Change Your Image
williamsshearer
Reviews
Dazed and Confused (1993)
My time!
I was a freshman in the 1976/77 school year, as are Mitch and his friends. I changed school districts almost every year, and I wasn't a joiner, so I was never hazed. However, my freshman school had a sanctioned smoking area for the seniors, as 16 was the smoking age that year. I did see hazing, involving those who wished to join clubs. I saw all of these types in school. I don't know where the stoners hung, as I wasn't one. Yet (I was a nerd). But it had to be close, judging by the red eyes and giggling. This movie had the right clothes, and groups, and attitudes/behaviors. I wasn't in Texas, I was in Southern California, but this movie makes me nostalgic. 8th grade, Thurston in Laguna Beach; 9th grade, Tustin High; 10th/11th grade, Orange High; Senior year, back to Laguna Beach High School.
Drugs were very easily obtainable, but most kids stuck to weed and alcohol. I had a dear friend who got strung out on heroin, but she was in the minority. My mom had made a very serious threat, when I was in 7th grade, to prosecute anyone who "contributed to the delinquency of a minor" regarding me, so I waited till I was 18 for everything, so that no one else would get in trouble for my actions. 🙄 I loved being a young adult in the late 70's, early 80's. Pre AIDS, tail end of Free Love. Good times!
This movie had the very first "All right, all right!" from Matthew McConaughey. Many stars of the future in this film. Each generation has a seminal film, and this is the one for those of us in high school in the 70's.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Ugly Duckling (1964)
What head trips parents lay on their children!
Previous reviewers missed the point of the title. Of course the actress is pretty! "Ugly duckling" refers to the concept of someone pretty THINKING they're ugly. She was pretty all along. She has a twisted self-image she received from her deceased father. He put a ridiculous provision in his will: if she doesn't marry by 21, she loses her inheritance of a toy company. Her executor, her uncle, keeps trying to get her to marry someone, because if she loses the company, he loses his job. He winds up dead, she goes on trial. Being Perry's client, you know she's innocent. As usual, plenty of other suspects. The doll designer, the uncle's secretary, the rival toy company head, the artist.
She's No Angel (2002)
This is not a ripoff of Mrs. Winterbourne, it is a remake of No Man of Her Own
This movie is a remake of "No Man of her Own", starring Barbara Stanwyck (1950). "Mrs. Winterbourne", starring Ricki Lake (1996), was also a remake.
The original story was by Cornell Woolrich: "I married a Dead Man".
It was also a French movie "I Married a Dead Man" ("J'ai épousé une ombre")in 1982, starring Nathalie Baye. I have enjoyed this movie in all three American incarnations. I have not seen the French version, but now that I know it exists, I will try to find it. The best version, of course, was the one starring Barbara Stanwyck. However, I thought both Ricki Lake and Tracey Gold did a fine job of portraying the poor girl, who wound up in circumstances not of her own making. I like happy endings, and all three American versions had happy endings.