CaveGirl

"A Quiet Place in the Country" with Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave. Wow, far out! This film had me wondering if Sister Rose would agree that the LOD should ban it for even the ghosts were nude in it and cavorting around in the all-together. Franco was not in his right mind mostly during his artistic pursuits and Vanessa looked fab, and there was blood and paint and nice Venetian settings and the bit with the two-way mirror and the Countess and her daughter, Vanda participating in some rather outre affairs was a bit much but all in all it was rather interesting. Psychedelic effects notwithstanding, it was an eye-opener to be sure which is hard to do after 3:00am in the morning. Anyone else watch?

Uh, is this prompted by that TCM televised bit with Heston's son saying he hit the jackpot with who he got as a father, Sepia? I mean Heston's okay but I think I would have preferred Ward Cleaver or maybe Jim Anderson. Sure Chuck looked better in a toga but I bet he would not have called me Kitten or helped me dress my Barbie. Just saying... I am glad to know you will still like me though, Sepia if I am packing heat.

Nice w Nice write-up on Knox, TB. Though he is more famous for his roles playing men of importance, my favorite of his parts onscreen is in the late 1940's film, "The Sign of the Ram". As you know, this is the film wherein Susan Peters, the actress who was paralyzed in a hunting accident, returned to play the incredibly manipulative and domineering wheelchair bound wife of Knox, who is buffaloed by her seemingly sweet ways, whilst she fractures the family unit most indubitably. The film is not unlike "Queen Bee" with Joan Crawford but more insidious being that Peters is more diabolical and undetectable in her machinations. With great performances also by Peggy Ann Garner and Phyllis Thaxter, this is a Knox role which is not as well known but very impressive.

I have always wanted to visit Forest Lawn. I mean it's iconic, is it not? I should put it in my will so even if I miss it while alive I can get a plot there. Thanks for all the info!

TB, isn't "Crossfire" based on a book in which the victim is homosexual instead of Jewish. I seem to remember them changing the intent of the murder into one of anti-semitism instead of anti-gay if I recall correctly. Seems like the book had the word "Foxhole" or something in it. Great post as usual!

Has anyone mentioned that Elaine May film, "A New Leaf" with Matthau? Sorry I'm in a rush and have no time to check the thread. It is deadly funny by the way!

Thanks all for the great answers in this thread! Anyone here into the Alan Smithee type credit on a film? Check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Smithee

Limey, I get what you mean about the guitar as it is sad to see perhaps a Stratocaster or whatever it was destroyed. In humor, which is not what this movie was about, but still I want to say this, W.C. Fields said that things that break are not funny, but things which bend are. I concur with his assessment and for that reason do not find total destruction of objects as funny, unless of course a whole house is destroyed as it falls on Buster Keaton. Do they still have the cool bar at the Black Lion in London?

Not to say Antonioni cared anything about the Kennedy assassination, but the body on the grass did remind me of a lot of the many blowup photos of the grassy knoll with a supposed gunman and his gun. Wonder if Antonioni was thinking of that at all with this scenario?

Golly gosh, Miss Wonderly are you and I both enroute to the loony bin? And I wonder if they play tennis there? Just think, we won't even need rackets or balls. There's an opening for a joke there. Too bad Dargo is not here today.

He was awful purty I gotta agree, Lawrence but recent pictures have shown his looks getting a big scary. Not as bad as Jean-Michael Vincent at a low point, or how Brigitte Bardot looks now, but check out Delon's teeth in recent pictures. The guy was played the handsome Jorges, in last nite's Bunuel film "Viridiana" was also a looker but now looks like another human being entirely. Sorry I have this sick impulse to check out old and current photos on Google.

Well, that deserves a big MWAH! By the way, Richard could fit into my category also, Lawrence. Merci!

Not to be a copycat, but I'll start with Stuart Whitman. Sure I could have begun with someone more famous but why? Next!

Yes, Ben did mention that Carson was approached and demurred. I am glad it was Jerry since I think Carson would have played it for laughs but Jerry unearthed a rather reptilian side to the host types, that was fascinating to watch.

Gee, too bad there is not a site which shows advance schedules like three months in advance so I can plan my vacations in Europe better! Nothing worse than finding out TCM is showing the restored "King Kong" with the spider pit sequence restored and I'm stuck in the Vatican gift shop.

I think I've watched too many movies since last nite while watching "Blow Up" for like the 15th time I started hearing tennis balls being hit in the early scenes where no one was at the tennis court, and I also heard the lens clicking sound during many of the scenes where Hemmings was not even using a camera. Hallucinations or just mental anemia?

Maybe he did not have high intensity film for night shots?

If I'd read this before I watched last nite, Miss W. I might have been "pre-influenced" but even not having been I got so far into it and believe it or not fell asleep. I apologize to Billy Wilder but I may have had too much Gaelic brew beforehand. I did wake up for the epilogue and then stayed up to watch the next two condemned flicks.

Having always seen this film with the opening credits over the long take, and then seeing it unencumbered by such distractions, it is a revelation, ain't it, Miss Wonderly? I like films set in motels or trailer courts so this is a favorite!

Museumgoer, your post said everything I was going to say about Sister Rose's myopia concerning "Blow Up". The dig at Antonioni also made me laugh, and her comments about the male-centric issue seemed off the wall. It is so obvious that Antonioni is trying to show the malaise of the main character and how the mystery of the image from the park, finally rivets his interest as nothing else before ever has since he leads a mostly empty life. I think Antonioni was saying that the photographic image is always distorted and one must be aware of that in the film for not only the characters but the viewers. Oh, well at least Sister did not critique the music of the Yardbirds, with Beck, Page and Keith Relf being dissed too! I had to laugh when you mentioned Sister Wendy since I agree wholeheartedly that she has a real depth in her reviews of art and not just from relating to Catholic dogma.

C'mon, just cuz someone mentions pedophilia, cross dressing, sexual sublimation, menage a trois, hypocrisy, religious mania, and a few other foibles certainly does not ruin a film for a new viewer. Does it? Uh, maybe she wanted to scare off viewers from watching to save their souls.

Watched Installment #3 of the Condemned Festival with Sister Rose expostulating about Bunuel's "Viridiana". Though on the surface Sister appears to be an iconoclastic rebel in taking umbrage at the LOD's stand on the on the film as blasphemous by praising "Viridiana" for exposing the hypocrisy of some religious benefactors, methinks though that Sister has missed the boat entirely in understanding Bunuel's point. He does not ostensibly hold Viridiana up as a symbolic figure to be emulated but as a bit of a fool to be pitied. Sister seems to see only the literal story that is topside but misses completely the subversive undertones of sordid complacency indicated by the child Rita's rope handles, the black bull she dreams about, Viridiana's repulsion at the cow udders, and other connections to her amorous uncle's exploits, and just like Sister Rose it seems Viridiana sleepwalks through life. Bunuel shows even the peasants' more rational acknowledgement of life in dialogue wherein they call Viridiana a "saint" but also "a little nutty". Did Sister Rose not note at the end, Viridiana's preening gestures at the mirror in anticipation of presenting herself at the now attractive Jorge's door, in an obvious acceptance of continued assaults on her virtue? She then joins her co-morbid devotee to Jorges, the maid Ramona, in his room to join in the card game. It appears Bunuel is not praising sanctimonious do-gooders, but rather vilifying their efforts as wasted. Sister Rose sees this film instead as a paean to to charity instead of an expose to its misguided futility.

This movie was so reviled on its original release date that I cannot wait to see it tonite. Previously I have only seen bits and pieces, so don't forget to watch and see if the Legion of Decency was finally right about something.

Well, we all know how some directors like to mix it up, and do drama and then comedy and then action and then who knows. I was thinking about "Blow Up" and its ending while watching the Lewis films, since he sometimes has a bit of a surrealistic quality to his oeuvre also, GPF. I always just thought that "BU" was about that people think they see things sometimes that did not really exist and that Antonioni brought the audience into the same mystery by making us wonder if we had seen the dead body on the original negatives that Hemmings was printing up daily. Thanks for introducing me to John Castle!

I had no idea that Sister Rose had already become a moderator here, Dargo!