What's on your DVR?

[Auggie]

With Mrs. Auggie away on business all week I've had a chance to see some great classics for the first time. You know, films you've heard about, wanted to see, but never got around to actually seeing. They were:

Anatomy of a Murder: Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, George C. Scott. I enjoyed watching it. I thought Stewart did a good job.

We're No Angels: Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray. A little slow. I thought Michael Curtiz could have done better.

Night of the Hunter: Odd direction IMO by Charles Laughton, his only effort. It was like watching three different films. But Robert Mitchum was awesome.

Dark Victory: Bette Davis, George Brent (her performance was so over-the-top, IMO).

Gilda: Rita Hayworth ... 'Nuff said.

Beat The Devil: Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre, Gina Lollobrigida -- what a cast! My favorite of the six films ... stunning work by John Houston, director. Great international look and feel to it. And a great script by Houston and Truman Capote.

Next up (I hope): Wings. And Phantom of the Opera, with Lon Chaney Sr. And Doctor Zhivago.

[Lisa D]

1. The Barretts of Wimpole Street

Life With Father
Gaslight
Rear Window
Dial M for Murder
Auntie Mame
The Fortune Cookie

[Auggie]

2. Some fun stuff there

[Lisa D]

3. I liked your choices as well.

Anatomy of a Murder is one of my favorite movies.

[cyberswede]

4. Night of the Hunter is fabulous.

And the odd direction was intentional - and considered brilliant by many critics.

Elbert's review is a good example:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19961124/REVIEWS08/401010344/1023

Charles Laughton showed here that he had an original eye, and a taste for material that stretched the conventions of the movies. It is risky to combine horror and humor, and foolhardy to approach them through expressionism. For his first film, Laughton made a film like no other before or since, and with such confidence it seemed to draw on a lifetime of work. Critics were baffled by it, the public rejected it, and the studio had a much more expensive Mitchum picture ("Not as a Stranger'') it wanted to promote instead. But nobody who has seen "The Night of the Hunter'' has forgotten it, or Mitchum's voice coiling down those basement stairs: "Chillll . . . dren?''

Another interesting article:
http://www.laweekly.com/2002-08-15/film-tv/night-vision/