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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2016 8:36:33 GMT -5
Yesterday I watched a French horror classic, Eyes Without a Face. Very creepy story about a dr trying to repair his daughter's face which was destroyed in a car accident that he caused. It was a very atmospheric and eerie film. Quite graphic for its time as well. I had to turn my head during one part and I don't usually get squeamish. Tried to watch 2 silent films: The Unholy Three and The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari. I have discovered silent films are not for me. While I appreciate them, I find them hard to watch and lose interest. The parts of The Unholy Three that I watched, the stand out was Lon Chaney as the ventriloquist. I noticed too, that Turner Classics called it a horror movie, but to me it was more of a crime drama.
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Post by crazyoldhermit on Oct 24, 2016 11:48:47 GMT -5
Just finished watching Creepshow. Wanted to watch it for years but only now got around to it. Absolutely loved it. But this... ... has probably ruined my life in some way.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 24, 2016 14:37:09 GMT -5
The Death Kiss (1932) David Manners, Adrienne Ames, Bela Lugosi, Edward Van Sloan A leading actor is killed during the filming of a death scene in a movie. Plucky script-writer David Manners spots all the clues that the hapless cops never recognize. Bela Lugosi has some sort of job at the movie studio and doesn't do much to advance the story besides smoking his cigarette and seeming out of place. Don't let his top-billing in the movie poster fool you. They played up his name because of the box office profits from the previous year's Dracula but he's actually 4th billed in the movie titles.The movie has a Jewish stereotype producer, always spouting out "Oy Vey" and worrying about the budget Pretty creaky public domain murder mystery. Some scenes were color tinted. I own this on DVD (from Sinister Cinema) and I watch it every once in a while. I love it! David Manners is such a wise guy to the cops. And Vince Barnett is hilarious as the screenwriter's sidekick, a security guard who is studying to be a detective, and they go from clue to clue, always one step ahead of the cops. When you've seen enough of Lugosi's roles where he's not a vampire or a mad scientist or an evil sociologist, you get used to his suave, shifty (and fairly generic) Europeans. (I believe he's from South America in Broadminded.) He sure doesn't seem out of place to me. It does kind of lose its tail at the end. But I find most of it to be funny and clever. But then, I love these guys! Lugosi, sure, but also David Manners and Vince Barnett and Edward van Sloan. And Adrienne Ames is also really good in it!
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Post by Warmonger on Oct 24, 2016 14:44:56 GMT -5
Just finished watching Creepshow. Wanted to watch it for years but only now got around to it. Absolutely loved it. But this... ... has probably ruined my life in some way. "The Crate" was easily my favorite short story of the movie. Leslie Nielsen really brings the black humor in the short with Ted Danson too. Hell, all the stories are enjoyable. Creepshow 2 is a bit of letdown. Still has its moments, though.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 24, 2016 14:45:54 GMT -5
Yesterday I watched a French horror classic, Eyes Without a Face. Very creepy story about a dr trying to repair his daughter's face which was destroyed in a car accident that he caused. It was a very atmospheric and eerie film. Quite graphic for its time as well. I had to turn my head during one part and I don't usually get squeamish. Tried to watch 2 silent films: The Unholy Three and The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari. I have discovered silent films are not for me. While I appreciate them, I find them hard to watch and lose interest. The parts of The Unholy Three that I watched, the stand out was Lon Chaney as the ventriloquist. I noticed too, that Turner Classics called it a horror movie, but to me it was more of a crime drama. I love Eyes Without a Face! I saw it for the first time just two years ago and I've been watching it every year at Halloween season. I DVRed it off TCM a few days ago. I'll probably watch it this weekend. And I've seen both The Unholy Three and Caligari a bunch of times. If you can't get into those two, you are probably right that silent films aren't for you. My nephew loved The Unholy Three! He's 13. He liked the story and he was kind of fascinated by the way people lived in 1925 (like when they cranked the Model T). He had a bunch of questions about movie technology of the time as well. He also liked Safety Last and Freaks. (The latter isn't a silent film. I just thought I'd mention it.) One other suggestion: Try The Unknown with Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford. It's not even an hour long. And it moves so quick! The hour just whizzes by!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 24, 2016 14:49:24 GMT -5
The Death Kiss (1932) David Manners, Adrienne Ames, Bela Lugosi, Edward Van Sloan I own this on DVD (from Sinister Cinema) and I watch it every once in a while. I love it! David Manners is such a wise guy to the cops. And Vince Barnett is hilarious as the screenwriter's sidekick, a security guard who is studying to be a detective, and they go from clue to clue, always one step ahead of the cops. When you've seen enough of Lugosi's roles where he's not a vampire or a mad scientist or an evil sociologist, you get used to his suave, shifty (and fairly generic) Europeans. (I believe he's from South America in Broadminded.) He sure doesn't seem out of place to me. It does kind of lose its tail at the end. But I find most of it to be funny and clever. But then, I love these guys! Lugosi, sure, but also David Manners and Vince Barnett and Edward van Sloan. And Adrienne Ames is also really good in it! Hey Hoosier, I just noticed with that poster for Death Kiss I embedded. Those two scenes on the bottom of the poster were not in the movie. Nothing like those two pictures at all. Cool poster but everything about it is misleading I agree the plucky screen writer played by David Manners was pretty good. His sidekick, the bumbling studio cop got on my nerves after awhile. I still think Lugosi was out of place, tell me, what was his job? I didn't catch it. he worked for the studio but as what? Because he was now a box office sensation with Dracula, I think what happened was he had a few days of free time, so they grabbed him and threw him into the movie to capitalize on his popularity. Just quickly wrote a part for him. His role was totally superfluous.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 24, 2016 15:01:24 GMT -5
The Passionate Plumber (1932). I picked this almost at random as I was scrolling through the TCM schedule. It's not widely known that Keaton's career hit a bit of a snag when sound came in, and he ended up being partnered with ... Jimmy Durante for a few movies. I've never seen any of these. (There's one in particular I want to see from the title - What? No Beer!) So when this one popped up, I went ahead and DVRed it. And I'm glad I did! It wasn't always screamingly funny but it was SO WEIRD that I was kind of open-mouthed in disbelief even when it was kind of slow. And it is frequently pretty damn funny. I don't even really know how to begin to describe it. There's a lot of Buster Keaton type action scenes that will remind you of his silent films. Durante disappears for long stretches of the movie. He shows up at a few key moments when the audience needs to know the set-up for the next series of gags. Keaton is a plumber and Durante is a chauffer for a rich woman living in Paris. The pipes are bad, so Keaton shows up and ends up getting caught in an almost unexplainable web of mischief and carnage. The lady of the house hires Keaton to pretend to be her boyfriend because she wants to get rid of a suitor. Keaton ends up in a duel. Keaton and Durante go to the Paris Casino for ten minutes of hilarious mischief. It's just one weird thing after another. It's not as well put together as his classic silent films, but it has it's isolated moments that are as funny as anything Keaton ever did. It's only a little over an hour long so it's well worth the effort to find it and watch it for people who appreciate weird 1930s comedies.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2016 15:09:45 GMT -5
Yesterday I watched a French horror classic, Eyes Without a Face. Very creepy story about a dr trying to repair his daughter's face which was destroyed in a car accident that he caused. It was a very atmospheric and eerie film. Quite graphic for its time as well. I had to turn my head during one part and I don't usually get squeamish. Tried to watch 2 silent films: The Unholy Three and The Cabinet of Dr. Calagari. I have discovered silent films are not for me. While I appreciate them, I find them hard to watch and lose interest. The parts of The Unholy Three that I watched, the stand out was Lon Chaney as the ventriloquist. I noticed too, that Turner Classics called it a horror movie, but to me it was more of a crime drama. I love Eyes Without a Face! I saw it for the first time just two years ago and I've been watching it every year at Halloween season. I DVRed it off TCM a few days ago. I'll probably watch it this weekend. And I've seen both The Unholy Three and Caligari a bunch of times. If you can't get into those two, you are probably right that silent films aren't for you. My nephew loved The Unholy Three! He's 13. He liked the story and he was kind of fascinated by the way people lived in 1925 (like when they cranked the Model T). He had a bunch of questions about movie technology of the time as well. He also liked Safety Last and Freaks. (The latter isn't a silent film. I just thought I'd mention it.) One other suggestion: Try The Unknown with Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford. It's not even an hour long. And it moves so quick! The hour just whizzes by! I will keep an eye out for the Unknown. I think Unholy Three is still on the DVR, so I may give it another chance. I almost got to the end, haha! I got to the part where they had run off the cabin in the woods and the pickpocket was begging Lon Chaney to go back and tell the truth to save Hector. I do agree, seeing how people lived in 1925 was interesting. The crank on the car, the clothes, and I liked that they were celebrating Christmas. Interesting to see the silver icicles on the tree--that is truly an old school Christmas decoration! Eyes Without a Face--definitely one I would watch again! I did notice one of my all time favorites is coming on TCM this Saturday, Blood and Black Lace by Mario Bava. I have watched Freaks--it is good too, very disturbing at the end!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 24, 2016 15:17:08 GMT -5
Even folks who generally can't get into silent films appreciate the Charlie Chaplin movies
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 24, 2016 15:29:56 GMT -5
I love Eyes Without a Face! I saw it for the first time just two years ago and I've been watching it every year at Halloween season. I DVRed it off TCM a few days ago. I'll probably watch it this weekend. And I've seen both The Unholy Three and Caligari a bunch of times. If you can't get into those two, you are probably right that silent films aren't for you. My nephew loved The Unholy Three! He's 13. He liked the story and he was kind of fascinated by the way people lived in 1925 (like when they cranked the Model T). He had a bunch of questions about movie technology of the time as well. He also liked Safety Last and Freaks. (The latter isn't a silent film. I just thought I'd mention it.) One other suggestion: Try The Unknown with Lon Chaney and Joan Crawford. It's not even an hour long. And it moves so quick! The hour just whizzes by! I will keep an eye out for the Unknown. I think Unholy Three is still on the DVR, so I may give it another chance. I almost got to the end, haha! I got to the part where they had run off the cabin in the woods and the pickpocket was begging Lon Chaney to go back and tell the truth to save Hector. I do agree, seeing how people lived in 1925 was interesting. The crank on the car, the clothes, and I liked that they were celebrating Christmas. Interesting to see the silver icicles on the tree--that is truly an old school Christmas decoration! Eyes Without a Face--definitely one I would watch again! I did notice one of my all time favorites is coming on TCM this Saturday, Blood and Black Lace by Mario Bava. I have watched Freaks--it is good too, very disturbing at the end! If you got that far into The Unholy Three, you aren't missing a thing by skipping the end. It's so dumb! I saw Blood and Black Lace on the schedule and I already set up the DVR to get it. I've never seen it. I didn't realize it was Bava so I'm extra glad I'm getting it.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 24, 2016 15:38:42 GMT -5
I own this on DVD (from Sinister Cinema) and I watch it every once in a while. I love it! David Manners is such a wise guy to the cops. And Vince Barnett is hilarious as the screenwriter's sidekick, a security guard who is studying to be a detective, and they go from clue to clue, always one step ahead of the cops. When you've seen enough of Lugosi's roles where he's not a vampire or a mad scientist or an evil sociologist, you get used to his suave, shifty (and fairly generic) Europeans. (I believe he's from South America in Broadminded.) He sure doesn't seem out of place to me. It does kind of lose its tail at the end. But I find most of it to be funny and clever. But then, I love these guys! Lugosi, sure, but also David Manners and Vince Barnett and Edward van Sloan. And Adrienne Ames is also really good in it! Hey Hoosier, I just noticed with that poster for Death Kiss I embedded. Those two scenes on the bottom of the poster were not in the movie. Nothing like those two pictures at all. Cool poster but everything about it is misleading I agree the plucky screen writer played by David Manners was pretty good. His sidekick, the bumbling studio cop got on my nerves after awhile. I still think Lugosi was out of place, tell me, what was his job? I didn't catch it. he worked for the studio but as what? Because he was now a box office sensation with Dracula, I think what happened was he had a few days of free time, so they grabbed him and threw him into the movie to capitalize on his popularity. Just quickly wrote a part for him. His role was totally superfluous. I don't remember exactly what his job was but I think he was the film's producer. Van Sloan was the director. The guy with the Yiddish accent was the studio head. Anyway, Lugosi was there to be one more suspect. The guy that was murdered was so awful that just about everybody had a motive for killing him. The murderer had to be somebody at the studio who would know about the way things worked in order to set up the murder and then destroy the film that might have been incriminating. I think the murdered man was having an affair with Lugosi's wife. Later on, when his horror career had really taken off, Lugosi was in a lot of movies where he was the butler or the gardener or the handyman, and he was just there to be an extra suspect. Because if Lugosi is in a movie and there's a murder, he's automatically a suspect. I used to say "If Lugosi plays a butler, then he didn't do it." But then I saw one where he's a butler and he did it! I can't remember which one.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 24, 2016 15:47:05 GMT -5
I also saw Macabre, a 1958 William Castle movie about an unpopular doctor whose daughter has been buried alive! And he has to run around and figure out the cryptic clues of the abductor to save her before the air runs out!
It's a little subdued for a William Castle movie. I liked it a lot. (Not as much as The Tingler.)
And last night I stayed up late and watched Niagara (1953). I think it's the last major Marilyn Monroe movie that I'd never seen before. It's really good! Joseph Cotton is her husband and he's got PTSD, allegedly from the Korean conflict but you begin to realize that what's really bothering him is his marriage to Marilyn Monroe. She's not a good person in this movie.
Marilyn doesn't always get the credit she deserves for what a great actress she was. This is one more movie to add to the list of movies that seriously challenge the idea that she was just another pretty face with some PR savvy. (My favorite is Don't Bother to Knock.)
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2016 15:59:51 GMT -5
Niagra is awesome. It is my favorite Monroe movie. She is radiant in the movie and so good at being up to no good! haha! Beautiful locations as well.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 24, 2016 16:00:13 GMT -5
I just watched Gorgon and I hadn't watched that movie in a very long time and I was kind of disappointed of it despite the great cast it has and TCM has it today and they gave it a 2 star rating. I was very surprised to see Barbara Shelley who played a double role in both Megaera aka the Gorgon and Carla Hoffman a very unique perspective that kind of shocked me at the end. I wasn't prepared for that. The real star is Richard Pasco who is determined to find out the truth behind his father's death and that spelled in disaster for both him and his Father alone. I felt that it was "somewhat" melodramatic when Christopher Lee chopped off her head so that she can live in peace. It was a decent film but I felt it should had done a better job of making it. But, this film in some weird ways it's disappoints me and I just can't place a finger on it. That's bothers me every time that I see it.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 24, 2016 18:28:12 GMT -5
Niagra is awesome. It is my favorite Monroe movie. She is radiant in the movie and so good at being up to no good! haha! Beautiful locations as well. The more I dig into the Marilyn Monroe filmography, the more amazed I am. I saw Monkey Business for the first time a few months ago and I thought Marilyn was great. (The movie as a whole has its moments.) I also saw Gentlemen Prefer Blondes about a year ago and even though it's kind of stupid, it has a number of great scenes. I didn't like Bus Stop at all. My favorite is Don't Bother to Knock. In addition to Marilyn, it has Richard Widmark, Anne Bancroft, Jim Backus and Elisha Cook Jr. I've seen it four or five times over the years. If you prefer Niagara to some of the movies she's more famous for, you might want to try Don't Bother to Knock if you've never seen it.
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