The Miracle of the Bells (1948)
Starring Fred MacMurray, Valli, Frank Sinatra, and Lee J. Cobb
Directed by Irving Pichel
Written by Ben Hecht and Quentin Reynolds
The RyMickey Rating: D-
Showing posts with label fred macmurray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fred macmurray. Show all posts
Sunday, January 03, 2021
Wednesday, December 09, 2020
Remember the Night
Remember the Night (1940)
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, and Sterling Holloway
Directed by Mitchel Leisen
Written by Preston Sturges
The (current) RyMickey Rating: B+
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
The Egg and I
The Egg and I (1947)
Starring Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Marjorie Main, Percy Kilbride, and Louise Allbritain
Directed by Chester Erskine
Written by Chester Erskine and Fred F. Finklehoffe
The RyMickey Rating: D+
Monday, May 18, 2020
There's Always Tomorrow
There's Always Tomorrow (1956)
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Joan Bennett, William Reynolds, Pat Crowley, Gigi Perreau, and Judy Nugent
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Written by Bernard C. Schoenfeld
The RyMickey Rating: C+
Sunday, May 17, 2020
Double Indemnity
Double Indemnity (1944)
Starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, and Jean Heather
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler
The RyMickey Rating: A
Monday, May 11, 2020
The Apartment
The Apartment (1960)
Starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray, Jack Kruschen, Ray Walston, and Edie Adams
Directed by Billy Wilder
Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
The RyMickey Rating: A
Thursday, September 12, 2019
The Happiest Millionaire
The Happiest Millionaire (1967)
Starring Fred MacMurray, Tommy Steele, Greer Garson, Gladys Cooper, Geraldine Page, Hermione Baddeley, John Davidson, and Lesley Ann Warren
Directed by Norman Tokar
Written by A.J. Carothers
The RyMickey Rating: B-
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Movie Review - Remember the Night
Remember the Night (1940)
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth Patterson, and Sterling Holloway
Directed by Mitchell Leisen
Here Stanwyck is Lee Leander, a woman justly accused of shoplifting an expensive piece of jewelry from a department store the week before Christmas. MacMurray is the prosecuting attorney John Sargent who, after hearing the defense attorney's plea that Lee was "hypnotized" by the glimmer of the jewelry, calls for a recess so the state's psychiatrist who is on Christmas vacation can testify against Ms. Leander. When the judge agrees, Lee is to be held in jail over the holidays. John feels a bit bad about this and ends up asking the agreeable bail bondsman a favor to let Lee out for Christmas. After discovering that as a youth Lee lived just miles from John's hometown in Indiana, the two resident New Yorkers set out on a road trip to see John's family for the holidays with a stop in at Lee's mother's house along the way. Of course, it wouldn't be surprising if the two begin to feel affection for one another, would it?
Both Stanwyck and MacMurray are good here -- but they're always good in nearly everything I've seen them in. Director Mitchell Leisen actually does a bit here with shadows and lighting to make his film stand out from the typical holiday norms, but Preston Sturges' screenplay which is strong at the beginning during the courtroom scenes, falters quite a bit as Lee and John take their road trip. In fact, their journey is almost painfully mundane. Fortunately, the film picks up again when John makes it to his family thanks to some nice supporting turns from Beulah Bondi and Sterling Holloway (the voice of Disney's Winnie the Pooh, Kaa the Snake, and many more) as John's mother and brother, respectively.
Remember the Night isn't particularly memorable, but it's not cloyingly sentimental either as some holiday flicks are wont to be. And plus, Stanwyck and MacMurray are always a treat to watch.
The RyMickey Rating: C+
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Classic Movie Review - Double Indemnity (1944)
So I got to see one of my favorite movies of all time on 35mm last night. As I posted on Facebook, there's something special about watching old black-and-white movies on 35mm film in a theater. Call me a film geek, but I love the scratches, the sound fading in and out, the communal experience of seeing a film with an audience. In my original review below, I state that Double Indemnity may be in my Top Ten favorite movies of all time, but I'm fairly certain now that the film is entrenched in my Top Five movies. I love it. It's not perfect, but I love it nonetheless.
Below is a repost of my original review of the film.
Below is a repost of my original review of the film.
***Originally posted on January 31, 2009***
starring Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, and Edward G. Robinsondirected by Billy Wilder
screenplay by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler
Neff: You want to know who killed Deitrichson? Hold tight to that cheap cigar of yours, Keyes. I killed Dietrichson. Me, Walter Neff, 35 years old, unmarried, no physical scars...until a while ago, that is. Yes, I killed him. I killed him for money and for a woman. And I didn't get the money and I didn't get the woman. Pretty, isn't it? It all began last May...
Seriously, they don't make movies like this anymore. With all the crap that they release today, it's nice to see that the film industry at least was able to produce excellent movies at one point in time and thank goodness we can go back and watch them.
A classic film noir, Double Indemnity has all that you would expect in the genre -- people doing bad things to get what they want, putting the audience on the side of the killer, a femme fatale, smoky rooms, and shadowy shots.
Walter Neff (MacMurray), an insurance sales man, confesses at the very beginning of the film to the murder of a man -- a man whose wife Walter has fallen in love with. Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) is unhappy in her marriage and she makes that perfectly clear when Neff visits the Dietrichson home on a sunny summer afternoon to renew her husband's auto insurance. The hubby isn't home, but Phyllis and Neff hit it off right away -- bouncing some incredibly witty, sexy lines off of each other (I am a big Billy Wilder fan and he does not disappoint here).
Unhappy in her marriage, Phyllis desires to take out accident insurance on her husband without his knowledge -- a sure giveaway that she intends to somehow kill him and take the insurance money. Neff doesn't want to be involved at first, but his newfound infatuation takes him over and he agrees to help Phyllis plan and carry out her husband's murder so long as they'll be together in the end.
Believe me, that's not ruining a thing for you as that is all laid out in the first thirty minutes of the film. And it's not ruining a thing to tell you that their plan doesn't succeed as they had planned...heck, you discover that within the first three minutes. It's what happens leading up to the murder and the clean-up afterwards that's a doozy. It's not that it's got a shocker ending like movies today, but there are plenty of unexpected twists that it never gets the least bit boring.
The acting is all top-notch. MacMurray (best known to me as the Absent Minded Professor of Disney movies) is the everyman who turns to the dark side -- completely believable as both a good guy and a bad one. Stanwyck is great -- sexy (in that 1940s Hollywood kind of way) and completely slimy at the same time. You know she's no good from the get-go, but you're lured in by her sultry mystique. Edward G. Robinson, playing an insurance claims investigator (and Neff's co-worker who is researching the Dietrichson case) is a hoot. His wise-ass retorts were spot-on.
And it's Wilder who's to thank for the words that come out of these characters' mouths. The repartee between Neff and Phyllis is amazing -- some of the best lines I've heard in a long time. As I already said, he saves a lot of great stuff for Robinson's character as well.
There's not a wasted scene in this movie. I can't recommend this one more highly. If you haven't seen it, put it in your Netflix queue right away.
A classic film noir, Double Indemnity has all that you would expect in the genre -- people doing bad things to get what they want, putting the audience on the side of the killer, a femme fatale, smoky rooms, and shadowy shots.
Walter Neff (MacMurray), an insurance sales man, confesses at the very beginning of the film to the murder of a man -- a man whose wife Walter has fallen in love with. Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) is unhappy in her marriage and she makes that perfectly clear when Neff visits the Dietrichson home on a sunny summer afternoon to renew her husband's auto insurance. The hubby isn't home, but Phyllis and Neff hit it off right away -- bouncing some incredibly witty, sexy lines off of each other (I am a big Billy Wilder fan and he does not disappoint here).
Unhappy in her marriage, Phyllis desires to take out accident insurance on her husband without his knowledge -- a sure giveaway that she intends to somehow kill him and take the insurance money. Neff doesn't want to be involved at first, but his newfound infatuation takes him over and he agrees to help Phyllis plan and carry out her husband's murder so long as they'll be together in the end.
Believe me, that's not ruining a thing for you as that is all laid out in the first thirty minutes of the film. And it's not ruining a thing to tell you that their plan doesn't succeed as they had planned...heck, you discover that within the first three minutes. It's what happens leading up to the murder and the clean-up afterwards that's a doozy. It's not that it's got a shocker ending like movies today, but there are plenty of unexpected twists that it never gets the least bit boring.
The acting is all top-notch. MacMurray (best known to me as the Absent Minded Professor of Disney movies) is the everyman who turns to the dark side -- completely believable as both a good guy and a bad one. Stanwyck is great -- sexy (in that 1940s Hollywood kind of way) and completely slimy at the same time. You know she's no good from the get-go, but you're lured in by her sultry mystique. Edward G. Robinson, playing an insurance claims investigator (and Neff's co-worker who is researching the Dietrichson case) is a hoot. His wise-ass retorts were spot-on.
And it's Wilder who's to thank for the words that come out of these characters' mouths. The repartee between Neff and Phyllis is amazing -- some of the best lines I've heard in a long time. As I already said, he saves a lot of great stuff for Robinson's character as well.
There's not a wasted scene in this movie. I can't recommend this one more highly. If you haven't seen it, put it in your Netflix queue right away.
The RyMickey Rating: A
I'm going to try and make this classic movie review (movies pre-1980) thing happen once a week. I'm not sure they'll always be good movies (as I may take the time to watch movies I haven't seen before), but I'm hoping that the "classic" moniker will make most of them decent!
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