I Just Watched...

[Cinemaspeak59]

True Confession (1937) Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray’s last pairing may be their zaniest. Carole is a good-intentioned serial liar, with nothing off-limits. Fred plays her husband, a lawyer with admirable ethical standards and very few clients. When Carole is charged with murder, Fred defends her. The courtroom scenes are unconventional, to say the least. Comedic high points come from Lombard’s variety of hilarious facial expressions. John Barrymore and Una Merkel are along for the ride.

[jamesjazzguitar]

True Confession (1937) Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray’s last pairing may be their zaniest. Carole is a good-intentioned serial liar, with nothing off-limits. Fred plays her husband, a lawyer with admirable ethical standards and very few clients. When Carole is charged with murder, Fred defends her. The courtroom scenes are unconventional, to say the least. Comedic high points come from Lombard’s variety of hilarious facial expressions. John Barrymore and Una Merkel are along for the ride.

True Confession is my least favorite of the 4 Lombard\MacMurray films. I agree that it is the zaniest and that is one of the reasons it doesn't appeal to me as much as the 3 others. (can there be a thing as too-much screwball?). Also, the pair are husband and wife. What I like about the others is that there is more romance in the other 3 due to the fact that they are not married. Both actors (but especially Lombard), were good at romantic banter with a comic feel. Barrymore and Merkel do add to the zaniness.

[Detective Jim McLeod]

Nominated, not won. Didn't Edmond O'Brien win that year for The Barefoot Contessa?

Yes, O'Brien won. The other nominees were Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Rod Steiger, all from On The Waterfront

[jamesjazzguitar]

Nominated, not won. Didn't Edmond O'Brien win that year for The Barefoot Contessa?

Thanks for the correction. I edited my posted.

Either way, even being nominated was odd given he wasn't in the film much. (which makes me wonder if, like Nina Foch, who was nominated for Executive Suite, if these two are among the shortest screen time nominees in Oscar history).

[Belle]

"A King in New York", 1957. Charles Chaplin. A beautiful restoration with the full glories of black and white on display.

The film itself was silly and Chaplin was a cold, one-dimensional actor in his speaking parts. He was always the same and he should never have made a sound film with himself in the main roles. "The Great Dictator" had some excellent and funny scenes but the speech at the end of it was pure self-indulgence, best avoided. His 'acting' in the film was purely satirical imitation; the scene with 'the globe' was inspired and required no dialogue!!

Charles Chaplin should have stuck to directing in his 'talkies'. The occasional great sequences weren't enough to sustain most of them - and this is one of them:

[Swithin]

Nominated, not won. Didn't Edmond O'Brien win that year for The Barefoot Contessa?

Thanks for the correction. I edited my posted.

Either way, even being nominated was odd given he wasn't in the film much. (which makes me wonder if, like Nina Foch, who was nominated for Executive Suite, if these two are among the shortest screen time nominees in Oscar history).

https://www.screentimecentral.com/short ... rformances

[jamesjazzguitar]

Nominated, not won. Didn't Edmond O'Brien win that year for The Barefoot Contessa?

Thanks for the correction. I edited my posted.

Either way, even being nominated was odd given he wasn't in the film much. (which makes me wonder if, like Nina Foch, who was nominated for Executive Suite, if these two are among the shortest screen time nominees in Oscar history).

https://www.screentimecentral.com/short ... rformances

Thanks for the link! Wow, the two actors I mentioned are not even in the top 10 (for best supporting).

[TikiSoo]

The other night I watched The Jackie Robinson Story 1950, a short 77 minute movie now in the public domain. I saw Louise Beavers played his Mom and Ruby Dee his girlfriend/wife, both actresses I like very much. They, and the other professional supporting actors helped Robinson portray himself in this biography of his own life. Although not an actor, having Robinson portraying himself was a brilliant move, actually bringing realism & truth to the story.

While knowing Robinson was the first black man to play in the "major leagues", I don't really know what that means, not being a sports fan. I had known baseball was segregated both by skin tone and gender and just assumed he had become a major player within his segregated league.

What a delightful shock to realize that Robinson was the first black player on an all white team! In 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers made the bold move to hire a player based on merit rather than skin tone/gender. (I always thought teams were made from residents of the City represented )

One of the most important aspects of the story was the Dodgers Manager coaching Robinson that no matter what is said/done in opposition, Robinson was forbidden to fight back. Everyone knew there would be a backlash-from teammates, the opposing team and even the crowd.

The Manager was 100% correct- simply playing the game & ignoring what others said/did, exposed the opposition as the ones "in the wrong".
A very simple statement and really the basis of MLK's Civil Rights Movement 20 years later.

Of course in the end, everyone is won over by Robinson's talent & humility and he has rightfully earned his place in history. A little "pat" but how wonderful we have this succinct movie with the real guy starring in it. Robinson was around 32 when he made this movie.

[laffite]

The Major Leagues are made up of the American League and the National League. The American League was formed around 1900 and the National some 25 years before that. The are the cream of the crop to this day. The Negro leagues date from 1880 and were not considered as a part of the Major Leagues. Jackie indeed was a big deal being the first black Major League player. Jackie was a National League player. The first American League black player was Larry Doby, playing for the Cleveland Indians. He was signed three months after Jackie. His name doesn't seem on the radar in this context.

[Allhallowsday]

A SPECIAL DAY (1977 aka Una giornata particolare) Starring MARCELLO MASTROIANNI and SOPHIA LOREN An unusual film and story where a persecuted Gay man's life is juxtaposed with an unhappy housewife in Fascist Italy 1938. It's the day hitler came to Rome to publicly meet mussolini, the apartment building is empty except for those two and the ugly old witch landlady. Often brutal, in words and symbolic actions. The two best actors in Italian cinema at the peak of their form, challenging convention any way one cares to define it. The horror and tension of the rally radio broadcast echoing through the courtyard is a constant reminder of the near future.

He gives her what she needs and she gives him what he needs. They each need love.

[CinemaInternational]

I've watched a handful of films since it, but I found 1939's King of the Underworld to be a surprising B-movie since Bogart, billed solely above the title is actually the main support, and its actually a Kay Francis film! It must have irked her to be billed under the title, and this was soon after the notorious "box office pois on" article.

Otherwise recently, I've been watching a lot of old Columbia B-movies from the 30s and 40s. I think 1934's The Defense Rests was one of the best of them.

[laffite]

Speaking of what one may be watching, I have been paying Netflix DVD $57 a month for 8-at-time for over the last couple of pay periods in order to take advantage what they have to offer, which is considerable, and the availability of which will end on Sep 29. Mostly foreign films, a real gold mine. They have much much more than the usual classics we hear about over and over. I have posted about a couple already. I am making a list but do not plan full postings on them, but I may by and by list some of them with perhaps a short paragraph about each looking for any reactions from the group who have seen them. It's a great inventory that will be lost forever (at this level of availability and convenience) and many of the movies may be hard to get. The streaming services are woefully inadequate in comparison (esp foreign), at least as I have seen, though I do not subscribe to all of them and do not therefore know the full extent of their inventories. I am taking full advantage of Netflix DVD as I can.

Note: Netflix DVD has announced that they will send at least 10 extra DVD (from the queue) on the last day of shipping (Sep29) and that it may be possible to keep some of them. Otherwise, all DVDs must be returned by Oct 27. How this will actually work is not clear (says Netflix) but they are working on it. It was revealed also that Netllix has not yet decided what to do wih the remains of their considerable inventory of films. All this according my best knowledge to date.

[Swithin]

Speaking of what one may be watching, I have been paying Netflix DVD $57 a month for 8-at-time for over the last couple of pay periods in order to take advantage what they have to offer, which is considerable, and the availability of which will end on Sep 29. Mostly foreign films, a real gold mine. They have much much more than the usual classics we hear about over and over. I have posted about a couple already. I am making a list but do not plan full postings on them, but I may by and by list some of them with perhaps a short paragraph about each looking for any reactions from the group who have seen them. It's a great inventory that will be lost forever (at this level of availability and convenience) and many of the movies may be hard to get. The streaming services are woefully inadequate in comparison (esp foreign), at least as I have seen, though I do not subscribe to all of them and do not therefore know the full extent of their inventories. I am taking full advantage of Netflix DVD as I can.

Note: Netflix DVD has announced that they will send at least 10 extra DVD (from the queue) on the last day of shipping (Sep29) and that it may be possible to keep some of them. Otherwise, all DVDs must be returned by Oct 27. How this will actually work is not clear (says Netflix) but they are working on it. It was revealed also that Netllix has not yet decided what to do wih the remains of their considerable inventory of films. All this according my best knowledge to date.

I wish they would make some of the films you mention available on their streaming service. Netflix came free with T-Mobile when I switched to that service. I enjoyed many of the films/series -- particularly Babylon Berlin, Peaky Blinders, and The Crown -- but now I can't find anything to watch. The Crown will be back soon, but where is the new season of Babylon Berlin? There have been a few interesting films, but not many.

[Grumpytoad]

The Safecracker(1958) is one worth watching. Is it a great film? Nope. A pretty good one. Yep.

The structure of the movie is a bit different. It's basically two very different and separate stories linked by a single character.

The first story is about a safecracker(surprise surprise). It's a pretty typical plot, nothing exceptional. I won't describe the second story because it would take away from the novelty of the whole thing if you have not heard of or seen it before. Suffice it to say that it's the better of the two plots in my opinion.

Ray Milland is the safecracker and link driving the movie. Thought he was really good, save for one small scene where he couldn't quite pull off a certain attitude called for. It's a minor fault.

Jeanette Sterke plays what I would call a humble heroine in the second story. She comes across as a warm yet weary woman. Well done.

The rest of the male cast members were all known British character actors from what I can determine. Need to mention two of them in particular.

Barry Jones appears in the first story as a man willing to break the law, but not suffer the consequences.
He also played the part of Mr. Lundie in the movie Brigadoon, one of my all time favourite movie characters.

Bernard Fox as one of Milland's compatriots in the second story. It's not a big role, but he does a decent job with it. I mention Fox in particular because he featured in a couple of 60's tv comedies in America when I was a child. I really didn't enjoy those characters, actually found them irritating. Too silly, even for a little boy.
Even so, I just found out he was in Titanic (1997). Having never seen that film, I hope it was a good role for him.

To wrap things up here, I should mention The Safecracker has some unexpected light humour at times, and it's well placed.

[Grumpytoad]

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1973) on TCM this afternoon. one of RICHARD LESTER's best.

Huge favourite of mine. It has always seemed to me that the cast was having a real blast performing in it.