Charlie's vacation, staffers preview | North Coast Journal

Charlie’s vacation, staffers preview

(July 5, 2007) Charlie is off on a classical music binge in Portland this week so we’ve brought in Jay Herzog (who wrote “Battle for Boomer Jack” for us a few weeks back) as a guest reviewer — but diehard movie buff that Charlie is, he went to the opening of the latest Bruce Willis Die Hard flick before he left. Yours truly and staffer Heidi Walters wrangled the previews.

— Bob Doran

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Previews

As noted by Charlie last week, July’s “Based on the Book” classic film series on Tuesdays at the Humboldt County Main Library is 100 Years: A Celebration of Stanwyck , dedicated to the actress Barbara Stanwyck who was born in July of 1907. As one of the presenters, I have to admit I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the prospect. My memory of the iconic actress is mostly from one stereotypical role: the domineering matriarch Victoria Barkley in The Big Valley . I didn’t like her. But I saw that one of the films, The Lady Eve , was directed by Preston Sturges, and I love his work, so I signed on.

The Lady Eve is a great movie, a classic farce, which in Hollywood translates as screwball comedy. Stanwyck plays Jean Harrington, a conniving card sharp who teams with her father (a marvelous Charles Coburn) to con Charles Pike, a na√Øve beer heir played by a young Henry Fonda, who literally and figuratively falls for her like a ton of bricks, over and over. Jean is shrewd but lovable — then you fall out of love with her, then back in again. It’s not hard to see where things are going, but the dialog is so pithy (almost to a fault) that the journey is a sheer delight. My intro to the movie begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 10. The Main Library is located at 1313 3rd St. in Eureka. Admission is free.

— Bob Doran

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