I Just Watched...

[cigarjoe]

Cigarjoe-

I noticed you mentioned Jackie Coogan in the cast.  I haven't seen him in anything except The Kid.  I know about the Jackie Coogan law.

 

How  old was Jackie Coogan when he made this movie?

 

This sounds like a film I'd love to see.

he was 45

[GregoryPeckfan]

You never saw him in The Addams Family tv show?

 

And if you want prime Jackie Coogan, you need to see MESA OF LOST WOMEN.

I meant his BIG SCREEN career, not overall. 

 

Yes, I did see The Addams Family.  Big fan of the show.

 

I have yet to see MESA OF LOST WOMEN.  Thanks for the recommendation.

[LawrenceA]

 

I have yet to see MESA OF LOST WOMEN.  Thanks for the recommendation.

It was a joke. I don't think you'd care for it.

[Kay]

It was a joke. I don't think you'd care for it.

 

Looks like a winner to me, Lawrence.

[LawrenceA]

Looks like a winner to me, Lawrence.

I love it, but I'm an idiot.

[GregoryPeckfan]

I thought you meant it was when he was a child and that it was so bad it is funny like as in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

[LawrenceA]

...and that it was so bad it is funny like as in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

This part is true.

[speedracer5]

I've been sick in bed all day, so it's been a day of movies.

 

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN.  This was a great movie starring Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price.  The Technicolor was gorgeous and Tierney's character may just be one of the more sinister femme fatales in all of film noir.  The lake scene is particularly chilling.  Up to the bitter end, Tierney was not a woman to be ignored.  Wilde's acting skills are so-so.  He wasn't bad in this film, but he wasn't amazing either.  Crain and Tierney have very similar facial features and were believable as family members. Price as the jilted lover was excellent.  His courtroom scene was particularly exciting.  I barely recognized him without the mustache, but there's no hiding his unique voice.

 

DANCING LADY. I've seen this before and I watched it again.  This movie is very corny in parts and I can't say that Joan Crawford is that great of a dancer--especially in comparison with her dancing partner Fred Astaire (in his film debut).  She seems to always be doing The Charleston, even if she's not doing The Charleston.  Clark Gable was his usual Clark Gable self.  I loved his chemistry with Crawford.  Dare I say that I find Franchot Tone cute?

 

EXECUTIVE SUITE.  This is such a great film.  I thought Nina Foch was excellent in her subtle performance as the deceased president's secretary.  I also thought William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck and Paul Douglas were all excellent in their respective roles.  I'm not a fan of June Allyson who plays Holden's wife, but she's unobjectionable in this film.  There's nothing special about her performance but nothing bad either. Fredric March was good as assumed successor, but who was just as corrupt as the prior President.

 

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? This movie was bonkers.  I loved Debbie Reynolds' costumes.  The little girl playing the Shirley Temple wannabe was really good although I thought it was strange that she followed up her Temple act with a Mae West impersonation.  Shelley Winters does a great job as a woman on the verge of nervous breakdowns.  The ending of the film was very creepy, but I liked it. 

[GregoryPeckfan]

Sorry you are sick, Speedy.  But a day of movies is great.

 

I love Leave Her to Heaven and Executive Suite.

 

 

I watched What's The Matter With Heaven only because of the stars.  There are some horror films with my favourites that I still haven't come around to seeing, such as Tremors with Henry Fonda.

 

 

I saw Dancing Lady once.  I didn't care for it.  I found my mind focusing on the bad dancing instead of the movie itself.

[Dargo]

I've been sick in bed all day, so it's been a day of movies.

 

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN.  This was a great movie starring Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain and Vincent Price.  The Technicolor was gorgeous and Tierney's character may just be one of the more sinister femme fatales in all of film noir.  The lake scene is particularly chilling.  Up to the bitter end, Tierney was not a woman to be ignored.  Wilde's acting skills are so-so.  He wasn't bad in this film, but he wasn't amazing either.  Crain and Tierney have very similar facial features and were believable as family members. Price as the jilted lover was excellent.  His courtroom scene was particularly exciting.  I barely recognized him without the mustache, but there's no hiding his unique voice.

 

 

Hope ya feel better soon, Speedy!

 

Btw, the reason I selected your LHTH review here to quote was that you might be interested to know this film was shot in a few places I know very well...Bass Lake CA and where as a kid our family would take summer vacations quite a lot, Prescott AZ and where my wife and I first retired to six years ago, and Sedona AZ where we moved to after two years in Prescott.

 

(...and btw, while I always love Vinnie Price, I gotta say his role as Tierney's jilted lover and prosecutor in this film is pretty darn over-the-top, wouldn't ya say after further reflection?!)

[speedracer5]

Hope ya feel better soon, Speedy!

 

Btw, the reason I selected your LHTH review here to quote was that you might be interested to know this film was shot in a few places I know very well...Bass Lake CA and where as a kid our family would take summer vacations quite a lot, Prescott AZ and where my wife and I first retired to six years ago, and Sedona AZ where we moved to after two years in Prescott.

 

(...and btw, while I always love Vinnie Price, I gotta say his role as Tierney's jilted lover and prosecutor in this film is pretty darn over-the-top, wouldn't ya say after further reflection?!)

 

Thank you! I assume Bass Lake is where the infamous lake scene takes place? That scene is probably one of the most chilling scenes I've seen in any film.  It ranks right up there with the closeup on Barbara Stanwyck's face while Fred MacMurray is murdering her husband in Double Indemnity. 

 

I loved Price as the prosecutor.  He was completely over the top and outrageous, but I loved his performance.  I love movies with these over the top courtroom scenes.  

[LawrenceA]

When My Baby Smiles at Me - (6/10) - From 20th Century Fox comes this 1948 musical comedy-drama about a married pair of vaudeville performers. Betty Grable stars as the showgirl wife, with Dan Dailey as the hard-drinking rising star husband, whose song-and-dance comedy routines have caught the attention of Broadway producers who want him to headline a new revue. He goes, but the wife stays with the smaller troupe, and Dailey's increasing fame is only matched by his drinking. Eventually things fall apart, but only after numerous stagebound musical numbers, including one terrible bit with Dailey surrounded by several female back-up dancers in brown-skin make-up as blackface shoeshine girls. That last bit is probably a big reason why this film is rarely shown anymore.

 

Grable once again fails to make an impression on me: she's not terrible, but in no way memorable either. Dailey earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and he has a big, manic meltdown scene, followed by a pitiful bit in the Bellevue drunk tank. He's good, but most of his performance is just his usual large and loud musical shtick. Richard Arlen plays a level-headed alternative for Grable's affections, and there are welcome supporting parts by James Gleason, Jack Oakie and June Havoc. This may be better appreciated by musical fans, but for me it's a one-and-done.

[wouldbestar]

Speedracer5:  I too love Executive Suite.  It's just as relative today as it was 60+ years ago.  Don Walling/William Holden's speech at the end should be heard by all business top brass.

 

Nina Foch got an Oscar nomination for playing "Erica Martin".  It was one of the smallest roles to ever get one but did she ever run with it.  She was the moral compass of the office and the right arm that Don would need when he took over. 

 

I never get tired of this movie.

 

        

[GregoryPeckfan]

TORPEDO RUN (1958): contains spoilers!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had recorded this movie yesterday and watched it tonight.  It has been a few years since I have seen this WWII suspense film.

 

It stars Glenn Ford and Earnest Borgnine and is shown partly in flashbacks to prior to Ford and Borgnine going to war -back to when and how he married his wife and life with his daughter.

 

Now he and his daughters are POW and are on a transport ship that is screening (hiding) the German vessel that was a main part of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  They have orders to get that vessel.  Ford decides to torpedo anyway and the transport is blown up.  There are survivors, but Ford orders his sub to vacate the area because getting survivors would have everyone blown up. That means his wife and daughter are dead.

 

The reference to the title is that they have more torpedoes left and why go back with any left.

 

There is a chance Ford will be given a desk job and Borgnine could get his own command, but he refuses.

 

From then on it is an all out battle to get that German vessel.

 

 

 

I just love sub films.  I couldn't be on one myself, because I'd probably have a panic attack, but hey, I love sub movies.

 

 

 

 

[LonesomePolecat]

When My Baby Smiles at Me - (6/10) - From 20th Century Fox comes this 1948 musical comedy-drama about a married pair of vaudeville performers. Betty Grable stars as the showgirl wife, with Dan Dailey as the hard-drinking rising star husband, whose song-and-dance comedy routines have caught the attention of Broadway producers who want him to headline a new revue. He goes, but the wife stays with the smaller troupe, and Dailey's increasing fame is only matched by his drinking. Eventually things fall apart, but only after numerous stagebound musical numbers, including one terrible bit with Dailey surrounded by several female back-up dancers in brown-skin make-up as blackface shoeshine girls. That last bit is probably a big reason why this film is rarely shown anymore.

 

Grable once again fails to make an impression on me: she's not terrible, but in no way memorable either. Dailey earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination, and he has a big, manic meltdown scene, followed by a pitiful bit in the Bellevue drunk tank. He's good, but most of his performance is just his usual large and loud musical shtick. Richard Arlen plays a level-headed alternative for Grable's affections, and there are welcome supporting parts by James Gleason, Jack Oakie and June Havoc. This may be better appreciated by musical fans, but for me it's a one-and-done.

I've never seen this movie, but I've seen the Carol Burnett parody of it:

 

[LonesomePolecat]

BEDTIME STORY (1964), or, as it may be better known to some modern filmgoers, the original version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a 1988 comedy. I just saw the original again for the first time in years and found this tale of two competitive French Riviera con artists fleecing rich women a charming, polished delight.

 

David Niven is perfectly cast, bringing his charm and droll humour to the role of the wealthy, well established con artist, working in collaboration with the corrupt captain of police, to suavely pluck the rich female tourists arriving in his affluent but small Mediterranean town, without their ever knowing that they have been plucked.

 

Along, though, comes a brash American con artist interloper (Marlon Brando), threatening to spoil the pickings for Niven. From there the story takes off.

 

The film looks like parts of it may have been filmed in the Riviera, adding considerably to the sunshine kissed affluent atmosphere of this handsome production. And there is often some rather clever dialogue.

 

At one point Brando, in talking to the French town police officer, says, "She caught me with another woman. You're French. You understand."

 

"To be with another woman, that is French," replies the Frenchman, "To be caught, that is American."

 

That same line of dialogue, by the way, would re-appear in the remake (Stanley Shapiro has writing credit on both films).

 

Niven brings his expected aplomb to his role. Did any actor ever look more at home in a white tuxedo? But Brando is an unexpected pleasure to watch in this film, as well, gleefully leaping into the role of the lower class brash Yankee ready to exploit the guilibility of innocent women.

 

At one point Niven says to him, "By no stretch of the imagination would I associate myself with someone like you. You're crude."

 

"Well, so is oil until you refine it into high octane gasoline," says Brando, wanting to be taught all the tricks of sophisticated flip flammery at the hands of an old master like Niven.

 

Both Bedtime Story and its Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remake (reviewed on this thread just a day ago or so) are well worth viewing. Where the remake has an edge over the original, though, is in the casting of Steve Martin, who has a few sequences of physical comedy brilliance when he poses as "Ruprecht," Niven's brain addled "brother," who acts, at times, like he's almost half monkey. These scenes are hysterically funny, thanks to Martin. (Michael Caine plays the Niven role in the remake, and he's more than fine).

 

The remake also changes the ending of the original and, for the better, in a clever twist that I, for one, didn't see coming.

 

I too watched this movie on youtube yesterday, as soon as I found out it existed. I noticed there were lots of things the remake lifted right off the original. Sometimes even the shots were the same. I felt like both versions were good in different ways, with both being worth watching for different reasons. The remake's ending is way better, and I was waiting to see how Shirley Jones was going to play it, then was disappointed that it never happened.

[cigarjoe]

The Honeymoon Killers (1969) Directors: Leonard Kastle, Donald Volkman (uncredited) written by Leonard Kastle. Stars Shirley Stoler (Seven Beauties (1975) Miami Blues (1990)), Tony Lo Bianco (The Seven Ups (1973) The French Connection (1971)), Mary Jane Higby, Marilyn Chris, Mary Breen, and Doris Roberts.

 

A couple of truly revolting, sleazeball, human scum prey relentlessly and mercilessly upon the most desperate, pathetic, and lonely women who are looking for love and companionship.

 

 

Fernandez and Beck were convicted of Janet Fay's murder—the only one for which they were tried—and sentenced to death. On March 8, 1951, both were executed by electric chair in Sing Sing.

 

DVD is available from the Criterion Collection, 8/10.

 

 

The story was reworked again as Lonely Hearts (2006) telling the story from the police investigation angle, and placing the story back in the correct time frame, however the svelte Salma Hayek cast as Martha Beck was quite ridiculous.

 

Fuller review here on Film Noir/Gangster Board and with a lot more screen caps here: http://noirsville.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-honeymoon-killers-1969-lonely-heart.html

[TomJH]

I too watched this movie on youtube yesterday, as soon as I found out it existed. I noticed there were lots of things the remake lifted right off the original. Sometimes even the shots were the same. I felt like both versions were good in different ways, with both being worth watching for different reasons. The remake's ending is way better, and I was waiting to see how Shirley Jones was going to play it, then was disappointed that it never happened.

 

Glad you saw Bedtime Story, LonesomePolecat. I'm a fan of both it and its Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remake. But Bedtime Story, unfortunately, is a challenge to find (which is why I made a point of telling posters it's on You Tube now in a pretty decent print).

 

They're interesting films to compare, but, for sure, the remake takes some scenes directly out of the original (look at the openings to the two films, almost the same direction). Niven is perfection in the original but Michael Caine is wonderful in the remake, as well. I think fans will be surprised at how good Brando is with this comedy material in Bedtime Story, but I think that Steve Martin's scenes as "Ruprecht" in the remake deserve to be ranked as comedy classics. He's absolutely brilliant in those scenes. (His facial contortion in those scenes even made me think a little bit of John Barrymore in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, bizarre as that comment may seem).

[darkblue]

 

The Honeymoon Killers (1969) 

 

 

'Cheap, Stark Exercise in Ugliness' is the title of my IMDb comment.

 

Not recommended. 4/10

[LornaHansonForbes]

When My Baby Smiles at Me - (6/10) -

Grable once again fails to make an impression on me: she's not terrible, but in no way memorable either.

 

I have not seen hardly any of Grable's films, except for HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE- which is terrible and in which she has a terrible part and sits out the near entirety of the 3rd act, nonetheless, she is very natural and likeable in it- and the story about her advice to Marilyn Monroe "I've had mine honey, now you go get yours" is one of my favorites.

 

she was apparently very well-liked by the Fox crews and most of her costars** for how friendly, easy-going and unpretentious she was (she and Dailey allegedly did not get along because he was none of those three.) she endured a very unhappy- maybe even abusive- relationship with Harry James- read up on her bio on wiki and imdb if you like, it was one hell of a life.

 

it is my understanding that she is terrific in MOTHER WORE TIGHTS (1947)- but i have not seen it, would love to though and keep my fingers crossed that the good relations between 20th Century Fox and TCM continues.

 

 

 

**- I recall Bacall mentioning to Osborne in her PRIVATE SCREENING that Grable was wonderful to work with.

[LawrenceA]

Dark Eyes - (7/10) - Russian-Italian co-production from 1987 that finds two older men, one Italian, the other Russian, talking in the empty dining hall of a slow ocean liner. The Italian tells his story in flashback, as we see him fight with his rich wife, which sends him to a health spa to recuperate, where he meets a bored, young and beautiful Russian woman who is herself unhappily married. After many overtures toward a romance, the Russian wife flees back home, and the Italian follows her, ostensibly on business, but truly in hopes of sparking the romance further.

 

The film is gorgeously photographed, and much attention is paid to costume and set design, as well as delicate color schemes. Marcello Mastroianni received his final of three Best Actor Oscar nominations for this, and he's wonderful as usual. Silvano Mangano plays his wife, and Marthe Keller appears as a family friend. I wasn't familiar with the Russian leads, Elena Safonova and Vsevolod Larionov, but they are fine as well. The story drags a bit in places, and lengthy passages of Russian without subtitles started to detract after a while (I'm not sure if this was the fault of the print I watched, or if it was intentional, to show the language barrier faced by Mastroianni's character). Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov.

[CaveGirl]

Dark Eyes - (7/10) - Russian-Italian co-production from 1987 that finds two older men, one Italian, the other Russian, talking in the empty dining hall of a slow ocean liner. The Italian tells his story in flashback, as we see him fight with his rich wife, which sends him to a health spa to recuperate, where he meets a bored, young and beautiful Russian woman who is herself unhappily married. After many overtures toward a romance, the Russian wife flees back home, and the Italian follows her, ostensibly on business, but truly in hopes of sparking the romance further.

 

The film is gorgeously photographed, and much attention is paid to costume and set design, as well as delicate color schemes. Marcello Mastroianni received his final of three Best Actor Oscar nominations for this, and he's wonderful as usual. Silvano Mangano plays his wife, and Marthe Keller appears as a family friend. I wasn't familiar with the Russian leads, Elena Safonova and Vsevolod Larionov, but they are fine as well. The story drags a bit in places, and lengthy passages of Russian without subtitles started to detract after a while (I'm not sure if this was the fault of the print I watched, or if it was intentional, to show the language barrier faced by Mastroianni's character). Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov.

I've always liked Silvana Mangano since I saw her in "Bitter Rice" but I've never seen this film. Your review makes me really want to so thanks for sharing, Lawrence!

[LawrenceA]

Providence - (9/10) - Fascinating, densely layered film, released in 1977, from French director Alain Resnais. John Gielgud stars as an old, dying, drunken writer, who spends a sleepless night thinking up his next novel's story in between bouts of pain and self-reflection. Most of the film is his imagined story, with a haughty lawyer (Dirk Bogarde) who has recently lost a case against a soldier (David Warner) who has committed a mercy killing. The lawyer's wife (Ellen Burstyn) brings the soldier home after the trial, and there is much back-biting and threats of adultery. The lawyer himself is also having an affair, with an older journalist (Elaine Stritch). One of the complicated factors in the film is that the writer has envisioned people from his real life as his characters: his sons are the lawyer and soldier, his daughter-in-law the unhappy wife, and his own deceased wife as the lawyer's mistress! Also in the story-within-the-story is a lot of background action involving young soldiers rounding up the elderly and placing them in concentration camps, as well as the threat of terrorist bombings.

 

I have yet to see Resnais' most (in)famous film, 1961's Last Year at Marienbad, so I'm not sure how many, if any, of this film's narrative tricks and creative conceits were used in that. To my eyes, this film was highly original, and is a brutal, if honest, study of the creative process. Gielgud was one of the English language's greatest stage actors, but filmmakers never seemed to use him very well, at least not often. Here he has arguably his finest role, and even if just for his delivery of the film's final line, I would say he deserved an Oscar. Bogarde as well is fantastic, and just as deserving of accolades. The film also boasts some truly remarkable art direction and set design. I'm not sure how many of the exteriors and interiors were sets and which were locations, but they looked exquisite, even down to some H.R. Giger paintings on the wall in one scene. From what I've read, this film was poorly received here in the U.S., but was a great success commercially and critically in Europe. I had never even heard of it until Bogie mentioned it in another thread. I can't say the more prosaic viewer would enjoy this as much as I did, but for more adventurous film goers there's a wonderful experience to be had here.

[LornaHansonForbes]

Valiant Is the Word for Carrie - (6/10) -

Gladys George is really the only thing worth seeing this for. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and she is terrific.

 

 

 

GLADYS GEORGE is the best, she often reminds me of a saucy little Ewok.

 

I think she was actually a great beauty and major silent star back in the day, VALIANT put her back on the map, and she got a couple leading roles immediately thereafter (a remake of MADAME X comes to mind)...but I have a sneaking suspicion she drank...a lot and she found herself relegated to supporting and character parts. She is good in MARIE ANTOINETTE- i think she only has one scene though- and good in THE MALTESE FALCON, although she's third billed and is in the film for less than 7 minutes.

 

RECOMMENDED VIEWING:

 

THE HARD WAY (1943) Ida Lupino gets all the write-ups for this, but George is WONDERFUL in a brief role as a megalomaniacal, alcoholic stage star. Her rendition of the song I Love to Dance (I Love Romance) while completely sloshed is priceless. (Wish I could get it as the ring tone for my phone.) She should have gotten a Best Supporting nomination for this.

 

THE CRYSTAL BALL (1943) Kind of a rarity, but TCM showed it a year ago AND IT IS A HOOT. Gladys (in a turban) plays a crooked fortune teller/.con artist and costars with Paulette Goddard and Ray Milland. I do not recall much about it other than I liked it a lot and thought she was a riot. Shows up online sometimes, check there for it.

 

FLAMINGO ROAD (1949) A favorite of mine, Gladys has a really brief (maybe 5 minute?) role as the local madame and has a blast with every second she is on screen, at one moment dropping what seems like a great ad lib about the size of Sydney Greenstreet's large derriere.

 

THE ROARING TWENTIES (1939) Almost a lead for Gladys, she plays Cagney's rejected love interest bootlegger boss  and she gets the GREAT last line.

 

She died, i think of alcoholism ca. 1951.

[Bogie56]

Providence - (9/10) - Fascinating, densely layered film, released in 1977, from French director Alain Resnais. John Gielgud stars as an old, dying, drunken writer, who spends a sleepless night thinking up his next novel's story in between bouts of pain and self-reflection. Most of the film is his imagined story, with a haughty lawyer (Dirk Bogarde) who has recently lost a case against a soldier (David Warner) who has committed a mercy killing. The lawyer's wife (Ellen Burstyn) brings the soldier home after the trial, and there is much back-biting and threats of adultery. The lawyer himself is also having an affair, with an older journalist (Elaine Stritch). One of the complicated factors in the film is that the writer has envisioned people from his real life as his characters: his sons are the lawyer and soldier, his daughter-in-law the unhappy wife, and his own deceased wife as the lawyer's mistress! Also in the story-within-the-story is a lot of background action involving young soldiers rounding up the elderly and placing them in concentration camps, as well as the threat of terrorist bombings.

 

I have yet to see Resnais' most (in)famous film, 1961's Last Year at Marienbad, so I'm not sure how many, if any, of this film's narrative tricks and creative conceits were used in that. To my eyes, this film was highly original, and is a brutal, if honest, study of the creative process. Gielgud was one of the English language's greatest stage actors, but filmmakers never seemed to use him very well, at least not often. Here he has arguably his finest role, and even if just for his delivery of the film's final line, I would say he deserved an Oscar. Bogarde as well is fantastic, and just as deserving of accolades. The film also boasts some truly remarkable art direction and set design. I'm not sure how many of the exteriors and interiors were sets and which were locations, but they looked exquisite, even down to some H.R. Giger paintings on the wall in one scene. From what I've read, this film was poorly received here in the U.S., but was a great success commercially and critically in Europe. I had never even heard of it until Bogie mentioned it in another thread. I can't say the more prosaic viewer would enjoy this as much as I did, but for more adventurous film goers there's a wonderful experience to be had here.

 

John Gielgud is so great in this.  Much moreso than in his Oscar winning film, Arthur.

I can't recall any other film where a character's fondest dream is of having a regular bowel movement.  Very funny.