|
|
Post by hitchcockthelegend on Apr 24, 2019 12:19:45 GMT
Thoroughbreds any good? I have very much enjoyed Olivia Cooke in what I have seen so far (big Bates Motel fan that I am).
|
|
|
|
Post by hitchcockthelegend on Apr 24, 2019 12:32:48 GMT
Hi all,I hope everyone is having a good Easter,and on Saturday, (which is fitting since that used to be the day he usually visited) I got a letter from Chester Zoo saying a memorial plaque to Guy Morgan will be put by the African Painted Dog area. .jpg) I also watched: Brit Noir: The Franchise Affair (1951) 7  Similar to what they did for another film of his called Warn That Man (1943-also reviewed) Network present an outstanding transfer, with the picture quality being incredibly pin-sharp, and the soundtrack being clean and crisp. Whilst giving this adaptation of Josephine Tey's novel a refined appearance, the screenplay by co-writer/(with Robert Hall) director Lawrence Huntington keeps the mould-breaking style of Tey sharp at the edges, via the secret affairs of British Film Noir at a lake house, Chinese Whispers spread across the town, and the sordid details of a woman picking up a man to be her encounter of the night. Based around not a murder, but a kidnapping, the writers closely follow gentlemanly Robert Blair's sharp sightedness in untangling the fake threads in the kidnapping claims. Surrounded by a great supporting cast of Kenneth More,Peter Jones and Patrick Troughton, Michael Denison gives a polished turn as Blair,who Denison keeps cool under the pressure over his clients being guilty, whilst Ann Stephens gives the accusing Kane a cheeky butter wouldn't melt in her mouth fake innocent grin. Breaking the franchise in a courtroom final, director Lawrence Huntington & cinematographer Günther Krampf (his last film) give the hearing an elegant style of panning shots down the dusty corridors of the Franchise household, and an easy-going light Film Noir/Gris atmosphere over following Blair end the franchise affair. The Old Dark House (1932) 10  Going from a lost film for decades after Universal sold the rights to Columbia for their remake,to film-maker Curtis Harrington making it a personal mission to get a print found, (which led to Universal finding a poor quality print in their archive) Master of Cinema's breath-taking restoration finally sets all the candles alight, in the image quality retaining the film grain,but being spotless of any dirt,and a soundtrack which crisply captures the layers of audio. Running round the old dark house in a Pre-Code pale pink satin dinner dress the director had chosen to make her "Look like a beautiful flame" Gloria Stuart gives an enticing turn as Waverton,with Stuart feeding in her own state as being one of the few non-British people in the cast/crew into Waverton being at a distance from the other guests, with Stuart having Waverton ignite as she gets closer to the secrets of the house. Stamping into the place with his thick Yorkshire accent filling the rooms, Charles Laughton as Porterhouse initially has him be a ball of energy bouncing off each fellow guests, until Laughton begins peeling into Porterhouse's need of companionship from DuCane. Saying no lines of dialogue and making only grows and heavy breathing,Boris Karloff impressively creates an imposing impression as Morgan, whose bulky body movements from Karloff gives him a Universal Monster menace, balanced with an unexpected Pre-Code edge of Morgan trying to look down Waverton's dress. Reuniting with James Whale after the magnificent Waterloo Bridge (1931-also reviewed) and teaming up with R.C. Sherriff (who wrote the play Journey's End,which became Whale's debut film) for an adaptation of J.B. Priestley's (wrongly spelt "Priestly" in the credits) novel, Sherriff and Benn W. Levy continue to peel the themes which span across Whale's work,in splendid dialogue subtly touching on the "shaken" state of those who returned from the battlefields of WWI. Gathering round the table for dinner, the writers make this stormy night a horror of darkly comedic comments on class, in the spike-driven exchanges between Horace and Rebecca Femm,and the on opposing sides of gruff Yorkshire man Porterhouse (who attempts to give his relationship with DuCane the appearance of something it is not) and refine starlet Margaret Waverton. Inspired by Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary (1927), directing auteur James Whale is joined by regular cinematographer Arthur Edeson in bringing the shadow of German Expressionism into the house, via startling splintered shots giving the Femm's a monstrous reflection and the flickering flame appearance of Margaret's dress being threaded into a stylish motif of flickering shadows lining the walls of the old dark house, igniting the Gothic Horrors laying within the heart of the building. Panning down the dinner table, Whale and Edeson continue expanding on their ultra-stylised use of tracking and panning shots,with Whale making the meals served look grotesque whilst panning across the faces filled with disgust from the guests, and tracking shots following the guests uncover the darkest corridors in the old dark house. , interesting, good catch chap. The Old Dark House. Fine review sir, great descriptions for the photography influenced sequences. Not quite at 10/10 myself (8/10) but it is a fun ride and worthy of revisits every other year.
|
|
|
|
Post by hitchcockthelegend on Apr 24, 2019 12:41:11 GMT
What They Had (2018)--Decent drama about a family dealing with Alzheimer's. Robert Forster is touching as the loyal husband of his ailing wife, while Michael Shannon is a standout in the movie.
|
|
|
|
Post by morrisondylanfan on Apr 24, 2019 13:33:30 GMT
Hi all,I hope everyone is having a good Easter,and on Saturday, (which is fitting since that used to be the day he usually visited) I got a letter from Chester Zoo saying a memorial plaque to Guy Morgan will be put by the African Painted Dog area. I also watched: Brit Noir: The Franchise Affair (1951) 7 Similar to what they did for another film of his called Warn That Man (1943-also reviewed) Network present an outstanding transfer, with the picture quality being incredibly pin-sharp, and the soundtrack being clean and crisp. Whilst giving this adaptation of Josephine Tey's novel a refined appearance, the screenplay by co-writer/(with Robert Hall) director Lawrence Huntington keeps the mould-breaking style of Tey sharp at the edges, via the secret affairs of British Film Noir at a lake house, Chinese Whispers spread across the town, and the sordid details of a woman picking up a man to be her encounter of the night. Based around not a murder, but a kidnapping, the writers closely follow gentlemanly Robert Blair's sharp sightedness in untangling the fake threads in the kidnapping claims. Surrounded by a great supporting cast of Kenneth More,Peter Jones and Patrick Troughton, Michael Denison gives a polished turn as Blair,who Denison keeps cool under the pressure over his clients being guilty, whilst Ann Stephens gives the accusing Kane a cheeky butter wouldn't melt in her mouth fake innocent grin. Breaking the franchise in a courtroom final, director Lawrence Huntington & cinematographer Günther Krampf (his last film) give the hearing an elegant style of panning shots down the dusty corridors of the Franchise household, and an easy-going light Film Noir/Gris atmosphere over following Blair end the franchise affair. The Old Dark House (1932) 10 Going from a lost film for decades after Universal sold the rights to Columbia for their remake,to film-maker Curtis Harrington making it a personal mission to get a print found, (which led to Universal finding a poor quality print in their archive) Master of Cinema's breath-taking restoration finally sets all the candles alight, in the image quality retaining the film grain,but being spotless of any dirt,and a soundtrack which crisply captures the layers of audio. Running round the old dark house in a Pre-Code pale pink satin dinner dress the director had chosen to make her "Look like a beautiful flame" Gloria Stuart gives an enticing turn as Waverton,with Stuart feeding in her own state as being one of the few non-British people in the cast/crew into Waverton being at a distance from the other guests, with Stuart having Waverton ignite as she gets closer to the secrets of the house. Stamping into the place with his thick Yorkshire accent filling the rooms, Charles Laughton as Porterhouse initially has him be a ball of energy bouncing off each fellow guests, until Laughton begins peeling into Porterhouse's need of companionship from DuCane. Saying no lines of dialogue and making only grows and heavy breathing,Boris Karloff impressively creates an imposing impression as Morgan, whose bulky body movements from Karloff gives him a Universal Monster menace, balanced with an unexpected Pre-Code edge of Morgan trying to look down Waverton's dress. Reuniting with James Whale after the magnificent Waterloo Bridge (1931-also reviewed) and teaming up with R.C. Sherriff (who wrote the play Journey's End,which became Whale's debut film) for an adaptation of J.B. Priestley's (wrongly spelt "Priestly" in the credits) novel, Sherriff and Benn W. Levy continue to peel the themes which span across Whale's work,in splendid dialogue subtly touching on the "shaken" state of those who returned from the battlefields of WWI. Gathering round the table for dinner, the writers make this stormy night a horror of darkly comedic comments on class, in the spike-driven exchanges between Horace and Rebecca Femm,and the on opposing sides of gruff Yorkshire man Porterhouse (who attempts to give his relationship with DuCane the appearance of something it is not) and refine starlet Margaret Waverton. Inspired by Paul Leni's The Cat and the Canary (1927), directing auteur James Whale is joined by regular cinematographer Arthur Edeson in bringing the shadow of German Expressionism into the house, via startling splintered shots giving the Femm's a monstrous reflection and the flickering flame appearance of Margaret's dress being threaded into a stylish motif of flickering shadows lining the walls of the old dark house, igniting the Gothic Horrors laying within the heart of the building. Panning down the dinner table, Whale and Edeson continue expanding on their ultra-stylised use of tracking and panning shots,with Whale making the meals served look grotesque whilst panning across the faces filled with disgust from the guests, and tracking shots following the guests uncover the darkest corridors in the old dark house. , interesting, good catch chap. The Old Dark House. Fine review sir, great descriptions for the photography influenced sequences. Not quite at 10/10 myself (8/10) but it is a fun ride and worthy of revisits every other year. Thanks Spike & the MOC version of Dark House is well worth the investment,along with the huge clean-up,it also gathers together the extras from the UK & US DVDs all into one place.
|
|
|
|
Post by manfromplanetx on Apr 24, 2019 22:32:33 GMT
My viewings :
'The Proud Princess' (1952 - Borivoj Zeman)
Fairy tale fantasy.
'The Prime Of Life' (1967 - Juraj Jakubisco)
Character study.
'The Sweet Time Of Kalimagdora' (1968 - Leopold Lahola)
Mindbending fantasy.
'The Feather Fairy' (1985 - Juraj Jakubisco)
Fairy tale fantasy.
'Sitting On A Branch I Am Fine' (1989 - Juraj Jakubisco)
Thanks.
Hi there petrolino, some wonderful classic Czechoslovakian viewing and recommendations for us here... I just tracked down a copy of 'The Sweet Time Of Kalimagdora' from the Czech Republic and while there threw a few extras in the cart .. Many Thanks and Happy Viewing to you ...
|
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Apr 26, 2019 12:39:41 GMT
My viewings :
'The Proud Princess' (1952 - Borivoj Zeman)
Fairy tale fantasy.
'The Prime Of Life' (1967 - Juraj Jakubisco)
Character study.
'The Sweet Time Of Kalimagdora' (1968 - Leopold Lahola)
Mindbending fantasy.
'The Feather Fairy' (1985 - Juraj Jakubisco)
Fairy tale fantasy.
'Sitting On A Branch I Am Fine' (1989 - Juraj Jakubisco)
Thanks.
Hi there petrolino, some wonderful classic Czechoslovakian viewing and recommendations for us here... I just tracked down a copy of 'The Sweet Time Of Kalimagdora' from the Czech Republic and while there threw a few extras in the cart .. Many Thanks and Happy Viewing to you ...
I hope you enjoy 'The Sweet Time Of Kalimagdora'. There's a lot of Czech and Slovak classics available on dvd now, vast official catalogues.
|
|
|
|
Post by teleadm on Apr 26, 2019 18:55:19 GMT
 The last of the old Bond's, done in the old style. Lee is a great villain, he likes money, and has no clue about technology of solar power, and doesn't care. Ekland must be one of the most annoying Bond Brides ever! Generally it feels a bit tired when seeing it again. . A lesser Bond in my book, allow me to expand > You get as much pleasure out of killing as I do, so why don't you admit it? The Man with the Golden Gun is directed by Guy Hamilton and adapted to screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz from the Ian Fleming novel. It stars Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Soon-Taik-Oh, Richard Loo and Clifton James. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Ted Moore & Oswald Morris. Bond 9 and 007 is distracted from his pursuit of the Solex Agitator when it appears he has been targeted for death by famous assassin Francisco Scaramanga. This would be the last Bond movie to be produced by the partnership of Broccoli and Saltzman, the latter of which was the one to leave. Perhaps they fought about what direction Moore's Bond should be taking? Because The Man with the Golden Gun is not a fitting film for them to part on, their fall out most likely impacting on why this is a pretty unadventurous entry in the James Bond franchise. The film plays more as a slapstick comedy than an action adventure. The script is uninspired, with the characters of Mary Goodnight (Ekland) and Sheriff Pepper (James) reaching new lows for Bond allies, while some of the situations that arise are just bizarre and lazy. The latter statement of which applies big time to the weak finale. However, even average Bond films have value somewhere in the mix. Here there's some grit in Moore's performance and Lee's Scaramanga is one of the series' most interesting villains. Maud Adams is given a good character to work from, her Andrea Anders is intriguing and very much a live wire in the plot, it's a good performance that would see Adams rewarded with the lead lady role in Octopussy (1983). Villechaize's Nick Nack, Scaramanga's right hand man/helper is a unique villain, though this is spoilt somewhat by a daft final confrontation with Bond. There's a brilliant car stunt performed by Bumps Willard, done in one take, it alone deserved to be in a better film. Elsewhere. Barry is back on musical score duties, providing an Oriental tinted arrangement. Sadly Lulu's title theme song is instantly forgettable and lyrically feels like it was written in 5 minutes. Locations are sumptuous, with Macau, Hong Kong and Thailand put to great use by the team, and the gadgetry is kept to minimum which allows us to enjoy the one or two inventive modes of transport used within the piece. The box office was $98 million, a considerable take for sure but still some $63 million down on the previous Bond adventure. With critics and fans considering the film a let down, questions were again raised as to if Bond was loosing his appeal? With Saltzman, Hamilton and Mankiewicz bowing out of the franchise, would there be a turnaround in Bond's fortunes? Would Moore finally get a script and film to test him? 6.5/10 Just a few belated comments on your excellent Man with the Golden Gun review. I agree with Lulu's main title song, it was so uninteresting that my thoughts begun floundering away from the movie, though I love Lulu as an artist. Broccolli and Salzman partenership, and why they departed, I've read, and it might be totally wrong, that the real reason Salzman departed was that he has made business deals outside movies that turned out to be total failures, and made horrendous losses, that he had to sell his shares of the James Bond Franchise so not to become totally bankrupt.
|
|
|
|
Post by mikef6 on Apr 29, 2019 4:10:17 GMT
The Man With the Golden Gun. A lesser Bond in my book, allow me to expand > You get as much pleasure out of killing as I do, so why don't you admit it? The Man with the Golden Gun is directed by Guy Hamilton and adapted to screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz from the Ian Fleming novel. It stars Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Soon-Taik-Oh, Richard Loo and Clifton James. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Ted Moore & Oswald Morris. Bond 9 and 007 is distracted from his pursuit of the Solex Agitator when it appears he has been targeted for death by famous assassin Francisco Scaramanga. This would be the last Bond movie to be produced by the partnership of Broccoli and Saltzman, the latter of which was the one to leave. Perhaps they fought about what direction Moore's Bond should be taking? Because The Man with the Golden Gun is not a fitting film for them to part on, their fall out most likely impacting on why this is a pretty unadventurous entry in the James Bond franchise. The film plays more as a slapstick comedy than an action adventure. The script is uninspired, with the characters of Mary Goodnight (Ekland) and Sheriff Pepper (James) reaching new lows for Bond allies, while some of the situations that arise are just bizarre and lazy. The latter statement of which applies big time to the weak finale. However, even average Bond films have value somewhere in the mix. Here there's some grit in Moore's performance and Lee's Scaramanga is one of the series' most interesting villains. Maud Adams is given a good character to work from, her Andrea Anders is intriguing and very much a live wire in the plot, it's a good performance that would see Adams rewarded with the lead lady role in Octopussy (1983). Villechaize's Nick Nack, Scaramanga's right hand man/helper is a unique villain, though this is spoilt somewhat by a daft final confrontation with Bond. There's a brilliant car stunt performed by Bumps Willard, done in one take, it alone deserved to be in a better film. Elsewhere. Barry is back on musical score duties, providing an Oriental tinted arrangement. Sadly Lulu's title theme song is instantly forgettable and lyrically feels like it was written in 5 minutes. Locations are sumptuous, with Macau, Hong Kong and Thailand put to great use by the team, and the gadgetry is kept to minimum which allows us to enjoy the one or two inventive modes of transport used within the piece. The box office was $98 million, a considerable take for sure but still some $63 million down on the previous Bond adventure. With critics and fans considering the film a let down, questions were again raised as to if Bond was loosing his appeal? With Saltzman, Hamilton and Mankiewicz bowing out of the franchise, would there be a turnaround in Bond's fortunes? Would Moore finally get a script and film to test him? 6.5/10 Just a few belated comments on your excellent Man with the Golden Gun review. I agree with Lulu's main title song, it was so uninteresting that my thoughts begun floundering away from the movie, though I love Lulu as an artist. Broccolli and Salzman partenership, and why they departed, I've read, and it might be totally wrong, that the real reason Salzman departed was that he has made business deals outside movies that turned out to be total failures, and made horrendous losses, that he had to sell his shares of the James Bond Franchise so not to become totally bankrupt. Other than appreciating Christopher Lee's performance, my only takeaway for MWTGG was Scaramanga's line re: Britt Ekland: "I like a girl in a bikini. No concealed weapons." 
|
|
