Top 10 Films of 2020 (that aren't from 2020)

All right-we will be this week (likely on Tuesday if my plans are correct) unveiling my Top 10 of 2020.  However, in every year but this year especially, I see a lot of movies, and not just ones from the 2020 calendar.  In 2020 I saw 288 movies, some repeat viewings but many classics (or not so much) that I had never seen before, and I don't want to let something like chronology get in the way of celebrating great cinema.  As a result, I've included below my Top 10 films of 2020 that I saw for the first time (that didn't come out in 2020).  Enjoy (titles are listed alphabetically)!

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

dir. Otto Preminger

A complicated look at sexual assault (and a surprisingly modern take considering its Classical Hollywood roots), this is a 3-hour film that never feels long, and has amazing work from Jimmy Stewart & Lee Remick.

Cabin in the Sky (1943)

dir. Vincente Minnelli

Ethel Waters steals the show in Vincente Minnelli's first musical, a landmark musical featuring an all-Black cast, and a picture that proves that "happiness is just a thing called Joe."

Honeyland (2019)

dir. Tamara Kotevska & Ljubomir Stefanov

A hands-off documentary that is so rich you almost feel it's a narrative feature; it's a challenging look at poverty, loss, & our ill treatment of the planet.

if... (1968)

dir. Lindsay Anderson

Malcolm McDowell shows early shadows of Alex DeLarge in this boarding school drama, a movie that even 50 years later is shocking in its frankness about sex & violence.

Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)

dir. Max Ophuls

Impossibly romantic, Joan Fontaine & Louis Jourdan are iconic as two lovers who alternate between passion & indifference in this forgotten masterwork.

The Misfits (1961)

dir. John Huston

A more avant-garde western than you'd expect given the stars, The Misfits is a look at the faded west & its fight against modernity.  Career-best work from Marilyn Monroe & (dare I say it?) Clark Gable.

Paper Moon (1973)

dir. Peter Bogdonavich

A gemlike father-and-daughter buddy film (on screen & off), that gives both of the O'Neal's their best work.  Proof that A+ chemistry, writing, & cinematography can always sell a picture.

Paths of Glory (1957)

dir. Stanley Kubrick

Kubrick gives us one of the best "war is hell" examples brought to cinema, with a look at the cruel politics of battle (and the finest performance from Kirk Douglas I've ever seen).

The Red Shoes (1948)

dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

One of those films that is spoken about in near reverent tones by cinephiles, Powell & Pressburger's magnum opus lives up to the hype: a modern, gorgeous tale of tragedy.

The Wind (1928)

dir. Victor Sjostrom

One of the greatest silent films I've ever seen, Lillian Gish gives the performance of a lifetime as a woman driven near mad by the harsh winds of the prairie.

OVP: Bells are Ringing (1960)

Film: Bells are Ringing (1960)
Stars: Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark, Eddie Foy, Jr., Jean Stapleton
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Scoring)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I see a lot of movies (clearly), and write about a lot of movies (again, clearly), but in writing those reviews, I sometimes run into trouble when I try and rate the pictures.  Take Bells are Ringing, a movie I saw recently for the first time which was the end of producer Arthur Freed's long run with both MGM and Vincente Minnelli (13 of Minnelli's directorial efforts were produced by Freed, including absolute classics like Meet Me in St. Louis and An American in Paris).  The movie itself is so much fun, a real blast of a musical the kind of which they don't make anymore, but sadly at the time was so passé that the movie was a flop when it came out.  But the real revelation here is Judy Holliday, who of course shouldn't be a revelation at this point (Holliday is always terrific), but I feel like this is an entirely different level of performance from what we know of her.  So come along as I decide whether one performance can elevate an entire film's score.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Ella Peterson (Holliday), a phone switch operator at an answering service who takes on multiple different personalities, but not her own, while trying to solve the problems of the customers of Susanswerphone (it's fun to say).  She is in love with a playwright who calls in named Jeffrey Moss (Martin).  After being chastised for being too involved in her customers lives by her boss Sue (Stapleton, who is divine in a supporting role that leans into her natural comedic gifts), Ella sneaks over to Jeffrey's house to ensure he doesn't botch an interview.  She uses a fake name & doesn't tell him that she's the woman from the answering service, and of course they fall in love, even though they come from completely different worlds.  The film ends with them getting together, of course, but first Ella learns that she needs to love herself first-and-foremost, and be there for Ella.

The movie is a little bit heavier than you'd think for a movie featuring Dean Martin and directed by Minnelli, especially during this era of his career.  The Ella self-growth is real, and it's entirely driven by bravura work from Holliday.  This is a stupendous performance, with Holliday acing the musical numbers and bringing some solid comedic acting chops to her performance, with just a hint of sadness.  She makes Ella incredibly modern for a woman whose job is so antiquated most younger audiences wouldn't even know it once existed.  I love the way that while Martin's Jeffrey is who she ends up with in the end, really her ending is all about her-a woman who suddenly feels okay in her own skin-which is a great message for a musical comedy, a genre that frequently saw "a man" as the only answer to what a woman wants.

The film's musical numbers are all delightful, even if they're so loquacious (like "Drop That Name") that they'd be hard to sing along to.  My favorite song in the Bells are Ringing score has always been "Perfect Relationship," which is a triumph as sung by Holliday, and richly felt.  It's a bit of a pity that not only was this movie a flop (enough to ensure Freed never made another musical), but it also ended Holliday's very brief career in the movies, as this was her final picture.  She was already supposedly ill while filming it, but while she'd live another five years, they were challenging ones-she'd die at the age of 43 after a long battle with breast cancer.  If you haven't already seen her in this, do yourself a favor.  I'm giving it 4 stars (some of Martin's character work isn't as clean as it should be), but Holliday is giving a 5-star performance and a great sendoff to a unique actress.

Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)

Film: Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
Stars: June Allyson, Lucille Bremer, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Van Heflin, Lena Horne, Dorothy Patrick, Van Johnson, Tony Martin, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, Robert Walker, Cyd Charisse, Angela Lansbury
Director: Richard Whorf (Vincente Minnelli, Busby Berkeley, Henry Koster, & George Sidney all also directed scenes in what sounds like a rough shoot, but none were credited)
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Lena Horne-click here to learn more about Ms. Horne (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

For the past two weeks we have focused on the two major highlights of Lena Horne's film career during Classical Hollywood.  Stormy Weather and Cabin in the Sky were big deals, major motion pictures that starred African-American casts and were distributed by major studios.  However, these were anomalies.  For much of Horne's career in the 1940's and 50's, her film career was that of mere cameos.  Frequently she'd appear in films like Thousands Cheer, Swing Fever, and Ziegfield Follies as nothing more than someone that could belt out a classic tune, and then move on with the plot, oftentimes playing herself or simply a "famous singer."  This was because, since Horne was not playing stereotypical roles like maids or servants, she couldn't be seen in movies of the era in the South, and the studio couldn't afford to put her in major productions for risk that the lack of a southern box office would mean they couldn't recoup some of their investment.  This becomes particularly bitter with a movie like Till the Clouds Roll By, a 1946 MGM extravaganza, but we'll get to why in a second.

(Spoilers Ahead) Till the Clouds Roll By is the first of a quartet of biopics produced by the studio during this era where it's loosely based on the life of a famed composer (in this case Jerome Kern, as played by Robert Walker), but mostly it's an excuse for the studio to put its biggest musical stars into the picture singing the greatest hits of those composers (worth noting that the second of these films, Words and Music, also starred Lena).  As a result, the plot here is a bit thin, even by the standards of a 1940's musical.  We have Kern, falling in love with his wife Eva (Patrick), being mentored by another composer James Hessler (Heflin), and eventually trying to find some sort of path for Hessler's daughter Sally (Bremer) when she turns out spoiled & eventually, a runaway.  All of this is told in flashback by Kern to his cab driver on the night of Show Boat's premiere, which would help him to reach a new echelon of success.

The film on its merits is, well, a mixed bag (charitably).  I actually knew very little about Kern's life, and it's worth noting that while there are countless standards here, you might not be as familiar with him as you'd think either.  With the exception of Show Boat, while his songs are still well-known from other shows, none of his musicals are really done anymore, and so he's not recalled in the same way that someone like Rodgers & Hammerstein or Lerner & Loewe might be today since their films/musicals are more frequently revived.  However, the acting in this portion is dreadful (even performers as gifted as Walker or Heflin can't sell this dreck), and you spend the entire movie wishing they'd get back to the singing.

That's because the musical numbers in Till the Clouds Roll By are sublime.  Angela Lansbury sings for the first time onscreen in the cheeky "How'd You Like to Spoon Me" and Judy Garland (very pregnant with Liza Minnelli during the shoot) is at her "awe shucks" best with "Look for the Silver Lining."  Some of the numbers are cut short (at 135 minutes, this is a particularly long film) to make way for the unnecessary plot, such as Dinah Shore's "The Last Time I Saw Paris" and, most regrettably, a ballet between Cyd Charisse & Gower Champion to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," but you'll leave being enchanted by these numbers.

And no songs are more enchanting than Lena Horne's two numbers, for my money the best in the production (and look at that cast list-this is hardly an ensemble filled with backbenchers).  Her "Why Was I Born?" is regal & glorious.  Horne once opined in an interview (with Judy Garland, oddly enough) that she always struggled to "sing pretty," but I don't know that anyone has ever looked so glamorous while singing in Classical Hollywood-if they have, I can't recall it.  Watching this scene, you'll either cry because you're moved, or because you are so angry that MGM couldn't have given Horne some proper classic musicals during this era.

Because, as the other song showed, Horne never really got a chance after Stormy Weather & Cabin in the Sky.  Here she sings "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from Show Boat, one of the biggest numbers for Julie Laverne.  Horne desperately wanted the part when MGM decided to make the actual film, and in fact her costar here Kathryn Grayson (who plays Magnolia Hawks in Clouds' production of Show Boat) ended up playing the part she plays in this 1946 film when the big-screen Show Boat was made in 1951.  However, thanks to the Hays Code banning interracial romance onscreen, Horne's part was given to her friend Ava Gardner, a white woman despite the part being written for a biracial woman.  As a result, a role that Horne was born to play (and does so beautifully here) went to a woman who didn't even end up singing onscreen.  Combined with her regret over not getting the title role in Pinky (which won Jeanne Crain, another white woman playing a biracial performer, an Oscar nomination), Horne essentially left Hollywood for Vegas and the nightclub circuit.  Next week we will conclude our look at Horne with one last film role, far removed from the oppression Classic Hollywood put on her acting career.

OVP: Cabin in the Sky (1943)

Film: Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Stars: Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"Happiness is a Thing Called Joe")
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Lena Horne-click here to learn more about Ms. Horne (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

It's not entirely clear if MGM, when it signed Lena Horne, had any intention of turning her into a proper movie star.  Though she was the first black performer signed to a legitimate star contract, the studio wasn't able to give her significant roles in major films due to laws in the South that forbade black performers from appearing in non-stereotypical parts (such as servants or slaves).  This meant that Horne only had one significant role in her time at MGM (last week's film, Stormy Weather, where she got the lead she was at Fox), as Georgia Brown in the all-black musical Cabin in the Sky, a very early film in the career of Vincente Minnelli.  We'll talk more about the rest of Horne's career at MGM next week, but as a film actress in Classical Hollywood, this was the biggest moment of her time at the studio that made it its business to ensure its contract players became stars.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is a musical-comedy, and a picture with something of a familiar premise, though an enjoyable one.  Here we have Little Joe (Anderson), a gambler who is married to a sainted woman named Petunia (Waters).  Little Joe is always on the wrong side of the law, gambling and finding himself in trouble, so when he dies, he is sentenced to go to hell.  However, Petunia begs the lord to spare him, and so Little Joe is given six months to change his ways, but there's a catch-he won't have any memory of the afterlife, and such must find his way by himself.  An angel (Kenneth Spencer) and a demon (Rex Ingram) guide him toward their own sides, with Petunia being a strong influence, but soon Joe is no match for the demon's whiles of money and a sexy new girlfriend, Georgia Brown (Horne).  The film ends with Little Joe realizing that he loves Petunia, but it's too late-he's going to hell while she's going to heaven.  A repentant Georgia Brown gets Little Joe into heaven, but it turns out it's all been a dream-Little Joe is back with Petunia, and vows to live a decent life from now on.

The film is brimming with cliche, but honestly, you will not care because Cabin in the Sky is amazing.  I loved it.  The performances are interesting, with snappy one-liners (the scene where Horne & Waters, now dressed like a showgirl, throw shade at each other is delicious), and the musical numbers are spectacular.  I don't know a lot about Ethel Waters as a performer-I've never seen her most famous role, as Dicey in Pinky (for which she was nominated for an Oscar), but she nails this part.  At times saintly, at other times sexy as hell (the high kicks!), she steals the entire damn movie and has both actorly and movie star charisma to match.  Real talk-I don't understand why we don't talk about Waters as a performer more often, because if she was capable of this, it's a great tragedy that she never was afforded more significant roles (and you can bet Pinky just got bumped up on my "to do" list).

Horne is a supporting part, despite third billing, but she's having a grand time here.  She gets to play a vixen (there's a famous deleted scene where she's singing in a bubble bath that was cut by the censors), and she is having a blast doing it.  Her musical number of "Honey in the Honeycomb" is flirty & fun, and she is great as the woman trying to sway Little Joe down the wrong path.  But the best musical number in the film belongs to Waters, singing "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe."  It says something about Waters that this tune has been covered by everyone from Peggy Lee to Judy Garland to Bette Midler (some of the great singers of the American songbook), but I've never heard it sung with as much meaning and passion as I did Waters.  The film lost to the equally classic "You'll Never Know" by the magnificent Alice Faye (we talked about this movie here, and man is this going to be a tough OVP), but honestly-it's just one of many magical moments in a film that is way better than its reputation.  Horne should have become a star off of this-next week we will explore what happened when that didn't occur.

John's Top 10 of 2019 (That Aren't From 2019)

One of my favorite hallmarks of 2019 was the number of movies that I enjoyed for the first time.  Between our June tribute to Film Noir to our weekly Saturdays with the Stars to our constant array of OVP movies (to just movies I randomly saw), we got through a lot of pictures both famous and largely forgotten this year.  As a result, we're adding a first-time ever list of the Top 10 films that I saw for the first time this year (not including the movies of 2019, which we went through this morning).  Without further adieu...

The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, 1938)

Errol Flynn has never been sexier than in this Technicolor marvel, with great action sequences, fabulous costumes, and a frothy, rich score.  If this is a classic that you (like me) have been putting off for a while, change that immediately.

Brigadoon (Vincente Minnelli, 1954)

Yes, it's kind of silly that Cyd Charisse randomly lives in an Irish town that only appears once every hundred years.  But honestly, when the costumes, sets, and musical numbers are this romantic, you genuinely won't care.  Van Johnson has never been better.

Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987)

Holly Hunter becomes a superstar in this ahead-of-its-time comedy about a newsroom more obsessed with ratings than in delivering the truth.  Few comedies from the 1980's are this smart some thirty years later.

Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945)

I've never seen a movie alternate between genius and "is this terrible?" quite at the same pace as Detour, a prototypical film noir with a heart as black as steel.  Ann Savage gives us arguably the most dangerous femme fatale in the genre.

Free Solo (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin, 2018)

Not cheating (I saw this after I announced my "best of" list last year) Free Solo is a heart-pounding look at one man and his quest for immortality, even if he doesn't entirely understand why he's pursuing it.

In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)

Gloria Grahame gives the performance of a lifetime in this seedy, nasty look at Hollywood's underbelly.  In a year where we were given All About Eve & Sunset Blvd as indictments of show business, this is perhaps the most damning picture of what fame can do to a man.

A Letter to Three Wives (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949)

A picture-perfect melodrama featuring Linda Darnell & Ann Sothern in ace roles, A Letter to Three Wives shows us a less glamorous domesticity, and what can happen when a ruthless Celeste Holm comes in and tries to destroy it.

Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947)

Of all of the noir we watched this year, Nightmare Alley stands apart as the bleakest.  Cruel in its fate, it shows us what happens when Tyrone Power falls hard...and then realizes there's no end to the pit.  Man is Helen Walker great in this movie.

Swept Away (Lina Wertmuller, 1974)

Thought-provoking.  Challenging.  Possibly sexist.  Certainly impossible-to-make-today.  Swept Away is considered recent Oscar-winner Lina Wertmuller's magnum opus, and for good reason-the film is a mesmerizing look at sex, power, and what happens in the blue sea of August.

The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944)

Up until the film's final moments, it's pretty much perfect.  A brilliant piece of work from Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, & especially Dan Duryea, the movie that would become the prototype for later film noir is genius all on its own.

OVP: Brigadoon (1954)

Film: Brigadoon (1954)
Stars: Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, Elaine Stewart, Barry Jones, Hugh Laing
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Art Direction, Costume, Sound)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2019 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress of Hollywood's Golden Age.  This month, our focus is on Cyd Charisse-click here to learn more about Ms. Charisse (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

There are four quintessential Cyd Charisse films that I have never seen, and am excited to say that (provided Netflix delivers the final one), we'll get through all of them in the next few weeks for this project.  Brigadoon, however, was the one I was looking forward to the least of the bunch.  Easily maligned in pop culture, even in references I'd never known were paying tribute (the famed "Donny Most" sequence on Family Guy is a direct homage to the picture), I kind of figured this would be one of those musicals that's too silly for modern audiences to take seriously.  Well...I was wrong.  I loved Brigadoon.  The costuming, the dancing, the incredibly romantic lighting (where the hell was that Cinematography nomination for Joseph Ruttenberg?!?) all completely worked for me.  Silly or not (and it is indeed a little silly), this is one of the best films so far in the Saturdays with the Stars list, one that I will surely revisit in the future.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie centers around two men Tommy (Kelly) and Jeff (Johnson) who chance upon a small Scottish town while grouse-hunting.  The village is odd, but lovely, and very excited about a wedding that is taking place between two of the citizens.  While there, Tommy falls in love with the bride's sister Fiona (Charisse), but learns that Brigadoon only exists as a result of a miracle; the town, thanks to the sacrifice of a priest, appears in the mists only once every 100 years, unspoiled by the world around it.  As a result, Tommy must choose whether he will stay with Fiona and become a citizen of Brigadoon, forever giving up a traditional existence, or whether he will leave without her, potentially giving up the great love of his life.  Initially Tommy leaves, unhappy that he made the wrong decision and returning to his old life, but then a miracle happens where Brigadoon briefly returns again, just so that Tommy & Fiona can be reunited before the city slips into the mists, to return 100 years later.

That plot sounds silly, and it admittedly is, but it's also so sweet and wonderful, and thanks to this being the 1950's, it's played straight-we don't get the sorts of winks a modern audience would require that would make the picture less earnest.  As a result, you get a genuinely moving love story.  I adored the charming side characters int the film, particularly Barry Jones's Mr. Lundie, whose lilting Scottish accent was heaven, and he lands his Friar Laurence-like character with great fervency.  Best of the bunch, though, is weirdly Van Johnson's Jeff, a drunken louse who is pretty much miserable the whole film but also hilarious; Johnson was famously closeted and ill-tempered in real life-as a result this character may be the closest you'd find to the former leading man playing himself onscreen but I've never seen him be better.

Our leading lady of the month is fine, though never more than that when it comes to her acting.  Charisse is going to be an odd conundrum for me-Brigadoon is the third of her films that I've seen for the project this month (I had to catch one of out order because Netflix has been jumpy lately), and I've genuinely liked all of the movies so far, but she's not a particularly compelling actress.  A brilliant dancer, and she surely gets moments for that (I adored her scene collecting heather for the wedding), but between her not doing the singing and her rather stiff approach to the conversational scenes, it's hard to get into her performance.  Kelly, who was always reliant upon his costar's to spring his chemistry (unlike Fred Astaire, who seemed to have chemistry with literally anyone), suffers as a result, coming across as too ardent.  It feels weird to love a movie so much without really adoring the leads (except for when they're going full-tilt into the romance), but that's Brigadoon for me, I guess.

The movie received three Oscar nominations, and all are well-earned.  Though it would have been lovelier in Scotland, the MGM sound lot still makes the set design look expansive and lush.  The sound work is divine, with the great "voices from the mist" being a highlight, as well as all of the well-staged musical numbers.  Best of all are the costumes, ornate and with just a few touches of the modern to remind you that it's the 1950's-Cyd Charisse's simple dress adorned by a Scottish tartan is a big highlight.  I probably would have made room for at least three more nominations for Supporting Actor, Cinematography, and Scoring (I haven't seen all of the major films from the year, but these will be high on my list if someone wants to knock them off), as all-in-all Brigadoon was a delight.

OVP: Father of the Bride (1950)

Film: Father of the Bride (1950)

Stars: Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Taylor, Billie Burke, Leo G. Carroll

Director: Vincente Minnelli

Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Picture, Actor-Spencer Tracy, Adapted Screenplay)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

It seems fitting to start our wedding week OVP movies out with a classic happy ending tale (when I assembled the list, I just went with films that had "wedding" or "bride" in the title, so they might not all be traditional love stories).  One of the oddest things about this 1950 Vincente Minnelli picture is that many people today don't know it exists, despite the presence of Tracy and Taylor, as well as its high profile Oscar nominations.  When people think of Father of the Bride, they usually picture Steve Martin and Diane Keaton in the 1990's hit remake of the picture, but in fact there was a movie before Franz the  Wedding Planner.  Oddly enough, there was even a sequel with roughly the same plot as Father of the Bride II, except Joan Bennett didn't have to go through labor in that one.

For those seeing this film second, though, they'll be stunned to find that it is almost a scene-for-scene remake of the film.  We have Stanley (Tracy), an ornery old man in a happy home with his wife Ellie (Bennett) and their three children, the eldest of which is his beautiful daughter Kay (Elizabeth Taylor).  Soon, of course, Kay is bringing home a beau that is far more significant than the others named Buckley (Don Taylor), a relatively nice young man who would be a perfectly acceptable son-in-law, except of course that Stanley isn't ready for his daughter to grow up.

But grow up she does, and soon Stanley finds himself in the middle of wedding planning and in-law meet-ups and something of a midlife crisis (I loved the scene of Spencer Tracy beaming with pride to Joan Bennett when he can barely fit into his old tuxedo).  The film, which is quite short, gives Tracy a number of comedic scenes to exercise an acting muscle he was rarely asked to use (Tracy was the master of the melodrama and this was the only of his myriad Oscar nominations to be from a comedy).  Aside from the suit scene, his best comic scene is during the wedding rehearsal, where as the father-of-the-bride, he has a significant role but as a man not well-versed in such things, doesn't exactly get the concept of a wedding rehearsal.

The movie is at its best when its focusing on Tracy solo or when he's around Bennett, who is charming in a part that requires her to be little more.   They have a wonderful chemistry as a long-married couple, and I loved that they rarely quarreled, and when they did, it wasn't always his fault.  Stanley regularly needed reminders about how this was a "once in a lifetime" event, but you had to feel for the guy when he was writing out checks for bridesmaid presents to women he doesn't know or to an orchestra that no one really listens to or the movers that will take the stuff out of his living room for the reception only.

In the theme of wedding week, I will say that the bride's dress was absolutely lovely (Edith Head was loaned out specifically for this dress, and it shows)-Elizabeth Taylor was 17-18 when this was made, and couldn't have been more effervescent if she tried in that dress.  I also found some of the customs of the weddings strange, considering the film is over sixty years old.  I had never been aware of the bridesmaids walking separately from the groomsmen and I really didn't understand Tracy's objections to the wedding in a church (I figured most weddings at this time were in churches, but could someone well-versed teach me about this in the comments?).

The film could have used a bit more life from Taylor.  Though she would become a very accomplished actor later in life, Taylor's mannerisms were too childlike for my taste and she relied too much on the wide eyes and smile to make me appreciate her character.  Tracy is...fine in the lead role.  Tracy, an actor whom I don't have a lot of experience with (this is somehow my first of his nine nominated roles) doesn't seem right for comedy.  Had I not seen the remake, I would probably be a bit more forgiving (he can certainly sell some of the aforementioned scenes), but Steve Martin is such a wildly gifted comedian that it's impossible not to compare the two, and Martin comes out ahead even if this is a sturdier and stronger film.

Those were my thoughts-how about yours?  Were you aware that this film existed, and if you've seen both, which version of the film do you like the best?  Do you think Tracy should have prevailed over Jose Ferrer in the Best Actor race?  Share in the comments!