scsu1975
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Posts posted by scsu1975
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2 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
Noah's Ark (1928) - Biblical/historical disaster epic from Warner Brothers and director Michael Curtiz. Pals Travis (George O'Brien) and Al (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) join up to fight in WW1. Travis is married to German Marie (Dolores Costello), which causes some contention. Their tumultuous existence is paralleled by the Old Testament tale of Noah (Paul McAllister) and his preparations for surviving the Great Flood. Also featuring Noah Beery Sr., Louise Fazenda, Anders Randolf, Armand Kaliz, Noble Johnson, and Myrna Loy.
This reminded me of a less ambitious but still visually spectacular Intolerance (1916). The effects, sets and costumes are all excellent, and the disaster scenes are said to have been as dangerous as they look. This was made during the transitional sound period, so while much of the film silent with intertitles, sections also have sound dialogue and effects. The version shown was nearly a half hour shorter than the original release, which is believed lost. John Wayne, Andy Devine, and Ward Bond are said to be among the extras. (7/10)
Source: TCM.
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.
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1 hour ago, Bethluvsfilms said:
Either that, or he felt Scorsese's remake was far superior.
I actually like the 1991 remake as well. In that version Max Cady actually does have good reason to hate Sam Bowden, although it still doesn't make Cady's character any more sympathetic or less frightening, certainly.
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.
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27 minutes ago, Bogie56 said:
Saturday, May 5
Say, is that George Brent on the trapeze?
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32 minutes ago, TomJH said:
Thanks for mentioning William Farnum's participation in Samson and Delilah, Rich. I had forgotten to mention his name in the review.
DeMille obviously appreciated the actor's history as a veteran silent star, he having played the role of Marcus Superbus in the 1914 version of Sign of the Cross, 18 years before DeMille did his immensely successful early talkie version of the same tale, with Fredric March in the same role. Some years prior to Samson the director had used Farnum in small roles, having cast him in both Cleopatra and The Crusades.
By the way, there are a couple of nice looking prints of the silent Sign of the Cross on You Tube now. Unfortunately, neither version has English subs.
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.
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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.
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22 hours ago, TomJH said:
Samson and Delilah (1949)
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.
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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.
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59 minutes ago, TomJH said:
Paris Model (1953)
The final story features, as opposed to the veterans, up-and-coming Barbara Lawrence as a young woman seeking to use that dress to get her non committing boyfriend (Robert Hutton) to finally pop the big question to her. This episode is primarily set in Romanoff's Restaurant in LA, with curtains and paper mache "walls" serving as a set, as well as a grim reminder of just how cheap the budget of this film must have been. Of note, though, Prince Michael Romanoff makes an appearance himself here, playing the role of matchmaker. El Brendel briefly turns up, too, as Lawrence's father.
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.
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
Tomorrow, May 1st, TCM has a parade of man-beef during the day and early evening:
Atlas (1961) 11:00 AM ET
Hercules, Samson & Ulysses (1963) 12:30 PM ET
The Colossus of Rhodes (1962) 2:00 PM ET
Clash of the Titans (1981) 4:15 PM ET
The Slave (1962) 6:15 PM ET
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!”
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8 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
The rumor: Sometime after Gable’s 1945 automobile accident, a rumor began to spread that Gable had hit a pedestrian rather than a tree.
He actually ran down George Raft, which would explain both possibilities.
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There is some confusion here. In actuality, Clark Gable strangled Jean Spangler two years before she disappeared.
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17 hours ago, spence said:
Spangler was strangled to death in ';47 at only about age 24 near Griffith Park Zoo. Figure out the rest please She had appeared in a couple of his earliest B-pix.
So she was strangled to death in 1947 and then disappeared two years later? You must have some inside dope on the case.
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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.”
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3 hours ago, Bogie56 said:
Monday, April 16
6 a.m. Spooks Run Wild (1941). The Bowery Boys and Bela Lugosi.
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.
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9 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
I'm surprised no one has taken me to task yet for my dismissal of DONT LOOK NOW (1973)- in the meantime, I have taken immense solace from reading one star reviews of the Film on IMDb.
It's been along time since I've had such a visceral reaction to a film.
seriously, as much as I respect the work of artists, even works I don't particularly care for, I would have a very hard time not pouring a Tahitian Treat all over the negative of this thing were I left in a room alone with it.
I don't think I can say anything else about it without using really foul language.
I agree, the film sucked. And I wasn’t interested in seeing Donald Sutherland naked either.
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23 hours ago, Bogie56 said:
Friday, April 13/14
2 a.m. Wicked, Wicked (1973). Slasher movie filmed in Duo-vision which might be just a gimmicky way of saying split screen.
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.
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#5 is Twikki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
#6 is Hector from Saturn 3
#10 is the robot from Target Earth
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
A Chump at Oxford (1940) -
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."
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16 minutes ago, TomJH said:
Casablanca is the most famous black and white film ever made, with images of Bogart from it available in the same kind of poster shops that have images of Monroe, Presley, Dean and Audrey Hepburn.
Ah yes ... what mathematician can ever forget this classic scene?
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How about instead of merging all the anti-spam threads, we merge all the spam threads?
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1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:
Chuck McCann (September 2, 1934 - April 8, 2018) - American comedian, actor, singer, and voice artist with a career stretching across 7 decades. He started out in regional children's television, eventually moving into nationally broadcast shows, guest spots, and film roles, including movies such as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968), The Projectionist (1971), Herbie Rides Again (1974), Foul Play (1978), Thrashin' (1986), Storyville (1992), and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), among many more. He appeared even more frequently on television, and became a very busy voice artist in animated TV series. He amassed 163 credits in his career.
Well, this takes me back to my childhood. McCann used to do a great impression of Oliver Hardy.
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8 hours ago, sagebrush said:
I just saw something odd ( at least I think so.) While watching THE MOONLIGHTER this morning, 45 minutes into the film there is a title card for an intermission. The film resumes promptly, but the entire duration of the film is only 1.5 hours! Isn't it strange that there would have been an intermission?
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 ****.
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Sounds like To Each His Own.
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I tell ya, the stuff you learn on these boards ...
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I Just Watched...
in General Discussions
Posted
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."