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Post by teleadm on Sept 20, 2018 17:56:17 GMT
The Four Feathers 1939, directed by Zoltan Korda, based on a novel by A.E.W. Mason and screenplay by R.C. Sherriff, staring John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez, Allan Jeayes, Jack Allen, Donald Grey and others. Adventure War Romance about a timid British Army officer who quits and burns his last day summons to a war in Egypt. Calling him a coward, his girl friend and 3 officer friends give him a white feather. In redemption, he shadows his friends in war to save their lives. Big Britiish sprawling spare-no-expeneses movie, made when colonialism and empire building was still considered a good thing. Today it's more like a grandios matinee movie, that is very entertaining to watch, in Technicolor no less. It could also make a companionpiece with Khartoum 1966, because it's what happened in that movie that is the reason for going to war in this movie. I've read that some thinks John Clements is to stiff, but I think his stiff upper lip persona suits this role very well. Sir C. Aubrey Smith's old general who always remembers Balaclava and "the tin red line" is a pure joy. June Deprez has the right kind of sweetness. The battle scenes are very impressive, pre CGI, so it's real extras. The original length of this movie was 129 minutes, but the available version is only 115 minutes. This could very well be because Producer Alexander Korda edited a lot of his movies after WW II, to tone down some parts of imperialism and empire building, so he could re-release all his movies again, and to the newly available German market too. The battle scenes made in Sudan were made at the same places as the real battles took place, and some of the extras where veterans from those battles 40 years earlier. The movie was nominated for Best Cinematography, Color, but being that 1939 was the year of Gone With the Wind it offcourse didn't have a chance.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Sept 21, 2018 14:00:14 GMT
D E L I V E R A N C E (1972), the classic Reynold/Voight/Beatty/Cox canoe trip through Hell and back. Read the book before the movie many years ago and it really sticks close to the story and lines from the book, but it is also an example of a movie being better than the book, in my opinion. The cast brought so much added depth that was not included in the book. Speaking of the book, the author, James Dickey, played the sheriff at the end of the movie. He and the director, John Boorman, fought endlessly on set, but he still wound up with a plum role.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 21, 2018 16:13:21 GMT
Planet of the Apes 1968, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on a novel by Pierre Boulle, screenplay by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, music by Jerry Goldsmith, staring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, Linda Harrison, Robert Gunner, Lou Wagner, Woodrow Parfrey and others. Science-Fiction about a astronaut crew that crash-lands on a planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes are the dominant species, and humans are the oppressed and enslaved. This is a masterfully crafted movie, with many interesting details. One of those interesting details is that we follow three astronauts that crash-landed for about 35 minutes and then we lose interest in two of them (okey, one was killed, but the other only pops up much later). The apes must obviously have learned their behaviors from something humanlike earlier, even if they refer to what is written in their wholy scriptures everytime they can't answer what is in front of their noses. Though the movie have action scenes, it is more character driven in telling it's story than would have been possible today, take the long courtroom scene for example it would have been impossible in today's movies with all it's posers. As the story goes along, more and more layers and explanations appear, but I don't want to give away too much if there is someone out there who hasn't seen this classic. The reason I came to think about this movie was because I mentioned it in my own Roddy McDowall thread, and since I think I haven't seen it since I read about that Charlton Heston had died, so it's been awhile, and there were lots of things I had totally forgotten. It didn't win any of the ordinary Oscars', but was nominated for Best Music and Best Costume Design Awards, but it got an Honorary Oscar for John Chambers "For his outstanding make-up achievement in the movie". "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" was voted as one of the 100 best movie lines when AFI celebrated 100 years. In 2001 National Film Preservation Board, USA, decided that this movie should be preserved for eternity.
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Post by kijii on Sept 21, 2018 16:31:09 GMT
The Four Feathers 1939, directed by Zoltan Korda, based on a novel by A.E.W. Mason and screenplay by R.C. Sherriff, staring John Clements, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, June Duprez, Allan Jeayes, Jack Allen, Donald Grey and others. Adventure War Romance about a timid British Army officer who quits and burns his last day summons to a war in Egypt. Calling him a coward, his girl friend and 3 officer friends give him a white feather. In redemption, he shadows his friends in war to save their lives. Big Britiish sprawling spare-no-expeneses movie, made when colonialism and empire building was still considered a good thing. Today it's more like a grandios matinee movie, that is very entertaining to watch, in Technicolor no less. It could also make a companionpiece with Khartoum 1966, because it's what happened in that movie that is the reason for going to war in this movie. I've read that some thinks John Clements is to stiff, but I think his stiff upper lip persona suits this role very well. Sir C. Aubrey Smith's old general who always remembers Balaclava and "the tin red line" is a pure joy. June Deprez has the right kind of sweetness. The battle scenes are very impressive, pre CGI, so it's real extras. The original length of this movie was 129 minutes, but the available version is only 115 minutes. This could very well be because Producer Alexander Korda edited a lot of his movies after WW II, to tone down some parts of imperialism and empire building, so he could re-release all his movies again, and to the newly available German market too. The battle scenes made in Sudan were made at the same places as the real battles took place, and some of the extras where veterans from those battles 40 years earlier. The movie was nominated for Best Cinematography, Color, but being that 1939 was the year of Gone With the Wind it offcourse didn't have a chance. The more I see of C. Aubrey Smith, the better I like him. He makes an ideal Male British curmudgeon from the Old Guard. I just saw him in The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) where is makes an excellent British counterpart to the American, Frank Morgan. By the way, Roddy McDowall is in the movie too (as a young boy in love with Elizabeth Taylor).
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Post by ZolotoyRetriever on Sept 23, 2018 3:19:14 GMT
The World Changes (1933), directed by Mervyn LeRoy, with Paul Muni, Mary Astor, Aline MacMahon, et al. DVR’d from TCM telecast. First-time viewing. Absorbing, albeit uneven tale of an ambitious young Dakota Territory farmer, Orin Nordholm, Jr. (Paul Muni), who makes his way in the world by creating, through dint of initiative, daring and hard work, a meat-packing and shipping empire - only to see it gradually crumble as the world inexorably changes around him. In his case, it’s more his personal or family world that lets him down, but as the viewer will note, there are a number of competing factors at play, all of which seem so relevant to the travails we all face even today. A modern viewer will find much to relate to in this film, believe me. As a bit of a history buff, I really enjoyed this one, even though it played fast and loose with certain historical facts and figures (but then again, sometimes it’s best to ignore or excuse those inaccuracies in the name of just letting Hollywood tell a good story). It’s hard not to see a definite tinge of bias in the telling of this story - shades of populism abound in it, as much then as in our current political dialogue going on. Definitely recommended viewing for classic film as well as history buffs. See it if you get the chance.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Sept 23, 2018 3:50:35 GMT
Two "telephone" movies
Dial "M" for Murder … yes Sorry, Wrong Number - no
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Post by kijii on Sept 23, 2018 6:24:31 GMT
Park Row (1952) / Samuel Fuller Rented from Amazon Prime
Stimulated by the Samuel Fuller thread, I am trying to fill in some viewing gaps of his movies that I have not seen. This movie is a thrilling story about the newspaper industry in NYC of the 1880s. It tells the story of two competing newspapers and the tactics used to outdo each other.
It is interesting to see Fuller, once again, use Gene Evans as his lead star. Unlike his lead in The Steel Helmet (1951) and Fixed Bayonets! (1951), here he plays a dedicated newspaper man hell bent on competing with the newspaper he had just been fired from, The Star. To do this, he starts a newspaper of his own, The Globe, from the ground up. Fuller's love of the newspaper man and the competition of print world in evident throughout the movie. This movie is nothing like Citizen Kane at all, though both are about men who were driven to start newspapers.
Phineas Mitchell (Gene Evans) : The press is good or evil according to the character of those who direct it.
Full TCM synopsis with SPOILERS: In New York City in 1886, reporter Phineas Mitchell joins his fellow newspapermen at a local bar. While Steve Brodie, husband of the bartender, Jenny O'Rourke, plans to earn publicity for the bar by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, Phineas fumes over the success of his paper, The Star , in orchestrating the execution of an innocent man in order to increase circulation. After he posts a plaque on the man's grave denouncing the paper, Star publisher Charity Hackett confronts Phineas. He condemns her and when the other workers support him, they are all fired. Printer Charles A. Leach overhears Phineas fantasize out loud about the kind of honest, moral paper he would run, and offers the budding editor the use of his press and offices. Within hours, Phineas hires all of his friends and writes the story of Steve's successful jump off the bridge. The men, along with young apprentice Rusty, work all night sorting type, and then are forced to use butcher paper in order to print The Globe by morning. Its exciting copy and high ideals are an instant hit, and the next morning, Charity visits the offices to check out her new competitor. Phineas flirts with her as she tries to gather information about him, but she is undaunted until later that afternoon, when Phineas' huge parade for Steve proves that he already wields power in the neighborhood. Soon after, Phineas' star reporter, the elderly Josiah Davenport, proposes a story about the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, which now needs another $100,000 in order to be completed. The Globe champions this patriotic effort, offering to print the name of anyone who gives money to the "Liberty Fund." Meanwhile, Phineas' friend, inventor Ottmar Mergenthaler, struggles to create the first linotype machine. Charity attempts to woo him to The Star , but Mergenthaler informs her that he will only work for a great, moral paper. Over the next days, the Globe office begins to grow, and while the eager Rusty learns the secrets of the industry from his experienced co-workers, Phineas introduces innovations such as individual newsstands and bylines. When he discovers that Charity plans to denounce the Statue of Liberty as a ruse to allow the French to borrow money from the U.S., he rebuts her attack in an earlier edition and wins the fight. Secretly, however, Phineas is falling in love with Charity's beauty and strength, and when she visits that night and proposes a merger, he kisses her but refuses her offer. She stalks out and launches a plan to cut off his supplies of ink and paper. She dispatches her business manager, Riley, with the plan, and Riley hires goons who destroy the newsstands and, in an attack on the Globe paper truck, run over Rusty's legs. Phineas tracks and beats up the goons, and declares to Charity that she has started a war, causing her to weep. Soon after, Phineas is ordered by the government to return all profits from forged Liberty Fund receipts. When he finally captures one of the shyster fund "salesmen," the man names Riley as his employer. That night, Davenport writes the story of the fraudulent receipts but the press is attacked and the story stolen. Among the office ruins, Phineas finds the now-deceased Davenport's self-written obituary, which states that he has waited to die until he found a man of high ideals to save the press. Encouraged by Davenport's faith in Phineas, the staff works all night on Mergenthaler's newly perfected linotype machine to put the paper out. As the sun rises and they print the first issue, however, the office is once again attacked and the press destroyed. Despondent, Phineas drinks himself to sleep. When he awakes, his staff shows him the paper they have printed, identical to the old one. They bring forward Charity, who explains that Riley took her order too far and has been fired. She informs Phineas that she read Davenport's obituary and, inspired, killed her paper to give life to The Globe . He embraces her, and months later, the Statue of Liberty is raised thanks to the efforts of Phineas' paper.
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Post by OldAussie on Sept 23, 2018 9:15:45 GMT
Yep, I'm a copycat.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Sept 23, 2018 10:31:37 GMT
Since summer was ending, I went with Summer Stock (1950). Yes, there was plenty of turmoil behind the scenes, but I just had fun watching legends Judy Garland and Gene Kelly sing and dance and bring in the harvest.
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Post by kijii on Sept 23, 2018 17:15:17 GMT
I also saw Forty Guns (1957) / Samuel Fuller But, it would be hard to give a better review than that of manfromplanetx on the Favorite Samuel Fuller?thread. I enjoyed the scope of the story and movie, but had a hard time understanding the relationship between Barbara Stanwyck and Barry Sullivan. Were they friends or enemies? Was the Barry Sullivan character sort of a knight errant who comes to the old Arizona town to make order from chaos? (This is the way I view many of the Clint Eastwood movies as well as how I see Allan Ladd in Shane.)
The plot of this movie IS very confusing with one person killing another, over and over, with each victim and victor having a story of his own and a relationship to other characters in the movie. In other words, unlike other westerns, these people add more to the story than just being gang members being used as movie props. But, basically it is the Bonnell brothers Griff (Barry Sullivan), Wes (Gene Barry), and Chico (Robert Dix), ridding into Tombstone with Barbara Stanwyck' s 40 thieves, including her brother, Brockie Drummond (John Ericson), shooting up the town. Since the town is lawless, the Griff brothers have to fill in until someone can control the lawlessness left behind by such weak such lawmen as the almost blind marshal John Chisum (Hank Worden) and the skidish sheriff, Ned Logansherif (Dean Jagger).
Added to the story and photography is a great musical score and song ballad, sung by Jidge Carroll playing the bath house owner, Barney Cashman.
Griff Bonnell (Barry Sullivan): [on being offered her foreman's job] Why me? Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck) : I need a strong man to carry out my orders. Griff Bonnell : And a weak man to take them.
(possible, not so subtle, sexual double entendre....) Jessica Drummond : I'm not interested in *you*, Mr. Bonnell. It's your trademark. [gestures at his gun, purring] Jessica Drummond : May I feel it? Griff Bonnell : Uh-uh. Jessica Drummond : Just curious. Griff Bonnell : It might go off in your face. Jessica Drummond : I'll take a chance. and Wes Bonnell (Gene Barry): I never kissed a gunsmith before. Louvenia Spanger (Eve Brent): Any recoil? The use of guns in this movie could almost be thought of as phallic symbols, as Wes frames Louvenia in a gun barrel at one point. Then, at another point, says something to his brother, Griff, like 'I only wished I had cleaned her gun' (her being Louvenia, the daughter of the gunsmith).
Griff Bonnell (Gene Barry): What's the matter? You look upset. Jessica Drummond (Eve Brent) : I was born upset.
Full TCM synopsis with SPOILERS:When Griff Bonnell, an ex-gunslinger now working for the U.S. Attorney General, rides into the town of Tombstone, Arizona, his old friend, Marshal John Chisolm, begs him for help in handling Brockie Drummond. Brockie, a vicious young punk, is the brother of Jessica Drummond, the iron-willed woman who rules the territory. Griff, who has come with his two brothers, Wes and Chico, to arrest fugitive Howard Swain, advises the nearly blind Chisolm to resign and seek medical attention. After the drunken Brockie shoots Chisolm in cold blood and then cackles with glee, however, Griff faces down Brockie with impunity and pummels him unconscious. Wes, who backs Griff as his second gun, is attracted to Louvenia Spanger, the tough-talking, voluptuous daughter of the town's gunsmith, while Chico, the youngest brother who aspires to join the team as third gun, protests about being sent to live on his parents' farm in California. Soon after, Jessica gallops into town and brusquely demands to see the man who assaulted her brother. Ned Logan, the town's ineffectual sheriff who has been bought by Jessica, then meekly releases Brockie from jail. On the ride back to the ranch, Jessica chastises her brother for his irresponsible behavior and demands he turn his guns over to her. In town, meanwhile, sparks fly between Louvenia and Wes when she measures him for a new rifle. At the Drummonds' Dragoons Ranch that night, Jessica is having a dinner party for Logan and her army of forty when Griff arrives with a warrant to arrest Swain, one of her minions, for mail robbery. After ordering Swain to leave peaceably with Griff, Jessica dismisses the others and then admires Griff's gun and offers him Logan's job. Later, in town, Chico, rebellious over being forced to lead the life of a farmer, gets drunk, prompting Griff to declare that the life of a hired gun is soon to become an anachronism. When the jailed Swain informs Logan that he plans to blackmail Jessica unless she arranges for his release, Logan turns his back and smiles smugly as a bullet hurls through the cell window and kills Swain. After pulling the bullet out of Swain's back, Wes shows it to Louvenia, who surmises that it was fired by Charlie Savage, the best shot in the territory. Afterward, Logan tells Jessica that he arranged for Swain's death to save her, and she coldly observes that he has just hanged himself. Soon after, Griff comes to Jessica's ranch in search of Swain and Jessica offers to help him. As they scour the range, a violent cyclone strikes, uprooting trees and blackening the air all around. Thrown from her panicked horse, Jessica is dragged along the ground until Griff comes to her rescue. In the calm following the storm, Jessica recounts how she was forced to forge her independence early in childhood. When Griff recalls shooting his way across the country, Jessica replies that the frontier is finished and asks him to throw in with her. Later, in town, Logan and Savage plot to ambush and kill Griff in Undertakers' Alley. After the brothers put Chico on the California-bound stage, Wes tells Griff that he plans to marry Louvenia and settle down as the new town marshal. Once the stage pulls out, Logan has one of his stooges lure Griff into the alley, where Savage takes aim from his upstairs hotel room. Just as Savage is about to fire, Chico, who has jumped onto the stage, bursts into Savage's room and shoots him, thus saving Griff's life. When Brockie puts Savage's body on display in the undertaker's window, flanked by signs accusing the Bonnell brothers of murder, Griff rides to Jessica's ranch to warn her about curbing her brother. Their discussion is interrupted when Logan fires at Griff and then claims he was only trying to protect Jessica, with whom he has fallen in love. In response, Jessica writes Logan a check and then callously dismisses him. As Griff and Jessica passionately embrace, Griff hears thudding coming from the adjacent room and finds Logan's lifeless body, dangling from the end of a noose. Some time later, Wes and Louvenia are married, and as Griff bends over to kiss the bride, a shot rings out from Brockie's gun, killing Wes. While Louvenia buries her husband, Griff tracks down and apprehends Brockie. Dispirited, Jessica turns over her ranch to the county in return for immunity against all charges. On the day of Brockie's execution, Jessica visits her brother in jail, and he demands that she buy his freedom. After Jessica dispassionately replies that he is going to hang, Brockie pulls a gun from the deputy's holster, then takes Jessica hostage and uses her as a shield to escape. When Brockie dares Griff to shoot, Griff takes deliberate aim and wounds Jessica. After Brockie drops his sister's limp body, Griff brutally empties his pistol into Brockie, thus ending his ten-year record of not killing a man. Some time later, Griff visits Chico, now the town marshal, and tells him that he is going to California. When Chico suggests that Griff ask the now recovered Jessica to join him, Griff replies that she will never forgive him for slaying her brother. As Griff drives his wagon out of town, however, Jessica sees him and follows. I love to include these full synopses for future recollections of a movie's plots and subplots. They make for a handy way of rememering.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Sept 23, 2018 19:17:22 GMT
THE LAST HUNTER - 1980 Vietnam war movie done Italian style, with David Warbeck. Kind of funny (as in bad), but watchable-and it has the "Italian Peter Lorre" in it too.
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Post by ZolotoyRetriever on Sept 24, 2018 18:47:33 GMT
Alone in the Dark, (1982). Directed by Jack Sholder, with Jack Palance, Donald Pleasence, Martin Landau, Dwight Schultz, et al. DVR'd from recent *TCM telecast. First-time viewing.
Interesting early-80s slasher/horror film: not terribly gory, nicely atmospheric, with a few unexpected and suitably-placed twists. A few subtle comedic touches, too - in particular the performance of Chop up Your Mother, by The Sic F*cks.
*It will be on TCM again this coming Friday night.
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Post by kijii on Sept 25, 2018 0:23:57 GMT
Three Secrets (1950) /Robert Wise Seen on DVD
This is a melodrama made up of three smaller melodramas with a somewhat predictable ending.
When a small airplane crashes in the Sierra Nevadas, two adults are killed and one 5-year-old boy lives. The adapted boy is suspected as being the real son of three different women (played by Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, and Ruth Roman). As the three women await the rescue of the boy from the mountain, the movie flashes back to tell the story of each of these three women, all of whom had had a baby on the same day, and had given up their son for adoption at the same agency.
Mrs. Connors (Katherine Warren) : Susan, get a hold of yourself. [Susan continues to read the newspaper article on the plane crash] Mrs. Connors : Susan, do you think yours is the only child born five years ago today? Susan Adele Connors Chase (Eleanor Parker): He came from the shelter. Mrs. Connors : They handled hundreds of babies. Susan Adele Connors Chase : Oh, mother. All you have to do is look at him. Mrs. Connors : What do you expect me to see? Susan Adele Connors Chase : He has my mouth and my coloring. Mrs. Connors : Is that your evidence? A newspaper picture? Five years later? Susan Adele Connors Chase : I can't help it. I can feel it. It's mine. --------------------------------- Susan Adele Connors Chase (Eleanor Parker): Why did you come here? Phyllis Horn (Patricia Neal) : Just a reporter covering a story. Wouldn't it be ironic if it were my own? -------------------------------- Del Prince (Ted de Corsia): I'm telling you what's best for you. Go home. Forget him. Because he's forgotten you. Ann Lawrence (Ruth Roman): I'm not like the others. It's different this time. Del Prince : Not for him it isn't. Ann Lawrence : I'm going to have his baby. Del Prince : That IS different.
Full TCM synopsis with SPOILERS: When an airplane crashes on a mountain near Bishop, California, the only survivor is a five-year old boy. Hardin, a reporter, learns that the now-orphaned boy, Johnny Peterson, was adopted as a baby from a shelter. Three boys listed with the same birthday as Johnny's were placed by the shelter, but the matron refuses to reveal the names of their mothers. One of those women, Susan Chase, is now married to Bill, a lawyer, but has never told him about the child she gave birth to five years earlier. When she learns that the injured boy stranded on the mountain was adopted, she becomes convinced that the child is hers. After Bill leaves on a business trip, Susan drives all night to the site of the rescue effort. During the drive she reflects on the events that led to the birth of her son: During the war, Susan falls in love with Paul Radin, a Marine. Before he is shipped out, he tells Susan that he is still in love with a woman back home, whom he has known since childhood. Later, a pregnant Susan tries to kill herself, but her mother calls a doctor and, after the baby is born, convinces Susan to give him up and put the past behind her. Two other women are at the shelter that day. One of them, Phyllis Horn, a reporter, is also watching the rescue effort. She recognizes Susan and tells her that the boy could also be her child. Over coffee, Phyl remembers returning home from London five years earlier: When Bob Duffy, her husband, fails to meet her at the airport, Phyl goes to his favorite bar in search of him. He announces that he can no longer tolerate her job and intends to get a divorce. Determined not to lose him, Phyl later begs Duffy to reconsider and promises that she will stay at home in the future. They make up, but the following week, when her boss, Mark Harrison, assigns her to cover the Pacific war, Phyl cannot resist. Two weeks after her divorce becomes final, Phyl discovers that she is pregnant. She immediately telephones Duffy, only to learn that he has remarried. Phyl is brought back to the present when a report reveals that radio contact with the rescue party has been lost following a landslide. Phyl and Susan's attention is distracted when a woman starts an argument with one of the reporters. Phyl recognizes her as Ann Lawrence, the third woman at the shelter. Later, Ann tells her story: Five years earlier, she is a dancer in love with wealthy Gordon Crosley. One night, when she goes to Gordon's apartment and finds he is not there, his associate, Del Prince, explains that Gordon no longer wants to see her. Convinced that Prince is trying to keep her away from Gordon because she is only a chorus girl, Ann pursues him to California. Prince again advises her to forget Gordon. After Ann tells Prince that she is pregnant, Prince tells her to return that evening. When she does, a man named Bobby Lynch, who claims to be a former lover of hers, is there. Prince tells her that Lynch will claim to be the father of her child and offers her a check signed by Gordon. Hysterical, Ann finally realizes that Prince has been telling the truth about Gordon, and kills her lover. She is convicted of manslaughter and gives up her son for adoption. After she finishes her story, Susan reveals that she is unable to have any more children. The rescuers reach Johnny and signal that he is still alive. Phyl now decides to discover which of the women is the real mother of the boy. Meanwhile, Bill arrives in response to a telegram from Susan. She reveals her suspicions about Johnny, and Bill responds that if the child is hers they will take him home. While Bill and Susan talk, Phyl learns that Johnny is Ann's child. She is about to relay this to Susan when Ann interrupts and states that of the three of them, Susan is the best suited to be a mother and should try to adopt Johnny.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 25, 2018 18:04:58 GMT
It Happened One Night 1934, directed by Frank Capra, based on a short story by Samuel Hopkins Adams, screenplay by Robert Riskin, staring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas, Alan Hale, Arthur Hoydt, Blanche Friderici and others. Romantic comedy about a spoiled heiress running away from her family and is helped by a man who is actually a reporter in need of a story. I dont think I've seen this movie for about 20 years, so there was a lot of things I had forgotten. Maybe it's not as funny as it once was, but it's still a damn good movie. The hitch-hiking scene and "the walls of Jericho" was the only thing I remembered apparently. Gable and Colbert are just wonderful as the bickering opposites who slowly falls in love. Connolly who plays Colbert's father is one of those actors who looked 10 - 15 years older than they actually were, is also great as he slowly changes his mind too. It's hard to imagine that it was made in only four weeks. The movie made Gable and Colbert into superstars. Winner of five Oscars, Best Picture (Columbia Pictures), Director (Capra), Best Actor in a Leading Role (Gable, In 1996, Steven Spielberg anonymously purchased Clark Gable's Oscar to protect it from further commercial exploitation, gave it back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, commenting that he could think of "no better sanctuary for Gable's only Oscar than the Motion Picture Academy".) Best Actress in a Leading Role (Colbert, who was so convinced that she would lose the Oscar to write-in nominee Bette Davis that she didn't attended the ceremony originally. She was summoned from a train station to pick up her Academy Award.) and Best Writing, Adaptation (Riskin). In 1993 this movie was chosen by National Film Preservation Board, to be preserved for all eternity.''
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Post by kijii on Sept 25, 2018 23:44:12 GMT
Two Flags West (1950) / Robert Wise Seen from all-region DVD player (the DVD seems to be in German, but I was able select its original English by choosing it on the Opening Title image)
This was an interesting story in that I was unaware that Confederate POWs held by Union forces were ever given the opportunity to be freed on the condition that they fight with 'crippled' (chronically injured) Union soldiers on the frontier (to protect the settlers from the Indians). There was so many interesting stories about the history of American West that are never (or seldom) taught in history classes.
The actors who played Rebel POWs are pictured below: (Left to right): Noah Beery Jr. , Arthur Hunnicutt, Joseph Cotten (with his back partly turned), and
(Dale Robertson & Sands Johnny Sands?)
Full TCM synopsis with SPOILERS: At a prison camp at Rock Island, Illinois, in the autumn of 1864, Captain Mark Bradford, who became the camp commander after injuries ended his fighting career, offers Confederate prisoners the chance to be paroled. In order to be freed, the prisoners must agree to serve as Union soldiers and protect frontier forts against Indians. The Confederates' leader, Colonel Clay Tucker of Georgia, knows that there will be no further exchanges of prisoners and so considers the offer. After seeing one of his men die in the prison, Clay gets Mark's word that the men will not be asked to fight against their own, then breaks a tie vote among the prisoners in favor of going. Clay is demoted to 2nd lieutenant, and the unit joins the 3rd Cavalry of the Army of the Republic at Fort Thorn, New Mexico. Fort Thorn is commanded by the stern, rebel-hating Major Henry Kenniston, who is frustrated that an injury suffered during his first battle has kept him from the war. At dinner, the major's sister-in-law Elena, a Mexican-American from Monterey, breaks down in tears when Clay relates that he fought at Chancellorsville, where her husband, the major's brother, lost his life. Mark, who fell in love with Elena on the day of her wedding, is surprised to find her there, and she states that Kenniston wrote her that she could reach the fort with an Army supply train, then travel to Monterey with an escorted wagon. She has now been at the fort for six months, and in addition to becoming frustrated with Kenniston's excuse that he cannot spare a wagon escort, she is tired of his over-protective attitude and romantic aspirations. When the Southerners chase some Indians into a mountain pass, Kenniston orders "retreat" sounded, then reprimands Clay in the presence of his men for almost riding into a trap. After the Southerners, obeying Kenniston's orders, execute two men for running whiskey and guns to the Indians, they find out that the men were agents of the Confederate government. Feeling that Kenniston has broken their agreement, Clay joins his disgruntled men in planning to desert. Kenniston then sends the Southern troops to escort a wagon train West, hoping that if they desert, they will do it then, while he is expecting it. Although Kenniston takes Elena's name off the lists of passengers, she hides in the parson's wagon and when Mark spots her hiding, he says nothing. Along the way, Clay learns that Elena has come along, and after he allows her to stay, they grow fond of each other during the trip. The night before the troops plan to bolt for Texas, Ephraim Strong, a Confederate agent who has masqueraded as a merchant, tells Clay of his plan to link Confederate Texas with the Pacific Ocean. Strong hopes to defeat the blockade that is strangling the South and make Californian gold available to the Confederacy. Strong urges Clay not to desert, but to return and gain Kenniston's confidence, as Fort Thorn is the only block between Texas and Tucson, and also bring Elena back, so as not to antagonize Kenniston. After their return, Kenniston still does not trust Clay even though he brought Elena back, and when suspicious wagon tracks are spotted in the vicinity, Clay is not chosen for the patrol. When the son of the feared Kiowa chief Satank is captured, the chief and his warriors approach the fort to demand the boy's return. Kenniston, calling the son a "rebel," orders him shot, whereupon Satank issues a threat and leaves. Meanwhile, Clay has received orders to take his troops to rendezvous with a wagon train and proceed with it to California. Clay takes over command of the patrol from Mark, who had come to regard him as a friend, but when he learns that the fort is surrounded by Satank and his braves, Clay and his men decide to go back, as they know that women and children will die if they desert. During the fight with the Indians, Mark is wounded, and Clay rescues him when an Indian tries to kill him. After fighting has temporarily ceased for the night, Clay apologizes to Elena, who is helping to nurse the wounded, for bringing her back, and she sadly relates that before he died, Mark confessed he loved her. A note attached to a flaming arrow arrives with a message that the Indians demand the lives of the officers in revenge for the murder of Satank's son, but that they will spare the others. Kenniston then decides to go alone to his death and turns over command to Clay, who is now respectful of Kenniston's integrity. When he leaves the fort and the gates close, Kenniston issues an agonizing scream, and his body is recovered the following day after the Indians leave. A rider then arrives with the news that General Sherman has completed his march to the sea and that Savannah is surrounded, leaving the Confederacy cut in half. As the Union soldiers whoop at the news and sing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," the rebels proudly sing "Dixie." With the news that the war will soon be over, Elena comforts Clay, who despairs that there is now nothing left to go home to. She asks for help to rebuild her home at the fort, and in Spanish, tells him it will all seem better tomorrow.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2018 5:06:15 GMT
Juliet of the Spirits.
I liked it. It was really good, though it took me a bit to get into. Italian for me is a difficult language to follow onscreen so at first I felt everything was moving too fast. Fortunately I got over it. I didn't immediately take to the music either but I got used to how it was interrupted by quiet when the tone shifted.
I loved the images as well, the house next door and its put on brothel/hedonism look compared to Juliet's modest and conservative home next door. The houses are as different as the two women themselves. I liked the tensions bubbling beneath the service; I really believe Juliet is a privileged, well taken care of, smart but sheltered woman her husband takes for granted. At the same time as the emerging possibility that her husband is unfaithful, seeing her neighbor essentially be the woman of her house inspires and scares Juliet. Juliet has to contend with the possibility that not only is she no longer the woman of her own house, but she may also never have been the woman of her own house, but merely a wife. Her struggle isn't just confronting her husband, but finding the strength to believe in her worth.
I really liked the visuals, eventually. Like the surreal, hallucinogenic schemes and colors. I feel like I saw a piece of what inspired the styles of David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick.
And I watched it on my TV. I recorded it ages ago from TCM and watched it on the DVR. I'd like to see more, especially if they're like this. The only other movie of his that I have is Fellini Satyricon, also from TCM on the DVR.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Sept 26, 2018 7:02:31 GMT
THE WILD ANGELS 1966 - Roger Corman directed biker angst film with Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, and various other familiars. Although the exploitation element is obvious, the basic story is to present the gang as completely dysfunctional social outcasts with Fonda as the only self-analyzing one. Symbolically emphasized in the final scene with everyone fleeing the cops but Fonda who stays on to bury the dead in the graveyard. In that sense it almost feels like the resolution to a Corman Poe movie--all that is missing is the fire.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 26, 2018 17:30:19 GMT
튜브 aka Tube 2003, directed by Beak Woon-hak, staring Seok-hun Kim, Sang-min Park, Doona Bae and others. South Korean action movie about a subway police and a pickpocket who somehow feels a bonded to each others, and how they try to stop a terrorist who has just hi-jacked a whole train-set filled with bombs. While the action scenes looks impressive and very western like, there are emotions and feelings that is quiete unlike the ones we see in movies from the west. There is also a comic relief character that I guess works very well in a Korean movie, but becomes enervating for others. There are a few loopholes in the storyline, but it's rather okey for a lazy sunday. In Korean movies someone has to die at the end, and that happens here too, even if it wasn't necessary, as I see it.
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Post by ZolotoyRetriever on Sept 27, 2018 2:05:42 GMT
Son of Sinbad (1953/1955), directed by Ted Tetzlaff, with Vincent Price, Dale Robertson, Sally Forrest, Lili St. Cyr, Mari Blanchard, Leon Askin, et al. DVR'd from recent TCM telecast. First-time viewing.
Wow. Where to begin with this one? On the one hand it's a rather cartoonish "Arabian Nights" sort of tale done in sometimes gaudy Technicolor, with formulaic plot and action sequences that are adequate for 1950s B-movie swashbuckler fare. But on the other hand, this seems unmistakably a 1950s-style sexploitation film... you will note that there are a plethora of scantily-clad harem girls, a number of exotic and erotic belly dances, and suggestive dialogue throughout, all of which make you realize that, yes, film studios in the 50s were not "stupid" about that little thing called sex. This one apparently pushed the limits a bit too hard, as noted by this trivia entry I found on IMDb: Also, this tidbit, which is why I indicated the dual dates (above) of its origin: So, yeah, this one's definitely worth a look for classic film buffs and film historians alike, or just historians in general. Vincent Price does a fine turn here as poet Omar Khayyam, with some interesting and well-deliverd lines, even if some of them are a bit oft-repeated. There's actually quite a bit of clever and snappy dialogue in this film, so it's a good one to "listen" too, not just "watch" for the eye candy. See it if you get a chance.
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Post by teleadm on Sept 27, 2018 19:07:59 GMT
Bride of the Monster 1955, directed by Edward D. Wood Jr, staring Bela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Tony McCoy, Loretta King, Harvey B. Dunn, George Becwar and others. Horror Science-Fiction about a mad doctor (or missunderstood genius), Dr. Eric Vornoff, who is conducting experiments to turn people into super-beings through the use of atomic power. A female reporter decides to look into what is going there and its possible connection to men that have disappeared in the area. An octopus is also involved in the plot somehow. Knowing that it's far from a masterpiece, I wanted to see for myself how awful it actually is. It is without doubt an awfull movie, but I have seen more expensive blown-up pretentious movies that actually have been much worse to sit through. One just looks at this one with a certain amazement. The low budget shines through, with wobbling sets. Lugosi, who is the only real actor around, is at his hammiest. Worth seeing at least once. Historically this was the only movie that Edward D. Wood Jr made that made a profit when he was still alive, the profits though went into the pockets of it's distributer Samuel Z. Arkoff, who with the money was able to set up American International Productions. This was Bela Lugosi's last movie with a speaking part, he appeared in a mute role in The Black Sleep 1956. His part in Plan 9 from Outer Space 1959 was pre-filmed silent material.
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