It's a Wonderful Movie, still

This week the dvd selections were all good and diverse and all in glorious black and white. First up I watched SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING(1960) with Albert Finney and Rachel Roberts. It was Finney's first big role and what a blast off for his career (see also Tom Jones, Two for the Road and Scrooge from 1970). He plays an angry young man who works hard all week long in the factory, then blows it all off on the weekend with his two girlfriends (one an older married woman) and lots of booze. At times it was a bit grim, but the actors keep it real, and even though some of the plot seemed predictable, it was very watchable.
Every year I watch at least two or three Hitchcock films, and this week was YOUNG AND INNOCENT(1937) which I hadn't seen for over 20 years. It has the typical Hitchcock theme where a young man is accused of a murder he didn't commit, then must elude police while trying to figure out who really did do the murder. He is assisted by the pretty young daughter of the police chief, who falls in love with him. The mood is light and humorous and the film is entertaining (if forgettable), but there are a couple of very interesting scenes. One works like an action film when a car is falling down a crevasse in an abandoned mine and the three people in it are trying to save themselves and each other. The other is a long dolly crane shot that lasts nearly 2 minutes, as the camera starts high, then swoops down through the crowd of dancers in a hotel ballroom to finally move into a closeup of the killer's face and eyes--a remarkable shot for its time. YOUNG AND INNOCENT has been reconstructed and cleaned up in a beautiful, newly struck print that looks pristine in the new (last year) collection called "Alfred Hitchcock--Premiere Collection" which features newly struck prints of The Lodger, Sabotage, The Paradine Case, Rebecca, Lifeboat, Spellbound and Notorious--all looking like they just came out of the can the year they were first shown in theatres. Well worth looking at.
To kick off the holiday season, movie wise, I watched IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE(1946) with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, which I hadn't seen for at least six years when I made my then 14 year old niece watch it when I was baby-sitting her siblings one night before Christmas. She was a bit annoyed with the first scenes, but ended up really liking it. This film, I think, gets better with age. It still has that annoying first five minutes of corn where it looks like two twinkling stars (representing angels) talk to each other--enough to put off anyone--but once the story kicks in, there's enough cynical, sarcastic realism to combat the sentimentality of the piece. And Jimmy Stewart is incredible. In no other film does he scream, cry, swoon, woo, and despair so effectively. The rest of the cast is equally memorable. If you haven't seen it in a while, you'll be amazed at how dense the plot and characterizations are, and if you've never seen it, what a treat you have in store for you. One of my favorite scenes ever--Stewart and Reed are both cheek to cheek on the same phone call from a mutual obnoxious friend, and in spite of their anger and annoyance with each other, the attraction is there. Stewart drops the phone and screams that he is never getting married, he's not staying in Bedford Falls, he's quitting the Savings and Loan, you can't make him, and all the while he's shaking Reed violently, and then they tussle and kiss and hug---- violently..... It's still the BEST CHRISTMAS themed film, ever.