WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[charliechaplinfan]

I've been watching The Reluctant Debutante a pleasant comedy featuring the husband and wife pair Rex Harrison and Kay Kendall, also starring are Sandra Dee and Angela Lansbury. It is a pleasant comedy with misunderstandings, all set around the London season when debutantes used to get presented at court. I was anxious to see this movie after reading about Kay Kendall, I haven't seen her other film with Rex The Constant Husband, they are a good comedy team, when Kay is on the screen it's really difficult to look anywhere else, she completely steals every scene she's in. It makes it all the more the pity about her untimely death.

I then watched Perilous Experiment starring Hedy Lamarr, Paul Lukas and George Brent. Personally I thought Paul Lukas stole the movie from George Brent. It's a noirish plot set at the turn of the century, all revolves around the very beautiful Hedy. I've recently finished Hedy's biography too and was anxious to watch another film with her in, she does live up to her 'most beautiful girl' moniker.

[feaito]

Welcome Kingrat, I haven't seen that film, Ms. Courtneidge had a long life but appeared in relatively few films.

Ali, both of the films you watched I enjoyed when I saw them.

[MichiganJ]

The second movie at the Eastman House screening was Deathsport, a Roger Corman-New World sci-fi post-apocalyptic concoction which is probably the opposite of masterpiece. And yet I love it for its supreme, sublime cheesiness. (I've watched both films more times than I can remember.) There was a novelization of Deathsport that filled in a lot of the gaps in the movie which isn't saying much.

Actually this would make a good triple bill as Deathsport is also, in part, about turning violent death into entertainment.

While Deathsport is nowhere near as good as Death Race 2000, I enjoy it quite a lot, as well. As you say, the cheese factor is key.

I'd nominate the original Rollerball as another in the category, although it is considerably more bleak.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched one of your recommenadtions today Fernando, Watch on the Rhine. My friend got me a lovely book on Bette for my birthday, it's primarily about her films with lots of pictures and background details so I rented Watch on the Rhine it also follows on nicely from watching Paul Lukas in Experiment Perilous, he's far nicer here and plays a convincing anti fascist, deservedly winning an Oscar. Bette, so my book tells me, did not want to make this movie as the best part was not hers but I enjoyed her more in this movie than I have in most, the exception being Now Voyager which I've loved since I was knee high. In Watch on the Rhine she's more muted which I prefer and she has to be, Lucille Watson is a real scene stealer and an absolute joy, her accent reminded me of Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances.

[feaito]

I'm glad that you enjoyed that film and Bette's performance Ali. I know Hyacinth Bucket!! My brother has become a fan of Keeping Up Appearances and other British sitcoms...I saw a couple of clips of uppity Hyacinth...very funny!!

[charliechaplinfan]

I think Hyacinth Bucket caught on quite well in America. It's ages since I watched Keeping Up Appearances, we've just sat here watching Dad's Army, that takes me back to my youth, particularly the theme music.

[knitwit45]

guess I'm in the minority here, but watching Hyacinth bedevil her long suffering husband is just one notch up from getting my gums cleaned.....

I've never been a fan of hateful women***(IN MY OPINION ONLY) who browbeat any and all. I never could warm up to Carol Burnett's "Mama's Family" either. and I loved the CB show, just not that part of it.

*** don't want another debate as to who's hateful and who isn't

[Libertine]

I started to watch all of Marlene Dietrich's films in chronological order, so today I watched Blonde Venus. So far it's the "worst" of the movies she made with von Sternberg. This one was also the first flop for them. Marlene is Marlene, she does look like too often. It makes me laugh though it shouldn't. I wonder if that was something von Sternberg made her do, or if I'll see that in her later films too?! At least I can't remember of having noticed it so often before as I do lately.

However, the film itself is not that bad. The cinematography is, of course, beautiful. Von Sternberg painted with shades and light, and Marlene got all his attention, leaving Herbert Marshall and Cary Grant in the shadows. Marshall is good (well, he always is), but the story is a bit... cliche.

Yesterday I watched Tron. The original from 1982. Let me tell you, I LOVE that movie. I always did, since I was a child. Every time I watch it I get a -feeling. Nostalgia? I don't know, I just love it. It's style, it's story. And actually the way it was done is incredible. It's far more backlit- than computer-animated.

[Fossy]

[quote="Libertine"]I started to watch all of Marlene Dietrich's films in chronological order, so today I watched Blonde Venus. So far it's the "worst" of the movies she made with von Sternberg.

With Marlene there seemed to be no half way,She was either very, very good or very, very bad.

[Lzcutter]

MoraldoRubini, CountessDelave (from TCM City) and I went down to Palo Alto's famed Stanford Theater last evening to see a couple of W.C. Fields films.

Meet me down in the bar! We'll drink breakfast together. W.C. Fields in The Big Broadcast of 1938

The Big Broadcast of 1938 definitely had the better pedigree with direction by Mitchell Leisen, a script that included the talents of Russel Crouse, costumes by Edith Head and a cast that included a very young Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, the afore-mentioned Fields, Leif Erickson, Martha Raye, Ben Blue as well as performers of the day, Kristen Flagsted of the Metropolitian Opera, Shep Fields and his Rippling Rhythm Orchestra (an early precursor to Lawrence Welk) and Tito Guizar.

The film basically is the story of a race across the Atlantic by two ships, the Gigantic and the Colossal and who will win it. It's not an easy movie to explain as it seems to be two movies grafted together. Hope plays the radio emcee broadcasting aboard the Gigantic with three ex-wives (one who still loves him) and a new girlfriend (Lamour) in tow. Erickson, however, only has eyes for Lamour so it's good that Bob's got lots to keep him occupied when Lamour is busy with Erickson.

As expected, Fields steals the film as the bungling brother who owns 50% of the ship's company. Released 38 years after the sinking of the Titanic, I still found the comedy bit about Fields navigating the giant ship through an iceberg field a bit unfunny.

Martha Raye plays Fields ugly duckling daughter who is rescued at sea (along with her companions). There is a long-running joke about her ability to break mirrors just by looking in them and the dance number she does with the crew does prove that Martha Raye was a good sport above all else. She is thrown around the ship deck in a funny sequence that probably was not all that comfortable for her to perform.

Kristen Flagsted sings Brunhilda's war chant from Wagner's Ring cycle. This was probably the highlight of the film for opera buff Moraldo and I had to work hard to stifle my laughter as all I could here was Elmer Fudd singing "kill the wabbit!" and other moments from What's Opera, Doc.

"No, the doctor isn't in just now. Oh, he won't be back for a long, long time. He went out on one of those eternity cases." Gracie Allen in International House

The other film on the double bill was International House with a who's who of Paramount performers from Burns and Allen, to Franklin Pangborn to Bela Lugosi and Peggy Hopkins Joyce and Stuart Irwin. A very strange dance number that seems like a take-off on Shanghai Lil with Sterling Holloway that includes dancer's outfits basically made out of cellophane. The 1933 production date likely helped.

Yet, another movie that is difficult to describe because like Big Broadcast, it seems like two movies grafted together. The International House in Wu-hu, China is under quarantine and hosting the debut of Doctor Wong's Radioscope and the shenanigans that ensue as Fields plays a wayward pilot in an Auto-gyro and the others scramble about to be the first to get the Radioscope. Luckily, Baby Rose Marie and Cab Calloway were on hand to provide music and rescue the film.

But, we had a great time and they had the mighty Wurlitzer fired up during the break between films. Not bad for $7 admission price and $4.50 total for a big tub of popcorn and a large coke. (Yes, we were on the MoraldoRubini movie diet).

Afterwards, we headed to the Creamery Diner for dessert and to peruse the MGM backlot book that MR had brought for me.

[Ann Harding]

Kristen Flagsted

The correct spelling for the great Norwegian soprano is Kirsten Flagstad.

[JackFavell]

Did anyone happen to catch Joseph Losey's King and Country last night? Kingrat - that probably means you.

Wow - what a great movie! It had me spellbound. Unfortunately, I took an antihistamine right before it started, and missed the second half because I fell asleep. Still I felt it was worth mentioning here because of the nuances that Tom Courtenay and Dirk Bogarde gave to their performances. There is so much meat on their characters that it kept me watching to see where they were going to end up. Each was a study in great film acting. Would Bogarde lose his patience and blow up, his sensitivity exposed to the other gung ho military types? Would he be able to prevent his client Courtenay being hung as a deserter? These two were simply brilliant, and I liked Courtenay as the simple man who walked away better here than in almost anything I've seen him in before, which is saying a lot.

Losey's brilliant psychological direction included mini flashbacks, brilliant editing, odd mucky images of death and incredible lighting schemes to show the corruption of men exposed to war for far too long. Losey's mise en scene reminded me of Sam Fuller, with lots of closeups of heads in the foreground and a cold eye. It also reminded me of The Hill. Though the two films are starkly different in vision, somehow the message was the same. I found it very interesting that the regular army officers and enlisted men were considered sane, whilst they were trapping and killing rats in a cage, or forcing the issue of desertion, whereas Courtenay's deserter was considered mad for walking away from the guns of war.

[Ann Harding]

Yesterday I saw the highly anticipated film: "Madonna of the Seven Moons" (1945) a film that absorbed me from start to finish. My wife and I literally were entranced by it. It has a je-ne-sais-quoi, an out-of-this world kind of charm. The magical, eerie story of lovely Maddalena and her secret, set in Italy in between wars is entertainingly told and swiftly paced. Besides, one realizes that the British weren't bound by a strict Production Code like the Americans, so the story takes "licenses" that couldn't have taken place in the USA. Maddalena is a very pure girl, who wants to become a nun, but after a fateful event, her father summons her from the convent where she's studying to be married to a rich husband....years pass, Maddalena is beloved & adored by her husband, but she's haunted by her past and when her grown-up daughter comes back to Italy after 5 years studying in England, dramatic events start to unfold.

I had never seen Phyllis Calvert onscreen, she's beautiful, classy and earthy at the same time (you'll understand that when you see the film). Her daughter Angela, impersonated by the equally lovely Patricia Roc (who was Calvert's same age!) is very different from her mother Maddalena, she's liberal, devil-may-care, uninhibited, free....who has she taken after? Enter the mysterious gypsy-thief Nino Barucci, aptly portrayed by Stewart Granger, who's madly in love with the equally mysterious Rossana of the Seven Moons and enter his brother Sandro (Peter Glenville), a young cad, who after having an affair with a friend of Angela, is obsessed with the latter. Lovely Jean Kent plays one of Nino's many conquests. The pacing and the events that take place in rapid succession will leave you breathless, but you will be rewarded by 110 minutes of pure entertainment and one of the most mysteriously romantic films of all time. My grandmother always talked about this film and I'm happy that could finally watch it.

I watched it yesterday. I was somehow less impressed than Fernando by this overblown melodrama. It takes a while to kick start. And I felt it was rather difficult to believe that we were in Italy. The sets felt like British middle-class living-rooms. On top, the actors were so well-behaved and well-spoken British people that it was hard to believe they were hot-blooded Italians. The storyline was so incredibly overblown that it was almost a joke. Following a rape in her youth, the heroine has a double personality: upper-class lady and lower-depth girl friend of a gangster. This was rather two-dime psychology. The second part had more momentum with a collection of murders and misdemeanors from the nasties. Peter Glenville was quite good as the villain while Stewart Granger sporting a 'Basque beret' and stripy suit did his best to look like an Italian hoodlum. He recalls in his memoirs how his voice was dubbed (when he sings for his girlfriend) by a tenor with a falsetto voice. Overall, it's fun to watch because it's so over-the-top, but it's impossible to take it seriously.

[charliechaplinfan]

guess I'm in the minority here, but watching Hyacinth bedevil her long suffering husband is just one notch up from getting my gums cleaned.....

I've never been a fan of hateful women***(IN MY OPINION ONLY) who browbeat any and all. I never could warm up to Carol Burnett's "Mama's Family" either. and I loved the CB show, just not that part of it.

*** don't want another debate as to who's hateful and who isn't

I agree with you, my parents loved the programme, my husband hates the programme, I can't say I'm keen. The actress Patricia Routledge is one of our national treasures and has done some fabulous theatre work but it is as Hyacinth she will be remembered.

I've had a weekend of feeling under the weather and viewing movies.

Chase A Crooked Shadow, a complete revelation for me, I watched it primarily because I hadn't seen too many of Richard Todd's movies, I remember swooning over him in my youth in Dambusters and I swooned at him all over again playing in this mysterious part. Anne Baxter is an underused actress in my opinion, she's wonderful here, giving nothing away and giving into her terror. Herbert Lom, in a straight role is a reassuring police chief.

Heavenly Bodies viewed to see some more of Hedy Lamarr, after reading her biography called the Most Beautiful Woman in Film I had to see if it's true, I think so, she's definetly in the top 5. She can play comedy with more flair than drama, she's completely convincing as a woman caught up in her horoscope. She has great chemistry with William Powell, I enojyed him more here than in some of his more famous roles. I do think Powell has good chemistry with whoever co stars with.

Anastasia worth it because I love Ingrid and I'd never watched her in this, I've only watched Yul Brynner as the King in The King and I. Wow, he's lovely. The stars kept me watching but the narrative was a little boring and very factually incorrect. I don't mind the facts being wrong if the script supports it. Litvak one of my favorite directors fails me a little here. I wanted a better role Ingrid, I wanted to feel that she deserved that Oscar, not that it might have been given her to say sorry. She was good but not Oscar winning material for me. Sorry Ingrid.

Lastly I wanted to have chance to see oe of my favorites Jean Arthur in a film I had never seen Shane. I'm not a Westerns girl, everytime I try a Western I realise but I did kind of like this one, mostly because of Jean Arthur herself, the fights were a bit overlong, the scenery was lovely. Alan Ladd took a little getting used to but by the end I'd decided he was good casting. Van Heflin an actor I haven't always liked was really good here. The chemistry between all three leads was an essential part to me, the little boy played by Brandon De Wilde had just the right touch. I know it's a 5 star Western and it must be because I enjoyed it.

[charliechaplinfan]

I felt the same about Madonna of the Seven Moons, I like Phyliss Calvert, she plays the doulbe role well but I didn't feel swept along with the romance.