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Post by crazyoldhermit on Oct 10, 2016 5:36:38 GMT -5
I decided to watch all the Universal Frankenstein films this Halloween season. It's something I used to do in October from about 2004 up to about 2010. But I started skipping some of the films because I'd seen them too many times and I eventually quit watching them as a group because I didn't want to wear them out. But it seemed like a good time to try it again so I watched Frankenstein (1931), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and The Son of Frankenstein (1939) over the weekend. These movies are so great! There aren't very many movies that I've seen more times than The Bride of Frankenstein. I don't think I could ever get tired of that one. There is a theater in Northern Vancouver BC that shows all three films for $20 that's includes Pop and Popcorn - that I attended 5 to 7 years ago seeing these three films and I was still wondering if they still do this. I don't mind watching these three films again and again ... these are timeless classics. What theatre was that?
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Post by brutalis on Oct 10, 2016 8:12:10 GMT -5
Began my Halloween movie watching starting with a Hammer 3 disc set. One of my favorite times of the year with the turn to fall and the colors and brisk cool chill in the air of the evenings, so perfect for curling up with my favorite horror movies.
Placing me into the ghoulish mood i started with The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll from 1960. Very stylish and colorful psychological horror with lots of the traditional Hammer sexiness and teases. Was fun seeing Christopher Lee playing the boorish aristocratic playboy gambler versus his usually more somber characters. Exquisite sets and costumes with splendid secondary character actors in support of the major players.
Second up was Scream of Fear from 1961, a quiet moody black and white psychological thriller more than terror. Shows that Hammer did more than just their big color fearful monster remakes. Nice twists and turns throughout.
Third movie on disc being The Gorgon from 1964 with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and Patrick Troughton the 2nd Doctor Who. Nice old style romp connecting horror to Greek mythology in a small British town where deaths have been happening the last 5 years and it turns out being a woman who is the final Medusa sister. Again as expected Hammer has great sets and moods and wonderful character actors aplenty.
Just the beginning as have several more Hammer horror movies on disc as well as the Universal Monsters and John Carpenter movies and Vincent Price movies to delve into over the next few weeks.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2016 8:24:49 GMT -5
There is a theater in Northern Vancouver BC that shows all three films for $20 that's includes Pop and Popcorn - that I attended 5 to 7 years ago seeing these three films and I was still wondering if they still do this. I don't mind watching these three films again and again ... these are timeless classics. What theatre was that? The problem is this - is that this is a rotating thing and every year they move it to a new theater and I'm sorry that I just can't remember that theater. I don't know if they are doing this year and my friend in Vancouver hasn't contacted me on this yet! ... By this time, he usually (contact me) does and I'm afraid this movie experience is a thing of the past. Sorry!
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Post by The Captain on Oct 10, 2016 11:46:46 GMT -5
My wife and I started watching Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man last night, but only got about halfway through. Just not a good movie, even with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr as the titular monsters, as it had almost zero plot and was just an excuse to get two iconic characters on-screen together.
Luckily, I recorded Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein last week, so we'll get into those this weekend.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2016 14:25:10 GMT -5
I watched Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man and Ghost of Frankenstein. Frankenstein and Wolfman ignored some of the events of Ghost of Frankenstein. Still I enjoyed both. I recorded Nosferatu and the Cabinent of Dr. Calagari as well. I tried watching Haxan, but got bored and stopped watching it--although I will say some of the visuals were stunning. Glad that TCM is showing Frankenstein movies this month. Hoping they show the Black Cat from 1934. Also watched Sgt. York on Saturday starring Gary Cooper. Last Sunday I wathed Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell with Gina Lolabrigida and it was hilarious!
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Post by The Captain on Oct 10, 2016 15:26:41 GMT -5
I watched Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man and Ghost of Frankenstein. Frankenstein and Wolfman ignored some of the events of Ghost of Frankenstein. Still I enjoyed both. I recorded Nosferatu and the Cabinent of Dr. Calagari as well. I tried watching Haxan, but got bored and stopped watching it--although I will say some of the visuals were stunning. Glad that TCM is showing Frankenstein movies this month. Hoping they show the Black Cat from 1934. Also watched Sgt. York on Saturday starring Gary Cooper. Last Sunday I wathed Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell with Gina Lolabrigida and it was hilarious! I caught some of Nosferatu this weekend, but silent movies really aren't my thing, so while I could appreciate the film on a technical level, it never did grab me strongly enough to watch the whole way through.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2016 16:08:56 GMT -5
I watched Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man and Ghost of Frankenstein. Frankenstein and Wolfman ignored some of the events of Ghost of Frankenstein. Still I enjoyed both. I recorded Nosferatu and the Cabinent of Dr. Calagari as well. I tried watching Haxan, but got bored and stopped watching it--although I will say some of the visuals were stunning. Glad that TCM is showing Frankenstein movies this month. Hoping they show the Black Cat from 1934. Also watched Sgt. York on Saturday starring Gary Cooper. Last Sunday I wathed Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell with Gina Lolabrigida and it was hilarious! I caught some of Nosferatu this weekend, but silent movies really aren't my thing, so while I could appreciate the film on a technical level, it never did grab me strongly enough to watch the whole way through. I'm thinking that's what will happen when I get around to watching it.
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Post by berkley on Oct 10, 2016 23:12:40 GMT -5
A general classic movie question for the board:
Do you find it makes much difference watching a blue-ray vs regular dvd when it comes to earlier classic films, say from the 30s or before? Are the reproductions we have now good enough to make it worthwhile paying extra for the presumably superior blue-ray video?
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 10, 2016 23:26:56 GMT -5
A general classic movie question for the board: Do you find it makes much difference watching a blue-ray vs regular dvd when it comes to earlier classic films, say from the 30s or before? Are the reproductions we have now good enough to make it worthwhile paying extra for the presumably superior blue-ray video? Well, I have a blu-ray player and a very large picture screen but all the blu-ray films I've seen are of more recent vintage. So I can't answer authoritarily. But there are several variables A blu-ray player does upgrade a DVD disc quality automatically The bigger your screen, every little bit helps It also depends on the quality of the print that the company is using and if they went through the expense of re-mastering the movie. Most don't so you might onnly get a small improvement between the two formats However, if you check out Criterion discs, the difference I'm sure is much bigger. They always search for the best print available and they take the time to restore a film to it's utmost. I've seen very old films on Criterion that look practically brand new including silents. They have been rolling out Blu-Ray versions of their library these past few years and I'll bet they are the best you'll find for old classics
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 12, 2016 18:07:07 GMT -5
I noticed Bad Girl (1931) was on YouTube almost two years ago but I never got around to watching it until today. It's one of those early 1930s movies that I love so much. And it stars one of my favorite obscure actresses - Sally Eilers. I liked it a lot! Your mileage may vary. Trivia: It was nominated for Best Picture the year that Grand Hotel won. Sally Eilers and James Dunn are a couple of hard-boiled, cynical New Yorkers who meet, swap hostile one-liners and quickly fall in love and get married. Complications ensue when Sally becomes pregnant and she's a little hesitant to tell James because he's always talking about how awful it is to have kids when you're a poor struggling New Yorker in a tenement. Thus begins a cycle of frustration as two people who love each other can't talk about their problems and concerns because of foolish pride and misunderstandings. But people in movies are stupid sometimes. There's a lot of great dialogue, especially early in the film when Sally is being sassy (and more than a little mean) to all the mugs that are trying to pick her up. And when they are both trying to look so tough, there's a lot of great lines tossed back and forth between Sally and James. Sally has a friend played by Minna Gombell who seems to be the Eve Arden of 1931, and she also has a lot of great lines. All three put in great performances. I can see why it was nominated for Best Picture, which I can't always say for a lot of the nominations in the 1930s. (Heck, I can't usually see why a lot of modern movies were nominated for Best Picture.) I can see why Grand Hotel won the big prize but that doesn't mean that Bad Girl isn't a great movie.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 12, 2016 21:57:07 GMT -5
Classic Movie and TV fans I mentioned earlier my love of the Warner Archive DVD program that's been going on for many years now. Here's a link to their website where many items are available for streaming and it says you get a free 30 day trial period. Can't beat that www.warnerarchive.com/
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 13, 2016 21:21:18 GMT -5
Last night I watched Princess Tam-Tam, a 1935 French film with the divine Josephine Baker. It's pretty good, but it's not nearly as fascinating as Josephine Baker's life and career! I had a vague idea who Josephine Baker is (I've seen Zouzou), but the TCM intro with Ileana Douglas and her guest (a Josephine Baker expert) offered just enough details to make me look her up on Wikipedia when the movie was over. She was one of the most famous dancers of the century! But she got kind of sick of American racism so she went to Europe and became an international star! And during World War II, she was a spy for the Allies, using her international reputation to pick up strategic info at diplomatic parties and also smuggling secrets in the lining of her panties. Princess Tam Tam has its moments, and it's only 80 minutes, so it's a fun movie to watch, if you like that kind of thing. I've also seen a few other movies, but I didn't say anything about them because they're not really classic films, and some of them are very recent. Adaptation (2002) - I liked this a lot. It seemed very pretentious at first, and it really is very pretentious, but it so deftly and joyfully made fun of those pretentions that I had to appreciate how witty and smart this movie is. And laugh-out-loud funny at times. Les Miserables (2012) - I liked this a lot more than I thought I would! I had to split it into three parts but I generally found it very entertaining and beautiful to look at. Russell Crowe is the Victor Mature of this generation ... and believe it or not, that's a good thing! Also, it's easy to see why George Costanza was humming "Master of the House" all the time. The Look of Silence (2014) - The follow-up to Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing, a documentary about the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia in 1965 in the wake of a military coup. It's probably not everybody's cup o' tea. The Big Short (2015) - I doubt there will ever be a better movie about the housing crisis. With Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie in the bathtub. Snowden (2016) - I liked this a lot, and I appreciated how quickly the time went by in a film that really could have gotten dragged down by the subject matter. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley are both very good. I'm also enjoying the heck out of "The Land of the Giants" (I tape it off METV on Saturday night and watch it Sunday morning) but that's another thread, isn't it?
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 13, 2016 23:13:47 GMT -5
I'm also enjoying the heck out of "The Land of the Giants" (I tape it off METV on Saturday night and watch it Sunday morning) but that's another thread, isn't it? Land Of The GiantsI lived in L.A. in 1966 (the only year which I was outside NYC). I remember my parents taking me to the Universal Studios theme park. There you can see stunt men exhibitions, tour the back lots and see familiar street scenes and houses used on TV, For instance, the false front of the house that Beaver Cleaver lived in on Leave It To Beaver or a typical western cowtown street used in many movies and shows The most amusing props to be seen were the Styrofoam boulders that you can throw at each other And then there were the giant props used for Land Of The Giants. A chair that was 20 feet high. A gigantic wooden pencil. A huge thimble. As a little kid, you can spend a day doing nothing but running around and climbing all over these giant props. Hey, life was simple then I've been remiss of late with my own movie posting due to various mishaps, computer crash and new laptop setup. Plus some new films arrived that I wanted to check out such as Captain America-Civil War, Into The Forest and a few others. This is the time of year thru early Dec that all the new films come out on DVD hot and heavy The classic films I've watched and didn't comment on of late was The Hurricane with Denzel Washington, the two Schwarzenegger Conan movies, Fuller Brush Man with Red Skelton and The Big Hangover with Elizabeth Taylor among others And no, I have not forgotten about that mystery boxset I mentioned a week or so ago. In fact, once I sign off here, I will watch the first of the 7 movie set and will report back most likely tomorrow. And if I delay it yet again, I'll deserve being called an ass. Even if there's just one or two people reading what I type, I need to keep my promises. See you soon
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 14, 2016 9:57:17 GMT -5
"Obey Fu Manchu ... Or every living thing will die!" Trump Campaign take note! This is much catchier than "Make America Great Again!" And a lot more in tune with your candidate's message. Last night I watched The Face of Fu Manchu (1965). With Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu. He played Fu Manchu five times! I watched parts of one of them many years ago and thought it was kind of boring. But I'm kind of fascinated by Fu Manchu, so when TCM had a Fu Manchu triple feature, I thought it was time to give Christopher Lee's Fu Manchu another chance. It was OK. I bet it would be especially fun on a snowy afternoon when you're doing something else and looking up at the TV every once in a while. With Nigel Green (who played Hercules in Jason and the Argonauts) as Denis Nayland Smith. I liked Karin Dor as the scientist's daughter. And the actress playing Lin Tung (Fu Manchu's daughter) has her moments.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 14, 2016 10:03:02 GMT -5
Ish, I loved your comments about the "Land of the Giants" sets at Universal. I used to live in Hollywood and I did the Universal tour a couple of times. (This would be in the 1990s.) In addition, I had a friend who worked at Universal and I drove over the hill to have lunch with her a couple of times. I was able to walk around the lot and I made my way to the German village set from the Frankenstein movies! It was so much fun to wander around those crooked streets and imagine the monster or Dwight Frye or Dr. Pretorius lurking just around the corner.
When I watch those Universal horror movies, I sometimes feel like I was there ... because I was!
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