Back to Golden Days

Directed by Michael Curtiz, Romance on the High Seas (1948) the the story of Elvira Kent (Janis Paige) and her husband Michael (Don DeFore), who suspect each other of cheating. For their wedding anniversary, Elvira books a cruise to Rio de Janeiro, but Michael suddenly cancels the trip for business reasons. Seeing an opportunity, Elvira pretends to go alone, but in fact sends Georgia Garrett (Doris Day), a singer she had met at the travel agency, in her place and under her name. By secretly staying behind, Elvira hopes to discover if Michael is indeed having an affair with his attractive new secretary, Miss Medwick (Leslie Brooks). Michael, however, is suspicious over his wife's willingness to take the trip alone, so he hires private detective Peter Virgil (Jack Carson) to see if she is sneaking around behind his back. (from left to right) Janis Paige, Don DeFore, Doris Day and Jack Carson on Romance on the High Seas . Peter joins the cruise and, as part of his job, becomes acqua...

In Portugal (where I'm from), Father's Day is celebrated on March 19. So, for this week's «Film Friday» I thought I'd bring you a film that features a father as its main character. Directed by Michael Curtiz, Life With Father (1947) follows stockbroker Clarence Day (William Powell), who strives to make his 1890s New York City household run as efficiently as his business. He and his wife Vinnie (Irene Dunne) have four sons. The eldest, Clarence, Jr. (Jimmy Lydon), is headed for Yale. John (Martin Milner), the next eldest, likes to invent things, while brother Whitney (Johnny Calkins) struggles to learn his catechism, and Harlan (Derek Scott), the youngest, is most interested in his dog. Knowing how much Clarence dislikes it when visitors stay in the house, Vinnie neglects to tell her husband that their cousin, Cora Cartwright (ZaSu Pitts), and her young companion, Mary Skinner (Elizabeth Taylor), will spend a week with them.   Irene Dunne, William Powell, Jimmy Lydon a...

In honor of Joan Crawford's (probable) 112th birthday, which was on Wednesday, this week on "Film Friday" I bring you what is perhaps the most iconic of her films, the one that gave her the only Academy Award of her career. Theatrical release poster Directed by Michael Curtiz, Mildred Pierce (1945) is the story of the eponymous housewife and mother (Joan Crawford), who devote s herself solely to her two daughters: snobbish Veda (Ann Blyth) and sweet-natured Kay (Jo Ann Marlowe) . Mildred's principal goal is to pr o vide for Veda, who craves for possessions her mother cannot aff ord and social sta tus above that of her family . After her husband Bert (Bruce Bennett) loses his job, they quar rel frequently and he eventually moves out to be with his mistress, Maggie Biederh off (Lee Patrick ). Faced with a stack of bills, Mildred takes a job as a waitress. When Veda ridicules her mother for what she does for a living , even though this work has paid for he...