I Just Watched...

[kingrat]

Lawrence, the still from Conflagration looks good. I have only seen this film on a wretched VHS tape. Was the FilmStruck version generally good? I'd like to see more of Ichikawa's films. The Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain, and Odd Obsession are all memorable.

[kingrat]

5 hours ago, TomJH said:

For those who like Gilbert Roland, I would recommend director Budd Boetticher's BULLFIGHTER AND THE LADY (1951) as the probable dramatic highlight of his career. Katy Jurado, as his wife, has a magnificent scene, as well, in which she tells off a loathesome drunken loud mouth in Spanish. You see the loud mouth start to wilt before her barrage and you don't have to understand the language to feel the emotion, so great is Jurado's passionate delivery.

Tom, another film for Gilbert Roland fans is The Furies. Though he has only a supporting role, his scenes with Barbara Stanwyck are wonderful.

[lavenderblue19]

Since you mentioned the Furies, that's a great film and I really wish TCM would get the film. I rented it from the library years ago.  I've requested this one  many times over the years. Walter Huston  and Barbara Stanwyck as father and daughter. 

[Hibi]

Another Paramount film TCM wont show. I think they have in the past.

[Zea]

"THE GIFT OF LOVE". One of the Bacall-salute films aired last night. Kind of sappy, but still got my heart all a'flutter from seeing handsome Robert Stack again.

My curiosity, however, was peaked by the adopted daughter, Hitty, played by Evelyn Rudie. After viewing, I wondered whatever happened to her and if she suffered the fate of so many child actors who later either faded into oblivion or met worse fates.

A quick Google search revealed Ms. Rudie is still not only alive & well, but continued practicing and perfecting her craft and other areas of theater long after her child-actress-hood. (I won't pretend here that I'm not quoting verbatim from Wikipedia here):

"Evelyn Rudie (born Evelyn Rudie Bernauer,[1] March 28, 1949) is an American playwright, director, songwriter, film and television actress, and teacher. Since 1973, she has been the co-artistic director of the Santa Monica Playhouse. As an award-winning costume designer, she uses the pseudonym Ashley Hayes."

Further info revealed something I'd totally forgotten about her. Her real debut and claim to fame was from her performance on tv's Playhouse 90 in the 1956 tv debut of the play about the Plaza Hotels infamous resident child, "ELOISE" . I then remembered having been allowed to stay up late the evening it was aired to see it. 

Dunno, but between Patty McCormack & Evelyn Rudie, I seem to have these recurring flashbacks of bratty, braided-blond-haired little girls. No doubt an alter ego thing as I, of course, was an angelic, pony-tailed blond. ?

[TomJH]

1 hour ago, kingrat said:

Tom, another film for Gilbert Roland fans is The Furies. Though he has only a supporting role, his scenes with Barbara Stanwyck are wonderful.

I agree. Roland is highly effective, as well as sympathetic in that film. The Furies also boasts a marvelous larger-than-life swan song performance by Walter Huston.

[LawrenceA]

2 hours ago, kingrat said:

Lawrence, the still from Conflagration looks good. I have only seen this film on a wretched VHS tape. Was the FilmStruck version generally good? I'd like to see more of Ichikawa's films. The Burmese Harp, Fires on the Plain, and Odd Obsession are all memorable.

The FilmStruck print of Conflagration was pristine. I'm surprised that they haven't issued it as an official Criterion release as they have some of Ichikawa's others, as well as the Mishima connection. They released both the Mishima biopic Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, as well as Mishima's short film Patriotism as a separate disc.

[cigarjoe]

Der Fall (aka The Fall) (1972) Swiss Noir

A stylistic Swiss detective film.

Interestingly, I just recently watched Czech director Hugo Haas' The Pickup (1951). The majority of Hass's American Noir output was variations on a theme, that theme being the same one for director Josef von Sternberg's Blue Angel (1930), foolish, lonely old fuddy-duddy professor falls for floozy flirtatious dance hall stripper.

Der Fall is a Swiss version of the tale. This go round the man is Alfons Grendelmann (Walo Lüönd) a private detective, the girl Marsha (Katrin Buschor) is an underage **** who lives off her clients.

Alfons is an ex cop who quit the force when the case he unearthed of child molestation evidence among police officials, was squashed by the political forces that be. Alfons is now a fairly successful detective, he can make a living at his Grendelman Detective Agency.  He shares a sort of home/office in Oerlikon, the industrial North section of Zurich with Frl. Gretz (Annemarie Düringer). She operates a sort of one stop shop for anyone's office services. She does printing, typing, telephone answering and she is a freelance secretary. She answers Alphons' phone, takes messages. and sets up appointments. Fraulein Gertz has a secret crush on Alfons, she wants to be his Velda.

When Alfons meets an underage B-Girl Marsha his life goes Noirsville.

Der Fall was Kurt Früh's last film. The music by Walter Baumgartner is a Spanish guitar, jazz, bongo paella. Watch for the wonderful six day bicycle race sequence, a series of short vignettes of the cyclists, their support personnel, the spectators, it functions much like the vignettes director Robert Wise filmed during the boxing match in The Set-Up (1949), and for the crap game in Delbert Mann's Mister Buddwing (1966). The excellent cinematography was by Eduard Winiger, Switzerland never looked so bleak and Noir-ish. It's a nice addition into the Neo Noir canon. 8/10 

Screen caps in Film Noir/Gangster

Currently on line streaming.

[Fedya]

51 minutes ago, cigarjoe said:

the girl Marsha (Katrin Buschor) is an underage **** who lives off her clients.

She's an underage b l a c k i e? 

 

[JamesJazGuitar]

16 minutes ago, Fedya said:

She's an underage b l a c k i e? 

 

Well she isn't from Boston.  

[cigarjoe]

53 minutes ago, Fedya said:

She's an underage b l a c k i e? 

 

h*o*o*k*e*r 

[speedracer5]

The Unfaithful (1947).  This is another adaptation of The Letter.  This version is quite different than the 1940 Bette Davis one.  The plot is roughly the same: A woman kills a man claiming self defense, but as the investigation takes shape, it seems that that the woman may not be telling the entire truth.  Ann Sheridan (one of my favorites), plays "the woman," Chris Hunter.  Zachary Scott (whom I have also found myself liking) plays her husband, Bob.  Lew Ayers plays Sheridan and Scott's lawyer/friend.  There is also a scorned widow who only seems to want revenge.  The scorned widow in this film was not as menacing or awesome as Gale Sondergaard in The Letter (1940).  In The Unfaithful, the incriminating object is a sculpture, not a letter as in Davis' film.  While I understood what the sculpture implied about Sheridan and the dead man's relationship, the way people carried on, you would have thought Sheridan had posed nude for a full body statue, not just a bust.  

Beyond the plot, I cannot really compare The Unfaithful with The Letter.  While based on the same source material, they really are two different films.  I really enjoyed The Unfaithful.  The cast was great, including Eve Arden who played Scott's cousin, Paula.  She was fantastic.  As an aside, are there any films where Arden is the lead?  I really like Ann Sheridan and I thought she was great in this dramatic role.  I've seen Zachary Scott in multiple films now (Mildred Pierce, Flamingo Road, The Mask of Dimitrios, and Born to Be Bad).  I really like him.  Lew Ayers was fine, nothing remarkable about him, but with the mustache, he kind of reminded me of a cross between Ronald Colman and George Brent. 

The film seemed to have a bit of a rushed ending, but I like that the filmmakers left the conclusion of the film ambiguous.  Did Sheridan and Scott divorce? Did they get back together? We don't know.  Another part of the film I enjoyed was Arden's defense of Sheridan's dalliance.  While I do not condone married partners cheating on one another, I liked Arden's explanation of Sheridan's possible motive for cheating.  It gave her some character.  She wasn't just another cheating wife, despite Lew Ayers' laments.  Can I also say that Arden's house was gorgeous?  I loved it and wish I lived there, even though it was probably a soundstage. 

The Unfaithful was a great film and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. 

[cigarjoe]

33 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:

While I understood what the sculpture implied about Sheridan and the dead man's relationship, the way people carried on, you would have thought Sheridan had posed nude for a full body statue, not just a bust.  

I'm sure that was the exact "subtext" that they were going for, they couldn't come right out with that because of the Motion Picture Production Code.

This film has some great location shots of Bunker Hill, 3rd Street, and Angels Flight, and that's a plus.

[JamesJazGuitar]

35 minutes ago, speedracer5 said:

The Unfaithful (1947).  This is another adaptation of The Letter.  This version is quite different than the 1940 Bette Davis one.  The plot is roughly the same: A woman kills a man claiming self defense, but as the investigation takes shape, it seems that that the woman may not be telling the entire truth.  Ann Sheridan (one of my favorites), plays "the woman," Chris Hunter.  Zachary Scott (whom I have also found myself liking) plays her husband, Bob.  Lew Ayers plays Sheridan and Scott's lawyer/friend.  There is also a scorned widow who only seems to want revenge.  The scorned widow in this film was not as menacing or awesome as Gale Sondergaard in The Letter (1940).  In The Unfaithful, the incriminating object is a sculpture, not a letter as in Davis' film.  While I understood what the sculpture implied about Sheridan and the dead man's relationship, the way people carried on, you would have thought Sheridan had posed nude for a full body statue, not just a bust.  

Beyond the plot, I cannot really compare The Unfaithful with The Letter.  While based on the same source material, they really are two different films.  I really enjoyed The Unfaithful.  The cast was great, including Eve Arden who played Scott's cousin, Paula.  She was fantastic.  As an aside, are there any films where Arden is the lead?  I really like Ann Sheridan and I thought she was great in this dramatic role.  I've seen Zachary Scott in multiple films now (Mildred Pierce, Flamingo Road, The Mask of Dimitrios, and Born to Be Bad).  I really like him.  Lew Ayers was fine, nothing remarkable about him, but with the mustache, he kind of reminded me of a cross between Ronald Colman and George Brent. 

The film seemed to have a bit of a rushed ending, but I like that the filmmakers left the conclusion of the film ambiguous.  Did Sheridan and Scott divorce? Did they get back together? We don't know.  Another part of the film I enjoyed was Arden's defense of Sheridan's dalliance.  While I do not condone married partners cheating on one another, I liked Arden's explanation of Sheridan's possible motive for cheating.  It gave her some character.  She wasn't just another cheating wife, despite Lew Ayers' laments.  Can I also say that Arden's house was gorgeous?  I loved it and wish I lived there, even though it was probably a soundstage. 

The Unfaithful was a great film and I wouldn't mind seeing it again. 

While I'm a fan of Ann Sheridan,  I don't think she did a very good job of acting in The Unfaithful.  E.g. the scene where she tell her lawyer that she was had an affair with the deceased man and lied to hit that fact from her husband.   To me Ann just doesn't pull that scene off.

 Also,  the major plot change of having the women kill the man in self defense and NOT being in love with him when doing so,  changes the entire theme.   So she isn't a killer,  just unfaithful.   To me this plot change waters down the entire story line and makes the film somewhat empty (i.e. lacking much tension).  

I do agree that Ayers, Scott and Arden gave very good and convincing performances. 

Of course maybe Ann's acting appeared 'weak' to me because she was playing a weak character.   

[LawrenceA]

Darby's Rangers (1958) - WW2 action and romance from Warner Brothers and director William Wellman. The film tells a very fictionalized account of the formation of the U.S. Army's First Ranger Battalion. It's the idea of Major William Darby (James Garner), who envisions an American equivalent to British commandos. After the first batch of recruits undergoes training in Scotland, they head into action throughout the European theater. Many of the men also find time for romance with various local ladies. Also featuring Jack Warden, Edd Byrnes, Stuart Whitman, Peter Brown, Murray Hamilton, William Wellman Jr., Etchika Choureau, Venetia Stevenson, Torin Thatcher, Joan Elan, Corey Allen, Andrea King, Frieda Inescort, Reginald Owen, and Frank Gifford.

This was a mixed bag for me. There are some exciting action scenes, and some funny jokes and visual gags, too. I liked Jack Warden as the narrating sergeant. James Garner is always good, but he's rather wasted here in a 2-dimensional part. On the other hand, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes is just plain terrible, with awful acting and hair, attitude and dialogue delivery straight from "hip" 1958. The multiple romantic subplots are insipid sketches that are neither convincing or compelling. One unintentional source of amusement is courtesy of the sound effects. There's a particular "person falling down" sound effect that is perhaps best remembered from the Charlie Brown cartoons which is heard whenever Lucy pulls the football away at the last second and Charlie falls backwards and hits the ground. Well, that same sound effect is used for every fall in this movie, and a lot of people fall down. It could make for a good drinking game.   (6/10)

Source: FilmStruck.

[LawrenceA]

Du Cote de la Cote aka Along the Coast (1958) - French documentary short made for the French Tourism Board by director Agnes Varda. The film shows life along the French Riveria, including Nice, Cannes, and St. Tropez. The film playfully looks at various tourist spots and name-drops many famous visitors from the past. I found this colorful and amusing.   (7/10)

Source: FilmStruck

[LawrenceA]

Elevator to the Gallows (1958) - Excellent French noir from director Louis Malle. An ex-soldier (Maurice Ronet) kills his corporate boss in order to be with the boss's wife (Jeanne Moreau). However, the soldier gets stuck near the crime scene without a way to escape. Meanwhile, the wife becomes worried when her lover misses their rendezvous, so she sets out across Paris to find him. If that weren't enough, a young criminal (Georges Poujouly) and his girlfriend (Yori Bertin) steal the soldier's car, embarking on their own night of crime. All four of their destinies become intertwined as all of their plans begin to unravel. Also featuring Jean Wall, Elga Andersen, Ivan Petrovich, Felix Marten, and Lino Ventura.

Malle's cool crime drama unfolds with an inexorable trajectory, abetted by the jazz riffs of score composer and performer Miles Davis. The story is unpredictable in its events, but the doom awaiting all four main characters is telegraphed from the start. This isn't a tale concerned with how they will get away with it, but rather how they will fail to. It's a kind of European nihilism that makes for great cinema. Recommended.    (8/10)

Source: FilmStruck

[LornaHansonForbes]

I WOKE UP very hungover this morning and watched a fair bit of RAIN (1932)

I sort of dissed this one in the HITS UNDTE MISSES thread yesterday, and while I still don't like it, I don't dislike it at all.

One thing I will immediately say is that if the print of this film was cleaner and- ESPECIALLY- the soundtrack was cleaned up, I might be able to assess it better (it's still an impressive achievement, only four or so years after the introduction of sound recording that they were able to incorporate the rain into the soundtrack as smoothly as they seem to.)

there is a tinny echo to the voices and that "hiss" on the soundtrack which, along with the rain, diminishes the impact that the film had when it was presented in mint condition with clear sound.

it's pretty well-directed, but there are too many really stage-bound scenes where characters talk in a medium shot WITH NO CLOSE-UPS EDITED IN  and REMAIN UTTERLY STILL AND IN THE SAME POSITION ( ie under the boom mic) for the entire scene...

and yet, there are interstitial, transitioning moments where LEWIS MILESTONE does some wonderful things with the camera- i missed the opening of the film, but as  i recall it, it has some really impressive crane work where the camera meanders across the action on the ground and rises up.

this was, i think, the first time CRAWFORD went full-on SEX CLOWN, and she reminds me a little of EUNICE from MAMA'S FAMILY, and yet- she is terrific, especially in the scene where she tells off WALTER HUSTON (miles away from KONGO) and her make-up free scene with her love interest.

this is still a bold film with a rather shocking (but honest) view of religion and religiousity and moral superiority, and the conviction with which it states itself it admirable.

it's not really anyone's fault that this one is **1/2 stars at best...sometimes they just happen that way.

i don't like that white patent leather belt she wore for most of her scenes, but i am sorry that fur stoles with the animal's head still attached have never come back into fashion.

[LawrenceA]

Endless Desire (1958) - Japanese crime comedy from Nikkatsu and director Shohei Imamura. A quartet of former Japanese Army soldiers meet up ten years after the war in order to dig up a barrel full of very valuable morphine that they buried at the end of the war. They are joined by a fifth member, the sister of their former commander. To get to the morphine, they have to rent an empty office space, and secretly dig a tunnel from beneath their building to an area underneath a butcher shop down the street. They struggle to get their work done in time, as well as keeping their many neighbors in the dark about their actions. And of course, there's no honor among thieves.... Featuring Hiroyuki Nagato, Misako Watanabe, Ko Nishimura, Sanae Nakahara, Taiji Tonoyama, Takeshi Kato, Ichiro Sugai, and Shoichi Ozawa.

This blackly comic crime tale benefits from its sordid, broadly-drawn characters. You know things are going to go wrong, but the questions are what and when, and the filmmakers generally make it unpredictable in detail. I could have done without an underdone subplot involving a clueless neighborhood boy who "works" for the crooks without knowing what they're up to, and his romance of a young shopgirl. The film's finale is very dark, although there's a goofy ending to off-set the gruesomeness. The title refers to rampant greed rather than any carnal passions.  (7/10)

Source: FilmStruck

[LawrenceA]

Equinox Flower (1958) - Japanese family drama from Shochiku and director Yasujiro Ozu. Successful businessman Wataru (Shin Saburi) is asked to help an old friend repair his relationship with his daughter, while Wataru's own daughter Setsuko (Ineko Arima) finds romance, but in a way that strains her relationship with her father, as well. Also featuring Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiko Kuga, Keiji Sada, Teiji Takahashi, Miyuki Kuwano, Chieko Naniwa, Fujiko Yamamoto, and Chishu Ryu.

Ozu makes his first film in color with this gentle examination of changing times and traditions. Wataru is a character who has had an agreeable marriage, but like most of his generation, it was an arranged union. The modern conceit of there actually being a romantic attraction between marriage partners is something he is struggling to accept, since it forces both he and his own wife (an exceptional, subtle performance from Kinuyo Tanaka) to examine their own lives and what could have been if they pursued passion over tradition. Ozu's shot composition is as ridgedly structured as ever, with attention paid to geometric symmetry and complimentary colors. The absence of Ozu regular Setsuko Hara seems to be acknowledged in naming the eldest daughter "Setsuko". Recommended.    (8/10)

Source: FilmStruck

[Swithin]

10 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

I WOKE UP very hungover this morning and watched a fair bit of RAIN (1932)

I sort of dissed this one in the HITS UNDTE MISSES thread yesterday, and while I still don't like it, I don't dislike it at all.

When I was in college, I took a course in writing criticism with Leonard Harris, who was a television critic at the time (and later an actor). We had to write reviews of plays and films. I went to a production of Rain at the Astor Place Theatre. Madeleine Le Roux (where is she now?) played Sadie Thompson. I gave it a good review, it was kind of a steamy production.

Madeleine Le Roux as Sadie Thompson in Rain, 1972

 

[LawrenceA]

The Eternal Rainbow (1958) - Japanese film that's an unusual blend of documentary and melodrama, from Shochiku and writer-director Keisuke Kinoshita. The story concerns the lives and loves of steel workers at a massive steel works that's the size of a small town. The employees and management work and live on the company grounds, many housed in massive apartment blocks. They do their shopping in huge company department stores, eat at company-operated restaurants, and even attend church and take vacations at company-built locations. The drama concerns various domestic issues, from matters of love and rejection, to considerations of old age and retirement, to infidelity, familial discord, and the search for meaning in one's life. The large cast of well-known Japanese performers includes Teiji Takahashi, Yoshiko Kuga, Takahiro Tamura, Minoru Oki, Kinuyo Tanaka, Kazuya Kosaka, Hizuru Takachico, Yusuke Kawazu, Kuniko Igawa, and Chishu Ryu.

Much of the early parts of the film, and subsequent moments scattered throughout the running time, are devoted to detailing the real-life enormous steel mills and production facilities, as well as the other company-maintained locations and services in the area. It's very fascinating, and subtly disturbing in its depiction of industry that becomes all-encompassing. The film falters a bit with the fictional melodramas, most of which rises merely to the banality of kitchen-sink style soap opera. Some moments pack emotional heft, but for the most part it's routine and occasionally tiresome. Still, this is worth a look for the documentary portions, as well as the widescreen cinematography. The title refers to the different colors of smoke continuously emitted from the steel mill's chimneys.  (7/10)

Source: FilmStruck

 

[LornaHansonForbes]

9 hours ago, Swithin said:

When I was in college, I took a course in writing criticism with Leonard Harris, who was a television critic at the time (and later an actor). We had to write reviews of plays and films. I went to a production of Rain at the Astor Place Theatre. Madeleine Le Roux (where is she now?) played Sadie Thompson. I gave it a good review, it was kind of a steamy production.

if i remember correctly, and I rarely do, there is a funny bit in SCARFACE: THE SHAME OF THE NATION (1932) where Paul Muni and his gang attend a production of RAIN and have to leave at intermission to go perform a hit. Muni orders one of his lieutenants to stay to the end because he really wants to see if Sadie stays with the soldier or not.

"Datta Sadie, she seemsa like-a real-a smart girl..."

[Tikisoo]

LHF said about RAIN '32: this is still a bold film with a rather shocking (but honest) view of religion and religiousity and moral superiority, and the conviction with which it states itself it admirable.

OK that makes it sound interesting, like something worth seeing.

it's not really anyone's fault that this one is **1/2 stars at best...sometimes they just happen that way.

I'm confused. Are you saying it misses it's mark, a failure? Or are you saying this movie is only for certain tastes?

i don't like that white patent leather belt she wore for most of her scenes, but i am sorry that fur stoles with the animal's head still attached have never come back into fashion.

Why include that observation? Does that have anything to do with the movie?
"Complete pelt" mink stoles you speak of always get a lot of attention -mostly amusement- when worn today, people just have to touch the legs. It's similar reaction when carrying a full skin/head/legs alligator purse. Anything is in fashion if you carry it well.

[LornaHansonForbes]

Lawrence-

if you are on a Japanese Films of the 1950's kick, may i recommend THE ONIBABA?

I have not seen many foreign films, but this one I like a lot.