9/13/08---Classic movies always make for great fun

So a couple of weekends ago, I got ahold of a couple of classic movies and got a chance to watch a few.  It was a classic movie-fest, with a slight lean towards film noir.
Here we go with a few reviews:

1) The Third Man:  Late 40's classic with Joseph Cotten & Orson Welles playing the title character working their way through post WWII Vienna.  Its all very stylishly shot, and as you watch it, you almost feel as though you're getting a lesson in film making--which isn't the same as saying you're watching a movie that you enjoy.  I don't know, I just never really connected with it.  Great acting, film making and setting....and yet it felt very cold to me.  ***1/4
2) The Public Enemy:  Early 30's James Cagney gangster classic, and I have to say, that some 70 years later, there are a few scenes that still are a little shocking.  Cagney plays the neighborhood boy who chooses the wrong path in life, much to the chagrin of his mother and war rattled brother.  Classic movie scene where Cagney pushes a grapefruit into the face of moll Mae Clarke!  Big fun here although at times it gets a little preachy.
****
3) Night & the City:  I had heard about this film for years and stumbled upon it.  Richard Widmark, one of the great underrated actors of alltime, plays an american living in London with his wife who essentially exists by conning his way through life.  A total hustler.  One night at the local wrestling matches, he stumbles upon what he feels is his "sure thing" in the form of Stanislaus Zybysko (in real-life a former pro wrestling champion and well known "shooter"--meaning he was real).  Zybysko is training a protege and Widmark works to find his way into the shark infested waters of promoting professional wrestling.  Widmark is terrific here.  ****
4) Crossfire:  Awesome cast!  Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan & a pre-Marcus Welby MD Robert Young makes this probably the greatest "Robert" cast of alltime.
Sort of heady stuff for the late 40's, as Young is investigating a murder with racist overtones.  Mitchum & Ryan play a couple of soldiers who may or may not know a lot more than their letting on.  Again, a little preachy, but it doesn't get in the way of a good story and some terrific acting.  ****

Later,
Jeff