2015 SLEEPERS
Part 1
This begins a series of articles where I mention movies from last year that didn’t get a lot of attention but I think are worth a look.
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.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is so real and wonderful it will wring your heart out. It features three first-time actors who are just super. Olivia Cooke is Rachel, the title girl. She is rather reluctantly befriended by Greg (Thomas Mann) and later by his friend Earl (R.J. Cyler). Their interaction is completely believable and so very touching. There is hardly an ounce of sentiment in this film, which could have been a smarmy tear-jerker but certainly is not. I love this movie.
When Marcie Was There is the latest, and perhaps last (?) entry from Japan’s greatly revered Ghibli studio. Although it does not have the touch of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki (Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, etc), it has the signature drawing of each frame. Even if the story weren’t good, which it is, the animation alone is worth a look. It is just so gorgeous it will take your breath away. And it is a good story: A lonely orphaned girl discovers her identity in a very unusual way. It is ethereal and altogether wonderful. As usual with productions from this studio, you could hang each frame on your wall and be glad you did.
Only hours after I wrote the above paragraph, Ghibli released 1991's Only Yesterday, never before seen in America. Something to really look forward to!
Malala Yousafzai spoke out for women’s rights in her home country of Pakistan. The Taliban responded by shooting her in the head. She survived and became a spokesperson for the rights of women in extremely restrictive Muslim societies. He Named Me Malala is the story of her attack, recovery and undaunted will to advance the cause of her gender against great odds. You cannot help but like and admire this courageous young woman, and her story is quite a good one. Her father named her after a legendary Afghan woman who fought for the rights of women, and she proves to be worth of her name.
Wild Tales is a Spanish film that more than lives up to its title. The movie is a series of vignettes about crazy coincidences. They do not seem to me to be related, and some are better than others. The best shows a group of passengers on an airliner who gradually discover they have all done bad things to one man- who turns out to be the pilot of the plane! All the others are nearly as good. What fun!
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. Really all but the last one are ok for general audiences. That one is for adults.
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Sunday, February 21, 2016
LAUREN BACALL
Lauren Bacall left the screen and stage at 89. She was nominated once for an Academy Award for the dreadful The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). She was quite good in it, but deservedly lost to Juliette Binoche for The English Patient. She won one of those “lifetime achievement” deals (known in sports as a “make-up call”) in 2010. To see her good movies, you have to go back to the 40's and 50's, and with today’s technology, you can!
To Have and Have Not (1944) was her first movie, and it co-starred future husband Humphrey Bogart. With a screenplay by William Faulkner, this story of a reluctant gun-runner and his hot babe still smokes. When she looks back at Bogie and says “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow,” her career was duly launched. Bogie and Baby started a torrid affair three weeks into the film and a year later they were married. They remained together until his death in 1957.
Mr. Bogart and Ms. Bacall are on hand again for Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (1946). I know, I know, the story has holes you could drive a Hummer through- but who cares? You can’t stop watching this pair of legends.
Key Largo (1948) has Bacall and Bogart, plus Edward G. Robinson (“Yeah,See!”) and Oscar winning Claire Trevor. It’s the character-driven story of a bunch of innocents being held hostage by a gangster (Robinson, of course) during a hurricane. Really good!
Mr. Bogart is nowhere to be found in Young Man With A Horn (1950). This time it’s Kirk Douglas as a compulsive trumpet player and Doris Day as his goody-goody girlfriend. Ah, but Ms. Bacall steals the film as the bad girl!
In both Woman’s World (1954) and Designing Woman (1957) Lauren Bacall is way ahead of the times as a tough career woman with a voice that can melt steel (and guys).
That’s about it, though there are many more films. But Ms. Bacall then went on to Broadway, where she had even more success. She won several Tonys, including her wonderful role as Margo Channing in Applause (based on the movie All About Eve, but with Bette Davis, not Ms. Bacall). In that show and many others, she used that deep contralto voice to great effect, and she could sing up a storm!
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are suitable for all ages, factoring in the boredom quotient for littlies.
###
Lauren Bacall left the screen and stage at 89. She was nominated once for an Academy Award for the dreadful The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). She was quite good in it, but deservedly lost to Juliette Binoche for The English Patient. She won one of those “lifetime achievement” deals (known in sports as a “make-up call”) in 2010. To see her good movies, you have to go back to the 40's and 50's, and with today’s technology, you can!
To Have and Have Not (1944) was her first movie, and it co-starred future husband Humphrey Bogart. With a screenplay by William Faulkner, this story of a reluctant gun-runner and his hot babe still smokes. When she looks back at Bogie and says “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow,” her career was duly launched. Bogie and Baby started a torrid affair three weeks into the film and a year later they were married. They remained together until his death in 1957.
Mr. Bogart and Ms. Bacall are on hand again for Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (1946). I know, I know, the story has holes you could drive a Hummer through- but who cares? You can’t stop watching this pair of legends.
Key Largo (1948) has Bacall and Bogart, plus Edward G. Robinson (“Yeah,See!”) and Oscar winning Claire Trevor. It’s the character-driven story of a bunch of innocents being held hostage by a gangster (Robinson, of course) during a hurricane. Really good!
Mr. Bogart is nowhere to be found in Young Man With A Horn (1950). This time it’s Kirk Douglas as a compulsive trumpet player and Doris Day as his goody-goody girlfriend. Ah, but Ms. Bacall steals the film as the bad girl!
In both Woman’s World (1954) and Designing Woman (1957) Lauren Bacall is way ahead of the times as a tough career woman with a voice that can melt steel (and guys).
That’s about it, though there are many more films. But Ms. Bacall then went on to Broadway, where she had even more success. She won several Tonys, including her wonderful role as Margo Channing in Applause (based on the movie All About Eve, but with Bette Davis, not Ms. Bacall). In that show and many others, she used that deep contralto voice to great effect, and she could sing up a storm!
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are suitable for all ages, factoring in the boredom quotient for littlies.
###
Sunday, February 14, 2016
SAVE THE VILLAGE
There’s a little village somewhere in the UK. In order to save it, or part of it, the villagers must do something slightly illegal, immoral or both. The Brits have wedged at least six fun movies into this little niche.
Waking Ned Devine (1998) heads the list. Villager Ned Devine has died in his humble little cottage. Clutched in his cold, dead hand is a winning lottery ticket. The winner must be alive and present the ticket in person. The villagers contrive to make this happen, and when the lottery man comes to check up, the hi-jinks go on and on. A hoot from start to finish.
When the steel mill in the Sheffield area shuts down, the men in the village have little to do and nothing to look forward to. So they decide to become male strippers and put on a show for money. Lots better than this summary sounds, The Full Monty (1997) was a huge hit and later a successful Broadway musical.
The distaff side of the same plot fuels Calendar Girls (2003) when the village women decide to raise money by selling pin-up calendars, with themselves as the girls. With the redoubtable Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, this one can’t miss and is fun all the way.
The local shoe factory has always turned out handmade, high quality shoes. Now everyone wants cheap and the factory and its workers are on the edge of going under. The new manager decides there is a market for Kinky Boots (2005) and indeed, there is! This one also went on to be a hit Broadway musical.
The little village’s one claim to fame is being the location of the highest mountain in Wales. When the British government measures and declares it isn’t high enough to be a mountain, it is only a hill, the villagers take matters into their own hands. With Hugh Grant at his aw-shucks best, The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill, But Came Down A Mountain (1995) is a winner.
During wartime, a ship loaded with Scotch whiskey runs aground off the Tight Little Island (1949) and the villagers strive to keep it a secret from the occupying Germans and assorted baddies.
In Saving Grace (2000) it isn’t the village to be saved, but one impoverished widow with a green thumb. The wonderful Brenda Blethyn is the widow and her talent is raising marijuana, which is of course worth quite a lot of Euros.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are fine for 10 and up.
There’s a little village somewhere in the UK. In order to save it, or part of it, the villagers must do something slightly illegal, immoral or both. The Brits have wedged at least six fun movies into this little niche.
Waking Ned Devine (1998) heads the list. Villager Ned Devine has died in his humble little cottage. Clutched in his cold, dead hand is a winning lottery ticket. The winner must be alive and present the ticket in person. The villagers contrive to make this happen, and when the lottery man comes to check up, the hi-jinks go on and on. A hoot from start to finish.
When the steel mill in the Sheffield area shuts down, the men in the village have little to do and nothing to look forward to. So they decide to become male strippers and put on a show for money. Lots better than this summary sounds, The Full Monty (1997) was a huge hit and later a successful Broadway musical.
The distaff side of the same plot fuels Calendar Girls (2003) when the village women decide to raise money by selling pin-up calendars, with themselves as the girls. With the redoubtable Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, this one can’t miss and is fun all the way.
The local shoe factory has always turned out handmade, high quality shoes. Now everyone wants cheap and the factory and its workers are on the edge of going under. The new manager decides there is a market for Kinky Boots (2005) and indeed, there is! This one also went on to be a hit Broadway musical.
The little village’s one claim to fame is being the location of the highest mountain in Wales. When the British government measures and declares it isn’t high enough to be a mountain, it is only a hill, the villagers take matters into their own hands. With Hugh Grant at his aw-shucks best, The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill, But Came Down A Mountain (1995) is a winner.
During wartime, a ship loaded with Scotch whiskey runs aground off the Tight Little Island (1949) and the villagers strive to keep it a secret from the occupying Germans and assorted baddies.
In Saving Grace (2000) it isn’t the village to be saved, but one impoverished widow with a green thumb. The wonderful Brenda Blethyn is the widow and her talent is raising marijuana, which is of course worth quite a lot of Euros.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are fine for 10 and up.
Saturday, February 6, 2016
CRIMEDIES
What do you call a crime movie that’s also funny? How about “crimedies”? There are several entries in this somewhat off-beat category.
I think one of the very best is Prizzi’s Honor (1985). Jack Nicholson has a fine old time as a slow-witted hitman from a very curious, and notorious, family He is in over his head when he courts Kathleen Turner, who has talents of her own. Angelica Huston won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, as the Mafia Mom from Hell. Her father, John, directed. The screenplay, from a Richard Condon novel, is superb.
Get Shorty (1995), is based on one of Elmore Leonard’s quirky novels. John Travolta is a minor-league mob enforcer who comes to Los Angeles on “business.” His life-long desire to produce a movie is seized upon by Sleazy Hollywood Guy Gene Hackman. Danny De Vito, Rene Russo, Delroy Lindo and James Gandolfini appear as various low-lifes and movie wannabes. The plot is convoluted but very funny.
In The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Bruce Willis moves into the quiet suburban neighborhood of dentist Matthew Perry. Learning Willis is actually a Mafia hit-man, Perry decides he can get big bucks by telling the right people where the hit-man is hiding out. Bad idea! Amanda Peet and Rosanna Arquette add to the scenery and the merriment.
Michelle Pfeiffer’s hitman husband dies and she tries to get away from his Mafia connections in Married To The Mob (1988). Then it turns out that the local crime boss, deftly played out-of-character by Dean Stockwell, is much enamored with Ms. Pfeiffer. A stellar cast includes Matthew Modine, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusak and Mercedes Ruehl.
Alec Guiness is a drab, anonymous bank clerk with a crazy scheme for robbing an armored car in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951). The thugs he recruits to pull this off are somewhat lacking in expertise, but not in humor. The excellent screenplay won the Oscar for T.E.B. Clarke. Audrey Hepburn’s very short screen debut occurs in the first scene. Don’t blink or you’ll miss her.
Tough guy Edward G. Robinson shows his comedy talents in the delightful Larceny, Inc. (1942). He and his chums decide to run a luggage store because it is next door to a bank they want to break into. But the business somehow prospers and that gets in the way of their nefarious plans. Jack Carson, Jane Wyman, Anthony Quinn, and especially Broderick Crawford are included in a fine cast.
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are fine for 12 and up.
###
Sunday, January 31, 2016
RONALD REAGAN
They called him the Teflon president, and the Great Communicator. He was both, and our elected leader for eight years. He came to fame as an actor. Was Ronald Reagan any good? Actually, this yellow-dog Democrat has to admit, he was pretty good.
Reagan was a contract player at Warner Brothers, meaning he had to appear in any film the studio mandated. For over 25 years, he carried Warner’s water in over 50 mostly forgettable movies.
Reagan was George Gipp to Pat O’Brien’s Knute Rockne in Knute Rockne, All-American (1940). It’s a mediocre football movie, even if you’re a Notre Dame fan, but Reagan is just fine. Reagan’s death-bed admonition to “win one for the Gipper” is the best thing in the film, and provided him with one of his nick-names.
Probably Reagan’s best part is in Kings Row (1941), the story of people in a small Midwestern town, with Ann Sheridan and Robert Cummings. Reagan is excellent as a good-hearted rogue who loses his legs. Reagan used his memorable line, “Where’s the rest of me?”, as the title of an autobiography. His coping with paraplegia is a high point in his career.
Throughout his political career, Reagan took a lot of bad-natured kidding for Bedtime for Bonzo (1951). He is a college professor who raises a chimp as a child for
an experiment. Neither he nor the chimp is very good, but the script is worse.
In The Winning Team (1952) Reagan effectively plays the great Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander. While Alexander’s acute alcoholism is glossed over in the best Hollywood fashion (it’s somehow not his fault), his appearance in the 1926 World Series is very well done. I like the way Reagan plays this crucial part of the movie- not too schmaltzy, and with an air of mental toughness that is probably close to the truth.
Reagan is certainly cast against type in the so-so remake of the Hemingway story The Killers (1964), in which he is absolutely chilling as a vicious Mafia boss. This was Reagan’s last film, and in it he showed he could be convincing as a villain. By the way, the 1946 version of this film, with Burt Lancaster, is far superior. The only reason to catch the remake is to see the Gipper as a really bad guy.
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All except The Killers are fine for kids 10 and up.
They called him the Teflon president, and the Great Communicator. He was both, and our elected leader for eight years. He came to fame as an actor. Was Ronald Reagan any good? Actually, this yellow-dog Democrat has to admit, he was pretty good.
Reagan was a contract player at Warner Brothers, meaning he had to appear in any film the studio mandated. For over 25 years, he carried Warner’s water in over 50 mostly forgettable movies.
Reagan was George Gipp to Pat O’Brien’s Knute Rockne in Knute Rockne, All-American (1940). It’s a mediocre football movie, even if you’re a Notre Dame fan, but Reagan is just fine. Reagan’s death-bed admonition to “win one for the Gipper” is the best thing in the film, and provided him with one of his nick-names.
Probably Reagan’s best part is in Kings Row (1941), the story of people in a small Midwestern town, with Ann Sheridan and Robert Cummings. Reagan is excellent as a good-hearted rogue who loses his legs. Reagan used his memorable line, “Where’s the rest of me?”, as the title of an autobiography. His coping with paraplegia is a high point in his career.
Throughout his political career, Reagan took a lot of bad-natured kidding for Bedtime for Bonzo (1951). He is a college professor who raises a chimp as a child for
an experiment. Neither he nor the chimp is very good, but the script is worse.
In The Winning Team (1952) Reagan effectively plays the great Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander. While Alexander’s acute alcoholism is glossed over in the best Hollywood fashion (it’s somehow not his fault), his appearance in the 1926 World Series is very well done. I like the way Reagan plays this crucial part of the movie- not too schmaltzy, and with an air of mental toughness that is probably close to the truth.
Reagan is certainly cast against type in the so-so remake of the Hemingway story The Killers (1964), in which he is absolutely chilling as a vicious Mafia boss. This was Reagan’s last film, and in it he showed he could be convincing as a villain. By the way, the 1946 version of this film, with Burt Lancaster, is far superior. The only reason to catch the remake is to see the Gipper as a really bad guy.
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All except The Killers are fine for kids 10 and up.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
ALAN RICKMAN
His very distinctive face was perfect for the part of Severus Snape, the apparent villain with a secret heroic heart in all the Harry Potter movies. Alan Rickman left us prematurely at 69. He had an interesting film career beyond the Potter epics.
In the original Die Hard (1988) Rickman is the arch-villain Hans Gruber. He is head of an evil group of criminals who pull off a daring heist. This film launched Bruce Willis’ career as an action star.
You can’t get much more evil than Alan Rickman’s character (Elliott Marston) in Quigley Down Under (1990). Tom Selleck plays Quigley, a noted sharpshooter who is hired by Marston for his long-range shooting ability. He thinks he is to kill dingoes. Turns out he is supposed to kill Aborigines. He refuses and is beaten and taken to the middle of the outback to die. He is rescued by- guess who- Aborigines! And from there it gets even more interesting.
Alan Rickman is the lead character in the very strange Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990). He plays Jamie, a dead cellist. His bereft girlfriend (Juliet Stevenson) is visited by Jamie’s ghost. At least we think so. At first she is enchanted, but when he starts turning up the heat to 90 and moving furniture, not so much. There is a surprise ending you won’t find here.
In the also strange mocumentary Bob Roberts (1992) Tim Robbins plays a right-wing folksinger running for the Senate. His campaign is a laundry list of sleazy tactics, and his campaign manager, Lukas Hart III, is portrayed by Alan Rickman. You just may recognize some of the people and some of the tricks they pull. The film is now almost too close to the truth to be a satire...
Michael Collins (1996) is loosely based on a character from the Irish rebellion of 1916. The title character is played by Liam Neeson. Alan Rickman plays Eamon De Valera, who is on the opposite side of the revolt from Collins, but who later became Irish Prime Minister. Rickman’s character definitely does not play nice...
Alan Rickman actually gets to play a good guy in Jane Austen’s Sense And Sensibility (1999). He is Colonel Brandon, suitor of the Dashwood family’s younger daughter, Marianne (Kate Winslet). She originally rejects him because of his age, but later in the story she gradually changes her mind as his good qualities appear. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay and portrays the elder sister, Elinor. She is Sense to Marianne’s sensibility.
Johnny Depp is Sweeney Todd (2007) the murderous barber of Fleet Street. Alan Rickman is the notorious Judge Turpin, whose questionable sentencing of Todd pushed him into his career as a throat-cutting barber. At first, Swenney misses a chance to dispose of Turpin. He then proceeds to butcher a large part of London’s male population, who are then ground up into meat pies by Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter). Todd gets another chance at his nemesis and doesn’t miss this time. Folks, this is a musical!
Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan seems something of a stretch, yet that is his role in The Butler (2013). Forest Whittaker plays the title character, who serves many presidents as head of the White House domestic staff. The Reagan character is both celebrated and criticized as the plot develops.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for mature audiences.
His very distinctive face was perfect for the part of Severus Snape, the apparent villain with a secret heroic heart in all the Harry Potter movies. Alan Rickman left us prematurely at 69. He had an interesting film career beyond the Potter epics.
In the original Die Hard (1988) Rickman is the arch-villain Hans Gruber. He is head of an evil group of criminals who pull off a daring heist. This film launched Bruce Willis’ career as an action star.
You can’t get much more evil than Alan Rickman’s character (Elliott Marston) in Quigley Down Under (1990). Tom Selleck plays Quigley, a noted sharpshooter who is hired by Marston for his long-range shooting ability. He thinks he is to kill dingoes. Turns out he is supposed to kill Aborigines. He refuses and is beaten and taken to the middle of the outback to die. He is rescued by- guess who- Aborigines! And from there it gets even more interesting.
Alan Rickman is the lead character in the very strange Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990). He plays Jamie, a dead cellist. His bereft girlfriend (Juliet Stevenson) is visited by Jamie’s ghost. At least we think so. At first she is enchanted, but when he starts turning up the heat to 90 and moving furniture, not so much. There is a surprise ending you won’t find here.
In the also strange mocumentary Bob Roberts (1992) Tim Robbins plays a right-wing folksinger running for the Senate. His campaign is a laundry list of sleazy tactics, and his campaign manager, Lukas Hart III, is portrayed by Alan Rickman. You just may recognize some of the people and some of the tricks they pull. The film is now almost too close to the truth to be a satire...
Michael Collins (1996) is loosely based on a character from the Irish rebellion of 1916. The title character is played by Liam Neeson. Alan Rickman plays Eamon De Valera, who is on the opposite side of the revolt from Collins, but who later became Irish Prime Minister. Rickman’s character definitely does not play nice...
Alan Rickman actually gets to play a good guy in Jane Austen’s Sense And Sensibility (1999). He is Colonel Brandon, suitor of the Dashwood family’s younger daughter, Marianne (Kate Winslet). She originally rejects him because of his age, but later in the story she gradually changes her mind as his good qualities appear. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay and portrays the elder sister, Elinor. She is Sense to Marianne’s sensibility.
Johnny Depp is Sweeney Todd (2007) the murderous barber of Fleet Street. Alan Rickman is the notorious Judge Turpin, whose questionable sentencing of Todd pushed him into his career as a throat-cutting barber. At first, Swenney misses a chance to dispose of Turpin. He then proceeds to butcher a large part of London’s male population, who are then ground up into meat pies by Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter). Todd gets another chance at his nemesis and doesn’t miss this time. Folks, this is a musical!
Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan seems something of a stretch, yet that is his role in The Butler (2013). Forest Whittaker plays the title character, who serves many presidents as head of the White House domestic staff. The Reagan character is both celebrated and criticized as the plot develops.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for mature audiences.
Sunday, January 17, 2016
ANGELS
The subject of angels obviously fascinates us. An internet search engine churns out seventeen million hits. Billy Graham wrote a book about them. Hollywood has used angels in many fine films.
Perhaps the most famous angel in movies is the wonderful Clarence, played with self-effacing grace by Henry Travers, in It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). This charming angel shows Jimmy Stewart what life in his town would have been without him, and redeems Stewart and the entire movie.
Emma Thompson is the impressive angel in Angels In America (2003), an HBO mini-series with Al Pacino as the late unlamented Roy Cohn, and Meryl Streep as several characters, including Ethel Rosenberg. Most of the actors in this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama play multiple roles. It is six hours long and worth every minute.
Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) and various and sundry other baseball angels wander out of the cornfield in the wonderful Field of Dreams (1989). Kevin Costner built it (the baseball field) and they indeed came. James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan add to a fine cast in a wonderful Hollywood fantasy.
In Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit Rex Harrison uses wacky medium Margaret Rutherford to bring back the spirit of his late wife, which doesn’t turn out to be a great idea, but is certainly one filled with fun and laughter. This angel doesn’t think much of her successor, and lets everyone know it in a myriad of interesting ways.
Wim Wenders’ offbeat Wings of Desire (1988) features a couple of melancholy angels hanging around Berlin and apparently seen only by American Peter Falk. One of
the angels (Bernard Ganz) decides he’s tired of comforting mortals and wants to return to earth as a normal person. It’s not to all tastes, but is certainly entertaining.
Cary Grant is the angel sent to help David Niven and Loretta Young raise the money for a new church in The Bishop’s Wife (1947), a charming movie that brings back the kids from It’s A Wonderful Life (Karolyn Grimes and Bobby Anderson) as an added bonus.
Angels in the Outfield has actually been made twice, and both are pretty good. I prefer the 1951 version with Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh and Keenan Wynn. The 1994 version has Danny Glover, Tony Danza and Brenda Fricker. The story involves angels answering the prayers of a child to assist a last-place baseball team.
Heaven Can Wait (1978) is about an angel making a terrible mistake. When LA Rams quarterback Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty) is seriously injured, a rookie angel (Buck Henry) prematurely snaps him up and carts him to heaven. Joe complains bitterly and sure enough, it turns out he had many years of life on earth left. Well, his body has been cremated so another body must be found. It is. Then it gets complicated but is loads of fun.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. Angels In America and Wings of Desire are for grown-ups; the rest are suitable for all ages.
The subject of angels obviously fascinates us. An internet search engine churns out seventeen million hits. Billy Graham wrote a book about them. Hollywood has used angels in many fine films.
Perhaps the most famous angel in movies is the wonderful Clarence, played with self-effacing grace by Henry Travers, in It’s A Wonderful Life (1946). This charming angel shows Jimmy Stewart what life in his town would have been without him, and redeems Stewart and the entire movie.
Emma Thompson is the impressive angel in Angels In America (2003), an HBO mini-series with Al Pacino as the late unlamented Roy Cohn, and Meryl Streep as several characters, including Ethel Rosenberg. Most of the actors in this Pulitzer Prize-winning drama play multiple roles. It is six hours long and worth every minute.
Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta) and various and sundry other baseball angels wander out of the cornfield in the wonderful Field of Dreams (1989). Kevin Costner built it (the baseball field) and they indeed came. James Earl Jones and Amy Madigan add to a fine cast in a wonderful Hollywood fantasy.
In Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit Rex Harrison uses wacky medium Margaret Rutherford to bring back the spirit of his late wife, which doesn’t turn out to be a great idea, but is certainly one filled with fun and laughter. This angel doesn’t think much of her successor, and lets everyone know it in a myriad of interesting ways.
Wim Wenders’ offbeat Wings of Desire (1988) features a couple of melancholy angels hanging around Berlin and apparently seen only by American Peter Falk. One of
the angels (Bernard Ganz) decides he’s tired of comforting mortals and wants to return to earth as a normal person. It’s not to all tastes, but is certainly entertaining.
Cary Grant is the angel sent to help David Niven and Loretta Young raise the money for a new church in The Bishop’s Wife (1947), a charming movie that brings back the kids from It’s A Wonderful Life (Karolyn Grimes and Bobby Anderson) as an added bonus.
Angels in the Outfield has actually been made twice, and both are pretty good. I prefer the 1951 version with Paul Douglas, Janet Leigh and Keenan Wynn. The 1994 version has Danny Glover, Tony Danza and Brenda Fricker. The story involves angels answering the prayers of a child to assist a last-place baseball team.
Heaven Can Wait (1978) is about an angel making a terrible mistake. When LA Rams quarterback Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty) is seriously injured, a rookie angel (Buck Henry) prematurely snaps him up and carts him to heaven. Joe complains bitterly and sure enough, it turns out he had many years of life on earth left. Well, his body has been cremated so another body must be found. It is. Then it gets complicated but is loads of fun.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. Angels In America and Wings of Desire are for grown-ups; the rest are suitable for all ages.
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