Watch The Affairs of Dobie Gillis Online

The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953)iMDB Rating: 6.1
Date Released : 14 August 1953
Genre : Comedy, Musical
Stars : Debbie Reynolds, Bobby Van, Barbara Ruick, Bob Fosse. Grainbelt University has one attraction for Dobie Gillis - women, especially Pansy Hammer. Pansy's father, even though and maybe because she says she's in dreamville, does not share her affection for Dobie. An English essay which almost revolutionizes English instruction, and Dobie's role in a chemistry lab explosion convinces Mr. Hammer he is right. Pansy is sent off broken-hearted to an Eastern..." />
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Grainbelt University has one attraction for Dobie Gillis - women, especially Pansy Hammer. Pansy's father, even though and maybe because she says she's in dreamville, does not share her affection for Dobie. An English essay which almost revolutionizes English instruction, and Dobie's role in a chemistry lab explosion convinces Mr. Hammer he is right. Pansy is sent off broken-hearted to an Eastern school, but with the help of Happy Stella Kolawski's all-girl band, several hundred students and an enraged police force, Dobie secures Pansy's return to Grainbelt.

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Review :

Wish there'd been more of these

After I warmed up to the taller, goofier-looking Bobby Van (compared to Dwayne Hickman), this movie really took off for me. Like many others, I didn't know there was a movie six years before the TV series debuted. I'm only a casual fan of DG (it doesn't get shown enough these days) but still wanted to see how this early version compared to the show. I wasn't disappointed. I noticed a similarity between this picture and Disney's Merlin Jones movies. But whereas Merlin was this semi-genius, Dobie is an underachiever out for fun and females.

Die-hard fans of Zelda will be crestfallen to learn that she is mercifully absent here. She is replaced by the much more feminine Debbie Reynolds, who ferments a good screen chemistry with Van; that's appropriate, as their most harrowing adventures take place in the chemistry lab (Pansy is fond of mixing assorted substances until they explode).

But where is Herbert T. Gillis, Dobie's workaholic grocer old man seen in the series? He was my favorite character, mainly because of Frank Faylen's inimitable characterization (he was also hilarious as Dearborne in Disney's THE MONKEY'S UNCLE). Instead of Dobie's family we get Pansy's blustery workaholic father, who wants to separate the lovebirds forever. Has anyone else noticed, by the way, how fathers are perpetually portrayed as silly windbags, while the boring cipher wife/mother is forever made out to be the "wise" one? Even in the 50's.

Strangely, it seems as though Dobie and Pansy only took two courses - English and Chemistry. And what about that chemistry prof, who boasts that his class is the hardest they'll ever encounter? Guess he never heard of Cartography at Radford U. After playing hooky (except when it rained) for several months, they return to class to find an essay due in English and a project due in Chemistry. I won't give away how they solve this crisis. But then the sky falls on our amorous pair. Deeming Dobie the worst possible influence, Mr. Hammer sends Pansy to NYC (blah - like that's the greatest place on earth to be sent) to live with her horrid maiden aunt. You really feel depressed for Dobie, now wandering aimlessly around campus. After all the scrapes they'd been through together - the chemistry lab explosions; the capsized canoe; and the most hysterical of all - Pansy's blouse getting caught in the car engine, then her trying to sneak past Ma and Pa and a couple of neighbors watching TV (yes, they had TV in 1953). Then when a gun goes off on TV, the startled viewers suddenly become aware of Pansy in her undergarments. That scene ended perfectly.

All this brings us to some intriguing questions about college life in the 50's. Was it common for professors to write their own textbooks? We have the deliciously snobbish, condescending Hans Conried (Prof. Pomfritt) announcing that he is rewriting his "English Usage For College Freshmen", suddenly accepting Dobie's belief that the rules should be according to the way people really talk. C'mon, a single professor rewriting the rules of grammar? And did academic buildings really have bells to dismiss the students? Sounds like high school all over again. All classes beginning and ending at the same time. Well, I know one thing in the movie that's definitely based in reality: the way school bookstores buy back used books for pennies on the dollar, then resell them at a 90% markup. This textbook racket is still flourishing!

Absent from AODG is Dobie's endless philosophizing in front of a marble statue. But I don't expect you'll really miss that.

All in all, I recommend THE AFFAIRS OF DOBIE GILLIS to even the most casual fan of the TV series, and to anyone who likes college slapstick/romance from the 50's. I only wish this movie had been long enough to include more professors played by character actors on the caliber of Hans Conried. Or a series of 75-minute films, where Dobie and Pansy take Psychology, physics, French...imagine the constant jams they'd've been in and out of. I know Debbie Reynolds went on to bigger things, like voicing Charlotte in CHARLOTTE'S WEB and giving birth to Princess Leia, but she could've been replaced by some other bodacious 50's babe. And no, I don't mean Zelda.

Streaming When in Rome (1952) Online

When in Rome (1952)iMDB Rating: 6.7
Date Released : 10 July 1952
Genre : Comedy
Stars : Van Johnson, Paul Douglas, Joseph Calleia, Carlo Rizzo." />
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Review :

Marvelous Fable

Paul Douglas, Van Johnson, and Joseph Calleia are all excellent together. The "love story" between priest Johnson and tough-guy Douglas is as affecting a character study as you are ever likely to see. The magnificent photography shows the divine beauty that is Rome inspirationally. Just when you think it can get no further into your soul, it comes up with something else clever and simply profound. Well worth watching. I give it 10/10.

Streaming Talk About a Stranger (1952) Online

Talk About a Stranger (1952)iMDB Rating: 6.3
Date Released : 18 April 1952
Genre : Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
Stars : George Murphy, Nancy Reagan, Billy Gray, Lewis Stone
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Size : 870 MB

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Coming-of-age story about a bratty kid who takes an instant dislike to a strange new neighbor. The boy sets off on a campaign to smear his name and spread vicious rumors about him. His parents just can't handle the boy. But after the kid endangers all the crops in the valley by his vandalism of the neighbors oil tank, he comes to realize that people are not always what they appear to be.

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Review :

Creepy little item has an obvious message at the center...

This unknown little MGM item is based on a Charlotte Armstrong story (American mystery writer who wrote THE UNSUSPECTED and DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK, among others). The main focus is on the little boy (BILLY GRAY) who thinks the new menacing neighbor is the man who killed his faithfuldog and he's played with professional assurance by Gray. In fact, he has to carry the film since GEORGE MURPHY and NANCY DAVIS are relegated to roles on the sidelines.

It's directed in competent style by Arthur Bradley, photographed in more than competent style by John Alton, full of moody B&W imagery, but the story is so thin it's almost transparent and winds up in a brief running time of one hour and five minutes.

The last ten minutes wind up the story in good fashion, although the ending is a bit hard to swallow, as contrived and synthetic as any character-driven tale could be. KURT KAZNAR is the mean looking neighbor who suddenly turns out to be Mr. Good Guy when we learn about his past. The simple moral of this fable is that you can't judge a book by its cover, nor a person by first impressions.

I have no criticism of Billy Gray's performance in the central role. He was one of the least self-conscious of all the child actors who came along at this time--and probably reached his peak as Doris Day's bratty little brother in BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON and ON MOONLIGHT BAY.

Streaming Snegurochka Online

Snegurochka (1952)iMDB Rating: 6.9
Date Released : 14 July 2014
Genre : Animation, Musical
Movie Quality : HDrip
Format : MKV
Size : 700 MB

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Review :

The Snow-maiden, daughter of king winter and the spring fairy, is aloud to live in a human village. Her heart can't inflame in love. She would melt if it did.

A animated version of the Rimski Korsakov opera. For the opera lover is especially the palace in the animation interesting it based on the original stage design. The voices & music is one of the most delicate versions I know. In the early fifties in which it was recorded the understanding of the opera was much more suiting the romantic/esoteric character of the opera, then todays practice.

As an opera it isn't much played.

For the ones not familiar to opera it's a nice introduction. Following the fairytale of the snow-maiden, the story it's more interesting and richer of content then the average opera. Rimsky Korsav's and his libretto writer made a few changes to the fairytale that brought the esoteric content of the opera much more to the surface.

The animation, in a beautiful early 50's Russian fairytale style, in the one hand keeps the static style of the opera intact, while on the other hand much more focusing on the story the opera is bases on, and telling it as a fairytale should be told, while it's dynamic is still the dynamic of the opera. It's not degraded into a Disney comedy animation, killing the deeper layers of the story.

That at the time it was made the ideology of social realism was (often)leading in animation, so a lot of "rotoscoping" is used, helped to keep it a very dignified adaptation of the opera. While at the same time keeping the dialog spoken, and cutting some elements of the first act make it much more accessible. Although I think the role of Kupava and the role of Lel and perhaps the parents get a bit cut too much. I understand it's a director's choice where to cut to keep the animation around 1 hour long, but I would have left more of the 1st act intact.

The version of the animation in circulation, by the way, has a very abrupt cut in Lel's first aria in the first act. a part of the aria is missing, in a way that makes you think there is a piece of film missing there too.

All in all there is a good balance between respect for the basic material and adapting it to an animation idiom.

Watch No Room for the Groom Online

No Room for the Groom (1952)iMDB Rating: 6.5
Date Released : 17 July 1953
Genre : Comedy
Stars : Tony Curtis, Piper Laurie, Don DeFore, Spring Byington. Alvah, a young GI who happens to own a vineyard, elopes to Las Vegas with Lee, his housekeeper's daughter. But Alvah's chicken pox postpone the wedding night. The rest revolves around more delays to the consummation, caused by Lee's manipulative Mama and the flock of mostly obnoxious relatives with whom she's filled the house." />
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Alvah, a young GI who happens to own a vineyard, elopes to Las Vegas with Lee, his housekeeper's daughter. But Alvah's chicken pox postpone the wedding night. The rest revolves around more delays to the consummation, caused by Lee's manipulative Mama and the flock of mostly obnoxious relatives with whom she's filled the house.

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Review :

A tryout for Tony Curtis blotted out from memory

Douglas Sirk's reputation lies solely on his expertise within the melodrama genre. But as a director under contract he was afforded the opportunity of directing a wide range of movie genres. His success with these (which included a western, a sword and sandal saga and light musical comedies) was notably unremarkable. They remain watchable, but mainly of interest not for their intrinsic qualities but rather as stepping stones toward Sirk's major contribution to the movies.

In his later years Sirk gave an in depth interview to Jon Halliday which was then turned into the book "Sirk on Sirk". In it he discusses in some detail his works from his pre-Hollywood days until the untimely end of his career at the end of the fifties. While he speaks much about his acknowledged successes, he has little to say about the weaker films. "No Room for the Groom" is given but one sentence in the entire book. Sirk says, "I think I had to do it as a tryout for Tony Curtis…… I don't remember anything about it at all".

Since he remembers much about movies made long before this, one can only surmise he has blotted this one out from his memory. It's a wise move, since this is simply the worst film Sirk ever put his name to.

"No Room for the Groom" is a screwball comedy, something Sirk was woefully unequipped for. But its doubtful that even a master of the genre could have pulled it off since the dialog is to put it bluntly, atrocious.

The situations which are intended to be humorous are downright irritating. A young Tony Curtis desperate to prove himself in the "tryout", acquits himself valiantly. But its truly a terrible mess of a movie.

Other than for Sirk completests, this is one to steer clear of.

Watch Monkey Business Online

Monkey Business (1952)iMDB Rating: 7.0
Date Released : 7 November 1952
Genre : Comedy, Sci-Fi
Stars : Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn
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Size : 870 MB

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Barnaby Fulton is a research chemist working on a fountain of youth pill for a chemical company. While trying a sample dose on himself, he accidentally gets a dose of a mixture added to the water cooler and believes his potion is what is working. The mixture temporarily causes him to feel and act like a teenager, including correcting his vision. When his wife gets a dose that is even larger, she regresses even further into her childhood. When an old boyfriend meets her in this state, he believes that her never wanting to see him again means a divorce and a chance for him.

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Review :

O Youth and Beauty!

Monkey Business is a sort of late screwball comedy in which a scientist discovers a formula for returning people to their youth. The problem is that they become a little too youthful, and all hell breaks loose as a result. Directed by veteran Howard Hawks, co-authored by Ben Hecht, this is a funny if one joke film. Leading players Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers handle their parts capably, Charles Coburn is marvelous in a large (in all senses of that word) supporting role, and since it's a cliche to call Marilyn Monroe eye candy, I won't. Good fun all-round, the movie is in the end not as good as its thirties prototypes; some of the jokes go on for too long; and the repartee, such as the dialogue can be called, isn't as zingy as it might be. A good try, though, and intermittently hilarious.

Streaming Mara Maru (1952) Online

Mara Maru (1952)iMDB Rating: 6.1
Date Released : 23 April 1952
Genre : Adventure, Drama
Stars : Errol Flynn, Ruth Roman, Raymond Burr, Paul Picerni
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Size : 870 MB

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Greg Mason, salvage diver in the Philippines, finds his partner Andy drunk and raving about treasure. Whatever it is, somebody wants it badly enough to kill Andy and frame Mason for murder. Cleared by an insinuating private eye, Mason is immersed in intrigue, with detective Rainier, sinister Benedict, mysterious Orgega, and Andy's comely widow all somehow involved. Soon various parties, not really trusting each other, are on a sea voyage to dive for they know not what...

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Review :

Cultural differences

I don't know if this is true or not,but I am told that when this movie came out, the distributors took it to Tokyo to show, because by that time there was a fairly large demand for American movies in Japan...particularly action movies, and even more so those which featured well known stars like Errol Flynn, and were confident that it would be well received and quite profitable...but that even though the movie was given wide advertising and multiple screens all over Japan,nobody came to see it due to the fact that "Mara Maru" translates into Japanese as "Sh*t Boat"....and who in their right mind would want to see a movie with the title "Sh*t Boat"??