This offers the best of Pre-Code films: philandering, drug use, and ‘bad’ people not getting their comeuppance. William Powell is a gentleman robber who catches the already wandering eye of rich and married Kay Francis. She is beautiful, he is oozing charisma, and together they have wonderful chemistry. There’s not much to the story, but it doesn’t overstay its rather short runtime.
I’m pretty sure I watched this before if only because the personality quirk of being into building Civil War battlefield models seemed familiar and unique. It’s a fairly middling thriller with Wesley Snipes as a Washington DC detective paired with Diane Lane’s Secret Service agent to solve the murder of a White House staffer. It’s entertaining enough and has a cast that includes Alan Alda, Dennis Miller, and Tate Donovan, but it’s not particularly memorable or ground breaking. The twists and turns are fairly expected, it’s just a matter of watching them play out.
I’ve owned and enjoyed the soundtrack for this film for more than twenty-five years. It’s disappointing how bad this film is in comparison. I might have even watched this a number of years ago but made myself forever almost every thing about it. It’s another Bonnie and Clyde rehash that were so popular in the 1990s, this one starring Gil Bellows and Renée Zellweger. It’s very dumb with completely useless antagonists; there are dozens of similar films that are better in quality and entertainment value. The really sad thing is the opening scene sets up a lot of promise. It should have just ended it at that scene.
Though my love for Vincent Price could have me writing many more entries on his behalf, it didn’t seem necessary to have separate entries for this somewhat ridiculous but still awesome film series. Price’s brilliant, mute, and presumed dead Dr. Phibes first is set on avenging the death of his wife by murdering those he feels were responsible, finding inspiration in the ten plagues of Egypt. Unfortunately for Joseph Cotten, he is at the top of Phibes’s list. In the second film, Dr. Phibes travels to Egypt in search of the one thing that can resurrect his dead wife. Unfortunately for Dr. Phibes, there are others on the same quest. The deaths in both films are wonderfully and memorably over the top. The visuals are fantastic, particularly in Phibes’s lair and the Egyptian temple. In both films, Phibes is partnered with the mysterious Vulvania (though I prefer the actress in the first film over the second) and an orchestra of clockwork musicians. In an admirable note to continuity, they are pursued by the same pair of detectives. 
Portraying the meteoric rise and fall of a New York attorney, Lawyer Man has a threadbare story and is really a waste of the talents of William Powell and Joan Blondell. Powell is the titular lawyer. His charisma is present as always but he’s just going through the motions that has him beginning and ending at the same exact place. Blondell is his long-suffering, but loyal secretary who follows him on his journey to nowhere.
At the end of a secret mission during World War II, black soldier James Edwards suddenly becomes paralyzed. He undergoes psychoanalysis to get to the root of his problem which has no physical explanation. It’s a quickly told story of one man’s experience dealing with racial prejudice in the Army and feeling like an outsider because of it. With a rather small cast, it often resembles a stage production, particularly during the actual psychoanalysis. There is an interesting camaraderie between Edwards and fellow soldier/longtime friend Lloyd Bridges, a relationship that epitomizes the difficulties James has experienced. 
Kay Francis is a hard-working magazine editor who falls in love with her new secretary, played by David Manners. Unfortunately she is married to a philandering playboy and Manners is engaged to Una Merkel. While not a terrible film, the plot is as thin as that and goes in all the expected directions as the two navigate their attraction to each other.
While technically a miniseries, the version I watched was one DVD long and under 3 hours so seems close enough to be included here. The pacing on the set is a bit odd, spending a good chunk at the beginning on Oprah Winfrey’s character and all her life experiences that led to her living on Brewster Place before finally bringing in stories of the other women. I really enjoyed the portrayals of the various women of different ages and experiences and how they interacted with each other and their environment. There is amazing talent throughout the cast, including Cicely Tyson, Leon, Mary Alice, and Lonette McKee. I had a really hard time figuring out in which era the production was supposed to be set. There were some parts that seemed like a nod to the 1960s but the rest all seemed of the modern era. The ending is atrocious and unfortunately leaves a bad taste after superb earlier acts. I wish there was a way to reshoot those last couple of scenes to make for a perfect film.
Felicity Jones, playing a teenaged young woman, is coerced into becoming the not-too-secret mistress of Ralph Fiennes in this story revolving around one chapter in the life of Charles Dickens. It’s a slow but beautiful looking period film detailing a fairly boring story. The one bright point aside from the visuals was Fiennes’s portrayal of Dickens at a point in his career where he was almost a rock star of the era.
Oscar Nomination: Best Achievement in Costume Design
I hadn’t realized before beginning this that it was set in Seattle, so I really loved the 1960s aerial scan across the city at the beginning of this film. Inspired by actual events, Sidney Poitier is an inexperienced student working for the new crisis clinic hotline when he receives a call from a woman, played by Anne Bancroft, who has taken a lethal dose of pills. He must do what he can to keep her on the line, trying to gather clues to figure out where she currently is. Over the course of the call, the viewer is given the story of how she found herself in her current situation. Telly Savalas plays Poitier’s supervisor at the clinic while Ed Asner is a detective trying to find her on the outside. It’s a compelling story, told in an interesting way, using flashbacks to illustrate the woman’s plight and drawing back to the present to portray the race against the clock mystery that must be solved in order to save her life.
Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Costume Design, Black-and-White