I Just Watched...

[Hibi]

Since we've been posting lists of 1981 films in CinemaInternational's thread, I've had occasion to recall, from the deepest repressed memories, Tarzan the Ape Man (1981), starring Miles O'Keeffe. If you've seen the movie, and God bless you if you have, you may recall that he doesn't speak. According to acquaintances who said they had seen and heard him in the bars in New York, he had a high-pitched voice that seemed to contradict his manly physique.

If you check out his list of acting credits on imdb, the average ratings are hilariously low, with the exception of--wait for it, you know what it has to be--an episode of--what else????--MURDER SHE WROTE.

I have been fortunately been spared the spectacle of Tarzan, the Ape Man with Bo Derek, but the film is legendarily horrid. I recall Leonard Maltin's movie guide candidly admitting that it was so bad that it nearly forced the editors of the book to create a rating lower than BOMB. As a matter of bleak record, when the film showed up on TCM a couple of months ago, it stayed in the cable company's on demand section for a whole month.....


I loooked up the episode of Murder She Wrote that O'Keefe was in.... that episode was something.... Season 9's "The Sound of Murder" where Jessica investigates a death at a music recording studio where the dead body turns up in the middle of shooting a music video. It's one of the few episodes of the show that my father hated..... And the music video in the episode is the epitome of cheesiness; but then again that was to be expected because for some reason, they decided to hire the choreographer whose very bad dance designs helped to make the otherwise surprisingly strong Cop Rock (alright some of the lyrics were bad, but the show was well-written and acted) into a TV laughing stock for the ages in 1990.

I disliked those episodes that tried to make Jessica "hip" and "with it" by putting her in situations like this episode.

[Hibi]

I also agree about the lube. If a film doesn't want to get into the mechanics of who does what to whom, fine, but if it does, then a little more realism is called for.

If they'd used lube, it would've won BEST PICTURE.

(Those of you still mad about CRASH all these years later- think about it.)

LMREO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well the book had the same type of ending so if they'd changed it, they'd have probably been criticized for it. I think in the book it's more left up in the air as to what happened (I read the book after seeing the movie)

[Hibi]

I came across a real obscurity on AMAZON PRIME, "A GREEN JOURNEY" aka THE LOVE SHE SOUGHT.



it appears to be a TV MOVIE from 1990, we all know I love ANGIE, but I also love DENHOLM ELLIOT, so I gave it a watch and found myself pretty into it, even though there are issues.


ANGELA LANSBURY plays a deeply committed, stern, SPINSTER-b****-GODDESS MIDWESTERN CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER (without a whit of accent and NO PRODUCT IN HER HAIR!!!!)- very much the sort of role EDNA MAE OLIVER or MARIE DRESSLER or HELEN WESTLEY would have done for RKO/MGM back in 1933. She takes in a pregnant teen played by CYNTHIA NIXON (!!!!!!)- also without a hint of accent, but looking very charming and pretty good in her part. The film at this point seems like it is going to be episodic rather like ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, but no- we leap ahead four years and LANSBURY is on her way to IRELAND on a CATHOLIC SCHOOL TRIP- while there, she plans on meeting up with a LONG TIME PEN PAL PLAYED WONDERFULLY by DENHOLM ELLIOT in the strange fleeting moments of screen time he gets (i DON'T wanna spoil anything, but his character has a secret and is something of a queer (in the classic sense of the term) duck, ELLIOT is of course perfect for the part.) The real "romantic lead" by default becomes ROBERT PROSKY (also without a Midwestern accent) who costars as THE WORLD'S CHILLEST CATHOLIC BISHOP.

(SERIOUSLY, he gives "COOL POPE" a run for his money, it's...weird.)

The movie is clearly a rushed affair- in better hands and with a better script, something interesting could have happened, and while it was filmed partly (and cheaply) in the UNITED STATES (I think BURBANK stands in for MINNESOTA), it was also filmed on location IN IRELAND and I would like at this point to say that I have been to IRELAND and it is ONE OF THE LOVELIEST, IF NOT THE LOVELIEST PLACE I HAVE EVER SEEN.

You would not know it from this movie, it's GENUINELY IRELAND, i can tell, but it's like the LOCATION SCOUT was a MANIC DEPRESSIVE- they film in some of the most KUBRICKIAN and HIDEOUS LOCATIONS IN THIS AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY.

AGAIN, this was obviously a rushed affair and it was helmed by JOSEPH SARGENT- three years after JAWS THE REVENGE- so he was no stranger to rushed affairs.

the end credits to this thing are SO CHEAP.

LANSBURY does get TWO BIG EMOTIONAL SCENES, which I know was the point of her doing TV MOVIES (I have a strong suspicion that WORD CAME DOWN FROM ON HIGH over at CBS that JESSICA FLETCHER was NOT ALLOWED to EMOTE on MSW- it must'vde been confining for a performer of LANSBURY'S talent and range and even though she ACES both her BIG CRYING SCENES, they are not worked into the plot organically AT ALL and they stand out as more FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION than anything else.

it's still an interesting hour and a half, and it's on AMAZON PRIME and for some weird reason there were NO COMMERCIALS!!!!

I thought I'd seen all of Angela's tv movies, but I missed this one. I wonder if it ran on another network besides the Big 3??

[Lorna]

I thought I'd seen all of Angela's tv movies, but I missed this one. I wonder if it ran on another network besides the Big 3??

it's SO OBSCURE it doesn't even have A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY!!!!
I have NO IDEA what network it ran on or if it did.

dunno if it's available anywhere else but PRIME.

[Lorna]

The play was anti-capitalist and anti-class. It was important at this time for: A. Tairov to stage productions which adhered to soviet beliefs as he and his theatre had been labeled bourgeois. This significantly hurt his professional and financial positions and it limited severely his access to materials and personnel necessary to stage plays. I believe that the play did not aid his standing greatly because I believe that the theatre presented its last major offering the following year.

It has been many years since I have watched any of the movie versions of the play and I doubt that I have watched the play herself since the 1960s. It is due to this that I can offer no insights into which of the movie versions followed the play closely. It would not have been a great leap to add a bit of Marxist ideology as the basic play portrays bourgeois capitalists as leeches and predators.

A SENTIMENT WITH WHICH I FIND LITTLE FAULT, it's just the messaging that turns me off.

One thing that irritates me about my fellow LEFTIES is the sanctimonious, preachy, didactic and or pretentious tone THAT SOME of their messaging (be it fiction or other mediums) takes...AN INSPECTOR CALLS has that, but it also has a real MUSTACHE-TWIRLING SATURDAY MATINEE BADDIE style that comes just short of using PUPPETS to WHACK YOU OVER THE HEAD with WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT (ALFIE.)

THANK YOU for all that info on THE RUSSIAN STAGE PRODUCTION though- pretty fascinating

I was surprised to see that a version of AN INSPECTOR CALLS came out recentlyish (2015)

i'm not mad at THE STACHE:



ALSO ALSO, THERE IS A GRAPHIC NOVEL VERSION!!!

[txfilmfan]

I thought I'd seen all of Angela's tv movies, but I missed this one. I wonder if it ran on another network besides the Big 3??

it's SO OBSCURE it doesn't even have A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY!!!!
I have NO IDEA what network it ran on or if it did.

dunno if it's available anywhere else but PRIME.

It was on NBC.

There are Wikipedia articles for it, but not in English, and under its other title: The Love She Sought.

[HoldenIsHere]

American History X (1998) -- Just what the world didn't need: a film abound our own t Neo-Nazis. Edward Norton plays a former skinhead who gets out of prison to find that his brother is drifting into the same poisonous beliefs. He then tries to save his brother, to no affect, as the film doubles back for black-and-white flashbacks of Norton's own days of hate. Performances are fine, but the film is loathsome and a waste of time.

CI, we will have to agree to disagree about this one.

I think the world does need to see Movies about neo-Nazis because unfortunately these groups do exist in our world and have become more active in the US since AMERICAN HISTORY X was released in the late 1990s.

Some of the characters and their actions are loathsome, but the movie is not.
It features one of Edward Norton's most powerful performances and is definitely not a waste of time.

[jamesjazzguitar]

American History X (1998) -- Just what the world didn't need: a film abound our own t Neo-Nazis. Edward Norton plays a former skinhead who gets out of prison to find that his brother is drifting into the same poisonous beliefs. He then tries to save his brother, to no affect, as the film doubles back for black-and-white flashbacks of Norton's own days of hate. Performances are fine, but the film is loathsome and a waste of time.

CI, we will have to agree to disagree about this one.

I think the world does need to see Movies about neo-Nazis because unfortunately these groups do exist in our world and have become more active in the US since AMERICAN HISTORY X was released in the late 1990s.

Some of the characters and their actions are loathsome, but the movie is not.
It features one of Edward Norton's most powerful performances and is definitely not a waste of time.

I agree with you. I found the film compelling and Norton gives a first rate performance.

[CinemaInternational]

I came across a real obscurity on AMAZON PRIME, "A GREEN JOURNEY" aka THE LOVE SHE SOUGHT.



it appears to be a TV MOVIE from 1990, we all know I love ANGIE, but I also love DENHOLM ELLIOT, so I gave it a watch and found myself pretty into it, even though there are issues.


ANGELA LANSBURY plays a deeply committed, stern, SPINSTER-b****-GODDESS MIDWESTERN CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER (without a whit of accent and NO PRODUCT IN HER HAIR!!!!)- very much the sort of role EDNA MAE OLIVER or MARIE DRESSLER or HELEN WESTLEY would have done for RKO/MGM back in 1933. She takes in a pregnant teen played by CYNTHIA NIXON (!!!!!!)- also without a hint of accent, but looking very charming and pretty good in her part. The film at this point seems like it is going to be episodic rather like ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, but no- we leap ahead four years and LANSBURY is on her way to IRELAND on a CATHOLIC SCHOOL TRIP- while there, she plans on meeting up with a LONG TIME PEN PAL PLAYED WONDERFULLY by DENHOLM ELLIOT in the strange fleeting moments of screen time he gets (i DON'T wanna spoil anything, but his character has a secret and is something of a queer (in the classic sense of the term) duck, ELLIOT is of course perfect for the part.) The real "romantic lead" by default becomes ROBERT PROSKY (also without a Midwestern accent) who costars as THE WORLD'S CHILLEST CATHOLIC BISHOP.

(SERIOUSLY, he gives "COOL POPE" a run for his money, it's...weird.)

The movie is clearly a rushed affair- in better hands and with a better script, something interesting could have happened, and while it was filmed partly (and cheaply) in the UNITED STATES (I think BURBANK stands in for MINNESOTA), it was also filmed on location IN IRELAND and I would like at this point to say that I have been to IRELAND and it is ONE OF THE LOVELIEST, IF NOT THE LOVELIEST PLACE I HAVE EVER SEEN.

You would not know it from this movie, it's GENUINELY IRELAND, i can tell, but it's like the LOCATION SCOUT was a MANIC DEPRESSIVE- they film in some of the most KUBRICKIAN and HIDEOUS LOCATIONS IN THIS AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY.

AGAIN, this was obviously a rushed affair and it was helmed by JOSEPH SARGENT- three years after JAWS THE REVENGE- so he was no stranger to rushed affairs.

the end credits to this thing are SO CHEAP.

LANSBURY does get TWO BIG EMOTIONAL SCENES, which I know was the point of her doing TV MOVIES (I have a strong suspicion that WORD CAME DOWN FROM ON HIGH over at CBS that JESSICA FLETCHER was NOT ALLOWED to EMOTE on MSW- it must'vde been confining for a performer of LANSBURY'S talent and range and even though she ACES both her BIG CRYING SCENES, they are not worked into the plot organically AT ALL and they stand out as more FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION than anything else.

it's still an interesting hour and a half, and it's on AMAZON PRIME and for some weird reason there were NO COMMERCIALS!!!!

I thought I'd seen all of Angela's tv movies, but I missed this one. I wonder if it ran on another network besides the Big 3??

As Txfilmfan said, it was NBC. I checked a website that has TV listings from the 80s onward to see how it did, and maybe the theme scared some viewers off. It placed third in it's 9 PM timeslot that night behind an episode of the raunchy sitcom Married with Children (on Fox) and a dark edged TV movie with Susan Lucci (on ABC) which won the nught.

[CinemaInternational]

American History X (1998) -- Just what the world didn't need: a film abound our own t Neo-Nazis. Edward Norton plays a former skinhead who gets out of prison to find that his brother is drifting into the same poisonous beliefs. He then tries to save his brother, to no affect, as the film doubles back for black-and-white flashbacks of Norton's own days of hate. Performances are fine, but the film is loathsome and a waste of time.

CI, we will have to agree to disagree about this one.

I think the world does need to see Movies about neo-Nazis because unfortunately these groups do exist in our world and have become more active in the US since AMERICAN HISTORY X was released in the late 1990s.

Some of the characters and their actions are loathsome, but the movie is not.
It features one of Edward Norton's most powerful performances and is definitely not a waste of time.

Fair enough. I know such groups exist, I wish that they didn't, but I guess my reservations were because those beliefs are so incredibly ugly. I had issues too when they had a subplot about such things in 1995's Higher Learning as well. I'm sorry, but its just personal because one of my relatives was in a concentration camp, and while she survived, she was nearly catatonic for the remainder of her life according to my father (she passed before I was born)

[CinemaInternational]

Another bleak round of dealing with the Oscars, and with the glum 2000s, and with uncomfortable issues such as Nazis, concentration camps, cloning, serial killers, warfare, govermental corruption, and sundry other issues.

I wish I could give this post 2 thumbs up.

Your writing is succinct with thoughtful observations that tell me EXACTLY what I need to know before choosing whether to see it since
I agree 100% with what you've written of movies I have seen.

Thank you. With these trio of posts on mostly recent films (in case you didn't see them, the other two are on page 187), I was hoping to do a bit of a service (as in to try to warn some others so they wouldn't have to see some bad films) to some others here, and hopefully that was achieved.

[HoldenIsHere]

Boys Don't Cry (1999) -- grim offering of the events leading up to the murder of a transgender individual (Hillary Swank) in 1993. The film is stricken, glum all the way through, even before the gory conclusion with dank photography, mumbled dialogue, and characters which are always held at a distance. It's hard to get involved in this.

IT's been two decades, but I went into this movie expecting to REALLY NOT LIKE IT, but I ended up liking it. It's not a film i really want to see again...And I think THE DIRECTOR has since gone on to not only some bad movies, but developed a bad personal reputation as well.

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of Hilary Swank although I can recognize that she is a talented actor.

HOWEVER . . . I did not like BOY'S DON'T CRY although I went into it expecting to like it (so the opposite of LHF's experience).

I had seen the documentary THE BRANDON TEENA STORY before I watched the movie.
The documentary includes interviews with people who knew Brandon (I think maybe even the murderers) as well as audio recordings of Brandon's voice.

The events happened entirely in Nebraska. Brandon was born in Nebraska and never lived anywhere outside of Nebraska.
Yet, Hilary Swank uses some kind of Texas/inland Southern accent for Brandon. Huh?

I recall seeing an interview where Hilary Swank talked about her preparation for the role including work to get Brandon's accent "right."
But she uses the WRONG accent!
People who have lived in and around Lincoln, Nebraska their entire lives do not have the kind of accent that Hilary Swank used in BOY'S DON'T CRY

[Hibi]

I thought I'd seen all of Angela's tv movies, but I missed this one. I wonder if it ran on another network besides the Big 3??

it's SO OBSCURE it doesn't even have A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY!!!!
I have NO IDEA what network it ran on or if it did.

dunno if it's available anywhere else but PRIME.

Strange. Wonder if it was some BBC related production and was syndicated in the U.S.?

[Hibi]

I thought I'd seen all of Angela's tv movies, but I missed this one. I wonder if it ran on another network besides the Big 3??

it's SO OBSCURE it doesn't even have A WIKIPEDIA ENTRY!!!!
I have NO IDEA what network it ran on or if it did.

dunno if it's available anywhere else but PRIME.

It was on NBC.

There are Wikipedia articles for it, but not in English, and under its other title: The Love She Sought.

WILD. I wonder how I missed it. Was it a Hallmark Hall of Fame entry? (Remember those?)

[Masha]

THANK YOU for all that info on THE RUSSIAN STAGE PRODUCTION though- pretty fascinating

I thank you for your kind words.