Alfred Hitchcock Movie Review: ****^ Torn Curtain (1966)

 This is a very good spy movie from Alfred Hitchcock starring Julie Andrews and Paul Newman as an engaged couple, Dr. Sarah Sherman and Professor Michael Armstrong.  Not only are they engaged but Sherman has been working as Armstrong's assistant.  Sherman starts acting strangely.  He defects to East Germany, saying the United States has stopped funding for his missile project.  In truth he is fishing for information from an East German scientist, Professor Heinrich Gerhardt (Hansjörg Felmy) who appears to have resolved an issue that has stymied Armstrong.  He just needs to convince Gerhardt that he has already resolved the issue and get him to share what he knows.  He leaves for East Berlin having told his fiance he was off elsewhere.  However she discovers his plans and follows him to East Berlin, where he announces he is defecting to East Germany.

Everything that could go wrong goes wrong.  Hitchcock the master director makes a great scene where Armstrong and a spy kill an East German security man who was coming onto Professor Armstrong.  This interfers with upcoming meeting between Armstrong and Gerhardt as the communists want to limit contact until they have studied Armstrong more thoroughly.  However he does have access to the assistant.  At first she does not want to cooperate but does after Armstrong tells her what he is doing, he is not a traitor.  This gets Gerhardt excited, and he takes Armstrong aside and to his secret office, where he is able to trick Gerhardt into revealing his research.  Armstrong takes it to memory as Gerhardt writes it down.  About this time the police are onto Armstrong after they find the agent's body.  However he runs away as Gerhardt realizes he has given his secrets away without getting anything in return.

Then comes the trip out of East Germany with many tense scenes, starting then leaving town in a bus, not a regular bus but following the same line as a regular bus.  There are certain anti communists who help.  They get a bit behind schedule, and eventually the police are onto them, so everyone scatters and they leave the bus behind.  They eventually make it to meet with handlers in a theater, where they are smuggled inside costume baskets onto a boat.  

Very tense and exciting movie and highly recommended.

Movie Review: ****^ Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

 This is a fun expose of the two bandits, Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford).  It includes the son, "Raindrops keep falling on my head."  I is a really good view at the relationships.  The outlaws are forced to leave because of the intense pressure placed on them by the railroad company detectives seeking their death.  They move to Bolivia with Etta Place (Katherine Ross).  They go back into the business with some success robbing banks.   Bur they hear the detective from America has come to track them down, so they stop all criminal activity.  However working as guards they have to kill more then at being criminals.  Etta returns to America, and Butch and Sundance face and army.  That is where the show ends because of all the controversy of whether they returned to America or not and are buried in Bolivia.  

I really enjoy this history and this movie is fun.  

Movie Review: Animated Movie: *****Cars (2006)

 Cars is a fantastic movie.  We had a foster son who was the CaaChow kid.  He was so excited about this movie, and would carry a toy of Lightning McQueen around.  

Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is a young cocky race car.  However he gets left in rural country and is lost, and in his fear to find where he is destroys a road.  He is sentenced the next day to fix the road by the judge Doc Hudson (Paul Newman).  He also meets the prosecuting attorney, Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt) and begins to fall for her.  Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) is assigned to keep an eye on McQueen.  A cocky car can learn lots from country pumpkins; and that is the theme of this movie.  McQueen becomes a changed person, as do the members of the community.  

Movie Review: ****The Sting 1973

This movie puts Paul Newman and Robert Redford back together for quite a ride.  In this film they play conmen, who are going to take down a notorious mobster.  However as the mobster has the  habit of killing people, they have to be very careful.  Robert Shaw portrays the mobster, and he is a really bad man, who makes people disappear at his orders.  Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford's character) is in the con for revenge.  He has been a small time con, who happened into mob money, and his partner was murdered.  They are looking for him as well.  Throughout the picture he is running from would be murderers.
A cute scene is when the have to come up with a Western Union office at the last moment.  They take over an office pretending to be painters.  (Ray Walston) plays the painter.
This movie is good, and entertaining, but perhaps the most entertainment is the use of Scott Joplin music.  His piano ragtime music is superb.  The song, "The Entertainer" is well known, and moves me every time I hear it.
This movie won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture.

Movie Review: ***^Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)  This is the chain gang movie of them all.  Luke (Paul Newman) is sentenced to two years on the chain gang because he destroyed municipal property.  While there he runs into the biggest prisoner, Dragline (George Kennedy, and takes him on in a fight.  He loses the fight badly, but wins Dragline’s respect.  All is going well.  Luke’s momma comes and visits before she passes away.  To prevent Luke from running, he is put in the hot box for no reason.  This leads to a different attitude.  Now Luke is determined to escape.  He makes a couple attempts.  He gets away but is eventually caught.  After the second time he goes through a serious reconditioning program with forced work all night and cane beatings.  He finally admits he has been broken.  However, he makes another break, and this time Dragline comes with him.  In this instance, instead of being captured again he is murdered, which brings an end to his life but not his spirit. 

Movie Review: ****^Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)       

This movie is really fascinating in terms of character development, and people moving on.  Most families come together under crisis.  In this case the crisis is the impending death of Big Daddy (Burl Ives) who has an inoperable cancer.  He has been estranged from his son, Brick (Paul Newman) for some time.  In fact Ricky has turned into a drunk, and seems to be throwing away all the potential he has.  This show is about getting to the bottom of what is bothering him.  Not only is he drinking, but he is also turning his wife (Elizabeth Taylor) away for sex.  Both Newman and Taylor were nominated for academy awards.  Big Mamma is played by Judith Anderson and Jack Carson plays the older brother who has had five children by his wife.  Big Daddy is determined to talk things through, and himself gets hurt in the play of words.  Brick lets him know that he wanted love, not things (a large farm and $5million).  While for his part, Big Daddy showed love by doing well and providing material things.  In the mix is Brick’s friend who committed suicide.  The struggle, and the coming to terms are very well done.

Movie Review: ****Hombre (1967)

This is a very good Western, with Paul Newman as the misunderstood John Russell.  Russell was stolen from his family when a boy and raised by the Apache.  He is more comfortable among the Apache than the White people, but he comes back and changes his image when his father passes away.  He must deal with his inheritance.  This is during the time after most of the Apache had been taken prisoner.
In this movie there is a goat, and a group of bad men lead by Grimes (Richard Boone).  The goat is the for Indian agent who is returning East.  He has a pile of cash from taken payment for feeding the Indians, but pocketing most of it and letting the Apache die.  In this case the robbery is those trying to steal this money.  They rob a stage, in which Russell is a passenger, with several other men and women.  The thieves take a hostage, but Russell's gun is left.  He gets this and finishes off a couple of the robbers.  One was taking the water and the money; and now this group of victims has water and the money.  The other outlaws will surely be back.