I love Christmas.  I love movies.  Today, I'm inviting you to join me in combining those two delightful parts of life so we can talk about our favorite Christmas movies! 
I mean, it's technically a Christmas movie.  You have a Christmas gathering and a Christmas tree and a gift exchange and snow and mistletoe.  But I watch it any time of year because the fact that it's Christmas is only a sort of backdrop.  And also because it was released in April, and I saw it in late spring at the second-run theater with the girls who were becoming my best friends, and... it's so Christmassy, but I almost never watch it at Christmas time ::shrugs::
The first time I watched Holiday Affair, the story and characters kept taking these random left turns that would seem to come out of nowhere, but yet made absolute and total sense.  I just could not ever see them coming, and that entranced me.  Which is a bit odd, because usually when movies start zigging when I am quite sure they will zag, I start to get frustrated.  But every single surprising turn of events made the story So Much Better, and I was spellbound.  I now tend to watch this during the week before Christmas after everyone else is in bed, while sitting on the floor in the living room and wrapping gifts.  It's a private, cozy little pleasure I look forward to and savor.
2.  A favorite poignant Christmas movie:

Like my new list of favorite western films, the list of my favorite noir films has changed a lot since I first posted one six years ago, all because of one certain actor.

I mean, how was I NOT going to love Alan Ladd when the majority of his films are in my two favorite genres?  It was inevitable.

Anyway.  Here is my current list of ten favorite noir films!  Titles linked to my reviews where applicable.


1. Laura (1944) While solving the murder of beautiful Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) falls in love with her memory. The most haunting murder mystery of all time.

2. This Gun for Hire (1942) A remorseless killer-for-hire (Alan Ladd) teams up with a singing magician (Veronica Lake) to help the government stop bad guys from selling American military secrets to the enemy. This is the movie that turned Ladd into a star, and it's not hard to see why -- he's riveting.

3. Dead Again (1991) A kindhearted PI (Kenneth Branagh) tries to help an amnesiac (Emma Thompson) remember who she is, only to learn that they may have been intimately linked to each other in a past life.  This is a twisty thriller involving reincarnation and it never fails to thrill me, even though I obviously don't believe reincarnation is a real thing.

4. The Great Gatsby (1949) F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic story gets a film noir twist. A successful gangster (Alan Ladd) buys a new house across the water from an old flame (Betty Field) whose cousin (Macdonald Carey) just happens to be Gatsby's next-door neighbor. I've yet to see another portrayal of Gatsby as haunting and heartfelt as Ladd's.

5. To Have and Have Not (1944) Fisherman Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) gets tangled up with a wandering woman (Lauren Bacall) and a bunch of anti-Nazi French patriots during WWII. Loosely based on characters from the Ernest Hemingway novel by the same title.

6. The Blue Dahlia (1946) A weary veteran (Alan Ladd) returns home and finds his wife (Doris Dowling) is cheating on him with a nightclub owner (Howard da Silva). When she turns up dead, he's the prime suspect. The nightclub owner's wife (Veronica Lake) tries to help him solve the murder. It's the only original screenplay written by my favorite author, Raymond Chandler, and its dialog sizzles delightfully.

7. The Big Sleep (1946) PI Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) takes a case for a wealthy family with a lot of secrets. Pairs Bogart again with the love of his real life, Lauren Bacall, and is based on the novel by my favorite author, Raymond Chandler.

8. LA Confidential (1997) Three Hollywood cops (Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, and Guy Pearce) wrestle with corruption, vice, murder, and conspiracy. One of the most intricately plotted movies ever, with all kinds of disparate strands woven together to form a dazzling whole.

9. Road to Perdition (2002) A hitman (Tom Hanks) takes his son (Tyler Hoechlin) on the run, seeking vengeance for the brutal murder of his wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and other son. Brilliant acting from all involved, including Paul Newman, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig.

10. Brick (2005) High school loner Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) investigates the murder of the girl he may have loved, discovering a teenage underworld in the process. One of the most creative movies I've ever seen.

NOTE:  Dead Again, LA Confidential, Road to Perdition, and Brick are all rated R.  With good reason.  Proceed with caution.

What do you get when you take a novel written by Raymond Chandler, get William Faulkner and Leigh Brackett to cowrite the screenplay, tap Howard Hawks to direct it, then cast top-of-his-game Humphrey Bogart as the lead, with brand-new starlet Lauren Bacall as the love interest?

You get magic, that's what you get.  Hard-boiled, wise-cracking magic.

Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) gets hired by a frail millionaire (Charles Waldron) to stop someone from blackmailing him.  Supposedly, he's being blackmailed because his younger daughter Carmen (Martha Vickers) has racked up some gambling debts.  Supposedly, all he wants is for Marlowe to stop the blackmail.

Supposedly, this will be neat and easy.

But folks, this is film noir at its finest.  And we all know that there ain't nothing neat and easy about life inside a noir movie.  Nothing whatsoever.

The blackmailer turns out to run a lending-library of dirty books.  (This is only marginally referenced, and Marlowe in the movie never sees any of the books.)  The blackmailer gets shot.  Someone else gets their car pushed off a pier with them still in it.  Someone else gets shot.  People get beaten up, slapped, shot at, killed, and we find out that one character at the center of the plot has been dead all along, since before Marlowe ever got called in to not-find them.


It's twisted and twisty.  It's also beautiful, brilliant, and brutal.  I love it.  It ought to be a lot higher on my favorites list than it is.  Maybe I'll bump it up a notch or twenty.


At the center of all the mayhem stands Philip Marlowe, a knight in grimy armor who follows his own code of morality and justice.  Defiant, wise, hopeful, fatalistic Philip Marlowe, the finest hardboiled detective to ever trade witty retorts for bullets.  Bogart brings him to life beautifully, though he's a little different than the Marlowe in the books.  A little softer, and yet a little less emotional, somehow.  But anyway, Bogart puts in a strong performance.  It's no wonder his co-star married him.


In my review for To Have and Have Not (1944), I talked about how great the chemistry was between Bogart and Bacall, who had just met on that film's set and were falling in love.  Their chemistry sizzles here as well, though it didn't originally have quite so much room to sizzle.  There are actually two different versions of this movie!  The original had a lot less of Bacall's character, Vivian.  I haven't watched the original yet, though it's included on my DVD (it was shown to test audiences, then changed to the final form before release) just because I love the scenes between Marlowe and Vivian, but I imagine it follows the book more faithfully, in which Marlowe does not fall for Vivian at all.


Anyway, To Have and Have Not was a huge hit, and audiences wanted more of Bogart and Bacall together, so they actually went back and filmed some new scenes with the two of them, which then got spliced into the movie, replacing a few other scenes.  The couple got married in between the main filming and the pick-ups, but their onscreen sparkage didn't suffer any the way it often does when costars get married.  They're flirty and fantastic and fun.


One of the best things about this movie is the dialog.  A lot of it comes directly from the book, and all of it is very, very snappy.  Wisecracks, witty comebacks, double-entendres, and quips riddle the script, and Hawks continues his habit of letting (encouraging?) his stars step on each others' lines to keep the fast-paced dialog zinging along.  It's quite brilliant, and quite funny.  I watched it with Cowboy the other night, and he laughed aloud several times, which is quite something for a serious noir film.  (I laughed too, don't get me wrong -- but I've seen it many times, so I knew when the funny bits were coming.  He didn't.)


Is this movie family friendly?  There's violence, including shooting and brawling.  There's stuff about gambling, people in peril, lots of smoking, some drinking, poison and blackmail, the implication that one character was drugged, and the implication that one character had pictures taken of her with no clothes on.  No cussing, no bedroom scenes.  A few smooches.  It's probably fine for teens, but not younger viewers, and kids wouldn't necessarily appreciate its finer points, anyway.

Both Eva and Miss Meg requested I recommend movies similar to The Bourne Identity (2002), which is one of my favorite movies (and franchises), so here we go!


If you like The Bourne Identity, with its exciting chases, helpful and brave love interest, and confused hero who's not sure who's chasing him, or why, then you might like any of these:

+ Dark Passage (1947) -- A convict (Humphrey Bogart) imprisoned for killing his wife escapes from prison to prove his innocence.  Everyone knows what he looks like, so he gets plastic surgery to change his face so he can seek vengeance without being recognized all the time.  He recuperates in the home of an artist (Lauren Bacall) who becomes convinced of his innocence and tries to help him.  (This one has violence.  It's film noir, so some dark themes and stuff that might frighten kids.  Also, Bogie looks kinda creepy in his facial bandages.)


+ North by Northwest (1959) -- Classic Hitchcock :-9  Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is just an advertising executive.  But a bunch of spies are convinced he's also a spy, and they try really hard to kill him.  Over and over.  And they frame him for murder, so the police are after him too.  Then he meets Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) on a train, they fall in love, and she tries to help him survive all this chaos.  (Lots of double entendres in this one, most of which will entirely fly over the heads of kids.  There's some violence, and intense/scary moments of danger and peril and suspense.  I think also some more traditional cussing.)


+ Charade (1963) -- This time it's a woman who is being pursued and doesn't know why.  Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) learns, at her husband's funeral, that there are a whole bunch of people who want something that her husband had, but never told her about.  They chase her all over the place, trying to scare her into giving them what they want.  A CIA agent (Cary Grant) pops up to help her sort out the mess, and sparkage ensues.  This one has topnotch villains, especially James Coburn and George Kennedy.  (Mostly family-friendly.  There's a little bit of suggestiveness here and there, double entendres and this silly game where people have to try to pass oranges to each other without using their hands, and a little kissing.  Plus, Cary Grant in the shower.  Possibly a couple mild curse words, and lots of '60s-style violence where it's not gory but still, people die and get hurt.)


And today I have a BONUS for you!  Did you know there's another adaptation of The Bourne Identity?  Yup, it was made into a TV movie in 1988, starring Richard Chamberlain and Jaclyn Smith as Jason Bourne and Marie St. Jacques.  It sticks very closely to the plot and characterization in the original book by Robert Ludlum (which I reviewed here), and is overall very enjoyable.  If you're like me and enjoy seeing different adaptations of stories, I recommend trying it.  (There's some violence, no bad language I can recall but I might be wrong, and one love scene where Marie's in lingerie and Jason is shirtless and there's some rolling around on a bed or something-- I completely recommend that everyone skip that scene at all times, because although there's no nudity, it's embarassingly '80s-ish.)


What do you think?  Are there other movies that remind you of The Bourne Identity?  I've got a bunch of ideas for these posts, but as always, if you've got a request for something you'd like me to make recommendations based on, I love suggestions!

Time for me to quick post my Inkling Explorations selection before March is over!  This month's topic is "A scene involving a letter, package, or post office in film."  You can read more about the series on Heidi Peterson's writing blog, Sharing the Journey.
Joseph (Humphrey Bogart), Jules (Peter Ustinov), and Albert (Aldo Ray) are convicts on Devil's Island who have escaped the prison and taken refuge in a mercantile, where they've persuaded the proprieters to let them do a few odd jobs.  While up on the roof, supposedly fixing it, they watch the family through various windows and learn all about their troubles.


While they're watching, the daughter, Isabelle (Gloria Talbott) accepts a letter for her father and opens it.


She reads part of it, then faints.


The three men scurry down from the roof to assist her and her mother, Amelie (Joan Bennett).


They then give the letter to the girl's parents, telling her, "It's there, on the second page, the deadly paragraph."  The letter contains the news that the owner of the store and his nephew were coming to see for themselves why the business is failing.  Poor Isabelle has convinced herself she's in love with said nephew, and the letter also contains the news of his engagement to someone else, hence all the fainting.

By the end of the movie, the three convicts have solved all the family's problems, including Isabelle's infatuation, and although they may not be angels, they earn halos just the same.

If you've never seen We're No Angels, I urge you to find it and watch it -- you can buy it on DVD quite inexpensively right now, and it is delightful.

In honor of 1940s Week over at An Old-Fashioned Girl, I've put together a list of my 10 favorite movies that take place during the 1940s.  Because I'm fascinated by how WWII affected the military and civilians alike, and how it changed the world on so many levels, you'll notice that many of these directly involve the war.


1.  The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) (and more thoughts)

Three veterans (Dana Andrews, Frederic March, Harold Russell) find returning to civilian life and their families (Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O'Donnell) much harder than they'd expected. An amazingly frank look at post-war America.  Particularly noteworthy is the performance of Harold Russell, a real-life double amputee who served during WWII and will break your heart.  In a good way.

2.  The Great Escape (1963)

The Nazis put all their worst eggs (Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, James Garner...) in one prison camp, and naturally all those escape artists work together to escape. I love this on so many levels, from the whole band-of-misfits-working-together angle to the clever planning to the actual escape itself. And it's based on a true story!

3.  Laura (1944)

While solving the murder of beautiful, talented Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) falls in love with her memory. One of the most haunting murder mysteries with one of the biggest plot twists.

4.  Operation Pacific (1951)

Commander Duke Gifford (John Wayne) leads a submarine crew on a bunch of adventures (most of them based on actual WWII events) and tries to win back his ex-wife (Patricia Neal). My 8-year-old son asks to watch this at least once a month right now. This is a clean and lovely movie.

5.  Father Goose (1964)

A misanthropic drunk (Cary Grant) reluctantly becomes an island spotter during WWII and winds up caring for a group of young girls and their oh-so-proper chaperon (Leslie Caron). This is both sweet and salty, and I love it dearly.

6.  It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

George Bailey (James Stewart) decides he's worth more dead than alive, and it takes an unlikely angel (Henry Travers) all of Christmas Eve to convince him otherwise. There's a reason it's so famous -- it's really that good.

7.  Hell is for Heroes (1962)

One small American Infantry squad (Bobby Darin, Steve McQueen, Fess Parker, James Coburn, Bob Newhart...) holds off a Nazi attack thanks to lots of clever ruses and some spectacular sacrifices. This was written by Robert Pirosh, who also created my beloved Combat!, and this whole movie almost feels like a long episode of the show.

8.  State Fair (1945)

A family spends a week at the Iowa state fair, where the daughter (Jeanne Crain) falls in love with a newspaper man (Dana Andrews), the son falls in love with an entertainer, and the parents take home prizes for their mincemeat and hog. There's a 1960s remake that stars Bobby Darin in the Dana Andrews role, but aside from dearest Bobby, I feel that version lacks the charm of this one.

9.  The Monuments Men (2014)

A special American task force tries to rescue important art from the Nazis. Another great ensemble cast (Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Bill Murray, John Goodman, George Clooney...), and another true story.

10.  To Have and Have Not (1944)

Fisherman Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart) gets tangled up with a wandering woman (Lauren Bacall) and a bunch of anti-Nazi French patriots during WWII. Loosely based on characters from the Ernest Hemingway novel by the same title, but I like it far better than the book.

I adore this movie.  How much?  Well, it's at the top of my lists of favorite comedies and favorite Christmas movies, if that tells you anything.

I first encountered We're No Angels (1955) when I was a teen.  My family was in a hotel somewhere, probably on our way to Iowa for vacation, and as was my wont, I turned the cable TV to AMC, which back then showed actual classic movies and not stuff about zombies and advertising executives.  And this was what was on -- it was about 2/3 over, and to tell the truth, no one in my family cared for Humphrey Bogart back then, but we must have had some time to kill before bedtime (probably were stuck in a hotel with no pool), so we watched this.

And we laughed.  Oh, how we laughed.  This movie has some of the best unexpected, intelligent, subtle humor I have ever seen.  I realize I'm probably overselling this, but seriously, I cannot think of another movie that I laugh this much over.  It's precisely the kind of snarkalicious humor I adore.


AMC was a really nice channel, back in the day, and would tell you after the movie ended what it was you'd just seen.  So we made note of the title, and when we got home, we sought out this movie on VHS because we simply had to see all of it.  And by the time we'd finished watching the whole thing all the way through, all four of us were converted to being Humphrey Bogart fans.  Yes, it's true.  (Amusingly enough, many years later, this movie also converted my best friend into a Humphrey Bogart fan after decades of disliking him.  It's magical.)

Okay, time to tell you what it's all about.  But not all of what it's about, because I hope that you run right out and find this movie and watch it.  I know I said it's on my list of favorite Christmas movies, but I don't really consider it a Christmas movie, per se.  I watch it any time of the year.


Three convicts (Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov) break out of prison on Devil's Island on Christmas Eve, 1895.  They try to blend in with the population at a nearby town, which is pretty easy to do because a lot of convicts get loaned out to the townspeople for work.  So people just assume they're three more such.


They enter a shop run by the kindly, ineffective Felix Ducotel (Leo G. Carroll), his perspicacious wife Amelie (Joan Bennett), and lovelorn daughter Isabelle (Gloria Talbott).


The trio of escapees intend to steal clothes so they can get passage on a boat in the harbor, and take a job repairing the shop's roof so they can figure out what they want to steal.


But instead, they wind up helping the Ducotel family out of one little mishap after another.  Felix is too kindly and absent-minded to be any good at business, and the shop is terribly in debt.  From above, the convicts observe the family, learn all about their troubles, and can't help themselves from wanting to be of service.


Joseph (Humphrey Bogart) is a con artist and master forger, and he talks several customers into making purchases they didn't necessarily mean to make, to help the business along.


Albert (Aldo Ray) has a little too much fondness for the ladies, but he very helpfully carries Isabelle around whenever she faints, which she does remarkably often.


Jules (Peter Ustinov) is a safe-cracker, and he merrily opens safes and doors and luggage whenever needed.


Between them, they mastermind a plan (actually, several) to do away with the Ducotel's horrid Cousin Andre (Basil Rathbone), who has come all the way from Paris to berate poor Mr. Ducotel for being such a bad businessman, perhaps even have him thrown in prison.


But they're troubled by the necessity to keep the Ducotels from being in any way suspected of being involved.  Especially since Isabelle fancies herself in love with Cousin Andre's nephew and heir, Paul.


Everything works out in the end, but I'm not going to tell you how because this is too delicious a movie to ruin.



The dialog is spectacular.  Cowboy and I quote this movie allllllllll the time.  There are so many witty one-liners and hilarious asides.  My two favorite lines are probably these:

"If crime showed on a man's face, there wouldn't be any mirrors."

"Oh, it isn't fair!  Here we are, three desperate criminals who will stop at nothing to escape from Devil's Island, and we have to fall in with nice people."


This is my second movie watched and reviewed for the Period Drama Challenge, which means now I get to show you a bunch of pretty costumes.  Because this movie is loaded with gorgeous clothing.

Amelie Ducotel gets most of the prettiest costumes, beginning with this cute robe thrown over her petticoats.


I really love this green-and-cream ensemble of hers too, and isn't that blue outfit and hat perfect in its hideousness?


Supposedly, Amelie makes her and Isabelle's dresses, as we see her working at her sewing machine several times.  Most of Isabelle's outfits are sadly a bit plain, dowdy, or silly, but Amelie's are all dreamy.


I'm especially fond of this purple dress.



Isabelle wears a really dreaful hat at one point, which Albert convinces her she shouldn't wear until she's sixty.


And we can't forget Joseph looking all fetching in Isabelle's apron while he's cooking Christmas dinner!  It really does bring out the color in his beautiful, big, brown eyes.


The family changes into formal attire for Christmas dinner, which they've invited the convicts to join them for.  This is Isabelle's prettiest dress:


And this is Amelie's.


Look at the detail on the back there!  I'm not usually all that into paying attention to costumes, but in this movie, they are so delicious I can't help wanting to wear most of the dresses.


We can't forget the menfolk!  Cousin Andre and Paul get some nice, dandified suits.


And so do the convicts later on.


Don't they clean up deliciously?  Amelie and Felix are shocked at the transformation.  And Amelie gets to wear yet another gorgeous dress.


Two more shots just because Jules, Albert, and Joseph are too adorable for words.



Now, is this movie family-friendly?  On a whole, yes.  The words "sex fiend" do get said in passing (as the sort of convict you don't want to have working for you), and our three antiheroes start out as kind of peeping toms before they start to like the Ducotels and want to help them.


Also, Albert's always wanting to loosen women's clothing when they faint, though he never does so.  And to convince Isabelle she's attractive, he pinches her bottom, though that's totally implied.  I'd say ages ten and up would probably get the humor and not be too shocked by the playful nudge-nudge, wink-wink style of flirty double entendres.  There's no bad language and no violence (though there are deaths), though we do hear how and why two of our antiheroes killed people previously.

You can pick this up on Amazon for about $5, and I heartily recommend you do so.