Like I said, I watched a lot of movies starting with the word "The" in July. This is the first batch.

106. (413.) The Name of the Game is Kill (1968)
Jack Lord plays an unusually forceful meddling drifter in this B- C-movie. The film teases a shock ending that would have been more shocking if it hadn't been so damn obvious from the start. I spent most of the movie trying to guess what the shock could be, only to find out that it was exactly what I expected. I was shocked only that it was so unshocking.

112. (419.) The Falcon in San Francisco (1945)
The first of three "Falcon" movies I watched this month. More suspense than mystery: think Mike Hammer meets The Saint. I guess this is what passed for popcorn movies in 1945.

113. (420.) The Kid (2000)
I had no idea Bruce Willis made this Disney movie until I watched it. Bruce phones it in with a wig on, but there is still plenty to like, mostly thanks to female lead Emily Mortimer. If Disney were to make this movie now, Bruce's role would be filled by Eddie Murphy, and the schmaltz level would be turned up to a totally unwatchable 11.

114. (421.) The Devil-Doll (1936)
Lionel Barrymore crossdresses and shrinks humans down to doll-size to extract revenge on the evil bankers who sent him to prison. Great special effects and lots of fun (if a little longwinded).

115. (422.) The Seven Year Itch (1955)
I thought I had seen this before, but it turned out I'd only seen a about 15-minutes combined of 4 key scenes. Honestly, what I had seen was enough to guess the rest of the movie. I get that Marilyn Monroe was a star (she has plenty of charisma onscreen), but I do think she was an objectively terrible actress.

116. (423.) The Fortune Cookie (1966)
I loved watching the football scenes at the start of the movie, and I loved watching Walter Matthau play a lovably despicable lawyer. (Jack Lemon I'm still not so nuts about.) A cynical film in all the right ways — it could be noir if it had a different ending.

117. (424.) The Big Heat (1953)
Speaking of film noir, loved this film of the determined lawman out for revenge against a mob stupid enough to have killed his wife. Glenn Ford movie #1.

118. (425.) The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)
Glenn Ford movie #2. From honest cop to cowardly gunslinger, I have to give Ford credit for range. The first two acts of this 3-act western really crawled, but Ford was a good actor with a good supporting cast. Together, the make the final act suspenseful. Entertainment-wise, it falls somewhere between The Searchers (great) and Love Me Tender (not so great), both also westerns and both also released in 1956.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: movies