I Just Watched...

[CinemaInternational]

Just came back from Toy Story 4 at the movie theatre. Pixar did it again, they caused me to cry like the waterworks..... It's a good bittersweet end to the series.

[Dr. Somnambula]

29 minutes ago, Hibi said:

LMREO!!!! Funny Blaque didnt get censored.

Agreed. I like LawrenceA's segue to TV. Is Lost In Space on your list too? Michael Rennie is in LIS season 1. The only 2-part episode. B&W. Michael looks way better in color in season 2 of Batman.

[Hibi]

Definitely not.

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:

Batman  Season One (1966)

It's no wonder then that the show saw a quick burn-out among viewers. Still, in 1966 it was a legitimate pop-culture phenomenon, and shaped a generation's perception of not only Batman but comic book properties in general. The show is fun, with a lot of knowing, winking humor, although it gets to be a bit much when binge-watched. Adam West didn't get the credit he deserved for playing the title role so humorously. The Joker was my favorite villain, naturally, painted-over mustache and all, but I also enjoy Meredith, Gorshin (to an extent), Newmar, and Buono.

Also, showing it twice a week, on Wed-Thurs ("Tune in tomorrow...") might have been a burnout, as ABC later found out with "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"

And actually the first season was relatively balanced for "straight" comic-book action and humor--In the second season, it's played almost completely for humor, and the third season jumped the shark when producer William Dozier pushed B&R aside and tried to turn it into the "Batgirl" spinoff the network wouldn't let him do.  And yes, Cesar Romero's all-in performance as the Joker--straight-on even within the "tongue-in-cheek" context--is the best reason for watching the first two seasons, even if Julie Newmar's Catwoman became too consciously comic in the second.  And even Gorshin's fun to watch if you go in knowing he's doing his nightclub Richard Widmark impression.

Quote

George Sanders as Mr. Freeze

(Always wondered why everyone always makes the big goofy pop-culture yoks over having "three different" Catwomen in the series and movie, when--thanks to production schedules and actor difficulties--we also had three Mr. Freezes and two Riddlers.)

[Fedya]

It's a useful Scrabble word, since you can put the J on a Double Letter Score and the M on a Triple Word Score for big points.

[LawrenceA]

An Angel for Satan (1966)  -  7/10

Italian Gothic supernatural melodrama from director Camillo Mastrocinque. After a drought causes a lake's waters to recede, a long sunken statue of a beautiful woman is discovered. Rumors among the townsfolk say that the statue is cursed, but the area nobleman hires a sculptor (Anthony Steffen) to restore it anyway. This coincides with the return of the nobleman's niece Harriet (Barbara Steele), who happens to be the spitting image of the statue. Soon Harriet begins acting strangely, and she sows discord among those around her. Also featuring Claudio Gora, Mario Brega, Marina Berti, Ursula Davis, Vassili Karis, Betty Delon, and Aldo Berti. Although not up to quality of earlier Italian Barbara Steele efforts such as Black Sunday, The Long Hair of Death, or Castle of Blood, this was still entertaining, with Steele gorgeous and deliciously wicked in what is essentially another dual role for her. 

Source: YouTube

 

[LawrenceA]

1 hour ago, Michael Rennie said:

Agreed. I like LawrenceA's segue to TV. Is Lost In Space on your list too? Michael Rennie is in LIS season 1. The only 2-part episode. B&W. Michael looks way better in color in season 2 of Batman.

No Lost In Space for me this go-round. I started out my 1966 stuff with season one of Batman because there are two seasons from '66 and I don't think I could handle watching them back-to-back. So I decided to do the first season before the '66 movies I have compiled. Now I'm on the movies, but when they're finished, I'll watch the rest of the 1966 TV stuff I have lined up, which is more Batman, Doctor Who, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., as well as a Superman cartoon show, and the first seasons of Mission: Impossible and Star Trek.

[Ampersand]

5 hours ago, LawrenceA said:

Batman  Season One (1966)

The first season of the campy comedy-adventure series, consisting of 34 half-hour episodes. Millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne (Adam West) and his young ward Dick Grayson (Burt Ward) secretly fight crime as the costumed Dynamic Duo Batman & Robin. Other cast regulars include Alan Napier as Wayne's faithful butler Alfred, Neil Hamilton as Police Commissioner Gordon, Stafford Repp as Police Chief O'Hara, and Madge Blake as Grayson's clueless Aunt Harriet. The recurring "Special Guest Villains" this season included Frank Gorshin as The Riddler (4 storylines), Burgess Meredith as The Penguin (3 storylines), and Cesar Romero as The Joker (3 storylines). The one-off villains include Julie Newmar as The Catwoman, Anne Baxter as Zelda the Great, George Sanders as Mr. Freeze, David Wayne as The Mad Hatter, Malachi Throne as False Face, Victor Buono as King Tut, and Roddy McDowall as The Bookworm.

Due to a scheduling issue, the hour-long stories were split into half hour installments, with both halves airing on different nights the same week. The show debuted on January 12, 1966, and ran through May 5. This was followed by the theatrical Batman: The Movie on July 30, and then season two's premiere on September 7. It's no wonder then that the show saw a quick burn-out among viewers. Still, in 1966 it was a legitimate pop-culture phenomenon, and shaped a generation's perception of not only Batman but comic book properties in general. The show is fun, with a lot of knowing, winking humor, although it gets to be a bit much when binge-watched. Adam West didn't get the credit he deserved for playing the title role so humorously. The Joker was my favorite villain, naturally, painted-over mustache and all, but I also enjoy Meredith, Gorshin (to an extent), Newmar, and Buono.

Source: Warner DVD

 

I absolutely love the 60s Batman. The sheer camp value of it and rampant hamboning and cheese, contrasted with Batman's straight-laced comically seriousness which makes it all the more entertaining, especially when he uses some Bat-Logic to figure something out. I remember it being shown on a channel or two in the early 2000s or so, but only the first two seasons, but as long as Frank Gorshin or Cesar Romero were in the weekly run (One episode a weekday if I remember), I was content.

But also enjoyed the one-off villains or ones that turn into a one-season thing, like King Tut. He was amazing. The farthest thing from a noble pharaoh and more like Brian Blessed from Blackadder in terms of volume and grandiose. Some episodes I could skip but his, I would always watch. He just devours the scenery.

[LawrenceA]

Assault on a Queen (1966)  -  5/10

Crime drama with Frank Sinatra as part of an uneasy crew that sets out to rob the Queen Mary ocean liner. Their audacious scheme entails salvaging a sunken WWII submarine, restoring it to operational order, and then using it to threaten the Queen Mary's crew into compliance. Also featuring Tony Franciosa, Virna Lisi, Alf Kjellin, Richard Conte, Errol John, Murray Matheson, Val Avery, and Reginald Denny. Frank produced the film, but he still looks bored and sleepwalks through his role. The ring-a-ding soundtrack seems suited to a breezy caper lark, instead of this often-grim crime drama. The silly premise came from a book by Jack Finney (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) and a screenplay by Rod Serling.

Source: TCM

[LawrenceA]

Barefoot in Athens (1966)  -  7/10

Filmed theater performance of the Maxwell Anderson play that charts the final days of the life of Socrates (Peter Ustinov), including his trial. Also featuring Geraldine Page, Anthony Quayle, Salome Jens, Lloyd Bochner, Shepperd Strudwick, Eric Berry, and Christopher Walken. The performances are pitched at theater-level, but Ustinov is still magnetic as the great thinker. 23-year-old Christopher Walken has one of his earliest adult roles; he had been a child actor under the name "Ronnie Walken".

Source: YouTube

[cigarjoe]

4 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

Barefoot in Athens (1966)  -  7/10

Filmed theater performance of the Maxwell Anderson play that charts the final days of the life of Socrates (Peter Ustinov), including his trial. Also featuring Geraldine Page, Anthony Quayle, Salome Jens, Lloyd Bochner, Shepperd Strudwick, Eric Berry, and Christopher Walken. The performances are pitched at theater-level, but Ustinov is still magnetic as the great thinker. 23-year-old Christopher Walken has one of his earliest adult roles; he had been a child actor under the name "Ronnie Walken".

Source: YouTube

Whoa, whoa, whoa! If you're going alphabetically through 66 What happened to Aroused (1966), one of the best early Sexploitation Neo Noir's and one of the last B&W films. 

[cigarjoe]

The Moving Finger (1963) Beatnik Noir

Directed by Larry Moyer.

Written by Carlo and Larry Moyer with cinematography by Max Glenn music by Shel Silverstein and Teddy Vann.

The film stars Lionel Stander (Call Northside 777, narrator Blast of Silence, Once Upon a Time in the West) as Anatole. With Barbara London, Art Smith (Framed, Brute Force, Ride the Pink Horse, Body and Soul, T-Men, Caught, Manhandled, Quicksand, In a Lonely Place, The Killer That Stalked New York, and The Sound of Fury) as Doc Savartz, Wendy Barrie, Alan Ansara, and Barry Newman (Vanishing Point).

Bank robbery gone wrong. The wounded robber Ansara gets away on a Greenwich Village bound tourist bus.

Anatole (Lionel Stander) is a cat who runs a dive Village beatnik, tourist trap, coffee house.  A tourist bus is on the way. His workers are a bunch of actors he hires for the real beatnik atmo. They get get three hots and share cots with each other and their pet rat that they keep in a bird cage. (I wonder if they inherited one of dead Ralphie's pet rats from Blast Of Silence)

Its a piece of preserved Greenwich Village Beat nostalgia that has crappy coffee house bad poetry readings, jazz music, folk music hootenannies, weed smoking joint passing sessions, belly dancers, gay couples, authentic Village weirdos and as a bonus has some real footage of Little Italy's Feast of San Genaro Festival. Watchable 5-6/10

Won the Golden Gate Award in San Francisco for Best Director in 1963. Full review with more screen caps in Film Noir/Gangster pages.

[rayban]

"A Taste Of Honey" - Tony Richardson - 1961 -

starring Rita Tushingham, Dora Bryan, Murray Melvin,  Robert Stephens, etc. -

Tony Richardson delivers an extremely real rendition of the famous play by Shelagh Delaney -

there's no artifice -

the actors take you into places that you feel that you have never been before -

it's unvarnished and raw -

and it's sordid, too -

and there's no apology -

take it or leave it -

a young girl is abandoned by her mother and becomes pregnant by a black seaman (who leaves her) -

she finds solace with a young homosexual who takes care of her -

in the end, her mother returns - 

her caretakeer leaves -

it is bleak -

but you won't forget it -

 

[LornaHansonForbes]

trying to get out of my MURDER, SHE RUT so i watched THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT (1945)- which I last saw several years ago when ILLEANNA DOUGLAS hosted her "forgotten films" spotlight.

it's a very funny and charming movie, years ahead of its time, and i couldn't help but think of how it predates the current show GOOD OMENS which also takes a controversially humorous look at the ideas of angels, fallen angels, and the apocalypse- I have no interest in watching the latter though, in spite of the AGGRESSIVE AD CAMPAIGN that grabs me and DEMANDS I WATCH IT every time I turn on amazon prime (which is ALWAYS so I can just watch MURDER, SHE WROTE.)

[LawrenceA]

The Big Gundown (1966)  -  7/10

  

Italian spaghetti western from director Sergio Sollima. Lee Van Cleef stars as "Colorado" Corbett, a feared bounty hunter looking to hang up his guns. He's convinced by rich fat-cat Brockston (Walter Barnes) to go on one more manhunt, and in exchange he'll be rewarded with backing for a potential political career. Corbett's quarry is a Mexican known as "Cuchillo" (Tomas Milian), who's accused of sexual assault and murder. What Corbett believes will be an easy takedown turns ever more complicated and dangerous. Also featuring Nieves Navarro, Gerard Herter, Maria Granada, Roberto Camardiel, and Angel del Pozo. This has the usual over-blown sound effects and striking musical score (courtesy of Ennio Morricone) that I love in spaghetti westerns. The story doesn't hold a lot of surprises, but fans of the spaghetti sub-genre should dig it.

Source: Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray, a fantastic release featuring the remastered American cut on both Blu-ray and DVD, the original Italian version on Blu-ray, and a CD of the soundtrack. The film discs also include commentary tracks and interviews with cast and crew.

 

[Bogie56]

1 hour ago, LawrenceA said:

The Big Gundown (1966)  -  7/10

  

Italian spaghetti western from director Sergio Sollima. Lee Van Cleef stars as "Colorado" Corbett, a feared bounty hunter looking to hang up his guns. He's convinced by rich fat-cat Brockston (Walter Barnes) to go on one more manhunt, and in exchange he'll be rewarded with backing for a potential political career. Corbett's quarry is a Mexican known as "Cuchillo" (Tomas Milian), who's accused of sexual assault and murder. What Corbett believes will be an easy takedown turns ever more complicated and dangerous. Also featuring Nieves Navarro, Gerard Herter, Maria Granada, Roberto Camardiel, and Angel del Pozo. This has the usual over-blown sound effects and striking musical score (courtesy of Ennio Morricone) that I love in spaghetti westerns. The story doesn't hold a lot of surprises, but fans of the spaghetti sub-genre should dig it.

Source: Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray, a fantastic release featuring the remastered American cut on both Blu-ray and DVD, the original Italian version on Blu-ray, and a CD of the soundtrack. The film discs also include commentary tracks and interviews with cast and crew.

 

This is probably Morricone's best Western score IMO which is saying a lot considering his Man With No Name films.

[EricJ]

7 hours ago, LornaHansonForbes said:

and i couldn't help but think of how it predates the current show GOOD OMENS which also takes a controversially humorous look at the ideas of angels, fallen angels, and the apocalypse- I have no interest in watching the latter though, in spite of the AGGRESSIVE AD CAMPAIGN that grabs me and DEMANDS I WATCH IT every time I turn on amazon prime (which is ALWAYS so I can just watch MURDER, SHE WROTE.)

It wasn't even this bad when they were showing Man in the High Castle or Transparent, and that one had to make us look at Jeffrey Tambor.

And it's hard to watch Horn without thinking of the many better Jack Benny jokes about it, but it's pretty clear that Benny just didn't work as a generic variety star out of his own element, even in a self-deprecating naive/dim role.

[Fedya]

8 hours ago, rayban said:

in the end, her mother returns - 

her caretakeer leaves -

I found the ending rather abrupt.  The movie boogie oogie oogies 'til it just can't boogie no more.

[Hibi]

DITTO.

[LawrenceA]

The Big T.N.T. Show (1966)  -  8/10

Musical revue follow-up to 1964's The T.A.M.I. Show. David McCallum acts a host, introducing live performances from Ray Charles, Joan Baez, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Byrds, Petula Clark, The Ronettes, Donovan, Bo Diddley, and Ike & Tina Turner and the Ikettes. I enjoyed it, but I suppose if you hate the music, then you won't. 

Source: Shout! Factory DVD

[kingrat]

8 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

The Big T.N.T. Show (1966)  -  8/10

Musical revue follow-up to 1964's The T.A.M.I. Show. David McCallum acts a host, introducing live performances from Ray Charles, Joan Baez, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Byrds, Petula Clark, The Ronettes, Donovan, Bo Diddley, and Ike & Tina Turner and the Ikettes. I enjoyed it, but I suppose if you hate the music, then you won't. 

Source: Shout! Factory DVD

Lawrence, that's really a smorgasbord of musical acts. I like a lot of those folks, but would not expect to hear them at the same event. You can get some strange combinations, like Donovan and Ike and Tina Turner, or Petula Clark and Roger Miller.

[LawrenceA]

2 minutes ago, kingrat said:

Lawrence, that's really a smorgasbord of musical acts. I like a lot of those folks, but would not expect to hear them at the same event. You can get some strange combinations, like Donovan and Ike and Tina Turner, or Petula Clark and Roger Miller.

Oops...looks like I forgot to include Roger Miller in my comments, although he's on the poster. Most of the acts sounded very good, but Donovan didn't do any of the few songs of his that I like, and Joan Baez sorta butchers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling". I didn't mention The Modern Folk Quartet, either, but they aren't seen, just heard over the opening and closing credits.

[Dr. Somnambula]

50 minutes ago, LawrenceA said:

Source: Shout! Factory DVD

Shout! Factory DVD reissued WKRP in Cincinnati with original music.

https://www.shoutfactory.com/blog/wkrp-in-cincinnati-music-update/

[LawrenceA]

Black Girl (1966)  -  7/10

Senegalese drama from writer-director Ousmane Sembene. A young woman named Diouana (Mbissine Therese Diop) from a poor neighborhood in Dakar takes a job as a nanny to a French couple. She agrees to return to France with them and continue working, only to find a severe communication breakdown between her and the mistress of the house (Anne-Marie Jelinek), as well as soul-crushing homesickness. Also featuring Robert Fontaine, and Momar Nar Sene. This film holds historical significance as one of the earliest features directed by a sub-Saharan African. The film offers a stark depiction of a difficult situation where communication fails and animosity builds. We hear the main character's thoughts as narration (in French) but she cannot easily converse with her employers. There's also an obvious parallel and commentary on French colonialism. The movie is very short (barely an hour).

Source: The Criterion Channel

[LawrenceA]

Chafed Elbows (1966)  -  5/10

NY underground comedy from writer/producer/director Robert Downey, Sr. A troubled young man (George Morgan) tries to get control of his life. Also featuring Elsie Downey (Robert's wife and the mother of Robert Downey Jr.) in all of the female roles. This near-incoherent ramble is largely comprised of stationary photos with voice-over narration, but there are a few motion sequences, just as while the film is largely B&W, some scenes are tinted or in full color. The film is deliberately outrageous and irreverent, with a lot of stuff not acceptable in general release films of the era. I thought it got old rather quickly.

Source: The Criterion Channel