To Catch a Thief (1955)

Though not as critically acclaimed as his others this one is among my top 10 favorite Alfred Hitchcock movies. Why? Because Grace Kelly is irresistibly beautiful in it and Cary Grant is as smooth as ever playing a retired cat-burglar who must use his considerable skills to catch "his" impostor. It’s solid entertainment with several memorable scenes including the prophetically dangerous drive along the French Riviera (which later killed the real Princess Grace) a fireworks enhanced "romancing the stones" on the couch (great double entendre dialogue too!) and the climactic roof top scene. It also marks the last time Hitch used character actor John Williams (out of three) and the first time he employed actress Jesse Royce Landis (funny both times). Written by John Michael Hayes (Rear Window (1954)) from the novel by David Dodge. Robert Burks won the Academy Award for his Color Cinematography; its Color Art Direction-Set Decoration and Edith Head’s (Color) Costume Designs were also nominated. #46 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Love Stories list.

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Roaring Twenties The (1939)

This is an excellent film about three World War I Army buddies whose lives change dramatically when they return from the war and get involved in crime to varying degrees. Eddie (James Cagney) initially works as a cab driver sharing his old friend’s (Frank McHugh) taxi. But through a speakeasy owner a woman named Panama (Gladys George) Eddie gets involved in the illegal alcohol business (e.g. during Prohibition). Initially George (Humphrey Bogart) another of the soldiers is his "first lieutenant" in the criminal enterprise but later he becomes a rival racketeer. The third former soldier Lloyd (Jeffrey Lynn) becomes a lawyer who through Eddie helps Panama beat a rap. Priscilla Lane plays Jean a young girl Eddie corresponded with during the war when unbeknownst to him she was still in high school. Later when Eddie’s become "successful" he funds her singing debut held in Panama’s establishment. Though Eddie wants Jean for himself she has eyes for "honest" Lloyd … much like Panama has eyes for Eddie. These intrigues as well as the conflicts between Eddie and George make for an exciting picture which ends unforgettably! Directed by Raoul Walsh this Mark Hellinger story was adapted by Jerry Wald Richard Macauley and Robert Rossen.

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White Banners (1938)

Directed by Edmund Goulding with a screenplay co-written by Lenore J. Coffee (Four Daughters (1938)) Abem Finkel (Sergeant York (1941)) and Cameron Rogers this above average drama features Fay Bainter’s only Oscar nomination in the Best Actress category. Typically a Supporting Actress Bainter won the Academy Award in that category while losing Best Actress to her co-star Bette Davis for Jezebel (1938). In this film Bainter plays a woman with a hidden past that becomes the maid and then trusted confidant of "professor" & would-be inventor (four time Supporting Actor nominee Claude Rains) and his family in a small town. Through her simple philosophy enduring human spirit and gentle guidance she helps her "adoptive" family and others realize their goals until finally her secret motivation is revealed. A heart warming story that plays to the strengths Ms. Bainter’s skills making one wish the actress had played more (leading) roles in her career ala Spring Byington (You Can’t Take It with You (1938)).

The Wards are a family struggling to make ends meet since the birth of their second child. Marcia (Kay Johnson) is still weak months after childbirth and high school chemistry teacher Paul (Rains) makes barely enough to support his family spending any excess funds on equipment for his experiments. As Paul attempts to invent something that will free them from their poverty their teenage daughter Sally (Bonita Granville – These Three (1936)) is at that "boy crazy" age with her current affectation being Peter Trimble (Jackie Cooper – Skippy (1931)). Peter is the son of wealthy banker Sam Trimble (Henry O’Neill) who unbeknownst to Peter raised the boy as his own when his friend & current lawyer Thomas Bradford (James Stephenson) couldn’t.

Into their lives and out of the snow walks Hannah Parmalee (Bainter). While Marcia is struggling to figure out how to afford food for dinner Hannah knocks on her door trying to sell her a 25 cent apple peeler. Assessing the situation Hannah volunteers to help the weak Mrs. Ward with her baby. She then convinces Marcia to hire her to take care of the household & handle the meal responsibilities for their current monthly food budget from which she says she’ll still manage to pay herself wages. Seemingly too good to be true Hannah becomes part of their family and seems to have a particular interest in young Trimble. Peter who’s the scourge of Professor Ward’s chemistry class is actually quite bright. Urged by Hannah Paul engages Peter in his invention activities and the two of them create an ice-less icebox a refrigerator with a mechanical compressor in the basement to cool a unit upstairs in the kitchen. Peter’s dad assists them with funding. During this time Peter and Sally become closer and begin dating.

However tragedy befalls the Wards when Peter allows the Ellis Brothers (William Pawley Edward Pawley & John Ridgely) to steal their idea and Sally falls through the ice while skating with Peter and catches pneumonia. J. Farrell MacDonald plays the doctor. Again it is Hannah who is the glue which holds the family together. Eventually however her hidden secret threatens to upset the idyllic situation when her past revisits the small town.

Jezebel (1938)

Bette Davis received her second (and last even though she earned a bunch of Oscar nominations) Best Actress Academy Award playing Julie Marsden a stubborn Southern belle who must have her way controlling those around her with tragic results. Henry Fonda plays Preston Dillard the suitor who tries to tame her but later marries "Yankee" Amy Bradford (Margaret Lindsay). Fay Bainter won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar playing Julie’s Aunt Belle. George Brent plays gentleman Buck Cantrell who allows Julie to manipulate him to a point; Richard Cromwell plays Dillard’s brother Tom who idolizes Buck. Excellent support provided by Donald Crisp as Dr. Livingstone Henry O’Neill as General Theopholus Bogardus Spring Byington as Mrs. Kendrick and John Litel as Jean La Cour. Directed by William Wyler Owen Davis’s play was scripted by Clements Ripley Abem Finkel John Huston and Robert Buckner. The film was nominated for Best Picture of the Year by the Academy; its Cinematography and Max Steiner Score also received nominations. #79 of AFI’s 100 Greatest Love Stories list. Added to the National Film Registry in 2009.

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Watch on the Rhine (1943)

This is a must-see which is also timely for today’s times. A great film about standing up for what is right regardless of the odds with Oscar nominated dialogue ("speeches") from screenwriter Dashiell Hammett (his only Academy recognition for adapting Lillian Hellman’s play) everyone needs to hear spoken by Paul Lukas who sets a great example as a father. Lukas is so good he won the Best Actor Academy Award that year beating Humphrey Bogart (in Casablanca no less!) and Gary Cooper (in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)) among others. Bette Davis plays Lukas’s supportive wife and mother of their well educated (home schooled?) children Geraldine Fitzgerald the wife of George Couloris’s seemingly benign yet ultimately evil husband Lucile Watson (who received her only Oscar nomination Supporting Actress) plays Davis’s mother and Beulah Bondi also appears. The picture itself received an Oscar nomination; it was directed by Herman Shumlin.

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Letter The (1940)

Bette Davis gives her typical powerhouse (and Best Actress Academy Award nominated) performance in this essential drama as a woman accused of killing a man she claims was in self-defense. Herbert Marshall plays her husband who engages his lawyer (James Stephenson his only Oscar nominated performance Supporting) to defend her. Howard Koch adapted W. Somerset Maugham’s play which takes place on a rubber plantation. The film its director William Wyler its Max Steiner score Editing (Warren Low’s first of four unrewarded nominations) & Tony Gaudio’s (Anthony Adverse (1936)) B&W Cinematography were all Oscar nominated. Gale Sondergaard (also from Anthony Adverse (1936)) plays an unusual character the Eurasian widow of the murdered man convincingly as well; Cecil Kellaway also appears. The titled "letter" is valuable evidence implicating Davis’s character in an affair with the man she’d shot. It’s held for ransom by his widow through a conduit interpreter named Ong (Victor Sen Yung) setting up an ominous face-to-face between the two ladies.

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Ox-Bow Incident The (1943)

Directed by William Wellman (A Star is Born (1937)) and starring Henry Fonda this Oscar nominated Best Picture was added to the National Film Registry in 1998. It was written and produced by Lamar Trotti (Wilson (1944)). The film is over before you know it clocking just more than 75 minutes in length.

One of many classic lynch mob films this one (perhaps the best ever) begins with Fonda and Harry Morgan two drifters riding into a town where its residents instantly suspect them as potential cattle rustlers who have disrupted the small community. Of course they’re not but when word reaches town that a local has been killed in just such an incident they find themselves caught up in the posse that goes out to find the perpetrators. Fonda and local Harry Davenport are practically the only voices of reason among the group (which includes Jane Darwell – The Grapes of Wrath (1940)) which pursues its own form of justice in absence of the Sheriff and after the Judge (whose housekeeper is Margaret Hamilton uncredited) refuses to take responsibility. Among the accused who are "caught" are Anthony Quinn (Lust for Life (1956)) and Dana Andrews. The film’s title refers to the place where the mock trial takes place. It’s not difficult to tell where this one is going but it’s how they get there and its ending that makes this one an essential in my book.

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Shane (1953)

Directed by George Stevens (A Place in the Sun (1951) & later Giant (1956)) this classic Western stars Alan Ladd in the title role that of a gunfighter attempting to escape his past by becoming a laborer for struggling farmer family. Van Heflin (Johnny Eager (1942)) plays the head of that family his wife is played by Jean Arthur (The More the Merrier (1943)) in her last movie role (and five years after she was in Billy Wilder’s A Foreign Affair (1948)) and their young son is played by Brandon De Wilde. Ben Johnson (The Last Picture Show (1971)) and Jack Palance (City Slickers (1991)) play enforcers of cattleman Rufus Ryker’s "law". Loyal Griggs won an Oscar for his stunning Color Cinematography; Producer-Director Stevens received nominations in both categories (e.g. Best Picture & Director); De Wilde & Palance both received Supporting Actor nominations as did the film’s Screenplay. Added to the National Film Registry in 1993. #69 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Movies list; Shane is AFI’s #16 hero. "Shane. Shane. Come back!" is #47 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Movie Quotes list. #53 on AFI’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies list.

Riding in on horseback a weary gunfighter Shane (Ladd) arrives on the plains fronting the Grand Teton (Rocky) Mountains in Wyoming. He finds himself at one family’s humble farm where Joe Starrett (Heflin) is trying to scratch out a life for his family by farming the oft-frozen tundra. Trying to escape his past he befriends Starrett his wife Marian (Arthur) and especially their young son Joey (De Wilde) who later develops a hero worship towards the "former" warrior. However Shane is too soon involved in the classic struggle between "the farmer and the cowman" who can’t be friends because the farmer wants to fence the land to grow crops whereas the rancher wants free rein for his cattle. Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer) is the cattle baron who wants the farming families (which include Edgar Buchanan Elisha Cook Jr. and Douglas Spencer) to vacate the area and will use force if necessary. Starrett is the glue that holds the few farmers together in opposition to Ryker while Shane tries to stay out of it though Shane & Starrett do hold their own in a scuffle with Calloway (Johnson) and some of Ryker’s other men. The conflict begins in full when Ryker brings in outside muscle (Palance) and Cook Jr.’s short Southerner (from the Civil War) with a chip on his shoulder tangles with him. Ellen Corby (I Remember Mama (1948)) plays Cook Jr.’s wife.

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Pride of the Yankees The (1942)

Gary Cooper does it again believably plays a real-life hero this time it’s baseball legend Lou Gehrig in this essential biographical drama. His performance earned him his third (of five) Best Actor Academy Award nomination. Teresa Wright received her third consecutive acting Oscar nomination in only her third performance on screen. Though she lost Best Actress to Greer Garson’s Mrs. Miniver (1942) she won the Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in that film. Walter Brennan is his usual excellent self in this Samuel Goldwyn produced Best Picture Oscar nominee; actor Dan Duryea also appears as do Babe Ruth Bill Dickey and several other major league baseball players (as themselves). The film received a bunch of other nominations including for Paul Gallico’s Original Story and its Herman Mankiewicz (Citizen Kane (1941)) & Jo Swerling (his only) Screenplay; it won for Editing (Daniel Mandell’s first of three statuettes). The film’s Special Effects Score Sound and B&W Art Direction-Interior Decoration & Cinematography were also nominated. "Coop"’s Gehrig is AFI’s #25 hero. Gehrig’s real quote "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." was voted #38 on AFI’s 100 Greatest Movie Quotes list. #22 on AFI’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies list.

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Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

A powerful essential historical drama from producer-director Stanley Kramer (written by Abby Mann) about the post World War II trials of German officers as war criminals. The cast couldn’t be better headlined by Spencer Tracy as the judge in the case(s) and Burt Lancaster as one of the accused. It features Maximilian Schell’s Academy Award winning performance (on his first nomination) as the defense attorney a Best Actor Oscar nominated performance from Tracy and Supporting Actor/Actress Oscar nominations for Montgomery Clift and Judy Garland (their last) who play witnesses. Other fine supporting performances are given by Richard Widmark as the prosecutor Marlene Dietrich as a German woman (Tracy’s character gets to know) that denies knowledge of the Nazi crimes and Werner Klemperer (before TV’s Hogan’s Heroes) as another of the accused. William Shatner appears as Tracy’s aide. The film and its director were Oscar nominated; Abby Mann took home the gold (on her first nomination) for Best Writing Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium. Ernest Laszlo’s B&W Cinematography Jean Louis’s B&W Costume Design Frederic Knudtson’s Editing and the film’s B&W Art Direction-Set Decoration also received nominations. Added to the National Film Registry in 2013.

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