This film is Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy’s best feature effort. The script, gags and characters work perfectly together. The film works as one expects from a Laurel and Hardy film. Laurel plays Stanley, the thin submissive dimwit, and Hardy plays Ollie, the portly smug leader. But the twist is that the comic duo has fun with the conventions of the Western.

Laurel and Hardy are on a mission out West to deliver a gold mine deed to Mary Roberts (Rosina Lawrence, THE LITTLE RASCALS), whom inherited it after her father died. When her guardian Mickey Finn (James Finlayson, JULIA MISBEHAVES) and his dance hall girlfriend Lola Marcel (Sharon Lynn) find out, they plan to trick Laurel and Hardy into getting the deed for themselves. Once they do and Stan and Oliver discover the truth, the comic heroes dedicate themselves to getting it back.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check Out the Trailer

Coming out one year after GHOST and kicking off the directing career of Anthony Minghella (ENGLISH PATIENT), the story follows the healing process Nina (Juliet Stevenson, BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) goes through after her beloved boyfriend Jamie (Alan Rickman, ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES) dies.

The film starts as a straight-forward drama, but midway through brings in the ghost of Jamie. Before Jamie reappears, Nina is having a very hard time. She can’t date and is very sensitive about anything to do with Jamie. There’s a powerful scene where Nina breaks down in a therapy session, which is one of the most heartrending crying scenes I’ve ever seen.

Read the rest of this entry »

The general premise of this film has been copied ad nauseam on television for decades. It’s the plot that folks who haven’t ever seen a Laurel and Hardy film already know. The American Film Institute placed it at #96 on its best American comedies list. Surprisingly, the only Laurel and Hardy film to make the list. In the film, Stanley Laurel and Oliver Hardy want to go to their lodge convention in Chicago, but their wives won’t let them. So they come up with a scheme that Oliver is so sick they must go to Hawaii to get well. However, no plan from this comic duo could go that easy.

What makes this so much better than its imitators is that more than 70 years later it still seems fresh and retains the universal dilemmas of male-y males and their relationships with their wives. The film has a great deal of fun with how sticky lies can get. For Ollie lies can cause a big headache. And this is really just a reworking of their short films, WE FAW DOWN from 1928 and BE BIG! from 1931.
Read the rest of this entry »

This psychological thriller from director Robert Altman (M*A*S*H) is like a cross between DON’T LOOK NOW, SPIDER and A BEAUTIFUL MIND.

Cathryn (Susannah York, THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY?) is a writer, whose husband Hugh (Rene Auberjonois, TV’s STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE) is a successful businessman. Early on, we realize that Cathryn is schizophrenic and sees things that are not real. After an episode, Cathryn convinces Hugh to take a holiday in the country. There, they meet with friend Rene (Marcel Bozzuffi, Z), whose young daughter Susannah (Cathryn Harrison, THE DRESSER) becomes friends with Cathryn.

Read the rest of this entry »

Watch the Film

I love Buster Keaton. He was a genius of an amazing range of talents. Up until seeing this film, THE CAMERAMAN was my favorite of his work. Now it’s this film. In only 44 minutes Keaton has created one of the funniest films I’ve ever seen.

He plays a movie projectionist who is studying to be a detective. He wants to marry his girl (Kathryn McGuire, THE NAVIGATOR), but the local sheik (Ward Crane, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA) also vies for her hand. After the sheik sets up the projectionist as stealing the girl’s father’s (Joe Keaton, THE GENERAL) watch, the wanna-be detective is heartbroken. He goes back to the theater and as he falls asleep he is transported into the crime film playing on the screen where he becomes the suave detective Sherlock, Jr.

Read the rest of this entry »