Yan xi jiao The Three Sinners.

This was a Chinese musical done by the Shaw Brothers starring Li Hua Li.  A concubine is raped and her lover mistrusts her.  He believes the rapist and her were carrying on with an affair.  Halfway through the movie, I didn't like it.  I thought it was saying that rape is the same as an affair.  However, I was wrong. She does get her revenge in the end.  I found this strange material for a musical but I liked it nevertheless.  I got it off yesasia.com.  It seems like I'm the only one who likes these Asian musicals from the past as they are not available on amazon.com.  Not only that they are usually in different regions which is why I got an all-region player. 

The Great Gabbo

I watched this Erich von Stroheim movie and was not impressed.  At first, it began as a generic movie about a crazy ventriloquist who talks to his puppet.  I know that the plot has been done to death. (No one has done it as good as "The Twilight Zone.")  I wanted the film to continue in that direction though.  For some reason, it became an awkward musical.  I didn't care for this direction. Overall I don't recommend it.  

Au Revoir Les Enfants

I watched "Murmur of the Heart" and "Pretty Baby" when I was a teenager.  They seemed like they were made for shock value.  I guess that's why this is my favorite Louis Malle film.  It's autobiographical.  It's about a Jew hiding in a boarding school during World War II.  The bookish Jew and another boy become friends.  However, it is not meant to be.  Irene Jacob (from "Red") plays a piano teacher at the school.  I felt moved by this movie.  A lot of the time I disagree with the choices in the Criterion Collection but not this one.

Stage Mother

I just watched Maureen O'Sullivan in Hide-Out a few weeks ago.  She's hardly obscure (Maureen played Jane in the Tarzan movies) but she's my new discovery.  Maureen was just so talented and lovely.  In Stage Mother, Alice Brady plays her mother.  She tries to get her daughter a stage career and manages to destroy all of her daughter's relationships.  Frankly, the ending surprised me.  It wasn't what I expected.  It was an ok precode. 

Sailing Along

I remember around fifteen years ago I bought a cd of Jessie Matthews and didn't care for it.  Now I just love her voice and her cute movie persona.   "Sailing Along" is adorable.  The main character makes it into show business but she is still in love with the skipper's son on the ship she used to work on.  What life will she choose?  Her best movie though is "First a Girl."  It was based on the German movie "Victor and Victoria" later remade into the Julie Andrews movie.

All Through the Night

This is just ok.  Humphrey plays a gambler who finds himself in Nazi company.  Among the Nazis are Peter Lorre and Judith Anderson (who played the unstable woman from Hitchcock's Rebecca).  I was hoping for more.  I guess I should have lowered my expectations.  Bogart's image would soon be changed in Casablanca.  It's interesting to see his acting range.