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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 26, 2016 18:45:35 GMT -5
Is this the first American super heroine movie? OMG! I have to see this. I love Patty Duke. I watched a couple of episodes of The Patty Duke Show last week. I had forgotten how INSANE it is.
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Post by berkley on Jul 26, 2016 21:08:15 GMT -5
Saw The Front Page (1931) yesterday and thought it was great. Adolphe Menjou is an unscrupulous newspaper editor, Pat O'Brien is the writer trying to leave and get married. Mary Brian was very cute as his fiancée. Some political and social commentary but this is mainly an enjoyable comedy.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 27, 2016 7:09:02 GMT -5
I'm on vacation right now and staying with my aunt and uncle (in Fayette County, Indiana) and we've been doing a bunch of stuff so I went almost a week without watching a movie. But last night, I started flipping the channels and I came across The Big Heat (1953) and it was only about ten minutes into the movie, so I watched it. I've seen it a few times. It's a really mean movie. My aunt was reading but she put her book down and started watching it, but I warned her it's a mean movie. It's a great movie though. I'd forgotten that Gloria Grahame and Lee Marvin aren't in it until about halfway through. Also, Carolyn Jones (Morticia Addams) has a small part. (She's the blonde getting roughed up by Lee Marvin at the bar.)
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Post by brutalis on Jul 27, 2016 7:55:58 GMT -5
Watched this last night as well i when came in from work! Kind of a slow burn movie building the tension and pain until it all boils over in the ending. Kind of movie on a hot summer monsoon evening that gives you good reason for the sweats and nervousness. Love seeing Lee Marvin being the abusive bad guy while Glenn Ford bottles everything inside like a pressure cooker waiting to explode. Made me want to search out the book but likely not going to be able to find such an oldie.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 28, 2016 3:39:23 GMT -5
Here's a film that caused my jaw to drop to levels never before experienced. It's The Big Operator from 1959, whose subject matter was ripped from the then-current headlines of televised federal investigations of organized crime and mob-controlled union activities. Jimmy Hoffa was a key figure in the news at that time. This film has one of the wackiest casts I've seen in years Steve Cochran who normally plays bad guys , is a peace loving union worker happily married to a beautiful wife and has a cute little boy. His wife is none other than bombshell Mamie Van Doren who most of the time is wearing apron strings in the kitchen Their child is none other than Jay North, TV's Dennis The Menace
Cochran's best frien at the union shop is the Velvet Fog himself, Mel TormeThe union is run by the corrupt, brutal,cigar chomping Mickey RooneyMickey is ordering his henchmen to kill, kidnap, torch, maim and intimidate all who dare oppose him. Ray Danton is his chief leg breaker Cochran goes to a another Union Federation official to complain and Mickey Rooney's tactics. Jim Backus vows to help him And that's not all. We also get Charlie Chaplin Jr. and VampiraAnd lets not forget Jackie Coogan
See Dennis The Menace get kidnapped. Hear a great jazz background score. See Mel Torme lit up like a shish-ka-bob. See a great, wild melee between the whole cast as a finale See The Big Operator. Now playing on Olive Films DVD and possibly YouTube
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 28, 2016 8:07:28 GMT -5
In 1951's Bedtime For Bonzo, psychology professor Ronald Reagan is convinced that a chimpanzee raised as a human boy will develop natural instincts between right and wrong. Did middling business at the box office for it's theatrical release, for inexplicable reasons became a huge success during the 1980s According to the Reagan biography, " Gipper In The White House" by Walter Zyrson, Ronald Reagan and Bonzo spent many hours bonding in order to make this movie. Bonzo is credited for convincing Reagan to change his affiliation with the Democrats and join the Republican Party. It's also rumoured that, had Reagan won the 1976 Republican nomination for the Presidential election, Bonzo might have been his running mate.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 28, 2016 8:24:01 GMT -5
Saddle up cuz it's time for Good Western Theater 1951's Along The Great Divide was Kurt Douglas' first western. He plays a U.S. marshall who happens upon a lynching about to be performed upon accused murderer and rustler Walter Brennan. Seems Brennan had killed the son of a wealthy rancher when his cattle rustling was discovered. Douglas stops the retribution and insists Brennan must be taken to a town for trial instead. The rancher vows that the marshall and Brennan will never make it to town alive, that his son's vengeance will be met. You're never quite sure if Brennan is truly a murderer or not. Raoul Walsh directs this film in his usual capable manner with great western landscapes and desert scenes. Virginia "Hold The" Mayo plays Brennan's loyal daughter. The film's pace never slackens.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 30, 2016 0:26:58 GMT -5
Found this very recent DVD release, an Errol Flynn movie I have never heard of From 1951 and set in New Orleans in 1860. First amazing thing is Errol Flynn wrote the screenplay himself and I'm much impressed. It's a tale centered on a young gypsy woman who uses her beauty and charm to manipulate both sea captain Errol Flynn and the caddish son of a rich family played by Vincent Price in order to live among the aristocracy. The story has intelligent plot turns filled with murder, betrayal and double-crosses. The dialogue can be a bit hokey but not exceedingly more than many other films of it's time Vincent Price has a great role as the spoiled son of a rich lawyer who falls for the scheming gypsy girl. Errol Flynn is beginning to show his age here and his well-documented heart condition causes heavy use of stunt doubles too. I was quite impressed with the French actress, Micheline Prelle, another unknown entity to me. Taken aback that she's still alive and getting work and had appeared in close to 200 parts between French and American productions Very much entertained by this action melodrama
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 30, 2016 1:14:04 GMT -5
I love films from the mid/ late 1960s for their groovy vibes. here's a seldom seen one An American Dream AKA See You In Hell, Darling (1966) Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Eleanor Parker, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan A novel and screenplay by Norman Mailer Stuart Whitman is a TV talk show host who takes pleasure in verbally attacking mob bosses. He's recently separated from his rich wife who is a total drug and alcoholic wreck (Eleanor Parker). When he visits her to discuss a final divorce, they engage in an epic battle leading into her falling from her 30 story high balcony. He's under suspicion of murder by the police, a target of the mob and his first big love in his life (Janet Leigh) comes back in his life Garish colors, great 60s dialogue-" I can't make it in you're scene, baby", mod fashions and a spectacular over-the-top Eleanor Parker performance as the drugged out harridan ballbuster. Her scene alone was Oscar worthy. Janet Leigh looks great in her short hair style and heavy eye makeup. The film has the feel of a Mannix episode and the cops keep screaming at Whitman to confess. I can dig it! Oh, George Takei has a small part as a legal beagle
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 2, 2016 9:27:29 GMT -5
As a baby boomer youth, I watched many episodes, in re-run syndication, of the TV sitcom The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis. Not until years later did I learn the concept's origin. Created by Max Shulman, humorist author who wrote many short stories for the magazines in the 1940s, specializing on college campus environments. Eventually he began to use the same character, Dobie Gillis- a girl crazed college boy. The stories were collected in book form and sold well. MGM bought the screen rights and suddenly in 1953 the was: The Affairs Of Dobie Gillis-Max Shulman screenplay-Debbie Reynolds, Bobby Van,Hans Conreid,Bob FosseDobie (played by Bobby Van) enrolls in college and is immediately smitten by Debbie Reynolds. Fellow student Bob Fosse, later to be a famed choreographer, is his best buddy (No Maynard G. Krebbs to be found. This is 1953-no beatnicks, in fact no rock n roll either). Another girl student is determined to make Dobie hers, a nice looking girl named Lorna (No nerdy Zelda as found on the TV show). There is no spoiled rich kid like the TV either. Debbie Reynold's parents do not approve of Dobie Gillis (Dobie Gillis' parents are totally missing from the movie as opposed to the TV show where they are main characters) Its strange watching this earlier version after all those episodes seen from TV. There's songs and dancing injected as well, guess that's why Bob Fosse is there. Typical early 50s clean cut, vanilla teen comedy. Worth seeing as a curiosity if you enjoyed the TV version Did teens back then really croon on Moonlight Bay with a ukulele before rock n roll? This movie needed some Maynard on the side The DC comic TV adaptation ran for many years-26 issues from 1960 to 1964
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Post by The Captain on Aug 3, 2016 7:30:51 GMT -5
The wife and I watched Dr. Strangelove the other night, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Peter Sellers and George C. Scott are both fantastic in their roles (including all three for Sellers) and a lot of the humor still stands up today.
One more that we can check off the list of Top 100 Movies we've seen. We have about 10 more of them saved on the DVR and will try to get through them by the end of the summer.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 3, 2016 9:28:32 GMT -5
"Gentlemen, you can't fight here. This is the war room"
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 3, 2016 9:52:38 GMT -5
Alibi For Murder (1936) William Gargan, Marguerite Churchill
I wasn't going to bother mentioning this film I viewed last night, a one hour quickie b-movie murder mystery. Except for one thing
A plucky and intrepid radio reporter is at the mansion of a millionaire inventor trying to get an interview with him. A shot is heard behind closed doors and inside the inventor is found dead, seemingly a suicide. Since the reporter is plucky and intrepid, he suspects otherwise and proves to be smarter than the police detectives. They don't teach plucky and intrepidness at police academy
But what made me do a double-take with this film. It happens right at the very beginning. The plucky and intrepid radio reporter is at a New Jersey airfield awaiting the arrival, from Germany, of the millionaire inventor so obtain the interview. The aircraft arrives and all passengers safely depart
It's the Hindenburg zeppelin.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 3, 2016 11:12:22 GMT -5
I fell way behind during my vacation. But the last week of my vacation, I stayed at the home of a friend who's a film buff, so we watched movies, sometimes two or three a day. (We also went to the Fallen Timbers battlefield in northwest Ohio.) So I'll be posting a few of the highlights.
The first day we watched The Snake Pit (1948), with Olivia de Haviland. Olivia is having some mental problems, so she gets sent to an institution for treatment. This is a great movie! Olivia was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar. (She probably should have won, but winner Jane Wyman was pretty darn good in Johnny Belinda.)
But there was one scene that really transcended the movie, a wonderful moment that had us gaping in joyful awe. Olivia has just been disciplined for walking on the carpet in Ward 12. One of the other patients, an old lady, jumps on the carpet and starts belting out "Sweet Georgia Brown" at the top of her voice, wildly dancing, waving her arms and kicking as high as she can, and wiggling away from the attendants as they try to stop her ... she's singing and dancing on the carpet! We can't have this!
We watched that scene over and over. Almost every morning while I was there, we started the day by watching that clip two or three times. We probably saw it 12 or 15 times.
I wish YouTube had that clip!
Anyway, here's Bing Crosby's version of "Sweet Georgia Brown":
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 3, 2016 11:27:05 GMT -5
Watched this little cult classic the other day. A 1967 production from the one-and-only showman director William Castle Best known for being Richard Pryor's first film. Weirdly enough, it's a straight man's role as a police lieutenant. What a huge assemblage of comedians from the mid-1960s. Its also an adaptation from a Donald Westlake novel Sid Caesar is promoted to the board of directors of the crime syndicate headed by Robert Ryan. That's because Ryan likes the way Sid dresses and always remembers that Ryan likes a side of mustard with his corn beef sandwich. Sid's first job is to be in charge of the funeral of another mobster, including what the corpse should wear. Sid picks out the suit, not knowing $5,000,000 is sewn into the lining. Robert Ryan goes ballistic about the missing money and orders Sid to retrieve it-or else. The grave is exhumed but the body is missing. Sid Caesar doesn't have much time to solve the mystery before Robert Ryan or Lieutenant Richard Pryor catch him It's the cast that drives the film. A few good jokes but it should have been funnier. Ah well Poster by Drew Friedman. Obviously inspired by It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
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