Name a great movie -

[therealfuster]

that's not too well known, but that you'd highly recommend to any film buffs.

 

My pick would be..."Bang the Drum Slowly" which came out in 1973, and for my money showcases one of Robert DeNiro's greatest performances.

 

Underplaying is sometimes more impressive than overplaying, and in this film the usually volcanic DeNiro plays a downtrodden and not so talented or bright catcher, who's been catching it from his teammates and the world for a long time, without complaint or rancor.

 

This film was directed by John Hancock, who also did the underrated thriller "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" [starring the wonderful Zohra Lampert, the former female voice on Country Crock commercials to Mr. Carlin's voice from the original Bob Newhart show] and it was adapted from the fine novel by Mark Harris.

 

The film "Bang the Drum Slowly" stars Michael Moriarity, who one wonders might have had insights into the game, being that his granddad had been a major league player and ump...and he is the bright and well liked star pitcher, Henry Wiggens. Moriarity is amongst a most believable cast comprised of Vincent Gardenia and Phil Foster, who present a verisimiltude of Brooklyn that is aided by former comedy writer and Jack Paar regular, Selma Diamond...and the script and baseball jargon and ambience of this diamond in the rough, are impeccable, without a balk or error in sight .

 

SPOILERS AHEAD: When Moriarity [as Wiggens] who has been just as unkind and a bit abusive to fellow player, the dimwitted Bruce Pearson, [as played by DeNiro] finds out that Pearson has a fatal disease, he tries to let up on the constant ridicule and sarcasm which usually greets his fellow teammate, and carries this further by befriending and encouraging Pearson, and defending him to the teammates, who have often used him as their punching bag. Despite no one knowing about the illness that is incapicitating Pearson, the team begins to follow Wiggens' example and are less cruel and derogatory to Pearson.

 

In spite of his illness, which is enervating...Pearson begins to show signs of grace and acumen on the field, that were mostly neglible before the change in attitude of Wiggens and the team. DeNiro is very moving in this tale, almost unrecognizable as the slow, quiet and humble player...and the part where he sits idly by, not seeing the song's resemblance to his own fate, when a teammate strums and sings the tune "The Streets of Laredo" in the locker room, are quite tear provoking so get out a handkerchief in advance.

 

I feel that "Bang the Drum Slowly" is a great underrated and mostly unknown classic, and wish it would be seen more often on tv, or in revivals.

 

What film do you nominate as a great but mostly unknown classic?

[vallo13]

I would have to say, my great(forgotten) movie is 1977 "Twilights Last Gleaming" Burt Lancaster as a looney General sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit,he breaksout(with Paul Winfield & Burt Young) and vows vengeance against those who put him in prison including the President-(Charles Durning).He commandeers a missle silo and threatens to start World War III.This a great political thriller and is somewhat forgotten.

[therealfuster]

of mine!

 

Yes, that is a great film and I look forward to seeing it again, as I've only seen it once many years ago.

 

Thanks for your contribution, Vallo!

[bhryun]

I would like to nominate The Four Feathers. The 1939 version with C. Aubrey Smith and John Clements. IMO the original version is 100% better than the recent remake and I almost never hear anyone mention this film.

imdb:

A British army officer who resigns his commission on the eve of his unit's embarkation to a mission against Egyptian rebels seeks to redeem his cowardice by secretly aiding his former comrades. When his unit is overwhelmed and captured by the rebels, the officer finds an opportunity to return the four 'feathers' of cowardice one by one; that were sent to him by his former comrades.

 

This is a great movie!

 

 

Jalanna

 

 

[hlywdkjk]

Of the pantheon of great screwball era comedies (His Girl Friday/My Man Godfrey/Twentieth Century/Bringing Up Baby/Lady Eve), there is one film comedy I share with my 'film-friends' that they often have never heard of. And having recently watched the Howard Hawks "Men Who Make The Movies" (film's director)and a Samuel Goldwyn documentary (film's producer) and it was overlooked in both, I am not surprised more people haven't seen it.

 

The film is "Ball Of Fire" with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Barbara Stanwyck is a nightclub singer and moll to a gangster who ends up hiding out from the cops in a large house where English professor Gary Cooper and the greatest collection of male character actors ever assembled are writing a new encyclopedia.

 

The charming and witty script is by Billy Wilder and he has a field day with the popular slang of the day as it is Gary Cooper's lot to be writing the article about slang for the encyclopedia project. All of you folks that discuss the idioms and slang one hears in the films of the '30s and 40's will have a very enjoyable time.

 

Barbara Stanwyck sings - tho I have never quite been sure if she has been dubbed - and I don't think she has ever looked lovlier; A perfect 'Snow White' to the 'Seven Dwarves' of bachelor professors. No fairy tale has ever been adapted/up-dated with such intelligence and sense of fun and that includes Pretty Woman!

 

I don't know if the film is a part of the package that TCM acquired from Paramount recently (like Sabrina, Roman Holiday, all the Sturges, etc.) but as some of these films still trickle out in premieres every few months - The Awful Truth will arrive in January 2006 - maybe it is still to come. Finding a home video copy can be quite daunting. At one point, the out of print DVD was commanding $1500 on Ebay. It has shown up on Showtime Networks in the past.

 

I adore this film. I just don't understand why it is neglected by others.

 

Kyle in Hollywood

 

And I hope I haven't split any infinitives.

[susuhigh]

When I saw the question the first movie that popped into my head was "Ball of Fire", also. This is absolutely one of my favorite movies and the cast is the best!

Susan

[shainablue1]

Ball Of Fire is an awesome movie, I liked it much better than the Danny Kaye remake. I do like that one also though. It use to come on AMC often a decade ago, now I don't know if it is on VHS or DVD. It is a great movie and a little forgotten. My two cents.

[hlywdkjk]

Susan & Shaina -

 

Comrades! (as in fraternal, not 'Daily Worker')

 

You might be interested to know that a Broadway-bound stage musical of 'Ball Of Fire' is in the works. I hope it fares better than the stage adaption of 'Swing Time' from a year ago. But I don't know if anyone can say

"Hoy-toy-toy" with such charm as the professor Ottley in the film (Richard Hayden).

 

Kyle in Hollywood

[therealfuster]

"The Four Feathers" just doesn't seem to be able to die as grist for a film, and the one you mention is the classic to be sure.

 

Having been done as a couple silents earlier, the Zoltan Korda version you mention is wonderful, and I enjoy Ralph Richardson as much as C. Aubrey Smith, who is such a great and commanding presence on film.

 

The latest version in 2002 left something to be desired...maybe the old version! Korda also remade this film as "Storm Over the Nile" in Cinemascope in the 1950's, and reused some of the action sequences I've heard, which were also used in "Master of the World", with Vincent Price.

 

Great contribution to the thread, Jalanna!

[therealfuster]

"Ball of Fire" doesn't seem to get quite as much attention as some other screwball comedies, and that's a shame. Stanwyck and Cooper are a joy to behold, and the script by Wilder and Brackett, is..well a script by Wilder and Brackett, so who needs to say more.

 

An added bonus, is that there is a segment in the film with Gene Krupa drumming. Though I've seen this film a few times, I had not remembered this fact, but just read about it on the dvd version write ups, and being that I have currently been playing that Ken Burns Jazz collection, boxed set...which has the rousing version by Benny Goodman of "Sing, Sing, Sing" on Disc 2, with Krupa's fine skins front and center, I look forward to reseeing "Ball of Fire" with Krupa, and maybe on TCM hopefully.

 

Thanks for a fine selection and recommendation, Kyle!

[gypsybangles]

Good Topic Fuster,

 

I honestly don't know how a film with Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Quinn could be little known, but I haven't seen 'A Walk in the Spring Rain' since it came out in 1970.

 

It's a tale of seduction, betrayal and cultural differences set against a lush rural Appalachian background. Sensually mesmerizing and evocative.

[hlywdkjk]

Hey There Realfuster,

Sorry I haven't had a chance to reply sooner.

 

Glad to know you hold 'Ball of Fire' in general/elevated esteem also.

 

Gene Krupa appears in Barbara Stanwyck's sole scene singing 'Drum Boogie' in the nightclub and has a short solo. The real tour de force comes immediately after when Gene Krupa "plays" two match sticks on a matchbox. A scene added by Howard Hawks when he saw Krupa performing this feat during a lull in filming (according to the AMC intro on the copy I have saved for years.)

 

Anyway, in an effort to continue this thread, I have a film I often throw out every year since 1992 when Oscar nominations are announced as a example of how fallow the fields are in the crop of Best Picture nominees. I will usually hold up Gary Sinise's 1992 'Of Mice And Men' as a film that would have been nominated if released in this past year. If only all Steinbeck was put on film so skilllfully and lovingly.

(I would love to have TCM schedule a night of Steinbeck adaptations/originals - without Cannery Row please - but I think many of the films are Fox films.)

 

A friend shows the film to his ESL class on occasion and it never fails to bring the entire room to tears. What better recommendation of a film can there be than it is so successful in its storytelling as to elicit that kind of emotion in people who are only beginning to grasp the English language.

 

kyle in hollywood