I Just Watched...

[Sepiatone]

I saw it on TCM in the past without any narration.  Not catching it's intro last night though, I have no idea why they did that.

 

 

Sepiatone

[cigarjoe]

Fright (1956) Fringe Noir - Lost Noir

 

 

We can call it a Psychological Noir, a Fringe Noir, a Tail Fin Noir "C" movie cheapo. Shot in Hunters Point and Long Island City, New York. It's a film mistakenly dumped into the horror genre, probably because it's director, (who BTW is the brother of director Billy Wilder), finished his career making SiFi and Creature Features.

 

Directed by W. Lee Wilder (The Glass Alibi (1946), The Pretender (1947), Once a Thief (1950), The Big Bluff (1955)) and written by his son Myles Wilder. Music was by Lew Davies, cinematography was by J. Burgi Contner.

 

The film stars Eric Fleming (Rawhide TV Series (1959–1965) as Dr. James Hamilton, Nancy Malone as Ann Summers, Frank Marth (Telefon (1977)) as George Morley, Norman McKay as Inspector Blackburn, Humphrey Davis as Prof. Charles Gore, and and Ned Glass (The Damned Don't Cry (1950), Storm Warning (1951)) as the Taxi Driver.

 

Other Noirs that dealt with hypnotism, Fear in the Night (1947), and Whirlpool (1950), are better known but Fright, fits in nicely with them in a low budget sort of way. Another film that I just recently watched The Hypnotic Eye (1960), is also very noir-ish but it actually does cross over line into the horror genre, whereas Fright does not. Fright is part of a double bill DVD from Alpha Home Entertainment, worth a watch for real New York City location Noir aficionados. 6/10

Full review with more screencaps in Film Noir/Gangster and complete review here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2017/02/fright-1956-fringe-noir-lost-noir.html

[Winslow_Leach]

I saw 42nd Street Wed night, but missed the introduction to the film. Can anyone tell me why it was narrated? Have they always shown this version and I just didn't notice it? Anyway, it was annoying to me...

 

The descriptive audio channel was broadcast for a reason unclear last I checked. But I haven't checked since last night.

[film lover 293]

"Two Mules For Sister Sara" (1970)--Starring Shirley MacLaine and Clint Eastwood. Directed by Don Siegel.  Story by Budd Boetticher.

 

Quirky, occasionally hilarious western/comedy.

 

In 1860's Mexico, Hogan (Eastwood) finds a woman who is being stripped and about to be violated.  He kills the would-be assaulters, and when the woman dresses, he finds she is a nun--Sister Sara (MacLaine).  They find out they are working to overthrow French rule and team up.  The rest of the film is about their interaction as they work together to accomplish their goal(s).

 

Eastwood's Hogan is a thick headed version of his spaghetti western character, melded with a man who has been burned once and is now out only for himself and his needs.  I've never thought of Eastwood as a comedian, but he does some priceless double and triple takes when events start happening too fast for him to process.

 

MacLaine is matter of fact and very amusing as Sister Sara, who slowly falls in love with Hogan.  She gets all the best lines, and her worldliness confuses Hogan to the point where he can't think. Her interaction with Eastwood carries the film and keeps it watchable, even as it turns into a conventional shoot-em-up.  The last minute of the film is very funny.

 

Gabriel Figueroa did the outstanding photography.  Ennio Morricone did the quirky score, which seems to be laughing at its' own private joke.  The film received no Oscar nominations.

 

Very amusing, entertaining Western.  3.4/4.

 

Source--dailymotion.com.

[sewhite2000]

Mr. Gorman, thanks for the info. Fast Times at Ridgemont High is another film I was too young to see in the theaters, but I saw it on HBO when I was a freshman in high school, and certain scenes with Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason-Leigh caused many strange and wonderful changes in my body ... ahem. I had forgotten it too had a casual abortion, although as I recall we don't see the inside of the clinic in the theatrical release, just Judge Reinhold giving Leigh a lift after it's all over.

 

There was a movie I skipped as I was furiously typing away in my last post. I also watched:

 

The Crowd (MGM, 1928) - Accuse me of not being a true classic movie fan, but I generally have a hard time watching silents, though there was a time a few years back I forced myself to watch most of the biggies. But this is truly a great movie, the best silent ever? Oh, okay, that's probably crazy talk. I know there's also Nosferatu and Metropolis and Haxxan and some others, but this one is right up there. Hey, check it out: a visible toilet! Those disappeared from movies for, I don't know, 35 years. On-location footage of late '20s NYC? Unbelievable! Ditto clips of Coney Island. And without revealing anything, I find the ending quite inventive for 1928. 

[LornaHansonForbes]

i KEEP TRYING To (oops) watch STRANGER THINGS on netflix and I keep not liking it.

what am i missing?

anyone?

[wouldbestar]

Destination Tokyo.  Thank you, Tony Curtis.

 

This is the movie he spoke of so glowingly in a tribute to Cary Grant, his boyhood movie idol.  He says he had no idea seeing it that 16 years later he’d be starring with Grant in another WWII submarine movie, abet a comedy, Operation Petticoat.  After that I knew I wanted to see it.

 

This film has fine acting, believable characters and a plausible story that gives us information about the Japanese point of view and living conditions of its people which humanizes them.  The contrast with that of the lives of our people, which we see and hear in flashbacks and verbal descriptions, say it all about why these men are in this war.

 

Cary Grant, English accent and all,  is surprisingly good as the ship’s CO.  The cast includes John Garfield, Alan Hale, Sr., John Forsythe, Dane Clark, William Prince, Tom Tully, Warner Anderson and John Ridgeley.  A few years later Anderson and Tully would be pounding a beat as San Francisco detectives on The Line Up twenty years before Karl Malden and Michael Douglas were at it.

 

The men are of many national roots and from all parts of the country, a staple of war movies.  They are predominately Christian as a December 25th celebration shows.  One gift to cook Hale, here in comic relief, will play an unexpected part in the story. 

 

Seeing Hale in this I couldn't help but think of son Alan, Jr. doing similar service in Up, Periscope with James Garner.  I don't think this apple ever fell from the tree.    

 

A real surprise was Peter Whitney as one of the sailors.  Instead of the chubby outlaw,  bully or “dummy” we saw so often in movies and TV shows of the 50’s he’s quite handsome here if still a bit stocky.  It was a kick seeing him like this.

 

This is a great “war movie” in that it’s all not combat scenes but a tribute to ordinary men who found themselves in the most horrible of situations because of their dedication to their ideals and protecting those they love. 

 

Now hear this; see this movie, that’s an order.

[LawrenceA]

i KEEP TRYING To (oops) watch STRANGER THINGS on netflix and I keep not liking it.

what am i missing?

anyone?

 

I haven't seen it yet, although it sounds like my type of show. That being said, I've read that it likes to wallow in 80's nostalgia which I could do without. I have fond memories of the 80's, but the nostalgia for said time period is getting tedious.

[RoyCronin]

You know what they say about fashion; if you first wore it when it was hot and fashionable, you are way too old to wear it the next time round. 80s shoulder pads are coming back big time.....

[EricJ]

i KEEP TRYING To (oops) watch STRANGER THINGS on netflix and I keep not liking it.

what am i missing?

anyone?

 

I think I know what you're "missing", and that happens to be the very word I picked, albeit in a different context:

"80's Throwback (now with real cane sugar!)", The Movie Activist, 1/24/17

It's not so much that we miss the 80's, or our 80's movie/TV childhood, it's what made it 80's that didn't ruin it, and why we're sensing a withdrawal for it.  

Is there any other earthly reason we would watch "The Goldbergs"?  Seriously?

 

(Yeah, blog's slowing down to twice a month, now, since I've covered all the Universal Truths, and I was on vacation before I could do a "Why Hollywood doesn't buy new scripts anymore" column that I'd unfortunately under-researched.)

[EricJ]

I Just Watched, 31 Days of Oscar Edition, Post #3: 2/6-2/7

 

Fame (MGM, 1980) - Another first-time viewing for me. As a child of that era, I certainly remember the commercials for the movie on TV, and the Irene Cara song, which was all over the radio, but I was too young to get into this rated R movie, so I finally watched it for the first time only 37 years after its release! Just a handful of observations: all the actors playing alleged high school freshmen were in the 17-23 range, which is very common in modern movies and television. There is a casual abortion scene in the year before Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency, one I think would be unlikely to be seen in any mainstream Hollywood film in the drastic shift to the right our country has been steadily undergoing ever since he took office. I feel in its effort to present all types of teens, the films had an unusually authentic assessment of its times. Overall, though, there are too many characters and storylines and too many jumps between them. I found it all too chaotic. The big dance scene in the middle of traffic - awesome or a bunch of obnoxious beautiful kids shoving it in the face of everyone else? 

 

The Fame TV series--which was tuneful and toe-tapping but infamously a bit dopey--brought the level of the Movie's tone down considerably over the years, until "the Kids From Fame" became an 80's-kitsch cliche'...Finally ending in the debacle that was "Carrie: the Musical" on Broadway.

Alan Parker gave the movie a look of street-gritty pre-Koch 1980 NYC, and knew how to give the musical numbers energy, but when you look at the script today, it suffers a bit.  (In fact, I was in the minority thinking the movie's script was obnoxious and dopey back then too, with the plain-Jane acting student being the comedy-relief white whipping-girl, but the look of Parker's movie just felt good.)

 

Just recently, I'd been going through all four "That's Entertainment" movies, and had a rush of historical decade-reappraisal when the Big Street Dance was clipped as an example of "Today's music" in 1984's "That's Dancing".

Even so, all I could see by today's standards was...obnoxious kids shoving it in the face of comically stereotyped "establishment" characters (like the grownups in the cars honking their horns), because that's what 80's Hollywood thought the Young People wanted to see.

It was a simpler era, when Hollywood could make films for just one audience.

 

 Mr Gorman

♣SHAMELESS MOVIE PLUG♣:  The forgotten 1980 release 'HEADIN' FOR BROADWAY'.  It seems like director Joseph Brooks ran out of production money and wasn't able to film all the scenes he needed.  Even so, I rather liked it despite its shortcomings.  Like 'FAME', I enjoyed the music in "Headin' for Broadway".  Starred Rex Smith, Paul Carafotes, Terri Treas, Vivian Reed, Gene Foote.  Runs 89 minutes and is [PG].        

 

  

Ah, you're right, almost forgot about Joseph Brooks' short-lived three-movie ride in the late-70's:

​"You Light Up My Life" had made him A Thing on the strength of soundtrack sales, but quick, can anyone hum a few bars of "If Ever I See You Again", which they hoped would make lightning strike twice?

"Heading for Broadway" was supposed to be a hit song too, but looks more like somebody wanted to sneak in the unauthorized A Chorus Line movie before Richard Attenborough could do the real one.

[LornaHansonForbes]

also...

 

sorry, but still not feeling Oscar month.

 

i've watched a bunch of rifftraxes via amazon and have enjoyed quite a few, mainly for fans of MST 3K (the Sci-Fi years)...the movies they do are often edgier and more violent, gory and nudity-laden than what they did on MST, and they're no edited.

 

the one i've enjoyed the most has been THE LAST SHARK (1981)- an Italian Jaws rip-off with Vic Morrow; THE DEVIL'S HAND with Robert Alda was funny, ZINDY THE SWAMP BOY had an ending that floored me, I also really enjoyed the Phillipine-made BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT with ATTACK OF THE THE EYE CREATURES leading man John Ashley. SWAMP OF THE RAVENS and KNGDOM OF THE SPIDERS were both a bit too violent for me to enjoy.

[RoyCronin]

Eric: you mean a pre-Giuliani New York. The Ed Koch NYC I moved to still had the wonderful rat infested, dancing girls, porno shop adult video store hellhole of a Times Square depicted in FAME. I even saw a pimp smack the sunglasses off one of his gals, just like in the movie! Too bad Disney moved in.

[EricJ]

Eric: you mean a pre-Giuliani New York. The Ed Koch NYC I moved to still had the wonderful rat infested, dancing girls, porno shop adult video store hellhole of a Times Square depicted in FAME. I even saw a pimp smack the sunglasses off one of his gals, just like in the movie! Too bad Disney moved in.

 

Okay, Pre-Giuliani.  "French Connection" and "Taxi Driver" were pre-Koch.

 

LornaHansonForbes

i've watched a bunch of rifftraxes via amazon and have enjoyed quite a few, mainly for fans of MST 3K (the Sci-Fi years)...the movies they do are often edgier and more violent, gory and nudity-laden than what they did on MST, and they're no edited.

 

the one i've enjoyed the most has been THE LAST SHARK (1981)- an Italian Jaws rip-off with Vic Morrow; THE DEVIL'S HAND with Robert Alda was funny, ZINDY THE SWAMP BOY had an ending that floored me, I also really enjoyed the Phillipine-made BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT with ATTACK OF THE THE EYE CREATURES leading man John Ashley. SWAMP OF THE RAVENS and KNGDOM OF THE SPIDERS were both a bit too violent for me to enjoy.

 

 

The RiffTraxes seem to have the Sci-Fi-era comics lazily falling back on one line that sounds good--some nutty unexplainable dialogue line that they keep harping, harping and harping on for the rest of the movie for the lack of other jokes, long after the running-gag element of the joke stopped being funny, like school bullies haranguing the nerdy kid the rest of the year for the one stupid thing he said on the first day of class--and then just cover it with a bunch of current-celeb references.

You can drinking-game the number of Shia LaBouef jokes in an average episode, and for some odd reason, every episode MUST feature at least one inappropriate and disturbingly extended personal slam at Nick Nolte looking a bit more drunken-street-bum these days, for no apparent movie-inspired reason known to man.

And, a few cult-of-personality shoutouts to fanboy refs from their more successful episodes, like "Star Wars Holiday Special" or "Santa & the Ice Cream Bunny"--and "Space Mutiny", of course--Because Fandom.

 

The Beatles-breakup of the old MST3K group has caused one faction or the other to suffer a bit since, like listening to George Harrison and Paul McCartney albums vs. Ringo Starr ones, and the Rifftrax crew is most assuredly the Ringo Starrs of MST3K.

[cigarjoe]

Panic In Needle Park (1971) Al Pacino, Kitty Winn, Raul Julia, Joe Santos, and Paul Sorvino. A slice of life of the heroin addicts who frequent "Needle Park" (Sherman Square at 72nd and Broadway) in New York City. Never caught it when it premiered, interesting film on Netflix streaming 7/10

[Winslow_Leach]

 

The RiffTraxes seem to have the Sci-Fi-era comics lazily falling back on one line that sounds good--some nutty unexplainable dialogue line that they keep harping, harping and harping on for the rest of the movie for the lack of other jokes, long after the running-gag element of the joke stopped being funny, like school bullies haranguing the nerdy kid the rest of the year for the one stupid thing he said on the first day of class--and then just cover it with a bunch of current-celeb references.

You can drinking-game the number of Shia LaBouef jokes in an average episode, and for some odd reason, every episode MUST feature at least one inappropriate and disturbingly extended personal slam at Nick Nolte looking a bit more drunken-street-bum these days, for no apparent movie-inspired reason known to man.

And, a few cult-of-personality shoutouts to fanboy refs from their more successful episodes, like "Star Wars Holiday Special" or "Santa & the Ice Cream Bunny"--and "Space Mutiny", of course--Because Fandom.

 

The Beatles-breakup of the old MST3K group has caused one faction or the other to suffer a bit since, like listening to George Harrison and Paul McCartney albums vs. Ringo Starr ones, and the Rifftrax crew is most assuredly the Ringo Starrs of MST3K.

 

 

So, Eric...Are you my non-evil twin?

[Winslow_Leach]

Hi folks.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that Joseph Brooks, the songwriter and semi-filmmaker who gave us "You Light Up My Life" on both screen and vinyl, was an evil cretin who committed suicide rather than answer to his crimes, managing in his final communication to this world to both maintain innocence and blame his victim(s) for his suicide in his note.

[Mr. Gorman]

I knew that, Winslow.  He got more pervy as he got older and put a plastic bag over his head in 2011 at 73 to suffocate himself.  He'd put ads in the paper for aspiring actresses and behaved sleazily once they arrived at his apartment.   

[Fedya]

So will Roman Polanski commit suicide too?

[Winslow_Leach]

So will Roman Polanski commit suicide too?

 

 

Polanski faced his charges once. They were too lenient, and he wasn't going to face them again.

But Roman Polanski's victim not only forgives him, but has appeared with him and pleads with people to let it go, as it isn't any more pleasant for her when the crusaders grab their pitchforks and fire up their torches than it is for him.

 

Joe Brooks had multiple victims, and never stopped until he committed suicide. Unlike Polanski, he never took responsibility for his crimes, not even in his suicide note. Furthermore, Roman Polanski may not have paid sufficiently for his sins in the eyes of many, but there's a rich Stanford student who is walking around right now after brutally assaulting an incapacitated young woman a year ago who didn't pay enough either, yet he doesn't seem to have attracted the hate of the masses like Polanski. I doubt most of Polanski's crusaders even know that young man's name.

[sewhite2000]

I'm not sure how hiding out in Europe for 40 years and using every legal means at his disposal to fight extradition is "taking responsibility for his crimes". You want to elaborate on what you mean by that?

[EricJ]

So will Roman Polanski commit suicide too?

 

No, he took responsibility and directed "Tess".  

(Which Thomas Hardy didn't necessarily write as a rape-survivor story, but Roman decided to make it one by putting Natassja Kinski in it.)

[NickAndNora34]

Cujo (based off a Stephen King novel of the same name) 

I just recently found this film on Netflix, which was a blessing since it's been on my watchlist for a while now. I didn't quite know what to expect. I enjoyed King's "Green Mile" and "The Shining," so I decided to give this one a try. 

 

In a small town (that to the best of my knowledge remains nameless), there is a family of three (upon which the story mainly revolves around); a mother, a father, and their 6 year old son, Tad, who conveniently happens to be deathly terrified of monsters (so afraid, in fact, that his father made up a poem in which the purpose was to drive monsters away). Honestly, if I was in this movie, none of the horrible things with the Saint Bernard dog would have happened, because I have more than half a mind and I am not blind, therefore, I would be able to tell that something was wrong with the animal). 

 

All in all, it was a pretty good movie. The young boy, Danny Pintauro, definitely was believable as the terrified young boy. 

[Winslow_Leach]

I'm not sure how hiding out in Europe for 40 years and using every legal means at his disposal to fight extradition is "taking responsibility for his crimes". You want to elaborate on what you mean by that?

How about this:

"As a result of the plea bargain, Polanski pleaded guilty to the charge of "Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with a minor,"^[119][120] and was ordered to undergo 90 days of psychiatric evaluation at California Institution for Men at Chino.^[121] Upon release from prison after 42 days, Polanski agreed to the plea bargain, his penalty to be time served along with probation."

 

No denial. No "Not guilty". He abided by the plea bargain.

 

But because he wasn't your garden variety sex offender, but a Hollywood sex offender, that wasn't enough- and it shouldn't have been, except for the fact that it was the deal that had been agreed to by the DA.

 

So then...

 

"However, he learned afterward that the judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, had told some friends that he was going to disregard the plea bargain and sentence Polanski to 50 years in prison:^[120][122] "I'll see this man never gets out of jail," he told Polanski's friend, screenwriter Howard E. Koch.^[123] Gailey's attorney confirmed the judge changed his mind after he personally met with the judge in his chambers."

 

 

Look- What Polanski did was reprehensible, the act of degenerate scum. He should have done serious time, and maybe he would have agreed to a sentence that involved years. But he didn't get the chance to turn such a sentence down in lieu of doing half a century. (IMO, the DA should have cited Polanski as a flight risk, held him without bail, and forced him to go through an actual trial.)

So, we were collectively robbed of justice somewhere between a slap on the wrist and 50 years.

Typically in the USA, we accept the lousy decisions made in our flawed courts. We have no choice. We have a concept called "double jeopardy". We didn't retry the officers involved in the Rodney King case. We didn't retry OJ Simpson- not for murder, anyway. But Polanski is a special case, right? He's the exception that makes the rule.

Right?

 

 

Lastly, two things stand out for me:

- He hasn't to anyone's knowledge reoffended.

- The victim has made peace with the crime and does not want that peace disturbed by crusaders "bringing Roman Polanski to justice".

 

Now, please tell me you were just as indignant over Brock Turner's light sentence, despite the fact he wasn't from Hollywood.

 

Anyway, having elaborated on my comment, I'd rather stop posting about this sordid crap. I'm sorry for the fact that I allowed the mention of Joseph Brooks to trigger my anger over the fact that he never had to answer for his crimes in any way, and that many people aren't even aware of them, unlike, say, the crimes of Roman Polanski. It certainly wasn't my intention to have Roman Polanski's crimes revisited on this board.

[sewhite2000]

Okay, you cite stuff, I can cite stuff. Rittenband soon after denied all this stuff that was alleged against him shortly after Polanski fled:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Polanski_sexual_abuse_case