Mildred: “I want you to have nice things. And you will have. Wait and see. I’ll get you everything. Anything you want. I promise.” Veda: “How?” Mildred: “I don’t know. But I will. I promise.” The title character of the 1945 classic Mildred Pierce, based on the 1941 novel by James M. Cain, is inarguably one of…
The Americanization of Emily (1964) is a wonderfully satirical, dark comedy about a “dog robber” in the US Navy serving during WWII. Starring James Garner as Charlie, a self-proclaimed coward, the film tells the story of this unscrupulous officer who prefers to avoid heroism in lieu of self-preservation. Although deemed unpatriotic by some critics, The…
Roughly a decade before the Civil War, Reverend Ethan Wilkins (Walter Huston) accepts a position ministering to an isolated, poverty-stricken town in Ohio called Pine Hill. Though the townspeople had promised to pay Ethan an annual salary of $400, he is informed upon his arrival that they cannot afford to pay him that much, and…
It starts innocently enough: a handsome, charming man meets a beautiful bookstore clerk, and the two fall in love and marry. They have an exotic honeymoon before returning to the man’s marble palace in Ceylon. Unaware that she had married a millionaire, it appears that all of the lovely bride’s wishes have come true–that is,…
Each September, the life and career of renowned playwright Tennessee Williams is celebrated in his birthplace, Columbus, Mississippi. As I’ve mentioned multiple times on this blog, Carrie, Nikki, and I are proud alumnae of Mississippi University for Women, which is located in Columbus and has an active hand in this event every year. In the wake…
C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) works on the lower rungs of an insurance company in New York City. He’s ambitious, but miserable–miserable because he has agreed to loan his apartment to various executives in the company to conduct extramarital affairs, forcing him to spend his nights waiting for the temporary “tenants” to vacate his premises. One…
Most critics–most modern critics, that is–rank Vertigo (1958) as Alfred Hitchcock’s directorial masterpiece. Influential movie critic Roger Ebert called the film “one of the two or three best films Hitchcock ever made.” Subsequent directors ranging from Martin Scorsese to Brian DePalma have reported being influenced by the film. And AFI has listed it in the…
You may have seen my recommendation of The Snake Pit for the Olivia de Havilland edition of the SUtS series. I recommended it, but had not yet seen the film. Part of the joy of the project was getting to see films I hadn’t watched or reviewed, yet, and this was one of them. I…
True Classics 