WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by JackFavell »

I'm so glad you liked Love Me Tonight! It's just super.

Maven, I can meet you over in Marlene Dietrich's thread if you'd like to continue the discussion of SE.
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

Love Me Tonight is such a joy, it turned me into a huge Chevalier fan.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
feaito

Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by feaito »

I have just revisited with a couple of friends William Dieterle's very unique film "Blockade" (1938), which was quite controversial in its time because it tackles a touchy subject: the Spanish Civil War. The film is anti-fascist and very interesting. Henry Fonda is a peasant who becomes a Lieutenant who fights for the Republic. Leo Carrillo is his sidekick; Madeleine Carroll is the beautiful spy with whom Fonda falls in love with and John Halliday plays an absolutely despicable, duplicitous character (another spy). The films is very realstic and harrowing and depicts very sincerely the events suffered by the inhabitants of the town of Castlemar (who endure bombings, air-raids and a blockade). And Fonda's final speech is very touching and timeless. Very worthwhile.
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Hillworth
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by Hillworth »

Just watched Titanic (1953). I found it to be rather "ho-hum" and even with the suspension of belief, the ending was especially ridiculous.

Stanwyck and Webb did play very well together though. And Thelma Ritter remains memorable, as always.
"I want to live, but I want to vanish. I want to go away and change my name and never be heard of again."
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by Rita Hayworth »

In the past few days with my friends they share two Rita Hayworth's movies they are "Music in My Heart, 1940 film" and "Blondie on a Budget, 1940 film".

Music in My Heart - 1940 Film
I haven't these movies in years and now I'm much, much, older ... I still love Music in My Heart because its an enduring film that I consider a gem considering what Rita had to work with back then. My friends and I were debating whether its a Musical or a Romance. I told them both genres because they both showed it predominantly throughout the movie. Rita was smashing in this movie and enjoyed every minute of it. Its a surprisingly short movie ... only 70 minutes long and I was shocked how short it was and I don't remembered being that short. I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes Musicals with a nice touch of Romance.

Blondie on a Budget - 1940 Film
Another short movie, this one is two minutes longer than Music in My Heart. This is a Comedy Movie and more suited for families and I found this movie a bit silly for my taste and I find it to be heartwarming and sweet. Rita was very glamorous and stylish in this movie; but working with odd bunch of characters in this delightful movie that I felt more than once that Rita being Spotlighted for a reason. This movie was released 1 month after Music in My Heart and this movie was basically done for a reason that she can do comedies. And, did quite well!

I beginning to understand why she did these five movies below:

Angels Over Broadway (1940) as Nina Barona
The Lady in Question (1940) as Natalie Roguin
Susan and God (1940) as Leonora Stubbs
Blondie on a Budget (1940) as Joan Forrester
Music in My Heart (1940) as Patricia O’Malley

All of these movies are basically training her to become a major motion picture star and these movies were stepping stones to super-stardom. These five films are a wide variety of genres and I had a ball watching these two movies over the weekend.
RedRiver
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by RedRiver »

Getting back to "Grand Hotel on wheels," it's STAGECOACH I've heard that tag applied to. It's fitting for both films.
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CineMaven
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by CineMaven »

ALLISON HAYES...ALL FIFTY FEET OF HER

Image

As I chomped at the bit waiting for tonight's TCM triple decker triple feature of noir, I was watching one of my favorite sci-fi horror movies on TCM a little while ago: "ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT WOMAN"

Allison Hayes has a waist like a wasp, and dig those crazy striped peddle pushers she's wearing. She reminds me of the Queen Imphale who was in one of those Hercules movies. Her make-up's on pretty thick. Also in the film is Yvette Vickers, the girl Hary is coo-coo for coco puffs about. Yvette has that Joey Heatherton/ Tuesday Weld/Eartha Kitt/Gloria Grahame petitie cat-like type thing going on. The xylophone music underscoring a scene sounds like something from "SCREAMING MIMI." I love Jess her butler. He cares so and reminds me of a cross between Lugosi & VonStroheim.

There is one crazy tv channel in this one horse town. What kind of news broadcasting does KRKR-TV do? It's geared specifically to Nancy? "Was he pink with big ears and tusks...Nancy Archer finally found a man from out of this world who will love her." Huh? What kind of journalism is this. Ohhhhh, pre-Fox News.

As she and Harry drive out of town to see if they can spot the man in the flying saucer who Nancy saw earlier, the landscape looks like they're driving on the moon. I love day-for-night shots with crickets chirping in the background in these old 50's movies.

What kind of non-self respecting woman would run TOWARDS an alien space ship? One who really needs to prove to her husband that she's not alcoholically mendacious. And what kind of weasel of a husband would drive away like a bat outta the Jetsons in a convertible and not stay and save his wife. A weasel. He hightails it back home, packs, fights the butler and picks up the honey he's been making time with. It all looks so tawdry, and low-budget. I love it.

Nancy's been attacked by the alien and left on the roof of her pool house. She's in a state of shock. And without a drink. At least he saw her to her door, which is more than I can say for Harry.

When Harry goes into Nancy's room to give her an overdose of medication in order to kill her so he can finally be rid of her and get her money, the nurse comes in behind him and turns on the light. Nancy's hand is GIGANTIC. A gigantic papier mache hand. The nurse is cross-eyed with screams:

NURSE: "Something's happened to Mrs. Archer!!!!"

DOCTOR (calmly): "Astounding growth."


That's a scientist for ya. No need now to ask Harry what was he doing with that hypodermic needle.

Here are the supplies needed to keep a buxom fifty foot woman in check. You never know when you might need them:

* meat hooks
* 4 lengths of chain
* 40 gallons of plasma and
* an elephant syringe


Harry backs up in silent disbelief when he sees his giant bride. He might be thinking of her future mani-pedi bills Whoops! There goes his inheritance.

Apparently there's only one night club in this one-horse town and Harry and Honey have no shame being seen there.

The sheriff brings the butler with him instead of his deputy to go out and investigate the giant footprints they see on Nancy's property. (What the heck kind of police logic is this? Wait, the deputy is some kind of cross between Wally Cox and Earl Holliman so taking the butler does make more sense). The butler suggests they call for help but the sheriff nixes that idea, not wanting outside interference. Either the Sheriff is an idjit or something tells me the budget couldn't stand for more people in the shot. Yeah, it was both). The spaceship is hovering like a giant pearl in the middle of the field with its doors wide open. Guess people feel safe out in the west. The Sheriff and the Butler walk inside the steamy spaceship. Listen, my curiosity is as strong as the next Earthling...but I'm not walking willy nilly into a spaceship even if the door is open. (Besides, my mom told us not to talk to strangers).

Nancy wakes up and she is NOT HAPPY!!!

These two hick doctors thought they could handle this fifty-foot giant by themselves and are only just now calling for outside help. Hippocratic, schmippocratic, you need help quacks!!

THE DOCTOR: "MORE MORPHINE!!!"

THE NURSE: "SHE'S LOOSE, SHE'LL TEAR THE ROOF OFF!!!!"


I love that we don't see a thing of Nancy except reaction shots by these horribly valiant actors. Or is that valiantly horrible actors?

When Nancy breaks through the roof all slo-mo and everything, she looks quite majestic ( and transparent ) to me...and she has turned into a blonde. Scientifically speaking folks, did the pituitary malfunction change her hair color as well as her shoe size?

DOCTOR: "She'll tear up the whole town until she finds Harry."

DEPUTY: "Yeah, and then she'll tear up Harry."


It's funny when Nancy yells for Harry her voice sounds like she's in an echo chamber. But there's something sexy and powerful watching Nancy tear off the roof of the club. She kills Vickers...and now she's after Harry. And when she holds him up in the air in that bedsheet bikini of hers...she's awe-inspiring. It's a low-budget film, so I won't quibble about the thread count of those sheets.

Giants are none too bright and they walk near power lines. The sheriff gets one good lucky shot off and hits the power line which Nancy is near and brings her down. She is still holding her crumpled up doll of a husband in her giant man-size hands. It's only fitting that the doctor, who has known Nancy since she was a little girl, have the last line in this classic:

"She finally got Harry all to herself."

< Sigh! > I wish it were 1958.
"You build my gallows high, baby."

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feaito

Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by feaito »

I watched "The Bride Came C.O.D" (1941), which seemed a rather improbable screwball comedy at first, with two stars who had never ventured in this genre: Bette Davis and James Cagney, but it worked for me and it was a nice surprise, because I think that both actors did a very good job and worked well together. Bette is a heiress who elopes with a full-of-himself band leader (Jack Carson) and gets kidnapped by civil pilot Cagney, who's hired by her father to deliver her unmarried at Amarillo....There's a lot of slapstick and shenanigans in this film and it's surprising to see Ms. Davis tackle a role of this kind which belonged to the territory of Mesdames Colbert, Lombard, Russell et al. Eugene Pallette is very funny as Davis' Tycoon dad, Stuart Erwin is a journalist looking for a front-page story and Harry Davenport the lonely inhabitant of a ghost town. Very funny.
MikeBSG
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by MikeBSG »

I just watched "Stage Fright." I had never seen this Hitchcock film before and had always thought of it as a failure.

It turned out to be enormously entertaining. Jane Wyman hit just the right note as the heroine. Dietrich was elegant, and Alastair Sim stole the film as Wyman's dad. (It almost seemed as if he were Hitchcock's surrogate.) I loved the bit when he was asked "What kind of father are you?" He answers: "Unique."
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by JackFavell »

I really like Stage Fright too, it has the right blend of everything. A friend of mine can't get past Jane Wyman, and I understand it. I think, though, that she does a great job with the accents and I do enjoy her wide eyed innocence. I would like it if she were a bit more emotional, less lamby. I stupidly thought of Glynis Johns in the role and can't get the thought out of my mind, what the movie might have been like had she played the lead. Wyman had the box office pull and is maybe the better choice, but I would love to see an alternate version.

The best part about Stage Fright for me is the section where Wyman is discovered by Wilding to have been leading a double life, mimicking and mirroring the artificiality of Dietrich's villainess. His hurt and disdain of her, and Wyman's slow response as she sees herself as a complex villain make this movie one of my new favorites. There is something Lang-ian about this mirroring of the two main characters.
RedRiver
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by RedRiver »

"ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT WOMAN"

I like tall women, but this is ridiculous! I also like over-the-top, low budget melodrama. This is just my cup of tea, albeit a grande. This movie is inevitably compared to THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN. But it reminds me of poor Lon Chaney, Jr stumbling around as THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN. They share that "What the hell do I do now" attitude.

The Ravin' Maven! You've seen SCREAMING MIMI? I'd love to see that! It's based on a cute little pulp novel by Fredric Brown. (I swear I almost said Fredric March!) Brown was better known for stories that featured an uncle/nephew detective team. And who can forget MARTIANS, GO HOME? But "Mimi" is my favorite of the ones I've read.

It's a good thing I'm not a TCM host. "Here, from a story by Fredric March..."
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

I just watched Shanghai Express, I agree with everything that has been said before, what a multilayered and stunningly visual movie. Even the train come to life as someone has pointed out. Thank you for all the well worded reviews, I have enjoyed reading them.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by charliechaplinfan »

JackFavell wrote:I really like Stage Fright too, it has the right blend of everything. A friend of mine can't get past Jane Wyman, and I understand it. I think, though, that she does a great job with the accents and I do enjoy her wide eyed innocence. I would like it if she were a bit more emotional, less lamby. I stupidly thought of Glynis Johns in the role and can't get the thought out of my mind, what the movie might have been like had she played the lead. Wyman had the box office pull and is maybe the better choice, but I would love to see an alternate version.

The best part about Stage Fright for me is the section where Wyman is discovered by Wilding to have been leading a double life, mimicking and mirroring the artificiality of Dietrich's villainess. His hurt and disdain of her, and Wyman's slow response as she sees herself as a complex villain make this movie one of my new favorites. There is something Lang-ian about this mirroring of the two main characters.
I can just about get past Jane Wyman because of the calibre of the rest of the cast but she seems like a square peg in a round hole to me, maybe because she's playing English and she's quite plainly not whilst everyone apart from Marlene is or maybe I just can't take to her, I've never quite worked it out. I can enjoy the movie though, it's much better than we're led to believe by movie books.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by JackFavell »

That's pretty much exactly how I feel too, Alison. I can take or leave Wyman (she doesn't bother me though), but why cast all English and then stick her in there? The movie itself is quite good.
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Rita Hayworth
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

Post by Rita Hayworth »

I'm in Vancouver B.C and I just finished getting 15-20 new pictures of Rita Hayworth for my collection that I traded extra copies for these; after dinner and another movie ... I will be flying home later on tonight.

But, anyway I went to see The Whistleblower last night at Park Theater with many close friends of mine.
http://www.festivalcinemas.ca/movies/th ... blower.htm

This is an excellent movie starring Rachel Weisz, Vanessa Redgrave, Monica Bellucci, Luke Treadaway, and others and I find this movie all about corruption, diplomatic intrigue and doubletalk that was the highlight of this film. Rachel Weisz did a terrific job in this movie as Kathryn Bolkovac who served as a peacekeeper in post war Bosnia. It's well directed and the movie is wonderfully paced and housed many foreign actors/actresses that I do not know about and they all did an outstanding job in this movie.

Here is a two minute you tube trailer
[youtube][/youtube]

It's Rated R for some violence and language. Highly Intense film that keeps you on the edge of your seat.
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