Some period film questions

[Captain America]

Hello gentlemen,

Hope you all had a great holiday and that the new year finds you well. Santa (in the guise of my lovely bride and my two sons) was very good to me this year. I received a few books I had been looking for and a couple newer films. But to the point. My in-laws got me the Adventures of Robin Hood two disc set, Errol Flynn at his best as well as Flynn's autobiography My Wicked, Wicked Ways . My questions concern some films I was very happy to receive from my boys but have never seen before and was wondering if I could get your opinions.

The films are:
The Painted Desert - Clark Gable 1932
A Farewell to Arms - Gary Cooper 1932
My Dear Secretary - Kirk Douglas 1948
The Time of Your Life - James Cagney 1948
Beat The Devil - Humphrey Bogart 1953
Indiscretion of an American Wife - Montgomery Clift 1953

Thanks for your time

 

[Andykev]

Our Holiday

brought new films into the "collection":

They Drive By Night DVD
Conflict DVD
In a Lonley Place DVD
Petrified Forrest VHS
Stand In DVD


We are converting all our VHS and recoded from AMC and PBS to DVD when they are relaeaed.

I have almost all the Bogart films, many Cagney, and several EG Robinson...as well as many Film Noir (with Mitchum, Heston, Robert Ryan, ...any B&W film from 40's!)

 

[MK]

I love Bogart movies up to the fifties.....though there are a couple of exceptions.

Beat the Devil was not very good.....in my opinion.

 

[Captain America]

Thanks MK, I'll keep that in mind. That's the one I was most concerned with because it is billed as a Truman Capote comedy and I wasn't really sure how well that description went with Bogie.

 

[havershaw]

In A Lonely Place is great! One of my favorites.

The holiday brought the following into our collection:

To Have And Have Not
High Sierra
Dark Passage
They Drive By Night
D.O.A.
Kansas City Confidential
The Night of the Hunter
The Thin Man
Niagra
Laura
The Postman Always Rings Twice
Touch of Evil
The Lady From Shanghai
Too Late For Tears
Scarlet Street
The Shanghai Gesture
the Strange Love of Martha Iver

as you can see, it was a very film noir xmas at my house. (I think my wife is really really ready to watch something in color...!

I haven't received my Postman DVD yet, as it comes out this Tuesday. Supposedly, it's one of the best noirs ever. Let's see, what else is already in our collection? Seems like as good a time as any to make a list:

Casablanca
Key Largo
In A Lonely Place
Beat the Devil
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Sabrina
The Big Sleep
The Maltese Falcon
The African Queen
The Harder They Fall
His Girl Friday
The Awful Truth
Arsenic and Old Lace
The Philadelphia Story
the Grass Is Always Greener
Operation Petticoat
Father Goose
To Catch A Thief
Monkey Business
Don't Bother to Knock
the Seven Year Itch
Bus Stop
North by Northwest
Rope
Rear Window
Strangers On A Train
The Trouble With Harry
Psycho
The Birds
Marnie
Rebecca
Notorious
Dial M For Murder
Citizen Kane
Detour
Sunset Boulevard
Stalag 17
The Apartment
The Fortune Cookie
One, Two, Three
Adam's Rib
All About Eve
Double Indemnity
Gilda
Kiss Me, Deadly
Auntie Mame
A Star Is Born
Chinatown
Miller's Crossing
The Man Who Wasn't There
LA Confidential
The Untouchables
Road to Perdition
A League of Their Own

jeez, that was a lot more involved than I thought it was going to be. still...I would love some recommendations from some of you fine folks as well, as I'm sure some of you are very knowledgable in this area. Whatever you recommend, it pretty much has to be on DVD because I'm a snob now. The only thing I'll still watch on VHS are the Marx Bros., because I can't afford to buy the out-of-print (hence, pricey) DVDs. anyway, you know what I've got. Tell me what essentials I'm missing.

(by the way, I did have Stand-In on DVD for a while...but I found Leslie Howard's character so annoying that Bogie couldn't save it. Even a few shots of the Ambassador Hotel (another one of my obsessions) couldn't keep it in my collection when dough was running out and Treasure of the Sierra Madre was released a few months back. It's all about priorities sometimes.

 

[Andykev]

Wow

You have the SAME interests as ME (duh what a suprise..sarcastic tone intended with a smile)!

YOU FORGOT "SHADOW OF A DOUBT"
By Hitch...it was his favorite film.

Set in 1940's Santa Rosa, Joseph Cotton is a killer of old rich women who comes visiting the family. Theresa Wright is superb in her portrial of "Charlie" the naive niece who discovers the truth.

Fine performances, great shots..true FILM NOIR. It's on DVD too!


I have an EXTENSIVE list of NOIR films...it literally would take hours to list them all.

 

[havershaw]

yep, that one's on my list to get. I haven't seen it yet, but maybe next month I'll be able to grab a few more DVDs.

 

[Imahomer]

Re: Our Holiday

We are converting all our VHS and recoded from AMC and PBS to DVD when they are relaeaed.

Are you having it done, or doing it yourself. I've thought about doing the same thing.

 

[Michael Mallory]

You've got a couple atypical films for their stars there -- "The Time of Your Life," which is based on a Saroyan play and features Cagney at his least active, and "Beat the Devil," a film that people have spent fifty years trying to figure out. It's allegedly a spoof of "Maltese Falcon," but aside from some of the casting (Robert Morley and Peter Lorre), it's pretty hard to see that. It's one of those films like "Yellowbeard" (anyone remember that?) which is absolutely packed with top talent, and should be terrific, but somehow all the talent cancels itself out and the film flatlines.

 

[Michael Mallory]

I posted too soon -- I'd also like to recommend old Charleton Heston film from 1954 (back when he could act) called "Secret of the Incas." It's not easy to find, since it's not on VHS or DVD. You have to check TV listings or, if in Southern California, go to Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee, which has a loaner copy. Its significance is that it is the prototype for "Raiders of the Lost Ark," right down to the costume (Heston's hat is more of a safari block and his jacket is leather, but in long shots you'd swear it was Indy!). It centers around an archaeological search for an ancient Incan jeweled sun disk at Machu Pichu, and there's even a scene of Heston bouncing a beam of light around a recently opened tomb to locate the disk's secret hiding place. It's not nearly as exciting as "Raiders" -- in fact, it's rather ponderous -- but clearly either Spielberg or Lucas or Kasdan or someone at Paramount (which made both "Incas" and "Raiders") saw it before they began shooting.

 

[Imahomer]

Good call Michael. The "Secret of the Incas" is a good movie, which I was able to tape a few years ago. Definately one that someone was watching before Raiders came out.

 

[MK]

You can read more about Secret of the Incas and it's connection to Raiders on my other site:

http://www.regular-guy.com/Incas.html

I even have some film clips if you can handle the file sizes.

Enjoy!

 

[Andykev]

I don't know

but I have seen BEAT THE DEVIL many times and it is painful to watch. Maybe I just don't get it, or rather I prefer Bogie in his NOIR form in Falcon, or Big Sleep.

Beat The Devil is NOT one of my favorites.

 

[MK]

Agreed. I don't care for most of his films from the fifties. That one included. That one is a "Santana" movie is it not?

 

[Michael Mallory]

I believe "Beat the Devil" is a Santana film. A better example of a very strange black comedy that actually works is Roger Corman's ten-cent epic "Creature From the Haunted Sea," which is a spoof of both "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and "To Have and Have Not!" A lot of people disdain it, but I find it funny.

 

[Renderking Fisk]

Beat The Devil is only good for listening to Bogart's voice in the back-ground.

 

[Sergei]

Wow, I am difinitely in the minority with Beat the Devil. I found the movie hilarious. It was a tongue and cheek spoof. I am not saying it was a masterpiece, but it I did enjoy the quirky, campy and zippy one liners that go back and forth.

The twist in the end was excellent. I didn't see it coming. I loved the Italien captain on that ship. I grew up with a bunch of Italiens and it made me think of my boyhood. I also like the price. I paid $6.99 at Borders.

-Sergei

 

[Fortune & Glory]

Nothing beats a good noir. I offer here what is in my experience the strangest -- 'Reign of Terror'. It's a noir set during the French Revolution and includes a cameo by an actor playing Napolean.

I know what you're thinking -- a film noir set during the French Revolution makes ZERO sense. But if you really think about it, it makes PERFECT sense.

I don't think this one is an easy find, but in my opinion well worth the effort, if only just for the line 'Don't call me Max!' You'd have to see it to understand.

In addition, Nicolas Ray's 'They Live By Night' is a hard one to find, but a gem, as are his memoirs 'I Was Interrupted...'. The former features one of my favorite lines 'I am a stranger here myself.' That same line at the conclusion of Alien IV was a direct, if less than obvious homage.

F&G