The Silver Screen Oasis

Fedya wrote: ↑October 31st, 2023, 12:25 pm

This version had the nudity and sex cut out to get a GP rating.

To be fair, nobody wanted to see Boris Karloff naked anyway.

I always wanted to see Bela Lugosi naked, although not in 1945's THE BODY SNATCHER which by the way I just might put (well, this week) at the top of the Best Lewton list.

Jim, is that Boris as the religious fanatic from Ford's THE LOST PATROL?

Bronxgirl48 wrote: ↑October 31st, 2023, 2:42 pm Jim, is that Boris as the religious fanatic from Ford's THE LOST PATROL?

Correct, that's it!

Allhallowsday wrote : SUSPIRIA (1977) Overrated. Dave Karger, the film did not "change everything". It's just graphic gore... to what point? The gross out?
More violent, and lesser and better films precede it.

Thanks.

Cocaine Bear (2023)

A drug smuggler dumped nearly ninety pounds of cocaine from an airplane before it crashed. A black bear found the drug and feasted on it.

That is true. It happened in 1985. The bear has been named: Pablo Escobear and is on display in Kentucky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine_Bear_(bear)

This movie used that as a premise, added more than a dozen human characters and sent the owners of the cocaine on a quest for it. The real bear seemingly did not encounter anyone and harmed no one. A point in favor of this movie is that all of the people the bear killed are ones whom society is better off without.

I fully expected this to be a schlock SyFy-channel monster-of-the-week movie. It is truly far more. I am quite sure that it was never submitted to the Cannes Film Festival and I would be quite surprised if it was nominated for an Academy Award but it truly is quite decent in its own way.

Of particular note is that the CGI bear is reasonably first-rate. This greatly surprised me.

The dialogue is very weak but some of the jokes work. Much of what humour it has comes from situations and reactions. I never laughed-out-loud at any point but it was very amusing in many parts.

There are a few notable exceptions but the majority of the performances bordered on excellent! Ray Liotta truly nailed his character.

6.7/11

Cocaine Bear was unexpectedly hysterical. I figured like most movies nowadays, all the laughs were in the trailer, but they managed to keep some surprises for paying viewers as well. Is it any classic that I'll revisit again and again? Hardly. But it was very entertaining for an evening.

Now, continuing my quest to indoctrinate my wife into classic film, we watched a few Halloween themed oldies this week. The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Mummy, and Arsenic and Old Lace. I knew my run of luck would end sometime. She didn't hate any of them, but they didn't captivate her like the Thin Man, It Happened One Night, Best Years of our Lives and the others did. She found the effects hokey in the first two (not a shocker really) and the acting poor. For Arsenic, she thought the pacing was too hectic and Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) too over the top. I can understand that a bit, but I always thought his outrageousness was incredibly funny, and so did my kids when I had them watch it (they were 10 and 12 at the time). In fact, she's the first person I've introduced this film to that didn't love it, full stop. At least she didn't actively dislike it, just wasn't a favorite.

Bronxgirl48 wrote: ↑October 31st, 2023, 2:41 pm ...I always wanted to see Bela Lugosi naked, although not in 1945's THE BODY SNATCHER which by the way I just might put (well, this week) at the top of the Best Lewton list.

MARK ROBSON! The other great director working for VAL LEWTON! That is a very good movie.
THE SEVENTH VICTIM remains entrancing, but a major downer.

CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) I grew up on TV broadcasts, and own it on DVD and VHS. It's not quite what fans think (it's packed with bad) but it remains special. Unique even.

Last night I finally pulled my copy of TCM Underground broadcast of Alligator 1980 and was not disappointed.



Reading the opening credits, I noticed the story was written by John Sayles and although this movie is a blatant rip-off of Jaws '75 in many aspects, it still delivers, although more of a drive-in movie vibe.

The story starts with a child buying a baby alligator from one of those "Gator Ranches" tourist attractions in the south. I used to love "Gaterland" as a 10 year old, having just moved to Florida in 1969/70, although my Mom hated it. In retrospect, it's amazing reptile zoos like that ever existed. Of course the kid's Dad hates the pet and flushes it down the toilet bringing our first Spielberg cue -


Predictably the Alligator grows enormous due to eating contaminated corpses and anyone who ventures down into the sewers is a meal. The detective on the case is sexy hunk Robert Forster, who is actually a fleshed out charactor thanks to a well written script, as well as the herpetologist consultant that becomes his gf played by gorgeous ginger Robin Riker.

Not only was the writing good, but the suspense, pace, editing and photography elevated this "copycat" to an acceptable and pretty fun movie. When I saw "the party" I knew some really funny scenes were coming up from clips others had posted here-pure hilarity when the lab guy retreats to his car then locks the door not allowing anyone else to escape- so the Alligator duly demolishes the car!

The 30 foot long "mechanical" alligator was pretty convincing on land, it had an enormous mouth as seen in the above trailer, but when swimming in water looked like a tire being dragged behind a boat, heh. Also the "stealth" cue from the 'Gater's POV was an almost exact, weak imitation of the Jaws theme, sad.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie, it seems like a perfect creature feature for kids just becoming interested in "old" movies. There wasn't anything offensive or too gory and it comes with the old morality piece about not fooling around with Mother Nature. And, for anyone who remembers the 70-80's, this movie has a lot of nostalgia.

Side Note: One charactor, a Reptile Expert played by super slimy Henry Silva was a real hoot! One scene of a TV interview was priceless not only for his hammy overacting, but for the very real, cute reaction of the interviewer. I only saw later in the credits, that interviewer was SUE LYON!



Sorry this movie was such a stinker for her, but she brought much life to a short, mundane scene!
OK, now it's Alligator 2 The Mutation!

(apologies for any misspellings I will most likely make)
(ALSO DON'T KNOW HOW TO POST IMAGES YET)
(also, can we BOLD and italicize words here?)

I watched KURONEKU (1968), aka THE BLACK CAT, an utterly ENTRANCING Japanese horror film which I can only describe as "sort of like what you would get if you DARED KUROSAWA to remake I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE," and by making that analogy., I truly do not mean to dismiss the actual director of the film: Kaneto Shindô, who also directed the HIGHLY memorable JAPANESE HORROR: ONIBABA. He has a magical knack for visuals- this film FLOWED, and (as with ONIBABA) there are extremely effective LONG PERIODS OF SILENCE (something which was nice for me because I didn't have to focus on subtitles and could just enjoy the long, lingering shots of FOGGY BAMBOO FORESTS- (if any of you have ever been in a forest of bamboo, you'll know that it's a uniquely spooky scenario)also, as with ONIBABA, the director has a risible CONNECTION WITH NATURE, dreamy studio interiors blended with actual exteriors seamlessly and his use of the sounds of LEAVES RUSTLING and BIRDS is brilliant.

while it is OSTENSIBLY about ghosts, this is, in fact, MOST DEFINITELY A VAMPIRE MOVIE, and a brilliant one at that- a story of 16th century feudal JAPAN which was AT WAR (side note, not meaning to be dismissive, but from watching this movie, RAN, THRONE OF BLOOD, and KAGEMUSHA, I am of the firm belief that if THERE HAD BEEN FURNITURE IN 16TH CENTURY FEUDAL JAPAN instead of mats on the floor, then MAYBE- just maybe not everyone would have been so irritable and quick to wage war.)

Two isolated women living in the country are assaulted (pretty intensely for a movie from 1968) and murdered by a band of SAMURAI and return as demons to seduce and KILL THEM at the RASHOMAN GATE.

#GirlPower #rightonsister

The actors are amazing across the board, I will single out THE MALE LEAD as being particularly good- he had A real TOSHIRO MIFUNE-style FORCE OF NATURE about him.

A complicated and compelling film, it was nice to be entranced by one of those charming things we used to collectively refer to as "cinema" I have not watched many of the past year.

Caught this on some cable network, don't exactly recall the name.

Lorna wrote: ↑November 2nd, 2023, 8:41 am
(also, can we BOLD and italicize words here?)

Yes

ALSO TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO REPLY.

I FEEL LIKE FRANK MORGAN AT THE END OF "THE WIZARD OF OZ"

scsu1975 wrote: ↑November 2nd, 2023, 8:49 am

Lorna wrote: ↑November 2nd, 2023, 8:41 am
(also, can we BOLD and italicize words here?)

Yes

Oh, how I have missed you, you magnificent Swedish HUNK OF MAN.

Lorna wrote: ↑November 2nd, 2023, 8:56 amALSO TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO REPLY.

On a PC, Reply is the double quote button ["] towards the upper right corner of the message, just left of the avatar. Don't know if it's different for mobile devices.

You'll soon get the hang of it, I'm sure. Welcome!

dianedebuda wrote: ↑November 2nd, 2023, 10:26 am

Lorna wrote: ↑November 2nd, 2023, 8:56 amALSO TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO REPLY.

On a PC, Reply is the double quote button ["] towards the upper right corner of the message, just left of the avatar. Don't know if it's different for mobile devices.

You'll soon get the hang of it, I'm sure. Welcome!

Thank you, Diane. Much appreciated.
I'm still recovering from the minor rage stroke I had trying to re-size my avatar pic to make the ******* thing work.