What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Zombie_61]

"Renfield" - Meh is about the best I can say. I was curious about seeing a film wherein Dracula's relationship with his familiar was explored and fleshed out. I got some of that but not enough. As soon as Akwafina showed up it turned into a Kung Fu/Gun fu gore fest. The action set pieces were okay but there was never enough reality for me to take any of the threats seriously, nor did I find anyone but the two leads remotely engaging. I regret my rental, wait till its streaming somewhere for free.

Worf

The main problem with the movie is Nicolas Cage. If they had cast almost ANYONE else in that role the movie would have been much improved. I got, I think, about 30 minutes into it, and I couldn't take it any more.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Devil's Disciple from 1959 with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier and Janette Scott


What fun! Based on a George Bernard Shaw play, The Devil's Disciple is a witty and irreverent take on the American Revolution with outstanding performances by three of Hollywood's giants of the era: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier.

Lancaster plays a gentle and thoughtful minister in a small New England town currently occupied by British soldiers during the American Revolution. Everyone is suspected by the British of being a "traitor" to the Crown, and not without reason.

Douglas plays a charmingly roguish American who appears to believe in little other than playfully tweaking reserved Lancaster. When Douglas is mistaken for Lancaster and arrested by the British, who now believe Lancaster is a spy, Douglas won't reveal the mistake.

Douglas knows he will hang, but he discovers he does believe in something - friendship. A quirky part of this moral conundrum is Lancaster's wife, played by pretty Janette Scott, who has developed a crush on Douglas.

Scott plays her uber-Puritan-wife role as a woman who doesn't want to have sexual thoughts, she undresses out of sight from her husband, but she knows something is stirring deep in her every time she looks at Douglas. Hester Prynne would understand.

Lancaster, learning what happened to Douglas, returns to town to turn himself in and save his irritating friend. On the way, though, he winds up in the middle of a battle where he finds his true self as an American patriot fighting the British.

The British themselves are led by an educated, cynical and honorable general, played by Olivier, who delivers one bitingly funny aside after another to his pompous commanders as Olivier sees what they don't: the British are losing.

Other than a fun and reasonably dramatic climax, that's the plot. But that synopsis doesn't capture the magic of this movie, which is its sharp and deprecatingly funny dialogue and its lighthearted approach to a serious moment in history.

Lancaster, starting off as the reserved minister, becomes a happy man when he finds himself in battle. Douglas, after starting out as a Peck's bad boy, finds his mettle in sacrificing himself for friendship and country, while maintaining his joie de vivre.

Lancaster and Douglas both play their roles with a bit of mirth, a bit of tongue and cheek, that not only fits the playful tone of the movie, but leads you to believe these two guys were having fun making this picture.

Olivier's character doesn't evolve, but his dismissive exasperation with his benighted officers is enjoyable from beginning to end. He makes fun of the rigidly arrogant English soldier, while also serving as an example of its honorable side.

You could see Lancaster's and Douglas' characters meeting up with Olivier's after the war and the three becoming good friends because these enemies are all men of principle who, without bloodlust, fight for their beliefs.

Its budget is small, its runtime is all of eighty-three minutes and its special effects are laughable, but with Shaw's dense, smart and funny dialogue, and its outstanding performances, The Devil's Disciple is incredibly enjoyable and spirited American Revolutionary War propaganda.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I've always enjoyed this pix because of its script. Douglas inherits paternal house as eldest son whereas
his mother curses him; Olivier compliments his rattlesnake meal; Lancaster's clerical collar is a bit soiled with
his running a finger over a saber handle saddle hung. But Janette Scott's role is weak with incredible chaste
spousal purity. She's not a nun but deflowered proper. Weded and beded not some tart cocktail waitress holdout
lesbie who suddenly gets bothered both hands as it were. And it wrinkles the blanket like this was Chesterton not Shaw. Which leads toy lead soldier animation, only partly reclaim to mature film by Lawrence's sagacious soldier
comment on what History will say about England losing her American colonies. And when pretty Janette is confronted
by both Douglas and Lancaster for choice she runs away like a silly school girl with a crush. Her character and other
weaknesses thru 'Deviltry' marr this tongue in cheek spoof yet it's watchable.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

After an extended hiatus we return to the watching of the Charlie Chan series in release order. I have most of the titles on dvd, and the few that aren't on the shelf are available via Amazon (there appears to be a youtube channel with the entire catalog posted; it bears further investigation).

Having viewed about half of the forty-plus productions (it's taken years), I resumed watching with Murder Over New York (1940) and Dead Men Tell (1941). The series can be formulaic: Lt. Chan of the Honolulu PD is somewhere for a meeting or a convention or something and stumbles across a murder. At the invitation of the local law he investigates. One of his sons wants to play detective and goofs up a lot.

The two titles mentioned were directed by Harry Lachman, a former painter and film studio art director, who helmed a number of Chan productions. Lachman raises the quality of the movies with some interesting staging for the actors and a gently fluid camera. Especially well-done are screen-filling close-ups, both with dialogue or suspicious eye-shifting as clues unfold. Additionally, he positions a speaker very close to the camera (as in we see only their face) while engaged in a conversation and the other actors are in the middle background. He probably drew upon his art background for the composition of the shot.

A long time ago I drove about an hour to a "revival house" theatre that was screening two of the movies, and met Keye Luke, who made an appearance. I got to shake his hand; it was super cool.

 

[Worf]

The main problem with the movie is Nicolas Cage. If they had cast almost ANYONE else in that role the movie would have been much improved. I got, I think, about 30 minutes into it, and I couldn't take it any more.

That's an interesting take. Most reviewers had said that Cage was/is the ONLY thing worth watching in this film. I found Cage's performance to be well... Cage. Not as over the top as some others but enjoyable/tolerable. If you go into a movie starring Cage it's a better'n even chance you're gonna love him or hate him. That's just the way he roles. Thanks for chiming in.

Worf

 

[Worf]

View attachment 532591
The Devil's Disciple from 1959 with Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier and Janette Scott


What fun! Based on a George Bernard Shaw play, The Devil's Disciple is a witty and irreverent take on the American Revolution with outstanding performances by three of Hollywood's giants of the era: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Laurence Olivier.

Lancaster plays a gentle and thoughtful minister in a small New England town currently occupied by British soldiers during the American Revolution. Everyone is suspected by the British of being a "traitor" to the Crown, and not without reason.

Douglas plays a charmingly roguish American who appears to believe in little other than playfully tweaking reserved Lancaster. When Douglas is mistaken for Lancaster and arrested by the British, who now believe Lancaster is a spy, Douglas won't reveal the mistake.

Douglas knows he will hang, but he discovers he does believe in something - friendship. A quirky part of this moral conundrum is Lancaster's wife, played by pretty Janette Scott, who has developed a crush on Douglas.

Scott plays her uber-Puritan-wife role as a woman who doesn't want to have sexual thoughts, she undresses out of sight from her husband, but she knows something is stirring deep in her every time she looks at Douglas. Hester Prynne would understand.

Lancaster, learning what happened to Douglas, returns to town to turn himself in and save his irritating friend. On the way, though, he winds up in the middle of a battle where he finds his true self as an American patriot fighting the British.

The British themselves are led by an educated, cynical and honorable general, played by Olivier, who delivers one bitingly funny aside after another to his pompous commanders as Olivier sees what they don't: the British are losing.

Other than a fun and reasonably dramatic climax, that's the plot. But that synopsis doesn't capture the magic of this movie, which is its sharp and deprecatingly funny dialogue and its lighthearted approach to a serious moment in history.

Lancaster, starting off as the reserved minister, becomes a happy man when he finds himself in battle. Douglas, after starting out as a Peck's bad boy, finds his mettle in sacrificing himself for friendship and country, while maintaining his joie de vivre.

Lancaster and Douglas both play their roles with a bit of mirth, a bit of tongue and cheek, that not only fits the playful tone of the movie, but leads you to believe these two guys were having fun making this picture.

Olivier's character doesn't evolve, but his dismissive exasperation with his benighted officers is enjoyable from beginning to end. He makes fun of the rigidly arrogant English soldier, while also serving as an example of its honorable side.

You could see Lancaster's and Douglas' characters meeting up with Olivier's after the war and the three becoming good friends because these enemies are all men of principle who, without bloodlust, fight for their beliefs.

Its budget is small, its runtime is all of eighty-three minutes and its special effects are laughable, but with Shaw's dense, smart and funny dialogue, and its outstanding performances, The Devil's Disciple is incredibly enjoyable and spirited American Revolutionary War propaganda.

I've seen this film, shot in glorious B&W several times. Firstly as a period drama and secondly, because I've visited the Saratoga Battlefield several times. I've even seen reenactments of the battle. Gentlemen Johnny... hilarious. Douglas and Lancaster are at the height (or skin close to it) of their physical prowess and (at least to me) they seemed to be trying one up one another with stunts on the set. The entire cast is perfect. And as you point out Olivier is one helluva scene stealer in this production. Love it.

Worf

PS, I'm amazed that anyone was ever struck by Brown Bess flintlock musket fire. While watching reenactments, half of the weapons misfired or hang fired upon use. Most of these were modern reproductions so it wasn't that they were using 200 plus year old weapons... I guess that's why bayonet charges were so prevalent back then.

 

[Fading Fast]

Virtue from 1932 with Carole Lombard, Pat O'Brien and Mayo Methot


A movie like Virtue could only have been made in precode Hollywood. Once the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced after 1934, morality in movies was black and white. Then, by the time the code fell in the 1960s, morality itself was being denounced and never recovered.

But for about four years in the early 1930s, Hollywood made films that showed the messy reality of how society hammered out a street-level realpolitik version of morality that was more honest than the treacly one Hollywood preached under the code.

In Virtue, the prostitutes have most of the virtue and it's the men who often need the lessons in morality. Carole Lombard plays a former prostitute who meets a loudmouth but basically good-guy cab driver played by Pat O'Brien.

O'Brien isn't going to be fooled by women because, as he brags to his friends, "he has their number," but then he falls hard for Lombard who keeps her past a secret. They're married and all is going well until her past comes back to haunt them both.

That past comes back in a pretty complicated way involving Lombard trying to help out a prostitute friend who once helped her, but the ensuing confusion leads to O'Brien thinking the worst about his wife's virtue. Plus, Lombard is charged with a murder she didn't commit.

After O'Brien has a pity party for himself, he faces his come-to-Jesus moment in the movie's climax where he has to decide if he's going to stand by his wife or by his ego masquerading as a principle. It's a moral conundrum code-era Hollywood would never present.

Virtue shows Lombard and her prostitute friend, played by Mayo Methot (one of Bogie's wives), as not only being smarter than the men, but having more integrity and loyalty. The slimiest character in the movie is Methot's grifter boyfriend played by Jack La Rue.

Yes, Lombard and Methot are "whores," but they are sympathetic characters forced by circumstances into their "profession." They support their men, emotionally and financially, put up with their men's cheating and egos, but are still kind to each other.

It's an impressively pro-women movie that works because pre-mega-stardom Lombard is believable as the cynical, weary, but kind and honest prostitute trying to make a better life for herself with O'Brien.

Methot, too, is impressive as the older prostitute eventually faced with the decision of having to keep quiet to protect her grifter boyfriend or doing the right thing ethically to save her fellow prostitute friend. Girl power isn't something new.

O'Brien is well cast here, too, as the man was born to play a blowhard who's not really a bad guy under the bluster. Still, he's just along for the ride as Virtue is a women's movie.

In Depression era America, many young women were pushed by circumstances into prostitution. It's a pretty common pre-code plot that often had husbands and boyfriends, who benefitted from the money, having to come to terms with a harsh reality.

Virtue takes a strong stance in support of these women against the prevailing era's ostensible morality that says it's “the fallen woman's" fault. It's a window into the real workings of a stressed society that would be palliated in movies once the code was enforced.

Just because movies took a hard pivot after 1934 doesn't mean society did as contemporaneous books and newspapers show that, in real life in the later 1930s, society continued its precode bending and flexing to a reality the movies decided to no longer show.

Virtue rips by in sixty-eight minutes with its message being some women, in the Depression, became prostitutes because they had to, but they are often good women who are kinder and smarter than their men. That's a heck of a surprising message to hear from 1930s America.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Man of the West (1958)

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Fast Virtue and era struck a nerve. I've been reading and looking at YTube reviews for Sound of Freedom.
And dumbstruck by its content and global occurrence. Despite knowing about Randy Andy and his problems
with Epstein the debauchery extent nevertheless in SOF is jarring. I don't know when Sound will open UK but I'll
have to see this. Dreadful but a film that demands acknowledgement.

 

[Fading Fast]

Daisy Kenyon from 1947 with Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, Henry Fonda and Ruth Warrick


Daisy Kenyon proves the value of a major studio putting its full resources, including an A-list director and top actors, behind a project, as this juicy soap opera, in lesser hands, could easily have spiralled into silliness, but here it is a tight and engaging melodrama.

Joan Crawford plays a successful New York City commercial artist having an affair with a successful high-profile and married-with-children lawyer, played by Dana Andrews. Their relationship is relatively stable as she's independent and doesn't want to break up his home.

Not that things are good at home for Andrews, as his wife, played by Ruth Warrick, and he have a contentious relationship over his long absences "for business," she's not stupid, and their different approaches to child rearing: he's' the good guy, she's the disciplinarian.

Another wrinkle is that Andrews is a partner in Warrick's father's law firm. But since Andrews is the rainmaker at the firm, he has the real leverage.

Into that combustible setup enters a returning soldier and widower, played by Henry Fonda. Fonda begins dating Crawford, which puts heavy pressure on the Crawford-Andrews relationship, especially when Fonda asks Crawford to marry him.

From here the movie blasts off into what today we call tabloid-journalism territory but, back then, was fodder for the rotogravure section of the paper with a quicky marriage, public divorce, child-custody battle, car crash and plenty of guilt, alcohol and bitter exchanges.

It works because every scene is tight, whether it's Andrews belittling his father-in-law trying to use the business to score points for his daughter's custody battle or Fonda quietly outplaying smug Andrews over a set of unsigned divorce papers.

The dialogue is sharp, with each character landing their share of blows. Andrews plays the cocky guy accustomed to winning; Crawford portrays a strong woman growing increasingly angry, and Fonda is the seemingly unassuming one who is really smarter than the other two.

Crawford is in the sweet spot of her career at this point playing a woman having an affair, while also being chased by another man. Andrews is surprisingly good as the outwardly friendly guy with a vicious mean streak underneath.

In a smaller, third-billed role, this might not have seemed like a great career opportunity for a star of Fonda's stature. Yet artistically, Fonda's nuanced portrayal of a kind but emotionally wounded man makes his the most-engaging performance of the three leads.

The real joy in this one is watching Fonda's tortoise slowly overtake Andrews' hare. But none of this would have worked without director Otto Preminger's complete control of the almost unwieldy story.

Every scene is crisp and each transition is smooth as Preminger builds to a killer climax. A Douglas Sirk Technicolor version couldn't top Preminger's beautiful use of crisp black and white, which gives this soap-opera tale just a hint of menace at the right moments.

Daisy Kenyon is the product of a post-war Hollywood studio system still firing on all cylinders. With a big budget, top production quality, three stars near the peak of their careers and Preminger's total command of the material, the result is a slick and entertaining-as-heck melodrama.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Catching up with the Shellhammer Palais du Cinema-
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow ( 2004), conceived, directed, and driven by the vision of Kerry Conran. If you're on this board and on this thread, it's better than even money you know about this loving homage to pulp fiction, comic books, movie serials, and a healthy dose of King Kong.

Speaking of which, next on the menu was the original King Kong (1933), directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, starring Robert Armstrong, Fay Wray, and Bruce Cabot. On some posters, Kong gets co-billing. Great stuff, nothing like movie audiences had ever seen before.* Willis O'Brien and his crew work stop-motion magic with a giant ape, dinosaurs, and some things that look like dinosaurs. Max Steiner's score takes the whole picture into another realm. Trivial observation: when the island chief descends stone stairs to greet Carl Denham et al, listen how a ponderous series of notes from a tuba match his steps exactly, even when he accidentally breaks stride.

Continuing with the Charlie Chan marathon, it was Charlie Chan in Rio (1941), dir. Harry Lachman, in which Lt. Chan visits Rio to arrest someone on a murder charge. Which raises the question, does US law enforcement have any authority in Brazil? Also, isn't there an absence of an extradition treaty between the US and Brazil? However, the suspect gets bumped off, and the local chief of police (Harold Huber) lets Charlie take over. Stay until the very end because the solution to the murder is quite complicated.

Followed by Castle in the Desert (1942), dir. Harry Lachman. Jimmy Chan is on leave from the Army, and he and his dad are in San Francisco for some vacationing. A letter asks Charlie to help a situation in a castle in California's desert and off we go. Global war prevented Lt. Chan from solving cases in foreign climes, so we stay close to home. Location shots look like the real desert thing, maybe not Death Valley but very close to it. The castle is clearly inspired by the famous Scotty's Castle in Death Valley. There is an interesting documentary on the disc about the Chan character and the film series, well worth a watch.

* Okay, okay, The Lost World (1925) is pretty impressive.

 

[Fading Fast]

Catching up with the Shellhammer Palais du Cinema-
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow ( 2004), conceived, directed, and driven by the vision of Kerry Conran. If you're on this board and on this thread, it's better than even money you know about this loving homage to pulp fiction, comic books, movie serials, and a healthy dose of King Kong.

Speaking of which, next on the menu was the original King Kong (1933), directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, starring Robert Armstrong, Fay Wray, and Bruce Cabot. On some posters, Kong gets co-billing. Great stuff, nothing like movie audiences had ever seen before.* Willis O'Brien and his crew work stop-motion magic with a giant ape, dinosaurs, and some things that look like dinosaurs. Max Steiner's score takes the whole picture into another realm. Trivial observation: when the island chief descends stone stairs to greet Carl Denham et al, listen how a ponderous series of notes from a tuba match his steps exactly, even when he accidentally breaks stride.

Continuing with the Charlie Chan marathon, it was Charlie Chan in Rio (1941), dir. Harry Lachman, in which Lt. Chan visits Rio to arrest someone on a murder charge. Which raises the question, does US law enforcement have any authority in Brazil? Also, isn't there an absence of an extradition treaty between the US and Brazil? However, the suspect gets bumped off, and the local chief of police (Harold Huber) lets Charlie take over. Stay until the very end because the solution to the murder is quite complicated.

Followed by Castle in the Desert (1942), dir. Harry Lachman. Jimmy Chan is on leave from the Army, and he and his dad are in San Francisco for some vacationing. A letter asks Charlie to help a situation in a castle in California's desert and off we go. Global war prevented Lt. Chan from solving cases in foreign climes, so we stay close to home. Location shots look like the real desert thing, maybe not Death Valley but very close to it. The castle is clearly inspired by the famous Scotty's Castle in Death Valley. There is an interesting documentary on the disc about the Chan character and the film series, well worth a watch.

* Okay, okay, The Lost World (1925) is pretty impressive.

Somehow I've never seen "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," but based on your comments and since it's in rotation on HBO right now, I just set my DVR to record it.

Great comments on "King Kong." I am more amazed with that movie every time I see it. It's not only held up very well, it's been incredibly influential over the years.

While I've seen a Charlie Chan movie or two, it's one of the "Golden Era's" cultural things that's, pretty much, passed me by, which I might have to correct. When I do, I think I'll start with the first book or two before I even go on to the movies.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Sky Captain was received with much excitement here when it came out, there are definitely threads about it. I took my kids to see it theatrically and got the DVD. And yeah, it looks cool and it's fun... for a while.

As far as "the vision" of director Kerry Conran, that's the problem. He was a techie who made a cool five-minute retro short on his home computer. It impressed folks enough to give him the budget to turn it into a feature, with professional actors on all-green screen sets. But you know, just having technology and a budget doesn't make you a skilled filmmaker.

As storytelling, it's inept. Poorly directed and badly paced, it runs out of steam long before the climax. There comes a point where the cool visuals and King Kong/Lost Horizon/Fleischer Superman/etc. Easter eggs lose their excitement, and the chemistry-free performances just lay there. Kerry Conran never made another feature film.

Sky Captain certainly has its moments; it's an interesting curio... And a cautionary tale about what happens when a film studio mistakes new technology for moviemaking talent.

 

[Fading Fast]

Boomerang! from 1947 with Dana Andrews, Lee J. Cobb and Ed Begley


Boomerang! shamelessly packs a lot of morality into its brief eighty-eight minutes, but it works because it's based on a real event - sometimes life offers up its own sermon.

In an "average" Connecticut town, a minister is shot and killed on his nightly walk. Despite several witnesses, there are no suspects, which has the town angry and the in-power "reform" party's local boss, played by Ed Begley, pressing hard on the police chief, played by Lee J. Cobb, to solve the case before the upcoming election.

After an extensive investigation, a suspect is found, evidence is collected (witnesses identify him, ballistics evidence says it is his gun) and a preliminary hearing is scheduled. The State's Attorney, played by Dana Andrews, has his doubts, but Begley presses him hard, too.

Begley reveals to Andrews that his, Begley's, personal finances are fully leveraged to a land deal that will only go through if his party wins the upcoming election, which will only happen if they convict the suspect.

Begley also "points out" that Andrew's wife, as the committee chair of the government department buying the land, while innocent of the scam, if it all comes out, will look dirty. Finally, Begley dangles the governorship in front of Andrews if he gets the conviction.

With that setup, Andrews has every reason to sweep his doubts aside, except for the law, integrity and justice. He now faces his The Ox-bow Incident and Judgement and Nuremberg moment all in one.

Echoing the former, when an angry crowd forms around the prisoner as he's being escorted to court, only Andrews and the police chief Cobb are able to stop the lynching.

Then in a strong echo of the latter movie, Begley presses a contemplative Andrews with this question, "Is one man's life worth more than the community?" Andrews gives the only answer a man and prosecutor of integrity could.

Then and now, the job of a prosecutor is not to rack up conviction any more than it is to let guilty men go free; the job of a prosecutor is to see that justice is done. That message from Boomerang! is no less important and relevant today.

It's still undecided as all Andrews seems to have is his doubts versus some pretty damning evidence. From here, it's off to a climatic preliminary hearing where Andrews will try to sort all that out in the cauldron of a very public trial.

Director Eli Kazan is in his sweet spot with this one as he loves stories of the underdog against the crowd. Yes, he lays the lessons on thick, but by hewing closely to the truth, he keeps the story and morality afloat.

It helps also that a strong cast - Begley as a sleazy political boss, Cobb as a cantankerous police chief and Andrews as the square-jawed hero - has everyone in a role they were born to play.

Boomerang! is a tale of political corruption and mob justice pushing against the right of each individual to fair and impartial justice. It's a tale that has been told since man has been telling stories, but it will never get old.

 

[Fading Fast]

Soldier in The Rain from 1963 with Jackie Gleason, Steve McQueen and Tuesday Weld


"Let me tell you something, my friend, being a fat narcissist isn't easy."
- Jackie Gleason as Master Sergeant Maxwell Slaughter


Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen star in the all-but-plotless and offbeat, but also poignant buddy movie Soldier in the Rain.

Gleason, playing a master sergeant, and McQueen, playing a sergeant, are best friends. The rub is that calm and erudite Gleason is completely settled into a cushy niche in the army, while simple and enthusiastic McQueen wants them to get out and become rich.

Early on, the movie feels like a farce as Gleason has McQueen carrying out a silly scheme that plays like a 1930s screwball comedy. This might turn some viewers off, but if you stay with it, the movie slowly becomes a good comedy and, then, an excellent drama.

Gleason is a fatherly figure to McQueen with McQueen playing the adult son that forces Gleason out of his protective shell - a shell we learn the outwardly confident, but inwardly insecure Gleason built because of his weight.

After the early hijinx, the movie becomes a romcom for a flash when McQueen sets middle-aged Gleason up with a high school senior played by Tuesday Weld. This could have gone horribly wrong, especially by today's standards, but Gleason was too smart to let that happen.

He plays his scenes opposite Weld's insecure high school girl as a man who is very respectful, clearly knowing that a relationship between the two would be unseemly. His standoffishness is so unexpected, it is amusingly droll.

When he and Weld then bond as friends, it is genuinely touching. They are both lost souls in their own way who become unlikely buddies. The following exchange, during which Weld tries to compliment Gleason, reveals the funny tenderness of their relationship.


Weld: [after Gleason physically stopped a man from inappropriately coming on to her] "You were like Randolph Scott on the late, late movies, [Weld pauses and then ads] a fat Randolph Scott."

Gleason: [somewhat amused and somewhat sad] "A fat Randolph Scott?"


Now that McQueen has brought Gleason partially out of his shell, the movie ramps to a climax that shows the deep bond of their friendship as a stupid bar fight leads to a crisis that brings the picture to a surprisingly emotional ending.

This is Gleason's movie and that's not a knock on McQueen. It's just that Gleason's emotionally unguarded portrayal of a damaged and sensitive man hiding under a confident pose is so movingly understated that it is too much for McQueen to match.

Credit is also owed to director Ralph Nelson for transitioning his movie from farce to comedy to touching drama. It's not perfect as the style changes are a bridge too far, but that the movie didn't spiral out of control is a testament to Nelson's firm hand.

Would this be a better-known movie today had they cut out the screwball style in the early scenes and made the entire picture a straight-forward comedy/drama? Yes as, unfortunately, the story gets very good only after half the audience has, probably, given up on it.

Without much of a plot and the already noted style discord, Soldier in the Rain has too much of a handicap to be a great movie. Despite that, at its core, it is still a wonderful buddy movie anchored by Gleason's nuanced and poignant portrayal of an unhappy fat man.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

Fast, first class taker on film, never seen, but Gleason had more in the tank than Cramden though quite good,
let on, really showed. And I am anything McQueen. Steverino had it down spades. Did he ever take Oscar home?

 

[Worf]

"Lamb" - This Icelandic film is a bit of a conundrum.... Beautifully shot, well acted but with a story that kinda defies description and baffles the mind of most mere mortals. This film is "different" with a capital "D". Like most A24 offerings... there's load of striking visuals, bizarre goings on and WTF moments. A24 is my fave modern production company. They find and make ORIGINAL movies, thought provoking films and none of the typical Hollywood, remake/sequel blockbuster drivel. If you want a slow burn, beautiful movie with a few jaw dropping twists... give it a watch. Well worth the rental... still talking/thinking about this one.

Worf

 

[Zombie_61]

...And I am anything McQueen. Steverino had it down spades. Did he ever take Oscar home?

No. He was nominated in the "Best Actor" category for The Sand Pebbles (1966), but the award went to Lee Marvin for Cat Ballou.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

The Sand Pebbles is a splendid classic. The Academy voters committed a sin by passing Steverino.

 

[Frunobulax]

The Sand Pebbles is a splendid classic. The Academy voters committed a sin by passing Steverino.

Nah, Lee Marvin was brilliant in Cat Ballou.