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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2016 8:07:42 GMT -5
Thanks Hoosier X for the recommendation. I will keep an eye out for Don't Bother to Knock! Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is indeed kind of stupid. That scene with Marilyn singing Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend is classic though! The Seven Year Itch has some good moments too, including her iconic scene with the subway grate.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 25, 2016 9:02:09 GMT -5
I watched another one of those short feature films from the 1930s that I love so much. Is My Face Red? is about 70 minutes long and it's about an ambitious newspaper columnist (Ricardo Cortez) who will do anything to get a story or a bit of lurid gossip and he doesn't care who he hurts. It made me think of The Sweet Smell of Success thematically, but it's a lot more light-hearted and not nearly as good. Still it's not without it's pleasures if you like this kind of thing. The cast includes Helen Twelvetrees as Peggy, the Broadway headliner who is the columnist's fiancée. They've been engaged for five years, and most of the time he acts like he isn't engaged. He's really awful! (I was a little disappointed by the happy ending and the way she forgave him so quickly.) Also in the cast - Robert Armstrong as a rival reporter, George Chandler, and ZaSu Pitts as a telephone operator at the newspaper exchange. And Sydney Toler - who played Charlie Chan for a while later in his career - is an Italian immigrant bartender. He's great. He's behind the bar, cutting cheese with this great big knife, and another Italian American comes in and they start arguing in Italian. The new guy reaches into his coat and Sydney thinks he's getting a gun and he stabs him in the ribs with the cheese knife! The columnist sees the murder and so Toler is out to get him for the rest of the movie. (And you never find out what the argument was about, unless you know Italian.) I've barely scratched the surface on what's great about this movie. It's not for everybody. But it's definitely for people who like that crazy filmmaking style of the early 1930s.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 25, 2016 14:52:33 GMT -5
How about that, a Warner Bros Archive DVD I have not seen anywhere yet. How did you view this Hoosier? And are you going to check out that free one-month unlimited viewing link I supplied not that long ago to the Warner Archive website? I'd join myself but already have a big backload of stuff to get through 2 Warner Bros Archive DVDs sitting on my table to watch this week are David Jansson in Dondi and the sequel to Mr. Roberts, Ensign Pulver
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 25, 2016 15:00:51 GMT -5
How about that, a Warner Bros Archive DVD I have not seen anywhere yet. How did you view this Hoosier? And are you going to check out that free one-month unlimited viewing link I supplied not that long ago to the Warner Archive website? I'd join myself but already have a big backload of stuff to get through 2 Warner Bros Archive DVDs sitting on my table to watch this week are David Jansson in Dondi and the sequel to Mr. Roberts, Ensign PulverThey were having a Helen Twelvetrees marathon on TCM. I've heard of her but I've never seen one of her movies. I picked this one because of Ricardo Cortez.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 26, 2016 9:52:04 GMT -5
The Texans (1938) Randolph Scott, Joan Bennett, May Robson, Walter Brennan, Robert Cummings Pretty interesting Western film dealing with the South's defeat and the Northern Reconstruction that followed. Sympathetic to the south, we see them taxed for just about everything they do. Carpetbaggers try to take their land and occupying Union forces treat them quite poorly. Rebel soldier Randolph Scott is about the only one who wants to give the United States a chance, his sweetheart and all the townsfolk bristle at the treatment and plan to travel to Mexico to hook up with Emperor Maximillian and invade the U.S. in revenge Although it's got a serious plot, there's lots of humorous touches. The action scenes and landscapes are well photographed as well. They put money into this production with hundreds of extras and plenty of cattle and horses. Walter Brennan puts on his old man make-up. May Robson is one feisty grandma. Joan Bennett is oh-so easy on the eyes There's a fight scene in the middle of town where Joan Bennett collided with an extra and her face got cut requiring stitches. That won't stop the film's production, her scar became part of the story
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 26, 2016 14:09:45 GMT -5
I would probably love The Texans because it has so many people I think are great! But the history buff in me can only roll my eyes at the "Lost Cause" revisionism popular at the time, in which wild fictionalization of the Reconstruction Era to make the South look like the good guys became the accepted version of the late 19th century in America.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 27, 2016 13:40:31 GMT -5
Another Talking Animal Been picking up a bunch of DVDs at the Performing Arts library, mostly older films I've never seen whose cover or cast looks enticing. I don't even bother reading the plots on the back of the box. So imagine my surprise when I pop this baby in and find... Everything's Ducky (1961) Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett, Richard Deacon, Jackie Cooper, Joannie Sommers, Gordon Jones, Roland Winters Mickey Rooney's experience with Francis The Talking Mule certainly served him well for this Doolittle excursion. Released the same year as Mr. Ed, Rooney and Hackett are sailors and given the job of escorting a recently deceased military scientist's pet duck back to a pond and his freedom. But the duck can talk due to experiments the scientist performed. And the duck knows calculus and rocket science but doesn't know how to swim. What to do? Why, take the duck to a bar and win some bar bets of course. The duck-named Scuttlebutt- loves martinis and is quite a horny duck too. Flirts with every gal it sees. When the military discovers that the duck holds the secret formulas form the dead scientist in it's memory, the chase is on The kiddies should enjoy this and it gets downright silly, in fact, stupidly silly towards the end. But I'm a sucker for Buddy Hackett. Gordon Jones, the ol' Mike The Cop from the A&C TV show is fun to watch too. Jackie Cooper returns to films here, albeit a short scene, after a long absence. Scuttlebutt the Duck-Not a good movie but much better than Howard the Duck
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 27, 2016 14:43:09 GMT -5
Last night, I watched The Old Maid (1939) with Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, Donald Crisp and George Brent. I'm starting to think I have seen all of Bette Davis's major films. From my own understanding of her career, I think The Old Maid is the last one. That doesn't mean there aren't a lot of other Bette Davis films that I haven't seen that aren't a lot of fun! I'm particularly looking forward to seeing more of her early 1930s movies. Charlotte (Bette Davis) and Delia (Miriam Hopkins) are cousins living with their grandmother in Philadelphia in the 1860s. On the day that Delia is going to be married, her old flame Clem (George Brent) shows up. They were engaged at one point but he said he wanted to make his fortune first ... and then he disappeared for two years. (And didn't make his fortune.) In the meantime, Delia got engaged to a guy from a wealthy family, and she's kind of done with Clem. But Charlotte has long been in love with Clem, and she comforts him as he copes with the loss of Delia. The Civil War starts, and passes by in a one-minute montage that ends with Clem's gravestone. (I was sure he was going to turn up alive at the most inconvenient moment possible! And he would have if this had been a Joan Crawford movie.) Which brings us to 1866, and Charlotte has started a nursery for orphans. And the reason she started the nursery is that her favorite orphan - Clementina - is her secret daughter with Clem! And she's hiding the girl among the orphans. Complications ensue. It was watchable and mildly entertaining, if you like the kind of movies that Bette Davis was making in the late 1930s and early 1940s. I really liked George Brent in this! He frequently played an arrogant rogue in his 1930s films, and sometimes he's a little more charming than roguish, and usually a bit smug. He's really smug in The Old Maid! He just can't believe that Delia is going to go ahead and marry somebody else. He doesn't think it was such a big deal that he disappeared for two years. The men-folk have a hard time getting him out of house without an incident. I was hoping he'd get killed in a duel. But this is 1861 Philadelphia, not 1861 New Orleans. A really good performance from George Brent. He's an OK actor, overall. He's kind of grown on me just because I've seen him in so many Bette Davis films. He always seemed kind of one-note, but he's really good here.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 28, 2016 11:53:48 GMT -5
I started my Horror Movie Festival last night. I've got about ten horror movies on the DVR and I'm recording five more over the weekend, so I won't be watching anything but horror movies until I run out. (Some of them aren't actually horror. Like Time After Time. I got Dracula (1931) and Dead of Night and Eyes Without a Face and obvious movies like that. But I also included some genre movies that aren't horror movies. Like The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy. I've never seen it and it seems like a gaping omission. I don't know what Experiment in Terror is about. I remember seeing it on the schedule for MOVIES! a while back and thinking it looked interesting (mostly from the cast) but I don't remember the plot.)
So last night I watched The Woman Who Wouldn't Die (1965), with Gary Merrill. He plays a guy who falls in love with his niece and has an affair with her. I know. EWW! His wife is disabled and walks with a cane and she's a little bit on the unpleasant side, but not nearly as bad as some of those awful harpies in EC horror comics where the meek husband ends up killing her and cutting her into pieces and putting the pieces in a bird cage. With an accomplice - the wife's assistant - he plots her death and ends up drowning her the sink and burying her in a shed with a dirt floor.
Now he's free to marry his niece!
But not so fast. He sees his wife's silhouette through the window. He hears her cane on the floor. He checks the burial site and HER BODY IS GONE.
If you've ever seen a movie before, you probably know what's going on.
Not a bad movie. I was never bored. I didn't know Gary Merrill was in it until I started it. He's quite a bit older here than I'm used to. He kind of looked like he had started to melt and his nose was starting to droop.
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Post by Pharozonk on Oct 28, 2016 12:00:19 GMT -5
Conquest (1983)One of Lucio Fulci's weaker movies. It has great cinematography and a kick ass score courtesy of Claudio Simonetti, but the story is paper thin and padded beyond belief.
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Post by Warmonger on Oct 28, 2016 12:18:36 GMT -5
Conquest (1983)One of Lucio Fulci's weaker movies. It has great cinematography and a kick ass score courtesy of Claudio Simonetti, but the story is paper thin and padded beyond belief. Speaking of Fulci, I just bought 'Zombi 2' and 'The Beyond' the other day off Amazon. Zombi 2 I've seen fairly recently, but I haven't watched The Beyond since probably the late 80's/early 90's. Will have to get around to that by Sunday.
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Post by Pharozonk on Oct 28, 2016 16:36:30 GMT -5
Conquest (1983)One of Lucio Fulci's weaker movies. It has great cinematography and a kick ass score courtesy of Claudio Simonetti, but the story is paper thin and padded beyond belief. Speaking of Fulci, I just bought 'Zombi 2' and 'The Beyond' the other day off Amazon. Zombi 2 I've seen fairly recently, but I haven't watched The Beyond since probably the late 80's/early 90's. Will have to get around to that by Sunday. Those are probably his best movies. I'd also recommend checking out House by the Cemetery, Aenigma, and The New York Ripper.
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 29, 2016 15:49:19 GMT -5
Yesterday, I had a little movie marathon. First, my brother and my niece and I watched The Strangers (2008), a movie about people in creepy masks terrorizing Liv Tyler and her boyfriend in a remote house. I saw the trailer when it first came out and I thought it was creepy. I wanted to see it but I never got around to it until last night. And it's a very entertaining and fun movie, but I don't think any of us thought it was a great movie. I still love the trailer though. Then I watched The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy (1957). It's really bad. Its not really one of those fun bad movies either, like Robot Monster or Bride of the Monster or The terror of Tiny Town. It's more like Red Zone Cuba. So much of it is narrated. The climatic fight between the Robot and the Aztec Mummy is hilarious. And the main villain is played by the Mexican Orson Welles, and I thought that was fairly amusing. Otherwise, stay away from this movie! And last I watched Eyes Without a Face (1960). If you like horror movies and you've never seen this one, put it on the list and see it as soon as possible! This is my third time seeing it in just three years and I love it! I wish I'd seen it years ago.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 29, 2016 16:20:38 GMT -5
Eyes Without A Face is a pure classic, and a Criterion film to boot. If I live to 150 years old, I'll be ready to watch The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
I got this summer's movie Neighbors 2 with Seth Rogen from the library. Into the DVD player it went last night and I discovered it had a soundtrack glitch. In other words, no sound at all. Seeing that it's a brand new DVD release, it might take a month before I get another copy. So I watched it with captioning. And jezus, was that a challenge. The dialogue was fast paced between multiple characters continuously and practically impossible to keep up with it. I enjoyed it but I'll have to watch it normally in the near future because I'm sure I missed so many funny lines. Plus with comedy, it's not just the words, it's the delivery and tone Then I watched the sequel to that great 1955 movie Mr. RobertsEnsign Pulver (1964) Robert Walker Jr. as Jack Lemmon, Burl Ives as James Cagney, Walter Matthau as William Powell, Henry Fonda as Dead, Tommy Sands, Millie Perkins, Jack Nicholson, Larry Hagman, Kay Medford, James Coco, James Farrentino, Peter Marshall, Al Freeman Jr, Richard Gautier, George Lindsey Taking place a few months after the original movie left off with Mr. Roberts himself buries at sea and the entire cast replaced by a pretty interesting bunch. The first half of the film didn't impress me much but once Burl Ives as the Captain and Ensign Pulver are thrown overboard, the film really picks up plot-wise and funnybone wise. And what a cast of supporting actors including Goober, Major Nelson, Hymie The Robot, the host of Hollywood Squares and the Jack Man himself Much better then expected
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 29, 2016 19:34:38 GMT -5
Well, if you want some naval fun, try Don't Give Up the Ship, with Jerry Lewis. Lewis is Lt. John Paul Steckler III, who has just gotten married and is starting his honeymoon, when he finds himself arrested by the shore patrol and ordered to report to Adm Bludde (Robert Middleton), in Washington, DC. Steckler is the last known commander of the USS KLornblatt, a destroyer escort, at the end of WW2. A senator (Gayle Gordon) is breathing down the Navy's neck about the loss of the ship and could withhold appropriations. Steckler must work with Ensign Benson (Dina Merrill) to find out what happened. We learn how the hapless Steckler ended up in command of the ship, the chaos that followed, and a thread of an idea of where it may have ended up. A truly funny movie, with plenty of slapstick, silly situations, misunderstanding, and a bit of a send-up of Cmdr Queeg, from the Caine Mutiny Courtmartial.
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