Have You Ever Seen

Inside Man is a clever heist film with the twist staring you in the face from the beginning. It's also the first Spike Lee or Jodie Foster film to be reviewed on Have You Ever Seen in quite some time. Foster and Denzel Washington's scenes together are fantastic. The 2 of them, plus Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor deliver. Ironically, though, for a film with such intensity for 2 straight hours, the actors are generally calm. Well, Denzel is showboating, but he's Denzel. You can't reign in that charisma machine. So for my 734th episode, settle in to hear about a snappy caper film as I monologue about Spike Lee's biggest hit, Inside Man.
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It's a short one for episode #733 of Have You Ever Seen, as I discuss Anthony Mann's biopic about the best-selling bandleader from the '30s & '40s. Smash hits Moonlight Serenade & In The Mood are Glenn Miller's 2 most-recognizable songs, tunes you'll know the minute you hear them. This is a straight-ahead "based on real people" movie (including his loving wife, Helen), but Mann, who often worked with James Stewart in this era, was an underrated director. And while Jimmy has OFTEN come up on this podcast, this is a first for June Allyson...and we also have a memorable cameo by the great trumpeter Louis Armstrong. So, honestly, take a listen to my sentimental review of the sentimental Glenn Miller Story.
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I've got another multi-movie episode here in the 732nd edition of Have You Ever Seen. Jacques Tourneur directs Out Of The Past and Robert Siodmak is at the helm of The Spiral Staircase, even if it feels at times like one directed the other. Yet they both do a very good job with these films noir, including killing off many of their characters. Rhonda Fleming is in both, but in Past you've got Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas & Jane Greer, who gives one of the better performances in the history of femmes fatale. In Staircase, Dorothy McGuire, George Brent and Ethel Barrymore have centre stage...and they all deliver too. The first flick has a VERY complex plot, while the second is a straight-forward "a killer is on the loose" whodunit. So lend me 50 minutes of your time as I scoop out the innards of Out Of The Past and The Spiral Staircase.
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W.C. Fields makes his debut on Have You Even Seen in this 731st episode where I talked about 3 of his classic laugh-fests: International House, It's A Gift and The Bank Dick. George Burns & Gracie Allen turn up in International House and Una Merkel plays Fields' daughter in It's A Gift, so we've got 4 AFI Old-Timey Actors in one super-show. First up, you get the "Grand Hotel of comedy", where the gags are quite risqué (even considering it was made before the production code), followed by the funniest one in this three-pack: It's A Gift. Fields is REALLY in textbook mumbling, drunken form in The Bank Dick, with its all-over-the-place plot and random gags. So to bring this Easter Weekend home, cue up my one-man-show about the House, the Gift and the Dick, as W.C. does his thing as only he could.
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Easter probably called for a chat about the silent version of either The Ten Commandments or Ben-Hur, but no. I'm talking about a 1932 Ernst Lubitsch rom-com that's excellent with the rom, yet only smile-inducing with the com. Covering Trouble In Paradise also gets Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis and Herbert Marshall on Have you Ever Seen for the first time. They're all well-served by the infamous Lubitsch Touch. Here a rich, pampered, unworthy fail-daughter (Francis) is set up to be ripped off by clever thieves (Hopkins and Marshall). But they're all likable, the romance(s) work great and you even end up rooting for all the characters, even though each of them could easily seem despicable. Lubitsch: one of the greats in this genre. So cue up Trouble In Paradise in this 730th edition of HYES, where I give you the info about some pre-Code lovin' and stealin' European shennanigans.
Jot down some thoughts about classic movies and tell me about them. My email is "[email protected]", my Twitter is "@moviefiend51" and my Bluesky is "ryan-ellis." Also, tickle that subscribe button and then take some time to write a review and rate the podcast as well. Last thing? Follow me on Letterboxd: RyanHYES.