Starring Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd, Eddie Albert and Jeannie Berlin. Wacky, darkly comic film is not for all tastes, but is a masterpiece of its kind. Grodin is in Florida on the honeymoon from hell, when college girl Shepherd catches his eye. He becomes obsessed with her, following her back to Minnesota where she lives with her overbearing father Albert. Screenplay by Neil Simon; directed by Elaine May.
Starring Tyrone Power, Alice Faye and Don Ameche. This is 20th Century Fox's rip-off of MGM's vastly superior 1936 disaster melodrama "San Francisco". This film does have its moments, including the impressively staged recreation of the 1871 Chicago fire, but overall it's just average. Alice Brady picked up an Oscar playing Mrs. O'Leary, whose cow, according to legend, kicked over a gas lantern that started the blaze. Directed by Henry King.
Starring Topol and Norma Crane. In director Norman Jewison's words, "It's the story of a man and his God, and his problems with his five daughters." Jewison took a successful gamble by casting the role of Tevye with the Israeli actor Topol rather than use Zero Mostel, who originated the part of Broadway. Topol's understated performance is in direct contrast to Mostel, whose over-the-top antics worked best on stage. The beautiful cinematography has an earthy quality which emphasizes the importance of the land in which the story is set -- that would be early 20th-century Ukraine, by the way.
Starring Richard Attenborough, John Hurt and Judy Geeson. Attenborough is terrifying as the serial killer John Christie, who, in the late '40s, framed his tenant for one of his murders. Based on a real case, this film lead to the abolition of the death penalty in Great Britain. Directed by Richard Fleischer.
Starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt. An uncompromising look at the dark side of human nature, this may be director John Huston's finest cinematic offering. Bogart was never better than here, as the gold miner Fred C. Dobbs. His character undergoes a metamorphosis from congenial, average guy to a murderous monster gripped by paranoia. Walter Huston, the director's father, sheds his suave matinee idol image here, instead playing a crusty old prospector who's seen everything. Movies just don't get any better.
