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[BR]Man in the White Suit
[BR]12 Angry Men
[BR]The Chalk Garden
[BR]The Swan
[BR]The Professional
[BR]Roman Holiday
[BR]Arsenic & Old Lace
[BR]Gattaca
[BR]Unbreakable
[BR]The Black Stallion
[BR] Lagaan
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Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
A side-splitter! *contains spoilers*
Cary Grant is a confirmed bachelor who gets married on Halloween. However, instead of a honeymoon, he faces a full moon of murder, insanity and hilarious 'auntics.' Blink and you'll miss a reason to laugh.
I LOVE all the verbal play - there are so many hilarious quotes, also the facial expressions. One of my favorites is when Mortimer questions Aunt Abby about the corpse inhabiting her windowbox and she is intently studying the "imposter" as she innocently exclaims: "Who can that be?"
The whole Teddy Roosevelt routine was so funny! "Charge!" Slam! Choing!, and his expressions at the end, "Is he trying to move in before I leave office?" "Who?" "Taft!" ...or Mortimer sitting on the steps with the gag still around his neck, violent chaos surrounding him, but so exhausted that all he does is light up a cigarette and make droll comments such as, "Ah - don't do that. It never works...oh, well, what d'ya know. It worked."
A line that never fails to draw a laugh, "Darlings, you can't just go around killing people...It's not a nice thing to do!" "12?!!! This is becoming a *VERY**BAD**HABIT*!"
And of course, "Darling, would you want to have children with three heads? Well, what I mean is...insanity runs in my family...practically gallops."
How long I could go on...
The Man in the White Suit (1951)
Such innocent idealism: so subtle, sad and perfect!
Contains *spoilers* - also, my quotes may not be exact.
Everyone always notes the satire in social commentary and economic parallels - how true. But to me, I see this movie as much more than that. I love the symbolism of this guy in a glowing white suit. There is so much confusion and filth in the world around him, but it won't stick. Alec Guiness was the perfect guy to play this - his boyish grins and eternal curiousity are so appropriate:
"That's ingenious - can you tell me, what is the ratio of ink to petrol?"
The only moment of defeat is when he realizes that his invention hasn't worked after all - standing there almost naked. Yet, more than shame is the simple disappointment that "it didn't work." He's never really intimidated by people. Remember,
"But Sidney, we want to stop it too."
Barely a moments hesitation before he's off trying to get away again. Does he show any sign of the pain such a betrayal must've caused? No.
Also notable is Dapne's role. She is sick and tired of money and power. She thinks she's finally found love, outside of her father's company. At first she doesn't really care about Sidney anymore than anyone else. But that moment when he falls off her car and she goes back to see if maybe she killed him - and yet he is still thinking only of the beauty of his invention. She's finally found something she thinks is worth living for. The funny thing is that it's not even romance. It is friendship, but of such an ephemeral nature that the title almost doesn't fit. It's more admiration, and perhaps even inspiration.
Upon her discovery that Michael has no real love for her, and that her father is completely incompetent to take care of her, she gives into cynicism and tries to temp Sidney. Fortunately she finds that there really are people in this world living for more than power, money and lust. What a refreshment:
"Thank you Sidney. If you would've said 'yes' I think I'd have strangled you."
I love the very end, when all of this crazy business seems to have come to nothing. But then, the bubbly, quirky beat starts up and Sidney goes off, his stride matching the tune: dauntless. Where is Daphne? We don't really know - but they weren't really in love and she wasn't really a scientist. He got help escaping and she got "a shot in the arm of hope." (Pollyanna) A cont'd relationship would've been nice, but as Billy Joel says "it's more than I'd hoped for..."