I Just Watched...

[film lover 293]

"The Cat and the Canary" (1939)--A Bob Hope/ Paulette Goddard remake of the 1927 silent film.  Film observes All the cliches, while kidding them. Some good jokes and good lines are scattered through the film.  

 

May be the first film that has Hope joking about golf:

Angry would-be inheritor:  "Say, what's your game?"

Hope, as wisecracking would be inheritor: "About ninety to one hundred."

 

Viewers can probably predict the lines and speak them before the characters do (I did).    Even for those who speak the characters' lines before they do, an enjoyable watch.  6.0/10 stars.

[LawrenceA]

Trading Places (1983) - (7/10) - Hit comedy about two super-rich brothers (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) who make a bet based on the old question of nature versus nurture. Ameche feels that success is in-born, while Bellamy believes that, given the chance, anyone can thrive. To test their theory, they manipulate events that force their snobbish, successful young employee Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) out on the streets, broke and charged with a crime. The brothers then fill the brokerage position with street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy). Comedy ensues.

 

Also featured in the great cast are Jamie Lee Curtis as that old chestnut, a hooker with a heart of gold; Denholm Elliott as a butler, Jim Belushi, Al Franken & Tom Davis, Paul Gleason, Giancarlo Esposito, Frank Oz, Bill Cobbs, Philip Bosco, and Bo Diddley as a pawnbroker. There's a lot of funny moments here, and a fair bit of social commentary too. The leads are all good, and Ameche and Bellamy look to be having a great time. Jamie Lee Curtis never looked better, either. From director John Landis. A Paramount release.

 

Rewatch.   Source: DVD.

[film lover 293]

"Becky Sharp" (1935)--Miriam Hopkins and the first use of three-strip Technicolor are the whole show here.  The Code could change plots and dialogue; they Couldn't sanitize Hopkins' snapping eyes, vocal inflections that made an innocent line into a double entendre, or the sense that she had been and would be a ***** in order to survive.  Censors also missed a few first class ****** lines, which Hopkins delivers flawlessly.  Hopkins' is extremely funny when she flirts with all available men while filleting every other woman in the same room with her.  She races through the bad scenes where The Code tries (and fails) to destroy the movie while managing to be amusing even in these scenes.  She  turns a self-sacrificing, namby-pamby line into the exact opposite by just a vocal inflection or a look.

 

 

Director Rouben Mamoulian experimented with color and was spectacularly successful.  TCM please show this little known gem!

 

Saw on YouTube. There is a black and white version that runs one hour, seven minutes; the color version (which I saw) runs one hour, twenty four minutes.  Saw a restoration from/by The Video Cellar.  Despite The Codes' interference, 9/10 stars.

[LawrenceA]

Treasure of the Four Crowns (1983) - (5/10) - Completely bonkers modern day adventure fantasy released by the fine folks at Cannon Films. A mercenary and his team are hired to retrieve the title items from the castle lair of an evil cult leader. This was filmed in 3-D, and I have never seen a film more 3-D than this, and I mean that in the worst possible way. Every few seconds, something else is being thrust at the camera/audience, from snakes, spears, and arrows, to ropes, lasers, and floating keys. All dialogue was done in post, but there really isn't a lot of it anyway. In fact, it's nearly 20 minutes into the film before the first lines are spoken. This isn't good by any stretch of the imagination, but it's just crazy enough to interest fans of weirdo cinema, and it has a final 10 minutes or so that has to be seen to be believed. Starring Tony Anthony, Ana Obregon, Gene Quintano, Jerry Lazarus, Emiliano Redondo as the cult leader, and Francisco Rabal as Socrates. Ennio Morricone did the score. A Spain-US-Italy co-production. 

 

 

Rewatch.   Source: DVD, part of a 4 film set from Shout Factory, released in 2014. The print isn't in 3-D, and it looks awful, with a lot of scratching and fading. It's also pan & scan.

[LawrenceA]

U2 - Under a Blood Red Sky: Live at Red Rocks - (9/10) - Excellent, if short, concert film of the Irish rockers during the early part of their career. This was the War album tour, but there are earlier songs from Boy and October, as well. The performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday' taken from this used to be on MTV every 15 minutes in the early 80's. It looks like it was cold.

 

First time watched.   Source: VHS.

[LornaHansonForbes]

Barrymore as Hyde

 

 

Okay, yeah...maybe a little more "Jennifer Aniston after a three-week meth binge" than Iggy Pop, but I can still see some Iggy there.

[TomJH]

"The Cat and the Canary" (1939)--A Bob Hope/ Paulette Goddard remake of the 1927 silent film.  Film observes All the cliches, while kidding them. Some good jokes and good lines are scattered through the film.  

 

May be the first film that has Hope joking about golf:

Angry would-be inheritor:  "Say, what's your game?"

Hope, as wisecracking would be inheritor: "About ninety to one hundred."

 

Viewers can probably predict the lines and speak them before the characters do (I did).    Even for those who speak the characters' lines before they do, an enjoyable watch.  6.0/10 stars.

 

I have to say, Filmlover, that I think CAT AND THE CANARY is much better than your lukewarm endorsement of it. (Only 6 out of 10?)

 

For starters, it's a class "A" Paramount production, with some really beautiful photography of impressive sets all adding to a genuinely eerie atmosphere in this old house thriller with laughs. And the film's climax, in which the heroine is chased by the psycho killer, is considerably more exciting, genuinely played for thrills, than you might expect to see in a comedy.

 

For Bob Hope, this was the film which really put him on the map in the movies, as he plays a far more dapper version of himself than we are used to, considering that his screen persona was not yet quite established. Hope and Paulette Goddard have strong chemistry in this film, which would lead to another spook-a-thon together the following year, THE GHOST BREAKERS, a film which I feel is even better than this one.

 

And, of course, Hope has the usual fast one liners in the film, his nervous, brash comedy augmenting the old dark house chills. At one point, when talking to Nydia Westman, she makes reference to not being used to being in big empty houses.

 

"Not me," Hope responds, "I used to be in vaudeville."

 

Call it corny, if you like, but I love that kind of stuff.

 

Another thing about Cat and the Canary is the supporting cast, including the likes of spooky Gale Sondergaard as the mysterious house keeper and George Zucco. This is all quite terrific fun, in my opinion, all in turn, heightened by an effectively eerie musical score.

 

Cat and the Canary scores a solid 7.5/10 in my opinion.

 

[Janet0312]

We're No Angels. I never get tired of watching this film.

Favorite line when the convicts wonder what to do with the family:

"We're gonna beat their heads in, gouge their eyes out, cut their throats... As soon as we wash the dishes."

[JamesJazGuitar]

We're No Angels. I never get tired of watching this film.

Favorite line when the convicts wonder what to do with the family:

"We're gonna beat their heads in, gouge their eyes out, cut their throats... As soon as we wash the dishes."

 

I just watched We're No Angels on Get-TV or MOVIES-TV (one of those with commercials),  and while I didn't watch the entire film I did see the scene where Bogart says that great line.    The entire exchange taking place on Christmas Eve is a riot with the family being so nice to the conflicts all the while why they are planning on robbing them and more to get off Devil's Island.   

[LawrenceA]

V  (1983) - (7/10) - 1983 was perhaps the peak year for the TV mini-series, with The Thorn Birds, The Winds of War and V all premiering to big ratings. V features a worldwide alien invasion, as huge, circular motherships arrive and take up stationary orbit all over the planet, directly over large cities. The media soon dubs them the "Visitors", and they appear human, although sensitive to the light and with strange voices. They seem to be benevolent at first, sharing medical and technological breakthroughs, while not asking for anything in return. But of course they are after something, and they will stop at nothing to get it, and soon they are disposing of enemies and setting up human collaboration units to weed out the "undesirables". A group of people soon set up an underground resistance, but can they hope to stop the seemingly superior alien invaders?

 

Marc Singer stars as a heroic war correspondent who is the first to learn of the aliens true nature, along with Faye Grant as a biologist, Jane Badler as an alien commander, Richard Herd, Andrew Prine, Leonardo Cimino as a Holocaust survivor who sees the writing on the wall, Evan Kim, Michael Wright, Bonnie Bartlett, Neva Patterson, Robert Englund as a friendly alien, and many more.

 

This was probably intended as a starting point for a series, but instead it led to another mini-series the following year, before finally a short-lived series (and a remake in 2009). It's derivative of a lot of things, namely the Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood's End. It's also a very heavy-handed allegory of the Nazi occupations in Europe and the Holocaust; the alien symbol is even a variation on a swastika. The effects are decent, if dated at this point, and the script, by writer-director Kenneth Johnson, never really rises above average. But it's fun in a dopey, Saturday-morning serial way. At slightly over 3 hours, it's also a bit short as far as mini-series go.   

 

 

Rewatch.   Source: DVD.

[LawrenceA]

Valley Girl (1983) - (7/10) - Fun romantic comedy time capsule of the early 80's. Deborah Foreman stars as the title girl, who meets punk from the city Nicolas Cage. They fall in love, but everything in her life tries to keep them apart. Will love conquer all? Is there any doubt? Filled with excellent new wave music and winning performances, this cult film will be enjoyed by most romantics, despite the era. Also featuring Fredric Forrest, Colleen Camp and Lee Purcell as various overly-permissive parents; Elizabeth Daily, Michelle Meyrink, and Heidi Holicker as Foreman's friends; and Michael Bowen, Cameron Dye, Tony Plana and the Plimsouls as themselves. From director Martha Coolidge. 

 

Rewatch.   Source: DVD.

[sapphiere]

THE CADDY 1953 Maybe many people find this comedy dumb and foolish, but I loved through the whole film. I can see why Dean and Jerry made such a great team. Dean was always trying to play it straight, and Jerry was his devoted companion. The golfing bits were hilarious, and nobody can sing That`s Amore like Dean. I am looking forward to more laughs tonight, and THE KING OF COMEDY 1983 will be a first time viewing for me. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JERRY

[LornaHansonForbes]

"Becky Sharp" (1935)--Miriam Hopkins and the first use of three-strip Technicolor are the whole show here. The Code could change plots and dialogue; they Couldn't sanitize Hopkins' snapping eyes, vocal inflections that made an innocent line into a double entendre,...

 

Director Rouben Mamoulian experimented with color and was spectacularly successful. TCM please show this little known gem!

I have only seen BECKY SHARP once, and it was a loooooooooooooong time ago on AMC and I recall loving it. It's one of the few Code-enforced. American films I can think of up until DOUBLE INDEMNITY where the audience is manipulated into rooting for an outright unsavory lead.

 

And i recall the photography being wonderful, almost like a "Little Golden Book."

 

It is worth mentioning that Hopkins recieved her only BEST ACTRESS Oscar nomination for BECKY SHARP; she lost to Bette Davis for DANGEROUS, and three years later, saw Davis win Oscar number two with a role she originated on the stage (JEZEBEL.)

[GregoryPeckfan]

I have only seen BECKY SHARP once, and it was a loooooooooooooong time ago on AMC and I recall loving it. It's one of the few Code-enforced. American films I can think of up until DOUBLE INDEMNITY where the audience is manipulated into rooting for an outright unsavory lead.

 

And i recall the photography being wonderful, almost like a "Little Golden Book."

 

It is worth mentioning that Hopkins recieved here only BEST ACTRESS Oscar nomination for BECKY SHARP; she lost to Bette Davis for DANGEROUS, and three yeras later saw Davis win Oscar number two with a role she originated on the stage in JEZEBEL.

 

 

 

This movie is now on my to-see list.  I'm not watching TCM tonight, and if this is still available on youtube, I will watch it tonight.

[Fedya]

1983 was perhaps the peak year for the TV mini-series, with The Thorn Birds, The Winds of War and V all premiering to big ratings.

Herman Wouk, who wrote The Winds of War (and, if memory serves, The Caine Mutiny) is still alive at 100.

[film lover 293]

"Fancy Pants" (1950)--Remake of "Ruggles of Red Gap" (1935) is amusing in its' worst scenes, and outright hilarious in its' best scenes.  Stars are Bob Hope and Lucille Ball.  Film gets off to a slow start, but improves dramatically when action shifts to New Mexico.  Hopes' takes on mirages and Indian attacks are classic, as is Lucys' trying to get Hope on a horse.  Film peaks not quite halfway through, and again near and at the end.  Songs are serviceable, no more.  Far from perfect, but a  fun, unpredictable watch (Everyone seems to be ad-libbing in the last ten minutes).  7.4/10 stars.

 

Saw on YouTube in 10 parts.  FYI--Part 3 had something wrong with musical synchronization; voices were fine.  Problems disappeared after the first minute of Part 4. 

[LawrenceA]

Vigilante (1983) - (7/10) - Gritty low budget crime drama from director William Lustig. Robert Forster stars as your average working joe with a wife and small son. After a gang of criminals brutally attack his wife and murder his child, and then the ringleader is let go with a suspended sentence, he vows to get revenge himself. He's in luck, because his three work buddies have been operating their own vigilante squad in secret, kidnapping and beating (and worse) criminals that the law can't or won't touch.

 

Very violent, and set in NYC before it was cleaned up, this film panders to an audience angry and hungry for law and order. It's cheaply manipulative in that way, which is why it's dismissed by most critics. But it has held a healthy cult following over the years. Fred Williamson is good as the leader of the vigilante squad, which also includes Richard Bright. Rutanya Alda plays the wife, Joe Spinell shows up as a sleazy defense lawyer and with a young Steve James as a patrol cop. Carol Lynley plays the harried Assistant District Attorney, and Woody Strode shows up as a tough old convict.

 

 

First time watched.   Source: DVD.

[laffite]

THE CADDY 1953 Maybe many people find this comedy dumb and foolish, but I loved through the whole film. I can see why Dean and Jerry made such a great team. Dean was always trying to play it straight, and Jerry was his devoted companion. The golfing bits were hilarious, and nobody can sing That`s Amore like Dean. I am looking forward to more laughs tonight, and THE KING OF COMEDY 1983 will be a first time viewing for me. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JERRY

 

I enjoyed The Caddy too (most of it.) That little slapsticky hopping/dancing around by Jerry at the end is entertaining.

 

Oh heavens, first time ever for The King of Comedy, wow. I exalt Di Nero's performance to the highest level possible, maybe more than than most would ... the role fits him to a tee, maybe no real acting was necessary ... it's great, though.

[LawrenceA]

WarGames (1983) - (7/10) - Another fun time capsule of a film, this time dealing with early computer fears. After a teenage hacker manages to accidentally connect with a top secret NORAD military computer, he inadvertently almost starts WW3. Now he and various government figures have to team up to try and figure out how to stop the computer before the world is destroyed. Starring Matthew Broderick, Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman, Barry Corbin, John Wood, and James Tolkan. The opening scenes feature John Spenser and a young Michael Madsen, while Eddie Deezen and Maury Chaykin show up briefly as computer nerds. A young William H. Macy is supposedly running around in there somewhere too, but I didn't see him. 

 

Rewatch.   Source: DVD.

[cigarjoe]

The Money Trap (1965) The Last Classic Studio Noir?

 

 

Directed by Burt Kennedy, written by Walter Bernstein (Kiss the Blood Off My Hands) based on the novel of the same name by Lionel White (The Killing). This film has quite the line-up of Classic Film Noir actors, Glenn Ford and Joseph Cotten, Rita Hayworth, Ricardo Montalban, Ted de Corsia and Elke Sommer. Cinematography was by Paul Vogel  High Wall (1947),  Dial 1119 (1950), The Tall Target (1951), The Sellout (1952) and the bongo/jazz/beatnik score was by Hal Schaefer.

 

This could be the last Studio "B" Noir. We hear a crazed bongo beat on the soundtrack. The Story: Two LAPD Homicide Detectives Joe Baron (Ford) and his Mexican partner Pete Delanos (Montalban) catch a squeal to investigate the murder of a **** at a downtown cat-house. It's pouring, it's night, it's Noir. Arriving at the address they climb a staircase and pass a landing lined with rubber necking prostitutes. The Mexican victim was secretly moonlighting as a hooker to bring in extra income. She was murdered by her enraged husband who had just found out. He hung her like a piñata from the handiest light fixture, left her swinging, and vamoosed. This is the dark and "sleazo" underworld of our ever on call detectives.   

 

The film is very interesting for film Noir fans. The flop house where the character Amaya lives is the old run down Brousseau Mansion at 238 South Bunker Hill Avenue. By 1965 the Bunker Hill redevelopment had cleared out most of the houses. That's why the house is surrounded by empty lots. Ford then tails the aunt and Amaya to Third & Olive and rides with them down Angels Flight, which is also surrounded by empty lots, the end of an era along with the end of a Classic Noir location. 7/10

 

More on Film Noir/Gangster board soon.

 

 

 

[GregoryPeckfan]

 

The Money Trap (1965) The Last Classic Studio Noir?

 

 

Directed by Burt Kennedy, written by Walter Bernstein (Kiss the Blood Off My Hands) based on the novel of the same name by Lionel White (The Killing). This film has quite the line-up of Classic Film Noir actors, Glenn Ford and Joseph Cotten, Rita Hayworth, Ricardo Montalban, Ted de Corsia and Elke Sommer. Cinematography was by Paul Vogel  High Wall (1947),  Dial 1119 (1950), The Tall Target (1951), The Sellout (1952) and the bongo/jazz/beatnik score was by Hal Schaefer.

 

This could be the last Studio "B" Noir. We hear a crazed bongo beat on the soundtrack. The Story: Two LAPD Homicide Detectives Joe Baron (Ford) and his Mexican partner Pete Delanos (Montalban) catch a squeal to investigate the murder of a **** at a downtown cat-house. It's pouring, it's night, it's Noir. Arriving at the address they climb a staircase and pass a landing lined with rubber necking prostitutes. The Mexican victim was secretly moonlighting as a hooker to bring in extra income. She was murdered by her enraged husband who had just found out. He hung her like a piñata from the handiest light fixture, left her swinging, and vamoosed. This is the dark and "sleazo" underworld of our ever on call detectives.   

 

The film is very interesting for film Noir fans. The flop house where the character Amaya lives is the old run down Brousseau Mansion at 238 South Bunker Hill Avenue. By 1965 the Bunker Hill redevelopment had cleared out most of the houses. That's why the house is surrounded by empty lots. Ford then tails the aunt and Amaya to Third & Olive and rides with them down Angels Flight, which is also surrounded by empty lots, the end of an era along with the end of a Classic Noir location. 7/10

 

More on Film Noir/Gangster board soon.

 

 

 

It's been too long since I've  seen The Money Trap.

 

It's one of my favourite Glenn Ford movies of all time. 

 

I look forward to the larger write-up.

[GregoryPeckfan]

BECKY SHARP(1935):

 

I watched this on youtube, having heard of it from Film lover earlier on this thread.

 

This movie stars Miriam Hopkins in the title role.

 

Since Film Lover already described the movie recently, I won't repeat it.

 

This was a great adaptation of Vanity fair.  It is my favourite of the versions I have seen.

 

I have found that adaptations of this novel seem to be overlong much of the time.

 

This one kept my attention always.

[kingrat]

V  (1983) - (7/10) - 1983 was perhaps the peak year for the TV mini-series, with The Thorn Birds, The Winds of War and V all premiering to big ratings. V features a worldwide alien invasion, as huge, circular motherships arrive and take up stationary orbit all over the planet, directly over large cities. The media soon dubs them the "Visitors", and they appear human, although sensitive to the light and with strange voices. They seem to be benevolent at first, sharing medical and technological breakthroughs, while not asking for anything in return. But of course they are after something, and they will stop at nothing to get it, and soon they are disposing of enemies and setting up human collaboration units to weed out the "undesirables". A group of people soon set up an underground resistance, but can they hope to stop the seemingly superior alien invaders?

 

Marc Singer stars as a heroic war correspondent who is the first to learn of the aliens true nature, along with Faye Grant as a biologist, Jane Badler as an alien commander, Richard Herd, Andrew Prine, Leonardo Cimino as a Holocaust survivor who sees the writing on the wall, Evan Kim, Michael Wright, Bonnie Bartlett, Neva Patterson, Robert Englund as a friendly alien, and many more.

 

This was probably intended as a starting point for a series, but instead it led to another mini-series the following year, before finally a short-lived series (and a remake in 2009). It's derivative of a lot of things, namely the Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood's End. It's also a very heavy-handed allegory of the Nazi occupations in Europe and the Holocaust; the alien symbol is even a variation on a swastika. The effects are decent, if dated at this point, and the script, by writer-director Kenneth Johnson, never really rises above average. But it's fun in a dopey, Saturday-morning serial way. At slightly over 3 hours, it's also a bit short as far as mini-series go.   

 

 

Rewatch.   Source: DVD.

Lawrence, I thought Marc Singer and Jane Badler were going to be big stars. The mini-series was a great form, perfect for books too long for a movie and yet with a definite conclusion.

[GregoryPeckfan]

WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD: 1933

 

I recorded this as part of the Legion of Decency festival and had never seen the movie before.  Because it aired in the wee hours of the morning there was no introduction or conclusion.

 

 

I won't relate the plot line here as I don't want to spoil anything and I am too tired to type too much.

 

However, this is an interesting contrast from Becky Sharp from 1935 which I also watched for the first time tonight.

 

Both were made during the depression and both involved people who had debts and had threats of being turned out.

 

But the films could not have been more different.

 

Becky Sharp (Vanity Fair) is opulent and full of splendor.

 

This other movie is realistic in its portrayal of poverty and homelessness.

 

 

I enjoyed both films.

[film lover 293]

"Vanity Fair" (aka "Indecent") (1932)--updating of Vanity Fair to 1907(?), going to 1932.  Film is 67 minutes long, and Myrna Loy is the Only reason to bother watching.  Loy shows untapped acting range, somehow managing to convey novel's depth in 67 minutes.  All other characters, male and female, are fools or worse, making moralistic ending ridiculous.  Restoration I saw from TheVideoCellar was very scratchy.    5.5/10 stars.