Yesterday was the last day I can remember when I saw not one, not two, but three movies. All from the comfort of my home on a day when outside everything was cold and rainy. My three choices were a bit odd, but two I recommend and on the other I maintain neutrality.

The films were (1) Dr. Strangelove, (2) The Dark Past, and (3) Missing. My guess is that you have heard of Dr. Strangelove, but not the other two.

(1) Dr. Strangelove. I have probably seen this 1964 film half a dozen times over the past 60 years. For those who don’t know, it was produced just after the Cuban missile crisis, and tells the story of a misreading of what was feared to be a Russian missile attack which sets in motion a response which cannot be stopped, and winds up with an American nuclear bomb being dropped on a Russian “doomsday machine”, which will spread radioactivity across the entire world and wipe out human, animal and plant life for about 100 years. It’s a comedy.

Peter Sellers plays three roles – he is the somewhat hapless president of the United States, he is a British attache to the U.S. Army who has to put up with General Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden), who is dead set on destroying the USSR whether or not the U.S. is really under attack, and he is the German-American wheelchair bound scientist (Strangelove) who calls the president Mein Fuhrer, and expends all of his energy trying to keep his arm from giving a continual Heil Hitler salute, but who has a plan to ensure that the elite of mankind can survive underground for 100 years. You have George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson rooting for war and coming to blows, in the Pentagon War Room, with the Soviet Ambassador to the United States, forcing the president to yell: ”Will you stop fighting? This is the war room.” And you have a crew led by “King” Kong (Slim Pickens), which includes a very young James Earl Jones, cut off from communications, flying under Soviet radar and dead set on dropping the bomb, unaware that the mission has been aborted. 

The film is entertaining, to be sure, but there is also a hint of reality – the facts may be different, but we all know that – unlikely or not – deadly wars can start by accident when events cannot be controlled. Of course, recommended. (I saw it on HBO on demand).

(2) ”The Dark Past” is a 1948 film starring William Holden and Lee J. Cobb, and is probably an archetype of a 1948 film – it is just like almost every other film made in 1948. William Holden is an escaped gangster, and Lee J. Cobb is a psychiatrist who teaches at an upstate New York college and who has a lake house not far from the campus. Holden and his two henchmen and his girlfriend decide to hide in Cobb’s house – Cobb is there with his wife, his young son, a couple who are their friends, and a young man who tags along with this couple because he is the lover of the wife. Another friend stops by, and finds himself a hostage as well.

Because it’s a 1948 film, it ends well, with the gangster and his moll being caught by the police and everyone else readying to get back to their normal activities. How did the police know they were there? Their family cook, an older woman who wears 5 inch heels and has no fear, escapes through a basement window and runs to the police.

And there’s another twist. While they were hostages, Cobb treats Holden’s mental disturbance, and explains his repetitive dream, and you know that Holden, a life-long criminal, will now be a model society member once he gets out of prison.

A rather mindless film, to be sure. (I watched it on YouTube, where I generally use the eeny-meeny-meiny-mo theory of choosing films.)

(3) “Missing”. This was the surprise, the film we watched last night. It’s on Netflix, and was released sometime during 2023. It gets good ratings. I thought it was a film worthy of winning awards.

An 18 year old girl, June, lives with her mother – her father died of a brain tumor 12 years earlier. Her mother has a new boyfriend, Kevin, and they decide to go on a short vacation to Cartagena, Colombia, leaving June home alone. June is to pick them up at LAX upon their return. But they are not on the plane, and not responding to any form of electronic communication. June goes into action, determined to find her mother.

So far, so good. And I am not going to give you any Spoilers. Let me just say that there are many plot twists, and that the acting overall is of high quality.

But the star of the show is technology. June seems to spend much or most of her life in front of her computer, where she is expert on using, and on mining, every imaginable type of social media communication, and you – the viewer – watch her Face Time, and have WhatsApp chats, Google, use FaceBook, use search tools you have never heard of, hack into all sorts of accounts, make notes on line, etc. For most of the film, you are watching the screen, you are seeing what she is seeing, you see her manipulation of Apps that you think you know well, but she can get them to do things that you have never dreamed they can do. Everything moves really fast. I could tell you more about how she rides her computer and phone and smart watch but, as I said, NO SPOILERS.

I really think you should check out “Missing”. I’d love to know what you think about it.