Q: I saw this movie in the theater when it came out. I grew up in Scottsdale and I went to Arizona State and really enjoyed seeing locations where I spent so much time. I remember at the time thinking that Barbara's venture into more of a rock sound (actually R and B-to my ears) was a successful one. I was never a fan of Kris's singing until his last effort for New West. As a songwriter and an actor, though, he has serious chops, IMHO. I think it is a fine romance. I like it better than the Judy Garland version and never saw Selznick's Janet Gaynor original.

I do believe that they made some changes in this long-awaited DVD release. Among other things, I recall the helicopter shot which reveals a packed Sun Devil Stadium being longer and more dramatic. I wish they had done a better job writing music for Kris or God forbid, put some of his original songs in there.

Along those lines I have some information from a primary source that says that the music was a problem for Kris and Barbara. While doing interviews for my own new music documentary, Rocking the Boat: A Musical Conversation and Journey, I interviewed Stephen Bruton, a fine singer/songwriter/guitarist with close professional and personal ties to Kris, Bonnie Raitt, and Delbert McClinton, among many others. Stephen was in "Speedway," the John Norman character's band. Kris was having a real hard time turning what was essentially a pop score into something that could pass for rock. Stephen was and is Kris's friend and long time band member. There was tension on the set and at one point the band was barking at Kris in Barbara's presence. She remarked to the effect that the band shouldn't talk to him like that. Kris came right back to the effect that they were his friends and they WERE rock and roll! In the end, Barbara came around and decided to use Kris's band's live performances in the movie and specifically sited Stephen's role in making things work. I gained even greater respect for her as an artist upon hearing this story. Much is made of her as a diva. What she is is a pro. And I am not gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
A: positive
Q: While the prices have gone up a lot, and some of the details have become dated, any homeowner who's struggled with problems of homeownership should get a lot of chuckles out of this movie. I know I did.

Mr. Blandings, a New York ad executive, decides to move his family to the Connecticut suburbs and build himself a nice house there. He gets into one hilarious jam after another, from mortgages to lawsuits to construction difficulties, as the costs and schedule of the construction keep escalating out of control. I thought that the funniest scenes were where Blandings hires a contractor to dig a well for water. They dig down hundreds of feet, but never find water. Yet only a short distance away, a few days later, the basement of his house-to-be floods!

Cary Grant and Myrna Loy give believable performances as the harried Blandings couple overwhelmed by problems they never imagined, and Melvyn Douglas is even better as Blanding's lawyer and family friend.

The only caveat is that social attitudes have changed a lot since 1948. Mrs. Blandings is portrayed as a bit of a naive dimbulb who has no idea how much additional trouble she's causing, and there's a black maid (horrors!). So don't watch this movie through the social lens of 2003, and you'll enjoy it all the more.

A: positive
Q: A remake of the superb 1972 movie of the stage play, nicely casting Caine as the nemesis of his character from the first movie. But doing nothing else nicely at all.

A under-parr performance from the actors, Law and Caine, diluted further by weak self-indulgent direction.

The warmth of the setting in the original is forsaken for a super-modern homesetting. The subtle interplay between Oliver and Caine which made the first movie so watchable, is replaced with a horrid, brash arrogance that instantly breeds disdain in the viewer. But this is not the clever, to-ing and froing of liking one then the other character the original fostered so well, this is an obvious OTT character assassination of both character from the word go.

This version of Sleuth is not really worth seeing, watch the original film and be dazzled from the opening act.
A: negative
Q: In my opinion this has to be one of Barbara Stanwyck's best performances. She was one of only a handful of actors, then and now, who could say more with a single look than an entire page of dialogue. And I was lucky enough to see the original and uncensored movie, with the extra 4 minutes of additional footage. Too bad the movie is so short. Lily is a young woman barely holding it together working for her father in his illegal speakeasy. Her only link to anything is her good friend, Chico, played wonderfully by Theresa Harris. Though Chico is African American (and having a white woman be best friends with a black woman back in the 30s was as controversial as the subject matter of this movie), and Lily is not, they have a special bond. And it is not sexual. Just 2 women stuck, or shoved, into a situation beyond their control. After Lily's father dies, and she does not know what she will do, she is told that she has the power to get out and to get what she wants. Yes, it's immoral, but that's the entire point of this movie. Then "they" had to go and ruin the last few minutes. So, up until the last few minutes of the movie, it's a superb film and worth watching. The "lesson" of the movie is still as valid today as it was back then, and I'm sure will be a 100 years from now. Women, it's awful what Lily does in order to get what she wants, but it works. Men, take note.
A: positive