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LilyRessler
Reviews
12 Angry Men (1957)
a masterpiece and a must-see for any cinephile
I highly recommend the film12 Angry Men (1957), a character study of twelve men charged with deciding the verdict in a death-penalty murder case.
12 Angry Men is a good story that began life as a stage play. However, I find it difficult to believe any stage production could be as affecting as this film. For example, the movie is in black and white, which is not possible in a stage play. And although most of the movie takes place in a small jury room, the camera meets the challenge and then some: we see human nature up close and personal.
IMHO the movie is a masterpiece and a must-see for any cinephile.
Moonlighting (1985)
one of the best tv shows ever aired -- unless you don't care for screwball comedy
IMHO Moonlighting is one of the best tv shows ever aired -- unless you don't care for screwball comedy. The show and many people involved with it won lots of awards.
Moonlighting's premise is that the accountant of retired top model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) absconds with all her money, leaving her with a few businesses that served as tax write-offs. One is a money-losing detective agency headed by David Addison (Bruce Willis), who is immediately attracted to Maddie when she arrives to close the company. He talks her into keeping it open, and screwball-ness and world-class banter ensue for five seasons.
The show's humor ranges from light comedy to literal pie-in-the-face slapstick, plus some "in" jokes (for example, Peter Bogdanovich and Demi Moore have cameos). There is also singing and dancing. And most episodes feature a comical chase near the end. It all works.
A unique-for-its-time feature of the show is that it broke the fourth wall in many ways again and again, including lines spoken directly to the camera; a question posed to the camera, which moves back and forth to signal a "no" answer; and references to script, writers, and cable tv. However, the show didn't just break the fourth wall; by the end of the second season it crashed right through it with the action leaving the sound stage and continuing on the studio lot, reminiscent of Blazing Saddles. But that was just the beginning. One episode has a segment about an ABC casting call for replacements for the David Addison role.
It should be mentioned that the series is from decades ago, so is it dated by Maddie's Breck Girl hair styles, the landline telephones, pay phones, etc.
You'll soon realize the detective aspect of the show is just a vehicle for the screwball-ness and the romantic/sexual tension between Maddie and David that you could cut with a knife. The biggest mystery is how Shepherd's bleached blonde hair (L'Oreal: "I'm worth it") never had dark roots yet always appeared strong and healthy. It is possible that some of her hairdos were wigs, but sometimes it is obviously her own hair.
Shepherd's role was written with her in mind, and she does an excellent job as the "straight man" in the comic duo with Willis.
Willis also does an excellent job of a demanding role. (I saw him in one of his action movies, in which he spoke the same line at least three times -- "Look out! She's gonna blow!" What a waste of talent.)
If you decide not to watch the series, at least check out Willis's rendition of the Loving Spoonful's song "Good Lovin'" (in the "Atomic Shakespeare" episode) on YouTube; it is priceless. Willis would have had no way of knowing he would spend some of a future episode wearing only a diaper. For that matter, Curtis Armstrong, who played Herbert Viola, probably signed on without knowing what would be required of him, but that's another story.
BTW: Feel free to skip the episodes featuring receptionist Agnes DiPesto (Alyce Beasley) and sleuth wannabe Herbert Viola. They were just placeholders because the real episodes weren't ready yet.
Personal note #1: I love Shepherd's costumes. I suspect Costume Designer Robert Turturice thought he had died and gone to heaven to have a chance to dress her. The dresses, suits, evening gowns, shoes, furs, jewelry, purses -- all are designed to provide the most beautiful settings for the gemstone of her beauty. Turturice won an award for his efforts.
Personal note #2: I love the custom lettering in the opening credits of each episode except the pilot. Presumably the success of the pilot justified the expense for the series.
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Contemporary audiences saw a different movie
Today this movie is considered a top-rated four-hankie tear-jerker romance starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. However, when it was released in 1957 (and when the previous version Love Affair, starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer was released in 1939), audiences saw things much differently.
For audiences then, the movie was about two lapsed Catholics -- Nickie Ferrante, a gigolo of Italian extraction (and therefore a Catholic) engaged to marry an heiress, and Terry McKay, an unmarried woman of Irish heritage (and therefore a Catholic) kept by a rich businessman. Nickie is a gentleman, the grandson of a diplomat. Terry is a commoner whose lover arranged for her to learn to be a lady.
Nickie and Terry fall in love while traveling first class on a cruise ship from Europe to New York City. During a stopover at Nickie's grandmother's home in Europe, they visit her chapel where both silently pray, vowing to reject their sinful pasts. Later, they agree to get married in six months after Nickie has proved he can support a wife. In the meantime, no sex.
But since the Production Code was in effect when these films were made, sin had to be punished. So Terry is crippled in an accident and unable to meet Nickie for the rendezvous they had planned at the top of the Empire State Building.
Not wanting to burden her new love with her disability, Terry does not contact Nickie, and instead becomes a music teacher at a Catholic school, thus proving that she is now a devout religious person. When Nickie finally tracks Terry down six months later and realizes she cannot walk, he ponders the mystery of why she was the one punished when his sexual sinning was so much worse than hers, thus signaling that he also has become a devout religious person. So they are redeemed by their suffering and look forward to living happily ever after.
Both versions of this movie are very similar; both were directed by Leo McCarey.
The ability of today's audiences to overlook so much of the story that is irrelevant to the romantic movie they love is, I suspect, a testament to the power of a lavish production budget and Cary Grant, but is otherwise an issue better left to those with credentials beyond love of cinema.