Some Came Running 1958

     This film is based on a novel by James Jones.  From Here to Eternity was also written by James Jones and made into a film by MGM in 1953.  The setting of this film is after WWII in Parkman, Indiana.  Dave Hirsch was a writer until he enlisted in the Army.  He returns to his Midwestern hometown 16 years later and along with him on the bus is Ginnie Moorehead.  She was in Chicago with Dave and she has fallen in love with him in a short time.  Dave gives her money to return on the bus to Chicago but she doesn’t leave.  Dave’s older brother Frank owns a local jewelry store and he’s a prominent citizen of the town.  Dave deposits the check he has with him in a different bank than the one owned by his brother just to spite him.  Frank introduces Dave to schoolteacher Gwen French.  She is the daughter of Dave’s former Professor Robert Haven French.  Dave falls in love with Gwen.  Dave meets professional gambler Bama Dillert and Chicago mobster Raymond Lanchak, Ginnie’s former boyfriend. 

     Parkman is a small town and the gossip mill works overtime after Dave arrives back home!!  Added into the gossip are Frank, his wife Agnes, his office employee, Ginnie, Bama and Raymond.  It’s easy to see that Dave would not be happy with his older brother since Dave was placed in a charity boarding school after Dave married Anges.  He had family but they didn’t want him?  This film is more about the characters than the story and this is weak.  3* (This movie is OK)

137 min, Drama directed by Vincente Minnelli with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha Hyer, Arthur Kennedy, Nancy Gates, Leora Dana, Betty Lou Keim, Larry Gates, Steve Peck, Connie Gilchrist, Ned Wever.

Note:  Imdb 7.5 out of 10, 82% critic 76% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 3* out of 4*, 3.44* out of 5* average user review.

Special Note:  Filmed in Madison, Jefferson County, Indiana and Milton, and Trible County, Kentucky.  Shirley MacLaine received her first Academy Award for Best Actress in the role of Ginnie.  MacLaine credited her award to Sinatra because he insisted on changing the ending of the film.  Arthur Kennedy won Best Actor in a Supporting Role as Frank Hirsh.  Martha Hyer won Best Actress in a Supporting Role as Gwen.  Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn won Best Original Song for To Love and Be Loved.  Walter Plunkett won Best Costume Design.  Frank and his wife Agnes are social climbers.  Frank placed Dave in the charity boarding school rather than take Dave to live in his home with Agnes.  It was probably because Agnes didn't like Dave and didn't want to raise or put up with him?  This film was the 10th highest earning film of 1958.  The gross was $4,245,000 in the US and Canada with $2,050,000 elsewhere for a total of $6,295,000.  The high cost of production resulted in a loss of $207,000. 

The Great Lie 1941

     This is a soap opera drama.  Sandra Kovak and Peter Van Allen elope to get married.  They throw a large party in Sandra’s apartment after their marriage.  The next day Pete finds out their marriage isn’t valid because Sandra’s divorce comes through the next week.  Pete isn’t sure what he’s going to do.  He travels to see Maggie Patterson.  Pete and Maggie have been engaged off and on several times.  Pete returns to Sandra but he tells her their marriage isn’t legal and he doesn’t want to get married again.  He flies back again to see Sandra and they get married.  Pete talks to Sandra about his plan to fly for the government.  She is all for his plan if this is what he wants.  Pete leaves for a trip to South America and his plane crashes.

     In the period this movie was filmed a lot of occurrences were scandals but they wouldn’t be today!!  I don’t want to give too much of the story away!!  Astor is very sure of herself but Davis wavers in her courage.   3 ½* (I liked this movie)

108 min, Drama directed by Edmund Goulding with Bette Davis, George Brent, Mary Astor, Lucile Watson, Hattie McDaniel, Grant Mitchell, Jerome Cowan, Charles Trowbridge, Thurston Hall, Russell Hicks, Virginia Brissac.

Note:  Imdb 7.3 out of 10, 71% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 3* out of 4*, average user rating 4.5* out of 5*, Amazon 4.5* out of 5* with 60 reviews, Three Movie Buffs 3* out of 4*.

Special Note:  Filmed in Victorville, Mojave Desert, Calabasas and Burbank, California.  Mary Astor won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.  Davis and Astor originally thought the script was not very good.  They worked together to rewrite everything.  Astor suggested her hair be cut short because rolling and styling was taking too long.  George Brent was a licensed pilot and he did his own landings.  The plane is a Stinson Model 10 Voyager and over 1,000 variations of this plane were built starting in 1931.   Astor is an accomplished pianist but she mimed playing the piano.  In close-ups, Norma Drury’s hands are seen on the piano.

This is Our Life 1942

     Stanley Timberlake is engaged to Craig Fleming.  She decides she doesn’t want to marry him and she leaves home with her sister Roy’s husband Peter Kingsmill.  Peter gets a divorce from Roy and he marries Stanley.  They settle in Baltimore, Maryland.  Things don’t work out and Peter begins to drink.  Stanley returns to Richmond, Virginia.  She discovers her sister Roy is now dating her former fiancé Craig and they plan to marry.  Stanley is jealous and selfish plus she feels she may be able to win Craig back?  Circumstances take a different turn and Stanley tries to pin something she did on Parry Clay.  He’s a struggling young clerk working in Craig’s law office.

     It’s interesting that both the sisters have names usually given to men?  A reason isn't given in the film.  Stanley is a piece of work and she only cares about herself.  She drives too fast and she doesn’t care about the speeding tickets.  She also doesn’t care about the person she’s with as long it’s someone her sister wants!!  Her sister Roy is nothing like Stanley!!  She is a decent and kind person that doesn’t deserve an evil scheming sister!!  3 ½* (I liked this movie)  

97 min, Drama directed by John Huston with Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, George Brent, Dennis Morgan, Charles Coburn, Frank Craven, Billie Burke, Hattie McDaniel, Lee Patrick, Mary Servoss, Ernest Anderson.

Note:  Imdb 7.5 out of 10, 73% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 3* out of 4*, average user review 4.8* out of 5*, Leterboxd 3.4* out of 5*, Amazon Video 4.1* out of 5* with 86 review.

Special Note:  Filmed at Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, California.  Director John Huston was having an affair with Olivia de Havilland during production.  There was a comment made by studio head Jack L. Warner that Bette has the lines but Olivia was getting the best camera shots!!  In David Maraniss’ 2012 biography of former President Barack Obama it is reported that Stanley Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro, the mother of Barack was named Stanley after Bette Davis in this film.  Davis said she regretted making this film and she called it “a most disgraceful film.”  She felt she wasn’t right for the role because the character was supposed to be a very young southern woman.  Davis was older at 34 years old?  Davis drives a 1941 Buick Roadmaster convertible, the Police Inspector drives a 1941 Buick four-door sedan and the Policeman in the pursuit car has a 1939 Buick.

Stormy Weather 1943

     Selina Rogers is an aspiring singer during the period after WWI.  She meets dancer Bill Williamson and they start doing shows together with other performers.  This film is multilayered with music and dance.  There are 14 musical numbers with Lena Horne singing the title song near the ending.

     This film is considered to be one of the best Hollywood musicals with an all black cast.  The plot line is very thin and really there is almost no plot.   I wonder if many of the scenes would be shown in a new film of today?  A lot of scenes contain items that are things complained about in the time period of today?   3* (This movie is OK)    

78 min, Musical directed by Andrew L. Stone with Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra, Katherine Dunham and Her Troupe, Fats Waller, The Nicholas Brothers, Ada Brown, Dooley Wilson.

Note:  Imdb 7.3 out of 10, 81% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 216 reviews, TCM Leonard Maltin 2.5* out of 4*, 4.35* out of 5* average user review.

Special Note:  Filmed in Stage 2 and Stage 14, 29^th Century Fox Studios, Los Angeles, California.  At the time of filming Bill Robinson was 39 years older than Lena Horne.  In the film, he's hoping she will marry him.  This is the final film of Fats Waller.  Less than five months after the July 21 opening in Manhattan, Waller died at the age of 39 from pneumonia while traveling by train.  Also the final film of Bill Robinson, he died of heart failure at age 71 in New York City.  There is another film with the same title from 2003.

Splendor in the Grass 1961

      The setting of this film is 1928 in southeast Kansas.  This is an oil rich area and some of the townspeople have stock that is rising in price every day.  The Stamper family is more involved with the oil business and Ace Stamper is an oil baron.  They are also becoming wealthier everyday as the price of oil rises.  Bud Stamper and Deanie Loomis are in high school together and they are both seniors.  They are in love and they want to get married at a later date.  Bud’s father Ace wants him to go to Yale and he won’t take no for an answer.  Deanie’s parents also want her to go to college and they will use their oil stock money to pay for her to go.  Bud’s sister Ginny has come home and the gossip about her has preceded her arrival.  Ace feels he has failed his daughter Ginny but he’s not going to fail Bud. 

     I really liked this movie!!  The story has a lot of depth plus you can relate to the characters and their struggles.  From the beginning to the end, you don’t know where this is going.  You can feel the elation the people have with the oil money is up and they will feel deep depths of despair if the oil price deflates.  There is intense feeling and chemistry between Wood and Beatty.  All parents want their children to succeed but often too much pressure doesn’t help them.  4* (I really liked this movie)

124 min, Drama directed by Elia Kazan with Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle, Audrey Christie, Barbara Loden, Zohra Lampert, Fred Stewart, Joanna Roos, John McGovern, Jan Norris, Martine Bartlett, Gary Lockwood.

Note:  Imdb 7.8 out of 10, 84% critic 90% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM average user review 3.95* out of 5*, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 363 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in High Falls, New York City, Long Island, Bronx and Manhattan, New York.  The title of this film comes from the poem, Ode: Intimations of Immortality by William Wordsworth.  Natalie Wood was supposed to be a teenager and she was 22.  Warren Beatty was in the same class but he was 23.  All of the other teenagers were in their early to mid-twenties to correspond with the ages of Wood and Beatty.  Pat Hingle is acting as the character Ace Stamper.  Just before shooting began, he accidentally fell 54 feet down an elevator shaft in his apartment building.  It took over a year for him to recover but he incorporated his lurching walk as part of his character.  Jane Fonda tested for the role of Deanie and she didn’t get the role.  She told Kazan she wasn’t ambitious but that is what he was looking for.  This is the film debut for Warren Beatty, Sandy Dennis, Phyllis Diller, Marla Adams and Eugene Roche.  There is another film about the same subject from 1981.

Birth of the Dragon 2016

     The setting of this film is San Francisco of 1960 and the title is also known as A Origem do Dragao.  It features the epic and still talked about showdown between Bruce Lee and Kung Fu master Wong Jack Man.  Bruce Lee has been working hard to build up his roster of clients and to make his mark in San Francisco.  He’s thrown for a loop when he learns that Wong Jack Man is coming to San Francisco.  He wants to know why Wong Jack Man is here and what are his plans?  Is he going to disrupt Lee’s business and try to create his own business here?  Steve McKee meets Wong Jack Man at the pier when he arrives on a boat.  Steve learns that Wong Jack Man has come to remove his own pride by washing dishes.  This isn’t anything that Lee or McKee expected!!

      This main idea of the story is that a man can change through the study of Kung Fu.  Steve McKee wanted to learn Kung Fu to gain respect but that changed to being willing to love others without conditions.  Wong Jack Man nearly killed someone and he needed to learn self-control in order to overcome his thoughts of his past.  Bruce Lee was full of pride and he wanted to be better than everyone else.  He learned maturity and humility and this allowed him to work with other masters.  The ultimate winners of these changes in the men were the women brought to San Francisco from China.  They were forced to work for an undermined amount of time to receive their freedom.  3* (This movie is OK)

95 min, Action directed by George Nolfi with Billy Magnussen, Yu Xia, Philip Ng, Hai Yu, Yue Wu, Billy Magnussen, Steven Roberts, Riley Wood, Philip Ng, Simon Yin, Terry Chen, Ron Yuan, Lillian Lim, Tee Jee Tso, Jingjing Qu.

Note:  Imdb 5.3 out of 10, 25% critic 70% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon Video 3.5* out of 5* with 105 reviews, Roger Ebert thumb down, Metacritic 35 out of 100 with 13 critics 4.7 of 10 with 21 reviews.

Special Note:  Extensive re-editing was required because the reaction of audiences was very negative to original film.  Many scenes with Billy Magnussen as Steve McKee were cut to focus more on Philip Ng as Bruce Lee.  Steve McQueen was the model for the character Steve McKee and McQueen studied with Bruce Lee in the late 1960’s.  Philip Ng was also in the Kung Fu TVB drama A Fist Within Four Walls as Lung Sing Fu.  

The St. Louis Bank Robbery 1959

     This film is based on a true incident in St. Louis.  A tough gang is planning to rob a bank in St. Louis on a Friday morning.  The bank is expected to have $100,000 to cash payroll checks from the local workers.  George Fowler is supposed to be the driver but that changes later.  Gino draws him into the plan and he is the older brother of George’s former girlfriend, Ann.  George and Gino will need to come up with the money to live on for two weeks before they rob the bank.  Ann gives George the money they need.  George wants to go back to college and the robbery money will go a long way to help him with this plan.  The gang leader is John Egan and he’s ruthless!!  He doesn’t trust George to keep his nerve because he doesn’t know him.

      How can this gang hope to pull off this robbery when they are frustrated and jealous of each other every day?  There is no trust because they lack any integrity in order to have trust.  Their common denominator is that they don’t want to go back to prison but the odds are high with this job that they will??  I don’t know anything and I’m not interested in planning a bank robbery but I could do a better job!!  In this time period there wasn’t any sophisticated electronic equipment to protect the bank from a robbery!!  The fear exhibited by the people in the bank is very real.  The robbers are heartless and they do not mind killing people or taking hostages.  Steve McQueen started his film career in 1952 so this was not his first film.  He must have improved greatly over time because he is not very good in this film??  3* (This movie is OK)

99 min, Crime directed by Charles Guggenheim and John Stix with Steve McQueen, Crahan Denton, David Clarke, James Dukas, Molly McCarthy, Martha Gable, Larry Gerst, Boyd Williams, Frank Novotny, Nell Roberts, Bob Holt.

Note:  Imdb 5.9 out of 10, 46% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Leonard Maltin 1 1/2* out of 4*, Amazon 3.3* out of 5* with 61 reviews,

Special Note:  Filmed in St. Louis, Missouri.  This is the first film to show a toilet in a scene?  Psycho of 1960 was the first film to show a toilet flushing?  Many of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police officers, bank employees and residents play themselves. Policeman Mel stein was a hero for shooting one of the bank robbers and saving a woman hostage.  He just recently died in 2016 at the age of 102.  The movie American Heist of 2014 was based on this robbery.