What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[green papaya]

VON RYAN'S EXPRESS starring Frank Sinatra (1965)

 

[Fading Fast]

"East Side, West Side" from 1949 starring James Mason, Barbara Stanwyck and Van Heflin

• It's basically a soap opera set in upper class NYC: cheating husband, forgiving wife, mistress, new man enters the mix / old mistress returns

• A bit of film noir sneaks in during a sub-plot murder investigation led by William Conrad (with hair still on his head and his "Cannon" mustache already in place)

• The "code" was already a bit wobbly in '49 as there is no attempt made to hide the sexual nature of the affair - hiding Ava Gardner's sexuality would be hard to do in any scenario. She's the mistress, makes no secret of her sexual activities and has an outstanding one-on-one scene with Barbara Stanwyck (the woman whose husband Gardner is sleeping with)
  • It's a short scene, packed with meaning as one dialogue shell after another is fired - neither woman came out unshaken from that exchange, but Gardner did get the better of Stanwyck

• Had it not been for Cary Grant, James Mason would have had the most interesting male voice in Hollywood's Golden Era - it's deep, resonates and has some kind off upper-crust accent that's undefinable but rich

 

[Worf]

"Somewhere I'll Find You" 1942 staring Clark Gable and Lana Turner.

• A combined WWII propaganda film and love triangle where the propaganda is heavy-handed (to be fair though, what '42 propaganda film wasn't?), but the real excess was the ridiculously confusing gamesmanship in the love triangle

• Gable and his brother play reporters both, at times, vying for Turner's - also a reporter - affections
  • But Gable, the older brother, sometimes seems to be trying to show his younger brother that Turner's not a "good" women, sometimes he seems to be going after her for himself, sometimes he seems to just want to bed her, sometimes he wants to marry her and all of that gets cycled and repeated too many times to keep it straight
  • And while the younger brother plays it right down the fairway - he wants to marry Turner - Turner is also all over the map - good woman / hates Gable / loves Gable / bad women and on and on
  • After awhile, I didn't care as long as the younger brother - the only one not playing a game - didn't get hurt

• The war / propaganda story is pretty good - shows the US attitude toward the war prior to Pearl Harbor as being mixed (which it was) and then, as a propaganda film does, becomes "we're all in" once Dec 7th happens

• The time-travel / period details are great - the clothes, cars, architecture, etc. are Fedora Lounge fun (the vacuum tube message system and dictaphone were office scene treats)

• Gable will always be a mystery to me. I know he was the "king" of Hollywood and the box office receipts back that up - and there is no question he can power through dialogue and is a presence on screen - but he always comes off as acting to me. He's always playing Gable - the big, powerful, (in his mind) sexual man. And his gestures always seem scaled to the theater, but too loud, too obvious for film.

I watched this movie again as well, a little more closely this time. Your analysis is spot on. I too found the lopsided triangle annoying at best. But when the action started it was decent for an early war pic. I also couldn't understand Gable reaction to having his girl blown to bits and his brother as well. Yeah he was full of piss and vinegar but how bout a tear tough guy? As for his acting I've seen examples of it when it was understated and insightful particularly in war pics AFTER the war AFTER he'd actually served in the Air Corps. "Command Decision" comes to mind.

Worf

 

[AmateisGal]

VON RYAN'S EXPRESS starring Frank Sinatra (1965)


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One of my favorites!

 

[AmateisGal]

I've planted myself in front of Turner Classic Movies all day and haven't regretted it a bit.

I've watched:

Nazi Agent
Hotel Berlin
Saboteur
Across the Pacific

and currently watching Twelve O'Clock High. I'm sure to be here when Tora! Tora! Tora! is on, as well!

 

[Worf]

I've planted myself in front of Turner Classic Movies all day and haven't regretted it a bit.

I've watched:

Nazi Agent
Hotel Berlin
Saboteur
Across the Pacific

and currently watching Twelve O'Clock High. I'm sure to be here when Tora! Tora! Tora! is on, as well!

Sure you're not rooted into that couch? Get out! Breathe some fresh air! Shake da dirt off'n yer roots.!

Worf

 

[AmateisGal]

Sure you're not rooted into that couch? Get out! Breathe some fresh air! Shake da dirt off'n yer roots.!

Worf

I was outside and busy as a bee yesterday, so I figure I earned a day inside being a couch potato! (Plus my rheumatoid arthritis has been pretty painful).

 

[Fading Fast]

I've planted myself in front of Turner Classic Movies all day and haven't regretted it a bit.

I've watched:

Nazi Agent
Hotel Berlin
Saboteur
Across the Pacific

and currently watching Twelve O'Clock High. I'm sure to be here when Tora! Tora! Tora! is on, as well!

Saw some of several of those - my God the black-and-white film in "Saboteur" is gorgeous.

"Twelve O'Clock High" is my favorite of all of them.

Recorded "Tora! Tora! Tora!" for watching today, time permitting.


Watched "The Rains Came" yesterday. It's from '39 with Myrna Loy, George Brent and Tyrone Power.

• Set in India during English control, it follows the lives of the well-to-do English and the well-to-do local Indian rulers
• While not aligned to modern morality, for a '39 movie, this one takes a much more open and respectful view of the Indian perspective, rights and culture
• Even a code movie can't hide the fact that when the English decamped to the colonies, sexual hippety-hop followed
• The special effects - the flood scenes in particular - where well done for the time
• George Brent was probably a very animated sleeper in real life which balanced all the sleeping he did while delivering dialogue in his movies
• Try as she did, it was hard for Myrna Loy to play the harlot convincingly - there's just something wholesome about her (ditto Greer Garson)
• Brenda Joyce put in a nice nuanced performance in one of the not-Jane-from-Tarzan roles of her career
• Clearly a big-budget, star-packed movie for its time, and while not a classic, it is a solid action-adventure / Colonial movie - perfect for a Sunday afternoon

 

[Doctor Strange]

Check out The Rains of Ranchipur - the same story remade in the fifties with Lana Turner, Richard Burton, Michael Rennie, etc.

 

[green papaya]

I've planted myself in front of Turner Classic Movies all day and haven't regretted it a bit.

I've watched:

Nazi Agent
Hotel Berlin
Saboteur
Across the Pacific

and currently watching Twelve O'Clock High. I'm sure to be here when Tora! Tora! Tora! is on, as well!

those are all classics, great Memorial Day movies

a movie called House on 92nd street is pretty good too, it's about WW2 Nazi spies in the US during WW2

 

[Worf]

I was outside and busy as a bee yesterday, so I figure I earned a day inside being a couch potato! (Plus my rheumatoid arthritis has been pretty painful).

Sorry you're a hurtin' my dear. That's NEVER a good thing. Go ahead... take root!

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

Check out The Rains of Ranchipur - the same story remade in the fifties with Lana Turner, Richard Burton, Michael Rennie, etc.

Which one do you prefer?

 

[Doctor Strange]

I haven't seen the 1939 version yet, so I can't compare. Someday!

I was pretty unimpressed with the later version. And ultra-Brit Richard Burton playing the Indian doctor is kind of hard to take these days.

 

[Fading Fast]

I haven't seen the 1939 version yet, so I can't compare. Someday!

I was pretty unimpressed with the later version. And ultra-Brit Richard Burton playing the Indian doctor is kind of hard to take these days.

Taking it in the context of a '39 movie, I thought it was good and nearly on par with "The Letter" if that helps for comparison.

While there are notable exceptions (Hitchcock's movies for one), the '50s seemed a step down in movie making vs the '30s and '40s overall. The money spent on scenes and effects was clearly greater in the '50s, but the stories, acting and writing seem - again, overall, as there are many individual exceptions - stronger in the '30s and '40s for me.

 

[Touchofevil]

The Light Between Oceans
Good acting, nice cinematography, interesting story, but something kept it from being more.
Still worthy of a watch.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Taking it in the context of a '39 movie, I thought it was good and nearly on par with "The Letter" if that helps for comparison.

While there are notable exceptions (Hitchcock's movies for one), the '50s seemed a step down in movie making vs the '30s and '40s overall. The money spent on scenes and effects was clearly greater in the '50s, but the stories, acting and writing seem - again, overall, as there are many individual exceptions - stronger in the '30s and '40s for me.

Well, I don't think the 50s version was anywhere near as good as The Letter. Like the 50s remake of The Prisoner of Zenda, it's more opulent and in color... but it probably doesn't have the zing of the earlier film.

Keep in mind that the movie industry changed dramatically in the 50s. The studio system was gutted by the 1948 Supreme Court ruling that the studios could no longer own their own theater chains, which hugely changed the economics of the biz. Without guaranteed play for their films and predictable revenue, the factory aspect of the studio system was over: the studios gradually divested themselves of their specialist departments, and eventually every production was essentially being put together from scratch, without the old army of experts maintaining a consistent look. And of course, there was the challenge of television. Until the studios realized in the 60s that they could produce TV shows like their old B pictures, the decrease in theater attendance further changed the equation.

In the 50s you find the emergence of independent producers, some of whom specialized in schlock like Roger Corman, and some who made prestige message pics like Stanley Kramer. The film biz became decentralized, scattered, inconsistent, and the old house style of the studios faded. So I wouldn't characterize the 50s as a step down so much as an evolution into a different business model, where the old consistency fell to a more individualized approach and wider range of quality. There were still some great movies made, but it was largely a new ballgame.

 

[AmateisGal]

Watched a bit of Kelly's Heroes and did some housework, now watching Where Eagles Dare.

 

[Blowtorch]

"The Wailing", Korean thriller, and pretty good, too

 

[Edward]

Arrival. Amy Adams is a very capable actress, but the film as a whole is a pile of pretentious rubbish, with a worse than average ending.

Rewatched Moon, which holds up well. Great film.

 

[Benzadmiral]

VON RYAN'S EXPRESS starring Frank Sinatra (1965)


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I've never seen the film all the way through, but I've read the David Westheimer novel many times since I bumped into it at age 15. A dynamite story.