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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 1, 2016 23:49:37 GMT -5
The 1960s Sgt Rock stories, from Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert are tremendous reads. Some of the best writing and art that DC had, surpassed only by Enemy Ace. We probably didn't get many of them (if any) in the racks this side of the Atlantic in the 1960s, so there might not be any in the bargain boxes in the (few) comic shops that we do have here in Ireland, but if I do see any of Sgt. Rock's adventures on my travels I will definitely check them out... I'm sure they didn't. DC published several Showcase black & white volumes, with Sgt Rock, Enemy Ace, the haunted Tank, Unknown Soldier and War That Time Forgot. However, I believe they are all out of print and seem to be pricey, on the secondary market.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 2, 2016 15:34:50 GMT -5
I've been watching a lot of documentaries because TCM had a spotlight on documentaries this month and I DVRed a bunch of them. I will probably post about that soon. Maybe later today. But I took a break from the Holocaust and the band called Anvil and Werner Herzog's Amazon adventures and things like that to watch the first movie that Billy Wilder directed in America! The Major and the Minor (1942) stars Ginger Rogers as a woman disillusioned with New York who is trying to get back home to Iowa. She can't afford the adult fare to take the train home, so she dresses as a 12-year-old to go back home half-fare. The conductors are a bit suspicious (she claims she's tall because of her Swedish ancestry) but they let it go until they see her smoking on the rear platform. She hides in Ray Milland's compartment and he buys her act completely and she follows him to the military academy where he's an instructor. It's pretty damn dumb but it has a lot of great moments and I can't say too many bad things about it no matter how much it deserves them. It apparently did pretty good business and launched Wilder on his very successful American directing career.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Dec 2, 2016 23:07:46 GMT -5
Watched Beau Geste (1939) with Gary Cooper and Ray Milland
I refrain from using this phrase too often but it applies here. This film is a masterpiece. One of the key reasons I feel 1939 was one of the greatest years for cinema
The opening scene with the French Foreign Legion coming upon a desert outpost with only dead men propped up on it's ramparts is still as eerie and chilling as it was almost 80 years ago. It has a Twilight Zone aura about it. The story explaining that scene, the performances by the cast (especially Brian Donlevy as the cruel Sergeant my little children) and the direction of William Wellman is pure gold
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Post by codystarbuck on Dec 2, 2016 23:16:29 GMT -5
Watched Beau Geste (1939) with Gary Cooper and Ray Milland I refrain from using this phrase too often but it applies here. This film is a masterpiece. One of the key reasons I feel 1939 was one of the greatest years for cinema The opening scene with the French Foreign Legion coming upon a desert outpost with only dead men propped up on it's ramparts is still as eerie and chilling as it was almost 80 years ago. It has a Twilight Zone aura about it. The story explaining that scene, the performances by the cast (especially Brian Donlevy as the cruel Sergeant my little children) and the direction of William Wellman is pure gold Best part of Marty feldman's The Last remake of Beau Geste is when he is seeing mirages and ends up in conversation with Gary Cooper's Beau. Actually read the book, by PC Wren, when I was in high school, for English class. Pretty good stuff, though a bit too "Jolly good" and all of that. Had to give a book report and most of the questions from my class were based on Gilligan's Island, when the movie is referenced.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 3, 2016 19:22:58 GMT -5
Here's a special heads-up for TCM.
Thirteen Women (1932) is showing December 9 at 10 p.m. (PST). I've never seen the whole thing. I saw bits of it on AMC 25 years ago. I've been wanting to see the whole thing ever since because it looks pretty evil. Myrna Loy is a half-caste Eurasian who was treated badly by the other girls at her school. Years later, she's come back for revenge! Also starring Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez and Peg Entwhistle (famous for killing herself by jumping off the Hollywood sign).
I don't know if it's that great but it's only 75 minutes and it's really rare.
TCM is showing A LOT of Myrna Loy movies this month. I love her early movies! She is frequently cast as a gypsy or an Asian or something exotic, most famously as Fah Lo Suee (Fu Manchu's daughter) in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) (which is showing the same day as Thirteen Women, so if you've never seen it, here's your chance!). So you could almost just pick anything at random.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 3, 2016 19:38:40 GMT -5
TCM programmed classic documentaries on Mondays and Wednesdays all through November, and I DVRed a bunch of them. Some of them are films I've been wanting to see for decades, some of them are films from the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list and some of them are just films I thought looked interesting. (I also got Anvil! The Story of Anvil from the library last week.) That's a lot of documentaries. I'm sure I'll be watching documentaries into January because some of them are quite long and I can only watch two or three (at most) per week.
Here's what I've seen so far:
The Battle of San Pietro (1945) Night and Fog (1955) The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) Burden of Dreams (1982) Sans Soleil (1983) Hoop Dreams (1994) Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)
They've all been pretty good to great! If I was to single out two, I would pick Night and Fog for presenting the Holocaust so frighteningly in just 32 minutes, and Sans Soleil for being so dang weird.
I still have a bunch to watch, including Woodstock and both parts of the The Battle of Chile.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2016 20:41:41 GMT -5
Here's a special heads-up for TCM. Thirteen Women (1932) is showing December 9 at 10 p.m. (PST). I've never seen the whole thing. I saw bits of it on AMC 25 years ago. I've been wanting to see the whole thing ever since because it looks pretty evil. Myrna Loy is a half-caste Eurasian who was treated badly by the other girls at her school. Years later, she's come back for revenge! Also starring Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez and Peg Entwhistle (famous for killing herself by jumping off the Hollywood sign). I don't know if it's that great but it's only 75 minutes and it's really rare. TCM is showing A LOT of Myrna Loy movies this month. I love her early movies! She is frequently cast as a gypsy or an Asian or something exotic, most famously as Fah Lo Suee (Fu Manchu's daughter) in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) (which is showing the same day as Thirteen Women, so if you've never seen it, here's your chance!). So you could almost just pick anything at random. Nice! Thanks for the heads up! I never would have known about this if you hadn't mentioned it. I LOVE Myrna Loy! So beautiful and talented. I just love that little nose of hers. I've only seen 1 or 2 of her movies before The Thin Man in 1934 so I'm really looking forward to watching some of her earlier films. I already made a list of the half dozen or so I want to record. Can't wait!
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 3, 2016 21:54:35 GMT -5
Here's a special heads-up for TCM. Thirteen Women (1932) is showing December 9 at 10 p.m. (PST). I've never seen the whole thing. I saw bits of it on AMC 25 years ago. I've been wanting to see the whole thing ever since because it looks pretty evil. Myrna Loy is a half-caste Eurasian who was treated badly by the other girls at her school. Years later, she's come back for revenge! Also starring Irene Dunne, Ricardo Cortez and Peg Entwhistle (famous for killing herself by jumping off the Hollywood sign). I don't know if it's that great but it's only 75 minutes and it's really rare. TCM is showing A LOT of Myrna Loy movies this month. I love her early movies! She is frequently cast as a gypsy or an Asian or something exotic, most famously as Fah Lo Suee (Fu Manchu's daughter) in The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) (which is showing the same day as Thirteen Women, so if you've never seen it, here's your chance!). So you could almost just pick anything at random. Nice! Thanks for the heads up! I never would have known about this if you hadn't mentioned it. I LOVE Myrna Loy! So beautiful and talented. I just love that little nose of hers. I've only seen 1 or 2 of her movies before The Thin Man in 1934 so I'm really looking forward to watching some of her earlier films. I already made a list of the half dozen or so I want to record. Can't wait! I haven't seen very many of her pre-1934 movies, but she's ALWAYS great even if the movie isn't quite as good. (I love The Squall (1929) where she plays a gypsy temptress. But they already showed it yesterday.) She had a supporting role in the wonderful Love Me Tonight and she's great in that. She's in The Jazz Singer! She doesn't have a big role. She's one of the showgirls backstage. But she has a line of dialogue! If you watch 5 or 6 of her pre-1934 movies, you'll be ahead of me!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2016 22:16:46 GMT -5
Nice! Thanks for the heads up! I never would have known about this if you hadn't mentioned it. I LOVE Myrna Loy! So beautiful and talented. I just love that little nose of hers. I've only seen 1 or 2 of her movies before The Thin Man in 1934 so I'm really looking forward to watching some of her earlier films. I already made a list of the half dozen or so I want to record. Can't wait! I haven't seen very many of her pre-1934 movies, but she's ALWAYS great even if the movie isn't quite as good. (I love The Squall (1929) where she plays a gypsy temptress. But they already showed it yesterday.) She had a supporting role in the wonderful Love Me Tonight and she's great in that. She's in The Jazz Singer! She doesn't have a big role. She's one of the showgirls backstage. But she has a line of dialogue! If you watch 5 or 6 of her pre-1934 movies, you'll be ahead of me! I've always wanted to see The Jazz Singer not only to see as many Myrna Loy movies as possible but also for the historical value of it. It's definitely on my list of movies I want to see. I'm sorry that I didn't know about this yesterday as I would've liked to have recorded some of those movies.. Fun little fact: I was born in Buffalo, NY and still live here as of today. My great-grandfather used to work at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo in the 1930's for a few years until he got sick where he worked as an elevator operator. Sometimes movie stars and the like would stay at the hotel on visits. One of those stars was...yep you guessed it. Myrna Loy. All I know of the meeting was that she was in the elevator with him as he operated it. He was pretty smittened with her too. To be a fly on that wall.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Dec 4, 2016 0:05:56 GMT -5
Finished the 5 movie Gary Cooper box set with 1935's Lives Of Bengal Lancer. I really enjoyed each a every film.Gary Cooper has been in 118 movies (about 40 before 1930). By my calculations, I've seen 31.any great ones, but he'll always be Lou Gehrig to me
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 4, 2016 2:12:56 GMT -5
I haven't seen very many of her pre-1934 movies, but she's ALWAYS great even if the movie isn't quite as good. (I love The Squall (1929) where she plays a gypsy temptress. But they already showed it yesterday.) She had a supporting role in the wonderful Love Me Tonight and she's great in that. She's in The Jazz Singer! She doesn't have a big role. She's one of the showgirls backstage. But she has a line of dialogue! If you watch 5 or 6 of her pre-1934 movies, you'll be ahead of me! I've always wanted to see The Jazz Singer not only to see as many Myrna Loy movies as possible but also for the historical value of it. It's definitely on my list of movies I want to see. I'm sorry that I didn't know about this yesterday as I would've liked to have recorded some of those movies.. Fun little fact: I was born in Buffalo, NY and still live here as of today. My great-grandfather used to work at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo in the 1930's for a few years until he got sick where he worked as an elevator operator. Sometimes movie stars and the like would stay at the hotel on visits. One of those stars was...yep you guessed it. Myrna Loy. All I know of the meeting was that she was in the elevator with him as he operated it. He was pretty smittened with her too. To be a fly on that wall. Check the TCM schedule. I think I saw The Jazz Singer scheduled this week but not as part of the Myrna Loy "Star of the Month" programming.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 4, 2016 2:27:44 GMT -5
Attention John Carradine fans!
I turned on the TV to watch one of the documentaries I DVRed and it was tuned to TCM (of course) and a movie was just starting. Hitler's Madman (1943)! I've heard of it but don't know much about it. So I decided to watch it for a bit and see what it was about.
The cast looked promising. John Carradine. Patricia Morison, one of my favorite obscure actresses. (She's still alive at the age of 101!) Edgar Kennedy, who you should remember as the lemonade salesman in Duck Soup. A couple of other people. (Ava Gardner was in it as well but not credited, so I didn't know until halfway through the movie. She gets picked to be sent to the Russian Front to "entertain" the German soldiers. It is very disturbing for 1943.)
I got a few minutes into it and I realized John Carradine was playing Reinhard Heydrich, the Hangman! OMG!
He's pretty scary.
It's very effective for a 1943 Hollywood movie about a current event.
The guy who played Himmler looked a lot like Robert Benchley, which made me laugh.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Dec 4, 2016 2:53:06 GMT -5
Mark Evanier wrote up a list of obscure gems that TCM will be playing on Monday
Paree, Paree — This was one of Bob Hope's earliest talking shorts…and it's full of Cole Porter tunes.
Art Trouble — A 1934 comedy with Shemp Howard and a bunch of comics you never heard of. But there's an unbilled bit player in there making what may have been his screen debut…kid name of Jimmy Stewart.
Seeing Red — A 1939 short that showcased Red Skelton and some variety acts of the time. One of the acts was A. Robins, "The Banana Man," who I wrote about back here.
Ups and Downs — A 1937 short with Jule Allyson and Phil Silvers. I'll watch anything with Phil Silvers in it.
Cab Calloway in 'Hi De Ho' — Twelve minutes of Cab Calloway. How can that not be wonderful?
Home Run on the Keys — I've never seen this 1937 short but how can you pass up a musical starring Babe Ruth?
An All-Colored Vaudeville Show — From 1935, it's a chance to see black performers from that era, including the Nicholas Brothers when they were quite young.
Buzzin' Around — Contrary to popular belief, the screen career of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle did not end with his 1921-1922 murder trials. He did make something of a comeback, including a few talkies. This was one of his last films, released the same year as his death, 1933.
Ramblin' Round Radio Row 4 — Radio stars of the day (1932) including Baby Rose Marie, who would grow up to be one of America's great comediennes.
Baby Rose Marie: The Child Wonder — And here she is, three years before Ramblin' Round Radio Row 4 in her own short.
Lambchops — This is from 1929 and it's George Burns and Gracie Allen doing their most famous vaudeville routine. Gracie does all the heavy lifting.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2016 6:07:09 GMT -5
Nice! Thanks for the heads up! I never would have known about this if you hadn't mentioned it. I LOVE Myrna Loy! So beautiful and talented. I just love that little nose of hers. I've only seen 1 or 2 of her movies before The Thin Man in 1934 so I'm really looking forward to watching some of her earlier films. I already made a list of the half dozen or so I want to record. Can't wait! You need this: Myrna Loy is on the cover this month. If she is then i do! Couldn't find the cover with her on it though.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 4, 2016 13:20:27 GMT -5
Mark Evanier wrote up a list of obscure gems that TCM will be playing on Monday Paree, Paree — This was one of Bob Hope's earliest talking shorts…and it's full of Cole Porter tunes. Art Trouble — A 1934 comedy with Shemp Howard and a bunch of comics you never heard of. But there's an unbilled bit player in there making what may have been his screen debut…kid name of Jimmy Stewart. Seeing Red — A 1939 short that showcased Red Skelton and some variety acts of the time. One of the acts was A. Robins, "The Banana Man," who I wrote about back here. Ups and Downs — A 1937 short with Jule Allyson and Phil Silvers. I'll watch anything with Phil Silvers in it. Cab Calloway in 'Hi De Ho' — Twelve minutes of Cab Calloway. How can that not be wonderful? Home Run on the Keys — I've never seen this 1937 short but how can you pass up a musical starring Babe Ruth? An All-Colored Vaudeville Show — From 1935, it's a chance to see black performers from that era, including the Nicholas Brothers when they were quite young. Buzzin' Around — Contrary to popular belief, the screen career of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle did not end with his 1921-1922 murder trials. He did make something of a comeback, including a few talkies. This was one of his last films, released the same year as his death, 1933. Ramblin' Round Radio Row 4 — Radio stars of the day (1932) including Baby Rose Marie, who would grow up to be one of America's great comediennes. Baby Rose Marie: The Child Wonder — And here she is, three years before Ramblin' Round Radio Row 4 in her own short. Lambchops — This is from 1929 and it's George Burns and Gracie Allen doing their most famous vaudeville routine. Gracie does all the heavy lifting. I'm going to have to DVR a few of these. And I heartily recommend Lambchops. I saw it a year or so ago. It's hilarious.
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