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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 16, 2015 16:21:03 GMT -5
I watched Mr. Moto's Gamble today. Yeah. It's a weird one.
It started out as a Charlie Chan script. But Warner Oland died, and some genius at the studio decided that Moto and Chan were interchangeable enough that they could throw Peter Lorre into it, change the dialogue a little and nobody would think too much about it.
So Keye Luke is Lee Chan, Charlie Chan's son, taking a course in criminology taught by Mr. Moto. Lee notes that his father is in Honolulu, and Charlie Chan is mentioned by name several times in the script. When the action starts, Keye Luke is involved in the investigation in much the same way as he is in the Charlie Chan films, pairing up with some dummy (in this case, a fellow student from the criminology class, who happens to be a kleptomaniac) for a series of allegedly hilarious misadventure.
The murders take place in the boxing world. So if you ever wondered what a Charlie Chan movie set in the world of boxing would be like if it had Mr. Moto instead of Charlie Chan, then this is the movie for you!
Lon Chaney appears briefly as the muscle for one of the gangsters. (It's a boxing picture, so it has to have gangsters.) Ward Bond has a slightly bigger part as the heavyweight champion. And there's John Hamilton (Perry White on the old Superman TV show).
And my favorite bit player, George Chandler, has a few lines as the obnoxious spectator sitting behind the main boxer's girlfriend at the fight. (When somebody says "He hasn't laid a glove on him," Chandler gets to say, "Then you better keep an eye on the referee because somebody is beating the hell out of him." Chandler is so great at lines like that.)
Not the best Mr. Moto movie but pretty average for a Charlie Chan film.
And I watched The Invisible Man's Revenge on Svengoolie last night. I must have seen it because I remember renting The Invisible Man Legacy Collection and I must have watched all of them. I remember The Invisible Woman (with John Barrymore and Virginia Bruce and Shemp Howard) really well and I also remember watching The Invisible Man Returns (with Nan Grey and Vincent Price) and thinking it was pretty cool.
But I sure don't remember The Invisible Man's Revenge. I was never bored, but it wasn't very memorable. Everybody is either an awful person or too bland to care about. John Carradine's fun as usual but not nearly as good here as in something like Captive Wild Woman or The Unearthly. And Evelyn Ankers (usually one of my favorite Universal heroines) just has too little to do.
Jon Hall just runs around and screams at people. Some of the time he's invisible. There's not too much going on beyond that.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 16, 2015 18:47:00 GMT -5
I watched Mr. Moto's Gamble today. Yeah. It's a weird one. It started out as a Charlie Chan script. But Warner Oland died, and some genius at the studio decided that Moto and Chan were interchangeable enough that they could throw Peter Lorre into it, change the dialogue a little and nobody would think too much about it. So Keye Luke is Lee Chan, Charlie Chan's son, taking a course in criminology taught by Mr. Moto. Lee notes that his father is in Honolulu, and Charlie Chan is mentioned by name several times in the script. When the action starts, Keye Luke is involved in the investigation in much the same way as he is in the Charlie Chan films, pairing up with some dummy (in this case, a fellow student from the criminology class, who happens to be a kleptomaniac) for a series of allegedly hilarious misadventure. The murders take place in the boxing world. So if you ever wondered what a Charlie Chan movie set in the world of boxing would be like if it had Mr. Moto instead of Charlie Chan, then this is the movie for you! Lon Chaney appears briefly as the muscle for one of the gangsters. (It's a boxing picture, so it has to have gangsters.) Ward Bond has a slightly bigger part as the heavyweight champion. And there's John Hamilton (Perry White on the old Superman TV show). And my favorite bit player, George Chandler, has a few lines as the obnoxious spectator sitting behind the main boxer's girlfriend at the fight. (When somebody says "He hasn't laid a glove on him," Chandler gets to say, "Then you better keep an eye on the referee because somebody is beating the hell out of him." Chandler is so great at lines like that.) Not the best Mr. Moto movie but pretty average for a Charlie Chan film. Still recovering from my Charlie Chan 50 movies in 51 days marathon (located way way back on the pages of Community Discussions-hint hint)
And I also covered all the Mr Moto films many pages back on this very thread. Ah.. memories. And just like you said about that films background
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 16, 2015 23:37:51 GMT -5
Still recovering from my Charlie Chan 50 movies in 51 days marathon (located way way back on the pages of Community Discussions-hint hint) And I also covered all the Mr Moto films many pages back on this very thread. Ah.. memories. And just like you said about that films background I went back and found your Mr. Moto thread. I'd totally forgotten about it. I left a few comments. I even commented on your review of Mr. Moto's Gamble and said I'd like to see it! And eight months later, I got the chance. Right now I'm taking a short break from Hamlet. This is the silent film version I found on YouTube that I mentioned a few days ago. It was made in 1921 in Germany. It's a silent film. The titles are in German and there is no translation. My German is not so great. Sometimes I know exactly what they are saying. Other times they throw up a wall of text that I do not understand at all. A woman is playing Hamlet. Her name is Asta Nielsen and she was Denmark's greatest actress of her day. In this version of Hamlet, the queen gives birth to a girl just as word comes to the castle that the king has been killed. So in order to ensure a peaceful succession, the queen and the attendant agree to tell everybody that the baby was a boy and they will raise "Hamlet" as a boy. Then it turns out the king survived his wounds and they are stuck with their story. And even after Hamlet grows up, there are a number of scenes that are set before the play starts. I'm a half hour into it and the king is still alive! Hamlet is at school in Wittenburg and he's met Laertes and he also meets Fortinbras (king of Norway; King Hamlet killed his father) in fencing class. And Gertrude is scheming with Claudius to kill the king! She's in on it! It ain't Shakespeare. I like it though. The Wittenburg scenes especially are pretty cool.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 17, 2015 13:37:28 GMT -5
My Favorite Year (1982) Peter O'Toole, Mark-Lynn Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, Bill Macy, Lainie Kazan
Mark Lynn-Baker (never heard of him and pretty much only did subsequent TV work) plays the part of Benji and relates his experience working for NBC TV during 1954. Think of him as an apprentice writer for the Your Show Of Shows with Sid Caesar, broadcast live. This week is legendary and alchoholic movie matinee star Alan Swan as the special guest. Think of Swan as an Errol Flynn type who drinks massive amounts of alchohol and hasn't worked live or in front of an audience for over 20 years. Think of a gangland mobster who is tired of the shows' running parody of him and has ordered his henchmen to rub out the Sid Caesar-type guy played by Bologna. Think of this as a hilarious sendup of early TV and over-the-hill actors
Peter O'Toole once again gives a magnificent performance. Mark-Lynn Baker reminds me of Welcome Back Kotter's Horshack. Still, its a very funny movie
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 17, 2015 13:48:43 GMT -5
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) Paul Newman
The original Rocky boxing movie however this is the biography of Rocky Graziano. Raised in the Manhattan slums, in and out of reform school, serving time at Rikers prison, drafted into the army during WWII and going AWOL, the only talent he had was a killer right punch. And that's all he needed to contend for Middleweight champion.
The role was originally meant for James Dean but his death gave Paul Newman the opportunity even though his first film, The Golden Chalice, bombed at the box office and he was already 31 years old. However he does a great job in the role and it propelled him to stardom. And check out the street gang he was hanging out with early in the film. Not only did it include Sal Mineo but, in his first screen appearance and uncredited, Steve McQueen
Great location scenes of Manhattan. Decent boxing sequences. Excellent boxing film
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 17, 2015 13:56:36 GMT -5
The Hand That Rocked The Cradle (1992) Annabella Sciorra, Rebecca De Mornay, Ernie Hudson, John de Lancie
Star Trek-The Next Generation's Q lands on earth in the early 90s to get some experience of what its like to be a married pervy doctor. However he gets ratted out and fakes his own suicide while really returning to the future. His earth wife is distraught, her husbands money is frozen pending lawsuits about his pervy practices and she winds up miscarrying Q's child. Damn, that Q bastard really screwed up this woman. But she vows revenge against the woman who filled the first lawsuit against Q and poses as a nanny to infiltrate the family and secretly breastfeed the child
Moral: You're much better off hiring a dingo as a nanny. They're less devious
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 17, 2015 14:05:16 GMT -5
The Hand That Rocked The Cradle (1992) Annabella Sciorra, Rebecca De Mornay, Ernie Hudson, John de Lancie Star Trek-The Next Generation's Q lands on earth in the early 90s to get some experience of what its like to be a married pervy doctor. However he gets ratted out and fakes his own suicide while really returning to the future. His earth wife is distraught, her husbands money is frozen pending lawsuits about his pervy practices and she winds up miscarrying Q's child. Damn, that Q bastard really screwed up this woman. But she vows revenge against the woman who filled the first lawsuit against Q and poses as a nanny to infiltrate the family and secretly breastfeed the child Moral: You're much better off hiring a dingo as a nanny. They're less devious Uh ... wut?
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 17, 2015 14:05:29 GMT -5
Death On The Nile (1978) Peter Ustinov, David Niven, Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Arthur Kennedy, Mia Farrow, Lois Chiles, Olivia Hussey, Maggie Smith, Jack Warden
Murder On The Orient Express did boffo box office business so its time to re-up with another Agatha Christie all star cast blockbuster chock filled with senior citizen thespians. As usual about a dozen people have reasons to kill the victim. As usual Hercule Poirot overhears all these various veiled threats against the soon to be departed and makes mental notes of them. As usual, he gathers all the suspects together and spends the final half hour of the film going over all the minute details of the crime
Great Egyptian location scenes of pyramids and ancient temples. An enjoyable movie. But the biggest mystery to me is how this Nile river pleasure cruise was coincidentally filled to the brim with people that wanted to kill the same woman.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 17, 2015 14:27:05 GMT -5
I watched the rest of that 1921 version of Hamlet. It was pretty good! I'd like to see it on a big screen with a nice print translated into English with a live organ.
It does use some of the lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet. I know some German, so I could sometimes work out some of the Shakespeare quotes by recognizing key words and matching them to the scene. For example "Hierat" is marriage, so when Hamlet was pretending to be mad and talking to Ophelia, I knew when the titles used the quote about marriage and how it turns men into fools.
It has some of the major set-pieces from Shakespeare. Hamlet pretends to be mad so he'll be safe from the new king. The actors show up and perform "The Murder of Gonzago" and Claudius's reaction shows him to be guilty. Hamlet kills Polonius thinking him to be Claudius. Hamlet is sent away with a message from Claudius telling the foreign king (King of England in the play; King of Norway in the movie) to kill Hamlet but Hamlet substitutes his own message and the couriers are killed instead. (The couriers are never named as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and they only appear in this scene.) Ophelia drowns herself. Hamlet is killed by a poisoned blade in a swordfight with Laertes. And the King of Norway shows up at the end.
Some differences with Shakespeare: There is no ghost of the former King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet's father. The prince is suspicious of Claudius, and he does a little detective work (he finds an incriminating dagger near the weird pit where the poisonous snakes are known to live. A little silent film shorthand) before his suspicions are confirmed.
There are a lot of little things. (No gravedigger scene! Booo!) But a major difference is that Claudius dies before the final showdown with Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet sets fire to a hunting lodge and everyone inside (including Claudius) dies of smoke inhalation while unconscious after a bout of heavy drinking.
Interesting and entertaining. I got a little restless at the end but that was just because it was so late by then. I'm really glad I saw it. I've been wanting to see it for twenty years or more! I've found out that Asta Nielsen was in an early version of Die Erdgeist, based on the same play that inspired Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks! I haven't looked for it on YouTube yet.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 17, 2015 14:31:08 GMT -5
Death On The Nile (1978) Peter Ustinov, David Niven, Angela Lansbury, Bette Davis, Arthur Kennedy, Mia Farrow, Lois Chiles, Olivia Hussey, Maggie Smith, Jack Warden
I love both Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.
I haven't read much Agatha Christie, but last year I read Evil Under the Sun and I'm currently reading Murder on the Orient Express. So much fun! She's a great genre writer. I've been forcing myself to not read Orient Express too quickly because I don't remember books that well if I read them too fast. I'll probably finish it today.
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Post by Prince Hal on Aug 17, 2015 14:44:06 GMT -5
My Favorite Year (1982) Peter O'Toole, Mark-Lynn Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, Bill Macy, Lainie Kazan Mark Lynn-Baker (never heard of him and pretty much only did subsequent TV work) plays the part of Benji and relates his experience working for NBC TV during 1954. Think of him as an apprentice writer for the Your Show Of Shows with Sid Caesar, broadcast live. This week is legendary and alchoholic movie matinee star Alan Swan as the special guest. Think of Swan as an Errol Flynn type who drinks massive amounts of alchohol and hasn't worked live or in front of an audience for over 20 years. Think of a gangland mobster who is tired of the shows' running parody of him and has ordered his henchmen to rub out the Sid Caesar-type guy played by Bologna. Think of this as a hilarious sendup of early TV and over-the-hill actors Peter O'Toole once again gives a magnificent performance. Mark-Lynn Baker reminds me of Welcome Back Kotter's Horshack. Still, its a very funny movie It's a neglected gem: excellent script full of quotable lines ("This is for ladies only!" "So is this, mum, but every once in a while, I have to run a little water through it..."); near-perfect cast (Bill Macy, Selma Diamond, Joseph Bologna, Lainie Kazan, Lou Jacobi, etc.); O'Toole poignantly mixing humor with pathos; and a boffo ending.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 17, 2015 14:58:28 GMT -5
I saw My Favorite Year, but it's been a while. I have fond memories.
I believe Mark Linn-Baker is from Perfect Strangers, the sitcom that gave us Bronson Pinchot.
Which reminds me: I saw an episode of Empty Nest yesterday. This was the show (1980s, I think) that starred Richard Mulligan, Kristy McNichol and Dinah Manoff.
When it started, I was just about to change the channel when there was a dumb joke and the audience laughed and Kristy McNichol made a face like "I know it's dumb, thanks for laughing."
And it was a kind of bad 1980s sitcom joke that they make fun of on The Simpsons and Family Guy. There's a recent Netflix show called Bojack Horseman about a guy whose half horse that had a show called Horsin' Around in the 1990s that really makes fun of this kind of thing.
So I watched Empty Nest. It was pretty bad, but I laughed anyway. If I ever meet Kristy McNichol or Dinah Manoff, I'll say, "OMG I enjoyed Empty Nest so much!"
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 17, 2015 15:07:42 GMT -5
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) Paul Newman The original Rocky boxing movie however this is the biography of Rocky Graziano. Raised in the Manhattan slums, in and out of reform school, serving time at Rikers prison, drafted into the army during WWII and going AWOL, the only talent he had was a killer right punch. And that's all he needed to contend for Middleweight champion. The role was originally meant for James Dean but his death gave Paul Newman the opportunity even though his first film, The Golden Chalice, bombed at the box office and he was already 31 years old. However he does a great job in the role and it propelled him to stardom. And check out the street gang he was hanging out with early in the film. Not only did it include Sal Mineo but, in his first screen appearance and uncredited, Steve McQueenGreat location scenes of Manhattan. Decent boxing sequences. Excellent boxing film I've never seen this. It sounds great and it sounds like something I should have seen before.
I love movies about boxing. My favorite is The Set-Up with Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 17, 2015 16:11:18 GMT -5
I'm watching Animal Crackers (1930) with the Marx Brothers and Lillian Roth.
OMG! The card game!
Hilarious!
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Post by gothos on Aug 17, 2015 18:16:33 GMT -5
Since my library had a collection of all the HELLRAISER films, except for the first two and the very last (which did not include the iconic Pinhead), I've been meaning to plow my way through them for free while I had the chance.
My verdict, speaking as one who liked the second film better than the first: a couple of the later sequels are decent, but a couple are awful, and the rest are middling at best. Something about the franchise just didn't lend itself to Work By Diverse Hands, unlike (IMO) the Jason and Freddy films.
I didn't follow EPIC's Hellraiser comic, but I did enjoy the HELLRAISER/NIGHTBREED crossover. And that made me wonder what would have to happen to do a crossover between Pinhead and-- Freddy Krueger!
Of course Freddy hasn't been well served by comics writers in my experience. Still, I'd love to see Pinhead's dry British wit counterpoised against Freddy's diabolical wisecracks. And since both are otherworldly figures, a crossover wouldn't strain one's brain.
Since neither Bradley nor Englund is likely to play either famous character, comics would probably be the only place they'd ever meet...
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