Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Charles Herold (cherold) In the inexplicably-titled Underworld Story, amoral reporter Dany Duryea uses a small newspaper to gin up controversy over a murder.After a somewhat slow start in which Duryea's greed and self- centeredness are hammered home, things get interesting with the murder and the arrest of an innocent "negro" played by a white actress. Duryea plays the angles, both for and against her depending on what he thinks will sell newspapers, while other news organizations attack the accused for their own cynical reasons.This is solid noir stuff, beautifully shot by Stanley Cortez, with solid performances, most notably by Herbert Marshall as a morally conflicted publisher and Harold Da Silva as a jovial mobster.The main problem is the script, which becomes increasingly unconvincing from the moment Duryea suddenly flips from sleazebag to noble. Being noble seems to also make him remarkably stupid, a stupidity that is then caught by other characters, like Da Silva, who do things for no other reason than to further the plot.Between the slow beginning and the increasingly absurd end, there is a really enjoyable movie. I almost gave this a 7, but by the end I was feeling to annoyed by the poor plot choices. Still, if you like noir films you should check this out.

ccthemovieman-1 The more I watch classic films, the more I discover what a great year 1950 was in the movie business. Here's another good film, and one many people are probably unfamiliar with. This one revolves around the newspaper business.Dan Duryea, as usual, is interesting as "Mike Reese," a bad guy-turned-good guy journalist. He is joined in the cast by Herbert Marshall, Gale Storm (one of the great names in show business and who will forever be "My Little Margie" to those of us who were around in the '50s), Howard Da Silva and Michael O'Shea. Of the above-mentioned, Da Silva was the most fascinating, as the brutal mob boss "Carl Durham." He only had a minor role, but some of his lines were outstanding and his role was memorable. Da Silva was a great actor for film noirs. This isn't really a noir, but it's close. Marshall was just fine as the newspaper owner.The film was not kind to the newspaper business, so some media-minded film critics (who probably had columns in daily papers) didn't like this film for that reason. Too bad. They should have liked it, since it had Left Wing written all over it, with several Liberal themes and favorite catch-phrases such as "witch hunts" (one of their all-time favorites).Nonetheless, it's a powerful film and well-acted.

dcole-2 Dan Duryea is one of the best actors out there, able to play the slimiest slime-ball and the staunchest of heroes. Here he does a little of both and you're never sure which side he's on. The movie starts as a Noir Crime Thriller, then becomes a 30's-style social drama, then switches back to noir and crime -- but it never loses its style, its verve and its pace. Constantly fun and involving, due to Duryea's movable morals -- and to Stanley Cortez's gorgeous black-and-white cinematography. Director/Writer Endfield does a fine job keeping things going, setting up interesting shots and corralling a cast that's great down to every tiny part. Bad Guy Howard Da Silva chews the scenery with relaxed gusto and is a joy to watch. Highly recommended.

Eric Chapman What makes this little crime movie as effective as it is, has something to do with the casting of unconventional Dan Duryea in the lead as the unscrupulous reporter. He's a lot like Willem Dafoe with the way he talks out of the bottom of his mouth - like a ventriloquist's dummy - and I mean that in a good way. Had they cast a more conventional leading man in the part like a Jimmy Stewart, for example, I don't think it would've worked as well, because Duryea really does come across as quite a heel, a low-life. It just isn't clear to the viewer if he should root for him or not, so that when he does undergo a change in character, it comes as a surprise rather than a foregone conclusion.The movie also provides Howard Da Silva with one of his last roles before he was to be blacklisted for over 10 years. Always good at playing thugs, he's quite colorful and does a lot of scenery chewing as a powerful crime figure.The script is intelligent and gritty, and the photography is appropriately stark and oppressive.