Film Festival: Three Hankies Ayn Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead, is loosely based upon the career of Frank Lloyd Wright, though Rand, who also wrote the screenplay, continually denied it. This is a morality play about the strength of personal conviction. Gary Cooper brings Howard Roark alive in The Fountainhead (1949), which also stars Patricia Neal…
1949
Lisa’s Home Bijou: In the Good Old Summertime
Film Festival: Christmas classics In the Good Old Summertime is named for the old song from 1902. It’s actually a Christmas story, with Judy Garland and Van Johnson competing at the music store where they work, while they are getting to know each other as pen pals. The story begins in Chicago in the early…
Lisa’s Home Bijou: Twelve O’Clock High
Film Festival: Aviation Twelve O’Clock High (1949) is a story of a group of airborne warriors from World War II. Ever since Orville and Wilbur Wright got us off the ground, Americans have been fascinated with the daring young women and men in their flying machines. In times of war, aviators fought gallantly. “We’re in a…
Lisa’s Home Bijou: Holiday Affair
Film Festival: The Holidays Americans had a lot to get used to in the years immediately following World War II. The war signaled the end of the Great Depression, but the boys who made it back needed jobs, and war widows needed to support their families. Holiday Affair (1949) gives a glimpse of life in…