What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Stearmen]

Fury (1936) Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney. A pretty good drama! No tanks!

 

[Dennis Young]

I watched ‘Fury’ with Spencer Tracy tonight. Good film.


Also watched ‘Dead End’ (1937) with Bogart and Joel McCray. Very good film I thought. I was interested to learn the fates of the actors who played the Dead End kids. Several ser ved in the Armed forced and some died young. One, Billy Halop (who played Tommy) went on to play in All in the Family (Munson the cab driver). Id’ have never put the two together though. Lol


Tommy’s Sister (played by Sylvia Sidney) was also in Fury and
later played station manager Mr Carlson’s mom in WKRP in Cincinnati. J
Bogart wasn’t quite the star yet that he later became and so his part was smaller than McCray’s. He plays a heel in this one. The film was beautifully shot in B&W.

 

[Trapped in T-wilight Zone]

A comment by LizzieMaine
"I wanted to show Lillian Gish in "The Wind," which is an astonishing work of art, but they absolutely didn't want to touch any silent pictures."

It has been a long time since I saw that film! Even though I was a big fan of many silent films before seeing it, having read only a little description of the movie, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was very surprised by it and did enjoy it very much!
It is too bad that people in a position to do so do not encourage watching movies from all eras. But silent films do need to be watched properly. You do not talk to your neighbor, you do not tell jokes about the motions an actor makes. You WATCH the movie, and the magic happens. The exaggerated motions by the actors, you having to read the cards to follow conversations, feeling the music (provided that the music is appropriate). Before you know it, you have climbed into the movie and become a part of it like no talkie or musical can ever do.

I did have to chuckle after that posting by LizzieMaine when a bit later she responded about "Lawrence of Arabia";
"Yeah, it's not a bad picture as far as historical epics go, but you get tired of looking at sand for three and a half hours."

Well, it is not NEARLY three hours, but there is a LOT of sand blowing around in "The Wind".

Seriously. I really enjoy a good silent movie, and there are a lot of good ones. But I rarely watch them these days (even though I have about a hundred shorts and a couple dozen major features on DVD and VHS, yes, I still use VHS). My life for the past couple decades just doesn't allow me many full hours to watch anything without being interrupted. And that is one thing you do not want with a good silent movie, is to be interrupted.
By the way, I watched "The Wind" about forty years ago on the big screen in a 1929 theater with an incredible organist that started performing in theaters near the end of the silent movie era.
W2

 

[Fading Fast]

I caught the last 45 minutes of "Boom Town" on TCM last night - Spencer Tracy and Clark Gable play friend and rival wildcatters in the 1930s oil boom. My few observations from my incomplete viewing:

- Hedy Lamarr played, effectively, the girl on the side, but so intelligently that you respected her (nothing floozy about her [note to self, post "floozy" in terms which have disappeared thread])

- But being 1940s, she ended up not getting the man, but not really getting "punished" either the way most films did to "lose women" during the period when the code was being enforced

- Clothes play a big part of showing when one or the other of the oil men are up or down (up - new suits, down - worn-out suits or workmen clothes); couldn't do it today as there is no clear attire for the successful (and dressing down is part of the successful culture in Tech, for example)

- Just reaffirmed my enjoyment of Tracy so much more than Gable as an actor - Tracy just seems to be the person he is playing; Gable, to me, is always GABLE! playing a role.

 

[Dennis Young]

Great film.

 

[Worf]

TCM is featuring one of my fave actors tomorrow all day. Robert Donat who's perhaps the most underrated actor ever behind Paul Muni is the man TCM tomorrow. If I weren't tied up I'd take the day off and watch nothing but his fabulous work.

Worf

 

[Wally_Hood]

Tunes of Glory (1960) with Alec Guiness and John Mills. Tension and conflict build, and then tempers flare, when a new colonel takes over from acting CO Lt. Col. Guiness.

 

[Zombie_61]

Jungle Woman (1944). This is a sequel to Captive Wild Woman (1943), both of which feature Acquanetta as Paula Dupree, the Ape Woman. If you ever have a chance to watch either of these movies...don't.

 

[dh66]

Jungle Woman (1944). This is a sequel to Captive Wild Woman (1943), both of which feature Acquanetta as Paula Dupree, the Ape Woman. If you ever have a chance to watch either of these movies...don't.

I saw both of these recently as well, and I have to pretty much agree with your assessment. Still, though, the concept of a female "were-gorilla" must've been intriguing enough at the time to spawn three films. I haven't seen the third one, which stars Vicky Lane instead of Acquanetta as Paula Dupree. I suppose if I ever get the chance to watch it, I probably will. (The third one also co-stars Rondo Hatton, which alone would merit watching.)

 

[Worf]

Tunes of Glory (1960) with Alec Guiness and John Mills. Tension and conflict build, and then tempers flare, when a new colonel takes over from acting CO Lt. Col. Guiness.

Saw this film years ago... Nice postwar reexamination of the British military, its traditions and its foibles. Serious drama, serious ending. Real "adult" cinema.

Worf

 

[Harp]

Saw this film years ago... Nice postwar reexamination of the British military.... Serious drama, serious ending. Real "adult" cinema.

Worf

"A soldier must know how to handle the living and the dead." No truer words spoken from a script.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Killing some time until the rest of the family got back (because we were going somewhere, for dinner or something, and I was sort of just waiting, not wanting to start something), I flipped on the tv and there was You Only Live Twice. Watched the last half, marveling at the enormous set for Blofeld's secret missile, and marveling that as an adolescent I goggled at the gizmos and explosions and completely missed how goofy the plot was.

 

[jamespowers]

Killing some time until the rest of the family got back (because we were going somewhere, for dinner or something, and I was sort of just waiting, not wanting to start something), I flipped on the tv and there was You Only Live Twice. Watched the last half, marveling at the enormous set for Blofeld's secret missile, and marveling that as an adolescent I goggled at the gizmos and explosions and completely missed how goofy the plot was.

https://youtu.be/VqomZQMZQCQ
We don't need no stinking plot. It is Bond.

 

[Zombie_61]

I saw both of these recently as well, and I have to pretty much agree with your assessment. Still, though, the concept of a female "were-gorilla" must've been intriguing enough at the time to spawn three films. I haven't seen the third one, which stars Vicky Lane instead of Acquanetta as Paula Dupree. I suppose if I ever get the chance to watch it, I probably will. (The third one also co-stars Rondo Hatton, which alone would merit watching.)

I've never even seen Captive Wild Woman, and I don't think I need to since it was re-capped during the first 20-30 minutes of Jungle Woman. I would probably also watch The Jungle Captive (the third movie in the trilogy), but only for Rondo Hatton.

On a semi-related note, I don't get the so-called "horror host" thing, i.e. what Svengoofy does. Not only did I find his schtick tedious, but he and his cronies turned a 61-minute movie into a two-hour ordeal. [huh]

 

[Dennis Young]

I watched a couple of films featuring Walt Disney. One was called Walt and El Groupo, about a group of the Disney folks traveling to S. America as part of FDR’s Good Neighbor policy. Pretty interesting. J


The other one was a bit about the making of Darby O’Gill and the Little People. It had Walt and Albert Sharpe playing his iconic role as Darby, sort of “in character” in the documentary. Also Jimmy O'Dea , also in character as King Brian.


It was fun. So I guess I was able to revisit the Walt Disney I knew when I was a little boy. J

 

[Fading Fast]

Killing some time until the rest of the family got back (because we were going somewhere, for dinner or something, and I was sort of just waiting, not wanting to start something), I flipped on the tv and there was You Only Live Twice. Watched the last half, marveling at the enormous set for Blofeld's secret missile, and marveling that as an adolescent I goggled at the gizmos and explosions and completely missed how goofy the plot was.

I can enjoy almost every Bond film made (there are a few in the '70s and '80s that challenge that statement), but it is clear that the first three films and those that followed were different. The first three were plot driven with special effects use to enhance the story. After that it seems that the plot existed as a reason to use special effects, build giant hideouts, crazy weapons, etc. The first three bond films and Craig's first one are in a separate category from all the others.

 

[1mach1]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). A personal favorite.

[video=youtube;1IbStIb9XXw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IbStIb9XXw[/video]

 

[Worf]

I've never even seen Captive Wild Woman, and I don't think I need to since it was re-capped during the first 20-30 minutes of Jungle Woman. I would probably also watch The Jungle Captive (the third movie in the trilogy), but only for Rondo Hatton.

On a semi-related note, I don't get the so-called "horror host" thing, i.e. what Svengoofy does. Not only did I find his schtick tedious, but he and his cronies turned a 61-minute movie into a two-hour ordeal. [huh]

Well I kinda like "Svengoolie", yeah he's stupid and silly but he doesn't take himself seriously and I don't take him seriously either. This tradition goes WAY back with m the "Zackerly" used to host monster movies on T.V. on the weekends in NY. I guess I'm just a sucker for it.

WorF

 

[Doctor Strange]

Odd Man Out, the 1947 British classic with James Mason, directed by Sir Carol Reed. Somehow I'd never managed to see it before. Good stuff.

 

[dh66]

I've never even seen Captive Wild Woman, and I don't think I need to since it was re-capped during the first 20-30 minutes of Jungle Woman. I would probably also watch The Jungle Captive (the third movie in the trilogy), but only for Rondo Hatton.

On a semi-related note, I don't get the so-called "horror host" thing, i.e. what Svengoofy does. Not only did I find his schtick tedious, but he and his cronies turned a 61-minute movie into a two-hour ordeal. [huh]

Well I kinda like "Svengoolie", yeah he's stupid and silly but he doesn't take himself seriously and I don't take him seriously either. This tradition goes WAY back with m the "Zackerly" used to host monster movies on T.V. on the weekends in NY. I guess I'm just a sucker for it.

WorF

I agree with Worf. Svengoolie can range from somewhat amusing to downright hilarious, depending on the BPV (beers per view) of any given episode. But, more importantly, he is carrying on a long tradition that dates back to the mid 50s, with hosts Zacherley and Vampira. And who among ye that lived through the 80s can forget Elvira?

According to Wikipedia, fount of knowledge that it is, the trend really spread in 1957, when Universal Studios released a bundle of classic horror films for television distribution. They encouraged local broadcasters to come up with a 'host' along the lines of the two aforementioned to present the films.