What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Benzadmiral]

I just watched "Double Indemnity" for the first time in about 20 years. My 20+ year old impression had been "good, solid" noir. My just-having-scene-it impression is fantastic, outstanding, awesome noir movie. While clearly a film noir movie - the "I'm confessing" narrative structure felt a bit forced to me - it didn't try too obviously hard like some movies do to strike a noir tone. But what really blew me away were MacMurray's and Robinson's performances.

MacMurray is frighteningly believable as the successful insurance salesman excited to hatch a murder plan he's been clearly thinking about for years. And while the putative reason for murder is money and his desire to be with Stanwyck's character, subtly it feels like he simply wanted to see if he could get any with it, especially when he knew his office pal, Robinson's character, an insurance claims investigator, would be the person he'd have to fool.

The MacMurray-Robinson dynamic drives the movie more than the felt-forced-to-me MacMurray-Stanwyck love affair supposedly motivating everyone. This is the first movie where I've ever felt that Stanwyck wasn't natural or comfortable in her character as she was wooden and almost awkward as the cool, beautiful, calculating murderess. But that didn't matter as this is MacMurray's and Robinson's movie and the two antagonists play off each other beautifully.

Robinson's smart, a-bit tired, nerdy investigator contrasted wonderfully with MacMurray's outwardly cocky top salesman persona. They like each other, respect each other, but also know all along there is something fundamentally different in each one's core character. MacMurray regularly and smoothly lighting the match for the "where's my match" bumbling Robinson is a neat symbol hinting to us that what will really matter in this game of wits is not surface flash. . . .

I quoted most of your post, because it's wonderfully on target. Yes, Stanwyck's performance as Phyllis does seem less powerful than she usually delivers. I don't understand why Walter would find her so attractive. And the Walter/Keyes relationship is the core. This film is one of the rare movies which is, at least in part (and especially in the ending), better than its source novel -- and I like Cain's novel a lot.

Robinson, I understand, suggested to Cain that he write a new movie, or maybe a novel, about Keyes, but it never happened. If I knew anything at all about the insurance business, or could research it, I'd write a new, period-set story about Keyes the rumpled, committed investigator. After all, someone did it for Scarlett O'Hara, right? (Though I don't know how well that came off.)

 

[Fading Fast]

I quoted most of your post, because it's wonderfully on target. Yes, Stanwyck's performance as Phyllis does seem less powerful than she usually delivers. I don't understand why Walter would find her so attractive. And the Walter/Keyes relationship is the core. This film is one of the rare movies which is, at least in part (and especially in the ending), better than its source novel -- and I like Cain's novel a lot.

Robinson, I understand, suggested to Cain that he write a new movie, or maybe a novel, about Keyes, but it never happened. If I knew anything at all about the insurance business, or could research it, I'd write a new, period-set story about Keyes the rumpled, committed investigator. After all, someone did it for Scarlett O'Hara, right? (Though I don't know how well that came off.)

Two thoughts (and a thank you for your very nice compliment):

1. There might even be a separate thread in this, but your comment about a movie being better than a book (agreed - it happens rarely), made me think of two examples: "Executive Suite" and "The Uninvited" are both better on screen than the books themselves, as the screenwriters / director took away the weaker parts of both books and emphasized the strong parts which made for a tighter, more-suspenseful story in both.

2. I love your idea on Keyes' character having his own movie or, at least, living on in some way. Robinson owned that role and, if it was the 1970s, he could have become a TV character like Columbo or Banecek (who, I think, was a hired-gun insurance investigator - very opposite of Keyes as he was macho swagger not nerdy competence) in the "Sunday Night Mystery" series, or whatever it was called. A neat (maybe too contrived) angle could be Keyes visiting MacMurray's character in prison to "consult" on tough cases.

 

[DesertDan]

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across The 8th Dimension - One of my faves.
My wife wanted to see Deadpool this past weekend - It was entertaining and quite funny.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Two thoughts (and a thank you for your very nice compliment):

1. There might even be a separate thread in this, but your comment about a movie being better than a book (agreed - it happens rarely), made me think of two examples: "Executive Suite" and "The Uninvited" are both better on screen than the books themselves, as the screenwriters / director took away the weaker parts of both books and emphasized the strong parts which made for a tighter, more-suspenseful story in both.

2. I love your idea on Keyes' character having his own movie or, at least, living on in some way. Robinson owned that role and, if it was the 1970s, he could have become a TV character like Columbo or Banecek (who, I think, was a hired-gun insurance investigator - very opposite of Keyes as he was macho swagger not nerdy competence) in the "Sunday Night Mystery" series, or whatever it was called. A neat (maybe too contrived) angle could be Keyes visiting MacMurray's character in prison to "consult" on tough cases.

Other movies better than their sources are Die Hard, Jaws and Whitley Strieber's Wolfen. But it happens so rarely it's easy to list the exceptions.

Yes, Banacek was an independent and rather flashy operator. I just finished watching the second of the NBC Mystery Movie episodes featuring him, and while the plot is dazzling and he actually does some investigating -- of what seem to be random events that hook up later into the plot -- he himself is a little hard to appreciate.

I was going to write, "Keyes would have a hard time consulting with MacMurray's Walter Neff," because of the near-certainty that Neff would have gone to the California gas chamber. We've all seen still shots from the alternate ending where Keyes witnesses Walter's execution. But since that was never shown in the film, we can't be sure Walter wound up on Death Row, or if he did, that he was executed swiftly. He might have lingered like Caryl Chessman, trying one legal approach after another. . . .

 

[Worf]

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - Never seen the movie from the start, only caught bits and pieces over the decades. Enjoyed it a helluva lot more than MOORE!!!! Should'a given the guy at least one more shot. Diana Rigg.... boy howdy what a beautiful woman! Drool....

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - Never seen the movie from the start, only caught bits and pieces over the decades. Enjoyed it a helluva lot more than MOORE!!!! Should'a given the guy at least one more shot. Diana Rigg.... boy howdy what a beautiful woman! Drool....

Worf

"OHMSS" good movie, check
Lazenby better than Moore, check
Diana Rigg, yup, God was on top of his game the day he made her.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Robinson, I understand, suggested to Cain that he write a new movie, or maybe a novel, about Keyes, but it never happened. If I knew anything at all about the insurance business, or could research it, I'd write a new, period-set story about Keyes the rumpled, committed investigator. After all, someone did it for Scarlett O'Hara, right? (Though I don't know how well that came off.)

If you like this type of story, look up "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar," a long-running radio series about a freelance insurance investigator with a knack for uncovering corruption. He was, as the epigraph stated, "the man with the action-packed expense account," but he didn't really enjoy getting into fights with thugs as much as he enjoyed matching wits with con artists.

 

[Benzadmiral]

"OHMSS" good movie, check
Lazenby better than Moore, check
Diana Rigg, yup, God was on top of his game the day he made her.

OHMSS is one of the best adaptations of a Fleming novel ever done. It follows the original story fairly closely. Plus there is a fine detail late in the film when Blofeld has locked Bond up in the cable room for the ski lift. Bond has no gadgets. So he draws out his pants pockets, rips them off, and uses them as gloves to inch hand-over-hand across the metal, greased cable. A touch Fleming would have approved!

 

[Fading Fast]

If you like this type of story, look up "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar," a long-running radio series about a freelance insurance investigator with a knack for uncovering corruption. He was, as the epigraph stated, "the man with the action-packed expense account," but he didn't really enjoy getting into fights with thugs as much as he enjoyed matching wits with con artists.

Interesting - what quality level is this at: wash-rinse-repeat plots each week or original and thought provoking episodes?

 

[LizzieMaine]

It varied wildly over its lifespan -- the best stories are found in 1955-56, when it was a fifteen-minute nightly serial, with one story each week divided into five parts. 75 minutes a week gave a lot of time for interesting character development, much more so than you'd get in a half-hour program once a week.

 

[Bushman]

Light night I watched Tigerland. Good film by Joel Schumacher about a pair of platoons in 1971 at bootcamp, who are training at Fort Polk, LA, preparing for the arduous Tigerland training camp before they get shipped out to Vietnam. A bit slow plot wise, but the characters more than make up for it. Colin Farrell stars as Roland Bozz, a lazy and unmotivated anti-Vietnam sentimentalist who while trying to get himself kicked out of the army, finds himself becoming a natural born leader. He sticks up for his friends and his platoon mates against their rival platoon, which is led by Wilson (Shea Whigham) a psychopathic and cruel recruit who is the main antagonist of the story. Bozz also sticks up for his friends and platoon mates against his superiors, primarily drill sergeant Capt. Saunders, a sadist who is willing to compromise the integrity of his recruits in an effort to send as many soldiers as possible to the front.

Really, what is even more interesting about this movie than it's characters is the cinematography. Shot as if it were home video made by the recruits themselves, you truly feel as if this movie came straight out of the 1970s. From the color grading and the tint, to the set design that transports you right back to the Flower Power decade, this is a real historian's treat of a movie. Unfortunately, not even the visuals and the characters can save the pacing of this film and despite some great editing, the plot really drags. It's slow, and while the characters keep it going, you really feel as if this is one extended training montage from "Full Metal Jacket" that ends before some of the more memorable moments can happen.

7/10

 

[Stearmen]

Lt. Robinson Crusoe USN. Surprisingly, they got the scenes with Dick in the A7 Corsair II right. They even had him speaking with the oxygen mask on.

 

[Touchofevil]

"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" - Never seen the movie from the start, only caught bits and pieces over the decades. Enjoyed it a helluva lot more than MOORE!!!! Should'a given the guy at least one more shot. Diana Rigg.... boy howdy what a beautiful woman! Drool....

Worf

You are as right as rain. It does not get the hy.. praise it should.

 

[Worf]

You are as right as rain. It does not get the hype it should.

Errrr can we substitute "praise" for "hype"? I'm allergic to the latter...

Worf

 

[Touchofevil]

Errrr can we substitute "praise" for "hype"? I'm allergic to the latter...

Worf

Done.

 

[Touchofevil]

Out of Sight and The Dark Knight Rises

 

[Fading Fast]

Out of Sight and The Dark Knight Rises

"The Dark Night Rises" would be an insanely awesome movie if it didn't follow the best superhero movie of all time "The Dark Night." There is no way to improve on that - no way to take it to another level. No matter how beyond-the-pale great anything he did later was, Wilt Chamberlain overshadowed his own career by scoring 100 points in one game.

 

[dh66]

Walt Disney's"American Legends". I've heard the story of John Henry many times, and know it well, but never heard it told BY HIS WIDOW!!!! TO HIS SON WHO SHE WAS PREGNANT WITH WHEN HE DIED!!!!! WTF DISNEY?????!!!! I was slobberin' like a toddler by the end of that one.

On a more upbeat note, though.....James Earl Jones is THE MAN!

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk

 

[Touchofevil]

District 9 and Ocean's Eleven (2001); the rain and wind has kept us in front of the television all day.

 

[Worf]

Done.

I don't care what they say about you.... you're aces in my book!

Worf