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LawrenceA
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Days Won
246
Posts posted by LawrenceA
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1 hour ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
in retrospect, casting an American as DRACULA and also not having them EVEN ATTEMPT to do an accent is on a par with, oh I don't know, having TERRY-THOMAS play BABE RUTH as TERRY-THOMAS and outright REFUSING to address it. it's weird.( although in the case of DRACULA '79, i see why they did it- to avoid comparison with LUGOSI, but it don't work.)
Out of all the cast, DONALD PLEASANCE seems to having a ball (and he probably was, this was a rare A picture for him, something tells me he wore his DR LOOMIS trenchcoat to set and FILLED IT from the CRAFT SERVICES TABLE every day he was there.)
from going to imdb, it took LANGELLA a VERY LONG TIME to overcome this role, he only did about two movies over the next eight years and one of them was MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE where he played SKELETOR with a similar "distance" from the role that he brought to his part in DRACULA
anyone looking to do a remake of DRACULA should absolutely check this film out for the photography, the locations and the production design.
I'm not sure if you mentioned it earlier, but remember that Langella was coming off a very successful run on Broadway as Dracula (he was nominated for a Tony for it, and made the talk show rounds so that even people who didn't visit NYC at the time were aware of his role in it). As for his light output after the movie version, he remained active on stage, which he's always said was his primary interest, only taking film and TV roles to pay the bills when necessary.
I still refer to this movie as the "Disco Dracula", thanks in part to Langella's blow-dried coif, as well as the laser show scenes.
BTW, Scream Factory recently released a re-mastered Blu-Ray disc of the '79 Dracula that includes both the bleached-out look versions and the "full color" version.
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1 minute ago, Dargo said:
As it's been many years since I've watched that Tarantino film Lawrence, please refresh my memory and explain how this became so, if you would.
Well, I can't get too detailed due to the subject matter, but it's during the scene when Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames are captured by the pair of unusual fellows who keep a guy in bondage gear whom they refer to as "The Gimp" locked up in a trunk (I think), with the understanding that he may perform unspeakable acts on others, or maybe have said acts performed upon himself.
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3 minutes ago, Dargo said:
I remember in Hitchcock's Lifeboat there being a scene in which William Bendix's leg must be amputated because it had become gangrenous, however he resists the idea at first because he says he doesn't want to become a "gimp".
(...don't think that word is used much anymore)
And it gained a different connotation with many viewers after Pulp Fiction.
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Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1938) March 31
The Flame of New Orleans (1941) March 31
Song of Songs (1933) March 31
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On 10/26/2019 at 6:44 PM, jaragon said:
"The Lighthouse" (2019) Herman Melville meets David Lynch in this psychological drama. In the 1890's William Defoe and Robert Pattinson are light house keepers in an isolated island off the coast of New England. Defoe dominates Pattinson turning him into a virtual slave until the young man begins to experience strange visions. Is the lighthouse haunted or is he loosing his mind? Atmospheric direction by Robert Eggers who also made "The Witch" (2015). I liked that film better.
On 11/19/2019 at 12:43 PM, cinemaspeak59 said:The Lighthouse is certainly rife with ambiguity. Take your pick: Is it about sirens, spirits of dead sailors, an extraterrestrial lighthouse? Something else? I enjoyed the acting. Willem Dafoe’s bonkers Thomas, and Rob Pattinson as Ephraim (gradually descending into madness) complemented each other well. The black & white photography, score, and haunting imagery all portend to an ending that is loose and open to interpretation. As he did in The Witch (which I too liked more), Robert Eggers continues to use animals as supernatural entities. I’ll give The Lighthouse a B+.
I just finished watching The Lighthouse, one of my most anticipated films of the year. Unfortunately, for me its now one of the biggest disappointments. The stark B&W cinematography is striking, as is the weather-blasted landscape, but I was never invested in the story, such as it is, nor the characters, who are really just sketches, and cliched ones at that. The performances are entertaining, although they get to be a bit much before it's all over. Speaking of which, while it ran a modest 109 minutes, it felt much longer, and I was ready for it to be over about 30 minutes before it actually was. In the end it all adds up to very little, although stylish in execution. The Witch was much, much better. (6/10)
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I watched the second and final season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1981), running a mere 11 episodes, but proving to be 11 episodes too many. The show changed its tone completely, with more kid-friendly stories, and abandoning the slightly-sleazy sexuality of the first season. Tim O'Connor, Pamela Hensley and Michael Ansara have all been dropped from the cast. Now Buck (Gil Gerard) and Wilma (Erin Gray) join the crew of a large spaceship exploring the universe. New main cast members include Jay Garner as Admiral Asimov, the ship's captain, Wilfrid Hyde-White as a goofy old scientist, and Thom Christopher as Hawk, a bird-man alien who joins the crew in the first episode. They also added a snobbish new robot named Crichton to insult the other characters. Twiki is still around, although voiced by someone other than Mel Blanc for a few episodes.
The season was truly abysmal, with idiotic stories, bad effects even by TV-at-the-time standards, and even sillier characters. It certainly earns its reputation as some of the worst SF in TV history.
I also watched another Doctor Who serial, the 4-part Warriors' Gate (1981). The fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companions Romana (Lalla Ward) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) are still trapped in E-Space, a pocket dimension where the previous 2 serials (Full Circle and State of Decay) also took place. They try to figure out a way back to our universe, which may involve helping a race of lion-like humanoids being exploited by others trapped in E-Space. The story was original, and the meager effects were pushed to their limits. This serial marked the last for Romana as well as the robot dog K9.
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5 hours ago, TopBilled said:
395.
400.
These two are Purple Noon (1960) and Sommersby (1993).
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I don't recognize #396, but I've seen the rest of them.
Edit: I'm guessing 396 is the '66 version of Madame X, which I have not seen.
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Was it Sole Survivor?
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I can dismiss it just fine.
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2 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
I'm still being bad about watching TCM, and I'm trying to get back into it, but not alot of the scheduling has piqued my interest. the FRIDAY NIGHT UNDERGROUND feature was CHOPPING MALL.
When the name ROGER CORMAN comes up- even tangentially as a Producer or distributor- 99.99999% of the time, the maxim "THERE IS NOTHING QUITE SO BAD AS SOMETHING THAT IS NOT SO GOOD" applies, and this is not one of those .00000000001% TARGETS, MASQUE OF RED DEATH or small role in THE GODFATHER times.
this one image from the movie (pasted below) is a lot more interesting than anything else it has to offer:
(OMG, B DALTON!!!!!!)
Yes, for some reason Chopping Mall has a devoted cult following, but I never cared for it, and 80's trash cinema is certainly in my wheelhouse.
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I have Slim Summerville's ankles, and Slim Pickens' thumbs.
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On 10/2/2011 at 4:54 PM, TomJH said:
Who knows, uggarte, maybe that was me. If so, you were lucky to get away. All that drinking and smoking. I lost my dashing Huntz Hall looks. Now I'm a bit more of a Moby Dick, minus the harpoons in the back.
I stumbled across this thread while searching for FredCDobbs' Big Sleep threads, and I just had to bump it to comment on Tom's previous posting about resembling Huntz Hall crossed with Moby Dick! Very funny!
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Here's another Big Sleep thread courtesy of FredCDobbs:
https://forums.tcm.com/topic/25403-modified-version-of-the-big-sleep/
I found another one listed among Topics started by Fred entitled "THE BIG Sleep finally solved!" from December of '08, but it's inaccessible for some reason (when I click on it, I get a message saying -
Sorry, there is a problem
You do not have permission to view this content.Error code: 2F173/H
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2 minutes ago, nakano said:
the best big sleep resolved thread was started by the late great fred c dobbs,i tried to find the thread 2 months ago but I lost patience,i know I got it about 2years ago but did not save it,this is the definitive one.i will try again un the next few days.
Is it this one?
https://forums.tcm.com/topic/13032-the-big-sleep-plot-aid/?tab=comments#comment-184805
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Maybe try airing your grievances via Twitter or Facebook. Those social media outlets are made for this sort of thing, and I'm sure you'll find many others to be outraged along with you.
Here, you'll just keep getting moderated before the inevitable suspension or ban.
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Just now, Hibi said:
2 1/2 AGONIZING MONTHS. Safe till next OCT.!!!
But don't worry...every Thursday night in primetime they'll still be showing Christmas movies!!!
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37 minutes ago, midwestan said:
Indeed, "Rich Man, Poor Man" made Nick Nolte a star. My favorite turned out to be the longest mini-series ever produced, "Centennial", which was about a 26-hour finished product; so many great stars in that one too. Nowadays, people would spend a rainy three-day weekend at home binge-watching these kinds of shows on various streaming outlets!
I finally watched Centennial just in the last couple of weeks. I liked it a lot, although I felt it kind of fell apart a bit in the last couple of chapters, with an over-use of clips from the earlier episodes. Still, it's certainly one of the best of its format.
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12 minutes ago, midwestan said:
I remember 'Shogun' as well. It was one of my favorite mini-series when the genre was in the process of hitting its height in America. After this epic, I think "The Thorn Birds" came out, as well as "East of Eden", then the stories sort of waned with the public. A fellow I used to work with dubbed Richard Chamberlain and Jane Seymour as the King and Queen of the mini-series. Hard to argue with his assessment.
Yeah, the mini-series boom seemed to kick off with Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) and especially Roots (1977). Two other major mini-series of the era were The Winds of Wars (1983) and its sequel War and Remembrance (1988/89). It's hard to imagine today's audiences watching those kinds of shows in the same way, with 2 or 3-hour installments each night, 5 or more nights in a row.
I recall that when Shogun was released on VHS, it was in a large, fancy case, and rentals of it at the time were $10, which was unheard of. I only remember renting it out 4 or 5 times over a 8 year period.
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Baseball movies I like -
- Bang the Drum Slowly
- The Natural
- Eight Men Out
- Fear Strikes Out
- Major League
- Pride of the Yankees
- Sugar
- The Stratton Story
- Damn Yankees
- Bull Durham
Other baseball movies I can recall seeing:
- Field of Dreams
- For Love of the Game
- The Fan
- Angels in the Outfield
- The Scout
- Trouble with the Curve
- Major League 2
- The Pride of St. Louis
- A League of Their Own
- Alibi Ike
- The Babe Ruth Story
- The Jackie Robinson Story
- The Winning Team
- Big Leaguer
- The Bad News Bears
- The Babe
- Mr. Baseball
- The Comrades of Summer
- Cobb
- Ed
- Mr. 3000
- Moneyball
- 42
- Million Dollar Arm
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I thought The Fountainhead was incredibly awful, with normally good performers turning in some of the worst performances of their careers, no doubt due to the laughable script.
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Shogun (1980) - Epic TV mini-series based on the James Clavell book. Richard Chamberlain is a circa-1600 English ship pilot who wrecks in Japan, eventually getting caught up in local politics. With Toshiro Mifune. I recall this being a major event at the time. Having watched a few hundred Japanese films, I'm a bit more familiar with the culture than many American TV viewers were back then, and while I liked the mini-series, it came across as a bit clumsy and simplistic. The success of this helped kickstart the dubious ninja craze of the 1980's, and the trivia I read claimed that this mini-series is responsible for popularizing sushi in the U.S.
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Here's an article link for those interested:
Depth of Vision: The Grounded Cinema of William Wyler
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6745-depth-of-vision-the-grounded-cinema-of-william-wyler
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1 minute ago, timl said:
I'm trying to find a movie that I'm pretty sure was on Creature Features in the late 60's/early 70's. Pretty sure the movie was in black and white, and the plot involved a woman who checks into an inn, don't remember if she was supposed to meet or was looking for her boyfriend/fiance/husband who maybe was supposed to have stayed there and was now missing. While in her room she discovers a trap door in the floor underneath a rug, she goes down and discovers a satanic cult ritual, or something like that. Any ideas or suggestions as to what movie it could be? Thanks!
Horror Hotel aka City of the Dead (1960).
I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
No, I haven't, but I'm working my way to them. I only have sporadic serials from the first 7 Doctors eras, but I received box sets of the complete seasons/series from the 9th through 12th, and I'll be watching them when I get to those years (I'm watching stuff in chronological order). I unfortunately do not have access to the 8th Doctor TV movie, or any of the 13th Doctor series as of yet.