Right so seeing as I *should* be going to the cinema tomorrow I thought I'd get this trio out of the way now. Seeing as I saw the Greer Garson Pride and Prejudice the other day and she is one of my favourite actresses, I went out of my way to get one of her more obscure films, Madame Curie. Now for unusual reasons I saw about 3/4ers of it but that didn't stop those 3/4ers being throughout the whole of the film. Greer is one of my very favourite actresses and she doesn't disappoint here, playing Marie Curie alongside her regular leading man Walter Pidgeon.
The story is of a Polish girl who studies in the laboratory of a professor in the Sorbonne. It's obvious from the title of the film they'll marry, but the film chronicles their efforts to discover the mystery behind unusual properties shown in a "pitchblende" rock. It's a typical oscar film (biopic of a very famous, important person) and also a very classic hollywood film as there's no method acting in sight. Pidgeon is good, Garson is her usual excellent self, the film is paced nicely (Mervyn LeRoy was a fine filmmaker who's quite forgotten these days) and does a good job of explaining the scientific things they're doing to people who won't know too much about it.
Last night I caught All of Me on television as it's intrigued me for a while because Steve Martin won the two most prestigious critics awards in America for this comedic performance where his character (a jazz-playing lawyer) inadvertently hosts the soul of a dead woman (Lily Tomlin) who was one of his clients. So aside from the one-liners there is lots of physical comedy on show and Martin was just superb at it (we wouldn't see the like of it for another decade when Jim Carrey burst on the scene). That said though the critics going for this would be rather like them going for Carrey in Me, Myself and Irene - it's a good, funny performance but was the year that bad? I've looked, it wasn't. The film is pretty funny and after a slow-ish start (most Hollywood comedies take an inordinantly long time to get past the plot set-up) it does pick up pace. Not revelatory, a bit naughtier than I was expecting to be honest, but an entertainingly fun film which is probably worth the 90 minutes of your time.
Final film for this entry was part of Sky's western season, namely Shane. I did online-rent this once but I'd completely lost interest in films for that fortnight and sent the 3 movies I had back unwatched. I didn't miss a tremendous amount in this one. The story is very familiar (nasty rancher wants to drive people off their land) but nicely acted in the main. Alan Ladd is fine, albeit a poor man's Gary Cooper (and nowhere near as tall), Jean Arthur is nice and natural, Van Helfin is ruggedly beaten and Jack Palance could always play the bad guy. The boy playing the kid though (Brandon De Wilde, who it turned out 10 years later in Hud could actually act) is so annoying I wanted to chew my arm off and destroy the television with it. Nothing special here, but a very solid film which is appealing to anyone who likes the genre, even if you end up hoping the little git (and I don't mean Ladd 
) gets caught in the crossfire.