Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

Messages
12,736
Location
Northern California
Mirage on TCM. First time viewing. It kind of felt like it was inspired by North by Northwest. A nice cast starring Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, George Kennedy, and Walter Matthau. It was worth the watch. New York City circa 1965 was pretty cool to see and made it much more fun to watch.
:D
 
Messages
17,263
Location
New York City
MV5BODAwNzI4ODAtZWNlMy00MmNiLTliZTAtYzVjMmY2NzY2YWQ1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE2NzA0Ng@@._V1_.jpg

Ivy from 1947 with Joan Fontaine, Richard Ney, Cedric Hardwicke, Patric Knowles, Lucille Watson, Herbert Marshall and Sara Allgood


In Ivy, Joan Fontane is outstanding playing against type as a Victorian-era femme fatale with too many men and not enough money. Her character's passive aggressive menace is some of her best work. Unfortunately, an average script keeps Ivy from being a great movie.

Despite the script's mediocrity, director Sam Wood still made an engaging Victorian Era noir that smartly leverages its strong cast, large budget, quirky but effective score and lavish "periodish" sets and costumes, all shot in beautiful black and white.

Fontaine plays the wife of a kind man, played by Richard Ney, struggling to support them in the upper-class lifestyle they were used to, but which he can no longer afford. He's accepting of their situation; Fontaine, pretty and coveted by other men, is not.

She already has a lover, a doctor played by Patrick Knowles, but he wants her to get a divorce, something she knows her husband won't consider, so she is looking elsewhere. Elsewhere turns out to be an older, very rich gentleman played by Herbert Marshall.

Owing to the Motion Picture Production Code, the between-the-sheets stuff is ellided, but it seems that Fontaine would be happy being Marshall mistress (as long as it came with a big and regular check), but he won't sleep with a married woman, so she's got a problem.

Poor Joan, all she wants to do is have an affair and get paid. Is that so much to ask? Most men are happy to sleep with a woman and not have to marry her, but Fontaine keeps running into the honorable ones. So what is little Joanie to do?

It's a big leap, but Fontaine is an ambitious woman and Knowles, being a doctor, has a big bottle of poison just sitting there, so it's goodbye hubby. Innocent looking Fontaine, proves to have quite a devious mind, as she not only offs Ney, she sets Knowles up to take the fall.

The heart of the movie from here is Fontaine trying to keep all the pieces of her scheme in place as the placid but persistent, intuitive and smart Scotland Yard inspector, wonderfully played by Cedric Hardwicke, quietly but relentlessly keeps investigating.

It's a standard "wife murders poor husband to marry rich one" story, with the twist of the wife having an old lover around to pin the crime on. There's a trial, much angst and plenty of opportunity for Fontaine to think on her feet, but in 1947, crime in movies can't pay.

Unfortunately, however, the writer and director are way too obvious in showing us, early on, the clue that will undo Fontaine. So while the movie is still entertaining to see, most of the mystery is taken out of the story near the beginning.

It's also hard to believe that Fontaine, who has shown herself to be incredibly smart, cunning and forward thinking, would have been so careless with an obviously damning piece of evidence, but a plot has its needs.

Fontaine, though, not the plot, is the focus in this one. She's so darn pretty and tiny that you're stunned when she coldly plans and carries out a murder. You're further stunned when she shows the tenacity and ruthlessness to let another person hang for her crime.

She plays her character like a cute kitten with the heart of a jaguar. She even physically moves like a cat at times, calmly backing up as she gets ready to pounce or simpering before telling a deadly lie. It's a performance you will remember.

It's aided by an atypical score that includes a haunting harpsichord leitmotif that plays when Fontaine's character is thinking about her next devious move. It has a somewhat playful lilt, but used here, it contributes to the feeling that Fontaine is, possibly, insane.

Ney, Knowles and Marshall, all pros, are fine as the men in Fontaine's orbit, but it is the aforementioned Hardwicke who brings the real counterpoint to Fontaine's surprisingly indominable will.

Lucile Watson as Knowles' much-smarter-than-he mother is, as always, outstanding in another picture made under the Code with strong women. Sara Allgood’s performance also deserves mention as Knowles' loyal-to-a-fault housekeeper.

Had Ivy’s script been less of a copycat and had it hid its telling clue with more confidence in its audience, it would be a better picture. But with Fontaine's bravura performance, its talented supporting cast and a wonderful Victorian noir vibe, it's still a quite-engaging movie.
 
Messages
17,263
Location
New York City
noGreaterGlory1_b.jpg

No Greater Glory from 1934


No Greater Glory's story of two rival gangs of kids fighting to defend their playground works as a straight-forward Hungarian Our Gang-/East Side Kids-movie mashup, but it also works as an allegorical anti-war movie.

The picture opens with an All Quiet on the Western Front series of scenes. An amputee soldier bitterly denounces patriotism followed by a Hungarian schoolmaster extolling, to his student, the virtues of fighting for one's country. The movie then transitions to those students.

The students, all boys, are part of The Paul Street Boys gang whose playground, an abandoned lot, is being threatened by a rival gang, The Red Shirts. Both gangs are set up as kid versions of a military command structure.

The Paul Street Boys are all around the age of twelve. They are a few years younger than The Red Shirts. They've also made themselve all officers, except for poor Nemecsek who is the only private. He's made to do most of the grunt work and is often put "on report."

Nemecsek, though, is a true believer in the cause. Smaller than the others, his great passion in life is to become an officer and, thus, be able to wear an officer's cap. His financially poor parents are surprisingly indulgent of Nemecsek's passion for his gang.

From here, the tension increases as the two gangs prepare for "war," a fight to see who will control the abandoned lot. In a pre-war incursion, The Paul Street Boy's flag is stolen by The Red Shirt Boys with the help of a traitor.

In a nighttime raid to get the flag back, Nemecsek distinguishes himself for bravery despite not recovering the flag. His unsuccessful effort is even respected by The Red Shirt Boys. Nemecsek is every anonymous soldier who risks his life for "the greater good."

The preparations are frighteningly similar to real war preparations as positions are fortified, weapons (sand bombs) are made, strategy is plotted (the leader of The Paul Street Boys reads a book on war), trenches are dug and words of glory and honor are brayed.

The big battle, no real spoilers coming, proves as senseless as real war battles often do. In World War I, which clearly influenced the screenwriters and director Frank Borzage, battles were fought and lives lost over meaningless scraps of land that regularly changed hands.

No Greater Glory is based on Hungarian writer Ferenc Molnar's 1906 novel The Paul Street Boys, which reflects Molnar's childhood experiences. It obviously predates The Great War, but since many wars are brutal and senseless, it was easily adapted to WWI.

As a story about growing up, one assumes Molnar captured his own childhood well since the kids and their passions feel real even a hundred-plus years later. As a commentary on the horror of war, Molnar and Borzage delivered a powerful allegorical denunciation.

After every war, the anti-war movies follow. These movies are important and valuable, but they all have one challenge as no anti-war movie has ever explained how the world stops the evil dictators, the Hitlers, the Putins, from subjugating countries, if those countries don't fight back.

No Greater Glory would be an even better anti-war movie if it hadn't grafted on its obvious WWI All Quiet on the Western Front framing scenes as the kids' fort-battle analogy is powerful on its own. Sometimes a filmmaker has to have more confidence in his audience.

No Greater Glory is, even today, still an engaging allegorical take on the horrors of war. Looking back almost a century later, it's sobering and sadly ironic to realize that at least some of the actors who played gang members in the movie must have died fighting in WWII.
 
Messages
17,263
Location
New York City
MV5BMWYxMGI3ZWUtMWQzMS00NDc0LWE0ZjktYzhjYTYzNDkxYTIxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTk2MzI2Ng@@._V1_.jpg

She Couldn't Say No from 1953 with Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Arthur Hunnicutt and Edgar Buchanan


Before Hallmark, Hollywood realized there was money in simple romantic comedies with obvious scripts and easy-to-overcome problems. But Hollywood, back in the 1950s and still in the studio system, knew how to make these hokey stories genuinely fun and appealing.

It also helps to have top stars like Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons in the lead roles and not some B-actors on the downside of an already mediocre career. It also helps to have outstanding character actors like Arthur Hunnicutt and Edgar Buchanan and a top-tier director like Lloyd Bacon.

In the stupidly titled, She Couldn't Say No, Simmons is an oil baron heiress who only survived as a child when a small town took up a collection to pay for a life-saving operation for her that her father, then, was too poor to afford. Now, twenty-year old, well-intended-but-slightly-ditzy Simmons goes back, incognito, to the town to repay everyone for his or her kindness.

The town, think Petticoat Junction (even including the future Uncle Joe, AKA Edgar Buchanan, as the owner of the general store), is quiet, quirky, cute and stable. It has one veterinarian, one young, handsome doctor, played by Robert Mitchum, one town drunk, one boarding house that serves as the "hotel," one bar that serves a potent moonshine, one stream for the doctor to fish in and no traffic lights.

Simmons bumps into and irritates the young doctor upon arrival, but we all know where this is going even while they are having their first fight. Sometimes, it's relaxing to know ahead of time how a movie will end if, as it is here, it's fun getting there.

The fun and charm here is Mitchum making Simmons a late night ice-cream soda in the closed, but never-locked local drug store or city-girl Simmons trying to fly fish to impress serious hobbyist Mitchum.

It's also the town drunk getting sick because his system can't handle the good scotch Simmons bought for him or the veterinarian quitting with his Simmons-provided windfall, which forces a-bit-full-of-himself medical doctor Mitchum to have to care for a horse.

The rest of the movie is, as expected, all whimsy goofiness: Simmons' anonymous gifts upsets the comfortable, yet delicate balance of the community, while Mitchum, with the help of his precocious ten-year-old friend, figures Simmons' game out.

Simmons and Mitchum then flirt fight, as he calls her out on the damage she does, especially when the town is overrun with outsiders after word of the gifts gets out. Simmons, meanwhile, becomes jealous of the cute local girl who has her eye on "doc" Mitchum.

The entire plot of She Couldn't Say No is a mcguffin as the point of the movie is to see a small rural community of likable characters have their world shaken up a bit, while two attractive people deny what is obvious to everyone else, that they are falling in love.

Director Lloyd Bacon knew his job was to move the picture along at a quick pace, while hitting as many cute notes as possible along the way. But it wouldn't work if not for the incredible appeal of the leads and character actors who carry the script over its silliness. She Couldn't Say No is fluff, but it's well-done fluff, which is more than enough.


N.B. There is a 1940 movie of the same name that is in no way related.
 

Julian Shellhammer

Practically Family
Messages
898
Browsing through the vast offerings of TCM, we find The Death Kiss (1933) with David Manners, Adrienne Ames, and Bela Lugosi. Ames is a star at a Hollywood movie studio, Manners is a studio writer, and Lugosi is the studio manager. Lugosi's appearance is sort of switcheroo since he has a small part but is billed prominently. Dracula in a dapper suit is a change for us.
A leading star is murdered, right as they are filming a scene!, and we spend the bulk of our story investigating clues on the studio lot. It's fun, because we hear what a gaffer is and does, how the lighting director sort of influences the director, how a property manager provides props, and so on. Stereotypically, the police can't figure out the clues, jump to conclusions, declare the mystery solved only to be shown up by Manners.
Interestingly, there are occasional tintings, such as light from wall sconces, flashlights, yellow smoke from a fire, muzzle flashes from a shoot-out, etc.
 

FOXTROT LAMONT

One Too Many
Messages
1,722
Location
St John's Wood, London UK
When last business took me to San Francisco I almost bought a wonderfully done oil canvass depiction
of Joannes Vermeer's A Girl With A Pearl Earring, but miser meself turned fool and declined to lasting regret.
Yesterday was a brutal global fracas so after work pub shove steak and ale, then lo, a film found titled same
source regret wrote Scarlet Johansson, Colin Firth, and Peaky Blinders from Oppenheimer, ahh what's his face,
Ciliain Murphy, aye, superb acting all around. This majestic canvass shown start to finish now hangs in the Hague and the lass portrayed by Ms Johansson is spot on in every way.
 

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,262
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
Oh, Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003) is a wonderful film.

prlearng.jpg

I first saw it at a pre-release screening after already having read the excellent novel it's based on - it's a stellar adaptation. Such incredible production design and cinematography - every shot looks like a Vermeer painting. And outstanding acting all around - you didn't mention the great Tom Wilkinson with the smarm turned up to 11 as Vermeer's creepy patron, or Essie Davis as Vermeer's fragile, difficult wife. Great score by Alexandre Desplat too.

Back at the time, ScarJo was being touted as the hot-young-thing sexpot actress of the moment... but in this film, where she's completely covered up - the most erotic moment is when she removes her cap to reveal her hair - she proved herself a tremendous actress. The book uses first-person narration, so we always know precisely what Griet is thinking. The film doesn't, but apart from one or two little things (*), Scarlett communicates everything with gestures, expressions, and dialog. Her performance was a revelation.

(* E.g., the opening sequence, where she's cutting vegetables and arranging them on a plate. In the book, it's much clearer that she's enjoying it, exhibiting a sense of color sensitivity and composition, an artistic sensibility. It's important because Vermeer will ultimately notice her artistic sense, and bring it to fruition as she helps him mix his paints, etc.)

Anyway, I watch it every couple of years...
 

FOXTROT LAMONT

One Too Many
Messages
1,722
Location
St John's Wood, London UK
Oh, Girl With A Pearl Earring (2003) is a wonderful film. - you didn't mention the great Tom Wilkinson with the smarm turned up to 11 as Vermeer's creepy patron, or Essie Davis as Vermeer's fragile, difficult wife. Great score by Alexandre Desplat too.
Indeed, and Vermeer's mother in law hit the absolute right pitch.
As regards patronage and dependency I found Griet much less captive soul than either patrician patron
or plebeian painter Vermeer, whereas her heart possessed far greater wealth than all four principal adults.
At film's core essence a portrait of beauty revealed far more beneath its gloss veneer.
 
Messages
17,263
Location
New York City
ceea00aba12984856130558709a64676.gif

Arabesque from 1966 with Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck


Director Stanley Donen made two Hitchcockian-like movies in the 1960s, Charade and Arabesque. Charade, with a better story and Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in the leads, gets the nod over Arabesque, but the latter is still a fun picture.

In Arabesque, Gregory Peck plays a professor whose knowledge of hieroglyphs gets him drawn into a plot to assassinate the Prime Minister of an oil-rich Middle Eastern country presently visiting London.

The Prime Minister asks for Peck's help. Peck, a bumbling-professor type, agrees out of a sense of honor. From there, though, bookish Peck spends the movie entangled with the bad guys after he's quickly kidnapped by the mastermind behind the assassination plot.

The mastermind wants Peck to translate (macguffin alert) a short note, written in hieroglyphs, containing information about the assassination attempt. While a prisoner, Peck meets a mysterious woman played by Sophia Loren.

Loren seems to be working for the bad guys, but is she? As Peck tries to unravel the mystery, which involves not only deciphering the note, but also getting all the players straight - there are a lot of them - Loren, time and again, seems to dupe him.

The bad guys, as with most things in this spy thriller, are somewhat exaggerated as if Donen was being a bit cheeky with both Hitchcock and that era's James Bond movies. The latter were new and having their cultural moment. Still, overall, the movie isn't camp.

As Loren and Peck zip around London, get in and out of tight spots, are shot at and chased with farm equipment, a demolition crane, a jeep and a helicopter, there's just enough grit to keep the spy story tense.

The real fun in the movie, though, comes from the two stars' personalities. They are professional and likeable actors, even if they don't have quite the screen chemistry or natural affinity for comedy that others like Grant and Hepburn have for material like this.

Still, it's an enjoyable romp with some good lines as Peck is quite believable as a nerdy professor forced to think like a spy. Loren, of course, has the looks and mien to play a Mata Hari, even with a ridiculous 1960s bubble hairdo to keep up through all the action.

The movie's style was very cool at the time and is cool in a retro way for us today. If, as the saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Arabesque, a clear imitator of Hitchcock, is a compliment to the master director, while also being a good movie.
 
Messages
17,263
Location
New York City
MV5BOTA2ZGQ5YmUtMTEwZC00ZGNkLWJmZGEtNDA4MzQzYjVlZGU4XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTUyMTMyMDg@._V1_.jpg

Blanche Fury from 1948 with Valerie Hobson and Stewart Granger


Many movies attempt to have a social, political or religious conscience; others, like Blanche Fury just let a good story rip. Blanche Fury's message-free ripping tale of lust, greed, class envy and murder plays out like a Gothic romance novel brought to the screen.

When a poor but proud distant Fuller cousin, played by Valerie Hobson, is offered the role of governess for the daughter of the wealthy branch of her family, she jumps at the opportunity to live at the estate of her elderly cousin, his widowed son and the son's daughter.

We quickly learn that the wealthy branch of her family has adopted the name of Fury because, through a quirk of British law, the family inherited the Fury's large estate. This does not sit well, though, with the estate's current manager, played by Stewart Granger.

Granger, the illegitimate son of the former estate's owner, is embittered as he feels he was cheated out of his birthright. Believing his Italian mother was married to the estate's former owner, making him a legal heir, he's engaged a lawyer to find the Italian marriage certificate.

Hobson, pretty in an aristocratic British way, not only walks into this combustible situation, she ramps it up by having a secret affair with the handsome Granger, while considering a marriage proposal from the family's priggish son, which would bring her wealth and status.

It's the standard tale of sex with the strappingly handsome stable hand, while being all prim and proper in the drawing room where a high-stakes game of societal and family chess plays out.

With all the ingredients in place for the story to ignite, the situation just needs a catalyst, which is provided by a band of Gypsies who steal some of the Fury's horses. Gypsies are an amazingly convenient catalyst in a surprisingly large number of movies from this era.

The third act then plays out with a double murder, love gone awry, a dramatic trial, complete with a shocking tabloid-like confession on the stand, and then, one final twist to "right" all the morality (so that the movie could get past the censors).

Overall, this is Hobson's movie as the posture-perfect, slightly horse-faced, but pretty and diction-perfect star embodies a poor relative looking to rise in the world. Granger, in one of his better roles, and also diction perfect, plays the brooding Adonis with passion.

Director Marc Allegret used wonderful location shots for the castle and countryside that, combined with a rich and dark (not bright as often was the case in this era) color, created a fittingly Gothic and ominous mood for his period movie.

Blanche Fury is enjoyable as the British, this is a UK production, can do tales of lust and murder raging just beneath the calm English surface better than anyone. Only in England can "more tea?" be code for "meet me in the stables later for some sweaty sex."

While Hobson's and Granger's characters are no Heathcliff and Cathy, as Blanche Fury isn't Wuthering Heights, if you enjoy your Gothic bodice rippers told with an English sheen of respectability, you'll find Blanche Fury to be ninety minutes of lurid fun.
 
Messages
17,263
Location
New York City
MV5BMTQ2NjkyMTctNzBkZS00Zjg0LWFmM2MtNTkyMDUwYTFiNGE2XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjA5MTAzODY@._V1_.jpg

Svengali from 1931 with John Barrymore and Marian Marsh


This is not the picture to use to appeal to people who are already skeptical of old movies. With its silent film mannerisms, slow pace, and special effects that seem hokey by today's standards, no one is going to be converted to old movies by this film.

Svengali, though, for the old-movie fan, has some impressive moments if you can see past its early talkie clunkiness and dated style. John Barrymore, playing Svengali, is introduced to us as a poor, unkempt maestro living in an artist's studio in mid-nineteenth-century Paris.

Svengali the man, think of him as a horror-movie version of Rasputin, uses hypnosis to control others. Not coincidentally, Barrymore would, only a year later, play the mad Russian monk on the big screen.

When Barrymore meets a beautiful young model, played by Marian Marsh, suffering from migraines, he offers to cure her headaches. He does cure them, but through a hypnosis that now puts her in his control.

Presented here, Barrymore's supernatural powers are not only real, but seem to be some combination of hypnosis with telepathy all driven by his wild eyes. He can summon Marsh even if she is blocks away from him.

Marsh had been in love with a handsome young artist, played by Bramwell Fletcher. But under Barrymore's spell, she fakes suicide and leaves Paris with Barrymore. Five years later, the two pop up in Europe with Marsh now a successful opera singer.

Barrymore is Marsh's omnipotent maestro as he seems to have almost total control over her. He and Marsh, now wealthy, appear to be married. But when her old boyfriend, Fletcher, sees them, Barrymore gets nervous as Marsh, deep down, still loves Fletcher.

Along the way, we learn that Marsh has "submitted" to Barrymore when under his spell, but never of her own free will, which is something Barrymore wants deeply. Barrymore now also has heart trouble, which reduces his power to control Marsh.

From here, this weird horror-romance love triangle has Barrymore desperately trying to hold on to Marsh, with Fletcher relentlessly stalking the couple all over Europe. As Barrymore's health continues to flag, his control of Marsh weakens further.

The end is as odd as the rest of the story (no spoilers coming). You can see this tale as either one of a love half fulfilled in eternity or a rebuke to the nineteenth century's Romantic Era view of love as a power so great it can break its earthly bonds.

For fans of horror movies, Svengali is an important early and influential entry in the genre. It's also a good example of how movies in 1931 were still transitioning from the pre-sound era as many silent-era "tics" are still noticeable.

Those "tics" include some very long, slow and actionless scenes with dramatic pauses where the actors hold themselves and their facial expressions nearly frozen. These seem campy to modern audiences, but they were viewed as dramatic moments in their day.

Svengali is more of a historical curio than a great movie, but it is worth one watch for its significance to movie history. Plus, despite all its handicaps, there are a few powerful moments when even a modern viewer can appreciate the picture on its own terms.
 

FOXTROT LAMONT

One Too Many
Messages
1,722
Location
St John's Wood, London UK
After several attempts to offer comment Arabesque Fast I gushed silly doggerel Sophia. She and Gina.
Blanche Fury I've not seen but its stable stall hay loft class lass stud serf rake is valid film foundation when done right as your review shows. Brit flic subsequently lost its literary mooring and cast adrift sexual seas unrealized limits within film as found written page. Found a recent Lawrence's Chatterley Netflic splendid
if haven't, and last almost a somewhat dated Hardy-Far From the Madding Crowd with her name escapes
mind now but Annapolis about the USNA caught my eye instead. I discovered Annapolis Autumn here, writ
English lit prof liberal no less so dovetail blessed. A call placed hold but Annapolis certainly later.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,846
Location
New Forest
Getting home late yesterday evening, I suggested going out for a takeaway meal to Tina, so that she didn't have to cook. But she was ahead of me, pork chops and all the trimmings were served up. It was delicious but I sensed a bribe. "I shall be in my cabin quite late," she announced, "don't wait up." So it was the television for me for the evening. Let's see what viewing titillation there is on offer. Amongst the dross was Indiana Jones & The Crystal Skull. A film that I have never seen completely, just bits of it, piecemeal.

This fourth adventure by the American archaeologist continues to bring good doses of adventure and ingenious scenes. In the three previous Indiana Jones outings, the McGuffins are the treasures: the Ark of the Covenant, the Sankara stones and the Holy Grail, respectively. For the fourth film, Lucas wanted to put greasers, the cold war fear, nuclear bomb testings, the Russians, and aliens. The critics panned the movie as flawed but it's still a fun action packed adventure film.

David Koepp's script follows the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull structure, which is identical to that of Raiders of the Lost Ark: good guys and bad guys fighting for terrain in a race that will only be solved in the final corner. The difference is that in the new cat and mouse game, the Nazis leave and the Soviets enter full on 1950's. Cate Blanchett as Col. Dr. Irina Spalko was a fabulous "baddie."

 
Last edited:

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,846
Location
New Forest
^ See the new Jones?
I liked it but Waller-Bridges a bit much and Harrison Ford's aged persona not quite on the square.
Always good to see the swashbuckler boy and man.
The contrived twist of “Mutt,” being the long-lost illegitimate son of Indiana Jones, brilliantly played by Shia LaBeouf, along with photo shots of Sean Connery, did make wonder if there was more mileage in the Indiana Jones character, albeit with a new actor. Connery being the first of many James Bond, double-o-seven. Could it be that following Henry Jones the first, the second, now the third, there's possibility of Indiana Jones with a credible way of changing actors? But it's fifteen years since Crystal Skull so perhaps not.
 

Julian Shellhammer

Practically Family
Messages
898
55 Days at Peking (1963) with Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, and David Niven top-billed. IMBD claims that several portions of the film were directed not by credited director Nicholas Ray, but also by Guy Green and Andrew Marton.

Based on the siege of the foreign legations in Peking by the Chinese who wanted to expel those nations who were exploiting China's resources for their own benefit. The historical background makes for interesting reading (removed from time and place) but we see towering, manly Marine major Heston, suave, clever diplomat Niven, and glamorous, slightly Russian Gardner deal with hostilities and Imperial court politics. Heston and Niven's characters take part in combat, sabotage missions, and whatnot, while ambassadors from the other European and Asian nations watch from the sidelines.

Research indicates the two male leads beefed up their parts for more screen time and heroic derring-do. Quite the epic, with massive crowds, explosions, and bigger than life characters.
 

FOXTROT LAMONT

One Too Many
Messages
1,722
Location
St John's Wood, London UK
^ Ava quite, no doubts there. Her frolic in Night of The Iguana is feast for carnal cerebral languish.

I was asked to view Ruin, a Samuel Bankman-Fried docu all things crypto which is splendidly done.
By all means, more so if inside finance although laity will find this assuredly probative as well. Whence crypto
appeared a decade or so away I easily dismissed it as mere toy, analogous Dutch tulips nothing more.
Of course before all things China it's bull run thence naivete Samuel taken cleaners by China Canuck Singaporean shiv stabbed with a twenty percent equity dirk play right in back between shoulders. I saw this happen while London, where Barclays dry cleans launder, and knew Sam had been stabbed. I thought a
MIT maths man capable intellectually...hmm. All amiss. The arisen phoenix is China. Digital usage crude oil
contract now by Beijing which continues goldbuggeritis and spot. Give Ruin a go.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
109,644
Messages
3,085,655
Members
54,471
Latest member
rakib
Top