It is 1884 in Yonkers, NY and Horace Vandergelder (Paul Ford), owner of a large general store and the wealthiest man in town, has hired Dolly Gallagher Levi (Shirley Booth), a widow who makes her living through various pursuits–but primarily as a matchmaker–to find him a suitable second wife. Dolly wants to marry Horace, but…
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…
By some accounts a champion of female independence, playwright Lillian Hellman (1905-1984), crafted some of the most searingly honest plays ever produced by an American writer, beginning with her debut, the heart-wrenching 1934 drama The Children’s Hour (which was inspired by a true story). The play tells the story of two women who work hard to make their…
To kick off our Maudlin Mondays series, which looks at some of the biggest, most manipulative tearjerkers ever to grace a screen, I want to begin with a look at a relatively recent film–one that many down here in the South (well, many women, anyway) consider a modern classic–1989’s Steel Magnolias. Let me insert a…
Really, I shouldn’t have to say anything else, right? If you’re a classic movie fan, I can just utter the word “Hitch” and wait for the nods of comprehension. When one “outs” oneself as a Hitchcock fan, at least in my experience, the result is a long discussion/debate/vehement argument about which film in the director’s…
True Classics 