What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Touchofevil]

Assassin's Creed on HBO. It was lucky to get a two star rating.

 

[belfastboy]

Now, Voyager.....a 40's classic with Bette Davis and Paul Henreid. I am not a big fan of classic movies, find most of them dated and plot lines silly.....but this one was very good.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Son of the Gods" 1930 staring Richard Barthelmess and Constance Bennett

• Holy smoke, this movie is why pre-codes are so valuable even though the movie itself is just okay, it's even clunky, but that's besides the point

• The topic / theme / plot and reason for being of this movie is to highlight and comment on racism

• And the racism on judgment here is how 1930 "white" society views and treats the Chinese
  • It uses a young Chinese man who is wealthy (rich dad) and urbane to show the slights, snubs and outright cruelty he endures trying to fit into - while not hiding that he is Chinese (he looks white) - white society

• If one brings a 2017 racism outlook and sensitivity, this movie will offend as, while the overall message is anti-racism, it is a product of its times which does not align to the "every word and thought has to be calibrated just right or you're a racist" judgement by some today

• Instead, this is a fascinating look into how racism was seen in that day - the mindsets / the framework / the unspoken (perhaps even subconscious) assumptions of the time

• And while dated in ways, those fighting racism here have some very modern views - for every cringe-worthy comment (and there are plenty from both the bigots and forward-thinkers), there are other comments that encourage as, even in 1930, some got and fought the ugliness and stupidity of racism

• And that's the fascinating thing, IMHO, as the tone and tenure may be off to our 2017 ears, the big-picture issues and principals of racism / anti-racism haven't changed - they're all out there being discussed, argued and fought over in 1930, just like today

• I purposely left a plot summary out as there are a few twists and turns that felt manipulative and way too convenient, but ones you'll want to experience fresh. Anyway, the point of this movie isn't its plot or the acting (Barthelmess - who I like in a '30s actor way - always seems like he's trying to hide the fact that he's passing a kidney stone while he's in a scene), it's seeing a small window into how 1930's America looked at racism

 

[Worf]

Sorry, but can I ask which Goodbye Mr. Chips movie is being referred to above? The 1939, 1969 or 2002 versions?

I have seen the first and last versions and am about to start reading the book by James Hilton.

I was referring to the 1939 version staring Robert Donat. As far as I'm concerned it's the only one worth mentioning. Just my opinion though...

Worf

 

[scottyrocks]

I have Queen of Outer Space (1958) on TCM right now. Overall, pretty horrible.

Who, 6 million miles from home says 'No' to 'Can you delay your departure a day or two?' Thank goodness for the 'happy ending,' regardless. haha

I can see where Star Trek ToS got much of its look, and some of its sensibilities, despite being produced 6 years later.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Heaven Can Wait" 1943 starring Gene Tierney and Don Ameche

• Oddly, it's not an early version of Warren Beatty's '70s effort (that was "Here Comes Mr. Jordan -" odd, right?)

• Would have been better as a small-budget move as there's not enough here - story, conflict, scope - for all the time, extravagant sets, star power and technicolor to support, but had it been a small, half-hour-shorter, B&W movie, it would have been an enjoyable little film

• Gene Tierney's hairdo when she is aged is incredibly odd - once you notice it, you can't stop looking at it

• Charles Coburn's joy on screen is infectious

"Out of the Fog" 1941 starring John Garfield and Ida Lupino

• A movie on the rackets and "protection" money extorted from the public that never shows the larger gangster organization, the wide swath of society effected or the public anti-crime institutions charged with fighting it; instead, we get (all but) one gangster, two victims and one cop revealing an intimate view of a shakedown effort

• Garfield is chillingly cold as the gangster (even with some overwrought dialogue) - standing in sharp contrast to the decency and innocence of his two victims and the sincere but seemingly outmatched police officer

• One of the victim's daughter starts dating Garfield and, despite appearing to really love her father, continues dating him even after learning who Garfield is and what he is doing to her dad - this did not ring true / nor did the father's placid, forgiving reaction (my father would have shot me and gone back to eating dinner without a second thought had I done something similar to him)

• It all only partially works, but is worth seeing for the different approach, the film noir-i-ness and, as always, for Garfield

 

[Doctor Strange]

I have Queen of Outer Space (1958) on TCM right now. Overall, pretty horrible.

Who, 6 million miles from home says 'No' to 'Can you delay your departure a day or two?' Thank goodness for the 'happy ending,' regardless. haha

I can see where Star Trek ToS got much of its look, and some of its sensibilities, despite being produced 6 years later.

Surely you know that the place to look for where Trek took its inspiration is Forbidden Planet, not Queen of Outer Space. For that matter, the uniforms and other props and costumes in Queen were reused leftovers from FP. FP gives you the captain/first officer/ship's doctor troika, a quasi-military ship in deep space, a planetary problem to be solved that's an actual thought-provoking SF idea - not a fifties Amazon fantasy (as interesting as that is from a cultural history perspective) - expensive game-changing effects and big-budget production, etc.

This is personal for me: when I was a kid, before Star Trek premiered in 1966, Forbidden Planet was the best filmed SF we had.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Surely you know that the place to look for where Trek took its inspiration is Forbidden Planet, not Queen of Outer Space. For that matter, the uniforms and other props and costumes in Queen were reused leftovers from FP. FP gives you the captain/first officer/ship's doctor troika, a quasi-military ship in deep space, a planetary problem to be solved that's an actual thought-provoking SF idea - not a fifties Amazon fantasy (as interesting as that is from a cultural history perspective) - expensive game-changing effects and big-budget production, etc.

This is personal for me: when I was a kid, before Star Trek premiered in 1966, Forbidden Planet was the best filmed SF we had.

Frederik Pohl once told a fellow SF writer, after they'd seen Forbidden Planet, that it could almost have been a serial in the old Astounding Science Fiction magazine in John Campbell's time. It's not a blood-and-thunder space opera, despite having some of those trappings, but as you say, a thought-provoking adventure.

According to the stories I've read, the studio (I forget which one) decided to make a science-fiction "A" picture. And it's amazing that they did, considering almost no one connected to the production had any real link to written SF. The screenplay writer was best known for doing Tarzan pictures, for instance. But, like Casablanca (which bounced up and down, being written and re-written on the fly during production), Forbidden Planet turned out beautifully.

 

[BlueTrain]

Edgar Rice Burroughs, who created Tarzan, also wrote a lot of science fiction, so maybe a screenplay writer doing both Tarzan and science fiction isn't so odd after all.

 

[Doctor Strange]

It was M-G-M, who'd never been known for SF projects, but like everything they did, they followed the studio motto: Do it right, make it big, give it class. It's well known that the plot was, um, inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest. Dr. Morbius is the wizard Prospero, Altara is his daughter Miranda, Robby is sprite-doing-his-bidding Ariel, the ID monster is Caliban, the crew of C-57D are the Milanese nobles... But honestly, it was the cool big-budget design and effects that hooked me as a 9-year old.

 

[Benzadmiral]

It was M-G-M, who'd never been known for SF projects, but like everything they did, they followed the studio motto: Do it right, make it big, give it class. It's well known that the plot was, um, inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest. Dr. Morbius is the wizard Prospero, Altara is his daughter Miranda, Robby is sprite-doing-his-bidding Ariel, the ID monster is Caliban, the crew of C-57D are the Milanese nobles... But honestly, it was the cool big-budget design and effects that hooked me as a 9-year old.

And me, when I was quite a bit older than that. A local SF convention, though Star Trek-oriented, used to end each convention on Sunday evening with a showing of FP; and it would always be well attended.

 

[green papaya]

Battle Cry (1955)

Van Heflin, Aldo Ray and Tab Hunter in Raoul Walsh's hard-hitting-action epic of Marine Corps heroism in the WWII Pacific, based on Leon Uris' gritty best-seller. Year: 1955

 

[MisterCairo]

The Hitman's Bodyguard, $5 bucks, really need to stop getting the big popcorn.

What a really fun film! I think Ryan Reynolds, Vancouver's young lad done good, has found a groove and is rocking it!

I will be getting this one on disk for sure, not many films make me laugh out loud!

 

[Fading Fast]

"Paris Can Wait" starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin (who looks like he ate one of his brothers which would explain why it seems like one or more of them has disappeared and why Alec looks like he's twice the size he once was)

• Lizzie, this movie was made for your theater's demographic
  • Later-middle-aged and wealthy white woman has later-middle-aged-and-wealthy-white-women-life issues while driving around the gorgeous parts of France (with an quirky and, maybe, charming single man) and eating fantastic meals as she debates the merits of her marriage to her modestly obnoxious husband who buys her expensive gifts

• Scenery was great and Lane held it all together, but it was still flat and all but pointless - serves more as a travel advertisement for France than a movie of any substance or, even, entertainment value

 

[green papaya]

The BRIDGES AT TOKO - RI (1954)

Naval Reservist pilot Lt. Harry Brubaker (William Holden) is stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Sea of Japan during the Korean War. Although suffering from battle fatigue and longing to return to civilian life with his wife, Nancy (Grace Kelly), he agrees to fly a dangerous bombing mission over North Korea, with the support of his faithful rescue crew, Forney (Mickey Rooney) and Gamidge (Earl Holliman), and his sympathetic commanding officer, Commander Lee (Charles McGraw).

 

[Fading Fast]

"Room at the Top" 1959 staring Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret

• If you took the pieces and characters of "A Place in the Sun" and scrambled them up - you'd have "Room at the Top"
  • The poor, ambitious, bitter young man falls in love with the not-wealthy girl (as in "A Place in the Sun"), but wants the wealthy girl from the "right" family (as in "A Place in the Sun"), but here he really loves the not-rich girl (so he doesn't kill her as in "A Place in the Sun")
  • Instead of a boring "do they catch he murderer" story, the conflict is whether he'll grab the young girl and the path-to-riches her father offers him or follow his heart to the woman he loves (which is even further complicated by her being married)

• Harvey is too angry here to make me believe all these women want him (or that anybody would spend a minute more than they have to with him) / he's consume by class envy and explodes at every half slight and no slight (he sees them when they don't exist - it's exhausting)
  • Even if justified, going through life angry - every second - is corrosive to everyone around the angry person and most corrosive to the person him or herself

• Good look at late-'50s England

 

[MisterCairo]

Three of us (youngest away at a sleepover) watched ParaNorman, our first Hallowe'en flick of the season!

 

[Bugguy]

OK, so I saw my first mockumentary today, A Mighty Wind. I had never heard the term till my 30-something daughter enlightened me. I'm not sure I'm totally on board with the genre, or maybe this particular movie was a difficult introduction. It sounds like there may be some that i'll better appreciate. They're not satire and they're not a spoof, and they're not necessarily comedy. They seem just real enough to hook you, but then you realize that somethings not quite right. I'm trying to associate with something I'm familiar with... MASH? Catch22? Any suggestions?

 

[Zombie_61]

Typically a "mockumentary" presents itself as a documentary, but tells the "story" of a fictitious subject. M*A*S*H and Catch-22 don't really qualify; they're simply movies set in specific eras. Without knowing your tastes it's difficult to recommend any, so here's a fairly comprehensive list you can peruse to see if anything piques your interest.

 

[Fading Fast]

"711 Ocean Drive" 1950 starring Edmond O'Brien

• More crime expose / old-style gangster movie than true '40s/'50s film noir, but regardless of genre, a good, if uneven movie

• The bottom-up (guys on the street) and top-down (leaders of the crime syndicate) look at a national gambling / bookie operation is a nice connect-the-dots view of how it all worked (discounted for Hollywood hokum)

• O'Brien tries hard, but doesn't fully convince as the regular Joe turned gangster boss, but in part, because the script had many holes in the story (his rise) and some hokey dialogue that wasn't his fault

• Otto Kruger is wonderful as an early example of a polished, urbane crime boss who, overall, thinks and acts like a CEO except he can ruthlessly order the murder of those threatening his enterprise

• "He chose the wrong girl" alert: Instead of pursuing the slightly nuts Joanne Dru's upper-crust-likes-danger girl, O'Brien should have gone for the street smart, gets-the-joke and has integrity Dorothy Patrick's roll-up-her-sleeves-and-get-the-job-done girl. Note: always go for the girl who forgets to brush her hair versus the one that never misses a chance to checks her's in a mirror

• The closing scene at Boulder Dam provided a beautiful and dramatic setting but was overwrought and forced

• It's a big, sloppy, energetic, uneven movie, but it's fun and well worth seeing as a movie and as an example of an ambitious effort that only partially works

"The River" 1951

• It tried to be (and we wanted it to be) a big sprawling epic of an English family in India, but it fell flat as the story never jelled and the characters never developed - there just wasn't enough here to keep you engaged

• That said, the scenery - shot in India - is stunning and kept us watching as the plot sat on idle

• If this movie had worked, it would have taken its place along side strong efforts in this genre like "Elephant Walk," "The Rains Came" and "The Letter," but alas, it didn't work