What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

As part of TCM's celebration of Olivia de Havilland's 100th birthday(!), I watched The Snake Pit last night. I thought I had already seen it decades ago, but quickly discovered that I hadn't.

It's essentially the 1948 version of Girl, Interrupted, with a very worthy Oscar-nominated performance from Olivia, who completely commits to being de-glammed and gives a harrowing portrayal of a woman going through a major nervous breakdown. Apparently, the film had a huge impact on the understanding of mental illness among the general public, and its then-shocking portrayal of things like large open wards overstuffed with patients at all levels of difficulty, forced hydrotherapy, and shock treatments led to numerous reforms.

I thought it was excellent, though like all treatments of psychological issues back then (for example, Spellbound), it was quite a bit off base in a lot ways re today's understanding. For example, its assumptions that Olivia's character had to be cured in order to become a good subservient wife to her clueless husband. And you don't see doctor's offices decorated with framed pictures of Freud on the wall anymore. But it remains very worth seeing for Olivia's brave performance and those of a sterling supporting cast, including Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Betsy Blair, Beulah Bondi, Celia Lovsky (later Star Trek's T'Pau!), etc.

I'll keep an eye out for that. Like, "Spellbound" (as you said), "Now, Voyager" and even a bit later "Marne" and, for alcoholism, "The Lost Weekend," and, for anti-semitism, "Gentleman's Agreement," despite the code, despite the seeming desire of the movie establishment to not "rock the boat," gritty movies about real human problems and social issues were being made (in small numbers) and, while many of the attitudes and "solutions" are out of date (as you noted) - these movies were pretty brutal and honest and buck the popular perception that everything "not nice" was being swept under the rug.

 

[SurfGent]

1975. Plus some nice hats and coats in a mid 70s kinda way, also I think that spooks of the day would be great fadora loungers ;-)

 

[Worf]

"Junebug" - Great, understated and quirky film from 2004. I loved it.

Worf

 

[AmateisGal]

The original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Had to prepare to see the new Ghostbusters (which we're seeing tomorrow).

 

[Touchofevil]

View attachment 53267

Such a well done and under appreciated movie. A movie I must watch every time I find it to be on.

 

[Touchofevil]

Harper on TCM. I enjoy Newman as Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer (Harper for the movie), but always find the movie lacking/wanting. Still, I will continue to watch it whenever it is on because I need my MacDonald fix.

 

[Fading Fast]

Such a well done and under appreciated movie. A movie I must watch every time I find it to be on.

Agreed and whenever the jeans-with-a-sport-coat "controversy" comes up in the "What Are You Wearing Thread," I can point to Redford in this movie as an example of it working really well .

 

[LizzieMaine]

Our "Peyton Place" screening went very well yesterday -- almost 300 people, not a single one of them under the age of 70, which must tell you something. Funnest part came right at the changeover between reel 1 and reel 2, when the xenon lamp in the incoming projector blew out a seal and lost its gas, causing it to instantly oxidze to a lovely opaque cobalt blue color and lose 99 percent of its light output. I got it shut off before it could explode, went out and did five minutes of technology jokes for the audience to reassure them while my assistant rethreaded the reel onto the other projector, and then while it ran I broke all known speed records for changing a lamp. Got thru the rest of the show without a hitch, despite the replacement lamp having 1300 hours on it and being noticeably darker than the one on the other projector.

The archive guy from Fox who accompanied the print, on the other hand, was duly impressed, and used the incident to lecture to the audience on "the organic experience of viewing 35mm film."

Things like this are why projection used to be a prestigious union job.

 

[Fading Fast]

Our "Peyton Place" screening went very well yesterday -- almost 300 people, not a single one of them under the age of 70, which must tell you something. Funnest part came right at the changeover between reel 1 and reel 2, when the xenon lamp in the incoming projector blew out a seal and lost its gas, causing it to instantly oxidze to a lovely opaque cobalt blue color and lose 99 percent of its light output. I got it shut off before it could explode, went out and did five minutes of technology jokes for the audience to reassure them while my assistant rethreaded the reel onto the other projector, and then while it ran I broke all known speed records for changing a lamp. Got thru the rest of the show without a hitch, despite the replacement lamp having 1300 hours on it and being noticeably darker than the one on the other projector.

The archive guy from Fox who accompanied the print, on the other hand, was duly impressed, and used the incident to lecture to the audience on "the organic experience of viewing 35mm film."

Things like this are why projection used to be a prestigious union job.

I am surprised that the audience's age wasn't wider - I'm 52, and I'm a fan - that said, what is TCM's demographic?

While what you did with the projector is impressive, I can't help thinking your talents might not be fully utilized as, with the right exposure, I could see you having figured out the fix for Apollo 13 faster than the NASA Boys did.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think most of the people who showed up were those who had watched the filming as kids, or who were otherwise from the town where most of the filming took place. One of the audience members after the show told the story of how she was one of the kids in the picnic scene, but was never allowed to see the finished picture because of its raunchiness. Her older brother -- who is one of our ticket-takers, and was standing next to me as she spoke -- did go see it, and when she asked him how she looked in the movie, his reply was "Stupid." Biggest laff of the afternoon.

My assistant projectionist's mother is in the scene where the mill owner is giving his rah-rah speech. She was 13 years old at the time, and considers it one of her great lifetime achievements.

 

[belfastboy]

Watched the new Helen Mirren movie..."Eye in the Sky". Overall just okay. I found it manipulative.....not that all movies don't attempt it.....but this was too obviously manipulative with a cast of predictable, formulaic characters.

 

[Stearmen]

The Martian. A little long, but, not bad!

 

[Touchofevil]

Agreed and whenever the jeans-with-a-sport-coat "controversy" comes up in the "What Are You Wearing Thread," I can point to Redford in this movie as an example of it working really well .

Yeah, but he is Redford and you aren't.

 

[Stearmen]

Quite true. My childhood doctor -- who was also my mother's childhood doctor -- was very much a "Dr. Swain" type, beloved by all the town, etc. And then ten years after he died, we found out he accidentally killed my older brother on the delivery table and covered it up. Oopsie.

I just thought of something. If old James was still here, he would have pointed out that my childhood Dr. was, Dr Quinn Medicine Women!

 

[Fading Fast]

"Far From the Maddening Crowd" (2015) - I stayed with it for about 40 minutes and, then, quit out of boredom a complete lack of concern for any of the characters. If I remember right, I felt similar when I watched the 1960s version with Julie Christie (and it takes a lot for me to be bored by a movie with Julie Christie in it). I might have to try the novel as I am not getting what works so well in this story that they keep making movies of it.

 

[AmateisGal]

The new Ghostbusters. It was a fun film. Not a remake at all, but had new characters and a new story. Quite enjoyed it.

 

[Doctor Strange]

"Far From the Maddening Crowd" (2015) - I stayed with it for about 40 minutes and, then, quit out of borden a complete lack of concern for any of the characters. If I remember right, I felt similar when I watched the 1960s version with Julie Christie (and it takes a lot for me to be bored by a movie with Julie Christie in it). I might have to try the novel as I am not getting what works so well in this story that they keep making movies of it.

I rather liked that film, but I'll watch Carey Mulligan in anything. That said, I was very underwhelmed when I recently watched Suffragette - this was the first time I haven't been engaged by one of her performances. It was a well made film, but it just left me cold. Everything that happened to her character was entirely predictable, and totally overwrought... Okay, things were truly horrible for working women back then, I get it.

Weird, because usually anything set a hundred years ago is right up my alley! (For example, I also recently watched Testament of Youth with Alicia Vikander, which I thought was quite good.)

 

[Worf]

"The Heiress" - Amazing acting all way round.. They killed it, can't improve on that one.... nope, not one bit! The host did add that Errol Flynn turned down the role, it would've been his and Olivia's 9th film together.... Still, Monty wasn't half bad!

Worf

 

[Touchofevil]

Touch of Evil on TCM

 

[Doctor Strange]

Devotion (1946) via TCM. A very fictionalized biopic about the Bronte sisters, with Ida Lupino as Emily and Olivia de Havilland as Charlotte. Loaded with questionable casting (too-American Arthur Kennedy as brother Branwell, too-German Paul Henreid as the alleged love object of both sisters) and sledgehammer-subtle references to (the filmed versions of) Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, it wasn't exactly good, but it held my interest. Oddly, Ida's performance had a lot more juice than Olivia's.

Almost more interesting than the film itself was that it was held up for release for three years, and gave biggest-star Olivia third billing, to "punish" her because of her famous lawsuit against the studio. This means that at about the same time that she played Charlotte, her sister Joan Fontaine starred as Jane Eyre in the 1943 film (which coincidentally, will forever be my favorite adaptation)... and of course, they famously feuded for most of their lives. And this couldn't have helped!