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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 11, 2014 14:48:23 GMT -5
Diner At Eight (1933)
Marie Dressler,John Barrymore,Jean Harlow,Wallace Beery,Lionel Barrymore,Lee Tracy,Edmund Lowe,Billie Burke
D-George Cukor
Millicent Jordan (Burke) is pre-occupied with the plans she is making for a high-class dinner party. Her husband Oliver (Lionel Barrymore) is in failing health, and he is also worried because his shipping business is failing. Hoping to get help from businessman Dan Packard (Beery), he persuades Millicent, against her wishes, to invite Packard and his wife (Harlow)to the dinner. As Oliver's problems get worse, Millicent is increasingly quick-tempered because the plans for the party are not going smoothly. As the time for the dinner approaches, it appears that the hosts and the guests will all have plenty on their minds
Last year I was doing a Jean Harlow marathon and this was a movie I didn't get around to seeing.I have a very high regard for Jean Harlow-there was never another actress like her until Marilyn Monroe.She started working in films at age 19 sponsored by Howard Hughes.She naturally exuded sexuality unlike any other contemporary and both men and women accepted her screen persona.She got better and better as she worked and turned into a gifted comedian.Her 1st big film was the aviation blockbuster Hell's Angels,she got smashed in the face by a grapefruit held by Jimmy Cagney in The Public Enemy.She teamed with Clark Gable 4 times starting with Red Dust.She became MGM's biggest box office performer,a veritable superstar.And then so quickly she died of kidney failure at the age of 26 in 1937
Diner At Eight is an adaptation of a popular stage play with some of MGM's biggest stars.Harlow shines as the wife of businessman/wannabe politician Packard.Their confrontation over his neglect and her affair with a doctor is a doozy.And man,does Harlow know how to fill out an evening dress.A famous quote from the film between Kitty(Harlow) and one of the guests
Kitty: I was reading a book the other day.
Carlotta: Reading a book?
Kitty: Yes. It's all about civilization or something. A nutty kind of a book. Do you know that the guy says that machinery is going to take the place of every profession?
Carlotta: Oh, my dear, that's something you need never worry about.
I was also impressed,as usual,with Marie Dressler.A quite large,horse-faced actress,she's funny as hell.Billie Burke as the host trying to organize the dinner party is a scream.Morbidly,John Barrymore plays an alcoholic washed up actor in this film.In real life he would die from alcoholism 9 years later
The movie is very stagey.Some bits are stiff and dated and some as I mentioned are great
7 of 10 stars
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 11, 2014 15:00:05 GMT -5
Dinner at Eight was not what I thought it would be. I finally saw it about ten years ago and I was mad at myself for not seeing it sooner. Highly recommended.
I watched most of Woman in the Window last night. Edward G. Robinson, Joan Bennett, Dan Duryea, Fritz Lang. Not quite as good as Scarlet Street, but still pretty awesome.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 11, 2014 16:16:34 GMT -5
Also worth noting was the unusually high incidence of cancer amongst the nearby Mormon community,those who did not smoke or drink The Down-winders situation has been an issue for a long time. I lived in Salt Lake when the 1997 National Cancer Institute report came out. The cancer stats in St. George Utah were absolutely insane, especially considering the overwhelmingly Mormon population that doesn't drink or smoke. My wife is a down-winder - she lived in Las Vegas from 1948 to 1963. Vegas wasn't hit by fallout as badly as St. George, but it definitely got some. We keep a close eye on her health - so far, she's fine. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 12, 2014 6:07:32 GMT -5
Forbidden Games (1952)
Brigitte Fossey,Georges Poujouly
D-Rene Clement
A girl of perhaps five or six is orphaned in an air raid while fleeing Paris with her parents early in World War II. She is befriended by a pre-adolescent peasant boy after she wandered away from the other refugees, and is taken in for a few weeks by his family. The children become fast friends, and the film follows their attempt to assimilate the deaths they both face, and the religious rituals surrounding those deaths, through the construction of a cemetery for all sorts of animals. Child-like and adult activity are frequently at cross-purposes, however.
This is a movie that will haunt me forever.The opening act with the refugees crossing a bridge and getting caught by the bombs and strafing gun fire resulting in a little orphan girl holding on to her dead dog will break your heart.But this is not a morbid movie,surprisingly.You'll be riveted as the young girl and the boy she befriends come to understand the meaning of death.Its sad and heart-wrenching to watch but done a child-like innocence and fun.
You will instantly love the little girl Paulette (Fossey).The simple guitar background music is perfect too.This is a legendary film.10 of 10 stars
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 12, 2014 10:29:18 GMT -5
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Jack Nicholson,Karen Black,Lois Smith,Sally Struthers,Billy Green Bush,Toni Basil
D-Bob Rafelson
Robert Dupea (Nicholson) has given up his promising career as a concert pianist and is now working in oil fields. He lives together with Rayette (Black), who's a waitress in a diner. When Robert hears from his sister that his father isn't well, he drives up to Washington to see him, taking Rayette with him. There he gets confronted with his rich, cultured family that he had left behind.
This is not a movie for everyone,but a character study of someone who does not fit and would rather run away than make it work.Robert Dupea left his affluent family 3 years before,bouncing from job to job.He's found a woman who adores him but refuses to tell her he loves her. He'll bed with any woman he could but doesn't want to get close.As he says,he's ready to leave before everything naturally turns to shit
This was Jack Nicholson's first starring role in a serious film.Beforehand,it was B-movie horror and biker films before an Academy Award nomination for supporting actor in Easy Rider.He got a nomination for this movie as well.Sally Struthers romps around with Jack in bed.Toni Basil hitches a ride with Jack and talks about filth for hundreds of miles.And then there is the famous scene of Jack ordering breakfast his way at a diner.
When I first saw this film in 1970,I didn't get it.But the older I got,the more I understood the Robert Dupea character.I now give it 8 and 1/2 of 10 stars
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Post by Jesse on Jun 12, 2014 14:04:32 GMT -5
I had an English professor who showed us that scene in class. I ended up watching the entire film years later on TCM and really enjoyed it.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 13, 2014 11:13:21 GMT -5
Drunken Angel (1948)
Takashi Shimura,Toshiro Mifune
D-Akira Kurosawa
A drunken doctor (Shimura) with a hot temper and a violence-prone gangster (Mifune) with tuberculosis form an uneasy friendship until the gangster's former boss is released from prison and seeks to take over his gang once again. The ailing young man loses his status as gang boss and becomes ostracised, and eventually confronts his former boss in a battle to the death.
Kurosawa's first teaming with Mifune,who I didn't recognize being so young and having a different hairstyle.The conditions in post-war Tokyo portrayed in this film was startling-damp,mosquito-ridden,fetid ponds of garbage strewn water amongst bombed out buildings and tuberculosis a prime concern.A struggling economy driving men to gangsterism and women to prostitution. I wouldn't call this a film-noir movie as some have,it seems more like an early 30s WB ganster picture
Takashi Shimura is memorable as an alchoholic physician who'll treat your wounds as he curses you out for how you lead your life.But watching Mifune slowly deteriorate from the effects of TB whlie trying to continue his gangster code of honor steals the show.
The Criterion edition also includes a half hour doc on the making of the movie and a 2nd half hour doc on American censorship of Japanese films during the post-war occupation
7 of 10 stars
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 13, 2014 11:32:07 GMT -5
Kurosawa is my favorite director. I don't think anybody else hits the mark as much of the time as Kurosawa. Almost all of his movies are close to perfect. What Fellini did four or five times (with movies like La Strada, La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2), Kurosawa did about 20 times. In films as diverse as Yojimbo, Red Beard, Ikiru, Dersu Uzala, The Bad Sleep Well and Do'das Ka'den.
Have you seen Stray Dog yet?
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 13, 2014 11:39:19 GMT -5
Kurosawa is my favorite director. I don't think anybody else hits the mark as much of the time as Kurosawa. Almost all of his movies are close to perfect. What Fellini did four or five times (with movies like La Strada, La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2), Kurosawa did about 20 times. In films as diverse as Yojimbo, Red Beard, Ikiru, Dersu Uzala, The Bad Sleep Well and Do'das Ka'den. Have you seen Stray Dog yet? Yes I have,a few months ago.Very good movie,even better than Drunken Angel which I guess was Kurosawa still early in his career and improving.I still need to see The Bad Sleep Well and a few others that I own |
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 13, 2014 12:58:13 GMT -5
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Post by Pharozonk on Jun 13, 2014 13:17:12 GMT -5
I finally watched Alien for the first time. The climax is definitely intense and the suspense is excellent, though the first 45 minutes were pretty tedious.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jun 13, 2014 14:52:42 GMT -5
Five Star Final (1931)
Edgar G. Robinson,Boris Karloff,H.B.Warner,Marian Marsh,George E. Stone,Ona Munson,Aline MacMahon
D-Mervyn LeRoy
The City Editor (Robinson) of a sleazy tabloid goes against his own journalistic ethics to resurrect a twenty year old murder case... with tragic results.
The days when big cities might have a dozen newspapers competing against each other and the lengths they'd go to increase their circulation. In this pre-code melodrama,20 years prior,Nancy Voorhees kills a man because he knocked her up and refused to marry her.The jury finds her innocent,she finds a new husband and disappears.Now her daughter is about to marry and a sleazy tabloid ressurrects the story on the front page with pictures for a week long serial.Boris Karloff plays the reporter who finds Voorhees.With all the publicity of the old murder case,the daughters' marriage is in jeopardy.Nancy Voorhees pleads with the newspaper to discontinue the story in vain.Nancy Voorhees has one last recourse-suicide.Her husband finds her body and kills himself as well.The daughter gets ahold of a gun and goes to the newspaper headquarters to confront the editor,the publisher and the reporter.Oh yeah-the last half hour of this film is pretty powerful
So powerful it was nominated Best Movie for 1931.A few other notes:
Boris Karloff was in 16 movies in 1931. 16 including this and Frankenstein
George E.Stone was a memorable Damyon Runyon type character actor who played in many Boston Blackie films
Ona Munson plays a woman who gets a newspaper job because she wears a revealing outfit for her job interview.In real life she committed suicide by overdose in 1955 with her death note reading "This is the only way I know to be free again ... Please don't follow me." She was Belle Watling in Gone With The Wind
So the movie starts off a bit hackneyed and stereotyped.But it picks up steam and gets very intense. Robinson and Karloff are a great pair as well 8 of 10 stars
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,871
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Post by shaxper on Jun 13, 2014 15:08:20 GMT -5
I finally watched Alien for the first time. The climax is definitely intense and the suspense is excellent, though the first 45 minutes were pretty tedious. It's possible it felt tedious because you had a certain set of expectations for what Alien might be. The sequels were intense, high action, fast momentum joyrides, and that's pretty much how the series is remembered in popular culture, but the first film was intended to function like a suspenseful haunted house in space. Then again, it may just not be your cup of tea. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 13, 2014 15:21:21 GMT -5
As much I like the first four Alien films, the first one is still my favorite. By far! I saw it when it first came out, and it was quite a sensation.
The second one was one of the first non-stop action, all-SFX, huge-budget extravaganzas that Hollywood has been beating us about the head with for decades. There's certain sameness to them after a while. (Although some of them stand out for me. I love all the Resident Evil movies.)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (the old one), The Thing (the old one), Alien and Blade Runner are my favorite science fiction films.
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Post by Pharozonk on Jun 13, 2014 15:28:51 GMT -5
That could possibly be the case. Granted, the first Alien movie I watched was Alien:Resurrection, which was pretty bad. I think that made me the think that the movie would be fast paced throughout the entire film.
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