I Just Watched...

[CinemaInternational]

Murphy's Romance is also a charmer of a film, although I don't know why it

you know what? I don't know why it either.

(all kidding aside, was watching a bunch of OLD 80'S COMMERCIALS on youtube and one of the ones they showed was A BEEF AD WITH JAMES GARNER right before he had a heart attack or triple bypass or something.)

I forgot about it being posted about here, and was going to get around to talking about it, but got distracted. Whoops. I meant to say it was a charmer of a film, and it had good work from Garner and Sally Field, but at the same time, I don't know why director Martin Ritt felt the need to include the image of a dog relieving itself on a tree or one of the bloody kill sequences from Friday the 13th III. Otherwise, it was very likable, topped off with two good Carle king songs.

[Lorna]

just to clarify the whole JEAN RENOIR'S "THE GOLDEN COACH" IN 3-D remark from my review-

What I was trying to say was that the picture on my television during last three (or so) minutes of the movie (see spoiler below) went all SATURATED and BLURRY- the colors got weird and so did the focus- the best anaology I could come up with (being a child of the 80s) was that it was similar to watching a 3-D MOVIE without 3-d GLasses- the same weird "fuzziness."

so, no, JEAN RENOIR did not ever do a 3-D film, whether that is a shame or not, I leave to the might have beens of history and apologize for any confusion.

SPOILER:

THE PICTURE WENT ALL blurry and saturated (and a little overexposed?) at the same time that there was the reveal that the whole story had been a play within a play (within a play?)

[Lorna]

i'm not mad at THE POSTER ART THOUGH:

[Swithin]

Speaking of 3D, no film lover has lived until he/she/they has seen this unfortunate frog jump into the audience in 3D, as I saw it at the Film Forum a few years ago, as part of a series programmed by Martin Scorsese and Jay Cocks. The film (The Maze, 1953) was directed by William Cameron Menzies.

And the poster is correct, you won't believe your eyes, because you've been expecting the Lord of the Scottish Manor to be some horrible creature, but he turns out to be a very sad and compassionate 200-year-old big frog, who commits suicide because he's frightened the ladies.

[Allhallowsday]

NOTORIOUS (1946) Haven't seen this at TCM in a long time. I think overall, HITCHCOCK's best film.

[Lorna]

!

the final film project of WILLIAM CAMERON MENZIES are interesting to say the least.

I think he did A LOT of acid before it got to be popular.

[Lorna]

i apologize for singling someone out in front of the class like this, but sometimes it just has to be done.

last night I watched the MURDER SHE WROTE season 3 episode DEAD MAN'S GOLD, one of the lesser CABOT COVE episodes, not because it features LESLIE NIELSON in his second MsW appearance as a possible paramour for JESSICA- but because there are some SERIOUS script issues and the cast is split right down the line between some verrrrrrrrry seasoned pros and some actors who, um, were not.

it also features what i think- after very careful consideration- THE WORST PERFORMANCE ever given in all 12 seasons of MsW, and I am well-aware of the work of WINGS HAUSER, LUCIE ARNAZ in the WEARING OF THE GREEN EPISODE, ELEANOR PARKER in the STAGE STRUCK episode, the repeated appearances of BILL MAHER and that one time they got a homeless guy off of skid row to play a detective in a season 11 episode.

sigh JULIA MONTGOMERY as the murder victim has a big drunk scene and- wow, it is something to behold.

I swear to God, after she delivers it, all the actors just have a 4 second silence that they left in the final cut, and you can CLEARLY see EVERYONE thinking, "Holy s***, she' sucks ON TOAST!""

it's like watching someone who has never drank or seen anyone drunk in real life- just THAT STUMBLEBUM who says "yoU'Re LaTE!" in LOONEY TOONS cartoons- have to play drunk on the spot after just being handed the script.

i bet you anything that after this, ANGELA LANSBURY went STRAIGHT TO HER TRAILER and wrote a long, heartfelt note to LOIS CHILES, apologizing to her for calling her THE WORST OF ACTRESS ALL TIME while making DEATH ON THE NILE, because GOD in his INFINITE CRUELTY has chosen to PUNISH HER by showing her just how VERY wrong she was.

also, she delivers her big scene while wearing A BUBBLEGUM PINK JUMPSUIT accessorized with A TORQUOISE WRAPAROUND BELT IN PLEATHER and (aaaaaaarrrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!!) A PAIR OF ****ING KITTEN HEELS.

Later on, when it is discovered that HER CHARACTER has been run over while walking on the highway late night, I had to wonder if just maybe KARL LAGERFELD was out on a MIDNIGHT DIET COKE RUN when he saw her and RAN HER DOWN IN THE NAME OF FASHION.



NOTE: This photo does not reflect the true HUBBA BUBBA color of the jumpsuit. seriously, she looks like SKYDIVER BARBIE.

PS- HER HAIR, while terrible, is THE LEAST terrible thing about her whole time on the show, so whatever on that.

[Lorna]

Ps- there are so many weird and odd things about the DEAD MANS GOLD episode that I left out.

Like I think, it’s the one time in “murder, she wrote” history where the killer’s motive is simply “I just didn’t like the b****.”

Spoiler

... which given her performance and everything- I kinda understand, but still. It’s a reach. Especially since one of the things that she did to provoke her killer into murdering her was to make fun of the fact that the killer (a woman) was always applying make-up. Seriously. I mean, are you telling me that you actually killed someone wearing a pink jumpsuit and kitten heels and THAT BELT in part because THEY criticized something about YOUR appearance and YOU took that personally? Gurl, get a grip.

[Lorna]

Also, I mean why even wear the belt begin with? Was she afraid the outfit was gonna fall off?

[Lorna]

She should be so lucky.

[CinemaInternational]

I have my own little Murder She Wrote story, but want to say first that Lois Chiles actually was invited on MSW as a guilty party in the season episode "The Return of Preston Giles", so I am not sure if Angela called her the worst actress of them all on the Nile set (although truth be stated, Chiles was much improved in minor roles in two 80s films: Sweet Liberty and Broadcast News)

And that is a flimsy motive in Dead Man's Gold (a weak episode, I agree), although I would argue another one with that motive was season 5's Alma Murder, where Kate Vernon's victim was so abhorrent, that even DINAH SHORE was trash talking her. The characters in that episode all seemed glad she was dead.


Want to say that if there is ever a Murder, She Wrote episodes where I begin to laugh, it is season 2's School for Scandal, in a scene where Jessica gets distinguished professor Polly Bergen to admit that she is the writer of some sexy potboilers, and agitated Bergen starts angrily spitting out and sometimes screaming (that is, if someone with Bergen's thick, deep, smoky voice was screaming) out her words in a display that quickly becomes campy.....

I am going to try to quote it as best as I can....

"Do you know how much I was paid for the Walt Whitman biography? Barely enough to pay off a secondhand car. And then I learned what those TRASH MERCHANTS were getting for their latest opuses. Sex. That's all that they want. Meanwhile, I was one of the PROPER PAUPERS in the literary community while HACKS WITH A THIRD-GRADE VOCABULARY raked in money. So I sat down and wrote the first one in six weeks. Not six years of my life, but SIX SILLY WEEKS!"

[Lorna]

"LEAVES OF GRASS, MY A**!!!!!!"

[Lorna]

I usually skip ALMA MURDER. Even though EG MARSHALL is EXCELLENT, DINAH SHORE gets on my nerves.
And also we're just supposed to ignore that the sorority is in THE MUNSTER'S HOUSE.

SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL is fun though, especially when the daughter rips off her fur coat and she's nude at a faculty party.

i forgot about LOIS CHILES being in THE RETURN OF PRESTON GILES, she's all right in that episode.

for the record, I have no idea if CHILES and LANSBURY got along on NILE or not (I know LANSBURY and OLIVIA HUSSEY became gooD friends)

however, there is the undeniable fact that LOIS CHILES is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad in DEATH ON THE NILE. Read what PAULINE KAEL wrote about her. (don't repost it here, it's not very PC)