Movie Recommendations

First-rate comedy/western about a soft-spoken lawman who doesn’t want to use his guns, even though he’s the son of a famous gun-wielding lawman. Jimmy Stewart is at his aw-shucks peak, and Marlene Dietrich has never been better—especially when she sings the show-stopper See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have.

Though not as perfect as Sturges’s Sullivan’s Travels or The Lady Eve, this effort comes close. Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert are wonderful as the faltering marrieds, but you’ll never forget the Ale and Quail Club, the Wienie King, Rudy Vallee, and Mary Astor.

Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, and other inept crooks decide they must murder their landlady to keep her silent. Is one little old lady a match for five hardened criminals?

Preston Sturges’s wonderfully acerbic fantasy of a famed conductor contemplating revenge for his wife’s infidelity while leading the orchestra through three pieces.

Lightning-fast screwball comedy of Berlin-based Coca-Cola executive Jimmy Cagney frantically trying to cover up his daughter’s marriage to a Communist.

Searing examination of racism and how cooperation can break down that boundary. Sidney Poitier is arrested on suspicion of murder as a black man passing through a small Southern town; Rod Steiger won an Oscar for his protrayal of the sheriff.

Genuinely spooky movie about demonic posession; thought the effects are slightly dated today, the atmosphere is chilling. Watch it in a dark house.

Splendid screen treatment of the J.R.R. Tolkien saga. All fans of the books will have criticisms, but on the whole the films are a rousing success. Includes The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003).

Hitchcock’s take on the Joseph Conrad novel of a suburban movie theater owner and terrorist.

Weird Al Yankovic, ably supported by soon-to-be TV stars Michael Richards and Fran Drescher, run increasingly strange shows to salvage an inherited UHF station. Best if seen after midnight.