I Just Watched...

[LawrenceA]

The Tender Trap (1955) - Unfunny, unromantic romantic comedy from MGM and director Charles Walters. NYC talent agent Charlie Reader (Frank Sinatra) is practically swimming in dames because, well, he's Frank Sinatra. His married buddy from the suburbs, Joe McCall (David Wayne), comes to stay with Charlie for a couple of weeks, and Joe can't believe the amount of action Charlie is getting. But Charlie's womanizing ways may be coming to an end when he meets sweet small-town girl Julie Gillis (Debbie Reynolds). Also featuring Celeste Holm, Lola Albright, Carolyn Jones, Jarma Lewis, Howard St. John, Joey Faye, Tom Helmore, Willard Sage, Benny Rubin, and James Drury.

I was completely turned off by this lazy, shallow look at mid-50's mating. Sinatra seems to be sleepwalking through the role, slightly bemused and projecting none of the magnetism that would explain his effect on the women in the picture. Reynolds is basically a caricature, all naivete and chipper provincial attitude. I liked the subplot concerning David Wayne as a husband on a trial separation and his attraction to Celeste Holm as Sinatra's lonely violinist friend. The title song was a big hit for Frank, and also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Song.   (5/10)

Source: TCM.

 

[Fedya]

I think I have that one on a Sinatra box set from which my most recent watch was Marriage on the Rocks.  Another poor movie with the only redeeming feature being Dean Martin's fabulous apartment.

[BagelOnAPlateOfOnionRolls]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

Basically, Tennessee Williams' plots, characters, and general potboiler style can be explained by that Williams in his own life WAS what wouldn't pass muster with film censors in the 40's and 50's.

It would certainly explain Blanche duBois, Maggie the Cat and pretty much all of "The Glass Menagerie", for starters, never mind Elizabeth Taylor in "Boom!".

Potboiler style of The Glass Menagerie?

You must have seen or read a different version than the rest of the world has.

[LawrenceA]

That Lady (1955) - British-Spanish historical drama from 20th Century Fox and director Terence Young. In late 16th century Spain, King Philip II (Paul Scofield) enlists the aid of old friend and confidante Ana de Mendoza (Olivia de Havilland), the Princess of Eboli, to help Philip train a worthy successor to be his chief minister. Philip has his eye on commoner Antonio Perez (Gilbert Roland), so the king asks Ana to teach Antonio in the ways of the court. This leads to an affair between Antonio and the long-widowed Ana, a scandal in strict Catholic Spain. Scheming courtier Don Mateo (Dennis Price) sees to it that the scandal becomes a national outrage, forcing Philip to take harsh action. Also featuring Francoise Rosay, Anthony Dawson, Robert Harris, Peter Illing, Jose Nieto, Fernando Sancho, and Christopher Lee.

I can see why de Havilland wanted this role, as it's showy and she gets to wear a lot of extravagant costumes, including an eye patch! Paul Scofield made his film debut here, and won a BAFTA as Best Newcomer. I'm curious how I would view his performance in that time, not knowing him from his subsequent roles, as he uses an affected voice, and makeup and hair design that make him appear older than his actual 33 years. I think he does a good job, but those character choices are glaring in the early scenes. Dennis Price is underused, and Christopher Lee, as the Captain of the Guard and ally of Price's baddie, just gets to look imposing. The Spanish location shooting is a plus. The story lurches from courtly intrigue to uninspired romance, with the latter winning out in the end.   (6/10)

Source: rarefilmm.com

 

[sewhite2000]

Has anyone seen Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again? I can't scroll back through all these pages, so sorry if someone has already brought this up, but don't read any further unless you want to know the all-time ...

SPOILER ALERT!

I could tell from the trailer that Meryl Streep wasn't going to be in the movie much, because there's only a couple of brief shots of her, and she's off by herself looking on beatifically as if somehow apart from the proceedings. I thought her character might be off on the other side of the world on business for most of the movie. But she's not in the movie much because her character is dead! What the hell? Didn't see that one coming!

It was discussed on another thread that Cher plays Streep's mother. I was looking forward to see them sharing the screen for the first time since Silkwood, but that doesn't happen because, you know, Streep's character is dead!

About the only other thing of note is the performance of the ABBA obscurity "When I Kissed the Teacher" with all the pronouns changed so that the teacher is a she. Presumably this was done to make the song less Lolitaesque shocking and more platonic (a female student kissing a female teacher is just harmless fun, right?), but it could certainly be interpreted as giving the song a whole new lesbian vibe.

[LawrenceA]

Three for the Show (1955) - CinemaScope musical comedy from Columbia Pictures and director H.C. Potter. Married Broadway performers Julie (Betty Grable) and Vernon Lowndes (Gower Champion) are happily married and at the end of a successful run of their latest show. On the night of their final show, they get the surprise of their lives: Marty Stewart (Jack Lemmon), Vernon's former songwriting partner and Julie's first husband who was believed killed in action during the Korean War, arrives alive and well after being rescued from a remote island. Now Julie is married to two men at once, and she has to decide who she wants to stay with. Their unlucky-in-love fellow performer Gwen (Marge Champion) and manager Mike (Myron McCormick) try to smooth things the best they can. Also featuring Robert Bice, Paul Harvey, Don Kohler, Ted Stanhope, and Henry Slate.

The plot is thin and the dialogue banal, but the musical numbers are energetic, with excellent dancing and some classic tunes on the soundtrack. This was Betty Grable's first musical in a while, and it would prove to be her last.  (6/10)

Source: Mill Creek DVD.

[Tikisoo]

midwestan said: Too bad Williams lived and wrote most of his stuff in the 1940's and 1950's. Dancing around what would and would not pass muster with audiences and the movie censors must have been more than difficult at times.

I actually LIKE that the sordid aspects of his stories were toned down by the censors. It makes it more interesting for the audience to discover in their own minds what's actually happening, like a backstory. Additionally, "disguising" info also makes more movies more watchable for more people. I can recall watching many movies as a teen that worked just fine, only to find out later in life what they really were about!

[Sepiatone]

22 hours ago, TomJH said:

Have you seen Tribute to a Bad Man, Sepia?

Not for many a moon Tom.  But I recall thinking along the same lines....

Cagney's lower East side brusque sounded as out of place in the genre as did Errol Flynn's clipped Bengal Lancer cadence in HIS westerns.  I amusingly kept waiting for Cagney to call somebody a "dirty rat!" 

Sepiatone

[TomJH]

35 minutes ago, Sepiatone said:

Not for many a moon Tom.  But I recall thinking along the same lines....

Cagney's lower East side brusque sounded as out of place in the genre as did Errol Flynn's clipped Bengal Lancer cadence in HIS westerns.  I amusingly kept waiting for Cagney to call somebody a "dirty rat!" 

Sepiatone

Do you think of Russian accents in the old West, or German? Well, they were there in the real West, along with clipped British accents and everything else. You just wouldn't know that from the Hollywood western, where accents like those of Randy Scott or John Wayne tended to rule.

[cigarjoe]

On 8/1/2018 at 1:49 PM, LornaHansonForbes said:

But I will most likely check it out at some point, although the Peckinpah movie that i really want to see is THE BATTLE OF CABLE HOGUE.

Ballad Of Cable Hogue

[LornaHansonForbes]

14 minutes ago, cigarjoe said:

Ballad Of Cable Hogue

It took me THE LONGEST TIME to figure out what I did wrong. I thought at first you were saying there was no "the" in the title, which seems like an odd point to be a stickler on.

BALLAD- yeah, got it. My bad and thanks for correction. 

[cigarjoe]

Tennessee Williams' and similar gay writers film adaptations are pretty interesting. They tend to make already strange films weirder. I wrote about some of this in my review of All Fall Down. The film was based on the novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy whose mentor was Tennessee Williams, and who would gain fame later from his novel Midnight Cowboy. The screenplay by William Inge who wrote (Picnic (1955), Bus Stop (1956), Splendor in the Grass (1961)) deviates quite a bit from the beginning scenarios of the novel.

So what we, the viewers/interpreters, of all these films based on these dark "noir" works of Herlihy, Williams, and Inge, are dealing with are at least three layers of obfuscation. The first is what the writer put in the original works, the stories or plays, these men are writing straight male and female characters through gay tinted glasses, or gay characters written as straight characters to pass stringent societal norms, so some of their protagonists and antagonists are in a way, seemingly to me anyway, either overly burlesqued, seriously twisted, or just a tad off base. The second are the changes made, by screenwriters or the authors themselves, in their original works, i.e., expositional scenarios jettisoned, plot points cut or streamlined etc., etc., so the film scripts would be green lighted by the studios. The third layer would be the additional changes made during filming, or changes demanded so that the films would get the approval of the Motion Picture Production Code.

I'm not really familiar enough with any of the authors mentioned above to comment too much on the first layer, or movie savvy enough on the third, but Bosley Crowther's original NY Times review alludes to the second in his review of All Fall Down.

"there is one fatal flaw in the arrangement of elements in this film that makes it implausible, unnatural and extremely hard to take. It is the essential arrangement that everyone in the story is madly in love with a disgusting young man who is virtually a cretin." 

The scenes that make me think of Crowther's review are the first meets between Berry-Berry and Mrs. Mandel (Constance Ford) the wealthy yacht owner and the one with the schoolteacher played by (Barbara Baxley) they seem to play out like gay pickups where almost, just over long, knowing glances alone and minimal conversation, Berry-Berry picks up both women. It just seems a tad off, and very decadent, or just maybe I've never met that desperate a woman.

Examples of the second  in this film are the missing dream sequences in the novel that reveal the psychology of Clinton. There are also major changes made in the whole Bonita Key sequence. In the the scenario of the novel, Berry-Berry wires Ralph asking for $200 to buy into a shrimping business and Clinton decides to travel by bus to join his brother. When Clinton gets to Key Bonita he finds Berry-Berry has checked out and left town. Instead of leaving town Clinton goes to the Festival Night Club where he meets a **** named Shirley.  Shirley in the novel is an important figure in Clinton's life as it is with her that he loses his virginity and becomes a man.

In the film version of Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Brick's actual relationship to Scooter is greatly obscured and his problems explained away as alcoholism, that makes Maggie The Cat's dedicated devotion to him all the more perplexing. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche causes her young husband to commit suicide. after discovering him with an older man, this in turn turns her into an alcoholic roundheels who screws everyone in town. Williams' Suddenly Last Summer, The Fugitive Kind and Inge's Picnic have equally salacious undertones. All these shifts in perspective and obscuring of genders renders some of these films into dark, sometimes creepy, and as sleazy as your imagination will take them, Noirs.

[kingrat]

Joe, I have no difficulty believing that the young Warren Beatty could pick up just about any woman, and most wouldn't bother to figure out if he was a cretin or a jerk. Believing that Constance Ford would want to pick up a man might take a little more suspension of disbelief.

 

[Hibi]

On 8/5/2018 at 1:52 PM, LornaHansonForbes said:

IF they had changed the name from SINCERELY YOURS to FAIRY GODMOTHER and cut the romance attempt, it might've been salvageable.

While I admit I don't know much about music or arrangements, I've been impressed by the musicianship of LIBERACE when i've seem it.

LOL!!!

[Hibi]

On 8/4/2018 at 5:51 PM, jamesjazzguitar said:

I have to admit this was a case where I was thankful there was a Production code.

 

 

LOL! I enjoyed this film. I like creepy house who-dun-its. Did anyone guess who was behind it all? I DID! (though to be honest, not right away) Of course the  reasoning behind it was hard to swallow..........

[LornaHansonForbes]

46 minutes ago, Hibi said:

 

LOL! I enjoyed this film. I like creepy house who-dun-its. Did anyone guess who was behind it all? I DID! (though to be honest, not right away) Of course the  reasoning behind it was hard to swallow..........

SPOILERS RE SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM

Yeah, totally guessed. 

I think it helped that the actor who played the murderer was so bad. He came off as being almost developmentally disabled, like a child when you got down to his logic and reasoning behind his crime.

yeah dude, they're totally going to buy that you were kidnapped and held hostage in the basement while all this was going on. 

[Hibi]

LOL. When it as obvious it wasn't ghosts but some human (the secret passageway) SPOILERS!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guessed it was probably him, since they didnt find his body.........

[LawrenceA]

Untamed (1955) - CinemaScope adventure melodrama from 20th Century Fox and director Henry King. In the mid-19th century, feisty Irish farmer's daughter Katie O'Neill (Susan Hayward) moves with her family to South Africa to escape the Potato Famine. They join up with a large wagon train of settlers trying to establish a Free Dutch State in the African veldt. The settlers are led by the visionary Paul Van Riebeck (Tyrone Power) and the hot-tempered Kurt Hout (Richard Egan), and soon Katie is in a love triangle between them as they fight off hostile natives and political differences to make a new home for everyone. Also featuring Agnes Moorehead, Rita Moreno, Hope Emerson, Henry O'Neill, Brad Dexter, Kevin Corcoran, and Paul Thompson.

Shot on location in the South African wild, the scenery is beautiful and director King fills the screen with lots of activity. Power gets to give several speeches about "making the land free for all" which seems to translate into "we settlers should be able to live wherever we want and the natives just need to live with it." That kind of colonialism can get grating after a while, despite my efforts to separate the era of both the story and the movie itself. Hayward gets to do her patented strong survivor shtick, while Power looks bored and Egan seems intent on chewing up everything not tied down. The movie strives for epic grandeur but ends up just a forgettable time-waster.    (6/10)

Source: FXM.

[LawrenceA]

The Virgin Queen (1955) - CinemaScope historical drama from 20th Century Fox and director Henry Koster. In late 16th century England, Walter Raleigh (Richard Todd) is an ambitious young man with dreams of exploring the New World. He manages to make his way into the court of Queen Elizabeth I (Bette Davis), and he uses his charm to try and get the queen to bankroll his expedition. But he soon learns that the queen is a capricious, often petty sort, and making his way through the minefield of courtly intrigue may prove deadly. Also featuring Joan Collins, Dan O'Herlihy, Herbert Marshall, Jay Robinson, Robert Douglas, Romney Brent, Leslie Parrish, Terence de Marney, and Rod Taylor.

Richard Todd was surprisingly good in this. He's an actor that I can usually give or take, but here he shows some screen charisma and some aptitude at the swashbuckling scenes (even if his big fight scene with Robert Douglas late in the film is glaringly performed by stunt doubles). Bette Davis plays Elizabeth I again, and while I know many praise her performance, in this outing at least she seemed overly mannered and distractingly hammy. The movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Color Costumes (Charles Le Maire & Mary Wills). I wish Jay Robinson had been given more to do in this.    (6/10)

Source: Amazon video.

[LawrenceA]

The Warriors aka The Dark Avenger (1955) - CinemaScope historical adventure from Allied Artists and director Henry Levin. In mid-14th century France, the English under King Edward III (Michael Hordern) have proven victorious in Aquitaine. Edward leaves the surviving French noblemen in possession of their estates as long as they remain loyal subjects, but the vengeful Comte De Ville (Peter Finch) vows to continue resisting the English presence. Edward leaves his son Edward the Black Prince (Errol Flynn) as the Duke of Aquitaine, and soon enough he finds himself at arms against De Ville and his army. The Black Prince must defeat De Ville once and for all, while also rescuing the fair Lady Joan (Joanne Dru) from the French. Featuring Patrick Holt, Yvonne Furneaux, Moultrie Kelsall, Robert Urquhart, Noel Willman, Frances Rowe, Rupert Davies, Jack Lambert, Patrick McGoohan, and Christopher Lee.

This was the most expensive movie ever made by Allied Artists up to that time, and the production values nearly match any of the historical action pictures of the "A" studios. Flynn is looking haggard, and many of his action scenes are done behind a convenient helmet, allowing a more energetic stunt man to take his place. Flynn was reportedly often in his cups during filming, forgetting lines and drifting off. That's not too noticeable in the final product, although he does have a certain gleam in his eye during a few scenes. Peter Finch is good as the chief villain, although he makes no attempt to sound French. Future TV star Patrick McGoohan is clearly visible in an uncredited role as an English soldier, while Christopher Lee, also uncredited, plays a French knight who gets to sword fight with Flynn, an experience that Lee claims left him with a permanent injury.    (6/10)

Source: TCM.

 

[Bethluvsfilms]

I watched the original THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE and quite enjoyed it. 

I loved seeing Walter Matthau, oh so serious in here, saving the day. And Robert Shaw makes quite a subtle and chilling bad guy in here.

The Denzel Washington remake is watchable, but absolutely NOTHING beats Matthau's "You are so busted!" expression on his face at the end of the movie.

[TomJH]

11 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

The Warriors aka The Dark Avenger (1955)

 

The Warriors is a sad farewell to the swashbuckling genre for Flynn and a large part of that is due to his poor physical condition.

However, I recall hearing an anecdote from Peter Finch regarding this film. (Finch got along fine with Flynn, the two men sharing a love of liquor).

Finch said that one day, obviously after a hard late night for the actor, Flynn was in his suit of armor, his visor up, sitting on a horse. But as they were awaiting the call for action, you could see the suit of armor starting to weave back and forth on the horse, with the weaving becoming more pronounced. Suddenly a voice within the armor said two words: "Oh no." A moment later the man in the suit of armor was lying on the ground.

[LornaHansonForbes]

15 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

 

 

OMG: LOOK IN THE BOTTOM LEFT HAND CORNER!!!!!!!

OH TO BE A FLY ON THE WALL IF AND WHEN BETTE FIRST SAW THAT RENDERING!!!!

[hamradio]

"The Thing" (2011) prequel to the 1982 film.  Very disappointed over the space craft, what does it suppose to be...a giant fan?

 

Goodness forget calling the ever changing  imitation creature the THING, look at the ship's pilot.

 

[kingrat]

I don't believe Untamed has ever been on TCM. It's another version of Scarlett & Rhett, like Reap the Wild Wind and The Foxes of Harrow, but not so entertaining. The South African setting gives it a different spin, but as Lawrence noted, that presents some problems, too. Fans of Susan Hayward and Tyrone Power will probably like it well enough, but both stars have been in better movies. Lawrence's 6/10 sounds about right.

Hayward read for the part of Scarlett back when Selznick was casting GWTW, so she finally did get to play the part, sort of.