I Just Watched...

[TomJH]

Zaza (1939)

A lavish period drama, with a musical stage backdrop, from Paramount featuring Claudette Colbert in a vivacious performance that has been little seen in years.

George Cukor was at the directorial helm of this film (previously filmed twice in the silents, once with Gloria Swanson) which, through its impressive costumes and sets, splendidly recreates the atmosphere and back stage excitement of small provincial theatres in France before the turn of the 20th Century. The first portion of the film works well in this recreation, with Colbert, as a musical star on the rise, in delightful form as an impulsive, flirtatious charmer who, eventually, falls for a gentleman admirer and quits the theatre circuit to move in with him.

Aside from the film's handsome production values, Zaza also has an impressive supporting cast. Bert Lahr, as Zaza's stage partner/manager/friend gives, surprisingly, a straight dramatic performance that is quietly effective. You can see the worry and hurt in his eyes as he frets about his partner's later heartache. Also featured are Helen Westley as Zaza's frequently screeching step mother who gets on everyone's nerves even if she does mean well, Constance Collier as Zaza's faithful assistant and, particularly impressive, Genevieve Tobin as an envious stage competitor constantly making catty comments. Tobin is so good in this role (and vivacious in her own right right, too) that I wish her part had been bigger.

The problem with the film is that dramatically it never quite seems to jell. Herbert Marshall, as the gentleman with whom Zaza falls in love who will also bring her so much pain, hardly seems worth all the fuss. Marshall is elegant, as usual, and superficially charming but the audience (or, at least, this audience) can never quite understand exactly what it is that Zaza sees in him. The film, in fact, starts to become dreary as Zaza goes through the woes of a painful love affair.

Earlier in the film, though, before all that dreariness strikes, we get to see Colbert and Lahr do their stage act together. Lahr, a wonderful old stage pro at this kind of thing, combined with a vivacious Colbert, who does her own singing and flounces about the stage in a frilly costume, flirting and constantly laughing and smiling, are an absolute joy to behold. Colbert, in particular, looks like she's having the time of her life. It's a shame they only share this one number together in the film but, at least, they make it count.

There's a delightful little moment at the film's beginning, the scene which first introduces Zaza and her troupe to us, as they are traveling by train in the early morning on their way to a small town to perform. Lahr and Westley are grumbling and barking at one other when Colbert, stretched out on a wooden bench, first awakens to their cacophony.

Colbert stretches and smiles, and is glad to be awake for a new day. As Lahr and Westley continue to noisily snipe at one another, Colbert, in the midst of her early morning enthusiasm, quietly tells both of them to shutup under her breath, but the smile never leaves her face. It's a scene which clearly establishes the sunny disposition of Zaza's character, and the subtlety of Colbert's performance here makes the moment a small delight.

Zaza has been released on DVD by Universal as part of their Vault Series in a handsome print. The film's dramatic failures aside, it is worth a look for Colbert's engaging performance, and those of the supporting cast, as well as the film's atmospheric detailed recreation of small town provincial theatres.

2.5 out of 4

 

[speedracer5]

3 hours ago, TikiSoo said:

Re: Jeopardy '53....we liked this movie so much, that photo was made into a magnet for MrTiki's fridge

We laughed through it, it was THE most absurd movie we ever watched. Who lets their kid wander on a dilapidated pier? Who stupidly goes out after them? What cop keeps their gun in a car glove box? Poor Babs, married to such a fool. It made us both fans of Ralph Meeker, though. He's a riot.

I have this movie on my DVR but haven't watched it yet.  Maybe I'll watch it tonight!

[cigarjoe]

12 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

I really enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies. I even ranked them collectively as my favorite movie of the 2000-2009 decade. But I could not get into the Hobbit movies, and I think they got progressively worse. There's been a lot written about them and why they went wrong, and I don't feel like rehashing all of that again, but I have to agree that Peter Jackson was not into making these later three movies at all, and it shows. There are a few scattered good scenes throughout the trilogy, but combined they don't add up to even half of those found in a single installment of the earlier trilogy. I agree that Martin Freeman was good, and I thought Richard Armitage did a good job, although some of the later film moments, with the dragon's horde of gold, are awful. I found the Hobbit films to be frustrating, occasionally boring, and a major disappointment.

They took the shortest Tolkien story and padded it with thrill ride type of BS, (future amusement park rides?), It should have been one and done, it isn't and it shows. 

[LawrenceA]

The Master of Ballantrae (1953) - Technicolor swashbuckler from Warner Brothers and director William Keighley. Scottish nobleman Jamie Durie (Errol Flynn) and Irish adventurer Col. Francis Burke (Roger Livesey) find themselves on the losing side of the 1745 Jacobite uprising against the English. After Jamie believes that his brother Henry (Anthony Steel) has betrayed them to the English, Jamie and Burke head to the West Indies, where they become involved with pirates and other assorted brigands. Also featuring Beatrice Campbell, Yvette Furneaux, Felix Aylmer, Mervyn Johns, Charles Goldner, Ralph Truman, Francis De Wolff, Jacques Berthier, and Gillian Lynne.

Flynn returns to one of his signature genres with mixed results. There are lively moments, with acrobatic sword fights and pirate raids, but there's an emptiness to it, also, and I could never quite get invested in the characters or the story. Flynn, looking a bit haggard and puffy, tries to hit the right notes, but he often looks like he has a rock in his shoe or some other nagging, painful annoyance. This was Flynn's final film under contract to Warner Brothers.  (6/10)

Source: TCM.

[NickAndNora34]

1 hour ago, cigarjoe said:

They took the shortest Tolkien story and padded it with thrill ride type of BS, (future amusement park rides?), It should have been one and done, it isn't and it shows. 

I agree 100% if you're talking about The Hobbit. I'm currently watching them, and I'm irritated because there are about 3 lines of actual plot/dialogue from the actual book, and the rest is Peter Jackson's and Guillermo Del Toro's (Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens also contributed to the screenplay) lazily written made up plot. Why is there a full 10 minute scene devoted to the Albino Orc and his henchmen talking about how they need to capture and kill the dwarfs? Why are there so many pointless scenes where random added characters stand around and talk? Why is there such an emphasis on Thorin Oakenshield and his dwarfs? There are so many things wrong with these ones, it's ludicrous. 

*stay tuned for my lengthy & angsty review of all 3 movies*

Edited July 24, 2018 by NickAndNora34

[cigarjoe]

32 minutes ago, NickAndNora34 said:

I agree 100% if you're talking about The Hobbit. 

Yes of course The Hobbit. Heck, there was enough material in Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy to easily stretch Jackson's films into a Tetralogy.

[Fedya]

9 hours ago, TikiSoo said:

What cop keeps their gun in a car glove box?

This idiot, although as far as I know he was never disciplined for his negligence the way a non-cop would have been.

[TomJH]

2 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

The Master of Ballantrae (1953)

 

I've always been fond of The Master of Ballantrae, which I consider to be Flynn's last good film.

Director William Keighley (his final film) keeps the production moving at a brisk pace, and the Technicolor of Jack Cardiff is quite outstanding in a film that benefits from its various European location shootings, including Malta. A number of the film's action scenes, too, are well choreographed, further enhanced by William Alwyn's musical accompaniment.

And I have to say that the largely British supporting cast is quite good, too, superior to some of Flynn's earlier '50s Warners productions filmed in America. At 43 Flynn's light heartedness was gone and he may seem a little grim but he still emotionally invests himself in the role of Jamie Durie and does a quite commendable  job, I feel. He also still looked convincing with a sword in his hand.

Beatrice Campbell may be a bland leading lady but, on the other hand, Yvonne Furneaux scores well in the smaller role as the sexy tavern wench who (spoiler alert) betrays Durie to the British. In particular, though, Roger Livesey, as Flynn's Irish companion-in-arms, comes close to stealing the show, bringing some much appreciated rough-hewn humour to the proceedings.

In a sequence towards the film’s end Livesey has some dialogue that is my favourite in the film. It’s a quiet, reflective moment. Flynn and Livesey share a prison cell as the dawn fast approaches and they face the gallows that morning, when Livesey starts to ruminate about life, and he does so with feeling.

“There’s almost a lift in the sky out there, and the minutes will be racing for it. Not much time to remember all the girls you’ve known, all the laughter you’ve heard, all the gold you’ve spent and all the plans you had to spend it on. Ah, the places we’ve not seen, Jamie, the things that lie about the world, the fun of it.”

Those reflective comments are something with which I suspect the real Flynn would have identified.

I also recall seeing Flynn's stunt double, Patrick Crean, interviewed years ago about the positive experience he had in working with the actor on this film. He brought a sword with him to the interview which had been given to him as a gift by Flynn and was personally inscribed by the actor. Crean, by the way, struck me as having a bit of a resemblance to Douglas Fairbanks Jr, and there are times in watching the stunt work in Master when I can clearly recognize his profile, in particular when he is doubling for Flynn in that duel aboard the ship with the French pirate dandy.

Hero Flynn

Patrick Crean doubling for our hero in that same action sequence

 

[LawrenceA]

Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) - Technicolor version of W. Somerset Maugham's story "Miss Thompson", from Columbia Pictures and director Curtis Bernhardt. On an isolated South Pacific island, the unexpected arrival of Sadie Thompson (Rita Hayworth) causes an uproar among the local men at the US Marine Corps base, as well as with visiting philanthropist and religious zealot Alfred Davidson (Jose Ferrer). Sadie quickly strikes up a relationship with Marine Sgt. O'Hara (Aldo Ray), but the increasingly-offended Davidson will stop at nothing to see Miss Thompson and her wicked ways escorted off of the island. Also featuring Russell Collins, Diosa Costello, Harry Bellaver, Wilton Graff, Charles Bronson, Peggy Converse, Henry Slate, Rudy Bond, Frances Morris, and Al Kikume.

Previously filmed in '28 with Gloria Swanson and in '32 with Joan Crawford, this version is heavily censored due to the production code, although it still manages to be mildly racy for the time. I really wasn't liking Rita Hayworth in this, but gradually I began to accept her take on the Thompson character. She's played as not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, a good-time girl in over her head and barely able to take care of herself. She gets to sing several songs, only she's dubbed, and the synching is terrible. Aldo Ray is his usual lunk-headed gorilla, while Ferrer gets to be self-righteous and bombastic. Bronson gets a little more to do than usual at this stage of his career, playing one of the other Marines, but it's still not much, and he's still billed as Buchinsky (but at least he even got a credit this time). This was shot in 3-D, and played very briefly that way, but it flopped, so a flat version was widely released. The movie received an Oscar nomination for Best Song ("Blue Pacific Blues").     (5/10)

Source: Amazon video.

[cigarjoe]

Married Too Young (1962) Sanctimonious Horse Poop

Ridiculous cautionary tale about two straight arrow SoCal high school kids Tommy ( Harold Lloyd Jr.) and Helen (Jana Lund) trying to to the right thing and get married before playing hide the sausage in the spacious back seat of Tommy's rag top. 

They are so cute they don't even spend the night together after they get hitched. All that the film makers show is the dreary side of marriage and not anything about all the boinking they are both enjoying most likely a good part of their 24/7 week. To paraphrase Cheech & Chong- "Boinking will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no boinking."

Tommy trying to make ends meet even starts dealing in stolen cars one of which the newly weds are driving when they are chased by the cops. They go right over the edge of Mulholland Drive. That will learn 'em. 4/10

[Hibi]

What a sad end!

[cigarjoe]

5 minutes ago, Hibi said:

What a sad end!

Spoilers - they don't die, and we even get a lecture from the judge blaming the parents for not giving them enough love at home.....

[Hibi]

LOL.

[EricJ]

5 hours ago, NickAndNora34 said:

I agree 100% if you're talking about The Hobbit. I'm currently watching them, and I'm irritated because there are about 3 lines of actual plot/dialogue from the actual book, and the rest is Peter Jackson's and Guillermo Del Toro's (Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens also contributed to the screenplay) lazily written made up plot. Why is there a full 10 minute scene devoted to the Albino Orc and his henchmen talking about how they need to capture and kill the dwarfs? Why are there so many pointless scenes where random added characters stand around and talk? Why is there such an emphasis on Thorin Oakenshield and his dwarfs? There are so many things wrong with these ones, it's ludicrous. 

*stay tuned for my lengthy & angsty review of all 3 movies*

Originally, Jackson and Del Toro announced two movies, "An Unexpected Journey", and "There and Back Again".

But Warner insisted on a NEW TRILOGY, which was fine with Jackson, as Creeping Subplot was setting in with enough new improv material for three.

(And you want "pointless", wait till you get to the third movie, where we not only get whole central subplot arcs devoted to characters who aren't even remotely from the book, but there as PC "political metaphor" ones as well, with a distinctly fruit-flavored nyah-nyah low-comedy "punishment" to them...I'm tellin' ya, it's starting to make you think about PJ, and just why the heck he did do "Lovely Bones", never mind that gender-surgery movie he wanted to do at one point.)

[LawrenceA]

The Moonlighter (1953) - Weak western from Warner Brothers and director Roy Rowland. Wes Anderson (Fred MacMurray) is targeted by a lynch mob for cattle rustling (the title refers to one who does so at night), only they hang the wrong man. Wes escapes from jail during the confusion, and eventually targets the members of the lynch mob for revenge. He also tries to reconnect with ex-lover Rela (Barbara Stanwyck). Also featuring Ward Bond, William Ching, John Dierkes, Morris Ankrum, Jack Elam, Charles Halton, Norman Leavitt, Sam Flint, Myra Marsh, Tom Keene, Byron Foulger, Dolores Fuller, Myron Healey, Gene Roth, and William Kerwin.

This was another 3-D movie on initial release, only it's not as apparent, with less stuff thrown at the screen. One indicator is the intermission that pops up, an oddity in that the movie only runs 77 minutes. The clunky 3-D technology required more time to switch reels and align them properly. Other than the gimmickry involved, there's absolutely nothing memorable about this general waste of time.   (5/10)

Source: TCM.

[LawrenceA]

Niagara (1953) - Technicolor noir from 20th Century Fox and director Henry Hathaway. Married couple Polly (Jean Peters) and Ray Cutler (Max Showalter) take a delayed honeymoon to Niagara Falls. They meet another couple at their motor court motel, the gorgeous Rose (Marilyn Monroe) and her troubled Army vet husband George Loomis (Joseph Cotten). Polly finds herself drawn into the Loomis' marital psychodrama, which takes a turn towards the murderous. Also featuring Denis O'Dea, Richard Allan, Don Wilson, Lurene Tuttle, Russell Collins, Will Wright, Arch Johnson, Sean McClory, Minerva Urecal, and Harry Carey Jr.

This has to be one of the best looking color films of the 1950's. The vibrant hues really pop off the screen, and it really accentuates the film's two greatest assets: the beautiful Niagara Falls locations, and Marilyn Monroe at the peak of her allure. She is absolutely stunning as the bad girl Rose, with sinful scarlet lips, and a walk that forces the camera to linger. The movie is more than a little censor-testing, too, with Monroe appearing nude-but-obscured in the shower, and nude in bed covered only in a thin cotton bed sheet. There are other people in the movie, too, and Peters and Cotten are both good dealing with the story's heaviest moments. I could have done without Showalter, though. A lot of the sub-plot involving a police investigation was reportedly cut, so the film doesn't flow as well as it should. Stylistically I'd give this movie a 9, but the weakened story lowers that a bit.   (7/10)

Source: Encore Classics.

 

 

[TomJH]

6 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

Niagara (1953).

I could have done without Showalter, though.

 

You too?

"Someone get out the fire hose! YUCK-YUCK-YUCK-YUCK!!!"

(And put it on him please).

[Tikisoo]

Our film group screened NIAGARA last season to a capacity crowd. It was the first Technicolor movie Mr Tiki ever enjoyed-he actually noticed & commented on the photography. MM looked real - as if she'd walk off the screen - just gorgeous. I liked the story a lot too.

[speedracer5]

3 hours ago, TomJH said:

You too?

"Someone get out the fire hose! YUCK-YUCK-YUCK-YUCK!!!"

(And put it on him please).

Ugh! This guy is so annoying.  He also plays the grandpa who stinks up the bathroom in Sixteen Candles.

[scsu1975]

4 hours ago, TomJH said:

You too?

"Someone get out the fire hose! YUCK-YUCK-YUCK-YUCK!!!"

(And put it on him please).

His best work was as Lieutenant Dick Chasen (I kid you not) in The Indestructible Man. Here, he tries to arrest The Inflatable Woman.

[TomJH]

1 minute ago, scsu1975 said:

His best work was as Lieutenant Dick Chasen (I kid you not) in The Indestructible Man. Here, he tries to arrest The Inflatable Woman.

That woman looks deflated.

[Hibi]

5 hours ago, TomJH said:

You too?

"Someone get out the fire hose! YUCK-YUCK-YUCK-YUCK!!!"

(And put it on him please).

LOL. Agree. Someone you'd like to erase from the film.......

[scsu1975]

1 hour ago, TomJH said:

That woman looks deflated.

Trust me, when she's blown up, she looks pretty good.

[misswonderly3]

1 hour ago, scsu1975 said:

Trust me, when she's blown up, she looks pretty good.

Did they have inflatable dollies back then?

[LawrenceA]

Pony Express (1953) - Unimpressive Technicolor western from Paramount Pictures and director Jerry Hopper. Will California join the union as a slave state? That's the dilemma that is facing Buffalo Bill Cody (Charlton Heston), who teams up with old pal Wild Bill Hickok (Forrest Tucker) to form the pony express mail delivery service in hopes that the speedier communications system will entice California to declare themselves a non-slave state. Opposing their efforts is Evelyn Hastings (Rhonda Fleming), the daughter of a wealthy and influential family. Also featuring Jan Sterling, Henry Brandon, Michael Moore (not that one!), Richard Shannon, Stuart Randall, Lewis Martin, Pat Hogan, and Porter Hall.

Other than playing fast and loose with history (as most films of the period did), this western makes the cardinal sin of being dull and overlong. Heston grits his teeth and swaggers around, while Jan Sterling does her best Calamity Jane impersonation. The movie also fails to establish a worthy villain, as odds are Heston and/or Tucker are not going to get into a shoot-out with Rhonda Fleming.   (5/10)

Source: Encore Westerns.