What classics did you see last week, July 11 to July 17?
Jul 19, 2021 1:44:30 GMT
teleadm, wmcclain, and 5 more like this
Post by mikef6 on Jul 19, 2021 1:44:30 GMT
Wow. With the number of films most of you have posted so far saw, I feel like a real piker with just two. I'll try to do better next week. 
The Search For Bridey Murphy / Noel Langley (1956). Paramount Pictures. Cinematography by John F. Warren. In 1952 in Pueblo, Colorado, a businessman named Morey Bernstein developed a great interest in hypnosis. He became quite good at it and began hypnotizing his friends and neighbors. He hit paydirt after putting a family friend, housewife Virginia Tighe, under and began to have her remember herself as a teenager, second grader, infant, and…he asked her to remember before her birth. Tighe began telling him she had lived as an Irish girl named Bridey Murphy who had been born in Cork in 1798. She related details about her life in early 19th century Ireland. Bernstein wrote a book about Bridey (same title as the movie) which became a Best Seller in 1956 (the movie rights had already been sold before the book was issued) and turned into a national sensation. Tighe was called “Ruth Simmons” in book and movie. After the main titles, we are shown a screen that assures us: “Ruth Simmons’ answers to Morey Bernstein’s questions in the hypnotic scenes are authentic excerpts from the tape recordings of the actual sessions.” Then Louis Hayward appears as Bernstein on a movie sound stage to address the camera and further assure us of the authenticity of what we are going to see. This semi-documentary approach continues, a good choice since it reduces the exploitation factor in this low-budget b&w quickie. They also brought in some capable and classy supporting players. Nancy Gates is Morey’s wife, Kenneth Tobey plays Ruth’s husband, and Richard Anderson is the local physician. But what really makes the film for me is Teresa Wright, almost at the end of her movie career, as Ruth Simmons. She has to become Bridey at all her ages and experience all her emotions while lying on a living room sofa with her eyes closed. She is imminently successful at this. There is a lot of blather and superficial dialog to slog through about reincarnation, the after-life, and Edgar Cayce, but the hypnotic scenes do hold the attention and the film surprises with a finale that is a real nail biter as Bernstein tries to regress Ruth to an even earlier life and then is unable to wake her up and return her consciousness to the present. Hayward gets a little overheated in this final scene but Wright nails it. The movie closes with Bernstein again talking directly to the audience with a disclaimer about not making a case for anything – except the power of hypnosis. It ends with a sort of “kids, don’t try this at home” warning. A real 1950s American curio.
Prince Of Foxes / Henry King (1949). Twentieth Century Fox. Cinematography by Leon Shamroy. “I’ve lived 70 years, and I know that, in spite of the poets, youth is not the happiest season.” That great line (and so true, so true) is spoken by the great British character actor Felix Alymer. This film is based on a novel by forgotten best-seller writer Samuel Shellabarger (also wrote “Captain From Castile”). Tyrone Power plays a young up-and-comer in the court of Cesara Borgia (Orson Welles). He is ambitious, smart, and ruthless. But he is harboring a secret about his early life that comes back to haunt him when sent to betray the aged Alymer and his young wife, played by Wanda Hendrix. Welles and Alymer are outstanding. If only the rest of the acting had been stronger, Power’s redemption and his returning to being a decent human being had the potential to be great. Tyrone Power tries hard but just can’t get there. Wanda Hendrix is cute as a bug but plain inadequate in her thesping. Everett Sloan, good in other movies, more often than not indicates his tricky nature by laughing maniacally most of the time. The underrated Henry King directs smoothly and keeps the story zipping along through a lot of dialog scenes. Liked it very much. Could have been much better.
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The Search For Bridey Murphy / Noel Langley (1956). Paramount Pictures. Cinematography by John F. Warren. In 1952 in Pueblo, Colorado, a businessman named Morey Bernstein developed a great interest in hypnosis. He became quite good at it and began hypnotizing his friends and neighbors. He hit paydirt after putting a family friend, housewife Virginia Tighe, under and began to have her remember herself as a teenager, second grader, infant, and…he asked her to remember before her birth. Tighe began telling him she had lived as an Irish girl named Bridey Murphy who had been born in Cork in 1798. She related details about her life in early 19th century Ireland. Bernstein wrote a book about Bridey (same title as the movie) which became a Best Seller in 1956 (the movie rights had already been sold before the book was issued) and turned into a national sensation. Tighe was called “Ruth Simmons” in book and movie. After the main titles, we are shown a screen that assures us: “Ruth Simmons’ answers to Morey Bernstein’s questions in the hypnotic scenes are authentic excerpts from the tape recordings of the actual sessions.” Then Louis Hayward appears as Bernstein on a movie sound stage to address the camera and further assure us of the authenticity of what we are going to see. This semi-documentary approach continues, a good choice since it reduces the exploitation factor in this low-budget b&w quickie. They also brought in some capable and classy supporting players. Nancy Gates is Morey’s wife, Kenneth Tobey plays Ruth’s husband, and Richard Anderson is the local physician. But what really makes the film for me is Teresa Wright, almost at the end of her movie career, as Ruth Simmons. She has to become Bridey at all her ages and experience all her emotions while lying on a living room sofa with her eyes closed. She is imminently successful at this. There is a lot of blather and superficial dialog to slog through about reincarnation, the after-life, and Edgar Cayce, but the hypnotic scenes do hold the attention and the film surprises with a finale that is a real nail biter as Bernstein tries to regress Ruth to an even earlier life and then is unable to wake her up and return her consciousness to the present. Hayward gets a little overheated in this final scene but Wright nails it. The movie closes with Bernstein again talking directly to the audience with a disclaimer about not making a case for anything – except the power of hypnosis. It ends with a sort of “kids, don’t try this at home” warning. A real 1950s American curio.
Prince Of Foxes / Henry King (1949). Twentieth Century Fox. Cinematography by Leon Shamroy. “I’ve lived 70 years, and I know that, in spite of the poets, youth is not the happiest season.” That great line (and so true, so true) is spoken by the great British character actor Felix Alymer. This film is based on a novel by forgotten best-seller writer Samuel Shellabarger (also wrote “Captain From Castile”). Tyrone Power plays a young up-and-comer in the court of Cesara Borgia (Orson Welles). He is ambitious, smart, and ruthless. But he is harboring a secret about his early life that comes back to haunt him when sent to betray the aged Alymer and his young wife, played by Wanda Hendrix. Welles and Alymer are outstanding. If only the rest of the acting had been stronger, Power’s redemption and his returning to being a decent human being had the potential to be great. Tyrone Power tries hard but just can’t get there. Wanda Hendrix is cute as a bug but plain inadequate in her thesping. Everett Sloan, good in other movies, more often than not indicates his tricky nature by laughing maniacally most of the time. The underrated Henry King directs smoothly and keeps the story zipping along through a lot of dialog scenes. Liked it very much. Could have been much better.