Reviews

This is definetly not a Hitchcock-like film. Instead, it's frame after frame of the beautiful French Riviera scenery. Although Cary Grant seems to be a little to old for Grace Kelly, they still play the romantic angle very nicely. Cary Grant plays John Robie 'The Cat', an ex-jewelry burglar. Grace Kelly is, of course, lovely as ever as she plays the sophisticated, beautifully dressed, bejewelled Frances Stevens--who, after her first encounter with Grant, kisses him firmly on the lips. The highlight of the movie is the seduction scene in Frances' hotel room, against the backdrop of fireworks. This classy movie is full of double entendres, witty comments and the quest to catch Grant as a thief and husband. The ending is nice as Grant and Kelly (in a beautiful golden gown) stand in his villa. Good acting by all the cast, interesting script and beautiful views of the Riviera.

In a movie that she didn't want to make in the first place, Liz Taylor does a good job. But everything else is wanting...supporting actors, script... Compared to her other movies, this is certainly not the best but not the worst either. However, I'm glad she got the Oscar b/c, after this, her other movies sorta go downhill (with the exception of, ofcourse, Virginia Woolf). In many ways, the Oscar was a compensation for losing out for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer and her unominated but fantastic, A Place In the Sun. But in all, it's okay.

Grace Kelly proved one thing in the Country Girl. She wanted the Oscar. Pretty badly to go against her sophisticated screen image and turn into Bing Crosby's long suffering plain wife. Grace Kelly was a marvelous actress and, if the Academy voters had been more...open minded, certainly she could have gotten the Oscar for "To Catch A Thief" or even "Rear Window". However, the movie IS a good watch and you'll enjoy it.

This is, with the exception of Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Taylor's best movie. Her work in Raintree County was still childish and it is in Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, that she enters maturity. Taylor is beautiful in the film and is magnetic opposite Paul Newman. It is a pity that neither the film, nor Taylor and Newman got the Oscar. Taylor's Oscar in 1960 was, in my opinion, a compensation for leaving her out for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and the 1959's Suddenly Last Summer.

This film brought the end to the era in which Ingrid Bergman was the greatest. Bergman can be described only as luminous. She is SO talented and is just simply wonderful. Grant, debonair as ever, is perfect opposite Bergman. Their famous love scene is CLASSIC!!! For Hitchcock, this was his last hit for a while and it wasn't until Stranger's On A Train that he rebounded (Bergman returned with Anastasia).

It was typical of the Academy to ignore the works of Hitchcock, Grant and Bergman (why, Hitchcock and Grant never even won the Oscar!!!) in this masterpiece. Certainly, Bergman is better here than in her Oscar winning Gaslight. *****/*****

Garbo is so beautiful in Camille...so touching...so timeless... The film is enchanting and Garbo and Taylor are perfect. Garbo's Maurgerite is lovely and certainly, her performance is the best of 1937 (with Irene Dunne's Awful Truth as runner up). One has to watch Camille, cry, and then wonder why, oh why, did the Academy choose Luise Rainer's Good Earth over such a...masterpiece?

When Garbo's movies are talked about, it's always Camille and Ninotchka (which are both wonderful) but no one talks about Garbo's Queen Christina, a film that has been pretty much ignored. Every scene Garbo is in, she dominates. She moves across the screen so gracefully, she is absolutely mesmerizing. She MAKES the audience FEEL her thoughts, her sadness, her...she makes the audience BE Queen Christina.

Garbo doesn't lose her elegant feminity even when she dresses up as a man. In the inn, she is funny when she settles a dispute about the Queen's lovers. And when she is forced to share a room with the Spanish ambassador, Antonio [Gilbert in a last effort by Garbo to save his career]... Garbo is enchanting as she spends her time with Antonio... No one seems to understand Christina. That is where her hurt lays. They cannot understand her spirit, her love for Antonio, and most of all, why she leaves the throne... but WE see why. Her love for Antonio, it's stronger than any other desire...We are happy, so happy, when we see that Christina and Antonio are going to live together but our happiness is short lived and so suddenly, Antonio dies in a duel fought over her. And so, we see Garbo, as Queen Christina of Sweden, in the most haunting last images in movie history...standing, with her beautiful face ("like paper. I want the audience to write"), on the ship...one of the most bittersweet endings... Garbo wasn't EVEN nominated for an Academy Award but she deserved it, more than for her others...

Rebecca was the second consecutive Best Picture produced by David O. Selznick. Selznick did the right thing in bringing Hitchcock to direct the film and in doing so, turned it into a classic. Hitchcock is a genius and throughly deserved an Oscar. Laurence Olivier plays the rich English owner of Manderly, Maxim De Winter. Olivier gives a fine and tortured performance of a man who is haunted by his dead wife, Rebecca. His performance was great but the only flaw is that his character is annoyingly unresponsive to his wife. Judith Anderson gives a chilling performance as Mrs. Danvers, the crazed housekeeper with a lunatic obsession to her dead mistress, Rebecca. Her lines are classic and it is she who gives the tense atmosphere to the movie-Hitchcock's dark and cold Manderly just enhanced Miss Anderson's performance. It is Joan Fontaine who really gave the stellar performance as the second Mrs. De Winter. She is a shy girl who suddenly marries the haunted Maxim of a great estate. Hitchcock originially wanted Fontaine's sister, Olivia De Havilland to play the part. Olivier wanted his wife, Vivien Leigh. Although both ladies are great actresses, I'm glad that Fontaine was cast because she made Rebecca what it is today. This was the movie that sprung Fontaine to stardom and her shyness of the camera was carefully inputed into the character of the lonely Mrs. De Winter. Her first words: "Last night I dreamt we went to Manderly again" sets context not only to the story but to the character of Mrs. De Winter. She is shy, unused to a formal life, desperate for Maxim's love and most of all, intimidated by the presence of the late Rebecca in Manderly. Mrs. De Winter was supposed to be a plain and mousy person and so, Fontaine had the misfortune of being a beautiful woman playing an unattractive one. However, Fontaine presents other ways of being unattractive--such as that Mrs. De Winter has absolutely no social skills. All in all, Fontaine gave a performance that deserved a Best Actress Oscar. Although she lost out to Ginger Rogers, the Academy gave a compensation Oscar the following year for her less impressive "Suspicion".

This movie was Winston Churchill's favorite and for me, has always held a charm. Laurence Olivier is fine as Horatio Nelson but he doesn't hold a candle to his co-star and wife, Vivien Leigh. Vivien Leigh is simply superb as Emma Hamilton and dominates the entire film with her beauty and impressive acting skills. There is no doubt that she is one of the greatest beauties of the twenty-first century.

Gone With the Wind has always been my favorite movie. It has never lost it's magic touch on me. The story is very beautiful and enhanced by David O. Selznick's wonderful filming. None of the characters are shallow. There's war and adventure, there's history, there's the beautiful representation of the antebellum South and most of all, there's a love story that will make all romantics cry at the end. There is also the dazzling array of stars. Vivien Leigh is radiant as Scarlett, Clark Gable alluring as Rhett, Olivia De Havilland angelic as Melanie and Leslie Howard haunting as Ashley. Along with the principal cast, there's also many fine actors in supporting roles: Thomas Mitchell, Hattie McDaniel, Barbara O'Neill, Ann Rutherford, and Evelyn Keyes.

The movie is perfection in every matter.