Both The Wrap and Nikke Finke have the details, and in their list of the great director’s films, both overlook “The Days of Wine and Roses,” a harrowing, unromantic, and unforgettable tale of the toll of alcoholism on a young, attractive married couple (Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick) and their young daughter. I don’t mention the title to play gotcha with either of them, I mention it because that film is, in my opinion, the greatest testament to Blake Edwards’ gifts as a director, as far away from the comedic tone and slapstick brilliance of the “Pink Panther” series that would soon follow.

Though he’ll always and justifiably be remembered for his work with Peter Sellers and classic film comedies such as ”Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “10″ and “Victor Victoria,” what he accomplished with “Days of Wine and Roses” — turning what starts out as something resembling a terrific Billy Wilder romantic comedy before moving the story into as dark of a world as one can imagine — has always made it my favorite Blake Edwards’ film. Other than Preston Sturges’ “Sullivan’s Travels,” there’s no other film that tonally moves so smoothly from A to Z as successfully and with the same emotional impact.

And yet, because it’s so unlike what he’s most famous for, the biggest compliment I can pay Edwards is that I frequently forget it’s a Blake Edwards’ film.

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The casting of Robert Montgomery (1904–1981) in They Were Expendable was uncommonly appropriate. The suave, handsome actor made his name in debonair romantic comedies throughout the 1930s, but like John Ford he didn’t wait until America was dragged into war before enlisting. In 1940, fired up by the life-and-death struggles raging in Europe, he abandoned his M-G-M contract, went to France, and volunteered as an ambulance driver. Only a few weeks went by before he had it shot out from under him — one film magazine of the era reported (or perhaps exaggerated) that he narrowly avoided capture with the help of a French priest, and escaped the country mere hours before it fell to the Germans.

Back in the states he enlisted in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and over the next three years served in many capacities before finding his way to the Pacific theater, where he met John Bulkeley and became his executive officer. Montgomery commanded a PT boat in many battles, and eventually headed up to Normandy as an operations officer for a destroyer squadron. While preparing for D-Day, he remembered later, “I saw Bulkeley on his PT Boat and waved to him. There was another man on the bridge with him. I had no idea then it was Jack Ford.” (more…)

The Drew Barrymore-produced romantic comedy He’s Just Not That Into You has made the jump from catch-phrase to self-help book to movie hit. With an all-star cast this classic ‘chick flick” appears to be winning the weekend after posting a spectacular $10.5M in opening day ticket sales. That should mean a 3-day start of $27.4M or so, easily out-pacing holdover Taken (Fox) and three other new wide releases. With this kind of opening, Not That Into You could reach almost $60M by the end of next weekend (a 4-day Presidents/Valentine’s combo), which would forecast a potential $90M in US ticket sales.

The new movie developed by New Line and now released by Warner Bros is based on the book of the same name co-written by former Sex & the City scribes Greg Behrendt and Liz Tucillo. The line itself has come to be a reassuring fallback for women in the dating scene (and I’m guessing single guys have adopted the mentality as well in the rough-and-tumble world of dating).

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