What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[C44Antelope]

Holiday with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant

Great movie! I still prefer Bringing Up Baby and Philadelphia Story, but this one is great, too.

 

[Wally_Hood]

Last night, Dark Victory with Bette Davis and George Brent; young Ronald Reagan in a small part. Also, sometime last week, Marked Woman with Bette Davis again; my wife and I are on a Joan Crawford - Bette Davis kick. Scattered in through there I watched (by myself) Twenty-Four Eyes, a Japanese film from 1954, about a school teacher and her students, set in the years 1928 to about the late 40s. Miss Oishi is sent to a rural school on an island where her "modern" ways, such as Western clothes and riding a bicycle, at first create an reaction of disapproval. Strongly sentimental as she watches her students grow up and take part in WW2.

 

[Widebrim]

The Philadelphia Experiment (1984), with Michael Pare' and Nancy Allen. Amateurishly written and produced, with comic-book special effects, and the acting wasn't that hot either...Based on something that never really happened, but is none-the-less now considered something of a cult film. Repeat Performance (1947, Eagle-Lion), with Louis Hayward, Joan Leslie, Tom Conway, Richard Basehart, and Natalie Shafer. Small-budgeted, but fairly good film about Leslie being able to relive 1946, hopefully without repeating her big "faux-pax" of that year, shooting her husband on New Year's Eve...Leslie was a bit young to play Hayward's wife, but overall an interesting film.

 

[DNO]

We're No Angels. How can you beat a movie with Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray and Basil Rathbone? It may become my favourite Christmas movie, although it's never presented as such.

 

[KY Gentleman]

Steve McQueen in The Getaway.

 

[DesertDan]

Blazing Saddles

"Mongo only pawn in game of life."

 

[McMurdo]

One of my favorites as well. I own a copy of it on dvd, but find myself watching it whenever I stumble upon it. It was the movie that made me see the light wherein concerned with Glen Ford; he was perfect for the part.

I agree completely with this, and watched it the other day on TCM as well. Watching Bullitt right now again on TCM.

 

[McMurdo]

On the weekend we went to see 12 years a slave. Absolutely powerful and moving experience. Yesterday I watched Battleground on TCM such a great film.

 

[Worf]

"The Man in the Attic" - C - Jack Palance takes his turn at playing The Ripper. Doesn't hold a candle to "Murder By Decree" BUT Palance does a better than passable job as the twisted murderer. We know they never caught Jack nor do they definitively know who he was but this was fun and conjecture. Very Oedipal in a lot of ways.

Worf

 

[vintageTink]

Blazing Saddles

"Mongo only pawn in game of life."

Love that movie. "Candy gram! Candy gram for Mongo!"

 

[Fading Fast]

Holiday with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant

Fantastic and under-rated movie. Almost not a bad scene in it and a much more serious undertone than the more popular "Bringing up Baby" or "Philadelphia Story" that C44Antelope mentioned. And no simple happy ending - almost pre-code in the switching of sisters for Cary Grant's character.

 

[Fading Fast]

Last night, Dark Victory with Bette Davis and George Brent; young Ronald Reagan in a small part. Also, sometime last week, Marked Woman with Bette Davis again; my wife and I are on a Joan Crawford - Bette Davis kick. Scattered in through there I watched (by myself) Twenty-Four Eyes, a Japanese film from 1954, about a school teacher and her students, set in the years 1928 to about the late 40s. Miss Oishi is sent to a rural school on an island where her "modern" ways, such as Western clothes and riding a bicycle, at first create an reaction of disapproval. Strongly sentimental as she watches her students grow up and take part in WW2.

In "Dark Victory," one of my favorite Bette Davis movies, Reagan does a good job, but he just isn't a top actor; he just doesn't come across as naturally comfortable in his roles as the best actors do.

As you work through your Joan Crawford - Bette Davis kick, try to catch Joan in "Harriet Craig" to see her take ordinary material and make it interesting and Bette in one of her pre-code offerings (like "So Big" or "The Rich are Always with Us") as she is so crazy young and blonde and her hardness (which she uses to her advantage) hadn't fully bloomed yet. It's her, but it's fun to see her before she became a "star," when she still has a youthful freshness.

 

[Doctor Damage]

Finished watching The Sign of Four starring Ian Richardson and it was a really great adaptation of the Holmes story filled with Richardson's smug version of the character, some quiet jokes, and a lot of atmosphere. Unlike the Hound adaptation I mentioned previously, this one benefits from Holme's near-constant presence in the story.



Last night I watched Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Silk Stocking starring Rupert Everett. I was going to buy this but borrowed it from the library instead because of some tepid reviews on the interweb, but once again, it's best to ignore what most people tell you and make up your own mind. This was an excellent television film and Everett does a fine job and is ably supported by a tough if diminutive Watson. The fog in London never lifts in this film and that's good for a murder mystery. I guess many Holmes fans think only the black-and-white era adaptions are worth watching but those are probably the same people who think no good films were made after the 1940s, which of course is ridiculous. Anyway, I will definitely get a copy of this eventually since I will watch it again.

 

[TheSacredFemme]

Fantastic and under-rated movie. Almost not a bad scene in it and a much more serious undertone than the more popular "Bringing up Baby" or "Philadelphia Story" that C44Antelope mentioned. And no simple happy ending - almost pre-code in the switching of sisters for Cary Grant's character.

I absolutely loved it. Hepburn is so, so charming. Like you said, it's really interesting to see how it's more "seriously mocking" the upper classes than Bringing Up Baby, which I'd call right out screw ball comedy.

 

[Feraud]

"Re-watched Twelve Angry Men last night. A great film."
I used to like that one, but having seen so many real trials, and being on several juries myself, I know that the main plot point - that of a juror introducing new evidence in the jury room, would result in an *instant* mistrial. The plot just doesn't work after knowing that.

What was the new evidence? The switchblade?

 

[Fading Fast]

I absolutely loved it. Hepburn is so, so charming. Like you said, it's really interesting to see how it's more "seriously mocking" the upper classes than Bringing Up Baby, which I'd call right out screw ball comedy.

Yes, Hepburn shines (and, as you said, in a very charming way) as does Grant, but also, Lew Ayres does a quietly wonderful job as the beaten down, alcoholic son of a powerful, demanding man: he doesn't play it as a cliche, but as a flesh and blood being slowing loosing spirit under too heavy expectations. While not at all noir, the undertones are so much darker than the screwball comedies of the time, that "Holiday" has a sense of pathos and realism that those other movies sometimes lack.

 

[ButteMT61]

Labor Day. A really good flick. Nice story, and Josh Brolin was perfect. Some of the scenes were a tad corny, but in the end it worked.
Kate Winslet was also very good. Definitely not as good as The Book Thief if I'm comparing non-blockbuster sci-fi movies. But I am happy to be seeing more stories on film rather than just death, destruction, special fx, and zombies

 

[Wally_Hood]

Last night, That Certain Woman, from 1937 with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda. It seems like Fonda was doing a warm-up for his character a few year later in The Lady Eve. Davis was more sympathetic than the rotten characters the studio had her playing ( I guess if more tickets are sold when Davis plays a monster, then make more films just like that: it's about money, ultimately...)

 

[Widebrim]

On the weekend we went to see 12 years a slave. Absolutely powerful and moving experience. Yesterday I watched Battleground on TCM such a great film.

Love Battleground. Great cast, but James Whitmore is a standout as the grizzled sergeant. (He was an actual WWII combat vet, and undoubtedly that helped.)

 

[Gregg Axley]

Davis was good at playing a monster, that's for sure.
If you can find a copy of it, The Anniversary is from 1968 and it's a pretty good role for her.

One-eyed Mrs. Taggart is an emasculating woman whose husband, a successful building contractor, has been dead for ten years. Joining her for the traditional annual celebration of her wedding anniversary are her three sons: eldest Henry is a transvestite; middle son Terry is planning to emigrate to Canada with his shrewish wife Karen and their five children; and youngest Tom, a promiscuous philanderer whose many past relationships have ended at his mother's insistence, arrives with his pregnant girlfriend Shirley in tow. Throughout the day and evening, the domineering, evil, vindictive, manipulative matriarch does everything in her power to remind her children who controls the family finances and ultimately their futures.

A tag to the movie...

Bette Davis adds another portrait of evil as the most merciless mother of them all . . .

This one comes to us from Hammer Productions, and in it, she's still got her evil despite her age.
What's odd is that she wears an eye patch in the movie, but never utters the phrase "matey" OR "arrrgghhh."