Movies I Watched In July

I watched even less movies this month, however, that is partially due to the fact that I started watching The Golden Girls (I just started season 2).

1. Annabel Takes a Tour (1938) - Jack Oakie & Lucille Ball
2. *Too Many Husbands (1940) - Jean Arthur, Melvyn Douglas, Fred MacMurray
3. *My Sister Eileen (1942) - Rosalind Russell & Brian Aherne, George Tobias
4. *Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) - Cary Grant & Ginger Rogers, Walter Slezak
5. The Last Ride (1944) - Eleanor Parker 
6. The Glass Slipper (1955) - Leslie Caron & Michael Wilding, Keenan Wynn, Elsa Lanchester, Amanda Blake
7. *Where the Boys Are (1960) - Dolores Hart & George Hamilton, Paula Prentiss & Jim Hutton, Connie Francis, Yvette Mimoux 
8. Back Street (1961) - Susan Hayward & John Gavin, Vera Miles
9. *Moonstruck (1987) - Cher
10. *Sleepless in Seattle (1993) - Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan, Rosie O'Donnell, Rob Reiner
11. Independence Day (1996) - Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Adam Baldwin 

Least Favorite Film: Definitely The Last Ride. Eleanor Parker was barely in it so it was just a run-of-mill "good cop has gangster brother" movie.

Favorite Film: I always pick a new-to-me film but...

The Fourth Annual Olivia de Havilland Blogathon is Here!!!

Today Dame Olivia de Havilland celebrated her 103rd year here on earth!!! We are so lucky that she is still with us and I'm a honored to be able to celebrate her incredible life and career with this little blogathon and for Crystal from In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood for co-hosting with me.

I will try to update this post daily with the entries and hopefully will have time to read them this weekend.

Here are the entries:

Realweedgiemidget Reviews kicks off the day with Olivia's appearance on The Love Boat.

Pale Writer tells us about a less pleasurable experience of Olivia's character in The Snake Pit (1948).

The Stop Button delves into The Heiress (1949).

Photo by Samantha Ellis

Musings of a Classic Film Addict share's Olivia's recipe for Salade Nicoise.

Movies Meet Their Match is pleasantly surprised with The Proud Rebel (1958).

To Be Updated!!

Movies I Watched in June

This month I suddenly started a new job that required me moving in with my aunt on Long Island. I've been very busy (with work and sightseeing) and have therefore not been able to watch as many movies as I have been. I was able to get a library card here and they have a really good selection of Classic Films so I'm excited to explore that. I was also finishing up season 4 and 5 of The Last Ship (they randomly killed one of my favorite characters in the second-to-last episode...).

1. *If You Could Only Cook (1935) - Jean Arthur & Herbert Marshall
2. When You're in Love (1937) - Grace Moore & Cary Grant
3. Escape (1940) - Robert Taylor & Norma Shearer, Conrad Veidt, Bonita Granville
4. Repent at Leisure (1941) - Wendy Barrie
5. That Night in Rio (1941) - Don Ameche & Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda
6. *Footsteps in the Dark (1941) - Errol Flynn & Brenda Marshall, Allen Jenkins, Alan Hale, William Frawley
7. *Never Say Goodbye (1946) - Errol Flynn & Eleanor Parker, S.Z. Sakall
8. Trio (1950) - Jean Simmons & Michael Rennie (only watched part three)
9. Two Weeks with Love (1950) - Jane Powell & Ricardo Montalban, Debbie Reynolds
10. *On Moonlight Bay (1951) - Doris Day & Gordon McRea
11. Encore (1952) - Glynis Johns (only watched part three)
12. Pearl of the South Pacific (1955) - Virginia Mayo & Dennis Morgan
13. The Young Stranger (1957) - James MacArther, Kim Hunter, James Gregory, James Daly
14. Hooper (1978) - Burt Reynolds & Sally Field, Brian Keith, James Best, Adam West
15. InSight (2011) - Natalie Zea, Adam Baldwin, Veronica Cartwright, Christopher Lloyd
16. Apollo 11 (2019) - documentary, watched in dome theater
17. Murder Mystery (2019-Netflix) - Jennifer Aniston & Adam Sandler, Luke Evans

Least Favorite Film: I love Dennis Morgan and think Virginia Mayo is underrated but Pearl of the South Pacific wasn't that great. 

Favorite Film: The Young Stranger was excellent. Escape was more exciting then I expected. I of course enjoyed the segments I got to see from Trio and Encore with two of my favorite actresses (unfortunately it collided with me leaving so I didn't get to watch the full films). If you have Netflix and enjoy Agatha Christie and comedies you need to watch Murder Mystery. It was so fun!

ANNOUNCING the Fourth Annual Olivia de Havilland Blogathon!

I am excited to announce that, for the fourth year in a row, Crystal of In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood and I are hosting a blogathon in honor of our beloved Olivia de Havilland, who will be turning 104 on July 1st!

The blogathon will run from July 1st to July 3.

Here are the rules:

1. Choose any film or topic pertaining to Dame Olivia. Up to TWO Duplicates are allowed, so if you see that only one blogger is writing about, say, The Adventures of Robin Hood, you are free to write about it also.

2. Once you have made your selection(s), leave a comment below or over on Crystal's blog. Please be sure to include the name and link to your blog (so I don't have to look it up).

3. Please be sure to acknowledge both hosts in your post with a link back to their blog.

4. Lastly, grab a banner and spread the word!

ROSTER:

Phyllis Loves Classic Movies: The Well Groomed Bride (1946)
In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood: The Dark Mirror (1946) & TBA
The Flapper Dame: My Cousin Rachel (1952)
Hamlette's Soliloquy: Dodge City (1939)
Movies Meet Their Match: The Proud Rebel (1958)
Pale Writer: The Snake Pit (1948)
Realweegiemidget Reviews: Olivia on The Love Boat
The Stop Button: The Heiress (1949)
Silver Screen Classics: My Cousin Rachel (1952)
Musings of a Classic Film Addict: Olivia's recipe for Salade Nicoise
The Midnight Drive-In: The Snake Pit (1948)
Pop Culture Reverie: Murder is Easy (1982)
PEPS: Sante Fe Trail (1940)
Critica Retro: A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935)
Poppity Talks Classic Film: Gold is Where You Find It (1938)
Screen Dreams: It's Love I'm After (1937)
18 Cinema Lane: Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)
A Shroud of Thoughts: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Old Hollywood Films: The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
Taking Up Room: The Heiress (1949)
Along the Brandywine: Captain Blood (1936)

Already claimed twice

My Cousin Rachel (1952), The Snake Pit (1948), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), and The Heiress

Movies I Watched in May

source

 

This month I finally watched the first two Falcon movies. TCM always seems to show a bunch of them on the same day and I feel like I can't just watch one. Same with the Saint movies.

1. The Gay Falcon (1941) - George Sanders & Wendy Barrie
2. A Date with the Falcon (1942) - George Sanders & Wendy Barrie
3. The Sky's the Limit (1943) - Fred Astaire & Joan Leslie, Robert Ryan
4. Desire Me (1947) - Greer Garson, Richard Hart, Robert Mitchum 
5. The Big Steal (1949) - Robert Mitchum & Jane Greer, William Bendix
6. *It’s a Great Feeling (1949) - Dennis Morgan, Doris Day, Jack Carson
7. Cause for Alarm! (1951) - Loretta Young, Barry Sullivan
8. *Roman Holiday (1953) - Audrey Hepburn & Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert
9. The Left Handed Gun (1958) - Paul Newman
10. Never Too Late (1965) - Maureen O’Sullivan, Jim Hutton, Connie Stevens
11. *My Bodyguard (1980) - Adam Baldwin (yes, I watched it again. On dvd. Last month it was a blurry copy on youtube.
12. Smoke Jumpers (1996) - Adam Baldwin & Lindsey Frost
13. Control Factor (2003) - Adam Baldwin, Tony Todd
14. Serenity (2005) - Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, Morena Baccarin (also watched Firefly),
15. Sands of Oblivion (2007) - Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, George Kennedy
16. *Skyfall (2012) - Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Naomi Harris, Albert Finney 

Least Favorite Film: Hands down Sands of Oblivion. It had the potential to be an exciting movie with a unique premise (finding the Cecile B. Demille sets used for The Ten Commandments), but despite the cast it was just terrible. Also the CGI was really bad. Control Factor had an weird inconclusive ending. Astaire's character was obnoxious in The Sky's the Limit and it made me mad that they expect the viewer to believe that 18 year old Joan Leslie would consider marrying the 44 year old Astaire or even worse the 54 year old Robert Benchley. Sure, Joan looked like she could be in her late 20s but that's still bad. I had to watch it for Robert Ryan though ;)

Favorite Film: I really enjoyed The Big Steal. However, the real favorite this month was the first four seasons of The Last Ship (2014-2018) starring Eric Dane, Adam Baldwin (of course), Rhona Mitra, Charles Parnell, Travis Van Winkle, and Jocko Sims. It's so good!! I will admit I looked away for some of the bloody scenes but otherwise I highly recommend!

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Look out for a Blogathon announcement post this week! I accidently published it the other day - I clicked on the wrong date - in case you're one of the ones that saw it and were wondering where it disappeared to. If you commented I've put you down already :)

Movies I Watched in April

Seasons 1-5 of Murder, She Wrote starring Angela Lansbury are on Amazon Prime!!! I had watched the first season on Netflix a couple years ago and then they removed it. Hopefully Prime will add the rest of the seasons eventually!

1. Sunnyside (1919) - Charlie Chaplin
2. The Working Man (1933) - George Arliss, Bette Davis
3. The White Sister (1933) - Helen Hayes & Clark Gable, Lewis Stone
4. Riptide (1934) - Norma Shearer, Herbert Marshall, Robert Montgomery
5. Big City (1937) - Spencer Tracy & Luise Rainer
6. Maid's Night Out (1938) - Joan Fontaine & Allan Lane (voice of Mr. Ed!)
7. Too Many Girls (1940) - Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Ann Miller
8. Niagara Falls (1941) - Tom Brown, Zasu Pitts
9. I Know Where I'm Going (1945) - Wendy Hiller & Roger Livesey, Pamela Brown, Petula Clark
10. Thrill of a Romance (1945) - Esther Williams & Van Johnson
11. Payment on Demand (1951) - Bette Davis
12. 99 River Street (1953) - John Payne & Evelyn Keyes 
13. *South Pacific (1958) - Rossano Brazzi & Mitzi Gaynor, John Kerr, Juanita Hall
14. *Where the Boys Are (1960) - Dolores Hart & George Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton & Paula Prentiss, Connie Francis
15. Murder Most Foul (1964) - Margaret Rutherford
16. Jack of Diamonds (1967) - George Hamilton & Marie Laforet, Joseph Cotten, Maurice Evans
17. My Bodyguard (1980) - Adam Baldwin
18. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) - Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage 
19. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) - Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage
20. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) - Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Luke Evans
21. *Psych the Movie (2017) - James Roday, Dule Hill, Maggie Lawson, Kirsten Nelson, Zachary Levi, John Cena

Least Favorite Movie: Big City, but only because I don't like Spencer Tracy and the storyline made me angry. I only watched it because when Luise Rainer died TCM showed most of her films and so now I only have three more of her Classic Hollywood era films to watch (Escapade, The Good Earth, and Hostages - she has some TV guest spots and movies to but I'm not worrying about those).

Favorite Movie: I really loved I Know Where I'm Going. It was a delightful movie! You can find it on youtube. It supposedly influenced Leap Year starring Amy Adams, which is a cute movie.

After watching The White Sister (1933), I really want to seek out more Helen Hayes films. She reminded me of Claudette Colbert but without the above everyone attitude.

It was so fun to see Lucy and Desi meet in Too Many Girls (1940). You can watch the scene here. And I love how they gave Desi the spotlight on the finale number where we got to see his bongo drum skills. And it was fun to spot Van Johnson in his first uncredited on-screen role. He was front and center in several scenes!

 

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I finally watched The Hobbit films. I don't like the LOTR films (Gollum creeps me out so much I look away most of the time). I was against the Hobbit films because I didn't like the way the dwarves looked. My dad has a copy of the book with illustrations from the 70s animated version and so that is how I see The Hobbit. But I was in the mood for a fantasy world film and my brother had them so we watched them. They were very enjoyable! Watching them also made me FINALLY reread the book, which I've only read all the way through once. I was happy they didn't stray too far from the text.

 

 

I started back up watching Chuck (2007-2012), which my cousin introduced to me last July, and am currently crushing on Adam Baldwin, who plays John Casey (don't judge me). Anyway, I watched his very first film, My Bodyguard (1980). It had a really good message and was heartbreaking/heartwarming. 

Movies I Watched in March

So far this year I've already watched four new-to-me movies from the 1970s! Surprising since last year I didn't watch any, not even the few favorites I have from that decade! I'm not saying it's ever going to be one of my favorite decades but I'm glad to have discovered some new films (they have all had actors I know from the Golden Age of Hollywood so... yeah).

1. The Power of the Press (1928 - Silent) - Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
2. King of Jazz (1930) - Paul Whiteman, John Boles, Bing Crosby
3. Supernatural (1933) - Carole Lombard & Randolph Scott
4. After Tonight (1933) - Constance Bennett & Gilbert Roland
5. Dancing Lady (1933) - Joan Crawford & Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, Three Stooges, Fred Astaire, Nelson Eddy, Eve Arden
6. *The Richest Girl in the World (1934) - Miriam Hopkins & Joel McCrea, Fay Wray
7. Fashions of 1934 (1934) - William Powell & Bette Davis, Frank McHugh
8. The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) - Ronald Colman & Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Reginald Owen, David Niven, Raymond Massey, Mary Astor
9. No Place to Go (1939) - Dennis Morgan & Gloria Dickson
10. Susan and God (1940) - Joan Crawford & Fredric March, Ruth Hussey, Rita Hayworth, John Carroll
11. Higher and Higher (1943) - Michele Morgan & Jack Haley, Frank Sinatra, Barbara Hale, Mary Wickes, Victor Borge
12. Hungry Hill (1947) - Margaret Lockwood, Jean Simmons, Dan O’Hurlihy 
13. The Naked City (1948) - Barry FitzGerald, Don Taylor
14. Jour de Fete (1949 - French) - Jacques Tati
15. The Tattooed Stranger (1950) - Walter Kinsella, John Miles, Patricia Barry
16. Sudden Fear (1952) - Joan Crawford & Jack Palance, Gloria Graham
17. Blueprint for Murder (1953) - Joseph Cotten & Jean Peters, Gary Merrill
18. *Valley of the Kings (1954) - Robert Taylor & Eleanor Parker
19. *The Bellboy (1960) - Jerry Lewis, Milton Berle 
20. The Rising of the Moon (1957) - Tyrone Power (narrator)
21. The Alphabet Murders (1965) - Tony Randall, Anita Ekberg
22. The Bears and I (1974) - Patrick Wayne, Robert Pine
23. California Suite (1978) - Alan Alda & Jane Fonda, Maggie Smith & Michael Caine, Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Walter Matthau

Mary Wickes had some great outfits in Higher and Higher (1943). Check out the sparkly crescent shaped fasteners in that last screenshot!

Least Favorite Film: Hungry Hill was very tiresome. I watched it for Jean Simmons but she was only in a little bit of the first half. Margaret Lockwood couldn't save the story either. Also No Place to Go. I wouldn't have finished it if I wasn't trying to watch all of Dennis Morgan's films but he was barely in it. The old man was good but I'm picky about child actors, especially when the story is centered on them. The Tattooed Stranger was a too slow, especially after watching The Naked City, which was also a police procedural film but with a much better tempo.

I desperately want this hat ♥ Susan and God (1940).

Favorite Film: Lots of great movies this month! I was so happy that TCM FINALLY showed Fashions of 1934 with William Powell. I've only been waiting like 5 YEARS! It did not disappoint. Bette Davis was kind of wasted in her role but Powell was in top form as always :) Also really enjoyed Dancing Lady and The Prisoner of Zenda.