My 150 Favorite Films - #6

The Awful Truth (1937)

Leo McCarey directed one of the best film comedies of the 1930's, with one of the best casts around, Cary Grant and Irene Dunne, as a soon-to-be divorced couple out to ruin each other's new romances. Co-star Ralph Bellamy gets a chance to shine in the supporting role of Dunne's hapless suitor. In addition to winning, for McCarey, a Best Directing Oscar, the film has also been voted, by Premiere magazine, one of the 50 best comedies of all time, one of the Best U.S. Romances of all time, by the American Film Institute, and been inducted into the National Film Registry. This is a film which can be watched again and again with no loss of enjoyment.

My 150 Favorite Films - #7

The Hot Rock (1972)

The Hot Rock is another one of those quirky caper films that I love, that I often wonder, "why don't more people know about this film?" Blessed with a splendiferous, testosterone-fueled cast, including Robert Redford, George Segal, Ron Liebman, all in their prime, The Hot Rock revolves around a plot to steal, or "liberate" a gem from the Brooklyn Museum. In short order everything that could go wrong does, and the plot quickly devolves. Worth seeing just for the cast alone, let alone the sublimely witty screenplay by William Goldman, based on a novel by Donald E. Westlake.