Were They the Best Years of Our Lives?

I picked up The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) off the shelf at the library a dozen or more years ago because I saw it had Myrna Loy in it, and I really like her. I love movies involving WWII, soldiers, and the 1940s, so I figured I’d give it a try. 

At that time, I mostly knew Loy from the Thin Man movies she made with William Powell, which are hilarious and snarky and fun. So I think I kind of expected that this movie would also be a lighthearted way to pass an evening on my night off from work that week. I didn’t expect it to surprise and awe me. I didn’t expect it to be a serious and soul-searching. I didn’t expect it to wow me. 

But, boy, am I glad it wasn’t what I expected. 

The Best Years of Our Lives follows three American servicemen as they return to their hometown after World War Two. Made in 1946, when some GIs were still returning from “over there,” it is an unflinching look at the frustrations, hardships, joys, and fears involved in reuniting fighters with families. 

Former Army sergeant Al Stephenson (Frederic March) comes home to his wife Milly (Myrna Loy) and kids Peggy (Theresa Wright) and Rob (Michael Hall). They welcome him eagerly, if a little awkwardly. It will take some time for them all to readjust to each other, they know. Al gets his old job at a bank back, but he doesn’t feel like he fits in either there or at home anymore. Everyone wants life to go back to being just as it was before, but he’s changed too much to feel that’s possible. He seeks solace in alcohol. Milly sees this and is worried, but stalwartly supports him however she can, helping him to work through his worries and doubts subtly and kindly. 

Former Air Force captain Fred Derry (Dana Andrews) comes home to his parents who live on the poor side of town and idolize him, and to Marie (Virginia Mayo), the wife he acquired during a quickie wartime marriage. She wants him to be the same heroic, charming, fun guy she married two years earlier, but he’s changed. They don’t call it this, but Fred suffers from PTSD. He has horrible nightmares and withdraws from his wife and others around him. Unable to get his old job back, he becomes a lowly salesman at a drug store. Marie constantly berates and demeans him for getting such a lame job, for being boring, for not throwing money and attention at her constantly. 

Former Navy sailor Homer Parrish (Harold Russell) has it the hardest. He returns home to a loving family and his devoted fiancée Wilma (Cathy O’Donnell), the literal girl-next-door… but he returns home without his hands. Fiercely independent, and yet physically dependent on others for so many things, Homer chafes at the love, the pity, the kindness, and the stares that meet him everywhere. He doesn’t want Wilma to marry him because he thinks she deserves better. He even considers taking his own life so he won’t be a bother to those around him anymore. 

Played by real-life double amputee Harold Russell, who lost his hands in an accidental explosion during WWII, Homer Parrish is nothing short of inspiring. He has two artificial limbs with hooks on them that enable him to eat, drink, write, smoke, play the piano… but not stroke Wilma’s hair. Not button buttons. Not tie shoes. Not do a hundred everyday things that Homer thinks are important. 

As their lives and the lives of their loved ones weave together in a myriad tiny ways, Al, Fred, and Homer come to rely on each other for support, understanding, and encouragement. All three of them understand what it was like in the war, what it’s like to come home, what it’s like to want to fit in, but fail. Together, they work to raise each other above their problems and see that maybe the years they spent apart from their families weren’t the best years, but that maybe the years to come will be the best years, if they can only allow themselves to live them.

(This post originally appeared in Femnista magazine on September 7, 2019.)

My Ten Favorite Musicals -- 2025 Update

I shared my original list of ten favorite musicals a whole decade ago!  I've definitely got some slightly different favorites now, though many of the same dear favorites are still tops.  Here is my current list!  As usual, all titles are linked to my reviews if I have reviewed a particular movie.

(Random note, but I find it amusing how this graphic color-coordinated itself.  I didn't try to arrange the movies so they would have white posters all in a block and colorful ones in another block!  So funny.)

1. Guys and Dolls (1955)

Nathan Detroit (Frank Sinatra) bets Sky Masterson (Marlon Brando) that he can't get social reformer Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons) to go on a date with him. This movie made me fall in love with the stories and writing style of Damon Runyon, which the musical is based on. Personally (and that means in person), I adore the odd patter the characters speak. 

2. An American in Paris (1951)

An ex-GI painter (Gene Kelly) falls in love with a girl (Leslie Caron), not knowing she's engaged to his night club singer friend (Georges Guetary). The whole movie is an excuse to sing and dance to Gershwin tunes, which is one of the best reasons for making a musical I've ever heard. 

3. White Christmas (1954) 

A team of showbiz stars (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) try to rescue a retired general (Dean Jagger) from bankruptcy by staging a show at his ski lodge. Why yes, this heads up my list of favorite Christmas movies too. 

4. The Greatest Showman (2017) 

P. T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) gathers up the misfits of the world and gives them jobs, friendship, and a purpose.  And that includes his protégé Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), who falls in love with a trapeze artist (Zendaya).  The message of everyone deserving friendship and love and a place to belong, no matter what they look like, really resonates with me.

5. The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

A talented young singer (Emmy Rossum) is mentored and stalked and abducted and generally haunted by a disfigured man (Gerard Butler) who lives under the Paris Opera House.  Thank goodness for her childhood friend Raoul (Patrick Wilson), who stands by her and helps her however he can, and eventually falls in love with her as well.  This production is overwhelmingly lavish and opulent and everything it ought to be.  I'm particularly taken with Patrick Wilson's portrayal of Raoul as a brave and manly young fellow who protects and defends and is generally awesome.  And his voice is like butterscotch.  I wish Wilson made more musicals.

6. State Fair (1945) 

A family spends a week at the Iowa state fair, where the daughter (Jeanne Crain) falls in love with a newspaper man (Dana Andrews), the son falls in love with an entertainer, and the parents take home prizes for their mincemeat and hog. There's a 1960s remake that stars Bobby Darin in the Dana Andrews role, but aside from dearest Bobby, that version lacks the charm of this one. 

7.  Hello, Dolly! (1969)

A fairy-godmother-like matchmaker (Barbra Streisand) finds love matches for two store clerks (Michael Crawford, Danny Lockin), two milliners (Marianne McAndrew, E. J. Peaker), an irascible businessman (Walter Matthau) and his niece (Joyce Ames)... and herself.  I have a penchant for fairy godmothers, and Dolly Levi has been an inspiration to me since I was in single digits. 

8.  West Side Story (1961) 

A modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1960s NYC, with rival street gangs taking the place of rival families. So heartbreaking and beautiful, with some of the coolest dancing ever -- I much prefer it to Romeo and Juliet. The soundtrack was one of the first CDs I ever bought, and I know all the words to every song. 

9.  Brigadoon (1954) 

Two hunters (Gene Kelly and Van Johnson) stumble on an enchanted Scottish village that only exists one day out of every hundred years, whereupon one of them falls in love with a local girl (Cyd Charisse).  I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. 

10. Oklahoma! (1999) 

A cowboy (Hugh Jackman) tries to win the heart of a girl who claims she hates him. Yes, you read that correctly: Hugh Jackman. This is the London stage version, not the famous Hollywood one, and I prefer it because, well, Hugh Jackman!

This post is one of my contributions to We Love Musicals Week.  I hope you've been enjoying the fun so far!

Obsession or Love: "Laura" (1944)

What’s the difference between love and obsession? How can you tell if you’re in the throes of one versus the other? Can obsession become love? Can love become obsession? 

These questions are at the heart of the 1944 noir film Laura. While it explores all of them fairly thoroughly, it does not provide any definitive answers. Instead, it seems to present obsession and love as two sides of the same coin, never far apart. 

The New York Police Department tasks Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) with investigating the murder of a high-society working girl, advertising whiz Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney). Like any good detective, he collects clues, interviews those who knew the deceased, and follows up on any hunches he might have. 

Everyone he interviews professes to have loved Laura. They are all confused how anyone could have wanted her dead, much less murdered her. Yet, the body found on the floor of her apartment, clad in a negligee and shot at close range in the face, proves at least one person in New York City did not love Laura Hunt. Perhaps they were obsessed with her, and their obsession took a deadly turn. 

As he investigates her murder, McPherson becomes more than a little obsessed with the dead woman himself. Everyone who knew her tells him how elegant and sophisticated, yet sweet and kind Laura was. She was intelligent and had exquisite taste, helped her out-of-work boyfriend find a job at her advertising firm, was always polite and friendly to her maid, and dazzled the entire world. How could anyone help himself from falling in love with her, even in her permanent absence? 

It seems no one can resist Laura’s charm, even after she’s dead, not even McPherson, a working-class snob who calls women ‘dames’ and looks down his nose at his wealthy suspects because they live in expensive apartments surrounded by beautiful things. The only person he interviews that he appears to respect is her maid Bessie (Dorothy Adams), a working-class woman who practically worshiped her employer. Bessie and McPherson get off to a rocky start, but once he stops casting aspersions on Laura and starts listening to Bessie, they get along fine. 

McPherson may be a reverse elitist, but when it comes to the murdered woman, all his prejudices go out the window. He doesn’t mind that her apartment is expensive, her things beautiful, her furniture and clothing in the best taste. That just makes him more fascinated with her. So fascinated that he spends the night in her apartment, going through her clothes and personal possessions, drinking her alcohol, and staring at her portrait. He even puts in a bid on her portrait when he learns it will be sold at auction. 

You can’t fall in love with a dead person you’ve never met, but you can become obsessed with them. Maybe even as obsessed as the person who killed her so she could never be someone else’s. McPherson almost gets so lost in his own yearning for this woman he’s never known that he stops investigating her murder… but only almost. In the end, he finds the killer, and even gets a chance at actual love, the kind that could replace his unhealthy obsession with Laura.

(This post originally appeared in Femnista magazine on October 29, 2019.)

My Ten Favorite Movies About Writers

My being a writer probably explains my fondness for movies about writers.  Today, I'm sharing the list of my ten favorite movies about or involving writers -- some authors of fiction, some screenwriters, some columnists or newspaper reporters, but all writers!

1. Laura (1944)  While solving the murder of beautiful Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) falls in love with her memory, mainly thanks to the worshipful reminiscences of Laura's mentor, venomous columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb).

2. Saving Mr. Banks (2013)  Author P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson) struggles to let go of her specific vision for her book Mary Poppins as Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) works to make it into a movie.  My favorite description of what writers do ("We restore order.  We instill hope, again and again.") comes from this movie.

3. The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) needs money. And he needs his career to stop fizzling. And he needs these grumpy characters in his head (especially Scrooge, played by Christopher Plummer) to cooperate. And he needs people to stop pestering him so he can just write his next book. A completely charming, relatable look at the writing process!

4. The Gazebo (1959) A playwright (Glenn Ford) gets blackmailed over some scandalous old photos of his actress wife (Debbie Reynolds) and decides to kill the blackmailer rather than keep paying him. Which leads to very dark comedy that has me in absolute stitches, though my husband didn't find it nearly so funny because he said that Glenn Ford was too good at portraying fear and worry, and so my husband just kept feeling afraid and worried for him. YMMV.

5. Romancing the Stone (1984) Bestselling romance novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) sets out to rescue her kidnapped sister from the South American drug lords who kidnapped her.  A disillusioned mercenary (Michael Douglas) reluctantly helps her out in exchange for a treasure map Joan's sister sent to her before she was kidnapped.  Romance and adventure and some pretty funny dialog ensue.

6. Moulin Rouge! (2001) An aspiring novelist (Ewan MacGregor) falls in love with a consumptive courtesan (Nicole Kidman) and courts her with the help of Toulouse-Latrec (John Leguizamo) in 1890s Paris, while singing and dancing to modern 20th-century music because director Baz Luhrmann can make that work.

7. Paris When it Sizzles (1964) A screenwriter (William Holden) tries to cure his writer's block and write his next smash hit with the help of a typist (Audrey Hepburn) with quirky and funny results. I feel like Alex and Emma (2003) is basically a remake of this movie, though I suppose they might both just be inspired by the true story of Fyodor Dostoyevsky writing a book under a tight deadline with the help of a stenographer that he fell in love with and subsequently married.

8. Miss Potter (2006) Beatrix Potter (Renee Zellweger) falls in love, writes stories, paints cute pictures, publishes books, and refuses to let anyone stop her from doing any of those things. It's a sweet, fun mix of cuteness and determination.

9. Roman Holiday (1953) Bored and lonely Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) runs off alone in Rome to have a taste of what life is like for ordinary people.  American newspaperman Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) takes her under his wing before anything bad can happen to her, and he thinks he's got the scoop of a lifetime once he realizes who he's rescued. 

10. Knives Out (2019) A wealthy mystery author (Christopher Plummer) dies, and everyone in his large and weird family (Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, et. al.) suspects everyone else of having killed him. Only an enigmatic private detective (Daniel Craig) has any inkling of the truth for a long time. 

Are there any movies about your particular profession?  Or, are there any jobs you really love to watch movies about?

This has been my second entry for the On the Job Blogathon hosted by myself and Quiggy at the Midnight Drive-In this weekend!

My Ten Favorite Dramas -- 2023 Update

It's been ten years since I shared my list of my ten favorite dramas, and it is high time for an update!  Things have shifted around a bit from that last list, with several movies dropping off and getting replaced.

1. Ben-Hur (1959) When Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is unjustly imprisoned by his former best friend (Stephen Boyd), he vows revenge, but eventually learns revenge is less sweet than he'd expected. If you ever get the chance to see this in the theater, run, don't walk!  Spectacular stuff.

2. Jane Eyre (1983) A young governess (Zelah Clarke) teaches her employer (Timothy Dalton) about love, respect, and honor. My favorite adaptation of my favorite novel.

3. Chocolat (2000) A mysterious woman (Juliette Binoche) opens a chocolate shop in a sedate French village and teaches its inhabitants to reexamine their attitudes and customs, and even welcome strangers like Johnny Depp.  Sweet and a little tangy here and there.

4. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Three veterans (Dana Andrews, Frederic March, Harold Russell) find returning to civilian life much harder than they'd expected. Bonus: this movie contains THREE love stories! You get love between a husband and wife getting reacquainted, between childhood sweethearts, and between new acquaintances.

5. Apollo 13 (1995) The true story of three astronauts (Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon) who must survive a space ship malfunction on the way to the moon. Never fails to inspire and awe me.

6. Giant (1956) A spoiled East Coast beauty (Elizabeth Taylor) marries a stubborn Texas rancher (Rock Hudson), and they spend twenty-five years trying to figure each other out. One of the first movies I can remember watching!

7. Risen (2016) A Roman tribune (Joseph Fiennes) is tasked with unraveling the mystery about some Jewish guy named Jesus whose body had mysteriously disappeared from his tomb. It's the story of the Resurrection told like a detective story -- who un-killed Jesus?

8. North and South (2004) A woman (Daniela Denby-Ashe) from the pastoral north of England moves to the industrial south and spends months ignoring the fact that a wealthy manufacturer (Richard Armitage) is in love with her.

9. Witness (1985) Detective John Book (Harrison Ford) goes undercover to protect a little Amish boy who is the only witness to a murder. Taut and tender at the same time.

10. And Now Tomorrow (1944) A wealthy young woman (Loretta Young) loses her hearing due to an illness. Though her family and fiance (Barry Sullivan) try to convince her she needs to accept her condition, a young doctor (Alan Ladd) with an experimental treatment holds out hope that she could regain her hearing.

Any movies here you particularly love too?

"A Song is Born" (1948)

A Song is Born (1948) is a remake of Ball of Fire (1941), and both were directed by Howard Hawks!  Or, rather, they're both based on the story "From A to Z" by Billy Wilder and Thomas Monroe.  They both have the same basic plot but, while Ball of Fire is a screwball comedy, A Song is Born is a musical comedy.  Although I enjoy the former more than most screwballs, I really do prefer the latter in nearly every way.  We'll get to that.

Like the earlier film, this is basically a retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, only it's about a nightclub singer on the run who seeks refuge with seven professors, plus an eighth professor who turns out to be a handsome prince, sort of.

The Totten Foundation is a group of eight musical academics who have been working on a comprehensive encyclopedia of world music.  Whenever their sponsor, Miss Totten (Mary Field, who played the same role in Ball of Fire!!!), threatens to cut off their funding if they don't finish their work soon, the older academics throw Professor Hobart Frisbee (Danny Kaye) in her path.  Miss Totten has a crush on Hobart and is always easily convinced to continue supporting their project if he's the one talking to her.

After spending nine years locked away in an old New York mansion, the professors tell Miss Totten they're nearly finished cataloging, describing, and providing musical examples for every single form of music from Baroque to barbaric.  But then, two window washers (played by the popular duo Buck and Bubbles, aka Ford L. "Buck" Washington and John W. "Bubbles" Sublett) introduce them to jazz music, and the academics have a crisis of conscience.  How can they say their work is finished when they know absolutely nothing about jazz and have not included it in their encyclopedia?

Hobart Frisbee sets out to learn about jazz, swing, Dixie, jive, blues, and everything else jazz-influenced.  He does this by visiting nightclubs all over New York City and listening to a dazzling array of actual musicians and bands, including Louis Armstrong and Tommy Dorsey (but not Benny Goodman because he is playing one of the other professors, the one up there wielding licorice stick).  While he's conducting all this research, Hobart eventually meets a girl.

Like so many Hawks films,  A Song is Born features a female character who has strength, style, determination, and a hidden sweetness that eventually shines through her tough exterior.  Here, it's a nightclub warbler called Honey Swanson (Virginia Mayo) who starts out an opportunistic conniver and winds up a softhearted sweetheart.  Honey's gangster boyfriend Tony Crow (Steve Cochran) is on the lam, avoiding a murder rap, and he tells Honey to find someplace to hide until he can quick marry her so she can't be forced to testify that his alibi for that murder is a phony.

Oh, and her outfit is super-duper similar to what Barbara Stanwyck wears in Ball of Fire too!  I love that touch.  They both have this weird shimmery skirt that's actually just strips of sequined fabric.  Both versions are pretty daring, if you ask me.

Hobart had invited Honey to visit the Totten Foundation to discuss jazz music, and she decides that is the perfect place to hide out.  She plants herself in the midst of all those professors in the middle of the night and refuses to leave until she's been able to educate them.  Musically, of course.

Honey is not the only performer Hobart invited over, she's just the first to arrive.  The next day, a whole lot of the musicians he visited (including Louis Armstrong and Tommy Dorsey) show up, and they play a perfectly delightful array of musical numbers, including the titular ditty "A Song is Born."  If you enjoy jazz, swing, or '40s music at all, you will be delighted by that whole segment.

Naturally, Hobart is dazzled by the glamorous, worldly Honey.  Naturally, she doesn't take him seriously at all.  But Hobart IS serious about her, and proposes.  Meanwhile, Honey's gangster boyfriend wants her to find a way out of the city that won't be spotted by the cops.  She's supposed to meet up with him out in the country for a quickie wedding.  

SPOILERS in the next two paragraphs!!!

Honey tricks Hobart and the other professors into taking her out to a gangster hideout, where she breaks Hobart's heart and Tony Crow smacks him around a bit for good measure.

Somehow, everyone ends up back at the Totten Foundation, including Tony Crow and his henchmen with a very deaf justice of the peace in tow to perform the wedding.  Honey realizes she's in love with Hobart and tries to get out of marrying Crow, but he threatens to have all the professors shot if she doesn't go through with the wedding.  However!  Love and music conquer all -- literally.  The professors use their knowledge of musical vibrations to overcome the gunmen and stop the wedding, and everything ends up happily.

END OF SPOILERS

I mentioned that I don't entirely prefer A Song is Born to Ball of Fire, and that really is only concerning the gangster boyfriend.  Steve Cochran as Tony Crow in this movie is pretty boring and rarely menacing.  He's annoying, and I feel very happy to see him get what he deserves.  But Dana Andrews as Joe Lilac in Ball of Fire is quietly, calmly dangerous, but also handsome and charming, which makes him much more formidable.  But, then, I'm a Dana Andrews fan, so I guess it's not shocking I prefer him.

Is this movie family friendly?  I think so!  There's the mildest of mild suggestiveness in a "mating song" performed toward the beginning, and Honey's nightclub outfit shows a goodly bit of skin.  She also shows off her legs to the professors to dazzle them.  One of the other professors is a widower and tries to give Hobart some marital advice that is very innocent and naïve.  There are a couple of kisses and the threat of violence.  No bad language.  I intend to show it to my kids one of these days.

This has been my contribution to the Danny Kaye Blogathon hosted by Poppity Talks Classic Film :-)

My Ten Favorite Non-Scary Movies for Fall

I don't like scary movies.  At all.  But I do like a good, broody, atmospheric, gothic-type movie, especially in October.  Something with dark vibes and dark shadows and dark characters, and maybe a little supernatural or psychological eeriness tossed in, but not actually a scary movie, you know?  Perfect for curling up on the couch with a mug of hot cider and a cozy blanket while the wind howls outside and the rain taps gently against the window...

Well, if you like those sorts of movies too, here's a list of ten I love and recommend!  Just in case you're craving some dark, moody, shadowy goodness yourself right now.  Links go to my own reviews so you can learn more about those titles if you'd like.

1. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988)  Sherlock Holmes (Jeremy Brett) and Dr. Watson (Edward Hardwicke) help Sir Henry Baskerville (Kristoffer Tabori) uncover the dark truth behind his forbear's death out on the wild and gloomy moors.  I crave this every October, really.  Some years, I make myself watch a different version, just to make this more fresh the next year, but this is my favorite fall watch.  I often reread the book in October too.

2. Jane Eyre (1983)  Lonely governess Jane Eyre (Zelah Clarke) finds understanding, companionship, and love with Mr. Rochester (Timothy Dalton) in this pitch-perfect BBC miniseries that absolutely kickstarted my devotion to the book it's based on.  (If you don't have time for all four hours, the 2011 version is my other favorite, and it's half as long.  If you want to go really classic, the 1943 version is shrouded in shadows and mystery.)

3. Hamlet (2011) Hamlet (Bruce Ramsay) suspects his uncle Claudius (Peter Winfield) killed Hamlet's father before marrying his mother (Gillian Barber), and he spends the night after their wedding trying to find out.  They trim all of Hamlet down to 1 hour and 27 minutes, give it a neo-noir feel, and it is spectacular.  However, please note that it is rated R for some easy-to-skip adult scenes.  (If you can't get your hands on this version, or don't want to deal with the adult content, the 1948 Olivier and the 2009 Tennant versions both have excellent shadowy vibes and are tamer.)

4. Laura (1944) Detective Mark MacPherson (Dana Andrews) tries to solve the murder of a beautiful woman named Laura (Gene Tierney).  Her family and friends all insist she was lovable, intelligent, talented, and altogether wonderful... so why did someone want to kill her?  This is my favorite noir film, and it has one of the best twists in any movie I've ever seen.  Go into it not knowing much more than this and prepare to fall in love with Laura yourself.

5. The Phantom of the Opera (2004)  A beautiful young singer (Emmy Rossum) reunites with her childhood sweetheart (Patrick Wilson), but her mysterious singing mentor (Gerard Butler) turns out to be an obsessive, possessive killer who wants her for himself.  The whole production is over-the-top lavish, dripping with candlelight and shadows and emotions.  

6. Dead Again (1991)  An amnesiac woman (Emma Thompson) keeps having nightmares about scissors.  A kind P.I. (Kenneth Branagh) tries to help her recover her memory.  And then they discover they may be the reincarnations of two doomed lovers who lived back during the Roaring Twenties, and solving that long-ago murder may be the only way to secure their own peace and happiness.  This one is also rated R because Robin Williams cusses a LOT in his few scenes, and there's some violence.  It would clean up easily with a filtering service, though.

7. Rebecca (1940)  A young bride (Joan Fontaine) is haunted by the suspicion that her new husband (Laurence Olivier) still loves his dead first wife, Rebecca.  Such a fascinating look at doubt, obsession, misconceptions, and consequences.  It's one of Hitchcock's best.

8. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)  A teen girl (Theresa Wright) adores her visiting uncle (Joseph Cotten) until she begins to wonder if he's connected to a recent string of murders.  Another masterpiece about doubt and fear from Alfred Hitchcock.

9. Cry Wolf (1947)  A widow (Barbara Stanwyck) thinks her late husband's uncle (Errol Flynn) is hiding a terrible secret.  It turns out he is, but it's not the secret she's expecting.  There's murder and madness and a gloomy old manor house dripping with shadows -- and also combative romance, just to keep things peppy.

 

10. Meet Joe Black (1998)  Death (Brad Pitt) takes on a human body to experience life, manipulating an aging man (Anthony Hopkins) into helping him.  Death romances the man's daughter (Claire Forlani), tastes peanut butter for the first time, and learns what it means to be both human and kind.  This one is PG-13 mostly for a short and easy-to-skip love scene.

Have you seen any of these?  What are some of your favorite non-scary movies to watch in the fall?

"State Fair" (1945)

I first saw State Fair (1945) when I was probably twelve or thirteen -- not long after we moved to North Carolina.  It was definitely after I had discovered a huge compendium of Dick Tracy comics at the library, because for years, I thought of Dana Andrews as "that guy with Dick Tracy hair in State Fair."  Which is not an entirely inaccurate description, actually.  He DOES have sleeked-back dark hair that never changes shape.

Anyway.  I've always been charmed by the fact that this movie takes place in Iowa, because I am an Iowa native myself.  Even though we moved away when I was three, my family roots are there because my parents both were born in and grew up in Iowa themselves.  So it's always been fun to sing along with "All I Owe Ioway" in particular.

State Fair is the only musical that Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II did NOT originally write to be a stage musical!  They actually wrote this specifically to be a movie, based on a book by Philip Stong.  The book had been adapted into a non-musical movie starring Will Rogers in 1933, but that version focused more on the father, while this focuses more on the daughter and son.  Hammerstein wrote the screenplay too, which I find pretty cool.  

There's another movie version of State Fair, made in 1962, which stars Bobby Darin, Pat Boone, and Ann-Margret.  You'd think that would be my favorite version, due to the presence of my beloved Bobby Darin, and it does have some really good points -- but I actually prefer this one, over all.

It wasn't until 1969 that State Fair was turned into a stage musical.  It finally hit Broadway in 1996, and was co-directed by James Hammerstein (Oscar's son), who had produced the 1969 version as well.

This is one of those movies that I sometimes imagine myself living inside.  I love the whole feel of it, from the tidy farm to the tiny camping accommodations at the fair to the fairgrounds.  I want to wear the costumes and ride the rides and try the mincemeat -- everything!  

The story line is pretty simple: a farming family goes to the state fair filled with hopes and dreams, and not of all those hopes and dreams get realized, but most of them do.  

The family's daughter, Margy Frake (Jeanne Craine), doesn't quite know what she wants.  She just knows she doesn't want what she has: a very boring almost-fiance (Phil Brown) who wants to live in an ultra-modern plastic home on their ultra-modern farm and has planned every minute of their lives together before she even agrees to marry him.

It's hard for me to believe that this Jeanne Craine is the same woman who starred in Guns of the Timberland (1960).  I know fifteen years is a lot of time, but she even has different mannerisms and gestures, and her voice sounds different!  Kinda blows my mind.  

Also, it's very crazy that Phil Brown, the boring almost-fiance, also plays Uncle Owen in Star Wars: A New Hope (1977).  I never would have guessed that either.  But I guess he does well at playing farmers?

Anyway!  The family's son, Wayne (Dick Hymes), wants to prove he's not a sucker.  Last year, at the state fair, he got made fun of and played for a fool by a carnival barker with a ring-toss game, and he has spent all year practicing with his mother's embroidery hoops and his father's old saddle so that, this year, he will prove he's not a sucker.

The mom, Melissa (Fay Bainter), wants to take first prize for either her pickles or her mincemeat.  She's not choosy which.

The dad, Abel (Charles Winninger) wants his prize hog Blue Boy to win a blue ribbon too.  Simple dreams for simple people living in a simpler world.  Did I mention I'd like to live in this movie?  If Margy moves out, can I have her room?

Everybody gets to the fair in due course.  I noticed something when watching this movie so I could write this review: everyone gets really dressed up for the fair.  Women are wearing dresses and hats and gloves, and the men are all wearing suit coats, often ties, and usually a hat too!  I want to go to a fair where everyone is dressed up!!!  

Well, Wayne heads right out to the midway and proves himself to the same carnival barker (Henry "Harry" Morgan) who gave him a hard time the year before.  He also shows everyone in the crowd that the prizes at that game are worthless junk.  The barker doesn't take kindly to this, but a stranger (Vivian Blaine) backs him up and says her father's the chief of police.  That shuts the barker up.

Margy decides to prove to herself that she is not afraid of the roller coaster.  She used to like it, and then she got scared of it, or something.  Anyway, she gets on, and a stranger (Dana Andrews) sits down beside her, and it turns out she's definitely still scared of the roller coaster.  She spends most of the ride clutching the stranger's lapels and hiding her face in his chest.  Which, as you can see, he doesn't mind.  In fact, he thinks she's really funny.  Which she is.

After the roller coaster, he introduces himself: Pat Gilbert, newspaperman.  He's working for the Des Moines Register (an actual newspaper, btw) and covering the fair all week.  He and Margy hit it off big and go try out a lot of other carnival rides together -- strictly as research for the paper, of course.

Wayne discovers, quite accidentally, that the woman who stood up for him at the ring toss game is a singer named Emily Edwards who's with a band that's performing at the fair.  They get along just swell, singing and dancing the night away.

Not everyone gets their happy ending, though.  Oh, Margy finds what she didn't know she wanted, Melissa does better with her mincemeat than she could ever have dreamed, and Blue Boy makes Abel proud as can be.  Poor Wayne, though, discovers he's still a naive kid who's easy to fool.  And then he learns from his experiences and grows up, so he ends up okay too.

Now, as to whether or not Dana Andrews has Dick Tracy-esque hair in this movie, well, I still think he does.  See?

I rest my case.

Is this movie family friendly?  Mainly, yes.  There's a little kissing, the implication that Pat has a history of dating a LOT of women, and Wayne ends up getting drunk.  But there's no bad language, no tawdry or smutty content, and the only violence is one well-thrown punch.  I showed this to my kids a few years ago already.

This has been my contribution to the Fifth Broadway Bound Blogathon hosted by Taking Up Room all weekend. Check out this master post for links to all the entries!

My Answers to the We Love Detectives Week Blog Tag

Quick reminder -- today is the LAST day you can enter my giveaway!  There haven't been a lot of people entering yet, so you might have a really good chance at winning something.  Go enter, if you haven't yet!

Today, I've finally got a few minutes to answer the official party tag :-)  So, here we go!

What's your favorite mystery with... 

1. ...a historical setting? 

The Hound of the Baskervilles by A. Conan Doyle.  That's one of my top ten favorite books of all time, and my favorite mystery.  While its setting was contemporary at the time it was written, it's now a historical one for us!

My favorite filmed adaptation is the 1988 version starring Jeremy Brett, which is practically perfect in every way :-D

2. ...a modern setting? 

This is a toss-up between Bones (2005-2017) and Castle (2009-2016).  I absolutely love both shows, for my usual reason that I really enjoy hanging out with the characters.  If I had to pick a favorite episode for each of them... I probably couldn't.  Too many fun ones!

3. ...a lone detective? 

The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler is my favorite book by my favorite author, and it is completely splendid.  Private investigator Philip Marlowe may be on his shiniest white knight behavior in this one.

4. ...a pair of sleuths? 

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King.  Sherlock Holmes takes on an apprentice?  Who's an obstinate, headstrong teen girl?  My only regret about this book is that I never read it when I was an actual teen girl myself.  I would have loved it.  I do love it, anyway, but I could have loved it for longer than I have, you know?

5. ...a professional/police detective? 

Definitely Laura (1944).  Detective Mark MacPherson (Dana Andrews) is simply marvelous.  I really just never get tired of that movie!

6. ...an amateur detective? 

Probably The Blue Dahlia (1946).  Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) doesn't set out to be a detective, but the only way he can figure out how to clear himself of his wife's murder is to find who actually did kill her, so off he goes.

7. ...a young sleuth? 

I'm going with The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.  Yes, I love Trixie Belden and Frank and Joe Hardy a whole lot.  But Turtle Wexler is in a special league all her own, folks.

8. ...an aging detective? 

Hmm.  Maybe Hell on Frisco Bay (1955).  Former policeman Steve Rollins (Alan Ladd) is released from prison after serving time for a crime he didn't commit, and he sets about tracking down those who really did it.  He's not some young, tough, snarky guy, but a tired man who got middle-aged while in prison and has to lean more on his brains than his physical strength than he might have years ago.

9. ...a cozy feel? 

I'm not hugely into cozy mysteries, but the Drew Farthering mysteries by Julianna Deering are pretty cozy and comfy, except for all the dead bodies that keep turning up. They're set in England in the 1920s and are probably the best Christian historical fiction mysteries I've ever read.

(From my Instagram account)

10. ...a shocking reveal?

A Family Affair by Rex Stout shocked me so much the first time I read it!  Don't read it if you aren't familiar with the characters already, as it won't be nearly as shocking if you aren't.  But if you are, well, it's pretty darn intense.  I really love the Nero Wolfe mysteries by Stout, and if you like snappy dialog, mid-1900s settings, and complicated plots, definitely try them out.

This is my last entry for my We Love Detectives Week party!  Don't forget to enter the giveaway and play the games -- I'll be drawing winners for the giveaway and posting answers and scores for the matching game tomorrow.