I Just Watched...

[scsu1975]

An Unseen Enemy (1912) youtube

 

Entertaining but somewhat silly short from D. W. Griffith, of some significance because it features the screen debuts of Lillian and Dorothy Gish.

 

The plot has the sisters being held at gunpoint while their soused maid and a thief (Harry Carey) try to blow the safe containing the girls’ inheritance.  Elmer Booth, as the older brother, and Robert Harron, as the boyfriend of Dorothy Gish, come to the rescue.

 

The silliness comes from the maid pointing a gun through a hole in the wall, which scares the crap out of the girls. There is no way the maid can aim at them, since she can’t see them. But that’s silent film melodrama.

 

The Gish sisters are charming, as is Harron as the smitten young lad. Booth overacts terribly in one big scene, where he is on the phone with Dorothy Gish and hears a gunshot. Judging by his expression, you would think he was having a prostate exam. Unfortunately, he was killed in an accident three years after making this film. Carey, as the thief, is menacing and has a charcoal beard. Future star Antonio Moreno can be glimpsed in a scene where Booth and some rescuers are trying to make it over a floating bridge.

 

After viewing the film, I found this bizarre review in The Anaconda Standard of September 11, 1912:

“The Unseen Enemy” is a diverting comedy which will please. Here the housegirl, always a subject of mirth on the screen, makes a thousand laughs, while the two maiden sisters, in a terrible predicament, are a big part of the play.

 

Hey, who knew Griffith was a comedy genius?

 

 

 

Fortunately, this early treatment for hemorrhoids never caught on.

[hamradio]

 

In Germany, it was translated as: "Come Out of the Grave With Pepsi!"  (Thanks to GoogleBooks for this nugget of information.).

 

In China, mistranslations included: "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From The Dead!"  "Bring Dead Ancestors Back From Heaven With Pepsi!"  "Come Alive Out of the Grave With Pepsi!".  (According to keepmarketingfun.com and snopes.com).

 

 

Reminds me, what became of the uncola?

 

Cola for the undead.

[cigarjoe]

The Fallen Idol (1948) Kid Noir

 

 

The Fallen Idol tells the story of Baines the butler  through Philippe, the nine year old son of a French diplomat. Haines working in a foreign embassy in London falls under suspicion when his wife accidentally falls to her death, the only witness being an impressionable young boy.

 

The cinematography of the flee in the night through the cobblestone streets of London will remind you of similar sequences in Vienna in The Third Man. 

 

The only other Kids Noir that readily comes to mind is The Window (1949), these two films would make great introductions to children to the Noir style. 8/10

 

Review with screencaps in Film Noir Gangster thread and with even more screencaps from the Criterion DVD here:http://http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-fallen-idol-1948-kid-noir.html

 

[sewhite2000]

I Just Watched, 31 Days of Oscar Edition, Post #1, 2/1-2/3

 

Thought it would be interesting (okay, maybe not!) to post everything I watched in this most hated of TCM months with (if I can muster any restraint) only brief observations on each film watched so as not to bore everyone to tears. On another thread, I declared this to be a most unimaginative year for selections, with a good 70 per cent of the films being shown stuff that's part of the in-house library that we pretty much see year-round, and a whopping one of every three films being shown this month are from MGM alone! Ugh. But okay, maybe something will surprise me. Here's a quick recap of what I watched during the first three days:

 

2/1

All About Eve (20th Century Fox, 1950) - There are only 12 Fox films being shown the entire month, so I'm trying to jump on the ones I can. Fortunately, this one was smack dab in the 8 pm ET slot. Many things could be said about this classic, but I will limit myself this time to Thelma Ritter, Thelma Ritter, Thelma Ritter! As an actress who worked a lot at Fox and Paramount, she doesn't turn up on TCM every day, but just in the last week or 10 days, I've seen her in Lucy Gallant, Birdman of Alcatraz and this film, and she's great in all of them. Unfortunately, her character disappears about halfway in.

 

An American in Paris (MGM, 1951) - Nice article in the Entertainment Weekly currently on the stands regarding this film and its Best Picture win, somehow sneaking away with the biggest award of the night after George Stevens had taken Best Director, and the cast of Streetcar had walked away with three of the four acting Oscars. I'm not sure that could ever happen today. Ironically, the very next big Gene Kelly musical, Singin' in the Rain, is the one that's more revered 65 years later, and it was virtually ignored by the Academy other than for Jean Hagen's performance. I feel like just one year later, Oscar voters were like, "Yeah, been there, seen that" and didn't give any consideration to which film would better stand up to the passage of time. I fall in love with Leslie Caron every time I see this movie. I wish someday TCM would show Daddy Longlegs, a pairing of her and Fred Astaire made at Fox.

 

2/2

The Bad and the Beautiful (MGM, 1952) - Robert Osborne would never do an intro/outro to this movie without mentioning the scene of Lana Turner in the car: the sun is shining when she gets in it, but it appears Hurricane Katrina has hit LA once she starts driving. And she closes her eyes, lets go of the wheel and writhes around screaming for a good minute! How she didn't go off a bridge, I don't know. Okay, beyond that, I still dig the film for Dick Powell and Gloria Grahame and, you know, nobody ever overemoted like Kirk Douglas, but I still find his anguish compelling. No one ever tackled the dark dregs of the human soul during his era the way Douglas did.

 

The Band Wagon (MGM, 1953) - I think I'm finally warming up to Cyd Charisse, a great dancer obviously, but I was always pretty "meh" to her as an actress. But having seen It's Always Fair Weather, Meet Me in Las Vegas and this film in short order recently, I've decided she was actually pretty good as the aloof intellectual and presumably virginal type whose heart always ultimately melts for the guy who might initially not seem the greatest choice for her.

 

2/3

The Birds (Universal, 1963) - TCM is also showing only 12 Universal films this month, but I wouldn't have minded another Universal film standing in for this one. Along with The Sting and Jaws, I'm thinking The Birds is in a three-way race for the most-aired Universal film in TCM history. But I'm a sucker for Hitchcock. One scene that really jumped out at me this time was when that hysterical woman in the diner accuses Tippi Hedrin of being the cause of all this mess, and Tippi slaps her! Also, that girl in her party dress, face down with a bird on the back of her head. It looks so goofy and unrealistic that I can't help but laugh. There's also a lot of crazy psychosexual dysfunction seemingly going on with Hedren's mother issues and new attempts to be a good girl, clingy, disapproving mom Jessica Tandy and hot, hot, hot Suzanne Pleshette moving to town and taking a job just to be near Rod Taylor. Hitchcock would delve into this material even more deeply with Hedren the following year in Marnie.

 

Blazing Saddles (Warner Bros., 1974) - I hadn't watched this film in many years. As a child, I only knew the heavily edited version that seemed to turn up on ABC Movie of the Week at least once a year. I think that version added in some scenes that weren't in the theatrical release (probably to make up for all the deleted stuff!), including Mel Brooks touring the town with the press, oblivious to the fact that it's occupied by dummies. Brooks conceived of the Waco Kid as a crusty old coot, and Gig Young did one day of shooting before getting fired, apparently for drinking, but I dug Gene Wilder's interpretation as a sort of Zen cowboy, a story I learned more about when TCM reaired Alec Baldwin's interview with Wilder.

 

Okay, another post in three days or so.

[Sepiatone]

The thing that struck ME when watching THE BIRDS this time around was...

 

When I first saw it a few years after it came out,  I thought  how OLD the mother(JESSICA TANDY) was.  But, I was 15 then.  And Tandy was 54 when she did that role.

 

I'm 65 now, and Jessica DIDN'T look so "old"  in it the other night. 

 

 

Sepiatone

[TomJH]

2/3

The Birds (Universal, 1963) -There's also a lot of crazy psychosexual dysfunction seemingly going on with Hedren's mother issues and new attempts to be a good girl, clingy, disapproving mom Jessica Tandy and hot, hot, hot Suzanne Pleshette moving to town and taking a job just to be near Rod Taylor. Hitchcock would delve into this material even more deeply with Hedren the following year in Marnie.

 

 

Am I alone in thinking that Rod Taylor's character was crazy to be interested in Tippi Hedren in The Birds when Suzanne Pleshette was hanging around town, still interested in him after their affair? Pleshette is a total contrast to Hedren in every way, brunette, sensual and warm. Maybe it was that Hitchcock guy behind it with his thing about blondes.

 

Still, Suzanne, with, among other things, those big beautiful soulful eyes!! Rod, how could you not be interested?

 

[JamesJazGuitar]

Am I alone in thinking that Rod Taylor's character was crazy to be interested in Tippi Hedren in The Birds when Suzanne Pleshette was hanging around town, still interested in him after their affair? Pleshette is a total contrast to Hedren in every way, brunette, sensual and warm. Maybe it was that Hitchcock guy behind it with his thing about blondes.

 

Still, Suzanne, with, among other things, those big beautiful soulful eyes!! Rod, how could you not be interested?

 

 

 

The movie provides the answer;  Mitch is a mommy's boy and his mommy didn't like her.

[Fedya]

Black Sunday (1977)

 

Slow, slooow, s-l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-w movie about Black September (the Palestinian terrorist group that killed all those Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics) plotting to commit a massive explosion at the Super Bowl.

 

Marthe Keller plays the chief Black September operative. Bruce Dern plays her Goodyear blimp-piloting boyfriend who will pilot the blimp with the explosives over the Super Bowl. Robert Shaw plays a Mossad agent on the trail of the plot. Fritz Weaver plays Shaw's FBI counterpart.

 

John Frankenheimer directed, and some of the Super Bowl scenes are reminiscent of Madison Square Garden scenes from The Manchurian Candidate. He has a sure hand directing, but the script drags the movie down interminably, running over 140 minutes.

 

Did I mention that the movie is slow?

 

6/10 for the good idea and the archive footage. Sober Pat Summerall, for one. And the old Orange Bowl (with the Bicentennial logos!) and Miami Dolphins owner Joe Robbie playing himself.

[TomJH]

The movie provides the answer;  Mitch is a mommy's boy and his mommy didn't like her.

 

That still makes him crazy.

[JamesJazGuitar]

That still makes him crazy.

 

Agreed.    To favor mom over those big beautiful soulful eyes (among other things),  one would have to be nuts!

[speedracer5]

Am I alone in thinking that Rod Taylor's character was crazy to be interested in Tippi Hedren in The Birds when Suzanne Pleshette was hanging around town, still interested in him after their affair? Pleshette is a total contrast to Hedren in every way, brunette, sensual and warm. Maybe it was that Hitchcock guy behind it with his thing about blondes.

 

Still, Suzanne, with, among other things, those big beautiful soulful eyes!! Rod, how could you not be interested?

 

 

 

My question about this movie (aside from "why did they run out of the school when they saw the birds on the jungle gym instead of staying inside where it would have been safer?"), is why is Mitch's sister so much younger than him? I think in the film they say she's 11 or something.  He's what? 30? The sister could have easily been made Mitch's daughter instead of sister and the film wouldn't have been affected.

[JamesJazGuitar]

My question about this movie (aside from "why did they run out of the school when they saw the birds on the jungle gym instead of staying inside where it would have been safer?"), is why is Mitch's sister so much younger than him? I think in the film they say she's 11 or something.  He's what? 30? The sister could have easily been made Mitch's daughter instead of sister and the film wouldn't have been affected.

 

But Mitch couldn't get married because that would have upset his mom,  so if he did have a daughter it would have to be out of wedlock and of course Hitchcock wasn't going there.

 

I get the feeling that Mitch's dad died shortly after the birth of his sister and that made him more like a father than a brother,  as well as the man of the house.    That also would explain why his mother didn't wish Mitch to have a serious relationship because he needed to give 100% to his mother and sister.

[RoyCronin]

The Birds is all about the inability of humans to form relationships...only The Love Birds are an intact pair. The humans are alone...single...lonely

[Sepiatone]

But Mitch couldn't get married because that would have upset his mom,  so if he did have a daughter it would have to be out of wedlock and of course Hitchcock wasn't going there.

 

I get the feeling that Mitch's dad died shortly after the birth of his sister and that made him more like a father than a brother,  as well as the man of the house.    That also would explain why his mother didn't wish Mitch to have a serious relationship because he needed to give 100% to his mother and sister.

 

Family dynamics can be a funny thing.

 

Nothing so odd about the Taylor character having such a young sister.  I know a guy who's 25 years older than his youngest brother.

 

And another guy who's 30 YEARS older than one of his UNCLES!

 

 

Sepiatone

[RoyCronin]

Mitch..alone. Melanie...alone.. Annie..alone...the farmer killed by birds..alone.. Mom...alone....the woman in the diner alone with kids.. picking up a ride with a strange guy...alone

[johnm001]

THE MAD MAGICIAN, Columbia's attempt at cashing-in on the success of Warner's 3D HOUSE OF WAX.  Even going as far as getting Vincent Price to star.  It's not the equal of WAX, filmed in 3D, and often derivative of the Warner film; but, it's still a good story, and superb 3D.  The Blu-ray features two Three Stooges shorts, also in fabulous 3D.

 

As for THE BIRDS, it is, simply, my favorite Hitchcock film, by a mile.  In fact, it is pretty much my favorite film.  It certainly is my favorite dialog film.  I just love every line of it.  Even the Hitchcock-written corny scene on the hill, at Cathy's party.  My question has always been, how does Melanie know how to spell Cathy's name?  We see her entire scene with Annie, who would know she spells it with a C instead of a K, but she never mentions it.

[TomJH]

As a kid I used to collect Mad Magazine. One of my earliest memories of it was their movie satire of Alfred Hatchplot's "For the Birds". Here's actress Tipsy Headrinse at her emoting best:

 

 

 

Stir any memories for anyone else?

[johnm001]

As a kid I used to collect Mad Magazine. One of my earliest memories of it was their movie satire of Alfred Hatchplot's "For the Birds". Here's actress Tipsy Headrinse at her emoting best:

 

 

 

Stir any memories for anyone else?

Yep.  The MAD spoofs were always the best, when it was a film you loved and knew so well.  I like that the kids are singing, "Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing".  Ha ha!

[sewhite2000]

Too early for me. The Birds and its parody came out before I was born, but I was a devotee of the Mad movie parodies in the late '70s and the first few years of the '80s. Somewhere in early-to-mid adolescence I stopped reading it.

 

Note the littlelist kid in the line is drawn Charles Schulz-style! Credit where credit is due: the artwork is by the great Mort Drucker, whose job it was do the movie parodies. Looking at the list on Wikipedia, it appears Drucker was the artist of all but three of the Mad movie parodies in the entire decade of the '60s.

[TomJH]

Too early for me. The Birds and its parody came out before I was born, but I was a devotee of the Mad movie parodies in the late '70s and the first few years of the '80s. Somewhere in early-to-mid adolescence I stopped reading it.

 

Note the littlelist kid in the line is drawn Charles Schulz-style! Credit where credit is due: the artwork is by the great Mort Drucker, whose job it was do the movie parodies. Looking at the list on Wikipedia, it appears Drucker was the artist of all but three of the Mad movie parodies in the entire decade of the '60s.

 

In a brief honour of the great Mort Drucker:

 

 

[Sepiatone]

I suppose the only MAD parody that disappointed me a bit was the one they did of JURASSIC  PARK.  I had half to 3/4s expected to spot BARNEY somewhere in the mix, but I didn't spot him.  If he WAS in there somewhere, then please let me know. 

 

 

Sepiatone

[HoldenIsHere]

I literally just watched the short film HITLER LIVES (aka THE GHOSTS OF BERCHTESGADEN) that aired tonight before CITIZEN KANE.

 

This very eerie film, produced and distributed at the end World War II, warns about forces in the US that seek to create division by stirring up racial hatred and the danger of fascist groups in this country producing a "messiah" not unlike Hitler. 

 

 

[kingrat]

I finally watched They Met in the Dark, the last film from the James Mason tribute with five early films, and it's a charmer, along the lines of Hitchcock's Young and Innocent and The 39 Steps. Joyce Howard, an actress I didn't know, played the lead opposite Mason, and they made a cute couple. It's wartime in Britain, and Nazis, theatrical agents, aspiring performers, a hypnotist, and a dark old house all figure in the story. Not profound, but definitely fun, if you like the genre.

[hamradio]

"No Country For Old Men" (2007) for the first time last night.

 

Goodness how cold Anton is!   He carries this stuff around and no one says huh?

 

 

 

Like the Mexican border guard....drunks are welcome, no visa - no problemo.

 

Movie ends with a mystery, did he kill Carla Jean or not?

[sewhite2000]

I Just Watched, 30 Days of Oscar Edition, Post #2, 2/4=2/5

 

31 Days films I watched over the weekend. Yeah, New England-Atlanta (not to mention Lady Gaga) didn't interest me, so I was right here, watching TCM. I was the one person in America. You're welcome, TCM.

 

2/4

The Bride of Frankenstein (Universal, 1935) - I've now managed to catch two of the only 12 Universal films TCM is showing this month. Wow, apologies to everyone who thinks James Whale is a genius, but this is one crazy movie that is really all over the place and narratively bewildering. Check out Dr. Pretorious' mind-boggling miniature clones who come and go in one scene and are never mentioned again. They look like perfect mini-human beings, so why does the Bride still come out looking like .. well, the way she looks? And what is the deal with Una O'Connor, who serves as some kind of one-woman shrieking cacophony of a Greek chorus. I mean, seriously, the most annoying character in move history? She's a servant at Castle Frankenstein, but her job apparently leaves her with endless free hours to hang out in the village, where she's present for all torch-and-pitchfork hunts, usually standing right beside the Burgermeister, exchanging verbal barbs. She also knows all the villagers so intimately (which seems odd for a member of the castle's domestic), she knows which house cries are coming from and which member is making them (and the villagers let her go upstairs alone to check out who's making the cries). She's a firsthand witness on at least two different occasions to let everyone know the monster is alive and loose. She's also the only person who notices Frankenstein is alive. She's virtually the central character of every scene. I'm stunned she wasn't present for the climactic bridal animation scene, screeching more unnecessary expository dialogue to the audience.

 

Bulitt (Warner Bros., 1968) -  With the possibly exception of Casablanca, I think this must be the film I've watched on TCM more than any other. I mean, I feel like I must catch it every time it airs, not intentionally, but I turn on my TV, and there it is. It's gotten where not only do I know how every scene unfolds in order, but I also almost feel like I could write down the action shot by shot without looking. And even so, I'm still not sure I understand the plot after all these viewings! The mobsters and informants are almost meaningless. They're just there to give Steve McQueen someone to chase and shoot. The real conflict of the movie is between McQueen's Bulitt and Robert Vaughn's Chalmers (is Superintendent Chalmers, or "Super Nintendo Chalmers" as Ralph Wiggum once called him, named after this character?). The whole movie appears to be a set-up for the one moment McQueen can say BS to Vaughn when he suggests compromise is sometimes okay. Anyway, I love the '60s vibe. I love Jacqueline Bissette wearing only pajama tops and apparently sleeping nude. I love the view of the street from her breakfast nook (looks just like the view from the apartment Benjamin rents in The Graduate). I love the flute-led jazz combo at the restaurant (they're probably somebody real and famous, at least within jazz circles, but I've never learned who). 

 

Cabaret (ABC, 1972) - Liza is so great in this movie. Sexy as heck. Adventurous, sexually liberated bohemian on the outside, lost little girl with Daddy abandonment issues on the inside. She tries to seduce Michael York by showing him the former, but only succeeds when she unwittingly reveals the latter. I still have lots of questions. We never really get a sense of just how much Sally has lived up to this role she's playing, that is, just how sexually experienced is she, and how much is just talk? She only sleeps with two men as far as we know over the course of the movie. I do love the scene when the virgin Natalia seeks romantic advice, and we awkwardly witness just how wrong Sally is for this kind of mentorship, suggesting for example, that maybe Natalia and Fritz can just kind of keep it casual, a concept clearly beyond Natalia's comprehension! Then, just after we've completely fallen in love with Sally, she does this ... thing ... acting out of fear as the prospect of domestic bliss in England is becoming too close to reality, something Sally sees more as a prison than an escape. However you lean politically and ethically about this act, in terms of the movie, it's emotionally devastating, especially since she doesn't even inform York in advance. I'm not entirely sure how we're supposed to feel about Sally after she does it, and I don't know what's going to happen to her as she remains in Berlin just as things are about to get really ugly.

 

2/5

Captains Courageous (MGM, 1937) - Is it odd to say I mostly like the scenes at school and the scenes with Melvyn Douglas in them? All the stuff on the fishing boat, which is probably the middle 80 per cent of the movie, I can kind of take or leave. Spencer Tracy has his moments, although he never really completely wrangles down his Portuguese accent. I kept thinking of Chico Marx, honestly. While Tracy is one of my all-time favorite actors, neither of his Oscar-winning roles are among my favorite Tracy performances or Tracy movies. The best performance in this movie by a mile, in my opinion, is Freddie Bartholomew's. He's really great as the little manipulating SOB in the early bits and absolutely breaks you heart without getting all hysterical or sappy in the final bits. Another juvenile of Hollywood's Golden Era virtually gone from the business by the age of 20, though I see on imdb he did come back and do one more movie at the age of 27. I'm curious what he turned out to look like as an adult. Ben M. intimated that a Grand Hotel or Dinner at Eight casting process was conceived for this movie. I'm not entirely sure that's true, but the cast is unusually loaded, even for an MGM pic in the '30s - Tracy, Bartholomew, Douglas, Lionel Barrymore, Mickey Rooney, John Carradine, Rooney's presence is particularly surprising. I would think he was already a relatively big deal by 1937 to be cast in so nothing of a part. In fact, he's gone from the movie for such long stretches, I occasionally forgot he was on the boat! I almost wonder if  he was shooting an Andy Hardy movie or something at the same time, and they just filmed around him.

 

Casablanca (Warner Bros., 1943) - It's Casablanca. I don't know that much more can be said about it. I was struck on this viewing that it's like another movie just wandered into Rick's life. Hypothetically, we should more interested in the story of Victor and Ilsa's flight for freedom (and Paul Henreid was reportedly disappointed when he realized on set that his character wasn't going to be the male lead after all), but you know, we have that movie, up for Oscars that same year in Watch on the Rhine, and which one has gone down in history as the cooler movie? Because we're more interested in the "rock star" cafe owner who suddenly has the lives of his former lover and her husband in his hands and what he decides to do with them. And Claude Rains! "If I were a woman, well, I should be in love with Rick". Wow, that's taking one's admiration to a whole new level!