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nakano

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Posts posted by nakano

  1. Casanova's Big Night  1954 Paramount. Directed by  Norman Z. McLeod. Bob Hope Joan Fontaine Basil Rathbone Lon Chaney jr Raymond Burr, (Burr was ubiquitous in the 50's ) and Vincent Price is unbilled but appears for several minutes at the beginning of the film as Casanova.I am not a fan of Bob Hope I watched some of his films for a particular actor or actress in it,otherwise I pass.In this one he does his usual stuff as the ultimate coward with a string of one liners,a little better than usual.Fontaine looks terrific at 37,it dawns on me,she has a very similar voice like her sister Olivia De Havilland.Nice technicolor .Good effort.86 minutes .7/10

     

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  2.   Mustang Country 1976 Universal.Directed by John C.  Champion.Joel McCrea Nika Mina.Set in 1925 at the Montana -Canadian border.A former rancher & rodeo star is trying to capture an elusive, extremely hard to get mustang stallion.Great cinematography,filmed entirely in Banff Alberta in Canada, full of wild life and great scenery. McCrea was retired for several years but the screenplay enticed him to do it and to make it is definitive last film. A great ending to a remarquable career of a very generous actor. 80  minutes 8/10

     

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  3.  Ride Beyond Vengeance 1966 Columbia .Directed by Bernard McEveety.Chuck Connors Gloria Grahame Michael Rennie Kathryn Hayes Joan Blondell  Gary Merrill Claude Akins , many others first screen credit for Bill Bixby. Underrated western, Connors is very good as the lead. Filmed in 1965 in 5 different states.This is the only film done in the 60' by Gloria Grahame,beautiful at 43,not a big part but a fair one.The bar- room fight between Akins & Connors is quite amazing ,one of the best ever filmed. I pity the saloon owners. Who pays for the repairs ? Released in early 1966,produced by Mark Goodson &Bill Todman (Price is Right producers)-they produced a few films. 96 minutes 7.5 /10

     

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  4. A Bell for Adano 1945 20th Century Fox. Directed by Henry King .John Hodiak Gene Tierney William Bendix Richard Conte. Made in California,filmed just before the war was over,there is no battles in this film,it is the administrative duties of the American Army in a small Italian village ravaged by the war.Hodiak is the star of this film, despite Tierney's top billing as a blonde Italian girl with hardly any accent at all, a total miscasted role and not that important in the film..Conte has a small role delivering his lines.Hodiak's favorite film. 103 minutes.7/10 because of Hodiak.

     

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  5.   Daisy Miller 1974  Paramount.Directed by  Peter Bogdanovitch.Cybil Shepherd Barry Brown Eileen Brennan Cloris Leachman. Bogdanovitch was a little bit ahead of his time for a victorian era film set in Italy with Shepherd as an ingenue causing  negative gossip in a very prude society. Shepherd has a very fast delivery and it is annoying. Merchant Ivory had just started victorian era films but mainly 5 years later and they did them much better.They would have not cast Cybil in the leading role but she was involved with Bogdanovitch for 3 years so it was a vanity project. Story by Henry James, Merchant Ivory would do several of his stories in the early 80's.Brennan is excellent.Shot in Italy nice cinematography. 91 minutes 6.75/10 

     

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  6. El Paso 1949 Paramount   Directed by Lester R.  Foster. John Payne Sterling Hayden Gail Russell Henry Hull. Set in 1865 Payne is an ex Confederate soldier leaving Charleston to establish his law practice in El Paso,going there to hopefully rejoin his former flame .The city is almost lawless with a highly corrupted judge,sheriff etc.Hayden is the heavy and Russell is wasted (!).Exteriors filmed in New Mexico,very nice cinematography. Presented in Cinecolor.103 minutes 7/10

     

  7. The Saturday Night at the Movies from TVO Ontario  was also available to Quebec residents also,I watched it for many years and I was living in Montreal,I do not know about the rest of Canada,I guess it depended on the cable provider. TFO the now French  equivalent has 2 or 3 uncut & no ads foreign movies every single night,it is amazing.It is with subtitles always  in original print and from all eras.

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  8. 40 minutes ago, Ray Faiola said:

    My visits to my in-laws in Ottawa were always augmented by watching Elwe Yost and his classic movie presentations. A genuine film enthusiast!

    Yes Saturday nights at the Movies on TV Ontario was my favorite tv show for many years.Animated by Elwy Yost he was an outstanding  movie historian i would call him. even if he was not in title For many years I watched the show  the length was 4-5 hours with 2-3 movies.Yost made multiples interviews in Hollywood etc with actors,producers,writers and directors like Robert Wise,R Fleischer etc.It was a condensed TCM many years before TCM existed,he formed my fascination for classic films,my then girlfriend -for many years-nicknamed him 'my buddy'.Imo he was a better presenterand interviewer than Robert Osborne whom I always liked but was a couple of notches below Yost.Several years ago   I suggested to TCM on one of these boards or something to try to licensed the hundreds of interviews Yost made.He was unique and the best I have ever seen on tv.

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  9. I know Kevin Costner is not apparently a great actor. He had an impressive run between 1987 -92.In 92 he did The Bodyguard  and I knew that one was going to be bad,He did Revenge in 91 which was terrible with Anthony Quinn but the films in that period were extremely successful and enjoyable. After No Way Out in 87 I even said to my friend then 'he reminds me of Gary Cooper',he was older than me by 12 years  a great movie buff and agreed to the analogy.After 1992 , Costner was in freefall with bad films,ego problems and he should have fired his agent-I do not know if he did in retrospect. I am sure posters here will burn me at the stake for the analogy but in these 5 years Costner was a real star and not a fabricated actor like Tom Hanks whom I always had a problem with .Hollywood also tried to make Tom Cruise 'an Oscar actor worthy 'by pairing him with D Hoffman and P.Newman but it did not worked. with the Academy thank god.. I have seen all Cooper's sound films and many silents so I like him  very much. But I will quote a line by King Vidor -(who liked Gary Cooper very much by the way)- 'He got a reputation as a great actor just by thinking hard about the next line.' so I think Costner in that period was very similar to Cooper.

  10. 34 minutes ago, Curtis DeHaven said:

    Sparrows (1926)

    Dunno why, but for me, when I think silent film, I think of the big three - Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyde.  And screwball comedy...  But, oh my gosh, this film was amazing.  Sparrows is dramatic film about a very serious subject, baby farms.  Baby farms were basically where orphans were imprisoned for slave labor or private adoptions for cash.  While the film exposes practices of the baby farms of the time, it also carries a movie plot along with it - a kidnapping.  The film stars Mary Pickford.  Similar to my opening comment, when I think of Mary Pickford, I think of Chaplin.  But she carried her own weight.  She not only stars in this film, but she was also the film's producer.  We should also note that she was also one of the four who started United Artists, along with D.W. Griffith,  Charlie Chaplin, and Douglas Fairbanks.  IMDb gives this film a 7.3; well deserved if not underrated.   TCM's version of the film includes a prologue where the following text is shared with the viewer....

    "Baby Farms" were where desperate, unwed, or deserted mothers were paid to leave their children who in turn were sold to adoptive parents or as slave labor.  By the 1920s, baby farms were beginning to be exposed for the horrific places they could be, and Sparrows played a part in that.  The Dickensian melodrama helped to increase pressure to pass child welfare laws and restrict private adoptions.

    Sparrows features a supporting cast of eleven children, all under the age of ten.  Mary Pickford, the film's producer as well as star, put the children on salary several weeks before shooting began so that they could get accustomed to the "swamp" set as well as toughen their feet, since they are barefoot until the final scene of the picture.

    I was pleasantly surprised it was very good and the best acting I have seen by Pickford.

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  11. Hotel Sahara 1951 UK   Tower Films dist by UA Directed by Ken Annakin .Yvonne De Carlo  Peter Ustinov. Average comedy about  an hotel located in the Sahara during the Second War. Every  country in the conflict invades the hotel one after another.De Carlo is stunning in many sexy outfits,the colors must have been great ,the problem is the producer choose to  shoot the film in black & white ... to save money i guess,T he real draw and asset of  this movie is De Carlo and they filmed her in b&w ! They surely lost money with this b&w film,a bad decision imo.The poster was in color... 96 minutes 6/10

     

  12. The Blue Veil  RKO 1951.  Directed by Curtis Bernhardt.Jane Wyman Charles Laughton Joan Blondell Agnes Moorehead Nathalie Wood (at 13) Everett Sloane.Classic tearjerker and a good one. Favorite film of Jane Wyman ,she and Blondell earned Oscar nominations for best and supporting actress. 113 minutes 7/10

     

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  13. The Frozen Ghost 1945 Universal Directed by Harold Young Lon Chaney jr Evelyn Ankers Tala Birell. Chaney more or less reprised his role of  Larry Talbot in the Wolf Man.He is not Talbot  but it is just the same  as a character full of guilt and remorse.He is a mentalist and one of his patient dies,of course  guilt etc.So he quits the job and ends up of all places ... at  the Wax Museum of Mme Monet (Birell). Interesting to know: nothing is frozen in this film and there is no ghost... Excellent  print 61 minutes. 6/10

     

  14. Beyond Mombasa 1956 UK Columbia  directed by George Marshall. Cornel Wilde Donna Reed Leo Genn Christopher Lee Ron Randell.Aventure yarn set in Africa. Wilde's brother died as he just discovered an important goldmine-could be uranium also. They aged Genn by 25 years hard to recognize with a white mustache and a big white haired wig. I was surprised to see Ron Randell not dressed as a Roman soldier...Nice Technicolor, most of the outdoors filming was shot in Kenya, some studio works in England. We have seen this before. 90 minutes . 6.75/10

     

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  15. 1 hour ago, Bogie56 said:

    2018

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    5.  Return of the Hero (2018) Laurent Tirard, France

    Jean Dujardin is a Captain in the Hussars in 1812 France.  He is only just been engaged to a young lady from a wealthy family when he is called away to the Napoleonic wars.  I won’t give away anything else but will say that the film had me laughing out loud in several places which is somewhat of a rarity.  Dujardin and Melanie Laurent are both excellent.  Laurent is apparently well known in France for being a voice in The Simpsons.  Like most comedies Return of the Hero falls off here and there but it is well worth a look.

     

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    9.  Lady J (2018) Emmanuel Mouret, France

    I’ve only seen 9 FF’s from 2018 so this is no great shakes.  Lady J is basically a poor man’s Dangerous Liaisons but handled in the most dull way.  It picks up a little toward the end if you can make it that far.  Average.

     

     

    I liked them both .LadyJ  is ok as you say it.I watched it for Cecile De France. Le Retour du Hero I liked a lot more,I liked the ending,It has many  funny moments. DuJardin is good in anything it seems..

     

  16. 4 hours ago, sagebrush said:

    I love all the documentaries which have aired in this past week alone. I wish we had had a weekly showing of a documentary, like we do Noir, Silents, Imports and Underground!

    And there is so many good ones,I just watched one last month on Chaplin done in France of all places-Chaplin was English -after all,more than 2 hours... all new stuff...there is so many,on the American or British side alone,a weekly spotlight was something I suggested 2 years ago.I think we have a better chance of getting a hologram video of Robert Osborne doing the intros i guess...

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  17.    Never Say Goodbye 1956 Universal Rock Hudson Cornell Borchers George Sanders Directed  by Jerry Hopper ( Douglas Sirk is not credited but he is all over  this film) . Period tearjerker in the Sirk tradition,I watched this film for Sanders. A young  Shelley Fabares is the daughter in conflict with the mother.Clint Easrwood has two lines at the beginning of the film,there is also a small role for David Janssen. 96 minutes 6/10

     

  18.   The  Secret of Convict Lake  1951 20th Century Fox Directed by Michael Gordon. Glenn Ford Gene Tierney Zachary Scott Ethel Barrymore Ann Dvorak Good cast based on an incident in 1871, convicts escaped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California,there is a lot of snow in this film.The name of Convict Lake is based on the incidents .The film itself is fiction based on what happened.film is ok,worth watching for the cast.83 minutes  7/10

     

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  19. The Frozen Dead 1966  UKGold Star Productions distribution : Warner Seven Arts  directed by Herbert Leder Dana Andrews with  Edward Fox in a very supportive role. Another mad scientist movie.Andrews is a former Nazi scientist doing head transplants(another one !) He kept the bodies of former nazis  in frozen crypts to eventually revived them,he learns there is more than 1500 around while he thought there was only 12  (the ones he had in frozen state)He is part of a nazi conspiracy to mark the 20 years after the war.  .Unbelievable story with another incredible ending,cheaply done. The film was made in color.But in the USA  for the theatres  it was only in black& white.Andrews's German accent is funny but at least he tried.The movie was shown once on TCM... A long 95 minutes 5.5/10

    AND DO NOT FORGET 'BEWARE THE ICY STARE'

     

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