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Bogie56

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Posts posted by Bogie56

    Restorations

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    1 hour ago, LuckyDan said:

    He gave RKO a complete movie. He didn't leave it unfinished. Even if he hadn't gone to Rio, his obligations were met. That's my whole thing.

    Orson had a shadow cutting copy of Ambersons with him in Rio.  He was cutting it there and cabling Robert Wise who was also making the same edits in California.

    Welles' version went to out-of-town previews and it didn't go well.  Some blame the audience's expectations of the film that they actually came to see and others the film that Welles had made.  In any event, Wise was instructed by RKO to recut the film.  The original elements were dumped into the Pacific ocean.  I guess they did this in LA instead of consigning it to landfill.

    There has been some hope that the Welles shadow cut of the finished film would turn up in some laboratory in Rio but the thinking is that the print was resold for its silver content long ago.

    It is doubtful that things may have been different if Orson had stayed in LA.  After all they took away several of his other films like Touch of Evil and butchered them.  Thankfully Touch of Evil was able to be reassembled to Welles' notes.

    I don't mind seeing old silents that have portions missing restored using stills.  I will be curious to see what they do with Ambersons.  At the end of the Peter Bogdanovich book where he interviews Welles', Jonathan Rosenbaum has a section on the deleted scenes from Ambersons with stills.  I may be mistaken but I thought the audio may have survived.  If so, that would be a bonus.  The new ending is just dreadful in every way.

    • Thanks 1

    HITS & MISSES: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow on TCM

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    18 hours ago, Sepiatone said:

    My wife HATED that movie!  Said she's never seen so many otherwise good actors do such PIZZ-POOR imitations of Mexicans.  Said even the "little jew" Eli Wallach did Latino character CIRCLES around the cast of "Tortila Flats".  ;)   And you know, both Anthony Quinn( Mexican) and Cesar Romero (Cuban/Spanish) were active and recognizable actors when this movie was made, and likely a few other actual Latino actors, enough to NOT make the undoubtedly insult to Hispanics this stinkbomb (IMHO) is.  

    But, what else is to be expected from a business run by "Whettoes"  in 1940's Honkeywood?  ;) 

    Sepiatone

    Well, for me that only added to its humour.   Let's not forget Hungarian, Hedy Lamarr as Dolores Rodriguez!  This was in the day when if you sounded foreign you could play any ethnicity.  Tamiroff played Mexican, Spanish, Asian, etc.  

    I'm just guessing, but Speedy Gonzales' sidekicks may owe something to Pilon's crew.

    e41183874e602dfe5bd4f3bb340c38fa.jpg

    • Haha 1

    Restorations

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    3 hours ago, TopBilled said:

    Yeah, probably!

    But I doubt he was a fan of the truncated version we have now.

    I didn't know this but the article mentions that there is already a version (or two) of the film with the deleted scenes using stills.  They did this with Queen Kelly and other films.

    Click on the article title to go to the web page.

    Personally, I think I might have preferred a CGI restoration rather than animation but this filmmaker had his reasons.  I'm thinking of what they did with Peter Cushing in one of the later Star Wars.

     

    I Just Watched...

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    wonderbar3.jpg?ssl=1

    Wonder Bar (1934) with Al Jolson, Kay Francis, Dick Powell, Dolores Del Rio, Ricardo Cortez and Guy Kibbee and Hugh Herbert thrown in for comic relief.  Jolson plays Al Wonder, the manager and headliner of a Parisian cabaret nightclub that hosts lots of intrigue and inter-connecting love and crime stories.  

    Did Warners think that they might have a Grand Hotel (1932) on their hands.  If so, what were they smoking?  If this doesn't turn up on TCM it is little wonder why.  One act has Cortez playing a gaucho and taking a bullwhip to the lovely Del Rio.  As in other films the cabaret stage magically becomes the size of a football stadium for some numbers.  

    all-black-cast-1934-wonder-bar-negro-hea

    And then there is the closing act where Al Jolson dons blackface and does a big Mammy, Pearly Gates number that not only has a huge stage with hundreds of black face extras but it keeps changing perspective and location as if we were transported to another land and not in a cabaret.  Truly ****ed up which brings to mind the shot of the audience with jaws dropped in Mel Brooks' The Producers (1967).

    6a00e5523026f588340120a58677b3970c-600wi

    The scene below is also supposed to be part of the cabaret show!  Al on his donkey going to the Pearly Gates.

    images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRyRGU1_bk62E1pmgRnFh1

    And this was "black people's" heaven which made clear that we are segregated in the afterlife.  In this heaven pork chops dangled from the branches of trees.

    Orig-1934-HAL-LEROY-with-Dancers-in-Blac

    I really felt sorry for this "real" black talented  tap dancer who magically appears out of a giant watermelon.  Every other performer is in black face.

    It was interesting from a film history perspective but even stripped of its un-PC elements this still would have been a stinker.

     

    • Like 3
    • Thanks 1

    HITS & MISSES: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow on TCM

    in General Discussions

    Posted

    18 hours ago, Sepiatone said:

    Another on my short list of "Movies as good as the book."  Which I read long before ever seeing the movie.  And I can't complain about the casting at all.  

    Sepiatone

    433145814ca05cdf073d134f1f5faef7.jpg 41A.-In-Cold-Blood.jpg

    I still remember Capote's description of Dick Hickock which paraphrasing went something like, "his face was like an apple that had been cut in half and one side had slid down."

    That is probably a mutilation of what Capote really wrote.  But as far as the casting goes, you couldn't get better.

    • Like 2

    Your Favourite Foreign Language Films

    in Your Favorites

    Posted

    1974

    The-Man-Who-Sleeps-kultalt.com_.jpg

    The Man Who Sleeps (1974) Bernard Queysanne, France

    This film certainly will not be to all tastes.  It is essentially a series of shots about a man in a city who ponders the question ‘what is the point of doing anything.’  The camerawork is very good and it is accompanied by narration such as “to walk down a street, or not to walk down a street.”  It might as well be Hamlet.  But this film has absolutely no drama.  It won the Prix Jean Vigo in 1974.

     

    and I’ve also seen …

    jvduvblana4ustkk93mr_w_article.jpg

    Only Old Men Are Going to Battle (1974) Leonid Bykov, Russia.

    My main problem with this film is that for tis subject it lacked scope.  I suspect it may have been done on a shoestring.  It is about a fighter squadron on the Eastern Front.  Just about the entire film takes place in a farmhouse and one country field and the characters are tightly shot as to not reveal much background.  The battle footage is taken from stock shots.  When the planes are not idling in the fields the men are back at the farmhouse singing folk songs with their ensemble band!

    • Like 3

    Top Ten Films of...

    in Your Favorites

    Posted

    21 minutes ago, TopBilled said:

    Films like TRUMBO and MANK, while important, don't seem very exciting to me. I'm not saying everything has to be a superhero movie, but stories about old Hollywood insiders have limited appeal for audiences, I think. These stories matter more to scholars and to the families of those people, not the typical viewer. Also, these topics tend to be covered better in documentaries.

    I agree.  Though Trumbo had the benefit of a very large back story which was the McCarthy era which made it a bit more fascinating.

    They tried to do that by injecting a political angle into Mank but it was not as successful.

    And maybe watching Trumbo writing in a bathtub was more amusing than watching Mank writing while he was drying out on a motel bed.

    You can't fault the acting in either movie though.  Englishman, Tom Burke did a fantastic job as Orson Welles.  The voice was spot on.  At the end I wondered if a different actor had done the voice.  I'll have to see it again at some point and look closer.

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