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Post by kijii on Aug 18, 2018 20:36:01 GMT
The MacKintosh Man (1973) / John Huston Rented from Amazon PrimeThis movie, with Paul Newman, was made right after John Huston's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972). This is one of those spy /counter-spy movies that is so hard to describe that almost description might ruin the movie. Sometimes it is just better to let the movie tell the story and follow its lead. However, I will copy what I think is a good description of it (from an IMDb reviewer) below: I would only disagree with the reviewer about this being better done by Hitchock than Huston: Consider, Torn Curtain (1966) and compare it to this movie. This one is far better!!
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Post by mikef6 on Aug 18, 2018 20:48:57 GMT
Ocean’s Eight / Gary Ross (2018). Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock) puts together a team to steal diamonds at the Met Gala, but Anne Hathaway, as the egotistical actress who will be wearing the prize catch, a necklace worth a mil and a half, is the real thief, because she steals the movie. That's Helena Bonham Carter, behind.
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Post by kijii on Aug 20, 2018 0:19:52 GMT
Angels in the Outfield (1951) / Clarence Brown Rented from Amazon Prime
This was the original movie with that name. I really enjoy Paul Douglas since re-discovering him in my adult life.
Angel : Well McGovern, you sure talked your way out of that one today. Ten straight games and you had to go and blow it. Aloysius X. 'Guffy' McGovern (Paul Douglas): Now look, I... Angel : Take off your hat. Aloysius X. 'Guffy' McGovern : Yes Sir... All I said this afternoon... Angel : I heard what you said. Don't repeat it. Aloysius X. 'Guffy' McGovern : Now look, the guy called me an ape. Angel : Bowlegged ape. Aloysius X. 'Guffy' McGovern : Yeah. Angel : You are a little bowlegged. Aloysius X. 'Guffy' McGovern : What am I suppose to do, take it as a compliment? Don't I get a chance to talk back? Angel : Certainly. The English language has a total of 698,000 words. We ask you to avoid a hundredth of one percent of these... which at the moment seems to be your entire vocabulary. Aloysius X. 'Guffy' McGovern : I'll be tongue tied. Angel : Shakespeare wasn't. Nor Milton or Robert Burns. Study. McGovern. Study.
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Post by mikef6 on Aug 20, 2018 3:41:11 GMT
Sandome No Satsujin (The Third Murder) / Hirokazu Koreeda (2017). Ace criminal defense attorney Shigemori is called in to defend a man who has confessed to murdering his boss. What at first seems to be a legal procedural and trial story turns, in Koreeda’s hands, to an examination of that slippery and uncertain thing called “truth.” Excellent.
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Post by kijii on Aug 20, 2018 16:09:16 GMT
Wife vs. Secretary (1936) / Clarence Brown Rented from Amazon Prime
This is much better than your average MGM love triangle from the mid 30s. Van (Clark Gable), a rich and successful magazine publisher who is madly in love with his wife of three years, Linda (Myrna Loy).
He also has great relationships with his employees, including his young secretary, Whitey (Jean Harlow). Whitey is efficient and smart and they neither Whitey nor Van has any romantic notions about each other.
However, Van's mother, Mimi (May Robson) knowing something about men, advises Linda to have Whitey replaced with an older secretary (She has no faith that her son is any different than any other man in his position). A forth part of this "triangle" is Dave (James Stewart) who plans to marry Whitey but "wear the pants in the family when and if he marries her."
When a situation arises to buy a new magazine, Whitey and Van go to Cuba for the conference to close the magazine deal. Assumptions about their relationship there are assumed.... All in all it is a very good movie.
Linda (Myra Loy) : Well, after all, Van, she is an uncommonly good-looking girl. I don't know of anyone in our crowd who's as attractive, and people aren't willing to believe that looks go with brains. Van (Clark Gable) : Well, one of the smallest troubles we've ever had, Linda, is caring what other people think.
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Post by kijii on Aug 21, 2018 0:17:52 GMT
Destination Gobi (1953) / Robert Wise Rented for streaming from Amazon Prime
I chose this movie as part of my Robert Wise collected viewing. The movie is based on a true story of a Navy group from the USS Enterprise that was assigned to the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia in 1944 to establish a weather station there. This didn't seem logical, but the reason for its establishment was to study weather conditions affecting the US vs Japan war. Mongols in the desert served as a not-so-faithful group to help and protect the American sailors. The Mongols were given 60 saddles in the hope that that might win them over, but when things got rough with the Jap planes bombing Mongolia, the Mongols simply returned the saddles to the sailors (as if to say, these saddles are not worth the cost of being bombed by the Japs).
The commanding officer in this movie is played by Richard Widmark and some of his group include now familiar actors such as Max Showalter, Martin Milner, and long-time child actor Darryl Hickman, all grown up and taking on adult roles.
This is an interesting story, but not such a great movie in that the plot..plods a bit.
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Post by jeffersoncody on Aug 21, 2018 10:15:29 GMT
BEAST (2017) with Jessie Buckley, Johnny Flynn and Geraldine James, directed by Michael Pearce. Rating: 9/10. Highly Recommended. One of the best British films of 2017, this grips like a vice throughout and features an electrifying performance from Jessie Buckley (the Irish singer and stage star who made a big impact as Marya Bolkonskayain in the BBC's recent WAR & PEACE and the Tom Hardy-starring series TABOO and will surely be heading for Hollywood soon).
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Post by louise on Aug 21, 2018 14:12:31 GMT
true Grit (2010). it was okay, but a bit heavy going. Prefer the original with JohnWayne.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Aug 21, 2018 16:15:48 GMT
Turn the Key Softly (1953) with a gorgeous young Joan Collins, spending her first day out of prison. It also follows the story of two other women. Very well done and some nice London scenery circa 1953.
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Post by louise on Aug 21, 2018 18:02:57 GMT
A New Kind of Love. rather tiresome romantic comedy with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. there are a few laughs, none unfortunately provided by the two leads.
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Post by teleadm on Aug 21, 2018 18:14:50 GMT
The Fury 1978, directed by Brian De Palma, basad on a novel by John Farris, staring Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning, Amy Irving, Fiona Lewis, Andrew Stevens and others. Supernatural thriller about telekinetic powers in young people and the science to to use their powers in warfare. Kirk Douglas is the father of one of those young people, who is thought dead, but is he? I've seen it many years ago and thought it was a good thriller with supernatural undertones, but this time I actually thought it dragged. There were a few distractions that was a bit too lighthearted for this kind of movie, that it lost it grip a few times for too long. Good use of locations in Chicago and Israel (were the movie begins).
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Post by teleadm on Aug 22, 2018 17:25:55 GMT
Young Frankenstein 1974, directed by Mel Brooks, screenplay by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks, staring Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Cloris Leachman, Kenneth Mars, Richard Haydn (his last movie), Gene Hackman and many others. A humorous homage to Universal's old Frankenstein movies, at least the first four of them, about the American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather was not as insane as people believe, who is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers the process that reanimates a dead body. I've seen it many times before and I have always enjoyed it. The reason why it works is, I guess, that it has it's own storyline that it follows, and is not just a bunch of parody sketches edited together. Wonderful black and white cinematography. One cannot but wonder what Frau Blücher ever did to those poor horses. I also watched the interesting making-of documentary Making Frankensense of Young Frankenstein 1996. It was nominated for two Oscars, Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted From Other Material and Best Sound. Cloris Leachman and Madeline Kahn were both nominated for Golden Globes.
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Post by louise on Aug 22, 2018 19:08:31 GMT
Rooster Cogburn (1975). AMusing sequel to True Grit. John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn spar enjoyably.
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Post by kijii on Aug 23, 2018 0:16:40 GMT
Stage Door (1937) / Gregory La Cava Rented for streaming from Amazon Prime
Based on the Broadway play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, this is an impressive stage-bound movie with several actresses who were or would soon become major stars: Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Eve Arden, Lucille Ball, and Ann Miller.
The movie was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Andrea Leeds), Best Director (Gregory La Cava), and Best Screen Play (Morrie Ryskind & Anthony Veiller). This ensemble work was full of clever banter among the characters, but what starts out to be fun eventually becomes too much, too long. What was interesting to me was the verbal jousts between Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers as they play off of each other (as roommate at the boarding house) and really played the types of characters that would later go on to fit them in other movies. That is, the played their roles just as we would later expect them to. Ginger Rogers had her style and Katherine Hepburn had hers.
Terry Randall (Katherine Hepburn) : [entering the boarding house after trying the wrong door] How many doors are there to this place? Jean Maitland (Ginger Rogders): Well, there's the trap door, the humidor, and the cuspidor. How many doors would you like?
Jean Maitland: Hmm! Fancy clothes, fancy language and everything! Terry Randall : Unfortunately, I learned to speak English correctly. Jean Maitland : That won't be of much use to you here. We all talk pig latin.
Jean Maitland : We could leave the trunks here and sleep in the hall. There's no use crowding the trunks. Terry Randall : [meeting sarcasm with sarcasm] I don't know what we're going to do when the wolf hounds arrive. I hope you don't mind animals. Jean Maitland : Oh, not at all. I roomed with a great many of them before. Terry Randall: I see that, in addition to your other charms, you have that insolence generated by an inferior upbringing.
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Post by kijii on Aug 23, 2018 1:41:27 GMT
A New Kind of Love. rather tiresome romantic comedy with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. there are a few laughs, none unfortunately provided by the two leads. louise-- I understand. Newman and Woodward made some good movies together and some not so good. Ever seen, Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958)? It was typical of comedy at the time, but not the best example of Newman, Woodward or director Leo McCarey.
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Post by kijii on Aug 23, 2018 6:00:04 GMT
The Roots of Heaven (1958) / John Huston Rented from Amazon Prime
Morel (Trevor Howard) : Do you know that tens of thousands of elephants are killed every year? Thirty thousand last year, to be exact. Thirty thousand. If they go on like that, there won't be any left. Anyone who's seen the great herds on the march across the last free spaces of the earth knows they're something the world can't afford to lose! But no... We have to capture, kill, destroy. All that's beautiful has got to go. All that's free! Soon we'll be alone on this earth with nothing to destroy but ourselves!
Morel : A man's never alone when he fights for a good cause!
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Aug 23, 2018 12:02:05 GMT
The MEG (2018), it was SHARKTACULAR!
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Post by dirtypillows on Aug 23, 2018 19:18:53 GMT
I just saw "All My Sons" and "The Spiritualist" on a film noir double bill a couple nights ago. Both were from 1948; AMS was written by new kid on Broadway, Arthur Miller, and starred Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster; whereas "The Spiritualist", was written by somebody, directed by somebody else and starred this one guy and these two girls.
AMS was super heavy duty drama about guilt and blame and recriminations and was not exactly entertaining; whereas "The Spiritualist" was about a phony medium and rich young widow who lives in a mansion off the Pacific coast in Carmel, CA and was a whole lot of low-budget, spooky fun with absolutely gorgeous, shimmering b&w photography.
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Post by kijii on Aug 24, 2018 0:54:05 GMT
The Kremlin Letter (1970) / John Huston Rented from Amazon Prime
I've seen this movie three times and STILL can't figure it out. Based on the novel by Noel Behn, it is about independent spy agencies fighting against each other in an international espionage plot.
This movie is so complicated (with each spy having a code name), that I'm sure Bibi Andersson and Max von Sydow could have performed their roles in Swedish and I would have understood it no better than I can now.
Charles Rone (Patrick O'Neal) : I'm goin' to Mexico. Ward (Richard Boone) : Yes sir, you're goin' to Mexico to pick up Lord Ashley's Whore. You're gonna rustle up the Warlock in San Francisco and then make tracks to Chicago for the Erector Set. Tell them the Tillinger Foundation is planning an expedition.
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Post by mikef6 on Aug 24, 2018 1:03:22 GMT
I just saw "All My Sons" and "The Spiritualist" on a film noir double bill a couple nights ago. Both were from 1948; AMS was written by new kid on Broadway, Arthur Miller, and starred Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster; whereas "The Spiritualist", was written by somebody, directed by somebody else and starred this one guy and these two girls. AMS was super heavy duty drama about guilt and blame and recriminations and was not exactly entertaining; whereas "The Spiritualist" was about a phony medium and rich young widow who lives in a mansion off the Pacific coast in Carmel, CA and was a whole lot of low-budget, spooky fun with absolutely gorgeous, shimmering b&w photography. Yeah, "All My Sons" is some heavy duty drama with Eddie Robinson giving a great performance, esp. in his final scene where he speaks the title of the movie. AMS was a Broadway play before a film. The movie's script makes it more of a detective story than the original but still retains much of the play's power. "The Spiritualist" is an alternate title for "The Amazing Mr. X." That's Turhan Bey as Alexis, the smooth con artist. Lynn Bari is the woman he is after for her money but the charming Cathy O’Donnell, as Bari's younger sister takes center stage with an enchanting performance in the second half. I loved her in this. Richard Carlson is Bari's bland suitor. That "absolutely gorgeous, shimmering b&w photography" is courtesy of legendary cinematographer John Alton. I'm glad you liked them both. '48 is one of my favorite years for movies.
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