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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 1, 2016 15:08:06 GMT -5
Gandolfini was really, really talented. Have you seen this one? No, and I guess I should. I so wish the guy had been able to do a few more movies. He is still riveting if you watch him in The Sopranos, but I think it took a toll on him in every way: physical, emotional, mental. He was the guts of that show, so key to so many of the other characters and their "arcs" that he had to be in scenes with all of them. He even had that deviated septum breathing thing going. Ish, you must have seen a million guys like this living in New York; I knew a few guys in Jersey who were so much like Tony and the the guys in his crew; they captured every last bit of the milieu. What an ensemble piece that show was. But it was Gandolfini who was its heart and soul. Imagine if he had died during a season? Immediate fade to black.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 1, 2016 15:20:43 GMT -5
No, and I guess I should. I so wish the guy had been able to do a few more movies. He is still riveting if you watch him in The Sopranos, but I think it took a toll on him in every way: physical, emotional, mental. He was the guts of that show, so key to so many of the other characters and their "arcs" that he had to be in scenes with all of them. He even had that deviated septum breathing thing going. Ish, you must have seen a million guys like this living in New York; I knew a few guys in Jersey who were so much like Tony and the the guys in his crew; they captured every last bit of the milieu. What an ensemble piece that show was. But it was Gandolfini who was its heart and soul. Imagine if he had died during a season? Immediate fade to black. Grab a look-see when you can of this film. it's a side of Gandolfini you have not seen and it really works, shockingly enough As for me knowing Soprano types, you bet. There's this other side of me, back in the late 70s. I worked the "graveyard shift" of an after hours joint in Manhattan for a few years. Gambling and other things going on. Many mobbed up guys came as customers. A few wanna be's worked there as bouncers too. They can be nice to hang around, have a conversation with etc. You just don't want to get on their wrong side or owe them money. But otherwise, they were funny, friendly, generous and honorable. I'm generalizing based on the ones I met. A year after the place closed, there was the famous shooting right outside our entrance where Paul Castellano was gunned down as he was about to enter Spark's Steakhouse. The killer...John Gotti. And that's how Gotti took over the Gambino gang. Imagine, right where I used to work
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 3, 2016 4:21:28 GMT -5
This Woman Is...... Dangerous (1935) Bette Davis, Franchot Tone Bette plays an alcoholic ex-Broadway star, disappeared from public view for several years. Franchot Tone, man-about-town and engaged to a society doll, stumbles upon Bette and tries to sober her up. He plans to get her back on Broadway and begins to fall in love with her. It's a Bette movie I somehow missed seeing all these years and after watching I discovered she won an Oscar for this performance. Well deserved too. She had the opportunity to exhibit a wide gamut of emotions here from washed out bag lady to playful coquette. Pretty decent film, only 78 minutes so it zips on by, and has a great plot finale with Davis at the wheels of a car
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 3, 2016 11:37:29 GMT -5
Dangerous (1935) Bette Davis, Franchot Tone Bette plays an alcoholic ex-Broadway star, disappeared from public view for several years. Franchot Tone, man-about-town and engaged to a society doll, stumbles upon Bette and tries to sober her up. He plans to get her back on Broadway and begins to fall in love with her. It's a Bette movie I somehow missed seeing all these years and after watching I discovered she won an Oscar for this performance. Well deserved too. She had the opportunity to exhibit a wide gamut of emotions here from washed out bag lady to playful coquette. Pretty decent film, only 78 minutes so it zips on by, and has a great plot finale with Davis at the wheels of a car Often said to be the make-up for the Oscar she should have won the year before for Of Human Bondage.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 3, 2016 11:40:15 GMT -5
Dangerous (1935) Bette Davis, Franchot Tone Bette plays an alcoholic ex-Broadway star, disappeared from public view for several years. Franchot Tone, man-about-town and engaged to a society doll, stumbles upon Bette and tries to sober her up. He plans to get her back on Broadway and begins to fall in love with her. It's a Bette movie I somehow missed seeing all these years and after watching I discovered she won an Oscar for this performance. Well deserved too. She had the opportunity to exhibit a wide gamut of emotions here from washed out bag lady to playful coquette. Pretty decent film, only 78 minutes so it zips on by, and has a great plot finale with Davis at the wheels of a car Often said to be the make-up for the Oscar she should have won the year before for Of Human Bondage. Correct, and that's what Bette herself always claimed. Still in all, this was a good movie to showcase her skills
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 4, 2016 5:47:19 GMT -5
Maybe I should have watched this next monthChristopher Columbus (1949) Fredric March British production and still the most satisfying film on the iconic explorer. Kudos to this movie for showing Columbus as a three dimensional being, warts and all. Determined in seeking finance for his expedition, half the film pertains to Spanish royalty maneuverings and political dealings. Columbus is willing to lie to get what he desires and shows an egotistical side too. The film has opulent production values and is a full technicolor extravaganza. One large flaw, and a stubborn myth, is the film insisting that most educated people at that time still thought the world was flat. In actuality, it was already accepted by academics that the earth was spherical. The film ends kind of flat though.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Sept 5, 2016 7:22:56 GMT -5
What films showcased families with a huge amount of children? Off hand, I can think of Please Don't Eat The Daisies, With Six You Get Eggroll, Yours Mine and Ours. TV land has quite a few shows im that subject like The Brady Bunch, Partridge Family, The Waltons and on and on. Here' one of the classics which also spawned it's own children remakes Cheaper By The Dozen (1950) Clifton Webb, Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain It's based on the true life story of the Gilbreth family, whose mother (played by Myrna Loy) grabbed national attention in 1948 by becoming Woman Of The Year. The movie is told as a series of anecdotes of amusing incidents mostly set during the 1920s. Papa (Clifton Webb) is an efficiency expert, very old fashioned, and the family has just added it's 10th child along with a relocation from Rhode Island to New Jersey. Jeanne Crain plays the eldest daughter It is quite amusing, it sets the standard for so many films of it's type to come and you get this in nice Technicolor as well. There's one scene that was quite unexpected dealing with Planned Parenthood and the topic of Birth Control. But yes, Margaret Sangor was in the news at that time. The movie ends in a way you might not expect. I didn't see it coming
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 5, 2016 8:48:54 GMT -5
If four children (plus assorted hangers-on) qualifies as a large family, you might add Life with Father (1947), Little Women (1933, et al.) , Four Daughters (1938) Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Then there's the Cary Grant tearjerker, The Easy Way, aka Room for One More (1952), which featured two adopted children moving into a family with three already. Does Boys' Town qualify?
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Post by berkley on Sept 5, 2016 20:07:47 GMT -5
I'm a big fan of Four Daughters, which I remember seeing on CBC late one night when they used to do weekly movie "festivals" and it was broadcast as part of a John Garfield week.
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Post by brutalis on Sept 6, 2016 8:07:06 GMT -5
Watched a dvd disc with 3 Randolph Scott Westerns Saturday. Relive the joys of youth when Saturdays were filled with western movies on the local station. The Desperadoes from 1943 with a young Glenn Ford as the young hotheaded quick draw trying to escape his fame and change his life. The Nevadan from 1953 with Forrest Tucker costarring. Just plain fun watching the younger Tucker scheming and conniving against the seasoned veteran Scott who seems to out think and out fight him at every instance. Finally Santa Fe from 1951 and the lesser of the three movies yet still entertaining about the Scott fighting southern confederacy loss after the civil war as he tries to rebuild his life working on the Santa Fe railroad.
These were all golden oldies and not a boring moment to be found as they were meant to be fast moving entertainment for the masses and they succeed at delivering fun, story and action all in just over an hour! Good times...
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 6, 2016 8:15:15 GMT -5
Watched a dvd disc with 3 Randolph Scott Westerns Saturday. Relive the joys of youth when Saturdays were filled with western movies on the local station. The Desperadoes from 1943 with a young Glenn Ford as the young hotheaded quick draw trying to escape his fame and change his life. The Nevadan from 1953 with Forrest Tucker costarring. Just plain fun watching the younger Tucker scheming and conniving against the seasoned veteran Scott who seems to out think and out fight him at every instance. Finally Santa Fe from 1951 and the lesser of the three movies yet still entertaining about the Scott fighting southern confederacy loss after the civil war as he tries to rebuild his life working on the Santa Fe railroad. These were all golden oldies and not a boring moment to be found as they were meant to be fast moving entertainment for the masses and they succeed at delivering fun, story and action all in just over an hour! Good times... Love those Randolph Scott Westerns, and agree that of those three, Santa Fe is the weakest. Hope you've seen the ones directed by Budd Boetticher, like Seven Men From Now, The Tall T, Ride Lonesome and Buchanan Rides Alone.Check them out if you haven't.
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Post by brutalis on Sept 6, 2016 8:26:23 GMT -5
Watched a dvd disc with 3 Randolph Scott Westerns Saturday. Relive the joys of youth when Saturdays were filled with western movies on the local station. The Desperadoes from 1943 with a young Glenn Ford as the young hotheaded quick draw trying to escape his fame and change his life. The Nevadan from 1953 with Forrest Tucker costarring. Just plain fun watching the younger Tucker scheming and conniving against the seasoned veteran Scott who seems to out think and out fight him at every instance. Finally Santa Fe from 1951 and the lesser of the three movies yet still entertaining about the Scott fighting southern confederacy loss after the civil war as he tries to rebuild his life working on the Santa Fe railroad. These were all golden oldies and not a boring moment to be found as they were meant to be fast moving entertainment for the masses and they succeed at delivering fun, story and action all in just over an hour! Good times... Love those Randolph Scott Westerns, and agree that of those three, Santa Fe is the weakest. Hope you've seen the ones directed by Budd Boetticher, like Seven Men From Now, The Tall T, Ride Lonesome and Buchanan Rides Alone.Check them out if you haven't. Of course i have the Boetticher/Scott collection Prince Hal and these are spectacular westerns from writing to directing to acting and the scenery is just gorgeous. Pound for pound i think Randolph Scott was a true cowboy in every way, better than John Wayne to me. I have pretty much grabbed up all the Scott Westerns that can be found and they are my regular go to when i am feeling down and need to watch something entertaining and fun and bring me out of my blues. Beautiful nature vistas and cowboys shooting em up. Restores my youth and energy everytime!
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 6, 2016 9:24:21 GMT -5
Love those Randolph Scott Westerns, and agree that of those three, Santa Fe is the weakest. Hope you've seen the ones directed by Budd Boetticher, like Seven Men From Now, The Tall T, Ride Lonesome and Buchanan Rides Alone.Check them out if you haven't. Of course i have the Boetticher/Scott collection Prince Hal and these are spectacular westerns from writing to directing to acting and the scenery is just gorgeous. Pound for pound i think Randolph Scott was a true cowboy in every way, better than John Wayne to me. I have pretty much grabbed up all the Scott Westerns that can be found and they are my regular go to when i am feeling down and need to watch something entertaining and fun and bring me out of my blues. Beautiful nature vistas and cowboys shooting em up. Restores my youth and energy everytime! Agreed, and well put, though I do have a fondness for Wayne, too. I know what you mean about the soothing effect of Westerns. Just to see them riding their horses so smoothly is enough for me. Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall in Lonesome Dove are superb horsemen. Among the B Westerns, I really like Tim Holt. How about you? You've seen Ride the High Country, then, too, I'd imagine, in which Scott played against his image. Joel McCrea was also great. Just caught him in a Western version of Captains Courageous called Cattle Drive that was just a well made movie. Not a wasted shot or line. And McCrea was outstanding in it. And Henry Brandon (Scar in The Searchers) played one of the cowboys who was unwelcoming to the snooty rich kid played by Dean Stockwell. (Brandon was also Mr. Barnaby, the villain in March of the Wooden Soldiers with Laurel and Hardy!)
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Post by brutalis on Sept 6, 2016 9:49:37 GMT -5
Love Lonesome Dove and really liked Comanche Moon. Ride the High Country is a classic in every way. Scott and McCrea are superb as grizzled tired cowhands. As for Wayne, i will watch his westerns any time as they are all superb renditions of the old west as we would envision it being if we could go back in time. Tim Holt in his B Westerns were fun but i have a fondness for Tom Mix and Tom Tyler and Johnny Mack Brown in particular. Always enjoy seeing Guinn "Big boy" Williams as sidekick in many westerns. While they are more studio hero than cowboy i really liked the Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power westerns. I can go on endlessly about the westerns and their stories and th adventures and thrill of riding across the open range.
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Post by Prince Hal on Sept 6, 2016 10:24:19 GMT -5
Love Lonesome Dove and really liked Comanche Moon. Ride the High Country is a classic in every way. Scott and McCrea are superb as grizzled tired cowhands. As for Wayne, i will watch his westerns any time as they are all superb renditions of the old west as we would envision it being if we could go back in time. Tim Holt in his B Westerns were fun but i have a fondness for Tom Mix and Tom Tyler and Johnny Mack Brown in particular. Always enjoy seeing Guinn "Big boy" Williams as sidekick in many westerns. While they are more studio hero than cowboy i really liked the Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power westerns. I can go on endlessly about the westerns and their stories and th adventures and thrill of riding across the open range. Me too! Dodge City: best saloon brawl ever! Tell me you've seen Power in Rawhide: excellent movie! Not at all enamored of the prequel/sequel stuff McMutry did, though. I thought he mailed them in and that he showed his dislike for doing them, whether consciously or unconscously, by the way he treated the LD characters, cruelly, disrespectfully, and/or illogically.(Pea-Eye and Lorena? Really?) Lonesome Dove (hope you've read the novel... it's superb) is beautifully written and McMurtry should have left very very well enough alone, IMHO. Duvall still says Gus was his favorite role ever. Quite a statement from an actor of his stature.
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