Reviews

There are few films with a script as witty and literate as "Ninotchka". There's beauty in every line. This is when people really talked in films instead of getting in car chases or climbing over buildings.

Garbo could have evolved into a real comic actress if she had given herself the chance. Not unlike Katharine Hepburn she shows a comic flare that is equal to her dramatic flare. But she "vanted to be alone".

In "Camille" she spent the entire film dying. In "Ninotchka" she spends the entire film coming to life. And it's a joy to watch.

The low rating of this brilliant episode is the result of a silly internet conspiracy. Pay no attention to it.

This is the second of only two episodes of "I Love Lucy" that is a pure musical (the equally brilliant "The Operetta" is the other).

It's difficult to imagine a sit-com today going through the trouble of coming up with original songs and dance numbers for an episode. Yet that's just what "I Love Lucy" did and the result is pure joy.

For once Lucy actually gets to sing without her singing voice being the punchline. She does quite a decent job. Ricky pretending to be Scottish is hilarious. Even better is Fred and Ethel as the two-headed dragon.

The songs are memorably funny and tuneful.

This episode is near-perfect yet is ranked lower than a great many lesser "I Love Lucy" episodes. That is a terrible shame.

Often called the very worst film to ever be nominated for Best Picture I recall watching this film when I was five years old. It must have had something for me at that age. I recently tried re-watching it. I made it through 40 minutes before saying "I can't do this to myself. Life's too short!" Even the film's one excuse for its existence, the Oscar-winning song "Talk to the Animals" isn't really a great song. But it's better than anything else the film has to offer. Today I think its sole purpose would be as punishment for unruly children.

These are just a few of Bela Lugosi's unforgettable lines from this Ed Wood classic. The psychiatrist with the pictures of horses painted on his tie also gets in a few good ones. "Only the infinity of the depths of a man's mind can really tell the story." "Men's hats are so tight they cut off the blood flow to the head thus cutting off the growth of hair." "Modern man is a hard working human. Throughout the day his mind and his muscles are busy building the modern world and its business administration."

And the poor buffalo suffering through all this! Pull the string!

It's been said that if you left typewriters with a group of monkeys they would eventually recreate all the great works of literature.

But, they would recreate the script for "Boy, Did I Get a Wong Number!" in one week.

...when talking about "Cousins". These two are about as closely related as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip so please get over it. If the film had been called "Siblings" I could understand. This is a wonderfully sweet, funny and uplifting film that pokes fun at small-town life in Brazil in which religion seems to be the only thing going on. You can feel the attraction between these two boys from the first minute they're together. It's not a question of "if" but "when". And, unlike in Hollywood this film isn't afraid to show that when people have sex they're naked and they have bodies. Hollywood might make this film, but it would definitely remove the male nudity. Thankfully, Brazilians are not so uptight. Please go see this film and take any small-town, religious relatives you may have with you.

Harvey Bullock wrote this episode in 1963 and, the following year, he wrote The Flintstones' episode "A Haunted House is Not a Home". Both are among the funniest episodes on both shows. Both feature a picture with moving eyes. And, the voice of Uncle Giggles on The Flintstones' episode is Hal Smith--Otis on The Andy Griffith Show!

In the age of super hero films I'm glad that there is still someone who is making films with witty dialog. Woody Allen should be praised for that. But in this film neither the dialog nor the story works.

"Hannah and Her Sisters" works so well because Woody Allen understood these characters--how they talk and behave. He knew how to write for them.

That was 1986. Now it's 2019.

21-year-olds in 2019 don't say "I need a drink, a cigarette and a Berlin ballad." No matter what their background that's not how they would talk.

"A Rainy Day in New York" is filled with references that no one born in the late 1990s would have. Songs by Gershwin, Porter, Berlin. Films from the 1930s and 40s. And the name of the lead character, Gatsby Welles, is just a little too cute. All of these are Woody Allen references. The problem is trying to force these references on these characters. It doesn't work.

Maybe this film is meant to be a fantasy. It's not how 21-year-olds talk and behave in the modern world. It's how Woody Allen wishes they talked and behaved.

No one wants to see a film about people staring into their phones but the truth is that the two leading characters would have been texting each other every few minutes and wouldn't have gotten so completely separated from each other. I think it's clear that Woody Allen hates cell phones because they get in the way of his stories.

I would have suggested two important changes to the film. Have it take place 25 years earlier--1994 instead of 2019, before everyone had their own phone--and make the characters in their mid-30s instead of their early 20s. With those two changes I think this would be remembered as one of Woody Allen's better films. As it stands he's created characters he doesn't know or understand and, unfortunately, it shows.

There were two major turning points in "The Flintstones" six-year run. The first was the introduction of the characters of Pebbles (at the end of Season 3) and Bamm-Bamm (beginning of Season 4). The second was when the wonderful Bea Benaderet left the show at the end of Season 4. She made the character of Betty Rubble a real person and not just "the second wife". Her replacement for the last 2 seasons was not in the same league. But, getting back to the first change. Part of what made the show special was the notion of an animated sit-com with scripts geared for adults. Episodes involving suspicion of infidelity and Fred's gambling addiction show that children were not the target audience. After the introduction of the children the show changed. There were still great episodes (my favorite "A Haunted House is Not a Home" is from Season 5) but also episodes made to appeal to children. (Episodes such as "Superstone" and "Dripper" are almost unwatchable to anyone over 12.) And when you start introducing characters based on other sit-coms (The Hatrocks, The Gruesoms) it's a sign you're running out of ideas. Still, during the first 3 seasons nearly every episode was wonderful. One thing I love to listen for--when the four lead voice actors appear doing "additional voices". Alan Reed did it occassionally. The other three in nearly every episode. Trying to spot them is fun. BTW Wilma's Mother didn't have a name during her early appearances. It's only in Season 4 that we hear Betty call her "Mrs. Slaghoople". Where they got the name "Pearl" I don't know as she's never called that.

Do yourself a favor and skip the last two seasons of "Sanford and Son" in which the scripts look like they were written by ten-year-olds.

But prior to that it was one of the greatest shows of the 70s. Redd Foxx steals the show and Demond Wilson plays the necessary but thankless role of straight man. There are fewer topical jokes than in "All in the Family" which means it ages better. Some Norman Lear shows play like Tonight Show monologues. Funny at one time but obscure to future audiences. "Sanford and Son" had an appeal that transcended race. It connected with everyone and was one of the highest rated shows of its time. It began with just two people but added more characters little by little. Bubba, Aunt Esther, Donna, Grady, Julio, Smitty and Hoppy. If Fred's fake heart attacks were the best running gag, Julio's pet goat Chico was probably the second best. But those last two seasons--Wow! Are they bad!

During its first 5 seasons AITF was everything they said: groundbreaking, iconic and, without a doubt, funny. The premise of the show was that of two couples, two generations, two ways of looking at life, trying to survive under the same roof. Inevitably Mike and Gloria would one day move out of The Bunkers' home and into one of their own. What a great point that would have been to end the show. But it just kept going on and on, after it had evolved into a very different show. The characters, especially Archie and Edith, changed to such a degree that they really became different, far less interesting, people. The first season after Mike and Gloria moved next door was still pretty good. But every season after that just kept getting worse and worse. Skip the last 3 seasons altogether. But those first 5 were something else!

The episode is hilarious! Felix going to the bathroom and returning to an empty airplane is one of the most well-executed gags I've ever seen.

On top of which we get brief appearance by Teri Garr and Grady Sutton (a familiar face to W. C. Fields fans).

The premise is ridiculous. On VE Day 1945 The King and Queen allow their teen-age daughters to go out for a chaperoned evening in London. The chaperons get drunk, the daughters get lost, and see how the "real people" live.

Nothing about the story is plausible. Especially since Margaret was only 14 at the time. Yet she drinks enough to make an adult sick. Nobody talks as they would have. Neither the princesses nor the people they meet.

I suppose it could be enjoyed as light entertainment like "Roman Holiday" another story about a princess on the loose.

At least that one didn't pretend to be true.

Is it fair to compare this new version with the much loved 1974 film?

Of course it is. It's almost begging for it.

If you put the two films side by side I would defy anyone to discover a single line of dialog that appears in both films. It seems quite deliberate.

It's not out of the question to remake some of the characters, as they obviously do. After all, it's Agatha Christie, not Shakespeare. I prefer the claustrophobic feeling of the first film with everyone stuck on board the train, but to shoot some scenes outdoors is a fair interpretation.

All filmmakers make alterations. But to do so to this degree shows lack of respect for the source material. Such wild moments as the shooting incident (actually, two shooting incidents) will make Christie fans wince.

Branagh is fine as Hercule Poirot. With a better script his performance would be considered memorable. (I wouldn't dare say "And with a different director", for Branagh has directed some fine films.) Most of the performances are serviceable, if not particularly memorable. And the scenery is great, if you think that Agatha Christie and CGI belong together.

The ending is horribly maudlin, as opposed to the delightfully tongue-in-cheek feel of the earlier film.

When I was in college, PBS did a series on all of Shakespeare's plays. I don't recall which play it was, but the day after it aired my English professor asked us "Did you all watch "Hey, Shakespeare. Up yours!" last night?"

This isn't quite on that level. Not quite.

A "laugh track" is when a sit-com, not filmed in front of an audience, employs a machine to artificially add laughter to the show.

"One Day at a Time", as with "I Love Lucy" "The Honeymooners" "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and most of the sit-coms of the 70s and 80s (including almost all of Norman Lear's output, including the original "One Day at a Time"), is filmed in front of a live audience. The laughter is not "canned". It is real. Real people laughing at what we are watching. No one is "telling us when to laugh".

Try attending the theater sometime. Maybe you'll understand.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest...

I love "One Day at a Time". The whole cast is great but watching 80- something legend Rita Moreno is a true joy. She is a force of nature, both when she performs and when she gives interviews. For those who complain of her accent, this is the woman who created Googie Gomez in "The Ritz".

Rita Moreno still loves to joke about her mother's accent. When she once chided her mother for her embarrassing mispronunciation of the word "beach" her mother replied "You know I always have trouble with my bowels."

This is the first sit-com I've gotten into in some time. It's smart, funny and often sad.

As others have said "Bring on Season Two!"

Of all the Popeye cartoons made for Famous Artists from 1942-1957, this ranks as my favorite. It's a delight from start to finish.

This is just one of many attempts to incorporate FDR's Good Neighbor Policy into the cartoon industry. In fact, in the waning days of the Fleischer Studio, there had been one earlier attempt "Kicking the Conga 'Round" which is certainly a good cartoon.

"We're on Our Way to Rio" is even better. As Popeye and Bluto enter Rio (beautifully drawn) on burro singing the wonderful title song, one can't help but be reminded of Hope and Crosby on camel-back singing "The Road to Morocco".

Olive Oyl is playing an obviously Carmen Miranda-inspired nightclub singer. The laughs come quickly and the music as memorable as in the sadly departed Fleischer days.

Famous Studios would never again make a Popeye cartoon as memorable as this. Before much longer they seemed to give up even trying.

...and in which the star is none other than J. Wellington Wimpy.

It's a wonderful change-of-pace cartoon and lots of fun to see the great hamburger moocher as the center of attention.

Popeye and Bluto are clearly playing the role of straight men to Wimpy's shenanigans.

Wimpy is on no one's side. Just as long as he gets his hamburger. Only in one cartoon, the equally oddball "Hello, How am I?" does this characteristic, at least superficially, make him take on the role of villain.

Very uncharacteristic Popeye cartoon and extremely funny. Too bad Wimpy didn't get a chance to be a star more often.

People will point out that this was the first of the Popeye "cheaters"--that is, it consists mainly of footage from earlier cartoons.

However, the clips from the four cartoons here have all been re-dubbed with Jack Mercer, Mae Questel and Gus Wickie doing the voices that had earlier been done by others.

Also, in a Popeye "cheater" they often came up with verbal gags that weren't in the original. (In "Customers Wanted" a clip is shown from the earlier "Let's Get Moving" in which Popeye tosses Olive's piano out of the window while he delivers a great under-the-breath mumbling: "The first movement from Not Paying the Rent"--a gag not found in the original cartoon.)

So, it's important to bear that in mind before referring to these as "cheaters".