EricJ
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Posts posted by EricJ
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
"Whadda ya want, ****?"
(Darn, you snooze and you lose the great drive-through punchlines...
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I was going through the library DVD shelves, and found three of my favorites stacked together in the appropriate space on the M shelf:
Murder by Death, Murder by Decree, and Murder on the Orient Express....Now, if only the first two would get Blu-rays. In Death's case, preferably WITH the expensive original Charles Addams art on the cover:
As for Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple, and Murder, She Said, I'll pass.
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21 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:
peter cushing is unmatched in my view. terrific characterization and portrayal.
(YouTube clip)
Thank you for posting that, Nip...I don't know WHAT we would have done if somebody hadn't!
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19 hours ago, NickAndNora34 said:
DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID (1982)
It was interesting to see classic Hollywood actors "co-starring" with Steve Martin. I thought that was an original and ingenious idea. I thought it was funny how Veronica Lake's character was named "Monica Stillpond." I quickly figured out who they were talking about once they said her name. I'd give this one a 3/5.
Actually, most of the vintage-clip characters are more or less playing themselves--
When Martin calls up hysterical Barbara Stanwyck from Sorry, Wrong Number, he explodes "Listen, you phony fruitcake!", Ingrid Bergman from Notorious is "F. X. Huberman" and James Cagney in prison from White Heat is Cody Jarrett who won't talk to anyone but his mother (or Martin in disguise). And of course, the line where Charles Laughton from The Bribe asks "And do you know who I might be?", Martin replies, "...The Hunchback of Notre Dame?"
I remember when this movie came out in 1982, when B/W movies were still "the Late Show" trivialized on television before the VCR and Cable movie-rennaissance came along (which is why we got a lot of old-movie/celebrity jokes before 1983), and nobody got the jokes. Most knew that old movies in general were being featured, but only about 10% actually knew which movies, and--as it was Martin's first movie after "The Jerk"--most just focused on the comedy scenes where Steve pours coffee or shaves his tongue.
But, at least it's on Blu-ray now: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073ZYKJC7
I saw Broadway Melody of 1936 and Born to Dance a long time ago, but I couldn't recall anything about Eleanor Powell from those. After watching this one, I don't think I'll forget her. As most musical fans know, she's an outstanding dancer, and Astaire was quoted as saying that she was the only dance partner he was ever intimidated by.
BM36 isn't a great movie (starring Jack Benny back before he had an act or was likeable), but it's got one of Powell's more amazing tap scenes on film, as her chorus girl has to pass herself off as famous French star "LaBelle" to try and attract her man--
Although to say it also might be average for Powell's career at MGM, is also to the point.
Every time I see that obnoxious sour-grapes-cultural-leech feminist t-shirt/bumper sticker slogan about "Ginger did everything Fred did, backwards", I want to sit them in a chair and show them how Eleanor did everything herself AND wowed Fred.
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And the Rotwang Memorial Career Achievement medal goes to:
Peter Cushing as Doctor Frankenstein (Hammer era) - A mad scientist so sympathetically dedicated, you root for him.
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1 hour ago, Stephan55 said:
I first noticed him credited in my all time favorite KING KONG (1933), from which I eventually sought to identify every actor that I could. So whenever his name shows up in a long list of credits, like another obscurity, Leonid Kinskey, I perk up with diligent eyes waiting for his "scene" to appear.
I only knew Leonid Kinskey as the "crazy" anarchist who gets one line in Duck Soup, and now I spot him anywhere.
And if it wasn't for a classic Twilight Zone episode, I wouldn't also be able to spot Arthur Hunnicutt in old 50's-60's Westerns:
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1 hour ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
His playing Tommy Wiseau and mining a broad, bad performance for laughs was such obvious low hanging fruit, even Academy Voters were turned off.
Agreed--Not to mention Franco's Andy Kaufman-esque antics of staying in character as Wiseau while directing pretty well put the movie in the "Cult" ghetto, where loyal cult-fans nag about why it didn't get a Best Picture/Director nomination.
18 hours ago, NickAndNora34 said:CORALINE (2009) for the 7th time in 6 months or so. I don't know what's wrong with me. I think I just really enjoy the use of color and the animation style.
Nothing wrong with you, you just happened to be one of the people who noticed that it wasn't Tim Burton who directed "The Nightmare Before Christmas", it was Henry Selick.
I'd recommend "James & the Giant Peach" as a director followup, but boy, did Disney ruin that book.
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4 hours ago, Gershwin fan said:
Yeah, when it comes to the Toho sci fi movies sometimes they air the original cut but other times they air the US dub for some reason.
The Japanese version was restored by Rialto, the part of the corporate parent family of Janus and Criterion--
Which is why we've been seeing more of the originals on TCM post-Filmstruck, and last year saw more of the goofier Ishiro Honda canon, although their licenses seem to be for both versions.
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2 hours ago, heatwave1 said:
I would loved to see some Godzilla movies
Then, gone over to Filmstruck, where they were streaming.
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5 hours ago, TomJH said:
I'm still amazed that Edgar Bergen was the father of this beautiful lady. Such an ordinary looking man with such a stunner for a daughter.
She talked about growing up with Charlie McCarthy as her brother.
"Charlie had a bigger room than I did!"
When Edgar came back to do his later radio show in the 50's, lil' 6-yo. Candy was often brought on as Cute-Relief, such as showing off her trying to learn her dad's ventriloquism.
6 hours ago, TomJH said:Anybody else as amused/amazed by the popularity of a ventriloquist on the radio?
No--Considering I've got a good number of them on old-radio MP3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byuVh147ALI
Bergen actually worked better on the radio, since his physical "skill" wasn't that great, but his comic timing was. With the visual distraction removed, and Charlie's own talent for making Edgar the foolish straight-foil, it was that harder to believe that Edgar, Charlie and Mortimer were not being done by three different radio comics.
6 hours ago, Sepiatone said:Still during his lifetime, Bergen had no qualms about poking fun at himself and his ventriloquism "skill", I remember on PARKAY margarine commercial which had Charlie sitting with Edgar, and Bergen saying something about how much he liked Parkay margarine, and of course, just then, the container would open it's lid a bit and say "butter". Bergen then turned to Charlie and asked, "What was that, Charlie?" and McCarthy answered, "I didn't say anything. Your LIPS didn't move!"
That was a favorite running joke: If Edgar was surprised and said "Why, do you realize what you're saying, Charlie?", the response was, "I should, I read your lips."
Also, in one radio show, Edgar had a slight real-life cold, and Charlie was starting to develop a slight cough in his lines. "Sorry, folks," Charlie explained, "when Bergen has a cold, everyone suffers."
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On 2/13/2018 at 4:21 PM, LornaHansonForbes said:
iI could not help but find as gay subtext to the young understudy samurai who picked flowers and always seemed so well-groomed and seems to have had daddy issues of a sort.
Yeah, I'll agree, you couldn't help it.
And before we go further down that road, one of the traditional requirements for an understudy samurai in training was to avoid all women until he'd earned his crest (a running joke on anime's "Lupin III"), which explains why that budding romance with the girl was responsibly stifled...Nothing to see here.
And not just the editing, but Akira's sense of storytelling is such that it may have a slow start before the samurai show up, but once they do, you're into a three-hour movie where literally an hour and a half go by before you even think of checking your watch. Something a lot of movies (like that '16 Magnificent Seven "remake" that had never seemed to have seen Kurosawa's or John Sturges' movie in their life) can benefit from learning.
Even for a black-and-white movie, when Takashi Shimura goes into the hut disguised as the monk, all we hear is a tense pause, a "whsshht!" of a sword, and a dead outlaw collapses out, that's one of the most "...WHOA.
" moments in classic action films, considering it isn't even onscreen.
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1 hour ago, kingrat said:
To Beth or anyone else who hasn't seen Citizen Kane: try to ignore thinking about whether it's a great film. Just watch it as if it's another movie you want to see. I'm pretty sure you'll find some interesting things in it. You can figure out later whether it's one of your favorites.
Turn on Kane for the "Required reading" academic study assignment, stay for bad-boy Orson:
Welles, young and old throughout the story, manages to be so electric, and Herman Mankewicz's script manages to drip with enough literate ironic sarcasm for that velvet baritone to utter, that on first watch, you don't CARE who directed it or how.
If Millennials think "Old people are telling me I should watch more ancient great pre-1985 movies, so okay, geez, I'll watch Citizen Kane!", you won't find, quote, "two hours of your life wasted", I guar-on-tee. And yes, see it now before you run into some snottypants making a pop-cultural joke thinking everyone in the world already knows who Rosebud was.
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12 hours ago, TheCid said:
Then there is the "remake," Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader. A new classic from 2012. A Roger Corman production and an update of his 1995 Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold.
Basically 50FW has become the archetype "Cheesy 50's drive-in movie" with people (especially Ni...you-know-who) who've never seen any of them in their lives.
Throw in Dreamworks trying to make the CG Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) as their "Tribute to 50's monster movies"--now that, hey, we're using 3-D now, kinda like they did back then!--and, why, just look who takes over the plot as the central sympathetic story-focus protagonist:
(Why, we even get a satirical gag homaging the Amazing Colossal Man dart-throwing the giant syringe, pretty much the only single OTHER 50's Kitschy Sci-Fi Movie Scene anyone ever remembers in their lives without ever having actually sat down and seen one!)
50 Foot Centerfold was standard New Concorde direct-video softcore, but given that "Oo, we're homaging 50's MOVIES!", tried to turn themselves into a "pageant" to What People Think 50's SciFi Musta Been Like, with mad scientists and mutated hamsters and cameos by Russ Tamblyn and Tommy Kirk. 60 Foot Cheerleader was even further off the mark (oh, Roger, what happened after you went to cable and thought you had to compete with the Asylum?)--As it seems to be remaking everything producer Corman remembered about Centerfold, the lab, the camp humor, the mutant-experiment monsters, the cameos (watch John Landis embarrassed in a "tribute" cameo after he found out Corman wasn't directing it like everyone thought he was), the evil girl-rivalry...and seem to forget to have any story time left for an actual big cheesecake girl on a rampage.
Which leads us to:
11 hours ago, LawrenceA said:And don't forget the 1993 HBO remake of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman starring Daryl Hannah.
...Oh, good lord, I'd rather forget that one.
That one managed to combine the worst of both stereotypes, the "All 50's drive-in movies looked like this one" myth, AND the other reason this movie gets quoted so often: The wishful belief, mostly from women and gay men who never saw it, that the story was some "avenging feminist allegory", just because they know the poster and think Nancy really is going to spend the whole hour and a half picking up cars off the highway looking for "Harry!" Even Jeffrey Katzenberg at Dreamworks picked up the myth-ball in MvA and ran with it, after he knew his Shrek-sequel bread was buttered on the female audience laughing at the anti-princess jokes, and the "Big female empowerment" cliche's (look, she's escaping a wedding at the beginning!) is slathered on so strategically and one-syllable thick, it almost makes Daryl Hannah's dour, rueful, crabby and consciously kitschy "social revenge fantasy" look graceful in comparison.
Like we constantly....constantly......(sigh) CONSTANTLY try to tell a certain plastic-model-graphic obsessed goofy-cult-line quoter who seems to forget how many times he's already posted it out of context, the script was originally supposed to be a generic standard Amer.Int'l woman-scorned B-potboiler, until execs had no idea how to sell it, and one wag suggested "Why don't we put a flying saucer in it and sell it to the teens?" Famous last words. In the real world, nobody who ever suffered through more than five minutes of the first hour, let alone the whole slogging mess, would ever mistake 50FW for a "feminist allegory", and in fact, would probably cringe at most of the faux-Joan Crawford hysterics Alison Hayes was forced to go through in the script before American International's last-minute bit of demographic rescue.
But then, given that really there's only one goofy would-be symbolic-kitschy line any wannabe ever remembers from it in the first place (heard it, thank you!), maybe that's supposed to be the idea.
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14 hours ago, CaveGirl said:
It could be worse. Maybe this poster mentioned by Lawrence has a fetish for Allison Hayes, and then he would post Youtube scenes from the classic "The Hypnotic Eye" with Allison as Justine and Jacques Bergerac as Desmond the hypnotist.
Or, maybe he just wants to post that same danged plastic-model picture for no reason, and has to find one every day.
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58 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:
A&E could get into this, perhaps kicking it off with their own brand called "Mad Dog the Bounty Hunter".
Oh, and they'd DO it, too, if only "Duck Dynasty" was still popular.
As it is, betting's open for what and when will be the first History Channel vintages.
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On 12/20/2017 at 5:05 AM, sewhite2000 said:
National Geographic, what at one time I would have called the classiest of all publications, has a "Wines of the World" thing going now that is exactly the same thing as the TCM Wine Club, except for the name. Is the same company pushing this promotion onto all the media outlets? What wine goes best with climbing Mount Everest or observing primate life in the jungles of Africa?
Depends who the parent companies are:
National Geo owns its own, Warner owns TCM, but if we start seeing an Animal Planet label, an American Heroes wine brand or a Travel Channel "Wines of the world", you can bet ID's Discovery Channel parent thinks it's the new "brand thing"--Hey, cable, more Brand Label!
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If it's an excuse to finally get Electric Dreams (1984 - no, not the Amazon series that always get me to notice "Great, they finally...oh, crap!") out of music-rights limbo and onto cable and disk in the US, I and my computer are all for it:
(There are exactly three last VHS tapes remaining on my shelf, and this is one.)
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On 2/8/2018 at 6:36 PM, Sepiatone said:
Yeah. And I wonder what Lugosi would have thought about MARTIN LANDAU'S performance.
And I STILL wonder if Bela ever called Karloff "That limey ****sucker!"
And didn't VINCE D'ONOFRIO make a convincing ORSON WELLES?
Most of Ed Wood is a crock fantasia which, despite its pasted-on book credit, seems to be fourth-grade-school-report cribbing all its "facts" out of the same three pages of Michael Medved's "Golden Turkey Awards" that everyone else read. (Wood's partner Alex Gordon, who co-wrote and produced "Bride of the Monster", is completely missing from the Golden-Turkey-verse version of the story, despite the fact that Gordon introduced Lugosi to Wood as a possible star.) No comment on screenwriter Larry Karaszewski's private life, but a pottymouthed Bela and a focus on Ed's crossdressing is the version he would write...'Nuff said.
And while Lugosi grumbled about passing up Frankenstein (or playing Frankenstein in "Ghost of"), he was reportedly friends with Karloff, appearing in that one "sinister" Hollywood chess match for a Hollywood event.
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On 2/11/2018 at 7:59 PM, kingrat said:
and with Thenryb about Robert Ryan as John the Baptizer, as he's called for some reason in King of Kings.
Probably because the studio realized there's a difference between being called a Baptizer, and being called a Baptist.
14 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:I do think that Gene Kelly was miscast in many of his dramatic offerings, like The Black Hand. He just didn't work for me as an Italian-American with a vendetta against "The Black Hand" criminal syndicate. Someone like Frank Sinatra may have been better, or maybe Dean Martin if he was making movies in the early 1950s.
OTOH, Kelly seemed a little TOO well-cast as the cynical wiseguy reporter in "Inherit the Wind"--
We're conditioned to think of Kelly's characters as "nice guys" from his MGM musicals, but look closely, and see how many of his typecast characters are hustlers, girl-chasers, and generally Cheshire-grin insincere, Don Lockwood included. But yes, you don't put someone named "Kelly" in an Italian role when Sinatra is available.
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Don't blame us, blame Ted--
Reaching for Citizen Kane was perfect karma out of ancient Greek tragedy.
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Even if fans are wondering whether Disney is now treating it as damaged goods after the Last Jedi fan backlash, putting the rest of Disney's "side-story canon" in limbo, and possibly making Ep. IX more of a "finale" than expected.
At least, like Force Awakens, this one's got Lawrence Kasdan on the screenplay, which is one thing Last Jedi........................SURE could have used.
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6 hours ago, universalkaiju said:
This summer I am planning on putting together some articles about creature features and posting them on TCM.Com in the message boards. I was wondering if TCM will do them again this may or June like last year, I hope so.
Now that Criterion owns the Classic Godzilla canon (look for the Blu-ray set coming soon!
), and Filmstruck has made Criterion and TCM the best of partners, it's possible those articles might come in handy now and again...
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4 minutes ago, EricJ said:
Putting it that way, I guess that would make them the equivalent of those "Netflix exclusives" that we laugh off or ignore today,
5 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) - Science fiction thriller from Paramount Pictures, Netflix, and director Julius Onah.
(Yeah, that was the one I was thinking of....Am I that transparent?
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3 hours ago, Princess of Tap said:
I watched the same movie last night - - there were a number of very good actors in this movie.
My question would be WHY did they manage to pull it off? It was one of the most boring disaster-terror films I've ever seen. It made me feel nostalgic for "The Swarm"-- at least the bees made noise and scared you a little bit when they showed up. LOL
If you remember it from '77, then you remember that it was never about why you made a TV-movie, there just had to BE one for Tuesday or Wednesday nights on ABC. (Sundays were for the real Hollywood films.)
Putting it that way, I guess that would make them the equivalent of those "Netflix exclusives" that we laugh off or ignore today, but back then, a TV-movie was something you could sit down and watch. They weren't good, but they were ON.-
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And before we go further down that road, one of the traditional requirements for an understudy samurai in training was to avoid all women until he'd earned his crest (a running joke on anime's "Lupin III"), which explains why that budding romance with the girl was responsibly stifled...Nothing to see here.
" moments in classic action films, considering it isn't even onscreen.
Mad Scientist Review Board
in General Discussions
Posted
And his son was no less delusional: