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gromit

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 12:17 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

bartist wrote:

Hey, moderator, can we bring Syd's A of a M comments (and followups, Lee Remick love, etc.) over here?

I think El Sid will have to bring that over here himself. Or we just chat about it as though it were here.

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Or the Albanians love Norman Wisdom ....

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

gromit

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 3:37 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Boyhood is pretty damn terrific.
More later ...

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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

Syd

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 4:39 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

Now Boyhood is still current here, even if it's just showing at one theater in a 40 mile radius. And it is, indeed, terrific.

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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

bartist

Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 6:22 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

Whiskey, yes, the downward spiral of Erin Fleming (the orgasmically correct NYU graduate) was horribly sad. Not what one necessarily anticipates for Groucho's companion.

As for monsieur Haricot, I would call him a guilty pleasure except that I hhave yet to experience any guilt.

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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

bartist

Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 3:01 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

....

Last edited by bartist on Thu Dec 04, 2014 12:22 pm; edited 3 times in total
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

yambu

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 5:17 pm

Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 6441 Location: SF Bay Area

Omar, by the same people who produced Paradise Now, is about three lifelong friends living in Gaza. They have grown up to be freelance terrorists, where a typical operation, more like sport, is the fatal ambushing of a single Israeli soldier. An utterly hopeless act.

The Israelis are merciless when they catch one of these. They flip Omar (Either co-operate or do 99 years), who is also in love with a local girl, whose actions are suspect. There are others who are going back and forth.

What you see in almost every frame are Palestinians of every moral stripe who will never break out of their captivity, crammed living, poverty, joblessness and despair.

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That was great for you. How was it for me?

Joe Vitus

Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 9:47 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston

gromit wrote:

She spent most of the rest of the 50's on TV, but I've never seen My Little Margie or The Gale Storm Show. Apparently Margie was something of an I Love Lucy take-off/ripoff. She even had a brief successful singing career in the mid-50's, but her version of I Hear You Knockin' is pretty darn whitebread.

Trying to re-visit My Little Margie on YouTube, I found the show terrible, but it was re-run regularly when I was in juinor high, and back then I thought the show was hilarious. That was on CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, which for some reason ran a block of old comedy shows starting around 9 or 10 pm Friday nights. I guess "family values"?

Burns and Allen, Jack Benny, My Little Margie, Love That Bob, Bachelor Father. I watched them every Friday.

Rick Mitz's The Great TV Sitcom Book probably has the best write-up on My Little Margie you're ever going to read.

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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.

-Topher

gromit

Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 1:44 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Oops, I did it again.
Now I've got early Barbara Stanwyck in Current.

I followed up 10 Cents with Virtue (1932).
Virtue is pretty terrific.
The film opens with Carole Lombard getting kicked out of NYC for prostitution. She sasses the cop who puts her on a train bound for Connecticut. She hops off uptown, hails a cab back to midtown, and skips out on the fare. After meeting up again, her and the cabbie are mutually antagonistic until they get married. Then they're happy until her past is revealed. Then old friends help gum things up further.

Terrific film. Believable well-developed characters. Some terrific funny dialogue. Early on, when she and the cabbie go at it, she tells him she doesn't like his voice or his attitude or his style. When he grabs her and stops her from leaving. She tells him further she doesn't like his face too.
Cabbie: "There's nothing wrong with my face"
Lombard: "Yeah, it's allright with you ... that's cause you're behind it."

Later, Lombard asks her hooker friend, played by Mayo Methot, whether she's ever been married.
Mayo: "I've been married so many times, I have rice marks all over my body."
Great snappy dialogue. Cracked me up.

Pat O'Brien is good as the tough street smart cabbie with a soft heart underneath. Screenplay by Robert Riskin who wrote many of Frank Capra's films:

1941 Meet John Doe (screen play)
1937 Lost Horizon (screenplay)
1936 Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (screen play)
1934 It Happened One Night (screen play)
1932 American Madness (story and dialogue)

Last edited by gromit on Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:42 am; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 8:37 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Finally, at long last, caught the 1937 classic Grand Illusion, which for many reasons I had never seen. Had tried to watch it on the tube several times, but it's the kind of slow-acting story that must be seen in a darkened theater. So I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see it. Must admit I approached it with some trepidation, since so many old classic films have been disappointing for one reason or another. Not this one. It lived up to its mighty reputation with a combination of great direction by Jean Renoir, indelible performances by Jean Gabin and Erich von Stroheim, and a pretty good print. It manages to be a war movie with a strong anti-war statement without showing one battle scene, quite an achievement in itself. A good film for 9/11, which is when I saw it.

Last edited by billyweeds on Fri Sep 12, 2014 6:17 pm; edited 1 time in total

gromit

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:23 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

I'm rather tired and was reading quickly.
I thought you gave the film a 9 out of 11 ...

I'm rather indifferent to Grand Illusion.
And Rules of the Game bores me.
I just tune out. Seen both of them 3 times and just don't connect at all.

Odd, because those are the two most famous Renoirs, but otherwise I'm a fan. I think the Crime of Mr. Lange is a great film.
La Bête Humaine and The Southerner are terrific.
La Chienne, Toni, Boudu Saved from Drowning and The Lower Depths are all good. I can't recall Diary of a Chambermaid and should re-watch that. I recall one of his silents was very good, but can't remember which (Charleston Parade?)

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:46 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Seeing movies you don't like three times each is wild. You must be a film buff or something.

bartist

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:58 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6958 Location: Black Hills

Am 550 miles from home, missing my new netflix, but want to see ze grand illusion again. Philosophically, mayb I am.

and LOL, weeds.

could watch on this tablet, but not a great way to see movies.

_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days.

whiskeypriest

Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 6:56 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 6916 Location: "It's a Dry Heat."

bartist wrote:

Am 550 miles from home, missing my new netflix, but want to see ze grand illusion again. Philosophically, mayb I am.

and LOL, weeds.

could watch on this tablet, but not a great way to see movies.

Or type posts.

_________________
I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed?

gromit

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 10:32 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

Well that Columbia pre-code set was kind of a bust.
I'm glad I saw them, but won't likely remember them or the titles for long.
Except for Virtue which was very good and folks should really seek it out if it is netflixable.

Shopworn (1932) has Barbara Stanwyck as a common girl who falls for an upper class guy whose mother quashes their romance. It's really a mash-up of many other films. It starts with Stanwyck growing up the daughter of a miner, who quickly gets killed on the job. So she's shipped off to live with a kind aunt and an uncle who disapprove of her slightly flirty ways. They run a a restaurant in a college town, so we get a little of a college film briefly, then it's on to the main theme, a romance doomed due to class differences and a very interfering mother.

So Stanwyck gets thrown into a woman's reformatory on morals charges, which occurs quickly in a vague manner. So now we have a tough women's prison/workhouse scene or two, but it's as if the film knows you can fill in the blanks from other films, so it moves on. Stanwyck only got 90 days anyway. So she comes out with no prospects and no lover, sees a poster for a follies-style dance troupe and a 15 second montage later she's a big rich dance start with her own troupe. So I count 5 different films smushed together -- and then of course it's back to the romance with the rich guy, only now Stanwyck is wealthy and a bit notorious and after a complication or two it ends. I think the title refers to all the cliches the film zooms through.

I can't remember much of Three Wise Girls. Jean Harlow is definitely not the usual actress in terms of looks. She's rather full figured, has white hair (peroxide blonde) and a rather large head. Everyone insist that she's gorgeous and she becomes a model in NYC after leaving her small town. For some reason a rich drunk is in love with her. Mostly I liked the subplot with the third dumpy girl falling for the rich guy's chauffeur. They just seemed like authentic people rather than the walking stereotypes who dominate the film. This was a 20 year old Harlow, but she looks more like 35 here. Maybe she slimmed down and beautied up a bit when she moved to MGM in 1932, where she became a big star, until her untimely death in 1937 at a mere 26.

Arizona (1931) is interesting for being such an early John Wayne starring role. He's got some aw shucks charm down. Despite a good twist early on, the film is rather a letdown. And it's hard to believe that Wayne would be willing to lose his career and his wife and his guardian just to avoid some minor humiliation for his guardian or embarrassment to his guardian's new wife. It's one of those film where characters just make dumb choices and if they would just speak out and say what happened things could get resolved much easier.

One thing I noticed in these films, especially the 1931 ones, Arizona and 10 Cents a Dance was how the music was mostly diagetic -- that is the source of the music is shown in the narrative of the film. I wonder if this was true for most early soundies, and when the switch was made to mostly non-diagetic sound.

Last edited by gromit on Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:39 am; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

carrobin

Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2014 3:29 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

TCM is taking up too much of my time lately. This morning I checked it before the political shows and happened on a very old movie called "Chasing Rainbows," about a traveling actors' group, and I recognized young Jack Benny only because of his voice. Marie Dressler was the only other person I could identify--the blonde star was Bessie Love, I found out from the IMDb. There were big chunks missing, mostly Technicolor musical numbers in the midst of the black-and-white story--text on screen informed us of those and the way the plot progressed during those segments. I'm not sure why TCM was showing it, but it was worth seeing, if only for Dressler's bits. She may not have been blond or beautiful, but she was definitely a star.

TCM has recently shown two movies titled "When Ladies Meet," one from 1932 (I think) and one from 1940, that are basically exactly the same movie with different actors. And it's well worth making again. The earlier film had Myrna Loy as a successful author who was having an idealized romance with her married publisher, carrying over her attitudes about such relationships to her sure-to-be-a-bestseller new novel, and Ann Harding was the wife, who shows up unexpectedly as a sort of stunt by the guy who wants to win Loy, giving a false name. The two women have interesting conversations--though Harding doesn't give her name, Loy knows she's married--arguing the viewpoints of wife vs. girlfriend of husband. Then, of course, the publisher appears, and is unpleasantly surprised to find his wife and girlfriend together; a couple of very interesting scenes follow. In the remake, Greer Garson is the wife and Joan Crawford is the author. I don't know which film I like better--though I like Loy better than Crawford, and Garson better than Harding. I'd watch either film again.

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