After some miscommunication, renowned conductor Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) begins to suspect that his young wife (Linda Darnell) is having an affair with his secretary (Kurt Kreuger). During a performance, he begins imagining various ways he might take revenge on them both. The tonal shifts in this are just wild. It starts off like a bedroom farce, shifts into being a Hitchcock thriller (with a surprisingly nasty murder), before going completely screwball. And yet, like the main character, Preston Sturges orchestrates all of this masterfully. This was the last great film of his career, although it was not a financial success and failed to turn around his already dwindling fortunes.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Remaking The Philadelphia Story as a musical with songs by Cole Porter sounds like a great idea on paper, but the end result really could've done with some fine-tuning. Outside of their singing, neither Crosby or Sinatra feels right for their roles. Crosby (old enough to be Grace Kelly's father) feels just too laid-back for Dexter and has more chemistry with Sinatra in their duet then he does with Kelly. Ol' Blue Eyes himself is just too... Sinatra for Mike, and has so much chemistry with Celeste Holm's Liz you really wish the film was all about them instead. Kelly, in her last role before becoming a princess, is typically glamorous, even soaking wet in a bathrobe she's the most stylish thing on screen, but you can't but feel like she's trying to emulate Katharine Hepburn rather than make the part her own. Most of the musical numbers also don't gel well with the story. 'Who Wants to Be Millionaire?' fits the scene perfectly, but others feel like the narrative has ground to a halt so they can stage a random musical number.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Spoilt Fifth Avenue socialite Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) needs a forgotten man to win a scavenger hunt and quickly finds one in the homeless Godfrey Park (William Powell). After he humiliates her snooty sister, Irene becomes smitten with Godfrey and hires him to be the new butler for her eccentric and unhinged family. One of the crown jewels from the golden age of screwball comedy. Powell is terrific as Godfrey, the sole sane voice in a house of privileged lunatics, but the film belongs to Lombard as Irene, as well as Alice Brady as her mother. Irene is a classic ditzy blonde, but also a melodramatic brat who sulks and throws outrageous tantrums when she doesn't get her way, yet remains utterly endearing thanks to Lombard's charm.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Three struggling fashion models (Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable) are determined, by hook or by crook, to find eligible millionaires to marry. This was one of three films released in 1953 that sent Marilyn's star soaring, but is the weakest of the bunch. It's slow, poorly structured, not very funny, very dated in many ways, and lumbers her with a one-joke character who gets little to do compared to her more established co-stars, who are both at the top of their game even if the material they're given isn't. If anything, this is more of a great showcase for mid-20th century New York scenery thanks to all those frequent inserts shot in glorious technicolour CinemaScope.
Rating: ⭐⭐
Thrill seeking billionaire Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) orchestrates a heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as a distraction so he can steal a priceless Monet himself. Insurance investigator Catherine Banning (Rene Russo) is brought in to recover the painting and quickly sets her sights on Crown. One of two movies released in 1999 about an insurance agent chasing after a thief played by a James Bond (the other being the forgettable Entrapment), as well as one of those rare remakes that easily surpasses the original. Steamier and more playful, with some electric chemistry between the two leads, and a terrific final chase through the museum powered by Nina Simone's 'Sinnerman' (which became a soundtrack standard in the years after).
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig
My mother loved Frank Sinatra and she loved musicals, so when I was a kid I saw High Society more than once before I ever saw The Philadelphia Story as an adult. There's something wrong about that. As well as what's happening in Congress today.
ReplyDeleteNothing good ever happens in congress these days.
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