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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 5, 2019 21:04:25 GMT
Just finished rewatching this after many years … what a terrific picture ! Cringeworthy dialogue from the very first use of "boy". Be prepared … they are essential to the story. Outstanding leads and supporting cast. Music fits perfectly. One small complaint .. Rod Steiger's odd rapid gum chewing and the major number of Cokes and coke machines were distracting ..and am not usually distracted by things like that. Never cared for the TV show or the sequel.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 6, 2019 16:36:21 GMT
Scarface 1932, directed by Howard Hawks, based on a novel by Armitage Trail, starring Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, Osgood Perkins, C. Henry Gordon, George Raft, Vince Barnett, Boris Karloff (!), Tully Marshall and others. Gangster drama action. An ambitious and nearly insane violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall. It's always interesting to see a movie that I've heard and read so much about. There is something about Paul Muni's acting that felt like to much theatrical to make him a believable character, hell even George Raft seemed casual and naturural besides Muni to be honest. This was an independent production by billionaire Howard Hughes, and is a sort of call to Americans to not sit in silence but to start to react against corrupt politicians who do nothing, it also makes an appeal to journalists to not demonize the gangsters, but to tell the public what the gangsters really are. There is a long scene about that matter. Interesting to see Osgood Perkins too, Anthony Perkins father, in a role of the gangster that Muni's character manouvers out. Interesting too to see Boris Karloff as a rival gangster, one would wiónder why he made this since he was already famous for his Frankenstein's monster, but maybe he didn't think much about it at the time and moved on, maybe thinking monsters was just a temporary craze. Dvorak, as Muni's sister, and Morley, as a gangster's moll, are very pre-code(ish) in style and clothes. I must admit I prefer The Public Enemy with Cagney over this movie, of the early gangster movies.
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Post by Prime etc. on Sept 6, 2019 18:12:36 GMT
EXPERIMENT IN TERROR- 1962 I always associated Blake Edwards with comedy but his suspense films are quite good. This one is really well done with Glenn Ford as an FBI agent helping Lee Remick who is being harassed by a creepy criminal (Ross Martin-who gets to try on some disguises). Stephanie Powers is her sister (I was surprised she was active in the early 60s-I assumed she didn't star until a decade later).
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Post by Prime etc. on Sept 7, 2019 8:03:12 GMT
THE MARK OF ZORRO 1940 -- I read the original story the Curse of Capistrano this week. I have watched every Zorro film I know of up to 1940. So far, I think Tyrone Power is the best portrayal (closest to the story description since he is described as medium in height), although for Zorro action you can't Zorro's Fighting Legion. The most faithful to the original story is the Fairbanks version. Power takes off the mask about halfway through and doesn't put it back on! Not to mention, he reveals his identity to everyone but his father before the end. !!!
My first Zorro experience was either Guy Williams or Frank Langella. I'll be getting to the other Zorro serials before long--and then jump ahead to the Alain Delon version (there were at least two other Zorro films in 1975).
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Post by pimpinainteasy on Sept 7, 2019 9:31:03 GMT
EXPERIMENT IN TERROR- 1962 I always associated Blake Edwards with comedy but his suspense films are quite good. This one is really well done with Glenn Ford as an FBI agent helping Lee Remick who is being harassed by a creepy criminal (Ross Martin-who gets to try on some disguises). Stephanie Powers is her sister (I was surprised she was active in the early 60s-I assumed she didn't star until a decade later). That title sequence with Mancini's music is worth the price of admission.
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Post by kijii on Sept 8, 2019 16:59:29 GMT
Black Mass (2015) / Scott Cooper Rented for streaming
I watched the movie to get some historical perspective on the story of James 'Whitey' Bulger, South Boston's most violent mobster in the late 70s and early 80s. Based on real events, this story has many interesting elements that sometimes make truth stranger than fiction.
Johnny Depp plays Whitey Bulger and Benedict Cumberbatch plays his brother, Billy, a powerful Massachusetts State Senator. John Connolly (Joel Edgerton) is a Federal FBI agent who sees a way to advance his own career by whipping out the Boston Mafia (the Italians) in North Boston. He does this by pitting Bulger's Irish mob against them, using Whitey as an FBI informant to do so. However, after doing this, it leaves Whitey free to take over the entire Boston territory and converting a "small time" mobster into a powerful King Pin. John Connolly (Joel Edgerton): Jimmy's no ordinary criminal. FBI Agent Charles McGuire: Well, you're right about that. [reading from dossier] FBI Agent Charles McGuire : "A vicious animal who won't take no for an answer." "Violent decisiveness at any hint of betrayal." Oh! "A ripened psychopath determined to succeed above all else."
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Post by Prime etc. on Sept 8, 2019 20:20:25 GMT
MOONSHINE COUNTY EXPRESS 1977 - Smokey and the Bandit cash-in (I assume that is what inspired it since it has John Saxon as our Burt Reynolds-type hero and William Conrad in the Jackie Gleason mold)--although the story is much more layered than I expected--with better performances than it deserved. Susan Howard--who I know I have seen somewhere but can't remember is the oldest of three daughters who seek to avenge their father's death by keeping his moonshine business going. Then they get his will and learn he keeps a stash of prohibition liquor for them to sell. The movie gets a bit disjointed towards the ending--with corrupt sheriff Albert Salmi inexplicably turning good but who cares? And Marcia Brady is one of the daughters. What would Jan say? Marcia Marcia Marcia....
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Post by kijii on Sept 9, 2019 15:32:42 GMT
Blue Denim (1959) / Philip Dunne Viewed from TCM last nightThis movie was featured on TCM to honor Carol Lynley who died last week. It covers the issue of teenage pregnancy and may have been the one of first American movies to cover it in this fashion. It was based on a Broadway play by James Leo Herlihy and William Noble. I found the story development to be bad, and the acting to be very wooden. Both Carol Lynley and Brandon De Wilde were good (often great) in movies when they were surround by great actors. However, here, their acting was often downright awkward. The message of the movie seems to be "Blame everything on the parents and keep them out of all the important decisions." These absent-parent movies--such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955)--seem to have been popular in the late 50s. Full TCM Synopsis with SPOILERS: Arthur Bartley, a sensitive adolescent, comes home from school one day to find that his father Malcolm has put his beloved dog to sleep. Malcolm, a former Army major, treats his son like one of his enlistees, thus alienating the boy. As Arthur and his father clash, Lillian, Arthur's sister, blissfully readies for her wedding to dentist Axel Sorenson. That night, Arthur's smart aleck friend Ernie comes to the house, and using the pretense that they have to study, the boys disappear into the cellar, where they play poker and drink beer. Ernie, feigning an aura of sophistication, boasts that he has arranged for a friend to get an abortion. Soon after, Janet Willard, an earnest young girl who has a crush on Arthur, comes to the cellar to ask Ernie to forge her father's signature on an absentee excuse from school. After Ernie leaves, Janet flatters Arthur into kissing her. Upon returning home, Janet rebels when her father, Professor Jim Willard, compares her to his angelic late wife. Janet worries that her erudite father will intimidate her friends with his aloof, intellectual demeanor. Later, at a school basketball game, Janet watches Arthur with adoring eyes as he plays with the team. Janet waits for Arthur after the game, and when he offers to walk her home, she asks if they can go steady. Janet then confides that she is a virgin and asks Arthur if he has ever had sex. At first Arthur claims that he is sexually experienced, but then confesses that he is a virgin, too. They laugh at their response, then embrace and make love. Some months later at the school dance, Janet moodily runs off to the library, and when Arthur follows, he finds her studying a book about pregnancy. When Janet insists on hiding her condition from her father, they decide to apply for a marriage license, but are turned away because they are underage. As Janet becomes more despondent, Arthur asks Ernie to arrange for an abortion. When Ernie denounces abortion as murder, Arthur, provoked, attacks him, and Ernie admits that he was bluffing about knowing an abortionist. Desperate, Arthur begs Ernie for help and together they locate a soda jerk who offers to arrange an abortion for $150. After selling their possessions, the boys are short $90. Still opposed to the idea of an abortion, Ernie admonishes Arthur to marry Janet, but Arthur protests that he is not ready to rear a child. Ernie finally convinces Arthur to tell his parents about the baby, but when he tries to raise the issue with his mother Jessie, she is so engrossed with Lillian's wedding that she misunderstands and thinks that he is asking for advice about sex. Arthur next turns to his father, who is so preoccupied with the cost of the wedding that he refuses to let Arthur speak and instead advises him to enlist in the Army, where his financial future will be assured. Desperate, Arthur steals a blank check from his father and has Ernie forge the major's signature. After the wedding, Lillian and Axel leave for their honeymoon while Janet anxiously awaits the car that will take her to the abortionist. When the vehicle arrives, Janet begs Arthur to cancel the abortion. She then resolutely climbs in and drives away, and Ernie chastises Arthur for lacking the courage to tell his parents the truth. When the banker presents Malcolm with the forged check, Malcolm confronts Arthur, who breaks into hysterics. Alarmed, Malcolm shows concern and Arthur finally tells him about the abortion. After eliciting the location of the abortionist from the soda jerk, Malcolm, Professor Willard and Arthur speed to the doctor's office, arriving just in time to prevent the operation. They take the sedated Janet home, where Professor Willard and the Bartleys engage in self-recrimination. Realizing that they failed Arthur when he turned to them for help, the Bartleys worry that fatherhood will severely curtail their son's future. After Professor Willard vows to abide by his daughter's wishes, Janet awakens and declares that she initiated the sexual relationship and therefore Arthur should not be held responsible. Soon after, Arthur learns that Janet has left town to stay with an aunt while awaiting the delivery of their baby. Stricken with a new sense of responsibility, Arthur decides to meet Janet's train at its next stop and marry her. With his father's blessings, Arthur hurries to the station, and when the train stops, Janet looks up and is overjoyed to see Arthur.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 9, 2019 21:03:46 GMT
Mother! (2017).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 10, 2019 10:20:43 GMT
The Fox and the Hound (1981).
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Post by kijii on Sept 13, 2019 6:08:40 GMT
Save the Tiger (1973) / John G. Avildsen Rented for streaming - 3rd viewingJack Lemmon won his Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar as a man hopes past hopes are given up to despair in a world that is no longer simple. Also, Jack Gilford was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Myra (Laurie Heineman) : Are you OK? Do you want something? Harry Stoner (Jack Lemmon): Yes. I want that girl in a Cole Porter song. I wanna see Lena Horne at the Cotton Club - hear Billie Holiday sing fine and mellow - walk in that kind of rain that never washes perfume away. I wanna be in love with something. Anything. Just the idea. A dog, a cat. Anything. Just something.Harry Stoner : How old are you? Myra : Twenty. Harry Stoner : Nobody's twenty.
Full Wikipedia Synopsis with SPOILERS: Harry Stoner (Jack Lemmon) is an executive at a Los Angeles apparel company close to ruin. With no legal way to keep the company from going under, Stoner considers torching his warehouse for the insurance settlement.
The arson is agreed to very reluctantly by his partner (Jack Gilford), a stable family man who watches Harry's decline with alarm. Through it all, Harry drinks, laments the state of the world, and tries his best to keep the business rolling as usual. This last task is complicated when a client has a heart attack in the arms of a prostitute provided by Stoner.
With nerves still shaky, Stoner takes the stage at the premiere of his company's new line, only to be overcome by war memories. He ends the day spontaneously deciding to go home with a young, free-spirited girl hitchhiker, whose ignorance of his generation underscores his isolation from the world around him.
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Post by Prime etc. on Sept 13, 2019 7:00:29 GMT
THE GOLDEN HAWK 1952 - Sterling Hayden miscast as a Flynn-like buccaneer with Rhonda Fleming as a rival pirate captain. Ok Columbia pirate film but not as lively as some others of the era although the subplot about his father was poignant.
DESERT BATTLE 1969 - George Hilton, Robert Hossein, Frank Wolff---German and English soldiers trapped in the desert have to join forces to survive. Typical of these Euro war films it has lots of shades of grey and interesting themes on war and the nature of combat.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 13, 2019 16:45:47 GMT
Since I started a Elia Kazan thread: East of Eden 1955 While the movie didn't appeal to me, I can still see the quality and the visions of Elia Kazan. It's still a good melodarma, with great actors in all roles. Dean, Harris (especialy), Massey, van Fleet, Ives and Dekker stands out.
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Post by louise on Sept 14, 2019 13:14:01 GMT
Twice Round the Daffodils (1962). Charming comedy-drama set in a TB sanotarium. Kenneth Williams, Donald Sinden, Lance Percival all provide the comedy, while some of the others do the more serious bits.
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Post by louise on Sept 14, 2019 15:27:48 GMT
The Captain's Table (1959). Fairly amusing comedy set aboard a ship going to Australia, and the various romantic adventures of the captain and members of the crew and passengers.
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Post by louise on Sept 15, 2019 10:32:05 GMT
On the Fiddle (1961). Quite amusing comedy about two soldiers (Alfred Lynch and Sean Connery) who engage in various nefarious activities during WW2.
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Post by Prime etc. on Sept 15, 2019 19:53:01 GMT
TERROR ON THE BEACH 1973 - Dennis Weaver once again is a nerdy guy who has to deal with trouble in the rural wilderness--this time he is a goody two-shoes father who has a generation gap problem with his son while his daughter (Susan Dey)is becoming a feminist (her mother tells her don't assume you are trading for something better). They encounter a group of hippies who give them a hard time, but in the end no one is killed and it seems rather lame how non-threatening the hippies actually were.
WHITE FIRE - 1985 Robert Ginty is obsessed with his sister to the point that he tells her he has sexual feelings for her (while she is standing naked in front of him). This is like a Turkish version of Vertigo combined with Chinatown and Rambo and King Solomon's Mines and whatever else they could throw in. Not a good movie by any stretch but certainly entertaining.
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Post by kijii on Sept 15, 2019 20:44:56 GMT
The Pirates of Penzance (1983) / Wilford Leach Streamed from Starz
This is the first Gilbert and Sullivan musical comedy I had ever seen. And, it is GREAT ENTERTAINMENT!
What shocked and surprised me the most was how well Angela Lansbury (as Ruth) fit into the overall ribald comedy and rapidly sung lyrics. As Ruth, she played a 47-year-old woman when she was really 58, known to most of us at that time, for her TV series, Murder, She Wrote.
Most of the rest of the cast had already perfected their roles--all great--from regular work on this stage show and/or TV show for the play. Kevin Kline played the Pirate King and I almost always love the way he throws "caution to the wind" to play good comedy .
George Rose (Maj. Gen. Stanley) REALLY blew me away with his portrayal and rapid lyric songs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVFiRXch7Pk
I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral, I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical; I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical, I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical, About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news, With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus; I know the scientific names of beings animalculous: In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's; I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for paradox, I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Heliogabalus, In conics I can floor peculiarities parabolous; I can tell undoubted Raphaels from Gerard Dows and Zoffanies, I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes! Then I can hum a fugue of which I've heard the music's din afore, And whistle all the airs from that infernal nonsense Pinafore.
Then I can write a washing bill in Babylonic cuneiform, And tell you ev'ry detail of Caractacus's uniform:In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
In fact, when I know what is meant by "mamelon" and "ravelin", When I can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin, When such affairs as sorties and surprises I'm more wary at, And when I know precisely what is meant by "commissariat", When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern gunnery, When I know more of tactics than a novice in a nunnery – In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy – You'll say a better Major-General has never sat a gee.
For my military knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury, Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century; But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
Linda Ronstadt played Mabel Stanley with equal amounts of satire and beauty.
The most unexpected routine of the play--if one can call anything in this musical unexpected--was the kooky movements of local constabulary, lead by Tony Azito as the Sergeant of the Constabulary...This great piece of entertainment is a must for those who have yet to see it. --"A Policeman's Lot is Not a Happy One": www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jtUuNUEEaU
Linda Ronstadt's documentary, LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE, is playing in movie theaters now as mentioned in the Spiderwort's thread.
[Linda Ronstadt will receive a Kennedy Center Honors award in December, along with Sally Field; Earth, Wind & Fire; Sesame Street; and conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas].
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Post by louise on Sept 16, 2019 15:26:17 GMT
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939). With Basil Rathbone, the best Sherlock Holmes.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 17, 2019 2:36:41 GMT
The Aristocats (1970).
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