I Just Watched...

[Janet0312]

Francis Goes to the Races with Donald O'Connor, Piper Laurie, and Cecil Kellaway. Typical plot for this type of film with the talking mule that speaks only to his friend, Peter (O’Connor), and manages to find out from the horses who is going to win what race.  Peter, of course, is seen leaving the betting window with thousands in cash. Enter the mobsters with threats of bodily harm to Peter unless he divulges his secret. Directed by Arthur Lubin who went on to direct Mister Ed.

Searching for something on YouTube, I came across this little gem and figured why not take a trip down Nostalgia Lane and see what all the fuss was about when I was a kid, because I used to love these films. Maybe Francis Goes to the Races is the dog of the lot, because it really stunk, although I found that I still got a chuckle or two from Francis. But then, I really love animals.

I later came across an episode of What’s My Line in which Francis, and I guess it was his trainer because the guy kept making Francis smile. Does that count as animal cruelty? The panelists knew something strange was up because they heard the mule stomping around when he came out from behind the curtain. I would have thought they might have smelled him instead, but what do I know?

[jameselliot]

Black Gravel (1961-West Germany), a suspense-filled neo-noir that avoids all of the classic noir tropes.  In post-war Germany in a dreary small town near a US air force base, some of the local truckers hired by the Americans to supply the base with gravel and other construction supplies have a side job in the black market. Trucker Robert, underplayed to anti-hero perfection by Helmut Wildt, lives in a room above a brothel-bar in town and has an emotionless relationship with one of the B-girls (Anita Hofer) who has a yen for him. One day he spots an old flame(Ingmar Zeisberg), now married to an American officer running the base, and attempts to relight their fire in secret, a decision that leads to a tragic accident. It's all downhill after that.  Downbeat but one of the most compelling dramas about post-war Europe I've ever seen. It was cut to remove an anti-Semitic outburst by a bar drunk but restored in 2009.  The tech credits and all of the performers, from the main actors to the extras, are excellent.  It hasn't been shown on Noir Alley--it should-- but Eddie has programmed it at several festivals. Directed and co-written by Helmut Kautner, it was not the kind of commercial film the West German studios were producing in the late 1950s and 1960s.

[Tikisoo]

On 3/4/2022 at 9:10 AM, Janet0312 said:

I later came across an episode of What’s My Line in which Francis, and I guess it was his trainer because the guy kept making Francis smile. Does that count as animal cruelty?

No. I have a horse that does tricks & she will do them when not asked-it's her way of demanding a treat. And you cannot make an animal do anything it doesn't want to do-they'll find a way to refuse.

Here's videos of her smiling & bowing...notice her cue: crinkle of the candy wrapper held up high off camera.

https://www.facebook.com/soo.ji.10/videos/359980895662847

(I think the end links take you to my channel)

 

 

 

[Janet0312]

1 hour ago, TikiSoo said:

No. I have a horse that does tricks & she will do them when not asked-it's her way of demanding a treat. And you cannot make an animal do anything it doesn't want to do-they'll find a way to refuse.

Here's 2 videos of her smiling & bowing...notice her cue: crinkle of the candy wrapper.

https://www.facebook.com/soo.ji.10/videos/898152150791084

https://www.facebook.com/soo.ji.10/videos/359980895662847

 

 

She's beautiful. 

[Janet0312]

The Playgirls & the Vampire Italian 1960

This was everything I had expected and more.

Here is a chunk of Wikipedia’s synopsis. I’m using it here because it’s funny, I like it, and it saves me the trouble of coming up with something myself.

“A feckless troupe of European exotic dancers and their piano player led by a bumbling manager stumble upon a castle after encountering a ferocious storm.”

It’s bad, but it’s fun. I laughed quite a bit and missed out on some of the dialogue, which was difficult to understand at times anyway. The sound isn’t so good. I would have had to turn the volume up pretty loud to get all of it. But no matter. The action speaks volumes.

The actor who plays manager Lucas is a riot. Nothing phases this guy, not even buxom babes getting undressed in front of him. Anyway, a bridge is washed out and they land in a spooky forest. A castle up ahead signifies an overnight stay, no matter about the creepy caretaker who tells them to scram. Lucas walks up to the castle door and pounds on it with both fists. A real darling of a housekeeper, who would give Margaret Hamilton a run for her money, is totally against them staying, but the master gives his consent. They’ve been told to stay in their rooms and not to wander around. Well, guess what? Anyway, one of the babes wanders the castle and ends up deader than a mackerel. The show must go on, however, so Lucas gathers the girls up for a rehearsal accompanied on a tinny sounding piano by their driver. He may be more than a driver. I never figured that out. Lucas instructs the girls how to twirl and kick and none of them are following his direction. They are all doing their own thing, but this guy Lucas continues on. It is hilarious. This is the part where my laughter drowned out the dialogue. Well, one of the parts. The girls, as in all really bad Italian horror flicks, are scantily clad at best and there is even a bit of nudity. Did I mention that there's a vampire in this picture? Well, there is and he reminded me of Frankie Avalon. Well, his hair did anyway.

This film is right up there with one of my faves: The Horrors of Spider Island. If MST3K got their hot little hands on The Playgirls & the Vampire, my day would be complete.

[sewhite2000]

1/18 The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Paramount, 1973)
Source: TCM

Oh, let's go ahead and say Spoiler alert! for this whole review, because I don't know how you can talk about it without talking about the ending.

Night Three of January's theme on accents continues with Robert Mitchum, who'd just played an Irishman in Ryan's Daughter taking on a full "pahk the cahh in Hahhvahhd Yahhhd" Boston accent that probably annoys real denizens of the city the way Texas accents in the movies occasionally do me. The Friends of Eddie Coyle is one of those grim, borderline nihilistic '70s film. It doesn't really belong in the same subgenre as the paranoid thrillers of the decade, as this movie isn't exactly a thriller, but many of those movies also have a nihilistic element. This is a grim and and pretty sad story about a small time hood who's managed to live to somewhere to his post-middle age and pre-senior citizen years (Mitchum was 56 and put on weight for the role) whose world is closing in around him. The title I guess is meant to be ironic. If Mitchm's title character Eddie had any real friends at the beginning of the movie, his actions guarantee that he doesn't by the end. Everyone turns against him. They plot to kill him, and his fate is sealed with the finality of an Ari Aster movie Eddie is the protagonist but is in no way a conventional hero. He good-naturedly and naively walks into the trap that's been set for him. End of Eddie and other than a brief denoument, end of the movie.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle is adapted from a novel by George Higgins. He's not an author I was previously familiar with, but another one of his novels, Coogan's Trade, was made into the 2012 Brad Pitt movie Killing Them Softly, which I"ve also seen. The two novels exist in a "shared universe" with the bartender Dillon appearing in both. He's played by Peter Boyle in this movie and Sam Shepard in Softly. Mitchum originally signed on to play Dillon, but there are conflicting stories about how he ended up playing Eddie. Daily Variety says the filmmakers asked him to switch parts, but the hosts of TCM say Mitchum changing parts was Mitchum's idea after he read the script and began to fall in love with the lead role. The movie was shot entirely on location, including using Alex Rocco's mobile home for some interiors. Footage was used from a real 1972 Boston Bruins-Chicago Blackhawks game in which Bobby Orr played for the Bruins. There is a supporting character in the movie named Jackie Brown, played by Steven Keats, whom I believe made his film debut here after working on Broadway. Director Peter Yates hired him feeling he bore a physical resemblance to Mick Jagger. Quentin Tarantino loved this movie and appropriated the name Jackie Brown for his movie of the same name, giving it to the female lead played by Pam Grier.

Many of my reviews give very lenghty and detailed plot descriptions, but I'm going to try to sum this one up in a few sentences. Eddie (Mitchum) is staring down a very long jail sentence, and given his age, the odds aren't good he'll live long enough to complete it. He works out a deal with a police detective named Foley (Richard Jordan) to be an informant. Eddie sets up and elaborate arms deal for machine guns and rats out to Foley all his acquaintances he sets up to participate in it. Eddie hopes he'll get a suspended sentence for all his machinations, but Foley has been jerking his chain, and Eddie glumly realizes he's dependent on Foley to put in a good word so maybe he can get a reduced sentence. We get a lot of detail on the specifics of the deal, which I occasionally found confusing. Dillon (Boyle) is a bartender who's also an informant for Foley. He's been contracted by a crime boss to assassinate Eddie after a job that goes bad. Dillon takes Eddie to a hockey game and puts him into "forced retirement" in his car afterward. And .... that's pretty much it.

Yates made many fine films (Bulitt, The Dresser ... Krull???), and his strength here is building up high supsense in a protracted bank robbery/hostage taking scene thats more compact (and successful) than Dog Day Afternoon and also scenes where the gun-running deal threatens to fall apart. 

The principals are all good in their parts. Mitchum is tough as nails but also a bit of a sad sack whose desperation leads him to bad choices. He's played for a sap by both Jordan and Boyle. Both of these actors do a good job of being compelling but unsympathetic. Alex Rocco, who I'm reading was a real life gangster, has a smaller role. I think this was his first film after playing Moe Greene. 

The film stands historically after the more sanitized gangster films from Warner Bros. and other studios in the '30s and '40s and the ones with very over-the-top violence in the '80s and '90s. There were a lot of aspects to the film I liked. I just objected to its relentlessly downbeat tone with no shot at redemption for Eddie. That was its intent, and it executes it well, but it's not much fun, for sure.

Total films seen this year: 30

 

 

 

[King Rat]

I am not a particular friend of The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Like many a 1970s film, it is too much in love with its own downbeatness, which is no more "honest" or "mature" than the mandatory happy endings of earlier films. If you want to see Robert Mitchum as part of an ensemble rather than as a movie star, TFOEC can offer that. The limited cinematographic palette doesn't much appeal to me. It's an OK, somewhat disjointed film, 6/10, not a favorite. I have friends who like it much more, however.

Of course, some people don't like Gigi, which I loved more than ever when I saw it again the other night. The Lerner & Loewe songs. The costumes. The set design. Leslie Caron is a delight. She wuz robbed of an Oscar nom, though the Best Actress category was relatively strong that year. Odd that Hermione Gingold wasn't nominated in perhaps the weakest Supporting Actress quintet ever--Wendy Hiller said she got so few close-ups she wondered if the Oscar was for best performance by the back of a head. Maurice Chevalier was more interesting than three of the Supporting Actor nominees (Theodore Bikel, Arthur Kennedy, Lee J. Cobb; they've all had much better acting showcases), and I haven't seen Gig Young in Teacher's Pet.

The best way to appreciate the fluidity of Vincente Minnelli's direction for Gigi was to watch The King and I immediately afterward. Walter Lang does a workmanlike job, but I couldn't help thinking that Minnelli or Stanley Donen could have made even more of the scenes. Dazzling sets and costumes, and it's hard to think of anyone who could have played the leads better than Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr. Too bad that "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You?" and the great ballad "I Have Dreamed" were cut. The truly great part of the film is the "Small House of Uncle Thomas" ballet, brilliantly and breathtakingly directed by Jerome Robbins.

[Fading Fast]

The Snows of Kilimanjaro from 1952 with Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and Susan Hayward

 

 

In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, a lot of slow stuff happens slowly with stilted dialogue.

 

If you know nothing about Ernest Hemingway's life, the above is how The Snows of Kilimanjaro would appear. Gregory Peck, as Hemmingway's doppelganger, is dying of gangrene at a safari camp in Africa waiting for a rescue plane, while he and his second wife, Susan Hayward, argue off and on about his past relationships seen through his fever-induced flashbacks.

 

Mainly, they argue about his first wife, Ava Gardner (talk about a tough act to follow) and Hayward's insecurity that Gardner was Peck's one true love, which she probably was. This is only interesting when you realize Hemingway is talking, somewhat, about his relationship with his first wife Hadley.

 

Peck and Gardner (Hemingway and Hadley by proxy) married when Peck was still an unknown writer. His ensuing success fueled his ego and desire to travel to experience the world, while Gardner just wanted a simple home life in which they could raise kids.

 

Being young and passionate, these fissures eventually tear their marriage apart. Yet, with the mellowing and perspective of time, comes regret. That's hard for Peck, but it really rattles Hayward who begs Peck to tell her she's not the consolation-prize wife, which she is, despite his denials. 

 

Along for the failing-marriage ride are several de rigueur Hemingway biographical touchstones: he goes to Spain to see the bullfights, hunts big game in Africa, has an affair or two and was, effectively, an embedded correspondent in the Spanish Civil War. 

 

All were done, in some way, as part of Hemingway's diffidence-inspired quest to prove he was a real man (according to his view), despite earning his living in the epicene profession of writing. 

 

Hemingway's well-known sexism is also on display (this is not modern revisionism, as he was a pig even by the standards of his day), for which he deserves some grudgingly given honesty points as the writer of this not-flattering autobiographical roman a clef.

 

Director Henry King carries over from the book Hemingway's aggressive use of symbolism, which is one of the reasons he's popular with English teachers, or was anyway. 

 

Almost everything from the title (the snow represents moral purity and the challenges of reaching the summit of one's life) to the vultures and hyenas that circle the safari camp waiting to feed on his dead carcass (no explanation needed) echo themes and plotlines in the story.

 

The Snows of Kilimanjaro is a better movie in theory than in practice. In theory, it brings to life one of Hemingway's more-well-known short stories, while laying bare many of his relationship successes and failures. But in practice, it's sluggish and boring in many spots. Even Hemingway's dialogue, powerfully spartan on the page, often feels awkwardly constructed and forced on screen. 

 

If you didn't have a working knowledge of Hemingway's life story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro would seem tedious to the point of almost being meaningless. With a working knowledge, it's a passable effort providing some insight into the famous writer's personal life. 

 

[Tikisoo]

17 hours ago, Janet0312 said:

This film is right up there with one of my faves: The Horrors of Spider Island. If MST3K got their hot little hands on The Playgirls & the Vampire, my day would be complete.

Have you found Gary yet? Where did you find this movie? I once received 40 Something Weird Video DVDs as a gift 🤩it may be on the shelf.  Wonder if I could find it streaming....

I love the opposing feelings about Eddie Coyle- making me want to see it just to compare! Kingrat, I love your succinct & sensitive posts but especially your acknowledgment of different "tastes" and reactions to movies. 

I also now want to see KILLIMANJARO, which I've avoided because I don't care for Gregory Peck. I must confess though, I usually get the gist of longer posts by the second or third paragraph & stop reading. I don't want to know too much so I can see the same movie with fresh eyes.

[Janet0312]

2 hours ago, TikiSoo said:

Have you found Gary yet? Where did you find this movie? I once received 40 Something Weird Video DVDs as a gift 🤩it may be on the shelf.  Wonder if I could find it streaming....

I love the opposing feelings about Eddie Coyle- making me want to see it just to compare! Kingrat, I love your succinct & sensitive posts but especially your acknowledgment of different "tastes" and reactions to movies. 

I also now want to see KILLIMANJARO, which I've avoided because I don't care for Gregory Peck. I must confess though, I usually get the gist of longer posts by the second or third paragraph & stop reading. I don't want to know too much so I can see the same movie with fresh eyes.

I don't remember who turned me on to this or what thread I was in. But you can find it on YouTube. There's another one too. The Vampire and the Ballerina or something. Gary? 

[LornaHansonForbes]

15 hours ago, King Rat said:

I am not a particular friend of The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Like many a 1970s film, it is too much in love with its own downbeatness, which is no more "honest" or "mature" than the mandatory happy endings of earlier films. If you want to see Robert Mitchum as part of an ensemble rather than as a movie star, TFOEC can offer that. The limited cinematographic palette doesn't much appeal to me. It's an OK, somewhat disjointed film, 6/10, not a favorite. I have friends who like it much more, however.

THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE would be on the list of films I recommend people view twice- because the first time I watched it, I felt the same, but on the second viewing (once you know how it ends) you're able to pick up on things that you don't the first time.

[LornaHansonForbes]

20 hours ago, Janet0312 said:

This film is right up there with one of my faves: The Horrors of Spider Island. If MST3K got their hot little hands on The Playgirls & the Vampire, my day would be complete.

To this day I still sing "THE GARY SONG" to myself.

 

[Janet0312]

2 hours ago, TikiSoo said:

Have you found Gary yet? Where did you find this movie? I once received 40 Something Weird Video DVDs as a gift 🤩it may be on the shelf.  Wonder if I could find it streaming....

I love the opposing feelings about Eddie Coyle- making me want to see it just to compare! Kingrat, I love your succinct & sensitive posts but especially your acknowledgment of different "tastes" and reactions to movies. 

I also now want to see KILLIMANJARO, which I've avoided because I don't care for Gregory Peck. I must confess though, I usually get the gist of longer posts by the second or third paragraph & stop reading. I don't want to know too much so I can see the same movie with fresh eyes.

EUCALPYTUS P. MILLSTONE recommended it to me in the Svengoolie thread. 

[Janet0312]

2 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

To this day I still sing "THE GARY SONG" to myself.

 

So do I. And it pops up anywhere at antime. Gary, Gary...

[LornaHansonForbes]

1 minute ago, Janet0312 said:

So do I. And it pops up anywhere at anytime. Gary, Gary...

"You know, The Dukes of Dixieland also did the PSYCHO soundtrack..."

[LornaHansonForbes]

it kinda blew my mind when I realized ALEX D'ARCY actually had a semi-legit career (he was in THE AWFUL TRUTH!)

[LornaHansonForbes]

I hurt myself today...

I watched  FRESH (2022)- a HULU "original" film, in that HULU made it but as far as originality goes, it's an Nth-rate photostat of GET OUT without any of the humor or intelligence or good acting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_(2022_film)

you know, with the world in the state that it is in the moment, I just know nothing else to do but bemoan the BRUTALITY of MODERN MOVIES- they don't want to scare you or shake you or move you in a positive way, they want to actively hurt you.

if someone somewhere doesn't start making empathetic films written and made by people who do not have bottomless contempt for other people and who have the genuine intent of BUILDING PEOPLE'S MINDS UP as opposed to actively sh!tting on them, then I just...I dunno.

I dunno.

 

[Fading Fast]

24 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I hurt myself today...

I watched  FRESH (2022)- a HULU "original" film, in that HULU made it but as far as originality goes, it's an Nth-rate photostat of GET OUT without any of the humor or intelligence or good acting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_(2022_film)

you know, with the world in the state that it is in the moment, I just know nothing else to do but bemoan the BRUTALITY of MODERN MOVIES- they don't want to scare you or shake you or move you in a positive way, they want to actively hurt you.

if someone somewhere doesn't start making empathetic films written and made by people who do not have bottomless contempt for other people and who have the genuine intent of BUILDING PEOPLE'S MINDS UP as opposed to actively sh!tting on them, then I just...I dunno.

I dunno.

 

Each year, I watch fewer and fewer new movies for just this ⇧ reason. A few weeks ago, I watch 2020s "Promising Young Woman." It's not a poorly done movie technically at all, but what an awful comment on humanity. Some movies like that - sure, I get it, some people do see mankind that way. But the relentlessness of Hollywood to make one after another of these movies that say almost everyone is horrible is exhausting and demoralizing. 

[LornaHansonForbes]

13 minutes ago, mkahn22 said:

Each year, I watch fewer and fewer new movies for just this ⇧ reason. A few weeks ago, I watch 2020s "Promising Young Woman." It's not a poorly done movie technically at all, but what an awful comment on humanity. Some movies like that - sure, I get it, some people do see mankind that way. But the relentlessness of Hollywood to make one after another of these movies that say almost everyone is horrible is exhausting and demoralizing. 

(ahem)

YES!!!!!

[LornaHansonForbes]

And I say all that as someone who LOVES sick, messed up movies and horror films. I think the 2004 DAWN OF THE DEAD is one of the best films of the 21st Century, I thought GET OUT was brilliant, and (you may know) one of my cause celebres is the 1971 KEN RUSSELL FILM THE DEVILS-

All of those movies said things and made points and have an overarching moral that wasn't CLUNKY as f***, honestly, I can say I am enriched for having seen them.

but so much of this **** that gets made lately just about brings me to tears.

 

[speedracer5]

27 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

And I say all that as someone who LOVES sick, messed up movies and horror films. I think the 2004 DAWN OF THE DEAD is one of the best films of the 21st Century, I thought GET OUT was brilliant, and (you may know) one of my cause celebres is the 1971 KEN RUSSELL FILM THE DEVILS-

All of those movies said things and made points and have an overarching moral that wasn't CLUNKY as f***, honestly, I can say I am enriched for having seen them.

but so much of this **** that gets made lately just about brings me to tears.

 

Everyone seems to be trying so hard to create some profound, groundbreaking, earth shattering message film.  But in reality, their film is instantly forgettable and tries too hard.  It comes off as contrived.  At least to me. Or if the film isn't trying to be poignant, it's trying to show the "real" story or the "dark" side.  Maybe I don't need to see the dark side of Big Bird.  Just write an original, interesting story.  If the studio is just going to remake everything, they should just re-release the original.  I can tell you that there is a market for re-releasing older films.  I went to a showing of The Thin Man last month and the theater was packed.  Literally, if you were a party of 4 and showed up a few minutes before showtime, your party was splitting up and sitting in the few remaining seats, scattered about the theater.  Other recent showings I went to: The General, The Conversation, A Night at the Opera, and City Lights were all just as packed. 

[LornaHansonForbes]

1 hour ago, speedracer5 said:

Maybe I don't need to see the dark side of Big Bird. 

I know, right? I'm still reeling from THIS:

[CinemaInternational]

2 hours ago, mkahn22 said:

Each year, I watch fewer and fewer new movies for just this ⇧ reason. A few weeks ago, I watch 2020s "Promising Young Woman." It's not a poorly done movie technically at all, but what an awful comment on humanity. Some movies like that - sure, I get it, some people do see mankind that way. But the relentlessness of Hollywood to make one after another of these movies that say almost everyone is horrible is exhausting and demoralizing. 

I hated that movie (Promising Young Woman), just too misanthropic for words, and a miserable experience over all. I knew people though who loved it.

[LornaHansonForbes]

I'M SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO BUM EVERYBODY OUT!!!!

THIS IS WHY I SHOULD NEVER WATCH MODERN MOVIES!!!!!

IT'S LIKE FREEING THE DARKNESS WITHIN MY VERY SOUL

HERE, AS AN ANTIDOTE:

 

[EricJ]

3 hours ago, speedracer5 said:

Everyone seems to be trying so hard to create some profound, groundbreaking, earth shattering message film.  But in reality, their film is instantly forgettable and tries too hard.  It comes off as contrived.  At least to me. Or if the film isn't trying to be poignant, it's trying to show the "real" story or the "dark" side.  Maybe I don't need to see the dark side of Big Bird. 

Getting back to Lorna's main issue of the new "Art-horror", and social "Race-horror" trying desperately to be the new Jordan Peele because they don't quite know how he did it either--Studios stopped trying to pitch horror to the mainstream in the 21st century, after they stopped trying to pitch it to teens in the 90's, and that left an entire generation of slasher fanboys in the 80's trying to make the new Kewlest Movie Ever in the 00's.  And, like other fanboys (ahemdccomics) who grew up feeling "overlooked" and "unfairly picked-on" by the grownup mainstream, decided to dedicate their now twentysomething careers to being the New Generation, and threw every possible bit of Social Importance and Pretention at the sneering world, daring them to challenge the Larger Themes of their Dark, Disturbing Masterpiece.   In other words, the Purge movies.

And what happens when the NEXT generation of fanboys is IV-fed with Challenging, Inappropriate, Uniquely Disturbing Metaphors for race, politics, motherhood, or the rage of gender identity?  And then mix it with a new Gen-Z generation that is so neurotically insistent on being Taken Seriously and curing every terrible social cause of the 20th century themselves that they've almost literally forgotten the concepts of humor or no-obligation mainstream entertainment, but are still at the age when they watch almost nothing but horror movies since any other genre would be lame?

(And then throw it into the overbearingly poseur world of Netflix/Amazon/Hulu Made-For-Streaming, which started out with woke-skewed black, feminist, social-protest, and LGBT movies that "the studios would never dare make", decided to make it their own sandbox, and raised THAT entire generation on what movies they saw for breakfast, lunch and dinner?)