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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 19, 2023 21:14:05 GMT -5
I would say the Frank Tashlin-directed ones are terrific and are fun from start to finish. The man knew how to stage slapstick and sight gags, with his Looney Tunes training. My favorites are Who's Minding the Store, The Geisga Boy, The Bellboy and Don't Give Up The Ship. Tashlin did Who's Minding The Store? and The Geisha Boy and also directed Artists and Models, which is one of the Martin & Lewis films I prefer. Don't Give Up The Ship is Norman Taurog, who also did my favorite Elvis movies: GI Blues, Blue Hawaii and Girls! Girls! Girls! He also did Visit to a Small Planet, which I only saw once, but remember liking, when I was young.
Tashlin did a bunch I love, like Son of Paleface, The Girl Can't Help It, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter and The Glass Bottom Boat. He was also the writer (or co-writer, or contributed material for) on Paleface and A Night in Casablanca (source of one of my favorite Groucho Marx letters).
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Post by tartanphantom on Apr 19, 2023 22:23:19 GMT -5
Tonight I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to watch a 1959 Jerry Lewis movie called Don’t Give Up the Ship. I only recommend this for people with a high tolerance for Jerry Lewis. Aw, come on; that's a great film! I saw it as a kid and watched it again, as an adult, after serving as a naval officer. Some of that stuff wasn't as far fetched as it seemed, like command being handed over to the junior guy (the Navy never had a point rotation system, though), the officer being oblivious to running the ship and referring to a manual and his chief (actually, the chiefs ran most things) and the Navy has mislaid some rather large objects, from time to time.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 19, 2023 22:37:33 GMT -5
Another one I really love is The Big Mouth.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 20, 2023 7:18:47 GMT -5
And last night I watched Poison, a 1951 French movie about a guy who hates his wife.
It is a very dark comedy.
He goes to see a lawyer and confesses that he murdered her. But he hasn’t actually killed his wife yet. When he tells the lawyer what happened, he’s kind of vague about what happened, and he lets the lawyer fill in the blanks much of the time, and then he asks questions about what he should have done.
For example, he says he stabbed her, then asks if he should have poisoned her. The lawyer says, no, it would look premeditated.
Then he goes back to the village to kill his wife. He doesn’t know (though he might suspect) that his wife has purchased some rat poison but she hasn’t quite worked up the courage to make use of it yet.
Classic French cinema.
The murderer is the actor who played Boudu in Boudu Saved from Drowning.
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Post by Rob Allen on Apr 20, 2023 10:50:58 GMT -5
After Sunset Boulevard we went to A Streetcar Named Desire, both of which my wife found unpleasant. Her family had too much experience with mental illness for her to be comfortable watching movies where women go crazy.
Now we're watching The Maltese Falcon. She's never seen it before!
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Post by tartanphantom on Apr 20, 2023 11:15:05 GMT -5
After Sunset Boulevard we went to A Streetcar Named Desire, both of which my wife found unpleasant. Her family had too much experience with mental illness for her to be comfortable watching movies where women go crazy.Now we're watching The Maltese Falcon. She's never seen it before! If that's the case, please don't let her watch Whatever Happened to Baby Jane or Mommie Dearest! Some pretty uncomfortable scenes in those films.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 21, 2023 21:18:38 GMT -5
After Sunset Boulevard we went to A Streetcar Named Desire, both of which my wife found unpleasant. Her family had too much experience with mental illness for her to be comfortable watching movies where women go crazy.Now we're watching The Maltese Falcon. She's never seen it before! If that's the case, please don't let her watch Whatever Happened to Baby Jane or Mommie Dearest! Some pretty uncomfortable scenes in those films. Ever see the tv movie version of the former, with Vanessa and Lynn Redgrave? I'm not sure which was scarier, the original or that one. Lynn played the Bette Davis character and she portrayed psycho pretty darn well. The original is aided by being in black & white, which is moodier with the lighting; but, this one made up for it with sheer acting by the sisters.
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Post by berkley on Apr 21, 2023 23:10:09 GMT -5
And last night I watched Poison, a 1951 French movie about a guy who hates his wife. It is a very dark comedy. He goes to see a lawyer and confesses that he murdered her. But he hasn’t actually killed his wife yet. When he tells the lawyer what happened, he’s kind of vague about what happened, and he lets the lawyer fill in the blanks much of the time, and then he asks questions about what he should have done. For example, he says he stabbed her, then asks if he should have poisoned her. The lawyer says, no, it would look premeditated. Then he goes back to the village to kill his wife. He doesn’t know (though he might suspect) that his wife has purchased some rat poison but she hasn’t quite worked up the courage to make use of it yet. Classic French cinema. The murderer is the actor who played Boudu in Boudu Saved from Drowning.
I've been watching a few things from around that era the last years or so but I've missed this one - where did you see it?
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Post by berkley on Apr 21, 2023 23:19:41 GMT -5
I would say the Frank Tashlin-directed ones are terrific and are fun from start to finish. The man knew how to stage slapstick and sight gags, with his Looney Tunes training. My favorites are Who's Minding the Store, The Geisga Boy, The Bellboy and Don't Give Up The Ship. Tashlin did Who's Minding The Store? and The Geisha Boy and also directed Artists and Models, which is one of the Martin & Lewis films I prefer. Don't Give Up The Ship is Norman Taurog, who also did my favorite Elvis movies: GI Blues, Blue Hawaii and Girls! Girls! Girls! He also did Visit to a Small Planet, which I only saw once, but remember liking, when I was young. Tashlin did a bunch I love, like Son of Paleface, The Girl Can't Help It, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter and The Glass Bottom Boat. He was also the writer (or co-writer, or contributed material for) on Paleface and A Night in Casablanca (source of one of my favorite Groucho Marx letters).
I've seen four Martin/Lewis movies the last few months: My Friend Irma, My friend Irma Goes West, Artists and Models, and Hollywood or Bust - I think that turned out to be their first two (or near enough) and their last two, tough I didn't plane it that way, so not at all a representative sample. Tashin's Artists and Models stood out head and shoulders above the others. Hollywood or Bust is interesting because it was their last as a duo and apparently they couldn't stand each other at that point but I think they were such professionals that their animosity doesn't come across in their performances. It has some nice bits but the main attraction is Anita Ekberg and she isn't in it enough.
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Post by berkley on Apr 21, 2023 23:26:23 GMT -5
Tonight I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to watch a 1959 Jerry Lewis movie called Don’t Give Up the Ship. I only recommend this for people with a high tolerance for Jerry Lewis.
I watched My Friend Irma on youtube a few years back - I think just before the Covid shutdown - and liked it a lot. More recently, just a few months ago, I watched My Friend Irma Goes West, which was made not long after, so I was expecting to like it just as much - and it was OK for the most part: the big difference was that I found Lewis unbearable in Goes West. I don't know if it's a matter of what mood I was in or a difference in the two movies themselves.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 22, 2023 5:31:03 GMT -5
And last night I watched Poison, a 1951 French movie about a guy who hates his wife. It is a very dark comedy. He goes to see a lawyer and confesses that he murdered her. But he hasn’t actually killed his wife yet. When he tells the lawyer what happened, he’s kind of vague about what happened, and he lets the lawyer fill in the blanks much of the time, and then he asks questions about what he should have done. For example, he says he stabbed her, then asks if he should have poisoned her. The lawyer says, no, it would look premeditated. Then he goes back to the village to kill his wife. He doesn’t know (though he might suspect) that his wife has purchased some rat poison but she hasn’t quite worked up the courage to make use of it yet. Classic French cinema. The murderer is the actor who played Boudu in Boudu Saved from Drowning.
I've been watching a few things from around that era the last years or so but I've missed this one - where did you see it?
I rented it from Apple TV for about $4.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 22, 2023 5:37:43 GMT -5
More Jerry Lewis!
I discovered that he made some films in France in the 1980s, and I decided to see if I could find one of those. And I was lucky to find The Defective Detective (1984) on YouTube.
Well, maybe not so lucky. It’s worse than Hardly Working. I was fascinated.
I now feel kind of bad for being a little dismissive of Don’t Give Up the Ship.
The Defective Detective is also known as To Catch a Cop, and it also has a long alternative French title.
I’m thinking of trying to find Cracking Up (1984) to see if it’s any better.
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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 22, 2023 6:53:06 GMT -5
Tonight I woke up in the middle of the night and decided to watch a 1959 Jerry Lewis movie called Don’t Give Up the Ship. I only recommend this for people with a high tolerance for Jerry Lewis.
I watched My Friend Irma on youtube a few years back - I think just before the Covid shutdown - and liked it a lot. More recently, just a few months ago, I watched My Friend Irma Goes West, which was made not long after, so I was expecting to like it just as much - and it was OK for the most part: the big difference was that I found Lewis unbearable in Goes West. I don't know if it's a matter of what mood I was in or a difference in the two movies themselves. Irma was a hit on radio, in comics, and on TV and move screens. No idea why...
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 22, 2023 9:52:04 GMT -5
I liked My Friend Irma a lot, mostly because of Marie Wilson. She is hilarious. I have not yet seen My Friend Irma Goes West.
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Post by Hoosier X on Apr 23, 2023 21:13:53 GMT -5
Tonight I am watching Monsieur Hire (1989).
I’m about 20 minutes into it. It’s pretty good.
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