Trouble Along the Way (1953)



“Look this is a musical comedy college. No one could save it but Rogers and Hammerstein.”

            Trouble Along the Way is not your typical John Wayne film. There is not a horse or a cowboy or a desert in sight. Here Wayne is a regular guy named Steve Williams who struggles to make his way in the world. Steve is a single father who is not bringing up his daughter Carol in the best way but they love each other and he takes great care of her. His ex- wife Anne is out to make Steve miserable by trying to gain custody of Carol when she does not even care for the child at all. Anne walked out on Steve without a care in the world. Steve used to be a football coach now he makes his living gambling.

            A Catholic college named St. Anthony’s is about to be closed for good. The Father Rector Matthew Burke runs the school. There is no money coming into the school because Father Burke does not take tuition from most of his students. In order for the school to stay opened it needs $170, 000. He comes up with the idea to make their football team into a great football team to draw crowds. Steve’s name is suggested and eventually the former coach has another job.

            Steve pulls out all the stops getting new equipment and turning in favors and even a bribe or two. Some of the “freshmen” in the college are not exactly young boys as Steve has recruited some of the best players he can think of who want to play and also want an education. The first game of the season is played at the Polo Grounds. Father Burke through the Cardinal (who was a former student of Father Burke’s) schedules the college to play all the top Catholic universities. St. Anthony’s finally wins a football game.

            Unfortunately things do not go well for Steve and Carol as well as the school. The ending is not a typical classic movie ending all happy and resolved with Steve and Carol but the school does get saved and Father Burke steps down as head of the school.

            The cast was very good. I really liked seeing John Wayne outside of his usual Western films. I do not think he was a good actor but I did not find him too bad. I liked seeing him in a modern setting in modern clothes, I actually found him to be a bit handsome. He had some very funny lines which he delivered well. Before this film I had never seen Donna Reed in a film. I liked her she was good in this film. To me she looked so much like Paulette Goddard it got distracting at times. Sherry Jackson who played Carol was excellent. I love it when little kids are feisty and speak their minds. The actors who played Anne and her new rich husband were perfect in their parts. The characters are so evil and nasty they are truly annoying (I always say if an actor or actress creates a very hateful character they are doing a great job at making you not like them which is the point).

            Michael Curtiz directed Trouble Along the Way and Max Steiner created the score.

            Trouble Along the Way is a cute film. It is not one of John Wayne’s well known films most likely because he is not playing a cowboy out in the Old West. I really do not see any problem with this film. The pacing, story, screenwriting, acting, and directing were all very well done. I suggest seeing Trouble Along the Way if you can find it.

Animal House



“We have an old saying in Delta House: don't get mad, get even.”

            Before I transferred to a four year college from community college (Yes, the show pretty much hits the nail on the head about being at a community college except for the fact that it does not suck) I always thought that every frat party and house would look like the one in Animal House. I quickly realized that not all frats are like the Deltas in the movie but I did manage to be friends with a guy who in all seriousness was in a frat like the Deltas even down to their decrepit house and all the beer bottles and cans everywhere and pulled off a stunt similar to the one in the ending. All they were missing was D-Day on the motorcycle and an awesome basement (their “basement” was all tunnels since it was part of the Underground Railroad).

            Animal House is about the Delta fraternity and their insane members. The house is a disaster that looks like it should be condemned. Otter is the head of the frat and a complete smooth talker and womanizer. Boon is second in command and Otter’s friend. He has a girlfriend but also likes to have a good time drinking and going to parties like the rest of the frat. Bluto Blutarsky can barely pass for a student he is just enrolled in classes so he can be part of the frat.

            The dean of the college, Dean Wormer, wants the Deltas kicked off campus for good. He enlists the help of the Omegas and some ROTC members. The Omegas are preppy smart, good looking snots and are not well liked by too many on campus. They hate the Deltas as well.

            There are so many hilarious, outrageous moments in this movie it is hard just to choose one scene to say I liked the best and even if I could it would not be even remotely funny…. Alright maybe I will just say what my favorite part is…. Bluto, D-Day, and Flounder steal a horse from the head of the ROTC Neidermeyer. They bring the horse into Dean Wormer’s office where Flounder is told by the other two that he has to kill the horse. Flounder does not want to kill the horse so he fires the gun to the ceiling and the horse drops dead! D-Day and Bluto run in saying there were blanks in the gun the horse was not supposed to die it must have had a heart attack!..... See ridiculous amazing humor and this is just one of the dozens of crazy scenes in the movie.

            The cast is really great. John Belushi was the only well known actor out the cast at the time and he had never made a movie before this he was just really well known from Saturday Night Live. I found him more hilarious when he did not say anything his actions and facial expressions were enough to make me laugh. Tim Matheson plays Otter. As far as college frat movies go Matheson as Otter is the quintessential smooth talker and ladies man. Otter was not even slimy he was just charming. All the other frat guys including the ones from Omega were excellent. Karen Allen plays Katy, Boon’s girl friend. I had no idea she was even in the movie when I first saw it so I was happy to see her in something besides Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the extras for Raiders Steven Spielberg said he saw Allen in Animal House and wanted her to be Marion Ravenwood. I think I cracked up seeing Bruce McGill as D-Day the most. I am so used to seeing him as this fat old detective on Rizzoli and Isles and just seeing him on other TV shows throughout the years. a younger Donald Sutherland shows up for two scenes as one of the profesorrs who shares with Katy, Boon, and new frat member Pinto some weed over at his place.

            John Landis who besides this movie is most famous for directing Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and An American Werewolf in England. The story is based off stories written by Chris Miller in the National Lampoon Magazine. The screenplay was written by Miller along with Douglas Kennedy and Harold “Egon Spangler” Ramis and some of their experiences along with Miller’s were added to the movie.

            Animal House is the perfect college movie. From start to finish it is just hilarious because it never for one moment takes itself seriously. The ending is probably one of the best endings ever it is so fitting to all the characters in the Delta house. All the college/fraternity- themed films that have been made after Animal House or in its likeness cannot even hold a candle to this original and still incredibly entertaining movie. The reason Animal House has most likely stood the test of time is because new generations of college kids find it and relate to all the insanity and know at least someone like one of the characters. Some things may have changed from the 1960s setting of the movie but boys will be boys and their craziness has not changed at all.

Drop Dead Fred



“Do you remember when I was little, I had a friend, he was make-believe?”

            I am sure that you reading this post had an imaginary friend when you were little. I am sure that right now you are thinking back to your childhood back when you and your “friend” had great times wreaking havoc on your mom and siblings or enjoying tea time and playing pretend. Drop Dead Fred brings back all those memories you may want to keep hidden and never tell anyone that you had an imaginary friend.

            Phoebe Cates plays Lizzie. When Lizzie was younger she an imaginary friend named Drop Dead Fred. Together the two friends made life a living hell for her mother who wanted Lizzie to be the perfect child. Fred “made” her do all kinds of insane things like pretending to rob the house in the middle of the night and making actual mud pies on the dining room table. After the mud pie incident Lizzie’s mom had enough. She takes the jack-in-the-box where Fred apparently lives and tapes the box up ending Lizzie’s friendship with her troublesome imaginary friend.

            Twenty-one years later Lizzie is all grown up and married. Unfortunately her husband is a cheat and her life is just not going the way she wanted. One night she goes back to her old house with her mother. She goes to her room where all her toys are and finds the jack-in-the-box where Fred had lived. She puts the toy on the windowsill when all the sudden the handle on the box starts to turn cranking out the jingle. Next thing standing above Lizzie is her long lost friend Drop Dead Fred!

            Before the next day even begins Fred is wreaking havoc on Lizzie’s life. Everyone begins to think she is going crazy and needing some serious help.

            Cates played Lizzie very well. She was very good as a naïve young woman who was having a hard time in her life and Fred helped her to be a stronger adult and helped her not to be pushed around anymore. Rik Mayall was a boundless amount of energy as Fred I got tired just watching him after a while. Carrie Fischer shows up in the movie as a friend of Lizzie’s.

            Drop Dead Fred to me was all about being a kid and how your inner child just never leaves you it is always there buried deep and comes out when things get rough. I am not ashamed to say when I get stressed out all I want to do is hug my stuffed animal and never let it go like my life depended on it just as if I was a little kid again. Drop Dead Fred is a good movie, it is not one of my favorites but if you have a good sense of humor and need reminding of how you miss your childhood when times when simpler you will most likely enjoy the movie.

Four Faces West (1948)



I am not a big fan of westerns. I can never get into stories about dirty cowboys running around and shooting each other and robbing God knows what then being wanted by the law. Now I know all Westerns are not like that but the ones that I have seen were and they bored me to death. I did have to make an exception with Four Faces West. I adore Frances Dee I will sit through any film I can find her in and Joel McCrea is an actor I am currently becoming a fan of.

            The plot of Four Faces West is not bad at all. McCrea plays a cowboy named Ross McEwin. He robs a bank right under the new sheriff Pat Garret’s nose. Ross only takes two thousand dollars and insists that it is a loan. There is a price on Ross’s head set by the robbed banker. All the local men and men in the surrounding areas are on the prowl for the runaway cowboy.

            When Ross goes to hide his saddle he gets bitten by a rattlesnake. At that moment he sees a train coming as well as Garret and some locals. Ross jumps on the passing train just in time. On the train he meets a nurse named Fay Hollister (Frances Dee) who treats his snake bite. Almost right away there is an attraction between the cowboy and the nurse.

            A Mexican man named Monty also happens to be on the train. He has seen policemen on the train telling the passengers to be on the lookout for a thief who has robbed a bank. Monty knows right away that Ross is that thief. He plays it cool by getting close to Ross and not letting him out of his site.

            As the film progresses Ross and Fay fall in love, he even goes so far as to give her a ring and Monty becomes a close friend instead of an opportunist. Now Ross is furiously on the run as he heads for Mexico.

            Along the way Ross redeems himself by helping a family in need and eventually turns himself in so he could be with Fay and not face death (he had to be redeemed this is when Hollywood had its code and no bad deed could go unpunished).

            One piece of trivia you will more than likely read if you ever look up Four Faces West is that there is not one shot fired or one punch thrown. It is a tame, non-traditional Western. What I really like is that Ross is not a bad guy. On the train he writes a note to his father who will be receiving the money. He stole the money for his father for some good reason and he fully intends to pay the bank back. Another difference I really liked was Fay was not the typical western damsel in distress. She was more than willing to follow Ross into any danger because she loved him and wanted to be with him no matter what happened.

            Another piece of trivia you will also read is Joel McCrea and Frances Dee were married in real life. They were married for fifty-seven years when McCrea died in the nineties. They made four films together the first one being Silver Cord in 1933 where they first met. Dee and McCrea had wonderful chemistry and it clearly shows throughout the film in their scenes. They were not over the top with showing affection we just know Fay and Ross are in love. There is an unspoken and unseen attraction which works perfectly.

            Four Faces West is a very good Western. It is not outrageously enjoyable to sit through but it has a good story. We want Ross to get away since we know he is not really a bad guy. The performances are excellent by the four principle actors which alone are worth sitting through the film for. Watch Four Faces West if you would like to see a different kind of Western.

Broadway Bill (1934)



“He has come to rescue the princess from the dark tower!”

            Broadway Bill is not a story about a man making it big on Broadway and winning the girl at the end. The film is actually about a horse named Broadway Bill and his owner breaking away from high society and winning a race no one ever thought the horse would win.

            Dan Brooks (Warner Baxter) is married to Margaret Higgins whose family the town they live in is named after. Dan works for his wife’s father J.L. Higgins at a cardboard box factory. He does not want the life he is living anymore he wants to be free and be with his horse. Margaret’s younger sister Alice (Myrna Loy) shares the same free spirit as Dan as well as love for his horse Broadway Bill. Over dinner one night Dan tells his family he is running away to enter Bill in the Imperial Derby. Alice applauds Dan while everyone just sits in silence she is so happy that one of them is breaking away. She really loves him they have so much in common while Margaret does not understand Dan and his need to get away. All the wealth in the world does not matter to him, he is not happy with his life. He wants to return to the racetrack where he used to hang around before he married Margaret. His dream is to breed and raise horses.

            Almost as soon as Dan gets into town where the derby is he is already in a bit of trouble. He does not have enough money to enter the race or keep Bill in a farm and pay the owner for feed. What’s more Bill is not doing well he is restless and lonely. Dan and his friend Whitey mail home a letter for Margaret to send a rooster that is Bill’s friend. Margaret tells Alice about the letter. Alice is all excited about the rooster who she named Skeeter and personally takes the bird to Dan and Bill. She can tell the men and the horse are in some financial trouble. She brings along some of her own money but as time goes on she pawns some of her jewelry and her fur coat.

            Things are going smoothly for Dan, Alice, Whitey, and Bill until a rainstorm comes. The roof leaks and drenches Bill and everyone in the barn. The next day Bill gets sick and even worse gets taken away by the police who were called by the barn owner for Dan not paying him for the feed. Luck seems to be on Dan’s side: a nurse at a hospital who bets on the races decides to bet on Bill who is a hundred to one shot. She tells a patient of hers who just happens to be very wealthy who she is betting on and he bets on the horse as well. The word spreads all over and soon hundreds of people are betting on Bill. This news gets back to the bookies and Bill becomes a new favorite to win. News that Dan has been put in jail and Bill is being held by the police also gets back to the bookies. The head of the booking department gets Dan out of jail and Bill out of police custody.

            Needless to say you know who wins the race. But the ending has a twist. Also you can probably guess that Dan and Margaret divorce and he and Alice wind up together. They drive away into the night with  Broadway Bill and a new horse named Princess.

            The story was very predictable. If you have seen those against the odds films you have seen them all. Broadway Bill was directed by Frank Capra if you have seen any of his films often times they deal with the rejection of wealth or norms and overcoming obstacles for the sake of happiness. I enjoyed the film to some degree. I found myself a bit bored with it after some time but I liked it. The cast was very good all around. I do not believe I have ever seen Warner Baxter in a film before. Baxter was good he was not over the top or annoying in any way (he kind of reminded me of William Powell a bit in some scenes). One scene I liked with Baxter was when Dan was sitting in a restaurant with his friend. Neither man can pay for the meal and realize they have to leave. To get out of paying Dan calls over a waiter who has plates in his hand. Dan flips the plates out of the waiter’s hands and he and his friend walk out making it look like the waiter was clumsy so they do not have to pay. The only problem with Baxter, according to Capra in his autobiography, was that he was deathly afraid of horses and would not go near Bill too much. This fact you can clearly see throughout the film whenever the horse and actor were together there was no warmth between owner and horse when there was supposed to be tons. Myrna Loy was lovely. She played Alice just before she played her most famous role Nora Charles. You can see the beginning of her feistiness, take-no-crap attitude, and independence that she would recreate fabulously in many of her films. Baxter and Loy had very good chemistry (but as I often say with Myrna Loy and any actor she worked with… who didn’t she have good chemistry with?). Their chemistry can be clearly seen by how much Alice cares for Dan and he cares for her. Dan lovingly calls Alice “Princess” and the two of them kid that her father is the “emperor.”

            Little casting tidbit: look out for an uncredited Lucille Ball as a telephone operator. Also keep an eye out for Margaret Hamilton a.k.a The Wicked Witch of the West as the owner of a boarding house.

            Broadway Bill is a very cute film although it is a bit predictable. On the movie poster it says “The Comedy Successor to It Happened One Night!”. Please, if you ever sit down to watch Broadway Bill do not go into thinking it will be as good or as funny as It Happened One Night because it is in no way like its predecessor. The film was most likely billed that way because it was a Frank Capra directorial. This is not one of Capra’s best films but it is cute and heartwarming with some very good laughs along the way. Catch Broadway Bill if it is ever on TV or watch it now on YouTube while it is available on the site.

Morning Glory (1933)



“Youth has its hour of glory... but too often it's only a morning glory, the flower that fades before the sun is very high.”

            Morning Glory tells the story about a young, aspiring actress named Eva Lovelace (Katharine Hepburn). She does not have a lot of experience on stage; she only played in some small parts in her local theater in her hometown of Vermont. Eva has traveled to New York like all aspiring young actresses do to try to gain a job on Broadway. She goes to the office of Lewis Easton (Adolph Menjou) who is a theatrical agent looking to cast a new show. Eva waits and waits but is never seen. While waiting she meets a veteran actor named Bob Hedges. She asks Bob if she could be his student and he agrees.

            A few months go by and Bob sees Eva in the window of a coffee shop sitting by herself. Eva has not had any jobs in the past few months but she does not let Bob know that she lies and tells him she has had a few parts here and there. She has been getting by by doing small stock theater and fashion shows.

            Bob takes Eva with him to a party where there will be theater people. At the party there is an important theater critic and an author and a young playwright named Joseph Sheridan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). Joseph saw Eva in Easton’s office. He takes a great liking to her. Many of the men in the room want to help Eva’s career. After she does two Shakespeare soliloquies everyone sees she has genuine talent.

            The night of the show the lead actress backs out; in her vanity she asked for more money but when she does not get it she walks out. Joseph runs to get Eva who is the main understudy. Easton has some qualms about Eva playing the role when she has not even rehearsed on the stage even though she knows all the lines.

            Eva winds up stealing the show. Easton wants to sign her to the show for as long as it runs. Eva has gotten everything she has ever dreamed about.

            The ending of the film is not that great it just kind of ends and Katharine Hepburn overacts.

            Katharine Hepburn earned her first Oscar for Morning Glory and it was only her third film of her career. She deserved it she was so good. Eva was the aspiring actress with stars in her eyes. She had a dream to be a great actress and she knew what she wanted and eventually her dream came true. I sometimes find Hepburn to be annoying in some of her roles she has a tendency to overact but for the most part in this film she was perfect. She played Eva with the perfect amount of nervous confidence and ambition. The first scene we see Eva she is looking at the portraits of Sarah Bernhardt, Ethel Barrymore, and John Drew. I could not help but think that if I were to see three portraits of the greatest film actresses hanging in a theater I would want to see Hepburn along with Garbo and Mary Pickford. I would want to look up to them like Hepburn looked up to the theatrical greats. She had such a look of great admiration on her face.

            C. Aubrey Smith played Bob Hedges. I liked him as the older character mentoring and being nice to a young aspiring actress. Adolph Menjou and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. were very good in their parts as well. I liked how all three of the men wanted to help to Eva with her stage career and were not fresh (well that is how I saw it anyway).

            Morning Glory is a good early Katharine Hepburn film. The story is alright but the acting by the three principle cast members is really good. Morning Glory is available on DVD in a pack of the actress. I happened to catch the film when TCM aired it. If the film is ever on TV or you can find it online give it a try.  I found it interesting to see a young Katharine Hepburn (she was twenty-six years old).  

Get Him to the Greek



“When the world slips you a Jeffrey, stroke the furry wall.”

            Let me just start off by saying I had no desire to ever sit through Get Him to the Greek. First of all there was no actor/actress in it that would make me want to sit through it and second from the trailer it looked like it was too much of a dude movie for me.  But alas I sat through it when my brother was flipping through the channels and found the movie on HBO. My brother is obsessed with Get Him to the Greek I remember when he saw this in theaters he came home laughing just thinking about it. When it came out on Blu Ray he went to just about every store looking for it.

            The movie is based off the character of Aldous Snow as first seen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. If you have not seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall Aldous Snow was the rock star Sarah Marshall dates. The character was brought into Get Him to the Greek. Aldous is not the rock star he was after the release of his album African Child bombed horribly. His life has been a mess since then he relapsed back to drugs and alcohol after he was clean for seven years and broke up with his long time girlfriend singer Jackie Q.

            Aaron Green works for a record company and is a huge fan of Aldous Snow and his band Infant Sorrow. He suggests to his boss Sergio during a meeting that they should try to get Aldous Snow and Infant Sorrow to do a ten year anniversary concert of when they performed at the Greek Theater. Sergio likes the idea, books the theater, and gets Aldous to do the show. He places Aaron in charge of bringing Aldous to L.A.

            Aaron bringing Aldous to L.A. should not be a big deal all he has to do is just escort Aldous around, get him on the plane from London to New York City for a performance on the Today Show then after the performance they have to fly to L.A. for the concert. That does not sound so hard does it? Well for Aaron he learns that traveling with Aldous is seriously a non-stop party that continues heavily 24/7.

            All I can say about the middle of the movie is OH MY GOD!!!! Seriously I do not even know how many times I said “oh my God” and palmed my forehead. I do not even want to write one thing that happened because you really just have to see all the shenanigans for yourself.

            Every one the actors were really good. Russell Brand is a weird combination of smooth and psychotic and just perfect with his comedy.  Jonah Hill to me is not that great I cannot stand looking at him he just annoys me. I tolerated him because he was the main character besides Brand. Rose Byrne as Jackie Q was great the more I see of her the more amazed I am at how good she is at comedy. She and Brand looked good together. Diddy played Sergio and he was the funniest most outrageous character of the whole movie. He was insane and I mean that literally. There are so many actors and actresses that when you see you will know who they and either start laughing or go “I will never look at them the same way again.”

            There is a soundtrack. The songs are really funny. I found Rose Byrne’s song “Ring ‘Round” the funniest just because I could not see her being so dirty. “The Clap” is another funny song.

            I will not say Get Him to the Greek is one of the funniest movie ever made but that is my opinion. I am sure if you ask any male they will say they loved it and it is one of their favorite movies ever. Check out Get Him to the Greek if you can stand very crude and very silly humor.