An American adventure directed by Terry O. Morse.
A boy's dog comes back from the war and has trouble remembering life at home. Just when it seems that the dog has remembered, he is kidnapped by a neighbor and "The Orange Man".
The main problem here is plot hole logic. At only an hour and 4 minutes, it passed quickly enough. The plot was implausible. Allow me to explain: Why would the army take a dog away from a small child? The child actor was 15 years old when this was filmed, but is clearly portraying a younger child. It is stated that the dog was away for about 2-3 years. It thus follows that the U.S. army took a dog from a 10 year old boy. The boy's older friend was in the war as well, but that doesn't help to explain much. Everything that happened was also predictable. I saw the baseball going through that window from miles away. I also knew that the boys would dump their bikes at the climax when they needed to move fast. Plot hole and predictability aside, the characters were not developed all that well. The antagonist showed more development than the protagonists! Dialogue and acting were extremely dated. "Gee, but you're a swell pal!" is almost a foreign language compared to modern American English. The sets and costumes were very mundane. The only special use set pieces were a barn with a ladder and a backyard with a fence bordering on a sidewalk. Camera-work was less than creative, but kept directional consistency. The audio was not so great. Dialogue mic volumes were clipping and all of the soundtrack music seemed major and happy. Everything about this film is very much of the time in which it was made. It has 6.7 on IMDB. I rate it tolerable because it wasn't pleasant enough to be called quaint.
An American western from the Red Ryder series directed by R.G. Springsteen.
It's complicated and I really don't want to deal with the plot on a piece of crap like this.
Every shot was underexposed. The plot was overly complicated, muddy, murky and vague. The characters were stereotypical and had back-stories that were not included in this film. Seriously, this is the WORST western I've seen. I rate it shit. DO NOT WATCH!!!!
An American western directed by Frank Mcdonald, starring Roy Rogers, George Gabby Hayes, Trigger and Bob Nolan.
A cowboy rides his mare to a ranch where a stallion is being shown and the two fall in love immediately, disrupting the show and angering the rancher. The cowboy tries to get permission to breed the stallion and mare, but is denied. When the escaped stallion is shot after copulating with the escaped mare, the cowboy is blamed.
This was pretty much standard fare. I do recognize that the film had a different plot than most westerns of the time because it focused on horses, rather than the men riding them. However, the shooting style and sound were so similar to standard American cowboy flicks that the difference doesn't matter quite so much. The characters were identifiable and easy to keep track of and the pacing was alright, bordering on moving too quickly. I rate this tolerable because it is so similar to so many other films in the genre.
An American western directed by Edwin L. Marin, starring Randolph Scott and Ann Dvorak.
A town marshall helps the county sheriff when a feud over land and town erupts. Settlers have arrived in a town at the end of a cattle trail and are at odds with the cowboys. The marshall and sheriff stand with the settlers to drive out the cowboys.
This was alright, I guess. The audio and video were primitive, but there were no editing mistakes. The pace was relatively quick, although the hour and a half duration would indicate otherwise. I think I may have seen some scenes that were speeded up during the cattle stampede. The plot and characters were pretty standard for a western of this time. Style was basic and standard, but not really lacking too much. The sheriff was very attached to a card game called fantan which he played with an older woman and the marshall. It might be a little boring to some folks. I rate it tolerable.
An American musical romantic comedy directed by Harold D. Schuster, starring Hedda Hopper, Andy Russell, Spike Jones and Nat King Cole.
Characters in different scenarios all attend the same radio show. An old woman leaves her dog at home, but has fainting spells on the way there and after the show. A young man gets a ride into Hollywood with the host and meets a young woman at the show. Another man is trying to cheat on his wife and leading on a pair of young women.
This was very old fashioned and sappy. The plot was presented clearly and held my attention, but I thought it was a little on the sit-commy side. The characters were identifiable and interesting. The audio had lots of pops, crackles and dead air hiss (sorry, no snaps). The video was alright and visible. As I said, the style was sit-commish. The pacing was a little too slow for me, with the musical numbers not really doing anything for the story. There was a "colored" jazz band (pictured) who were all very good at their instruments and at this date, they had no way to fake it with a backing track. I'm rating this poor for being antiquated and not liking it. You might want to watch it if you're over 70 years old.
An American fantasy comedy film directed by Archie Mayo, starring Paul Muni, Anne Baxter and Claude Rains.
A mobster gets out of jail and is killed by a co-worker. He goes to Hell where he makes a deal with the devil so they can get mutual revenge on those who have wronged them. The mobster is put into a judge's body and falls in love with the judge's girlfriend, changing his mind about important moral issues.
This was very well-made and I was definitely amused. The plot was interesting and held my attention. The characters were believable and the actors played their parts convincingly. The production, audio, video and general style were typical of the film's date, but I think that they were quite good for their time. I was especially amused by the dead gangster bossing the devil around and how they worked around not being able to say the word "Hell". I'm rating this good because I just liked it. You may want to check this one out.
A drama directed by Frank Capra.A guardian angel is shown the life of the man who he is assigned to save. The man has plans to go see the world, but every time, just before he is about to leave, something happens that keeps him in the town that he grew up in. He bends over backwards to help people and keep his father's business open.This is one of those films that I always heard was a classic and always avoided like the plague because of that. I had had too many classic disappointments like Ben Hur and Gone with the Wind. I figured that I would write a scathing review and tear this one a new arsehole, but it's not happening that way. I liked it. The plot and characters were great and there was style to spare. The pacing was dead on and I actually enjoyed watching it. This film gets an awesome rating and deserves every bit of it's notoriety.
A musical directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson, produced by Walt Disney and co-written by Bill Peet.A boy moves to a new plantation where he meets an old slave who tells him stories about Brer Rabbit.This movie is actually banned in the U.S., obviously because of how it portrayed people of african descent. This portrayal was far too accurate to be allowed. There wasn't any watermelon or any fried chicken and I'm unsure of the date that Kool-Aid was invented, but the black people on screen sure acted stereotypical. The animated sections were awesome and were based on folk tales. The live action parts were written just for this film and were far less astounding. I like the "forbidden fruits" as much as anyone, so I can't rate this bad, but most of it was horrible, so I can't rate it too good. Adequate would be my logical choice.
