To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird
Released Date: March 16, 1963
Director: Robert Mulligan
Actors: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy, Ruth White, Brock Peters, Estelle Evans, Paul Fix, Collin Wilcox Paxton, James Anderson, Alice Ghostley, Mary Badham, Philip Alford, and Robert Duvall

     If you don't know what this movie is about, if you haven't read the book.... Well then I can't help you.

     I'm just kitten, although I am serious, you should know this book/movie by now. If you can read online and you can work a computer, then you must be old enough to have gone to school which also means that this book has been assigned to you by this point in time.

     This movie is about a man, Atticus, whom his kids call even. He is a man to look up to, a man that most men would love to become, if they are man enough at all. He is a lawyer. And has taken on a case that is most inspiring. The reason why this story is so amazing. The story is told by a woman, his daughter later in life. Her name is Scout, and she is proud of her dad. His case is set around the depression era, and is also set in the South. Atticus is to defend an African American man, against an insane white woman who claims he raped her. The most amazing part in the movie, is after the trial, when Atticus starts to walk out the courtroom, all the African american people stand up in honor of him. It truly is amazing, and will have you all choked up.

     To Kill A Mockingbird is terrific, and a must see movie. Also a must read too. You have to watch this movie to appreciate, not only Atticus Finch, but also Gregory Peck. :)

Rebecca

Rebecca 
Released Date: April 12, 1940
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Actors: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, and Nigel Bruce

     This was the first movie that Alfred Hitchcock made in Hollywood. It is also said that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make this movie way before he did, but due to the price of the rights, he could not afford to do the picture. This film did get him a Best Picture Oscar that year, which is rather exciting. Due to the fact that in my honest opinion, Hitchcock is the best director ever, and he deserved many more awards than that. But for Rebecca, that is rather exciting. You will also notice, which bothered me for a really long time, the main woman in this film has no first name. Laurence Olivier wanted his wife, Vivien Leigh to play the main woman in the movie, but Joan Fontaine ended up winning the title role, and Laurence was said to have been rather rude to Miss Fontaine because of that. but even Anne Baxter was tested for the role as the title woman too. But Alfred Hitchcock ended up using her later in a movie called I Confess. 


     This movie is based, at first in Monte Carlo. Where a woman is another woman's companion. The companion is young and rather naive, which you catch on rather early in the picture. The companion meets a wealthy man, who she later finds out is a widower. And ends up having a fling. The companion ends up telling the woman she works for, that she is engaged. The employer is outraged, but gives her, her good lucks and then goodbyes. The companion, after marrying becomes, Mrs. De Winter. She moves in with him, into his very rich/wealthy mansion, Manderly. When Mrs. De Winter becomes scared that her husband is still attached to his first wife (Rebecca), she becomes desperate to be more beautiful. The entire film she is plain, and ordinary, and not at all what his servants were expecting when they first arrived. When a party they throw becomes into play, the dress Mrs. De Winter wears makes her husband angry, and after a whirlwind of facts come to light, they are forced to find out even more than, not even Rebecca's best friend knew.

The Little Foxes

The Little Foxes
Released Date: December 1, 1941
Director: William Wyler
Actors: Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Dan Duryea, and Patricia Collinge

       I have a lot of respect for this movie. Bette Davis was brilliant, Teresa Wright's first movie yet she did an amazing job as if a pro for many years, and Patricia Collinge is in this too. I love this movie. This was Teresa Wright's first movie, and also her first Oscar nomination. This was also a stage play first, and then movie second. Tallulah Bankhead played Bette Davis' character in the stage play version. Bette Davis and miss Bankhead were often compared. The actor Herbert Marshall had only one leg while playing in this movie. He is in a wheelchair the entire time, but was suppose to walk up the stairs at one point during the movie. They had to use a stunt double for that. Bette Davis was said to have fought a lot with the director. Bette Davis was a star, a true star (as said in All About Eve, Bette Davis' character was said to have been one).

     This movie is about a wealthy family, living in a southern state after the civil war. The mom/wife Regina Giddens (Bette Davis) is out to get more money, so she thinks up a plan and has her daughter fetch her sick husband. He refuses to just give her money, so she comes up with an easier plan to get that money. Her daughter, played by Teresa Wright is suppose to marry her cousin, but is obviously in love with another man, who she is not related too, but her mom wants the money to stay in the family. Will Alexandra (Wright) fall for her mother's antics, or will she follow her heart?

Teresa Wright

Teresa Wright
Actress, Theater and Movie
Born: As Muriel Teresa Wright, October 27, 1918 in Manhattan, New York City, New York.
Died: March 6, 2005 in New Haven, Connecticut

     Known for such movies as The Little Foxes, her first movie, along side Bette Davis and Patricia Collinge. Mrs. Miniver, which was a huge success. The Pride of The Yankees, this film is about the legend Lou Gehrig. And then Shadow Of A Doubt. Her Alfred  Hitchcock movie which was another film she did with Patricia Collinge. She was also in The Best Years of Our Lives, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Murder, She Wrote, and her last film, The Rainmaker.

     Her Parents had divorced when she was very young. Teresa ended up moving from one family member to another between New York and New Jersey. She, at one point, lived with an uncle who was a stage actor. Teresa ended up doing theater in high school. After High School, Ms. Wright became an apprentice at Wharf Theater in Provincetown, Massachusetts during the summers of 1937 and 1938. After that, Teresa moved to New York to start stage acting. That is when she then went on to the movies.

     Alfred Hitchcock had said he loved working with the young impressionable actress. She was very easy to work with and was always very happy on set. Teresa Wright loved working with Hitchcock as well, but at the time she was working with the director, she became a wife. She said that right before the camera would start rolling, she remembered he would make a side comment, usually in a whisper about married women and wise cracks about her husband. She would just smile and go on with the movie.

     The movie The Pride Of The Yankees gave her a huge applause, for when the Yankees called out all of the former Yankees that had passed, her name was called after she died in 2005.

     I decided to do a blog on Teresa Wright because she is one of my favorites from the golden years of the movies. It was said that she was very sweet, kind, funny and easy to work with. Her movies are touching and she is very real. She had made a huge list of things that she would not do when she began her movie career. She was very modest. She had a very pure beauty and made lots of fans and friends during her long career. I hope that you will look her up and rent some of her great movies. The first movies she made are her best, to me, and I love each one. 

Lifeboat

Lifeboat
Released Date: January 28, 1944
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Actors: Tallulah Bankhead, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, William Bendix, Mary Anderson, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn, Canada Lee, and William Yetter Jr.

     The entire movie is in a lifeboat. In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The production was rather rough having the entire cast being seasick at one time at different times during production. And some even ended up getting pneumonia because they were with cold air a lot of the production too. The actress Tallulah Bankhead had pneumonia twice. And after that Mr. Hitchcock gave Ms. Bankhead a puppy, which he named Hitchcock. Alfred Hitchcock had hired a lifeguard for the movie because Hume Cronyn almost drowned. And Mr. Hume Cronyn even ended up with cracked ribs.

     The movie is based around World War Two, and there had been a shipwreck with a German U-Boat. The two, ship and boat had been at war together. The film starts off with the knowledge of the shipwreck, followed by a very wealthy looking woman on a lifeboat. She is filming what is around her, when a man came up on the boat with her. There ended up being eight on the boat. In the beginning, a woman with a baby had been on board too, but there is a very big surprise with that. During all of the craziness of the shipwreck, a German came onto the boat too. Luckily, Ms. Bankhead's character, Connie, knew how to speak German. So she was able to find out a lot about him. The boats engineer Kovac, played by Hodiak, was against even allowing the German on the boat. But after a long talk between the rest of the crew, they decided to keep the German on board. Watch as the entire boat crew struggle through hunger and tiredness.

     Another known fact about the movie, is that Ms. Bankhead did not wear underwear, the entire film she was in a dress and on a moving boat... You get my drift, no pun intended. I love this movie, and it definitely keeps you on your toes. Alfred Hitchcock, once again, proves he is the master.

American Madness

American Madness
Released Date: August 15, 1932
Director: Frank Capra
Actors: Walter Huston, Pat O'Brien, Kay Johnson, Constance Cummings, and Gavin Gordon

     This film is based around the Great Depression. Which made everything in America go haywire. Including, and most involved were the banks. The movie is about a man named Tom Dickson (Walter Huston), he is the head of a bank, Union National. He has the head of the Union Bank, and he wants to be in charge, but most importantly he wants to stay in charge. Board of directors make a little visit one day and tell them that they think he is not the right guy for the job. And to make things worse, Mr. Dickson's wife (Kay Johnson) feels that her husband is more married to the bank. That same night the board gave Mr. Dickson what for, the bank gets robbed. Now it is up to Tom to clear the bank of any issues, to keep his clients feeling safe from the robbery by making sure they understand that all of their money is still safe. But to make matters worse, Tom finds out that his wife ALMOST has an affair. Watch this crazy fast movie come to an end, and see how everything unfolds.

     The movie is only one hour and fifteen minutes. One very fast, movie with a lot of action in it. Walter Huston who plays the lead in the movie was on loan from MGM, and was only to work four weeks and six days on the production. Frank Capra made sure that the movie got done in that amount of time. Almost all of Frank Capra films are feel good movies that end making you smile. They also make you feel good about yourself and that is one reason why I love watching his movies so much. My absolute favorite by him is It's A Wonderful Life. And this comes in second.