The Shop Around the Corner

One of my all time favorite movies. I have kept it on the DVR for several weeks this time, in hopes that someone will watch it again with me!

After seeing You’ve Got Mail around 20 times, I instantly recognized the name of Kathleen Kelly’s shop as the title for this movie. I had to watch, since it stars a very young Jimmy Stewart, and who doesn’t love Jimmy Stewart? I was not disappointed!

As in You’ve Got Mail, the main character, Alfred Kralik (Stewart), has a pen pal that he writes to. He is fast to admire, then fall in love with this women he has not met. Meanwhile, it is the busy Christmas season, and the new hire that he works with at Matuschek and Company is driving him crazy. He and Miss Novak (Margaret Sullavan) cannot get along, no matter how hard they try.

In this film, there are a lot of emotions. Pepi the delivery boy makes you laugh. You feel very deeply for Mr. Matuschek and what he is going through in his personal life. It sounds silly, but your heart is warmed by Mr. Pirovitch, because he has such a deep sense of family. Then comes the romance, which still (much to my teenager's dismay) can bring a tear to my eye.

This is such a neat story to me. There are only two sets in this movie, the shop, which includes Mr. Matuschek’s office and the back room, and the coffee shop. It gives it a feel of a play, off which it is based. The usage of the dialog creates the feeling like you've seen other places and know the characters deeply.

There are several scenes that remind me of You've Got Mail, the scene at the coffee shop is so very similar, when the lady is waiting for her pen pal to come, but ends up seeing the one she can’t stand. Also, when she is sick in bed and that same gentlemen calls on her. Such a fantastic movie!

If you haven’t seen this movie, come on over, we'll pop some popcorn and turn on the DVR!

The Member of the Wedding

Frankie is a 12 year old tomboy. Her brother is getting married and young Frances (Frankie) is hoping to be able to leave town with him and his new bride when they go on their honeymoon.

At first this movie was hard to watch with all the dialogue. Then I really started feeling for this character and what she was going through. Her dad didn’t have time to listen to her. All the other girls in the neighborhood were in a club without her, and her best friend was a little boy who lived next door. When she ends up meeting her new sister to be, she is mesmerized with her. She wants to be that glamorous young woman, not the little girl that she is. Being a tomboy myself growing up, it was very easy to identify with this girl.

A lot of the dialogue in the movie is with Bernice, the family’s maid. She has been married several times but remembers what her first love felt like. She is a remarkable woman and you really get a sense of her character throughout the movie. She plays a big part in helping little Frankie grow up.

Julie Harris is the actress who plays Frankie. She was in East of Eden which I had just seen, so I went with this movie next. She is fantastic in this movie. I heard she was 26 while playing a 12 year old and I was very impressed with the way she took on a younger look, her hair was very shortly cropped and through most of the film she is dirty and not so nicely dressed.

When her brother’s marriage is over and the tantrum that she throws is over, this young girl starts growing up and we see evidence of this in the end. I highly recommend this movie, if only to women young and old. It is a gem!

East of Eden

Cain and Abel. Simba and Mufasa. Stories of jealous brothers, sons wanting a blessing from their fathers; that is what East of Eden is all about. I wanted to see James Dean in his first big movie roll. I was rather let down. I was not impressed with his acting at all.

The film was really dark and moody. In the very beginning we see Cal, Dean’s character, following an older woman to the bank and then to her home. Strange way to start a movie. However, we learn later that it is his mother, who is now a madam a couple of towns away. He and his brother have been told by their father that she passed away when they were young.

His father loves Aron, his brother, more than him. His brother is an outgoing guy that has a wonderful girlfriend. Cal, on the other hand, tends to get into trouble, comes home early in the mornings, and is always preached to by his father. Cal thinks that he must have the evil of his mother in him.



Cal and Aron’s father loses most of his fortune in a business venture and Cal really wants to make it up to his Dad. He goes into business in beans, after getting a loan from his mother. He ends up making a small fortune and tries to give it to his father for his birthday and his father will not accept it. At the same time, Aron announces his engagement to Abra, (Julie Harris, who is fabulous in the movie). This leads to a whole host of tragic episodes for everyone involved.

The story is a great story, but I just could not get past James Dean acting. I will be looking at his later movies, so that I can see how he progressed in his acting.

Latin Lovers

$37 Million

That’s what Nora Taylor has inherited from her father. Wanting to be independent and free, she also wants to find someone who loves her for who she is, not the money she has.

The movie is Latin Lovers. The stars are Lana Turner and Ricardo Mantalban. I have to admit to never seeing a Lana Turner movie before; I watched it to see a young Mantalban. I always enjoyed his accent in Fantasy Island and thought he was an amazing antagonist in The Wrath of Khan. I was impressed!

Ricardo Mantalban played the Latin lover that swayed Ms. Taylor’s heart in Brazil. She has followed her current fiancé to Brazil to watch him play polo. The first part of the movie is rather entertaining, because both Nora and her fiancé, Paul Chevron, (who has $48 million of his own), see psychoanalysts to see what they should each think of their relationship and impending engagement. The advice given to Paul is the exact opposite of the advice that Nora is supposed to act upon. She follows him to Brazil to try to continue to woo him.

Now they are in Brazil and Paul is still acting against his own personality towards Nora. She is confused and would like a man who comes right out and says what he wants. She finds that man when she and Paul go to look at buying some horses. Roberto(Montalban), the owner of the horses sees her as he is showing a horse, and plants a kiss on her when she goes to the stables after him. I would think that would have been a shocking scene in 1953 when this movie was released. It is also very romantic!

The rest of the movie is all about Nora making Paul understand she is in love and will marry Roberto. In turn, she has to figure out if Roberto loves her for her money or for who she is.

This movie was especially romantic and beautiful. If you like tall, dark men, this would be for you! Hearing Roberto sing ‘More Amore’ to Nora, while she is hiding in the shadows watching him, and seeing how he relaxes her to dance the samba with him is such a pleasure! His high-waist pants and matching jacket actually make his arms look much larger. The pale blue suit he wears during that scene shows off the dark hair and tanned features.

Getting to her wardrobe – amazing! In every scene she has a different dress and the majority of them have matching handbags. So very classy, it makes me wonder why women don’t dress like that anymore. From the dance scene previously mentioned, when she is wearing a dress with a black bodice and a full blue tulle skirt, to the elegant white lace dinner dresses she wears with a matching white lace jacket, her whole closet is a paradise of silk, lace, taffeta and tulle. I especially like the white dresses that have black on them in one way or another. Very simple, yet elegant. Also, I think her wardrobe plays an important part when considering the feelings she is going through. In the first few scenes, she is in outfits that are lifeless in color. As she feels more free to be who she is, we see her in more glamorous and colorful outfits.

I was not surprised to see that she ends up with the dark, handsomely built Brazilian. I was intrigued, however, to see what her plans were on seeing if he was all about her money or not. This movie is 57 years old and is still worth seeing!

I don’t want to leave out the part about Brazilian culture and how Roberto lived with his grandfather. That was a nice treat in the movie, to listen to an older voice talk of love!