I Just Watched...

[TomJH]

10 hours ago, Bethluvsfilms said:

 

What happened to John Garfield is so sad.....one can only think of the career he might have had had he not been blacklisted, but I guess you can say that to just about everyone who ended up getting their careers derailed because of McCarthy and the HUAC.

BTW I am curious.....have you have seen either versions of the Postman Always Rings Twice....I have and as much as I like Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, they can't hold a candle to Garfield and Lana Turner. (I was disappointed to read in a book about Nicholson's films how he was so dismissive towards Garfield's performance in the original 1946 film. The fact that the version with Nicholson and Lange was more sexually explicit does not make it better than the Garfield/Turner movie).

I saw the Nicholson version but it's been so many years that perhaps I shouldn't count it any more.

Sorry to hear that Jack was dismissive of Garfield's performance because, if he did, I'm surprised because it's totally unjustified. Garfield is terrific as the ordinary guy, with whom the audience identifies, who succumbs to temptation, driving him to murder in true noir tradition. Yeh, he and Turner's on screen chemistry is still pretty explosive in the '46 film, helping to make it one of my very favourite noirs. Who can blame poor Garfield? I'm not a Turner fan but she's excellent in this film and physically stunning. 

One of the most memorable moments of all '40s dramas is a camera shot of a tube of lipstick rolling across the floor, the camera then tracking across the floor to an image of a gorgeous Lana Turner standing in a doorway, dressed in shorts and an all white outfit, as Garfield, in reaction closeup, takes a deep breath. From that moment on the audience knew his character was doomed.

I don't care how many times Nicholson may have flung Jessica Lange over a kitchen table to do it in the remake. Nothing in that film can compare to this moment for sexual electricity. It's all the more impressive because it was done during the Production Code period.

[Bethluvsfilms]

48 minutes ago, TomJH said:

I saw the Nicholson version but it's been so many years that perhaps I shouldn't count it any more.

Sorry to hear that Jack was dismissive of Garfield's performance because, if he did, I'm surprised because it's totally unjustified. Garfield is terrific as the ordinary guy, with whom the audience identifies, who succumbs to temptation, driving him to murder in true noir tradition. Yeh, he and Turner's on screen chemistry is still pretty explosive in the '46 film, helping to make it one of my very favourite noirs. Who can blame poor Garfield? I'm not a Turner fan but she's excellent in this film and physically stunning. 

One of the most memorable moments of all '40s dramas is a camera shot of a tube of lipstick rolling across the floor, the camera then tracking across the floor to an image of a gorgeous Lana Turner standing in a doorway, dressed in shorts and an all white outfit, as Garfield, in reaction closeup, takes a deep breath. From that moment on the audience knew his character was doomed.

I don't care how many times Nicholson may have flung Jessica Lange over a kitchen table to do it in the remake. Nothing in that film can compare to this moment for mesmerizing sexuality. It's all the more impressive because it was done during the Production Code period.

Most unsatisfying thing about the remake was the ending....(SPOILER ALERT) it ends merely with Frank (Nicholson) weeping over Cora's (Lange) body on the side of the road after she gets tossed from the car when he swerves to avoid a truck.

The  original movie's (and novel's) ironic ending and title was totally lost on all those connected with the 1981 version. Karma needed to be dished out to BOTH characters, not just one of them. Makes me wonder if anyone with the remake even bothered to read Cain's novel.

[hamradio]

"Son of The Mask" (2005)

Dog made the movie.

 

1:13 into clip.

 

[Hoganman1]

On 12/13/2017 at 3:29 PM, jamesjazzguitar said:

The character Audrey Totter plays (Adrienne Fromsett)  is NOT a femme fatale.   At the end the noir protagonist (Marlowe), and Fromsett decide to leave to start a new life together.    With a perfect femme fatale the man ends up dead like Jeff in Out of the Past or Jim in The Killers.    (thus Jane Greer or Ava Gardner are the perfect femme fatale in those films).

In The Lady in the Lake the actual femme fatale is "the woman Marlowe meets (Jayne Meadows), the one who asked for money from Kingsby, turns out to be Mildred Havelend, alias Mrs. Falbrook, alias Muriel. She is the one who killed Chrystal (the "lady in the lake"), as well her former employer's wife and Lavery".

My bad. I meant she appeared to be the femme fatale throughout the film.

 

 

 

 

[Hoganman1]

I also watched Breaking Point and like it, but not as much as To Have and Have Not. I'm a big Bogart fan and it was one of his best. 

[JamesJazGuitar]

3 minutes ago, Hoganman1 said:

I also watched Breaking Point and like it, but not as much as To Have and Have Not. I'm a big Bogart fan and it was one of his best. 

I love both films and as Tom says they are very different in their approach to the basis story.   Clearly Warners and Hawks were taking Rick from Casablanca and transplanting the lone-wolf,  don't stick my neck out for nobody character into another 'those Germans' are nasty' adventure.    The addition of Bacall (which wasn't planned since in the original screenplay the Bogie character has an affair with the wife of the Free French rebel), and we have magic. 

The Breaking Point is much more darker and therefore classified as a noir film.    While there is some hope for a future for the Garfield character many others are left either dead, or with nothing (like that sad boy).   This make the film very moving.

 

[Hoganman1]

Yes, the Garfield film is much more real. Although I'm a big fan of movies from that era, I haven't seen many of Garfield's films. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them going forward. It is a shame his career was cut short by blacklisting. I feel sure that stress contributed greatly to his untimely death.

[JamesJazGuitar]

2 hours ago, Hoganman1 said:

Yes, the Garfield film is much more real. Although I'm a big fan of movies from that era, I haven't seen many of Garfield's films. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them going forward. It is a shame his career was cut short by blacklisting. I feel sure that stress contributed greatly to his untimely death.

Yea,  Garfield is often a hidden gem among studio era actors.   I.e. people discover him later then, say,  Bogie, Grant,  Gable,  Stewart,   etc....

He was another Warner Bros.  contract star for most of his career and he was in some great films for the studio:  I recommend;

The Sea Wolf,  Out of the Fog, The Fallen Sparrow (RKO loan out),  Postman Always Rings Twice (MGM Loan out),  Nobody Lives Forever,   Humoresque,   Body and Soul (United Artist),  and Force of Evil (MGM) and his last film He Ran all the Way (United Artist). 

He is also good in early supporting roles in the WB late 30s 'daughters' pictures (the films that put him on the map).    

[TomJH]

Julie Garfield, John Garfield's actress daughter, will be co-hosting The Postman Always Rings Twice this Sunday with Eddie Muller. It will be interesting to hear her take on what may well be her father's best known film today. I know she's also a big fan of her father's work in The Breaking Point.

Julie's parents below. She has a striking resemblance to her mother.

[Bethluvsfilms]

1 hour ago, Hoganman1 said:

Although I'm a big fan of movies from that era, I haven't seen many of Garfield's films. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them going forward. It is a shame his career was cut short by blacklisting. I feel sure that stress contributed greatly to his untimely death.

You should definitely check out more of his work, he really was a very talented actor. Had he lived and his career rebounded I think he would have gone on to rack up some more Oscar nominations and maybe even a win. Hate the HUAC and McCarthy forever for their part in ruining his life and career, and those of so many others

 

[marcar]

"Manpower" (1941) What a fascinating mash-up of genres and stars. I watched it coz of Edward G., George Raft and Marlene Dietrich and I stayed with it because it had a little bit of everything: comedy, action, romance, tragedy and the greatest cast of character actors all in one film.

There was the basic men-of-action working on power lines story but it was combined with a woman's story trying to reform herself after a year in prison and a rotten life working in clip joints  (an "on-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks backstory). What impressed me was that so much was rolled up in this one little movie. Raft and Robinson were pals working dangerous jobs atop power lines. There were lots of scenes of "hot wires" and guys falling and dying; even Edward G. gets it in the end. There's a story line about Dietrich trying to reform her life by marrying good guy Robinson and a love triangle between the three principals.

So much of the color and timbre of the movie came from a huge cast of very talented character actors: Alan Hale, Frank McHugh, Barton MacLane, Ward Bond, Eve Arden, Joyce Compton, Barbara Pepper, Dorothy Appleby and Walter Catlett with his funny little round black glasses who played the hospital roommate to both Robinson and Raft.

The humor was wide-ranging and really funny: the wedding banquet when Dietrich weds Robinson was held in a Chinese restaurant while a band called "Wing-Ling and his 5 Hot Shots" sang in Chinese; at a diner near the Boulder Dam where the power crew was working the diner owner yelled out the most inventive menu items I've ever heard, including this little morsel when Robinson ordered a bottle of sherry wrapped up "real nice." The owner shouted: "Grapes of Wrath in a spud jacket."

A scene on the morning after the wedding, Dietrich appears in a white apron, baking biscuits with a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth.

Finally, Robinson attempts to kill Raft when he thinks his pal has made a pass at his wife. High atop the power lines they fight it out, Robinson dies and the final shot is of Raft and Dietrich walking away in the sunrise together.

This film, directed by Raoul Walsh, is a real little treasure and worth a watch. I had never heard of it before and I'm glad I  just watched it.

 

[Bethluvsfilms]

1 hour ago, marcar said:

"Manpower" (1941) What a fascinating mash-up of genres and stars. I watched it coz of Edward G., George Raft and Marlene Dietrich and I stayed with it because it had a little bit of everything: comedy, action, romance, tragedy and the greatest cast of character actors all in one film.

There was the basic men-of-action working on power lines story but it was combined with a woman's story trying to reform herself after a year in prison and a rotten life working in clip joints  (an "on-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks backstory). What impressed me was that so much was rolled up in this one little movie. Raft and Robinson were pals working dangerous jobs atop power lines. There were lots of scenes of "hot wires" and guys falling and dying; even Edward G. gets it in the end. There's a story line about Dietrich trying to reform her life by marrying good guy Robinson and a love triangle between the three principals.

So much of the color and timbre of the movie came from a huge cast of very talented character actors: Alan Hale, Frank McHugh, Barton MacLane, Ward Bond, Eve Arden, Joyce Compton, Barbara Pepper, Dorothy Appleby and Walter Catlett with his funny little round black glasses who played the hospital roommate to both Robinson and Raft.

The humor was wide-ranging and really funny: the wedding banquet when Dietrich weds Robinson was held in a Chinese restaurant while a band called "Wing-Ling and his 5 Hot Shots" sang in Chinese; at a diner near the Boulder Dam where the power crew was working the diner owner yelled out the most inventive menu items I've ever heard, including this little morsel when Robinson ordered a bottle of sherry wrapped up "real nice." The owner shouted: "Grapes of Wrath in a spud jacket."

A scene on the morning after the wedding, Dietrich appears in a white apron, baking biscuits with a cigarette hanging out of the corner of her mouth.

Finally, Robinson attempts to kill Raft when he thinks his pal has made a pass at his wife. High atop the power lines they fight it out, Robinson dies and the final shot is of Raft and Dietrich walking away in the sunrise together.

This film, directed by Raoul Walsh, is a real little treasure and worth a watch. I had never heard of it before and I'm glad I  just watched it.

 

I like Manpower too, even if the backstage drama proved to be even more interesting than the film itself.

Robinson and Raft disliked each other tremendously offscreen, and even came to blows off camera. Some speculate it was over Dietrich herself (talk about life imitating art, assuming that was indeed the case), but whatever the reason, they still made an interesting pairing in here.

[Bethluvsfilms]

And speaking of Jessica Lange, I watched FRANCES recently, and thought she was absolutely amazing. I realize the screenwriters probably took a great many liberties with what really happened with Frances Farmer (though there's no doubt she was a very independent, and very troubled woman) but Lange is so believable and so heartbreaking, I can easily forgive whatever embellishes the filmmakers took with the real story.

I like to add I would have given Lange the Oscar for Best Actress that year over Meryl Streep easily.

[limey]

Fragile (2005):

I'd seen this on the schedule a few times & bypassed it, thinking it would be another generic slasher flick - but, I happened to notice it about to start whilst channel hopping & gave it a shot.

Turns out, this Spanish/UK production is actually a quite effective supernatural, creepy (almost) abandoned building chiller. A children's hospital is about to shut it's doors & is in process of moving out the few remaining patients & skeleton staff, when a rush of casualties from a train crash fill the replacement hospital's wards - so, the nearly empty building lingers on in use for a little longer. But the effects of the train crash aren't the only thing that might be keeping the patients there...

The better part of the story relies on the sensible approach of slowly cranking up the tension with atmospheric events, caused by an unseen entity that only the young patients adamantly acknowledge the presence of. When the antagonist is finally revealed, it's actually a mild visual let-down, but was probably needed to pull together the final strands, heading into the story's climax. There's a nice little vignette in the final scene to look out for & a dedication in the credits, that I've yet to find the story behind...

Worth a watch & suspending disbelief for a couple of hours. Not gory, except for a couple of medical scenes that could throw those squeamish about such things.

Source Movieplex

[Tikisoo]

Thanks for that description of FRAGILE-I may be able to view it without ill effects. I never know if a horror film will scare me too much to sleep! (one of the disadvantages of living alone)

MANPOWER was screened by my film group last year. The room was completely engaged & loved it. I recently bumped into a "lineman" at my job and told him about this movie. He was amazed he had never heard of it (professes to be a classic film fan) so I wrote it down for him to search for. He came in last week, took one look at me & said, "Manpower!" apparently, he found a copy. He said it was interesting to see how dangerous things "used to be done" on his job.

[TomJH]

5 hours ago, TikiSoo said:

 

MANPOWER was screened by my film group last year. The room was completely engaged & loved it. I recently bumped into a "lineman" at my job and told him about this movie. He was amazed he had never heard of it (professes to be a classic film fan) so I wrote it down for him to search for. He came in last week, took one look at me & said, "Manpower!" apparently, he found a copy. He said it was interesting to see how dangerous things "used to be done" on his job.

I like Manpower but when it comes to Warners Brothers skill at making working class dramas the studio reached its peak, I feel, with THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940). A partial remake of Bordertown, it has a great cast with some incredible razor sharp smart **** dialogue.

I love Ann Sheridan's roadside cafe waitress. She's hard boiled on the surface but you know she'd drop the tough facade for the right guy. And Sheridan's ability at delivering snappy one liners is really at a peak here.

At one point a couple of the truck drivers are sizing her up physically, using wink-wink trucker terminology ("nice chassis") in reference to her body.

"Who do you think you're kidding," Annie snaps back at them, "You couldn't even afford the headlights!", neatly putting them both in their place.

Of course, Sheridan was just part of a wonderful cast, one of the glories of this film. The film's second half largely belongs to Ida Lupino as a neurotic obsessive woman ready to commit murder (literally) over a man. Her "The doors drove me to it" breakdown scene in the courtroom, accompanied by hysterical laughter, is jolting, even if it is melodramatically over the top.

That's another interesting thing about the film. It's basically a macho man's film (with George Raft in good, well cast, form, and Bogie) but it's the two actresses that actually make the biggest impressions in it. Director Raoul Walsh, who became a friend of both Lupino and Bogart, is in great fast moving form here.

And the supporting cast is terrific too: Alan Hale in one of his most engaging performances as the good natured boss of the truckers (unfortunately married to the wrong woman), Roscoe Karns constantly playing the pin ball machines in the trucker cafe and the always delightful Joyce Compton.

If I had any criticism of it at all it's that the film's second half, turning darker and more melodramatic, comes at the price of a loss of the lighter earlier passages. Sheridan practically disappears from the film as Lupino takes over. Not that I don't like Ida (I do) but those earlier scenes, those set in the trucker cafe, probably remain my favourites of a film with a lot of highlight moments.

One more thing, as a little kid first seeing this film on television I fell head over heels in love with Ann Sheridan. All these years later I'm still carrying a bit of a torch for the lady. Every time I see her light up a cigarette in one of her films I curse under my breath. She was only 51.

[Bethluvsfilms]

Ann Sheridan is definitely a major highlight in They Drive By Night. And Alan Hale is so likable in here (but then was there ever a film where he wasn't likable?) that it really is a tragedy when (SPOILER ALERT) wife Ida Lupino bumps him off. He was too good for her, unfortunate that he could not see that.

Despite the offscreen hostility between them Raft and Bogart do have a good onscreen rapport in here.

Ida Lupino's character really is such a cold-blooded, callous witch but she plays it so deliciously.

I got the DVD so I may just have to watch it again real soon.

[CaveGirl]

I'm going to count the revival of "Twin Peaks" as a film since the boxed set is combining things in a film type manner. Not having Showtime, I was looking forward to a release of the entire series and it has not failed to satisfy. Having only watched Parts One and Two, I can simply say that it has been a bit of a Proustian type of experience, akin to his denouement where people from the past seemingly appear, but all is not what it seems.

 

The premise concerning Agent Cooper is intriquing and the reappearance of characters like Ben Horne, Lucy, Andy, Leland and Sarah Palmer, the Log Lady, Shelly and James Hurley, tests one's ability to recognize people who seem like old friends, friends though who live in a very strange place with mysterious murders and doppelgangers abounding. I look forward to savouring it slowly and haltingly to make the Lynch fix last longer.

[LawrenceA]

This Nude World (1932) - aka This Naked Age. Early nudist exploitation travelogue from director Michael Mindlin. A narrator (Leo Donnelly) guides the viewer through the strange world of the nudist, visiting "health camps" in upstate New York, two in France, and finally one in Germany, "the nudist capital of the world". There's a lot of exercising and nature hikes. The nudity is kept fairly mild. While there's an endless parade of bare butts, women's breasts are rarely shown, and none of the "naughtiest bits" are visible, with some smudging of the images to hide them. Like most nudist films (a popular exploitation genre of the 50's and 60's), much is made of the health benefits of nudist living, and how chaste everyone is, and any overt sexuality is noticeably absent. The film's bizarre highlight is when a dozen or so German nudists on a hike in the woods decide to get down on all fours and crawl after each other for a bit. This is pretty silly, but amusing in its naive, winking luridness.  (5/10)

Source: YouTube.

[Fedya]

A Lion Is in the Streets (1953).

Somebody decided to turn All the King's Men into a comedy.  That's not a good thing.  James Cagney is hilariously miscast with a bad southern accent, playing a backwoods demagogue.  I suppose you could compare this character to Cagney's gangsters, but something about this one seems totally wrong.

Then there's the ridiculous courtroom scene and the judge letting Cagney continue his tirade after citing him for contempt.  Wouldn't the bailiffs just remove him from the courtroom?

And then there's Anne Francis and Barbara Hale fighting an alligator.

A hilarious mess.  5/10

[LsDoorMat]

On 11/19/2017 at 1:09 PM, calvinnme said:

Worldly Goods (1930) 5/10

If there had been more of it, I might have rated it higher. It was a poverty row film all of the way, yet it does not have laughable art design. Nothing looks like cardboard or a toy model. This was a blind buy for me, and I don't regret the purchase or the viewing. The problem is it just ends with no wrap up, plus there is no build up or motivation for the extreme changes in all three main characters.

The opening scene has John C. Tullock, industrialist, being told that the government is unhappy with the performance of his planes. He says "They meet spec don't they?". The answer is "Yes" and he ignores the complaint. Jeff, a WWI pilot, crashes in one of these "Tullock coffins" as they are called, lives, but is blinded by the head injury. Jeff has his best friend meet Mary, his fiancée, at the docks when their boat lands. He tells Mary Jeff died on the way over, because Jeff does not want to burden Mary with a blind man.

Jeff ironically ends up working at an airstrip owned by Tullock, all the time vowing revenge upon the industrialist responsible for his blindness. Mary is rooming with a party girl, and begins accompanying her party girl roommate to some of these parties, all the time retaining her freshness and positive attitude despite her turns of bad luck.

I'll let you watch - if you can find a copy  - and see the rest of this, but these three characters - Tullock, Mary, and Jeff all have their lives intersect in such a way that there could be dozens of interesting denouements. The main transformation is that of Tullock from a money hungry tyrant into someone who genuinely does good works for the right reasons and then does something that nobody would say he owes the human race or anybody in it. Then the film just ends abruptly.

 

 

[NickAndNora34]

THE SANDPIPER (1965)

starring Liz Taylor, Richard Burton, & Eva Marie Saint. 

I basically kind of forced myself to finish this after checking it out from the library, as it was on my watchlist, and I don't fancy myself a quitter (speaking of, I need to finish the last 30 mins of The Last Unicorn, while I'm at it). 

I have liked Liz since I was about 3 years old, and I saw her in "National Velvet" (1944) for the first time. Essentially, Liz plays a woman named Laura Reynolds, who has a young son (he is deemed somewhat of a delinquent due to his rather bohemian upbringing) who is ordered to begin attending St. Simeon's (a religious boarding school). Long story short, Laura meets the priest/headmaster of the school, they fall for each other, and their lives and those around them are never the same afterwards. 

Maybe I had higher expectations? Score: 2.5/5 

[JamesJazGuitar]

8 minutes ago, NickAndNora34 said:

THE SANDPIPER (1965)

starring Liz Taylor, Richard Burton, & Eva Marie Saint. 

I basically kind of forced myself to finish this after checking it out from the library, as it was on my watchlist, and I don't fancy myself a quitter (speaking of, I need to finish the last 30 mins of The Last Unicorn, while I'm at it). 

I have liked Liz since I was about 3 years old, and I saw her in "National Velvet" (1944) for the first time. Essentially, Liz plays a woman named Laura Reynolds, who has a young son (he is deemed somewhat of a delinquent due to his rather bohemian upbringing) who is ordered to begin attending St. Simeon's (a religious boarding school). Long story short, Laura meets the priest/headmaster of the school, they fall for each other, and their lives and those around them are never the same afterwards. 

Maybe I had higher expectations? Score: 2.5/5 

 

The film is OK as you note.   One thing is that Liz doesn't give a very convincing performance.   E.g.  in scenes where she is angry she comes off as 'Ok,  director,  is that how you want me to do angry?'.    What makes all of this stand out even more is the very solid performance of Eva Marie Saint.

[LawrenceA]

Street Without End (1934) - Silent Japanese melodrama from Shochiku and director Mikio Naruse. Sugiko (Setsuko Shinobu) is a young waitress with a bright future. The day after her boyfriend proposes marriage, she's also offered a contract with a film studio to become a movie star. These wonderful options are both lost when she's accidentally hit by a car. The vehicle belongs to rich guy Hiroshi (Hikaru Yamanouchi), and he feels personally responsible, even if it was his chauffeur driving. He makes sure that Sugiko gets all the medical care she needs, while also falling in love with her, but his status-conscious mother and sister disapprove. Also featuring Akio Isono, Nobuko Wakaba, Ayako Katsuragi, Shin'ichi Himori, Chiyoko Katori, Ichiro Yuki, Yukiko Inoue, and Takeshi Sakamoto.

This fits firmly in the "women's picture" weepie genre that Naruse specialized in during the sound era (this would be his final silent film). Shinobu is good as the pure-at-heart Sugiko who gets driven to the emotional edge through no fault of her own. There's a subplot about Sugiko's former roommate becoming a film star, and her relationship with a struggling artist, that doesn't really add to the proceedings, and the film could have been tightened up with its omission. There are a few clever filming tricks used, such as a car crash being depicted not by the vehicle being shown wrecked, but rather having the personal effects of the car's occupants shown falling down a cliff in close-up.   (7/10)

Source: FilmStruck.

 

[Bethluvsfilms]

1 hour ago, NickAndNora34 said:

THE SANDPIPER (1965)

starring Liz Taylor, Richard Burton, & Eva Marie Saint. 

I basically kind of forced myself to finish this after checking it out from the library, as it was on my watchlist, and I don't fancy myself a quitter (speaking of, I need to finish the last 30 mins of The Last Unicorn, while I'm at it). 

I have liked Liz since I was about 3 years old, and I saw her in "National Velvet" (1944) for the first time. Essentially, Liz plays a woman named Laura Reynolds, who has a young son (he is deemed somewhat of a delinquent due to his rather bohemian upbringing) who is ordered to begin attending St. Simeon's (a religious boarding school). Long story short, Laura meets the priest/headmaster of the school, they fall for each other, and their lives and those around them are never the same afterwards. 

Maybe I had higher expectations? Score: 2.5/5 

The Sandpiper is watchable, but that's pretty much all you can say about it. Liz did seemed to be phoning it in and Burton didn't seem to me any more enthusiastic. I agree that Eva Marie Saint is the best thing about the movie, the only actor who was willing to rise up to the material.