"The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" (2024) -- Initial Thoughts

You know what this felt like?  A 1960s-style WWII movie, but with 1970s-style levels of violence and language.

I really love movies where the director and actors are all having a really great time, and you feel like they're inviting you to just have fun and enjoy yourself alongside them.  That is absolutely the vibe this movie had.  Was it one of the most violent movies I have seen?  Yes.  But it wasn't dark and it wasn't eerie and it wasn't depressing.  And it contained that sense of camaraderie and the brothers-in-arms-who-will-die-for-each-other attitude that I absolutely love in true stories about WWII and the classic films about it. 

Also, there was really no shoehorning of modern sensibilities into this movie about real people and real events.  That's so delicious.  It was like Midway (2019) in that way.  These people FELT like they were 1940s folks.  Fantastic. 

Also, the film did not sidestep the issue of "Nazis hated the Jews."  In fact, it made it explicitly clear that the main bad guy decides to torture and kill someone not because he discovers they are a spy, but because he figures out they are Jewish.  And he is a completely evil character that the audience is never asked to sympathize with.  In our particular moment in time, that seems like a bold statement, and I appreciated it.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) is about a ragtag group of five Allied men and one women, each with their own very specific set of often unsavory skills, who get sent on a daring black-ops raid against the Nazis.  It's kind of like The Dirty Dozen (1967) or The Devil's Brigade (1968), but make it British.  And a true story.  Like The Monuments Men (2014), but with a higher body count and more gallows humor.

Did I mention it's a true story?  It is.  I've been doing some digging around, and I need to read some books on this whole heist raid thing, because it is amazing.  My library only has the audiobook edition of Damien Lewis's book that this movie is based on (so rude!), so I simply have to buy my own copy.  Also, I need the movie soundtrack, but it looks like that's only on mp3 and not CD (also rude), at least so far.  May have to get the mp3 version, I guess.

This really isn't a review so much as a rambling assortment of my thoughts about the film.  Sorry.  I've only seen it once, and I have a lot of things I want to say, but it's not really an easy film to straight-up review.  I'm simply going to have to go see this movie again.  

The cast is delightful, especially Henry Cavill and Eiza González and Cary Elwes.  It's always weird seeing Cary Elwes in anything besides The Princess Bride (1987), but I got kinda used to him by the end of this.  Honestly, I went to see this because WWII + Henry Cavill + Guy Ritchie sounded like it might be a good mix, and I was not disappointed!

This is not a family friendly movie, though.  There is some serious cussing, some innuendo, and a LOT of violence.  Not quite the level of a Quentin Tarantino movie (which I have just kind of quit watching because they started turning my stomach), but blood spatter happens, and a lot of death happens.  Also, the bad guy is a sadistic creep who tortures people for his own pleasure.  We do not see that torture, but we see a victim of it (not in detail), and we fear very much for another character when it becomes obvious he has Very Bad Plans for them.  There were several places where the film started tilting toward the dark and disturbing, then very nicely sidestepped that and forged merrily ahead instead, much to my relief.  It had the attitude of, "There are really bad things happening in this world because there are very bad people in this world -- but let's blow something up instead of talking about that too much."  If that makes any sense.

Do I recommend this to people who are adults and won't be bothered by the violence?  Absolutely.  It's a remarkably good time.

Oh!  And they had little things at the end before the credits, telling us what happened to the actual people involved in the story, later during the war.  I love it when movies do that.

But it's kind of unfair that Henry Cavill can be completely covered with a shaggy beard and twirly mustache and still be that attractive.  The repeated gag about his character stealing progressively cooler coats was one of my favorite random little things in the movie.

My Ten Favorite Alan Ladd Roles

Happy Alaniversary to me!  Seven years ago today, I fell hard for Alan Ladd, and I haven't recovered.  Nor do I want to ;-)  Today, I'm celebrating by sharing my ten favorite roles Ladd played.  I have seen about thirty of his movies (many of them over and over and over) by now, and reviewed nearly two dozen of them, but I've never really stopped to figure out who my favorite characters of his were, other than the top three, which I have long loved best.

It amuses me how differently things are ranked here from my Ten Favorite Alan Ladd Movies list and my Ten Favorite Alan Ladd Westerns list.  In fact, there are three characters on here whose stories don't appear on either of those lists!  So interesting how I can love a character more than the movie they're in, or a movie more than the characters in it.

1. Shane in Shane (1953)

Shane has so much dignity, grace, courage, integrity... it's no wonder that this performance is the one Ladd is remembered best for.  His past and future are mysteries, but we can tell he's haunted by his past, which clearly involved being a gunman.

2. Luke "Whispering" Smith in Whispering Smith (1948)

Luke Smith is a railroad detective, basically.  He's another upright, brave, uncompromising guy who puts others above himself and stands up for what's right even if it means great personal sacrifice.  It was watching Whispering Smith and Shane back-to-back that made me fall for Ladd in the first place :-)

3. Dan Holliday in Box 13 (1948-49)(radio show)

Holliday is a former newspaper reporter who decides to try writing fiction.  To get ideas for his stories, he puts an ad in the paper that says he's seeking adventure and will go anywhere and tackle any problem.  This leads to a whole lot of mysteries to solve, crimes to investigate, people to rescue, and other sundry adventures.  I've actually been a fan of this radio show longer than I've been a Ladd devotee!

4. Choya in Branded (1950)  

Choya is a drifting loner with a streak of decency.  Even when he's mixed up in something illegal, he ends up doing the right thing to help and protect others.  And standing up for others helps him realign his own moral compass in the process.

5. John Chandler in The Proud Rebel (1958)

Chandler is a kind, loving father who would do anything to help his young son be able to speak again.  He's a former Confederate soldier who lost everything but his son during the war, and his attempts to build a new life for them both are heart-melting.

6. Captain Webster "Web" Carey in Captain Carey, USA (1949)

Web Carey is a brave and honorable guy who believes he was betrayed by the woman he loved back when he was a spy during WWII.  When he discovers that everything he believed about that betrayal may have been a lie, he'll do whatever it takes to learn the truth.  Even if that might break his own heart all over again.

7. Thomas O'Rourke in Saskatchewan (1954)

O'Rourke was raised by Canadian Indians, but is now a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  He tries everything to keep peace between native tribes and white settlers, putting his own safety and reputation on the line repeatedly.

8. Dr. Merek Vance in And Now Tomorrow (1944)

Merek Vance is one of the characters Ladd played the most earlier in his career -- a cold, calculating man who is not interested in kindness or friendship or love... until he meets a girl who brings out the good parts of himself he's kept hidden inside.  In this case, he's actually a good guy, a philanthropic doctor who spends most of his time treating poor people who can't afford his treatments.  He just is more interested in science than his patients... until now...

9. Major Larry Briggs in Saigon (1947)

Briggs and his two pals, all ex-GIs, are only really interested in making money.  He definitely doesn't like or trust women, as you can see from the picture above.  He and his buddies are loyal to each other, but don't care much about anyone else until... 

10. Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby (1949)

Poor Jay Gatsby.  Hopeful, yearning, always reaching for what he can't have, never ready to give up on his great dream.  Betrayed, hurt, wistful... Gatsby is pretty much tailor-made for Alan Ladd to play.

This has been a really fun list to come up with, and I may have to do similar gatherings of favorite roles for other actors and actresses I love!  It's rather different from just "favorite films," and I like that.

"Defiance" (2008)

Defiance (2008) is the true story of four Jewish brothers in Belarus who not only evaded the Nazis all through World War II, but also helped more than a thousand other Jewish people elude them as well.

Zus (Liev Schreiber) and Asael (Jamie Bell) Bielski are stunned when they discover their parents were murdered by Nazis at the family farm.  Their younger brother Aron (George McKay) has survived, and they're soon joined by oldest brother Tuvia (Daniel Craig).  The four brothers hide in the forest nearby, grieving and trying to figure out what to do next.  Tuvia gets a gun from a neighbor and executes the local man who led the Nazis to the Bielski farm, and then the brothers set out to survive in the forest.

It turns out there are other Jews hiding in the forest.  The Bielski boys all basically grew up in the forest, so they're excellent at hiding and surviving there.  The other people look to them for guidance and help, and Tuvia agrees to lead them.  First, he's helping a dozen people, then several dozens, and then hundreds.  Under Tuvia's direction, the people build a whole hidden village deep in the forest, with a school for children, organized food collection, and their own little militia. 

This sounds kind of idyllic, but it's not -- the Nazis are an ever-present threat who find the fugitives multiple times, forcing all the people to flee and set up all over again.  Hunger is also a persistent problem, as you can't exactly farm in the forest.  People die both onscreen and off, including Tuvia's and Zus's wives, who had not followed them into hiding.

Zus is the "wild" brother, and he grows impatient with Tuvia's emphasis on caution and hiding and survival over striking back at the Nazis.  Zus leaves to join a Russian otriad, or partisan group, and becomes an enthusiastic soldier.  Occasionally, the Russians and the Jews will work together against the Nazis, but sometimes, they come into conflict with each other instead.

Mixed in with all the war and death and fighting and fear is a little bit of romance.  Asael falls in love with a girl named Chaya (Mia Wasikowska), Zus gets involved with a fellow fugitive, and Tuvia takes a long time to realize/admit he's in love with the lovely Lilka (Alexa Davalos).  The romances are understated and quiet, and all three are quite different, which I appreciated, because no couple falls in love the same way as any other couple.

One of the little things I like best about this movie is how physically affectionate the Bielski brothers are to each other.  In grief and in joy, they reach for each other and hold each other close.  Over and over, they touch at random moments, with a pat on the back here, a hand on the shoulder there.  It really helped sell that they're brothers, as this is how many families I know relate, including my own.

This may be a spoiler, so skip this paragraph if you like, but since it's based on history, I will just go ahead and tell you that by the end of the war, there were more than 1200 Jewish people in the camp!  I love that the movie tells you at the end what happened to the Bielskis -- three of them survived the war and moved to New York City.  Aron is still alive today!

When I re-watched this movie last week, I realized that I very strongly identify with Tuvia Bielski.  He's quiet, and he internalizes a lot of things, which I also do.  He is a reluctant leader, but he also doesn't have a problem being bossy if people need bossing and no one else steps up to do the job.  He would rather do hard things himself than delegate them to others.  And he spends an enormous amount of energy and time caring for others, then gets all shocked when he needs care himself... and when someone offers to help him, he's reluctant to accept.  Yeah, there's a lot of me in the movie version of Tuvia.  I hadn't realized that before, but I'm sure that's a big part of why I like this movie so much.

The other reason I like it is, obviously, the casting.  I'm a longtime fan of Liev Schreiber, and he is fantastic as the mercurial, brooding Zus.  He happens to look extra awesome when he's scruffy, and he's scruffy for the entire movie, so that is a total bonus.  And he gets some very cool scenes at the end that involve a tank.

Daniel Craig spends most of the movie conveying a sort of repressed fury mixed with annoyance.  He plays Tuvia as a loner who doesn't want to have to lead and organize and counsel a bunch of strangers, but he realizes he has the necessary skills, so he does it anyway.  Also, Craig is great at conveying inner turmoil with just his eyes, and he has several scenes where his eyes tell you all the things he refuses to actually speak about what he's witnessed or done.

I really like the accents both Schreiber and Craig use; they sound very authentic to my admittedly thoroughly American ears.  My husband lived in Ukraine as a teen and speaks enough Ukrainian to understand a lot of the Russian dialog in the movie, and while we watched this, he kept telling me that the subtitles for the Russians were leaving out a lot of words and condensing things a bunch, which kept cracking me up.  Just little things like, "He didn't call him 'comrade,' he called him 'comrade commander, sir'" and things like that.

It was really cool to see a young George McKay in this, as I like him so much in Ophelia (2018) and 1917 (2019).  He was sixteen when they filmed Defiance, but his character looks and acts a lot younger.  I also enjoy seeing Jamie Bell and Mia Wasikowska together in this, since they also appear together in Jane Eyre (2011).

Is this movie family friendly?  No.  It has a lot of bloody violence, some very bad language, and a little crude and suggestive dialog, though nothing very icky.  There are no love scenes, but there's a scene where Tuvia and Lilka are both shirtless in bed together, mostly covered by a blanket and clearly having just shared an intimate encounter.  If those things would bother you, and you have a filtering service, this is a movie I would definitely watch using that, as it's a wonderful bringing-to-life of an important part of history.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that there's also a scene at the beginning where you see a mass grave filled with naked corpses, getting filled in by Nazis.  You can't really see the bodies close enough for it to be a nudity thing, but it's pretty horrible when you remember this stuff really happened.  That's probably the worst scene in the whole film for me, and I had kind of blocked it out of my memory.

This is my second entry into the You Knew My Name: The Bond, Not Bond Blogathon hosted by Pale Writer and Reelweegiemidget Reviews!

"Imitation General" (1958)

I mostly love Imitation General (1958) because it feels like an extended episode of my favorite TV show, Combat! (1962-67).  I expect the characters from that show to just come marching up over some hill on the horizon and set about helping the people in this one fix their problems.  They never do, but I feel like they might at any moment.  There are just so many similarities between the two!

For one thing, Master Sergeant Murphy (Glenn Ford) carries a Thompson machine gun just like Sergeant Saunders (Vic Morrow) has on Combat!.  The sound effects for it aren't quite the same (not so smooth and purring as Saunders'), but oh well.  It's still a Thompson, my favorite weapon of all time.  (Shh, yes, even over a Winchester repeater or a Colt .45.)

Also, these soldiers are wandering around what's supposed to be the French countryside after D-DAY, but is obviously the rolling hills of southern California outside Culver City, exactly where Combat! filmed quite a few episodes.  

Not only that, but they even have fight off a German soldier played by Paul Busch, who appeared in thirty-five episodes of Combat! -- more than 1/5 of the episodes!  I mean, how can my beloved Second Squad be far away?  I don't think we even find out what outfit these soldiers are with, so I have headcanoned them into the 361st Regiment and figure they'll meet up with King Company sooner or later.

Actually, the Combat! episode "The Prisoner" has a lot of similarities to the plot of this movie, now that I think about it.

Anyway, Imitation General is called a comedy, and it does have a lot of funny parts.  But it's also a good war movie, with lots of action that's deftly executed.  And it's a pretty good character study too, looking at the way that responsibility affects people, how important leadership is, and so on.  The storyline is quite serious, it's just the way characters react to things that makes it funny.  Well, and a few sight gags, plus Red Buttons making a lot of amusing faces.  

Brigadier General Lane (Kent Smith) is touring near the front lines, boosting morale with his presence and getting a more accurate picture of how the war is going.  His driver, Corporal Derby (Red Buttons), worries constantly that they're all going to be killed, and keeps trying to convince the general to go back to headquarters.  His aide, Master Sergeant Murphy, does what he can to keep them all safe, ever vigilant and ready to defend the three of them when needed.

Unfortunately, General Lane chooses to protect his sergeant instead at a critical moment, and takes a bullet in his place.  Right about then, the Krauts make a big push and cut off the American troops in that area from the rest of the Allied forces.  Murphy and Derby hide in a half-ruined farmhouse, where they've dragged the general's body to keep it out of enemy hands.

A worried corporal named Sellers (Dean Jones) wanders into the farmhouse, convinced he's got shell-shock and should be in a hospital.  Really, he's just freaked out at discovering he's scared of getting killed, and once Murphy convinces him of that, he's pretty brave for the rest of the story.  But he thinks that Murphy is a general because he's holding General Lane's helmet, and Murphy uses that mistake to boost Sellers' morale.  And then Murphy realizes that, if everyone thinks he's a general, he can rally the troops and lead them in fighting their way out of the pocket the Krauts have sewn them into.  So he sets about doing exactly that.

The trouble is, there's this private named Hutchmeyer (Tige Andrews) who knows Murphy from earlier in the war and has a grudge against him.  Most of the funniest parts of this movie come from Derby's efforts to convince Hutchmeyer that Murphy is dead, and also keep him from discovering that Murphy is pretending to be General Lane.

Various exciting things unfold, like Murphy and Sellers taking on a bunch of Germans by driving straight at them a Jeep with half a metal water tower tied to the front.  There are also several tanks involved, including one driven by the aforementioned Paul Busch.  

And there's a local French girl, Simone (Taina Elg), that Murphy and Hutchmeyer both take a shine to.  Everything turns out okay in the end, I assure you, just like it would if it was one of the more light-hearted episodes of Combat!.

Is this movie family friendly?  Basically.  Simone takes a bath, so you get to see her bare shoulders and legs, as shown on the lobby card at the top of this post.  Soldiers leer at her, Hutchmeyer obviously wants to seduce her, and there's some dialog about soldiers missing/yearning for women.  At one point, a character pretends to be attacking Simone violently to convince another character to leave the premises, but it's a sham and the audience knows it.  The wartime violence is all non-bloody, like you'd expect from a 1950s movie.  I don't recall any cussing.  I would show this to my kids, and most likely will one of these days.

This has been my second contribution to the Glenn Ford Blogathon, which I'm co-hosting with Coffee, Classics, and Craziness this weekend.  Check out this main post to find all the other contributions!

Movie Music: Elmer Bernstein's "The Great Escape" (1963)

Here I am again to discuss some more awesome movie music with you. Today I'm focusing on an iconic score from one of the best WWII movies ever: The Great Escape (1963).

Of course, it's by the master of exciting, manly movie music from the '60s, namely Elmer Bernstein. He's my absolute favorite movie composer, so you'll be hearing more of his music in this series, have no fear.

If you've never seen The Great Escape, do yourself a favor and go watch it, cuz it's a classic war movie that blends caper films and prison escapes, and stars so many wonderful actors I get a little dizzy thinking of all that talent in one place. Steve McQueen. James Garner. James Coborn. Charles Bronson. Richard Attenborough. David McCallum. Directed by John Sturges! Based on a true story! Like I said, go watch it.

"On the Road" is one of my favorite tracks because it weaves together so many character themes, which means you get a really good taste of the range of this score in one three-minute chunk.  

But my favorite track might be "The Chase" because it starts out exciting, gets a little bright and happy, then pulls out all the excitement and builds tension up and up, really making us feel like someone is sneaking and hiding and racing toward freedom.  

I totally recommend getting the full soundtrack on CD, the version with 3 discs.  It makes for a wonderful background to your day!

(The bulk of this review originally appeared here at J and J Productions on June 15, 2015.)

My Ten Favorite Movies Featuring Fallen Heroes

Today is Memorial Day here in the USA, which means I'm taking some time to thank God for all the brave people who have laid down their lives in defense of our country and our freedom.  It's the sort of day when I'd like to pull a movie off my shelves that honors and memorializes such sacrifices.  I've put together a list of my ten favorite movies that feature an American soldier paying the ultimate price, just in case you're looking for ideas of something to watch today.

None of these films glorify war.  Instead, they show the terrible price paid by so many men and women to ensure that our freedom is kept safe, and to help free others around the world.

1.  Midway (2019)  

Historically accurate, dazzling, elegant presentation of the early Pacific Theater of Operations during WWII, from the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, through the Battle of Midway June 4-7, 1942.   One of the best movies I have ever seen.

2.  Hell is for Heroes (1962)

One small American squad (Bobby Darin, Steve McQueen, Fess Parker, James Coburn, Bob Newhart...) holds off a Nazi attack thanks to lots of clever ruses and some spectacular sacrifices. This was written by Robert Pirosh, who also created my beloved Combat!, and this whole movie almost feels like a long episode of the show.

3.  Operation Pacific (1951)

Commander Duke Gifford (John Wayne) leads a submarine crew on a bunch of adventures (most of them based on actual WWII events) and tries to win back his ex-wife (Patricia Neal).  This was my son's favorite movie when he was six.

4.  Captain Newman, MD (1963) 

Darkly tragicomic story of Captain Newman (Gregory Peck), an Army psychiatrist trying to help American soldiers deal with and overcome mental and emotional trauma they've sustained during the war.  Some, he helps.  Some, he can't reach.  Angie Dickinson and Tony Curtis play a nurse and an aid, while the troubled soldiers are played by people like Bobby Darin, Robert Duvall, and Eddie Albert.  Although there are no actual battle scenes, at least one soldier who is healed enough to return to combat is later killed, which lends a lot of gravitas to the story.  Important note: Bobby Darin received an Oscar nod for his role in this.

5.  The Longest Day (1962) 

The story of the D-Day invasion, told from many viewpoints, with one of the most impressive casts ever assembled: John Wayne, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, Sal Mineo, Richard Todd, and a very young Sean Connery, to name a very few. Until we had kids and lost our big chunks of movie-watching time, Cowboy and I used to watch this together every D-Day.

6.  Gettysburg (1993)

The story of the battle that tipped the balance of the American Civil War in favor of the Union Army.  It's loaded with wonderful actors like Martin Sheen, Sam Elliott, C. Thomas Howell, and Tom Berenger.  This movie introduced me to one of my personal heroes, Colonel (at the time) Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels).

7.  The Patriot (2000)

A widower (Mel Gibson) refuses to take up arms in the American Revolution for a long time, but his son (Heath ledger) fights valiantly for the Patriot cause, and his father eventually realizes he must take his own stand for freedom.  I haven't been able to watch this since we lost Heath Ledger in 2008, but I'm hoping I'll be able to again one day.

8.  Sands of Iwo Jima (1949)

We get to know a squad of Marine recruits, led by Sgt. Stryker (John Wayne), as they prepare for the assault on Iwo Jima.  The recruits view Stryker as a cold-blooded bully, but when they actually hit the beach, they understand at last what he was trying to teach them.

9.  Mister Roberts (1955)

Mister Roberts (Henry Fonda) wants to get off the Navy cargo ship where he's assigned and onto a battleship so he can take part in WWII before it's over.  But his cruel captain (James Cagney) refuses to sign his transfer papers.  Other sailors, including Ensign Pulver (Jack Lemmon) and Doc (William Powell), have their own agendas.  This is kind of a dark comedy.  Lemmon won an Oscar for his supporting role.

10.  We Were Soldiers (2002)

The story of American forces preparing for and enduring their first major battle in Vietnam.  Mel Gibson, Sam Elliott, Greg Kinnear, and Barry Pepper all turn in unforgettable performances.

My Ten Favorite New-to-Me Movies of 2020

Well, this list is verrrrrrrry different from the last few years, isn't it?  Not a single movie here that was released in 2020.  I watched more than 80 movies this year, and only 9 of them were in the theater.  And, of those 9, only 2 were new releases.  Because 2020 was a really weird year.

Now, the main reason I watched about 20 fewer movies than last year is actually because I got super obsessed with The Mandalorian and watched all 8 of the first season's episodes three times.  And I've watched all of season two once, but most of them twice.  So, yeah... a great deal of my watching-stuff time this year was taken up with that, rather than movies.  

(Plus, obviously, the theaters were closed for a long time, and a lot of movies I wanted to see got pushed back or released to streaming platforms I don't subscribe to.  2020, yeesh.)

Anyway!  Here's my list of my ten favorite movies I watched for the first time in 2020.  Enjoy!

1. Ophelia (2018).  Gorgeous retelling of Hamlet from Ophelia's perspective, with some new twists on the story.  Ophelia (Daisy Ridley) falls in love with the dead king's son Hamlet (George McKay), though her brother Laertes (Tom Felton) is skeptical of the match.  Meanwhile, the queen (Naomi Watts) and new king (Clive Owen) have doubts about Hamlet's sanity.  It's based on the book by Lisa Klein, which I want to reread now.

2. A Song is Born (1948).  A musical remake of Ball of Fire (1941) in which a lot of professors (including Danny Kaye) making a history of music encounter a night club singer (Virginia Mayo) who's on the run from her mobster boyfriend.  Lots of amazing musicians like Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, and Tommy Dorsey have small roles, which adds to the fun.

3. The High and the Mighty (1954).  A trans-Pacific airliner develops engine trouble, and the pilots (John Wayne and Robert Stack) have to not only keep the plane in the air, but keep the various passengers (including Paul Fix, Claire Trevor, and Phil Harris) calm.

4. I Love You Again (1940).  A dull businessman (William Powell) whose wife (Myrna Loy) is about to divorce him gets hit on the head and has reverse amnesia, waking up to discover that he used to be a very smooth and interesting con artist.  Guess which version of him Loy likes best?

5. Santiago (1956).  A gun-runner (Alan Ladd) and a riverboat captain (Chill Wills) get caught up in Cuba's War of Independence from Spain in the 1890s.

6. Mamma Mia! (2008).  A girl (Amanda Seyfried) about to get married tries to figure out which of her Mom's (Meryl Streep's) long-ago flings (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgaard) is her dad.  I liked it so much more than I expected to!

7. The Court Jester (1955).  A wandering minstrel (Danny Kaye) gets mistaken for the new court jester and ends up helping overthrow a dictatorial usurper and restore the rightful king to the throne.  With many funny jokes and pratfalls and lots of singing, too.

8. The Reluctant Dragon (1941).  A man (Robert Benchley) tries to pitch a story idea to Walt Disney, and ends up getting a tour of the Disney Animation Studio in the process.  Includes a young and eager Alan Ladd in a tiny role as a storyboard artist named Al.

9. The Brothers Karamazov (1958).  Three brothers (Yul Brynner, William Shatner, Richard Basehart) try to make their own way in life, but their father (Lee J. Cobb) keeps messing everything up for them.  Well, some of them mess things up pretty well for themselves, too.

10. 1917 (2019).  Two WWI soldiers (George McKay, Daniel Mays) have to take an important message to troops far away to stop thousands of men from walking into a trap and getting massacred.  The continuous-shot filming is cool, but it's McKay's haunting performance that stuck with me long after the film had ended.

What were your favorite watches of the year?  Have you seen any of these?

If you want to read my lists from past years, you can find them at the bottom of this page.

Happy New Year!

"Midway" (2019) -- Initial Thoughts

You need to go see this movie.

I am not even kidding.

I don't care if you never go see movies in the theater, or if you aren't a fan of WWII movies, or if you don't like war movies at all.  Everyone should see this movie.

I'm so not kidding.  This is the best movie I have seen all year.

Yes, better than Avengers: Endgame.  Not even in the same ballpark.

Midway is up there with The Longest Day (1962) as one of the very best war films I have ever seen.  Likely one of the best ever made.  It is staggeringly good.

And you know one of the things I loved most about it?

It had no big, modern agenda.

Think about that a minute.  No agenda.  No trying to shoehorn modern sensibilities and prejudices and ways of thinking into the presentation of a historical event.

It presents us with heroes, yes, but real-life heroes with failings and falterings.  They make mistakes.  They do nearly miraculous things.  They do dumb things.  They're human.

And it does not demonize their enemies.  The Japanese soldiers are shown to be equally courageous and equally intelligent.  The closest to demonization it ever comes is showing that the Japanese military were targeting Chinese civilians.  It lets you make up your own mind about that, it doesn't dance around waving fingers.

I cannot praise this movie highly enough.  It has only one flaw, which isn't so much a flaw as something I wish it didn't have.  One f-word.  But it's used in exactly the way, exactly the moment that such a word is, to be honest, kinda called for.  (There's some other cussing too, but the level that you'd find in a 1960s war movie.) (EDIT: Okay, it does have quite a bit of cussing.  I counted 49 cuss words, my second viewing.  So more on par with a 1970s war movie.  But it... is not gross and nasty cussing, just military dudes speaking their vernacular, if that makes sense.  I didn't realize how much there was because it just didn't bother me.)

Anyway.  The acting, the filming, the pacing, the music, the costumes, the writing -- everything was staggeringly wonderful.

Go see it for yourself.  I almost never say "everyone should see this movie" because most movies, not everyone needs to see.  Personal tastes and interests make that nonsensical, really.  But this movie?  You need to see it.

(I have SO many other things I want to say about Midway, like how wonderful Luke Evans and Patrick Wilson are, how it's the best acting I've ever seen out of Woody Harrelson, and so much more.  But I'm going to hold onto all of that until I've seen it a second time so I can give it a proper review.)

(GO SEE THIS MOVIE!)

"O.S.S." (1946)

Today is the 106th anniversary of Alan Ladd being born.  You all know I adore him.  Everyone I meet knows this.  I mean, not sure I've had a header on this blog that hasn't featured him since sometime in 2016 :-)  Three-and-a-half years, and he's still my celluloid steady date.

Anyway.  Today, I'm going to tell you all about one of his actiony war suspense pictures.  Although it's focused on secrets and those that keep them, the title gives away the whole ballgame as to what this movie's about.

Did you know that the CIA didn't always exist?  In fact, until WWII, the United States didn't have a permanent intelligence-gathering agency.  In 1941, the government created the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), then in 1942, that morphed into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which went through a couple more names and forms before settling into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 1947.

Guess which one of those this movie is about?

A couple of years ago, I went to a presentation about the OSS given by the author of a book about female spies in WWII.  I asked her if she'd seen this film, and if it was at all accurate.  She'd seen it, and she said it was accurate, but simplistic.  So... that's nice to know.

Our story opens with a handsome chap going by the name of John Martin (Alan Ladd) who's charming his way into the R&D department of an electronics factory in Baltimore.

His ID convinces the uniformed, armed guard to let him in.

Once inside, he casually scans papers left out on a desk, lights a cigarette, swipes a paper that looks like Something Important, and leaves.  People there realize Something Important has gone missing, and he gets apprehended.

Next thing we know, he's getting grilled under a spotlight in a dark room.

He looks pretty worried.  Maybe even a little penitent.  What are we to make of this guy?  Is he a criminal?  An enemy spy?  Is this going to be one of those movies where Alan Ladd plays a baddie who gradually reforms?  That would be fun, as he's perfectly wonderful in those roles.

Well, before much more can happen to him, a guy in a dark suit shows up with authorization to take him into custody, and that's the end of the interrogation.  Man, it was just getting interesting, and nobody'd even smacked Alan Ladd yet.  This doesn't bode entirely well, as the best Alan Ladd movies tend to involve him getting beaten up at some point.  Weird, but true, y'all.  Weird but true.

Anyway, surprise!  He's actually a spy in training, and he was supposed to steal Something Important as part of his spying lessons.  So... not a baddie who gradually turns good.  Oh well. He still leans deliciously in random doorways, and that's always a good time too.

He does get to have that hard-and-cynical-guy vibe, at least.  John Martin Doesn't Play Well With Others.  Nobody makes hard-and-cynical look lovable like Alan Ladd.

John's got the makings of a good spy, so they train him even though he's kind of a jerk.  Which means we get treated to a Training Montage!

Join the OSS, and you too could learn to operate a radio and send coded messages!

You could learn to use nifty gadgets like tiny cameras!

They might even give you a simple pipe, perfect for a cozy smoke while reading a novel on a long winter evening.

Nope, totally a pistol!  Who doesn't want a pipe-pistol, right?

The filming in this is mostly pedestrian, but once in a while they throw in a really cool shot, just to keep things visually interesting.  Like this one, which I may or may not have spent several minutes trying to capture so I'd have allll the shadows in it.

The OSS needs all sorts of people to be spies, including beautiful artists like Elaine (Geraldine Fitzgerald).  Are you a beautiful artist with a tragic story about how your husband got killed and stuff?  Join the OSS!

A team of spies gets sent to London, including John and Elaine, who cordially dislike and distrust each other, but get along well with their other teammates. (Join the OSS and see the world!)

No reason for this shot except that I like it.  (Join the OSS and have random fangirls ignore you while they take screencaps of Alan Ladd for no reason!)

Anyway, they all parachute into France to meet up with Resistance workers and put their spying skills to good use.  (Told you that you'd get to see the world if you joined the OSS.)

In France, they face lots of dangers, including Nazis.

Also, rain storms.  And perfect hats making Alan Ladd look even more handsome.  Very dangerous stuff.

Random nice image of London to switch locations.  I like all the fog and silhouettes.  Even though that background is totally fake.  Still pretty.  (Like spies!  Always faking stuff, but so pretty.)

In London, there are lots of female radio operators taking coded messages from spies.  One of them is nicknamed Sparky (Gloria Saunders) and adds some Spunky Cuteness to the mix.  (All spy films require Spunky Cuteness at some point.)

Our spy friends do a lot of spying.  This involves dangerous activities like reading magazines in French.  Even if they don't actually speak French.  I never saw a part in the training montage where they taught John to speak French, so I'm just assuming he's faking it.  Elaine does cuz obviously, all artists speak French.

It's not long before they have lots of Resistance members to work with.  They pretend to meet for art classes given by Elaine.  (Ooooh, another reason to join the OSS!  You could learn about art.)

And then in wanders the Fly in the Ointment, a Nazi colonel who thinks he's super artistic and attractive and awesome.  Elaine humors him on all three counts.

Guess who's not happy about that?

The Nazi colonel is suspicious of Elaine at first, but her artistic skills impress him.  Also, he thinks she's hot.  And he thinks artists are easy.  There's really no end to the depths of the colonel's wrongness.

Elaine sculpts his likeness as a reason to hang out with him and get military info she can pass on to the rest of the team.

John is jealous, but pretends he's totally not.  Look how hard he's pretending not to be jealous!  I'm convinced, aren't you?

Lots of plot happens, involving blowing up trains and exchanging shots with Nazis.

After the Allied landing on D-Day, they still have plenty of spying to do, keeping tabs on the Nazis as they retreat and make plans for counterattacks.

Another shot I put here just cuz I like it.  Lots of plot stuff happens, but I'm not going to delve into it because it's a spy movie, and I don't want to spoil everything.  And it's hard to delve into plot stuff for a spy movie without spoiling it.  Even when that spy movie comes across more like a recruitment film than an actual movie.

We get treated to the fairly rare sight of a SCRUFFY Alan Ladd toward the end!  You almost never get to see him be anything but clean-shaven, so that's pretty fun.  Especially if you like scruffy menfolks like I do.  He's only barely scruffy, but I'll take what I can get.

Finally, John and Elaine get called back to England.  They finally admit their feelings for each other and start planning a happy future together.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut plot stuff happens.  Again.  Always with the pesky plot stuff.

Unhappy, pesky plot stuff.  Awwww, poor John.

John ends up weary and resigned, but he doesn't give up on Fighting For Freedom, Truth, and the American Way, so hey, that's something, right?  Join the OSS, learn to care about people, lose people, find yourself!  Good times in store for all!

I actually really enjoy this movie -- please don't take my fairly flippant tone in this review to mean that I don't.  It's just that it only has a wispy plot, held together by the brute strength of Alan Ladd's charisma, so... yeah.

This has been my first entry for The Alan Ladd Blogathon hosted by Pale Writer.  Tune in tomorrow for my review of another Ladd movie about the OSS!  Spoiler alert:  it has an actual plot.

EDIT: I forgot to talk about whether or not this movie is family friendly.  It's very tame.  Some suspense and violence, but that's it.  No cussing, barely any kissing, no gore.