Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Watch Jalopy Online

Jalopy (1953)Jalopy (1953)iMDB Rating: 7.4
Date Released : 15 February 1953
Genre : Comedy
Stars : Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Robert Lowery
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Those wacky Bowery Boys invent a super fast fuel, which will help them win an auto race (isn't this cheating?). However, the fuel is stolen by the bad guys just before the big race.

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Review :

The Bowery Boys Take a Lap

Jalopy jockey Leo Gorcey (as Terrence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney) hopes to win some much-needed money, in a derby; but, his so-called "Mahoney Meteor" slowly crashes into last place. When mugging sidekick Huntz Hall (as Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones) accidentally invents a super fuel, "The Bowery Boys" think they have what it takes to win the big race. Of course, rival racer Robert Lowery (as "Skid" Wilson) wants to steal the secret formula. Regulars Bernard Gorcey (as Louie Dumbrowsky), David "Condon" Gorcey (as Chuck), Benny "Bennie" Bartlett (as Butch) have more to do than usual - but, with the film series in a tired, repetitive rut, it doesn't mean much. Busty model Jane Easton (as Bobbie Lane) carries the film's main attractions.

*** Jalopy (2/15/53) William Beaudine ~ Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Robert Lowery

Streaming Hell's Outpost (1954) Online

Hell's Outpost (1954)Hell's Outpost (1954)iMDB Rating: 6.6
Date Released : 15 December 1954
Genre : Action, Crime
Stars : Rod Cameron, Joan Leslie, John Russell, Chill Wills." />
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Streaming Carrie Online

Carrie (1952)Carrie (1952)iMDB Rating: 7.5
Date Released : 31 October 1952
Genre : Drama, Romance
Stars : Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Miriam Hopkins, Eddie Albert. Carrie boards the train to Chicago with big ambitions. She gets a job stitching shoes and her sister's husband takes almost all of her pay for room and board. Then she injures a finger and is fired. This is the 1890s. Charles Drouet, a salesman she met on the train, comes to her rescue, invites her to dine at Fitzgerald's where the manager George Hurstwood sends over a bottle of champagne. Stay ..." />
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Carrie boards the train to Chicago with big ambitions. She gets a job stitching shoes and her sister's husband takes almost all of her pay for room and board. Then she injures a finger and is fired. This is the 1890s. Charles Drouet, a salesman she met on the train, comes to her rescue, invites her to dine at Fitzgerald's where the manager George Hurstwood sends over a bottle of champagne. Stay in Drouet's apartment. He will be on the road 10 days. When she leaves the apartment many months later -- on a train bound for New York -- her traveling companion is Hurstwood. Why is he in such a hurry?

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Review :

beautifully made drama with a staggering performance by Olivier

Not for nothing is Laurence Olivier heralded as one of the greatest actors of our time, and if ever a film proved it, it's "Carrie," an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie." Dreiser is the man who brought us "An American Tragedy," remade as "A Place in the Sun." Poor Dreiser - he must have been one miserable human being to write such stories of man's desolation.

"Carrie" is the story of a distinguished man, George Hurstwood (Olivier) who runs a large Chicago restaurant, and how his obsession with a beautiful young woman, Carrie (Jennifer Jones) destroys his social standing, his reputation, and his life.

Miserable in a loveless marriage to Julie (Miriam Hopkins), George meets Carrie while she is living with a salesman, Charlie (Eddie Albert). One thing that the film points out is that there were so very few opportunities for women in the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th. After losing her job due to injury at a shoe-making factory, Carrie drifts into friendship and then is seduced into a relationship with Charlie. She is never comfortable with the arrangement and wants to get married. Very naive and inexperienced at life, when she falls in love with George, she expects him to marry her, not realizing that he's already married. An angry, vicious Julie goes to George's boss with the tale of her husband's immorality. After a confrontation with his boss and Julie, George panics, takes money he intended to give to the restaurant owner, and runs away with Carrie. Thus, he becomes a fugitive. But his troubles are just beginning.

William Wyler skillfully directed this film, which has one of Olivier's best screen performances as George. "I want love!" he screams at his wife. "And I intend to have that before I die!" Desperate, obsessed, weak, but proud, Olivier gives a fully fleshed-out portrayal of a man at the end of his rope whose great passion - in a more devastating way

  • will ruin his life almost as surely as his suppression of passion


would have. How he wasn't nominated for an Oscar is a true mystery; it is one of the all-time great film portrayals. He will break your heart.

As Carrie, Jennifer Jones is excellent as an unhappy young woman who, because of poverty, innocence, and George's determination, is dragged into a downward spiral. She is dazzlingly beautiful and one can see her grow from a vapid, victimized girl into a woman who hides her resentment and has a strong resolve. Jones has been criticized for being passive in this part - but it's a passive role. She's a young country girl in the big city at a time when society was totally male-oriented and most doors were closed to her. She is the cause of George's destruction, but not on purpose. George is such a weak man that the only type of person he could ever dominate would be someone like Carrie - and finally, he isn't even able to dominate her.

Hopkins was a master at playing a shrew, but more than that, she was a brilliant actress who knew the art of playing period pieces, as she demonstrated so admirably in "The Heiress." Eddie Albert is good in the familiar role of a likable salesman, but it had an added twist - this one had ulterior motives, but he was so smiley and gregarious, you almost couldn't believe it.

Well worth seeing but have a box of tissues nearby. You'll ask yourself, too, how Olivier and the film could have been overlooked at Oscar time.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Streaming Guerrilla Girl Online

Guerrilla Girl (1953)Guerrilla Girl (1953)iMDB Rating: 4.6
Date Released : 23 January 1953
Genre : Thriller, War, Drama
Stars : Helmut Dantine, Marianna, Irene Champlin, Ray Julian. Demetri Alexander, during the Nazi occupation of Athens during WW II, is posing as a Nazi officer while working for the underground, and falls in love with Zaira, another underground agent. They are separated at war's end and when they meet again he is a member of the Greek government forces while she has joined the Communist-dominated resistance movement." />
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Demetri Alexander, during the Nazi occupation of Athens during WW II, is posing as a Nazi officer while working for the underground, and falls in love with Zaira, another underground agent. They are separated at war's end and when they meet again he is a member of the Greek government forces while she has joined the Communist-dominated resistance movement.

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Streaming Geraldine (1953) Online

Geraldine (1953)Geraldine (1953)iMDB Rating: 6.1
Date Released : 16 December 1953
Genre : Comedy, Music, Romance
Stars : John Carroll, Mala Powers, Jim Backus, Stan Freberg. Janey Edwards, working for Cambria Records, is managing the personal appearance tour of sobbing songster Billy Weber, and Janey is disgusted when Billy leaves her at Santa Fe College with orders to get the rights, by hook or crook, to a folk song they had heard sung by Grant Sanborn , music instructor at the school. Posing as a co-ed, Janey gets Grant to give her a recording of the folk song ..." />
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Janey Edwards, working for Cambria Records, is managing the personal appearance tour of sobbing songster Billy Weber, and Janey is disgusted when Billy leaves her at Santa Fe College with orders to get the rights, by hook or crook, to a folk song they had heard sung by Grant Sanborn , music instructor at the school. Posing as a co-ed, Janey gets Grant to give her a recording of the folk song which he has made, and then takes it to her boss, Jason Ambrose, in New York. Ambrose is unimpressed by the folk song, but is sold on Grant's voice and he assumes that Grant has been put under contract. Janey returns to the college to get Grant to sign a contract but not telling him that Cambria Records only wants him to record popular songs and is not interested in his folk music. Along with dummy recordings of his folk songs, Janey gets Grant to record one new song, "Geraldine", which immediately becomes a big hit. Janey refuses to bring Grant back to New York to make more records because the ...

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Review :

Freberg is better than Ray.

Janey Edwards (Mala Powers), working for Cambria Records, is managing the personal appearance tour of sobbing songster Billy Weber (Stan Freberg, as a parody version of pop-singer Johnny Ray), and Janey is disgusted when Billy leaves her at Santa Fe College with orders to get the rights, by hook or crook, to a folk song they had heard sung by Grant Sanborn (John Carroll), music instructor at the school.

Posing as a co-ed, Janey gets Grant to give her a recording of the folk song which he has made, and then takes it to her boss, Jason Ambrose (Jim Backus), in New York. Ambrose is unimpressed by the folk song, but is sold on Grant's voice and he assumes that Grant has been put under contract. Janey returns to the college to get Grant to sign a contract but not telling him that Cambria Records only wants him to record popular songs and is not interested in his folk music. Along with dummy recordings of his folk songs, Janey gets Grant to record one new song, "Geraldine", which immediately becomes a big hit.

Janey refuses to bring Grant back to New York to make more records because the company hasn't marketed his folk music, as promised. Ambrose tells her the folk-music album has just been ordered into release and, feeling now that Grant will get a fair deal, she returns to Santa Fe with the album. What she does not know is the album has been faked by Ambrose, and one of the records, included by mistake, is that of Billy Weber singing the folk song stolen from Grant.

Watch Flame of Calcutta (1953) Online

Flame of Calcutta (1953)Flame of Calcutta (1953)iMDB Rating: 5.4
Date Released : 20 July 1953
Genre : Adventure, Action, Romance
Stars : Denise Darcel, Patric Knowles, Paul Cavanagh, George Keymas
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Size : 700 MB

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Indian woman stands up for her people in 1750s India.

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Review :

Fun in color, better than expected.

On September 3, 2009, I saw this film at the Cinecon Festival in Hollywood, at the Egyptian Theater. It was the first time it had been shown in color since the early 1950s; somehow it ended up in black and white for TV. Seen in its original luscious Technicolor, it was much better than what I expected from a Sam Katzman B-movie. Sure, the acting is grade B (most of the actors later ended up on television), but the action is fun and the plot is easy to follow. The star is French actress Denise Darcell, who was also (at age 85) on hand at the Egyptian to talk about it after the screening. Apparently she was being hyped by Columbia as "the French Marilyn Monroe," but on screen she has very little charisma and even less va-va-voom. Joseph Mell and Ted Thorpe steal the show as a couple of bungling beggars and spies, always willing to change sides at the drop of a silver coin and seemingly always just one step ahead of being hanged. Still, I can't imagine how anyone sat through this film when it was in mere black and white.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Streaming Too Young for Love (1953) Online

Too Young for Love (1953)Too Young for Love (1953)iMDB Rating: 7.8
Date Released : 22 August 1953
Genre : Comedy
Stars : Aldo Fabrizi, Marina Vlady, Pierre-Michel Beck, Fernand Gravey." />
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Streaming Easy to Love (1953) Online

Easy to Love (1953)Easy to Love (1953)iMDB Rating: 6.3
Date Released : 25 December 1953
Genre : Comedy, Musical, Romance
Stars : Esther Williams, Van Johnson, Tony Martin, John Bromfield
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Set against the background of Florida's Cypress Gardens, and featuring many stretches of water carnival-ballet numbers, the slight story line finds swimming star Julie Hallerton (Esther Williams) in love with Ray Lloyd (Van Johnson), her boss and the creator and operator of the operation. She stays mostly wet, while he stays mostly disinterested in anything other than the cash receipts.

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Review :

Easy to Love Esther

What's good: beautiful Esther Williams. Enough can't be said about this. She was positively radiant the entire film. No actress brought technicolor to life like Esther Williams. Tan, fit, gorgeous Esther. Also the great Busby Berkeley aquatic numbers. Esther Williams plus Busby Berkeley equals a win every time.

What's bad: the men. Unfortunately, Esther is saddled with rather poor love interests here in Tony Martin and Van Johnson. There's no great chemistry to be had with either but Martin tries his soggy best. I definitely felt like he was attracted to Esther, although in a kind of scuzzy greaseball sort of way. He also has several terrible songs. MGM was pushing him extra hard in this. He wouldn't stop singing those terrible songs! I like Van Johnson but he's as exciting a male lead as a wooden plank. So bland and colorless. Esther really had some crappy choices here.

Honestly it's not one of the greats. The plot of Esther wanting Van but all he thinks about is business so she tries to make him jealous with Tony is pretty flimsy and the romance is blechh. But see it for the stunning Esther Williams in technicolor and the wonderful production numbers choreographed by the great Busby Berkeley.

Watch Cocktails in the Kitchen (1954) Online

Cocktails in the Kitchen (1954)Cocktails in the Kitchen (1954)iMDB Rating: 5.7
Date Released : 20 June 1955
Genre : Comedy, Romance
Stars : Dirk Bogarde, Susan Stephen, Cecil Parker, Eileen Herlie. In postwar London a young graduate and his girlfriend decide to marry. Her well-to-do parents are not convinced, but they agree once he has got a £5.10.0 job and a 30/- a week single-room flat. The newly-weds find money fearfully tight, the flat cramped, the neighbours a trial, and her parents always hovering. Can faith conquer all? Is there some way of getting rid of tea-leaves except down the ..." />
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In postwar London a young graduate and his girlfriend decide to marry. Her well-to-do parents are not convinced, but they agree once he has got a £5.10.0 job and a 30/- a week single-room flat. The newly-weds find money fearfully tight, the flat cramped, the neighbours a trial, and her parents always hovering. Can faith conquer all? Is there some way of getting rid of tea-leaves except down the sink?

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Review :

Too unremittingly 'pleasant'?

"For Better, For Worse" is a representative example of comfy cosy middle-class 1950s British cinema. Tony (Dirk Bogarde) and Ann (Susan Stephen) are an awfully nice young couple of newly-weds from upper middle-class families who find it expensive to set up home in the West End of London. They have to settle for a rented studio flat with furniture on hire purchase. Being much in love, Ann really doesn't mind living in a style decidedly more modest than that to which she is accustomed - but how does one host a proper dinner-party in such very trying circumstances?

There are various reasons for their finding themselves in this dilemma. Perhaps the most plausible is the housing shortage of the time. Then Tony, though educated at Charterhouse and Oxford, can find work only as a grade-three clerk on £5 10s per week. Strange this, given that the 1950s were not a time of especially high unemployment. Ann cannot take a job herself: "My fiancé thinks a woman's place is in the home". They are too proud to accept money from Mummy and Daddy, so they have to make do as best they can. "There are hundreds of us in the same boat," exclaims Tony. This nod in the direction of socio-economic criticism hardly convinces.

Genteel light comedy of this sort depends on its charm. Bogarde gives his usual proficient performance (on the lines of his Simon Sparrow in the 'Doctor' series). Susan Stephen seemed considerably less effective in the eyes of this viewer - not sufficiently appealing, to be frank - but what constitutes charm is always very subjective. Dennis Price and Peter Jones do their comic turns as an estate-agent and a second-hand car-dealer - rather like their roles in the later (and much funnier) "School for Scoundrels" - though even these apparently shady characters turn out be rather nice really. The working-class types (chief among them a charlady played by Thora Hird) are all predictably quaint.

British comedy films of the 1950s are commonly attacked as bland, complacent, shallow, and 'unduly bourgeois'. Often I would wish to rally to the defence. In the case of "For Better, For Worse", however, it would surely be far wiser not to give battle.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Streaming Blowing Wild Online

Blowing Wild (1953)Blowing Wild (1953)iMDB Rating: 6.6
Date Released : 16 December 1953
Genre : Action, Adventure, Drama, Western
Stars : Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Ruth Roman, Anthony Quinn. In a hypothetical country in South America, Jeff Dawson and his partner Dutch Peterson have invested all their savings in a lease contract to explore oil. However, their expectation ruins when bandits blow the derrick of the oil well with dynamite and they get stranded in the town without any money. In despair, they accept the risky transportation of nitroglycerin to raise US$ 800.00 and Dutch is..." />
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In a hypothetical country in South America, Jeff Dawson and his partner Dutch Peterson have invested all their savings in a lease contract to explore oil. However, their expectation ruins when bandits blow the derrick of the oil well with dynamite and they get stranded in the town without any money. In despair, they accept the risky transportation of nitroglycerin to raise US$ 800.00 and Dutch is shot in the leg by road thieves; but Jeff discovers that their employer is a trickster and they area not paid for their job. When their former friend Paco Conway meets them, Jeff finds that he is a local tycoon and is married with Marina Conway, who had a past with him. Paco hires Jeff his foreman to help him with his eighteen oil wells while Dutch is recovering in the hospital. Meanwhile the criminals press Paco to pay US$ 50,000.00 otherwise they will blow his wells and Marina revives her love and desire for Jeff, leading the trio to a tragedy.

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Review :

Great early 50's movie

I remember seeing this as a14 year old in England when it was first released. It has stuck in my mind ever since. The combination of Gary Cooper's world weary persona, Dimitri Tiomkin's evocative score, the great rendition of the title song by Frankie Laine and the powerful sense of loss and what might have been all combine to make a fantastic couple of hours. One thought did occur when I watched it again last night was how old the characters all were... We take it for granted today that most roles are played by 25-35 year old actors (and actresses)that to see Cooper, Stanwyck, Quinn, Bond etc. brings one up with start. Lovely film, though, and I look forward to seeing it again.

Watch Call Me Madam Online

Call Me Madam (1953)Call Me Madam (1953)iMDB Rating: 7.0
Date Released : 1 April 1953
Genre : Comedy, Musical, Romance
Stars : Ethel Merman, Donald O'Connor, Vera-Ellen, George Sanders
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Boisterous, fun-loving, and popular Washington D.C. hostess Sally Adams is appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Lichtenburg, Europe's smallest country. In Lichtenburg, the Duke and Duchess are negotiating a political marriage for their niece, Princess Maria in exchange for a substantial dowry. However, the country is desperate for funds, and turns to the inexperienced ambassador for a much needed U.S. loan. Sally refuses to talk money, that is, until she meets the ultra charming Gen. Cosmo Constantine. Meanwhile, Sally's press attaché Kenneth Gibson falls head over heels for Princess Maria.

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Review :

That Hostess With The Mostess

Movie audiences got a treat in Call Me Madam because they got to see Ethel Merman repeat one of two of her Broadway roles for the screen, the other being in the first Anything Goes.

For some reason, movie audiences never really took to Ethel. She did some parts during the Thirties, but in the Forties worked exclusively on Broadway. Mary Martin suffered a similar fate and we never got to see any of her Broadway starring roles with the exception of the famous telecast of Peter Pan.

Irving Berlin wrote the score for Call Me Madam and the book is based on the colorful life of Perle Mesta, famous Washington socialite who Harry Truman made ambassador to Luxembourg.

That's the way of things in Washington. Both parties with a new administration give ambassadorships out to wealthy contributors and Perle Mesta, an oil widow was one of the wealthiest.

Ethel is appointed by President Truman as Ambassador to the mythical duchy of Lichtenburg. Her rather informal style sets some professional State Department teeth rattling and during the course of the film both causes and solves a diplomatic crisis. Her personal assistant, Donald O'Connor is in her corner, but the chief of Protocol Billy DeWolfe is at his wit's end.

Both Ethel and Donald find romance in Lichtenburg, she with Count George Sanders and he with Vera-Ellen. When things aren't looking so good, they console each other with the hit song of Call Me Madam, You're Just In Love. This is what you call a contrapuntal melody with both members of the duet singing different melodies at the same time. At the same time this one was hitting the jukeboxes, another contrapuntal by Berlin, Play A Simple Melody was revived by Bing Crosby and his son Gary. To my knowledge no other major composer has ever had a hit with one of those.

George Sanders surprised quite a few folks with his singing voice. They needn't have been, he in fact had appeared in some musicals on the London stage before going into film. And he drops the sneer that usually accompanies most of us film characters and makes a most dashing and romantic count.

Dropped from the film version was Irving Berlin's tribute to Dwight D. Eisenhower which became his campaign theme song, I Like Ike. I guess it was considered redundant since the American people already had him. There are many references to Harry in the book and how Ethel was going to not let him down in the position he placed her in.

Billy DeWolfe steals every scene he's in as the fussy officious career foreign service employee, Pemberton Maxwell. If there ever was a name for a stuffy career WASP diplomat, that's it. They were a ripe target back then, certain politicians made a living on accusing a whole flock of them as traitors. One of them was Truman's Secretary of State, Dean Acheson. There manner didn't play well in what we would now call red state America.

Call Me Madam is bright and funny with a great score and some fabulous performances. Can't do better than that.

Watch Drums of Tahiti (1954) Online

Drums of Tahiti (1954)Drums of Tahiti (1954)iMDB Rating: 5.1
Date Released : 23 April 1954
Genre : Adventure
Stars : Dennis O'Keefe, Patricia Medina, Francis L. Sullivan, George Keymas
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Size : 700 MB

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In 1877, Tahiti secretly plans to revolt against France, aided by British gun-runners who are no match for police commissioner Duvois. Now, prosperous American Mike Macklin is persuaded by Queen Pomare to help. As an excuse for sailing to San Francisco, he must enlist a "wife" of convenience; enter gold-digging showgirl Wanda Spence. Will Mike tame her or ignore her in favor of inauthentic dancer Mawaii? A hurricane's brewing, the natives are restless...and so is the volcano!

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Review :

Exciting romance about the attempt of the Queen of Tahiti to liberate her islands from the French.

This is a delightful little adventure/romance which could just as easily have fit Bogie and Bacall, though I doubt if they could have done better than O'Keefe and Medina. O'Keefe is great as the tough American merchant in Tahiti who turns out to be a sucker for the underdog, and joins Queen Pomare's attempt to import guns from San Francisco in order to start a revolution against the French. In order to allay the French Commissioner's suspicions, he states that he is only going to Frisco to get married, but the Commissioner unexpectedly decides to accompany him, in order to be best man at his wedding. The shenanigans that occur as O'Keefe tries to find a woman to play the part of his intended bride while he is secretly obtaining guns, and the love/hate relationship that develops between he and Medina. under the watchful eye of the suspicious Commissioner are delightful, and Francis L. Sullivan deserves a lot of credit for his performance as the lovable but shrewd Commissioner, as well. Very entertaining!

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Streaming Aida Online

Aida (1953)Aida (1953)iMDB Rating: 5.5
Date Released : 8 October 1954
Genre : Musical
Stars : Sophia Loren, Renata Tebaldi, Lois Maxwell, Ebe Stignani." />
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Review :

Handsome film production of Verdi's classic Aida succeeds in making grand opera more accessible to the masses.

The whole point of making this film, one of the earliest and best international color releases of cinematic opera, was to make it more accessible to the masses. And it succeeded admirably in doing so. The general public would not sit still for a love story about two young exotic lovers in ancient Egypt if played by the typical 300 pound over 40 tenor and soprano with the vocal equipment to sing the glorious music properly. Hence the visual substitution of the beautiful principals (a young Loren, handsome Della Marra, and a slinky Ms. Maxwell)who make the story much more believable, giving those not familiar with the plot or the music a better chance at being wooed into the lovely arias who otherwise might not be. Altogether, an enchanting introduction to one of Verdi's great works. I remember seeing this when I was in junior high school and it certainly awakened my interest in opera, a form with which I was then not well acquainted. I still regard this film fondly and would recommend it highly to those who might appreciate the great music accompanied by better than average visuals. Luciano Della Marra was a standout as Radames, and unfortunately for audiences did not appear in any other films.

Watch Calamity Jane Online

Calamity Jane (1953)Calamity Jane (1953)iMDB Rating: 7.3
Date Released : 4 November 1953
Genre : Comedy, Musical, Western
Stars : Doris Day, Howard Keel, Allyn Ann McLerie, Philip Carey
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Size : 700 MB

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Deadwood, Dakota Territory, is largely the abode of men, where Indian scout Calamity Jane is as hard-riding, boastful, and handy with a gun as any; quite an overpowering personality. But the army lieutenant she favors doesn't really appreciate her finer qualities. One of Jane's boasts brings her to Chicago to recruit an actress for the Golden Garter stage. Arrived, the lady in question appears (at first) to be a more feminine rival for the favors of Jane's male friends...including her friendly enemy Wild Bill Hickock.

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Review :

Doris Day's shining hour

In the early fifties, Hollywood had to find a way to draw audiences who were staying home and watching television, and "Calamity Jane" was one of the best musical efforts to get them into the theaters. This movie's redeeming quality is its high spirits. They never let up. The Deadwood community that James O'Hanlon rustles up is a motley bunch of soldiers, scouts, prospectors and farmers, and they all have a good time giving one another a hard time--none more so than the title character played by Doris Day. Her performance probably owes something to Betty Hutton's Annie Oakley, and it looks an awful lot like what Billie Hayes and Irene Ryan had been doing years afterwards, but Day dons a buckskin suit and tears right into the role like it was a tailor's fit.

I don't think I have to go into the rumor about the real Calamity Jane to point out how daring Day's work is. Hollywood might have sanitized history (or maybe not), but Day is as close to being Martha Jane Canary as anyone is likely to be in a time when drag acts were something no one ever talked about. And she is lucky to have some of the best movie music of that year (or maybe any year when you consider what now passes for good). Sammy Fain and John Francis Webster took the Oscar for best song, yet the ones that weren't in the running are every bit as good.

How can you pass up a musical that delivers the deeply satisfying baritone of Howard Keel? When he bursts out with joy in "Higher than a Hawk," the light from the screen surges, and you feel like you're resting on a sunlit cloud right next to his. His smile matches Day's for brightness, and as they ride through the Black Hills singing harmony, even the birds seemed to have stopped to listen. It's a beautiful pairing that I don't think ever happened again.

"Calamity Jane" may not be everyone's cup of tea. If you're looking for history, this is not the place to go. But stop by, and Day and Keel and Dick Wesson and Allyn Ann McLerie and Paul Harvey and company will more than tickle your fancy. They'll keep you humming for days.

Directed by David Butler who has given us over the years a string of felicitous moments to remember from Will Rogers in "A Connecticut Yankee," to Jane Withers in "Bright Eyes," to the Ritz Brothers in "Kentucky Moonshine," to Bob Hope in "Road to Morocco," to S.Z. Sakall in "Lullaby of Broadway" and on and on and on.

Watch Drum Beat (1954) Online

Drum Beat (1954)Drum Beat (1954)iMDB Rating: 6.5
Date Released : 8 April 1955
Genre : Western, Adventure
Stars : Alan Ladd, Audrey Dalton, Marisa Pavan, Robert Keith. President Grant orders Indian fighter MacKay to negotiate with the Modocs of northern California and southern Oregon. On the way he must escort Nancy Meek to the home of her aunt and uncle. After Modoc renegade Captain Jack engages in ambush and other atrocities, MacKay must fight him one-on-one with guns, knives and fists." />
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President Grant orders Indian fighter MacKay to negotiate with the Modocs of northern California and southern Oregon. On the way he must escort Nancy Meek to the home of her aunt and uncle. After Modoc renegade Captain Jack engages in ambush and other atrocities, MacKay must fight him one-on-one with guns, knives and fists.

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Review :

A Little Known True Incident

One of Alan Ladd's better post Paramount films was Drum Beat, based on a little known incident from the Indian wars.

For the first time an American general was killed during the wars against the Indian tribes. The little known Modoc war was another of those lesser known conflicts as action against the Sioux on the Great Plains and the Apache in the Arizona desert got far more attention.

The Modocs were moved from a reservation in northern California to one in Oregon to share with the Klamath, a tribe that had a long feuding history with the Modoc. That was the immediate cause of the war. It was kept going by one of the Modoc's more charismatic leaders, a chief named Captain Jack.

On April 11, 1873, General E.R.S. Canby among other peace commissioners who were sitting in council with Captain Jack and the other chiefs were suddenly shot and killed, in fact Captain Jack personally did shoot General Canby. Charles Bronson in his very first film with that name having dropped his real birth last name of Buckinsky plays Captain Jack. Warner Anderson plays the feckless and luckless Canby.

The horror of that incident aroused some bad public opinion against the Modocs, not to dissimilar against to what was aroused against the Japanese after Pearl Harbor and Islamist extremists after the World Trade Center attack albeit on a much smaller scale. It certainly shifted priorities for a while in the War Department from the Sioux and the Apache.

Alan Ladd plays a real frontier figure named Johnny MacKay who as the film has him was a civilian scout employed by the army to find Captain Jack. His role in real life was not at the center stage of the film, but he did play a part in the Modoc Wars. And he was not among the surviving peace commissioners he wasn't at the meeting when the assassinations happened.

For all its inaccuracies Drum Beat is the only film I know to deal with this incident that shocked a nation during The Gilded Age.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Streaming Cabaret Online

Cabaret (1954)Cabaret (1954)iMDB Rating: 6.4
Date Released : 6 November 1957
Genre : Drama
Stars : Paul Henreid, Eva Kerbler, Fritz Schulz, Dorit Kreysler." />
Movie Quality : BRrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

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Watch Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Online

Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953)iMDB Rating: 6.7
Date Released : 1 August 1953
Genre : Comedy, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Stars : Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Boris Karloff, Craig Stevens
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 870 MB

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Slim and Tubby are American cops in London to study police tactics. They wind up in jail and are bailed out by Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll has been murdering fellow doctors who laugh at his experiments. He has more murders in mind. At one point the serum that turns Jekyll into the murderous Hyde gets injected into Tubby.

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Review :

Oldie but still a goldie.

Have just sat down and re-watched this film with my 3 kids and can definitely say that they loved it. Although by this time in their careers Abbott & Costello's top movie double-act crown was being swiped by those new kids Martin & Lewis,this movie was a box office smash when first released and still holds up well today. The mixture of comedy and horror works a treat as it had done in " Meet Frankenstein" a number of years earlier and Karloffs performance adds real class to the tomfoolery on screen. Of course the Universal depiction of turn of the century London,( all fog shrouded streets and fish & chip shops ) leaves a lot to be desired,I think it adds to the films charm in much the same way as when used in the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes mysteries of the same period. Bud and Lou carry off their roles well and the romantic subplot seems not to intrude as much as in the boys earlier wartime comedies. All in all a good little film to be watched on a rainy Monday afternoon.