I Just Watched...

[LawrenceA]

Zatoichi 9: Adventures of Zatoichi (1964)  -  7/10

Ninth entry in the long-running Japanese film series. Wandering blind masseur, gambler, and master swordsman Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu) comes to the aid of a young woman (Miwa Takada) searching for her father. He may have been murdered on the orders of a corrupt local magistrate working in conjunction with the local yakuza. Zatoichi faces impossible odds that stretch the limits of his infamous fighting skill. Also featuring Eiko Taki, Kichijiru Ueda, and Mikijiro Hira. The formula is set by this point in the series: Zaotichi wanders into a new town, discovers some injustice perpetrated by corrupt officials and/or gangsters who invariably underestimate the seemingly bumbling blind man, finishing with a high-body-count action set-piece, with one or two chief villains to dispatch. It's formulaic, but it works, and is very entertaining, mainly due to Katsu's tremendous charisma and excellent direction by Kimiyoshi Yasuda.

Source: Criterion Blu-ray

[LawrenceA]

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction (1964)  -  6/10

British SF serial comprised of 2 half-hour episodes. After escaping the Daleks in the previous serial, The Doctor (William Hartnell), his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), and the two Earth school teachers Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill), are on their way back to our planet and our time when the Doctor's ship, the TARDIS, encounters a malfunction that leaves everyone dazed and confused about their whereabouts. They struggle to figure out what happened before things can devolve into further danger. 

This was a very brief storyline compared to the previous two. It gives the cast more of an acting challenge, at least, although I can't say that I'll recall much from theses episodes for very long. This is the only serial from the 1964 season that I had available to me.

Source: Warner/BBC DVD

[rayban]

21 hours ago, cinemaspeak59 said:

I've read most of everything Maugham has ever written. These stories translated beautifully as films.  

Yes, the films are exceptional movie fare.

[rayban]

22 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

The Young Lovers (1964)  -  5/10

Drama with Peter Fonda as a rebellious college student and budding artist who falls for new student Sharon Hugueny. However, is Fonda ready to accept adult responsibilities? Also featuring Nick Adams, Deborah Walley, Malachi Throne, Joseph Campanella, Kent Smith, Jennifer Billingsley, and Beatrice Straight. This was the sole directing credit for Samuel Goldwyn Jr. The material lies on the divide between the late 50's/early 60's college experience and the late 60's counter-culture. Fonda rides a motorcycle a few years before The Wild Angels and long before Easy Rider, but he's clean cut and looks respectable. There's a sub-plot about Fonda's roommate Nick Adams getting drafted into the army, and the subsequent anxiety, but there's no mention made of any conflicts that he may be sent to. Walley is enjoyable, if underused.

Source: TCM

I prefer the early Peter Fonda.

He did an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", which is quite unique.

[EricJ]

19 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction (1964)  -  6/10

British SF serial comprised of 2 half-hour episodes. After escaping the Daleks in the previous serial, The Doctor (William Hartnell), his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), and the two Earth school teachers Ian (William Russell) and Barbara (Jacqueline Hill), are on their way back to our planet and our time when the Doctor's ship, the TARDIS, encounters a malfunction that leaves everyone dazed and confused about their whereabouts. They struggle to figure out what happened before things can devolve into further danger. 

The first season, BBC didn't really have a handle on who the Hartnell Doctor was--The original first on-paper concept had the Doctor as a wily duplicitous Dr. Smith-type, who was looking for an earlier age to retire in, Ian and Barbara were our "heroes" who had to stop him from messing up history, and Susan was the resident sympathetic good alien-science expert.

Later redrafts made the Doctor a "good" character, but at the beginning from "An Unearthly Child" and "The Daleks", there's still the dynamic of Ian not trusting the Doctor, and the Doc refusing to answer straight questions about his background--Until the end of the first season, where the two have their big "Well, guess I trust you after all..." moment, and the new show goes ahead as planned.

[cigarjoe]

Phoenix (1998) Bad Cops 

Directed by Danny Cannon. Written by Eddie Richey. The film stars Ray Liotta, Anthony LaPaglia, Daniel Baldwin, and Jeremy Piven. 

Sort of a Quentin Tarantino film wannabe. Instead discussing how a Big Mac with Cheese is called a Le Royale with cheese, there is a running joke about the film King Kong and about the wall on the island they find him on. It has some interesting moments and some truly dumb ones. Watchable. 6/10

Source: Netflix DVD

[cinemaspeak59]

The Chaperone (2019).  Julian Fellowes knows his audience, and what his audience wants. The creator of Downton Abbey wrote the screenplay for The Chaperone, a story ostensibly about legendary silent screen star Louise Brooks’ first trip to New York.  Louise’s cultured and elitist mother has big dreams for her daughter, which won’t happen if she stays in Wichita.  Louise can go to New York only if accompanied by a chaperone, and Elizabeth McGovern’s Norma (Downton Abbey) eagerly volunteers, for reasons later revealed.  Haley Lu Richardson (The Edge of Seventeen, Columbus) transforms wonderfully, capturing Lulu’s energy and insouciance.   Brooks quickly becomes the star pupil at the Denishawn Dance School, holds court at a swank Speakeasy called the Velvet Cat, and resents being told what to do by Norma, whom she likes but doesn’t necessarily respect. The push-pull between Norma and Louise is a highlight.

Norma, with her nineteenth century sense of propriety, lives in quiet disappointment and repressed anger. Shocked by what she caught her husband (an excellent Campbell Scott) doing, and haunted by murky childhood memories, in which she was abandoned at a Catholic orphanage, waiting for adoption, the only thing that excites her is tracking down her birth mother, and pining for a late life renewal. The film has a pleasing symmetry in how the two women’s stories are told:  For Brooks, it’s just beginning, but also for Norma, in a feel-good twist of irony that is so very Downtonesque.  Grade: B+

[NickAndNora34]

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) *Score: 6.5/10*

Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Karl Hardman, Marilyn Eastman, Keith Wayne, Judith Ridley. 

When the East Coast becomes contaminated with zombies, people start to take refuge inside their houses in an attempt to stay alive. A small group of people gathers in a farmhouse, and they try to come up with some sort of plan for survival. Tensions are high, and some of the men start to clash with each other. A classic tale of people turning on one another, when sticking together and remaining civil is probably the most important thing, when something like this is in question. 

Going into this movie, I didn't think it was going to frighten me at all, but boy, was I wrong. I was thoroughly freaked out for several of the scenes. I guess I can't stomach (pun intended) watching people eat each other. Overall, I enjoyed this. I wish we could go back to scary movies like this, instead of relying only on demon possession and jump scares. 

[Swithin]

The Curse of the Black Cat (1936). Ricardo Cortez is Perry Mason in this convoluted murder mystery. I enjoyed it, but I don't understand how he figured out all the details of the three murders. Or was it two, I lost track. I confess I wasn't paying close attention. The two most enjoyable performances are in small roles: Harry Hayden and Clarence Wilson.

One thing I'm sure of: the cat was not black.

 

[rayban]

"The Magnificent Ambersons" - Orson Welles - 1942 -

starring Tim Holt, Dolores Costello and Joseph Cotton -

what can you say about this film that hasn't already been said? -

an obviously great film that was re-cut and re-shot by its' studio -

and, in the process, almost totally destroyed -

it ends very abruptly -

and at least 40 minutes of the film are missing -

it was released on the bottom half of double bill -

this time around, I was impressed by the quirky, idiosyncratic nature of the film -

obviously, the work of a cinematic genuis -

and the chilling portrait of a young man (Tim Holt) who could see no other way but his own way -

in the end, obsessed with his mother's reputation, he did aid in her "destruction" -

the performances by the large cast are spellbinding -

you can only wonder what would have happened to Welles' career if this film had been released as shot and as the top half of a double bill -

the search for the missing footage, which was reportedly destroyed, will probably be on-going -

[Fedya]

The impression I got watching The Magnificent Ambersons is that it would have been different in its original cut, but not necessarily better or worse.

[LornaHansonForbes]

it is very interesting to me how, at the onset of summer, a lot of us (me included), have been drawn to watching dark/sinister/horror movies.

(TCM recently has shown some as well)

Nostalgic for misbehaving late night when you knew you weren't gonna have to get up for school tomorrow I guess....

[LornaHansonForbes]

1 hour ago, rayban said:

"The Magnificent Ambersons" - Orson Welles - 1942 -

starring Tim Holt, Dolores Costello and Joseph Cotton -

what can you say about this film that hasn't already been said? -

 

OK, I'LL TRY: I get that this film is something special, but LORD HELP ME, I would LOVE TO HAVE SEEN THE END RESULT if RKO had, instead of putting the film on a double bill with MEXICAN SPITFIRE, just reshot it to include LUPE VELEZ as a wise-cracking fish out of water maid who saves the lives and futures of THE AMBERSON FAMILY through her wacky hijinks- Mexican Spitfire Meets the Magnificent Ambersons, (Spanish-Language release title: ¡¿AGUA CALIENTE Y FRIO A BAJO Y ARRIBA?! ¡AYE DIOS MIO!

But, you know, the version we have in this universe is still pretty good.

although...

call me nuts, but I actually prefer the even shorter (i hour) version of the tale as told on THE CAMPBELL PLAYHOUsE in 1939 by WELLES and starring WALTER HUSTON in (I think?) the JOSEPH COTTEN part.

 

 

[NickAndNora34]

3 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

it is very interesting to me how, at the onset of summer, a lot of us (me included), have been drawn to watching dark/sinister/horror movies.

(TCM recently has shown some as well)

Nostalgic for misbehaving late night when you knew you weren't gonna have to get up for school tomorrow I guess....

After watching "Night of the Living Dead," I was immediately struck with the desire to watch "Village of the Damned..." Isn't summer supposed to be a fun season?

[LawrenceA]

4 minutes ago, NickAndNora34 said:

After watching "Night of the Living Dead," I was immediately struck with the desire to watch "Village of the Damned..." Isn't summer supposed to be a fun season?

Those are my idea of fun.

[LornaHansonForbes]

11 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

Those are my idea of fun.

+1

 

[LawrenceA]

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - Season One (1964-1965)

The first season of this tongue-in-cheek spy series, featuring 29 hour-long episodes. Robert Vaughn stars as American agent Napoleon Solo, and David McCallum is Russian Illya Kuryakin. They both work for U.N.C.L.E., the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. Their boss is Alexander Waverly (Leo G. Carroll). They fight international crimes committed by the most resourceful foes, many of whom belong to a mysterious criminal network known as THRUSH. While the show occasionally has Cold War elements, in this first season at least, most of the stories involve THRUSH or some other rogue criminal organization or mastermind. They all use hi-tech gadgets, cutting-edge weaponry, and stylish vehicles. 

I had never watched an entire episode of this show until now, and I loved it. I really enjoyed the humorous tone, the clever writing and the spot-on characterizations of Vaughn and McCallum. There are also a lot of notable guest performers. I was surprised to see one episode that had both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, 2 years before Star Trek (James "Scotty" Doohan was in another episode, to boot). I liked the appearances by Ricardo Montalban, Cesar Romero, Anne Francis (as a recurring villain), Kurt Russell, Richard Haydn, Jeannette Nolan and George Sanders. I'm looking forward to watching the other 3 seasons.

Source: Warner DVD

    

[laffite]

On 6/3/2019 at 9:29 AM, LawrenceA said:

Red Desert (1964)  -  6/10

Italian drama from director Michelangelo Antonioni. Monica Vitti stars as Giuliana, married to factory foreman Ugo (Carlo Chionetti) and mother to a young son. She was recently in a car accident, and she's been a mental and emotional wreck since then. She meets Corrado (Richard Harris) who's in town recruiting workers from Ugo, and she seeks a connection with the stranger. Antonioni's first color film looks good, even if it's fixated on ugly things. Modern industrial pollution and waste are a recurrent visual motif. There's also an electronic, science-fiction-style score and sound effects peppered throughout. The film seems to be about alienation in the modern world, much like many of the director's prior films. There are also no easy answers, and viewers will either find it mysteriously poignant or pretentious and half-baked.

Source: The Criterion Channel

Pretentious and half baked. Probably. I say probably out of fairness since I couldn't get through it. I tried so hard. The industrial images and sound effects are so exaggerated that it made me think of Jacques Sati satire (Mon Oncle) which spoiled away the meaning for me. I'm reading Zola's Germinal for a book club and the depiction of the mine as a voracious monster that devoured the miners in every facet of their lives came to mind. Monica Vitti is a disaster. Her portrayal of a disturbed woman is fraught with a myriad attempts of what is supposed to pass for nervous spontaneity but which fails. I disapprove of commenting on a film that I haven't seen all the way through (we must be fair after all) but this one is so far from redemption, it doesn't seem to matter.

[cigarjoe]

Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) Dark Bizarro Comedy/Romance - Playboy Noir

My wife hates this film, and she is a big lover of romantic comedies.

That's a big clue right there. It's not the same ol' same ol', about boy "cute" meets girl, they clash at first or weird fates intervene, they find each other or make up at last, and live happily ever after tried and true Hollywood formula.

This is a perverse romantic comedy from the dark side. It's a crime is against status quo uptight 1950s morality. It's The Playboy philosophy. It's kind of about what used to be called "Swinging." Playboy magazine was pushing boundaries, it was a progressive cultural spearhead in the sixties and well into the seventies. The fifties square johns didn't know what hit them.

Kiss Me Stupid deals with womanizing, prostitution, deception, lighthearted wife swapping, shows that no real harm was done, everyone was cool with it, and life continues on after all the above, as if nothing happened.

What woman in real life would react so calmly to her husband having casual sex with a hooker/waitress on their fifth anniversary. Yea it's before AIDS, but for some reason it must not have been as scary as "the powers that be" have made sexually transmitted diseases today. It's almost like a new form of morality that accomplishes the same thing less casual sex. At least they promote safe sex.

In Kiss Me, Stupid a woman with a reputation for "action" recommended by the bartender for, "putting out," known notoriously as "Polly The Pistol." Polly thinks $25 dollars is a good price for an all niter. On the other hand, to be fair, the real wife also cuckolds her husband by having sex with the man who was her idol during her teenage years to the extent of being president of his fan club. She BTW. gets paid five hundred dollars for "doing it." They all get away with it, how culturally Noir is that. It must have been scary for the bluenoses.

This bizarre black comedy with all the above baggage still manages to be hilarious, with funny one liners, insider jokes, and quite a few single and double ententes. It's so "Tail Fin," Playboy/Rat Pack sixties.

The screenplay was written by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond and it was based on the play L'ora della fantasia (The Dazzling Hour) by Anna Bonacci.

That play was manipulated into the screenplay for the Italian film, Wife For a Night (Moglie per una notte, 1952), that starred Gina Lollobrigida. In that film, a Count mistake's, by design a courtesan, for the wife of a struggling musician. The musician is related to the Mayor. The Mayor tells the courtesan to only submit to the Count after he promises to stage her fake husbands (the Mayors nephews) opera.

Kiss Me, Stupid, debuted just past the end of straight-laced Eisenhower fifties, and during the crumbling drawn out demise of the Motion Picture Production Code. Obviously Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas were a bit ahead of the curve on where the culture was going. Kiss Me, Stupid was a tad bit premature, it was right before the 60s sexual revolution hit the scene.

The film was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency (the second film that got that designation, the first being Baby Doll with Carroll Baker (1956)), and was banned in various bluenose cities. United Artists even decided to distribute it using their foreign language film subsidiary Lopert Pictures.

Looking at the film in hindsight it's quite tame and a tad silly comparatively to what was coming on the horizon. But got to wonder what was going on with the zeitgeist in the country. Think about it. Some Like It Hot, had cross dressers, Marilyn complaining about how she always gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop, and it's classic final lines...

Jerry: But you don't understand, Osgood! Ohh...[Jerry finally gives up and pulls off his wig]
Jerry: [normal voice] I'm a man!
Osgood: [shrugs] Well, nobody's perfect!

Out there without it being said.

The Apartment was about a boss screwing his secretary and using an employee as a de facto hot sheet motel room provider. Irma la Douce was about a Paris prostitute, and an ex-policeman who beats up her pimp thus becoming her new pimp, and then setting her up with the same client (the ex-policeman in disguise) every night. Maybe this film got a pass because the characters were all French. Was Kiss Me Stupid too direct, too irreligious, too cynical, it crossed some line. Maybe the line was that nothing happened bad to any of the characters.

In classic crime Film Noir, crime didn't pay, the crooks always got either caught or killed. Maybe Kiss Me Stupid would have gotten the thumbs up from the Catholic Legion of Decency if Dino, Zelda, Polly, and Orville, while riding in Dino's Dual-Ghia had driven off a cliff or gotten into a fiery head on collision with a semi that sent them all burning to hell, no?

Directed by Noir master Billy Wilder who brought us Film Noir classics Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, The Lost Weekend, and Ace in the Hole.

The film stars Dean Martin as "Dino" essentially debuting with some polishing, his super cool, suave playboy, who's inescapable charisma was soon to be in everybody's living room on TV's Dean Martin Show on NBC Thursday nights at 10:00 that began the very next year in 1965.

Kim Novak plays Polly the Pistol in her first film in two years after a sex comedy with James Garner Boys' Night Out (1962). Novak appeared in classic Noirs Pushover, 5 Against the House, The Man with the Golden Arm, and Vertigo.  Ray Walston (popular from TV's My Favorite Martian) played song composer/piano teacher Orville Spooner. Felicia Farr (very memorable from 3:10 to Yuma ) plays his wife Zelda Spooner, Cliff Osmond as song writer/garage mechanic Barney Millsap, Barbara Pepper as dive bar owner Big Bertha, Doro Merande as Mrs. Pettibone, Howard McNear (Floyd the Barber from the Andy Griffith Show) as Mr. Pettibone, John Fiedler as Reverend Carruthers, and Mel Blanc as Dr. Sheldrake and the voice of Polly's parrot. Blanc was the voice of iconic Warner Brothers cartoon character Bugs Bunny and many others.

Joseph LaShelle, spoofing his own noir-ish cinematography from (Fallen Angel, Hangover Square, Laura, Dangerous Crossing, Storm Fear, The Apartment), filled Kiss Me, Stupid with a plethora of Venetian blinds used for both shot compositions and for the shadows they throw. These, along with musical leitmotifs by André Previn, were used to emphasize Orville Spooner's building jealousy of Zelda. Previn also has a sexy leitmotif for Polly. Composer Ira Gershwin wrote lyrics to a few of his brother George's unpublished pieces. The new songs were "Sophia," "I'm a Poached Egg," and "All the Livelong Day." These were used in the film as examples of Spooner and Millsap's dust-pan alley compositions.

There are quite a few highlights to watch for. Dino trying to seduced Polly, Doro Merande's hilarious monologue as Zelda's mother. Orville and Barney's songs. Plenty of sight gags. A huge phallic crane pointing to a Dino marquee at The Sands opens the film. Also in the beginning casino floor show  sequence, watch Billy Beck as waiter at The Sands watching  Dino's act dead pan, not getting any of Dino's jokes. He gets ribbed by the two waiters on either side but still clueless thinks he's got his towel on the wrong arm.

More jokes, a Highway Patrolman tells Dino there is a pileup up ahead and he's go to take a detour. Tells Dino you come out at Barstow by way of...

Highway Patrolman: Warm Springs, Paradise Valley, and Climax.
Dino: It's the only way to go.

The original cast intended for the film was quite different. Orville Spooner was originally offered to  Jack Lemmon. He was tied up in other projects.  It would have been interesting to see him playing opposite his wife Felicia Farr. Peter Sellers was signed instead and shooting began but Sellers had a heart attack and Ray Walston filled in, re-shooting all his scenes. Polly The Pistol was originally intended for Marilyn Monroe, but she overdosed in 62. Then Jane Mansfield was tapped but she got pregnant. Kim Novak was finally decided on and she is either definitely channeling Marilyn a bit or the material is so spot on Marilyn that it just comes out that way. I've also read that Frank Sinatra was considered for the Dino part, probably playing "Frankie."  

In On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder, by Ed Sikov.  Wilder is quoted as saying "I don't know why the film shocked people. It's the most bourgeois film there is. A man wants a career and the person who wants to help him wants to sleep with his wife. He replaces his wife with another, but when he is nearest to success, he refuses it and throws the guy out."  But, Billy, he still sleeps with the hooker and his wife gets boned by Dino. lol.

It wasn't the hip Tinseltown audience you were rubbing "stuff" with that was complaining, obviously, it was square john fly-over country, filled with devout Catholics and the revivalist bible thumpers, who must have considered it shocking and vulgar.

You even got to wonder where NY Times critic Bosley Crowther was coming from, he blamed Kiss Me, Stupid for giving American movies the reputation of "deliberate and degenerate corruptors of public taste and morals." At the same time we had lynchings and segregation down South, morals and common decency were already corrupt, tell us about it Bosely.

TV Guide reviewer Michael Scheinfeld got it right, he gave the film 3½ stars. "A kind of cinematic litmus test that separates the casual Billy Wilder fan from the true connoisseur" and "a monument of satirical tastelessness that . . . in retrospect, is now seen as one of Wilder's most fascinatingly original films." He added, "Amid the [original] furor, it's easy to miss the film's comedic accomplishments, which are considerable. Its idiomatic wordplay and social satire is vintage Wilder, and the opening sequence where Dino performs in a nightclub is one of the funniest things that Wilder has ever done. Sprinkling in bad jokes and Rat Pack references, Dean Martin's comic timing and delivery is impeccable . . . The rest of the cast is equally superb, right down to the smallest bit part . . . although Ray Walston's relentless mugging becomes a bit much." I don't agree with the Walston critique, he was fine.

J. Hoberman of The Village Voice discussed Kiss Me, Stupid when in 2002 the Film Forum in Manhattan ran a restored print. "Kiss Me, Stupid's mutually redemptive adultery is closer to the grown-up world of John Cassavetes's Faces than to Wilder's adolescent Seven Year Itch — but it's ultimately a more knowingly tolerant, not to mention funnier, movie than either."

Kiss Me, Stupid is like an antidote to anyone overdosed on Rock Hudson - Doris Day films.

Comedy Noirs were out there. Ensemble/comedy and quasi-comedy Classic Noirs like Grand Central Murder (1942)  Deadline at Dawn (1946), Manhandled (1949), His Kind of Woman(1951), Shack Out On 101 (1955), and even Lady In The Lake (1946), has some of this quality. There are probably a few others lurking in the classics. Neo Noir contenders are Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Seven Beauties (1977), The Late Show (1977) After Hours (1985), Down By Law (1986), Delicatessen (1991) and The Big Lebowski (1998).

Kiss Me, Stupid, Is it Noir? In a cultural rather than crime way it clicks Noir for me, it may not for you, or it just may teeter right on the brink, the cusp or Noir so to speak, for others. Watch it next go round with your noir-dar on. Then you decide for yourself.

Felicia Farr stands out as a surprising cutie holding her own, which is an accomplishment, considering Novak's passionate and complex performance in the lead. Novak pulls off a melancholy husky voiced Jersey City version of Marilyn Monroe. Ray Walston has his best film part. Cliff Osmond is hilarious as the desperate lyricist who instigates the whole wife swapping scenario, and Dean Martin is just fantastic as Dino. If you loved The Dean Martin Show Martin does an exaggerated variation of his on tube personality. It's probably my all time favorite performance of his. Screen caps are from a Amazon Prime streamer. 8/10 Full review with some screencaps at Film Noir/Gangster Pages.

[kingrat]

Joe, I think the real difference between viewers of Kiss Me, Stupid doesn't have to do with its raciness, but whether you think it's funny. I watched half an hour and found it painfully, excruciatingly unfunny. Trying to be funny is not the same as funny. Sometimes the two are oceans apart. Wilder shows us the comic, who's supposed to be unfunny, but the other jokes in the film aren't any better, or so it seems to me. Different people do laugh at different things, so I'm never surprised if what I think is funny doesn't appeal to other people, or vice versa.

[LawrenceA]

31 minutes ago, kingrat said:

Trying to be funny is not the same as funny. 

That's the way I feel about most of Wilder's comedies, particularly Some Like It Hot, One Two Three, Irma la Douce, and Kiss Me Stupid. I really loathed those middle two. I liked The Apartment a bit more, but not as much as many do.

[cigarjoe]

33 minutes ago, kingrat said:

Joe, I think the real difference between viewers of Kiss Me, Stupid doesn't have to do with its raciness, but whether you think it's funny. I watched half an hour and found it painfully, excruciatingly unfunny. Trying to be funny is not the same as funny. Sometimes the two are oceans apart. Wilder shows us the comic, who's supposed to be unfunny, but the other jokes in the film aren't any better, or so it seems to me. Different people do laugh at different things, so I'm never surprised if what I think is funny doesn't appeal to other people, or vice versa.

You could be right, but you'd have to watch the whole thing to be fair. The Doro Merande monologue was hilarious and it was further in than the first half hour.

[cigarjoe]

It also could be you'd have to have been around that whole Googie/Vegas, tail fin, rat pack, Playboy era, to appreciate the general atmo and some of the insider jokes. It's like a time machine to an end of an certain innocence. 

[LawrenceA]

Or it could be that I understood all of the jokes and references, and just didn't find them funny.

I can't speak for kingrat, but personally I tend not to share the same comedy tastes with most people. Some Like It Hot is considered an all-time comedy great. To me it's like a bad sitcom. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is reportedly thought to be hilarious by a majority of viewers, yet I thought it was excruciatingly dumb and obnoxious. The same goes for The Three Stooges, Red Skelton, most Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, etc.

[LsDoorMat]

Maybe it doesn't belong here. Maybe it belongs in a separate thread. But over the last five weeks I have been watching some of the best television I have seen in my life, the five episode miniseries Chernobyl on HBO. It takes some license with the truth, but it is pretty much spot on. And the license it does take with the truth is pretty much explained in the five accompanying podcasts that you can find on youtube. If this miniseries doesn't walk away with every Emmy it is eligible for it will be a great injustice.