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Post by brutalis on Jun 5, 2018 14:15:08 GMT -5
For the Audie Murphy western fans here at the old geezer's home for retired cowpokes: GritTV is running Audie's westerns all this week Monday 6/4 through Saturday 6/9 at 7:00pm. Monday (last night) was The Cimmaron Kid. Tuesday (tonight) will be Column South. Wednesday is Hell Bent for Leather. Thursday is Gunsmoke. Friday is Bullet for a Badman. Saturday will be Gunpoint. Saddle up the stove ma cuz I'm riding the range tonight and every night this week with my buckaroo Audie Murphy!
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 5, 2018 23:09:51 GMT -5
Can't say that I ever saw any of his westerns; certainly don't recall watching any of them. Just To Hell and Back and bits and pieces of The Red Badge of Courage.
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Post by brutalis on Jun 6, 2018 7:48:02 GMT -5
Can't say that I ever saw any of his westerns; certainly don't recall watching any of them. Just To Hell and Back and bits and pieces of The Red Badge of Courage. You are missing out then. Audie was learning his craft and chewing up scenes quite well as the often young misunderstood rowdy outcast found on the wrong side of the fence but with a golden honest heart. Has a great sense of energy and youth. His characters seem to feel like they could be a young Randolph Scott. I really enjoy any Audie Murphy movie as they have that wonderful early Hollywood essence of fun and don't take anything to seriously and his movies entertain in a way that many modern movies don't.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 6, 2018 13:39:25 GMT -5
Can't say that I ever saw any of his westerns; certainly don't recall watching any of them. Just To Hell and Back and bits and pieces of The Red Badge of Courage. You are missing out then. Audie was learning his craft and chewing up scenes quite well as the often young misunderstood rowdy outcast found on the wrong side of the fence but with a golden honest heart. Has a great sense of energy and youth. His characters seem to feel like they could be a young Randolph Scott. I really enjoy any Audie Murphy movie as they have that wonderful early Hollywood essence of fun and don't take anything to seriously and his movies entertain in a way that many modern movies don't. Always have been partial to 40 Guns to Apache Pass (1967). Audie's just fine, and there's a nasty turn by classic B actor Kenneth ( The Thing) Tobey as a skeevy villain. Directed by veteran serial craftsman William Witney.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 6, 2018 22:11:01 GMT -5
Just finished watching The Boys in Company C. The film is directed by Sydney Furie, a Canadian director who made the classic Michael Caine spy thriller, The IPCRESS File and the not-so-classic Iron Eagle films (and the total POS Superman IV). It's one of the lesser known Vietnam War films, coming before the stretch of Apocalypse Now, Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. It falls into the earlier era of being a statement of the stupidity of Vietnam, with little effort to capture the reality of it, any more than The Green Berets. It's a purely anti-war film, with a very narrow viewpoint. However, within that viewpoint, it is filled with some great acting, memorable scenes and great drama. The film follows a group of Marine recruits from boot camp to Vietnam, to a soccer game. Much of it's structure would inform the later Full Metal Jacket, right down to featuring R. Lee Ermey, as a DI (with his actual sergeant stripes, rather than gunny stripes, as in FMJ). The cast are mostly young actors, with Michael Lembeck having the biggest profile, at the time (son of comedic actor Harvey Lembeck, featured in the Partridge Family and a regular on One Day at a Time). Andrew Stevens has one of his earliest roles and received good notices for it, including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Male Debut. James Whitmore Jr, who was a regular on Baa Baa Black Sheep is their lieutenant, in Nam. He is the son of James Whitmore, who played Brooks, in The Shawshank Redemption (and appeared in numerous classic films, including Battleground).
The film depicts the war as a complete tragedy of errors, with no real effort to be objective. In that, it is much propaganda as was The Green Berets. The reality of the war was somewhere in between, as seen in later films, like Platoon, FMJ, and We Were Soldiers Once. It took time and input from people who were there, to get more even-handed dramas of Vietnam. Despite that, there are good characters on display and fine efforts from young talent.
I would also recommend the French film Dien Bien Phu, from Pierre Schoendoerffer, who was a combat photographer at the actual siege. The film features Donald Pleasence as a journalist covering the siege, while the French face their end in Indochina.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 7, 2018 20:58:18 GMT -5
I just watched "The Wizard of Oz" on TCM just now and it's really a thrill to watch it and I've haven't seen it for a long time and it was a treat to see it. The first 30 minutes in Black and White (mainly more like Sephia) and then it's was in full living color for about a hour or so odd minutes and then back to Kansas for the last ten minutes in Sephia again.
Dorothy, The Scarecrow, The Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion all were great and the Wicked Witch of the West was terrifying and Dorothy was protected by her Ruby Red Slippers that were given to her after she killed the Wicked Witch of the East. Glinda the good Witch was delightfully wonderful and of course Toto her dog was a delight as well.
I really enjoyed seeing this film -- it was a treat to watch it today!
The Trailer
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 8, 2018 12:42:21 GMT -5
I just started re-reading Frederick Forsyth's Day of the Jackal; so, I thought I'd revisit the 1973 movie, directed by Fred Zinnemann. Edward Fox is the cool, calculating assassin, hired by the OAS (a group of army officers and soldiers, who felt De Gaulle betrayed them by granting Algeria independence) to kill De Gaulle. Michael Lonsdale is the police detective tasked with discovering the identity of the potential assassin (after the plot becomes known) and track him down. Derek Jacobi is his assistant. Excellent thriller which takes its time to show the planning of the assassination by Fox and the painstaking detective work by Lonsdale to unmask the killer. It's one of the few movies that ever captured Forsyth's literary style well.
I started to watch The Odessa File, as well, but decided I wanted something lighter. That one is from the same producer; but, a different director, with Jon Voight as a German journalist who happens upon police and emergency responders, who are cleaning up a suicide setting. The victim was an old Jew, who kept a journal, detailing the crimes of Edward Roschmann, an SS officer at the Riga death camp. He has seen Roschmann alive, and is despondent. meanwhile, a MOSSAD agent is tasked with taking out German scientists who are working on a guidance system for rockets, to be used by Nasser, against Israel. It's a decent thriller, though not in the same league as Day of the Jackal. Forsyth is known for his twist endings and the one here is a bit much to swallow, though more surprising than that of Day of the Jackal. Maximilian Schell is quite good as Roschmann.
It was some years before Forsyth was adapted again, with the Dogs of War. The novel was optioned in 1974; but, took until 1980 for there to be a satisfactory script and a production. That one has Christopher Walken as a mercenary hired by a mining company to explore the possibility of a coup in an African nation, after platinum is found there. The film also features Jo Beth Williams, Tom Berenger, and Ed O'Neil in an early role (mostly cut out of the American release). The film adds a subplot about Walken's relationship with Williams, which was not part of the book. It ends up being rather uneve, though it has an exciting climax and some interesting scenes throughout.
Forsysth was adapted again a few years later, by himself, with The Fourth Protocol, featuring Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan. Kim Philby plans a sabotage operation, designed to turn public opinion against the American military presence in Great Britain. A nuclear device is being smuggled in and assembled, to be detonated near a US Air Force base, a sight of demonstrations by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Caine is the Security Service agent who stumbles onto the plot and hunts down the components, while Brosnan is a KGB agent tasked with carrying out the project. Well acted but a bit uneven and it did not do well at the box office (though it had a higher profile than Dogs did). Caine, in his autobiography, said he told Forsyth that you couldn't realistically speak the way Forsyth had written his characters and it affected the scenes in the film.
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Post by brutalis on Jun 11, 2018 8:26:17 GMT -5
Went back to 1974 and watched Clint Eastwood/Jeff Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. This was one I watched a lot of in the late 70's via the perennial repeat of the ABC Sunday Night Movie. Hadn't watched in years and had totally forgotten how it ended. Truly bummer of an ending. The acting chemistry between Eastwood and Bridges is palpable and you can tell they were having a great time together. Add in George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis into the mixture and then it becomes even wilder. The old con's with the new kid on the block makes for an interesting and fun adventure. For certain this is an under polished gem of a movie that never received the attention it should have at the time. A great fall drive in movie sitting with family or friends and a big bucket of popcorn and cold soda! Takes me back to the 70's memories and the good old days when not every movie had to be a big budget explosive in your face movie.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2018 9:02:28 GMT -5
I'm looking forward seeing the Scarlet Pimpernel starring Leslie Howard tonight on Turner Classic Movies. It's from 1934 and it's also starred Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey too -- it's late night starting at 10:30 Pacific Time; 1:30 AM Eastern.
One of my favorite movies ...
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 11, 2018 23:32:50 GMT -5
Went back to 1974 and watched Clint Eastwood/Jeff Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. This was one I watched a lot of in the late 70's via the perennial repeat of the ABC Sunday Night Movie. Hadn't watched in years and had totally forgotten how it ended. Truly bummer of an ending. The acting chemistry between Eastwood and Bridges is palpable and you can tell they were having a great time together. Add in George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis into the mixture and then it becomes even wilder. The old con's with the new kid on the block makes for an interesting and fun adventure. For certain this is an under polished gem of a movie that never received the attention it should have at the time. A great fall drive in movie sitting with family or friends and a big bucket of popcorn and cold soda! Takes me back to the 70's memories and the good old days when not every movie had to be a big budget explosive in your face movie. Loved that one since I first saw it, on ABC. I've watched it multiple times and it's still never been quite clear where the 20mm anti-aircraft cannon comes from. You don't just slip one of those out of a National Guard Armory. Monir point; but, always bugged me. Just a really great film, with great actors, from top to bottom; and, it has Michael Cimino at the height of his talent. One of the elements that I noted more, as an adult, was the kinship between Eastwood's character and Bridges. Eastwood's is a Korean War vet, who is kind of lost in society, while Bridges is a misfit, of the Vietnam generation. You can tell Eastwood recognizes his own kind in Bridges. As much as Hollywood liked to avoid Vietnam (and the country, after things were winding down) the same was also true of Korea and its vets. Hollywood kind of treated it with distance, other than a select few films, and the country just seemed to want to forget it, when the best that was achieved was stalemate. MASH doesn't really count as it isn't about Korea, really, in either movie or tv form. The movie is more a statement about Vietnam and the authority that put young men in harms way and the tv series was more anti-authority and anti-war, as concepts, rather than specifics. It was funny what I had missed of the film, over the years, when I first saw it uncut, on VHS. The nudity and most of the sex scenes, involving the daughter and her boyfriend, during the home invasion of the depository official (played by Jack Dodson, of the Andy Griffith Show), was completely cut out.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 11, 2018 23:40:31 GMT -5
I'm looking forward seeing the Scarlet Pimpernel starring Leslie Howard tonight on Turner Classic Movies. It's from 1934 and it's also starred Merle Oberon and Raymond Massey too -- it's late night starting at 10:30 Pacific Time; 1:30 AM Eastern. One of my favorite movies ... Not my favorite version; but, I do enjoy Raymond Massey as Chavelain. He's equally good as the villainous German officer in the Errol Flynn wartime "swashbuckler" Desperate Journey, where a downed bomber crew flees across Germany and occupied territory, trying to escape back to England. Ronald Reagan and Alan Hale Sr are part of the crew and Raoul Walsh directs. I say swashbuckler, as it deliberately mirrored the high paced style of the swashbuckler pictures. For my money, it is the closest we ever came to a Blackhawk movie, even more than the Columbia serial. You take that style and mix some of the tv series Baa Baa Blacksheep and you have the perfect Blackhawk film. Get on that Warner Bros!
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,057
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Post by Confessor on Jun 12, 2018 12:34:07 GMT -5
Just finished watching The Boys in Company C. The film is directed by Sydney Furie, a Canadian director who made the classic Michael Caine spy thriller, The IPCRESS File and the not-so-classic Iron Eagle films (and the total POS Superman IV). It's one of the lesser known Vietnam War films, coming before the stretch of Apocalypse Now, Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. It falls into the earlier era of being a statement of the stupidity of Vietnam, with little effort to capture the reality of it, any more than The Green Berets. It's a purely anti-war film, with a very narrow viewpoint. However, within that viewpoint, it is filled with some great acting, memorable scenes and great drama. The film follows a group of Marine recruits from boot camp to Vietnam, to a soccer game. Much of it's structure would inform the later Full Metal Jacket, right down to featuring R. Lee Ermey, as a DI (with his actual sergeant stripes, rather than gunny stripes, as in FMJ). The cast are mostly young actors, with Michael Lembeck having the biggest profile, at the time (son of comedic actor Harvey Lembeck, featured in the Partridge Family and a regular on One Day at a Time). Andrew Stevens has one of his earliest roles and received good notices for it, including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Male Debut. James Whitmore Jr, who was a regular on Baa Baa Black Sheep is their lieutenant, in Nam. He is the son of James Whitmore, who played Brooks, in The Shawshank Redemption (and appeared in numerous classic films, including Battleground). The film depicts the war as a complete tragedy of errors, with no real effort to be objective. In that, it is much propaganda as was The Green Berets. The reality of the war was somewhere in between, as seen in later films, like Platoon, FMJ, and We Were Soldiers Once. It took time and input from people who were there, to get more even-handed dramas of Vietnam. Despite that, there are good characters on display and fine efforts from young talent. I would also recommend the French film Dien Bien Phu, from Pierre Schoendoerffer, who was a combat photographer at the actual siege. The film features Donald Pleasence as a journalist covering the siege, while the French face their end in Indochina. As you know, I love me a good Vietnam movie, but I've never heard of The Boys in Company C. I'll definitely have to keep a look out for it on TV.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 12, 2018 14:20:16 GMT -5
I just came across this on YouTube, a 1955 movie called Jump Into Hell. It's about Dien Bien Phu.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 12, 2018 14:34:42 GMT -5
Went back to 1974 and watched Clint Eastwood/Jeff Bridges in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. This was one I watched a lot of in the late 70's via the perennial repeat of the ABC Sunday Night Movie. Hadn't watched in years and had totally forgotten how it ended. Truly bummer of an ending. The acting chemistry between Eastwood and Bridges is palpable and you can tell they were having a great time together. Add in George Kennedy and Geoffrey Lewis into the mixture and then it becomes even wilder. The old con's with the new kid on the block makes for an interesting and fun adventure. For certain this is an under polished gem of a movie that never received the attention it should have at the time. A great fall drive in movie sitting with family or friends and a big bucket of popcorn and cold soda! Takes me back to the 70's memories and the good old days when not every movie had to be a big budget explosive in your face movie. Pretty sure Bridges was Oscar-nominated!
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 12, 2018 23:50:34 GMT -5
Just finished watching The Boys in Company C. The film is directed by Sydney Furie, a Canadian director who made the classic Michael Caine spy thriller, The IPCRESS File and the not-so-classic Iron Eagle films (and the total POS Superman IV). It's one of the lesser known Vietnam War films, coming before the stretch of Apocalypse Now, Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. It falls into the earlier era of being a statement of the stupidity of Vietnam, with little effort to capture the reality of it, any more than The Green Berets. It's a purely anti-war film, with a very narrow viewpoint. However, within that viewpoint, it is filled with some great acting, memorable scenes and great drama. The film follows a group of Marine recruits from boot camp to Vietnam, to a soccer game. Much of it's structure would inform the later Full Metal Jacket, right down to featuring R. Lee Ermey, as a DI (with his actual sergeant stripes, rather than gunny stripes, as in FMJ). The cast are mostly young actors, with Michael Lembeck having the biggest profile, at the time (son of comedic actor Harvey Lembeck, featured in the Partridge Family and a regular on One Day at a Time). Andrew Stevens has one of his earliest roles and received good notices for it, including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Male Debut. James Whitmore Jr, who was a regular on Baa Baa Black Sheep is their lieutenant, in Nam. He is the son of James Whitmore, who played Brooks, in The Shawshank Redemption (and appeared in numerous classic films, including Battleground). The film depicts the war as a complete tragedy of errors, with no real effort to be objective. In that, it is much propaganda as was The Green Berets. The reality of the war was somewhere in between, as seen in later films, like Platoon, FMJ, and We Were Soldiers Once. It took time and input from people who were there, to get more even-handed dramas of Vietnam. Despite that, there are good characters on display and fine efforts from young talent. I would also recommend the French film Dien Bien Phu, from Pierre Schoendoerffer, who was a combat photographer at the actual siege. The film features Donald Pleasence as a journalist covering the siege, while the French face their end in Indochina. As you know, I love me a good Vietnam movie, but I've never heard of The Boys in Company C. I'll definitely have to keep a look out for it on TV. It wasn't a hit, which didn't help its profile for cable or home video; but, it's a good film. It came out in 1978 and was overshadowed at the box office by The Deer Hunter, as far as subject matter. The box office champ that years was Superman. There was another Vietnam film that year, Go Tell the Spartans, with Burt Lancaster. I've seen it on VHS; not bad, not in the league of the better known films or even The Boys in Company C.
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