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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 17, 2017 18:06:01 GMT -5
I also watched the 1912 version of Cleopatra. This is not the Theda Bara version. That is one of the great lost films of the silent era. No, the 1912 Cleopatra is an 85-minute feature film made in the U.S. and starring Helen Gardner. It's really hard to judge a 1912 feature film made in America. I've seen a few Italian movies from this period, but I don't think I've ever seen an American feature film from quite this far back. (Although I have seen Judith of Bethuliah, from 1914, and I found that to be a delightful romp, one of the wackiest bible movies I've ever seen.) I kind of liked Helen Gardner's weird little Cleopatra movie. It was very dream-like, but also very stagey, with weird sets and acting styles that were out-of-date just 4 years later. But I imagine it was very impressive to audiences in 1912. Think about it. It was a long time ago. It was so far back that presidents still had facial hair! (In this case, William Howard Taft.) I guess I'll recommend it for any film fans that get a kick out of American cinema before 1920.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 17, 2017 18:18:00 GMT -5
On Sunday, TCM showed And the Ship Sails On (1983), one of the few Fellini films I haven't seen, and I DVRed it! I'm really looking forward to it and I'm hoping to watch it tonight.
I don't know too much about it. I assume there's a ship involved in some way. I think I read that it takes place in 1915.
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Post by Pharozonk on Jan 18, 2017 17:36:16 GMT -5
Black Sunday (1960)This is my first Mario Bava, though I had already seen several of his son's films before. Compared to Lamberto, Mario's work is a lot more moody and stylized, which fits into that transition period of horror in the 60's. There's a nice mix of the moody expressionism that marked the Universal monster flicks as well as the more visceral gore that the Italian horror scene came to be known for under the likes of Fulci and Argento. The story isn't anything special, but it's atmosphere makes it a very enjoyable watch.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 18, 2017 18:25:47 GMT -5
Black Sunday (1960)This is my first Mario Bava, though I had already seen several of his son's films before. Compared to Lamberto, Mario's work is a lot more moody and stylized, which fits into that transition period of horror in the 60's. There's a nice mix of the moody expressionism that marked the Universal monster flicks as well as the more visceral gore that the Italian horror scene came to be known for under the likes of Fulci and Argento. The story isn't anything special, but it's atmosphere makes it a very enjoyable watch. It's been a while since I saw this but I do remember liking it and I've been wanting to see it again for years! Barbara Steele is just downright AWESOME! I saw her recently in Fellini's 8 1/2.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 19, 2017 15:05:19 GMT -5
I watched Fellini's And the Ship Sails On (1983) a few days ago.
I've seen an awful lot of Fellini's films since I first saw Satyricon about 1982 or so. He's one of my favorite filmmakers. Not just the obvious Fellini films like La strada or La dolce vita. I also like the more obscure films, such as The Clowns or Orchestra Rehearsal. And I think Variety Lights is just about the best directorial debut I've ever seen.
Whenever I see a chance to watch a Fellini film I've not seen, I usually jump at it. So I was glad to see that TCM had scheduled And the Ship Sails On.
It's certainly not one of his better films, but I enjoyed it. Fellini completists have nothing to worry about. I don't think I'd recommend it for the general film fan, unless they are big opera fans.
It's 1914 and the luxury ocean liner is leaving an Italian port. A great opera singer, one of the greatest sopranos of all time, has died and her last wish was that her ashes would be dumped in the sea near the island where she was born. And a bunch of opera singers and managers and other entertainers are on the ship to see her on her way.
English actor Freddie Jones plays a journalist who is reporting on the voyage. He frequently breaks the fourth wall to speak to the audience about what is going on. (I thought it was very considerate of Fellini to include this character.) Hijinks ensue.
About two-thirds of the way through the film, the First World War breaks out. A bunch of Serbian refugees are floating around in makeshift boats and the captain of the ocean liner picks them up. They are threatened by an very weird-looking Austrian war ship.
And there's also a rhino on the liner who is very sick. Everyone is very worried about the rhino.
It's a very odd film, but not particularly odd for Fellini.
(I was just looking at Fellini's filmography on IMDB. Aside from a few odds and ends (mostly TV projects), the only two films directed by Fellini that I haven't seen are Casanova (with Donald Sutherland) and The Voice of the Moon (with Roberto Benigni). I've noticed that Casanova is available on YouTube, but I've never quite worked up the courage to watch it on a computer screen. I don't know how hard it is to find The Voice of the Moon.)
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Post by berkley on Jan 19, 2017 21:09:49 GMT -5
I grew up watching the Carry On films on tv as a youngster, as I think was probably true of most people of my generation who grew up in an English-speaking Commonwealth country. We loved watching them back them and I remember them very fondly. Not sure if I saw Carry On Cleo or not, though. I know Carry On Up the Khyber was the first one I saw - and looking at the list on wiki I think it must have been fairly recent at the time. The other one I saw was Carry On Constable, which I remember as being kind of funny at first, but less so as it went on. Shirley Eaton was in it! She's the girl that got covered in gold in Goldfinger. Is Amanda Barrie a regular in the series? That would be an incentive to seek out more Carry On movies. For sure. According to wiki she only did two, the other one being Carry On Cabby.
I'd like to watch all of them in order, one of these days. Well, maybe not every single one, but a good sampling.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2017 22:25:47 GMT -5
I have seen some Carry On Films and they featured Valerie Leon and she one of my favorite British Actresses that appeared in two Bond Films - One Official and the other one Unofficial - Spy Who Loved Me as the Receptionist at a Hotel Desk and a supporting role in Never Say Never Again as a Lady in Bahamas with Sean Connery. Carry on Girls as Patricia Potter a film in 1973 Carry on Christmas: Carry on Stuffing (TV Movie) 1972 Carry On Matron a film in 1972 Carry On Again Doctor a film in 1970 Carry on Camping a film in 1969 One of my favorite of 5 is her appearance in Carry On Again Doctor in 1970 of which she had a short, but significant role. I watched all of these five films about 4 years ago with a friend of mine in Vancouver B.C. and these are the only Carry On films that I seen and they all have Valerie Leon in them. She is still alive at the age of 73. Here's a recent photo of her taken not to long ago. She was in one of the Pink Panther films and among other things as well and she also known to be the British Answer to the sexy Hi Karate After Shave Commercials in the early 70's.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 21, 2017 16:19:39 GMT -5
The only movie I watched in the last few days was the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street (2010).
I thought it was pretty good. Rooney Mara is in it. Always a plus. And Freddy Krueger is played by the guy who played Rorschach in Watchmen. So also a plus.
I've never seen the original. I saw the remake at the library and picked it up thinking it was the original. When I realized my mistake, I watched it anyway because my niece likes horror movies (but not if they were made before 1990!) and doesn't care if they're kind of dumb.
Yes, it does seem like I should have seen the original a long time ago.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2017 17:39:35 GMT -5
Saw "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" for the 2nd time this year and it's was on TCM earlier today and I a ball watching it again. Made in 1963.
I've seen this movie about 15-20 times in my life and never, ever gotten tired of watching it.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 23, 2017 15:45:06 GMT -5
Saw "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" for the 2nd time this year and it's was on TCM earlier today and I a ball watching it again. Made in 1963. I've seen this movie about 15-20 times in my life and never, ever gotten tired of watching it. I haven't seen it THAT many times, but I've seen it more than once. My favorite scene is Dick Shawn driving to the rescue: "I'm coming to save you, Mama!" I also love every scene with Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hackett and especially Jonathon Winters. That bit where he destroys the gas station (I think it's a gas station; I haven't seen it for quite a while) is HILARIOUS!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 23, 2017 15:58:20 GMT -5
Our cable is out for a few weeks (it's a long, sad story) but I wanted to post a Hoosier X Heads-Up anyway for some interesting rare films showing on TCM at the end of January. I have the dats but I don't have the times.
Tuesday, January 24, TCM is showing "Women in prison" films, including Ladies They Talk About, an early 1930s film with Barbara Stanwyck and cute-as-a-button Lillian Roth in the big house. I saw it once a while back, and I love it!
Even more obscure is Condemned Women from a little later in the 1930s, starring Sally Eilers and Anne Shirley. I love this one too! They don't miss a single "women in prison" cliché, but this movie is so far back I'm not sure they were clichés yet.
And on January 30, TCM is showing Hollywood Party, which I saw a long time ago and I remember it very well. Jimmy Durante has just made a Tarzan parody called Schnozzan (with Lupe Velez as Jane!) and he's having a party to celebrate and to promote the film. Who shows up? Who doesn't show up! You get Laurel and Hardy! The Three Stooges! There's even a color section with a cartoon. Its so weird!
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jan 23, 2017 16:51:10 GMT -5
Black Sunday (1960)This is my first Mario Bava, though I had already seen several of his son's films before. Compared to Lamberto, Mario's work is a lot more moody and stylized, which fits into that transition period of horror in the 60's. There's a nice mix of the moody expressionism that marked the Universal monster flicks as well as the more visceral gore that the Italian horror scene came to be known for under the likes of Fulci and Argento. The story isn't anything special, but it's atmosphere makes it a very enjoyable watch. I've seen very little Bava, but if all his work is comparable to his and Rossi's stellar Odyssey, I want to see it all. Homer's work will never be presented that well again.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 23, 2017 17:02:06 GMT -5
I haven't seen any classic movies for a few days but I did see a couple of fairly recent movies.
Almost everyone else in the house saw Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016) at the theater but I did not. It's now on DVD and I guess there was a consensus that it was good movie to see again, so we had a rare family viewing night on Saturday. I thought it was enjoyable. Eva Green is really good in it, very entertaining. It helps a lot that it's a pretty good movie with a decent supporting cast, including Terence Stamp. I've come to love Eva Green! She seems to know what her strengths are. Not only is she beautiful, she also adds a bit of highly entertaining camp to some of the more out-of-the-mainstream projects she ends up in, and I find myself liking movies that I heard were bad just because Eva Green was in them. (Specifically, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and 300: The Rise of Empire.)
The other movie I saw was La grande bellezza (2013), an Italian movie that I heard about because its on the "1001 Movies You Must See before You Die" list. It's about this very cynical Italian journalist, going to parties, being witty, drinking and saying mean things about the people in his social set. Numerous weird vignettes of his experiences. I was never really bored with it, and some of the vignettes are very interesting. I just kept getting interrupted! So I feel like I might have missed something because it got to the end and I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to take away from it. Did you ever go to the movies and use the bathroom in the middle of a foreign film and when you came back, you had no idea what was going on? I felt like that. Maybe I'll get it the second time I see it like I did with 8 1/2 or Wild Strawberries.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jan 23, 2017 19:46:29 GMT -5
I've continued to watch those classic films each day but just haven't posted about it. But a few have to be commented upon for various reasons
The Moonshine War (1970) Patrick McGoohan, Richard Widmark, Alan Alda, Wil Geeer, Bo Hopkins, Richard Schuck
Elmore Leonard screenplay. McGoohan is a federal agent in 1931 aiming to confiscate Alan Alda's stash and not for government purposes
Much better than it had a right to be, very interesting cast-especially with them all affecting Southern accents
One Eyed Jacks (1961) Marlon Brando, Karl Malden
The only film Brando every directed. A beautifully photographed Western with well defined characters. The films long at 140 minutes but never falters. Some of the scenes and landscapes are breathtaking. I thoroughly enjoyed it
Medium Cool (1969) Robert Foster, Verna Bloom
Interesting quandary on the morality of TV reporters doing their jobs while remaining detached fro the events they are filming. What is really mesmerizing is that this film was shot in Chicago in 1968 during the Democratic Convention riots. This real life footage was interwoven with the film as it went on, the movie characters interspersed with the demonstrators and police and National Guard. The actual rioting was captured on film
A Man Betrayed (1941) John Wayne
Strange to see Wayne in a film that's not in the Western or War genres. Here he plays a small town lawyer in the big city investigating the murder of his pal and uncovering political corruption was behind it all. However the film is played with light comedy. it's weird, Wayne goes from tough talking, two-fisted crime smasher to an aw schucks yokel at the flick of a switch.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 23, 2017 20:04:39 GMT -5
I saw One-Eyed Jacks last year. It's great. It's NOT your regular Western, but it sure sounds like one if you just describe the plot.
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