Never say Goodbye

I really hated this movie.  It's about an artist (Errol Flynn) who spends his nights with his models.  Yet strangely his wife Eleanor Parker dumps him.  This guy wants it all.  He wants his perfect wife and child despite this.  I recently saw Peggy Knudsen in another movie lately and she was a pretty good villain.  This blonde should have gone places.  There was good acting but I found the main character very unlikable.

Make way for a Lady

Anne Shirley was an entertaining charming actress of the 40's who easily gave up her movie career despite being in two good movies Anne of  Green Gables and Stella Dallas.  She was nominated for Stella Dallas but I have to be honest Anne of Green Gables was the one that won me over.  (Her name of course was fake.  Having a name like the character of the book would be unreal.)  In this movie Anne Shirley tries to be a matchmaker for her dad Herbert Marshall, only it destroys the relationship that he is really having with her schoolteacher.  The movie's only around an hour.  It was cute.

The Last Woman of Shang

Linda Lin Dai is great in this as a woman putting on an act.  She pretends to be seductive to the emperor Chou who she had just married and who executed her father.  (He's a slimy guy.) However, she is really into revenge.  I saw her in Love without End and that was an entirely different role.  It's a shame that she killed herself at 30 for she was an actress with great promise.    I got this at yesasia.com.  I wish these movies were more available to the public.  Instead, I had to buy a multi-region player.  I suggest that if you want to get into Asian musicals from the 60's or the Shaw Brothers to purchase one. 

Roman Holiday

Sabrina's my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie but this is one of the best.  It's charming.  Audrey Hepburn got a major break with this playing a princess who gets a little break and hangs out with reporter Gregory Peck.  Will he do the story on her or not?  Audrey Hepburn got an academy award for this movie.  She was a stage actress before this but still, I wish Hollywood would be more daring and let unknowns get major breaks like this. Hepburn was one of the classiest actresses of her time.  

Unashamed

This was an ok precode.  Helen Twelvetrees's boyfriend gets killed by her brother.  It's up for her to decide whether she'll go against her brother in the trial or be by his side.  Twelvetrees is one of my favorites in precodes right up there with Barbara Stanwyck, Ruth Chatterton, and Loretta Young.  The whole genre was interesting but my favorite still remains Hot Saturday.  

Professional Sweetheart

Ginger Rogers plays a squeaky clean woman in her radio job.  Her contract says that she can't go to clubs which is in actuality what Ginger Rogers wants to do.  So her company sets up a wedding for her.  Only the guy she marries is really a squeaky clean person.  I liked Ginger Rogers in this and I recommend it for her fans.  However, I think that it didn't really know what it wanted to be. It kept juggling between her being a wild girl and a good woman.   

Hilda Crane

Leonard Maltin pointed out that this movie showed a liberated woman which I guess is true but I found it boring.  I thought that Jean Simmons looked frumpy in this, which isn't the case as she was a gorgeous actress.  It's about a woman who comes back to her hometown after some failed marriages.  Even the handsome Guy Madison is dull.  That was hardly the case as he was fun in movies like Bullwhip, which wasn't good but at least fun. The only interesting actor is Peggy Kundsen who I felt stole the spotlight from Jean sometimes. Pass.