Unappreciated masterpieces?

[scotrace]

John Huston's last, The Dead.

 

[HudsonHawk]

"The Warriors" works better than it should and has held up better than I expected.

Funny you mention The Warriors, as it was on TV the other night, and I watched it for the first time in a long time. It's odd to me how the film's reputation seems to be getting better over time, when it really interprets the original material pretty poorly. It's also not particularly well written, the acting is really bad and the script is disjointed. The cinematography, however, is brilliant. Perhaps that's enough.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Harry Langdon's 1927 masterpiece, "Three's A Crowd." Best described as a haunting comic tragedy -- one of the most intensely personal, moving films of the twenties. It's been drubbed for years by armchair critics on the internet who've never actually seen it, but those of us who actually have seen it will never forget it.

"The King of Jazz" (1930), the last of the major plotless-musical-revue films of the early talkie era, and an extraordinary visual and aural showcase for Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, devised by legendary Broadway stage designer John Murray Anderson, and photographed entirely in Technicolor. Another film that's often ridiculed by people who've never seen it because they think it makes them sound oh so musically hip to denigrate Whiteman -- "ha ha, White Man, get it?" -- but both the music and the visuals make for a brilliant encapsulation of the era in which the film was made.

Hallelujah, I'm A Bum (1932) -- Lewis Milestone's musical encapsulation of the Depression, with songs by Rodgers and Hart, dialogue written to a rhyming beat, and Al Jolson giving the performance of his life as the "Mayor of the Tramps," along with Harry Langdon as a Communist garbage collector. A film that could *only* have been made in 1932.

 

[Tomasso]

Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" (227 minute version only. Do not watch the butchered version.)

 

[HudsonHawk]

Haven't seen much Sci-Fi mentioned...

Bladerunner is one of my all-time favorite films, directed by one of my all-time favorite directors, adapted from my favorite novel by one of my all-time favorite sci-fi authors.

 

[vitanola]

Hallelujah, I'm A Bum (1932) -- Lewis Milestone's musical encapsulation of the Depression, with songs by Rodgers and Hart, dialogue written to a rhyming beat, and Al Jolson giving the performance of his life as the "Mayor of the Tramps," along with Harry Langdon as a Communist garbage collector. A film that could *only* have been made in 1932.

Wonderful picture! Hard to find, though. When a Cleveland television station played this picture as part of its late night movie rotation back in the 1970's the local John Birch Society chapter raised a ruckus which could doubtless have been heard by Mr. Powers over in El Dorado.

I would like to see "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" played on a double feature with that other Rogers and Hart Depression opus "The Phantom President". George Cohan is wonderful, Colbert is lovely as always, and Durante is not in the least annoying. Besides which, "Phantom President" is also written in verse.

 

[Doctor Strange]

The 1940s films by the British team of Powell and Pressburger are not well-known beyond serious film buffs nowadays, which is an awful shame. Their films are so incredibly creative and unique, and their peak postwar run contains this amazing trio:

1946 - A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway To Heaven)
1947 - Black Narcissus
1948 - The Red Shoes

These films would be astounding for Jack Cardiff's Technicolor cinematography alone, but they're masterpieces in every other way. And most of the other Powell and Pressburger films are simply great: Forty-Ninth Parallel, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going!, Tales of Hoffmann...

 

[Fading Fast]

Funny you mention The Warriors, as it was on TV the other night, and I watched it for the first time in a long time. It's odd to me how the film's reputation seems to be getting better over time, when it really interprets the original material pretty poorly. It's also not particularly well written, the acting is really bad and the script is disjointed. The cinematography, however, is brilliant. Perhaps that's enough.

I do not agree with what you wrote, but somehow it works (at least for me) in that it captures a New York and 1970s cultural vibe in a time capsule way.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I do not agree with what you wrote, but somehow it works (at least for me) in that it captures a New York and 1970s cultural vibe in a time capsule way.

I agree that visually, the movie is terrific. I just find the rest to be mush.

"CAN YOU DIG IT???"

 

[p51]

Emperor of the North[/url]

AMEN. Among train fans, this is the 'Citizen Kane' of RR movies!

 

[jamespowers]

Wonderful picture! Hard to find, though. When a Cleveland television station played this picture as part of its late night movie rotation back in the 1970's the local John Birch Society chapter raised a ruckus which could doubtless have been heard by Mr. Powers over in El Dorado.

Keep listening to your Paul Robeson anthem.

 

[vitanola]

Keep listening to your Paul Robeson anthem.

Oh, you mean the "Ballad for Americans", which was performed at the 1940 Republican convention at the behest of Wendell Willkie?

Great idea! I must dig the Victor album out and put it on the machine tonight!

[video=youtube_share;pg9iji_6A60]http://youtu.be/pg9iji_6A60[/video]

Americanism The only "ism" that's worth more than a plugged nickle in my book.

Yet still, it seems that nobody who is anybody believes in it.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

I do not agree with what you wrote, but somehow it works (at least for me) in that it captures a New York and 1970s cultural vibe in a time capsule way.

I don't agree for the most part, either. However, it could certainly be stronger in areas. I encourage anyone who is a fan to go to the IMDB page and read over the Trivia and Goofs. I don't normally check the Goofs, but this is the longest list of them I've seen for a movie.

And I agree that it captures the mythos of NYC of that time. It, and Escape from New York, had a lot of people in the rest of the country fascinated with a city that might have never been of great interest to them prior. On the surface, that might not seem like a good thing, but the qualities of these films didn't hang up on the violence and potential fear of the stories. They were magnetic and charismatic. They made you want to come visit the wonderland for yourself in a way not previously driven. They were almost an advertisement for Broadway and the arts more than for death-seeking, dangerous vacation travel. Maybe you have to be from smalltown USA to understand that. I don't know.

 

[jamespowers]

Oh, you mean the "Ballad for Americans", which was performed at the 1940 Republican convention at the behest of Wendell Willkie?

Great idea! I must dig the Victor album out and put it on the machine tonight!

[video=youtube_share;pg9iji_6A60]http://youtu.be/pg9iji_6A60[/video]

Americanism The only "ism" that's worth more than a plugged nickle in my book.

Yet still, it seems that nobody who is anybody believes in it.

No, not that one.

 

[frussell]

I would add The Grey Fox with Richard Farnsworth. A quiet and subtle western based on a true story, with a flawless performance by the lead actor.

For those of you that were talking about The Warriors, I remember seeing it as a double bill with Cheech & Chong's "Up in Smoke," a bizarre pairing that Houston theater owners thought might decrease the mostly mythical audience-based violence that "Warrriors" might incite. Cheech & Chong came second, to "mellow" out the hyped-up audience. Oddly, I saw this double feature so many times that I can't watch one without immediately wanting to see the other. Frank

 

[p51]

And I agree that it captures the mythos of NYC of that time. It, and Escape from New York, had a lot of people in the rest of the country fascinated with a city that might have never been of great interest to them prior.

That's quite ironic, as "Escape from New York" was primarilty filmed in St Louis and some second unit work in the LA area...

 

[Fading Fast]

And I agree that it captures the mythos of NYC of that time. It, and Escape from New York, had a lot of people in the rest of the country fascinated with a city that might have never been of great interest to them prior. On the surface, that might not seem like a good thing, but the qualities of these films didn't hang up on the violence and potential fear of the stories. They were magnetic and charismatic. They made you want to come visit the wonderland for yourself in a way not previously driven. They were almost an advertisement for Broadway and the arts more than for death-seeking, dangerous vacation travel. Maybe you have to be from smalltown USA to understand that. I don't know.[/QUOTE]

I grew up in NJ in the 60s and 70s and when we'd come into NYC either by car through the Hudson Tunnel or by train into Penn Station, once you hit NYC, you felt like you had entered another world: A world of decaying urban greatness, grit, crime, drugs, violence - there was no transition, just bam!, you are in NYC. The better parts of the city seemed to be just marginally keeping the chaos under some control and the bad parts were descending into anarchy. Going back home to NJ felt like someone had turn the volume down and shut off the bright lights - it felt like you had left a swirling universe for a calm one. "The Warriors" captured the feel - amidst all the cheesiness and goofs and poor acting.

 

[1mach1]

Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in America" (227 minute version only. Do not watch the butchered version.)

:eusa_clap Well said!

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

I grew up in NJ in the 60s and 70s and when we'd come into NYC either by car through the Hudson Tunnel or by train into Penn Station, once you hit NYC, you felt like you had entered another world: A world of decaying urban greatness, grit, crime, drugs, violence - there was no transition, just bam!, you are in NYC. The better parts of the city seemed to be just marginally keeping the chaos under some control and the bad parts were descending into anarchy. Going back home to NJ felt like someone had turn the volume down and shut off the bright lights - it felt like you had left a swirling universe for a calm one. "The Warriors" captured the feel - amidst all the cheesiness and goofs and poor acting.

So interesting and cool to hear a story. Thank you for sharing that. I've been in many conversations about these two movies, but I've never heard feedback from someone who had experienced it first hand. It's easier to run into people who insulated themselves from such things at the time than those who found some level of marvel and appreciation for them.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

That's quite ironic, as "Escape from New York" was primarilty filmed in St Louis and some second unit work in the LA area...

That's inconsequential to the capturing of fiction, isn't it? I know there are people who watch movies and experience art by tearing it apart. "That wouldn't ever happen." "That's New Zealand, not Montana!" Those who go out of their way to refuse the storyteller belief. Those who go out of their way to find reasons to suspend their belief and from not investing in the story. That's their idea of fun. I don't begrudge that, but I also don't admire it. I especially do not want to experience art with them as they commonly, and more importantly selfishly, try to interrupt my investment in believing the story. By now, I know films are made everywhere buy there and on sets in Hollywood. They do the outside on location somewhere, and they do all the inside work on set in Burbank. Doesn't affect my experience one iota.

*not to slap your wrist for saying so. It's a touchstone for me because I know someone like this and have to deal with it too often.