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Post by BATouttaheck on Jan 28, 2019 2:24:57 GMT
That's about the 12th time I've seen it. I think it's great. Harris, Viggo and the 8 gauge. I read the book and also have the book on audio tape .. good in any format … fun characters and a terrific story !
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Post by hi224 on Jan 28, 2019 5:35:51 GMT
Breathless (1960) – a must see, right? I finally saw it last night and thought it dull and rather stupid. I suppose the depiction of a rootless, amoral, and violent youth culture, at least partly imported from the US, had some novelty when it came out, and the quick looks at hip Parisian life had some style, but this is a badly dated, indifferently acted, and very disappointing film. 5/10. Godards polarizing to a big degree.
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Post by kijii on Jan 28, 2019 6:27:45 GMT
The Wife (2018), the movie that Glenn Close WILL WIN her long-awaited Oscar for, I've decided it must be so.  I just saw this movie. It is one of the few movies I have ever seen that left me speechless with awe.
It was like seeing a movie; leaving the theater wanting to comment on it; but unable to enhance on anything that had already been presented in the movie, itself. This has only happened to me a few times in my life...I can probably count those movies on one hand.
It is THAT good, and Glenn Close was unbelievably GREAT in it!! Best movie of 2018..hands down...in my opinion.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jan 28, 2019 6:59:59 GMT
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE …. FINALLY ! ….TO SUM UP IN A WORD .. WHOA !
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Post by kijii on Jan 28, 2019 7:04:23 GMT
Lebowskidoo-- I actually bought (rather than rented) the movie for streaming and look forward to seeing it. I hope you are right about your prediction since I was not as enthralled with The Favourite (2018) as others seem to be. Geeze, Nominated for 10 Oscars....  The darkness of the screen shots just seemed to be a turn off for me. I had a hard time telling who was doing what to whom. That's too bad about The Favourite, I was looking forward to that one. Boy Lebowskidoo-- I hope I didn't ruin if for you. I plan to see it again before the Oscars since it is up for so many nominations. But, the modern technology of green screen background setting seemed SO "transparent" to me throughout the movie that it drew my attention away from the movie story, itself. I was looking forward to seeing it too, since movies about Queen Anne (the last of the Stuarts) has been so overlooked.
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Post by kijii on Jan 28, 2019 16:33:10 GMT
...Still continuing to concentrate on Douglas Sirk & Nicholas Ray movies.. Seen on DVD as part of the Rock Hudson Collection
This is a fun, light-hearted comedy set in Tarrytown, New York during the late 20's (the flapper era). Samuel Fulton (Charles Coburn) is an extremely wealthy man who believes he is dying. With no family of his own, he decides who to will his fortune to. First, he wants to will it a woman he once dated in his youth. But, she had already dead; so he decides it will go to her offspring--the Blaisdell family--in another little town in New York.
Interested to learn more about the Blaisdells who will receive his money, he places an ad in their local newspaper. His ad says that the Blaisdell family [is] seeking an elder gentleman to room and board with them. When he shows up at their door (as John Smith) in answer to his own ad, the family knows nothing about the newspaper ad, but takes him in anyway.
As he gets close to the family, they like him and he gets to know more about them: Charles Blaisdell (Larry Gates) owns a drugstore. His wife, Harriet (Lynn Bari) is a good mother and wife but anxious to marry her elder daughter, Millicent (Piper Laurie) off to one of the more prosperous families in town. However, Millicent is dating the soda jerk at her father's drugstore, Dan Stebbins (Rock Hudson) and has no interest in the her mother's choice for her. The other two Blaisdell children are Roberta (Gigi Perreau) and, the oldest sibling, Howard (William Reynolds). Mr. Smith takes a job at the drugstore as a soda jerk along side of Dan Stebbins.
 Samuel Fulton/ Mr. Smith (Charles Coburn): I'm Smith. John Smith. Roberta Blaisdell (Gigi Perreau): Are you the John Smith who was in love with Pocahontas? Samuel Fulton/ Mr. Smith: What, do I look 300 years old? Don't answer that.
Fulton then, wills the family $100,000 under another rich (but unknown) relative. As the family becomes "rich," it turns their lives upside down, but Samuel Fulteon watchfully pulls them out of one jam after another with various ways to suite the need of the particular problem of each jam... (Look for James Dean at the soda fountain in a very brief scene.) Youth at Soda Fountain (James Dean): Hey, Gramps. I'll have a choc malt, heavy on the choc, plenty of milk, four spoons of malt, two scoops of vanilla ice cream, one mixed and one floating. Samuel Fulton (Charles Coburn) : [Sardonically] Would you like to come in Wednesday for a fitting? Thank you.
 Full synopsis from TCM with SPOILERS: In a Tarrytown, New York mansion in the late 1920s, the richest man in the world, skinflint hypochondriac Samuel G. Fulton, plans to leave his fortune to the children of the love of his life, the late Millicent Blaisdell. He explains to his lawyer, Edward Norton, that it was only because Millicent spurned him for a bookkeeper that he turned to business and made his millions, but that he always wished he could have had a family with her instead. When Norton suggests that the Blaisdell family, consisting of father Charles, mother Harriet, and children Millie, Howard and Roberta, might spend his money foolishly, Sam decides to visit them at their home in Hilverton, Vermont. Bearing a newspaper advertisement asking for a border, Sam introduces himself as a painter named John Smith. A bewildered Harriet, who does not realize that Sam himself has placed this ad, allows him to stay for one night in Grandma Millicent's old attic room. He soon finds himself partaking in the kind of home-cooked meals and cheap cigars his doctors had assumed would cause him certain death. Roberta immediately likes Sam and, after urging him to paint for her, declares she also appreciates the paint-splattered canvases which he calls "modern art." The middle-class Blaisdells are a happy family, except for Harriet, who despairs that Millie will befall the same fate as her grandmother by spurning the attentions of rich rake Carl Pennock for those of soda jerk Dan Stebbins. As Harriet attempts to push Millie into Carl's arms, Sam convinces Charles to let him stay on as a border by offering to work part-time in the store alongside Dan. One night, Millie and Dan burst in and announce their engagement. While everyone except Harriet celebrates, Norton arrives and reveals that he represents an anonymous benefactor who has bequeathed the family one hundred thousand dollars. Harriet immediately plans how to spend the money, and declares that now Dan will never be able to support Millie "in the manner to which she will become accustomed," causing Dan to storm out angrily and Millie to burst into tears. Harriet then states that the family mongrel must be replaced by French poodles and that Sam must move, causing Roberta to run out crying. Within days, Harriet buys the biggest house in town, and the Blaisdells are the toast of Hilverton society, all of whom believe that the family has inherited millions. Millie is forced to date Carl again, although he continues to be a drunken cad. When he brings her to a speakeasy one night, Sam learns of an impending raid, and rushes there to rescue her. As they escape out a window, Carl pushes Sam back into the speakeasy and Sam is arrested. Millie and Dan both arrive to bail him out, and although Sam hopes for a reconciliation, they turn away from each other. Sam continues to work at the store under its new owner, who is even cheaper than Sam. As he works one day, he overhears Howard beg a local gambler for more time to repay his two thousand dollar debt. Posing as a novice gambler, Sam visits the card tables that night and wins back Howard's IOU, but is captured in another police raid. Dan bails him out again, then determines to leave Hilverton to find his fortune, even though Sam warns him not to let Millie go because money cannot buy happiness. While Sam visits Millie that night, Howard mentions that his IOU was mysteriously returned to him, and takes her to see Dan at the movies. There, Dan spurns Millie's attempts to talk, and when she sobs that she wishes they had never gotten the money, the Pennocks see Sam comforting Millie and assume the worst. They race to the Blaisdells' cocktail party with the news that Sam is a molester, and although the pair denies the charge, Harriet insists that Millie announce her engagement to Carl immediately. At the engagement party, Charles learns that his investments have failed and calls Norton for a loan. Sam, realizing the family cannot make wise financial decisions, instructs Norton to refuse, and Charles is forced to turn to Pennock. As soon as Pennock discovers that the Blaisdells are broke, however, he leaves with his wife and Carl. Charles informs Harriet that their only hope now is to sell the house and buy back the store, and although she faints, the rest of the family rejoices. Soon, Dan and Millie are engaged and Carl has his store back. Upon learning that he has won first prize in the local art show because Roberta has seceretly entered his paintings, Sam, still protecting his real identity, races away to avoid the press. He bids goodbye to the family, who now think of him as the Blaisdell grandfather he always wished he could be.
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Post by ZolotoyRetriever on Jan 28, 2019 21:33:47 GMT
The Red Lily (1924). Directed by Fred Niblo, with Enid Bennett, Ramon Novarro, Frank Currier, Wallace Beery. DVR'd from TCM's "Silent Sunday" broadcast last night. First-time viewing.
Nicely-done (and nicely restored) B&W silent movie with a good plot, albeit a rather sugary-sweet happy ending. Still, it was well-acted and nicely filmed with some great imagery. The new score was very good too, for a change (most of the time I turn the volume way down, or even to "mute," when watching a silent film, as I usually find the score too annoying to listen to for very long, but this one was arguably pretty decent).
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Post by BATouttaheck on Jan 29, 2019 3:52:23 GMT
I Married a Witch (1942) First viewing … disappointing. For me, March not successful as a comic actor.. at least not here.
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Post by louise on Jan 29, 2019 15:10:29 GMT
 Service for Ladies (1932). Amusing whimsical romantic comedy with Leslie Howard as a head waiter in a hotel who falls for one of the guests. he follows her to Vienna, where he is mistaken for a prince travelling incognito, leading to complications.
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Post by louise on Jan 29, 2019 18:12:58 GMT
 The Perfect Specimen (1937). Romantic comedy with Errol Flynn as the heir to a fortune who has been raised by his eccentric and autocratic grandmother to be the perfect man, kept from contact with the outside world, he has never left the family estate. Joan Blondell is the girl who crashes her car into the estate and opens up new possibilities to him. Very amusing film, all the cast in great form.
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Post by teleadm on Jan 29, 2019 19:02:55 GMT
Airport '77 1977, directed by Jerry Jameson, staring Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, Brenda Vaccaro, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland, Darren McGavin, Christopher Lee, George Kennedy, James Stewart, Robert Foxworth, Robert Hooks, Monte Markham, Kathleen Quinlan and others. Disaster movie. "Art thieves hijack a 747, hit fog and crash into the ocean, trapping them and the passengers under one hundred feet of water". The third of the Airport movies and a notch or two better than Airport '75. With a billionaire transporting both friends, family and priceless art on his new state of the art Jumbo-Jet. The art thieves manages to take over the plane halfway on it's way to it's destination, by sleeping gas and having gas-masks themselves, and by flying under the radar, but a fatal mistake stops them to take it to an abandoned old military island. Having managed to plan the whole hi-jack so meticulously and by the clock, they hadn't checked up their route, because suddenly it hit's an oil-platform, and thus dives into the sea and sinks. It's well made for what it is, with well known actors and actresses in distress and in this case also wet. Lemmon as the captain sticks out as he takes his role seriously, while Lee Grant must be playing one of her careers' most annoying characters. Old Cotten and de Havilland are cute together. It's only fair to mention that I have a certain weakness for those 1970s disaster movies. Director Jameson would later direct an even bigger disaster, at least ecomically, Raise the Titanic 1980.    
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jan 30, 2019 2:19:44 GMT
Washington Story (1952)  Can a film be both derivative and fresh? I think so, when it presents a new slant on premises borrowed from earlier ones. Washington Story is one of only five films directed by screenwriter Robert Pirosh, and applies reversals to ideas previously explored in both Libeled Lady and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. D.C. novice Alice Kingsley (Patricia Neal) is summoned to the capitol beat by muckraking columnist Gilbert Nunnally (Philip Ober) to do a hatchet job on squeaky-clean House Rep Joseph Gresham (Van Johnson), nicknamed "No Comment Joe" for his unwavering reticence with the press, with the purpose of neutralizing a lawsuit the congressman has brought against Nunnally. The scales gradually fall from Alice's eyes as she learns from her behind-the-scenes look at legislative sausage-making that while all is not always as it appears to the public eye, Gresham himself is every bit the earnest, principled and indefatigable representative he seems as she observes his honest conflict over a bill that will benefit national defense to the detriment of his district. The idealism of both the premise and the predictable romance that follows are tempered by candid depictions of inter-party squabbles masking affectionate private relationships, the influence of industry lobbyists and the sometimes impossible-to-accommodate demands of constituents, all of which are aided by extensive location shooting affording rare cinematic glimpses of such things as the Capitol Subway...  ...along with the corridors, offices, lobbies, stairways and other aspects of D.C. environs. Of special note is the work of roguish Louis Calhern as a seasoned opposition-party rep who goes hammer and tong at Johnson in public while quietly serving as his proudly avuncular mentor. Patricia Collinge, most familiar from her fluttery roles in Shadow Of A Doubt and The Little Foxes, plays against type as Johnson's savvy secretary. And for the Things You Can Learn From Movies file is this: a subplot involving an immigrant's naturalization problems raises the issue of something called a private bill. Although a political junkie, I was unfamiliar with the term, and it turned out to mean just what its designation implies, applying to a specific individual, group or entity. Wondering if it was a long-gone relic of the Truman-Eisenhower era, I did some research, and damned if it isn't still a thing. Less common now, when federal agencies are more empowered than they were then to deal with such specifics, but still very much extant. Make no mistake; Washington Story is a minor diversion but a thoroughly pleasing one, with just enough of the mature dash and grit that Dore Schary brought to his productions while running MGM to raise it above the characteristic saccharine of the then-recently-passed Louis B. Mayer era.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🎄😷🎄 on Jan 30, 2019 17:09:13 GMT
Spider Baby, Or The Maddest Story Ever Told (1967) A kooky, weird horror comedy that might just contain the single greatest performance ever given by Lon Chaney Jr. 
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Post by louise on Jan 30, 2019 17:23:53 GMT
Mary, queen of scots (2018). Fairly good historical drama. The actresses playing Mary and Elizabeth both very good. As far as historical accuracy goes, could have been a lot worse. I thought the actor playing John Knox was excellent, only when the credits rolled at the end did I realise it was David Tennant. I blame the beard.
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Post by teleadm on Jan 30, 2019 18:46:54 GMT
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court 1949, directed by Tay Garnett, based on a novel by Mark Twain, staring Bing Crosby, Rhonda Fleming, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, William Bendix, Murvyn Vye, Virginia Field, Joseph Vitale, Henry Wilcoxon, Richard Webb and others. Fantasy Comedy Musical "A singing mechanic from 1912 finds himself in Arthurian Britain" I wonder how much is left of the writings of Mark Twain. I have dismissed this movie in some earlier posts under different threads as a missed opportunity. Seeing it again I think I might have been a bit wrong, since it is in it's own way actually wasn't too bad, even if I think it has some important faults. One of them is that the new songs written by Jimmy van Heusen and Johnny Burke, that none of them is especially memorable, they are not the kind of songs I hummed or snapped fingers to after the movie. Another is that there isn't a character dangerous or strong enough to create a threat to the proceedings of the plot, a Basil Rathbone type is missing, Murvyn Vye, as the main villain, doesn't fill those shoes as he plays Merlin more in a lisming and smirking way. Rhonda Flemming is always Rhonda Fleming and is delightful. Hardwicke and Bendix is the comic reliefs. Still it's an enjoyable Bing Crosby romp. The production looks very expensive in the art, sets and costume departments, but maybe they had many leftovers from other productions. Mostly made indoors at Paramount Studios, but a few scenes was made outdoors. At Busch Gardens in Pasadena, and at Laguna Beach for the settings with Matte paintings for castle exteriors.   
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Post by ZolotoyRetriever on Jan 30, 2019 22:35:39 GMT
Spider Baby, Or The Maddest Story Ever Told (1967) A kooky, weird horror comedy that might just contain the single greatest performance ever given by Lon Chaney Jr. [] I meant to record that one off of TCM this morning, but dangit, I forgot to set my DVR! [slaps forehead]
Ah, but good news: it appears the full movie is available on YouTube, so I will watch it there.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTrpFBWZM0
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🎄😷🎄 on Jan 30, 2019 23:17:01 GMT
Spider Baby, Or The Maddest Story Ever Told (1967) A kooky, weird horror comedy that might just contain the single greatest performance ever given by Lon Chaney Jr. [] I meant to record that one off of TCM this morning, but dangit, I forgot to set my DVR! [slaps forehead]
Ah, but good news: it appears the full movie is available on YouTube, so I will watch it there.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTrpFBWZM0
I'm notoriously recording movies to watch later, but it just so happened I was available to sit down for Spider Baby today. Hope you like it.
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🎄😷🎄 on Jan 30, 2019 23:56:21 GMT
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Jan 31, 2019 2:00:32 GMT
Spider Baby, Or The Maddest Story Ever Told (1967) A kooky, weird horror comedy that might just contain the single greatest performance ever given by Lon Chaney Jr.  That movie has some good laughs. I like when the guy asks reluctantly if Ralph helped prepare the meal.
I watched
THE GREAT ESCAPE 1963 One of those films with considerable rewatch value. For a story that ends with a massacre it is remarkably upbeat in tempo and colorful, with a very catchy musical score. Although some have said McQueen steals too much attention or acts like he is anywhere other than a POW camp--which is true--but he does provide the core optimistic spirit which symbolizes the basic theme of the story (and the main musical theme). Without that I doubt it would be remembered so well. On the other end of the spectrum you have the touching relationship between Donald Pleasence and James Garner which provides a more somber musical accompaniment.
"And that, I'm sure you'll all remember, is the voice of the Nelles warbler. Let's turn our attention to this gentleman -the masked shrike. Lanius nubicus. The butcherbird. The shrike impales his foes on the spikes of thorn bushes. Not a very lovable character, you see. Let's have a look at the colouring. Uniform black above, from head to tail. A black rump, a black crown with a bold white flash, and a white line over the eye. The shrike lives in lightly wooded country...Ah. Hendley. Sit down. You'll find drawing materials on the table."
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Post by teleadm on Jan 31, 2019 18:44:12 GMT
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes 1972, directed by J. Lee Thompson, staring Roddy McDowall, Don Murray, Ricardo Montalban, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, Hari Rhodes, John Randolph, Lou Wagner and others Science-Fiction "In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, Caesar (McDowell), the son of the late simians Cornelius and Zira, surfaces after almost twenty years of hiding out from the authorities, and prepares for a slave revolt against humanity". The fourth of the five original Planet of the Apes movies. The future that might have seemed possible in 1972 is 1991!, and that's a bit fun. Another funny thing is that Roddy McDowell plays the son of his own character from the earlier movies. The premise is that apes was used as pets, but since they could learn easier tasks had developed into servants and later into slaves of humans more than to being just pets, the reason they became pets is that all cats and dogs died in a virus that came via the airship that Cornelius and Zira arrived in and spread around the world. This movie takes place more or less solely in a sort of concrete sterile modernistic city. The cinematography is sometime a bit too much "in your face" with many shaky pictures, maybe not a usual gimmick at the time when this was made. It's also difficult to get a feeling of how big this city is. Sadly it has a sort of cheap feeling over it, though much of it work well, there's still something missing, including a bigger budget maybe, and more depth into some characters. Still fans of the series and the actors shouldn't miss it. The majority of the outdoor scenes were shot in and around the University of California, Irvine campus, which was designed by futurist architect William L. Pereira, and was only six years old at the time of filming. Much of the production centered around the Social Science complex, which was designed by A.C. Martin & Associates and was still under construction during filming.   
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