nightwalker

A voice on a tape recorder speaks: "Your mission, Mr. Graves, is to make of this boring, incomprehensible mess a film which will engage the audience on a variety of levels and actually cause them to care about the characters and plot." Graves: "Forget it! Not even the IMF could pull this one off! Let's pop in a DVD of PLAN 9 and chill out!"

This film was allegedly known to industry insiders as "Perspire Under the Arms," with good reason, apparently.

> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote} > > Fine, but at no point to do offer any rebuttal to what I've asserted. > This is obviously aimed at me. At no time have I ever started a thread, or written a posting in debunking the insupportible notion of a supreme being; everything I write on the subject is in response to thinkly disguised attempts at proselytizing, and there's nothing ruder than someone forcing his or her religion down others' throats. > Bigotry was invented Christianity. The need to feel suprior is, sadly, a trait found in the adherents of most religions, but Christians have elevated it to an art. The above is nonsense, and not supported by the facts of history, Cine. Obviously, bigotry existed long before that. The whole idea of evangelism is not, as you say, to force Christianity down people's throats due to a feeling of superiority on the part of believers, but it is a genuine attempt to convert people, something which any religion (or political viewpoint) has the right to do. You seem to find this offensive, but to Christians, it is merely being faithful to what is called the Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:18-20 and, in a different form, in Acts 1:8, in which followers of Christ are commanded by Him to "teach all nations" and to be "witnesses for Him." The fact that evangelistic effort is commanded by Christ renders what other religions do in this regard irrelevant. What does this mean on a practical level? Simply this: a believer may approach you on the street or knock on your door, having no prior knowledge of your wish "not to hear it." You then have the right to make that wish known and to expect that it will be respected. But the Christian does have the right (and the responsibility) to make the initial approach until you make your feelings known. I can only add that if, in your experience, your wishes, once they became known, were not respected, then that person was wrong.

> {quote:title=judycwrite wrote:}{quote} > Anybody up for another one? > > Question: Andrew Keir plays the perennial British scientist Quatermass in 1967's Five Million Years to Earth... But psychic and telekinetic things keep harassing them until they realize it's coming from the ship and Quatermass arrives at an epiphany that these bugs were the makers of mankind and instilled a race memory toward conformity. Everyone not part of the body is to be destroyed. (Does this sound familiar?) So the psychic alien energy is driving Quatermass to attack Rooney for the purposes of vivisection. Whaddya do? There's only one thing to do: call on Kreskin and the members of the psychic network hotline to bend these creatures' spoons, tell their absolutely genuine and not phony fortunes and send them on their way.

Yes, you are right about THE PHANTOM SPEAKS and about Stanley Ridges, who could play sympathetic parts as well as cold blooded killers (even in the same role, as in BLACK FRIDAY) with equal ease.

And while they may not be classics in the sense that, say, the Universals are, they're still pretty enjoyable to watch (fortunately, I was able to add them to my library before they went "off the radar"), with THE VAMPIRE'S GHOST starring John Abbott as possibly the most fun. And actually, AMC used to show a pretty good quality copy of THE CATMAN OF PARIS, another Republic effort from 1946 starring Douglass Dumbrille, not all that long ago, before they "went over to the dark side."

I was fortunate enough to get these off of the Sci-Fi channel in the mid 90s, before that channel, as did so many others, began its descent into dreck-dom. An excellent series, with episodes concerning not only the supernatural, but some pretty good ordinary suspense/thrillers as well, with some containing elements of film noir also! Highly recommended.

> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote} > > As for the dialogue you quote, I'd rather quote Wamba, from MGM's IVANHOE, in reply to Sir Brian Bois de Guilbert's statment that he'd "rather bivouac by the side of the road than share a roof with an infidel." It puts the sanctimony of those who believe their religion -- and, therefore, them -- is superior to all others in a rather neat perspective: > > "For every Jew you show me who is not a Christian, I'll show you a Christian who is not a Christian." I'm in accord with Rohanaka here. Although there might be some people who feel as you describe above, most of those I have known would sum up their faith in this way: "Christianity, when it comes right down to it, is merely one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread."

Introduce it to "Thing" from The Addams Family. Who knows? It could be the start of a new era in interstellar friendship and cooperation, a hands-across-the-table kind of thing.

There's THE GREAT LOVER, a Bob Hope farce from 1949 which takes place on board an ocean liner, featuring Bob as the target of a killer. And there's a "cruise" sequence in A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, 1935, that's pretty funny as well. And there's the Sherlock Holmes feature from 1945 PURSUIT TO ALGIERS, one of my favorites.

> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote} > AMERICAN GRAFFITI contains more cruising than any other film I can think of. With the possible exception of the film CRUISING.

> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote} > There are, in the end, no stories about redemption, only those about people given a chance at redemption. A case could be made that they are one and the same thing.

Yes, I've seen it. It's not bad, as heist movies go, and it has the advantage of starring Frank Sinatra and Virna Lisi.

I always found it most interesting that many of Hitch's films feature "the Fall" of someone, generally as a result of some transgression or other. Besides some mentioned already in this thread, these would include: NORTH BY NORTHWEST -- Martin Landau VERTIGO -- Kim Novak REAR WINDOW -- James Stewart SABOTEUR -- Norman Lloyd FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT -- Edmund Gwenn JAMAICA INN -- Charles Laughton And these are films which include only falls from great heights. There are other films, such as MARNIE and SHADOW OF A DOUBT to name just two, which feature "falls", but not from great heights. I've always found the whole idea of "the Fall" as a recurring motif of retributive justice in Hitchcock a fascinating one.

> {quote:title=scsu1975 wrote:}{quote} > Understood, OP. I was mostly referring to Fred's comment when he comes out of the plane. The other man says "reliving some of your memories," and Fred responds with "or maybe getting rid of some" ... I can't recall the exact words. "Getting some of them out of my system."

> {quote:title=CineSage_jr wrote:}{quote} > During the Great Depression there were a lot more people starving to death under Capitalism than under Communism (Stalin's cynical and brutal forced collectivization of the U.S.S.R. and the purging of the Kulaks not included). Yes, but let's go ahead and include them, since that will help provide a more accurate contrast between what was happening here in the 1930s and what was happening in the Soviet Union. That little episode with the Kulaks to which you refer resulted from a man-made famine, engineered by Stalin, in which more than five million peasants died at the rate of 25,000 per day. Nothing that happened here during the height of the Great Depression even comes close to that. By the end of the 1930s, ten million people had been purged, and that's only about a quarter of the final death toll. I think that's worth remembering and worth including in any discussions of the two forms of government.

Yes, but what male in the audience was looking at them?

I thought Forbes-Robinson brought a more refined sense of menace to the part and when I first saw it, I wished that he might have played the part for more of the film's length. I enjoyed him better than Lee in his last few tries at the part (although, to be fair, Lee was tiring of the role in those years). I even liked the reverb they gave his voice. My only quibble: his make-up was a bit much! (Not really his fault, I know...)

Let me think on it. I'm sure I can hammer out a solution...

It's okay, CineMaven. No harm done, and no foul. I knew you were quoting and wouldn't do so without making note of it. No Great Dane needed (unless you're into Olivier, of course). No scratch that; we just got this thread back on track.

I don't believe this would qualify as an "exploitation film" because, first of all, the budget (such as it was) was still too high and second, there were recognizable names in the cast. As was pointed out before, it's just an example of output of the enjoyably seedy Columbia B-movie unit with some admittedly noirish undertones, particularly in the denouement and the revelation of the guilty party. Of particular note, as RO pointed out in his intro, is the fact that the shower scene attack in the film's opening predates the more famous similar sequence in PSYCHO by some two years, and in some ways prefigures it! If you like Philip Carey, he starred in several westerns at Columbia throughout the 50s, many of which appear on Encore's Westerns Channel (if you have it).

Today's pitching and Tomorrow's catching! 1958 = AUNTIE MAME 1974 = MAME

> {quote:title=CineMaven wrote:}{quote} >Saaay, remember, you're the one who brought up Forrest Tucker and Robert Preston. Only because that's who she did end up with in the 1958 and 1974 film versions (at least, for a while)! > At least I didn't say Sonny Tufts. True. Actually, I can see her with a quiet, forceful type, like "Wild Bill" Elliott.

Why, thank you, Judy. I'll take all the points I can get! Got another one?

Enjoyably atmospheric, from a pretty good book by Jessie Douglas Kerruish, and made to cash in on the popularity of THE WOLF MAN. Definitely worth a look if you've not seen it.