dollywest Reviews

Clash by Night (1952)

Disappointing

[3/10 · 19 May 2024]

Very surprised to find this film disappointing - given the director and cast. Whatever great talents are involved in this - and whatever the stage play it's based on - the story as presented doesn't hold. None of the three leads has any viable purpose, and they are surrounded by purposeless extra characters... among whom, not surprising that Marilyn Monroe is not remembered for this... in contrast to her previous stunning cameo in All About Eve - here she has nothing to do or be. The leads - Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas, Robert Ryan - are type-cast, and not allowed to do or be anything more.

Laura (1944)

style, haunting music...

[7/10 · 26 February 2024]

Mainly what remains of Laura... So many reviews already, and I can hardly add much. Just watched it again this evening on ARTE in France, and can't help but compare Gene Tierney to The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and Dana Andrews to The Best Years of Our Lives, in which each actor really lives and breathes... Here they are barely alive, overwhelmed by the artifice of style, image and sound that is the bill of goods being sold. I imagine as a first run on a big screen the unfolding plot probably was intoxicating... now it just seems tired, and all the more dominated by the bitchy trio of Webb, Anderson, and Price, while the "good guys," Gene and Dana, fade away...

Downton Abbey (2010–2015)

preposterous

[2/10 · 26 December 2023]

I have come very belatedly to this famous series -- attracted by the quality of acting -- and have now seen a number of episodes -- in addition to the feature film which followed. When I realized that the writing was subject to the availability of the actors, and that preposterous outcomes for featured characters were concocted to accommodate disappearances, I gave up as a faithful viewer. What insults to the audience -- to assume we cannot fathom a change in casting...! How many different actors have embodied Hamlet... or Mr. Darcy... or any other universally-known character...? You ask me to suspend belief and follow this tapestry of tales, and I'm a willing taker, drinking in the decor and the detail and the fantasy ride... but when I suddenly grasp that neither Sybil nor Matthew had to die so prematurely... or so preposterously... the whole house of cards comes crashing down, and I can't watch any more of this blatantly commercial flytrap which has no basis in character.

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

The Best Years of Our Lives: How are we doing?

[9/10 · 17 July 2022]

Surely one of the greatest movies ever to come out of Hollywood, The Best Years of Our Lives remains eminently watchable nearly 80 years later and just as moving in the honesty of its human relationships and interactions. Enjoying it yet again recently, I couldn't help but note two points where I begged to differ with the viewpoint of the time... one, Marie is presented as a "bad guy" for wanting to keep her job... and two, the pacifist in the drugstore, also presented as a "bad guy," doesn't start the fight with Homer and Fred... In both cases these "bad guys" threaten the prevailing sentiment of the time for male privilege (Fred gets to have a job, not Marie) and for loyalty to country and to the military, no matter what... threats intolerable at that time, which linger with us even now. Indeed the overall subject of how returning veterans survive is also very much with us today. The Best Years of Our Lives will remain a classic of prime importance to all of us, for every reason, not just because it is superbly made but also because it makes us look at crucial questions vital to us to this very day, and challenges us: How are we doing?

Just an update: I love this movie, and realize that it's not only one I admire, but also eminently watch-able, over and over. Why? I guess because the characters' emotions and thoughts project as real, authentic -- I always get caught up in what they're living, even if it's acting... Further thoughts on changes in these 80 years... The women in the film are all good guys (Millie, Peggy, Wilma, Hortense...) or bad (Marie -- all by herself in this category...). The men are allowed to be good and bad, they are portrayed more in-depth, more complex... it's still very much a man's world... Sooo, Myrna Loy and Virginia Mayo -- plus Gladys George -- are indeed able to overcome this one-dimension characterization by the sheer spark and presence they have on screen... Not so much Theresa Wright and Cathy O'Donnell (newcomer at the time) -- they appear bland and a little too submissive to be really interesting in their own right. I think the film suffers from not allowing -- or encouraging -- them to rise to the marvelous spark and presence of their romantic partners, played by Dana Andrews and Harold Russell.

More thoughts: Television keeps bringing this back, and it remains irresistible... Now in 2024, I'm really tempted to imagine improvements that every viewing provokes... 1 - Marie keeps her job, and that helps Fred find even temporary employment as bartender... 2 - Rob doesn't disappear (just because the producer didn't want the cost of renewing the actor's contract...!) -- he helps Homer re-connect with Jackson High where he gets a great job as basketball coach... 3 - Homer and Fred don't physically attack the man in the drugstore (a lamentable, over-the-top violent action) -- they just get into a shouting match with him, which draws the manager who fires Fred on the spot.

Food for thought...

Marnie (1964)

Unusual theme

[7/10 · 25 October 2021]

Having watched this numerous times -- it grabs your attention -- I am struck by the unusual theme of a man, so enamored of a woman that he goes to extreme lengths to save her, with compassion and most unusual empathy. All the more intriguing as the man is played by alpha male Sean Connery, who admitted in an interview with Barbara Walters that he could be styled as a "male chauvinist pig"... This may not be Alfred Hitchcock's best work, but it stands as unique in male/female relations on screen, and I applaud.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

What if...?

[9/10 · 10 February 2021]

Everyone loves this movie and all the actors in it -- a classic of class, humor, wit... Seeing it yet one more time, it occurred to me to wonder what the movie might have been, or the play, if the journalist/photographer couple were the main interest -- and played by the irrepressible Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn -- leaving the Dexter Haven/Tracy Lord couple to the equally delightful, but somewhat less flamboyant James Stewart and Ruth Hussey? A double wedding at the end, why not? George Kitteridge, here played by John Howard, would have had to bow out in any case, as the one who doesn't get the girl. Why does this occur to me? Primarily because the journalist and photographer have potentially much more interesting and comedic roles to play in this otherwise rather tame society story -- Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn would have been unleashed (as in Bringing Up Baby, for example...). Of course, Katharine Hepburn was following up on her stage performance and making a come-back in Hollywood, so not likely, just musing...

Sabrina (1995)

Sydney Pollack is not Billy Wilder, or a world lost...

[6/10 · 7 June 2019]

Anyone who loves Billy Wilder's Sabrina from 1954 will be intrigued by this re-make of the classic, which has a certain amount of charm of its own. Unfortunately, it is a remake of a classic, and it only stands on its own feet if you've never seen the first Sabrina. One of the reviews I read points out that this later Sabrina is suited to its time, the 1990s -- granted. And the script cleverly updates a lot of details from the earlier period -- but... this is where it begins to lose seriously. And it's not so much the artistic prowess of director and actors but indeed the world of the 1990s as opposed to that of the 1950s, and what that earlier world had to offer in aspirations to style, to charm, to luxury. Anyone who ever crossed the Atlantic on an ocean liner and personally knows the difference between that experience and any airline flight, including the (now defunct) Concorde, is struck by what has been lost, and it is considerable indeed (even if the original 25,000 krone inflates to one million dollars)... The original actors -- the incomparable Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden (titans indeed) -- radiated the spirit of their time, imbued as they were with the style and luxury that was theirs. The very competent but -- inevitably by comparison -- bland Julia Ormond, Harrison Ford, Greg Kinnear offer up what they can from their time, the 1990s, but -- not any particular fault of theirs -- it's a paler world, and Sydney Pollack is not Billy Wilder, how could he be...

(Years later) just to say, Sabrina 1995 has grown on me... mainly by Harrison Ford's solid charm -- this remake could be called "Linus"... Audrey Hepburn entrances us with her magic sparkle, but here Harrison Ford holds everything together, and walks away with it.

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

A perfect movie, eminently watchable, always interesting

[10/10 · 2 June 2019]

This Ang Lee / Emma Thompson adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility is such perfection that it is hard to find anything at all to criticize, even if liberties are liberally taken with Austen's novel. To begin with, it is an exquisite visual experience, enhanced by grand music, every frame a mini-masterpiece, so that it is a little as if Vermeer led us through the story. And of course the production values are top-drawer in every detail of period setting, costumes, etc. The cast is stellar (with just the idea that Edward and Elinor remain a little too in awe of the Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson who play them... Could other actors, slightly less imposing, have brought out these main characters better?) Everyone else is perfect, with extraordinary performances from Kate Winslet as Marianne, Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon, Greg Wise as the villanous Willoughby, and the striking presences of Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs. Jennings and Robert Hardy as Sir John Middleton. Emilie François is prodigious in naturalness as the young Margaret Dashwood. It is a feast to be enjoyed over and over and a classic for all time of what cinema can and should be.

Eat Pray Love (2010)

Beautiful quest composed entirely in the American mind

[3/10 · 2 June 2019]

It's hard to complain about having sat through this movie, when many elements of it are enjoyable to look at or listen to... But like the book which the movie is in sync with, you get a very hollow feeling in your stomach when you begin to realize that only in America could this kind of "spiritual" quest be concocted. In that sense, it is a rather extraordinary portrait of the American mind, a closed circuit of wall-to-wall carpeted material concerns leading -- like the culture -- nowhere, or to a kind of soporific dream of wish fulfillment, in which the only possible happy ending can be a Javier Bardem as "the Man." Along the way, you get to eat pasta, gelato, drink great wines from elegant glasses, swim in turquoise waters, dance at a riotously colorful Indian wedding, lounge in your own mosquito-netted plush double bed in a dreamy Balinese bungalow... and wake up to the utter emptiness and desolation of the American mind. It is a rude, if luxurious, awakening to our one-dimensioned materialistic reality.

Rope (1948)

A Grotesque Attempt by a Master Filmmaker

[1/10 · 25 April 2019]

I've seen Rope several times for different reasons and again recently. Each time, I've found it more and more disturbing and feel that it ought to be banned. Discussions in professional reviews of how well Hitchcock succeeded or failed in this experiment with time and place (adaptation of a one-set stage piece) avoid the real problem of the subject matter: murder is OK of "inferiors"... And this in 1948, right on the heels of the Nazi philosophy which murdered millions... Now, we've hardly advanced in morality, and our fellow beings are murdered every day, everywhere, their killers apparently thinking it's OK to murder "inferiors" or "enemies" or whomever. Further with all the social inequities we struggle with, Rope displays a very unfortunate portrait of a homosexual couple and their vision of themselves, their "friends" and the world around them. We hardly need this either. For every reason, I would like to see Rope shelved permanently, or available of course only to filmmakers and film historians in professional circumstances but not for the public, especially not for the public we now have.

Two Weeks Notice (2002)

Negative reaction throughout

[1/10 · 21 January 2019]

I just watched this for the first time and had to resist dropping out... Very disappointed despite the popularity and charm of these stars... perhaps it belongs to its era, 2002, but that is not so long ago. Mostly, I'm disappointed in Sandra Bullock for producing it, quite frankly a mish-mash of stereotypes (do-gooders, the ultra-wealthy, ethnic characters), wading through a phony, manipulated situation, which all adds up to what I would have to call "white trash" junk. The cameo of Donald Trump as Himself crowns it! Of course, looking at it now in 2019, the irony is thick. Sandra Bullock should be ashamed, as should be Hugh Grant.

Heat (1995)

The End of Macho Violence

[29 August 2018]

I just discovered this movie, many years later, too late really to give it a proper review. It belongs to another time, another place, the ultimate crash of macho violence, ending centuries of weaponry and warfare as the only purpose to human existence. We've now come to the point of extinction, and this endless screen obscenity is the perfect trailer for the Apocalypse we now face, thanks to this kind of thinking and "artistic" expression. Riding on the weight of its two stars, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, the movie uses them to personify the good and evil in the human spectrum, but Pacino and De Niro simply cancel each other out. After all, what memorable performances do we have from them which are not drenched in crime? Highly competent, and very talented obviously, neither is well used nor memorable in this overblown killing machine. I saw this on TCM and would recommend to TCM, and to any other distributor, that this particular movie be retired permanently -- it has contributed enough to the final demise of the human race.

The Prince and the Showgirl (1957)

Monroe outshines Olivier

[4/10 · 7 August 2017]

I finally watched The Prince and the Showgirl in its entirety, albeit on television -- having been intrigued by the well-crafted, acted and directed My Week with Marilyn. This "clash" of "titans" -- mega-stars Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe -- is revealing of "understanding media" (Cf. Marshall McLuhan). Monroe's luminous presence outshines Olivier's famed talent and experience (primarily from the stage). The screen requires other qualities, and no one will dispute the general consensus that Marilyn Monroe was the embodiment of those qualities, whoever she may have been when the cameras were not rolling, or however difficult she may have been to work with. (Billy Wilder explained her magic best in speaking of Some Like It Hot.) Unfortunately, Olivier was directing as well as acting, and he comes off poorly as both director and actor -- enough said. Nor is the material worthy of either -- without them, a pile of cardboard and claptrap -- with a nod it must be said to Sybil Thorndyke for valor. The Prince and the Showgirl remains a curiosity -- a glimpse at the greats when they were floating jetsam in a shipwreck. I much prefer to remember them through My Week with Marilyn, a moving tale, well told.

The Thing Called Love (1993)

Reflections on The Thing Called Love

[7/10 · 16 July 2017]

I've enjoyed watching this movie ever since I discovered it in about 2007, years later than its release. The actors and music have much charm, and somehow it works despite a confusion as to whose story is being told. For a long time now, I've wanted to re-write the ending, to make it more consistent with the characters as they are presented... More recently, I realized I'd like to go back to the drawing board and write it as it should have been written, given the star billing of River Phoenix, his charisma and the power of his music. It ought to be his story from start to finish, the boy who listened to cheating songs in his father's truck... It can't be re-made with those actors, and it remains a poignant record of what River Phoenix could do, and what he might have done. The other main actors, Samantha Mathis, Dermot Mulroney, and Sandra Bullock are always interesting to watch, as are all the supporting cast, and in particular, K.T. Oslin as Lucy. I recommend this movie as a wonderful trip down memory lane and a tug-at-the-heart glimpse of the most promising young talent.