STEPHEN SONDHEIM

He was a giant of the entertainment world. Stephen Sondheim joined the heavenly cast at the good old age of 91. Almost on his way out he gifted us with the spectacular remake of West Side Story (2021). He had written the lyrics for the first version in 1961 and he directed the remake. The great Leonard Bernstein songs are still there, sung by a new group of remarkably talented and hitherto unknown actors. New faces include Ansel Egbert as Tony, Rachel Zegler as Maria, and Ariana Dubose as Anita. The incredible Rita Moreno, who just turned 90, is back for a curtain call as Valentina. She was the feisty Anita in the original version. This film is a great throwback to the storied musicals of the past, and at two hours and thiry-six minutes never lags. The choreography, directed by Jerome Robbins in the first one, and by Justin Peck in the newer one, is even more eye-popping and enjoyable. There’s a new screenplay by Tony Kushner and it delivers the goods. 

Though he won eight Tonys for his Broadway plays, Sondheim’s only Oscar was for Best Original Song in Dick Tracy (1991). I predict another statue is coming. 

Most of Sondheim’s Broadway musical plays were made into good movies. There are two versions of Gypsy. The 1962 version stars Natalie Wood as Gypsy and Rosalind Russell as pushy stage mother Rose. This one is far superior to the 1993 made-for-TV version with Bette Middler as Rose.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1966) does not have great music but does have snappy dialog. It’s a send up of ancient Roman foibles and features Zero Mostel at his over the top best. Sly digs at slavery and the crochets of the nobility are part of the fun. 

.The “based on a true story” plot line of Sweeney Todd seems a most unlikely place for a musical to land. And yet, it won a Tony on the stage and has sired several films. The best is the 1963 with Johnny Depp as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Helena Bonham Carter as his willing assistant Mrs. Lovett. Sweeney returns from a prison sentence for a crime he didn’t commit and wreaks a horrible revenge on the presiding judge and everyone else.  Don’t ask what goes into those sausages! 

Into The Woods (2014) is whimsically based on fairy tales and this best of several versions stars the iconic Anna Kendrick, Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt,  Chris Pine and the iconic Meryl Streep.  A wicked witch (Streep)  put a spell on a young couple, making them childless. They are tasked with procuring four items in order to lift the curse, all of which are the subject of fairy tales. Sondheim wrote the original songs with James Lapine. 

Company (2011) and Sunday In The Park With George (1990) are filmed stage plays and  are very good..

A Little Night Music (1977) with Elizabeth Taylor neither singing nor acting, is not recommended.

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All except Sweeney Todd are OK for mature 12-year-olds. 

                                                            DEAN STOCKWELL 

        Dean Stockwell, who died recently at 85, had one of the most interesting film careers I have encountered. I’ll begin with his big hits.

Stockwell earned his lone Oscar nomination as Tony “The Tiger” Russo in Married to the Mob (1988). He lost to Kevin Kline for A Fish Called Wanda. Stockwell is comically menacing as the crime boss putting the moves on Angela de Marco (Michelle Pfeiffer). Angela is married to gangster Frank de Marco (Alec Baldwin). She is working undercover against the mob, and wants out. Her efforts are sometimes funny, sometimes sort of scary. 

Dean Stockwell portrays Walt Henderson in the underrated Paris, Texas (1984). He is the brother to Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) who wanders into town from the desert, not speaking, and with only a paper with a phone number- his brother’s. Walt then comes from LA to rescue Travis who he has not been in contact with for over four years. They begin a journey to discover what happened in the missing years. Many critics feel this movie, and particularly Stanton, should have been nominated for Oscar. Well, they were not, but it is in the Criterion Collection.

To Live And Die In LA (1985) is a terrific movie about crooked police and random acts of thuggery. It has one of the best chase scenes ever filmed! Dean Stockwell has a small part as the attorney of one of the bad guys. The story is too complicated to reel out here. 

To properly chronicle Dean Stockwell’s career, we have to go back to: 1945! Yes, he was a charming child star that Hollywood couldn’t get enough of until his voice changed. He has good parts in The Valley of Decision (1945) as Paulie, Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947) as Tommy Green, The Boy With Green Hair (1948) as Peter, The Secret Garden (1949) as Colin Craven, and Kim (1950) as the title character. Every one of these is a very good film and Stockwell is excellent in all of them. 

After these he sort of disappears for a while, but does pop back up as Judd Steiner, one of the two boys accused of murder in Compulsion (1959). This is a very good film about the famous Leopold-Loeb trial. And though all the names are changed, it is quite obviously based on the murder trial. It features the iconic Orson Welles as Jonathan Wilk, thinly disguised as storied attorney Clarence Darrow. 

Then Dean Stockwell vanishes into hippiedom, TV shows and mediocre films during the 60's and 70's until he reappears in the mid 80's. After his one Oscar nomination, he again vanishes into the ether of TV and bad movies.

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. The early ones are fine for all ages. The later ones are for grown-ups. 

                                                                        PIGS

Yep, pigs! I recently saw the movie simply called Pig (2021) and it is very good. Nicholas Cage, in his best performance in years (maybe ever) plays Robin Feld, a storied Portland Oregon chef who has become a recluse. Robin has an unusual pig which is excellent at finding truffles in the surrounding rain forest. Rob sells the truffles, which are exceedingly valuable to area restaurants, to a semi-sleazy Amir. One night thugs break into Robin’s shack and make off with the pig. He sets off on a quest to find his pig and get it back. This very unusual film has lots of twists and turns and is rarely what you expect. Pig got me thinking of other films about porkers.

Another recent film about pigs is Gunda (2020). Shot in black and white with no dialog, it is the story of a mother pig and her babies, a couple of cows and a one-legged chicken. This film was shot in Norway, Spain and the UK but you won’t need subtitles. It is sui generis, unlike anything else and it is strangely moving. 

One film that immediately springs to mind in this category is the wonderful Babe(1995). James Cromwell plays Arthur Hoggett, the mild manner farmer who wins the pig at a fair. Babe is spared from becoming Christmas dinner when he shows the farmer that he can herd sheep as well as the dog. The sheep help Babe by telling him what to do. Babe is horrified to learn that people actually eat pigs, and he runs away. But all is well as the farmer convinces him he is loved and wanted. The sequel Babe: Pig In The City (1998) is not quite as good (what a surprise!). When farmer Hoggett is seriously injured, can’t work and is about to lose his farm, his wife Esme takes over. She discovers a sheep herding contest that will pay off their debt, and takes Babe with her to try to win it. Lots of adventures follow. 

Though not the title character (the heady spider Charlotte), the hero of the film Charlotte’s Web (2006) is the loveable Wilbur the pig. Saved from slaughter by the famer’s daughter, Wilbur becomes friends with the other farm animals, especially Charlotte, who rescues him from death by spelling on her web “some pig” and “terrific” and this works. Charlotte gives birth to dozens of babies and three of them become new friends with Wilbur. This version is far superior to the 1973 animated version. Stars lined up to provide voicing for this film: Julia Roberts, Dakota Fanning, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Redford and  Kathy Bates.

Animal Farm (1999) is based on George Orwell’s allegorical novel with farm animals portending the Russian revolution. The revolt is led by the pig Old Major and succeeds only to fall apart later. Another who’s who of voices include Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Patrick Stewart, etc. This is NOT a kid’s movie! This version is much better than  the earlier 1954 version, which was commissioned by the CIA!

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. Right now Gunda is only available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime.  All but the last one are fine for all ages. 

                                                                 SOFIA COPPOLA 

Sofia Coppola is an astonishingly talented young director. Granted she has great bloodlines- her father Francis (The Godfather Trilogy, Apocalypse Now) won five directorial Oscars. Sofia is only 50. She made her directorial debut at 28. Her first seven movies are uniformly good, unusual, and different from each other.

The Virgin Suicides (1999) is unusual to the point of weirdness, but intriguing and expertly done. James Woods and Kathleen Turner are the beleaguered parents of the five beautiful Lisbon sisters. Their attempts at protecting the girls is way over the top, as is the reaction of the daughters. Based on a Jeremy Eugenides novel, it leaves the friends of the girls, their parents (and us) wondering what went wrong.

Her first effort’s success (and the Coppola name) enabled her to sign up A-list actors Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson for Lost In Translation (2003). Ms. Coppola won an Oscar for the screenplay about an aging actor (Mr. Murray) trying to get it back together in Tokyo. He is in Japan to film a TV commercial for which he will be paid a bundle. He encounters Ms. Johansson in the hotel and an interesting, platonic friendship develops as they discuss Japan, America and the differences in people of their respective generations. 

Marie Antoinette (2006) stars Kirsten Dunst in Ms. Coppola’s affectionate and sympathetic,  if biographically questionable, story of the girl-queen of France. Married to the very strange Louis XVI when she was only 14, she is ripped from her friends and family in her native Austria. Her extravagance and thumbing her nose at French mores do not endear her to the locals in court or in the countryside. The revolution is upon the royals as the movie ends. 

In Somewhere (2010) Stephen Dorff plays Johnny Marco, a movie actor who seems to have everything yet is beset by depression and lethargy. His libertine lifestyle is gradually changed by the presence of his 11-year-old daughter, Cleo, played by an amazingly good Elle Fanning. 

The Bling Ring (2013)  is the story of a gang of Hollywood teenagers whose lives revolve around robbing the homes of absent celebrities. Ms. Coppola’s portrayal of these vapid young women is both eye-popping and sad. The actors are all unknowns except Emma Watson from the Harry Potter films. 

The Beguiled (2017) is another Coppola outlier. Colin Farrel plays a wounded Union soldier who is taken in by the residents of an all-girls school in Virginia. As each of the girls (including Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning and Kirstin Dunst) react to the handsome stranger, things get very sticky. The ending will astonish. The 1971 version of this same story, with Clint Eastwood as the soldier, is also quite good. 

Ms. Coppola’s most recent release stars Bill Murray, one of her favorite actors, as the urbane father of straight arrow Rashida Jones. She worries that her husband is cheating. Her dad is convinced that he is and wants to help her catch him. On The Rocks (2020) is fun and ultimately surprising. 

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups. 

                                                              UNLIKELY SUSPENSE

It’s interesting that three of the movies nominated for Best Picture Oscar from 2012, including the winner, fit into a very tiny corner of film categories. These are movies where you know the outcome and yet they are suspenseful throughout.

In Argo, we know the American embassy employees escape. In Zero Dark Thirty, we know that Osama Bin Laden is found and killed. In Lincoln, we know that the 13th amendment ending slavery was enacted. Nevertheless, in each of these films we’re on the edge of our seats!

There are a few other movies that fit this corner admirably. Ron Howard’s superb Apollo 13 (1995) has Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton and Gary Sinise in the true story of an aborted moon mission. There is an explosion in the spaceship taking out most of the oxygen and all of the automatic steering. The mission changes to getting the astronauts back safely. Yeah, they were. But wow! What suspense!

We know that Charles DeGaulle was not assassinated in 1963, though it was attempted. . But that takes nothing away from the suspense in The Day Of The Jackal (1973). Edward Fox is the Jackal, a skilled killer hired to gun down the French leader. His planning and execution are faultless, but luck robs him of success. 

We know that Richard Nixon is exposed and forced to resign the presidency in disgrace. But All The President’s Men (1976) is a genuine nail-biter. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford are Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Their boss is editor Ben Bradlee, ably played by Jason Robards. They discover the Watergate break-in, orchestrated by Nixon’s inept henchman, and deliver one of the biggest stories of the century. This film won the Best Picture Oscar and a fistful of others. 

We know that the USA men’s hockey team not only defeated the seemingly unstoppable Soviet Union team, but went on to win the gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics. But getting there is all the fun, and this movie provides it. Kurt Russell is coach Herb Brooks; the players are unknowns. Miracle (2004) is a heart-stopper and a splendid film about the best in America. 

Finally, we know to our dismay that she is discovered and killed, along with millions of her Jewish brethren. But The Diary Of Anne Frank (1959) is incredibly suspensful. Millie Perkins is memorable as the unlikely heroine. Anne’s story is entirely inspiring and very sad. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. And all of them are fine for all ages but keep in mind little peoples’ attention spans.

                                                                     PREACHERS

Preachers are major players here in the South, key figures in the religious and political life of our communities. How have they fared on the silver screen? Pretty well.

The Apostle (1997) was a labor of love for Robert Duvall, its director and star. A genuine study of a man of God with personal problems, it rings as true as a church bell. It takes its subject very seriously, with no winks or condescension. Duvall is super. Billy  Bob Thornton as a renegade red neck brought literally to his knees by a confrontation with his roots and his Lord is not to be missed. 

The Little Minister (1934) is old but remains a great story and a fine film. John Beal is the title character, in love against his will with the beauteous, wilful Katherine Hepburn. This film still has much to teach about how we perceive our ministers. One character observes that he would have preferred that the minister chase his windblown hat “more reverently.” 

Peter Marshall was as famous in his day as Billy Graham is today. Mr. Marshall was a fine minister and for some years the chaplain of the U.S. Senate. His life and times are celebrated in A Man Called Peter (1955). Richard Todd is convincing and winning as Marshall and Jean Peters is excellent as his wife and biographer, Katherine. Not many people seem familiar with this film anymore, which was very popular when released. 

Bing Crosby seemed almost born to play Father O’Malley in the wonderful Going My Way (1944). Bing, relaxed as always, must convince the irascible Barry Fitzgerald (his boss) to loosen up. This film deservedly won a carload of Oscars (best movie, director, song, actor, supporting actor) and it holds up well. Especially charming is Crosby’s winning over the neighborhood’s roughneck kids. The sequel, The Bells of St. Mary’s (1945),  isn’t nearly as good.

The other side of the coin in its treatment of ministers is Sinclair Lewis’ Elmer Gantry (1960) with Burt Lancaster having a ball as a tent-show charlatan parading as a man of God. This film does a fine job  showing what’s wrong (then and now) with some parts of religion and its practitioners. Somewhat tame after 60 years, it was a sensation when it was released.

And finally, two films about disgraced pastor Jim Bakker’s somewhat clueless wife, Tammy Faye. She was known for her outrageous eye makeup. The Eyes Of Tammy Faye (2000)  is a friendly documentary about her. The 2021 version (same title) features Jessica Chastain as Tammy and is worth a look. 

All of the films in this column are available on DVD  The Apostle and Elmer Gantry are for 12 and up only. The rest are okay for kids, who would probably be bored. 

                                           GOOD LITTLE KNOWN MOVIES

                                                                Part 5

As I write this, there is once again hope on the horizon that things will get better. Almost everyone is still hunkered down at home. Movie theaters are still a distant memory. Anyway, for that and other reasons, I offer herewith another batch of movies culled from the recent past by Mr. Movie. Again, these didn’t make much of a splash, but I thought they were pretty good. 

Still Walking (2009) is a drama about a family with a troubled past. There is a rather unbending patriarch, a mother who tries to hold everything together, grandchildren who are not as well behaved as they should be, and children tired of the old ways. There is a gaping hole left by a child who died early, and the grief-stricken young man who desperately wants to atone. At first the family seems strangely oblivious to the situation. But things change, slowly, in a Japanese way.  

Premium Rush (2012) stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bicycle delivery guy in New York City. It is worth watching for the bike riding alone. Watching him zoom through impossible traffic is, well, a rush. He is given an envelope to deliver that contains a ticket from China to the USA for relatives of his friend. The plot thickens when a dishonest cop tries to steal the envelope. Just go with it. 

Okay, I know that Paddington (2014) is ostensibly a kid’s movie. But you know what? A good movie is a good movie! The stuffed bear from “Darkest Peru,” who speaks and understands English, is adopted by a normal British family. He of course knows nothing about modern society. Highjinks ensue. This charming film features Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville (His Lordship on Downton Abbey!), Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and an absolutely adorable bear. The 2017 sequel is just as good!

If Helen Mirren has ever given a bad performance I have yet to see it. She pretty well carries Woman In Gold (2015), the true story of Austrian emigre Maria Altman. Ms. Altman is an elderly American who fled the Nazis. The Germans looted art works by the hundreds, including a portrait of Ms. Altman’s aunt which had hung in her Vienna home. She discovers that it is now hanging in an Austrian museum and sets out to get it back. She employs Randol Schoenberg, the grandson of her friends and a very green attorney. I disagree with many critics that Ryan Reynolds is over his head as the lawyer. I thought he was just fine.

If you like quirky titles, you just can’t top The One-Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared (2015). And this delightful fantasy delivers all the fun you hoped for. Allan Karlson loathes the retirement home where he lives. When he learns the home is planning a party celebrating his 100th birthday he wants nothing to do with it. So he climbs out a window and escapes. A drug dealer asks him to hold a suitcase for him while he visits the facilities. A little absent-minded, Allan gets on his bus with the suitcase and is pursued by nasty thugs and the police. In the meantime, he has various hilarious adventures involving the drug money, and an elephant. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD . All are for grown-ups.

                                                           COUNTRY SINGERS

Honky-tonk women, faithless men, broken hearts, momma, trucks- country music touches the inner core of many. Country singer biographies is a genre that Hollywood has done extremely well.   

Walk The Line (2005) is one of the best.  Joaquin Phoenix (Johnny Cash) and Reese Witherspoon (June Carter Cash) did their own singing, and are really good at it. Ten minutes in the actors become the singers they’re playing.  That June saved Johnny from sinking into oblivion from drugs and alcohol is well known, and the movie gets it right. The story is a good one and the music is great.

The film that is perhaps the high watermark of this field is Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980). Sissy Spacek (who does her own singing) is simply marvelous as Tammy Wynette, and Tommy Lee Jones does a good job as her husband and manager. Her meteoric rise from coal-mine poverty to queen of the country stars is told accurately and well.

Sweet Dreams (1985), with Jessica Lange as Patsy Cline, is a step slower but still quite good. The dependable Ed Harris is just fine as her ne’er-do-well husband, and little-known Ann Wedgeworth is superb as her mom. That’s Patsy singing and Jessica lip-synching in this one. 

David Carradine can sing up a storm (he starred in the Broadway hit Will Rogers Follies) and does so as legendary Woody Guthrie in Bound For Glory (1976). Woody’s music is very close to the heart and soul of America..He travels the land singing and fighting for the underdog. “This Land Is Your Land” will always be remembered and sung with pride. This movie is gloriously photographed by Haskel Wexler. 

The quintessential country singer is, of course, Elvis. Though I guess you can’t really put him in the country (or any) category box. Anyway, to date, nobody has made the defining biopic but it’s not too late. This Is Elvis (1981) isn’t even close; it is more exploitational than entertaining OR true. There are several others, none of which seems to me to get it right. 

I’m throwing in a film about a country singer who never was because Robert Duvall’s performance in Tender Mercies (1983) is about as good as it gets. It’s not about a real life, but it oughta be!

All of the movies in this column are available on video and DVD. All are fine for 12 and up. 

                                                                 JANE EYRE

        A devoted fan asked for a column about Jane Eyre movies. His favorite book and story are still beloved by thousands more than 170 years after it was published. There are around seven movies and just as many TV series varying in their faithfulness to the book and in their merit. What to do, what to do? Fear not, Mr. Movie is here for you. 

I’ll start at the top of the line with my own personal favorite. The 2011 version with Michael Fassbender as Rochester and Mia Wasikowska as a perfect Jane is just good enough to eat. Jane’s speech to Rochester about how she is plain and ignored but has deep feelings is just absolutely wonderful. Mia is plain. There’s nothing cute or pretty about her and that is just the way Jane is presented in the book. Fassbender is perfectly dark and brooding, yet very sympathetic when misfortune befalls him. We also have the iconic Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax, the kindly housekeeper at Thornfield. 

And speaking of icons, the 1934 version features Orson Welles as Rochester. And of course he pulls off this difficult part with aplomb. I think Joan Fontaine is way too pretty to be a convincing Jane, but the backgrounds in this one are spot on. Lowood, the dreadful school where Jane was a student and later a teacher, feels gloomy and sad. And Rochester’s manor, Thornfield, immediately feels dark and full of awful secrets. (And of course, it is both). 

I also like the 1996 version with Anna Paquin as Jane as a spirited child that awful things happen to. Charlotte Gainsborough is quite fine as the adult Jane and William Hurt is better as Rochester than you thought he would be. In this one, Jane’s awareness that as a poor female orphan she can’t expect much from the world is very much in keeping with the book. Charlotte Bronte’s somewhat tacked-on happy ending is appropriately muted.

I must mention a made for TV series which surfaced in 1983. It had Timothy Dalton (yep, one of the James Bonds) and a pretty much unknown Zelah Clark. This one is 11 episodes long and as faithful to the book as it could possibly be. You can find this series, but you might have to buy it. I can’t find a free one anywhere. 

Some other Jane Eyre versions worth a look include the 1970 with George C. Scott and Susannah York, and a 1997 made for TV version with Ciarin Hinds as Rochester and Samantha Morton as Jane. Morton is a chameleon-like actor anyway, who seems to be able to look as pretty or as plain as the material requires.

Trivia tidbit: Charlotte Bronte had to write under an assumed (male) name to get this thing published. Yep, because of course girls couldn’t write.  So- Currer Bell was the pen name of Ms. Bronte.  

The films in this article are most available as set out in the text. You can find some nice summaries of the story on Wikipedia. There isn’t anything in any of these that would appeal to children. Adults only, please. 

                                                                  JANE POWELL

        If you’re a certain age you may well remember Jane Powell as the chirpy blonde  star of very early MGM musicals. She was a huge hit in the 40's and 50's and she left us recently at the good old age of 92. She was discovered by Hollywood because of her fantastic coloratura soprano voice and girl-next-door good looks. And if you don’t remember, or would like to renew acquaintances, you can see any of her movies through the magic of modern technology. 

Ms. Powell started her career in corny black and white movies with United Artists. Song of the Open Road (1944) is mainly a showcase for her singing, In Delightfully Dangerous (1945) she is a music student who thinks her stripper sister is a Broadway star. Don’t ask.

Things took a really good turn for her career when MGM signed her and started featuring her in ok films. She is the title character in A Date With Judy (1948), charming as a teen mistakenly thinking her Dad is having an affair. In Nancy Goes To Rio (1950) she plays a daughter competing with her own mother (Ann Sothern) both for the same man and for the same part in a play. 

Her big break-out part was on the horizon. MGM was making a musical for Fred Astaire with a questionable  plot about an American brother and sister going to London for Princess Elizabeth’s wedding. To play opposite Astaire they wanted June Allyson (not hired because pregnant) or Judy Garland (ill at the time). They settled on Ms. Powell and had themselves a huge hit. The film contains some of Astaire’s best dance numbers, and some in which Ms. Powell holds her own with the master. Royal Wedding (1951) is still just loads of fun despite its age (70!) 

Three years later Jane Powell knocked it out of the park again opposite Howard Keel in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). She is Milly, the demure answer to Keel and his six boisterous brothers. She tries to teach the roughnecks how to dance politely with a girl in the song Goin’ Courtin’ . The film’s highlight is the incredibly athletic dancing of the brothers. OK, this film is really sexist. Just get over it and enjoy the music and dancing.

Although Ms. Powell made several more films, Seven Brides was her cinema peak. The Girl Most Likely (1957) is a good enough musical remake of the 1941 film Tom, Dick and Harry. She somehow manages to be engaged to three guys at the same time. 

She actually retired from making films at 29. However, she went on to make lots of TV shows. And she had a nice second career on the Broadway stage, appearing in Carousel, Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and many more. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are fine for all ages.

  

                                                         THE HOLOCAUST

A very good documentary on American Movie Channel  made the point that Hollywood really danced around the issue of the Holocaust for many years, a situation made additionally strange by the large number of Jews working in the film industry. Did they feel it was just too big? Too rough? Early films touching on the subject even use the term “non-Aryan”, which seems impossibly prissy. In any event, once it got going, Hollywood has done itself proud on what is arguably the biggest human drama of them all.

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) is the ineffably sweet story of a young Jewish girl hiding out in an apartment owned by sympathetic Dutch gentile friends. Its impact remains strong, but it really only hints at the horrors of the Nazi regime. 

Interestingly, it was a TV mini-series that was the first film to really tackle the subject. Aptly titled The Holocaust (1978), it was strong stuff indeed. Notice that it took more thanr 40 years to face the horror head-on. The film stars Meryl Streep, Fritz Weaver, Ian Holm and Michael Moriarity. It was many people’s first realistic look at The Final Solution. 

Ms. Streep also appears as the title character in the heart-breaking Sophie’s Choice (1982). Kevin Kline and Peter McNichol are fine as her lover and a friend, but it is Ms. Streep’s Oscar-winning performance that carries this wonderful, horrible movie. The choice indicated by the title is a capsule of the Nazi inhumanity. To say more gives too much away. 

        A much more upbeat, uplifting film is Steven Spielberg’s towering Schindler’s List (1993), which won every award in sight. Liam Neeson is the title character, a gentile German businessman who single-handedly saves hundreds of Jews from the Nazi meatgrinder. The casual horror of some of the scenes is beyond appalling.  

Roman Polanski’s The Pianist (2002) is a more personal look at the Holocaust. Adrien Brody, in an Oscar-winning performance, is a world-class Polish concert pianist forced to hide out from the Nazis for the entire duration of World War II. He is saved by luck and the kindness of strangers, most notably a German officer!

Au Revoir, Les Enfants  (Good-Bye to the Children; 1987) is a heart-rending story that Director Louis Malle just had to make because it really happened in his life. His Catholic school in France decided to conceal several Jewish boys, risking the lives of everyone anywhere around.

Denial (2016) is a fascinating film about Holocaust denier David Irving  ( a wonderfully hateful Timothy Spall) suing American author Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz) for libel in England. Under British law, Ms Lipstadt as the defendant has the burden of proof. So her legal team must convince the court that the Holocaust was indeed real, not fictionalized as Irving claims. 

Shoah (1985) at 566 minutes is just way too long for everyone except true Holocaust fanatics.  

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. And all are definitely for adults only. 

                                             GOOD LITTLE KNOWN MOVIES

                                                         Part 4

I guess we always realized there was a person inside that costume. I Am Big Bird (2015)  is the true story of Caroll Spinney, who invented and played the giant creature for more than 40 years. This fascinating documentary shows in detail how the magic was done and managed to captivate the hearts of children of all ages. Big Bird was the kind, slightly off-center friend we all wanted.  Goofy and yellow, yes, but kindness personified. By the way, Mr. Spinney also voiced the hilarious Oscar The Grouch!

   Being Elmo (2012 ) One of the most popular Muppets, a late-comer to Sesame Street, was the red and fuzzy Elmo. (Remember tickle-me Elmo?) Being Elmo is a film about the invention and staging of this puppet. Though made in 2011, this movie wasn’t released until 2012. Kevin Clash, who moved and voiced Elmo,  rose from an humble beginning in Baltimore to become the biggest star in Jim Henson’s huge stable of life-size puppets.

  Two Days, One Night is one of those films with a fairly unpromising story line that turns out to be really good. Marion Cotillard misses a considerable time from her job in a solar panel factory because of illness. While she is gone, the other workers discover they can cover her duties by each working a little longer. The boss offers each of them a substantial bonus if they will continue to do the extra work and render Marion’s job superfluous. She begs the boss to let her stay. He tells her she has through the week-end to convince the others to forego the bonus and let her come back. She must visit each one and convince them to help her. To find out how it comes out, you’ll have to watch it. 

The Wrecking Crew is one of the most fascinating documentaries I have ever seen. It is about a group of musicians who play back-up for some of the most famous acts. Almost no one has ever heard of them- except the singers they play behind. In the music business, they are legendary. They have backed up The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, the Mamas and the Papas, Frank Sinatra, Sonny & Cher, and others. They are absolutely the go-to, call them first, back-up group

    And finally, I just must mention Amour (2012). Having won Oscar as Best Foreign Film, it is hardly a sleeper. But it is a wonder, featuring French icons Jean Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva as an artistic elderly couple and Isabelle Huppert as their pushy daughter. It is not easy to watch and the plot is too complicated to spin out here. But this is a masterpiece.

The first two are fine for all ages. The rest are for grown-ups. For sure, they are all available on DVD. 

                                                     ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

Recent political shenanigans in California defy satire, or even description. Is it possible they would actually  elect a slightly off-kilter radio talker? Of course it’s possible-hey, this is California. And yet  embattled Governor Newsome survived with a healthy margin. But there were many nervous moments before the votes were in. After all, they already elected a B movie actor as governor (actually twice!)  Well, what about the last guy to ride in on the wave of a recall?  Has Arnold Schwarzenegger made any good movies? Well, maybe...

Terminator 3 (2003) is available for home viewing  and is probably the end of a very successful franchise. In the first Terminator (1984) Arnold is an indestructible bad guy sent from the future to find and kill an innocent woman who will one day have a child who will save the world. The special effects are dazzling; Arnold is wooden. Terminator 2 (1991) is even better. Now Arnold is a good guy sent to save the kid who will one day lead a revolution against the machines. His nemesis is a blank-faced Edward Furlong, who can assume absolutely any form at all. Wonderful special effects. And in the third installment Arnold is again sent back to save the kid and this time his enemy is a woman who can assume any shape and is apparently indestructible. Arnold’s stiff delivery and failure to catch on to American slang add to the fun.  

In True Lies (1994) wife Jamie Lee Curtis thinks her husband is a wussy bureaucrat, when actually Arnold is a CIA killing machine. He is much more effective as the latter. This film has some serious story problems in the middle, but the slam-bang ending is worth the wait. There are some wonderful stunts.

In The Sixth Day (2000) bad guy Tony Goldwyn wants helicopter pilot Arnold rubbed out, so clones a copy of him to do the job. Then it’s Arnold vs. Arnold, which is better than it sounds because this one has a funny screenplay that covers over the potholes in the plot.

The Long Goodbye (1973) is Robert Altman’s tongue-in-cheek send up of film noir detective flicks, with Elliott Gould as a seedy Phillip Marlowe. This is one of Arnold’s first films, and he has a bit part as (what else?) a muscleman. Blink and you’ll miss him, though he is rather large.

Arnold and diminutive Danny DeVito are unlikely Twins (1988) who discover each other when they’re 35. This is arguably Arnold’s best effort, as he and Mr. DeVito are hilarious and play very well off each other. At first it might seem like a one-joke movie, but Twins has a sterling script and is genuinely entertaining throughout.

All of the films in this column are available on  DVD. All are ok for 10 and over.

                                                           THE HOME FRONT

Everyone in a country at war is impacted. Life goes on at home, but is drastically changed. Hollywood has done quite well with movies about the home front.

The latest entry in this genre is quite a good one. Thank You For Your Service (2017) takes on the story of three young men damaged in different ways by their service in the Middle East. Miles Teller, Scott Haze and Beulah Koale are back in the U.S. after a frightful tour. The clueless folks back home and the silent suffering of the soldiers is memorable. And the shoddy treatment by the VA is even worse. It is, as they say, based on a true story. 

A fairly recent film with a different slant is The American Sniper (2014) with Bradley Cooper as the title character who just can’t let the war go until a traumatic event after his fourth tour sends him home for good. He seems to be gradually adjusting to home life. This film is also based on a true story. 

The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946) grabbed eight Oscars, including Best Picture. It features the often difficult time when the boys come home and the war is over. Best Years is nearly 50 years old, but retains its power and relevance.

Since You Went Away (1943) is not nearly so famous, but is almost as good. It is concerned more with the home folks while the war is still raging, and their desperate attempts to hang on to routine and to hope. Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Monty Wooley, Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple lead a fine cast.

Sunday Dinner For A Soldier (1944) is much less ambitious. It is the simple story of a family, whose father is away at the war, entertaining a soldier they do not know for a Sunday dinner. Anne Baxter as the hostess and John Hodiak as the soldier are quite winning in this very good “little” film.

The scene shifts to England for the wonderful Mrs. Miniver (1942). Greer Garson (Oscar, Best Actress) is just right as the title character, trying to hold her world together as bombs land at home and her husband is at the front. This film built lots of American support for our British allies. Another fine film about the British home front is the under-rated Hope And Glory (1987).

There were several fine films about the American home front during the Viet Nam war. First and foremost is The Deer Hunter (1978). This memorable movie garnered five Oscars, including Best Film. It follows some Pennsylvania steel workers before, during and after the war, with great effect. Christopher Walken with a pistol at his head, and our boys in tiger cages, are images burned into our memories

Other good films covering the Viet Nam era include In Country (1989) with Bruce Willis as a shell-shocked vet, and Coming Home (1978) with Bruce Dern, Jane Fonda and Jon Voight as people damaged in different ways by the war. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. The WWII films are fine for eight and up; the others are for adults only.

                                                                      POWs

By any measure, they are one of the dreariest (and scariest) places on earth, and yet, prisoner of war camps have been the subject of many good movies. 

Let’s start with the outstanding Stalag 17 (1953). Billy Wilder directed fellow director Otto Preminger (really good as the Nazi commandant), William Holden, and an excellent ensemble cast. The film blends comedy and drama nicely, and makes the boredom of the prisoners’ everyday lives very watchable. Mr. Holden is suspected of collaborating with the Germans. Find out for yourself!

Mr. Holden also appears in Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), which won a half-dozen Oscars including Best Picture.  Alec Guiness, as the ranking Allied Officer, won for Best Actor. He becomes enamored with the task of building a bridge for the Japanese, one that Mr.Holden et al want to blow up. This is one of the most suspensful movies ever made!

Steve McQueen, in a role that made him a star, heads a stellar cast in The Great Escape (1963), including  Richard Attenborough, James Garner, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn. The title says it all. Mr. McQueen’s motorcycle ride is as thrilling as the prisoners’ escape attempt. This film is tremendously exciting!

King Rat (1965) features George Segal, Tom Courtenay, John Mills and James Fox in James Clavell’s story of the effect of being a POW on the inmates. More cerebral and less cliched than most of the genre, this one still has plenty of excitement. 

POWs are not a big part of The Deer Hunter (1978), yet the infamous tiger cages are not easily forgotten. This one took Best Movie and a host of other Oscars.It is the compelling story of young Pennsylvania steelworkers before, during and after their stint in Viet Nam. Robert DeNiro and Meryl Streep head a fine cast. The image of Christopher Walken playing Russian Roulette for money sticks with you. 

Frank Sinatra is an Allied Colonel leading an escape from a Nazi prison camp in Von Ryan’s Express (1965). It’s not giving too much away to tell you the plot involves hijacking a German train. The scene with Mr. Sinatra racing to catch up to the end of the train is splendid. 

More recently there is The Mauritanian (2021) with Jodie Foster as good as she has ever been as a lawyer determined to get justice for an innocent man held in the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison camp. This one is on us, folks. She finally gets him released after 14 years in detention, never having been charged. She is aided by Army attorney Stuart Couch (from Asheboro!) ably portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. 

And finally, there is Unbroken (2014) with a virtually unknown cast in a true story of a horrible Japanese prison camp and the redemption of an inmate.

All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are ok for ages10 and up.

                                                      KILLER ROAD MOVIES

There’s a very interesting little sub-category of movies that I really like. For want of a better tag, I’ll call them Killer Road Movies.

The polar star of this category is Bonnie And Clyde (1967) with Warren Beatty as Clyde Barrow and Faye Dunnaway as Bonnie Parker. Gene Hackman, Michael T. Pollard and Estelle Parsons complete the gang, and Denver Pyle is the lawman determined to bring them down. Gene Wilder has a small part in his first film. This groundbreaking, and hugely entertaining, film dares to glorify common criminals and to show violent death realistically. Those who are gunned down herein do not crumple prettily to the ground. They are slaughtered in slow motion with enough blood and gore to float a canoe.                             

Thelma And Louise (1991), with Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis, do not set out to be lawbreakers. They’re just girls who want to have fun, but their road trip turns ugly when they kill a would-be rapist. A Buddy Movie for women isn’t new, but the ideas in this one are. Is it a metaphor for the modern woman? You decide- but we can all agree it is a tremendous amount of fun.

Kalifornia (1993) is most notable for the incredible performance of Brad Pitt as a slack-jawed, low-life psychopath. He and a reluctant Juliette Lewis hook up with a writer and photographer who are doing a story on serial killers and are unaware they are riding with one. 

Terrence Malik’s Badlands (1973) features an impossibly young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as Charles Starkweather and Mary Fugate. They leave a bloody trail across the U.S. and yet somehow manage to appeal to us, against our wills. 

Wild At Heart (1990) can be a little hard to take, but Nicholas Cage (as Sailor) and Laura Dern (as the unrelenting Lula) are convincing wildlings in this dark David Lynch film. Dianne Ladd was actually nominated for an Oscar for her part as Marietta, Lula’s overbearing mother who totally hates Sailor. Sailor thinks he’s Elvis and Lula thinks she’s Marilyn Monroe. We think they are Southern-fried trouble with a capital T. 

All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups. 

                                                       GOING TO THE DOGS

We Americans just love dogs and small boys. Put them together and you usually have a winning combination. There are some excellent Boy And His Dog films, starting with  My Dog Skip (2000). Frankie Muniz of TV’s Malcolm In The Middle is the small boy, and Skip is a series of engaging Jack Russell terriers. Skip was penned by Mississippian Willie Morris and the story perfectly captures the early 40's in the Deep South. A highlight is Skip’s frenzied reaction to any mention of Adolph Hitler. This film is a real charmer.

Old Yeller (1957) is the Disney version of A Boy And His Dog and though it has been around for many years, it’s popularity remains high with kids and adults. Tommy Kirk (who has probably grown up by now) is the kid and Dorothy McGuire and Fess Parker are his parents. The boy becomes attached to a yellow hunting dog and the feeling is decidedly mutual. It is an excellent depiction of Texas just after the Civil War and a fine story of loyalty and friendship.

Brandon DeWilde is the kid in Goodbye, My Lady (1956) also set in the South. Walter Brennan is good as the grumpy but loveable older guy. Sidney Poitier and comedian Phil Harris complete an unusual but fine cast. The basenji dog of the title brings joy to all in this tear jerker.

Benji (1974) is now more than 40 years old but still high on the list for viewers who like doggie movies. The little ragmop dog is so cute he elicits immediate “aw”s and the story is a good one. The dog saves two small children from kidnappers and manages a joke or two on the way. There are two sequels to Benji and neither is within miles of the quality of the original. But they are definitely ok for kids who like this sort of thing.

There are loads of good Lassie movies but the best one in this genre is Lassie (1994).  The boy in this film (Thomas Guiry) is a troubled teenager whose family moves to the farm to try to straighten out their lives. The reluctant boy is brought around slowly and believably by the love of a collie dog. Richard Farnsworth and Helen Slater are among the other fine cast members. 

Shiloh (1997) is really not up to the standard of the other films above, but small children love it. 

All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All are suitable for all ages. Littlies love them,  but so will grownups (mostly)!

 

                                                                2020 Sleepers

                                                                    Part 2

Herewith the second, and last, installment of 2020 movies that didn’t get much attention but that I thought are quite good.

Let Him Go stars Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as grandparents determined to rescue their grandson. After their son dies in a riding accident, their daughter-in-law remarries. The new husband takes her and the grandson away to his distant family, not even saying good-bye. The grandparents decide to see how things are at the grandson’s new home. Not good. Leslie Manville, as the dreadful new grandmother Blanche, is totally poisonous, as is the rest of her toxic brood. An attempt to extricate their daughter-in-law and grandson goes spectacularly wrong and lots of violence ensues. 

There is nobody in The Photograph you’ve ever heard of, but they’re all good. It tells a rather complicated story about how a single picture taken long ago unlocks the truth of a relationship too long kept secret. The entanglements of the plot and the time shifts can be daunting, but it’s worth sticking with it. 

Rebecca with Lily James as the new Mrs. DeWinter, has a brand new and incredibly complicated plot. Frankly, it is most interesting to compare it with the 1940 version directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Lawrence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.  The earlier film follows Daphne DuMaurier’s novel much more closely and is better for that. Still, the new one is worth watching and coupled with the original would make a fine double feature. 

The Way Back features Ben Affleck as a former star basketball player who has become a heavy drinker. He is asked to coach the basketball team at his former high school when the head coach has a heart attack. With few, and inferior, players he builds the team around a full court press and fierce defense. But his drinking continues. Not your usual film about a guy trying to beat alcoholism,  but well done by the screen writer and Mr. Affleck. 

I realize that including a movie that won the Oscar for Best Screen Play and was nominated for four others is a bit of a stretch in an article about sleepers.  I liked this movie so much I decided to stick it in here. Carey Mulligan is Cassie,  the Promising Young Woman of the title. While in college her best friend is brutally raped by another student. Neither the school nor the authorities do anything about it, and the friend becomes a suicide. Cassie vows revenge and her methods are interesting and effective. She designs a plan to totally humiliate the rape perpetrator and goes all out to achieve it. You would not want to mess with this sweet-faced young woman! But you would want to watch this stellar film.

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and are for grown-ups. 

                                                            THE CIVIL WAR

The Civil War is the setting for several good films, though not as many as you might expect. Birth of a Nation (1915) is a silent classic that practically invented movies as we know them. Directed by the Founding Father, D.W. Griffith, it is unfortunately sympathetic to the KKK , but it is one of the first movies to tell a story. Its battle scenes are still incredibly realistic. 

Glory (1989) tells the true story of an all-black Union infantry unit. Blacks have criticized it because it is more the story of the white colonel (Matthew Broderick) who commands the unit and less about the soldiers. This is a fair enough objection, but the screenplay was based on the letters of the character played by Broderick. Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington, two of our best actors of any color, are splendid as soldiers. 

Friendly Persuasion (1956) is about Quakers during the Civil War and the hardcase testing of their nonviolence. Gary Cooper is the determined father, and Anthony Perkins has a nice turn as the son who is worried that he will be seen as hiding cowardice behind religious principles. 

You knew Gone With The Wind (1939) was coming and here it is. The Yankees are the bad guys, the sweeping panorama of Atlanta at war is captivating and Clark Gable is wonderful. Vivian Leigh has a fine time flouncing about and batting her eyes. 

Audie Murphy was a real life Congressional Medal of Honor winner and he plays Stephen Crane's antihero soldier in The Red Badge of Courage (1951). It was the high water mark, by several gallons, of his movie career.

Gettysburg (1993) at four hours is too long by two and a half. The setting is authentic and the battle scenes are fine, but it just drags and drags. The Andersonville Trial (1970) is an excellent made-for-TV effort about the infamous Confederate prison camp. It asks some pointed questions about people at war and sorting it all out after peace finally comes. 

And finally, there is Ken Burns’ tremendous 9-hour TV documentary, The Civil War (1990). Of course it is not a movie, but it is the best thing ever done on The War Between The States. 

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. Friendly Persuasion is fine for children of all ages. The rest are suitable for mature 10-year-olds and up. 

                                     THE FORGOTTEN WAR- 70 YEARS LATER

Unbelievably (to me, anyway) this year marks more than 70 years since the Korean War began in 1950. While nowhere near the fertile movie ground of WWII or Viet Nam, Korea did spawn a hand full of excellent films.

M*A*S*H (1970) has a much darker, manic tone than the popular TV series. It starred Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, Tom Skeritt, Gary Burghoff and Bud Cort. They were virtual unknowns. M*A*S*H is director Robert Altman’s breakthrough film. Its bloody O.R. and irreverent wisecracks are a microcosm of the war.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is a good political thriller that features heart-pounding suspense and some neat plot twists.  Frank Sinatra is good as a government agent as is Angela Lansbury, uncharacteristically venomous . Some wag has said Lawrence Harvey was typecast as an automaton, but he makes a good one. Harvey was a POW of the North Koreans, and they have tried to program him into the perfect killing machine. Can Sinatra reprogram him?

A James Michener story is the basis for Men Of The Fighting Lady (1954) with Van Johnson and Walter Pigeon. The Lady of the title is the aircraft carrier from which dangerous raids are launched into North Korea. The battle footage and special effects are so good that the Pentagon called Film Editor Gene Ruggiero on the carpet to explain how he got this footage. The answer was, standard war footage and painted backdrops, skillfully edited. It was good enough for the Pentagon and good enough for an Oscar, too.

Another Michener tale is the backbone of Sayonara (1957) which garnered Supporting Actor Oscars for Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki. Marlon Brando, James Garner and Martha Scott complete the cast of this tale of interracial love during the Korean War. Frankly, it's a little dated, but has its moments.

The Steel Helmet (1951) was actually made during the Korean War.  It is directed by a virtual unknown, Samuel Fuller, and the best known cast member is Steve Brodie. And yet, it probably comes about as close as any movie to showing what it was really like in Korea. This is a very good sleeper.

Pork Chop Hill (1959) was an actual place in Korea, and this fine movie portrays an American unit's order to hold the hill against the advancing Chinese hordes at all cost. Gregory Peck heads a stellar cast that also features Rip Torn, George Peppard and Harry Guardino. Hard-hitting and authentic, it has a decidedly dark tone like most movies about the Korean War. 

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. None are suitable for children under 12.

                                                               2020 SLEEPERS

                                                                 Part 1

        This is the first of a projected two-part series on 2020 movies I thought were pretty good but didn’t get much play. Not that anything got much play! I will note that in prior years I would have four or five sleepers columns. Alas, the pandemic took its toll on the number of films. (And on everything else.)

The last Brian Dennehy movie before his death was the excellent Driveways. It is the story of a young Asian-American mother and her son moving into her deceased sister’s house to clean it out. Next door is Del (Dennehy), an aging Vietnam veteran who lives alone. Shy 8-year-old Cody gradually becomes friends with him. The unlikely partnership grows closer with time. I loved this movie (gave it a 9)! 

Supernova is an incredibly moving film starring Colin Firth as Sam and Stanley Tucci as Tusker. They are a pair of same sex lovers who have been together for many years. Tusker is slowly dying of dementia and they take one last trip together, visiting family and friends throughout Britain. Tusker reveals he wishes to take his own life before his dementia gets any worse. Sam is horrified and they argue about it. The ending had me tearing up.

The oddly, but appropriately, named Dick Johnson Is Dead is the true story of director Kirsten Johnson convincing her father, the title figure, to film a number of scenes in which he is killed or just dies. He is suffering from dementia and goes along with her rather blackish humor plot. Not fo all tastes, and certainly off the beaten path.

Alone is not your cup of tea if “woman in distress” films bother you. But, if you’re ok with that plot, this is an excellent nail biter about a woman trying to get away from a stone cold killer. I won’t reveal the ending except to say it probably isn’t what you thought it would be. The actors are all unknowns, but they do a good job. 

Collective is from Romania, of all places. It is a documentary about corruption on the highest levels in that country. Investigative reporters unearth the fact that the disinfectant used in most hospitals is ineffective. It is made by the country’s largest drug company, which denies that their product is faulty. The journalists persist. This is one heck of a story and the only reason I gave it a 7 is I thought it stopped too soon. And I realize that a film nominated for Best Documentary and Best Foreign Film is hardly a sleeper. But it is still fairly obscure so I’m using it. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. Driveways is fine for all ages. The rest are for adults. 

                                           THE FORGOTTEN WAR- 70 YEARS LATER

Unbelievably (to me, anyway) this year marks more than 70 years since the Korean War began in 1950. While nowhere near the fertile movie ground of WWII or Viet Nam, Korea did spawn a hand full of excellent films.

M*A*S*H (1970) has a much darker, manic tone than the popular TV series. It starred Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, Tom Skeritt, Gary Burghoff and Bud Cort. They were virtual unknowns. M*A*S*H is director Robert Altman’s breakthrough film. Its bloody O.R. and irreverent wisecracks are a microcosm of the war.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is a good political thriller that features heart-pounding suspense and some neat plot twists.  Frank Sinatra is good as a government agent as is Angela Lansbury, uncharacteristically venomous . Some wag has said Lawrence Harvey was typecast as an automaton, but he makes a good one. Harvey was a POW of the North Koreans, and they have tried to program him into the perfect killing machine. Can Sinatra reprogram him?

A James Michener story is the basis for Men Of The Fighting Lady (1954) with Van Johnson and Walter Pigeon. The Lady of the title is the aircraft carrier from which dangerous raids are launched into North Korea. The battle footage and special effects are so good that the Pentagon called Film Editor Gene Ruggiero on the carpet to explain how he got this footage. The answer was, standard war footage and painted backdrops, skillfully edited. It was good enough for the Pentagon and good enough for an Oscar, too.

Another Michener tale is the backbone of Sayonara (1957) which garnered Supporting Actor Oscars for Red Buttons and Miyoshi Umeki. Marlon Brando, James Garner and Martha Scott complete the cast of this tale of interracial love during the Korean War. Frankly, it's a little dated, but has its moments.

The Steel Helmet (1951) was actually made during the Korean War.  It is directed by a virtual unknown, Samuel Fuller, and the best known cast member is Steve Brodie. And yet, it probably comes about as close as any movie to showing what it was really like in Korea. This is a very good sleeper.

Pork Chop Hill (1959) was an actual place in Korea, and this fine movie portrays an American unit's order to hold the hill against the advancing Chinese hordes at all cost. Gregory Peck heads a stellar cast that also features Rip Torn, George Peppard and Harry Guardino. Hard-hitting and authentic, it has a decidedly dark tone like most movies about the Korean War. 

All of the movies in this column are available on DVD. None are suitable for children under 12.

                                                             The Best of 2020

After several requests to post my best films of the year for 2020, I decided to go ahead with it. I have not darkened the doors of a movie theater since February 2020. That means that all of these films have been watched at home, and to me that’s a rather large grain of salt to add to this list. I have no idea on what system I saw them. I also watched a bunch of series (so did you, right?) and I have tried to weed those out and proceed with single shot movies. And there are still well-reviewed 2020 films I haven’t been able to see but hope to before too much longer. No 10s this year but some good movies anyway. So here goes: 

1- Nomadland:  9

2- News of the World:  9

3- Driveways: 9

4- Promising Young Woman: 9

5- The Father: 8

6- Soul: 8

7- Supernova: 8

8- The Trial of the Chicago 7:  8

9- Dick Johnson Is Dead:  8

10- Alone:  8

11- One Night In Miami:  8

The sevens are in no particular order. 

Sylvie’s Love 7

Enola Holmes 7

Rebecca 7

The Trip To Greece 7

Emma 7

Ammonite 7

The Way Back 7

Collective 7

Mulan 7

Let Him Go 7

Da 5 Bloods 7

The Photograph 7

Mank 7

The Old Guard 7

Onward 7

The Midnight Sky 7

Stray 7

Minari 7

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 7

I don’t usually include the 7s but the list seemed skimpy without them. A number of films on this list will show up in 2020 sleepers articles, which cannot be far behind!

                                                         CELEBRATING AMERICA

While it’s true that some folks still see America as The Great Satan, the fact is that most of them like us individually and we are still the hope of the world. Let’s indulge in some movies that celebrate our country!

Never doubt that America has The Right Stuff (1983). This celebration of the early days of the space program and the heroism of the astronauts and the ground staff justifiably fill our souls with pride in our country. Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Sam Sheppard and Dennis Quaid lead a stellar ensemble cast in the true story of one of mankind’s greatest adventures. 

It’s hard to pick just one war movie, but my choice is The Great Escape (1963) a prison camp film featuring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, James Garner and James Coburn. The ingenious methods concocted to escape and the indomitable will to do so carry this excellent adventure. McQueen topped his career in this one. Also highly recommended is The Big Red One (1980), showing the unique qualities of the American soldier.

It would be hard to find a sunnier, happier, more American story than Oklahoma! (1955), Rogers and Hammersteins love song to our country, brought gloriously to the screen. Gordon McRae and Shirley Jones are in wonderful voice, leading the cast in one of the best scores ever written. What an upper! And in this category, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) with James Cagney as the legendary George M. Cohan, is another winner.

     Somewhat off the beaten track, but a stunning portrait of what’s right with America, is Grand Canyon (1991). Danny Glover, Steve Martin, and Kevin Cline headline a fine cast in Lawrence Kasdan’s entertaining study of some of the problems we have and how we help each other through them. This is a life-affirming anthem to America without overt sentimentality

.America, America (1963) is Elia Kazan’s love song to his adopted land and is a wonderful film about the experience of Greek immigrants to our shores, including an unforgettable trip through Ellis Island. 

Just as good is Barry Levinson’s superb Avalon (1990) about Jewish immigrants to his beloved Baltimore. The importance of family, and the impact of the new land on it, are the core of this fine film. 

One of the greatest things about America is our talent for innovation, our ability to break through patterns and find new ways. In Apollo 13 (1995) those abilities are sorely needed in this gut-wrenching, true account of a lunar mission that almost jumped the tracks. Both the engineers and the astronauts broke the mold and found a way to deal with unprecedented problems. The fact that you know how it turns out doesn’t detract one whit from the suspense. This is a real white-knuckler. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Gary Sinise head a good cast.

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are suitable for kids 10 and up.

                                                                NED BEATTY

        He took a big risk and it paid off. He was asked to play Bobby,  the victim of a horrible sexual attack, and he played it for all it was worth. It was worth a career of working constantly and appearing in many movies and tv shows. Ned Beatty died at 83 with more projects still in the can. He said he didn’t mind not being a leading man, didn’t want to. He preferred playing many different characters, not being put in a box. His filmography certainly bears this out. 

Deliverance (1972) provided his big break. A quartet of urban friends decide to canoe down a remote river in northern Georgia before a dam spoils it. Ronny Cox, Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds portray the other three friends. The film is taken from a story by James Dickey, who also plays a sheriff. Two of the friends get separated and are set upon by rednecks, who rape Bobby and tie up his companion. They are rescued by a bow and arrow shot and proceed down the river. Drew (Cox) dies in rapids they encounter. The other three close ranks and vow secrecy. The local sheriff doesn’t believe their made-up story of what happened but can’t prove otherwise. 

In Robert Altman’s magnum opus Nashville (1975) Beatty is Delbert Reese, a good old boy with a failing marriage and a  wandering eye. He is the lawyer for country star Haven Hamlin (Henry Gibson) and the local campaign chairman for presidential candidate Hal Phillip Walker. This film was nominated for four Oscars, but won only for Best Song (I’m Easy, sung by Keith Carradine). The sprawling movie contains 24 major characters, at least an hour of music and numerous plot lines. It runs 2 hours and 41 minutes, but it is worth the time spent viewing it!

Network (1976) was nominated for 10 Oscars and won four ( Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay). Ned Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but lost to Jason Robards for All The President’s Men. Peter Finch plays Howard Beale, a lunatic news anchor who goes off the deep end and gets a ratings spke (remember “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore”?). Beatty is Arthur Jensen, a smarmy corporate CEO who buys out Beale’s network and pushes it to banality. This film is a cautionary tale that foretold the future of TV. 

Superman (1978) is the film that started all the super hero flicks. Ned Beatty is quite good as Otis, bumbling sidekick of super villain Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman). Beatty has the same part in Superman II (1980). Both films are good of their kind.

Ned Beatty plays an undercover FBI agent in Silver Streak (1976), as Rudy’s father in Rudy (1993), and as Sheriff Lester Boyle in Cookie’s Fortune (1999). He can also be seen to advantage in Wise Blood (1979) and The Big Easy (1986). 

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults.

                                                           CHARLES GRODIN

He was good enough to get leading man roles, but he rarely did. He was unremarkable looking and he had a convincing deadpan delivery of his lines that landed him lots of work. Charles Grodin was a staple character actor, mostly in the 70's and 80's. 

I think his best role was as Jonathan (The Duke) Mardukas in Midnight Run (1988). The Duke stole money from the mob and is on every criminal’s hit list. Meanwhile, bounty hunter and ex-cop Jack Walsh (Robert DeNiro) is hired to bring The Duke back to Los Angeles. The Duke fakes a panic attack on a plane and the duo is required to travel by train. Lots of funny stuff occurs and the FBI gets involved. Walsh and Mardukas get nearer and nearer to becoming friends and there’s a surprise ending.

In Rosemary’s Baby (1968) Grodin plays Dr. Hill, the only good person in the whole movie outside of Rosemary herself. Dr. Hill is Rosemary’s personal physician and tries to help her as her mysterious pregnancy moves along. Grodin’s plain looks and demeanor play nicely against the other characters. Are the other residents of their apartment house members of a Satanic cult? Did they have something to do with the pregnancy and the resulting baby? Well, most of the world knows the answers already, but it’s still scary as hell. 

Grodin is the main character in a really good heist movie: 11 Harrowhouse (1974). Grodin plays Howard Chesser, a small-time diamond merchant in England. He is unexpectably given the chance to cut a large diamond owned by wealthy Clyde Massey (Trevor Howard). When the diamond is stolen, Chesser has to organize a complicated heist of raw diamonds to pay Massey back. His idea seems nuts but it might work.

The plot of Heaven Can Wait has been used many times using lots of titles. The 1978 version features a rookie guardian angel making the mistake of sending an NFL quarterback to heaven before his time. He has to be given another chance so another body has to be found for him. Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty) is offered the recently deceased body of millionaire Leo Farnsworth, who has just been killed by his cheating wife (Dyan Cannon) and her sleazy boyfriend (Charles Grodin). Everyone is totally confused by the new Leo, whose body is now occupied by Joe Pendleton. After that it gets complicated. 

Charles Grodin may also be seen to good effect in The Lonely Guy (1984), Dave (1983) and The Woman In Red (1984). The only thing these films have in common is the presence of Mr. Grodin. All of them are pretty good.

All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.