Synopsis: A retired detective finds himself in the middle of a murder case while on vacation with his wife.

It’s kind of amusing to watch this film so soon after The Lost Weekend, given their vastly different takes on alcohol consumption. Weekend, of course, offers a sobering (no pun intended) look at what alcoholism can do to a person. The Thin Man, on the other hand, has its two protagonists (especially William Powell’s Nick Charles) drinking constantly throughout the film, with the alcohol having no affect on their witty repartee or their ability to solve crimes.

I liked this film, though there really isn’t any particular reason to remember it other than for William Powell and Myrna Loy’s memorable performances and their remarkable chemistry (which is enough, certainly — though it would have been nice if the movie that surrounded them were a bit better). All the scenes in which they are just talking, just exchanging jabs and one-liners, are pretty great and certainly worth the price of admission alone. Nick and Nora Charles are obviously a supremely memorable couple, and just plain fun to watch. Powell especially gives an amazing performance, and his seemingly effortless charm makes already funny dialogue even funnier.

The problem here, however, is that quite a lot of screen time is dedicated to the convoluted and, frankly, fairly uninteresting mystery (the characters surrounding the mystery are equally forgettable). The plot involves a missing man and a series of murders, and there are so many side-characters and suspects that, by the time Powell’s character had assembled them all for a dinner party at the end of the film, I was having a hard time remembering who was who (or caring, for that matter).

It’s a testament to how good Powell and Loy are that, despite these not-insignificant problems, the film still comes off quite well; I’d recommend it without hesitation. Clearly, there is a reason why they made so many sequels.

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Synopsis: Robin Hood and his merry band of outlaws fight back against a corrupt king.

This movie is quite possibly one of the most well-regarded action/adventure movies ever, so my expectations for it were fairly high. It didn’t disappoint. While I don’t know if I’d put this on a list of my all-time favourites, it was definitely well made and quite entertaining throughout.

Certainly, the film was leaps and bounds above the fairly anemic Robin Hood, the recent Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe re-imagining of the Robin Hood legend. That film was kind of dull and ponderous; I can definitely see what they were going for, but it just didn’t work, for the most part. However, I can safely say that Robin Hood will never be on the list, so… moving on.

This Robin Hood featured all of the archery, swordplay and rollicking adventure that you’d expect from the character. The action was exciting and well-staged (and further proof that, contrary to what pretty much every contemporary director believes, you don’t need a million cuts a second to have an exciting action scene). Robin Hood himself came off as a bit arrogant (he was pretty smug), but he was always likable thanks to a charismatic performance from Errol Flynn.

There’s definitely a lot to like here, and I think this is the type of film that everyone could enjoy — assuming they can get past the somewhat old-fashioned filmmaking (eg. the aforementioned lack of a million cuts per second during the action). Did I mention how much better this was than the Ridley Scott version?

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Synopsis: Behind the scenes as a veteran Broadway director puts on one last show.

This is the second musical I’ve watched for this blog, with the first one being All That Jazz. Boy, they could not be more different. Where Jazz was torpid, dull and pretentious, 42nd Street was fun, fast-paced and immensely memorable. It’s funny, because both films have a fairly similar plot and structure (a play being prepared, followed by an extended sequence of musical numbers). But 42nd Street just does it so much better.

One of the hallmarks of a good musical is that it leaves you humming the songs to yourself — I definitely have at least one of the songs stuck in my head pretty conclusively, so the film certainly succeeded on that count.

The film essentially breaks up into two parts: the first hour, with all the behind the scenes stuff, followed by the musical itself. The whole thing was well made and engaging, though it’s the last 20 minutes or so (which features some really visually dazzling musical sequences choreographed by the legendary Busby Berkeley) in which the film really comes alive.

Really, this is just a movie that puts a big smile on your face. It’s quite enjoyable throughout, and definitely one of the better musicals I’ve seen in a while.

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Synopsis: After getting mixed up with a spy one night, an innocent man finds himself tangled up in international intrigue, and on the run for a crime he did not commit.

Well, the plan was to watch Adam’s Rib today (which I took out from the library), but the 39 Steps unexpectedly showed up in the mail from Zip.ca. Since I’m paying for Zip and the library is free, I figured it was probably a good idea to watch the Zip movie first.

This is not my first time watching the 39 Steps, but I was definitely happy to revisit it — Hitchcock is one of the all-time greats, and even relatively early in his career he was already hitting them out of the park. Of course, the “innocent man on the run” theme was a favourite of Hitchcock’s, and many of the elements in this film are ones that he spent the rest of his career honing to perfection.

This film really just reminded me why I like Hitchcock so much — when it comes to thrillers like this, he’s clearly in a league of his own. There are so many great sequences in this film, including a really tense sequence towards the beginning of the film set on a train (which begins with the famous moment in which a woman’s scream is replaced by a train’s whistle). The performances are also quite good, particularly Robert Donat as the man on the run.

Up next: Adam’s Rib (for real this time!).

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