WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[mrsl]

Feaito:

I'm with you on your comments on Without Reservations. John Wayne didn't make many comedies of this type and that's kind of a shame, because I think with a little more experience, he may have been pretty good at it. He was one of those like Spencer Tracy and Clark Gabel who didn't mind getting dumped, or dumped on occasionally.

I recall quite a while ago mentioning the fact that this is the only movie footage of Grant and Colbert together. They would have made a wonderful duo in comedy. I can see Claudette so much better in My Favorite Wife, and Bringing Up Baby than Dunne and Hepburn respectively.

Anne

[feaito]

Feaito:
I'm with you on your comments on Without Reservations. John Wayne didn't make many comedies of this type and that's kind of a shame, because I think with a little more experience, he may have been pretty good at it. He was one of those like Spencer Tracy and Clark Gabel who didn't mind getting dumped, or dumped on occasionally.

Another of the few comedies John Wayne did and which is worth checking Anne is "A Lady Takes a Chance" (1943) in which he starred opposite Jean Arthur. I recall it has kind of a western setting. I bet you'd like it

[melwalton]

Watched last night; 'Eye of the Needle' ( I'll guess, a lot of others did too - It was on primetime ). Lots of action and suspense. I'm not great on reviews but will say that it held my interest for two hours. Don't know where it was made, the scenery and photography were very good............mel

[cinemalover]

Mel,
You are "good" at doing reviews, because the only thing that counts is what you thought of the picture. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and please continue to throw in your two cents. I wish some of the other newbies would be as active as you are in participating.
Keep up the good work.

[melwalton]

Thanks Chris,
I'm very interested in the topics on this site....mel

[MikeBSG]

I just watched a French thriller from 1947 directed by H.-G. Clouzot, "Quai de Orfevres." It is very much like film noir. A sexy singer is married to a drab accompanist. A slimy movie producer wants to make the singer his mistress and the husband decides to kill the producer. However, when he husband gets there, he finds that someone has already killed the producer. Police suspicion, however, now falls on the husband.

This was a very interesting movie. The actor who played the inspector, Jouvet (?) made him a fascinating character (almost a Columbo) and it was neat to see how parts of this film reminded me of Hitchcock and parts of "The Asphalt Jungle." The film's solution was a little too driven by coincidence for me, but getting there was a lot of fun.

[feaito]

I watched "The Flying Fleet", a very entertaining film which tells the story of a group of Navy Pilots. My wife was impressed to realize that the uniforms worn by the actors resemble very much the ones that currently wear the cadets and officials from the Chilean Navy. In fact she recalled her late grandfather's uniforms, who was born in 1911 and entered the Navy as a cadet when he was eleven years old. Her great aunt was a navy pilot and died while on a mission at sea in the late 1920s, very similar to the one depicted in the film. He too used the same pilot outfits that Ramón, Ralph et al wear in the movie. She loved the scenes at the Dress Parade, Academy, etc. Lots of reminiscences of the stories she heard from her grandpa and of the photographs she saw as a youngster.

Ramón Novarro is very good as the film's hero. Ralph Graves is equally appealing as his friend and antagonist. The flying footage is excellent and Anita Page (who plays Anita Hastings, the woman in between Ramón and Ralph) looks very pretty in the movie. Highly enjoyable. It was also interesting to see Roscoe Karns in a small role and Carroll Nye and Edward Nugent as two of the pilots.

[feaito]

I feel totally out of place because I watched "It's a Gift" which is hailed as one of the greatest comedies ever filmed and it did absolutely nothing for me. I did not laugh once. It has some beautiful sets and a charming atmosphere, but I did not find it funny. Or maybe I'm not into W.C. Fields' type of humor. I feel like if I were a heretic , because this film has nothing but raving reviews at imdb, but I cannot lie. I'll have to give it another chance in the future.

I also watched a bad contemporary comedy titled "License to Wed". Robin Williams gives a totally annoying and irritating performance.

Maybe it just wasn't comedy day.

[mrsl]

Feaito:

You are very correct in saying that it probably was not a comedy day. There are some days, no matter how good you feel, or how well things are going for you, some days a comedy just does not come off as funny. Personally I prefer Robin Williams when he is playing dramatic or semi-dramatic roles more than comedy. His comedy is not always funny to me. His stand up about 15 to 20 years ago was completely over my head because it was geared at Californians, and not nationwide. If you didn't live in L.A. the jokes had no reference that you could understand. e.g. he would make a joke in reference to a familiar street in the Wasp area, but if you were not a native, it made no sense. I happened to watch him with a friend from L.A. and he explained it to me.

Anne

[feaito]

I agree with you Anne. Thanks for your feedback.

Today I re-watched "Peter Ibbetson". And what can I say? A masterpiece. Totally my type of film. Gary Cooper at his best. Ann Harding outstanding. John Halliday, Donald Meek, Doris Lloyd, Douglas Drumbille, all perfect. Henry Hathaway was indeed a very talented and versatile director.

[MikeBSG]

"Peter Ibbetson" is very well done. I liked it, and I usually don't go for that type of romantic film. I can't get over that it was directed by Henry Hathaway, whom I associate with "Kiss of Death," "The Dark Corner" and "True Grit." I think Hathaway needs some friendly critic to provide a career reassement, because he made successful films in a variety of genres yet is pratically forgotten while his films are remembered.

[movieman1957]

I enjoyed "Blood On The Moon" last week. A pretty solid western from Robert Mitchum and Robert Preston. Good story of greed and friend pitted against each other. Good support from Walter Brennan and Barbara Bel Geddes. Has a pretty good fight scene with Mitchum and Preston. They look appropriately tired and beat up.

I also watched "Holiday Inn." Is it me or does anyone else think Crosby "phoned" it in? Except for a few off-the-cuff moments he seemed pretty tame. I like Astaire's part. Who wouldn't want a house like that?

[feaito]

"Peter Ibbetson" is very well done. I liked it, and I usually don't go for that type of romantic film. I can't get over that it was directed by Henry Hathaway, whom I associate with "Kiss of Death," "The Dark Corner" and "True Grit." I think Hathaway needs some friendly critic to provide a career reassement, because he made successful films in a variety of genres yet is pratically forgotten while his films are remembered.

I agree. The man was very talented. It's a huge achievement that a director who previously had directed an adventure yarn such as "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" and a Zane Gray westerns, could come up with such a poetic, awesome film like "Peter Ibbetson". His career certainly deserves to be re-evaluated.

[MikeBSG]

As to "Holiday Inn," I don't like it as much as I like "White Christmas." I'm not sure as to whether that's because I didn't like Crosby's performance, but I hardly remember him from that movie.

What I did remember was Fred Astaire. I found it unsual that he played what was basically a jerk in this film. (Has he ever been so unsympathetic elsewhere?) Also, Astaire's one "drunk" dance number is superb. Apart from that, I didn't really like the film. (And having Lincoln's birthday and Washington's birthday be occasions for singing and dancing just strikes me as ludicrous.)

But I know there are people who are fiercely loyal to "Holiday Inn" and consider "White Christmas" dreadful.

[feaito]

RE: "Peter Ibbetson"

I took this excerpt from a capsule review at All Movie Guide, by Craig Butler and I must say I don't agree at all in respect to Gary Cooper's performance:

Hailed by some (including Luis Buñuel) as an absolute masterpiece, Peter Ibbetson is certainly unique and fascinating, but it is also flawed and at times irritating. Chief among its flaws is a stiff, superficial performance from Gary Cooper. Usually a fine actor, Cooper is miscast here, entirely too American and, worse, too "solid" for a film as ethereal as this. Although he does create some sparks with Ann Harding, this is one of his least involved performances, and the film suffers greatly from this. Harding, however, is marvelous, perfectly capturing the surreal qualities of the film while still remaining steadfastly grounded.

On the other hand, I remember reading somewhere, in relation to Ann Harding's performance in this movie, something like that someone more ethereal than Harding might have been better as Mary.

In my opinion Gary Cooper gives one of the best performances of his life in this masterpiece and he's rightly ethereal as Peter, who since he was a boy was perceived as being "special", sensitive, frail, melancholic.

On the other hand, I really felt -this second time around I saw the film- that Ann Harding was very well cast as Mary-Mimsy, because even as a young girl (excellently played by Virginia Weidler), she was stronger than Peter and maybe more practical in a way. After all, she did not had a sick mother and up to the point when she met Peter she had had a much more protected, secure childhood. So that combination of a more down-to-earth nature and etherealness in Mary-Mimsy, is perfect.