I didn't catch the beginning of the movie, but from the point I did catch it it wasn't hard for me to follow. I felt so badly for Ingrid Bergman's Paula at first; so alone and neglected while her boyfriend shamelessly cheats on her and has no desire to change. "They mean nothing to me. It's how I am, I've never tried to hide it. I was always honest," Roger told Paula, as if that makes anything he's doing acceptable. Sad that's the mentality of many a cheater, both yesterday and today. In essence I think she asks him if she can have an affair, and since he has so many I don't see why he should care any. I wonder how many men and women find themselves in this predicament, either because the man is cheating or he is with a woman that is like Roger. Paula clearly loves Roger to death but her loneliness inevitably gets the better of her, and how could it not with Roger's blatant infidelities and bold declarations to never get married in front of Paula. Young Philip is all too endearing with his boyish charms and it appeals to the oft-ignored and disrespected Paula. I can tell she's torn between her obvious and very deep love for the undeserving Roger and her acknowledgement of the young Philip's affections. This movie explores the double standard that still in a way exists today--it was expected, sometimes encouraged, for a man to step out. It was considered normal and any expectations of fidelity were written off as poppycock. Don't want to stifle the man or let him get too bored with you, they'd always say. And as the woman, you were expected, mainly encouraged, to turn the other cheek. Bonus points for the man if the woman was younger. But a woman having an affair? With a younger man? Put a scarlet H for Harlot on her chest and stone her to death! It's a hard predicament, starting a relationship with a man who loves you but you don't love him, because the man you love won't love you back. It's also a hard predicament pursuing someone you know can never love you, knowing the entire time that one day they won't want you anymore, will want the person their heart still beats for, but you try anyway. I found this movie more realistic than I can say and still relevant today, some 52 years later. In the end, consequences...and a bit of karma...were served. Even though they made some decisions that were harmful, in the end they were realistic and relatable decisions. Such is life sometimes. You can't always make the popular, or the fantasy, or hell even the right decision. Sometimes it feels right, but isn't. Sometimes it is the right decision, but you don't realize it until it's too late. By then you've made your bed. The lead characters played their parts flawlessly and made this not necessarily a movie, but a very real look into what I bet are probably many relationships today. To love or be loved...it's the best case scenario to love and be loved, but unfortunately many of us have to choose one or the other.
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The Corn is Green:
Typical resistant town to something that is actually good for them; in this day and age it sounds amazingly ridiculous to reject the notion of education, but back during the time period this movie was set in education was for women and only until they were a certain age. For an entire town, the concept was ridiculous and most people felt the effort was wasted and so was the boys' time when they could be out making a living. Educating them was seen as "giving false hopes" because of the encouragement to do and be all that one can, and I think the various townspeople did a good job of portraying such fear and rejection of change. In a time period where women were seen as flimsy, I appreciated Miss Moffat for being the exact opposite. She said something to the squire towards the beginning of the movie that I had--had!--to copy because even though it was the early 1900s then, it is still very true now. She said, "I know I should be sticking a pin into a whale, but here are two words about yourself. I should like to point out that there is a considerable amount of dirt, ignorance, misery and discontent abroad in this world and a good deal of it is due to people like you. You are a stupid, conceited, addle-headed nincompoop, and you can go to blue blazes. Good afternoon." Loved. It. Later she tells Miss Ronberry, "The squire is so stupid he wears it like a halo." You could tell that the general dislike for what Miss Moffat was trying to do was wearing on her, and despite her strength even she couldn't resist a good cry, if only for a few seconds. It was nice to see the moment that her inspiration returned and her determination to see her plans through. I think Bette Davis was an excellent choice for Miss Moffat, as was Mildred Dunnock's selection as Miss Ronberry. The manipulative little bat after Morgan was quite the thorn in the side from the beginning and knew all the right things to say at the right time to get her way. The girl's own mother didn't even like her. She said, "I don't like her here, you know. I never did take to her. The first time I saw her, I said no." LOL This movie had so many quoteworthy quips. The little tart was just hateful, for no reason, with no provocation. It was also nice to see the gradual transformation of Morgan's character from an unpolished student to an educated, intelligent man with potential. I didn't like how things were hidden from Morgan, but I can see why they were kept a secret. It was inspiring to see the town make a turnaround from being openly closed-minded to being in full support at the end. A hard decision was made and there was a bittersweet happily ever after. This was a feel-good, a bit of an inspiration and wonderful from start to finish. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
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Love Me Tender:
The action in this movie starts from jump. One thing that I think detracted from the beginning a little was that because the action started right away, I had a hard time figuring out who the main characters were because there were so many people in the mix. After the initial action died down, I was a little bored for a few minutes. Once it did get started though, I was pretty interested to see how the fiber of this family would be fixed once everything came to light. Presley's Clint was just becoming a man and clearly idolized the hell out of Vance. By the way, what a welcome home gift 'ol Vance had to deal with receiving, huh? After fighting for 4 years straight, you get ready to come home and propose to your girl, only to find out that your entire family thinks you're dead and your dad has died, then when you get home you find out that your woman has up and married your baby brother--the one that just so happens to think you hung the stars in the sky. But in total oldest sibling fashion, Vance had to play the martyr and downplay his heartbreak as to not upset Clint so that the latter could be happy. That's an incredibly hard thing to do. I felt so bad for him. I guess this is where Elvis perfected the infamous hip thrust. I could tell that any opportunity the director saw to give Elvis a chance to shine, he took it. Vance said a line in this movie that I had to write down because it was too true for its own good. He said, "A home can be full of too much love. Then one night it burns up, and everyone in it." None of these men were bad and at the end of the day were just trying to take what they felt was theirs--spoils of war, they called it. So it was sad to see that the movie doesn't end with a happily ever after for the family; was in fact ripped apart again by greedy actions on the part of those who were supposed to be Vance's friends. If anything, this movie showed me that sometimes, you can't trust anyone, even family. It also showed that when you are lied to by the person who you love and admire the most, the wrong words at the perfect time can make all the right sense when your defenses are down. I wasn't overwhelmed by this movie, but I did enjoy it. There was no happy ending to be had here, so while the ending bothered me (what can I say, I'm an optimist lol) there was really no way that it could have resolved happily. Good introductory movie for Elvis.
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Murder at the Gallop:
The action in the movie starts almost immediately and even though I would still much prefer Poirot (and hope that one of his movies gets to be featured on a TNT), I'm interested to see how the film version was adapted to fit Miss Marple in the shoes of the investigator instead. I love that this little old lady rides a bike. Just love it. Right when you think you might be getting somewhere, the movie throws a little wrench in the plans, usually in the form of murder. Some interesting players in this flick; very bold about their intentions and as is usually the case with Agatha Christie players, they all have something to hide, something that makes them suspicious for the reader (or the viewer). Very agile, Miss Marple is. I think I adore her. I also think it takes a rotten person to try and kill a little old lady, even if she is a nosy one. There was much more murder than I thought would be in this movie; already 3 were dead by the last half-hour of the flick and Miss Marple would have been fourth had the earlier attempt succeeded. I took some random notes on the movie and I have concluded that I do adore Miss Marple. She's sharp, intelligent, I still love that she rides a bike, and didn't mind wearing the hell out of that dress to go dance towards the end. She tickles me. The disguise at the end was rather campy and elementary in format and I still saw who it was by looking into their eyes. I was surprised to find out who it was, though. One of my favorite lines came at the end, after the killer was caught trying to kill Miss Marple and the inspector asked her why she didn't ring the bell on the side table. She said simply, "The law may have a long arm, Inspector. Unfortunately, I haven't." The finish was rather anti-climactic and I was kind of bummed that more didn't come of the other characters who looked equally suspicious, but all in all the movie wrapped itself up nicely. Miss Marple even got a proposal out of the deal and it was rather cute. That bit of dialogue were the last lines in the film and were by far my favorite. After turning down the proposal, Miss Marple tells her would-have-been suitor that she has other interests, namely a murder-mystery coming up that she is part of. The suitor says he wouldn't be interested in attending, but asks Miss Marple to stay on for the day as his guest for a hunt. She says rather quickly, "I'm sorry but I do not approve of bloodsports," and leaves. He says, "Well that was a narrow escape." The irony, right? LOL. I would not watch this movie again and can see why Agatha Christie wasn't entirely fond of how her book was adapted for this film but I am glad I was introduced to Miss Marple.
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Dream Wife:
So this flick started with an older "Arab" man giving us a preview of what was to come in the movie, with English subtitles at the bottom and I totally could have done without that little 'preview.' I could see him reading off of the cue cards and there were a few too many English words in there to be believable. Just a random note. I have to say this was an interesting change of events, with the man trying to woo the woman and the woman being the more successful of the two, ordering Clem around and killing the mood of romance. A common theme I noticed throughout the movie was how various women, Effie included, disregarded common courtesies such as opening the door for Clem, lighting his cigarette and on a more contradictory note Effie's secretly leaving Clem's phone off the hook while he had to deal with hers ringing over and over again earlier in the day. I have to say that when I first read the summary for the movie I thought Clem was just being a chauvinistic old-fashioned male and did not know how to deal with having a successful partner but as I'm watching, it's more a reversal of gender roles. Effie tries to make the issue about Clem wanting her to stay at home and have no career, but in reality he just wanted her to deem their relationship important enough to put work on hold, just for a minute, which if you think about it is a complaint often lobbied by us women. Clem is oft-ignored and unconsidered for much of the movie, and it is probably partially due to my girlcrush on Cary Grant that this disrespect pisses me off. It's rude and inconsiderate and happens far too often. This leads to the obvious and foreseen breakup of Effie and Clem and his pursuit of Princess Tarji. Said pursuit involves Clem having to dress in traditional Arabian garb before flying to see her, and a funny scene ensues at the airport. This was clearly Cary Grant's niche and nobody delivered the dry quips quite like he did. He did well with deeper material, but these comedies are where I think he really shined. A very interesting scene comes about halfway through the movie, where the tables are turned and where men are ignored and talked down to by their American women who feel entitled to superior treatment, Bukistani women revere their men and do for them, so smaller actions that were ignored by Effie at the beginning of the film were immediately picked up on and performed by Tarji, something that did not slip past Clem's notice. Total case of "What you won't do, someone else will" and that sentiment holds true today. It's nice to be appreciated and valued, and where your partner refuses to do it there is someone out there who won't mind picking up the slack. Unfortunately for 'ol Clem, romancing Tarji holds its own set of disadvantages and he still doesn't get quite what he wants. Whereas the problem was work with Effie, it is protocol and rules with Tarji. However, the movie takes a (sort of) surprising turn and everyone goes home happy. This was a cute movie.
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