4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
These 4 Shots From 4 Films are dedicated to the memory of the great Maureen O’Hara.
4 Shots From 4 Maureen O’Hara Films
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, dir by William Dieterle)
Dance, Girl. Dance (1940, dir by Dorothy Arzner)
Miracle on the 34th Street (1947, dir by George Seaton)
First released in 1970, Airport is a real time capsule.
As one can guess from the title, it takes place over 12 hours at an airport. The airport in question is a fictional one, Chicago’s Lincoln International Airport. Over the course of one night, almost everything that can happen does happen.
A sudden snowstorm causes almost all of the other airports in the midwest to shut down for the night. On Lincoln’s Runway 29, one of the airplanes gets stuck in the show when it lands. No one is hurt but, until Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) and his men can dig out and move that plane, no one is going to be able to land on 29.
Runway 22 is still open but the homeowners association is currently picketing the airport to protest the amount of noise pollution that is caused whenever airplanes use Runway 22. Using 22 in the middle of the night is sure to prove their point and make trouble for the airport. Mel Bakersfield (Burt Lancaster), the airport manager, thinks that the only solution is to buy up all of the land around the airport but the Board of Commissioners disagrees. Mel says that airports have to adjust to changing times but no one is willing to put up the money.
Mel is unhappily married to the wealthy and socially ambitious Cindy (Dana Wynter), who is not happy to learn that, due to the storm, Mel is going to miss an important dinner party. Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg), head of customer relations for Trans Global Airlines, is in love with Mel but Mel isn’t the type to cheat, even if his marriage is troubled.
On the other hand, Mel’s brother-in-law, pilot Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin, the hippest pilot in the sky), has absolutely no problem cheating on his wife (Barbara Hale). Vernon is currently having an affair with flight attendant, Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset). When Gwen tells Vernon that she’s pregnant, Vernon says that “it” can be taken care of in Sweden. Gwen says that she wants to have the baby.
Meanwhile, Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes, who won an Oscar for her performance here) is an elderly woman who has developed an addiction to stowing away on flights. She manages to sneak onto a plane flying to Rome, the same plane on which Vernon is the co-pilot. (Technically, Vernon is on the plane to evaluate the captain, who is played by Barry Nelson. Yes, the same Barry Nelson who played Jimmy Bond in 1954’s Casino Royale and Mr. Ullman in The Shining.) Ada ends up sitting next to a nervous man named D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin). Having failed as a businessman, Guerrero has a bomb in his briefcase and is planning on blowing himself and the airplane up so that his wife (Maureen Stapleton) can receive an insurance payment.
Seriously, that’s a lot of drama! It seems like this airport has a little bit of everything! But you know what this airport doesn’t have? It doesn’t have the TSA groping people and telling them what they can and cannot take on the plane with them. It doesn’t have the endless lines full of tired travelers who just want to be allowed to get on with their business. It doesn’t have the suspicious atmosphere that has become a part of modern air travel. Compared to the average airport experience of 2026, the movie’s airport is a paradise, full of people who are working hard, who are polite to each other, and who all seem to know what they’re doing. I’d take the drama of 1970’s Airport over the reality of a modern airport any day.
Airport is very much a celebration of competent people getting the job done. On the whole, we really don’t learn much about the characters played by Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Seberg, Barry Nelson, and George Kennedy but we definitely learn that they’re all very good at their jobs. Even Helen Hayes’s stowaway is meant to be likable precisely because she is so good at stowing away. The only person who is portrayed as being a failure as Van Heflin’s D.O. Guerrero and he’s so upset about not being good at his job that he decides to blow himself up. Though the film is full of split screens and dialogue that was probably risqué by the standards of a 1970 studio film, one gets the feeling that Airport probably felt old-fashioned even when it was first released. One can only imagine what George Kennedy’s hard-working Joe Patroni would have thought about the characters in a film like Easy Rider. About as close as Airport gets to the counterculture is Dean Martin mockingly calling Burt Lancaster “dad” while telling him to get his favorite runway cleared. This is a film where even Dean Martin is a stickler for regulations.
Based on a best-selling novel, Airport is often listed as being one of the worst films to ever be nominated for best picture. And …. well, okay, it’s definitely not a great film, especially when compared to some of the other films of the early 70s. The film was the highest grossing film of 1970 and that, more than anything, probably explains why it was nominated. Airport moves at a very deliberate pace and and visually, it is pretty flat. It looks like a competently made television pilot. When I first did a capsule review of Airport in 2010, I was fairly harsh towards it. I have to admit, though, that when I recently rewatched the film, I actually kind of liked it. Compared to today’s world, there’s something comforting about the competence of the characters in Airport. Airport has its flaws and it definitely should not have been nominated for 11 Oscars but it presents a world that seems almost cozy compared to what we have to deal with nowadays.
Dean Martin as a pilot? Helen Hayes as a chatty stowaway? George Kennedy chewing on an unlit cigar and complaining to Burt Lancaster about how incompetent the TGA pilots are? Hey, why not? If it means not having to deal with the TSA and knowing that everyone is dedicated to getting me to where I’m going in comfort, I’m all for taking my next flight out Lincoln International.
Well, if you’ve ever seen the original 1947 Miracle on 34th Street than you already know the answer. There is a Santa Claus and he looks exactly like Edmund Gwenn!
In this scene, Kris Kringle is on trial. He swears that he is Santa Claus. The prosecution claims that not only isn’t he Santa Claus but Santa doesn’t exist at all. Fortunately, it’s the U.S. Post Service to the rescue!
The original Miracle on 34th Street is true Christmas classic and I hope you enjoy this holiday scene that I love.
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
4 Shots From 4 Holiday Films
Holiday Inn (1942, dir by Mark Sandrich)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, dir by Frank Capra)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947, dir by George Seaton)
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
These 4 Shots From 4 Films are dedicated to the memory of the great Maureen O’Hara.
4 Shots From 4 Maureen O’Hara Films
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, dir by William Dieterle)
Dance, Girl. Dance (1940, dir by Dorothy Arzner)
Miracle on the 34th Street (1947, dir by George Seaton)
First released in 1954 and based on a play by Clifford Odets, The Country Girl is centered around the production of a believably terrible stage musical called The Land Around Us.
Director Bernie Dodd (William Holden) is known for his willingness to take risks. One of his previous plays was about a punk-drunk boxer so he cast an actual punch-drunk boxer in the role. For The Land Around Us, Bernie wants to cast Frank Elgin (Bing Crosby), a former singing star who has fallen on hard times. Frank was once a hitmaker but, after the tragic death of his son, his career went downhill. He’s now lucky if he can get a job singing a commercial jingle. Though Frank aces his audition, the show’s producer (Anthony Ross) insists that Frank is just too unreliable and that everyone know that he’s now a drunk. Bernie, however, insists on casting Frank and Bernie, as always, gets his way.
Bernie grew up looking up to Frank and it’s hard for him to see that his idol is now struggling. Bernie squarely puts the blame on Frank’s wife, Georgie (Grace Kelly, wearing glasses and her hair tied back). Whenever Bernie sees Georgie, she seems to be criticizing Frank and micromanaging his life. Bernie tells Frank that Georgie is holding back his career but Frank explains that Georgie is unstable and that, whenever he’s tried to leave her, she’s responded by attempting to commit suicide. Bernie, who seems to have issues with women in general, believes everything that Frank says. Whenever Frank makes a demand during the rehearsal process, Bernie blames Georgie. Whenever Frank seems to be insecure about whether or not he can still be a star, Bernie blames Georgie.
Of course, Bernie’s wrong. As is obvious to everyone watching the film (and as should have been obvious to Bernie from the moment he first saw Frank and Georgie together), Georgie is the the only person who is keeping Frank from totally falling apart. If she seems to be demanding, she knows that it’s because Frank is so desperate to be a star again that he tends to let people walk all over him. If she’s overprotective of Frank, that’s because she knows that Frank is an alcoholic who blames himself for the death of their son. Frank is the one who tried to commit suicide, not Georgie. Georgie has dedicated her life to taking care of Frank and, if she is sometimes overly critical with him, it’s because she alone understands that Frank is throwing his life away.
It’s a sad film. Both Georgie and Bernie are almost fanatically loyal to Frank but it’s hard not to feel that the self-centered and self-destructive Frank doesn’t really deserve their loyalty. That we have any sympathy at all for Frank is due to the performance of Bing Crosby, who plays the role with just enough self-awareness that the audience gets a hint of the man Frank was before he turned to alcohol and self-pity. As usual, William Holden is well-cast as a cynical but ultimately kind-hearted character and he does a good job of hinting at what lies underneath Bernie’s rough exterior. Grace Kelly won her only Oscar for playing Georgie and she does a fairly good job, even if she does seem to be miscast. Georgie is far cry from the glamorous characters that Kelly usually played. Personally, I think she was far more Oscar-worthy in Rear Window, which was released the same year and featured Kelly in a far more interesting role. George Seaton directs the film as if it were a film noir, with Holden, Crosby, and Kelly often acting in the shadows. The Country Girl works best when it contrasts the artificiality of Bernie’s show with the real-life human drama taking place backstage.
The Country Girl was nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Actress. While Grace Kelly was named Best Actress, the rest of the awards were won by On The Waterfront, with Bing Crosby losing to Marlon Brando.
The time and the place is the old west. Growing up, Chuck Jarvis (Rock Hudson) and Billy Massey (Dean Martin) were best friends. When the lovely Kate (Susan Clark) chose Chuck over Billy, the two of them go their separate ways. Billy becomes a notorious train robber. Chuck becomes the sheriff of their hometown. After Billy returns home, it is up to Chuck to not only capture him but to also protect him from not only his former partners but a gang of vigilantes as well.
There’s nothing surprising about Showdown, a strictly by the numbers western that, if not for a few bloody gunshot wounds and some dialogue about cattle “humping,” could have just as easily been released in 1953 as 1973. The only thing that makes Showdown special is that it was the last western made by both Rock Hudson and Dean Martin. Dino is his usual fun-loving, half-soused self but Rock Hudson looks absolutely miserable here. If Rock’s role had been played by Frank Sinatra (or even Peter Lawford), Showdown would probably be remembered as a minor classic. As it is, it’s for Dean Martin completists only.
Well, if you’ve ever seen the original 1947 Miracle on 34th Street than you already know the answer. There is a Santa Claus and he looks exactly like Edmund Gwenn!
In this scene, Kris Kringle is on trial. He swears that he is Santa Claus. The prosecution claims that not only isn’t he Santa Claus but Santa doesn’t exist at all. Fortunately, it’s the U.S. Post Service to the rescue!
Miracle on 34th Street is true Christmas classic and I hope you enjoy this holiday scene that I love.
(The remake with Richard Attenborough is also pretty good, as long as you can ignore the fact that Mara Wilson grew up to be one of the most annoying people on the planet.)
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
4 Shots From 4 Holiday Films
Holiday Inn (1942, dir by Mark Sandrich)
It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, dir by Frank Capra)
Miracle on 34th Street (1947, dir by George Seaton)
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
Sadly, it had been announced that actress Maureen O’Hara passed away this morning. As a lover of Golden Age Hollywood, Maureen was always one of my favorite actresses. (After all, we were both outspoken Irish redheads!) Maureen was one of the last surviving actresses from Hollywood’s golden age and, with her passing, a bit history passes too.
(I should also mention that Maureen played the mother of one of my favorite actress, Natalie Wood, in one of my favorite films of all time, Miracle on 34th Street. Whenever I see Miracle, I think about my mom.)
These 4 Shots From 4 Films are dedicated to the memory of the great Maureen O’Hara.
4 Shots From 4 Films
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939, dir by William Dieterle)
Dance, Girl. Dance (1940, dir by Dorothy Arzner)
Miracle on the 34th Street (1947, dir by George Seaton)
Through the Shattered Lens 