Joe--I agree about Toni but nothing else. Colette has cred from critics because of her fine work in Muriel's Wedding and The Sixth Sense, but in In Her Shoes she was acted off the screen by Diaz and MacLaine, both of whom were terrific. I loved the movie, and Norman Lloyd as the old blind professor also gave a startlingly good performance. Can't figure out why you didn't like this movie. I know, you've explained it. Doesn't compute for me. But--to quote ehle--"whatev's."

I just ordered The Last Command as part of a deal with Nancy, who ordered In Old Arizona a couple of weeks ago. The Last Command is one of the films that got Emil Jannings the first Best Actor Oscar and is apparently a classic, but only available on VHS. The other film he won for, The Way of All Flesh, is a famous lost film.

I also ordered The Divorcée, which won Norma Shearer the third Best Actress Oscar, and which I thought was another lost film, but obviously not.

Coincidentally, Sunrise, one of the films that won Janet Gaynor the first Oscar for Best Actress, is showing on TCM Sunday night, and I've never seen it, so good thing for VCR's. (Ebert & Roeper is opposite it, so I watch them real time for once.) I'd thought one of the other two films she won for that year, Seventh Heaven and Street Angel, was lost, but apparently not, since both of them were reviewed on IMBd. I know a site that has a copy of Street Angel, but I don't know if Seventh Heaven is available at all.

The other silent I'm looking hard for is Judith of Bethulia, the first time D. W. Griffith experimented with full length films. (61 minutes so it's sort of in between a short and a feature.) It's available on amazon.com for $22 plus shipping, but I'm holding out for a DVD reliece.

Saw two movies on video over the weekend--Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat...Lifeboat is far, far from one of Hitchcock's best, but as pro-war propaganda movies go it's pretty good. Tallulah Bankhead is great fun as a bitchy journalist plunked down in a rowboat after the ship she was on assignment on is blown out of the water. She's joined by William Bendix, John Hodiak, Walter Slezak, and assorted lesser-known actors. It's an intermittent hoot and never achieves total boredom, though it flirts with it now and again. It was a challenge for Hitchcock--the limited visuals, etc.--but as in Rear Window and Rope he's up to the challenge. And his cameo appearance is arguably his best ever. See it for that if for nothing else.

...this is, I think, the only movie with Tallulah Bankhead available for home viewing. Thanks for the review.

Ugh, I didn't know it existed until about two minutes ago. Googled. Wish I still didn't know.