The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

What a history this movie has! Fritz Lang made it, and then had to submit it to Joseph Goebbels of the brand-new Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda. (Hitler had come into power only three months previous.) Goebbels told Lang that the film could not be shown in Germany because it showed how a single individual could rock the State to its foundations. (Something that was proven beyond ... Read more »

Texas Rising

Before I even get started, I have to comment on the opening credits. They are machine-like, with circles of things like cannons, rifles, pistols, tomahawks, spears, and so forth revolving in concentric circles. It instantly reminded me of another show that has opening credits very similar to that. So the alternate title to this could be Game of Thrones, Y’all! ... Read more »

Texasville

Considering that the book this was based on was not very interesting, I didn’t have high hopes, and I was right. It’s pretty bad. Which is a shame, as Peter Bogdanovich accomplished something that’s pretty rare by getting all the major cast members from The Last Picture Show back together, almost twenty years later. (Both Ben Johnson and the character he played ... Read more »

Thank You For Smoking

This is the smartest, funniest movie I’ve seen in a long time. I love satire, and I have always liked stories about amoral rogues. This guy isn’t in the league of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but he’s a lobbyist, flack, and spin doctor for the tobacco industry, and he likes his work. He could sell ice to Eskimos, or convince you that fire is cold or ... Read more »

That Evening Sun

Hal Holbrook has enriched a hundred films in supporting roles, but he seldom gets to carry a picture on his own. Here’s he an old codger of 80 (he’s actually 85) who escapes from a retirement home and returns to his farm, to find his lawyer son has leased it out to a redneck, who he hates, and his family. He sets out on a campaign to evict them. The redneck is pretty awful, a lazy drunk ... Read more »

That Hamilton Woman

You tend to think that, in wartime, in 1941 England during the Blitz, the war was all that was going on, and everyone and everything was devoted to wartime production. Not true. As in Hollywood a year later, the motion picture industry was busy with propaganda films and, of course, their regular production as well. It was a matter of morale, if nothing else.

This is clearly ... Read more »

That Man From Rio

I saw this when it was new in the only theater in Port Arthur, Texas, that ever showed any films that didn’t come from Hollywood. I’m pretty sure it was dubbed in English, but I was young enough and inexperienced enough not to really care. (I care a lot these days.) It was me and my BFF Calvin, almost alone in the theater. And we began to notice that Jean-Paul ... Read more »

That’s Dancing!

This is not, strictly speaking, a part of the That’s Entertainment! trilogy, but it is very much like them. The first one had a deep impact on me. I had always loved musicals, but it was mostly hearing the original cast or soundtrack albums. I hadn’t seen all that many of them.

It’s easy to forget these days when you can see just about anything you want, ... Read more »

That’s Entertainment, Part II

The original (1974) of this three-part series (though the last wasn’t made until 1994) was responsible, more than anything else, for my enduring love of musicals, both on the stage and on the silver screen. Before that I’d seen musicals, like most everybody else, but only the new ones, and the ‘60s and ‘70s wasn’t really a good time for them. Sure, there was Funny ... Read more »

Their Finest

By coincidence I saw two films about Dunkirk in the last month: the huge and fairly accurate (according to the survivors) Dunkirk, and this much more obscure one. This is about the making of a film about Dunkirk in 1940, shortly after the real event. It’s a comedy-drama, and we enjoyed it.
The plot … two screenwriters hear of a set of twins who ... Read more »