King Rat
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Posts posted by King Rat
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5 hours ago, CinemaInternational said:
I am now dealing with The book and the Brotherhood, a 600 page colossus by Iris Murdoch.
I'm a great fan of Iris Murdoch, although this might not be the first one I'd recommend. I did like it.
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3 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
OH WOW, YOU'RE RIGHT!!!
PS- did you know CARROT TOP is worth $70 million???????
And people say the American public doesn't have good taste. Hah!
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2 hours ago, Dargo said:
Not a big deal here, but I kind'a question Eddie's comment in his outro that it might have come as a surprise to the audiences at the time that Holden ends up in this film as he did, and considering as Eddie mentioned that just a couple of years earlier Sunset Blvd had put him on the Hollywood A-list.
I guess Eddie's thought process was that the audiences of that time might not expect any big star who's the lead in a movie ending up like that.
Ya see, I would've thought that audiences at the time having already watched Holden floating face down in a swimming pool and once again playing in this film what would become his stock-in-trade cynical type, would be more surprised that this film ended how it did and with essentially one of the "good guys" dying in it and regardless who the lead might have been in it.
But like I said, not a big deal here. Just a thought that crossed my mind.
(...btw, I've thought of a couple of other Holden flicks in which he meets the same fate...The Bridges at Toko-Ri and The Bridge on the River Kwai...anyone have any others that come to mind?)
Add Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing. That's quite a few for a 50s leading man.
As for the kiss and fadeout, I didn't have much doubt about what happened next, but if a 1950s audience wanted to believe that not much more happened, the movie left that possibility open.
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1 hour ago, Dargo said:
What I wanna know is when did L.A. become "a midwestern city" and as O'Brien referred to it at one point in this film?
Yeah, you got it. This is a rhetorical question, alright.
I'll bet William Parker, L.A.'s police chief and many other Los Angeles city fathers at that time didn't want their town being shown in a bad light and so probably pressured Paramount to remove any specific references to their city and thus giving the suggestion that it was set in some generic American big city.
(...just wish Eddie would've mentioned something about this in his wraparound in order to confirm this and instead of just mentioning how wonderful the shots were a now much changed Downtown L.A. than what it was the year I was born there and when this movie was filmed...yep, THAT'S right, I'll be turnin' The Big Seven-O next month, folks!)
That's what I was guessing, too, Dargo. It was a real "Say what???" moment.
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I know that The Long Day Closes is a favorite of our own Swithin, but it wasn't my cuppa tea. It's the kind of film that if you like it, you call it "poetic," and if you don't, you call it "arty." It's very much like the Eisenstein experiment where he showed an expressionless actor, then cut to a bowl of soup, and people thought he was hungry, etc., but with sound instead of montage. We get a lot of an expressionless kid staring out at the rain on a soundstage while various songs and occasional lines from movies can be heard on the soundtrack. I kept thinking of other films about rainy English towns I'd rather be seeing: It Always Rains on Sunday or So Well Remembered or Room at the Top, movies with plots and fleshed-out characters. The major events of the boy's life are the music he hears and the movies he sees. Otherwise, his childhood is not particularly interesting. The boy's mother is lovingly portrayed; perhaps the emotional reserve of the film works in that case.
There was also one very beautiful moment as the camera pans over a movie audience as Debbie Reynolds sings "Tammy." The song continues over a similar pan of a congregation at church and then the boys in a classroom. The longing so well expressed in the song thus has a religious significance for the boy, and is something he learns from.
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18 hours ago, Isa said:
Eddie Mueller, no problem whatsoever with subtitles. Love foreign movies of any genre and the only way to watch them is with subtitles. Please keep them coming. I can't thank you enough for them. One Clouzot's movie I would love to see is MANON, but it seems to be unavailable anywhere.
Look for Manon on YouTube or on one of those websites that show films they don't actually have the rights to. I saw Manon on a website that no longer exists. It's as dark as The Wages of Fear, and I thought it was great.
1 hour ago, Athos said:I loved The Turning Point. This is a movie I have wanted to see and requested through a previous TCM Programming Challenge, so I was thrilled to see it selected for Noir Alley. Great script from Warren Duff full of many intertwining parts and sarcastic dialogue. Wonderful cast with excellence all around. I especially want to highlight Tom Tully in his scenes with William Holden. I loved the location shooting in this film. The entire ending sequence at the Olympic Auditorium was extremely well done and made the film for me.
Terrific selection. Hope we can find more underseen films like this one to show in the future.
I liked The Turning Point a lot, too, and was also very impressed by Tom Tully's scenes. An even better performance than the one he got an Oscar nom for (The Caine Mutiny). Lots of location shots in 1950s LA, and I was not prepared for the ending. Excellent set designs, in addition to all the other fine qualities.
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1 hour ago, EricJ said:
"Waiting for Mr. Goodbar"? So, Diane Keaton waits in a blank, empty white-walled singles-bar, and talks about existentialism with Jill Clayburgh?
Ooh, what a perfect project for the late Chantal Akerman.
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If Down Three Dark Streets is on the app, I recommend it to fans of docu-noir or those who like scenes shot on location in 50s LA, including a big scene at the Hollywood sign, or fans of Broderick Crawford, Ruth Roman, Marisa Pavan, Claude Akins, Casey Adams (anyone need a little helping of smarm and sleaze?) or anyone wanting to see Martha Hyer in a laugh-out-loud outfit with pouffy fur sleeves. Capably directed by Arnold Laven, with stylish cinematography by Joseph Biroc. Some good character actors, too.
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If Down Three Dark Streets is on the app, I recommend it to fans of docu-noir or those who like scenes shot on location in 50s LA, including a big scene at the Hollywood sign, or fans of Broderick Crawford, Ruth Roman, Marisa Pavan, Claude Akins, Casey Adams (anyone need a little helping of smarm and sleaze?) or anyone wanting to see Martha Hyer in a laugh-out-loud outfit with pouffy fur sleeves. Capably directed by Arnold Laven, with stylish cinematography by Joseph Biroc. Some good character actors, too.
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TCM should re-create a couple of actual double features. A drive-in in my hometown showed Antonioni's Blow-Up on a double bill with Elvis in Double Trouble. In New York, I saw Ingmar Bergman's Shame on the lower half of a double bill with Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell. What the rhyme or reason was for these pairings, I have no idea!
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Like the Dark Shadows and Lylah Clare threads, the Go-rilla thread has strange and unusual life-enhancing properties.
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Anyone up for filming a reaction video of me discovering who Alyssa Edwards and Jinkx Monsoon are, possibly followed by another reaction video of me discovering I'm sorry I found out who they are? I'm way behind on YouTube Trivia!
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2 hours ago, CinemaInternational said:
I guess there was than one a few years back where the song was disqualified after it was revealed that its writer had made promotional phonecalls. But other than that, its hard to think of a nominated song that was less featured in the film it was up from.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Original_Song
In the later years some of the nominated songs have only been heard over the credits.
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Kay's Roman garb in I Found Stella Parish suggests that she was about as flat-chested as Constance Bennett, another top star of the same era. Was this the desired silhouette of the time, or is it simply that before Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe a woman need not be buxom to be a star?
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6 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
They are not related, if that's what you're asking.
What a lovely picture of Andy (or Andrew) Robinson. A very good actor.
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6 hours ago, CinemaInternational said:
Found some prints of two rare films online today. The one for The Blue Veil was not good visually and had shaky sound, yet the warmth of Jane Wyman's performance still came through. Joan Blondell received her only Oscar nomination for it but her role was on the small side. The print of White Banners (1938) is much better. It too is a touching film, and I love that it is set in a small midwest town, something i can relate to easily.....
Glad you got to see The Blue Veil, very difficult to find, and White Banners. I also liked The Blue Veil. Where else could you find Charles Laughton and Vivian Vance as a couple? I also liked Agnes Moorehead's performance as a rich woman who deftly breaks up Jane Wyman's romance because it isn't convenient for Agnes. It's nice that Joan Blondell got an Oscar nomination, but she has larger and better parts in other films.
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2 hours ago, LawrenceA said:
But what about Bride of the Gorilla, or The Bride and the Beast, or Gorilla at Large, or The White Gorilla, or Mark of the Gorilla, or Captive Wild Woman?
These are serious movies for serious classic film connoisseurs, not your Johnny-come-lately's.
Gorilla at Large has my vote, partly because it has Anne Bancroft in her pre-Oscar winner phase, and mostly because of this story, set in our beloved South, circa 1970s: A local TV station was showing Gorilla at Large and in some kind of promotion was passing out 3-D glasses to all who wanted them. A friend was at the bank one morning and heard one female customer said to another, "You goin' to watch that GO-rilla?" So Lawrence, I'm hopin' you get to watch that GO-rilla.
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7 hours ago, TopBilled said:
Today's neglected film is a favorite western of mine from 20th Century Fox. It has only aired four times on TCM, the most recent broadcast was in 2014.
As a rule, I am not really a fan of Tyrone Power. Something about his acting usually seems off-balance to me, not quite wooden, but not fully embodying the characters he is assigned to play. In RAWHIDE, I see a much more mature and focused performance. It also helps that he is paired with Susan Hayward (in her first motion picture at Fox), and that they are both directed by Henry Hathaway on location in Lone Pine, California. Joining them is a fine supporting cast that includes Hugh Marlowe, Jack Elam in a scene stealing role, recent Oscar winner Dean Jagger, George Tobias and Edgar Buchanan.
The best part of the picture, however, is the writing. Dudley Nichols' original script plays like a home invasion movie.
A band of crooks, led by Marlowe, have busted out of a nearby penitentiary. They've heard about a shipment of gold passing through the area. It will be stopping off at the relay station run by Power and Buchanan. Soon they show up and hold everyone hostage while waiting for the valuable cargo to arrive.
During the siege that ensues, we learn various things about the characters. Hayward is first seen arriving by stage with a little girl everyone assumes her daughter. She later reveals that one-year-old Callie (Judy Dunn) is her niece and she's taking her back to Missouri to be with grandparents since Callie was orphaned in San Francisco. The crooks think Hayward and Power and married and that the little girl is their daughter, which they can use to their advantage to stay alive.
At one point Power pretends to get drinking water in the kitchen, which is more of a ruse to steal a large kitchen knife that he hides inside the pitcher. As soon as he returns to the bedroom, he and Hayward use the knife to carve out a hole in the wall under the bed, in the hopes of escaping.
There are some interesting scenes with Jack Elam's shady character desiring Hayward and trying to get his grubby paws on her, but failing. In the meantime Power starts to have genuine feelings for Hayward, and she develops similar feelings for him. We know that by the end of the picture, after the siege is over, that they will be a proper couple and raise Callie as their own.
A few deaths occur as the big showdown takes place at the end, and these are very well staged by Hathway. The on-location shooting gives us a very authentic western-looking setting. I got the impression that the entire cast worked hard to get it right, and it is not only a suspenseful drama but a most satisfying one to watch in terms of what it says about human relationships.
I like this one, too. It's a solid western (or home invasion story) with good work from everyone concerned.
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3 hours ago, Dargo said:
Yep, actually I DO think your point is well taken here, MissW.
(...as you duly noted here, Peck seldom played nor is primarily remembered for playing the brash type of character and as he did in DITS)
Come to think of it, Dargo, DITS is a great abbreviation for Duel in the Sun, which has always struck me as an Italian opera minus, you know, the singing and the Italian. Not that it isn't enjoyable. And Gregory Peck is a great example of a movie good guy cast as a villain. He's much sexier than usual, too.
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On 1/27/2022 at 7:52 AM, LornaHansonForbes said:
adapted from WHAT though??
(not mad at you, just bewildered.)
Was VALLEY OF THE DOLLS some kind of halfassed retelling of LA BOHEME all this time
While we're on the subject of Valley of the Dolls: A co-worker of mine once said in all seriousness that she didn't think Jackie Collins was as good a stylist as Jacqueline Susann.
Proof positive that these distinctions can be made at an infinitely low level.
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1 hour ago, misswonderly3 said:
Angela.
Suzy.
Angela would certainly have had fun playing Jenny Lamour, but I don't think she has Suzy Delair's earthy warmth and sex appeal.
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2 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:
Hoo boy.
For a while now, I have wanted to see LUCHINO VISCONTI'S 1969 film THE DAMNED [**and BOY are they EVER!]
I even tried to rent it on amazon this Christmas and it was sadly unavailable...
so imagine my thrill when it turned up under a rock somewhere...
Holy **** though, this movie is A LOT- but if I had to pare it down I'd say it's like watching a hybrid version of HAMLET and MACBETH and DYNASTY with CROSS-DRESSING NAZIS directed by DOUGLAS SIRK.
I liked it, and yet I HAVE TO SAY, THERE IS CHILD ABUSE DEPICTED IN THIS FILM AND- AS SUCH- IT'S NOT ONE FOR EVERYBODY AND I CAME REALDAMNCLOSE TO TURNING IT OFF IN ONE SCENE, even though it wasn't explicit and both actors were honestly really good.
There are extended parts of this film in GERMAN with NO SUBTITLES, so I can't really say I fully understand the 30 minute long EXTENDED NAZI KIKI SESSION BY THE LAKE that ends in the BEER HALL PUTSCH, but- um- it was engrossing.
(Sorry, my spelling is all wrong I am sure.)
DIRK BOGARDE is in this (!) and he is very good, more ELECTRIC than I have ever found him before, man, he really was one of the BRAVEST actors of the late 60s/early 70s wasn't he?
the INTERIORS and COSTUMES (and JEWELS!!!!!) are great- lots of MARCEL WAVES and PLUCKED BROWS and THE WOMEN WEAR THEIR DIAMONDS TO BED!!!!!!!!
this film is DECADENT TRASH, but it's totally okay with that, and BY THE END, God Help Me, so was I.
Excellent review, Lorna. If you can accept The Damned as decadent trash, a superior Legend of Lylah Clare, granted that almost anything is superior to Lylah Clare, parts of it are fun. Some critics have tried to take The Damned as a serious statement about Nazism. News flash: it isn't. In fact, its suggestion that homosexuality = decadence = fascism is false, offensive, and unhistorical. The SA was indeed led by an open homosexual, and look where that got him. Nazism reacted against the sexual openness of the 1920s.
But this is to take Visconti seriously as a thinker, and that is precisely what he is not. As a gay Italian Douglas Sirk, Visconti takes the drapes and the costumes seriously, but not the ideas. Sirk is actually more intelligent and thoughtful than Visconti, but the comparison stands.
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1 hour ago, misswonderly3 said:
I loved Quai des Orfevres. I don't care whether it's regarded as a noir or not ( and apparently Eddie wasn't too worried either), it entertained and engaged me every minute. I enjoyed all the actors, for one thing. The "sad sack" character, Maurice ( Bernard Blier) was oddly sympathetic.
Did anyone else think Suzy Delair bore quite a resemblance to Angela Lansbury? Both of them have that round-faced, rosebud mouth look. Sort of a lush quality. I thought Miss Delair was very good in her role as Jenny, whom I did not see as a femme fatale at all.
For one thing, she truly loves that sad-sack husband of hers'. Yes, she's a flirt, but that's all, she's just one of those women who naturally enjoys flirting, it doesn't "mean anything". I really liked that in spite of everything - Jenny's flirtatiousness and dishonesty, Maurice's jealousy, etc., these two truly love each other. How unusual is that in this kind of film? I know some of you will probably complain that it can't be a noir, for one thing, it had a happy ending ( except maybe for that car thief...) But I liked that it had a happy ending, it didn't feel inauthentic or stuck-on. I liked those two characters and I wanted them to end up absolved and free and together. Call me a softie, maybe my true favourite genre is rom coms. (NO!)
I also loved the look of this film, I thought the visuals were perfect. I don't know if those little French alleys were a set or filmed on location ( I have no idea what the state of French film making was immediately post-war), but they looked great. And the interiors, similar and yet in so many little ways different from American film interiors in 1947.
Plus, French films, at least back then, were so different from American ones in other ways. The dialogue. The things they talk about. The characters all seem so articulate and also, kind of funny ( as in clever.) And I may be wrong, but I suspect you'd never have seen a white police detective with a Black son in an American film in 1947. All we know is the detective had spent time in "the colonies"; we don't get any kind of back story as to who the kid's mother was, or how the boy came to live with his father in France. But I like that, I don't need the backstory. I just like it that the police guy has a young son, who's Black, and nobody cares or makes any comment about it at all. I just hope the kid passes his geometry test next time.
I thought Quai des Orfevres was a real treat, and I thank Eddie M. for finding it and showing it.
MissW, I agree with every word. I thought Bernard Blier (Maurice) looked so much like Bob Newhart. This was the second time I had seen the film, and the second time was the charm, in more ways than one. If you can accept the film on its own terms and not try to put it in a certain genre, it's wonderful. Great script, great directing, great visual style. Suzy Delair has so much charm and sex appeal. No wonder everyone is after her! And she sings well, too. In the days of CGI you can't help noticing how many extras, real people, are in the theater scenes. Louis Jouvet is great as the inspector.
Eddie's intro and outro were excellent, packed with information. He did struggle pronouncing Quai des Orfevres, as would anyone but a native French speaker. "Keh dehz or-FEV" would be close, with a slight emphasis on the last syllable.
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On 1/26/2022 at 12:08 AM, SansFin said:
My motto has become: "Men! You can not live with them, you can not leave their body by the side of the road."
Even leaving the body on the railroad tracks didn't work out in Double Indemnity.
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So, just how badly do we think The Oscars are gonna "mess" things up this year?
in General Discussions
Posted
Amen, Lawrence. Like Lorna, I don't understand the dude's media saturation. Is it a plot by aliens who can't be satisfied with the fact that Carrot Top is worth $70 million?