Vautrin
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Posts
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Days Won
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Posts posted by Vautrin
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Problem is we're running out of new wars to make movies about. WWII, Korea,
Vietnam. Been there, done that. Afghanistan, Iraq. Boring. Got to come up with
something big that can extend the cinematic war franchise beyond 24 hours.
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Rather standard fare. At around 77 minutes I don't feel I lost a whole lot of time.
The cruise ship setting during the last part of the flick was slightly reminiscent of
Dangerous Crossing. Couldn't recall if Jean Peters was in that one, but it was
Jeanne Crain. Can't go wrong either way.
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A three way with Cody and Rocco. There ain't enough booze in the ocean.
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And Ma wonders why my back is always out of whack.
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You should have seen the look on Ma Jarrett's
face when I showed her Johnny's Rocco. Thought
she was going to faint dead away.
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22 hours ago, TomJH said:
Yeah, bring the old bag in. I'm gonna show her something she hasn't seen
in forty years.
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2 hours ago, laffite said:
Ideas like this bring to mind (oh no, not again!) Vertigo a movie that played well to the general audience that Hitchcock envisioned, an audience whose primary aim was be merely entertained and knowing full well that when they leave the theater it will be gone forever. More perceptive viewers may have had (and some critics) serious afterthoughts but most will, upon leaving the theater, still be under the mesmerizing glow of the story and the way it was done. And those who did spot flaws, whether critics or average movie goers, probably didn't care.
Yes, I doubt no one knew in 1958 all the reams of paper to be spent on discussions of all the
possible meanings of Vertigo, including Hitchcock himself.
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23 hours ago, TomJH said:
Ed knew that Cody wouldn't stop hunting for him and he didn't want to keep looking over his shoulder, so he decided to wait for him for the showdown. He made the mistake of trusting Verna, however.
Waiting for Cody to show up and hoping to knock him off was certainly one of Big Ed's options,
which didn't exactly work out as planned as Verna was a situational ethicist. I would have gone
with Plan B: since Cody seems to hang out on the west coast, head for the northern woods of
Maine.
Pacino was a more sympathetic character in Donnie Brasco than Cody. Someone you could truly
feel sorry for. That scene near the end where he slowly takes off and carefully puts away his
jewelry knowing that he won't be returning is so sad. He is so much in the life that he just goes
to his fate without a second thought.
If Cody got a gander at Johnny Rocco in the bathtub even he might make a hasty retreat. I know
he wouldn't want Ma to see that.
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I recall indulging just before watching The Wizard of Oz in a college movie theater. A little
weird, but since I had seen it numerous times on TV I really didn't mind missing the details
of the film. If I only had a joint.
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5 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:
D'oh, you're right...we old movie fans (actually, any kind of movie fan) can watch a film repeatedly, pause it if we want to study a certain scene, and do all kinds of things that the original audience certainly would not have been able to do (nor probably even would want to.) So, while it's fun to discuss and argue the finer points of some of these old movies, it is, when all is said and done, "only a movie".
...but it's still fun to discuss and argue about them !
It does give people the ability to minutely analyse things that were perhaps never meant to be
so closely analysed, but sure that's fun too. There is a site for The Andy Griffith Show fans
which I visit sometimes and they really get down into the weeds on all sorts of trivial topics,
which is a result of endless reruns of that show. I also thought that Big Ed was kind of
stupid. He seems to be just waiting around for crazy Cody to show up instead
of getting the hell out of there and going underground.
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6 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:
I have absolutely no idea how such things work (converting a radio to an "oscillator" and if it could be done.) But I suspect that Raoul Walsh and the screenwriters are counting on their 1949 audience being as woefully stupid as I am when it comes to home electronics. I think, whether it's possible to turn a radio into an oscillator or not, we're supposed to think it is. And don't forget, there is a scene where Fallon is first introduced to the audience, in which there's a bit of dialogue suggesting he's good with electronics.
Not to waste too much more time arguing this point, but, if Fallon doesn't take Verna's radio and mess about with it, where does he get that oscillator he plants in the heist truck?? I ask you.
As many folks have pointed out, audiences in those days likely only saw the film one time and
didn't have our ability to watch movies over and over again and notice things that probably flew
right by the people who only saw it once. I just take it as that old Hollywood magic. Sure a guy
can take a radio and convert it into a oscillator or an oscillator can just sort of show up on its
own. Just like there happened to be a lamp over the mirror in the men's room that Fallon could
hang his jacket on and cover up his message when the other criminal came in to tell him to hurry
it up. And the audience has time to muse about Cody's relationship with Fallon, while ITRW a guy
like Fallon would have been concerned with staying alive and getting his job done.
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6 hours ago, Dargo said:
LOL
And coincidentally, and as you probably remember here Vautrin, Bogie's dog's name in High Sierra is "Pard".
(...played, according to the IMDb web page for this film, by a canine actor named "Zero" who was actually Bogart's dog in real life)
I had forgotten. I guess Bogie felt he might as well keep the check in the family.
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I guess if I could find someone to give me money to globe trot around the world talking
about my beloved object, I'd take the deal too. I watched the whole thing, though I was
tempted a few times to switch over to Perry Mason. Cousins had some interesting ideas
about Little Orson Annie, though I don't know if there were enough to fill up 110 minutes.
But he is obviously head over heels about Welles. There's no doubt that both Welles and
Cousins have their pretentious sides, so go for it. His Irish brogue didn't bother me that
much, sometimes it was amusing trying to decipher some words, like per for poor.
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4 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:
I think he just said that about fixing her radio so he could get his hands on said radio and turn it into an "oscillator" ; if Cody thought he was just "fixing" it, he wouldn't be suspicious seeing Fallon /Pardou messing about with it. Fallon must have had to be very sneaky and unobtrusive, attaching the radio-turned-oscillator to the back of the "Trojan Horse" truck.
Not to get all practical when it comes to the world of movies, but even though I don't
know much about electronics, I find it difficult t believe that Fallon could turn a radio
into a oscillator or whatever it was supposed to be. And lord knows, Verna needed
something to keep her busy. I presumed that Fallon's alias was Pardo, like Don Pardo.
Pardou sounds like he was a French mime.
Roy Earle knew that to be sympathetic it helps to have a dog. If Cody had a dog he
probably would have killed it and eaten it when he ran out of fried chicken. Made it ma,
top of the woof.
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11 hours ago, cigarjoe said:
When TCM did that Summer of Darkness program a couple of years ago there was a link that was published in the classroom section to a comparative table of noir titles that listed all the titles that the various Film Noir book authors felt tipped noir, like you mentioned there is a core consensus but also a lot of outliers.
Yes there are the usual suspects and then other suspects on different sections of the continuum.
As for Fallon. He was a professional who specialized in undercover ops in prison, so he
was probably indifferent to his target and used to dealing with bad dudes without caring
very much about their individual characters and Cody was an especially bad dude. Fallon
never did fix Verna's radio either. Oh well.
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4 hours ago, Princess of Tap said:
The scene in the penitentiary cafeteria where Cagney goes off is the best gangster scene I've ever seen in a Warner Brothers gangster movie
Cagney opened the gangster era in 31 with "Public Enemy" and he closed the gangster era in 49 with "White Heat". What's truly amazing is that at 50 he still had all of that volcanic energy that he had in the 30s.
I just wouldn't want to be the guy who has to tell Cody that dear old mom is dead.
Hit the deck.
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4 hours ago, cigarjoe said:
If it's not a noir for you, it's not a noir, for others it obviously tips noir. It's all subjective.
😎
There is definitely a subjective element, though there seems to be a consensus that
the usual suspects--Out of the Past, Laura, The Killers, et al--are noir. To each their
own.
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If I cared all that much about it, I would mount a defense that White Heat isn't
really a noir, but I don't really care that much, so I'll only say it's just a gangster picture
where the head man is a loony. Very entertaining as such, no doubt. I got a kick out
of ma telling Verna she'll wear out the mattress, though maybe not in the way ma
meant. And once again, poor old mother gets all the blame. Shame on you, Siggy.
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7 hours ago, Dargo said:
At the 59:10 minute mark, Carlisle (Power) says "You're not a regular M.D., are you", and Ritter (Walker) quickly relies "Of course not".
However, that wouldn't necessarily mean that she wasn't a licensed psychologist.
(...as most psychologists do not have a medical degree, and as psychiatrists are required to have)
True, she wouldn't need a medical degree to be a psychologist. But there are so many scammers in
the movie, what's one more. And they probably weren't as vigilant back then as they are now when
it comes to professional credentials.
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6 hours ago, TomJH said:
So why did the Production Code allow Lilith to get away with it?
Poor posture? That's more a matter of taste. Maybe I misheard it, but I think that in the
movie someone mentioned that Lilith was not actually a licensed psychologist. She sure had
the lingo and the office furniture down pat.
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That's the problem with these PC types. They actually think the confederates were racists.
C'mon, man.
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6 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
I've read his taking a job in HOLLYWOOD was a way for him to literally avoid being questioned because he was an associate of Michael Collins.
When I learned George was Irish, it made me understand the kind of flat stilted quality that's in his voice sometimes; I imagine it's awfully hard to hide a Brogue, but George did well.
Some sources say he got out of Ireland because the Brits were after him. Don't know if
that's true or not. Georgie spent a number of his adolescent years in the U.S., so maybe
that weakened his Irish brogue. On first hearing he was involved with the IRA I was surprised
as his screen persona was often on the bland side.
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6 hours ago, Hibi said:
LOL. I need to refresh now and then.........Anyway, he's off today!
Oh oh. There go the daily production numbers.
72 hour Memorial day marathon neutered to 1 day?
in General Discussions
Posted
Sorry to hear about your dad. My remark about running out of wars was partly facetious.
Long drawn out engagements as in Afghanistan and Iraq seem to lack the drama of ones
like WWII and Vietnam. I suppose I've seen most of the usual suspects of WWII movies
and, to a lesser degree, Vietnam. Like other genres, some are good. some are bad, and
most are of average quality. As for Afghanistan, even the Russians knew it was time to
leave after ten years.