George Cukor

Eliza Doolittle is a poor girl who sells flowers on the street. Her life changes when she meets an elite professor who vows he can turn Eliza into a lady in less than 6 months time. She accepts the challenge and moves in with the professor. While progress is slow, Eliza isn't willing to let this opportunity slip by.

There's a surprising amount of comedy here I didn't expect. The characters are quite crude, which is actually pretty entertaining, and the plot is also rather amusing. The only thing holding this film back is the extravagant runtime. If they'd cut back the entire final hour to 5 minutes, this would've been a much better film.

Harry Brock is a bullish businessman. His girlfriend Billy is much younger and only cares about monetary gains, not minding she's being treated like a trophy wife. When Harry hires a man to educate her, she starts to see what she's been missing in life and decides to turn things around.

The film is based on a Broadway production and the writer of the dialogues is featured heavily on some posters, so don't expect a visual feast. All the yapping isn't very funny and gets annoying really fast. The plot has potential, but doesn't make much of an impact nowadays. A relic, but not the worst romcom of its time, even when it fails its primary genres.

Adam and Amanda are two lawyers who are married to each other. They have a small scuffle about a case where a woman shot her man, the day after they discover that they're each assigned to opposing clients. Neither of them is willing to back down from the case, which is going to put a strain on their marriage.

Cukor leans heavily on the performances of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, but they fail to carry their characters beyond the stereotypical. Neither does Judy Holliday, but at least she's actually funny. The plot is pretty bland, and I'm not a big fan of situational comedy to begin with, but it's not the worst of its kind, thanks to do decent pacing and relatively short runtime.

When Paula's aunt dies, she leaves London, as nothing is keeping her there. A few years later, she meets Anthony, a man who immediately falls for Paula's charms. They move back to London, into Paula's aunt's house. Strange things start happening there and Paula feels like she's going mad.

The mystery isn't all that exciting and the performances are pretty wooden. The cinematography is slightly above average though and Cukor plays around a bit with Paula's mania, but it's not exactly riveting material. These films work notably better when they remain below the 80-minutes mark.

Esther is a girl with a golden voice, but looks that don't really stand out. Norman Maine, an actor on his way back and struggling with an alcohol addiction, discovers Esther and does everything in his power to get her a job at the film studio. While her star is rising, Norman is going through some rough times.

The musical numbers aren't too great, the performances are a bit overdone (especially with the amount of drama present) and there are way too many "film in film" scenes to drive up the runtime. I think I might've enjoyed a 90-minute cut a lot better, this was just excruciating.

High Society was decent because of its charming cast. Sinatra, Crosby and to a lesser extent Kelly made the constant banter amusing and fun to follow. Grant, Stewart and Hepburn on the other hand are completely unfit for the task. Wooden performances, uncomfortable dialogues and complete lack of charm sink this film.

Though director Cukor also bears some of the responsibility, as the direction feels flat and lifeless. In the end I couldn't care less about these characters. The comedy doesn't shine through, the film looks way too functional and at 110 minutes it's at least half an hour too long. Not good, they made the right choice remaking this one.

The Jordans are throwing a dinner party because some wealthy lords from England are visiting their city. And so they invite over a bunch of people to throw a good old-fashioned party. Of course, everyone there has their reason for joining, and not everyone attends with the best of intentions.

It's a standard farce, the kind of play where everything happens in one or two rooms and various characters keep entering through doors. The conversations are boring, the performances are middling and the runtime is excessive. This is the exact opposite of what I want to see in a film, the only thing saving it from utter direness is the light tone.

Andre Bertier is a Parisian doctor who is married to Colette. They are a very happy couple, but Bertier is a charming man. Many women hope to be treated by the good doctor, but he is faithful and respectful to his wife. Things get a bit trickier when Colette sends her friend Mitzi to visit her husband.

There's a lot of talking, some doubty performances, and a few musical moments. The romance is anything but romantic, the comedy is little more than a lighthearted mood and the rhymes are pretty basic. It's a short film though, so it doesn't go on endlessly, but that's not much of a positive when nothing else stands out.