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A Day at the Races

GroovyMovieGuy — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:11:28 +0000

Hackenbush! Hackenbush!
Calling Dr. Hackenbush, aka Groucho Marx, and his brothers Chico and Harpo who led the wild hijinks in this comedy classic set in both a sanatorium and at a horse racing track. Highlights include Groucho entertaining a young lady at a table with a centerpiece so big he has to stand on his chair to see her; Chico playing a classical piece on the piano with finger work that includes him shooting the keys with his index finger; and Chico destroying the same piano and playing it like a harp.
The Marx Brothers inspired British rock group Queen in naming two of their albums. “A Day at the Races” featured Queen’s hit song “Tie Your Mother Down.” It was the followup album to “A Night at the Opera,” which included the hit song “Bohemian Rhapsody” heard in “Wayne’s World.” (111 min.)

Unrated - 1937

Starring:
Groucho Marx
Chico Marx
Harpo Marx
Maureen O’Sullivan
Allan Jones
Margaret Dumont
Sig Ruman
Esther Muir
Dorothy Dandridge
Douglass Dumbrille

Director:
Sam Wood

Writers:
Robert Pirosh
George Seaton
George Oppenheimer

A Day at the Races

movieMoll — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:21:34 +0000

This Marx Brothers’ follow-up to “A Night at the Opera,” completes the double feature of what most critics — and fans — consider to be the comedy team’s two best films. When Dr. Hugo Hackenbush (Groucho) comes on staff at Standish Sanitarium, owner Judy Standish (Maureen O’Sullivan) hopes he can save the business from bankruptcy. Insanity ensues as Judy’s friends (including Harpo and Chico) try to keep secret the fact that Hackenbush is really a veterinarian. His medical qualifications hardly matter since his real job is to make wealthy hypochondriac Emily Upjohn (Margaret Dumont) happy enough to lend her financial support to the sanitarium. Judy’s boyfriend Gil (Allan Jones) saves the day with a long-shot race horse, with Harpo as jockey. “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm,” featuring black cast members is painfully stereotypical today, but was progressive for the time and provided an early showcase for Dorothy Dandridge. The plot, of course, is entirely secondary to the brothers’ antics, which include Groucho choreographing some fancy footwork with two women on the dance floor at the same time, Harpo deconstructing a piano and plucking a harp from the rubble, and Chico conning Groucho while hawking his “Tootsie Fruitsie” ice cream. (111 min.)

Unrated - 1937

Starring:
Groucho Marx
Chico Marx
Harpo Marx
Maureen O’Sullivan
Allan Jones
Margaret Dumont
Sig Ruman
Esther Muir
Dorothy Dandridge
Douglass Dumbrille

Director:
Sam Wood

Writers:
Robert Pirosh
George Seaton
George Oppenheimer

After the Thin Man

movieMoll — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:14:48 +0000

The second in the movie series, “After the Thin Man” finds Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) fresh off train from New York and back home in San Francisco after Nick’s success in solving the celebrated Thin Man murder mystery. Although it’s New Year’s Eve, all the sophisticated, cocktail-swigging couple really wants is a quiet night in bed. Instead, they come home to find a house full of revelers planning to “surprise” the Charleses with a welcome home party. If that isn’t bad enough, the pair gets summoned to a family dinner at Nora’s stuffy Aunt Katherine’s, where they’re promptly assigned to discreetly look for Nora’s cousin Selma’s wayward husband. He turns up dead and Nick and Nora are on the trail of a motley assortment of suspects — including relatives, with plenty of action and witty banter along the way. This entry in the six-movie series features a surprising performance from a young James Stewart, and Nora wraps up the film with a surprise of her own for Nick. (112 min.)

Unrated - 1936

Director:
W.S. Van Dyke

Starring:
William Powell
Myrna Loy
James Stewart
Elissa Landi
Joseph Calleia
Jessie Ralph
Alan Marshal
Sam Levene
Penny Singleton
William Law
George Zucco
Paul Fix

Writers:
Dashiell Hammett (story)
Frances Goodrich (screenplay)
Albert Hackett (screenplay)

Algiers

GroovyMovieGuy — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:57:09 +0000

Waking up from a mid-movie nap, I thought for a moment I was watching a Shriners’ documentary, but it was just Hollywood actors wearing fezzes. The nap was great, the movie okay. Save it for late night fall-to-sleep fare. (96 minutes)

Not rated - 1938

Starring:
Charles Boyer
Sigrid Gurie
Hedy Lamarr
Joseph Calleia
Alan Hale
Gene Lockhart
Walter Kingsford
Paul Harvey
Stanley Fields
Johnny Downs
Charles D. Brown
Robert Greig
Leonid Kinskey
Joan Woodbury
Nina Koshetz
Claudia Dell
Bert Roach
Ben Hall

Director:
John Cromwell

Writers:
Henri La Barthe (novel)
John Howard Lawson (screenplay)

Algiers

movieMoll — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:59:12 +0000

For viewers who only remember Charles Boyer as the old guy in “Around the World in 80 Days,” seeing him as the hot and handsome lead in Algiers will be an eye-opener. Boyer, as jewel thief Pepe Le Moko wanted by police across Europe, is hiding out in the Casbah. A sly local cop is patiently plotting Pepe’s demise in a town where it seems everyone is willing to sell their friends for a price. But, it’s Pepe’s local girlfriend and her jealousy of the very glamorous character played by Hedy Lamarr that finally brings the curtain down on Pepe. The exotic Casbah has a very studio backlot feel to it. The slow-moving film is worth a look just to see Lamarr’s debut and Boyer at his peak. And it could make for a cool drinking game if you take a shot every time someone calls out ‘PepAY.’ (96 minutes)

Not rated - 1938

Director:
John Cromwell

Writers:
Henri La Barthe (novel)
John Howard Lawson (screenplay)

Another Thin Man

GroovyMovieGuy — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:12:39 +0000

Third in the “Thin Man” series, “Another Thin Man” plays it straighter with more dry wit and less alcohol-fueled humor than other movies in the series. One of the great silver screen couples, Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) add Nicky Charles Jr. (William A. Poulsen) to the family and solve the crime. But don’t forget Asta, the wire-hair fox terrier family pet, that plays his part as a furry sleuth. (105 min.)
Well worth adding to the your movie library. Get “The Complete Thin Man Collection” for all the fun.

1939

Starring:
William Powell
Myrna Loy
Virginia Grey
Otto Kruger
C. Aubrey Smith

Director:
W.S. Van Dyke

Writers:
Dashiell Hammett (wrote the story)
Frances Goodrich (wrote the screenplay)

Available as individual DVD or part of “The Complete Thin Man Collection.”

Carefree

GroovyMovieGuy — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:10:10 +0000

Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. She’s taken. There’s complications. It’s Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in “Carefree.”
Astaire plays a psychiatrist who tries to do the right thing for his patient portrayed by Rogers. Guess what it leads to? Yep, dancing and romance.
One of the best dance numbers is a solo by Astaire dancing and driving — driving golf balls. Not the usual fancy footwork found on the links.
While this isn’t the best of the Astaire-Rogers movies, it’s certainly worth watching and great late-night fare. (83 min.)

Not rated - 1938

Director:
Mark Sandrich

Starring:
Fred Astaire
Ginger Rogers
Ralph Bellamy
Luella Gear
Jack Carson
Clarence Kolb

Writers:
Marian Ainslee (story)
Guy Endore (story)
Dudley Nichols (story)
Ernest Pagano (writer)
Allan Scott (writer)
Hagar Wilde (story)

Carefree

movieMoll — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:15:18 +0000

This movie would be worth seeing for the slow motion dream sequence dance number alone. Fortunately, there’s plenty more to recommend “Carefree,” Astaire and Rogers eighth film pairing. Fred Astaire plays psychiatrist Tony Flagg, who takes on Amanda Cooper (Ginger Rogers) as a patient at the request of her fiancé, played by Ralph Bellamy. It seems the bride-to-be keeps getting cold feet when it comes to walking down the aisle. Rogers gets to flex her comedic muscles more than usual in this film, particularly while her character is under the influence of pharmaceuticals and hypnosis. There are also a few nice dance numbers. In addition to the dream sequence, Astaire does some impressive steps on the golf course and he and Ginger do some fancy footwork on “The Yam,” where he literally sweeps her off her feet with a series of dance lifts. “Carefree” is missing the memorable, sing-along tunes featured in many of the pair’s other movies, causing this fun film to be perhaps the most underrated Astaire-Rogers pic. (83 min.)

Not rated - 1938

Director:
Mark Sandrich

Starring:
Fred Astaire
Ginger Rogers
Ralph Bellamy
Luella Gear
Jack Carson
Clarence Kolb

Writers:
Marian Ainslee (story)
Guy Endore (story)
Dudley Nichols (story)
Ernest Pagano (writer)
Allan Scott (writer)
Hagar Wilde (story)

Charlie Chan at the Opera

movieMoll — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:56:27 +0000

The Charlie Chan series is the A-list of B movies and “Charlie Chan at the Opera” is arguably the best of the series. Gravelle (Boris Karloff) escapes from an insane asylum to seek revenge on those who tried to kill him seven years earlier. Newspaper reports of his escape sensitively refer to the mental patient as a madman and a lunatic! The action happens at an Opera House during a performance of “Carnival,” an opera composed specifically for this movie by Oscar Levant. Warner Oland as Chan is in top form and the film is a must-see for Karloff fans. (68 min.)

1937 - Unrated

Starring:
Warner Oland
Boris Karloff
Keye Luke
William Demarest
Guy Usher
Margaret Irving
Gregory Gaye
Nedda Harrigan
Charlotte Henry

Director:
H. Bruce Humberstone

Writers:
Charles Belden
Scott Darling
Bess Meredyth (story)

Green for Danger

GroovyMovieGuy — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:45:34 +0000

A real whodunit, see if you can figure out who’s the real killer. Dark, moody and set in WWII era Britain, this movie with a twist or two will keep mystery fans intriqued to the end. Well worth watching — just watch closely. (91 minutes)
A DVD bonus feature, “An Interview with Geoff Brown,” has a lot of interesting information about the original novel becoming a movie.

1947

Starring:
Sally Gray
Trevor Howard
Rosamund John
Alastair Sim
Leo Genn
Judy Campbell
Megs Jenkins
Moore Marriott
Henry Edwards
Ronald Adam
George Woodbridge
Frank Ling
Wendy Thompson
John Rae

Director:
Sidney Gilliat

Writers:
Christinna Brand (novel)
Sidney Gilliat (screenplay)
Claude Guerney (screenplay)