Review of Hail, Caesar! (2016) by Ginak — 14 Feb 2016

I went to this film with my sister who has an encyclopedic knowledge of Hollywood lore. She loved this film and I give it an 8 in her honor. She said to me later, “I guess you don’t know what Dashiell Hammett looked like” (all the actors playing the kidnappers were chosen to look like famous “studio”-connected people of the era).

She also reminded me that Loretta Young adopted her own child (fathered by Clark Gable), just like an actress in the film almost does, and told me about the rumors that Eddie Mannix (who really existed) supposedly had George Reeves (Superman) murdered because of his affair with Mannix’s promiscuous wife, most of whose affairs he tolerated.

So I can see why many critics had high praise for this film. I thought the film was fun, but I yawned a lot at times, luckily not as loudly as a man behind us. But if you know all the old stories, you’ll love this film.