Post by mikef6 on Jan 16, 2018 16:06:13 GMT
Welcome back to another week of the BEST & WORST edition of 'what movies did you see last week?' thread. For those who haven't been part of it before, basically your hosts (us) posts our weekly movies and you can comment on those and list your movie for the same time frame. We will get back to you on yours and you can talk to other users here about their films. It's a great place to talk about film.
The Post (2017, Steven Spielberg)
Cinema
I love films set around American politics of the 50s, 60s and 70s so this true story about the public release of The Pebtagon Papers should have been right up my alley. However I found it rather tepid and obvious. It was well enough made with performances that were Good enough but the films focus and aesthetic did not make the source material what it could have been.
5.5/10
REPEAT MOVIE VIEWING
The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)
blu ray
Watching this classic horror, scifi, whodunnit on a new 4k scan from the original negative was pretty wonderful. One of, if not the greatest film ever made.
10/10
I have had opposite experiences with these two films. See my review of "The Post" below. Also, "The Thing From Another World" (1951) is one of my favorite thrillers ever. A great experience from my younger days. I watched Carpenter's "The Thing" without any connection whatsoever. I just sat still waiting for it to end. I'll never see it again.
Mine
Gangster Story / Walter Matthau (1959). Here is some trivia for you: Walter Matthau directed one (and only one) movie – this one. Matthau also stars as Jack Martin, a wanted killer who has just escaped from the police as the movie opens. To raise money, he pulls of a clever scam on a bank which, along with another cute robbery of a country club near the end, are the best parts of this movie. The bank job gets the notice of the mob boss who controls the territory. On the run in central California, Martin meets and falls in love with the local librarian (Carol Grace) and decides to settle down. But when the mob boss catches up to Martin, he is offered a job planning capers. This film was shot on the extreme cheap using a lot of public space (whether with or without permits, I don’t know). It was produced and distributed by Swen Productions, a company hitherto unknown to me. The best performance (and that’s not saying much) is from Carol Grace. Matthau, himself, is not very good. Matthau and Grace, it is to be noted, were newlyweds when “Gangster Story” was released. It was a second marriage for Matthau and a third for Grace who had just had but one other husband, i.e. she was married to and divorced from American author William Saroyan – twice.
Carol Grace and Walter Matthau in “Gangster Story”
Une Ravissante Idiote (The Ravishing Idiot, Agent 38-24-36) / Édouard Molinaro (1964). Incredibly annoying spy spoof set in London pitting British spies against Soviet agents but filmed in France with a French speaking cast. The lead player is American actor Anthony Perkins who is obviously dubbed to make him sound like a native French speaker, but Perkins clearly learned his lines in French so the dub would match his lip movements; so good for him. His female co-lead is Brigitte Bardot who I suspect needs no introduction. Perkins plays a Russian living in London under the name Harry Compton. Compton, something of a dim bulb, wants to forget about his Russian past and become a Englishman, but his friend and mentor is a spy and is supposed to be Compton’s boss. Meanwhile, the British spy service sets a trap with a fake file that is believed by the other side to be the NATO defense plans. They want the Russians to steal and believe the misinformation. Perkins and his control are given the task of getting their hands on the file. Also in the mix is the blonde bubblehead with a laugh like a donkey’s bray, Penny Lightfeather (Bardot) who Compton has fallen for. Turns out, she is Communist Party member and glad to help out but is even more stupid and incompetent than Compton. Some madcap stuff ensues. There is a lot of quick cutting, speeded up action, falling into cakes, bumbling around, getting the file, losing the file, getting the file, loosing the file, fighting a runaway vacuum cleaner, and…well, you get the idea. And every silly thing that happens is pointed out to us by what is possibly the most irritating underscore in film history – worse, composed by the great Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg). I felt really sorry for both Perkins and Legrand. And this went on for an hour and 45 minutes. The plot was chaotic but it did have two twists in the last few minutes. One came as a surprise; the other I spotted coming an hour and 40 minutes earlier. Really terrible.
Perkins and Bardot in The Ravishing Idiot
The Beguiled / Sofia Coppola (2017). Once this movie had ended for me, I had mixed feelings about it. But as the days past, I came to dislike it more and more. Yet – this may seem contradictory – I understand what some have said about the first version you see may be your favorite (the first was a 1971 release with Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page, directed by Don Siegel). Although there were some pretty shots of scenery in the new one, most of the Southern Gothic atmosphere, the “horror” element, was missing. Much of the main characters’ backstory was not retained. Colin Farrell was a mere shadow of Eastwood. And what was the point of shooting so many scenes in so much darkness that hardly anything can be discerned except candle flame. I was going to finish the last half of the film in the afternoon but even with window blinds closed and all lights out, what little glare was left was still too much against the black screen. I had to wait until after sundown before catching the ending. The best part: Kirsten Dunst as the lonely school teacher. The other major players were Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning. As politicians sometimes say, “My opinion is evolving.” Well, for me, each day that goes by I dislike this movie more.
Farrell and Dunst in a brightly lit scene
The Post / Steven Spielberg (2017). Two lions of American screen acting, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, team up to save the world. In 1971, political analyst Daniel Ellsberg, working for the RAND Corporation, a think-tank, photocopied over the period of a month, 7,000 pages of a Top Secret study tracing a pattern of lying to Congress and the public by U.S. Presidents from Truman, through Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ, and Nixon, about the war going on in Vietnam and America’s participation in it. When the New York Times got possession of a few hundred pages and printed a summery, news editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks) over at the Washington Post goes ballistic because they didn’t get the story first. Ace reporter Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk) thinks he knows who the source is. He leaves messages all over for Ellsberg to call him. Meanwhile, Katharine Graham (Streep) has recently been thrust into the job of publisher and printer of the Post, a job she doesn’t feel suited for because she had been raised to be a wife and mother. Now, she will have to lead the paper through a legal and ethical labyrinth. Acting throughout is at the highest level. Streep, Hanks, and Odenkirk lead a cast that is perfect down to the smallest speaking part. I’ll just mention Bruce Greenwood as Robert McNamara, Don Graham as an intern that Bradlee sends to NYC to spy on the times, and Tracy Letts as Graham’s top advisor. The script is by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer. One of the best of 2017. Highly recommended.
Hanks and Streep (as if you didn't know)
The Opera House / Susan Froemke (2017). A documentary chronicling the final years of the Old Met (the aging and inadequate theater that had housed the Metropolitan Opera in New York since 1883) and the construction of Lincoln Center with its new opera house in 1966. The hunt for a new site actually began in 1905 but nothing came of it until the mid-1950s This film takes up step-by-step through the city bureaucracy, the infighting among the architects, the budget battles, and the extensive “slum clearance” (called Urban Renewal back then) which kicked several thousand people out of their apartments (sub-standard, yes, but that was were they could live) without providing for them in any way so Lincoln Center could be built. And finally, the technical problems with the staging of the new opera (Samuel Barber’s “Antony and Cleopatra”) that would be performed on the very first night. The best part of the film is the scenes from an extensive interview with 90-year-old opera legend Leontyne Price, looking and sounding at least 20 years younger than her real age. The African-American wunderkind from Laurel, Mississippi broke a lot of barriers. She attended Julliard in the 1950s, began a recital career in Europe, then began appearing on the opera stage. She was already a mainstay at the Old Met when General Manager Rudolf Bing asked her to appear as Cleopatra on Opening Night. It is Price’s reminiscences that guide much of the documentary. While this summary of mine might seem dry and academic, it is not a bit so. It is often funny, touching, infuriating, and inspiring.
Leontyne Price @ 90
Some TV Shows. The Westerns are from the misty mist and the dusky dusk of early TV. The Gabby Hayes reviews were posted earlier on the Westerns Board.
The Gabby Hayes Show. Half-hour. May 12, 1956 – July 14, 1956.
Gabby had two shows, each had the same format. From 1950 to 1954 it ran on NBC as a 15-minute program. It moved to ABC where the half-hour version played for about two months. There couldn’t have been more that 8 to 10 episodes of the latter. I watched two of them.
Even though the opening titles show Gabby vigorously riding a horse, once the show starts, he sits on a set of a cabin front porch whittling a stick. He opens each show saying, “Well howdy, buckaroos. This is your ol’ pal, Gabby Hayes comin’ at’cha with another one of them rip-roaring western yarns. Yer dern tootin’. Yessiree, bob.” That, children, is authentic western gibberish. The “yarn” he spins is about 20 minutes of clips from an older PRC studio western. In other words, there is no new material and Gabby doesn’t play a role except presenter.
“Telescope” The western being excerpted is “Gentlemen with Guns,” a 1946 oater with Buster Crabb in one of 24 westerns where he played Billy Carson. His sidekick is Al 'Fuzzy' St. John (himself a Gabby Hayes rip-off) playing Fuzzy Q. Jones.
“Silver Skate” This is from “Wild Country” (1947), from a series starring country & western singer Eddie Dean playing “Eddie Dean” with his kick, Roscoe Ates as Soapy Jones. Often seen western villain Douglas Fowley is present and, while acting is not usually a consideration in these kids’ westerns, I. Stanford Jolley is noticeably good as a ruthless killer with the unlikely moniker of Rip Caxton.
At the time these shows were playing on Saturday morning TV, I was watching Saturday morning TV, including a lot of 1940s westerns, but I’ll be dad-gummed and danged (oops, too much Gabby) if I remember this show in either of its incarnations.
The Adventures Of Kit Carson. Half-hour. Syndicated. 1951 - ?
It is uncertain how many seasons Kit Carson was produced. According to the reference book Total Television, it was only on the air in 1951. The IMDb provides an episode guide for four seasons (1951 to 1955), but indicates elsewhere that the series ended in 1960. I watched two episodes from season 1. The show seems to be trying to walk a line between a juvenile audience and more adult psychological fare. Playing the title historical character (though these adventures have nothing to do with history) is hardworking actor Bill Williams. Williams was all over TV and movie screens (mostly in programmers) during the 1950s and 1960s. His spouse, Barbara Hale, was just as busy as an actor. She was seen by millions every week for seven years as Della Street on “Perry Mason.” They were married for 45 years until his death. Their son is actor William Katt (Williams’ birth name was Hermann August Wilhelm Katt). Playing Kit’s sidekick is Don Diamond who is still known for playing ethnicities other than his own. In “Kit Carson” he is a Mexican named El Toro (complete with Speedy Gonzales accent). He played a Native American, Crazy Cat, on the western comedy series “F Troop.”
S. 1, Ep. 18. December 8, 1951. “The Teton Tornado” Brad Randal, an old friend of Kit’s, is a mountain man who can’t conform to civilized ways. First, Kit learns that Brad is running a horse race scam. But when Randall tries to force himself on the young woman working at the boarding house, the result is a major fist fight and subsequent gun fight on main street.
S. 1, Ep. 22. January 5, 1952. “The Trap” Kit and El Toro capture Conover, a wanted outlaw. Conover explains that the family he left is in trouble and asks to be able to go to their aid. Not entirely trusting the man, Kit and El Toro go along. Myron Healy plays the boss behind the gunmen trying to run the family off their spread. Isabel Jewell (GWTW, Lost Horizon) is Conover’s bitter wife. The role of Healy’s main henchman is taken by former professional baseball player Fred Graham. You will remember Graham as Sheriff Jeff in “The Giant Gila Monster” (one of MST3K’s best) and as the policeman who falls from the roof in “Vertigo.”
Bill Williams and Don Diamond
Fred Graham
…Continuing a watch straight through the 10 seasons of Doctor Who: New Series in anticipation of next year’s introduction of the 13th Doctor.
S. 7, Ep. 3 “A Town Called Mercy” September 15, 2012. A sci-fi western set in the remote 19th century American town of Mercy where the residents are being held hostage by a cyborg gunman who demands they turn over a war criminal from his planet. Off-beat. Excellent.
S. 7, Ep 4 “The Power Of Three” September 22, 2012. The story of the Slow Invasion. One morning millions of black cubes appear all over the world. They don’t seem to have any function so people collect them, use them for paperweights, store them in closets, and generally forget about them. When, months later, they suddenly come to life, The Doctor has to act quickly to prevent Earth from being destroyed.
S. 7, Ep 5 “The Angels Take Manhattan” September 29, 2012. The Weeping Angels are back, to everyone’s delight. Also, River Song (Alex Kingston). Amy and Rory leave the show for good and in a way that shatters The Doctor. (You will find no spoilers here.) Another complex time travel paradox from writer and showrunner Steven Moffat.
S. 7, Christmas Special “The Snowmen” December 25, 2012. For once and only, the Christmas Special comes at the half-way point in the season instead of the first. The second best of the Christmas Specials. The Doctor meets Clara Oswald for the second time in a completely different time period and plant (the first time in Asylum Of The Daleks, 7:1) – and again she dies. She even exists in 2012. The Impossible Girl! Richard E. Grant is the main baddie and Ian McKellen is the voice of the Great Intelligence, another villain from the Classic Series. The Paternoster Gang makes its second appearance. Great script from Steven Moffat with wonderful back-and-forth between The Doctor and Clara.
S.7, Ep 6 “The Bells Of Saint John” March 30, 2013. The Doctor makes contact with the 21st century Clara Oswald who seems like a normal young lady. He saves her (and the world…again) from The Great Intelligence who invades the Wifi. By the end, we know, of course, that The Doctor is thinking at least two moves ahead of everybody else.
Jenna-Louisa Coleman as Clara Oswald
Matt Smith as The Doctor