September 7 - The Lost Weekend

This movie has a scene that happens today – September 7. I hope you will enjoy this movie while watching it tonight.

THE LOST WEEKEND

Don Birnam and his brother Wick are getting set to go to the country for the weekend. Don is a drunk who has been on the wagon for ten days. When his girlfriend Helen shows up he convinces Wick to take her to a concert to which someone has given her two tickets. Wick thinks he has found all of Don’s hidden liquor and left him with no money to buy any, so it’s okay to leave him alone. However, Don steals the money Wick left to pay the cleaning lady. He immediately goes out to a bar to buy liquor. Wick and Helen return and find Don gone. Wick says he’s fed up and leaves for the country. Don returns to his apartment and sneaks in, dodging Wick and Helen. The next morning, on September 7, 1945[22:04 to 28:40, 36:50 – 38:00, 49:50 – 59:07] he finds a note pinned to his door from Helen asking him to call her. Instead Don returns to the bar. He tells the bartender how he met Helen three years before at the opera. He and Helen start dating and Don stops drinking for a while because he’s so in love with her. When her parents come to New York to meet him, he overhears them discussing him. The anxiety of this causes him to start drinking again, but he confesses his alcohol problem to her. He reveals he’s suffering from severe self doubt and he tries to scare Helen off, but she won’t go.  Don leaves the bar and goes home to work on his novel. However, the need for alcohol gets to him. He can’t find the bottle he hid last night. He goes out to a bar and steals a woman’s purse to get money to pay the bar tab. She discovers the theft, but seeing he’s a drunk does not press charges.  Back at his apartment he accidentally finds the bottle he hid and drinks it all. The next morning he wakes to the phone ringing, but he ignores it and goes out to pawn his typewriter to get money for booze. He can’t, as all the pawn shops are closed since it’s Yom Kippur. He meets Gloria who was attracted to him yesterday and she gives him some money. He falls down stairs and is knocked out. He wakes up the next day in the hospital detox ward. He manages to escape. Helen, who spent the night in the hallway outside Don’s apartment is awakened by the landlady and leaves. Don steals a bottle of whiskey from a store. Back at his apartment he drinks the whole bottle while ignoring the phone. He starts to hallucinate. The landlady hears his screams and calls Helen. She stays in the apartment overnight. In the morning he runs away with her coat and pawns it in exchange for a gun.  Helen tries to get the gun from him before he can kill himself. He wrestles it from her. The barkeep arrives and returns his typewriter that he left in the bar. She convinces Don to start writing his novel about his ‘Lost Weekend’.

One of the most realistic accounts of addiction ever filmed. Don will lie, cheat and steal to get alcohol. Fortunately for him he has at least one person who cares for him. Hopefully, he will be able to make a recovery.   

At 1:04:29 he’s told it’s Saturday and on the same day at 1:06:07 that it’s Yom Kippur. This happened in 1945, when the date of Yom Kippur was Saturday, September 8. So the day before is the seventh.

Producer - Charles Brackett

Director - Billy Wilder

Screenplay - Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder

Awards – The film won the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor(Milland) and Best

                 Screenplay Oscars. It was also nominated for the Best Black and White

                 Cinematography, Best Music Score and Best Film Editing at the 18^th Academy

                  Awards.

Runtime – 1 hour 39 minutes

Released – November 16, 1945

Starring –

Ray Milland as Don Birnam

Jane Wyman as Helen St. James

Phillip Terry as Wick Birnam

Howard Da Silva as Nat

Doris Dowling as Gloria

Frank Faylen as 'Bim' Nolan

Mary Young as Mrs. Deveridge

Anita Bolster as Mrs. Foley

Lillian Fontaine as Mrs. St. James

Frank Orth as Opera cloak room attendant

Lewis L. Russell as Mr. St. James

September 6 - The Producers (1968)

This is a movie with a scene that happens today – September 6. I hope you will enjoy this film while watching it tonight.

THE PRODUCERS(1968)

Max Bialystock is a Broadway producer who has fallen on hard times, being reduced to seducing little old ladies so they will invest in his productions. Nerdish accountant Leo Bloom arrives to do his books and discovers that Max raised two thousand more on his last play than he needed, which is fraud. Max persuades Leo to cover this up. Leo has an idea that if someone raised much more than he needed for a play that flopped, the producer could keep all the extra cash. Max immediately decides to put this plan into action with Leo as his partner. After reading many, many terrible scripts, the two settle on Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden.   They persuade the insane ex-Nazi author Franz Liebkind to sell them the  rights to the script. Max sells 25, 000% of the play to his little old ladies and hires an attractive  Swedish receptionist who can’t speak English. They hire the cross-dressing Roger DeBris as the director. On September 6, 1967 [49:53 to 57:14] auditions are held for Springtime for Hitler. Lorenzo St. DuBois, a hippie who wandered in by accident is signed on to play Hitler. The show seems doomed to fail, but the audience takes the play as a satire and it is a big hit. Liedkind tries to kill Max and Leo, angry how they presented his story. Eventually he helps them try to blow up the theater in order to stop the show. The are caught, tried, convicted and sent to prison where they oversell the musical they produce with the prisoners called Prisoners of Love.  

A hilarious old time comedy. That is the film is funny because of the dialogue, not because of overuse of sexual innuendo or gross out sight gags. Still a very funny movie.

Date given in Variety at 49:47 -50

Producer - Sidney Glazier

Director - Mel Brooks

Screenplay - Mel Brooks

Awards – The film won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar. The movie was also nominated for the Best Supporting Actor(Wilder) at the 41^st Academy Awards.

Runtime – 1 hour 28 minutes

Released - March 18, 1968

Starring –

Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock

Gene Wilder as Leo Bloom

Dick Shawn as Lorenzo St. DuBois (L.S.D.)

Kenneth Mars as Franz Liebkind

Lee Meredith as Ulla

Estelle Winwood as "Hold Me! Touch Me!"

Christopher Hewett as Roger De Bris

Andreas Voutsinas as Carmen Ghia

Renée Taylor as the actor playing Eva Braun

Barney Martin as the actor playing Hermann Göring

Bill Macy as the foreman of the jury

William Hickey as the drunk in the bar

Madelyn Cates  as apartment building concierge

September 5 - The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)

This is a movie with a scene that happens today – September 5. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK (1998)

King Louis XIV of France summons Aramis, formerly one of the famed Three Musketeers, and now a priest, to a meeting. The King asks Aramis to find the secret leader of the Jesuits in France and kill him. The Jesuits have been critical of the king’s wars that are causing starvation and riots in France. Aramis agrees. Raoul, the son of Athos, another of the Three Musketeers, intends to propose to Christine, but she catches the King’s eye and Raoul is sent to the front, where he is killed. Athos swears vengeance. After Louis provides for medical aid to Christine’s mother and sister, she becomes his mistress. Aramis, Porthos, Athos and D’Artagnan meet in secret, where Aramis reveals he’s the secret leader of the Jesuits and proposes to depose the king. D’Artagnan, now head of the royal musketeers, refuses to join this plot. The other three visit an island prison, rescuing an inmate who wears an iron mask, disguising his escape by convincing the jailers he is dead. The prisoner looks just like the king. Aramis reveals that on September 5, 1638 [54:58 to 55:07] the  French Queen, Anne of Austria had twins, Louis, who is now the King and Philippe, the Man in the Iron Mask. The twin’s father, Louis XIII had Philippe hidden away and later Louis XIV orders him to wear the iron mask. Philippe agrees to replace his brother. When Christine confesses to Louis that she still loves Raoul and not him, he throws her out.  During a fancy court masque, the three musketeers make the switch. However, Phillipe’s unusually kind actions alert D’Artagnan, so he confronts them and captures Phillipe, while the three musketeers escape. Phillipe says he prefers death to the mask, so Louis orders it put back on. Christine kills herself in despair. The Three Musketeers enter the Bastille to free Philippe, but Louis follows D’Artagnan, who is helping them and blocks their escape route.  Philippe offers to give himself up for their lives, but D’Artagnan reveals he is actually the twins father and won’t let him. The five men charge the King’s troops, who fire blindly and so not one of the three musketeers is killed or seriously hurt. Louis tries to stab Philippe, but instead kills D’Artagnan who jumps between them. Lt. Andre, D’Artagnan’s subordinate is so enraged at his death that he aids the others in switching Louis and Philippe again.  Louis, now wearing the mask is sent off to prison and later exile. Philippe rules as king, with Aramis, Athos and Porthos as his advisors.

A fairly decent swashbuckler. Plenty of action and a decent plot. DiCaprio does a good job of creating two different characters in this film.

Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser (Nan A. Talese, New York, 2006) at page 3 gives his birth date

Producer - Randall Wallace and Russell Smith

Director - Randall Wallace

Screenplay - Randall Wallace

Runtime – 2 hours 12 minutes

Released – March 13, 1998

Starring –

Leonardo DiCaprio as Louis XIV/Philippe

Jeremy Irons as Aramis

John Malkovich as Athos

Gabriel Byrne as D'Artagnan

Gérard Depardieu as Porthos

Anne Parillaud as Queen Mother Anne of Austria

Judith Godrèche as Christine Bellefort

Peter Sarsgaard as Raoul

Edward Atterton as Lieutenant Andre

Hugh Laurie as Pierre, Advisor to King Louis XIV

David Lowe as Advisor to King Louis XIV

September 4 - A Place In The Sun

The is a movie with a scene that happens today – September 4. I hope you will enjoy this film while watching it tonight.

A PLACE IN THE SUN

George Eastman arrives in town to take advantage of a job offer from his wealthy uncle. He is put into an entry level position at the factory, but excluded socially by the wealthy Eastman family. At work George meets Alice Tripp and they begin a relationship in spite of rules forbidding social contact between employees. At a party where George gets promoted to a supervisor position he meets Angela Vickers who comes from another wealthy and socially prominent family. When Alice tells George she’s pregnant, they unsuccessfully try to find an abortionist. Alice insists he marry her, but he keeps putting it off and begins a relationship with Angela Vickers. Finally on September 4, 1950 [1:04:18 to 1:17:05] when George and Alice go to get marry, it’s Labor Day so they can’t. They go to nearby Loon Lake. While out on a boat, Alice accidentally drowns. The police investigate Alice’s death, while Angela’s parents finally warm to George. The police finally get on to George and he is arrested for Alice’s murder. He is tried and convicted. In the end George admits that he is guilty because even though he did not try to kill Alice, he had planned her death and after the boat capsized he did not really try to save her.

This first adult role for Elizabeth Taylor is a fine dramatic film. The characters are some what clichéd and sterotyped, but the storyline is still interesting.  All in all one of tinseltown’s better efforts.

Sign at 1:04:46 says “Monday, September 4^th, Labor Day”

Producer - George Stevens

Director - George Stevens

Screenplay - Michael Wilson and Harry Brown

Awards – The movie won the Best Black-and White Cinematography, Best Black-and-White Costume Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and  Best Screenplay Oscars. It was also nominated for the Best Picture, Best Actor (Clift) and Best Actress(Winters) Oscars at the 24^th Academy Awards

Runtime – 2 hours 2 minutes

Released – August 14, 1951

Starring –

Montgomery Clift as George Eastman

Elizabeth Taylor as Angela Vickers

Shelley Winters as Alice Tripp

Anne Revere as Hannah Eastman

Keefe Brasselle as Earl Eastman

Fred Clark as Bellows, defense attorney

Raymond Burr as Dist. Atty. R. Frank Marlowe

Herbert Heyes as Charles Eastman

Shepperd Strudwick as Anthony 'Tony' Vickers

Frieda Inescort as Mrs. Ann Vickers

Kathryn Givney as Louise Eastman

Walter Sande as Art Jansen, George's Attorney

Ted de Corsia as Judge R.S. Oldendorff

John Ridgely as Coroner

Lois Chartrand as Marsha    

September 3 - Hope and Glory

This is a movie with a scene that happens today – September 3. I hope you will enjoy watching this film tonight.

HOPE AND GLORY

Bill Rowan lives in London with his parents, Clive and Grace, older sister Dawn and younger sister Sue. The family listen to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announce on the radio on September 3, 1939, that war has begun with Germany.  [2:48 to 5:36]  His father enlists in the army. His mother considers evacuating the children to Australia, but finds she emotionally cannot go through with it. The family endures the blitz. Bill joins a gang who scavenge through the ruins. There is a hilarious scene when they find a orphan girl and bribe her with jewelry they have found to play doctor.  Dawn falls for Bruce, a Canadian soldier she has met. Meanwhile the mother develops a friendship with Max, her brother-in-law, whom she was attracted to before she got married. Dawn and her soldier have a falling out even though she has become pregnant by him. After their house burns down in an ordinary house fire, they move in with Bill’s maternal grandfather who lives on the river.  Dawn’s soldier lover returns and they are wed.  Dawn’s baby is born.  Bill would have had to attend his old school for a few weeks, until he could transfer, but it was destroyed by a stray bomb.

An interesting view of an ordinary British family during the Blitz. Much more realistic than the melodramatic “Mrs. Miniver”.   Both comic and poignant at the same time. It is a thoroughly enjoyable film. One of John Boorman’s best.

1939: Countdown to War by Richard Overy (Viking, New York, 2009) at page 108 and the film at 2:55 to 2:58 give the date of the speech

Producer - John Boorman and Michael Dryhurst

Director -  John Boorman

Screenplay - John Boorman

Awards – The movie was nominated for the Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Film Oscars at the 60^th Academy Awards. .

Running Time – 1 hour 53 minutes

Released - November 13, 1987

Starring - 

Sebastian Rice-Edwards as Billy Rowan

Sarah Miles as Grace Rowan

David Hayman as Clive Rowan

Geraldine Muir as Sue Rowan

Sammi Davis as Dawn Rowan

Derrick O'Connor as Mac

Ian Bannen as Grandfather George

Anne Leon as Grandma

Jean-Marc Barr as Corporal Bruce Carrey

September 2 - Friday Night Lights

This is a movie with a scene that happens today – September 2. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

The fans and alumni of the Permian High School Panthers in Odessa, Texas are obsessed about football and expect Coach Gaines to win the state championship. The plays party while hoping their play is good enough to get a college scholarship. On September 2, 1988 [26:12 to 34:04] we see the seasons opening game against Marshall. In this game the star of the team cocky “Boobie” Miles is injured in a play when the Panthers are way ahead because his back up, Chris Comer can’t find his helmet. They lose their second game but Comer spurs them to a come-from-behind win in their third game and they play on to a 5-1 record. Boobie won’t accept that he can’t play anymore and is unable to when he tries in game seven, which the team loses. Afterwards the father of fullback Dan Billingsley, who always rides him about his play,  throws his own state championship ring out the window while drunk.  Permian ends up in a three way tie for a playoff spot, but gets luck and gets one. Boobie clears out his locker. As a result of contentious negotiations with the opposing team in the state finals game, Dallas Carter, the title game is held in the Houston Astrodome. In the title game Permian falls behind, but comes back and almost wins the game at the last second. The coach manages to keep his job and prepares for next year.

An interesting sports movie. The football action sequences are good and the off field stories don’t drift too far into the soap opera realm. This movie keeps you interested for two hours.     

Date given in film at 27:00    

Producer – Brian Grazer

Director -  Peter Berg

Screenplay – David Aaron Cohen and Peter Berg

Runtime – 1 hour 58 minutes

Released – October 8, 2004

Staring –

Billy Bob Thornton as Coach Gaines

Lucas Black as Mike Winchell

Garrett Hedlund as Don Billingsley

Derek Luke as Boobie Miles

Lee Thompson Young as Chris Comer

Tim McGraw as Charles Billingsley

September 1 - Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, Part 2

This is a movie with a scene that happens today – September 1. I hope you enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2

Harry Potter learns Snape replaced the Sword of Gryffindor in Bellatrix LeStrange’s Gringott’s vault with a fake. Using polyjuice potion to disguise herself as Bellatrix LeStrange, Hermione, Harry, Ron and Griphook the Goblin go to Gringott’s, enter her vault and get the cup of Hufflepuff, which is one of Voldemort’s horcruxes. They have to hijack a dragon to get out and when Griphook is killed the sword of Gryffindor vanishes. The trio go to the village of Hogsmede and Aberforth, Dumbledore’s brother helps them get into Hogwarts and meet the remnants of the DA, led by Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom. They are looking for a horcrux Harry has sensed is at Hogwarts. Snape summons a meeting of the students, but when Harry and the Order of the Phoenix show up, McGonagall and Snape fight, ending in Snape fleeing. Voldemort arrives and gives them an hour to turn over Harry, but they set up defenses instead. Luna Lovegood suggests that the horcrux is Rowena Ravenclaw’s lost diadem and that the Grey Lady, the ghost of Ravenclaw House might know where it is. Harry convinces the Grey Lady to tell him that the diadem is in the room of requirement. Meanwhile Ron and Hermione open the Chamber of Secrets and use a basilisk tooth to destroy Hufflepuff’s cup. They share a kiss. Voldemort’s forces attack. Harry is in the room of requirement, but Draco Malfoy and companions are in the room also. Harry finds the diadem, but Goyle casts a fienfyre spell that destroys the room and the diadem. Harry saves Draco. Harry overhears a conversation between Voldemort and Snape where Voldemort kills Snape because he thinks that the Elder wand Voldemort has been using does not fully obey him because Snape defeated its last master, Dumbledore and that killing Snape will force the Elder wand to fully obey Voldemort.  Snape gives Harry a memory from which Harry learns that Snape loved his mother and vowed to protect her son, acting as a double agent and that Dumbledore asked Snape to kill him. Harry also learns that when Voldemort tried to kill him originally, Harry became an unintentional horcrux and that he must die to kill this part of Voldemort. Voldemort threatens to kill everyone at Hogwarts unless Harry surrenders. Harry sees that Tonks, Lupin and Fred Weasley have been killed so he gives himself up to Voldemort. Voldemort uses the killing curse on Harry, who ends up in limbo. He decides to go back and defeat Voldemort. Harry’s body is carried to the school, and when Nevill Longbottom defies Voldemort, Harry reveals he is alive. As Harry and Voldemort duel, Neville pulls the sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat and uses it to kill the snake Nagini, the last horcrux. The duel ends when Voldemort’s killing curse rebounds killing him. Harry explains that since it was Draco who disarmed Dumbledore, he became the Elder wand’s master, but when Harry defeated Draco he had become its master. Harry destroys the Elder wand. 19 years later on September 1, 2017 [1:54:24 to 1:57:52] Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione see their children off on the Hogwarts Express.

A fantastic end to a fantastic film series. This film is the darkest one and many secrets are revealed. Outstanding special effects and acting. 

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (Scholastic Inc., New York, 2007) at page 753 we are told it is the “first of September”

Producer - David Heyman, David Barron and J. K. Rowling

Director - David Yates

Screenplay - Steve Kloves

Awards – The film was nominated for the Best Art Direction, Best Makeup and Best

                 Visual Effects Oscars at the 84^th Academy Awards.

Runtime – 2 hours 10 minutes

Released – July 7, 2011

Staring –

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter

Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, Harry's best friend

Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Harry's best friend and Ron's girlfriend

Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, the potions master and head of Slytherin house

Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, a Death Eater

Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid, Harry's half-giant friend

Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick, the Charms master and Head of Ravenclaw house     

                          as Griphook, a Goblin and former employee at Gringotts Bank

Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy, a Death Eater and son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy

Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort, an evil, power-hungry wizard

Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore, former headmaster of Hogwarts

John Hurt as Ollivander, a wandmaker abducted by the Death Eaters

Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's father and a disgraced Death Eater

Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, Harry's godfather

Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, the new headmaster of Hogwarts

Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts

David Thewlis as Remus Lupin, a member of the Order of the Phoenix

Julie Walters as Molly Weasley, the Weasley matriarch