What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Benzadmiral]

Just watched The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). Good special effects for the time, and the dialogue/narration was the typical angst of the period. Worth watching, if not again.

Watching Them! (1954) right now. I don't know what it is about GE movies that contain police, their cars, and the outdoors, but that combination almost always holds me to the screen.

Ooo, look, a huge ant! And that stereotypical outerspace alien thrumming sound. And now the off-the-cuff analysis, and in a windstorm, yet. I'm cracking up!

When I re-watched Them! as a more-or-less adult, I was struck by the police-procedural flavor of it -- as if the writers had intentionally melded Dragnet with science fiction. It works. The leads are smart; they consult an actual myrmecologist, and the team extrapolates from small ant behavior to giant ant behavior. Good stuff.

 

[vitanola]

One particular scene had the odd effect of giving me a strong craving for grapefruit (I'm sure you know the scene), so I went out and bought several for the week.

You know, I used to have a girl friend who I called "Grapefruit". Every time I'd try to squeeze her she'd hit me in the eye...

 

[Worf]

"Bitch" - An odd Netflix offering that I assume was never released in theatres. The plot.... besieged mom of four with a uncaring, cheating husband and over demanding borderline spoiled kids loses her grip on reality and all hell breaks loose. Not great and weird beyond measure but for some reason I couldn't turn away. Only watch if you've nothing better to watch on the Flix.

Worf

 

[scottyrocks]

You know, I used to have a girl friend who I called "Grapefruit". Every time I'd try to squeeze her she'd hit me in the eye...

Don't tell us that depending on the moment, she could be any combination of sweet and tart.

 

[Trenchfriend]

"The Green Mile", right now on german TV-channel.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I'm about to watch the three-hour extended version of "Superman: The Movie" which was finally released on blu-ray a couple months ago.

 

[vitanola]

I think it's a combination of all those things. Universal in 1930 was considered a bargain-counter studio, turning out formula melodramas and cheap westerns for an undiscriminating small-town audience, but that year Carl Laemmle was determined to do something special -- and as a result the studioit made the two most impressive, culturally-signficiant films it would ever make: "All Quiet On The Western Front" and "The King of Jazz." "Western Front" got a similar prestige restoration some years ago, but they didn't have the materials to do the same with KOJ until recently. As the one studio with, historically, the shabbiest record of film preservation, I think they also have a sense of trying to atone for past sins by doing something really spectacular.

I doubt they'll ever fully recover the cost of the restoration, which was well into the millions, but they have had surprising success with high-prestige screenings -- it was rapturously received when it opened in New York last year. If you ever notice it playing anywhere I strongly encourage you to go see it. I wish I could show it here, but our director's musical sensibilities don't extend much before 1975, and she wouldn't even consider it. But I have a key to the theatre , and a disc of the film, and ain't nobody gonna stop me from my own private midnight show...

Oh to be there!

I saw the restored picture in Cleveland. The Cinamatheque was rather forced to book it by a couple of prominent donors. It was very poorly promoted. No publicity that I could ascertain. The audience consisted of six or seven fellows from the Jazz Society, and my party of twelve.

Loved the restored film, of course, and really enjoyed the Oswald cartoon "My Pal Paul", which was shown on the same bill.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That cartoon and another Oswald featuring songs and bits of animation from the film is includedfd on the DVD extras! THere's also a Walter Winchell short featuring Whiteman, and most interestingly, a Paramount short from 1929 featuring John Murray Anderson's original staging of the "Melting Pot" number, which he had had first developed as a stage prologue for the Publix theatre circuit before revising and remounting it for use in KOJ.

One of the most interesting aspects of KOJ is that quite a bit of it was recycled from Anderson's stage career -- the "Bridal Veil" number first saw light in a 1920 Broadway show, and several of the other numbers were adapted from stage bits. Even the "Meet The Boys" number was recycled -- Whiteman had been using it for years in his live appearances, minus, of course, the special effects seen in the film.

This aspect makes KOJ valuable not just for what it has to offer as entertainment -- but also as a piece of theatrical archaeology. There is nowhere else where you can see Jacques Cartier's legendary African Drum Dance, staged exactly as it appeared on Broadway. Absolutely breathtaking.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Two Thousand Women" 1944

• A propaganda movie set in a German-run retention camp located in France for English women who failed to get out of France before the Germans marched in (did that make sense?)

• The value is not the plot - a clumsy and obvious attempt by the women to first rescue and, then, help three downed British pilots escape

• The value - the fun - are the women - their personalities and snap dialogue have a pretty good sparkle that moves the movie along through its done-many-times story and clunky telling

• And while you might not know their names (I didn't), you'll recognize at least a few of the women stars as they are familiar if you are a fan of pre-and-post-war British films (which, IMHO, are generally of higher quality on smaller budgets than their louder American offerings)
  • Another example of art benefiting from money constraint which forced the Brits to focus on smart story and character development as they couldn't wow with location, action adventure or other expensive spectacle

• It's no "Mrs. Miniver," but still an enjoyable WWII movie that serves as a bit of a time capsule both for the Fedora Lounge period details and the mindset of the time

 

[AmateisGal]

To Be or Not To Be with Carole Lombard and Jack Benny. Tons of fun. I really enjoyed it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Benny's Hamlet in that picture is one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen. I'd have paid to see him do the role for real.

 

[Fading Fast]

"The Man Who Invented Christmas" 2017

• Supposedly the telling of how a post-three-book-flops-in-a-row Dickens - facing bankruptcy for his large and extended family - found the inspiration to write "A Christmas Carol"

• A step up (only a small one) from a Hallmark TV movie - two dimensional / you know it will all work out / actors seemed pained having to say so many cheesy lines

• Christopher Plumber as Scrooge elevated every scene he's in / Dan Stevens (Mathew from "Downton Abbey") overacts as Dickens, but he didn't have good material here

• If this story was at all true, then Dickens didn't really write "A Christmas Carol," but stumbled into every good line and plot twist as those lines - word for word - were said by people in his life as the plot twist were all recommended by others or accidental occurrence - I seriously doubt it happened that way

• I wanted to like this feels-like-a-play movie, but could only recommend it if it popped up on cable, nothing else was on and you didn't want to have to turn your brain on (and even then, I'd be hesitant to recommend it)

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. We laughed a lot. Group consensus: Jack Black steals the movie.

 

[AmateisGal]

It's a Great Feeling (1949) with Jack Carson, Dennis Morgan, and Doris Day. Fluff story, of course, but it was so much fun to see all the other prominent actors show up in the movie since it took place at Warner Brothers.

 

[Fading Fast]

It's a Great Feeling (1949) with Jack Carson, Dennis Morgan, and Doris Day. Fluff story, of course, but it was so much fun to see all the other prominent actors show up in the movie since it took place at Warner Brothers.

Recorded it - now even more looking forward to it.

 

[Fading Fast]

General Question:

I just caught five minutes of "Executive Suite" (love this movie) and, in the scene I saw, a man riding in a cab opens a newspaper and the back page (away from what he's looking at) shows a full page ad for John Wanamaker. You don't have to strain to see it, but it isn't part of the plot or story in any way.

I assume Wanamaker paid to have this ad show up in the movie, but is there any chance it just occurred as the scene needed the character to open up the newspaper?

 

[2jakes]

TCM:

1933 American pre-Code mystery-horror film directed by Michael Curtiz.

Saw the fabulous Fay Wray in color...well...
Two color Technicolor.

Heard Glenda Farrell casually ask an unsuspecting cop, “How’s your sex life?”
[Insert spit-take here.]

 

[Lady Day]

Unsane
It's a film a lot of people are not going to get. I thought it was something but its a screaming commentary on how hard it is to listen to women when they say they need help.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7153766/

 

[Fading Fast]

TCM:
View attachment 113110
1933 American pre-Code mystery-horror film directed by Michael Curtiz.

Saw the fabulous Fay Wray in color...well...
Two color Technicolor.
View attachment 113109


View attachment 113111
Heard Glenda Farrell casually ask an unsuspecting cop, “How’s your sex life?”
[Insert spit-take here.]

I watched a chunk of it too. Works in a curio way and, well, Fay Wray.

 

[2jakes]

General Question:

I just caught five minutes of "Executive Suite" (love this movie) and, in the scene I saw, a man riding in a cab opens a newspaper and the back page (away from what he's looking at) shows a full page ad for John Wanamaker. You don't have to strain to see it, but it isn't part of the plot or story in any way.

I assume Wanamaker paid to have this ad show up in the movie, but is there any chance it just occurred as the scene needed the character to open up the newspaper?

Have not seen "Executive Suite" but your
question got me thinking.
John Wanamaker Department Store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States.

Does the movie take place in Philadelphia
or is one of the characters from there?