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Post by teleadm on Sept 4, 2020 21:56:55 GMT
A director that I have mixed feelings about, who undeniably did a some good and even brilliant movies. Refusing to testify at HUAC, spent a few years in Britain, and then kissed and made up with HUAC, returned to Hollywood and was handed big budget productions, and as many old directors did one movie too many in the 1970s. I have mixed feelings about this director, who offcourse made some great movies too along the way.   The Hawk 1935, everybody has to start somewhere, even if a movie stars Bruce Lane.  Mystery Air Raider 1940  Secrets of the Lone Wolf 1941  Murder My Sweet 1944  Back to Bataan 1945  Till the End of Time 1946  Crossfire 1947  So Well Remembered 1947  Give Us This Day aka Christ in Concrete 1949  Obsession aka The Hidden Room 1949  The Sniper 1952  The Caine Mutiny 1954  Broken Lance 1954  Raintree Country 1957  The Young Lions 1958  Warlock 1959  Walk on the Wild Side 1962  The Carpetbaggers 1964  Mirage 1965  Anzio 1968  Shalako 1968  The Human Factor 1975, and that is were it ended, a euro-thriller nearly nobody has seen with a few well know actors. The above movies is not a complete list!  Opinions about his movies are welcome! You can list as many as you like! (no limits) Thanks for watching! |
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Post by OldAussie on Sept 4, 2020 22:25:06 GMT
best I've seen -
Murder, My Sweet
Crossfire
The Caine Mutiny
Warlock
The Carpetbaggers
interesting but not so great -
The Left Hand of God
Raintree County
The Young Lions
Mirage
Alvarez Kelly
so bad they're good -
Walk on the Wild Side - so silly but endlessly entertaining
Shalako (includes perhaps the most disturbing death scene pre Mr Goodbar)
Bluebeard - Burton at his least invested.
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Post by politicidal on Sept 4, 2020 22:31:45 GMT
With a career that long, he's bound to have highs and lows. Crossfire and The Caine Mutiny are both pretty good. Back to Bataan is solid. Did not care for Murder, My Sweet. I didn't like Soldier of Fortune the first time I saw it but it grew on me a little. Shalako and Warlock were just okay. My favorite movie of his was honestly The Carpetbaggers. It's silly and trashy but so much fun.
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Post by telegonus on Sept 5, 2020 9:20:15 GMT
best I've seen - Murder, My Sweet Crossfire The Caine Mutiny Warlock The Carpetbaggers interesting but not so great - The Left Hand of God Raintree County The Young Lions Mirage Alvarez Kelly so bad they're good - Walk on the Wild Side - so silly but endlessly entertaining Shalako (includes perhaps the most disturbing death scene pre Mr Goodbar) Bluebeard - Burton at his least invested.
Your choices are pretty close to mine, Old Aussie. Of your top choices, they're largely in the same order as mine would be. In your "interesting but not so great" list, I find Raintree County the best. It's a botched film in so many ways, yet it rises above all the problems it has, most notably the changes in Monty Clift's looks due to his car crash, although a case can be made that his character rather "evolved" in the course of the story, losing his physical beauty while gaining inner wisdom, but such a perspective is difficult to hold onto given that he, or rather his character, doesn't seem to have "grown" that much. I can't blame this on the director. Raintree was such a (literally) troubled production, it's miracle they were able to wrap it up and get it released.
Yet for all its flaws it has a larger than life epic sweep that can take one's breath away. There's much beauty in this film, and I can see how, if things had gone as planned, it may well have become the Gone With The Wind Of the Fifties. Its best qualities can bear comparison with the earlier Selznick film, but Selznick didn't put Raintree County Together. I prefer the score of this one to GWTW's, which I've never liked. It's lovely, and it matches the film it graces nicely. There's some serendipity at work in the film even as it stands. Clift was just right for the lead, even for a "perfect version", and I especially like him early on. That he seems a bit out of place at times, during the foot race scenes, is consistent with the qualities of the character he is playing.
Murder, My Sweet, Crossfire and The Caine Mutiny; I love 'em all. They're in the right order, too, as to which is my favorite. The Carpetbaggers is great fun, and the director was apparently aware of the level of his material, which he sank to without losing his sense of humor. Not that it's a send-up of the type of film it is so much as to complement it. Edward Dmytryk had a flair for that, going back to his earliest days, continuing through his later films. Dmytryk's flexibility and inventiveness save some of those later films of his that might not have worked so well with a more journeyman director. Mirage was made in a style appropriate to the Noir look its story "demanded" (as it were), and which it likely wouldn't have had with a less gifted man at the helm.
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Post by hitchcockthelegend on Sept 5, 2020 15:29:47 GMT
Mixed bag perfectly sums him up, but as a noir and Western fan he has to make my favourites list >
Murder, My Sweet (1944) 8/10
Cornered (1945)8/10
Crossfire (1947) 8/10
Obsession (1949) 8/10
The Sniper (1952) 8/10
Broken Lance (1954) 8/10
Warlock (1959) 9/10
The Caine Mutiny (1954) 9/10
Back to Bataan (1945) 7/10
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