Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause

Warner Bros.

October 29, 1955

Drama

DVD
C-

I've watched this once before but I just can't get into it.  The best part is the sympathetic cop played by Edward Platt, and that feels wrong somehow.  Nicholas Ray directed and co-wrote.

Pat and Mike

Pat and Mike

MGM

June 13, 1952

Sports Comedy

DVD
C-

Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin wrote this Hepburn & Tracy vehicle where Spencer barely shows up in the first quarter hour, but it was of course nice to see Jim Backus.  George Cukor directed.

Critic's Choice

Critic's Choice
Warner Bros.
April 13, 1963
Comedy
DVD
C+

Although I don't remember this movie specifically, I did spend a good chunk of the second decade of my life watching movies like this on television, many of them with Hope and/or Ball, and today I found it unfunny yet fascinating.  There's tremendous cognitive dissonance between what the movie thinks it's showing onscreen and what we're actually seeing.  For instance, when his twelvish son gives his opinion on why she hasn't gotten pregnant yet, I wanted him to say, "Because you're 59 and she's 51."  (If you're curious, Jessie Royce Landis was technically old enough at 66 to be Lucy's mother, although she doesn't look it.)

Bob is a theater critic and Lucy is an aspiring playwright, and we're meant to pity him for her neglecting him, and possibly having an affair, even though he flirts with his ex-wife and puts down both women at every opportunity.  The subtext does rise to the surface at times, as when Lucy calls Bob a "male chauvinist"!  And the performances aren't bad, especially Rickey Kelman's as the son/stepson, adding nuance to what could've just been a precocious-brat role.  So, yeah, recommended, even though I heard only one marginally funny line (Bob's about a compact car and a big head).

Don Weis directed this about a year before Pajama Party, a movie where subtext just overthrows text and, yes, parties all night.