Classic movies interest me because I like how they acted back then. I like their mannerisms, how they dressed, how they talked, and the expressions they used. For example, "Oh, a wise guy, huh?" It made me wonder if they really said that in real life, or did they just use it in the movies. They didn't use a whole lot of special effects, they mostly relied on acting. In The Hunch Back of the Notre Dame (1939), the actor, Charles Laughton, had an excellent speaking voice, but he didn't use it much in the movie. He wanted to be known for his acting and not just for his speaking.
Another good movie that didn't use a whole lot of special effects but was a great film was The Haunting (1963). The movie didn't show ghosts, but you knew they were there. It was obvious there was a haunting because of all the noises, the camera angles, and the acting. There were other versions of The Haunting but they weren't as good as the original. Mostly, because they valued special effects over acting. In the original you imagined and wondered what the ghosts would look like and that's why it did so good. And that's why I love Tuner Classic Movies.
Have you ever been in that situation where you’re talking to
someone and you can’t stand their mannerisms, slang, or even how they speak or
pronounce certain words? Well, what if you could change that? What if you were
given an opportunity to change that person and everything about them? Well, a
man named Henry Higgins was given that chance when he was challenged by a colleague.
For six months he had to teach a filthy Cockney flower girl, with a horrendous
accent, into a lady.
Everything in this
film is basically dedicated to being classy. The songs and the jokes are clever
and brilliant, the gowns and wardrobe in this film are stunning, and the cast...
let’s just say these parts were made specifically for these actors and actresses
who played them. Only Rex Harrison could portray the character of Professor Henry
Higgins, with his cockiness that he uses in most of his films, he could make it
look like he was the actual Professor himself. Not to mention the queen of elegance herself
Audrey Hepburn who plays the ill speaking Eliza Doolittle. The Broadway musical
of “My Fair Lady” was released in 1956 and the film was released in 1964. The
movie and musical was based off of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.
Now I know what you’re thinking, but this movie is not a
dull documentary talking about bees and their queen. It’s actually
based on a novel about a young woman named Jennifer Stewart, visiting her
cousin at her luxurious Mansion in Georgia.When
Jennifer arrives to the mansion her cousin isn’t there to greet her, but
instead she is met by her cousin’s children. Trissa and her brother Ted. She then meets her cousin’s
sister in-law, Carol, who appeared at the time to be in a pretty heated
argument between her and her boyfriend Jud. Later she meets her cousin’s
husband Avery, who was talking business with a friend. After all that was
finished Avery greeted Jennifer in a frightening way by trying to intimidate
her with a deep scar on his face that he got in an auto mobile accident.
Finally after meeting everyone else at the mansion,
Jennifer’s cousin Eva Phillips arrives. Eva is dressed in fine clothes while
also wearing a beautiful pure white minx coat. Her young children run up to her
with open arms. She has a sweet tender smile on her face with a soft voice to
match, but yet for some reason the other members of her family seemed bitter
towards her. Also when they talked to or about Eva they would have a tone of
hatred towards her. The only one who didn’t seem to have any hard feelings
towards her was Jennifer. And she wondered why no one else liked Eva like she
did.
There are a lot of twist and turns in this movie, from the
nightmares of Eva’s son Ted, to the death of Eva’s sister in-law, leading up to
the drastic ending of the film. The novel was written by Edna. L. Lee and the
movie was directed by Ronald MacDougall. The film starred Lucy Marlow as
Jennifer Stewart and the “Mommy Dearest” herself Joan Crawford as Eva Phillips.
I think we can all say at one point in our lives we like to
take control and just be in charge of our lives, but what would happen if you
became in charge of someone else’s life? What would happen if say you were on a
luxurious cruise ship and one day while sailing your ship hits a rouge mine and
sinks? Well in Alec Holmes’s case he manages to survive along with twenty-seven
other survivors who share one life boat that was built for nine people only.
Among those survivors was the dying captain who trusted Holmes enough to make
him the captain. There were skeptics and doubters, but he manages to get his
point across that no matter what they say he is still in charge.
Since the boat was way too small to hold all of them at
once, Holmes decides that they would take shifts of who would stay in the boat
and who would wait in the water while tied to the sides of the boat. It was
hard on them especially for those who became sea sick and those who were injured
from the sinking. Then, it got worse because Holmes and the survivors were
about to get stuck in the middle of a storm. After a badly injured passenger
jumps ship Holmes realizes he won’t be able to save everyone from the storm and
makes a gruesome decision. He was going to throw over all the sick and injured
to drift in the sea and let the strong and healthy survive.
This movie was directed by Richard Sale and was released in
1957. The film stars Tyrone Power who
plays Alexander Holmes.This was actually
based on a real event and when the survivors were found Holmes went to trial
and because of the circumstances he was only imprisoned for six months. At the
end of the film, they ask: do you think what Holmes did was the right thing to do
or was what he did wrong and should he have had a greater punishment? More importantly, if you were put in
charge, what would you have done?
We’ve all heard about murders being committed whether it’s
drowning, shooting, or stabbing someone. Either way it’s all very gruesome and
disturbing, but what would make it even more disturbing would be the thought
that you might be the murderer.
One morning in a small quiet town somewhere in New England a
retired sea captain is out in the woods hunting rabbits. He fires two shots but
all he manages to hit is an old rusted can and a sign where the bullet went
through it. On his way back home the captain makes a shocking discovery, he
finds a dead man lying on the ground with a fresh cut on the man’s fore head.
The captain was frightened because he believed that maybe one of the two shots
he fired must’ve killed him.
The captain checks the body for any identification and finds
that the dead man’s name is Harry Worp. Harry Worp wasn’t from there, but he
came there to get his wife back. His wife was Jennifer Roger’s and she despised
Harry. She only married him because he was the brother of her first late
husband and she wanted her unborn child to have a father. But after seeing what
Harry was really like she decided to run away and change her name. Harry
manages to find her but when he comes to the front door Jennifer hits him over
the head with a milk bottle. As she put it, she says she hit him silly and that
he went away in a stumble and that he was saying that he’d find his wife. The next day (the same day the captain finds
Harry) Arnie, who is Jennifer’s little boy, finds Harry too and goes home to
get his mother. Unlike the captain, Jennifer was rather pleased with how she
found Harry.
After Harry got hit
in the head by that milk bottle he ran into Miss Gravely who was doing an early
morning hike. He swore at her and insisted that she was his wife.He grabbed her and she fought back. During
the struggle one of her hiking shoes came off, she grabbed it and used the heel
of the shoe and struck him on the head with it. And after she ran into the
captain and saw that he believed he killed Harry, she felt a little relieved
thinking that she wouldn’t be the one to blame. But she also felt guilty that
someone else would take the rap for something she might have done. And if the
three of them didn’t have enough problems already, when they try to burry Harry
they get stuck in a situation where they keep digging him back up again.
This was directed by the terrifyingly genius Alfred Hitchcock
and this film is known as a black comedy which I believe is also a good way to
describes Hitchcock’s sense of humor. This film was based on the novel “The
Trouble with Harry,” written by Jack Trevor Story. The movie was released in
1955 starring Shirley MacLaine, John Forsythe, and Jerry Mathers as Arnie, who
will later on be known as the iconic Beaver from televisions “Leave it to
Beaver.” So after reading this which one of the three do you believe killed
Harry?
After his father dies, a young school boy goes off to live with his aunt, knowing very little about what kind of person she is and what he was about to get into. Auntie Mame, as she is known by, who lives the most eccentric life, knows the most unique kind of people, and lives by her motto to always “live, live, live.” At first you don’t really know what to make of her, but once you get to know her you realize she’s a caring, witty, and loving woman that only wants to show her nephew the best that life has to offer.
Auntie Mame is a very free spirited person, along with many other people in the world. And along with free spirited people there will always be the ones known as “stick in the mud.” That is what Mr.Dwight Babcock is. Mr. Babcock is, Patrick, the nephew’s trustee. He does everything in his power to make sure that Auntie Mame has no influence on the boy, especially since she sent her nephew to a nudist-type school.
On one of nephew Patrick’s Christmas breaks from prep school, Mr. Babcock’s doing, Auntie Mame meets an oil baron named Beauregard Burnside. They met at Mame’s new job she had gotten during the depression at Macy’s department store, where she was later fired because of a mix up. After hitting it off, Mame and her nephew were invited to go down to the South to meet Beauregard’s family, where Mame had a life threatening experience while on a hunt, but was later proposed to be Mrs. Burnside.
Years went by and the two lived a happy married life traveling the world, until one day while climbing the Matterhorn, Mr. Burnside had a fatal fall. Although Mr. Burnside was no longer with her she still had her nephew to love, but like most children... they do grow up. Not only was he grown up, but he was also in love and planning on marriage too. Except to a very dull girl with a very dull family background, and, after reading this much, do you really believe Auntie Mame would let this marriage happen? I’ll let you be the judge of that one.
I really enjoyed this movie because in real life I too have an aunt that is very similar to Auntie Mame. Eccentric, loving, and a bit loud at times, but that’s just more to love. The film was released in 1958, it is based on the novel by Patrick Dennis about his life with his aunt. It was directed by Morton DeCosta, and stars Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame.
While spending a day at the beach, a young widowed mother and
her daughter meet a black homeless woman and her daughter. After getting to
know each other, the widow decides to let the homeless mother and her daughter come and live with them in their tiny apartment.
Lora Meredith, a young mother who had lost her husband in
the war, who’s determination to make it on the stage and make a name for herself
tries to give her little girl everything she never had. Later on she does land
a small part in a comedy play and then becomes an overnight success. She
finally has her dream of becoming a star, and is now able to afford a nice home
for her and her new friend and their daughters. Along with that she is able to
buy her daughter things she could never have before, but the only thing her daughter
really asks for is that her mother would be around more often.
Annie Johnson, a mother with a kind loving heart, who would
put someone else’s happiness before hers was left by her husband and she
now has to take care of their daughter who’s half black and half white. Her
daughter loathes the thought of knowing that she is only half white and tries
to make sure no one ever finds out who her mother is. When she gets older she
decides to run away and become a show girl at a night club.
No matter what happened to them in their lives, the
mothers were always there for each other. They didn’t betray each other, they
would come to each other when they had troubles, and they even treated each
other’s daughters as their own. This movie was released in 1959 and was
directed by Douglas Sirk, and starred Lana Turner and Juanita Moore. They
played how friends should be no matter their backgrounds or who they were before. Although
the ending is bitter sweet, it shows how strong a friendship can be.
An actress whom I believed was kind and gentle as her
character was in the 1962 film, “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” While off
screen I thought she was a devoted mother who worked hard, and would do anything
for her children’s happiness, just like she potrayed in her 1945 movie,
“Mildred Pierce,” but it turns out in real life she’s was like her sick
physcotic character in the 1964 thriller, “Strait-Jacket.”
In the 1981 film, “Mommie Dearest,” it exposes Joan Crawford
for who she really was. In this movie I don’t know which was more disturbing
about her, whether it was the fact that she only adopted her two children for
publicity, or that she locked her daughter in a steam room as a “punishment.”
But what I think was the worst was when she found a wire hanger in her
children’s closet and used it to beat her daughter with and all because she
despised those types of hangers.
Her children and even her housekeeper feared her and did
everything they could do to keep her happy and have everything perfect, that
way she would stay sane. In the public’s eye she was lovely and charming, but
at home she was a monster.Before I saw
this movie I always thought Joan Crawford was a bit odd, but I thought she was
just eccentric but now I know it was much more.
“Mommie Dearest,” is based on the book that Joan Crawford’s
adopted daughter “Christina Crawford” wrote about her life growing up with her
“loving,” mother. Faye Dunaway does an uncanny job of playing Joan Crawford.
She showed the stunning glamorous side of her when she was acting or was among
the public, but when she was behind closed doors she showed her true nature.
