Wonder Man (1945)

Who's in it?: Danny Kaye (White Christmas), Virginia Mayo (Captain Horatio Hornblower RN), and Vera-Ellen (also White Christmas)

What's it about?: When a nightclub comedian is murdered by the mob, his ghost teams up with his nerdy twin brother to bring the killers to justice.

How is it?: Danny Kaye's second movie was also the screen debut of Vera-Ellen, who teams up with him again in White Christmas. I'm going to need to watch through her filmography alongside Kaye's. She's amazing in White Christmas and her dancing is just as impressive in Wonder Man where she plays another nightclub performer who's dating Kaye's comedian character.

I like the story here much more than Up in Arms. Kaye is great in both of his roles, but he's especially funny as the hapless, introverted, totally uncomfortable bookworm who sees a ghost that nobody else can. Virgina Mayo plays the woman that the academic brother is interested in and she's great, too.

Rating: Four out of five wacky, but vengeful ghosts.

Hellbent for Letterbox | Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Pax's last few picks have been building to this and we're finally here. He introduces me to the George Roy Hill classic, written by the legendary William Goldman (Rest in Peace) and starring the best-looking, most charming men of '70s cinema.

Pax also looks at the related Mrs. Sundance, Wanted: The Sundance Woman, and Butch and Sundance: The Early Days. And I talk about watching a listener-recommended show, the short-lived Peacemakers starring Tom Berenger. All this and some Pony Express.

Sólo con Tu Pareja (1991)

Who's in it?: Daniel Giménez Cacho, whom I didn't know from anything else. Also very many other talented actors whom I also didn't know.

What's it about?: When a philanderer (Cacho) two-times the nurse who's processing the test results from his latest physical, she sends him a fake report that says he has HIV. Just in time for him to for really for true fall in love with his new neighbor.

How is it?: In addition to Danny Kaye, I'm also going to work through Alfonso Cuarón's filmography this year. He's been one of my favorite directors for a while, but there are key films of his that I haven't seen and I want to correct that. I want to move him to Favorite Director of All Time, but that claim needs some validating.

Sólo con Tu Pareja (English translation: Only with Your Partner) was Cuarón's first feature film, but you can't tell that from looking at it. It's impressive. Leave it to Cuarón to direct a comedy about AIDS and suicide that's both moving and funny. Cacho's character is a lech, but he's also super charming and I understand why he's so successful at seduction. The film is beautiful to look at too, with photography by three-time Oscar winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity, The Bird Man, The Revenant). Considering the subject matter (which I felt bad laughing about), Sólo con Tu Pareja is an amazing achievement.

Rating: Four out of five pleasant players.

Dragonfly Ripple | Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

David and I talk about the funniest Marvel movie, whether the humor works for us as part of the MCU, and how Ragnarok changes everything.

Up in Arms (1944)

I miss doing these short movie reviews. And since I'm watching my way through a couple of filmographies this year, I thought it might be nice to document them instead of just briefly mentioning them in my Year End Wrap-Up next January.

Who's in it?: Danny Kaye (White Christmas), Dinah Shore (lots of '70s variety and sketch shows), Dana Andrews (Night of the Demon, Laura), and Constance Dowling (whom I didn't know before, but dang she's cute)

What's it about?: It's J Geils Band's "Love Stinks": The Movie. She loves him, but he loves her, but she loves somebody else. In the military.

How is it?: After enjoying Danny Kaye for years in annual viewings of White Christmas, I decided to finally look at some of his other films this year. This was his first starring role and it's a funny one, though not as hilarious as I expected.

Shore is in love with Kaye who's in love with Dowling who's in love with Andrews who (in a not so shocking twist) is actually in love with Dowling back. There's a lot of lead-up before the four of them join the army and are deployed to the South Pacific. The plot is extremely loose, really just something to hang some wacky hi-jinx and mediocre songs on, but it's easy to see why Kaye became a star. He and Shore (whose voice gets a lot of deserved attention) do some cool scat singing, which I enjoy. And it's always nice to see Dana Andrews.

Rating: Three out of five singing soldiers.

Filthy Horrors | Frankenstein Is the Monster

Darla, Jess, and I get flustered about Frankenstein. Or maybe that's just Kenneth Branagh's abs. And maybe that's mostly me. At any rate, we cover the Mary Shelley biopic starring Elle Fanning, the novel itself, and more movie adaptations than you can shake a pitchfork (or a torch) at.

Dragonfly Ripple | Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

David and I hash out how Homecoming compares to the Sam Raimi and Marc Webb Spider-Man films.

Fourth Chair Army Invasion | M Night Shyamalan’s Shattered Trilogy

On this month's Fourth Chair Army Invasion at Nerd Lunch, Shawn Robare, Evan Hanson, and I talk about the career of M Night Shyamalan, focusing mostly on what makes Unbreakable and Split so good and whether Glass is a worthy follow-up.

Hellbent for Letterbox | Shane (1953)

Pax and I come back (get it?) to shoot the breeze about George Stevens' classic Shane, starring Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, and Jean Arthur. Is Marian in love with Shane? Is Joey the most annoying character in cinema? What's up with that ending? And how do Batman and the Little Rascals fit into all this?

There's also Pony Express mail and short discussions of the Wrong Reel podcast's Billy the Kid episode and a couple of films: Blood on the Moon and Woman Walks Ahead.

Dragonfly Ripple | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)

David and I gab about Guardians 2 and what makes it one of our favorite Marvel movies.

Nerd Lunch | Solo Drill Down

No, seriously. For real this time.

It was great getting together again with the Nerd Lunch Star Wars panel to talk about the Han Solo prequel, how it worked as a space adventure story, as a prequel, and whether it changed our perceptions and opinions on the whole concept of Star Wars anthology films.