(DVD, Netflix)

I have always been a big fan of The Odd Couple television show but I've never actually seen the movie until now. The premise of the movie is simple. Poor Felix (Jack Lemmon) is breaking up with his wife and after much melodrama Oscar (Jack Klugman) takes him in. In the beginning of the film Oscar is an interesting character because even though he is a gruff slob he greatly empathizes with Felix and even briefly examines why his own marriage broke up. Oscar has a huge apartment but it soon proves too small for the both of them as Felix deals with his grief through obsessive housekeeping. This film is very slow moving and talky. It is not so much comic as sad. I did like the movie, but for comedy it worked much better as a sitcom where scenarios could be played in half hour chunks instead of the slow and rambling way things progressed in the film.

(Theatrical Release, Rotunda Cinemateque)

Poor Larry (Ben Stiller). He is a looser who can't keep a job or an apartment. What's worse is that his son is starting to admire Larry's ex-wife's nerdy boyfriend. He begs the lady at the employment office for work (she is played by Stiller's real life mother Anne Meara) but the only job she can come up with requires Larry to spend a Night at the Museum.

When Larry arrives at the natural history museum he meets Cecil (Dick Van Dyke) and his two other elderly coworkers (Mickey Rooney as Gus and Bill Cobbs as Reginald), who explain that they are all retiring and being replaced by one guard. Cecil and crowd leave Larry to watch the place, only they neglect to tell him that an ancient Egyptian object that brings the exhibits to life every night and the guard is not really a sentry but a wrangler. Cecil has left Larry a vague list of instructions ("Lock up the lions or they will eat you.") but Larry has to find his own ways to cope with the mania. Also, he has to keep his job and earn the respect of his son.

I can't say that this movie is unpredictable but is clever and entertaining. Plus, the cast is wonderful. Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney are not just cameos and Robin Williams is not as over the top as he usually is when he plays Teddy Roosevelt. Everyone works well together. Other memorable characters are Attila the Hun (Patrick Gallacher) and mini men Jeddidiah and Octavius (Owen Wilson as a frontier man and Steve Coogan as a Roman general) Their dioramas are next to each other and they are always warring, even to attempting to break down the wall between the exhibits to expand their "territory". Overall, this film is simply fun to watch.

(DVD, Netflix)

I'm not going to write about the contemporary film starring Nicole Kidman. Nope. I won't even link to it. The Moulin Rouge I'm speaking about is the 1952 version about Henri de Tolouse-Lautrec and his association with that spot. This is not a perfectly accurate film but it is an entertaining and colorful spectacle. Jose Ferrer plays both Tolouse-Lautrec and his father. To portray a much shorter man he walked on his knees, but it is not quite convincing. If you've ever wondered what Zaza Gabor ever did, she does appear in this movie as the famous singer Jane Avril. The filmmakers made a good effort to reproduce the people from Toulouse-Lautrec's works. Most famously there is La Golue (Katherine Kath), who seems to always be having catfights with Aicha (Muriel Smith). Mostly this film focuses on Toulouse-Lautrec's relationships with women but it is really the scenes at the Moulin Rouge that are the most lively, exciting, and colorful.

(VHS, Personal Collection)

Marnie is an odd film. It stars Tippi Hendren as a woman who disguises herself and goes from job to job embezzling from her employers. Eventually, she gets caught by Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), who traps her into marrying him. Lil (Diane Baker), the sister of Mark's dead wife is immediately suspicious of Marnie. Marnie's resistance to sex also frustrates Mark and he is determined to find out what has traumatized her in the past.

I like this film, but Marnie has a lot of obvious flaws, in particular Tippi Hendren's overacting of Marnie's fears. At the racetrack she goes nuts when she sees a jockey in red silks. Well, in that case, how does she go about daily life? Unless someone is color blind, they can't go out on the street without seeing something red. Color, by the way, is very interesting in this film and I can't quite figure out its use. Warm colors in the yellow and brown range predominate but there is little cool color such as blue or green.
Also, Hitchcock apparently thought that Baltimore was the deep south. Well, I live in Baltimore and I find his interpretation of the city to be very weird. Marnie's mother is particularly strange. She comes across like Carole Burnett doing an imitation of a hillbilly.

If you watch it, catch Bruce Dern as the sailor near the end.

(French, DVD, Netflix)

I wasn't sure if I should take a chance on getting Joyeux Noel from Netflix because they describe it as "heartwarming". Nonetheless, I found it to be a very interesting and absorbing film. History buffs may know of an incident during World War I where French, German and Scottish soldiers came out of their trenches and made peace for Christmas day only. That would have made a nice predictable Hollywood ending, but the makers ofJoyeux Noel instead chose to insert this incident in the middle of the film. After that the characters all must deal with the ramifications of their actions and that is where this film turns from being heartwarming to being very absorbing. The film is very well acted, but the dialogue alternates from being in French, German and English and without subtitles, so turn them on beforehand if you don't know all of these languages.

(DVD, Personal Collection)

We watch The Bishop's Wife every Christmas Eve, for no reason other than that we once saw it for free at a local theatre. Over the years it has grown on me and I really do like this simple story of and angel named Dudley (Carey Grant) who dotes on a neglected wife (Loretta Young) while her husband (David Niven) obsesses over raising money for a fancy new church. Both men are pleasant to watch and they work well together as two contrasting personalities. The guy who played young George Baily (Bobbie Anderson) in It's a Wonderful Life also plays a bully in this picture.

(Revival. Senator Theatre)

I have not seen A Christmas Story in over 20 years so when a local theatre had a Christmas Eve showing of it I jumped at the chance to go. So many people now know the story of Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) and how he wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas but his mother thinks, "You'll shoot your eye out!" When I was watching this, I tried to think of why it was that people now identify with it so much. It seems that almost everyone's childhood is somehow in this movie. We all can identify with childhood longings for Christmas toys and obstinate parents. Plus, I think the movie is well written and the narration by Jean Shepherd (who also wrote the film) is what makes it memorable. (My favorite line is when Shepherd recalls the leg lamp as "the soft glow of electric sex".)

I know that this film is played often on television but it was a real hoot to see it on the big screen with a responsive crowd. And yes, people were even calling out "You'll shoot your eye out!" along with the actors. One small negative is that this was promoted as a brand new digital print. I wasn't impressed by the image quality. It seemed that the pixels were showing here and there and the sound was muddy. Otherwise, it was a great experience.

(DVD, Netflix)

The Prince and the Pauper is Mark Twain's classic story of two kids from opposite positions in society who switch clothes for fun. Then, nobody believes that they have switched so they can't go back to their ordinary lives. Twins Billy and Bobby Mauch play Tom Candy and Prince Edward. The Skipper's Dad, Alan Hale Sr. plays the Captain of the Guard, who does not believe Prince Edward when he says he is dressed in another kid's clothes. Edward is tossed out of the palace to resume Tom's life. Meanwhile, political intrigue grows around Tom because he clearly does not know anything of Edward's life and unscrupulous hangers-on decide to take advantage.

While this is billed as an Errol Flynn movie he is not in it enough for me. He plays Miles Hendon, who helps Edward even though he just thinks Edward is delusional. Flynn is almost wasted because I kept wondering if and when the swashbuckling would start. This is forgivable because the kids, though, are the real stars here and they do an excellent job.

(DVD, Netflix)

Gosford Park is a fairly interesting film, mostly notable for the cast of characters and meandering storyline. It involves a group of people who go spend a weekend at an English country estate. Of course, someone is murdered but that is not necessarily the focus of the film. The film is a very slow moving "slice of life" that shows events in the house and in turn focuses on various people. Some of the characters work in Hollywood and mention obscure film titles and actors. Predictably, these filmmakers are making a murder mystery set in an English country house. Other characters are servants or hangers on. The film touches on a few "issues", such as the female servants who admit they were raped by employers. However, except for the murder there are no big ripples in this film. I've heard that some find this film to be the most boring ever, but I didn't think of it that way. I found that after I started paying close attention these intertwined lives became rather absorbing. After all, it IS a Robert Altman film so there is more of a focus on the cast as a unit rather than individual story lines.

(Theatrical Release, Rotunda Cinemateque)

I'm not averse to going to see documentaries in the theatre, especially if there is something out there that is interesting to me. (Currently I'm waiting for a chance to watch An Inconvenient Truth, which I regret missing in theatres last spring.) I was a kid when the Jonestown tragedy occurred in 1978 and the images on television fascinated and scared me. That is why I went to see Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple.

Enough time has gone by that when I tell people that I saw this movie they ask, "Who's Jim Jones?" Well, I'll tell you. He was a charismatic preacher who founded the People's Temple because he felt that all types of people should be free to worship together. He was very adamant about civil rights. Unfortunately, he was also insane. During the years that he ran his church Jones became more and more controlling and when things upset him he would take his church members and flee. He and his congregation left his native Indiana in the 1960s because he felt that the place was too racist. He set up his church in California. After this, his congregation grew quickly and by the mid-1970s people began to be suspect of Jones' methods. When an accusatory magazine article about Jones was going to be released in the summer of 1977 he abruptly packed up his congregation and fled to the South American republic of Guyana, where he felt he could build a "utopia" away from mainstream society. In November of the following year Congressman Leo Ryan flew out to Guyana to see what was going on. While the congregation appeared happy on the surface many slipped notes to the congressman and news crew pleading for release and Ryan agreed to take them with him. As they were attempting to board Ryan's plane Jones' aids drove up with guns and murdered many of them. Later that day Jones ordered his congregation to commit mass suicide by drinking cyanide laced Flavor-Aid.

As I mentioned before, this story was all over the media when I was growing up. There were plenty of documentaries and even a fictionalized movie or two. But, this recent documentary is the most interesting of all of the things I've seen about Jonestown. First, there has been the perspective of 28 years, which allows deeper examination. Second, the documentary itself is well made. It is highly personal in that it relies mostly on stories and photographs from former People's Temple members. The congregation even made a gospel record so that is the music used in the film. Some of the memories are even humorous, such as when one man recalls the homosexuality in the church. "Uh, I'm happy with my wife." he recalls saying, but at the same time looks askance, so it is easy to imaging him reacting the same way 30 years ago. Others recall the cheerful hyper-industrious nature of the cult's operation, but now they realized they were controlled through sleep deprivation and constant labor. One of the things I find most fascinating is the recordings of Jones' voice, which are used often in shows about him. In Guyana he would often ramble over the loudspeaker to his congregation for hours at a time while they worked. These speeches were recorded even to the very moment that everyone died.

Most of this film, though, is fascinatingly bizarre. Members recount tales of sexual abuse by Jones perpetuated on both sexes. Others remember him as a child, and it is very strange to think of Jones as a child. There is also the odd thought that if Jones had not been insane his People's Temple may have been a good idea since he adamantly championed integration. Jones and his wife were the first white couple in Indiana to adopt an African-American child, whom they named Jim Jones Jr. Since Jim Jr. was away from the compound on the day of the mass suicide, he lived to tell his story in this documentary. The stories from the people that survived the last day at Jonestown are the most fascinating and horrific. Some fled into the woods after watching their entire families die. At the very end, interspersed with the credits, are shown the people that we've met through the film and the names of the family members they lost at Jonestown. Even though in America we are used to such memorials, the one at the end of this film was especially moving because it came after we got to know these people through their surviving loved ones.