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| gromit |
 Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 3:13 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Wow, that is a long time ago. I don't recall underlining movie titles -- I always put them in bold (at least the last 9 years).
I'm surprised the Search Function worked well enough to unearth that. Actually I just tried searching for "shock corridor" and got 72 pages of results. But then tried searching for "nympho" and got a very manageable 6 responses with my decade-old Shock Corridor review at the bottom.
During my recent holiday re-watch binge, I stumbled across Shock Corridor a few times and briefly considered re-watching it. It's certainly an entertaining film. One reason I like posting about films here is that writing reviews of films makes me think about them more -- what worked/didn't, relationship to other films, etc. And of course by contributing to film discussion, other people keep churning out their reviews, helping me to find other worthwhile films or consider thoughts on films which didn't occur to me.
Might have to give SC a whirl. I seem to recall it being either a short film, or at least racing by pretty quickly. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 5:26 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| ,,, |
Last edited by gromit on Sat Jan 09, 2016 4:58 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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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 11:23 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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Quote: I'm surprised the Search Function worked well enough to unearth that. Actually I just tried searching for "shock corridor" and got 72 pages of results. But then tried searching for "nympho" and got a very manageable 6 responses with my decade-old Shock Corridor review at the bottom.
If you choose the "Search on all terms" option, it whittles the results way down and puts results first that have the multiple terms next to each other. But "nympho" works, haha. The nympho scenario was campy B-movie fun. In the film, he just wanders through an unlocked door into a dayroom full of attractive nymphos who knock him down and start biting his face. Seems unlikely there would be an unlocked, unmarked door into such a ward.
There are so many inaccurate ideas about mental illness in the film that it's a pretty good map into people's fears at that time. And working in the broader social fear and paranoia of that period - the physicist traumatized by his role in building ICBMs, the soldier converted into a Commie by Korean brainwashers, the black man who has been co-opted by the KKK perspective and seemed to have erased his own identity as a black man. I wondered if there was some sort of gay subtext with the fat man who sang opera, constantly touching the journalist, drawing him into an opera scene where he pretends to stab him, and later stuffing huge wads of chewing gum into his (the journalist's) mouth. And the guy just submits, as if he's already losing his strong identity.
A weirdly and often hilariously fascinating movie. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 12:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I agree that Shock Corridor is a cartoon version of mental illness. Hitchcock's overrated Spellbound has the same sort of naive attitudes about psychoanalysis. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 5:05 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I've been "working at home" today--now that our division has been moved from Rockefeller Center to Industry City, Brooklyn, we all take advantage of the work-at-home option whenever possible--and nothing has been forwarded to me for editing, so I was checking out the free Showtime channels that Time Warner Cable has bestowed for a few months. I clicked into "The Sixth Day," which sounded vaguely familiar, and saw Robert Duvall, which meant that it was probably a worthy film, and then saw Ahnold, which meant it was a big action movie. I like to watch TV while I eat lunch, so I stuck with it, and I have to say, it was fun. I'm not a Schwarzenegger fan--never even saw "Terminator"--and this flick had two of him, but its complex plot and fast pace and philosophical overtones (what makes someone human?), not to mention some cool scenes of major destruction, kept my attention. If you've got a slow afternoon and nothing else to do, it's a very enjoyable distraction. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 7:10 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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| I've been a Bob DuVall believer since THX1138. I recall T6D, if it's the one where they start with cloning pets and they end up cc'ing Ahnuld. I think you pegged it, a fun diversion with a pinch of philosophical meat on it. Clone sci-fi sometimes drops the ball...a physical copy with identical DNA will not share identity with the original, unless you could somehow precisely simulate the original's childhood and every life experience up to the moment of duplication. I can't remember how T6D approaches all that, so may have to rewatch. As for " cool scenes of major destruction, " Terminator 2 is pretty good and by far the best of the franchise. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 10:40 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Duvall was at our film class a couple of times, and he was one of the very few actors I didn't like much--too much ego without humor, and sexist as well--but he's a great actor and he had some good stories. Like having been coaxed into playing Dr. Watson in "The Seven-Percent Solution" because of Watson's wonderful opening monologue, and then it was cut from the final film. He was still pissed off about it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 11:45 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: Duvall was at our film class a couple of times, and he was one of the very few actors I didn't like much.
He does have the reputation of being difficult. Wonderful actor, though.
bartist--Where did you get the capital V in his name? You've made him vaguely European.  |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:33 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I'm watching "Hangmen Also Die," the Fritz Lang film about the assassination of Heydrich (which came out before the true story was known, so it's mostly fictional). The true story is highly dramatic and ultimately tragic, and would make a great film. Has anyone done it justice? |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 9:05 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Apparently we're getting one this year entitled "Anthropoid," (the name of the operation), with Cillian Murphy as one of the stars. "HHHH" also covers the assassination. That one has Rosamund Pike and Mia Wasikowska, who are obviously not playing the assassins. The 1975 film "Operation Daybreak" also covered Heydrich's assasination. I don't know if any of these cover the destruction of Lidice. |
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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: Sun Jan 10, 2016 11:55 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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In my first job as a copy editor, I worked on a book that might have been called "The Assassination of Heydrich"--I still have copies of some of the books I worked on then, but not that one. Unlike 99% of the books I copy edited then, though, it made a strong impression. I saw "Hangmen Also Die" on TCM a couple of years ago, and it didn't have the same impact because it didn't tell the whole story, of the town's destruction.
Interesting that "The Martian" just won the Golden Globe as Best Comedy, with Matt Damon winning best actor. It adds to that feeling I get when I watch Trump ranting about what he'll do when he's the president--wondering if I'm stuck in some kind of weird alternate reality that's actually a satirical sitcom. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 6:47 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| The Golden Globes pulls these erratic stunts regularly, like categorizing The Martian as a comedy, presumably to make sure Matt Damon wins an award despite his obvious competition were he to be in a "drama." Seldom is the miscategorization as ridiculous as this, however. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:35 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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| I saw part of it, and was mystified by the "comedy" categorization, but that makes sense, BW. Was amused to see Taraji Henson looking a bit drunk, when she accepted. And LOL Brie Larson's little joke about "getting to know you guys so well" referring to mysterious and shadowy Hollywood Foreign Press Corps (never been sure what that really means, I should wiki it...). Also liked Ridley Scott's "Screw You! I'm finishing...." when then you're-done lights and sounds started up on him. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:48 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| All I saw of the actual GG Awards was the opening, with Ricky Gervais' more-or-less witty insults--because The Simpsons was delayed (fortunately I tuned in in time to catch one of the best couch-gag bits in its history). I had to watch Downton Abbey, and then caught The Abominable Bride again. I figure that if anything interesting happens at an awards show, it'll be on the news the next day. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 12:45 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| If anything interesting happened at an awards show, that would be news.[/i] |
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