I Just Watched...

[misswonderly3]

On 3/2/2022 at 7:46 PM, Shank Asu said:

Spencer (2021) I'd read and heard a lot of hype for this film so my English wife and I were looking forward to seeing this but we both HATED this film.  I tend to watch films with subtitles anytime they are available, but i don't think it's possible to understand Kristen Stewart's talking without them and her performance was laughably bad.  The way she delivered her lines with a rushed whisper and emphasis on the last word of every sentence has become a joke now between my wife and I.  Imitating her voice in this film has now officially replaced Billy Bob's performance from Sling Blade.  How she got accolades for this performance is baffling to me.

The story itself was just plain bad as well.  Felt more like a hit piece against the royals other than the two princes but shows Harry as a more sympathetic character.  We had to force ourselves to finish this one and it took three different nights to finally do it.

If anyone liked this film, i'd be curious to know their thoughts why.

Oh, Shank,   thank you so much for saying what you did about Spencer  !  I couldn't stand it either !   Although in fact,  unlike you,  I couldn't stick it out,  and turned it off after the pearls in the soup scene.  

I suppose I should grit my teeth and watch the rest of it, maybe it's premature of me to say I hated it when I only got about half an hour into it.  But that was enough !   The film asks us to know in advance everything about Diana's situation at the time,  her mental state  ( not  great),  her bulimia, her estrangement and even actively hostile relationship with her husband,  and her alienation from the rest of the royal family.

Now,  anyone of a certain age,  and even people who weren't around in the '90s,  is probably aware of  much of the above,  but I still think it's unfair of the film to ask the audience to just jump in and know what's going on with Diana and her problems right from the get go.   It feels as though we've come in at the middle of the film, not the beginning.   How can we be expected to sympathize or even be interested in Diana's situation and her responses to what's going on around her when we don't even "know" her yet?  I shouldn't have to read up on her bio to feel engaged with this film, yet that's what I feel it's asking of us.

I can't stand the fact that  half an hour into the film, she still hasn't spoken with any one in the royal family, not even Charles.  Except for her sons, ok.   And some servants.  The Christmas Eve dinner scene is unbearable,  boring, unpleasant,  and pretentious.  I had to give it up when Diana started eating those pearls.

Yuck, what an unpleasant experience it was watching it even that far.  I completely understand why you had to give it 3 tries before managing to get through it.

Plus,  if it's supposed to be a sympathetic portrayal of the Princess of Wales and what she was going through,  it fails.  It actually makes me kind of dislike her,  something I never felt about her before   ( not that I thought much about her one way or the other ,  but I knew she was a sad lady,  and that Charles should never have married her.)

Oh, one thing more...the film was boring !  I can take a lot of flaws in a film,  but not that .

[CinemaInternational]

14 minutes ago, misswonderly3 said:

Oh, Shank,   thank you so much for saying what you did about Spencer  !  I couldn't stand it either !   Although in fact,  unlike you,  I couldn't stick it out,  and turned it off after the pearls in the soup scene.  

I suppose I should grit my teeth and watch the rest of it, maybe it's premature of me to say I hated it when I only got about half an hour into it.  But that was enough !   The film asks us to know in advance everything about Diana's situation at the time,  her mental state  ( not  great),  her bulimia, her estrangement and even actively hostile relationship with her husband,  and her alienation from the rest of the royal family.

Now,  anyone of a certain age,  and even people who weren't around in the '90s,  is probably aware of  much of the above,  but I still think it's unfair of the film to ask the audience to just jump in and know what's going on with Diana and her problems right from the get go.   It feels as though we've come in at the middle of the film, not the beginning.   How can we be expected to sympathize or even be interested in Diana's situation and her responses to what's going on around her when we don't even "know" her yet?  I shouldn't have to read up on her bio to feel engaged with this film, yet that's what I feel it's asking of us.

I can't stand the fact that  half an hour into the film, she still hasn't spoken with any one in the royal family, not even Charles.  Except for her sons, ok.   And some servants.  The Christmas Eve dinner scene is unbearable,  boring, unpleasant,  and pretentious.  I had to give it up when Diana started eating those pearls.

Yuck, what an unpleasant experience it was watching it even that far.  I completely understand why you had to give it 3 tries before managing to get through it.

Plus,  if it's supposed to be a sympathetic portrayal of the Princess of Wales and what she was going through,  it fails.  It actually makes me kind of dislike her,  something I never felt about her before   ( not that I thought much about her one way or the other ,  but I knew she was a sad lady,  and that Charles should never have married her.)

Oh, one thing more...the film was boring !  I can take a lot of flaws in a film,  but not that .

You had the luck to skip out before the unintentionally hilarious scene where Diana, William, and Harry are belting out a sing along to Mike and the Mechanic's hit "All I Need is a Miracle". The whole film was ghastly.....although not quite as bad as Don't Look Up.

[CinemaInternational]

On 3/9/2022 at 8:33 AM, LornaHansonForbes said:

LEE REMICK Gives one of the absolute best performances of the 1960s in WILD RIVER. So beautiful she need not be so talented, so talented she need not be so beautiful – it’s really one of the best performances by an actress I have ever seen. She would be my unequivocal choice for best actress in 1960. 
 

I absolutely hate that she died so young, of cancer I believe, around age 53.

Not that it would have worked out since she died in 1991 while the program was still on the air, but the idea was that if Bea Arthur had turned down the role of Dorothy on The Golden Girls, their next pick was Lee Remick.

[misswonderly3]

5 minutes ago, CinemaInternational said:

You had the luck to skip out before the unintentionally hilarious scene where Diana, William, and Harry are belting out a sing along to Mike and the Mechanic's hit "All I Need is a Miracle". The whole film was ghastly.....although not quite as bad as Don't Look Up.

Thanks, CinemaI.,   it seems to be the consensus here (  well,  all of 3 people commenting on it)  that Spencer  is not a good movie.

I do want to say, in fairness to the film, that I think its intentions were admirable. By that I mean that I think the director,  writer,  and actors never meant for Spencer  to be taken literally, clearly it's supposed to be all subjective, from the point-of-view of Diana's interior mental state, which explains the "alienation" feeling and the surrealist aspects to it   ( like, yes,  I know she did not actually break her necklace and eat those pearls,  nor did the Queen give her a malevolent grin before the dinner festivities began....)

So I recognize the attempt to portray Diana's experience of that awful Christmas visit,  it's weird and alienating because that's how she felt, that's how she perceived everyone around her,  it's like a nightmare.  A commendable artistic goal,   it just doesn't work for some reason.

[LornaHansonForbes]

All the GD whispering in SPENCER irritated the **** out of me. 

[LornaHansonForbes]

2 hours ago, misswonderly3 said:

Thanks, CinemaI.,   it seems to be the consensus here (  well,  all of 3 people commenting on it)  that Spencer  is not a good movie.

I do want to say, in fairness to the film, that I think its intentions were admirable. By that I mean that I think the director,  writer,  and actors never meant for Spencer  to be taken literally, clearly it's supposed to be all subjective, from the point-of-view of Diana's interior mental state, which explains the "alienation" feeling and the surrealist aspects to it   ( like, yes,  I know she did not actually break her necklace and eat those pearls,  nor did the Queen give her a malevolent grin before the dinner festivities began....)

So I recognize the attempt to portray Diana's experience of that awful Christmas visit,  it's weird and alienating because that's how she felt, that's how she perceived everyone around her,  it's like a nightmare.  A commendable artistic goal,   it just doesn't work for some reason.

SPENCER has been discussed over in my Oscar thread, I particularly went all in on the scene where she eats the pearls in the chilled soup because that was some of the dumbest **** I’ve ever seen in my life.

[LornaHansonForbes]

(I apologize for my language, but “Spencer” is a film I just can’t discuss without using expletives.)

Also that stupid rocket ship is blocking my cigarette and I can’t get my nicotine fix.

[sewhite2000]

1/18 The Circus Clown (Warner Bros., 1934)
Source: TCM

I'm rarely a binge watcher of TCM anymore. I usually watch the movie airing in the 8 pm Eastern Time slot and anywhere from the first 30 minutes to one hour of the film after that, and then I'm ready for bed. I'm not sure why I stayed up to watch FOUR movies on the night of Tuesday January 18, but that one night has sure made it hard for me to catch up on my comprehensive 2022 reviews and get back to "real time" as the gap between movies I've seen and movies I've reviewed is about to reach two months.  But on that particular night I watched all three primetime films that fit the accents theme, and then I started the late night programming. If there was a theme for that, I don't remember. Joe E. Brown was a surprise Star of the Month sometime in 2021, and this film probably aired then also.

This movie made me think to some extent of Buster Keaton's silent comedies, not only for the wild set piece stunts - all of which Brown allegedly performed himself - but also for the storyline of a son trying to follow in his father's footsteps into a potentially exotic career path. Brown's Happy Howard once to follow the career path of his old man, once an acrobat (also played by Brown), but finds he has to begin at the bottom when he joins up at the Big Top himself, cleaning the animal cages. To reference another silent era great, many of the gags from Charlie Chaplin's The Circus are recycled here in altered form. 

The film surprisingly borders on some situations that could be described as "pre-Code", none of which really go anywhere, which may have something to do with the timing of the film's release on the last day of June, 1934, just as the more stringent version of the Code with actual punitive powers had gone into effect. Brown gets to show off his acrobatic prowess, pulling off a two-and-a-half turn aerial somersault he learned in his actual vaudeville days. He also shows maybe the most acting range for any of his films, making Happy and his dad feel like two completely different people. He has to carry the movie by himself - there's not even a fledgling Olivia DeHavilland on hand here. Brown is the only star. Though look for Ward Bond late in the film, stealing the movie for a few seconds as "Unimpressed Audience Member".

Directed by Ray Enright, an industry veteran by this point who'd started his career as an assistant editor for Mack Sennett in the silent era. He also directed the spooky-mansion suspense thriller Tomorrow at Seven with Chester Morris for RKO and the multiple-genres-thrown together Song of the West which was a romantic triangle comedy in addition to being a musical and a Western in which Brown was the second male lead to John Boles, also made at Warners.

Total films seen this year: 32

 

[Grumpytoad]

China Seas. 
Gable, Harlow, Wallace Berry, and Rosalind Russell.

After watching the first 20 minutes I was ready to complain on here about how lousy the movie was.    
Now I figure it gets at least a grade of C. 
My streaming service called this an adventure movie. Problem was, zero adventure till movie was half over. But to be fair, it really picked up in the second half to a pretty satisfying conclusion.

Poor things about the movie: 
Didn't care for most of the dialogue, a bit boring and predictable. Humorous banter between  Gable and Harlow was strained. Drunk character was horrible-dreaded each time he spoke. Gable, Harlow, and Berry deserved better lines to say.

Good things:   
Second half of movie was to my surprise pretty exciting. Actually adventurous. Characters able to show more emotion. Excellent special effects during storm scenes. 

I have to add here that the costume designer Adrian sure knew how to make actresses look fantastic- not just in this, but in every movie I've seen that he worked in.

Lastly, I have a question, which I will also post elsewhere  on this forum.  What other Rosalind Russell movie would you suggest that I watch? This was the first time I've seen her. If it helps, I'm not much on big splashy musicals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tikisoo]

7 hours ago, Grumpytoad said:

What other Rosalind Russell movie would you suggest that I watch?

I love Roz, she is a unique personality. I like her brash charactor best in THE WOMEN '39- an ensemble piece full of fabulous performances, a fun movie if a bit long. The "Eye" dress she wears in one scene is a riot. You're so right about the genius of Adrian costumes.

Roz is also well known for her early role in Howard Hawks' HIS GIRL FRIDAY '40, in which she's great, but all the frantic yelling kind of gets to me after awhile.

Her signature role was the stage struck Mother in GYPSY '62 but if you don't like musicals...she plays a similar outspoken charactor in AUNTIE MAME '58.

She's also adds great flavor to the late THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS '66 as Mother Superior in this light tween comedy.

[SansFin]

12 hours ago, Grumpytoad said:

 What other Rosalind Russell movie would you suggest that I watch? 

 

My favorites include:

They Met in Bombay (1941)

Rendezvous (1935)

The Feminine Touch (1941)


 

[JamesJazGuitar]

Other fine Rosalind Russell films are:

Night Must Fall (1937) - with Robert Montgomery 

Four's a Crowd (1938) - with Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHaviland

No Time for Comedy (1940) - with Jimmy Steward

Design For Scandal (1941)  -with Walter Pidgeon 

Take  a Letter Darling (1942) - with Fred MacMurray

What a Woman (1943) - with Brian Aherne

Picnic (1955_ - with William Holden

 

 

[LornaHansonForbes]

14 hours ago, Grumpytoad said:

China Seas. 
Gable, Harlow, Wallace Berry, and Rosalind Russell.

After watching the first 20 minutes I was ready to complain on here about how lousy the movie was.    
Now I figure it gets at least a grade of C. 
My streaming service called this an adventure movie. Problem was, zero adventure till movie was half over. But to be fair, it really picked up in the second half to a pretty satisfying conclusion.

Poor things about the movie:  Drunk character was horrible-dreaded each time he spoke.

Good things:   
Second half of movie was to my surprise pretty exciting. Actually adventurous. Characters able to show more emotion. Excellent special effects during storm scenes. 

I have to add here that the costume designer Adrian sure knew how to make actresses look fantastic- not just in this, but in every movie I've seen that he worked in.

Lastly, I have a question, which I will also post elsewhere  on this forum.  What other Rosalind Russell movie would you suggest that I watch? This was the first time I've seen her. If it helps, I'm not much on big splashy musicals.

 

 

I love love love CHINA SEAS, or at least I did when I saw it a few years back. to me, it seemed a quintessential 30's film, GRAND HOTEL on international waters...

THE DRUNK is played by ROBERT BENCHLEY, and I agree he is annoying. BENCHLEY later went on produce and write a  series of short films that are supposed to be funny but damned if I've ever so much as tittered ONCE. They're painful to sit through. He was the father of PETER BENCHLEY who wrote JAWS.

I CAN'T BELIEVE NO ONE HAS MENTIONED HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) among their ROZ RUSSELL RECOMENDATIONS, it is her best, most iconic performance, one of the best ever put to film in the 20th Century...and it's also in the public domain and can be viewed all over the place (to varying degrees of picture qaulity, of course)

[LornaHansonForbes]

 

[Dargo]

Re Roz here...

I've always thought that if Meredith Willson had instead written "The Music Woman", she would've been great in the role of a Prof. Harriet Hill.

(...know what I mean here, folks?)

[LornaHansonForbes]

3 minutes ago, Dargo said:

Re Roz here...

I've always thought that if Meredith Willson had instead written "The Music Woman", she would've been great in the role of a Prof. Harriet Hill.

(...know what I mean here, folks?)

I can see it.

as long as she doesn't play it at AUNTIE MAME volume.

[Fausterlitz]

13 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I CAN'T BELIEVE NO ONE HAS MENTIONED HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) among their ROZ RUSSELL RECOMMENDATIONS

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, EITHER...because Tiki Soo mentioned it seven hours before you did:

7 hours ago, TikiSoo said:

Roz is also well known for her early role in Howard Hawks' HIS GIRL FRIDAY '40, in which she's great, but all the frantic yelling kind of gets to me after awhile.

 

Just sayin'.  🙂

[LornaHansonForbes]

21 minutes ago, Fausterlitz said:

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, EITHER...because Tiki Soo mentioned it seven hours before you did:

Just sayin'.  🙂

OH SHOOT!!!! 
i’m sorry! I don’t know how I missed it.
(I even double checked before I posted!! My mind is elsewhere…)

(Sincere apologies to Miss Soo!!)
 

[Fausterlitz]

22 minutes ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

OH SHOOT!!!! 
i’m sorry! I don’t know how I missed it.
(I even double checked before I posted!! My mind is elsewhere…)

(Sincere apologies to Miss Soo!!)

No worries, I wouldn't even have mentioned it, but your confident all-caps/boldface declaration seemed somehow irresistibly ironic, in light of your own reference to "AUNTIE MAME volume" and Tiki Soo's to "all the frantic yelling."

It's all good.  Maybe you were just unconsciously channeling your own internal Roz Russell at that moment.  🙂

[Dargo]

2 hours ago, Fausterlitz said:

No worries, I wouldn't even have mentioned it, but your confident all-caps/boldface declaration seemed somehow irresistibly ironic, in light of your own reference to "AUNTIE MAME volume" and Tiki Soo's to "all the frantic yelling."

It's all good.  Maybe you were just unconsciously channeling your own internal Roz Russell at that moment.  🙂

And so NOW all ya gotta be worried about here Fausterlitz is that "just sayin'" thing you said up there.

Ya see, Tiki just HATES IT when somebody says that.

(...ain't that right, Tiki) 

LOL

[speedracer5]

22 hours ago, Grumpytoad said:

What other Rosalind Russell movie would you suggest that I watch?

I know this was already mentioned, but Roz is fabulous in Picnic.  If she hadn't insisted on being nominated as "Best Actress" versus "Best Supporting Actress" in the Oscars, I think she had a good shot at winning.  Her performance in this film is excellent.

A really good later in life role for Roz is The Trouble With Angels co-starring Hayley Mills.  Roz plays Mother Superior. 

I also like her in the original My Sister Eileen co-starring Janet Blair. 

[Fading Fast]

7 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I love love love CHINA SEAS, or at least I did when I saw it a few years back. to me, it seemed a quintessential 30's film, GRAND HOTEL on international waters...

THE DRUNK is played by ROBERT BENCHLEY, and I agree he is annoying. BENCHLEY later went on produce and write a  series of short films that are supposed to be funny but damned if I've ever so much as tittered ONCE. They're painful to sit through. He was the father of PETER BENCHLEY who wrote JAWS.

I CAN'T BELIEVE NO ONE HAS MENTIONED HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) among their ROZ RUSSELL RECOMENDATIONS, it is her best, most iconic performance, one of the best ever put to film in the 20th Century...and it's also in the public domain and can be viewed all over the place (to varying degrees of picture qaulity, of course)

I'm with you on "His Girl Friday." It's in my top twenty and it's a "stop and drop" one for me every time it's on. The dialogue is incredible and Grant and Russell play off each other perfectly. Some of their scenes together are, IMO, the best ever done. 

[Grumpytoad]

20 hours ago, TikiSoo said:

I love Roz, she is a unique personality. I like her brash charactor best in THE WOMEN '39- an ensemble piece full of fabulous performances, a fun movie if a bit long. The "Eye" dress she wears in one scene is a riot. You're so right about the genius of Adrian costumes.

Roz is also well known for her early role in Howard Hawks' HIS GIRL FRIDAY '40, in which she's great, but all the frantic yelling kind of gets to me after awhile.

Her signature role was the stage struck Mother in GYPSY '62 but if you don't like musicals...she plays a similar outspoken charactor in AUNTIE MAME '58.

She's also adds great flavor to the late THE TROUBLE WITH ANGELS '66 as Mother Superior in this light tween comedy.

Thanks for the suggestions. And the dress scares me.

[Grumpytoad]

12 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I love love love CHINA SEAS, or at least I did when I saw it a few years back. to me, it seemed a quintessential 30's film, GRAND HOTEL on international waters...

THE DRUNK is played by ROBERT BENCHLEY, and I agree he is annoying. BENCHLEY later went on produce and write a  series of short films that are supposed to be funny but damned if I've ever so much as tittered ONCE. They're painful to sit through. He was the father of PETER BENCHLEY who wrote JAWS.

I CAN'T BELIEVE NO ONE HAS MENTIONED HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) among their ROZ RUSSELL RECOMENDATIONS, it is her best, most iconic performance, one of the best ever put to film in the 20th Century...and it's also in the public domain and can be viewed all over the place (to varying degrees of picture qaulity, of course)

Respect your opinion of China Seas. Grand Hotel was great. Was one of my first pre-code viewings-first time I saw Garbo too. I'll never understand her attraction. I tried with a few other of her movies, but just am unable to relate. 

[Grumpytoad]

5 hours ago, mkahn22 said:

I'm with you on "His Girl Friday." It's in my top twenty and it's a "stop and drop" one for me every time it's on. The dialogue is incredible and Grant and Russell play off each other perfectly. Some of their scenes together are, IMO, the best ever done. 

Big fan of Grant. Looks like Friday will be my first pick.