WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[feaito]

Wow Wendy, your reviews are thorough and amazing. You write beautifully. You should watch the remake of "I Wake Up Screaming" (1941), titled "Vicki" (1953) with Jean Peters, Richard Boone, Jeanne Crain and Elliott Reid; it's inferior than the original, but it's worth comparing.

Thanks again to Tess' recommendation, yesterday I saw "Desert Fury" (1947), yet another winner, a Noir wonderfully shot in Technicolor. What a knockout performance each of the actors give. Wendell Corey on his screen debut as I've never seen him; Mary Astor, the same lady who played Marmee in "The Little Women" (1949) and the mother in "Meet Me in St. Louis" (1944), but also the conniving Brigid O'Shaughnessy in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941) as the hard-boiled, tough dame who runs a Casino; Liz Scott, her strong-willed daughter; Burt Lancaster as a good, decent copper and last but not least, John Hodiak as one complex gangster. Wow!

Quite a sordid plot with mother and daughter kind of rivalry for Hodiak; Corey carrying a torch all the way for Hodiak; he hated Scott on sight 'cuz he wanted Hodiak only for him. How did this get past the censors (being an "A" movie with top actors)? The subtext was very clear for me. For a while I thought that Scott's character might have been Angela's daughter by Hodiak raised by Astor, due to the references that she looked exactly like her. Then I thought she could be Astor's daughter by Hodiak when they had committed adultery. I was thinking all the time "incest". What a film!

[RedRiver]

"Vicki" (1953); it's inferior than the original, but it's worth comparing.

It certainly is. Production values are greater in the later film. But that, or the lack of, is part of the charm of the original. Both are good thrillers. I agree "Screaming" is the better.

DESERT FURY sounds intriguing. If I've seen it, I don't remember. Of course, I don't remember what I had for breakfast!

[CineMaven]

DESERT FURY sounds intriguing. If I've seen it, I don't remember. Of course, I don't remember what I had for breakfast!

Well Red...forget breakfast! Have a film noir for dinner:

[youtube][/youtube]

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Glad you enjoyed "DESERT FURY" Feo. It's a good movie. Love Lizabeth Scott.

[RedRiver]

Lizabeth Scott is sultry. She scares me. It's like somebody took all the fun out of Veronica Lake!

[CineMaven]

oh you big baby. don't be scared. she's just a girl.

[feaito]

oh you big baby. don't be scared. she's just a girl.

Thanks again for leading me to watch ASAP Desert Fury. I might watch I Walk Alone soon.

[ChiO]

Caught the Chicago premiere of the restored PORTRAIT OF JASON (Shirley Clarke 1967) last night. Given that the restoration is by Milestone, here's hoping that this is a cross-country tour before DVD release a la KILLER OF SHEEP.

As a Village Voice reviewer wrote, this film "says more about race, class, and sexuality than just about any movie before or since." Jason Holiday nee Aaron Payne is a black gay hustler and aspiring night club performer. His performance in this documentary makes use of each of those aspects of his Being. And it makes us confront the reality of the documentary -- recording the truth about a real person who is performing in front of a camera in re-telling the performance of his life, which may all be a lie, but which in fact happened...or so he tells us. Each tableau begins out-of-focus, slowly comes into focus, and ends slowly out-of-focus until the screen is black and it starts all over again...sometimes seemingly exactly at the point the previous tableau ended. One's empathy with Jason shifts throughout. He has the viewer laughing about the crazy old rich white b**** he was houseboy for, then crying about the difficulties he confronted in growing up, and finally skeptical when the interviewer calls him out for lying. And how he's taken advantage of friends. And how he's been his primary enabler.

Definitely worth seeing.

Superfluous semi-relevant unrelated backstory: The film was screened by the Northwest Chicago Film Society, which for the past few years has had a weekly home for its revivals at The Portage, our neighborhood theater. This screening was at The Music Box, about 4 miles away in a yuppified entertainment (translation: a few boutiques, a live theater, lots of bars) area with a significantly higher population density. The shift was because the owner of The Portage padlocked it over the weekend -- a snit (magnified) with the City over the loss of his liquor license at another venue he owns. The good news is that other film venues stepped up so that the Society's screenings can continue while the status of The Portage is in limbo. The I'm-happy-but-it-could-perversely-hurt-in-the-end news is that the attendance for this screening was about 4 times the size as a typical screening at The Portage. An outpouring of support for the Society (which has gotten a lot of local media coverage because of The Portage's closure)? Or, heightened interest due to the film being a premiere? Or, shown in a more dense and popular area? Or, support from Black and LGBT audiences? For largely selfish reasons, I hate the thought of losing the Society in the 'hood.

[charliechaplinfan]

I wached Satan Met a Lady with Warren William and Bette Davis, it's another outing for The maltese Falcon although a very tongue in cheek one with character names changed, I liked William's take on the private detective which was Warren William's philanderer character all the way through. Bette didn't have a great deal to do but she was great as the female foil. I'm not too sure of the chemistry between the leads, there was no connection like there was between Bogie and Mary Astor but it was rather fun.

I also watched Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, I can't believe I haven't seen this before, with Dana Andrews and Joan Fontaine, an interestin combination I thought. The premise is to prove that a man could be found guilty of murder with all the circumstantial evidence pointing to his guilt but it was all planted to be revealed once theguilty verdict came in. I thought I guessed the twist, I thought the father had done it and was framing Andrews but that wasn't it. An entertaining film although Andrews and Fontaine were a little long in the tooth to be just becoming betrothed, not without previous histories of course.

[RedRiver]

I, also, can't believe I haven't seen this one. I've passed by it at the library so many times. Just never took the leap!

[JackFavell]

Maven, thank you so much for saying that! I only wish I could find a job working from home, writing about classic film. Cash on the barrelhead would be good. Knowing you and the noir folks here, I write my reviews with you guys in mind. I know you have all seen these movies before, so when I do see them for the first time, I can be sure that you will know what I'm talking about which makes it easier to get my thoughts out. It's like I'm having a conversation with you, which is what I enjoy most.

I did watch both Libeled Lady and Easy to Wed - I liked both of them very much. I've seen them both before, but Libeled Lady has grown on me over the years. I watched for Powell and Tracy, instead of the couples this time, because of your review from the festival, and you are right, its a master team - each one giving focus to the other at the appropriate moments. Delightful! And I love those Technicolor films like Easy to Wed - it was well cast, with Lucy I think, standing out from the cast. In some ways, she might even be better cast than Harlow in this role. I totally saw her as this character. ANd the costumes? to die for!

Chris, thank you kindly, I hope you can get to them, and maybe we can discuss? I sent my copy of I Wake Up Screaming back already, so it should be available. It would be great to talk about them... I'm 99 and 44/100's percent sure you will like I Wake Up Screaming. And The Big Combo may not be your cup of tea, but it's a pretty great movie, so you'll appreciate it. The Killing is also really wonderful if you haven't seen it yet. I'm probably the last one here at the SSO to be coming new to these films, but they really have knocked my socks off.


Fernando, thanks to you too! I had no idea that there was a remake! Vicki sounds interesting, I will have to give it a try! How hard is it to look at Jeanne Crain and Jean Peters for an hour and a half? And I love Richard Boone, so that alone is a draw. They had on all these remakes on TCM yesterday, but this one didn't make the cut... too bad.

Now I need to get on it and watch Desert Fury all the way through.... I saw the first half last year on youtube but got distracted and never finished it. I love all of those early Burt Lancaster films, especially Kiss the Blood Off My Hands - if you can find a copy, it's well worth seeing, I think you'd like it's moody romanticism.

ChiO - I saw Portrait of Jason last year, and it totally absorbed me. You want to look away but you can't! That old biddy white woman, I wanted to scream at him through the TV not to drink her liquor or use her stuff, even though I totally understood his reasons for doing so! Did you get that same feeling more intensified at a big screen showing? Were there things that you felt or saw on the big screen that you've never caught before?

Alison, Is Beyond A Reasonable Doubt the one where Ida Lupino has a smaller role as Dana's bar buddy? I can never keep the titles of his later films straight in my head. They all have four word titles... Where the Sidewalk Ends, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, While the City Sleeps.... I know I've seen the one you are talking about, but they all kind of meld together in my memory. I guess I wanted more from that one, it's plain crime drama with one big twist, but I'll take it because Dana is wonderful to watch, always.

[charliechaplinfan]

No, no Ida Lupino in this one although I share your confusion, I'm hoping to watch a few more of Dana's films as I read his book, so I might find out the answer.

[ChiO]

ChiO - I saw Portrait of Jason last year, and it totally absorbed me. You want to look away but you can't! That old biddy white woman, I wanted to scream at him through the TV not to drink her liquor or use her stuff, even though I totally understood his reasons for doing so! Did you get that same feeling more intensified at a big screen showing? Were there things that you felt or saw on the big screen that you've never caught before?

To start from the end, I'd never seen it before so it was all new to me.

I was just totally absorbed with Jason. Confession: For about the first half I kept being distracted momentarily by asking myself where I'd seen him before. Finally it hit me -- Tracy Morgan. Then I was fine.

Talk about your conundrums.... Truth vs. lies. Acting vs. confession. Sympathy vs. wanting to smack him. Pride vs. self-loathing. Cinema verite vs. intrusion of the filmmaker. And they were all there at the same time.

I'm relatively confident that those elements are intensified on the big screen. And it was quite emotional just hearing the audience laugh with him...and never at him.

Masterful filmmaking.

[movieman1957]

The Bride, The Princess and I went to see "The Great Gatsby."

I left.