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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2021 16:30:27 GMT -5
Here’s three more noir recommendations: Detour Too Late for Tears Where Danger Lives Thank you! I have those noted along with your Peter Sellers recommendations.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 27, 2021 16:37:14 GMT -5
Here’s three more noir recommendations: Detour Too Late for Tears Where Danger Lives Thank you! I have those noted along with your Peter Sellers recommendations. Penny Points to Paradise and Detour are both on Tubi.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 27, 2021 19:19:43 GMT -5
Aw, you can't forget Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.
Okay, it's not noir, but, it is a funny send up/love letter to those classic noir, detective and gangster films of Warner Bros and others, with Carl Reiner and Steve Martin teaming again.
On the noir front, I'm partial to the works of James M Cain, as adapted in the noir genre of film. Aside from Double Indemnity, you have The Postman Always Rings Twice and Mildred Pierce, both classics. Also, Carol Burnette sent up both Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce wonderfully on her show, in a pair of my favorite sketches (along with her Gone With The Wind parody).
I still haven't watched the entirety of High Anxiety. Just always seem to miss it and never remember to check it out when I was in the video store.
Young Frankenstein is my favorite, though people tend to forget that Gene Wilder conceived the story, with Mel adding the directorial touches and tweaking the script. Gene doesn't get enough credit, beyond performance, for how funny that movie is, except from Mel, who praises him to the hilt. I would also champion Silver Streak as a great Gene Wilder movie, as he is more of the straight man to Richard Pryor, though really, it's a bit of both, as Pryor also does a lot of set up for Wilder. Plus, Patrick McGoohan playing an intellectual villain is always great.
One of my Wilder favorites, though you won't see it on any "Best" lists, is Start The Revolution Without Me; which, essentially, is a send up of the Corsican Brothers, with Wilder and Donald Sutherland as the twins. I saw it as a kid, on a Saturday afternoon movie, on tv and loved it. It was available on VHS, then Warner put it out via the Warner Archive and digitally.
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Post by MDG on Jun 28, 2021 8:24:43 GMT -5
Here’s three more noir recommendations: Detour Too Late for Tears Where Danger Lives Some lesser-known noir favorites:
Crossfire Cry Danger 99 River Street Road House Woman on the Run
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Post by Rob Allen on Jun 28, 2021 18:42:01 GMT -5
I'm hanging out with Mom in Virginia and watching a lot of things. On the movie side, last night was John Wayne - caught the end of The War Wagon, followed by The Comancheros. Today I found a Van Johnson movie on TCM - Scandal. Van is a puppeteer who gets his big break on TV but has his career ruined by a gossip magazine. According to the movie, a successful magazine publisher lives in a swanky Park Avenue penthouse. We also saw several old TV westerns, but they belong in the Classic TV thread.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 28, 2021 20:37:59 GMT -5
I love Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. I saw it as a teen and loved it even though I’d only seen two or three of the movies sampled and mocked.
My brother and I watched it a few years ago and it’s even funnier when you’ve seen most of the movies. The only movie I hadn’t seen this time around was Humoresque with Joan Crawford. (I saw it a few months later on TCM.)
My only problem is laughing like crazy when I see Double Indemnity. The other movies, when I see them, I don’t even think of Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. But when I see Double Indemnity, it’s all I can think of.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 28, 2021 22:21:10 GMT -5
I love Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. I saw it as a teen and loved it even though I’d only seen two or three of the movies sampled and mocked. My brother and I watched it a few years ago and it’s even funnier when you’ve seen most of the movies. The only movie I hadn’t seen this time around was Humoresque with Joan Crawford. (I saw it a few months later on TCM.) My only problem is laughing like crazy when I see Double Indemnity. The other movies, when I see them, I don’t even think of Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. But when I see Double Indemnity, it’s all I can think of. I have similar problems with certain songs that weird Al Yankovic has parodied as when the original pops on the radio, my first thought is the parody, like Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" ("Another One Rides The Bus"). Thanks to MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice, I have to listen for a minute to make sure if I'm hearing "Super Freak" or "Under Pressure;" or, someone ripping them off! Peter Falk's The Cheap Detective has pretty good Bogie parodies in it, continuing the take he did on Bogie, in Murder By Death.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 28, 2021 22:40:07 GMT -5
I love Murder by Death so much! My parents took us to see it in the theater when it opened. My dad was a huge mystery fan and had two shelves of Agatha Christie.
I’ve seen it a few times over the years. Estelle Winwood defending herself when Elsa Lanchester says “I smell gas!” just cracks me up every time.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 8, 2021 18:42:40 GMT -5
Just finished watching the Godfather Trilogy, after picking up a cheap set, at Walmart. I have to say, it is a bit of diminishing returns, as you progress. The original is a masterpiece, with plenty of history mixed in with the fiction and drama, though I find it a bit overly sympathetic to the mobsters. Kind of the problem of these kinds of things, but, the whole "honorable" gangster is so much BS, no matter what "codes" are employed. They always found a way to rationalize murder and violent crime.
Still, the original is fantastic and mesmerizing, with a tremendous cast. I had forgotten that Sterling Hayden was in it, as the crooked police captain. It predates Barney Miller; but, you can't see Abe Vigoda in anything and not wait for one of Fish's wisecracks.
The second film is still pretty darn good, even if the cast isn't quite at the same level and some of the plot is a repeat. The dual story adds an element, though it is hard to imagine Bruno Kirby growing up to be the same Clemenza we see in the first film. Deniro becoming Brando is enough of a stretch, forcing him to mimic Brando's whispery/mumbled speech and mannerisms. Deniro is great, though. The Cuba stuff does highlight how Cuba was controlled, before Fidel and you understand why Castro was still popular, even after he established a dictatorship. Even within that restrictive power, people could now own land that groups like United Fruit Company had taken and exploited, and more people had access to medicine and education, as Fidel did spend on those. They were never self-sufficient again (and hadn't been, under previous regimes, with US business interests interfering since the Spanish-American War). Still, nice to see the allusions to Meyer Lansky and the various corporations who were exploiting the country, before the revolution drove out Batista. My grandparents were on a vacation to Florida, around the time that Castro seized control and talked about the Cuban exiles celebrating, saying they were cheering Fidel and the revolution. However, once Fidel consolidated power, they weren't dancing anymore.
The third film is really just a mediocre mess, in my opinion, with a few good performances propping up a weak and repetitive story, that rehashes the same things from the previous films. Even the Vatican bank scandal and the election of john Paul I can't help it. There are too many things that just end up being over-the-top fantasy, even for this series, like the helicopter attack on the casino conference. I think Coppola had seen too many episodes of Miami Vice, by that point, and he is no Michael Mann, when it comes to that kind of thing. Surprised he didn't have them playing Wagner from a loudspeaker!
Sofia Coppola was beyond bad, with a high school play-level of acting and it is just as well she went with directing. Andy Garcia is good, but not given a lot to work with and it seems a bit much for him to try to mimic a father who was killed before he was born. Personality is not a purely genetic trait. As it was, Bridget Fonda, as the reporter he beds, was way more interesting than Coppola's rather clumsy portrayal of romance (and less icky). George Hamilton is fine, but it is hard to buy him as a mob lawyer, since he is there because Robert Duvall turned them down, in a money dispute.
Funny enough, I knew one of the extras in the second film. A master chief I worked with, in the Navy, appeared as an immigration guard, in the Ellis Island sequence. At the time, he was stationed near where they filmed the scenes and they had put out a casting call for people who looked like the period. He had a handlebar mustache, at the time (grooming standards had been relaxed, back then) and was picked. he even got a line, telling young Vito that he is being called by someone.
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Post by Mormel on Jul 11, 2021 4:20:14 GMT -5
Turning back the clock on Marlon Brando some 2 decades, I saw On The Waterfront for the first time, and there's a lovely little easter egg where at the court, they're naming the officers of the longshoremen union, and one of them is a certain 'Mladen Sekulovich', which is actually Karl Malden's (who plays father Barry in this movie) real name.
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Post by Mister Spaceman on Jul 11, 2021 7:30:24 GMT -5
Turning back the clock on Marlon Brando some 2 decades, I saw On The Waterfront for the first time, and there's a lovely little easter egg where at the court, they're naming the officers of the longshoremen union, and one of them is a certain 'Mladen Sekulovich', which is actually Karl Malden's (who plays father Barry in this movie) real name. I love little things like that hidden in plain sight, like Cary Grant's reference to Archie Leach in His Girl Friday.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2021 13:03:36 GMT -5
Just watched The War Wagon from 1967 for about the millionth time, for some reason I never get tired of this movie. It's a light-hearted Western for sure, but the repartee between John Wayne and Kirk Douglas is so entertaining.
It may not need an introduction to this crowd, but in case anyone hasn't seen it:
John Wayne plays "Taw Jackson", a rancher who was framed by a businessman who in doing so gained his land and the gold that had been discovered on it. Taw has served his prison term and is back to get even, with a planned heist to rob a large shipment of the gold which is being transported in an armored stagecoach dubbed the "war wagon".
Needing help to accomplish this heist, he turns to "Lomax" played by Kirk Douglas for help. Lomax is an over-the-top character Douglas plays to the hilt...a deadly accurate shooter, a dandy of a dresser, more than a bit crazy, and highly mercenary. He goes from attempting to shoot Taw on site to agreeing to an alliance when Taw explains how much his cut would be.
Assembling a couple of other motley characters in their scheme, they proceed with the carefully planned heist. Again, the dialogue is often hilarious, with Douglas often expressing his displeasure with events and reminding Taw there's a price on him he could collect instead. Add the super catchy "theme song", and it's a fun watch.
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Post by berkley on Jul 13, 2021 20:23:23 GMT -5
I'm not a huge western guy but I like the sounds of Douglas's role in this one so it's going on my list.
I just watched a first-rate Kirk Douglas movie a couple months ago, The Bad and the Beautiful: I hadn't seen it before or even heard much about it, but it turns out it is considered a classic and Douglas hmself listed it as one of his favourites of his own films, so I'm a bit puzzled as to why it stayed off my radar all these years. It's a Hollywood movie about Hollywood, which is already interesting in itself, with Douglas playing a ruthless producer. Lana Turner plays the actress he makes into a star - she was really good: this is the first time I've seen her in anything that really made me understand why she was such a big star, to be honest, so that's another hole in my film-watching that this movie has helped fill.
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Post by brutalis on Jul 14, 2021 8:34:01 GMT -5
I'm not a huge western guy but I like the sounds of Douglas's role in this one so it's going on my list. I just watched a first-rate Kirk Douglas movie a couple months ago, The Bad and the Beautiful: I hadn't seen it before or even heard much about it, but it turns out it is considered a classic and Douglas hmself listed it as one of his favourites of his own films, so I'm a bit puzzled as to why it stayed off my radar all these years. It's a Hollywood movie about Hollywood, which is already interesting in itself, with Douglas playing a ruthless producer. Lana Turner plays the actress he makes into a star - she was really good: this is the first time I've seen her in anything that really made me understand why she was such a big star, to be honest, so that's another hole in my film-watching that this movie has helped fill. What a coinkidinky as I have this recording this morning off MoviesTV. I caught a portion of it flipping channels several months ago and had it noted to record when it would air again. Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner and Hollywood? I know what I am watching this Sunday morning!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 16, 2021 14:20:27 GMT -5
My most re-watched Astaire/Rogers film is actually their first pairing together in Flying Down to Rio from 1933. They did not actually have top billing, but definitely stole the show leading to their classic era together that followed.
It's a very silly film in many ways (and a little less sanitized being released the year before the Hays Code started being enforced), a musical with a thin plot revolving around an American composer performing with his orchestra in Miami, and pursuing a Brazilian woman he sees in the audience. The pursuit takes them all down to Rio, and really the highlights are the musical numbers and of course the debut of Fred and Ginger dancing together (the magic was there right from the beginning).
Some clips below of the dancing, the unforgettable "Carioca", and a completely over-the-top spectacle of performers atop airplanes giving a most improbable and unforgettable performance!
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