Breakfast At Tiffany's
Based on Truman Capote’s novel, the plot of Breakfast At Tiffany’s
concerns a young woman, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) who meets a young man,
Paul Varjak (George Peppard) when he moves into her apartment building. Paul wants to be a writer and is with an
older woman known as “2-E” (Patricia Neal) and Holly has aspirations of
marrying a rich older man. Holly and
Paul proceed to fall in love.
Audrey Hepburn's performance is what I like best about Breakfast
At Tiffany's, although there are many good things about the movie. A
woman attempting to find a rich man to marry and reinvent herself is an interesting
idea to work with, and Holly’s attempts to be a “high society” type are amusing
and touching. The chemistry between Ms. Hepburn's character and Peppard's
character is good, and Ms. Neal’s performance is excellent. The theme
song (Moon River) is pretty, and Ms. Hepburn had a good voice.
Sunset Boulevard
In this film, an aging
film star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) refuses to accept she is past her
prime. She hires a young screenwriter,
Joe Gillis (William Holden) to help her make her movie comeback. Joe moves into Norma’s mansion at her
insistence. He becomes resentful of his
dependent circumstances, and he tries to manipulate Norma but fails. Joe’s mixed feelings about their relationship
and Norma’s inability to face reality lead to a very ugly situation, complete
with lies, conniving and unfulfilled dreams.
Gloria Swanson is
outstanding in her role as the demanding, overbearing and ultimately mentally
unstable and murderous former film star.
The way the movie begins with a dead body floating in a pool and then
goes on to fill in the details with Joe Gillis narrating is interesting,
although backstory won't always work. It is engaging in this case
however. William Holden’s performance is great and Erich von Stroheim as
Ms. Desmond's butler (and former husband who can’t live without her) Max is excellent
also.
All About Eve
An aspiring actress, Eve Harrington (Ann Baxter) waits backstage
to meet aging Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis). Ms. Baxter appears sincere at first, but it
becomes obvious that she is just using Ms. Channing to establish her own
career.
Bette Davis is excellent in her role, but it is Ann Baxter's
performance as the conniving assistant that kept my attention the most.
She is extremely manipulative and has an agenda (to make it as an
actress). However, things catch up with
her when she in turn is manipulated by film critic Addison DeWitt (George
Sanders, outstanding in this role). Things come full circle when Ms.
Harrington meets a young woman, Phoebe, (Barbara Bates) who plans to do to her
what Ms. Harrington did to Margo Channing.
Around The World In 80 Days
Phileas Fogg (David Niven) bets fellow gentleman’s club members
20,000 pounds that he can go around the world in 80 days. His assistant Passepartout (Cantinflas) goes
along and gets into some comical situations during the trip.
Fogg is suspected of stealing money from a bank, and Police
Inspector Fix (Robert Newton) waits for a warrant so he can arrest Fogg in the
British ports they visit. This makes for
some amusing moments.
This is an entertaining movie, based on the book by Jules Verne,
and although I do like it, I prefer the book (which admittedly I read a long
time ago and need to read again). That will usually be the case though.
It can be difficult to make a film based on a book for a number of
reasons. I do like the Victorian era setting, the scenery is pretty, and I
enjoy David Niven's performance.
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