favorite movie #106 - holiday edition: we’re no angels

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #106 - We’re No Angels (1955) - Joseph (Humphrey Bogart), Albert (Aldo Ray) and Jules (Peter Ustinov) are three convicts who escape from Devil's Island right before Christmas. They decide to hide out in a nearby general store run by the Ducotel family — Felix (Leo G. Carroll), his wife Amelie (Joan Bennett), and their daughter Isabelle (Gloria Talbott). While there, they start to observe the family and get involved in their problems — mainly the store's failing business and its imminent takeover by their ruthless cousin, Andre Trochard (Basil Rathbone), and his smarmy son Paul (John Baer), who is also Isabelle's crush. The trio and Albert's pet (poisonous) snake Adolphe set about trying to make everything right and give the Ducotels a nice Christmas. Humphrey Bogart shows his flair for comedy and he and Ray and Ustinov are great together.

L-R: Albert (Aldo Ray), Joseph (Humphrey Bogart), and Jules (Peter Ustinov)

Joseph: I'm going to buy them their Christmas turkey.
Albert: "Buy"? Do you really mean "buy"?
Joseph: Yes, buy! In the Spirit of Christmas. The hard part's going to be stealing the money to pay for it.

The angels from Devil's Island

Cousin Andre doesn't believe there's a snake inside that basket

favorite movie #89 - halloween edition: suspiria

Favorite movies that have had an impact on me - #89 - Suspiria (1977) - Dario Argento's Suspiria may be a giallo film, but its primary color palette is red, red, red. The horror thriller features Jessica Harper as Suzy, a young American ballerina who attends a dance academy in Germany. That is just the framework for hue-saturated set pieces which feature veteran Hollywood star Joan Bennet, Alida Valli and one ingenious, gruesome, and gory death after another. The film is ostensibly about witchcraft and devil worship, but it plays more like a nightmarish fairy tale. The young, mostly female victims are drenched in either blood-red lights or the real thing. It's hard not to think of the "horrors" of coming of age and a woman's intimate relationship with blood. Whatever Suspiria is about, it is so arresting to watch it could have been interesting even if it had been a silent movie. The moment Suzy walks through the sliding doors at the airport and into the stormy night, her adventure, and ours, begins.

Suzy (Jessica Walter( is not in Kansas anymore

Suzy's roommate Olga (Barbara Magnolfi)

Suzy's friend Sara (Stefania Casini) tries to warn her that the school is a strange place

Young and handsome Udo Kier, post-Warhol 

girl trouble

Hollywood churned out romantic comedies by the dozens in the 1930s and 1940s. Wacky heiresses, bumbling suitors, and their faithful sidekicks made up most of the casts, along with some situational impediments to romance until the final few minutes. 1942's Girl Trouble, starring Joan Bennett and Don Ameche, is one of the genre's lighter, fluffier entires, but it is good fun all the same. ...

Pedro may be unimpressed with June's work ethic, as she picks up the wrong suit from the cleaners, and doesn't seem to spend much time dusting or mopping, doing anything else, but he is no snob, and quickly proceeds to fall in love with her. Complications arrive in the form of a trouble-making friend of June's (Helene Reynolds), and a tire mogul, Mr. Flint (Frank Craven), who wants to cut corners and use a rubber substitute instead of Pedro's rubber in his tires. Film buffs will recognize Billie Burke, Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz, in a small but amusing role as June's daffy friend Mrs. Rowland.

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You can read my complete review on Cinema Sentries.