What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[LizzieMaine]

In later years, Ms. Brooks wrote in detail about her years cavorting thru movieland in a book called "Lulu in Hollywood." This was one of the earliest of the tell-all/spare-nothing showbiz autobiographies, and some of the vignettes she shares are astonishing. Even more so is Barry Paris's 1989 biography "Louise Brooks" which includes a story involving a hotel room, Charlie Chaplin, and a bottle of Mercurochrome that will top pretty much any other bit of show-business frolic you've ever read about, heard about, or participated in. She was, as they say, quite a character.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Mac and Me, and Atlantic Rim, both as demolished by the Netflix Reboot of MST3K. Youngest Shellhammer and I bond over such goofiness.

 

[Just Jim]

There's an Eddie Cantor picture from 1933, "Roman Scandals," which is basically typical Cantor hijinx in Ancient Rome. Lucy is one of the "Goldwyn Girls" in that picture, and turns up in a slave-market scene nude except for a long blonde wig. The effect is very unsettling.

As someone who grew up watching "Lucy", I find the idea of a blonde Lucy so unsettling I might not notice she's nude . . . .

 

[MissMittens]

"Rudolph" bothered me a lot as a kid, and this was long long before there was any such thing as Internet memes. I'd watch that and it would strike me very emphatically that Santa was, in a fundamental way, a complete dick to everybody. He treats the elves like serfs, in a way that suggests more than a little racism on top of his general dickishness, he's cold and hostile to his wife, and he has no respect for the reindeer other than for what they can do for him. He has the unmitigated gall to treat Rudolph like dirt from the moment of his birth, and then *expects* him to pull him out of trouble like he was in some way obligated to him. And on top of that, consider the "Island of Misfit Toys," which is basically an enforced ghetto for those who don't fit Santa's exacting standards of physical purity. No wonder Donner tried to hide his son's "deformity."

Even as a little kid, I had the sense that Mr. Rankin and Mr. Bass were trying to say something much darker than "Ho ho ho." No other Christmas special ever had that kind of disturbing, unsettling effect on me.

I noticed that as a kid too. It wasn't the only Rankin Bass romp that was unsettling. The Year Without A Santa Claus was Santa at his most dickish. One thing that got me about the Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolp, was that the doll wasn't broken or damaged in any way. I've often wondered what she was doing there with those who didn't fit with Santa's Eugenic ideology

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, note that all the girl elves are blonde. Clearly the doll, with her brown hair, was Non-Aryan. I empathized.

Note also that all the boy elves were bald -- with one flamboyant exception: Hermie, who not only was the only boy elf with hair, he also styled it in an extreme blonde swish. The conclusions draw themselves.

I wondered for a long time where Yukon Cornelius fits into all this, but I think I've got it figured out. He's Vichy France -- he starts out as an ally, but in the end, he falls in line with Santa's New Order.

 

[MissMittens]

Well, note that all the girl elves are blonde. Clearly the doll, with her brown hair, was Non-Aryan. I empathized.

Note also that all the boy elves were bald -- with one flamboyant exception: Hermie, who not only was the only boy elf with hair, he also styled it in an extreme blonde swish. The conclusions draw themselves.

I wondered for a long time where Yukon Cornelius fits into all this, but I think I've got it figured out. He's Vichy France -- he starts out as an ally, but in the end, he falls in line with Santa's New Order.

I'd never considered Rudolph an allegorical tale of WW2 Europe, but it does actually seem to work.......

 

[MisterCairo]

The Christmas cavalcade continues in Canada, with Home Alone 2: Lost in New York last night.

I do not need to remind our American Loungers about the key cameo in that film.




Ally Sheedy as the airline clerk...

 

[MisterCairo]

We watched this just the other day, and the one thing my girls kept asking about was "so, what is 'wrong' with the doll?".

I offered that instead of wetting herself like some dolls she vomited, but this was not the consensus view among our family members.

I also have wondered for decades whether or not Hermie should have been a wannabe hairdresser vice dentist, given how he is voiced, along with the flamboyant do. As for Cornelius, assuming he is Canadian (nickname Yukon), there is absolutely nothing wrong with him...

One thing that got me about the Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolp, was that the doll wasn't broken or damaged in any way.

Clearly the doll, with her brown hair, was Non-Aryan

 

[MissMittens]

A little-known BBC romp called "Bernard and the Genie", a little over an hour so probably more of a TV special than a movie. Followed by a 2hr film of a stage production of BBC show "Mrs Brown's Boys"

 

[MisterCairo]

A little-known BBC romp called "Bernard and the Genie", a little over an hour so probably more of a TV special than a movie. Followed by a 2hr film of a stage production of BBC show "Mrs Brown's Boys"

One of my favourites, my introduction to both Lenny Henry and Alan Cumming!

 

[Benzadmiral]

My favorite portions of John Ford's The Searchers. There are at least 2 moments in the film where John Wayne, as Ethan Edwards, truly projects something that is NOT the standard John Wayne persona as exemplified in so many of his films; the image that nearly everybody thinks of when you say "John Wayne." At one point early in the film, he and Marty (Jeffrey Hunter) are on horseback in a snowfall, and Ethan delivers his dictum:

"Injun will chase a thing till he thinks he's chased it enough. Then he quits. . . . . Seems like he never learns there's such a thing as a critter that'll just keep comin' on. So we'll find 'em in the end, I promise you. We'll find 'em. Just as sure as the turnin' of the earth."

The second moment is about an hour into the movie, when Ethan and Martin are shown 3 women rescued from the Comanche. None is Debbie (Natalie Wood), the girl they seek. The oldest of the three whimpers like an animal. At that sound, Ethan pauses at the door of the cabin, and the look on his face is stony and alien, his hatred of Comanches plain. In that moment we do not see John Wayne, but Ethan the Indian hunter and fighter.

Wayne was a better actor than he is often given credit for.

 

[Fading Fast]

"College Coach" 1933 staring Pat O'Brien, Ann Dvorak, Dick Powell and Lyle Talbot

The most important thing about this movie is its reveal that every single thing wrong with college football today was wrong with college football at least as far back as 1933: College football players brought in simply for their athletic skills - check; players paid and / or given perks illegally - check; players being passed to remain eligible by teachers either threatened with losing their jobs or bribed with money or promotions - check; advertisers and marketers contributing to all the above - check; massive stadiums being built to advance the program to keep the cycle going as academics takes a backseat - check, and gigantic salaries and perks for star coaches - check. It is all there in 1933, which serves to disabuse us of the thought that the game was ever pure or that it only became corrupt in more recent times.

The beauty of pre-codes is that they evidence that all the social ills, all the corruption, all the shady dealings we are familiar with today - all of it - was going in in the Golden Era. Maybe in a slightly different way and maybe hidden a bit more from view, but it was all there. And while, for us today, that's what makes "College Coach" a fantastic movie, it also works as a solid piece of entertainment.

Pat O'Brien as the hard-driving, willing-to-cheat, motivated-by-money-and-fame coach is at his best here - not sleepwalking at all as he does in some of his roles. He's firing off dialogue and pushing each scene forward while his long-suffering and arrestingly beautiful and lithe wife, Ann Dvorak - remember this is pre-code - has an affair with his star player mainly because O'Brien neglects her. Throw in some player rivalries, college-administration corruption, several good football game clips and wonderful Fedora Lounge time travel and the movie speeds by.

But it is really all about how horribly corrupt college football was even in '33. My Occam's Razor solution is to acknowledge reality, pay the players openly (they are the ones that get cheated) and much of the corruption will go away - but we'd still be stuck with the bigness and dominance of college football as, just like in '33, alumni, students and the public get much more excited about - and are much more willing to pay for - a winning team than a new science lab.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Well, note that all the girl elves are blonde. Clearly the doll, with her brown hair, was Non-Aryan. I empathized.

Note also that all the boy elves were bald -- with one flamboyant exception: Hermie, who not only was the only boy elf with hair, he also styled it in an extreme blonde swish. The conclusions draw themselves.

I wondered for a long time where Yukon Cornelius fits into all this, but I think I've got it figured out. He's Vichy France -- he starts out as an ally, but in the end, he falls in line with Santa's New Order.

I'd never considered Rudolph an allegorical tale of WW2 Europe, but it does actually seem to work.......

Now I greatly regret not having re-watched Rudolph the other night with this in mind. Drat! Sounds like a highly entertaining experience. lol

That, or childhood ruining.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If you picture the North Pole as Stalingrad, and the Bumble as the USSR, you can see it as an alternative-universe situation where the Nazis won. An early pilot film for "Man In The Dark Castle", perhaps.

Note also that when "Rudolph" was originally shown in 1964, the ending was different -- there was no rescue of the Misfit Toys, they were simply left hanging. Viewers complained loud and long, leading the producers to shoot a new ending that was added to all subsequent screenings. No doubt an effort to conceal the real agenda.

And finally, note that the whole film was bankrolled by General Electric, which had sole sponsorship of its earliest showings. This is why most of the male elves have noses shaped exactly like light bulbs, denoting their bodily thralldom to the sinister corporate regime that funded Santa's rise to power.

 

[MisterCairo]

We love Rudolph. It was a product of its time, which was a time for, ahem, experimentation...

 

[MissMittens]

Now I greatly regret not having re-watched Rudolph the other night with this in mind. Drat! Sounds like a highly entertaining experience. lol

That, or childhood ruining.

Now that I've given it some thought, it doesn't *just* apply to "Rudolph", but seemingly other Rankin-Bass productions as well. The one that came to mind was "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town." The villain in that one was the stereotypically Bavarian 'Meisterburger,' whose followers wore German uniforms, rounded up the village toys and burned them, and the children who were banned from playing were forced into labor. Hmmmm.......

They could have called it "Santa Schindler is Comin' to Town" and it would have been totally transparent. Hindsight, lol!

 

[EngProf]

My favorite portions of John Ford's The Searchers. There are at least 2 moments in the film where John Wayne, as Ethan Edwards, truly projects something that is NOT the standard John Wayne persona as exemplified in so many of his films; the image that nearly everybody thinks of when you say "John Wayne." At one point early in the film, he and Marty (Jeffrey Hunter) are on horseback in a snowfall, and Ethan delivers his dictum:

"Injun will chase a thing till he thinks he's chased it enough. Then he quits. . . . . Seems like he never learns there's such a thing as a critter that'll just keep comin' on. So we'll find 'em in the end, I promise you. We'll find 'em. Just as sure as the turnin' of the earth."

The second moment is about an hour into the movie, when Ethan and Martin are shown 3 women rescued from the Comanche. None is Debbie (Natalie Wood), the girl they seek. The oldest of the three whimpers like an animal. At that sound, Ethan pauses at the door of the cabin, and the look on his face is stony and alien, his hatred of Comanches plain. In that moment we do not see John Wayne, but Ethan the Indian hunter and fighter.

Wayne was a better actor than he is often given credit for.

That look that Ethan gives toward the former captives is so intense in terms of hatred that it scares me sitting at home (and I've seen it a hundred times).

 

[EngProf]

The Rankin/Bass animated Rudolph came out when I was in high school, so I think it didn’t have a high priority in my TV-watching schedule at the time. (I have never seen the whole show.)

However, I have seen enough bits and clips of it over the years to get the idea, and enough familiarity with the plot and characters so that I could properly appreciate the parody-version: “Raging Rudolph”. This is the same story (almost) as told by Martin Scorcese, with the North Pole characters (Santa, Rudolph, Elves, etc.) as violent low-level New York mobsters (“Goodfellas”, etc.).

Rudolph to Elf: “Does my nose amuse you? Does it make you laugh?”

This was originally shown on a TV comedy show on Fox called “MadTV”.

(Just search on “Raging Rudolph YouTube” and you can see it.)

One way that I know I have never seen the complete original Rudolph show is that I had never heard of “The Island of Misfit Toys”. This my loss, since I didn’t get the point of the “South Park” show about “The Island of Misfit Mascots”. (including Petey the Sexual-Harassment Panda)

 

[Bushman]

Continued the Christmas binge with Durante's "Frosty the Snowman". Out of all the Frosty cartoons out there, this one remains my favorite. Though, tonight at the point that Frosty became a puddle, I pondered to myself that Karen could have simply made a new Frosty and just bring that one to life. I chuckled when Santa waltzed into the poinsettia shed and essentially tells Karen the same thing.

I then followed up with a childhood favorite: "Jack Frost" starring Michael Keaton. This one didn't win with either the critics or the audiences, but I have a lot of nostalgia for it. It's definitely a '90s movie through and through, including the obligatory snowboard chase that runs like a promo video overlaid with a forgettable, generic '90s pop rock song. Being a '90s child myself, I still love it. It's cute, sweet, and funny. It doesn't need to be more than that.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

'The Lost Viking' (2018)....Low budget, anachronistic, Indie flick. Acting OK, good use of the natural landscapes but uneven narrative. Not great but not that bad either.