Vautrin

I didn't know that. I enjoy some musicals, but I can't say it's my favorite type of Hollywood movie. That's why I didn't know much about Murphy. He did a bit of a Dick Powell thing, switching to dramatic and noir roles later in his career. And he was very cultivated in Border Incident.

Well, there goes Murph's dancing career.

The only singing he would have done is to the feds. In a weird sort of way he was a counterpoint to Mickey's character, who also had a very short fuse, but was truly deadly. Not what folks think of as a typical MGM movie, but still pretty enjoyable.

The Big Operator (1959). Mickey Rooney, Steve Cochran, Mamie Van Doren. First, a pause to chuckle at the idea of the shrimpish Rooney as a big operator. In the closeups, the Mick's physical lack of stature is not that noticeable, but in medium shots with everyone standing up, well Rooney looks like a kid who wandered into the adult's section. Rooney plays the vicious and crooked head of a union. Steve Cochran and Mel Torme play buddies who are members of the union. Mel is a guy with a short fuse who is always ready to rumble. Steve spends most of his time trying to restrain his friend's emotional outbursts. By coincidence they happen to witness Rooney with a hit man that he shouldn't be seen with. At a congressional hearing, Rooney pleads the Fifth more often than he got married. At first he tries to win them over with jobs at the union, but they don't go for that. Then Mickey has to get tough. Mel is roughed up and then thrown out of a car in front of his house. Then suddenly the velvet fog is in on fire. Steve puts him out. Then Steve is kidnapped by Rooney's goons. He gets away only to have Mickey kidnap his son. The cops are eventually called in after Steve manages to backtrack and find the house where he was held. And there is Mickey hiding in a closet with Steve's son. Mick is now headed for a long term in the slammer. Low budget flick keeps things pretty basic but entertaining. To make up for his lack of physical heft Rooney's character (called Little Joe) struts around with a cigar stuffed in his mouth yelling orders at his subordinates and being just a mean s.o.b. in general. All in all, it might be as humorous as it is intimidating. In one classic line after Mel Torme is set aflame, Rooney tells his goon 'Look, you don't set anyone on fire unless I tell you to.' Okayyy. The stars go through their paces in general good order with Steve Cochran minus his usual pin stripe suit as Joe Blue Collar and Mamie playing it subdued as Cochran's bland hausfrau. Mickey's over the top performance only makes the film more entertaining. Look for the union label...or else.

Well, this could be the last time, this could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don't know. Oh no.

TV trays? We never need 'em.

It also seems pretty limiting for anything beyond a very basic story. And just about anything, however complex and lengthy, could be divided into three acts, though it might take a little effort to do so, so the term isn't all that meaningful to me. Chandler had a lot of problems writing Double Indemnity with Billy Wilder. Maybe he was just a "natural" short story and novel writer who should have stayed away from doing screenplays.

Charles my boy, it's getting rather cold in here. How about I throw some more wood on the fire. I'm sending Mr. Carlin Rugs for Dummies.

I'm sure that's right, as Eddie held up Chandler's original long screenplay to show its bulk. I suppose if one wanted a short, basic beginning, middle, and end story, Chandler wasn't your man, though his novels, for the most part, are fairly tightly written. I suppose Chandler was a novelist who should have stayed away from writing for the movies.

Three act story sounds a bit ambiguous and simplistic. Chandler's novels have a lot of twists and turns. Whether that disqualifies them as a three act story, I'm not sure. I've always enjoyed reading them and except for The Long Goodbye they're fairly short.

Who wouldn't want to smoke a little weed with Lila Leeds? She seemed a lot warmer than Ms. Fromsett, who was a tad on the frosty side. It's unfortunate that Ms. Leeds' career went south after her pot bust. She left Hollywood and wandered around for a while with a few marriages and divorces to her name. Sort of a Veronica Lake story without the stardom. She did make it to 71, so maybe things weren't totally bad. I'm kind of meh on Lady in the Lake. Pretty good, but nothing very special. I find it funny that the subjective camera is used except for two or three times when Montgomery is sitting at his desk and narrating to fill in parts of the story. You're wondering where the lake is. Well, the studio was too cheap to do any location shooting, so I'll just gloss over that part. When it comes to Chandler, the books are always better than the movie adaptations IMHO.

To me it was just more of the same in a different setting. And that narration. Egad. Now, if I was totally unfamiliar with Woody Allen films I probably would have liked it. Though I haven't seen many of his newer movies, I think the one film a year schedule is not helping any.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz. Not all that interesting in itself, but interesting in how Woody moved, almost wholesale, the good looking, well off, intellectual artsy type characters from NYC to Barcelona. Vicky and Cristina are two such who are spending the summer in Barcelona. They meet painter Bardem and he uses some pickup lines that are as subtle as a sledgehammer. Cristina is willing, but Vicky is engaged and finds Bardem's crude behavior somewhat off putting. IOW, she'll be sucking Bardem's paintbrush the day after tomorrow. Cristina moves in with Bardem and things are going well until Bardem's semi-crazy ex-wife, played by Cruz, enters the picture. At first there is some conflict, but eventually they start a threesome. The only person who isn't getting any action is Bardem's poet father, but with a few extra minutes of screen time he likely could have got some tail too. Sorry pops. Vicky's post-yuppie fiance arrives and they get married, though she feels guilty about screwing Bardem. She considers getting out of the marriage, but they've got to go back home and buy a new house, so why not stay with Mr. Sucker? Well it's the end of summer and the girls have to return to the USA. Bardem's wife comes in with a pistola and starts firing but doesn't hit anybody. Yeah, it's definitely time to get out of Barcelona. The icing on the cake of this movie is an almost beyond pretentious narration, which has to be heard to be believed and even then it's hard to believe. The Barcelona locales are nice to see. Sort of like a travelogue with some annoying people getting in the way. This is the kind of picture that gives meaning to the phrase verging on self-parody.

I too have seen it a number of times, but not in a while, so I watched it again. Pretty entertaining for the most part. Bogie is fairly sympathetic as the gangster, much more so than the snarling Duke Mantee. The car chase up the mountain was good, though the finale seemed a little drawn out. Pop must have loved California. Every time Bogie visits, Pop is sitting on his rear, reading the paper or having a drink. Beats getting up at the crack of dawn back on the farm.

Not that it makes much of a difference, but I've always considered High Sierra to be a typical gangster flick, though with a better script and more depth than most, and not a noir. Now if Bogie had shot the dog and kicked the crippled girl, well...

He's always running here and there.

My eyes tell me I'm looking at my computer monitor and I tend to believe them. Off the top of my head, The Usual Suspects has a lot of is it or isn't it so, not to mention the recent controversy concerning stories about its director.

Yep, come out of the shadows and stay away from the booze.

I didn't know he said that, but that was incorrect. O'Brien was there to try to pick up some dames. He had the phone number of that hot little hep cat from the jazz club and was going to call her until he got a call from Paula and then tore the number up and gave it a quick burial in the garbage can.

Plus Mr. Duck has his own sound effects. What they needed to go along with the sound effect is an animation showing O'Brien's eyes shooting a few feet out of his head, spinning around crazily and then going back into his head like the old time cartoons.

It happens after he checks into the St. Francis hotel in SF and sees all the pretty models and merchandise babes there. After that he's too busy knowing that he is going to die to notice. Even though I've seen it many times before, that sound still gives me a chuckle.

Kelly McGillis lives in the area, though I don't think she lives in Asheville. She was in court a few years ago when some woman broke into her house.

But I'm not a ma'am.

With a daily wardrobe like that, no wonder Norton had a lot of extra cash. The Nortons did have a much nicer apartment than the Kramden's post WWII Berlin look. Since I figured they had about the same salary maybe Norton avoided some of Ralph's wilder money making schemes. About Clifton Webb. He was so physically unimposing and sissified that it was hard to take him seriously as an autocrat. He could use his waspish manner to intimidate people, but the idea of any physical threat would have had one double over in laughter. But still a wonderful actor in most of the roles he played.

Yep. He didn't really need Wilmer, he could just sit on people.