An American spy film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring James Mason and Danielle Darrieux.
A valet for a British embassador is selling photos of secret documents to the Germans during World War II. He tries to form a relationship with a woman spy, but is unsuccessful. A British counter-intelligence agent is trying to find who is leaking the secret documents.
This was not bad, but not very interesting. The plot did not hold my attention very well because I'm not interested in political intrigue. The characters were acted well and I really like the casting of the counter-intelligence agent. He seemed to fit his role very well. Black and white 4:3 video is really nothing interesting and camera placement of that time seems too obvious and standard now. The audio worked and I could hear all of the dialogue. I rate this poor for being so boring. You probably should not watch it.
An American musical comedy directed by Jean Yarbrough, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.
Abbott and Costello take a babysitting job for a boy and his baby sister. Unable to read, the babysitter is read to by the boy and dreams the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, with characters from the "real world" playing parts in the dream.
I can take an old movie and I'll watch an old comedy. When it becomes a musical is when I turn it off. I liked how the video went from B&W to color a la Wizard of Oz and the bright, fake color looked good. The plot was clearly communicated and I liked how the actors played double roles inside and outside the dream. I have to rate this shit because I turned it off. I would obviously not recommend viewing unless you like stupid old comedies that are also hokey musicals.
An American romantic adventure drama directed by Henry King, starring Gregory Peck.
A man is injured on a journey in Africa. While lying on his cot and waiting for help to arrive, he reflects on his life up to that point. This mostly focuses on his romantic relationships.
The plot and characters kept me interested, but I had some difficulty discerning one girlfriend/wife from another. The flashbacks worked wonders for this film and I thought that they were appropriate and used well. There were some areas where the production quality was not so great, but these were very few. The sets and costumes were top notch and I wouldn't change a thing there. Some of the music was really good and some of it was negligible, so good there too. In fact, I liked this movie. I think that it was made very well, the story was good and the presentation was clear. I rate it good.
An American action adventure film directed by Allan Dwan, starring and narrated by Douglas Fairbanks.
The swashbuckling team of the 3 Musketeers is split up and twins are born to the French royal family. One of the twins is the heir to the throne and the other is exiled to live as a commoner. The rightful heir is then imprisoned and the other twin installed into royal power in his place. The Musketeers must reunite to sort out the problem with the twins and make sure that the right one is king.
I didn't like the last film that I watched in which Douglas Fairbanks had dialogue, but this is totally different. The action star narrates adventure quite well and the music is very fitting. The video looked about how video from 1929 would be expected to look, but there was some style in the a/v combo. The political part of the plot was a little hard for me to follow, but the copious amounts of action made up for this. I must say again that the narration was spot-on as Fairbanks described in an energetic voice, using eloquent words the action that was going on. I rate this adequate.
An American drama directed by Felix E. Feist, starring Kirk Douglas.
A greedy and corrupt man moves his logging business to California. He meets with resistance from the religious settlers there when he plans to chop down the giant sequoia trees. When another logging company shows up to compete for the sequoia trees, they try to assassinate the main character.
I thought the plot and characters of this film were especially well done. The audio and video were very dated, but that was not a bad thing in this case. This would all be fine, but the style was very generic and the pacing was unbearably slow. I ended up being bored for the first hour and 20 minutes and only liking the action scene at the end. I'm giving this a weird pink rating because I think it's very well made, but extremely boring.
An American war film directed by Edward Dmytryk.
A former Navy captain embarks on a voyage as first mate with his cannon crew. The crew hears of a large amount of gold on the ship and the captain's girlfriend arrives onboard. The crew plots mutiny and forces the captain to lead their attack.
I really didn't understand the plot very well. In fact, I could barely tell what the actors were saying because the audio was so muddy and muffled. The video looked dirty and was too dark, obscuring the visual side of what was going on. This film lacks clear presentation in such a way that everything else becomes a non-issue. When I have trouble hearing and seeing what's going on, things like style and costumes may as well not exist. I rate it bad.
A drama by Akira Kurosawa.A very boring man finds out that he has stomach cancer and tries to enjoy the time that he has left until he remembers an issue that wasn't handled correctly. He spends the last days of his life correcting this mistake. After he dies, his co-workers try to figure out why he did what he did.Akira Kurosawa's samurai stuff is always good, so I was wondering how he would handle a film set in modern times. It turns out that he's just that good. The main character is well developed and the plot is great. I like how the govenmental systems are portrayed so accurately. I'm rating it good because the only thing that would make it better is if it was a samurai flick. I'm joking.
