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Rewatching "Lion in Winter'. Watched about 1/2 last night and my eyes were tired so we decided to hit pause and will finish tonight. The dialogue too good to just power through it.
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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?
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mikepara
Practically Family
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The last proper movie I watched was Paris Blues is a 1961 American drama film made on location in Paris, starring Sidney Poitier as expatriate jazz saxophonist Eddie Cook, and Paul Newman as trombone-playing Ram Bowen. Two American jazz musicians are content exploring Paris as it allows them to grow as artists. They fall in love with two beautiful American tourists and must now decide between music and love.
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Address Unknown form 1944 with Paul Lukas and K.T. Stevens
- WWII propaganda film meets film noir meets silent-era angle-and-mood cinematography
- It works thanks in large part to director William Cameron Menzie's background and talents in art design
- Based on a short, but powerful anti-Nazi novel by Katherine Kressman Taylor, this also short, seventy-five minute, movie warps through its story of two German friends (one Jewish, one Christian) and business partners living in America in the '30s who see their friendship and families torn apart after the Christian one returns to German and gradually becomes a Nazi
- To say this story is familiar by now is fair - Mortal Storm, Watch on the Rhine and others had already tread this ground by '44 - but Address Unknown does it as well as those with, as noted, a greater emphasis on mood-driving visuals (Nazi evil lends itself to foreboding camera angles and harrowing images)
- Also look for the powerful scene where K.T. Stevens as the Jewish daughter and aborning actress (with an Aryan stage name) makes a life-determining decision to quote Christian Bible verse during a performance to stand up to Nazi censorship.
- A Jewish actress, risking life and limb by quoting Christian scripture to denounce Nazi propaganda in the heart of Hitler's Germany, is about as moving as it gets
- And here's an oddity as the book is almost always better than the movie, but this time the movie alters the story to add in a powerful plot twist (it's only revealed right at the end) that enhances the story by delivering a brutal-but-moral message of revenge
Till the End of Time from 1946 with Guy Madison, Dorothy McGuire and Robert Mitchum
- It treads the same ground as the much-more-well-known The Best Years of Our Lives, but deserves attention despite, overall, being a less-complete effort
- Basically, it looks at the life of a few marines returning from WWII - one in fine physical health, one with a steel plate in his head and one who lost his legs - and how they adjust to civilian life and how their friends, neighbors and families adjust to their return
- The men all carry wounds - mental, physical or both - and the adjustment is difficult for all the reasons we've come to know today, but that we were still learning in 1946
- With those wounds, the adjustment is, honestly, bad as family and friends try to be understanding, but also just want the returning vets to re-integrate (not mean-spirited, but you can feel that almost everyone wants the vets to "just get over it"). When the returning vets can't adjust on others' timelines, it becomes a series of battles: families battle, old-friends (ones who went, ones who didn't) battle, civilians and vets battle, girlfriends and vets battle and bosses and vets battle
- For painful realism, the scene where the main characters see a vet have the shakes in a coffee shop is honest even if the "solution" is a bit easy - and that's the movie itself as it pings back and forth between honest-and-raw and easy-ish solutions with happy endings
- Hey, it's 1946, we get it, the country probably wasn't ready for a completely honest and brutal reveal of the damage war did to these men, so credit to Till the end of Time for weaving in a decent amount of honesty and brutality even if the overall effort is uneven
Worf
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^^ Seen both films several times and like them both particularly the latter... I too liked the soldier with the shakes scene and the bar scene where Vets are "welcome" in these new "Patriotic" organizations that sprang up after the war (NOT the VFW or the American Legion) as long as their the "right" kind of vets... No blacks or jews allowed. I love how they put the kibosh to that little picnic. I like T.T.E.o.T and reviewed it a few months ago. As you say it's a poor man's "The Best Years of Our Lives" but seeing how it's an RKO film and the company was flat broke, they did the best they could.
Worf
Worf
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Great point about the scummy "Vet" organizations that popped up after the war. I feel remiss that I left that out as it was handled very well by showing the resigned look (sadly, it was one less of anger than of "oh, this again") on the black serviceman whom we had come to know a bit and when Mitchum made his comment about his buddy (very Jewish sounding name that I forgot) who died heroically. Credit to RKO, the writers, directors - all - they didn't mince words or opinions on this one. The veterans', the main characters, response was very clear: these men that you and your organization want to exclude - black, Jewish, Catholic - fought and died along with us, so we want no part of your prejudice.
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LizzieMaine
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There's a fascinating radio adaptation of "Address Unknown" done in 1942 by "Treasury Star Parade," a government-produced propaganda series done to promote war bonds. The story is boiled down to fifteen minutes, but the fast pace makes it even more intense --
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The tail end of Out of the Past and right now, Laura. I’ve seen both many times and really have them going in the background while correcting papers and answering questions online.
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When time allows, I'm looking forward to listening to this. Thank you for posting it.
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The tail end of Out of the Past and right now, Laura. I’ve seen both many times and really have them going in the background while correcting papers and answering questions online.
I'm doing the same, except I'm trading the markets not correcting papers, but same idea - great background movies as I love the atmosphere they create.
mikepara
Practically Family
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Well I decided to watch The Maltese Falcon again yesterday. I'm not posting any pics as I'm sure, having had Threads of it's own on here, everyone on the board is familiar with it. Although watchable, I must admit that I watched it for the clothes to be honest. Most of the acting is so bad, especially Peter Lorre as Joel Ciaro and Elisha Cook Junior as Wilmer Cook.
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The tail end of Out of the Past and right now, Laura. I’ve seen both many times and really have them going in the background while correcting papers and answering questions online.
And now "Gilda." Wonderful background lineup today on TCM.
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Edward Reed
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revisiting a series of 7 films I enjoy and haven't watched in decades... this past weekend I did a double feature of the first two...
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Outstanding. The music was very of the period - perhaps a bit overwrought - but said "old radio." Also, impressive what they did in 15 minutes (or, really, about 12 for the show).
Harp
I'll Lock Up
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May I inquire what particulars are you active?
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I mainly manage investment portfolios, so I am active in several asset classic owing to regular rebalancing and opportunistic trading. Hence, I'm involved in equities, fixed income (through individual securities, ETFs and CEFs), commodities (ETFs and CEFs) and alternatives (direct investments, ETFs, CEFs). A lot of what I do is longer-term portfolio moves, but I add alpha (or try) via active trading in equities, municipals and CEFs (some of the products that I've traded and originated over the years).
How 'bout you?
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