Caltrops - Peter Molyneux's The Movies





	[quote name="Brody Wilder"]<b>WINNER: <i>Stagecoach</i></b> It's <i>Shanghai Express</i> all over again, only this time on a stagecoach instead of a train, and with a badass outlaw instead of a badass hooker (though there's still a hooker). Director John Ford's first great talkie is also the first great talking western. Ford introduces his leading man with a crash zoom into John Wayne flip-cocking a Winchester, the first of many iconic shots that would cement the draft-dodging actor as the pinnacle of American masculinity. Later, a high-speed stagecoach chase with bloodthirsty Indians may be the most dangerous stunt sequence I've ever seen. If you're searching for the iconic Hollywood western, this is the place to start. <b>Spin It: <i>Only Angels Have Wings</i></b> Howard Hawks again directs the charming Cary Grant in this high-stakes aerial adventure. Grant plays daredevil pilot Papa Bear who, along with his sidekick Kid, delivers airmail through the most treacherous mountain pass in South America. Yes, you read that right, it's live-action Disney's TailSpin. Competence porn of the highest order, staccato Hawksian dialogue flies thick and fast when shit hits the fan. Rita Hayworth babes boobily while Jean Arthur sings a song. 1939 is often regarded as the best ever year for movies, and with a runner-up like this, it's easy to see why. <b>Not a Sequel: <i>Destry Rides Again</i></b> In the other great western of 1939, Jimmy Stewart plays a sheriff who settles disputes with words instead of guns. Sounds like a pinko to me. In real life, Stewart would go on to fly an impressive 20 high-risk bomber missions, likely killing more Germans than any other single actor. He retired a brigadier general! Meanwhile, co-star Marlene Dietrich - here playing an implausibly glamorous frontier prostitute - would present the war department with a plan to personally seduce and assassinate Adolf Hitler, which they declined to persue. <b>You Will Be Assimilated: <i>Ninotchka</i></b> Greta Garbo goes out on a high note with her penultimate film, this Billy Wilder-scripted comedy about an ice-cold Soviet envoy dispatched to romantic Paris, France. Presaging Borg Barbie Seven of Nine, the staunch collectivist Ninotchka is initially appalled at how many peasants could be fed and housed for the price of her lavish hotel room. In time, and with the aid of layabout aristocrat Melvyn Douglas, Ninotchka learns to loosen up and embrace the decadence. Director Ernst Lubitsch maintains a breezy, sophisticated tone as Wilder exposes the absurdities of communism and capitalism alike. <b>The Calm Before the Storm: <i>Remember the Night</i></b> Four years before the incomparable <i>Double Indemnity</i>, Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray headlined this heartwarming romance from writer Preston Sturges. To prevent sassy shoplifter Stanwyck from spending the winter break in jail, straight-laced New York ADA MacMurray offers to drop her off at her mother's house in Indiana on his way home for the holidays. Things don't go quite according to plan, and the two end up spending a perfect Hallmark Christmas together at Fred's family farm. Very clever, in a gentle sort of way. This is the yearly TBS rerun that Die Hard took from you. <b>He Knows Where He's Going: <i>The Spy in Black</i></b> Director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger manage to out-Hitchcock the man himself in this very British story of a German U-boat captain infiltrating the Orkney Islands. Set during World War I, a war with no real bad guys (unless you count the Canadians), the filmmaking duo soon to be known as The Archers exploit that ambivalence to keep ratcheting up the tension no matter which side seemingly has the upper hand. A good-natured suspense story of gentlemanly espionage and pastoral Northern life, sure to make you wonder why we can't all just get along.[/quote]