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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 4, 2014 1:39:04 GMT -5
Irma La Douce (1963)
Jack Lemmon,Shirley MacLaine,Lou Jacobi,Bruce Yarnell,Hershel Bernardi
D-Billy Wilder
Naive, by the book French police officer Nester Patou (Lemmon), is transferred to the Red Light district. Upon witnessing what must be a brothel, he single-handedly organizes a raid. This unfortunately disrupts the well organized system of the police and the Pimps union. Fired, he befriends Irma (MacLaine), beats up her pimp, and finds he is now Irma's new pimp. Nester doesn't like the thought of his girl seeing other men, so comes up with a plan.
First of all,there are some amazing small roles of soon to be recognizable faces in this film.James Caan makes his movie debut as a sailor picking up a hooker.Grace Lee Whitney is one of the streetwalkers before she becomes Ensign Janice Rand in the original Star Trek TV show.Tura Santana is another hooker,later to star in Faster Pussycat,Kill,Kill.Bill Bixby is another john moonlighting from My Favorite Martian.Joan Sharlee from The Dick Van Dyke Show as Buddy Sorrell's wife Pickles shows you how she got that nickname.
Billy Wilder again was pushing the boundaries for American movies in this film which amazingly didn't punish Irma for her chosen profession.Its another screwball comedy with Lemmon in top form and MacLaine getting a well deserved Oscar nomination.Wilder wrote the screenplay with Marilyn Monroe in mind as well as Charles Laughton as the barkeep.However both died before production began.
The films about a half hour too long,clocking in at 143 minutes.It might also be the last film from Billy Wilder's peak period.We'll see. 8 stars of 10
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Post by Jasoomian on Jul 4, 2014 12:26:28 GMT -5
1776 starts on TCM in five minutes.
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Post by berkley on Jul 4, 2014 18:08:37 GMT -5
Alastair MacLean movies I've seen:
The Guns of Navarone - all I remember is that Anthony Quinn played the strong man, Andreas.
Where Eagles Dare - excellent WWII guys-on-mission story with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, among others
Fear is the Key - pretty decent as a film, better as a novel.
Puppet on a Chain - not that good, though IIRC it was fairly successful at the box office. The book was one of my favourites, though.
I'd like to see the Charles Bronson movie of Breakheart Pass sometime, though I don't remember what I thought of the book - a western, which was very much outside MacLean's usual range. My favourite AM book, When Eight Bells Toll was also made into a film with Anthony Hopkins, must try to watch that one too. Ice Station Zebra was another AM book that became a pretty successful movie.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 5, 2014 5:42:41 GMT -5
After Irma,Billy Wilder next worked on Kiss Me Stupid (never seen it),then The Fortune Cookie (pretty good).His next movie was suppossed to be his epic masterpiece
The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
Robert Stephens,Colin Blakely,Christopher Lee,Genevieve Page,Clive Reville
D-Billy Wilder
Holmes (Stephens) and Dr. Watson (Blakely) take on the case of a amnesiac beautiful woman (Page) whose husband has vanished. The investigation proves strange indeed, involving six missing midgets, villainous monks, a Scottish castle, the Loch Ness monster, and covert naval experiments. Can the sleuths make sense of all this and solve the mystery?
The movie was completely finished as a 3 hour 20 minute $10 million epic with intermission road show tour de force.A prelude about Sherlock Holmes' college days and 4 interlocking episodes spotlighting different facets of Holmes' personality.United Artists,however,had a bad year in 1969 and did not want to risk the long running time potentially limiting box office attendence.So without Wilder's participation,the prelude and 2 episodes were lopped off,reducing the film to slightly over 2 hours.Most of that footage is lost-all thats left is the audio recordings,photographs and the scriptpages.The deleted episodes were entitled "The Dreadful Business of the Naked Honeymooners" at 15 minutes and "The Curious Case of the Upside Down Room" at 30 minutes.
What remains is still an entertaing Holmes film.Originally Peter O'Toole was going to play Sherlock Holmes with Peter Sellers playing Dr. Watson, but Billy Wilder decided to go with lesser known stars instead.Stephens and Blakely both give a very good performance,particularly Stephens.Christoher Lee plays Holmes' brother Myron and Page does a splendid job as the mystery lady.The settings are appropiately atmospheric.Unfotunately the plans for the Loch Ness monster didn't quite work out as Wilder expected but they were able to get around it
Any Sherlock fans should enjoy this rendition.Any movie fan should bemoan what United Artists did to this film.
What could have been...8 of 10 stars
That ends my Billy Wilder review.Next came Avanti which I reviewed a few weeks ago.In 1974 he did a decent remake of The Front Page.In 1978 came a drama with William Holden called Fedora which I've never seen and finally a Lemmon-Matthau comedy Buddy Buddy. Billy Wilder was truly one of Hollywood's greatest writers/directors
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 5, 2014 6:15:21 GMT -5
Robin Hood (1973)
Voices of Peter Ustinov,Terry-Thomas,Brian Bedford,Monica Evans,Phil Harris,Andy Devine,Roger Miller,Carole Shelly,Pat Buttram,George Lindsey
D-Wolfgang Reitherman
The Disney version of the Robin Hood legend. The swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest, and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy Prince John,The Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Hiss the snake as they put the tax squeeze on the poor.
Disney animated feature #21 is a decent version of the classic story.But by this time the quality of the animation is only slightly above TV fare.There is further use of repeating animation and other shortcuts.Even some sequences like the big battle scene after the arrow shooting tournament looks like it came straight out of a Hanna-Barbera quickie.Good voice work although a bunch of the actors are more associated with the American west rather than medieval England.Nothing bad but nothing outstanding 6 of 10 stars
When amassing my DVD collection I wanted the run of Disney animated movies which I achieved up to this point.
I decided to forego what came after,thinking it really wouldn't appeal to adult sensabilities.So no Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh,The Rescuers,The Fox and The Hound,The Black Cauldron,The Great Mouse Detective,Oliver & Company,Duck Tales The Movie and The Rescuers Down Under. Any of these 8 worth watching without childhood nostalgia attached to them?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2014 12:59:32 GMT -5
Robin Hood (1973)
Voices of Peter Ustinov,Terry-Thomas,Brian Bedford,Monica Evans,Phil Harris,Andy Devine,Roger Miller,Carole Shelly,Pat Buttram,George Lindsey
D-Wolfgang Reitherman
The Disney version of the Robin Hood legend. The swashbuckling hero of Sherwood Forest, and his valiant sidekick Little John plot one daring adventure after another to outwit the greedy Prince John,The Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Hiss the snake as they put the tax squeeze on the poor. Disney animated feature #21 is a decent version of the classic story.But by this time the quality of the animation is only slightly above TV fare.There is further use of repeating animation and other shortcuts.Even some sequences like the big battle scene after the arrow shooting tournament looks like it came straight out of a Hanna-Barbera quickie.Good voice work although a bunch of the actors are more associated with the American west rather than medieval England.Nothing bad but nothing outstanding 6 of 10 stars When amassing my DVD collection I wanted the run of Disney animated movies which I achieved up to this point. I decided to forego what came after,thinking it really wouldn't appeal to adult sensabilities.So no Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh,The Rescuers,The Fox and The Hound,The Black Cauldron,The Great Mouse Detective,Oliver & Company,Duck Tales The Movie and The Rescuers Down Under. Any of these 8 worth watching without childhood nostalgia attached to them? This was a favorite of mine as a kid. I had already seen the Errol Flynn Robin Hood on a Sunday morning movie showcase and adored Robin Hood stories, so this was right up my alley. I am a huge fan of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles, so I adore the Black Cauldron. The performance of the Gurgi character in the movie to me is a classic (the crunchings and munchings line gets thrown out by my wife and I at times at random moments), and the rest of the movie is solid, but not spectacular. It's a good adaptation of the stories, but not a spectacular feature on its own. A decent watch, but not required viewing. -M |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 5, 2014 13:31:55 GMT -5
Winnie the Pooh was a childhood favorite, but I think it holds up pretty well. The narration was excellent.
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Post by MDG on Jul 5, 2014 18:34:22 GMT -5
After Irma,Billy Wilder next worked on Kiss Me Stupid (never seen it)... You're lucky--an attempt to be "sophisticated," but it just comes off as cheesy. i agree, though, that Wilder's one of the great writer/directors. You wonder if his rep today would be more well-known if he didn't work in so many genres. (You should've mentioned Izzy Diamond, though). |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 5, 2014 19:13:06 GMT -5
After Irma,Billy Wilder next worked on Kiss Me Stupid (never seen it)... You're lucky--an attempt to be "sophisticated," but it just comes off as cheesy. i agree, though, that Wilder's one of the great writer/directors. You wonder if his rep today would be more well-known if he didn't work in so many genres. (You should've mentioned Izzy Diamond, though). You are correct for mentioning my neglect of I.A.L. Diamond.After the Wilder/Brackett writting partnership broke up in 1950 with Sunset Blvd,the new team of Wilder/Diamond formed starting in 1957 with Love In The Afternoon.The partnership lasted for the balance of Wilder's career with Diamond at times being the producer |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 5, 2014 19:39:17 GMT -5
The Hucksters (1947)
Clark Gable,Deborah Kerr,Adolphe Menjou,Sydney Greenstreet,Ava Gardner,Keenan Wynn,Edward Arnold
D-Jack Conway
Victor Norman (Gable) is just out of the service and looking for a job in advertising. By playing hard to get, he figures that he can get a good job and a large salary. The first thing he has to do is get a hero war widow Kay Dorrance (Kerr)to endorse Beautee Soap - a client of the Kimberly Agency. Mr. Evans (Greenstreet), the head of Beautee Soap is temporarily happy. Victors job is now to work with Mr. Evans, a man who is a strict and demanding client. Everything should be rosy with the beautiful nightclub singer Jean Ogilvie (Gardner) attracted to Victor, but he finds himself more attracted to Kay the widow
If you are a fan of Mad Men,then this film about radio ad men is just up your alley.Victor Norman returns from 4 years in the army and is disgusted by the state of radio advertising.Too many commercials,all loud,shrill,spelling out the name of the product as if the audience has no brains.Victor wants to get back in the game and change that.
However he will be handling the account headed by the cantankerous,obnoxious Mr.Evans played by Sydney Greenstreet in an Oscar worthy role.A scene to be seen,not just described.
I think that was a movie "first".
What I couldn't believe was how Gable could turn down the gorgeous Ava Gardner,who'd do anything for that man,in favor of the prissy Deborah Kerr.Put it this way,in the film Kerr travels to meet Gable at a hotel.He promised they would have separate rooms far apart.When she arrives she finds the rooms are next door to each other so she leaves immediately without saying hello. Ava Gardner would have snuck into Gables bathtub and waited for him
Anyways an enjoyable film,an excellent cast. 8 of 10 stars
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Post by berkley on Jul 5, 2014 21:05:29 GMT -5
If Kiss Me, Stupid is the movie I'm thinking of I liked it when I saw it on tv as a teenager - but I'm a big Dean Martin fan and almost always enjoy his performances, even in movies that really aren't very good, like the Matt Helms he did, for example. I think Kiss Me, Stupid is a better film than those, though. Like a lot of the movies that come up for discussion here, it's been so long since I've seen it that I'd have to watch it again to see what I really think.
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fred2
Junior Member
Posts: 78 
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Post by fred2 on Jul 5, 2014 23:54:04 GMT -5
Need help identifying a movie. I think it was a 1960s Japanese sci-fi movie. No giant monsters like godzilla, but had a black inky cloud and i think a flying manra ray. anyone got any ideas?
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 7, 2014 1:22:39 GMT -5
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Clint Eastwood,Telly Savalas,Don Rickles.Donald Sutherland,Carroll O'Connor,Gavin MacCleod,Stuart Margolin,Harry Dean Stanton,Len Lesser
D-Brian G.Hutton
Based on a true story.During World War II in France shortly after D-Day,a German Colonel is captured by an American squad.Ex-Lieutenant Kelly (Eastwood) gets him drunk and learns that a nearby bank behind enemy lines has $16,000,000 of gold bars ready to be shipped to Germany. Kelly is determined to get the gold and plans for himself and a few of his fellow soldiers to slip into enemy territory and steal the bullion.
What a cast.Eastwood,Donald Sutherland as the only hippie during WWII, and a bunch of famous or soon to be famous TV stars.Kojak,Archie Bunker,Murray Slaughter of the Mary Tyler Moore Show(or Captain Merrill Stubing of the Love Boat),CPO Sharkey and Uncle Leo from Seinfeld.Throw in The Repo Man and the Nazis have no chance
The movies a bit long but its better than it has any right to be.It actually maintains a sense of realism,the comedy does not go overboard,the action is constant.Eastwood grimaces,Savalas is the perfect tough-guy leader,Rickles is the greedy hustler and does not call anyone a hockey puck,Sutherland complains about MacLeods negative vibes and O'Conner is a glory hungry general.
Clint Eastwood released a 45 of him singing the theme song of this movie "Burning Bridges".Avoid it like the plague.During the filming in 1969, that Donald Sutherland received word, via co-star Clint Eastwood, that his then-wife Shirley Douglas was arrested for trying to buy hand-grenades for the Black Panthers with a personal cheque from an undercover FBI agent. Sutherland recounts this story often, mentioning that when Eastwood got to the part about the personal cheque, he laughed so hard, he fell to his knees, and Sutherland had to help him up. Sutherland and Douglas, who are the parents of Kiefer and twin sister Rachel Sutherland, later divorced in 1970. Filming took place in Yugoslavia because they still had an abundence of Sherman tanks
7 of 10 stars
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 7, 2014 1:33:46 GMT -5
11 Harrowhouse (1974)
Charles Grodin,Candice Bergen,James Mason,Trevor Howard,John Gielgud
D-Aram Avakian
A small time diamond merchant (Grodin) and his girlfriend (Bergen) are blackmailed into pulling off a major heist at the Diamond Exchange, located at 11 Harrowhouse London.
Engaging little heist movie.Charles Grodin delivers a deadpan narrative throughout the film which I found a nice change of pace.Made the whole caper sound like a stroll through the park.Good supporting cast and some nice chase scenes.This movie is criminally neglected
8 of 10 stars
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 7, 2014 11:23:02 GMT -5
Kelly's Heroes (1970)
Clint Eastwood,Telly Savalas,Don Rickles.Donald Sutherland,Carroll O'Connor,Gavin MacCleod,Stuart Margolin,Harry Dean Stanton,Len Lesser
D-Brian G.Hutton
I absolutely adore that movie. I watch...maybe not yearly, but probably around every 18 months or so. Just the perfect blend of action and comedy with a great cast. I'd rate it more highly. Probably not for technical achievement but for pure damn fun in watching. |
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