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| carrobin |
 Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 11:20 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Just watched "The Scarlet Pimpernel" again on TCM--the first time I saw it, on TV in the '50s, I was so ignorant about movies that I assumed Laurence Olivier was the star (handsome aristocratic English actor: Olivier). But I loved it, and still do, despite its syrupy lovers' farewell (which is easily forgiven with the surprise triumph of the hero and defeat of the villain). Leslie Howard was perfect as Sir Percy, but I'm thinking they should do a big-screen remake with, say, Colin Firth, and lots of action (swordfights are so much more entertaining than gunfights). And they could sell the rings on ThinkGeeks--I'd buy one. (Yes, I know there was a pretty good TV version with Anthony Andrews, but I'm talking big bucks.) |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 6:38 pm |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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| I saw The Scarlet Pimpernel this morning also. I've seen it a number of times and always liked it. I liked Leslie Howard in all the movies he was in. Died too soon. |
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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 5:32 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| The Story of G.I. Joe: War correspondent Ernie Pyle (Burgess Meredith) attaches himself to a company of soldiers led by young Lt. Walker (Robert Mitchum) in Tunisia just in time to see them blooded by the battle of Kasserine Pass. He later rejoins them in time for the battles of San Pietro and Monte Cassino with some of the starkest war footage you'd ever see. Sometimes it's humorous, but more often it shows the process that wears people down in the quagmire that was the Italian campaign. Excellent movie completed just a couple of months before Pyle was killed at Okinawa. This got Mitchum his only Oscar nomination and he richly deserved it; Meredith is also great and understated. The bombed-out landscape is a character in itself; one of the finest scenes is in a church where German snipers have occupied the belfry. One of the soldiers is struck by the irony of killing people in a church, and falls to his knees to pray. (9 of 10; a serious candidate for the best World War II made during the war itself.) |
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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: Thu Aug 13, 2015 5:37 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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G I Joe maintained a kung fu grip on my attention.
Good film.
About 3 years back I went through a whole load of war films, heavy on WWII films. I really enjoyed them, though war films had always been a genre I didn't care much for. I largely blame CH's 9 & 11 who would show all sorts of mediocre war films when I was a kid, back in the primitive days when NYC had 3 network stations, 3 independent local stations and PBS. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:21 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Yeah, well that was the Big City.
In central NJ, you could somewhat get the Philly versions of the 3 networks. This was of use if you wanted to watch a football game being shown in Philly, but not NY. Say Cowboys v. Eagles or somesuch.
There'd be a fair bunch of static, and it mostly worked for CBS (2 in NYC/10 in Philly). And you could also fool with UHF and get a few NJ state run stations. I think CH 58 had Uncle Floyd. Most of those were static-filled, but one came in well.
When I was in junior high, one friend's neighborhood, not far from my house, was selected for a sort of experimental/test cable TV operation. Circa 1978. Oddly, the cables were buried underground, which needless to say didn't become the industry standard. They had cable TV about 4 years before everyone else, but then got locked into some iffy channels, and missed out on things like HBO which became big. They had Showtime. IIRC, they had Sportschannel, but not ESPN. Things like that. I'm not sure how long they were locked into contracts with that cable system, and how/when they could switch.
I'm guessing my family got cable TV circa 1982. I remember it had 36 channels which seemed pretty astounding back then. Though 1/4 of those were the local NY broadcast stations. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:58 am; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:27 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| At the risk of reviving the Monty Python sketch about the old guys reminiscing ("We lived in a box in the middle of the road…" "You had a box?"), I have to report that in South Carolina, we had one TV station and it was based in Charlotte, which meant that reception was fuzzy at best--but what did we know? We'd pull down the shades and close the blinds--as if the living room were a movie theater--and watch anything, from the news to Roller Derby. Fortunately it didn't take long for local stations to pop up. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 10:27 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Watched The Childhood of Maxim Gorky (1938).
A bit of an uneven film, with a lot of exaggerated acting.
Basically Alexei Peshkov's father died, so his mother leaves the 12 year old boy with the grandparents. Grandpa runs a dye factory but is a bit of a hard-ass and stingy. His two sons are generally no-good fools who scheme to get their inheritance. They end up callously killing off the dye factory's one good worker -- maybe he seemed to much of a rival. Grandma is warm and helpful but isn't willing to stop grandpa's rages.
It's kind of an episodic film, a bunch of scenes from childhood, each introduced with a quote from Gorky (the pen name of Alexei Peshkov). Surprisingly for a film made in Soviet 1938, just after Stalin had consolidated power by killing off any potential rivals, the film is largely propaganda-free. It takes place during the czarist days, but it's surprising to see the peasants acting so greedy and badly. I guess it shows the bad old pre-revolutionary days, and since grandpa runs a small business, the family are petit bourgeois, even if they are just scraping to get by.
The film is based on Gorky's memoir of his childhood, and since he was such a champion of the poor and downtrodden, I guess that allowed for some leeway. The fact that Gorky died in 1936, probably also had something to do with it all, as he wasn't around to create any trouble or controversy. I doubt I've seen many films from the early talkie era in Russia. I'll have to look them up, but this was an interesting look at that era of filmmaking. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 11:03 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Now I see that this was the first in a trilogy of films based on Gorky's autobiography.
Gorky had a complicated relationship with the communist leadership. He was an early Bolshevik, but denounced Lenin once he started killing folks left and right. Was exiled for much of the 20's, but came back on Stalin's personal invitation in 1932, when he was then treated as a hero.
Not sure I've read any Gorky -- maybe because he was primarily a playwright -- but I have seen both the Renoir (1936) and the '57 Kurosawa films of The Lower Depths, an early Gorky play. |
Last edited by gromit on Tue Dec 15, 2015 11:59 am; edited 1 time in total
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 2:44 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| In spite of all the blood, atrocities, etc. of the Spanish Civil War, there is something tragically romantic about it. Behold A Pale Horse uses this legacy to full advantage, in the persons of Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn. Peck is a last guerilla, holding out in the Pyrenees against Quinn and the Guardia Civil. After Mockingbird this is his best role. |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2015 10:29 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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gromit wrote: G I Joe maintained a kung fu grip on my attention.
Good film.
About 3 years back I went through a whole load of war films, heavy on WWII films. I really enjoyed them, though war films had always been a genre I didn't care much for. I largely blame CH's 9 & 11 who would show all sorts of mediocre war films when I was a kid, back in the primitive days when NYC had 3 network stations, 3 independent local stations and PBS.
I watched Battleground, too, (on Marilyn's recommendation) which is a grunt's eye view of the Battle of the Bulge, also directed by Wellman. Fine film, with Van Johnson as the none-too-heroic lead and rapidly promoted through the ranks due to casualties. It's considered highly accurate, except the Germans who were wearing Allied uniforms were in another place in the battle. It won an Oscar for its cinematography, which was well-deserved--despite mostly being shot on a sound stage, you'd swear you were in the Ardennes. It also won an Oscar for original screenplay and was nominated for Best Picture and Director, Supporting Actor and Editing. The supporting actor was for James Whitmore, which surprised me because I was having a hard time figuring out which soldier he was--surprising because he was the commander.
Considering that Wellman was an airman and didn't like the infantry (at least, before he directed the films), it's remarkable that he did two of the best films about the infantry. |
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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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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Aug 15, 2015 7:16 am |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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| I saw Battleground when it came out and saw it a few times on the TV. Way back then I think I saw all the war movies. |
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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:39 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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A second viewing of "Life Itself", the documentary on Roger Ebert, confirms my view that it is one of the better biopics of recent years. Not only was he a great film critic. He was a remarkable man. And gutsy!
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 6:20 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| As a longtime friend of Roger Ebert, I can attest to his character and charisma. He was truly one of the greatest people I've ever known, in every conceivable way. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:28 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Watched Sydney Lumet's The Offence (1973) with Sean Connery.
Well, I didn't watch it with Connery, but he was in the film.
Kind of a dull affair.
A serial killer is raping and murdering little girls. Connery is a police detective who beats to death the likely suspect, as his interrogation techniques are a little rough.
You can tell that this stems from a play, as it has few characters, few sets, and a couple of long scenes where two characters over-emote, and take turns acting tough and breaking down, sort of like an emotional championship wrestling contest. One is the show-down interrogation between Connery's cop and the likely suspect. Followed by the police superintendent interrogating Connery. There's another scene where Connery insults his mousy wife for a good stretch.
The main thesis of the play/film is that a cop who spends so much time around deviant/violent behavior becomes affected by it, and becomes fairly similar to the criminals he deals with.
It's kind of dull and sluggish, and fairly predictable.
But mainly felt too talky and too contrived. A play made into a film.
Not terrible, but deservedly forgotten. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 3:38 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Well, having much better luck with another 1973 The O- film.
The Outfit stars Robert Duvall, as a small-time crook out for revenge on the mob. Seems him and his brother and a third guy knocked off a bank run by a big crime syndicate. Oops. So they kill his brother and send a hitman for Duvall, who who doesn't like attempted assassinations. So he decides to rob and harass and threaten the mob until they pay him off for killing his brother.
Just the opening credits had me smiling, as Karen Black and Joe Don Baker make up the renegade trio. It's hard to get more 70's than Karen Black and Joe Don Baker! But there are also cameos from noir vets Robert Ryan, Jane Greer and Elisha Cook Jr. Nice. Other good casting includes Timothy Carey as a minor crime boss and Sheree North as a temptress, both in small parts. It starts with Black and Duvall sparring. Then switches over to a Duvall and JDBaker buddy flick for the second half hour.
The film is based on a novel by Donald Westlake, and I'm sure that helped things a good deal. Has anyone read the book? (I'm assuming it's the same title(?)
I still have the last half hour to watch. Needed a food break.
Karen Black hasn't had much to do the last half hour, so I presume she'll get bumped off or will have a key role in the climax . . . or both.
Not sure why I never heard of The Outfit. It's a solid crime/revenge film. Fewer than 2,000 ratings on IMDb, barely more than half that of The Offense, which I thought was obscure (and is a much worse film).
Do people know either of these films?
I wasn't really aware of movies until around 1974-75, so it's possible I was just too young to be aware of these. But I like to catch Duvall and Karen Black in even mediocre/bad films ... |
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