The Sound of Music

It’s been 45 years since we first heard Julie Andrews sing, “The Sound of Music.” The Sound of Music was first released in March of 1965. The film stars Julie Andrews as Maria and Christopher Plummer as navy captain von Trapp.

Maria is a postulant who is sent to look after the Captain’s seven mischievous children. The Captain is a widowed strict father who spends little time with his children. At first the children are resentful towards their new governess, but after spending time with her they begin to see her as a mother.

Captain von Trapp has been spending time with Baroness Elsa Schraeder. Elsa feels threaten by Maria and convinces her to go back to Nonnberg. When Maria returns back to the von Trapps, she finds out that the Captain is engaged to Elsa. But they call off their engagement once the Captain sees how Maria reintroduces music back into the family.

The film is set in the 1930’s in Salzburg, Austria when the Nazis are beginning to get control.

Once Captain von Trapp returns from his honeymoon he is suppose to report to Nazi headquarters but he opposes Nazism. So to escape the family performs at a music festival, where they perform, “So Long, Farwell.”

Although the film is critically acclaimed and is considered a very popular musical at some moments the film seems boring. The film is not really for everyone, it’s more for people who enjoy musicals and classic movies.

The cast made a special appearance on the for-the-First-Time-in-45-Years-The-Sound-of-Music-Cast-Reunites Oprah show on October 28 of this year.

Psycho

With the infamous shower scene, “Psycho” has to be the best movie of all time. Considered as Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest film, “Psycho” stars Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, and John Gavin. It was released in 1960 and was adapted from Robert Bloch’s 1959 novel, Psycho, which was based a Wisconsin serial killer, Ed Gein.

Marion Crane (Leigh) is a secretary who is running away with $40,000 that she stole from her employer. On her way to California to see her boyfriend, Sam Loomis (Gavin), Crane stops at a Motel that seems to be hiding from the world. There she meets Norman Bates (Perkins). Bates is a lonely man who supposedly lives with his controlling mother.

The highlight of this mysterious thriller is the shower scene. In this scene, Crane decides to go back and return the money. She gets in the shower to clean herself when Bates’s mother comes in and continually stabs Crane.

To hide his mother’s crime, Bates cleans up the mess and hides Crane’s body in her car and dumps the car in a swap. Worried about her missing sister, Lila Crane visits and persuades Sam Loomis into helping her find Marion.
The film ends with a twist that leaves a person asking, “What just happened?”

In 1998, there was a remake starring Anne Hache as Marion Crane, Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates, and Julianne Moore as Lila Crane. It is a horrible remake. The movie is trying to hard to resemble the original. Know one can remake a Hitchcock film, they can try but they will most likely fail.

The film is available at Netflix.

Dial M for Murder

In 1954, Alfred Hitchcock released Dial M for Murder, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings. The movie is a suspense thriller centered on a love triangle between Tony (Milland) and his wife, Margot Wendice (Kelly) and Mark Halliday (Cummings). Tony finds out about Margot and Marks affair when he discovers a letter written by Mark in Margot’s handbag. Tony steals the letter out of curiosity and then blackmails his wife as a first step into plotting to kill her.

Motivated by jealousy and greed, Tony develops a plan to have someone murder Margot for him. He blackmails Swan, an old classmate, into agreeing to murder his wife. The night Margot is to be killed Tony establishes his alibi. He goes to a steak party with Mark while Swan enters into their house and hides behind the curtains waiting for Margot to pick up the phone. Tony phones home at a specific time. When Margot picks up the phone she is attacked from behind. Swan attempts to strangle her with a scarf. But earlier Margot had left a pair of scissors on the desk. She stabs Swan with them and he dies.

Although Tony's plan was ruined he quickly improvised and covered up Swan's mistakes. Chief Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) enters the investigation. Margot is then charged and convicted of murdering Swan. Hubbard is a clever inspector that has an intuition that Margot is innnocent. Hubbard then comes up with a plan to catch Tony red handed.

Netflix has the movie available for rent.

Casablanca

Casablanca was directed by Michael Curtiz (1943). The film starred Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine, Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund, and Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo.

The film is set at the start of WWII. Refugees travel to Casablanca and desperately wait for a Visa to travel to America. Rick (Bogart) owns a very popular nightclub, Rick’s Café Americain, where people go to drink and gamble. Rick is selfish and bitter. He lost the love of his life, Ilsa (Bergman). Ilsa left him at the train station in Paris with a note.

Ilsa travels to Casablanca with her husband, Victor Laszlo (Henreid). Victor is a Resistance leader, who escaped from a concentration camp. The Germans want to keep him in Casablanca. Victor is asking around if anyone has a Visa for him and Ilsa. But the only person that can help them out is Rick. Rick was left with “letters of transit.” Both Ilsa and Victor try and ask Rick for the letters but Rick refuses. Rick tells Victor to, “Ask your wife,” why he won’t give them the letters.

Victor then figures out that something happened between them but all he cares about is getting Ilsa out of Casablanca. Rick is torn between being with the woman he loves and helping the women he loves escape with her husband.

Rick and Ilsa were in love with each other. But once Ilsa found out that Victor was alive she left Rick. In the end, you are sort of hoping that Rick and Ilsa end up together. But Rick knows that Ilsa is meant to be with Victor which is why he tells her to get on the plane.

Casablanca is constintly rank near the top of every greatest movie list.

Netflix has the movie available for rent. Amazon also has it on sale. The prices range from $5.27 to $18.10, brand new.

Sabrina

In 1954 Director Billy Wilder wrote the screenplay for Sabrina with the help from Ernest Lehman and Samuel Taylor (who wrote the original play). Audrey Hepburn stars as Sabrina Fairchild, Humphrey Bogart as Linus Larrabee, and William Holden as David Larrabee.

The movie is like a fairy tale. Overworked Linus Larrabee comes from a wealthy family, falls in love with his chauffer’s young daughter, Sabrina Fairchild. At first, Sabrina is in love with Linus’s brother David, who does not give her any attention. It’s not until Sabrina returns from cooking school in Paris that David notices her. But David is engaged to Elizabeth Tyson, whose father is involved in a business deal with Linus.

Both families disapprove of David and Sabrina being together. Sabrina’s father, Thomas Fairchild (John Williams), tells his daughter, “Don’t reach for the moon child,” meaning don’t have high expectations about life and marrying David. Although he wants the best for his daughter he wants her to be realistic about her life.

Linus comes up with a plan to get Sabrina to fall in love with someone else and eventually forget about David.

In a way Linus deceives Sabrina. He starts taking her out to the best restaurants and to watch plays in the city. But after spending time with Sabrina and getting to know her Linus ends up falling in love with her.

It’s amazing how at first he just wants to send her back to Paris so that he could continue on with his business deal but in the end all he wants to do is go away with her to Paris.

If you are ever having problems with your relationships, this movie will helps you forget about your problems.

In 1995, Director Sydney Pollack did a remake of Sabrina with Harrison Ford as Linus and Julia Ormond as Sabrina. If you are going to watch Sabrina, do not see the remake. The original is a lot better.

The movie is available at Netflix and Blockbuster.

Night of the Living Dead

George A. Romero's, Night of the Livning Dead, came out in 1968 starring Duane Jones and Judith O'Dea. The film is about a group of people who are trapped in a abandoned house while zombies are roaming around devouring the living.

In the first scene, Barbara (O'Dea) and her brother Johnny are visiting their father's grave. As they are about to leave a zombie creeps up and grabs Barbara. This movie is full of terror and suspense. Athough the zombies walk a little slow the way they move is creepy. They walk one step at a time with a blank look on their face. The movie is terrifying because the thought of being eaten alive is unimaginable.

In the movie the zombies are knocking down the windows and doors to get to the group of survivors. The zombies are sticking their hands through any little opening to get a hold of Barbara. They succeed. The zombies get their hands on her and pull her outside the house. Ben (Jones) tries to save Barbara but he is out numbered. To survive he hides in the cellar until morning.

The morning is calm, there are birds chirping. There is a group of men, who are fighting back against the zombies. The group of men walks over to the house to check it out. Ben hears the dogs barking. He walks out of the cellar, cautiously, to an empty house. All of the zombies are gone. At last there is hope that Ben has survived the zombies. One of the men spots Ben through the window and thinks he is a zombie. Ben is shot between the eyes.

The ending is somewhat dissapointing. Ben, the lead character/hero of the movie, is killed. This rarely happens in movies. But when it does it leaves you feeling upset because you want the lead character/hero to survive and live on.

To rent the movie, Neflix has it available, you only have to pay $8.99 a month and you get to rent as many movies as you want. Amazon also sells the movie. The lowest price for a used movie is $6.50 and brand new is $8.29.