John Grant

I found “War Horse,” the new Steven Spielberg movie, well worth seeing.  It successfully puts all of Spielberg’s impressive skills together in one movie, including the family drama, war epic and pet story.  War Horse doesn’t really compare with the ultimate Spielberg pet story, 1982’s “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” but it follows the same orphan story, only with a horse instead of an alien.

A boy and his horse

After seeing the World War I scenes in War Horse, I’m looking forward to seeing Spielberg’s take on the Civil War in “Lincoln,” which is in production now. We see horrific battles in War Horse but Spielberg doesn’t show any blood; so we’re left with a nice combination of spectacle and emotion.  It looks pretty, but big pictures should look good.  As much as I like little movies with low budgets and clever independent productions, I appreciate it when directors like Ford, Hawks, Scorsese and Spielberg film the epic stories.  Spielberg did the story right by taking the little stage production of War Horse to such exhilarating epic heights.

Jeremy Irvine plays Albert Narracott, an English boy who loves his horse, Joey. The spirited horse, although somewhat scrawny, proves his worth by plowing a rocky field while Albert’s entire village looks on. In this moving scene, Albert’s mind melds with Joey and they seem destined to be a lifelong pairing. But World War 1 breaks out and the English cavalry requires horses for their campaigns. Albert reluctantly sells his beloved Joey to the cavalry. Somehow, this undersized plow horse becomes a mount for Captain James Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston), who rides Joey into battle in full cavalry charge against an ambush by a German battalion. That doesn’t go well for Joey and he ends up captured and pulling wagons for the Germans.
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The movie switches back and forth from the horse’s story to Albert’s story. Albert’s war experience doesn’t go well either, especially when he gets caught up in a mustard gas attack. A key scene in the movie occurs when Joey bolts off into a barb-wire infested “no-man’s land” and gets hopelessly entangled by barbed wire. A British soldier waves a white flag and the Germans allow him to rescue Joey. The soldier borrows wire cutters from a German and they proceed to free the horse together. Joey’s later return to the British side makes possible a reunion with Albert, but Albert is blind from the gas attack and their reunion seems unattainable. The movie cleverly plays out this last plot point and manages to come to a tidy and understandable conclusion.

Spielberg uses computer graphics to show Joey’s romp through the no-man’s land, where shells explode as Joey jumps over trenches and debris. Nevertheless, I got so caught up in rooting for Joey that I could accept these lapses in realism. I loved the inspiring story and the exciting war action, which raise the movie to epic status.

Even though the fans love it and reviewers call it a Christmas classic, I haven’t seen “Miracle on 34th Street” that many times.  But each time I’ve watched the 1947 movie directed by George Seaton, I feel better about the Christmas season.  The late forties era,  when 20th Century-Fox made the movie, must have been a time of great optimism, with the war behind us and the promise of abundance and a strong economy.  Yet, Kris Kringle (played superbly by Edmund Gwenn) finds it necessary to test our faith and teach valuable lessons.

Edmund Gwenn, Natalie Wood and Maureen O'Hara

This pill is recommended for the ED medicine tadalafil cipla and getting more refills than they need. Perhaps also a bit frustrating because you have this serious illness that may mean life cialis generika find over here and death, but also because the treatment of that cancer can change you physically and emotionally. This medicinal drug has been leading for promising results till date after making an inception in the pharmaceutical market. viagra prescription cost Nitrate medications are generally taken important source cialis without prescription by people that are undergoing treatment for hypertension. Kringle doesn’t come from some fantasized North Pole.  He lives in an old folks home in Great Neck, New York.  Everyone at the home, including the staff psychiatrist, knows about his claim to be Santa Claus.  It doesn’t matter, since they love his compassion and reverence for the human race.  But he’s human too.  He shows flashes of temper, as when he scolds the man hired as Santa Claus in a parade and then takes over his spot as the Macy’s Santa Claus.  The other characters, played by Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, and nine-year-old Natalie Wood, either flatly deny his claim or suspend their disbelief to help the “unfortunate” and “delusional” old man.

Of course, a movie requires conflict, and when Kringle’s sanity comes into question, we learn the important role of faith in our lives.  The movie resolves the issue by taking it to the New York Supreme Court.  20th Century-Fox did so many wonderful color movies in the 1940s, and more than any other studio.  The production values are very high, but Technicolor would have been nice (although a colorized version is available).  Perhaps 20th Century-Fox preferred using color for only its wonderful musicals.

Ava Gardner made a film in 1951 called “Pandora and the Flying Dutchman,” a color extravaganza that also starred James Mason and Nigel Patrick.  The story concerns a 500 year-old seaman floating alone on a ghost ship who meets his soul mate, who is Pandora Reynolds — alive in the present day.  A lot of rich Americans and other Anglos inhabit the seaside resort in Spain where the story takes place, and as usual, they are all intimate and familiar with each other, party endlessly, and wear magnificent clothes.

The lovely Ava Gardner

A very charming Christmas film from 1947 called “It Happened on Fifth Avenue” stars Victor Moore as a homeless man (Aloysius T. McKeever) with a brilliant idea.  When millionaires board up their summer mansions in New York City for the winter, he moves in and leaves just before they return.  He wears the millionaire’s clothing, eats whatever food is in the larder and lounges in glorious prosperity with his faithful dog Sam.

It Happened on Fifth Avenue

In this movie, a millionaire named Michael O’Connor (played by Charles Ruggles) is a gruff, type A personality with a controlling nature.  When his 18-year-old daughter (Gale Storm) runs away from a  boarding school to the mansion and finds  McKeever and others living there, she pretends to be a burglar.  Rather than call the police, the squatters let her stay in the mansion while she looks for a job.  Her father returns to New York and she convinces him to play along too.  The humor revolves around the fact that McKeever and O’Connor exchange roles, with O’Connor doing manual labor (washing dishes, shoveling snow) to McKeever’s supervision.
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Ruggles and Moore are great character actors.  Moore appeared in “Swing Time,” a 1936 Astaire and Rogers film, but he mostly played pompous judges and political types.  Ruggles famously played The Major in Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 film “Trouble in Paradise.”  He played another interesting role in “Ruggles of Red Gap,” from 1935, but not the title role, which is played by Charles Laughton.  He also played Major Horace Applegate in 1939’s “Bringing Up Baby.”  So, he has a history of playing self made and successful men gotten the best of by servant types or underlings.  Another great character actor, Grant Mitchell, plays one of O’Connor’s executives.

Supposedly, Frank Capra originally wanted to direct this film.  It makes sense since It Happened on Fifth Avenue has a similar feel and story to Capra’s 1938 film “You Can’t Take it With You.”  But Capra came across “It’s a Wonderful Life” and decided to direct that 1946 film.  Roy Del Ruth, a veteran director of dozens of films, produced and directed the movie and he does a wonderful job.

I watched an enjoyable science fiction film from 1936 called “Things to Come.”  William Cameron Menzies directed the film, which stars Raymond Massey, Ralph Richardson and Margaretta Scott.  Since H. G. Wells wrote the screenplay from his own story, the dialogue seems stilted and preachy, and it doesn’t help that the actors deliver the lines so theatrically.  But the compelling special effects, especially in the early war scenes, and the futuristic set designs of Vincent Korda for his vision of the 21st century make the visuals the most important aspect of the drama.

Men and Women of the Future

Years ago, one of the local TV stations in Pittsburgh (my home town) screened the 1935 film “Top Hat,” starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers.  During the opening credits, the titles say “A Pandro S. Berman Production” after the credit given to Mark Sandrich for directing the movie.  Berman, quite a reknowned figure at RKO, is a Pittsburgh native who produced seven Astaire-Rogers films.  He left RKO for MGM in 1940 and went on to produce such classics as “National Velvet” in 1944 and “Father of the Bride” in 1950.

Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in "Top Hat"

Values, preferences, and interests are all motivational elements: values are discount cialis prescriptions the most broad and abstract motive, and interests are the most narrow and specific kind of motive. Although individuals might not agree; driving is like a form of holistic modality that uses sea, warm water, seawater, and related products for health and wellness purposes. http://www.devensec.com/news/DevensBusRoute_Final_19AUG17_Revised.pdf viagra ordination This problem is a reduction or lack of sexual interest cialis pills australia and desire. But Xomax review convey that xomax works naturally to restrict the capillaries to expand and relax, which leads to long lasting order generic cialis erection. “Isn’t It a Lovely Day to Be Caught in the Rain,” my favorite Irving Berlin song from Top Hat, occurs in a gazebo, where Astaire sings and Rogers reluctantly dances with him.  I suppose if Irving Berlin writes wonderful songs and Astaire and Rogers must sing them, then the plot must logically get to places where the subject of the song makes sense and they can be logically performed.  In this case, Astaire plays a well-known performer and dancer, and the film employs a mistaken-identity plot.  But the Astaire character never wonders why the Rogers character dances so well, even though she plays an international fashion model.

I love Top Hat’s script, written by Dwight Taylor and Allen Scott.  It includes many funny lines delivered by comic foils Edward Everett Horton, befuddled as always, Eric Blore and and the sharply witted Helen Broderick.  Broderick, the mother of Broderick Crawford, also starred in “Swing Time,” a wonderful Astaire-Rogers musical from 1936.  Top Hat became an international smash, racking up enough ticket sales to become the 3rd top grossing film of 1935.  What a charming work of art!