What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

Invitation from 1952 starring Dorothy McGuire, Van Johnson and Louis Calhern

While melodrama isn't a strong enough word to describe the story, if you just go with it, it's an enjoyable enough movie. McGuire plays the pretty-but-pressumed-dying (damaged heart) daughter of wealthy Calhern who, unbeknownst to his daughter, pays handsome-but-struggling-architect Johnson - a friend of McGuire's since childhood - to be her husband for the assumed one year of life she has left. Adding to the drama, Johnson's bitter former girlfriend figures out the scheme and slowly taunts McGuire and Johnson with her knowledge throughout the movie (McGuire gets the good-girl blonde hair; the mean former girlfriend gets black hair - nothing is subtle in this movie).

That's pretty much the setup and movie, with anything else becoming a spoiler alert. The fun in the movie is watching professionals do their jobs - these are really good actors - as the movie's silliness speeds along providing some tension and plenty of drama. There's also incredible time travel to mid-century America with its big, straight-lines office buildings, bold-and-broad-shouldered men's suits, cars that look like rounded tanks and overly opulent country clubs. I'm not proud that I enjoyed it, but heck, it's a fun hour and a half of escapism.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"His Girl Friday" (1940), right now.

 

[Fading Fast]

"His Girl Friday" (1940), right now.

Sincerely - that is one of my favorite movies. The dialogue is incredible (smart and delivered at warp speed) and the acting of - and chemistry between - Grant and Russell is pitch perfect. Also, the newsroom and Grant's office are iconic '30s newsroom wonderful. Hope you are enjoying it.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

On Saturday night, Gilda. Another classic movie with which the Missus was unfamiliar. She reeeelly liked it.

 

[Edward]

Stumbled across a yo ho ho of The Leather Boys on Youtube last night. I'd never seen it in full before, but some lovely period shots of London, Butlins in Bognor Regis (which has changedbeyond all recognition) and the Ace Cafe (showing just what a good job the restoration was, it's immediately recognisable as it is now). Worth seeing for a fairly accurate period depiction of the rockers (even if there's no real rock 'n'roll in it!). If anything, it's amazing just how much 1964's England shown in the film could as easily have been 1945.

 

[LuckyBF]

I've just finished watching Demolition with Jake Gyllenhaal as the main actor. The movie is awesome, very beautiful drama. I liked the way they've shown how men handle the loss of their wives

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

The other night it was It's a Great Feeling (1949) with Dennis Morgan, Doris Day, and Jack Carson. Tons of cameos, from Joan Crawford to Edgar G. Robinson and all points in-between. The basic plot is Doris Day is small-town singer who waitresses in Hollywood while waiting for her big break. Morgan and Carson are star and director of a green-lit film who try to get the producer to hire Day for a part in the picture. It's Technicolor and tune-full, and it's Hollywood kidding itself. It is the polar opposite of Sunset Boulevard.

 

[Zombie_61]

Valley of the Dragons (1961). What a mess. Michael Denning (Sean McClory) and Hector Servadac (Cesare Danova) are dueling in Algeria in 1881 when a comet skims Earth's surface and somehow transports them to the moon where they find a prehistoric civilization. Very loosely based on Jules Verne's "Off on a Comet", if you like cheesy low-budget movies that make no sense whatsoever featuring recycled footage of obviously fake dinosaurs (reptiles with fins taped or glued to their backs), hairy guys carrying spears, and reasonably attractive cave women in leather bikinis, this is your movie.

 

[Edward]

reasonably attractive cave women in leather bikinis, this is your movie.

This makes it sound like the prototype for Raquel Welch in 2000BC.

Watched an Irish film last night by the name of The Cured. Set after a zombie outbreak has been quelled with the discovery of a cure, it centres on the experiences of two 'cured', former zombies and ho they cope with the PTSD (they remember what they did) and the prejudice as the government prepares to 'humanely dispose of' the 25% of infected who could not be cured. Some echoes of the BBC's 'In the Flesh', but a more realistic portrayal.

This afternoon, we went to see the latest Avengers film - great fun. Especially enjoyedc spotting the Irn Bru bottle in New Asgard!

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Alles auf Zucker!"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alles_auf_Zucker!

A "moderate" comedy film.

 

[The Jackal]

Avengers Endgame.
If you've been watching the Marvel movies up to this point, you can't go without seeing this one.

Of course if you haven't been watching them, then this one will hold no particular draw, as it doesn't hold up as a standalone movie that someone can just go watch with little knowledge of what came before.

 

[scottyrocks]

The other night it was It's a Great Feeling (1949) with Dennis Morgan, Doris Day, and Jack Carson. Tons of cameos, from Joan Crawford to Edgar G. Robinson and all points in-between. The basic plot is Doris Day is small-town singer who waitresses in Hollywood while waiting for her big break. Morgan and Carson are star and director of a green-lit film who try to get the producer to hire Day for a part in the picture. It's Technicolor and tune-full, and it's Hollywood kidding itself. It is the polar opposite of Sunset Boulevard.

Edward's not-so-famous brother?

 

[scottyrocks]

Valley of the Dragons (1961). What a mess. Michael Denning (Sean McClory) and Hector Servadac (Cesare Danova) are dueling in Algeria in 1881 when a comet skims Earth's surface and somehow transports them to the moon where they find a prehistoric civilization. Very loosely based on Jules Verne's "Off on a Comet", if you like cheesy low-budget movies that make no sense whatsoever featuring recycled footage of obviously fake dinosaurs (reptiles with fins taped or glued to their backs), hairy guys carrying spears, and reasonably attractive cave women in leather bikinis, this is your movie.

I've never seen it. Do you think it was meant to camp (for its time)?

 

[scottyrocks]

I tried watching Blood and Lace (1971) the other day but made through about 20 minutes before stopping it. Gloria Grahame, who got star billing, hadn't shown up on screen yet and the acting that was going on was awful.

As I am still on a bit of a Ms. Grahame kick as of late, I will try another one of her post-glamor girl films.

 

[Edward]

Avengers Endgame.
If you've been watching the Marvel movies up to this point, you can't go without seeing this one.

Of course if you haven't been watching them, then this one will hold no particular draw, as it doesn't hold up as a standalone movie that someone can just go watch with little knowledge of what came before.

Very much so. Personally, I found it vastly superior to the first of this last pair as well.

 

[scottyrocks]

I just now finished watching Mr. Griffin and Me (1981) starring Gloria Grahame and Burgess Meredith.

I believe it was the longest 51 and a half minutes I have ever spent watching a film, even one made for TV. It was akin to a train wreck. You want to look away but you keep looking anyway. For 48 and a half minutes.

The best part of the whole thing was the very beginning. Grahame plays an elderly movie star who, to make ends meet, tours the country doing retrospectives in local venues. The film opens in a freeze frame of Grahame in a famous pose from a real Gloria Grahame movie:

And then the film comes to life as the story actually begins. Then the scenes change to various memorable ones from Grahame's movies, and we hear gasps and what sounds like movie theater crowd gasps and other reactions.

The elderly Mara Griffin (Grahame) is then shown on stage speaking to said adoring audience and answers questions. She appears to be trying her best to be a Norma Desmond-type, of Sunset Boulevard (1950), and coming up well short of the mark.

Kenneth Griffin (Meredith), the husband that ran out on her 24 years prior to where the story begins, was about as obnoxious as can be. The character was trying to exude charm, but it was all forced and insincere. There wasn't much depth going on here.

After I realized the meaning of the opening sequence, I immediately thought of the beginning of The Shootist (1976), where John Wayne plays a gunman, or 'shootist,' in a a completely different role. I liked the effect in both films, but whereas I found The Shootist very entertaining, Mr. G and Me was a dud.

 

[Zombie_61]

I've never seen it. Do you think it was meant to camp (for its time)?

No, I don't think so. Definitely low budget, but the actors don't let on that they know that. It's just that the premise and story are so preposterous that it's difficult to take it as seriously as they did.

 

[Fading Fast]

I just now finished watching Mr. Griffin and Me (1981) starring Gloria Grahame and Burgess Meredith.

I believe it was the longest 51 and a half minutes I have ever spent watching a film, even one made for TV. It was akin to a train wreck. You want to look away but you keep looking anyway. For 48 and a half minutes.

The best part of the whole thing was the very beginning. Grahame plays an elderly movie star who, to make ends meet, tours the country doing retrospectives in local venues. The film opens in a freeze frame of Grahame in a famous pose from a real Gloria Grahame movie:

View attachment 166223

And then the film comes to life as the story actually begins. Then the scenes change to various memorable ones from Grahame's movies, and we hear gasps and what sounds like movie theater crowd gasps and other reactions.

The elderly Mara Griffin (Grahame) is then shown on stage speaking to said adoring audience and answers questions. She appears to be trying her best to be a Norma Desmond-type, of Sunset Boulevard (1950), and coming up well short of the mark.

Kenneth Griffin (Meredith), the husband that ran out on her 24 prior to where the story begins, was about as obnoxious as can be. The character was trying to exude charm, but it was all forced and insincere. There wasn't much depth going on here.

After I realized the meaning of the opening sequence, I immediately thought of the beginning of The Shootist (1976), where John Wayne plays a gunman, or 'shootist,' in a a completely different role. I liked the effect in both films, but whereas I found The Shootist very entertaining, Mr. G and Me was a dud.

Interesting and well-written comments. Even with its shortcomings, I now want to see it.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Alien", cinema cut 1979.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Edward's not-so-famous brother?

Ooops. Busted.