Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) is a drama directed by Mike Nichols. The screenplay by Ernest Lehman is an adaptation of the play of the same title by Edward Albee.




The film stars Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Segal and Sandy Dennis.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton play George and Martha, a middle aged married couple. George is a professor of History at a small New England College. Martha is the daughter of the President of the University.

George and Martha are a couple who have a marriage that is truly love-hate.






George Segal and Sandy Dennis play a young newly married couple, Nick and Honey. Nick is a new professor of Biology at the University.

Nick and Honey are invited to drinks at George and Martha's house after a party at the University.

As the film goes on the characters get drunker, angrier and some painful secrets are revealed.

George is initially seen with a certain meekness which gives way to a raging psychological torment all his own.

Martha is a cruedly boisterous hard drinking woman who launches into many loud and lengthy tirades. However, there is a certain sympathy for Martha and you are allowed brief glimpses of the warm and lovable woman she could have been.




At first Nick appears to be a devoted husband. But we learn as the story unfolds, Nick didn't marry Honey because he loved her, but because he thought she was pregnant and because of her money. Nick is also not above committing adultery.

Honey is a mousy, innoscent and naive woman at first. The majority of the film she is a drunken moran. She denies what is going on around her and tries to act like a playful child.




Elizabeth Taylor gained thirty pounds for her role and gave the performance of her life. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role.

Sandy Dennis won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Sandy is incredible in the unspoken word in this film, her facial expressions and most of her performances are going on in the background of the tirades of the other characters. This is a film if you watch a second time focusing on Sandy Dennis you will get a whole new perspective.

Richard Burton was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. He protrays a wicked humor with psychological torment. You find yourself laughing but wondering if you should be laughing.

George Segal was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. A relative newcomer at the time, George Segal holds his own against the powerhouse of Taylor and Burton.




The film was considered groundbreaking for having a level of profanity and sexual implication unheard of at that time. This was the first movie to successfully challenge the Production Code Office and eventually force the Motion Picture Association of America to overhaul the Production Code Seal with the eventual classification system in 1968.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was the first movie to be given the MPAA tag: "No one under 18 will be admitted unless accompanied by his parent."

This movie is 131 minutes long and only contains four actors and is a fine example of how actors alone can hold a story and the audience is drawn in from the first line uttered to the final line of the movie.




There are no special effects, fancy background scenery, the entire movie is dialogue and character driven. It is acting at its best. This film shows if you are truely a fine actor (as Taylor, Burton, Dennis and Segal show) you don't need any special frills to make a character.

Pickup on South Street

Pickup on South Street (1953) is a film noir directed by Samuel Fuller. The film stars Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter.

Richard Widmark plays Skip McCoy, a pickpocket who steals Candy's (Jean Peters)wallet. Candy is a delivery girl for Joey (Richard Kiley) who is communist agent. Candy's wallet contained a microfilm of top-secret government information. This sets off a frantic search for McCoy and the microfilm by the police and the communists.

Richard Widmark is at his best as smart alec pick pocket Skip McCoy. McCoy is a three time convicted criminal that Captain Dan Tiger (Murvyn Vye) would love to bust one more time and send him away for life. McCoy views the police as his moral equals but intellectual inferiors. McCoy taunts them: "Go on, drum up a charge. Throw me in. You've done it before."




Jean Peters is beautiful and engaging as Candy, the girl from the streets with the golden heart. Candy is unaware that she is a delivery girl for the communists. She knows she is in some shady dealings but has no idea the extent of those dealings.




Murvyn Vye as Captain Dan Tiger is the police officer everyone dislikes. He is more driven by sending Skip McCoy up the river one more time than recovering the government secrets contained in the microfilm. Captain Tiger is more than willing to pay informants for information.




Thelma Ritter is the heart of this movie and steals this movie. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.



Thelma Ritter plays Moe Wiliams, a weary street peddler selling neck ties who also sells information to both the police and anyone willing to pay (but not the communists). Moe has one goal in life, to save enough money for a fancy funeral and proper burial. Her final scene is one of the most touching performances you will ever find in a movie.




Sam Fuller's directing of this film is incredible.

For example, when Candy (Jean Peters) starts going through her purse and notices her wallet is missing, an alarm goes off in the background in the building she's in, as if it's an alarm going off in her head.

Sam Fuller also captures the personality of New York City. The crowded subway and people scurring through the subway and the streets. As the characters move and interact, they are framed in living force that New York City is.





Pickup on South Street is film noir at its best in which the characters drive the plot.

George Washington Slept Here

George Washington Slept Here (1942) is a comedy based on the Broadway hit directed by William Keighley starring Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan.




The film costars Charles Coburn, Percy Kilbride, Hattie McDaniel, William Tracy, Joyce Reynolds, John Emery, Charles Dingle, Harvey Stephens and Terry the dog.

Bill and Connie Fuller (Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan) are forced to move from their New York City apartment because their small dog (Terry) has damaged the carpets.

Antique loving Connie secretly purchases a run down farmhouse in which rumors state that George Washington once slept there.

Bill hates everything about the house. Added to the fact that there are rotten floors, no bathroom, no water, a roof that leaks, walls missing and trains that depart at odd hours making commuting almost impossible.

Despite Bill's objections, the Fullers, together with Connie's young sister Madge (Joyce Reynolds), move into the house and begin renovations with the help of local handyman Mr. Kimber (Percy Kilbride).

The Fullers encounter several obstacles and Jack Benny as Bill is hilarious dealing with his new home.

Mr. Prescott (Charles Dingle) announces that the road to the house is his road and the Fuller's cannot use it. So Bill Fuller most drive over the country dodging cows.

Kimber finally finds water only to learn that he has dug on Mr. Prescott's land and tapped into Prescott's well. So Kimber continues to dig for water.

One rainy day, Hester (Hattie McDaniel), the couple's maid, announces the kitchen table has floated away with dinner.

To make matters worse, everything is costing more than the couple budgeted.

By the end of summer, the house is remodeled but there is still no water.

Uncle Stanley (Charles Coburn) arrives for a visit. Uncle Stanley is the family's rich uncle that everyone is kind to hoping he will leave them money. However, Uncle Stanley is a windbag and full of himself, always bringing framed portraits of himself.




Then Connie's bratty nephew Raymond (Douglas Croft) comes to live with them.



The Fullers then learn that, contrary to the legend, Benedict Arnold, not George Washington, slept in their house.

Meanwhile, Madge has become smitted with local actor Clayton Evans (John Emery) who is performing in the local production of The Man Who Came to Dinner. Steve (William Tracy) does not realize Madge is also now performing in the local play and believes Madge is about to run off with Clayton. Steve tells Bill and he grabs a shotgun and rushes to rescue his niece. To Bill's suprise, he bursts on stage in the middle of a performance and the audience erupts in laughter.


Jeff Douglas (Harvey Stephens) a local antique dealer and president of the local historical society has been helping Connie on a secret project. Bill becomes convinced they are having an affair. The secret project is Jeff locates an original map of the area which reveals the well and road are not on Prescott's land but actually the Fueller's land.

When Bill gleefully tells this news to Prescott, he responds by pointing out that the Fullers are facing foreclosure and that he intends to buy their newly remodeled house and land when that happens. To Bill's dismay, Connie had failed to tell him about the foreclosure letter she received because she didn't want to bother him with minor things.

Desperate to save their home, Bill and Connie ask Stanley for the necessary money, but he turns them down, confessing that he went broke in 1929 and has been lying about his fortune in order to ensure that his relatives will treat him well.

Things look hopeless, but then the Fuller's small dog finds an old letter in a boot that Kimber discovered while digging for a well. It is a letter from George Washington which is valuable enough to pay the mortgage, thus saving the house just in time for the arrival of a swarm of seventeen-year locusts.


George Washington Slept Here moves at a snappy pace and is full of ample moments for classic Benny reactions and classic Benny gags.

For example, one classic gag occurs at a train station. Bill Fuller is holding a bunch of garden supplies and keeps accidently tapping a train passenger (Gertrude Carr) on the butt with a rake. She turns around and slaps an innoscent passenger (Jack Mower) thinking he is grabbing her butt.

Percy Kilbride is wonderful as Mr. Kimble, never cracking a smile and delivering his lines with a calm nonchalant way. At one point in the movie he breaks into song out of nowhere singing "I'll Never Smile Again" which brings the house down in laughter.




The Fuller's dog (Terry) is delightful and is better known for her role as Toto in The Wizard of Oz.




A very pleasant and amusing "house from Hell" comedy with a wonderful cast. With its fast pace, this a movie you can watch again and again and always find something new and amusing in the performances.

Wild River

Wild River (1960) is drama directed by Elia Kazan and stars Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, and Jo Van Fleet.

This is a powerful historical drama about the clash between public necessity and private autonomy, racial prejudice, intrusion of the government and remains one of Elia Kazan’s finest films.




As part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Congress creates the Tennessee Valley Authority in May 1933. The mandate of the TVA is to stop the deadly flooding of the Tennessee River and bring progress to the poverty-stricken area through the construction of a series of dams.

Chuck Glover (Montgomery Clift) is an idealistic Tennessee Valley Authority administrator who comes to a small town in Tennessee to enforce the clearing of the land to be flooded by a new dam on the Tennessee River in the early 1930s.




Chuck’s first task is to convince the elderly Ella Garth (Jo Van Fleet) the matriarch of a large family that has lived on an island in the river for generations, to sell her land to the government.




Ignoring the "TVA Keep Off" signs, Chuck crosses the river to Garth Island, but Ella refuses to speak to him. Hoping Ella’s three grown sons can help, Chuck approaches them, but when he suggests that Ella might be senile, Joe John Garth (Big Jeff Bess) tosses him into the river.

When Chuck returns to the island, he finds Ella, surrounded by her black field hands and their families, railing against Roosevelt’s New Deal. To illustrate her situation, Ella pretends to attempt to force Sam Johnson (Robert Earl Jones), an elderly field hand, to sell her his beloved hunting dog. After making her point that she has no right to ask Sam to sell his dog, Ella proceeds to tell Glover that she is not interested in the modern conveniences the dam will bring, declares that she cannot be forced to sell her land because to do so would be "against nature."




Ella Garth entire identity is wrapped up in the island her family has owned for years. While it’s clear that Glover will somehow eventually convince her to move, the story of how this happens remains compelling until the end.


Meanwhile, Glover falls in love with the matriarch's granddaughter, Carol Garth Baldwin (Lee Remick). The scenes between them are remarkable for their erotic tension with no explicitness whatsoever.




The film also portrays some of the racial issues in the South during the Great Depression.

Chuck Glover takes Sam aside and asks him to bring the men to the TVA office to discuss employment possibilities. Glover plans to pay the African Americans five dollars a day clearing land for the dam, the same amount that is paid to white workers.

Sy Moore (Malcolm Atterbury), a prominent businessman, urges Chuck to create segregated work crews and pay the black workers less than the whites, but Chuck flatly refuses to maintain such inequities, leading Moore to warn of retaliation by less reasonable townspeople.




The anger of the locals is aroused. First, Hank Bailey (Albert Salmi), a cotton farmer takes revenge on Chuck in his hotel room because one of his black workers left to take advantage of the higher wages offered by the TVA. Later, Hank Bailey and several town's people arrive at Carol's new home and attack Chuck Glover. As the sheriff watches from the sidelines, the crowd vandalizes Carol’s home and Chuck’s car.

This multi layered film also focuses on loyality. Everyone eventually leaves the island but loyal Sam, who refuses to leave Ella. In a moving scene, Glover makes one last attempt to convince Ella to leave the island before calling in the US Marshal, as he heads back to the ferry, he notices that the faithful Sam continues to plow the fields.

Another layer of this film is the good side of people. The whole town views Glover as an outsider and a representative of the evil government. Carol's intended Walter Clark (Frank Overton)is alerted to Glover's relationship with Carol by Bailey. Clark is to lure Glover back to his hotel room to a waiting Bailey. At the last minute, Clark cannot do it and warns warns Glover. Later Clark arrives to warn Glover of the gathering angry towns people coming to teach Glover a lesson. Clark who has lost his girlfriend to Glover, still knows Glover has a job to do and it is wrong to attack him.

During the film, Chuck Glover grows and comes to respect Ella. Hamilton (Jay C. Flippen) and Cal (James Westerfield) Garth approach Chuck to propose that they sell the land themselves after having their mother declared incompetent. However, Chuck, who now understands and greatly admires Ella’s pride and dignity, is disgusted with their plan and declares that he would rather have Ella removed with a gun to her head.


Wild River anticipates much of the environmental debates concerning the artificial control of rivers. The film shows a deep understanding of the relationship of Nature and the Land with the individual in the United States.

Other minor conflicts are evident in the film, such as the hostility the fairly liberal Glover has to deal with when he hires blacks to work alongside the local whites at the site.

The beautiful cinematography and atmospheric settings which are vivid and lends much to the story.




The film ends with very powerful scences. Chuck and Carol accompany the marshal to Ella’s island. As Ella’s former workers look on, the marshal reads the eviction notice, after which the silent Ella walks to the ferry accompanied by the sounds of ax blows and falling trees. At her modern new home, Ella sits on the front porch, staring at the river and refusing to speak. A short time later, as workers finish clearing the island and prepare to burn down her farmhouse, Ella passes away.

Once his work is done, Chuck and his new family fly out of the valley, first past Garth Island Cemetery, now a tiny speck in a man-made lake, and then over the powerful new dam.

Man Hunt

Man Hunt (1941) is a thriller drama directed by Fritz Lang and starring Walter Pidgeon and Joan Bennett. It is based on the 1939 novel Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household.

On July 29, 1939, renowned British big game hunter Captain Alan Thorndike (Walter Pidgeon) slips through the forest undetected near Adolf Hitler's residence near Berchtesgaden. Getting the dictator in his telescopic sight, he pulls the trigger on his unloaded rifle and gives a wave to Hitler. Throndike ponders a moment, then inserts a live round in the chamber, but is discovered at the last second by a guard who tackles him and the shot fires but does not strike Hitler.




After being beaten up, Thorndike is taken to Major Quive-Smith (George Sanders). Quive-Smith is also a devoted hunter and an admirer of Thorndike. Thorndike explains that the purpose of the exercise was a "sporting stalk", not to kill, but just for the thrill of going after the biggest game of all.




Quive-Smith is not persuaded and insists Thorndike sign a confession stating that he was in fact trying to assasinate Hitler on behalf of the British government. When Thorndike refuses, he is tortured, but remains steadfast and warns of "questions being asked in high places" if he is killed, as states his brother, Lord Risborough (Frederick Worlock), is a very important diplomat.

Quive-Smith decides to throw Thorndike off a cliff and make his death look like an accident.




Thorndike survives when his knapsack gets caught in a tree, breaking his fall. He eludes his German pursuers and eventually reaches a port. He steals a rowboat, but is forced to abandon it when a patrol boat comes near. He swims to a Danish ship about to sail for London.

On the ship, he meets Vaner (Roddy McDowall), the cabin boy, who turns out to be English and helps Thorndike hide until the ship reaches England.

Meanwhile, the Germans find Thorndike's coat and passport aboard the rowboat. The Germans place an agent named Mr. Jones (John Carradine) on board using Thorndike's passport to continue looking even after the ship leaves the harbor.

In London, Jones is met by German agents. Thorndike, still being pursued ducks into an apartment house and meets Jerry Stokes (Joan Bennett). Jerry helps Thorndike reach his brother.

When Lord Risborough tells his brother that the British government, continuing its pre-war policy of appeasement, would have to extradite him if he were found, Thorndike decides to try and make it to Africa.

An amusing scene at the Risborough household is when Thorndike tries to offer Jerry money for her help and Lady Risborough (Heather Thatcher) assumes that it is payment for other services.

Jerry and Throndike have grown fond of each other. He buys her a new hatpin, as she had lost hers. She chooses a cheap chromium arrow and insists Thorndike present it to her. Thorndike likens it to her, saying both are "straight and shiny".

Quive-Smith arrives in London to join the hunt.





After Throndike leaves his solicitor Saul Farnsworthy (Holmes Herbert)office, he is chased into the London Underground Station and tunnel by Jones. Thorndike struggles with Jones, who is killed when he is thrown onto an electrified rail. Jones' body is so mangled by an oncoming train, the British authorities assume he is Throndike as Jones is still carrying Throndike's passport and papers. The Germans, however, know that it is in fact Jones who was killed.

Throndike is seen running from the tunnel and described by witnesses as a man with a scar (which he obtained when he was tortured in Germany). Throndike is now wanted by the British authorities for murder and is still being pursued by the Germans.

Thorndike tells Jerry to have Lord Risborough send him a letter in three weeks time care of Lyme Regis Post Office. Meanwhile, Thorndike hides in a cave in the countryside and grows a beard to cover his identifing scar.

Jerry says goodbye to Throndike and returns home to find three German agents in her apartment.




Thorndike goes to pick up the letter, the postmistress (Eily Malyon) seems alarmed and sends a girl on an errand. Thorndike grabs the letter and beats a hasty retreat. Back at his cave, he finds the letter is from Quive-Smith.

Quive-Smith follows Throndike to the cave and seals the only entrance and passes his quarry the confession and a pen through an air hole, threatening to leave him trapped inside.

What happened to Jerry? Will Throndike get out of the cave alive? Will Throndike be forced to sign the confession?

Man Hunt became the first war film to attract the attention of the then neutral America's Hays Office. Joseph Breen was alarmed by the script when he read it in 1941calling it a "hate film".

Breen felt the film showed all Germans as evil unlike other films showing both good non-Nazi Germans as well as evil National Socialists. Breen insisted that the Germans could not be characterised as so brutal; the office would only pass the film if it would only "indicate" brutality rather than show it. Therefore cuts did not show Thorndike's torture but left it in the mind of the audience.

George Saunder's gives an excellent portrayal of a Gestapo agent. John Carradine is eminently creepy. Joan Bennett is purely delightful as the carefree and joyful Jerry. Roddy McDowell is terrific and shows his talents as an actor.

This is one of Walter Pidgeon's best performances.

This is a classic WW II propaganda piece that was suspenseful, engaging and a joy to watch. It is a tight thriller which holds its audience with its face pace of action.

McLintock

McLintock (1963)is a comedy western directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
and stars John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara. The film is loosely based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

The movie co-stars Patrick Wayne, Yvonne de Carlo, Stefanie Powers, Chill Wills, and Jerry Van Dyke.

There are also classic performance by some of our best loved character actors: Edgar Buchanan, Hank Worden, Strother Martin and Chuck Roberson.

The movie also features John Wayne's daughter Aissa Wayne as Alice Warren.

George Washington McLintock (John Wayne) is the owner of the largest ranch in the territory in the southwestern town of McLintock , which also includes a mine and a lumber mill.




McLintock'w wife, Katherine (Maureen O'Hara) walked out on him two years ago without a word of explanation. She has been living back east with high society.




Drago (Chill Wills) is McLintock's partner and friend.




Devlin Warren (Patrick Wayne) is McLintock's recently hired hand who has eyes for his daughter Becky.




Louise Warren (Yvonne de Carlo) is the mother of Devlin and is hired to be McLintock's cook. She is also engaged in a battle of wills with Katherine.




Becky (Stefanie Powers) is Katherine and McLintock's daughter. She has just returned from college.




Matt Douglas, Jr., (Jerry Van Dyke) is Becky's Harvard beau. His father is one of McLintock's old enemies.




Matt Douglas (Gordon Jones) is a corrupt land agent and McLintock's arch enemy.

McLintock has his hands full.

First, there a group of homesteaders out of the area who are pouring in with the support of the government, hoping to farm on land that's just barely adequate for cattle to graze on.

Second, the government is trying to push the Indians, whose chiefs are some of McLintock's oldest enemies and his best and most honored friends, by shipping them off to a reservation, where they'll be cared for like old women. The Indians are being dealt with by an inept Indian agent Agard (Strother Martin).

Third, Katherine has returned home. She is trying to secure a divorce and take custody of their 17-year-old daughter, Becky.




Fourth, his daughter is being pursued by his hired hand Delvin and his arch enemy's son Matthew Douglas Jr.

Finally, there is more trouble when a band of Comanche Indians just released from prison arrives in town to make a final stand against the white man.

So McLintock has government officals underfoot who are either corrupt or inept, recently arrived homesteaders, an angry and fiesty wife, a daughter, the Indians, and his own staff to deal with.




This setup ignites into a sprawling comedy Western with serious overtones, a battle-of-the-sexes, politcal issues and several brawls.


The film is famous for its two spanking scenes, in which mother and daughter are each paddled with coal shovels. First, Becky is paddled by suitor Delvin. Later, McLintock takes a coal shovel to Katherine's behind.




This film is one of the best pairings of Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne. Maureen O'Hara steals every scene she is in.

State of the Union

State of the Union (1948) is a political satire comedy directed by Frank Capra and stars Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Angela Lansbury, Van Johnson and Adolphe Menjou.

Kay Thorndyke (Angela Lansbury) is called to the home of her father, newspaper publisher Sam Thorndyke (Lewis Stone), who is dying. Thorndyke, a bitter old man, tells his daughter how the Republican Party betrayed him and that he would be dying in the White House if they had continued to support him. He tells Kay "to make heads roll." After Kay leaves, Sam, tired of his suffering, commits suicide.

Kay is now the head of the Thorndyke Press, Kay begins the work of grooming her own man for the White House. She meets with Jim Conover (Adolphe Menjou) and asks him to head the campaign of her handpicked candidate: self-made aviation mogul Grant Matthews (Spencer Tracy). She tells Conover that Matthews is "a rare combination of sincerity and drive that the common herd will go for."




Kay also enlists the services of one of her columnists, "Spike" MacManus (Van Johnson) to be a press secretary for Grant Matthews.

Grant Matthews arrives in Washington and states he is not interested in running for president, arguing that he is not a "politician" but a plainspoken American. However, Grant Matthews is an ambitious man, which Conover quickly recognizes, and talks Matthews to test the idea by giving a number of political speeches as he tours the country visiting his airplane factories.




A big obstacle in Conover and Throndyke's plans is Throndyke and Matthews affair and they must stop seeing each other because the illicit relationship with Kay would ruin any chance for the presidency. Kay readily agrees, but Grant is reluctant, as he must ask his estranged wife Mary (Katharine Hepburn), an idealistic woman, to go on the speaking tour with him.

Kay Throndyke and Jim Conovers both agree that Grant Matthews is the type of man they can control, or at least they think he is.




Although Kay Throndyke has agreed to end the relationship with Grant, she still decides to torment his wife Mary. She carefully leaves her glasses on Grant's nightstand for Mary to find. At first Mary is furious and decides to go him. But learning he is thinking of running for president, she agrees to share her husband's campaign but not his bed.




Jim Conover works the political back rooms, making dirty deals in Grant Matthew's name and the speaking tour begins with great success. However, in Kansas, under Mary's influence, Grant Matthews makes his own controversial speech, instead of one of Spike's carefully prepared ones. The people love Grant Matthews but the republican players do not.

In Detroit, Grant plans another speech, this time attacking management, but Jim and Kay interfer with a secret visit from Kay. Matthews agrees to make the prepared speech. Grant Matthews becomes a political pawn, meeting with all the special interest groups that Jim Conover brings to him and making any deal he can that will get him convention delegates.





To formally announce his presidential aspirations, Grant Matthews prepares an elaborate national broadcast from the Matthews' Long Island home. To deflect rumors of Kay and Grant's relationship, Mary is forced to invite Kay to the broadcast, which is the same night as the Matthews' wedding anniversary.




When some of the republican politicians attempt to renegotiate their deals with Grant, Kay steps forward and shows that she is the real power behind the campaign. Mary, finding out that Kay was in Detroit and realizing the role she has played in Grant's campaign, gets drunk and announces that she will not make her speech and her children will not appear on the broadcast.

Kay quickly agrees to make the speech for her, while Spike warns Mary, whom he has come to admire, that if Kay gives the speech, she will lose Grant forever. At the last moment, Mary steps up and begins the speech. Grant can take no more and stops Mary and proceeds to attack all the politicians who supported him, saying that he is no better because he played both sides and lost his faith in both the people and himself.

Grant Matthews and Mary reconcile. Kay Throndyke and Jim Conover lick their wounds and begin looking for another candidate.

This is another one of director Frank Capra's delightful blends of romantic melodrama and socio-political morality.

This is also of the most loved of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn's collaborations.

The film is an intriguing look at the underhanded dealings and compromises needed to succeed on the road to the White House. Although the movie is over 60 years old, it is probably just as accurate a portrait of campaigning today as it was then.

The film becomes a tug of war for Grant Matthew's affection and his soul, as he lets his ambitions override his ideals.


One thing to watch for in this movie is "Spike" MacManus (Van Johnson) great one liners.

The film also includes delightful performances by character actors Margaret Hamilton as Norah, Charles Dingle as Bill Nolard Hardy and Charles Lane as Blink Moran.

This film's great performances and the well-written script make this movie a must see for every classic film lover.