Skipping a recently viewed Sahara we next come to

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)
Humphrey Bogart,Bette Davis,Eddie Cantor,Olivia De Havilland,Erroll Flynn,John Garfield,Joan Leslie,Dennis Morgan,Alexis Smith,Ida Lupino,Jack Carson,Alan Hale,Hattie McDanielle,Willie Best,Anne Sheridan,Dinah Shore,George Tobias,Spike Jones
D-David Butler

Two producers are putting together a Calvacade of Stars for a wartime charity show. Along with a list of well-knowns they promote the work of an unknown singer and songwriter.

Eddie Cantor,Dennis Morgan and Joan Leslie get most of the screentime with their antics and there are too many Dinah Shore songs.But its fascinating to watch these other stars do actual singing (their real voices) and sometimes dancing

To see how far Bogart has come,he headlines above everyone else in the cast and is only on screen a minute.He appears with a weeks growth of stubble and is surly and rude.But some fat old guy intimidates Bogey and sends him away without him performing

See Bette Davis sing a song about not enough good men on the homefront
See Erroll Flynn sing how he's winning the war all by himself
See Lupino,Tobias and de Havilland in a gay 90s type song
Jack Carson and Alan Hale do a vaudevillian soft shoe number
Alexis Smith turns out to be a pretty decent dancer
The best is a huge production number with an all-black cast featuring McDanielle and Best

You might get tired of Cantor's comedy and skip around for the other performers.Me,I wound up skimming past Dinah Shore alot.But there are some interesting scenes.6 of 10 stars

This is on TCM tonight overnight at 2am EDT.

Mr. Jez had it bad for Ornella Muti from Flash Gordon.



The scene below is possibly the best sequence from that 1980 popcorn flick, but what a great soundtrack!

I now go thru a 10 year time jump on my Bogie Bender.In recent years I have watched the classics To Have and Have Not,The Big Sleep,The Treasure of Sierra Madre,Key Largo,The African Queen and The Caine Mutiny. I have also seen recently Conflict,Dead Reckoning,The Two Mrs.Carrolls,Dark Passage,In A Lonely Place,The Enforcer,Sirocco and Beat The Devil.
I have not seen or own Knock On Any Door,Tokyo Joe,Chain Lightning,Deadline-U.S.A. or Battle Circus.Hopefully soon but for now we get to:

Sabrina (1954)
Humphrey Bogart,William Holden,Audrey Hepburn,John Williams,Martha Hyer
D-Billy Wilder

Linus (Bogart) and David Larrabee Holden) are the two sons of a very wealthy family. Linus is all work and no play. David is all play -- technically employed in the family business but never showing up for work, spending all his time entertaining, and having been married and divorced three times. Sabrina Fairchild (Hepburn) is the young, shy, and tomboy daughter of the household chauffeur, who has been infatuated with David all her life, but whom David hardly notices till she goes away to Paris for two years and returns an elegant, sophisticated, beautiful woman. Suddenly, she finds she's captured David's attention, but just as she does so, she finds herself also falling in love with Linus, and she finds that Linus is also falling in love with her.

Many critics remarked that Bogart was too old for this part but at this stage in her career,all of Hepburn's romantic leads were old enough to be her father.What was going on behind the scenes was just as interesting as what happened in front of the camera. Cary Grant was to be the star of the movie and at the last moment bowed out. Bogart came in and lobbied for his wife,Lauren Bacall to replace Hepburn.Billy Wilder refused to give in.Bogart did not get along with William Holden and kept calling him "Smiling Jim".He kept a grudge against Wilder for the Bacall refusal.He did not think highly of Hepburn who was very young and required many takes.Holden was married,fell in love with Hepburn during the filming and was having an affair with her.This also pissed off Bogart who after all these years of heavy drinking and smoking was beginning to have health issues and personal problems.The script was not complete when filming began leading to delays and last minute changes,another reason Bogart was displeased.Bogart made the production of the film very tense and before he died he apoligized for his surliness.

Putting all that aside,the film is still considered a classic.I haven't seen the Harrison Ford 1995 remake nor intend to having seen the original.It's got class,it's got a wonderful Billy Wilder script and its got three legendary lead actors. 9 of 10 stars

The DVD is packed and includes:Audrey Hepburn The Fashion Icon,The Mansions of Long Island,Supporting Actors for Sabrina,William Holden The Paramount Years,Paramount Studio Movies of the 50s and more

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
Humphrey Bogart,Ava Gardner,Edmond O'Brien,Rossano Brazzi,Warren Stevens
D-Joseph L. Mankiewicz

It's Maria Vargas' (Gardner)funeral and the story is told in flashbacks. Hollywood types headed by Harry Dawes (Bogart) a writer/director, PR man Oscar Muldoon (O'Brien) and movie producer Kirk Edwards (Stevens) discover Maria as a new face for the movies at a shabby nightclub where she worked as a flamenco dancer. They convince her to take a chance on acting and her first film is a huge hit. Dawes is the only one Maria can talk to, Edwards is a ruthless millionaire whom she leaves for another cruel aritocrat. She finally meets her true love with Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini (Brazzi). They are married but theirs is not to be a happy life.

The story is a melding between the true story of Ava Gardner and her relationship with Howard Hughes as well as the story of Rita Heyworth and her marriage with Prince Aly Khan.This is really an Ava Gardner movie,Bogart is more of an observer and part-narrarator.O'Brien won a well-deserved supporting actor Oscar as the sweaty PR man.The cinematography is beautiful with rich color-drench glamour.Ava Gardner is gorgeous. The dialogue lapses into trite soap opera too often. And the ending left me shaking my head

SPOILERS-BEWARE
So Maria finds her true love in this rich Italian count who loves her deeply. She's waiting for him in their bedroom on their wedding night. He comes in finally,hands her a note from the army saying his penis dosen't work or its been shot off and then immediately leaves.A few weeks later she gets knocked up by someone because she wants her husband to have a child. But the count kills Maria and her lover before she can explain. Did Bob Haney write this section

This movie might have eked out a 6 before the last 20 minutes.Now its a 4 of 10 stars
I have one last Bogart film to go

One of my favorite "so bad it's awesome" type movies. I love that version of Flash Gordon even with all its cringe-worthy moments. Melody Anderson played Dale in the film... 

-M

I watched The Fallen Idol last night. Great movie! I saw part of it years ago and I always wanted to see the rest. I turned on TCM just to see what was playing and the host was talking about the next film ... The Fallen Idol! Perfect timing! I took it as an omen.

I wanted to read the MAD version of The Barefoot Contessa so I got my MAD reprints and as I was flipping through them, it reminded me of all the films of the 1950s that MAD skewered when they were still new. Some of them (The Wild 1/2, Julius Caesar) are funny if you don't know the source material. Some of them (From Eternity Back to Here is a great example) I didn't get the jokes until after I saw the movie. I'm going to read a few of them (The Barefoot Nocountessa, From Eternity Back to Here, The Cane Mutiny) later tonight.

But first: I got A Woman of Paris (1923) on the DVR and I'm going to watch it. Never saw it before. The only other feature film directed by Charlie Chaplin that I've never seen is A Countess from Hong Kong.