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The Thrill Of It All (1963), scripted by Carl Reiner, is a lightweight
comedy with an implausible, stereotyped, slow and not funny plot (with
disturbing reactionary overtones).
A middle-aged woman in an elevator is ecstatic: she is pregnant.
Ecstatic, she tells her husband, the son of a tycoon.
The wealthy couple calls their gynaecologist, Gerald, to thank him for the
"miracle" and invite him to a dinner.
The doctor's wife Beverly (Doris Day), a typical housewife who spends her day
taking care of a girl and a boy, is the hit of the evening when she
tells the tycoon, owner of a soap business, that she likes his soap.
The old man hires her to advertise his product, but her first appearance live
on television is a disaster.
Instead her honesty wins over the masses, and the old man offers her an even
higher sum to continue advertising for him.
Beverly becomes a tv star, rivaling her husband in income.
Needless to say, her husband becomes jealous of her career and disturbed by
the turmoil that it is causing to their family life.
One night, shocked to see a giant billboard of his wife, he stops in the
middle of the road and is fined by the police.
He tries to win back the mother in Beverly by seducing her into having another
baby, but they can't even dine in peace, as fans ask Beverly for autographs,
and at night she's too tired.
In the morning, not knowing that his wife has ordered a swimming pool, he drivesthe car straight into it.
Before going to sleep, Gerald dumps all their boxes of soap into the pool.
In the morning the house is submerged by a giant bubble of foam.
The doctor tries a new strategy: jealousy. He pretends to be having an
affair and to come home drunk. It works. She is seriously worried.
When the lady finally delivers the baby (in a limo stuck in traffic),
husband and wife finally make peace. She decides to give up her career
and be just a housewife.
Send Me No Flowers (1964) is a comedy that doesn't quite succeed in
creating a memorable character or telling memorable jokes.
George is happily married to Judy, but he has a fixation: he thinks he has
all the possible diseases. He sees the doctor about a chest pain. It is only
an indigestion, but George overhears the doctor talking of a patient who has
only a few weeks to live and thinks he is the one. He tells the dreadful news
only to his friend and neighbor Arnold, deciding to spare his wife. But then
he decides that his wife needs to find a new husband who can take care of her,
and even tries to set her up with an old flame of hers. Unfortunately this
backfires when his wife finds him being kissed by a woman at a party. She
thinks he is having an affair and wants her to find her own lover. He tells her
the truth: that he is dying and only cares about her. This works until she
meets the doctor, who laughs at the idea. Then she goes back to her original
suspicion and kicks him out of the house. Soon, the whole town knows that he
is having an affair. The old flame takes advantage of the situation and
George's plan almost succeeds in bringing them together again.
The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
In New Orleans in the 1930s, a young poker player (Steve McQueen), who has a
simple affectionate girlfriend, has the chance to challenge a much older
player (Edward Robinson), who is a rich gentleman and is considered the
greatest living
poker player (and destroyed the reputation of McQueen's best friend when he
was at the peak of his career).
The game is announced all over town, and eventually takes place in the
best hotel. They play day and night, destroying all the other players.
During the pauses of their marathon poker game
the two rivals have very civilized chats.
When the Kid realizes that his friend is dealing cards to favor him, he
calls for a break, tells the friend he doesn't want any cheating, has sex
with his friend's girl (who has been trying to seduce him the whole time)
and is surprised by his own girlfriend who catches them together.
There is another man who is trying to profit from a Kid victory and works
in cahoots with the Kid's friend. The Kid does not want any help, and has
his friend replaced by one of the old player's best friends.
But the Kid overestimates himself: the old player beats him.
The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming (1966), based
on Nathaniel Benchley's novel "The Off-Islanders",
is a fantapolitical comedy.
A group of Russians from a Soviet submarine are accidentally stranded on an
island off the coast of the USA.
Two English-speaking Russians go into town with the goal
of finding a motorboat to return to the submarine.
They approach a nice family pretending to be Norwegian sailors
but the clever boy figures out that they are Russians and the Russians are
forced to pull out the guns.
The sensible father,
Walt (Carl Reiner),
realizes that these are simple men with no evil intentions
and cooperated, but his boy, brainwashed to believe the Russians are monsters,
accuses him of being a traitor, and Walt's wife (Eva Marie Saint) too
pressures him to act.
One of the two Russians "borrows" their car to go and rescue the rest of the
crew, but the car breaks down and they have to walk back to town.
In the meantime, the young blonde Alison comes to see the family and gives
the father the opportunity to attack the Russian who is guarding the family.
The poor Russian runs away chased by the family's dog.
The other Russians are stealing the car of an elderly lady, who manages to
make a phone call to the operator. She in turn calls the police chief.
The police chief is skeptic because the old lady has a record of imagining
things.
When he is finally convinced that something has happened to the old lady,
he calls his only helper, who
initially can't find the gun but then spreads the rumour that the Russians
have landed. This starts the panic. A veteran organizes a militia of volunteers
that gets ready to defend the town.
Walt is biking into town to tell the police chief what has happened. Before
he can reach the town, he sees a caravan of cars heading for the "front"
(the local miniscule airport).
He is soon kidnapped by the Russians, who also kidnap the town's receptionist.
Walt cooperates again with the Russians, convinced that they only want to
borrow a motorboat, but the receptionist too thinks he's a traitor.
The Russians try to wear Western clothes and speak English, but they are
immediately recognized by a little boy.
In the meantime, the Russian soldier who was chased by the dog approaches is
discovered by the cute blonde who is touched by his kind manners and cures his
wounds and feeds him. They soon fall in love and are running romantically
at sunset on the beach.
The police chief (still skeptic) has tried in vain to restrain the fanatic
veteran and his militia, and eventually they get into a fight.
Walk, who has been freed by his wife, gets both English-speaking Russians in
his car and tries to help. But it's too late. Having lost track of its men,
the Soviet submarine si entering the harbor.
The whole population listens at the submarine's commander and the
English-speaking Russian discussing the situation. The commander is threatening
to destroy the village if the village does not release the seven Russians who
are missing. The police chief arrives on a jeep and declares the Soviet
commander under arrest. The commander declares that he is ready to blow up
the town. The men of the town point their guns towards the submarine.
War is about to start when a boy slips down from the clcoktower and
is hanging from the roof. The men drop the guns and rush to help the child.
The meek Russian who is in love with the blonde saves the child risking his
life. Everybody claps their hands.
Just then the fanatic veteran runs screaming that he managed to call the air
force and the coast guard. The good people of the village realize what that
means: the Russians will be annihilated. The folks rush to their little boats
to provide an escort for the submarine.
When the air force flies over the submarine, there is nothing they can do.
The submarine sails away.
In The Heat Of The Night (1967), based on the novel by John Ball, is a
drama about a
black police detective who has to cooperate with a racist sheriff.
In a small southern town, a white policeman patroling the deserted streets at
night finds a dead body, the body of a wealthy man who was about to open a
factory in town.
The following night he finds a black man apparently
loitering in the train station. The policeman immediately proceeds to arrest
him, taking for granted that a black man is a criminal. The idiot takes the
black man to his boss, who also assumes the black man's guilt, especially
after finding money in his pockets. It turns out that the black man, Virgil,
is... a police officer from Philadelphia, and a homicide expert. Virgil's
boss, consulted by phone, suggests that he stays and helps the clueless
small-town sheriff. Neither Virgil or the small-town chief like the idea,
but the chief knows that he needs an expert and asks him to take a look at
the corpse.
The two men end up carrying out the investigation together. Initially, they
distrust and dislike each other, but slowly they come to understand and
appreciate each other.
Virgil steers the investigation in the right direction, and eventually
focuses on a powerful man, which should have been the obvious suspect from
the beginning because of his opposition to the dead man's plans.
Virgil and the sheriff drive to his mansion to confront him.
He slaps Virgil in the face, outraged that
a black man would treat him like a criminal, but Virgil simply replies in
kind. Then a group of psychotic racist boys try to kill Virgil on the highway
and then corner him in a warehouse, but the sheriff saves him.
Virgil is now openly challenging the racial prejudices of the town.
In order to save the peace of the town and his own career, the sheriff
would like to arrest someone else, and picks on the very police officer who
found the dead body, Sam, but Virgil knows that Sam has nothing to do with it,
and in fact a silly sexy teenage girl comes forth to testify that he was with
her that night, and even got pregnant of it.
Virgil eventually senses that the girl is the solution to the puzzle: she did
get pregnant, but not of Sam. He eventually finds her when she's about to have
an abortion, and finds her real boyfriend, the nervous owner of a diner.
Just then the racists show up again. Virgil is about to get killed by
everybody when he tells the girl's brother to check her purse for the
abortion money, that proves his story. The jealous brother tries to kill the
pervert lover, but the pervert shoots first. Virgil grabs a gun and freezes
everybody. The nerd confesses that he killed the factory owner because he
refused to hire him.
Now that the case is solved, it is finally time for Virgil to go back home.
The sheriff in person takes him to the station, carrying his suitcase.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) is a comedy that employed multiple
split-screen technique.
The film begins with an elaborate heist in a bank (a lengthy and not
particularly original scene). Thomas Crown
(Steve McQueen) follows the scene from a high-rise building with binoculars.
It turns out that the mastermind, Thomas Crown, is a bored tycoon, for whom
the heist was only a way to entertain himself. He picks up at the money
at a cemetery and goes back to his international jet-set lifestyle.
The police are clueless, but a clever and attractive insurance investigator,
Vicki, senses that Thomas Crown is the man who did it.
Vicki tracks down Thomas and begins a seduction job.
At the same time, she has no scruples breaking the law to get what she needs:
she kidnaps the child of a member of the gang, and when he pays ransom she
confronts him about the money, to make him confess he was part of the gang.
Vicki and Thomas become more intimate, despite the fact that she tells him
what her job is and that she suspects him, and they play a game at outsmarting
each other. The police detective who in theory partners with Vicki is disgusted
by her methods, that border on prostitution. Perhaps he is also jealous that
Thomas is getting it.
But, mostly, they have the fun of their time. Thomas proposes a deal, and
Vicki would accept it, but the police detective says no.
So Thomas decides to do it again, and he tells Vicki. If Vicki wants, she
can tell the police and have him arrested. He's testing her love.
He does it, and she does it.
His gang performs the same superb job, and deposits the money at the
cemetery. Vicki and the police are waiting at the cemetery to arrest Thomas
when he comes to pick it up.
Instead, a funeral rolls into the cemetery.
Thomas doesn't come, but sends a limousine with a telegram: he is on a plane,
and invites her to join him.
Gaily Gaily (1969)
Agnes Of God (1985)
Other People's Money (1991) is
an adaptation of Jerry Sterner's off-Broadway satiric play
about the greediness of the 1980s (reminiscent of Frank Capra's moral tales).
Larry (DeVito) is a selfish, greedy, cold, calculating, rude businessman who
frantically makes deals from his skyscraper office.
He has invested in a company run wisely by a good, old-fashioned family man,
Jorgy (Gregory Peck), and his wife, the very quintessence of kindness.
The company is in excellent shape but one division is losing money.
Jorgy refuses Larry's offer to liquidate the weak division, both because it
was founded by the family and because he cares for the workers.
Larry begins takeover proceedings and Jorgy has to ask for help from his
daughter Kate, a successful attorney and a gorgeous blonde, who matches Larry
in ruthlessness.
The bulk of the film is the duel between the man and the woman, as Larry gets
romantically involved with the woman of his dreams who happens to be fighting
him ferociously. In the meantime, Jorgy's trusted partner does not hesitate
his shareholder votes to the evil raider while Kate's mom offers all her savings
to Larry in exchange for his surrender.
The showdown is at the annual stockholder meeting. First, Jorgy makes his
appeal to respect and protect hard-working Americans and rants against
Wall Street predators who kill when something is worth more if dead than if
alive. Larry ridicules Jorgy's speech and turns the crowd around:
greed prevails and the stockholders vote for Larry.
But, for the first time, Larry is not happy. But, in a sudden turn of events
(and one of the most terrible endings in the history of Hollywood), Kate
finds a deal that would resurrect the ailing division and Larry accepts to
sell back the shares he bought.
The Hurricane (1999), recensito da Lorenzo Casaccia:
Per chi conosce l'omonima bellissima canzone, i primi minuti del film non sono che la messa in immagini dei versi di Bob Dylan. Il resto del film ne e' la continuazione.
The Hurricane e' Rubin Carter, asso del pugilato accusato per il colore della pelle di un omicidio che non aveva commesso. Carter esiste realmente ed ha scontato un paio di decenni di carcere prima che la sua innocenza venisse riconosciuta, come racconta il film.
La prima parte e i frequenti flash-back tracciano il profilo di Rubin, uno dei tanti neri di ghetto portato dalla strada al pugilato per spirito di rivalsa contro il mondo.
La lettura della sua storia emoziona un ragazzo di colore, che ne vede l'ennesima oppressione ai danni dei neri, e spinge il bizzarro nucleo semi-familiare di cui fa parte (lui, due uomini e una donna canadesi soci in affari) ad interessarsi, per l'ennesima volta al caso.
La vicenda giudiziaria, i rapporti tra i personaggi e gli eventi sono abbastanza spiegati per avere una comprensione di quel che e' successo, ma nel complesso restano un po' offuscati. Fa eccezione l'ammirazione del ragazzo che vede in Rubin un secondo padre, che ne ha cambiato la vita.
Le scene migliori sono i vari flash-back e le ricostruzioni del passato di Rubin, che, evitando una retorica che sarebbe stata fuori luogo, non viene disegnato come un santo a posteriori.
Rubin Carter e' Denzel Washington, arrogante nella parte del pugile giovane, saggio e posato nella parte del condannato rassegnato. (6/10)
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If English is your first language and you could translate the Italian text, please contact me.
Moonstruck (1988) is a light-hearted comedy, full of
funny characters, set in New York's Little Italy, reminiscent of
Woody Allen.
Loretta lives with her parents and grandparents in a big mansion.
Johnny proposes to Loretta, a 37-year old widow, in a restaurant and Loretta
accepts.
But Johnny has to depart immediately to visit his sick mother in Sicily,
and asks Loretta to take care of the details. Those include inviting
his estranged younger brother, Ronnie.
Since Ronnie refuses to talk to her over the phone,
Loretta has to walk to his bakery and talk to him in person.
Ronnie sounds completely deranged and tells her that he hates Johnny because
Johnny involuntarily caused the accident that lost Ronnie his hand and his
fiance`. Despite this harsh encounter, the two fall madly in love with each
other.
She regrets it and Ronnie promises not to tell, but wants her to grant him one
last wish: to be his date at the opera just for one night.
In the meantime, Loretta's mom Rose is courted by a middle-age college
professor (who specializes in being dumped by his young attractive students at
the same restaurant where Johnny proposed to Loretta) while her plumber
husband Cosmo has a not-too-secret affair.
Ronnie decides he doesn't want to break up and even faces the parents of
Loretta. During the meal Rose, who has rejected the professor, asks her
husband (in front of everybody) to stop seeing his lover. And he just says
"yes". Then Johnny arrives and Loretta is ready to tell him the truth, but,
surprise, Johnny has decided to cancel the wedding, because a wedding would
break his month's heart. So Ronnie stands up and asks Loretta to marry him
instead. And she accepts in front of everybody.
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