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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 17, 2016 18:53:38 GMT -5
I saw a few early talkies over the last few days. Abraham Lincoln (1930) - This isn't very good. It's watchable (barely) for Walter Huston and Una Merkel and some of the other actors playing historical figures. I was never so bored that I ever thought about turning it off ... but I was pretty bored at times. It's just a bunch of vignettes from the life of Abraham Lincoln. He's born, he splits rails, his early sweetheart Ann Rutledge dies young, he meets Mary Todd, he debates Douglas, he becomes president, there's a war, he is shot and killed by a crazy cracker actor. Directed by D.W. Griffith, so it's probably passable entertainment for D.W. Griffith completists. I think I saw this, not sure. Was Mary Todd Lincoln a bitch? She was probably the wackiest 1st lady we ever had
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 17, 2016 20:10:53 GMT -5
I saw a few early talkies over the last few days. Abraham Lincoln (1930) - This isn't very good. It's watchable (barely) for Walter Huston and Una Merkel and some of the other actors playing historical figures. I was never so bored that I ever thought about turning it off ... but I was pretty bored at times. It's just a bunch of vignettes from the life of Abraham Lincoln. He's born, he splits rails, his early sweetheart Ann Rutledge dies young, he meets Mary Todd, he debates Douglas, he becomes president, there's a war, he is shot and killed by a crazy cracker actor. Directed by D.W. Griffith, so it's probably passable entertainment for D.W. Griffith completists. I think I saw this, not sure. Was Mary Todd Lincoln a bitch? She was probably the wackiest 1st lady we ever had Mary Todd is a bit disagreeable and Lincoln even jokes about how annoying she is. Grant is with Lincoln talking about the war, and he's smoking a cigar and stinking up the place. Mary Todd comes in and talks about how awful the smoke is and finally says she can't stand it and leaves. And Lincoln tells Grant that he may take up smoking himself.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2016 20:35:03 GMT -5
Love Happy (1949) Harpo, Chico and Groucho Marx, Ilona Massey, Vera-Ellen, Raymond Burr
A delicatessen is actually a front for a diamond smuggling operation with a million dollar necklace hidden in a sardine can. Harpo snatches the can looking for food and now mobsters are after him headed by femme fatale Ilona Massey and her henchmen including Perry Mason
Last official Marx Bros film but relly meant to be a solo starring role for Harpo. When money dried up to finish the film, the new investors insisted Groucho and Chico be included to ensure box office success. Groucho does some narration and is in a couple scenes. Chico gets abit more to do but it is Harpo who drives the movie. If you watch it as a Harpo film, its OK with some very funny routines. Compared to a prime Marx Bros film its a bomb.
Vera-Ellen is a cute, pixie dancer who appeared in many wonderful musicals (On The town, White Christmas and more). She danced with Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and others. Very popular for a time but then Hollywood musicals started to wane during the last half of the 50s and her opportunites to performer began to disappear. Also unknown to all, she was anorexic for many years and her diet began to effect her health in the late 50s. She developed arthritis at an early age. She had back to back unhappy marriages. Her only child died of SIDS after a few months. Vera-Ellen disappeared from public life in the early 60s and only was recognized again when she died in 1981 from a long bout of cancer. A very sad ending. She has a great dance bit in the film
And of course this movie is known for this 48 second cameo introduction-first appearence in a legitimate movie
Now I'm a huge Marx Brothers fan but I could barely sit through this film. I have been posting my reviews of their films in order and I was considering skipping this one. It's been a LONG time since I saw this movie and it is by far the worst film the Marx Brothers were involved in. After seeing The Big Store I didn't think a Marx Bros. film could be any worse. After really enjoying A Night in Casablanca and a return to form for the brothers...I saw Love Happy. I know the back story to the film so that definitely contributed to this not being a very good movie. Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Love Happy contain the scene where Harpo is asked if he is holding up a building and he nods and is then pulled away and it falls down? I know that scene was in A Night in Casablanca...but wasn't it recycled here also. If so I remember that being the only scene I chuckled at in the whole movie.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jan 17, 2016 20:58:13 GMT -5
I saw a few early talkies over the last few days. Abraham Lincoln (1930) - This isn't very good. It's watchable (barely) for Walter Huston and Una Merkel and some of the other actors playing historical figures. I was never so bored that I ever thought about turning it off ... but I was pretty bored at times. It's just a bunch of vignettes from the life of Abraham Lincoln. He's born, he splits rails, his early sweetheart Ann Rutledge dies young, he meets Mary Todd, he debates Douglas, he becomes president, there's a war, he is shot and killed by a crazy cracker actor. Directed by D.W. Griffith, so it's probably passable entertainment for D.W. Griffith completists. I think I saw this, not sure. Was Mary Todd Lincoln a bitch? She was probably the wackiest 1st lady we ever had You probably would be a little daft, too, if you'd had to endure all that Mary Todd Lincoln did while her husband was in office. Not saying she was in perfect emotional health to begin with, but as a bright, well educated woman interested in politics, she would have had few fulfilling outlets. Add to that two half-brothers and a brother-in-law killed during the war, another half-brother wounded (all fighting for the South as her family was mostly of the Confederate persuasion), accusations of treason, an accidnt in which she received a serious head injury, three sons dying at the ages of 4, 12, and 18. Oh, and maybe you've heard of the many struggles she endured alongside her husband, which included being seated next to him when he was shot in the head, and you can understand why she may have been fighting everything from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder, which were classified in those days essentially as insanity. Oh, or being a bitch.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 17, 2016 21:18:04 GMT -5
Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Love Happy contain the scene where Harpo is asked if he is holding up a building and he nods and is then pulled away and it falls down? I know that scene was in A Night in Casablanca...but wasn't it recycled here also. If so I remember that being the only scene I chuckled at in the whole movie. No such scene in Love Happy. As Hoosier mentioned, the chase scene at the end was a highlight of the film. Also I chuckled when the mobsters got ahold of Harpo and were told to empty his coat pockets. They pulled out a tire, legs from a mannequin, a live dog, a bicycle and on and on. I did forget to mention during that chase finale there was a tremendous amount of product placement signage including GE, Bulova watches, Kool cigarettes and more, all part of the problem with getting financing to finish the movie There are no scenes with the 3 Marx Bros. together throughout the film. Truthfully, its not a Marx Bros film. Groucho didn't count it as one either in his memoirs. Think of it as a Harpo low budget solo outing with guest stars and its easier to swallow
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 18, 2016 14:27:05 GMT -5
Movies are stupid. But that's not always a bad thing.
I just saw Miss Annie Rooney (1942) with Shirley Temple as a New York teenager who reads "Pygmalion" and quotes "Romeo and Juliet" and talks about the moon and springtime. Her grandfather (the great Guy Kibbee) is a retired Irish cop who looks after the apartment. Her dad is a salesman who neglects his job to promote things like a perpetual motion machine and a process for making rubber out of milkweed. The little family is on the verge of being kicked out of the apartment but the older gentlemen are keeping it a secret from Annie.
She meets a rich boy played by Dickie Moore, (who we all remember from Our Gang shorts like Free Wheelin', the one where he works with Stymie to operate a taxi, which is an old car pulled by a mule). They fall for each other because Dickie is so handsome (and has a car) and Annie teaches him how to jitterbug. Complications ensue when Grandpa and the father get a loan to but her a nice dress and hock the furniture so Annie can go to Dickie's very fancy 16th birthday party.
I found it hilarious and charming and I laughed out loud several times. I love Shirley Temple movies so much!
This one also featured Gloria Holden (who we should all remember as Dracula's Daughter) as Dickie's mother, and June Lockhart (Lassie, Lost in Space) as one of the teen party guests. She's a mean mean rich girl!
Highly recommended for people who are entertained by silly 1940s movies. Shirley and Dickie dancing is irresistible.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 18, 2016 18:50:58 GMT -5
Movies are stupid. But that's not always a bad thing. I just saw Miss Annie Rooney (1942) with Shirley Temple There was a comic strip back then called Little Annie Rooney but I think they are unrelated. And Little Annie Rooney should not be confused with Little Orphan Annie, or should it?
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 18, 2016 22:12:58 GMT -5
Movies are stupid. But that's not always a bad thing. I just saw Miss Annie Rooney (1942) with Shirley Temple There was a comic strip back then called Little Annie Rooney but I think they are unrelated. And Little Annie Rooney should not be confused with Little Orphan Annie, or should it? I started looking at Wikipedia to get this straight in my head and it's both fascinating and confusing. "Little Orphan Annie" was originally a poem by James Whitcomb Riley from the 1880s. And "Little Annie Rooney" was a bar song. "Little Annie Rooney" eventually became a 1925 film with 33-year-old Mary Pickford playing a hell-raising little girl in a New York tenement neighborhood. (Mary Pickford cracks me up! I need to see more of her movies.) "Little Orphan Annie" was a comic strip first and then somebody did "Little Annie Rooney" as a comic strip, very possibly hoping to repeat the success of "Little Orphan Annie." Since both characters are named after characters who already exist, there probably wasn't much anybody could do as far as suing anybody. (And Wikipedia says that "Little Annie Rooney" has some similarities to "Little Orphan Annie," but is very different in style.) The film Miss Annie Rooney sounds quite a bit different from the Little Annie Rooney story. I suspect "Annie Rooney" is a legendary New York City character, much like Sweet Rosie O'Grady. (And we all know about the daughter of Rosie O'Grady from the Bugs Bunny cartoon. She's a regular, old-fashioned gal.) EDITED TO ADD: I re-read the Wikipedia entry and Little Annie Rooney appears to be a music hall song from the UK in the 1880s that became popular very quickly in the US. So not really a New York "legend," just a character from a popular song that was quickly embraced and popularized in New York.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 18, 2016 22:15:40 GMT -5
And I want to add that when I set the DVR to record Miss Annie Rooney, I thought I was getting Little Annie Rooney with Mary Pickford. I didn't realize my mistake until after I recorded it, but Shirley is so awesome that I wasn't too disappointed.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 18, 2016 22:20:19 GMT -5
And I want to add that when I set the DVR to record Miss Annie Rooney, I thought I was getting Little Annie Rooney with Mary Pickford. I didn't realize my mistake until after I recorded it, but Shirley is so awesome that I wasn't too disappointed. You could have gotten the Little Lord Fauntleroy film instead
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 19, 2016 15:57:14 GMT -5
A little catch-up
The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway
A meek bank clerk on the job for 30 years comes up with a plan to smuggle gold bullion from England into France. he gathers a rag tag group to help out
Alec Guinness starred in a string of classic British comedies during this period (The Ladykillers, The Man In The White Suit, Kind Hearts and Coronets) and this is among them. Strange that later in the decade he reached international stardom due to his dramatic portrayal in Bridge On The River Kwai. Anywho, this is a wonderfully charming film, briskly played a nary an invitation to a cupa tea. Refreshing
Outrageous Fortune (1987) Shelly Long, Bette Midler, Peter Coyote, George Carlin, Robert Prosky, Richard Schuck
Shelly and Bette are bitter rivals both in acting school and for the love of Peter Coyote. Until he goes missing, presumed dead, and the Russian KGB plus the CIA believe the girls know something they don't
Shelly and Bette are a great duo (Bette is always fantastic) and this film coulda/shoulda been better without the silly spy angle plot. If they kept it as a more realistic rom-com it would have worked quite well with this pair. George Carlin does as best as he could as a fake American Indian hustler without much in the way of funny lines. Ah well.
Nightbreed (1990) Written/Directed by Clive Barker Craig Sheffer, David Cronenberg, Charles Haid
Adapted from Clive Barkers' novel Cabal. A group of mutants and shapeshifterslive in the mythical land of Midian. A troubled young man (Sheffer) is set up by the pyschologist he is in therapy with and killed by the police. He revives as a member of the cabal
When Barker delivered this film to the studios, it ran close to 150 minutes. Out came the studio scissors and almost an hour of the film was chopped away. This made a beginning that was quite disjointed, characters seen but never introduced, a curious lack of gore, and a long action finale that gave me a headache- thats what could have been tightened up. As is, the makeup for the monsters is interesting for 1990s work but the movie is kinda blah. 2 years ago Clive Barker released a director's cut on blu-ray adding 20 minutes and swapping out another 20 minutes. Supposedly it made the film much better for its fans. The full 150 minute version sometimes gets screening at conventions and is highly sought after
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2016 17:49:46 GMT -5
The Lavender Hill Mob is one of my top 5 Alec Guinness movies that he ever starred in.
In Order Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) The Ladykillers (1955) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Star Wars (1977)
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 19, 2016 17:57:19 GMT -5
The Lavender Hill Mob is one of my top 5 Alec Guinness movies that he ever starred in. In OrderKind Hearts and Coronets (1949) The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) The Ladykillers (1955) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Star Wars (1977) Did you see The Horse's Mouth? I saw it thirty years ago I've been wanting to see it again for YEARS! Your choices are all great, by the way. I saw Kind Hearts and Coronets a year or so ago and I was just blown away by how subtle it is. I saw it 25 years ago and didn't think it was that great. But when I saw it again, I thought it was great! (Plus it was nice to see Valerie Hobson again, still looking quite sexy 14 years after playing the title role in Bride of Frankenstein.)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2016 19:08:19 GMT -5
The Lavender Hill Mob is one of my top 5 Alec Guinness movies that he ever starred in. In OrderKind Hearts and Coronets (1949) The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) The Ladykillers (1955) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Star Wars (1977) Did you see The Horse's Mouth? I saw it thirty years ago I've been wanting to see it again for YEARS! Your choices are all great, by the way. I saw Kind Hearts and Coronets a year or so ago and I was just blown away by how subtle it is. I saw it 25 years ago and didn't think it was that great. But when I saw it again, I thought it was great! (Plus it was nice to see Valerie Hobson again, still looking quite sexy 14 years after playing the title role in Bride of Frankenstein.) No! I haven't seen The Horse's Mouth and it a film that been on my list for 30-35 years to see ... I've been checking TCM for it all the time and I just wanting to see this movie so a very long time ... Hoosier X.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 20, 2016 20:39:02 GMT -5
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) Maureen O'Hara, Lucille Ball, Louis Hayward, Maria (Beware The Full Moon, My Son) Ouspenskaya
Ouspenskaya is in charge of an 8 girl dance troupe struggling for bookings. Maureen O'Hara is a sweet, naive ballet dancer. Lucille Ball is named Bubbles and she will shake her tush and perform burlesque teases to get employed. They become rivals over potential jobs as well as a rich gentleman,
I don't remember why I bought this disc-part of a box set maybe? Decent, nothing special and it afforded Lucille Baal one of her best early roles since she was the co-lead in the movie. It bombed for RKO and the studio was already having a hard time financially. Maureen and Lucille became life-long friends during the filming. It ends with a big cat fight between the two and Lucy had to wear black-eye makeup for the final scene. It was then that she met Desi Arnez off stage in that makeup and the rest is history. Ironically, Desilu Productions wound up buying the soundstage from RKO in which this movie was shot
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