Daily Archives: July 6, 2016

Cancel My Reservation (1972) Paul Bogart, Bob Hope, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Bellamy, Comedy, Mystery

Cancel My Reservation (1972)
The title of this Bob Hope vehicle Cancel My Reservation is a multiple pun, referring to elements in the story. The ever-youthful Hope plays Dan Bartlett, a late-night TV talk show host. Frazzled, he takes a much-needed vacation in Arizona. There, he stumbles upon a murder and a conspiracy by local rancher, John Ed (Ralph Bellamy) to defraud a local Native American group of part of its reservation. Dan is a suspect in the murder, and must investigate in order to clear his name. Though the story is rather light, celebrities of all sorts have either small parts or cameos in this film, and much of the film’s entertainment value comes from spotting them.
Read More »

I Married a Witch (1942) René Clair, Fredric March, Veronica Lake, Robert Benchley, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance

I Married a Witch (1942)
Veronica Lake casts a seductive spell as a charmingly vengeful sorceress in this supernatural screwball classic. Many centuries after cursing the male descendants of the Salem puritan who sent her to the stake, this blonde bombshell with a broomstick finds herself drawn to one of them – a prospective governor (Fredric March) about to marry a spoiled socialite (Susan Hayward). The most delightful of the films the innovative French director René Clair made in Hollywood, I Married a Witch is a comic confection bursting with playful special effects and sparkling witticisms.
Read More »

La Facture (1975) Pierre Sabbagh, Viviane Gosset, Jean Barney, Jacqueline Maillan, Comedy

La Facture (1975)
Noëlle Alban est une femme à qui tout, depuis sa naissance, sourit. C’est une “chanceuse”, c’est une veinarde ; mais c’est une veinarde qui s’inquiète. Elle s’inquiète parce que, selon la “Théorie des Compensations” d’Azaïs, elle devra ensuite payer et supporter une égale période de malchance. Impressionnée par cette idée, Noëlle, pour se débarrasser de cette dette morale envers le destin, décide de se provoquer, à elle même, des ennuis. Mais elle échouera dans toutes ses tentatives et elle finira par se résigner au bonheur en pensant qu’elle le paiera, désormais, à chaque minute par peur de le perdre.
Read More »

Madhouse (1974) Jim Clark, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Robert Quarry, Crime, Horror, Mystery

Madhouse (1974)
The career of horror icon Paul Toombes (Vincent Price) ends in scandal when his fiancée dies under mysterious circumstances. Freed from the mental hospital where he had been committed, the recovered Toombes and screenwriter Herbert Flay (Peter Cushing) intend to revive his most popular character, Dr. Death, for a television series. But the dead bodies start piling up – all of them killed in ways that mimic the victims in Toombes’ films – and to clear his name he must find the real killer.
Read More »

Jerry Maguire (1996) Cameron Crowe, Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Comedy, Drama, Romance

Jerry Maguire (1996)
When slick sports agent Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) has a crisis of conscience, he pens a heartfelt company-wide memo that promptly gets him fired. Desperate to hang on to the athletes that he represents, Jerry starts his own management firm, with only single mother Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) joining him in his new venture. Banking on their sole client, football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Jerry and Dorothy begin to fall in love as they struggle to make their business work.
Read More »

Eyes of Laura Mars / Les Yeux de Laura Mars (1978) Irvin Kershner, Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Les Yeux de Laura Mars (1978)
Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway) is a fashion photographer who specializes in stylized violence. In her luxurious Manhattan apartment, she has a nightmare that Doris Spencer (Meg Mundy) is viciously murdered with an ice pick, her eyeballs stabbed. Laura wakes up and looks through a soon-to-be-published coffee table book of her photos, titled The Eyes of Mars, which Doris had edited. In it, there is a picture of Doris…identical to an image she had in the dream. Laura calls Doris but she gets no answer. That evening, she attends a reception at the Elaine Cassell Gallery in SoHo for an exhibit of her work. A controversial figure, she is besieged by questions from reporters about whether her photos glorify violence and are demeaning to women. A handsome stranger (Tommy Lee Jones) questions the work as well. The success of the exhibit is disrupted by the news that Doris has been found dead, in the same manner that she was murdered in Laura’s dream…
Read More »

Double Messieurs (1986) Yves Afonso, Carole Bouquet, Jean-François Stévenin, Drama, Comedy

Double Messieurs (1986)
After 25 years, François, a modest businessman, is reunited with his childhood friend Léo, a film double. It’s a reunion which affects both men profoundly, and immediately they discover their adolescent sense of fun. François proposes that they meet up with the third member of their childhood band, Kuntchinski. But when they break into the latter’s house, they are surprised by his wife, Hélène. Unsure what to do, François and Léo make a snap decision to fake an abduction. Hélène hasn’t any other plans, so she plays along with the kidnap…
Read More »