Movie Reviews
Too Many Husbands
I can’t help wondering if the people at Columbia knew while they were making this picture, which was released in March, that across town at RKO they were lensing (as they say at Variety), for May release, My Favorite Wife, which is based on the same “Enoch Arden” premise? A man (or in the case of the other film, a woman) is stranded on ... Read more »
Tom Dowd & the Language of Music
In 1946 Tom Dowd faced a career decision. During the war he had been working at Columbia University for the Army Corp of Engineers, Manhattan District. Seemed logical; Columbia is in Manhattan. What he was working for, without knowing it, was the Manhattan Project, studying neutron beams for use in atomic weapons. Later, he was one of the witnesses to one of the Bikini tests. So … ... Read more »
Tokyo Godfathers
I’ve never been a fan of Japanese Anime, but films like this are winning me over. Maybe the problem is the definition. It seems to cover everything from stuff suitable for 3-year-olds where nothing moves but the mouth (like “Speed Racer,” which was endlessly fascinating to my son when he was 3), to masterpieces like Princess Mononoke and Read more »
Together
Ya gotta love a director whose first film was titled Fucking Åmål (Raus Aus Åmål in Swedish), which of course had to be retitled to something inane like Show Me Love in the US. No? Well, if not love, then at least I’d be interested in seeing his next film, which is this one. No film since Taking Woodstock or ... Read more »
Together
Chinese director Chen Kaige is best known for Farewell, My Concubine, which I have not seen. But he is very good with this old-fashioned story of a violin prodigy from the boonies come to the big, westernized city with his adoring father to make something of himself
To Live and Die in L.A.
For some oddball reason, the US Secret Service is charged with two basic tasks: the protection of the President and certain other dignitaries, a job they got after the McKinley assassination in 1901, and counterfeiting, at the behest of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. They don’t exactly go together, and you’d think the presidential mission would be the most likely thing for an action movie, but ... Read more »
To Have and Have Not
“You know you don’t have to act with me, Steve. You don’t have to say anything, and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and… blow.” Oh my god. Is that the sexiest line of all time, delivered by maybe the sexist woman in the movies? I’d be hard pressed to ... Read more »
To Be or Not to Be
This is a re-make by Mel Brooks of a 1942 comedy of the same name. In fact, it uses pretty much the same script, with only a few changes here and there. The original starred Jack Benny, of all people, and Carole Lombard, who died just after filming it. This one stars Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. The original was directed by Ernst Lubitsch … and Mel, I love ya, pal, but you’re ... Read more »
To Be or Not to Be
SEE BELOW. Just a few more comments, having seen this one shortly after we saw the remake. The opening montage shows you why a man born Benjamin Kubelsky might want to make a film about the occupation of Poland. Every Pole seems to be a –ski. The whole Jewish angle is underplayed, but then, no one knew the full horror of the Holocaust in 1942. Polish Christians don’t have anything to ... Read more »
To Be and to Have
This is about as basic a documentary as you can get. And, to tell the truth, it took me a while to get into it. Without narration, we see the arrival of children at a one-room schoolhouse in rural France. There are big kids and little kids, ages 4 to 11, and one teacher, Georges Lopez. He has been at this for 30 years. He is very, very good with these children. He seems to be surrounded by ... Read more »