TomJH
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Posts posted by TomJH
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5 minutes ago, TikiSoo said:
Yup. I requested this from my library way back when Lavenderblue recommended it here. Received the DVD of SPARTACUS, but the book is still on hold. Wah.
I bought the book because of lavenderblue's recommendation myself. I'm glad I did. At the time Amazon had it for a not too bad price.
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13 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
Spartacus (1960) Dir: Stanley Kurbrick* - One of my favorites; certainly my favorite historical epic. The restored Blu-ray looks fantastic. (10/10)
One of the main reasons I like this epic so much is that the Dalton Trumbo script, rather than trying to find inspiration from selections of the Bible, which is the case with most epics of this nature, instead concentrates upon injustice and respect for the individual in an autocratic society of rigid class structure. It's an epic based on history and, no matter how much it may fictionalize that history, it dares to have a downbeat (but memorable) ending.
I recommend to any fans of this film that they read I Am Spartacus, Kirk Douglas' breezy, informative account about the trials that were involved in making this film. What adds to the amazement of this entertaining book is that it was written by the actor when he was 95!
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3 minutes ago, Allhallowsday said:
Your mind is diseased. 🤣
Just so long as my branch isn't.
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10 hours ago, Bogie56 said:
Saturday, April 18
What, no Popeye? No Peter Bogdanovich? This is the second day in a row that TCM has thrown out the original schedule.
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I must admit I find Kory very hot. If I had been the Tabonga in this scene my twig would have turned into a branch and I would soon be known as Tabangher.
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I respect the Tabonga. He doesn't have much of a life but he's stoic about it and, from the ending of the film, it's apparent he has plenty of heart. However, a warning, his social skills are not the best. He gets board easily, lumbers about the dance floor and can be rough on his dates.
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The Tabanga isn't much of a monster - all bark, no bite.
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8 hours ago, scsu1975 said:
My favorite scene in this film is when Ayres checks into a hotel with unbelievable room service:
“Send up a thick steak, porterhouse, rare, charred, esparagus, hollandaise, celery hearts, crisp, olives, large ones …”
The food arrives in 72 seconds (yes, I timed it).Good thing he didn't order that porterhouse well done. He might have had to wait 73 seconds.
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47 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:
This Island Earth (1955) Dir: Joseph Newman - Technicolor 50's sci-fi with square-jawed hero Rex Reason and fellow scientist Faith Domergue working with aliens led by Jeff Morrow. Are they out to conquer the Earth, or is something else at play? With Russell "The Professor" Johnson, Lance Fuller, and Douglas Spencer.
And I would like to make special reference to Faith Domergue's torpedo bra in this film, on full display in this photo. Let's face it, folks, without the missile sized bras that many actresses wore at the time, '50s films would be a lot less interesting today.
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26 minutes ago, Bogie56 said:
I saw Denzel in person once. Very cool !
And Sidney Poitier too. I saw him on the Sony/MGM lot the day the riots broke out in Los Angeles. Super cool!
Very cool indeed, Bogie. Poitier paved the way for Washington. They are two of the greats.
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One of the aspects of cool in a person to me is someone who remains in control of their emotions when under stress, thereby being better able to extricate him or herself from a tight or dangerous situation.
Bogart and Mitchum demonstrated that kind of cool in their hard boiled vehicles.
In his action film roles Denzel Washington has specialized in showing a minimum of emotion in scenes of big explosive power. When everyone around him is scrambling in panic and fear he remains stoically single minded in achieving his goal, setting aside any fears for his life. The Equalizer films appear to be based on his action screen persona.
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Just now, spence said:
so apparently from all accounts here, DOUGLAS gave him a hard time, not surprised if he did
I suspect Douglas thought it was the other way around.
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1 hour ago, HelenBaby2 said:
Dargo was a gate attendant (not flight attendant) and Douglas was trying to throw his weight around. The story isn’t really THAT interesting.
As the years go by and Dargo retells that tale I'm sure that Kirk will become meaner and more cantankerous in that interaction while Dargo is a model of cool decorum and polite refinement.
"You DO know who I am, don't you, you stinkin' little geek?"
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7 hours ago, kingrat said:
Having just seen Cry of the City, I have to include Hope Emerson, who definitely has a jolting impact!
That reminds me, Faye Emerson in The Mask of Dimitrios
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On 4/8/2020 at 1:42 PM, misswonderly3 said:
I think the story of The Lady from Shanghai would have worked just as well if the Welles character had just been some American guy. Michael O'Hara's Irishness had no bearing on or connection to the plot whatsoever. I suspect Orson Welles just wanted to do an Irish accent, for some reason. Michael never even mentions Ireland or speaks about his home country, in fact, the film makes much of his being a world traveller. There's just no reason for the Irish thing, and I agree, his clearly not authentic Irish accent is just a distraction.
It could have been worse. I'm just glad that Welles didn't try to do Barry Fitzgerald.
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28 minutes ago, Det Jim McLeod said:
I own the novel and the film follows it pretty closely, the Preacher is hauled off by the police and Rachel spends Christmas with all the children. We get to hear more of the thoughts of the character of Ruby, the teen girl character who is attracted to Preacher.
I found the novel to be a difficult read, Grubb for some reason does not use quotation marks when characters speak, which is confusing to me at times.
Do you recall if you were satisfied with the novel's ending then? But perhaps you don't feel, as I do, that Night of the Hunter, had a decline in quality with its final chapters. I only know that every time I see the film, much as I love the first three quarters of it for its striking black and white imagery and performances and incredible tension, the final Mother Goose portion just leaves me hanging there, thinking, "Is that it?"
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I've always regarded Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter, a rather challenging film to categorize, as a dark fairy tale. But, great as it is as a film, I've always thought its final twenty minutes something of a disappointment, with the Mother Goose character taking over the narrative as the Big Bad Wolf gradually disappears. In doing so, the film loses the tremendous tension that had earlier distinguished it. A film that I had loved until the final two reels turns strangely unsatisfying for me.
I read the Davis Grubb novel years ago but can't recall if this was the ending of the novel, as well, or if it was something that originated with the 1955 film. I hope any remake comes up with a better ending.
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20 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:
Not to mention TV talk shows were starting at about that time. He could have gone on Jack Parr to promote his book. His book, along with the success he had in some of his last parts like Too Much, Too Soon and The Sun Also Rises, may have reignited his career as a character actor--or perhaps handsome older man type. I would say he'd have been great in Lolita, but unfortunately with his 1940s rape trial, it may have not been received well. I could see him in some of the 60s Westerns, like The Wild Bunch a la William Holden and Robert Ryan.
I believe that Flynn claimed he spoke to Kubrick about playing Humbert Humbert but I've always wondered how. Was Kubrick involved in a Lolita project as early as 1958 or '59? But, as you say, the role might have been a little too close to home for many to feel comfortable with the casting.
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42 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:
I love My Wicked Wicked Ways. When I read it the first time and started getting towards the end, I would only read one or two pages at a time because I didn't want it to end! It was hilarious, sad, disturbing, everything you could want in an autobiography.
The book gave you a real feeling for the man. I've often pondered the irony of Flynn dying just two months before the book's release to great reviews. It would have been a thrill for Errol to read them and, I suspect, would have put him back in the limelight once again, if only for a little while, and may have led to writing opportunities for him.
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Beautifully articulated, slaytonf, in describing the jazzy, Gershwin influenced, sophisticated appeal of the "Street Scene" score.
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I still recall sitting in a darkened Toronto movie theatre in the '60s to see Goldfinger for the first time and seeing her beautiful face, distinguished by an intelligence in her eyes, fill the screen. Honor Blackman took my breath away that day. She still does.
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14 hours ago, lavenderblue19 said:
Tom, Ride The High Country is a beautiful film. Loved seeing an older Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea together. Besides being such a good western, it's a very touching film, it's a favorite
The ending is extraordinarily poignant, isn't it?
Scott went out with a good film and McCrea would be in one more film, a nice outdoorsy little modern western, Mustang Country. I realize that most people are not familiar with this film so here's a review of it I wrote a couple of years ago:
Mustang Country (1976)
A 70-year-old Joel McCrea emerged from retirement to make this one last film, a simple, unpretentious western about a hunt for a lone black stallion on the Montana-Alberta border in 1925.
This is largely a two character movie, with McCrea accompanied for the majority of the film by young Nika Mina as a runaway Indian boy who, after he discovers that his grandfather has died, gets McCrea to agree, after numerous failures to capture the stallion in the past, to try one last time with him. There's a reward for the horse which the boy wants for his family. The story will also involve Three Toe, a grizzly who wiped out all the sheep on McCrea's ranch and who, of course, will emerge from the woods to cause trouble again.
Filmed on location in Banff National Park the scenery, needless to say, is breath takingly gorgeous, from the first shot in this film to the last. Those who love the sight of mountains and forests, lakes and streams, will have nothing to complain about in regard to that aspect of the film. I have to seriously wonder if McCrea, a rancher in real life, agreed to make this film because of the spectacular location shooting. There are also a lot of cutaway shots of animals, at times giving the film a bit of a Disney feel, but it's not too much of a distraction from the main story.
In his only film appearance Nika Mann is clearly limited as an actor but even though he's a bit stiff as a performer, he's a likable kid companion. McCrea, even in his grey haired senior years, still looks mighty convincing riding a horse, and there's a comfortable screen presence about him, as well as a direct honesty in his delivery of dialogue that makes his final screen performance an appealing one.
By the way, aside from the Indian boy, McCrea's other two companions throughout most of the film will be his horse, Rosie, and a remarkably bright dog, Luke, who will play a role in saving both McCrea and the Indian boy from wilderness tragedies.
Briefly appearing at the beginning of the film are Robert Fuller and Patrick Wayne as a couple of cowboys who try in vain to capture the stallion. While the film seems designed to appeal to kids, adults should also enjoy it for the scenery and McCrea's seasoned performance.
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The Perfect Specimen (1937)
Lightweight amiable screwball comedy with a game cast bringing some fun to a spotty script.
Michael Curtiz directed the material, a reverse on It Happened One Night, with Errol Flynn as the title character who lives a sheltered life on a fabulously rich estate until he is introduced to the real world by breezy Joan Blondell who meets him by literally crashing her car through the fence (lucky thing it was made of wood) to his estate. Once in the outside world Flynn rather enjoys it all, speeding in a car, getting into a boxing ring and, of course, falling in love.
While the story may be nothing special Flynn's first attempt at a screen comedy is likeable, with Errol charming and engaging. Warner Brothers made a point of surrounding their star with a seasoned cast of comedy pros. Aside from Blondell there's May Robson as Flynn's domineering, cantankerous grandmother, Edward Everett Horton as her secretary, Hugh Herbert in a typical Hugh Herbert eccentric performance and, in a particular highlight, Allen Jenkins as a truck driving pug who makes the mistake of getting into a fight with Flynn.
Flynn at one point strips down to boxing shorts for a brief exhibition in the ring with a boxer before a cheering crowd. While it's obvious that Errol is doubled in the long shots, this scene can be seen as something of a forerunner to one of his best films and performances five years later in Gentleman Jim.
The Perfect Specimen remains the sole Flynn film made at Warner Brothers that is not available on DVD due to rights issues. Likewise, for the same reason, it is the one film from the actor's home studio that is not shown on TCM. There are, however, copies of this film floating around on the internet, if one searches for them hard enough. The copy circulating, by the way, has a TCM logo periodically appearing in the bottom right corner showing that the film was shown at least once in the past on the channel.
Flynn fans will probably be pleased with this minor but affable little comedy. One day, if the rights issues are ever resolved, it would be nice to see a restored image of this film become available on DVD, most likely on the Warners Archive label.
2.5 out of 4
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1 hour ago, lavenderblue19 said:
10. Ride The High Country
One of my favourite lines of dialogue from any western, beautifully capturing the character of its speaker
"All I want is to enter my house justified."
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
Goldfinger (1964)
I hadn't watched any of the Bond films for a good number of years so felt that if I was just going to view one this was the most appropriate title for me. After all, it features, for me, the greatest of the Bond actors at the peak of his charm (with a hint of danger) and physicality, the most desirable of all Bond leading ladies in the delectable presence of Honor Blackman, two of the most memorable villains in the series, with Gert Frobe (his English dubbed) as the title character and Harold Sakata as Oddjob and, arguably, the most iconic of all Bond title songs, as sung by Shirley Bassey at her most powerful and glorious.
Guy Hamilton sprightly directs this film, with three international settings, England, Switzerland and the United States and its Fort Knox climax. Sakata, a former wrestler and all round athlete, had his hands burned in his classic final confrontation scene with Bond in which he was electrocuted. Sakata's hands were really burning as his held them to the electric grid, not releasing them because Hamilton hadn't yelled "cut" (the director had no idea the actor was in pain).
Goldfinger has a number of iconic moments for the series. Bond strapped to the metal table as a laser's red burning beam is inching closer and closer to his one of his favourite body parts. "Do you expect me to talk?" Sean Connery's Bond yells out. "No, Mr. Bond," Goldfinger replies, "I expect you to die!"
There's the tussle and judo flipping scene in the hay between Bond and P u s s y Galore (Blackman). There is also that indelible moment, underscored by John Barry's classic musical score, in which Bond, regaining consciousness hours after having been knocked out by Oddjob, first sees the gold painted torso of Shirley Eaton lying naked in bed. Once you've seen that image you don't forget it.
There is also, of course, for car enthusiasts, the wonders of Bond's gadget laden aston martin. Among other things this sleek four wheeled wonder has machine guns that can protrude out front, an oil slick splurting out back for anyone chasing the vehicle and, of course, a breakaway roof and ejector seat for any unwelcomed passenger in the car.
Goldfinger holds up as great ridiculous suspenseful, sexy fun which doesn't make the mistake of taking itself seriously. I find the Bond films to be an uneven collection, with Bond actors of varying degrees of success. But this film stands apart from the rest for me (with apologies to From Russia With Love and, to a lesser degree, The Spy Who Loved Me). Goldfinger holds up as the most fun Bond ride of them all.
3 out of 4