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| gromit |
 Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:39 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Picked up Forbidden Hollywood vol 5.
Ladies They Talk About (1933) has definite pre-Code elements you won't find in later films for quite a while. Barbara Stanwyck gets caught helping set up a bank robbery and gets 2-5 years in jail. Most of the film takes place in the women's penitentiary. One old gal is in for running a brothel. And the film ends with her saying that Stanwyck would have made a fortune in her house, and all the other female prisoners laugh.
Another strong-looking woman has short hair slicked back like a man's, and smokes a cigar, just in case there's any uncertainty. When Stanwyck gets introduced around, she's told "watch out, that one likes to wrestle." Not to hard to guess what that's all about.
The film itself is reasonably good, but with some clunky moments, characters, and a few shortcuts. The film also displays some of the casual racism of the day -- going for some cheap laughs by showing black folks easily spooked. I've been meaning to see more early Stanwyck. She's fairly good in Ladies, but there's something missing, which might just be the thin characterization she's given to work with.
A pretty interesting slice of 1933.
Other films in the set:
Quote: "Hard to Handle" (1933) is prime-era James Cagney, in which he stars as a fast-talking publicity man who devises a way to market grapefruit.
"Ladies They Talk About" (1933) stars a very hardboiled Barbara Stanwyck, the daughter of a deacon ("Too much deaconing took all the sweetness out of me"), who becomes a bank robber.
"The Mind Reader" (1933) stars the amazing Warren William - who specialized in playing big-talking frauds of every stripe - as a fake medium, whose bad advice leads people to ruin.
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Joan Blondell - who made two dozen films during the pre-Code years (1929-1934) - stars in "Miss Pinkerton" as a nurse who launches a murder investigation |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 9:52 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I'm watching an Argentinian (!) caper movie, Nine Queens, which is a lot of fun. (The title refers to a square of counterfeit stamps.) It reminds me both of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "The Score;" half the fun is trying to figure out who's screwing who. This really should be remade into English, but I shudder to think what they'd do to it. I like this explanation: "Among thieves, this is the way it's done. It's based on trust." Yeah, right.
Netflix compares it to David Mamet; I think they had House of Games in mind, so I guess I'd better put that in my Netflix queue. I have a weakness for this kind of film when it's done well. |
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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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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:15 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:26 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Oh, crap. It really should have been foolproof, but, as they say, fools are so ingenious. |
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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: Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:49 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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The Pre-Code elements in the other films in that set are definitely more muted and often hard to find.
Cagney plays a fast-talking hustler/huckster in Hard to Handle.
The rapid patter is a little over-done and the film a little glib.
But it's amusing to see how seamlessly the transition is from hustling marathon dances and bogus treasure hunts to running a Madison Avenue PR/advertising firm. The mother-daughter combo is amusing with mama changing allegiances rapidly depending on which man is earning more money at any given time. Though the mother is a bit too harsh in her delivery and a little tough to take.
Miss Pinkerton is kind of a breezy murder-mystery in a house, which totally depends on how likeable one finds Joan Blondell's flirty act and comic timing. Okay, but slight.
The Mind Reader is quite interesting. Warren William is an often forgot about leading man of the 30's. Maybe it's due to his rather generic name or his good looks with kind of blend in with others of the era. WW does a nice job as a con man who takes on a fraudulent fortune teller racket and tries to swindle high society, while deceiving the girl he loves.
This film echoes down through many others including the recent The Master. Interesting film. With even a brief appearance by Mayo Methot (of Battling Bogarts fame). |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 3:30 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Warren William suffered from the problem of having no last name. I mostly know him from the Claudette Colbert Cleopatra, in which he played Julius Caesar, and from Gold Diggers of 1935. And the good version of Imitation of Life with Claudette Colbert and Louise Beavers, which illustrates his problem: who even remembers he was in that film? |
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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: Sun Aug 18, 2013 6:00 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Syd wrote: Warren William suffered from the problem of having no last name.
His surname was Krech, so he went by his first and middle names for acting purposes. I think he just never got a defining role. And then those pencil mustaches went out of style. And then he died relatively young and didn't make it into the 50's. With his death hampering any late career resurgence.
Quote: William was the first to portray Erle Stanley Gardner's fictional defense attorney Perry Mason on the big screen and starred in four fast-paced, comical, and highly entertaining Perry Mason mysteries. He also played Raffles-like reformed jewel thief The Lone Wolf in eight films for Columbia Pictures beginning with The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) with Ida Lupino and Rita Hayworth, and as detective Philo Vance in two of the series films,
I've never seen any of that. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 2:48 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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"Polisse" is a very realistic and tough portrayal of the Child Protection Unit in Paris's police department. The men and women working in the team are shown in some of their best and worst moments, in their working lives and in their private lives. There is humor, pathos and cruelty in the lives they live. Very sensitively directed and acted. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 7:12 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Saratoga has a scene where Frank Morgan (playing a cosmetics tycoon) gives instructions to Margaret Hamilton on the proper application of makeup, and they go off so he can demonstrate. This is the beginning of two years of disasters which resulted in her turning green, mad and wicked, and him being forced to send a team of three assassins and a dog to kill her. It's a tragic tale.
Saratoga's the movie that Jean Harlow was making when she died. It suffers a bit for that, since they had to use stand-ins for a few scenes and rewrite her out of some more. However, the movie was about 90% complete when she died, and it doesn't suffer that much.
Gable is a bookie who finds himself with a deed to Harlow's ranch which he intends to give to her since her father was his best friend (and best customer); however Harlow, who is about to be married to a rich man (not Morgan), wants to pay off the debt on the ranch before she gets married so it doesn't appear she's a gold digger. Gable's looking for a way to take advantage of her future husband, who is also a gambler who actually tends to win against Gable.
The movie's got a pleasant cast, with Gable playing about the most pleasant bookie in movies, and Harlow making a good love/hate interest. Some of the best scenes are when she's absolutely furious with him. This was their sixth film together, and they were always comfortable with each other. Supporting cast includes Una Merkel as Morgan's wife and Gable's friend, Walter Pidgeon as Harlow's fiance, Lionel Barrymore as Harlow's grandfather and Hattie McDaniel as Harlow's maid. Why Harlow has a maid when her family's broke is not explained, but it completes a surprisingly high-powered cast for a light film.
There was some talk of reshooting the film after Harlow's death with either Carole Lombard or Jean Arthur, but Harlow's fans wanted to see her final film. I'm sure either of the two would have been good, but it's also nice to see Harlow finishing up with one of her better roles. |
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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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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 8:57 am |
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Location: Black Hills
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| "Trance" is kinetic and watchable, Danny Boyle always throws interesting twists at the audience, but this film which tries to take on the "Inception" theme with more art and passion somehow never develops a true soul. I can't fault the performance of Rosario Dawson as a hypnotherapist who assists a team of art thieves in retrieving the whereabouts of a Goya from the brain of their amnesiac inside man, but all her craft and string-pulling seems so convoluted and improbable that you may admire the slickness without really caring much about anyone involved. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:42 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| I agree Dawson was the best thing in "Trance." I couldn't square my understanding of hypnosis with what I saw in the film, at all. It's like a stage act where they get some guy to cluck like a chicken, but then also get him to eat a live chicken, then spray the room with an Uzi, deflower a couple of poodles, then borrow a B-2 bomber and reduce the room to rubble. By far Boyle's worst film. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 11:35 am |
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I certainly have a different view of Trance than Bart and Knox, Especially Knox. I was transfixed and rather startled by a number of scenes. I liked all the puzzling scenes and tried to figure if they were real or fantasy. After this wild ride comes to an end it's tied up quite well and surprising.
Loved the movie! |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 6:16 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Hey, nice point/counterpoint, guys. Knox, I would say that if you can't buy into a pretty "speculative" approach to hypnosis, then the movie doesn't hold up too well. LOL the "Uzi" metaphor.
I have to wonder if Alfa Romeo sales dropped a bit after the film's worldwide release. But maybe there is no such thing as bad publicity. I used to think my retirement fun-car might be a mid-80's Alfa Romeo Spider, with the Quattrofoglio option package, but now I'm not sure I can bring myself to open the trunk. Ever.
Incidentally, movie trivia buffs, anyone know what famous movie features an Alfa Romeo, and indeed was honored by the company in the 1980's, with a model of Spider called [movie title] ? It was fairly popular in the U.S. market. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 7:50 pm |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 12:10 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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The Graduate. Ben's car.
Finally saw Frankenweenie, and I put it up there with Ed Wood and Mars Attacks, one of Burton's best. Worth the rental just for Martin Landau's science teacher (and his career-ending speech to the parents). |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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