What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Zombie_61]

...I am sorry to have to embarrass you in public like this, but you did fail to mention the one clear positive these films have: Dorothy Lamour...usually not overdressed.

You're absolutely right. Hope and Crosby often get the lion's share of the credit and comments for the "Road" pictures, but it was really a trio since Lamour co-starred in all seven and was wonderfully up to the task.

' Killing Season' (2013).......DeNiro & Travolta doing horrible things to each other in the woods. Travolta's spray on hair was very distracting.

I watched this in recent weeks simply because I couldn't find anything better to watch. Pretty standard "cat and mouse" stuff. Sadly, whoever "styles" Travolta's hair in real life isn't doing a better job of making it look natural. Hollywood--the business, that is, not the city--appears to be a difficult place to grow old gracefully.

 

[AmateisGal]

Currently watching Dana Andrews (my all-time favorite classic movie star, though Cary Grant comes in a very near second) in Fallen Angel.

 

[rocketeer]

King of New York.
My one word review: Crap.
Don't really know why I watched this as I had important matters to attend to....in the toilet(or Bathroom to our American friends) I do think there was a great idea behind this film and could have been made better, maybe I missed it. Just that all the stylised killing put me off the film from the start.

 

[Fading Fast]

1946's version of "The Razor's Edge"

It's a mess of a movie with uneven acting and a jumps-here-and-there script, but somehow it demands your attention and hits you emotionally in spots.

Gene Tierney, as the female lead, does a good job of making you despise her with her two expressions in this movie - haughty scorn and "sexual" allure - quickly growing old. I enjoy her as an actress, but her character is so selfish and bitter in this movie, it's hard to see - despite her powerful beauty - why any man would want her.

Herbert Marshall, playing Somerset Maugham, brings his usual somnambulant style and, at times, seems forced into the movie to drive the narrative along - it does help though, as this story bounces all over the place. Clifton Webb plays his usual arrogant role which grates toward the end. Tyrone Power - as the dreamer and anti-hero - is given, IMHO, a difficult role and almost carries it off. The best performance belongs to Ann Baxter as she tumbles through a series of extreme ups and downs while managing to make it all almost believable.

The story isn't shy. Power forsakes his upper-class roots and opportunities to go on a spiritual quest to find great meaning in life through taking on working-class jobs and an enlightening trip to India. Tierney, unwilling to support him in this efforts - she wants the "big house..." - breaks her engagement to him (yet still professes love for him) and instead marries "well" to a finely-cast John Payne who should have picked a random name out of the phone book to marry.

Power goes on his quest; Payne loses most of his money in the Crash; a still-married Tierney meets Power several years later and tries to re-ignite their love while destroying Baxter's life (she's now engaged to Power) almost for sport. There's more, but you get the point - love, money, greed, the meaning of life - all get thrown in the blender and almost no one comes out happy. Depressing as heck, sloppily done, but enough emotional firepower and star power to keep you engaged.

 

[Worf]

1946's version of "The Razor's Edge"

It's a mess of a movie with uneven acting and a jumps-here-and-there script, but somehow it demands your attention and hits you emotionally in spots.

Gene Tierney, as the female lead, does a good job of making you despise her with her two expressions in this movie - haughty scorn and "sexual" allure - quickly growing old. I enjoy her as an actress, but her character is so selfish and bitter in this movie, it's hard to see - despite her powerful beauty - why any man would want her.

Herbert Marshall, playing Somerset Maugham, brings his usual somnambulant style and, at times, seems forced into the movie to drive the narrative along - it does help though, as this story bounces all over the place. Clifton Webb plays his usual arrogant role which grates toward the end. Tyrone Power - as the dreamer and anti-hero - is given, IMHO, a difficult role and almost carries it off. The best performance belongs to Ann Baxter as she tumbles through a series of extreme ups and downs while managing to make it all almost believable.

The story isn't shy. Power forsakes his upper-class roots and opportunities to go on a spiritual quest to find great meaning in life through taking on working-class jobs and an enlightening trip to India. Tierney, unwilling to support him in this efforts - she wants the "big house..." - breaks her engagement to him (yet still professes love for him) and instead marries "well" to a finely-cast John Payne who should have picked a random name out of the phone book to marry.

Power goes on his quest; Payne loses most of his money in the Crash; a still-married Tierney meets Power several years later and tries to re-ignite their love while destroying Baxter's life (she's now engaged to Power) almost for sport. There's more, but you get the point - love, money, greed, the meaning of life - all get thrown in the blender and almost no one comes out happy. Depressing as heck, sloppily done, but enough emotional firepower and star power to keep you engaged.

I love this film... with its "Lost Horizons" overtones. You're right however, Ann Baxter delivers the goods in this one. I watch it whenever its on out of richness of it's story. I love between the wars tales and wonder what will become of them all when Hitler comes to town. I've yet to see the Bill Murray remake but just have to simply to satisfy my morbid curiosity.

Worf

 

[Worf]

King of New York.
My one word review: Crap.
Don't really know why I watched this as I had important matters to attend to....in the toilet(or Bathroom to our American friends) I do thing there was a great idea behind this film and could have been made better, maybe I missed it. Just that all the stylised killing put me off the film from the start.

SPEW!!!!!! Another cuppa gone!!!!! Hilarious!

Worf

 

[LizzieMaine]

I love this film... with its "Lost Horizons" overtones. You're right however, Ann Baxter delivers the goods in this one. I watch it whenever its on out of richness of it's story. I love between the wars tales and wonder what will become of them all when Hitler comes to town. I've yet to see the Bill Murray remake but just have to simply to satisfy my morbid curiosity.

Worf

I saw that Bill MUrray version when it came out in theatres -- these were the days, remember, when Murray was riding high as America's favorite meatball comedian, and it was pretty chancy and controversial for him to make such a picture. I thought it was OK, all things considered, but nearly busted out laughing on my way out of the theatre when I passed a couple of kids heading for the exit, and one said to the other "Man, that sucked. I didn't get any of those jokes at all."

 

[Benzadmiral]

I saw that Bill MUrray version when it came out in theatres -- these were the days, remember, when Murray was riding high as America's favorite meatball comedian, and it was pretty chancy and controversial for him to make such a picture. I thought it was OK, all things considered, but nearly busted out laughing on my way out of the theatre when I passed a couple of kids heading for the exit, and one said to the other "Man, that sucked. I didn't get any of those jokes at all."

I've never seen the Bill Murray version. Yet, when I first read the novel in 1986, the film was recent, and I wound up picturing Murray as the lead character. It's one of my favorite books. Yes, the 1946 version is more soap opera-ish. But Herbert Marshall does a fine job as Maugham's stand-in -- and as for Clifton Webb as Elliott, the incredible snob, well, Elliott was an over-the-top character. Webb handled it superbly. I wonder how Denholm Elliott did with the role in '84?

 

[Benzadmiral]

One of Cary Grant's films with Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth (1937). I found it amusing and not a little charming, but not an out-and-out classic. The best bits were the games Grant and Dunne play with the terrier, of whom they have custody during the divorce. And in the second half of the film, when Dunne (to torpedo his engagement to a Park Avenue dame) pretends to act the role of Grant's ill-bred sister the nightclub performer, there's a moment when Grant turns to look at her, turns back, and merely says (completely poker-faced), "Huh." That, I know, was probably the director, Leo McCarey, aiding Grant in refining his screen persona.

There's a line where Dunne refers to Grant as "Jerry the Nipper," implying he's fond of drink. Katharine Hepburn used the same phrase in Bringing Up Baby (also 1937), when she is rattling off gun moll lines to the sheriff at the jail. I wonder which film came first?

And the character Aunt Patsy gets to fire off some good one-liners. If this film had been made in the late '40s to mid-'50s, they'd have cast Eve Arden.

ETA: IMDb.com has this item about the "Jerry the Nipper" line:

[Lucy is attempting to embarrass Jerry as a habitual drinker in front of his new girlfriend and her upper-class family. Katherine Hepburn refers to Cary Grant with this epithet in 'Bringing Up Baby' whereupon Grant retorts 'Constable she's making all this up out of motion pictures she's seen']

So if that's true, I guess TAT came first?

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ Nice work on the "Jerry the Nipper" info. I (for the I-don't-know-how-many-times) recently saw "Bringing Up Baby" and you described Hepburn's jail-cell delivery perfectly.

It's moment like that when you realize how talented some of these stars are - try doing that yourself. And it's just one of many things they "toss off" in a movie like that.

 

[Zombie_61]

One of Cary Grant's films with Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth (1937)...There's a line where Dunne refers to Grant as "Jerry the Nipper," implying he's fond of drink. Katharine Hepburn used the same phrase in Bringing Up Baby (also 1937), when she is rattling off gun moll lines to the sheriff at the jail. I wonder which film came first?

ETA: IMDb.com has this item about the "Jerry the Nipper" line:

[Lucy is attempting to embarrass Jerry as a habitual drinker in front of his new girlfriend and her upper-class family. Katherine Hepburn refers to Cary Grant with this epithet in 'Bringing Up Baby' whereupon Grant retorts 'Constable she's making all this up out of motion pictures she's seen']

So if that's true, I guess TAT came first?

According to IMBb The Awful Truth was released in October of 1937 and Bringing up Baby was released in February of 1938, so The Awful Truth did come first.

 

[Benzadmiral]

According to IMBb The Awful Truth was released in October of 1937 and Bringing up Baby was released in February of 1938, so The Awful Truth did come first.

I thought BUB was 1937 as well. Okay; we see that they had self-references and in-jokes back then too!

 

[PeterGunnLives]

The Maltese Falcon.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Love Begins at Twenty" a 1936 one-hour "B" movie.

For a "B" movie, it's a reasonably entertaining hour, more for the "time-travel" feel than the tossed-off story of a henpecked husband and milquetoast* employee who gains confidence and the upper hand through a series of improbably events. That said, they could pack a lot of plot twists and action into these quick movies - car chases, gun fights, bank heists, near-elopements, firings, hirings, drunken contretemps and time in prison all speed by.

The real fun in this one is regular-B-movie star Patricia Ellis who rises a touch above the other B regulars as the daughter and supporter of her put-upon dad. She also wants to marry the boy she loves despite her dominating mother's objections that she should marry for money (as noted, a lot of story gets shoehorned into this one).

Ellis, who I also recently saw in "Snowed Under," IMHO, was right on the bubble of having A-actress talent - she's natural in front of a camera, can hold a scene and doesn't have the stiltedness than many B-actresses have - but just didn't have the extra something that makes a Stanwyck, Davis, et al.

Also, as mentioned, good time-travel sets, cars, clothes, etc. with a "scissor extender" stick phone having a prominent moment (yup, I geeked out and hit pause on that one).


* One for the "Terms Which Have Disappeared" thread

 

[Fading Fast]

Note to self: Must not watch "Bullitt" on TCM on Feb 4th as my New Year's resolution was to not watch that movie five or more times this year just because TCM is running it.

Must not think about the Mustang. Must not think about the Mustang in the most famous predator-prey car chase scene ever. Must not think about Jacqueline Bisset in the "morning after" scene wearing only a men's dress shirt. Must not think about super-cool Steve McQueen looking bad-ass in a tweed sport coat and turtleneck (try pulling that off as a normal guy).

I feel like Ray Milland in "The Lost Weekend," but instead of dancing bottles of booze, I can see a dark-green, '68 fastback Mustang ripping up and down the hills of San Fran. I am a weak man - I want to watch it, I can feel my hand going for the remote to record it. I know where this is going: an intervention. I will be very suspicious if I am invited to an undefined "get-together" with my close friends soon.

 

[VintageEveryday]

Believe it or not, the last film I watched was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" (1988). Love me some quality cartoon noir

 

[Worf]

"Orphans of the Storm" - D.W. Griffiths masterpiece about two sisters torn apart and tortured during the French Revolution. Say what you will about his politics but the man could direct a movie.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

"Orphans of the Storm" - D.W. Griffiths masterpiece about two sisters torn apart and tortured during the French Revolution. Say what you will about his politics but the man could direct a movie.

Worf

And he didn't even go to film school. Kidding aside, he really was inventing movie making. He had very little to study from before.

As you noted, vile politics though.

 

[basbol13]

There are horror films I'll watch and there are ones I wont. But when it comes to a Jean Rollin film, I'll watch it every time. Recently I watched Requiem for a Vampire (1971), I think one of his best. Off beat and bizarre, but well worth watching. Sound tracks are a little different too.

 

[swanson_eyes]

I just finished Meet Me In St. Louis. I'd been meaning to order it for years and I finally own it.