Rebecca

Rebecca. Rebecca. Rebecca. Rebecca. Rebecca. Rebecca! These name "Rebecca" causes the second Mrs. de Winter heartache and more reason for insecurites. A women, who just married a man and the man and people in the household talked about his ex wife constantly, has the right to be alittle upset.....Don't you think? The main characters of the classic story Rebecca are Laurence Oliver, who plays Maxim' de Winter, The Second Mrs. de Winter, played by Joan Fontaine, George Sanders stars as Jack Favell, and Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers. Alfred Hitchcook, the producer, realeased his masterpiece on April 12, 1940. Rebecca was nominated for 9 Oscars and won 2.

The movie begins with the soon to be The Second Mrs. de Winter getting sweep away in a carriage of romance with the Widowed Maxim de Winter. They are extremely happy and smitten with eachother. However, the name Rebecca continues to haunt the new de Winter and her new found relationship. Rebecca becomes, in the new de Winter's mind, everything she is not, which causes her to be extremely insecure in herself. The tension can't be broken as the staff stirs up some trouble in The Second de Winter's world.

Alfred Hitchcook did a great job at conveying the emotion, suspense, and tension through out his well thought movie. He sets the right moods in scenes as the story unfolds using contrasting light and dramtic pauses. The unknown mystery helps the audience stay awake, however, there is no way they would blink with the ammount of suspense in this motion picture. I definitely would recommend Rebecca to anyone.

The Maltese Falcon

Realeased on October 18, 1941, The Maltess Falcon is one of the most baffling murder stories. This example of a film noir was produced and written by John Huddson, main producer, and Dashiell Hammett. Filled with many same aspects of Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon was nominated for 3 Oscars and won 1. Spade and Archer is the name of the detective agency were the story begins. But once Miss Wanderly walks into the picture, the whole place changes.

At the detective agency Spade and Archer, Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart, and Miles Archer, played by Jerome Cowan, are partners, of course. Their whole world begins to change the second Miss. Wanderly, played by Mary Astor, steps through the door. She claims to be looking for a man named Thursby, but really needs Spade for other reasons. Miles and Thursby are proclaimed dead. Miss. Wanderly finally admits why she needs Sam. She needs him for protection and the precious Maltese Falcon, which is being hunted for by men that very minute. The Maltese Falcon is a bird with a viberant, royal jewel inside it. Sam Spade decides to help Miss. Wanderly while he is being blamed for the two murders. Both Miss. Wanderly and Spade recover a fake Maltese Falcon leading the dangerous men to find the real one. The two became romantically involved through all the drama, but once Sam finds out Miss. Wanderly is the reason Miles is dead, he turns her in because a man never leaves or decieves his partner.

The Maltese Falcon is romance, murder, and intrige. Any audience would enjoy this captovating murder mystery. Being in the film noir genre, the audience is consumed with suspicion of every character, more so of the femme fatale, and dark shadows. I would recommend this movie to people 16 and older because of the commplicated plot line. Overall, this was a great murder mystery.

Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity, released on April 24, 1944, is one of the first classic film noirs, which means "dark film." A film noir's main focus is revealing a sense of the dark side of mankind and society. The producer and writer of Double Indemnity, Billy Wilder and James M. Cain, definitely accomplishes this. The main plot is about a innocent insurance aggent who convinces himslf to be sucked into murder and insurance fraud. He becomes consumed with guilt after helping the seductive femme fatale kill her husband. This epic story recieved one Oscar and seven nominations.

The movie begns with the main character, Walter Neff, played by Fred McMacMurray, who thinks he knows all the right angles of commiting a insurance fraud successfully. He becomes extremely attracted to a client's sexy wife, Phyllis Dietrichson who is played by Barabara Stanwyck. The two soon to be lovers commit a murder, Phyllis's husband, and frame it as if he simply fell of a train or commited suicide. However, a cunning insurance investigator, Neff's close friend, senses something going on. Walter becomes anxious and consumed with guilt of this nasty murder but is kept in the hot water by Phyllis's seductive ways. The end leaves the auddience in a confussion of feelings after all the flashbacks makes sense.

I really liked this movie alot because it convayed tons of emotion. The way shadow and flashbacks were used made the movie even more interesting. What makes this movie so good is the question that people end up asking themselves throughout the plot; Can this actually work in reality? I would definitely reccomend Double Indemnity to anyone.

Casablanca

Casablanca is the place between the Germans and freedom, or America. Europeans were fleeing from the Germans. America was their place of refuge. Casablanca is the place that many of them became stuck because they didn't have letters of transit, their ticket to freedom. Casablanca is a story about the escape of an important politician, Victor Laszlo played by Paul Henreid, who the Germans don't want to leave Casablanca because they don't want his idependant views to be heard. Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz and written by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. This classic movie releaased on January 23, 1943 recieved three Oscars.

During World War II in Casablanca, Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, a former freedom fighter and american, owns the most popular spot in town, Rick's Cafe. Blaine is in the possession of two letters of transit. Vctor Laszlo, a politician that the Nazi's want to keep on lock down has arrived in Casablanca with Rick's ex lover, Ilsa Lund, played by Ingrid Bergman. Their fling in Paris caused old flames between the two of them. Ilsa becomes overwhelmed with her felings during the movie. She knows she loves Rick but her husband Lazlo is the one she wants to protect. Blaine helps her do so. This love story will never fade beccause of its major impact in the movie world. This movie leaves audiences in wonder, happiness, and sadness all in one.

The Way We Were

On October 19, 1973, the classic dramatic romance The Way We Were was released. This is a story of two polar opposites trying to stay in love. It was written by Arthur Laurents and directed by Sydeny Pollack. The two lovers that are reunited from their college days are Katie Morosky, known as Barbra Streisand, and Hubbell Gardner, played by Robert Redford. The Way We Were won an Oscar, Golden Globe, and Grammy for its astounding motion picture. This is a romantic story of a doomed love that is wanted to be "meant to be" but just isn't.

The movie starts off with Katie running into Hubbel, who is of course a hot jock that all the guys wanted to be in college, your tyipical all-american. He claims the looks and smarts as he finishes a novel while Katie continues being a workaholic while staying extremely involved in politics. Katie had a major crush on Hubbell in college. When their eyes meet for the first time in 10 years, that feeling of soon to be love sinks in again. They begin an on and off relationship for awhile until Katie's love for politics annoys Hubbell and Hubbell starts to give up his litteray talents by abandoning his novel for screen plays. Communism caused a witch hunt to be cast upon the writers and producers in Hollywood. Which of course, Katie caused an uproar. Hubbell's low toleration for Katie's behavior lead him to cheat with his college sweetheart who was also he's best friend's ex wife (climax). Before all this they talked about marriage and Katie is now pregnant. She finds out about the affair and wanted to still make this crumbling relationship work. She finally comes to the realization that their love will never be the way it was. She then asks Hubbell if he will just stay with her until their baby is born and then they can go their seperate ways. The end of the movie leaves audiences in question and with a weird uneasy feeling...you will with have to see what makes them feel this way by seeing the way they were.

I thought the movie was very interesting because it showed a completely different type of love story. It was showing how two opposites would handle typical fights that all couples go through. It was alittle hard to relate to because Katie was not a character someone can easily relate to as a whole, but relating to some of her characteristics would definitely be possible. I thought that the movie's point was to not give up something you love and that sometimes you have to give up people you love because you love them and want them to do what makes them happy. The only things that definitely last forever are memories.

Citizen Kane

Citzen Kane is a classic masterpiece that throughout the movie the audience is asking "Who is Rosebud?" Kane is a man who suffered from a hard childhood that effects him throughout his whole life. He grows up to be materialistic man who lets his greed, power, and money consume every fiber of his being. This millionaire newspaperman lets his wealth control his life. This drama film was directed and written by Orson Welles and co-written by Herman J. Mankiewicz. The main characters are Joseph Cotten, as Jedediah Leland, Orson Welles, as Charles Foster Kane, Dorothy Comingore, as Susan Alexander Kane, Agnes Moorehead, as Mary Kane, and Ruth Warrick, as Emily Monroe Norton Kane. The release date for Citizen Kane that recieved an Oscar and 4 wins with 9 nominations was May 1, 1941.
The whole ploy is about the investigation of Charles Foster Kane who is one of the richest men in America. His death and last word "Rosebud" causes the investigators to wonder and stop at nothing to find the answers locked away in Kane's past. The movie opens with ashot of the Xanadu, which is the castle of the richest man in America or some say the world. We see him drop a crystal snow globe while reciting his last word. What does "Rosebud" mean? Do the investigators every find out? only the audience knows.
This movie is very interesting because of the mystery of the plot and the lingearing question of Rosebud throughout. As a classic black and white movie, Welles really used the angles of the camera, lighting, and panning to really capture the emotion of the characters. I would recomend this captivating story to anyone besides younger children, who probably wouldn't understand the theme of materialism and idealism.

Mr. Smith goes to Washington

This Amercian History classic Mr. Smith goes to Washington is a very great example of what the government was like in the 1940s and in present day. A government is a system to regulate and have more or less control over a society. Government will always have defaults, a main one being corruption. Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is a All American man who is thrown into a senate with no expierence. However, he has the qulities that helped him fight for himself at the end of the movie. He stood up and defended himself after being accused of trying to make his own profits through a bill he was trying to present by Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains). Senior Senator Paine and Jefferson Smith had a respect for eachother and were great friends until Senator Paine backstabbed him. He made him look like a fool in front of the whole senate and president but Smith held his ground until everyone believed him and Paine confused for framing him.

The audience of the 1940s would react to this movie in a similar and different way than a contemparay audience. The audience of the 1940s would be able to relate to the life styles of the people and be more uplifted by the ending. There is a sense of hope of good man being in government because there was more morality back then than nowadays. Now, people are constantly manipulating and backstabbing eachother to get ahead. In contrast, people today would look at this mvie and say "I wish we had men like that in America today." Government is so much more corrupt today than back then because the life styles are completely different. In conclusion, both crowds wish for a less corrupt government but the level of corruption is different in each time period.