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Post by Prince Hal on May 28, 2016 14:03:41 GMT -5
I'm watching the Battle of the Bulge and later on The Longest Day on TCM and those two movies were part of the Robert Ryan Movie Features that Turner Classic Movies is showing this month. I love both those movies! I DVRed Men in War because I've never seen it and I plan to watch it this afternoon. Right now I'm watching Haunted Gold (1932), one of those wonderfully silly hour-long westerns John Wayne made early in his career. This is one of the best! Caught most of Haunted Gold on Thursday. There is some racial stereotyping typical of the era, I'm afraid, but the rest of the picture is decent. It's a Western with more than a hint of a Three Stooges/ Abbott and Costello movie. Look for the excellent stunt work in the sequence on the cable car. Lucky for John Wayne, his horse (Duke!) was there to lend a hoof.
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Post by Prince Hal on May 28, 2016 14:10:27 GMT -5
The mad scientist's sinister henchman is Rondo Hatton! You remember him, right! Oh, yes indeed. Poor Rondo, but at least he turned his acromegaly into a career-boost. Remember "Lothar," the homage to Rondo (and to Mandrake the Magician, too) in The Rocketeer?
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on May 28, 2016 14:56:31 GMT -5
No discussion of Oliver Reed's career would be complete without mentioning this: With Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas. I love the fight on the zeppelin at the end! The zeppelin doesn't have glass in the windows! I looked it up and found out that that's accurate for early zeppelins. Id added to my Netflix DVD queue but unfortunately it's a long wait. I may check the library. However zeppelins are not my motivation to see it, despite not having heard of it up to this point. Edit: I'll have to for Illegal outside Netflix. All they have is a 1932 and 2010 movie by that name. But Edward G Robinson makes it worth checking out. Key Largo is one of my favorite movies of all time.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 28, 2016 15:26:21 GMT -5
No discussion of Oliver Reed's career would be complete without mentioning this: With Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg and Telly Savalas. I love the fight on the zeppelin at the end! The zeppelin doesn't have glass in the windows! I looked it up and found out that that's accurate for early zeppelins. Id added to my Netflix DVD queue but unfortunately it's a long wait. I may check the library. However zeppelins are not my motivation to see it, despite not having heard of it up to this point. Edit: I'll have to for Illegal outside Netflix. All they have is a 1932 and 2010 movie by that name. But Edward G Robinson makes it worth checking out. Key Largo is one of my favorite movies of all time. YES! Key Largo! My favorite John Huston movie. I was kind of obsessed with it in the 1990s and I saw it a bunch of times. I saw it again a year or so ago after not seeing it for close to 15 years and it really holds up. I love how Edward G. calls him "sojer" so contemptuously. And that scene where he gives Bogart the gun and tells him to shoot. And Lionel Barrymore is struggling in his wheelchair and saying "Give it to me, Rocco!" And Bogart won't shoot because "one less Johnny Rocco in the world isn't worth dying for." And Claire Trevor singing "mean as can be" just to get a drink. Yeah. Great movie.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 28, 2016 15:34:30 GMT -5
I love both those movies! I DVRed Men in War because I've never seen it and I plan to watch it this afternoon. Right now I'm watching Haunted Gold (1932), one of those wonderfully silly hour-long westerns John Wayne made early in his career. This is one of the best! Caught most of Haunted Gold on Thursday. There is some racial stereotyping typical of the era, I'm afraid, but the rest of the picture is decent. It's a Western with more than a hint of a Three Stooges/ Abbott and Costello movie. Look for the excellent stunt work in the sequence on the cable car. Lucky for John Wayne, his horse (Duke!) was there to lend a hoof. There was definitely some quaint, old-timey racism of the "cowardly darky" variety. Did you notice when Clarence fell a hundred feet down the mineshaft and was just a little dizzy afterwards. Ha ha! It's funny because black people are dumb and have thick heads and are nearly invulnerable to falling down a mine shaft. I liked Sheila Terry's jodhpurs. And the opening credits were amazing. Some of the camera work on the scene where he's climbing up the mine shaft. That was pretty cool. There was much to like.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on May 28, 2016 16:40:28 GMT -5
Id added to my Netflix DVD queue but unfortunately it's a long wait. I may check the library. However zeppelins are not my motivation to see it, despite not having heard of it up to this point. Edit: I'll have to for Illegal outside Netflix. All they have is a 1932 and 2010 movie by that name. But Edward G Robinson makes it worth checking out. Key Largo is one of my favorite movies of all time. YES! Key Largo! My favorite John Huston movie. I was kind of obsessed with it in the 1990s and I saw it a bunch of times. I saw it again a year or so ago after not seeing it for close to 15 years and it really holds up. I love how Edward G. calls him "sojer" so contemptuously. And that scene where he gives Bogart the gun and tells him to shoot. And Lionel Barrymore is struggling in his wheelchair and saying "Give it to me, Rocco!" And Bogart won't shoot because "one less Johnny Rocco in the world isn't worth dying for." And Claire Trevor singing "mean as can be" just to get a drink. Yeah. Great movie. My favorite part is when Bogart gives her the drink after Rocco says no. He tries to be indifferent and not care but he can't help himself.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 28, 2016 17:33:32 GMT -5
YES! Key Largo! My favorite John Huston movie. I was kind of obsessed with it in the 1990s and I saw it a bunch of times. I saw it again a year or so ago after not seeing it for close to 15 years and it really holds up. I love how Edward G. calls him "sojer" so contemptuously. And that scene where he gives Bogart the gun and tells him to shoot. And Lionel Barrymore is struggling in his wheelchair and saying "Give it to me, Rocco!" And Bogart won't shoot because "one less Johnny Rocco in the world isn't worth dying for." And Claire Trevor singing "mean as can be" just to get a drink. Yeah. Great movie. My favorite part is when Bogart gives her the drink after Rocco says no. He tries to be indifferent and not care but he can't help himself. And a great supporting cast too. All of Rocco's henchmen are great. Curly, Toots and Angel. And Marc Lawrence as Siggy! You see all these guys in movies from the period, and I always go "It's Toots from Key Largo!" (Or whomever.) Toots (Harry Lewis) is in Gun Crazy. Marc Lawrence (Siggy) is in a bunch of stuff, but I saw him not too long ago in Charlie Chan in Honolulu. Dan Seymour (Angel) is in a bunch of stuff also. Like Casablanca and To Have and Have Not. Thomas Gomes (Curly) is in stuff like Sorrowful Jones and The Captain from Castile. And of course, one of the Seminoles trying to evade the law is Jay Silverheels.
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Post by spoon on May 28, 2016 19:14:19 GMT -5
And I watched King Solomon's Mines (1950) this afternoon. It's OK. It must have been impressive when it opened, in color, filmed in Africa, based on an H. Rider Haggard novel, starring Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr. It was nominated for Best Picture in 1950, up against Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve, Born Yesterday and Father of the Bride. (I'm looking at some of the 1950 movies that could have gone into the spot - The Asphalt Jungle, Gun Crazy, Harvey, The Gunfighter, In a Lonely Place, Panic in the Streets, Winchester '73. That's just for starters.) But King Solomon's Mines was wildly popular when it came out. According to Wikipedia, it was the top-grossing film of 1950! Wow! I started on a quest about 7 or 8 years ago to see all the Best Picture nominees. The first or second year I completed was 1950. It's a funny year, because while Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve are all-time classics, neither King Solomon's Mines nor Father of the Bride feel like Best Picture nomination caliber movies to me. King Solomon's Mines was probably a big deal because an African location shoot would've been uncommon at the time. It comes across as pretty dated, but the only Haggard novel I've read (She) does as well. I like Born Yesterday. I wish comedies like that would get more Oscar love nowadays.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 30, 2016 14:40:05 GMT -5
Today on YouTube Theatre: Waltzes from Vienna (1934), featuring Edmund Gwenn. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is also known as Strauss' Great Waltz. I've been mildly curious about Waltzes from Vienna for several years. I've seen almost all of Hitchcock's film over the years. I've even seen obscure stinkers like The Farmer's Wife and Juno and the Paycock. I had seen all of his sound films except Waltzes from Vienna and Mary, the German version of Murder! (Hitchcock directed it simultaneously with the English version using the same sets but a German cast.) But Waltzes from Vienna was hard to find. I'd also heard that it was pretty bad, so I wasn't in any hurry to see it. I found out it was available on YouTube years ago, but it took me a while to actually watch it. Its bad reputation is undeserved. I found it watchable and fairly entertaining at times. (I might feel differently if I hadn't seen so many 1930s British movies. I've gotten used to how rough and stagey they are. I've learned to appreciate their good points and I often find them charming.) Waltzes from Vienna is the story of how Johann Strauss (the younger one) compsed "The Blue Danube." I don't know much about this sort of thing, but I'm under the impression that this story is highly fictionalized mush. (But it's entertaining mush.) Young Johann Strauss is involved in a generational conflict with his father, the elder Johann Strauss (who wrote "Der Rosenkavalier" and other famous 19th-century operas). The elder Strauss is played by Edmund Gwenn, whom we should all remember as Santa Claus in Miracle on 47th Street. The elder Strauss is a tyrannical butthole, who misses no opportunity to insult and minimize the efforts of his son. Young Strauss also has a bit of a problem with his jealous girlfriend. She is a piece of work! When a countess recognizes that young Strauss is a talented composer, she wants to help him, which is very tricky in the world of Vienna's musical elite because the elder Strauss is so respected and has a lot of influence. The countess writes the lyrics to "The Blue Danube" and asks young Strauss to set it to music. But the jealous girlfriend doesn't care about young Strauss's aspirations to be a composer. She's just jealous of the countess and gives young Strauss an ultimatum: He has to choose between being a partner in her father's bakery and being a famous compser. As she is completely hysterical and jealous and unreasonable, there is no room for any sensible compromise. The big dummy chooses the bakery. And so then we have some rather inventive sequences where the girlfriend's father is showing young Strauss around the bakery, and the actions of the many workers gives him many ideas for "The Blue Danube." The rhythm of the dough mixer, the way the workers toss the rolls into the baskets, things like that. He runs out of the bakery mid-tour because he has to finish the music for "The Blue Danube." And then by a complicated ruse that sends the elder Strauss to the palace to discuss getting an award, the younger Strauss takes his place at a music festival to conduct "The Blue Danube," to great acclaim from hundreds of drunken Austrians! The girlfriend is outraged! There's about ten minutes left to allow time for the jealous girlfriend and the elder Strauss to realize they've been buttholes and to have a change of heart. I really like movies about artists and particularly movies about a specific work. Like The Girl with the Pearl Earring or Naked Lunch. And it was kind of fun to see such an early one, especially directed by Alfred Hitchcock. I'm no expert on this kind of thing, but I think Waltzes from Vienna is one of the first movies to exploit the cinematic advantages of music to animate a story like this. And I think Hitchcock does a fine job with making such an entertaining movie despite working with a genre than he wasn't familiar with. So I guess this a recommendation for diehard Hitchcock fans. Waltzes from Vienna is much better than its reputation. It's not a great movie but it is watchable and entertaining if you don't mind the stupid girlfriend and seeing Edmund Gwenn as an intolerable butthole.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 30, 2016 15:56:01 GMT -5
I saw Luis Buñuel's Robinson Crusoé this weekend. I had no idea Buñuel had done that type of commercial movie! It was quite good, though Robinson himself is definitely something of a jerk (or a product of his era, if we're feeling generous).
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Post by Hoosier X on May 30, 2016 18:39:30 GMT -5
I saw Luis Buñuel's Robinson Crusoé this weekend. I had no idea Buñuel had done that type of commercial movie! It was quite good, though Robinson himself is definitely something of a jerk (or a product of his era, if we're feeling generous). I've seen a lot of Bunuel, but not his one. I'll have to see if it's on YouTube. Bunuel also directed a version of Wuthering Heights! I'm pretty sure I've seen it listed on YouTube under the Spanish-language title, but I don't know if it has English sub-titles. I would probably watch it without them.
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Post by Hoosier X on May 30, 2016 19:14:13 GMT -5
I was feeling pretty exhausted this holiday weekend, so aside from a birthday party and a few necessary chores, I didn't do much except watch movies. I watched four on Saturday! So here's a few comments on the movies I watched.
Haunted Gold (1932) - I love the low-budget, hour-long movies that John Wayne made in the 1930s, and this is one of the best. Especially if you don't mind a little old-timey movie racism. Wayne is not at all uncomfortable in being patronizing and condescending to his black associate, who is stupid, cowardly and rather aggressively ungrammatical. The black sidekick is also pretty much invulnerable.
Men in War (1957) - Robert Ryan and Aldo Ray star in this gritty, unflinching film about the Korean War. Also, Victor Sen Yung appears as a North Korean soldier taken prisoner by the Yanks. Some of us will remember Yung for the many time he played the son of Charlie Chan in the 1930s and 1940s. I was very impressed with Men in War. I'm very surprised I've never heard anybody talking about how great it is.
55 Days at Peking (1963) - It's 1900 and the Boxer Rebellion is going on in China and Charlton Heston has to protest a bunch of movie stars from being massacred by a horde of Asian extras led by Caucasian actors pretending to be Chinese. It's actually pretty exciting a lot of the time. I coped with its length (154 minutes) by splitting it into two parts and taking a break. Ava Gardner is really stunning in her late Victorian fashions.
The Green Berets (1968) - I could go on and on about my mixed feelings about this movie. It's a propaganda film but it's not even particularly good propaganda because it's so transparently one-sided. I bet the rubes ate it up in 1968. But it's also a very entertaining film. I was never bored by it. It was cool to see Bruce Cabot (Driscoll in the 1933 King Kong) and George Takei. I saw it when I was a kid (in the early 1970s) and I was rather shocked by the violence, the stabbings and the horrifying booby-trap that gets Jim Hutton at the end. (And also by the way the camera lingers on the bodies a bit too long some of the time.) I hadn't seen anything quite like this. I've been wanting to see it from start to finish for decades.
Bloody Mama (1970) - Shelley Winters is Ma Barker, the female gang boss who led her four sons on a bloody crime rampage across the Midwest in the 1930s. Robert DeNiro is one of her sons! And Bruce Dern is also one of the gang! And it's directed by Roger Corman! How have I never seen this before?! I loved it! It's apparently not very accurate. Which is probably a good thing.
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - I was going to describe the plot a little but I'm having trouble remembering it very well. Jean Grey comes back from the dead and kills Scott. Magneto recruits her for the Brotherhood. Private industry has developed a cure for mutantism! Mystique loses her powers and becomes just regular, naked Rebecca Romjin. Wolverine does some things. Frazier Crane is blue and furry. Jean kills Professor X for some reason. There are hundreds of nameless mutants with unidentified powers. Magneto uses the Golden Gate Bridge to attack Alcatraz. I forget how it ends. I enjoyed it, but not for its great script and flawless direction. It was fun to watch but as mad as a badger's hat.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 31, 2016 7:43:41 GMT -5
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - I was going to describe the plot a little but I'm having trouble remembering it very well. Jean Grey comes back from the dead and kills Scott. Magneto recruits her for the Brotherhood. Private industry has developed a cure for mutantism! Mystique loses her powers and becomes just regular, naked Rebecca Romjin. Wolverine does some things. Frazier Crane is blue and furry. Jean kills Professor X for some reason. There are hundreds of nameless mutants with unidentified powers. Magneto uses the Golden Gate Bridge to attack Alcatraz. I forget how it ends. I enjoyed it, but not for its great script and flawless direction. It was fun to watch but as mad as a badger's hat. That's a spot-on description of the film! You make me curious about Men in war. I see it's on youtube so I'll definitely take a look at it! (Just watched The longest day yesterday and am in the mood for more wah movies).
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Post by Prince Hal on May 31, 2016 9:14:26 GMT -5
You make me curious about Men in war. I see it's on youtube so I'll definitely take a look at it! (Just watched The longest day yesterday and am in the mood for more wah movies). R 2, since you liked Men in War, may I recommend two other Korean War movies?
The Steel Helmet (1951) Written and directed by the great Sam Fuller, this is a classic: tough, hard-bitten, fatalistic, even. The traditional melting-pot squad of infantry is given a slightly different wrinkle here b/c one of them is a black medic. (Korea was the first war in which American units were integrated.) The self-reliant, resourceful South Korean kid is nicknamed Short Round, and, yes, is the inspiration for Indy's clever little pal in the Temple of Doom. As usual, Fuller, a veteran of the Big Red One, whose story he so indelibly captured in the eponymous film, spares no one's feelings: racism, hypocrisy, brutality, conscientiuos objection, war crimes, honor and ethics on the battlefield, courage and cowardice are all on the front burner throughout. Both the US Army and the Daily Worker decried the film, so you know Fuller was doing something right! Pork Chop Hill (1959) was directed by Lewis Milestone, who in 1930 had directed the still unsurpassed All Quiet on the Western Front. In many ways the two films are alike: the absurdity and purposelessness of war get a good going-over in both. In Hill, we are stuck with a group of Americans tasked to retake a hill that has gone back and forth between them and the Chinese. That's ridiculous enough forr the GI's., but what elevates (or reduces) the story to exostential absurdity is that any momnet, a ceasefire announcem,ent is expected. (Shades of Fuller's Big Red One). Excellent acting and script. Both black and white, btw. Oh, PS: You probably know about it, but as a Canadian you might be interested in The Devil's Brigade (1968) , based on the true story of a joint US-Canadian unit that fought in Italy. Think Dirty Dozen times about a hundred and you have the excuse for a plot. Still, it's a good rousing picture and though it steers to the windy side of the facts, it's still close enough to the truth that it's not a total fantasy. PPS: Why no one has made a movie about the raid on Dieppe is beyond me.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on May 31, 2016 9:41:08 GMT -5
Thanks, Prince Hal! I see I won't have to wonder what to watch for a good while, now!
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