Family Friendly Movies

Gigot [Jackie Gleason]

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May 3, 2016May 18, 2023

Gigot (1962), starring Jackie Gleason

Simply put, Gigot is one of the finest films I’ve ever seen. The phrase that keeps coming to my mind is “Chaplinesque” — it’s cliched, and it’s trite, but it’s absolutely accurate. In Gigot, Jackie Gleason plays the title role of Gigot, a mute man living in Paris around the turn of the twentieth century. He is loved by children and dogs, but picked upon by the various adults in the film. The first third of the film sets his character, as his landlady/employer gyps him of his wages as her janitor. “You lean too hard on the broom — you wore it out!” His ‘friends’ make him the butt of jokes, etc. In fact, the only adult who treats him with any kindness at all is the priest at the local Catholic church.

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May 3, 2016February 14, 2022

Gleason: The Jackie Gleason Story (2002) starring Brad Garrett

Gleason is a wonderfully done television biography of Jackie Gleason, starring Brad Garrett, best known for his television sitcoms Everybody Loves Raymond and Til Death. I was absolutely flabbergasted by Brad Garrett’s performance. Not only did he do a wonderful acting job, but he truly made the character of Jackie Gleason come to life. Given his size, I would never have believed that he could carry off the role of the pudgy comedian Jackie Gleason. I was totally wrong.

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May 3, 2016April 9, 2021

With parents who were actors, it comes as no surprise that the young Joe Yule Jr. made his debut on the stage at the age… Read More »Mickey Rooney biography

Requiem for a Heavyweight

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May 3, 2016January 7, 2023

Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) starring Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Harris

Requiem for a Heavyweight is a very powerful, very hard-hitting movie about boxing. Rod Serling wrote a teleplay that shows the steamy underbelly of professional boxing — and it’s not a pretty picture. In short, Rocky it isn’t. The movie begins with Anthony Quinn, the ‘Heavyweight’ of the title, losing his final boxing match to (a very young) Cassius Clay. Anthony Quinn’s character, Louis ‘Mountain’ Rivera, has become punch-drunk and is on the verge of losing his eyesight in the boxing ring. His corrupt manager (played extremely well by Jackie Gleason, in a very serious role) needs to find a way to pay back the mob … and if that means ruining Rivera’s chance at happiness, then so be it.

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May 3, 2016January 21, 2022

Marie Antoinette (1938) starring Norma Shearer, Tyrone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morley

Product Description of Marie Antoinette

Her eyes shine as brightly as the diamonds at her slender throat or as the countless candles that turn the Palace of Versailles into a light-drenched fantasy world. She is Marie Antoinette, Queen of France: beautiful, imperious, headstrong…and doomed. With an opulence exemplifying Hollywood’s Golden Era at its most glamorous, the grandeur and revolutionary fervor of 18th-century France sweeps across the screen in this nominee for 4 Academy Awards?. Elegant Best Actress Oscar? nominee Norma Shearer stars in the decades-spanning title role, Tyrone Power plays her ardent beloved, John Barrymore is crafty Louis XV and debuting Robert Morley portrays timid Louis XVI. From ballroom to boudoir to guillotine, Marie Antoinette is regal romantic adventure.

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May 3, 2016March 9, 2022

Night Flight (1933) starring John Barrymore, Clark Gable, Robert Montgomery, William Gargan, Helen Hayes, Myrna Loy

Product Description of Night Flight (DVD)

Polio breaks out in Rio de Janeiro, the serum is in Santiago and there’s only one way to get the medicine where it’s desperately needed: flown in by daring pilots who risk the treacherous weather and forbidding peaks of the Andes.

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May 3, 2016January 21, 2022

Counsellor at Law (1933) starring John Barrymore, Doris Kenyon, Melvyn Douglas, Bebe Daniels

Product Description of Counsellor at Law

In Counsellor at Law, John Barrymore stars as George Simon, a high-powered attorney who frantically juggles scandals, crimes and crises that pass through the chrome-and glass doors of his art deco office high in the Empire State Building. Balanced on an ethical tightrope, Simon engages in insider trading and bleeds funds from wealthy clients, while tending to the needs of the less fortunate New Yorkers who come from his own working-class (Jewish) background. A political enemy uncovers a past legal indiscretion and begins disbarment proceedings, causing Simon’s socialite wife (Doris Kenyon) to seek comfort in the arms of another man (Melvyn Douglas). With the unflagging support of his faithful secretary (Bebe Daniels), Simon attempts to exercise his legalistic wizardry to defend his reputation and protect those who rely upon him for justice.

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May 3, 2016January 22, 2022

John Barrymore, American stage and screen actor whose rise to super-stardom and subsequent decline is one of the legendary tragedies of Hollywood. A member of the most famous generation of the most famous theatrical family in America, he was also its most acclaimed star. His father was Maurice Blyth (or Blythe; family spellings vary), a stage success under the name ‘Maurice Barrymore’. His mother, Georgie Drew, was the daughter of actor John Drew. Although well known in the theater, Maurice and Georgie were eclipsed by their three children, John, Lionel Barrymore, and Ethel Barrymore, each of whom became legendary stars.