Happy Go Lovely

This was a cute Vera-Ellen movie.  She thumbs a ride in a limo.  Soon gossip surrounds her that she is dating the millionaire whom the limo belongs to. All of a sudden the chorus girl gets the leading role.  The millionaire tries to confront her but falls for Vera instead.  Only (David Niven) he doesn't want to tell her who he is so he lies and says he's a reporter.   Eventually, the truth comes out and it ends in a happy ending.  

Broadway Babies

I've watched two Alice White movies in the past week and this is the better of the two.  She really was a pretty perky blonde.  She and her friends Marion Byron and Sally Eilers are chorus girls.  There's also a subplot about gangsters.  Sally Eilers is just a friend.  She's not given a meaty part.  Given the work I've seen her in such as Bad Girl and Central Airport she deserves more.  I like Marion Byron too.  She kind of looks like Maggie Gyllenhaal.  She didn't have much of a career which is a shame since she's good in this movie.

Playing around

Alice White's hubby is cheap so she goes for a man who seems to have plenty of dough.  The problem is that he's a gangster and she finds out that his activities are starting to affect her life as well.  Marion Byron who I also saw in Broadway Babies which I also watched this week plays a telephone operator.  I wish she had been given a chance in Hollywood more.  She has something.  Alice White was like a blonde Clara Bow.  It's so wonderful that more of her movies are being released.

Spring Fever

Love in the Rough, which I reviewed earlier was a remake of this silent movie.  Love in the Rough was a musical.  There are aspects to both which I liked and disliked.  Both movies are about a clerk who starts playing on a golf course. In Spring Fever William Haines falls in love with the rich Joan Crawford but how can he tell her his true position?  Joan Crawford is definitely a better actress than Dorothy Jordan.  However, Robert Montgomery was such a charming actor.  Anyway, I recommend both movies.  It just depends on the mood you're in.  

Crime School

This is a Dead End Kids school movie.  After accidentally killing a guy, a gang of boys are sent to reform school.  Humphrey Bogart plays a Deputy Commissioner who actually cares about the boys and wants them to reform.  Gale Page plays the sister of one of the boys.  "Angels with Dirty Faces" is by far the best Dead End Kids movie but this one was all right.  

Love never dies

I've been watching a number of Madge Bellamy movies.   She was a pretty talented actress.  This movie is just generic but it's short - 63 minutes.  Madge gets married to Lloyd Hughes. However, her father finds out that Lloyd Hughes had a prostitute for a mother.  Madge's father comes to return her home.  Her husband believes he's been abandoned.  Yet years go by and they find each other again.  King Vidor made better movies.  

Manila Calling

I got this because Carole Landis stars in this and she was one of the underrated great actresses of the 40's.  In here she's a brunette. She plays a showgirl here.  It's about some soldiers trapped by the Japanese in the Philippines. The final scene is patriotic where the main actor Lloyd Nolan Carol's lover in the movie makes a broadcast at the end.  It's an ok war movie.

Leon Morin, Priest

This movie surprised me.  I've seen a few Jean-Paul Belmondo movies.  (He's most known for Breathless.)  He usually plays good-looking thugs.  In this, he plays a priest and he's sincere.  He's a better more rounded actor than I gave him credit for. Emmanuelle Riva, from Hiroshima Mon Amour, plays a woman who first comes to debate the priest but gradually comes to believe the faith, and falls for Belmondo too.  This was a pretty good movie.  Usually, I'm critical of The Criterion Collection saying they shouldn't have chosen this over this.  However, I'm glad this movie is in the collection.  It's not a very famous film but it works.

Lazybones

Zasu Pitts tries to end her life because her husband had died and she has a baby.  No one in her small town knew of her marriage and she knows they would ridicule here.  Buck Jones, the lazybones here, agrees he'll take care of the baby.  Eventually, the girl grows up (Madge Bellamy) and he starts to have feelings for her.  This is a pretty good Borzage silent.  Madge is especially beautiful here.  

Salome

I've been reading the New Testament lately and I came upon the Salome story.  I was in the mood for this movie.  This movie is just ok.  Rita Hayworth is lovely and does a good job as Salome whose mother is accused of adultery and it all results in getting John the Baptist's head on a platter.  Rita Hayworth ends up doing some of her most impressive dancing here. Judith Anderson almost steals the movie from Rita as her cruel mother.