Essential: Rawhide – ‘The Captain’s Wife’ (1962)

Tomorrow Jlewis and I will begin looking at five classic episodes of the western series Rawhide. The program uses certain terminology. For example…though many of the characters do say “cattle,” the trail boss Gil Favor (Eric Fleming) often says “beeves” as in the plural of beef. Gil Favor comes from the east coast, Pennsylvania to be specific. Most of the other men are drifters from the south, and they don’t all speak like Mr. Favor does. 

In addition to how the livestock are called, we hear the characters refer to commonly used trails and frequently visited towns on the series. For the most part the writers do a good job with the show’s geographic continuity, since these men are supposed to be traveling from point A to Point Z with many important stops in between. They don’t always reach the end of the trail in the last episode of the season. Though there is one time they do.

Season 4 begins with a change in how Favor is conducting his business. In the early seasons, he is working for cattle barons, taking their animals across the expansive landscape to market (market is usually in Abilene, Texas). But starting in season 4, Favor owns the herd and the men are working for him directly. There is more at stake this way.

Most of the episodes we will look at come from season 4 since I feel it’s the most structured season. We get to watch Gil and his men experience setbacks which shows how risky his new enterprise is as the sole owner of the herd. Plus it all comes to a nice conclusion at the end of the season when they reach Abilene and sell the beeves.

Season 4 also has some episodes that include strong female guest characters. These women complement the show’s main plot strands, as certain things are repeated often on the series– such as hard conditions (weather and illness); stampedes; rustlings; lynchings, relations with Indians/Natives, etc. Typically, the guest stars are brought in to give the men some unique challenges on the trail.

Sometimes Gil Favor or his ramrod Rowdy Yates (pre-stardom Clint Eastwood) leave the drovers behind and go off to a nearby town where they must deal with a unique crisis.

I want to mention how stock footage is successfully blended with in-studio photography and on-location filming featuring the show’s stars. Yes, the rear projection shots in the studio are rather obvious. But the editors do a good job of cutting from the shots of the actors to shots filmed in New Mexico of real drovers pushing cattle along a trail. One of the show’s editors humorously said in an interview that they had thousands of hours of outdoor footage at their disposal, but not all of it could be used on network television because invariably some of the animals would hump the other animals.

He also told an interesting story of how Clint Eastwood and some of the actors came to the editing suite one day and complained that their speeches were interrupted by cutaways to other actors; and he had to explain to Eastwood and his pals that some of their line deliveries contained long pauses that had to be eliminated by cutting to a shot of something else. If the speeches were not pared down, the episodes would have run over time. Eastwood never interrupts his famous long pauses in the movies he makes, but then he doesn’t have to worry about fitting in any commercials!

In addition to the more mechanical aspects of the show, we will focus on the plots and characters of Rawhide, as well as the ideas that the writers are presenting as a form of social commentary.

Speaking of the characters, there are the two main characters (Gil and Rowdy). Rowdy is definitely more a supporting type in the first season, but that starts to change in the second season. Because they were filming so many episodes each year (up to 30 or more), there had to be stories that basically starred Fleming in the bulk of the scenes, and stories that starred Eastwood in the bulk of the scenes; so they could be filmed at the same time by separate units with different directors and guest stars. However, there are still plenty of episodes where they both appear together.

Fleming always received top billing from seasons 1 thru season 7. He did not return for the abbreviated eighth and final season, due to a salary dispute. So Eastwood graduated to solo lead at the end, though by 1965, he was already making spaghetti westerns in Europe and finding greater fame on the big screen.

Eric Fleming is superb as Gil Favor. His personal life is quite interesting, and I suggest reading up on him. He was a method actor and you can tell he’s happy to be working with a big name guest star who is also a method actor. Fleming’s face was destroyed in an accident during the 1940s, and he underwent extensive plastic surgery. As a result of the reconstructive surgery, he has a very intriguing look that sets him apart from other actors of the era. Despite the fact that Eastwood was becoming more and more popular in the mid-60s, Fleming was not one to resent Eastwood’s increasing success. He liked his costar a great deal and they were close on and off camera. Fleming died tragically in 1966, on location in South America while making a movie for MGM.

Fleming and Eastwood are helped immensely by the supporting cast. The most memorable supporting characters include the cantankerous cook Wishbone (Paul Brinegar who was not in the pilot and was brought in as a last-minute replacement); Wish’s dimwitted assistant Mushy (James Murdock); and the scouts Pete (Sheb Wooley) and Clay (Charles H. Gray). There are also a few notable background characters that sometimes play more of a supporting role. These include my favorite Jim Quince (stuntman turned actor Steve Raines); Hey Soos (Robert Cabal) and Narbo (John Hart who played the Lone Ranger for a short time).

Then of course there are the guest characters as well as the many extras that are used on the range, as well as in the various towns. 

We hope you enjoy the reviews that will posted this month.

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TopBilled:

We are starting the Rawhide reviews with an episode that features special guest star Barbara Stanwyck. What I want to convey to our readers is a sense of community that exists on Rawhide. The men function as a family unit. During their time on the trail, the men behave like brothers. They are sometimes at odds with each other, but then pull together when facing outside threats. They have their own code. There is humor mixed in with the drama. 

In one of the episodes we will be reviewing, Gil Favor’s sister-in-law brings his young daughters from the east, to visit him and the men on the trail. The aunt has been raising Gil’s daughters since Gil’s wife died while Gil is away working as a trail boss. It’s an episode full of contrasts. We get an idea of how Gil Favor fosters a sense of family with the men he employs, as well as his own two girls. The conflict in that particular story comes in the form of an outside man who dates the aunt and proposes marriage. He also offers to adopt the girls and to give them a full-time father figure. But could he really take Gil’s place..?

In “The Captain’s Wife’ we have a completely different sort of conflict. To say the wife of an army captain is clever, scheming and highly manipulative would be an understatement. Stanwyck specialized in these types of evil woman roles in noir like DOUBLE INDEMNITY and THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON as well as in westerns like THE MOONLIGHTER and THE MAVERICK QUEEN, which we already reviewed. 

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Jlewis:

Entering this show totally blind and uneducated, since I am more familiar with Gumsmoke (a.k.a. its success on CBS both on radio and TV kept the network interested in material like Rawhide) and Bonanza (a.k.a. NBC aired that one to help the affiliated RCA sell more color television sets and, because of color, far more episodes wound up in syndication later), I was struck by two novelties in the opening credits…

#1. Clint Eastwood was flaunting his bare chest much like Patrick Duffy did later in the openings of Dallas to rope in the female audience (and possibly the closeted gay male viewer as well). Not that I should judge him in any way for that, but such an opening image does sell him strictly on visual appeal and nothing else, considering how fruitful he would become creatively in the Hollywood of the future.

#2. I had totally forgotten that the singer of that ridiculous one-hit wonder “The Purple People Eater” was actually an actor, but I guess Sheb Wooley had been around for quite awhile in front of cameras as well as behind the musical microphone.

By the way, neither of these two getting top billing even appear in this episode! This is essentially Eric Fleming’s show but he too must stand back so that our beloved Babs, whom I will mention in a few paragraphs, can take center stage.

It is very easy to nitpick anything made decades ago. Lots and lots of guns on display in all of these ol’ western shows. Probably a different situation later in that same decade after all of the assassinations and Vietnam coverage dominating the news.

Much more interesting here are the racial, gender and cultural undertones…

Words like “red skins” (spoken barely five minutes in) would not pass the social correctness test of today. Although we get one minor dark-toned character named Sandy, played by Bill Walker, who is treated as an equal of sorts by the town folk, TV was still relatively “lily white” at this time, after such earlier shows like Nat King Cole’s failed due to “Madison Avenue being afraid of the dark” (as Cole put it).

We are still a few years ahead of I Spy with Bill Cosby getting co-star billing, so I guess later episodes of this show gradually increased the time allowed for actors like Walker to match the changing times. I am not familiar with the actor Robert Cabal sporting a Spanglish accent but I wonder what a quarter of American viewers watching this today would think of his rather submissive role as “Hey Soos” (name spelled accordingly to satisfy a neurotic Madison Ave backing network TV). Don’t get me wrong…he is a noble character whom we root for.

The juvenile lead (Eugene Mazzola) plays a more active role but maybe that is because his English is more fluent despite his Latino background. This all reminds me…WEST SIDE STORY would be the hot contender in that spring’s Oscars and note that we got no full Spanish on the soundtrack with subtitles, suggesting that too many “average” Americans at the time would have considered it a “foreign film” and not flock to it in droves as they did.

The real enemy in our story is not the “red skins” but the Caucasian outlaws. This brings us to our starring female who, we are told, went huntin’ in the wild, wild country full of ’em with just one companion and is reprimanded accordingly. We’ve discussed Barbara Stanwyck’s successful fifties-sixties roles in westerns, both for big and small screens…mostly the small screen by this time. She swoops right in as an I-can-easily-fend-for-myself veteran of the Old West. She is regulated as a wife, but is defiantly “proud” of it, pushing hubbie Captain Holloway (Robert Lowery) to better himself as a more aggressive hero.

Ooooh…her Nora is wonderfully conniving here, taking charge of every male character on screen. Even seducing another man with the prospect that her husband may get killed and she will need a replacement in the bedroom! (No, we don’t hear the words spoken, but the hints are all there.)

With women’s lib also being a few years into the future, she is nonetheless presented as slightly villain-ish here (even if she redeems herself in the end) simply because she won’t allow men to take charge as was normally expected in the 19th century and still was expected in 1961 when this episode was filmed. A few times she puts others in danger for the sake of her own pride. “What kind of woman are you, Nora?”, she is asked. “The kind of woman who does things! I don’t talk about them. I do them!”

As you can see, I enjoyed this episode for all the wrong reasons. It is a wonderful relic of the way we were…back then, of course. I also love Babs and her aggressive acting here. There is a memorable scene when she talks to her husband a second time and the set décor includes two pictures hanging crooked on the walls despite the Comancheros not causing any other havoc in that particular room they are in. Does this suggest that she is slightly “crooked” or lopsided in mind? Great psychological visual appeal here.

In a later scene, we oddly see the back of her shirt stained with blood, suggesting that her life’s time table is limited but she is able to give one last memorable speech: “I detest this world that makes women’s lives dependent on you men, with your weaknesses, your codes on honor. I’ll get mine (revenge?) That’s my code of honor and I will get it any way I can!”

I am happy that she dies instead of allowing the men to take charge that one last time because that is the only way a woman “unafraid of death” should exit this world. Even if she still tells Favor in the end that she always wanted a “strong man, one who would command me.”

Well… I guess this was progressive in some ways and backward in others. No doubt it would be written differently today.

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TopBilled:

Interesting write-up, Jlewis. It’s always fun for me to see what observations you make on these. I agree that attitudes about women and their place, are definitely a sign of the times (early 1960s). However, there is an episode written by Eric Fleming, which is very progressive. It is ironically titled “A Woman’s Place.” We will get to that one next week.

Okay, here is what I posted on the IMDb about ‘The Captain’s Wife’ episode:

A lot happens in this episode. It is certainly a showcase for Barbara Stanwyck who gets to play an ambitious cold-hearted woman. Nora Holloway is cut from the same cloth as Phyllis Dietrichson in DOUBLE INDEMNITY and the title character in THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON. Only this time her husband is a military captain, and a lover she has on the side is also employed at the fort.

Personally I thought the subplot with the lover was a bit too much and unnecessary. They could have shown her manipulating a man who might have fancied her; then in the end, believing she could maybe have a life with him when her marriage fell apart. We didn’t need the soap opera drama of her pushing her husband into battle with the natives, and then making love to one of her husband’s colleagues. There was already plenty of other stuff going on in the episode without needing to include that.

I do like how Gil Favor and his men need to venture to the fort and how they become embroiled in all of this. Hey Soos has a bit more to do in this story than he usually does in other episodes. Rowdy is not part of the action (and one reviewer on the IMDb complained bitterly about Clint Eastwood’s absence). The focus is on Mr. Favor having to deal with the captain’s treacherous wife.

I have to admit I was surprised when one of the other wives at the fort gets killed (off screen). Mainly because she was sort of a minor character, and because I thought writer John Dunkel was setting up the young Latin boy to be a casualty, since the captain’s wife had such fondness for him. It probably would have been more dramatic if her actions had indirectly led to the kid’s death.

I thought Robert Lowery, who played the captain, made the most of his screen time. And the scene near the end where he realizes how badly his wife had abused his trust, was very well-played. One couldn’t help but feel sorry for him!

As for Stanwyck’s character, we’re supposed to dislike her, perhaps even despise her…but I do think her death at the end, which satisfies a sort of moral code about punishing wrong-doers, ultimately makes her sympathetic. The fort won’t be the same without her.

Essential: HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1972)

TopBilled wrote:

Originally I had been thinking we should do a month of television movies produced by Aaron Spelling. He turned out some very good ones with his partner Leonard Goldberg, in the late 60s and early 70s. Quite often they were suspense thrillers or romantic tearjerkers, cast with well-known actors.

These performers included former studio era stars that were now finding employment with Spelling’s company since their movie careers were on the skids; or else they were rising younger talents who had made a name for themselves on television series but had yet to hit the big time in movies. 

In HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS we have ex-star Walter Brennan as an ailing family man who summons his grown daughters home for Christmas.

The story is set along the east coast, but we never see any snow. In fact, it rains constantly. Except for festive yuletide decorations inside the family mansion (a spacious Culver City set that Spelling/Goldberg used), it hardly seems like December. They might have said it was set in southern California, or at least done some snowy remotes back east for the outdoor shots. 

But I won’t fault it too much for that, because it is a gripping story. The drama was scripted by Joseph Stefano, whose claim to fame is the screenplay for PSYCHO. So if anyone’s going to deliver the goods, it will be him. Back to the story. Brennan’s character is dying and he thinks his younger wife (Julie Harris) is trying to off him for the money. His four daughters are now all present at Christmastime.

They are played by Eleanor Parker (who must be the oldest, the one who never left home); Jessica Walter (the second born and most outwardly troubled); Jill Haworth (the third born, a glamorous but quiet type); and Sally Field (the young, innocent one).

We know that stepmother Julie Harris is not going to be the killer, when Brennan dies just before the first main commercial break.

She’s too obvious and clearly a red herring. But Harris does keep us on our toes, especially when one of the daughters soon dies and Harris looks even guiltier. Soon another daughter dies, and we are just left with Harris, Parker and Field alone in the large rambling home that now seems like a mausoleum. 

Sally Field’s character won’t be the culprit, unless she had been cast to play a schizophrenic (Sybil would come a few years later). She is just too darn wholesome. Though we do wonder if Field’s character will get bumped off next. It starts to look that way when she is increasingly put in danger. There is a tense sequence when she’s followed outdoors in a thunderstorm by someone in a yellow raincoat.

Spoiler ahead…I had guessed who the guilty party was, because I figured there was a reason Eleanor Parker had been playing her role so cool and detached. She had to be the one who was most disturbed and sure enough, she becomes totally unhinged at the end.

I won’t spoil why she wants dear old dad and her sisters dead. I will let you watch it on YouTube to find out. However, I do think Parker gives a masterful performance. I’ve always admired her versatility and ability to play such a wide range of characters on screen. 

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Jlewis wrote:

The title suggests something that you would expect with the Hallmark Channel, but it is quite different. Despite being produced and shown on ABC, it is a surprisingly gruesome thriller about sisterly love venturing into dark corners. Sally Field gets star billing in this post-FLYING NUN and pre-SYBIL period, with “special guest stars” Julie Harris and Eleanor Parker.

Walter Brennan as the big daddy Benjamin Morgan of the Gothic mansion estate would pass away just two years after this was filmed and is shown mostly confined to the bed here. Modern viewers will instantly recognize the name Aaron Spelling as co-producer with Leonard Goldberg, even if he too is a relic of TV past.

We do get the usual old time Hollywood cliché, a shot of thunder and lightning culled from the all familiar stock footage library, presented when Eleanor Parker’s Alex Morna tells her sisters…Sally’s Christina as the youngest and most naive, Jessica Walter as drinking and pill popping Frederica and Jill Hayworth as the too-occupied-on-her-own-affairs Joanna…that their father fears his current wife (Harris as Elizabeth Hall Morgan) may be poisoning him.

After the sisters arrive to reunite with daddy and he asks them to actually kill her, we get still more thunder on the soundtrack. Then more thunder later on…again and again. This is a storm that never lets up until all of the carnage on screen is over with. Oh…we also learn that the biological mother of the daughters possibly committed suicide and this prompted Frederica to drink.

We first get an indication of where this is going when there is the surprise pitch fork attack of Joanna as she decides to leave in the Mercedes. Now…that is something you would not expect on the alphabet network at this time of year, as this was competing against more traditional seasonal delights like A CHRISTMAS WITH THE BING CROSBYS, Hanna-Barbera’s animated A CHRISTMAS STORY and Rankin-Bass’ A CHRISTMAS TREE.

Shortly after the murder, we see more of Dr. Ted, played by John Fink, trying to woo Christina. He briefly appears at the start talking to Alex, mentioning how the family gets gossiped on occasion by the local town folk, and is shown later wearing a rain coat much like the stranger attacking Joanna as she leaves…and one that Elizabeth wears as well. Later we see the boots worn by the killer prominent in the kitchen, suggesting it was an “inside” job.

Although Walter Brennan eventually gets a death scene to match two others on screen…and I will let you readers guess who drowns in the bathtub, he doesn’t get a lot of screen time since this is focused more on actress star power.

One trademark of Spelling productions is the ease which the ladies have in changing their hairstyles from one scene to the next when there is no stylist present on screen. Although Eleanor Parker spends more time out in the storm than Julie Harris, her hair never seems to get wet.

All joking aside, all of the performances are quite good (with John Llewellyn Moxey credited as their director); but I guess I should give special note to Jessica Walters’s dramatics here as the “unhinged” sister even if we have seen many others behave just like her in prime-time. My only complaint about the always adorable Sally Field is that she screams almost as much here as Fay Wray in KING KONG.

This Agatha Christie knock-off gives us plenty of red herrings to fool us and, like many who-done-its, we the viewers need to focus on the character whom we least expect to be the real villain. Those of us exposed to this kind of entertainment through the years have gotten wise to it all. Therefore, I wasn’t terribly surprised by the outcome. As much as I loved the cast and their performances, I still feel far more could have been done with the material. Crimes of passion are generally not as smooth and polished in their execution as these are. For example, I would expect characters guilty of something to at least be breathing a little harder than usual or looking slightly more distressed.

Then again, this is not a big budget theatrical release but a movie-of-the-week marketed by star power…and the stars I enjoyed a lot here; so much so that I easily overlooked the various loopholes in the story and only started thinking more about them hours after my viewing.

It is also a very plush production, making great use of the 20th Century Fox backlot (limited that it was by 1972) and even features a beautiful music score by George Tipton that makes it all feel loftier than it really is. I could go on with my little nit-picks here and there, but that may spoil all ye readers here. Everybody should enjoy it for what it is: a classic representative of high quality late-light programming from the early seventies, post BRIAN’S SONG when TV movies really were a prestigious affair.

Essential: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955)

TopBilled wrote:

A lot has been said about this being Charles Laughton’s first and only effort as a film director. It’s also been said, depending on whose version you believe, that Robert Mitchum directed scenes and “replaced” Laughton during a few days on set. But while I believe Laughton’s stamp is on nearly every frame, visually and performance-wise, I feel the story’s authorship belongs to James Agee.

During the 1940s Agee made a name for himself as an outspoken film critic. The best critics probably become filmmakers (see Francois Truffaut), having decided they know what goes into making a decent motion picture. Agee would not only write the script for HUNTER, he also wrote a novel based on his father’s death. 

Agee is primarily responsible for the main vision of this film because despite using other source material, he shaped the ideas that were put on to the page…ideas that found their way on to the screen.

Laughton, Mitchum, the other actors and the cinematographer were of course interpreting Agee’s ideas. The central idea is that children who are without a legitimate father are vulnerable and need protecting. This connects with Agee’s novel, since that also deals with children (and a mother) cast adrift by unforeseen circumstances.

In some ways HUNTER plays like a gothic children’s fairytale. The exaggerated archetypes are likely Laughton’s key contribution. The audience wants the children to reach a point of safety, and the children eventually do. However, I cannot help but feel the ending is a bit too syrupy for the edification of viewers.

There are some rather brutal sequences earlier in the movie, especially the part where Willa the mother (Shelley Winters) is killed and then ends up at the bottom of a lake.

There are also chilling scenes of the kids hiding in the basement from their dangerous stepfather (Mitchum), and scenes with them on the run. It’s them against the world.

Suddenly they meet a kindly woman (Lillian Gish) whose angel-like qualities mean salvation. The kids will now be protected and nobody will harm them again. It’s a little too good to be true, and those last few scenes seem like they belong to another movie. Was this due to the production code, due to the producers’ wish to make the product more commercially viable?

The story might have been stronger if the kids hadn’t survived. If it had been a teaching point about what happens when latchkey children are not properly looked after. There are youngsters in our society who do not have happy endings.

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Jlewis wrote:

This is a peculiar product of fifties cinema, one that I have enjoyed over the years in multiple viewings. It is also a very challenging film to discuss to those who have yet to see it since it does not fit easily into any specific genre. Aspects resemble a crime drama with murder graphically shown…or, rather, not the act itself but the victim shown dead underwater.

The middle portion involving children escaping their stepfather is very Disneyesque with night time animals like tortoises, gray foxes and the like observing in a fairy-tale like setting similar to SNOW WHITE. With Lilian Gish involved, there is also plenty of old fashion silent melodrama but with audible dialogue on the soundtrack. Likewise, it even incorporates a few familiar, but not used in decades, silent film visuals like D.W. Griffith’s trademark circling iris fade-in.

There is a strange, avant-garde visual design to certain sections, reminding me of such landmark short films of decades earlier like Slavko Vorkapich and Robert Florey’s THE LIFE AND DEATH OF 9413: A HOLLYWOOD EXTRA and the Warner Bros.-Vitaphone produced YAMEKRAW with Murray Roth directing.

Or going even further back, the even more famous feature DAS KABINETT DES DOKTOR CALIGARI (THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI) with an emphasis on triangles and diagonal lines to symbolize the disturbance of a key character’s state of mind.

Examples include the farm house shown in stark silhouette, where the children sleep, and the angular windows shining light indoors in the Harper home and other buildings. The 1940s-50s film noir look is brought to an apex of sorts as we see Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) sitting by the window with her gun silhouetted much like the farm house in the earlier scene.

Hilyard Brown was credited for art direction but not much else in his long filmography resembles this except, perhaps, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, a more comic approach to Gothic horror. In the final reel, we get a very minimalist town scene, very stage-like, that contrasts sharply from the more standard aerial shots of a rural community in the opening scenes. It is as if this film and story-line all metamorphosed from “reality” into a dream. Echoes of THE WIZARD OF OZ, which we reviewed earlier?

The famous actor-turned-director Charles Laughton and producer Paul Gregory had previously worked on several curious stage productions (DON JUAN IN HELL being one famous example) that involved overtly stylized sets. Quite often, these psychologically add to the performers playing characters in torment. Also adding to its artsy feel was screenwriter James Agee, the legendary film critic and novelist who took some liberties with David Grubb’s original novel even though Laughton later re-worked the script again to match more closely to Grubb.

Going by my homework, Grubb based his central character Harry Powell on a real life Harry Powers who was hung in 1932 in Moundsville, West Virginia for killing multiple widows after tempting them to marriage with some “lonely hearts” column in the newspapers. The setting of the movie, by the way, is the Depression Era early thirties as well and we are hinted that the country folk are not at all sophisticated and worldly in their ways, all gullible to impostures.

Religion, instead of romance, is the con-artist angle here…so, no, I would not recommend you watching this with any politically motivated “white evangelist” friends you have since they may take offense to this movie’s perspective. We are given a warning by Rachel Cooper in an early scene about “false prophets,” wolves in sheep clothing and so forth.

Soon we are introduced to “preacher” Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum in one of his greatest performances), who talks to God above about the holy text: “Not that you mind the killings. Your book is full of killings. But there are things you do hate, Lord. Perfume-smelling things. Lacy things. Things with curly hair. There are too many of them. You can’t kill a world.” In other words, he is OK with violence but not OK with sex, especially coming from women like the widow Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) who desperately want it.

In contrast, Rachel is presented as the more liberal-minded preacher of the “good book,” having a more positive approach to the temptations of the flesh. She is not judgmental of teenager Ruby (Gloria Castillo), among the youngsters under her care, meeting strange men like Harry. “You were looking for love, Ruby, in the only foolish way you knew how. We all need love, Ruby.”

Money is another central theme, being the “root of all evil.” Harry is one greedy soul eager to make use of the information he gained from the soon-to-be-executed Ben Harper in prison. I often wonder why Harry is so obsessed with following these kids when his life would be so much easier without them. Is the money hidden in that silly doll that much of turn-on for him, being that he is so anti-sex? Maybe he is merely incapable of balancing his right and left hands tattooed accordingly with “love” and “hate.” As I have often been told, the opposite of hate is not love but indifference. Passion is passion.

In contrast, Rachel seems to have just enough to get by in her rural farmhouse and still handle far more more children than Harry is capable of supervising. We are given a few tidbits in the dialogue to explain her maternal instincts on display: the loss of her only son traumatized her greatly and is referenced indirectly in the story telling session involving baby Moses.

She displays great admiration for children who endure like the Harper children she adopts; unlike her son, who might have fallen prey like the small rabbit to an owl that she observes. Needless to say, there is more to this story that has me curious but the film kinda glosses over it all since its main purpose is not to explore character pasts rather than contrast characters with each other as polar opposites.

Speaking of children who abide and endure, most commentaries on this classic unfortunately bypass Billy Chapin’s excellent performance as John Harper, focusing more on Mitchum, Gish and the other adults. I find him brilliant here, especially for one who was only 11 at the time of filming.

He is, after all, the one whom we the viewers follow the story through, from his perspective. He is upset and helpless (“please…no”) when the police take custody of his father, Ben Harper, and, despite not considering Harry as a fatherly substitute much of the time, his reaction to Harry’s own submission to a lynch mob is much the same i.e. experiencing the loss of two father figures in a space of six or so months.

A brother of two other professional child performers, Lauren and Michael, his career on both big and small screens only lasted a few more years and health issues, partly due to alcoholism and drug addiction, troubled his later years. Endurance and abidance is far easier when you are a child than as an adult.

John the character resembles his father Ben (Peter Graves) in that he must always defend himself from constant danger at all times. Little sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) resembles her mother Willa more and is a bit more gullible to danger since, let’s face it, this variation of Mitchum on screen (unlike his equally sexually handicapped character Charles Shaughnessy in RYAN’S DAUGHTER) is loaded with sheer sensual magnetism.

Of course, the reality behind the cameras does not always match what we see on screen: the children run away from their evil step-father, but Mitchum the actor got along very well with them and coached their performances more than Laughton did.

I have to bring up the supporting character Icey Spoon (an interesting name), as played by a nutty Evelyn Varden, contrasting with her why-is-he-even-there? henpecked husband Walt (Don Beddoe). Although talkative and opinionated, she seems to be the one Willa takes most seriously as her adviser and sounding board; Willa basically allows Icy to manipulate her into dating and later marrying the highly questionable Harry. After Willa disappears, Icy is still quite understanding and supportive of Harry as a stepfather who must carry on a single parent.

However, after she learns the truth as all of the townspeople do (since, we assume, James Gleason’s Birdie reports on the corpse found under his house-boat), she undergoes this spectacular physical transformation on screen from mild mannered shop owner to wicked witch hag leading the mob to tar and feather Harry. Personally I feel that her character is the one who is least developed here despite a delightful performance by the actress. We do not see any scenes of her in-between these dramatic transformations to explain the “why” of it all.

As highly entertaining as THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is, it is still a rather quirky film that may not be everybody’s cup of tea. In some ways, it reminds me of CITIZEN KANE. Both films try hard, maybe too hard, to make every shot look as pretty as a framed photograph on a museum wall. Not that United Artists was particularly impressed. The executive suits accused Laughton and company for getting too “arthouse” and there was little effort in promotion.

Although a few critics ranked it among their ten bests for the year, it was a bit of a bomb at the box-office. Disappointed by the reaction, Laughton returned to acting in front of the cameras and no longer worked behind them, which I find rather sad since this is a unique masterpiece despite its quirkiness.

It did enjoy a cult reputation on TV as part of the Late Night Show and, surprisingly, got remade as a TV movie in 1991 with Richard Chamberlain (huh?!) as Harry Powell. Since that one is view-able online and updates the setting to the nineties with some notable changes to the story, it might be fun comparing and contrasting like the two PSYCHO adaptations.

PLUS

Have you seen these classics: 

1. JESSE JAMES (1939) with Tyrone Power.

2. DAKOTA (1945) with Walter Brennan, Vera Ralston & John Wayne.

3. THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946) with Doris Dowling & Alan Ladd.

4. MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE (1948) with Myrna Loy & Cary Grant.

5. THE TUNNEL OF LOVE (1958) with Doris Day & Richard Widmark.

6. WAKE IN FRIGHT (1971) with Gary Bond.

7. CRAZY MAMA (1975) with Ann Sothern.

8. ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976) with Robert Redford & Dustin Hoffman.

9. BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) with Christopher Lloyd & Michael J. Fox.

10. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) with Anthony Hopkins.

***

Have you seen these classics:

11. THE JAZZ SINGER (1927) with Al Jolson

12. OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1934) with Leslie Howard & Bette Davis

13. THE OCTOBER MAN (1947) with John Mills

14. I REMEMBER MAMA (1948) with Irene Dunne

15. NEVER WAVE AT A WAC (1953) with Rosalind Russell

16. ELEPHANT WALK (1954) with Elizabeth Taylor & Peter Finch

17. ANGEL BABY (1961) with Burt Reynolds & Salome Jens

18. BANDOLERO! (1968) with Raquel Welch

19. THE BLACK STALLION (1979) with Kelly Reno

20. THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN (1987) with Danny DeVito & Anne Ramsey

***

Have you seen these classics:

21. FURY (1936) with Sylvia Sidney & Spencer Tracy

22. MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS (1945) with Nina Foch.

23. WHITE HEAT (1949) with James Cagney & Margaret Wycherly.

24. ABOUT MRS. LESLIE (1954) with Shirley Booth.

25. ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955) with Jane Wyman.

26. THE NIGHT WALKER (1964) with Barbara Stanwyck.

27. THE TAMARIND SEED (1974) with Julie Andrews & Omar Sharif.

28. CROCODILE DUNDEE (1986) with Paul Hogan.

29. ROXANNE (1987) with Steve Martin & Daryl Hannah.

30. THE FLINTSTONES (1994) with Elizabeth Taylor.

***

Have you seen these classics:

31. INTERMEZZO (1939) with Leslie Howard & Ingrid Bergman.

32. HITLER’S MADMAN (1943) with John Carradine.

33. MILDRED PIERCE (1945) with Joan Crawford & Ann Blyth.

34. I’LL CRY TOMORROW (1955) with Susan Hayward.

35. PORTRAIT IN BLACK (1960) with Lana Turner & Anthony Quinn.

36. THE BROTHERHOOD (1968) with Kirk Douglas & Alex Cord.

37. AUDREY ROSE (1977) with Anthony Hopkins.

38. COMING HOME (1978) with Jon Voight & Jane Fonda.

39. TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983) with Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger & Jack Nicholson.

40. FORREST GUMP (1994) with Tom Hanks and a box of chocolates.

***

Have you seen these classics:

41. THE STORY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (1939) with Henry Fonda & Don Ameche.

42. THE LETTER (1940) with Bette Davis.

43. DETOUR (1945) with Ann Savage & Tom Neal.

44. NEVER A DULL MOMENT (1950) with Fred MacMurray & Irene Dunne.

45. TAZA SON OF COCHISE (1954) with Rock Hudson.

46. SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964) with Burt Lancaster & Kirk Douglas.

47. THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975) with Katharine Ross.

48. RUNNING (1979) with Michael Douglas.

49.E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) with Henry Thomas.

50. THE REMAINS OF THE DAY (1993) with Emma Thompson & Anthony Hopkins.

***

Have you seen these classics:

51. WHITE WOMAN (1933) with Carole Lombard & Charles Laughton.

52. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) with Fred MacMurray & Barbara Stanwyck.

53. THE PRIVATE AFFAIRS OF BEL AMI (1947) with George Sanders & Ann Dvorak.

54. THE GUNFIGHTER (1950) with Gregory Peck.

55. SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME (1956) with Everett Sloane & Paul Newman.

56. THE PARENT TRAP (1961) with Hayley Mills & Hayley Mills.

57. RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY (1962) with Mariette Hartley & James Drury.

58. SOLDIER BLUE (1970) with Candice Bergen.

59. THE NATURAL (1984) with Robert Redford.

60. DEAD MAN WALKING (1995) with Sean Penn & Susan Sarandon.

***

Have you seen these classics:

61. BEAU GESTE (1939) with Robert Preston, Gary Cooper & Ray Milland.

62. DARK COMMAND (1940) with Marjorie Main & Walter Pidgeon.

63. MAISIE WAS A LADY (1941) with Ann Sothern.

64. RUTHLESS (1948) with Sydney Greenstreet & Zachary Scott.

65. THE HEIRESS (1949) with Olivia de Havilland.

66. RUN FOR COVER (1955) with James Cagney & Viveca Lindfors.

67. ROSEMARY’S BABY (1968) with Mia Farrow.

68. BLOODY MAMA (1970) with Shelley Winters, Don Stroud & Robert De Niro.

69. RUTHLESS PEOPLE (1986) with Bette Midler.

70. MRS. DOUBTFIRE (1993) with Robin Williams.

***

Have you seen these classics:

71. THE WIND (1928) with Lillian Gish.

72. IN OLD CHICAGO (1937) with Alice Brady & Tyrone Power.

73. CITIZEN KANE (1941) with Orson Welles.

74. JITTERBUGS (1943) with Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy.

75. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950) with Gloria Swanson.

76. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF! (1969) with James Garner.

77. SUMMER WISHES WINTER DREAMS (1973) with Sylvia Sidney & Joanne Woodward.

78. MOONRAKER (1979) with Roger Moore.

79. AMADEUS (1984) with Tom Hulce.

80. POCAHONTAS (1995)

***

Have you seen these classics:

81. PENGUIN POOL MURDER (1932) with Edna May Oliver and friend.

82. IT’S A DATE (1940) with Kay Francis, Deanna Durbin & Walter Pidgeon.

83. THE WINDOW (1949) with Bobby Driscoll.

84. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) with Anne Baxter.

85. AWAY ALL BOATS (1956) with Jeff Chandler & George Nader.

86. PEYTON PLACE (1957) with Lana Turner & Diane Varsi.

87. WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966) with Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton.

88. THE GODFATHER (1972) with Marlon Brando and a feline friend.

89. THE COLOR PURPLE (1985) with Oprah Winfrey.

90. PRETTY WOMAN (1990) with Richard Gere & Julia Roberts.

***

Have you seen these classics:

91. CITY LIGHTS (1931) with Charlie Chaplin & Virginia Cherrill.

92. SINCE YOU WENT AWAY (1944) with Shirley Temple, Claudette Colbert & Jennifer Jones.

93. CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945) with Barbara Stanwyck & S.Z. Sakall.

94. THE MAN WHO WATCHED TRAINS GO BY (1952) with Claude Rains.

95. SUDDEN FEAR (1952) with Joan Crawford.

96. THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN (1964) with Debbie Reynolds & Harve Presnell.

97. BARBARELLA (1968) with Jane Fonda.

98. LOGAN’S RUN (1976) with Michael York & Jenny Agutter.

99. THE ACCUSED (1988) with Jodie Foster.

100. MEET JOE BLACK (1998) with Anthony Hopkins & Brad Pitt.

***

Have you seen these classics:

2001. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1934) with John Boles & Irene Dunne.

2002. JANE EYRE (1943) with Joan Fontaine.

2003. WAKE OF THE RED WITCH (1948) with John Wayne and an octopus.

2004. FLAMING FEATHER (1952) with Victor Jory & Sterling Hayden.

2005. WHY MUST I DIE? (1960) with Terry Moore.

2006. COOL HAND LUKE (1967) with Paul Newman.

2007. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) with Donald Sutherland & Brooke Adams.

2008. CLASS (1983) with Rob Lowe & Jacqueline Bisset.

2009. THE HORSE WHISPERER (1998) with Robert Redford & Kristin Scott Thomas.

2010. TRAINING DAY (2001) with Ethan Hawke & Denzel Washington.

***

Have you seen these classics:

2011. AT THE CIRCUS (1939) with Harpo Marx.

2012. STORM OVER LISBON (1944) with Erich Von Stroheim & Vera Ralston.

2013. EASY LIVING (1949) with Lizabeth Scott & Victor Mature.

2014. MISTER SCOUTMASTER (1953) with Clifton Webb.

2015. THE RAWHIDE YEARS (1956) with Tony Curtis.

2016. THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN (1968) with Anthony Quinn.

2017. THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974) with Warren Beatty & Hume Cronyn.

2018. SHARKY’S MACHINE (1981) with Burt Reynolds & Rachel Ward.

2019. MEMPHIS BELLE (1990) with Matthew Modine, Tate Donovan & D.B. Sweeney.

2020. MRS.PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT (2005) with Rupert Friend & Joan Plowright.

***

Have you seen these classics:

2021. BEN HUR: A TALE OF THE CHRIST (1925) with Francis X. Bushman & Ramon Novarro.

2022. WISE GIRL (1937) with Ray Milland & Miriam Hopkins.

2023. HUDSON’S BAY (1941) with John Sutton, Paul Muni & Laird Cregar.

2024. BEN-HUR (1959) with Charlton Heston.

2025. ALVAREZ KELLY (1966) with William Holden & Richard Widmark.

2026. LAST TANGO IN PARIS (1972) with Marlon Brando & Maria Schneider.

2027. BRIGHT LIGHTS BIG CITY (1988) with Keifer Sutherland & Michael J. Fox.

2028. FARGO (1996) with Frances McDormand.

2029. THE HURT LOCKER (2008) with Guy Pearce.

2030. BEN-HUR (2016) with Jack Huston.

***

Have you seen these classics:

2031. EVERY DAY’S A HOLIDAY (1937) with Mae West.

2032. I JANE DOE (1948) with Ruth Hussey & Vera Ralston.

2033. FRANCIS (1950) with Donald O’Connor & friend.

2034. PLYMOUTH ADVENTURE (1952) with Gene Tierney & Spencer Tracy.

2035. IL SORPASSO (1962) with Vittorio Gassman & Jean-Louis Trintignant.

2036. JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (1973) with Ted Neeley.

2037. TRAGEDY OF A RIDICULOUS MAN (1981) with Anouk Aimee & Ugo Tognazzi.

2038. THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES (1990) with Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith & Bruce Willis.

2039. THE CRUCIBLE (1996) with Wynona Ryder & Daniel Day-Lewis.

2040. MISS CONGENIALITY (2000) with William Shatner & Sandra Bullock.

***

Have you seen these classics:

2041. RINGS ON HER FINGERS (1942) with Henry Fonda & Gene Tierney.

2042. HOLIDAY IN MEXICO (1946) with Roddy McDowall & Jane Powell.

2043. THE SOUND BARRIER (1952) with Ann Todd & Nigel Patrick.

2044. THE 400 BLOWS (1959) with Jean-Pierre Leaud.

2045. THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN (1969) with Ben Gazzara & George Segal.

2046. W.C. FIELDS AND ME (1976) with Rod Steiger.

2047. JUMPIN’ JACK FLASH (1986) with Jim Belushi & Whoopi Goldberg.

2048. PASSION FISH (1992) with Mary McDonnell & Alfre Woodard.

2049. UNITED 93 (2006) with Becky London & Tom O’Rourke.

2050. THE REVENANT (2015) with Leonardo Di Caprio.

***

Have you seen these classics:

2051. BLACK LEGION (1937) with Humphrey Bogart.

2052. TAMPICO (1944) with Lynn Bari & Edward G. Robinson.

2053. KISS OF DEATH (1947) with Richard Widmark.

2054. 3:10 TO YUMA (1957) with Van Heflin & Glenn Ford.

2055. OPERATION AMSTERDAM (1959) with Eva Bartok & Peter Finch.

2056. NOT WITH MY WIFE YOU DON’T! (1966) with Tony Curtis, George C. Scott & Carroll O’Connor.

2057. THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT (1970) with George Segal & Barbra Streisand.

2058. PROTOCOL (1984) with Goldie Hawn.

2059. WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN (1994) with Andy Garcia & Meg Ryan.

2060. 3:10 TO YUMA (2007) with Christian Bale & Russell Crowe.

***

Have you seen these classics:

2061. A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1932) with Helen Hayes & Gary Cooper.

2062. TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) with Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall & Humphrey Bogart.

2063. THE MACOMBER AFFAIR (1947) with Robert Preston & Joan Bennett.

2064. THE BREAKING POINT (1950) with John Garfield & Patricia Neal.

2065. UNDER MY SKIN (1950) with John Garfield, Orley Lindgren & Micheline Presle.

2066. THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (1952) with Ava Gardner & Gregory Peck.

2067. THE SUN ALSO RISES (1957) with Errol Flynn & Ava Gardner.

2068. A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1957) with Rock Hudson & Jennifer Jones.

2069. HEMINGWAY’S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN (1962) with Paul Newman.

2070. ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (1977) with George C. Scott & Claire Bloom.

***

Have you seen these classics:

2071. LOVE LETTERS (1945) with Jennifer Jones & Joseph Cotten.

2072. MY REPUTATION (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck.

2073. SCANDAL SHEET (1952) with John Derek & Donna Reed.

2074. MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES (1957) with James Cagney.

2075. REPULSION (1965) with Catherine Deneuve.

2076. A MAN CALLED HORSE (1970) with Richard Harris.

2077. SAME TIME NEXT YEAR (1978) with Alan Alda & Ellen Burstyn.

2078. FIRST MONDAY IN OCTOBER (1981) with Jill Clayburgh & Walter Matthau.

2079. JESUS OF MONTREAL (1989) with Lothaire Bluteau.

2080. TRUE LIES (1994) with Jamie Lee Curtis & Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Have you seen these classics:

2081. FIVE AND TEN (1931) with Marion Davies & Leslie Howard.

2082. ABOVE SUSPICION (1943) with Fred MacMurray & Joan Crawford.

2083. SALTY O’ROURKE (1945) with William Demarest & Alan Ladd.

2084. THE KILLER THAT STALKED NEW YORK (1950) with Evelyn Keyes.

2085. SABRINA (1954) with Humphrey Bogart & Audrey Hepburn.

2086. STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET (1960) with Kim Novak & Kirk Douglas.

2087. YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART (1964) with George Hamilton.

2088. HEARTLAND (1979) with Conchata Farrell.

2089. DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) with Robin Williams.

2090. SABRINA (1995) with Harrison Ford & Julia Ormond.

***

Have you seen these classics:

2091. MY BEST GIRL (1927) with Charles Buddy Rogers & Mary Pickford.

2092. FEMALE (1933) with Ruth Chatterton & George Brent.

2093. MUSIC FOR MILLIONS (1944) with June Allyson & Margaret O’Brien.

2094. DIPLOMATIC COURIER (1952) with Tyrone Power & Patricia Neal.

2095. DAWN AT SOCORRO (1954) with Rory Calhoun & Piper Laurie.

2096. THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE (1960) with Peter Finch.

2097. ONE POTATO TWO POTATO (1964) with Barbara Barrie.

2098. CHARLEY VARRICK (1973) with Walter Matthau.

2099. THE MEDUSA TOUCH (1978) with Lee Remick & Richard Burton.

2100. MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981) with Wallace Shawn & Andre Gregory.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2101. ON THE AVENUE (1937) with Madeleine Carroll & Dick Powell.

2102. THE MORTAL STORM (1940) with James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan & Robert Young.

2103. THE VELVET TOUCH (1948) with Sydney Greenstreet & Rosalind Russell.

2104. UMBERTO D. (1952) with Carlo Battisti and friend.

2105. THE L-SHAPED ROOM (1962) with Leslie Caron.

2106. DE SADE (1969) with Lilli Palmer & Keir Dullea.

2107. DAY OF THE DOLPHIN (1973) with George C. Scott and friend.

2108. THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY (1980)

2109. VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1995) with Christopher Reeve.

2110. ERIN BROCKOVICH (2000) with Julia Roberts.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2111. MANHATTAN MELODRAMA (1934) with Leo Carillo, William Powell & Clark Gable.

2112. DILLINGER (1945) with Lawrence Tierney.

2113. BLACK ANGEL (1946) with Dan Duryea & June Vincent.

2114. NOT AS A STRANGER (1955) with Olivia de Havilland & Robert Mitchum.

2115. MAN OF THE WEST (1958) with Gary Cooper & Jack Lord.

2116. THE RISE AND FALL OF LEGS DIAMOND (1960) with Ray Danton.

2117. THE BRASS BOTTLE (1964) with Burl Ives & Tony Randall.

2118. THE MEPHISTO WALTZ (1971) with Alan Alda & Barbara Parkins.

2119. WATERSHIP DOWN (1978)

2120. FLETCH (1985) with Chevy Chase.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2121. STREET ANGEL (1928) with Janet Gaynor & Charles Farrell.

2122. TUGBOAT ANNIE (1933) with Marie Dressler & Robert Young.

2123. BLOOD ON THE SUN (1945) with James Cagney & Sylvia Sidney.

2124. BLOOD ON THE MOON (1948) with Robert Mitchum & Barbara Bel Geddes.

2125. IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953) with Richard Carlson & Barbara Rush.

2126. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AUNT ALICE? (1969) with Geraldine Page.

2127. THE MACKINTOSH MAN (1973) with Dominique Sanda & Paul Newman.

2128. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981) with Griffin Dunne & David Naughton.

2129. TURNER & HOOCH (1989) with Tom Hanks & friend.

2130. OUTBREAK (1995) with Rene Russo & Dustin Hoffman.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2131. THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1929) with Douglas Fairbanks & Mary Pickford.

2132. THIS IS MY AFFAIR (1937) with Barbara Stanwyck & Robert Taylor.

2133. HONEYMOON FOR THREE (1941) with George Brent & Ann Sheridan.

2134. THE LONG LONG TRAILER (1954) with Desi Arnaz & Lucille Ball.

2135. HELLCATS OF THE NAVY (1957) with Ronald Reagan & Nancy Davis.

2136. THE COMEDIANS (1967) with Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton.

2137. BREAKHEART PASS (1975) with Charles Bronson & Jill Ireland.

2138. LOVE STREAMS (1984) with John Cassavetes & Gena Rowlands.

2139. FAR AND AWAY (1992) with Nicole Kidman & Tom Cruise.

2140. MR. & MRS. SMITH (2005) with Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2141. HOLIDAY (1938) with Cary Grant & Lew Ayres.

2142. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946) with Dana Andrews & Teresa Wright.

2143. THE JUDGE STEPS OUT (1948) with Ann Sothern, Sharyn Moffett & Alexander Knox.

2144. THE VIOLENT MEN (1955) with Barbara Stanwyck & Edward G. Robinson.

2145. A HATFUL OF RAIN (1957) with Eva Marie Saint & Don Murray.

2146. DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962) with Lee Remick & Jack Lemmon.

2147. PETULIA (1968) with Julie Christie & George C. Scott.

2148. CORNBREAD EARL AND ME (1975) with Tierre Turner & Laurence Fishburne.

2149. THE TERMINATOR (1984) with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

2150. MR. SATURDAY NIGHT (1992) with Billy Crystal.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2151. YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE (1937) with Sylvia Sidney & Henry Fonda.

2152. BATHING BEAUTY (1944) with Esther Williams.

2153. SAIGON (1948) with Alan Ladd & Veronica Lake.

2154. HOBSON’S CHOICE (1954) with Charles Laughton, Brenda de Banzie & John Mills.

2155. QUANTEZ (1957) with Fred MacMurray & Dorothy Malone.

2156. WHAT A WAY TO GO! (1964) with Shirley MacLaine.

2157. MYRA BRECKINRIDGE (1970) with Mae West & Raquel Welch.

2158. FLASHDANCE (1983) with Jennifer Beals & Michael Nouri.

2159. CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989) with Anjelica Huston & Martin Landau.

2160. THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992) with Daniel Day-Lewis.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2161. THE MYSTERY OF MARIE ROGET (1942) with Maria Ouspenskaya, Maria Montez and Patric Knowles.

2162. BICYCLE THIEVES (1948) with Lamberto Maggiorani & Enzo Staiola.

2163. 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954) with James Mason, Peter Lorre & Kirk Douglas.

2164. EDGE OF THE CITY (1957) with Sidney Poitier & John Cassavetes.

2165. THE SCALPHUNTERS (1968) with Burt Lancaster, Telly Savalas & Ossie Davis.

2166. DEEP THROAT (1972) with Linda Lovelace.

2167. 10 (1979) with Bo Derek, Dudley Moore & Julie Andrews.

2168. THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987) with Timothy Dalton.

2169. THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA QUEEN OF THE DESERT (1994)

2170. THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN (1999) with Michelle Pfeiffer & Treat Williams.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2171. BLOCKADE (1938) with Henry Fonda & Madeleine Carroll.

2172. DAISY KENYON (1947) with Joan Crawford & Dana Andrews.

2173. OKLAHOMA! (1955) with Gordon MacRae & Shirley Jones.

2174. FIVE GOLDEN HOURS (1961) with George Sanders & Ernie Kovacs.

2175. ACCIDENT (1967) with Dirk Bogarde & Michael York.

2176. LE MANS (1971) with Steve McQueen.

2177. HEARTBREAK RIDGE (1986) with Tom Villard & Clint Eastwood.

2178. MARY REILLY (1996) with Julia Roberts & John Malkovich.

2179. TRAFFIC (2000) with Catherine Zeta-Jones.

2180. CRASH (2004) with Matt Dillon & Thandie Newton.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2181. THE TRESPASSER (1929) with Gloria Swanson & Kay Hammond.

2182. IF I WERE KING (1938) with Ronald Colman & Frances Dee.

2183. THE SKY’S THE LIMIT (1943) with Fred Astaire & Joan Leslie.

2184. THE DARK CORNER (1946) with Lucille Ball & Mark Stevens.

2185. THE GREAT CARUSO (1951) with Mario Lanza & Ann Blyth.

2186. THE INDIAN FIGHTER (1955) with Kirk Douglas & Eduard Franz.

2187. THAT TOUCH OF MINK (1962) with Cary Grant & Doris Day.

2188. YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE (1964) with Suzanne Pleshette & James Franciscus.

2189. LADY ICE (1973) with Jennifer O’Neill & Donald Sutherland.

2190. YOUNGBLOOD (1986) with Rob Lowe.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2191. THE LASH (1930) with Mary Astor & Richard Barthelmess.

2192. A YANK IN THE R.A.F. (1941) with Betty Grable & Tyrone Power.

2193. THE EMPEROR WALTZ (1948) with Bing Crosby & Joan Fontaine.

2194. THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL (1951) with Richard Basehart & Valentina Cortese.

2195. THE ANGRY HILLS (1959) with Robert Mitchum.

2196. THE ROUNDERS (1965) with Henry Fonda & Glenn Ford.

2197. DORIAN GRAY (1970) with Helmut Berger.

2198. GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) with Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd & Bill Murray.

2199. ALICE (1990) with William Hurt & Mia Farrow.

2200. SECRETS & LIES (1996) with Marianne Jean-Baptiste & Brenda Blethyn.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2201. THE SET-UP (1949) with Robert Ryan.

2202. JIM THORPE ALL AMERICAN (1951) with Burt Lancaster.

2203. THE PRIDE OF ST. LOUIS (1952) with Dan Dailey & Joanne Dru.

2204. DANGEROUS WHEN WET (1953) with Jack Carson & Esther Williams.

2205. THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER (1962) with Tom Courtenay.

2206. SLAP SHOT (1977) with Paul Newman.

2207. HOOSIERS (1986) with Gene Hackman.

2208. COOL RUNNINGS (1993) with John Candy.

2209. ANY GIVEN SUNDAY (1999) with Jamie Foxx, Al Pacino & LL Cool J.

2210. WIMBLEDON (2004) with Kirsten Dunst.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2211. FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE (1926) with Harold Lloyd.

2212. GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933 (1933) with Ginger Rogers, Joan Blondell & Ruby Keeler.

2213. GOLD IS WHERE YOU FIND IT (1938) with George Brent & Olivia de Havilland.

2214. FORT APACHE (1948) with Henry Fonda.

2215. SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954) with Howard Keel & Jane Powell.

2216. HOUSEBOAT (1958) with Cary Grant & Sophia Loren.

2217. A TASTE OF HONEY (1961) with Rita Tushingham & Murray Melvin.

2218. MAROONED (1969) with James Franciscus, Gene Hackman & Richard Crenna.

2219. LOVE AND DEATH (1975) with Woody Allen.

2220. CUJO (1983)

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2221. A DAY AT THE RACES (1937) with Groucho Marx.

2222. THE BELLS OF ST. MARY’S (1945) with Bing Crosby & Ingrid Bergman.

2223. GOOD NEWS (1947) with June Allyson & Peter Lawford.

2224. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) with Deborah Kerr & Burt Lancaster.

2225. LISBON (1956) with Maureen O’Hara & Ray Milland.

2226. THE HOODLUM PRIEST (1961) with Keir Dullea & Don Murray.

2227. BUCK AND THE PREACHER (1972) with Harry Belafonte & Sidney Poitier.

2228. THE COOK THE THIEF HIS WIFE & HER LOVER (1989) with Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren & Alan Howard.

2229. WAYNE’S WORLD (1992) with Mike Myers & Dana Carvey.

2230. VERA DRAKE (2004) with Imelda Staunton.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2231. ONE HOUR WITH YOU (1932) with Jeanette MacDonald & Genevieve Tobin.

2232. UP IN MABEL’S ROOM (1944) with Marjorie Reynolds & Dennis O’Keefe.

2233. DISHONORED LADY (1947) with Hedy Lamarr.

2234. LORNA DOONE (1951) with Barbara Hale & Richard Greene.

2235. THE PURPLE PLAIN (1954) with Gregory Peck & Win Min Than.

2236. SATAN NEVER SLEEPS (1962) with William Holden & France Nuyen.

2237. SHALAKO (1968) with Sean Connery & Brigitte Bardot.

2238. DELIVERANCE (1974) with Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty, Burt Reynolds & Jon Voight.

2239. LEGAL EAGLES (1986) with Daryl Hannah, Debra Winger & Robert Redford.

2240. THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE (1995) with Shelley Long & Gary Cole.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2241. THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937) with C. Aubrey Smith, Ronald Colman & David Niven.

2242. DEADLINE AT DAWN (1946) with Bill Williams, Susan Hayward & Paul Lukas.

2243. AN IDEAL HUSBAND (1947) with Michael Wilding & Paulette Goddard.

2244. THE GLASS MENAGERIE (1950) with Kirk Douglas & Jane Wyman.

2245. THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1952) with Deborah Kerr & Stewart Granger.

2246. THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1963) with Jerry Lewis & Stella Stevens.

2247. RIO LOBO (1970) with John Wayne.

2248. TAPS (1981) with George C. Scott & Timothy Hutton.

2249. THE PELICAN BRIEF (1993) with Denzel Washington & Julia Roberts.

POLLOCK (2000)  

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2251. RED DUST (1932) with Mary Astor & Jean Harlow.

2252. CITY FOR CONQUEST (1940) with Anthony Quinn, Ann Sheridan & James Cagney.

2253. THE ROMANCE OF ROSY RIDGE (1947) with Janet Leigh & Van Johnson.

2254. BRIGADOON (1954) with Gene Kelly & Cyd Charisse.

2255. HELL TO ETERNITY (1960) with David Jannsen.

2256. THE NIGHT OF THE GRIZZLY (1966) with Clint Walker & Don Haggerty.

2257. HICKEY & BOGGS (1972) with Bill Cosby & Robert Culp.

 

2258. DEATH ON THE NILE (1978) with Angela Lansbury, Maggie Smith & Bette Davis.

2259. ALIEN NATION (1988) with James Caan & Mandy Patinkin.

2260. MAGNOLIA (1999) with John C. Reilly.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2261. I MET MY LOVE AGAIN (1938) with May Whitty & Henry Fonda.

2262. A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT (1940) with May Whitty & Adolphe Menjou.

2263. SUSPICION (1941) with May Whitty & Joan Fontaine.

2264. SLIGHTLY DANGEROUS (1943) with Walter Brennan & May Whitty.

2265. LASSIE COME HOME (1943) with May Whitty & Pal.

2266. CRASH DIVE (1943) with Anne Baxter, May Whitty & Tyrone Power.

2267. THIS TIME FOR KEEPS (1947) with May Whitty & Jimmy Durante.

2268. GREEN DOLPHIN STREET (1947) with May Whitty & Gladys Cooper.

2269. THE SIGN OF THE RAM (1948) with Susan Peters, Alexander Knox & May Whitty.

2270. THE RETURN OF OCTOBER (1948) with May Whitty, Terry Moore & friend.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2271. WEST POINT (1927) with William Haines & Joan Crawford.

2272. STINGAREE (1934) with Irene Dunne & Richard Dix.

2273. GENERAL SPANKY (1936) with George McFarland & Carl Switzer.

2274. HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO (1944) with Franklin Pangborn, Eddie Bracken & William Demarest.

2275. ANNA LUCASTA (1949) with Oscar Homolka & Paulette Goddard.

2276. THE CONQUEROR (1956) with John Wayne & Susan Hayward.

2277. ANNA LUCASTA (1958) with Eartha Kitt & Sammy Davis Jr.

2278. PARRISH (1961) with Troy Donahue & Claudette Colbert.

2279. THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN (1977) with Charles Denner.

2280. DRUGSTORE COWBOY (1989) with William S. Burroughs & Matt Dillon.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2281. HEIDI (1937) with Jean Hersholt & Shirley Temple.

2282. THE LONG VOYAGE HOME (1940) with Thomas Mitchell, John Wayne & Ward Bond.

2283. THAT FORSYTE WOMAN (1949) with Greer Garson & Janet Leigh.

2284. WHEN IN ROME (1952) with Van Johnson & Paul Douglas.

2285. THE COURT JESTER (1955) with Angela Lansbury, Danny Kaye & Glynis Johns.

2286. THE UNFORGIVEN (1960) with Audrey Hepburn & friend.

2287. BAREFOOT IN THE PARK (1967) with Robert Redford & Jane Fonda.

2288. THE ARISTOCATS (1970)

2289. DOMINICK AND EUGENE (1988) with Ray Liotta & Tom Hulce.

2290. THE FULL MONTY (1997)

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2291. SECRETS (1933) with Leslie Howard & Mary Pickford.

2292. OSSESSIONE (1943) with Clara Calamai & Massimo Girotti.

2293. THE LOVES OF CARMEN (1948) with Glenn Ford & Rita Hayworth.

2294. I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE (1951) with Susan Hayward & George Sanders.

2295. THE MCCONNELL STORY (1955) with June Allyson & Alan Ladd.

2296. ADVISE & CONSENT (1962) with Don Murray & Charles Laughton.

2297. CAPTAIN NEWMAN M.D. (1963) with Tony Curtis & Gregory Peck.

2298. MONTE WALSH (1970) with Jack Palance & Lee Marvin.

2299. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (1973) with Liv Ullman & Erland Josephson.

2300. THE RIVER (1984) with Mel Gibson & Sissy Spacek.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2301. TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932) with Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins & Herbert Marshall.

2302. MANNEQUIN (1937) with Spencer Tracy & Joan Crawford.

2303. THE BRIGHTON STRANGLER (1945) with John Loder & June Duprez.

2304. THE EXILE (1947) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. & Maria Montez.

2305. PAYMENT ON DEMAND (1951) with Bette Davis & Barry Sullivan.

2306. LEGEND OF THE LOST (1957) with Sophia Loren & John Wayne.

2307. HANG ‘EM HIGH (1968) with Bruce Dern & Clint Eastwood.

2308. THE BAD NEWS BEARS (1976) with Walter Matthau & Tatum O’Neal.

2309. MANNEQUIN (1987) with Kim Cattrall & Andrew McCarthy.

2310. CHAPLIN (1992) with Robert Downey Jr.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2311. BLONDE CRAZY (1931) with James Cagney & Joan Blondell.

2312. PLATINUM BLONDE (1931) with Jean Harlow & Robert Williams.

2313. BLONDE VENUS (1932) with Cary Grant & Marlene Dietrich.

2314. BLONDIE OF THE FOLLIES (1932) with Marion Davies.

2315. SMART BLONDE (1937) with Glenda Farrell.

2316. BLONDIE (1938) with Penny Singleton & Arthur Lake.

2317. THE STRAWBERRY BLONDE (1941) with Rita Hayworth & Olivia de Havilland.

2318. MY FAVORITE BLONDE (1942) with Bob Hope & Madeleine Carroll.

2319. BLONDE FEVER (1944) with Marshall Thompson & Gloria Grahame.

2320. BLONDE ICE (1948) with Leslie Brooks.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2321. PAID (1930) with Joan Crawford.

2322. DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1931) with Miriam Hopkins & Fredric March.

2323. DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1941) with Spencer Tracy.

2324. ROSEANNA MCCOY (1949) with Joan Evans & Aline MacMahon.

2325. BEND OF THE RIVER (1952) with Julie Adams & James Stewart.

2326. INDISCREET (1958) with Cary Grant & Ingrid Bergman.

2327. THE FAMILY JEWELS (1965) with Jerry Lewis & Donna Butterworth.

2328. LOLLY-MADONNA XXX (1973) with Robert Ryan, Scott Wilson & Kiel Martin.

2329. A PASSAGE TO INDIA (1984) with Judy Davis & Peggy Ashcroft.

2330. MICHAEL COLLINS (1996) with Aidan Quinn & Liam Neeson.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2331. THE SHEIK (1921) with Rudolph Valentino & Agnes Ayres.

2332. IT’S A GIFT (1934) with W.C. Fields & friend.

2333. STANLEY AND LIVINGSTONE (1939) with Spencer Tracy & Cedric Hardwicke.

2334. ADAM HAD FOUR SONS (1941) with Warner Baxter, Susan Hayward & Richard Denning.

2335. MIRANDA (1948) with Glynis Johns.

2336. ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) with Gregory Peck & Audrey Hepburn.

2337. NIGHT PASSAGE (1957) with Audie Murphy & James Stewart.

2338. TUNES OF GLORY (1960) with John Mills & Alec Guinness.

2339. NUMBER ONE (1969) with Charlton Heston.

2340. LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS (1972) with Alan Arkin, Sally Kellerman, Renee Taylor & Paula Prentiss.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2341. GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE (1933) with Walter Huston, Franchot Tone & Karen Morley.

2342. THE WHITE ANGEL (1936) with Kay Francis & Ian Hunter.

2343. HOLIDAY INN (1942) with Marjorie Reynolds, Bing Crosby & Fred Astaire.

2344. WHIPLASH (1948) with Zachary Scott, Alexis Smith & Dane Clark.

2345. MYSTERY STREET (1950) with Elsa Lanchester & Jan Sterling.

2346. THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG (1960) with William Holden & Nancy Kwan.

2347. THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968) with Steve McQueen & Faye Dunaway.

2348. DIRTY DINGUS MAGEE (1970) with Frank Sinatra & George Kennedy.

2349. THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984)

2350. THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1999) with Rene Russo & Pierce Brosnan.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2351. THE FRESHMAN (1925) with Harold Lloyd.

2352. THREE LOVES HAS NANCY (1938) with Franchot Tone, Janet Gaynor & Robert Montgomery.

2353. THE LODGER (1944) with Laird Cregar.

2354. MOTHER IS A FRESHMAN (1949) with Loretta Young & Van Johnson.

2355. RIFIFI (1955) with Jules Dassin, Robert Manuel, Carl Mohner & Jean Servais.

2356. THE SUNDOWNERS (1960) with Robert Mitchum & Deborah Kerr.

2357. TARAS BULBA (1962) with Yul Brynner & Tony Curtis.

2358. THE MILLION DOLLAR DUCK (1971) with Dean Jones, Jack Kruschen & friend.

2359. RUNAWAY TRAIN (1985) with Jon Voight.

2360. THE FRESHMAN (1990) with Matthew Broderick & Marlon Brando.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2361. HOLLYWOOD HOTEL (1937) with Rosemary Lane, Dick Powell & Grant Mitchell.

2362. MADE FOR EACH OTHER (1939) with Carole Lombard & James Stewart.

2363. THE MAN I MARRIED (1940) with Joan Bennett & Francis Lederer.

2364. THE SECRET HEART (1946) with Claudette Colbert, Walter Pidgeon & June Allyson.

2365. FAIR WIND TO JAVA (1953) with Vera Ralston & Fred MacMurray.

2366. DRUM BEAT (1954) with Marisa Pavan & Alan Ladd.

2367. THE STRIPPER (1963) with Joanne Woodward.

2368. THE EAGLE HAS LANDED (1976) with Michael Caine.

2369. RICH AND FAMOUS (1981) with Meg Ryan & Candice Bergen.

2370. RAN (1985) with Tatsuya Nakadai & Yoshiko Miyazaki.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2371. SCARFACE (1932) with George Raft & Paul Muni.

2372. PITFALL (1948) with Dick Powell & Lizabeth Scott.

2373. THE GREAT DAN PATCH (1949) with Gail Russell and friend.

2374. DRUMS IN THE DEEP SOUTH (1951) with Guy Madison & Barbara Payton.

2375. KID GALAHAD (1962) with Elvis Presley.

2376. 36 HOURS (1965) with Eva Marie Saint, James Garner & Rod Taylor.

2377. THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG (1975) with Bill Bixby & Susan Clark.

2378. THE MAIN EVENT (1979) with Ryan O’Neal & Barbra Streisand.

2379. SCARFACE (1983) with Al Pacino.

2380. QUICK CHANGE (1990) with Bill Murray.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2381. THE PERFECT FURLOUGH (1958) with Tony Curtis & Janet Leigh.

2382. EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (1962) with Lee Remick.

2383. THE PINK PANTHER (1963) with David Niven & Claudia Cardinale.

2384. THE GREAT RACE (1965) with Jack Lemmon & Peter Falk.

2385. WILD ROVERS (1971) with William Holden & Ryan O’Neal.

2386. THE CAREY TREATMENT (1972) with James Coburn & John Fink.

2387. S.O.B. (1981) with Julie Andrews & Shelley Winters.

2388. MICKI & MAUDE (1984) with Amy Irving, Dudley Moore & Ann Reinking.

2389. THAT’S LIFE! (1986) with Jack Lemmon & Julie Andrews.

2390. SUNSET (1988) with James Garner & Bruce Willis.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2391. WHOOPEE! (1930) with Eddie Cantor & Claire Dodd.

2392. FRISCO JENNY (1932) with Ruth Chatterton.

2393. TOO MANY HUSBANDS (1940) with Melvyn Douglas, Jean Arthur & Fred MacMurray.

2394. THE AMAZING MRS. HOLLIDAY (1943) with Barry Fitzgerald & Deanna Durbin.

2395. EXCUSE MY DUST (1951) with Sally Forrest & Red Skelton.

2396. FORTY GUNS (1957) with Barbara Stanwyck.

2397. ONE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIANS (1961)

2398. MARRIAGE ON THE ROCKS (1965) with Dean Martin, Deborah Kerr & Frank Sinatra.

2399. MAD DOG MORGAN (1976) with Dennis Hopper.

2400. THE CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR (1986) with Daryl Hannah.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2401. YOUNG DR. KILDARE (1938) with Lionel Barrymore & Lew Ayres.

2402. A WOMAN’S VENGEANCE (1948) with Ann Blyth & Charles Boyer.

2403. M (1951) with David Wayne.

2404. PILLOW TALK (1959) with Doris Day & Rock Hudson.

2405. HOW THE WEST WAS WON (1962) with Debbie Reynolds.

2406. THE FORTUNE COOKIE (1966) with Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau.

2407. WANDA (1970) with Barbara Loder.

2408. SAMANTHA AND NAPOLEON (1972) with Jodie Foster, Johnny Whitaker & friend.

2409. HARRY & SON (1984) with Paul Newman, Robby Benson, Joanne Woodward & Ellen Barkin.

2410. LITTLE MAN TATE (1991) with Jodie Foster & Adam Hann-Byrd.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2411. MOTHER CAREY’S CHICKENS (1938) with Fay Bainter & Anne Shirley.

2412. THE BLACK SWAN (1942) with Tyrone Power & Maureen O’Hara.

2413. CYNTHIA (1947) with Elizabeth Taylor & James Lydon.

2414. MOONFLEET (1955) with George Sanders, Jon Whiteley & Stewart Granger.

2415. WOMAN OBSESSED (1959) with Susan Hayward & Stephen Boyd.

2416. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962) with Bette Davis & Joan Crawford.

2417. THE COWBOYS (1972) with John Wayne & Norman Howell.

2418. THE SHAGGY D.A. (1976) with Dean Jones & friend.

2419. MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (1985) with Daniel Day-Lewis & Gordon Warnecke.

2420. CAMILLA (1994) with Jessica Tandy & Bridget Fonda.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2421. THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER (1938) with Jackie Moran & Tommy Kelly.

2422. PRIMROSE PATH (1940) with Joel McCrea & Ginger Rogers.

2423. GENTLE ANNIE (1944) with James Craig, Donna Reed, Harry Morgan, Marjorie Main & Paul Langton.

2424. THE MISSISSIPPI GAMBLER (1953) with Julie Adams & Tyrone Power.

2425. HOW TO BE VERY VERY POPULAR (1955) with Sheree North.

2426. SANCTUARY (1961) with Lee Remick & Yves Montand.

2427. THE FOX (1967) Sandy Dennis, Anne Heywood & Keir Dullea.

2428. TOM SAWYER (1973) with Johnny Whitaker & Jeff East.

2429. THE HOLCROFT COVENANT (1985) with Michael Caine & Lilli Palmer.

2430. GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE (1997) with Leslie Mann & Brendan Fraser.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2431. THE COSSACKS (1928) with John Gilbert & Renee Adoree.

2432. THE EX-MRS. BRADFORD (1936) with Jean Arthur & William Powell.

2433. SHOCKPROOF (1949) with John Baragrey & Patricia Knight.

2434. CALIFORNIA PASSAGE (1950) with Peter Miles & Adele Mara.

2435. THE BENNY GOODMAN STORY (1956) with Donna Reed & Steve Allen.

2436. A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM (1966) with Jack Gilford, Buster Keaton & Zero Mostel.

2437. THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978) with Gregory Peck.

2438. SPACEBALLS (1987) with Rick Moranis.

2439. JENNIFER EIGHT (1992) with John Malkovich & Andy Garcia.

2440. THE QUEEN (2006) with Helen Mirren.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2441. JUDGE PRIEST (1934) with Will Rogers.

2442. IT’S A WONDERFUL WORLD (1939) with Claudette Colbert & James Stewart.

2443. TO THE SHORES OF TRIPOLI (1942) with Maureen O’Hara & John Payne.

2444. UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948) with Linda Darnell & Rex Harrison.

2445. GOOD MORNING MISS DOVE (1955) with Jennifer Jones.

2446. MAJOR DUNDEE (1965) with Charlton Heston.

2447. J.W. COOP (1972) with Cliff Robertson.

2448. JUST YOU AND ME KID (1979) with Brooke Shields & George Burns.

2449. FULL METAL JACKET (1987) with Matthew Modine.

2450. LOOK WHO’S TALKING (1989) with John Travolta.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2451. LOOSE ANKLES (1930) with Raymond Keane & Loretta Young.

2452. YOU SAID A MOUTHFUL (1932) with Ginger Rogers & Joe E. Brown.

2453. ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER (1946) with Claude Rains, Anne Baxter & Paul Muni.

2454. THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946) with Peter Lorre.

2455. 5 FINGERS (1952) with James Mason & Danielle Darrieux.

2456. BELLES ON THEIR TOES (1952) with Barbara Bates, Verna Felton & Jeanne Crain.

2457. HANDS OF A GUNFIGHTER (1965) with Craig Hill & Francisco Huetos.

2458. BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (1974) with Warren Oates.

2459. FOOTLOOSE (1984) with Kevin Bacon & Chris Penn.

2460. FACE/OFF (1997) with John Travolta & Nicolas Cage.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2461. DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS (1938) with Priscilla Lane & Fay Bainter.

2462. IVAN THE TERRIBLE (1944) with Nikolay Cherkasov.

2463. YIELD TO THE NIGHT (1956) with Diana Dors.

2464. MOVE OVER DARLING (1963) with Doris Day & Polly Bergen.

2465. I WALK THE LINE (1970) with Gregory Peck & Tuesday Weld.

2466. CINDERELLA LIBERTY (1973) with Marsha Mason & James Caan.

2467. MAX DUGAN RETURNS (1983) with Jason Robards & Matthew Broderick.

2468. TRUE CRIME (1999) with Clint Eastwood & James Woods.

2469. WALK THE LINE (2005) with Reese Witherspoon & Joaquin Phoenix.

2470. TRUE GRIT (2010) with Jeff Bridges & Hailee Steinfeld.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2471. NICE GIRL? (1941) with Deanna Durbin & Robert Benchley.

2472. JUNE BRIDE (1948) with Robert Montgomery & Bette Davis.

2473. THE 13TH LETTER (1951) with Michael Rennie & Constance Smith.

2474. UTAH BLAINE (1957) with Rory Calhoun & Susan Cummings.

2475. THE LADIES MAN (1961) with Jerry Lewis & Kathleen Freeman.

2476. THE ADVENTURERS (1970) with Bekim Fehmiu & Olivia de Havilland.

2477. VALLEY GIRL (1983) with Deborah Foreman & Nicolas Cage.

2478. JACOB’S LADDER (1990) with Tim Robbins.

2479. LADDER 49 (2004) with John Travolta.

2480. HITCHCOCK (2012) with Anthony Hopkins.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2481. FAITHLESS (1932) with Tallulah Bankhead & Robert Montgomery.

2482. THE CAPTAIN’S KID (1936) with Sybil Jason & Guy Kibbee.

2483. BAMBI (1942)

2484. THE STORY OF G.I. JOE (1945) with Burgess Meredith, Robert Mitchum & Wally Cassell.

2485. TEN NORTH FREDERICK (1958) with Gary Cooper & Suzy Parker.

2486. BREATHLESS (1960) with Jean Seberg & Jean-Paul Belmondo.

2487. THE RUNNING MAN (1963) with Lee Remick & Laurence Harvey.

2488. MARATHON MAN (1976) with Dustin Hoffman & Laurence Olivier.

2489. THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER (1982) with Sigrid Thornton & Kirk Douglas.

2490. G.I. JANE (1997) with Demi Moore.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2491. THE UNHOLY THREE (1925) with Lon Chaney

2492. ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (1934) with Anne Shirley.

2493. PRESENTING LILY MARS (1943) with Judy Garland & Van Heflin.

2494. THE RED MENACE (1949) with Betty Lou Gerson & Robert Rockwell.

2495. HUNTED (1952) with Jon Whiteley & Dirk Bogarde.

2496. SOUTH PACIFIC (1958) with Mitzi Gaynor & Rossano Brazzi.

2497. LET NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH (1960) with James Darren, Burl Ives & Jean Seberg.

2498. FUN WITH DICK AND JANE (1977) with George Segal & Jane Fonda.

2499. TEEN WOLF (1985) with Michael J. Fox.

2500. TO WONG FOO THANKS FOR EVERYTHING JULIE NEWMAR (1995) with John Leguizamo, Wesley Snipes & Patrick Swayze.

 

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2501. COCKTAIL HOUR (1933) with Randolph Scott & Bebe Daniels.

2502. ALEXANDER’S RAGTIME BAND (1938) with Ethel Merman & Tyrone Power.

2503. SECOND CHORUS (1940) with Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard & Burgess Meredith.

2504. GUEST WIFE (1945) with Don Ameche, Claudette Colbert & Charles Dingle.

2505. MONEY WOMEN AND GUNS (1958) with Kim Hunter & Jock Mahoney.

2506. WHO WAS THAT LADY? (1960) with Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh & Dean Martin.

2507. MCQ (1974) with John Wayne, Diana Muldaur & Clu Gulager.

2508. THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1979) with Peter Sellers & Lynne Frederick.

2509. CITY HEAT (1984) with Burt Reynolds & Clint Eastwood.

2510. AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY (1997) with Mike Myers.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2511. LITTLE MISS MARKER (1934) with Adolphe Menjou & Shirley Temple.

2512. NANCY DREW: DETECTIVE (1938) with Bonita Granville.

2513. ONE OF OUR AIRCRAFT IS MISSING (1942) with Hugh Burden.

2514. SORROWFUL JONES (1949) with Lucille Ball & Bob Hope. 

2515. THE MAN WHO CHEATED HIMSELF (1950) with Jane Wyatt, Harlan Warde & Lee J. Cobb.

2516. THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955) with James Stewart & Aline MacMahon.

2517. 40 POUNDS OF TROUBLE (1962) with Tony Curtis & Claire Wilcox.

2518. 7 FACES OF DR. LAO (1964) with Tony Randall.

2519. ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING (1975) with Helen Hayes, Joan Sims & Peter Ustinov.

2520. LITTLE MISS MARKER (1980) with Walter Matthau, Sara Stimson & Julie Andrews.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2521. A CHILD IS BORN (1939) with Eve Arden & Geraldine Fitzgerald.

2522. THE GREAT LIE (1941) with Mary Astor, George Brent & Bette Davis.

2523. FATHER’S LITTLE DIVIDEND (1951) with Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor & Don Taylor.

2524. BLUE DENIM (1959) with Brandon deWilde & Carol Lynley.

2525. DOCTOR YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING! (1967) with Jon Lormer & Sandra Dee.

2526. A SIMPLE STORY (1978) with Romy Schneider & Bruno Cremer.

2527. SHE’S HAVING A BABY (1988) with Elizabeth McGovern & Kevin Bacon.

2528. JUNIOR (1994) with Emma Thompson, Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny DeVito.

2529. NINE MONTHS (1995) with Hugh Grant & Julianne Moore.

2530. PUSH! PUSH! (1997) with Shin-hye Hwang, Kap-sook Seo & Eun-jin Pang.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2531. ZOO IN BUDAPEST (1933) with Gene Raymond, Loretta Young & Wally Albright.

2532. CASANOVA BROWN (1944) with Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright & Patricia Collinge.

2533. FLAXY MARTIN (1949) with Zachary Scott & Virginia Mayo.

2534. TITANIC (1953) with Harper Carter & Barbara Stanwyck.

2535. TO CATCH A THIEF (1955) with Cary Grant & Grace Kelly.

2536. HUD (1963) with Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas & Brandon deWilde.

2537. CONVOY (1978) with Ali MacGraw & Kris Kristofferson.

2538. BLUE VELVET (1986) with Isabella Rossellini.

2539. THE FISHER KING (1991) with Robin Williams & Jeff Bridges.

2540. SMALL TIME CROOKS (2000) with Tracey Ullman & Woody Allen.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2541. NAVY BLUE AND GOLD (1937) with Robert Young, Tom Brown & James Stewart.

2542. VIGIL IN THE NIGHT (1940) with Anne Shirley, Carole Lombard & Brian Aherne.

2543. ROAD HOUSE (1948) with Ida Lupino.

2544. THE DESPERATE HOURS (1955) with Humphrey Bogart & Martha Scott.

2545. THE ST. VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE (1967) with George Segal.

2546. THE SHAKIEST GUN IN THE WEST (1968) with Don Knotts.

2547. THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE (1973) with Robert Mitchum & Peter Boyle.

2548. RHINESTONE (1984) with Dolly Parton & Sylvester Stallone.

2549. SHIRLEY VALENTINE (1989) with Pauline Collins.

2550. GRUMPY OLD MEN (1993) with Jack Lemmon, Ann-Margret & Walter Matthau.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2551. OIL FOR THE LAMPS OF CHINA (1935) with Pat O’Brien & Teru Shimada.

2552. THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK (1939) with Warren William & Louis Hayward.

2553. LOVE CRAZY (1941) with Myrna Loy & William Powell.

2554. CHINA (1943) with Loretta Young & Alan Ladd.

2555. DALLAS (1950) with Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran & Gary Cooper.

2556. KING OF KINGS (1961) with Jeffrey Hunter.

2557. ANZIO (1968) with Reni Santoni, Robert Mitchum & Peter Falk.

2558. MAHOGANY (1975) with Diana Ross & Anthony Perkins.

2559. HIGH ROAD TO CHINA (1983) with Tom Selleck.

2560. INDOCHINE (1992) with Catherine Deneuve.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2561. BIG CITY (1937) with Spencer Tracy & Luise Rainer.

2562. GOOD SAM (1948) with Ann Sheridan & Gary Cooper.

2563. UNDER CAPRICORN (1949) with Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten & Michael Wilding.

2564. PRIVATE HELL 36 (1954) with Ida Lupino & Steve Cochran.

2565. THE YOUNG STRANGER (1957) with Kim Hunter & James MacArthur.

2566. GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM (1964) with Romy Schneider & Jack Lemmon.

2567. BAD COMPANY (1972) with Jeff Bridges & Barry Brown.

2568. CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984) with John Franklin.

2569. DEMOLITION MAN (1993) with Sylvester Stallone & Sandra Bullock.

2570. NURSE BETTY (2000) with Renee Zellweger.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2571. KENTUCKY (1938) with Richard Greene, Loretta Young & Walter Brennan.

2572. SOMETHING IN THE WIND (1947) with Donald O’Connor, Deanna Durbin & John Dall.

2573. THE GAL WHO TOOK THE WEST (1949) with John Russell, Yvonne De Carlo & Scott Brady.

2574. GIGI (1958) with Leslie Caron & Louis Jourdan.

2575. TOYS IN THE ATTIC (1963) with Wendy Hiller, Geraldine Page & Dean Martin.

2576. DARLING (1965) with Julie Christie & Roland Curram.

2577. FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER (1973) with Ingrid Bergman, Johnny Doran & Sally Prager.

2578. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S SEX COMEDY (1982) with Tony Roberts, Jose Ferrer, Woody Allen & Mary Steenburgen.

2579. LONGTIME COMPANION (1989) with Bruce Davison & Dermot Mulroney.

2580. A PERFECT MURDER (1998) with Michael Douglas, Viggo Mortenson & Gwyneth Paltrow.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2581. NANOOK OF THE NORTH (1922) with Allakariallak.

2582. SHIPMATES FOREVER (1935) with Ruby Keeler & Dick Powell.

2583. GREEN LIGHT (1937) with Errol Flynn, Anita Louise & friend.

2584. THE MAN FROM COLORADO (1948) with Glenn Ford & William Holden.

2585. KNOCK ON ANY DOOR (1949) with Humphrey Bogart & John Derek.

2586. THREE FOR BEROOM C (1952) with Gloria Swanson, James Warren & Hans Conried.

2587. NIAGARA (1953) with Marilyn Monroe & Joseph Cotten.

2588. THE NAKED EDGE (1961) with Gary Cooper, Eric Portman & Deborah Kerr.

2589. FIVE EASY PIECES (1970) with Karen Black & Jack Nicholson.

2590. THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) with John Hurt.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2591. THAT NIGHT IN RIO (1941) with S.Z. Sakall & Don Ameche.

2592. SEVEN SWEETHEARTS (1942) with S.Z. Sakall and his sweethearts.

2593. WINTERTIME (1943) with Sonja Henie & S.Z. Sakall.

2594. WONDER MAN (1945) with S.Z.Sakall & Gisela Werbisek.

2595. ROMANCE ON THE HIGH SEAS (1948) with Janis Paige, S.Z.Sakall & Don DeFore.

2596. APRIL SHOWERS (1948) with Ann Sothern, Jack Carson & S.Z. Sakall.

2597. OH YOU BEAUTIFUL DOLL (1949) with S.Z. Sakall, June Haver & Charlotte Greenwood. 

2598. IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME (1949) with S.Z. Sakall, Clinton Sundberg, Judy Garland & Buster Keaton.

2599. MONTANA (1950) with Alexis Smith, S.Z. Sakall & Errol Flynn.

2600. PAINTING THE CLOUDS WITH SUNSHINE (1951) with Virginia Mayo, S.Z. Sakall & Lucille Norman.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2601. CAVALCADE (1933) with Clive Brookk & Diana Wynyard.

2602. THE GOLDWYN FOLLIES (1938) with Andrea Leeds & Adolphe Menjou.

2603. THIEVES FALL OUT (1941) with Eddie Albert, Jane Darwell & Joan Leslie.

2604. THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY (1949) with Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire.

2605. IT GROWS ON TREES (1952) with Irene Dunne.

2606. STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND (1955) with James Stewart & Frank Lovejoy.

2607. WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1961) with Hayley Mills & Alan Bates.

2608. CHARLOTTE’S WEB (1973)

2609. THE SHINING (1980) with Jack Nicholson.

2610. MY HEROES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWBOYS (1991) with Lane Frost.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2611. DESIRE (1936) with John Halliday, Marlene Dietrich & Gary Cooper.

2612. CRY WOLF (1947) with Errol Flynn & Barbara Stanwyck.

2613. MASK OF THE AVENGER (1951) with Jody Lawrance & John Derek.

2614. DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS (1958) with Burl Ives, Sophia Loren & Anthony Perkins.

2615. THE NOTORIOUS LANDLADY (1962) with Kim Novak & Jack Lemmon.

2616. FEDORA (1978) with Marthe Keller & Henry Fonda.

2617. THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980) with Dan Aykroyd, Ray Charles & John Belushi.

2618. SCENT OF A WOMAN (1992) with Al Pacino.

2619. MOULIN ROUGE! (2001) with Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor.

2620. THE MULE (2018) with Clint Eastwood.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2621. JANICE MEREDITH (1924) with Marion Davies.

2622. SUZY (1936) with Cary Grant, Jean Harlow & Franchot Tone.

2623. THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS (1943) with Olivia de Havilland, George Tobias & Ida Lupino.

2624. THE HASTY HEART (1949) with Ronald Reagan, Patricia Neal & Richard Todd.

2625. IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU (1954) with Judy Holliday & Peter Lawford.

2626. TRIBUTE TO A BAD MAN (1956) with Irene Papas & James Cagney.

2627. THE HUSTLER (1961) with Jackie Gleason & Paul Newman.

2628. NORTH DALLAS FORTY (1979) with Nick Nolte & Mac Davis.

2629. LA BAMBA (1987) with Lou Diamond Phillips.

2630. BIRD ON A WIRE (1990) with Goldie Hawn & Mel Gibson.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2631. MR. ROBINSON CRUSE (1932) with Maria Alba & Douglas Fairanks Sr.

2632. PHANTOM LADY (1944) with Ella Raines & Elisha Cook Jr.

2633. EASY TO WED (1946) with Van Johnson, Lucille Ball & Keenan Wynn.

2634. EASY TO LOVE (1953) with John Bromfield, Esther Williams & Van Johnson.

2635. THE POWER AND THE PRIZE (1956) with Charles Coburn, Robert Taylor & Burl Ives.

2636. L’ECLISSE (1962) with Monica Vitti & Alain Delon.

2637. HOUR OF THE GUN (1967) with Jason Robards & James Garner.

2638. THE NEPTUNE FACTOR (1973) with Ernest Borgnine & Yvette Mimieux.

2639. GREASED LIGHTNING (1977) with Richard Pryor & Beau Bridges.

2640. DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (1988) with Steve Martin & Michael Caine.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2641. THE PAINTED VEIL (1934) with George Brent & Greta Garbo.

2642. SORORITY HOUSE (1939) with Anne Shirley & Barbara Read.

2643. HERE COME THE WAVES (1944) with Betty Hutton & Bing Crosby.

2644. SPECTER OF THE ROSE (1946) with Ivan Kirov & Viola Essen.

2645. THE LIGHT TOUCH (1951) with Pier Angeli, George Sanders & Stewart Granger.

2646. TIGHT SPOT (1955) with Brian Keith, Ginger Rogers & Edward G. Robinson.

2647. THE LONGEST DAY (1962) with Jeffrey Hunter.

2648. 5 CARD STUD (1968) with Roddy McDowall & Robert Mitchum.

2649. THE RAILWAY CHILDREN (1970) with Gary Warren, Sally Thomsett & Jenny Agutter.

2650. CLARA’S HEART (1988) with Whoopi Goldberg, Neil Patrick Harris & Hattie Winston.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2651. KID GALAHAD (1937) with Harry Carey, Wayne Morris & Edward G. Robinson.

2652. THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) with Ray Milland.

2653. DRAGONWYCK (1946) with Vincent Price, Gene Tierney & Glenn Langan.

2654. JUBAL (1956) with Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine & Charles Bronson.

2655. LET’S MAKE LOVE (1960) with Marilyn Monroe & Yves Montand.

2656. PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND (1963) with Stefanie Powers & Troy Donahue.

2657. WILLARD (1971) with Bruce Davison & friend.

2658. A FINE MESS (1986) with Ted Danson & Howie Mandel.

2659. OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY (1991) with Gregory Peck, Danny DeVito & Penelope Ann Miller.

2660. X-MEN (2000) with Patrick Stewart & Hugh Jackman.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2661. TEN CENTS A DANCE (1931) with Barbara Stanwyck.

2662. DANCING LADY (1933) with Joan Crawford.

2663. BORN TO DANCE (1936) with Eleanor Powell.

2664. SHALL WE DANCE (1937) with Ginger Rogers & Fred Astaire.

2665. DANCING CO-ED (1939) with Lee Bowman & Lana Turner.

2666. DANCE GIRL DANCE (1940) with Maureen O’Hara & Lucille Ball.

2667. VILLAGE BARN DANCE (1940) with Richard Cromwell & Doris Day.

2668. THE DANCING MASTERS (1943) with Oliver Hardy & Stan Laurel.

2669. DANCING IN THE DARK (1949) with Mark Stevens, Betsy Drake, Adolphe Menjou & William Powell.

2670. LET’S DANCE (1950) with Betty Hutton & Fred Astaire.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2671. THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) with Gloria Stuart & Boris Karloff.

2672. AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945) with Louis Hayward & June Duprez.

2673. MOBY DICK (1956) with Gregory Peck.

2674. DRAGOON WELLS MASSACRE (1957) with Dennis O’Keefe, Katy Jurado & Barry Sullivan.

2675. ON THE DOUBLE (1961) with Danny Kaye & Diana Dors.

2576. TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1965) with Shirley Eaton & Hugh O’Brian.

2677. THE LIGHT AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (1971) with Kirk Douglas.

2678. HOUSE OF GAMES (1987) with Lindsay Crouse & Joe Mantegna.

2679. THE PELICAN BRIEF (1993) with Denzel Washington & Julia Roberts.

2680. INSTINCT (1999) with Anthony Hopkins & Cuba Gooding Jr.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2681. FOUR’S A CROWD (1938) with Patric Knowles, Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell & Errol Flynn.

2682. I MARRIED AN ANGEL (1942) with Nelson Eddie & Jeanette MacDonald.

2683. THE MIRACLE OF THE BELLS (1948) with Alida Valli & Fred MacMurray.

2684. DECISION BEFORE DAWN (1951) with Hans Blech, Robert Freitag and Richard Basehart.

2685. THE PRIVATE WAR OF MAJOR BENSON (1955) with Tim Hovey, Julie Adams & Charlton Heston.

2686. THE RAT RACE (1960) with Debbie Reynolds & Tony Curtis.

2687. SERGEANT RUTLEDGE (1962) with Constance Towers, Jeffrey Hunter & Woody Strode.

2688. THE SWARM (1978) with Olivia de Havilland.

2689. MY LIFE AS A DOG (1985) with Anton Glanzelius, Manfred Serner & friend.

2690.ONLY THE LONELY (1991) with Maureen O’Hara, Ally Sheedy & John Candy.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2691. LAUGH CLOWN LAUGH (1928) with Lon Chaney & Loretta Young.

2692. CABIN IN THE COTTON (1932) with Bette Davis & Richard Barthelmess.

2693. CABIN IN THE SKY (1943) with Ethel Waters, Eddie Anderson & Lena Horne.

2694. STAGE FRIGHT (1950) with Jane Wyman & Richard Todd.

2695. GUNMAN’S WALK (1958) with Van Heflin, Tab Hunter & James Darren.

 

2696. THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964) with Sophia Loren & Stephen Boyd.

2697. THE GYPSY MOTHS (1969) with Burt Lancaster.

2698. SEXTETTE (1978) with Mae West & friends.

2699. RACING WITH THE MOON (1984) with Sean Penn.

2700. STARGATE (1994) with James Spader & Kurt Russell.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2701. A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1935) with Ronald Colman & Elizabeth Allan.

2702. DAVID COPPERFIELD (1935) with W.C. Fields & Freddie Bartholomew.

2703. THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD (1935) wtih Heather Angel & David Manners.

2704. A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938) with Gene Lockhart & Reginald Owen.

2705. GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1946) with John Mills & Martita Hunt.

2706. THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (1947) with Derek Bond & Aubrey Woods.

2707. OLIVER TWIST (1948) with John Howard Davies & Robert Newton.

2708. THE PICKWICK PAPERS (1952) with James Hayter.

2709. IT’S NEVER TOO LATE (1953) with Paolo Stoppa.

2710. A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1958) with Dirk Bogarde & Paul Guers.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2711. SOCIETY DOCTOR (1935) with Robert Taylor, Virginia Bruce & Chester Morris.

2712. TOPPER (1937) with Cary Grant, Roland Young & Constance Bennett.

2713. BOOMERANG! (1947) with Jane Wyatt & Dana Andrews.

2714. THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN (1953) with Patrice Wymore, Randolph Scott & Lina Romay.

2715. THE NIGHT HOLDS TERROR (1955) with Vince Edwards, John Cassavetes & Jack Kelly.

2716. TICKLE ME (1965) with Elvis Presley & Julie Adams.

2717. THE VISITORS (1972) with Patricia Joyce & James Woods.

2718. THE NORTH AVENUE IRREGULARS (1979) with Susan Clark, Barbara Harris & Cloris Leachman.

2719. MACARONI (1985) with Jack Lemmon & Marcello Mastroianni.

2720. RED CORNER (1997) with Richard Gere & Bai Ling.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2721. ONE HOUR LATE (1934) with Conrad Nagel, Helen Twelvetrees & Joe Morrison.

2722. THE SPY IN BLACK (1939) with Conrad Veidt.

2723. DOWN IN SAN DIEGO (1941) with Dan Dailey & Bonita Granville.

2724. DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID (1946) with Paulette Goddard & Hurd Hatfield.

2725. HIGHWAY 301 (1950) with Gaby Andre & Steve Cochran.

2726. DENVER & RIO GRANDE (1952) with Sterling Hayden.

2727. THE WAR LOVER (1962) with Steve McQueen & Robert Wagner.

2728. DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE (1970) with Richard Benjamin & Carrie Snodgress.

2729. THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE (1986)

2730. WELCOME HOME ROXY CARMICHAEL (1990) with  Winona Rider.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2731. THE HOUSE OF ROTHSCHILD (1934) with George Arliss, Robert Young & Loretta Young.

2732. THE MAN WHO CRIED WOLF (1937) with Lewis Stone & Jameson Thomas.

2733. ROXIE HART (1942) with Adolphe Menjou & Ginger Rogers.

2734. WHIRLPOOL (1949) with Gene Tierney & Jose Ferrer.

2735. THE SKIPPER SURPRISED HIS WIFE (1950) with Robert Walker & Joan Leslie.

2736. FORT DEFIANCE (1951) with Dane Clark & Tracey Roberts.

2738. DIAMOND HEAD (1962) with George Chakiris, Yvette Mimieux & Charlton Heston.

2739. MAN ON A SWING (1974) with Joel Grey & Cliff Robertson.

2740. LOCAL HERO (1983) with Peter Riegert, Burt Lancaster & Peter Capaldi.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2741. THE GOOD OLD SOAK (1937) with Janet Beecher & Wallace Beery.

2742. GIVE ME A SAILOR (1938) with Martha Raye and friends.

2743. GANGS OF CHICAGO (1940) with Lloyd Nolan & Barton MacLane.

2744. CALAMITY JANE AND SAM BASS (1949) with Yvonne De Carlo & Howard Duff.

2745. BUNCO SQUAD (1950) with Joan Dixon & Robert Sterling.

2746. DARBY O’GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE (1959) with Sean Connery & Janet Munro.

2747. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962) with Marlon Brando & Trevor Howard.

2748. WAIT UNTIL DARK (1967) with Richard Crenna & Audrey Hepburn.

2749. THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR (1975) with Robert Redford & Max von Sydow.

2750. RESURRECTION (1980) with Ellen Burstyn, Lois Smith & David Haney.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2751. THE DIVORCEE (1930) with Chester Morris & Norma Shearer.

2752. LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY (1936) with Dolores Costello Barrymore & Freddie Bartholomew.

2753. MY KINGDOM FOR A COOK (1943) with Marguerite Chapman, Betty Brewer & Charles Coburn.

2754. THE BRASHER DOUBLOON (1947) with Nancy Guild & George Montgomery.

2755. WAY OF A GAUCHO (1952) with Gene Tierney & Rory Calhoun.

2756. THE HANGMAN (1959) with Robert Taylor, Tina Louise & Fess Parker.

2757. THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER (1963) with George C. Scott.

2758. ASH WEDNESDAY (1973) with Henry Fonda & Elizabeth Taylor.

2759. THE FLAMINGO KID (1984) with Richard Crenna & Matt Dillon.

2760. M. BUTTERFLY (1993) with Jeremy Irons & John Lone.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2761. THE CASE AGAINST MRS. AMES (1936) with George Brent, Scotty Beckett & Madeleine Carroll.

2762. PINOCCHIO (1940)

2763. SONG OF LOVE (1947) with Katharine Hepburn, Robert Walker & Henry Daniell.

2764. SO BIG (1953) with JaneWyman, Sterling Hayden & Richard Beymer.

2765. THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON (1956) with Machiko Kyo, Marlon Brando & Glenn Ford.

2766. TOM JONES (1963) with Albert Finney.

2767. I SAW WHAT YOU DID (1965) with Joan Crawford & John Ireland.

2768. CATLOW (1971) with Yul Brynner & Richard Crenna.

2769. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979) with Martin Sheen.

2770. BACK TO SCHOOL (1986) with Rodney Dangerfield.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2771. WE LIVE AGAIN (1934) with Anna Sten & Fredric March.

2772. THERE GOES THE GROOM (1937) with Burgess Meredith & Ann Sothern.

2773. GIRL TROUBLE (1942) with Joan Bennett, Don Ameche & Billie Burke.

2774. SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE (1947) with Eduardo Ciannelli, Jacqueline White & Philip Terry.

2775. DOWN THREE DARK STREETS (1954) with Broderick Crawford & Ruth Roman.

2776. THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (1967) with Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing & Julie Andrews.

2777. THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN (1979) with Robert Redford.

2778. THE GOOD MOTHER (1988) with Diane Keaton, Asia Vieira & Teresa Wright.

2779. ERASER (1996) with Arnold Schwarzenegger & Vanessa Williams.

2780. FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002) with Julianne Moore.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2781. TORRENT (1926) with Greta Garbo & Ricardo Cortez.

2782. DOUBLE DOOR (1934) with Mary Morris & Anne Revere.

2783. DUST BE MY DESTINY (1939) with Priscilla Lane, John Gafrield & Garry Owen.

2784. RIDE ‘EM COWBOY (1942) with Bud Abbott, Johnny Mack Brown & Lou Costello.

2785. SONG OF SURRENDER (1949) with Claude Rains, Wanda Hendrix & Macdonald Carey.

2786. THE COMPANY SHE KEEPS (1951) with Jane Greer & Lizabeth Scott.

2787. LI’L ABNER (1959) with Leslie Parrish & Peter Palmer.

2788. FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966) with Raquel Welch & Stephen Boyd.

2789. CISCO PIKE (1972) with Karen Black & Kris Kristofferson.

2790. HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS (1987) with John Lithgow and friend.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2791. FOOTLIGHT PARADE (1933) with Joan Blondell, James Cagney & Ruby Keeler. 

2792. BLACKMAIL (1939) with Gene Lockhart & Edward G. Robinson.

2793. FIRST COMES COURAGE (1943) with Brian Aherne & Merle Oberon.

2794. FLAMINGO ROAD (1949) with Joan Crawford, David Brian & Sidney Greenstreet.

2795. THE UNDERWORLD STORY (1950) with Gar Moore & Herbert Marshall.

2796. MAN IN THE SADDLE (1950) with Ellen Drew, Randolph Scott & Joan Leslie.

2797. PENDULUM (1969) with George Peppard & Robert F. Lyons

2798. CLEOPATRA JONES (1973) with Tamara Dobson & Shelley Winters.

2799. NOTHING IN COMMON (1986) with Tom Hanks & Jackie Gleason.

2800. TREMORS (1990) with Reba McEntire & Michael Gross.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2801. JENNIE GERHARDT (1933) with Sylvia Sidney.

2802. TOVARICH (1937) with Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer & Basil Rathbone.

2803. EDGE OF DARKNESS (1943) with Ann Sheridan &  Errol Flynn.

2804. MY FRIEND IRMA (1949) with Marie Wilson.

2805. PONY SOLDIER (1952) with Tyrone Power & Cameron Mitchell.

2806. THE ACTRESS (1953) with Teresa Wright, Spencer Tracy & Jean Simmons.

2807. IRMA LA DOUCE (1963) with Shirley MacLaine & Jack Lemmon.

2808. BORN FREE (1966) with Virginia McKenna, Bill Travers and friends.

2809. THE CONVERSATION (1974) with Gene Hackman.

2810. THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN (1981) with Meryl Streep.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2811. THE CAMERAMAN (1928) with Buster Keaton.

2812. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929)

2813. PICTURE SNATCHER (1933) with James Cagney.

2814. MURDER WITH PICTURES (1936) with Gail Patrick, Lew Ayres & Joyce Compton.

2815. THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945) with Hurd Hatfield.

2816. I AM A CAMERA (1955) with Julie Harris & Anton Diffring.

2817. PICTURE MOMMY DEAD (1966) with Zsa Zsa Gabor.

2818. SMILE (1975) with Melanie Griffith.

2819. I OUGHT TO BE IN PICTURES (1982) with Ann-Margret, Walter Matthau & Dinah Manoff.

2820. DOUBLE EXPOSURE: THE STORY OF MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE (1989) with Farrah Fawcett.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2821. THE VIRTUOUS SIN (1930) with Kay Francis & Walter Huston.

2822. 6000 ENEMIES (1939) with Rita Johnson & Walter Pidgeon.

2823. THE GHOST COMES HOME (1940) with John Shelton, Billie Burke, Ann Rutherford & Frank Morgan.

2824. BRIMSTONE (1949) with Walter Brennan, Jim Davis & Jack Lambert.

2825. THREE FOR THE SHOW (1955) with Betty Grable, Jack Lemmon & Gower Champion.

2826. THE HOUSTON STORY (1956) with Gene Barry & Barbara Hale.

2827. DESIRE IN THE DUST (1960) with Martha Hyer & Raymond Burr.

2828. BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL (1965) with Lee Remick & Steve McQueen.

2829. THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (1972) with Stephane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Paul Frankeur & Bulle Ogier.

2830. THE CHOSEN (1981) with Robby Benson & Barry Miller.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2831. FIFTY ROADS TO TOWN (1937) with Don Ameche & Ann Sothern.

2832. OFF THE RECORD (1939) with Joan Blondell, Pat O’Brien & Bobby Jordan.

2833. CARNIVAL IN COSTA RICA (1947) with Vera-Ellen & Dick Haymes.

2834. NO QUESTIONS ASKED (1951) with George Murphy & Barry Sullivan.

2835. THE LONELY MAN (1957) with Jack Palance & Anthony Perkins.

2836. PEPE (1960) with Cantinflas and friend.

2837. CASTLE KEEP (1969) with Burt Lancaster.

2838. THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT! (1974) with Fred Astaire. 

2839. THE GOLDEN CHILD (1986) with J.L. Reate & Eddie Murphy.

2840. THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE (1994) with Nigel Hawthorne.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2841. LITTLE BIG SHOT (1935) with Sybil Jason & Robert Armstrong.

2842. A WOMAN’S FACE (1941) with Joan Crawford.

2843. STAGECOACH KID (1949) with Thurston Hall, Jeff Donnell & Tim Holt.

2844. ROGUE COP (1954) with Robert Taylor, Anne Francis & Janet Leigh.

2845. SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL (1959) with Don Murray & James Cagney.

2846. ROMANOFF AND JULIET (1961) with Sandra Dee & John Gavin. 

2847. THE RESCUERS (1977) with Bob Newhart & Eva Gabor.

2848. THE FIRST DEADLY SIN (1980) with Frank Sinatra & Faye Dunaway.

2849. THE RIVER WILD (1994) with Kevin Bacon, Meryl Streep & John C. Reilly.

2850. MARLEY & ME (2008) with Owen Wilson & friend.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2851. THE PASSIONATE PLUMBER (1932) with Irene Purcell, Buster Keaton & Gilbert Roland.

2852. KIT CARSON (1940) with Dana Andrews, Lynn Bari & Jon Hall.

2853. TRAPPED (1949) with Barbara Payton & Lloyd Bridges.

2854. CODE TWO (1953) with Robert Horton & Sally Forrest.

2855. NEVER SAY GOODBYE (1956) with Rock Hudson, George Sanders & Cornell Borchers.

2856. THE GALLANT HOURS (1960) with James Cagney & Dennis Weaver.

2857. WALK DON’T RUN (1966) with Samantha Eggar, Cary Grant & Jim Hutton.

2858. PULP (1972) with Michael Caine & Lizabeth Scott.

2859. LADYHAWKE (1985) with Matthew Broderick & Michelle Pfeiffer.

2860. GREEN CARD (1990) with Andie McDowell & Gerard Depardieu.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2861. DON JUAN (1926) with John Barrymore & Mary Astor. 

2862. STRIKE ME PINK (1936) with Helen Lowell, Sally Eilers & Eddie Cantor.

2863. THE IMPATIENT YEARS (1944) with Jean Arthur, Lee Bowman & Charles Arnt.

2864. A SOUTHERN YANKEE (1948) with John Ireland, Red Skelton & Brian Donlevy.

2865. DAMN YANKEES (1958) with Gwen Verdon & Tab Hunter.

2866. ROME ADVENTURE (1962) with Troy Donahue & Suzanne Pleshette.

2867. GENTLE GIANT (1967) with Dennis Weaver, Clint Howard & friend.

2868. EL CONDOR (1970) with Patrick O’Neal, Lee Van Cleef & Jim Brown.

2869. GORKY PARK (1983) with William Hurt & Brian Dennehy.

2870. STEPPING OUT (1991) with Shelley Winters & Liza Minnelli.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2871. THE OKLAHOMA KID (1939) with James Cagney.

2872. MARYLAND (1940) with John Payne, Walter Brennan & Brenda Joyce.

2873. ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (1941) with Raymond Massey & Ruth Gordon.

2874. DUCHESS OF IDAHO (1950) with Esther Williams, John Lund & Clinton Sundberg.

2875. TENNESSEE CHAMP (1954) with Earl Holliman, Dewey Martin & Keenan Wynn.

2876. CALIFORNIA (1963) with Faith Domergue & Jock Mahoney.

2877. THE GREAT NORTHFIELD MINNESOTA RAID (1972) with Robert Duvall & Cliff Robertson.

2878. PARIS TEXAS (1984) with Dean Stockwell & Harry Dean Stanton.

2879. GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI (1996) with Whoopi Goldberg & Alec Baldwin.

2880. GEORGIA RULE (2007) with Jane Fonda & Lindsay Lohan.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2881. WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS (1934) with Brian Aherne & Helen Hayes.

2882. WELLS FARGO (1937) with Frances Dee &  Joel McCrea.

2883. MY PAL WOLF (1944) with Sharyn Moffett & Grey Shadow.

2884. THE RED HOUSE (1947) with Lon McCallister, Allene Roberts & Edward G. Robinson.

2885. THE LIEUTENANT WORE SKIRTS (1956) with Sheree North & Tom Ewell.

2886. THE STORY ON PAGE ONE (1959) with Gig Young, Rita Hayworth & Anthony Franciosa.

2887. TOBRUK (1967) with Rock Hudson, George Peppard & Nigel Green.

2888. SECRET CEREMONY (1968) with Mia Farrow & Elizabeth Taylor.

2889. MAGNUM FORCE (1973) with Hal Holbrook & Clint Eastwood.

2890. THE LONELY PASSION OF JUDITH HEARNE (1987) with Maggie Smith & Bob Hoskins.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2891. THE FRONT PAGE (1931) with Pat O’Brien, Mary Brian & Adolphe Menjou.

2892. HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) with Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell.

2893. THE NAKED CITY (1948) with Howard Duff, Don Taylor & Barry Fitzgerald.

2894. PONY EXPRESS (1953) with Pat Hogan & Charlton Heston.

2895. ONE MAN’S WAY (1964) with Don Murray.

2896. THE FRONT PAGE (1974) with Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau.

2897. HEARTBURN (1986) with Meryl Streep & Jack Nicholson.

2898. SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET (1997) with Brad Pitt & David Thewlis.

2899. GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK (2005) with George Clooney & David Strathairn.

2900. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (2017) with Armie Hammer & Timothee Chalamet.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2901. SADIE THOMPSON (1928) with Gloria Swanson & Raoul Walsh.

2902. PYGMALION (1938) with Leslie Howard & Wendy Hiller.

2903. THE RULES OF THE GAME (1939) with Nora Gregor & Jean Renoir.

2904. THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940) with Charlie Chaplin.

2905. THE BIGAMIST (1953) with Ida Lupino & Edmond O’Brien.

2906. THE TRIAL (1962) with Orson Welles & Romy Schneider.

2907. THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976) with Clint Eastwood.

2908. YENTL (1983) with Barbra Streisand & Nehemiah Persoff.

2909. BRAVEHEART (1995) with Mel Gibson.

2910. LEATHERHEADS (2008) with George Clooney & John Krasinski.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2911. ROCKABYE (1932) with Paul Lukas & Constance Bennett.

2912. FOUR GIRLS IN WHITE (1939) with Alan Marshal & Florence Rice.

2913. WITHOUT LOVE (1945) with Keenan Wynn & Lucille Ball.

2914. THE WOMAN IN WHITE (1948) with Eleanor Parker & Gig Young.

2915. BLACK HAND (1950) with Gene Kelly & J. Carrol Naish.

2916. THE LAST SUNSET (1961) with Rock Hudson & Kirk Douglas.

2917. WILD SEED (1965) with Michael Parks & Celia Kaye.

2918. THE CHAMP (1979) with Jack Warden, Jon Voight & Ricky Schroeder.

2919. GOOD MORNING VIETNAM (1987) with Robin Williams.

2920. LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE (1992) with Lumi Cavazos.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2921. FOOLS FOR SCANDAL (1938) with Carole Lombard & Fernand Gravet.

2922. BAD LITTLE ANGEL (1939) with Esther Dale, Virginia Weidler & Arthur Aylesworth.

2923. THAT HAMILTON WOMAN (1941) with Laurence Olivier & Vivien Leigh.

2924. NIGHTFALL (1956) with Anne Bancroft & Aldo Ray.

2925. THE TIN STAR (1957) with Henry Fonda & Anthony Perkins.

2926. LIFE FOR RUTH (1962) with Michael Craig & Janet Munro.

2927. THE CINCINNATI KID (1965) with Steve McQueen & Edward G. Robinson.

2928. THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK (1971) with Kitty Winn & Al Pacino.

2929. RADIO DAYS (1987) with Julie Kavner, Seth Green & Michael Tucker.

2930. BOYZ N THE HOOD (1991) with Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr. & Morris Chestnut.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2931. PETER IBBETSON (1935) with Ann Harding & Gary Cooper.

2932. MEN ARE NOT GODS (1936) with Miriam Hopkins & Rex Harrison.

2933. ANNE OF WINDY POPLARS (1940) with Anne Shirley & Louise Campbell.

2934. FAITHFUL IN MY FASHION (1946) with Tom Drake & Donna Reed.

2935. THE REDHEAD AND THE COWBOY (1951) with Glenn Ford & Rhonda Fleming.

2936. THE KID FROM LEFT FIELD (1953) with Dan Dailey & Billy Chapin.

2937. PSYCHE 59 (1964) with Patricia Neal, Samantha Eggar & Curd Jurgens.

2938. THE MARRIAGE OF A YOUNG STOCK BROKER (1971) with Richard Benjamin & Joanna Shimkus.

2939. CADDYSHACK (1980) with Bill Murray & friend.

2940. BLOWN AWAY (1994) with Jeff Bridges & Tommy Lee Jones.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2941. EVER SINCE EVE (1937) with Marion Davies & Patsy Kelly.

2942. WILSON (1944) with Alexander Knox & Geraldine Fitzgerald.

2943. ISLE OF THE DEAD (1945) with Boris Karloff & Helene Thimig.

2944. GO FOR BROKE! (1951) with Van Johnson & Lane Nakano.

2945. HANGMAN’S KNOT (1952) with Richard Denning, Donna Reed & Randolph Scott.

2946. LET’S KILL UNCLE (1966) with Mary Badham & Pat Cardi.

2947. ACROSS 110TH STREET (1972) with Anthony Quinn & Yaphet Kotto.

2948. FIRESTARTER (1984) with Drew Barrymore.

2949. THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) with Jim Carrey. 

2950. THE GOLDEN BOWL (2000) with Uma Thurman, Jeremy Northam & Kate Beckinsale.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2951. AS YOUNG AS YOU FEEL (1951) with Thelma Ritter & Monty Woolley.

2952. THE MODEL AND THE MARRIAGE BROKER (1951) with Jeanne Crain & Thelma Ritter.

2953. THE FARMER TAKES A WIFE (1953) with Thelma Ritter & Betty Grable.

2954. DADDY LONG LEGS (1955) with Fred Astaire, Thelma Ritter & Fred Clark.

2955. LUCY GALLANT (1955) with Thelma Ritter & Charlton Heston.

2956. THE PROUD AND PROFANE (1956) with Thelma Ritter & Deborah Kerr.

2957. A HOLE IN THE HEAD (1959) with Thelma Ritter & Edward G. Robinson.

2958. THE SECOND TIME AROUND (1961) with Andy Griffith, Debbie Reynolds & Thelma Ritter.

2959. FOR LOVE OR MONEY (1963) with Mitzi Gaynor & Thelma Ritter.

2960. A NEW KIND OF LOVE (1963) with George Tobias, Thelma Ritter & Joanne Woodward.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2961. LITTLE WOMEN (1933) with Joan Bennett, Katharine Hepburn, Spring Byington, Jean Parker & Frances Dee.

2962. TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) with Carole Lombard & Jack Benny.

2963. UNCERTAIN GLORY (1944) with Paul Lukas & Errol Flynn.

2964. THE NEVADAN (1950) with Forrest Tucker & Randolph Scott.

2965. DRIVE A CROOKED ROAD (1954) with Harry Landers & Mickey Rooney.

2966. COOGAN’S BLUFF (1968) with Clint Eastwood & Don Stroud.

2967. PETE ’N’ TILLIE (1972) with Walter Matthau & Carol Burnett.

2968. THE MOUNTAIN MEN (1980) with Brian Keith & Charlton Heston.

2969. MICKEY BLUE EYES (1999) with Hugh Grant, Jeanne Tripplehorn & Burt Young.

2970. THE WHITE COUNTESS (2005) with Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave & Natasha Richardson.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2971. THE RED MILL (1927) with George Siegmann & Marion Davies.

2972. KING KONG (1933) with Kong & Fay Wray.

2973. MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936) with Jean Arthur & Gary Cooper.

2974. MURDER MY SWEET (1944) with Dick Powell & Claire Trevor.

2975. BEWARE OF PITY (1946) with Lilli Palmer & Albert Lieven.

2976. GARDEN OF EVIL (1954) with Gary Cooper, Susan Hayward & Richard Widmark.

2977. I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF (1957) with Michael Landon.

2978. DOWNHILL RACER (1969) with Robert Redford & Gene Hackman. 

2979. KING KONG (1976) with Jessica Lange.

2980. THE SECRET OF NIMH (1982)

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2981. AGGIE APPLEBY MAKER OF MEN (1933) with Charles Farrell, Wynne Gibson & William Gargan.

2982. AND NOW TOMORROW (1944) with Alan Ladd & Loretta Young.

2983. MAGNIFICENT DOLL (1946) with Ginger Rogers & David Niven.

2984. THE EDDY DUCHIN STORY (1956) with Tyrone Power & Kim Novak.

2985. GUNFIRE AT INDIAN GAP (1957) with Anthony George & Vera Ralston.

2986. THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER (1962) with Michael Ripper, Christopher Lee & Kerwin Mathews.

2987. I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN (1977) with Bibi Anderssen & Kathleen Quinlan.

2988. GUNG HO (1986) with Gedde Watanabe & Michael Keaton.

2989. THE ICE STORM (1997) with Joan Allen & Kevin Kline.

2990. MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003) with Russell Crowe.

***

Have you seen these classic films:

2991. MADEMOISELLE FIFI (1944) with Simone Simon & Kurt Kreuger.

2992. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) with Patricia Neal & Michael Rennie.

2993. THE CAPTIVE CITY (1952) with Joan Camden, John Forsythe & Marjorie Crossland.

2994. DESTINATION GOBI (1953) with Casey Adams, Judy Dann & Richard Widmark.

2995. HELEN OF TROY (1956) with Rossana Podesta.

2996. UNTIL THEY SAIL (1957) with Jean Simmons, Joan Fontaine, Piper Laurie & Sandra Dee.

2997. THE HAUNTING (1963) with Julie Harris & Claire Bloom.

2998. THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971) with James Olson & Paula Kelly.

2999. TWO PEOPLE (1973) with Lindsay Wagner & Peter Fonda.

3000. THE HINDENBURG (1975) with Anne Bancroft.

***

Essential: Play for Today – King (1984)

Here’s the synopsis for this 79-minute episode of Play for Today on BritBox:

Mr. King has had a good life in England and now he is looking forward to retirement in Jamaica. So he has a celebration at the smartest restaurant with his two daughters to present them with a most surprising gift. But they do not react as Mr. King expects.

At first I wasn’t sure what to expect. Barrie Keefe’s drama starts with historic footage of Jamaicans arriving, literally “fresh off the boat,” in England after World War II. This cuts to the present day (1984) where Mr. King (Thomas Baptiste) is being honored by his company for many years of faithful service on the day he is retiring. He gets a lovely watch for his troubles.

The story then cuts to one of Mr. King’s daughters, a hard-working nurse named Susan (Ella Wilder). She puts her patients first, in the same way she puts her father first. A short time later we meet Mr. King’s other daughter, Linda (Josette Simon). She is the polar opposite of Susan. She doesn’t work and uses a wealthy boyfriend (Clarke Peters) to get by and put on airs.

That evening Mr. King takes both his daughters to dinner. Linda’s rich boyfriend joins them. It’s clear that Mr. King is a man of old-fashioned long-standing traditions; and that he loves his daughters as much as he loved his late wife. But he also loves England a great deal.

While watching this program, I was compelled to read up on the Jamaican diaspora. There’s a wiki page on the subject. Supposedly, many Jamaicans left the Caribbean in the post-war years due to a high rate of unemployment, traveling to the U.K., Canada and the U.S. in search of jobs and a better life. In the U.K., there was a need for working class laborers that came from other countries. Mr. King’s background mirrors this, and we get speeches from him at dinner about how he received a second chance in life coming to England. He made a success of himself and he always supported his family.

The conflict in this drama is that Mr. King wants to return to Jamaica, and he’s going to leave the house he owns free and clear to his daughters. However, he is pained to see that his daughters may not share his values– especially materialistic Linda. Susan supports herself with her job at the hospital and doesn’t want the house, thinking her dad should keep it in case he wants to come back. This offends Mr. King’s pride and dinner ends in a fight. Mr. King ends up disinheriting Susan. Back at the house, he signs the property over to money-hungry Linda who intends to sell it and make a tidy little profit.

Of course Mr. King realizes, too late, he cut the wrong daughter out of his life. He goes to find Susan at the hospital. We get a poignant reconciliation, even though Linda has still “won” and is selling the house. 

This is a think-piece that makes you ponder what legacies are all about…and more importantly, what a life’s work amounts to. Will the next generation appreciate these struggles and hard-won victories and what has been handed down to them?

Essential: THE HARVEY GIRLS (1946)

There’s an interesting article about this film on the TCM database. Supposedly MGM was developing the property for Lana Tuner, and it would have been a dramatic vehicle. Turner had already worked with leading man John Hodiak, and they would have been reunited on screen (they appeared together in the following year’s romantic drama HOMECOMING with Clark Gable and Hodiak’s wife Anne Baxter).

Since MGM’s musical department saw great potential in adding songs and making it their version of Oklahoma!, which was then an enormous hit on Broadway– they pulled Lana off the project, and persuaded Judy Garland to take the lead. TCM’s article says Judy didn’t want to do it at first, probably because it wasn’t directed by Vincente Minnelli, whom she was married to at the time. But as we all know, Judy did appear in THE HARVEY GIRLS, and it was one of her biggest hits at Metro.

Music was provided by Johnny Mercer, and his winning tune “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” earned him his very first Oscar. It’s probably one of the studio’s most beloved songs from its library of musicals made during the 40s and 50s. If you haven’t seen the movie, watch it for this number alone. Even people who don’t really care for the movie love this song and the way it’s performed on screen.

A few years ago I purchased a book called ‘The Best Old Movies for Families.’ It’s written by east coast journalist Ty Burr. I found a copy at my local Barnes & Nobel bookstore when I was teaching a 5/6 combo class. I was doing an after school club and wanted to expose the kids to classic film. I chose things like THE WINDOW (1949) to go over lying versus the truth; THE MIRACLE WORKER (1962) to discuss perseverance; and I thought something with music would inspire the kids to sing and maybe take up an instrument.

Burr’s book mentions THE HARVEY GIRLS twice. In one section, he discusses how his preteen aged daughters loved the film and kept rewatching it. I think there’s certainly a wholesomeness in Judy’s performances that strikes a chord with female viewers (and gay male viewers). Sort of what we see when she’s singing “Over the Rainbow” in Oz. 

Out of curiosity, I looked up Pauline Kael’s review of the film. She had some interesting things to say. She called THE HARVEY GIRLS a lavish high-spirited period musical, which it is. She talks about the contrast between Garland and Angela Lansbury.

Per Kael, one is a force of respectability (Garland). The other one is the complete opposite (Lansbury). Of course, both chicks reach a mutual understanding before the story ends. Kael thinks the concept for the film is a bit strange but that it works. She refers to the sequence where Judy performs the Oscar-winning tune as “triumphant.”

I should mention that Ty Burr says his daughters also loved JOHNNY GUITAR (1954). And if you think about it, the battle between Joan Crawford & Mercedes McCambridge in that campy Republic western is just a higher voltage version of the rivalry between Garland & Lansbury in this film.

THE HARVEY GIRLS currently has a 7.1 rating on the IMDb; I give it a solid 8.

Join us for Jlewis’ review tomorrow…

***

Jlewis wrote:

I was going to re-watch and comment on THE CLOCK, Judy Garland’s rare non-musical effort she made for her soon-to-marry husband Vincente Minnelli in 1944, but sadly my DVD no longer plays for some reason. Fortunately her next feature, THE HARVEY GIRLS with George Sidney directing and occupying her first five months of 1945 (leading up to her wedding), plays well on my DVD.

It is a good connecting title to THE WIZARD OF OZ too, thanks to Ray Bolger dancing with her in one key scene. Bolger played the Scarecrow in OZ and, here, seems to be MGM’s substitute for Fred Astaire when they couldn’t get Astaire in a given moment. (Granted, Astaire himself made quite a few classics for Metro, including THE ZIEGFELD FOLLIES right about this time.) His role as Chris Maule is, however, a mostly minor one, just needed to add some comic spirit and showcase his wonderful tap dance work.

The story of John Harvey’s “girls” is a fascinating one in U.S. history, going back to 1876, that certainly related well to the contemporary movie goers of 1945-46 (this film having a preview in Boston just before VJ Day but not opening nationwide until the following March to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Harvey franchise). Thanks to the war, many women could work outside the home in great numbers for the first time to “man” the factories, drive trucks and other vehicles, in addition to taking on many other “manly” duties.

As waitresses decades earlier, the Harvey “girls” could make their own income at a time when opportunities were even more restricted for the gender. In addition, the Harvey empire that followed the railroad lines of the late 19the and early 20th centuries was essentially the precursor to McDonald’s, Howard Johnson’s and every other chain we take for granted today. He also influenced the airline stewardesses and Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Bunnies of the mid-to-late 20th century by encouraging these independent women to remain young, pretty and well-groomed with perfect outfits to match.

Women seldom felt stifled by whatever restrictions that were involved because this job gave them a strong sense of liberty and, likewise, many daughters also worked for Harvey just like their mothers. Often you did this to prove that you could succeed on your own, even if you eventually had to settle-down to the usual wifely duties in the future.

… and, yes, we get that as a possible outcome for several characters on screen too. Cyd Charisse’s Deborah enjoys her job but also falls in love with saloon pianist Terry (Kenny Baker of Jack Benny radio fame) so you know she won’t remain a waitress for long. I guess the delightfully “butch” Alma (with Virginia O’Brien hamming it up) must show some interest in a man as well here since the Harvey profession won’t last forever.

Judy our star, in turn, plays Susan who is engaged in a “blind” marriage in Sand Rock, Arizona with Chill Wills’ H.H. Hartsey but, instead, mutually agrees with him not to marry and joins the Harvey ladies who accompanied her on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (cue the HUGE production number built around Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer’s released-before-the-movie hit song).

Meanwhile saloon keeper Ned Trent, played by John Hodiak (who did some wonderful radio work and was memorable in LIFEBOAT) appears as an enemy to the “wholesome” invaders into town, but ultimately falls for Susan in a situation that vaguely resembles that of Clark Gable’s equally “seedy” Mister Norton and equally “wholesome” Jeanette MacDonald’s Mary in SAN FRANCISCO (1936). Preston Foster’s Judge Sam is among several edging Ned’s cynical, dark side while Morris Ankrum’s Reverend Glaggett is basically the counterpart to Spencer Tracy’s Father Mullin here even if his role is very small.

This is a great “chick” film for “chicks only” because the men are far less important to the story than the women are, playing all kinds of masculine roles. Susan may be clumsy holding two guns, but she and all of the women (and I particularly like the head matron Miss Bliss, played by Selena Royle) are surprisingly self sufficient. Also let’s not forget Marjorie Main (another veteran in Judy films i.e. MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS). There is a classic scene when she stops Chill Wills’ Hartsey from dancing with a seductive saloon dancer by making him “handicapped” in the knee. I think she has the hots for Hartsey but will certainly maintain her top position over him.

Angela Lansbury has a fun role as queen “Em” of the saloon dancers who feels her career is in jeopardy with all of the female invaders into town. She eventually does the noble deed of giving up Ned to Susan since there is no point fighting for him any longer. Susan melts her frost a bit when she confesses she may have had some ill-conceived judgments on the “bad” dress code that the saloon dancers (and potential ladies of the evening) contrasting with the prim and proper dress code of her Harvey co-workers.

Again, we are repeating Judy Garland’s theme of acceptance that is emphasized in THE WIZARD OF OZ: she loves everybody regardless of what their reputation may be. Em then takes on a maternal protectiveness for Susan and forbids her to join her own set of ladies just to please Ned, since Ned (like Clark Gable’s starring role) is ultimately more drawn to the “virginal” rather than the “experienced.” Ahem…I guess I am reading too much here?

The Technicolor cinematography by George J. Folsey and others is absolutely gorgeous, but it always was in many Arthur Freed productions throughout the forties. As is often the case, color cameras reveal much more than monochromatic ones do, so the back projection of Monumental Valley as Judy sings the opening number, “In the Valley (Where the Evening Sun Goes Down)” on her train is painfully obvious. Yet it is nice to see more location photography than usual for this period, outside of Culver City in a nice western town set-up (albeit the Iverson Movie Ranch).

One flaw with so many musicals of the forties is the over-abundance of musical numbers and many of these running long enough to potentially become theatrical two-reelers by themselves. Younger viewers less familiar with old movies may lack the patience to sit through many of these, unlike the WW2 generation that demanded an awful lot for their ticket price regardless of how much screen time was involved. Many of these are great, including the cut (but preserved for THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT III) “March of the Doagies”, but it all depends on your tastes.

Virginia O’Brien’s rendition of “The Wild, Wild West” is perfect for those jaded by the prospect of adventure and finding it rather lacking once you get to the locale you expected it. “It’s a Great Big World” will more likely put some viewers to sleep. Too bad Angela Lansbury’s numbers like “Oh, You Kid” were dubbed by Virginia Rees since MGM was less confident in her back then…and they should have been considering how successful she would become as a musical performer later.

Overall, this is a fun movie since it at least gives the you the chance to see Judy sport a gun.

THE HARVEY GIRLS may currently be viewed on Amazon.

Essential: Rawhide- The Captain’s Wife (1962)

Next month we will be looking at five classic episodes of the western series Rawhide. The program uses certain terminology. For example…though many of the characters do say “cattle,” the trail boss Gil Favor (Eric Fleming) often says “beeves” as in the plural of beef. Gil Favor comes from the east coast, Pennsylvania to be specific. Most of the other men are drifters from the south, and they don’t all speak like Mr. Favor does. 

In addition to how the livestock are called, we hear the characters refer to commonly used trails and frequently visited towns on the series. For the most part the writers do a good job with the show’s geographic continuity, since these men are supposed to be traveling from point A to Point Z with many important stops in between. They don’t always reach the end of the trail in the last episode of the season. Though there is one time they do.

Season 4 begins with a change in how Favor is conducting his business. In the early seasons, he is working for cattle barons, taking their animals across the expansive landscape to market. But starting in season 4, Favor owns the herd and the men are working for him directly. There is more at stake this way.

Most of the episodes we will look at come from season 4 since I feel it’s the most structured season. We get to watch Gil and his men experience setbacks which shows how risky his new enterprise is as the sole owner of the herd. Plus it all comes to a nice conclusion at the end of the season when they reach Abilene and sell the beeves.

Season 4 also has some episodes that include strong female guest characters. These women complement the show’s main plot strands, as certain things are repeated often on the series– such as hard conditions (weather and illness); stampedes; rustlings; lynchings, relations with Indians/Natives, etc. Typically, the guest stars are brought in to give the men some unique challenges on the trail. Sometimes Gil Favor or his ramrod Rowdy Yates (pre-stardom Clint Eastwood) leave the drovers behind and go off to a nearby town where they must deal with a unique crisis.

I want to mention how stock footage is successfully blended with in-studio photography and on-location filming with the show’s stars. Yes, the rear projection shots in the studio are rather obvious. But the editors do a good job of cutting from the shots of the actors to shots filmed in New Mexico of real drovers pushing cattle along a trail. One of the show’s editors humorously said in an interview that they had thousands of hours of outdoor footage at their disposal, but not all of it could be used on network television because invariably some of the animals would **** or hump the other animals.

He also told an interesting story of how Clint Eastwood and some of the actors came to the editing suite and complained that their speeches were interrupted by cutaways to other actors; and he had to explain to Eastwood and company that some of their line deliveries contained long pauses that had to be eliminated by cutting to a shot of something else. If the speeches were not pared down, the episodes would have run over time. If you notice, Eastwood never interrupts his famous long pauses in the movies he makes, but then he doesn’t have to worry about fitting in any commercials!

In addition to the more mechanical aspects of the show, we will focus on the plots and characters of Rawhide, as well as the ideas that the writers are presenting as a form of social commentary.

Speaking of the characters, there are the two main characters (Gil and Rowdy). Rowdy is definitely more a supporting type in the first season, but that starts to change in the second season. Because they were filming so many episodes each year (up to 30 or more), there had to be stories that basically starred Fleming in the bulk of the scenes, and stories that starred Eastwood in the bulk of the scenes; so they could be filmed at the same time by separate units with different directors and costars. However, there were still plenty of episodes where they both appeared together.

Fleming always received top billing from seasons 1 thru season 7. He did not return for the abbreviated eighth and final season, due to a salary dispute. So Eastwood graduated to solo lead at the end, though by 1965, he was already making spaghetti westerns and finding greater fame on the big screen.

Eric Fleming is superb as Gil Favor. His personal life is quite interesting, and I suggest reading up on him. He was a method actor and you can tell when he’s happy to be working with a big name guest star who is also a method actor. Fleming’s face was destroyed in an accident during the 1940s, and he underwent extensive plastic surgery. As a result of the reconstructive surgery, he has a very intriguing look that sets him apart from other actors of the era. Despite the fact that Eastwood was becoming more and more popular in the mid-60s, Fleming was not one to resent Eastwood’s increasing success. He liked his costar a great deal and they were close on and off camera. Fleming died tragically in 1966, on location in South America while making a movie for MGM.

Fleming and Eastwood are helped immensely by the supporting cast. The most memorable supporting characters include the cantankerous cook Wishbone (Paul Brinegar who was not in the pilot and a last-minute replacement); Wish’s dimwitted assistant Mushy (James Murdock); and the scouts Pete (Sheb Wooley) and Clay (Charles H. Gray). There are also some notable background characters that sometimes play more of a supporting role. These include my favorite Jim Quince (stuntman turned actor Steve Raines); Jesus (Robert Cabal) and Narbo (John Hart who played the Lone Ranger for a short time).

Then of course there are the guest characters as well as the many extras that are used on the range, as well as in the various towns. 

We hope you enjoy the reviews that follow in January.

***

The Captain’s Wife (1962)

It is certainly a showcase for Barbara Stanwyck who gets to play an ambitious cold-hearted woman. Nora Holloway is cut from the same cloth as Phyllis Dietrichson in DOUBLE INDEMNITY and the title character in THE FILE ON THELMA JORDON. Only this time her husband is a military captain, and a lover she has on the side is also employed at the fort.

Personally I thought the subplot with the lover was a bit too much and unnecessary. They could have just shown her manipulating a man who might have fancied her; then in the end, believing she could maybe have a life with him when her marriage fell apart. We didn’t need the soap opera drama of her making love to one of her husband’s colleagues. There was already plenty of other stuff going on in the episode without needing to include that.

I do like how Gil Favor and his men need to venture to the fort and how they become embroiled in all of this. Hey Soos has a bit more to do in this story than he usually does in other episodes. Rowdy is not part of the action. The focus is on Favor having to deal with the captain’s treacherous wife.

I have to admit I was surprised that one of the other wives was killed (off screen). Mainly because she was sort of a minor character, and because I thought writer John Dunkel was setting up the boy to be a casualty, since the captain’s wife had such fondness for him. It probably would have been more dramatic if her actions had indirectly led to the kid’s death.

I thought Robert Lowery, who played the captain, made the most of his screen time. And the scene near the end where he realizes how badly his wife had abused his trust, was very well-played. One couldn’t help but feel sorry for him!

As for Stanwyck’s character, we’re supposed to dislike her, perhaps even hate her…but I do think her death at the end, which satisfies a sort of moral code about punishing wrong-doers, ultimately makes her sympathetic.

Essential: Play for Today – Country (1981)

Here’s the synopsis for this 81-minute episode of Play for Today on BritBox:

The Carlions gather for an event, where they must determine who will take over their powerful family business.

I enjoyed this early 80s offering and in many regards, it reminded me of Falcon Crest. Instead of Napa vineyards and wine making, the action takes place in rural England and the sudsy plot concerns a wealthy family’s hops fields and beer making business.

Australian actor Leo McKern is cast as the cagey patriarch, and he has a lot to say about how family members, shareholders and sundry employees conduct their lives. Everyone is brought together near the end of the second World War because the Carlions’ oldest son has been killed overseas in battle. He was the heir apparent, and now Sir Frederic must decide who will take over his dynasty. There are a few anxious shareholders who hope he chooses the right successor.

Coming home for the funeral is a wayward daughter Virginia (Penelope Wilton) whose choices in men have never received approval. There is also a prodigal son named Philip (James Fox) who has been living in London and he’s just as estranged from their parents. Philip has two things working against him– he didn’t serve in the war and was not as heroic as his dead brother; and he has a male lover that cannot be introduced to anyone.

Wendy Hiller is on hand as matriarch Daisy. There’s an interesting scene where she learns her son is gay, and she knows her husband will not approve.

But Papa Frederic needs Philip to take control of the company, since he cannot fathom the idea of handing the reigns over to his daughter. No, definitely not. A woman must confine herself to domestic duties and cannot oversee business. The ironic thing is that Virginia is probably more suited to the role of beer baron(ess) than her brother Philip.

Soon Philip has agreed to take over, and in order to gain approval of the stockholders he agrees to quickly find a wife. He’s pushing 40 and cannot remain a “bachelor” forever. His deceased brother’s widow (Jill Bennett) isn’t averse to marrying Philip in name only, in order to protect her own financial interests.

There is a lot of vying for Philip’s attention. He eventually decides to marry his father’s secretary– a woman rumored to have been sleeping with Sir Frederic for years. But she seems rather likable and has an easy rapport with Philip.

There is a subplot I rather liked, which I felt would have been developed more if this story had been turned into a weekly series. At one point, we learn the British Labour Party has taken control of the government (which did happen in 1945). Because of this change in power, workers were now forming unions. We see some of Sir Frederic’s brewery employees gain solidarity and attempt to unionize.

Of course, Frederic is against his workers having any such power to negotiate better conditions; and there is a tense standoff at the brewery which escalates to the point where someone gets shot.

Philip will attempt to broker a peace and keep everyone happy. Even if his own happiness in life must be put on hold.

“Country” may currently be viewed on BritBox.