....

I spent several hours in the office today catching up on work. I tried to watch Hanover Street. It's got a pre-Indiana Jones Harrison Ford in uniform, Christopher Plummer, WWII setting. I thought I enjoy it since I actually liked Force 10 from Navarone. I stopped it after 30 minutes. I think the stuffy air in the building [ the air conditioning was turned off over the holiday weekend] might have contributed to my impatience.
Problems with the movie starting off before the actors appeared. The movie begins with a text scroll " It was a time when life was precious and death was close, sacrificies were made, love was deep and...." oh shut up!
Hokey opening : bad
Then the two star-crossed lovers run into each other on a city street. They argue, then flirt and then have coffee.Then Airman Indy asks British officer Lesley-Ann Down [Pillow] if he can see her again and she pulls some stupid Bronte Victorian Lady act " No no I musn't , no no I can't". Would you just tell him you're married bitch? What the hell?

So she runs away from him, around a street corner. Indy follows and then BLAM! Some building blows up and I'm like what the frig!? We only got 5 minutes into the movie! All of a sudden everyone's dying on the street.Indy is freaked out as he tries to find his lady. They find each other and embrace and I guess I'm supposed to think that they are IN LOVE now. Holy Hell that fast? That must have been some coffee.
Then Bronte gal stlll pulls away again with the Victorian act but then we find out she's married. Oh for cryin' out loud. Who the hell plotted this movie?

Later on we see Indy with his crew men getting ready to bomb some Nazis. Richard Masur is Indy's comedy relief buddy except he's not funny and he's not Sallah. Nothing against Masur but they wrote his character as a pilot bitching about how he hates to fly. Way to keep up morale. I would have punched him in the face.

I got to where Christopher Plummer shows up and stopped because it was driving me nuts. I think the rest of the movie will have a Casablanca scenario where Indy is going to have to save Plummer's ass and keep him & Lesley Anne Down [Feathers] together. I'll try to finish it this week, when the building is cooler.



So I watched a better movie instead--->
One of the best screwball comedies. Grant is amazing to watch as the easily flustered, uptight professor. He had such a way with deadpan deliveries and he, Hepburn and the rest of the cast overlap in the dialogue that it almost feels like it's unscripted. It certainly gives it a nice energetic and natural feel even though every major character is nutty. The director Howard Hawks went on to do a lot of great films that I love. His Girl Friday [ with Grant again]
Sergeant York, Ball of Fire [ a favorite of mine] The Big Sleep, Red River [ the Duke!] & Rio Bravo [ the Duke & Dean Martin! ]
I think I need to build up a Hawks collection for my dvd stacks

photos: amazon.com