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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 22, 2016 16:48:20 GMT -5
Thanks for reminding me about Fat City. I'm still feeling a little fatigued from the bug I had this weekend so I decided to watch a movie this morning before doing anything and I decided to watch Fat City (1972).
Great movie! It's one of the better boxing movies for being so real and low-key. I'm not even really sure it IS a boxing movie.
It was cool to see Nicholas Colosanto (who played Coach on "Cheers") in a regular movie. Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges are both really good but Susan Tyrrell really steals the move as Oma. She's NOT a fun, charming drunk. She's a horrifying alcoholic, and that's why it's such a great performance. It was also neat to see Candy Clark, even thought she doesn't get a whole lot to do.
John Huston never ceases to amaze me. I was kind of fascinated by his films in the 1990s. His career lasted so long and movies changed so much in that time, but he always adjusted. And so many different kinds of movies! That's what always got me about his filmography. Maltese Falcon, Key Largo and The Asphalt Jungle, but also The Red Badge of Courage, The Dead, Wise Blood, The Man Who Would Be King and The Night of the Iguana.
And also The African Queen, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Beat the Devil, The Misfits, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison and Prizzi's Honor.
After a few years (ten or fifteen) where I didn't add new films to my list of John Huston films (except for re-watching The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo), I seem to have started catching more of his movies. In the last year or so, I've seen In This Our Life (with Bette Davis), Tunisian Victory, Let There Be Light, Report from the Aleutians, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, Reflections in a Golden Eye and Fat City.
And I still have to see Moby Dick, Moulin Rouge, The Unforgiven and a whole lot more.
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 22, 2016 17:57:54 GMT -5
And I still have to see Moby Dick, Moulin Rouge, The Unforgiven and a whole lot more. Happy Birthday, O Sage of the Cinema! Thanks for all the great reviews and insights! |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 23, 2016 1:56:59 GMT -5
Penny Serenade (1941) Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Edgar Buchanan, Beulah Bondi
Cary and Irene, a newly married couple, survive an earthquake in Japan where Cary is an American correspondent. However Irene's injuries leave her unable to birth a baby. So they adopt a child even if it means strict scrutiny from the state that they provide a perfect home for the child
Melodramatic romantic comedy that ping pongs between light hearted fare to tragedy. The film had fallen into public domain so there are tons of inferior DVDs and worn prints played on TV local channels. Probably aimed more yo the female audience than any other segment but still a decent film.
In the film, released months before Pearl Harbor, Grant works somewhere in Japan for an American newspaper when an earthquake strikes. The film was released in April 1941. 10 days after Pearl Harbor in December, a major earthquake hit Japan killing close to 400 people. Heavy rumors among the Japanese that it was actually American retaliation for the attack.
I like the gimmick in this film in which it told the story. An older Irene Dunne is playing a record and each record causes her to flashback on a chapter of this tale.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 23, 2016 9:00:37 GMT -5
Here's a link that might help to explain the much-deserved hate that Star Trek Into Darkness generates among people who notice when a movie is a blatant non-stop high-speed parade of stupidness foisted on the audience by filmmakers who don't even care enough not to have any respect for the intelligence of the average movie-goer. A Real-Time Drunken Hatewatch of Star Trek Into Darkness. With Whisky. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 23, 2016 16:00:37 GMT -5
I took a little break this afternoon to watch Orchestra Rehearsal (1978) on YouTube. It's only 70 minutes long, so it was easy to sneak into my afternoon break.
Federico Fellini is one of my favorites. I saw all his most famous movies years ago. Decades ago! But he is such an interesting director that I like to keep my eyes open and watch for the more obscure ones because all of his films are pretty good and some of them are great. Even some of his obscure ones are great movies! (The Clowns and The White Sheik come to mind.)
TCM showed I Vittelloni a year or so ago, and I was glad to see that one. And I found a few others on YouTube! Including Orchestra Rehearsal!
It's a pretty good print, for anyone who's curious. The sub-titles are a bit odd, but readable.
And it's about a TV documentary crew going to film an orchestra rehearsal. It starts off mundanely enough, but because it's a Fellini film, things go off the rails quickly enough!
I enjoyed it quite a bit. It probably helps a lot that I was in concert band in high school and also as a freshman in college. It's good enough for a qualified recommendation for Fellini completists.
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 24, 2016 8:58:29 GMT -5
 I watched The Burglar (1957) last night. A nifty little crime thriller with Dan Duryea and Jayne Mansfield. Also, Martha Vickers is in it. You may remember her from The Big Sleep, where she played Carmen Sternwood, one of the most fatal of femme fatales. She's also in Captive Wild Woman, and she has a very very small part in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. She's pretty good in The Burglar and it's nice to see her in a movie I've never seen before. The Burglar is about a group of jewel thieves who have just pulled off a successful caper but they have to lie low for a while before they can sell the goods. They start to get on each other's nerves. And one of the boys just can't keep his eyes off Jayne Mansfield, and she doesn't like it! Also, there's a single-minded beat cop who wants to catch the thieves at all costs! Look out for that guy, Dan Duryea! Random trivia: Dan Duryea gets the plan for the heist from a newsreel. Later, he stands outside the theater for a minute when the movie's over and the marquee is advertising "Laurel and Hardy in 'Utopia'." Which is just too weird. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 24, 2016 23:56:59 GMT -5
Mame (1974) Lucille Ball, Bea Arthur, Robert Preston
Mame is a fun-loving NY socialite who suddenly gets custody of her deceased brother's young boy. Its the roaring 20s and the depression wipes out her fortune forcing her to look for employment. The years pass as she marries a rich southerner (Preston), pals around with a Broadway performer (Arthur) and watches her young ward grow to manhood
A musical adapted from a long running Broadway play that starred Angela Lansbury who received critical acclaim. Lansbury seemed to be a shoo-in to star in the movie version but rumor has it Lucy helped finance the film with the stipulation that she got the role. Musicals were bombing in the box office at this time and this proved to be no exception. It was also critically panned. A big reason that Lucy insisted her real voice do the singing. Not as froggy as she will soon be from a lifetime of heavy smoking but her voice was off-key continuously and sometimes painful to the ear. At 63 years of age she was definitely unable to do any complicated dancesteps too. It turned out to be Lucy's final big-screen performance
Bea Arthur steals the show in my opinion. Two songs stand out- the title tune and We Need A Little Christmas. At 131 minutes, it runs a bit too long as well
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 25, 2016 2:12:09 GMT -5
Pre-Code Hollywood Film Collection
The Cheat (1931) Tallulah Bankhead
Elsa has just lost $10,000 at a casino and signed an IOU. She's afraid of telling her husband the news. A rich playboy offers to cover the debt for Elsa if she agrees to you know what with him later. Reluctantly she takes his check. Then Elsa's husband strikes it rich. Elsa goes back to the playboy to return the money. Nothing doing, he insists, if I can't have you, I'll brand you with a red hot poker. And he does. And Elsa grabs a gun and lets him have it. Elsa's husband arrives as do the cops. At the trial, Elsa's husband takes the blame. The trial becomes wackier than you can imagine
Funny thing is, this is the cleaned up version even though it's pre-code. The naughtiest one was the original from 1915, a silent directed by Cecil B. DeMille. In the original, the playboy was a rich Asian merchant. Interracial shenanigans were quite scandalous as you can imagine
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 25, 2016 8:35:32 GMT -5
Pre-Code Hollywood Film CollectionThe Cheat (1931) Tallulah Bankhead Elsa has just lost $10,000 at a casino and signed an IOU. She's afraid of telling her husband the news. A rich playboy offers to cover the debt for Elsa if she agrees to you know what with him later. Reluctantly she takes his check. Then Elsa's husband strikes it rich. Elsa goes back to the playboy to return the money. Nothing doing, he insists, if I can't have you, I'll brand you with a red hot poker. And he does. And Elsa grabs a gun and lets him have it. Elsa's husband arrives as do the cops. At the trial, Elsa's husband takes the blame. The trial becomes wackier than you can imagine Funny thing is, this is the cleaned up version even though it's pre-code. The naughtiest one was the original from 1915, a silent directed by Cecil B. DeMille. In the original, the playboy was a rich Asian merchant. Interracial shenanigans were quite scandalous as you can imagine This looks really good! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 25, 2016 8:38:59 GMT -5
Mame (1974) Lucille Ball, Bea Arthur, Robert Preston Mame is a fun-loving NY socialite who suddenly gets custody of her deceased brother's young boy. Its the roaring 20s and the depression wipes out her fortune forcing her to look for employment. The years pass as she marries a rich southerner (Preston), pals around with a Broadway performer (Arthur) and watches her young ward grow to manhood A musical adapted from a long running Broadway play that starred Angela Lansbury who received critical acclaim. Lansbury seemed to be a shoo-in to star in the movie version but rumor has it Lucy helped finance the film with the stipulation that she got the role. Musicals were bombing in the box office at this time and this proved to be no exception. It was also critically panned. A big reason that Lucy insisted her real voice do the singing. Not as froggy as she will soon be from a lifetime of heavy smoking but her voice was off-key continuously and sometimes painful to the ear. At 63 years of age she was definitely unable to do any complicated dancesteps too. It turned out to be Lucy's final big-screen performance Bea Arthur steals the show in my opinion. Two songs stand out- the title tune and We Need A Little Christmas. At 131 minutes, it runs a bit too long as well This on the other hand ... I've seen it. It's pretty bad on one level. But on the other hand, it's not hard to watch and it gets points for being weird. There's a certain charm to it, as if Lucy Ricardo got the money from Ricky to produce an expensive movie with her as the lead. So it's a lot like a really long, really weird episode of "I Love Lucy"! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 25, 2016 8:49:27 GMT -5
Remember when I was talking about Zorro? I was on a bit of a Zorro kick for a few weeks. I even got the book from the library and read it. It turns out my sister-in-law is a Zorro fan. (Which was news to my brother.) I bought her a copy of the book (which she hasn't read yet) and she bought me Zorro the Gay Blade (1981) for my birthday! I had it for two weeks and finally watched it last night. Not a great movie but it has its moments, especially whenever Bunny is around! I'm kind of surprised I didn't see it when it first came out! I saw all those Hollywood parodies of the period, like Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, The Last Remake of Beau Geste. (I guess I wasn't really a Zorro fan until recently.) My one belly laugh was Bunny chanting: "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a peso! All for Zorro, stand up and say so!" It's nice to see Lauren Hutton. I'd forgotten she existed for decades but I saw her in American Gigolo a few months ago. |
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Post by DE Sinclair on Mar 25, 2016 9:44:01 GMT -5
Remember when I was talking about Zorro? I was on a bit of a Zorro kick for a few weeks. I even got the book from the library and read it. It turns out my sister-in-law is a Zorro fan. (Which was news to my brother.) I bought her a copy of the book (which she hasn't read yet) and she bought me Zorro the Gay Blade (1981) for my birthday! I had it for two weeks and finally watched it last night. Not a great movie but it has its moments, especially whenever Bunny is around! I'm kind of surprised I didn't see it when it first came out! I saw all those Hollywood parodies of the period, like Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, The Last Remake of Beau Geste. (I guess I wasn't really a Zorro fan until recently.) My one belly laugh was Bunny chanting: "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a peso! All for Zorro, stand up and say so!" It's nice to see Lauren Hutton. I'd forgotten she existed for decades but I saw her in American Gigolo a few months ago. A funny movie, though parts of it might come across as offensive with some of the gay stereotypes. Some of the funniest bits (in my opinion) have nothing to do with that though. For example when Don Diego is confronted in his bedroom by the husband of the woman he's in bed with and tells the intruder "I'm shocked you'd enter my home without my permission", to which the scorned husband replies "I might say the same about you and my wife". |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2016 10:32:15 GMT -5
Zorro, The Gay Blade has it's funny moments and I do like the part of the multi-colored Zorro Outfits that made it's way into this movie and I do like Brenda Vaccaro's performance in this movie and Donovan Scott as Paco as well. I have seen this movie about twice in my lifetime and I find George Hamilton handling of the three roles in this movie of which he handles himself quite good in fact. Lauren Hutton was better than I was expected and it's was a delightful movie that was entertaining at times.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 25, 2016 22:04:04 GMT -5
Pre-Code Hollywood Film Collection-6th and Final Film From The Boxset
Merrily We Go To Hell (1932) Sylvia Sidney, Fredric March, Cary Grant
Jerry is an out and out lush and meets sweet and innocent Joan at a party. They fall in love and marry over Joan's rich daddy's objections. At first Jerry swears off the liquor and concentrates on play writing. He finally makes a sale. But the leading actress will be his old girlfriend that he still pines over. Jerry goes back to drinking and spends overnights with his old flame to "study the part". Joan, instead of leaving, takes to the bottle too and spends time with young Cary Grant. Finally, Joan has had enough and leaves Jerry. Oops-there's a baby in the oven
I luv luv luv the title which gets repeated in the film a few times as a toast when the drinking is about to begin. Remember, prohibition was in full swing when this movie came out and there's enough liquor here to tide the nation over till FDR helps overturn the law. Also all the infidelity would be a post-code no-no too.
Cary Grant has a small part in his first year of movie making. Sylvia Sidney was a cutie back then. A good evils-of-alcohol movie that doesn't get preachy
So ends the box set released by Universal Studios. All 6 films are Paramount Pictures . Universal bought the rights to over 700 early Paramount titles years ago. A fun set for classic film fans
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 26, 2016 11:23:30 GMT -5
I just watched Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939). An average Moto film so your enjoyment will probably depend on how much you like average Moto. I love Moto! I think this is the only one of the Peter Lorre "Moto" movies I hadn't seen. The best thing was how many of my favorites showed up, including a couple of uncredited cameos. Peter Lorre is awesome. We also get Lionel Atwill and Joseph Schildkraut. Also, Virginia Field! I love her! She was very pretty and she was 5'10"! They usually do a pretty good job of hiding how tall she is. (In this film, the guy she's escorted by most of the time must be at least 6'3".) But sometimes, you'll see a shot where she's in the background and you can tell she's gigantic! She should have played Pat Savage in a Doc Savage movie. Or she'd be a great Baroness Paula von Gunther. In the uncredited category, we have Willie Best and George Chandler! My cup runneth over! |
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