| |
| Author |
Message |
|
| gromit |
 Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 12:39 am |
 |
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
| Stanwyck? |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
  
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 7:39 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Now that we're finally out of that wide-screen hell we were plunged into by that 400-character-plus url, it's time to revisit the "tinyurl" option. Just log on to tinyurl.com and the rest is easy. Please do not saddle us with endless url's any more. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 2:06 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
Keeping up with TCM's Saturday morning Carry On movies, I caught "Carry On Cabbie" today, and it surprised me. Although it began as usual with the bunch of barmy Brits working as taxi drivers and having silly arguments and accidents (not on the streets, fortunately), it suddenly turned interesting when the elderly wife of one of the drivers came in and offered to take her ailing husband's place in the group. The men set up a howl (We can't use bad language! There's only one loo!) and threatened to walk out if the manager allowed such a thing, and she backed out to keep the peace. However, the manager's wife--a fat brunette who was frustrated by her husband's all-consuming interest in his work--called her in, and together they secretly started a rival company, Glamcabs, with beautiful young women drivers. Naturally the new company quickly began pulling customers away from the guys, and before long the men's company was in trouble, despite various attempts to sabotage the women's (more modern) taxis. Then the manager comes to see the head woman in person, and for the first time discovers her identity, resulting in rifts and hostility all around--the girlfriend of one of the drivers has been a spy for Glam--until the wife and the girlfriend are hijacked in their cab by a trio of young villains after picking up the payroll from the bank, and the wife's repetitions of their getaway route are picked up on the taxi radio, so the men's taxis are routed and maneuvered to catch the crooks in a satisfying, if unlikely, roundup.
Besides having a real plot for a change, this Carry On turned the generic sexism on its head, for the most part. The fat wife and the elderly wannabe-driver would ordinarily have been jokes, and the pretty drivers mere background beauties (they were quite clever), and it was the men who lost the battle--until the victorious finale, of course. Fun for all. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 5:10 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
Crossfire (1947) is an interesting noir. A group of soldiers meet a guy at a bar go up to th guy's room, and the guy winds up dead. It's fairly clear who the bad guy is but initial suspicion falls on the artistic gentle soldier. Turns out the guy was killed because he was Jewish, and Robert Ryan's snarling tough-guy soldier did it. Interestingly in the book the film was based on, The Brick Foxhole, a soldier is beaten to death by his fellow soldiers because he is gay. 1947 Hollywood was ready to take on anti-semitism (Gentleman's Agreement was I believe the same year), but gays weren't going to make it openly into films, as victims or heroes or anything.
Crossfire also stars three guys name Robert -- Young, Ryan and Mitchum. Mitchum just coasts on charm, as the Sgt trying to help the sensitive soldier. Ryan gets the best part as the mad dog soldier. Young is the fatherly DA, who gets to moralize about hate.
Even though the suspense is light, the switching between the investigation and the various suspects is well-paced and interesting.
One thing bad -- probably my fault -- was I kept thinking the sensitive artist soldier was supposed to be the Jewish guy in the film, as he's portrayed as different. The actual Jewish character who is killed gets very little screen time, in flashbacks, as the film is the murder investigation.
My favorite scene is a cameo by Paul Kelly. The sensitive artist-soldier takes a nap at the apartment of a dance girl he meets in a bar. He wakes up when Kelly knocks at the door, also looking for the girl (Gloria Grahame).
He proceeds to act kind of tough and mysterious and doesn't want to say who he is. Then he says he's the husband, learned she was a tramp before they married, went into the army to get away form her, came back still in love with her, but she doesn't want him. Pauses for a while to make coffee. Says that was all a lie. Comes back with a tale about how he also met her at the gin mill, loves her, wants to marry her. Pause. That's a lie too. I don't love her, don't want to marry her ... Starts a 3rd story, but gets distracted when he mentions that she sometimes makes good money at the gin joint -- goes off on a small tangent: "Hey you got any money on you" -- and then asks if he could become a soldier, but shoots that idea down quickly too. ("I don't want to be a soldier ...)
The guy is just this menacing bunch of self-contradictions, and it's unclear why he is waiting for the girl, or if the soldier should have let him in. A terrific weird scene that Kelly really nails. I wanted to see a film based on his character. Or maybe I'm lying ... |
Last edited by gromit on Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:28 am; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| yambu |
| Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 5:58 pm |
|
|
Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
|
billyweeds wrote: Now that we're finally out of that wide-screen hell we were plunged into by that 400-character-plus url, it's time to revisit the "tinyurl" option. Just log on to tinyurl.com and the rest is easy. Please do not saddle us with endless url's any more. |
_________________
That was great for you. How was it for me? |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:14 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
I didn't realize that Crossfire received 5 Academy award nominations.
Best Pic
Best Director: Dmytryk)
Best Supporting Actor: Robert Ryan
Best Supporting Actress: Gloria Grahame
Best Screenplay
I thought Ryan was quite good.
Grahame is fine but has a rather small part and it's fairly basic. She is given a good line or two and spits those out well. But rather surprising her bar girl character was recognized for a nom.
They should have added a Best Weird Cameo nomination for Paul Kelly.
Btw, in a later scene at Grahame's apartment, Kelly tells the police he is her husband though now he says he was dishonourably discharged (earlier he said it was due to a bad heart) and does love her. So he reverts back (primarily) to the original story. Which kind of makes it all odder. He starts off with the truth, then proclaims it all a lie, then follows it up with a lie, then starts in on another lie. Oddly fascinating.
I kind of like how he tries to be real helpful to the cops -- Grahame resents the police and only reluctantly, didianfully cooperates -- as though he's real needy for attention. Grahame also treats him with disdain and kicks him out.
Crossfire was greenlighted at the same time as Gentleman's Agreement, but was completed quickly and released first.
Gentleman's Agreement won Best Picture and Best Director (Elia Kazan). Along with a Best Suppoting Actress win for Celeste Holm.
And Best Actor and Actress nominations for Gregory Peck and Dorothy McGuire.
Interesting that in the wake of WWII, 2 of the most nominated films of 1947 were social films depicting anti-semitism. It's easy to lose that vital context in the 21st C, but in Crossfire most of the characters are recently demobilized soldiers, most still wearing their uniforms. Though oddly they mention fighting in Asia (Philippines, Okinawa), not against the Nazis -- but maybe just because the war int he Pacific ended later (?)
In the extras they talk about the change from a homosexual victim to a Jewish one. And some of the documents from the censor board uses the word "pansy" in quotes. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:46 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| Both Gentleman's Agreement and Crossfire have dated quite a bit and yet both are very much worth viewing. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:54 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Saw 1940's The House Across the Bay at the Museum of Modern Art before realizing it's streaming on Netflix. In any case, it was fun seeing it on a "real" screen. It's a very sloppily plotted but occasionally fascinating and very good movie, a weird mix of screwball comedy and gangster flick and heavy romance in which George Raft actually shows some acting ability for once in his life. He has real chemistry with Joan Bennett, whose mastery of many styles is a revelation. She's really hot, funny, and touching by turns. Lloyd Nolan is great as the bad guy and Walter Pidgeon is...Walter Pidgeon, but he's not damaging to the movie.
I was particularly interested in seeing this movie because way back in 1953, when my family got its first television set, I would wake up late at night and hear my parents watching The House Across the Bay again and again. Not that they liked it (they said they didn't), but it was one of the only films that had been released to Boston television, so they watched, because the TV experience was so addictive. Makes me laugh even today, so I had to see the movie. And it was a lot better than they gave it credit for. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 9:47 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
| The Chihuahua song is hilarious. Viva Carmen Miranda! |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:54 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
They Live By Night (1948).
I'd been meaning to see for so long that I forgot why.
It's Nicholas Ray's debut film.
And Farley Granger plays a young rebellious outsider -- seeds of James Dean -- who breaks out of jail, falls in love, robs banks, etc.
It's reputed to be one of the earliest criminal-sweethearts-on-the-run films, though the girl doesn't participate in any robberies. I had always thought Gun Crazy was a progenitor of the genre, but that came out two years later in 1950. Though actually They Live By Night wasn't released in the US until late (Nov.) 1949, because Howard Hughes had taken over RKO and started to act goofy and meddled in the final cuts and releases of many films.
Seems this film has been relatively hard to see, with only 3,400 IMDb votes.
It's a solid film with some nice pacing and some good car filming (from a helicopter, from a moving vehicle, and interiors). I liked how all of the peripheral characters have their own agendas and therefore can be dangerous in their own way. The romance is handled well, and at times you start pulling for them and kind of forget that Granger is a dangerous criminal. Should be more available and familiar.
I got it as part of a Farley Granger two-fer.
The other film on the disc is Anthony Mann's Side Street (1949). |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 2:13 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
| Stuck at home after the snow--because the office is unofficially closed today--I was watching old Donna Reed movies on TCM (it's her birthday, I think), and quite liked "Eyes in the Night," which I figured would be a noir but was about a blind detective with a remarkably smart seeing-eye dog (named Friday, who got billing with the stars). The plot concerned some bad guys (spies of some kind) who were after the maguffin--um, scientific formula--developed by Reed's father, who was married to a lady who was friends with Edward Arnold, the detective. She went to the detective because her stepdaughter was involved with a villainous actor, and when the woman had gone to try to get him to break off the affair, she found him dead--and then she'd encountered the stepdaughter, who was sure she'd killed him. So the blind man and his dog and his assistant went to check the scene of the crime, but found that both the body and the rug he'd been lying on were missing. He then took on the persona of the woman's somewhat alcoholic uncle who arrives for a few days' visit, and soon became aware of the spies plotting in the servants' quarters. With the smart dog and the ability to maneuver in the dark and the evident lack of need to sleep, he managed to get the cops involved just in time to save the scientist and the rest of the good guys, along with the formula. I'll bet that dog also did his tax returns. I wonder if there were any other films with Friday. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:43 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
| Apparently not. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 11:50 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
|
| Looks like there was one more. I won't look for it to show up on TCM anytime soon, though. (Friday reminded me a lot of Ackerley's Evie/Queenie/Tulip, a lithe German shepherd--as in "We Think the World of You" with the great Sir Alan and Gary Oldman.) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 5:35 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
|
Side Street (1949) was allright, but somewhat disappointing.
The premise is good enough for a noir: a guy (Farley Granger) temporarily delivering mail steals what he thinks is $200 from a lawyers office. But instead there's $30,000 in the folder he filched. I also liked how it isn't portrayed as a simple impulsive act, as the file cabinet is locked when he tries it, he leaves the office, grabs a fire axe and smashes the damn thing open. He wants to provide for his wife who is about to have a baby.
The money turns out to have come from a blackmail scheme, and the lawyer and a gangster bumped off the woman who set a broker up for extortion. When Granger tries to give the money back he discovers its gone.
But the film never really coheres. The romance/baby aspect isn't worked in well. There's a police detective (Paul Kelly) voiceover which describes what a big tough city NY is -- the kind of semi-documentary intro which was in vogue post-war. But then that is forgotten about until the end. The police come in late and aren't interesting or developed. I think there's too many partial films that aren't well-integrated.
There is a somewhat exciting car chase through lower Manhattan for the film's climax, but it's odd how completely deserted the city is. It's supposed to be before 6:AM or whatever, but a fairly large chunk of the city has not one person outside. Another oddity is it is completely unclear what the title refers to. One climax takes place on what seems to be a smallish residential street. The car chase goes through some side streets, I guess. Maybe the title Detour was already taken, and they wanted something that would refer to going off the main/right path, while echoing the car chase ending (?)
Anyway, it's not a bad film, but kind of a generic decent noir. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Jan 29, 2015 4:36 pm; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 1:00 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
|
Saw "The Interview," which is already streaming on Netflix, and it wasn't quite as terrible as the trailer made it appear. Though, the first 45 minutes are still pretty bad, much LCD humor and grossness. But after that, it seems to get a bit of comic momentum, and there are some funny moments. E.g. Seth Rogen's producer (he produces "Skylark in the Morning," a shallow infotainment show hosted by Dave Skylark (James Franco at his most puerile)) has been given a toxin to apply to his hand, so that he can deliver a lethal handshake to Kim Jong Un.
This plan, of course, derails, and he finds himself attempting to make passionate love to a Korean official, one-handed, as he hasn't had a chance to remove the poison patch. Also amusing is watching Un as he manipulates the dim-witted Dave Skylark to ensure that he will only lob softballs - and stick to the N. Korean scripting - during his interview. Dumb as the movie is, overall, I rather enjoyed their rendition of Un as an emotionally fragile manchild with serious daddy issues. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
All times are GMT - 5 Hours
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
|
