AndyM108
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Posts posted by AndyM108
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The Landmark theater chain in Washington and Bethesda (MD) now runs $11.50, with $8.50 on Monday through Thursday before 6 PM, and $8.50 at all times for seniors and children.
The Uptown Theater in DC is the last surviving "movie palace" in the area that still shows first run films, and it charges $11.50 for evening shows and $9.75 for matinees. Children are always $8.75.
When I went to the Uptown for Saturday matinees back during the 50's, tickets were 35 cents* for two features and several cartoons, and they didn't clear the seats between shows. You could stay there all day if you were up to it.
*=$3.08 in today's dollars
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I recorded and then watched *State's Attorney.* Not a bad little effort, maybe about a 7 on a 10 scale.
What was interesting was the way that Barrymore went from a mob mouthpiece to his State's Attorney role, only then to discover that he'd feel cleaner going back to defending criminals rather than trying to put them away. There was a similar change of heart by Warren William in *The Mouthpiece,* only in reverse order, as William went from a guilt-ridden DA to a mob lawyer, but then winds up turning against the mob and gets gunned down for his betrayal. Overall it's a far superior movie to *State's Attorney,* but then William is a far more convincing actor in roles like this than Barrymore ever was.
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This is embarrassing, but the only way I can make a credible list for 1967 through 1969 is to consolidate the years. There just aren't enough movies I liked in any of those three years to make a top 10 out of any of them. Many of the more celebrated films from those years seem way overrated, but then it's also true I just haven't seen that many.
*1967 - 1969 Combined*
1. Mississippi Mermaid (1969)
2. Army of Shadows (1969)
3. A Colt Is My Passport (1967)
4. The Bride Wore Black (1969)
5. The Producers (1968)
6. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
7. Z (1969)
8. Hard Contract (1969)
9. The Incident (1967)
10. Belle de Jour (1968)
Best of the rest: Wait Until Dark (1967); They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969); The Swimmer (1968); Stolen Kisses (1968); Point Blank (1967); Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Underrated: Hard Contract (1969)
Overrated: Bonnie & Clyde (1967); The Graduate (1967); Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967); Easy Rider (1969)
Best actor: Joe Shishido (A Colt Is My Passport); Zero Mostel (The Producers)
Best actress: Jeanne Moreau (Mississippi Mermaid); Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour); Lee Remick (Hard Contract)
Best supporting actor: Gene Wilder (The Producers)
Best supporting actress: Lilli Palmer (Hard Contract)
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Pretty much all the Hollywood movies from that era that were staged in European settings have the same charming quality of wildly mismatched accents and ethnic groups.
But it's like the old song says, "If Lubitsch doesn't have the accents he fancies, he fancies the accents he has."
Or something like that.
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But in a similar vien, I did wonder recently what movies may have become over the years if the HAYES CODE never came to be?
The main impact would have been that there would have been a *LOT* more variety. The more refined screwball comedies would still have made their mark, because (a) they were good; (
there was an audience for them; and © there were precedents in the pre-code era (Trouble in Paradise; Bombshell; etc.) that they could have drawn upon. Contrary to popular myth, not all pre-Code movies were all that raunchy.The absence of a code wouldn't have stopped anyone from making more "family" oriented films. All it would have meant would have been that such films wouldn't have enjoyed a state-enforced monopoly on screen entertainment.
In fact, there isn't a single movie genre in the "Code" era that didn't exist before mid-1934, and couldn't have continued to thrive in the absence of the Code. But in *addition* to those movies, we would also have had more movies that didn't pull punches for arbitrary reasons. The Code took away those movies without giving us anything in return that wouldn't have been there anyway.
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3. What kind of film would Bette Davis & James Dean have made?
A much darker version of *Harold and Maude.*
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You have both posted (Fred more than once) that these are "no code" movies, and I know what you mean and agree.
But actually, to be accurate, CHAINED FOR LIFE did get an MPAA Approval number. It's right there in the credits: number 15669.
You could have knocked me over with a feather. But when I think about it, I can certainly see why it got an approval, since the only "shocking" thing about that movie was the presence of the Siamese twins themselves, along with the crude plot and production values, but the overarching message was the question of "What is justice?" Hardly anything objectionable about that.
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That's almost impossible to say, given that virtually all of the worthwhile postwar movies reflected the experiences of the war in one way or another. There are too many unknown variables to be able to do anything but make a wild series of guesses based on purely speculative knowledge.
Just to take one random point, does "no WWII" mean no *American* participation, or does it mean Hitler and Tojo leaving the rest of Europe and Asia alone in peace? Don't forget that World War II didn't exactly begin at Pearl Harbor, contrary to what many American movies seem to suggest.
Sorry to throw cold water on what's an interesting thought exercise, but maybe I'm just running a little low on imagination tonight.
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Andy, these are what I call NO CODE films, since the film makers did not have to agree to the terms of the Code, because they were independent productions and showed in small independent theaters that were not connected to the big studios.
Big cities usually had one or more of these kinds of theaters. The content of the films was controlled only by local city and state laws, but no federal laws and no movie Code.
In some cases, and in some states and cities, any nude scenes had to be removed, but in other cities they did not, as long as they weren't too long or too many of them. Many smaller towns would not allow these films at all, while some towns could show them outside of town, in county areas, such as at drive in theaters.
In the case of *Child Bride,* from what I understand there were several different versions that were used in states and cities with different ordinances. Some had the nude swimming scenes and some didn't. That lines up with what you're saying.
I remember that in Washington, *And God Created Woman* was shown in one of "those" theaters down on 14th and H Sts, just a few blocks north of the Big Three Loew's theaters that were showing regular first run movies.
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Well, you can see that while all three of these films were made during the time of the Breen Code, none of them actually had a rating. This meant that they were all pretty much restricted to the underground circuit, outside the mainstream movie theaters.
And while there's no question that Child Bride is of questionable taste, there's also no question that the main plot depicted did reflect a fair amount of reality at that time, at least in certain parts of the country. Fans of Jerry Lee Lewis will nod their heads in recognition of this point, and *that* marriage took place nearly 20 years after the Shirley Mills movie.
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For *1966* I've barely seen 15 movies, but I did like 10 of them, even if only the two at the top of the list were really outstanding.
1. Tokyo Drifter
2. Hunger
3. The Group
4. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
5. The Fortune Cookie
6. A Man and a Woman
7. Au Hasard, Balthazar
8. La Collectioneuse
9. The Sand Pebbles
10. Mr. Buddwing
The Battle of Algiers would have been #1, except that since it was technically released at the end of 1965, I'd put it on that year's list.
Underrated: The Sand Pebbles
Overrated: Harper
Have to see: Blow-Up; The Professionals; Closely Watched Trains
Best actor: Tetsuya Watari (Tokyo Drifter); Per Oscarsson (Hunger)
Best actress: Liz Taylor (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)
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When was the last time The Pawnbroker played on TCM? I've been watching the schedule like a hawk since late 2009 and I've never seen it once.
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Did anyone happen to catch this trio of absolutely amazing TCM Underground movies that played last Friday night? I just got around to watching them yesterday.
*The Wild and Wicked* is about an innocent small town girl who takes a bus to Hollywood to visit her "fashion model" sister, in hopes of following in her footsteps. What she doesn't know is that her sister isn't really a fashion model, but a hooker! It's like an Ed Wood special.
*Chained For Life* is about a Siamese twin who redeems her jilted sister's honor by killing her finance while he's performing on stage! The moral dilemma is then posed of how do you punish the murderer when by doing so you sentence her innocent sister to the same punishment?
And *Child Bride,* with the 12 year old Shirley Mills in the title role, is one of those exploitation movies with an actual underlying moral point.
The girl's father is slipping around on her mother, who hears about it and then starts a fight, but quickly gets knocked unconscious. The father then passes out drunk while the girl falls asleep, only to discover when she wakes up that her father has been killed.
The murderer, who was lurking in the shadows when all this was happening, is actually the father's former moonshine partner, but he tells the mother and the girl that he "saw" the mother kill her husband, and that if the mother doesn't consent to letting the (12 year old) girl marry him (he's in his late 30's or older), he's going to turn her in to the law!
Nice guy!
Well, the "cavalry" in the form of a law outlawing child brides saves the day at the last moment, but meanwhile we see the cause of the sizable box office grosses on the blue movie circuit - - - a 10 minute scene of the girl swimming in the river in her birthday suit, like a little 12 year old version of Marlene Dietrich in the opening scene of *Blonde Venus.* When you combine it with the total backwardness of the social setting (somewhere in the Kentucky woods), it makes for an unforgettable 63 minutes, to say the least!
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I don't get Encore, but I do get Netflix, and *Mirage* is now at the top of my queue.
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Hey, if everyone agreed with my likes and dislikes, what would be the fun in that? This way I'm learning how different people interpret "greatness" in movies. In a way we're like the blind Indians who are trying to define an "elephant" when they're touching completely different parts of his body. As many hundreds or thousands of movies that many of us here have seen, we all know we're still barely scratching the surface.
Which is why we keep coming back for more!
Slightly related note: I've always thought as a rule of thumb that you could tell a fair amount about a person* by their taste in movies. Of course the snag is that this really only works if everyone's been exposed to the same films, but OTOH what you choose to seek out is also a sign of preference.
*Just to be clear, I don't mean you can tell anything "good" or "bad" about a person by their taste in movies. Some of my best friends are even Republicans, so you know I'm not a judgmental person.
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I think I know who you're talking about, but I never can remember the name of that costume design maven who talked about nothing but *Lucille Ball* right after she screened *Out of the Past!* She was a real piece of work.
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After reading the description of *Mirage,* I'm sure I would like it, but alas, I haven't yet seen it.
My problem as you get out of the 50's is that I haven't seen enough movies after that, at least compared to the number I've seen from the 30's and 40's. When I get to the 60's it's only some of the foreign movies that enable me even to fill out a top 10 list at all.
Of course if I went for westerns, musicals and James Bond movies, I'm sure I'd find more to choose among, but the more I get exposed to films from more eras, the more I think that the true "Golden Age" of movies was from about 1946 to 1955, along with a special mention for 1932 to mid-1934. It's not that there aren't many great movies outside of those years, all the way up to the present, it's just that the "average" films outside the pre-code and noir eras weren't nearly as much in line with my taste in subject matter.
And needless to say, I make no pretensions of objectivity about any of this. As I've said before, I'm from the school of film criticism whose credo is "I know what I like".
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*1965* seems like a big falloff in quality from 1964, but maybe I just haven't been exposed to the best ones. Only the first 3 or 4 are really notable, and the last one is scraping the bottom of the barrel.
1. The Battle of Algiers
2. Red Beard
3. Darling
4. The Cincinnati Kid
5. Once a Thief
6. The Collector
7. Story of a Prostitute
8. Bunny Lake Is Missing
9. Inside Daisy Clover
10. The Train
Underrated: Once a Thief
Embarrassingly overrated: A Thousand Clowns
Have to see: The Round-Up; Repulsion; Alphaville; Pierrot Le Fou; Yo Yo; Ship of Fools
Best actor: Toshiro Mifune (Red Beard); Brahim Haggiag (The Battle of Algiers); Steve McQueen (The Cincinnati Kid)
Best actress: Julie Christie (Darling)
Best supporting actor: Jean Martin (The Battle of Algiers); Mohamed Ben Kassen (The Battle of Algiers); Edward G. Robinson (The Cincinnati Kid)
Best supporting actress: Joan Blondell (The Cincinnati Kid)
Total number of films viewed: About 20
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Lots of terrific movies from *1964*. I can't think of any other year with as many Oscar-worthy performances by so many actresses. Of course none of my choices even got nominated (not even Audrey - - - good grief), but that's Hollywood for ya.
1. Nothing But a Man
2. One Potato, Two Potato
3. Band of Outsiders
4. Dead Ringer
5. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
6. My Fair Lady
7. Where Love Has Gone
8. Diary of a Chambermaid
9. The Naked Kiss
10. Fate Is the Hunter
Best of the rest: The Visit; Strait-Jacket; The Pawnbroker; Man in the Middle; Marnie; Seven Days in May; Dr. Strangelove; Signpost to Murder
Underrated: One Potato, Two Potato; Dead Ringer; Where Love Has Gone
Overrated: Zorba the Greek
Have to see: Topkapi; The Pumpkin Eater; Kwaidan; I Am Cuba
Best actor: Ivan Dixon (Nothing But a Man); Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady)
Best actress: Barbara Barrie (One Potato, Two Potato); Anna Karina (Band of Outsiders); Audrey Hepburn (My Fair Lady); Susan Hayward (Dead Ringer); Catherine Deneuve (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg); Bette Davis (Dead Ringer); Jeanne Moreau (Diary of a Chambermaid); Constance Towers (The Naked Kiss); Tippi Hedren (Marnie); Ingrid Bergman (The Visit) (That's 10 if you're counting)
Best supporting actor: Karl Malden (Dead Ringer)
Best supporting actress: Bette Davis (Where Love Has Gone)
Total number of films viewed: About 30 - 35
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Many of you are probably aware of one of classic film's better blogs out there, Farran Nehme's "Self-Styled Siren". I catch up with it every few weeks, and just discovered this wonderful tribute to Juanita Moore that was posted on January 4th. Definitely worth reading for many reasons:
http://selfstyledsiren.blogspot.com/2014/01/in-memoriam-juanita-moore-1914-2014.html
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When I first got the FMC in May of 2010, I was seeing all kinds of films that rarely if ever show up on TCM: *Thieves' Highway; Call Her Savage; House of Bamboo; Whirlpool; I Wake Up Screaming; Vicki; Cry of the City; Murder, Inc., Breaking Away; My Cousin Vinnie; etc., etc.* In the first two years I got over 75 titles. In the last two years: About 10. Besides cutting down from 24 hours to 12 hours, all they now show are repeats of an ever-narrowing range of titles. I have no idea why they even keep it up.
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I'd seen Phone Call From a Stranger in my pre-TCM days and had forgotten about it. But you're right, that was one of Davis's finest post-All About Eve performances, even if she didn't appear till right near the end of the movie. It's available on YouTube, but I still wish that TCM would show it again one of these years. Too bad that it was produced by Fox.
BTW speaking of Fox, what's up with the Fox Movie Channel schedule? I can't find it anywhere on its website; it only shows the listings for their commercial-strewn later movies that show from 3:00 PM to 3:00 AM.
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Aside from King Vidor's Applause, McKinney has been shown on TCM frequently in the past in a 1932 musical short, Pie, Pie Blackbird, in which she's a bit of a knockout, with a great jazzy singing voice and sexy glamour to spare.
In Dorothy Mackail's Safe In Hell, McKinney also has a fairly visible role as the hotel operator in Mackail's Caribbean hideaway. TCM showed that movie twice in 2011, but not since then.
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*1963* is pretty weak tea once you get past the top 10, though there are others that I haven't seen that might make the list
1. High and Low (Strong candidate for all time top 10)
2. Bay of Angels
3. I Could Go On Singing
4. Twilight of Honor
5. Shock Corridor
6. Crisis (A documentary on George Wallace at the schoolhouse door)
7. The Cardinal
8. The Birds
9. Lord of the Flies
10. A Child Is Waiting
Underrated: Bay of Angels; I Could Go On Singing
Have to see: 8 1/2; The V.I.P.'s; Contempt; The Running Man; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Best actor: Toshiro Mifune (High and Low)
Best actress: Jeanne Moreau (Bay of Angels)
Total number of films seen: About 20
there was an audience for them; and © there were precedents in the pre-code era (Trouble in Paradise; Bombshell; etc.) that they could have drawn upon. Contrary to popular myth, not all pre-Code movies were all that raunchy.
Superbowl Counterprograming 2014
in General Discussions
Posted
(...btw...my early line for Super Bowl XLVII is the Broncos by 4 1/2...because a 2nd year QB doesn't have the "right" to win it all...and probably won't)
That second year QB isn't going to be facing his own #1-ranked defense, but Peyton Manning will. The Seahawks would be a steal getting 4 1/2 points, though from what I've seen it's more like 2 1/2.