Vautrin
-
Posts
21,175 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
4
Posts posted by Vautrin
-
-
3 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
Oh, And for the record, early 30s George Brent was legit handsome. Also, He was Irish so he was probably sexier in real life.
And he was probably a member of the IRA in the early 1920s for which I give him two kneecaps up.
-
2
-
-
-
1
-
1
-
-
Speaking of gay subtext, in the original script the geek bites the heads off
of live chicken hawks.
-
Congratulations on 25,000 posts, Hibi. I'm sure the boss is
glad to have a hard working, dedicated employee like you.
-
1 hour ago, Hibi said:
What is this in reference to???
I should have made that clearer. Someone had already posted about Raisin in the Sun.
Imagine sending "Emil Peterson" to persuade somebody to do something they don't want
to do. Fiedler did play the same role in the play. Now if you want someone who is an
expert at underhanded real estate dealings, Elliot Carlin is your man.
-
1
-
-
I found it humorous that John Fiedler played the head of the white community association
sent out to try to get the Younger family to not move into the neighborhood. He is about
as imposing and forceful as a wet rag. Maybe Wally Cox wasn't interested.
-
1
-
-
6 hours ago, Hibi said:
While I love the film (and agree the tacked on semi-hopeful ending doesn't ruin it), I'm always bugged by the shotgun wedding part. Doesn't make sense as nothing was going on between them and considering the low morals of carny people, is ridiculous!
I was surprised by it too, especially the suddenness of the whole thing. At the beginning of the
film it isn't made very clear what the exact relationship is between Molly and Bruno. Are they
related, just friends, or does he see himself as her protector. Freaks popped into my mind,
where the circus freaks have their own code and way of doing things, however bizarre it might
seem to outsiders. The Nightmare Alley carnies need to chill out and take it easy.
-
1
-
-
6 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:
but could millennials or Generation Xers have ever built the Brooklyn bridge or the golden gate bridge?
those men were guided by a strong worth ethic as opposed to a leftist-induced nanny state 'gimme' sense of entitlement.
Interesting question. I will think about it for...maybe ten seconds.
-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, jamesjazzguitar said:
Well that keep the dough lesson isn't given until Scam session 103. Psychologist Lilith Ritter completed the entire course.
While I'm cracking wise, I believe that this twist was done to show that the real professional scammer was Ritter and that the rest were just clumsy amateurs.
PS: Stan also missed another key scam lesson: don't depend on anyone that isn't tough enough for the job: Stan knew his wife was weak (well, by being a good person), and that she was only going along because she loved Stan and he 'had her' with his sexual attraction.
I figured the name Lilith was used to give a hint as to the true nature of her character.
I agree that the Helen Walker character was a scammer on a higher level than Stan, who
was stuck with starting on the low level of being a small time circus grifter, though he
was working his way up. Overall Coleen Gray was fine, but there were one or two scenes
where she seemed a little too innocent to be believed but maybe that was the way they
wanted the character played.
-
2
-
-
2 hours ago, jamesjazzguitar said:
I don't know; Jeff Bailey or Joe Gillis weren't given a second chance and they entered their noir worlds as fairly decent people. Not the case with Stan who would cheat his own mom if the price was right.
I always thought that Jeff should have shot Kathy and let the dead Kirk Douglas take the rap,
so to speak. Then he could have gone back to his sweet girlfriend and she wouldn't have been
stuck with that dumb forest ranger or whatever he was. I think it was obvious to most people
that the ending was tacked on to produce a more positive finale to Nightmare Alley. And no
doubt Stan was not a good person by far. I still felt a little sorry for him. Maybe once he got
the chicken feathers out of his mouth, he would have reviewed his conduct and decided to
be a better person.
-
2 hours ago, TomJH said:
Yup, for a smart cookie like Stan that wasn't so bright. He made the mistake of trusting her.
I suspect a lot of real life hustlers types watching the film would cringe when Carlisle did that.
Yes, you'd think they'd cover the keep the dough lesson in the first week of Running a Scam 101.
I've noticed that in some crime/noir films this basic piece of wisdom is not followed.
-
One day you're eating filet mignon, the next you're biting the heads off live chickens.
So the wheel of fortune turns. This is sort of a meta noir. The carny folks are trying
to put one over on the rubes and get their money by putting on a show with lots
of fakery and bluster. Sort of like movie people. From the crummy carny to high
society to the psychoanalyst's couch, it's all the same scam only with different tactics
and spiels for the particular environment of the chumps. On a practical note, I never
understood why a smart guy like Stan would give his $150,000($1.7 million in 2019
dollars) to semi-butch Helen Walker. Always keep the money yourself. Lesson not
learned. While it was a pretty typical happy Hollywood ending, I'm mostly glad that
Stan would be given a second chance.
-
2
-
1
-
-
Perhaps Edward was unconsciously influenced by the carny ballyhoo of the movie's
early setting. I was watching a number of British noirs on YT. One films leads to a
list of similar films. The October Man, The Upturned Glass, Dear Murderer, all from
1947 and Beyond This Place from 1959. There were others I can't recall at the
moment. Pretty solid films, though in general less gritty and violent than their
American counterparts.
-
Don't marry the dude who plays your son in a movie. It won't work out.
-
2
-
-
It's Fat M vs. Thin M. I saw the remake a number of years ago and didn't remember much
about it. On its own it's a fairly good flick, though not up to the original. The German version
has a certain exoticism from being so long ago and set in Germany. There's nothing the
1951 version can do about that, it's just the way it is. I found it to be a typical police
procedural wrapped around a psychotic killer tale, and pretty effective as that. The mommy
messed me up theory likely seemed pretty nifty back then, today less so. Give mom a break.
I did get a kick out of the scene where Wayne strangles the Pillsbury Dough Boy as mommy
looks on from her photo. The mass paranoia and hysteria theme is also well done, though I
suppose it's an obvious tack to take. All in all, worth watching.
-
1
-
-
4 hours ago, EricJ said:
And they are the three words that best describe the Grinch. (And I quote.)
LOL. Yes indeed. You're not a mean one. I can't say that it's one of my favorite
Christmas songs, but I get a kick out of hearing it during the Christmas season.
Certainly a nice change of pace from the usual Christmas tunes.
-
9 hours ago, TikiSoo said:
And "stink/stank/stunk" is funny because it's not correct grammar-it's poetic license for a song.
Stank and stunk are correct grammar. They are past forms of the verb stink.
-
6 hours ago, Gershwin fan said:
What movie comment section is this even from? "No cussing" certainly wouldn't be my greatest ringing praise of a movie.
It's from YT comments about The Big Combo (1955). It doesn't really matter that much.
Just about every studio era film will have very similar comments.
-
He was busted to buck private and is peeling potatoes and cleaning latrines.
The People of YouTube.think people who judge these films are really longing for the late 40's-to-early 50's era, before government oppression reduced all of us to the level of intruders in Washington's nation.
+Lee Larson Lee I enjoy these classic movies because there is no sex or cursing compared to today's TV and movies. Ed
+Ed Fulmer Sr no cursing but, loads of violence, much of it against women. I'd rather have the cursing and of course, sex.
+William George --Grow up.
I agree . It looks nicer than what we have now! Doubt the government was full of open crooks like now!
you mean like Nixon
When police abused people with impunity because cell phones didn't exist to record them? Casual racism and bigotry? THAT era you miss???-
1
-
-
1 hour ago, NipkowDisc said:
Williams went on to better things...
I don't know it LIS was better, but at least it was more lucrative.
-
8 hours ago, jinsinna13 said:
Well, from what I read, that was Pernell Roberts' doing. Roberts was responsible for getting Guy Williams (someone who was supposed to replace him) fired.
I believe Roberts decided at the last moment to hang around for one more season so
Williams was no longer needed. I don't think it had anything to do with Williams personally.
-
And does so without any of the hosts holding a shotgun across their laps.
-
1
-
-
Let 'em come up with a slightly more imaginative name than Canada Day. A while back I
made the somewhat disturbing discovery that we have French Canadian ancestors on
my mother's side of the family. They emigrated to upstate New York sometime in the
1840s. O, thank you, thank you.
Les uns, joyeux de fuir une patrie infame;
-
3 hours ago, TheCid said:
Reconstruction ended in 1876 when the Republicans thought it was more important to have a Republican president than continue Reconstruction. The Electoral College votes in the South were contested by having two sets of electors elected. If the Southern states had stood by their Dem winner, there would be a Dem president. But, the Republicans cut a deal. They would have the Federal troops removed from the South in exchange for Southern states recognizing the Republican electors as the official ones. So, the Republicans got the presidency and the South got the troops out. With the troops gone, there was no one to protect the Republicans, carpetbaggers and blacks who held offices in the South. Nor to prevent the white Southerners from voting. Add in no protections against the Klan and the white southerners took control of their states.
Yes, it was a political deal, no doubt about it. One that likely did more harm than good.
Noir Alley
in General Discussions
Posted
Maybe the bell boy was just offering tonic water to go along with the bottle of gin.
I believe the bell boys and desk clerks in the Philip Marlowe novels were usually a
bit on the seamy side and always knew where the "action" was. I guess I'm so used
to the sleazy surroundings of many noirs that I sometimes don't pay attention to
the details.