Jack Weston

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Dirty Dancing Review

By Pete Croatto

Excellent

Dirty Dancing's initial success in 1987 was probably a mixture of factors -- Patrick Swayze's anointment as a sensitive hunk, the fact that the movie's sweetness was a change of pace from the loud, expensive blockbusters that dominated the landscape at the time and a pop soundtrack of golden oldies and then-current songs that flooded radio stations.

However, after watching the movie recently, the key to the movie's limitless charm is revealed to be due to the presence of Jennifer Grey. Without her performance, the movie is a flop, Bill Medley isn't cool again and, well, Swayze and Grey drift into irrelevance a year or two earlier.

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Please Don't Eat The Daisies Review

By Christopher Null

Very Good

When you think of classic romantic comedy pairings, Doris Day and David Niven don't immediately spring to mind. But Niven shows an extremely soft and lighthearted side in this madcap romp, one of Day's best films from her little-seen later years in the business.

The story is really a bunch of vignettes -- as the source book was -- about a woman with four rambunctious boys and a theater critic husband, all of whom move from the city to the country in an attempt to better their lives. Hysteria ensues as Niven's critic tussles with old friends who are all playwrights, and a leading lady (Janis Paige) who alternately slaps him in the face and tries to woo a positive review out of him.

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The Four Seasons Review

By Don Willmott

Very Good

Back in the '70s, Alan Alda gained a rep as a "sensitive man," a pro-ERA, Marlo Thomas-loving, abortion-rights-advocating bleeding heart. The Four Seasons, written, directed, and starring Alda at the peak of his M*A*S*H fame, is his feminist apotheosis. This sparkling comedy tracking the travails of three upscale middle-aged couples as they vacation together four times a year (accompanied by a vibrant Vivaldi soundtrack, natch) is told from a distinctly female, and feminist, perspective. Alda is really in touch with his softer side.

Jack and Kate Burroughs (Alda and Carol Burnett), Danny and Claudia Zimmer (Jack Weston and Rita Moreno), and Nick and Anne Callan (Len Cariou and Sandy Dennis) head off for the first of their four annual trips in spring, but it's not going to be a good time. The fragile and seemingly unstable Anne announces that Nick has dumped her and that a divorce is imminent. The women rally around their long-time friend while the men stand back and try to avoid emoting at all.

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The Incredible Mr. Limpet Review

By Christopher Null

Just how incredible is this Mr. Limpet? Well, for starters he can wish himself to turn into a fish. An animated fish. An animated fish that wears a pince-nez.

As Fran Tarkenton used to say, that's incredible.

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The Cincinnati Kid Review

By David Bezanson

Extraordinary

A fairly obvious attempt to make The Hustler of poker, with Steve McQueen playing the role of Fast Eddie (McQueen and Newman were rival screen heroes at the time). The Cincinnati Kid artistically falls just short of that standard -- the characters are not as fully developed as in The Hustler -- but it's just as much fun, and one of McQueen's best films.

McQueen is the Kid, a young card player who believes he is the best in the country. Edward G. Robinson is the Man, the aging veteran that McQueen must knock off his pedestal. McQueen is cocky, confident, appealing, and fundamentally decent; Robinson is complex and opaque, with one of the greatest poker faces in cinema. The inevitable showdown between the two is a battle of wills and nerve which lasts a night, most of the next day and another night.

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Cactus Flower Review

By Christopher Null

Good

Ever want to see Ingrid Bergman in a romantic comedy? Now's your chance -- Cactus Flower is probably her most lighthearted role, but the poor girl's comic timing is below par, worse than Goldie Hawn's dramatic abilities. The setup here is fortunately classic: Womanizing dentist Walter Matthau wants to marry dippy Goldie Hawn, but first he has to shed the phony wife he's used in the past in order to keep clingy gals away. His prim assistant Bergman plays the faux wife, which ends up bringing her out of her repressed shell. One wonders what this could have been with Katherine Hepburn instead of Bergman.