What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Doctor Strange]

The brand new Coen Bros. film on Netflix, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. It's an anthology of six short stories set in the old west (each introduced as being in a published/illustrated book), that doesn't seem to have any narrative through-line. It's more self-indulgent than even Hail Caesar!, which while it was also largely made up of the same kind of Hollywood genre pastiches that the Coens can't resist doing (and do so well), had a fairly interesting central character and an overarching plot.

Of course, it's beautifully shot and very well acted, scored, etc. Many of the stories feature the classic Coen trope of a central character being tortured/humbled/tested/failing. But it doesn't all hang together as a film, and I don't know what you're supposed to take away from it... apart from a chance at revisiting (and subverting) classic western plots and characters. Anyway, it's a two-star Coen project at best, not another of their masterworks. If you dig the Coens and/or westerns, it's definitely worth a look, but temper your expectations.

 

[Fading Fast]

Bullet for Joey (1955) on the MGM HD channel. Sometimes I watch a movie just to see the world as it appeared during the time period it was filmed. The shots of the big city, the theatre, the streets, the shops can all be as entertaining (if not more) as the story being told.

A variation on this theme is watching a movie as "background" with the sound off as I'm doing while I'm working (kinda) now with the TCM movie, 1932's "20,000 Years in Sing Sing." The movie's visuals, its architecture, its gorgeous angle shots, its use of shadows and the ridiculous youngness and pulchritude of its stars - Davis and Tracy - makes this movie a delight to watch with the sound off. I can feel the '30s, feel its visual and feel the incredible talent of its director to make this movie a feast for the eyes.

 

[Touchofevil]

A variation on this theme is watching a movie as "background" with the sound off as I'm doing while I'm working (kinda) now with the TCM movie, 1932's "20,000 Years in Sing Sing." The movie's visuals, its architecture, its gorgeous angle shots, its use of shadows and the ridiculous youngness and pulchritude of its stars - Davis and Tracy - makes this movie a delight to watch with the sound off. I can feel the '30s, feel its visual and feel the incredible talent of its director to make this movie a feast for the eyes.
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Which I do quite often. Atmosphere is very important.

 

[Fading Fast]

Which I do quite often. Atmosphere is very important.

What got me going on this is a local waterhole that I've been known to stop in on occasion that will, when there's no pressing sporting event on, play TCM with the volume on low or off. That showed me the wonderful atmosphere it creates. TCM is now on frequently on mute at the Fading Fasts.

 

[Touchofevil]

What got me going on this is a local waterhole that I've been known to stop in on occasion that will, when there's no pressing sporting event on, play TCM with the volume on low or off. That showed me the wonderful atmosphere it creates. TCM is now on frequently on mute at the Fading Fasts.

Same here at the ToEs.

Not enough for a foot.

 

[Zombie_61]

The brand new Coen Bros. film on Netflix, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. It's an anthology of six short stories set in the old west (each introduced as being in a published/illustrated book), that doesn't seem to have any narrative through-line. It's more self-indulgent than even Hail Caesar!, which while it was also largely made up of the same kind of Hollywood genre pastiches that the Coens can't resist doing (and do so well), had a fairly interesting central character and an overarching plot.

Of course, it's beautifully shot and very well acted, scored, etc. Many of the stories feature the classic Coen trope of a central character being tortured/humbled/tested/failing. But it doesn't all hang together as a film, and I don't know what you're supposed to take away from it... apart from a chance at revisiting (and subverting) classic western plots and characters. Anyway, it's a two-star Coen project at best, not another of their masterworks. If you dig the Coens and/or westerns, it's definitely worth a look, but temper your expectations.

I haven't seen it yet, but I've read it was supposed to be a television series until the Coens got the first six episodes written and decided they'd rather turn it into a movie. Maybe that's why the separate vignettes are connected but not completely cohesive?

 

[1967Cougar390]

Last night I watched here comes Mr. Jordan. Robert Montgomery is a boxer that was killed in a plane crash on the way to his championship fight. He wasn’t supposed to die but he was taken to heaven and his body was cremated. Mr. Jordan sends him back to earth so he can finish his life and fight in other bodies. It’s a great story with great visuals.

Steven

 

[MisterCairo]

The family took in Fantastic Beasts Crimes of Grindelwald yesterday at a matinee. This one is a set up of the next film(s). More complicated backstory and character introductions, no central plot per se. We enjoyed it, and our eldest is mad for anything JK Rowling. In perspective, she brought her stuffed Niffler with her... I had to have her explain most of it to me on the ride home...

 

[Touchofevil]

At the moment, The Woman in the Window on TCM’s Noir Alley. What a nice way to begin a Sunday morning.

 

[Touchofevil]

The family took in Fantastic Beasts Crimes of Grindelwald yesterday at a matinee. This one is a set up of the next film(s). More complicated backstory and character introductions, no central plot per se. We enjoyed it, and our eldest is mad for anything JK Rowling. In perspective, she brought her stuffed Niffler with her... I had to have her explain most of it to me on the ride home...

Although I have found the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts to not be my cup of tea, I have watched them more than I would expect. The stories don’t hold my interest. The visuals, the cinematography, and the clever little background items pull me in and make it hard enough to leave. The creators of these movies do a great job of creating a beautiful and magical world.

 

[Fading Fast]

At the moment, The Woman in the Window on TCM’s Noir Alley. What a nice way to begin a Sunday morning.

I started the morning with "Jezebel" and followed it up with "The Woman in the Window." Dan Duryea is good at playing a sleazy and despicable character. Great start to the day.

Re "Jezebel -" Bette Davis more than deserved her Oscar - she powers that movie forward practically scene by scene.

 

[1967Cougar390]

At the moment, The Woman in the Window on TCM’s Noir Alley. What a nice way to begin a Sunday morning.

I actually set the DVR and recorded The Woman in the Window when it aired at midnight because I was on shift at the fire department. I’m going to watch it later this evening.
Steven

 

[Touchofevil]

I started the morning with "Jezebel" and followed it up with "The Woman in the Window." Dan Duryea is good at playing a sleazy and despicable character. Great start to the day.

Re "Jezebel -" Bette Davis more than deserved her Oscar - she powers that movie forward practically scene by scene.

Sunday morning sleaze with TCM.

 

[Touchofevil]

I actually set the DVR and recorded The Woman in the Window when it aired at midnight because I was on shift at the fire department. I’m going to watch it later this evening.
Steven

It was worth a watch even if it’s just for Edward G. Robinson.

 

[Fading Fast]

The following two movies are one of the reasons I love TCM.

Yes, I love TCM for its "commercial free and uncut" 24/7 showing of "old" movies - mainly from the '30s-'60s - and, yes, I love it when one of the big ones - "Casablanca," "The Maltese Falcon," a Hitchcock classic - shows up and, yes, I love it for its intros and other Golden-Era movie "stuff" (sure, it's gotten more commercialized, but it's still better than Every. Other. Station.), but I also love it because, without TCM, I will never find so many old, good, solid, not-great movies that are incredibly enjoyable simply as, what movies are supposed to be, entertainment.

I find it harder and harder to be entertained by most - not all - movies today, but can normally get lost for a few hours in a decent TCM offering that I might never have seen before. Are they great movies - decidedly no - but they are good stories, well acted that don't treat the audience like a demographic to be pandered to or manipulated. I recently caught the below two examples of just such a movie.


"The Story on Page One" from 1959 starring Rita Hayworth, Anthony Franciosa and Gig Young

• A solid, mainly, courtroom drama centered around infidelity, emotional spousal abuse, a domineering mother and a, well, dead husband
• Another example of movies more realistically showing societal ills and human failings by the late '50s
• While Hayworth is very good in a very not-glamours role, Gig Young delivers, IMHO, his best career performance showing a depth of understated emotions that rarely made it to his other roles
• And kudos to Anthony Franciosa as an early and excellent example of the cynical, dispirited lawyer finding himself again in a case he believes in
• Not a great movie - some clunky directing and a too-obviously constructed story - but still more engaging than most new movies with a lot less "look at me" attitude that so many modern movies have

"The Spy in Black" from 1939 staring Conrad Veidt

• A well-done spy movie - Veldt plays a WWI U-boat captain engaging in some spycraft in Northland Scotland
• Double agents, international intrigue, local color and some beautiful scenery from the location shots makes it a good story and time-travel joy
• Great footage of U-boats / some fun to see (and see through) special effects
• A great movie - no, but a very good, early, spy story

And those two - not great, just really good - movies are an example of one of the reasons I love TCM. Without TCM, where do these movies go / who shows them / restores them / cares about them?

 

[Doctor Strange]

Since it's apparently my function here to point out the writers/directors for FF's reviews, note that The Spy In Black is the first coproduction of the amazing Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who'd go one to make such masterpieces together as The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. Any film with their names attached is worth watching!

My own thank-you to TCM this morning is for The Viking, a 1928 silent-with-music-and-effects film that was the first "sound film" made in the improved two-color Technicolor process. And it was clearly all about demonstrating the color: both of the married Kalmus folks who ran Technicolor have production credits. The print TCM showed looked fantastic, and the story - mostly about Leif Ericsson discovering America - was well done, with a Howard Pyle/N.C. Wyeth storybook look. An entertaining flick, just gorgeous, and a rare experience since there are so few extant color silent films.

And in terms of influence, there's no question in my mind that then 9- or 10-year-old Jack Kirby saw this movie: the settings and costumes are downright Kirbyesque, with winged Thor helmets everywhere! (They venerate idols of Thor too.)


Donald Crisp(!) and Pauline Starke

 

[Fading Fast]

Since it's apparently my function here to point out the writers/directors for FF's reviews, note that The Spy In Black is the first coproduction of the amazing Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who'd go one to make such masterpieces together as The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. Any film with their names attached is worth watching!

My own thank-you to TCM this morning is for The Viking, a 1928 silent-with-music-and-effects film that was the first "sound film" made in the improved two-color Technicolor process. And it was clearly all about demonstrating the color: both of the married Kalmus folks who ran Technicolor have production credits. The print TCM showed looked fantastic, and the story - mostly about Leif Ericsson discovering America - was well done, with a Howard Pyle/N.C. Wyeth storybook look. An entertaining flick, just gorgeous, and a rare experience since there are so few extant color silent films.

And in terms of influence, there's no question in my mind that then 9- or 10-year-old Jack Kirby saw this movie: the settings and costumes are downright Kirbyesque, with winged Thor helmets everywhere! (They venerate idols of Thor too.)

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Donald Crisp(!) and Pauline Starke

My bad on "The Spy in Black" as the directing/writing was first rate - kept everything moving along, gorgeous angles and atmosphere shots, knew how to transition and how to tell a story. As you note, Powell and Pressburger always deserve mention. I recently saw another P&P effort - the very well-done propaganda film, "The 49th Parallel."

The directing in "The Story on Page One" was a bit clunky as several of the transitions were sloppy and the overall "feel" of the movie - noir, not-noir, heavy, normal drama - was inconsistent. And, no surprise, the director, the famous Clifford Odets, was famous for being a writer and not for the two films he directed.

I'm a big fan of Donald Crisp as an actor. He adds quality and gravitas to almost every movie he's in, but that is a "my eyes are up here" moment if ever.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yeah, 49th Parallel is a great flick too... though Laurence Olivier's out-RAGE-us French Canadian accent (think John Cleese as the Taunting Knight in Holy Grail) may be the most embarrassingly awful voice ever performed by a great actor in a film.

And who can blame Crisp? I couldn't keep my eyes off Pauline Starke in this role either! Her costumes (and helmets) are just stunning, and as "Helga, the king's ward" she's a pistol, the sole woman accepted as an equal among the Viking warriors. (Her musical cue is "Ride of the Valkyries"!)

 

[Fading Fast]

"Central Airport" 1933 staring Richard Barthelmess and Sally Eilers

• Another example of the above-discussed value of TCM showing these very-good-but-not-great movies that might just fade away without TCM as the few other "old" movie stations never dig as deep as TCM to show movies like this

• Basic love triangle with two brothers pursuing the same super-cute Sally Eilers

• Add in the, for the time, outstanding flying sequences and you have the '33 equivalent of "Top Gun," but with less cheese and more human emotion

• And, heck, if the story and acting don't excite you - the time travel to '33's clothes, cars, furniture, architecture and early airports are Fedora Lounge perfect (it truly is worth it just for the time travel)

• I've decided I'll never have an opinion of the actor Richard Barthelmess as, even after seeing him in several movies, I continue to think he isn't good, but still find his performances capture my attention; so maybe he is good, but he's always so stilted, but he draws you in - oh, whatever, I don't know

• And with a nod to my friend Doctor Strange, I'll note that the talented director William Wellman did two things very well in this movie - he keeps the story moving along at warp speed (you hardly have time to catch your breath during its 72 minutes runtime) and delivers some, for the time, incredible flying scenes

 

[Fading Fast]

Yeah, 49th Parallel is a great flick too... though Laurence Olivier's out-RAGE-us French Canadian accent (think John Cleese as the Taunting Knight in Holy Grail) may be the most embarrassingly awful voice ever performed by a great actor in a film.

And who can blame Crisp? I couldn't keep my eyes off Pauline Starke in this role either! Her costumes (and helmets) are just stunning, and as "Helga, the king's ward" she's a pistol, the sole woman accepted as an equal among the Viking warriors. (Her musical cue is "Ride of the Valkyries"!)

Even in Heaven, I'll bet, Olivier wants to take that one back. But it doesn't really matter as Leslie Howard and Raymond Massey more than make up for Olivier.