|
|
|
A New Leaf
: :Elaine May wrote, directed, and starred in this acidic comedy about a wealthy playboy (Walter Matthau) who discovers that he has nearly spent all of his fortune. Casting about for a solution to his money problems that won't actually involve work, he finds a desperate solution: He'll marry an heiress (May) for her fortune. The hitch: She's a social maladept ('The woman is feral,' Matthau growls). Indeed, Matthau finds marriage so intolerable that he decides there's only one course of action, which is to actively pursue making himself a widower by ...
|
|
|
High Road to China
: :Elaine May wrote, directed, and starred in this acidic comedy about a wealthy playboy (Walter Matthau) who discovers that he has nearly spent all of his fortune. Casting about for a solution to his money problems that won't actually involve work, he finds a desperate solution: He'll marry an heiress (May) for her fortune. The hitch: She's a social maladept ('The woman is feral,' Matthau growls). Indeed, Matthau finds marriage so intolerable that he decides there's only one course of action, which is to actively pursue making himself a widower by ...
|
|
|
If Tomorrow Comes
: :Elaine May wrote, directed, and starred in this acidic comedy about a wealthy playboy (Walter Matthau) who discovers that he has nearly spent all of his fortune. Casting about for a solution to his money problems that won't actually involve work, he finds a desperate solution: He'll marry an heiress (May) for her fortune. The hitch: She's a social maladept ('The woman is feral,' Matthau growls). Indeed, Matthau finds marriage so intolerable that he decides there's only one course of action, which is to actively pursue making himself a widower by ...
|
|
|
The April Fools
: :Elaine May wrote, directed, and starred in this acidic comedy about a wealthy playboy (Walter Matthau) who discovers that he has nearly spent all of his fortune. Casting about for a solution to his money problems that won't actually involve work, he finds a desperate solution: He'll marry an heiress (May) for her fortune. The hitch: She's a social maladept ('The woman is feral,' Matthau growls). Indeed, Matthau finds marriage so intolerable that he decides there's only one course of action, which is to actively pursue making himself a widower by ...
|
|
|
Wait Until Dark
: essential video:Audrey Hepburn's last Oscar nomination was for this adaptation of Frederick Knott's famed stage thriller about a blind woman, a con man (Alan Arkin), and a doll full of heroin. Thanks to Hepburn's husband, a photographer who does a good deal of traveling, she's unknowingly come into possession of said doll, which was given to him on a plane by a comely young drug runner who winds up dead. The murderous Arkin, aided by sympathetic henchman Richard Crenna, will let nothing stand in the way of his obtaining it, ...
|
|
|
Honeymoon Machine
: essential video:Audrey Hepburn's last Oscar nomination was for this adaptation of Frederick Knott's famed stage thriller about a blind woman, a con man (Alan Arkin), and a doll full of heroin. Thanks to Hepburn's husband, a photographer who does a good deal of traveling, she's unknowingly come into possession of said doll, which was given to him on a plane by a comely young drug runner who winds up dead. The murderous Arkin, aided by sympathetic henchman Richard Crenna, will let nothing stand in the way of his obtaining it, ...
|
|
|
Ishtar
: :At the time of its release in 1987, this Elaine May production was bandied about as one of the worst films of the decade. It was nominated for three Razzie Awards that year--Worst Picture, Screenplay, Direction--but it still was not the nadir detractors claimed it to be. (Remember, that was the year Norman Mailer's self-indulgence spilled all over the screen in Tough Guys Don't Dance.) If this comedy had been made by unknowns, it would have simply faded into the obscurity it deserves. The fuss came about because May squandered much ...
|
|
|
Incredible Mr Limpet
: :Ever wonder what would happen if the imaginary worlds of Bedknobs and Broomsticks and SpongeBob SquarePants were to collide? If so, chances are good you've yet to discover The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Starring the irrepressible Don Knotts, this 1964 family feature combines live (land) action and animated (undersea) sequences with delightful results. During World War II, Knotts is mild-mannered, spectacle-sporting bookkeeper Henry Limpet. More than anything--he's a fish fan and a patriot. When the navy rejects him due to poor eyesight, he falls into a funk from which not even his ...
|
|
|
The Incredible Mr. Limpet
: :Ever wonder what would happen if the imaginary worlds of Bedknobs and Broomsticks and SpongeBob SquarePants were to collide? If so, chances are good you've yet to discover The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Starring the irrepressible Don Knotts, this 1964 family feature combines live (land) action and animated (undersea) sequences with delightful results. During World War II, Knotts is mild-mannered, spectacle-sporting bookkeeper Henry Limpet. More than anything--he's a fish fan and a patriot. When the navy rejects him due to poor eyesight, he falls into a funk from which not even his ...
|
|
|
Dirty Dancing
: :As with Grease (1978) and Footloose (1984) before it, Dirty Dancing was a cultural phenomenon that now plays more like camp. That very campiness, though, is part of its biggest charm. And if the dancing in the movie doesn't seem particularly 'dirty' by today's standards--or 1987's--it does take place in an era (the early '60s) when it would have. Frances 'Baby' Houseman (Jennifer Grey, daughter of ageless hoofer Joel Grey) has been vacationing in the Catskills with her family for many years. Uneventfully. One summer, she falls under the sway (as ...
|
|