The Spirit Of St. Louis (1957)
Jimmy Stewart
D-Billy Wilder

The struggles and success of Charles Lindbergh and his trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927

The first 45 minutes or so is Lindburgh struggling for financing and helping to design the plane.The balance is his solo flight with flashbacks of his barnstorming,aerial circus and mail-carrying years.Stewart was a trained pilot and gung ho for the role even if he was 20 years older than Lindburgh was.Lindburgh wanted Anthony Perkins to play him.Some other actors turned the role down recalling Lindburgh's pro-nazi and anti-semitic views

Watching the film made me appreciate how difficult the task really was.Needing to stay awake for 40 hours,the hypnotic monotony of flying over the ocean,the build-up of ice on the wings and struts,the rolling fog,the loss of direction from time to time and the constant fear of any little thing going wrong and jeopardizing the flight

The movie tested badly for preview audiences and was re-edited with new footage.Still it was considered a box office flop-the first for Billy Wilder.Was it the backlash against Lindburgh for his Nazi views?Was it too long at 135 minutes and the audience thought it would just be a guy in an airplane?Was Jimmy Stewart miscast?I didn't think it was all that bad.I'd give it 7 of 10 stars

The DVD has a short featurette on its theatrical premiere in Los Angeles,a Speedy Gonzales cartoon and a Joe McDokes short subject "So You're Wife Wants To Go To Work'

FYI:Britons Alcock and Brown made the first trans-Atlantic flight 8 years earlier from Newfoudland to Ireland.

Rosie Greer's head was born to sit on Ray Milland's shoulder

Really? Maybe it was because i was watching it late at night, but I remember it as a rich family on an island bitching at each other for an hour and a half, then, frogs.

(And I'm hardly a polite bourgeois society type.)

Sorry, we seem to have gotten off-topic somehow.

I watched The Virgin Queen last night. Bette Davis is really something as Queen Elizabeth. I'm reading Alison Weir's biography of Elizabeth and I'll probably be hearing Bette Davis's voice in my head for the rest of the book.

After the disappointing box office results of The Spirit Of St Louis,Billy Wilder bounced back with Love In The Afternoon (never got the pleasure to see),Witness For The Prosecution,Some Like It Hot and The Apartment.His Oscars and fame continued to mount.And then came

One,Two,Three (1961)
Jimmy Cagney,Horst Buchholz,Pamela Tiffin,Arlene Francis
D-Billy Wilder

Comedy about Coca-Cola's man in West Berlin, who may be fired if he can't keep his American boss's daughter from marrying a Communist.

You might believe Dr.Strangelove was the best black comedy about the cold war.This would be a close second.Filmed in Germany just before the Berlin Wall went up.Jimmy Cagney is the chief representative of Coca-Cola in Germany and is trying to cut a deal with the Russians.A big shot Coca-Cola executive in Atlanta asks Cagney to mind his 17 year old sex-crazed daughter for 2 weeks as her European vacation takes her thru Germany.Behind Cagney's back,she sneaks into East Berlin and mets a rabid young commie whom she weds.Cagney finds out,afraid he'll lose his job,and tries to break up the marriage by having the East Germans think the young husband is an american spy.But then Cagney discovers the daughter is pregnant.And her father is on the way to Berlin.Cagney has 24 hours to free the young husband,get him back to West Berlin and transform him from a radical bolshevik to a young conservative

The pace of this movie is breathtaking.The dialogue,especially Cagney,is as fast as a machine gun.Its hysterically zany,one of my all time favorite comedies.Cagney gives one of his greatest performances,his last until Ragtime 20 years later.Every institution is a target for savage humour.Can a movie like this be made now?I doubt it,certainly not from a major studio.You'll feel exhausted after watching but glad you did

Cagney couldn't stand Horst Buchholz during filming and vice versa.The clash between their characters was heartfelt.There are so many refrences to earlier Cagney or Wilder films.Cagney threatens Horst's face with half a grapefruit."Yes We Have No Bananas" from Sabrina is sung in German.Red Buttons has a cameo as a MP and does a Cagney imitation.Cagney asks "Mother Of Mercy,Is This The End Of Rico?"Hidden gems all over the place

The film did not do well in Germany.Too many jokes about what former Nazis were currently doing and the fact the Berlin Wall was erected and the movie took place just before that occurred.

I'm giving this 12 out of 10 stars.

Mister Robert was a fine film and seeing that Cagney lived until 89 and was able to pull off what he did in One,Two,Three I'd wish to age like him
It's funny-All I knew about Arlene Francis was she was on the TV quiz show What's My Line?I didn't think she did anything else except guess people's professions

This is off-topic since it's not a classic film yet (I don't think), but I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past yesterday, and I had a great time.

I was a big fan of the Chris Claremont X-Men in the 1970s. My first issue was #99, and I still remember flipping through it and trying to figure out the characters' names from the word balloons and the captions. Oh, man, was I hooked on X-Men for a while. (I read it religiously up to the punk Ororo era, and then on and off to about #200.)

But I am so over X-Men.

I think that's why I didn't mind the changes they made to the comic book version of Days of Future Past. For one thing, going back in time to 1973 is much cooler than going back to the 1980s. For another thing, movie Wolverine is so much cooler than the eventual status of comic book Wolverine. I haven't been able to stomach comic book Wolverine since the first mini-series.

And Jennifer Lawrence really carries the show. She's really incredible. I found it very easy to ignore the occasional dumb plot points (they're minor) because Lawrence really gets into Raven's head and makes this whole silly thing believable and moving.

Not that there aren't a lot of really good people in this. (James McAvoy, Fassbender, young Hank MCoy) And a screenplay that's very solid for a comic book movie. (For every good one lately (Winter Soldier, The Avengers) there's been a terrible one (Man of Steel, Dark Knight Rises).)

If there are a few of us left who have been avoiding it lately for fear of extreme suckitude, let it be known that Hoosier X declares it safe for all but the most fanatical purists.