THUNDER BAY (1953)

Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart followed up their collaboration on the excellent THE NAKED SPUR with THUNDER BAY. Stewart is a hardworking man determined to find oil in the Gulf no matter what, even if it fucking kills him! His financial backer (Jay C. Flippen) is just as determined and has invested all of his money into this project. If it fails they're fooked, but things aren't just as easy as setting up a rig and pumping the oil out. No siree Bob, the local shrimp fishermen believe the oilers are gonna kill all of the shrimp, so they'll stop at nothing to get these assholes out of here...even if they have to blow up the entire oil rig!

On a technical level, the film is fine and looks great. Also the acting is good, especially Stewart who carries the entire thing with his portrayal of a man-possessed. The thing that pulls the movie down is the script. It's passable, but I wish that it had been grittier and never included the second romantic subplot between Stewart and Joanne Dru. The Dan Duryea / Marcia Henderson romance actually added to the film, but the Stewart / Dru one made no sense and it was a distraction from the exciting oil drilling story. And speaking of oil drilling, I wish there had been a little introduction to off shore drilling earlier on in the film (maybe in a meeting with the towns folk). I don't know shit about off shore drilling, so when they started yelling about air pockets and water spurting up through the hole I had no fucking clue what was going one except that it seemed pretty important.

Overall, an entertaining picture, but it's pretty dated, simplified and overly melodramatic. A must-watch for Stewart fans though.

PORNSTAR PETS (2005)

Clocking in at 52 minutes, PORNSTAR PETS is the sweet and interesting, no-frills documentary about pornstars and their pets.  They've got everything you could imagine: cats, dogs, turtles, birds, snakes and even some unusual animals like sugar gliders, giant millipedes, horses and a rat.  Very little nudity (all from film clips), just simple interviews with adult industry actors about their pets.

For the most part, the pet parents seemed to really love and care for their pets, but there was one or two...I don't know.  And more than a few that seemed to be not operating with a full deck, but whatever.  And the one who fed her dog nothing but spicy shrimp...that can't be good!  But what the hell do I know?  Another thing I found interesting was just how cluttered and rundown most of the people's living areas looked.

Interesting premise for a documentary and there's worse ways to spend a hour.

YOU GOTTA STAY HAPPY (1948)

Borrowing heavily from IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, YOU GOTTA STAY HAPPY is the well-meaning, but not really funny, romantic comedy about a mega-wealthy heiress (Joan Fontaine) who runs away from her forced relationship (on her wedding night!) and hides in the hotel room of a very sleepy pilot (Jimmy Stewart). In his sleepiness he thinks that she's just a innocent girl that got mixed up with a married butthole, so he allows her to sleep in his bed while he takes the sofa. The next day she, feeling an attraction to him, begs to be brought along on his cargo plane trip across the country. Reluctantly he agrees and she joins she rest of the cargo: two newlyweds, an embezzler on the run, a dead guy in a coffin, some lobsters, a cigar smoking chimpanzee...and maybe love?

As a time passer it's entertaining enough, but the script is pretty weak. There's no witty dialogue and zero spark between Stewart and Fontaine. In fact, if it was up to me I would have just replaced Joan altogether. Worth watching, if you're a Jimmy Stewart fan, but other than that you'd be better off just watching IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT again. Oh yeah, the chimpanzee is not as funny as you would hope. Actually he's kinda depressing since he remains in a cage the entire movie. I felt sorry for him.