What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

"This Land is Mine" from 1943 on TCM right now. I've never seen the movie and all I caught was Charles Laughton's two closing speeches - in the courtroom and classroom.

Are they wartime propaganda speeches - maybe.

When does courage and belief in ideals become propaganda - I don't know and I'm not sure I care.

Laughton's speeches - by a man who found his courage after a life of cowardliness (I'm guessing as all I heard were the closing speeches) - are powerful, moving and timeless both in their truths and owing to his acting prowess.

What a performance; what a pair of speeches.

Now I have to wait for the movie to cycle back to TCM's schedule so that I can see the other 90% of it - can't wait.

And this is what a hero can look like:

 

[Trenchfriend]

Disney's Aladdin, VHS.

 

[Worf]

"This Land is Mine" from 1943 on TCM right now. I've never seen the movie and all I caught was Charles Laughton's two closing speeches - in the courtroom and classroom.

Are they wartime propaganda speeches - maybe.

When does courage and belief in ideals become propaganda - I don't know and I'm not sure I care.

Laughton's speeches - by a man who found his courage after a life of cowardliness (I'm guessing as all I heard were the closing speeches) - are powerful, moving and timeless both in their truths and owing to his acting prowess.

What a performance; what a pair of speeches.

Now I have to wait for the movie to cycle back to TCM's schedule so that I can see the other 90% of it - can't wait.

And this is what a hero can look like:
View attachment 222646

If you have Roku or some other streaming device you can Watch TCM movies anytime. The app is call "Watch TCM" (who knew?) They still have this one up. I watched it last night... Great performance by Laughton. The fact that he's NOT handsome means he has to act! He was classically trained but all the roles given to Howard and Olivier could NEVER go to him. He had acting chops for days and that expressive face of his could bring you to tears of sadness like this film or have you crying from side splitting laughter... see "Ruggles of Red Gap" if you don't believe me. The scene when he says goodbye to his students... damn that was hard.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

If you have Roku or some other streaming device you can Watch TCM movies anytime. The app is call "Watch TCM" (who knew?) They still have this one up. I watched it last night... Great performance by Laughton. The fact that he's NOT handsome means he has to act! He was classically trained but all the roles given to Howard and Olivier could NEVER go to him. He had acting chops for days and that expressive face of his could bring you to tears of sadness like this film or have you crying from side splitting laughter... see "Ruggles of Red Gap" if you don't believe me. The scene when he says goodbye to his students... damn that was hard.

Worf

Great color. I have some version of "Watch TCM" via Spectrum (hateful company), but seem to get less movies than do others. That said, I'm sure via streaming, I can watch it. I might or might wait for it to cycle through again to TCM's schedule.

I was blown away by both his classroom and the courtroom speech - and that was without any context as I hadn't seen the rest of the movie.

I always thought he owned every scene he was in, in "Witness for the Prosecution."

 

[Fading Fast]

Desirable from 1934 with Jean Muir, George Brent and Verree Teasdale

• A short (68 minute) B-movie that works in an obvious way, but with a "Mrs. Robinson - coo-coo-ca-choo" backbeat

• Jean Muir is the stunning, overly-protected and hidden-from-view daughter of a Broadway star (Teasdale) who doesn't want the world to know she has a daughter (age, vanity, legitimate business reason - you choose)

• The daughter, now 19 and too old for school, shows up at her mother's apartment and accidentally meets her mother's younger secret lover, Brent (publicly, the mother and Brent are just friends, but privately...). The daughter and Brent become fast friends, but not lovers

• The mother, perforce, publicly acknowledges the daughter and tries to arrange a quick society marriage for her to wrap everything up neatly and to abort her daughter and Brent from becoming more than friends ("and here's to your Mrs. Robinson...")

• It all comes to a boil when the daughter's fiancé's "society" family kinda, sorta rejects their new daughter-in-law to be who was having doubts about the marriage anyway

• The daughter's mother pushes hard for the marriage; the society boyfriend waffles; Brent tries to stay neutral - all leaving the final decision in the hands of beautiful and, basically, innocent Muir to choose

• It's an obvious, but good story with, as noted, The Graduate's ickiness of the mother's lover potentially marrying the mother's daughter - it's not openly discussed, but it's definitely in play
  • It's interesting to see this early take on The Graduate more from the daughter's viewpoint and without scary Ann Bancroft's bone-chilling threat to her former lover not to marry her daughter*

• Better-than-average B movie with a lot packed into just over an hour including the aforementioned parallels to The Graduate.

*So many things have gone wrong in your life if you are either one of the participants in that conversation.

 

[Edward]

When does courage and belief in ideals become propaganda - I don't know and I'm not sure I care.

I would suggest it's when the expression of the ideals - sincerely held or otherwise - has the ulterior purpose of persuading the audience to support said ideals.

And yes, propaganda can truly be art: ref Casablanca, for one.

 

[Touchofevil]

Night and the City. Great introduction to movie with Richard Widmark running through London circa 1950. It is a lot of fun to watch especially because of the black and white exterior shots throughout. It is a movie that I have seen many times, but find it entertaining each time.

 

[HanauMan]

Watched a modern Film Noir, namely the 2017 movie Blade Runner 2049.

All I can say is that is was a JOI to behold and I just LUV the film..!!

 

[Fading Fast]

River of No Return from 1954 with Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe

• Solid Western morality tale, within a morality tale - the Western's stock and trade
  • Mitchum and his son live on the frontier with only a rifle to keep the Indians at bay (there's a lot of not PC stuff in here - more later)
  • Enter saloon-singer Monroe and her boyfriend gambler who, because he needs to get to town fast to file a gold claim, steals Mitchum's horse and rifle and leaves Monroe behind (apparently, a good man was also hard to find in the Old West)
  • Unable to defend themselves and with Mitchum looking for revenge on gambler, the three embark on a dangerous - owing to the rapids and stalking Indians - raft trip back to civilization
  • Along the way, they learn (the inner morality tale part) that many of their assumptions about each other are wrong, the value of working toward a shared goal, to support each other when necessary and some other wholesome '50s stuff
  • Then, back in town, the long-sought revenge mission gets twisted up to, once again, challenge our views on morality

• There is, to today's view, a horrible scene where the hero, Mitchum, all but forces himself on Monroe, which just tells you where the acceptable morality of the time sat
  • We don't have to like it, but it doesn't change the fact that it was, which also makes judging people's actions from back then blindly, based on our present-day standards, disputable
  • The same applies to the views of guns back then, where the young boy saves his father's life by shooing his father's would-be killer in the back - a scene that would never, ever be filmed today

• There is an inverse relationship between the amount of makeup Marilyn Monroe wears and her attractiveness

• And this is one of Marilyn's best genuine acting efforts - had she not become "Star Marilyn Monroe!", she had had a shot at being a decent actress and at, possibly, having a heck of a better life than she did
  • Flow: Less Marilyn Monroe! ⇨ Less Makeup ⇨ Better actress ⇨ More attractive in a real way ⇨ Better life (hopefully)

• On today's large screen HD TVs, it is obvious in the close-up scenes, when Mitchum and company are on the raft going down the river, that they are on a soundstage in front of a screen. I'm guessing, but don't know, that it actually looked better on a 1950 movie screen?

 

[Touchofevil]

Crime Wave again on TCM’s Noir Alley. It was on earlier in the week during a run of Sterling Hayden flicks. Nowhere near his best, it is entertaining enough more for the exterior shots of the world circa 1954. It’s neat to see a ripped and young Charles Bronson. It is worth a watch despite its two star rating.

 

[Seb Lucas]

View attachment 223535
River of No Return from 1954 with Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe

• Solid Western morality tale, within a morality tale - the Western's stock and trade
  • Mitchum and his son live on the frontier with only a rifle to keep the Indians at bay (there's a lot of not PC stuff in here - more later)
  • Enter saloon-singer Monroe and her boyfriend gambler who, because he needs to get to town fast to file a gold claim, steals Mitchum's horse and rifle and leaves Monroe behind (apparently, a good man was also hard to find in the Old West)
  • Unable to defend themselves and with Mitchum looking for revenge on gambler, the three embark on a dangerous - owing to the rapids and stalking Indians - raft trip back to civilization
  • Along the way, they learn (the inner morality tale part) that many of their assumptions about each other are wrong, the value of working toward a shared goal, to support each other when necessary and some other wholesome '50s stuff
  • Then, back in town, the long-sought revenge mission gets twisted up to, once again, challenge our views on morality

• There is, to today's view, a horrible scene where the hero, Mitchum, all but forces himself on Monroe, which just tells you where the acceptable morality of the time sat
  • We don't have to like it, but it doesn't change the fact that it was, which also makes judging people's actions from back then blindly, based on our present-day standards, disputable
  • The same applies to the vi

• • ews of guns back then, where the young boy saves his father's life by shooing his father's would-be killer in the back - a scene that would never, ever be filmed today
  • There is an inverse relationship between the amount of makeup Marilyn Monroe wears and her attractiveness
  • And this is one of Marilyn's best genuine acting efforts - had she not become "Star Marilyn Monroe!", she had had a shot at being a decent actress and at, possibly, having a heck of a better life than she did
    • Flow: Less Marilyn Monroe! ⇨ Less Makeup ⇨ Better actress ⇨ More attractive in a real way ⇨ Better life (hopefully)

• On today's large screen HD TVs, it is obvious in the close-up scenes, when Mitchum and company are on the raft going down the river, that they are on a soundstage in front of a screen. I'm guessing, but don't know, that it actually looked better on a 1950 movie screen?

The raft work always looked like rear projection. Different light and that awful flatness. Curiously the raft scene in shots of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom showcase similarly awful effects, decades later.

Marilyn never captured my attention but I suspect her future was written by the time she hit puberty. Hollywood may not have helped, but how would we know? The consequences of childhood trauma often end up tragically, regardless of the career. Mitchum always spoke in an interesting and respectful way about her and knew her from the time she was NJB.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Rear projection does look a bit more realistic projected from film on a theatre screen -- there's just enough slight gate jitter in the picture to subconsciously distract most viewers. Video presentations naturally lack this jitter, and you tend to look more closely at the background.

Some films, though, deliberately made the rear projection look as fake as possible as a directoral choice, a sort of impressionistic approach to image design. This was especially true in comedies, where if you see a really bad rear projection shot it's usually intended to be part of the gag.

If Marilyn had lived, on the track she was going, she would have been Shelley Winters.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I just finally have to buy "Das Boot - TV cut" (282 minutes).

I never watched it, but all say, it's great and the best version, because it brings the real atmosphere and message. The total opposite to the cinema release/extended director's cut, which is the hollywoodish U-Boat action movie.

At the usual DVD-release, the six TV-episodes are just fixed to the nonstop 282 minutes-movie.

 

[Fading Fast]

Crime Wave again on TCM’s Noir Alley. It was on earlier in the week during a run of Sterling Hayden flicks. Nowhere near his best, it is entertaining enough more for the exterior shots of the world circa 1954. It’s neat to see a ripped and young Charles Bronson. It is worth a watch despite its two star rating.

I recorded it and, now, based on your comments, know what to expect and look for - thank you. I watched about 20 minutes of "Asphalt Jungle" the other day (probably during the Hayden marathon you referenced) - he did an outstanding job playing an on-the-edge sociopath. That is such a good movie - a Worf stop 'n drop one - which I did until I really had to get back to work.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"Arizona Junior", right now on arte.

FRANCES McDORMAND in 1987!!

 

[Bushman]

"Across the Pacific" (1942). Starting to wonder just how many movies Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet starred in together.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Inside Out (2015), courtesy Disney+. Even though the main character is a kid on the edge of adolescence, it's clearly more fun for the moms and dads.
After that, a bunch of Pixar shorts I had missed, and Mickey's Trailer (1938) in amazing Technicolor.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

One Way Passage (1932) dir. Tay Garnett, with William Powell and Kay Francis, aided by Frank McHugh. A couple meet on a cruise from Hong Kong to San Francisco, with a stopover in Hawaii. Love at first sight, but, oh, the secrets they both harbor.

Very much a product of its time, a mix of melodramatic emotions, wisecracking criminals, and ladies who wear dazzling gowns and waterfalls of jewelry for dinner, along with their male counterparts in formal attire.
If you're in the FL, this is right up your alley.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's the greatest weeper ever made. Kay Fwancis at her best.

 

[Fading Fast]

Since the only reason the movie works is because of the actors - you enjoy watching them and kinda, sorta go along with the silly plot - the one thing that would have made it better would have been if Pat O'Brien had played Steve Burke in this version as he did in the remake, 1940's "Til We Meet Again."