What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Zombie_61]

Lugosi could chew the scenery like few others. You gotta love him...

True, but I don't think he did it deliberately like a lot of actors have. I've spoken with Bela Lugosi Jr. two or three times at conventions, and he said his father loved being an actor and was very proud of his performances even when the movies weren't very good; if anything, I think his addiction to morphine (and whatever else there might have been) affected his judgement and led to some of his "questionable" performances. Regardless, in my opinion Lugosi is always watchable even if the movie...isn't.

I think I have 'The Corpse Vanishes' on the DVD...

As it turns out, so do I. lol Years ago someone gave me one of those "ten movies for ten dollars because they were in the public domain when we got 'em so we're going to burn a bunch of DVDs off of a third generation videotape and skip town before you can ask for your money back" sets, and I looked at it after reading your post. Sure enough, The Corpse Vanishes is one of the ten movies. :whistling

 

[Doctor Strange]

Paris Blues (1961), which I'd recently DVRed from TCM. Given my interests, I'm amazed that I'd never seen it before. Unfortunately, it was pretty disappointing.

Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier (wow!) are expatriate American jazz musicians living the Bohemian life in Paris. They romance American tourists Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll (wow!), and play awesome jazz with their combo, and have an amazing cutting contest with Louis Armstrong (wow!), who plays a disguised version of himself. The music is GREAT: the film is scored by Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra (wow!)... The clothes, and the depiction of the club and jazz lovers of those days, are interesting. But surprisingly, the usually charismatic Newman and Poitier have ZERO chemistry together. Neither one plays a likable character. The female leads and supporting characters are really badly drawn. The story lurches from one melodramatic sequence to the next (e.g., the gypsy guitarist in the combo is a drug addict!), then pauses for a montage of the couples strolling through Paris...

A real disappointment given the talent involved... but with an awesome Ellington soundtrack. Only recommended for jazz buffs.

 

[Fading Fast]

Paris Blues (1961), which I'd recently DVRed from TCM. Given my interests, I'm amazed that I'd never seen it before. Unfortunately, it was pretty disappointing.

Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier (wow!) are expatriate American jazz musicians living the Bohemian life in Paris. They romance American tourists Joanne Woodward and Diahann Carroll (wow!), and play awesome jazz with their combo, and have an amazing cutting contest with Louis Armstrong (wow!), who plays a disguised version of himself. The music is GREAT: the film is scored by Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra (wow!)... The clothes, and the depiction of the club and jazz lovers of those days, are interesting. But surprisingly, the usually charismatic Newman and Poitier have ZERO chemistry together. Neither one plays a likable character. The female leads and supporting characters are really badly drawn. The story lurches from one melodramatic sequence to the next (e.g., the gypsy guitarist in the combo is a drug addict!), then pauses for a montage of the couples strolling through Paris...

A real disappointment given the talent involved... but with an awesome Ellington soundtrack. Only recommended for jazz buffs.

Couldn't agree more. How two stars, at the peak of their popularity - and youthful power - came off so flat is amazing. But, yes, fantastic music.

 

[Bushman]

42. Love this movie. Great story, great actors, great hats. All around great movie.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Well Now You're Here, There's No Way Back...a documentary of the rise, fall and on-going resurrection attempt of the band Quiet Riot. It was actually pretty good, even if you don't like the music. An interesting story about dealing with loss.

 

[Bushman]

The Butler. Great Forest Whitaker movie.

 

[Smithy]

"American Sniper" tonight at the flicks. One of the most intense films I have seen and I would imagine one of the best depictions of modern asymmetric warfare.

 

[jamespowers]

The Monuments Men.

 

[Wally_Hood]

To Catch a Thief with Cary and Grace and folks from the francophone world. Part of an occasional get together of our family and another dinner and a movie.

 

[cw3pa]

"The Third Man". Alot of interesting camera angles.

 

[Fading Fast]

To Catch a Thief with Cary and Grace and folks from the francophone world. Part of an occasional get together of our family and another dinner and a movie.

The people, the clothes, the scenery and the interior shots are so gorgeous and stylish in that movie, that it could almost be watched without sound.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Third Man". Alot of interesting camera angles.

And, IMHO, the best entrance by an actor in a movie ever - Orson Wells coming in and out of view as the light above him flashes on and off.

 

[Worf]

The people, the clothes, the scenery and the interior shots are so gorgeous and stylish in that movie, that it could almost be watched without sound.

S**** dat... gimme that open top roadster she was barreling around in! Sorry just the gear head in me!

Worf

 

[Worf]

"Dawn of Planet of the Apes" - Intense and well made movie. Best of all the post-Heston re-boots in my opinion. Revealed a lot about human nature.

Worf

 

[Horace Debussy Jones]

Groundhog Day. In honor of this important holiday, and because it's a great movie.

 

[Worf]

"A Tale of Two Cities" - Ronald Coleman at his best. Great production values, stirring story. Oppression, revenge, redemption... damn Dickens could write! And one of the finest last lines ever set to paper. My only question is how could one live... happily, knowing that all the joy and sweetness you experience was at the cost of another mans life? It drives some people, survivors and vets, to drink or worse. But I guess this is a question for another time and place.

Worf

 

[hatguy1]

The Buddy Holly Story.


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[Retro Spectator]

Swing Time.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Kidnapped (1960), a perennial favorite at my house.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053994/

Rob

 

[Fading Fast]

"A Tale of Two Cities" - Ronald Coleman at his best. Great production values, stirring story. Oppression, revenge, redemption... damn Dickens could write! And one of the finest last lines ever set to paper. My only question is how could one live... happily, knowing that all the joy and sweetness you experience was at the cost of another mans life? It drives some people, survivors and vets, to drink or worse. But I guess this is a question for another time and place.

Worf

Not always, as some authors don't translate way to the movies - Hemingway is one, IMHO - but when they do translate well, and the quality of the underlying writing comes through, as you pointed out in "ATOTC," it is a joy.

Maybe there's a separate thread here, but a few who translate well are Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Terence Rattigan, Jane Austen and Herman Wouk. In addition to Hemmingway, it seems Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ayn Rand have had mixed results.