| Author |
Message |
|
| billyweeds |
 Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 6:42 am |
 |
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
I agree about Lady in the Lake, which I was hoping would be a great film noir because the first-person POV was such an interesting gimmick. But the only thing that really comes off well is Audrey Totter's performance. Shw has a strange character name, as I recall, which I will now look up on IMDB.
Adrienne Fromsett. |
|
|
| Back to top |
  
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2013 5:13 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| Just saw The Little Giant with Edward G. Robinson, on TCM. Never saw it before. Liked it. Fun to watch. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2013 4:04 pm |
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
Pina made me happy like a child. The backgrounds were enchanting, especially the monorail in Wuppertal. I didn't know this Pina, so I have some pleasant homework ahead.
One major difference between other dance film productions (other than flamenco) and this one is that here they make a virtue of all the sounds emitting from the dancers - scraping feet, grunts, heavy breathing; all celebrating the human force.
I was thrilled that it reminded me of Carlos Suaro's Carmen, 1983. Must get soon. |
_________________
That was great for you. How was it for me? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 3:11 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
The Racket (1951) has a pretty terrific cast, with Robert Mitchum's honest police captain going up against Robert Ryan's ruthless crime boss. An interesting element is Ryan has affiliated with the national crime syndicate who has modern methods (extortion/black mail rather than gunning someone down in the street). Ryan is a loose cannon type and really has no intention of listening to what the national boys have to say. makes you wonder a bit why he linked up with them but that's somewhere in the film's unstated backstory.
They do seem particularly adept at buying off gov't officials and maybe that's enough of a help/reason for Ryan, since he thinks he can still run the city however he wants. He's brash enough to walk into the emptiest police station ever and gun down the desk cop who has been causing him trouble.
Counting on phony witnesses, lost evidence, disappeared state witnesses and other corruption to get off the hook if caught.
A fairly good film, but it lays it on a bit thick -- Mitchum and Ryan were formerly rookie cops together. And the last act goes a little over the top. But William Conrad is fun as an oily special investigator in bed with the mob. Lizabeth Scott seems interesting but has a part that mostly fizzles out.
Ray Collins is good as a prosecutor hand-picked by the mob to run for an important judgeship.
Unfortunately it never gets out of familiar territory and the last act is a bit of a disorganized dud. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2013 3:23 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
On Dangerous Ground is a 1951 Nicholas Ray film which is kind of schizophrenic. Robert Ryan stars as a tough city cop who starts to crack under the strain and lets off steam by beating confessions out of bad guys. After half an hour of this tough guy cop routine, his boss assigns him to assist on a rural murder case so he can beat up some hicks for a change of pace. Once there, he encounters the dead girl's father who is even more enraged than Ryan, and plans on shotgunning the perp and anyone who gets in his way. Outflanked on the angry vengeance scale, Ryan tamps down his own hotheadedness. Then kind of falls for blind Ida Lupino whose missing brother is the prime suspect. Melodrama takes over and everyone does the right thing including the murderous brother, in a way.
An odd amalgam of inner city cop drama, followed by a rural manhunt and then a romance as two damaged individuals come together.
I think I would have preferred two separate films, as the first third and the rest don't really cohere.
This was my 3rd Robert Ryan film in a week, as I also re-watched The Set Up recently. Ryan is an interesting actor. He doesn't have a lot of range, but he is good at portraying a conflicted tough guy. The Set Up is easily the best of the trio I saw, as a film and a Ryan vehicle. But the first 3rd of Dangerous Ground is good and somewhat twisted, while Ryan is also good at the lower key investigation in the upstate snow. As a bad guy in The Racket, Ryan kind of hams it up, though he is good at slapping people around (and I loved the phony sound effects when he alternates forehand and backhand slaps on some poor sap) and the fall from the window is real good (if not a stuntman). |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:03 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Wish You Were Here is not a movie version of the 1950s Harold Rome musicalization of the Catskill resort comedy Having Wonderful Time, but it is likewise about a vacation, this one gone horribly wrong. It's galvanizing, and features a standout performance by Joel Edgerton, who was IMO the best thing about the recent version of The Great Gatsby. He's terrific and so is the whole cast. Well worth seeing--and streaming on Netflix. Just another in the growing list of Netflix streamers so dismissively discussed by Joe a while back. Frances Ha, anyone? Robot and Frank? Etc.? Etc.? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:20 am |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
Bad Girl (1931) is a good slice-of-life drama where you periodically want to brain the girl and boy and say, "just tell each other what you're doing, you idiots!" But then you wouldn't have a movie, since this is not just about the struggles of a young couple (Dot and Eddie Collins) to make ends meet in the depth of the depression, but about their failure to communicate, to the point that, when they discover they're going to have a baby, each is convinced the other hates the idea. Eddie starts moonlighting as a prizefighter to save up for the hospital bill, doesn't tell Dot that is what he's doing, so she's convinced he's been in a brawl in a bar. (I'd think the lack of alcohol on his breath would be a giveaway that's not true.) Or maybe he's having an affair?
It doesn't occur to Eddie Collins to try playing second base for the White Sox.
However, this is a good if sometimes frustrating look at life among the struggling, with a lot of the best scenes involving background characters. One of the best is an aging tenement dweller calling her sister to tell her their mother just died. Just a minute or so to establish a memorable character.
The title (I think) comes from Dot's brutal brother's accusation that since she's just come in at 4:00 a.m. to announce she's getting married in the morning to a guy he didn't know existed, she's no better than a streetwalker. There's nothing particularly scandalous about her.
1932 was the year Grand Hotel won Best Picture but was nominated for no other Oscars. Bad Girl won Frank Borzage his second award as Director (the other was for 7th Heaven), and unless City Lights was eligible, he deserved it this time. It's a very well-directed film. |
Last edited by Syd on Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:36 am; edited 2 times in total
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:23 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Syd wrote: Bad Girl (1931) is a good slice-of-life drama where you periodically want to brain the girl and boy and say, "just tell each other what your doing, you idiots!" But then you wouldn't have a movie, since this is not just about the struggles of a young couple (Dot and Eddie Collins) to make ends meet in the depth of the depression, but about their failure to communicate, to the point that, when they discover they're going to have a baby, each is convinced the other hates the idea. Eddie starts moonlighting as a prizefighter to save up for the hospital bill, doesn't tell Dot that is what he's doing, so she's convinced he's been in a brawl in a bar. (I'd think the lack of alcohol on his breath would be a giveaway that's not true.) Or maybe he's having an affair?
It doesn't occur to Eddie Collins to try playing second base for the White Sox.
However, this is a good if sometimes frustrating look at life among the struggling, with a lot of the best scenes involving background directors. One of the best is an aging tenement dweller calling her sister to tell her their mother just died. Just a minute or so to establish a memorable character.
1932 was the year Grand Hotel won Best Picture but was nominated for not other Oscars. Bad Girl won Frank Borzage his second award as Director (the other was for 7th Heaven), and unless City Lights was eligible, he deserved it this time. It's a very well-directed film.
Where did you see Bad Girl? I'd like to join the club. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 8:18 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
Carmen ('83), directed by Carlos Saura, is my favorite dance film ever. I see it every few years and it just gets better.
It is loosely based on Bizet's opera, with a good dose of the original score. The dance instructor of a Seville company falls crazy in love with the new Carmen, and she just leads him and leads him toward tragedy. Like the Flamenco essence, Carmen is fearless in every way, scornful of her rivals and instructor, and flirtatious with anyone she chooses.
Life and the drama weave in and out. The company rehearses in a fabric factory. It culminates when Carmen slits her rival's throat. Or has she?
The most gripping scenes are in a workshop/studio for everything Flamenco, more exciting than any performance, because it's wrapped around real life events. |
_________________
That was great for you. How was it for me? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 12:09 am |
|
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
billyweeds wrote: Syd wrote: Bad Girl (1931) is a good slice-of-life drama where you periodically want to brain the girl and boy and say, "just tell each other what your doing, you idiots!" But then you wouldn't have a movie, since this is not just about the struggles of a young couple (Dot and Eddie Collins) to make ends meet in the depth of the depression, but about their failure to communicate, to the point that, when they discover they're going to have a baby, each is convinced the other hates the idea. Eddie starts moonlighting as a prizefighter to save up for the hospital bill, doesn't tell Dot that is what he's doing, so she's convinced he's been in a brawl in a bar. (I'd think the lack of alcohol on his breath would be a giveaway that's not true.) Or maybe he's having an affair?
It doesn't occur to Eddie Collins to try playing second base for the White Sox.
However, this is a good if sometimes frustrating look at life among the struggling, with a lot of the best scenes involving background directors. One of the best is an aging tenement dweller calling her sister to tell her their mother just died. Just a minute or so to establish a memorable character.
1932 was the year Grand Hotel won Best Picture but was nominated for not other Oscars. Bad Girl won Frank Borzage his second award as Director (the other was for 7th Heaven), and unless City Lights was eligible, he deserved it this time. It's a very well-directed film.
Where did you see Bad Girl? I'd like to join the club.
Netflix has it. James Dunn is Eddie. He eventually would win an Oscar for playing the dad in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but he's nowhere near as good here. Sally Eilers is Dot. She's better. This may be the peak of her career, although she was in a lot of lesser-known films in the 1930s, including the 1933 State Fair with Janet Gaynor and Will Rogers. |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 2:58 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
|
.
The Egyptian movie "Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story" shows four discrete stories told on a television talk show program hosted by the pretty wife of a newspaper journalist. The stories are of strong and self-assertive women trying to make it in a male dominated society. One of the four women is the host of the TV program herself. Well narrated and interesting.
. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 9:44 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
| "....strong....women trying to make it in a male dominated society...." ties in with the HBO biopic film I just saw, "Temple Grandin." It's also about dealing with autism, but much of the film shows her trying to break into a male culture, as a scientist who studies cattle and how to design feedlots, dipping tanks, and slaughterhouses which are more humane. Because of her autism, she is a powerful visual thinker, and comes up with many innovations to the livestock industry based on careful observation and an unusual sensitivity to animals. An inspiring film, with good perfs from Julia Ormond, Claire Danes, and David Strathairn. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:19 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Calling Claire Danes's performance in Temple Grandin "good" is like calling Citizen Kane an "okay newspaper yarn." Danes was astounding. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:24 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
| I am just barely keeping a ridiculous Claire Danes crush in check. Some understatement is necessary for my mental health. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2013 10:31 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
bartist wrote: I am just barely keeping a ridiculous Claire Danes crush in check. Some understatement is necessary for my mental health.
Crushing on Claire Danes is epidemic. Hugh Dancy is crazy lucky.
And, once again, Damian Lewis proves to be a classy gentleman. In an interview, he confesses how he voluntarily pulled back during intimate scenes with Danes when Dancy was visiting on the Homeland set. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
