Back to Golden Days

This week on «Film Friday» I am celebrating Janet Leigh's 89th birthday, which was on Wednesday, by telling you a little bit about one of my favourite films of hers. Directed by George Sidney, Who Was That Lady? (1960) begins when chemistry professor David Wilson (Tony Curtis) is caught by his wife Ann (Janet Leigh) kissing one of his female students. To stop her from divorcing him, he asks for help from his good friend, television writer Michael Haney (Dean Martin), who invents a crazy story that David is working undercover with the FBI and kissed the student — a foreign agent — in the line of duty. To convince Ann, Mike tricks Schultz (William Newell), a prop man at the television studio, into fabricating an FBI identification card for David and supplying him with a gun. Ann is so thrilled by the idea of being married to a secret agent that she forgives David. Meanwhile, Mike sets up a date with the Coogle sisters, Gloria (Barbara Nichols) and Florence (Joi Lansing), and take...

In honor of Frank Sinatra's 100th birthday, which is tomorrow, this week on «Film Friday» I bring you one of his most iconic films and one of my personal favorites. Original release poster Directed by George Sidney, Pal Joey (1957) tells the story of Joey Evans (Frank Sinatra), a cynical singer who is thrown out of town for romancing the mayor's underage daughter and ends up in San Francisco emceeing at a second-rate nightclub, where he meets a naïve young chorus girl named Linda English (Kim Novak). One night, Joey and the club band are invited to perform at a society fund-raiser hosted by Vera Simpson (Rita Hayworth), a wealthy widow whom the crooner immediately recognizes from her old days as a stripper. Later on, Joey walks Linda to her rooming house and notices a room for rent sign in the window. After ascertaining from the sleepy landlady, Mrs. Casey (Elizabeth Patterson), that there is a vacant room adjoining Linda's, the womanizing Joey eagerly rents it. ...

Theatrical release poster Directed bt George Sidney, The Three Musketeers (1948) tells the story of D'Artagnan (Gene Kelly), an eager young swordsman living in 17th-century France who travels to Paris in order to join the elite King's Musketeers. Their commander, Captain Treville (Reginald Owen), initially refuses to let D'Artagnan in, but he changes his mind after the newcomer proves his expertise and audacity in a series of duels with the three most skillful Musketeers, Athos (Van Heflin), Porthos (Gig Young) and Aramis (Robert Coote). Later, D'Artagnan rescues and instantly falls in love with Constance Bonacieux (June Allyson), a confidante of Queen Anne (Angela Lansbury), and finds himself a dim-witted valet named Planchet (Kennan Wynn). Anne is engaged in a secret affair with the English Minister, the Duke of Buckingham (John Sutton), and foolishly gives him a set of matched diamond studs, which were a gift to her from her husband, King Louis XIII...