The 20 coolest on-screen couples from classic movies

'Cool' definition from Wordreference: fashionably attractive or impressive.

Here's my list of 20 couples that looked terrific together on screen, that complemented each other and had fun together all the movie (or until the script spoiled it all for them) or overcame difficult situations to be together and hopefully lived happily ever after.

In no particular order: 

Harry Morgan & 'Slim' Browning from To have and have not

Gilbert & Iris Henderson from The lady vanishes

Paul & Corie Bratter from Barefoot in the Park

Nicky Ferrante & Terry McKay from An Affair to Remember

Nick & Nora Charles from The Thin Man

Robin & Marian from The Adventures of Robin Hood

Sean Thorton & Mary Kate Danaher from The Quiet Man

Ben Quick & Clara Varner from The Long, Hot Summer

Capt. Daniel Craig & Lucy Muir from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

Juan Herrera & Vance Jeffords from The Furies

C.C. Baxter & Fran Kubelik from The apartment

Joe Bradley & Princess Ann from Roman Holiday

Noah Praetorious and Deborah Higgins from People Will Talk

Leon and Ninotchka from Ninotchka

Longfellow Deeds & Babe Bennett from Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Jane & Tarzan from the Tarzan movies with Johnny & Maureen.

Peter Joshua (or whatever his name is) and Reggie Lampert from Charade

Brian Hawke & 'Spitfire' Stevens from Against All Flags

Armand Duvall & Marguerite Gautier from Camille

Johny Case & Linda Seton from Holiday

What do you think?

Tarzan and His Mate (1934): a sexy film

OMG, this movie has PRE-CODE written all over...I loved it! 

I'm gonna start with a side note. According to this movie, a woman living in the jungle for a whole year without any element besides her loincloth, should look like this:

Anyway...I'm gonna be very concise about this one, because I explained my general sentiment toward Tarzan with Johnny and Maureen in their first movie together. If you haven't seen this one, I know you're wondering, why especially Pre-code? Besides the obvious elements you can see in the pictures (Jane's outfit was changed to a less revealing dress in the next films) let me tell you this movie has one of the most romantic scenes ever. Jane is sleeping covered with what seems to be a lion fur. Tarzan starts blowing her face in close-up. When she wakes up, he says in his primitive accent: "Good morning, I love you". Awww.
Then he says he wants to go swimming. She puts on a dress that was given the previous night by visitor explorer Harry Holt and when she's about to jump into the lake, Tarzan rips off her dress. And then they go skinny dipping in a very controversial but beautifully shot scene:

An Olympic medal winner swimmer replaced Maureen in this scene. This was a quite shocking for its time, so they shot three versions and each theater chose which to show. 

What else happens? As I said, Harry Holt accompanied by a really cruel hunter/explorer and his crew visits Jane in the jungle. Harry hasn't lost hopes and still loves Jane. He wants to take her back to England plus finally take all the precious ivory from the elephants graveyard, something that upsets Tarzan. Jane has to choose between her two worlds. 

Besides these opposite forces, there are a LOT of fight scenes with random, ferocious animals (really, like every two minutes Jane is in mortal danger) and combats with cannibals. At the end, all the different forces are involved in a pitched battle: like 20 lions and cannibals versus Jane thinking she's a widow and the two English men that are attracted to her. A great but entertaining mess.  The only thing that I didn't like from this one, is Jane call, like Tarzan's but ridiculous. 

In conclusion, you totally should see this one. Here's the trailer:

Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)

LOL

Continuing with the adventure movies reviews...

Tarzan the Ape Man (1932; W.S. Van Dyke)

Who's in it: Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O'Sullivan, C. Aubrey Smith

What is it about: While searching for an elephant graveyard with her father and crew, Maureen O'Sullivan meets Tarzan in the African jungle and they live happily 5 movies after...

The good: Obviously the story by Edgar Rice Burroughs of a man growing up with apes is incredibly interesting, so kudos just because of the plot. Maureen and Johnny are great together; her Jane is an independent woman with good humor that goes from being hysterical and screaming like an old nuts in Tarzan's presence, to appreciate and  love him. Johnny --an Olympic medal winner swimmer-- is simply great as Tarzan:  incredibly athletic, handsome and with a childlike personality. 

The film shows an exciting adventure scene after another (walking in dangerous paths, fighting with savage animals, escaping from natives with killer instincts, etc) and I don't mind if the big monkeys were actually people in costumes or if Tarzan sometimes clearly uses a trapeze bar instead of vines. 

I also liked the fact that the characters are not stereotyped: Jane's dad is sweet but also greedy (at the point of risking his life), the macho guy (played by Neil Hamilton) really loves Jane and is sweet to her but also has an aggressive side (beats the slaves when they are tired), etc. 

And of course, Cheeta, the chimpanzee, is always great to watch, with all her humanlike behavior and great "acting".

The bad:  I didn't like some parts for very subjectives reasons (yes, even more subjective than the whole review). First, I never understood why some scenes with the animals are in fast motion, that always distracts me. Also, before The charge of the light brigade animals where treated with cruelty, so while watching the scenes with elephants, lions and hippos I wondered if they were actually suffering or being killed. And even more importantly, the way the natives are shown is really shocking, especially the aggressive pygmies (that enjoy watching how a gorilla kills people) played by white people in black faces.  

Should I see it? Yes, despite some shocking scenes, this is a great adventure movie (now I want to see Tarzan and his mate)

 More adventure films posts :

• The thief of Bagdad (1940): an entertaining adventure
• Adventure movies or what I'll be watching in the next few days 

PS - Remember to participate in the poll about the funniest actresses, I'm closing it soon!

Adventure movies or what I'll be watching in the next few days

So today I went to the last session of the Movie Genres seminar I was attending on Saturdays. The genre we reviewed today was previously chosen by vote and even when the competition was fierce, my option, ADVENTURE, won. Yay! I really wanted to know more about this genre since I just liked it because I love Errol Flynn's movies.

It was really cool to discover new exciting titles that I'm planing to watch and review very soon. Here are some of them:

→ Tarzan the Ape Man (1932; W.S. Van Dyke)
Of course I knew about this one, but it never caught my attention. Anyway, knowing that Johnny Weissmuller was Olympic medal winner swimmer and that even Clark Gable was one of the options to play Tarzan, was all I needed to really wanting to see it. Plus the scene we saw was very exciting, with crocodiles AND hippos trying to eat Maureen O'Sullivan and her people. I'll try to watch the 6 starring Johnny and Maureen.

→ The Thief of Bagdad (1924 and 1940)
I really never heard of this one before. Douglas Fairbanks stars in the one from the twenties playing a thief (that's all I know about it), but the one from the 40's was directed by Alexander Korda and Indian actor Sabu plays the thief Abu and John Justin (never heard of him before but he was gorgeous) plays the Prince that has to rescue the princess from Jaffar. Oh, there's a genius too and a flying carpet. Disney's Aladdin anyone?

→ Moby Dick (1956)
The famous book by Herman Melville, directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck. The end.

→ Les tribulations d‘un chinois en Chine (1965)
Based on a book by Jules Verne and directed by Philippe de Broca this is really an adventure comedy set on the Himalayas and the clip we saw was hilarious because of the dialogs and the situations.

→ Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
This is the one that I liked the less, but I'm gonna watch it because:
a) Ray Harryhausen's motion picture effects (they look really outdated in this one but it seems that his work was brilliant and everybody admire him and even in Pixar's Monster Inc. a restaurant is called like him as an homage)
b) John Wayne's son, Patrick, plays Sinbad and Tyrone Power's daughter, Taryn, plays the daughter of an old alchemist, thank you very much.

→The man who would be king (1975)
Three names: Sean Connery, Michael Caine, John Huston. The director wanted to do this movie like all his life, and even wanted Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart to play the leads. Anyway, it's based in a book by Rudyard Kipling, and it's about two English soldiers in an ancient place where Connery is taken as a divinity. Disney's Road to El Dorado?

→White Hunter, Black Heart (1990; Clint Eastwood)
I'm watching this one just because it tells the story behind John Huston wanting to shoot a movie in Africa ("The African Queen"). It seems that what he really wanted was to hunt elephants.There are characters that are supposed to be Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn, so I really want to see how that came out, even when the film ends before they start shooting "The African Queen".

Of course more movies were named today. I already saw some of them, like "The African Queen" or "Around the world in 60 days" and I won't see Bernard Herzog's movies like "Aguirre The Wrath of God" or "Fitzcarraldo" because they give me the creeps.