What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

I'm going to check out Mank but I have been put off by the outrageously self-conscious visual style and the grating Welles impersonation by Tom Burke. But I've only seen the promos. Unfortunately, very few people I have met even know who Orson Welles is - one person I spoke to recently was sure he'd written 1984. Mank and Hearst are almost totally unknown here - be interesting to see who cares enough to watch this.

"...one person I spoke to recently was sure he'd written 1984." LOL

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

The Valley of Decision (1945) dir. Tay Garnett, with Greer Garson, Gregory Peck, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore, and quite a few others. Pittsburgh, 1873, Garson is hired as a maid to work in the mansion of steel magnate Crisp. Barrymore was permanently disabled as a worker in the mill, and when his daughter and the son of the owner (Peck) get romantic, well, he gets upset. Throw in a steel workers strike, some people who won't get involved with each other because of class, and you have delicious agony for about two hours.
Keeping the Christmas movie-watching binge alive, it was A Christmas Carol, the 2009 CGI version with Jim Carrey as the voice of Scrooge and others. Impressive animation and solid voice acting. We do not agree with the addition of Ebenezer zipping through the air on a sort of giant fireworks rocket, or zombie antics for Marley, or even the several sudden scary visuals or sound effects.

 

[Fading Fast]

Woman of the Year from 1942 with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy

This is a better, more-nuanced, more-serious and more-relevant-to-today movie than I remember it being from a long-ago viewing.

The general premise is one that's been around since they've been making movies: a male sportswriter, Tracy, and a more-successful female international journalist, Hepburn, meet, flirt, fall in love, marry and, then, the problems set in. He's a down-to-earth man of the people who drinks beer and kinda knows a bit about the world; she's an East Coast elite, highly educated, international traveler who is on a first name basis with heads of state.

After they marry, Hepburn just carries on with her very busy life blithely expecting Tracy to fit into her world, even her apartment. While he's willing to meet her more than half way, Hepburn sees him as just another something she picked up along the way, like the many journalist and humanitarian awards she's won or, worse, the immigrant child she selfishly adopts (without telling Tracy) because, in truth, doing so fits her public image.

While that is some harsh behavior, there is also easy humor to be milked from this opposites-attract story. Tracy takes newbie baseball-fan Hepburn to a game and, after he simplifies and explains the rules throughout, she asks, "Aren't we leaving, you said there were only nine innings?" "Uh, well, um, except when the score is tied." But this is not really a comedy as their marriage is failing in a real and painful way as Hepburn's genuinely unlikable character is gratingly self absorbed.

After repeatedly being ignored and watching Hepburn ignore their adopted child all for her career and public adulation, Tracy leaves by simply walking out. It's quietly powerful and raw as he didn't want a big row; he simply had had enough. Then, after an epiphany moment where Hepburn sees how empty a public life without someone to share it with can be, she tries to win Tracy back.

A lot has been written about the final scene where Hepburn attempts to make breakfast for Tracy - she's clearly never cracked an egg before in her life - as it triggers anaphylactic shock in some who see it as a metaphor for the "barefoot and pregnant woman in the kitchen" trope.

But watch and listen closely as Tracy is bemused by her kitchen bumbling - he never expected her, nor wants her, to be a traditional housewife. He tells her he doesn't want her to give up being who she is, but to become a real partner in their marriage.

Sure, the code and norms of the time obscure it a bit, but the message clearly isn't that Hepburn should renounce her career to bring Tracy his slippers every night, but that in a marriage of two successful, career-driven people, each has to re-oriented themselves to a shared life of compromise and support. Advice that's at least as relevant today as when Woman of the Year came out.


N.B. This is the first and one of the more-famous pairing of Tracy and Hepburn who went on to make a total of nine films together. My favorite, less talked about of their efforts is a modest Christmas movie, Desk Set, where you see these two, now middle-aged stars, verbally parry and thrust their way into love.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Married with children - Best of Bundy, DVD Vol. 1 & 2

 

[Tiki Tom]

View attachment 290413
Woman of the Year from 1942 with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy

This is a better, more-nuanced, more-serious and more-relevant-to-today movie than I remember it being from a long-ago viewing.

Great review. Very balanced. Thanks.

 

[Worf]

26 inches of snow... Watched that movie all night long....

Worf

PS and before it even starts... all you folks in "warmer climes" can bite me!

 

[Fading Fast]

Shag from 1989 with (L to R) Page Hannah, Bridget Fonda, Phoebe Cates and Annabeth Gish

This was part of TCM's "Women Make Film" series - a series TCM noted required it to reach outside of its usual type of movie to find enough offerings.

The 1980s were chockablock with silly movies about teenagers in high school or college trying to figure life out - school, sex, romance, future career, parents, you know, all the typical-teenage-angsty stuff. Some were pretty good, like The Breakfast Club, but many were not.

Despite TCM's efforts to make Shag into a significant or, at least, standout movie in its genre because it was directed by a woman, Zelda Barron, and about four young women, it's simply a mediocre effort in a crowded field. Set in 1963, it's the story of four southern girlfriends going on a not-parent-approved, kinda-bachelorette weekend to Myrtle Beach to dance (shag), party, meet boys - have fun.

As per the genre, each girl has her own issue - the engaged one is getting married to the "right" boy because her parents want her to; another one, the "rebel," is busting to get out of her claustrophobic-to-her town; a third one, the shy one, just wants to experience more of life and I never really figured out the fourth one's issue. And while the movie's secondary theme is that young girls like these in 1963 had less opportunities, or had to push harder to get those opportunities, this is no suffragette-cum-60s-feminist movie.

It's all by the numbers and you have it pretty much figured out no later than the first half of the movie. The engaged one meets a not-safe boy that she truly connects with and now is scared to tell her fiance and parents that she wants to break the engagement. The "rebel," in movie-world silliness, meets a talent agent and convinces him to take her to Hollywood (uh-huh) and the shy one meets a boy and learns to break out of her shell by dancing (see Footloose for a full exploration of this theme).

And while there are some nice moments and fun scenes, overall, the movie is more silly than poignant with a lot of sophomoric humor - like house trashing parties and scatological jokes - that, even by 1989, had been exhausted. While I yearn for a world where we don't care about the race or sex of the director, or anyone else, if TCM wants to highlight films made by women, that's its choice, but it should pick better ones than Shag.

 

[Harp]

^^^Phoebe Cates (and lovely lass Shannon Doherty) I thought were exceptional beauties.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^Phoebe Cates (and lovely lass Shannon Doherty) I thought were exceptional beauties.

It was fun to see these actresses when they were so young. I don't know who Page Hannah is, but I recognized the other three (although, Fonda seems to have disappeared years ago).

 

[Touchofevil]

26 inches of snow... Watched that movie all night long....

Worf

PS and before it even starts... all you folks in "warmer climes" can bite me!

I guess I would be one of those who that comment is directed towards.

 

[Touchofevil]

Not much really although TCM is on right now with Fitzwilly on deck.

 

[Fading Fast]

Not much really although TCM is on right now with Fitzwilly on deck.

The special on the Christmas movies was enjoyable.

 

[Touchofevil]

The special on the Christmas movies was enjoyable.

Yes, it was and is just one reason to have TCM on as much as possible at this time of year.

 

[Zombie_61]

It was fun to see these actresses when they were so young. I don't know who Page Hannah is, but I recognized the other three (although, Fonda seems to have disappeared years ago).

I've never heard of Page Hannah, so I looked her up on IMDb; it turns out I've never seen anything she's acted in. Bridget Fonda's last acting job was in 2002, and she married singer/composer Danny Elfman in 2003, so...

 

[Fading Fast]

I've never heard of Page Hannah, so I looked her up on IMDb; it turns out I've never seen anything she's acted in. Bridget Fonda's last acting job was in 2002, and she married singer/composer Danny Elfman in 2003, so...

The Fonda thing makes sense as she seemed to have had a pretty good career going and then just completely disappeared.

 

[Touchofevil]

Kiss of Death on TCM’s Noir Alley this morning.

 

[Fading Fast]

Kiss of Death on TCM’s Noir Alley this morning.

I recorded it - what did you think?

 

[Worf]

I guess I would be one of those who that comment is directed towards.

I believe there's an old saying about a shoe and how it fits....

Bah to the Humbug Worf

 

[Worf]

Kiss of Death on TCM’s Noir Alley this morning.

One of the greatest depictions of a psychopath ever put to film. Udo would give the Joker a run for his money.

Worf

 

[Worf]

"Black Christmas" - This 1975 proto-slasher has more holes than my last pair of Combat Boots. Decent cast wasted on a film that had all the elements to be a classic. BUT, the twist was weak, the ending was silly, the cops, even the smart ones, are dumb beyond belief and in the end the whole film falls in on itself. You never find out who's doing the killing and more importantly... WHY? Even the classic slashers of the 80's they at least gave you some reasoning no matter how flimsy. What a waste of 90 plus minutes of my life.

Worf

PS - Any puns or cheap jokes about the... title and the original poster will be folded, spindled and mutilated... strictly in keeping with the spirit of the season...