What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Wally_Hood]

Oh, and Ruthless from 1948, with Zachary Scott as creep nonpareilel H. Woodruff Vandeg who uses people on his way to financial success like you or I use kleenex. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, who seems to have had an actual budget for once. Watched it on the Netflix download gizmo.

 

[NotsoGolden]

Just watched The Lovely Bones. Sad but powerful movie....

 

[Widebrim]

Mr. District Attorney (1947) with Dennis O'Keefe as newbie assistant DA to Adolph Menjou's Mr. DA. Maguerite Chapman is the Columbia-level femme fatale, and Michael O'Shea as Harrington. Most characters imported from the radio show. Billed as a film noir, but more a murder mystery programmer. Folks get plugged about every ten minutes. Nice db's with display hankerchiefs on every male in camera range.

Man, that sounds like a good one. I like Dennis O'Keefe, and am currently watching a film with him and Anne Sheridan, Woman on the Run. It's incredible how many films O'Keefe (real name Edward Vance Flanagan) appeared "uncredited" in between 1930-1938.

 

[Widebrim]

Oh, and Ruthless from 1948, with Zachary Scott as creep nonpareilel H. Woodruff Vandeg who uses people on his way to financial success like you or I use kleenex. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, who seems to have had an actual budget for once. Watched it on the Netflix download gizmo.

I just saw that last month and enjoyed it, although the plot really doesn't go anywhere much. Yeah, it would appear that Ulmer actually did have a budget for this one...maybe that's why those who are into the Ulmer branch of the "auteur" theory don't mention it much.

 

[John in Covina]

Are you sure that it was for a movie, or was it just another day in L.A.??

Downtown tends to pretty sedate in regards to gunfire, South Central on the other hand.....

 

[Amy Jeanne]

Last night I watched a cute little film called There Goes My Heart (1938) with Virginia Bruce, Fredric March, and Patsy Kelly.

I've seen so many movies with this plotline made AFTER THE CODE -- I can't get enough of it! A department store heiress (Virginia) runs away from her rich, oppressive family to have "freedom" amongst the working classes. She takes on an alias, moves in a small apartment with Patsy Kelly, and even gets a job as a salesgirl in her OWN department store! *sigh*

Of course, there was some screwball comedy along the way. Fredric March is a newspaper man hired to "get the scoop" on this heiress. Through some sneaking around he finds out who that salesgirl really is. She can't exactly refuse him or her identity will be blown. And yes, they fall in love! Naturally!

Harry Langdon appears at the very end as the minister. Nice touch. Love Harry!

ETA: The women's dresses were FANTASTIC! Makes me want to sew today!

 

[John in Covina]

One of the great things about old screwball romantic comedies is that in today's world most of the antics would be considered "stalking" and get you in trouble with the law.

 

[Widebrim]

Downtown tends to pretty sedate in regards to gunfire, South Central on the other hand.....

You're right, John, about downtown Los Angeles. Yet your relatively quiet city of Covina makes L.A. look like a frontier town in comparison...

 

[W-D Forties]

Kind Hearts and Coronets with Alec Guiness and Denis Price.

 

[Widebrim]

Please Murder Me (indie, 1956). Raymond Burr is having an affair with his war buddy's wife (Anglela Lansbury). She kills her husband (Dick Foran, looking older than his 46 years), saying it was self-defense, and Burr not only believes her, but defends her in court and wins the case. He later finds out that she was not only guiltly, but had been cheating on him, and so he devises an "extreme" (and not quite believable) way to bring her to justice. The story is told in flashback, with Burr re-counting the story onto a tape recorder (kind of like Double Indemnity); he opens by stating that in 55 minutes, he will be murdered (sort of like the beginning of D.O.A., although O'Brien's character announces to the police that he already had been murdered). Burr was a bit sedate in the role (I like him better when he is the villain), and Lansbury was appropriately shrewish in the latter part of the film. Of note, though, is the fact that the soundtrack employs a theremin...

 

[Widebrim]

Thanks to a download from Skyvue, I was also recently able to see Johnny O'Clock (Columbia, 1946), and wasn't disappointed. Powell's character is of course on the wrong side of the law, but he was debonair enough to have you rooting for him. Good supporting cast, including Lee J. Cobb (what a great, gruff actor), Thomas Gomez (billed as S. Thomas Gomez) beautiful, trusting Evelyn Keyes, and beautiful, slinky Ellen Drew. Powell's characterization was, for me, a cross between his roles in Cornered and Murder, My Sweet; some wise-cracking, but a certain level of seriousness, too. Of all the Powell Noirs/Crime films I've seen, this almost more than ties for second with Cry Danger (Murder, My Sweet is #1). On a side note, it's interesting how many of Powell's post-WWII films are either unavailable on DVD/VHS, or just darn expensive to purchase.

 

[Bourne ID]

The Family and I watched " The Untouchables" last night. Fun flick! Great style!

 

[Miss Golightly]

Buried - I LOVED this movie - tense, frustrating and brilliant.

 

[Amy Jeanne]

The Marriage Playground (1929)

It annoyed me on so many levels.

 

[Lady Day]

Buried - I LOVED this movie - tense, frustrating and brilliant.

I really liked it too! I didnt think it was going to be anything but man was it compelling! Who would have thought 90 min of Ryan Reynolds in a box would be great filmmaking.

LD

 

[Edward]

Just this evening watched Perfect Creature. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0403407/ Rather a good little film from New Zealand. Set in a parallel world to our own, the style is very dieselpunk. The IMDB entry is wrong, IMO, in referring to it as "Sixties style"; the clothes may in some respects look more modern than Forties, but it's really not a Sixties vibe to my eye. Great film, though. More noir than action, contrary to the trailer.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"The Squaw Man" (1914), the first feature picture made in Hollywood, and the first to be directed by Cecil B DeMille. I taped this off TCM six or seven years ago, and only just got around to watching it -- after having read about it for years, it was a bit disappointing. Not so much for the primitive technique - it wasn't up to the standards of a 1910 Griffith Biograph in that respect, but I've seen worse -- but for the irritating story, in which the hero is so obsessed with acting Honorably that he forgets to act honorably where his Indian wife is concerned. Plus, no matter what a big star Dustin Farnum might have been on stage at the turn of the century, by 1914 he photographed like a jelly doughnut.

 

[Engrishman]

"High Society(1956)", strangely enough. Anything that stars Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Louis Armstrong is bound to be good. My only regret is that I didn't discover this little gem sooner.

 

[Miss Golightly]

I really liked it too! I didnt think it was going to be anything but man was it compelling! Who would have thought 90 min of Ryan Reynolds in a box would be great filmmaking.

LD

I was wondering how they could maintain the suspense just filming in the one space with one actor - I was hoping it wouldn't start well and then drift off but it was so tense - right to the end. I never rated Ryan Reynolds before but he was excellent.

Brighton Rock (1947)

 

[Amy Jeanne]

"The Squaw Man" (1914), the first feature picture made in Hollywood, and the first to be directed by Cecil B DeMille. I taped this off TCM six or seven years ago, and only just got around to watching it -- after having read about it for years, it was a bit disappointing. Not so much for the primitive technique - it wasn't up to the standards of a 1910 Griffith Biograph in that respect, but I've seen worse -- but for the irritating story, in which the hero is so obsessed with acting Honorably that he forgets to act honorably where his Indian wife is concerned. Plus, no matter what a big star Dustin Farnum might have been on stage at the turn of the century, by 1914 he photographed like a jelly doughnut.

lol
I think I might have the same movie recorded and never watched. I've recently been going through my unwatched DVDs and came across this one. I put it in the pile to watch. I've been putting it off -- I find most full-length movies from this time period (1912-1916ish) to be unwatchable.