I Just Watched...

Discussion of programming on TCM.
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EP Millstone
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Re: I Just Watched...

Post by EP Millstone »

LawrenceA wrote: January 27th, 2023, 2:09 pm Deep End(1970) Dir: Jerzy Skolimowski
I saw Deep End during its initial American theatrical release. I've got it in my movie library, primarily for the, to me, extremely erotic scene with a lusty Diana Dors womanhandling John Moulder Brown.

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Moe Howard
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Detective Jim McLeod wrote: January 27th, 2023, 11:48 am A sex obsessed Jewish neurotic (Richard Benjamin) talks of his life to his psychiatrist

First time viewing for me, mostly out of curiosity due to the controversy of the material and the fact that it got really bad reviews, Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB rating. I don't think it is that bad, I was actually laughing quite a bit for the first half hour, the sex talk was outrageous and the over top Jewish humor was very funny at times. Jack Somack plays Benjamin's constipated father and gets most of the laughs. Somack was most famous for his Alka Seltzer commercials as an Italian eating a "a spicy meat-a ball-a".

However after the introduction of Karen Black as character called the Monkey, it goes downhill and no longer that funny. I was a bit surprised when I heard the unmistakable voice of John Carradine at the end where he says things he could never say in 1930s and 1940s.

ImageImage
Portnoy's Complaint was a "dirty" book my parents and most of my friend's parents were reading when I was a kid. I picked up a nice copy on eBay a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed the book. Reading it is similar to Clockwork Orange where those that aren't familiar with the lingo may need a glossary. I knew there was a movie out there floating around and was looking forward to watching it, although I couldn't imagine how the book could be cobbled into a screenplay.

Well it's not bad at all, considering the source material. The relatively small cast all are quite good and here's where the Detective and I disagree. Karen Black is the stand out and pleasantly surprised me, I had no idea she could actually act. Now I'm not privy to her entire body of work, just Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Day of the Locusts, and some horrible made for TV movie she did, Trilogy of Terror. Added bonus for me was seeing Jeannie Berlin who played the unlucky newlywed who Charles Gordon dumps for Cybil Shepard in The Heartbreak Kid. Here she has a small part as the unagreeable town pump.

There's much better examples of the neurotic American Jew experience that are also easier to watch, most coming from Woody Allen. But this film is more about the fact that Lehman actually (almost) pulled off the (nearly) impossible.
Last edited by Moe Howard on January 27th, 2023, 9:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Masha
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989)

The United States is facing a guacamole shortage because the Piranha women who rule the jungles south of San Bernardino are capturing and eating the avocado pickers. A feminist is sent to negotiate the tribe's relocation to condominiums in Malibu.

This is a quite fun little bit of nothing. It interlaces abject stupidity with particularly clever bons mots while maintaining a level of campiness rarely seen in movies with actual actors and competent cinematography.

Bill Maher may not be highly regarded as an actor but he is here perfect as a clumsy, egotistical misogynist. Perhaps it was typecasting?

Shannon Tweed is able to actually play it straight as if it was a serious role in a decent movie. This proves her talent.

Adrienne Bimbeau is not particularly effective in her role because it does not call on her to be the floozy-du-jour.

Negative: I believe it quite unlikely that any viewer will truly laugh aloud at any part of this movie. Positive: I am reasonably sure that it will not lower a viewer's IQ more than a point or two.

It is an interesting way to spend ninety minutes. I feel it would be quite inappropriate to suggest a wine-pairing but I will recommend a gentle sativa.

6.2/10

This movie is available for viewing for free with commercials on: Freevee.
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LawrenceA
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Image

Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight (1975) Dir: Robert Downey Sr. - Completely plotless underground exercise in self-indulgence. Short, rapidly edited sequences of people interacting, often wordlessly, with some dialogue, and some music. There's no comedy that I saw, although this is classified as a comedy. Downey features his family (Elsie, Allyson, and Robert Jr.), as well as some actor friends like Dan Hedaya and Seymour Cassel. I found this excruciating. It also looks and sounds worse than the films he made in the 60s. (3/10)

Source: Criterion Channel
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laffite
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Re: I Just Watched...

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LawrenceA wrote: January 27th, 2023, 11:07 pm Image

Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight (1975) Dir: Robert Downey Sr. - Completely plotless underground exercise in self-indulgence. Short, rapidly edited sequences of people interacting, often wordlessly, with some dialogue, and some music. There's no comedy that I saw, although this is classified as a comedy. Downey features his family (Elsie, Allyson, and Robert Jr.), as well as some actor friends like Dan Hedaya and Seymour Cassel. I found this excruciating. It also looks and sounds worse than the films he made in the 60s. (3/10)

Source: Criterion Channel
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LawrenceA
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Re: I Just Watched...

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laffite wrote: January 27th, 2023, 11:48 pm
And therefore do we say, "What was the TCC thinking?"
I watched it because it was released as part of a box set of Robert Downey Sr.'s films, Up All Night with Robert Downey Sr., part of their Eclipse series. I recognize that most of the Eclipse series sets are only going to have a niche fanbase, and I can safely say after watching all 5 of the films in this set that I'm not part of that group. Many, if not most, of the films in these sets are obscurities and curiosities, because if they weren't, then they would likely have gotten a full Criterion disc release of their own.
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Re: I Just Watched...

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LawrenceA wrote: January 26th, 2023, 2:07 pm I watched a couple of classic-era turkeys last night.

Wild Girl (1932, Fox) stars Joan Bennett as backwoods tomboy complete with perfectly styled platinum hair and penciled-in eyebrows. She's lusted after by a wide assortment of men, including Confederate veteran Charles Farrell, gambler Ralph Bellamy (replete in full Snidely Whiplash regalia), and sweaty Irving Pichel. Eugene Pallette is also on hand to provide blustery comic relief and self-deprecating fat jokes. Director Raoul Walsh frames the film as being viewed through an old photo album, and the opening is a doozy, with each actor shown as a "page" in the album with their name at the bottom, and they each deliver a line or two about their character along with their character's name. It's very awkward, yet memorable. Many scenes also segue via a "page turning" wipe/transition. There's also some nice location shots of the giant sequoias. Otherwise this is a bunch of overheated hooey.

Flight from Destiny (1941, Warners) features Thomas Mitchell as an aging college professor who learns that he has a terminal illness. He decides to look at his remaining days "logically" and so decides that the best final thing he can do for the world is to murder some one who offers nothing good in the world. He ends up finding a perfect target among those embroiled in his niece's marital turmoil. Geraldine Fitzgerald gets top billing as the niece, Jeffrey Lynn is her troubled spouse, and Mona Maris is a foreign femme fatale. The most noteworthy cast member is James Stephenson as Mitchell's physician best friend Larry. Stephenson would die of a heart ailment a few months after this film wrapped.

The story is dopey, the film drags even at 75 minutes, and while Mitchell and Stephenson are fine in their roles, no one is given much to work with. Willie Best and Libby Taylor appear briefly in stereotypical "help" roles. Not one of director Vincent Sherman's highpoints. I saw this on the Movies! channel, where it was presented as film noir.
"Wild Girl" is streaming on Criterion Channel, correct? I hope it's still on there, there were some Joan Bennett pre-codes that looked interesting.
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LawrenceA
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Belizaire the Cajun (1986) Dir: Glen Pitre - Belizaire (Armand Assante) is a Cajun medicine man in 1850s Louisiana who gets caught up in the fight between Cajun population and the wealthy, more "sophisticated" plantation owners in the area who seek to have the Cajuns expelled from the region. With Will Patton, Stephen McHattie, Michael Schoeffling, Nancy Barrett, and Gail Youngs.

This is a passable, if occasionally clunky, look at seldom-discussed history. I watched it for Robert Duvall, who shows up for a few seconds as a preacher at a funeral. He and Robert Redford were given special thanks in a pre-credits title card, and Duvall is also credited as "Creative Consultant". (6/10)

Source: Criterion Channel
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EP Millstone
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Re: I Just Watched...

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speedracer5 wrote: January 28th, 2023, 12:09 pm "Wild Girl" is streaming on Criterion Channel, correct? I hope it's still on there, there were some Joan Bennett pre-codes that looked interesting.
Correct!

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Re: I Just Watched...

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Image

Hotel Colonial (1987) Dir: Cinzia TH Torrini - Terrible misfire that stars John Savage as an Italian citizen who receives word that his brother, a wanted terrorist, has committed suicide in Colombia. Savage travels to the South American country where he gets wrapped up with drug dealers. Featuring Rachel Ward, Massimo Troisi, and Robert Duvall.

I watched this for Duvall, who doesn't really show up until the last act, sporting blonde hair and an incredible accent. The plot is a mess, the editing and direction atrocious, and the central performance from Savage is dull. Ward is as beautiful as usual, and the film is almost worth seeing for the moment when a wildly grinning Duvall brandishes a small crocodile towards a group of kids. (3/10)

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Swithin
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Re: I Just Watched...

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I just watched The Curse of Nostradamus (1960), but I'm distracted at the moment, having just discovered that the Academy Museum in Los Angeles presented nearly a month of Mexican horror in October 2022, and I didn't know about it! And the image they chose to represent the entire festival was the very image from the scene that more than any other scene, represents the pinnacle of the genre to me: Elmer playing the violin in The Black Pit of Dr. M. (Dr. M, who has come back from the dead in Elmer's body, is playing Csardas by Monti on the violin, in that masterpiece of horror, The Black Pit of Dr. M (Misterios de Ultratumba).

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The festival also featured The Brainiac and many other masterpieces of Mexican horror. I might have even gone to Los Angeles, had I known about the series.

The Curse of Nostradamus is actually one of four Mexican horror films pieced together by K. Gordon Murray, who took a 12-part serial and made four Nostradamus movies out of it. It's a decent film, but not on the level of the two movies mentioned above, or even many others, and the ending suffers from being the first part of the four-part series. The English dialogue is a hoot, and since I watched it with the subtitles (not Murray's, but YouTube's, it's even wilder: The vampire says to his Igor-like assistant: "Be on guard!!" The assistant's response in the subtitles: "You know I'm always faithful to you b_astard!"

The vampire looks like John Carradine/Baron Latos in House of Frankenstein and does turn into a bat. He can be killed by the Cross of Antioch or platinum bullets.

Here's the trailer for the Academy's series:

Last edited by Swithin on January 30th, 2023, 11:07 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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LawrenceA
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Shadow of a Woman (1946) Dir: Joseph Santley - Andrea King has a whirlwind romance and quickie marriage to doctor Helmut Dantine only to learn that he's a sinister quack with malfeasance in mind. This low-grade retread of Suspicion and a half dozen other, better films also features William Prince and Richard Erdman. (5/10)

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scsu1975
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Swithin wrote: January 28th, 2023, 7:59 pm He can be killed by the Cross of Antioch or platinum ballots.
Trust me, those ballots are expensive - only rich people can afford to vote that way.
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Swithin wrote: January 28th, 2023, 7:59 pm I just watched The Curse of Nostradamus (1960), but I'm distracted at the moment, having just discovered that the Academy Museum in Los Angeles presented nearly a month of Mexican horror in October 2022, and I didn't know about it! And the image they chose to represent the entire festival was the very image from the scene that more than any other scene, represents the pinnacle of the genre to me: Elmer playing the violin in The Black Pit of Dr. M. (Dr. M, who has come back from the dead in Elmer's body, is playing Csardas by Monti on the violin, in that masterpiece of horror, The Black Pit of Dr. M (Misterios de Ultratumba).

Image

The festival also featured The Brainiac and many other masterpieces of Mexican horror. I might have even gone to Los Angeles, had I known about the series.

The Curse of Nostradamus is actually one of four Mexican horror films pieced together by K. Gordon Murray, who took a 12-part serial and made four Nostradamus movies out of it. It's a decent film, but not on the level of the two movies mentioned above, or even many others, and the ending suffers from being the first part of the four-part series. The English dialogue is a hoot, and since I watched it with the subtitles (not Murray's, but YouTube's, it's even wilder: The vampire says to his Igor-like assistant: "Be on guard!!" The assistant's response in the subtitles: "You know I'm always faithful to you b_astard!"

The vampire looks like John Carradine/Baron Lagos in House of Frankenstein and does turn into a bat. He can be killed by the Cross of Antioch or platinum ballots.

Here's the trailer for the Academy's series:

The sets and the black & white cinematography of the 60s Mexican horrors were fantastic, notably the period films. The make-up and effects could be dicey at times. I believe The Brainiac aka El Baron del Terror was the first to use bladders to achieve the pulsating head of the monster. K. Gordon Murray's main contribution was to introduce many titles to American television although the translated dialog and voice actors were usually bad.
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Masha
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Re: I Just Watched...

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They Call It Murder (1971)

A man in a wheelchair, his widowed daughter-in-law, her mother and a cab driver find a dead body in the swimming pool. Complications of a missing murder weapon, evidence of a second weapon and a sleazy high-priced lawyer arise quickly.

The mediocre production values, plethora of B-List supporting cast and squishy ending testify that this was made-for-television. It is a very good plot despite that and the mystery is on a par with a theatrical release.

I like Jim Hutton very much. That is what enticed me to watch this movie. He is here not quite as refined and at ease as he was when he appeared as: Ellery Queen but he is still quite fun.

I found Vic Tayback surprisingly good as a low-rent private detective. It was on a par with his role in: The Cheap Detective (1978).

I am sorry to say that the rest of the cast was quite disappointing. I expected much more from: Leslie Nielsen, Edward Asner and Nita Talbot but it was obvious that their hearts and minds were not in their role. They were all quite low-grade even for television.

I will split my rating to say that the story/plot/mystery are: 6.8/10 but the production values and most of the performances are: 3.2/14

This movie is available for viewing for free on the streaming channel: "The Film Detective". I do not know what sign-up or commercials that channel uses. I watched it on: Amazon Prime Video. The print was not very good.
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