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Ishallwearpurple
Favorite genres: Mystery/suspense; musicals; westerns; romance; classics; oh heck - anything will do!.
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Reviews
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Bigelow does it again
Zero Dark Thirty (2012) Jessica Chastain. The story of the 10 year pursuit of Osama Ben Laden and the woman who was obsessed with finding and bringing him down. Naval special warfare development group (DEVGRU), or SEAL Team 6, and the operation to go in and get him is the most emotional part of the film. The matter-of-fact way the men get ready and load up and go in and find and kill the terrorist, made me sob. Can't help it - they were so young and so well trained. No heroics - just another job to do. Bigelow, the director, has done another marvelous job showing our men in action. We may not agree with the politics, but the guys doing the job are great. Me? I'm glad they got the SOB. The torture scenes are made to seem like just another day at the office. Which is probably about what it is like after the decision was made to do it. Age-old question - does the end justify the means? 8/10
99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film (2013)
Great and accurate
I watched this film on my DirectTV channel Pivot and it is just as I remember from my following the whole thing as it happened and was posted on Blogs I followed.
You can see how we have almost turned into a police state, with every city that had an encampment stormed and broken up on the same night and day. All because they didn't get permits from the cities.
And it is evident that the ones participating were not all hippies or crazies but ordinary young and old people who were/are concerned about our country.
Good job, Occupy!
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Newspaper man is The Devil
Ace In The Hole (1951) Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur, Ray Teal. One of the darkest newsmen ever depicted on film. One of the most dirty and dusty locations, filmed in New Mexico. A man trapped in a cave is at the mercy of a guy who takes over the rescue and plays it for what it will do for his career. He wants to get back to the big time in NYC and decides this human interest story will get him there. From the day in 1951 I first saw this film, I have never thought of newsmen the same. Billy Wilder directs and Douglas was never better being a mean bastard. Sterling is terrific as the wife who just wants out. One of my favorites from the 1950s. And tell me there aren't people in the press who are just as corrupt as Chuck Tatum. Maybe that is why the film did so poorly - newspapers didn't like it then and probably still don't. 9/10
Show Boat (1936)
What the heck?
Show Boat (1936) Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Charles Winniger, Paul Robeson, Helen Morgan. Awful version of the play. Dunne is okay but what's with that shufflin' dance she does. And the black-face part of the show is disturbing and bad. Morgan may be famous for her rendition of "My Bill" but it is staged and acted better by Ava Gardner in the '51 version. And what is that warble in Jones voice. Sounds like he can not hold a note. Howard Keel is a much more dashing Ravenal. And sings better too. Of course, Kathryn Grayson is more age appropriate as Nolie. Childlike in the beginning, she is wonderful in "Make Believe" with Keel. Robeson is fine as Joe, but I heard him many times on radio when I was growing up singing "Old Man River" so it was a treat to see how it was filmed in this version. And this one does age the characters as in the original play, which is fine. But I like the '51 version much more, and the final scene with Ava blowing a kiss to the Show Boat and Nolie always has me in tears. This one has a fade out with Gay and Nolie together again at the theater watching their daughter - all grown up and a stage success. Not nearly as affecting, at least to me. 5/10
Walking on Air (1936)
They try but it's a dud
Walking On Air (1936) Ann Sothern, Gene Raymond, Jessie Ralph and Henry Stephenson. Formula B musical about a rich girl who wants to marry one guy and hires another to pretend to be a rich obnoxious count so her father will reconsider his unfavorable view of the one she thinks she loves. In the meantime, her father hires a bodyguard to keep her at home and she is locked in her room. She throws her meals, that are served on a tray of fine china and silver, out the window. Her pretend suitor is really trying to be hired by a radio show and we get to hear his audition and first broadcast. The 3 songs are forgettable and the script is predictable. Ann is okay and Gene is his usual smarmy sophomoric self. The two character actors steal the show. Which is a dud. 5/10
Article 99 (1992)
Relevant today
Article 99 (1992) Ray Liotta, Keifer Sutherland, Kathy Baker, Forest Whitaker, John Mahoney. Story about a group of doctors fighting the bureaucracy at a Veterans Hospital. When a patient needs a bypass operation but is given an Article 99, which is a denial of service letter, they get him admitted for something else and move him around until they can schedule the procedure. Keifer is the new yuppie doctor who is just going to serve his time before going into practice for himself. But he finds himself caring about an old vet who has been shifted around for a long time until he finally just wears out and dies. Very interesting film that is more relevant today than when it was released. Filmed in Kansas City, Missouri at an old hospital that was to be torn down, the scenery is gorgeous. On a hillside with the Liberty Memorial (the only WWI Memorial in the USA) down a long drive lined with maples in full fall color, it is a beautiful backdrop in contrast to the crowded and crumbling hospital. Cast are all very good. 7/10
Serenade (1956)
So glad I finally got to see it---
Thank you Turner Classic Movies! Mario Lanza, Joan Fontaine, Vincent Price, Sarita Montiel. Made three years before his death of a heart attack, this film has much to recommend it, mainly his singing. The two songs written for the film are not top notch, but his rendition of "Nessum Dorma" and "Ave Marie" are show stoppers. Joan Fontaine(Kendall), as the cold hearted rich women, who discovers him(Damon) singing in a San Francisco café and finds him a vocal teacher and eventually a debut in opera, is beautiful and has gorgeous clothes to wear. When she is through with him, she abruptly leaves and goes off with a painter, which makes him completely break down and flee the stage. He goes to Mexico and is brought back to living by a beautiful girl who he eventually falls for and marries. The comeback and what happens when Kendall comes back into his life is pure melodrama. This was a film I missed when it came out although I was a huge fan in the years of his Hollywood career. I still tear up at some of his singing, it is so beautiful. 8/10
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
An elderly female likes the action and Butler---
Olympus Has Fallen (2013) Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckard, Angela Bassett, Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Rick Yune. Non-stop action and graphic violence means heart pounding thrills. The beginning sets up the First Family as loving parents to their young son, who is buddies with head Secret Service agent Mike Banning. So instead of Mike being in the car with the President, Mike goes in the car with Conner, the boy, who asks if he can. A horrible accident on the way from Camp David to the White House causes a death and Mike is blamed so is reassigned to desk work at the Treasury Dept. So when the attack on D.C. and the White House comes, Mike runs amid the chaos to the W.H. and by the time he gets there he is able to enter and find out the who, what, where of the people who have taken over the building. Since he has worked there and knows all the secret communications and passages, he is able to talk to the command center and those left in charge. He works his way toward the 'safe bunker' where the villains have set up shop and listed their demands. The scenes where he has to fight and kill his way toward his objective are graphic and bloody, but make you gasp and at times exclaim. Like other thrillers - Taken, for example - one extremely well trained guy is able to do the impossible. I am an older woman and I enjoyed the film and seeing Butler in action. The whole cast is very good, especially the three women in roles of importance to the story. 8/10
Our Betters (1933)
A Connie Bennett gem
Our Betters (1933) Constance Bennett, Violet Kemble Cooper, Anita Louise, Alan Mowbray, Gilbert Rowland. A Somerset Maugham play, directed by George Cukor about the Lords and Ladies of British society, is amusing and biting at the same time. They have parties and weekends at someones estate, and gossip about who is sleeping with who, and learn all the latest dance steps. Lady Greystone has been 'educated' in her betters ways by her titled husband who she learned too late married her only for her money. While he spends all his time with his mistress, she gives lavish parties for her "betters." Soon she is the top hostess among the titled and idle set. Some wicked humor by Maugham, who was an invited guest to many of the same sort of places among the same sort of people. Bennett is dazzling in her wardrobe by Hattie Carnegie and Cooper is too funny trying to keep her gigolo from straying. And the final scene with a rouged and mincing dance instructor is very funny. As in any hard times, the depression era movie goer wanted something light and amusing and not deep and real. They saw 'real' everyday in their homes and on the streets. Kind of like today. 8/10
Me and Orson Welles (2008)
Genius and Cad - Spoilers
Christian McKay, Zac Efron, Claire Danes. The troupe of Mercury Players who made Orson Welles famous with the staging of Shakespeare's Julias Caesar as a modern dress drama in 1937.
It is told through the eyes of a high school boy after he is cast in a bit part. He is bored with school so one day skips and rides the subway to Manhattan. During his day, he runs into Welles in front of the theater and in a conversation is given a chance to read a small part in the play. He is cast and is introduced to the young assistant to the theater manager.
He makes a play for her and even though she is older, and the men of the cast call her the Ice Queen, she goes out with him when he wins a drawing for dates that Orson thinks is a swell idea so the cast can become better acquainted. They end up having sex. He falls hard for her and feels betrayed when she just blows him off later.
Interesting, and illustrates the comment on how a play comes together and works - "It is a mystery." 7/10
The Constant Nymph (1943)
Be careful what you wish for---
The Constant Nymph (1943) Joan Fontaine, Charles Boyer, Alexis Smith. O.M.G! When I was a teeny bopper in 1943 when this came to our neighborhood theater, I was entranced. A girl only a bit older than me in love with an older dreamy guy - and he loves her back. O.M.G! But , but! I watched the DVR'd copy last night and I was soooo disappointed. Fontaine is drippy. It is one of Boyers worst films. Smith comes out with her dignity in tact. And, I was underwhelmed by the music. I've longed to see this again all these years, but now wish it was still among the 'lost.' "Be careful what you wish for - you just might get it." 5/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035751/
The House on 56th Street (1933)
Kay ages 25 years---
House On 56th Street (1933) Kay Francis, Ricardo Cortez, Gene Raymond, Margaret Lindsey. Kay is a 1905 showgirl (Peggy} on Broadway and lover to Lyndon Fiske. She also has young Monte Van Tyle{Raymond) wanting to marry her. So she does. He builds her a mansion - the title address. Hubby is taken to war and Peggy has a baby girl And then Monte is killed, so Fiske pounces and says he needs her back, he is ill, etc. She says no. He takes out a gun. Badabing. In a struggle, he is shot and killed. Peggy is arrested, tried and given 20 years. House goes, baby goes to mother-in-law, and 20 years pass. We see Kay released and given a new start by an inheritance from her mother-in-law. From dowdy, gray haired convict, to glamorous widow sailing on a luxury ship and meeting up with crooked gambling man, Cortez. Eventually teaming up, they make lots of money and end up at the 56th St address, now the biggest gambling house/speakeasy in NYC. Well, now we have the set up for daughter and her beau, threatened by gambling problems. Suffice to say, Kay suffers but her daughter cries a lot as she sails off into the sunset with her young man, thanks to Ma. Kay wears a different gown in almost every scene in the speakeasy. Gorgeous. 8/10
Guilty Hands (1931)
Kay Francis film
Guilty Hands (1931) Kay Frances, Lionel Barrymore, Madge Evans, Alan Mowbray. Babs(Evans) is wooed and won away from her young sweetheart by older cad, Gordan Rich(Mowbray). Her father, Barrymore(Richard Grant) vows to kill him and get away with it if he won't stop seeing Babs. Marjorie(Kay Francis) loves Gordan and sees what happens. . She threatens to unmask the real killer. It would take a few more years to have films made from the camera point-of-view This is melodrama 1931 style. Most actors came from the stage; lots of scripts were reworking Plays; directors also had mainly stage training. So, if we today criticize, using todays standards, it is very unfair. This is a fairly interesting plot, with mostly pros in the title roles. The star in Barrymore and he is good. Kay Francis has lovely fashions to wear, and holds her own. And because it is pre-code, a surprising ending. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021933/
Cowboy (1958)
The Trail Drive theme
Cowboy (1958) Glenn Ford, Jack Lemon, Brian Donlevy, King Donovan, Richard Jaeckel, Dick York, Victor Mendoza. A young starry eyed bell boy Harris/Lemon in a fancy Chicago hotel idolizes the violent and hard living trail hands who storm into the hotel where he works. The "boss" gets to drinking and gambling and ends up borrowing money from the young man, who gets a sworn promise that he now owns half of the assets of Ford/Reese. When Harris shows up at the rail yard ready to go with them back to Texas, Reese gets nasty and tells him to get lost. But Harris is stubborn and Reese relents. His Ramrod, Mendoza says "he must be telling the truth or you would have killed him by now." A favorite western. Parts are cliché, but so many details of life on the trail are shown as hard and unsentimental of humans or animals, that it is difficult to watch at times. Ford at his hard-as-rock best, and Lemon as his befuddled but good guy best too; some great scenes together. The cattle drive is a classic theme and this one is on a par with Red River and the Wayne/Clift pairing, IMHO. Always a pleasure when the pros are in charge. 9/10
Confession (1937)
One of the great Kays greatest-----
Confession (1937) Kay Francis, Basil Rathbone, Ian Hunter. Kay as a fallen woman, being tried for the murder of the man (Rathbone) who caused her to lose her husband and baby daughter. One of Kays best performances in a remake of a German film. The trial and Kay telling her story about losing her daughter and killing the man who caused her downfall when she sees him with the girl, sways the Judge and jury and at the end she is sentenced to time served plus two years. Rathbone is suitably charming and despicable at once. Ian Hunter is fine in a small role as the warrior who comes home without an arm and discovers his wife has been unfaithful. One of Kays best roles. She wears her usual great wardrobe and her walk down the long prison hall, all shadows and dust in the air, is one of the great endings for a woman's film. 8/10
Lion of the Desert (1980)
The Great Wars and carving up North Africa-----
Lion Of The Desert (1981) Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Raf Vallone, Rod Steiger. A wonderful performance by Quinn as Omar Mukhtar, the Lion of Libya. And Reed as Italian Gen.Rodolfo Graziani, who pursues him for Benito Mussolini. The time it takes - from 1911 to 1931 - is shown as the reason for the tribesmens' hatred of all foreigners. European countries carved up north Africa among themselves. Very effective use of the desert landscapes and using some actual newsreel footage of the refugee camps that stretch for miles. by the end. Some of the Italian officers were tried as war criminals. Interesting, and some great action scenes. 8/10
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
Lovely story--
Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) Freddie Bartholomew, C. Aubrey Smith, Delores Costello, Guy Kibbee. Made from an 1880's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, this is a loving, sweet story of a fatherless boy and his mother and how they come into their own. The grandfather is gruff and unforgiving of his son for marrying a foreigner and going off to America. But all is put right by the sweet grandson, who loves his father's "dearest" as he calls his mother. Called back to England to take his rightful place at the manor, little Lord Fauntleroy is the pride and joy of everyone on the estate in short order. A wonderful film to this day for all who have a heart and are willing to go along with a world of make believe. 8/10
The Tree of Life (2011)
Put me to sleep
The Tree Of Life (2011) Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn. Okaaaay! I watched this about a month ago and said 'think I better see it again after I think about it a while.' So. I watched it again over the weekend and I guess I'm just not the target audience. It made no sense, unless the mistreatment of children is a theme you like. I must confess, I DVR'd this off HBO so I could see parts over as I went. And I needed to because I kept falling asleep. When a director does that, it is unforgivable, as it was in 1932, and it is in 2012, no matter how beautiful some of the cinematography. Since the actors had hardly any lines to speak, and very little physical acting to do, how are we supposed to assess their performances? All in all, a bad film IMHO. 4/10
Alice Adams (1935)
Encore: A film from my collection
Encore: Alice Adams (1935) Katheryn Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone, Ann Shoemaker, Hattie McDaniel. Marvelous story from the book by Booth Tarkington, of a small town girl who is trying to keep up appearances among her former friends, as her family sinks farther into poverty. One of her 'friends' invites her to the party of the season, at the mansion of her former girlfriends family, and she has to wear a 2 year old out-of-season gown. And go with her reluctant brother as her escort. There she meets a wealthy young man who dances with her and she is smitten. From this set up of the social order in this town, we have scenes of the home life of the Adams family. When the beau comes calling, Alice won't ask him in; she is too embarrassed about her home. Finally, he challenges her to meet the rest of her family; and her Mom keeps wanting her to have him for dinner. So she does. In a scene that is so funny it is heartbreaking, on the hottest night of the year; serving hot food when they are all melting; and melting aspic and ice cream, it is a disaster. Alice tells Arthur she knows he just wants to get away from this place. With a side story of her father and his problems and why the family has lost its' middle class existence, the film winds down to a happy ending when Arthur comes back and he and Alice make up. The book has a harsher end for Alice, but this is Hollywood. Good film anyway, with scenes that break your heart if you have ever been embarrassed by who you are, or by so-called friends. 9/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026056/
Forbidden (1932)
Pre-code trouble for Stanwyke
Forbidden (1932) Barbara Stanwyke, Adolph Menjou, Ralph Bellamy. Early "Matinee' Ladies" film with the heroine being done wrong by a rich, married cad. Capra himself described the story as "two hours of soggy, 99.44 percent soap opera." Lulu is on a cruise to Havana, a little librarian looking for romance and adventure. She gets both, but at what price. Ends up with a baby; and the father is a dog. But she loves him. So an arrangement is made and by manipulation, the baby ends up being raised by the cad, now a politician, and his wife, who happens to be crippled, so he 'can't leave her.'. More risqué' than many later films after the film code was put in place to shield the hard facts of life from middle America. The actors are fine except Bellamy is directed to be over the top as a muck raking newspaper man. Can't believe he did it on his own. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022905/
Note: The reference to "99.44percent" is a reference to Ivory Soap, which back in the 1930's and 40's was advertised as being "99.44 % PURE." And the soap operas broadcast on radio all day for the women homemakers of America. My Mom and her neighborhood friends followed Stella Dallas, Backstage Wife, and so many more. And of course, went to see Babs suffer, and debonaire Menjou, at the movies.
The Sisters (1938)
Episodic story of women
The Sisters (1938) Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Anita Louise. Jane Bryan, Henri Travers, Buelah Bondi. A wonderful "Matinee' Ladies" film. I was a young girl and would come home from school and there would be my Mom and a friend or two talking about the movie they had seen that afternoon at the downtown movie palace where a Bette or Loretta or any of the other "women-who-suffer" latest film was playing. This one has small town in Montana women, finding the men who will become their partners in life. Bette picks bounder Errol, who she sticks by through thick and thin, even the San Francisco earthquake. Bette suffers the most, but it is the sister who stays in Montana who finally brings them all back together, to help her solve a scandal involving a local femme fa tale who is after the youngest sister's banker husband. The episodic film has major time shifts bookended by the Presidential elections and large celebration balls. The final one with Taft beating Teddy Roosevelt has a lovely shot of each of the women coming from different parts of the ballroom as the camera follows each to the center where they meet and as the celebration goes on, they stand with their arms around each others waist, as the camera tracks back and up. They are highlighted in a glow, and it is just a very moving, lovely end to the film. All three actresses have never been filmed more beautifully. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030755/
Coriolanus (2011)
Right Out Of Today's Headlines---
Coriolanus (2011) Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox. I downloaded this as soon as it came on Pay-Per-View and watched it last week two times. The second time I took some notes. Both times I used sub-titles so I would not miss any of the dialog - Shakespears words spoken by a wonderful cast.
This play is so topical it could be right out of todays headlines. The opening scenes are of the poor, hungry, citizens rioting against black-booted, helmeted government troops. The young woman yells "we are considered poor citizens; the patricians good. Our suffering is a game to them." The OWS message - the 1% against the 99%, with the armies made to serve the 1%.
But our hero is having none of any of it - he hates the citizens and the patricians. What he loves is the war and valor. He goes to battle against his enemy, Volsce leader, Tullus Aufidius, and takes the city of Corioles and is given the honorific name Coriolanus. Fiennes is very good with the permanent sneer this Coriolanus feels for most mortals.
Redgrave as his warrior Mother is good, but the character is a hypocrite. She WANTS him to have large scars - to prove his valor. But also wants him to play the game with the senate - cow-tow to win favor. He can't do it.
The 99% riot again and he wants full power and they won't give it to him. He says of the people, who are these "crows to peck the eagles". Menenius says "You are ambitions!" So he leaves the city and joins up with his enemy, Tullas Aufidius, to march on Rome.
Cox is my pick to get acting honors. Much more than Redgrave, he embodies the noble and the deviousness of the patricians. He makes you feel the tragedy you are seeing.
Butler as the Volscian leader is quiet and strong. The battle with knives between he and Coriolanus is exciting. Butler has such presence, when he is on screen you watch him, even when he does nothing and is in the background. As with the great Steve McQueen, he just IS. He needs no dialog.
Entertaining and also quite good. 8/10
Machine Gun Preacher (2011)
Based on an auto-biography---
Machine Gun Preacher (2011) Gerard Butler, Michele Monagham, Souleymane Sy Savane. How can a story be propaganda if you make a film about what the person themselves has put on paper? Sam Childers wrote a book about what he did and now everyone is saying, in effect - "no you didn't. We know better. It was this way. You are a jerk and don't know what you're talking about!" I think people don't WANT it to be true, because that makes them feel superior.
But Sam thinks he did what he wrote. I have watched it twice and taken some notes. Remember - it is HIStory and we, the viewers, can't change facts to suit our preferences.
The films prologue sets the theme. It's 2003 and the atrocities in Sudan are unbelievable. Then we jump to what Sam's life was in 2003. Drugs, robberies, prison, etc. It is HIS story from then on and he pulls no punches in how bad and lost he was.
He was rescued by his wife Lynn and the church. Because he knows what it feels like to finally walk into a place of worship and feel so alone, he decides to build a storefront that says "come as you are - we need you." Which is the Christian message. Not propaganda. Sam is successful in getting things going. He has a construction business and his church and is inspired to go to Africa to help build a school. It is the changing point for him. He is compelled to go back again and again to do something for the youngsters living in Hell.
He finally realizes that no matter how "good" the missionaries are, the Kona army will keep burning down everything, kidnapping children, killing their parents, and worse, until stopped. The 'government' has no help for those out in the bush country. So he grabs a gun and takes a truck and the mission guards and goes to get what kids he can and bring them back to safety. And they do have to kill some of Kona's thugs.
And he doesn't sugar-coat how the other missionary communities feel about him or visa-versa. The young woman says to him "you are a mercenary." But he only knows he is rescuing some of the children. That's it for him And it is HIS story. It's his P-O-V. I can't fault him for that.
The cast are good. Gerard Butler is especially good in the beginning scenes showing the bad-boy biker persona. The same qualities that made Sam an addict make him successful in other pursuits. Singleness of purpose, and a laser-beam on what he wants to do. And of course, Butler is fine in the action scenes. Looked real to me.
Michele is good as his no-nonsense wife. She loves him but stands up for herself. Michael Shannon as Sams buddy, doesn't get much to do. The actors in the Africa segment are all good, but Savane is a strong presence. Madeline Carroll, as daughter Paige, is sweet and normal. Wants some attention from her Dad.
The film was engrossing to me. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1586752/
Mogambo (1953)
One answer to TV
Mogambo stars Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly. In the early 1950s, Hollywood was trying to find some formula to get people out of their living rooms watching TV and back to the theater, so took their top stars to Africa on safari. That'll show those upstarts! This was a big hit and is one of the better uses of the great grasslands, and uplands, of Africa and the animals who live there. The gorilla scenes are marvelous too, but the attitude that shooting animals and/or catching them for display in zoos, is backward. Gardner steals the film from goody two shoes Grace. Grace may have gotten a prince in real life, but Ava got 'The King' of films in this movie and, according to bios, in real life. There is no music score. Only the chants and sounds of Africa. So effective and one of the first films to use the system. Remake of Red Dust which also starred Gable with the blond bombshell - Jean Harlow. Earlier film was fun, but this safari does it for me. 8/10
Sunshine State (2002)
Good cast, great scenery-----
---but you have to pay attention.
Edie Falco, Timothy Hutton, Angela Bassett, Mary Steenburgen, Jane Alexander, Ralph Waite, Alan King in a John Sayles film about Florida and development. Good and bad, yes and no, and the decisions people make. Bassett and her doctor husband, (Desiree and Reggie), have come to visit her Mama and the old home next to a beautiful white beach. It is in the area that was bought up by a wealthy black man and resold to other blacks in the early years of Florida when no blacks were allowed on beaches run by towns or counties. But with desegregation, lots of the original families have gone on to other places. So the land is ripe for picking by land developers. The various characters and companies who want to develop strip malls and franchise restaurants come like locusts. One company has its' bulldozers ready. The Temple family, who own a motel, restaurant complex, are the interesting group. Daughter Marly(Falco) runs things now, but hates it. Dad, Furman(Waite), is almost blind, and rants about how things used to be, when you could refuse accommodations to anyone. Mom, Delia(Alexander), has her own life and has never had any part of the family business. But she has had 25 years of running a community theater. At the final scenes of the story, she is the one who tells the hot-shot snotty businessman what is what, and what he and the other guys wanting to develop the land will have to do - sign contracts, share future profits, 5-10 years down the road, etc. Not for nothing has she raised and managed funds for her beloved theater all these years. There will be development, but there will be some who can say what kind. Long and complex, this is a film with many stories and takes its' time. Alexander plays her big scene quietly and with such good humor, you almost fail to realize it is the key scene in the film. The rest of the cast are very good and all have their shining moments. 7/10