Vautrin
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Posts posted by Vautrin
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Well, there goes Murph's dancing career.
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7 hours ago, Hibi said:
Mel Torme playing a gangster? LOL. Does he sing?
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.
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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.
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Well, this could be the last time, this could be the last time,
maybe the last time, I don't know. Oh no.
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On 3/25/2019 at 4:08 PM, Det Jim McLeod said:
TV trays? We never need 'em.
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9 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
Yes. the whole term "three act story" strikes me as a glib "proactive" buzzword leaned upon heavily by screenwriting seminar instructors; kind of an around-the-elbow-way of saying "there should be a beginning, a middle, and an end to your story", which is kind of like starting a class on transmission repair by saying "before you start to work on your transmission, you should make sure that you are, in fact, looking under the hood of a car to locate it- and not say, the mouth of a horse or a steamer trunk in the attic."
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.
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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.
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11 hours ago, cigarjoe said:
I'm thinking the "three act story quote" was alluding to a typical screenplay.
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.
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5 hours ago, speedracer5 said:
Re: Chandler. What’s interesting to me about him is Muller’s comments stating that Chandler had no idea how to write a 3-Act story. I should read one of Chandler’s books. I’ve read Cain’s “Mildred Pierce,” and Hammett’s “The Thin Man,” and loved both the book and film—even though both book and film versions were quite different from one another.
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.
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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.
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
I thought that was one of Woody's better films from the 00's, behind only Match Point and Cassandra's Dream.
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.
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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.
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5 hours ago, Hibi said:
LOL. I skipped watching it this go-round. I've seen it enough.
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.
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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...
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He's always running here and there.
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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.
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6 hours ago, Hibi said:
LOL. Yeah, he briefly mentioned it in the intro. He needs to watch the film again.
Yep, come out of the shadows and stay away from the booze.
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5 hours ago, Hibi said:
And incidentally, Eddie was wrong about O'Brien going to Frisco for the convention. He knew nothing about it. He just went there on vacation and to sow a few oats.....
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.
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5 hours ago, Dargo said:
"Yeah, well, they wouldn'ta had to use that cheesy side-whistle sound effect if I HAD been the lead in this picture! But no, they went with that hack O'Brien guy instead!"
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.
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7 hours ago, Hibi said:
LOL! I forgot to look for that musical motif. That segment also reminded me of Reefer Madness.
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.
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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.
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6 hours ago, CaveGirl said:
Only the facts, Vautrin...please!
But I'm not a ma'am.
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10 hours ago, CaveGirl said:
I can now admit to my lifelong crush on Ed Norton. Guys wearing undershirts and vests are such a turn-on! Plus that hat makes it all come together tonsorially.
Gleason may have been the greatest, but Norton had the much nicer apartment, with great decorating touches and a tv, even when they weren't even perfected yet which kept some cheapskates from buying one. How Alice could stand that fleabag apartment with just a kitchen table is beyond me. Norton was the real catch, who would shell out money and treat a girl like Trixie right.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.
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10 hours ago, CaveGirl said:
Ounce for ounce of avoidupois, you got it, Pookie!
Yep. He didn't really need Wilmer, he could just sit on people.
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Noir Alley
in General Discussions
Posted
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.