evanston_dad

An amiable enough little movie and kind of a cozy one to have on in the middle of a rainy fall day, but I couldn't help wishing it had amounted to more.

I love Ethel Barrymore. I love her voice, her mannerisms, her presence on screen. But she doesn't get a whole lot to do here except passively wait for someone else to get her out of her predicament. I wanted to see her character be clever and crafty, and give the crooks holding her hostage a run for their money. But that never happens, and really not much of anything overly clever happens with this story. It's a handsome looking film and it's directed with some style, but it's hampered by an underdeveloped screenplay.

The period costumes received an Oscar nomination in the black and white category at the 1951 Academy Awards, losing to Edith Head's work in "A Place in the Sun."

Grade: B.

A cute Fred Astaire movie that plays like an extended version of a "Three's Company" episode. Everything revolves around everyone misunderstanding each other and mistaking someone for someone else.

Joan Fontaine is the love interest and she's boring, but George Burns and Gracie Allen are a hoot in supporting comic relief roles. There's not much that's memorable in the way of dancing given that this is a Fred Astaire movie, though a number set in a carnival funhouse won the strange and short-lived Oscar category of Best Dance Direction, an award that was given for only three years in the 1930s before it was retired. The film also received a nomination for its art direction.

Grade: B+

"Matewan" is a gripping movie about the war between a town of coal miners and the corporation enslaving them in the West Virginia of the 1920s. But man is it bleak. I don't think I'd ever want to watch it again. It's yet another story about those with money and power trampling over those without, a story that never changes and never gets less enraging.

My biggest problem with the film is that the actors meant to represent the company play it so evil that it almost becomes unrealistic. These are goon show caricatures rather than real men, and it always makes me queasy when a movie has me cheering to see violent and bloody things done to people it has manipulated me into hating.

But the rest of the movie stays pretty grounded and is superbly acted by the likes of Chris Cooper, Mary McDonell, David Strathairn, and James Earl Jones, who has a small role but gets a couple of terrific scenes.

Haskell Wexler received an Oscar nom for the film's cinematography.

Grade: A-