Final seven movies watched in April:

59. (596.) G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)
This sort of ambles from one 3D set piece to the next with dialog designed as weak connective tissue. Maybe it was better than the last G.I. Joe movie. I'm still not sure.

60. (597.) Comic Book Villains (2002)
This dark comedy was written and directed by a successful comic book writer who seems interested in convincing us that most comic book fans are shitty human beings. He's probably right.

61. (598.) The Candy Snatchers (1973)
I changed the channel to find this on TCM at about 2AM. Some teenagers were talking about killing their kidnap victim. It looked like it was made by amateurs in 1970, and I was totally hooked. The film has 2 (3?) rapes (one of which is watched by a young autistic boy) and lots of other despicable acts, many comical. Far more fun than it had any right to be. Thank you, TCM.

62. (599.) It Happened at the World's Fair (1963)
Not one of Elvis' better movies. Too much of the plot seems like an unnarrated 16mm travelogue of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair, and that's the film's best part.

63. (600.) The Misfits (1961)
I decided to watch another Marilyn film because of Clark Gable. I'm glad I did. Marilyn is — as usual — the worst part of the film, although she does look better and more natural than usual and is somewhat more believable as a character. It's really Clark Gable's film. We get to watch him come to terms with his mortality and the changes in the world around him. It's really well done. Too bad making the film was so stressful that it killed him.

64. (601.) How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)
I keep giving Marilyn one more chance, and I'm glad I did. This is Marilyn at her Some Like It Hot best, bimbo bombshell delivering one-liners. She manages even to upstage Betty Grable's dingbat character, though I think that was more careless writing than any triumph of Marilyn's talent. Of course, Lauren Bacall is the star of the picture. Not bad for third billing.

65. (602.) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
Honestly, I thought I'd seen this before, but apparently not. It was a delight. John Ford's role for Wayne here is more or less the same as John Huston's role for Gable's in The Misfits, both "Death of the West" films set about 100 years apart. (The West dies slow.) The difference is mostly the consequences: Gable accepts his fate and gets the girl. Wayne accepts his fate and loses the girl. I liked 'em both, but naturally prefer Ford and Wayne.

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