1953 - THUNDER BAY, not one of the better James Stewart/Anthony Mann films.

The third collaboration between James Stewart and director Anthony Mann was not one of their best.  Stewart plays an oil wildcatter who raises money to set up an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico to "drill baby drill" because as Stewart says, "America needs oil."  However the shrimp fishermen aren't crazy about the oil explorers drilling into their shrimp beds.  There lies the contrived conflict.

This is a mediocre film at best.  The chief offender is the very poor script.  Stewart falls in love with the head shrimp fisherman's pretty daughter played by Joanna Dru one of the blandest performers of the 1950's.  Dru plays a bitter woman who has been "used" by men in the past whatever that means. Their romance is very forced.  Anyway the actors go through the motions with this story for the most part.  James Stewart always brought a kind of integrity to the films he appeared in this one is no different.  Stewart's oil drilling buddy is played by Dan Duryea who always seemed to play weaselly little bad guys especially in some of Fritz Lang's films.  Duryea was always fun to watch in the many films he showed up in throughout his career.  He worked with Stewart for the last time in the excellent Flight of the Phoenix.

 

Anthony Mann had a weak script and apparently knew it.  But Mann and his cinematographer William Daniels managed some nice location photography in Louisiana and the Gulf which is about the only reason to even give this film a look.

 

Stewart and Mann were a good team for a while but their best films were the five westerns they made together which are kind of minor classics in the genre.

The film was written by Borden Chase and John Michael Hayes, the running time is 103 minutes. 

1939 - PEACE ON EARTH, 1955 - GOOD WILL TO MEN, a couple of depressing cartoons

A couple of downer cartoons, Peace on Earth and it's remake Good Will to Men are about nothing less than the end of civilization as we know it as the human race annihilates itself in a world war.  With people now extinct, little cartoon animals take over and rebuild the world. 

Peace on Earth is actually very well made.  Apparently the director Hugh Harman felt it wasn't enough to entertain people with cute cartoon animals running around, he had a few big thoughts about the fate of mankind.  This film is reasonably effective but after all this human slaughter watching little bunnies hoping around rebuilding some kind of animal civilization is a little off putting.  It's still worth a look.  When Peace on Earth came out in 1939 the world was about to be plunged into World War II so this film wasn't that far off the mark. A real oddball of a  film.

 

Peace on Earth was obviously influential since it was remade in 1955, in fashionable widescreen called Good Will to Men.  In this version mankind essentially destroys itself with nuclear weapons again leaving more cute little cartoon animals to rebuild the world.

Both these films are set at Christmas time to really drive home the "thou hall not kill" and "peace on earth" stuff to an audience.  However cartoon mice singing Christmas carols at the end of these films is kind of weird.  In general the 1939 version of this story is more visually interesting than the remake,

Peace on Earth runs 9 minutes, Good Will to Men runs 8 minutes   

2010 - THE WAY, a modest but very good drama

After the death of his son who was hiking on the Camino de Santiago a trail that has been a pilgrimage for Christian followers since 1492.  A father decides to mourn and pay tribute to his son by completing the son's pilgrimage.  Along the way he meets up with three other hikers, a divorced woman recovering from an abusive spouse, a British writer suffering from writer's block and an overweight man trying to lose weight.  

The story of The Way involves the interaction of these four individuals as they learn to bond with each other on the pilgrimage.  As trite as the plot may sound this is actually a rather touching film.  The relationships among the hikers are presented in an understated manner and there is no inappropriate love story to spoil the mood of the film.

The writer and director actor Emilo Estevez cast his father Martin Sheen as the grieving father and Estevez plays the deceased son in flashbacks.  Estevez shot this film on a tight budget with a small crew.  Sheen gives an excellent understated performance and the rest of the cast does very well as his hiking partners.

 

The film showcases some beautiful Spanish scenery and architecture.  The Way is touching and inspirational in a good way it could have easily went over the top with a lot of sloppy sentimentality but the restraint in the storytelling really works for the film.  The Way is kind of an undiscovered little gem of a film. 

 This running time for The Way is 123 minutes. 

2017 - CHRISTMAS GETAWAY, is the prototypical Hallmark Christmas movie

Christmas Getaway is a good example of the Hallmark Channel's November and December Christmas movie onslaught.  The film is competently put together by the director Mel Damski who was a veteran of many TV movies and series.  The film features a cast of very good looking people who if they will probably never star in a big budget action movie franchise (like most of those are ever any good) are professional performers who know how to deliver their corny dialog without bumping into the furniture as they say.

This constantly recycled Hallmark plot goes something like this.  A big city writer journeys to a small mountain town to write an article on what else, Christmas in a small mountain town.  She meets a widower with a young daughter naturally.  It's all incredibly easy to guess what will happen next, the travel writer and the widower will make goo goo eyes at each other for the next hour and a half.  There will be romantic misunderstandings but eventually true love will find a way. This story all takes place during Christmas but the reality is that the Christmas setting is really not important to the story.  This romance could have been set during the 4th of July, Hanukkah, Ramadan or National Spaghetti Day for that matter.

 

The film has the usual supporting cast, the white writer has a black female friend she can rehash her romantic troubles with.  The widower has a mother who looks like she's only about 2 years older than him. There's and old guy hanging around for no particular reason.  Finally there is an overly cute little girl to bond with the travel writer who will become her surrogate mom.  The women all have the famous Hallmark hair style with half of it flipped over their shoulders. The men always have that rugged mountain man look with their sort of facial hair which is not quite a beard.  It usually makes me think that the female lead is kissing a face that must feel like a Brillo pad.

It's really hard to criticize a movie like this, it is what it is.  Christmas Getaway is a well done feel good holiday film, and it is well made.

This movie was written by Marlene McPherson, Elizabeh Snyder and Tracy Andreen.  That's a lot of writers for such a cookie cutter of a scrip.  The running time is 90 minutes.