Indiscreet (1958) Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid is a famous movie and stage actress who has never found the right man to marry. That is until she meets Cary Grant through a mutual acquaintance. Her heart is a'flutter for him. He reveals, however, that he is married. No problem, she still wants to get involved with him. It's mutual fr' sure. It's a hot and heavy courtship. Until she finds out he's really single. He tells women he's married to avoid relationships from getting too serious

An interesting plot twist for a decent film. More interesting considering that Cary Grant at that time was ending the third of 5 marriages. Bergman was in the midst of  her very public adulterous affair with director Roberto Rossalini. Cary Grant considered this his favorite film. It's light comedy done in style. You also get to see Cary Grant on the dance floor. He's got moves

Under The Volcano (1984) Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset  Director John Huston

It's 1938 in a small Mexican villa during the Day Of Death fiesta. Finney is a recently retired British consul, drinking himself to death. His wife had recently left him but for some inexplicably reason she has returned. Regardless, Finney goes right on drinking

Thats the movie, 2 hours of Finney giving the most powerful performance of a man in total alcoholic despondency. He has bouts of the shakes, fits of incoherent jabber and short interludes of lucidity. There's a glass or bottle near his mouth at all times. Forget Days Of Wine & Roses, The Lost Weekend, Clean And Sober etc. Nobody can outdrink Albert Finney. 

The movie chronicles the one day of his wife's return. Finney was nominated for an Oscar in this role. John Huston would also know a thing or two about booze

It's on Criterion. I'll toast to that

All these John Huston movies keep popping up! After seeing several that I never saw before in the last year - In This Our Life, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Fat City, Reflections on a Golden Eye - there are still quite a few that sound great. Like Under the Volcano. And a few weeks go, I was switching through the channels and I saw Max von Sydow and Bibi Andersson (and we know how much I love Bibi Andersson) in a movie that I was certain wasn't a Bergman film. It was The Kremlin Letter, directed by John Huston! I only saw a few minutes of it, so now I have to keep my eyes open for it. I haven't heard much about it, but I'll probably like it even if it's kinda so-so just because of Max von Sydow and Bibi Andersson.

Under Suspicion (2000) Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Monica Belluci

Gene hack reports finding the body of a dead 12 year old girl in the woods of Puerto Rico. Gene's a rich tax attorney but as Inspector Morgan Freeman continues to ask of Gene details about the finding, some inconsistencies come out in the open. Slowly Gene becomes the prime suspect, not only of that particular victim, but another pre-teen girl found dead recently in similar circumstances

Hackman was superb in this film and overall its quite an engrossing interrogation movie. Very nice directing from Stephan Hopkins in making the multiple flashbacks visually interesting. Thomas Jane plays the bad cop vs Freeman's good cop. 

The ending-either you'll love it or hate it. I won't tell

Jean Simmons should be arrested and charged with Grand Theft Scene every time she appears.

The duel scene is hilarious.

Overall, it's not so great, but it has its moments. It's the best movie that Grant and Kerr made together but not the best movie Mitchum and Kerr made together.

I find myself oddly fascinated by That Touch of Mink.

So much of it is sooo stupid! Like the psychiatrist that is TRIPPED OUT when he thinks Gig Young is gay! Wow! Who ever heard of such a thing! A man ... liking another man! 

Or like how awful women are. Like when Audrey Meadows sets the dog on Gig Young and he falls down the stairs. And he's not even the right guy! Isn't it hilarious that women are unreasonable, violent harpies!

And Doris Day being sooooo stupid! Like the scene where she messes up the computer cards because she has a hysterical fit. Ha ha! Just like a women! (After offering to pay for several other misadventures, you'll notice she doesn't offer to pay for THIS snafu, which cost thousands of dollars and probably hurt Cary Grant's business.) And Cary is so understanding and so patient. What a great husband he'll make! He knows how to handle a hysterical, dim-witted, hot-tempered, irrational female!

I also didn't like the scene with John Fiedler. Both Gig Young and Cary Grant bust in on John Fiedler's honeymoon (they've got the wrong room) and one could get the impression that John Fiedler's new bride is fooling around with both of them. And neither Gig Young or Cary Grant says a word to John Fiedler to clear things up. They just walk out without saying anything, leaving behind the idea that the bride has been fooling around. I got the impression that they feel no obligation to say anything because he's a mousy little nothing. It's far more important to maintain their fragile alpha-male dignity than to say one word to clear things up in John Fiedler's mind.

But it's amazing how well I remember it. You mentioned some good scenes, and there are others. John Astin is great! Doris Day has a dream about a bed that had me laughing out loud.

It was on MOVIES! a week or so ago ... and I thought about watching it again. 

Let's say I have mixed feelings.  

For me, this weekend has been perfect in regard to movies! I saw one of my all-time favorites and got my nephew to watch. And I saw a Fritz Lang movie I hadn't seen before and it's one of the best movies I've seen for a while. And then, very late last night, I saw one of those hour-long 1930s movies I love so much and it was so much fun even if it wasn't a great movie.



I started Friday with The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933). I've seen bits of it before but I've never seen the whole thing. I've been wanting to see it for 20 years. And TCM had it as part of their "Caligari to Hitler" programming. (I've seen almost all of them. They're all highly recommended!) The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is a great film! Just see it! The kind of thing where it doesn't matter how tired I am when I start, I just wake up in the first few minutes and stay up to midnight, fascinated and happy! So just see it!



And TCM had a Harold Lloyd marathon, so I DVRed Safety Last, one of my favorite movies! For a while, I was getting it from Netflix once a year, so I've seen it a bunch. And I talked my nephew (he's 13) into watching it, and he really enjoyed it! He had a lot of questions about things in the movie, about how people lived in 1924. So we had fun, laughing at Harold climbing up the building, and also discussing the U.S. in 1924 and what things cost so that $15 for a week's work was enough to live on.

I wish I had DVRed The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Because I think my nephew is ready for it.



Because Safety Last isn't much over an hour, it wasn't that late when we finished, so I watched something called Blond Cheat (1938), an early Joan Fontaine film. She's a con artist, being paid to put a bank clerk into a compromising position so that his fiancée will dump him. Her little gang has been hired by the fiancée's father (Cecil Kellaway), who doesn't like the bank clerk.

Not a great movie, but it's only 62 minutes and it's an entertaining romp. Especially if you like Joan Fontaine! She's glowing. It's hard to fault the guy for falling for her silly story.