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High Sierra
Very Good 66 Points 1941

High Sierra remains a very entertaining movie some sixty years after it made Humphrey Bogart a star. In many ways it set the template for future antihero movies made in realistic settings. But never mind that. With Bogie at his best, working from a script written by John Huston and W.R. Burnett…

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WikChip Video Classic Trailer from Hollywood's Gold...
The Lady Eve
Great 66 Points 1941

Preston Sturges made RomComs that are funny, sexy, glamorous, clever and sophisticated. The Lady Eve proves the point. It still works three quarters of a century later, especially with the proto-modern Barbara Stanwyck as the minx in the middle of a screwball con-game extraordinaire.

Modern…

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WikChip Image The Lady Eve dress by Edith Head
The Palm Beach ...
Good 66 Points 1942

The Palm Beach Story hasn’t aged well.

A Preston Sturges’ classic, funny and loaded with iconic style, its heavy-handed comedy sometimes clanks.

No? Sue me. I’m into romantic comedies mostly for the comedy, albeit not those with too many pratfalls.

More egregiously, the use of "colo…

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WikChip Video Now this is a trailer. Personality, i...
In Old California
Good 66 Points 1942

In Old California is a simpleminded recreation of Old Sacramento in 1848 and then 1849, made in 1942. A quasi-historical tale, it mostly exists to showcase John Wayne looking quite-the-dandy, from Boston even. The settings are the thing now: pre-49er San Francisco and then up the river to Old…

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WikChip Image John Wayne, the Boston Dandy
Casablanca
Perfect 73 Points 1942

The best movie ever is still fresh, funny, romantic and captivating after all these decades. Try it as a date movie, perfect for him and for her. After all, “we’ll always have Paris.”

Casablanca remains important because it transcendently dealt with life-and-death political challenges, nam…

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Hail the Conque...
Very Good 66 Points 1944

Hail The Conquering Hero is a welcome stop on the Tour de Sturges, even if not one of the best.

The Greatest Generation dealt with challenge differently than we 2nd Millenniums do, to put it mildly. Preston Sturges made Hail The Conquering Hero during World War II, right after the Marines…

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WikChip Image Demarest turns Bracken into a hero
Henry V
None Yet 0 Points 1944
Double Indemnity
Perfect 66 Points 1944

Want to hear what perfect dialog sounds like? Listen to Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. Credit Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain and director Billy Wilder, three legendary writers who didn’t get along but nonetheless birthed “the paradigmatic film noir.”1

A perfect…

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WikChip Video MacMurray & Stanwyck speak perfect di...
The Lost Weekend
None Yet 0 Points 1945
Miracle on 34th...
None Yet 0 Points 1947