This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is "Girls' Trip". Now, I'm assuming that this is supposed to mean a pair of girlfriends, or a larger group, going on a journey together. But as the blogger who does these things differently, I had a blinding flash of inspiration and decided to take this one in a completely different direction, even though I've probably used two of these movies recently:
The Thin Man (1934). Myrna Loy, playing Nora Charles, trips on making her entrance; after finding her husband Nick (William Powell), she proceeds to emulate him and order six martinis. The two then go on to solve the murder of Edward Ellis, who is actually the titular thin man in this movie, not Nick Charles.
Leave Her to Heaven (1945). Gene Tierney plays an extremely jealous woman who will do anything to keep anybody (notably half-sister Jeanne Crain) from getting between her and husband Cornel Wilde. This includes tripping herself down a flight of stairs so that she'll kill her unborn baby who would have taken attention away from her.
The Big Cube (1968). Lana Turner is sent on an acid trip by her evil stepdaughter Karin Mossberg, and the daughter's chemistry-practicing boyfriend George Chakiris. This because Mommy won't let her new step-daughter marry the boyfriend. This one is memorably awful, trying to appeal to the changing mores of the late 1960s and failing spectacularly.
THE THIRD AGNES MOOREHEAD BLOGATHON IS HERE
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2 comments:
A fun way to go with the theme!
LOVE your first two, the third is something else all together!
While the follow up films in the series were enjoyable The Thin Man is by far the best. Myrna and Bill Powell have the kind of chemistry that you just can't manufacture.
Leave Her to Heaven is so dark and Gene Tierney just owns it! I've wondered if the parts played by Cornel Wilde and Jeanne Crain had been played by stronger performers, say John Garfield and Anne Baxter if it would have been a better film or thrown off Gene's advantage to take center stage. As is she just plows right over them.
The Big Cube is a candidate for Lana's worst film. Between her horrendous multi-colored hairdo and the surrounding awfulness of the rest of the cast you have to wonder what she was thinking in saying yes to being in it.
My three aren't tied together anywhere near as cleverly.
Orchestra Wives (1942)-Small town girl Connie Ward (Ann Rutherford) is swept off her feet by Bill Abbott (George Montgomery), a trumpet player in Gene Morrison's swing band (actually Glenn Miller and his entire orchestra). She hits the road with the band but soon finds herself at odds with the cattiness and petty jealousies of the other band members' wives also accompanying their husbands on the cross-country train tour. Add in her jealousy at the harmless flirtation between Bill and Jaynie (Lynn Bari), the band's female vocalist and it’s only a matter of time before things blow between all concerned. A more serious storyline and a lot of glorious Glenn Miller music distinguish this from other 40’s musicals.
Leaving Normal (1992)-Waitress Darly (Christine Lahti) unhappy with her lot decides to drive to Alaska to try and come to terms with her muddled past. In her travels she meets Marianne (Meg Tilly) who is running away from an abusive relationship. As they hit the road north they forge a bond over shared hardships and encounter some eccentric characters along the way.
Bonneville (2006)-Newly widowed Arvilla Holden (Jessica Lange) has a problem. She wants to scatter her late husband Joe’s ashes as he requested but her bitter step-daughter Francine (Christine Baranski) demands they be placed in her family crypt in California. Arvilla, still reluctant decides to take them there herself and hits the road with her two best friends, Margene (Kathy Bates) and Carol (Joan Allen) from her home in Idaho. As they share memories along the way they visit various places Arvilla & Joe spent time during their marriage and begin to scatter some of Joe's ashes as he wanted.
You rascal you! I was wondering what girl’s trip you would have seen and you went a very original way. Love The Thin Man which is hilarious and I love that she matches him in every way. I love Leave Her to Heaven and think this is Gene Tierney’s best film that I have seen. It is chilling because there are women like that..hell, my brother married one who, thankfully, didn’t kill anyone but man the attention she needed. I have not seen your last pick but this looks like a bad, bad film that would be so good to watch while drinking wine and eating popcorn
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