Citizen Kane -- 1941 -- NR

This 1941 Best Picture winner definitely earned it. Most people are familiar with the infamous last word of Kane ("Rosebud"), and while I had an inkling I knew exactly what it was (thanks to a song from Animaniacs), I learned that unlike most films where knowing the goal spoils the movie, this word was not so much about Rosebud, but what Rosebud represented in Kane's life. Through the film, we learn all about Charles Foster Kane and his take on life and money and politics. We know what he likes and dislikes and wants and doesn't want. All of this was not to build to finding out what or who Rosebud is, but to explain why that was so important to him. 

A modern film might spend 20 minutes at the end of the film explaining the meaning of Rosebud, but this film allows the audience to (gasp!) think for themselves and ponder just how deep the meaning goes outside the theatre. This is an amazing film for just that aspect; it was some amazing writing and ponders whather money (for Kane was the richest man in America) is really all it was cracked up to be. In fact, what Rosebud is is not known in the film until the last 30 seconds before the final fade out.

My only complaint was the old Jed Leland. When he as an old man chattered, I was bored to death. Fortunately, he wasn't allowed to talk for long and we got back into the history in short order.

This is an amazing film with an amazing script. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it.

Dumbo -- 1941 -- G

This is a short little film from Disney's earlier days that would never get made today. Why? It contains a lot of smoking and one drunk elephant. But let's move past that into the film itself.

This is actually a really sweet tale about a baby elephant with big ears. He is rejected by his kind, loses his mother who tries to protect him, and is turned into the laughing stock of the circus. Dumbo is developed very thoroughly even though he never speaks a word, and you really feel for this little guy. He ironically befriends a mouse who becomes the equivalent of his voice from then on.

Bad things go to worse until he ends up drunk on champagne and we begin one of the trippiest sequences in film history: "Pink Elephants on Parade." Fantastic imagery here, but the rest of the film is simple and doesn't really need much else. It's short but complete.

Excellent offering from Disney before he sold out to make cute little animal cartoons later in his career.

The Maltese Falcon -- 1941 -- NR

A decent noir film following the investigation of the murder of a private detective's partner after he is put on the trail of a man that a woman suspects knows about her sister. The woman is more than she seems as she spins one lie after another putting the private dick on the right trail...sort of before her story changes again. It's got some nice twists as the story goes along, and really the only complaint is that the pacing runs a little slow in some areas.

Some modern audiences might not like it because it is very talky and cerebral like a lot of the older movies are, and it would help if the lead actress were able to...well...act. Compared to Bogart and two other actors who would go onto Casablanca the following year, one of whom is Peter Lorre, who I watched in M from ten years earlier in Germany, her dialogue delivery was consistently flat until very near the end when she finally came close to being in character. Perhaps, since her character made a habit of lying, it was part of that, but for me, the charade didn't work.

Other than this, it was a good film, and worth the time to watch it. It contains the lines, "Hey, what's this?" "It's the stuff that dreams are made of."