Arturo
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Posts posted by Arturo
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Tor Johnson's fan clubs say he rules
Like McQueen, he's their vision of cool
With guyliner or brawn
All bad guys he takes on
And he gladly won't suffer no fools.
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I mentioned here recently that, with my unexpected and surprisingly good experience buying a Region 2 dvd for the Linda Darnell movie GLI ULTIMI CINQUE MINUTI, I have purchased several other European Region 2 films,.to play on my laptop. Three of these films.are with Darnell, and I have since received and played them. I have these already, in dvds of varying quality.
One, SECOND CHANCE (1953), I have in dvds I made from TCM. My recent purchase was from Denmark, and was of mixed result. The picture was clearer and crisper than what I already had, even occasionally giving a bit of illusion of the 3D of the original release. But the color was substantially more faded than what TCM has shown. With Robert Mitchum.and Jack Palance also featured, I don't understand why this thriller was never given an official release here.
The other two were made while Linda was under contract to Fox, THE WALLS OF JERICHO (1948) and TWO FLAGS WEST (1950). Both are offical releases in Spain, and go by the titles MURALLAS HUMANAS ("Human Walls"), and ENTRE DOS JURAMENTOS (roughly " Between Two Flags"). The quality of these was great, especially TWO FLAGS WEST, where the depth perception was.amazing. I was most thrilled by TWOJ, as.I only had this in a washed out bootleg copy I bought online a few years ago. I have happily watched each a few times.since.receiving the discs.
What is obvious is that these are.labelled.as Fox Cinema.Classics, with deluxe packaging, if not many extras. They were released.in 2009, the year that series was suspended here in the US. So it seems.reasonable to assume that they were meant for release.here also, when.Fox suspended release of its classics. This is a shame, as both are good.films, and with the very good visual quality, it seems that they could get the Fox Cinema.Archives DVR treatment, at.least,.and viewings.on FMC.and TCM.
Next, I plan to order the Spanish release of FOREVER AMBER, which seems.to be another of that discontinued series.
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I like the beginning of the film and find Novak did fine but when it came to her so called dramatic scenes as a famous stage actress she seems to be lost and overacted. My favorite Novak role is in MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. Novak understood the character well.
Novak is another of those actresses who were underrated for their abilities, due to their phenomenal looks. This was recently brought up in thr Ava Gardner thread.
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I was watching a real trashy Anne Baxter film tonight called Carnival Story (1954) and for a moment I thought, hey, the circus strong man is Tor Johnson. But no, it was a pretender named Ady Berber.
In my mind, I always picture Tor Johnson in NIGHT AND THE CITY, even though I know its not him.
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I agree with you on both counts.
I'll add Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy.
Have you ever seen Ewan McGregor as the androgynous bisexual 70s British glam-rock star in VELVET GOLDMINE? The guyliner and makeup was totally appropriate, and looked much better on him than on Christian Bale, as the teen in love with his idol.
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Many may not know Allan because he mostly played in the old (now mostly forgotten) serials and low grade movies. Went though his filmography and never heard of them until today.
True that. He never became a major star.with the presence of, oh,.say, um.....Tor Johnson.
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It seems that the frequent airing of some of Tor's films has got newbies curious, because today's top ten could almost be subtitled Tor's Most Overplayed Titles.
1. TORTH BY TORTHWEST
2. TORTORIOUS
3. SOME LIKE TOR HOT
4. THE TOR THE MERRIER
5. ADVENTORS OF TORBIN HOOD
6. TOR VADIS
7. TOR TO MARRY A MILLIONTOR
8. THE PHILADELPHIA TORY
9. THEY DIED WITH TOR BOOTS ON
10. LADY TOR A DAY
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"Our Little Girl" has a thin plot and it's more a soap opera.
"Bluebird" was a flop, because people took it literally. It's a fairy tale that's symbolic in nature with a moral ending....Happiness is in your own back yard, not in fantasy land. Could that ever be so TODAY!
I have it and the 1918 silent version. It was saved from nitrate self destruction in the nick of time.
I have the Temple version, as well as the fairly execrable mid 1970s version with Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, Ava Gardner and Cicely Tyson.
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On FMC (all times eastern):
Wednesday, 7/15:
3 am: THE SONG OF BERNADETTE (1943)............... .........6 am: I WAS AN ADVENTURESS (1940)...................7:30 am: THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1939).......................8:45 am: HOW TO STEAL A MILLION (1966)..........................11 am: THE GIFT OF LOVE (1958)........ .....
Thursday, 7/16:
3:30 am: SURF PARTY (1964)..........................1:40 am: WILD ON THE BEACH (1965)..........................6 am: CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE (1947).....................8:30 am: THE GIFT OF LOVE (1958)............................12:30 pm: SURF PARTY (1964).........................1:40 pm: WILD ON THE BEACH (1965)...............
Friday, 7/17:
3:30 am: CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE (1947)........................6 am: ISLAND IN THE SKY (1938)..........................7:10 am: FOUR MEN AND A PRAYER (1938).........................8:40 am: IT HAPPENED IN ATHENS (1962)..........................10:15 am: TWELVE HOURS TO KILL (1960)....................11:40 am: INFERNO (1953)...........................1:05 pm: THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM (1966)..................
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So I see that both the dupicate glitch and also the missing entry glitch have now been "worked on." I guess it is ok to have extra entries though, in lieu of not enough...lol
Well since.No. 10 was a three-way Tie, they all had to be included.
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I suspect that TOR BOAT didn't make the list largely because Ava Gardner's singing was dubbed.
That could very well be. But this top.ten has twelve.entries, so it might've bubbled under.
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The Ava Gardner thread has apparently had people.search some of her films on the database, as some of her titles have made.the top ten.
1. ONE TOR OF VENUS
2. THE HUCKSTORS
3. TORQUAKE
4. THE ANGEL TOR.RED
5. THE LITTOR HUT
6. TORWHANI JUNCTION
7. LONE TOR
8. SINGATOR
9. SEVEN TORS IN MAY
10. THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARTOR
10. PANTORA AND THE FLYING.DUTCHMAN
10. TOR LIN
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I just had a first time viewing of director Jean Renoir's SWAMP WATER, a long forgotten (and vault buried) 1941 feature of 20th Century Fox.
Wonderfully atmospheric, it was shot on location in Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, dealing with the country folk living by that swamp and their relationship with that dangerous gator, cottonmouth, quicksand filled bog where men are known to enter but often never be seen again.
Dana Andrews plays a young man trying to assert his independence from a domineering, proud father (played by Walter Huston with a stern dignity). Other characters (all wonderfully credible) include Walter Brennan as a convicted murderer hiding in the swamp, and Anne Baxter as his innocent, shy daughter working for the town's store keeper. The cast is filled out with a great collection of character actors, including Eugene Pallette as the sheriff, John Carradine as a man with a secret, and Ward Bond and Guinn Williams as a pair of troublesome louts.
Andrews, in an early screen performance, is very impressive, in my opinion, playing the approaching adulthood son, rebelling from his father's authority, with the same kind of sensitivity that would later distinguish his portrayal in The Ox Bow Incident. He's very winning in a role far removed from the stoic types for which he is largely remembered today. It's an impressive demonstration of Andrews's acting range when you contrast this performance to the wise acres tough guy that he played the same year in Ball of Fire.
But the star of this film is in many ways the swamp itself. Beautifully photographed on location, it becomes a living entity on its own, a swamp that is discussed by the film's characters with a fear, at times a nervous laughter. One of the earliest shots in the film is a suitably grim one, a skull on the end of a makeshift cross stuck in the swamp, an ominous warning for anyone who dares to venture into those deadly waters. And there's a death scene in the swamp that I found chillingly, eerily believable.
I heartily recommend the little known Swamp Water, just released on DVD and Blue Ray, for its involving story line and characterizations and, the atmosphere to be found in the photography of the Okefenokee.
For the time being, at least, a very nice image of this film can be found on You Tube, as well. (This is the way I saw it).
I heartily concur with your assessment of SWAMP WATER. It is on occasionally on FMC, As is the (not nearly as good) Technicolor remake, LURE OF THE WILDERNESS (1952).
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GLI ULTIMI CINQUE MINUTI (1955) is a movie I am coming to view as a lost treasure, a superb vehicle for Linda Darnell at a time when her movie career was about to decline severely. Perhaps because she plays a woman of means, she is given the glamor treatment not in evidence in her several previous films. She is given a glamorous wardrobe, and is always impeccably coiffed and made up, and she hadn't look this beautiful on film since 1951 or so. Plus, in general she lolks more slender than she has in years; there is a scene or two where her extended stay in Italy, with the pasta-rich diets she preferred, where she has noticeably gained a bit of weight, the bane of her later career, but still looks great.
Unfortunately for Linda, and her career, this film was.never released in the US. I feel that with a suitable dubbing, or with subtitling, and with a fairly wide release, it could have been a hit for her, provided it got a decent review from Bosley Crowther. That could have been a game changer for her, giving her somd.much needed exposure on screens when the long gap between films.was making the offers from Hollywood start to dry up. Her previous films, THIS IS MY LOVE, an overwrought noirish soap, did not do well when released in the fall of 1954, and DONNE PROIBITE, Linda's first foray into filmmaking in Italy, with the same producer as GUCM, had been done in mid 1953, but only released in the US in late 1956, and then spottily; these two had not done much to keep her name up on marquees.
So, GLI ULTIMI CINQUE MINUTI exacerbated this; she was away in Italy for six months, not only doing this film but putting the final touches in realizing her dream project, establishing a Girls Town of Italy. While that might have been fulfilling personally, it kept her away and out of the spotlight for a lengthy and crucial time. And with this film not released here, Darnell would not be seen on the screen until mid 1956, in DAKOTA INCIDENT, an exciting, if unprestigious western done at Republic.
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Ok, so the Friday Night Noir Spotlight has brought a batch of titles into the Top Ten.
1. THE WOMAN ON TOR 13
2. JOHNNY TORGER
3. WHERE DANGER TORS
4. STRANGERS ON A TORAIN
5. SOMETOR IN THE NIGHT
6.
7. THE BRASHER TORBLOON
8. KISS TOR DEADLY
9. TOR CRAZY
10. TORLETT STREET
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Mogambo joins King Solomon's Mines as another early '50s African adventure by MGM shot on location that fails to have that many thrills. Both films were huge box office in their day, however, and are nice to look at as "exotic" adventures in Technicolor, which must have been much of the appeal for audiences at the time.
It's my understanding that Sinatra was concerned that Gardner was having an affair with Gable, while the reality is that the "King: was far too busy with Grace Kelly on that African location to give Ava much of a sidelong glance.
In retrospect, I think that Gardner's performance is the best thing about Mogambo. Whether her performance was actually Oscar worthy is a side issue, as far as I'm concerned. Ava brings a directness and honesty to her characterization, along with one hell of a lot of sex appeal.
Harlow was great fun to watch in Red Dust (a far more engaging movie, too, in my opinion) but, as a sex symbol, the rather hard boiled blonde always left me more than a little cold. Ava's earthy, sensual appeal (plus genuine glamour) has far more impact upon me than the '30s most famous blonde bombshell. Harlow's gifts as a comedienne, however, in a handful of films, are not to be denied.
Other hugely successful adventure films in the early 50s set in Africa include THE AFRICAN QUEEN, THE SNOWS OF KILIMAJARO (also with Ava Gardner), and WHITE WITCH DOCTOR (the last two with Susan Hayward). Yes, exotic locales in Technicolor (and soon, in widescreen) was one of the ways movie moguls hoped to lure back the audiences they were then losing to tv, by giving them spectacle they could not find on the small screen.
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I was quite impressed by THE AVIATOR, a portrait of the legendary millionaire eccentric during his Hollywood glamour years, though not shirking the beginning of the darker psychological disintegration that would forever engulf him. As far as his obsessive compulsiveness is concerned, though, I must plead guilt to identifying with him in one scene in the film - that in which he refuses to touch a public washroom door knob. Been in that position myself any of a number of times.
I thought that Leonardo Di Caprio and Cate Blanchett were both quite splendid in their roles, even thinking that Leo started looking a bit like the real Hughes as the film progressed. Blanchett may not have looked like Kate Hepburn but she certainly captured the actress's manner and vocal mannerisms to an impressive degree, without ever seeming like a caricature.
Since the film told its story in a, more or less, chronological order of events, I was surprised by at least one glaring boo boo. We see Hughes and Hepburn in a nightclub with Errol Flynn at their table, the millionaire talking about shooting a western, The Outlaw, a film that would begin production in 1941. Yet the next scene had Hughes in what was dated across the screen as 1935, clearly long before any thoughts of The Outlaw or any hell raising with Flynn, the latter not becoming a star until the very tale end of that year.
Highlight of the film for me was the spectacular plane crash during a test flight by Hughes, with the plane wheels scratching along a roof top and one of its wings slicing through the wall of a home. This was viewed from the inside of the home. Great special effects, direction, photography and editing of this knockout sequence.
When I first saw THE AVIATOR at the movies, I too was struck by the anachronisms, which jump out at me jarringly. I didn't pay close attention the other night, but I believe someone here mentioned the premiere of THE WOMEN, with Hughes accompanied by Ava Gardner, whcih would have been two years before she arrived in Hollywood. I think this is also the scene when Linda Darnell is first mentioned; she would have been newly arrived in Hollywood and all of 15 years old. Hughes would not become involved with her until after WW2.
Besides Di Caprio, who is otherwise magnificent, seeming too young, as well as the portrayals of the other film personalities not up to par, the occasional anachronisms would be my only real criticism of this great film.
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Saturday, July 11
7:30 a.m. Beauty and the Boss (1932) with Warren William and Marian Marsh. Another pre code that I have never seen. These just weren’t on tv when I was a kid.
10 a.m. Batman and Robin: Tunnel of Terror (1949)
5 p.m. America, America (1963) by Elia Kazan. If I didn’t already have a dvd copy of it this would be my pick of the day. Really solid supporting performances by Paul Mann, John Marley, Salem Ludwig, Lou Antonio, Katharine Balfour and Linda Marsh.
12:15 a.m. The Baroness and the Butler (1938). A William Powell film that I have yet to see.
THE BARONESS AND THE BUTLER, another of the relatively many 20th Century Fox titles on TCM recently, is a decent comedy, set in Budapest, I think. William Powell does another turn as a wise butler, but here he gets involved in politics, naturally on the opposite side as that of his employers. Future Mrs. Tyrone Power Annabella plays the baroness, of course falling in love with her butler. The atudio had meant the leads for Warner Baxter and Loretta Young.
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On FMC (all times eastern):
Saturday, 7/11:
4:45 am: ON THE SUNNY SIDE (1942)...................6 am: WEE WILLIE WINKIE (1937)...................7:45 am: A YANK IN THE R.A.F. (1941).................9:30 am: IN LOVE AND WAR (1958)....................11:20 am: FIVE FINGERS (1952)....................
Sunday, 7/12:
3:30 am: SIERRA BARON (1958).......................4:51 am: JUST OFF BROADWAY (1942)......................6 am: IN LOVE AND WAR (1958)..............7:50 am: FIVE FINGERS (1952).......................9:40 am: THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM (1966).....................11:30 am: CIRCLE OF DECEPTION (1961)......................1:10 pm: CRASH DIVE (1943)................
Monday, 7/13:
3 am: TROUBLE MAN (1972)....................4:45 am: 13 FIGHTING MEN (1960).......................6 am: IT HAPPENED IN ATHENS (1962)..................7:40 am: THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM (1966)...................9:30 am: CIRCLE OF DECEPTION (1961)....................11:10 am: MODESTY BLAISE (1966)...................1:15 pm: TROUBLE MAN (1972)........
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Dude, you are down with the streets!
Thanks for the tip...although I thought there was some sort of issue with European DVDs (region 4?) not playing on American DVD players (region 2?) Nonetheless, the next time I have some money to blow, I'll check it out.
....and I don't mind subtitles in the least. In fact, I would love to know how to say "what a dump!" in as many different languages as possible.
US and Canada are Region 1, Europe is Region 2. I have been mentioning my forays into recent purchasing of European.dvds on the Linda Darnell thread......it's been an eye-opener.
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I also enjoyed reading Ava's autobiography, as she has always been one of my favorites. I agree she was usually much better than she or anyone else.gave her credit. I like her in all the films.mentioned, and in others, like WHISTLE STOP, THE HUCKSTERS, ONE TOUCH OF VENUS, THE GREAT SINNER, MY FORBIDDEN PAST,.THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO, or THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA. Even in movies that generally s ****ed, like RIDE VAQUERO, LONE STAR, THE ANGEL WORE RED or THE NAKED.MAJA, I enjoy mainly because of her.
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The continued interest in the SOTM moppet has her films in tandem with her more popular costar, Tor Johnson, among the most searxhed items.
1. NOW AND TOREVER
2. THE LITTOR PRINCESS
3. BABY TOR A BOW
4. THE LITTOREST REBEL
5. A KISS TOR TORLISS
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7. TOR WORE A YELLOW RIBBON
8. BRIGHT TORS
9. THE LITTOR TORONEL
10.
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THE CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE HATES THE SEA
In which a Spanish conquistador sails for Mexico by way of the Indies, intent on looting and pillaging. He has to sail with a motley crew of passengers, bound for the island of Cuba. The various stories entangle, and as he views this, he realizes that the killing of his family at the hands of the Inquisition is nothing compared the soapish dramatics of some of the passengers. Tyrone Power plays the Captain, with JOHN Gilbert (in his last role), Jean Peters and Cesar Romero, among others. Pageantry and spectacle in the high seas and in the waning days of the Aztec hegemony.
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If the spell was cast by Aunt Clara to create a Cesar salad, instead of a salad or Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony would have appeared.
That is how bad she was at her craft.
Didn't the actress who played Aunt Clara also play Robert Walker's doting mother in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN ? And that same year, 1951, she played Paul Douglas' mother on THE GUY WHO CAME BACK.
20th Century Vole Presents
in General Discussions
Posted
NIGHT.AND THE CITY OF GOD
A numbers racket.American, driven from London by the underworld element, flees to Brazil, where.he hooks up with the thuggish youths in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, and tries to take over the most.lucrative of their rackets, the Greco-Roman.wrestling. He hires an aging wrestler/trainer, and tries to make a killing financially by playing one faction against another, and trying to double-cross all, but he meeta his comeuppance. Richard Widmark plays the protagonist, Gene Tierney his long.suffering girlfriend, following from one continent to.another, and Tor Jonhson as the wrestler/latin lover. Quite a searing slice.of the seamy side of life.