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Post by delon on Mar 14, 2020 14:35:37 GMT
Comments/ratings/recommendations/film posters are welcome and much appreciated.
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Post by wmcclain on Mar 14, 2020 14:42:43 GMT
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Post by mikef6 on Mar 14, 2020 18:51:24 GMT
My Name Is Julia Ross / Joseph H. Lewis (1945). Columbia Pictures. Cinematography by Burnett Guffey. Julia Ross (Nina Foch) is jobless and without family in London and behind on her rent so eagerly accepts the offer of secretary for the kindly Mrs. Hughes (May Whitty) and her friendly son Ralph (George Macready). But when she reports for her first day, she is drugged and moved to a remote house in Cornwall. When she wakes up, everyone, including Mrs. Hughes and Ralph, are calling her by another name and insisting she is the mentally ill wife of Ralph. The more she protests to others that she is not crazy, the crazier she sounds. I really enjoyed seeing May Whitty (often thought of as a typical Sweet Old Lady) do evil. She does it very well (she did get a Dame for her acting, after all). I enjoyed this Brit noir thriller very much.   Whirlpool / Otto Preminger (1949). Twentieth Century Fox. Cinematography by Arthur C. Miller (3-time Oscar winner). When I first ran across “Whirlpool” I realized that here was a Preminger/Gene Tierney noir that I had never even heard of. I quickly remedied that. This is a major work, with reservations noted. Ann Sutton (Tierney), the wife of rich and famous psychiatrist Dr. William Sutton (Richard Conte) is caught shoplifting from a department store. She is saved from arrest and a scandal by fast-talking David Korvo (José Ferrer). Korvo offers to help her with her psychological problems but it slowly becomes clear that he is up to something dark and dangerous. Ferrer was already a renowned stage actor when he appeared in this, his second film. He would win a Best Actor Oscar the very next year. He is magnificent as the shady hypnotist/amateur psychologist. For me, he almost makes the movie. Gene Tierney, though, is close behind as the troubled Anne who had been compulsively lying and stealing from childhood but hiding it from everyone until being caught this once. She lands in jail for a murder that she doesn’t know whether she is guilty or not. The solution to the “impossible” murder is far-fetched, to put it charitably. It almost sinks the wonderful film that came before it. But, at least while you’re watching it, José Ferrer almost sells the thing with his performance. It’s just afterward that you say, “Hey, wait a minute. Could that really happen? No, it probably couldn't.” Still, highly recommended.  Jose Ferrer and Gene Tierney  A successful psychiatrist’s wife drives a current year 1949 Ford Custom Convertible  Panic In The Streets / Elia Kazan (1950). Twentieth Century Fox. Cinematography by Joseph MacDonald. Timely film noir. A sailor from eastern Europe jumps ship in New Orleans. He gets into a poker game with Blackie (Jack Palance) and his fawning sidekick Ray Fitch (Zero Mostel). When the sailor becomes sick, Blackie kills him for the winnings and they dump his body in the harbor. An autopsy shows that the sailor was sick with Pneumonic Plague, the airborne version of the Middle Ages Bubonic Plague. National Health Service officer Dr. Clint Reed (Richard Widmark, 3 years and a thousand miles away from Tommy Udo) knows that the men who killed the sailor, at minimum, are carriers of the disease and must be found at all cost. He also opposes alerting the public through a press release because if the men find out they are hunted, they will leave town and spread the disease even farther. Late in the film, a city official says the rest of the world can go hang, let’s just be concerned about our own town. Reed, in what is practically a throwaway speech, says that everyone is related and the world is a community. Anyone in an airplane can be halfway around the world in a day. It has been suggested that, however quickly it goes by, this is the first such sentiment ever from a Hollywood movie. Reed is partnered with a gruff, doubting police captain well-played by Paul Douglas. Barbara Bel Geddes makes a full human being out of the thinly written role of Reed’s stay-at-home wife. This was Jack Palance’s movie debut and he makes the most of it. His Blackie has a smooth, silky voice that will convince you that he is your best and sincerest friend – until he starts to choke the life out of you. The movie raises some interesting questions about a free press and a transparent government. Kazan shot every foot of it in New Orleans. There is not a single sound stage interior. This movie shows how the past keeps coming around again into the present.  Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas  Jack Palance and Zero Mostel  Account Rendered / Peter Graham Scott (1957). Major Pictures. Cinematography by Walter J. Harvey. This brief (59 minutes) English murder mystery doesn’t waste a single second. First, the set-up for the murder is presented. Next, the alibis for all the usual suspects are laid out. The police investigate. Question everyone. Find the one detail that spoils a perfect alibi and corral the murderer. Efficient light entertainment. Lucille Ainsworth (Ursula Howells), married to merchant banker Robert (Griffith Jones), likes to take lovers, make them fall in love with her, and then coldly dump them. Her husband is just starting to catch on to this. One of her boyfriends, an artist, has painted her portrait showing her with an evil face. Another, a business associate of Robert, has a suspicious wife with a nasty tongue. There are lots of suspects when Lucille is killed out on the heath, but they all can account for their time when the murder was committed. Enjoyable for what it is.   Galveston / Mélanie Laurent (2018). Hit-man Roy (Ben Foster) has lung cancer but his boss Stan Ptitkin (Beau Bridges) tries to have him killed anyway over a woman. Young escort Rocky (Elle Fanning) is at the scene of the hit so goes on the run with Roy. This movie, the first English language film directed by the French actress and director Mélanie Laurent, is supposed to be a poetic neo-noir about a seasoned mob killer with a life threatening disease who meets a damaged 19-year-old who needs rescuing but is light on story and heavy on scenery both beautiful and sleazy and on driving. Lots of scenery. Lots of driving. Not really full of incident. The hit-man art film hasn’t been perfected quite yet. Those rave comments are from quote whore sites   Greed / Michael Winterbottom (2019). Sony Pictures International Productions. Uneven satire comedy that truly scores when it hits but with too many slow passages. Shy young film maker Nick (David Mitchell) is hired by British mogul Sir Richard McCreadie, a.k.a Greedy McCreadie (Steve Coogan) to film his approved documentary life story. Nick soon encounters McCreadie’s young trophy wife (Isla Fisher), his young son (Asa Butterfield), his spoiled actress daughter (Sophie Cookson), and his elderly but nasty mother (Shirley Henderson). A large portion of the movie, including a long concluding set-piece, takes place at McCreadie’s villa in Greece where he is about to celebrate his 60th birthday with a lavish bash requiring the guests to dress in ancient Greek costume. Things do not go well. Coogan is absolutely the right actor to play this self-centered, cheating, crooked, bully of a billionaire. Shirley Henderson almost steals the show as the mother. It is hard to either recommend or not recommend this film. When it is good, it is very good but when not…it just runs too long.  
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Post by OldAussie on Mar 14, 2020 20:58:28 GMT
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Mar 14, 2020 21:26:02 GMT
The Meddler (2015).  Anastasia (1997). A Little Chaos (2014). Tank Girl (1995). Into the Forest (2015). What We Did on Our Holiday (2014). Brave (2012). The Light Between Oceans (2016).
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Post by teleadm on Mar 14, 2020 21:57:41 GMT
Well here is the Tele movies of last week:  It took some time to get used to Oldman, the trouble is having seen many documentaries with the real Churchill. It covers a time when his biggest opponents wasn't Hitler and Mussolini, but came whithin his own party. How much they could smoke back in those days in public locations. While not the great movie, still feels like an honest recreation of a very demanding time.  There was a bit of fuss when Robert Fuller took the step over to a full length movie after TV stardom, by why chose such a standard western like this? It's a very B-Western with a few familiar faces, that somehow has a rather rousing soundtrack by Hans J. Salter. Dan Duryea is thankfully around doing his standard smart alleck bad guy that can't be trusted at all times and makes this movie watchable.  Dirk Bogarde in The Canadian Rockies, as an inheritor of a peace of land that his grandfather promised had oil, but that will soon be flooded when a dam building is finished. The Canadian Rockies isn't the Canadian Rockies by the way, it was cheaper to make Italian Dolomites look Canadian than making it in Canada. Not as interesting as I had hoped it to be, but still interesting. Stanley Baker makes a good bad guy. A boring romance takes too much space. The Italian Dolomites looks spendid in Eastmancolour.  Tight and very British Police procedural movie when a police detective is trying to find a murderer with connections to a very posh club. The victim was not from a posh family, then why was she a member of a posh club. John Mills is the police sergeant on the case, but has a hard time cracking through the posh wall, as they just don't speak with simple people like him. Eventually he cracks the case, but was a bit disappointed about who was the murderer. Though a climbing high on a church tower was a bit hand sweaty. American Charles Coburn plays a doctor in exile from Canada, who might have cracked the case, or misleading. Parts of police procedure reminded me of TV favorits like Midsumer Murders and A Touch of Frost.  I can see the double purpose of this movie, to entertain, but more importantly to enlighten what on earth tax money was spent on by US Navy (before NASA took over the space programme). Testing the limits what a human body can stand before it goes to pieces, and the men (it was just men back then) who risked their lives for eventual future space travels. That is the interesting part, but this isn't a documentary so it also have to have a plot. A boring romance is attached. Thankfully Dean Jagger is around and gives his usual solid support. Actor John Hodiak though, died of a sudden heart attack during production before his final scenes where filmed.  aka La sorcière aka The White Witch aka The Sorceress. I posted a pic of Marina Vlady on General Boards "Post a pic from the latest..." and it got more "likes" than I'm used to. It's not a horror movie though the supposed Witch can indeed do some sorcery. Marina Vlady is indeed enchanting in her natural beauty. It's about a French lumber or timber engineer (Maurice Ronet) taking a position way out in the Swedish outlands of deep and dark forests were locals mixes the Bible and folklore. Ronet see her peeking at him, and he comes under her spell. Somehow hearing French actors speaking Swedish sounds strange, as much as I guess hearing Swedish actors speaking French for French people. Available in a horrible English subtitled version on YT.  Tyrone Power has a simple job, carrying Diplomatic posts between embassy's until without his knowledge becomes part of a cat and mouse game between Soviet and USA, as this is not his normal job he doesn't know who to trust anymore, as he wasn't trained for this kind of assignments. Handled with the hands of assured director Henry Hathaway, makes sure this keeps interesting, though I have to admit it lost me a few times. Second unit filmed at European locations, and I don't think Tyrone and company ever left Hollywood. Entertaining enough to follow to the end.  Mr and Mrs Smedhurst decided that after a long life they would retire to the English countryside, little knowing that the house (looks like a mansion indoors) that the house they just bought is haunted, after all it had been for sale for over 40 (or 60) years. This is not a horror movie, though there is a few spine chilling scenes. It's more on the cozy side. Instead of being scared they tries to solve the mystery of the lady that is apparently restless. James Mason plays a the old Mr Smedhurst, and does it well, he got the old people walk right, but his skin is still too soft and winklefree. Margaret Lockwood plays a woman who is employed to the Smedhurt household with the sole purpose to be available when Mrs Smedhurst needs company, maybe that was normal once upon a time, and she is the one who might have been possessed by the latest owner.  Impressive sets, special effects and matte paintings, and very campy dancing in this once thought lost movie. Helen Gahagan who plays She who must be obeyed later became a politician (and was Mrs Melvyn Douglas) and tried to buy off all copies of this movie. The version that is availlable was found in Buster Keaton's private collection. Meant to be an early Technicolor movie, but suddenly RKO decided otherwise, though sets, effects and matte paintings were meant to be in colour. Ray Harryhausen, who was a friend of Merian C Cooper, decided to restore it artificially into colorization, and knowing that story I was very OK for once about colorization since it was meant to be in colour in the first place. As a movie it has it's stiff sides and it's impressive sides, but put together, it's entertaining most of the time. One of the athletic looking extras was non other than legendary Olympic Gold Medalist Jim Thorpe, by the way. That was my adventures last week, I will now read what interesting things all others have seen! I let a black cat who looks like the one I used to have wave goodbye! (My cat cat had a white spot just like this one)  |
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Post by teleadm on Mar 14, 2020 22:19:12 GMT
wmcclainWhile watching Many Rivers to Cross many years ago I got the feeling that somewhere during the production they all cracked up, and the actors started treating the written material for laughs instead and ad-libbed during the rest of the movie, making it more entertaining that it should have been.
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Post by teleadm on Mar 14, 2020 22:31:41 GMT
mikef6You're notes about My Name is Julia Ross have convinced me to check it out (since I know were to find it). It was mentioned in Doug McLellands "The Golden Age of B Movies" with movies made in the 1940s, and that is where I first heard about it. The book is about movies that is far better than their budgets, not making cheap jokes about them.
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Post by wmcclain on Mar 14, 2020 22:39:13 GMT
wmcclainWhile watching Many Rivers to Cross many years ago I got the feeling that somewhere during the production they all cracked up, and the actors started treating the written material for laughs instead and ad-libbed during the rest of the movie, making it more entertaining that it should have been. I think it was meant for laughs by design, but they struggled to find worthy comedy. It's a bit of a chore to watch. Against that: Eleanor Parker in buckskins and coonskin cap. Boggling.
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Post by politicidal on Mar 15, 2020 1:14:07 GMT
A Murder of Crows (1998) 5/10
Gemini Man (2019) 3/10
Judy (2019) 5/10
The Big Gamble (1961) 4/10
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979) 5/10
Hustlers (2019) 6/10
Memento (2000) 8/10
Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019)
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Post by mikef6 on Mar 15, 2020 1:17:20 GMT
mikef6 You're notes about My Name is Julia Ross have convinced me to check it out (since I know were to find it). It was mentioned in Doug McLellands "The Golden Age of B Movies" with movies made in the 1940s, and that is where I first heard about it. The book is about movies that is far better than their budgets, not making cheap jokes about them. Say, I have that book too but haven't cracked it open in many moons. I found three other movies the book reviews that I had seen in the interval since my last time to look at it. Yeah, it is a helpful tome to have.
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Post by petrolino on Mar 15, 2020 1:23:50 GMT
A Murder of Crows (1998) 5/10
Gemini Man (2019) 3/10
Judy (2019) 5/10
The Big Gamble (1961) 4/10
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979) 5/10
Hustlers (2019) 6/10
Memento (2000) 8/10
Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019)
How would you rate 'Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood' (2019)? I have the dvd to watch, hopefully some time in the next week.
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Deleted Member
@Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2020 6:51:58 GMT
Paths of Glory-1957-Stanley Kubrick  What Haunts Us-2018-Documentary about 6 male students who commtted suicide from the 49 that graduated.  Hour of the Wolf-1968-Ingmar Bergman  The 39th Parallel-1941-Michael Powell  La Notti Bianche-1957-Luchino Visconti  Valmont-1989-Milos Forman  Rules of the Game-1939-Jean Renoir  Penny Serenade-1941-George Stevens  A Man For All Seasons-1966-Fred Zinnemann  Black Girl-1966-Ousmane Sembene  Living in Oblivion-1995-Tom DiCillo  Miracle Mile-1988-Steve De Jarnatt 
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Post by claudius on Mar 15, 2020 12:47:16 GMT
I didn’t know Max Von Sydow died last week. My fasting from the Internet left me out of touch. I will always remember him as Jesus, Ming the Merciless, and the King in CONAN THE BARBARIAN.
AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MISS MARPLE (1985) “A Pocketful of Rye Part 2” 35TH ANNIVERSARY. The first series of the Joan Hickson Miss Marple series comes to an end. BBC Video DVD.
GANKUTUSOU – THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (2005) “The Golden Boy’s True Identity” 15TH ANNIVERSARY & CoMC 175TH ANNIVERSARY. The Count makes his final strikes on Danglars (abandoned on a space shuttle filled with gold) and Villefort (his attempted murder of an illegitimate son has said offspring revealing his act in public and then infecting him with a mind-rotting poison). Mondego, however ruined his reputation, will not go down without a fight. Geneon DVD.
DAVID COPPERFIELD (1974) “Episode Two” 170TH ANNIVERSARY. The Second Episode covers the remainder of David the Boy, from his meeting with Mr. Micawber (Arthur Lowe), his salvation by Aunt Betsey, and his education near Uriah Heep (Marvin Jarvis). The last few minutes feature David the Man and his reunion with Steerforth. Koch Video DVD.
IVANHOE (1970) “Saint Martin’s Day” 50TH ANNIVERSARY & 200TH ANNIVERSARY. The conclusion of the 1970 BBC-TV Serial. Simply Media DVD.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1980) “Rodney Dangerfield/J. Geils Band” 40TH ANNIVERSARY. A MANHATTAN Spoof with Rodney dating a 10-year-old (played by Laraine Newman). The final courtroom sketch features a young Rob Morrow in the Jury. Universal DVD.
ROBIN OF SHERWOOD (1985) “The Prophecy” 35TH ANNIVERSARY. The second series begins with the intro of my direct ancestor Prince John making a visit at Nottingham and becoming King. Just as the series revoked the tradition of Richard the Lion-Hearted as a benevolent King whose return solves everything, this episode also plays with the sad overtone that Robin Hood’s opposition to Prince John’s power play schemes in the traditional stories overlooks the fact that John eventually became King (Richard dies offscreen with John’s ascension). MIDSOMMER MURDER John Nettles makes a guest appearance, along with George Baker (as Marion’s long-lost father). Acorn Media DVD.
ER (1995) “Love’s Labour Lost” 25TH ANNIVERSARY. Oh this episode…pretty much one the major stories of the entire series. Dr. Greene, dealing with the end of his marriage, misdiagnoses a pregnant woman and tries to save her and the child with tragic results. I still remember how emotional it was when I first saw the episode on its first syndicated run on TNT in the fall of 1998 (in the early Millenium, NBC would re-broadcast the episode, highlighting its importance in promos). Warner DVD.
MOBILE FIGHTER G GUNDAM (1995) “Rain in Crisis: Resurrection of Devil Gundam” 25TH ANNIVERSARY. The Gundam Fights have been completed, but the climactic storyline is set. Japanese with English Subtitles. Bandai DVD.
ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS (1960) “Jet-Rocket Formula Part 33 & 34” 60TH ANNIVERSARY. Sony Wonder DVD.
DRAGON BALL Z: THE WORLD’S STRONGEST (1990) 30TH ANNIVERSARY. The second DRAGON BALL Z Movie is another out-of-continuity storyline, this time involving the awakening of a long-inactive evil brain searching for a powerful body to inhabit. Its biggest highlight is a dream sequence where Gohan sings the praises of Piccolo. This was one of the earliest DBZ films shown when the series was broadcast in America, not to mention one of the few DBZ media that was left Uncut and Unedited for video. Japanese with English Subtitles. Pioneer DVD.
SEVEN CHANCES (1925) 95TH ANNIVERSARY. Buster Keaton plays a businessman in dire potentially convicted straits who has to get married to win a money inheritance in a limited time frame. His attempts climax in a newspaper advertisement with disastrous results. My favorite Buster Keaton film, I first watched it in Robert Youngson’s FOUR CLOWNS (1970) edit. Later, on the night of the Keaton Centennial on American Movie Classics, the channel’s broadcast revealed to me that the opening with in Two-Strip Technicolor. I finally saw the whole product in the Spring of 1997. Kino Lorber BluRay.
DADDY LONG LEGS (1990) “The Letter Thrown in the Waistbin.” 30TH ANNIVERSARY Japanese with English Subtitles. Bootleg DVD.
HOLLYWOOD (1980) “The Man With The Megaphone” 40TH ANNIVERSARY. The 10th Episode covers the Directors. With interviews by Allan Dawn, Bessie Love, Janet Gaynor, King Vidor, and Eleanor Boardman, the subjects are Rex Ingrams’ MARE NOSTRUM, Marshall Neilan’s DADDY LONG LEGS and (with greater coverage) F.W. Murnau’s SUNRISE and Vidor’s THE CROWD. Bootleg DVD.
THE ROSE OF VERSAILLIES (1980) “The Necklace Shines Ominously…” 40TH ANNIVERSARY. A few years pass as Marie Antoinette enjoys motherhood much to the neglect of her duties to her subjects. Things are about to get worse when villainess Jeanne perpetrates the royal-reputation-shattering Affair of the Necklace. Japanese with English Subtitles. Right Stuf DVD.
NARUTO SHIPPUDEN (2013) “Contact: Naruto VS Itachi” Viz Media DVD.
CINDERELLA (1950) 70TH ANNIVERSARY THIS MONTH. Walt Disney’s return to full-length features is the classic Fairy Tale. Despite feminist criticisms of the characterization, I felt Cindy was a more dimensional character than Snow White or Aurora. I also disagree that she was ‘waiting for her prince to come’. I gathered more that her dream wasn’t so much getting married to a prince but finding a way out of her degraded subservient lifestyle (at the ball, she danced with a man whose royal trappings she didn’t recognize or learn about until the next day). My first viewings of the film was via clips on several Disney specials (the mice and birds making Cinderella’s dress, Jacques and Gus trying to gather trimmings, the fairy godmother sequence), finally watching the whole film on VHS in October 1988. It is this VHS (from the original video release that aforementioned date, with a trailer for the upcoming OLIVER AND COMPANY) that I watched for this viewing.
ONCE AND AGAIN (2000) “Strangers and Brothers” 20TH ANNIVERSARY. Buena Vista DVD.
I LOVE THE 70’S (2003) “1970”, “1972”, “1973”, “1974”, “1975” Sequel series of I LOVE THE 80’S covers the films, TV shows, fashions, events, products of the decade through the people who remembered them. 80s commentators Mo Rocca, Hal Sparks, Rich Eisen, Stuart Scott, Joel Stein, and Michael Ian Black returns with the addition of Rachael Harris. It is a sad thing to note that several of the commentators (Scott, Jerry Stiller, Rick James, David Cassidy) are no longer with us. This is a VHS recording of its premiere on VH1 August 2003. My I LOVE THE 80S recording had CHICAGO promos for its cinema run. This recording now advertises the film on video.
DRAGON BALL KAI (2011) “Another Time Machine? Bulma Uncovers a Mystery” Funimation BluRay.
I also watched parts of several episodes of SONIC X, one of them, “Emerald Anniversary” features several characters dressed up as Marie Antoinette and Count Fersen from THE ROSE OF VERSAILLES.
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Post by politicidal on Mar 15, 2020 14:23:40 GMT
A Murder of Crows (1998) 5/10
Gemini Man (2019) 3/10
Judy (2019) 5/10
The Big Gamble (1961) 4/10
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979) 5/10
Hustlers (2019) 6/10
Memento (2000) 8/10
Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019)
How would you rate 'Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood' (2019)? I have the dvd to watch, hopefully some time in the next week.
6/10. I liked Hail Caesar better. |
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 15, 2020 15:03:00 GMT
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 15, 2020 15:26:47 GMT
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 15, 2020 15:40:43 GMT
My Name Is Julia Ross / Joseph H. Lewis (1945). Columbia Pictures. Cinematography by Burnett Guffey. Julia Ross (Nina Foch) is jobless and without family in London and behind on her rent so eagerly accepts the offer of secretary for the kindly Mrs. Hughes (May Whitty) and her friendly son Ralph (George Macready). But when she reports for her first day, she is drugged and moved to a remote house in Cornwall. When she wakes up, everyone, including Mrs. Hughes and Ralph, are calling her by another name and insisting she is the mentally ill wife of Ralph. The more she protests to others that she is not crazy, the crazier she sounds. I really enjoyed seeing May Whitty (often thought of as a typical Sweet Old Lady) do evil. She does it very well (she did get a Dame for her acting, after all). I enjoyed this Brit noir thriller very much. Whirlpool / Otto Preminger (1949). Twentieth Century Fox. Cinematography by Arthur C. Miller (3-time Oscar winner). When I first ran across “Whirlpool” I realized that here was a Preminger/Gene Tierney noir that I had never even heard of. I quickly remedied that. This is a major work, with reservations noted. Ann Sutton (Tierney), the wife of rich and famous psychiatrist Dr. William Sutton (Richard Conte) is caught shoplifting from a department store. She is saved from arrest and a scandal by fast-talking David Korvo (José Ferrer). Korvo offers to help her with her psychological problems but it slowly becomes clear that he is up to something dark and dangerous. Ferrer was already a renowned stage actor when he appeared in this, his second film. He would win a Best Actor Oscar the very next year. He is magnificent as the shady hypnotist/amateur psychologist. For me, he almost makes the movie. Gene Tierney, though, is close behind as the troubled Anne who had been compulsively lying and stealing from childhood but hiding it from everyone until being caught this once. She lands in jail for a murder that she doesn’t know whether she is guilty or not. The solution to the “impossible” murder is far-fetched, to put it charitably. It almost sinks the wonderful film that came before it. But, at least while you’re watching it, José Ferrer almost sells the thing with his performance. It’s just afterward that you say, “Hey, wait a minute. Could that really happen? No, it probably couldn't.” Still, highly recommended. Jose Ferrer and Gene Tierney A successful psychiatrist’s wife drives a current year 1949 Ford Custom Convertible Panic In The Streets / Elia Kazan (1950). Twentieth Century Fox. Cinematography by Joseph MacDonald. Timely film noir. A sailor from eastern Europe jumps ship in New Orleans. He gets into a poker game with Blackie (Jack Palance) and his fawning sidekick Ray Fitch (Zero Mostel). When the sailor becomes sick, Blackie kills him for the winnings and they dump his body in the harbor. An autopsy shows that the sailor was sick with Pneumonic Plague, the airborne version of the Middle Ages Bubonic Plague. National Health Service officer Dr. Clint Reed (Richard Widmark, 3 years and a thousand miles away from Tommy Udo) knows that the men who killed the sailor, at minimum, are carriers of the disease and must be found at all cost. He also opposes alerting the public through a press release because if the men find out they are hunted, they will leave town and spread the disease even farther. Late in the film, a city official says the rest of the world can go hang, let’s just be concerned about our own town. Reed, in what is practically a throwaway speech, says that everyone is related and the world is a community. Anyone in an airplane can be halfway around the world in a day. It has been suggested that, however quickly it goes by, this is the first such sentiment ever from a Hollywood movie. Reed is partnered with a gruff, doubting police captain well-played by Paul Douglas. Barbara Bel Geddes makes a full human being out of the thinly written role of Reed’s stay-at-home wife. This was Jack Palance’s movie debut and he makes the most of it. His Blackie has a smooth, silky voice that will convince you that he is your best and sincerest friend – until he starts to choke the life out of you. The movie raises some interesting questions about a free press and a transparent government. Kazan shot every foot of it in New Orleans. There is not a single sound stage interior. This movie shows how the past keeps coming around again into the present. Richard Widmark and Paul Douglas Jack Palance and Zero Mostel Account Rendered / Peter Graham Scott (1957). Major Pictures. Cinematography by Walter J. Harvey. This brief (59 minutes) English murder mystery doesn’t waste a single second. First, the set-up for the murder is presented. Next, the alibis for all the usual suspects are laid out. The police investigate. Question everyone. Find the one detail that spoils a perfect alibi and corral the murderer. Efficient light entertainment. Lucille Ainsworth (Ursula Howells), married to merchant banker Robert (Griffith Jones), likes to take lovers, make them fall in love with her, and then coldly dump them. Her husband is just starting to catch on to this. One of her boyfriends, an artist, has painted her portrait showing her with an evil face. Another, a business associate of Robert, has a suspicious wife with a nasty tongue. There are lots of suspects when Lucille is killed out on the heath, but they all can account for their time when the murder was committed. Enjoyable for what it is. Galveston / Mélanie Laurent (2018). Hit-man Roy (Ben Foster) has lung cancer but his boss Stan Ptitkin (Beau Bridges) tries to have him killed anyway over a woman. Young escort Rocky (Elle Fanning) is at the scene of the hit so goes on the run with Roy. This movie, the first English language film directed by the French actress and director Mélanie Laurent, is supposed to be a poetic neo-noir about a seasoned mob killer with a life threatening disease who meets a damaged 19-year-old who needs rescuing but is light on story and heavy on scenery both beautiful and sleazy and on driving. Lots of scenery. Lots of driving. Not really full of incident. The hit-man art film hasn’t been perfected quite yet. Those rave comments are from quote whore sites Greed / Michael Winterbottom (2019). Sony Pictures International Productions. Uneven satire comedy that truly scores when it hits but with too many slow passages. Shy young film maker Nick (David Mitchell) is hired by British mogul Sir Richard McCreadie, a.k.a Greedy McCreadie (Steve Coogan) to film his approved documentary life story. Nick soon encounters McCreadie’s young trophy wife (Isla Fisher), his young son (Asa Butterfield), his spoiled actress daughter (Sophie Cookson), and his elderly but nasty mother (Shirley Henderson). A large portion of the movie, including a long concluding set-piece, takes place at McCreadie’s villa in Greece where he is about to celebrate his 60th birthday with a lavish bash requiring the guests to dress in ancient Greek costume. Things do not go well. Coogan is absolutely the right actor to play this self-centered, cheating, crooked, bully of a billionaire. Shirley Henderson almost steals the show as the mother. It is hard to either recommend or not recommend this film. When it is good, it is very good but when not…it just runs too long. Lets see where we are with your noir viewings this week on how we compare  My Name Is Julia Ross - www.imdb.com/review/rw2890569/?ref_=tt_urv 8/10Whirlpool - www.imdb.com/review/rw1833463/?ref_=tt_urv 7/10Panic in the Streets - www.imdb.com/review/rw2214739/?ref_=tt_urv 7.5/10
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 15, 2020 15:53:47 GMT
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Mar 15, 2020 16:10:02 GMT
Well here is the Tele movies of last week: It took some time to get used to Oldman, the trouble is having seen many documentaries with the real Churchill. It covers a time when his biggest opponents wasn't Hitler and Mussolini, but came whithin his own party. How much they could smoke back in those days in public locations. While not the great movie, still feels like an honest recreation of a very demanding time. There was a bit of fuss when Robert Fuller took the step over to a full length movie after TV stardom, by why chose such a standard western like this? It's a very B-Western with a few familiar faces, that somehow has a rather rousing soundtrack by Hans J. Salter. Dan Duryea is thankfully around doing his standard smart alleck bad guy that can't be trusted at all times and makes this movie watchable. Dirk Bogarde in The Canadian Rockies, as an inheritor of a peace of land that his grandfather promised had oil, but that will soon be flooded when a dam building is finished. The Canadian Rockies isn't the Canadian Rockies by the way, it was cheaper to make Italian Dolomites look Canadian than making it in Canada. Not as interesting as I had hoped it to be, but still interesting. Stanley Baker makes a good bad guy. A boring romance takes too much space. The Italian Dolomites looks spendid in Eastmancolour. Tight and very British Police procedural movie when a police detective is trying to find a murderer with connections to a very posh club. The victim was not from a posh family, then why was she a member of a posh club. John Mills is the police sergeant on the case, but has a hard time cracking through the posh wall, as they just don't speak with simple people like him. Eventually he cracks the case, but was a bit disappointed about who was the murderer. Though a climbing high on a church tower was a bit hand sweaty. American Charles Coburn plays a doctor in exile from Canada, who might have cracked the case, or misleading. Parts of police procedure reminded me of TV favorits like Midsumer Murders and A Touch of Frost. I can see the double purpose of this movie, to entertain, but more importantly to enlighten what on earth tax money was spent on by US Navy (before NASA took over the space programme). Testing the limits what a human body can stand before it goes to pieces, and the men (it was just men back then) who risked their lives for eventual future space travels. That is the interesting part, but this isn't a documentary so it also have to have a plot. A boring romance is attached. Thankfully Dean Jagger is around and gives his usual solid support. Actor John Hodiak though, died of a sudden heart attack during production before his final scenes where filmed. aka La sorcière aka The White Witch aka The Sorceress. I posted a pic of Marina Vlady on General Boards "Post a pic from the latest..." and it got more "likes" than I'm used to. It's not a horror movie though the supposed Witch can indeed do some sorcery. Marina Vlady is indeed enchanting in her natural beauty. It's about a French lumber or timber engineer (Maurice Ronet) taking a position way out in the Swedish outlands of deep and dark forests were locals mixes the Bible and folklore. Ronet see her peeking at him, and he comes under her spell. Somehow hearing French actors speaking Swedish sounds strange, as much as I guess hearing Swedish actors speaking French for French people. Available in a horrible English subtitled version on YT. Tyrone Power has a simple job, carrying Diplomatic posts between embassy's until without his knowledge becomes part of a cat and mouse game between Soviet and USA, as this is not his normal job he doesn't know who to trust anymore, as he wasn't trained for this kind of assignments. Handled with the hands of assured director Henry Hathaway, makes sure this keeps interesting, though I have to admit it lost me a few times. Second unit filmed at European locations, and I don't think Tyrone and company ever left Hollywood. Entertaining enough to follow to the end. Mr and Mrs Smedhurst decided that after a long life they would retire to the English countryside, little knowing that the house (looks like a mansion indoors) that the house they just bought is haunted, after all it had been for sale for over 40 (or 60) years. This is not a horror movie, though there is a few spine chilling scenes. It's more on the cozy side. Instead of being scared they tries to solve the mystery of the lady that is apparently restless. James Mason plays a the old Mr Smedhurst, and does it well, he got the old people walk right, but his skin is still too soft and winklefree. Margaret Lockwood plays a woman who is employed to the Smedhurt household with the sole purpose to be available when Mrs Smedhurst needs company, maybe that was normal once upon a time, and she is the one who might have been possessed by the latest owner. Impressive sets, special effects and matte paintings, and very campy dancing in this once thought lost movie. Helen Gahagan who plays She who must be obeyed later became a politician (and was Mrs Melvyn Douglas) and tried to buy off all copies of this movie. The version that is availlable was found in Buster Keaton's private collection. Meant to be an early Technicolor movie, but suddenly RKO decided otherwise, though sets, effects and matte paintings were meant to be in colour. Ray Harryhausen, who was a friend of Merian C Cooper, decided to restore it artificially into colorization, and knowing that story I was very OK for once about colorization since it was meant to be in colour in the first place. As a movie it has it's stiff sides and it's impressive sides, but put together, it's entertaining most of the time. One of the athletic looking extras was non other than legendary Olympic Gold Medalist Jim Thorpe, by the way. That was my adventures last week, I will now read what interesting things all others have seen! I let a black cat who looks like the one I used to have wave goodbye! (My cat cat had a white spot just like this one) - www.imdb.com/review/rw2495343/?ref_=tt_urv 7/10Campbell's Kingdom - www.imdb.com/review/rw2867618/?ref_=tt_urv 7.5A Place of One's Own - www.imdb.com/review/rw2884150/?ref_=tt_urv
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