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film lover 293

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Posts posted by film lover 293

  1. "The Pleasure Garden" (1925)--Starring Virginia Valli and Carmelita Geraghty

     

    Alfred Hitchcock's first film is more interesting for the themes Hitchcock establishes than for its' melodramatic plot.

     

    The plot:  Chorus girl Patsy (Valli) meets Jill (Geraghty), who has just been robbed and gets her a job as a chorus girl.  Jill becomes a headliner and gets engaged.  Her fiancee leaves the country, and Jill begins to play around.

     

    In the films' first shot, chorus girls are seen running down a curving set of stairs to a stage.  The camera pans over the audience--everyone in the front row is paying attention except for the only woman, who is asleep.  One of the men in the audience gets a pair of binoculars, adjusts them, then the viewer sees through the binoculars--the viewer as voyeur.  The binoculars pick out a blonde member of the chorus.

     

    Film is fascinating for Hitchcock completists like me; others will find this an antique melodrama somewhat redeemed by touches of humor and a plot that is unintentionally funny, especially near the end.

     

    Source--archivedotorg. Film is also on YouTube.

    • Like 3
  2. Lawrence--That's the other film I was thinking of.  "Siren of Atlantis" (1949) is on archivedotorg under the alternate name "Atlantis, The Lost Continent"  Search "Maria Montez films" and there should be three results--One being a 1905 Georges Melies hand-tinted "Arabian Nights" film, "Cobra Woman" (1944), and Siren of Atlantis, which is a low budget cheapie Montez made after leaving Universal.

     

    Your thread. :)

    • Like 1
  3. "Fitzcarraldo" (1982)--Starring Klaus Kinski and Claudia Cardinale, written and directed by Werner Herzog.

     

    Based on a real incident in the late 19th century, film set in Peru, and is about opera obsessed Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (Kinski), his lover Molly (Cardinale), and Fitzgerald's insane plan to bring opera to the natives of the Peruvian rainforest.  To realize this dream, Fitzgerald will have to overcome a  lack of funds, Jivaro headhunters, a fickle ships' crew, and geography.

     

    The madness of the main character and director Herzog merged in my mind while I watched the film. Both had to have been crazy and arrogant to attempt what the film showed.

     

    That said, the cinematography (by Thomas Mauch) is stunning and evocative, the story kept my attention despite the films' slow pace (it runs over two and a half hours), and the actors are beyond reproach.  Unbelievable that all obstacles were overcome and this film was actually finished and released.

     

    Film is in German, with translatable subtitles.  

     

    Fascinating film.  3.7/4.

     

    Source--YouTube (there are multiple copies).

    • Like 2
  4. Speaking of "The Sign of the Cross" (1932), how about the way chains of flowers are inadequately draped across Elissa Landi's front and back, giving the viewer a clear look, front and back,at a virtually nude Landi in the Colisseum scene.  Also, the "Dance of Seduction" a nude Joyzelle does in the Colisseum scene (this is cut from some prints).

     

    In the 1926 "Ben-Hur", Ramon Novarro is rear-view naked in some scenes.

  5. lafitte--Thanks for the compliments.  I do my best with the reviews.  I try to give an idea of the film, not give away all the plot, and just give my overall reaction to the film and payers.  I tend to see things from the silly side, so I sometimes notice what others may not (the various shades of makeup to make Richard Burton seem an Indian in "The Rains of Ranchipur" (1955), for instance--and the eventual total failure of 20th Century Fox's makeup department's  Waterproof makeup--I Think there was waterproof makeup in 1955?).

  6. This 1940's star of a series of blissfully silly movies and this Special Effects pioneer both made a film about this Lost Continent.  Please name the film the 1940's star made, the film the Special Effects pioneer made, and two stars from each film.

  7. This horror film has an astronomical body count, and involves multiple curses coming home to roost, after a prior menace to the town had been disposed of, shapeshifting, and things that bare their fangs in the night.  Name the film, studio, and two of the stars.

  8. "Where Do We Go From Here?" (1945)--Starring Fred MacMurray, Joan Leslie, and June Haver.

     

    Delightful fantasy operetta romp through American history, with a score by Kurt Weill and lyrics by Ira Gershwin.

     

    Bill Morgan (MacMurray) wants to join the Army but is ruled 4F.  Instead, he is put in charge of local scrap recycling.  He breaks a lamp, and frees a genie.  Morgan tell the genie he wants to get into the Army--but doesn't mention which century he wants.  Morgan's girlfriends Sally (Leslie) and Lucilla (Haver) accompany him through the centuries.

     

    The fine score carries the film through and past its' sillier moments.  Leslie has the best song "If Love Remains".  The Christopher Columbus segment is done as an opera with MacMurray breaking up the grand opera with a patter song in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan.  Haver is the liveliest of the three, as a born con woman, throughout the centuries.  Watch for Anthony Quinn.  Read the traffic signs--no matter what century they're in.

     

    Marvelous little film.  A minor classic.  I loved it.  3.3/4.

     

    Source--archivedotorg.

    • Like 4
  9. "Hidden Hollywood II" (1999)-- A Television documentary, narrated by Joan Collins.

     

    Looks like an old AMC documentary.  An attempt at a "That's Entertainment" type film, but featuring  Twentieth Century Fox footage that was deleted from the feature films and with an emphasis on film preservation.

     

    Among the clips; A full version of "The Sheik of Araby" from "Tin Pan Alley" (1940) that was deleted by The Code because it showed too much flesh, it features Alice Faye, Betty Grable, and The Nicholas Brothers; Carmen Mirandas' version of "True to the Navy" that was cut from "Dollface" (1945); Danny Kaye lampoons deleted from "On The Riviera" (1951); and the W.C. Fields sequence that was deleted from "Tales of Manhattan" (1942) (the funniest thing in the film).

     

    Highly recommended.  Found this on archive.org, catalogued by number instead of title.

    • Like 2
  10. starlit, lavender--The actress is Angela Lansbury.  Her first film with Minnelli was "The Reluctant Debutante" (1958), which recently was on TCM.  Her second film with Minnelli was "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1962), where she dubbed Ingrid Thulin's voice, as MGM had decided Thulin was unintelligible.  Lansbury's voice is very distinctive and it's a shock to hear Thulin's character speaking with Lansbury's very British voice.  Since Lansbury only dubbed Thulin's voice, she didn't appear onscreen.

     

    The director is Vincente Minnelli, as you both guessed.

     

    starlit, you posted first with the correct director, so it's your thread.

    • Like 1
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