13 - Mannequin (1937) - 7.5/10 - Joan Crawford stars as a woman named Jessie who wants to escape from the slum where she has lived her whole life. She sees her mother toiling away for an ungrateful and lazy father and doesn't want the same life for herself. She marries a man that she thinks will get her away from that life, but it turns out that he is a cheap chiseler who lives off of her earnings and from scheme to scheme. Enter wealthy John L. Hennessey (Spencer Tracy) who is in love with her, even though she is already married. Jessie's husband sees this as an opportunity to get some of Hennessey's wealth for himself, but his plans go awry. I thought that Crawford was very good in this film. The plot itself isn't anything special, but Crawford sells it pretty well. Spencer Tracy isn't bad, but he's mainly there in support of Crawford who is the definite star of the film. Alan Curtis is decent as the chiseling husband, but his character seems to be pretty much of the one note variety.
14 - Bullfighter and the Lady (1951) - 8/10 - American Johnny Regan becomes interested in bullfighting while attending a bullfight in Mexico, though he is really more interested in the attractive young woman that he sees there. He approaches Mexico's most loved bullfighter who agrees to train Johnny as a bullfighter. The movie uses real bullfighters in supporting roles and while I am no fan of bullfighting, the movie itself is pretty entertaining. It's a good drama and shows respect for the profession and for Mexico. UCLA restored the movie to the 124 minute length that the director intended rather than the 87 minute cut version that was actually released so that it would be under 90 minutes.
15 - Guest Wife (1945) - 7.5/10 - Claudette Colbert stars as Mary Price, a woman who lives in a small town in Ohio with her husband Chris (Dick Foran), a banker. The two are about to embark on a second honeymoon when Chris's best friend Joe (Don Ameche) shows up. Joe is a popular journalist, but is in a bind since he told his boss that he is married and has to show up in New York with her to meet the boss. He 'borrows' Mary in what is supposed to be a quick session where she pretends to be his wife and then gets on with her honeymoon with Chris. Things do not go according to plan. I thought that Colbert and Ameche were both very good here. The movie has a number of predictable mixups, but it is still pretty funny and an entertaining hour and a half.
16 - The Young in Heart (1938) - 7/10 - A family of con artists are getting too well known and are down on their luck. They befriend a lonely old woman on a train and are welcomed into her home. Their initial hope is to become her heirs when she passes away, but their feelings and behavior change as a result of their stay in her home and they come to love the old woman. This was Janet Gaynor's last starring role before she retired from the film industry, making only one other film nearly 20 years later. It's a decent film, though not anything really special.
17 - Fourteen Hours (1951) - 7.5/10 - A young man (Richard Basehart) walks out on to the ledge of a 15th floor hotel room in New York City contemplating suicide. A traffic cop named Dunnigan (Paul Douglas) on the ground sees him and calls it in before rushing up to try and talk to the man and help him. The rest of the police and emergency team show up and send Dunnigan on his way, but the young man only wants to talk to Dunnigan so they bring him back. The young man's parents and girlfriend are located and have their opportunity to talk to him. We also get some time with a few of the people on the ground who spend the day watching his ordeal, but the stars of the show are Basehart and Douglas who each do an excellent job in their roles. This is a pretty decent film and is based on an article describing a similar situation in Manhattan in 1938.
18 - The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) - 5/10 - Bob Hope (in his feature length debut) serves as the emcee of a radio program aboard the SS Gigantic which is involved in a transatlantic race from New York to Cherburg with the SS Colossal. Hope's character starts out in jail for not paying alimony to his three ex-wives. WC Fields plays a couple of roles in the film as brothers whose company own the SS Gigantic. There are a number of entertainment acts in the film, but I didn't really find most of them to be very interesting. The movie is kind of a clunker, though it does have a few interesting scenes. Dorothy Lamour wasn't bad in the film. Martha Raye shows up to lighten things up a bit with her comedy.
19 - Rhythm on the River (1940) - 7.5/10 - Bing Crosby stars as Bob Sommers, a man who ghostwrites songs a popular songwriter named Oliver Courtney (Basil Rathbone). Courtney also hires a woman named Cherry Lane (Mary Martin) to write the lyrics for his songs. Sommers and Lane run into each other a number of times and Lane doesn't like Sommers very much at first. Eventually, they fall in love with each other and form their own songwriting duo, but have trouble selling their songs since they are so similar to the ones they wrote for Courtney. Crosby and Martin are pretty good in the film and the music is decent. Rathbone is okay, but Oscar Levant is kind of wasted in his small role.
