I Just Watched...

Discussion of programming on TCM.
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: I Just Watched...

Post by C*i*g*a*rTheJoe »

Obsessionsaka Bezeten - Het gat in de muur (1969) Amsterdam Transitional Noir.

Directed by Pim de la Parra. Written by Pim de la Parra, Martin Scorsese, Wim Verstappen and based on a story by Pim de la Parra. Cinematography was by Frans Bromet and Hubertus Hagen. Music was by Bernard Herrmann.

The film Stars Alexandra Stewart as Marina, Dieter Geissler as Nils Janssen, Tom van Beek as Joseph Edward Petrucci, Donald Jones as Otto Fabian, Elisabeth Versluys as Ingrid, Marijke Boonstra as Stella Olsen.

Its like Rear Window meets Psycho. The film is about an addictive, compulsive, obsession that leads in a very convoluted way to oblivion. Dieter Geissler as Nils Janssen is adequate in the part. He just doesn't standout personality wise. He's like your typical dentist. Alexandra Stewart as Marina is more commanding on screen and very believable, however again the rest of the cast are just not fleshed out enough as characters and are reduced to just being plug in bad guys or these zombie like prostitutes in training. It also looks as if the original ending might have been bleaker. There's a sort of tacked on epilogue taking place at a cemetery at the end of the film now.

Its got enough Visual style to give you that Noir fix plus a Bernard Herrmann score to complement the atmosphere. Worth at least a look. 6-6.5/10. A new Blu-ray could up the rating to a 6.5 -7 /10.
Last edited by C*i*g*a*rTheJoe on March 31st, 2023, 5:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: I Just Watched...

Post by C*i*g*a*rTheJoe »

The Whale 2022 was interested in seeing this psychological drama directed by Darren Aronofsky based on a 2012 play of the same name. Stars Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, and Samantha Morton. Watched it through mostly to see Fraser. I know it's prosthetics but Fraser already looked like he was getting pretty big in No Sudden Move. Like rubbernecking a carwreck. 6/10
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Fabelmans (2022) The best part was the end with John Ford (David Lynch) that gets a 10/10 the rest I'd go with a 7/10.
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: I Just Watched...

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$ aka Dollars (1971) Hamburg Neo Noir

Directed and Written by Richard Brooks.

Brooks directed (Deadline - U.S.A.(1952), Blackboard Jungle (1955), In Cold Blood (1967), Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). Excellent Cinematography by Petrus R. Schl?mp and Music by Quincy Jones (In the Heat of the Night).

The film stars Warren Beatty (All Fall Down, Mickey One, Bonnie and Clyde, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Dick Tracy, Bugsy) as Joe Collins, Goldie Hawn (CrissCross) as hooker Dawn Divine, Gert Fr?be (Goldfinger) as Mr. Kessel. Robert Webber (in Noirs Highway 301, Harper, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and also 12 Angry Men) as Attorney Mr. North, Scott Brady (He Walked By Night, Undertow, Port Of New York, The Night Strangler) as Sarge, Arthur Brauss (Cross of Iron) as Candy Man aka "Mister Sunglasses" with Robert Stiles as Major, Christiane Maybach as Helga, and Hamburg circa 1970.

Richard Brooks slips in some Classic Noir references. The Candy Man character reminds us of Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire when he feeds his cat. The Candy Man's sunglasses are also maybe a homage to Sam Fuller's Underworld USA. The displayed gold bar in the bank connected with Gert Fr?be is obviously a nod to Goldfinger, lol. The chase through the railyards and the trains at night possibly homages Brit Noir It Always Rains On Sunday and French Poetic Realist Noir Le Bette Humaine. There's even a mention of 14 Hours at one point, lol, intentional or coincidence. There may be more to look for.

Warren Beaty's Sam is just a variation of his John McCabe character from McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Goldie Hawn is just doing her giggly, silly, groovy hippie chick character we all probably first noticed from Laugh In. It works, adequately as an updated version of the same type of silly, ditsy characters Marilyn Monroe played in Some Like It Hot and The Seven Year Itch or Barbara Nichols for that matter. Scott Brady is great, (and the most impressive) as a more deadly and serious version of Sergeant Bilko, playing a shady black marketeer. Robert Webber is good as the slightly kinked mob mouthpiece and Arthur Brauss is scary as the alienated and obsessed mob hit man / junkie.

This film functions like Hamburg's Naked City. The film is a wonderful archival treasure trove of Hamburg circa 1970s. And if you are a railfan there are some great train sequences throughout. It's two slight flaws are probably the over long chase sequence (though I didn't mind it), and what seems like a tacked on "happy" ending (were they thinking of a possible sequel?). 8/10
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: I Just Watched...

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The Interrupted Journey (1949) Brit Noir - Directed by Daniel Birt starring Valerie Hobson, Richard Todd, Christine Norden.

A married struggling writer runs away with a would be publishers wife only to get cold feet at the last minute. He pulls the stop cord on the train he's riding on with the publishers wife just as it comes out of a tunnel. The rail line coincidentally passes right by his house at the end of the tunnel so he takes off across the field and shows up at home telling his wife he took a Green Line bus home instead of the train (explaining the odd hour of arrival).

All domestic trauma is averted. Unfortunately while he is reconciling in the hall with his wife another express train telescopes into the train he stopped killing 30 people including the wife of the publisher, a private detective hired by the publisher to follow his wife and the publisher himself who was on the train.

A police inspector turns up asking why Richard Todd's character's name showed up several times in the dead wife's address book and the dead detective has a note book with Richard Todd's character's initials in it. Some nice twists.

It's sort of a Brit Woman In The Window. 7/10.
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Eva (1963) A Man Obsessed

Directed by Joseph Losey (M, The Prowler, The Big Night)
Written by Hugo Butler and Evan Jones from an adaptation of a James Hadley Chase novel. Cinematography was by Gianni Di Venanzo and Henri Deca?. Music was by Michel Legrand.

The film stars Jeanne Moreau as Eva Olivier, Stanley Baker as Tyvian Jones, Virna Lisi as Francesca Ferrari, Giorgio Albertazzi as Sergio Branco Malloni.

Losey along with Gianni Di Venanzo and Henri Deca? excellently depict a dreary, gloomy off season Venice in various shades of grey in a caf? au lait Noir, that perfectly matches the "50 shades of gray" psychology of the two main characters Tyvian and Eve. Neither are likable, and both Stanley Baker and Jeanne Moreau are compelling in achieving this air of despair. Its a bleak film with beautiful bleak images that complement it's bleak disconsolate ending. 7/10
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Le monte-charge aka Paris Pickup (1962) Parisian Christmas Noir

"A criminally unknown Noir in the U.S., Excellent!" (Noirsville)

Directed by Marcel Bluwal.

Bluwal toiled at helming mostly TV films and mini series throughout his career. This Noir is a one off. He is also known more recently for À droite toute a TV Mini Series (2008).
The film was written by Marcel Bluwal and Frédéric Dard, based on Frédéric Dard's novel. Also known in English as Bird In A Cage.

The excellent Cinematography was by André Bac (a noted Cinematographer for one of the original Poetic Realist Noir Le Jour Se Leve (1939), also lensed Les portes de la nuit aka Gates of the Night (1946).

Music was by Georges Delerue (Black Robe (1991), [/b]Le dernier métro[/b] aka The Last Metro (1980), The Day of the Jackal (1973), L'homme de Rio aka That Man from Rio (1964), Chair de poule aka Highway Pick-Up (1963), Le mépris aka Contempt (1963)). Kudos also to whoever (uncredited) did the excellent sound design. The production companies responsible were Galatea Film, Marianne Productions, and Société Nouvelle des Établissements Gaumont (SNEG).

The film stars Robert Hossein (known for Noirs Du rififi chez les hommes (1955), Toi... le venin (1958), and Chair de poule (1963)) as Robert Herbin, Italian actress Lea Massari ( L'avventura (1960)) as Marthe Dravet, Robert Dalban (know for Noirs Quai des Orfèvres (1947), Les diaboliques (1955), Berlin Express (1948), Un témoin dans la ville (1959), and Chair de poule (1963) as L'inspecteur, Maurice Biraud (Mélodie en sous-sol (1963) as Adolphe Ferry, and Pascale Brouillard as little Nicole.

This film is one of the true Christmas Noir with the story taking place entirely on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Chair de Poule aka Highway Pick-Up 1963 French "Spaghetti" Western Noir

Directed by Julien Duvivier (Pépé le Moko, Panique).

Written by Julien Duvivier and René Barjavel (screenplay), adapting a James Hadley Chase novel "Come Easy--Go Easy." This was, by the way, also the first Chase novel I have read. I sort of shied away from the idea of English (UK) writers writing, crime, thriller, suspense novels set in the USA. Especially if they never lived here. So I was tuned into reading the tale with a skeptical, prove you can do it attitude.

The way he does the novel is to create a sort of "noir universe" a Noirsville that uses the basic set up of a James M. Cain story but with added twists. Start it out with a botched burglary on a rainy night. Then a Chain gang, then an escape to a Death Valley / Lone Pine / Mojave desert like location. A "last Chance" truck stop.

Think of a Noirsville that's a little dash of Bad Day At Black Rock, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Detour. The "good" guy is an escaped falsely convicted murderer who took the rap for his best friend. He becomes an employee and fast friends with the truck stops owner. The Femme Fatale is the owner's wife, supposedly and ex hotel waitress of some sort, wink, wink. Who got off a bus and stayed because it was convenient and there was a wad of cash to keep her there until she figures out a way to get it. It works.

The film just changes the local to France but uses the same aesthetics and story. The truck stop, a last chance gas, called the "Relay de Col" is an Avia station with lunch counter "Chez Thomas," on the arid Col de Vence, a mountain pass through the 10,000 foot high peaks of the Maritime Alps between the Mediterranean coast and the interior. The next gas is 96 kilometers (60 miles) The film also blends in a some nods to the Noir Western Rawhide (about a stage relay station) and enforces this with what sounds like a prescient Spaghetti Western like score.

This is a great Film Noir, the general story is a wonderful riff on other familiar noir storylines and yet they are tossed enough to keep you guessing. Robert Hossein and Georges Wilson are believable as friends and are both very compelling. 9/10
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dianedebuda
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Re: I Just Watched...

Post by dianedebuda »

LawrenceA wrote: March 30th, 2023, 1:58 pmSo I've decided to go back and try to watch at least one movie, short or feature or serial, from each year movies have been around.
Where are you finding the really early films? You've mentioned a couple that I'd like to see.
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LawrenceA
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Re: I Just Watched...

Post by LawrenceA »

dianedebuda wrote: March 31st, 2023, 10:19 am
LawrenceA wrote: March 30th, 2023, 1:58 pmSo I've decided to go back and try to watch at least one movie, short or feature or serial, from each year movies have been around.
Where are you finding the really early films? You've mentioned a couple that I'd like to see.
Nearly all of them are on YouTube. The only issue is that many of them don't have a score of any kind, since those are still under copyright. The Raven is on Prime video.
Watching until the end.
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LawrenceA
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Re: I Just Watched...

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I somehow forgot to mention a couple of others I watched a few days ago, and for the sake of thoroughness...

And God Said to Cain... (1970) - Spaghetti western from director Antonio Margheriti (Anthony Dawson). Klaus Kinski stars as an unjustly imprisoned man who gets released and sets out for vengeance against those who framed him. I'm not familiar really with any other other cast members (Peter Carsten, Marcella Michelangeli, Guido Lollobrigida) except for Luciano Pigozzi, a frequent presence in European genre pictures of the 60s and 70s. It was odd seeing Kinski in a protagonist role.

Alien Express (2005) - Truly abysmal Syfy channel movie with Lou Diamond Phillips as a Utah sheriff's deputy trying to save the passengers on a private train from alien monsters. With Amy Locane, Steven Brand, Todd Bridges, and Barry Corbin. Even by the low standards of mid-00s Syfy TV movies this is atrocious, with horrible effects, awful dialogue and amateurish performances by most of the cast, with the exceptions of Phillips, Bridges and Corbin. The copy I saw had the title Dead Rail.
Watching until the end.
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: I Just Watched...

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kingrat wrote: March 31st, 2023, 10:45 am
C*i*g*a*rTheJoe wrote: March 31st, 2023, 5:04 am The Brasher Doubloon (1947) Flawed Classic Noir "The other, other, other Classic Noir Marlowe"

Directed by John Brahm who directed two period piece Noir The Locket, and The Lodger before this film. Brahm began directing some TV after 1951 and eventually transitioned over. He directed a dozen episodes of The Twilight Zone, notably the classic episode "Time Enough at Last" with Burgess Meredith and quite a few of the series Noirish episodes. The Brasher Doubloon was based on Raymond Chandler's High Window, the screen play was by Dorothy Bennett from a adaptation by Leonard Praskins with Ring Lardner Jr. (Laura, The Big Night, and M*A*S*H) probably contributing some satirical material to the script.

The Cinematography was by Lloyd Ahern Sr. (Cry of the City, and later TV notably The Fugitive pilot movie and some episodes. Music was by David Buttolph.

The film stars George Montgomery as Philip Marlowe, Nancy Guild as Merle Davis, Conrad Janis as Leslie Murdock, Roy Roberts as Police Lt. Breeze, Fritz Kortner as Rudolph Vannier, Florence Bates as Mrs. Elizabeth Murdock, Marvin Miller as Vince Blair, Reed Hadley as Dr. Moss (uncredited), Paul Maxey as the coroner, and Housely Stevenson (Dark Passage) and Jack Overman (vet of 12 Classic Noir) as the apartment manager.

I'd seen The Brasher Doubloon a long time ago, it was a crappy blurry copy and it didn't impress. I rewatched a very good copy of it the other night. Now after having viewed and having digested a lot more Noirs in between, I've upped my opinion of it.

What did the trick this go round is all the other bit players that I now recognized from all the other Films Noir. Character actors like Paul Maxey (The Narrow Margin, Highway 301, Deadline USA), Fritz Kortner (Anzelmo aka Dr. Oracle from Somewhere In the Night), Roy Roberts (from Nightmare Alley, Force of Evil, The Killer That Stalked New York), Reed Hadley (from The Dark Corner plus he V.O. narrated a lot of other Film Noir), Marvin Miller from his turn as the blind piano player at a Manhattan night club in Deadline At Dawn . These character actors now bring a lot of Cinematic Memory from the Film Noir "universe" to the film. 7/10
Joe, where were you able to see this? How was Nancy Guild ("rhymes with wild"), who is also in Somewhere in the Night, which I love, and thanks for the shout-out to Dr. Oracle. She seems not without talent, but was thrown into the deep end quickly in leading roles. John Brahm is really a fine director.
YouT
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LawrenceA
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Today:

The Wandering Jew (1904) - Another George Méliès short, with an elderly man tormented for dismissing the suffering of Jesus. Leaving the subject matter aside, this is another of Méliès exercises in trick photography, with a pot-bellied devil and a divine angel appearing.

A Victim of the Mormons (1911) - Danish film from director August Blom. A traveling Mormon from America seduces the daughter of a well-to-do Danish family and takes her back to Utah to join his harem of wives. The family fights to get her back. Bizarre anti-Mormon stuff was a big hit at the time. The filmmaking is a bit more polished and compelling compared to many others I've seen from the period.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Saturnino Farandola (1913) - Italian film based on a parody of Jules Verne. Told in four chapters, the movie tracks the life of the title character, from his infancy on an island populated only with monkeys, to his later skirmishes with sea bandits, Chinese crooks, and Native Americans. Very weird, energetic stuff from director and star Marcel Perez.

Filibus (1915) - Another Italian production, this time starring Valeria Creti as a fabulous master thief known as "Filibus". She's also a master of disguise, even acting as a man to seduce the sister of the detective after her, and operating out of a high-tech airship. I really enjoyed this one.

The End of the World (1916) - Another Danish film from director August Blom. A comet is heading toward Earth, threatening impending doom for all. Some struggle to make survival plans, while others seek to profit from the panic. Well made for the time, with a good, catastrophic finale. Also known as The Flaming Sword.

The Intrigue (1916) - From Palas Pictures and Paramount, this is an early science fiction thriller about an American scientist (Cecil Van Auker) inventing an x-ray death ray. When the US government doesn't show any interest, other worldly powers do, and they send agents to steal the plans and kill the scientist. One country's agent (Lenore Ulric) seeks instead to protect him. Also featuring Florence Vidor, and directed by Frank Lloyd. This was enjoyable, with some good pacing.

A Mormon Maid (1917) - More anti-Mormon stuff, this time from producer Jesse Lasky and director Robert Z. Leonard. A caravan of Mormons on their way to Utah passes by a farmhouse, and a Mormon Elder (Noah Beery Sr.) decides he wants the young farm girl (Mae Murray) for his harem. Also featuring future director Frank Borzage, and Hobart Bosworth. The Mormons are shown employing an army of "Avenging Angels" that wear KKK outfits with eyes emblazoned on their robes.

Mammoth (2006) - Another Syfy channel dud, with Vincent Ventresca as an absent-minded scientist trying to stop an alien-reanimated wooly mammoth from destroying a Louisiana town. With Summer Glau (from Firefly and the Terminator TV show) and Tom Skerritt. This one tries to be overtly funny but fails miserably.
Watching until the end.
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LawrenceA
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Re: I Just Watched...

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Today I mainly watched more early silent short films. I won't go into detail on them, but here's a list, starting with the ones directed by George Méliès.

The Vanishing Lady (1896)
Naval Combat in Greece (1897)
The Magician (1898)
The Devil in a Convent (1898) - I really liked this one.
The Magic Book (1900)
The Magician's Cavern (1901)
Robinson Crusoe (1902) - At nearly ten minutes, this was an epic. I also liked it a lot.
The Mysterious Box (1903)
The Infernal Cake-Walk (1903) - Another good one.
Faust in the Underworld (1903) - One of my favorites by him.
Ulysses and the Giant Polyphemus (1905)
The Mysterious Retort (1906)
Satan in Prison (1907)
The Skipping Cheese (1907) - Great title.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1907) - Another 10-minute epic.
The Dream of an Opium Fiend (1908)
In the Bogie Man's Cave (1908) - Good one.
The Spider and the Butterfly (1909)
The Diabolical Church Window (1910)
The Hallucinations of Baron Munchausen (1911) - One of his last, and one of his longest shorts.
Watching until the end.
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