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March 26 movie: The Three Musketeers. The Gene Kelly version from 1948. What a fun movie! This has been done as a movie several times, and I'm most familiar with the Michael York version from the 70s. It's interesting to compare the two. One unsurprising difference is that the Gene Kelly version way downplays the adultery, which I recall being largely the point of the Michael York version. The casting is interesting also. Vincent Price is perfect for Richelieu, and Lana Turner equally ideal for Lady de Winter. June Allyson as Constance, though, that gave me mental whiplash. How can the same character be played by June Allyson (who specialized in sexless girls) and Raquel Welch (who specialized in, well, sex). It boggles the mind. Also we noticed that the ending of the Gene Kelly version is fairly true to the end of the book -- Constance and Lady de Winter are both dead, the Musketeers are disbanded, and D'Artagnan is working for Richelieu -- but they somehow make it seem like a happy ending. How they manage that, I do not know.

On the concert album Live at the Cocoanut Grove, Sammy Davis Jr. does a hilarious riff on this movie. I read in Sammy's biography Black and White that he loved watching old movies, he really absorbed them. You can totally tell from the routine that he's seen this movie a million times. He describes it accurately, in great detail. The funny thing is that the routine is funny even if you've never seen the movie. Then when you finally do see the movie, that makes the routine even funnier.

March 26 movie: Love Is A Ball. Charles Boyer heads up a team of con artists trying to entrap an American heiress into marrying a poor European nobleman (Ricardo Montalban), but she falls in love with the chauffeur (Glenn Ford) instead. Uh oh, he's in on the plan!

I probably wouldn't have watched this if any of my Netflix movies had arrived, but I really enjoyed it. Glenn Ford is good as the understated romantic lead, even when he's too old for the heroine. The supporting cast were the best part of the movie for me. I've mentioned before how much I adore Ricardo Montalban. Here he takes a terrible character -- the pauper grand duke is basically an incompetent oaf -- and makes him not just sympathetic but totally likeable. Telly Savalas is also wonderful as the heiress' uncle.

March 26 movie: Jack of Diamonds. Caper movie starring a very young George Hamilton as a cat burglar and Joseph Cotten as his mentor. I enjoyed this much more than I expected to, especially after the opening credits announced the "special guest stars" Zsa Zsa Gabor, Lilli Palmer and Carroll Baker. "Special guest stars" in a movie is usually a really bad sign. Like Mystery Science Theater bad. Thankfully, not so in this case.

I read somewhere that Jack of Diamonds was the American answer to a European genre that included Danger: Diabolik. Which I haven't seen in a long long time, so I can't comment on that. Except that when Hamilton put on his cat burglar outfit, he did kind of look like Diabolik. Also, there's a scene with Hamilton working out on gymnastics equipment in an old European mansion, which Georg said reminded him a lot of Lara Croft. (I never saw or played Tomb Raider so again, can't comment.)

March 26 movie: The Mad Miss Manton. Speaking of silly movies that work because of the high-powered chemistry between the stars. This was an amateur detective story, essentially yet another Nick and Nora imitator, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. Boy howdy, talk about chemistry. Stanwyck plays a socialite heiress (a strangely popular character in 30s screwball comedies) who stumbles onto a murder. Fonda is a newspaper reporter (another popular character) who ridicules her in his column, then helps her solve the crime. Do they fall in love? Do you have to ask?

March 25 movie: Elephant Walk. All through the movie I was hearing this in my head, and you probably heard it in your head as soon as you read the title. Okay, now that's out of the way. On to the movie.

Elephant Walk was a Dieterle movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Finch and Dana Andrews as tea plantation owners in Ceylon. According to the intro, the movie originally starred Vivian Leigh, who had a nervous breakdown early on in the filming. Taylor was cast mainly for her close resemblance to Leigh, which allowed them to use the long-shot and over-the-shoulder footage they already had of Leigh.

With the setting and premise they had to work with, this movie should have been more than it was. The most interesting part of the movie to me was the conflict between the British and the indigenous culture, represented by the elephants. Do the British bring progress? arrogance? improvements? imperialism? Are they helping the Sri Lankans or destroying their culture? It's a complicated question that is touched on, frustratingly, but mostly dropped in favor of a romantic melodrama that reminded me somewhat of Rebecca. That's not a criticism, I love Rebecca, but if I want to see Rebecca I'll watch Rebecca.

I probably wouldn't watch this movie again but if I could time it right I would gladly watch the final scene. Which kicks all kinds of ass. Elephants rule, tea farmers drool!

March 25 movie: Golden Arrow. Bette Davis plays a phony heiress who arranges a phony marriage to newspaperman George Brent, to help her fend off a throng of fortune-hunting Europeans. It's a silly romantic comedy which works because of the tremendous chemistry between Davis and Brent. I could watch them in anything. Except Front Page Woman. I hate that movie.

March 24 movie: The Six Wives of Henry VIII. This is a six part BBC miniseries from the early 70s; one episode for each wife. I adored the followup series Elizabeth R, and I heard this was equally good. I agree. Keith Mitchell's Henry is really interesting, much more sympathetic than other portrayals I've seen.

I watched the first two episodes: Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. My only disappointment was that the Anne Boleyn episode dealt entirely with her falling out of Henry's favor and her death. Not at all with her rise to power or her political influence, which I've read was enormous. With only ninety minutes to cover such an important and eventful life, I guess they felt like they had to focus.

March 24 movie: Casino Royale. I haven't done anything except lie on the couch and watch TV for the past few days. Which means I have a lot of movies to write up!

Georg and I both enjoyed Casino Royale very much. I'm not a Bond expert but I have seen quite a few of them at this point, and I would call this one of the best. Probably the best since On Her Majesty's Secret Service. We both felt that the new guy -- what is his name, Daniel Craig? -- is much closer to the Sean Connery style of playing Bond than anyone in a long time.

Although the time-warping aspect of the movie was a bit odd (it's about Bond as a new agent, pre-Connery, but set in the present day) I very much liked that the movie had something to say about Bond's character and motivation. I'd seen a couple of the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies and they always came off like generic action movies with a somewhat effete star. This movie felt like it was specifically about James Bond. It wouldn't have worked as well if the main character had been Generic Action Hero Guy.

March 22 movie: Mirrormask. What do I say about this movie? It's visually spectacular, so inventive that the word seems insufficient. In almost every scene I found myself wishing the characters would stop and linger so I could see more detail of this incredible world. I can't call it a great movie, alas. Maybe not even a terribly good movie, if you define good in terms of plot and character development. If you aren't engaged by Dave McKean's art style you probably won't enjoy this very much. I am, and so I did. Very much.

March 20 movie: Footsteps in the Dark. Errol Flynn plays a novelist and amateur detective in this comic mystery. It's a funny movie which I would definitely watch again. Great supporting cast including Ralph Bellamy, Lucile Watson, the wonderful Allen Jenkins, and best of all, Alan Hale! Yay, Alan Hale!

March 17 movie: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. What a beautiful movie. I watched it on Minty's recommendation, and I am so glad I did. All the dialogue is sung, and all the sets are in pastel candy colors, which make the movie seem fantastical. But the plot and dialogue are all terse realism.

All the actors are great, the standout being the radiant Catherine Deneuve. It's easy to see why she became such a huge star. With a lesser cast the conceit of singing all the dialogue might have been gimmicky and annoying. In fact it quickly came to seem perfectly natural. The music is lovely, especially the recurring theme which really added to the movie's emotional impact.

March 16 movie: Phffft! Romantic comedy with Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday as a married couple who divorce, try to date other people (Jack Carson and Kim Novak), then get back together.

Jack Lemmon and Judy Holliday were great, of course. Kim Novak, who I usually love, does a weird imitation of Marilyn Monroe that doesn't suit her at all. She comes off like an airheaded slut. Novak is much better at characters who are sexually confident and not stupid.

I enjoyed this, although if I had the choice of a repeat viewing I'd watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith again instead. No no, not the one with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie! I mean the one with Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard. Which is structurally very similar to Phffft! According to Robert Osborne, "phffft!" was an expression coined by Walter Winchell to describe failed marriages.

March 14 movie: Reveille with Beverly. Ann Miller plays a swing music lover who hosts an early morning radio show dedicated to GIs. This was a very silly movie with fabulous music. Frank Sinatra, the Mills Brothers, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Bob Crosby, and Ella Mae Morse all appear. None of them were characters in the movie; instead Ann Miller would put on a record and then it would cut to a performance by the band. Georg was annoyed that Ellington played "Take the A Train" but his performance was staged not on the A train, rather on a train, that looked like it was out in the Midwest somewhere. I don't know, I thought it was funny.

I was also amused by Miller's terrible DJ skills: she would announce a song, then pick up a record, stroll over to the turntable, cue it up and turn it on. Ack, the dead air! It was like that bad dream where I'm trying to get to the board, moving in slow motion, and the dead air just drags on and on.

We enjoyed this so much that we found ourselves laughing at even the silliest jokes. We laughed the most when we were able to call out the punchline just before it happened. IMDB says this movie was based on a real wartime radio show called "Reveille with Beverly." Strangely, the host of the real show wasn't named Beverly.

March 13 movie: The Ambushers. This was the third of Dean Martin's Matt Helm spy spoof series. In brief, it was a flat, unfunny Flynt. I'm sorry, Dino, I love you but you are no James Coburn. It wasn't just the star, it was the script too. I never thought that Our Man Flynt had such a great script, but this movie made me realize that it really did.

What the The Ambushers did have going for it was the clothes. If you're into mod fashion this was a treat. Lots of color-blocked minidresses and matching thigh high gogo boots. And the hair, oh my god, the hair. How did they get their hair so high?

I'm being harsh, maybe overly so. I wouldn't watch this movie again, but I heard that the first two Matt Helm movies were better and I'd be willing to give them a try.

March 12 movie: The Odd Couple. Hard to believe I had never seen this movie before. I remember the TV series of course, from when I was a kid. Actually, all I clearly remember is Jack Klugman dropping a cigar butt on the ground and Tony Randall picking it up with his umbrella. I must say, Klugman and Randall were perfect to replace Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

Anyway the movie is terrific. I think my favorite gag is "You leave little notes on my pillow! I've told you a hundred times I can't stand little notes! 'We're all out of corn flakes. FU.' It took me three hours to figure out 'FU' meant Felix Unger!"

March 5 movie: Khuda Gawah. Amitabh Night continues! Khuda Gawah is a multigenerational epic romance starring Amitabh as an Afghan prince who goes to India to kill his bride's enemy, and through a series of adventures ends up spending decades in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The overarching theme of the movie is the conflict between the tribal justice of Kabul and the institutional justice of India. Much of the movie was filmed on location in Afganistan and Nepal, and the mountain vistas are extraordinary.

But forget about themes and locations and whatnot. There's one thing you need to know about this movie: goat ball! Amitabh and his honey fall in love during a tribal game of goat ball. Which is sort of like capture the flag, played on horseback, with a ball made of an inflated goat skin. The whole skin, with head and legs still attached. Must be seen to be believed. The end is even better: they renew their love by playing goat ball using their enemy as the ball, then crack his head against a boulder.

My only disappointment of this movie was the love interest, played by Sridevi. At the beginning of the movie she's a rival tribal leader, and does a great dance number about how she'll kill Amitabh rather than submit to him. Alas, when they get married she's tranformed into a helpless, clinging whiner. Then when he leaves her to have his series of adventures, she goes insane. I guess being deprived of the Big B's big love can do that to you.

March 4 movie: For Your Consideration. I kind of don't know what to say about this movie. It was funny and all, but I feel like I've seen the same movie several times now. Structurally it was very similar to Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. The main difference of the top of my head is that in this one, the epilogue was more uncomfortable to watch. I think it's because the characters were all so unhappy. Unlike, say, Best in Show, where at the end, the characters seem satisfied with their lives and have no idea they're pathetic. That seemed to make it all more charming and less painful.

March 4 movie: Theodora Goes Wild. I know I had something interesting to say about this movie when I saw it, but that was over a week ago. Now all I can do is refer you to my first write-up and add that this movie is brilliant. Well worth a repeating viewing.

March 4 movie: Here Comes Mr. Jordan. Robert Montgomery stars as a boxer whose soul is taken too soon by overeager assistant angel Edward Everett Horton. James Gleason is Montgomery's boxing manager, and Claude Rains plays a more powerful angel (and the title character) who sets things right. I loved this movie. With such great actors in the main roles, how could I not? It was remade as Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty. I confess I haven't seen Heaven Can Wait, but Here Comes Mr. Jordan is delightful. Rains is such a tremendous actor that he tends to dominate his movies, but Montgomery and Horton are able to hold their own I think.

March 3 movie: Shaft. Who's the black private dick who's a sex machine with all the chicks? Right on!

They showed this on TCM, I think on a night that all the movies had won best song. I hadn't seen it in a long time, and enjoyed it as much as ever. Though I have to admit, one of the best parts was Robert Osbourne saying "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" in his intro. It was so funny I had to rewind and hear him say it again.