Movies I Watched in February

February is always a light month due to TCM's annual 31 Days of Oscar. I decided to do a little counting and discovered that out of the 319 films shown this month I have already seen 122 films, I am not interested (at least at this time) in watching 126 films, I want to (eventually) see 71 films, and out of those films I watched 15 of them.

1. Sadie Thompson (1928) - Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore
2. A Free Soul (1931) - Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard
3. Morning Glory (1933) - Katharine Hepburn, Adolph Menjou, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
4. Lost Horizon (1937) - Ronald Colman & Jane Wyatt, Thomas Mitchell, Edward Everett Horton
5. The Cowboy and the Lady (1938) - Gary Cooper & Merle Oberon, Patsy Kelly, Walter Brennan
6. Gulliver's Travels (1939) - Sam Parker, Tedd Pierce, Jack Mercer, Pinto Colvig
7. Brother Orchid (1940) - Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern, Humphrey Bogart, Ralph Bellamy, Donald Crisp, Cecil Kellaway
8. Cheers for Miss Bishop (1941) - Martha Scott, Marsha Hunt
9. *Random Harvest (1942) - Ronald Colman & Greer Garson, Susan Peters
10. The Yellow Cab Man (1950) - Red Skelton, Edward Arnold, James Gleason
11. *We’re No Angels (1955) - Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Basil Rathbone, Joan Bennett
12. Sayonara (1957) - Marlon Brando, Red Buttons, James Garner, Kent Smith, Martha Scott
13. The Mating Game (1959) - Debbie Reynolds & Tony Randall, Paul Douglas, Una Merkel 
14. The Grass is Greener (1960) - Deborah Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Cary Grant
15. Big Red (1962) - Walter Pidgeon
16. Billy Budd (1962) - Peter Ustinov, Robert Ryan, Terence Stamp
17. The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1974) - Jack Lemmon & Ann Bancroft

Notes: The Cowboy and the Lady was delightful - loved the charade scene at the new house, I wasn't wild on The Mating Game though I liked Randall in it, The Grass is Greener was pretty disappointing for such a stellar cast, the kid in Big Red was kind of annoying, and Terence Stamp was great as Billy Budd.

One of the films I was excited about was Sadie Thompson (1928) starring Gloria Swanson. Swanson is one of those actresses you feel you know but have only seen in one iconic film. I recently watched the movie she made prior to Sunset Boulevard (1950), Father Takes a Wife (1941), after being away from films for 7 years. I felt I needed to see her in a Silent film. I have already seen the 1953 version with Rita Hayworth so I was already familiar with the story. It was a tad slow at first but I got really into it near the end and was a little frustrated that the climax was lost and had to be conveyed through stills and dialogue frames. Swanson gave an incredible performance and I highly encourage all of you to keep an eye out for it.

My biggest obsession of the month has been Lost Horizon (1937) and with it a new appreciation for Ronald Colman. I also discovered that Lost Horizon was based on a book of the same name written by James Hilton who also wrote the books upon which the films Random Harvest (1942) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) were based, both of which I love. And so of course I had to rewatch Random Harvest and then check out all three books from the library. I read Mr. Chips in an evening as it's very short. Lost Horizon, though it had some character changes, was every bit as good as the book (helped by the fact that I could hear Colman's voice as I read it). And now I'm reading Random Harvest. It's a little confusing as the first part has a different character as narrator and it's in a different order than the movie, but so far I'm enjoying it as well. I've discovered also that Knight Without Armour (1937) is based on a Hilton book but to read it I will have to buy it. I also learned that there are two more movies based on Hilton books that I will be keeping and eye out for. He also wrote a biography on Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, which I can surprisingly get from my library. I probably should have just done a whole post on James Hilton... :)