CountVolpe
Junior Member
Moin Moin
@countvolpe
Posts: 1,158
Likes: 677
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Post by CountVolpe on Jan 26, 2023 21:34:31 GMT
Nightmare Alley (2021)
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Post by politicidal on Jan 27, 2023 1:20:17 GMT
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Post by louise on Jan 27, 2023 8:01:30 GMT
Separate Tables (1958). Drama set in a hotel in the sedate English seaside resort of Bournemouth. Wendy Hiller is the proprietor of the hotel, and she is engaged to long term resident, writer Burt Lancaster. But alas for Miss Hiller, Lancaster’s ex wife Rita Hayworth turns up, having got wind of his engagement, and hoping to get him back. Among the other residents of the hotel David Niven is outstanding as a rather dodgy major, who has formed a friendship with timid Deborah Kerr. Kerr has a tyrannical mother (Gladys Cooper, who seems to have cornered the market in oppressive mothers). An interesting story with good characters, though I couldn’t help finding the presence of Burt Lancaster and Rita Hayworth in Bournemouth somewhat unlikely.
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Post by louise on Jan 27, 2023 16:02:52 GMT
Hatter’s Castle (1942). Absurd melodrama set in Victorian Scotland,loosely based on the novel of the same name by A.J. Cronin. Robert Newton is Jim Brodie, a tyrannical hatter who bullies his wife and children and employees, and has social aspirations. Deborah Kerris his put upon daughter, and Jams Mason is the idealistic young doctor who loves her. Enid Stamp-Taylor is Newton’s feisty young mistress, who persuades Newton to give Emlyn Williams, her ‘step brother’ (actually former lover) a job,which leads to complications. The whole thing is so over the top it was funny rather than tragic.
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Post by politicidal on Jan 27, 2023 16:28:48 GMT
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Post by teleadm on Jan 27, 2023 19:14:01 GMT
Thought that was great on release, many years later how was it watching it?
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Post by politicidal on Jan 27, 2023 19:25:45 GMT
Thought that was great on release, many years later how was it watching it? First time I watched it. I thought it was excellent. Michael Douglas is amazing in this and Robert Duvall is a good counterbalance. It's a reminder of how good a director Joel Schumacher actually was before the debacle he faced with both his Batman movies.
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Post by teleadm on Jan 27, 2023 19:55:54 GMT
Son of Fury or longer title Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake 1942 directed by John Cromwell Sometimes it's just nice to sit back and relax and watch a movie like this. Made to entertain. Roddy McDowall grows up to look like Tyrone Power, the right owner of a Title, hindered by a devilish George Sanders (at his best) who likes to be rich. And the way back to get his Title of prominence and power. He get's it through south sea pearls. What sticks out is the out-of-this world beauty that was Gene Tierney as a South Sea Island girl. Elsa Lancaster as a prostitute who helps Power escape , and John Carradine in a role that eventually turns out as a good guy.
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Post by persistenceofvision on Jan 28, 2023 0:20:00 GMT
THE ELEMENT OF CRIME (1984)In the introduction to Slow Learner, Thomas Pynchon says that as an undergrad he didn’t realise surrealism was about channelling the unconscious, and thought it just meant being deliberately weird to catch people’s attention. This popped into my mind when watching Lars von Trier’s debut feature. Von Trier does everything that cinematic enfant terrible wannabes are meant to do when they start out: he privileges style over substance, flaunts his unabsorbed influences (Bunuel, The Third Man and other ’40s film noir), and shows a determination to shock (though he’s kept on showing that in the intervening four decades). In a dystopian retro-futurist world, traumatised ex-cop Michael Elphick tells his story under hypnosis to a psychiatrist (which explains the sluggish dreaminess of everything). He returned to the force, Blade Runner style, to investigate a serial killer targeting girls who sell lottery tickets on the streets. In the process he reconnects with his old mentor Esmond Knight (it’s not clear if Knight’s meant to be a criminologist or another ex-cop) notorious for his discredited method involving entering into the mind of the bad guy you’re trailing. This Elphick does, but gets a bit carried away… Every scene seems to take place at night, on a picturesquely rain-sodden bombsite or garbage heap, with dialogue that sounds as if it’s been written in a foreign language and translated into English (which according to the credits it was). Von Trier manifestly doesn’t give a rat’s ass about telling a crime story. His purpose is apparently to make some statement about how grim the future of Europe seemed in 1984, while showing a series of striking images. As pretentious as this whole mess is, it’s strangely watchable. Elphick (possibly best known to American moviegoers for abusing John Hurt in The Elephant Man) and Knight (veteran of many Olivier and Powell-Pressburger movies) were both fine actors. The elaborate visuals are quite something: Von Trier and his cameraman Tom Elling shoot everything in a sepia tint with the occasional intrusion of a colour object, like Spellbound or The Portrait of Dorian Gray. And every so often you see something beautiful, or gross, or intriguing, so it’s not possible to get entirely bored.
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Post by louise on Jan 28, 2023 15:57:25 GMT
From Here to Eternity (1953). A depressing film set in a military base on Hawaii just before Pearl Harbour. Characters mostly unlikeable. There’s a lot of unpleasant stuff happens with bullying, fights etc, a couple of rather sordid affairs, and everyone ends up either dead or miserable. Not sure what the point was of Pearl Harbour being in the film, the story really has nothing to do with it. This goes on my list of ‘films I would pay not to see again’.
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Post by louise on Jan 28, 2023 17:48:48 GMT
The Chalk Garden (1964). Very interesting drama set in a house on the Sussex coast, in which Miss Madrigal (Deborah Kerr) gets a job as governess to Laurel (Hayley Mills), the very disturbed granddaughter of Edith Evans,who has brought Laurel up since her mother left. Laurel dislikes Miss Madrigal, but is determined to find out about her past. miss Mardigal is determined to reconcile Laurel to her mother. She also helps to revive the garden, which isn’t doing well due to the chalky soil. Hayley Mills, Deborah Kerr and Edith Evans are all on great form, and there is good support from John Mills as Maitland, the butler.
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Post by stryker on Jan 29, 2023 0:13:55 GMT
From Here to Eternity (1953). A depressing film set in a military base on Hawaii just before Pearl Harbour. Characters mostly unlikeable. There’s a lot of unpleasant stuff happens with bullying, fights etc, a couple of rather sordid affairs, and everyone ends up either dead or miserable. Not sure what the point was of Pearl Harbour being in the film, the story really has nothing to do with it. This goes on my list of ‘films I would pay not to see again’.
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Post by louise on Jan 29, 2023 7:32:11 GMT
Lady of Burlesque (1943). Entertaining comedy drama mystery with Barbara Stanwyck as the star of a burlesque show where someone starts murdering the girls. Barbara Stanwyck does some fabulous dancing. My favourite character is Dorothy Malone as the bookseller, her scene with Bogart is great.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 29, 2023 14:38:01 GMT
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Post by louise on Jan 29, 2023 14:40:25 GMT
The Girl Can’tHelp It (1956). Jayne Mansfield is a ganster’s mistress,her lover wants her to be a singing star and hires a publicity agent to promote her, trouble is she can’t sing. The plot is mildly amusing but doesn’t really matter as the film is mainly a vehicle for various musical acts to perform, including Little Richard, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran, The Platters, and many others. This film had a great influence on John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who sneaked into the cinema to see it though under age at the time.
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Post by politicidal on Jan 29, 2023 16:31:32 GMT
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Post by gspdude on Jan 29, 2023 17:41:19 GMT
Street of Shame (1956) Brothel life in post-war Japan. In Japanese with English subs. A bit depressing, but well done. 7/10.
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CountVolpe
Junior Member
Moin Moin
@countvolpe
Posts: 1,158
Likes: 677
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Post by CountVolpe on Jan 29, 2023 18:52:51 GMT
Avatar: The Way of Water
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Post by louise on Jan 30, 2023 8:23:35 GMT
Key Largo (1948). Fairly entertaining but very melodramatic story with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall getting involved with gangster Edward G. Robinson. Claire Trevor is Robinson’s permanently sloshed mistress.. there is an absurd scene halfway through the film - I mean honestly, did anyone really think Robinson would have given Bogart a loaded gun?
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Post by louise on Jan 30, 2023 14:02:29 GMT
To Have And Have Not (1944). Humphrey Bogart is living on Martinique and making a living taking fishermen out in his boat. He reluctantly gets mixed up with some members of the French Resistance, and less reluctantly with beautiful singer Lauren Bacall. Entertaining adventure with Bogart and Bacall both on top form, as is Bogart’s faithful sidekick, permanently inebriated Walter Brennan “was you ever bit by a dead bee?”
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