WhyaDuck
-
Posts
463 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Never
Posts posted by WhyaDuck
-
-
I called my mom Sunday and let her know one of the " Thats Entertainment " movies was on PBS. .....She told me the next day she watched it and it reminded her of when I took her to see the first one in 1974. ....Yes, I remember it well......1974 wasn't a good year. Should have been because I graduated high school but 2 days later my dad took off for Florida when we weren't home. After 25 years of marriage that popped my mom in the chops. Good thing I had a job but it didn't help the crying that summer. ....What did help the crying that summer on one special night was taking my mom to this movie that I saw Fred Astair and Gene Kelly talking about on Johnny Carson. ....I was amazed there were young girls my age at this thing and talking about looking forward to seeing Gene Kelly. It was the Led Zepplin Era, but not on this night.......All the clips from all those great musicals on the big screen as they were intended to be. .....and when it came to the end, the audience young and old applauded as I've never heard for a movie before or since. .......Special to me is it made my mom so happy that night, and she had no idea I was taking her to such a movie. She really liked it. ........Now this story has a happy ending and my mom remarried and has been happily married for 32 years and I see that it all was fate. .....If you've never seen " Thats Entertainment " or the 2nd or 3rd parts that came out later, I suggest you may want to see them because you really have missed something. Sinatra, Crosby, Kelly are great and I am in awe of how Astair can dance over chairs and tables. I tried to dance over a chair once like in the movies and darn near broke my neck. The guy makes it look so easy and it isn't. ....and those songs, some of the best music ever written. ..... I also recommend " Swing Time " for Astair and Ginger in the snow singing " A Fine Romance " and later singing and dancing to " The Way You Looked Tonight ".....then putting both songs together at the end as they dance up the stairs into the stars.......but mostly for that first dance they do together in the movie. They are both so young and fast and finally dance over the fence.....They used this dance to open a night honoring Astair on TV and when the audience of Borgnine and all the other actors saw this opening dance scene of the night, they went wild. On that show they said Jolson made movies talk, Astair made movies dance. I can still see Ernest Borgnine and all the other actors going wild as they watched this dance from " Swing Time " to start this TV Special in the 1980s honoring Astair. ....and I can still hear the movie audience applaud " Thats Entertainment ".
If you've never seen Thats Entertainment....just once you should even if you don't like musicals. These clips are the best of the best.
One more Edit......I left out what goes into these great clips. Ginger Rodgers said her feet were bleeding by the time they finally did the last take of dancing up the stairs in Swing Time. .....ALSO Judy Garland said she once was having trouble with a dance number and she went to ask Fred Astair how to get it right. He was practing a dance number and he would pick up something in disgust and throw it across the room and start again. Slam something down and start again. Judy waited for an hour to talk to him as she watched him practice for an hour and then she said she had her answer on how to get the dance routine right, practice as hard as Fred does. ......So the point is there is alot of hard work and blood and sweat that went into making these great musicals. The actors just don't show it.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
When I was a kid in the 1960s, TV shows didn't always just go into rerun all summer. One example is in 1966 Dean Martins show went off for the summer but was replaced by a summer show called The Rowan and Martin Show. I thought these guys were funny and I actually liked this show better that the Laugh-In Show they were put on very quickly after. Another example was the Smothers Brothers went off for the summer and the summer replacement was the Glen Campbell. This show had John Hartford and Pat Paulson, both of whom I saw in person before they passed away. Hartford was just great on the banjo, fiddle, guitar. Paulson to me made both shows, he was just funny. When I saw him in 1990, he did the campaign bit in his act and said " When I ran for president in 1968, I smoked, drank, chased wild women and then they had the nerve to say I was no John F Kennedy."...... His dead pan face was the perfect lying politician comic.
In the late 60s Jackie Gleason went off for the summer. It was replaced by a show featuring Buddy Greco the singer. I didn't care much for him, but they had this drummer band leader that was kind of funny named Buddy Rich. Being a kid, I had no idea how great this Buddy Rich was from Tommy Dorsey up through the years. ........but there was another guy, a guy that made this a don't miss show for me. This young comic was doing all these bits about "Lets Make A Deal " and " The Dating Game " ....commercials....He did radio DJs...He did the news.....He had characters called Congolia Breckenridge and the hippie dippie weatherman. .....and he was so funny and I felt like I was way ahead of everybody on this comic because on Saturday Night I'm not sure this was a very popular show. Buddy Greco and all. Most kids in the 60s were to cool for Gleason, Carney and especially this Greco show. I guess I wasn't cool. But if you saw this George Carlin guy, you HAD to tune in the next week for more jokes. I thought he was funnier than the 60s Honeymooners Show even though I liked Gleason and Carney.
A few years later the kids at school had discovered him with his big album. The one with him with long hair sitting on a stool. I remembered him from his short hair days. He was still very funny. My dad saw him around this time on Johnny Carson and thought he was funny and my dad didn't think guys with long hair were funny normaly.
So I don't go as far back as the Jack Burns and George Carlin days and I'm not sure I want to. Burns and Schrieber ( I'm not sure if that last name is right ) worked out a funny act and had a TV show, but Carlin was really funny. ....to be honest, over the years I lost interest in his act......then in the early 90s I saw him live and he hit the stage like and old angry biker or something. Much more anger and cursing and more of a Lenny Bruce now. To me, it was like he had reinvented himself again and it was a new act. I found myself laughing at some of his pauses and things he said between jokes because some of that stuff was funnier to me than the jokes. He now took on subjects like The Pope, Abortion, Pro Lifers who he claims can't be found once the baby is born. Glad you had the kid, now we're out of here, lots of luck raising the kid. ......He took on religion, government...there were no taboos. This old guy with long gray hair and a gray beard in a black tee shirt and black pants was bitter, angry ....but still very funny.
He may have said some things you didn't like. He may have offended some of the things you believe in. But he made you think. His HBO show after 911 in New York City was great, and he summed up his views on religion in the insanity of 911, people doing that in the name of Their God. Killing people is the Twin Towers but saying God told them to do it. No God didn't, they are just a bunch of sick nuts that like to kill people, just like always. .....Of course he had alot of jokes and punch lines and was very funny in the way he said all this and he also had his lighter side. Such as attacking yuppie names like Dirk and Chad and said if you want to make your kids tough, give them names like Vick and Nick. He could take an audience on twists and turns and you weren't always sure if he was serious or putting you on sometimes, ....but he was real good at it.
So for his decades of laughter, heres to the guy that got a gig on the Buddy Greco show that replaced Gleason one summer in the 1960s and worked his way up to the Carson show, Gold Records, TV and movies. ......Here is to George Carlin. He made me laugh for alot of years, and thats a pretty good talent to have. Now there are alot of people who TRY to be LIKE Carlin, and they think they are real smart and funny and they aren't. ....What made Carlin special was FIRST he was funny.....had he never said one thing controversial, FIRST he was funny.....Thats the difference between him and some of these wise guy would be's on TV today. George Carlin was funny and alot of people that try his style of comedy just aren't. ...
HERES TO GEORGE CARLIN.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
I thought the AFI top 100 movie list was OK, but the next year it was the best dramas and then the best comedys and now this.......
As Ernie Kovacs once said about television, the motto is, If It Works, Beat It To Death.
-
I just saw the Sean Penn remake of " All The Kings Men ". I have seen the Broderick Crawford version alot and this new version offered up little. In fact they left out the wife and his struggles early on. The politcal mistress to Crawford was much better in her roughness and many sided character. Penn was OK, but the new version wasn't as good. If you have seen Crawford in this, you don't have to see Penn in it.
You can't remake " Gone With The Wind ", so why even try. You could remake " Mobey Dick " for the special effects, but are you going to do any better than Gregory Peck. Now I did like the 1990s version of " Last of the Mohicans " , so sometimes they get it right. ....Not often.
As for Kong, I like the original but I've gone through this before. Whatever you like, I've discovered. The 70s version has haunting music and eyes and the twin towers. The new version has fast paced special effects. I still like the original but the remakes aren't that bad.
The new Casino Royale is worth the time and not a remake. The comedy was not very good. This is based on the first Flemming book. This Bond has an attitude and for once doesn't have all the stupid puns. If you want to see a good Bond flick, you may want to see the latest Casino Royale, it IS NOT a remake and thats a good thing. My wife hates Bond movies and she kind of liked this one. Less puns, more story.
-
Another classic Tracy moment is after the Monkee Trials he carrys both the Science Book and The Bible out of the courtroom with him.
Another classic Tracy moment is him saying " I'll be dmnd " , in Guess Whos Coming To Dinner " and the speech he makes about how he also loves his wife.
Another classic Tracy moment is when he tells Clark Gable in San Francisco that he doesn't have the right to his wifes soul.
Another classic Tracy moment is him going through blown away Berlin and having to make a judgement.
But in a movie like Bad Day at Black Rock.....doesn't he really carry this movie on his back. I think so.
-
They say not Cappra at his best, but I like this film.
Laverne and Shirley fans should know this was their favorite song.... " High Hopes "
You got Sinatra, you got the kid, ...You got Keenan Wynn as the gangster type big shot.....you got Sinatra blowing it by yelling for his dog to come in......
But you got Edward J Robinson and saying, " They aren't poor, broke maybe....but as long as they got each other, they ain't poor ".
Edward J and Sinatra in the same movie. ...Nothing wrong with that..
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
Yes, I forgot " Last Hurrah" and Dick York and alot of others with Tracy.
Tracy really carrys this " Bad Day at Bad Rock " doesn't he.
I already mentioned I like State Of The Union where he sells out his wife as well as the voters.
Boys Town. The orphans on Christmas. In one look, doesn't Tracy capture how pathetic it is that nobody gave to the orphans this year. Then he says, " Good mush, not an empty stomach in any of us this Christmas ".
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
Hey...I watched this film last night ...honest
As a kid, I always thought the ending was corney with him appauding when he loses the Oscar...
...But, now I see he put himself in a position he had to win it.
Amazed that Milton Berle is so good in this. Not amazed that Joseph Cotton of Citizen Kane was great. Did you notice he runs down the actor in quick talk like Orson Wells. Cotton was great in Kane and in his small part was great in this. I always like Tony Bennett in this, even back as a kid when I first saw it on TV in the 1960s. Tony Bennett was hype and cool and gave the film some style.
There was a time Sinatra was down and out and lucky to be on the Milton Berle show and Berle insisted Sinatra get paid top dollar and not take advantage of Sinatra. The Oscar turned things around for Sinatra. ... Not that I'm mentioning Sinatra or horse heads in a bed to get Johnny Fontaine in movies.....But I think Tony Bennett is great in this.
You have to admitt there is a little more than super cool My Pal Joey in this. ...but Sinatra came out on top and this bum doesn't. ......
I felt like I was watching a version of the Carpetbaggers and was this a knockoff. The actor in this I don't know and maybe thats best because its about a here today and gone tomorrow actor.
I knid of like this thing, but I always liked Tony Bennett in it and I think he is the best person in the movie.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
Who else could have Brutus and Popeye fighting over her but Olive Oil
-
I think I got the name right, I hope.
Great character actors in one movie. More than that really.
First you have Spencer Tracy, GREAT ACTOR.
But then you have great charactor actor Walter Brennan. Before The Real McCoys. The Walter Brennan who was so good as Judge Roy Bean with Gary Cooper.
Then you have Ernest Borgnine who had probably just came off doing Marty
Then you have Robert Ryan who was great in the boxing film, just great, and up until before he passed away in a movie like " Executive Action". A great actor most kids don't know about.
Then you have Lee Marvin, who would go on to win the Oscar himself.
I always felt that the Tom Cruise of this world gain something from being in movies with Paul Newman, Gene Hackman and Jack Nicholson. They always thank their producers and directors, but I think great acting rubs off.
Have you ever noticed that in Spencer Tracys movies the best actors in the bussiness turn out. Clark Gable must have liked Spence. So did Hepburn. But what about Clift, Lancaster, Garland, Poitier, Schnell. Landsbury, Ceasar, Winters, Berle, Rooney, Hackett....and I'm just starting.
Have you ever noticed that a Spencer Tracy movie is like a whos who of anybody that was ever in the movies. What did they do, line up to be in movies with him ??? It appears so.
Favorite Tracy movies, its a long list. With the election coming up, I suggest " State Of The Union " . There are some things that are outdated, BUT NOT MUCH. To me, easily the best Tracy Hepburn because the subject matter holds up to this day. Whats it about...a politician that sells out his family and everything he believes in to get elected. Best line is " No I'm not going to promise lowering taxes because we have a few things we need to get done in this country ". Then the powers talk him out of saying that. "State of the Union" ...its a must see movie.
...Judgement at Nuremberg, Edison the Man, Boys Town......we could go on all day......
Tracy was great.... and in a movie like " Bad Day At Black Rock ", you can see how other great actors still feed off of him and learn from him. ...He was great.
...Did I mention, " State Of The Union ". It holds up. Watch it and trust me on this one.
I left out Gene Kelly. But for Tracy I would have to include everybody from Clark Gable to just about everybody.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
Valentino, Sean Connery, Clark Gable trapped inside the body of Bud Abbott.
( not really, but why not have some fun with this ).
-
I was raised that the problem with Communism is that it is a non free society. An example of that was the Berlin Wall. I saw people trying to break out but few trying to break in. I was told under communism you can't believe in God. That the police state tells you how to dress, what to do, what to say, what to think.
....but don't you see that if our movies and our arts are censored then we in America are not truely free. If we begin to treat Presidents as Dictators and anything you say about the President is treated like an attack on the American Flag, then we are not free. ....We would have then became this police state Dictatorship that you are so afraid of in other nations.
It is through our freedoms of movies and the arts, it is through our being able to question and even laugh at the President that we retain our American freedoms. This may be hard to understand to people in other nations, but in America the President is not suppose to be God, or King, or Dictator. Nor is he suppose to be treated as such. You may not agree with all the movies or all the stand up comics or all the song writers and poets, thats OK because you are free not to watch or listen or read them. What seperates us from Ancient Rome or a Communist Dictatorship is our American Freedoms and that includes the arts. .....Now you give away those freedoms, you might as well burn the flag because it would no longer stand for freedom. If the only movies that are allowed to be made have to be flag waving movies about nationalism, thats not freedom, thats Nazi or Communism.
Myself, I see the big flaw in Iran is that they are very censored. Their people are not truely free, unless you consider being killed for your beliefs a freedom. ....The term Politicaly Correct has came up and let me point out that we had a TV show by that name that was cancelled because of its comments about the President. Now, it was not my favorite show, but do we really want the government to start being able to control what Jay Leno or David Letterman or Dennis Miller can or can't say on TV ? Wouldn't we be becoming too much like Iran ourselves if we did that ?
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
Some people can see Communism in anything. I guess you could find Communism in the Three Stooges or Laurel and Hardy if you want to. I once heard a guy on Johnny Carson say that if you play The Mr Ed TV song backwards it has satanic messages, but Johnny just questioned the type of person that would be playing Mr Ed backwards to begin with.
I can see how blacklisting was a big thing in Hollywood. Hey, you once were said to be a communist if you were in a union. Today you are considered some kind of communist or socialist if you want National Health Care, although why should doctors and hospitals be based on rich and poor, don't all Americans deserve health care ?
In 1776 this nation was formed on a belief in freedom. Now that freedom had to be defended a few times. Many times African Americans and Indians and Asian Americans wore the nations uniforms but were not given that respect after the wars.
Adolph Hitler believed in book burnings. ....
Books, Movies, Songs....Americans should be allowed to think and exchange ideas. ....Yes, some of the movies make you think....Maybe you don't agree with all of them....Myself I'm not a big fan of the movie Reds, but I support the right to make that movie. ....The flag stops waving for freedom if you censor poets, writers, painters and people of the arts. ....
Myself, I don't watch Hign Noon and look for an inside tale of blacklisting because the movie is very good just as a movie about a western marshall left all alone and I like it at the end when he throws his badge into the dust at the people of the town as he leaves forever with his wife. Now I've heard people say Cooper hides behind his wifes skirt in this movie and it isn't true. He is all alone until his wife helps out and its the criminal that hides behind his wife and uses her as a hostage. I use this as an example of how people can twist things.
So for all the God fearing fire and brimstone people out there, I say that whatever your religion is, that is your freedom....BUT....Do not enforce your religious beliefs in a way that will cause the USA to have book burnings and blacklisting. Freedom of speech and religion goes for the poets and writers and painters. Freedom of speech and religion goes for movies and plays.
I would hope that we are still allowed to think
There have been some Presidential Administrations that have not been very big on wanting to let WE THE PEOPLE think. .....but if the day ever comes when we are not allowed to think, then the flag no longer stands for anything because without freedom, without thought....Don't you see that THAT IS the communism you are so afraid of. ....If we take away our own rights and freedoms then we have lost...and if we censor the movies, how long before your sacred churches are censored afterwards.
I also like Grapes of Wrath very much and I really don't care if some religious groups still have an attitude about the book or the movie. ...Again, I guess I'm still allowed to think. .....Over in Iran alot of religious groups want to tell the world what to think, and I don't really care about those religious groups either. They all have the right to worship however they choose, just don't force it on everybody else. Muslim, Christian, Hebrew, Atheist, whatever.....just don't force it on everybody else. That takes away other peoples freedoms and rights.
There will always be those who play Mr Ed backwards to see if there are hidden satanic messages or those who find communism in Shirley Temple or Lucy or Ma and Pa Kettle.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
Once again, maybe older movies were better at the time than you think they are now. New movies you may learn to like more over time. Maybe you don't like musicals, or westerns, or comedys, or mysterys, or love storys, or English dramas. Maybe some of the older movies looked better before time destroyed the copies of the film. Such an example is what is left of " On The Western Front ". It has been restored to be better than it was, but I'm sure it looked better when it came out. If you've only seen some of these movies on TV, then you didn't see them as intended on the big screen. I doubt if any of us on the board have seen ALL the movies ever nominated for the Oscar. Some may indeed be lost before restoration was started.
So I think the negative look to worst Oscar ever is narrow minded because not all of us like everything.
Instead, lets applaud some of the movies that DIDN'T win. Here are a few that I think were pretty good :
San Francisco
Goodbye, Mr Chips
Mr Smith Goes To Washington
Of Mice and Men
Stagecoach
Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights
Grapes of Wrath
Citizen Kane
Maltese Falcon
Seargent York
Suspicion
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Streetcar Named Desire
High Noon
Caine Mutiny
Mr Roberts
12 Angry Men
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Defiant Ones
Anatamy of a Murder
Diary of Anne Frank
Judgement at Nuremberg
To Kill A Mockingbird
Lilies of the Field
The Sand Pebbles
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
M*A*S*H
American Graffiti
The Exorcist
Chinatown
Jaws
Network
Star Wars
Coming Home
Raging Bull
E.T.
The Verdict
A Few Good Men
Scent of a Woman
Shawshank Redemption
Apollo 13
LA Confidential
Saving Private Ryan
Seabiscuit
The Aviator
There are many other nominated movies besides these, but I think these have Oscar quality.
There are even more good movies that were never even nominated. I didn't see where The Big Country or Modern Times were ever nominated. I didn't see Spartacus or the 1990s version of Last of the Mohicans nominated. If you want to see a nice movie watch Anthony Hopkins in what I believe is called The Worlds Fastest Indian ( I know I'm at least close on the title ). Did Cinderella Man win or get nominated for anything. If not, its a great movie.
So instead of complaing about who won this year or 5 years ago or 20 years ago or 70 years ago........Lets just accept that we all like some of the Oscar winners over the years and hate some of the Oscar winners over the years. ...We all have movies that we like that never won or
were never nominated. .....and the same can be said of Box Office Hits over the years......Myself, I didn't care for Shrek 2 but alot of people paid to go see it. ....
Myself, Oscar has got me to watch some movies that I really liked, but it has also had me sit through some movies that I didn't like. ....So you just have to live with that.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
1
-
-
I'm sorry but I refuse to edit again.
I've got one more Frank. I heard on TCM that Sinatra wanted Brandos part in Guys and Dolls. Probably so he could sing " Luck Be A Lady ".
Here is why its a good thing that didn't happen. In the Godfather you have Brando slapping around Johnny Fontaine telling him to be a man. Johnny Fontaine is Sinatra, OK. The whole thing of wanting out of the Big Band to make the movie to win the Oscar, the horse head in the bed, thats all a slight variation of Sinatra getting " From Here To Eternity " .
So you have Marlon Brando as the Godfather. You go back in time to Marlon Brando to a very Godfather type character playing opposite to Sinatra in Guys and Dolls. IT'S PERFECT. You get Sinatra and The Godfather in the same movie. Sinatra is great as Nathan Detroit. Sinatra would have been wrong to want Brandos part and no Brando. .....Again, what makes that movie soo much fun now is its Sinatra ( Johnny Fontaine) and Brando ( The Godfather ) TOGETHER !!!
-
I know to show you are very intellectual you are suppose to say the Seven Samurai with its subtitles. ....
...But The Magnificient Seven is actually the anti-western western. It does not paint the old west in a great John Wayne image. In the Magnificient Seven the old west stinks. Men are cheaper than guns. The gunfighters are broke. Charles Bronson is chopping wood for his supper and takes the low paying job because he is broke. Steve McQueens dream is to be in a bed with clean sheets. These guys are all broke. .....and in the end, only the farmers have won, the gunfighters lose, the gunfighters always lose says Yul Brenner.
The only flaw I see in this movie is Eli Wallach not killing them all and then giving them all back there guns. OK, for movies sake maybe Eli Wallach can't waste them all, but they should have had to have left without there guns and then forced to get some guns to come back the hard way. .....but if you can overlook how silly it is for Eli Wallach to give them back there guns, then the rest of the movie is pretty good.
The cast is great with Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach and Charles Bronson. Charles Bronson spanking the kid who disrespects his father. " Your father works hard for you and nobody says he has to do this. He farms with no guarantee anything will come from it. I never had this kind of courage. "
Then there is the music. The music is great.
In The Seven Samurai it looks like the Samurai are looked upon with respect. Not so for these nothing gunfighters who came with nothing, and leave with nothing. Its the anti-western western. They don't even get the girl, except for the one Mexican that stays to become a farmer. There are no girls, there is no money, no fame, no fortune, no nothing. Just seven guys that are broke.
So as cool as it is to always say the Samurai movie, I will say the anti-western western with the great cast and real good music. I like the anti-western western better. The is no Ponderosa in this movie. Everybody is broke and being a gunfighter in the old west isn't that great. In fact its a pretty lousy job per this movie.
-
This should get some different choices. It could range as far back to someting like " All Quite On The Western Front " to something as modern as the Oscar nominated documentary on Iraq " No End In Site ".
The last spoken word of Bridge On The River Kwie is " Madness " What better way to describe those who caused 911 and the events that have followed. When you watch Lawrence of Arabia, or Patton or Schindlers List or Apocolypse Now or even Forrest Gump.....That one word " Madness " stands out.
I once saw a documentary called " Letters home from Vietnam ". It was very good because it was in the words of the soldiers in Vietnam.
Movies like " Best Years Of Our Lives " and " Coming Home " are good because they should remind us that when the soldiers we all say we support over there, come back over here, then we need to show our support with good VA Centers. Often times we assume that a few weeks back from Nam or Iraq is more than enough time to get readjusted and back into the work force and for the returning vets to quit being a burden on their relatives. So the support we had OVER THERE, doesn't carry over OVER HERE.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
This is kind of negative. If a movie wins the Oscar it must have something. Just because I don't get it or somebody else doesn't get it, that doesn't change that alot of people liked it.
One case in point is Around The World In 80 Days and I've heard people that have seen it on TV say they just don't get it, and that is indeed the problem because they saw it on TV. From what I gather you had to see it on wide screen Cinerama to fully appreciate this movie. Perhaps the same is true of Greatest Show on Earth. Some movies just aren't the same in pan and scan on the small TV screen. I've heard people say they don't get Gone With The Wind, but again they are seeing it on TV, not the big screen which was awesome.
Myself, I didn't get Out Of Africa or English Patient. I think Tom Jones is just a whole lot of nothing. I like the singer but not the movie. Maybe I'm just not seeing it right or I'm missing something in these movies. ....On the other hand I liked Million Dollar Baby but some people I know didn't, probably because of the ending which goes against alot of peoples religious beliefs, but I liked it.
Then there are great movies like the 1990s version of Last of the Mohicans or The Firm and these movies don't win anything, but I really liked them. Or a movie like Hard Times with Chales Bronson which is not an Oscar movie but its a good movie set in the depression era. I liked Cinderella Man and I think that did win some awards. I really enjoyed Steven Kings " The Mist " and the other one with the motel room number. I'm guessing 1408. Those get nominated for nothing but those Steven King movis are usually worth watching. Sometimes his stuff gets noticed like The Shinning, The Green Mile or Shawshank Redemption or Misery.
But I don't really get into saying what the worst movie to win the Oscar was. Not everything is for everybody. When I was a kid I liked the Sound of Music. I don't like it as much years later. That doesn't make it any less of a movie. Many people still love it. I still like Climb Every Mountain, or the Baron choking up singing as he sees his family and nation over run by Nazis. The rest of the movie is children songs and I just am not into that anymore. Because I have changed does not change the movie. Just because I think 'Swing Time " is a better musical doesn't mean its so.
So what I'm getting at is everything is not your cup of tea. I do think that if a movie wins the Oscar, and you don't like it, you or me are probably missing something and thats OK. We don't have to like everything. There had to be something to the movie to win that we aren't into. I walked out of a movie theatre and you could hear the entire movie theatre grumble about " Pulp Fiction ". They thought they had been ripped off. The same with " Get Shorty " and on that the audience was probably right for grumbling.
I will say that not all old movies are good, and not all new movies are bad. I've been hearing that all my life that they don't make good movies anymore. I heard it in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and now and its just not true. Some movies don't hold up over time, a good example would be Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice which I didn't like even then but I just can't see how this story line holds up today. Some movies become out dated. Others are timeless classics such as " The Best Years Of Our Lives " . That could just as easily be soldiers returning from Iraq if you watch it right.
So heres to the Oscar Movies, even if I didn't get into some of them. I liked most of them.
I've learned a lesson about movie bashing from discussing King Kong of all movies. Now I like the original Fay Wray version. ...but the 1970s version has very good music that sticks with you and the special effects aren't as bad as I thought they were. Plus its got the Twin Towers as a co-star. ......the 2000s version uses modern effects and its watchable also. So just because I like the original version doesn't make me right or anybody else wrong. Its all matter of opinion. ......Same as with this who was the worst Oscar stuff.....again, if you've only seen some of these movies on TV, then you never saw how it looked like on wide screen. I know The Music Man was great on wide screen. Come to think of it, thats what made Sound of Music, that big opening mountain shot on wide screen. I'm sure thats whats missing watching Cinerama movies on TV. Its not the same experience at all.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
I always liked theses two Rat Pack movies : " Oceans 11" and " Robin and the 7 Hoods ". " Oceans " is the Rat Pack coming together in old Las Vegas. My favorite song of the movie is Dean Martin singing " Ain't that a kick in the head ". Ceasar Romero adds to the ending of this flick as the tough gangster Nick. Sammy Davis has the best line as the black guy driving the garbage truck that is actually the getaway vehicle. As the police are checking every car leaving Las Vegas for the stolen money, they tell the black guy in 1960 to get his garbage truck out of here. " Oh, I'll do dat' dere", says Davis as he laughs at the cops driving away with the stolen money. ..........." Robin and the 7 Hoods " has better music. Sinatra, Dean and Bing Crosby singing " You've either got or you haven't got style ". Bing Crosby singing a very Father O'Malley like song in " Don't be a Do Badder " to a bunch of kids. Sinatra gets to sing ' Chicago " and thats just great. Peter Falk is great as the gangster opposite Sinatra in the movie.
But its hard to just pick 2 Sinatra movies. TCM has been showing this movie with Red Skelton and the Tommy Dorsey Band featuring both Buddy Rich and Frank Sinatra. For most of us Tommy Dorsey was before our time, but when you see Buddy Rich and Frank Sinatra you kind of give this band its respect for talent. ....Of course there is " From Here To Eternity ",......but how about how Sinatra has to keep up with Gene Kellys dancing in movies like " On The Town ". I think Crosby, Sinatra and Grace Kelly are better in " High Society " than the actors in " Philadelphia Story " plus Crosby adds Louis Armstrong which is great. ....Then for great acting there is " The Man With The Golden Arm " ........and ' The Joker Is Wild " has Sinatra singing " All The Way " but that last scene is amazing. Sinatra as the guy trying to get off the bottle and he looks in the window and sees himself and the conversation he has with himself. Such as, " It wasn't everybody else, it was you. I'm sick of hospitals. This is one heckler that won't go away. Hey funnyman, you make everybody else feel good, how about letting youself feel good for a change ? ". .....and Sinatra saying to himself " I'll try, I'll realy try " and thats the ending.
On a personal note, I like to do Kareeoke and one day I might even learn how to spell it. Well, I do alot of immitations and people seem to like them. I've had people say they've brought relatives in to hear me. I've even been asked the what am I doing here line. But I don't do Sinatra, but I sing Sinatra. Now some people tell me I do a great Sinatra. I thank them for the complement but I don't tell them I don't know Sinatras voice. I just get up and sing his songs in my voice as smooth as I possibly can. I appreciate the compliment which is greatly overated but if my singing gets compared to Sinatra at all, I'll take it and run with it because its a great compliment. .......Now heres the point I'm getting at. I sing in alot of different places. Alot of them dives. I've learned how to sing with the noise of the bar crowd having a million different conversations and the bar glasses clinking in the background. .......Now I know there are just some places I CAN'T sing Sinatra....but in a biker bar a couple weeks ago I put that to the test. I picked out one Sinatra song even the biker crowd might like, " Nice and Easy ". ....So as I began to sing " Nice and Easy " , I was preparred for the bikers to throw me nice and easy through the window. ....but it had the affect I thought it might as the bikers kind of got into the laid back ending of ....Nice and easy does it, Nice and easy does it, Nice and easy does it everytime....Like the man said, Nice and easy does it, Nice and easy does it....Nice and easy does it, everytime. ........SO EVEN A BIKER BAR LIKED SINATRAS NICE AND EASY, and that I had to lay on somebody out there.
" Space Cowboys " ends with " Fly Me To The Moon ". I love to sing this one because I get to sing with the great Count Basie Band. .....Also after 911, Sinatras version of New York, New York is such a rally to the whole nation. If we can make it here, we'll make it anywhere. Come on, come through, New York, New York. I notice this got played in New York right after New Years in Times Square.....so its not just my take on the new meaning to this song.
Its hard for me in Ohio to pick just 2 Franks and if you are in New York, forget about it. The guy could and did do it all. Alot of talent. He didn't yell or scream or shout or any of that....he sang and there is a difference. So one trick if you ever try to sing Sinatra, you can never yell. You may have to add volume from your lungs, but you aren't allowed to yell. Once you start yelling, its all over, you blew it. You've gone Country Western, or R & B or Rock N Roll but you failed to stay in the framework of the Sinatra song.
One classic Sinatra moment. I think everybody wanted to see the Pal Joey character get his lights punched out. It happens in " Come Blow Your Horn " when Sinatra as this Pal Joey type guy is cheating with the wrong guys wife. In this case its Dan Blocker who was Hoss on Bonanza. ....It really is fun to see Hoss Cartwright lay Pal Joey out with one punch and send him upside down into an elevator.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
-
I happen to live in a small town that still has two drive in theaters from the old days. Its like out of the 1950s and I like it. One Drive In features Disney movies now. The other shows whatever they can get that is a blockbuster.
I remember as a kid the driving up to the drive in was something because of the neon lights and the big signs outside and that impressed me when I was 6 years old. It was like the way a carnival looks in the dark.
As a child I remember eating too much and bringing back up the pizza that I ate and my older brother was very upset because that was when the big Indian chief came on and was ready to lead an all out attack, and we had to leave because I funked out the car I guess. I also remember us trying to watch Lassie in the rain. It was impossible to watch a drive in movie in the rain and my dad didn't stay long. Nothing like those windshield wipers going in an old Buick to add to a film. Another great memory was my dad had a couple cold beers but no can opener. He couldn't believe he didn't have a can opener. Thats when Burt Lancaster was crawling across the desert sayiing, " Water, Water ". Finally the old man couldn't take it anymore and opened the cans with a screwdriver as the suds went everywhere. I was too young to really watch the films but I do remember the dead bodies in the Atlanta scene in Gone With The Wind. Even at 6 years old that amazed me. Also remember my parents falling asleep and I watched the second feature when I was 8. It was Gypsy and I wouldn't have got into it either had not the little blonde girl in the movie been so cute. As far as I was concerned, the movie was over once she cut out early in the movie. Of course I was 8 and I thought the young Lennon sister was a doll and the young girl on Danny Thomas and for some unknown reason at the time they kept me spellbound for as long as they were on the screen.
When I got a job when I was a teen, I took my first check and treated the parents to the drive in. The Godfather. It was long and they fell asleep. They stayed awake long enough to tell me that Johnny Fontaine was Sinatra by the way he held the microphone at the wedding. I think they dozed off on the Sicily part.
Early trips trips to the drive in with girls were more awkward than anything. When do you kiss, when don't you kiss her. It was nerve racking. Teenage dating wasn't bad until the drive in scene got thrown into the mix and it was too much pressure on the girl and me from what I remember of it. To watch the movie or make out, and what was the girl thinking. It always was like a nervouse Woody Allen movie on both our parts...well we were just kids.
For the most part I got away from drive ins until I had children and we took them. They could go out and play football in front of the screen with kids they didn't know and it didn't matter. Then come back and sit in their lawn chairs in front of the car acting silly as we sat in the car and watched the movie. The kids would finally fall asleep and we would pack them in the car and take them home. That was the best, taking our kids to the drive in. I liked that.
Nothing like pulling into the drive in and and everybody looks as they hear your car on the gravel. Then finding a place to park to watch the thing. Grabbing that old big speaker that you could hardly hear out of and putting it in the window. Now my wife really hated the womens restroom at the drive in and from what I gather its an unpleasant experience. The mens is nothing great but I gather the womens is usually crowded and not very clean, which a guy could care less about but it matters to woman I've discovered.....Then theres notthing like trying to drive out of your space and its dark. If you turn on your lights they honk but if you don't turn them on you can't see. So you just get out the best you can hoping you don't run over somebody in the dark. Taking the kids to the drive in was fun, but much like a holiday there was a relaxing sense of mission accomplished once back at home.
Still I'm glad there are a few drive ins left so familys can have this Movie Classic Experience. Heres to the one in our neighborhood with its glowing purple and yellow imitation palm trees. If I was 6 again I would think those are kind of cool. Actually I do think they are kind of cool at my age, although everybody else my age could take or leave the glowing artificial palm trees in the dark of night.
-
I disagree that the 1970s version with Lange and Bridges was GREAT STUFF. I can't get past the cheap special effects of the guy walking around in a gorilla suit. Its like watching one of those real cheap Godzilla movies. Just a guy in a gorilla suit and its just not as good as the animation in the original, in spite of that mans eyes in the gorilla suit. .......I also took young children to watch this version in the 70s and really didn't expect or need Jessica Langes hooters bared on the big screen. It wan't R rated and I had these 7 and 8 year old children with me. That was an unpleasant surprise. I'm sure Ms Langes hooters were added to sell tickets, but I didn't know that would be in there and for so long. I thought I was taking the kids to see a nice family movie....Wrong !!!! Bridges was Super Hippie and I missed the actors of the original.
As for the 2000s version, its all computer effects and no substance.
-
In 1960 was there anybody better in the movies than Charlton Heston. I mean look at his work in the 1950s and early 60s. The Ten Commandments, The Big Country and Ben Hur . As Michelangelo. As John the Baptist. As Andrew Jackson. The Greatest Show On Earth. Even as a man in a Planet of the Apes. He then was cast in some not very good sci fi flicks in the early 70s and some terrible disaster movies. But look at the amazing body and amount of his work in the 50s and 60s. He leaves behind some of the strongest and most important characters ever put on film and he perfomed these characters with such power and brilliance.
I wish I could show a Charlton Heston marathon of :
The Buccaneer ( as Andrew Jackson )
The Greatest Story Ever Told ( as John The Baptist )
The Planet of the Apes ( as a very confused lone man )
The Greatest Show On Earth
The Big Country
The Agony and the Ecstasy
The Ten Commandments
Ben Hur
These 8 movies would be long and take alot of time to watch. But how could a person not watch these and be amazed by his talent.
TCM is showing some of these and has shown most or all of these at one time or another.
I know I am leaving out other movies of the 40s, 50s and 60s of his probably but these are the ones that jump out at me as being CLASSIC MOVIES.
-
Watching TCM as I type this. The original King Kong is on. The way they fimed this and the way Kong moves in this is still the best and so is the musical score to it.
They have tried to remake this monkey a few times and both are second rate compared to the original. In the 1970s version you can tell Kong is just a guy in a gorilla suit and that ruins the entire movie. They changed the Empire State building to the Trade Center and added a hippie type look to the whole movie, but its just not very good. Now you have this 21st century version with its computer effects but thats the problem, its too much computer and not enough story. They try to sell it on Kong fights three T Rexs but its not as good. Then there is the lousy King Kong vs Godzilla thats just awful.
They might as well quit trying remake this movie because you just can't top the 1930s original. There is music where there should be music. Silence when there should be silence. Great animation and trick photography but ....there is also the story told in a quick moving and dramatic way that keeps you watching because if you miss just a few minutes you miss alot. Very fast paced and I like it that way.
If you see or have seen the later versions and go back and watch the original King Kong on TCM, you will see that this original Kong is still King. Great special effects, way ahead of its time, a classic music score and great sound effects. More over is the story that doesn't get cast aside by special effects as the more recent versions have done. Its short and its sweet and its the best. Just watch the different angles and scenes of Kong quickly climbing though New York, such as on different roof tops or climbing different buildings. Its very good and can't be topped ever.
Another station is showing the newest version but TCM is showing THE BEST version.
-
So I came up with John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.
How about Clark Cable and John Wayne. The King and The Duke. Wayne went up against casino owners such as Ernie Kovacs, but what if the gambling hall and the town was owned by Gable. The Duke as the new sherrif maybe ? Of course there is a woman involved. You guess who ends up with her. The Duke meets his match in The King. Gable steals the movie as the man who does more good than Waybe understands at first. By the end of the movie and after Gables enemys have just about ran Gable out of town with the help of John Wayne, The Duke starts seeing that Gables not the enemy, the tycoon bussineemen trying to run Gable out are, and unlike Gable, they do not have a heart of gold. The movie ends with the Duke teaming up with the King. Gable and Wayne win out. Justice prevails. Gable gets the woman. Duke gets the job done. At the end Wayne asks Gable if this town is big enough for both of them and Gable says if it isn't , he will make it big enough. They smile and thats The End.
Message was edited by: WhyaDuck
Classic Movies Recast
in General Discussions
Posted
Back in the 70s there was a movie "Magic" with Anthony Hopkins and Ann Margaret. I would have liked to have seen W.C. Fields as the guy having problems with the ventriloquist dummy. " Ah, My little sawed off runt. How would you like to go piggy back riding on a buzz saw. "