Von Stroheim cast himself as Count Sergius Karamzin.  With:  Maude George, Mae Busch, Dale fuller, Rudolph Christians/Robert Edeson (as Andrew J. Hughes), Miss Dupont, Cesare Gravina, Malvina Polo, and C. J. Allen. As Prince Albert.  Notes:  Screenplay by Von Stroheim.  Titles by Von Stroheim and Marian Ainslee.  Photography by Ben Reynolds and William Daniels.  Art direction by Richard Day and Von Stroheim?  Music by Sigmund Romberg.

FORBIDDEN PLANET.  1956.  98 minutes.  Directed by Fred McLeod Wilcox.  A science fiction version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  Professor Morbius, a fugitive super scientist, lives on Altair-IV with his beautiful daughter and a valet – Robby the Robot.  When a space cruiser lands on this secluded paradise, things start to fall apart for Morbius.  Funny, witty and entertaining science fiction, very cleverly done.  Before C3PO there was Robby the Robot.  With: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Neilsen, Jack Kelly, Earl Holliman and Warren Stevens.  Notes:  Academy Award for special effects.  Screenplay by Cyril Hume based on a story by Irving Block and Allen Adler.  Photographed by George Folsey.  Special effects by A. Arnold Gillespie, Warren Newbombe, Irving G. Ries, and Joshua Meador.

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.  1953.  118 minutes. Burt Lancaster. Directed by Fred Zinnemann.  Very successful film adaptation of James Jones’ big best seller about the lives and loves of Army troops stationed in Pearl Harbor just before it was bombed by the Japanese.   The film is a remarkably well acted, written and directed piece, truly class craftsmanship and professionalism.   The cast includes Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Ernest Borgnine, Donna Reed (Best Supporting Actress Oscar), Frank Sinatra (Best Supporting Actor – in a role that revived his then ailing career), Philip Ober and Mickey Shaughnessy.  Notes:  Screenplay by Daniel Taradash.  Photographed by Burnett Guffey.  Academy Awards for best picture, best supporting actor (Sinatra) screenplay, cinematography, director, supporting actress (Reed), sound recording, and editing.  Nominations included best actor (Lancaster), actress (Kerr), score (Morris Stoloff and George Duning), and costume design.  Box-office gross:  $12,200,000.

FURY.  1936.  89 minutes.  Directed by Fritz Lang.  Joe Wilson is a straight arrow guy whose fiancée goes west for a better job so that they can save enough money to get married.  Mistaken for a kidnapper, Wilson is arrested and jailed in a small town and railroaded into prison, when the jail is burned down by a rabid mob.  Wilson escapes from the fiery death vowing revenge on the people who tried to murder him.  One of the finest films of the 1930s and one of several superior works made in America by the great German expatriate, Fritz Lang.  The film is an indictment of mob and vigilante justice.  It’s simple and direct and at its core is the solid work of Spencer Tracy as an honest man who finds that doing everything the right way backfires on him with a vengeance.  Sylvia Sidney as his lovely, determined fiancée Katherine gives an equally fine, restrained performance.  With: Walter Abel as the D.A., Edward Ellis as Sheriff, Walter Brennan as “Bugs” Meyers, Frank Albertson as Charlie, Bruce Cabot as Kirby Dawson, George Walcott as Tom, Arthur Stone as Durkin, Morgan Wallace as Fred Garrett, George Chandler as Milton Jackson, Roger Gray as the Stranger, Edwin Maxwell as Vickery, and Howard Hickman as the Governor.  Notes:  Produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.  Screenplay by Bartlett Cormack and Lang based on a story by Norman Krasna.  Musical Score by Franz Waxman.  Photographed by Joseph Ruttenberg.

THE FURY.  1978.  118 minutes.  Directed by Brian DePalma.  Kirk Douglas is an experienced government agent whose son is kidnapped, presumably by terrorists.  The boy [Andrew Stevens] is actually spirited away by agencies interested in exploiting his tremendous psycho-kinetic powers.  The father’s desperate efforts to find the boy lead him to a beautiful young Chicago girl [Amy Irving] with similar powers.  DePalma has fashioned a kinetic, thrilling story of betrayal and supernatural powers.  The Fury is one of DePalma’s most entertaining, spirited early films.  It has pace, humor and some of the most stylized use of violence in films from the late ’70s.  There are several stunning effects — the most famous involving a carnival parachute ride (a salute to the run-away merry-go-round in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train), the most spectacular the villain’s [played masterfully by John Cassavetes] demise.  First rate thriller.  The cast includes:  Carrie Snodgrass, Charles Durning, Rutanya Alda, Joyce Easton, William Finley, Jane Lambert, Sam Laws, and in a couple of bit parts, a very young Darryl Hannah as a schoolmate of the heroine and Dennis Franz as one of the cops high jacked by Douglas early on in the film.  Notes:  Screenplay by John Farris from his novel of the same name.  Music by John Williams.

GLORY.  1989.  122 minutes. Blacks in the Military–History — Massachusetts 54th Colored Infantry — Civil War Drama.  Directed by Edward Zwick.  Zwick has produced a brilliant, if erratic tribute to the brave black soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment of the Civil War.  The film is beautifully constructed, and emotionally satisfying, even with some of its haphazard editing and minor anachronisms (casting and writing mostly).  Zwick has the advantage of excellent ensemble acting, but importantly he has captured what surely was the atmosphere of the black troops who courageously came from throughout the Union to participate in what became the war for Emancipation.  It is an emotionally honest film, and largely historically correct.  It presents the events of black troop involvement without excessive editorializing and without rancor.   Overall an excellent, powerful film on a great theme and subject.  With:  Matthew Broderick as Colonel Shaw, Denzel Washington as Trip, Cary Elwes as Major Forbes, Morgan Freeman as Sgt. Rawlins, Jihmi Kennedy as Sharts, Andre Braugher as Searles, John Finny as Mulcahy, Donovan Leitch as Morse, and Cliff DeYoung as Colonel Montgomery.  Notes:  Screenplay by Kevin Jarre.  Photographed by Freddie Francis.  Music by James Horner.  Washington received the best supporting actor for his magnetic performance as the hot-tempered Trip.  Broderick’s performance as Shaw was extremely underrated.  He plays a man of conscience, who has the very human traits of fear and doubt, with grace and intelligence.  He makes Shaw a complex man, just as Washington makes Trip a bold (if somewhat anachronistic) voice.  Peter Burchard bases Jarre’s script on the letters of Robert Gould Shaw and on Lincoln Kirsten’s Lay This Laurel and One Gallant Rush.  The choral voices are those of the Harlem Boys’ Choir.  Box-office gross:  $13,000,000.  Also on DVD.

GO TELL THE SPARTANS.  1978.  114 minutes.  Vietnamese Conflict.  Burt Lancaster.  Novel into Film.  Directed by Ted Post.  Story:  In the early stages of America’s involvement with Vietnam, when it was still feasible to call troop involvement advisory an experienced sergeant works hard to save the lives of his young recruits.  The effort tells on him and his soldiers and ends tragically.  This is an unjustly overlooked and underrated early film about America’s role in Vietnam.  The uncertainties of for what reasons, and why, American youths must die in the jungles and plains of Vietnam is brought home simply by the fact that they do die — not knowing who the enemy really is.  A fine, solid work by Post and screenwriter Wendell Mayes.  With:  Burt Lancaster as Major Asa Barker, Craig Wasson as Corporal Courcey, Jonathan Goldsmith as Sgt. Olenowski, Marc Singer as Capt. Olivetti, Joe Unger as Lt. Hamilton, Dennis Howard as Corporal Abraham Lincoln, David Clennon as Lt. Finley Wattsberg, Evan c. Kim as Cowboy.  Notes:  Written by Wendell Mayes from the book by Daniel Ford, Incident at Muc Wa…  Cinematography by Harry Stradling, Jr.  Music by Dick Halligan.

THE GRAPES OF WRATH.  1940.  128 minutes.  Social Drama.  John Steinbeck.  John Ford.  Henry Fonda.  Dust Bowl.  Great Depression.  American Literature.    Directed by John Ford.  John Steinbeck’s novel about the plight of the displaced farmers in rural Oklahoma, the Okies, has a nearly mythic reputation.  This film is as fine an adaptation of the novel.  It is clean, clear and pictorially splendid.  Even if one objects to the efforts to make this into a biblical like parable (which was more than present in the book) it is a powerful film.  The performances of Henry Fonda as Tom Joad and John Carradine as Casey, the preacher are the best in the film.  They play men whose ideals have been totally crushed and their hardness makes them dangerous.  The black and white photography by Gregg Toland is excellent.  With:  Jane Darwell as Ma Joad, Frank Faylen, Grant Mitchell, Darryl Hickman as Winfield, Doris Bowdon as Rosa Sharon, Russell Simpson as Pa, Zeffie Tilbury as Grandma, John Qualen as Muley, and Charley Grapewin as Grandpa, and with Ward Bond, Grant Mitchell, Joe Sawyer, and Frank Faylen.  Notes:  Screenplay by Nunnally Johnson.  Won Academy Awards for best director (Ford), supporting actress (Darwell).  Oscar Nominations for best picture, actor (Fonda), screenplay and editing.

GREED.  1925/10 reels.  Silent Cinema.  Erich von Stroheim.  Novel into Film.   Directed by Erich von Stroheim.  Frank Norris’ McTeague is a classic muckraking novel from the early 20th century.  His depiction of the depths of depravity and greed to which gold reduces men is graphic and frightening.  In the hands of the eccentric and tremendously gifted film director Erich von Stroheim, that material was turned into one of the greatest films of all time.  Von Stroheim, the original enfant terrible of cinema was extravagant and very egocentric in his filmmaking.  Cost was no objective because he paid little heed to it.  As a result, his projects always brought him into conflict with the producing studios.  MGM finally pulled this film away from him.  Regardless of the difficulties, the film produced has a relentless, lacerating power.  One of the truly great achievements of world cinema.  The performances of Gibson Gowland as McTeague, ZaSu Pitts as Trina, and Jean Hersholt as Marcus Shouler are as impressive as any in silent movies.  Also with:  Chester Conklin as Mr. Sieppe, Sylvia Ashton as Mrs. Sieppe, Joan Standing as Selina.  Notes:  Written by von Stroheim and June Mathis.  Cinematography by William H. Daniels and Benjamin F. Reynolds.  Music score by James Brennan.  Produced by Samuel Goldwyn.

HAMBURGER HILL.  1987.  104 minutes.  Directed by John Irvin.    What is the best U. S. Hollywood film about the war in Vietnam?  Hamburger Hill should be high on that list.  The story is based on a true incident, the taking of Hill 937, in 1969 by the 101st Airborne and will evoke memories of Lewis Milestone’s classic 1950s Korean War Drama Pork Chop Hill.  As in that film, the taking of the hill was ridiculously costly for both sides—and the taking of the hill a cruelly pointless exercise by the commanders responsible.  Directed effectively by the dependable John Irvin from a script by Jim Carabatsos, the film is a traditional piece of movie-making about the soldiers who fight wars.  Carabatsos’ young soldiers have conflicts among themselves about why they are fighting this war, and the film raises issues of race during the war without bludgeoning the viewer with the issue.  In the end, the camaraderie of young men dying, some for their beliefs, some without a clue as to why they are in Vietnam is rich and honest.  More than any other Vietnam era film except Go Tell the Spartans and possibly Oliver Stone’s Platoon, Hamburger Hill, regardless of its politics, honors the men and boys who fought and died.  The cast, like the films after WW II is filled with promising young actors, many more familiar with us now than they were in 1987.  With:  Anthony Barrile as Langulli, Michael boatman as Motown, Don Cheadle as Washburn, Michael Dolan as Murphy, Don James as McDaniel, Dylan McDermott as Sgt. Frantz, M. A. Nickles as Galvin, Harry O’Reilly as Duffy, Daniel O’Shea as Gaigin, Tim Quill as Beletsky, Tommy Swerdlow as Bienstock, Courtney B. Vance as Doc Johnson, Steven Weber as Sgt. Worcester, Tegan West as Lt. Eden, Keiu Chinh as Mama San, Doug Goodman as Lagunas, J. C. Palmore as Healy and J. D. Van Sickle as the Newsman.  Notes:  Produced by Jim Carabatsos and Marcia Nasatir.  Photographed by Peter MacDonald.  Music by Philip Glass.

HEARTS OF THE WEST.  1975.  105 mins.  Directed by Howard Zieff.  An Indiana farm boy dreams of becoming a famous writer of westerns.  The neophyte author, after a disappointing sojourn to a fake university in the badlands, meets up with a happy-go-lucky crew of movie cowboys and stuntmen while on the lam from the mail fraud crooks that had brought him west.  A wonderful and charming tribute to Hollywood’s yesteryear.  With:  Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith, Donald Pleasance, Blythe Danner, Alan Arkin, Richard B. Shull and Herb Edelman.  Notes:  Screenplay by Rob Thompson.

HEIMAT I.  1980-1984. 924 minutes, In German with English subtitles.  German Social Drama.  Germany in the 20th Century.  Directed by Edgar Reitz.  At the end of World War, I, young Paul Simon, a soldier in the defeated German army returns from the war to his home in the little village of Schabbach in the isolated Hunsruck district.  Paul returns to a village that seems isolated from the larger world.  Paul, his family, and all the other natives are almost irretrievably tied to the place — it is their Heimat — their homeland.  This huge, ambitious film about Germany from 1918 through the early 1980s is a massive effort at showing the complexities of life among the average German citizen in the wake of the disastrous defeat of WWI and the rise of Nazism.  The filmmaker, Edgar Reitz, presents startling, complex images and ideas to present his stories of 70 plus years in the life of place and its peoples.  The film constantly has contrasting black and white images with occasional splashes of color.  The film has a determinedly objective perspective something achieved by Reitz’ efforts to present variations on the theme of home and homeland in images of the perfect Reich and in sentimental regards for nationalism and the simple, unobtrusive rural life.  Many of the images are meant to evoke the sentiments of the “homeland” or Heimat films made during the Nazi epoch. There is, in fact a running theme of the use of film and photography in the Simon family, which re-enforces this — Eduard the elder son takes pictures on every occasion he can.  Anton, Paul and Maria’s elder son is a film photographer in the propaganda crop in WW II and later founds an optical firm in Schabbach].  Family, faith, love, love-lost, bigotry, failure, success, family discord are the themes, which dominate the film.  The acting is uniformly good but Marita Breuer as Maria Simon, born in 1900 and the loving wife deserted by a husband with undetermined wanderlust is very, very fine in a role that requires her to age from a hopeful beauty of 19 to a proud matriarch of 82.  Gerturd Bredel as Katharina Simon, from whom Maria has inherited her mantle.  It is the presence of these two strong women characters in t that gives give the film its distinctive sensibility. — Maria Simon like her mother-in-law Katharina is the emotional anchor of the story and of all the lives in Schabbach and beyond.  Overall, an impressive achievement.  The extensive cast includes:  Marita Breuer as Maria Simon, née Wiegand, Michael as Paul Simon – Dieter Schaad as Paul, Karin Kienzler – Eva Maria Bayerswaltes as Pauline Kröber, Rudiger Weigang as Eduard Simon, Gertrud Bredel as Katharina Simon, née Schirmer, Willi Berer as Mathias Simon, Johannes Lobewein as Alois Wiegand, Kurt Wagner as Glasisch-Karl, Marliese Assmann as Apollonia, Eva Maria Schneider as Marie-Goot, Wolfram Wagner as Mäthes-Pat, Alexander Scholz as Hänschen Betz, Arno Lang as Robert Kröber, Otto Henn as Glockzieh, Manfred Kuhn as Wirt, Karin Rasenack as Lucie Simon, Helga Bender as Martina, Rolf Roth – Markus Reiter – Mathias Kniesbeck as Anton Simon, Ingo Hoffman  Roland Bongard – Michael Kaush as Ernst Simon, Adreas Koloschinski – Anke Jendrychowski – Gabriel Blum as Lotti Schriemr, Hans-Jurgen Schatz as Wilfried Wiegand, Kurt Wolfinger as Gaulietier Simon, Jorge Hube as Otto Wohlleben, Johannes Metzdori as Fritz Pieritz, Joseph E. Jones as the chauffeur, Frank Kleid as Hermannchen, Jorg Richter – Peter Harting as Hermann Simon.  Notes:  Screenplay by Reitz and Peter Steinbach. Camera by Gernot Roll.  Music by Nikos Mamangakis.

HIS GIRL FRIDAY.  1943.  94 minutes.  Directed by Howard Hawks.  The Charles MacArthur-Ben Hecht play about a designing, conniving newspaper editor and his favorite, but gullible ace reporter is an institution.  It has been made into a film four times as The Front Page in 1930 (with Pat O’Brien and Adolphe Menjou — as The Front Page 1974 (with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon) — and renamed and retooled as Switching Channels (with Burt Reynolds, Kathleen Turner and Christopher Reeves).  The most successful (and hilarious) version is Hawks’ combination verbal slapstick cum screwball version with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell.  The pace in His Girl Friday is so frantic that one could get whiplash while howling with laughter.  As Hildy Johnson, Russell is working at her peak.  She matches wits and skills with Cary Grant’s peerless Walter Johnson.  They are supported by a cast that of aces –  — Gene Lockhart, Helen Mack, Ernest Truex, Cliff Edwards, Porter Hall, Roscoe Karns, Frank Jenks, Regis Toomey, Alma Kruger, John Qualen and the even tempered Ralph Bellamy as the prize nice guy booby.  One of the very finest and funniest Hollywood comedies.  Notes:  Charles Lederer wrote this version of the Hecht-MacArthur play.  The idea of turning Hildy into a woman was probably Hawks’.  Women in his films were always smart, tough, and yet just the right woman to be around in the end.  Cinematography by Joseph Walker.  Music by M. W. Stoloff.  Produced by Howard Hawks.

HOTEL DU NORD.  1938.  95 minutes.  In French with English subtitles.  Directed by Marcel Carne.  Marcel Carne made three fascinating films in the late 1930s – Port of Shadows, Jour se Leve and this film, Hotel du Nord based on a book by Eugene Dabit.  The story is an omnibus tale revolving around the lives of the residents of a transient hotel in Paris.  The movie begins with the shot of a young couple slowly walking across a bridge near the hotel.  Inside the hotel, the scene opens on a scene with the residents sitting around the dinner table at the hotel where a first communion party is being held for the young daughter of a policeman who lives at the hotel.  The landlord asks the young girl to deliver a piece of the cake to Raymonde (Arletty), a prostitute who is meeting with her lover Edmond (Louis Jouvet).  While all this is happening the young couple that we had seen earlier Renee (Annabella) and Pierre (Jean-Pierre Aumont) registers into the hotel with plans of following through on a suicide pact.  Carne establishes the characters and situation neatly and displays a richly observed story about those on the margins in Paris.  The beautiful black and white cinematography adds to the moody romance of the story.  It is nearly all atmosphere.  The entire cast is first rate with each actor, even in the smallest role, bringing their character to life each perfect as a type. Cast also includes Paulette Dubost as Ginette, Andrex as Kenel, André Brunot as Emile , Lecouvreur, Henri Bosc as Nazarède, Marcel André as Le chirurgien, Bernard Blier as Prosper, Jacques Louvigny as Munar, Armand Lurville as Le commissaire (as Lurville), Jane Marken as Louise Lecouvreur, Génia Vaury as L’ infirmière, François Périer as Adrien, René Bergeron as Maltaverne.

2.  
3. HOSTILE GUNS.  1967.  91 minutes.  Westerns.  Directed by R. G. Springsteen.  Marshall Gid McCool has the task of escorting prisoners across rough Texas terrain without a lot of help.  One of the prisoners is his fiery ex-lover.  When he can’t find deputies to help with transporting the prisoners he hires a rowdy young cowboy to help with the task.  One of the prisoners’ relatives stalk the transport to free him.  Good cast, fair action in this routine western.  With:  George Montgomery, Yvonne De Carlo, Tab Hunter, Brian Donlevy, John Russell, Leo Gordon, Robert Emhardt, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, James Craig and Richard Arlen.  Notes:  Screenplay by Sloan Nibley and James Edward Grant.  Photography by Lothrop Worth.  Music by Jimmie Haskell.
4.  
5. HOTEL.  1967.  124 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Hotels.  New Orleans.  Novel Into Film.  Directed by Richard Quine.  A film of Arthur Hailey’s popular best seller about an elegant New Orleans hotel facing changes.  When the owner of a big chain of hotels attempts to by the St. Gregory its owner and his ace manager try every means possible to keep it out of his hands.  The machinations around the possible sale of the hotel are juxtaposed against the stories of the hotel’s guests.  A small time thief working the hotel is looking for that one big score.  A British Duke and his ambitious wife try to hide a hit-and-run incident, and the hotel magnate’s beautiful mistress is drawn to the St. Gregory’s handsome young manager.  Old-fashioned story and moviemaking about intrigue, love, blackmail and New Orleans’s special kind of ambiance with a good cast and very good atmosphere.  With:  Rod Taylor as Peter McDermott, Karl Malden as Keycase, Melvyn Douglas as Trent, Kevin McCarthy as O’Keefe, merle Oberon as the Duchess, Michael Rennie as the Duke of Lanbourne, Catherine Spaak as Jeanne, Richard Conte as Dupre, and Carmen McRae as Christine.  Notes:  Screenplay by Wendell Mayes from the novel by Arthur Hailey.  Cinematography by Charles Lang.  Edited by Sam O’Steen.  Music by Johnny Keating.
6.  
7. HOUSEKEEPING.  1988.  117 minutes.  Domestic Drama. Coming of Age Drama.   V1847>.  Directed by Bill Forsythe.  Christine Lahti plays an eccentric aunt to two orphaned girls in the Pacific Northwest.  The girls enjoy her presence until they realize her imagination is just a little more unique than they can deal with.  Bill Forsythe, the director of the lovely Scots comedies Gregory’s Girl and Local Hero, made his first American production  with this wonderfully bright and flaky comedy dominated by the splendid performance of Christine Lahti as the aunt of two teenaged girls trying to cope with the loss of their parents.  As Sylvie, Lahti portrays a free-spirited if not rootless woman whose eccentricities provokes each of the girls in very different ways.  When forced to try to conform, she struggles, but one of the girls proves to have some of the same blithe quirks.  Beautifully photographed, wonderfully acted.  With:  Sarah Walker as Ruth, Andrea Burchill as Lucille, Anne Pitoniak as Aunt Lily, Barbara Reese as Nona, Bill Smille as the Sheriff, Margo Pinvidic as Helen Wane Robson as Mr. French and Enid Saunders as Etta.  Notes:  Screenplay by Bill Forsyth.  Cinematography by Michael Coulter. Music by Michael Gibbs.  Box-office gross:  $$1,083,000.
8.  
9. HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINES WITHOUT REALLY TRYING.  1967.  125 minutes.  Musical Comedy.  Corporate Satire.  Directed by David Swift.  J. Pierpont Finch is an ambitious window washer in the financial district who climbs to tremendous heights on the corporate ladder after he reads a book called How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.   Robert Morse is Finch, Michele Lee is Rosemary, Rudy Vallee is J.B. Biggley, Anthony Teague is Bud Frump, and Maureen Arthur is Hedy.  Cast also includes: John Myhers as Bratt, Carol Worthington as Lucille Krumholt, Kay Reynolds as Smitty, Ruth Kobart as Miss Jones, Sammy Smith as Twible/Wally Woomper and Jeff Debenning as Gatch.  Notes:  Musical Supervision by Nelson Riddle.  Written for the screen and produced by David Swift.  Music and lyrics by Frank Loesser.  Stage play directed by Abe Burrows from a book by Burrows, Jack Weinstock, and Willie Gilbert from the novel by Shepherd Mead.  Musical numbers staged by Bob Fosse.  Songs include I Believe In You (sung very nicely by Michele Lee), Rosemary, and It’s Been A Long Day.  Photographed by Burnett Guffey.
10.  
11. HUCKLEBERRY FINN.  1974.  114 minutes  Musical.  Slavery.  Mark Twain.  American Literature.  Directed by J. Lee Thompson.  This mid-70s adaptation of the great satirical novel by Mark Twain, is soft and nice too its very core.  The filmmakers as adapted very freely from the source and though some semblance of place and time are evoked [though primarily is soft sunlit colors and overly cute comedy], it is much too typical of the bowdlerization done to great works to make them more palatable to wider audiences, audiences not inclined to read or care about the work.   The music and songs by Robert and Richard Sherman [who wrote many of the tunes for Disney films during this period [the most notable being Mary Poppins] is fairly innocuous.   Not recommended for those who can’t stomach hard core, cotton candy sentiment.  With:  Jeff East as Huck, Paul Winfield as Jim, Harvey Korman as the King, David Wayne as the Duke, Arthur O’Connell as Colonel Grangeford, Gary Merrill as Pap, Natalie Trundy as Mrs. Loftus, Lucille Benson as Widder Douglas, Kim O’Brien as Marjane Wilks, Jean Fay as Susan Wilks, Ruby Leftwich as Miss Watson, and Odessa Cleveland as Jim’s wife.  With:  Arthur O’Connell, Gary Merrill, as Pap, Natalie Trendy.  Notes:  Screenplay by Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman.  Music and Lyrics by the Shermans.   Produced by Arthur P.  Jacobs.  Music conducted and supervised by Fred Werner.  Title song Freedom sung by Robert Flack.  Photographed by Laszlo Kovacs.  Choreography by Marc Breaux. 
12.  
13. HUEY LONG.  1985.   88 minutes  Documentary.  Biographical.  Directed by Ken Burns.  “Hero, populist, dictator, demagogue.  This feature documentary captures the rise and fall of one of America’s most controversial and charismatic political figures.  Hailed as a champion of Louisiana’s neglected during the Great Depression, Long built his career as governor and senator on a platform of social reform.  His programs provided highways, bridges and free schoolbooks, at the same time that graft and corruption became an accepted part of life.  Long’s aspirations were high and his spellbinding personality and political rival, just as his “Share-the-wealth” party was mounting a serious national challenge to FDR for the 1936 election.”  Notes: Produced by Burns and Richard Kilberg.  Red Ribbon 1985 American Film Festival.  Erik Barnow Prize 1985.  Written by Geoffrey C. Ward.  Edited by Any Stechler Burns.  Cinematographer by Ken Burns and Buddy Squires.  David McCullough.  Consultants were William Leuchtenburg, Alan Brinkley, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, Robert Snyder and Jerome Liebling.  Among those interviews:  Huey Elizabeth East, Justice John Fournet, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Leona Guirard, Ragan Madden, Robert Penn Warren, Harold and Myrtle Bigler, Edmond Riggs, Alcide Verret, Mrs. Hodding Carter, Elois Sahuc, I. F. Stone, Russell Long, Ivy Keys, Bill Dodd, Senator Jennings Randolph and Jim Wright.
14.  
15. THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME.  1996.  91 minutes  Walt Disney Production.  Animated adaptation of Literature.  French Literature, adaptations.  Victor Hugo.  Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise.   A soft and sanitized version of the great romantic melodrama by Victor Hugo.  This Disney feature does have some interestingly hard moments, but not enough to make this film less than palatable to those who care about the book or about the fine dramatic versions of the film [Long Chaney’s silent version and the celebrated Korda version with Charles Laughton as Quasimodo.  There are many moviegoers who, of course like the film and its melodies.  One must make his or her own decision about this film.  Voices include Tom Hulce as Quasimodo, Tony Jay as Frollo,  Paul Kandel, Charles Kimbrough, Kevin Kline as Phoebus, Demi Moore as Esmerelda, David Ogden Stiers as the Archbishop,  Mary Wickes, Paul Kakel as Clopin, and Jason Alexander [Hugo], Charles Kimbrough [Victor], and Mary Wickes [Laverne] – the Gargoyles.  Notes:  Songs and music by Alan Menken.  Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.  Original Score by Alen Menken.  Animation story by Tab Murphy.  Animation screenplay by Murphy with Irene Mecchi, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White, and Jonathan Roberts based on Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris [The Hunchback of Notre Dame].
16.  
17. HURLYBURLY.  1998.  150 minutes.  Drama.  Hollywood Drama.  David Rabe.  American Theater.  Directed by Anthony Drazan.  This film of David Rabe’s highly regarded play about Hollywood types and attitudes is an actor’s dream.  Eddie and Mickey, partners in a casting agency and roommates are each coming to grips with personal crises regarding their relationship with women and with one another.  With their manic friend Phil, they share women, booze, drugs on what proves to be an artificially deep level.  The men engage in a lot of intellectual male posturing about who and what they are – and what is the meaning of their inter-relationships.  Its kind of fun watching this amazing cast of talented actors relish chewing up Rabe’s hyperbolic dialogue.  Sean Penn as Eddie, Kevin Spacey as Mickey, Robin Penn Wright as Darlene, Chazz Palminteri as Phil, Garry Shandling as Artie, Anna Paquin as Donna and Meg Ryan as Bonnie are an impressive imminently watchable ensemble.  Notes:  Screenplay by David Rabe from his play.  Cinematography by Gu Changwei.  Music by David Baerwald and Steve Lindsley.  Awards:  Best Actor, Venice Film Festival [Penn].
18.  
19. HUSBANDS.  1970.  138 minutes.  Drama.  Male Bonding.  John Casavettes.  Independent American Cinema.  Directed by John Casavettes.  Harry, Archie and Gus are three upper middle class New Yorkers who, in commiserating with one another after the funeral of a fourth friend, go an extended bender in search of something neither of them is clear about.  The men’s sojourn into their communal mid-life crisises lead them on a all night drunk then a last minute road trip to London suggested by the mercurial Harry.  Each of the men find a different answer about himself on this road trip through middle age.  Sex, love, marriage, work, friendship are all given a workout by Casavettes and his crew much as it was in the other films in this cycle.  With:  Ben Gazzara as Harry, Peter Falk as Archie, John Casavettes as Gus, Jenny Runcacre as Mary Tynan, Noelle Kao as Julie, John Kullers as Red, Peggy Lashbrook a  Diana Mallabee, Eleanor Zee as Mrs. Hines.  Notes:  Screenplay by Casavettes.  Cinematography by Victor J. Kemper.  Musical direction by jack Ackerman and Stanley Wilson.  Edited by Tom Cornwell, Peter Tanner and Jack Woods.
20.  
21. I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG.  1932.  90 minutes.  <V538>.  Directed by Mervyn Leroy.  Story:  A World War I veteran returns home from the war with a different vision of what he wants to do for the rest of his life.  He wants to avoid the rut of a factory job going nowhere.  He leaves home only to find that thousands of others like him are not finding adjusting easy or jobs available.  Down on his luck, he is framed and arrested for a crime he didn’t commit.  The rest of the story revolves around his escape, rise to prominence and wealth, and his voluntary return to clear his name.  The cruelties he suffers after his return to a brutal Southern chain gang prison camp are the emotional high points of the film.  This film has amazing raw emotional power.  There are scenes that amaze you with their depth of feeling.  The acting, overstated at times, is very fine as well.  Highly recommended.  With:  Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Preston Foster, Helen Vinson, Edward Ellis and Allen Jenkins.  Notes:  Based on autobiographical material by Robert E. Burns.  The film was typical of the social melodramas from Warner’s in its 1930s features.  Notes:  Oscar nominated for best picture, actor (Muni), and sound recording.
22.  
23. I CONFESS.  1953.  95 minutes.  Crime Melodrama.  Film Noir.  Alfred Hitchcock.  Montgomery Clift.  <V665>.  Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  In Quebec, a priest hears the confession of a killer and consequently becomes deeply embroiled in physical and spiritual turmoil over whether or not to tell the police.  When he hesitates, he becomes a suspect.  Not memorable Hitchcock.  It has a somber, weighty atmosphere, one not conducive to having fun while watching it.  The black and white photography is superior.  With:  Montgomery Clift as Father Michael William Logan, Anne Baxter as Ruth Grandfort, Karl Malden as Inspector Larrue, Brian Aherne as Willy Robertson, O. E. Hasse as Otto Keller, Roger Dann as Pierre Grandfort, and Dolly Haas as Alma Keller.  Notes:  Screenplay by George Tabori and William Archibald.  Photography by Robert Burks.  Music by Dimitri Tiomkin.  Edited by Rudi Fehr.
24.  
25. I COULD GO ON SINGING.  1963.  90 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Judy Garland.  <V2072>.  Directed by Ronald Neame.  Judy Garland plays a big musical star who returns to London to rekindle a love affair and to see how the son she “gave up” to pursue her career is growing.  Jenny Bowman, who has a child by her lover, Dr. David Donne, gives up both lover and son for the stage.  Years later they meet again in London and their relationship simmers again.  Just soap, and pretty average at that.  It was also Garland’s last film.  With:  Dirk Bogarde as David Donne, Jack Klugman as George Kogan, Aline McMahon as Ida, Gregory Phillips as Matt, and Pauline Jameson as Miss Plimpton.  Notes:  Screenplay by Mayo Simon.  Cinematography by Arthur Ibbetson.  Music by Mort Lindsey.  Costume design by Edith Head.
26.  
27. I COVER THE WATERFRONT.  1933.  75 minutes.  Newspaper Drama.  Illegal Aliens.  Novel Into Film.  Claudette Colbert.  Murder Drama.  Waterfront Drama.  <V79>.  Directed by James Cruze.  A reporter forms a friendship with the daughter of a brutal, abusive fisherman who smuggles illegal Chinese aliens into San Diego.  The smuggler has the habit of dumping his illegal charges overboard with chains tied around their legs when Coast Guard cutters are near.   Interesting melodrama, a little on the tawdry side, but quite compelling.  Plenty of atmosphere and Claudette Colbert as Julie Kirk, Ben Lyon as Joe Miller are a good match as the leads. With:  Ernest Torrence as Eli Kirk, Hobart Cavanaugh as McCoy, Maurice Black as Ortegus, Purnell Pratt as John Phelps, harry Beresford as Old Chris, and Wilfred Lucas as Randall. Notes: Based on a book by Max Miller.  Screenplay by Wells Root with additional dialog by Jack Jevne.  Cinematography by Ray June.  Edited by Grant Whytock.
28.  
29. I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS.  1978.  96 minutes.  Autobiographical Drama.  Maya Angelou.  Coming of Age Story.  African-American Literature.  African-American Women.  Made-For-TV Movies.  Novel Into Film.  <V1017>.  Directed by Fielder Cook.  A film version of Angelou stirring book of the same title.  It to is a fictionalized account of her life.  The story of a gifted, imaginative young black girl growing up in the South of the 1930s.  The film is based on Angelou’s autobiographical study of her life in Arkansas.  With: Paul Benjamin as Freeman, Diahann Carroll as Vivian, Ruby Dee as Grandmother Baxter,  Roger E. Mosley as Bailey Sr., Madge Sinclair as Miss Flowers, Esther Rolle as Momma, and Constance Good as Maya.  Notes:  Music by Peter Matz.  Originally broadcast on April 28, 1979.  Produced by Jean Moore Edwards and Thomas W. Moore.  Teleplay by Angelou and Leonora Thuna.
30.  
31. I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER.  1997.  Teen Horror.   Juvenile Literature.  Novel Into Film.   Directed by Jim Gillespie.  Julie James, Helen Shivers, Barry Cox, and Ray Bronson are four good friends who accidentally hit a man who strays onto the ocean front highway they are traveling on late one summer’s night.  Rather than be confronted with explaining how the accident happened they agree to hiding the body and never telling what happened.  The secret proves to be one they can’t hide especially, after a year has passed and some mysterious stranger begins terrorizing them about the accident.  Kevin Williamson wrote the script for this clever if somewhat recycled teen murder/horror epic.  In the wake of his remarkably successful and witty surprise hit Scream, which satirized the kill-the-teen slasher flicks this one most resembles, I Know What You Did Last Summer succeeds because of the fresh young cast that includes popular TV favorites Jennifer Love Hewitt as Julie, Sarah Michell Gellar as Helen, Ryan Philippe as Barry and Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Ray and, novice director Gillespie’s sure handling of the genre’s many clichés.  Also with Muse Watson as Benjamin Willis/Fisherman, Bridgett Wilson as Elsa Shivers, Anne Heche as Melissa Egan, and Johnny Galecki as Max.  Notes:  Screenplay by Williamson is an adaptation of a popular teen novel by Lois Duncan.  Original music by John Debney.  Cinematography by Denis Crossan.  Box-office gross:  $72,219,395.  Currently available in collection on DVD only.
32.  
33. I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS.  1968.  94 minutes.  ‘60s satire.  Social Comedy.  Sexual Comedy.  Peter Sellers.   Flower Children.  Directed by Hy Averback.  Peter Sellers is Harold Fine an uptight L. A. lawyer who faces the pressures of his girlfriend to get married and the meddlesome nature of his Jewish mother.  When he meets his younger brother’s beautiful girl friend he falls for the counter-cultural lifestyle.  A lovely, light satire about change and romance in the late ‘60s.  Sellers gives a wonderful performance as a man who tries to sincerely adapt to the groovy life and the budding cultural and sexual revolution only to find that there are things about it that don’t suit him.   Jo Van Fleet is very funny as Harold’s mother.  With:  Leigh Taylor-Yong as Nancy, Joyce Van Patten as Joyce, David Arkin as Herbie, Herbert Edelman as Murray, Louis Gottlieb as the guru, Janet Clark as Mr. Foley.  Notes:  Screenplay by Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker.  Cinematography by Philip H. Lathrop.  Music by Elmer Bernstein.
34.  
35. I MARRIED AN ANGEL.  1942.  84 minutes.  Operetta.  Musical Comedy.  Jeanette MacDonald.  Rodgers and Hart.  Directed by W. S. Van Dyke II.  Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy star in this pretty trifle, the eighth film in their immensely popular MGM series of operettas.  Eddy is a playboy count (the most eligible bachelor in Budapest], who, on the night of his 36th birthday party gets away from the bevy of beauties who want to catch him as a mate.  While hiding he falls asleep and dreams of a beautiful angel named Briggita [MacDonald].  When the count and Briggita marry everything in the count’s life goes a little haywire because he is married to such a perfect angel.  When he awakens the angel turns out to be quite like Anna, his quiet and charming secretary [also MacDonald].  With:  Edward Everett Horton as Peter, Binnie Barnes as Peggy, Reginald Owen as Whiskers, Douglass Dumbrille Baron as Baron Stigethy, Mona Maris as Markia, Janis Carter as Suzi, and Inez Cooper as Irene, Leonid Kinsky as Zinski, Anne Jeffreys as Polly, and Marion Rosamond as Dolly.  Notes:  Screenplay by Anita Loos based on the Broadway musical by Rodgers and Hart and the play by Vaszary Janos.  Photography by Ray June.  songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.  Music score by Herbert Stothart.  Produced by Hunt Stromberg.  The songs — Spring Is Here, I Married An Angel — are among the best examples of the Rodgers and Hart compositions.
36.  
37. I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER.  1970.  92 minutes.  Family Drama.  American Theater.  Directed by Gilbert Cates.  Gene Garrison has come to a point in his life where he must tell his loving mother and proud, prickly father that he wants to move to California to remarry.  Garrison and his older sister, had always had difficulties with old Tom Garrison and when their mother, after a long illness, dies, they must come to grips with what to expect from their demanding, self centered father.   Melvyn Douglas as Tom Garrison, Gene Hackman as Gene Garrison, Dorothy Stickney as Margaret Garrison, Estelle Parsons as Alice all give first rate performances in this solid, if somewhat depressing stage drama.  The film is an honest depiction of the conflict between generations and of the impact of aging on vital, independent people.  Robert W. Anderson’s screenplay is a direct and forceful adaptation.  With: Elizabeth Hubbard as Peggy, Lovelady Powell as Norma, Daniel Keyes, as Daniel Keyes as Dr. Mayberry, Conrad Bain as Rev. Bell.  Notes:  Produced by Gilbert Cates.  Written by Robert W. Anderson from is play.  Cinematography by Morris Hartzband and George Stoetzel.  Music by Barry Mann and Al Gorgoni.  Academy Award nominations for best actor (Douglas), supporting actor (Hackman) and screenplay adaptation.
38.  
39. I SHOT ANDY WARHOL.  1996.  104 minutes.  Biographical Drama.  Valerie Solanas.  Andy Warhol.  New York, 1960s.  Lili Taylor is Valerie Solanas, an angry young woman who arrives on the New York underground cultural scene in the 1960s full of ambitions as a feminist writer and thinker.  When she makes a connection with avant garde artist Andy Warhol, she tries to convince him to produce a play she’s written.  Warhol, haphazardly and innocently, disregards the woman’s efforts as serious.  When she has difficulty getting the manuscript she gave him to read back, she develops megalomanical tendencies that lead her to finally shooting the artist.  This is an endlessly fascinating look at New York City’s recent cultural past.  Lili Taylor gives an intensely neurotic performance as the half mad Solanas.  Jared Harris is properly somnambulistic as Warhol — he plays the man as almost a cipher.  The most startling performance in the film is Stephen Dorff’s Candy Darling.  Dorff is an interesting, talented and daring young actor, one always willing to surprise.  With:  Martha Plimpton as Stevie, Danny Morgenstern as Jeremiah, Lothaire Bluteau as Maurice Girodias, Michael Imperioli as Ondine, Reg Rogers as Paul Morrissey, Coco McPherson as Brigid Berlin, Donovan Leitch as Gerard Malanga, Tahnee Welch as Viva, Craig Chester as Fred Hughes, James Lyons as Billy Name, Anna Thomson as Iria, Jamie Harrold as Jackie Curtis, and Myriam Cyr as Ultra Violet.  Notes:  Photographed by Ellen Kuras.  Original Score by John Cale.  Music Supervision by Randall Poster.  Written by Mary Harron and Daniel Minahan.  Box-office gross:  $529,711.
40.  
41. I WANNA HOLD YOUR HANDS.  1978.  99 minutes.  Comedy. The Beatles Hysteria.  Beatles Mania.  Teenagers.  <V2750>. Directed by Robert Zemeckis.  On Sunday, February 8, 1964, the Ed Sullivan Show was probably the most watched program in America, especially among the young.  Why?  The British invasion of rock music began with the much publicized arrival of the Beatles for a performance on the Sullivan show.  This film is a pell-mell paced satire of that day in the lives of several New Jersey teens and thousands of other kids.  The efforts by three girls and their friends to get close to the Fab Four is the story — what there is of it.  Robert Zemeckis [Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit], the director, and his co-scenarist Bob Gale (who had written the screenplay for Spielberg’s  Sugarland Express have produced a frantic farce that is often quite funny, and often quite dumb.  It has an energetic cast filled with young actors who are more familiar now (if not by any means stars) including Nancy Allen, Susan Kendall Newman, Theresa Saldana, Wendie Jo Sperber, Marc McClure, Bobby Di Cicco and Eddie Dezeen.  The most interesting performance is that of Di Cicco, a Jersey tough, who actually is funny and dangerous.  Di Cicco is a gifted young actor who has never found a niche in Hollywood films.  Notes:  Screenplay by Zemeckis and Gale.  (Film is preceded by a preview for Doing Time on Planet Earth).  Photographed by Donald M. Morgan.  Spielberg was Executive Producer.  Songs include I Want To Hold Your Hands, She Loves You, Please Please Me, I Saw Her Standing There, and Twist and Shout.
42.  
43. I’LL CRY TOMORROW.  1955.  117 minutes.  <V2076>.  Directed by Daniel Mann.  The ‘50s was a prime time for autobiographical films of celebrities from The story of Lillian Roth, the singing and stage star whose fall from stardom to skid row was one of the few film bios that did not white-wash the story.  Susan Hayward won an Oscar nomination and best Actress award at Cannes for her forceful, dominating performance.  With:  Richard Conte, Eddie Albert, Jo Van Fleet, Don Taylor and Ray Danton.  Notes:  Oscar nominated for art/set decoration and costume design (for which it won the Oscar).
44.  
45. I’M A FOOL.  1976.  58 minutes.  American Short Stories.  Sherwood Anderson.  <V1024>.  Directed by Noel Black.  Sherwood Anderson’s short story about a young Ohio horse trainer who misleads a young girl into thinking he’s a wealthy man only to realize that he has done so foolishly.  Simply, charmingly done adaptation of Anderson’s story.  With:  Ron Howard and Amy Irving.  Notes:  Teleplay adaptation by Ron Cowen.  Edited by Stan Siegel and Arnold Federbush.  Available on 16mm and VHS video.
46.  
47. I’M GONNA GET YOU SUCKA.  1989.  129 minutes.  Satire.  Blaxploitation Films, Satires.  African-American Filmmakers.  <V2240>.  Directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans.  Keenan Ivory Wayans wrote the screenplay for and acted in Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle.  Wayans clearly has an eye and ear for movie satire.  He obviously has more than a passing interest in filmmaking since his two films to date are about black movies and blacks working in movies.  I’m Gonna Get You Sucka pokes some rather mild fun at the super heroics of the black action film.  It uses several of the key actors in the genre — Jim Brown, Isaac Hayes, Jim Kelly, Antonio Fargas, and Bernie Casey (Where was Pam Grier).  Wayans plays the wayward, klutzy hero.  Notes:  Screenplay by Wayans.  Cinematography by Tom Richmond.  Music by David Michael Frank.   Box-office gross:  $13,028,000.
48.  
49. I’M NO ANGEL.  1933.  88 minutes.  Comedy.  Mae West.  Cary Grant.  Directed by Wesley Ruggles.  Mae West is the gorgeous Miss Tira, lion tamer, blues singer, seducer of men and Cary Grant is Jack Clayton, a wealthy financier who falls for Tira after convincing her to leave his engaged business partner.  When Tira is set up by her manager and an ex-lover, Clayton walks out.  Tira sues for breach of promise and winds up winning the hearts of minds of judge, jury, and Clayton when she cross-examines the witnesses herself.  This is probably West’s best film, full of wonderfully ripe innuendo [When I’m good, I’m very good.  But when I’m bad, I’m better], good blues, and of course, the dapper Cary Grant.  With:  Kent Taylor as Kirk Lawrence, Gregory Ratoff as Benny Pinkowitz, Edward Arnold as Big bill Barton, Ralf Harold as Slike Wiley, Gertrude Michael as Alicia Hatton, Russell Hopton as the Barker, Dorothy Peterson as Thelma, William B. Davidson as the Chump, Gertrude Howard as Beulah, and Libby Taylor Maid.  Notes:  Story, dialog and screenplay by West with continuity by Harlan Thompson.  Song lyrics by Gladys DuBois and Ben Ellison.  Music by Harvey Brooks.  Photography by Leo Tover.
50.  
51. I’M NOT RAPPAPORT.  1996.  136 minutes.  Comedy Drama.  Aging.  American Theater.  Directed by Herb Gardner.  Walter Matthau is Nat and Ossie Davis is Midge in this film adaptation of a Tony Award winning play by Herb Gardner.  This film of Gardner’s actors’ play is much too stagy but Matthau and Davis ham it up beautifully.  Nat is a retired waiter with a conveniently wistful memory of the past and of the role he played in social movements.  He’s hell on wheels towards any thing or any body that smacks of exploiting the “little guy.”   He’s a New York City Don Quixote always willing to do a little more that tilt at windmills.  When he attaches himself to the partially blind Midge, whose been trying to avoid the tenant’s rep for the apartment building he’s been super of for 40 years [they want to ease him out of the job because of his age], the two endure several misadventures.  The movie is quite well written and the supporting cast blend in nicely, but the show belongs to the old pros all the way.   With: Amy Irving as Clara, Craig T. Nelson as The Cowboy, Boyd Gaines as Danforth, Martha Plimpton as Laurie, Guillermo Diaz as J. C., Elina Lowensohn as Clara Lemlich. Ron Rifkin as Feigenbaum.  Marin Hinkle as Hanna, Nancy Giles as Ella Mae Tilden, Ranjit Chowdhry as Kamir, and Irwin Corey as Sol.  Notes:  Written by Gardner from his play.  Cinematography by Adam Holender.  Music by Gerry Mulligan.  Box-office gross:  $200,000.
52.  
53. ICE STATION ZEBRA.  1968.  148 minutes.  Cold War Action Drama.  Novel Into Film.  Alistair MacLean.  Directed by John Sturges.  Story:  A U.S. Naval Submarine is assigned the task of retrieving a Russian satellite from the Arctic.  The ship’s race against the Russians is almost thrawted by espionage and discontent aboard ship.  Cold War action melodrama that would have been more effective if the sets weren’t so obvious.  The play arctic detracts from the picture, making it look too fake.  The cast is headed by two shades of wood — Rock Hudson and Jim Brown, with Patrick McGoohan and Ernest Borgnine over acting with great zeal as the heavies.  With:  Tony Bill, Alf Kjellin, Ted Hartley, Gerald O’Loughlin, and Lloyd Nolan.  Notes:  Based on the bestseller by Alistair MacLean.   Screenplay by Douglas Heyes and Harry Julian Fink from a story by Fink.  Cinematography by Daniel L. Fapp and Jon Stephens.  The film’s visual effects and cinematography received Oscar nominations ?!?  Box-office gross:  $4,640,598.
54.  
55. THE ICE STORM.  1997.  113 minutes.  Family Drama.  Novels Into Film.  Directed by Ang Lee.  In suburban Connecticut in the late ‘70s two neighboring families are dysfunctional in strikingly related yet different ways.   The Janey  Carver is having an affair with her neighbor’s husband, Ben Hood, an affair  they only barely hide from their spouses.  The Carver and Hood children are each at different stages of sexual and social awareness that drives each of them towards some of the same dismal terrain their parents occupy.  Ice Storm is a mood piece that will give viewers a chilly view of emotional confusion.  It’s an oddly effective piece, much different in tone and style from the other works of director Ang Lee.  The acting is very fine, especially  Sigourney Weaver as the embittered cynical Janey Carver, Christina Ricci as Wendy Hood and Tobey Maguire as Paul Hood and the very gifted Joan Allen as Elana Hood, a woman who knows her husbands shallow deception all too well.  With:   Kevin Kline as Ben Hood, Joan Allen as Elana Hood, Christina Ricci as Wendy Hood, Elijah Wood as Mikey Carver, Adam Hann-Byrd as Sandy Carver, Henry Czerny as George Clair, Jamey Sheridan as Jim Carver and Katie Holmes as Libbets Casey.  Notes:  Written by James Schamus from the novel by Rick Moody.  Cinematography by Frederick Elmes.  Music by Mychael Danna.  Box-office gross:  $7,800,000 U.S. & $4,000,000 International.
56.  
57. IDAHO TRANSFER.  1973.  90 minutes.  <V2796>.  Science Fiction.  Directed by Peter Fonda.  A group of young scientist are transported into the year 2044 in hopes of repopulating an earth decimated by ecological holocaust.  They find a barren, sterile sort of environment that seems peopled only by small bands of roving, half human men and women.  In some ways they have been deceived by what the future would hold for them.  They are disillusioned by the future as much as they were by the past.  This is an intriguing, surprisingly effective work by Fonda.  It has messages galore, but it is simply presented and directed.  Fonda used mostly friends (the most familiar a very young Keith Carradine) and street people as actors a choice that does give the film a welcome freshness.  Well shot and edited.  With:  Kelley Bohanan, Kevin Hearst and Caroline Hildebrand.  Notes:  Photographed by Bruce Logan.  Music composed and performed by Bruce Langhorne.  Story and screenplay by Thomas Matthiesen.
58.  
59. IDIOT’S DELIGHT.  1939.  107 minutes.  <V839>.  Directed by Clarence Brown.  Robert E. Sherwood wrote the screen adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway play about a vaudeville hoofer and a fake Russian grand lady.  Clark Gable and Norma Shearer were the leads.  For those of you who have seen THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT, this is the film where Gable does that charming, but goofy, dance routine.  Sherwood attempted to write something in the style of G. B. Shaw.  Whether he succeeds is a matter of personal observation.  The film works as an interesting star vehicle.  With:  Edward Arnold, Joseph Schildkraut, Burgess Meredith and Laura Hope Crews.
60.  
61. ILLICIT.  1931.  76 minutes.  Romantic Drama.  Sexual Drama.  Barbara Stanwyck.  Society Melodrama.  Popular American Theater.   Directed by Archie Mayo.  A very daring drama from the early pre-code ‘30s.  Anne Vincent is an ambitious girl in love with Dick Ives, scion of a wealthy family.  The two have a very bold arrangement – they live together on weekends because Anne fears that marriage would destroy the romance in their lives.  When Ives’ father finds out about the arrangement, the two realize that they must wed.  Eventually, Anne’s premonition comes true.  Risqué dialogue and situations abound in this unusually frank melodrama.   The Stanwyck character is an amazingly modern, independent minded woman and the young Stanwyck is riveting, though not quite the actress she would be in just a couple of short years later. With:  James Rennie as Dick Ives, Ricardo Cortez as Price Baines, Natalie Moorhead as Margie True, Charles Butterworth as Georgie Evans, Joan Blondell as Helen “Duckie” Childers and Claude Gillingwater as Ives Senior.  Notes:  Screenplay by Harvey Thew from as play by Edith Fitzgerald and Robert Riskin.
62.  
63. ILLUSIONS.  1983.  34 minutes.  African-American Filmmakers.  Women Directors.  Independent Films.  Moving Picture Industry, World War II.  Blacks in the Moving Picture Industry.  Directed by Julie Dash.  An impressionist study of a smart, ambitious young woman film executive during World War II who, while passing for black, tries to make an impact on the films made by the studio she works for.  An army officer stationed as war time liaison starts to pursue her aggressively when he discovers her partially veiled secret.  An interesting study of a driven woman’s desire to make a difference in the movie industry.  Shot in black and white, the film has a very ’40s look and style.  With:  Lonette McKee, Rosanne Katon, Ned Bellamy, Jack Radar, Fernando Lundi Faust, Lisa Phelps, Laddy Ashley, Rita Crafts, Sandy Brooke, Johnny Crear, John McBride, and John Childers.  Musical singers and dancers include Gaye Kruser, Oliver Wodall, and Joseph T. McKenna.  Photography by Ahmed El Maanouni.  Edited by Julie Dash with Charles Burnett.
64.  
65. IMITATION OF LIFE.  1934.  106 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Inter-racial Drama.  Fannie Hurst.  Claudette Colbert.  Louise Beavers.  Novel Into Film.  Directed by John Stahl.  Beatrice Pullman is a young widow down on her luck, who hires Delilah, a black woman (with a young child of her own) as a housekeeper and cook.  The two women are barely making ends meet when Beatrice hits upon the idea of opening a restaurant featuring pancakes made by Delilah.  The restaurant becomes a success and soon the women’s business expands into a major corporate success.  Delilah, however, is confronted with a problem with her daughter Peola.  Peola looks white and resents the fact that she and her mother are black.  The girl often passes for white, an effort often overturned by Delilah’s honesty.  Imitation Of Life deals rather four-squarely with the sensitive issue of the daughter’s racial confusion.  It’s a first rate soap opera with good performances and intelligent direction by John Stahl.  The film has its detractors on either side of the relationship between Beatrice and Delilah –about the relative subservient role the black woman, who created the thing that made them both very wealthy.  It is Peola’s and Delilah’s story which makes the film work on such elemental emotional levels.  The film was a huge success in 1934 as well as in a remake with Lana Turner directed by Douglas Sirk in 1959.   With:  Claudette Colbert a s Beatrice Pullman, Warren William as Stephen Archer, Ned Sparks as Elmer, Louise Beavers as Aunt Delilah, Fredi Washington as Peola Johnson, Alan Hale as Martin, Clarence Wilson as the Landlord, Henry Armetta as the Painter, Henry Kolker as Dr. Preston.  Notes:  Screenplay by William Hurlburt and Preston Sturges from the novel by Fanny Hurst.  Produced by Carl Laemmle Jr.  Cinematography by Merritt B. Gerstad.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, sound recording [Gilbert Kurland] and assistant director [Scott Beal].
66.  
67. IMITATION OF LIFE.  1959.  124 minutes. Romantic Melodrama.  Inter-racial Drama.  Fannie Hurst.   Novel Into Film.  <V2158>.  Directed by Douglas Sirk.  The Fannie Hurst novel about the emotional and personal strife of two women (one white and one black) and their daughters, has a strong current of appeal.  It was filmed twice in 1937 and 1959.  The earlier version stuck closer the characterizations of the book (the women share a successful business) but both make much of the racial identification problems of the black mother’s daughter.  The 1959 version  stars Lana Turner, John Gavin, Dan O’Herlihy, Susan Kohner, Robert Alda, Juanita Moore, Troy Donahue and Mahalia Jackson.  It’s a tearjerker of major proportions.  You’ll cry inspite of yourself.  Notes:  Produced by Ross Hunter.  Screenplay by Eleanore Griffin and Allan Scott from the novel by Fannie Hurst.  Original music by Frank Skinner.  Cinematography by Russell Metty.  Oscar nominations for best supporting actress (two — Kohner and Juanita Moore).
68.  
69. IN & OUT.  1997.  92 minutes.  Comedy/Satire.  Gays.  Outing Gays.  Directed by Frank Oz.  When Cameron Drake, small town Indiana boy, is Oscar nominated, the whole town celebrates, especially his favorite teacher, Howard Brackett.  When Cam wins, his acceptance speech pays tribute to Brackett by shocking everybody back at home with something none of them was aware of, Howard is gay.  Outed before millions of viewers, Brackett whole world is, inadvertently turned upside down.  This film, which probably owes its story line to the memorable acceptance speech by Tom Hanks about his favorite high school teacher after winning his award for Philadelphia is, ultimately, a feel good kind of comedy.   In & Out is well paced light farce is blessed with a clever script and an expert cast of comic actors and farceurs led by the ever resourceful Kevin Kline as Howard Brackett.  Joan Cusack as Emily Montgomery, Tom Selleck as Peter Malloy, Matt Dillon as Cameron Drake, Debbie Reynolds as Berniece Brackett, Wilford Brimley as Frank Brackett, Bob Newhart as Tom Halliwell, Gregory Jbara as Walter Brackett are like a comic repertory company, each performing at near peak.  With:  Shalom Harlow as Sonya, Shawn Hatosy as Jack, Zak Orth as Mike and Lauren Ambrose as Vicky.  Notes:  Written by Paul Rudnick.  Cinematography by Rob Hahn.  Music by Marc Shaiman.  Box-office gross:  $63,800,000 U.S./$19,400,000 International.  Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress [Cusack].
70.  
71.  
72. IN COUNTRY.  1989.  116 minutes.  Drama.  Vietnam War Veterans.  Novels Into Film.  Directed by Norman Jewison.  Story:  In a small town in Kentucky a strong-willed, independent teenager searches for answers about the death of her father in Vietnam from other men in the town especially her war scarred uncle.  In the summer after high school her curiosity about Vietnam brings her into contact with the hidden emotion about the war.  The cast of this film is very fine especially Emily Lloyd as a girl trying to find why some part of her life seems missing and finding that in clearing up ignorance about her father’s death.  Somehow, despite the fine character vignettes and acting this drama fails.  It seems improbable that so much is hidden from the first group of children to reach young adulthood since Vietnam.   With:  Bruce Willis as Emmett Smith, Emily Lloyd as Samantha Hughes, Joan Allen as Irene, Kevin Anderson as Lonnie, John Terry as Tom, Jim Beaver as Earl Smith, Stephen Tobolowsky as Pete, Peggy Rea as Mama, Richard Hamilton as Grampaw and Judith Ivey as Anita.  Note:  Based on a book by Bobbie Ann Mason.  Screenplay by Frank Pierson and Cynthia Cidre.  Screenplay by Cynthia Cidre and Frank Pierson from the novel by Bobbie Ann Mason.  Original music by James Horner.  Cinematography by Russell Byrd.
73.  
74. IN COLD BLOOD.      1967.  115 minutes.  <V856>.  Directed by Richard Brooks.  A film of Truman Capote’s masterful reportorial novel about Perry Smith and Dick Hickok, two “mindless” and calculating ex-cons who brutally murdered an entire Kansas family in the 1950s. Stark melodrama presented in quasi-documentary fashion.  Professional work by Brooks.  The cast includes Robert Blake and Scott Wilson as Smith and Hickok.  Also with:  Paul Stewart, John Forsythe, Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Jeff Corey and Will Geer.  Notes:  Screenplay by Brooks.  Academy Award nominations for Brooks’ direction and screen adaptation and for Conrad Hall’s cinematography and the original score by Quincy Jones.
75.  
76. IN COLD BLOOD.  1997.  180 minutes.  Murder Drama.  American Literature.  Capote, Truman.  Anthony Edwards id Dick Hickock and Eric Roberts Perry Smith in this second adaptation of Truman Capote’s fine investigative classic from the early ‘60s about the senseless murder of a prosperous Kansas farm family by a couple of rootless ex-convicts.  This made-for-television production is very well acted With:  Sam Neill as Detective Alvin Dewey a friend of the Clutter family, who led the efforts to capture and bring the killers to justice. Also with:  Kevin Tighe as Herb Clutter, Gillian Barber as Bonnie Clutter, Margot Finley as Nancy Clutter, Robbie Bowen as Kenyon Clutter, Bethel Leslie as Bess Hartmann, Gwen Verdon as Sadie Truitt, Leo Rossi as Harold Nye, Troy Evans as Carl Duntz, Don Davis as Roy Church, L. Q Jones as Tex Smith, Stella Stevens as the Hotel Keeper, and Louise Latham as Eunice Hickock.  Notes:  Teleplay by Benedict Fitzgerald from the book by Capote. 
77.  
78. IN HEAVEN THERE IS NO BEER?  1984.  53 minutes.  Documentary.  Les Blank.  Polish Americans.  <V1136>.  Directed by Les Blank. A celebration of Polish-American drinking, eating, but especially, music as embodied by polka.  This short documentary film has captured the joy of the Polish-American folk customs at full throttle.  It is about the special sense of fun and happiness the simple pleasures of song, dance and beer have for these people.  Well done, folksy work by Blank.
79.  
80. IN LOVE AND WAR.  1996.  115 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Ernest Hemingway.  Directed by Richard Attenborough.  Sandra Bullock is Agnes von Kurowsky and Chris O’Donnell is the young Ernest Hemingway in this adaptation on von Kurowsky’s diary.  This love story about an affair between the youthful Ernest Hemingway and an older woman, American nurse Agnes von Kurowsky was also be the basis for elements of Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms.  Bullock and O’Donnell are both attractive and competent in their roles, but there is no real romantic chemistry between the two.  Attenborough, as he often does, breaks no new cinematic ground with the film.  It’s his usual, staid, solid, slightly boring bio-drama.  With:  Mackenzie Astin as Henry Villard, Emilio Bonucci as Domenico Caracciolo, Ingrid Lacey as Elsie “Mac” MacDonald, Margot Steinberg as Mabel “Rosie” Rose, Tara Hugo as Katherine “Gumshoe” De Long, Colin Stinton as Tom Burnside, Ian Kelly as Jimmy McBride.  Notes:  Written by Allan Scott, Clancy Sigal, and Anna Hamilton Phelan from Henry S. Villard and James Nagel’s Hemingway in Love and War:  The Lost Diary of Agnes von Kurowsky.  Cinematography by Roger Pratt.  Music by George Fenton.  Box-office gross:  $14,500,000.
81.  
82. IN OLD CALIFORNIA.  1942.  88 minutes.  <Western — John Wayne.  Directed by William McGann.  A pharmacist from Boston moves to Sacramento just before the gold rush begins to set up shop.  He is confronted in the beginning by the town’s boss but manages to put the crook on the defensive.  The story then revolves around the hero’s love for the daughter of a big banker (she doesn’t love him) and the saloon girl with a heart of gold (who does love him).  The backdrop changes from town to Sutter’s Mill and the gold rush and the cholera outbreak which inevitably follows.  The dance-hall girl and the pharmacist hero both prove their mettle (even the bad boss mends his ways).  All in all, a pretty entertaining John Wayne opus.  With:  Binnie Barnes, Albert Dekker, Helen Parrish, Patsy Parrish, and Edgar Kennedy.  Notes:  Screenplay by Gertrude Purcell and Frances from an original story by J. Robert Bren.
83.  

IN THE COMPANY OF MEN.  1997.  Sexual Comedy/Drama.  Corporate World.  Men and Women.  Misogynistic Men.  American Independent Cinema.  Directed by Neil Labute.  Two young execs sent to another city decide to play sexual charade.  Each of them woo a pretty, deaf secretary, each pretending at first, they don’t know one-anther.  The competition for the girl takes a bizarre twist when one of the guys begins to have feelings for the girl.  When she chooses the other guy he lashes out at her, by telling her about the game and belittling her for her defective hearing.  Neil Labute handles this cruel little misogynistic comedy expertly.  Chad, played very smoothly by   Aaron Eckhart, is a hardball player, who actually sets up the gullible Howard by lying about his real relationship with his fiancé [his humiliation of a young black intern is part of the same brutal gamesmanship].  Howard falls for the trap set by a master gamesman. Chad understands power, screw empowerment or honor.  With: Stacy Edwards as Christine, Matt Malloy as Howard, Jason Dixie as Intern, Emily cline as Suzanne, and Mark Rector as John.  Notes:  Screenplay by Neil Labute.  Cinematography by Tony Hettinger.  Songs by Karel Roessingen and Ken Williams.  Awards:  Filmmakers Trophy, Sundance Film Festival 1997.  Box-office:  $2,900,000.

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.  1967.  109 minutes.  Crime Melodrama.  Sidney Poitier.  Rod Steiger.   <V400>.  Directed by Norman Jewison.     A smart black detective, from the big city, gets caught up in a murder case in a small southern town.  This film, when it was released, was praised by many critics more as social commentary on the nature of bigotry than as a detective story.  It was in fact a damned good police/detective story.  It’s really very enjoyable, not as laden with messages as one might expect.  In many ways its not unlike Jewison’s film of A Soldier’s Story in the late 1980s. With:  Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Lee Grant, Scott Wilson, Larry Gates, James Patterson, Quentin Dean, William Schallert, and Warren Oates.  Notes:  The film was nominated for best picture, actor (Rod Steiger), screenplay adaptation (Stirling Silliphant), sound, and editing — all of which it won.  Jewison was nominated for best director.  The very famous, jazzy score, not nominated for an Oscar, was by Quincy Jones.

IN THE LAND OF THE WAR CANOES.  1914.  47 minutes  Documentary.  Silent.  Kwakiutl Indians.  Indians of North America.  Directed by Edward S. Curtis.  Originally titled In the Land of the Headhunters.  “Best known as one of the premiere photographers of the 20th century, Curtis devoted his life to documenting the disappearing world of the American Indian.  In this film, Curtis retold a tribal story of love and revenge among the Kwakiutl Indians of Vancouver Island.  Curtis spent three years with the Kwakiutl to meticulously recreate their way of life before the white man came.”  There are a number of remarkable scenes in this impressive documentary-drama.  The characters [all played by Kwaitiul tribesmen] are Motana, son of Kenada; Naida, daughter of Waket; Kenada; The Sorcerer; Yaklus, brother of the Sorcerer.  Notes:  Written and photographed by Curtis.  Restored by Bill Holm, George Quimby and David Gerth.  A sound track was added by the restorers in the Kwaitiul dialects in 1972.

IN THE LINE OF FIRE.  1993.  127 minutes.  Action Drama.  Presidential Assassination Plots.  Clint Eastwood.  Directed by Wolfgang Petersen.  Frank Horrigan is an aging secret service agent with uncertain moments about his protection of JFK in Dallas in 1963.  When a brilliantly deranged former CIA killer begins to stalk the president, he leads Horrigan and the service on a desperate chase to catch him before he can make his hit.  This is a very good action genre film, well written and well directed.  This film, with UNFORGIVEN and in small ways A PERFECT WORLD has solidified Eastwood as a new icon for serious moviegoers and critics.   Eastwood, Academy Award winning director, is now, also being acknowledged, finally, as an actor.  It is a fine performance (as were those in the above mentioned film).  John Malkovich gives a superbly creepy performance as Mitch Leary, the assassin gone haywire.  Malkovich is one of those wonderful actors whose performances show how fearless they are at taking characters to places one hardly thought possible.  With:  Dylan McDermott, Rene Russo, Fred Dalton Thompson, John Mahoney, Gary Cole, Greg Alan-Williams, and John Heard.  Notes:  Music by Ennio Morricone.  Photography by John Biley.  Written by Jeff Maguire.  Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor (Malkovich).  Box-office gross:  $102,314,283.

THE INCREDIBLY TRUE ADVENTURE OF 2 GIRLS IN LOVE.  1995.  90 minutes.  Romantic Comedy/Drama.  Teen Sexual Comedy.  Gay Teens.  Homosexuality and Women.  Lesbians, Teen Age.  Women Directors.  Directed by Maria Maggenti.  Laurel Holloman is Randall Dean, and Nicole Parker is Evie in this comedy/drama two teen aged girls whose innocent love affair sparks a crisis in both their families.  Light of touch, sensitively actively and directed, this is a rarity in film – a coming of age story for young women.  Maggenti orchestrates the girls’ “dilemma” without cant, and like the British film Beautiful Thing, is about the nature of young love than it is about young sexuality.  Charming.  With:  Kate Stafford is Rebecca Dean, Sabrina Artel is Vicky, Toby Poser is Lena, Nelson Rodriguez is Frank, Dale Dickey is Regina, Nicole Parker is Evie, and Andrew Wright is Hayjay.  Notes:  Cinematography by Tami Reiker.  Music by Terry Dame.  Caution:  There is some nudity and sexual situations in the film.

INDECENT PROPOSAL.  1993.  119 minutes.  Romantic melodrama.  Directed by Adrian Lyne.  During a trip to Las Vegas a young couple is approached by a very wealthy man.  He wants to spend the night with the wife and offers the couple $1,000,000.  The young couple, strapped for cash can’t refuse the offer.  They do, however, find it difficult to deal to handle.  Robert Redford, Demi Moore, and Woody Harrelson are the trio affected by this deal.  This film is meant to titillate and tempt.  It was also made to makes lots of money.  It achieved all those goals.  Enough said.  With:  Oliver Platt, Seymour Cassel.  Notes:  Music by Barry.  Photographed by Howard Atherton.  Screenplay by Amy Holden Jones from the novel by Jack Engelhard.  Box-office gross:  $106,614,059.

ILLUSIONS.  1983.  34 minutes.  African-American Filmmakers.  Women Directors.  Independent Films.  Moving Picture Industry, World War II.  Blacks in the Moving Picture Industry.  Directed by Julie Dash.  An impressionist study of a smart, ambitious young woman film executive during World War II who, while passing for black, tries to make an impact on the films made by the studio she works for.  An army officer stationed as war time liaison starts to pursue her aggressively when he discovers her partially veiled secret.  An interesting study of a driven woman’s desire to make a difference in the movie industry.  Shot in black and white, the film has a very ’40s look and style.  With:  Lonette McKee, Rosanne Katon, Ned Bellamy, Jack Radar, Fernando Lundi Faust, Lisa Phelps, Laddy Ashley, Rita Crafts, Sandy Brooke, Johnny Crear, John McBride, and John Childers.  Musical singers and dancers include Gaye Kruser, Oliver Wodall, and Joseph T. McKenna.  Photography by Ahmed El Maanouni.  Edited by Julie Dash with Charles Burnett.

INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE.  1989.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.  This is the last entry in the Indiana Jones adventure series produced by George Lucas.  The story line goes back in time to show how Indiana got some of his ticks — his nickname, slouch hat, and fear of snakes.  We also meet his father.  There is a lot of action in this film as in the other entry in the trilogy.  It is better than average high tech fare and fairly enjoyable.  Sean Connery’s presence as Indy’s father helps a great deal.  River Phoenix plays the young Indy.  Box-office gross:  $115,500,000.

INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM.  1984.  118 minutes.  <V1257>.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.  Professor Indiana Jones, adventurer and archaeologist sets out from Hong Kong (not voluntarily) and ends up in the high Himalayas among a fanatical cult searching for a famous diamond.  This film evokes GUNGA DIN, as well as the serials that RAIDERS… evoked.  It’s actually a prequel — the events of this story take place before those of RAIDERS… Though the film was as successful at the box-office as it’s predecessor and the entry that followed (INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE) it was not as well regarded critically.  The reasons are clear — Spielberg directs TEMPLE at a pace that is more frenetic than any film ever made.  The action is literally almost non-stop.  The gags mount up at a rate that probably left many moviegoers out of breath — its as if the director decided to make us overload on the action.  There are, however, some stunning effects and the opening sequence — with the heroine singing “Anything Goes” in Chinese is gaudy, charming and funny.  Harrison Ford is of course Jones.  With:  Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, and the elegantly sinister Roshan Seth.  Notes:  Like most of the Spielberg-Lucas high tech films this one took a special effects Oscar.  It was nominated for its John Williams score.  Box-office gross:  $109,000,000.

INFINITY.  1996.  120 minutes  Romantic Drama.  Biographical Drama.  Richard Feynman.  Directed by Matthew Broderick.  Matthew Broderick plays the Nobel laureate physicist  Richard Feynman as a young man in love and Patricia Arquette is Arline Greenbaum, the love of his life (who would die of Hodgkins Disease several years after their marriage).  The Feynmans’ romance takes place with the epochal achievements of the scientists at Los Alamos [Feynman was among the young scientists specially picked for the Manhattan Project] as a backdrop.  Feynman’s joy of his work, his innocent pleasure with his knowledge is what guides his life and his relationship with the patient, loving Arline.    The movie is filled with sweet eccentricities and the screenplay, by Broderick’s mother Patricia is intelligent, thoughtful, and endearing without a shade of  false sentiment.  The film and the screenplay both evoke the time, the place and the spirit of its characters wonderfully.  This is Matthew Broderick’s directorial debut and he is marvelous with the actors.  Broderick generously allows the other actors room and  Patricia Arquette, as Arline, is stunning.   A story of love and science, curiosity and hope, knowledge and understanding,  Infinity is one of moviedom’s buried treasures of 1996.  With:  Peter Riegert as Mel Feynman, Jeffrey Force as young Richard, David Drew Gallagher as Harold, Raffi Diblasio as Robert, Joshua Wiener as David, James Hong as the Abacus Adder, Dori Brenner as Tutti Feynman, Jack Lindine as Mr. Greenbaum, Horton Foote, Jr., as Neighborhood Doctor, Peter Michael Goetz, Joyce Van Patten as Aunt Ruth, Mary Kay Wulf as Aunt Rose, James LeGros as John Wheeler, Zeljko Ivanek as Bill Brice.  Notes:  Music by Bruce Broughton.  Photographed by Toyomichi Kurita.  Produced by the Brodericks with Michael Leahy and Joel Soisson.

THE INFORMER.  1935.  94 minutes.  <V78>.  Political Drama.  Irish Literature.  IRA.  Directed by John Ford.   An excellent film adaptation of Liam O’Flaherty great novel about the Irish Civil War.  Victor MacLaglen won an Academy Award for his performance as Gypo Nolan – the brutish informant.  This may be John Ford’s greatest film.  It is beautifully crafted and acted.  The film shows the complex emotions, fears and conditions of Ireland. With:  Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, Una O’Connor, Donald Meek, and Wallace Ford.  Notes:  Oscar nominations for best picture and editing.  It won awards for Ford’s direction, Nichols’ screenplay, and Max Steiner’s score.

INHERIT THE WIND.  1960.  127 minutes.  Theatrical Drama.  Scopes Trial, Dramatization.  Frederic March.  Spencer Tracy.  Stanley Kramer.  <V1093>.  Directed by Stanley Kramer.  Film of the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee about the Scopes Monkey trial.  Fredric March plays the character based on William Jennings Bryan, Spencer Tracy that one based on Clarence Darrow, and Gene Kelly is the character based on H.L. Mencken.  This film drips with prestige and importance.  It’s mostly a showcase for the acting skills of March and Tracy.  The issues of the film are, embarrassingly not out of date, not even in Tennessee.  Though it may not present history most accurately it will show how little has changed on some issues since that 1925 show trial.  With:  Florence Eldridge, Dick York, Donna Anderson, Norman Fell, and Harry Morgan.  Notes:  Oscar nominations for best actor (Tracy), screen adaptation (Nathan E. Douglas and Harold Jacob Smith), cinematography (Ernest Laszlo), and editing.

THE INKWELL.  1994.  112 minutes.  Comedy.  African-American Youth.  Directed by Matty Rich.  Larenz Tate gives a charmingly goofy performance as a 16 year old black youth on a summer vacation at Martha’s Vineyard.  He goes on the trip unwillingly, as do both of his parents, but it is a chance for the family’s strained relationships.  This is a coming of age comedy, something like a black version of The Summer of ’42.  It’s almost quaint.  The younger actors have Afro hairdos that look like wigs — did they really look like that in the ’70s too?   Joe Morton, a very fine, underrated actor, is excellent as the boy’s father.  With:  Suzanne Douglas, Glynn Turman, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Adrienne-Joi Johnson, Morris Chestnut, Jada Pinkett, Duane Martin and Mary Alice.  Notes:  Music by Terence Blanchard.  Written by Tom Ricostronza and Paris Qualles.  Photographed by John L. Demps, Jr.  Box-office gross:  $8,864,699 U.S./$2,358,988.

THE INNER CIRCLE.  1991.  139 minutes.  Historical drama.  Stalin.  Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky.  HBO film based on the life of the motion picture projectionist for Stalin.  Ivan Sanchim is a mild mannered film projectionist who idolizes Stalin.  On the day that he has married, he is spirited away to become the projectionist for “the master.”  When he meets Stalin and others in the “inner circle” he becomes enthralled.  This is a handsomely produced film (shot in the Kremlin and other places in the then Soviet Union) that is very well acted by the cast.  The film makers, nearly all Russian émigré present their story with amazing objectivity.  Tom Hulce is fine as the admiring dupe Ivan but Lolita Davidovich as his lovely wife Anastasia is often quite impressive.  With: Bob Hoskins (as Beria), Bess Meyer, Alexandre Zbruev (as Stalin), and Feodor Chailapin, Jr.  Notes:  Music by Eduard Artemyev.  Photographed by Ennio Guarnieri.  Screenplay by Konchalovsky and Anatoly Usov.

THE INNOCENTS.  1961.  99 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  American Literature.  Henry James, Adaptation.  Truman Capote.  Deborah Kerr gives a fine, subtly hysterical performance as the governess of two lonely, children in a remote estate in England.  The children, whose parents have long sense died, are left in the care of their housekeeper by their disinterested uncle, who decides to hire them a new governess.  The governess, drawn to the little oddities in the children’s’ behavior finds herself inextricably drawn into their mysterious and troubling world – a world dominated by the strong and disturbing spirits of the estate’s corrupt, amoral warden and the children’s first governess.  This is a very fine screen adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw.  Jack Clayton’s direction is superior.  The film is rich in detail, and has a quiet, tasteful sensuality.  Intelligent, emotionally satisfying filmmaking.  With:  Michael Redgrave, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins.  The children are played extremely well by Pamela Franklin and Martin Stephens.  Notes:  Music by George Auric.  Photographed by Freddie Francis.  Screenplay by William Archibald and Truman Capote.

INNOCENTS ABROAD.  1982.  116 minutes.  <V1244>.  Directed by Luciano Salce.  Mark Twain on the “Grand Tour” to Europe for his newspaper editor.  Twain and a young American couple have a good time making jest of the pretenses of Americans traveling abroad.  This production of Mark Twain’s  works was part of the series produced by the University of Nebraska television for PBS.  It’s sprightly and attractive and not a bad way to enjoy America’s finest satirist.  With:  Craig Wasson, Brooke Adams, David Ogden-Stiers, Luigi Proietti, Barry Morse, and Andrea Ferriol.  Notes:  Teleplay by Dan Wakefield.  Photography by Enrico Menczer.  Shot on location in Italy , France and Greece.

INTERNES CAN’T TAKE MONEY.  1937.  79 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Hospital Drama.  Dr. Kildare.  Barbara Stanwyck.  Joel McCrea.  Max Brand Stories.  Directed by Alfred Santell.  Barbara Stanwyck is Janet Haley a woman just out of prison who’s trying to find the daughter her bank robber husband had spirited away to keep her quiet about his line of work.  When she stops in a hospital to have an injury checked she meets young Dr. Jimmie Kildare, an intern whose help and friendliness becomes useful to her.  After helping a crime boss recover from a life-threatening knife wound,  Kildare is offered a thousand dollars under the table but must is morally obligated to return it as an intern.  When he tells Janet, she sees an opportunity to get the money a small time hood wants to help her find her lost child.  This is an intelligent, effectively directed melodrama with some impressive dramatic moments.  Stanwyck and McCrea are first rate together.  Internes Can’t Take Money quietly depicts the hardships of good, but desperate people, and the manipulative types who prey on them.  The film has a nice hard ‘30s social drama edge but moments of sharp humor and irony too.  The supporting cast – Lloyd Nolan as Hanlon, Stanley Ridges as Dan Innes, Gaylord “Steve” Pendleton as Interne Jones, Lee Bowman is Interne Weeks, Irving Bacon is Jeff, Barry McCollum is Stooly” Martin, Pierre Watkin is Dr. Fearson, and Charles Lane is Grote – is very fine.  Nolan physically resembles Bogart (though his looks are just a bit softer), and portrays the role of Hanlon with same mixture of edgy anger and fear.  Notes:  Written by Rian James and Theodore Reeves and based on a magazine story by Max Brand.  Cinematography by Theodor Sparkuhl.

INTERIORS.  1978.  99 minutes.  Drama.  Woody Allen.  Mother/Daughter Relationships.  Relationships Between Women.  <V458>.  Directed and written by Woody Allen.  Woody Allen directed this Bergmanesque film about the painfully strained relationships between a mother and her daughters.  Allen often satirized some of Bergman’s films, a homage to the great directors that did not demean them.  Here he emulates the very things he made jokes about.  When Allen is serious he is always too earnest.  The film is intelligent but grim and a little dull.  With:  Geraldine Page as the mother and Diane Keaton, Mary Beth Hurt, and Kristin Griffith as the daughters.  The three sisters theme would be retried again in Hannah And Her Sisters, more successfully and with more wit.  With:  Maureen Stapleton, E.G. Marshall, and Sam Waterston.  Notes:  Nominated for Oscars for best actress (Page), supporting actress (Stapleton), director, and screenplay.  Box-office gross:  $4,362,810.

INTERMEZZO.  1939.  70 minutes.  <V2992>.  Romantic Melodrama.  Ingrid Bergman.  Leslie Howard.  Directed by Gregory Ratoff.  Leslie Howard plays Holger Brandt a successful concert violinist whose partner has just decided to retire after their last tour.  When they return home to Sweden to their families everything is happy and calm until Brandt meets his daughter’s piano teacher, a lovely girl named Anita Hoffman, played by Ingrid Bergman.  They try hard not to fall in love but it happens anyway.  They make beautiful music together, but guiltily.  In the end everything is righted.  This was Bergman’s debut in an American film, but she had starred in the same story three year’s earlier back in Sweden.  Its soft and safe soap that survives on the gentlemanly charisma of Howard and the fresh, wondrous beauty of Bergman who was 24 at the time.  With:  Edna Best as Margit Brandt, John Halliday as Stenborg, Cecil Kellaway as Cecil, Ann Todd as Ann Marie, Eleanor Wesselhoft as Emma, Maria Flynn as Marianne, Douglass Scott as Eric Brandt.   Notes:  Produced by David O. Selznick.  The music is that of Grieg and Rachmaninoff among others under the musical direction of Lou Forbes.  Photographed by Gregg Toland.  Screenplay by George O’Neal.  Oscar nominations for Forbes’ score and Toland’s photography.

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE.  1933.  72 minutes.  Comedy.  Comedy Revue.  W. C. Fields.  Burns and Allen.  Cab Calloway.  Directed by Edward Sutherland.  A scientist invents television and every country and corporation in the world is more than interested.  A lot of intrigue takes place at the grand Shanghai hotel called the International House.  High camp, high jinks and a delightful cast keep this entertainment rolling right along.  With:  Peggy Hopkins Joyce, W.C. Fields, Rudy Vallee, Stuart Erwin, George Burns & Gracie Allen, Sri Maritza, Col Stoopnagle and Budd, Cab Calloway and his Orchestra, Baby Rose Marie, Bela Lugosi, Lona Andre, Sterling Holloway, Franklin Pangborn, Edmund Brese, Lumdsen Hare and The Girls in Cellophane.  Notes:  Screenplay by Francis Martin and Walter DeLeon. from a story by Neil Brant and Louis E. Heifetz.  Music and lyrics by Ralph Rainger and Leon Robin.  Photographed by Ernest Haller.

INTOLERANCE.  1916.  11 reels.  <V54>.  Directed by D. W. Griffith.  D. W. Griffith was genuinely startled by some of the criticism that his great, rabble rousing film The Birth of a Nation created.  His romantic notions of the Klan and its purposes were at odds with the reality for many Americans.  With his next film Intolerance he set out to make a film deploring hatred and bigotry.  The result is this endlessly fascinating madness.  There is more reliance on imagery and on plot and narrative.  The film consists of depictions of the fall of Babylon, the Passion of Christ, and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew and a modern sequence called The Mother and The Law.  These sequences were all connected with an image from Whitman a mother gently rocking a child with the words “out of the cradle endlessly rocking.  Uniter of here and hereafter” etched on the screen.   Man’s inhumanity to man was the theme he aimed at driving home.  At any rate, what resulted was a hodgepodge filled with the best and worst of Griffith’s film vocabulary.  With:  Bessie Love, George Walsh, Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Mote Blue, Tod Browning, Edward Dillon, Gunter von Ritzau, Erich von Stroheim, Constance Talmadge, Elmo Lincoln, Tully Marshall and countless others.  The film was a failure at the box office and ultimately caused the dissolution of Griffith’s production company.  He no longer had the independence he held before Intolerance.

INTRUDER IN THE DUST.  1949.  87 minutes.  Race Relations Drama.  Faulkner, William.  Directed by Clarence Brown.  A very fine film of Faulkner’s superbly written novel about Lucas Beauchamp, a proud, independent black man in rural Mississippi.  Beauchamp’s persistence in maintaining his dignity is unbearable among many of the whites in the town he lives in.  When he is accused of murder, many see this as an opportunity to make him subservient, to make him a nigger.  Clarence Brown, a very fine director, had made many of the films of the MGM’s leading ladies (especially Garbo) and he also directed National Velvet and The Yearling.  This, however, is probably his finest work.  He brings Faulkner to life in ways few other filmmakers have.  There are stunning performances in the film the key one of course being that of Juano Hernandez as Lucas.  With:  David Brian, Claude Jarman, Jr., Porter Hall, Elizabeth Patterson, Charles Kemper, Will Geer.  Notes:  Screenplay by Ben Maddow based on the novel by William Faulkner.  Photographed by Robert Surtees.

INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS.  1956.  80 minutes.  Horror.  Science Fiction.  <V406>.  Directed by Don Siegel.  The most famous horror film of the 1950s.  Considered by many to be a commentary on the hysteria created by the McCarthy Red Scare of the periods.  Pods from outer-space are slowly, but surely inhabiting the bodies of a small California town.  The changes are almost too subtle to notice until almost too late.  This is a very enjoyable film, with a story simply told.    With:  Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan Carolyn Jones and Sam Peckinpah.  Notes:  Screenplay by Daniel Mainwaring from a novel by Jack Finney.  Also available on CAV Laser Disk.

INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS.  1978.  114 minutes.  Horror.  Science Fiction.  <V927>.  Kaufman’s film is a tribute to the original film — early on in this version there is a scene with Kevin McCarthy, the hero of the original film, being run over by a taxi when he tries to warn others, just as he did in the original film.  Preview audiences for the original did not like the idea of an ending with the aliens taking over so the producers tacked on a happy ending.  Kaufman did not have to worry about that.  This invasion is much superior cinematically.  Set in trendy San Francisco, it has a cool layer of wit and style.  It is also more graphically frightening.  Michael Chapman’s excellent photography adds to the sense of foreboding and terror.  With:  Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Leonard Nimoy, and Lelia Goldoni.  Notes:  Box-office gross:  $11,132, 641.

INVITATION TO THE DANCE.  1956.  93 minutes.  Musical.  Dance Musical.  Gene Kelly.  <V1609>.  Directed, produced and choreographed.  Gene Kelly worked long and hard with MGM brass to produce this film, an effort that took nearly four years.  The end result is an interesting personal statement.  The film is all dance with no dialogue or narration.  Three segments Circus, Ring Around The Rosy, and Sinbad The Sailor, each tell a separate story in mime and dance.  With: Igor Youskevitch, Claire Sombert, Gene Kelly, in Circus.  Carol Haney, David Kasday and Kelly in Sinbad.  David Paltnenghi, Youskevithc, Daphne Dale, Claude Bessy, Tommy Rall, Belita, Irving Davies, Diana Adams, Tamara Toumanova and Kelly in RING AROUND THE ROSY.  There is a wonderful dance number in the SINBAD with Tom the mouse, of the Tom and Jerry cartoons.

IRON AND SILK.  1990.  110 minutes.  In Chinese with Subtitles and English.  Romantic Melodrama.  Novel Into Film.  Directed by Shirley Sun.  A young American Chinese studies scholar from Yale comes to China to learn from the best in martial arts.  While in China, not long after the country was newly re-opened to foreigners he meets and falls in love with a young medical student.  Despite his love of the culture and the people, he has many hurdles to overcome in forming relations with these people.  Pleasantly entertaining romance.  Mark Salzman is a toothsome, pleasant young man with a very good screen presence. With:  Pan Oingtu, Jeanette Lin Tusi, Vivian Wu.  Notes:  Music by Michael Gibbs.  Photographed by James Hayman.  Screenplay by Sun and Salzman, based on his book.

IRON GIANT.  1999.  86 minutes.  Animated Adventure.  Children’s Story.  Fantastical Animation.  Ted Hughes.  Novel Into Film.  Directed by Brad Bird.  An enchanting and entertaining animated feature based on Ted Hughes’ fantastical book about a young boy’s adventures with a great mechanical man from out of space.  Set in the ‘50s, the film evokes the period’s  concerns about the possibility of nuclear disaster – it is a Cold War fable writ for children and adults alike.  With:  Eli Marienthal as Horgarth Hughes, Vin Diesel as the Iron Giant, Jennifer Anniston as Annie Hughes, Harry Connick, Jr. as Dean McCoppen, Chris McDonald as Kent Mansley, James Gammon as Marve Loach, Cloris Leachman as Mrs. Tensedge, John Mahoney as Gen. Shannon Rogard, and M. Emmet Walsh as Earl Stutz.  Notes:  Screenplay by Brad Bird and Tim McCanlies. Cinematography by Mark Dinicola.  Music by Michael Kamen.  Box-office gross:  $23,200,000.

THE IRON MASK.  1929.  72 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Romantic Adventure.  Alexandre Dumas.  Douglas Fairbanks.  Directed by Allan Dwan.  Douglas Fairbanks once again plays D’Artagnan, a role he called a personal favorite in this last silent Fairbanks epic.  The Iron Mask is almost valedictory in nature.  It is 20 years past the glory days of fighting for the Queen against Cardinal Richelieu’s guards.  The Musketeers are older and in retirement when D’Artagnan is awakened to a pernicious plot against the true King Louis XIV by his twin brother, who is in the hands of the devious De Rochefort.  The aging cavaliers come gallantly again to the rescue of the crown.  Excellent entertainment.  This particular Kino version of the filmed does not use inter-titles but rather uses an energetic narration of the story’s action by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.  The effort is a tad annoying to a purist at first, but Fairbanks’ obvious love of the film and the genre and his smooth delivery ultimately are agreeable.  With:  Marguerite De La Motte as Constance, Dorothy Revier as Milady de Winter, Vera Lewis as Madame Peronne, Rolfe Seban as Louis XIII, William Bakewell as Louis XIV & his twin, Gordon Thorpe as the young prince and twin, Nigel De Brulier Notes:  Narrated by Douglas Fairbanks Jr.   Narration written by Richard Llewellyn.  Music by Allan Gray.  Screenplay by Elton Thomas [Fairbanks] and based on Dumas’ The Three Musketeers and The Iron Mask.

IRONWEED.  1987.  145 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Jack Nicholson.  Meryl Streep.  Novel Into Film.  William Kennedy.  American Literature.  <V1797>.  Directed by Hector Babenco.  The story is based on the novel by William Kennedy.  Two homeless wanderers find their way to Albany, New York.  Francis Phelan is a man with unclear memories of his past in his hometown of Albany.  When he returns as a bum, he finds that his family’s thoughts of him have not been as negative as he presumed, but he feels discomfort among the people who love him.  Helen is a woman, who had been a radio singer, with a muddied past as well.  The film is evenly paced, but it is not especially satisfying.  Jack Nicholson gives a graceful, wise performance as Phelan.  Streep is good as Helen, and has a very fine moment when she sings a song and the memories of a better time transform her.  With:  Carroll Baker, Tom Waits, Fred Gwynne, Michael O’Keefe, Diane Venora, Margaret Whitton, James Gammon and Hy Anzell.  Notes:  Cinematography by Lauro Escorel.  Music by John Morris.  Screenplay by Kennedy.  Academy Award nominations for best actor (Nicholson) and actress (Streep).

IRVING BERLIN’S SECOND FIDDLE.  1939.  87 minutes.  Musical Comedy.  Hollywood Comedy.  Irving Berlin.  Directed by Sidney Lanfield.  Sonja Henie plays a Minnesota school teacher who is brought to Hollywood for a screen test.  When the studio decides to give her the part, the comedy gets very active.  Light, charming, bright Fox film, enlivened by Irving Berlin’s sprightly tunes, Henie’s wholesome charm [and that charming Norwegian accent], Tyrone Power’s amazing good looks and Edna May Oliver’s way with a throw-a-way line.  Rudy Vallee and Mary Healy do well by the Berlin songs too [Healy’s best moment is singing the bluesy Sorry For Myself].  This is pleasant family entertainment and one can understand Henie’s popularity in the late ’30s.  There is one especially delightful sequence early in the film, when, after first arriving in Hollywood, Power, Oliver, Vallee, Henie and Healy are at a night club.  When Healy sings Irving’s Back To Back, the others engage in a nicely hoaky dance.  It’s a lovely Berlin musical moment.  Otherwise, the score and the Berlin songs are well done but routine. Also with:  Lyle Talbot, Alan Dinehart.  Notes:  Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck.  Screenplay by Harry Tugend based on a story by George Bradshaw.  Lyrics and music by Irving Berlin.  Photographed by Richard Day and Hans Peters.  Great sports figures and athletes have always been a favorite target for film studios — from Johnny Weissmuller to O. J. Simpson.  The desire to see if the magnetism of the sports hero or star translates to the silver screen.  Sonja Henie was the reigning queen of figure skating having won the 1928, ’32 and ’36 Olympic gold medals in that event.  That we must endure the trials and tribulations of l’affair Kerrigan began when Henie made such a big, if temporary, splash in the late ’30s.

IS THERE SEX AFTER DEATH?  1971.  102 minutes.  Sexual Comedy.  Satire.  Sexuality in America.  Directed by Jeanne and Alan Abel.  A pseudo-documentary about sexuality and sexual research.  This film, filled with nudity [male and female], satirizes American sexual mores and attitudes from nudist colonies to sports events, to women’s rights fairly equably.  Dr. Harrison Rogers is a sexual researcher who interviews dozens of people on the streets and professionals of every kind [lawyers, other doctors, a magician] who explain things about their research or their sexual proclivities and interests.  The film is only intermittently funny, and, despite the nudity, fairly in-offensive.  The Abel’s keep everything very tongue-in-cheek.  With:  Alan Abel as Dr. Harrison Rogers, Buck Henry as Dr. Louise Manos, Marshall Efron as Vince Domino, Holly Woodlawn as Herself, Robert Downey as Himself, Rubin Carson as Himself, Jim Moran as Dr. Elevenike, Earle Doud as Merkin the Magician, Larry Wolf as Seance spirit/Sexbowl Announcer, and Jim Dixon as Richard M. Nixon.  Notes:  Written by Abel and Abel.  Cinematography by Gerald Cotts.  Edited by Jeanne Abel.

ISADORA.  1968.  155 minutes.  Biographical Drama.  International Cinema.  <V1962>.  Directed by Karel Reisz.  A drama about the brilliant but radical and erratic modern dancer Isadora Duncan.  She is played by the remarkably gifted and equally eccentric and controversial actress Vanessa Redgrave.  The film is an eccentricity itself.  Reisz glories in presenting the outrageousness of this beautiful, amoral woman.  Some may find the film a little too long, but it has moment of odd grandeur, which it balances with those of silly romanticism.  Redgrave’s performance is a phenomenon.  With:  James Fox as Gordon Craig, Ivan Tchenko as Sergei Essenin, Jason Robards as Paris Singer, John Fraser as Roger, Bessie Love as Mrs. Duncan, and Cynthia Harris as Mary Desti..  Notes:  Redgrave’s performance received an Oscar nomination, Cannes Film Festival [1969], and the New York Film Critics Award. Screenplay by Melvyn Bragg, Clive Exton, Sewell Stokes.  Cinematography by Larry Pizer and Dick Bush.  Music by Maurice Jarre.

ISLANDS IN THE STREAM.  1976.  105 minutes.  Drama.  Novel Into Film.  Ernest Hemingway.  <V189>.  Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.  Film based on a semi-autobiographical novel of Hemingway’s.  Quiet, slowly paced film awash in warm Caribbean colors.  George C. Scott as a famous sculptor (based on Hemingway’s on interpretation of himself), is visited by his three sons and his ex-wife.  With:  Claire Bloom, Gilbert Roland, Julius Harris, Brad Savage,  Michael-James Wixted.  David Hemmings and Hart Bochner.  Notes:  Screenplay by Denne Bart Petitclerc.  Box-office gross:  $4,035,000.

IS PARIS BURNING?  1966.  173 minutes.  <V2935>.  World War II Drama — Historical Drama.  Directed by Rene Clement.  The story of the last days of Nazi occupation of Paris based on the book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.  The book was a tense, intelligent piece of journalistic history.  Though readers knew that Paris was not destroyed, the authors’ effective, well-documented and paced narrative showed us how close destruction came.  The film is a big nothing, an all-star bazaar without any real emotional undercurrents.  The joy of the liberation is Hollywood corny.  Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, Jean-Pierre Cassel, George Chakiris, Alain Delon, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Gert Froebe, Yves Montand, Anthony Perkins, Simone Signoret, Robert Stack, Marie Versini, Skip Ward, Orson Welles.  Notes:  Screenplay by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola.  Music composed and conducted by Maurice Jarre with additional material for French scenes by Marcel Moussy.  Based on the best selling book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.

ISN’T LIFE WONDERFUL.  1924.  115 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Social Drama.  Post World War I Germany.  Refugees.  D. W. Griffith. Directed by D. W. Griffith.  A pacifist drama about Post War Germany from the legendary filmmaker D. W. Griffith.  The story revolves around the efforts of a family of Polish immigrants trying to succeed in Germany in the wake of World War I.  Griffith depicts the hardships of the working people trying to survive against the greatest possible odds With:  Carol Dempster as Inga, Neil Hamilton as Paul, Erville Alderson as the Professor, Helen Lowell as the Grandmother, Marcia Harris as the Aunt, Frank Puglia as Theodor, Lupino Lane as Rudolph, Hans von Schlettow  as the leader of the laborers, Paul Rehkopf and Robert Scholz as laborers.  Notes:  Written and produced by Griffith from a story by Geoffrey Moss.  Photographed by Hendrik Sartov and Hal Sintzenich.  Score composed and compiled by Cesare Sodero and Louis Silvers with arrangement and performance by Robert Israel on piano and Galina Golovin on violin.

IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD’S FAIR.  1963.  105 minutes.  Elvis Presley.  Directed by Norman Taurog.  The title just about explains all the difference there is between this film and just about every other Elvis Presley film of the period.  This time Elvis is a flyer with a gambling partner who keeps them in trouble.  They go to Seattle for work and Elvis becomes godfather to a cute Chinese girl and meets at the fair a beautiful nurse.  With:  Joan O’Brien, Gary Lockwood, Vicky Tiu, H.M. Wynant, Edith Atwater, Guy Raymond, Dorothy Green, Kam Tong and Yvonne Craig.  Notes:  Written by Si Rose and Seaman Jacobs.  Music by Leith Stevens.  Photographed by Joseph Ruttenberg.  Songs include I’m Falling In Love, How Would Like To Be, and One Broken Heart for Sale.

IT HAPPENED IN BROOKLYN.  1947.  103 Minutes.  <V3132>.  Musical Comedy.  Directed by Richard Whorf.  In the late ’40s Frank Sinatra often played the second banana to Gene Kelly.  Kelly would be the worldly guy, Sinatra the wide-eyed innocent (or at least, partly innocent).  In this film he plays this part again but with Peter Lawford as his English equivalent, so Frankie has to be the guy to energize the handsome but reserved Lawford.  Back home in the states, Frank falls for a pretty music teacher (Kathryn Grayson), who sees him as a friend until Lawford shows up.  Jimmy Durante plays a fatherly figure for all of the above.  This film starts out as just average, and stays there until half-way through when the singing of Sinatra suddenly takes off especially when he sings “Time After Time.”  The best number is Durante and Sinatra singing “The Song’s Gotta Have Heart.”.  Notes:  Screenplay by Isobel Lennart based on an original story by John McGowan.  Songs by Sammy Cahn and Jules Styne.  The piano music in the film is played by the seventeen year old Andre Previn.

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT.  1934.  105 minutes.  Screwball Comedy.  Romantic Comedy.  Clark Gable.  Claudette Colbert.  Frank Capra.  Newspaper Comedy.  <V561>.  Directed by Frank Capra.  The classic Frank Capra comedy about a wise cracking newspaperman and a runaway heiress was the first, and possibly the best, of the great screwball comedies of the 1930s.  An heiress runs away from her father to avoid getting married to an air ace.  She finds herself having to board a bus heading towards Florida when her bags are lifted by a thief leaving her virtually penniless.  Along comes a reporter having publisher troubles who, recognizing tags along with her in pursuit of a story.  The rest of the story if movie lore of a special kind.  Legend tells us that neither Claudette Colbert nor Clark Gable wanted to do this film.  Gable was on loan to Columbia from MGM and hated every minute of it.  Colbert felt the same way.  Whatever there feelings they were consummate professionals and Capra put it all together with the deftest of touches.  There are funnier films from the period than this one, but none as charming.  It is extremely watchable.  Notes:  Academy Awards for best actor (Gable, best actress (Colbert), director, and best film, a feat not accomplished again until One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.  The screenplay by Robert Riskin also won an Oscar.

IT HAPPENED TOMORROW.  1944.  84 minutes.  Comedy.  Fortune Telling.  Newspapermen.  Rene Clair.  Directed by Rene Clair.  Dick Powell is Larry Stevens a brash young newspaper man who whimsically wishes he could see the future.  When Pop Benson, an old hand at the paper, tells him that he would be better off not knowing, Stevens blithely ignores him which leads to a series of fantastic scoops and incidents.  With:  Linda Darnell as Sylvia, Jack Oakie as Cigolini, Edgar Kennedy as Inspector Mulrooney, Edward S. Brophy as Jack Schomberg, George Cleveland as Mr. Gordon, Emma Dunnas Mrs. Keever, Jack Gardner as the reporter, Paul Guilfoyle as Shep, Robert E. Homans Mulcahey, Eddie Coke as Sweeney.  Notes:  Screenplay by Rene Clair, Helene Fraenkel, Dudley Nichols, Howard Snyder, and Hugh Wedlock, Jr.  Cinematography by Eugen Schufftan, Louis Clyde Stouman, and Archie J. Stout.  Music by Robert Stolz.  Awards:  Oscar nominations for score and sound [Jack Whitney].

IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.  1963.  188 minutes. <V3159>.  Slapstick Comedy.  Directed by Stanley Kramer.  This massive slapstick comedy is about a how a large number of travelers gets involved with some stolen loot found in the desert.  Kramer uses his comic fodder for some lame satire on greed and money and trust.  Some people think this is funny.  Others don’t.  Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, Jonathan Winters, Edie Adams, Dorothy Provine, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, Jim Backus, Ben Blue, Joe E. Brown, Alan Carney, Barrie Chase, William Demarest, Andy Devine, Peter Falk, Norman Fell, Paul Ford, Sterling Holloway, Edward Everett Horton, Marvin Kaplan, buster Keaton, Don Knotts, Charles McGraw, Zasu Pitts, Carl Reiner, Madlyn Rhue, Arnold Stang, The 3 Stooges, Jesse White, Jimmy Durante.  Notes:  Music by Ernest gold.  Story and screenplay by William and Tania Rose.  Box-office gross – $20,849,786.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.  1946.  129 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Populist Drama.  Frank Capra.  James Stewart.  <V661>.  Directed by Frank Capra.  Frank Capra’s own choice as his best film.  A fairy tale about a young man who has lived his life in one town, but discovered how important he was to the life of every single individual there when an angel shows him what life would have been without him.   This film is probably as familiar to most Americans as Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz.  It may be even more familiar than those two films to some.  It is on almost every list of favorite movies and on many best films lists.  The film made James Stewart an institution, if wasn’t one already.  It is quintessential sentimental moviemaking.  Like …OZ this film gained a greater reputation from Holiday re-runs on TV than it actually had at the time of its release.  With:  Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, Ward Bond, H.B. Warner, Gloria Grahame, and Samuel S. Hinds.  Notes:  Academy Award nominations for best picture, best actor (Stewart), director, and editing.

IT’S ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER.  1955.  102 minutes.  Musical.  Gene Kelly.  <V1400>.  Directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen.  One of the more celebrated musicals from the 1950s.  The story is that of three army buddies who have a reunion in New York, ten years after the war.  They find that the ten years has put a greater distance between them than they believed possible.  Bittersweet musical about memories gone sour.  The performers are all working at peak power.  With:  Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Cyd Charisse, Dolores Gray, and Michael Kidd.  Notes:  Choreographed by Kelly.  Screenplay and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.  Music by Andre Previn.  Previn’s score received an Oscar nomination.

IVANHOE.  1953.  106 minutes.  Historical Romance.  British Literature.  The Crusades.  Robert Taylor.  Elizabeth Taylor.  Joan Fontaine.  <V149>.  Directed by Richard Thorpe.  Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who had defied his father to go off with King Richard to fight the Holy Wars, has returned to England with a note about the ransom demands of the Germans for the return of the English King.  On returning to England he finds the country in turmoil created by the King’s brother Prince John and his minions.  Wilfred confronts several of the Prince’s men on their way to his father’s castle and the animosity between him and them is quick.  It only worsens when they offend the lady Rowena his father’s castle.  Ivanhoe, however, must also raise the exorbitant ransom for the King.  The wars and the vexatious taxation by John’s people have weighed heavily on the English but the Jews of the country, led by Isaac come to his aid.  Isaac’s beautiful daughter Rebecca has fallen in love Ivanhoe, a love doomed to being unrequited, partly because she is Jewish, but largely because the stalwart Ivanhoe and Rowena are in love with one another.  The villainous Brian de Bois Gilbert, the bravest challenger to Ivanhoe of John’s men leads the efforts to foil the efforts to raise the kings ransom, but he, in turn, is smitten by the beautiful Rebecca.  In the end all is saved, the King returns, and Ivanhoe has his Rowena and is fully reconciled with his father.  Ivanhoe is a hell of an enjoyable epic.  It roars right off the screen from beginning to end.  Though one might have hoped that someone other than Robert Taylor was Ivanhoe, he’s passable.  But the luscious and lovely beauty of the young Elizabeth Taylor as Rebecca adds much to the true romantic nature of the film.  She is the living evocation of Sir Walter Scott’s tormented heroine.  Joan Fontaine is prettily pallid as Rowena and George Sanders is villainy itself as Brian de Bois Guilbert.  With:  Emlyn Williams, Finley Currie, Felix Aylmer, Basil Sydney, Robert Douglas, Harold Warrender, Sebastian Cabot, and Valentine Dyall.  Notes:  Screenplay by Noel Langley.  Music by Miklos Rozsa.  Box-office gross:  $6,258,000.

JACKIE BROWN.  1997.  151 minutes.  Action Drama.  Crime Drama.  Novels Into Film.  Directed by Quentin Tarantino.  Pam Grier is Jackie Brown, stewardess on a small time Southern California airline, who is picked up by the Feds for transporting money for a drug dealer.  When she makes a deal to get out of the jam she must contend with the thuggish dealer Ordell Robbi and his dangerous partner, Louis Gara.  Quentin Tarantino takes one of Elmore Leonard’s early novels, changes its local from Detroit to the environs of L. A. and makes the heroine an aging black beauty, a role he designed for Pam Grier, queen of the ‘60s and 70s blaxploitation pictures.  Grier gives a fine, hard edged performance one matched by the bed rock solid work of Robert Forster as a bail bondsman who gets caught up in the mess.  Samuel L. Jackson as Ordell Robbi is fine as the foul mouthed Ordell.  Jackie Brown does not have the visceral drive and energy of Tarantino’s other films.  The language is rough and crude, and there are some shocking scenes but there is something inexplicably absent.  With:  Bridget Fonda as Melanie, Michael Keaton as Ray Nicolet, Robert DeNiro as Louis Gara, Michael Bowen as Mark Dargus, Lisa Gay Hamilton as Sheronda, Tim ‘Tiny’ Lester Jr. as Winston, Hattie Winston as Simone.  Notes:  Screenplay by Tarantino adapted from Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch.  Cinematography by Guillermo Navarro.  Box-office gross:  $39, 673,162.  Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor [Forster].

JACKPOT. 1950.  85 minutes.  Comedy.  Radio Quiz Shows.  James Stewart.  Directed by Walter Lang.  An executive at a department store finds himself in a big jam with the IRS after winning a huge cache of gifts from a popular Radio Game show.  At first, Bill Lawrence and his wife are absolutely thrilled by their winning $25,000 in every kind of consumer good.  When he realizes that he must sell a great deal of the stuff to meet the tax bill a series of comic mishaps take place before everything is finally resolved.  Crisp, surprisingly funny comedy poking fun at quiz shows, lottery prizes and the American mania for gadgets and things.  The cast, led by James Stewart as Bill Lawrence, Barbara Hale as Amy Lawrence, James Gleason as Harry Summers are all professional troupers.  With:  Fred Clark as Mr. Woodruff, Alan Mowbray as Leslie, Patricia Medina as Hilda Jones, Natalie Wood as Phyllis Lawrence, Tommy Rettig as Tommy Lawrence, Robert Gist as Pete Spooner, Lyle Talbot as Fred Burns.  Notes:  Written by Phoebe and Henry Ephron.  Music by Lionel Newman.  Photographed by Joseph La Shelle.

JACOB’S LADDER.  1991.  116 minutes.  Vietnamese Conflict.  Dream/Hallucinatory Drama.  Directed by Adrian Lyne.  A Vietnam veteran suffers from delusions and nightmares about the war.  Or does he?  This psychological study of dream and reality has a odd, fascinating appeal.  The horrors of war and mental instability are the engines which drives its narrative.  The film has the central character slipping between the world of his nightmares and the jungles of Vietnam, the streets of his post war life and the realms of madness at a delirious pace.  Tim Robbins gives a fine performance as the troubled young man.  With: Elizabeth Pena, Danny Aiello, Matt Craven, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Jason Alexander, Patricia Kalember, Eriq La Salle.  Notes:  Music by Maurice Jarre.  Photography by Jeffrey Kimball.  Written by Bruce Joel Rubin.

THE JAMES DEAN STORY. 1957.  82 minutes.  Biographical Documentary.  James Dean.  <V505>.  Directed by Robert Altman and George W. George.  A documentary on the life and career of the 1950s actor whose early death made him a legendary cult hero.  Friends, family, fraternity brothers are all among those interviewed about the mercurial young actor.  Notes:  This film contains never before seen footage from East of Eden and the famous Highway Public Safety Message made for television and rare film from the Hollywood premiere of Giant.

JANE EYRE.  1944.  97 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  British Literature.  Charlotte Bronte.  Aldous Huxley.  Novel Into Film.  Orson Welles.  Joan Fontaine.  Directed by Robert Stevenson.  Orson Welles is the enigmatic Edward Rochester and Joan Fontaine, the proud heroine Jane Eyre in this beautifully photographed, moody adaptation of Charlotte Bronte’s gothic masterpiece.  Of all the film and televised versions of Bronte’s romance, this one is richest in mood and style.  Welles is the essence of mystery and romance as Rochester, his rich, mellifluous voice and domineering physicality is matched perfectly by Fontaine’s willfully conceived plainness.  George Barnes’ exquisite use of shadows and darkness and Bernard Herrmann’s score just add to this very, very impressive film.   Margaret O’Brien, possibly the most precociously gifted child star in movie history is perfectly cast as Adele Varens, Rochester’s love child and the remarkable young beauty Elizabeth Taylor makes a lovely appearance as Jane’s tragic school friend, Helen Burns.  The talented young Peggy Ann Garner plays the younger Jane.  With:  John Sutton as Dr. Rivers, Henry Danielle as Brockelhurst, Barbara Everest as Lady Ingraham, Mary Forbes as Mrs. Eshton, and Edith Barrett as Mrs. Fairfax.  Notes:  Screenplay by Stevenson, John Houseman, and Aldous Huxley.  Cinematography by George Barnes.  Music by Bernard Herrmann.  Edited by Walter Thompson.

JANIS.  1974.  70 minutes.  <V2974>.  Documentary/Biography. Rock Music — Janis Joplin.  Directed by Howard Alk and Seaton Findlay.  This film begins with the outline of a Rolls Royce even though the song being sung is Janis Joplin’s a cappella “Mercedes Benz” and it ends with her singing Kris Kristofferson’s elegantly bluesy “Me and Bobby McGee.”  In between is a very entertaining, very well made documentary of Joplin, the raucous voiced and living rock singer of the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Joplin, like Hendricks, Morrison, and Otis Redding, is part of the pantheon of tragic mythic heroes of rock and roll.  This film is so good at depicting her amazing talent and her fundamentally honest pain because she so dominates every aspect of the film.  Interviews, performances, and her memorable return to Port Arthur, Texas, the town that had rejected the strangely independent girl.  A fine, fine documentary about a fascinating subject.  Notes:  songs include:  “Mercedes Benz,” “Tell Mama”, “Kozmic Blues,” “Cry Baby,” “Try,” “Move Over,” “Summertime,” and “Piece of My Heart.”  She is seen in performance with all three of her bands — Big Brother and the Holding Company, Kozmic Blues Band, and Full Tilt Boogie Band.  Peter Biziou, Michael Wadleigh, Bob Fiore, D. A. Pennebaker, Richard Leacock, Clarke Mackey and W. P. are among the Cinematographers of the various sequences.

JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.  1963.  104 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Greek Mythology.  Ray Harryhausen.  Directed by Don Chaffey.  Producer Charles H. Schneer and special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen created several of the most cleverly designed and enjoyable action adventure films of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.  Harryhausen created a stunning menagerie of monsters, ghouls, dervishes and other special effects trickery to embellish these fantasies.  Jason and the Argonauts was the first of two films revolving around Greek mythology [Clash of the Titans was the other].  It’s a wonderful adventure story for everyone.  The tale is of Jason’s search for the Golden Fleece, a search whose happy resolution will restore him to his birthright.  The dangers and challenges the Gods make Jason and his crew of Olympic heroes go through makes for an adventurous story.  Fun.  With:  Todd Armstrong as Jason, Nancy Kovack as Medea, Gary Raymond a Acastus, Laurence Naismith as Argus, Niall MacGinnis as Zeus, Michael Gwynn as Hermes, Douglas Wilmer as Pelias, Honor Blackman as Hera, John Cairney as Hylas, Patrick Troughton as Phineas, Andrew Faulds as Phalerus and Nigel Green as Hercules.  Notes:  Screenplay by Beverly Cross as Jan Read.  Produced by Ray Harryhausen and Charles H. Schneer.  Original music by Bernard Herrmann.  Cinematography by Wilkie Cooper.  Special effects by Ray Harryhausen.

JACKNIFE.  1989.  102 minutes.  Drama.  Vietnam Veterans.  <V2452>.  Directed by David Jones.  “They were buddies in Vietnam, “Megs” Megessey, Bobby and Dave, until Bobby was killed saving Megs’ life.  Fifteen years later, Dave is still haunted by the painful memory of his buddy’s death.  He’s become a drunk, living with his sister Martha cut off from the world and from life itself.  Then one day, Megs Megessey burst through the door to change their lives forever.  He’s out to free them from the pain of the past and shatter the dismal routine of their lives.  But the past holds shadows which cannot be expelled so easily–memories which threaten to destroy all their lives.”  With:  Robert DeNiro, Ed Harris and Kathy Baker.  Notes:  Photographed by Brian West.  Screenplay by Stephen Metcalfe from his own play  Strange Snow.  Music by Bruce Broughton.

JACKSON COUNTY JAIL.  1976.  89 minutes.  Crime Melodrama.  Action Thriller.  Rape.  Women in Prison.  Directed by Michael Miller.  A woman advertising ace encounters many difficulties while on the road from LA to New York City.  She’s falsely arrested as a vagrant in a hick town after her car is highjacked by a young man and his junkie wife.  While under arrest, she kills one of her jailers in self-defense, after he’s raped her.  She escapes with another prisoner, a young man awaiting extradition back to Texas for murder.  The two lead authorities on a media hyped chase through the heartland.  This is a ’70s road movie with a vengeance.  The film has a strong feminist undercurrent — the young woman is an independent minded professional whose casual decision to “see her country” turns into a nightmare trip.  Jackson County Jail is a catalog of abuses to women by society, the system, men, and even other women.  The screenwriters are judiciously fair in their attack.  Its a tightly knit, professional piece of work, and fairly well acted (despite the easy stereotypes depicted).  Tommy Lee Jones makes a nice debut and the very under rated and neglected Yvette Mimieux gives an intelligent, competent performance as well.  With:  Robert Carradine, Frederic Cook Severn Darden, Howard Hesseman, John Lawlor, Britt Leach, Nan Martin, and Nancy Noble.  Notes:  Written by Donald Stewart.  Music by Loren Newkirk.  Photographed by Bruce Logan.  The film is introduced by Leonard Maltin who discusses the making and production of the film with its producer, the legendary “king of low-budget films,” Roger Corman.

THE JADE MASK.  1944.  66 minutes.  Charlie Chan Mystery.  Directed by Phil Rosen.  Sidney Toler is Chan in this completely forgettable entry in the Chan cycle.  The story is about a couple who indulge in murder to steal from victims.  Their modus-operandi — kill their victims and try to convince others that they are still alive.  Mantan Moreland, Edwin Luke, Hardie Albright, Frank Reicher, Janet Warren, Cyril Delevanti, Alan Bridge, Ralph Lewis, and Dorothy Granger.  Notes:  Screenplay by George Callahan from original characters created by Earl Derr Biggers.  Photographed by Harry Neumann.

JAGGED EDGE.  1986.  108 minutes.  Murder Drama.  Courtroom Drama.  <V1130>.  Directed by Richard Marquand.  A smart, divorced attorney is asked by her firm to defend a wealthy San Francisco publisher accused of the brutal murder of his wife.  The story revolves around her uncertainty of his guilt and the burgeoning intimacy between lawyer and client.  A crisply acted and directed courtroom drama and entertaining.  With:  Glenn Close, Jeff Bridges, Peter Coyote, John Dehner, Leigh Taylor-Young, Karen Austen, Lance Henricksen, James Karen and Robert Loggia.  Notes:  Box-office gross:  $16,287,629.

JAILHOUSE ROCK.  1957.  96 minutes.  Musical.  Elvis Presley.  Rock Musical.  <V1240>.  Directed by Richard Thorpe.  A Rock musical of sorts, about a young hooligan who is wrongfully sent to jail who learns to sing while in the big house, who falls for a beautiful girl who helps him to the top when he gets out.  Elvis Presley’s second film.  With King Creole, this Elvis’ best movie.  A special  With:  Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, Vaughn Taylor and Dean Jones. Notes:  Songs include “Jailhouse Rock”, “Treat Me Nice”, and “Don’t Leave Me Now.”

JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH.  1995.  79 minutes.  Animated Films.  Walt Disney Productions.  Children’s Literature.  Roald Dahl.  Directed by Henry Selick.  The hero of this charming action fantasy from Disney is James, an orphaned boy much abused by his hideous aunts, whose imagination is all that keeps his spirits and hopes alive.  When James spills a paunch of magic crocodile tongues in his yard, a giant peach grows.  When he explores the peach, the boys is transported into a world filled with human-like insects whom he befriends and eventually, with whom his most thrilling adventure begins.  Live action cast includes:  Simon Callow as Grasshopper, Richard Dreyfuss as Centipede, Jane Leeves as Ladybug, Joanne Lumley as Aunt Spiker, Miriam Margolves as Aunt Sponge and Gloworm, Pete Postlethwaite as Old Man, Susan Sarandon as Spider, Paul Terry as James, and David Thewlis as Earthworm.  Notes:  Produced by Denise Di Not and Tim Burton.  Screenplay by Karen Kirkpatrick, Jonathan Roberts, Steve Bloom from the novel by Roald Dahl.  Music and original songs by Randy Newman.  Photographed by Pete Kozachik and Hiro Narita.  Conceptual Designer by Lane Smith.  Box-office gross:  $25,992,489.

THE JAMES DEAN STORY. 1957.  82 minutes.  Documentary.  <V505>.  Directed by Robert Altman and George W. George.  A documentary on the life and career of the 1950s actor whose early death made him a legendary cult hero.

JASON’S LYRIC.  1994.  118 minutes.  Romantic Drama.  Ghetto Drama [Houston].  African Americans, Social Conditions.  African American Directors.  Directed by Dough McHenry.  Allen Payne is Jason, Jada Pinkett is Lyric in this drama about the painful evolution of a Houston family’s efforts at surviving the ghetto.  Payne’s Jason is the hard working, ambitious brother of Josh, a wildly emotional and violent young man.  Both boys have survived the trauma of their father’s accidental death in different ways — one bears the nightmares of the incident, the other buries the dreams in alcohol, drugs and terror.  This is a well directed and acted melodrama about working class blacks in a ghetto other than LA, Chicago or New York.  The change of place gives us a story with different rhythms and feeling.  For some of the audience it will be just well done melodrama, for others, the cumulative power of the film may have more resonance..  With:  Forrest Whittaker as Mad Dog, Bokeem Woodbine as Josh, Anthony “Treach” Criss as Alonzo, Eddie Griffin as Raj, Suzanne Douglas as Gloria, Lisa Nicole Carson as Marti, Lahmard Tate as Ron, Asheamu Earl Randle as Teddy, Clarence Whitmore as Elmo, Curtis Von Burrell as Darryl.  Notes:  Music supervision by Adam Kidbon.  Music by Afrika and Matt Noble.  Photography by Francis Kenny.  Written by Bobby Smith, Jr.  Produced by McHenry and George Jackson.  Songs include U Will Know, Forget I Was a G, If Trouble Was Money.  At the end of the film a music video of U Will Know is performed.  Box-office gross:  $20,634,663.

JAWS.  1975.  125 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Giant Sharks.  Popular American Fiction.  Horror.  <V213>.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.  A teenaged girl disappears from a beach on Amity Island, New York.  The next morning authorities find the remains of her body, apparently attacked by a shark.  A panic among the locals ensues — the idea of shark infestation on their beaches can be ruinous to their life’s blood, filled beaches during the summer.  The sheriff of Amity is an ex-New York cop afraid of the water, who has to contend with the town fathers and a gang of fisherman out to get the big fish.  He calls a shark expert who hypothesizes that a great white is the cause of the girl’s death.  Things worsen.  A young boy is killed on the beach after the townsfolk think the killer has been found.  Enter Quint an eccentric fisherman on Amity who claims he can get the shark himself.  The shark expert and the sheriff go out to sea with Quint in search of the monster shark.  The best escapist film of the last 30 years.  Spielberg took Peter Benchley’s rather thin book about a killer shark and turned it into a piece of visceral, imaginative moviemaking that has had few equals since it’s release.  It is witty, funny, quickly paced and dreadfully suspenseful.  It was also the first film to challenge the long standing dominance of Gone With The Wind as the biggest grossest film in U.S. history.  With:  Richard Dreyfus, Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gray, Murray Hamilton, Jeffrey Kramer, Susan Backlinie, and Carl Gottlieb.  Notes:  Screenplay by Gottlieb and Benchley.  Music by John Williams.  Edited by Verna Fields.  Box-office gross:  $129,549,325.  Academy Awards for sound, original score, and editing.  Nominated for best picture.

THE JAYHAWKERS.  1959.  100 minutes.  <V2934>.  Western — Civil War Drama.  Directed by Melvin Frank.  During the Civil War in Kansas, “bloody Kansas” and the Union authorities want to catch the charismatic, ambitious, leader of a marauding band of renegade soldiers.  They recruit another rebellious Kansan to hunt him down, but the men are drawn to one another’s ideals and style.  This is a routine 1950s western drama.  Jeff Chandler, Fess Parker, Nicole Maurey, Henry Silva, Frank DeKova, Don Megowan, Leo Gordon, Shari Lee Bernath, and Jimmy Carter.  Notes:  Written by Frank, Joseph Petracca, Frank Fenton, and A.I. Bezzerides.  Photographed by Loyal Griggs.  Music by Jerome Moross.

THE JERK.  1979.  94 minutes.  <V2858>.  Comedy.  Directed by Carl Reiner.  Navin Johnson is the adopted son of poor black sharecroppers.  When he invents a gadget that acts as a handle for eyeglasses (the “opti-grab”) he becomes fabulously wealthy.  On his way to wealth and fame and back down again he has many amorous and other adventures.  This was the gifted comic actor Steve Martin’s first film and it was a huge success at the box-office.  It is a wildly uneven comedy and one either loved it or hated it.  Those of us in the latter camp can blame the smarminess of Martin’s dumb hero or the general meanness inherent in the film’s sense of humor.  Whichever side you choose, it still may give you a clue to the adventurousness of Martin’s movie roles — he tries everything and is willing to take a part to unheard of places, even in this thing.  Bernadette Peters is charming and coy in this film.  With Catlin Adams and Jackie Mason.  Notes:  Screenplay by Reiner, Martin, Carl Gottlieb, and Michael Elias.  Story by Gottlieb and Martin.   Box-office gross:  $42,989,656.

JERICHO.  1937.  66 minutes.  Musical.  Paul Robeson.  British Cinema.  Directed by Thornton Freeland.  Paul Robeson is Jericho Jackson a proud African-American with a degree in medicine who is an ordinary soldier in the U.S. forces going to fight the war in Europe.  When a U-boat hits the transport carrying the troop of black soldiers to France Jackson inadvertently kills a sergeant.  The military tribunal finds him guilty and sentences him to death.  As a favor, Capt. Mack, his commanding officer, permits Jericho to join in noncom festivities, but he escapes, implicating Mack.  Jericho ‘vanishes’ but has actually come to North Africa where is skills as a man of medicine and leadership make him a powerful sheik among his newfound friends. Mack, meantime, has spent five years in prison because Jackson could not be found to confirm that he had no hand in helping him in his initial escape.  Well acted and directed.  It’s is, far and away, the best of Robeson’s British films.  The story deals with relative intelligence with issues not seen in American films of the ‘30s – the presence of black soldiers in World War I, the discrimination against the most qualified of blacks in a racist environment, the potential for friendship between men of different races.  It’s an interesting cinematic anomaly.  Robeson’s talents and presence are especially regal in this film.  With:  Henry Wilcoxon as Capt. Mack, Wallace Ford as Mike Clancy, Princess Kouka as Gara, John Laurie as Hassan, James Carew as Maj. Bames, Lawrence Brown as Pvt. Face, Rufus Fennell as Sgt. Gamey, Ike Hatch as Tag, Frank Cram as Col. Lake, and Frank Cochrane as Agouba.  Notes:  Written by Robert N. Lee, Peter Ruric, George Barraud from a story by Walter Futter.  Cinematography by John W. Boyle.  Songs include:  Golden River, My Way, Silent Night [referred to interestingly as Holy Night], Deep Desert, and Shortnin’ Bread. 

JERKER.  1991.  90 minutes.  AIDS Drama.  Homosexuality.  Gay Theater.  Queer Cinema.  Masturbation.  Sexual Fantasies.  Theatrical Plays.  Directed by Hugh Harrison.  Also known as Robert Chesley’s Jerker.  It’s 1985 and a young gay San Franciscan named Bert receives a call from a complete stranger in the middle of the night who immediately engages in provocative, explicit sexual patter.  The men engage in this telephonic sexual interplay over the next few months with Bert never knowing who the caller really is.  The caller, who calls himself J. R., is a partially paralyzed Vietnam vet who had seen Bert at a party and was attracted to him, after randomly receiving his phone number.  At first, the men only engage in hard sexual games playing but after several months, Bert becomes much more pensive when he realizes that a lover and frequent sexual partner is dying of AIDS.  The relationship suddenly becomes deeper, more intense.  It soon becomes apparent that Bert also has the deadly disease.  Before going on a business trip to New York, J. R. talks with Bert and becomes concern on how he sounds.  After returning from the trip J. R. calls for several weeks before he realizes that Bert has died.  This film of a lay by Robert Chesley, uses strong, graphic sexual language in its earlier phase (when the men begin their sexual play) which shifts to  intensely emotional dialogue when the specter of AIDS suddenly comes into their lives.  Tom Wagner as the attractive, sexually promiscuous Bert, and Joseph Stachura as the calm, assured J. R. give very fine performances in this filmed play.  The subject matter and graphic language may shock some, but the play is intensely felt drama from the Gay Theater.  It is intelligently staged and produced.  Notes:  Written by Hugh Harrison from the Chesley play.  Cinematography by Ron Hamill.  Music by Michael Angelo.  Caution:  Strong sexual content, adult language and male nudity.

JERRY MAGUIRE.  1996.  135 minutes.  Romantic Comedy.  Sports Comedy.  Professional Athletes.  Directed by Cameron Crowe.  Jerry Maguire is a sports super agent who, in a momentary lapse, writes an altruistic credo about his business and its responsibility to the athletes they represent and produces copies for everybody in his firm, a decision that he comes to regret immediately.  Before he realizes what has happened, he has begun to lose all of his clients and some top prospects to his “friends” and competitors.  All but one Rod Tidwell, a smart,  flashy, talented wide receiver whose cool behavior and less than affable attitude on the field makes him a less than high ticket client.  When the sky falls in on Maguire only one person in the firm stands by him, a beautiful young office assistant with an active young son named Ray.  Jerry Maguire was one of the most popular films of the decade, and maybe the most popular in Cruise’s incredible career.  The film succeeds in a multitude of ways – it gave the star a character with a little more emotional depth than most played by Cruise – the script by Cameron Crowe balanced sentiments regarding sports and family, love and marriage.  Crowe covered all the bases and then got the added bonus of a spectacular supporting cast.  Cuba Gooding, Jr. won  a much deserved (and extremely popular) best supporting actor Oscar.  In Renee Zellweger they found a lovely, gracious presence as the love hungry young divorce, Dorothy Boyd.  And, a regular scene stealer in young Jonathan Lipnicki as young Ray Body.  Everything worked to perfection for the producers and Jerry Maguire, making it a huge pop hit. The rest of the very capable cast includes:  Jay Mohr as Bob Sugar, Bonnie Hunt as Laurel Boyd, Kelly Preston as Avery Bishop, Regina King as Marcee Tidwell, Mark Pellington as Bill Dooler, and Jeremy Suarez as Tyson Tidwell. Notes:  Guest appearances include Roy Firestone, Al Michaels, Frank Gifford, Troy Aikman, Jim Irsay, Drew Bledsoe, Ki-Jana Carter, Herman Moore, Art Monk, Mike Tirico, and Dan Dierdorf.  It is, after all a football movie too.  Produced by James L. Brooks, Laurence Mark, Richard Sakai and Cameron Crowe.  Written by Cameron Crowe.  Music Composed by Nancy Wilson.  Box-office gross:  $153,600,000 US and $103,000,000 International.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, actor [Cruise], editing {Joe Hutshing] and original screenplay.  Also on DVD.

JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR.  1973.  107 minutes.  Musical.  Broadway Musical.  <V713>.  Directed by Norman Jewison.  Director Jewison who had made a wonderful film of Fiddler On The Roof does not do as well with this rock “opera”.  The depiction of Christ and the apostles as rock singing hippies and Mary Magdalene as a lovesick groupie offended fundamentalists.  The film is not at all sacrilegious, but the concept doesn’t work all that well either.  The young singer/dancers perform enthusiastically and the casting of Carl Anderson, as a black Judas also stirred a small controversy.  The film’s best song may be Yvonne Elliman’s singing the sentimental torch song “I Don’t Know How To Love Him.”  With:  Barry Dennum, Joshua Mostel, and Bob Bingham.  Ted Neely is another in the long list of blonde, blue-eyed WASPS playing Christ.  Notes:  Based on the stage production by Andrew Lloyd Webber (long before Cats and Les Miserables) and his frequent early collaborator, Tim Rice.  They had obviously been influenced by the Who’s kinetic and infinitely superior quasi-operatic opus Tommy.  Box-office gross:  $13,103,056.

THE JEWEL OF THE NILE.  1985.  Romantic Adventure Comedy.  Directed by Lewis Teague.  Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito reprise their roles from Romancing the Stone in this farcical adventure film.  Jack, the finagling hero and the ever sentimental heroine Joan, are embroiled in a Middle Eastern intrigue involving religious holy men, terrorists, and invaluable jewels.  Jack and Joan’s romance is quite rocky — Jack doesn’t like being Mrs. Joan and Joan has writer’s block.  Sillier than the earlier film, but amusing fun none-the-less.  With:  Spiros Focas, Avner Eisenberg, The Flying Karamazov Brothers, Holland Taylor.  Notes:  Photographed by Jan DeBont.  Written by Mark Rosenthal and Lawrence Konner from characters created by Diane Thomas. Music by Jack Nitzsche.  Produced by Michael Douglas.

JEZEBEL.  1938.  104 minutes.  <V358>.  Directed by William Wyler.  Ante-bellum romance about an impetuous belle named Julie who commits one rash act from which she can not recover.  Set in New Orleans.  Bette Davis is supposed to have gotten this role because she was angry at not getting the much sought after role of Scarlett O’Hara.  In many ways, this is a much more complex film and role with far greater depth.  Davis’s performance is without peer.  As Julie, she takes the impetuosity of Scarlett O’Hara to a different psychological and emotional level.  It’s a great performance by a great actress in a superior film. With: Henry Fonda, George Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Fay Bainter, Spring Byington, Richard Cromwell, John Litel, Irving Pichel, Eddie Anderson, Butterfly McQueen and Henry O’Neill.  Notes:  Screenplay by Clements Ripley, Abem Finkel and John Huston (based on a play by Owen Davis, Sr.)  Cinematography by Ernest Haller.  Music by Max Steiner.  Academy Award nominations included best picture, best actress (Davis), best supporting actress (Bainter), cinematography (Haller), and musical score (Steiner).  Davis and Bainter won the Oscar in their categories.

JFK.  1991.  189 minutes.  Biographical Drama.  John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  Assassinations, Presidents–United States.   <V3370>.  Directed by Oliver Stone.  Hysteria reigns.  In this frantic opus from Stone, conspiracy theories about the assassination of President Kennedy reign supreme.  The film created a storm of controversy with its release, largely because of the tremendous self-promotional effort by Stone.  The daring in the film is derived from the boisterous chutzpah of muckraker Stone.  How convincing any one of us might find the film depends on how susceptible to Stone’s manipulative skills we are.  It’s an action filled, provocative thriller, a work of high muck and low art.  It will not bore you.  With Kevin Costner as a squeaky clean Jim Garrison.  Also with: Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie Metcalfe, Gary Oldman, Michael Rooker, J. o. Sanders, Sissy Spacek, Donald Sutherland.  Notes:  Photography by Robert Richardson.  Music by John Williams.  Screenplay by Stone and Zachary Sklar based on the books On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison and Crossfire:  The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, director, supporting actor (Jones), screenplay adaptation, cinematography, and original score.  There are cameo appearances by Jack Lemmon, Ed Asner, Joe Pesci, Walter Matthau (as Russell Long) and, John Candy.  Box-office gross:  $70,405,598.

JOAN OF ARC.  1948.  145 minutes.  <V566>.  Directed by Victor Fleming.  According to Alfred Hitchcock (in an interview given to Francois Truffaut) Ingrid Bergman became very interested in playing great heroines in the late 1940s — she wanted to play roles that would make her a venerated actress, an institution.  One such heroine was role was that of Saint Joan.  This film is mildly entertaining, and is shot is pretty pastel colors.  It will prove a little too long for some, but overall it is sincere if a little dull movie epic history  With:  Jose Ferrer, J. Carroll Naish, Ward Bond, Shepperd Strudwick, Gene Lockhart Cecil Kellaway and Leif Erickson. Notes:  Screenplay by Maxwell Anderson from his play Joan of Lorraine.  Bergman received an Oscar nomination for best actress.  The film also received Oscar nominations for supporting actor (Jose Ferrer), art/set decoration (color), scoring (Hugo Friedhofer), and editing.  It won Oscars for cinematography (color, Joseph Valentine, William V. Skall and Winton Hoch) and costume design (Dorothy Jeakins and Karinska)

JOAN THE WOMAN.  1917.  138 minutes.  Historical Drama.  Joan of Arc.  Cecil B. De Mille.  Geraldine Farrar is Joan of Arc in the De Mille production.  The film is De Mille’s first foray into the romantic and historical epic genre.  In Farrar he has a mature Joan [the famous operatic star was nearly 40 when she portrayed the “maid of Orleans].  Joan the Woman is an impressive epic and can be seen as the prototype of the mixture of morality play and rabble rousing epic as best personified in both the silent and sound versions of De Mille’s The Ten Commandments].  De Mille was a master, even with his social dramas starring Swanson at depicting moral decay, violence, sin and debauchery wrapped around nice moral preachments.  Moviegoers could sure have fun getting moral lessons from a De Mille film.  Joan the Woman establishes the De Mille epic saga mode, a style the director would use for the next 50 years.  De Mille probably followed Griffith’s lead in introducing his story with modern vignettes.  The story of this Joan begins with a historical title card, then switches to a scene among young French soldiers in the trenches of World War I.  The story of Joan’s heroism is formed in between the courageous acts of a young soldier of the Great War who has patriotism imbued in him by a sword, apparently a relic once held by Joan.  With: Wallace Reid, Raymond Hatton, Hobart Bosworth.  Notes:  Music by William Furst.  Photographed by Alvin Wyckoff.  Art direction by Wilfred Buckland.

JOE’S BED-STUY BARBERSHOP:  WE CUT HEADS.  1985.  90 minutes.  <V1175>.  Directed by Spike Lee.  The story of a Bed-Stuy barber’s efforts to survive making a living in his barbershop.  He’s constantly tempted by the ease with which he could make extra jack by running numbers.  He yields to the pressure finally and his personal and “business” troubles take a definite turn for the worse.  The film has gently comic moments and moments of mild tension.  At some points it seems to be heading towards action genre.  It’s a pleasant hodgepodge that gives us no clue into what direction the filmmaker might be heading.

JOHNNY APOLLO.  1940.  94 minutes.  <V2831>.  Crime melodrama.  Directed by Henry Hathaway.  When wealthy New York stock broker Bob Cain is arrested and convicted for embezzlement, his spoiled Ivy League educated son Bob Jr., takes it badly, turning on his father.  When he tries finding work in the wake of the affair, he realizes that his father’s cynicism may have been the key after all.  He goes after the best “mouth piece” he can find to act as his attorney but finds himself sucked into the plans of a sharp, cool criminal named Mickey Dwyer.  The boy finds himself heading for the slammer just as his dad did, but discovers, just in time that his father didn’t want him to associate with lowlife like Dwyer.  Tyrone Power was a great favorite among lady fans in the late ’30s and the ’40s.  He yearned to play tougher parts.  One of his first was this competent but somewhat ordinary crime drama.  The leading lady in Dorothy Lamour who would gain greater film “fame” as the sarong wrapped lady foil for Crosby and Hope in their famous and popular road movies.  With Edward Arnold, Lloyd Nolan, Charley Grapewin, Lionel Atwill, Marc Lawrence, Russell Hicks, Fuzzy Knight, and Anthony Caruso.  Notes:  Screenplay by Philip Dunne and Rowland Brown.  Music by Lionel Newman and Frank Loesser (song “Nickels and Dimes”) and Mack Gordon.  (song “This is the Beginning of the End”).  Musical direction by Cyril Mockridge.  Photographed by Arthur Miller.  Edward Arnold will be a noticeable face to many of you.  He established a niche and a career in Hollywood playing the millionaire or businessman you loved to hate.  He was often redeemable as he is in this film and was in You Can’t Take It With You (he played Jimmy Stewart’s weapons making pop) and Come and Get It.  He played similar parts in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and Meet John Doe.

JOHNNY BELINDA.  1948.  103 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Deaf Mutes.  Illegitimate Children.  Rape.  <V973>.  Directed by Jean Negulesco.  The deaf-mute daughter of a gruff Nova Scotia farmer is thought to be a “dummy” until a kindly doctor discovers her innate intelligence.  The girl is, however, raped by a brutal man, and bears his child.  The story’s strong climax centers around the rapist’s attempt to take the baby from its defiant mother.  Simple, honest story told with calm professional craftsmanship.  It is very well acted and directed.  A story that is sentiment but not cheapened by the actors’ over emoting or director Negulesco exploiting the obvious.  With:  Jane Wyman, Charles Bickford, Lew Ayres, Jan Sterling, Stephen McNally, and Agnes Moorhead.  Wyman’s fine performance netted her a best actress Oscar.  Notes:  The film was Oscar nominated for best picture, supporting actor (Bickford), director, supporting actress (Morehead), screenplay (Irmgard Von Cube and Allen Vincent), cinematography (b/w Ted McCord), musical score (Max Steiner), and editing.

JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN.  1971.  91 minutes.  Anti-War Drama.  Dalton Trumbo.  Novel Into Film.  <V881>.  Directed by Dalton Trumbo.  A young soldier’s body is totally destroyed in battle during World War I.  He is a helpless lump physically, but his mental faculties are still intact.  He recalls his life in flashback.  Trumbo wrote the screenplay for this anti-war polemic based on his novel.  It is a solemn, grim and pretentious film, one that has no moments of humor or grace.  In John Irving’s The World According To Garp the wounded, unidentifiable soldier awakens a moment of sympathy in his nurse — and T.S. Garp was conceived.  Trumbo wrote a similar scene, one that predated Irving’s for Johnny Got His Gun.  In Irving’s book, and the film based on it, the scene had a raw, tough humor.  In Trumbo’s scheme it is designed for pathos.  It is a credit to Diane Varsi, in this film, and Glenn Close in …Garp that they were playable scenes at all.  With:  Timothy Bottoms, Kathy Fields, Marsha Hunt, Jason Robards, Donald Sutherland and Diane Varsi.  Notes:  Cinematography by Jules Brenner.  Music by Jerry Fielding.  Awards:  Competing Film and Special Jury Prize, Cannes, 1971.

JOHNNY GUITAR.  1954.  110 minutes.  Western.  Joan Crawford.  Nicholas Ray.  <V1736>.  Directed by Nicholas Ray.  In old Arizona, a woman running a saloon comes into direct conflict with a powerful rancher, also a woman. Their conflict for power revolving around the coming of the railroad and men, leads to an inevitable final showdown.  No film has had as many suggestive innuendoes made or written about it than this ladies-on-the-range epic.  Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge are the dueling pair and they put on quite a show.  No other two actresses could have pulled this stunt off as well.  The film borders on utter silliness, but the action is solid as are the remaining cast members — Sterling Hayden, Scott Brady, Ward Bond Ben Cooper, Ernest Borgnine, John Carradine, Royal Dano and Paul Fix.  Notes:  Screenplay by Philip Yordan. 

JOHNNY RENO.  1965.  83 minutes.  Western.  Directed by R. G. Springsteen.  Dana Andrews is Johnny Reno a tough territorial Marshall who’s ambushed by two brothers running away from a lynch mob in a town called Stone Junction.  They’ve been accused of killing and Indian, and the townspeople want to get them caught, tried and hung before the Indians attack.  The town is hiding a secret that Reno must fight through to get after the truth.  Fairly routine western overall.  Andrews was obviously showing signs of age as the rough and tumble hero.  With:  Jane Russell as Nona Williams, Lon Chaney as Sheriff Hodges, John Agar as Ed Tomkins, Lyle Bettger as Jess Yates, Tom Drake as Joe Conners, Richard Arlen as Ned Duggan, Robert Lowery as Jake Reed, Tracy Olsen as Marie Yates.  Notes:  Photographed by Harold Stine.  Russell’s gowns by Edith Head.  Music by Jimmie Haskell.  Screenplay by Steve Fisher from a story by Fisher and Andrew Craddock.

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD.  1989.  30 minutes.  Historical Documentary.  Johnstown, Pennsylvania.  <2704>.   Directed by Charles Guggenheim.  “Produced for permanent exhibition at the Johnstown Flood Memorial Museum, this film by Academy Award winner Charles Guggenheim, tells the story of the events leading up and following the moment on May 31, 19889, when a private dam burst, sending a wall of water, in some places 70 feet high, roaring down the valley and into the center of the city of Johnstown, Pa.  Within a matter of minutes the heart of the city had been swept away.  Twenty-two hundred men, women and children were dead.  Ninety-eight children had lost both parents.  One out of every three bodies found would never be identified.  Thousands were left homeless and without shelter or food.  But this more than a story of destruction.  It is a story of the 19th Century America and how some of the most famous industrialists and civic leaders of the time–men like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick–members of the south Fork Hunting and Fishing Club–witnessed the failure of their dam–creating a moment in history that would shock the world.”  Notes:  Written and produced by Guggenheim.  Edited by Catherine Guggenheim, Photographed by Erich Roland.  Narrated by Len Cariou.

THE JOURNEY OF AUGUST KING.  1995.  91 minutes.  Drama.  Slavery.  Runaway Slaves.  Novels Into Film.  Directed by John Duigan.  Jason Patric is August King and Thandie Newton is Annalees Williamsburg in this fine, beautifully photographed drama about the relationship between a beautiful runaway slave and a independent mountain farmer.  The film tells a simple story of conscience and courage and is well guided by Duigan [director of two lovely Australian films Flirting and Sirens].  Annalees and her brother escape from their brutish master into the high hills of western North Carolina.  They skirt the main mountain trail where the girl befriends the loner August King.  King, like many of the mountaineers abhors slavery but refuse to have anything to with the institution or, if possible, its victims, like Annalees.  Newton and Patric are a very striking pair and give fine, intelligent performances.  It’s an old fashioned kind of movie making – story, photography and character take precedence in telling the story— but there is nothing wrong with that as cinema.   Also with Larry Drake as Olfa Singletary, Sam Waterston as Mooney Wright, Sarah-Jane Wylde, Ida Wright, Eric Mabius as Hal Wright, Muse Watson as Zimmer, Dean Rader-Duval as Gabriel, John Doman as Bolton, Andy Stahl as Harrison, and Danny Nelson as Felix.  Notes:  Original music by Stephen Endelman.  Cinematography by Slavomir Idziak.  Screenplay by John Ehle based on his novel.  Narration by Maya Angelou.

THE JOY LUCK CLUB.  1993.  139 minutes.  Drama.  Chinese-Americans.  Chinese-American Cinema.  Directed by Wayne Wang. A fine re-telling of the complicated series of stories about the relationship between several Chinese-American women and their mothers.  Each of the young women find some ways to connect the their mothers late in life, that they could not reach when they were younger.  The film is about the bonding of women culturally, psychically, and emotionally.  The cast is first rate.  With:  Kiru Chinh, Tsai Chin, France Nuyen, Lisu Lu as the mothers; Ming Na Win, Tamyn Tomita, Luran Tom and Rosalind Chao as the daughters; also with Victor Wong, Lisa Connohy, William gong, Christopher Rich, Kim Chew, Jason Yee, Michael Paul Chan, Andrew McCarthy, and Diane Baker.  Notes:  Screenplay by Amy Tan and Ronald Bass from the novel by Tan.  Photography by Amir Mokri.  Music by Rachel Portman.  Produced by Oliver Stone.  Box-office gross:  $31,348,664.

JUAREZ.  1939.  132 minutes.  <V543>.  Directed by William Dieterle.  Dramatization of the attempt by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte to establish Austrian Prince Maximilian Hapsburg as Emperor of Mexico, and of the heroic revolutionary efforts of Benito Juarez – the full blooded Indian president of the Mexican Republic in the 1860s.   Big, attractive, somewhat static history.  It is fun to watch this kind of movie made history especially with the care for detail the brothers Warner put into the lavish production.   With: Paul Muni as Juarez, Brian Aherne as Maximilian, Bette Davis as Empress Charlotta and John Garfield as Diaz..  Notes:  Also in the cast is a supporting cast of very ubiquitous, enjoyable actors including Claude Rains, Joseph Calleia, Gilbert Roland, Henry O’Neill, Donald Crisp, and Harry Davenport..  Gale Sondegaard plays the Empress Eugenie.  Screenplay by John Huston, Aeneas Mackenzie and Wolfgang Reinhardt.  Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor (Aherne) and cinematography (Tony Gaudio).

JUBAL.  1956.  101 minutes.  Western.  Western Fiction.  Directed by Delmer Daves.  Glenn Ford, Rod Steiger, and Ernest Borgnine star in this brooding, psycho-western about the troubles of a cowboy befriended a Montana cattle rancher with a beautiful young wife with a roving eye and a top cowhand with a vicious jealous streak.  Revenge, sex, and redemption are all rolled into this unusual western melodrama.  Valerie French, Felicia Farr, Basil Ruysdael, Noah Beery, Jr. Charles Bronson, John Dierkes, Jack Elam, Robert Burton.  Notes:  Screenplay by Russell S. Hughes and Delmer Daves based on a novel by Paul I. Wellman.  Photographed by Charles Lawton, Jr.  Gowns by Jean Louis.  Music composed by David Raksin, conducted by Morris Stoloff. 

JUBILEE TRAIL.  1954.  103 minutes.  Western.  Western Fiction.  Popular Fiction.  Directed by Joseph Kane.  Colorful, well acted film adaptation of a popular novel by Gwen Bristow.  The story of Garnet Hale, a beautiful girl married to a young California rancher whose past she learns of only after she travels west with him to meet his brother.  Enroute they become involved with an adventurous chanteuse who is escaping murder charges in New York and Oliver Hale’s best friend Tom Ivins.  A lively entertainment with unique locales and intriguing characterizations.  With:  Vera Ralston, Forrest Tucker, Joan Leslie, John Russell, Ray Middleton, Pat O’Brien, Buddy Baer, Jim Davis Barton MacLane, Richard Webb, martin Garralaga, and Jack Elam.  Notes:  Screenplay by Bruce Manning from the novel by Gwen Bristow.  Photography by Jack Marta.  Music by Victor Young.

JUDGE DREDD.  1995.  96 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Science Fiction.  Crime Adventure.  Comic Strip Heroes, Screen Adaptations of.  Directed by Danny Cannon.  Judge Dredd is the master law enforcer in the future — I am the Law — he bellows like a superman to heavily armed bad man in a riot situation.  This is Sylvester Stallone second foray into futuristic action drama a la Blade Runner/Terminator [the earlier effort was the dreadfully overwrought Demolition Man, the one with Wesley Snipes in a Dennis Rodman hairdo].  Judge Dredd is the quintessential law giver and enforcer, a paragon of rough justice and virtue who is falsely accused of murder other justices, when his arch rival — his genetic other half, the sadistic former justice Rico — escapes imprisonment and moves towards ruling the forces of justice — a battle of wits and wills ensues.  Lots of action, lots of effects but the thing, on the whole, is rather pointless and soulless.  Sylvester Stallone’s attempt at the kind of cool automaton as portrayed by Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies is not very successful — he doesn’t possess the sense of humor or the relative grace.  Only Rob Schneider as a squeamish little computer hustler sent to jail with Dredd lightens the atmosphere.  With:  Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Joan Chen, Jurgen Prochnow, Max Von Sydow, Joanna Miles, Balthazar Getty.  Notes:  Music by Alan Silvestri.  Special Visual Effects by Mass Illusion.  Photographed by Adrian Biddle.  Screenplay by William Wisher and Steven E. DeSouza from a story by Wisher and Michael De Luca from the characters created by John Wagener and Carlos Ezquerra   Box-office gross:  $34,700,000.

JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG.  1961.  190 minutes.  Nuremberg Trials Drama.  The Holocaust.  Spencer Tracy.  Burt Lancaster.  Montgomery Clift.  Marlene Dietrich.  Judy Garland.  Stanley Kramer.   Directed by Stanley Kramer.  This epic length film is about the German War Criminals trials held in Nuremberg after World War II.  It is a prestige laden, slowly moving drama.  The victims are paraded before us like items in a display case.  We get emotional highlights, not a sense of the historic precedents in international law or human morality.  Kramer and his scenarist Abby Mann have aimed at retrospective superiority and achieve it stunningly.  A film, like many by Kramer with a bloated reputation.   With:  Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, and Maximilian Schell. Notes:  Schell won the best actor Oscar as the defense attorney.  The film was nominated for Oscars as best picture, supporting actor (Clift), supporting actress (Garland), director, cinematography (Ernest Laszlo), art/set decoration, editing and costume design.

JUDITH OF BETHULIA.  1913.  63 minutes.  Silent.  Biblical Melodrama.  D. W. Griffith.  Directed by D. W. Griffith.  D. W. Griffith was the first American filmmaker to experiment with the length of films.  With films like Judith Of Bethulia he first expanded the medium, introducing full length narratives and adaptations of popular or classical works to tell story longer than the common two reelers.  Influence by the epic films of early Italian filmmakers, especially after seeing Giovanni Pastore’ Cabiria he first emulated the epic form and then, of course with Birth Of A Nation and Intolerance defined it emphatically.  Judith is typical of Griffith’s fascination with the sentiments of biblical drama, stories on which he could overlay his morality and his limited view of good versus evil.  This is, however, a pivotal film in the history of American filmmaking.  With:  Blanche Sweet as Judith, Henry Walthall as Holofernee, Mae Marsh as Naomi, Robert Harron as Nathan, Lillian Gish as the young mother, Dorothy Gish as the crippled beggar, Kate Bruce as Judith’s maid.  Notes:  Adapted from the Apocrypha and the poetical tragedy Judith of Bethulia by Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

JUICE.  1992.  95 minutes.  Gang Films.  Youth gangs.  Black directors.  Directed by Ernest Dickerson.  Omar Epps is Q, Jermaine Hopkins is Steele, Khalil Kain is Raheem, Tupac Shakur s Bishop four black New York youths who have been best friends since grade school.  This film is the story of how their friendship and lives are destroyed by the desire to get a fast chance.  Ernest Dickerson, the director, has been the cameraman for most of Spike Lee’s films.  Juice, Dickerson’s directorial debut is, an energetic if somewhat predictable ghetto drama.  The young actors are good especially Omar Epps as Q, who wants to keep things in focus and Tupac Shakur as Bishop whose rage brings on the boys’ destruction.  With: Cindy Herron, Queen Latifah, Samuel L. Jackson.  Notes:  Original score by Hank Shocklee and the Bomb Squad.  Photographed by Larry Banks.  Story by Dickerson.  Screenplay by Dickerson and Gerard Brown.

JUKE JOINT.  1947.  50 minutes.  Race Pictures.  Blaxploitation.  All Black Casts.  African-American Directors.  <V1827>.  Directed by Spencer Williams.  The title of this one was just one variation on a theme for the black film genre in the 1940s.  Every other all black film made was some variation on this dance-hall and “juke joint” theme.  With:  Spencer Williams who plays a guy who steps off a bus in Texas in pursuit of a place to set up a fancy dance hall or juke joint.  Also with July Jones and Mantan Moreland.  With:  Inez Newell as Mama Lou Holiday.  Notes:  Produced by Bert Goldberg.  Screenplay by Williams.  Photographed by George Sanderson.  Music by Red Calhoun and his Orchestra.

JULIA.  1977.  117 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Lillian Hellman.  Novel Into Film.  A film based on a segment of Lillian Hellman’s Pentimento.  The story is based on events and relationships in Hellman’s life from her childhood through her first Broadway successes.  It covers the love affair between Hellman and Dashiell Hammett.  Interesting, well acted and directed by Zinnemann.  Vanessa Redgrave gives a fine, subtle performance as Julia, the beautiful girl who becomes a heroine of the German underground during the rise of Nazism.  Jane Fonda plays Hellman and Jason Robards is a relaxed, steady Hammett.  With:  Maximilian Schell, Hal Holbrook (as Alan Campbell), Rosemary Murphy (as Dorothy Parker), Susan Jones, John Glover, and Maurice Denham.  Meryl Streep made her film debut in this film.  Lisa Pelikan and Susan Jones are the young Julia and Lillian.  Notes:  Screenplay by Alvin Sargent.  Cinematography by Douglas Slocombe.  Music by Georges Delerue.  Academy Awards for best supporting actor (Robards), supporting actress (Redgrave), and screenplay adaptation (Sargent).  The film received Oscar nominations for best picture, actress (Fonda), director, cinematography (Slocombe), original score (Delerue), editing, and costume design.  Box-office gross:  $13,055,000.

JULIET CAESAR.  Historical Drama.  Shakespearean Drama.  William Shakespeare.  1953.  122 minutes.  <V2356>. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.) is one of the most rousing versions of a Shakespearean play on film.  This Caesar moves about at a tremendous pace and the cast of actors is an enjoyable group — Marlon Brando is Mark Antony, James Mason is Brutus, John Gielgud is Cassius, Louis Calhern is Caesar, Edmond O’Brien is Casca, Greer Garson is Calpurnia, and Deborah Kerr is Portia.  The cast also includes George Macready and Michael Pate.  Notes:  Produce by John Houseman.  Academy Award nominations included best picture, best actor (Brando), cinematography (Joseph Ruttenberg), art/set decoration, and musical score (Miklos Rosza].

JUMANJI.  1995.  104 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Fairy Tales.  Directed by Joe Johnston.  A young New England boy, having a strained relationship with his father, finds himself trapped in a frighteningly magical world after he plays with a board game he’s discovered buried on the site of his father’s shoe factory.  He is sucked into a world from which he is only released 26 years later, when other children have moved into what was his family’s home.  What they have released with the game is utter mayhem — like a Pandora’s box of animal crackers — vicious, brutish jungle beasts, giant insects, and a crazed white hunter.  This film is supposed to be a magical tale of caution to the young, maybe about how you should communicate with those you love or risk losing them, or, its about being wanting in the courage needed to make a relationship last or. . . Its probably just simple sentiment attached to fantasy and imagination.  All of the imagination in this film is in the effects, many of which are fairly astonishing.  For a change Robin Williams as the mature Alan does not overwhelm you with his usual improvisational mayhem.  He seems more restrained than comic actor David Alan Grier, whose also in the film.  With: Kirsten Dunst, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, Bebe Neuwirth.  Notes:  Music by James Horner.  Screenplay by Jonathan Hensleigh, Greg Taylor, and Jim Strain.  Screen story by Taylor and Strain with Chris Van Allsburg.  Based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg.  Box-office gross:  $100,000,000.

JUMBO.  1962.  127 minutes.  Musical Extravaganza.  Circuses.  Doris Day.  Jimmy Durante.  Directed by Charles Walters.  Alternate title:  Billy Rose’s Jumbo.  Doris Day is Kitty Wonder a big-top performer and daughter of small circus’ owner Pop Wonder [played by the inimitable Jimmy Durante who is reprising a role he played in the original film of Rose’s opus].  The story is another variation on Romeo and Juliet with circuses and elephants as backdrop.  Stephen Boyd is the hero, Sam Rawlins, the son of the big time circus magnate who wants to buy Pop’s outfit.  With:  Martha Raye as Lulu the fortune-teller, Dean Jagger as John Noble, Joseph Waring as Harry, James Chandler as Parsons, Billy Barty as Joey, and John Hart as Marshal.  Notes:  Screenplay by Sidney Sheldon.  Music and Lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.  Produced by Joe Pasternak and Martin Melcher.  Cinematography by William H. Daniels. 

JUMPING JACKS.  1952.  96 minutes.  Service Comedy.  Lewis and Martin.  Directed by Norman Taurog.  Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were the most popular comic team of the early ’50s.  Martin was the crooner and straight-man and Lewis the dipsy comic clown.  The team’s act was one created in 1946 and lasted for ten years.  This comedy was a big hit in 1952.  They were the top box-office draw in all of the movies for the next five years.  How one feels about this movie depends on how funny you find Lewis.  It is a routine comedy otherwise.  With:  Mona Freeman, Don DeFore, Robert Strauss, Dick Erdman, Ray Teal, Marcy McGuire, Andy Arnold.  Notes:  Screenplay by Robert Lees, Fred Rinaldo, Herbert Baker.  Additional dialogue by James Allardice and Richard Weil, from a story by Brian Marlow.  Photography by Daniel L. Fapp.  Music direction by Joseph J. Lilley.  songs by Mack David and Jerry Livingston.  Musical numbers staged by Robert Sidney.

JUNGLE BOOK.  1967.  78 minutes.  <V2962>.  Animated Feature Comedy.  Directed by Wolfgang Reitherman.  This is one of the most successful, and most fondly remembered of the later Disney feature length animated films.  It’s charm is in its simple low humor, and in the good humor of the familiar voices of the animated creatures’.  There is the mellow laidback voice of Phil Harris as Baloo the Bear, Sebastian Cabot’s smooth sounding Bagheera the Panther, Louis Prima’s jive talking King Louie the Ape, and best of all George Sanders’ elegant villainy as the voice of Shere Khan, the Tiger.  Voices also include Sterling Halloway as Kaa the Snake, J. Pat O’Malley as Col. Hathi the Elephant, Bruce Reitherman as Mowgli the Man Cub.  Notes:  Story by Larry Clemmons, Ralph Wright, Ken Anderson, Vance Gerry adapted from Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli Stories.  Music:  George Bruns with songs by Robert B. and Richard Sherman.  The song Bare Necessities by Phil Harris and Terry Gilkyson was nominated for an Academy Award as best song.  Box-office gross:  $55,000,000.

THE JUNGLE BOOK.  1994.  111 minutes.  Action Adventure.  Rudyard Kipling.  Disney.  Directed by Stephen Sommers.  Jason Scott Lee, Cary Elwes, Lena Headley, Sam Neill, John Cleese.  Notes:  Screenplay by Sommers, Ronald Yanover, Mark V. Geldman from a story by Yanover and Geldman and based on the stories in Kipling’s Jungle Book.  Photographed by Juan Ruiz-Anchia.  Music by Basil Pouledouris.  Box-office gross: 

JURASSIC PARK.  1994.  127 minutes.  Action Melodrama.  Prehistoric Action Adventure.  American Popular Fiction.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.  Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferero, B. D. Wong, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Joseph Mazzello, and Ariana Richards are the cast in this quintessential 1990’s style blockbuster and franchise film from Steven Spielberg.  Spielberg can do these kind of pell-mell paced genre pieces in his sleep – they are filled with spills, chills, thrills with just that dose of sentimentality that suck most of us in no matter how hard we try to avoid it.  Michael Crichton, the creative writing consortium responsible for the source material for Jurassic Park and other ecological and medical thrillers [Coma, Lost World, Terminal Man] may be publishing’s equivalent to Spielberg.  This is an intense and well constructed eco-horror thriller.   Notes:  Photography by Dean Cundey.  Screenplay by Michael Crichton and Dave Keopp from the best seller by Chrichton.  Music by John Williams.  Academic Award nominations for best sound-effects editing, visual effects, and best sound. Box-office gross:  $356,764,175.

JUNGLE FEVER.  1991.  171 minutes.  Inter-racial Drama.  Romantic Melodrama.  Directed by Spike Lee.  Flipper Purify is a successful black architect in New York.  His firm hires him a new secretary but against his wishes its an Italian girl, not an African-American.  Hostile to her at first, Flipper finds the lovely girl quite appealing and very soon he and Angie Tucci fall in love.  This love affair is the central argument in Spike Lee’s most recent effort.  It’s really just a New York romantic comedy with enough topical and politically correct hitches to carry any other film for a whole two hours.  Lee aims at more sententious posturing– this time on the allegedly debilitating nature of inter-racial on these two sexually attractive people.  What they have is just carnal lusting, not love.  But in little ways Lee undercuts his own thesis.  Angie leaves a mild mannered owner of a newsstand for a better life and relationship — a man whose sensitivity and sense of honor draws him to a lovely young black woman who frequents his store.  As always, the film is good to look at and the actors are quite appealing.  One thing we can be thankful to Lee for — he has provided the great Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee with honorable roles in late in their careers.  Lee tries to take on many themes in this film.  He had a potentially great story in his inter-racial romance, but shied away from a film about a meaningful and difficult kind of love and opted for his usual wide brush strokes.  The songs by Stevie Wonder give the film a romantic kick.  Wesley Snipes and Annabella Sciorra are a convincing pair of lovers and damned good actors.  With:  Spike Lee, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, Lonette McKee, Anthony Quinn, and John Turturro. Notes:  Screenplay by Lee.  Photographed by Ernest Dickerson.  Original Score by Terence Blanchard.  Songs by Stevie Wonder.

JUNIOR BONNER.  1972.  100 minutes.  Western.  Steve McQueen.  Sam Peckinpah. <V191>.  Directed by Sam Peckinpah.  Steve McQueen is Junior Bonner is an aging cowboy fighting the need to stop the hard, rough life on the rodeo circuit.  On a visit to Phoenix and home he must deal with his parents and an embittered brother.  A fine modern western about the ever changing faces of the West and how it leaves some men behind.  McQueen heads an excellent cast in this, one of the most introspective of his films.  With:  Robert Preston, Ida Lupino, Joe Don Baker, and Ben Johnson.  Notes:  Photographed by Lucien Ballard.

JURASSIC PARK.  1994.  127 minutes.  Action Melodrama.  Prehistoric Action Adventure.  American Popular Fiction.  Directed by Steven Spielberg.  Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferero, B. D. Wong, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Joseph Mazzello, and Ariana Richards.  Notes:  Photography by Dean Cundey.  Screenplay by Michael Crichton and Dave Keopp from the best seller by Chrichton.  Music by John Williams.  Academic Award nominations for best sound-effects editing, visual effects, and best sound. Box-office gross:  $356,764,175.

THE JUROR.  1996.  120 minutes.  Courtroom Melodrama.  Novels into Film.  Directed by Brian Gibson.  A beautiful single mother who doesn’t pay that much attention to events in the news is forced by a Mafia hit man, known as the Teacher, to sway the jury in away from convicting of a Mafia don from conspiracy and murder.  He holds out the threat of killing the woman’s young son to persuade.  An interesting premise is buried in this otherwise routine melodrama. Demi Moore as Annie is an enthusiast for doing her civic duty.  Her enthusiasm, however is what drew the mobsters towards her as a juror.   That same freshness and exuberance could be used to move the jury [which it does] but the unexpected happens  — the Teacher falls for the woman and tries to scam the men who’ve hired him.  Slick, but uneven courtroom melodrama.  Though Moore’s character can engage the viewer, in the end, the story doesn’t appear all that credible.  With:  Alec Baldwin as Teacher, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Oliver, Anne Heche as Juliet, James Gandolfini as Eddie, Lindsay Crouse as Tallo, Tony Lo Bianco as Louis Boffano, Michael Constantine as Judge Weitzel, Matt Craven as Boone, Todd Susman as Bozeman.  Notes:  Written by Ted Tally from the novel by George Dawes Green.  Cinematography by Jamie Anderson.  Music by James Newton Howard.  Box-office gross:  $44,800,000 Domestic and $40,300,000 International.

KALIFORNIA.  1993.  118 minutes.  Melodrama.  American New Wave.  Random Murders.  Directed by Dominic Sena.  Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny, Michelle Forbes play an oddly matched foursome in this drama about a writer and his photographer girlfriend who go on a road trip with a couple of rednecks.  Brian is a writer doing a piece on serial killers which he wants to turn into a book.  He plans a road trip across country in search of sites where the killers lived or committed their crimes.  Carrie, his fiancée photographs the sites.  To save on money for the cross-country trip he advertises for riders.  What he gets is Early Grayce, a raunchy, dangerous hick and Adele, his addled girlfriend.  Weird, fascinating, ridiculous exercise in cinematic voyeurism.  Worth watching for the outrageously insane performance by the gifted Brad Pitt as the psychotic Early Grayce.  Notes:  Screenplay by Tim Metcalf from a story by Metcalf and Stephen Levy.  Photographed by Bojan Bazelli.  Music by Carter Burwell.  Box-office gross:  $2,395,231.

KANSAS CITY.  1996.  115 minutes  Melodrama.  Robert Altman.  Kansas City Crime Drama.  Directed by Robert Altman.   Kansas City, Missouri, 1934.  It’s the day before election day and a couple of  small time thieves rip off Kansas City’s biggest black gangster, a man called Seldom Seen.  When Seldom finds that the heist was pulled by his hired taxi drivers and a white hood named Johnny O’Hara he has his men hunt them down and bring them end to meet their fate.  The taxi driver is brutally and instantly killed.  Seldom, seems to have other plans for the O’Hara. When Johnny’s wife Blondie, appeals to Seldom to spare her man is rejected,  she concocts a plan to kidnap the wife of a prominent Roosevelt adviser.  Her aim is to get the big wheels of Missouri politics to force Seldom to release her man, but the plan fails miserably.  This disjointed and unfocused film by Robert Altman is difficult to define.  Altman fills the screen with images of a great jazz band playing in the gangster’s night club [we learn only from the credits that they are supposed to be Charlie Parker and other jazz greats at work].  The music is a backdrop for an ironic tale of corruption, greed, racism, and God knows what else.  It is an ambitious film, but fails because it seems to have not real point.  Belafonte gives a fine performance as the dangerous, bitter Seldom and his character is obviously the mouthpiece for the decidedly cynical message that the filmmaker wants to make.  With:  Jennifer Jason Leigh as Blondie O’Hara, Miranda Richardson as Carolyn Stilton, Harry Belafonte as Seldom Seen, Michael Murphy as Henry Stilton, Dermot Mulroney as Johnny O’Hara, Steve Buscemi as Johnny Flynn, Brooke Smith s Babe Flynn, Jane Adams as Nettie Bolt, Jeff Fereinga s Addie Parker, A.C. Smith as Sheepshan Red, Martin Martin as “Blue” Green, Albert J. Burens as Charlie Parker, Ajia Mignon Johnson as pearl Cummings,  Tawanna Benbow as Rose, Cal Printer as Governor park, and Jerry Fornelli as Tom Pendergast.   Notes:  Kansas City is Altman’s hometown.  It is also where he began his career as a filmmaker.  It’s apparent that the city has a special place in his life, but this film has nothing to do with his personal past. Screenplay by Altman and Frank Barhydt.  Photographed by Oliver Stapleton. 

KANSAS PACIFIC.  1953.  73 minutes.  Western.  Railroads.  Kansas Territory.  Civil War.  Directed by Ray Nazarro.  The building of the Kansas Pacific railroads during the early days of the Civil War is impeded by guerilla assaults on the rail lines.  An army engineer is assigned by Winfield Scott to help with getting the stymied Kansas Pacific built.  Competently crafted drama about the building of the transcontinental roads that is well photographed and edited.  The cast is fine, especially the ever solid Sterling Hayden and Clayton Moore as a gunman for the forces working against the roads.  [Moore, for the uninitiated or the very young would gain greater fame on ’50s TV as the original Lone Ranger].  With:  Sterling Hayden, Eve Miller, Barton MacLane, Harry Shannon, Tom Padden, Reed Hadley, Douglas Fowley, Bob Keys, Irving Bacon, Myron Healey, James Griffith, Clayton Moore, and Jonathan Hale.  Notes:  Screenplay by Dan Ullman.  Photographed by Harry Neumann.  Music by Albert Sendery, Musical direction by Marlin Stiles.

KANSAS TERRITORY.  1952.  65 minutes.  Western.  Wild Bill Elliott.  Directed by Lewis Collins.  With:  Wild Bill Elliot stars in this fast paced western about a rancher who returns to Kansas seeking revenge for his brothers killers.  Making the return trip home is doubly dangerous for the cowboy — he still has false charges hanging over his head from the border war days.  The sets for the town of Redding have the look of a frontier town just being built.  The black and white photography seems to place the film in a particular period.  The dialog is straightforward, the action simple.  Not a bad little western.  With:  House Peters, Jr., Peggy Stewart, Lane Bradford, Stan Jolley, Fuzzy Knight, Stan Andrew, Lyle Talbot, Marshall Reed, John Hart.  Notes:  Photography by Ernest Miller.  Music by Raoul Krahushaar.  Story and screenplay by Dan Ullmann.

THE KEEPER.  1997.  90 minutes.  Social Drama.  African-American Directors.  African-American Families.  Prison Melodrama.  Directed by Joe Brewster.  Giancarlo Esposito is Paul Lamont a Toronto police officer working towards a law degree who befriends a young Haitian immigrant arrested for a minor crime.  Though inclined to harsh treatment of prisoners like his colleagues, Paul is drawn to the confusion the arrest has on the young Haitian, Jean Baptiste.  Paul’s interest in helping the man stems from personal demons about his rejection of his own Haitian background especially as represented by his deceased father.  When he brings the charming young man home, his wife Angela initially resents his decision—she’s simply afraid of being left alone with this stranger.  But as Angela becomes more familiar and comfortable with Jean Baptiste she becomes drawn to his charm and the grace with which he embraces both who he is and his culture.  Slowly, irreversibly, Paul becomes obsessed with the notion of some sort of emotional and sexual betrayal by Angela and Jean, an obsession that ends tragically.  Moody, introspective film about  complex and difficult subjects – a man’s psychological and emotional confusion over his identity and his relationships with those around him – family, workers, friends, strangers.  Giancarlo Esposito gives an intensely felt but subtle performance as the confused Paul and  Regina Taylor [as Angela Lamont] and Isaach de Bankole as Jean Baptiste do very fine work as well.  With: Ron Brice as Baker, Arthur French as Jimmy Johnson, Sheik Mahmud-Bey as Majhid, Samuel E. Wright as Officer Santana, Alvaleta Guess as Officer Jones, and Victor Colicchio as Officer Corvino.  Notes:  Written by Joe Brewster.  Music by John Petersen.  Cinematography by Igor Sunara.

THE KENNEL MURDER CASE.  1933.  73 minutes.  Detective Drama.  Philo Vance.  S. S. Van Dine.  <V126>.  Directed by Michael Curtiz.  Smooth, cool William Powell was the first embodiment of S.S. Van Dine’s smooth private investigator.  This Vance adventure takes place among New York’s cafe society.  It has a murder, wily oriental, kidnapped and murdered scotties.  Enjoyable, but the convention common in the genre, of having the detective resolve the case in a last act talk fest (like that done on tv’s Murder She Wrote) can go on for too long.  The cast is Warner Brother ensemble — Mary Astor, Helen Vinson, Jack La Rue, Ralph Morgan, Paul Cavanaugh, Etienne Girardot, Robert Barrat, Eugene Pallette and Frank Conroy.

KENNETH ANGER MAGICK LANTERN CYCLE.  1947-1963.  (see below for lengths of each short film).  <V1535>.  Directed by Kenneth Anger.

Volume 1.

1. Eaux D’Artifice.  1953.  12 minutes.  With:  Carmillo Salvatorelli.  Notes:  Cinematography by Kenneth Anger.  Music by Antonio Vivaldi.  Edited and produced by Anger.

1. Fireworks.  1947.  14 minutes.  “A dissatisfied dreamer awakes, goes out in the night seeking a light, and is drawn through the needle’s eye.  he returns to a bed less empty than before.”  Tinted and black and white.

1. Rabbit’s Moon.  1950.  7 minutes. “A fable of the Unattainable (the Moon) combining elements of Commedia dell’Arte with Japanese myth.  A lunar dream utilizing the classic pantomime figure of Pierrot in an encounter with a prankish, enchanted Magick Lantern.”  Tinted and black and white.
2.  
3. Volume 2.
4.  
5. The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome.  1954.  38 minutes. ” A convocation of magicians assume the identity of gods and goddesses in a Dionysian revel.  Lord Shiva, the magician, awakes.  The Scarlet Woman, whore of heaven, smokes a big fat joint: Astarte of the moon brings the wings of snow/ Pan bestows the grape of Bacchus; Hecate offers the sacred mushroom, sage, wormwood brew.  The vintage of Hecate is poured. Pan’s cup is poisoned by Lord Shiva.  The orgy ensues–a Magick masquerade at which Pan is the prize.  Lady Kali blesses the rites of the children of light as Lord Shiva invokes the godhead with the formula “Force and Fire.”  Dedicated to the few; and to Aleister Crowley; and the crowned and conquering child.”  color.
6.  
7. Volume 3
8.  
9. Kustom Kart Kommandos.  1965.  3 minutes. “A young man strokes his customized car with a powder puss.  “Pygmalion and his machine mistress.”  color.

1. Puce Moment.  1949.  6 minutes.  “A lavishly colored evocation of the Hollywood now gone, as shown through an afternoon in the milieu of the 1920’s film star.”  1949. 6minutes.  color.

1. Scorpio Rising.  1963.  28 minutes.  “A death mirror held up to American culture: — Brando, bikes and black leather; Christ, chains and cocaine.  “A high view of the myth of the American motorcyclist.  The machine as totem from toy to terror, Thanatos in chrome and black leather and bursting jeans.” color.
2.  
3. Volume 4
4.  
5. Invocation of My Demon Brother.  196-.  11 minutes.   “A conjuration of pagan forces comes off the screen in a surge of spiritual and mystical power, ” the shadowing forth of Lord Lucifer, as the Powers gather at a midnight mass.” Notes:   Music by Mick Jagger (Moog Synthesizer),  Filmed in San Francisco.  Cast:  Speed Hacker, Lenore Kandel, William Beutel, Kenneth Anger, Van Leuven Harvey , Baily Timothy Andon, Szandor Lavey, and Bobby Beausoleil.
6.  
7. THE KENTUCKIAN.  1954.  104 minutes.  Pioneer Drama.  Directed by Burt Lancaster.  A widowed Kentuckian heads for Texas with his son and a dream of a new land, pursued by vengeful mountain men who have feuded with his family.  In route he gives up his money to free an indentured servant with he slowly falls in love.  Though almost persuaded to settle down with his uncle in business he finally comes around to adventure westward.  Burt Lancaster starred in and directed this pioneer soap opera.  Average entertainment.  With: Dianne Foster, Diana Lynn, John McIntire, Una Merkel, John Carradine, John Litel, Rhys Williams, Edward Norris, Walter Matthau, and Donald MacDonald.  Notes:  Screenplay by A. B. Guthrie based on the novel The Gabriel Horn by Felix Holt.  Produced by Harold Hecht.  Photographed by Ernest Laszlo.
8.  
9. KEY LARGO.  1948.  105 minutes.   Crime Drama.  American Theater.  Maxwell Anderson.  Humphrey Bogart.  Lauren Bacall.  Edward G. Robinson.  Claire Trevor.  Lionel Barrymore.  Directed by John Huston.  In Key Largo, Frank McCloud, an ex-army flier, drops in on the hotel owned by the father of a buddy killed in combat.  He visits the hotel in the Keys as a last favor to a lost friend.  McCloud, like many American men of his generation, has returned from World War II, just a little disillusioned by things he learned about the nature of men.  McCloud’s visit to his friend’s family is just to pay homage.  Everything goes well enough on the visit until the hotel is over-run by the vicious mobster Johnny Rocco and his henchmen.  McCloud, who wants to stay away from this kind of meaningless violence and conflict, is forced by the behavior of Rocco to abandon his laissez-faire attitude.  Evil, he realizes, must be combated at every turn, and fighting back is essential.  The play this film was based on was written by Maxwell Anderson and was, by most accounts, supposed to be a searing indictment of corruption, abuse of trust, and other weightier things.  In Huston’s able hands it is a riveting action drama about a gangster who meets his match in an quite unexpectedly.  The film is enjoyable because an amazingly entertaining cast that includes: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Thomas Gomez, Lionel Barrymore, Marc Lawrence, Dan Seymour, Monte Blue, Jay Silverheels, Harry Lewis, John Rodney and Rodric Redwing.  In the film of Robert Sherwood’s famous play The Petrified Forest, Bogart played Duke Mantee, a character not unlike Johnny Rocco, and the brute played in this film by Edward G. Robinson in this film.  Notes:  Cinematography by Karl Freund.  Music by Max Steiner.  Academy Award for best supporting actress (Trevor).
10.  
11. THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM.  1944.  137 minutes.  Religious Drama.  Novel Into Film.  Directed by John M. Stahl.  An aging priest is being asked to retire by his superior.  Many have perceived him as a mediocre cleric, but when the monsignor reads the man’s diary of his epic, heroic struggles in China he discovers that a great man has worked long and hard in obscurity.  Spiritual uplift that may please some and be laughable to others.  This was Gregory Peck’s second film, and his almost unearthly humbleness and beauty did much to make him a great film star.  With:  Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Rose Stradner, Roddy McDowall, Edmund Gwenn, James Gleason, Anne Revere, Abner Biberman, Richard Loo, and Ruth Ford.  Notes:  Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Nunnally Johnson.  Produced by Mankiewicz.  Based on the novel by A. J. Cronin.  Music by Alfred Newman.
12.  
13. KHARTOUM.  1966.  136 minutes.  Historical Epic.  British Empire.  The Sudan.  Laurence Olivier.  Charlton Heston.  Directed by Basil Dearden.  In the vast deserts of the Sudan, late in the 1880s, a charismatic Arab chieftain know as the Mahdi challenges the authority of the colonial powers, most notably England, in the region.  He leads a stunning rebellion against the infidels that climaxes with the legendary capture of Khartoum and the death of General Gordon, the first of the great English soldiers who fell sway to the most alluring aspects of the desert.  Charlton Heston is stalwart as ever as Gordon but Laurence Olivier embodies the Mahdi in a majestic fashion that would be bettered by his fabulous performance in Othello that followed.  Whatever it is as history, one can not find fault with the film as epic.  It’s full of the secure knowledge historical hindsight offers writers and audiences and it is pictorially splendid.  Ralph Richardson gives a witty, sly performance as Gladstone.  With:  Richard Johnson, Alexander Knox, Johnny Sekka, Michael Hordern, Zia Mohyeddin, Marne Maitland, Nigel Green, Hugh Williams, Ralph Michael, Douglas Wilmer, Edward Underdown, Peter Arne and Alan Tilvern.  Notes:  Music composed and conducted by Frank Cordell.  Photographed by Edward Scaife.  Second unit directed by Yakima  Canutt.  Special effects by Richard Parker.  Written by Robert Ardrey.  Ardrey’s script received a best screenplay Oscar nomination.
14.  
15. KICKING & SCREAMING.  1995.  96 minutes.  College Life.  Post-Baccalaureate Blues.  “Slacker Movies.”  Comedy.  Directed by Noah Baumbach.  Three friends graduate from college not knowing what to do next.  Grover [an aspiring writer] refuses to go to Prague with his girl friend Jane, and is endlessly frustrated by his decision.  Max, whose folks are loaded feels useless since he is no longer in college — he has no idea what to do with himself.  Skippy, footloose and fancy free goes back to school for ostensibly for another degree, but he’s really just interested in being with his girl, a year behind him in school.  Kicking & Screaming is in the smart/rude boy tradition of Clerks and Slackers, the prototype of generation X’s “slacker” movie.  The film is about the irresolution the young of the late ’80s and early ’90s have about taking that next step — whether towards a career, a family or whatever.  Like the above mentioned films Kicking and Screaming is peopled with bright young people doing silly and confused things — just biding.  The dialog, as per usual, is clever (often much too clever and literate), rude, and obstreperous all of which are attitudes and postures ably (sometimes too ably) embodied by the funny young cast — with  Josh Hamilton as Grover, Olivia d’Abo as Jane, Carlos Jacott as Otis, Chris Eigeman as Max, Jason Wiles as Skippy, Parker Posey as Miami, Eric Stoltz as Chet, Cara Bono as Kate, Elliott Gould as Grover’s Dad Notes:  Written by Baumbach from a story by Baumbach and Oliver Beekman.  Photography by Steven Bernstein.  Original Score by Paul Marshall.
16.  
17. THE KID FROM SPAIN.  1932.  118 minutes.  Musical Comedy.  Eddie Cantor.  Leo McCarey.  Samuel Goldwyn.  Directed by Leo McCarey.  In the early ‘30s, banjo-eyed comic vaudevillian Eddie Cantor was one of the most popular stars in the movies.  A jauntier, younger version of Al Jolson, Cantor’s comic persona was like a male version of Gracie Allen – charmingly goofy – but with a Marx Brothers style of verbal slapstick.  Cantor, like Jolson, sang in the minstrelsy cum tin pan alley style popular during the period and inevitably did a black face routine in each of his films.  In the Kid From Spain, Eddie is Eddie Williams, student at a snooty Eastern college from which he is expelled after being found in the girl’s dormitory.  His best friend, Ricardo, a handsome young Mexican is sent home too.  They plan to travel together but on the way, Eddie is waylaid by bank robbers and, mistaken for one of the gangsters, is pursued by a detective.  He lams it to Mexico where he pretends to be the son of a famous matador which, of course, lands him in hot water.  The Kid From Spain is one of the funniest of Cantor’s comedies, and one of the more risqué [the extended musical opening sequence is a dazzling display of early ‘30s naughtiness – imagine a Victoria Secrets ad with a couple dozen beautiful babes in the most delicately delightful looking teddies, all in glorious black and white!].  The songs are all upbeat and the comic bullfight scenes are fun.  Robert Young [famous in the ‘70s as Dr. Marcus Welby]  plays the handsome Ricardo and a very funny Ruth Hall plays Anita Gomez, the girl for Eddie.  Also with Lyda Roberti as Rosalie, Stanley Fields as Jose, John Miljan as Pancho, J. Carrol Naish as Pedro, Robert Emmet O’Connor as Detective Crawford.  Betty Grable, Paulette Goddard and Jane Wyman are among the lovely Goldwyn Girls of 1932.  Notes:  Written by Bert Kalmar, William Anthony McGuire and Harry Ruby.  Produced by Samuel Goldwyn.  Original music by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby.  Cinematography by Gregg Toland.  The choreography by none other than Busby Berkeley.
18.  
19. KID GALAHAD.  1937.  Boxing Melodrama.  Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis.  Boxing.  Directed by Michael Curtiz.  A young farm boy, working as a bellhop in a New York hotel befriends a fight promoter and his girl and finds himself headed for a career as a heavyweight boxer.  He falls for the promoter’s sister, and the promoter’s girl falls for him, unwittingly creating friction between the boy and the promoter.  Meanwhile a gangster wants a piece of the fresh young fighter.  This is classic Warner Brothers social melodrama from the ’30s.  Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart head a steady, strong studio cast and Wayne Morris gives a wholesome, charming performance as the naive young palooka [in the manner of Joel McCrea].  With: Jane Bryan, Harry Carey, and William Haade.  Notes:  Music and lyrics by M. K. Jerome and Jack Scholl.  Screenplay by Seton I. Miller based on the Saturday Evening Post story by Francis Wallace.  Photographed by Gaetano Gaudio.  Gowns by Orry-Kelly.  This story would be told in various ways in the 1930s and 1940s — the boxer was usually a farm boy, an ambitious ghetto (often Jewish or Italian or otherwise ethnic) caught in between the upright manager or agent, a girl [good, as Davis here, or bad], and the dark forces of the underworld.  Other boxing films of the period available in Nonprint include
20.  
21. KID GALAHAD.  1962.  95 minutes.  Rock Music.  Boxing.  Elvis Presley.  Directed by Phil Karlson.  An ex GI goes back to the place he was born and runs into a boxing camp run by a down-on-his -luck promoter.  When it’s discovered the kid packs a big punch he gets a new name — Kid Galahad — and becomes the meal ticket for the promoter.  Love, pride and friendship intervene.  Of all Presley’s films on, this one and the first two — JAILHOUSE ROCK and Flaming Star are better than average.  Almost everything that followed KID GALAHAD was Elvis formula — homogenized, humorless and oozily wholesome [elements of which begin even with this film].  The worse thing about the films was that it took the edge off his music as well, though several of his nicer ballads are in this one.  Gig Young, Lola Albright, Joan Blackman, and Charles Bronson all are professional, capable actors, which helps matters quite a bit. With: David Lewis, Robert Emhardt, Liam Redmond, Judson Pratt, Ned Glass, George Mitchell, Roy Roberts, and Michael Dante.  Notes:  Screenplay by William Fay.  Songs include This Is Living, Riding the Rainbow, Home Is Where the Heart Is, I Got Lucky, and, King of the Whole Wide World.  Photographed by Burnett Guffey.  Music score by Jeff Alexander.  Small parts are played by Bert Remsen and Ed Asner.
22.  
23. KID MILLIONS.  1932.  92 minutes.  Musical Comedy.  Eddie Cantor.  Sam Goldwyn.  Directed by Roy Del Ruth.  Eddie Wilson is a little fella orphaned long ago who lives with his abusive stepfather and big, bullying brothers.  When they discover he’s actually the heir to an eccentric millionaire archaeologist they all want a piece of the action.  Sweet natured Eddie finds himself the center of attention from his now friendly ‘brothers’ and a couple of scam artists out to get a hold of the fortune as well.   Pleasant enough entry in the Cantor-Goldwyn series with some good songs.  The final sequence of the film was shot in technicolor, still quite new at the time.  Eddie Cantor as Eddie Wilson, Ethel Merman as Dot, Ann Sothern as Jane Larrabee, George Murphy by Jerry Lane, Berton Churchill as Col. Larrabee, Paul Harvey as Sheik Mulhulla.  Lucille Ball appears as one of the Goldwyn Girls, Matthew ‘Stymie’ Beard [of the Little Rascals series appears as Stymie], and Ward Bond appears in a bit role.  Notes:  Story and screenplay by Nunnally Johnson, Nat Perrin and Arthur Sheekman.  Cinematography by Ray Rennahan.  Musical direction by Alfred Newman with songs by Irving Berling, Walter Donaldson, and Burton Lane.  Choreography by Seymour Felix.  Songs include: Your Head on My Shoulder.  Ice Cream Fantasy, An Earful of Music, When My Ship Comes In, Okay Toots, Ice Cream Fantasy, (Gus Kahn, Walter Donaldson), Your Head on My Shoulder, I Want to Be a Minstrel Man, (Harold Adamson, Burton Lane), Mandy (Irving Berlin).
24.  
25. KIDNAPPED.  1960.  95 minutes.  Pirate Adventure — Robert Lewis Stevenson.  Disney.  Directed by Robert Stevenson.  Peter Finch is Alan Breck, James MacArthur is David Balfour in this surprisingly robust and enjoyable filmization of Stevenson’s actionful story about buried treasure, Scots patriots, and the attempt at deceiving a rightful heir.  Finch’s Breck is a bonhomie hero — a man who joyfully appreciates himself but is gracious enough to see courage and skill in others.  MacArthur has a lovely Scottish brogue as the plucky Balfour, but the most entertaining moments in the film are those with Peter O’Toole in a small but wonderfully memorable role as a roguish Scots highwayman who beats Breck at playing the pipes. With:  Bernard Lee, Niall McGinnis, Finlay Currie, Miles Malleson, Duncan McCrue, Andrew Cruickshank, and Peter O’Toole.  Notes:  Screenplay by director Stevenson.  Photographed by Paul Belson.  Music by Cedric Thorpe Davie, conducted by Muir Mathieson.
26.  
27. kids.  1995.  90 minutes.  Social Drama.  Teens and Sex.  Teens and AIDS.  Street Kids.  Directed by Larry Clark.  Telly is a 15 year urban youth whose goal in life is to deflower every virgin he can seduce.  Telly is like all the boys in this world of incipient sexual pariahs — young men who measure manhood by their presumed sexual prowess.  Sex, drugs, alcohol, mixed with a boundless promiscuity among these young people, make this film a mix of enlightening social melodrama and outright exploitation.  Larry Clark seems to revel in this world in ways not apparent to the other great filmmakers to travel this dangerous road — the victims are the young in this film but they seem willing victims because they are victimized by their peers, not by the usual outsider — predatory adults.  There is something decidedly unpleasant about the film’s hero as portrayed by the Leo Fitzpatrick.  Telly is boorish, obscene, loutish — everything one would expect the character to be.  The plot revolves around the desperate search by one of Telly’s conquests to find him after she’s been informed that she’s been infected by with HIV.  That quest shows how AIDS hovers over these lost, hedonistic youth.  With: Sarah Henderson as Girl, Justin Pierce as Casper, Joseph Chan as Deli Owner, Jonathan S. Kim as Korean Guy, Adriane Brown as Little Girl,  Sajan Bhagat as Paul, Billy Valdes as Stanley, Billy Waldeman as Zack, Javier Nunez as Javier, Luis Nunez as Luis, Christian Bruna as Christian, Alex Glen as Alex, Chloe Sevigny as Jennie, Rosario Dawson as Ruby, Julia Mendoza as Susan, and Gillian Goldstein as Linda.  Notes:  Screenplay by Harmony Korine from a story by Larry Clark and Jim Lewis.  Photography by Eric Edwards.  Music by Lou Barlow and John Davis.  Box-office gross:  $6,800,000.
28.  
29. THE KILLER.  1991.  104 minutes.  In Chinese with English subtitles.  Crime melodrama.  Hired killers.  Directed by John Woo.  A hired killer creates a dilemma for himself when he becomes involved with a beautiful young singer whom he has accidentally blinded during a hit job.  His identity is exposed after he makes another hit by a tough Hong Kong cop, whose mind-set is not unlike a killer’s.  the cops want him for the first hit.  The gang that hired the killer wants him dead too.  Chinese director Woo has made an impression in most film circles with this violent, frenziedly choreographed crime dramas.  It’s a mixture of the Hong Kong film industry’s kung-fu actioners and the American film noir.   Graphic, gratuitous violence permeates the film.  It is not recommended for anyone not enamored of the genre.  For a very recent American example of the genre one need only to look at Resevoir Dogs.  Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee, Sally Yeh, Chu Kong.  Notes:  Photographed by Wong Wing-Hang.  Music by Lowell Lowe.  Written by John Woo.
30.  
31. THE KILLER ELITE.  1975.  124 minutes.  <V3157>.  Action Drama — Intrigue.  Directed by Sam Peckinpah.  A special organization is used by the CIA as contract killers whose main job is to assassinate defectors.  When one of the “company’s” aces discovers that his friend has turned to the other side (and maybe the company as well) he seeks revenge.  This film, shot in San Francisco, is one of Peckinpah’s most intense.  It’s filled with wicked macho humor and well paced violence.  James Caan, Robert Duvall, Arthur Hill, Bo Hopkins, Mako, Burt Young and Gig Young all perform like a well-oiled platoon.  Notes:  Screenplay by Stirling Sillipant and Marc Norman from the novel by Robert Rostand.
32.  
33. THE KILLERS.  1964.  95 minutes.  Crime Melodrama.  Ernest Hemingway.  American Literature.  <V506>.  Directed by Don Siegel.  A violent melodrama about cooks who pull a heist and then cheat one another.  Two hit men find out curious things about a man they just killed.  Not a very good action film, a disappointing fact when you consider Siegel’s skill at the genre.  It’s noteworthy now for the appearance of former President Reagan in his last film role.  He plays a vicious gangster chief with Angie Dickinson as his duplicitous moll.  With:  Lee Marvin as Charlie, John Cassavetes as Johnny North, Angie Dickinson as Sheila Farr, Clu Gulager as Lee, Claude Akins as Earl Sylvester, Norman Fell as Mickey, Seymour Cassel as the desk clerk, John Copage as Porter.  Notes:  Based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway which was done much more effectively by Robert Siodmark in 1946.  Screenplay by Gene L. Coon.  Cinematography by Richard L. Rawlings.  Music by John Williams.
34.  
35. THE KILLING.  1956.  84 minutes.  <V2344> & LD59.  Directed by Stanley Kubrick.  The second film directed by Stanley Kubrick.  A fine, moody film about the heist of a Race track.  Done in the crisp, moody style of late ’40s film noir.  Very well acted, written and directed.  With:  Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Ted DeCorsia, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook, Jr. and Kola Kwarian.  Notes:  Screenplay by Kubrick, based on a novel Clean Break by Lionel White.  Photographed by Lucien Ballard.   
36.  
37. THE KILLING FIELDS.  1984.  142 minutes.  <V785>.  Directed by Roland Joffe.  Film based on New York Times reporter’s Sidney Schanberg’s experiences in Cambodia after it’s fall to the Khmer Rouge.  It is also the story of his photographer’s heroic escape from those “killing fields”.  Dith Pran is portrayed by Dr. Haing S. Ngor who had himself escaped from the same labor camps.  At times a powerful and moving film.  The scenes of Dith Pran in the “killing fields” of Cambodia are a true depiction of the terror the Khmer Rouge committed against the people of Cambodia.  The film’s emotional high point is the last scene — the reunion of the two friends to the strains of sad lament of hope “Imagine.”  With:  Sam Waterston, Craig T. Nelson, John Malkovich and Athol Fugard.  Notes:  Produced by David Puttnam.  Screenplay by Bruce Robinson. Photographed by Chris Menges, and music by Mike Oldfield.  Academy Awards for best supporting actor (Ngor), Cinematography (Chris Menges) and editing (Jim Clark).  Oscar nominated for best picture, actor (Waterston), director, and screen adaptation (Bruce Robinson).  Box-office gross:  $15,900,000.
38.  
39. THE KILLING FLOOR.  1985.  118 minutes.  Chicago Slaughterhouse — 1900.  Labor Movement — History.  Drama.  <V3368>.  Directed by Bill Duke.  In the Chicago stock yards during World War I, black workers and ex-farm hands find jobs in the stock yards once held by white workers, many of whom have marched off to war.  The efforts of the unions to force change on management becomes tangled in the desire of the black men to have jobs at any cost.  This film, produced for PBS broadcast, is well acted docu-drama.  The reenactment of the unionization of the stock yards in the wake of World War I, and the subsequent racial disharmony created when the meat packers tried to pair off white and black workers is well directed by Duke.  Damien Leake, Alfre Woodard, Clarence Felder, Moses Gunn.  Notes:  Screenplay by Leslie Lee adapted by Ron Milner.  Story by Elsa Rassbach.  Music by Elizabeth Swados.  Photography by Bill Birch.
40.  
41. THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE.  1976.  109 minutes.  Crime Melodrama.  John Cassavetes.  American Independent Cinema.  Los Angeles Underworld.  Nightclubs.  Directed by John Cassavetes.  Ben Gazzara is Cosmo Vitelli a club owner who gets in a bind with mobsters after losing money at the gaming tables.  What Cosmo doesn’t know at first is that he’s been set-up for a fall so that they can take his joint.  To get from under the debt, he’s asked to kill a Chinese mob leader.  It’s assumed he can’t possibly do the job, but when he does, things go haywire.  Gazzara gives a gritty performance as Cosmo, a good guy, who just about gets in over his head.  His romantic problems don’t help when things go bad with the mob.  Cosmos is a man of honor among a gang of thieves and lowlifes.   With:  Timothy Carey as Flo, Azizi Johari as Rachel, Meade Roberts as Mr. Sophistication, Seymour Cassel as Mort Weil, Alice Friedland as Sherry, Donna Gordon as Margo, Robert Phillips as Phil, Morgan Woodward as John the Boss, Val Avery as Blair Benoit, and Hugo Soto as the Chinese Bookie.  Notes:  Screenplay by Cassavetes.  Cinematography by Frederick Elmes, Mike Ferris, Al Ruban and Michael Stringer.  Music by Anthony Harris. 
42.  
43. THE KING AND FOUR QUEENS.  1956.  85 minutes.  Western.  Clark Gable.  Directed by Raoul Walsh.  Dan Kehoe, a wily cowboy, who’s just led a posse on a wild chase across wild country, holes up in an abandoned town inhabited by a few itinerant locals including four beautiful women and their mother-in-law.  The hero has his sites set on collecting some of the $100,000 in gold presumed to be hidden on the ranch.  All the action in this unusual western centers around Clark Gable’s efforts to get the gold over the staunch efforts of the cantankerous Ma McDade [Jo Van Fleet] to protect the legacy of her outlaw sons.  Eleanor Parker, Jean Willes, Barbara Nichols, Sara Shane play the bevy of widowed beauties cooped up with the tough, wily Ma.  The film relies quite a bit on the considerable charms of Gable and the canny acting of Van Fleet.  Passable entertainment.  Also with: Roy Roberts, Arthur Shields, and Jay C. Flippen.  Notes:  Screenplay by Margaret Fitts and Richard Alan Simmons based on a story by Fitts.  Music composed and conducted by Alex North.  Photographed by Lucien Ballard.
44.  
45. THE KING AND I.  1956.  133 minutes.  <V3175>.  Romantic Musical.  Broadway Musical. Rodgers and Hammerstein.  Yul Brynner.  Deborah Kerr.  Directed by Walter Lang.  Deborah Kerr plays Anna Leonowens, a widowed British school teacher with a young son, who is appointed the school mistress for the many children of the King of Siam in 1862.  The King, played by Yul Brynner (repeating his Broadway role) is a vain, ambitious potentate, who becomes confused by the intrusion of the West into his country, but wants to bring his country into the 19th century in order for it to survive.  The relationship between the two is very caustic, at first, but they finally become enamored of each other’s stubbornness.  Brynner had perfected the role of the King by the time the show hit the screen.  He would win the best actor Oscar for his performance.  He does, by the way, do his own singing.  Kerr is quite lovely, as always.  The musical is very Broadway in every way, but the songs, which include Getting To Know You, I Whistle a Happy Tune, Shall We Dance, and Hello Young Lovers are among the most charming by Rodgers and Hammerstein.  Notes:  Choreography by Jerome Robbins.  Screenplay by Ernest Lehman based on the Rodgers and Hammerstein play and the book by Margaret Lando (Anna and the King of Siam).  Cinematography by Leon Shamroy.  Awards:  Academy Awards for art direction [Scott, Wheeler, and De Cuir], costume design [Irene Sharaff] and score.  Oscar nominations for best picture, actress [Kerr], director, film, cinematography.  Box-office gross:  $8,500,000.
46.  
47. KING:  FROM MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS.  1969.  105 minutes.  Documentary.  Montgomery to Memphis March.  Civil Rights Movement.  Martin Luther King, Jr.  <V623>.  Directed by Sidney Lumet and Joseph Mankiewicz.  A documentary on the life and work of slain Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King from the early days in Montgomery, Alabama to his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.  A stirring tribute done in the wake of his assassination.  Many of Hollywood’s top stars of the era participated in the film — Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, James Earl Jones and many others.  Notes:  Produced by Ely Landau.  The film is actually entitles King, a filmed record:  Montgomery to Memphis.
48.  
49. KING CREOLE.  1958.  116 minutes.  Drama.  New Orleans melodrama.  Elvis Presley.  Directed by Michael Curtiz.  Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Vic Morrow, Dean Jagger, Dolores Hart, Paul Stewart, Jan Shepart, Brian Hutton, and Lilliane Montevecchi.  Notes:  Produced by Hal Wallis.  Screenplay by Herbert Baker and Michael Vincente Gazzo based on the novel A Stone For Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins.  Photographed by Russell Harlan.  Music scored and adapted by Walter Scharf
50.  
51. A KING IN NEW YORK.  1957.  104 minutes.  <V770>.  Directed by Charlie Chaplin.  Charlie Chaplin’s first film after his partially self-imposed exile from the United States was a bittersweet attack on the nature of American ideals.  He plays a monarch who escapes to the U.S. in order to get support for his idealistic and utopian ideas – ranging from nuclear disarmament to the creation f a new Utopia.  He is disappointed when Americans fail to live up to his vision of them.  Not as damning as its banning from the U.S. for almost sixteen years would suggest.  It is simply Chaplin on a very high horse.  The film is really disappointedly average.  With:  Dawn Addams, Oliver Johnston, and Michael Chaplin.  Notes:  Though the film was produced in 1957,  Chaplin did not permit release in the United States until 1973.
52.  
53. KING KONG.  1933.  100 minutes.  Fantastical Drama.  Horror Drama.  American Movies.  Fay Wray.   Directed by Merriam C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack.  A big time events promoter meets a hungry girl on the streets of New York.  He takes the hard luck girl on with him while he goes off in search of whatever he can find to promote — usually a wild animal of some sort.  They are aboard a cargo ship  that anchors off a cloud enshrouded island that promises to yield some interesting ounty.  When they land they find a fortress with massive defensive walls, and behind them, a terrified tribe of natives who sacrifice young girls to some unknown entity.  The visitors are amazed to see the object of their terror — a huge ape.  This is of course, the most horror film ever made — and the greatest.  It is now almost universally known that the great snarling Kong was only a few inches high.  The film is a marvel of special effects and imagination.  Its pleasures are as immense as we think Kong is.  The giant ape falls desperately in love with the heroine, played by the delightful Fay Wray, and thus the tragedy of the beast who loved the beauty.  The films climax is probably the most mimicked, and familiar scene in the history of world cinema.  A truly joyful escapist experience.  With:  Bruce Cabot, Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson, James Flavin, Victor Wong, and Frank Reicher.  Notes:  The tremendous effects were by Willis O’Brien.  Box-office gross:  $5,000,000.  Notes:  Screenplay by James A. Creelman and Ruth Rose.  Cinematography by Edward Linden, Vernon Walker, and J. O. Taylor.  Edited by Ted Cheeseman.
54.  
55. THE KING OF COMEDY.  1983.  109 minutes.  <V388>.  Directed by Martin Scorcese.  Story: Rupert Pupkin a manic young man with an over vivid imagination has developed a definite attachment and respect for Jerry Langford, the biggest talk show comic on television.  He fantasizes interviews with Langford and tries to get an interview with him for clues.  He manages to worm his way into Langford’s car after an event at Lincoln Center and presumes that he and the man have become fast friends.  When all his attempts to get Langford’s attentions fail, Rupert enlists the help of a pretty barmaid named Rita to impress Langford but that fails.  A rich eccentric named Masha agrees to help him kidnap Langford.  THE KING OF COMEDY has a hard cold edge.  It is a morose, bitter comedy.  Robert DeNiro’s Rupert Pupkin is neither likable or intelligent.  He is driven by his demon to be a celebrity like the Johnny Carson like Langford played by Jerry Lewis.  Lewis gives a fine performance as an egotistical, not very pleasant man.  Sandra Bernhard’s Masha is cunning, mean and dangerous.  In the small role of Rita, Diahanne Abbot is also good.  Not for everyone.  Also with:  Tony Randall, Shelley Hack, Fred de Cordova and Ed Herlihy.  Notes:  Screenplay by Paul D. Zimmerman.
56.  
57. KING OF KINGS.  1927.  112 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Religious Epic.  Biblical Epic. Jesus Christ.  Cecil B. DeMille.  Produced and directed by C. B. DeMille.  This biblical epic on the life of Christ is set up along the lines of tableaux.  Images of Christ on Gethsemane, before Pilate, and at the last supper clearly evoke famous religious paintings on these events.  De Mille’s interpretation of Mary Magdalene is not that of a woman of the streets but of a powerful courtesan, who is in love with an ambitious young Judas.  It is an entertaining film and like the other major epics by De Mille in the silent era, is a prototype for the genre.  H.B. Warner is the first of a long list of blond, Anglo Saxon actors to portray Christ.  With:  Dorothy Cumming, Ernest Torrence, Joseph Schildkraut, Jacqueline Logan, Sam De Grasse and Montagu Love.  Notes:  Synchronization by RCA Photophone of music by Hugo Reisenfeld.  Musical direction by Josiah Zuro.  Story and Screenplay by Jeanie Macpherson.  Photography by Peverell Marley.  Art direction by Mitchell Leisen and Anton Grot.
58.  
59. KING OF KINGS.  1961.  170 minutes.  Biblical Epic.  <V2849>. Directed by Nicholas Ray.  Jeffrey Hunter plays Jesus Christ in this early ’60s biblical epic.  This is a well done dramatization of the Christ story, some of the most traditional movie making ever done by director Ray.  Hunter is another in a long line of blue-eyed Hollywood WASP actors to play Christ.  The cast also includes Robert Ryan [a very fine John the Baptist[,  Siobhan McKenna as Mary, Hurd Hatfield as Pontius Pilate, Ron Randell as Lucius, Harry Guardino as Barabbas, Rip Torn as Judas, Rip Torn as Judas, Frank Thring as Herod Antipas, David Davies as Burly Man, Felix de Pomes as Joseph of Arimathea, Rita Gam as Herodias, Edric Connor as Balthazar, Brigid Bazlen as Salome, Gregoire Aslan as King Herod.  Notes:  Screenplay by Philip  Yordan.  Narrated by Cinematography by Manuel Berenguer, Milton Krasner, Franz Planer.  Music by Miklos Rozsa.  Box-office gross:  $6,250,000.
60.  
61. THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS.  1972.  104 minutes.   Drama.  Jack Nicholson.  Directed by Bob Rafelson.  Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn star in this convoluted, “artists” exercise in philosophical posturing.  It’s a difficult film to decipher.  The story is that of two brothers, one a radio talk show host, the other a Atlantic City hustler who try to connect in some human fashion but can’t.  Basically one more example that very talented people can produce bad art. With:  Julia Anne Robinson, Benjamin “Scatman” Crothers, Charles LaVine, Sully Boyar, Josh Mostel, John Ryan, William Pabst.  Notes:  Photographed by Laszlo Kovacs.  Screenplay by Jacob Brackman from a story by Brackman and Rafelson.
62.  
63. THE KING OF NEW YORK.  1990.  106 minutes.  <V2885>.  Crime – Drug Melodrama.  Directed by Abel Ferrara.  Christopher Walken plays Frank White a drug lord just released from prison.  As he is being released his gang of black and Hispanic henchmen begin wiping out Colombian drug dealers.  They wreak havoc on the group, annihilating them.  When White takes up residence in the Plaza Hotel, they come to pay court.  Quickly White takes over one gang after another — the Italians, the Chinese moves which bring him into direct confrontation with a special police drug force.  The younger cops on the force are after White — their desire to get him lead to an ultimate battle between them and the gangster.  This film is a true oddity — Walken plays what looks like the white overlord of a group of attractive and dangerous young people — killers, thugs, drug dealers and beautiful young attorneys on retainer.  The film is spectacularly violent and has tense, volatile pace.  It is totally gratuitous filmmaking, pointless in its style and violence, yet fascinating because of the cast led by the great vampire actor Walken.  This gifted man has a knack for playing withdrawn, dangerous men.  In this exercise in style this dangerous man is just one of many — an excellent cast of magnetic, interesting young actors feed off of Walken’s soulful catatonia.  He’s a static source surrounded by live wires.  With:  Larry Fishburne, David Caruso, Victor Argo, Wesley Snipes, Janet Julian, Joey Chin, Giancarlo Esposito, and Paul Calderon.  Notes:  Screenplay by Nicholas St. John.  Photographed by Bojan Bazelli.  Music by Joe Delia.
64.  
65. KING OF THE BINGO GAME.  2000.  30 minutes.  American Short Stories.  African-American Literature.  Ralph Ellison.  Directed by Elise Robertson.   Colman Domingo is Sonny a young black man living in Harlem in 1943.  Jobless, with his wife expecting a baby and becoming more and more desperate daily, he frequents the bingo game at a movie theater on the hopes of hitting a jackpot to help his family.  When Sonny wins a game and comes to the stage to spin the wheel he suddenly becomes aware of something almost mystical – he feels the comfort of being in control–holding that button on the wheel is God like.  For one mad, crazy moment, all of the pain of being black and poor and without hope disappears.  Imaginative interpretation of an Ellison story, about a young man, distraught and hopeless, who grasps at the symbolic power that controlling a bingo wheel which has become his wheel of fortune.  With:  Bennie Lewis as George, Earl L. Robertson as Leroy, June Lomena as Laura and Finn Curtin as the Emcee.  Notes:  Photography by Michael Maley.  Edited by Kimberlyn Bica.  Music by Marcus Shelby.
66.  
67. KING OF THE ROARING 20S.  1961.  106 minutes.   Crime Melodrama.  Arnold Rothstein.  <V2883>. Directed by Joseph M. Newman.  This film is telling of the Arnold Rothstein story.  Rothstein, a gambler and con man is probably most infamous as the man who fixed the 1919 World Series — the Black Sox affair.  That event is not even mentioned in this film, so what we get is the story of a young Jewish boy, from a solid upper middle-class background who has a passion for numbers and money.  We see him rise to power and ultimately, fall.  How much truth is in this story is impossible to say.  Not much probably.  The film has a look that is not unlike a made-for-television movie.  It looks as if it were shot in anticipation of commercials.  It’s mediocre but not boring much like the actor playing the lead — David Janssen of The Fugitive TV fame.  With:  Dianne Foster, Jack Carson, Diana Dors, Dan O’Herlihy, Mickey Shaughnessy, Keenan Wynn, William Demarest, Joseph Schildkraut (as Rothstein’s father), and Mickey Rooney (as Rothstein’s childhood partner and friend Johnny Burke).  Notes:  Screenplay by Jo Swerling from a book called The Big Bankroll by Leo Katcher.  Music by Franz Waxman.
68.  
69. KINGS ROW.  1942.  126 minutes.  Melodrama.  Social Drama.  Novel Into Film. <V3358>.  Directed by Sam Wood.  Henry Bellaman’s novel about insanity, medical malpractice and psychology was made into this handsomely acted and produced film.  It’s filled with psycho babble cum-Hollywood but the film has a surprising maturity.  The cast is mostly very fine Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Ronald Reagan, Betty Field, Charles Coburn, Claude Rains, Judith Anderson, Nancy Coleman, Kaaren Verne, Maria Ouspenskya, and Harry Davenport.  Notes:  This is the film where Ronald Reagan’s famous “where’s the rest of me” line was spoken.  It was unquestionably his finest film role and performance.  That line was, by the way, the name of his first autobiography.  Photography by James Wong Howe.  Screenplay by Casey Robinson from the novel by Henry Bellamann.  Music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.  Academy Award nominations for best picture, direction, cinematography.  Box-office gross:  $2,281,000.
70.  
71. KISMET.  1955.  114 minutes.  Musical Romance.  Broadway Musical.  <V1698>. Directed by Vincente Minelli.  Musical about a poet-beggar who poses as a famous magician and then must wriggle out of the many situations the lie creates for him.  There are some nice songs in this film of the Broadway musical and Howard Keel’s strong, solid baritone is always nice to hear.  Bu,  overall this is a dull musical.  With:  Ann Blyth, as Marsinah, Dolores Gray as Lalume, Monty Woolley as Omar, Vic Damone as Caliph, Sebastian as Wazir, Jay C. Flippen as Jawan, Ted de Corsia the police subaltern, and Jack Elam as Hassan-Ben.   Notes:  Music by Robert Wright and George Forrest.  Songs include Baubles, Bangles, and Beads, Stranger in Paradise and This Is My Beloved.  Produced by Arthur Freed.  Musical direction by André Previn.  Cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg.  Screenplay adapted by Luther Davis and Charles Lederer. Based on the oft filmed play Kismet by Edward Knoblock.
72.  
73. THE KISS.  1929.  64 minutes.  Silent Cinema.  Romantic melodrama.  Greta Garbo.  Directed by Jacques Feyder.  This film is simple little love story.  Greta Garbo is the beautiful wife of an older French businessman (Holmes Herbert) who is devoted to, but extremely jealous of his wife.  The lovesick teenaged son (Lew Ayres) of a business associate falls in love with Garbo and attempts to kiss the woman when the husband, already distraught over business difficulties, catches the pair in what he believes is an affair he has assumed his wife has been long engaged.  When the husband attempts to shoot the young man, the gun goes off in the resulting struggle, killing the older man.  The scandalous affair threatens a fair trial for the woman (except among women) as well as the woman’s relations with her real lover, her lawyer ( Conrad Nagel).  This film would be Garbo’s last silent film.  In the same year she would appear in her first all-talking motion picture Anna Christie a much more memorable film than this romantic melodrama.  With: George Davis.  Notes:  Photographed by William Daniels.  Costumes by Adrian.
74.  
75. KISSIN’ COUSINS.  1964.  96 minutes.  Hillbilly Comedy.  Elvis as twins.  Elvis Presley.  Directed by Gene Nelson.  In this Elvis Presley opus, the King plays two parts — he’s a young Army officer who’s sent to the hills of Tennessee to convince distant relatives that they should let the government build a missile sight on their property, and he’s also Jody, his blonde hillbilly cousin.  The young officer gets reacquainted with his hillbilly ways and finds romance.  Silly.  Presley’s films made money but they were just studio fodder to generate cash.  Elvis would leave films not long after this.  With:   Arthur O’Connell, Glenda Farrell, Jack Albertson, Pam Austin, Cynthia Pepper, Yvonne Craig, Donald Woods, Tommy Farrell, and Beverly Powers.  Notes:  Screenplay by Gerald Drayson Adams and Nelson.  Story by Adams.  Songs include It’s a Long Lonely Highway, Smokey Mountain Boy, Barefoot Ballad.  Music supervised and conducted by Fred Karger.  Choreography by Hal Belfer.  Photography by Ellis W. Carter.  Produced by Sam Katzman.  Box-office gross:  $3,000,000.
76.  
77. KISS ME DEADLY.  1955.  106 minutes. Detective melodrama.   Film Noir.  Pulp Fiction.  Novel Into film. Mike Hammer.  <V2938>. Directed by Robert Aldrich.  Mike Hammer, a tough, no-nonsense P.I. is driving down a dark highway at night when he is flagged down by beautiful young girl with not much more than a trench coat on.  The girl is troubled and hysterical at first but is enigmatic when she recovers.  She’s trying to make a bus and wants Hammer to get her to the station.  At the station, they are attacked, and the girl ends up brutally murdered.  Who did it?  Why?  This crisp, fairly frank adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s gritty noir classic is surprising in its speed and pace.  As Hammer, Ralph Meeker gives a helluva a performance — it would have been a pleasure seeing him in more Hammer pictures.  Ernest Lazslo’s black and white photography is as sharp as a knife — it gives clarity and depth to the film.  It gets a little odd at the end, but the pleasure is in the cold blooded nastiness that precedes the film’s denouement.  With:  Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, Wesley Addy, Strother Martin, Jack Elam, Jack Lambert, Cloris Leachman, and Marion Carr.  Notes:  Photographed by Ernest Laszlo.  Music by Frank DeVol.  Screenplay by A. I. Bezzerides.  Produced by Aldrich.  Nat “King” Cole sings Rather Have the Blues.
78.  
79. KISS ME KATE.  1953.  110 minutes.  Musical Comedy.  Shakespeare, Variations.  Cole Porter.  Taming of the Shrew.  Broadway Musical.  <V1701>.  Directed by George Sidney.  Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew becomes this charming musical comedy about two battling stage stars, married to one another, who agree to perform a musical of Shakespeare’s The Taming Of The Shrew even though they are violently estranged.  Howard plays Fred Graham/Petruchio, Kathryn Grayson is Lilli Vanessi/Katherine, Ann Miller is Lois Lane/Bianca.  With:  Keenan Wynn, Bobby Van, Tommy Rall, James Whitmore, Kurt Kasznar, and Bob Fosse.   The keys to this musical are the excellent dance number and the fabulous score.  Notes:  Some of Cole Porter’s best songs — “So in Love”, “Why Can’t You Behave?”, “Always True to You In My Fashion”, and “Too Darn Hot.”  Screenplay by Dorothy Kingsley from the play by Samuel and Bella Spewack.  Choreographed by Hermes Pan and Bob Fosse.  Cinematography by Charles Rosher.  Awards:  Oscar nomination for best score adaptation [Saul Chaplin and Andre Previn].
80.  
81. KISS OF DEATH.  1947.  98 minutes. Crime melodrama.  Film Noir.  <V2814>. Directed by Henry Hathaway.  Victor Mature is a small time hood who takes the rap for a burglary without naming names expecting his wife and daughters to be taken care of.  While in stir, he finds that the promise made has been broken.  When he gets out he learns that his wife has committed suicide and his daughters placed in a Catholic orphanage.  The young girl who had been his neighbor, loves him, and together they start fresh, but the police won’t let him rest — they want him to finger a vicious killer and a burglary ring.  This film is taut, exciting and well acted by all but its the murderous maniac played by Richard Widmark that dominates the film.  Widmark made his film debut here, and his role would set the persona he would have in Hollywood films all his life — a touch of this killer’s madness was evident even in his good-guy roles.  With:  Brian Donlevy, Mildred Dunnock, Colleen Moore, Karl Malden, Anthony Ross, Millard Mitchell, Robert Keith, Harry Bellaver, and Patricia Morrison.  Notes:  Photography by Norbert Brodine.  Screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer from a story by Eleazar Lipsky.  Like many of the film noir classics of the late ’40s, this film was shot on location.  Oscar nominations for Widmark (best supporting actor) and original story (Lipsky).
82.  
83. KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN.  1985.  119 minutes.  Romantic Melodrama.  Novel Into Film.  World Literature.  Manuel Puig.  <V998>.  Directed by Hector Babenco.  In a South American prison a political prisoner and a homosexual share the same cell.  The gay prisoner lives in a fantasy world of B movies.  The intellectual prisoner tries to instill in the other man, some sense of the moral corruption of the regime that has arrested them both.  Slowly both men begin to respect the different emotional and intellectual needs each has.  Manual Puig’s novel had the feel of the pulp sensibilities of the film’s fantasist.  He created a world for the character that allowed a frightened man true escape.  Puig was writing more about the palliative effects of film on the repressed, not the righteousness of anti-revolutionary politics.  The film is more a polemic than the book.  With:  William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga, Jose Lewgoy, Nuno Leal Maia, and Denise Dumont.  Notes:  Based on the highly regarded novel by Manuel Puig.  Screenplay by Leonard Schrader.  Hurt won an Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of the gay prisoner.  Oscar nominations for best picture, director, and screen adaptation.  Box-office gross:  $6,376,000.
84.  
85. KISS THE GIRLS.  1997.  117 minutes.  Crime Melodrama.  Novels Into Film.  Serial Killers.  Directed by Gary Fleder.  Morgan Freeman is Alex Cross a noted author and forensic specialist and Ashley Judd is Kate McTiernan a young doctor who unwittingly, finds herself stalked by a maniacal sexual predator.  When he captures her, she is ferreted away in a remote hideaway, deep in the central woods outside of Durham, N.C. Kate manages to escape and, with the help of forensic specialist Alex Cross and the FBI begin tracking down the man.  Tense, emotionally graphic film with good performances by most of the cast.  The success of this film launched Ashley Judd’s career as the late ‘90s mistress of iron-willed heroines.  With:  Cary Elwes as Nick Ruskin, Tony Goldwyn as Will Rudolph, Jay O. Sanders as Kyle Craig, Bill Nunn as Sampson, Brian Cox as Chief Hatfield, Alex MacArthur as Davey Sikes, Richard T. Jones as Seth Samuel, Jeremy Piven as Henry Castillo, William converse-Roberts as Dr. Wick Sachs, Gina Ravera as Naomi Cross.  Notes:  Written by David Klass from the novel by James Patterson.  Cinematography by Aaron Schneider.  Music by Mark Isham.  Box-office gross:  $60,500,000 U.S. & $24,500,000 International.
86.  
87. KIT CARSON.  1940.  101 minutes.  Western.  Kit Carson.  John Fremont.  Westward Expansion of U.S.  Directed by George B. Seitz.  Expert trapper Kit Carson joins forces with Captain John C. Fremont to lead a wagon train through wild Shoeshone country to California.  Once they’ve gotten past their Indian difficulties, they must contend with forces of the Mexican army opposed to American encroachment in the territory.  The film has lots of action and is shot on location in excellent color photography.  Don’t rely on historical accuracy however.  With:  Jon Hall as Carson and Dana Andrew as Fremont.  Also with:  Lynn Bari, Harold Huber, Ward Bond, William Farnum, Clayton Moore, C. Henry Gordon, and Renie Riano.  Notes:  Screenplay by George Bruce from a story by Evelyn Wells.  Music by Edward Ward.  Photography by John Mescall and Robert Pittack.  Recorded at extended play and may not pause/freeze or be searched on some machines.
88.  
89. THE KLANSMAN.  1974.  112 minutes.  <V3104>. Drama.  Directed by Terence Young.  In an Alabama town in the early ’70s the Klan reigns supreme.  They are anticipating a protest led by local people and “radical outsiders.”  The eminent protest riles them and forces into the open the antagonism between Klansmen and other white locals against an aristocratic loner who is friendly towards poor blacks.  That makes the story seem simple, but this is an exploitation film regardless of the presence of Lee Marvin, Richard Burton, and O.J. Simpson in the cast.  Marvin plays a good man, the local sheriff caught between the beliefs he’s grown with and the truths he knows.  His best friend is played by Burton, a renegade aristocrat.  O.J. Simpson plays a local black who is radicalized to the point of becoming a one man army.  All in all there are rapes, murder, killings, castrations, and a veritable slew of other nastiness going on in this film.  You can’t say you’d like any of the characters that much.  Overall it is a contemptible manipulation of a serious theme.  With: Cameron Mitchell, Lola Falana, Luciana Paluzzi, David Huddleston, Linda Evans, and O.J. Simpson.  Notes:  Screenplay by Millard Kaufman and Samuel Fuller based on a novel by William Bradford Huie.  Produced by William Alexander.  Photographed by Lloyd Ahern.  Music by Dale Warren and Stu Gardner.  song “Good Christian People” sung by The Staple Singers.
90.  
91. KLUTE.  1971.  114 minutes.  Crime Melodrama.  High Price Call Girls.  Prostitution.  Prostitutes.    Directed by Alan J. Pakula.  Tight, strong drama about a detective investigating the disappearance of a friend who runs into a world of high priced hookers and a disturbed killer who stalks a high priced call girl who knew the man.  Jane Fonda won her first best actress Oscar as call girl Bree Daniels.  Fonda’s Oscar was one of the most deserved in recent memory.  Her Bree is an intelligent, attractive woman whose independence costs her piece of mind.  Very good melodrama.  With Donald Sutherland as Klute the detective who is fascinated and ultimately, drawn to Bree.  Also with:  Charles Cioffi Cable, Roy Scheider as Frank, Dorothy Tristan as Arlyn Page, Rita Gam as Trina, Nathan George as Lt. Trask.  Jean Stapleton and Rosalind Cash appear in small roles.  Notes:  Screenplay by Andy and Dave Lewis.  Cinematography by Gordon Willis.  Music by Michael Small.  Awards:  Oscar nominated for screen adaptation.  New York Film Critics Circle best actress.  1972 Golden Globe best actress.   Box-office:  $8,000,000.
92.  
93. KNOCK ON ANY DOOR.  1949.  100 minutes.  Film Noir.  Social Melodrama.  Humphrey Bogart.  Directed by Nicholas Ray.   Andrew Morton is a lawyer who has worked his way from the streets of New York to become a successful member of a wealthy law firm.  When a young street thug, for whom he feels some responsibility (after his father had been railroaded into prison), is brought to trial for murder, Morton agrees, against his better judgment initially, to defend the boy.  The trial of Pretty boy Nick Romano becomes a show case trial, one where Morton uses all of his skills first, to exonerate the boy and then to appeal for leniency when Romano admits to the murder.  Knock On Any Door comes decidedly down on the side of the liberal theory that crime and criminality are a consequence of environment.  Bogart’s Morton is a tough liberal lawyer who sees Romano as a victim of circumstances that conspired against him almost from birth.  Over half of the film takes place in the court-room where Morton is given leeway by the court to expound eloquently on the reasons for not sending the youthful Romano to his death.  Bogart’s performance is effective and intense, as are the story.  The screenplay plays at best, like a loud harangue, and at worst, as a diatribe both against capital punishment and against the social injustices that spawn characters like Romano, one created every minute “behind every door.”   John Derek, gives a fine, strong performance as the bitter young rebel Nick Romano and delivers one of the best lines in the movies flawlessly – “Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse.”  With:  George Macready as District Attorney Kerman, Allene Roberts as Emma, Susan Perry as Adele, Mickey Knox as Vito, Barry Kelley as Judge Drake, Dooley Wilson as the piano player, Cara Williams as Nelly, Jimmy Conlin as Kid Fingers, Sumner Williams as Jimmy, Robert Al Davis as Sunshine, Dewey Martin as Butch, Pepe Hern as Juan, and Sid Melton as Squint and Argentina Brunetti as Ma Romano.  Notes:  Screenplay by John Monks Jr. and Daniel Taradash from a novel by Willard Motley.  Cinematography by Burnett Guffey.  Music by George Antheil.
94.  
95. KNUTE ROCKNE—ALL AMERICAN.  1940.  98 minutes.  Biographical Drama.  Knute Rockne.  Notre Dame Football.  Directed by Lloyd Bacon.  Pat O’Brien’s career role may have been his portrayal of the legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne in this pleasantly schmaltzy and quite popular sentimental favorite from Warner Brothers.  The film tales the life of the determined, dedicated man who put the small Indiana Catholic school on the boards as a major collegiate power.  The film is just as famous for the role Ronald Reagan played as the gifted, heroic George Gipp, the school’s first All-American who died at the end of his last year.  The famous dying words ‘Win one for the Gipper’ is the emotional linchpin of the film, one may actually find himself waiting for the scene.  Reagan is and impossibly handsome young George Gipp.  With:  Gale Page as bonnie Skiles Rockne, Donald Crisp as Father Julius Nieuwland, John Litel as Committee Chairman, Henry O’Neill as doctor, Owen Davis Jr. as Gus Dorais, John Qualen as Lars Knutson Rockne, Dorothy Tree as Martha.  Legendary coaches Glenn “Pop” Warner, Amos Alonzo Stagg,  Bill Spaulding and Howard Jones play themselves.  They all arrive on the scene when investigations about the commercialization of the college game threatens its integrity.  Notes:  Written by Robert Buckner based on the private papers of Mrs. Knute Rockne.  Cinematography by Tony Gaudio.  Music by Ray Heindorf.
96.  
97. KOYAANIQUATSI.  1982.  87 minutes.  <V947>.  Produced and directed by Godfrey Reggio.  A word from the Hopi Indian language meaning–1. crazy life. 2. life in turmoil. 3. life disintegrating. 4. life out of balance. 5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.  This film is high-tech trip through film time and film space — the images are often running sequences of time lapsed photography.  Notes:  Cinematography  by Ron Fricke.  Music by Philip Glass.  Edited by Alton Walpole and Fricke.
98.  
99. KRAKATOA, EAST OF JAVA.  1969.  148 minutes.  Disaster Drama.  Volcanoes.  Directed by Bernard L. Kowalski.  Capt. Chris Hanson leads a group of desperate treasure hunters off to recover the lost treasure in the dangerous waters of Java.  What they encounter is the sensational explosion of the volcano on the island of Krakatoa.  Routine action with some very spectacular effects.  With:  Maximilian Schell as Capt. Chris Hanson, Diane Baker as Laura Travis, Brian Keith as Connerly, Barbara Werle as Charley, John Leyton as Douglas Rigby, Rossano Brazzi as Giovanni Borghese, Sal Mineo as Leoncavallo Borghese, J. d. Cannon as Danzig, Jacqui Chan as Toshi, Marc Lawrence as Jacobs, and Geoffrey Holder as Bazooki man.  Notes:  Written by Clifford Newton Gould and Bernard Gordon.  Cinematography by Manuel Berenguer.  Music by Frank DeVol.
100.  
101. KRAMER VS KRAMER.  1979.  105 minutes.  Social Drama.  Divorce Drama.  Parenting.  Single Fathers.  Novel Into Film. <V193>.  Directed by Robert Benton.  A successful advertising man is suddenly faced with taking care of his very young son.  His wife has left them both, frustrated by the way she felt life closing in around her.  As he assumes more responsibility for the child’s care — worrying about feeding him, taking him to the hospital, school — his performance at work begins to suffer.  He begins to lose ground with his boss and finally must take a lesser job.  This Academy Award winning film about the breakup of a marriage and the fight by the father for the custody of their son, had half its heart in some ideas about feminism the other half in straight-up family drama.  The film is fine melodrama, excellently acted.  With:  Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry, JoBeth Williams , Howard Duff and Jane Alexander.  Notes:  Based on the novel by Avery Corman.  Academy Awards for best picture, director, actor, supporting actress (Streep), and screen adaptation (Benton).  The film received nominations for best supporting actress (Jane Alexander), cinematography (Nestor Almendros), best supporting actor (Justin Henry), and editing.  Box-office gross:  $59,986,335.
102.  
103. KUNDUN.  1997.  128 minutes.  Biographical Drama.  Dalai Lama.  Religious Leaders.  Directed by Martin Scorcese.  Almost simultaneously released with the Brad Pitt epic Seven Years In Tibet, this beautifully staged and produced film, must have been a work of love for Scorcese.  The film’s entire perspective, unlike the Pitt vehicle, is from that of the charming and intelligent young Dalai Lama.  Both films had the good fortune to have capable young actors portraying the legendary young leader of the Tibetan peoples in the most difficult part of the country’s and culture’s history, and both are astonishingly beautiful visually.  Kundun is more than a picturesque post card of an exotic place, culture and people – it is a richly told tale of heroism and faith.  It is not a great film, but it is a good one.  Seven Years is a romance of  a remote adventure told from the western perspective but is a better entertainment if not a better film, than reviews might lead one to believe.  Each offer a differing view of the same peoples, places and time, and yet, somehow offer a reasonably believable historical dramatizations of the events.  With:  Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong as the Dalai Lama [adult], Geshi Yeshi Gyatso as Lama of Sera, Sonam Phuntsok as Reting Rimpoche, Lobsang Samten as Master of the Kitchen, Gyatso Lukhang as Lord Chamberlain, Jigme Tsarong as Takra Rimpoche, Tenzin Trinley as Ling Rimpoche and Robert Lin as Chairman Mao.  The Dalai Lama is also played by Tenzin Yeshi Paichang [aged 2], Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin [aged 5], and Gyurme Tethong [aged 10}.  Notes:  Screenplay by Melissa Mathison.  Original Music by Philip Glass.  Cinematography by Roger Deakins.  Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker. Academy Award Nominations for : Art Direction [Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo],  Cinematography,  Dramatic Score,  Costume Design [Dante Ferretti].  Box-office gross: $5,650,192
104.  

KURT & COURTNEY.  1997.  95 minutes.  Documentary.  Kurt Cobain.  Punk Rock.  Alternative Music.  Courtney Love.  Directed by Nick  Broomfield.   A bit of muckraking cinema by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield who ran into legal and other difficulties when he tried to delve into the ‘mysteries’ and inconsistencies surrounding the suicide of grunge rock icon Kurt Cobain, the creative force and lead singer and guitarist for the Seattle based band Nirvana.  At the height of his career, Cobain shot himself in the seclusion of his Seattle home.  Broomfield’s efforts, fought at every juncture by Cobain widow, rocker/actress Courtney Love, is an inconclusive piece of filmic detective work.  Ultimately, it’s compelling but not very satisfying.  Among those interviewed:  EL Duce [punk rocker who claims Love paid him to kill Cobain], Tom Grant [P.I. who went bankrupt trying to prove Cobain was murdered], Hank Harrison [Courtney’s Love father, leading proponent of those who think that Cobain was murdered].  Notes:  Original music by David Bergeaud.  Cinematography by Joan Churchill, Joan Churchill and Alex Vendler.  Edited by Mark Atkins.  Co-producers, Tine Van Den Brande and Michele D’Acosta.  Edited by Mark Atkins [UK] and Harley Escudier [UK