Tag Archives: Maureen O’Sullivan

June 1, 2020 · 1:08 pm

The Set of 400: #68 – My Favorite New Year’s Eve Party

Today! Because the murderer is right in this room. Sitting at this table. You may serve the fish –

The Thin Man (1934)

Directed by W.S. Van Dyke (x2)

Starring William Powell (x3), Myrna Loy (x2), Maureen O’Sullivan (x3), Porter Hall (x3), Minna Gombell, Harold Huber, Cesar Romero, Natalie Moorhead, Nat Pendleton, Henry Wadsworth, William Henry, Edward Brophy, Edward Ellis

Dashiell Hammett’s hard drinking detective and wife pair Nick and Nora Charles first gloriously came to life in this 1934 classic, altering a few keys elements from the book in terms of character and tone, but maintaining the twisty, red-herring filled plot about the search for Clyde Wynant, a.k.a. The Thin Man. And yes, it’s weird that all the sequels still used “The Thin Man” in the title, as though Nick Charles was on a perennial diet, when Wynant only appears in the first film. But hey, they needed that name recognition! If they knew what a hit they’d have on their hands, undoubtedly this would’ve been called Nick and Nora or Mr. and Mrs. Charles or Asta, the Wonder Dog.

Forever the MVP, and a frequent crossword puzzle answer!

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Tagged as Cesar Romero, Favorite Movies Ever, Harold Huber, Maureen O'Sullivan, Myrna Loy, Nat Pendleton, Nick and Nora, Porter Hall, The Thin Man, William Powell

January 6, 2020 · 2:10 pm

The Set of 400: #173 – My Favorite Breeder’s Guide

Today! Because I really am a horse doctor, but marry me, and I’ll never look at another horse –

A Day at the Races (1937)

Directed by Sam Wood

Starring Groucho Marx (x3), Harpo Marx (x3), Chico Marx (x3), Allan Jones, Maureen O’Sullivan (x2), Margaret Dumont (x2), Sig Ruman (x3), Esther Muir, Douglass Dumbrille, Dorothy Dandridge, Leonard Ceeley

The last really good Marx Brothers movie (and even that is up for some debate), A Day at the Races functions as a solid last gasp for the team, even though they couldn’t have known it when production began. Like on A Night at the Opera two years earlier, they had the benefit of road testing some of the material, to get the jokes down solid and the timing together to hold for laughs. They had the enthusiasm and support of MGM boss Irving Thalberg, who threw them the money and resources to make this work, and got the film launched before cameras in the fall of ’36.

For two years, they were quite the team

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Tagged as A Day at the Races, Allan Jones, Chico Marx, Favorite Movies Ever, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Marx Brothers, Maureen O'Sullivan, Sig Ruman

December 26, 2019 · 2:20 pm

The Set of 400: #180 – My Favorite Freedonia Shout-Out

Today! Because what if there is no God and you only go around once and that’s it. Well, don’t you wanna be part of the experience?

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Directed by Woody Allen (x5)

Starring Mia Farrow (x4), Michael Caine (x3), Barbara Hershey, Woody Allen (x4), Diane Wiest (x2), Max Von Sydow (x2), Carrie Fisher (x3), Maureen O’Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Daniel Stern (x2), Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Black, Julie Kavner (x2), J.T. Walsh (x5), John Turturro (x2), Richard Jenkins (x3), Fred Melamed (x2), Joanna Gleason, Sam Waterston (x2), Tony Roberts (x2)

With one of the best casts ever assembled, Hannah and Her Sisters in a lot of ways is the perfect Woody Allen movie. He made better ones, and he made funnier ones, but this is the rare hybrid between family drama and neurotic comedy, neatly packaged together as one film. Really, there are two plots running alongside each other, knitted together by featuring the extended family of sisters Hannah (Farrow), Holly (Wiest), and Lee (Hershey). Being a Woody Allen film, the B plot is entirely him – as Hannah’s writer ex-husband Mickey, going through a mid-life crisis where he may be dying of a brain tumor (this is the funny half!). The A plot features Hannah’s current husband – Michael Caine’s Elliot – in his escalating disenchantment with their marriage and his lust for sister-in-law Lee. Even this breakdown isn’t entirely fair, as they split time on these stories pretty evenly, plus a good amount of time spent on Wiest’s hilarious Holly, but the Elliot/Lee/Hannah portion does occupy with the emotional center of things.

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