Meet John Doe (1941)

I have a confession to make: I had recorded this movie a very long time before I ever watched it. The title and description just didn't appeal to me - especially when I have about 50 other movies recorded to watch. A title like "Meet John Doe" just didn't stick out. But then one day, I remembered: this is a Frank Capra movie, and when has Frank Capra ever disappointed? Like never. (It's a Wonderful Life 1946, It Happened One Night 1934, You Can't Take it With You 1938, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939, Arsenic and Old Lace 1944, State of the Union 1948, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 1936) ...No, I cannot say Capra has ever disappointed.

And in fact, I would even say watching a Frank Capra movie is like that first sip of a perfect cup of hot tea. It just fills the soul with joy and comfort. I'll just let that statement breath a bit, because I really mean it.

Barbara Stanwyck plays newspaper reporter, Ann Mitchell who is asked to write one more article for her floundering newspaper before she is laid off. She's asked to right something more sensational than her previous articles, and Ann does so by creating a letter written by the fictional John Doe - a man who has pledged to committing suicide on Christmas Eve as a protest to today's society. After the article is published, a circus of homeless men claiming to be the real John Doe arrive at the newspaper office. In the meantime, the sensational article has also caught the attention of a rival paper who claims the letter is fraudulent. Which gives Ann and her editor - now forced to hire her back - an idea. They interview the thong of John Doe wannabes to find the man that could play their John Doe. Enter the John Willoughby, played expertly by the gruff but quiet and unassuming Gary Cooper.

John is paid, given new clothes, and he and his fellow homeless friend, "The Colonel" are set up in a plush hotel. John must be hidden until he's ready and trained to become John Doe so he may give his speech on radio, to discuss all the wrongs of the current world. The Colonel provides dry comedic relief during heavier scenes, as the themes of society's ills were no doubt was relatable during war times, and is certainly relatable now.

After giving his speech - one that Ann personally wrote, and not the fancy PR guy - he runs away, feeling conflicted about being the vision of hope that people are looking for. But eventually he returns, and the John Doe philosophy of "be a better neighbor" slogan develops into a grassroots movement, and clubs are formed across the country. Seeing the success of this movement, the newspaper publisher instructs Ann to write a speech for John, announcing a new political party, and the publisher as its candidate for president. During a rally, John denounces the party, and publisher, only to be silenced when the publisher kills the mic, and announces to the crowd that John Doe is a fake.

His followers become angry, and a desperate John now really does want to commit suicide on Christmas Eve, on the roof of the newspaper building. Ann, who has fallen in love with John tries to talk him out of it. Meanwhile, others who still believe in John and his message, rally the clubs to support John in his time of need. Club members go to the spot where John is ready to take his life, and convince him that he is the real deal, and his message needs to continue.

I honestly feel like this movie needs to be played on every TV station 24/7 nowadays, until people actually understand the message of love, hope, and acceptance John gives the world. The world has always needed and will always need John Doe.

The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

This is a good movie - if you can follow it. It's a simple enough story, but packed with he said/he said/she said - and nobody can really be believed as the characters in this drama-noir are all bad guys doing dirty tricks. But that's also what makes it entertaining.

Sidney Falco (played by Tony Curtis) is a press agent who has been unable to gain mentions for his clients in J.J. Hunsecker's (superbly played by Burt Lancaster) nationally syndicated newspaper column because of his failure to make good on a promise to break up the romance between Hunsecker's younger sister, Susan, and jazz musician Steve Dallas.

Falco is losing money and clients. Falco is given one last chance by Hunsecker, and - losing money and clients -  schemes to plant a false rumor in a rival column that Dallas is a marijuana-smoking Communist.  Falco encourages Hunsecker to rescue Dallas's reputation through his immense media influence, certain Dallas will reject Hunsecker's favor and end up looking bad to Susan. Personally, I saw this as a rather thin scheme, and one that could easily fall apart. But it does work - sort of. Dallas refuses assistance from the likes of Hunsecker, and forces annoyingly timid Susan to chose between them. Dedicated to her brother, mousey Susan breaks up with Dallas. This isn't good enough for the might Hunsecker though, who has a bruised ego from Dallas' insults in refusing his help. So he decides to ruin Dallas after all (against Falco's advice) and wants to have marijuana planted on the musician, then have him arrested and roughed up by a corrupt police lieutenant. It is such a dirty trick that even career-desperate Falco wants no part of it. Until, that is, Hunsecker promises to take a long vacation from his powerful column and turn it over to Falco in his absence. At a nightclub, Falco slips the marijuana cigarettes into a pocket of a coat belonging to Dallas, who is later accosted by the police outside the club.

The scheme seeming to be a success, Falco goes to a bar where, surrounded by his industry pals, he toasts "to his new perfume, the sweet smell of success". Festivities are put on hold when Falco is summoned—he assumes by Hunsecker—to the columnist's penthouse apartment, where he finds Susan attempting to commit suicide by jumping off the balcony. Falco stops her from jumping and pulls her back into the apartment. When Hunsecker arrives suddenly, and doesn't understand why Falco is there, Hunsecker realizes Susan called Falco there. Falco then tries to explain that Susan tried to kill herself, but Susan refuses to verify this and, for a few moments, allows Hunsecker to slap Falco for finding him in her bedroom and putting his hands on her (after he had pulled her inside from her suicide attempt).  During the confrontation, Falco reveals to Susan that it was her brother who ordered him to destroy Dallas's reputation and their relationship. Hunsecker makes a call to the lieutenant to come after Falco, telling him that Falco planted the marijuana in Dallas’ coat. Falco tries to flee but is caught in Times Square by the dirty cop. Back in the penthouse, Susan, her bags packed, acknowledges to her brother that she attempted suicide, considering death preferable to living with him. She walks out on him, saying that she will go to Steve Dallas. From his apartment balcony, Hunsecker watches his sister leaving him, as she walks out into the coming daylight on the street below.

For me, the movie had moments of "huh? Who said what now?" but the story line was engaging enough, and seeing Lancaster as the ultimate bad guy was a treat. Surprisingly perhaps, this was the first Tony Curtis movie I'd ever seen, so I really can't fairly rate his performance. But it certainly wasn't one that made me say "Wow! Let me immediately start watching other Curtis movies". (Sorry, film world).

The Captive City (1952)

The Captive City was a great fast-paced crime movie based on the real-life Kefauver Committee Hearings to take down organized crime. The movie certainly starts out in a way to capture the audience. A newspaper man, Jim Austin, and his wife are fleeing their home and take refuge in a police station as they are being pursued by the criminal elements he is about to testify against. At the police station Austin requests a recorder so he may dictate the events that have just taken place. It is very reminiscent of the opening of Double Indemnity (1944). Thus begins Austin's story, as he takes us through what brought them to this point - and we are happily along for the ride.

Local private detective Clyde Nelson approaches Austin with stories of the mob and local payoffs and corruption, and seeks his help to uncover the story. Austin doesn't believe the small-town dic, and takes a look. Nelson had been working on an apparently harmless divorce case, and discovered the existence of a big-time gambling syndicate operating with the consent of the city fathers, the local police, and the respectable elements of the community. When Nelson is killed in a hit-and-run Austin takes a closer look, as he wonders if there is more to Nelson's story and death. Throughout the course of his investigation, he is harassed and threatened; and when others decide to help, they also suffer.

The storyline is captivating throughout the whole movie. Although we are now well aware of wide-spread corruption, it still seems shocking. Perhaps because this didn't happen in New York or Chicago. It happened in a small town, which - as scary as it is - means, it could happen anywhere.

The Major and the Minor (1942)

It's silly and completely dated, and exactly what we all need right now.

Wonderfully talented Ginger Rogers plays Susan Applegate, a small-town girl trying to make it in the big city of New York - to which I immediately bonded with her over that feeling. After a client makes advances on her, and refuses to take no for an answer, she leaves that seen and the city altogether. However, when she tries to buy a train ticket, she learns that the money she kept for a one-way ticket back home has since increased in price since she moved in New York. Having no other money and trying to come up with a solution, she witnesses a mother purchases less expensive tickets for her underage children. Enter, the minor: Susan quickly alters her attire and her appearance and convinces the ticket seller that she is in fact eligible for the cheaper fare.

Having issues keeping up with her youthful façade, Susan runs from the train conductor who sees the cracks in her story, and she flees into what she thinks is an empty sleeper cabin. Enter, the major. Ray Milland, who I absolutely loved in The Uninvited (1944) skillfully plays Major Philip Kirby. And I say skillfully, because while it does seem odd (especially by 2020 standards) that the Major would suddenly take a strange girl under his wing, the character and storyline is as plausible as you're going to get; and it never once strays over to the creepy side of things.

Though what can you expect when the story was written and directed by Billy Wilder (Double Indemnity [1944]; Sunset Boulevard [1950], etc.); need I say more!! ...Sorry, just have to pause for a moment to reflect in the awesomeness that is Wilder movies....

Major Kirby insists young "Susu" stay with him in his sleeper cabin, as he has an extra bed. This would be the end of the story expect the train is detained from flooding, and Kirby cannot expect a young girl to fend for herself as she tries to get home, can he? He insists she comes with her to the Military Academy where he teaches, and where his fiancé lives with her father (Kirby's commanding officer). The only one to catch-on to Susan's scheme is the fiancé's teenage sister, Lucy - who is far too smart in science and biology to fall for the figure of a grown woman as a young teenager girl. But she agrees to keep Susan's secret as she sees she is falling for Kirby - who also wants to see the engagement ends as her sister is secretly keeping Kirby back in his career but not allowing a transfer to go through.

Again the movie becomes a bit dated as all of the boys at the Academy take a shot a dating Susu, but it's still sweet and endearing, and actually quite funny. Eventually Kirby's fiancé discovers Susan's secret, and threatens to "out" her. Susan tries to have a proper meeting with Kirby to confess to him, but the fiancé stops the meeting and Susan has no choice but to leave and return home. Cut to Susan living quietly at home with her mother (played by Rogers real life mother!) when she receives a call from Kirby advising he'll be in town for a few hours during a stopover to San Diego. Susan keeps up the scheme by acting as her own mother when Kirby arrives for a visit - only to find out that "Susu" is at a school play. He tells the fake Mrs. Applegate that his fiancé married another man, as a man heading off to war as no right to marry - but that one man on his train is meeting his girl in Nevada to get married.

At the station, Kirby waits for his train and sees at the end of the platform, Susan, the real deal Susan. He asks her where she is going, and Susan lovingly tells him that she's heading to Nevada to marry a soldier - if she'll have him. They embrace and kiss, and I actually cheered at the screen.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Here's a little confession: movies that tend to be highly rated, or widely known in pop-culture, I try to avoid, because I'm usually disappointed - and that goes for both classic and contemporary films. That is, of course, unless the subject matter or the actors/director appeal to me. Neither is the case with this movie - which leads to me a second confession: I'm really not a big Bogie fan.

The movie follows Humphrey Bogart as Fredd C. Dobbs, an American living in Mexico, begging on the streets to make a living. He eventually meets up with a fellow American sleeping on the park bench, and the two of them go to work on the oil rigs, only to be swindled out of their pay. While staying at a shelter they meet an older man with experience in mining gold. He has the brains, and they have the brawn; and despite the old man warning them that the lure for gold usually ruins men, they set out to pan for gold.

The plan is to split the haul (or "the goods" as they repeatedly say) equally, despite Dobbs putting in most of the money, after winning a local lottery to pay for their equipment and donkeys. Once they start finding gold, they must decide if they split it now and each man is responsible for guarding their own, or if they keep it all together, and only split it once they return to the city. They decide on the former, and for a point in the movie it becomes equally a western, and a psychological study on how the idea of riches changes a man altogether.

Bad guys arrive, there's a shootout, and one guy - a fourth guy that had joined them - dies but the three men press on. At one point the older man is called back to a tribe of natives after he had helped heal a young boy in the tribe, and Dobbs takes off with the loot, shooting and leaving for dead his friend.

The pack of bad guys arrive again, and come upon Dobbs alone and dehydrated. They steal all the donkeys and animal pelts, and the rip up the bags of "goods", dismissing it as nothing but sand. Eventually the nice guy and older guy come upon the body of Dobbs and the empty bags. They cut their loses and head back to the city.

More stuff happens, but I really don't care. It's a Western, and it's a guy's movie and I really didn't like it. In the end, the two left living are able to re-claim at least the pelts they had from their time on the mountain, and can sell those for money. They satisfy themselves with not being rich - the older man deciding to return to the tribe he helped as they now treat him like the kind. The nice guy decides to visit the widow of the nice guy - she does, after all have a fruit tree farm, which is his dream to own.

Blah, blah, the end.

Try and Get Me (1950)

This movie was originally titled "The Sound Fury", and honestly that is a way better title for this extraordinary movie, and far more fitting. Alternatively, you could add, "If you like Fritz Lang, watch this!"

I recorded this on TCM's Noir Alley, and host Eddie Muller warned it was grim. He added, "if you watch noir as a 'comfort food' film, this will only bring you cold comfort". Now if that isn't intriguing for noir fans, I don't know what is.

This movie is based on a true story from 1933 about two men who kidnapped and murdered a young aristocrat, which dramatically resulted in the last public lynching in California. Fritz's Lang's movie, Fury (1936) is also based on this incident, and is also an amazing film. 

Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy), is a down on his luck family man with a wife, kid, and one on the way. He meets a con man, Jerry Slocum (played so well by Lloyd Bridges) who is willing to take him on as his driver in some robberies and split the profit - of course Tyler isn't aware in the beginning what type of job he was signing on for. As a viewer you know this guy is sketchy, but putting myself in Tyler's shoes, I can’t blame him for taking the job; the money was desperately needed.
Slocum's heists escalates and without warning Tyler, he kidnaps the son of a wealthy family and tells Tyler he is going to ask for ransom. That's going to be their big score. With no intention of returning the son, Slocum throws his victim down a rocky ledge and bashes his head in on a beach.
The shock of this event causes Tyler to spiral out of control, drink heavily and confess to a lonely woman who is just looking for love and companionship. She takes off and reports Tyler to the police. Once surrounded by the cops, he gives himself up. It's all been too much for Tyler, who never wanted any of this in the first place.

Meanwhile a reporter new to the crime beat has been reporting on the story and writes a series of scathing article about the two men. This sensational story whips people into a fury. The reporter - thanks to his moralistic friend - realizes his one-sided reporting was unfair, but it’s too late. While the both Tyler and Slocum are locked behind bars, a massive lynch mob gathers outside the prison, yelling, wanting to take the matter into their own hands. The crowd manages to muscle their way into the prison, and in the most intense, dramatic, and violent (minus blood and gore - this is 1950) scene I’ve ever seen portrayed in a film. They bust through the jail and drag the two men out of their cells and beat them to death. As a viewer, you are simply at a loss for words. You want justice, but you don’t want this.

This incredible storyline was elevated by superb acting in this movie. Lloyd Bridges transforms seamlessly from a slick con-man, to a caged animal intent to kill. Watching Katherine Locke as Heather Weatherwax, a woman desperately hoping for love is downright awkward - which is actually as it should be. Never once do you dislike Howard Tyler, despite showing so many flaws throughout the movie. It's just altogether so good. A film that should be studied.

This Gun for Hire (1942)

It's a Film Noir, starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd. Based on a novel by Graham Greene. One would think this is going to be a memorable movie! But sadly, it has fallen into obscurity in my memory bank. Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised - I know that I've watched another Lake/Ladd movie, The Glass Key (1942) but I also can't tell you what it's about. This was my main reason for starting this blog. I had started a list on my phone of classic movies I love, and those I really enjoyed as well - so I could perhaps revisit those movies some day. But then there are those that are just "okay"; or those that were good, but just not good enough to stick in your memory. A lot of those movies I have found myself recording on TCM a second time, only to turn it on and say to myself "Hey, I've seen this before! I don't remember it, but I know I've seen it!" I want a record of all the movies - good, bad, okay but forgettable. So I'm going to be really lazy here, and just copy and paste the plot of This Gun for Hire from Wikipedia:

In contemporary wartime San Francisco, chemist and blackmailer Albert Baker is killed by hit man Philip Raven, who recovers a stolen chemical formula. Raven is double-crossed by his employer, Willard Gates, who pays him with marked bills and reports them to the Los Angeles Police Department as stolen from his company, Nitro Chemical Corporation of Los Angeles. Raven learns of the setup and decides to get revenge. Police Detective Lieutenant Michael Crane, who is vacationing in San Francisco to visit his girlfriend, nightclub singer Ellen Graham, is immediately assigned the case. He goes after Raven, but the assassin eludes him.
Meanwhile, Gates hires Ellen to work in his Los Angeles nightclub after an audition wherein she sings and performs magic. Then, she is taken to a clandestine meeting with Senator Burnett, where she learns that Gates and Nitro Chemical are under investigation as suspected traitors, and is recruited to spy on Gates. Unknown to each other, Gates and she board a train for Los Angeles, followed by Raven. By chance, Raven and Ellen sit next to each other. The next morning, Gates is alarmed when he sees them asleep with Raven's head on her shoulder. He wires ahead to alert the police, but Raven forces Ellen at gunpoint to help him elude them again. He is about to kill her, but is interrupted by workmen, allowing Ellen to flee. From Gates's club, she tries to contact Crane, but he has left San Francisco to return to Los Angeles.
That evening, the suspicious Gates invites Ellen to his Hollywood mansion, where his chauffeur Tommy knocks her unconscious to set up a fake suicide. Tipped off by Ellen's friend at the club, Crane goes to the mansion looking for Ellen, but Gates has already left. Tommy tells Crane that Ellen has been gone for two hours. While Crane questions Tommy, and makes a phone call to Ellen's hotel, Raven arrives and hides outside, where he sees Tommy discard Ellen's purse, to keep Crane from spotting it. Raven realizes that Ellen is in danger. After Crane leaves, Raven knocks Tommy down a flight of stairs when the chauffeur denies Ellen is still there. Raven searches the house and rescues her. Tommy recovers and warns Gates at his club, where Crane has caught up with him. Raven and Ellen are confronted as they enter the club, so Raven takes her hostage as he flees. She surreptitiously drops monogrammed playing cards as a trail of "breadcrumbs". The police corner them in a railroad yard, but wait for daylight to move in.
Raven reveals to Ellen that he was orphaned at a young age and raised by an abusive aunt. One day, he snapped while she was beating him, and killed her, for which he was imprisoned in reform school; there, he was abused by the other children. She tells him that the formula he recovered was for a poison gas that Nitro is selling to the Japanese and begs him to extract a signed confession instead of killing Gates. Ellen helps Raven escape the dragnet, hoping she has appealed to his patriotism. However, he breaks his promise to her and kills a policeman who had almost managed to capture him to get away.
Raven arrives as Nitro Chemical conducts a gas attack drill and its employees wear gas masks, obscuring their faces. Gates orders Tommy to guard his door. Tommy spots Raven and gives chase, but Raven knocks him out. Raven disguises himself in Tommy's uniform and gas mask to surprise Gates, forcing him to take him to company president Alvin Brewster, the mastermind of the treasonous Nitro sale. Raven barricades himself with them when the police and Ellen arrive, and coerces both into signing a confession. Brewster dies of a heart attack while trying to kill Raven, who then kills Gates. Crane is lowered on a scaffold and exchanges gunfire with Raven, wounding him. Raven passes up the opportunity to kill Crane when he sees Ellen helping the detective. Other police fatally shoot Raven, but he lives long enough to be assured by Ellen that she did not turn him in and that he succeeded in getting the confession.