cigarjoe
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Posts posted by cigarjoe
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
Hercules Against Rome (1964) - 6/10
Italian action-adventure with Alan Steel (actually Italian Sergio Ciani) as Hercules (or the son, or the grandson, or the great-grandson of Hercules, I'm not sure, but either way, his name is Hercules!), who travels from his home in Greece to Rome in order to help the current emperor Gordiano (Carlo Tamberlani) and his daughter Ulpia (Wandisa Guida) from the evil plots of Praetorian Guard commander Fillipo Afro (Daniele Vargas). Also featuring Livio Lorenzon, Dina De Santis, and Tullio Altamura. Big slab-o'-beef Steel isn't the most emotive muscleman star in the genre, but he's believable when doing the physical stunts. He gets to break some chains, smash a lot of furniture, push a big rock off a cliff, and in one memorable scene, beat up a bunch of guys using a mounted battering ram.
Source: YouTube
There were a lot of these on one of the local NY TV stations in the late 50s Hercules along with the similar Machiste films.
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4 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
Henenlotter will always have my respect for his work in preserving and promoting older exploitation films, both on his own and in conjunction with Something Weird video.
Has TCM ever shown Basket Case? is the question, Nipzoid is missing out on a classic!
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3 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
Brain Damage and Frankenhooker
I'll check them out.
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Basket Case (1982) Comedy, Horror. Directed and written by Frank Henenlotter. Starring Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner, Robert Vogel, Diana Browne, Lloyd Pace, Bill Freeman, Joe Clarke, Ruth Neuman and a seedy Times Square Hotel.
Duane Bradley and his severely deformed Siamese twin basket case brother come to New York City to get revenge on the doctors that separated them. It deserves it's cult reputation. Nice claymation sequences. Absurdly funny. The SWV Image Bluray is excellent. 7/10
On Amazon Prime for those wanting to peek.
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BTW, I like both films Harper and The Drowning Pool, with the slight edge going to the latter.
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1 hour ago, sewhite2000 said:
Looks like the novels on which they were based were written around 1950, but the filmmakers chose to put them in contemporary settings.
Actually Ross MacDonald's last Archer novel was The Blue Hammer – 1976 so the character was still contemporary when The Drowning Pool came out
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1 hour ago, jakeem said:
I prefer "The Drowning Pool" because of its New Orleans setting and Joanne Woodward. It also was one of three memorable 1975 movies that featured the young Melanie Griffith (the others were "Night Games" and "Smile").
Night Moves
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1 hour ago, Hibi said:
Although critics (and the public apparently, Harper was a big hit; Pool may have barely broke even) preferred Harper, I liked Drowning Pool more. For one, I found it easier to follow and had more "atmosphere". I don't think the "star power" really helped Harper. Thought it would have been better set in the 40s or 30s.
The 30's are too old.
Ross MacDonald wrote The Moving Target in 1949 (it was filmed as Harper (1966), The Drowning Pool was written in 1950 filmed as The Drowning Pool in 1975
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Ironweed (1987) Halloween - Skid Row Noir
"On All Hallows Eve, the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thin. It allowed the souls of the dead to come back to earth and walk among the living." (Holiday Insights)
Ironweed was directed masterfully by Brazilian native Héctor Babenco, (Pixote, At Play in the Fields of the Lord).
The screenplay was by William Kennedy based on his the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The cinematography was by Lauro Escorel, and the music was by John Morris.
Babenco shot most of the film on location in the upper Hudson Valley of New York State. The gritty locations include the seedy sides of, Albany, Glenville, Athens, Slingerlands, Troy, Watervliet, and Hudson. Hudson by the way was the town that filled in for the town of Melton in Classic Noir Odds Against Tomorrow.
When I saw this film back in 1987 I wasn't remotely into Film Noir, I was a Western aficionado. I wasn't appreciating what I saw at the time. Two down and out characters that a thirty-four year old found un-relateable and slightly repulsive.
Watching this film again just the other night was a eye opener. I never appreciated it at the time I saw it. I needed to acquire a sense of noir-ish cinematic memory. You only achieve this by getting quite a few Film Noir and Transitional Noirs under one's belt. Then you start to appreciate the iconography, see the tropes, the patterns, the archetypes, the full range of the Noir spectrum. When all the right ingredients are there your mind clicks. Noir is a drug for the mind, you know it when you watch it. Noir stimulates aesthetic, emotional and occasionally erotic feelings.
Ironweed not only makes great use of the above mentioned locations but Babenco's moody style uses both eerie gin soaked flashbacks and slightly disorienting DT hallucinations.
Ironweed is just one relentless downward spiral of melancholy and regret.
Jack Nicholson as Francis Phelan actually will blow you away. Nicholson gives what is one of his best performances. He's an on the skids has been ballplayer.....
Ironweed got mixed reviews. Not many could relate to the downer story line but Nicholson, Streep, and Baker were amazing. It's a downer but worth a watch 8/10
Full review with more screen caps here in Film Noir/Gangster.
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Ironweed (1987) Halloween - Skid Row Noir
"On All Hallows Eve, the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thin. It allowed the souls of the dead to come back to earth and walk among the living." (Holiday Insights)
Ironweed was directed masterfully by Brazilian native Héctor Babenco, (Pixote, At Play in the Fields of the Lord).
The screenplay was by William Kennedy based on his the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The cinematography was by Lauro Escorel, and the music was by John Morris.
Babenco shot most of the film on location in the upper Hudson Valley of New York State. The gritty locations include the seedy sides of, Albany, Glenville, Athens, Slingerlands, Troy, Watervliet, and Hudson. Hudson by the way was the town that filled in for the town of Melton in Classic Noir Odds Against Tomorrow.
When I saw this film back in 1987 I wasn't remotely into Film Noir, I was a Western aficionado. I wasn't appreciating what I saw at the time. Two down and out characters that a thirty-four year old found un-relateable and slightly repulsive.
Watching this film again just the other night was a eye opener. I never appreciated it at the time I saw it. I needed to acquire a sense of noir-ish cinematic memory. You only achieve this by getting quite a few Film Noir and Transitional Noirs under one's belt. Then you start to appreciate the iconography, see the tropes, the patterns, the archetypes, the full range of the Noir spectrum. When all the right ingredients are there your mind clicks. Noir is a drug for the mind, you know it when you watch it. Noir stimulates aesthetic, emotional and occasionally erotic feelings.
Ironweed not only makes great use of the above mentioned locations but Babenco's moody style uses both eerie gin soaked flashbacks and slightly disorienting DT hallucinations.
Ironweed is just one relentless downward spiral of melancholy and regret.
Jack Nicholson as Francis Phelan actually will blow you away. Nicholson gives what is one of his best performances. He's an on the skids has been ballplayer.....
Wind, the great outside. A slow thundering steam locomotive leaves a freight yard it brought a cargo of broken dreams. It whistle a call of the wild-**** ones. The losers, the dreamers, the vagabonds, ones that were just plain unlucky to be in the right place at the wrong time. The ones... kissed with life's wrench. Living literally on the Earth.
From the steam to the clouds to the Moon and Milky Way to the sounds of morning. An edifice, a building, a man made cliff. Wind the atmospheric river's current. A flock of birds.
A bum sleeping in the wind shadow at the edge of the mythic "la strada," the road, on the grass. He's lying in a shallow notch. A building corner, up against the bricks. He's camouflaged by soot, grime, dust, grease, and dirt. He's wearing a fedora, a blanket over a rumpled suit, and cardboard. He's causing a drift of leaves and trash. He blends with the cityscape. If he doesn't awaken he'll be just a piece of life's trash.
The pile stirs. So begins Ironweed.
He sits up. Raises he right arm clutching a bottle of booze. Checking the dregs. He's a hobo stew-bum delivered by the nightly freight drag. He's Frank Phelan, Albany hometown boy, a has been ball player, who deserted his family after he couldn't get his mind around the tragedy that in 1916 he accidentally dropped and killed his infant son.
He didn't know if the four beers he'd had or the fact that he was dead tired from work had something to do with it. He was, because of this unanswered question, haunted by guilt. Though his wife forgave him, it still drove him away from his family, out on the road, and into a bottle to try and maintain. There are other ghosts in Franks closet.
Frank makes his way along the wall to a main stem. He travels up the middle of the asphalt. He he's heading for a rendezvous. A bum rendezvous, centered around the arrives at the Mission Of Holy Redemption. At an oil drum fire the topic is the weather. Frank's back in town looking for Helen (Merle Streep).
A bum rendezvous, centered around the arrives at the Mission Of Holy Redemption. At an oil drum fire the topic is the weather. Frank's back in town looking for Helen (Merle Streep).
We are treated throughout the film to the unofficial tramp, bum, hobo, wino, derelict, etc., etc., merit badge shtick. Tying broken shoes together with long pieces of twine. Hanging out at the Salvation Army to score a new set of dead man's clothes. How to avoid getting your **** eat off by packs of wild dogs. How to work together with another bum to make enough money for a jug and a place to flop. Helen even learns she can get to sleep in a bums semi abandoned car and out of the cold, by jerking him off in the morning.
Frank Phelan (Jack Nicholson)
Rudy (Tom Waits)
Frank recruits Rudy (Tom Waits) to work with him at the cemetery, gravediggin'. When they get done at sunset and are waiting for the truck to take them back, Frank visits his own family's neighborhood in the bone yard.
At the grave of his infant son he breaks down in a compelling performance by Nicholson. Pee Wee questions Frank, Frank haltingly spills the beans.
Rudy: You know somebody that's buried up there?
Frank: Yeah, a little kid.
Rudy: Little kid? What'd he do, die young?
Frank: Pretty young, yeah.
Rudy: What happened?
Frank: He fell.
Rudy: Fell where?
Frank: On the floor.
Rudy: Fell on the floor? I fall on the floor about twice a day. I ain't dead yet.
Rudy: Fell on the floor, I fall on the floor twice a day and I ain't dead yet.
Frank: That's what you think.
On the bus back to the mission Frank passes his old house. Frank tells Rudy that he used to live there.
Rudy: Who lives there now?
Frank: Some people I used to know.After dark while Rudy sleeps, Frank begins to flashback on the bus to the trolley strike, and the **** (Nathan Lane) he killed with a rock.
In the first hallucination Frank converses with the **** about how they were taking away their jobs and keeping us from feeding our families. The **** replies that that is odd logic coming from a man who abandoned his own family. Frank tells the specter that he dropped his baby son and he died, he couldn't face that.
He comes out of the hallucination screaming in the back of the bus.
**** (Nathan Lane)
The Mission of the Holy Redemption, Frank tells us is full of men who "don't believe in nothin', they's just hungry."At the mission Frank gets a lead on another job for a rag picker, and while he's having a bowl of soup in walks Frank's gal pal Helen.
Helen lays into Frank about how **** up he gets on whiskey, sayin' that he's bad enough on wine. She clams up when Frank tells her he's got six bucks. A small fortune during the depression. Helen gets testy with the preacher, apparently having something against Methodists. For six bucks, Helen tells Frank, that they could get their suitcases and phonographs out of hock and get a place. Helen's tale is one of quiet desperation a once upper class chanteuse whose career was a shooting star flash in the night never making the big time. She drinks to forget. She carries her dignity around in her suitcase, that, when out of hock and in a flop, she empties the contents, decorating her room like an Egyptian decorates a tomb for the after life, placing personal items around in the approximation of a normal life.
Helen (Merle Streep)
A bum at the mission tells Helen and Francis that Oscar Reo (Fred Gwynne) is in town, he used to sing on the radio like Helen. He was the most musical drunk they ever saw and he blew his career with booze. But he's back as a singing, on-the-wagon, bartender at The Gilded Cage. They arrive and listen to Oscar crooning.
At the bar, when Helen reminds Oscar that she used to sing also. Oscar encourages her to belt one out. Frank buys Helen a flower and Helen reminisces about when they were lovebirds and had an apartment on Hamilton street. When Helen starts to sing it triggers her hallucination. She/s back in a nightclub singing "He's My Pal," and the swells are applauding. Reality is she's lost her voice and can't hit the high notes. Frank meanwhile is seeing dead men.
Oscar Reo (Fred Gwynne)
Helen sings
They head for a couple friends, fellow drinking buddies they know that have an apartment. They try to finagle a stay for the night but Helen blows it.
dead men
Finally Frank takes her to a bum that's got himself an abandoned car for a crash pad.
Helen can stay as long as he gets to cop a feel and then wacks him off in the morning. She's done the routine before. Frank heads to his old neighborhood.
In the morning Helen pays off her debt with a hand-job.
hand-job Frank gets a job with a rag-man. This is a private carting enterprise that hauls away newspapers, rags, trash, and junk.
Rag Man Rosskam (Hy Anzell) When they get to Franks old neighborhood he gets a flashback of his first lay. She was an oversexed Victorian lady, who seduces Frank by coming out of the ornate gingerbread house naked.
When they arrive at Franks street he asks for his money and hops off the rag wagon. With some of the cash he buy's a turkey and calls on his wife Annie Phelan, (Caroll Baker). They haven't seen each other in 22 years. It's a touching reunion.
Of course, things continue to slowly go Noirsville.
Annie Phelan (Carroll Baker)
Noirsville
Ironweed got mixed reviews. Not many could relate to the downer story line but Nicholson, Streep, and Baker were amazing. Screencaps are from an online streamer. It's a downer but worth a watch 8/10Full review with more screencaps here Noirsville.
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40 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:
I think you're kidding, what with the "cool" emoji and all.
It was tongue in cheek....
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1 hour ago, misswonderly3 said:
Debby (from "The Big Heat")
Didn't Debby throw boiling coffee in Vince Stone's (Lee Marvin) face and kill Bertha Duncan (Jeannette Nolan). she was pretty fatale to Bertha. 😎
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6 minutes ago, kingrat said:
Love this poster, cigarjoe. A few of the characters pictured are not actually femmes fatales, but it's great to have all these pictures on one poster.
I saw it on Facebook somebody the nice poster was copied to Classic Film Noir Lovers by Sorcha Cavanaugh.
I think instead of Femme Fatales as you say it should be labeled Female Leads in Film Noir to cover all the bases.
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Dead Reckoning still not on demand as of last night and this is one title I do not own, sorry to miss the conversation. I do have links to Eddie's intro and outro but still waiting to see if it shows. I've had some take almost a week.
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50 minutes ago, Dargo said:
Heavens to Betsy, but wasn't Heaven's Gate excruciatingly long!
I remember once trying to get through the original four hour long version on my TV, and within 30 minutes into it I almost started yelling at the screen, "Hey Cimino! Here's yet another scene you've dragged out twice as long as you needed to in order to make the plot point you're attempting to make with it here!"
(...sure, beautiful cinematography, but GEESH, use the damn visuals to tell the damn story here)
Talk about long, talk about indulgence, holy s**t, an f-ing full twenty minutes spent at Harvard W*T*F was he (Cimino) thinking???????. The march down the street, the sequence in the lecture hall, the friggin dance sequence, the climbing of the tree, then the other indulgence of the stream of immigrants along the road with their two wheeled carts and if that wasn't enough the indulgence at the "Heavens Gate" roller rink, and there you get a twofer too, the rollerskating and another dance sequence. He was out of control.
The final battle at the end took forever too, and then the capper to all this was... more than one ending fer christsakes....
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Oh, drat it all!
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8 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
you know,
we all have actors that are "special" to us- who, after years of enjoying their work, we come to feel as though we know them and can even get defensive of them.
I am that way with LUGOSI.
And I think that's the REAL REASON I can't make it thru BLACK FRIDAY, it cheeses me off (sorry, language!) that Universal was miscasting him in this craptacular part within a year of his delicious turn as YGOR in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN.
Bela (AS ALWAYS) deserved better.
ps- anyone who wants to see LUGOSI OWN THE **** out of six minutes onscreen, check out his STAR turn as ROXOR in CHANDU THE MAGICIAN.
PS- God damn that man could wear a turban!
Part of this sequence or another:
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32 minutes ago, Swithin said:
Very similar. Here's the piece. Btw, who knows what the Tralfamadorians were wearing!
Think you pasted the wrong link Swithin
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9 hours ago, Swithin said:
Slaughterhouse-Five is one of my favorite movies. I find it tremendously moving. The scene with Billy and the dog, with the Andrews Sisters on the soundtrack, leading to Billy and the dog witnessing the star that is moving toward them, as Glenn Gould plays the Largo from J.S. Bach's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in F minor, gets me every time.
The war scenes, like the bombing of Dresden, are of World War II. However, Vonnegut's book (1969) mentions Vietnam specifically in a few chapters. The film (1972), made at the height of the Vietnam War, did not (as I recall) specifically mention Vietnam, but it was very clear that the depiction of the horrors of war were intended to have a very contemporary significance.
Has TCM ever shown the film? I have the DVD, but I think it would be a great film for TCM to show on Memorial Day.
Agree a great film I thought it was Bach's Arioso in A-flat for solo piano
(Adagio from Harpsichord Concerto No.5 in F minor)Also you got to consider that Valerie Perrine's boobies would offened some of the "make America white and evangelical" classical movie crowd. 😎
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Re Nightmare Alley:
In deference to TomJH and speedracer5 who are currently reading the novel,
I'm going to print here for the rest of Noir Alley's fans, the way the final seance went wrong as opposed to how it had to be handled in the film under the Hayes/Motion Picture Production Code.
So I'd suggest TomJH and speedracer5 not read anymore below or any responses to the text from Gresham's novel.
Notebene, I've added ellipsis to where I edited some sentences out, but you'll get the jist of it.
Now this below is Nightmare Alley
When night had come there was a tap on the door and Carlisle entered carrying in both hands a votive candle in a cup of red ruby glass. "lets go to the chapel."
Grindle had never seen that room before.... the entire room was hung in folds of dark drapery. If there were any windows they were covered.
The clergyman led his disciple to the divian; taking his hand he pressed him back against the cushions. "You are at peace. Rest, rest."
Grindle felt foggy and vague. The bowl of jasmine tea which he had been given for supper had seemed bitter. Now his head was swimming lightly and reality retreated to arm's length.....
Carlisle was chanting something which sounded like Sanskrit, then a brief prayer in English which reminded Grindle of the marriage service; but somehow the words refused to fit together in his mind.....
They waited.
From far away, from hundreds of miles it seemed came the sound of wind, a great rushing wind or the beating of giant wings. Then it died and there arose the soft tinkling notes of a sitar.....
Ghostly music began again. From the curtains before the alcove a light flashed, then a sinuous coil of glowing vapor poured from between them, lying in a pool of mist close to the floor. It swelled and seemed to foam from the cabinet in a cascade....
The pool of luminous matter began to take form. It swayed as a cocoon might sway from a moth's emerging. It became a cocoon holding something dark in it's center. Then it split and drew back toward the cabinet, revealing the form of a girl, lying on a bed of light, but illuminated only by the stuff around her. She was naked, her head resting on one bent arm.
Grindle sank to his knees. "Dorrie-Dorrie-"
She opened her eyes, sat up and then rose, modestly drawing a film of glowing mist over her body. The old man groped forward awkwardly, reaching up to her. As he drew near, the luminous cloud fell back and vanished. The girl stood white and tall, in the flicker of the votive candle across the room, and as she gazed down at him her hair fell over her face.
"Dorrie-my pet-my honey love-my bride..."
He picked her up in his arms, overjoyed at the complete materialization, at the lifelike smoothness of her body-she was so heartbreakingly earthly.
Inside the cabinet the Rev. Carlisle was busy packing yards of luminous-painted China silk back into the hem of the curtains. Once he put his eye to the opening and his lips drew back over his teeth. Why did people look so filthy and ridiculous to anyone watching? Christ!
The second time in his life he had seen it. Filth.
The bride and bridegroom were motionless now.
It was up to Molly to break away and get back to the cabinet. Stan turned the switch and the rhythmic, pounding heartbeat filled the room, growing louder. He tossed one end of the luminous silk through the curtains.
The quiet forms on the divan stirred, and Stan could see the big man burrowing his face between Molly's breasts. "no-Dorrie-my own, my precious-I can't let you go! Take me with you, Dorrie-I don't want earth life without you..."
She struggled out of his arms; but the bridegroom seized her around the waste, rubbing his forehead against her belly.
Stan grabbed the aluminum trumpet. "Ezra-my beloved disciple-have courage. He must return to us. The force is growing weaker. In the city-"
No! Dorrie-I must-I-once more..."
This time another voice answered him. It was not a spiritual voice. It was the voice of a panicky showgirl who has more than she can handle. "Hey, quit it, for God's sake! Stan! Stan! Stan!
Oh the dumb b*i*t*c*h!
The Rev. Carlisle tore the curtains apart. Molly was twisting and kicking; the old man was like one possessed. In his pent-up soul the dam had broken, and the sedative Stan had loaded into his tea had worn off.
Grindle clutched the squirming girl until she was jerked from his hands.
"Stan! For God's sake get me out of here! Get me out!"
Grindle stood paralyzed. For in the dim flickering light he saw the face of his spiritual mentor, the Rev. Stanton Carlisle, it was snarling. Then a fist came up and landed on the chin of the spirit bride. She dropped to the floor, knees gaping obscenely.
Now the hideous face was shouting at Grindle himself. "You goddamned hypocrite! Forgiveness? All you wanted was a girl!" Knuckles smashed his cheekbone and Grindle bounced back on the divian.
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TB PM me, thanks
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2 hours ago, Sepiatone said:
Now, just need help with being "IN Dutch" meaning being in big trouble.
And now too, wondering about food used in descriptive employ of someone's character. Like someone who's also known as a "square Joe" is also considered a "good egg". You often hear eggs being used to define a person.
In MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON you often hear JEAN ARTHUR's Saunders call Thomas Mitchell's "Diz" as an "egg".
Sepiatone
Add egghead and egged on to those
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
true dat. I wasn't really paying attention to notice, some of the films though, were quite good. 😎