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Post by OldAussie on Sept 12, 2018 3:10:21 GMT
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Sept 12, 2018 8:28:12 GMT
Operation Counterspy 1966 -- A secret agent is sent to infiltrate the heavily guarded fortress of a madman bent on taking over the world.
George Ardisson Hélène Chanel
I like these cheapo Eurospy flicks with out of sync dubbing. You watch enough of them and the familiar voices are like a sedative.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 12, 2018 17:54:12 GMT
March or Die 1977, directed by Dick Richards, screenplay by David Zelag Goodman, music by Maurice Jarre, staring Gene Hackman, Terence Hill, Catherine Deneuve, Max von Sydow, Ian Holm, Jack O'Halloran, Rufus, Marcel Bozzuffi and others. Drama, War, Adventure. Morocco during the 1920s, French Foreign Legion Major William Foster's (Hackman) unit is protecting an archaeological dig, but the discovery of an Arab sacred burial site prompts the angry Arab tribes to attack Foster's small garrison. It's a long way to those battle scenes as we meet and get to know a few characters with differnent reason to be where they are. An expensive box-office failure when it came, and was one of Jerry Bruckheimer's first movie as a producer, and I can understand why it failed. Making a Foreign Legion movie in the old style but with modern sensitivities doesn't sound like a good idea in 1977 when nearly everyone wanted to see Star Wars and Smokey and the Bandit like movies. Well known actors do what they can, Hackman is good as usual, Deneuve is totally wasted, but Terence Hill who is obviously cast with an eye at the international market and to introduce him to the American is totally wrong as a charming jewelthief who sees joining the Legion as a way not to get throwned into jail, Hill hadn't at the time shaked of his more humorous persona from his Trinity and Bud Spencer years, and looks sort of bemused through the whole movie. It's not an awful movie, it feels like they had the right ideas and visions of how it should look like and be played out, but they didn't get it right and didn't hit the right notes.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Sept 12, 2018 18:43:16 GMT
Peter Bogdanovich's At Long Last Love (1975). A musical comedy in the style of those 1930's films of yesteryear. A massive flop when released, it would have more of an audience today I think, musicals were not popular in the 70's, today's audiences seem to like them more. Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn, John Hillerman, Eileen Brennan, all singing and dancing to Cole Porter songs. I didn't feel like anyone embarrassed themselves at all, I would watch Madeline Kahn do anything at anytime, so it was all good for me. The subplot with Brennan and Hillerman was cute, hard to believe the main cast are all gone now, with the exception of Cybill Shepherd, who is a lovely singer.
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Post by kijii on Sept 13, 2018 4:55:21 GMT
The Blue Bird (1976) / George Cukor Viewed from DVD
In order to see all of Cukor's movies, you would have to see this strange children's fantasy adventure, based on Maurice Maeterlinck's play. It is so bad that it might be good and I just don't understand it. But, for me, it was stupid from start to finish. If it is about unhappy children trying find happiness, this movie sort of missed the boat since these children did not seem unhappy at any time.
Speaking of performers that played multiple roles in one move, in this movie Elizabeth Taylor played, "the mother," "Light," "a witch" and "motherly love." Jane Fonda played the many aspects of "Night"; and Ava Gardner showed us the value of the many aspects of "Luxury" (probably the most entertaining segment of the movie for me). Robert Morley was also very good as "Father Time."
This version seems to be a Russian/American production since it was filmed in by the Lenfilm Studios in the Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt, Petrogradsky District, St. Petersburg, with with some Russian actors and some scenes filmed in Moscow. The opening credits are in Russian and one is given the opportunity to select subtitles and dubbing in several languages.
But, to see another version of the movie, I might see it it gets better with Walter Lang's The Blue Bird (1940), In this version, the live scenes are in black and white, and the dream sequences are in color. I prefer this one to the Cukor version. Shirley Temple was the lead girl, Mytyl, in this version. At this time, Temple was still in her childhood role of pouting and overplaying her childlike ways, However, later became more natural to her age, blinding in movies such as Since You Went Away (1944), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), and especially Fort Apache (1948) in which she played Henry Fonda's daughter at the Fort.
Then, there is also a silent version, The Blue Bird (1918)
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Sept 13, 2018 16:12:24 GMT
Lucky Lady (1975), more Burt! Also, Liza Minnelli and Gene Hackman as a trio of rum runners during prohibition in the 1930's who have a menage-a-trois! Liza sings! Favorite Line: "You ever get tired of having yourself around?" - Claire (Liza Minnelli) [to Kibby] (Gene Hackman) Stanley Donen directed, he had a very hard time filming on the ocean, and the three main cast members all recall it being one of the hardest films they ever made The title refers to the name of the yacht they use to run rum, but I suppose it could apply to Claire who has two men in her life at once! Another "flop" at the time, but I liked seeing these three interact together on screen, and the movie is good too. Nice to see Burt's frequent costars John Hillerman, Geoffrey Lewis and Robby Benson with him here again.
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Post by kijii on Sept 13, 2018 16:53:05 GMT
Lucky Lady (1975), more Burt! Also, Liza Minnelli and Gene Hackman as a trio of rum runners during prohibition in the 1930's who have a menage-a-trois! Liza sings! Favorite Line: "You ever get tired of having yourself around?" - Claire (Liza Minnelli) [to Kibby] (Gene Hackman) Stanley Donen directed, he had a very hard time filming on the ocean, and the three main cast members all recall it being one of the hardest films they ever made The title refers to the name of the yacht they use to run rum, but I suppose it could apply to Claire who has two men in her life at once! Another "flop" at the time, but I liked seeing these three interact together on screen, and the movie is good too. Nice to see Burt's frequent costars John Hillerman, Geoffrey Lewis and Robby Benson with him here again. Thinking of Burt, here is another movie in which he played a supporting role--Two people were nominated for Oscars here: Jill Clayburgh & Candice Bergen (her only Oscar nomination).
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Sept 13, 2018 17:16:12 GMT
kijii I did see Starting Over way back in the 80's, I could probably do with seeing it again now. I've been trying to see Burt's 60's and 70's stuff this week during my Burt-A-Thon, it's been a little frustrating to find some of these. I can't find Shamus anywhere. Finding videos ain't what it used to be since the internet came along, and I can't find it there either. I suppose I could look on Amazon, but it would take too long and I will have moved on by then. I'll probably stumble upon it at some later date when I'm not even looking for it.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 13, 2018 17:49:11 GMT
Song of the South 1946, directed by Wilfred Jackson (animation) and Harve Foster (live action), based on a book by Joel Chandler Harris, staring Ruth Warrick, Bobby Driscoll, James Baskett, Luana Patten, Lucile Watson, Hattie McDaniel and others. Family friendly fantasy with animation and songs, about Uncle Remus (Baskett) who draws upon his tales of Brer Rabbit to help little Johnny (Driscoll) deal with his confusion over his parents' separation as well as his new life on a plantation. This movie was mentioned in the "hard to find" thread so I thought I should rewatch it to see what possible could be so dangerous. It wasn't impossible to buy on DVD 10 years ago at least, I guess it's the 1996 restoration they transfered since that is the latest restoration there is so far. Storywise it's old-fashioned and dusty, with a bit of sentimentality, and it's offcourse questionable how many happy slaves there were in the American South. It's plays a bit on old stereotypes. Should it be banned from viewing? Absolutely not! We shouldn't hide what was once seen as normal, we must remember and be able to watch so we can learn and become better. We should not hide our uncomfortable parts of history and try to forget it or history might repeat it self. Sorry for that outburst. The animated parts is some of the best the Disney studios ever did, and that song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" sticked lick glue on my brain, and I don't mind since it's a great song. "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" won the Oscar for best Original Song, plus James Baskett won an Honorary Oscar for "For his able and heart-warming characterization of Uncle Remus, friend and story teller to the children of the world, in Walt Disney's Song of the South".
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Post by kijii on Sept 13, 2018 23:32:15 GMT
I love this movie, its animation, its tales, and it tunes. I have a DVD copy of it too, but it may be pirated (with Asian print on the box). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Chandler_HarrisMy favorite songs--that I remember from my childhood--are "Laughing Place" and "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah."
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Post by teleadm on Sept 14, 2018 16:37:18 GMT
The 300 Spartans 1962, directed by Rudolph Maté, based on old scriptures and a screenplay by George St. George, music by Manos Hadjidakis (Never on Sunday), staring Richard Egan (King Leonidas), Sir Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker, Barry Coe, David Farrar (Xerxes), Donald Houston, (introducing) Anna Synodinou, Kieron Moore, robert Brown, John Crawford, Laurence Naismith, Ivan Triesault and others. Historic drama spectacle about a small army of Greeks spearheaded by 300 Spartans who has to battle with the whole invading Persian army. Tries to be an epic but isn't really, it's under 2 hours, but no way near the awful movie that I've read and heard that is should be. After all it was the inspiration for comic artist Frank Miller who saw this movie as a boy and said: "it changed the course of my creative life". His graphic novel "300", about the Battle of Thermopylae, was the basis for the movie 300 2006. It has a lot of corny dialogue and an unnecessary Romeo and Juliet like romance plastered to it. Most of the actors are very cardboard, and Richard Egan never had the right charisma to carry a movie. Sir Ralph on the other hand gives it a bit of class, he could make any kind of dialogue sound classy. The battle scenes are very impressive too, thousands of people in those scenes, from the then Royal Greece Army (it was made on locations in Greece), and it's real people not CGI, so those scenes are very impressive. A perfect picture for a lazy Sunday afternoon actually. The reason why it's available could be the success of 300 2006 The final film for David Farrar who played Xerxes, star of movies like Black Narcissus 1947, before he retired to South Africa. At the time of it's release the film was considered the most violent film ever to be showed in American cinemas. (I wonder how true that "trivia" is).
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Post by kijii on Sept 14, 2018 17:24:17 GMT
21 Days Together (1940) / Basil Dean Seen on TCM BUT it is also available via YouTube = www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZxfCUEfkzM
Is a clever little story, called The First and the Last, by John Galsworthy. Starring Vivien Leigh (Wanda), Laurence Olivier (as her lover, Larry), and Leslie Banks (as Keith, Larry's striving brother). The story presents us with several moral dilemmas as well a very good story.
Who is this man and why does he disrupt everyone's lives? Is he really Wanda's husband? Was he really killed? Did the accused (and convicted) man really killed him? OR did the convicted man actually kill himself due to his need to want to be punished (internal feelings of guilt about his life in general)?
Full TCM synopsis with SPOILERS: Larry, black sheep of the Durrant family, kills Henry Wallen, the long-missing husband of his lover Wanda, when Wallen appears at Wanda's flat and threatens her life. After stashing Wallen's corpse in a deserted archway in Glove Lane, Larry goes to his brother Keith for advice. Keith, a brilliant attorney in line for a judgeship, pleads with Larry to leave the country and thus spare him the embarrassment of having a brother accused of murder. Larry refuses to leave however, and returns to the alley where he meets John Evan, a defrocked minister. Evan picks up Larry's gloves after he drops them in the street, and is later arrested for Wallen's murder based on the circumstantial evidence of the bloody gloves. When Larry learns of Evan's arrest, he decides to marry Wanda and live an idyllic existence in the three weeks before Evan's trial and then turn himself in for murder. As the debased Evan resigns himself to die, Wanda and Larry try to fit thirty years of living into three weeks. On the day that Evan is sentenced to hang, Keith begs his brother to remain silent and let the condemned man die, but Larry refuses and leaves for the police station, only to be stopped on the steps by Wanda, who has read the news announcing that Evan has died of a heart attack on his way to jail.
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Post by OldAussie on Sept 17, 2018 5:06:03 GMT
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Sept 17, 2018 6:22:31 GMT
THE ITALIAN CONNECTION --as it was Henry Silva's birthday yesterday I caught the second part of the Milieu Trilogy.
"The second film in Fernando Di Leo’s Milieu Trilogy focuses on Luca Carnali, a small-time mobster and pimp who has been set up by his gangland boss. When a shipment of heroin disappears between Italy and New York, Carnali is framed for the theft. Carnali is pursued through Milan by a pair of merciless American hit men— played by Henry Silva and Woody Strode, and referenced by Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction (1994)— whom mistakenly believe that he has stolen a drug shipment. Following the murder of his wife, the hunted becomes the hunter as Carnali takes his revenge on his boss, the hit men and anyone else who stands in his way."
I also watched the first episode of MADIGAN starring Richard Widmark. He is teamed with Ronny Cox who has a Jimmy Carter hairstyle.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Sept 17, 2018 12:53:36 GMT
My first time viewing Pitfall (1948), a little noir to start the day!
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Post by teleadm on Sept 18, 2018 17:33:02 GMT
Taken 2 2012, directed by Olivier Megaton (Yes.that's his name), staring Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace. French-American action. I won't take up too much space about it since I thought it was unnecessarily raw and brutal, and not especially exciting. I actually have a hard time telling those latter day Liam Neeson action-thrillers apart. A funny little mistake, they try to reach the American Embassy in Instanbul, even if in the real world the Embassy is actaully in Ankara, since that is the capitol of Turkey.
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Post by nutsberryfarm 🏜 on Sept 19, 2018 1:40:26 GMT
Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947). Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, with Chôko Iida, Hôhi Aoki, Eitarô Ozawa. DVR’d off of TCM telecast.
Simple but engrossing tale of Kohei (Hôhi Aoki), a young Japanese boy who has somehow gotten separated from his father and ends up far from home in the care and custody of strangers who, essentially, not only don’t know what to do with the boy but don’t *want* anything to do with him or the attendant responsibility and expense of taking care of an orphan in immediately post-war Japan. But eventually that responsibility falls to a certain Otane (Chôko Iida), a crochety, boss-faced, middle-aged widow who very reluctantly takes on the task of being the kid’s surrogate mother. The viewer immediately feels sorry for the poor kid… but just a few scenes later, when it’s revealed that the kid is a bed-wetter, the viewer suddenly starts to feel sorry for poor old Otane as well.
Slowly but surely the boy begins to win Otane over, and by the end of the film you’ll undoubtedly go through a number of laughs - and sobs - as these two eventually become nearly inseparable.
I really enjoyed this one on a number of levels, not least of which was the way such a simple tale, done in Black & White without the use of elaborate sets or other movie-making contrivances, can have such a profound effect on the viewer. Not hard to see why Ozu was, and still is considered one of Japan's all-time-great directors.
great one! funny kid!
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Post by teleadm on Sept 19, 2018 17:19:26 GMT
The Lavender Hill Mob 1951, directed by Charles Crichton, original screenplay by T.E.B. Clarke, starring Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, Alfie Bass, Marjorie Fielding, Edie Martin, John Gregson, Audrey Hepburn (one scene only as Chiquita) and others including Robert Shaw in an uncredited minor debut role. British Caper Comedy about Holland (Guinness), a shy retiring man, who dreams of being rich and living the good life. Faithfully, for 20 years, he has worked as a bank transfer agent for the delivery of gold bullion. One day he befriends Pendlebury (Holloway), a maker of souvenirs. Holland remarks that, with Pendlebury's smelting equipment, one could forge the gold into harmless-looking toy Eiffel Towers and smuggle the gold from England into France. Soon after, the two plant a story to gain the services of professional criminals Lackery (James) and Shorty (Bass). Together, the four plot their crime, that does't go as smooth as they planned it, including a trip to Paris. This movie amuses me as it has always amused me. Having our "heroes" look like quite ordinary people thay can disappear among the masses. The theft is absolutly brilliant, and according to a trivia the producers asked Bank of England how such a perfect crime could be made, and Bank of England's answer helped creating this movie's screenplay. It's an absolute joy seeing this ensamble interact. Since this movie is from 1951, it offcourse had to have a moraly correct ending. It won an Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay (Clarke), and Alec Guinness was nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role,
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Post by vegalyra on Sept 19, 2018 18:22:14 GMT
The 300 Spartans 1962, directed by Rudolph Maté, based on old scriptures and a screenplay by George St. George, music by Manos Hadjidakis (Never on Sunday), staring Richard Egan (King Leonidas), Sir Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker, Barry Coe, David Farrar (Xerxes), Donald Houston, (introducing) Anna Synodinou, Kieron Moore, robert Brown, John Crawford, Laurence Naismith, Ivan Triesault and others. Historic drama spectacle about a small army of Greeks spearheaded by 300 Spartans who has to battle with the whole invading Persian army. Tries to be an epic but isn't really, it's under 2 hours, but no way near the awful movie that I've read and heard that is should be. After all it was the inspiration for comic artist Frank Miller who saw this movie as a boy and said: "it changed the course of my creative life". His graphic novel "300", about the Battle of Thermopylae, was the basis for the movie 300 2006. It has a lot of corny dialogue and an unnecessary Romeo and Juliet like romance plastered to it. Most of the actors are very cardboard, and Richard Egan never had the right charisma to carry a movie. Sir Ralph on the other hand gives it a bit of class, he could make any kind of dialogue sound classy. The battle scenes are very impressive too, thousands of people in those scenes, from the then Royal Greece Army (it was made on locations in Greece), and it's real people not CGI, so those scenes are very impressive. A perfect picture for a lazy Sunday afternoon actually. The reason why it's available could be the success of 300 2006 The final film for David Farrar who played Xerxes, star of movies like Black Narcissus 1947, before he retired to South Africa. At the time of it's release the film was considered the most violent film ever to be showed in American cinemas. (I wonder how true that "trivia" is). I love this film. I had the DVD and upgraded to the bluray a year or so ago. It looks tremendous. Richard Egan is great. One of my favorite actors of the era. Probably better as a supporting actor but still, nonetheless, I like his style quite a bit.
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Post by vegalyra on Sept 19, 2018 18:31:20 GMT
After reading Petrolino's excellent write up the other day, I popped in the Rear Window. Excellent as always.
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