My Favorite Non-Oscar Movies!

I like a lot of movies that never won an Oscar and many of them, in fact, have received bad reviews from the critics. Here is my list of favorites:

Memories Of Me-starring Billy Crystal and Alan King. Alan King plays the "King" of the extras. You know, those little-known actors and actresses who take parts in movies that the "stars" would never consider doing. Sometimes they get dressed up like fruit or silly animals or do nonsensical parts that add that little something to the film. Billy Crystal is a doctor who has a mild heart attack and it scares him so, he decides to patch up his broken relationship with his father (Alan King.) However, old problems and his father's personality (he keeps making jokes out of serious matters at the most inappropriate times) keeps reviving Billy's resentment towards his dad. There is a scene however, where Billy has to tell his dad that his dad has an inoperable aneurysm which will eventually kill him, that tears your heart out. It is at this moment that Billy realizes how much he really loves his father and you can see it in his face. He doesn't have to speak a word.

Harvey - This is one of the most delightful comedies ever made. Jimmy Stewart plays Elwood P. Dowd (we never learn what the 'P' stands for) who is 'insane', but what an insanity. He thinks that he has an invisible (to everyone except himself) companion--a six foot three, white rabbit by the name of Harvey. Harvey is a mythological creature, a 'Pooka' from ancient Celtic lore. A benign, mischievous creature who creates havoc in the lives of the people who surround Elwood. We are not sure that Elwood is insane and, by the end of the picture, we also believe that Harvey truly exists. A marvelous piece of movie making. And do not miss the bravura performance by Josephine Hull who seems to float along, rather than walk.

The Illusionist -- proving that good movies are still being made, Ed Norton gives a performance worthy of an Oscar and has a strong supporting cast (especially the so-called 'villains.') It has a O Henry type twist ending and you're never sure about what is 'real' and what isn't, almost from the beginning to the end. A really well done movie and a 'must not miss.'

The Producers by Mel Brooks -- This is one of the few pictures that Mel Brooks had the good sense not to act in (he is an incurable ham, as well as a scene-stealer). Instead, he leaves it to the incomparable Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder (at his best) to pull off one of the funniest farces ever made. The picture was pilloried by the critics at the time (about 40 years ago) because Mostel's character (Max Bialystock), a down-on-his-luck Broadway producer, was having affairs with elderly dowagers in order to raise money to produce his flops. Gene Wilder plays an accountant by the name of Leo Bloom who, while auditing Bialystock's books, realizes that Max has raised more money than his flop needed and never reported it (fraud.) They then, after many comic machinations, come up with a plan to produce a sure-fire flop; raise more money than needed (much more-about 27,000 percent more) to produce it and then run away to Brazil (no extradition) the next day with their 'profits.'

The first time I saw this movie, I was laughing so hard that I had tears running down my face and thought I was going to have a stroke. Catch the little old ladies, the character played by Kenneth Mars-Franz Leipzig and the play's inept director, Roger DeVree.

Today, the picture is considered a classic and has been reproduced on Broadway with great success and later, re-made in the movies.

Incidentally, the critics now 'love' it.

DOA -- The original film with Edmund O'Brien. Although a 'B' movie and a film noir, it hooks you early. Catch a young looking Beverly Garland as a brunette in the film, as well. O'Brien plays a man who was deliberately poisoned with a slow-acting poison. The film starts out with O'Brien walking into a police station and telling the desk sergeant that he wants to report a murder. When the sergeant asks him who was murdered, O'Brien unemotionally answers, "I was." It is the ultimate 'grabber' of all time. From this moment on, you never lose attention and keep hoping that O'Brien finds the answer, so that you can know as well. In short, the audience is part of the action. Don't miss this one.

Strangers On A Train -- To me, this was Hitchcock's greatest film. It starts out slow, extremely slow. And it builds up slowly but, if you stay with it, you're biting your nails by the end. The premise is that two men meet on a train, quite by accident, and 'trade' murders, reasoning that there is no motive to tie them to each other's murder. Well, at least one of them is interested and it causes many twists in the weird plot. Catch some of Hitchcock's fantastic film shots and the scene on the merry-go-round at the end. Truly, great film making.