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Post by louise on Feb 10, 2024 13:42:04 GMT
Wives Never Know (1936). Charles Ruggles and Mary Boland are a very happy couple until Rugglesβs old college friend Adolphe Menjou turns up. Heβs written a book called Marriage, The Living Death, and he argues that Ruggles should misbehave so that his wife can forgive him, or she will be unhappy. Of course this all gets out of hand. Absurd but quite funny comedy.
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Post by Prime etc. on Feb 14, 2024 7:50:05 GMT
THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE - 1962 I had seen the first Mabuse film. The new Mabuse lacks the thousand yard stare of the original but it is a very good thriller with some horror elements thanks to the mental powers of the criminal mastermind. How he, as an inmate of an institution is able to carry out a murder spree comes as a surprise--especially to his psychiatrist! Gert Frobe makes a formidable adversary with some comedic touches which aren't as goofy as in an Edgar Wallace krimi. When the criminal gang robs an armored car by dropping it into a pit--before they leave they give the guards bus fare.
THE SHAKEDOWN - 1960 This was on a list of obscure UK films worth watching and it lived up to its reputation. A mobster released from prison meets a meek photographer (Donald Pleasence) and sets up a photo business and modelling school--but it serves as a front for a blackmail operation. When Hazel Court shows up as a new student--the crime boss falls for her, until one of his associates recognizes her as a policewoman. I like that they avoided any of the typical romantic angst where the undercover agent is torn between loyalties. Not the case here--which makes the ending even more effective. It's a memorable last scene. I am surprised that they used bastard/bitch in the dialogue for the time period.
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Post by Lebowskidoo π¦ on Feb 14, 2024 22:02:25 GMT
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967)
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Post by Lebowskidoo π¦ on Feb 19, 2024 16:10:09 GMT
The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964)
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Post by Prime etc. on Feb 21, 2024 6:59:32 GMT
DILLINGER IS DEAD 1969 - Can't recommend this avant garde film about a respirator mask designer who gets bored with his existence after someone tells him that everyone in an industrial society is wearing a mask and restricting their breathing. He goes home, cooks a fresh dinner instead of leftovers, and discovers a gun wrapped in old newspapers in his closet. The newspapers show Dillinger headlines--so the guy spends about 45 minutes taking apart the gun and cleaning it-(which somehow isn't quite as tedious as it should be)-while watching some home movies he took (including a bullfight--isn't so charming to watch a bull with blood streaming from his mouth after being pierced with a dozen spears? Who wouldn't be entertained by such highbrow cultural expression?). So after he reassembles the gun, he paints it red with polka dots- eats some watermelon--shares it with the maid or whoever he's having an affair with -then he goes into his wife's room, puts a gun to her head as she sleeps--pulls the trigger--then takes a boat out to sea where he climbs aboard a yacht and gets hired by the young bikini-clad owner as her new cook.
The end.
DEADLIER THAN THE MALE 1967-- I have seen this a couple of times but I had not looked at the cast interviews. That was interesting--even Nigel Green was interviewed and he was asked what his favorite part was--and he immediately said ZULU. He was from South Africa and as a child he had a male Zulu custodian who made him toys. That was interesting. Richard Johnson was more neurotic and less cool in interviews judging from this one.
SPIES STRIKE SILENTLY 1966 - Although this is your standard poor man James Bond eurospy film it had a few surprise story twists which made it less bland. For one thing--the villain has the scheme to brainwash people into slaves. We've seen that before. And the hero gets captured so he will be turned into a mind slave. Again, nothing new there. And he takes a drug to neutralize the effects and pretends to be a zombie. Yeah, that's familiar too. Then he finds a woman slave and breaks the trance and promises to get her out. Same thing--seen it before. But then, as he is pretending to be a mind slave and getting orders from the villain, one of the slaves says " Hey--he's not under the drug--look at his eyes!"
And the boss says: "you're right!" So after an attempt to escape they give him the drug again and brainwash him for real. But the woman he cured goes into the radio room and calls the embassy..."please hurry!" but then the slave helpers show up wanting to use the telephone and find the door locked. They break in and find her on the phone as she says "hurry up please!"
So they take her away--and then the hero goes to kill someone but they were ready for him.
And then they cure him of the drug. So later when they are raiding the villain's base, the M guy says to the woman "thanks for your help."
So what we realize is that she did get through to the embassy--and only pretended she was on hold!
I think that was pretty clever of her--because she knew if she had revealed that she had completed her call-that would be even worse for her and Mike Drum (the hero).
And one more thing --she is in a car with the hero--who is driving-and he is attacked by the villain in the back seat--so they are heading for a cliff while fighting--and the woman screams --but she does the smart thing and hits the brakes.
It kept me interested more than average for those little touches.
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Post by Feologild Oakes on Feb 27, 2024 0:33:03 GMT
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Post by Prime etc. on Feb 27, 2024 6:57:42 GMT
THE PINK PANTHER 1963 - I have seen it before.
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Post by Prime etc. on Feb 28, 2024 6:03:26 GMT
ATLAS 1961 --Wow--not your standard peplum, and yet it was so bizarre, I did find some fascination with it. There are certain American accents which just do not work with a toga. Michael Forrest was ok, but Frank Wolff and the girlfriend were really out of place in Ancient Greece. And the helmets and shields are quite possibly the worst I have ever seen--they looked like papier mache. Some of the dialogue lines were ok--but odd somehow--I don't know if it was the accents throwing it off. I was expecting Wolff to say at least once, "Heavens to Murgatroyd!"
And the erratic editing cuts to fighting in closeup were strange--Dick Miller shows up suddenly in the final battle. Obviously they needed some actual shields and swords that could make contact with each other. What terrible armor they had. So cheap.
It's not like an Italian peplum--they have the token dancing girls scene--but he's overshadowed by Wolff. In your standard Italian peplum, the hero guy is like a visiting superman, but in this --he is in search of truth. With the American accents--it just feels so weird compared to sword and sandal films I usually watch. I won't say it is the worst Corman movie I have seen--Creature From the Haunted Sea was really a pain to watch.
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Post by louise on Feb 28, 2024 13:06:06 GMT
Strange Cargo (1940). Clark Gable is a convict on Devilβs Island who is always getting into trouble. He and some other convicts escape and somehow Joan Crawford escapes with them. There are lots of storms and people dying of thirst and a convict who is a sort of weird saintly figure and it is all very strange indeed.
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Post by louise on Feb 28, 2024 16:10:43 GMT
Only Angels Have Wings (1939). Cary Grant is a pilot who flies cargo planes in the Andes. Jean Arthur is the girl who falls in love with him. It rains a lot. Rather heavy going melodrama in which Grant and Arthur are wasted in my opinion.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 1, 2024 6:54:28 GMT
FRAME UP - 1968 - Henry Silva is framed for a murder and then his son is shot in front of him and he wants revenge. A rather disjointed crime film although it was kind of funny how it thwarts the usual trope of the superior police official who berates his subordinate cop. Keenan Wynn is the chief but he is actually rather compassionate to Silva--and even when the latter is "questioning" a witness and slips--punching Wynn in the gut by mistake, he's perfectly forgiving. I assumed there was a sinister reason for that but no--actually right to the end he remains sympathetic and mild. He must be saving his yells for Kolchak.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 2, 2024 7:42:33 GMT
SH! THE OCTOPUS - 1937 - Gets some attention for the use of a spfx technique which is pretty good but that is only 3 seconds of a 55 minute comedy which has only one problem: it isn't funny. At all. It's terrible. They use a couple of gags like the candle on the back of a turtle but I am sorry to say--it makes a difference when you don't have Abbott and Costello. The villain of the story goes into Wicked Witch mode which is interesting--you could wonder if the performer was under consideration for the role in The Wizard of Oz--and even more bizarre-the ending of the film is very similar to it. I would recommend watching that film or Abbott and Costello instead of this.
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Post by Lebowskidoo π¦ on Mar 3, 2024 12:06:52 GMT
Maestro (2023)
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Post by louise on Mar 3, 2024 14:28:32 GMT
Perfect Days (2023). Unusual and charming film about a Tokyo toilet cleaner. The film follows him through about a week, as he cleans a variety of different toilets, listens to 60s and 70s pop cassettes, takes photos (with a camera) reads books, rides his bike, and and interacts with various people. It is all quite delightful.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 6, 2024 7:34:12 GMT
INVINCIBLE MASKED RIDER 1963 - Overlooked this for a while but was intrigued by the description of the Zorro figure as a "human inkblot." Directed by Umberto Lenzi, with Helene Chanel on display, it deviates from the standard formula by a Spanish setting in the late Middle Ages where the plague is ravishing the countryside. At times it veers off into the Masque of the Red Death crossed with Othello. I liked it.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 7, 2024 7:25:13 GMT
OPERATION CROSSBOW - 1965 - Nail-biter spy film with all sorts of surprise twists as three agents are sent to get information on German rocket experiments. The sequence where aviator Hannah Reitsch is shown piloting the rocket plane is especially memorable. You have to feel sorry for the engineer from Holland who is given the identity of a dead man and then they learn he is wanted for murder. Jeremy Kemp does make a good partner for George Peppard. It can't be a WW 2 film without Anton Diffring making an appearance too.
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 8, 2024 7:19:01 GMT
THE PINK JUNGLE - 1968 - James Garner is a photographer ("I am an artist-I'm not supposed to be practical") doing a shoot for a lipstick brand in a Latin American country but he and his model (Eva Renzi) get kidnapped by a crazed diamond hunter (George Kennedy) and have a run in with suspicious characters (Michael Ansara, Nigel Green). Silly but harmless.
Kennedy: "An illegal diamond buyer. I told you I was from Joburg, didn't I? Look, you know what a pipe is?"
Garner: 'Sure, it's the word before "dream."'
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 10, 2024 8:32:51 GMT
BLOOD DEBTS- 1985 -- There is a special kind of movie that exists where the makers genuinely seek to entertain you even though their film has
terrible story
terrible dialogue
terrible acting
terrible dubbing
terrible directing
That's the case with this film where Richard Harrison stars in a Death Wish wannabe which is logically vacant and yet is somehow entertaining.
It does entertain.
It starts with a goofy couple having a picnic when a gang of rowdies show up and make them run with blank expressions in slow motion (at which point we get the titles and some stock music likely piped in from a Manila shopping mall). Turns out the woman is the daughter of Richard Harrison who has no emotional reaction at all--but simply goes around killing them. His wife looks to be younger than the daughter BTW--and you wonder why they picked her--until you get to the bedroom scene and you get two prominent reasons why they picked her.
β
I could say more but this pretty much sums it up:
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Post by Lebowskidoo π¦ on Mar 10, 2024 22:05:11 GMT
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
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Post by Prime etc. on Mar 13, 2024 7:06:28 GMT
A SHOT IN THE DARK - 1964 Clouseau: Those were innocent bystanders. The murderer was after me. Fortunately, he missed. Dreyfus: Fortunately is *not* the word!
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