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Determined Teacher and the Shutdown of Manhattan

Monday: Footlight Parade (1933)
       Chester is struggling to produce musicals. People are more interested in films. He learns about musical prologues that are preformed before the movies. The first he sees is an Egyptian themed song and dance before a movie set in Egypt. He realizes there is money to be made in these prologues. He joins a company that produces them. Chester turns the business around and is very successful. His prologues are being played in cinemas all over the U.S. He is constantly having to think of new ones. His secretary, Nan, helps him come up with ideas. She is in love with him, but doesn't think he could ever feel that way for her. Chester is competing with another movie theater chain to make the best prologues. I liked this movie ok. It was entertaining. They talk very fast. It still has the quick pace that they did in silent films. You can tell it was one of the very early talkies (films with full sound).

Tuesday: Up the Down Staircase (1967)
       This movie is about a young English teacher, Sylvia, who starts her first teaching job at an inner city high school in New York. Sylvia wants to connect with them. She struggles to control her class,  she is lucky to just get through half the attendance list most days. She also struggles with the school system which seems to be working against her. There aren't enough resources, or any ways to really help her students. She does start to make an impact right as she is about to quit. I liked this movie. I'm a sucker for movies about teachers. It is based on a real teacher's experiences. Also the other English teacher is a jerk. He doesn't seem to care about his students at all. It's a mystery how some people become teachers.

Wednesday: I Love You Again (1940)
         Larry is a boring business owner who is on a cruise. He ends up saving another passenger, Duke, who falls over board. Larry is knocked unconscious. When he wakes up he is a different person. He is a con man named George. George has had amnesia for 9 years. The last thing he remembers is pulling a job on a train and getting hit in the head. With Duke's help he tries to learn about this other life he's been living. He finds out that he, as Larry, is rich. So he plans to go to his current home and take all the money from Larry's bank accounts. When they arrive at port George meets "his" wife. He soon falls in love with her. George learns that she was divorcing Larry. He tries to get the money from the bank and get his wife to fall in love with him. I liked this movie.

Friday: 21 Bridges (2019)
      Two men rob a restaurant that is also a holding place for a large amount of cocaine. They get in over there heads when cops show up and they kill all of them. The men are on the run. Andre is a detective. His father was a cop who was killed in the line of duty. He has made it his mission to take down all cop killers. He comes up with a plan to shut down the island of Manhattan. He has them close all the bridges and stops the trains from leaving. Andre wants to trap the criminals and arrest them. The FBI give him less than 7 hours to do it. As he tracks them down he starts to realize something isn't quite right. There is more going on than just two men who killed cops. This movie is good. It is a good cop thriller. It wasn't my first choice of movies. I had to save a lot for the holiday week. I still enjoyed it though.

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