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 makeovers from ugly ducklings to beautiful swans, which is a bit of a difficult theme for me. But I came up with three movies eventually:
Ninotchka (1939). Greta Garbo plays a repressed, by-the-books Soviet functionary sent to Paris to find out why three colleagues are failing to sell some jewelry that would bring in valuable hard currency. They're fascinated by all that the west has to offer, but she isn't -- until she gets finds herself falling for Melvyn Douglas, which brings out a big change in her character. Except that staying in the west would be treasonous and dangerous to her family. Garbo laughs, and shows she was quite adept at comedy.
Now, Voyager (1942). Bette Davis plays a spinster youngest daughter who suffers a nervous breakdown under her mother's wheedling. She gets out of Claude Rains' sanatorium a changed women, taking a cruise to South America where she meets Paul Henried who is unfortunately trapped in a loveless marriage. This is one of those movies that screams chick flick and won't shut the hell up; frankly, the best reason to watch it is for Davis' nervous breakdown. (Much like Rebel Without a Cause, which you watch for James Dean's "You're tearing me apart!" line and then change channels.)
Born Yesterday (1950). Judy Holliday plays the trophy wife of a shady businessman (Broderick Crawford) trying to curry favor with Washington politicians. The only thing is, she's not quite a trophy since she doesn't have the social graces and intellect. So hubby hires a writer (William Holden) to teach her those qualities. He does his job too well, as the wife comes to realize just how shady her husband's business dealings are. Judy Holliday won the Best Actress Oscar in a very strong year for actress' performances.
The Last Boy Scout
3 hours ago
