What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[AmateisGal]

I'm so glad you love it. It's such a not-well-known, but wonderful movie. Does you husband like it?

TCM runs "In Name Only," so it should pop up.

I can't remember if he's watched this one or not.

We were also watching one of the Thin Man movies, After the Thin Man, and he really enjoyed Nick Charles and his sarcasm. . It's kind of hit or miss with my husband. He'll often have preconceived notions about something and then doesn't bother to give things a try. But a few times I'll get lucky - Cary Grant is one and a British comedy called One Foot in the Grave is another.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Arsenic and Old Lace is on our annual Halloween watch list, and it remains my grandmothers favorite movie. I was reared on it, and a year or so ago I shared it with my wife, turning her into quite the Cary Grant fan. Since my wife has really developed a passion for films of the silver screen, and is grateful that I helped her develop appreciate these films that previously she thought were boring. And really, that was just how she felt as a young child. Now we take in a black and white film at least once per week.

We also watch it on Halloween with friends; brother- and sister in-law as well. We laugh till tears roll down our faces.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

"Paths of Glory" which is probably the third or fourth time I've seen it and it only gets better with each viewing. This time, I focused in on just a few characters.

Adolphe Menjou as the insanely immoral but "able to see the game completely for what it is" general was frighteningly good at his role. This is also my favorite Kirk Douglas role as he keeps his over-the-topness in control and delivers a powerful performance.

And the scene where the artillery battery commander refuses the order from the general to fire on his own troops was impressively acted by both the melting-down general and the preternaturally calm-under-intense-pressure commander. While the novel was written in '35, assuming this scene was in the book, it foreshadows one of the huge moral questions of WWII - when is it right for a soldier to refuse an order?

I'll be ready to watch this one again in a year or so.

I have raved about Paths of Glory some time back. I remember going to see it at the Balboa here in southern California and being emotionally floored. The roving camera in the Douglas-Menjou conversation is astounding; it moves with the characters, glides, swivels, dances. If I remember correctly, Kubrick filmed the advance on the Anthill with a hand-held camera, operating it himself, apparently in violation of union laws.

 

[Fading Fast]

I have raved about Paths of Glory some time back. I remember going to see it at the Balboa here in southern California and being emotionally floored. The roving camera in the Douglas-Menjou conversation is astounding; it moves with the characters, glides, swivels, dances. If I remember correctly, Kubrick filmed the advance on the Anthill with a hand-held camera, operating it himself, apparently in violation of union laws.

The camera work is amazing. In addition to the scene you reference - which is beautifully orchestrated to make you feel like you're in the room while also increasing the tension of the climatic conversation - there is a scene where Douglas is about to lead his troops out of the trench and into an almost-suicidal mission where the camera stays in front of him as he winds his way through the trench.

Along the way, you see the expressions and different emotions of the soldiers as they face the imminent suicidal charge. The way it is filmed, you feel as if you are both Douglas seeing those faces and the troops seeing their commander trying to instill a confidence in his men that he himself doesn't truly feel.

This film is a masterpiece.

 

[greatestescaper]

Recently we took in To Catch a Thief, and so now can watch some of the Pink Panther Films, which gives me a great idea for a Halloween costume... And as far as Cary Grant pictures, I've always enjoyed the goofiness that occurs in Monkey Business. Also my wife is a big fan of North By Northwest.

Also, my wife thinks that Basil Rathbone was quite the heartthrob. Some years ago one of our dearest friends mother passed unexpectedly due to complications from Lupus. We took the lengthy drive to Central Texas with him, not wanting him to drive 4 or 5 hours alone with that news. Well, he also was at our house when he got the news. My wife and I ended up being involved in the entire events of the funeral. When we were packing for our return our friend shared with us that he and his mother used to watch a lot of Bob Hope and a lot of Errol Flynn swashbucklers. Apparently just before her death, his mother bought him a dvd of Errol Flynn's The Adventures of Don Juan. When we returned we sat and watched it, and that was it, we ended up watching every one of Flynn's swashbuckling adventures, and from there found a great collection of Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes, and of course, a lot of Bob Hope. It's been a great road of culture and friendship.

Finishing the story of the funeral, long story short our friend had to preside over his own mother's funeral. It proved to be a moving and beautiful ceremony, after which we discovered he'd never been to a wedding. I had been considering that he would be my best man, and my wife wanted him to be the maid of honor. Instead we invited him to be the one to perform the wedding ceremony! And while I can not really understand what he must have suffered in losing his mother, we've found a truer friend than ever I'd hoped for.

In rereading this before posting I've realized it's quite heavy, but there it is. Thanks all for reading, and keeping up with advice on what movies to catch up on.

 

[LizzieMaine]

People today have no idea how good and how, for want of a better word, "modern" Bob Hope was in his 1940s movies -- he was one of the first screen characters to at all times be consciously aware of the fact that he was only a character in a movie. The Marx Brothers and a few silent-era comics had played with this idea, but Hope went full-walrus with it. He's constantly commenting on movie tropes, either by his actions, or his out-loud asides, and what makes it work is that he is usually the only character in the movie who's aware that he's, in fact, a character in a movie. Everybody else (with the exception of Bing Crosby in the pictures they made together) plays it perfectly straight -- and the real comedy comes from the fact that Hope is so at odds with the fictional world in which he finds himself. He was "meta" before anybody ever heard of meta.

Whether he himself came up with this idea or it was one of his writers or directors, I don't know -- but it was also a consistent part of his characterization on radio. When he lost that characterization and became just a guy with a golf club telling jokes on the back of a flatbed truck, he lost what it was that had made him one of the top comics of his generation.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Yeah, I think that was his last movie. It has SO many good scenes in it, especially the one you quoted! Such a fantastic movie and one I don't think many people know about.

As far as I know, Walk, Don't Run from '65 or '66, with Samantha Eggar, was his last movie. But Walter in FG is one role that deserves to be remembered.

He was a better all-around actor than some people think. In Penny Serenade he gives one of the finest performances of his career; in Gunga Din he seems rather like Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo, both serious and light-hearted; and he delivered light-comedy funny lines better than almost anybody.

The story goes that, not long before he died, he was at a fundraising gala of some kind, at the check-in desk, and he gave his name. The register girl peered up at this silver-haired fellow, and said, "You don't look like Cary Grant."

Cary (no doubt with a small sigh): "That's all right; no one does."

 

[AmateisGal]

As far as I know, Walk, Don't Run from '65 or '66, with Samantha Eggar, was his last movie. But Walter in FG is one role that deserves to be remembered.

He was a better all-around actor than some people think. In Penny Serenade he gives one of the finest performances of his career; in Gunga Din he seems rather like Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo, both serious and light-hearted; and he delivered light-comedy funny lines better than almost anybody.

The story goes that, not long before he died, he was at a fundraising gala of some kind, at the check-in desk, and he gave his name. The register girl peered up at this silver-haired fellow, and said, "You don't look like Cary Grant."

Cary (no doubt with a small sigh): "That's all right; no one does."

Ha! I love that story.

 

[AmateisGal]

People today have no idea how good and how, for want of a better word, "modern" Bob Hope was in his 1940s movies -- he was one of the first screen characters to at all times be consciously aware of the fact that he was only a character in a movie. The Marx Brothers and a few silent-era comics had played with this idea, but Hope went full-walrus with it. He's constantly commenting on movie tropes, either by his actions, or his out-loud asides, and what makes it work is that he is usually the only character in the movie who's aware that he's, in fact, a character in a movie. Everybody else (with the exception of Bing Crosby in the pictures they made together) plays it perfectly straight -- and the real comedy comes from the fact that Hope is so at odds with the fictional world in which he finds himself. He was "meta" before anybody ever heard of meta.

Whether he himself came up with this idea or it was one of his writers or directors, I don't know -- but it was also a consistent part of his characterization on radio. When he lost that characterization and became just a guy with a golf club telling jokes on the back of a flatbed truck, he lost what it was that had made him one of the top comics of his generation.

One of my very favorite Bob Hope films is They Got Me Covered, a hilarious WW2 flick about Axis spies in America. I love his little comments, especially in one scene where he opens a music box and it's playing Bing Crosby. I think he says, "I can't get away from that guy."

 

[Fading Fast]

As far as I know, Walk, Don't Run from '65 or '66, with Samantha Eggar, was his last movie. But Walter in FG is one role that deserves to be remembered.

He was a better all-around actor than some people think. In Penny Serenade he gives one of the finest performances of his career; in Gunga Din he seems rather like Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo, both serious and light-hearted; and he delivered light-comedy funny lines better than almost anybody....

Agreed, much better true actor than seems to be the popular perception.

...The story goes that, not long before he died, he was at a fundraising gala of some kind, at the check-in desk, and he gave his name. The register girl peered up at this silver-haired fellow, and said, "You don't look like Cary Grant."

Cary (no doubt with a small sigh): "That's all right; no one does."

The quote you noted seems like a later day riff on an early quote attributed to Cary Grant:

"Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant."
​

My girlfriend and I use that quote regularly to basically say, something (fill in the blank) in life is never as good as advertised.

 

[greatestescaper]

As far as I know, Walk, Don't Run from '65 or '66, with Samantha Eggar, was his last movie. But Walter in FG is one role that deserves to be remembered.

He was a better all-around actor than some people think. In Penny Serenade he gives one of the finest performances of his career; in Gunga Din he seems rather like Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo, both serious and light-hearted; and he delivered light-comedy funny lines better than almost anybody.

The story goes that, not long before he died, he was at a fundraising gala of some kind, at the check-in desk, and he gave his name. The register girl peered up at this silver-haired fellow, and said, "You don't look like Cary Grant."

Cary (no doubt with a small sigh): "That's all right; no one does."

Gunga Din was a childhood nickname of mine. My stepfather had seen the film when he was growing up and thought the tension of battle broken by cries for water from Gunga Din was comical. As such, one day when he asked me to fetch him some water, as I was already getting some for myself, resulted in my being called Gunga Din. Well, that and Slick, because I always had an answer for everything. When I stopped with the bull my nickname morphed to Slim, at least until I was required to fetch something, water, a beer, the remote control, then it was "GUNGA DIN!"

Aside, I know it's not strictly golden era, but I really enjoy Gunga Din as performed by Jim Croce.

And as far as Bob Hope, one of my favorite lines of his was delivered towards the end of the picture Son of Paleface. Bob is waiting to pick up Jane Russel after her stint in jaill, and Jane comes to him with a train of children following. Bob looks up and says, "let's see them top that on television."

 

[Trenchfriend]

Now on arte:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Octobre

 

[Touchofevil]

People today have no idea how good and how, for want of a better word, "modern" Bob Hope was in his 1940s movies -- he was one of the first screen characters to at all times be consciously aware of the fact that he was only a character in a movie. The Marx Brothers and a few silent-era comics had played with this idea, but Hope went full-walrus with it. He's constantly commenting on movie tropes, either by his actions, or his out-loud asides, and what makes it work is that he is usually the only character in the movie who's aware that he's, in fact, a character in a movie. Everybody else (with the exception of Bing Crosby in the pictures they made together) plays it perfectly straight -- and the real comedy comes from the fact that Hope is so at odds with the fictional world in which he finds himself. He was "meta" before anybody ever heard of meta.

Whether he himself came up with this idea or it was one of his writers or directors, I don't know -- but it was also a consistent part of his characterization on radio. When he lost that characterization and became just a guy with a golf club telling jokes on the back of a flatbed truck, he lost what it was that had made him one of the top comics of his generation.

He was by far my favorite comedian as a child. I could not get enough of The Lemon Drop Kid. Actually, I could not get enough of anything he did. His delivery, his look, his body language kept me entertained for hours.

 

[Stearmen]

The Wackiest Ship In The Army (1961) Still like this goofy movie!

 

[Zombie_61]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004). I'd only seen it once before several years ago, so when I stumbled across it on Netflix I thought, "Why not?" Not great, but not bad either.

 

[Worf]

"Scream and Scream Again" - Weird little "Hammer but NOT Hammer" film from American International made in the early 70's. Chris and Peter are joined by Vincent Price in a tale of man-made supermen and women. Always surprised by frontal nudity on TCM but they only show it after 2 AM or they usually do. Interesting twist on a needlessly messy story line though.... Not the worst I've seen.

Worf

 

[Worf]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004). I'd only seen it once before several years ago, so when I stumbled across it on Netflix I thought, "Why not?" Not great, but not bad either.

Loved that movie if for nothing else than the P-40 Warhawk from Hell!

Worf

 

[MisterCairo]

Victor Frankenstein, with James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe. Much better than I'd heard it was, which is why I ignore critics!

 

[Touchofevil]

Victor Frankenstein, with James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe. Much better than I'd heard it was, which is why I ignore critics!

Exactly how we felt. There way too many movies which the critics think poorly of that we really enjoy for me to follow their recommendations.

 

[Zombie_61]

Victor Frankenstein, with James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe. Much better than I'd heard it was, which is why I ignore critics!

Jeez, I forgot I watched Victor Frankenstein a few nights ago. I have to agree with you--after everything I'd heard and read about this movie I was expecting it to be really bad. It's not destined to become one of my favorite movies any time soon (or ever), but I enjoyed it.