The Golden Era of Animation starring Tom and Jerry

Multiple 12/30/12, Best Animated Shorts

I was fortunate enough to get 15 animated shorts on one disc (Academy Awards’ Animated Collection)which was very convenient and actually not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. Seven of the shorts (and when they say short, they mean short, everything was between seven and ten minutes) were Tom and Jerry; in fact, in the 1940s they won four in a row. From what I could gather from Wikipedia, I was watching the uncensored/unedited versions, which was pretty interesting from a historical perspective. Keep in mind that these are mostly from the 1940s and 1950s when cultural sensitivities were not what they are today, and the depiction of minorities back then would be considered totally unacceptable now. And while many of those portrayals wouldn't be drawn today, the violence shown sixty-five years is pretty unabated in 2012, and may be even more so. I’m not sure how winners were determined back then (I’m really not sure now, either) but the cartoons were fun, and you probably have seen some of them over the years.

The Milky Way 1940 – MGM  This is a story about three kittens who are sent to their room because they lost their mittens; what follows is a tale of the kittens’ dream come true – a world where everything is milk: geysers spewing milk; glasses full of milk; a world where they would never be without milk. Can there be too much of a good thing? You’ll have to watch and see. It’s cute and simple, but captures how a lot of kids probably imagine their utopia.

The Yankee Doodle Mouse 1943 – MGM Tom and Jerry This is the first of seven Oscars won by the cat and mouse team, and the first of four in a row. In 1943, World War II was going on and patriotism was found throughout the entertainment industry, cartoons were no exception. This provides a military twist on the timeless battle between Tom and Jerry.

Mouse Trouble 1944 – MGM Tom and Jerry Tom decides to read a book on various ways to catch a mouse. Of course, nothing goes as planned, and it is funny to watch Tom try the different foolproof tactics.

Quiet Please! 1945 – MGM Tom and Jerry This short co-stars Spike the bulldog who is trying to take a nap and is not pleased with the racket caused by Tom and Jerry (of course, poor Tom gets all the blame) and he threatens Tom with bodily harm if it’s not quiet. Cue Jerry and his every attempt to disrupt Spike’s forty winks and get Tom in trouble.

The Cat Concerto 1946 – MGM Tom and Jerry (7 minutes) Tom starts out as the star in this short as he is playing the piano at a concert (playing Liszt, not my favorite) and Jerry trying to sabotage his efforts by slamming the lid on his fingers, removing keys, etc. Tom, to his credit, keeps going, but to little avail, Jerry still gets all the applause.

 Tweetie Pie 1947 – Warner Bros. Sylvester and Tweety Bird This is the introduction of that beloved canary (I think he’s a canary), Tweety Bird and his nemesis, Sylvester the Cat (although that isn’t his name in this short, but it’s clearly Sylvester). It’s in the cat’s nature to try and eat the bird, but luckily for Tweety Bird, there is some human intervention who always seems to catch Sylvester just before something bad happens. Tweety isn’t as aggressive to Sylvester as Jerry is to Tom, but it’s the same general idea, the cat gets outsmarted by his much smaller nemesis.

The Little Orphan 1948 – MGM Tom and Jerry It’s Thanksgiving time and Jerry is hosting an orphan mouse named Nibbles; he should have been named Jaws because he eats everything in sight. And of course, it then because the two mice versus Tom. It’s no contest, although there is a little twist at the end.

For Scentimental Reasons 1949 – Warner Brothers Pepe Le Pew Just from the title you could probably guess who stars in this short, Pepe Le Pew, the species-blind but odoriferous skunk. He starts chasing an unsuspecting cat who has had white paint poured on her, giving her a white stripe. Not a big stretch to imagine what happens as he fruitlessly chases her, although this does have a little twist at the end as well.

The Two Mouseketeers  1951– MGM Tom and Jerry Nibbles makes another appearance here as this short is set in 18^th century France and the dialogue is in French (very little dialogue, though), and Tom, Jerry and Nibbles are dressed as musketeers. Jerry and Nibbles are trying to enjoy a delicious banquet when they encounter Tom. The usual antics transpire. The end was a bit of a surprise, and while not totally explicit, it was still kind of shocking: Jerry and Nibbles are on the street and look up to see a guillotine being dropped; it is implied (in French) that the victim of the guillotine is Tom. I’m not sure how that gets explained to kids.

Johann Mouse 1952 – MGM Tom and Jerry Tom and Jerry are living in the house of Austrian composer Johan Strauss, and Tom displays more of his piano playing chops. Tom and Jerry still have an adversarial relationship, except when Tom plays and Jerry dances; they actually sort of become famous. That is until their basic animal instincts take over.  

Speedy Gonzales 1955 – Merrie Melodies with Sylvester Speedy Gonzales, the Mexican mouse with blazing speed is called on to handle Sylvester the Cat who is harassing Speedy’s relatives and friends. Andole! Sylvester is totally out of his league with Speedy, and his attempt to blow up all the cheese to keep it away from the mice definitely does not have the desired effect…for Sylvester.

Birds Anonymous 1957 – Merrie Melodies with Sylvester and Tweety Bird Sylvester is convinced to give up hunting Tweety and to join Birds Anonymous (B.A.) and the surprise star of this short is the cat who convinces him to join. I liked this episode (and I’m fairly certain I have seen this on television) and you get to see how Tweety actually enjoys the little games with Sylvester and misses him when he tries to go straight. Never fear, you know it can’t last.

Knighty Knight Bugs 1958 – Loony Tunes Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam Bugs and the blustery Yosemite Sam star in this take on a tale from King Arthur’s Round Table. Bugs, who is a court jester, is ‘volunteered’ to get the singing sword from the black knight (Sam). This was the only Oscar for the famous wascally wabbit.

The Dot and the Line a Romance in Lower Mathematics 1965 – MGM This short does not feature any anthropomorphized animals or cartoony people. The stars, as you might infer from the title, are a line and a dot. It seems very 1960s (which it is) and to me, starts to mark a shift to the animated shorts that are made today. It is narrated by Robert Morley, the English actor, and is about the pursuit of the Dot by the Line, which seems like a hopeless quest as the Dot is infatuated with the Squiggle. This might be my favorite from the whole disc because it has this wonderful flow that reminded me a little of the work by Bill Plympton that came later in the 1980s and 1990s.

So much for so little – Best Documentary Short Subject 1949 – This animated short was included on the disc, but was actually the winner for the Best Documentary Short Subject from 1949. Given the raging debate these days about publicly funded health care, watching this was very timely. It also seemed like some things haven’t changed that much. The premise of this short was to highlight how many children die each year in the US (obviously based on 1949 information) due to lack of proper medical care, and how little it would cost each taxpayer to improve the health of citizens. It follows one little baby through his life, and then at the end points out that John E. Jones might not survive, given the odds at that time. I’m not sure it would qualify as a ‘documentary’ based on the last twenty or thirty years, but it was an interesting view of public health that in some ways has not changed.

Perry Mason, southern-fried

My Cousin Vinny 12/29/12, Best Supporting Actress, 1992

It took me twenty years to watch this movie. Silly me. It uses the fish out of water premise by dropping two New York City friends into the South, Alabama actually, and having them charged with murder. Enter Cousin Vinny, played by Joe Pesci, a lawyer who has never tried a case and is terribly unfamiliar with trial procedure. Fred Gwynne (beloved Herman Munster) plays the judge who is offended by Vinny’s disregard or lack of knowledge of proper etiquette, which leads to some of the movie’s best exchanges. Vinny appears to be severely overmatched by the District Attorney and his own ineptitude, until he miraculously finds his inner Perry Mason and starts to turn things around. The one person who believes in him the whole way, and bails him out when necessary, is his fiancee Mona Lisa (Lisa)Vito, played by Marisa Tomei who won for Best Supporting Actress. Lisa wants very much to help Vinny, but he’s determined to do it all on his own, until he finally realizes she has found a key piece of evidence. That’s all I’m going to tell you because watching the story unfold was one of the best parts of the movie. There are so many fun threads that run through the movie: Vinny and Lisa’s challenge in finding a quiet place to sleep; the sparring between the Judge and Vinny; big city versus small southern town. As I write this, it occurs to me that the two ‘utes’ (one of whom is Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid fame) who started this whole thing are almost peripheral to Vinny’s storyline. I only saw two of the other films that were nominated with a Best Supporting actress, Howard’s End and Enchanted April, and I remember very little, except those films, and the others nominated, were very serious and somber. Perhaps that’s why Tomei’s performance stood out so much, because it wasn't overtly comical or slapstick and certainly not dour, but funny and endearing. She and Pesci had great chemistry, and her scene toward the end of the movie probably sealed the deal. There is quite a lot of swearing in the movie (don’t get me wrong, I swear all the time), but I think that’s why it got the ‘R’ instead of ‘PG-13’, but other than that, I think it’s more watchable than some of the nighttime television that we have these days. If you haven’t seen it in a while, it’s definitely worth watching again, and if you haven’t seen it at all, you should.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 12/22/12, Best Sound Editing, 1989

This is the third in the Indiana Jones series, and it starts off with a young Indiana Jones (played by River Phoenix) and Indy displays his knack for finding artifacts and trouble. The story also introduces his father, played by Sean Connery. Set during the Nazi era, but pre-World War II, Indy and his father head off on a quest for the Holy Grail under the duress of an agent of the Nazis. It has a boat chase, rats, secret codes and some comedic interplay with Connery and Harrison Ford. The movie won for Best Sound Editing going up against Black Rain and Lethal Weapon 2. It took me a long time to watch this movie because for some reason I just never got into the whole franchise and only really remember the first movie even though I know I saw the second one. I started to like the movie a lot more once Sean Connery’s character came on screen, it was a lot more fun and funny. 

Lesson learned (I think): don't try to cram in eight movies and expect to be able to write anything interesting or witty on every single one. This was the fifth or sixth movie from the holiday weekend and the tank was empty. My apologies to those seeking enlightenment. The good news, only 793 movies to go...the bad news, the 2013 Oscar season is right around the corner. 

Not Fade Away - The Buddy Holly Story

The Buddy Holly Story 12/22/12, Best Adaptation Score, 1978

Buddy Holly never won a Grammy, but the movie about his life won an Academy Award for Best Adaptation Score, beating out The Wiz and Pretty Baby. I had to look this up because the music in the film was all by Buddy Holly and the Crickets, so it wasn’t original, but apparently the arranger, Joe Renzetti, arranged the music and taught the actors/musicians to play it and they played it live while being filmed, something totally new at that time. You may not care about those details, but I needed some context. And on some level, I don’t care either; I just really loved the music. Watching the movie and hearing all those songs, songs that over the years have been covered by so many other artists, was like hearing for the first time. Gary Busey did the singing, and whatever you think about him now, he did a great job as Holly and I almost forgot it was a movie (not really, but you know what I mean). The movie follows Buddy Holly and the Crickets from around a year or so before they hit it big to the last concert that Holly ever did, in Clear Lake, Iowa in 1959. Holly seemed to be way ahead of his time in terms of producing his own music, some of his arrangements and his desire to collaborate across the color barriers of his time; he performed at The Apollo Theater in New York and toured with black musicians before the country began integration, the late 1950s (there is a funny scene in the movie where the Crickets, touring with Same Cooke and others, try to check into the same hotel as the black musicians; Sam Cooke is told that the hotel is ‘restricted’ and Holly and company can’t stay there; Cooke introduces the band as his valets, and the clerk is so impressed that he has THREE white valets, he lets them stay). Buddy Holly influenced musicians like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and others. The music is great and the movie is really good. I will be downloading some Buddy Holly songs this week. Rave on!

The Age of Aquarius

Woodstock 12/21/12, Best Documentary, 1970

Woodstock was a landmark event at a time when there were so many landmark events: Vietnam, the moon landing, assassinations of political and civic leaders and other events that made life exciting and chaotic. Woodstock was billed as three days of peace and music; the rain and 500,000 people were a bonus. The documentary shows the setup of the stage area as the concert promoters take over Max Yasgur’s farm, and interviews with people, some you may recognize and some you may not. It is a little funny watching this documentary forty years after the fact, with the benefit of hindsight and a historical framework. The editors and director used the split-screen effect, which let them put more on the screen, but I found it annoying sometimes; and the documentary showed much of the footage out of order, which really annoyed me (I’m kind of linear that way). But, once you get past that, it is really fun to see these events unfold and hear and see the music, including a very young Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and so many others. There were a lot of artists who were not included, not even in the very extended Director’s cut which was over 3 hours long, including Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead and more. The documentary gets aired every once in a while on PBS during pledge drives, and VH1 and MTV used to play it when they were piggybacking on all the nostalgia back in the 90’s. There was a documentary on Martin Luther King and one on Jack Johnson that were also nominated, and perhaps Woodstock won because it captured the spirit of the time, I’m not sure. It is worth a watch if you haven’t seen it, but probably not for the youngsters because there is a TON of drug references and usage, as well as a bit of the hippy free love experience. Sit back, watch and listen, and be glad that you are inside and warm and dry. Peace out.

Great performance, so-so movie

BUtterfield 8 12/16/12, Best Actress, 1960

Usually if it takes me this long to write something about a movie, there’s something wrong and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Elizabeth Taylor won her first Oscar for her role as Gloria Wandrous, of an inexact profession (she seems to make appearances at clubs or restaurants wearing designer clothes; I think there’s a name for that but cannot remember it right now). Whatever her real profession is, she spends a lot of time with different men, and has a slightly unsavory reputation. Laurence Harvey comes along and may be the one man who can change her path, and she his. Harvey is Weston Liggett, a bored corporate executive who drinks too much and is tired of his life with his wife and her moneyed family. Gloria is a complex person, she loves her mother and hates hurting her with her bad behavior; she loves her oldest friend, Steve (played by her then-husband, Eddie Fisher), but he seems to enable her self-destructive actions; and she longs for someone’s approval, Steve’s, her mother’s, Liggett’s? I was surprised at how impressed I was with Taylor; I thought she did a fabulous job with her portrayal. It was nuanced and subtle, and then fiery and passionate. Taylor won an Oscar for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which was an assault on the auditory nerves and painful for me to watch, so this was a totally different performance. I think the conflicting feelings came in because I just don’t know if I would recommend this movie. So, I guess I will leave it to you: if you like Elizabeth Taylor and want to see her before any of the Cleopatra or Virginia Woolf histrionics, you should see it; if you really don’t think you care, you can skip it.

A Man Called Shaft

Shaft, 12/15/12, Best Original Song, 1971

I've heard the theme song ‘The Theme from Shaft’ by Isaac Hayes, which won the Oscar for Best Original Song, many times, but have never seen the movie. Shaft is John Shaft (played by Richard Roundtree), a private detective in New York City who gets involved with some gangsters and later the Mafia. At the time the movie was released, the early 1970s, it was known as part of the ‘Blaxploitation’ genre of films; watching it forty years later, it just seemed like a gritty private eye movie. There are gun fights, fist fights, language and even a little sex. There are many instances when the race of John Shaft and the police lieutenant he spars with are raised; this was the early 70s after all, and it would be naive to ignore them. The theme song was competing with a song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks (one of my favorites) and Bless the Beasts and the Children; I think because Shaft opens the movie it really sets the scene for the action and drama, and the personality of John Shaft. Also, looking back, most people will know the song if you start singing it or doing the wah-wah effect of the guitar; I don’t think many people know of the songs from the other nominees. If you like PI movies, you will like this; I've been trying to watch Chinatown, borrowed from the library, but the disk is defective, but that’s another on the list. 

Oh, You're a Vegetable

A totally must-see documentary

Who are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? , 12/15/12, Best Documentary 1977

I watch a lot of documentaries, I figure it’s a great way to be introduced to a topic and then I can decide if I want to learn more, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I usually watch documentaries alone because they are not always the happiest or exciting (as in Avengers or Mission Impossible) movies. Also, a lot of documentaries aren't always for families/kids because the subject may be too mature or complex, but I really think anyone can watch this movie, and they should. The DeBolts are a couple who had six biological children between them and then adopted 14 kids….That’s not a typo, FOURTEEN (the 20th was adopted after the movie was completed in case you are questioning my math). And not 14 healthy kids, either. They adopted 14 kids from a variety of countries and several of them had disabilities, including paralysis, missing limbs, and blindness. You have probably stopped reading and are thinking, ooh, this is great…It is, it’s amazing. The kids are amazing and funny. There are some great moments that made me just laugh out loud. The DeBolts do not coddle their kids, they all have chores, it doesn't matter if you have no arms and legs, or use crutches. Some people, especially in this day and age of what seems to me to be over-coddling of kids, may think this is harsh and cruel. It’s not. They learn to function and cope and overcome a world that at that time (in the 1970s) was not as aware and conscious of people with disabilities. There’s a lot of laughing in this family, and it’s awesome to watch. JR, who is blind and a paraplegic, was told he would never walk (he was wheelchair bound when the DeBolts adopted him), and not to spoil it, but he learns to walk with crutches and it’s pretty cool. I think it would be great to watch this with kids to see their reaction and have one of those teachable moments. I have not seen the other documentaries from this year, but I think this was a deserving selection. Just a side note, the disk I borrowed from the library also had a 45 minute follow up documentary as well as text on what the kids were up to (as of at least the 1980s, I couldn't tell), and this one spends a lot of time on JR and his adventure in a regular Junior High (he had been going to a blind school).

Special note: If you enjoy my ramblings or insights (depending on your point of view), I wrote a book in 2006, called Oh, You’re a Vegetable about my solo trip around the world in 2006. It is now available as an eBook. Please check it out if you are so inclined. Thank you for checking out this blog. As of today there have been over 1,000 views from places like Russia, Germany, the UK and France.

Life from a teenager's perspective

The Diary of Anne Frank, 12/8/12, Best Supporting Actress, Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Black and White, Best Cinematography – Black and White 1959

I would say that while this isn't the best movie I have ever seen, the subject makes it a must see film for movie-viewers of over the ages of 12. The movie is good, don’t get me wrong. The young actress who played Anne Frank, Millie Perkins, did a great job of capturing the annoying and endearing qualities of many teenagers (I know this from first-hand experience, my own adolescence). There are times you want to reach into the screen and slap Anne upside her head, and then you realize, she’s 13, stuck in an attic with her parents and sister, another family, and the very particular Mr. Dussell, away from her friends and no way to escape from all the grown-ups, except through her diary, where she writes all her thoughts and dream and hopes; I think get surly occasionally. This movie is based on the diary of Anne Frank, a young girl from Amsterdam living during the time of the Second World War. Most people are probably familiar with the story, so this will focus on the movie. The director and set-designers do a good job of creating the claustrophobic atmosphere of the attic space where the Franks and others hid; the movie won the Oscar for Set-Decoration in a black and white film as well as in cinematography for a black and white film. Since the director had the option to use color, I am really glad he stuck with black and white; there is something atmospheric and appropriate about the gray-scale instead of a full color palette. The movie was also based on the play, and it does seem more play-like as opposed to something written totally for a film. Millie Perkins was a good choice for Anne Frank and seemed to really embody Anne. Shelley Winters won for Best Supporting Actress for playing Petronella van Daan; after watching the movie, I’m not sure how Gusti Huber didn't even get nominated for her role as Edith Frank, Anne’s mother. Shelley Winters was good, but I didn't think her performance was as pivotal or influential as Anne’s mother. Maybe by the end of watching all these movies, I will have an understanding of the voting guidelines. The fact that Anne lives on in her writing, the play and a few movie versions is a tribute to the universality of her teenage viewpoint. 

The Duke delivers

True Grit, 12/8/12, Best Actor, 1969

I wasn't all that thrilled to watch a Western; I thought, I don’t like Westerns, they’re so outdated and predictable, etc. etc. As I was going through the list of Westerns I have watched: The Magnificent Seven, Unforgiven, the remake of True Grit, and a couple more, it occurred to me that in fact, I might actually like Westerns. And, I’m not a huge John Wayne fan either (don’t hate him, just don’t watch his movies very often, intentionally, on purpose), so this was going to be an interesting couple of hours. John Wayne won for Best Actor as Rooster Cogburn, going up against Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy (this will appear in a totally separate entry) and the mellifluous Richard Burton in Anne of a Thousand Days. Seriously. AND HE WAS FREAKING FANTASTIC. This may not have been the best movie ever made, but it sure had its moments. I also thought of Wayne as pretty wooden, and he was anything but, with the way he interacted with Kim Darby as Mattie Ross and Glen Campbell as La Boeuf (pronounced La Beef) was fluid and fun and to me, believable (as much as the whole scenario was believable). It was his only Oscar in his long career and I think totally deserved. Mattie Ross’s father is killed by Tom Chaney and Mattie is of course out for revenge and wants Chaney captured and tried and eventually hung. He goes into Indian Territory and one of the best Marshalls to go get him is Rooster Cogburn, who has a little bit of a drinking problem; La Beouf is after Chaney for crimes committed in Texas. All three embark on the quest to get Chaney, although both men are reluctant to bring Mattie along, she is quite insistent and a strong personality even though she is only 14 years old. The movie follows their journey and along the way they meet some characters that Rooster has met before and some good old fashioned shootouts ensue. A few of the best scenes are where Mattie engages the adults in the film in debates about a variety of topics, including horse trading (with Strother Martin [Cool Hand Luke]) and the price of chicken dumplings with the proprietress of the hostel where she is staying. The movie has a G rating, but there are a few violent scenes, so perhaps not for the wee ones. There are some differences between this and the more recent remake by the Coen brothers, but I did like both of them. So, kids, the lesson for today – shut up and watch the movie and then decide if you don’t like it. 

Flashback, part deux

Flashback, part deux

In the spirit of the season and all that jazz, I thought I would give a recap of some of the Oscar-winning films that I grew up watching with my family. As I was going through the list of movies that I have already watched and that had some sentimental value or that might be good holiday fare, I realized the list was very heavy in musicals, so I tried to limit those to include other genres. Perhaps if the spirit moves me, I'll add to this list (or if I don't get my movies from the library in a timely fashion).

Miracle on 34^th Street, 1947 Best Supporting Actor, Best Writing Original Story, Best Writing Screenplay – I remember watching this for the first time with my dad, and that’s probably the best memory. Made when there was a Macy’s AND a Gimbel’s and in a less cynical time, it features Maureen O’Hara, a young Natalie Wood, and Oscar-winner, Edmund Gwenn as Santa Claus. People were outraged when Ted Turner colorized it, so much so, I don’t know if that version is shown at all anymore.

The Miracle Worker, 1962 Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress – Anne Bancroft won for Best Actress for her role as Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher, and Patty Duke won for Best Supporting Actress as Helen Keller. The story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan is inspiring without the dramatization; if possible, it’s even more so with the outstanding performances by Bancroft and Duke. Arthur Penn directed the movie, and it’s hard to believe he’s the same guy who directed Bonnie and Clyde. I think the first time I saw this movie was in elementary school and it made me want to learn more about Sullivan and Keller. Perhaps not your typical holiday movie, but who wants to be typical?

The Sound of Music, 1965 Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Scoring of Music, Best Editing – I grew up watching this movie, listening to the record (yes, the record and I still have the original Broadway cast recording) and saw it live onstage. It’s based on the true story of the Von Trapp family and full of beautiful scenery, fabulous songs and not terrible acting featuring the wonderful Christopher Plummer and the irreplaceable Julie Andrews. If you haven’t seen it (and I think there are people who pride themselves on that – shame on you), it’s definitely a family-friendly movie with a few fun scenes that will hold the attention of the kids (and I know, because I was one of those kids).

Fiddler on the Roof, 1971 Best Song Score Adaptation, Best Cinematography, Best Sound – Directed by Norman Jewison and starring Topol, this film has made me laugh and made me cry, and again, has a special meaning to me and my family. Even if you have not seen the whole movie, you have probably heard bits of many of the songs, and perhaps even hum them, Tradition, Sunrise, Sunset and one of my favorites to sing, Matchmaker. The story is set in 1905 Russia, a time of pogroms and uncertainty for Jews in Europe, and that complex existence is captured with humor and bittersweet sentimentality. Topol plays Tevye, the adoring father struggling to marry off his daughters and make a living in Tsarist Russia. Perhaps you could watch this during one of the eight nights of Chanukah, or any time. And don’t blame me if you start humming.

Murder on the Orient Express, 1974 Best Supporting Actress – There is nothing better than Agatha Christie, and the setting of the snowy Balkans makes it close enough to a holiday film for me, and this cast is a collection of some incredible actors, including the winner of Best Supporting Actress, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Vanessa Redgrave and Sean Connery. The story is based on the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, and it’s a twist on the locked room mystery and I think one of Christie’s best stories. Albert Finney stars as Poirot, and I like him, but David Suchet is my ideal Poirot. All of the characters have some reason to kill the victim, Ratchett, and Poirot must interview all of them, and that's where the genius lies. I have enjoyed reading and watching Christie since junior high, and I think teens who enjoy mysteries, maybe the most recent Sherlock Holmes movies, might like watching this movie.