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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 25, 2015 12:23:33 GMT -5
I eventually finished Strange Interlude. After I sat through it for a while, I found it easier to watch, and I was able to watch the last 40 minutes without a break.
The main reason I stuck with it was because it was different. It was actually very innovative for 1932 and even today, I don't think there's anything quite like it. It's too bad the finished product is just so off!
That's just my opinion, of course. For all I know, it may have a small following of devoted fans and I've just never come across them.
It was definitely worth seeing. There's so many weird little scenes, and often it's unintentionally funny. Like the scene where Norma Shearer finds out that her new husband will probably develop inherited insanity from his father's side. Norma's new mother-in-law - who has kept the defect a secret from her son - shows Norma the crazy aunt they keep locked away in an attic and the audience doesn't see her, we just see Norma's look of extreme shock and she turns away. (I envisioned a perfectly normal woman sitting cross-legged on the bed (wearing slippers) and laughing insanely at an issue of the old MAD comic book. Probably reading The Klatchandhammer Kids.)
Also, Norma's son grows up to be Robert Young (who I've really come to like after seeing him in so many 1930s movies) and he's going to marry Maureen O'Sullivan (who is just amazing in everything she does).
And also, Clark Gable playing a very old, grumpy version of the character he usually plays. That was great! I like Gable a lot, but I'm not always sure that he was such a great actor because (like Gary Cooper) he was cast in so many movies where he doesn't get to show much range. But he's pretty good in Strange Interlude, especially when he's playing the old version of himself.
I can easily see myself, five or ten years from now, watching Strange Interlude again, despite how clunky it is so much of the time.
I can only recommend Strange Interlude for Norma Shearer completists, major Clark Gable fans and all movie fans who really enjoy the occasional unique movie experience.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 25, 2015 12:24:50 GMT -5
I forgot to mention all the reasons that Maureen O'Sullivan is so amazing. Aside from just being amazing in dozens of Hollywood movies (like Devil Doll!), she was married to the director John Farrow (who, strangely enough, directed West of Shanghai, which I saw and enjoyed a few days ago). Maureen O'Sullivan is also the mother of Mia Farrow (I'll just mention two of her movies, Rosemary's Baby and Broadway Danny Rose) and Prudence Farrow, the inspiration for the Beatles song, "Dear Prudence."
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2015 12:52:35 GMT -5
I forgot to mention all the reasons that Maureen O'Sullivan is so amazing. Aside from just being amazing in dozens of Hollywood movies (like Devil Doll!), she was married to the director John Farrow (who, strangely enough, directed West of Shanghai, which I saw and enjoyed a few days ago). Maureen O'Sullivan is also the mother of Mia Farrow (I'll just mention two of her movies, Rosemary's Baby and Broadway Danny Rose) and Prudence Farrow, the inspiration for the Beatles song, "Dear Prudence." I like her too...I haven't seen many movies with her but of the ones I've seen I have liked. I've seen the Tarzan films she was in, A day at the Races, The Thin Man, The Big Clock and The Emperor's Candlesticks. I need to see more.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Nov 25, 2015 14:13:06 GMT -5
Breaker Morant (1980) Edward Woodward, Bryan Brown D-Bruce Beresford
The Boer War 1901, The British Empire vs. the Dutch settlers in South Africa. Three Australian soldiers fighting on behalf of Great Britain are put on trial on trumped up war crime charges.
When I first saw this movie upon its release I probably wasn't concentrating on it and therefore was not entertained. Now on this re-watch I can say its a fantastic film. A military trial with several flashbacks, an engrossing script and excellent performances all around. It won many Australian Awards when it debuted. I couldn't help but notice the parallels that can be drawn between this and the Vietnam experience. Highly recommended for court room movie buffs.
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Post by Farrar on Nov 25, 2015 14:24:27 GMT -5
Count me in as another Maureen O'Sullivan fan--what a lovely, underrated actress. She went to boarding school with Vivien Leigh and later on the two appeared in the film A Yank at Oxford, as rivals for Robert Taylor's affections. O'Sullivan had the bigger role but Leigh's was flashier (this was pre-Gone With the Wind Leigh). ... Maureen O'Sullivan is also the mother of Mia Farrow (I'll just mention two of her movies, Rosemary's Baby and Broadway Danny Rose)... It was nice to see O'Sullivan in Hannah and Her Sisters from the 1980s. I believe she played the sisters' mother; one of the sisters was played by Mia .
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Post by Farrar on Nov 25, 2015 17:19:48 GMT -5
...I can only recommend Strange Interlude for Norma Shearer completists... I find Norma Shearer's career fascinating, both pre-code and after. She seems to have specialized in classy film adaptations of (then-)modern stage plays; not only O'Neill's Strange Interlude, but also such fare as Private Lives(Coward) , Smilin' Through (stage hit by popular actress Jane Cowl and Jane Murfin), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (in the Elizabeth Barrett Browning role that had been played onstage by Katharine Cornell), Idiot's Delight (Robert Sherwood), and The Women (Clare Booth Luce). She also starred in a film adaptation of a play by a somewhat less"modern" playwright: Romeo and Juliet. It was a project engineered by her husband Irving Thalberg, the head of MGM, and the lovers were, er, somewhat overage--she was in her 30s and her Romeo, Leslie Howard (another favorite of mine) was in his 40s. But it's a film worth viewing, and what a supporting cast, including John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone, Edna May Oliver, and Reginald Denny.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 25, 2015 18:08:16 GMT -5
She also starred in a film adaptation of a play by a somewhat less"modern" playwright: Romeo and Juliet. It was a project engineered by her husband Irving Thalberg, the head of MGM, and the lovers were, er, somewhat overage--she was in her 30s and her Romeo, Leslie Howard (another favorite of mine) was in his 40s. But it's a film worth viewing, and what a supporting cast, including John Barrymore, Basil Rathbone, Edna May Oliver, and Reginald Denny. I love that version of Romeo and Juliet! Anybody who can't enjoy it because Norma Shearer is 35 is in the wrong damn movie! Good luck finding a version that's faithful to the Shakespearean stage with all the roles played by men! John Barrymore's dissipated 60-year-old Mercutio is one of the highlights!
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Post by Prince Hal on Nov 25, 2015 20:22:05 GMT -5
I forgot to mention all the reasons that Maureen O'Sullivan is so amazing. Aside from just being amazing in dozens of Hollywood movies (like Devil Doll!), she was married to the director John Farrow (who, strangely enough, directed West of Shanghai, which I saw and enjoyed a few days ago). Maureen O'Sullivan is also the mother of Mia Farrow (I'll just mention two of her movies, Rosemary's Baby and Broadway Danny Rose) and Prudence Farrow, the inspiration for the Beatles song, "Dear Prudence." She's disarmingly funny in Hannah and her Sisters.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 26, 2015 12:48:03 GMT -5
The Norma Shearer festival continues! I was a little wary of watching another Norma Shearer movie so soon after the ordeal of Strange Interlude, but I looked at the descriptions of the three movies I DVRed from TCM this week, and Idiot's Delight sounded different enough from her early 1930s films that I decided to give it a try. Another factor in its favor is that it was made in 1939, and films had changed a lot in the intervening 7 years. I love the films of the early 1930s, but I think I've seen too many of them lately.
The description said it was a rare chance to see Clark Gable in a musical-comedy role. That made me curious. It definitely sounded a lot different from the Norma Shearer movies I've been watching. But Idiot's Delight is not a musical-comedy. It has music. It has comedy. But there's so much more going on aside from that.
I loved it! It's not for everybody and I doubt many people would think it's a great movie, but it's got a lot of energy and a lot of it is unexpected and you frequently don't know what's going to happen because it's so weird.
And it's never dull.
Clark Gable is back from World War I and he wants to continue his career as a song-and-dance man. We get a montage of his ups and downs in the chorus line, in a really bad vaudeville act (i.e., a vaudeville act), as an assistant to a mind reader. He meets acrobat Norma Shearer and they have a goofy, fun-filled day or two hanging out. Norma Shearer's character is a real oddball, talking about how she escaped the Soviets as a little girl who grew up in Russia. Then the show ends and their various acts are going opposite directions from the train station in Omaha and they wave goodbye.
Fifteen or twenty years pass in about 30 seconds. Gable is managing a song and dance troupe called "Les Blondes" made up of six blonde girls (including Virginia Grey). They're traveling in Europe and trying to get to a gig in Geneva when they are held up at the border because war has been declared.
So Clark and Les Blondes and a number of other people stopped at the border end up having to stay at a ski resort while it all gets sorted out. Edward Arnold and Burgess Meredith are among the stranded guests. Edward Arnold's companion is a flamboyant Russian aristocrat who looks just like Norma Shearer! (She is so great in this part! It made me think of Fred Astaire as Petrov in Shall We Dance.)
One of the highlights of the movie is Clark performing "Puttin' on the Ritz" with Les Blondes.
I liked it a lot, just for being all over the place and weird. It's almost 110 minutes, which is a little bit longer than I like for nutty movies that are a bit wild and uncontrolled, but Idiot's Delight had enough going on that I didn't have trouble with the length.
Recommended for Norma Shearer fans and Clark Gable fans because it's a very refreshing change of pace for both of the actors and a very entertaining movie on top of that.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Nov 26, 2015 21:17:52 GMT -5
Aha, I did see Idiot's Delight and the memory was jogged by you mentioning Clark Gables' performance of Putting On The Ritz. Inexplicably, I never seem to recall Norma in particular but I did like the film when I last saw it about 5 or 6 years ago. I have it on DVD via Warner Bros Archives
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 26, 2015 22:46:57 GMT -5
Norma's got hair like blonde Cleopatra, she's a real flamboyant fashion plate with a cigarette holder and an outrageous Russian accent. I suspect she might have been parodying Great Garbo, at least a little bit. I think she's hilarious in Idiot's Delight!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2015 0:17:59 GMT -5
Norma's got hair like blonde Cleopatra, she's a real flamboyant fashion plate with a cigarette holder and an outrageous Russian accent. I suspect she might have been parodying Great Garbo, at least a little bit. I think she's hilarious in Idiot's Delight! I'm a bit curious - how good is Idiot's Delight? ... I have never heard of this movie and it's an early Clark Gable movie back in 1939. Sounds Intrigued and according to IMDB it's a comedy/drama/musical all in one.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 27, 2015 9:46:33 GMT -5
Norma's got hair like blonde Cleopatra, she's a real flamboyant fashion plate with a cigarette holder and an outrageous Russian accent. I suspect she might have been parodying Great Garbo, at least a little bit. I think she's hilarious in Idiot's Delight! I'm a bit curious - how good is Idiot's Delight? ... I have never heard of this movie and it's an early Clark Gable movie back in 1939. Sounds Intrigued and according to IMDB it's a comedy/drama/musical all in one. I liked it a lot and thought it was very good. But it's just so strange. Did you see the thread on IMDB where all the Idiot's Delight fans congregate to talk about it and how nobody's seen it and they're all so happy to have found other fans online? It seems to have a small but devoted cult following.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2015 14:02:46 GMT -5
I'm a bit curious - how good is Idiot's Delight? ... I have never heard of this movie and it's an early Clark Gable movie back in 1939. Sounds Intrigued and according to IMDB it's a comedy/drama/musical all in one. I liked it a lot and thought it was very good. But it's just so strange. Did you see the thread on IMDB where all the Idiot's Delight fans congregate to talk about it and how nobody's seen it and they're all so happy to have found other fans online? It seems to have a small but devoted cult following. No, I don't deal with folks over at IMDB. Sorry Hoosier X. I will try to look for it ... and I don't mind strange movies and they don't bother me much bit.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Nov 27, 2015 14:21:21 GMT -5
Blue Velvet (1986) Written/directed by David Lynch Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Dean Stockwell, Hope Lange
Kyle finds a human ear out in the woods . He brings it to a detective who tells him not to discuss the case with anyone. Kyle is curious, and with the help of the detective's daughter is determined to uncover the mystery himself.
I LOVE THIS FILM. It has touches of John Waters' influence with its parody of perfect suburban life. It has touches of Quentin Tarrantino with the over the top criminal played by Dennis Hopper. One of Hopper's best roles (and that's saying a lot). Its so quirky, so unsettling but so easy to follow and so suspenceful. David Lynch would follow this up with the TV show Twin Peaks. Seriously, see this film
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