misswonderly3
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Posts posted by misswonderly3
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Uh, yeah. If you read my comments on this film, you'd see that that was more or less what I said. I did analyze the plot foibles a bit, but concluded by saying that it didn't really matter anyway, the film was fun and interesting. Actually, what I said at the end of that analysis was this:
This all sounds as though I found a lot of fault with Phantom Lady, but plot defects are not uncommon in noir, and *it really doesn't matter to me all that much,* as long as I get that lovely noir atmosphere, and Phantom Lady was certainly rich in that.
Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 30, 2011 10:59 PM
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I never have any desire to violate our privacy codes here; in any case, I actually have a copy of *Christmas Holiday* myself. True, it's on video, and it's a rather blurry print, but considering how rare it is I'm still glad I have it. (Even though when all's said and done, it's not the greatest- it's a good example of how sometimes a film is more desirable for its elusiveness than for the actual quality of the movie itself.)
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Of course you know that a French -Canadian film, *Incendies*, directed by Dennis Villeneuve, has been nominated as "Best Foreign Language Film" for the Oscars this year. I regret, I have not as yet seen it. Plan to.
I'm surprised and annoyed that *Barney's Version*, based on the Canadian novel of the same name by Mordecai Richler, was snubbed and received an insulting one category nomination (for make-up). Now to be honest, I haven't seen that yet either. But by all accounts it deserved more attention than that.
Anyway, I don't put much credence in the Oscars.
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Did anyone catch *Ministry of Fear* the other day? Great little espionage thriller, fun settings, beautiful direction -well, of course, we're talking Fritz Lang. And Ray? Ray was fabulous from beginning to end. Gotta love that early scene at the town fair, the fortune-teller getting peeved with him, the cake-guessing bit, and Ray marching off with this big icing-filled cake under his arm. I want a piece (of the cake, not of Ray...well, maybe...)
Also, I found it interesting that there seemed to be such an emphasis on clocks, at least near the beginning of the film -because, of course, Ray Milland stars in the very good noir, several years later, *The Big Clock*.
Missed *Lost Weekend* when it was on; a very good film, daring for its time in its examination of alcoholism.
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Kinokima, baby, what an interesting thread idea. I love musicals. I even like non-musical musicals. To do this thread justice, I will have to ponder your list a while. Will get back to it soon.
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Guy Maddin is Canadian . (you'd all be disappointed if I didn't do this, wouldn't you? :I )
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Hey, Val! So you finally saw *Christmas Holiday*...How did you get a hold of it?
MyFavouriteFilms: good point; fair enough.
I did enjoy the only movie I watched today, *Foreign Affair*. It wasn't great, but it did engage me. And (I do have a propensity for masochistically humiliating myself on these threads) I realized post-viewing that it was directed by Billy Wilder, something I actually didn't know hitherto (can one end a sentence with "hitherto" ? That's twice.)
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> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}
> I tried not to pay too much attention to the details.... I just went along with the flow of the film.
I basically agree, Fred. If I like a movie, I do what you said above all the time. As I said earlier, noir is full of plot holes, but it doesn't really matter. The main thing about film noir is the atmosphere, and *Phantom Lady* had that in spades (what does that expression actually mean, anyway? "Spades" as in shovelfuls? )
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I'm always in favour of more shorts on TCM.
Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 30, 2011 5:05 PM
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I've heard good things about *Ah, Wilderness !*.Didn't know it was on today, but if it was super-early, I would have missed it anyway.
To join the ranks of the "Why can't TCM do it my way" folks, I wish they'd shown *Ah Wilderness* this afternoon, instead of the oft-screened and execrable *Dr. Zhivago*. Why couldn't they have just reversed the times?
Just to be a crank: I've said it before, and I'll say it again (like right now) : *Dr. Zhivago* is featured continuously in one of Dante's nine circles of hell, I just can't remember which one at present.
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JOEL McCREA !
JOEL McCREA !
Star of the Month !
Get this underway!
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I really enjoyed *Lucky Jordon* ! I realized in the first five minutes that it was not to be taken seriously on any level, so I just sat back and enjoyed it. I don't care if the Nazis are coming out of the woodwork, even if it's totally illogical. It was funny and entertaining...I did fall for the gin-drinking "mother" sub-plot, also the long final scene(s) in the botanical gardens. Anyway, I was never bored, and sometimes I think that's ultimately the key to whether I like a movie or not.
*Phantom Lady* was pretty good, too, although the plot itself didn't make much sense ( the desperate search for the mysterious lady with the hat was not necessary at all, since at least two witnesses agreed that they'd seen Alan Curtis at the estimated time of murder.) But then, we wouldn't have had Ella Raines enticing Elisha Cook Jr. into a frenzy of percussionistic lust.
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> {quote:title=traceyk65 wrote:}{quote}
> I didn;t even know there was a boxed set of the Coens! Cool--something else for my Wish list this year...which films are in it (if you don;t mind digressing a bit more?)
tracey baby, here it is:
"COEN BROTHERS COLLECTION", from Universal/Alliance (it's got a gold cover); includes 6 of their films:
*The Big Lebowski, The Man Who Wasn't There, Intolerable Cruelty, No Country for Old Men*
*Burn After Reading* (the only one I haven't yet seen), and *A Serious Man*;
Looks like there are lots of extra tracks, commentary, etc.
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Was that a "band camp" experience?
(you'd have to be familiar with dumb teen sex movies to get the reference...)
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now that's a short post : "deleted". (
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I never know whether I'm being pretentious or not when I keep the fork in my left hand. Being quite klutzy and not very dextrous (dexterous?) , I have always found this difficult to do; however, I've always thought people would consider me a boor if I did the knife-fork switch. I decided that the easiest way out was to consume only casseroles, soups, and salads, whereby one doesn't generally need a knife at all. This has solved numerous etiquette dilemmas for me.
Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 30, 2011 11:03 PM
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Hey, what "long essays"? I try and keep 'em relatively short, usually the longest a few paragraphs. Everbody's posts are long essays compared to yours, financebaby.
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> {quote:title=Sprocket_Man wrote:}{quote}
> Really disgraceful. Not because it's a pretty terrible movie (Warner's ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT, built around a similar character -- gangster with patriotic streak -- and released a year earlier, is vastly better and more entertaining, and not just because Humphrey Bogart is, deservedly, a far more compelling actor than Alan Ladd) ...
Sprocket Man, I will not comment on your main complaint about the screening of this film, ie, the technical issues around it. I'm probably the most un-interested (yes, I lazily just made that word up) person on these boards when it comes to technical concerns regarding the airing of films, how they look, what kind of print it was, whether it was letter-boxed or not (although obviously that wouldn't apply to a 1942 film), will tcm ever go HD (I barely even know or care what that means ) etc.
No, I'm responding to your criticism of *Lucky Jordon* itself. "A pretty terrible movie" ? Come now, I see so many films aired on TCM that are far more terrible than that, it seems a tad hyperbolic. Yes, *All Through the Night* had a similar theme (American gangster who claims to be only out for himself and has no interest in helping with the war effort turns out to have a heart of gold pretty and patriotic girl generous dose of comedy) , and nobody can do it like Bogie.
That doesn't mean that *Lucky Jordon* was rubbish; I really liked Alan Ladd's performance, he even demonstrated a bit of a flair for comedy, something I'd never seen from him before. Helen Walker was lovely in it; she's a lot of fun to watch ( see *Nightmare Alley*). And the little old lady who played Ladd's "mother" was hilarious. The scene in which she receives a bottle of gin as a Mother's Day present from her "son" works as a delightful mix of pathos and comedy.
Sure, *Lucky Jordon* was basically insubstantial fluff...But it was entertaining insubstantial fluff. I thought it was variously funny, moving, suspenseful, romantic, and fun.
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> {quote:title=ValentineXavier wrote:}{quote}
> Elisha's crazed drumming looks like an outtake from Reefer Madness,
I couldn't believe Elisha could look so crazy ! He's supposed to look crazed with lust (for Ella), but he mostly succeeds in looking more scary than lustful. Either way, it's an unforgettable little scene for one of my favourite noir character actors - he should have gotten some special award for it.
> One question - did anyone else notice that Ella followed up on all the witnesses, except the cab driver? They even state that there is no one else to be a witness, after two have died, and Estella has skipped town. I wonder if maybe they filmed a follow-up with the cabbie, and it got cut?
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> Also, it seems to me that once the hat maker's assistant admitted to making a duplicate hat, and who it was sold to, the actual hat wasn't that important as evidence.
Valentine, it's a wonderful fun little noir, I enjoyed it so much, but it did occur to me that some of the plot details don't bear looking at too closely. The "hat" aspect, for one thing; do you remember how the mystery lady, on her mystery date with Alan Curtis, exlaimed when she saw the performer on stage wearing the same hat? She exclaimed "MY Hat !" , as though she was surprised, even though, as we find out later, she had had the hat commissioned to be duplicated for herself, presumeable after having already seen it previously in the same show. She asked the hatmaker to make a copy of the singer's unusual hat, hence why the surprise when she saw it on stage? (I realize this has no bearing on the plot, but still, I noticed the inconsistency.)
But what I really wondered about in *Phantom Lady* was the pivotal point upon which the whole plot hinged: the need to find the mystery lady, or at least a witness who would attest that they saw her, for Alan Curtis' alibi? But why? Her testimony should have been unnecessary, since both the bartender and the cab driver readily agreed that they had seen the Alan Curtis character himself. They could testify that they had seen him, the accused, shortly after 8pm, the supposed time of the murder; they did not deny that they'd seen him, therefore what did it matter whether the mystery lady was produced or not?
And yes, the taxi driver was never mentioned again...did he meet with an "accident"? Who knows?
This all sounds as though I found a lot of fault with *Phantom Lady*, but plot defects are not uncommon in noir, and it really doesn't matter to me all that much, as long as I get that lovely noir atmosphere, and *Phantom Lady* was certainly rich in that.
(sorry I'm commenting on this so many days after its tcm screening, but I was unable to post here over the last few days)
Edited by: misswonderly on Jan 30, 2011 1:07 PM
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"sissies"?... A couple of other good ones are "pansy", and "****-waist".
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JOEL McCREA !
JOEL McCREA !
Sullivan's Travels...
Give it an "A" !
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Rockpile had the wonderful unpretentious rocker Dave Edmunds (biggest hit you probably would have heard of: I Hear You Knocking ), and the irreverent Nick Lowe, who later went on to become...well, Nick Lowe. His biggest hit in North America was probably Cruel to be Kind (1979).
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John Lydon had insane eyes.
We know something is happening, but we don't know what it is. Do we, Mr. Jones?
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The TCM officials took one look around the vault room where *Beyond the Forest* was being stored and said, "What a dump ! "
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Film noir runneth over on the schedule lately
in Film Noir--Gangster
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I had no problem with the acting in *Phantom Lady*. Well, maybe Franchot Tone was a little too Lady Macbeth, but that was part of the fun. I certainly enjoyed it more than *The File on Thelma Jordan*, to which I fell asleep the one time I tried to watch it. I think it's Wendell Corey -just not a noir hero kind of guy. Not even Babs Stanwyck, one of my favourite actresses, could keep me interested.