I saw Carnival Boat (1932). Just over an hour long, story set in a lumber camp where the son of the foreman falls in love with an entertainer on the carnival boat (no sign of any carnival though).
Scenes on a runaway lumber train and logs jammed in a dam provide some excitement. Some of the acting was poor.
The entertainer was played by Ginger Rogers in a very early film in her career and made a year before she and Fred Astaire came to prominence in Flying down to Rio.
Cropsey 6/10
[Netflix documentary on child abductions and murders, possibly carried out on the grounds of an abandoned asylum on NY's Staten Island ].
The Omen 8/10
[Rewatched it on Youtube - still atmospheric despite the silliness. Great acting saves it, and the child looks the part ]
I saw The Penguin Pool Murder (1932) - murder mystery set at an aquarium where the victim is discovered in the penguin pool. Schoolteacher (Edna May Oliver) assists the police inspector in solving the mystery. Minor film and is in the Miss Marple/Murder She Wrote genre.
Frances Ha (2012) 8.5/10
I watched Second Chorus (1940) which starred Fred Astaire and Paulette Goddard. Ok film but not one of Astaire's best. Paulette Goddard is attractive in the film but was not a singer and had to be trained by Astaire for the one number where they danced.
Burgess Meredith was also in the film. At the time Paulette Goddard was married to Charlie Chaplin, divorced him in 1942 and 2 years later married Burgess Meredith.
The Caretaker (1963) 8.5/10
Rescue Dawn 7/10
Kuma (2012) 7/10
I saw Stage Struck (1958). An aspiring actress is trying to break through into Broadway theatre. The film is a remake of Morning Glory (1933) which was Katherine Hepburn's third film.
Susan Strasberg who played the actress in Stage Struck was the daughter of Lee Strasberg who set up the Actors Studio and was the key person in method acting. This film was also her third film but she was no Katherine Hepburn and did not get to the top as Hepburn did. The film does have its moments but isn't a great film.
The film was directed by Sidney Lumet and this was his second feature film but it is not in the same league as his first, which is the great 12 Angry Men.
The film also starred Henry Fonda. It also starred Christopher Plummer in his feature film debut, Joan Greenwood and Herbert Marshall.
The Ashes (Popioly) (1965) 9.5/10
The Ashes (Popioly) (1965) 9.5/10
But nothing to do with The Ashes which starts tonight 
The Ashes (Popioly) (1965) 9.5/10
But nothing to do with The Ashes which starts tonight
I never watch that awful sport 
I saw Ann Vickers (1933) which starred Irene Dunne. Based on a novel by Sinclair Lewis it's a short film at 76 minutes but could easily have been made into a longer film with the material it covered. Definitely a pre-Hay code film where the heroine is assumed to have an abortion, scenes in a women's prison where a convict is executed by hanging and another convict is being whipped, the heroine subsequently has an affair with a married man and has an illegitimate child and the film is allowed to have a happy ending.
The film starts in 1918 where the USA becomes involved. In an early scene where there's a party for the departing soldiers, I saw a man looking rather admiringly at Irene Dunne. That is irrelevant to the film but I've checked and it was a cameo appearance by the film's director John Cromwell.
There's a scene in a hotel room with Irene Dunne and her first lover in the film. The camera pans away from them to the open window where we see a cinema with a sign announcing next week's film "Joan the Woman". The scene darkens for a moment and then lightens again to show that a week has passed and the next week's film is "Shoulder Arms". That of course is the Chaplin film. That may be a bit of a goof as Shoulder Arms was released in the States on 20 October 1918 and WW1 ended of course on 11 November 2018.
Sara (1997) 7/10
Hunted (1952) 8.5/10
