What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

"Mrs. Miniver" - Even Churchill called it "propaganda" but "propaganda worth 2 battleships and several Divisions". Great movie and Greer Garson... wow! Still watch it when I can, still well up when it ends. Vin going to sit with the old Battle Axe gets me every time. You can see she's totally wrecked but breeding prevents her from grieving publically, however when her widowed son in law takes her hand you can see his strength just pour into her. Yes she's lost her only Granddaughter and her only kin, but she knows she's not alone. Great stuff!

Worf

Could not agree more - I've seen it an insanely embarrassing number of times. And I'm always ready to jump off my couch, right into a ship, boat or raft and join the flotilla enabling the evacuation of Dunkirk - I'm sadly manipulated by well-done propaganda.

You are spot on, "the old Battle Axe -" May Whitty - (Dame May Whitty, I believe, gotta love all that crazy "title" stuff) - is an old pro who can do it all and is believable in any role. That said, it's Garson's film - her scenes with the German fighter pilot are incredible.

Propaganda - whatever, it's an outstanding movie.

 

[Worf]

Could not agree more - I've seen it an insanely embarrassing number of times. And I'm always ready to jump off my couch, right into a ship, boat or raft and join the flotilla enabling the evacuation of Dunkirk - I'm sadly manipulated by well-done propaganda.

You are spot on, "the old Battle Axe -" May Whitty - (Dame May Whitty, I believe, gotta love all that crazy "title" stuff) - is an old pro who can do it all and is believable in any role. That said, it's Garson's film - her scenes with the German fighter pilot are incredible.

Propaganda - whatever, it's an outstanding movie.

Yeah it's a "stop and drop" movie for me for sure. As for "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" your commentary is spot on. I'm sure viewing it in India at the time of it's release would've been quite a different story. I heard "Gunga Din" caused riots in India when it premiered there. Still it's something that Curtiz excelled at. You're right, Flynn would've been the better call. I'm sure they tried to get him as well but hey, I'll take Cooper any way I can get him.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

Yeah it's a "stop and drop" movie for me for sure. As for "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" your commentary is spot on. I'm sure viewing it in India at the time of it's release would've been quite a different story. I heard "Gunga Din" caused riots in India when it premiered there. Still it's something that Curtiz excelled at. You're right, Flynn would've been the better call. I'm sure they tried to get him as well but hey, I'll take Cooper any way I can get him.

Worf

My conversation with my girlfriend regarding Flynn / Cooper:
Me: Flynn would have made a better lead, he brings more overall spirit and style to that type of roll.
SGF (blandly): Sure.
Me: You don't agree?
SGF (with a bit of whimsy in her eyes): Flynn, Cooper either works.
Me: You mean in the movie?
SGF: What? (three second pause) oh, sure, in the movie, yeh, that's what I meant.
Me: Sigh.

 

[belfastboy]

I am in WTF mode. Just watched the multi nominated, critically acclaimed "Three Billboards....Ebbing Missouri"...What a piece of drek. I am shocked and now screaming at the scream wanting those two hours of my life back. It struck me that the entire script is based on a gimmick premise and all characters and action solely exist to support the gimmick. There is not a shred of humanity in a movie populated with great to decent actors but yet all of them are caricature bordering on cartoon. I should know better as last week I watched the Florida Project and had a similar reaction....what is up with movies these days?

 

[Doctor Strange]

Haven't seen it yet, but I have had a similar reaction to many highly praised recent films. Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound and others have left me scratching my head re why they're considered so good.
(But I loved The Shape of Water.)

 

[Fading Fast]

Haven't seen it yet, but I have had a similar reaction to many highly praised recent films. Get Out, The Big Sick, Mudbound and others have left me scratching my head re why they're considered so good.
(But I loved The Shape of Water.)

I'm with you guys on "The Big Sick" (haven't seen the others, want to see "Get Out") as I thought it was an okay "cable movie -" not worth a trip to the theater but fine on TV.

I never would have guessed it would have been nominated for an major-category Oscar.

But, then, few movies seem great today - much more impressed with the best TV shows today - a complete reversal from years ago.


My comments on "The Big Sick" http://www.thefedoralounge.com/thre...ovie-you-watched.20830/page-1203#post-2308182

 

[AmateisGal]

The Talk of the Town. Could someone tell me WHY I waited this long to watch this little gem? I adored it. And yes, I hopped on over to Amazon.com and bought me a copy of it for $10.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Kill Bill: Vol. 1"

• Only one actress, ever, could have pulled this movie off - Uma Thurman, which makes sense as the movie is a love letter to her

Wiggle your big toe

 

[Fading Fast]

The Talk of the Town. Could someone tell me WHY I waited this long to watch this little gem? I adored it. And yes, I hopped on over to Amazon.com and bought me a copy of it for $10.

Agreed, it's a little gem. Grant, Arthur, Colman are perfect together.

 

[AmateisGal]

Agreed, it's a little gem. Grant, Arthur, Colman are perfect together.

Yes! Sometimes Jean Arthur annoys me, but she didn't in this one.

 

[Fading Fast]

Yes! Sometimes Jean Arthur annoys me, but she didn't in this one.

She keeps growing on me - "Only Angles have Wings" is probably my favorite, but she's got an impressive list of quietly very good movies.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Continuing to poke around the mustier corners of the world of 1930s film shorts with "On The Loose," an early entry in Hal Roach's "Girl Friends" series, featuring Thelma Todd and Zasu Pitts.

This series was one of the most popular to come out of the Roach studio in the thirties -- it trailed only Laurel and Hardy in box office returns, and was comfortably ahead of Our Gang and Charley Chase -- but it doesn't get shown much today, which is a pity, because just about everything Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance did twenty years later was done first by Todd, Pitts, and Pitt's later and rowdier replacement Patsy Kelly. Roach's idea with the series was to produce a "female Laurel and Hardy" team, but it doesn't quite work out that way because the gals are much smarter and more in control than Stan and Ollie ever were. They're usually presented as put-upon working gals just trying to get along, beset by lecherous bosses, dopey boyfriends, and the frustrations of the world in general.

In this particular entra, Thelma and Zasu are sick and tired of piker boyfriends who think a swell date is an afternoon at Coney Island, and their shoebox-size walkup is full of cheap plaster carnival souvenirs to demonstrate just how often they have to put up with this. But when they encounter a nifty-looking Englishman who splatters mud on their clothes with his car and gallantly offers to replace them, they figure this will be something -- and when he invites them to join him and his pal on a double date, they have high expectations.

Of course, they end up at Coney Island, and the rest of the film is a series of carny-themed mishaps and misadventures that give a delightful look at what a tawdry amusement park felt like in 1931, complete with a hilariously idiotic calliope rendition of "Sonny Boy" on the soundtrack. They didn't actually go to Coney Island to film, but the frowsy attractions of Venice Pier make an agreeable substitute. There's even a reasonable facsimile of Steeplechase Park's famous "Blow Hole Theatre," and if you don't know what that is, let's just say that it was the kind of amusement-park ribaldry that would never be welcome at a modern theme park. The gals almost seem to have a good time in spite of themselves, but by the time they get home they've vowed to swear off dates until the pickings improve. They're home griping when there's a knock at the door -- none other than Laurel and Hardy are standing there asking if the gals would like to join them for a day out. The response comes in a violent hail of flying carnival prizes as we fade out.

Thelma Todd has a reputation as an excellent physical comic, and she has a chance to do some nice falls here. There's also an extremely pre-code bit where she goes down a carnival slide and gets a little boy's all-day-sucker stuck to her rear end -- *inside* her dress, yet -- and when the kid notices, well, he just climbs right under and grabs it. It's a good thing Joseph Ignatius Breen wasn't on the job yet because he would have had a stroke on the spot. I've always thought Pitts was oddly cast in these films -- she was still largely considered a serious actress at this stage, and the idea of putting her in knockabout two-reelers must've seemed kind of odd -- and she isn't as physical as Thelma, and certainly not on the level of slam-bang that Kelly would bring to the series. But she does project an oddness of personality that sort of fits into the Roach universe -- I'd love to have seen a film with her cast as the wife of, say, Kennedy The Cop. There's also a fun guest-star bit by Billy Gilbert as a mincing nance of a salesman in a ladies' clothing store, who only puts on the lisp for the customers -- speaking to the staff in raspy Brooklynese.

The "Girl Friends" films are the only one of the four major Roach series of the talkie era not to have any significant representation on home video -- hopefully that will change. Women in slapstick comedy have always been underrepresented in the conversation -- and Todd/Pitts/Kelly were always a lot of fun.

And hey -- whattaya know. "On The Loose" is actually on line, although whoever posted it gives Laurel and Hardy star billing. Typical.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

The Red Shoes (1948) by The Archers, with Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, and Moira Shearer, billed in that order on the poster. Film-making at its most delirious, vis a vis the plot, the performances, and the dizzying ballet sequence. Mrs. Shellhammer didn't care for it, but as a life-long film nerd, I put it in a class of its own.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Absolutely!

There is no more incredible three-year run in film history than Powell and Pressburger: A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven)/1946, Black Narcissus/1947, The Red Shoes/1948! (Not that most of their films before and after those three aren't also splendid!) It's a shame that their work is so woefully unknown to modern audiences, they were astounding filmmakers. I never miss a chance to recommend their utterly unique, hyper-creative films.

 

[Fading Fast]

"All The King's Men" 1949 staring Broderick Crawford

• Maybe so many movies since have been derivative of it that it felt less "fresh" to me than its Oscar bonanza would adduce it felt at the time

• Still a solid movie showing the all-to-familiar story of an honest man going into politics with good intentions only to be completely corrupted by the system
  • And that rang a bit false to me - not the corruption part, but that a humble, strictly honest, wouldn't-cheat-anyone man became so corrupt / he was too pure to start
  • Or heck, maybe Lord Acton was right: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely - which is why I'll always be a small-gov't, large-private-sector advocate

• The character of Sadie - a real woman who can drink, joke, exchange sharp elbows with and out-report the men - should have been explored more. Nice to see a smart woman portrayed in a not-traditional role

• Great mid-century style - clothes, cars, architecture all in wonderfully crisp and clear B&W film (Polo coats must have been having one of their periodic vogues as even the women were wearing them)

 

[KY Gentleman]

O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Is on tonight and I’m watching it again.
When it first came out I saw it in the theater, and I recall the audience reactions to the jokes where unusually frequent and loud!
I appreciated the interest it brought to “Old Timey Music” as I had been a fan of it for a long while. The soundtrack was a huge success and Alison Kraus and Dan Tyminski enjoyed a surge of interest from the few folks who weren’t already fans.

 

[Zombie_61]

O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Is on tonight and I’m watching it again.
When it first came out I saw it in the theater, and I recall the audience reactions to the jokes where unusually frequent and loud!
I appreciated the interest it brought to “Old Timey Music” as I had been a fan of it for a long while. The soundtrack was a huge success and Alison Kraus and Dan Tyminski enjoyed a surge of interest from the few folks who weren’t already fans.

Agreed. I actually bought the soundtrack CD before I saw the movie. Great stuff!

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's my favorite 21st Century movie, with more quotable dialogue per reel than anything not written by Preston Sturges.

 

[Fading Fast]

That's my favorite 21st Century movie, with more quotable dialogue per reel than anything not written by Preston Sturges.

I thought you'd have something to say about the Sadie character from "All the King's Men." She reminds me a bit of you - whip smart, takes no sh*t from anyone, can both joke with and call the men out on their BS and she's a heck of a reporter. A not common, but quite refreshing, character for a code-era movie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's been a long time since I watched that one -- but I do remember being very impressed with the cast. Mercedes McCambridge was one of the best radio actresses of her generation, and she well-deserved to win the Oscar for that performance. She had a history of performing non-traditional roles -- a couple years after "King's Men" she did a radio series called "Defense Attorney," where she played a no-nonsense, hard-boiled crusading lawyer in much the same style as she used in the film.