TomJH
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Posts posted by TomJH
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4 hours ago, Dargo said:
Well, in THAT case, I'd say it's sure hard to beat THIS one then...
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"You see? You SEE?! Your stupid minds! STUPID! STUPID!"
One of the worst lines I've ever seen delivered by a pompous alien.
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18 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:
Next day, Cheryl, suspicious that he's done something along those lines, pretends she's interested in renting the apartment . The superintendent takes her to it and unlocks the door ! How come the empty apartment was locked when Cheryl asked to see it, but open and conveniently available for Richter the night before? Plot flaw !
Well, not necessarily. The apartment door could well have been left unlocked by some workmen who appear by the ladder to have been working in there. Rather convenient for Sanders, I admit, but not inconceivable. And if the doors in that building had the same kind of push button latch locks that Stanwyck's did across the street it would have been an easy thing for Sanders to lock the door after he retrieved the body.
14 hours ago, jameselliot said:The story went off the rails for me when Sanders spouts Nazi rhetoric and rants in German. Instead of being a gaslighting ladykiller, he's now a super-villain.
I agree. The story went completely over-the-top in the scene that turned Sanders into a Nazi spouting arch fiend. It really wasn't necessary.
Having said that I still thought George Sanders was extremely good in this film, both smooth and smarmy. It all went typically Hollywood melodramatic, however, with that rescue the lady from the top of the building climax, however, along with the villain predictably falling to his death.
I will say, however, that John Alton's photography does have its moments, that opening shot of the moon with the clouds, the shot of Sanders lighting a cigarette in the dark in Stanwyck's apartment, as well as the lighting on his face when he went all Nazi.
When it comes to plot flaws, however, can anyone tell me how Sanders got into Stanwyck's apartment the second time? The first time, as we know, he did so by pushing the latch button in her door lock. Fine. But how did he get in the second time when he shocked her by lighting that cigarette in the dark and was then going to push her out a window?
Still, Witness to Murder was a pretty good film, with nice professional turns by both Stanwyck and Sanders and some strong photography. Superficially, story-wise, I can see why some might compare it to Rear Window but that's about it. The Hitchcock film is a suspense masterpiece, in my opinion, in a class as entertainment far superior to anything I saw in this drama.
Oh, one more thing. When is the last time you saw a woman running through the streets followed by a crowd of fifty strangers or so chasing after her? Only in a marathon. One person maybe. Two, long shot but perhaps. But that many? Only in the movies.
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Love means never having to say you're sorry.
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12 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:
if jane fonda could have seen herself 50 years ago in that pic she woulda barfed. it really didn't occur to me after I posted it that was a red dress.
frankly,, that dress looks padded but not where it should be.
That's the problem with someone who compares all other women to a 50 foot one he likes.
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Who's Virginia?
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Tonight Is Ours (1933)
Did you hear the one about the queen who falls in love with a commoner but is pulled away from him to perform her royal duties which involves marrying another royal that she barely knows?
Fluffy yet elegant Paramount production retreads old fashioned material with so-so results. Claudette Colbert is beautifully photographed and delivers a delightful performance as the royal, this being her last of four occasions in which the studio co-starred her with Fredric March. March is okay but generally makes less of an impression.
Probably the most noteworthy scene in the film is its opening sequence when Colbert and March meet "cute" at an elaborate costume party. Both are outrageously clothed, she in a mask and all sequin body length cape with a large white collar highlighting her face, while March is dressed in a tight fitting harlequin outfit with a black head mask covering his head and upper face, not unlike Batman. In watching this sequence I seriously wondered if director Josef Von Sternberg was influenced by it to create his far more elaborate but similar opening for The Devil Is A Woman, his final film with Marlene Dietrich, two years later.
For those interested, a restored copy of Tonight Is Ours can be found at archive.org. There are still some scratches on the print and the sound is a little muffled, at times, but it remains watchable.
2.5 out of 4
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12 minutes ago, TikiSoo said:
Yeah, but finding them free to watch! Some posts here are a real tease!
There's a nice looking copy of The Chase on You Tube. Although I'm hard pressed to say it looks as nice as Sophia.
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The Chase (1946)
Based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich, The Black Path of Fear, this film noir, with its dream-like quality, boasts, close to the half way mark, one of the most starling narrative twists you will ever find in a film, one that I guarantee no viewer will see coming.
Set immediately after the war, Robert Cummings plays an ex-navy man, down on his luck, who comes across a wallet full of cash. After treating himself to a meal he decides to do the right thing and return the wallet to its owner. The owner turns out to be an ultra wealthy gangster (Steve Cochran) who lives in a huge white house. Surprised and intrigued by the fact that Cummings is an honest guy he decides to hire him as his chauffeur. Also at the residence is Peter Lorre, as a sulking minion of the gangster, as well as a sad and terrified Michelle Morgan, as the gangster's wife who, Cummings soon learns, is desperate to get away.
I won't reveal any more of the story except to say that, after initially leading the viewer through some intriguing though familiar pathways, it then takes an unexpected turn. Benefiting from often beautiful photography, the cast all add impressively to the production, as well. Michelle Morgan is strikingly beautiful as the sad lady who wants to escape, while Robert Cummings, usually associated with light comedy, is admirably restrained and credible as the everyman protagonist who finds himself drawn unexpectedly into a bizarre situation through quirky circumstances seemingly beyond his control.
A highlight performance in the film comes from Steve Cochran, later to be cast by Warner Bros. as brooding gangster hulks, and an actor who never seems to disappoint me. In this film he plays a games playing psychopath who is also addicted to adrenaline pumping thrills. He has a back seat accelerator and brake installed in his car by which he will occasionally take control of the vehicle, not only to test the nerves of any chauffeur who can only sit in the front seat and steer, but to enjoy the further rush of all aboard, including himself, flirting with death. Cochran's eyes light up with a satanic glee, along a small half smile on his face, in these scenes.
And, of course, Peter Lorre is fun to watch, as always, as Cochran's chain smoking underling, frequently grumbling while also ready to carry out any deadly tasks required of him. Lloyd Corrigan plays a businessman who innocently visits Cochran's posh home, only to anger him when he is reluctant to sell a couple of his boats to him. Corrigan then makes the mistake of visiting Cochran's wine cellar in one of the highlight scenes of the film.
The ending may seem a little too tidy and convenient and there are are some shots of cars and trains that are clearly models but these are minor flaws in a film that works.
For years dark, murky prints of The Chase that were available on DVD were sad reflections of the public domain hell into which the film had been condemned. Fortunately, though, Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation was involved in a 35mm restoration of the film, now available on blu ray, returning it, to a large extent, to a semblance of its former visual glory.
The Chase is a solid contribution to the film noir club but I don't think you even have to be a fan of this kind of dark, moody entertainment to enjoy this one.
3 out of 4
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The Man Between (1953)
Director Carol Reed returns to the moody ambience that he had masterminded four years earlier with The Third Man with this post WWII thriller set in Berlin.
Claire Bloom plays a naive English woman who arrives to visit her brother, now married to a Berliner (Hildegarde Neff) who, while outwardly pleasant, holds troubling secrets. Soon appearing on the scene is James Mason, as a mysterious East Berliner, also outwardly pleasant, who has some kind of relationship to Neff.
After an interesting, if slightly meandering, first half, this film really starts to take off as a taut thriller following a kidnapping. The real stars of the film are its dramatic visuals, many of them set at night, with the same striking photography, this time by Desmond Dickinson, full of odd off centre Dutch angles, that had so memorably distinguished The Third Man. The cast is generally impressive, in particular Mason as the film's charming, morally ambiguous Harry Lime-like character. Shot on location in the ruins of post war Berlin, along with interior shots taken at Shepperton Studios in London, the two blend seamlessly together, excluding some obvious rear screen projection at the film's climax, to create a memorable exercise in moody suspense.
One wishes that the film's script might have been as impressive as the performances and the photography. Something else that the film lacks, when compared to The Third Man, is that film's oddly effective dark humour, which so effectively complemented the suspense and mystery elements of its tale.
If The Man Between falls short of being a classic, it still remains a film of distinction and visual bravura, and must rank as one of the better films in James Mason's career.
3 out of 4
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Wayne's star was on the rise, after years of making "B" westerns, when America went to war and, it's my understanding, a huge reason he was reluctant to enlist was because he was afraid it would impact his career after the war was over. I can understand his making that decision.
The problem for me is how he over compensated afterward (undoubtedly due to guilt) by turning himself into a Super Patriot and, in particular, how he blasted American draft dodgers during the Vietnam War. Wayne's spectacular hypocrisy is stomach turning.
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During the scene in which William Bendix sadistically beat Alan Ladd in The Glass Key he accidentally connected on the jaw, knocking out the blonde actor. When Ladd came to the first thing he saw was Bendix in tears apologizing to him. Ladd was touched by Bendix's genuine concern and it was the beginning of a friendship. Bendix and his wife even bought a home across the street from the Ladds. While their friendship did go through a lengthy rocky period in which they didn't speak to one another off a movie set, it would later resume after Ladd made a conciliatory phone call to Bendix and last until Ladd's death in 1964. Bendix would die ten months later.
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Since Death on the Nile seems to be a topic of interest on this thread these days, here's a review I wrote a few years ago about Peter Ustinov's second big screen outing as Agatha Christie's Belgian detective. It seems more appropriate now with the death last year of one of the film's major participants, Diana Rigg.
Evil Under The Sun (1982).
Handsome adaption of the Agatha Christie novel, and the second of three big screen occasions in which Peter Ustinov would inhabit the role of master Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (forever informing people of the correct way to pronounce his last name).
Once again there is a gathering of beautiful people in a remote location where a murder will occur (actually the second murder in the film) and there will be a final gathering of the suspects in which the brilliant Poirot will dissect the evidence, piece by piece, in order to reveal the killer.
Directed by Guy Hamilton this film is a visual glory. Beautifully filmed in Majorca (where the rich and famous really do go to play in privacy) it is a film with a series of often exquisite cinematic images shot under brilliant sunshine, with the orchestral accompaniment of Cole Porter hits on its soundtrack making this vacation with mayhem experience an aural delight, as well.
Ustinov has great fun in the role of the detective, who just happens to be vacationing on a mythical island in the Adriatic where the mystery is set. He has a pantomime bit in which he goes "swimming," dipping his legs only in the water while making swimming motions with his arms as he walks back and forth for his exercise. Clearly the actor is having a good time in his role.
The cast includes Maggie Smith as the hotel proprietor, James Mason and Sylvia Miles as a Broadway producer and his wife, he badly in need of a hit, Diana Rigg as an egotistical theatrical star, Colin Blakely as her rich husband who stoically endures her shallow excesses, Jane Birkin and Nicholas Clay as a young couple squabbling about his infidelities, and Roddy McDowall as a gossipy leach ready to print a book about Rigg.
I was disappointed that a wonderful actor like Mason has relatively little to do in this film but Rigg is a marvelous combination of style and beetchiness in her role. I loved every moment she was on the screen. One of the best scenes in the film is when Rigg decides to give everyone in the sitting room a thrill by singing "You're The Top" while old time chorus line competitor Maggie Smith does everything she can to upstage her. Absolutely delightful.
While some might regard the story and mystery content of a Christie concoction such as this as slight, a film like this is all about wit, style and visual elegance. In that respect, Evil Under The Sun succeeds more than admirably.
3 out of 4
P.S.: One additional comment I might make is that Evil Under the Sun, at a 102 minute running time, is 38 minutes shorter than Death on the Nile, not over staying its welcome, which, unfortunately, I found to be the case with the earlier Poirot film, visually appealing as it may be.
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1 hour ago, speedracer5 said:
I love MTM. I also loved her show. It was my second favorite show on Nick at Nite after I Love Lucy. Mary Richards was one of my idols. Heck, she's still one of my idols. I'd like to think I was like Mary, but I think I'm more of a Rhoda ("I need to lose 10 pounds by 8:30" or "Hello, I'm another person in the room"). And I'm so happy they did not end the series with Mary getting married or something. There are a few dated jokes here and there, and some of Lou and Ted's opinions about women are outdated, but their positives outweigh the negatives. I think what keeps it so fresh is aside from an occasional Nixon joke or something, the show doesn't delve too much into 1970s current events. I own the entire series on DVD. The entire series is also on Hulu. I've watched the full series from beginning to end, multiple times. I never tire of it, it's always funny. Phyllis is a riot. I love the camaraderie between Mary and her co-workers inside and outside the office. One could only aspire to have a friend like Rhoda, or a frenemy like Phyllis or Sue Ann. The entire show is fantastic. Even the addition of Cousin Oliver to the last few episodes of the last season didn't ruin it.
MTM's passing in 2017 is one of the few times where I've felt genuinely sad that a celebrity had passed. The end of 2016 and beginning of 2017 was especially brutal losing Debbie Reynolds and MTM within a one month span. I'm only glad (I guess) that Lucy passed when I was only 5 and wouldn't know who she was until a few years later. I think I would have been beside myself.
As much as I love many of the supporting characters in The Mary Tyler Moore Show (particularly marvelously insecure Rhoda, who I always thought, particularly with her self deprecating wit, was a real winner), the heart of the show are any of those scenes set in Lou Grant's office when Mary comes to him for advice. Those moments could be very very funny, but, on the occasion, touching too. Mary and Ed Asner had a remarkable chemistry in roles they were born to play. Who wouldn't want to have a Mary Richards or gruff, mushy at the core, Lou Grant in their lives?
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Elvis was eager to accept a straight dramatic role as Robert Mitchum's kid brother in THUNDER ROAD when Mitchum offered him the part. Unfortunately Col. Tom Parker demanded more money for him than was in the entire budget of the moonshine drama so Mitchum cast his own son, James, in the role instead. It would have been interesting to see how Presley might have fared as an actor. Keely Smith, who was pretty wooden as an actress, was hired to sing a song in the film. Fair chance it might have been Elvis singing it instead. I don't know that Elvis was ever offered any other acting roles that were not in conventional musical star vehicles tailor made for him.
That might have been Elvis as on the left as the brother that Bob wanted to prevent from becoming a moonshine runner.
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1 hour ago, Allhallowsday said:
I notice you did not cite the obvious movies like THE WINDOW (love it) or STRANGERS ON A TRAIN - I had to look them up! BOING! RUTH ROMAN.
Still can't place her face? Think of Champion (1949) and Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951).
Tomorrow Is Another Day was on Noir Alley around a month ago. Assuming you follow it, I thought that would be a real giveaway.
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8 minutes ago, Allhallowsday said:
She is the one that looks most familiar and she is also the most memorable actress in the short but...?
Still can't place her face? Think of Champion (1949) and Tomorrow Is Another Day (1951).
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One film stands far above the other four for me. But, perhaps, from my selection of an avatar, you already know which one I mean. It is unquestionably one of my ten favourite films of all time. My second favourite film of 1948 is a massively underrated tongue-in-cheek swashbuckler, Adventures of Don Juan. Then, again, "superficial" "non-important," merely entertaining films of this type are never taken seriously when it comes to the big awards.
And, yes, I've seen the other four films nominated on the 1948 Oscar list.
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8 minutes ago, Allhallowsday said:
It looked like a few cuties that look familiar...
Yes, there are a lot of pretty faces in this short but take a look at the last one to appear. I was surprised to see her here.
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Here's another early Soundie. And take a listen to what a pleasant singing voice Alan Ladd had. Sorry the visuals are so bad. And, yes, for those recognizing her, Rita Rio later changed her name to Dona Drake.
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Take a look at the pretty face that appears at the end of this '40s Soundie and see if you recognize her.
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It would appear that Tanya Roberts was a fighter at the end of her life but, sadly, it appears she lost her final battle.
The lady was one of the great beauties of her time.
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53 minutes ago, chaya bat woof woof said:
I recently watched it also. Charles Grodin - I wonder how many people today even know who he is. Yaphet Kotto also is great (and De Niro showed his comic chops).
Grodin had a small supporting role in a recent De Niro film, The Comedian. It didn't make much of an impression upon me inasmuch as I can't recall if the two actors even shared a scene together in this one. But they sure were great together in Midnight Run.
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12 minutes ago, MrMagoo said:
I haven't seen it in some time. Your post inspires me to revisit it. Thank you.
I just watched Midnight Run again a couple of days ago. I've seen it four or five times now. I find that it holds up well on repeat viewings.
A few years ago I tried to introduce the film to a friend of mine who, for some reason, was resistant to watching it. I asked her to give it 15 minutes and, if she didn't like it, I'd turn it off. After the 15 minutes passed she said I could keep it on. As the movie progressed I saw her jumping and reacting to the film and I could see by the expression on her face that she was clearly into it. After the film ended she turned to me and, with a smile on her face, said, "That was a good film!"
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Midnight Run (1988)
Knockout action comedy featuring Robert De Niro as an ex-cop turned bounty hunter who is assigned to capture a white collar criminal on the run who ripped off the underworld, now out kill him. Aside from having the threat of Vegas mobsters showing up, De Niro also has to outwit both the FBI, also on the criminal's trail, as well as a crafty fellow bounty hunter.
Charles Grodin plays the former accountant on the run with a delicious deadpan dialogue delivery. Yes, after shortly being caught by De Niro, they will gradually, ever so gradually, start to bond with one another but this film is so much more than just your standard "buddy film."
As directed by Martin Brest, this film has some terrific action set pieces, one featuring a helicopter with Mafia marksmen shooting at our heroes in a careening car in a wild chase sequence, and a great dry sense of humour with the reactions of De Niro and Grodin to one another. This was one of the first films (along with King of Comedy) in which De Niro showed how skillful he could be at bringing moments of humour to an essentially serious scene.
Aside from an intelligent, at times suspenseful, screenplay chock full of surprises, the other thing that so distinguishes this film is the depth of De Niro's performance. There is a scene in which he sees his young daughter for the first time in years which is genuinely touching, with their awkward silences and furtive glances at one another speaking volumes about two people who care about one another but don't know what to say. Grodin is a marvel, too, and, as the film progresses, you find that you really care what happens to the two lead characters. When an action comedy suspense film emotionally affects you like that you know you're hooked.
But the performances of the entire cast are first rate, including Yaphet Kotto as the lead FBI agent on the trail, Dennis Farina cold bloodedly chilling as the towering Mafia king pin demanding Grodin's death, Joe Pantoliano as a slimy double dealing bondsman given to screaming tantrums and John Ashton as the rival bounty hunter, a smart cookie but very, very rough.
For whatever reason Midnight Run was not a hit at the 1988 box office, nor has this film, which works so well on so many levels, action, suspense, comedy, characterizations, been rediscovered by many film fans since. One of the very best films of Robert De Niro's career, with one of his most engaging performances, it remains largely unknown by many movie buffs today. And that is an injustice to one great film.
3.5 out of 4
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Stupid lines from movies.
in General Discussions
Posted
Just to let you know that the brilliance to be found in the dialogue of Ed Wood films extends far beyond Plan 9 from Outer Space, here's a pip delivered by Bela Lugosi in GLEN OR GLENDA. Apparently the actor didn't have a clue what he was talking about when he sat before the camera to spout the lines given to him by an excited Wood.
"Bevare! Bevare of the big green dragon that sits on your doorstep. He eats little boys, puppy dog tails and big fat snails. Bevare, take care. Bevaaaare!"
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And yet this is a film that strangely works for me. Just yesterday (wearing a mask, of course) I was standing outside a store window, tempted to buy an angora sweater I saw on display.
BEVAAAAARE!