Movies From the Hat IV – #1 – Kim’s Pick – How To Steal a Million (1966)

MovieRob is a true movie watching monster in all the best ways! He is quickly approaching his 2500th movie review and to commemorate the amazing and outstanding milestone, he did another Movies From the Hat. MovieRob and I don’t quite have the same tastes in movies especially since the first time around, I recommended a movie that he downright hated and remains one that I love a lot. So far, its not too bad. I figured for 2500th milestone that I’d go with a classic with my fave actress Audrey Hepburn. I’m honestly surprised he hadn’t seen it before. Head over and check out his review of How to Steal a Million! 🙂

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MovieRob

This is my 2460th Review

Thanks to Kim of Tranquil Dreams for this recommendation.

Here are her thoughts on the film.

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“Don’t you know that in his lifetime Van Gogh only sold one painting? While I, in loving memory of his tragic genius, have already sold two. ” – Charles

Number of Times Seen – 1 (28 Aug 2016)

Brief Synopsis – A forger and his granddaughter enlist the help of a professional thief to help steal a copy of a priceless piece of art before it is examined which will lead to their undoing.

My Take on it – When Kim recommended this to me, I was quite surprised that I had never heard of this one before because it fits the genre of crime caper/comedy that I have always enjoyed.

The fact that it was directed by William Wyler was the real clincher for me to want…

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Valentine Marathon: Sabrina (1954)

I’m all about experimenting new movies and staying optimistic but usually after two more average selections, I like to make conscientiously better choices that are sure to be good.  Of course, nothing is guaranteed but my absolute love for Audrey Hepburn and my desire to want to see more of her movies has me searching up her movies on Netflix on a regular basis to make sure I never miss any of them. Which is why, the next selection is one of her earlier movies and also is the first movie that I’ve seen of Humphrey Bogart.  I give you full right to judge me right now.  But, as I always say when I’m reviewing older movies, I know I’m WAY behind and I’m working as hard as I can to catch up. I’ve just learned that older movies are classy and if you watch too many of them, there’s so much less to love about a lot of movies nowadays, especially romantic comedies.

Either way, next up…Sabrina! Lets check it out! 🙂

SABRINA (1954)

Director: Billy Wilder

Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Walter Hampden, John Williams, Martha Hyer

Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn) has been living with her father (John Williams) at the Larrabee’s mansion ever since he became a chauffeur there. Since very young, she’s always had a crush on the younger son, David (William Holden) who is a playboy and just got out of his third divorce.  David doesn’t notice her at all until she comes back from a cooking course in Paris 2 years after looking sophisticated and transformed into a beauty. However, the Larrabee’s business lies on a plastics merger that his brother Linus (Humphrey Bogart) has worked hard to get and to strengthen the merger, he has made David agree to marry the new partner’s daughter, Elizabeth (Martha Hyer). Hoping to severe David’s admiration for Sabrina, Linus takes Sabrina hoping to charm her to leave their family for Paris until he realizes that he may have developed feelings for her unexpectedly.

Sabrina is such a charming movie.  I mean its nothing like Roman Holiday or Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but its pretty close.  The three characters here, especially Audrey Hepburn are a joy to watch.  Plus, the story itself is pretty adorable.  Sabrina is a girl who transformed into a woman physically but its really between keeping with her crush that she’s had forever and finally realizing that she’s in love with the person she least expected to know how to love, a saavy businessman who is many years older than she is.  That character itself is charming because no matter how old a movie is, a girl’s crush on that impossible guy is always there.  And Audrey Hepburn portrays Sabrina so well.

William Holden plays David, the playboy who never sees Sabrina before she comes back from Paris as a woman.  Although she goes away to forget him, the moment David notices her, she falls right back hoping to finally get the man even though he’s engaged.  Although I saw Paris When It Sizzles before this one and it was done afterwards, I felt that the connection between Audrey Hepburn and William Holden was better in that one mostly because the focus wasn’t on them in this movie.  After all, David fades off when Linus’s plans work out to keep him bedridden in kind of a pretty hilarious way. Honestly, William Holden has that natural attraction and confidence.  I mean, how can Sabrina resist, right? Especially when she was so young and all she’s ever really known seems to be the Larrabee residence’s affairs.

Which brings us to the second man here, Linus played by Humphrey Bogart.  The older and more sensible brother who only has his mind on business suddenly needs to try and charm a young Sabrina and change her mind with his stories.  Linus plays as a mysterious person because I kept wondering if the things he told Sabrina are real knowing that they were probably all not true anyways.  But Sabrina, being naive as she was, believes everything he says and slowly falls this man that seems to be so different underneath all the serious.  But then, my question now is, if everything he said was to make her leave for Paris, when she falls for him, wouldn’t she be falling for a lie? She’s have to know him all over again. Hmm…I just thought about that as I was writing this up.

Sabrina is just absolutely charming and awesome.  The story, the characters and the cast itself are amusing to watch and its just so much fun.  C’mon, I giggled a little when that “Yes, I have no bananas” song played.  So weird but so cute also. And Audrey Hepburn sings La Vie en Rose and she sounds dazzling 🙂 I totally recommend this movie! I absolutely loved it!

Have you seen Sabrina? What are your thoughts? Any other Humphrey Bogart recommendations?

Double Feature: Paris When It Sizzles (1964) & Take the Lead (2006)

December 1st is apparently the big day of when a ton of movies expire on Netflix. So I had to make choices.  Not sure if I made the right ones BUT if Audrey Hepburn’s movie is ever going to expire, you can expect that is the first one I’ll watch just to make sure I get it in, because I just love her so much. So yeah, Paris When it Sizzles was going to expire and I watched that one.  Then on Sunday night to relax and clear my mind after NaNoWriMo craze with Take the Lead, a dance movie with Antonio Banderas.

Lets check it out!

PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES (1964)

Director: Richard Quine

Cast: Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, Gregoire Aslan, Noel Coward, Raymond Bussieres

Hollywood producer hires an often drunk writer, Richard Benson to do his next screenplay.  Days are left before the deadline and an assistant, Gabrielle Simpson is sent in to help him finalize it. Much to her surprise, he hasn’t even started it due to writer’s block and having a little fun. With her push, she tries to inspire him to write the script while using themselves to figure out how the plot should go.

This is not anywhere near as awesome Breakfast at Tiffany’s or Roman Holiday, I mean those are masterpieces. Paris When It Sizzles is still extremely fun to watch.  Audrey Hepburn and William Holden go between present day where they are formulating the plot together while learning about twists and dissolves and all that, while jumping to the fiction world of the story playing in front of our eyes. Whats kind of cute is how they make references to movies that Audrey Hepburn’s been in.  Maybe even William Holden but I’m not familiar with his. Its a witty and fun little piece.

I have an immense love for Audrey Hepburn.  She’s like my ultimate girl crush.  Even my boyfriend who experienced half this movie with me and well, his first Audrey Hepburn viewing thought she was a pretty lady.  Seriously, she brings in a movie in the most funny and absurd plot ideas they come with, and she just shows so much class and elegance that its really hard to not like whatever she’s in.  Of course, thats just me.

Paris When It Sizzles is nothing as well done as Roman Holiday but its a whole lot of fun to watch packed with some really funny moments 🙂

TAKE THE LEAD (2006)

Director: Liz Friedlander

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Yaya DaCosta, Alfre Woodard, Jonathan Malen, Elijah Kelley, Jenna Dewan(-Tatum), Dante Basco, Lauren Collins

 Dance instructor, Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas) volunteers to take over the detention for some troublesome high school students to teach them how to ballroom dance.  Although, not supported at first, he teaches them trust, teamwork, dignity and self-respect in the process.

I’m a sucker for these inspirational true stories.  Freedom Writers is the first the pops in my head but this one is really good too.  Its normal and possibly predictable but the message is what is important here. Sometimes thats really what I ask for.  Most of the time, when I know what I’m heading into, my expectations change a little, as I believe it should be.  Its like when I watch Sharknado, I don’t hold the same expectations as when I watch The Last Emperor (just putting an extreme out there). Inspirational movies can get formulaic but the characters themselves, when they do carry a great charisma to the screen, it connects well with the audience.  I was impressed by Antonio Banderas and even the group here including Jenna Dewan, Rob Brown, etc.

I have a take a moment and talk about this charming man, Antonio Banderas.  Its a bit embarrassing to say that the closest thing I’ve ever seen of Antonio Banderas (other than in magazines) is his voice work for Puss in Boots. I always found he seemed a little dated.  Like he’s not a hot man or anything (at least not to me) but after seeing Take the Lead, he definitely has charm. He carries the old-fashioned gentlemanly charm very well.  There’s something that makes him very appealing to watch.  I think I’ll seek out more of his movies 🙂

I’d gladly add Take the Lead to my collection.  It seems Jenna Dewan-Tatum is invading my life without my knowing though. Haha! I didn’t know she was in this one and I’ve been binge watching Witches of East End.

Overall… I liked both of them.  They were fun and entertaining.  For Paris When It Sizzles, it actually inspired me to break my writer’s block while I was putting together the final bit of my NaNoWriMo novel, while Take the Lead just made me want to learn ballroom dancing even more.

Have you seen Paris When It Sizzles? How about Take the Lead? Any fans of Antonio Banderas? Mind sharing which movies you like of his?

Valentine’s Marathon: Roman Holiday (1953)

I love Audrey Hepburn.  She was an amazing and elegant woman and actress.  I’m still slowly catching up with all her movies. I’ve reviewed Breakfast at Tiffany’s HERE and then checked out How to Steal a Million HERE.  She’s just inspirational.  This is her debut performance and I’m excited to see how she was 🙂

Director: William Wyler

Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert

Young Princess Anne (Audrey Hepburn) is on a European tour to promote public relations.  On the last leg of her tour in Rome, she has a break down and gets fed up with the tight schedule.  After being medicated, she suddenly decides to leave quietly and explore the city but thats until she is hit by the effects of the new medication and ends up falling sleep on the side of the road.  This is where she meets Joe Bradley, a reporter for the American News Service who eventually houses her for the night.  Next day at work, the Princess had cancelled the press conference due to sudden illness and he realizes that the girl at her house was her and he goes back and pretends to not know her identity and takes her around town while asking his friend Irving (Eddie Albert) to help take pictures to get together a big story.  However as the day goes by, they start falling in love.

There’s a certain classy, elegant feeling to these older classic romantic comedies. Roman Holiday is no exception. Its possibly one of the finest. There’s something innocent yet beautiful about the whole movie.  I’m sure the majority of you have seen Roman Holiday and if you haven’t, well, let me tell you how I felt about watching it just now for the first time.  I started asking myself how I had waited so long to see this because its epic.  It really is.  Its entertaining, funny, heart-warming and so romantic.  Its a charming piece of work with a great story and has a wonderful cast.

Do I have to proclaim my love for Audrey Hepburn again? Roman Holiday is her American debut and she is just fantastic.  I bought the collector’s edition with that same cover as the one I used on the top.  It has this clip on the making of Roman Holiday and there’s this clip of her natural while they secretly kept the cameras rolling and she is just a sweetheart.  She just has the leading lady feeling.  Plus, her innocence and charm works well as the role of a princess but something about her carefree nature works well for her spontaneous escape to experience the world for a day.

I’ve never seen much of Gregory Peck although his name sounds so familiar.  I’ve probably seen stuff in his later years but he is quite the handsome man with a charming smile.  You can see right away that he is definitely more experienced and possibly more at ease but he has this silly expressions that just builds the chemistry between him and Audrey Hepburn.  That scene up there is one of my favorite ones along with the mouth of truth.  This was so exciting to watch 🙂

And then, of course we have the supporting role of Eddie Albert.  Also, unknown to me. Yeah, I know, a lot of catching up to do with these classics.  I’m working on it.  Eddie Albert is the comic in this and something of a sidekick to Gregory Peck’s character and he does a great job at that.

I’m in love with this movie and with Audrey Hepburn’s elegance and charm.  There was beautiful music and the Rome setting was great.  The outfits for Audrey is gorgeous.  Love it all! Even the ending was different but still very great.  Something about these older movies that have something that the modern ones really don’t have anymore or just fail to capture.

I totally recommend it! If you haven’t seen it, go see it!

I told you I’d get some good stuff in between the Nicholas Sparks marathon, lets hope it continues 😉

What did you think of Roman Holiday? Isn’t it the perfect romantic comedy?