What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[LizzieMaine]

Barthelmess was better in silents than he ever was or ever could have been in talkies. See "Broken Blossoms" or "Tol'able David" or "Way Down East" and you'll see what I mean.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Meanwhile, I was flipping around before bed and ran across a mid-thirties Warners chorus-girls-on-the-make comedy with Glenda Farrell and Joan Blondell as said gals, Allen Jenkins with patent-leather hair and a Navy uniform, Hugh Herbert fluttering around as Jenkins' civilian buddy, and a big lug I recognized by his voice as radio announcer Warren Hull as a doofus Marine. I didn't need to watch the whole picture to know exactly what was going on, and it did not surprise me in the least to look the picture up and learn that its title was "Miss Pacific Fleet."

I would have watched it thru to the end, but the print TCM was screening had apparently begun to decompose, because it had an extremely annoying rapid-fire waver/flicker in the contrast. That's a sure migraine trigger for me, so I had to pass it by. But I know that Farrell and Jenkins have to wind up together, and Blondell gets the doofus Marine, and everybody ends up happy. Warners made dozens of second-level pictures like this for the double-feature market, but the Warner stock company always made them worth looking at at least once.

 

[Fading Fast]

Barthelmess was better in silents than he ever was or ever could have been in talkies. See "Broken Blossoms" or "Tol'able David" or "Way Down East" and you'll see what I mean.

I believe you've told me that before and I don't doubt it as - like with Norma Shearer - you can see the silent-film actor in their talkie performances. And, not surprisingly, I struggle with both actors as I don't think they are very good talkie actors, but they have a quality - maybe it's that ineffable thing that makes someone a star - that I find I still want to watch them even if I don't think their acting is top notch.

 

[scottyrocks]

Just finished watching Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). I've seen it a number of times but it's one of those movies that I never tire of viewing. Stellar, riveting performance by Burt Lancaster, as well as the supporting cast.

I am now trying to watch the 1978 version of The Big Sleep starring Robert Mitchum. I don't know if it's because I'm such a big fan of the 1946 version, but I may need to put a large bowl with a little water in it on the floor next to me, because it is so bad I may barf.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Another silent film DVR'd from TCM, F.W. Murnau's Faust. It was a bit of a slog, though with some great sequences and impressive production designs and special effects. But there are certainly more enjoyable deal-with-the-devil films that I'd recommend over this version.

 

[Formeruser012523]

Another silent film DVR'd from TCM, F.W. Murnau's Faust. It was a bit of a slog, though with some great sequences and impressive production designs and special effects. But there are certainly more enjoyable deal-with-the-devil films that I'd recommend over this version.

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/thr...ovie-you-watched.20830/page-1302#post-2474862

You're right. What a slog.

 

[Julian Shellhammer]

Christopher Robin (2018) Entertaining mixture of the original canon of Pooh stories and the Disney animated versions. Missus really liked it, and I enjoyed it, but did not feel connected to the degree I wanted to. The animation of the stuffed animals and Owl and Rabbit was excellent, and the director wasn't afraid to put the characters in the fuzzy background or shadows.
The malapropisms, from a wide range of characters, were funny.

 

[1967Cougar390]

I watched Scarlet Street this afternoon. The cast is the same as The Woman in the Window. A similar story line with a darker ending. Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett are great together.

Steven

 

[Seb Lucas]

Fed up with the ceaseless, overbearing narratives of long-form TV, I settled into a classic 1961 movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's with a pre-alcoholic, still with the world at his feet, George Peppard, and a mid-Ferrer, almost too old for the role, Audrey Hepburn.

I love the Capote novella, the film takes out much that is interesting and textured and just leaves some of the style. I watched it for its sentimental depiction of the early '60's hipster New York cocktail scene. Fun to watch, kind of sad too. So much is lost and has changed - some of it for the better. Hard to take the racist, low comedy of Mickey Rooney in yellowface as the Japanese landlord.

 

[Fading Fast]

Fed up with the ceaseless, overbearing narratives of long-form TV, I settled into a classic 1961 movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's with a pre-alcoholic, still with the world at his feet, George Peppard, and a mid-Ferrer, almost too old for the role, Audrey Hepburn.

I love the Capote novella, the film takes out much that is interesting and textured and just leaves some of the style. I watched it for its sentimental depiction of the early '60's hipster New York cocktail scene. Fun to watch, kind of sad too. So much is lost and has changed - some of it for the better. Hard to take the racist, low comedy of Mickey Rooney in yellowface as the Japanese landlord.

Links to a couple of times I commented on the movie. Our thoughts are pretty aligned:

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/thr...ovie-you-watched.20830/page-1120#post-2173464

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/your-perfect-films.86410/#post-2100605

 

[3fingers]

Fed up with the ceaseless, overbearing narratives of long-form TV, I settled into a classic 1961 movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's with a pre-alcoholic, still with the world at his feet, George Peppard, and a mid-Ferrer, almost too old for the role, Audrey Hepburn.

I love the Capote novella, the film takes out much that is interesting and textured and just leaves some of the style. I watched it for its sentimental depiction of the early '60's hipster New York cocktail scene. Fun to watch, kind of sad too. So much is lost and has changed - some of it for the better. Hard to take the racist, low comedy of Mickey Rooney in yellowface as the Japanese landlord.

I enjoy the movie for the same reasons and agree that from our perspective now we can see what is lost.
In my entirely subjective opinion Mickey Rooney is one of the most overrated "stars" of his generation. I watch nothing because he is in it. We also know now that he was not a nice person in real life and that knowledge undoubtedly colors my view of him.

 

[1967Cougar390]

Last night I watched The picture of Dorian Gray on TCM on Demand. It was not exactly what I was expecting. The story line could have gone a little deeper midway through the movie. Angela Lansbury is gorgeous and her voice is beautiful as she sings. I really only knew/remembered her from Murder She Wrote. So it was wonderful seeing her in a different light. When her and Dorian’s (Hurd Hatfield) eyes meet in the cabaret the camera captures her beauty with the use of light and shadows perfectly.

Steven

 

[Worf]

^^ My fave rendition of this tale. I loved all the cast but particularly George Sanders. Nobody can play the world weary libertine like he can! Interesting pre-Thanksgiving choice!

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

Must stop watching Godfather movies on AMC marathon, must turn off TV, must.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Links to a couple of times I commented on the movie. Our thoughts are pretty aligned:

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/thr...ovie-you-watched.20830/page-1120#post-2173464

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/your-perfect-films.86410/#post-2100605

You nailed it. It's New York the way I want to imagine it. Beautiful. But the story leaves you bereft, melancholic. Hepburn plays a woman with borderline personality disorder. And although the couple finally get together - you know it will be fraught and probably brief.

 

[Bushman]

Chaplin's "The Great Dictator". I've seen a number of Chaplin's movies, but never this one, and when I spotted it on TCM one night I knew I had to catch it. Though heavy in satire, it's moral still rings as true today as it did then.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Dictator" really is Chaplin's magnum opus, and it gets more powerful and more relevant every time you watch it. And it's also very, very funny -- a master class on how to do political satire that never misses its target. There's also a lot of laughs that have nothing to do with politics -- that bit where Chaplin shaves a customer to the rhythm of the Hungarian Dance is one of the subtlest, funniest things he ever did.

Look for Bernard Gorcey -- father of Leo, and proprietor of "Louie's Sweet Shop" in the Bowery Boys series -- in a bit role. Who'da thunk?

 

[Worf]

"Bohemian Rhapsody" - I'd heard a lot about this one before going... especially how Sascha Barron Cohen bowed out because he felt it was too much of a "whitewash" of Freddie Mercury's life. I think Rami Malek did a masterful job in what could only be considered an almost "no win" proposition. To take on so iconic a character as a SECOND CHOICE no less would've killed lesser men. He carried it off well. A decent musical biopic on par with those done on The Doors and James Brown. As a musician who's always admired Queen from a distance I was moved by the film and felt that the actors studied enough on the band that they at least looked like they knew what they were doing. Also the band dynamics were spot on. If you like the band or its music then you'll have a good time. I did.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

We've been using the holiday's long weekend to catch up on some TCM DVR'd films:

"Random Harvest" 1942 staring Greer Garson and Ronald Coleman

• The plot is either romantically ethereal or contrived - I felt both ways at different times during the movie
• This is Greer Garson's movie - she is fully engaged, appears to be having a great time while, also, carrying the weaker parts forward on her back
• Ronald Coleman, who I like as an actor, is too old for the role and never seems to fully commit to his character
• While the sets were well done, the all-shot-on-sets approach contributes to the, as mentioned, partially contrived feel

"Panic in the Streets" 1950 staring Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jack Palance and Zero Mostel

• A well-done police/detectve movie that feel like a documentary - a style that seemed popular at that time
• Widmark gives one of his stronger performances
• Douglas could play a cranky police captain in his sleep and still do it better than most
• Palance has a psychotic menace that is genuinely scary as he underplays it but you know it's there
• Zero Mostel (that's quite a name) brings depth and emotion to what could have been a two-dimensional side-kick role
• Bel Geddes makes the "supportive wife" cliche feel less cliched and more passionate - I would have bet she'd have had a bigger career going forward (than she did) if I had just walked out of this film in '50

"Three on a Match" 1932 staring Joan Blondell, Warren Williams, Ann Dvorak and Betty Davis (looking new, dewy and lithe)

• Wife (Dvorak) has it all (in the Depression!) - a good, loving, handsome husband (in a surprising role for Williams), healthy young son, money, looks and social status, but throws it all away from ennui leading to a pointless affair with a loser
• Her childhood friends - Davis and Blondell - try to save her, but she's in pedal-to-the-metal-bad-decision mode and ends up a junkie (pre-codes didn't hide real life)
• Throw in a pre-stardum appearance from Bogie, the movie's 63 minute warp speed, some soap-opera plot twists and it's well worth the watch for the good story and great time travel

"What Price Hollywood?" 1932 Constance Bennett, Lowell Sherman and Neil Hamilton

• While having some '32-we're-still-learning-how-to-make-talkies clunkiness, what's good is so good that it overcomes that messiness to be one of the best versions of "A Star is Born" ever made (I haven't yet seen 2018's entry)
• Bennett powers this one forward, but Sherman's once-famous-director-now-failing-drunkard performance matches hers
• Bennett's young, rich boyfriend - whose voice you'll immediately recognize - is played by TV's future Commissioner Gordon from "Batman -" he's a bit stilted but it's fun to see him at a different time in his career and in a different role
• Some great early inside-Hollywood scenes that - along with the cars, architecture, clothes and technology - makes this Fedora Lounge heaven

 

[Doctor Strange]

My recorded-from-TCM feature last night was The Woman In White (1948), with Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith, Agnes Moorehead, Sydney Greenstreet, and an impossibly young Gig Young.

Eh, though it's based on a famous nineteenth-century novel that's considered one of the progenitors of the mystery genre, it only barely held my interest. Not essential.