CinemaInternational Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Sign of the times. There were only 18 Fox films in 1969, but there were still some very noteworthy ones. Decline and Fall of a Birdwatcher was a cheeky British comedy about a troubled man who had innocent intentions although others thought he didn't Michael York and Rita Tushingham went to India for the early Merchant Ivory effort The Guru. Maggie Smith offered one of the greatest female performances of the 60s in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and Pamela Franklin was excellent as well as the student who brought her down. Jim Brown, Raquel Welsh, and Burt Reynolds headed up the tough western 100 Rifles Doctor Glas was an import from Denmark directed by Mai Zetterling James Coburn was an amoral hitman falling for Lee Remick in Hard Contract. The Last Shot You Hear was curtains for Hugh Marlowe. The Boys of Paul Street came from Hungary and was an Oscar nominee. Gregory Peck was a spy in China in The Chairman Che! was Omar Sharif, and Jack Palance was Fidel Castro. Secret World found Jacqueline Bisset as a blonde awakening feelings of puberty in a young boy. it was an unusual film, quiet but well handled. And no, no unlawful passion scenes here. George Cukor came to Fox to make the provocative Justine. Rex Harrison and Richard Burton were longtime companions in Staircase. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was a walloping hit and a great time. Anjelica Huston made her debut in her father's A Walk with Love and Death, betyter than its reputation would indicate. The Archangel starred Vittorio Gassmann Rock Hudson joined John Wayne out west in The Undefeated. Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow were touching as two who met in a singles bar and were wondering if their love was more than a one night thing in John and Mary. And Hello Dolly was a fun adaptation of the famous musical, and was definitely more entertaining than Doctor Doolittle or Star. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawrenceA Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is way ahead of the pack for me, followed at a distance by The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. I've seen several of them, but most were just bland, like The Chairman, Hard Contract, John and Mary, and Justine. 100 Rifles was passable. So was The Undefeated, but I can't recall much of that one. I thought A Walk with Love and Death was dull. Hello Dolly was what it was. Not my cup of tea, as they say. Che! was atrocious. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopBilled Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 JesusMaryandJoseph. This is a bad-bad batch. I'm probably the only person who feels BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID is overrated. I despise Streisand's "acting" in HELLO DOLLY. I'll take Shirley Booth in THE MATCHMAKER any day. My favorite would be THE PRIME RIB OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (my pet name for it). I like JUSTINE. And I think THE UNDEFEATED is a solid western with a title that would have worked better for a war film. The rest of these movies you can throw in the trash...especially STAIRCASE, which is the worst. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filmnoirguy Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 YAWN. Oh, was I yawning? This year feels so....flat to me. If my cable company threatened to take away TCM, I still wouldn't watch any of them again. Well, maybe one or two, but just to keep TCM alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopBilled Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Fortunately, Hollywood film preservationists can't save every film. Most of the ones that Fox made this year belong on the scrap heap and should have been burned in 1970 to save future generations from seeing them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawrenceA Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 17 minutes ago, TopBilled said: Fortunately, Hollywood film preservationists can't save every film. Most of the ones that Fox made this year belong on the scrap heap and should have been burned in 1970 to save future generations from seeing them. I can't wait to watch Staircase! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopBilled Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 4 minutes ago, LawrenceA said: I can't wait to watch Staircase! It's worse than CHE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingrat Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 Staircase was made at a time when any movie made about homosexuality was welcome, just acknowledging that it existed. In the past fifty years, however, many more movies about gay men have been made, and most of them are better than Staircase. The play it was based on is not very profound. I've always been curious about Justine and A Walk With Love and Death. I had never heard of Hard Contract, but might want to see it for Lee Remick. John and Mary was expected to be a big hit: Dustin Hoffman! Mia Farrow! Peter Yates! (a hot director at that moment). The movie opened big, disappeared, and sank out of sight. I've never seen it, and hadn't thought of it in years. I recently saw Hello, Dolly! on the big screen and was surprised at how much I liked it. Some of the musical numbers are quite well done, especially "Put On Your Sunday Clothes," and Michael Crawford is really charming, Nice visuals and sets, too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougieB Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 I came to Hello Dolly! many years after the fact and ended up liking it too. I had high hopes for Justine because I loved The Alexandria Quartet, but have never really been happy with the movie, despite the intriguing cast. It's so amazing that Maggie Smith is still working. She was and is one of the greats. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopBilled Posted June 11, 2019 Share Posted June 11, 2019 46 minutes ago, DougieB said: It's so amazing that Maggie Smith is still working. She was and is one of the greats. She most definitely is. I can't think of anyone who's had a career like she has. She was always fantastic, but somehow seems to have gotten better with time. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopBilled Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 On 6/10/2019 at 6:56 PM, LawrenceA said: I can't wait to watch Staircase! STAIRCASE is airing on TCM tomorrow evening. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arsan404 Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 Maggie Smith is one my top favorite actresses of all time. She was great in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and Celia Johnson was equally good. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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