The Aftermath 2019

     The setting of this film is postwar 1946 after the surrender of Germany and it is based on a book by Rhidian Brook.  Rachael Morgan arrives in the ruined city of Hamburg in the bitter winter to reunite with her husband Lewis Morgan.  Lewis is a British colonel and his assignment is to rebuild this shattered city.  Rachael is surprised to learn they will be sharing a grand house with its previous German owners?  Stephen Lubert is a widower with a rebellious daughter Freda.  Rachael doesn’t know how she can handle the stressful atmosphere in this house?  Stephen and Freda must resent the Morgan’s because Germany lost the war and now their own home has been invaded??  Emotions and tensions are high inside the home and it also fills the city after six years of war.    

     Rachael is suffering from intense grief from the loss of their only son Michael in the war.  He was killed during the Blitz by German bombing.  She blames herself for not being able to protect her son as his mother.  There is tension between Rachael and Lewis because what has happened to them.  Lewis can release his grief though his work with the German people but Rachael doesn’t have this outlet.  They don’t talk or discuss what happened either.  There is a LOT going on in this film with the insurgent activities in Hamburg and the stress in this home.  4* (I really liked this movie) 

108 min, Drama directed by James Kent with Keira Knightley, Ned Wills, Pandora Colin, Jason Clarke, Anna Katharina Schimrigk, Jack Laskey, Fionn O’Shea, Kate Phillips, Martin Compston, Alexander Skarsgard, Mirco Kuball, Rosa Enskat, Frederick Preston, Flora Thiemann.

Note:  Imdb 6.3 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 27% critic 60% audience, Roger Ebert 2* Peter Sobczynski, Metacritic 43 out of 100 with 33 critics 5.7 out of 10 user scores with 15 reviews (7 positive, 5 mixed, 3 negative, The Guardian 2* out of 5* Peter Bradshaw, Letterboxd average 2.9 out of 5, EmpireOnlinecom. 3* out of 5* Helen O’Hara, Amazon 3.6* out of 5* with 73 reviews. 

Special Note:  Keira Knightly uses a body double for the nude scenes.  This is the second film collaboration of Knightley and Clarke.  They were also a married couple in Everest 2015.

Annie Oakley 1935

     Many of the main elements of the story in this film are true.  The setting is approximately 1875 and the depiction of the Wild West Show is abbreviated but accurate.  In a sharpshooting match at the age of 15, Annie Oakley is paired with Toby Walker.  Annie knows she can win but she begins to think that it will hurt Toby’s feelings as a champion shooter if he loses to a girl?  Annie misses her last shot but she did on purpose!!  It does turn out well because Annie is hired for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and she’s tutored by Toby.  When Annie gets top billing, it interferes with their professional lives and their personal lives as well. 

     It seems difficult to believe that this film is true??  Annie Oakley’s real name was Phoebe Ann Mosey and she was born August 13, 1860 and she died November 3, 1926 at the age of 66.  She learned how to shoot by hunting quail to supply the local hotel in Greenville, Ohio.  Her family was poor after the death of her father and there were seven children in the family.  It is interesting to see the town, the people, how they lived, the Indians and the Wild West Show.   3 ½* (I liked this movie)  

   

90 min, Bio directed by George Stevens with Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster, Melvyn Douglas, Moroni Olsen, Pert Kelton, Andy Clyde, Chief Thunderbird, Margaret Armstrong, Delmar Watson, Adeline Craig.

Note:  Imdb 6.7 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 52% audience, Letterboxd average 3.1* out of 5*, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 59 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Prudential Studios, England, UK and Iverson Ranch 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California.  This is the first western for Barbara Stanwyck and also for Director George Stevens.   Stanwyck had become increasingly frustrated with the type of roles her studio Warner Brothers had been offering her?  She started freelancing and this was her first film for RKO.  Released less than 10 years after the death of the real Annie Oakley.  The working title was Shooting Star.    

The Lost Weekend 1945

     Don Birnam has been an alcoholic for a LONG time!!  He has been on the wagon for ten days and seems to be doing better?  What has really happened is that his cravings have become more demanding.  He evades a country weekend planned by his brother Wick.  Helen is his girlfriend and she’s been trying to help him with the bottle too.  He hides from Helen so he can go on a four-day bender.  There are flashbacks of everything that’s gone wrong in his life because of rye whiskey!!  Don is sinking to the bottom and this may be his last bender one way or another?

     I was very GLAD that I was not Don Birnam.  He’s tied to the bottle and he can’t escape from wanting it!!  He’ll do anything and tell anybody anything to get booze.  His brother and his girlfriend are wasting their time trying to get him to stop drinking.  They believe in him and what he says?  But, he hasn’t reached the bottom yet so he won’t do what he needs to do!!  There is a LOT of tension and a terrible atmosphere of fear and almost insanity!!  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

  

101 min, directed by Billy Wilder with Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry, Howard Da Silva, Doris Dowling, Frank Faylen, Mary Young, Anita Sharp-Bolster, Lilian Fontaine, Frank Orth, Lewis L. Russell. 

Note:  Imdb 8 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 100% critic 90% audience, EmpireOnline 5* Kim Newman, ReelViews.net 3* James Berardinelli, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 195 reviews.  Goodreads gives the novel 4.04* out of 5* with 1326 ratings.

Special Note:  Filmed in New York City, Manhattan and Los Angeles, California.  Billy Wilder claimed that the liquor industry offered Paramount $5 million to not release this film.  Wilder said he would have accepted if he had received the offer!!  In later years, Wilder discovered that the title was supposed to be The Last Weekend from Charles R. Jackson’s novel?  An instrument called a theremin is used to produce the wavering and somewhat high-pitched tones included in the music.  Ray Milland checked himself into Bellevue Hospital in order to experience the drunken ward first hand.  Because there was so much commotion, Milland escaped while a door was ajar and slipped out onto 34^th Street.  A policeman didn’t believe him when he saw the Bellevue insignia on his robe.  He was dragged back and it took him 30 minutes to explain!!  Ray Milland won an Oscar for his performance.    

East Side, West Side 1949

     Brandon and Jeesie Bourne have had a long and apparently happy marriage.  Several years earlier, Brandon had an affair with a younger woman, Isabel Lorrison.  She was out of the country for a while but she has returned to New York.  She intends to re-kindle her relationship with Brandon.  The Bournes have recovered from Brandon’s infidelity but this may be another and a deeper blow to their marriage?  Jessie meets Mark Dwyer, he is a former policeman and now he is a writer.  He has just returned from a secret mission in Italy.  Mark doesn’t want Jessie to go through another rough patch again.

     Brandon Bourne has a LOT of confidence, he thinks he can lie, cheat and hurt Jessie again plus get away with it for a second time??  He doesn’t realize that he’s really a heel, a skunk and a low down one at that!!  This time Mark is there to help Jessie through this.  He shows her that she’s better and above this kind of treatment for a second time!!  And, she didn't deserve it the first time!!  4* (I really liked this movie)  

108 min, Drama directed by Mervyn LeRoy with Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, Van Helfin, Ava Gardner, Cyd Charisse, Nancy Reagan, Gale Sondergaard, William Conrad, Raymond Greenleaf, Douglas Kennedy, Beverly Michaels, William Frawley, Lisa Golm Tom Powers.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 72% audience, Letterboxd average review 3.3* out of 5*, Amazon 6.9* out of 5* with 11 reviews, JourneysInClassicFilm.com 5*.

 

Special Note:  Beverly Michaels is in the role of Felice Backett and she is the wife of Academy Award winning screenplay writer Russell Rouse and the mother of Academy Award winning film editor Christopher Rouse.  Gale Sondergaard plays Barbara Stanwyck’s mother in this film.  She was 50 years old at the time of filming and Stanwyck was 42?  Sondergaard did not act again for 20 years!!  She was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.  The performance of this film at the box office was only fair.  MGM earned a small profit of $31,000 ($317,000 in 2017) according to studio records.  An article in the September 29, 1947 issue of The Hollywood Reporter stated that MGM paid $200,000 ($2.35million in 2018) for the film rights for this movie.  Originally, Greer Garson, Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert were considered for the lead roles in this film.    

Tea With the Dames 2018

     In Tea with the Dames 2018, four women get together in a private home to talk about their careers, husbands, sip tea and also champagne.  These are not ordinary women but Dames Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins.  The four women are also friends so this was an easy conversation.  They reminisce about their humble beginnings in the theater and their lives.

     I thought this was very good because there is so much information from the women about behind the scenes of films, plays and marriages.   Laurence Olivier was mentioned since he has acted with all four of the women and he was married to Joan Plowright.  Even though they are famous and they are Dames, they are women with friends, marriages and children just like other people in a lot of ways.  It’s possible there would have been more in depth conversations if there had been a narrator asking questions?  Archival footage is shown of the four women receiving the honor of Dame and other footage of their previous roles.  4* (I really liked this movie) 

84 min, Doc directed by Roger Michelll with Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith.

Note:  Imdb 7.3 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes critic 99% 80% audience, Roger Ebert 3 ½* Matt Fagerholm, Metacritic 85 out of 100 with 19 critics 7 out of 10 with 7 user scores (5 positive, 2 mixed), RollingStone 4* out of 5* Peter Travers, 5* Peter Bradshaw.

Special Note:  Judi Dench has received seven Academy Award nominations, Maggie Smith six nominations, Joan Plowright one nomination, Eileen Atkins has not been nominated.  Maggie Smith is the biggest winner with two Oscars.  Best Supporting Actress for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 1969 and a Best Supporting Actress for California Suite 1978.  Judie Dench received a Best Supporting role Oscar for Shakespeare in Love 1998.  Judi Dench starred as “M” in seven James Bond films with a worldwide gross of $2.294billion.  Maggie Smith tripled that number by starring as Minerva McGonagall in seven Harry Potter films that grossed $6.763 billion worldwide. 

Ages of the women:  Women are not supposed to reveal their ages but I can do that for them?  Eileen Atkins was 84 one month after release of this film in 2018.  Judi Dench was 84 in December of 2018.  Joan Plowright was 89 in October and I thought she was the oldest.  Maggie Smith was 84 in December 2018.  The idea for this film could also be recreated with other Dames such as Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg, Julie Waters and Vanessa Redgrave (she refused the offer of Damehood).

Apollo 11 2019

     This film looks at the Apollo 11 mission to land on the moon.  Commander Neil Armstrong and pilots Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins went into space on this mission.  The filmmakers for this film were given almost unrestricted access to the NASA film archives.  Much of the footage used here contains alternative camera angles and footage not used before.  NASA preserved film footage in ideal archival conditions and the moon landing was 50 years ago.  Todd Douglas Miller and his crew decided if it didn’t happen on that day at a specific time, they didn’t use the footage.

     Everything about this film is very interesting because it is about what actually happened during this historic launch and landing by three Americans.  On the ground, hundreds of thousands of NASA employees, contractors and volunteers worked together as a team.  There is a LOT of tension when different events take place such as the launch and the separation of two of the propulsion units.  Then the final third stage took them to the moon.  They separated from the third stage and traveled three days until they entered lunar orbit.  Armstrong and Aldren used the Eagle portion to land on the Sea of Tranquility.  The Eagle was used again to return to Collins in the command module.  Only the command module returned to earth.  4 ½* (I really liked this movie) 

93 min, Doc directed by Todd Douglas Miller with Buzz Aldrin, Joan Ann Archer, Janet Armstrong, Neil Armstrong, Jack Benny, Johnny Carson, Clifford E. Charlesworth, Michael Collins, Water Cronkite, Charles Duke, Lyndon Baines Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Gene Kranz, Jim Lovell, Glynn Lunney.

Note:  Imdb 8.3 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 99% critic 90% audience, Roger Ebert 4* Matt Zoller Seitz, The Guardian 5* Peter Bradshaw, EmpireOnline 4* Ian Freer, RollingStone 5* David Fear, Amazon 4.7* out of 5* with 385 reviews, Common Sense Media age 5+, 3* out of 5* Tara McNamara, educational 4*, positive 5*, role models 4*, language 1*, consumerism 1*, drinking, drugs & smoking 2*.  

Special Note:  Filmed at Sea of Tranquility, The Moon, Space; Cape Canaveral, Florida; Kennedy Space Center, Brevard, Florida; Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas.  During the shots of the crowds waiting to the launch, you can see Johnny Carson in the audience.  Also, science fiction author Isaac Asimov can be seen being interviewed.  

Life with Father 1947

     This film is based on the longest-running Broadway non-musical play.  It played for eight years with 3224 performances from 1939-47.  The setting is the late nineteenth century in New York.  Clarence Day is Father and he is also a Wall Street broker.  He likes his house to run as a business and he does a lot of complaining about how it is really run!!  His wife Vinnie Day does most of the household management, supervision of the household help and the five children.  Clarence likes his coffee very hot, his breakfasts right on time and he wants to know where his money goes.  Many complications arise when two of the boys sell a patent medicine, Vinnie spends too much, maids quit and the eldest boy is beginning to be interested in girls!!

     This movie is funny!!  Clarence wants everything his way but he is usually the one causing the upsets!!  When he goes to the office, the home runs smoothly and it is quiet again.  Clarence likes to challenge and argue about everything!!  The maids don’t want to stay because he yells at them over small errors!!  3 ½* (I liked this movie)     

118 min, Comedy directed by Michael Curtiz with William Powell, Irene Dunne, Elizabeth Taylor, Edmund Gwenn, Zasu Pitts, Jimmy Lydon, Emma Dunn, Moroni Olsen, Elisabeth Risdon, Derek Scott, Johnny Calkins, Martin Milner, Heather Wilde, Monte Blue, Mary Field.

Note:  Imdb 7.3 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 91% critic 75% audience, Amazon 4.2* out of 5* with 685 reviews, Letterboxd average rating 3.2* out of 5*, Three Movie Buffs average 3 ½* out of 4*. 

Special Note:  Filmed in Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, Burbank, California.  Before filming began, the Day family actors were taken to Perc Westmore’s salon on a Sunday morning to have their hair dyed red!!  Unfortunately, the water was shut off for the entire block because of street repairs.  The dye was very strong in this time period and the actors could not be left with dye on their scalps because they would lose their hair!!  It was suggested to dilute the dye with cold cream and the process was able to continue safely.