It was in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town that Frank Capra perfected the blend of comedy and social commentary that would become his trademark. The screwball comedy was graceful rather than frantic and the social elements of Robert Riskin's fine screenplay are handled in an even-handed manner that earned Capra the second of his three Acadamy Awards for Best Director. Both Gary Cooper as the tuba playing no nonsense Longfellow Deeds and Jean Arthur as the reporter who exploits him until she falls for his goodness are wonderful in this true Capra classic.
Longfellow Deeds (Cooper) lives in the small town of Mandrake Falls where he makes a living writing greeting card poems and spends his free time playing the tuba. He is less than enthused ... Read More:
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Road to Utopia is easily the funniest of the Hope, Crosby, Lamour outings. Bing and Bob hed for Alaska in hopes of uncovering a gold mine once owned by Lamour's deceased father. The story is told in flshback after an opening scene showing the stars in heavy aging makeup- looking not a bit as they actually would in their respective old ages. The snow-capped setting allows for unusual highjinks, and the humorist and writer Robert Benchley appears throughout the film offering pithy commentary on the plot. The songs include "Put it there Pal," and the witty "Personality." A must for any fan of the series.
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Abbott and Costello created havoc in most branches of the U.S. military, so now they take their brand of mayhem to foreign shores, Algiers in particular, as members of the French Foreign Legion. The film opens uncharacteristically with a wrestling match of all things; the boys happen to be the managers of Abdullah the Assassin, the North African champion. Unwilling to take a dive, Abdullah decides to head back home, followed by Bud and Lou, who stand to lose their five thousand dollar investment in the grappler.
When Lou accidentally wins a six girl harem, the boys find themselves in trouble, unable to pay, and earning the outrage of Sheik Hamud. Tricked into joining the Legion by Sgt. Axmann (Walter Slezak), the boys proceed to ... Read More:
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Abbott and Costello created havoc in most branches of the U.S. military, so now they take their brand of mayhem to foreign shores, Algiers in particular, as members of the French Foreign Legion. The film opens uncharacteristically with a wrestling match of all things; the boys happen to be the managers of Abdullah the Assassin, the North African champion. Unwilling to take a dive, Abdullah decides to head back home, followed by Bud and Lou, who stand to lose their five thousand dollar investment in the grappler.
When Lou accidentally wins a six girl harem, the boys find themselves in trouble, unable to pay, and earning the outrage of Sheik Hamud. Tricked into joining the Legion by Sgt. Axmann (Walter Slezak), the boys proceed to ... Read More:
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The plot is particular bizarre. Judy Standish (Maureen O'Sullivan) has inherited a sanitarium and if she is unable to repay her debts she will be bought out by a casino! Her fiancee Gil (Alan Jones) has a plan to save the day: he has bought a race horse and hopes to win the money she needs. Judy finds the scheme ridiculous and turns instead to wealthy patient Emily Upjohn (the formidable Margaret Dumont)--who insists that Judy employ her favorite doctor, Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush. And with a name like that, this can only be one actor: Groucho Marx.
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By the time you get to "The Big Store" in working your way through the comedies of the Marx Brothers you need to remind yourself that Harpo joined the group and turned "The Three Nightingales" into "The Four Nightingales" in 1908, twenty-one years before they made their first movie, "The Cocoanuts." That is why by the time we get to "The Big Store," their tenth film in 1941 (I am not counting their 1926 silent comedy "Humor Risk") it is rather painfully obvious it is time to break up the act, but you also have to lament what great comedy was lost because talking pictures were not developed a decade earlier. Because this is the Marx Brothers, there are a few choice moments, but certainly nothing compared to what they were doing at the height of ... Read More:
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By the time you get to "The Big Store" in working your way through the comedies of the Marx Brothers you need to remind yourself that Harpo joined the group and turned "The Three Nightingales" into "The Four Nightingales" in 1908, twenty-one years before they made their first movie, "The Cocoanuts." That is why by the time we get to "The Big Store," their tenth film in 1941 (I am not counting their 1926 silent comedy "Humor Risk") it is rather painfully obvious it is time to break up the act, but you also have to lament what great comedy was lost because talking pictures were not developed a decade earlier. Because this is the Marx Brothers, there are a few choice moments, but certainly nothing compared to what they were doing at the height of ... Read More:
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By the time you get to "The Big Store" in working your way through the comedies of the Marx Brothers you need to remind yourself that Harpo joined the group and turned "The Three Nightingales" into "The Four Nightingales" in 1908, twenty-one years before they made their first movie, "The Cocoanuts." That is why by the time we get to "The Big Store," their tenth film in 1941 (I am not counting their 1926 silent comedy "Humor Risk") it is rather painfully obvious it is time to break up the act, but you also have to lament what great comedy was lost because talking pictures were not developed a decade earlier. Because this is the Marx Brothers, there are a few choice moments, but certainly nothing compared to what they were doing at the height of ... Read More:
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