The Shamrock and the Rose

This was a cute silent movie that I watched on youtube.  It doesn't star one of the big names of the silent era but it was still good.  It's about a hot dog business and an ice cream one.  They already have trouble with each other but things get pretty rough when the girl and the boy get interested in one another.  It's only around an hour so it's worth a watch.

That Wonderful Urge/Love is News

 

That Wonderful Urge is a remake of Love is News.  I watched them both and I liked Love is News more.  I felt there was more chemistry between Loretta Young and Tyrone Power than Gene Tierney.  Also, it didn't overdo the zaniness.  Both movies concern a paparazzi who gets his just desserts when his subject announces that they're getting married.  It destroys his life completely and he wants revenge.  Tyrone Power proves with these movies that he was a good comic actor as well.  I want to see all the movies in this collection because Tyrone was one handsome talented leading man. 

The Dragon Painter

Seusse Hayawaka plays an artist moaning his lost love.  However, when he meets a woman whom he swears is his long lost love he immediately gets in artist block. This creates some complications in the plot.  This was under an hour so it is a quick worthwhile watch. 

Merrily we Live

When Brian Aherne becomes the butler for Constance Bennett's family everything is changed including Constance.  This is a rip off My Man Godfreybut I do like Bonita Granville in this. 
It seems like the roles didn't come easy for her after the '40s, although she was fun and spunky.  This was all right but it wasn't lifechanging.

Beauty for Sale

This movie has a torn outlook on adultery.  It romanticizes it but tries to lecture about it too.  Still, I liked Madge Evans.  I've never seen a movie of hers before.  She kind of reminds of Jessica Lange but my twin sister said Tara Fitzgerald.  She plays a girl in a beauty salon who falls for an older married man.  I loved Una Merkel as always.  Una was usually just the sassy sidekick but she did the role well.  

Anna Karenina

Leonard Maltin gave this a 4 out of 4.  I didn't think it was a masterpiece though.  I thought it was all right.  I'm reading the book which is why I'm not that thrilled at the adaptation.  There are two romances in the book.  Kitty and Levin's might be more ordinary but I've grown to love those characters.  It's too bad that every movie version of Anna Karenina just tosses them to the side.  The good thing about this movie is that Anna Karenina is well cast with Greta Garbo in the role.  She does a great job as the doomed heroine.  

Love and Learn

This was a really generic songwriter movie.  Unlike the ones like Night and Day this is about an amateur songwriting team.  The music is not as good.  Jack Carson has an all right voice but it isn't impressive.  I wish that they used Janis Paige's voice.  She was underused here.   

The Story of Mankind

This is a pretty rotten movie where Vincent Price plays the devil.  It goes over stories from the bible and history stories like Joan of Arc.  I didn't feel it was even campy.  It was just bad.

Cluny Brown

This Ernst Lubitsch picture is a cute movie about British social positions.  Cluny Brown has a zest for plumbing but works as a maid for a household.  Her eccentricities are frowned upon.  Luckily there is another soul that she can relate to Charles Boyer a man who has run away from the Nazis.  I've watched a few Lubitsch but never heard of this movie so it's a welcome addition to the Criterion Collection.  Jennifer Jones is pretty fun in this role and one wonders what would have happened if she pursued comic roles further.

The Hidden Fortress

This was one of George Lucas' inspirations for Star Wars.  I watched Star Wars the next day after this.  Yup, it is apparent.  Still, this is a great movie and I love Star Wars.  It makes me admire George Lucas even more.  The robots in Star Wars were obviously modeled after the peasants.  The Hidden Fortress is different from Kurosawa's usual work in that it is a comedy and is one of the director's favorites.   It's about two peasants and a princess that is wanted.  Soon the princess enters their life only they don't take her for a princess but rather a mute.    

Underworld

This movie helped make the gangster genre.  It may seem like it's been all done before but this was new.  It's about a gangster and his spoiled girlfriend.  A dweeb, who works for the gangster, falls for the girl and vice versa.  Then the gangster is put in jail.  I liked the dweeb and the chemistry between the girl and him.  I've always liked Josef Von Sternberg's movies so I'm glad that the Criterion Collection took the time to reissue this.  

The Loves of Edgar Allan Poe

This was a pretty dull movie about the writer Edgar Allan Poe.  It talks about his marriage and another love that didn't work out.  It briefly talks about his alcoholism.  This man wrote some pretty dark stuff.  I guarantee that he wasn't as boring as this movie makes him out to be.  This was just disappointing.  At least Linda Darnell was stunning.