The Golden Blade

 This was just all right. Piper Laurie was ok but I like her later performances in Twin Peaks more. In this Rock Hudson has a magical sword and he becomes a heroic figure for princess Piper Laurie. This movie seems to be a waste of Rock Hudson's comic talents but then those movies were just around the corner. 

Has anybody seen my gal?/A Very Special Favor

 

The movies that are on this disc of a Rock Hudson collection are pretty mediocre. But the best of them was Has anybody seen my Gal? is about a single millionaire worried about who he is going to leave his money to when he dies. He rents a room from a family whose grandmother he loved. However, once he gives them the money he sees that they are actually horrible people. I liked that surprise actually. It was the only unpredictable thing in this movie. However, the daughter Piper Laurie is in love with Rock Hudson who works at a pharmacy. The other movie A Very Special Favor has Rock Hudson trying to seduce psychiatrist Leslie Caron. Her father Charles Boyer thinks she's a prude and needs it. There are a couple of jokes hinting at Rock Hudson's homosexuality. The movie is pretty bad and it isn't funny. 

Shockproof

 You would think a movie written by Samuel Fuller and directed by Douglas Sirk would be interesting. This movie is just ok and kind of boring. It's about a girl on parole. Her probation officer (Cornel Wilde) is in love with her but she is torn between the gangster who had her kill in the first place and Cornel Wilde. Leonard Maltin was completely right about the ending which doesn't seem plausible.

Rain

 

This was a flop at the time but it stands up well. Joan Crawford plays Sadie Thompson, a prostitute that tempts a missionary. He tries to get her deported and also tries to save her soul. One person on imdb.com said that this movie can make you uncomfortable at times. I agree. It deals with the nature of good and evil effectively. This was based on a W. Somerset Maugham story. He was a great writer. I read a lot by him during the ages of 12-14. The first thing I'll read will be Rain. There's also Sadie Thompson with Gloria Swanson and Miss Sadie Thompson with Rita Hayworth. This story got remade a lot.  

The Countess from Hong Kong

 

This was Charlie Chaplin's last movie. This movie shows you can take three major talents and still have one boring bad movie. Sophia Loren and Marlon Brando have no chemistry. Apparently, Chaplin wrote this more than thirty years ago before he filmed it. He planned for Paulette Goddard to star in and I think that would have been a better movie. 

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren star in this Italian comedy that centers around three stories. My favorite one would have to be the one where Sophia Loren discovers that she can legally sell cigarettes on the street if she is always expecting. However, her husband is unable to impregnate their eighth child. Will she have to face jail time? In the first story, Sophia Loren is really plained up. But this is one of the most attractive women to ever grace cinema. The movie was entertaining.

Le Notti Bianche

 

This was a pretty good Visconti movie starring Marcello Mastroianni and Maria Schell. I watched Gervaise lately. This was based on a Dostoyevsky story. Schell plays a woman who can't get over her lover who she hasn't seen in a year. Meanwhile Marcello and her fall in love. However, can she really leave the past behind her.  I wish that Maria Schell's movies were more available. Perhaps these were the best movies of her career?