Released in 1957, The Pajama Game allows Doris Day to showcase both her acting and singing talents. Taken from a 1954 stage show, director Stanley Donne combines light comedy and music to create an enjoyable confection. At Iowa’s Sleeptite Pajama…
Written by Erich Segal and directed by Arthur Hiller, Love Story broke box-office records, and catapulted its stars, Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal, to stardom. While I’m the first to admit that Love Story remains a guilty pleasure more than…
In the 1940’s and 1950’s, Danny Kaye was a huge movie star. Largely forgotten today, he made only three movies throughout the 1960’s, though he did star in his own variety show from 1963-67. Essentially retiring early, Kaye made only…
Arizona, 1944, Colfax Army Air Force Base. Josiah Newman, MD (Gregory Peck) needs help, space, and time. As head of the hospital’s psyche ward he has six weeks to either cure, ship back, or ship out his ever-growing number of…
A passion project for Frank and Eleanor Perry, Ladybug Ladybug imagined the dread of a singular day when the faculty and students at a rural grade school are led to believe that a nuclear attack is imminent. The students are…
Frank and Eleanor Perry’s adaptation of Sue Kaufman’s novel, Diary of a Mad Housewife was released to critical in 1970 and fifty years later it still resonates. Starring in her first film, Carrie Snodgrass won a Golden Globe for Best…
Released in 1971 (the same year as Dirty Harry and Play Misty for Me), the gothic melodrama The Beguiled was a disappointment at the box office. Based on the novel A Painted Devil by Thomas P. Cullinan, The Beguiled is…
Released in 1983, Trading Places has the feel of a 1930’s screwball comedy. Set in Philadelphia during the holidays, this modern reworking of Mark Twain’s Prince and the Pauper concerns two men of vastly different backgrounds who switch places. Louis…
Since this is my fourth (!) review of 1986’s Top Gun I’ll omit the usual film discussion. If you would like to see my full comments on the film, please click here. This is an identical release to the 4K…
A dozen years before Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the 32nd president of the United States, he would be faced with the biggest challenge of his personal life. One day in the summer of 1921, FDR had spent the day swimming…