GARY COOPER

He wasn’t really an actor in the same sense as Dustin Hoffman or Meryl Streep. He didn’t disappear into roles; he always played himself, much like John Wayne or Sylvester Stallone. He was often horribly miscast (see for example Love in the Afternoon (1957) or The Fountainhead (1949). In his prime he still belonged to the studio system and so he did what he was told. But in the right part Gary Cooper was splendid. And at his best, he almost seemed to symbolize the American hero. It’s hard to pick the best from over 50 movies, but here goes.

There is no better place to start than High Noon (1952). Gary Cooper is the retiring sheriff of a small western town. On his wedding day (and last day on the job) he learns a killer he put away is coming for revenge. Nobody will stand with him or even help him (including Grace Kelly, in a somewhat less than heroic turn). He could run; he could hide- but it is his duty to stay and fight. His steely determination coupled with a winning humanity marks his best role. He deserved, and won, the Oscar.

Lou Gehrig was certainly an American hero. Not just anyone could pull off that “today I think I’m the luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech that a dying Gehrig spoke in Yankee stadium, but Gary Cooper does it. The baseball parts of Pride of the Yankees (1942) aren’t really that great, but the people part is unmatched as a sports biography. Teresa Wright is quite good as Eleanor Gehrig, and Babe Ruth is pretty good as himself.

Gary Cooper is the father of a Quaker family in Friendly Persuasion (1956), conflicted by his non-violent faith amid the American Civil War. Dorothy McGuire, Marjorie Main and Anthony Perkins ably assist as members of the family, but it is Cooper’s character that epitomizes the dilemma still being faced by many. 

For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943) is the best Ernest Hemingway film adaptation and Gary Cooper carries it on his back as an American fighting with a bunch of ragtag Spanish rebels in their civil war. That the combatants include Ingrid Bergman is a lucky break, as her love affair with Cooper has enough chemistry to stock a good-size laboratory. 

Some other good Gary Cooper vehicles include Ball of Fire (1941), Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936), and Sergeant York (1941) (an Oscar for Cooper). 

All of the movies in this column are available, some for free, some not.  All are fine for 10 and up.

                                                     MICHAEL CRICHTON

Michael Crichton left us in 2008 at the way-too-young age of 66. He was perhaps the most cinematic writer of our time. Many of his exciting books were made into splendid movies. He also dreamed up, produced and wrote many of the episodes of the hugely popular TV show, ER.

The Andromeda Strain (1971) is about a team of scientists racing against time to thwart a virus from outer space. The book is a real nail-biter; the film a little less so, but still a worthwhile watch. The 2008 remake is definitely NOT a worthwhile watch. It is simply awful. 

The fascinating Westworld (1973) involves a future camp where people can participate in whatever fantasy they choose. Richard Benjamin picks the Old West, and has a ball until it looks like the robotic denizens, led by Yul Brynner, have malfunctioned. It became a huge HBO series hit in 2016, which lasted for six seasons.

George Segal’s brain is wired in a risky experiment to save his life and of course things go terribly wrong in Terminal Man (1974). Not to be confused with the 2004 movie with Tom Hanks trying to figure out how to help a poor man trapped in an airport terminal because of a coup in his home country. 

The Great Train Robbery (1979) is Michael Crichton’s take on the most famous robbery in British history. It looks fantastic (replicating the 1880's) as the stellar cast (Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland) plot how  to rob a moving train carrying gold. The incredibly complicated plan for the heist is cinematic gold. 

The idea of Jurassic Park (1993), the cloning of long-dead dinosaurs from recovered DNA, is just brilliant. The book is great, the film less so. The story is pretty well botched by the movie- but oh, those dinosaurs! What a thrill! And the special effects are about the whole show in The Lost World (1997) involving a second island filled with killer creatures from the past.

There are no special effects or scientific marvels in Rising Sun (1993). It is a good old murder mystery with Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes trying to figure out who did in a visiting Japanese big shot, and how it happened. I did not see the amazing solution coming!

Also worth a look is the medical thriller Coma (1978), ably directed by Mr. Crichton from a Robin Cook novel. In a big city hospital, patients are being stolen for spare parts! Genevieve Bujold suspects the worst, and Richard Widmark knows it. 

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

                                                           WILLIAM FAULKNER

He won the Pulitzer and the Nobel. He worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter for over 20 years because he needed the money. Of his over 50 script contributions, most died without filming. But he did help on two tremendous classics: To Have and Have Not (1944) and The Big Sleep (1946). His writing was almost as dense as James Joyce’s and he was not the most accessible of authors.

Adapting his pithy novels and stories to the silver screen was not an easy task. Many tried. Many failed. But some succeeded and there are some very fine movies based on Faulkner’s work.

I will start with my personal favorite. The Reivers (1969) is perhaps the most accessible Faulkner film from probably his most accessible story. Ok, reivers are thieves. Steve McQueen stars as Boon Hoggenbeck, a likeable neer-do-well. He is absolutely smitten with a spanking new 1905 Winton Flyer, owned, unfortunately for Boon, by the powerful Boss McCaslin (Will Geer). Boon steals the care (for the second time) and lights out for Memphis with a kid, Lucius, and a stowaway, Ned. There are many adventures on the way, some harrowing, mostly hilarious. 

The Tarnished Angels (1957) is based on the Faulkner novel Pylon. Robert Stack portrays embittered pilot Roger Shumann who grinds out a meager living risking his life as a stunt flyer. Dorothy Malone plays his long-suffering wife Laverne, and Rock Hudson is on board as a reporter writing about them. The stunts are good. The acting not so much, but it is a good story with a less than Hollywoodish ending. 

Intruder In The Dust (1949) has a bunch of actors you’ve never heard of except for the always present Will Geer, who plays the sheriff. It’s a really good story about Lucas Beauchamp, a Black man unjustly accused of killling a white man. He may be saved by the town lawyer, an elderly lady and two teenage boys. Of course he is, this is Hollywood! Really good story, though. The Long Hot Summer (1968) is based on three Faulkner novellas about a drifter wandering into a small Mississippi town and infiltrating a local family. The lobby card says The People, Language and World of Faulkner. Yep. Future married couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward are the sparks that flame this one up. Newman is Ben Quick, who happens into the small town and the lives of its principal family. 

Barn Burning (1980) has Tommy Lee Jones and not much else to recommend it, but it barely scrapes over the recommended fence. 

The Sound and the Fury (1959) stars Yul Brynner as a Southern stud, and that’s about all you need to know. The 2014 version is even worse.  As I Lay Dying (2013) is a barking dog. 

All of these movies are for grown-ups. 

                                             The Strange Case of F. Scott Fitzgerald

        He was the personification of the Jazz Age. He was married to the beautiful and talented Zelda. He turned out one big seller after another, and was greatly loved by his readers and his fellow writers. So what do I mean The Strange Case of Scott Fitzgerald? Well, I’ll tell you. After all, this is a movie column. And in all the great novels and stories he wrote, you will not find but maybe one movie worth watching!

        It’s not that Hollywood didn’t try. Lord knows, they spent barrels of money on his stories, trying to turn them into cinematic masterpieces. But it just didn’t seem to take. Scott liked Hollywood much more than the grumpy Hemingway. Scott gratefully took their money. Shoot, he even worked there as a screenwriter for all of five months in 1938. And he didn’t turn out one single thing that was ever made into a movie.  Then he either quit or was fired. Take your pick. He was known to take a drink. 

        The Great Gatsby was his signature novel. Jay Gatsby was pretty much Scott with more money, and Long Island was immortalized by this book. Hollywood panted after the rights. Movies were made of Gatsby in 1926, 1949, 1958, 1974, 2000 and 2013. Really. And every last one of these is just not very good! It’s a great story. So why can’t they make it into a good movie? I don’t know; I just know they didn’t. I can only tell you which one is the least bad of this group: The 1974 with Robert Redford as Gatsby is more true to the book, but the 2013 with Leonardo Dicaprio in the title role is more dazzling. Baz Luhrman directed that one and his fingerprints are all over it. Not in a good way.

        Tender Is The Night is so close to the actual life of the Fitzgeralds that it’s almost painful. Dick Diver is a psychologist who drinks too much and Nicole is his mentally disturbed wife. Her mental problems and his drinking lead to a divorce. Hollywood took a shot at this one in 1962. Jason Robards played Dick and Jennifer Jones played the doomed Nicole. It’s not awful. Can I recommend it? Nope.

        The Last Tycoon (1976) is, I’m sorry, a dog. Robert DiNiro, Jack Nicholson and Robert Mitchum can’t save it. The Beautiful and Damned was bad in the 1922 and no better in the 2009. This Side of Paradise (1999) is a woeful documentary.

        There are lots of biopics about the Fitzgeralds. Are any very good? Nope. The only ray of sunshine here is in Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris (2012) when screenwriter Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) is magically transported back to 1920 and he runs into the Fitzgeralds in the City Of Light.

        So, where is the one good movie I promised? It’s based on a Fitzgerald short story and it’s really good. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button stars Brad Pitt in the title role. He ages backward! He starts out as an elderly man and gradually ages all the way back. Cate Blanchett is Daisy, a female friend of Benjamin. She ages naturally. 

        All of the movies in this article may be available somewhere. All are for adults.

                                                                     2023 Sleepers

                                                                         Part 3    

Last year was a pretty good year for movies. This year probably will not be, considering the industry strikes still going on. There’s little in the pipe. So, anyway, here is my last helping of 2023 movies that were good but didn’t get much notice.

    Perhaps it’s a stretch to list an Academy Award nominee as a sleeper, but I would contend that Nyad is exactly that. It is the fictionalized but mostly accurate account of Dianne Nyad’s non-stop swim from Cuba to Miami. Why do this? Why not! Nobody has ever done it before. Annette Bening is the star, convincing as the swimmer battles age, fatigue, jelly fish, sharks, and weather. It’s a stunning performance about a woman who just wouldn’t give up.

Sharper starts in a quiet bookstore and winds its way through multiple twists and scams. Julianne Moore is the big name, as Madeline, either a victim or participant in a devious plan. Sandy (Brianna Middleton) seems innocent enough, but turns out to be a parolee with quite a rap sheet. Nobody is quite who they seem to be in this one, but if you stick with it all comes (sort of ) clear.

The legendary Erroll Morris has never made a bad documentary, and his films are always fascinating. Add The Pigeon Tunnel to that list. This doc is about the life and career of John le Carre, author of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and dozens more espionage thrillers. He created George Smiley, equivocal quasi-hero of the British spy system. The title comes from a rooftop pigeon coop in Monte Carlo, where pigeons are bred to fly though a long, dark tunnel only to be shot at for sport. A sly analogy to the espionage system.

Jules is an unusual animal, a sci-fi film with a moral and a heart. (Okay, yes, I remember ET.) Septuagenarian Milton (Ben Kingsley) has a flying saucer crash in his back yard, and a non-verbal alien emerges. Milton and his female friends call the new guy Jules, and the little guy tries to repair his space ship. He appears to have telepathic powers, rescuing Joyce (Jane Curtin) from a vicious attack by having the thug’s head explode. It turns out the only thing that can help Jules with his repair work is—dead cats! So his earthly friends set out to find enough to help him out. 

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is Beth, a frustrated author trying to get her first novel published. She accidently overhears her husband Don (Tobias Menzies) tell a male friend that he doesn’t like the book but doesn’t want to discourage Beth. Beth is finally convinced to hire a more optimistic agent, and this works wonders for the book and her marriage. You Hurt My Feelings is funnier, and better, than this synopsis sounds.

        All of the movies in this article are out there somewhere. All are for adults.

                                                                         2023 Sleepers

                                                                         Part 2

Society of the Snow is, frankly, a little hard to take, but on the whole is worth it. In 1972 a Uruguayan rugby team charters a plane to fly them to a match in neighboring Chile. The plane crashes into a glacier in a remote part of the Andes. Many of the passengers are killed in the crash, the rest spend the next 72 days stranded. Quickly running out of the meager food supplies on board the plane remnants, some of the survivors decide they must do the unthinkable with the bodies of their comrades. Based on a true story, the photography is fantastic. The story is not for the faint of heart. 

Judy Blume is a controversial author banned by many a right wing group. But she is much loved by a large audience, especially young girls. Judy Blume Forever is a documentary that tells her story quite well. Her unabashed portrayal of things usually not talked about has won her a huge audience. Sexuality, menstruation and homosexuality are explained factually and without blinking.

Michael Fassbender is The Killer, a professional assassin. No, he’s not on one last mission. In fact, he’s in the middle of picking up the pieces from a failed assignment. Events take him to France, the US, the Dominican Republic, and back to the US. His methods are varied and generally quite effective. In one scene, he accommodates a target’s request to make her death appear accidental. For some reason, you tend to pull for this not-very-nice guy and his methods are ingenious.

She was the prime minister of Israel at the time of the Yom Kippur war. Who else would you get to play Golda beside Helen Mirren? Okay, maybe Streep, but Mirren is convincing as is the screenplay that leads us from intelligence reports that Israel will be attacked through a short, bloody war that eventually ends in a stalemate and peace negotiations. The battle strategy and action are quite good, and of course Mirren is superb as always.

Almost all of the names in Rustin will be more familiar than the title character. But Bayard Rustin was quite a guy back in the 60's. He is generally credited with organizing the 1963 March on Washington, an incredible piece of logistics. He was openly gay and as such pilloried by many other civil rights leaders, but he persevered and got the march done. Coleman Domingo is the little-known actor who scores in the title role. The guy playing Martin Luther King is a an exact copy in speech and looks. Also look for A. Phillip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell, Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young. As biopics go, this one is good on the facts and well played.

All of the movies in this article are available, at least for a price. Some can be found on various steaming sites. All are for grown-ups only. 

                                                             2023 Sleepers

                                                         Part one

    It’s time for Mr. Movie’s annual rundown of the good movies from last year that didn’t get noticed much. 

The Covenant stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Sgt John Kinley, home from a tough tour in Afghanistan. His interpreter Ahmed goes to incredible lengths to save Kinley’s life after he is seriously injured miles from help. Kinley discovers his heroic interpreter and family have had to hide since his saving of Kinley has made him famous. The Taliban have put a price on their heads. Kinley decides he must return to Afghanistan and get Ahmed and his family safely out of the country. 

I am an unabashed fan of all things Yogi Berra, so I was bound to love It Ain’t Over. And I did! The title comes from one of Yogi’s famous saying: It ain’t over til it’s over. This is a semi-documentary look at Yogi’s career and life, paying tribute to his Hall Of Fame ability as a catcher, as well as his funny quotes. My favorite, among many: “Nobody goes there any more; it’s too crowded.”

I am also an all-in fan of the legendary Michael Jordan. Air is the true (mostly) story of how shoe companies turned up their collective noses at Jordan, refusing to use his name on their shoes. Sonny Vaccaro (Ben Affleck) convinces Nike to take a chance on Michael. About 3 billion dollars in earnings later, it would seem like a good idea. This movie is a fun trip about how this happened. 

Abby Fortson is the young newcomer who stars as Margaret in the faithful adaptation of Judy Blume’s coming of age novel, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. This is how Margaret begins her prayers. With a Jewish father and Christian mother, who leave Margaret’s religious instruction up to her, Margaret is religiously at sea. The movies charts Margaret’s path through puberty, as she learns about wearing a bra and getting her period. This is an absolute charmer!

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is a no nonsense documentary about Fox’s battle with Parkinson’s disease. Disdaining the obvious tendency toward sentiment, director Davis Guggenheim charts a fine path toward understanding Fox’s life. Beginning with the TV sitcom Family Ties, Fox’s career took off like a rocket. His matter of fact depiction of how he continued to work but hiding his trembling left hand is both moving and amusing. The title is derived from the fact that after being diagnosed in 1991, Michael Fox is still around 33 years later. His surprise appearance at this year’s BAFTA awards engendered a heart-felt standing ovation. 

Well, since Amazon has all of these movies (except Still) for sale or rent,  I’m going to say they are available. Just not free. Streaming? Don’t know. By now there must be at least a dozen streaming sites. All but the first one are fine for all ages. 

                                                Mr. Movie’s Best of 2023

I have hesitated to do this article this year, simply because I have not seen four of the films nominated as Best by the Academy. The awards are March 10, which seems a little later than usual. 2023 was the year that Netflix stopped sending out DVDs, and that cut into my ability to watch everything. I’ll get to the other four eventually but won’t wedge them into this list. 

    Some readers say Mr. Movie is too mainstream; others that he is too quirky. Well, this list has something for everyone. One thing of note: there are two 10s this year and that’s unusual. Back in the early 2000's there sometimes were three 10s. Maybe Mr. Movie is even more of a curmudgeon now? Well, the two 10s are both Best Movie nominees and I guess joining the crowd praising Oppenheimer is very mainstream. I think it is a certifiable classic that will be around for a long time. 

But enough chit chat. Here are what I thought were the 15 best from last year.

1- Oppenheimer 10

2- The Holdovers 10

3- Covenant 9

4- It Ain’t Over 9

5- Air 8

6- Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret 8

7- Still 8

8- Society of the Snow 8

9- Judy Blume Forever 8

10- Maestro 8

11- Killers of the Flower Moon 8

12- The Killer 8

13- Golda 9

14- Nyad 8

15- Sharper 8

    So where is Barbie? Out of the running with a 7. Many of these will appear in future articles as 2023 sleepers. Stay tuned!

                                                                Norman Jewison

                 Part 3

    It’s time to highlight the last great movies of esteemed director Norman Jewison and move on to other topics. All of these are ground-breaking, daring, and good.

A Soldier’s Story (1984) features Black actors in most of the major roles, unusual at the time. Denzel Washington has a supporting role in one of his first big movies. Adolph Caesar was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar but lost to Haing Ngor for The Killing Fields  and the movie itself was nominated for Best, but lost to Amadeus. The plot involves the murder of a black officer and the intricate peeling away of assumptions and prejudices. Howard Rollins portrays Major Davenport, the principal investigator. 

Agnes of God (1985) takes place in a convent where a dead baby is found in the room of a nun (Meg Tilly) who is covered with blood. She denies knowing anything about the conception or death of the baby. The Mother Superior (Anne Bancroft) gets the court to assign psychiatrist Martha Livingston (Jane Fonda) to discover what actually happened. She buys Agnes’ story that she is entirely naive and has no knowledge of carnal things. Bancroft and Tilly received Oscar nominations, but both lost.

Always known for his ability to extract great performances from his cast, Jewison did just that in Moonstruck (1987). Cher, known mostly as a brassy, abrasive singer portrays Loretta, and she is a wonder. Very feminine and winning, Cher steals the movie. Danny Aiello plays her fiance who she doesn’t really love. Nicholas Cage portrays his brother Ronny, and Loretta falls head over heels in lust with him. This time Norman Jewison lost the best directing Oscar to Bertolucci for The Last Emperor. My take on this is that he was robbed. You decide.

The next rabbit pulled out of the directorial hat came in In Country (1989) and here the surprise is Bruce Willis. Basically known as the sardonic lead in the Die Hard movies, here he is just quite excellent as Emmitt Smith, a returned Viet Nam veteran suffering from PTSD. His 17-year-old niece Samantha is played by Brit Emily Lloyd, dead on as a Kentucky teen ager. She dreadfully misses her father who was killed in Viet Nam and wants Emmitt to help her know more about him. Critics hated this film but I liked it a lot. 

And finally there is The Hurricane (1999). This is a splendid biopic about Ruben (Hurricane) Carter, an outstanding middleweight boxer wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in New Jersey. Denzel Washington is, of course, terrific as Carter. After 20 years in prison Carter was finally freed some time after the witness who falsely named him recanted. Denzel was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Kevin Spacey for American Beauty.

All of the films in this article are for grown-ups. Most are out there somewhere on some streaming service or another. For next time, I'm considering Mr. Movie's tops for 2023.

                                                           Norman Jewison

                                                         Part 2

    After 1966, Norman Jewison started knocking out major movies with major themes. While audiences and critics loved them, Hollywood often didn’t. 

In The Heat Of The Night (1967) was a major gamble for everyone involved. Sidney Poitier plays Virgil Tibbs, a top Philadelphia homicide cop. He is visiting his mother in Mississippi when a prominent citizen is found murdered. Police Chief Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger) originally charges Tibbs with the murder. Later he realizes his mistake and releases him. Tibbs is definitely ready to leave for home, but Gillespie convinces him to stay and help with the murder investigation. He does. The film won Best Movie and Best Actor for Rod Steiger. Jewison was nominated for Best Director but lost to Mike Nichols for The Graduate.

The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) features heavy hitters Steve McQueen (as Crown) and Faye Dunnaway (as Vicki Anderson, crack insurance investigator). Crown organizes a multi-million dollar bank heist, scoops up the money from a drop and apparently gets clean away. Vicki is convinced he is the villain and relentlessly pursues him. Romantic sparks complicate her job and Crown adeptly leads her on. There’s a neat surprise ending you won’t find here. There is a 1999 remake with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo which is slightly different and also quite good.

Fiddler on the Roof was a smash Broadway musical, still adored by audicences. Making it into a movie was a challenge. To start with, they used Topol instead of Zero Mostel as Tevye, the main character. And, the play is basically a one-set piece. In 1971 they got Norman Jewison to direct and he did a bang-up job, making the most of what he was dealt. He was nominated for the Oscar, but this time lost to William Friedkin for The French Connection. 

In 1973 Jewison undertook an even more challenging directorial job. Jesus Christ Superstar had also been a huge Broadway hit. It was not a huge success as a movie. The Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Weber score stands up well but it just doesn’t come across on the big screen. Most rock-operas don’t film well, and this is no exception. Also the cast is made up of completely unknown actors. 

And Justice For All (1979) is a star vehicle for Al Pacino as an out of control lawyer. The complicated plot involves a crooked judge, a crazy lawyer, and unlikely events. It really requires a suspension of belief, but if you can do that, it’s pretty good. 

All the movies in this article are for adults except Fiddler which is fine for mature children. All of them are probably available on some streaming service. And yes, there are still more Jewison movies to talk about. 

                                                                         Norman Jewison    

                                                                            Part One

    Norman Jewison, a very great director, left this vale of tears recently at the good old age of 97. He was nominated three times for a directing Oscar and won none. He was nominated four times for Best Picture and won once. They finally gave him the Irving Thalberg career (make-up) Oscar in 1999. Really, Hollywood? He was revered for his ability to get good performances from his cast.  His resume’ would make any director proud. Read on!

Forty Pounds of Trouble (1962) stars Tony Curtis as Steve McCluskey, a casino manager and Suzanne Pleshette as Chris Lockwood, his club singer. The title character is Penny Piper (Claire Wilcox), a small girl who is a major handful and is left to the care of Steve and Chris by her gambler father. Penny wants to be a match maker for Steve and Chris. This is one of the few movies filmed in part in Disneyland. With permission, of course. Lightweight, but likeable, with a long chase scene through the park as a highlight. 

The Thrill Of It All (1963) is another slight but successful effort by Jewison. Doris Day and James Garner are a happily married couple with two kids. He is a physician; she is a mom. She is hired to do commercials for Happy Soap which are a huge success. Her career causes problems for the marriage. Modern women will cringe at the ending, but hey, this was sixty years ago!

George Kimball (Rock Hudson) is a hopeless hypochondriac. On a routine check-up visit he hears his doctor on the phone describing a patient with only a few weeks to live. He believes the doc means him. So, he sets out with his best friend Arnold (Tony Randall- always the best friend!) to find a suitable husband for his wife Judy (Doris Day). Not the best idea for a movie ever, but an okay rom-com. Send Me No Flowers (1964) because George isn’t even sick, much less terminal.

In The Cincinnati Kid (1965) Steve McQueen is Eric Stoner, the title “kid”, an up and coming poker player from New Orleans. He discovers that Lancey Howard, reputedly the best player in America and known as The Man, is in town. Of course a legendary high-stakes game ensues. On the final hand of five-card stud, The Kid has a full house. Good enough? Watch and see. Jewison said this film enabled him to move on from lightweight comedies. 

Well, it isn’t lightweight but it sure is a comedy: The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming (1966) is absolutely hilarious and a good if unlikely story. A Russian sub ventures too close to the New England coast because the captain wants to see what America looks like. The sub runs aground and is stranded. A team of Russian sailors are sent inland to find a boat to tow the sub. Alan Arkin, in his first big part, is Alexi, leader of the expedition. The funniest scene happens when the Russian sailors steal some clothes from a dry cleaner and try to convince the residents to help them. The do not speak great English. 

All of the movies in this article are ok for all ages except Cincinnati Kid. Norman Jewison now enters the heavy hitter director category. Stay tuned!

                                                           Tom Wilkinson

                                                                Part 3

Perhaps you thought I was done with Tom Wilkinson after two articles. Nope. There’s actually lots more. Boy, could he pick his spots!

The Ghost Writer (2010) features Ewan McGregor as the unnamed title man hired to write the biography of a former British Prime Minister, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan). Complications involve shady dealings by the subject and the gradual revealing of Harvard Law Professor Paul Emmett (Wilkinson) as a clandestine CIA agent, inextricably tied to the people in the life of Lang and his family. Does the ghost writer find out too much? Watch and find out!

In The Conspirator (2010) Mary Suratt is accused of being among the conspirators to assassinate President Lincoln. Her defense is first attempted by former Attorney General Reverdy Johnson (Wilkinson), but he believes he cannot do justice to her defense because he is from the South. He convinces young attorney Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) to take over her defense. He reluctantly does so, and eventually believes she is innocent. Not giving away any more.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011) is just a really good time at the movies! It stars Dev Patel (from Slumdog Millionaire) as the proprietor of a run-down hotel in India. His advertisements lure several upper crust Brits to decide this is the place to retire to. Tom Wilkinson is a retired judge and one of the residents. Also on board are Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, and Bill Nighy. While the Brits quickly discover the hotel is not as advertised, they decide to stick it out and adventures ensue. 

Does Tom Wilkinson look one bit like LBJ? Nope, but in Selma (2014) he will convince you that he is LBJ in this film about that famous march across that famous bridge. Pretty historically accurate, this movie portrays that bit of history quite well. With a lot of cast members you never heard of, it convinces us that Dr. King was both brave and prescient about this iconic moment. 

The Catcher Was A Spy (2018) is not as good as it should have been. Moe Berg, a journeyman major league catcher, uses his trips to Japan and Germany to spy for the OSS (Now CIA). He provides valuable information to the United States about war preparations, locations and munitions as he barnstorms with his team. Tom Wilkinson has an admittedly small role in this one as Paul Schrerrer, one of the many contacts Berg uses to help the war effort. 

All of the films in this article are for grown-ups. You can actually find most of them somewhere if you want to. 

                                                                 Tom Wilkinson

                                                                Part 2

    Here’s another handful of really good flicks featuring the great professional, Tom Wilkinson.

In Rush Hour (1998) Tom Wilkinson is the very bad guy Griffin in a complicated plot involving the Hong Kong police and some stolen Chinese artifacts. Not his best part by far, but Wilkinson carries the water in this Jackie Chan potboiler

    Then comes the legendary Shakespeare In Love (1998) a multiple-award winning movie with Ralph Fiennes as William and Gwyneth Paltrow as his lover, Viola.. Tom Wilkinson portrays Hugh Fennyman- the money who finances the plays at the Globe. He lights a fire under Shakespeare’s rear to write a new play and the result is Romeo and Juliet. Fennyman plays his role as the apothecary to the hilt. Without this somewhat minor character we would not have Romeo and Juliet! Wilkinson never overplays, and that rings just the right bell in this extraordinary movie. 

    Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) though adored by the critics, has had a somewhat checkered relation with movie fans. Jim Carrey and Kate Winslett portray a couple whose love affair ran sharply aground. They each agree to have their memories of their partner erased by Lacuna, a company specializing in this procedure. Tom Wilkinson is on board as Dr. Mierzwiak, an employ of the company trying to convince the principals that this is a good idea. Okay- but what if it works and they later meet up again?

Tom Wilkinson was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in In The Bedroom (2001). He plays Matt Fowler the father of  young college grad Nick who gets tangled up with an older woman (Natalie Strout, played by Marisa Tomei). She is separated from her violent husband Frank. Answering Natalie’s frantic call for help, Nick goes to her home to find Frank breaking in. A fight ensues and Nick is shot dead. Frank is arrested but makes bond and the Fowlers have to endure seeing him walking freely around town. The Fowlers are told that Natalie won’t testify about the killing and that Frank will receive a minimal sentence. Matt decides to take justice into his own hands. Sissy Spacek plays Ruth Fowler. She and Wilkinson were both losers on Oscar night- Tom to Denzel Washington for Training Day and Spacek to Jennifer Connelly for A Beautiful Mind. Wilkinson is superb in a difficult role.

    Michael Clayton (2007) stars George Clooney as the a “fixer” of a somewhat shady law firm. Tom Wilkinson plays Arthur Edens, a firm partner going off the rails and threatening the firm’s reputation. It gets to the point that the firm hires hit men to take care of Arthur. Tom Wilkinson was nominated for Oscar but lost to Javier Bardem for No Country For Old Men. Playing a topnotch lawyer going slowly crazy is just grist for Tom Wilkinson’s mill. He’s the best thing in the picture.

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

                                                                     Glynis Johns

Her principal area of show business was the stage. .And she had a beautfiul voice, but unfortunately, her range was limited. So Stephen Sondheim wrote Send In The Clowns just for her to sing in A Little Night Music. Her movie resume’ is sterlling. 

Well, she lived to be 100 so you have to go back to 1938 to find her starting point as a movie actress. In South Riding the 15-year-old Glynis gets into a fight with another girl. Maybe not the beginning she would hope for, but from there it was straight up. 

Perhaps her best-known part was as Mrs. Banks in Mary Poppins (1964). She is the mother of children under the care of nanny Mary. Mrs. Banks is a suffragette and also perhaps a little scatter-brained. This film was nominated for 13 Oscars. It won five, including of course Julie Andrews as Mary. 

In the very underrated  and largely forgotten The Sundowners (1960) Ms. Johns was nominated for an Oscar for her part as Mrs. Firth, the owner of the pub featured prominently in the film. She lost her one shot at a statue to Shirley Jones for Elmer Gantry. Paddy Carmody (Robert Mitchum) is an itinerant sheep sheerer, always on the move. His wife (Deborah Kerr) wants to settle down. He does not. 

The Court Jester (1955) is pretty much owned by Danny Kaye (as Hubert Hawkins) but Glynis Johns has a nice turn as the captain of the rebels, Maid Jean.. She and Hawkins are ordered to deliver the imperilled royal child to safety. They encounter the king’s jester on the road. Jean knocks him out and convinces Hawkins to infiltrate the king’s court by impersonating the jester. There are several songs, all sung by Kaye, wasting Johns’ considerable talent.

Skip forward to 1994 for The Ref,  a somewhat complicated tale about a married couple who constantly quarrel and are taken hostage by Gus, a cat burglar. They continue to argue while with him and he has to tell them to shut up. Glynis Johns portrays Rose, the mother-in-law from Hell who browbeats and terrorizes everyone else in the movie. 

In While You Were Sleeping (1995) Sandra Bullock plays Lucy, a lonely toll taker. She rescues Peter Callahan (Peter Gallagher), who is pushed onto the tracks of an oncoming train. . He is taken to the hospital where Lucy tells the nurse she wishes she could marry Peter. The nurse misunderstands and tells everyone, including the entire Callahan family, that Lucy and Peter are engaged. Lucy then falls in love with Peter’s younger brother, Jack (Bill Pullman). Glynis Johns is on board as the slightly deluded grandmother.  When Peter wakes up from his coma and says he doesn’t know Lucy, it is assumed he has amnesia. It all ends well for everyone- hey, this is Hollywood!

All of the films in this article are fine for all ages. And, you can actually find some of these on streaming sites if you’ve a mind to. 

                                                                      Tom Wilkinson

                                                                            Part One

    I have long admired the quiet, underplayed acting of Tom Wilkinson, who left us last year at 75. Rarely the top banana, he was the go-to guy when you needed a solid back-up character actor. And he had a marvelous string of good performances in good movies. 

Priest (1994) is about a youthful Catholic priest whose homosexuality gets him banished to a small rural congregation with Father Matthew Thomas (Tom Wilkinson) as the senior, conservative priest. And yet, Father Thomas steps up to aid the young priest in his troubles and does all he can to help him. A solid, low-key Wilkinson performance. The 2011 film with the same title is a loser.

    The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) is the somewhat questionable story of blood-thirsty lions attacking humans. Tom Wilkinson is Sir Robert Beaumont, trying to build a railroad across Africa. Val Kilmer is the chief engineer on the job. To stop the carnage caused by the marauding lions, Beaumont enlists storied white hunter Charles Remington (Michael Douglas). From there, things get more complicated and the mighty hunter winds up the prey. 

The Full Monty (1997) is about a group of unemployed steel workers in Britain who decide to earn money by putting on a male stripping show. They tell prospective customers they will be better than the famous Chippendale strippers because they will go The Full Monty (totally nude). In a very surprising role, Tom Wilkinson appears as Gerald Cooper, their former boss and a talented dancer, who the group hires to teach them some moves. Of course this works out, or it wouldn’t be much of a movie!

Smilla’s Sense of Snow (1997) features Tom Wilkinson as a consummate bad guy. He plays Professor Loyen, who performed the autopsy in the Inuit boy whose death is the centerpiece of the movie. Smilla (Julia Ormond) has a sense that something isn’t right about this death. Their ensues an incredibly complicated plot I will not attempt to resurrect here. Tom Wilkinson was just fine as the bad guy. Nuff said!

Wilde (1997) is a somewhat truncated biopic about the British author Oscar Wilde, played here with winning flamboyance by Stephen Fry. He falls into a flaming homosexual relationship with foppish nobleman Bosie Douglas, whose stern father The Marquess of Queensberry (Tom Wilkinson) violently objects to their liaison. This pushes Wilde to sue the Marquess for libel. Bad idea. Wilde’s homosexuality is revealed and he winds up going to prison. Wilkinson is winingly hateful in this film.

Nothing here for littlies. These are for adults. 

                                                                 Norman Lear films

He had to live to 101 to get it all in! Norman Lear was a giant of show business, producing TV shows and movies galore. And he had five TV shows and one movie still in production when he died! It’s no exaggeration to say that he absolutely owned television in the 1970's. Just take a quick look at his shows:

Sanford and Son 135 episodes (1972-77)

Maude 142 episodes (1972-78)

All In The Family 207 episodes (1971-79)

Good Times 133 episodes (1974-79)

One Day At A Time 209 episodes (1975-84)

The Jeffersons 253 episodes (1975-85)

And yet, he also had lots of movies tied to his name, usually as the main producer. The first film of note is Come Blow Your Horn (1963) from an early comedy stage play by Neil Simon. But Lear wrote the screenplay. The film features some legendary actors: Frank Sinatra, Mollie Picon and Lee J. Cobb. Sinatra plays Allan Baker, a consummate Manhattan playboy, delighted to teach his younger brother Buddy (Tony Bill) lots of bachelor tricks. The laughs are plentiful. 

And there are plenty of world-class actors in the splendid The Princess Bride (1987). Directed and Produced by Rob Reiner, with Norma Lear as Executive Producer, this film is on the National Film Registry. And it should be. It is dubbed a “fantasy adventure comedy” film. It features Carey Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn and Robin Wright. It’s the story of a swashbuckling farm boy who sets out to rescue the lovely Princess Buttercup. Many dangerous adventures, mostly funny, are encountered on the way. 

Never Too Late (1965), produced by Lear, doesn’t sound funny but it is. Harry Lambert (Paul Ford)  and his wife Edith (Maureen O’Sullivan)  portray a married couple well into their 60's. They have grown children who are also married and have children. On a routine visit to the doctor, Edith finds out she is pregnant. A real surprise to the entire family! The tag line is good: “Last year there were twenty-two million accidents in the home. This is about one of them.” Coping with this situation makes for a bittersweet comedy. Interesting side note: No mention of the A world. This is the 1960's.

Norman Lear executive produced Start The Revolution Without Me (1967), a frantic comedy set in medieval France. Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland portray two sets of identical twins. One set is elite and haughty, the other set is poor and stupid. They are somehow mixed up by the populace and high jinks follow. It’s hard to find a film that divided critics and audiences more- most either loved it or hated it. 

Lear took a chance and executive produced Rita Moreno: A Girl Who Decided To Go For It (2021) a documentary about the title lady’s incredible rise from Puerto Rican poverty to brilliant star. How she fought off racism, sexism and other isms is inspiring. In her fantastic career she was featured in both versions of West Side Story,   1961 and 2021!

All of the movies in this article are pretty much ok for all ages, factoring in some boredom for littlies.