Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Discussion of programming on TCM.
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TikiSoo
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by TikiSoo »

Yay! I always liked this thread skimpole!
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laffite
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by laffite »

"Death of a Cyclist is a pioneering Spanish social realist movie about a couple responsible for a hit and run accident. Among its virtues, Carlos Casaravilla is good in a supporting role as a nasty art critic who blackmails them. Lucia Bose is stunningly beautiful, and one wishes she had a bigger role. But since she could only speak Italian it's not surprising she didn't do more. One might think the original ending, in which Bose eliminates her conscience ridden lover and gets away with it, would have been better than the one the censor imposed."

They didn't get the ending they wanted but sure made a nice recovery. The political punch gives way to what one may see as an expedient finale but it was sure entertaining.
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Thompson
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by Thompson »

Laffite, how do you quote a previous post when posting after it?
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jamesjazzguitar
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by jamesjazzguitar »

Thompson wrote: December 4th, 2022, 1:40 pm Laffite, how do you quote a previous post when posting after it?
Not sure what you're asking but there is a "quote" icon to the left of one's avatar.
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by Thompson »

jamesjazzguitar wrote: December 4th, 2022, 1:42 pm
Thompson wrote: December 4th, 2022, 1:40 pm Laffite, how do you quote a previous post when posting after it?
Not sure what you're asking but there is a "quote" icon to the left of one's avatar.
Okay, thanks James
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by Thompson »

Duh. I thought those were two unlocked padlocks instead of quotation marks.
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laffite
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by laffite »

Thompson wrote: December 4th, 2022, 2:43 pm Duh. I thought those were two unlocked padlocks instead of quotation marks.
:D
Sabine Azema in Sunday in the Country
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laffite
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by laffite »

"The 1943 The Phantom of the Opera has the good idea of having Claude Rains play the title character, and the not so good idea of having three lesser actors take up most of the movie. It's not that Susanna Foster is a bad singer. It's just that she's not much of anything. The closing line would have worked better if the two good guys who woo her along with Rains had been played by Abbott and Costello."

Amusing.
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by CinemaInternational »

skimpole wrote: December 18th, 2022, 2:20 am
A Dandy in Aspic and That Lady in Ermine are both last movies of directors, in this case Anthony Mann and Ernst Lubitsch, who died while making the film and it had to be completed by others (respectively by Dandy star Laurence Harvey and Otto Preminger). Neither film is successful. In the first film the primary culprit is a confusing script. Harvey plays a Soviet agent who has succeeded in becoming a British agent, only for his British superiors to order him to find the cunning Soviet agent who is in fact himself. One assumes Harvey was asked to play the fox in this scenario so that audiences would be less likely to sympathize with him, and therefore the filmmakers wouldn't be accused of being soft on communism. As such Harvey does a good job, as does Tom Courtenay as the unlikable British agent breathing down his neck. But once the movie goes to divided Berlin, where Mann died, the characters act in a hopelessly confusing manner.
I saw it too this past week, and it is too muddled, with far too many threads left hanging (it is never fully answered if Mia Farrow is an undercover agent sent to tail him, although it seems pretty likely). Harvey's good performance does help quite a bit though.
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Re: Least and Most Favorite Movie of the week

Post by TikiSoo »

Again, thanks for this thread. I like that you italicize the titles, but it's also easier to read if you start a new paragraph for each movie. I got a little confused (but blame my addled brain)
skimpole wrote: December 25th, 2022, 2:41 amRRR is getting surprising critical buzz, from both the National Board of Review and the New York Critics Film Circle, which is a bit surprising since it's an Indian film and three hours long.
I am a big fan of Indian film and started watching this with MrTiki, hoping to get him interested in them, at least try the duration. India has a history of bloody, violent testosterone laden movies almost to counter balance the sparkly feminine Bollywood styles movies. Appreciate your observations, glad you liked it.
skimpole wrote: December 25th, 2022, 2:41 amI finally watched National Velvet after waiting for more than a decade for it to appear on TCM Canada. As a movie, it captures perfectly the desire of prepubescent girls for horses.
While Elizabeth Taylor is adorable as spunky Velvet, to me the story is really about life decisions, opportunity & choices made. Ann Revere as Mrs Brown is the one who conveys this when she says "Everything has it's right time" which really seems to be the heart of the story. A horsey girl myself, no scene in classic Hollywood touches my heart as this:
Image
(you have no idea how dangerous this is-I'd never try it)
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