catman47

I first saw 'A Date With Judy' at the Radio City Music Hall in late August 1948 when I was eight years old.....what an epiphany!!! Years later I revisited the film via television...how could it ever hold up...but...it remains a total charmer!! Music via Powell is lovely, Elizabeth is breathtakingly beautiful...and charming.....then there is the rest of a super cast...Wallace Beery, Robert Stack, Selena Royale, George Cleveland (the wonderful grandfather from Lassie), Scotty Becket, Xavier Cugat...and lest we not forget, the superlative Carmen Miranda! "It's A Most Unusual Day" ( remember Hitchcock's use of this as Cary Grant walks through the Plaza just before his kidnapping?), Judaline, Love is Where You Find It" and most memorably of all.."Cuanto Le Gusto" (I have murdered the spelling but 'a rose is a rose'!) Super music and memories of the radio program and comic book of the same name.

This is a delightful musical , and was very successful, in 1948 and is a treasure for today...and it's been released on DVD! It would look sumptuous in Blueray...maybe soon?

I saw 'The Blackwater Lightship' originally on the Hallmark Playhouse on television..complete with numerous commercials! I loved the film so I bought the DVD from Hallmark...minus commercials...what a treat...the film doesn't play like usual TV movies...with a 'hanger' right before the commercial to hold your interest and get one to return to the film after the commercial.

This film plays smoothly as one piece....not fragmented and spotty like most TV films.

The cast is magnificent....the sublime Angela Lansbury playing the Irish granny...Diane Wiest as the daughter of GRanny, and with several actors who were unfamiliar to me.

However two actors I am familiar with are Sam Robards (have to see more of his work) and Brian F. O' Bryan (I know I didn't get this name correctly, but he is currently collecting all the awards on Broadway this season for his superb work in 'Doubt') They are exceptional as two gay friends of Wiest's son who is dying of Aids.

With an Irish seaside setting (the Blackwater Lightship) and superb character transformations...this is a film I recommend unhesitatingly.

Murder At The Gallop was one in a series of Miss Marple/Margaret Rutherford British mysteries...Rutherford certainly appears and acts quite differently from the character of Miss Marple which Agatha Christie created. If you want to see the Christie books presented accurately on screen, view the versions with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple. They work perfectly with the characters, settings and time period of the orginals.

However, authenticity is not one of the reasons for seeing this series of films. Margaret Rutherford is a screen gem...working with her real life husband, Stringer Davis, as co-sleuth (his character never appeared in any of the Christie novels) they form a wonderful partnership. I only wish they had continued this series. 'Gallop' features some excellent supporting actors -- Flora Robson, Finlay Curie and especially Robert Morley. It's filmed in beautiful black and white which captures the early 1960's quite well.

For an entertaining evening of pure delight this is a mystery to cherish!