I Just Watched...

[film lover 293]

"The Assassination of Trotsky" (1972)--Starring Richard Burton, Alain Delon, and Valentina Cortese.

 

I should have read a biography of Trotsky before seeing this film.  I knew little about him before, and I don't know any more about him after seeing this movie.

 

Dreadful, muddled, Joseph Losey film seeks to conceal facts about Trotsky and make everything unclear.  A prologue to the film ended with (I'm paraphrasing) "What events are unclear have been left that way".    That should have served as a warning to me. 

 

What plot there is: Film is set in 1940 Mexico.  Trotsky goes about his last days dictating his memoirs, talking to his wife, escaping assassination attempts by Stalin's agents (why--the viewer is only told Trotsky's ideas would mean the end of Stalin's regime), asking when the rabbit food for his rabbits will be delivered, and other fascinating events. A paid assassin figures in this, but lacks the nerve to actually do his job.  He takes more than two attempts.  The film finally ends with the title event, which is staged like something out of a Hammer film, and has everyone screaming and bellowing.

 

Burton as Trotsky does a lot of pontificating and dictating, but never shows what made Trotsky tick.  Delon as the assassin is expressionless and mostly silent until the end; then he and Burton seem in a contest to see who can bellow loudest (a tie) and longest (Delon).  Cortese fades into the background.

 

There is a ten minute bullfighting sequence that made me ill.

 

There are murals by Diego Rivera featured in the film (I know because they were mentioned in the credits).

 

I hated the atonal score by Egisto Macchi.

 

I hated this movie, and I enjoyed "Boom!" (1968) and "Secret Ceremony" (1969)--two Losey films that were attacked by critics.  This has next to no redeeming factors.   For Burton completists only.

 

Source--YouTube.

[scsu1975]

"The Assassination of Trotsky" (1972)--Starring Richard Burton, Alain Delon, and Valentina Cortese.

 

I never heard of this film, and thanks to your review, I will continue to never hear of it.

[Dargo]

 

...There are murals by Diego Rivera featured in the film (I know because they were mentioned in the credits).

 

 

The Trotsky-Diego Rivera connection is also covered a bit in the 2002 biopic FRIDA starring Salma Hayek, FL. Alfred Molina is very good as Rivera, the husband of Frida Kahlo. And Geoffrey Rush plays the exiled Russian.

 

(...if you haven't seen that film, I recommend that you do...I at least thought it one of the better biopics to come along in quite some time)

[LawrenceA]

The Trotsky-Diego Rivera connection is also covered a bit in the 2002 biopic FRIDA starring Salma Hayek, FL. Alfred Molina is very good as Rivera, the husband of Frida Kahlo.

 

(...if you haven't seen that film, I recommend that you do...I at least thought it one of the better biopics to come along in quite some time)

 

Hayek was good, and proved that she wasn't just eye candy. Geoffrey Rush was good as Trotsky, too.

[scsu1975]

Narcotic (1933) youtube

 

Complete mess of a movie.

 

Harry Cording, best known for playing heavies, has the lead as a doctor who opens a free clinic, then discovers he is running out of money. Maybe he should have been an economist instead. His Chinese friend, named Gee Wu, thinks that Cording needs some relaxation, so he takes him to the local drug den where they smoke dope. Cording then invents something called “Tiger Fat,” which is supposed to cure everything. Too bad it doesn’t work on bad acting, directing, writing, editing, and photography. Cording hawks his crap in a few scenes, interspersed with some other scenes of his distraught wife, played by Joan Dix. If you’re like me, you’ve never heard of Dix, probably because she can’t act. There is a dope party where everyone gets loaded, some by snorting, others by smoking, and/or injecting. Several people take a “bang,” and one guy tells a dame not to get the “ding.” None of this made any sense to me, so I got loaded myself and miraculously everything became clear.

 

Characters simply appear out of nowhere, and we have no idea who they are. Several scenes are obviously taken from silent films because they are sped up.  One snake eats another snake. Gee Wu takes Cording’s wife to some guy who looks like Mark Twain, in an attempt to help Cording – which makes no sense, since Wu got Cording in this mess in the first place. By the way, Gee Wu was not the original name of the character. The first choice was Won Hong Lo, but for some reason, that did not get past the censor.

 

 

 

Cording shows off his latest invention – the apple flute.

[EricJ]

"The Assassination of Trotsky" (1972)--Starring Richard Burton, Alain Delon, and Valentina Cortese.

 

I should have read a biography of Trotsky before seeing this film.  I knew little about him before, and I don't know any more about him after seeing this movie.

 

I hated this movie, and I enjoyed "Boom!" (1968) and "Secret Ceremony" (1969)--two Losey films that were attacked by critics.  This has next to no redeeming factors.   For Burton completists only.

 

Although both Assassination of Trotsky and Boom! are best remembered today only for being written up by the Medved Bros.  (Trotsky in "Fifty Worst Films", Boom in the studio-flop "Hollywood Hall of Shame".)

[Fedya]

The Phynx (1970)

 

Somebody's stealing the celebrities of Hollywood's Golden Age, and that somebody is in Communist Albania. Our Super Secret Agency spies get the idea that the way to bring the celebrities back is to create some new celebrities, in the form of a pop band who will get invited to Albania themselves. Thus the band "The Phynx" is created. (The less said about the music of Lieber and Stoller, the better. Although, there was one song that kept reminding me of the Fifth Dimension's "Up, Up and Away".)

 

The movie is normally considered a bomb, although I found it not quite as bad as that. The build-up is exceedingly slow, and most of the celebrities are underused. Thankfully, most of the celebrities -- at least, the ones in Albania -- are introduced red-carpet style so nobody will have trouble putting names to faces. The people playing the band members, of course, have no acting talent, although they could probably dance as well as Ruby Keeler.

 

There are a lot of celebrities in this one. Maureen O'Sullivan and Johnny Weismuller; Rudy Vallee; Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey, the latter looking like death warmed over (he died before the movie was released); George Jessel; and even Col. Sanders are among those in captivity in Albania. Joan Blondell plays the First Lady of Albania. Martha Raye is one of the few who gets a chance to shine as the Agency's contact in London. James Brown comes next closest to shining. Richard Pryor is woefully underused.

 

One other good thing is the sequence in Rome. The band members are looking for a piece of a map tattooed on a woman's abdomen; they're given x-ray glasses to look through people's clothes. This sets up several opportunities for sight gags, some of which actually work. There's one of a man chatting up a woman in a club, where it turns out that both of them are actually men, and another of two young women talking to two nuns.

 

If you like "so bad it's good" movies, this one is actually worth watching; you'll find a whole bunch of "What were they thinking?" moments. 7/10 on that scale; 3/10 on a regular scale.

[LornaHansonForbes]

I just watched the 19"43/44" version of JANE EYRE (there is some debate about which year claims it.) it';s lovely, but i still like the radio version Welles did with Loretta Young for, I think, The Campbell Playhouse, it's on youtube and archive.org

 

I kinda wish Orson had just chilled out and acted more, i mean- he had a great acting career, but he was so good at acting that it's a shame there's not even more of it. he is brilliant as Rochester.

 

beats the Hell out of me why they remake this thing once a decade, i mean really, there's not a lot to improve upon where this version is concerned, although the ending was a trifle abrupt for my tastes.

 

ETA, I WAS WRONG, IT'S THE LUXE RADIO THEATER

 

[TomJH]

Objective Burma (1945).

 

Famous WW2 actioner about a group of American paratroopers dropped into the Burmese jungles to destroy a Japanese radar station. Things don't go as expected, of course, and instead of being picked up by an airplane after their mission is completed they are forced to trek through the jungles to make their escape, forced to battle the elements as much as the Japanese.

 

Raoul Walsh was in good form when he directed this overlong but effective film which adopts a semi documentary approach to its fictional tale. James Wong Howe also scored well with his striking photography which really adds to the film's realistic credibility. Howe captures the scorching heat of the jungle in this production whose principle photography was largely done on "Lucky" Baldwin's Santa Anita ranch. There was also a fine musical score by Franz Waxman, including a impressive military march theme.

 

While the characters to be found in the film are the usual army stereotypes, the restrained performances of the cast add to the film's sense of realism. This includes Errol Flynn, who eschewed his usual larger-than-life bouyant screen personality in favour of a low key straight forward characterization as an ordinary guy who's in command. His commanding officer is not the belligerent macho type to be found in many military films but, instead, a humane officer who cares about his men who, in turn, respect him.

 

Flynn regarded the film as one of the best of his career and was proud of his work in it. At the time of its release in England, however, Objective Burma became a source of controversy when the British press took offense, feeling that their nation's momentous efforts in the Burmese campaign had been slighted in favour of the Americans.

 

In particular the British press zeroed in their criticism on star Flynn, with a cartoon, for example, with the actor standing on the grave of a British soldier. I have never regarded it as fair criticism to have gone after the star of the film (no matter how high profile he may have been at the time), rather than either the film's producer (Jerry Wald) or scenarists (Ranald MacDougall and Lester Cole).

 

Speaking of the writing, the film has one dated over-the-top diatribe by Henry Hull as a newsman accompanying the soldiers in which he rants about the Japanese as "stinking little savages" who should be wiped off the face of the earth.

 

At the same time, however, the film also has, in contrast, one of my favourite lines of dialogue. After a soldier named Hollis is found dead, one of the paratroopers, in retrieving the soldier's dog tag, says, "So much for Mrs. Hollis's 9 months of pain and 20 years of hope." In speaking of the pain that a mother will feel when she receives the news about her son, the film briefly touches upon a common humanity we all feel with the grief and tragedy of the insanity of war.

 

Just a few years after Objective Burma's release, by the way, screenwriter Cole would be blacklisted by the Hollywood community as one of the Hollywood Ten for his Communist sympathies. The Japanese and Germans were behind America by then. It now had a new "enemy."

 

 

3 out of 4.

[LornaHansonForbes]

As much as I love the films of 1943, I just can't make it through THE SONG OF BERNADETTE. It needs to be shorter. And less repetitive. And more genuine...

 

In short, everything that it is, it needs to be less of and everything that it isn't, it needs to be more of.

[Sepiatone]

I agree.  It WAS the first time I ever watched it end-to-end, and didn't realize it's length beforehand.  I also wondrered how much "fact" it was actually based on.  But as my want.....

 

During the scenes in which Bernadette was in the convent, and the old Nun was giving her "the treatment", I kept musing that perhaps she should have taken the name "MARY PREWITT" . 

 

 

Sepiatone

[LornaHansonForbes]

I agree. It WAS the first time I ever watched it end-to-end, and didn't realize it's length beforehand. I also wondrered how much "fact" it was actually based on.

 

Sepia tone

Posting with my phone so I can't post the link, but it's really worth a trip to Wikipedia for the entry to the FRANZ WERFEL novel on which BERNADETTE is based. The story of his writing it is actually way more fascinating the the film, and I really wish they had incorporated it someway into the telling.

[Sepiatone]

Couldn't post it from your "smartphone"?

 

Ain't so "smart" , IS it? 

 

But I'll take you up on your suggestion.  Thanks for the tip.

 

 

Sepiatone

[kingrat]

I enjoyed I'd Climb the Highest Mountain, in which Susan Hayward marries a circuit riding preacher (William Lundigan) and encounters life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. Location photography is a plus. People who like, say, Stars in My Crown would probably like this one, too. It's an episodic film with a little laughter, more than a few tears, and a good picture of the community. You can add this one to the short list of Hollywood films with realistic depictions of the South.

 

A strong supporting cast helps, including Rory Calhoun as a handsome ne'er-do-well who wants to marry nice girl Barbara Bates. Her father (Gene Lockhart) naturally objects. Alexander Knox has a great supporting role as an atheist who doesn't want his children to attend Sunday school. I could wish that Ruth Donnelly got to show more of her comic skill as one of the woman in the congregation. Lynn Bari has the enjoyable role of a rich woman with designs on the pastor.

 

Henry King was a good match for this material. There are some particularly nice moments, including the two girls tunelessly singing a hymn at the welcoming party for the preacher's wife.

 

 

[film lover 293]

"Hatchet For The Honeymoon" (1970)--Directed by Mario Bava.

 

Italian thriller starts out with a murder on a train, of a bride.  The killer casually cleans off his cleaver with a wedding veil.  The killer then proceeds to narrate the story,  He's a serial killer, specializing in brides.  There are the expected elements; the suspicious police inspector, a harridan wife, the clueless victims.  The story takes a supernatural turn about halfway through.  Film takes several twists and turns from there.

 

The movie was filmed in EastmanColor, which had deteriorated on the print I saw.  Bava's usual bright colors and shocks were muted by the bad quality of the color.

 

Film isn't Bava's best, and far from his worst.  If I'd seen a better print, I'd give the film a higher rating.  Even with so-so color, it's very worth the watch.  2.6/4

 

Source--archive.org.

[film lover 293]

"Song of the Thin Man" (1947)--Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Asta.

 

The last of the Thin Man movies is set on a gambling boat among the players of a jazz band.  Nick and Nora are among the patrons, there is a murder, and complications ensue. 

 

William Powell and Myrna Loy were always a treat when they worked together.  They still managed to get remarks past the Code.

 

Powell, to Nora; "Look at those earrings!"

 

Nora, to Powell (in a mild corrective tone); "They're higher up dear."

 

Gloria Grahame and Marie Windsor make an impression in small parts.  Dean Stockwell only slows down the action a little.  The soundtrack is a big help in keeping things interesting.

 

Loy and Powell's chemistry together along with a good supporting cast make this amiable film work. 2.5/4.

 

source--archive.org.  Search "SgOThThnM19471" 

[JamesJazGuitar]

"Song of the Thin Man" (1947)--Starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Asta.

 

The last of the Thin Man movies is set on a gambling boat among the players of a jazz band.  Nick and Nora are among the patrons, there is a murder, and complications ensue. 

 

William Powell and Myrna Loy were always a treat when they worked together.  They still managed to get remarks past the Code.

 

Powell, to Nora; "Look at those earrings!"

 

Nora, to Powell (in a mild corrective tone); "They're higher up dear."

 

Gloria Grahame and Marie Windsor make an impression in small parts.  Dean Stockwell only slows down the action a little.  The soundtrack is a big help in keeping things interesting.

 

Loy and Powell's chemistry together along with a good supporting cast make this amiable film work. 2.5/4.

 

source--archive.org.  Search "SgOThThnM19471" 

 

This is my 3rd favorite Thin Man movie,  because of the jazz theme as well as noir icons Grahame and Windsor.

[Fedya]

All six of the Thin Man movies will be on TCM Friday in prime time. (Well, extending into the wee hours of the night.)

 

I like the second one for the presence of Elissa Landi. I've mentioned before that Landi died in my hometown and has a street named after her, so I always have a soft spot for her movies.

[scsu1975]

The Witching Hour (1934) youtube

 

Fairly entertaining flick, just over an hour long, dealing with hypnotism, psychology, and … murder.

 

John Holliday runs a gambling den inside his home. His daughter (Judith Allen) is gaga over Tom Brown. Brown has a fear of cat’s eye rings, so Holliday tries to help him overcome it, inadvertently hypnotizing him with the ring. Later, while Brown is gazing at the ring, he manages to hypnotize himself, then bump off a guy who had threatened Holliday. Naturally, the police don’t buy that explanation, so Holliday enlists the aid of a retired judge (Sir Guy Standing) to take the defense. William Frawley plays the grumpy jury foreman.

 

The courtroom theatrics are ridiculous, as might be expected for a 1930s film (hypnotizing a juror, firing a gun in the courtroom), but the movie still manages to work if you don’t think too hard. The film was based on a play, and there are two silent versions as well (both lost, I presume).

 

Personally, my eyes were more or less glued to Judith Allen, who was a revelation. Her career never took off, but she had the talent, and, if I may be blunt, a terrific bod.

 

 

A rare photo of Sir Guy Standing sitting.

[NickAndNora34]

The Flintstones: starring John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, Rosie O'Donnell, Rick Moranis, Halle Berry, and with a small supporting role played by THE Elizabeth Taylor. Needless to say, this movie was not one of the best things I've ever seen, however, it filled me with a sense of nostalgia since I used to watch re-runs of the original cartoon show on Cartoon Network on Saturday mornings when I was in 4th and 5th grades. 

 

I am definitely a fan of Goodman, Perkins, O'Donnell, Moranis, and Taylor. I am not overly familiar with Halle Berry's work, but am interested to learn more about her projects. Fun fact: when I was very young, I used to confuse Geena Davis with Elizabeth Perkins and vice versa. 

[Sepiatone]

THE FLINTSTONES always tickles me( the cartoon, not the movie you mention) due to it's  intention  of being an animated  sitcom  and originally intended for a target  adult  audience.  And us kids quickly took it over.

 

Sepiatone

[Hibi]

As much as I love the films of 1943, I just can't make it through THE SONG OF BERNADETTE. It needs to be shorter. And less repetitive. And more genuine...

 

In short, everything that it is, it needs to be less of and everything that it isn't, it needs to be more of.

 

 

Yes, the film is long. But it's an important film so it HAS to be long. (and based on a bestselling book to boot). Maybe it's the ex-Catholic in me, but I wasnt bored by it. I liked the way it presented both the cynical and disbelieving with the simple faith of Bernadette. I know the film took some liberties (like Gladys Cooper's "conversion" (which didnt take place in real life).

[LornaHansonForbes]

Yes, the film is long. But it's an important film so it HAS to be long. (and based on a bestselling book to boot). Maybe it's the ex-Catholic in me, but I wasnt bored by it. I liked the way it presented both the cynical and disbelieving with the simple faith of Bernadette. I know the film took some liberties (like Gladys Cooper's "conversion" (which didnt take place in real life).

 

I think if they had cut some of the more repetitive scenes that bog down the middle and worked in the story of Franz Werfel as he wrote the book, it would have been amazing.

 

copied and pasted from the novel's wikipedia page:

 

Origins

Franz Werfel was a German-speaking Jew born in Prague in 1890. He became well known as a playwright. In the 1930s in Vienna, he began writing popular satirical plays lampooning the Nazi regime until the Anschluss, when the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in 1938. Werfel and his wife Alma (Gustav Mahler’s widow) fled to Paris until the Germans invaded France in 1940.

In his Personal Preface to The Song of Bernadette, Franz Werfel takes up the story:

“In the last days of June 1940, in flight after the collapse of France, the two of us, my wife and I, had hoped to elude our mortal enemies in time to cross the Spanish frontier to Portugal, but had to flee back to the interior of France on the very night German troops occupied the frontier town of Hendaye. The Pyreenean départements had turned into a phantasmagoria – a very camp of chaos. “This strange migration of people wandered about on the roads in their thousands obstructing towns and villages: Frenchmen, Belgians, Dutchmen, Poles, Czechs, Austrians, exiled Germans; and, mingled with these, soldiers of the defeated armies. There was barely food enough to still the extreme pangs of hunger. There was no shelter to be had. Anyone who had obtained possession of an upholstered chair for his night’s rest was an object of envy. In endless lines, stood the cars of the fugitives, piled high with household gear, with mattresses and beds. There was no petrol to be had. “A family settled in Pau told us that Lourdes was the one place where, if luck were kind, one might find a roof. Since Lourdes was but thirty kilometres distant, we were advised to make the attempt and knock on its gates. We followed this advice and found refuge at last in the little town of Lourdes in the foothills of the Pyrenees.” ^[2]

Hunted by the Gestapo, the Werfels experienced anxiety for their hosts as well as themselves. A number of families took turns in giving them shelter. These people told the Werfels the story of Bernadette. Werfel vowed that, if he and his wife escaped, he would put off all tasks and write Bernadette's story into a novel.

 

(END)

 

THIS LAST PART ALONE WOULD MAKE A KICKASS MOVIE- LHF

[Hibi]

Maybe, but it may have distracted from the main story. I agree, it would have made a good movie on its own!

[film lover 293]

"The Great Ziegfeld" (1936)--Starring William Powell, Luise Rainer, Myrna Loy, and Frank Morgan.

 

Lavish, long MGM musical biography of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.  Powell's performance as a  in the title role holds the film together.  Film traces his ride from carnival barker to Broadway showman.  Myrna Loy doesn't show up until more than two hours into the film and has little to do except be charming, which she does effortlessly.  Luise Rainer is Anna Held; she is amusing and charming when singing or consciously being coy about signing with Ziegfeld, irritating when throwing temper tantrums.  Morgan as Ziegfelds' rival is funny.  Fanny Brice, Ray Bolger, and Virginia Bruce are all notable in support.

 

 

The musical numbers are spectacular, especially "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody".  The first half of the film is short on musical numbers: the second half of the film has most of the music.

 

Best Film Oscar winner holds up surprisingly well.  An enjoyable watch.  3.3/4.

 

Source--archive.org.  Search "ThGrtZgfld1936".