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irishmama34
Reviews
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966)
Is that David Jannsen in a bit part?
We all recognize Harrison Ford in this famous no credit bit part (bell boy).
Is that David Jannsen in a bit part (larger than Ford's), playing one of the uniformed police officers (he says a few lines) in the security area when Coburn's character "picks up" a prisoner? It really looks like Jannsen, but of course he doesn't have a credit that I could find. Between 1963 and 1967, Jannsen doesn't have any TV/movie credits listed on IMDb. This movie is 1966 (and before his famous Fugitive TV series), so I guess it's possible that he did some work for pay, but no credit.
Does anyone else think it's David Jannsen?
The Story of Three Loves (1953)
Rachmoninoff music is a gorgeous love Rhapsody
Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" is the gorgeous music to which Moira Shearer danced her lovely ballet in the first story. It's a perfect choice for this movie (and this scene) because it's full of passion and promise. The awed & inspired look on James Mason's face as he watches her dance expresses what we, the audience, see: how dancing makes Moira's character feel. It's a moving scene and there are 3 beautiful, emotional performances: Moira Sheara, James Mason, and the music.
This Rachmaninoff piece has been featured in several movies. These include, among others: The Story of Three Loves (1953); Rhapsody (1954); Somewhere in Time (1980); Dead Again (1991); Sabrina (1995); Ronin (1998).
It's a beautiful, moving, "timeless" piece of music. It is sometimes used in period movies whose action takes place before the piece was actually written & first performed. That was in 1934.
I enjoyed this movie, in spite of the uneven script. There are some great actors giving good performances (at times melodramatic - but that's the nature of the script more than their acting abilities), plus (suprise!) a young Ricky Nelson in the only thing I remember seeing him in as a boy besides the Ozzie & Harriet TV series - and he wasn't stilted like he was on his family's show (probably good directing!!!). Some great face shots throughout, too, showing emotion that the script couldn't (using the classic face-lighting techniques that have fallen out of favor with most of today's contemporary film directors).
In spite of some beautiful and memorable scenes in this movie, I'll probably remember the way the music made me feel longer than I'll remember the rest of the movie - and it's worth watching for that alone!
Glory Road (2006)
A story worth telling, a movie worth seeing.
I'd like to recommend seeing this movie. It's the first movie that I've attended in a long time where at the end of the movie most of the audience broke out into spontaneous applause (a mostly white bread group, too). Stay around for the credits. While they run, you'll see pictures, footage, and interviews of the REAL people involved. Historically, pretty right on. I don't usually suggest that high school history classes "movie-fy" their history, but this gives a feeling of the racial "climate" (attitudes, some of what it felt like to live the situation -- fear, anger, pride, team support, friendship, etc) in a movie that doesn't feel as preachy as most of this genre and that younger people will find interesting and entertaining (so they'll pay attention). This happened in the 60's: PRE- Remember the Titans and at the college level instead of high school. It has many excellent performances. Yes, it makes use of some of the usual clichés in sports movies, but what's important in the movie is the story about people and events that changed the sports world (and our country) for the better. The movie wasn't trying to be an art film or change movie-making. It was trying to tell a story worth telling and I think they did it well.