WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[RedRiver]

Dear old Matt Helm. These were the first grown-up books I read! I was about ten to twelve years old. The movies are pretty bad if you take them seriously, but who does? "It's the 60's, baby!" Mr. Dean Martin never failed to entertain. On record, on TV, on film. He had so much fun, the audience couldn't help but go along.

[RedRiver]

I like both films, but the earlier is the better. It's one of the best of the Hollywood melodramas, and features what might be the best work of the talented Ms. Colbert. She's tremendous in a multi-leveled role.

I'm violating parole in commenting about this movie. The state has determined there are certain favorites I've posted too much about, and further comment is prohibited. In future, I will refer to this as "That pancake movie"!

[movieman1957]

That's how The Bride would likely refer to it. There are no limits on talking about movies especially where Claudette is concerned. Talk away.

[Rita Hayworth]

When Claudette Colbert won the Oscar for It Happened One Night (1934), that was the same year she made Imitation of Life and Cleopatra. Quite a range of parts. All three movies were nominated for Best Picture, I believe.

Man, this is quite a year for her. I did not realize this until now. That's Amazing!

Three great movies ... and Claudette did all three of them! ... I haven't seen Imitation of Life yet.

[CineMaven]

Four of the most elegant women from television: Stephanie Powers, Linda Evans, Nichelle Nichols and Angie Dickinson. I only wish they had a better host - he's a wasted piece of....space. But if you like these gals...check this out:



They are stunning.

[MikeBSG]

I watched the 1932 "A Farewell to Arms" a couple of days ago.

I've never read the novel, so I don't know how much the movie departed from the source.

If the movie had kept the level of the first half hour, it would be a great movie. I loved how Cooper found the nurses spying on the courtsmartial of the pregnant nurse, loved Adolphe Menjou (the movie lost a lot of electricity whenever he was away too long), and I loved how Cooper started talking architecture with the hooker's foot, then after the air raid started, continued with Helen Hayes' foot. The seduction scene in the garden was masterfully done and made me think of Lubitsch.

Then the movie began losing steam. I think Helen Hayes was a little too "nice" as the heroine. Someone with a hair more vinegar would have held my interest more. I thought of Barbara Stanwyck, but in 1932, she wasn't going to get this part. The history also irked me. I'm no great expert on the WWI Italian front, but according to this film, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed a couple of weeks after Caporetto (a major German-Austro-Hungarian victory), which is just nonsense. (There was nearly a year between Caporetto and the Austrian collapse.)

The final scene, with Cooper raising Hayes' body in his arms as Wagner plays in the background, made me think of "Unfaithfully Yours."

Yet, "A Farewell to Arms" wasn't a bad film. Frank Borzage did a great job, and, as I understand it, nine minutes have been cut since 1934 and destroyed. I'm glad I saw it.

[RedRiver]

A classic movie fan rarely says this, but this 1932 drama is a little TOO old. It, like some of its contemporaries, has an awkward feel of "Ok, so how do we this?" Conventions that would later serve the art form well were still being developed. The result is an honorable, but ham-handed, effort. 1932 was pretty early in the sound era. By the time Mr. Deeds went to town, Hollywood was fast getting the hang of this thing. When six strangers boarded John Ford's stagecoach, there was no stopping it!

[Robert Regan]

For a 1938 reissue, about ten crucial minutes were cut from A Farewell to Arms. Virtually all the plethora of public domain tapes and DVDs are based on that version. The only reliable edition available is the recent Kino-Lorber which was taken from a print owned by David O. Selznick's estate. In this form, I believe it is Frank Borzage's first masterpiece of the sound era and a more mature work than the novel on which it was based. One of its many virtues is the least theatrical and most natural performance on film by Helen Hayes. As she wrote sixty years later, “Never working in film have I felt as comfortable with a director as with Frank Borzage, who had a wonderful gift for intimacy: he knew how to get inside an actor’s heart and mind, and that rapport gives a special glow to his films.” I know all too well that what we are dealing with on this site is personal opinion, but I still find it hard to believe that my friends here and I are talking about the same movie. For me, it is hardly old, but alive and well. one of the great films that gets even better every time I see it. Don't take my word for it, but don't take anyone else's either.

[feaito]

For a 1938 reissue, about ten crucial minutes were cut from A Farewell to Arms. Virtually all the plethora of public domain tapes and DVDs are based on that version. The only reliable edition available is the recent Kino-Lorber which was taken from a print owned by David O. Selznick's estate. In this form, I believe it is Frank Borzage's first masterpiece of the sound era and a more mature work than the novel on which it was based. One of its many virtues is the least theatrical and most natural performance on film by Helen Hayes. As she wrote sixty years later, “Never working in film have I felt as comfortable with a director as with Frank Borzage, who had a wonderful gift for intimacy: he knew how to get inside an actor’s heart and mind, and that rapport gives a special glow to his films.” I know all too well that what we are dealing with on this site is personal opinion, but I still find it hard to believe that my friends here and I are talking about the same movie. For me, it is hardly old, but alive and well. one of the great films that gets even better every time I see it. Don't take my word for it, but don't take anyone else's either.

Indeed one of my favorite films. The 1938 re-issue is a crime.

[mongoII]

I deserted TCM yesterday for AMC (shame on me) and watched "Fargo" and 'Thelma and Louise".
I did enjoy both films.

[feaito]

Very good analysis Kingrat. I've also thought about what you wrote. The film has many possible readings...By the way, Mary Phillips was Bogey's second wife, who in turn became Kenneth McKenna's wife afterwards; the notorious Helen Menken was Bogey's first wife.

[Robert Regan]

kingrat, I have known lesbians who were moved by the sight of Mr. Cooper and at least one who said that she would have been tempted. Anyone looking for a Masterpiece Theatre reproduction of Hemingway will be disappointed, if not enraged, by Borzage's film. Truth to tell, though I admired Hemingway when I was a teen, I now consider Borzage a more mature artist. Here's a game for those so inclined: Nobel Prizes were established in 1901, a bit early for an award for Cinema, but starting around 1915, who would have been likely and/or deserving filmmakers for such?