The Silver Screen Oasis

I saw "The Aristocats" too. Didn't especially like it. In fact, I think it is the rare Disney animated feature that I never bothered showing my kids.

Weren't "The Over the Hill Gang" and "The Over the Hill Gang Rides" made for TV movies? I remember watching and liking them on TV.

Oh maybe you are right! I simply recognized the title and cast as something I had seen. I don't really remember the movies. I do remember going to see the really awful The Gnome-mobile, also with Walter Brennan, in the movie theatre. I think I liked it because it had fairies in it.

The futility of War.

"Will you clam up!!!" ( Austin's silly facial expression as he shuts up! )

"Tell the MEN, Danby!" ( Balsam's look at the officer next to him )

"Doesn't anyone for God's sake know what a chair is?!!!" ( Some feeble hands go up! )

"Somebody's gonna get it!" says the General as the men start moaning.

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"A lot of you may ask yourselves, how come we're out to destroy a town that has no industry. No enemy bases. Noooooo strategic value to anyone..."

The clip I submit is the other end of the ludicrous spectrum. Kirk has his fans and detractors, but this is a helluva scene; bordering on comedic...bordering on insanity. And I daresay, bringing up issues the military probably faces today.

I'm looking at the "Catch-22" clip again. My god, those faces, that timing. Hilarious. But the Mao Tse Tung Hour Negotiations scene in "NETWORK" is beyond anything. Oh man, I have fallen on the floor with that scene; played as seriously as a heart attack, it spirals out of control with EVERYONE playing it with a straight face. It's raunchy as all get out, but it is one of the funniest scenes of the 1970's.

I knew there was a connection between Catch 22 and Network!

MikeBSG wrote:I saw "The Aristocats" too. Didn't especially like it. In fact, I think it is the rare Disney animated feature that I never bothered showing my kids.

Weren't "The Over the Hill Gang" and "The Over the Hill Gang Rides" made for TV movies? I remember watching and liking them on TV.

My kids like The Aristocrats although I thought the best thing was the song sung by Maurice Chevalier.

I was denied entrance to MASH. I wasn't 18! I said, "Dude! I saw THE GRADUATE three years ago." But there was no ratings system in 1967. Thank you, Mrs. Robinson!

I enjoyed the first half of BLOOD AND SAND. Especially the background, as has been said. The use of striking character actors reminds me of a John Ford drama. Take one look at this guy. You won't forget him! When the story becomes burdened with personal issues, love problems, it loses some steam. It's still not bad. But it's not the show it promises to be.

At least they haven't remade I SAILED TO TAHITI WITH AN ALL GIRL CREW. That would be an injustice!

Today I watched "The Return of Dr. Mabuse" (1961) directed by Harald Reinl.

(It was a dubbed version, hence I'm discussing it here and not in foreign films.)

I really liked it. I saw "The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse" several years ago and was underwhelmed. Then I saw part of "The Invisible Dr. Mabuse" (1962) also directed by Reinl, and was intrigued, but I couldn't see the whole of that film.

"Return of Dr. Mabuse" impressed me. In a way, it plays like Fritz Lang's greatest hits, as there are plenty of allusions to Lang's work throughout the film. However, this film has a strong brooding atmosphere, rather shocking violence, and a very strong sense of paranoia, in which the viewer is always wondering who will be bumped off next, who is lying, and who is a good guy or a bad guy. The result is a film that has something of a horror movie feel (I had to think of the Quatermass films, particularly "Enemy from Space") but is, I guess, more of a gangster/spy movie. It is a hybrid genre that Hollywood never quite developed.

The cast is first rate. Gert Frobe (Auric Goldfinger) is the hero, and Wolfgang Preiss and Werner Peters, familiar faces from "The Longest Day" and other Sixties WWII movies, have major roles as well. (Apparently Peters started out as an important East German actor before moving west in the late Fifties.)

Still, my favorite Dr. Mabuse film is Lang's "The Testament of Dr. Mabuse." I have to say that I find the silent "Dr. Mabuse" interesting but a bit too long.

I bought a couple of five dollar videos yesterday. I'll tell you what they were after I've watched them. That's actually what I want to talk about. If there's one great benefit to purchasing, rather than renting, it's that you're in no hurry to watch. You can store it for a rainy day. But I don't do that. I get home from the store ("K-Mart sucks!") and I can't wait to watch them! If I'm going to do that, I may as well rent.

But it's always nice to see a crisp, new copy. Sometimes that alone is worth five dollars!

kingrat wrote:Zabriskie Point– gorgeous and stupid in equal measure; have you ever fallen for someone like that?

Who hasn't?

I must admit I watched it for one reason: Rod Taylor (who sort of separated himself from this film in interviews...oops, Rod, I guess that wasn't a good career move after all)

Even when I was young and disaffected, this looked like pretentious crap to me. It still does. Still, I like the poetic moments in Il Grido, La notte, and L'eclisse much more, though I'm not toting any of them to my desert isle. Not that it matters.

kingrat wrote:A Walk in the Spring Rain – obviously the most important film of the year, if not all time, because I’m a blurry extra in one of the scenes

What!!?? Spill, give, 'fess up, Mr. Kingrat. Were you in the background with Ingrid Bergman? Were you one of Anthony Quinn's hillbilly chillun? Come, please tell?

You don't hear this very often. MASH worked better as a TV show than a movie. Not the stale later years. But the first few seasons, fresh, funny and thought provoking; the best TV has ever been!

I’m a blurry extra in one of the scenes

Did that ever clear up?

kingrat wrote:Ingrid Bergman was also in this scene, and she made a point of coming over to the extras, saying hello to the group and saying something like, "Making movies is harder than you think, isn't it?" Obviously this was the high point of the day.

I can't believe that I know someone who has been in the same room as Ingrid, much less a movie!

kingrat wrote:Too bad I wasn't cast as one of Anthony Quinn's hillbilly chillun. I definitely have the background for that. I even had an uncle who was a bootlegger!

Braggart!

Family pride. I have an ancestor who was a deserter from the Confederate infantry!