film lover 293
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Posts posted by film lover 293
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"Daughters of Darkness" (1971)--Delphine Seyrig stars as a possible(?) vampire; who menaces an eloped newlywed couple. An aged bellhop insists he recognizes her from fifty years ago when she stayed at the hotel she checks into again. She and the newlyweds are at the same hotel: there is a series of murders going on in the city. Seyrig's character denies being a vampire, but acknowledges being a descendant of Elizabeth Bathory (Google the name if it doesn't ring a bell). The three form a triangle. Any more info and I'll spoil the film.
"Blood and Roses" (1961)--Early Mario Bava film where the heroine is named Carmilla; is she being menaced by a vampire--or something else?
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To answer Jlewis' question (I know, I'm late) you may choose ANY film from a year; you are NOT limited to the Academy Award nominees from that year. Jlewis--awesome list!
Edit: Bogie 56--Excellent list!
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LawrenceA--OTV (1951) is a film I saw as a teen and Loved. Gregory Peck is held responsible for the death of a popular General or Lt ( I forget the rank) by his regiment and the girlfriend of said officer in the Old West. The officer had been escorting a dangerous Indian chief to a reservation; said chief got loose, & headed back to his tribe to start a war. Peck takes a band of misfits to an abandoned fort that controls access to the outside, & starts to prepare for battle to keep the Indians on the reservation. I know this sounds a routine western, but it was only the second time I had seen Peck in a film, and I saw he was capable of carrying a routine film by himself (only other time I had saw him was in Hitchcocks' "Spellbound" (1945), where I thought the exceptional things were Ingrid Bergman and the Salvador Dali sequence). Western is enjoyable fare, and features a drop-dead gorgeous Barbara Payton.
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Top Ten Westerns of the 1950's: racing against time, LOL:
1.) "Johnny Guitar" (1954)
2.) " High Noon" (1952)
3.) "Wagonmaster" (1950)
4.) "The Searchers" (1956)
5.) "The Hanging Tree" (1959)
6.) "Calamity Jane" (1953)
7.) "Man of the West" (1958)
8.) "Rio Grande" (1950)
9.) "Only the Valiant" (1951)
10.) "The Naked Spur" (1953)
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In lousy musicals:
The hero/heroine can sing opera, miss all the notes, and sound like Elmer Fudd singing, and after the performance is bombarded with offers to star in musicals.
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Any year is up for grabs: Name the film and why it merits Best Film (no one sentence answers like "any film from on 19? or 20? is better than...). If someone gets to a year you think of but names a different film than you have decided on, re-listings of years are fine.
I'll start. For 1929, my pick for Best Picture would have been "The Love Parade", directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It is better done technically, the singing and choreography are better, and it holds up best of the two films today.
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I saw seven movies & one longish cartoon last week. "Something For Everyone" (1970) is a cynical, bitter delight of a comedy about what people will do to acquire money. Michael York and Angela Lansbury are fantastic. "Anatahan" (1953) is among Josef von Sternbergs' last films, and I hated it. Film is rambling, incoherent, and goes for long stretches in Japanese with no subtitling. Film has voiceover by von Sternberg philosophizing (according to Wikipedias' info.). "Beat the Devil" (1953) is a hilarious spy spoof to end all spy spoofs. Jennifer Jones goes blonde and steals the film as a compulsive liar who gets a thrill out of each lie; if her line isn't funny, her body language makes it funny;I SO wish she had done more comedies (she did just two--other is 1946's "Cluny Brown", directed by Ernst Lubitsch). "Gorgo" (1961) is Great Britains' entry into the Godzilla movie sweepstakes; has relatively good Special Effects. LornaHansonForbes said there was a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 presentation done on "Gorgo" on SyFy Network in their first season on that network--I need to see if it's available online.. "Salome" (1923) is the legendary financial disaster filmed by Natacha Rambova and Nazimova. It's ridiculously pretentious; is just the thing to see after suffering through a LLLong Biblical Epic. Rambova is most memorable for a hairdo that looks like it has Christmas ornaments stuck on top of it. "Mambo" (1955) is an initially banned film from Italy, re-edited to make a logical plot baffling. In the re-edited version, watch everyone's eyes and who they follow; that gives a clue to films' original plot. "Some Call It Loving" (1973) is a baffling, infuriating film; just when I thought I had it figured out, plot does the complete opposite of what I was thinking. Film is Not an artistic disaster like I had speculated in another thread, and is definitely worth watching.
The cartoon was an immaculately restored 1939 Popeye cartoon--with Olive Oyl, Popeye, and Aladdin's Lamp & genie. A delight. To find, search "1954 films" and go to 33rd page or 34th page of results.
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LornaHansonForbes--Can confirm one part of Winters' autobiography on my own, that no editing short of cutting her out of the film "Mambo" (1954) would hide. She goes from a mannish wardrobe, with no cleavage shown, to a "show-all-you can-get-by-the-censors wardrobe in the film. Also, they didn't edit out all of Winters' smoldering looks at Silvana Mangano, or Michael Rennies' at Vittorio Gassman. Imdb also says there were 13-20 minutes cut from the film, due to its original homosexual theme and subsequent U.S. ban (Information from imdb). It was given a new, baffling plot, totally different from the one in Winters' book; Bosley Crowther's New York Times review is still available online. About making this film, I'll go with Winters' accuracy on this; there was just too much press coverage for her to make anything up that couldn't be easily checked.
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"Mambo" (1954)--Shelley Winters described this crazy film in her first autobiography "Shelley: Also Known As Shirley" (1980). She filmed it in Venice while she divorced her husband, Vittorio Gassman, who was her co-star. Winters should have looked in the editing room after the picture finished; a third of what she described having filmed never made it into the American version of the film, and Winters and Gassman are almost edited out of the movie. Winters and Gassman share one scene, and their anger at each other is obvious. Winters had a remarkable memory for faces; I could identify each actor/actress by her descriptions in her first autobiography. For those who know the backstory (which takes up 30 some pages in "Shelley: also known as Shirley" (1980)) behind the making of this strange film, 7/10 stars. Everyone else, 5/10 stars. Is available on YT.
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A few rarely shown titles ,& some favorites:
"The Green Goddess" (1930)--PreCode with George Arliss.
"The Sea Wolf" (1941)--with Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield, & Ida Lupino.
"The Letter" (1929) & (1940)--with Jeanne Eagels & Bette Davis, respectively.
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1932)--with Fredric March & Miriam Hopkins.
"Balalaika" (1939)--Nelson Eddy & Ilona Massey.
"Lifeboat" (1944)--Hitchcock favorite.
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Anyone remember "Beloved" (1998)? It tried to portray things as they had been; the final budget was around 80 million dollars (per Wikipedia). It grossed 22.some million. I'm fairly sure "Straight Out of Compton", "12 Years a Slave", & "Birth of a Nation; 2016" all cost less ( I may be wrong). But Princess of Tap & SansFin are right; the box-office performance of these films will determine whether this genre will survive, IMHO.
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All times E.S.T.:
3:00 a.m.--"Some Call It Loving" (1973)--I checked this on imdb after seeing TCM had NO information on it; the U. S. replacement film is as crazy as The Big Cube. Wild variation on the Sleeping Beauty theme, with these comments from imdb: "Strange, bizarre doesn't begin to describe it"; "If The Twilight Zone had continued until the 1970's..."; "tap dancing nuns". Is this as great a disaster as "The Exorcist II: The Heretic" (1977)? Starring Zalman King (who produced and wrote 9 & 1/2 Weeks (1986) ), and Richard Pryor. After what I read seeing this film is a priority.
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"The Kiss" (1929)--Is Greta Garbos' & Nils Asther's (Tall, and usually with a mustache; maybe best known for title role in 1933's "The Bitter Tea of General Yen", where he co-starred with Barbara Stanwyck) last silent, is a wistful melodrama I like.
"Applause" (1929)--Is a backstage musical memorable only for Helen Morgans' performance (she was the original Julie in 1927's Broadway musical "Showboat") and the backstage atmosphere it got correct.
"The Wild Party" (1929)--Was Clara Bows' & Director Dorothy Arzner's first sound film. Memorable for Arzner's inventing the first movable mike.
"Show People" (1928)--Marion Davies' last silent film. She was a wonderful comedienne and inspired mimic. She was also the mistress of William Randolph Hearst, who preferred to see her as a dramatic actress. As a result, Davies was rarely cast in comedic parts where her comedy skills were put to use. 1927-28 were her best film years. I'll get to an exception shortly.
"The Iron Horse" (1924)--John Fords' take on building the first transcontinental railroad. Much faster moving than James Cruzes' "The Covered Wagon" (1923). Still, personal melodramatics get in the way of the main story. Film is over 2 hours long, but worth watching.
"Love" (1927)--A remake of Anna Karenina set in modern times. Garbo and Gilbert fell in love (or lust) with each other during filming. It shows. Film is worth watching just for them.
"A Woman of Paris" (1923)--Charlie Chaplin masquerades as a woman in this comedy.
"Janice Meredith" (1925)--A comedy-drama of the American Revolution; one of the rare exceptions where Marion Davies' comedy and dramatic skills were put to good use. Film got raves from critics, but because Hearst spent over one million in 1925 dollars on the film, JM did not recoup its' cost. A fellow poster alerted me that it was on YT 2 months ago.
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Pre-1929 Favorites:
1. "Metropolis" (1926)
2. "Show People"(1928)--Marion Davies last silent.
3. "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari--(1919)--The Grandfather of psychological Horror Films
4. "The Passion of Joan of Arc" (1927)--Incredibly moving film.
5. "The Lodger" (1926)--First truly Hitchcockian film.
6. "Intolerance"--(1916)
7. "The Phantom of the Opera"--(1925)
8. "Pandora's Box"--(1928)
9. "The Battleship Potemkin"--(1926)
10. "The Iron Horse" (1924)
11. "The General"--(1926)--Buster Keatons' best film.
12. "Greed"--(1924)
13. "A Trip to the Moon"--(1902)
14. "The Great Train Robbery"--(1903)
15. "The Wind"--(1928)
16. "Love"--(1927)--Garbo & Gilbert smolder in this remake of Anna Karenina.
17. "Nosferatu"--(1922)
18. "A Woman of Paris"--(1923)
19. "Safety Last" (1923)
20. "Janice Meredith" (1925)
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Top Ten for 1929: Heavy on musicals
1. "The Love Parade"--Ernst Lubitschs' first sound film.
2. "Blackmail"--Alfred Hitchcocks' first sound film, It cemented him as a director to Watch.
3. "The Kiss"--Garbos' last silent.
4. "The Cocoanuts"--The Marx Bros. screen anarchy with all their humor makes its screen debut, along with a number called (did they title it?) "The Monkey Doodle Doo".
5. "The Letter"
6. "Hallelujah"--King Vidors' all-Negro musical. Watch for Nina Mae McKinney. Not perfect, but much less objectionable than "Hearts in Dixie", another 1929 release.
7. "Diary of a Lost Girl"
8. "Applause"
9. "The Wild Party"--Director Dorothy Arzners" film where she invented a prototype of themoving microphone.
10. "The Manxman"--Alfred Hitchcocks' last silent.
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LornaHansonForbes--"Deadline at Dawn" (1946) is the best overall of the bunch I listed. An overlooked noir. Darn good film (doesn't quite merit the expletive).
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A quick summary of original screenplays by Odets (the few I've seen--he had 12, I think.
"None But The Lonely Heart" (1944)--Cary Grant and Ethel Barrymore are heartbreaking in this. Film is its' own social commentary.
"Humoresque" (1946)--Essentially, a Joan Crawford vehicle with high production values. Everyone Talks, and talks, and talks.
"Deadline at Dawn" (1946)--Good little film noir with Susan Hayward that isn't derailed by the cabdrivers' philosophizing.
"Rhapsody in Blue" (1946)--Good performance by Robert Alda as Gershwin. I concentrated on the music, missed the philosophy.
"Clash By Night" (1952)--Barbara Stanwyck is Fantastic in this.
"Sweet Smell of Success (1957)--excellent film.
There are others, but I haven't seen them.
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1929 is a problematic year, mainly because films were still converting to sound & most of my 1929 Bests are sound films. However, when we get to 1928 and before, there's no problem finding 20 silents.
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Hibi--I think Lady Flora is the mother of the rich man Ivy ultimately wants to marry (Gretawacks (?)).
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EugeniaH--I've read Lancaster modeled his portrayal on Walter Winchell. Hunsecker is certainly a snake,& I thought Lancaster got that across very well. To be more lifelike would be more, human;which I don't think Lancaster wanted. JMO.
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Hibi--"Lady Flora".
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LornaHansonForbes--There are several veterans of Hitchcock's previous films in "Ivy" (1947): Joan Fontaine ("Rebecca" 1940, "Suspicion", 1941), Herbert Marshall ("Murder!", 1930, "Foreign Correspondent", 1940), Sir Cedric Hardwicke ("Suspicion" 1941, "Rope" 1947), and Sara Allgood (Murder! 1930, Juno and the Paycock 1930). They may have been thinking of this as well as the plot when they referred to "Ivy" as being Hitchcockian.
Edit: The "Ivy" on the End credits was a real visual stunner; think of the impact it must have made on 1947 audiences.
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Oscar Wildes'"Salome" (1923)--Found this silent on page 36 of results for "1953 films"; it's result number four on that page. Result boasts"clean titles", or some such nonsense. Anyway, click on it and there will be two other prints of the film, without "clean titles" showing at the side. I then clicked on one of the versions with "unclean" titles and got a version also subtitled in Spanish. Don't know what the fuss was about--subtitles are fine, no profanity. Film is the legendary disaster that starred Natacha Rambova and Nazimova. Everything is implied, however subtly or overtly, visually. Rambova's most memorable for a hairdo that, according to the camera angle, looks like popcorn, cotton balls, or Christmas ornaments stuck on her head. Film is just over 70 minutes long. There are some beautiful Art Deco shots among the silliness onscreen. Film is wonderfully funny: just don't expect a "good" film. Print I saw was a 2001 restoration by the Library of Congress and Lobster.
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6.) The Big Sleep was released by Warner Bros.
I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
"Something For the Boys" (1944)--Had been a Broadway hit; 20th Century Fox bought the rights. Diverting musical has a second-tier Cole Porter score, that is well sung by Vivian Blaine, Carmen Miranda, & Perry Como. None of the songs are standards, although all of them are easy on the ear,and "I Wish We Didn't Have To Say Good Night" just misses being first class Porter. Phil Silvers is also starred; he does a non-PC parody of Al Jolson. Plot is about radio waves and fillings. 6.8/10 stars.
"Carmen Miranda: Behind the Tutti-Frutti Hat" (2010?)--Excellent BBC documentary about Miranda. Shows rare clips from Brazilian films she did before becoming a star in the U.S. This talented lady went down a road of multiple addictions that ultimately killed her. 8/10 stars.
Both are available on YT.