[Coronavirus Film Festival -- movies that suddenly became relevant!]

26 minutes ago, LonesomePolecat said:

Sometimes being quarantined for months has a happy ending, as in SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. After being stuck in the mountains for months on end, thanks to an avalanche, everyone gets married. Only in The West, folks!

And proud of it!

[Mysterious mr m]

That's because of the TCM Faux Film Festival.

[Coronavirus Film Festival -- movies that suddenly became relevant!]

3 hours ago, Peebs said:

Wall-E  (alone on planet Earth, the ultimate social distancing)

So, what?  He gets a computer virus?

[Coronavirus Film Festival -- movies that suddenly became relevant!]

I Am Legend, Richard Matheson's book in its various incarnations:

The Last Man on Earth (1964), Vincent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danielli.

The Omega Man (1971), Charlton Heston, Rosalind Cash.

I Am Legend (2007), Will Smith, Alice Braga.

[FREE HBO & CINEMAX Preview (Again)]

The riches never cease.

[From Hell it Came (1957)]

6 hours ago, TomJH said:

 

What tree?

[Same name, different movie---]

Checkmate (1935), Felix Aylmer, Evelyn Foster.

Checkmate (1973), Diana Wilson, An Tsan Hu.

Checkmate (2008), Sanjay Narvekar, Ankush Chaudhari.

Checkmate (2010), Zachary Wood Barnes, Robin Bjerke.

Checkmate (2012), Adrián Mas, Frank Perozo.

Checkmate (2015), Danny Golver, Vinnie Jones.

[From Hell it Came (1957)]

3 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

His large, glassy, unblinking eyes add much to his wooden performance.

Wooden- - - -I get it!

[From Hell it Came (1957)]

Where's my chainsaw?

[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Yet another movie I get mugged by. . . .]

6 hours ago, David Guercio said:

So when Dick Van Dyke aka Mr Potts invented Chitty Chitty Bang Bang?  Was that actually Jeremy and Jamima’s car he used?  I think so.

Yes it was their car that you see them playing in the first scene of the movie.  The car that was featured in the credit sequence winning all those Grand Prixs.

[Comedy fainting/knockout scenes?]

This is from TV, but it is the classic faint.  Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner:

 

[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Yet another movie I get mugged by. . . .]

14 hours ago, TikiSoo said:

Heh, I saw CHITTY BANG BANG in the theater as a child too and it left zero impression on me. I revisited it when TCM showed it years ago and again, zero impression. That's not good for a kids fantasy movie.

 

9 hours ago, Sepiatone said:

Yeah, TIKI, I put off seeing it for years due to most kids I knew who saw it back when it came out, kept pronouncing the "CH"  like "SH".    And after finally seeing it, I discovered why. 

Sepiatone

My mommie told me if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.  Nyah.

[1980s actors??]

The last one looks like William Holden circa Network (1976).

[Same name, different movie---]

Kaleidoscope (1966), Warren Beatty, Susannah York.

Kaleidoscope (2008), Andrey Kuzichyov, Mariya Bekker.

Kaleidoscope (2016), Matt Adams, David Chattam.

Kaleidoscope (2016), Anne Read, Sineid Matthews.

[Same name, different movie---]

I Love Trouble (1948), Franchot Tone, Janet Blair.

I Love Trouble (1994), Nick Nolte, Julia Roberts.

[Same name, different movie---]

Raw Deal (1948), with Dennis O'Keefe, Claire Trevor, and Marsha Hunt.

Raw Deal (1986), with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, and Sam Wanamaker.

[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Yet another movie I get mugged by. . . .]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

(And no mention of Benny Hill playing straight-actor, as the helpful Toymaker?)

I knew someone else would.

 

40 minutes ago, Peebs said:

The prancing doesn't make him any less creepy.  

But. . .but, he's supposed to be creepy.

[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Yet another movie I get mugged by. . . .]

You will notice that when Potts starts telling of Baron Bomburst and his quest for the famous auto there is a shot of a ship just offshore.  There descend the traditional wavy lines across the screen and it transforms into the Baron's ship belching foreboding black smoke with him and his minions aboard.  That is when the fantasy begins and all the magical transformations of Chitty happen.  It continues until the triumph over the Baron by the child-commandos and the return of the Potts and Miss Scrumptious to JOE (jolly old England) and the return to reality.  That is, until the very end when there is a delightful fantastical coda.

[Same name, different movie---]

Age of Consent (1932), Dorothy Wilson, Eric Linden

Age of Consent (1969), James Mason, Helen Mirren

Age of Consent (2014), Kilker Alcaraz, Marc Angelo

Age of Consent (2014), James Cantor

[Same name, different movie---]

Love Affair (1939), Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer.

Love Affair (1932), Dorothy Mackaill, Humphrey Bogart.

There are other Love Affairs, but I can't confirm the plot, or they are titles applied to foreign movies.

[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Yet another movie I get mugged by. . . .]

How's that, EJ?

[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968). Yet another movie I get mugged by. . . .]

Is it a great movie?  Well, I dunno.  The Brits cherish it.  All I know is whenever I chance across it, even only intending it as a temporary bridge to something else, I end up watching to the end.  The songs and dance numbers are entertaining.  And the rousing title theme is terrific.  And there is one truly fine song toward the end ("Doll on a Music Box") that I can't understand why hasn't become a standard.  You can't knock the principals, especially Sally Ann Howes, whose voice is a ray of sunlight in a despairing world.  There is capable support from a list of familiar faces, who each get a moment or two to grab center stage:  Lionel Jeffries, James Robertson Justice, Robert Helpmann, Anna Quayle, and Gert Frobe.  The last playing with wonderful bombast the role of Baron Bomburst.  They exaggerate their performances just the right amount to create a whimsical tone that keeps the movie from being crushed by its scale.  And it is one of the handful of movies featuring adorable children you do not feel an overpowering urge to reach out and strangle.  Credit director Ken Hughes and cinematographer Christopher Challis for the visual charm and wit.  The pace is energetic and never drags even in the quieter interludes, and there are real thrilling shots, like when Chitty is first rolled out into the sunlight, and the aerial shots of the Great Western Railway train and Chitty.  Rowland Emett designed the car, and Caractacus Potts' fantastical machines which are a delight and hilarious to see (mal)function. 

Great or not, I get hooked.

[That's a nice car!]

1909 Humber 8 hp in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968):

It's a replica, according to IMCDB, but it's still nice.  So's Sally Ann Howes.

[Cry of the City (1948) music theme.]

A title theme for a movie that evokes "Street Scene" is for The Big Combo (1955), an underrecognized film noir cops and robbers pic starring Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Jean Wallace, Lee Van Cleef, Earl Holliman, and Helen Walker.  I say evokes rather than rips-off because the tune and the movie score is by David Raksin, a highly esteemed movie composer.  Whatever, it's a killer tune.  Dig that sax:

Another great role for Richard Conte.

[Cry of the City (1948) music theme.]

Avid movie fans who caught this movie (and a good catch it was) tonight may have experienced a dejá-vu sensation at the opening bars of the title music.  And it would be understandable, as this is perhaps the most re-used theme in all of movie sound tracks.  Composed by Alfred Newman for his first full movie score for Street Scene (1931), it takes its title from it.  Its Gershwiny jazzy lilt conveys sophistication, and jaded worldliness.  It evokes the milieu of the big city, the walks of life rubbing elbows, crossing paths, leading to joy or tragedy in the jumbled kaleidoscope of life.  A list of the movies it was used in would be familiar with TCMmers:

I Wake Up Screaming (1941)

The Dark Corner (1946)

Kiss of Death (1947)

Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)