Bethluvsfilms
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Posts posted by Bethluvsfilms
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Richard Harris
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2 hours ago, TopBilled said:
Friday July 10, 2020
Directed by John Ford in the 30s
THE WHOLE TOWN'S TALKING with Edward G. Robinson
ARROWSMITH with Ronald Colman
THE INFORMER with Victor McLaglen
Awesome, looking forward to THE WHOLE TOWN'S TALKING. Twice of Edward G. Robinson is twice the fun.
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2 hours ago, TomJH said:
Terrible Joe Moran (1984)
The final film of James Cagney, a made-for-TV production in which he plays an aged wheelchair-bound boxer (and former welterweight champion) living by himself in a townhouse. His constant companion and housekeeper, played by Art Carney, is the old man's one friend. Soon showing up at his residence, however, will be his granddaughter, whom he hasn't seen since she was a child. As played by Ellen Barkin she moves in with him, her purpose in being there the hope of getting money from him for her boyfriend, who owes big dollars to street gangsters.
Known as 'Terrible" Joe Moran from his fighting prime years a half century earlier the film appropriately opens with Cagney in a wheelchair watching clips of himself in a television tribute to him on his birthday. Clips of scenes of Cagney boxing from The Irish in Us and City for Conquest are shown in the tribute, with an older Cagney amused and commenting on the images.
While the trajectory of the story is predictable (the old man is lonely and a bit hostile and the granddaughter initially has little liking of him, just biding her time to ask for the money) the TV drama fortunately avoids excessive sentimentality. This is largely achieved through Cagney's gruff performance, as well as the solid support he receives from Carney, almost as gruff as Cagney, and a fine, sensitive portrayal from Barkin. Brief cameo appearances are also made by Floyd Patterson as himself, Ed Koch as a fight manager and Lawrence Tierney as an old time fighter who had battled Joe Moran three times.
I saw this film when it was originally broadcast on television and was taken aback by Cagney's frail health and his confinement to a wheelchair. It was not the way I wanted to remember an actor who had been such a physical dynamo during his prime years. However, in seeing the film now for the first time since then I didn't find it to be the depressing experience I thought it might be. Cagney is likable as the cantankerous old man and there's a directness and honesty about his portrayal. In addition to that he gets fine support from his co-stars, particularly Barkin, whose scenes with Cagney seem real.
Unfortunately Cagney had suffered a stroke before this film was made and, according to various sources, either some or all of his dialogue was dubbed over by Rich Little. There are times when Cagney's speech is still a little slurred.
Terrible Joe Moran can be found on DVD from a small company in a serviceable image. Aside from that, along with Come Fill the Cup and Never Steal Anything Small, this is one of the tougher Cagney titles to find. Some will undoubtedly dislike seeing the former Yankee Doodle Dandy in this kind of frail health but his final performance is all the gutsier because of that. One more thing. In his later years Cagney painted and one of his favourite works, that of a punched up fighter called The Victor, can be seen hanging on Joe Moran's den wall.
2.5 out of 4
I would love to see this film. It's no secret that James Cagney has always been my favorite classic era actor and I adore Art Carney as well.
That is one terrific pic that Cagney did too, I must say.
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John Sheehan
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Sally Starr
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Cliff Edwards
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THE PEOPLE AGAINST O'HARA
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AMBUSH
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3 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
Yes...but if not for the remake, they probably wouldn't have pulled the original out of the vault.
No doubt you're right.
As a matter of fact I looked up the set, I still have DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY but MEET JOE BLACK I must have 'misplaced' somewhere down the line. I won't go out of my way to look for it.
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Think I've seen just about all of these except 1221 and 1223.
I've been overly hard on 1222 in recent years, but having rewatched it recently, it's actually a dang fine film, thanks to the acting of the two leads.
1227 is a pretty good action film thanks to Gene Hackman's amazing performance but I don't really find it all that award worthy (though it's hardly the first time I've disagreed with the Academy's choices).
1228, while Christopher Reeve wasn't exactly a favorite of mine (aside from the first two SUPERMAN movies), I thought he and Jane Seymour had great chemistry. The ending is both tragic yet still strangely happy.
1229....you couldn't pay me to sit through this film a second time.
The rest are all rather good.
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3 minutes ago, Allhallowsday said:
If it hasn't been mentioned, it needs to be : JOHN WAYNE's worst movie has to be THE CONQUEROR,
Can't argue with that. And it wasn't an impressive piece of work of Susan Hayward's career either, nor the careers of the rest of the cast.
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APRIL LOVE
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6 hours ago, skimpole said:
Is there some rights issue that prevents TCM from showing Death Takes a Holiday or Applause?
It would be nice to see DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY on the line-up, but I do have it on DVD (as a double feature of the deadly dull MEET JOE BLACK), I got the set because of DEATH, which I have watched a 100 times but not but as of yet have not wasted my time a second one watching JOE BLACK (nor do I intend to anytime soon).
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BATTLE AT BLOODY BEACH
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18 hours ago, DawnM74 said:
Errol Flynn
How could I forget about Errol? He's just so dreamy. He's especially so in this pic.
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19 minutes ago, Peebs said:
Chain smoker and fashionista plans to locally source canine overpopulation.
Has to be 101 DALMATIANS (love Glenn Close but nothing beats the animated feature).
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5 hours ago, EricJ said:
And I feel guilty for being one of the Monkees fans who doesn't like Head: It's Bob once more dumping on the fans for being "suckered" by the marketing, the group wanting to get out of their "creation" by joining in on the self-dumping, passive-hostility sketches incoherently scripted by an easy-riding Jack Nicholson, and only one or two memorable songs out of several unmemorable ones. Basically, if the Monkees complained that they were the "imitation Beatles", this is their imitation Magical Mystery Tour...Oh, and Victor Mature only shows up as a couple of surreal "Hollywood" cameos, that make about as much sense as any of the other would-be Biting Satire.
Don't feel guilty. I was a HUGE Monkees fan as a kid and I didn't like HEAD one bit. Maybe you had to be 'out of it' on substances to be able to appreciate it (much like a lot of folks were stoned when watching 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY) but it was too 'far out' for me to make heads or tails out of it.
Still like their music though, even if it wasn't really them who were performing the songs (at least not on their TV series, not sure about the movie).
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THE QUICK GUN
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2 hours ago, Bogie56 said:
Friday, July 10
When the schedule was originally announced this was my pick at 10:30 a.m. So This Is Paris (1926). Ernst Lubitsch silent with Myrna Loy in a small part. Unfortunately that has been scratched.
3:30 a.m. Cherry 2000 (1998). With Melanie Griffith. I didn’t think this was half bad when I saw it years ago.
Haven't seen this one. Not exactly an admirer of Melanie Griffith (although I did like her in WORKING GIRL and PACIFIC HEIGHTS) but maybe I will check it out.
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7 minutes ago, TopBilled said:
What bothers me most about MR. SMITH is how sidelined the Jean Arthur character is, that a woman is supposed to be relegated to cheerleading instead of taking action herself. The truth is that there had already been female senators in the U.S., and in fact one was in office when the movie was made.
So it's not only idealism but it's idealism in a man's world which is rather lopsided. One part that annoys me is the part where we learn that Jefferson Smith is a hero to Boy Scouts. But there were Girl Scouts in America at this time (going back to 1912), which the filmmakers conveniently ignore. The whole thing is sexist and suggests that only men have a real say in government. I can't stand it.
Yeah, but in 1939, even though there were a lot of women making strides in government and other areas of social signifigance , this country still had as much as a sexist mindset as it did racist.
Women were still considered the stay-at-home types and the men the breadwinners of the family. It was the way it was thought of back then, not just by the filmmakers of the 30's but in a lot of other fields of employment at the time. I'm not saying this was right or fair by any means BTW.
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I just like to add the 1974 original THE LONGEST YARD beats Adam Sandler's atrocious 2005 remake by a landslide (though the remake's one saving grace was casting the original star Burt Reynolds in the Michael Conrad role in the 2005 version).
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1 hour ago, TopBilled said:
Never been a fan of VERTIGO. I think MR. SMITH is very sexist and I object to its stereotypes.
But HARVEY is a crowd pleaser that does not offend. It's one of the Stewart's best performances and the supporting cast is strong. Josephine Hull is a lot of fun to watch.
I admit at one time I wasn't particularly fond of VERTIGO, but it's grown on me in time. Likewise MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON.
MR. SMITH strikes me as being a bit too idealistic in the way Stewart's character Jefferson Smith manages to win over everybody in the end but what the hey, it was 1939.
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1 hour ago, skimpole said:
That's more a brief summary than a deceptively boring one. "Various states squabble over penal policy," is more in keeping with the topic theme.
That would be a more adequate way of putting it. I admit I wondered if it sounded more like a summary rather than a bland description.
I admit I hesitated attributing anything to this thread because I don't have much of an imagination. Oh well, I tried.
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Sal Mineo
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