At War with the Army (1950)

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are in the army. Antics ensue. Set before the war, there are a few sub-plots (for lack of a better term), one involving a young woman who is apparently with child.

This is the first of fourteen Martin and Lewis comedy films over seven years, not including comic relief cameos. Their lucrative partnership lasted exactly ten years and would end in bitter acrimony. The two would not speak for twenty years.

The comedian + singer buddy comedy genre was proven successful with the Hope and Crosby road movies. Each pair would cameo in the other’s films. Director Hal Walker even worked on two of them.

At War with the Army is a fairly meh comedy with few giggles, if any. If you find Lewis cross-dressing and sarcastically saying “Oh, big man!” funny, then you might have something. It is the lowest rated of the pair’s films, so that’s encouraging. AMRU 2.5.

Clash by Night (1952)

World-weary Mae Doyle (Barbara Stanwyck) returns to her hometown, defeated by the past ten years. Now just wanting to be safe, she agrees to marry nice guy fisherman Jerry (Paul Douglas). Mae hates Jerry’s boorish, arrogant friend Earl (Robert Ryan), so predictably, they have an affair.

Marilyn Monroe plays the girlfriend of Mae’s little brother. On loan from 20th Century Fox, this was her first sizable role. Back-handed compliments aside, her performance earned her better roles. Old friend J. Carrol Naish played Uncle Vince. A very different role for him.

Commonly labeled film-noir, Clash by Night certainly has a noir title. It also has a noir cast and director, and the tone is fairly pessimistic, but It seems to just miss. Even TCM’s Eddie Muller seems to waffle on the subject.

Clash by Night is a domestic drama populated by fully flushed out characters. The setting feels very ‘lived in’, probably because it was based on a successful play. Robert Ryan performed in the play as Joe Doyle. Maybe not noir, but excellent performances make it an entertaining watch. AMRU 3.5.

What Else I Watched, 2026Q2

Not a lot, it would appear.

Airplane! (1980) was a top-ten comedy for me as a lad. Much of it holds up, but not all. It was fun to revisit an old friend. It wasn’t included as a stand-alone post because it’s a film I’ve watched very many times, including in recent years. The rules for my 1980 cut-off gets fuzzier and fuzzier.

A Night at the Opera (1935)
Genuinely funny bits interrupted by tiresome musical numbers. This is my stand on most of Marx Brother’s movies. I had poor transfers for many of their films the first time through. This time I watched a restored version, which made it more enjoyable. Unfortunately, it didn’t help the musical interludes.

Ninotchka (1939)
It gets better each time I see it. Crisp dialog, excellent performances, and a solid story.

Filmmakers for the Prosecution (2021)
I recorded it then forgot why. When I started watching, I thought it had something to do with Witness for the Prosecution (1957). It was, in fact, about the people who collected and assembled video evidence of Nazi war crimes after World War II. Like today, people needed conclusive, visual proof of the dangers of fascism. It was very thought provoking.

I’ve found it difficult to find time for movie watching in recent months. I have watched a lot of TV series like Stranger Things for the first time (it’s more enjoyable if you ignore the wonky logic) and The Doctor Blake Mysteries. It was good enough. The show and lead actor were cancelled by #himtoo. Also watching the latest season of the live action Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not terrible, not great. I don’t see why it needed to exist. It’ll be forgotten as soon as it’s finished.

I bet I forgot a movie.

Caged (1950)

Pretty Marie (Eleanor Parker) is sent to prison as an accessory to her husband’s robbery attempt. I sure hope everyone is nice to her.

Caged is by no means the first Women in Prison film, but it is a seminal one. Produced by a major studio during the code area, it had positive reviews while containing much of what we expect from the genre. Within the confines of the time, mind you. The shower scenes were strictly knee and down. Producer Jerry Wald wanted to do for women’s prisons what I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) did twenty years earlier.

Bette Davis was offered the lead, but she declined, calling it a “dyke movie”. Joan Crawford was also offered a role. Eleanor Parker is quite sympathetic as the pregnant 19 year old widow. Three times Oscar nominated, it’s interesting I haven’t seen more of her. She was the Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965).

Mercury Theatre alum Agnes Moorehead plays the warden. Against type and stereotype, she plays a mostly sympathetic character. Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton) is one of the cell mates. Six foot two Hope Emerson is a quite imposing prison guard.

Caged is an interesting character drama, but don’t confuse it for exploitation. Although exploitation can be a problematic genre label, technically encompassing all horror films. I prefer to use a “I know it when I see it” benchmark. AMRU 3.5.

The Canterville Ghost (1944)

Sir Simon de Canterville (Charles Laughton), called to defend the honor of his brother, chickens out. For his cowardice he is walled up inside the castle. His spirit will never become free until one of his descendants does something brave in his name. Unfortunately, all of his descendants are also cowards. It’s World War II and an American army unit is being housed in the once-grand Canterville castle. I wonder if one of those brave Yanks is a Canterville.

Six year old Margaret O’Brien plays Lady Jessica. She seems especially brave, but apparently curses are strictly misogynistic. O’Brien was very memorable in Meet Me in St. Louis that same year. As an adult she almost completely transitioned to television. Curious how she would have fared as a Hollywood leading lady.

It's very curious how the film clearly outlines the problem to be solved and the conditions that must be met to solve it. Because of this we are not surprised that G.I. Cuffy Williams (Robert Young) has the exact same birthmark as our spirit. That was the classic Hollywood version of 23 and me. Reginald Owen (A Christmas Carol) plays Sir Simon's less than forgiving father and Rat Packer Peter Lawford is his undefended brother. Una O'Connor has a disappointingly small role.

I’m certain I’ve confused this film with A Canterbury Tale more than once. Both were released in 1944, set in rural England, and involve the US Army. Not sure the Nazis were actually operating in rural England, but both films say otherwise. That said, the films aren’t terribly similar. This is a very Hollywood production while A Canterbury Tale is, well, not.

Based on an Oscar Wilde story, it has been adapted a great many times, twenty eight by my count. This appears to be the earliest. I know little of the source material, but I do know that sir Simon was guilty of far more than just failing to defend his brother's honor.

The Canterville Ghost isn’t a bad watch, but predictable and unimaginative. AMRU 3.

Heavy Metal (1981)

Heavy Metal is an anthology of seven loosely connected stories inspired by the fantasy magazine of the same name. I was too young to see the film at release, but there was a great buzz about it with the older teens. I didn’t give it much thought in the years since until my son heard about it. Damn, there was a lot of nudity.

The stories are connected by a glowing bowling ball of death. The individual stories had very different tones and animation styles because they had different writers and animators. Different enough that the narrative link occasionally seemed a bit forced. SCTV alums Joe Flaherty, John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis lend their vocal talents.

The story that interested my son was “Captain Sternn”, about a Zapp Brannigan type character facing a tribunal. He employs a controversial defense. Having watched it, I found it very familiar. Heavy Metal had some TV airplay early on, so I may have seen parts of it then. Music rights made it difficult to find until very recently.

More culturally influential than high cinema, but Heavy Metal did hold my interest. The opening scene with a car in space definitely influenced Musk’s Tesla in orbit, and do I even need to mention South Park? Damn, there was a lot of nudity. AMRU 3.

The Great Escape (1963)

The Nazi's had a problem with certain prisoners of war always finding a way to escape. Their solution was to put their biggest offenders all in one camp. An escape proof camp. The prisoners plan an escape. One might even call it a 'great' escape.

The movie is based on a 1950 book detailing actual events. The characters were combined or fictionalized, so you won't learn about the real people. That's what books are for, I presume. Americans were added for box office reasons.

Officers saw it as their duty to attempt to escape from prison camps, if for no other reason than to divert Nazi resources away from the war. A third front, as it were.

The assembled cast is quite impressive. James Garner, Steve McQueen, and Richard Attenborough head a cast that also includes James Coburn (in a terrible Australian accent), Charles Bronson, and Donald Pleasence, among others. The film divides time between them quite well.

When reviewing Stalag 17 I noted the parallels to the TV show Hogan's Heroes. This film, however, appears to be it's true inspiration. Garner is totally Hogan.

Despite its almost three hour runtime, The Great Escape does not drag. The many details of the escape plan and side stories are fascinating. AMRU 4.

A Canterbury Tale (1944)

A US Army sergeant (John Sweet) on his way to the English city of Canterbury accidentally gets off the train one stop too early, where he meets a British sergeant (Dennis Price) and pretty Alison (Sheila Sim). When some man puts glue into Alison’s hair, the three are determined to track him down.

The title is a reference to The Canterbury Tales, a fourteenth century collection of stories by Geoffrey Chaucer. Director Michael Powell grew up just outside the city and this film is his love letter to it. There is an ancient road that pilgrims used centuries ago to travel to Canterbury, where they would receive blessings. This is important, because our heroes are modern day pilgrims, apparently, even though they aren’t actually going to Canterbury for much of the film.

All three leads were unknowns, none more unknown than Sweet, an actual sergeant in the US Army with no acting experience. Other than a short released the same year, this was his only screen credit. His lack of acting skill was quite evident. Alison, as was actress Sim, is in the Woman’s Land Army, a program to place women on farms to replace men who left for the war. She and Sergeant Johnson cross paths with characters that feel like they will become part of the story, but don’t.

A Canterbury Tale begins as a detective story, then becomes something different. I have high expectations for a Powell/Pressburger production, especially one as revered as this. It does feature some excellent visuals (black and white in academy aspect, as it is), but initial audiences didn’t quite know what to make of the film. I seem to be in their camp. Perhaps a second viewing. AMRU 3.

She-Wolf of London (1946)

Grisly murders in a nearby park has a young heiress (June Lockhart) believing she inherited the family curse.

June Lockhart passed away last fall at 100 and TCM ran a few of her films recently. Many might remember her as the mom on Lassie, or perhaps as the mom on Lost in Space, but she has a ton of screen credits to choose from. Her first screen credit was as a Cratchit child in A Christmas Carol (1938).  The Cratchit parents were played by her real life ones.

The murders spark sensationalist stories in the newspapers. Inspector Pierce (Dennis Hoey) investigates. Hoey also played the bumbling Inspector Lestrade in six Sherlock Holmes films. The charming fiancee Barry (Don Porter) doesn’t accept that his lovely Phyllis is responsible, and does his own investigation.

She-Wolf of London is period drama posing as gothic horror. While well made and well acted, it was entirely predictable. If you haven’t figured everything out by the end of the first act, you’re not paying attention. But it isn’t easy to develop a complex story in sixty one minutes, so I feel generous. Pour one out for Ms. June. AMRU 3.

Murder at the Gallop (1963)

Miss Marple (Margaret Rutherford) is back to investigate a murder that the police won’t. A wealthy old man is scared to death by a cat. Which one of his heirs is the murderer?

Marple’s buddy (and real life husband) is back as Mr. Stringer (Stringer Davis). It’s been a bit since I watched Murder, She Said (1961), but I feel he had a bit more to do in this film. Robert Morley is recognizable in his significant part. He seems to show up when a pompous Englishman is needed.

Based on the Agatha Christie novel After the Funeral, which is actually a Hercule Poirot story. Christie herself is mentioned by Rutherford, citing a fictitious book titled “The Ninth Life”.

While it’s amusing to watch Rutherford waddle around and poking her nose into someone else’s affair, Murder at the Gallop is not much of a mystery. There’s a lot going on and Marple just solves the murder, ex machina style. AMRU 3.

Roadblock (1951)

Straight-laced insurance investigator Joe (Charles McGraw) crosses paths with pretty part time grifter Diane (Joan Dixon). She wants the best things in life and always gets what she wants. Unfortunately Joe can’t afford much on his detective salary, so he reconsiders that whole “ethics” thing.

If there is anything interesting here, it's because it’s perhaps the first film to shoot in the Los Angeles river. Them! (1954), Chinatown (1974), and Grease (1978) and many others would follow suit.

Roadblock is a pretty lackluster Noir. The story is simple and the characters are rather dull. But the biggest issue is that the leads have little chemistry. I just don’t buy their attraction, and thus Joe’s motivation. Short and sweet, but otherwise uninteresting. AMRU 2.5.

What Else I Watched, 2026Q1

Here, at the end of April, are the other films I watched during the first quarter of the year. Films that don't fit into the criteria of my blog and classic films I've already written about, although there were none of those this quarter. And yes, it's taken me this long to finally post movies I watched through the end of March. I am very behind. Nevertheless ...

Wake Up Dead Man (2025)
The lack of a comma annoys me, but it’s significantly better than Glass Onion. It's no Knives Out, but I feel better about the franchise now.

Hundreds of Beavers (2022)
Early leader for best movie of the year. It combines aesthetics from silent film, Looney Tunes, and video games into a comprehensive and amusing story. Not for everyone, but I laughed out loud, which I seldom do.

Woman Walks Ahead (2017)
A naive widow (Jessica Chastain) travels to North Dakota to paint Sitting Bull’s (Michael Greyeyes) portrait and finds herself caught up with their cause. Based on a true story, but strays far from the historical record. It's watchable.

Joy Ride (2023)
An ambitious Chinese-American lawyer travels to China to close a deal and secure a promotion. Things don’t go as planned. This is a gross-out comedy a la The Hangover. I haven’t seen many female-centric films of the ilk so it is hard for me to compare it to anything. Just know, they pull no punches. This film is not for everybody.

The Birdcage (1996)
I’ve heard praise recently for The Birdcage but I remember it being amusing if unremarkable. Now years later, I find it equally amusing and unremarkable. It's not in Robin Williams' top ten.

The Life of Chuck (2024)
A very unconventional film and the less you know going in, the better. May not be for you if you don’t like dance. I honestly don’t know what to make of it.

Sinners (2025)
Gangster twins open a club in an old factory. Vampires arrive to spoil the party. Damn, what a crazy-ass film. There are themes of acceptance but a second viewing would be needed to make heads or tails of it.

My Sailor, My Love (2022)
A put-upon daughter hires a housekeeper for her retired sea captain dad. They fall in love. There are a lot of themes and emotions at play here.

Hundreds of Beavers is undoubtedly the best of these films. It's not for everyone, but I watched it with my sons and they were belly-laughing. It was a great experience. I don’t know what I would anoint the worst. Woman Walks Ahead might be the least interesting, but it wasn’t actually bad. But with three films in the chamber, I need to post quicker.

The Stranger (1946)

An agent (Edward G. Robinson) of the War Crimes Commission lets a convicted criminal escape in hopes he leads them to a notorious Nazi commander. This trail leads him to a small Connecticut town.

Character actor Billy House had a memorable role. Richard Long appears in his second screen credit. I will forever associate him with House on Haunted Hill (1959), but others may remember him from Big Valley or Nanny and the Professor. He did a lot of television before dying tragically young.

Faithful Mary (Loretta Young) is unknowingly engaged to marry the Nazi (Orson Welles). I found it peculiar that she refers to her father (Philip Merivale) by his first name, and he calls her "Sister". I wondered if this was a Quaker thing, but couldn't confirm it. Very strange. Another strange thing is when Mary returns from her honeymoon, little brother Noah asks “Did you remember to keep your knees together and your apparatus in?” This was in context to skiing, but I wonder if the screenwriter might be giving a wink to the audience.

Both may have been explained by the original edit. The producers gave the editor carte blanche to remove anything he felt was unnecessary. Cut and lost is thirty minutes of footage, much of it from the opening. Welles was furious.

Were I to criticize The Stranger, it would be that the story was rather linear, particularly for a Welles film. But it works and the performances are excellent. Robinson just got better as he aged and only Welles can deliver lines the way he does. I would love to see the two hour edit. AMRU 4.

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

A cabaret singer (Jean Arthur) steps off her ship at a South American port and meets a couple American fly boys who deliver mail under dangerous conditions. After one of the pilots has an accident, she gets to know their boss (Cary Grant).

There are elements of Rom and there are elements of Com, but make no mistake. This is no Rom-Com. This is the most dramatic role I’ve seen Grant in up to and including North by Northwest (1959). The stakes are high and the outcome is not guaranteed.

Here is an early appearance of Rita Hayworth. The twenty one year old had already appeared in a ton of films. She wasn’t far from Hollywood immortality. Also Thomas Mitchell, who was having a spectacular year. His five films that year were nominated for thirty six Oscars, winning thirteen. One of them was for his performance in Stagecoach.

Only Angels Have Wings is a solid drama. It's refreshing to see Grant play a character not exactly the Cary Grant type. It's perhaps a bit clunky at times, but it's very effective. AMRU 3.5.

Dr. Cyclops (1940)

A mad scientist (Albert Dekker) with failing eyesight requests assistance from more mainstream (less mad) scientists. Three people make the arduous trek to his remote lab in the Amazon jungle and he asks them what they see in his microscope. After which, he thanks them and tells them to leave. They refuse to go, so he shrinks them to doll size.

The first thing to notice is the vocal style, specifically with Drs. Thorkel and Bullfinch. They speak in a stilted, awkwardly formal cadence. I'm guessing they didn't want the viewers to forget they were watching a B sci-fi flick.

Thomas Coley plays substitute Bill, whose presence on the excursion and in the movie remains a mystery. My only guess is there needed to be a young man to accompany the pretty scientist lady. This was his first screen credit and last feature film appearance. He had a large number of TV appearances starting eleven years after this film’s release. I’m sure his acting improved.

The first sci-fi film shot in three-strip Technicolor, it earned an Oscar nomination for special effects. And for good reason. The oversized sets match seamlessly with the regular sized ones. My only criticism is that footage of our heroes when small was much sharper than the enlarged rear projection. Other than that, the effects were quite good.

I had never heard of Dr. Cyclops prior to recording it, but it delivered on all promises. The science element here is wonky as all hell, but it’s without a doubt the best mad-scientist-shrinks-people-to-doll-size film I’ve seen so far. AMRU 3.5.

Brief Encounter (1945)

A married woman (Celia Johnson) crosses paths with a married doctor (Trevor Howard) during her visits to the city, and they begin a casual friendship. Slowly they realize that they are in love.

Here is yet another film told almost entirely in flashback. Wife Laura narrates the events inside her head. Her unsuspecting husband is the only person she can trust to tell, but the only person she can never tell.

Looking over a list of recorded films, I selected Brief Encounter on reputation, having been nominated for three Oscars and sporting an 8.0 on IMDb. But when I sat down to watch I discovered that Dr. Cyclops had been recorded. A film about a mad scientist who shrinks people! Sign me up! But I steeled myself, and watched the respectable film.

 Based on a Noel Coward play, it was an early success for directory David Lean. He would go on to direct a desert drama that I will eventually watch. Johnson hadn't done too many films at that point and would eventually star in the dreadful Holly and the Ivy. Howard played Major Calloway in The Third Man.

Brief Encounter is a pretty dull movie. A lot of conversations happen between our mostly chemistry-less leads but also between a rail employee and a cafe worker that doesn’t resolve. But it’s an unusual story and does hold your interest, more or less. But clearly it charmed other viewers much more than it did me. AMRU 3.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

A young lawyer (James Stewart) from the East is robbed by the villainous Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). Taken in by townsfolk, he plots a way to stop Valance without resorting to guns and violence. That doesn’t work out too great.

The story is told almost entirely in flashback with an elderly Ransom Stoddard (Stewart), now a senator, telling reporters the story of Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) at his funeral. The mystery of who actually shot Valance (the tenderfoot Stoddard or veteran gunfighter Doniphon) plays out well.

Wayne (54) and Stewart (53) compete for the affection of Vera Miles (31), revealing that the actors were much older than their characters. Not an uncommon occurrence for the Duke. Lee Marvin was recommended by Wayne after they worked on The Comancheros (1961) together, and he makes for an especially villainous villain.

The Man who Shot Liberty Valance is an entertaining tale, if not truly engrossing. It is considered one of John Ford’s latter masterpieces and did well at the box office. I found it a little better than watchable. AMRU 3.

The Skin Game (1931)

When a rich industrialist (Santa) eyes a valuable property with intent on building factories, an old money family is determined to stop him. The conflict has unintended consequences.

Come review time it had been several weeks since I watched The Skin Game, and truth be told, I didn’t remember much. I was forced to take drastic measures. I rewatched it.

The story mostly follows the old money Hillcrist family making them seem like the protagonists, but they are not without fault. Had they been more welcoming to the upstart Hornblowers, the whole conflict might have been avoided.

The central conflict is very much old money verses new money, a la The Gilded Age, or the Slobs verses the Snobs, if you prefer. Skin game is slang for a shady business deal, what Mr. Hornblower is accused of. But it is less the deal and more the conflict that is at the center of the story. And skin game takes on another meaning entirely at the climax.

Alfred Hitchcock was a little heavy handed with visual imagery early in his career. The Hornblower son and Hillcrist daughter meet at the beginning, teasing a love interest. She, on a horse, he, in an unusually loud car. When they separate, she follows a picturesque treed path, he, towards a more urban area. This kind of visual reinforcement is throughout.

Quite unlike latter Hitchcock, there is some sloppy dialog. Actors start speaking at the wrong time and correct themselves. Other times it feels like they are entirely improvising their dialog. It doesn’t detract from the film, however. Early talkies are pretty clumsy in general. Looking back, Hitchcock said about it in his interview with Francois Truffaut "I didn't make it by choice, and there isn't much to be said about it."

The Skin Game holds up to a second viewing. It could have been a two dimensional moral tale, but chooses a more nuanced path. AMRU 3.5.

The Giant Behemoth (1959)

In a presentation, marine biologist Karnes (Gene Evans) warns that nuclear testing in the world’s oceans will eventually lead to nature striking back. He is mostly dismissed, but lucky for him nature DOES strike back in the form of … something.

Initially the monster was to be a giant blob, but producers wanted another dinosaur. Elements more consistent with a radioactive blob remain. Willis O’Brien of King Kong (1933) fame was brought in, but budgets and deadlines were tight, and it shows.

Originally titled “Behemoth, the Sea Monster” which sounds a little like a kids show, it was later renamed to The Giant Behemoth. This I presume to distinguish it from those tiny behemoths we all know and love.

Eugene Lourie, who also directed The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), dispensed with the love interest part of the story, wanting to focus on science and monster mayhem. This decision may have contributed to the exposition heavy dialog. A young couple is introduced but disappears before the second act, despite being billed third and fourth.

The Giant Behemoth is a very by-the-numbers monster movie. Unfortunately it offers nothing new to the genre, and the stop motion effects were a half step down. The creature, unlike those created by Ray Harryhausen, lacked personality. AMRU 2.5.

Soylent Green (1973)

A cop (Charleston Heston) investigates the murder of an executive of the Soylent corporation, suppliers of much of the world’s food. Despite being told to let it go, he pushes on and discovers a disturbing secret. We all know. Go ahead, say the line …

I watched Soylent Green not long before I began the blog. It was on a library VHS tape and the quality was awful. Before the climax the video portion was completely shot. A quality copy makes an enormous difference.

Despite being set in the far off year of 2022, the filmmakers made no effort to give the world a futuristic look. The future isn’t ideal. It’s just like today except there is massive overpopulation, environmental disaster, and a worldwide food shortage.

Edward G. Robinson was dying during the production of the film, and in fact died the evening after his final scene. Early in the film is an improvised scene where Thorn and Sol (Heston and Robinson) feast on fresh food, practically non-existent in this world. It’s surprisingly impactful.

Elements of the story are a bit far fetched. The police just help themselves to items and furniture from a crime scene. Not that part. Climate change has devastated the environment and corporations control society. Not that either. We use the metric system. Seriously, what were they thinking?

Food, if you can call it that, is distributed in New York like it was a refugee camp. People sleep in hallways and staircases. Things like soap and pencils are a luxury. Soylent Green is an exceptionally prescient film. It could have been far preachier or leaned too far into levity. But it struck the right tone for 1973, and it strikes the right tone for now. AMRU 4.