Penny serenade (1941)

Continuously accompanied by popular period music, this unusual marriage story mounts obstacles right from the very start. A complex, nuanced, lovely and lovable melodrama filled with delightfully handled scenes of budding romance, longing, doubts, struggle, parenting, devastating grief, numbness etc. The mix of comedy and drama works well, strongest is the interesting interplay between an irresponsible manchild and his sad spouse.

The adoption procedures, though, must have been highly improbable even in the early 1940s – especially the no doubt crowd-pleasing end seems a bit tucked on. In my book nevertheless.

The wizard of Oz (1933)

No lion? Long before the famous version from 1939, this attempt was made by colour cartoon pioneer Ted Eshbaugh – who seems to be a bit too interested in underwear!

Quite nice thirties-styled visuals, but a weak story – and very few actual gags. Not in my book of extremely free literary adaptions.

Tabby McTat (2023)

Cute musical cat is coincidentally separated from his sympathetic busking master. Will they ever get back together?

Decent made-for-tv animation and a very heartwarming, well-thought-out story. Should be really popular with kids, albeit not in my personal book of family, home, and choice.

The professor and the madman (2019)

»Dictionary drama« about bearded guys overly keen on words – doesn’t sound too exciting, does it? Well, the unusual premise actually works surprisingly well – mostly because of the peculiar story, freely based on true events.

Maybe in my book of male bonding and language.

Le doulos (1962)

»Karl för sin hatt«, anyone? Things go wrong from beginning to end for some cold, cruel, cynical, sad, treacherous, deceitful, unhappy gangsters successively killing each other in this tale of criminal (dis)honour. Friends or foes, die or lie, who’s fooling who? Belmondo looks great of course, but the slightly Mr Beanish appearance of Serge Reggiani unfortunately works against his moody character.

Could have been in my book of men in trenchcoats, but the story gets too convoluted at times.

Spy game (2001)

– Do you remember when we could tell the good guys from the bad?

Fast-paced from start to finish, with a retiring CIA agent and his young protegé in deep trouble. The intrigues at headquarters are interspersed with scenes from missions in Vietnam, Beirut, and China.

The grand finale is one hell of a far-fetched one-man-show. Not in my book of male bonding.

– All this was… about something, wasn’t it?

Mission: impossible 2 (2000)

For me, car chases and fight scenes are mostly like the singing and dancing in musicals – they bring the story to irritating standstills, dilute atmosphere, and potentially even confuse the viewer.

This sequel lacks the freshness of the first installment, and turns out to be a surprisingly tiresome and unbelievable cliché-fest. Not in my book.

Foreign correspondent (1940)

Chronicling »the biggest story in the world!«, this is a look at the near-war situation, with Europe – and the U.S. – teetering nervously on the brink of disaster.

Irritating silliness aside, this one has plenty: charming wit, ridiculous chance events, brief moments of horror, unsubtle lashes against a peace movement secretly controlled by shady traitors, and a severely unconvincing premise about the importance of some exact phrasing of some clause in some secret treaty. Quite all right, but not in my book.

POW’s POV (2011)

Repetition, variation, geometry, minimalism. The limited – almost claustrophobic – worldview makes for a slow and boring short, probably intentionally so given the title.

Not in my experimental book of confinement.

Rudijev leksikon: Bratstvo (2011)

Too much tv will ruin your eyes – and make your fingers quarrel!?

I don’t get this weak, drawn out »joke« at all. Not in my book of bagatelles.