Saturday, January 28, 2012

Battle Circus (1953)





Starring Humphrey Bogart, June Allyson, Keenan Wynn, Arthur Space, Alvy Moore, Sarah Selby, and Philip Ahn. Directed by Richard Brooks. A nurse assigned to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital near the front lines during the Korean War meets and is roughly romanced by one of the unit's surgeons.

Battling Butler (1926)




Starring Buster Keaton, Sally O'Neill, Walter James, Budd Fine, Francis McDonald, and Mary O'Brien. Directed by Buster Keaton. A wimpy millionaire goes on vacation with his valet and falls in love with a beautiful young girl who barely acknowledges his existence. Without his master's knowledge, the valet tells the valet that his boss is in reality boxing champion Battling Butler. The real champ gets wind of this deception and decides to allow the man to continue the charade, fully intending to mop the floor with the puny millionaire in the boxing ring.

Beach Blanket Bingo (1965)





Starring Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Paul Lynde, Buster Keaton, Linda Evans, Don Rickles, Deborah Wallaey, Donna Loren, Harvey Lembeck, Jody McCrea, and Donna Michelle. Directed by William Asher. A motorcycle gang kidnaps singing star Sugar Kane whose manager hires sky-diving surfers for a publicity stunt.

Beach Party (1963)





Starring Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Vincent Price, Robert Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Elizabeth Montgomery, Morey Amsterdam, Harvey Lembeck, Meredith MacRae, and Jody McCrea. Directed by William Asher. A teenager who takes his girlfriend to a beach house in southern California for a surfing vacation is upset to find a crowd of their friends already there, invited by his girl.

The Beast With Five Fingers (1946)





Starring Robert Alda, Peter Lorre, J. Carrol Naish, and Patricia Barry. Directed by Robert Florey. An invalid concert pianist dies, leaving a will that does not include his personal secretary as a beneficiary. Furious, the left-out man cuts off a hand from the corpse and plots revenge. Unfortunately for him, the hand inherits a life of its own and relentlessly stalks the wild-eyed man as he flees in vain.

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)





Starring Cecil Kellaway, Kenneth Tobey, Frank Ferguson, Lee Van Cleef, James Best, Ross Elliott, Merv Griffin, and Steve Brodie. Directed by Eugene Lourie. As a result of an arctic nuclear test, a carnivorous dinosaur thaws out and starts making its way down the east coast of North America, devouring nearly everything in its path.

Beat the Devil (1953)




Starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lorre, and Robert Morley. Directed by John Huston. Five disreputable adventurers trying to get uranium out of East Africa end up facing extermination by an Arab firing squad.

Because They're Young (1960)





Starring Dick Clark, Roberta Shore, Michael Callan, Tuesday Weld, Warren Berlinger, Doug McClure, James Darren, Chris Robinson, Marlyn Mason, and Duanne Eddy. Directed by Paul Wendkos. A new high school teacher in town, still haunted by a tragic event in his past, wins the hearts of some of the school's more troubled teens and is able to help them both in and out of school. But these same attributes make him an enemy of the principal who discourages such close relationships between teachers and students.

Bedtime For Bonzo (1951)





Starring Ronald Reagan, Diana Lynn, Walter Slezak, Jesse White, and Herb Vigran. Directed by Frederick De Cordova. A professor's engagement to the dean's daughter hit a rocky patch by the revelation that his father was a habitual convict. To prove the dean's genetic theory of inherited traits is wrong, the professor starts a secret experiment with the science department's chimpanzee with the goal of showing that one's environment affects reaction to right and wrong.

Bells Are Ringing (1960)





Starring Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Jean Stapleton, Fred Clark, Frank Gorshin, Donna Douglas, Madge Blake, Herb Vigran, and Olan Soule. Directed by Vincente Minnelli. A telephone operator who works for an answering service run by her cousin becomes involved in the lives of her customers, which brings her to the attention of a dim-witted police detective who suspects that the business is a front for a house of ill repute.

Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953)





Starring Robert Wagner, Terry Moore, Peter Graves, Gilbert Roland, Richard Boone, J. Carrol Naish, Jay Novello, and Jacques Aubuchon. Directed by Robert D. Webb. A Greek father and son dive for sponges off the coast of Florida. After they are robbed by crooks, they decide to take their crew to the dangerous 12-mile reef to dive for more sponges.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer

While You Were Sleeping (1995)





Starring Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Jack Wardeb, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Glynis Johns, Micole Mercurio, and Ally Walker. Directed by Jon Turteltaub. Lucy Moderatz is a lonely token collector on the Chicago Transit Authority who has a secret crush on a handsome commuter named Peter Callaghan. On Christmas day, she rescues him from an oncoming train after a mugger pushes him onto the tracks. He falls into a coma, and she accompanies him to the hospital, where a nurse overhears her musing aloud, "I was going to marry him." Misinterpreting her, the nurse tells his family that she is his fiancée. At first she is too caught up in the panic to explain the truth. She winds up keeping the secret for a number of reasons: she is embarrassed, Peter's grandmother has a heart condition, and she quickly comes to love being a part of Peter's big and loving family.


Home Alone (1990)




Starring Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Catherine O'Hara, John Candy, and Roberts Blossom. Directed by Chris Columbus. An eight-year-old boy is mistakenly left behind when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation. While initially relishing time by himself, he is later greeted by two would-be burglars who he eventually manages to outwit with a series of booby traps.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)






Starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Doris Roberts, E.G. Marshall, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki, Brian Doyle-Murray, William Hickey, and Mae Questel. Directed by Jeremiah Checkik. Clark Griswold has really got the Christmas spirit this year and his wife Ellen, son Rusty, and daughter Audrey have noticed that. On a quest for "The Griswold Family Christmas Tree," Clark has planned a "good, old-fashioned family Christmas." His family is wary of his plans, but Clark is oblivious. Clark has invited Ellen's parents, his own parents, and his elderly aunt and uncle to spend the holidays at the Griswold house in Chicago. But in spite of all his good intentions and careful planning, Clark's Christmas plans start to go awry.