From Here to Eternity (1953)

Star Rating: 3
Length of Film: 118 minutes
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Philip Ober, Mickey Shaughnessy, Harry Ballaver, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Warden, John Dennis, Merle Travis, Tim Ryan, Arthur Keegan, & Barbara Morrison
Oscars: Buddy Adler (best picture), Fred Zinnemann (director), Daniel Taradash (screenplay), Frank Sinatra (actor in support role), Burnett Guffrey (photography), william A. Lyon (editing), John P. Livadary (sound)
Oscar Nomination: Montgomery Clift (actor), Burt Lancaster (actor), Deborah Kerr (actress), Jean Louis (costume design, BW), Morris Stoloff & George Duning (music)

                            Sgt. Milton Warden- Burt Lancaster

    Pvt. Robert E. Lee Prewitt-             Montgomery Clift















            Pvt. Angelo Maggio- Frank Sinatra

 





Karen Holmes- Deborah Kerr

                                      Alma 'Lorene' Burke- Donna Reed

Sgt. 'Fatso' Judson- Ernest Borgnine










From Here to Eternity is a movie based on James Jone's best seller about life on the U. S. Army base in 1941, right before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This movie has the following themes: adultery, prostitution, corruption, bullying, and murder.

The movie starts out with Sgt. Prewitt arriving at the Army base, led by Capt. Holmes, who knows about Prewitt's background in boxing. See...there's a competition among the regimental boxing club, with a competition nearing on December 15. Prewitt refuses, so Holmes decide to make his life a living hell. Sgt. Warden works in the office with Holmes, and has a crush on his wife, Karen. He acts on his feeling and they have an affair together. The iconic beach scene is supposed to be the highlight of the movie. Netflix advertises it as "one of the hottest love scenes in screen history". Let me straighten things out. THEY DO NOT HAVE SEX. They roll around in the sand, fully clothed, just kissing. It was HIGHLY disappointing.

I am so happy that Frank Sinatra won an Oscar. He played his role perfectly! He was the guy that took the newbie under his wing, introduced him to a "members only" club, where Prewitt met his girl.  Pvt. Maggio is a loud mouthed, prideful man, that smarted off to the wrong individual, Sgt. Judson. To make a long story short, Maggio got himself thrown in jail with Judson as Sergent of the Guard. UH OH!

The "members only" club, is a gentlemen's club, where women will be the man's girl for the night. Prewitt saw Lorene from afar and immediately fell for her, and vice versa, except their relationship...well, they're not on the same page. Here's a quote from Alma(Lorene), a very selfish, 'I'm better than you' comment, which made my jaw drop.

Alma: Prew, it's true we love each other now, we need each other, but back in the States it might be different.
Prewitt: That ain't the real reason.
Alma: You're right, it's not.
Prewitt: What is the real reason?
Alma: I - I won't marry you because I don't want to be the wife of a soldier.
Prewitt: Well, that... would be about the best I could ever do for you.
Alma: Because nobody's going to stop me from my plan. Nobody, nothing. Because I want to be proper!
Prewitt: Proper.
Alma: Yes, proper! In another year I'll have enough money saved. Then I'm going to go back to my home town in Oregon, and I'm going to build a house for my mother and myself, and join the country club and take up golf. Then I'll meet the proper man with the proper position, to make a proper wife, and can run a proper home and raise proper children. And I'll be HAPPY because when you're PROPER you're SAFE!
Prewitt: You've got guts, honey. I hope you can pull that off.
Alma: I do mean it when I say I need you. 'Cause I'm lonely. You think I'm lying, don't you?
Prewitt: Nobody ever lies about being lonely.

A lot of stuff happens in the movie, but I'm not going to tell you on my blog, you're going to have to watch the movie. I will tell you what pissed me off. From the quotes above, I took it as Alma turned down Prewitt's engagement. Well...in the end, she and Karen are on a boat, traveling to the mainland, and she tells Karen about her fiancé, how "he was an Army Air Corps pilot killed in a B-17 during the attack. He was awarded the Silver Star, they sent it to his mother. She wrote me. She wanted me to have it. They are very fine people, Southern people. He was named after a general. Robert E. Lee... Prewitt."

First off...Prewitt was not a pilot, two...Prewitts parents died, and that's why he joined the armed forces, so mom wouldn't have been able to write back to Alma, giving the silver star to her. I don't know if Alma was just trying to impress this stranger (Karen Holmes), or if screenplay just lacked on the specific details, either way I ended the movie feeling indifferent.

Frank Sinatra and Montgomery Clift make the movie. The relationship between them is so special, that they go to EXTREME lengths to save and protect one another. I hated both of the female castmates, they were both bitches and very spoiled, and not likeable. They walked all over their men, and got away with inappropriate behavior; one's a adulter and the other is a prostitute.

Like always, make your own opinion, and enjoy the show.  

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)

Star Rating: 4
Length of Film: 104 minutes
Director: Stephan Elliott
Cast: Terrence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pierce, Rebel Russell, John Casey, June Marie Bennett, Murray Davies, Frank Cornelius, Bob Boyce, Leighton Picken, Maria Kmet, Joseph Kmet, Alan Dargin, Julia Cortez, Daniel Kellie, Hannah Corbett, Trevor Barrie, Ken Radley, Sarah Chadwick, & Mark Holmes
Oscar: Lizzie Gardiner & Tim Chappel (best costume design)

Bernadette- Terrance Stamp    

                                Felicia- Guy Pierce    

Mitzi- Hugo Weaving





Hold on to your frilly little panties, this movie will take you on a ride! The make-up is absolutely atrocious! Especially their eyebrows, but the wigs and costumes are amazing! I give props to these 3 men, because the outfits are tight, and very girlie! These are real men who were comfortable enough in their own skin, to play these roles.

The movie starts out with Bernadette's life partner funeral. Feeling lost, she decides to join Mitzi and Felicia, on a show tour through the desert. Felicia buys a bus and names it "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert". Along the road, we meet Bob and Cynthia. A relationship where he over powers her, and does not allow her to be herself. Well...Cynthia surprises them all! After the 3 boys perform on stage, she walks in a sexy pleather outfit. In her top, she pulls out ping pongs. She runs the ping pong down to her little zipper opening of her va-jay-jay, the bends over, and the ping pong shoots across the room. (OMG!!!)


One of the coolest moments of the show is when Felicia is standing on top of the bus in a silver dress, lip syncing to "Sempre Libera" from Verdi's La Traviata. the dress had a long scarf and it just blew beautifully in the wind.

Watch the movie. There's a lot of surprises, but there's no sex, and there's no male on male kissing. It's men dressed up as women, lip syncing to an amazing list of songs.

"I've Never Been To Me"

"Go West"
"Billy Don't Be A Hero"
"My Baby Loves Lovin'"
"I Love The Nightlife"
"Can't Help Lovin' That Man"
"I Will Survive"
"A Fine Romance"
"Shake Your Groove Thing"
"I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine"
"Finally"
"Take A Letter Maria"
"Mamma Mia"
"Save The Best For Last"
"Fernando"
"A Desert Holiday"
"This Old Man"
"Ten Fat Trannies"
"My Darling, Clementine"


Hold Me While I'm Naked (1966)

Star Rating: 2
Length of Film: Not even 15 minutes WOOT!
Director: George Kuchar
Cast:  Donna Kerness, George Kuchar, Andrewa Lunin, Hope Morris, & Steve Packard

This movie is a short film, clocking in at 14 minutes and 23 seconds.




It is a film about a pornography director. Its time is split filming the porno, and then behind the scenes filming the director. It's definately artsy. I really don't undestand why the director who stars in the film, is rolling around in the film reels, or why we need to see him taking a piss. The main couple in the porno, are having a shower scene, she's obviously wearing a wig, because it's sliding off her head, and she's randomly holding a pearl necklace. The hand that she's holding up, is holding the pearl necklace.

See the necklace? So random!

The movie direction of this film is ADD.  We see the couple making out in the shower and then it flashes to the director peeing. Flashes back to the hot couple, then to the director twirling underneath the shower head, wearing a plastic like toga. In the shower, we hear someone knocking on the door, it's George's mother. She tells him dinner is ready, he sits down, looks at his food and says, "there's a lot of things in life worth living for. Isn't there?" The movie ends.

I'm not sure if this is a fictional story, where George imagines that he was a director, or if this is a true, autobiography. Watch it for yourself. I found the short on youtube. Here's the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akMfsF7FGkM

Rebecca (1940)

Star Rating: 3
Length of Film: 130 minutes
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Glady Cooper, Nigel Bruce, Reginald Denny, C. Aubrey Smith, Melville Cooper, Florence Bates, Leonard Carey, Leo G. Carroll, Edward Fielding, Lumsden Hare, & Forrester Harvey
Oscars: David O. Selznick (Best Picture) & George Barnes (Photography)
Oscar Nominations: Alfred Hitchcock (Director), Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison (Screenplay), Laurence Olivier (Actor), Judith Anderson (Actress in Supporting Role), Lyle R. Wheeler (Art Direction), Hal C. Kern (Editing), Jack Cosgrove, Arthur Johns (Special Effects), & Franz Waxman (Music)

Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) is am aristocratic widower, vacationing in Monte Carlo.  Joan Fontaine, (we never know her name) is at the hotel with her employee, wealthy Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates), who works for her as a paid companion. Mrs. Van Hopper notices Mr. de Winter right off and tries to make a move. She knew that Mrs. de Winter committed suicide. He of course, ignores the old lady, and looks at her sweet, innocent companion. Mr. de Winter approaches the young lady at breakfast, and sits down with her. They start this innocent flirtation. She is entralled with him, and he enjoys her company. They take rides together in his car, and a sparks fly. Joan Fontaine is so innocently beautiful. She reminds me of a mix between Anna Paquin & Scarlett Johannson.

Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper's daughter calls from New York to announce that she's getting married. Edythe packs everything up, and Joan's heart sank. She ran to the phone to call Mr. de Winter to tell him that she HAS to go to New York, but when she called the front office, he was out for his morning drive. It was adorably done, she kept running to the phone every 20 minutes or so, calling the front office, seeing if Mr. de Winter was back. When he finally was back, she rushed over to his room, and told him that she was leaving. He suggested that they get married. He rang the front office, to call Edythe up to announce that her companion will be staying with him, to become his wife.

Mr. de Winter drove his new bride to Manderley, their mansion estate, and was greeted by his staff. Everyone was welcoming and lovely, except Rebecca's (the first Mrs. de Winter) maid, Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson). Mrs. Danvers held Rebecca at a VERY HIGH standard. She kept everything in her room, exactly the same. It became very hard for the new Mrs. de Winter to live in a home where the "perfect" Rebecca once lived. She became paranoid and starting looking at things around the house and wondered if it belonged to Rebecca. When Rebecca was Mrs. de Winter, they had wonderful costumed parties, the new Mrs. de Winter, asked her husband permission to throw a ball. Mrs. Danvers showed Mrs. de Winter family portraits, and stopped infront of a painting, telling Mrs. de Winter's that this portrait is Mr. de Winter's favorite.

For the ball, Mrs. de Winter decides to recreate the dress. She tells no one about her idea, and reveals it on the night of the ball. Excited that she's going to impress her husband, his face was NOT what she wanted to see. He tells her the dress is innapropriate and she needs to go back upstairs and change. Mrs. de Winter was so upset! She ran upstairs and of course, Mrs. Danvers is right there to rub it in, that her dear Rebecca wore that dress, first. Politely, Mrs. Danvers opens the window, to give Mrs. de Winter some fresh air. She leans into the open window, and Mrs. Danvers tries to persuade her into jumping. Look at Mrs. Danvers...she definately has the crazy look in her eyes!!!

After Mrs. Danver's attempt to push Mrs. de Winter to suicide, this is the part of the movie where we FINALLY find more information about Rebecca and what happens to her. What you find out, is surprising, but not so shocking, that it leaves a lasting impression. I will leave you with one last picture...happy viewing!!!



High Society (1956)

Star Rating: 3
Length of Film: 107 minutes
Director: Charles Walters
Cast: Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm, John Lund, Louis Calher, Sidney Blackmer, Louis Armstrong, & Margalo Gillmore
Oscar Nominations: Edward Bernds & Elwood Ullman (screenplay)*, Johnny Green & Saul Chaplin (music), and Cole Porter (song)
*Nomination declined when the Academy realized it had confused Bernds and ullman's High Society with Sol Siegel's production







My process for movie choices, is looking through my book, typing the titles into netflix, and be surprised when I get the movie in the mail. I never would have thought that I would watch the original movie, "The Philadelphia Story" then the remake, "High Society" in a 3 month time period.

The characters are still the same. C.K. Dexter-Haven (Bing Crosby) and Miss Tracy Lord (Gene Kelly) were once married, they are no longer together. This movie is about Tracy's second marriage to George Kittredge (John Lund). Mike Connor, a tabloid writer (Frank Sinatra) and Liz Imbrie, a photographer (Celeste Holm) from Spy Magazine came to wedding, to write a story about the happy couple.


Mike Connor, spent time with Tracy, getting to know her for the story, and he fell for her! Mike (Frank Sinatra) sang a total of 3 songs in the movie. 

1. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" - Mike, Liz
2. "You're Sensational" - Mike
3. "Well, Did You Evah!" - C.K., Mike

One of my favorite songs from the movie was C.K. Dexter-Haven's (Bing Crosby)"Now You Has Jazz" where he performed with Louis Armstrong and his band.



Read my synopsis of The Philadelphia Story, to know what happens in the movie. I'm not going to waste my time repeating exactly what I typed in the blog post of The Philadelphia Story. Gene Kelly is so pretty! High Societ was her last film she ever did, and the first and only movie she sang in.

Here's a list of the songs from this musical.

1. "Overture"
2. "High Society Calypso" - Armstrong & his band
3. "True Love" - C.K., Tracy
4. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" - Mike, Liz
5. "I Love You, Samantha" - C.K.
6. "You're Sensational" - Mike
7. "Well, Did You Evah!" - C.K., Mike
8. "Little One" - C.K.
9. "Now You Has Jazz" - C.K., Armstrong & his band, individually introduced by name
10. "Mind if I Make Love to You?" (Sinatra)

Let The Right One In (2008)

Star Rating: 4
Length of Film: 115 minutes
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Kare Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl, Karin Bergquist, Peter Carlber, Ika Nord, & Mikael Rahm
BAFTA Nomination: Carl Molinder, John Nordling, &Tomas Alfredson (best film not in the English language)
Language: Swedish

Be prepared...this movie is in a foreign language, you will have to watch this movie in subtitles.

This movie is set in the 1980's in Blackberg, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. The movie is set around Oskar, a 12 year old only child, living with his mom, and visits dad on the weekends. Oskar is bullied at school, and doesn't really have any friends. With a pocket knife, Oskar practiced stabbing his "bullies" on a tree. That's when he met his new neighbor, Eli (she's a girl).

Eli is a vampire. Their eyes glow green when they're around blood, cats hate them, they can't eat human food, they burst into flames in the sun.

This movie is so interesting, and there's so many good parts in it, that this review is going to be super short! I don't want to ruin it, it's that good! It's a memorable movie!

Eli and Oskar first bond was over a rubik's cube. Oskar insisted that Eli borrow it, and in a day, she successfully solved the puzzle. Their relationship starts out friendly, learning morse code, through their shared wall, but then it escalates to inappropriate behavior for 12 years old. After a kill, Eli knocks on Oskars window, asks to come in, takes off all her clothes, and lays in bed with Oskar.

The horror isn't too graphic, or gross, it's done tastefully well. There is slight nudity of Eli's va-jay-jay. Eli was changing out of her bloody clothes, and Oskar sneaked a peek.The ending reminded me a lot of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror (1922), That vampire traveled by a wooden box, and in the end, when Eli left the town of Blackberg, she too, traveled by a wooden box.

I will tell you...the scene where find out that cats don't like vampires, is it shocking! And when Oskar's in the pool, and the bully's big brother stepped in, there was a moment of panic on my part. Curious? Rent the movie!

The Untouchables (1987)

Star Rating: 3
Length of Film: 119 minutes
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, Richard Bardford, Jack Kehoe, Brad Sullivan, Billy Grago, Patricia Clarkson, Vito D'Ambrosio, Steven Goldstein, Peter Aylward, Don Harvey, & Robert Swan
Oscar: Sean Connery (Actor in Supporting Role)
Oscar Nomination: Patricia von Brandenstein, William A. Elliott, Hal Gausman (Art Direction), Marilyn Van (Costume), & Ennio morricon (music)

From Left to Right: Agent George Stone, Jim Malone, Eliot Ness, & Agent Oscar Wallace

The Untouchables is a movie re-telling the story of the famous mob boss, Al Capone (Robert De Niro). Knowing this is based off of American history, I knew that it wouldn't be 100% correct to what really happened, so I just watched the movie, with no judgment that all the facts in the movie, is false.

Eliot Ness(Kevin Costner), an Agent of the Bureau of Prohibition, was called to Chicago to help eliminate Al Capone's grasp on the state of Chicago by selling low-quality liquor at high prices. Eliot was in the park, where he was approached by police officer Jim Malone (Sean Connery) and Eliot become fast friends, especially since Jim knows whats been going on in the Chicago area. Together, Eliot and Jim go to the police academy and pick up George Stone, who has the best shot in his class. They later joined the 4th member of their team; Agent Oscar Wallace, an accountant.

They successfully joined a team, and they had a mission to bring Al Capone down, by showing that he has not turned in his taxes, and turn him in for tax evasion. On horses, the police ride after the mafia in cars, and have this huge gun fight. The music in this scene is very odd. It's heroic and positive, letting the audience know that the good guys are going to win. This was a HUGE fight scene and the music didn't portray that it was a big deal, it gave away that the winning side was already decided. During this battle scene, the team captured the bookkeeper. To get him to talk, Malone picked up a dead guy, put a gun in his mess, and "pretended" to interrogate him, and gave him a choice to talk, when the dead guy didn't say anything, he shot him. Through the window, the bookkeeper saw it, agreed to talk, and they took him into custody.

My 2nd favorite scene was with Al Capone with his men, he got mad at one of his men, and beat him with a baseball bat. Yikes!!!! Robert De Niro is such an amazing actor. When commits to a role, he REALLY commits. Robert De Niro insisted on wearing the same style of silk underwear that Al Capone wore, even though it would never be seen on camera. He also didn't have much time to gain the extra weight needed for this role, so he had to wear pads and pillows for the desired effect of looking like the chunky Capone.

The Real al Capone



Robert De Niro as Al Capone

My third and favorite scene is the death of Jim Malone. Jim was alone in his apartment, and a mafia man, with a knife, came in through his window to kill him. With a shotgun, Jim chased him out of his apartment, at the front door, he yelled very confidently that they can't outsmart him, then a mafia man on the roof, shot and killed him. :o(

This movie is based on building the personal relationships with the characters, and we don't see the mafia side, only the cop side. They could've done a lot more with the movie, but they didn't. They also could've used more facts on what actually happened. The screenwriters, should've done more research, because after watching the movie, I looked into what really happned, and they left out A LOT of details. Watch the movie, and make an opinion for yourself.