scsu1975

When the film was shown at the Roxy Theatre in NYC in late 1931, somebody had the "brilliant" idea of handing out yellow tickets to women passerbys. As one critic wrote, "We have a hunch that stupidity and ignorance had less to do with prompting exploitation of this nature than did the workings of a degraded mind."

The film drags a bit here and there, and probably would have worked better had it been all silent. Some of the spoken dialogue between O'Brien and Costello is pretty dull. However, the climactic flood scene is a memorable spectacle and very well done.

I thought the remake was ok, but one issue I had with it is that it seemed like DeNiro turned into a "Jason" type character near the end ... he couldn't be killed no matter what.

Say, is that George Brent on the trapeze?

I reviewed The Sign of the Cross somewhere in this thread. The version I saw was a clear print and had Dutch subtitles, but since I was already familiar with the novel, this wasn't a problem. I thought there was a mediocre print with English subtitles, but maybe it's been yanked.

I checked the boards about 11 a.m., clicked on the Hits & Misses Thread, and got a message saying I was not authorized to view it. (But at least I did not get the dreaded "Windows run time error.") Then I noticed the thread had disappeared. Update: I see it has returned. Never mind.

Great review, as always, Tom. This film is campy at times, like many a DeMille film, but still manages to entertain. I had to laugh the first time I heard George Reeves delivering his lines using some weird speech affectation. I kept waiting for him to say "what da hey ..." It was nice to see silent screen star William Farnum in a somewhat substantial role as Lansbury's father, as he was nearing the end of his career (and life). DeMille must have thought highly of him, and even served as a pallbearer at Farnum's service. Interestingly, Farnum had appeared in a local production of another Biblical story, The Robe, in the 1940s, and there was some talk he would appear in the film production. But that never happened.

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Denton, TX, back in June of 2010. They had TCM, which surprised the heck out of me. Not sure if they still do.

Ever since I saw Barbara Lawrence in Kronos, I've had the hots for her. On the other hand, every time I see Robert Hutton, I wonder how he ever had a career.

Haven't seen the last one, but the others do provide some fun and chuckles. Atlas features a campy performance by Frank Wolff as Proximates. He slyly refers to one character’s possible bisexuality. In another scene, a soldier appears and says “did you want me?” “No!” Wolff screams sarcastically. “I wanted your Great Aunt Helen from Lesbos!”

He actually ran down George Raft, which would explain both possibilities.

There is some confusion here. In actuality, Clark Gable strangled Jean Spangler two years before she disappeared.

So she was strangled to death in 1947 and then disappeared two years later? You must have some inside dope on the case.

As I recall, von Stroheim’s vision was to film the book McTeague page by page. Harry Carr, writing for a film magazine in 1924, viewed the original version of the film. “It was a magnificent piece of work, but it was forty-five reels long. We went into the projecting room at 10:30 in the morning; we staggered out at 8:00 that night. … Episodes come along that you think have no bearing on the story, then twelve or fourteen reels later, it hits you with a crash. For stark, terrible realism and marvelous artistry, it is the greatest picture I have ever seen.”

Actually it’s the East Side Kids, but close enough. Look for Pat Costello (Lou’s brother) as the bus driver. This one is fun even though the print is terrible.

I agree, the film sucked. And I wasn’t interested in seeing Donald Sutherland naked either.

Tiffany Bolling gets to sing the title song during the film: "Wicked, wicked, that's the ticket ..." or something bad like that, as I recall.

#5 is Twikki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century #6 is Hector from Saturn 3 #10 is the robot from Target Earth

I still enjoy this one, especially when Stan is "transformed" into the pompous Lord Paddington and gives it to Ollie: "Well, you don't seem to have the dignity becoming of a lackey."

Ah yes ... what mathematician can ever forget this classic scene?

How about instead of merging all the anti-spam threads, we merge all the spam threads?

Well, this takes me back to my childhood. McCann used to do a great impression of Oliver Hardy.

No. Same thing happens with Robot Monster, and that film is only 66 minutes long. It gave people a chance to run out of the theater instead of sticking around and watching this ****.

Sounds like To Each His Own.

I tell ya, the stuff you learn on these boards ...