Movie Reviews

"The Man Who Came to Dinner" is a screwball comedy about a radio critic who slips and falls while visiting at the home of an Ohio family, and insists on recuperating in their house over the Christmas holiday. Director William Keighley ("Brother Rat" 1938) successfully [..]

Carole Lombard's final motion picture was "To Be or Not to Be," a black comedy about a acting troupe in Nazi-occupied Poland who use their thespian talents in the resistance movement. Director Ernst Lubitsch ("Heaven Can Wait" 1943) put together this entertaining film with screenwriter Edwin [..]

"Larceny, Inc." is a humorous gangster-comedy film starring Edward G. Robinson as a recently released prison convict who decides to "go straight." Circumstances seem to stand in his way, and the comedy proceeds from there. Director Lloyd Bacon ("Knute Rockne, All American" 1940) infused the [..]

Ronald Reagan delivered on of his most critically acclaimed performances in "King's Row." The story of a young man who has his legs amputated is actually one of several in this complex and somewhat dark motion picture. This is unusual for the World War II years, as studios [..]

Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn began their legendary collaboration in 1942 with "Woman of the Year." Their marvelous big screen chemistry came to typify all of the nine films they made together over a twenty-five year period, ending with "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" in 1967. [..]

"Wake Island" tells the story of the onslaught by the Japanese upon the military outpost on Wake Island which followed the attack on Pearl Harbor. The events portrayed in the movie took place only months after the actual battle. So "Wake Island" served as [..]

The third "Road" picture was truly a charm for Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour in "Road to Morocco." It tells the story of two loud-mouthed guys who get sold into slavery to a beautiful Sahara Desert princess. Director David Butler ("By the [..]

The Best Picture of 1942 is....."Mrs. Miniver." This is the story of a typical middle-class British family from the suburbs of London and how World War II affects their lives. At the center of the family is Kay Miniver, the epitome of a gracious [..]

Paulette Goddard runs a marine salvage business in Key West in the 1840's, and becomes involved in a complex love triangle with fellow shipping people John Wayne and Ray Milland in "Reap the Wild Wind." Director Cecil B. DeMille ("North West Mounted Police" 1940) put together [..]

Bing Crosby and Bob Hope embarked on their second "Road" picture in 1941's "Road to Zanzibar." Director Victor Schertzinger must have presided over some controlled mayhem as much of the dialogue in these "Road" movies were famously improvised. Whatever the case, Frank Butler and Don [..]