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| bartist |
 Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 9:27 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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knox wrote: Quote: Sonny, true love is the greatest thing in the world - except for a nice MLT - mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, where the mutton is nice and lean and the tomato is ripe.
Miracle Max!
About the time that TPB came out, there was a terrific middle eastern cafe near the campus where I worked, and their MLT was indeed the greatest thing. My wife and I, watching in the theater, both howled at that line.
I used to be a human garbage can. Then Nightshade family plants stopped liking me. Oh, how I miss them! |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:53 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Hitler's Children is a somewhat interesting documentary suffering from a lack of style and nothing that really pulls it together. It's mostly somewhat ugly-looking interviews with some relatives of a number of top Nazis. A niece of Goering lives off the grid outside Santa Fe. There's also Katrin Himmler, great-niece of Heinrich Himmler; Rainer Hoess grandson of Rudolf Hoess, creator and commandant of Auschwitz.
You can see some of the problem in the title -- Hitler didn't have any children and mostly we meet grandchildren and great nieces of high-ranked Nazis, not Nazi children. So most of the people we hear from are an extra generation removed.
Probably the most interesting is Niklas Frank the son of Hans Frank, the Polish Governor-General during WWII, responsible for the ghettos and concentration camps in Nazi occupied Poland. Frank lectures at high schools mostly reading from the books he wrote about his parents' Nazi evils.
Another problem is only the outspoken anti-Nazi relatives agree to be in the film. We don't get any relatives who are Holocaust deniers (though we hear indirectly about one or two) or any who prefer to keep the past hidden away. All that is understandable, but makes for a less interesting film.
It seems odd that there is no mention of Goebbels' 6 children who were murdered in Hitler's bunker, and were perhaps the children the closest to Hitler. Goebbels' step-son, from his wife's first marriage, who Goebbels was close to, survived the war, but we don't get any Goebbel's relatives in the film. I'd be interested in a doc on the Goebbels and their children.
Anyway, it's interesting to think about those who have such an infamous family name and to meet some of the relatives. But this is sort of a C level effort. The documentary with Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge was better and more insightful. |
Last edited by gromit on Mon Apr 15, 2013 4:08 am; edited 1 time in total
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:32 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Love Me Tender: Famous for being Elvis's first film. He's very green and some of the songs are worked in awkwardly, with futuristic moves and a pompadour. An exception is the title song, which is still beautiful and based on a Civil War ballad.
Those are the main flaws. Otherwise a pretty well-made drama about the days after the Civil War. Vance Reno's (Richard Egan's) troops raid a train station to steal a Union payroll, but when they try to deliver it to their general, they discover the war ended before their raid. Oops.
Vance reasons the money is now theirs, under prize law, and he and his troops divide it among them. Vance and his two brothers go home, where he hopes to find his love Cathy (Debra Paget), and discovers that Cathy's parents are dead and she's living with his mother and a fourth brother Clint (Elvis), who came of age during the War but never got to fight. Unfortunately for Vance, he has been reported dead, and Cathy and Clint are now married. Double oops.
Vance, and his other brothers, Brett and Ray, decide to hide their money for a later day when things have cooled down. Unfortunately, things have not cooled down: the Union does not have same idea of legality Vance has, and wants its money back. But the Reno brothers have only their shares, and the Union wants all of it back, at which point all will be forgiven.
So we have the romantic triangle from Hell, three former Confederates who want to give their money back, and the rest of the gang which totally misreads the situation, paving the way for a total clusterfuck.
This was originally going to be a straight acting role for Elvis, and it would have been a considerably better movie if it was. (Or just have him sing "Love Me Tender.") As it is, I still rather like it and give it a 6.5. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:55 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| For a good example of how Hollywood treats history, check out the story of the Reno Gang, one of the first major outlaw gangs, whose actual story has no resemblance to the relatively sympathetic trio here. Well, Clint Reno did exist, and died in 1921 in an insane asylum. Several other Renos got lynched, along with others in the gang. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 12:55 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| Turner Classic is showing a lot of films this month which may not be classics but which I want to see. (E.g. Love Me Tender.) So I have to choose whether next to watch "High Sierra," "Miranda," "Crossfire," "Kurotokage" or "Zotz!" You won't be surprised that I'm leaning toward "Zotz!" Tom Poston, superstar. (Did you know Tom Poston was Mel Brooks's choice for Maxwell Smart? He would have been damned good, too.) |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 1:41 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| I don't know Syd, I think you need to get back to Werck. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 2:19 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| I tried to watch Love Me Tender as a kid and was bored out of my mind. I think Jailhouse Rock is the only Elvis movie I've liked. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 9:24 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Zotz! I remember seeing when I was about 12, and loving it. Can totally picture a Tom Poston as M. Smart. Later he was a regular on Newhart...lost track of him after that. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 1:01 pm |
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| Love Me Tender was a bore. For children or adults. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 2:34 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Even as a child, I thought ZOTZ! sucked. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:58 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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| I thought it was okay and sometimes funny. I liked Zeme North mowing down a sidewalk full of people as she was pointing out the direction to an ice cream parlor. William Castle certainly spared no expense on special effects. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 2:16 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Quote: William Castle certainly spared no expense on special effects.
What! Castle was notoriously cheap. His idea of a special effect was having a cardboard skeleton fly over the audiences head. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 10:25 am |
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Marc wrote: Quote: William Castle certainly spared no expense on special effects.
What! Castle was notoriously cheap. His idea of a special effect was having a cardboard skeleton fly over the audiences head.
I was in the theatre for that one. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 11:38 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Marc wrote: Quote: William Castle certainly spared no expense on special effects.
What! Castle was notoriously cheap. His idea of a special effect was having a cardboard skeleton fly over the audiences head.
I was kidding. The special effects inZotz! must have cost a couple of hundred dollars at most, and consisted mostly of flash powder when Poston zaps something. Otherwise, it's slow motion and people falling down. And Poston falling in slow motion.
The biggest star in the cast was a pre-Gilligan's Island Jim Backus, so Castle wasn't worried about actor's salaries, either. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 3:35 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Mr. Magoo didn't command top salary? |
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