Thursday Movie Picks-Hostages

Sorry for not visiting too much. I am dealing with dizziness and exhaustion and need to go for an ultrasound so I hope the drs will figure it out. I have had a tough time to read right now..I am doing the wine o clock😁. At Wandering Through The Shelves it’s all about hostages..here are my 3...

1. THE 39 STEPS-1935

I love Robert Donat, who died early from severe asthma, as he was such a great actor and I have the hots for him. He was so good in this Hitchcock film as a Canadian in London who becomes embroiled in espionage but must run from the police to clear his name, a common Hitchcock theme. He travels to Scotland, by train ( another oft used Hitchcock theme(ughh can't think up the right word) and meets up with the beautiful Madeleine Carroll who becomes his hostage literally attached to him with handcuffs, as they traipse through the countryside, trying to find out what the McGuffin is(look that up:)) This is a very entertaining and quite a fun film that I can watch any time.

2. KEY LARGO-1948

Bogie and Bacall in a thriller noir as a man who comes to a Florida hotel run by Bacall and her invalid dad, Lionel Barrymore, who really was in a wheelchair due to severe rheumatoid arthritis. In comes nasty Edward G. Robinson with his alcoholic moll, Claire Trevor( who won an Oscar for her role), and his goons, who are all holed up here as a hurricane passes through. The last team up of Bogie and Bacall as well as Bogie and Robinson that delivers a great gangster/noirish film. It always made me wince to see Lionel Barrymore in this film since he demanded to do his own stunts, so when he falls, i feel his pain.

3. ESCAPE FROM IRAN:THE CANADIAN CAPER-1981

I could have chosen Argo but that film took the American route of what they did to help the 6 Americans hiding at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran but I went with the better film, even though it is Canadian and a TV movie because this was more accurate. In fact, when Argo came out, the former  Americans hiding out for months were not happy with how imbalanced Argo was(I do like Argo by the way). Argo did show what the CIA man did, with help from some Hollywood stiffs, to create a fake movie called Argo to help get these men and women out but it failed to show how big the Canadians helped and without us, these people would not have been saved. Ken Taylor, the Canadian Ambassador at this time, took in the hostages along with  John Sheardown which was at great risk to their own lives. Taylor got the 6 people to go out, on occasion, to pretend to be Canadian so everything would look the norm. He got Joe Clark, our PM at the time and Flora MacDonald (Secretary of State for External Affairs), to create Canadian passports and Visas for the 6 and made sure they would get safe passage. When the American came in with the fake movie crew, Ken Taylor helped the 6 become part of this fake film crew and was the main reason for them to get on that airplane. I was so in awe of this man and I was so pleased to have seen him at my high school when he came to talk about what had happened and I was privileged to have shaken his hand.

What are your 3...