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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 31, 2017 11:26:47 GMT -5
Babes in Arms (1939) - It's not for everyone, but if you love goofy 1930s Hollywood movies with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, this is a pretty good one. Run Lola Run (1998) - I can't believe I'd never seen this. Great movie! Not necessarily my favorite among these films, but it's the one I'd be most likely to recommend to the general movie buff. I've seen these 2. Babes In Arms I watched about 3 months ago and got me to watch some other films pairing those two, along with their solo performances. I saw Run Lola Run when it first became available on VHS and was blown away by it. It's time for me to revisit it.
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Post by Pharozonk on Mar 31, 2017 11:50:36 GMT -5
Son of Frankenstein (1939)
It's about 15 minutes too long, but it's a lot better than it has any right to be. Basil Rathbone is great as Wolf Frankenstein and I love a lot of the subtle humor sprinkled throughout the film.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 31, 2017 16:16:56 GMT -5
Two films recently watched that need to be spotlighted Roxy Hart (1942) Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery, Nigel Bruce, Phil Silvers, William Frawley, George Chandler I absolutely enjoyed the musical Chicago (2002) with Renee' Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere. Here is the original talkie version of the famous stage play. Ginger Rogers plays the gum-chewing murder suspect publicity hound and she's fantastic in this role. It's a pure comedy, no song and dance. And it's the type of comedy you seldom see from this time period. Completely irreverent and satirical, taking shots at the judicial system and newspapers. As ribald and daring as can be with the Hayes Office in complete control. It zooms along at 75 minutes and leave you wanting more Saratoga Trunk (1945) Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Flora Robson Ingrid Bergman has never been more beautiful and lively as this film. She returns to her New Orleans family home to avenge the wrongs done to her deceased family. She assumes the identity of a French countess with an entourage of a scary looking Creole servant (Robson) and a dwarf. She also plans to find a rich and powerful husband, perhaps Texas gambler Gary Cooper would fit the bill. Plenty of humor throughout the movie but it's so dominated by Bergman's presence. A fantastic train collision, great directing from Sam Wood, outstanding location scenes in New Orleans and the hotels of Saratoga Springs, the aw shucks personality of Gary Cooper-but it's Bergman which you won't forget. Casablanca, Notorious, Spellbound and many others-all great films. But this is Bergman's best role. See it if you can and tell me I'm wrong
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 2, 2017 12:48:50 GMT -5
Ish, I saw Roxie Hart some years ago and thought it a very good movie showcasing Ginger's not inconsiderable talents as an actress even after you pluck her out of musical comedies.
A few years later, I read "The Girls of Murder City," a great book that tells the true story of the real-life women that inspired dramatic works like "Chicago" and "Roxie Hart." The female reporter in Chicago who wrote most of the important articles about these women eventually made her way to New York and wrote the play "Chicago." It was made into a movie as early as the late silent era! Around 1927 or 1928. I've never seen it. I want to see it! You can buy it on DVD for $50 if you want to see it that bad. (Maybe it's time for another Internet search to see if it's available online for a much more reasonable fee.)
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 2, 2017 13:05:22 GMT -5
When I said I would probably be making a few comments about Abel Gance's four-hour-long silent film Napoleon, I didn't mean that I would say that much about the movie itself. It's a great movie, covering Napoleon's life from an epic snowball fight when he was in military school to the beginning of the invasion of Italy in 1796. He was 28 years old, I think, and hadn't yet done anything that Americans have ever heard of, unless they are enthusiasts for 18th-century French history. It was supposed to be the first in a series of epic films about this beloved Corsican rascal. No, I was going to talk about my own epic quest to see Napoleon since I first heard of it all those many years ago. I've been wanting to see Abel Gance's Napoleon for almost 30 years. Long before I ever heard of the 1001 list (long before it ever existed, I think) I was working on another movie list. I had picked up a book called The 100 Greatest Movies (or something like that) and I decided to try to see all of them. The authors had polled 20 or 30 international film critics and used a point system to figure out which films to include and how to rank them. There were quite a few I had already seen ( Casablanca, Singin' in the Rain, Wizard of Oz ... I think I had already seen Fanny and Alexander), films I'd heard of but not yet seen (some Fellini, some Bergman, Monsieur Verdoux) and a bunch of films I'd never heard of ( Hiroshima Mon Amour, Heimat, several Bunuel films). Little by little, I saw them and marked them off the list. I bought the book about 1990, to give you an idea how long I've been working on this list. (And I even flubbed my chance to see Napoleon in the 1990s when it was on A&E. It was scheduled at 1 am in the morning in a six-hour time slot. (I'm guessing the reason I didn't tape it was because I didn't want to deal with all those A&E commercials.) I watched the beginning and saw the whole snowball fight. Then I went to bed. I woke up a few hours later and watched the last hour or so. I remember thinking "Wow! This looks like a great movie. I think I made a big mistake not taping it. Oh well, I'll see it eventually." And I did. Twenty years later.) I got Netflix in 2006, and that helped a lot with the list! I think the first film from the list that I saw through Netflix was Tokyo Story, such a great film! So I eventually got it down to four films that you can't get from Netflix. I think that was about 2012. They were: Napoleon (1927), The World of Apu, The Life of O-Haru, and Voyage to Italy (with Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders). But one by one, I got those as well. O-Haru eventually showed up on Netflix. Voyage to Italy was on Cinemoi. I found The World of Apu on YouTube. And there it sat for a few years with Abel Gance's Napoleon as the only movie from that list I hadn't seen. But now I've seen it and completed that particular list of 100 movies! YAY! I don't know the name of the Internet site I used because it's from Russia and they use the Cyrillic alphabet. But they were hosting the four-hour version with English inter-titles. A Russian guy would read the Russian translation of every English caption. And the print was a little muddy at times. But despite all that, it was well worth the trouble! What an amazing accomplishment for Gance. I would love to see it on a big screen someday, preferably in Paris or Toulon or Rochefort. I think it's kind of amusing that the actress playing Josephine looks like Thelma Todd. And the guy playing DeLisle (who wrote "Le Marseillaise") looks like Dwight Frye.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 2, 2017 13:15:59 GMT -5
And yesterday morning, I watched Andy Warhol's Vinyl (1965), a very loose adaptation of "A Clockwork Orange."
It's on the "1001 Films You Must See Before You Die" list. Everybody on the 1001Plus Web site (where I go to comment on these films when I see them) hates it! (Which is why it has 17 comments whereas a beloved movie like The Big Lebowski has zero comments.)
I found it very amusing. It's only 70 minutes long. And it's one of Edie Sedgwick's first movies. She has no audible dialogue. She sits on a trunk off to the side and smokes a cigarette most of the time. She's so high! She stares into space and drinks some coffee. She hands the main guy a magazine pretty much at random. Hand dancing! Then she's on the nod for a while.
It's not for everyone.
Here's the YouTube link if you think you can handle it.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Apr 2, 2017 21:10:22 GMT -5
Watched these within the last few days
Recently released on DVD:
Doctor Strange-Pretty good and can't quibble on the tweaks they made to the origin story. Benedict Cumberbatch was a fine choice as the lead and some of the special effects scenes had that magic Ditko feel
Nocturnal Animals-Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams. A story within a story. Amy Adams had abandoned her first husband, a struggling writer, years ago. Many years later, he sends her the completed draft of his first novel. A mesmerizing story of a violent kidnapping and revenge. Highly recommended film
Manchester By The Sea-Casey Affleck A very somber movie about the damage done to people's psyche when family members die. If you had loved one who recently passed away it could be hard to watch
Classics:
Topper (1937) Cary Grant, Constance Bennett, Roland Young- Roland Young is the banker named Topper and the deceased fun-loving couple (Grant and Bennett),now turned ghosts, hang around and try to loosen him up from his staid ways. The DVD skips the 2nd film in the series, Topper Takes A Trip, but it is paired with the 3rd, Topper Returns (1941) with Roland Young, Joan Blondell and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Here the ghost of Joan Blondell needs Topper's help in solving her murder. Topper continued for 2 years as an early 1950's TV situation comedy, this time with Leo G. Carroll as Topper and the haunting pair of Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling. There were even 2 different TV movies in the 1970's.
The Thrill Of It All (1963) Doris Day, James Garner-Housewife Day becomes an overnight TV commercial pitch-woman sensation by hubby Garner wants a stay-at-home wife. Typical Hollywood man's world chauvinism from the "good" old days. However, the script is written by Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart and there are genuine funny segments
By the way-unknowingly I watched this on Doris Day's 95th Birthday. Yes-She is still alive. See what clean living can do for you?
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Post by berkley on Apr 3, 2017 0:03:20 GMT -5
Watched these within the last few days Recently released on DVD: Nocturnal Animals-Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams. A story within a story. Amy Adams had abandoned her first husband, a struggling writer, years ago. Many years later, he sends her the completed draft of his first novel. A mesmerizing story of a violent kidnapping and revenge. Highly recommended film I thought Michael Shannon was particularly impressive in his under-stated performance as the tough cop. I had never heard of the actor before but he's one of the best I've seen in that kind of role, certainly over the last few years.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Apr 3, 2017 0:09:09 GMT -5
Watched these within the last few days Recently released on DVD: Nocturnal Animals-Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams. A story within a story. Amy Adams had abandoned her first husband, a struggling writer, years ago. Many years later, he sends her the completed draft of his first novel. A mesmerizing story of a violent kidnapping and revenge. Highly recommended film I thought Michael Shannon was particularly impressive in his under-stated performance as the tough cop. I had never heard of the actor before but he's one of the best I've seen in that kind of role, certainly over the last few years. He played General Zod in Man Of Steel. But I really liked him as Elvis Presley in the recent quirky movie Elvis & Nixon
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 3, 2017 2:17:56 GMT -5
Topper is very good but I love Topper Returns! Joan Blondell rocks!
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 3, 2017 19:32:17 GMT -5
Today I watched Stand-In (1937), a movie about making movies where efficiency expert Leslie Howard takes control of a failing movie studio on behalf of a New York bank. Joan Blondell is a lowly stand-in for a big star. She meets the efficiency expert and helps him understand how Hollywood works. Humphrey Bogart is a move producer.
I saw the end of it more than twenty years ago and I've been wanting to see it ever since. And now it's showed up on YouTube!
I like it a lot but that may just be more based on my love of 1930s Warners Brothers films, Hollywood's fascination with itself, Joan Blondell in general and Bogart's crazy 1930s career. This movie checks off a lot of boxes of things I like.
Also, the movie-within-the-movie is hilarious.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Apr 3, 2017 19:49:08 GMT -5
Today I watched Stand-In (1937), a movie about making movies where efficiency expert Leslie Howard takes control of a failing movie studio on behalf of a New York bank. Joan Blondell is a lowly stand-in for a big star. She meets the efficiency expert and helps him understand how Hollywood works. Humphrey Bogart is a move producer. I saw the end of it more than twenty years ago and I've been wanting to see it ever since. And now it's showed up on YouTube! I like it a lot but that may just be more based on my love of 1930s Warners Brothers films, Hollywood's fascination with itself, Joan Blondell in general and Bogart's crazy 1930s career. This movie checks off a lot of boxes of things I like. Also, the movie-within-the-movie is hilarious. Never heard of this till now. I see it's currently on YouTube. Thanks
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 4, 2017 8:24:17 GMT -5
Today I watched Stand-In (1937), a movie about making movies where efficiency expert Leslie Howard takes control of a failing movie studio on behalf of a New York bank. Joan Blondell is a lowly stand-in for a big star. She meets the efficiency expert and helps him understand how Hollywood works. Humphrey Bogart is a move producer. I saw the end of it more than twenty years ago and I've been wanting to see it ever since. And now it's showed up on YouTube! I like it a lot but that may just be more based on my love of 1930s Warners Brothers films, Hollywood's fascination with itself, Joan Blondell in general and Bogart's crazy 1930s career. This movie checks off a lot of boxes of things I like. Also, the movie-within-the-movie is hilarious. Never heard of this till now. I see it's currently on YouTube. Thanks It gets a lot of points for being different from any other movie about movies I've ever seen. (And lots of points for Joan Blondell and Humphrey Bogart.) Another very interesting movie about movies from the same time period is Boy Meets Girl with Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien as screenwriters. A hilariously bad movie-within-the-movie and some very funny trailers for fake movies. Also, a brief early role for Ronald Reagan!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Apr 6, 2017 1:32:08 GMT -5
Movies for my week
Just finished watching the new release Fences with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. Another bravura performance from Denzel in a powerful story of a flawed man raising his family. I hope Denzel continues to find material such as this that spotlights his acting skills rather than the routine action-hero roles he's been playing too many times these last several years
Lately I've been catching up on Judy Garland movies that I've never seen before. Picked up 2 of them today
Summer Stock (1950) Judy Garland, Gene Kelly,Gloria De Haven, Phil Silvers, Marjorie Main-Her final MGM musical A Star Is Born (1954) Judy Garland, James Mason, Jack Carson-Judy took 4 years off before returning for this. I've seen the other versions (1937, 1976) so this completes the trifecta. The DVD also restores all the footage cut after the premiere The Silent Partner (1978) Elliot Gould, Christopher Plummer,Susannah York-A bank heist film that I quite enjoyed decades ago and looking forward to revisit Pillow To Post (1945) Ida Lupino, Sidney Greenstreet, Louis Armstrong-Lupino's only romantic comedy Moon Over Miami (1941) Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Robert Cummings Show Them No Mercy (1935) Rochelle Hudson, Caesar Romero-A tale of kidnapping and a great movie title Roughshod (1948) Robert Sterling, John Ireland, Gloria Graham-Supposedly a Western film-noir and a lurid box cove
Also the documentary Schlock!-The Secret History Of American Movies dwelling on exploitation flicks with contributors such as Roger Corman, Vampira, Forest J. Ackerman, Doris Wishman and more
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 6, 2017 9:45:12 GMT -5
I'm reading a book about Jackie Robinson, and TCM conveniently scheduled The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), so I DVRed it last week and watched it last night.
In the movie, young Jackie gets a baseball mitt from the nice white people in Pasadena.
In the book, Jackie encounters quite a few problems with Pasadena's racists during his childhood.
The movie doesn't seem to be aware that Jackie was court-martialed and almost kicked out of the army during World War II because he argued with a bus driver about where he could sit on the bus. It was a bus at a military installation (Fort Hood in Texas) and Jackie had seen the order that public transportation on military installations would not be segregated. So the military authorities at Fort Hood (named after a traitor Confederate officer) thought it was a good use of manpower to harass Lieutenant Robinson and tell a bunch of inconsistent lies about his conduct after he was arrested. Fortunately, there were enough witnesses to contradict all the racists trying to get Jackie kicked out of the military. The racists were probably all upset that there were so many white people who would pick the TRUTH over the childish lies of a bunch of racist jerks.
The movie does acknowledge that Robinson had to deal with racists when the Montreal farm team and the Dodgers would play in the South. So there's that.
Jackie Robinson plays himself, Louise Beavers is his mother, Ruby Dee is his wife and Minor Watson is Branch Rickey.
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