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Daily Archives: September 18, 2014

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Posted on September 18, 2014 | 3 comments

When Harry Met Sally
Directed by Rob Reiner
Written by Nora Ephron
1989/USA
Castle Rock Entertainment/Nelson Entertainment
Repeat viewing/DVD collection
#830 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box]Marie: Tell me I’ll never have to be out there again.

Jess: You will never have to be out there again.[/box]

Generally one would expect me to prefer a romantic comedy from 1943 over one from 1989. This movie was the clear winner in yesterday’s double feature. I consider it the most perfect film in its genre since It Happened One Night (1934).

Sally Albright’s (Meg Ryan) girlfriend talks her into giving her boyfriend Harry (Billy Crystal) a ride from Chicago to New York where both will live after their graduation from college. The trip does not go well. The persnickety Sally and crude Harry don’t hit it off at all and then he comes on to her. She rejects his advances but suggests that they be friends. But Harry contends that a man and woman can’t be friends because sex will get in the way. So Harry and Sally part ways for another 6 years.

When they meet by chance in an airport, Sally is being seen off by her new boyfriend and Harry is about to get married. Sally rejects Harry’s invitation to dinner in the city where both have landed on business.

Segue to a few years later, and they meet by chance in a bookstore. Sally has broken up with her live-in boyfriend and Harry going through a divorce. In their loneliness, they finally become good friends … until sex does in fact get in the way. And doesn’t.

I have seen this movie and it never fails to make me cry. (I am a sucker for a good happy ending.) I love the framing device of the old married couples describing how they met. I love how the costumes and hairstyles perfectly pick up style over the years. I love that Harry and Sally know each other long and well before they fall in love. I love the very funny dialogue and the two performances.

When Harry Met Sally was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Originally for the Screen. I think it definitely got robbed. (I hated Dead Poet’s Society, which won.)

Trailer

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Posted in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

The More the Merrier (1943)

Posted on September 18, 2014 | 9 comments

The More the Merrier
Directed by George Stevens
Written by Robert Russell, Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy, and Lewis R. Foster
1943/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

Benjamin Dingle: [singing] In love or war, with people like us, we’ve got to work fast or we’ll miss the bus. If you straddle a fence and you sit and wait, you get too little and you get it too late./ What’ll you say if we see it through, you stick by me and I’ll stick by you. And our 18 children will be glad we said… / “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead./ And our 18 children will be glad we said, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”

Any film in which my heartthrob Joel McCrea either takes off his shirt or is in love is going to get my vote. This one has that and much, much more.

The war has created a huge housing shortage in Washington, DC. Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) feels it is her duty to rent out a room in her apartment. At the same time, wealthy Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) has arrived in the city to discuss his plans to build additional housing units. He gets there two days before his hotel reservation and is without a place to stay – until he sees Connie’s ad in the paper. Although there is a crowd of applicants waiting on the doorstep for Connie’s return from work and although Connie had firmly decided on a female roommate, the crafty Dingle manages to muscle his way into her apartment for a week. He promptly decides she need a clean-cut top-drawer young man and is unimpressed with Connie’s description of her middle-aged bureaucrat fiancé.

So when Sgt. Joe Carter (McCrea) shows up with the for-rent ad in his hands, Dingle rents half of his room to him. After meeting Connie’s stuffy fiance, and despite the fact that Joe has orders to leave for Africa in two days, Dingle uses his “damn the torpedos” attitude to get him together with Connie. It doesn’t hurt that the two are clearly ga-ga for each other.

The kissing scene in this movie cemented my love affair with Joel McCrea. It is remarkably sexual for something from the Code years. The way Coburn manages to make a basically pushy and obnoxious character endearing is marvelous. Added to that is a very witty screenplay and Steven’s characteristic skill in humanizing a story. So what that people are falling in love at the drop of a hat. I’m completely ready to suspend my disbelief for this one. Highly recommended.

Charles Coburn won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his wonderful performance in this film. The More the Merrier was nominated for five additional Oscars: Best Picture; Best Director; Best Actress; Best Writing, Original Story; and Best Writing, Screenplay.