HollywoodGolightly
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Posts posted by HollywoodGolightly
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Dam Busters (The)
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Molo,
Sorry to hear about your experience. Hope there won't be any more snakes around your house, but if you run into a similar problem again, perhaps you could persuade Samuel L. Jackson to lend a hand?
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I'm just really looking forward to The Big Parade, especially, since it's been ages since the last time TCM showed it. Having a special co-host is the icing on the cake, I suppose.
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Ford, Glenn
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Young, Freddie - cinematographer, Lawrence of Arabia
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I'm adding the program from Dewey's fest to this thread, it contains info on more than 2 dozen B noirs from Monogram, Republic, Eagle-Lion, and even one or two from the major studios. To read the program descriptions, just right-click on the picture and select "view image" then you should be able to zoom.
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Zero Hour!
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Bronxie,
Sorry if I appeared a little over-enthusiastic about that one, however I really think some Mansfield fans might not become aware about this little gem if they do not hear about it here first.
For the folks who don't frequent that particular forum, I'd just like to mention very briefly that Dewey has done a truly amazing job programming a 2-week-long festival with many extremely rare movies, and that while not everyone may have the chance to attend, he has also put together a really fun book that is itself the inspiration for his festival. He and his wife have personally been selling the book at the festival venue, but for those not in the area, it is also available online. Check out the noir forum for more information, I think you would enjoy the book very much and perhaps others would, too.
And in case anyone's wondering, I am not getting a commission or anything for recommending the book!
Seriously, it's a fun book to have, even if you aren't that big into noir, some of the stuff that's included (IIRC) also includes many popular late-night movies. It's a great piece of nostalgia!
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I would love to see Vera-Ellen as SOTM and hope TCM could make it happen!
Since she barely has over a dozen film credits, it might be difficult to do this unless they could get the rights to every one of them, and some are controlled by Fox. Still, it shouldn't be impossible, and if anyone can make it happen, then I'm sure TCM can.
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Sullivan's Travels - Make 'em laugh.
next: One of Our Aircraft is Missing...
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William who ?!?
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Aren't those the Tarzan titles that were just released by the Warner Archives?
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Saturday's program was simply awesome. The Burglar is truly a forgotten gem of late-50s noir, which as Dewey pointed out in the program also would influence New Wave Cinema a few years later.
The first film in the festival in a 1.85:1 ratio, if memory serves, The Burglar opens with some mock newsreels that immediately draw you into the story, even as they help set up the plot. The performances are great, especially Dan Duryea and Jayne Mansfield in the lead roles; I also enjoyed Phoebe Mackay as Sister Sara (the victim of Duryea's robbery) and Stewart Bradley as a double-crossing police officer.
Towards the end of the film, as the action moves into an amusement park, there were many eerie and bizarre sights, and the movie proved that it made a better use of that setting than The Last Crooked Mile.
The Burglar was Paul Wendkos' first directorial effort; he'd later go on to make Gidget and The Mephisto Waltz, and then worked mostly on television.
Watching Witness to Murder on the big screen was also a revelation; I'd seen the movie on TCM before, but wondered how John Alton's amazing photography would look like in a darkened theater. Based on my memory of what the movie looked like on TCM, I'd say that the theatrical print is quite darker, but also reveals more contrast (perhaps not surprisingly, since it's possible whomever controls this UA title didn't put much effort into the video transfer).
I've sometimes suspected that Barbara Stanwyck and George Sanders, both of whom I admire and enjoy watching very much, might have been slightly miscast in their roles here, but that's a really small quibble. Watching them in a B noir is great no matter what.
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After another grueling day of film noir screenings at Dewey's fest, I finally caught up with my recording of Blast of Silence. What a great movie, a great example of post-1958 noir, as well as a tour-de-force of low-budget independent filmmaking (Universal reportedly didn't pick it up until after it was finished).
Reportedly, actor-writer-director Allen Baron was originally going to make the movie with Peter Falk in the main role, but it's perhaps a good thing that he didn't; his own performance feels just right, perhaps because he was slightly uncomfortable in front of the camera, just as his character appears ill at ease during much of the movie.
(Considering what a brilliant directorial debut this is, it's almost sad to learn that Baron would wind up his career directing episodes of TV shows like "Charlie's Angels", "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "The Love Boat").
Others have already pointed out that parts of the movie are reminiscent of Scorsese's and Coppola's crime dramas, so it should come as no surprise that Scorsese himself reportedly watched this movie when he was a film student at NYU in the early 60s. Plus, the fact that the film is full of Christian themes and motifs (not only because it takes place around Christmas) probably made it resonate more powerfully to Scorsese.
If anyone's interested, there's a great essay in the Criterion website by Terrence Rafferty, who calls Blast of Silence "the best movie ever made about a common, important, and unjustly neglected American experience: the really bad business trip."
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Here's a photo I just found of Coop from Sergeant York, which as I'd mentioned before is going to be shown on TCM on Memorial Day:
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Harriet Craig - another domineering housewife
next: The Exterminating Angel
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Pepe le Moko
Jean Gabin, Pepe Le Moko
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May 24, 2009
Oleg Yankovsky, Russian Film Star, Dies at 65
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Oleg Yankovsky, a longtime Russian actor and a frequent star of films by Andrei Tarkovsky, died on Wednesday in Moscow. He was 65.
The cause was cancer, said Yulia Kosareva, a spokeswoman for the Lenkom theater in Moscow, where he had worked for more than four decades.
Mr. Yankovsky, born to an aristocratic family exiled to Kazakhstan under Stalin in the 1930s, last performed onstage this year at the Lenkom. He returned to Russia in February after undergoing medical treatment in Germany to act in ?The Marriage,? a comedy by Nikolai Gogol.
Mr. Yankovsky appeared in more than 70 films over a five-decade career. He played the father in Tarkovsky?s semi-autobiographical 1975 film, ?The Mirror.? In 1983 he starred in Tarkovsky?s ?Nostalghia,? playing a writer researching the life of a 17th-century Russian composer who had lived in Italy. That film, set in Italy, was Tarkovsky?s first made outside the Soviet Union and was shown at the New York Film Festival.
Among his other films, Mr. Yankovsky played a former champion bicyclist who is rescued from his drunken ways by a plain-looking librarian in Sergei Mikaelyan?s romantic comedy ?Love at His Own Choice,? which was shown at the New Directors/New Films Festival in New York in 1985.
In 1975, in the midst of the cold war, Mr. Yankovsky played a Communist Party official in ?The Bonus,? a film that generated international attention for its frank examination of mismanagement and fraud in the Soviet construction industry.
?Oleg Yankovsky was a true master, a unique, generously gifted person, an actor from God,? Vladimir V. Putin, the prime minister of Russia, said on Wednesday.
He was the last actor to be designated a People?s Artist of the Soviet Union.
Mr. Yankovsky was perhaps best known in Russia for the title role in ?The Very Same Munchhausen,? a 1979 television movie about an 18th-century aristocrat who travels to the Moon and dances with Venus. (Terry Gilliam later made an English-language version of the story, ?The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.?)
Mr. Yankovsky?s last film was Pavel Lungin?s ?Tsar,? in which he played the childhood friend and adviser of Ivan the Terrible. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival this month and is scheduled to open in Russia in the fall.
Mr. Yankovsky is survived by his wife, Lyudmila Zorina, an actress; a son, the actor and film director Filipp Yankovsky; and a grandson, The Moscow Times?s Web site, themoscowtimes.com, reported.
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If not Lew Ayres, could it be Dennis Morgan or Joel McCrea?
And is Audie Murphy the one to the right of Tyrone Power?
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I think they're both acquired tastes for those who enjoy offbeat movies. The same could be said for Monte Hellman's follow-up to The Shooting, Two-Lane Blacktop.
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Thiele, William - directed The Madonna's Secret (1946)
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This movie promises to be a "sub"-stantial delight.
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Great news - the Roxie theater has just announced 6 additional days of screenings as part of the B Noir festival, with encore presentations of some of the most popular noirs shown over the regular 2-week run of the festival:
*Schedule*
*Friday, May 29*
THE DEVIL THUMBS A RIDE An innocent young dupe gives a ride to a vicious criminal and unleashes a nightmare of violence and depravity! One of the most blatantly nasty B films of all time, with a singularly fierce central performance from its legendary dark star, Lawrence Tierney. Co-starring Ted North, Nan Leslie, Betty Lawford. Directed by Felix Feist. 62 mins. 1947. 8:00
FRAMED A down-on-his-luck drifter falls into the clutches of a scheming woman who has constructed an elaborate frame designed to net her and her bank robber boyfriend a cool quarter million in cash. All they need to do is put the drifter in the frame. Excellent unsung B noir! Starring Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry Sullivan. Directed by Richard Wallace. 82 mins. 1947. 6:20 & 9:35.
*Saturday, May 30*
ALL NIGHT LONG This darkly penetrating film is a modern retelling of Shakespeare's OTHELLO, set in the freewheeling underworld of London's swinging jazz scene. The film stars Patrick McGoohan, Keith Michell, Betsy Blair, Richard Attenborough and features on-screen performances by Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, Johnny Dankworth and many other great jazz musicians. Directed by Basil Dearden. 85 mins. (2:10), 5:05, 8:00
THE HOODLUM Lawrence Tierney returns as the eponymous title character of this unheralded poverty row noir about an unrepentant sociopath, bent on bringing doom and destruction to everyone in his path! Rarely have an actor and his role meshed so perfectly. Also starring Allene Roberts, Marjorie Riordan, Edward Tierney (the star?s real-life brother). Directed by Max Nosseck. 61 mins. 1951. 3:50, 6:45 & 9:40
*Sunday, May 31*
NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL Organized crime gets the film noir treatment in this sensational expose of the murderous racketeers who once held a mighty metropolis in its evil iron-clad grip! B noir seldom got as heady as this rarely seen exciting opus! Starring Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, Anne Bancroft, Marilyn Maxwell, J. Carroll Naish. Directed by Russell Rouse. 87 mins. 1955. (1:35), 4:45, 8:00.
PRIVATE HELL 36 From the director of the mind-blowing ?Invasion of the Body Snatchers? comes this sharply drawn crime drama about a pair of cops who abscond with a cache of stolen loot. In typical noir fashion, the gravity of their deed drives them to the edge of panic! Starring Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff, Dorothy Malone, Dean Jagger. Directed by Don Siegel. 81 mins. 1954. 3:15, 6:25, 9:45
*Monday, June 1*
ALLOTMENT WIVES Former Hollywood superstar Kay Francis made a final stop at poverty row to star in (and produce) this sadly neglected B noir! She plays a socialite who secretly heads a nasty gang of women who prey on returning WWII servicemen. Violence, blackmail and murder highlight this sordid tale of shame! With Paul Kelly, Otto Kruger, Gertrude Michael. Directed by William Nigh. 83 mins. 1945. 8:00
PORT OF 40 THIEVES A cunning femme fatale with a penchant for murder has devised a foolproof scheme that could net her a fabulous fortune! Or has she? A sublimely perverse and very rarely seen poverty row noir with a mind-boggling myriad of twists and turns! Starring Stephanie Bachelor, Tom Keene, Lynne Roberts. Directed by John English. 60 mins. 1944. 6:45 & 9:35.
*Tuesday, June 2*
THE LAST CROOKED MILE Even though she?ll always be best remembered as the demonic Vera in ?Detour,? Ann Savage turns in a great performance as a slinky cabaret singer in this energetic B noir about the frantic chase for $300,000 in stolen loot, culminating in a wild scene at a sleazy carnival. Also in the cast are Don ?Red? Barry, Sheldon Leonard, Adele Mara, John Dehner. Directed by Phil Ford. 67 mins. 1946. 8:00
THE GUILTY Twin sisters?one good, the other bad?dangerously hold a man?s fate in their hands. But which one is which? This rare poverty row gem is one of the eeriest and most disturbing of the many fine films adapted from the obsessively demented Cornell Woolrich?s provocative pulp fiction. Starring Bonita Granville, Don Castle, Regis Toomey. Directed by John Reinhardt. 70 mins. 1947. 6:35 & 9:15.
*Wednesday, June 3*
THE SPECTER OF THE ROSE A fascinating foray into the darkly demented world of dancers, in which at least one of whom might (or might not) be a psychotic murderer! Very strange, this is a noir of an entirely different stripe; all on a B budget! Excellent cinematography by Lee Garmes. Starring Judith Anderson, Michael Chekhov, Ivan Kirov, Lionel Stander. Written and directed by Ben Hecht. 90 mins. 1946. 8:00.
THE MADONNA'S SECRET The masterful John Alton provides some astonishing camerawork for this strangely hypnotic noir mystery about a famous painter who can?t seem to get the image of his dead fianc?e out of his mind. When his models, one by one, start turning up dead, he becomes Prime Suspect #1. Starring Frances Lederer, Gail Patrick, Ann Rutherford, Linda Stirling. Directed by William Thiele. 79 mins. 1946. 6:25 & 9:45
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Thank you, visualfeast! Ladd looks so different with that cap on.
As for Tyrone Power's neck, I'm afraid it was victim to a rather poor cut-and-paste job. They had no photoshop back in the days of WW2!
*A to Z of Filmmakers*
in Games and Trivia
Posted
Collins, Robert - directed Walk Proud (showing on Tuesday)