LornaHansonForbes
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Posts posted by LornaHansonForbes
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1 hour ago, King Rat said:
As much as I hate to disagree with both Lorna and CinIntl, I like The Hours and feel a deep personal connection to it.
I think I read this 3 or 4 times and kept thinking "who the HELL is Clint?" before I saw what you meant (abbreviation.)
it's cool. I actually liked the VIRGINIA WOOLFE segments, but haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated the modern day scenes with MERYL and CLAIRE DANES and NIGHT OF THE LIVING ED HARRIS.
(But I admire your admiration of the film and I salute you for it, Lord knows the Boards would be dull if we all always agreed.)
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44 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
He kind of ruled the roost back in the day, like a King. Certainly was the one that was most forceful about his opinions and his own personal winners every year. He later married the queen (the most prominent woman) of the board.
No worries here.
I'm not the marrying kind.
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17 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
10 Rillington Place would have been very controversial in 1971 for both the serial killing and the abortion angle as well. I saw it about 5 or 6 years ago because some man on a Oscar-oriented messageboard I was part of would never stop talking about it as a masterpiece; very unusual because the film was released 17 years before he was born and he was obsessed with keeping up with practically every new release, not so much classics, and I really don't think its a film that gets revived or televised a lot.
I am concerned about this gentlemen to whom you refer and wonder just what (or who) he may have stuffed in his crawlspace wherever he lives.
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12 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
Into the Woods was a big disappointment, given how great the material was
I can't with JAMES CORDEN.
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ALSO, THE STUNT MAN seems to me, RIPE FOR A REMAKE, the story is extremely open to translation. it's a film I would love to show to a room full of screenwriting students and then tell them to write their own interpretation of it.
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16 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
Sounds like I need to give The Stunt Man another try. It went over my head I guess when I saw it, although I recall Barbara Hershey 's first scene (in which she falls into the water disguised as an elderly woman and then proceeds to remove the makeup as she is "rescued") as being .ost bizarre and memorable.
it helped that I watched it on TUBI (with minimal commercials) and, as such, I was able to pause it at will to "come up for air" periodiclaly.
in fact, i even watched an hour of it and went to bed and watched the rest the next day- which i know offends some of the film purists here, but for some films it just helps to take a breather.
my advice if you wanna check it out again:
1. don't do it sober
2. watch it for the visuals, and O'Toole- DON'T BOTHER TO MAKE SENSE OF THE STORY.
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On 1/16/2022 at 7:34 PM, HoldenIsHere said:
I am a fan of Meryl Streep by the way.
I have been FIRMLY TEAM MERYL ever since her line read "can somebody PLEASE get THE GOD DAMN DOOR!!!!?" as she nurses a broken PUSSYCAT PINK NAIL that she has slammed the washing machine lid on in SHE-DEVIL (1989?)
I LIVE for DEATH BECOMES HER, and I saw THE RIVER WILD and HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS in the theater. ditto THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY (and I HATE Eastwood) i even liked ONE TRUE THING and thought she was a hoot in ADAPTATION. (THE HOURS eats **** though)
So it is with a heavy heart that, as a result of not just one but many small things, MERYL is officially ON PROBATION with me.
(we take you now to 148 acres in Upstate Connecticut for MISS STREEP'S reaction to this news:)
In all seriousness though, there is no point in arguing whether or not MERYL is a great actress, she is.
But there got to be a point some time in her career (I would say ca. 1995) where getting NOMINATED STARTED TO mean more to her than it should have.
And I dunno, I don't want to fault her for taking good roles, but she's developed "AND WITH ACADEMY AWARD WINNER JOHN GEILGUD" syndrome, where tacking on her presence at the end of a trailer is BLATANTLY INTENDED add a veneer of respectibilty to something...whether it deserves it or not.
(ps- YES, i KNOW THAT'S GLENN CLOSE in the clip.)
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I also watched 10 RILLINGTON PLACE from 1971 on TCM.
it's a very well-made, if AGGRESSIVELY GRAY movie- seriously, are DIRTY, GREASE-SMEARED WALLS a major design trend in ENGLAND? (If so, I must say. I like them better than SHAG CARPETING and FLOCKED WALLPAPER, but not by much.)
it's a PRURIENT TRUE CRIME STORY, and I'm sure it's had a couple hour long DISCOVERY ID episodes done about it...back in 1971 though, this was shocking stuff, and this VERY BRITISH feature film about a Notting Hill serial killer who frames an innocent tenant of his for two of his (many, many) crimes reminded me of DAVID LEAN'S MADELEINE, in that it seemed as if it wanted to keep a polite distance from the subject matter, turning to us every now and then to apologize for even telling such a lurid story as the protagonist digs another hole below the floorboards for his latest unfortunate victim.
RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH was excellent in a very difficult role of an abortionist/serial killer/ guy with SERIOUS ISSUES WITH WOMEN and JUDY GEESON (of BERSERK!) was really terrific as well, JOHN HURT- who got most of the notices for the film- is also great, but his character is SUCH a question mark, I don't feel like he was done justice by the story and direction.
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11 hours ago, nakano said:
What I noticed is the beautiful, huge Ava Gardner's statue in the opening scenes in the cemetery,it was shown several times in the film,Frank Sinatra got and kept the statue in his garden at home in Coldwater Canyon,until Barbara Marx forced him to remove it in 1976 .
Ah, the Rich and Famous. Nice to see they have the exact same problems we do.
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11 hours ago, nakano said:
Peter O'Toole was amazing in The Stunt Man,too bad it did not do well when it was released.
According to Wikipedia, the film received such a limited release that Peter O’Toole himself said “the film wasn’t released, it escaped.”
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1 minute ago, Bethluvsfilms said:
THE PRIVATE EYES was a childhood favorite film of mine, but it's been ages since I've seen it. Will have to give it another look one of these days.
Real classic, classy car.
SAME.
I love it with all my heart and I have since shared it with nieces who also adore it. were are NORTH CAROLINIANS and used to visit THE BILTMORE before it got to be $600 for four people to go (!!!!!!!!)
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oh, just to add a little more in re: THE STUNT MAN,
there is a pivotal plot point which involves A STUNT MAN drowning after driving a "Dusenburg" (which is clearly a MERCEDES) off a bridge which was- it would seem- not in California.
the very next year, on the filming of the movie THE PRIVATE EYES on THE BILTMORE ESTATE, a stunt man almost drowned when he was driving a BENTLEY doubling for a ROLLS ROYCE into a lagoon on the property.
OOGIE SPOOKY COINCIDENCE..."
Either way, the crash and submerging scenes at the climax of the film are STUNNINGLY WELL DONE.
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TUBI TV continues to be where it's at, I came across THE STUNT MAN (1980)- which I have been curious about for some time.
[note: this is not an easy film to describe or review]
**EDIT: IT OCCURRED TO ME: THIS FILM IS LIKE WATCHING AN ACTION FILM WRITTEN BY VLADIMIR NABOKOV (with a REWRITE from VONNEGUT perhaps)
It stars STEVE RAILSBECK as a man on the run, wanted for murder, who winds up being (more or less) kidnapped and forced into work as a stunt man on a troubled WWI picture that is being shot- for some reason never explained but amusing nonetheless- AT THE HOTEL CORONADO (in San Diego I think?) by a MACHIAVELLIAN MEGALOMANIACAL DIRECTOR played to b!tchy, deranged, grandiose perfection by PETER O'TOOLE, doing A wicked DAVID LEAN, but DAVID LEAN as one of the many personalities of his psychotic character in THE RULING CLASS.
It's a wild film that blurs reality and challenges the viewer- it's META to THE CORE, but interestingly so, and even though it's 20 minutes too long and there's one scene in the third act between RAILSBACK and BARBARA HERSHEY, as the film's subservient, duplicitous leading lady that TRIED MY PATIENCE...
But, not even knowing that much about film, you cannot help but be DAZZLED by the direction, which is showy because it can be, but not so showy as to interfere with the story. there are some shots and stunts in this movie that are years ahead of their time- amazing they were done before computers, and stunning for it.
the film got OSCAR NOMINATIONS for BEST DIRECTOR for RICHARD RUSH (which he really deserved) and BEST ACTOR for O'TOOLE, it's a shame that his part verges on being supporting, but in terms of performance, he's a LEAD all the way.
it's a rare example of a film that was nominated for BEST DIRECTOR but not BEST PICTURE and that's kinda how it shoulda been.
good luck getting the theme song out of your head:
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32 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:
I can see this. It was Faye’s birthday yesterday.
I DID NOT KNOW THAT!
thank you!
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18 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
Meryl Streep turned down being crushed by the Nancy Reagan chandelier in 1996, but accepted being eaten stark naked by a chicken in 2021. Go figure. The declining of standards.
I’d like to think that somewhere in Manhattan, there’s a small studio apartment, and in it,Faye Dunaway is sitting in a recliner eating cake frosting out of the container and obsessively rewatching the ending of DONT LOOK UP on loop …
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13 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
Well, to Rose's defense, the show's title appeared on a license plate, so it did look like LA LAW
I still remember in that Golden Girls episode how once corrected, Rose says "I always wondered why Susan Dey wasn't speaking with a French accent!"
Seriously though, its interesting looking back how channels (NBC in this case) plugged some of their shows even in the episodes of their other hits. Golden Girls episodes also name-dropped The Cosby Show and St. Elsewhere.
I had a very good friend whose younger sister did not want to see “La Confidential” because she did not want to see a French film.
[yes, she pronounced it “Lah con fih den shee al.”]
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It’s “piscina” en Español. It’s one of those Spanish words I’ll never forget thanks to an obvious, and dirty, mnemonic device.
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20 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
Nice MATT DAMON diss.
I'm flirting with checking out TICK, TICK...BOOM ! this weekend as my own uneasy relations with 2021 IN FILM continue....
(my new rubric for assessing modern films is now: "does it feature a nude MERYL STREEP getting eaten by a giant chicken at any part?", if the answer is "no," then I am willling to proceed....but cautiously.)
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4 minutes ago, sewhite2000 said:
I was aware of Marshall's leg situation, and while it didn't hamper his ability to walk from one end of a room to another, apparently, I was suspicious when I saw someone bounding up and down a staircase. I made a mental note to himself that we didn't see the person's face in those quick shots and did read later on imdb that it was a stunt double.
I saw Cluny Brown on TCM some years ago and watched maybe the first 15 or 20 minutes recently when it aired late last year as part of the Lubitsch showcase (just before the parameters of my reviewing every film I've seen THIS year). It is quite charming, although I was a bit dubious at Cluny's ability to fix any plumbing situation just by whacking the pipes with a wrench of a few times. If only my plumbing troubles were so easily solved ....
honest to God, there have been MANY OCCASIONS where I called the plumber and they literally fixed the problem in front of my eyes by doing something pretty much along the lines of whacking the pipe (or tightening a screw) so, I dunno, I'll let it slide since I am not knowledgable on any and all things related to hardware.
**EXCEPT DON'T EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER FLUSH THOSE "DISPOSABLE WIPES" EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER. Someone, in fact, needs to LOBBY CONGRESS and ask they have a Government-mandated name change to INDISPOSABLE WIPES or, my idea "NO FLUSH 'EMS"
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29 minutes ago, nakano said:
Lady in a Cage 1964 Paramount Time wrote : adds Olivia de Havilland to the list of cinema actresses who would apparently rather be freaks than be forgotten".
yeah, bless everyone's heart and all, but the souffle just don't rise on this one.
have to say, I really do appreciate OLIVIA DeHAVILLAND warning us not to see it alone on the poster you included, originally, the advert read "MISS OLIVIA DeHAVILLAND WARNS YOU: THIS MOVIE WILL **** YOU UP FOR LIFE!" but they decided to go with something a little less "attention grabby."
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1 hour ago, Swithin said:
A.J. Cronin's novels have been adapted into many great films and television miniseries: The Citadel, The Stars Look Down, Vigil in the Night, Shining Victory, Hatter's Castle, The Keys of the Kingdom, and my favorite, The Green Years (1946), which I recorded when TCM showed it during the tribute to Dean Stockwell.
Both parents deceased, Stockwell plays Robert Shannon, a child who moves from Dublin to Scotland to live with his mother's family. He's a Catholic whose mother had left her dour Protestant Scottish family to marry a "wild Irishman" years earlier. The first part of the film focuses on the challenges of a Catholic boy adapting to his new family and surroundings; the second part of the film deals with young adult Shannon, played by Tom Drake, and his struggles to become a doctor (this is after all a Cronin film).
The Green Years, which opens in 1900, is filled with colorful characters, played by a cast of great actors: Hume Cronyn as the penny-pinching Scottish uncle, who is the head of the house; Gladys Cooper as Cronyn's severe, puritanical mother; Selena Royle and Jessica Tandy as more loving relatives; Norman Lloyd as the mercenary son of Cronyn and Royle; and, most notably, Charles Coburn in his greatest role, as Stockwell's great-grandfather, with whom Stockwell bonds early in the film.
This is a beautifully made film, with lots of local color and a gripping, moving story. The film was Oscar-nominated for Coburn as supporting actor and for cinematography. Stockwell is amazing as young Robert Shannon.
I seem to recall hearing that THE GREEN YEARS was a major moment in the history of profanity on film, doesn't Charles Coburn get to swear mildly a couple of times?
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13 hours ago, sewhite2000 said:
1/3 Trouble in Paradise (Paramount, 1932)
Source: TCMA much-celebrated film from Ernst Lubitsch, one of history's most-celebrated directors. I'm not sure there's much I can add to what's already been said about this movie, other than to toss my voice on the pile of those mouthing its praises.
So, Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins are thieves, both pretending to be nobility. They meet in Venice, where Marshall has just stolen from Edward Everett Horton a large sum, pretending to be a doctor and conking him over the head after getting him to open his mouth and say "aaahh" (this scene occurs off-camera but is recounted in painful detail by Horton to the Italian authorities in the one scene in the movie I didn't find funny). They arrange a romantic dinner where each tries to fleece the other of their valuables (and also in Marshall's case or Hopkins' garter). They catch each other in the act, reveal their true identities and instantly fall in love.
There's a bit of an awkward transition in which a radio report of the Venice robberies segues into a commercial for a Parisian perfume company, and this is used as an excuse to introduce us to the third major character, the company's new owner, played by Kay Francis - this is her STOM run, after all - a widower who refuses to cut employee's salaries despite this being the middle of the Depression. She has a connection to the other storyline, as she's being wooed, not to any great success, by both Horton and a "major" played by Charlie Ruggles. She tolerates their attention and occasionally goes out with them - sometimes at the same time, like the opera scene - but she tells them both frankly early on that she doesn't love or intend to marry either of them, which doesn't seem to have any negative effect on their efforts. Marshall spots Francis and all her finery through his field glasses, and by the end of the opera, her handbag, containing a great deal of money and jewels, has gone missing. She offers a reward, and reading about it in the paper, Marshall and Hopkins realize there's more to be made by turning the bag in than by trying to fence the easily identifiable items it contains.
There's a bit where a bunch of poor folk are trying to collect the reward - it made me think of all the people showing up for the free food in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town - and one guy who's obviously a Marxist who just want to rub it in Francis' face that she's been deprived of some of her fabulous wealth. He was kinda funny and topical, although having him say "Phooey" three times about a minute and a half apart was a repetetive joke not that funny the first time. There follows a very funny scene in which Marshall swoops in with the handbag, describes the extremely obscure but nevertheless plausible spot here he allegedly found it and makes no pretense of turning down the reward money, saying he's fallen on hard times and needs it. What I like best about the scene is that every time Francis turns her back on him then turns back around, he's in a different location, admiring some expensive knicknack or another of hers, then at at her safe and then her bed! As the conversation prcoeeds, he offers her all sorts of advice about things that might ordinarily seem to be outside of a gentleman's expertise - on lipstick color and so forth. Duly impressed, she offers him a job as her personal assistant.
We jump ahead a little bit in time, and Marshall is living in the house - in the bedroom right next door to hers. He's also secured a receptionist job for Hopkins, who tries to mouse herself up with eyeglasses. There are some cute moments where she tee-hees along with Francis and her schoolgirl crush on Marshall, then goes stoneface whenever Francis isn't looking, indicating that she's less than thrilled with the set-up.
It seems wildly uncertain during the middle stretch of the movie where all this is going. Marshall and Francis are falling hard for each other. Hopkins wants to take what they can get and vanish into the night - she misses Venice and hates to see Marshall becoming a "gigolo" - but he urges her to wait a few more days when there will be an opportunity to make off with a much larger hall. But as his flirtations with Francis seem to morph into genuine affection, both Hopkins - and we - wonder if he'll be able to go through with it. Meanwhile, time may be growing even shorter. Horton is a frequent houseguest and teeters on being ever closer to remembering just where he's seen Marshall before. And a board member at the perfume company played by C. Aubrey Smith is highly supicious of the fictitous background Marshall has invented for himself and is determined to expose him as a fraud, though he has secrets of his own that Marshall may be able to expolit for blakcmail purposes. Meanwhile, there are recurring scenes of the head butler (Robert Greig) becoming apoplectic at the sight of Marshall and Francis constantly emerging from one another's bedrooms. This was pre-Code, after all, though the butler's horror has a bit of a Victorian-morality ring to it that seemed to me old-fashioned even for the movie's day. Ultimately, all three leads have to make decisions about what's best for themselves and for everyone else. The love triangle reminds me of The Smiling Lieutenant, which also partnered Hopkins with Lubitsch. We know one woman isn't going to end up with Marshall. This was probably close to my 10th viewing, but I must say the first time I saw it, it kept me guessing right up until the end.
It's a beautiful-looking film. The cinematography is very stylish, and the costumes and sets are possibly the most exquisite of any '30e film. Possibly, we shouldn't expect any less of Lubitsch, but he really hit a home run with this one.
Marshall has a penchant for breezy comedy, and if he's done more of it, I havent' seen those films. I should seek them out. I mostly know him as Bette Davis' sad-sack sucker of a husband in a couple of films - The Little Foxes and The Letter - and while he generates great pathos in those films, and while he also plays the role of friend-narrator in The Enchanted Cottage and The Razor's Edge, his comedic yet debonair performance here reveals leading man depths I hadn't been aware of prior to seeing this movie. I can see Hopkins in some transition point between the sex bomb she would play in Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde and Design for Living and the annoying whiner she would become in Old Acquaintance and The Children's Hour. She has to show a broad range of attitudes and emotions and succeeds admirably. Francis is the least interesting of the three leads, frankly. Most of the movie, she plays one note - the lovestruck widow blithely unaware she's being set up for a fall, though she does bring some gravitas to the movie's final scenes. There's comedy gold in the pointless rivalry between Horton and Ruggles - I loved all of their scenes together; it's like an embarrassment of supporting actor riches. Though Horton and his double takes when he realizes there's a deeper meaning to what's just been said have worn me down over the years, and his scenes without Ruggles aren't my favorite in the movie. Smith has a touch of menace in his role which I haven't seen in a lot of his performances. He's a worthy adversary.
Looking Lubitsch's resume pn imdb, this film comes between One Hour with You, a Maurice Chevalier-Jeanette MacDonald pairing I haven't seen, and an uncredited segment of the episodic ensemble piece If I Had a Million entitled "The Clerk" and featuring Charles Laughton (also which I haven't seen. I've got some work to do!)
Total films seen this year: 8
1. dunno if you know this or not, but HERBERT MARSHALL lost either all or part of his leg in WWI, so every time "he" runs up the stairs in this film, it's a stunt double! after i found out that, MARSHALL became even more admirable in my eyes, just ONE HELL of an actor.
2. I dunno if you have heard of or seen CLUNY BROWN (1946)- it is LUBITSCH'S final film and I ABSOLUTELY ADORE IT, highly highly highly recommended, it is not often as referenced as some of his others (HEAVEN CAN WAIT, SMILING LIEUTENANT etc.) but it is just SO CHARMING!
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8 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
"Watts a Matter" from April 5, 1990.... which was only a week after the other episode you mention "Justice Swerved" on March 29,1990.
Oh wow, that would have been a great alternate title for FRIDAY. nOT SUre if it fits the overall tone of the episode tho.
ps- sorry, caps lock issues
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56 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:
Nobody wants Beverly on their tail.....
Seriously though, I think that LA Law was a wonderful show. One of my favorites in fact due to the acting and the literate scripts, even if it take a lot of liberties with the real law system and had often boxy visuals. The year of Roz's plunge was a turning point on TV and not a good one. 1991 saw the end of the palmy days for LA Law and Designing Women, and the end entirely of China Beach [Legitimately, the best show ever aired on TV], Dallas, thirtysomething, and Twin Peaks, all fascinating series. And several good shows that started that year (I'll Fly Away, Brooklyn Bridge, Homefront) never got the audiences and runtime they deserved.
spoiler kindasorta but not really-
there were 2 LA LAW moments besides THE FALL OF ROZ that I will always recall-
1. There was a CIVIL RIGHTS case of some kind (police brutality?) and when the jury's verdict is to acquit, THE COURTROOM GOES BERSERK and erupts into violence, and (I think) this was BEFORE the LA RIOTS (ca. 88?) . It was jarringly prescient
2. aLSO there was a long story about 2 parents accused of murdering their infant son and you get the sense that they're being railroaded by the system and the lawyers fight for them and get them acquitted...and the last shot of the show is when the lawyer (Susan Dey?) realizes, having just gotten them off for murder, that they were in fact guilty.
I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
ah, MOTHER.
I wish they'd bring back the [spoiler] function. it was a way we had on the boards here of hiding text you had to click on to reveal