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| jeremy |
 Posted: Thu Oct 10, 2013 6:11 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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I know playing an arch-villain i grist to the mill for an actor, but Star Trek: Edge Of Darkness only really came alive whenever Benedict Cumberbatch was on screen. Is he the new Alan Rickman?
Some of the geeky references were fun. And I enjoy Simon Pegg's Scotty - though his part was too short and badly underwritten in this outing. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Oct 11, 2013 9:19 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6965
Location: Black Hills
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| He's not the new Ricardo Montalban, of that I'm fairly certain. I found the second installment in the new ST franchise fairly forgettable. Time to go boldly where.... |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 1:19 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Speaking of Ricardo Montalban, he was the star of TCM's Saturday morning noir today--"Murder Street," with Elsa Lanchester as the only person I recognized. I didn't recognize Montalban until I heard his voice--he was pretty nondescript back then. Not a bad little movie, though.
The movie that followed it, a Hammer film from 1960 called "Scream of Fear," was very good, with a nicely surprising twist. Susan Strasberg in a wheelchair, a big house on the cliffs (in the South of France, I think), her dead father appearing and disappearing, a solicitous stepmother and a friendly chauffeur and a mysterious doctor, lots of money in the balance--I'd love to have cast a Hitchcock version. He'd have made it a classic. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 1:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: The movie that followed it, a Hammer film from 1960 called "Scream of Fear," was very good, with a nicely surprising twist. Susan Strasberg in a wheelchair, a big house on the cliffs (in the South of France, I think), her dead father appearing and disappearing, a solicitous stepmother and a friendly chauffeur and a mysterious doctor, lots of money in the balance--I'd love to have cast a Hitchcock version. He'd have made it a classic.
I've seen Scream of Fear several times and it always holds up. As for a recast Hitchcock version, I'm not at all convinced he'd change the cast all that much. Stepmother Ann Todd played Gregory Peck's wife in Hitch's The Paradine Case. (Sure, the movie was a turkey but that wasn't Todd's fault.) Christopher Lee might have been recast as Martin Landau (a lateral move) and Strasberg as Tippi Hedren, and that would be a misstep.
I suspect Hitchcock was a fan of Scream of Fear just the way it stands. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 1:29 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Yes, I'd definitely have left Strasberg in the lead. But the stepmother and the men offered many possibilities. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 1:43 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12940
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter: A prime example of how direction, acting, script, editing and cinematography work together to turn an original concept into a memorable film experience. Docked 6 points because of the dishonesty of the title: Jesse James actually meets Frankenstein's granddaughter.* A shocking misrepresentation. 3.5 of 10.
*Well, okay, her father would have been a Frankenstein, too, just not THE Frankenstein. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 1:51 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12940
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Unfortunately, I missed out on recording Billy the Kid vs. Dracula, the title of which is more honest. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 2:01 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| You mean nobody ever came up with "Calamity Jane Meets the Mummy"? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 3:21 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6965
Location: Black Hills
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Syd wrote: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter: A prime example of how direction, acting, script, editing and cinematography work together to turn an original concept into a memorable film experience. Docked 6 points because of the dishonesty of the title: Jesse James actually meets Frankenstein's granddaughter.* A shocking misrepresentation. 3.5 of 10.
*Well, okay, her father would have been a Frankenstein, too, just not THE Frankenstein.
I admire the confrontation of a stark epistemological dilemma, one that has wracked philosophers for centuries, when Hank (Jesse's dimwitted sidekick) receives a brain transplant.
Watched, speaking of people named Jesse...
"Celeste and Jesse Forever," last night. Very amusing breakup comedy/drama, co-written by, and starring, the charming and lovely Rashida Jones. The playful chemistry between her and Andy Stamberg reminded me a little of Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen in "Take this Waltz." But C&JF has a far more satisfying character arc for all concerned. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 3:32 pm |
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Sharknado was the film that was talked about a few days ago, right?
I'm watching it now and it's hilariously stupid. I'm having a hard time trying to stop laughing. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 3:41 pm |
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| Sharknado Meets Glen or Glenda!!!! |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2013 11:09 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12940
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I've probably seen a fair amount of William "One Shot" Beaudine's work, since he directed 70+ episodes of "Lassie," which I watched as a kid. He also directed some episodes of "The Green Hornet." He seems much more competent than Ed Wood, but still pretty awful. The little I saw of "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula" made "Jesse James meets Frankenstein's Daughter" look like a masterpiece. (Jesse James...is also much better than "The Room.") |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 5:50 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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More Warners 30's gangster films:
San Quentin is all right.
But good guys are kind of boring, and here is Pat O'Brien as a military man who intends to bring discipline and respect to running a prison. Bogey's not having none of it, not at first, but he comes round. Even though Pat's trying to spoon with Bogey's sister which complicates matters. Okayish.
Each Dawn I Die.
Pretty great title.
Cagney is a crime reporter who gets framed for drunk driving which results in 3 deaths and a 1-to-20 rap for manslaughter. This film kind of toes the line between good guys and bad guys. Cagney is an innocent good guy, but prison life takes its toll and he gets to act tough and convicty. George Raft is his bad boy alter-ego. They both come from the same environment, but Raft is a career criminal in for 199 years. That is until Cagney helps him escape, and then he sets about finding who framed Cagney. Well, that is after he lounges around for a few months while Cagney suffers in the hole, until Cagney's girlfriend persuades Raft to do the right thing. So some melodrama, and a romance, mixed in with a tough prison drama.
Interesting for the Cagney-Raft pairing. Which starts with a fight on the prison bus and ends with Raft giving Cagney his remember-me photo -- indirectly, via the warden, after he's dead. Also interesting how the guards are portrayed as sadistic jerks, who keep hardened criminals obeying their every word. Pretty lively film.
A Slight Case of Murder. The gangster film is running out of steam. Good guy crime pics are a bit stodgy and unexciting. So ... try a crime satire. The premise is that Prohibition has ended and bootlegger Edward G decides to go straight. So he and his wife and the boys try to put on airs, and there are lots of tedious jokes where they slip back into rough vernacular and crude behavior.
The film gets a little more interesting when there is a major robbery and 1 gunman kills the other four and hole up in Edward G's rented upstate mansion. So Edward G and his boys take glee in where they will dispose of the corpses. Otherwise, it's often tedious and non-clever. Edward G's daughter is going to marry a state trooper but no one, not even the daughter, knows he's a trooper. And then they decide they need more comedy, so for no reason Edward G takes in a Dead End Kid, an orphan he wants to help, and brings him upstate for this zany weekend in a manor house with corpses and swells (the trooper's family) and ex-gangsters trying to act straight, plus a Dead End Kid drinking beer.
It's all rather a mishmash. Sort of like a Marx Brothers film without the Marx Bros. Late in the film, one of the ex-henchmen even starts talking like Curly from the Three Stooges. Edward G is still good, but his wife in the film really grated on my nerves. A weird artifact, the screwball crime film. But not recommended. |
Last edited by gromit on Sun Oct 13, 2013 10:18 am; edited 2 times in total
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 6:24 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| A Slight Case of Murder was remade as Stop, You're Killing Me--a terrific title (the combination of comedy and mayhem being perfect) for a not-so-hot movie with Broderick Crawford taking over for Robinson. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 8:01 am |
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I think I was 8 years old when I went to a movie theatre with my older brother and a friend of his. We went to see The Four Feathers. The other movie, (the good old days of movie theatres), was A Slight Case of Murder. We all loved The Four Feathers and got a great kick out of A Slight Case of Murder. Quite a duo. TFF was the rich main course and ASCoM was the sweet desert. I forget what the cartoon was.
I saw ASCoM again a couple of years ago on TCM. I liked it again but the big screen version was better.  I also saw TFF a couple of times on TV but it really should be seen on the big screen. I still remember right near the end of TFF when Ralph Richardson has a drink of wine and my brother's friend asks, "He's blind, how come he doesn't miss his mouth?" |
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