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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 17:25:35 GMT -5
I've heard about Magnificent Obsession (1954) for years, and I always kinda wanted to see it, but the summary didn't sound like my kind of movie. So I resisted it for a very long time. Years. Decades. I really shouldn't have worried. I noticed it on the TCM schedule recently and DVRed it and finally watched it last night, and I was fascinated. Extremely well-made and very entertaining, even if you don't normally like this kind of thing. We should expect no less from Jane Wyman and Agnes Moorehead. But Rock Hudson is also quite a revelation, and you can see why this movie made him a star. And also Otto Kruger. He's famous in certain circles as the psychiatrist hero in Dracula's Daughter (1936) in which his girlfriend looks like Mia Farrow, and also for Murder My Sweet (1944) with Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Mike Mazurki, and Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe. He's great in these old genre films, but he's also very convincing in Magnificent Obsession as the guy who helps Rock Hudson get through a rough patch in his life where he's accidently killing doctors and blinding widows rather indiscriminately. I wont deny that it's probably an easy film to make fun of for modern audiences. But I think that part of the charm, and it's still a very powerful movie that can be appreciated on its own merits and by our own time period. All the taunting and ribbing is just something that adds to the experience. I seen this movie too and I admit it is a very moving, powerful, and very touching movie as well. I like Moorehead's performance and this movie made Hudson a star of it's very own. Thanks for sharing it with us ...
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Post by codystarbuck on May 11, 2017 21:57:16 GMT -5
Just finished watching The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, my favorite of the Harryhausen ones. John Phillip Law, who was usually good looking, but wooden, is actually pretty good. You also get Caroline Munro displaying her talents, I mean talent, and Tom Baker, pre-Doctor Who as the evil wizard. In fact, this movie got Baker noticed for the role of Doctor Who. Next up is Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. patrick Wayne isn't exactly exciting, though he is no worse than Kerwin Mathews, in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. This one has Jane Seymour and another Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton. The blond is Taryn Power, daughter of screen icon Tyrone Power. The villainess, creating her minotaur. Love, love these films (and 7th Voyage, and Jason & the Argonauts), ever since I was a kid. Before Star Wars and Indiana Jones, these were the pinnacle of adventure movies.
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2017 22:58:30 GMT -5
I just watched Rodan and the Black Scorpion tonight on TCM as the part of their Creatures Features and sad to say this - I just watch Rodan for the last time and it's kind of lost it's charm. And, for the Black Scorpion, it was a better movie and pretty suspenseful and scary too. But, it's also lost it's charm as well. I've really felt that these two movies were kind of outdated and the Black Scorpion was too dark and lacks definition meaning it's always attacked at night and you don't really get to see it on the screen even you have a 48 inch TV of which I have. The Black Scorpion is a movie that's meant to be showed on the big screen at you local theatre and that's how this movie is meant to be displayed at.
I'm going to take a little nap now and decided to watch the Giant Claw tonight at 1:30 in the morning and be done with Creatures Features on TCM. I haven't seen it in more than 25 years and looking forward to it.
UPDATE: I felt the Giant Claw is one of the silliest movie around and I wished that I haven't stay up to watch it.
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Post by Rob Allen on May 12, 2017 0:22:25 GMT -5
Is Golden Voyage of Sinbad the one that Marvel Comics adapted in two issues with art by George Tuska?
I could look it up but I'm about to go to sleep.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 12, 2017 9:33:12 GMT -5
Is Golden Voyage of Sinbad the one that Marvel Comics adapted in two issues with art by George Tuska? I could look it up but I'm about to go to sleep. Yep.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 13, 2017 21:09:15 GMT -5
Finally watched a classic that's eluded me all these years Of Mice And Men (1939) Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr Seen one or two more recent versions. This one captured the story of Lenny and George perfectly. Another thing I came to realize is how few Burgess Meredith pictures I've seen when he was younger. This was nominated for Best Picture in one of Hollywood's greatest years ever. To tend rabbits on a farm and live off the fat of the land-That still sounds nice
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Post by codystarbuck on May 14, 2017 10:26:12 GMT -5
Finally watched a classic that's eluded me all these years Of Mice And Men (1939) Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr Seen one or two more recent versions. This one captured the story of Lenny and George perfectly. Another thing I came to realize is how few Burgess Meredith pictures I've seen when he was younger. This was nominated for Best Picture in one of Hollywood's greatest years ever. To tend rabbits on a farm and live off the fat of the land-That still sounds nice Of course, this version led to the Looney Tunes bit of a character who talked like Chaney, asking "Which Way did he go, George?"
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Post by Hoosier X on May 15, 2017 1:31:29 GMT -5
Finally watched a classic that's eluded me all these years Of Mice And Men (1939) Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr Seen one or two more recent versions. This one captured the story of Lenny and George perfectly. Another thing I came to realize is how few Burgess Meredith pictures I've seen when he was younger. This was nominated for Best Picture in one of Hollywood's greatest years ever. To tend rabbits on a farm and live off the fat of the land-That still sounds nice I saw this for the first time two or three years ago, and I was kinda blown way by how great it is. Not just for Meredith and Chaney, but also for Bob Steele and Betty Field. That dinner scene where Bob Steele (as Curly) is dishing out 2/3 of an apple pie into a bowl and then pouring milk on it and then eating like a pig, and the way Betty Field is looking at him with such disgust ... that's a great scene! She should get more recognition, especially for this movie. (And YEAH! Bob Steele is AWESOME! He's so damn great in The Big Sleep I can hardly stand it.)
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 15, 2017 1:58:48 GMT -5
Finally watched a classic that's eluded me all these years Of Mice And Men (1939) Burgess Meredith, Lon Chaney Jr Seen one or two more recent versions. This one captured the story of Lenny and George perfectly. Another thing I came to realize is how few Burgess Meredith pictures I've seen when he was younger. This was nominated for Best Picture in one of Hollywood's greatest years ever. To tend rabbits on a farm and live off the fat of the land-That still sounds nice I saw this for the first time two or three years ago, and I was kinda blown way by how great it is. Not just for Meredith and Chaney, but also for Bob Steele and Betty Field. That dinner scene where Bob Steele (as Curly) is dishing out 2/3 of an apple pie into a bowl and then pouring milk on it and then eating like a pig, and the way Betty Field is looking at him with such disgust ... that's a great scene! She should get more recognition, especially for this movie. (And YEAH! Bob Steele is AWESOME! He's so damn great in The Big Sleep I can hardly stand it.) Absolutely. That was a hilarious scene with them poring milk on their pie in a soup bowl and chopping it up with their fork continuously between mouthfuls. OK, while I'm here, my next batch of films for this week. Cinema Obscura-at least some of them The Tiger Makes Out (1967) Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson-a hit or miss comedy with Eli Wallach as a middle age loser, a dead end job, no love in his life and living in a storage room. So he kidnaps the first woman he sees so he can act the tough guy. Don't blink, you'll get to see Dustin Hoffman deliver a few lines in his first feature film role Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing-It's 1922 NYC and Julie and Mary are living in a single women's only hotel which is a front for a white slavery ring run by the chinese. Mary Tyler Moore looks terrific, right after her Dick Van Dyke role, but the movie goes from somewhat entertaining to downright stupid at the end Teenage Doll (1957) Roger Corman directs this teenage thrill kill beat girl biker chick epic Trail Street (1947) Randolph Scott, Robert Ryan, Gabby Hayes- Randolph Scott plays Bat Masterson Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) Ginger Rogers, George Murphy, Burgess Meredith-I mentioned before not having seen much of Burgess when he was younger. So here's a comedy to remedy that Torrid Zone (1940) James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat O'Brien- Action-comedy in an Latin American banana republic. Calling DE Sinclair Texas (1941) William Holden, Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor-A rootin' tootin' western Tunes Of Glory (1960) Alec Guiness, John Mills-It's a Criterion so what the hey Tea And Sympathy (1956) Deborah Kerr, John Kerr- OK let's see how Hollywood handles a play about homosexuality in 1956 The Two Jakes (1990) Jack Nicholson, Harvey Keitel, Eli Wallach- the sequel to Chinatown. Don't recall if I've seen this before
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Post by Hoosier X on May 15, 2017 8:26:51 GMT -5
You can also see young Burgess Meredith in Idiot's Delight, a rather strange concoction from late in Norma Shearer's career. Shearer is doing a bit of a Greta Garbo parody. And Clark Gable performs "Puttin' on the Ritz" in a hotel lobby with a group of showgirls.
I love it! Lots of points for being weird.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 15, 2017 21:57:44 GMT -5
Tunes of Glory is excellent, with Alec Guinness in a less-than-sympathetic role. Gordon Jackson is also excellent.
Two Jakes is highly under-rated. Nicholson really has a flair for noir crime drama.
Getting ready to re-watch Battle Beyond the Stars. For a cheap Roger Corman Star Wars rip-off, it's a hell of a lot better than it has a right to be! I'd rate it above the Star Wars prequels, myself. Definitely the best of the quickie knockoffs that came out in the wake of Star Wars. Do yourself a favor, though; never bother with The Shape of Things to Come. It isn't HG Wells, it isn't Star Wars and it doesn't have a single redeeming feature. It isn't even "So bad it's good." That thing makes Star Crash and Message from Space look like 2001, A Space Odyssey.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 15, 2017 22:34:53 GMT -5
You can also see young Burgess Meredith in Idiot's Delight, a rather strange concoction from late in Norma Shearer's career. Shearer is doing a bit of a Greta Garbo parody. And Clark Gable performs "Puttin' on the Ritz" in a hotel lobby with a group of showgirls. I love it! Lots of points for being weird. Yes, I had seen Idiot's Delight many years back but now all I remember of it was that Gable song-and-dance routine for "Puttin' on the Ritz". I also had seen Burgess Meredith in 1940's Castle On The Hudson, a prison film with James Garfield. I watched Tom, Dick and Harry last night and very much enjoyed it. It's a comedy that is much superior to the cornball humor of it's time Ginger Rogers (and she's a real delight in this film) is a telephone operator who finally accepts a marriage proposal from her long-time boyfriend (George Murphy), a man consumed with work and getting a promotion. Then she suddenly meets Burgess Meredith and is captivated by his oddball theories of life and accept his proposal as well. But suddenly the man of her dreams arrives, millionaire Alan Marshall who sweeps her off her feet and asks her to be his wife. The film is genuinely funny and has all sorts of fantasy segments. A great one is Ginger's dream of marrying all three together and what it would be like when time to go to bed Burgess Meredith pretty much left movies for TV by 1950. Many of the films done beforehand by him are unknown to me. Two I would like to see are The Story Of G.I.Joe and an intriguing one called Magnificent Doll. Ginger Rogers plays a young Dolly Payne who must choose marrying either Aaron Burr (David Niven) or James Madison (Burgess Meredith)
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Post by Hoosier X on May 16, 2017 2:15:00 GMT -5
Magnificent Doll sounds amazing!
Have you ever seen That Gorgeous Hussy with Joan Crawford? I saw parts of it and for years I've been wishing I'd seen the whole thing. Lionel Barrymore as Andrew Jackson! Sidney Toler as Daniel Webster!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 16, 2017 4:13:42 GMT -5
Magnificent Doll sounds amazing! Have you ever seen That Gorgeous Hussy with Joan Crawford? I saw parts of it and for years I've been wishing I'd seen the whole thing. Lionel Barrymore as Andrew Jackson! Sidney Toler as Daniel Webster! I looked up The Gorgeous Hussy and found that it was available at the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library which I visit every week. Yes it's available-in VHS only They have about 200 VHS tapes available to rent, really old movie titles that most seem not available yet on DVD. I have no VCR any longer but it's feels like a time travel trip to see a wall of VHS tapes
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Post by Hoosier X on May 16, 2017 10:08:17 GMT -5
I came across another Bogart movie I'd never seen before! And it's great! The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) reminds me a little of the start of a Golden Age Batman plot. Edward G. Robinson is Dr. Clitterhouse, a Park Avenue physician with a theory on crime and it effect on criminals, and he's working on a very important book on criminology. And the best way to get the data, do the research and test the theory in the field is ... become the leader of a gang of criminals! Claire Trevor is a savvy fence of stolen goods who works closely with the gang. (There are several scenes between Robinson and Trevor that look a little bit like flashback scenes for the characters they play in Key Largo.) Bogart is one of the hoods in the gang ... and he has his own ideas about who should be in charge ... The gang includes some very familiar faces including some actors whose names I don't know, but also Allen Jenkins and Ward Bond! This movie also made me think of the low-budget thriller Bowery at Midnight, but Clitterhouse isn't nearly as crazy as the evil sociology professor played by Bela Lugosi, who leaves the dead body of one of the members of the gang at the scene of every crime. The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse is highly recommended.
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