JamesJazGuitar
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Posts posted by JamesJazGuitar
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Since the USA has voluntary military service many of the comparisions made to those that were drafted might not apply. Just take one question; why did Joe join the service?
With a draft the reason might be 'I had no choice' With voluntary service it might be 'for economic reasons'.
Also your assumption that wars are fought to protect the freedoms of Americans is only a opinion. Sometimes it is true (e.g. WWII), and sometimes it is not (Iraq invasion), in my opinion. The world isn't as black and white as many wish to see it.
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My favorites in order of preference are:
His Kind of Women
Out of the Past
Macao
Angel Face
The Night of the Hunter
The Racket
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My three favorite Cagney films are Torrid Zone, The Strawberry Blond, and Footlight Parade.
Of course I love those WB gangster type movies like G-Men but not as much as Cagney in comedies lighter material.
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Related to Thomas Gomez, Ride the Pink Horse, with Robert Montgomery as the star, is a great revenge vengeance movie.
Edited by: jamesjazzguitar on May 24, 2012 2:50 PM
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I understand your point. Gun Crazy isn't a performance driven picture; for example a movie like The African Queen where the two stars dominate.
Both leads were minor players. But in many ways this enhances the picture. Our focus is drawn to their relationship, the action, the noir aspects of the movie etc...
Of course the 'what if' game is somewhat silly, but maybe if this movie was made with major players it would be such a noir classic today like Gun Crazy is.
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Your take on Ladd in this movie is right on. Ladd is a little to 'squeaky clean' and this takes away from the harder edged Ladd I enjoyed so much in his 40's noir films. But this film still has it moments.
One of the best scenes is when Webb beats to death his partner with bronze baby shoes. They show a close up of the shoes and than they are used to kills someone. Classic.
Edited by: jamesjazzguitar on May 14, 2012 5:59 PM
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Yea, like the Lennon song Run For Your Life. Oh, wait!
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I agree with you. The line up for this year is just 'OK' and doesn't compare with last year. But still there are some movies on the line up on my 'would like to see' list!
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Politicians have been doing 'this' since the begining of time. As for his other points I feel they were spot on.
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What is interesting here is your comment 'The studios were factories then'. It is a positive statement but if one only read that comment one could view it as a negative comment.
WB is my favorite studio and the character actors they had is one of the key reasons (as well as their grit, hardcore style). But I do admit that sometimes I see a WB movie and it is a little too factory driven.
For example, The Conspirators, which was on this week. I caught this movie about 15 minutes in. I said to the wife; well this is WB. The movie had it moments but sometimes I felt I was watching Casablanca meets the Maltese Falcon! At least the movie had Hedy Lamar for a fresh female face.
Overall the WB factory of the 30s and 40s cranked out quality movies, even many of the 'B' pictures. The character actors are a key reason. i.e. they alway brought a certain level of quality to these WB movies.
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This is a very, very good Bogie movie and one that isn't as well known as it should be.
I saw this on the big screen during a Bogie film presentation many, many years ago. Of course I also saw Casablanca, etc... but this one was special. The funny thing was when Bogie makes that crack to Liz Scott while they are driving about putting a gal in his pocket the women hooted while the men said 'yea'. This is what is great about seeing a classic movie in a theater full of classic movie fans. (of course the men that said 'yea' where only joking!).
While my favorite Bogie movie is The Big Sleep and my favorite Liz Scott movie The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers, Dead Reckoning is a first class production.
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Hey another person with a beta library. I have around 300 or so classic movies on beta. I recorded these around 30 years ago. I had flexible job hours back then so I would go home to record (I didn't like commercials on my tapes so I had to be there to pause and start), during the day to record classic movies shown on 'The Early Show' (a classic movie shown during the afternoon). The only bad thing is many of the movies are edited.
Then there was 'The Late Show' and the movies show, well really late at night. As one can tell it took a lot of effort to build this library. Now my original Sony Beta unit was wearing out, but my friend's father passed away about 10 years ago. He left a brand new Sony Beta. In the box, never opened. So he gave it to me. This still works great.
The funny thing is I don't have a DVD library since most of my favorite films are on Beta. I don't use the Beta unit often since I have TCM but sometimes I watch something if TCM doesn't show something I love.
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I also like Fred Clark. He could play a funny guy or a hard guy like he did in Ride The Pink Horse (where he was the heal).
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I recommend The Light In The Piazza with Olivia De Haviland. I know there are more like Gigget Goes to Rome, but I can think of them now.
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As noted Joan was SOTM. I watched most of those movies and the thing was that sometimes it looked like Cagney was SOTM instead of Joan. i.e. Joan was the lead female star in these movies by since they were Warner Bro films with Cagney as the lead the male part was king. But of course this was true for most actresses in most WB films, other than with Bette Davis.
Still Joan is always fun to watch. She always makes me smile.
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I view Jack Carson as more as a second tier star than a character actors (after say 1946).
He was the lead male role in a few WB movies in the late 40s, but regardless of how we classify him he was a joy to watch.
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I also think "THE GOODBYE GIRL. It was the best movie of its genre in that period".
Of course there are a few qualifiers there, as in 'its genre in that period'.
Is the movie an Essential for a station like TCM? I would say NO, but only because it doesn't break new ground, but than my view of what is 'essential' is very narrow.
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Well we have different taste. Like I said I think both I and II are very good movies, but just not some of the greatest ever made. Hey, I don't think GWTW is one of the greatest movies ever made either because of the soap opera aspect of the movie.
I just happen to enjoy movies from the 30s - 50s more.
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I believe the people that appear to just not get it, like Fred, really do get it. They know they are NOT paying X for TCM, this is just their way of complaining about bundled cable services.
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Well I think The Godfather II is better than The Godfather and while I feel both a very good movies I don't think they are in the top 25 of greatest movies of all time. Most of the time when I mention to someone I love old movie, they will mention The Godfather. To them this is an old movie and they are surprised I don't think it is one of the best of all time.
Sadly the movies I mention are rarely even known to these people.
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Garbo
in Hot Topics
Funny that you say that, since logically you have a very valid point, but for some reason many of them don't 'hold up' as well as a movie made in the 30s - 50s that was set in those times.
I guess it is just my preference, or maybe as Hibi says the sheer number Garbo was in. i.e. too many becomes too much.
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Yes it was nice to see Little Lord Fauntleroy. What fine acting from such a young boy! Just so natural.
I enjoyed all of the Cromwell films last night. I had never seen Night Song. Merle Oberon looked great in that film. There were certain shots that really didn't add anything to the plot that look to me that they were done just to show a close up of Merle. I can see why the camera couldn't move from her. Dana Andrews as a musician was strange but Hoggy made their scenes come alive.
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Yes The Corn is Green is a first rate movie. I always recommend that movie to people that view Bette as being too over the top; i.e. too forceful of an actress. Of course these are mostly people just unaware of the full scope of her work or aware mainly of the movies she made in the late 50s and early 60s.
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I watched the entire movie last night and it is different than a lot of the standard Hollywood stuff released at the time. The subject is tricky since one could imply it based on shallowness; that love is based on looks.
Of course the movie turns that around and says that when people are in love, looks don't matter (they are overcome by the sheer force of the love), but again, that could just be shallowness.
Until the last 3 or so years I didn't even know who Dorothy Mcquire was but I have now seen her in a few movies and she is a fine actress. This wasn't an easy role and one other actresses wouldn't wish to be associated with, I assume.
Tyrone Power IS John Payne
in General Discussions
Posted
I also was very familiar with Robert Young from watching TV as a boy teen prior to getting into classic movies around 10 latter in my late 20s. This was also true for actors like Donna Reed, Fred Macmurray, Hugh Beaumont and a few others. I knew these actors more than Bogie, Gable, Davis etc... at that young age.