Four-star movie: Open City

Open City aka Rome, Open City aka Roma città aperta
Director: Roberto Rossellini
1945

This movie is set during the 1944 Nazi occupation of Rome, and was made a year later, on a shoestring, partly with materials scrounged from the US Signal Corp. It was apparently a real-world game changer, because it was a widely distributed work that showed the Italians as victims of the Nazi regime, instead of Axis collaborators.

It's a grim work that ends up with most of the original characters dead at the end of the movie, though with occasional moments of humor, such as the priest who is waiting in an antique shop turning a statue of a saint so that he no longer faces a female nude. It plays almost like a documentary; the film commentary says that it's one of the earliest works of Italian neorealism.

According to Wikipedia, it's one of Pope Francis's favorite films.

Four-star movies: Our Hospitality and Sherlock Jr.

These were a double feature in the DVD, so they might as well go in the same post.

Our Hospitality
Director: Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone
1923

This is a silent movie starring Buster Keaton. Which means there's lots of physical comedy (though not necessarily fight scenes), and a romantic subplot. In this case, it's the story of a young man whose mother moved away from a long-running family feud, but who is drawn back in when he receives a letter telling him to claim his inheritance. It turns out that the inheritance is apparently a worthless shack, but in the meantime he falls in love with a girl on the wrong side. The members of her family want to kill him, but the rules of hospitality say they can't do so while he's still in their house. Eventually he leaves, and there's a scene where it appears the girl is going to save his life. (Yay -- female agency!) But this is the 1920s, so she gets herself in trouble and has to be rescued. It all ends happily, with lives saved all around.

Sherlock Jr.
Director: Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle (uncredited)
1924

This movie contains an early example of a film within a film. It's the story of a projectionist/janitor with a Mitty-esque fantasy life, except that he fancies himself as the Great Detective. Through a series of coincidences of the sort that only occur in movies, he ends up solving a real-life crime and (of course) getting the girl.

In both of these, Buster Keaton is what makes the watching worthwhile. He did his own stunts which were beautifully choreographed, and the timing of the acting is impeccable. About the plots, the less said, the better.

Four-star movie: The Ox-Bow Incident

The Ox-Bow Incident
Director: William A. Wellman
1943

This is a very short movie (75 minutes) about two men who unwillingly participate in a lynching of three men accused of cattle rustling and murder. They abstain from the actual killing, but are unable to stop it, despite being convinced that the accused men are innocent. After it is too late, it turns out that the supposed murder never even occurred. For me, the most unbelievable part of this movie is the suicide of the self-styled major who set himself in charge of the proceedings. From everything else we've seen of him, I think he would have found a way to justify his actions as necessary. Henry Fonda and a young Harry Morgan (I mostly knew him as Colonel Potter on MASH) are the onlookers.

According to Wikipedia, the studio shelved the movie for a year, because once having made it, they had no idea how to market something so inflammatory.

Cubs win!

I think the last time I had occasion to use this icon was in 2008. It has been 12 years since the Cubs won a playoff game, though they had lost one or two in the interim.

Major League Baseball has gone to a silly system where there's a one-game wild card playoff between the two teams with the best record who aren't the division leaders. This year, the St. Louis Cardinals won the NL Central with 100 wins, the Pittsburgh Pirates were close behind with 98 wins, and the Chicago Cubs on their heels with 97. This is the first time three teams from the same division have gone to the playoffs.

Tonight's Cubs-Pirates game was supposed to be a pitcher's duel, and it probably would have been if Cubs hitters hadn't hit two home runs. And those turned out to be gravy -- the run scored in the first inning held throughout. The Cubs starting pitcher, Jake Arrieta, pitched the entire game. He got into trouble a couple of times, but sparkling double plays got him out each time.

The Cubs now move on to the NLDS, where they play the Cardinals in a best-of-five series. This is the first time the Cubs have ever gone against the Cardinals in postseason play.

Should be interesting.