Bethluvsfilms
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Posts posted by Bethluvsfilms
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MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY has a great performance from Charles Laughton as the hated Captain Bligh.
I would also recommend 2 other Laughton performances. The obsessed, law-obiding, Inspector Javert in the 1935 LES MISERABLES, unrelenting in his pursuit of Jean Valjean (Fredric March). It's easy to dislike Javert but at the same time you also can't help pitying him when (SPOILER ALERT) Valjean's act of sparing his life challenges his life long belief of "once a no-good criminal, always a no-good criminal."
And the tragic Quasimodo in 1939'S THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, he just breaks your heart, his closing line "Why was I not made of stone?" is heart-wrenching as he sees his beloved Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara) riding off with another man.
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Actually I think THE SEARCHERS is the greatest western ever made. SHANE just put me to sleep.
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My top 10 favorites (not necessarily in order): HONDO, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, KISS ME KATE, ROMAN HOLIDAY, GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES, THE ROBE, MOGAMBO, HOUSE OF WAX, YOUNG BESS, JULIUS CAESAR.
You couldn't pay me enough money to sit through SHANE again, sorry to say.
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Tom Brown
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Sidney Blackmer
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Walter Huston
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THE PRISONER OF ZENDA
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LITTLE CAESAR
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DOUBLE INDEMNITY
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THE APARTMENT
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Lily Tomlin
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TIME BANDITS
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Fred Astaire as Hannibal Lector and Lucille Ball as Clarice Sterling in THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
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THE OMEN
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TELEFON
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ANGEL AND THE BADMAN
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KING KONG (1933)
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MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM
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All this talk, now I know I gotta see this movie...it sounds so good! And you can't go wrong with Bette and Errol.
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CAPE FEAR (1962 version) with Frank McHugh as Max Cady and Groucho Marx as Sam Bowden.
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DODGE CITY
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24 minutes ago, TomJH said:
Across The Pacific (1942)
The director and three stars of The Maltese Falcon reunited for an entertaining espionage tale with propaganda overtones. An officer cashiered from the U.S. Army is rejected for service in Canada then boards a Japanese steam ship bound for Panama. Aboard that ship he meets a doctor with Japanese connections who wants to hire him to gain U.S. military information, but not all is as it seems.
The primary pleasure for film buffs in viewing a film like this is to be found in the playing and interaction of its three lead players, that combined with the studio look that comes with a Warner Brothers film from this period. Humphrey Bogart is the cynical army man who collaborates with Sydney Greenstreet as the doctor with Japanese connections. Mary Astor plays a passenger on board the ship (on which much of the film is set) in whom Bogart becomes interested.
There is much enjoyable light hearted bantering between Bogart and Astor in the film's first half, assisted to no small degree by the potent chemistry between the two stars. Bogart kisses Astor for the first time on the ship whereupon she immediately starts to come down with a case of mal de mer. "Are you getting sick?" he asks her. "I don't know," she replies, "How do most women respond after you kiss them?" "They don't turn green," Bogie says. Bogart's name in this film, by the way, is Rick, just prior to playing another Rick in a far more famous film.
Greenstreet will bring his patented chatty joviality to his characterization, combined with a potent menace. Also to be seen in the film will be a pair of actors best known today for playing Charlie Chan's sons, Keye Luke, in a small part as a steamship clerk, and in a far more sizable role, Victor Sen Yung as a live wire Japanese American who likes to jive talk.
There will be a brief but exciting and atmospheric shootout in a theatre, as the story eventually evolves into a plot by Japanese agents to destroy the Gatun Locks. Will they succeed or will Bogie be able to stop them?
John Huston, who directed most the film, was called away to go into the army as the film was nearing completion (with, apparently, no final chapter yet scripted). Vincent Sherman was then recruited to finish the production which he does in melodramatic but satisfactory style.
One of Bogart's more enjoyable films, even if no one has ever ranked it as a classic. By the way, there is no trip in this film across the Pacific. The title, I assume, refers to the menace pending from the Japanese Empire across those waters.
3 out of 4
While it is not up to the classic status of CASABLANCA and THE MALTESE FALCON, I quite enjoyed this film.
I always enjoy the banter between Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet in ANY film. I too liked the sparring with Bogey and Mary Astor.
I agree with your assessment that the title refers to the what was going on with Japan at the time
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ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN
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THE FLAME AND THE ARROW
Actor/Movie Association Game
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THE STRATTON STORY