All About Eve (1950)

Bette Davis is right.

Strap yourselves in, folks. All About Eve is a must-see film.

Thank you, Joseph Mankiewicz, for writing and directing this incredible 1950 release. All About Eve earned 14 Oscar nominations and won six including best film, screenplay and director.

This drama boasts such a beautiful script with all kinds of delicious lines. It's also topical to watch more than 60 years later when the cult of celebrity is as strong as it ever was. The fate of actresses as they age and their transition from talk of the town to yesterday's news is also explored.

Eve (Anne Baxter) is a devoted fan to theatre giant Margo (Bette Davis). But Eve doesn't just want to worship Margo's talent. She wants to top her success. This lady is hooked on the "waves of love" audiences offer when they really like an actor's work. Eve gets a job as Margo's assistant and her manipulation accelerates.

She worms her way into Margo's life and proceeds to scheme and manipulate her way to major success. Only Margo's handler, Birdie (Thelma Ritter) is suspicious of Eve from the start. "You want an argument or an answer," Birdie tells Margo when she asks about Eve's actions.

Eve is a master at her craft, subtly weaving her spell to get others to do what she wants. Others, such as Margo, her friend Karen (Celeste Holm) and her playwright husband Lloyd (Hugh Marlowe) are out of their element against this master schemer. Eve is agreeable to using blackmail to get what she wants too.

George Sanders shines as theatre critic Addison DeWitt. This guy lives for the stage and its characters. Nothing else matters in his life. Only he is able to go toe-to-toe with Eve's scheming. Wait for when they're together in her suite. Sparks fly. "You're stepping way up in class," he warns her as they square off.

Eve's actions leave viewers slack-jawed at their audacity. She really is something else - and so is this movie.

My only real beef. The ending strikes this film fan as a copout with Eve ready to get a taste of her own medicine. But that's a small lament. Watch this film.

RATING: 9.5/10

FUN FACTS: Marilyn Monroe stands out with a small role as Miss Casswell, another young actress who dreams of success. But she's an amateur compared to Eve's cunning.

Hugh Marlowe and Gary Merrill, who appears as Bette Davis' boyfriend, appeared in Twelve O'Clock High. It's another one of Reel Popcorn Junkie's must-see films.

The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

This film is a feast for movie-goers.

The Man Who Came to Dinner serves up a great script from twin brothers Julius Epstein and Philip Epstein (Casablanca, Arsenic and Old Lace) based on a smash Broadway show of the same name.

Director William Keighley (The Fighting 69th, The Adventures of Robin Hood) assembles a delicious cast with Monty Woolley carving out a standout performance as self-centred, caustic author and critic Sheridan Whiteside.

After a fall, the man praised as "the first man of American letters" takes over the house of industrialist Ernest Stanley (Grant Mitchell) and his wife (Billie Burke) and relegates the couple upstairs. Whiteside starts scheming when he learns his secretary Maggie Cutler (Bette Davis) has fallen for a reporter, Bert Jefferson (Richard Travis), from the midwestern town where he was supposed to speak. "I'll pull you out of this stardust," he vows. But Cutler is ready to settle down.

He recruits bombshell actress Lorraine Sheldon (Ann Sheridan) to take the train from sunny Palm Beach to spend Christmas pulling Jefferson away from Cutler. Sheridan's right-hand woman turns to Beverly Carlton (Reginald Gardner) to pull Sheldon off the hunt.

Meanwhile, the Stanleys home is filling up with Christmas gifts from Whiteside's admirers. They include an octopus and four penguins. Whiteside doles out life advice to the couple's two children (Elisabeth Fraser, Russell Arms) that quickly has them packing their bags and leaving home with great enthusiasm.

Woolley is a joy to watch in this film. His barbs and disdainful reproaches towards just about every single person he meets are very funny. George Barbier, making one of his last screen appearances before his death in 1945, shines as Dr. Bradley, a family physician who's terribly keen to have Whiteside read his memoirs about being a small-town doctor.

Jimmy Durante's appearance as Banjo, an old friend of Whiteside's, is a bit much. He's over the top in a film that does quite well handling all kinds of craziness in a low-key way.

Movie fans often hear the phrase, "They don't make 'em like they used to." Darn right. The Man Who Came to Dinner is perfect proof.

RATING: 8/10

FUN FACTS: Billie Burke appeared as Glinda in The Wizard of Oz.

Reginald Gardiner's last credit was as a butler in an episode of The Monkees.

The Man Who Came to Dinner was a career highlight for both Richard Travis (Missile of the Moon, Mesa of Lost Women) and Richard Arms. The latter actor died in 2012 at age 92.

Jimmy Durante narrated the 1970 Christmas special, Frosty the Snowman. He sang the title tune too.

Mary Wickes, along with Monty Woolley, appeared in the show's Broadway production. Contemporary audiences saw her in Sister Act and its sequel in the early 1990s.

The Letter (1940)

The Letter is first class entertainment.



This 1940 film noir from director William Wyler (Ben-Hur, The Little Foxes) offers plenty to savour.



There's great performances from Bette Davis, James Stephenson and Gale Sondergaard (The Mark of Zorro) and beautiful cinematography from Tony Gaudio (The Adventures of Robin Hood, High Sierra).



The Letter earned an eye-popping seven Academy Award nominations, including Davis (best actress) and Wyler (director).



This film opens with a bang, or bangs, to be more exact. Leslie Crosbie (Davis) has just filled a Geoffrey Hammond (David Newell) with slugs outside her home at a rubber plantation late at night.



She suggests Hammond was a surprise visitor who planned to sexually assault her. The story sounds believable until her lawyer Howard Joyce (Stephenson) learns of a letter Leslie wrote to Hammond that same day, demanding to see him. They were lovers. Leslie is riled he chose to tie the knot with Sondergaard. Murder follows.



Joyce puts his career on the line to help his client. Her husband, Robert (Herbert Marshall), is her loving and totally clueless better half who knows nothing of his wife's lengthy affair. His dreams of a new business opportunity are also risked because of the cash it'll take to make the sure chances of a murder conviction disappear.



Sondergaard says little in this film, but boy does she make a big impact on the screen as she continually glowers at the woman who killed her husband. The spooky mood surrounding her character gets a big help from the score courtesy of Max Steiner (Casablanca, Gone with the Wind). Watch, and listen, for a scene at a Chinese merchant's shop with wind chimes dangling as Mrs. Hammond and Leslie meet. This is great cinema, followed by a chilling finale.



There's plenty of drama after the murder trial as Robert tries to deal with his wife's infidelity, Joyce wondering if he's thrown his career away and Leslie still tormented by her lover. The DVD I watched offered an alternate ending, but there's nothing Earth shattering about its content. The original packs a real punch and a fine overhead shot leading to the film's final scene.



RATING: 9/10



FUN FACTS: Prison matron Doris Lloyd was Baroness Ebberfeld in The Sound of Music. She also had an uncredited role in the original Mutiny on the Bounty.



Victor Sen Yung, who appears as James Stephenson's assistant, was Hop Sing in Bonanza. He also played Jimmy Chan in several Charlie Chan films.

Dark Victory (1939)

Dark Victory is a bright spot in Bette Davis' filmography.

The American film legend lobbied hard for the play by George Emerson Brewer, Jr. and Bertram Bloch to be made into a motion picture.

Good call, Bette.

Her Judith Traherne is a well-off socialite living very well off her late father's fortune. Much like a 1930s version of the Kiss song, Rock and Roll All Night, Traherne parties well into the morning and enjoys regular intakes of alcohol and tobacco.

She's hesitant to say anything about painful headaches that have bothered her for several months. Her eyesight is getting wonky too. It's not until she a) takes a bad spill when riding a horse and b) falls down a flight of stairs that others get a concerned about her well-being.

Enter Dr. Frederick Steele (George Brent). Steele is an accomplished brain surgeon. He's getting ready to pack up his practice and head to Vermont where he can focus on his scientific research.

Tarherne is a reluctant patient, loathe to reveal details about her serious ailments.

"It's just a boring subject," she suggests about her health. "I'm accustomed to looking after myself."

Steele has an idea what's happening and X-rays confirm his suspicions. He must operate, but even that surgery isn't a complete success. Traherne will die in less than a year. Steele swears Traherne's best friend, Ann King (Geraldine Fitzgerald), to secrecy.

Sparks start flying between Steele and Traherne. All this talk about illness and mortality sure doesn't impact her looks. She's luminous and full of life. That sunny attitude takes a big dip when she happens on her medical file and learns of her fate. It's back to her hard-living lifestyle. Suicide begins to look like attractive rather than counting the days waiting for her demise.

Will she reunite with Steele? Will she find peace before her death?

Dark Victory is a joy to watch even with all its deep subject matter. Brent is the rock solid caregiver to Davis. As Traherne, Davis gives a role of a lifetime. Her work in this 1939 feature fromd director Edmund Goulding (Grand Hotel, The Dawn Patrol) earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress.

It's a little odd seeing Humphrey Bogart as a horse trainer after tough guy roles in Angels with Dirty Faces and The Roaring Twenties. Both films were also released in the late 1930s.

Future American president Ronald Reagan is more a tippler than the Gipper as Alec, a party-going friend of Traherne's. There's even a small role for Henry Travers. He's known most for his role as Clarence, the angel, in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life.

The death of Traherne's father allowed her a life of wealth and privlege. She battles illness while Steele does research to save lives. Should doctors tell their patients when death is imminent? When should someone speak up about secrets others are keeping? There are some meaty questions to chew on in addition to the film's fine performances.

RATING: 8/10

The Petrified Forest (1936)

RATING: 8/10

The Petrified Forest breathed life into the-then sagging careers of Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis.

The mid-1930s was hardly a highpoint for either legendary performer, as the film's accompanying documentary, The Petrified Forest: Menace in the Desert, explains.

BOGART AND DAVIS NEEDED A BOOST

Bogart, 36, was running out of chances on the big screen after about a dozen roles, inluding appearances in Three on a Match and Midnight, did little to help his chances. Davis was also making little headway five years into a career that began with The Bad Sister in 1931.

Bogart appeared in the stage version of The Petrified Forest. Leading man Leslie Howard (Alan Squier) was adamant Bogie be cast in the film directed by Archie Mayo (Black Legion, A Night in Casablanca).

Howard's stubborness ignited Bogart's career. He'd go on to star in a string of classics including Key Largo, Casablanca and High Sierra. Midler's career would stretch for another 50-plus years ending with her final screen appearance in 1989.

Bogart's a treat to watch in this screen adaptation of Robert Sherwood's play. He's Duke Mantee, a feared gangster with a very bloody past. He's on the run from the law, and bound for Mexico, when he turns up at a restaurant and gas station in the desert.

I SERVED MY COUNTRY SAFELY

The desolate business is owned by Jason Maple (Porter Hall), a First World War veteran who's chided by his father, Gramp Maple (Charley Grapewin), for serving behind the lines as a mechanic.

There's a lot of that disillusion in this 1936 drama. Squier is the intellectual who was supposed to be a great writer. He wrote one book and it sold dismally. His wife left him. Squier discovers the restaurant as he hitch-hikes across the United States.

Jason's daughter, Gabrielle, is itching to get back to France where she was born and her mother still lives. She wants to paint. While gas jockey Boze Hertzlinger (Dick Foran) tries to woo Gabrielle, she's more interested in Squier. A former college football star, Boze is far from the glory he enjoyed on the grid iron.

Mantee and his gang hijack a vehicle occupied by banker Mr. Chisholm (Paul Harvey) and his long-suffering wife (Genevieve Tobin). The gangster and his crew end up at Maple's restaurant during a sandstorm. Mr. Chisholm is more interested in business succession than his wife when the bullets eventually start flying.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Will they make it to Mexico ahead of the law? Will Boze and Alan square off over their affections for Gabrielle? Will she see her dream of a life in Europe come true?

The Petrified Forest offers viewers a strong cast and an early look at just how good Bogart and Davis are on the screen. Bogart is a menacing bad guy, speaking slowly and delivering most of his lines seated in a chair. He doesn't make his first appearance until about 30 minutes into the film, but he's riveting for The Petrified Forest's final hour.

More gangster roles would follow for Bogart, including The Roarding Twenties. This is where he started.

FUN FACTS: Director Mayo and Bogart teamed up for Black Legion in 1937. Foran was in that film too.

Genevieve Tobin's last film credit was No Time for Comedy in 1940. She married director William Keighley in 1938. They'd stay together until his death in 1984. Tobin died in 1995 at age 95.

Charley Grapewin was Uncle Henry in The Wizard of Oz and Grandpa in The Grapes of Wrath.