I Just Watched...

[Lorna]

"Don't Tell Mama" was replaced by "Mein Herr" in the movie adaptation of CABARET.

[/quote]

thank you, WOW! "MIEN (LIEBEN) HERR" is SO ICONIC, it's hard to believe it (and MAYBE THIS TIME, which is my favorite song from the film) were not in the stage show!

[CinemaInternational]

I GOT so DISTRACTED TALKING ABOUT "POOR THINGS" that I didn't get around to mentioning that I watched CABARET (1972) on SUNDAY MORNING and have since watched many of the musical numbers again.

few films have ever, will ever, or could ever age as well as this movie has- and it's a film that has meant different things in different degrees and measures to different audiences- I can only imagine how mind blowing it was to see such honest(ish) representation on screen when it first came out in the 1970's, watching it in the 1980s meant reaffirmation to a lot of people, watching it in the 1990s (as camp) through the 2010s (when I first saw it) it was a fascinating time capsule within a time capsule...and then came 2016...and let me tell you, CABARET- more than ever- RINGS TRUE in a way that even the makers at the time (from FOSSE on down to ISHERWOOD) would be unable to predict or aspire to- THAT ENDING, when all the entertainers DISAPPEAR in AN ABRUPT, JARRING JUMP CUT and within seconds, THE WORLD OF THE CABARET is GONE and the audience become NAZIS- it hits HARDER today than ever before as did the TOMORROW BELONGS TO ME scene and THE FACES OF THE ACTORS IN IT.

I actually admit to skipping ahead during that part because it got to be too much.

Cabaret has aged very well. Maybe it was a good move on the Academy's part to give director to Bob Fosse that year, because he did an exceptional job with the material, and it serves to remind people that even though he only directed a handful of films, he was a natural born moviemaker.

[Lorna]

[quote=CinemaInternational post_id=196289 time=1710188371 user_id=349029
Cabaret has aged very well. Maybe it was a good move on the Academy's part to give director to Bob Fosse that year, because he did an exceptional job with the material, and it serves to remind people that even though he only directed a handful of films, he was a natural born moviemaker.

(end quote)

HE UNDERSTOOD EDITING and THE JUXTAPOSITION OF IMAGES SO WELL, as well as anyone who has ever made films.

[Lorna]

also noteworthy:

in her review of CABARET from 1001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES, PAULINE KAEL refers to the songs as "metallic"- it's not in a disparaging way, but I'm not entirely sure it's a completely apt adjective.

of course, in the same review, she also refers to JOEL GREY as "THE DEVIL DOLL EMCEE" which goes to show- when PAULINE hits the nail on the head, she drives it clear into the wood.

[Lorna]

i mean, C'MON:

[CinemaInternational]

also noteworthy:

in her review of CABARET from 1001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES, PAULINE KAEL refers to the songs as "metallic"- it's not in a disparaging way, but I'm not entirely sure it's a completely apt adjective.

of course, in the same review, she also refers to JOEL GREY as "THE DEVIL DOLL EMCEE" which goes to show- when PAULINE hits the nail on the head, she drives it clear into the wood.

You know, I have several of her books of full-length reviews. Maybe I should share them sometimes.....

[CinemaInternational]

Anyway, i saw a noir earlier today from 1951 called The Scarf. It reunited two of the supporting players (John Ireland and Mercedes McCambide) of All the King's Men in a psychological study of a man, convicted of his wife's murder, (Ireland) who escapes from a mental asylum and tries to piece together what happened while suffering from some mental hangups, leaving the question of if he did or not quite mysterious. MacCambride plays a woman he meets who helps him to find the truth. It's an unusual introspective little film, but the two leads work brilliantly together, which helps make this into a pretty good film.

[Lorna]

also noteworthy:

in her review of CABARET from 1001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES, PAULINE KAEL refers to the songs as "metallic"- it's not in a disparaging way, but I'm not entirely sure it's a completely apt adjective.

of course, in the same review, she also refers to JOEL GREY as "THE DEVIL DOLL EMCEE" which goes to show- when PAULINE hits the nail on the head, she drives it clear into the wood.

You know, I have several of her books of full-length reviews. Maybe I should share them sometimes.....

I apologize if this is too much information, but…

I kePT my copy of 1001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES in the bathroom.

It’s pretty much where I read the entire thing. And re-read it. In fact, it split in two along the spine and I lost all the reviews from “S” on.

Probably should order a new copy or maybe another one of her books.

[jamesjazzguitar]

Anyway, i saw a noir earlier today from 1951 called The Scarf. It reunited two of the supporting players (John Ireland and Mercedes McCambide) of All the King's Men in a psychological study of a man, convicted of his wife's murder, (Ireland) who escapes from a mental asylum and tries to piece together what happened while suffering from some mental hangups, leaving the question of if he did or not quite mysterious. MacCambride plays a woman he meets who helps him to find the truth. It's an unusual introspective little film, but the two leads work brilliantly together, which helps make this into a pretty good film.

This about The Scarf from film critic Manny Farber:

Producer-directors Ewald André Dupont and Isadore Goldsmith glamorize a singing waitress, a turkey-raising hermit, a jaundiced metaphysical barkeep, and a morose amnesiac fugitive from a desert asylum...Dupont and Goldsmith turn their tinny proletarians into sententious talkers, dubbing them with names like “Level Louie” and “Cash-and-carry Connie" and having them oscillate their eyeballs in a sophisticated version of Griffith’s pantomime. It sounds awful but it’s kind of interesting.

[CinemaInternational]

also noteworthy:

in her review of CABARET from 1001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES, PAULINE KAEL refers to the songs as "metallic"- it's not in a disparaging way, but I'm not entirely sure it's a completely apt adjective.

of course, in the same review, she also refers to JOEL GREY as "THE DEVIL DOLL EMCEE" which goes to show- when PAULINE hits the nail on the head, she drives it clear into the wood.

You know, I have several of her books of full-length reviews. Maybe I should share them sometimes.....

I apologize if this is too much information, but…

I kePT my copy of 1001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES in the bathroom.

It’s pretty much where I read the entire thing. And re-read it. In fact, it split in two along the spine and I lost all the reviews from “S” on.

Probably should order a new copy or maybe another one of her books.

I'm giving you a link to an account on Letterboxd. Someone (not me) has been typing in Pauline's old full-length reviews of films from the 60s to the very early 1990s. 391 such reviews are up. Certainly, there are many more that are missing, but this is a start. Several more reviews seem to be added every week.

https://letterboxd.com/notpaulinekael/films/diary/

[Swithin]

You know, I have several of her books of full-length reviews. Maybe I should share them sometimes.....

I'm giving you a link to an account on Letterboxd. Someone (not me) has been typing in Pauline's old full-length reviews of films from the 60s to the very early 1990s. 391 such reviews are up. Certainly, there are many more that are missing, but this is a start. Several more reviews seem to be added every week.

https://letterboxd.com/notpaulinekael/films/diary/

Thanks for the link. I just read her review of The Sheltering Sky, a film about which I have fond memories but which I haven't seen in 30 years. Her review of the film is certainly OTT, but I enjoyed reading it. Now I want to see the film again. I look for gay subtexts all over the place, but I'm not sure I spotted it in The Sheltering Sky. The idea of Port Moresby as a repressed homosexual who is sort of channeled by his wife Kit after his death, and in having sex with the Tuareg fulfills Port's gay fantasy, is interesting. Not to mention the fact that Kael seems to think that the Moresbys reflect Paul Bowles's own fantasy.


Debra Winger with the Tuareg

[Lorna]

also noteworthy:

in her review of CABARET from 1001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES, PAULINE KAEL refers to the songs as "metallic"- it's not in a disparaging way, but I'm not entirely sure it's a completely apt adjective.

of course, in the same review, she also refers to JOEL GREY as "THE DEVIL DOLL EMCEE" which goes to show- when PAULINE hits the nail on the head, she drives it clear into the wood.

You know, I have several of her books of full-length reviews. Maybe I should share them sometimes.....

Just a correction, it’s actually 5001 NIGHTS AT THE MOVIES, not 1001. (My bad)

(Boy, I bet Pauline would be just thrilled with me – I admit to keeping her book in the toilet, desecrating it, and then I get the title wrong to boot.)

[Hibi]

Anyway, i saw a noir earlier today from 1951 called The Scarf. It reunited two of the supporting players (John Ireland and Mercedes McCambide) of All the King's Men in a psychological study of a man, convicted of his wife's murder, (Ireland) who escapes from a mental asylum and tries to piece together what happened while suffering from some mental hangups, leaving the question of if he did or not quite mysterious. MacCambride plays a woman he meets who helps him to find the truth. It's an unusual introspective little film, but the two leads work brilliantly together, which helps make this into a pretty good film.

Wasn't this on Noir Alley awhile ago? I think so.

[Lorna]

I also checked out FIVE STAR FINAL (1931) on THAT CERTAIN CABLE NETWORK, it shows up every OSCAR TRIBUTE SEASON because it was nominated for BEST PICTURE and NUTHIN' ELSE, nonetheless, it is one of my favorite Precodes and an astounding example of the LEAPS AND BOUNDS that had been made in SOUND RECORDING and SOUND EFFECTS and DIALOGUE and ACTING and BLOCKING in the brief time since TALKING PICTURES changed the game just two(ish) years before- they even work in a couple of swear words that are masked by doors slamming or glass breaking.



(AS A GENERAL RULE: any film that starts with A SHOT OF AN ELABORATE NETWORK OF WIRES feeding into a room of young female operators answering giddily into CANDLESTICK RECEIVERS is in all likelihood one that I am going to LOVE.)

There was one actress playing a TELEPHONE OPERATOR who was A DAMN HOOT- she came off like BETTE DAVIS'S KID SISTER WHO FELL DOWN A WELL AT AN EARLY AGE- and she does a lot to lighten the mood when it gets heavy. i tried to find a pic, but alas could not.

I love this movie, I love EDWARD G ROBINSON who should have been nominated for BEST ACTOR and I love ALINE MACMAHON and BORIS KARLOFF-who is more GHOULISH in this as an unethical newspaper reporter than in many of his later movies where he played literal ghouls.

the only false note is the performance of the woman playing the MURDERESS who is EXPOSED BY THE NEWSPAPER- she's playing to the back rows, but in a film this early, that's to be expected.

the film's central story of EXPLOITING PEOPLE FOR NEWS is truer than ever, even if the trappings are a little faded and worn.

[kingrat]

Since we were talking about Wings Hauser, of all people, I remember when he replaced James Houghton as Greg Foster on The Young & the Restless. Now James Houghton was a very handsome young man, but as a Yale-educated lawyer somewhat less than convincing. Let's just say that Wings Hauser was even less convincing.