With so many jokes per minute, it's hard to catch your breath.
Then, just when you least suspect it, Allan Jones as Riccardo Barone and Kitty Carlisle as Rosa Castaldi grace us with their beautiful voices.
In the next scene, Chico and Harpo demonstrate their musical talents with a rousing piano piece by the former and a signature harp solo by Harpo. I suppose it makes perfect sense that they have such mastery of comedy AND have equal musical talents, but it's just that much more humbling.
All told, this does deserve a spot on the updated AFI 100 Years - 100 Movies list (right at 85). It's 90 years old this year, but it has aged like fine wine and will hopefully resonate with audiences for years to come.

The MVP of this one? Ava Gardner as Maxine. She's electric in every scene she's part of.
Yes, Richard Burton is being his Richard Burton-esque self and has a presence, but the heart of this movie is provided by the characters in his orbit.

A glimpse into the mind of a master filmmaker

I was fortunate to have access to this beautifully filmed behind-the-scenes look at the making of Night of the Iguana on the DVD bonus features. From the first moments, I really couldn't tell when it was produced, as the scenes looked like they could have been captured last week.

In this documentary short, we gain insight into some of the logistical challenges as well as the unique opportunities of filming on location in Mexico.

Additionally, we are aware of some of the more human-centric issues that could have escalated had it not been for Huston's steady hand in diffusing the tension unconventionally. Not to spoil anything, but he gave each of his principle actors a gold-handled gun.

Sometimes, behind-the-scenes offerings can be a bit dry for my tastes, but this one was captivating, and I learned a great deal about the filmmaking process.

"What's a pirate's favorite genre of movie?"
"Film NoiRRRRRRRRRRRR"

*pause for groans from audience*

In this 50's noir, Glenn Ford takes the lead as Dave Bannion, an intrepid homicide detective who begins to find dirt at every layer in a suspicious case of a colleague who has died by suicide.
After interviewing the new widow, he receives a tip that the victim had a mistress, a barfly who ends up dead soon after providing him with some crucial information.
Bannion continues to put the pieces together, and everything points to the crime syndicate, led by the Big Boss, Mike Lagana, played by Alexander Scourby. Lagana is smooth as silk, but just under the surface, you can tell that he means business. Bannion needs answers and leaves Lagana's home, having made an insidious enemy.
Bannion is a family man with a better half named Katie, played by Jocelyn Brando. Brando invigorates their scenes and provides a nice contrast to Bannion's driven cop. We sense their connection and really feel for their relationship. Being a police officer's wife is no easy task, and Katie knows the territory.
Tragedy strikes when a car bomb meant for Bannion kills Katie and takes his singular drive to a new level. With his superiors in the department telling him to drop it, he turns in his badge and goes it alone. In the process, he has an interaction with one of Lagana’s ruthless lieutenants, Vince Stone, played by the legendary Lee Marvin in one of his early roles. Of course, there’s a femme fatale, and this time, it’s Gloria Grahame playing Stone’s “gal,” Debby. After a disturbing incident where a jealous Stone scalds Debby, Bannion finds an uneasy ally in the case.
Would give one of my MVP awards to Gloria Grahame, who shows a ton of range going from just the “arm candy” for the inner circle of an organized crime syndicate to a vulnerable victim of the circumstances around her and then a vengeful woman looking to balance the scales. I was also taken by Jocelyn Brando’s performance. She was playful and supportive, but not the typical “housewife” from other stories from the 1950s era. Her death had even more of an impact because I felt I had a chance to get to know her character.
The Big Heat is a unique noir, thanks in part to the director Fritz Lang, who provided a distinctive tone and his own stamp on the genre. This would be one that I would recommend as a nice example of the genre, and would most likely look up again.

It was everything I wanted and more. So many excellent and silly performances, and the musical numbers really hit on all cylinders.
Did I cry? Yes, yes I did.

I saw this with our two kids, my aunt and cousin on the big screen, and it just shattered me. The Muppets, starting with Sesame Street and then "graduating" to The Muppet Show and movies, were one of the biggest parts of my childhood, and provided a foundation to much of what I think about entertainment, comedy, music, and storytelling. This straightforward story of "getting the gang back together" paired with the humor and heart created a nostalgia bomb that did make me tear up several times.

Based on Allen Drury's 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, later adapted into a Broadway production, Advise & Consent offers the audience a glimpse behind the curtains in the U.S. Capitol, revealing "how the sausage is made." With Director Otto Preminger at the helm, he shows us the controlled chaos of what it takes to get a new Secretary of State nominee, played by Henry Fonda, into the President's Cabinet.
Preminger and the production had unique access to the Capitol, which gives us a sense of the scale of this hallowed building. Through a series of masterful long takes, tension is built, as our attention is directed from one area to another, which ends up making us feel like a fly on the wall.
Along with Fonda, we are introduced to the Senate Majority Leader, played by Walter Pidgeon, who is the point man with respect to getting a new Secretary of State. To counterbalance, we meet Senator Seab Cooley from South Carolina, who most certainly does NOT want Robert Leffingwell to get anywhere near that leadership position. Through the course of the movie, we see the back and forth between the Senators and begin to understand just why things take such a long time to get done.
Fans of American Treasure Betty White will be happy to see her as a Senator from Kansas and hold her own against the hot-headed Senator from Utah. Her performance is worth at least a 1/2 a star in my estimation.
All and all, I enjoyed Advise and Consent for Premminger's take on the source material, the location shoots around Washington, D.C., and some outstanding performances from all of the cast.

About a month ago, I re-watched the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven with their amazing cast and had a great time, so I thought it would be a good idea to see the original just to fill in my movie gaps here and there.
Yes, this is a heist film, but it's a slow burn. It is fun to flesh out the back story a bit, and we learn a fair amount of the connections between all of these men and what makes them tick. Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) and Jimmy Foster (Peter Lawford) were in leadership roles of a group of 82nd Airborne paratroopers in WWII. They reunite 15 years later and plan out a way to relieve FIVE casinos in Las Vegas of their piles of cash on New Year's Eve. Coming along is Sam Harmon (Dean Martin) and Josh Howard (Sammy Davis, Jr.) and "Mushy" (Joey Bishop), which rounds out the Rat Pack roster. Other notable members of the crew are Roger Corneal (Henry Silva, who was with Sinatra in Manchurian Candidate), Peter Rheimer (Norman Fell), and Tony Bergdorf (Richard Conte, who is known to many as "The Wolf" Barzini from The Godfather.
Danny's wife Beatrice (Angie Dickenson), an honorary member of the Rat Pack, provides a stabilizing force to Danny and knows full well what is at stake. While I understand that this wasn’t fully about their marriage and backstory, it would have interesting to spend just a little time peeking into their lives. Was she in on the heists at one point and got spooked and had to give it up? I’d like to think so.
I just finished listening to Shirley MacLaine's "The Wall of Life: Pictures and Stories From This Marvelous Lifetime" e-audiobook and an episode of Only Murders in the Building both of which were wonderful. There are some fantastic stories from behind the scenes of her time in Hollywood, and speaks very highly of "The Clan" (which is what the Rat Pack called themselves). She describes Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr., and how they took care of her - like a "mascot.” Knowing some of that background made her brief cameo as the “drunk girl” that much more fun.
To be sure, I enjoyed the 2001 remake quite a bit more than this movie, but there is a ton to love, especially the musical performances by Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. You could also get a sense that this was a fun shoot, and I had read somewhere that some of the interactions between the characters were improvised, which made things feel loose and fun. Ocean’s 11 was entertaining and does provide a little time capsule for a Vegas that no longer exists. For that, I’m thankful for this movie

Great music and solid performances throughout. Was especially taken in by the visuals from late 1950s San Francisco. Sinatra is cocksure, but the audience also sees that's he's flying by the seat of his pants, and there is a certain charm there, too. Kim Novak is wonderful as the up and coming performer and Rita Hayworth is a force to be reckoned with. All in all, a nice time capsule of that era

Great music and solid performances throughout. Was especially taken in by the visuals from late 1950s San Francisco. Sinatra is cocksure, but the audience also sees that's he's flying by the seat of his pants, and there is a certain charm there, too. Kim Novak is wonderful as the up and coming performer and Rita Hayworth is a force to be reckoned with. All in all, a nice time capsule of that era

(6 and a half stars)
Like many towns in the Old West, Warlock has a little problem with gun violence, so the townspeople bring in Marshal Clay Blaisedell (by the stalwart Henry Fonda) to end the rampage of the McQuown gang.
At the Marshal's side is Tom Morgan, played by the effortlessly cool Anthony Quinn, and it's implied that the two men have a storied history.
When Johnny Gannon, played by Richard Widmark, breaks away from the McQuown gang, the town is at a crossroads. Will they let the law work out their challenges, or have the Marshal clean things up using his "very particular set of skills."
Ultimately, this is an entertaining classic Western with all the trimmings. Terrorized townspeople, a complicated hero, the question of vigilante justice vs. laying down the law. There are shootouts, the holdup of a stagecoach, and people with complex pasts drifting back into the lives of others to throw a branding iron into the wagon wheel (or some such analogy). This is a deep bench of performers, and while some of the characters are somewhat one-dimensional, it seems to fit the tone of a western of that era. Fans of the early Star Trek will enjoy catching a glimpse of "Doc" as one of the bad guys. All in all, this was an ok western, but I wouldn't put it in the pantheon of great westerns.