African Queen (1951)

Why it's here:
We knew Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart separately (and younger) from other films and were anxious to see them together in this highly acclaimed one.

Specs:
1 hour and 45 minutes; color. We watched on dvd from the library
Set in 1914

Our family's average rating:
8.0

More about the film and our reaction to it:
This movie is amazing. And so unexpected. I mean, of course, I'd heard of it and figured it had to be good, but it's not the type of film that succeeds in the way you are expecting it to. You really just don't see it sneaking up on you until you are already deep within its grasp.

So, the film starts out with a middle-aged missionary and his sister (Katherine Hepburn) in Africa -- then enters an ugly, disheveled Humphrey Bogart looking worse than you can imagine. The missionary dies (not really a spoiler since it happens right away in the film) and Hepburn and Bogart are left travelling together for the rest of the film. Getting to know each other as they float down a river may not sound like compelling film making. But it is so stunningly well made and well acted that it's all that is needed to carry the film.

We were all impressed. And that is really saying something when a teenage and preteen boy 50 years later can watch what is basically as much a romance between two middle-aged people as it is an adventure film, and LOVE it. Their story is so believably done that it still engages. But, when I stopped to think about it, our whole family taking to this movie makes total sense because it is much like It Happened One Night. It's a simple, well-written, well-acted, believable, fantasy adventure between two people and the countryside.

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Casablanca (1942)

Why it's here:
Few classic films are better known or better made. Cassablanca represents a perfect moment in cinema that should be experienced.

Specs:
About 2 hours, black and white.

Our family's average rating (on a scale of 1-10):
8.0

More about the movie and our reaction to it:
If there is anything more beautiful than Ingrid Bergman's face, I certainly have not seen it. All I need to know about the world of romantic love and tension can be read in it. Her relationship and chemistry with Humphrey Bogart are so strong that they steal my heart without effort; in fact, I imagine they could get to the heart of pretty much anyone who watches -- kids included. There is no question that the power of this movie is the underlying romance.

But the even cooler thing, is that Casablanca goes far beyond romance to pull in its audience. Full of intrigue that will grab your family from the beginning, its an exciting picture about war and politics, with fabulous uniforms, nationalities, threads of international politics and patriotism. The characters are nuanced enough that you can't always tell who to root for. Thus, its an accessible plot that makes you feel adult when you watch it.

My kids love Peter Lorre (who we also enjoyed in the Maltese Falcon) as a strangely exciting and eccentric character and were thrilled to also see Sydney Greenstreet again. Among the film's stellar performances is that of Claude Rains as a kinda funny, cool, unknown entity. And once again, Bogart plays an extremely cool main man -- someone you can't tear your eyes from and whose every move seems important. He is fabulous.

As with pretty much all old movies, there's lots of drinking and smoking -- and plenty of seedier topics. The nice thing with old movies, is that the seedier aspects of life are glossed over and nothing is too explicit; although a great deal may be implied. And also, as with many old films, the one-liners are awesome. The kids laughed aloud at lines like "round up the usual suspects" and "'this gun is pointing at your heart' 'that's my least vulnerable spot.

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Maltese Falcon (1941)

Why it's here:
Suggested by a friend as a must see for our festival. Boy was she right.

Specs:
1 hr 40 minutes, black and white. Available on dvd

Our family's average rating on a 1-10 scale:
8.5

More about the film and our reaction to it:
There's something about star power. Regardless of the era, regardless of the genre, regardless of color, black & white, sound or silence, and regardless of whether you are 10 or 40, you know it when you see it. And Humphrey Bogart had it. The man just controlled the screen. His voice, his smile, his cool demeanor and great hats...all adds up to one sweet gumshoe.

This film was mesmerizing and compelling, even though we didn't always follow the clever plot,; we were spellbound by the drama. Its enough to say this is your basic detective story. Murder, intrigue, twists and turns, satisfying conclusion and, by the end, a wish that this were a series rather than a single movie. Because you just can't get enough of lines like "he's so full of holes he couldn't have gone far," "when I slap you you'll take it and like it," "keep on riding me and they're gonna be picking iron out of your liver," or the classic "I couldn't be fonder of you if you were my own son. But if you lose a son its possible to get another. There's only one Maltese Falcon."

Talented actors fill the cast - Mary Astor gives an incredibly interesting and believable performance as the apparently distraught sister who hands Bogart's Sam Spade the case and then turns out to be much much more. Fabulous Sydney Greenstreet is the big man sitting back and pulling all the strings. But most of all, the boys loved Peter Lorre as the wheezy-voiced, tightly-wound, nevertheless polite gangster Joel Cairo, with whom Spade has some tremendous interactions.

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