This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week, the theme is museums. As usual, I went back a good ways to get my three choices for the week:
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933). A search of the blog claims I haven't used this one in a Thursday Movie Picks before, so hear goes. Lionel Atwill plays the sculptor who makes waxworks for a failing London museum before the creditors come in, leading to the burning of the museum. Fast forward a dozen years, and he's got a new museum opening in New York, with statues that look extremely lifelike. Of course, there's a good reason for that. Meanwhile, bodies are disappearing from the morgue, and it's up to intrepid reporter Glenda Farrell to figure out why. Farrell's roommate Fay Wray has a boyfriend who works for Atwill, so Atwill sees her and wants her to model for his next sculpture....
How to Steal a Million (1966). Audrey Hepburn plays the daughter of an art forger who comes from a family of forgers. Dad decides he's going to lend a statue to a Paris museum for an exhibition, although the sculpture is a forgery. The problem is that the museum needs to insure the sculpture, so they're going to bring in an appraiser who's certain to discover the fraud. Hepburn met intruder Peter O'Toole, and she gets him to help steal the forgery from the museum before the fraud can be discovered; she doesn't know that he's really investigating her father for forgery.
On the Town (1949). Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Jules Munshin play three sailors with 24 hours' leave in New York, who want to see the town, and wind up doing with with three young ladies (Betty Garrett, Ann Miller, and Vera-Ellen). Among the sights they see is New York's Museum of Natural History, where Miller has a dance number to "Prehistoric Man".
MEL BROOKS AT 97
14 hours ago
5 comments:
Oh Lord, On The Town is so much fun! Ann Miller sure could shamelessly mug her way through a number couldn't she? I kid because I love - girl could tap her way out of anything!
I really need to see How To Steal a Million already.
Hey we're a double match!
Wax Museum isn't quite as much fun as the remake House of Wax without Vincent Price but at least it has Glenda Farrell wisecracking her way through. How to Steal a Million is such an effervescent star vehicle for its leads surrounded by a great supporting cast and dripping in luxury.
I wouldn't have thought of On the Town in a million years but that's one of its better scenes.
Aside from our two matches I thought of two others that utilize their museum settings well.
Mysteries of the Wax Museum (1933)-Sculptor Ivan Igor (Lionel Atwill) and his partner, Joe Worth (Edwin Maxwell), run a famous wax museum in London. Joe burns down the place down for the insurance money leaving Igor trapped inside. Though terribly burned he survives. Decades pass and Ivan surfaces in New York as the curator of a new wax museum, boasting incredibly lifelike statues. When model Joan Gale (Monica Bannister) goes missing reporter Florence Dempsey (Glenda Farrell) follows the clues to Igor's museum, where she discovers a terrible secret. Remade with Vincent Price as House of Wax.
One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975)-Lord Southmere (Derek Nimmo) is being chased by a ring of Chinese spies pursuing him to gain possession of a secret microfilm he holding which reveals the formula for the mysterious Lotus X. While being chased through London’s Natural History Museum, Southmere hides the film in the bones of a Brontosaurus skeleton. When he’s captured it's up to his old nanny Hettie (Helen Hayes) and her hardy band of fellow nannies to find the film and keep it from the clutches of the evil Hnup Wan (Peter Ustinov). Pleasant Disney fare.
The Hot Rock (1972)-Fresh out of the slammer John Dortmunder (Robert Redford) is approached by his brother-in-law Andy Kelp (George Segal) to steal a priceless diamond from the Brooklyn Museum and return it to the African nation it was originally taken from. Helped by an expert getaway man and an explosives wizard, they steal the gem with a little assistance from bombs, a faked car crash and dressing up as uniformed guards and doctors. However, almost as soon as they get their hands on the loot and prepare to transfer it to an African diplomat, they lose it. Breezy caper film with a light touch.
How to Steal a Million (1966)-Cat burglar Simon Dermott (Peter O'Toole) is hired by the chic Nicole Bonnet (Audrey Hepburn) to steal the reproduction of a priceless sculpture made by her father Charles (Hugh Griffith) a master forger from to the Kléber-Lafayette Museum in Paris before it is examined and found to be a fake and ruins père Bonnet’s reputation. Comic complications and romance ensue.
I have a feeling that How to Steal a Million will be a popular pick this week. I may check out Mysteries of the Wax Museum as i enjoy old horrish movies.
Ann Miller always seems to bring so much energy to the movie she's in. Absolutely love her and Eddie Bracken in Too Many Girls.
On The Town is a great pick that I didn’t even think about and I love that musical scene. How To Steal a Million is popular and one I need to sit through as I just never got into it for some reason.
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