What Films did You Watch Last Week (24/06 - 30/06) CLOSED

My top 5:

Basic Instinct
The Omen
Chinatown
Planet of the Apes
Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Hi, Dark.


Yours:

If Beale Street Could Talk 8/10

I liked it, it took me a bit to get really into it, but then I found it moving. 

Almost Famous 6/10

Haven't seen it in ages, I remember thinking it was so-so.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese 10/10
 
I guess the mixing fiction with documentary is take it or leave it for many, I definitely take it though. I think it's my favourite movie of the year so far.


Mine:

Good Morning, Vietnam 8/10

I think it really holds up well, I liked it a bit more than I remembered too. Robin Williams was great.

Return from the Ashes 8.5/10

It's a film noir with Ingrid Thulin and Maximilian Schell, it's from the same director of Guns of Navarone, it's about a survivor from the concentration camps who comes back home. She was thought dead, her husband is living off her wealth, has an affair with her stepdaughter and they start scheming to get the rest of her money. Then there are a lot of twists. Loved it, it starts one way, then it becomes something different. I thought the acting was really great, especially Samantha Eggar, she plays the stepdaughter.

Slap Shot 8.5/10

George Roy Hill movie with Paul Newman. Loved it, it's really funny, it's a great satire. Paul Newman is fantastic.

The only one of yours I have seen is Almost Famous which I saw at the 'plex the year it came out. Although highly acclaimed and still a favorite of many, it didn't make much of an impression with me. I haven't seen it since.

MINE

The Glass Key / Stuart Heisler (1942). Paramount Pictures. Only seven years earlier Paramount had a big box office hit with a film based on Dashiell Hammett’s novel “The Glass Key” but decided to go with another version for their new star couple Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake. Political boss Paul Madvig (Brian Donlevy) decides to back a reform candidate for governor because he has fallen in love with the candidate’s daughter Janet (Lake). Medvig’s right-hand-man and chief advisor Ed Beaumont (Ladd) doesn’t think this is a good idea because of the agreements they have with the local mob. Also, Janet’s wastrel brother is seeing Medvig’s younger sister (Bonita Granville) and Madvig doesn’t like it. When the bad boy brother turns up dead, the political scene is in turmoil. Beaumont does what he can to protect Medvig but ends up in the hands of mobster Nick Varna (one of my favorite ‘40s character actors, Joseph Calleia) and his powerful and sadistic henchman Jeff (William Bendix in a very scary performance). Beaumont’s torture and spectacular escape from an upper story room in one of Varna’s joints is one of the great thrills of ‘40s thrillers. Late in the tale, Jeff again gets Beaumont into the upper room where they play a scene that could be shown as a summary of everything that noir means. Other than these two magnificent “upper room” sequences, the direction is fairly routine and static. The final Reveal of the killer is staged in an especially unimaginative way. Still, as an example of early film noir with influence down the line, “The Glass Key” remains an essential. NOTES: a) an uncredited Dane Clark can be seen in an early role; b) The Glass Key Award (in Swedish, Glasnyckeln), named after the novel, has been presented annually since 1992 for the best crime novel by a Scandinavian writer; c) The Coen’s “Miller’s Crossing” (1980) is loosely based on the plot of “The Glass Key.”





Tennessee Johnson / William Dieterle (1942). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. This bio-pic is about the 17th President, Andrew Johnson (Van Heflin), who succeeded to the office after the death of Abraham Lincoln. Director William Dieterle could have helmed this in his sleep. He already had several A-picture biographies under his belt (Pasteur ’36, Zola ’37, Reuter ’40, and Dr. Ehrlich ’40). Indeed, “Tennessee Johnson” – the movie - looks back at the 1930s instead of forward into the post-Citizen Kane ‘40s. The early scenes of Johnson’s youth and education almost reach John Ford levels of sentimental Americana. It is when Johnson becomes President and clashes with the powerful Senator Thaddeus Stevens (Lionel Barrymore) who wants to punish the former Confederate states with martial law that the picture picks up steam. (Stevens was an actual historical character but becomes a composite figure for the sake of economy.) Johnson, who fights to fulfill Lincoln’s dream of a united nation, finds himself under impeachment and on trial in the Senate. Two face-off scenes between Heflin and Barrymore really crackle. The film as a whole could have used more of this kind of heady drama.



The Macomber Affair / Zoltan Korda (1947). Benedict Bogeaus Production/United Artists. Adapted from a
well-known short story by Ernest Hemingway by Seymour Bennett and Frank Arnold, the script explores some complex human relationships. Robert Wilson (Gregory Peck) is an experienced and expensive “white hunter” and trophy guide to wealthy Americans. His current clients are the Macombers, Francis and Margaret (Robert Preston and Joan Bennett). There are obvious strains in the Macomber marriage and for Francis they seem to involve issues of “what makes a man” – what is masculinity? Things come to a crisis when Francis drops his rifle and runs in the face of a charging lion. Now he has double reason to assert his courage. The film is structured with a framing device and the major portion of the story is told in flashback. So we already know at the start the Macomber is dead and was shot by his wife in the heat of the chase. Was it deliberate or accidental? What is Wilson’s culpability for giving into Margaret’s advances? Just a little bit too much is explained away in the final minutes, but the mystery of an individual marriage remains unresolved. This excellent film has sort of fallen by the wayside over the decades but it is one of the best of its year and should be seen and remembered. Fine acting by all, especially, Robert Preston. The romantic musical score is by Miklós Rózsa. B&W Cinematography is by Karl Struss (Journey Into Fear, Wonder Man). PERSONAL NOTE: I love it that modern African trophy hunters get regularly shamed on social media for their thrill killing of innocent lions, giraffes, and elephants.



Shadow On The Wall / Pat Jackson (1950). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Doting dad David (Zachary Scott) comes home from a business trip to loving 8-year-old daughter Susan (Gigi Perreau) and not-so-loving step-mother Celia (Kristine Miller). David discovers that Celia is having an affair with Crane (Tom Helmore) who is the fiancé of Celia’s sister Dell (Ann Southern). David is holding a gun as he and Celia argue until Celia cold cocks him with a hand mirror. At that point, Dell enters and uses the gun to kill her sister. Because of the circumstances, everyone believes David killed Celia, including David. He is sentenced to die in the electric chair. However, the entire thing has been seen by young Susan who represses the memory and becomes almost completely non-responsive. Enter child psychiatrist Dr. Caroline Canford (Nancy Davis. later Nancy Reagan). Using dolls and play therapy she begins to bring out memories in Susan which upsets her “Aunt” Dell. Dell decides that Susan must die, leading to a couple of fall off the edge of your seat set pieces. Although this is a more than adequate suspenser, what makes it stand out is its casting against type of earthy, straight-talking gal Ann Southern as a cold blooded murderer and usual slick creepy guy Zachary Scott as a nice guy and a good father. Beyond that is Nancy Davis as a capable, knowledgeable heath care provider who works independently and makes her own decisions and takes responsibility. The movie doesn’t even provide her with a male colleague to tell her that she is too pretty to be a doctor and should be married instead. I didn’t miss him. And 8-year-old Gigi Perreau gives a seasoned performance of a long time professional. She really is quite amazing. With Southern, Perreau, and Davis, the women win this one. This might be Nancy’s best role.




Kansas City Confidential / Phil Karlson (1952). Edward Small Productions/United Artists. Nifty above average programmer helmed by the reliable Phil Karlson (whose career is still undergoing re-evaluation) with good performances from leads John Payne and Preston Foster. We first see Foster casing a bank from a second story apartment across the street. He then blackmails three wanted criminals to join his robbery play. And what a three they are! Get this: Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef, and Jack Elam. I know, right? Foster always wears a mask as do the others when they meet together so no one can ever rat on another. They simply don’t know who they are working with. The key to their getaway is that they are using a delivery van painted like a real one that brings flowers to a florist next door to the bank. As the real van pulls away, the robbery van takes its place so the legit driver is being questioned and beaten at the cop station while the thieves are getting out of town. Their patsy has been Joe Rolfe (Payne) who makes up his mind to track down the people who framed him, himself. He manages to befriend Pete Harris (Elam) who he believes to be one of the men. When Harris is confronted and shot by police, Joe takes Harris’ false identity (given him by Foster) to Mexico where the meet up and split of the money is to take place. Instead of light and shadows, Karlson and his cinematographer George Diskand (On Dangerous Ground, The Narrow Margin) chose to shoot through palm fronds and give us lots of extreme facial close-ups, hiking the visual nervousness – especially in regards to Van Cleef and Brand. Not much Kansas City in “Kansas City Confidential” but you won’t miss it. A taut, tight thriller. TRIVIA: Earlier this same year – 1952 – Lee Van Cleef had made his screen debut as one of Frank Miller’s gang waiting at the train station in “High Noon.”


Kingsman: The Secret Service / Matthew Vaughn (2014). Twentieth Century Fox. Tiresome modern spy spoof that does not know when to stop with the violent action. Some is good. Just going on and on and on with an action sequence, not knowing how to time them or vary them, is bad. “Kingsman” is mostly bad. This finally gave me the chance to see the bland rising star Taron Egerton. He will be sad to hear that I was not impressed. Some old-timers show up and appear to be having fun. Samuel L. Jackson is the laughing megalomaniac who is going to ruin the world with Colin Firth and Mark Strong as mentors to the potential Kingsman recruits. Best of all is, of course, Michael Caine as the ultimate head of the secret service. Like his performance in “King Of Thieves” (2018), Caine shows that he can still put some steel into his characters. Love to see him go hard. These pleasures, though, are few and fleeting.




Veronica Mars, Season 1, 22 weekly episodes (Sept 22, 2004-May 10, 2005).
Veronica Mars, Season 2, 22 weekly episodes (Sept 28, 2005-May 9, 2006).
Veronica Mars, Season 3, 20 weekly episodes (Oct 3, 2006-May 22, 2007).

Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) may be a high school senior who works as a private eye but this is a million miles from Nancy Drew as Veronica’s hard-boiled voice-over immediately signals. Veronica lives in the fictional SoCal city of Neptune, a divided town. The side of town whose zip code ends in 09 (the oh-niners) are the richest of the rich. Veronica was from the other side of town – her father was the county sheriff – but she dated Duncan Kane, son of a billionaire software developer and was best friends with Duncan’s sister, Lily Kane (Amanda Seyfried). All that changed when Lily was murdered, Sheriff Mars accused Lily’s father and was subsequently removed from office in a recall election. Veronica suddenly found herself a pariah in the school hallways (“The people who say high school years are the best years of your life are usually on the yearbook staff”), but enjoying working with her father, now the owner of a private investigations business. There is usually a stand-alone mystery in each episode, plus a season long mystery arc, plus some story lines that may arc over two or three episodes. IOW, the only entry point into “Veronica Mars” is season one, episode one (well, perhaps the start of season two also). It may have been a little ahead of its time in this regard. If you take a look at the series’ ratings and viewership you will find a remarkable consistency over the three seasons – the sure sign of a dedicated cult audience. Watch for pre-star Jessica Chastain in a first season episode. Tessa Thompson and Kristen Ritter are cast regulars during year two. Well known fans include Stephen King ("Nancy Drew meets Philip Marlowe, and the result is pure nitro"), Kevin Smith (“"hands-down, the best show on television right now,” 2nd season cameo), and Joss Whedon ("Best. Show. Ever. Seriously”). I loved it. Check it out.

First season cast


The bus in the background will explode just down the road killing all on board. Was Veronica supposed to be on it? This is the start of the full season 2 mystery arc.


Veronica Mars / Rob Thomas (2014). Warner Bros. Warner was convinced to back this theatrical release after a Kickstarter campaign raised $2 million in 11 hours from the show’s dedicated fans. It is now nine years after the close of the TV series so the movie picks up the characters that far along in their lives. Veronica is in NYC about to pass her bar exams and pick up a prestigious position in a prominent law firm. But she is drawn back to Neptune for her 10th high school reunion where her former unreliable boyfriend is under arrest for murder. A code of silence as well as a cadre of corrupt cops hinder her investigation. The movie is basically an expanded TV episode but any Veronica is better than no Veronica. The film is almost understandable without knowledge of the previous three seasons on TV. Cult TV at its finest.