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Cinema has long made the hallowed halls of education one of its most oft utilized settings, whether real (Eastside High School) or fictional (Rydell High School), of this world (Greendale Community College) or existing in another realm (Hogwarts). But where most are set in public schools or universities, it is the boarding school that often makes for a more interesting subset of school-based films for the opportunity to create a more instant feel for community and togetherness, whether in countless Anime fare, dramatic tales set in the past, or more action-oriented movies like Toy Soldiers, one of this reviewer’s favorite guilty pleasures. Director Ida Lupino’s 1966 film The Trouble with Angels, set in an all-girls Catholic boarding school, is a classic family-friendly Comedy that might show its age in 2019 but that remains true to the essential characters and the realities of life in one of cinema’s more endearing and possibility-filled essential locations.

Mary Clancy (Hayley Mills) and Rachel Devery (June Harding) meet on the train on their way to St. Francis Academy, an all girls boarding school run by Catholic nuns. The girls become fast friends and spend the next few years trying to outwit the nuns and pull off various stunts. Mother Superior (Rosalind Russell) serves as both an authoritative foil for the girls’ rebellion and the guiding hand that nurtures them through their troubled years at the school, although the girls’, and Mother Superior’s, fate remains in doubt: will the girls ever make it to graduation, and can Mother Superior survive years of torment?

At first glance, the story of a couple of rebellious students fighting against authority feels tired and trite, but it’s not so much the essential plot ebbs and flows or the specifics of any of the antics that make it work but rather the actors’ commitment to making it happen with a genuine air of freshness and audience involvement. Rosalind Russell shines as Mother Superior, bringing personality to a role that is often typecast and artificial. Her character often wrestles with the desire to both strangle and save the girls, and perhaps what is most remarkable in the performance is her ability to find real emotional depth — from anger to levity — even from a position of supposedly unflappable, immutable authority. Russell does a great job providing both the impetus for Mills’ character to change and playing the prototypical authority figure any rebellious teen would seek to circumvent. June Harding plays the perfect sidekick to Mills’ mastermind and beautifully channels teenage moodiness and angst.

The character of Mary is a departure for Hayley Mills, best known for her sweet disposition in her more iconic Disney roles, including Pollyanna and The Parent Trap. Mills nevertheless commands the role and the screen and performs equally well on both sides of the character’s ledger, working both Mary’s smoking, rule-breaking troubled teen demeanor and, later, the more mature adult. Her ability to create and convey a thoughtful and caring personality immediately followed by a mischievous prank keeps the film’s humorous approach moving along and prevents the film from succumbing to the overpowering clutches of a full-on teen rebellion drama.

Contemporary audiences may find the movie more than a little dated. Smoking is the girls’ preferred rebellion of choice, while their punishment of choice is the dirty duty of washing pots and pans (which, coincidentally, is also a punishment, and a plot point, in Toy Soldiers). The wardrobe isn’t at all risqué even when it’s meant to be (though the film does succeed in presenting the dichotomy between the girl’s school uniforms and casual attire) and one scene involves the girls literally ironing their hair — with an iron and an ironing board — in an effort to straighten it. The film is a charming relic that doesn’t rely on its physical characteristics so much as its personable characters and the story they shape. Like any classic, it transcends its look, even if it’s well beyond its cultural expiration date.

The Trouble with Angels.1966.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 50 min
Size: 	2.50 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1024x554 
Aspect ratio:  	1.85:1
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 000 kb/s
BPP: 	0.221
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/3BE9297E409DB57/The_Trouble_with_Angels.1966.576p.BDRip-AVC.ZONE.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Ida Lupino – The Trouble with Angels (1966) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

crescentblues.com wrote:
Were women ever inferior to men? The Divorce of Lady X insists that females possess superior intellect to compensate for any lack of physical strength when dealing with the larger, if not the smarter, of the species. Five characters, including two couples, find themselves star-crossed, racing ’round London to set marriage right in this romantic comedy. Who could be more heart-pounding than a young Olivier, his career flying out the window as he pursues a judge’s grand-daughter? The judge, of course, identifies with the hero, who makes as much of a buffoon of himself as the girl’s grandfather probably once did. Laughter abounds in this film to such an extent that even the music sounds funny.
As a barrister convinced he is the cause of his new sweetheart’s imminent divorce, Olivier stalls and stammers. His voice cracks. His knack for pratfalls, wild gestures, and sudden inspirations will stun anyone only familiar with the theatrical giant who made history with his performances of Hamlet and Othello. Yet the imaginative freedom remains consistent. Olivier does whatever his character requires as naturally as if his reputation rested solely on comedy. His genius shines in moments of shy embarrassment, enraptured infatuation, and smug overconfidence. How can such an educated professional be so completely wrong in judging the opposite sex?
The film, originally released in 1938, also reveals Merle Oberon at her best. Insinuating herself into Olivier’s bedroom, bed, and even his morning eggs, she still manages to retain the glow of innocence. How can one young woman exercise so much power over a man accustomed to facing down the worst and best of English society in the court room? The answer may be talent; it may be love, or it just may be an inherent ability in the female sex to relish wit, disguise, and intrigue. This movie returns its audience to the favorite schemes of Shakespeare: missed clues, mistaken identities, and the human character turned completely upside down.
Only the story’s original author, Gilbert Wakefield, could conceive of a work that promises divorce but celebrates marriage. And only Ralph Richardson, playing the story’s battered cuckold, could recommend matrimony convincingly to his lawyer — the co-defendant in a case which does not exist. There is only one way to appreciate this plot: Enjoy the film — and laugh yourself happy! Meanwhile, relish the dazzling scenes from a past when parties took place at castles and people actually dressed like movie stars.

1.17GB | 1h 27m | 640×480 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/2FEDACD68BA4A5B/The_Divorce_of_Lady_X.avi

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Tim Whelan – The Divorce of Lady X (1938) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

20th Century-Fox evidently adored “triangle” comedies like Wife, Husband and Friend; apparently so did Loretta Young, who appeared in most of these films. Young plays the wife of businessman Warner Baxter, while “friend” Cesar Romero is an amorous singing teacher who convinces Young that she has a future in opera. To show up his wife, Baxter takes lessons from diva Binnie Barnes–and as it turns out, he’s the one with the ideal operatic voice. The romantic quadrangle is resolved when Baxter makes a disastrous stage debut, whereupon Romero and Barnes exit and Baxter and Young realize the error of their ways. Wife, Husband and Friend was remade in 1949 as Everybody Does It, with Paul Douglas (of all people) as the would-be Caruso. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The New York Times
February 25, 1939
THE SCREEN; Buoyant Comedy Is ‘Wife, Husband and Friend’ at the Roxy
By FRANK S. NUGENT

Although it has the most discouraging title of the season—it sounds so hopeless we suspect an astute psychologist of deliberately contriving it—the Roxy’s “Wife, Husband and Friend” is a buoyant little comedy and quite the pleasantest show of the week. Its material is fresh, its writing is clever and its direction, by Gregory Ratoff of all people, is so nimble that even Warner Baxter and Loretta Young seem to be excellent light comedians. Mr. Ratoff must have put a Russian “conjur” on them all.

It seems that Doris Blair Borland has the old Blair taint: she wants to be a singer. Her grandmother had run away from home to sing in Richmond in 1861. The result of that, Major Blair reminds the worried Mr. Borland, was the Civil War. Her mother gave an annual concert for twenty-three years; no matter what day it fell on, they called it Black Friday. Mr. Borland, whose contracting business wasn’t what is used to be, did his husbandly best to convince Doris that her voice was not the kind to mortify the nightingales: shocked surprise would be more like it. But Mrs. Borland, and her mother, insisted upon following their star.

Then, to complicate matters, Contractor Borland discovers that he, too, has a voice, a glass-shattering baritone which previously was known only to his bathroom. A blond soprano—call her Binnie Barnes—suggests that he give it to the world and employ it, when the moment comes, as a counter-attack to his wife’s anti-musical campaign. What happens thereafter is the picture’s business, and a comically flourishing business it is, with Mr. Borland romping across a concert stage and plowing through an opera, with Mrs. Borland having tantrums and Major Blair bellowing “Musicians! Give ’em no quarter! Shew ’em no mercy!” It’s good fun all the way through.

https://nitro.download/view/CD95288F33459CB/Wife.Husband.and.Friend.1939.Gregory.Ratoff.avi

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Gregory Ratoff – Wife, Husband and Friend (1939) first appeared on Cinema of the World.