Take 575: Watching the National Film Registry

  42nd Street : Summary and initial thoughts This is a fun one. Telling the story of a theatre production during the Great Depression, 42nd Street  at times feels like a cross between Applause  and All About Eve  (minus the melancholy and treachery, respectively). The story follows an ensemble production directed by demanding hitmaker Julian Marsh, whose hardcore dedication to his stressful career has wreaked havoc with this health. Ruined by the stock market crash, he is determined to make this show, Pretty Lady , a financial success upon which he can retire, even if he has to jeopardize his life in the process. Former vaudevillian Dorothy Brock is signed to play the lead and tasked with keeping the major backer of the show, a gullible and artless man named Abner Dillon, happy with her flirtations. This second demand becomes a problem when it is discovered that she is still liaising (and in love) with an old flame from her vaudeville days, Pat Denning. Enter fresh, ...

  Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein : Summary and initial thoughts This film gave me the strangest sense of dẻjà vu—but if I've actually seen it before, it didn't leave much of an impression. Abbott and Costello were never my favorite comedy duo (Laurel and Hardy are where it's at, trust), but they perform reasonably well as a pair of baggage clerks who become entangled with the most popular monsters in Universal's lineup: Dracula, the Wolfman, and Frankenstein's monster. Lou Costello plays Wilbur Grey, a silly baggage handler who has fallen into an inexplicable relationship with the lovely and exotic Dr. Sandra Mornay. Wilbur's friend and fellow bag-slinger Chick Young (played by Bud Abbott), can't understand Wilbur's good fortune at having attracted such a beautiful woman. We find, however, that Sandra is not attracted to Wilbur for his dubious qualities as a lover. She is interested in his brain. For the lovely Sandra is actually in cahoots with D...

  Airplane! : Summary and initial thoughts Airplane! isn't always to my taste, but damn is it funny. The story follows ex-fighter-pilot Ted Striker, who suffers from PTSD and is now afraid to fly. Still, when his girlfriend Elaine, a flight attendant, dumps him just before boarding a flight from LA to Chicago, he throws caution to the wind and goes after her. A little while into the flight, however, it is discovered by one of the passengers, a Dr. Rumack, that the food served for dinner on the plane has caused food poisoning in the crew and many of the passengers. While the airplane's built-in autopilot (a blowup doll named Otto) can get the plane safely to Chicago, he is unable to land it.  Elaine convinces Ted to face his fears and land the plane, which he manages to do. It's a relatively straightforward plot, and what makes this film stand out is the comedic interludes between the major events and the sheer hilarity of the dialogue. The film has an almost Mel-Brooks-ian...

  4 Little Girls : Summary and initial thoughts 4 Little Girls should be required viewing for every American. I don't care how old you are, what color you are, your political inclinations, or what part of the country you live in. I don't even care if you've never given the Civil Rights Movement a passing thought. You still need to watch this. Spike Lee's  4 Little Girls  follows the story of the 1963 16th Street church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed four young girls and caused over a dozen injuries. It led to the trial and conviction of Klansman Robert Chambliss, and it was a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. The bombing elicited a national reaction of shock and outrage that helped spur the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and it facilitated a shift in how white America viewed the Civil Rights Movement. Spike Lee treats these events with the gravity and dignity they deserve: he pulls no punches, leaves no stone unturned, engages with the ...

  The 7th Voyage of Sinbad : Summary and initial thoughts The 7th Voyage of Sinbad  has a lot of elements of both epic hero stories and classic fairy tales. It tells the story of Sinbad, a sailor and next in line for the Caliph of Baghdad. He is engaged to the lovely Princess Parisa, daughter of the Sultan of Chandra. For some reason, she's on his ship when he lands on Colossa, an island populated by enormous, terrifying monsters. When Sinbad and his crew arrive on Colossa, they manage to save a sorcerer, Sokurah, who is being chased by a cyclops. In the course of the rescue, Sokurah loses his magic, genie-inhabited lamp (you'd think he'd take better care to secure it, wouldn't you?), but Sinbad refuses to return to Colossa so Sokurah can retrieve it. This ship returns to Baghdad, where Sokurah, desperate to return to Colossa to retrieve his lamp, secretly shrinks Parisa down to only a few inches tall. When Sinbad and Parisa's father find her, Sokurah explains that ...

  The African Queen : Summary and initial thoughts The African Queen  is a film full of contradictions, at least for me. It's chock-a-block with action...yet it's not exactly heart-stopping. There's the (at the time) scandalous romance between Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn...but it's not the steamiest stuff (she plays a missionary, after all). The film stars actors who are widely considered America's greatest screen legends (it even won Bogart his only Academy Award)...yet I don't know that I would say this movie is the peak performance from either of them. The story follows Methodist Rose Sayer, working her missionary magic with her brother in German East Africa at the beginning (like, only a few weeks after the start) of World War I. Their supplies are brought to them via a steamboat, the  African Queen , helmed by the brusque and brutish Charlie Allnut. When Britain declares war on Germany, Charlie advises them to get out of Dodge, advice which they d...