Search found 148 matches

by phil noir
July 22nd, 2010, 2:21 pm
Forum: Silents & PreCodes
Topic: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
Replies: 3714
Views: 1046693

Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

I'd read that the transformation was done in one take, I'm not at all technically minded but to me it looked like the camera was stopped and started as more makeup was applied. I'm sure I've read somewhere that Mamoulian placed colour filters over the camera lens and that the Hyde make up was alrea...
by phil noir
July 11th, 2010, 11:48 am
Forum: The People of Film
Topic: Marlene Dietrich
Replies: 127
Views: 43231

Re: Marlene Dietrich

Tonight I watched Marlene by Maxmilliam Schell. I'm not sure she did herself any favours making the documentary, which was very good. Even though we don't see her, we hear her voice and it's the voice of an old lady, first heard in German, so I wasn't sure it was her, she's cantankerous too, not so...
by phil noir
July 11th, 2010, 11:22 am
Forum: The People of Film
Topic: Discovered a young Renee Houston film
Replies: 1
Views: 1278

Re: Discovered a young Renee Houston film

I saw this film last year. It's not an all-time classic by any means, but, as you point out, Stuart, has a great cast of British female stars of the '40s. I especially liked Patricia Roc and Anne Crawford, both from Millions Like Us, made the year before, and another favourite of mine.
by phil noir
July 11th, 2010, 11:00 am
Forum: The People of Film
Topic: Ingmar Bergman
Replies: 73
Views: 26922

Re: Ingmar Bergman

I haven't seen Persona yet. Film4 in Britain seems to be showing a Bergman every week at the moment, so I'm just watching them as they come along. Mr first was Cries and Whispers , then Through a Glass Darkly and most recently Summer Interlude ; so I'm doing things back to front. Well, I really like...
by phil noir
July 11th, 2010, 10:38 am
Forum: Film Noir and Crime
Topic: Favorite Nice Girl in a Noir
Replies: 16
Views: 6717

Re: Favorite Nice Girl in a Noir

Definitely agree with Barbara Bel Geddes in Caught ; and I also like Ella Raines in Impact . She is meant - I would guess - to exemplify the values of small town life, and does so in a natural, likeable, entirely convincing manner. So often the nice girl is also a dull girl, but she makes niceness a...
by phil noir
July 7th, 2010, 6:51 am
Forum: The People of Film
Topic: Least favorite Actor or Actrees of the Classic Period
Replies: 30
Views: 9790

Re: Least favorite Actor or Actrees of the Classic Period

James Stewart. I used to like him, but now his gosh darn folksy persona sets my teeth on edge. Grace Kelly. Beautiful and dull. As an actress, barely competent. Robert Montgomery. Smug and smarmy. Charlton Heston. Projects an aura of dull self-righteousness. Hedy Lamarr. Complete and utter lack of a...
by phil noir
July 7th, 2010, 6:45 am
Forum: Dramas
Topic: Anna Karenina
Replies: 28
Views: 11605

Re: Anna Karenina

I read this thread back in 2009 with interest and added the Duvivier-Leigh version to my rental list. And now I've watched it. It's remarkable how people can watch the same film and come out with such different opinions. I have to say I was extremely disappointed in it. I thought Vivien Leigh was wh...
by phil noir
June 25th, 2010, 3:32 pm
Forum: Silents & PreCodes
Topic: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
Replies: 3714
Views: 1046693

Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Queen Kelly ... I agree with Charliechaplinfan that the last part was strange, it is hard to see where he would have gone with it... If I remember from something I read somewhere , doesn't Von Stroheim's screenplay end with Gloria Swanson and Walter Byron trapped on an island in a swamp about to be...
by phil noir
June 23rd, 2010, 1:45 pm
Forum: The People of Film
Topic: Ingmar Bergman
Replies: 73
Views: 26922

Re: Ingmar Bergman

Well, coincidentally, Ingmar Bergman is someone I've recently started feeling I should investigate. The only film of his I've so far seen is the one you've written about here, Alison, which I watched a couple of months ago. Sometimes I watch a film, and I don't really know what I think about it. I f...
by phil noir
June 4th, 2010, 5:56 am
Forum: Musicals
Topic: Where can you get it?
Replies: 15
Views: 9065

Re: Where can you get it?

That's excellent news, Uncle Stevie. Nice to hear they're reliable.
by phil noir
June 4th, 2010, 5:52 am
Forum: Silents & PreCodes
Topic: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
Replies: 3714
Views: 1046693

Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Last night I watched La Boheme (1926). I thought it was good to pretty good, until the closing twenty minutes or so when the direction and Lillian Gish's acting took it to an infinitely higher level. The scene in which the doctor in his little round opaque glasses stood taking snuff and telling Mimi...
by phil noir
June 3rd, 2010, 10:27 am
Forum: General Chat
Topic: A LAKE DISTRICT SHOOTING SPREE, 12 DEAD, 25 INJURED
Replies: 6
Views: 2575

Re: A LAKE DISTRICT SHOOTING SPREE, 12 DEAD, 25 INJURED

It's such a horrible shocking story. I didn't hear the news until six o'clock, and could hardly believe it when I switched on the radio. I've just been reading about it on The Guardian website, and the details of the people who were shot are so poignant - one moved to the area so his girlfriend coul...
by phil noir
May 30th, 2010, 10:23 am
Forum: Musicals
Topic: Where can you get it?
Replies: 15
Views: 9065

Re: Where can you get it?

A site I've come across recently is myoldmanmovies.com. I haven't ordered any titles from it, but perhaps others have? As far as I can see no title is more expensive than $4.99 and there are discounts for multiple orders. They have a lot of Marion Davies titles, so I'm quite tempted to put in an ord...
by phil noir
May 21st, 2010, 6:10 am
Forum: Classic Film on DVD
Topic: Chicago
Replies: 5
Views: 13493

Re: Chicago

It's the money, honey! :) Isn't that always the way! I enjoyed the musical version, I must say, it's so stylish and cynical. We Both Reached for the Gun is a great sequence. The line that always makes me laugh is when Renee Zellwegger says in her final song, 'We none of us got enough love in our ch...
by phil noir
May 21st, 2010, 6:01 am
Forum: Silents & PreCodes
Topic: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
Replies: 3714
Views: 1046693

Re: WHAT SILENTS & PRE-CODES HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

I thought it was interesting in Bachelor Father - which I enjoyed a lot; I think MD was delightful in it - that C. Aubrey Smith's children voted to call him The Chief (instead of Father). Isn't that what Hearst was called? I'm sure I've seen a biography of him with that title. I wonder whether it wa...