IN HARM'S WAY (1965)

Reminiscent, at least to me, of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, IN HARM'S WAY also tells the story of various military personnel and their wives, husbands and lovers in Hawaii during 1941/1942.  And at 165 minutes it packs in a lot of story.

U. S. Navy Captain John Wayne is on duty during the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Kirk Douglas is his executive officer.  They manage to get their ship safely away, but other problems arise when Wayne disobeys orders while trying to track down an enemy vessel.  He's stripped of command and sentenced to desk duty.  Kirk has it even worse when he finds out that his wife was off screwing some dude on the beach during the attack and killed!  Other characters include John Wayne's estranged son who is also in the Navy and has thrown in with a seedy officer; the seedy officer himself; a nurse who's wanting to knock boots with The Duke; Burgess Meredith as Wayne's roommate; Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews and Franchot Tone as officers and the ridiculously sexy Jill Haworth as a nurse involved with both Wayne's son and Douglas.  There's also a side story about officer Tom Tyron and his wife Paula Prentiss, but it could have been cut completely.

IN HARM'S WAY is a good watch.  Most of the dramatic scenes were excellent, but unfortunately the action scenes towards the end are terribly dated and kinda boring.  The film had my total attention when Kirk and Jill were on the beach or when Wayne was making googly-eyes at Patricia Neal, but then the model boats come out with water splashing around and I felt my attention fading.  Also, IN HARM'S WAY just lacks the sheer acting power and emotional charge of FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.  That movie was dynamite!  (Yes, I wrote that in Graham Chapman's voice.)

Entertaining watch with a impressive supporting cast, but dated.  Recommended for classic movie fans.

THE GOODBYE GIRL (1977)

Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role, huh?  Four other Oscar nominations, hum? I guess a lot has changed between 1977 and today because this film was lost on me.

Dancer Marsha Mason's actor boyfriend just dumped her and moved out of the country.  Even worse, he subleased their apartment to another actor, Richard Dreyfuss, without informing her.  So now, kinda like in THE MORE THE MERRIER, she has an uninvited guest living with her.  At first they are at each other like cats and dogs, but of course they eventually fall in love.  Never saw that coming!

Normally I'm a fan of Neil Simon's work, but this one wasn't that good.  I didn't care for the characters.  Dreyfuss comes across as a self-absorbed dick and Mason's entire existence seems to revolve around if she has a boyfriend or not.  I didn't feel any sympathy of either one of them.

As far as the acting goes, Richard Dreyfuss was pretty much your standard onscreen Richard Dreyfuss.  I thought he was much better in JAWS.  Marsha Mason...ehh, she wasn't all that good, but maybe that was just the pathetic character she was playing.  All in all, I found the entire movie to be a slight bore.  Unlikable characters, small kid full of wise-beyond-her-years wisecracks, highly predictable but still disappointing ending (there's no way in hell these two loons are gonna make it), 70's interior designs, interesting outdoor NYC street scenes, Dreyfuss playing a supergay Richard III (the only funny part of the movie), mediocre acting (Woody Allen should have won the Acting Oscar instead for ANNIE HALL). 

Not a bad film just a dated (what the hell was the "blood test" line about?) and boring one.  Skip it.

STRANGER ON HORSEBACK (1955)

Circuit judge Joel McCrea is making the rounds when he comes upon a town that's run completely by one man, Josiah Bannerman (John McIntire).  There also happened to be an undocumented shooting a few days ago involving Bannerman's son, Tom (Kevin McCarthy).  The shooting was supposedly in self-defense, but once McCrea starts doing some digging he sees that the younger Bannerman has a history of killing people in "self-defense".  He arrests Tom, but that go over like a dry wet fart with Bannerman and his hired guns.  Will McCrea live long enough to get Tom to trial?

The story's not original, but the strong cast makes this an interesting time waster.  Unfortunately, due to the lack of action scenes the runtime is only 66 minutes (including the credits).  Director Jacques Tourneur had a lot of films under his belt by this time in his career, so I'm sure he knew the script needed punching up, but I'm guessing the budget didn't allow it.  Fortunately, his next film, the same year's WICHITA (also staring McCrea) turned out better.

Good cast, steady pace, low action, forced romantic storyline, cat sitting on a desk, nice photography, unoriginal story.  Average lower budget 1950's Western.