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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 1, 2014 0:09:48 GMT -5
I saw Fallen Idol via Criterion DVD about a year ago.A brilliant movie. I don't recall reading Mad's parody of The Barefoot Contessa and I can't imagine them topping the actual ending for its craziness.I'll see if I can find it somewhere to scan through For me, it's one of the better endings for a MAD parody. I read it for the first time long after I saw the movie, and I've always remembered the last line of dialogue even though I could never remember how the movie ended until I saw your review.
It's MAD #23, by the way, the last comic book issue before it went to magazine. It also has "Scenes We'd Like to See!" "Gopo Gossum!" and "Ripup's Believe It or Don't!"
Classics all! But pretty much every issue was like that.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 1, 2014 1:48:31 GMT -5
I have recently seen We're No Angels and Bogart's finale The Harder They Fall.I have never seen or owned The Left Hand Of God.Someday I hope.But now for the next to last Bogart movie
The Desperate Hours (1955)
Humphrey Bogart,Fredric March,Arthur Kennedy,Martha Scott,Dewey Martin,Gig Young.Whit Bissell,Alan Reed,Bert Freed,Ray Collins,Robert Middleton
D-William Wyler
After escaping from prison, Glenn Griffin (Bogart), his brother Hal (Martin) and a third inmate Sam Kobish (Middleton) randomly select a house in a well-to-do suburb of Indianapolis in which to hide out. The home belongs to the Hilliard family, Dan (March) and Ellie (Scott)who live there with their 19-year old daughter Cindy and their young son Ralph. They plan on staying only until midnight as Griffin is awaiting his girlfriend who will meet them with some money he had stashed away. When she doesn't arrive, their stay stretches out to several days. Dan Hilliard plays their game knowing that if he makes any attempt to contact the police, his family could be caught in the crossfire.
Bogart's final role as a tough guy and he goes out with a bang,so to speak.He's older but just as threatening as ever since he looks like a man with nothing to lose.After watching the completed film.Bogart mentioned to director Wyler that he's probably too old to do gangster flicks anymore but I'll disagree. he does an excellent job here
I recognized the outside of the house the gang chose to hold up in right away.It's the same exterior used for Leave It To Beaver.Too bad Jerry Mathers wasn't used as the young boy.And although Fredric March did a fine job as the father,Ward Cleaver would have been interesting as well.Actually Spencer Tracy was discussed as co-starring as the father but neither Bogart or Tracy would concede top billing.
Based on a play that won the 1955 Tony Awards.This was an excellent was to end my Bogie Bender. 9 of 10 stars
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Post by DubipR on Jul 1, 2014 8:26:59 GMT -5
TCM last night has special guest co-host Qunicy Jones, where Robert Osborne spotlighted some films scored by the legendary Q. A great list of films were shown:
The Pawnbroker (1965) The Slender Thread (1965) In The Heat Of The Night (1967) The Italian Job (1969) $ (Dollars) (1971)
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Post by Hoosier X on Jul 1, 2014 13:54:34 GMT -5
I saw a few minutes of The Slender Thread last night. It looks really good! But I had missed over half of it when I came across it by chance so I decided to turn it off so that when I eventually see it in the future, it'll be more of a surprise.
I'll see if it's on TCM On Demand.
The Pawnbroker and Heat of the Night are both great movies. The Italian Job has its moments. I never saw $(Dollars).
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 1, 2014 14:38:06 GMT -5
Double Indemnity,Some Like It Hot,Witness For The Prosecution,The Seven Year Itch,The Apartment,Stalag 17,Sunset Blvd,Sabrina,Ninotchka,Ball Of Fire,Avanti,Midnight,The Fortune Cookie,Ace In The Hole.
A great list of films,some of which amongst the finest.All of them written and/or directed by Billy Wilder.I have 7 of his movies I have not seen before or haven't in decades.Not the group above though I heartily recommend each and every one of them.
Billy Wilder started a career as a Viennese lawyer but quickly abandonned it for the more exciting occupation as a newspaper reporter.He relocated to Berlin and started writing screenplays in his sparetime in 1929.With Hitler's rise to power and Billy being Jewish,he left for France and eventually the US.His friendship with Peter Lorre got him connected with Hollywood and he partnered with fellow writer Charles Brackett.He has won 6 Oscars and 13 other Oscar nominations.he has a boatload of other awards including an American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement.I'm looking forward to these 7 films of his as his work is synonymous with quality.Billy Wilder passed away in 2002
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Post by Rob Allen on Jul 1, 2014 14:48:02 GMT -5
Captain America: The Winter Soldier finally arrived at the $4 theater that serves beer and pizza, so I finally saw it last night. Good movie. With all the SHIELD activity, did anyone mention where Agent Barton was? If they did, I missed it.
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Post by gothos on Jul 1, 2014 17:48:33 GMT -5
I caught a 1956 noir, THE BURGLAR. I think I'd seen it before but little was familiar after so long. Dan Duryea plays a professional heist artist. He involves his foster-sister Jayne Mansfield in a new heist. The robbery comes off but there are Freudian yearnings between "brother" and "sister" and all comes to a bad end.
Mansfield was pretty good compared to her sex-symbol roles.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 1, 2014 17:55:51 GMT -5
The screenplay for The Burglar was written by David Goodis based on his novel of the same name. Not Goodis' best novel, but right up there.
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Post by MDG on Jul 1, 2014 18:20:03 GMT -5
It's also the source for the '71 French film The Burglars, which has a great car chase (especially when you figure Greek move safety standards probably weren't as strict as in Hollywood.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 1, 2014 20:31:34 GMT -5
Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938)
Claudette Colbert,Gary Cooper,David Niven,Edwin Everett Horton,Franklin Pangborn
D-Ernst Lubitsch
US multi-millionaire Michael Barndon (Cooper) marries his eight wife, Nicole (Colbert), the daughter of a financially-ruined French Marquis (Horton). But she doesn't want to be only a number in the row of his ex-wives and starts her own strategy to "tame" him.
The first American screenplay by Billy Wilder with his partner Charles Brackett.This has one of the best boy-meets-girl movie openings.Michael walks into a fancy clothier in the French Riviera and asks to buy pajamas.But he only wants the top,not the bottoms since he dosn't use them, and will pay half price.The salesman is flabbergasted and must check with his boss.The request goes up the ladder till it reaches the President of the firm.Suddenly Nicole arrives and says she'll take the bottom only as long as its in stripes.Michael hates stripes but is intrigued by Nicole.As the clerks wraps the pajamas separately,Nicole disappears and Michael seraches the streets for his dreamgirl with matching pajama bottoms
Besides the great opening,there's things that work and things that don't.Ultimately Colbert and Cooper don't have a great chemistry between them.Colbert is entertaining in this screwball comedy but Cooper generally is out of place.A shame because there's many other enjoyable facets to the film.Right before the marriage,Colbert finds out her future husband has been married 7 other times.She forces him to agree that if their marriage dosn't work,he must pay her $100,000 a year for life.This could be the first pre-nup in movie history!!
Cool to see a very young David Niven as a young employee of Brandon's.Franklin Pangborn is always the ultimate hotel manager.Sophisticated wit that usually works but not always.7 of 10 stars
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 1, 2014 23:53:54 GMT -5
The Major And The Minor (1942)
Ginger Rogers,Ray Milland,Rita Johnson,Robert Benchley,Diana Lynn
D-Billy Wilder
New York working girl Susan Applegate (Rogers) is desperate to go home to Iowa but does not have the railway fare so she disguises herself as a child to ride half fare. Enroute she meets Philip Kirby (Milland), an Army major teaching at a military school.
Billy Wilder had co-wrote 3 major hit movies (Midnight,Ninotchka and Ball of Fire) and won an Academy Award when given his first chance to direct.Ginger Rogers loved the script for this film and helped him get the chance as well.She was 31 years old in real life and had to fool the folks in the movie that she was only 12.I don't know if this movie could be made these days,it would probably never get the approval from the major studios ,but things were much more innocent back when
This is still a very funny film.Major Kirby thinks she's a scared and lonely child and lets her sleep the night in his train cabin.Then when a storm washes out a bridge,he brings her to his military academy for young boys to spend a few days.Needless to say,she's quite popular amongst the young cadets.So much so that Major Kirby is forced to tell her about the birds and bees.Susan is falling for the major but if she tells the truth about her age it can get him drummed out of the corps.Especially since Kirby has a fiancee who is the General's daughter.
At the big Academy dance a cadet points out how all the girls have the Veronica Lake look that season.You see about a dozen girls with hair covering one eye.Reminds me of that line in Fast Times At Ridgemont High of the girls with the Pat Benetar look.Things don't really change.Ginger Roger's real mother plays Susan's mother at the end of the film
The film was a hit and Billy Wilder's career as a director was off to a flying start.It will only get better.A very much under-rated screwball comedy. 8 of 10 stars
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Post by Jasoomian on Jul 2, 2014 13:12:46 GMT -5
The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)
A similar premise as another 1997 film, Fincher's The Game . Except in this one Bill Murray accidentally gets caught up not in a staged game of intrigue, but rather a real one. Hardliner British and Russian military officials are trying to restart the Cold War by bombing the signing ceremony for a new peace treaty. A pleasant, undemanding, comedy as Murray blunders his way through the spy business to stop the bombing. Thumbs up.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 2, 2014 13:17:10 GMT -5
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Ray Milland,Jane Wyman,Phillip Terry,Howard Da Silva
D-Billy Wilder
Don Birnam (Milland) , long-time alcoholic, has been "on the wagon" for ten days and seems to be over the worst; but his craving has just become more insidious. Evading a country weekend planned by his brother Wick (Terry) and girlfriend Helen (Wyman), he begins a four-day bender. In flashbacks we see past events, all gone wrong because of the bottle. But this benderseems to be his last...one way or the other.
Just when you think Billy Wilder is nothing more than a witty comedy writer/director he comes out with the hard hitting war movie Five Graves To Cairo,the classic film noir Double Indemnity and now this 5-time Oscar winner (Best Picture,Actor,Writing,Director,Cinematography).I'm sure this was the first serious film about alcoholism.The liquor association tried to persuade Paramount not to release the movie by offering $5 million.Temperence groups thought the film might encourage drinking.Ray Milland was warned by his agent that the film might ruin his career.But the project went ahead,uncompromised and made history.
Outdoor locations were shot in NYC featuring the elevated 3rd Ave train that was shortly torn down after the movies release.Ray Milland stayed overnight at Bellevue Hospital to realistically prepare for the movie scene.The movie made a huge impact on returning G.I.s who were dealing with their alcoholism.Still very memorable is the scene were Ray Milland starts hallucinating in his bedroom.He sees a mouse inside a hole in the wall,chewing o the plaster.A bat enters the room,flying around and getting into Milland's hair.Then the bat dives into the hole in the wall and you see blood dripping down the wall.Its still a very effective scene.
This movie was one of the first to use the musical instrument known as the theremin.The instrument became very popular in later horror and SF films as well as pyschedelic rock music.
Billy Wilder was now at the top of Hollywood directors.Next he'll try his hand with a musical,Bing Crosby's Emperor Waltz.Then back to a comedy romance A Foreign Affair.And then he would direct 5 classic movies in a row Sunset Blvd,Ace In The Hole,Stalag 17,Sabrina and The Seven Year Itch. That is a very impressive run
The Lost Weekend 9 of 10 stars
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Post by DubipR on Jul 2, 2014 14:11:06 GMT -5
The Man Who Knew Too Little (1997)
A similar premise as another 1997 film, Fincher's The Game . Except in this one Bill Murray accidentally gets caught up not in a staged game of intrigue, but rather a real one. Hardliner British and Russian military officials are trying to restart the Cold War by bombing the signing ceremony for a new peace treaty. A pleasant, undemanding, comedy as Murray blunders his way through the spy business to stop the bombing. Thumbs up. I freaking love this film. Murray's so good in it. One of those random comedies that like a handful of people have seen and enjoy it.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Jul 2, 2014 20:06:27 GMT -5
Upon suggestions I've got Argento movies on my netflix list. I watched Suspriria, which didn't hold my attention too well. (I may go in depth later.) Right now I am about to sit down to watch Bird With The Crystal Plumage. Next will be Phenomenon. The Netflix synopsis of that movie is too much to pass up. It sounds like X-Files Home and Humbug smashed into one.
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