Desperate Journey (1942)

The TCM channel aired this adventure a few months ago during a tribute to Raymond Massey. The movie is about a group of bomber pilots stranded in WWII Germany when their plane gets shot down. Among the airmen are Errol Flynn and a comical Ronald Reagan who declares he's "half American, half Jersey City". He has a few other funny lines in the movie such as "How come every time you wake me up I'm on a date with Ann Sheridan?". 

I liked Alan Hale's character, a man in his 50s who dyed his hair to look younger and lied about his age so he could serve. The others tease him about being the oldest in the group and call him "grandpa".

There's a good interrogation scene with Reagan and Massey who plays a Nazi general.

Interestingly, Massey was in another movie with some similarities to this one: The 49th Parallel/The Invaders (1941) in which Nazis are stranded in Canada and Massey plays a good guy.

 Directed by Raoul Walsh. Music by Max Steiner. Also with Arthur Kennedy and Nancy Coleman as a member of the German resistance. Available on DVD.

The Great Santini (1979) starring Robert Duvall

I like how Roger Ebert described the film in his 4-star review: "Like almost all my favorite films, The Great Santini is about people more than it's about a story. It's a study of several characters, most unforgettably the Great Santini himself, played by Robert Duvall."

At the start of the movie we learn that Duvall's character - a marine fighter pilot  - is not only a strict disciplinarian, but he's also a jokester who loves to pull all kinds of practical jokes on his comrades, such as pretending a can of soup is vomit. His nickname is "Great Santini" but it's never really explained. In this classic scene, he thinks his buddy is in the stall next to him, and his prank goes wrong ---

   

He also has a bit of a drinking problem. But as his superior officer tells him, he's a great leader, and gives him a new assignment training pilots in South Carolina where he moves with his wife and 4 children (the film is set in the 1960s)  Here's another scene with Duvall with his new squadron:

   

I also love the part where he meets his new maid, played by Theresa Merrit of the 70s TV show That's My Mama!.  She steals the scene when she declares she can take a punch just like a man and challenges Duvall to a fight. It's hilarious. There are some other funny bits in the film, such as when his daughter gives him a taste of his own medicine when she jokes that she's been impregnated by a pacifist. 

But the movie is not solely a comedy, though there are quite a few light moments. There are also some serious and touching moments, especially near the end.

The main focus of the story is on Duvall and his oldest son played by Michael O'Keefe.  This is the only other movie I've seen with O'Keefe besides Caddyshack;  I was really impressed with him in this role and all the scenes he has with Duvall - the arguments, fights, and even moments of bonding, especially when Duvall takes him out for a drink on his 18th birthday and he has a funny "drunk" scene.  I also love the scene where Duvall wakes the son up at 4 in the morning to give him his birthday gift - his old WWII bomber jacket.    

But throughout the film there is tension between the two. Duvall puts pressure on him to be the best, whether its being the best future pilot or being the best athlete on the team.  

There's a subplot in the film is about O'Keefe's black friend (Stan Shaw) who stutters and is teased by some of the local white racists.  At first I wondered if this subplot was necessary. but as I thought about it more I realized that it is meant to show real hate and its consequences. At the end of the film we realize that Duvall and O'Keefe never really hated each other, even if it feels like hate. 

With Blythe Danner (as Duvall's wife).

The Right Stuff (1983)

The new sci-fi / space movie Interstellar has been one of the most talked-about films of the year; but if one stops to consider, there would be no Interstellar without the events depicted in 1983's The Right Stuff,  the true story of the space race and the first American astronauts, IE the "Mercury Seven".

The film spans about 20 years, from the late 1940s to the mid 1960s as we get to see how test pilots such as Alan Shepard (Scott Glenn) and Gus Grissom (Fred Ward) handle their new lives as astronauts.

In his Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin writes, "it is a long movie, but never boring" with "exhilarating moments". My favorite scene is when John Glenn (Ed Harris) first orbits the globe. It's an awesome moment in a great film about real heroes.

I love how each character becomes memorable in his or her own way, even the minor characters such as the military recruiters played by Jeff Goldblum and Harry Shearer.  Veronica Cartwright  has a small role but is very memorable as one of the test pilots' wives; in one scene she suffers a breakdown when she realizes she wont be able to meet President Kennedy and his wife.   Also excellent are Dennis Quaid, Barbara Hershey, Pamela Reed, Kim Stanley, Kathy Baker, and Sam Shepard as record-setting test pilot Chuck Yeager (1923 - ). Intelligently directed by Philip Kaufman.

The film earned Roger Ebert's and Gene Siskel's pick as the  #1 Film of 1983.

Read Roger Ebert's essay on The Right Stuff in his "Great Movies" series:
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-right-stuff-1983

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987) and the sad lack of cell phones

The heartwarming 1987 John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, with it's Thanksgiving theme, has become a traditional holiday film and fan favorite. This weekend, with a piece of leftover pumpkin pie, I sat down - once again - to watch the comedic genius paring of John Candy and Steve Martin, who plays a character trying to make it home to his family for the holiday. There are some very funny moments in the film; it's hard to pick, but I'd say my favorite sight gag is the one with the dog in the back of the truck.  I went to a showing of this on its opening day - hard to believe it's been 25 years now. The theater at that screening was packed with people, and it was fun hearing everyone laughing. I bet alot of them have bought the DVD or Blu Ray.  This time while watching, I noticed a few quirky things going on in the background. For example, in the beginning, Steve Martin hails a cab for the airport in New York passes by a Roy Rogers fast food restaurant, which I'm sure has been gone for at least a decade or two.  In another scene on a bus, a passenger is shown reading a magazine with Michael J Fox and Family Ties on the cover.

Martin looks up at a clock in the airport, and it's 

one of those old "flip clocks"!  Not even a digital clock 

in the airport yet! 

Poor Martin tries to call home several times using a pay phone: from a restaurant, from the airport, etc. If only he had a cell phone, he'd be able to call home more frequently, and his wife would be calling or texting, too. But then again, the movie wouldn't be as funny, would it? I imagine that if the film is ever remade, Martin's character would have to lose his phone somehow.

Midway (1976)

Midway was shown on American network television in June of 1992, and I remember watching it and really enjoying the battle scenes, and learning a little about the battle of Midway.

Toshiro Mifune plays Japanese Admiral Yamamoto and Henry Fonda plays American Admiral Chester Nimitz. The battle is planned and executed.

There is a subplot involving American naval captain Charlton Heston and his son played by Edward Albert, whose girlfriend is Japanese. The interracial romance was reflective of the times and relevant to the audiences of the 1970s but otherwise the film isn't  too remarkable.

It's an all star cast, so if you know your classic movie stars, you can play the game "Oh look it's .....". James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Robert Wagner, Dabney Coleman, Pat Morita, Erik Estrada, Robert Mitchum, Hal Holbrook, Tom Seleck, Cliff Robertson and more.

Read another review from the blog Mike's Take on Movies here. 

The Artist (2011) was my in-flight movie on United Airlines

Last week I traveled to San Francisco on United Airlines and the in-flight movie was none other than The Artist. I had to snap a picture of this because how often do you see a B/W or silent film on an airplane?

United 93 (2006) directed by Paul Greengrass

This film is about the passengers in the fourth hijacked plane of September 11, 2001, based on cell phone calls, and other sources.

This film made me think about this entire day differently because the passengers banded together tried to stop the hijackers. When so many movies today are about superheroes or  A-Teams and Expendables it's nice to see some real heroic efforts.

I recently watched another doomed airline movie called The High and the Mighty which was terribly dated and doesn't hold up well at all.

This movie is pretty impressive.

This weekend Cinematic Sara wrote a review of this film.
Defiant Success also blogged about this movie here.

Available on DVD/Netflix.

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Three servicemen return to America from WWII and try to resume their lives. The movie aims to focus on each of their stories equally.

Frederic March is the family man (married to Myrna Loy) and Dana Andrews is a tough pilot. Especially memorable is the performance of Harold Russell as the returning sailor who lost his hands in the war.

Russell, who in fact was a double amputee, was awarded an honorary Academy Award for "bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans." He's really good, I would never have known he was not a professional actor.

Hugo Friedhofer's score for this picture is memorable and features specific themes associated with various characters and situations (also known as a leitmotif).

It is remembered as a film event that spoke to a generation; it was one of the Top 5 grossing films of that year.

I like Frederic March in the movie, but I always feel that James Stewart should have won the Oscar for Best Actor for It's a Wonderful Life that year.

Dana Andrews is in the film just as much as March is, and he's good as well. One scene I will always remember is when Andrews comes face to face with a conscientious objector at a coffee shop and almost fights with him.

With Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell, and Hoagy Carmichael. I first watched this movie in 1994.




Read Dawn's review here Virtual Virago's review here Sittin On A Backyard Fence

Airport (1970) and its crappy sequels (though the original wasn't so great, either)

Airplane from 1970 the first in a line of popular "disaster films" from the 70s, but was not seen as such upon first release.

The movie was based on a novel, and was treated as a serious  drama-thriller at the time, with distinguished actors such as Helen Hayes and Maureen Stapleton as ill-fated passengers.

The film itself was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. (Ms Hayes won Best Supporting Actress as an elderly, clever stowaway). Dean Martin was miscast as the plane's pilot, but he's fairly tame in his performance, thankfully. (No drinking). The movie gets interesting when a lunatic (Van Heflin) threatens to blow up the plane with a bomb he brings aboard. This was parodied in the movie "Airplane 2: The Sequel" (1982). 

The movie is sappy and long, and is probably best watched having a certain context and frame of reference.



The next movie in the series was the less-than-creatively titled Airport 1975, featuring another all star fest, and trying to bank on the popularity of the recent disaster films "Earthquake" and "Towering Inferno".

This time Charlton Heston is the man to save the day. Helen Reddy plays a singing nun and Linda Blair is a child in need of an organ transplant. These characters were later lampooned in 1980's Airplane! Gloria Swanson also appears, in her last film.

The blog Cult Movie Reviews recently posted a synopsis of this terrible film. I'm so thankful another blogger watched the movie and has written about it...so I don't have to.





 
These next films are so awful, despite having some huge names in the cast. It's amazing to me why these films were made - were the filmmakers sadistic?  The first Airport movie was a success, followed by Airport 1975, but they probably should have stopped there.

In Airport '77 (funny how the "19" in "1977" was cut from the title), Jack Lemmon saves the day, and stopping by for cameos are Jimmy Stewart and Olivia DeHavilland.

Did they need the money?

Fortunately, Jimmy is only in one or two scenes. Probably the lowest point in his filmography.

Finally, we have The Concorde: Airport 79 a disaster (pun intended) starring Robert Wagner.

Leslie Howard to be Honored in Spain with WW2 Monument

April 18 2009 - the Associated Press reported that a Spanish historical association based in Madrid plans to erect a monument near where Leslie Howard's plane was shot down by Nazi fighter pilots duringn WW2. The Royal Green Jackets association and author Jose Rey Ximena will unveil the propeller-shaped sculpture in July 2009 near Cedeira bearing the names of Howard and the others who died aboard the commercial flight from Portugal to Britain in 1943. Association President Manuel Santiago Arenas Roca says the London-born Howard joined the Allies and campaigned hard against the Axis powers. Ximena said Saturday that Germany's government at the time apparently was worried about the negative impact the high-profile actor-director's anti-Nazi publicity was having on its cause.

One of Leslie Howard's greatest films was the Oscar-winning, pro-British, anti-Nazi film "The 49th Parallel" co-starring Lawrence Olivier and Glynis Johns.

Leslie Howard (1893-1943) is best known for playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone With the Wind. He was nominated for Best Actor for 1938's Pygmalion as Profession Higgins. He also starred in "The Petrified Forest" and "The Invaders/49th Parallel". For more about Leslie Howard, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Howard_(actor)

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) Movie Trailer

This is a very long movie about the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I remember seeing this on television but not watching the full film. The trailer shows some of the actions sequences:

The Magnificent 60s blog does a better job than me in reviewing this movie. Check out these blog posts:

Part 1 Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) ***** – The Magnificent 60s

Part 2:Behind the Scenes: “Tora! Tora!” Tora!” (1970) – The Magnificent 60s