vscheunert

The poster who compared "Dinner For One" to the candies yams on Thanksgiving comes very close to the truth of the success of "Dinner For One". The other poster who brags about the sophisticated British sense of humor doesn't seem to know that bragging with one's own sense of humor only shows that person's lack of it. Watching "Dinner For One" on New Year's Eve in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and some more European countries is a tradition and at least in Germany you have lots of dialect versions and parodies of it. "Dinner For One" may not be the greatest comedy piece on earth but it surely has its qualities, mostly butler James's absolute loyalty toward Miss Sophie which causes him year after year to act as her four late friends which seem quite different characters. This elderly man seems fully aware of the consequences of his part in this story from the very start and he hates it. His loyalty and his being caught in this tradition ("Same procedure as every year") make him a kind of tragic figure, especially when in the end you get aware that poor old James, who's already dead drunk, after dinner in Miss Sophie's bedroom may have to do the work of four men again ("Well, I'll do my very best").

I give it 7 and next year I'll watch it again.

I've seen this film two or three times. I loved to see these courageous and valiant women fighting their way through the West (crossing mountains and deserts and fighting off hostile Indians). One of my favorite moments is the fight between two girls, after one has broken the other's glasses. No rolling on the floor screaming, scratching and pulling each others hair - no, THESE girls use their fists and give each other many a punch in the mouth. Hope Emerson does a great job, too. Oh yes, and Robert Taylor was also in it! O.K., that was a joke, Taylor is quite good as the Scout, who has to guide the women to California, but these women are the real stars of this film!

I just saw "Thunder Road" for the first time on TV this morning a 3:00 a.m. (an appropriate time of day to watch this one). For years I had been longing to watch it and I surely wasn't disappointed at all - that is, I missed "The Ballad Of Thunder Road" sung by Mitchum. Most Germans - if they have any love for America at all - dig new York City or California but I was alway haunted by the West and later by the South. Sure, I hate racist reactionary rednecks, but I love freedom-loving stubborn individualists who are doing things their own way. And Mitchum's Lucas Doolin ist a perfect example of this kind. Technically being far from perfect - this exciting little "Hillbilly Noir" movie to me is the greatest homage to the South and its people and culture! No Civil War epic can match this. Sixties movies like "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "In The Heat Of The Night" also have a great Southern feel, but they concentrate on what was wrong with the South - mainly the widespread racism. "Thunder Road" instead celebrates Southern virtues - individualism, dedication and integrity. Besides that, it shows rural life in the 50s, including rockin' teenagers and those beautiful American cars. This is an out-and-out Robert Mitchum film, he wrote the story, produced the film, played the main role and even co-wrote the music! Mitchum is not the Happy End type of guy, but he is as cool an actor as there ever was. 14 hours after seeing "Thunder Road" for the first time, I can say that alongside "Out Of The Past" and "Blood On The Moon" it is is my favorite Mitchum movie.