ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

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[Ellemeno]

Starring Humphrey Bogart and Pat O'Brien.


From IMDb: Being very familiar with the story of the China Clipper, I viewed this movie as a fictional story very closely paralleling the growth of Pan American Airways. The events in the movie and especially the scenes put a picture with the words of the historical facts. I was especially pleased to see the "Christ the Redeemer" statue on Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro! (I saw it for real in 1990.) Aviation/Flying Boat buffs will really appreciate this documentation of the Clippers in flight.


The China Clipper over the partially complete Golden Gate Bridge.

The year was 1935. The China Clipper was about to make transoceanic passenger service a reality. The flight, from San Francisco to Manilla, took six days, with a flying time of 60 hours. There were overnight stopovers in Honolulu, Midway, Wake Island, and Guam. Holy cow. Six days! Still, direct passenger service from California to Hawaii in one day was a stunning achievement in 1935. The first nine passengers paid $1,438.20 for a round trip from San Francisco to Manila. That would be about $10,000 per ticket today. When it arrived in Pearl Harbor, 3,000 people showed up to watch it land on the waves and cruise in to port. It was a major event.

[MaineWriter]

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Plot Outline: "Europa Europa" tells the story of Solomon Perel, a Jewish boy who attempts to survive World War II by posing as a Aryan German. Perel joins the German Army and is eventually accepted into the Hitler Youth. At the end of World War II, he is reunited with his family.

[Fran]

From IMDb:

This is a visual jukebox of some of the biggest Country stars of the 1960's, including four true giants of the genre, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and Don Gibson. The usual inane plot shouldn't detract from the fact that there is a lot of good country music included in the film....

[MaineWriter]

By all accounts, a completely dreadful movie that ended up on many critics' "Worst Movies of the Year" lists.

[oilgun]

From Mika Kaurismäki of the Wild and Wacky Kaurismäki Bros.



From IMDb:  Quentin Tarantino must have seen this bit of European Noir. It is unknown in North America (thank God for TVOntario).

It follows a Finnish cab driver, with an Italian wife and and a Russian best friend, through a night in Berlin after he stumbles across a couple of corpses and a briefcase full of cash.

It is high paced and giddy, and it has a bit of Scorsese's After Hours in it, and it does seem to be a predecessor of 90s noir.

[Fran]

From IMDb:

The key to this movie is whether one understands the motivation for it. I've seen it a few times since reading the book after my second visit to Africa. I've been back to that continent four more times since. Not a great movie but very enjoyable for one who has a passion for Africa, its people and wildlife.

It doesn't pretend to be a story about the indigenous people and culture, or the wildlife, so there's no need for either of those elements to play a significant role. The key characters are still among the people of Africa, whether they're black, white or brindle. After all, Kuki, for whatever reason, chose to go to Africa and make a life there, and still lives there. Karen Blixen did not remain in Africa (somebody unsympathetic would say she copped out), so comparisons with "Out of Africa" are rather pointless even from an artistic viewpoint. "Out of" is a good movie, one that I enjoyed equally, but it is highly romanticised. Too Hollywood, too box office. Not so "I dreamed of". It's fairly well told, fairly well acted, certainly beautifully filmed....

[MaineWriter]

This movie's biggest claim to fame is "tons of cute guys" including a very young Harrison Ford.

[Ellemeno]

Not much to find about this movie yet - except that it is written by Nick Cassavetes, son of the illustrious John Cassavetes and Gena Rowland.  That is actually enough for me to be interested.


With his mommy


His fabulous daddy