My Movie Journal is Better Than Yours

Notes History

Date Viewed	Venue	Note
07.19.06	Paramount	this second picture is a bit heavier with the wartime patriotism, a bit more Capra-esque with the small-town good-heartedness of the townsfolk, and also perhaps not as scathing controversy-wise... but it's still pretty damn funny. Demarest especially... there's a scene where Bracken keeps trying to look him in the eye and Demarest keeps avoiding the looks... but it's played as two people of about 30 in the frame so you really have to look for it to catch it. His whole performance in this movie is like that... sly winks, background gestures, stern-jawed type stuff... really hilarious though. I do find the female lead in this slightly more wooden than whatshername in Morgan's Creek... she's beautiful though, dressed immaculately by Edith Head, and fills the role alright. Mostly it's the writing itself that's the star though... sure all the actors do a great job delivering the lines (and i bet it was hard work. In both these movies there are some pretty extraordinarily long takes of paragraphs upon paragraphs of dialogue) but it's the words themselves that make people involuntarily giggle. So smart and crisp... you watch a Sturges movie and get a perfect picture of the guy: round glasses, three-piece suit, sitting in a booth of some high-class bar in NYC sipping martinis while he writes. Another great movie... thanks, Paramount!