Best Movies Alphabetically "I" Movies; Movies beginning with the letter I Review

More great movies for your to add to your list.  These are ones beginning witht he letter I.  Pick a couple and enjoy.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) Director Mervyn Leroy

World War 1 Veteran James Allen (Paul Muni) returns home dreaming of traveling across America. He leaves a dull job, and travels though he has no money. He goes to get a burger with a tramp and he is implicated in a robbery and sentenced to hard time on a chain gang in Georgia. Eventually he escapes but is now a wanted criminal on the run. He makes his way to Chicago, finds some success in the construction industry but then there's the girl Marie who finds out about his past... based on the autobiography of Robert E. Burns. The somewhat dated film is still memorable. Just about ALL the chain gang cliches come from this film.


I Never Sang for My Father (1970) Directed by Gilbert Cates

Every 5 years or so I watch this film. It's a sad, depressing film, but it features wonderful performances and deals with a difficult and very real situation in an uncompromising just slightly melodramatic manner. Gene Hackman and Melvyn Douglas are superb as father and son. Douglas is a very independent cantankerous senior citizen who needs more attention and care than he wants to admit he needs. Hackman is the only one in the family who has taken the responsibility and has the compassion to deal with his father. But Hackman needs to move with his fiancé across the country which would mean leaving his father who can't possibly care for himself any longer. There's a few more twists to it but not many. It's a moving memorable imperfect film. It doesn't end with perfect completely solved problems and happy satisfied people. I hope more will see it. 


If . . . (1969) Directed by Lindsay Anderson

It was originally rated X and was the first of the Anderson and Malcolm McDowell trilogy that included O Lucky Man and Britania Hospital. If... is the story of three seniors at a boarding school who refuse to conform. The result leads to brutal violence. It's an indictment of British society and was directly inspired by Vigo's Zero for Conduct. It was shot in both black and white and color. Don't miss it.

I'm No Angel (1933) Directed by Wesley Ruggles & uncredited Mae West

Mae West was past 40 before she made her first movie. She had been breaking rules on and off Broadway by writing, staging and starring in a variety of theater productions that sometimes got her carted off to jail on obscenity charges. Her most notorious plays were The Drag and SEX. Others included Pleasure Man, Diamond Lil (which on film became She Done Him Wrong) and later there was Catherine Was Great. George Raft brought her to Hollywood and she was controversial the moment she stepped in front of the camera. She also was a huge box-office success and the first two official Mae West films, She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel made enough money that Paramount Studios was able to stay in business. She gave a needed lift to a rising star named Cary Grant as well. Following I'm No Angel the strict Hayes Code went into full effect and one of the targets of the Hayes office was Mae West whose every film was under intense scrutiny. They wouldn't even let her keep the title of her 3rd film It Ain't No Sin which became Belle of the Nineties. Censorship crimped her style and it eventually hurt her film career though she would make several more films and give another rising star (Randolph Scott) an important boost. West broke rules and continued performing until she died in the late 1970s. In I'm No Angel Mae is the popular lady lion tamer named Tira. She needs money and agrees to put her head in the lions mouth. Everyone wants to see this and the circus comes to New York. Tira gets to flirt with rich men and accept expensive presents. She is told by a fortune teller she will meet a special man (Grant) and when she does Grant there are complications. West and the film are unconventional and what was once extremely daring and risqué is not particularly shocking today. Oh but if you can imagine all the taboos she was breaking in her day you'll have a wonderful time.

In a Lonely Place (1950) Directed by Nicholas Ray

Ray directs a noir masterpiece from a script by Andrew Solt based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes that was adapted by Edmund H. North. Humphrey Bogart delivers one of his best performances as a volatile screenwriter who has an affair with the starlet Gloria Grahame while he is under suspicion of a particularly gruesome murder. The direction is distinct and the film is a riveting and memorable cynical portrait of Hollywood.

IN THIS WORLD (2003) Directed by Michael Winterbottom

Enyat who lives in an Afghanistan refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan decides to travel to England. Jamal, his 13-year-old cousin gets to accompany him because he speaks some English. The journey will be an over-land trek that will take the two refugees into several hostile territories and expose them to dangerous situations and much hardship. The journey goes from Pakistan to Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, and so on. The film was shot in documentary style; hand held and sometimes hidden camera techniques were used out of necessity. It's easy to forget you are watching a film and not a documentary. The actors, director and film crew involved took the journey we are watching in the film, with the producers arranging permits and bribes a couple of days ahead of the film company. The film's authenticity comes from the superb location work, but it's the editing and all of the subtle touches and details that create what I'm confident I'll be calling a masterpiece within a few years. Then again, I guess I'm calling it that now. At times a subtle cleverness reminds us the film is not an actual documentary but never does the film preach (after the brief set up in the beginning of the film). You can't help but be moved and feel a deep compassion for the characters we observe and reflect on what so many refugees have risked and gone through to get a chance for a better life.

Winterbottom continutes giving us wonderful films like Jude (1996), Welcome to Sarajevo (1997), Wonderland (1999), The Claim (2000), 24 Hour Party People (2002), Code 46 (2003) and others (including 1995's Butterfly Kiss and 2004's 9 Songs. He surpassed himself with this brilliant work. The self-confidence he has in the story and cast allows Winterbottom to underplay some sequences with remarkable effect.

The film states there are 14 million political and economic refugees worldwide with over 1 million living in Peshawar. After the film was completed, the real life actor (Jamal Udin Torabi) who plays the character of Jamal in the film actually made the journey from Pakistan to England very similar to what we saw in the film. He was caught and detained for two months in a refugee camp in England before he told the filmmakers what he had done and they were able to help him.

I originally caught this film at the Seattle International Film Festival. Several months later it received a few weeks run as part of the Sundance film series. It's too bad you probably won't see the film in a packed movie house with an audience. Both times I saw it as it ended I could hardly breathe and the audience must have had a similar reaction since everyone sat in stunned silence for several minutes as the credits rolled.

The Invisible Man (1933)

Somewhat dated, more than a few gaffes, and special effects you'll be able to see through (oh aren't I funny?), this one still entertains as Claude Rains becomes invisible and goes more than a little mad in the English country side. The special effects once completely dazzled it's audience which I try to imagine when I watch it and sometimes succeed. James Whale directing yet another horror classic has John Carradine and Walter Brennan in bit parts along with Gloria (Titanic) Stuart and Dwight Frye in larger ones. Forget the travesty that was Hollow Man and see this dated classic instead. 

Island of Lost Souls (1933) Directed by Erie C. Kenton

Despite it's age, this adaptation of the oft filmed H.G. Welles tale Island of Dr. Moreau remains an effective horror film. It's ending remains quite horrifying and may still be able to disturb you. Charles Laughton hams it up wonderfully, and Bela leads his animal men in the now famous 'Are We Not Men' chant. (Yes, Devo fans it's from this movie). Kathleen Burke is the Panther Girl.


It Happened One Night (1934) Directed by Frank Capra

Capra Corn began in earnest. The romantic comedy clichés all started here. It's still an enchanting, enjoyable and very entertaining movie with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert playing the fast talking reporter and runaway heiress. Highlights include the hitchhiking scene, Walls of Jericho and more. It was the first film to win the top five Oscars. One of the first screw-ball comedies, based on the Samuel Hopkins Adams Story, Night Bus with a screenplay by Robert Riskin.

It's a Gift (1934) Directed by Norman Z McLeod

One of W.C. Fields greatest films. Fields plays a grocery store owner who decides to go West with his family. Several memorable, funny comedy routines including Charles Sellon as a blind customer of the store, and T. Roy Barnes as that salesman looking for Carl Capital L, small a , Capital F, small o, small n, small g. Carl LaFong. It's a remake of Fields' silent film It's the Old Army Game. Fields who rose to fame in vaudeville as the greatest juggler of all time, created an extremely unique comic persona. Don't miss this.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Directed by Frank Capra

Yeah it's sentimental and corny and perhaps even dated, but you have got no heart if you aren't charmed completely by this beautifully realized fantasy film based on Philip Van Doren Stern's short story THE GREATEST GIFT which expanded an idea he used in a Christmas card. The screenplay was by Fank Capra, Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Jo Swerling. It did only so-so business when it was first released . James Stewart on the verge of financial ruin has humiliated himself in front of the town's richest and meanest man Lionel Barrymore and is about to throw himself off of the bridge when Clarence an angel trying to win his wings intervenes and shows Stewart how much his life has meant to the community of Bedford Falls and what he has to live for. Donna Reed, Henry Travers, Thomas Mitchell, Gloria Grahame, Sheldon Leonard, Ward Bond and others make up a wonderful cast. Capra Corn at its best. A timeless classic.