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gromit

Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2018 10:44 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9008 Location: Shanghai

Too Late for Tears (1949) sounded quite interesting. Lizabeth Scott and Dan Duryea in the leads. But maybe they are just better in supporting roles, or perhaps the material lets them down. I thought basically every plot point and almost all the dialogue was phony.

The basic premise is fine, a man's wife turns tough and then vicious when a large amount of money almost literally falls into her lap. Duryea's a career criminal who wants his blackmail money back. But he's not ready for what goes down. Too bad the execution was lacking.

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

carrobin

Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2018 4:20 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

Syd wrote:

Yes, Liliom is the play Carousel is based on. The play was filmed at least three times in the thirties, before being made into the popular musical which was made into an apparently bad movie. I've seen it on stage but haven't seen the movie since I've been warned off.

Last time I was in London, "Carousel" was playing at the Savoy Theatre, across the street from my hotel, and I decided to check it out on my last night there. The theater was packed, but I got a decent mezz seat anyway, beside an older fellow who told me he'd played Mr. Snow in Manchester. The opening was wonderful--a carousel that morphed into a town, beautifully done--and despite knowing it was heavily manipulative, I loved it. If you don't cry you just aren't human. I did see the movie on TV many years ago, but on stage it's a whole different experience.

gromit

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:58 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9008 Location: Shanghai

I liked Lang's Liliom. Boyer is quite good and there's some fun camerawork.

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

gromit

Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 2:10 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9008 Location: Shanghai

Re-watched American Splendour which I liked on first viewing, though not as much as some here. This time the multiple level Pekar's (Harvey himself, Giamatti playing him and the comic strip version) seemed a little lazy. Also, the film went through Pekar's bio more than i'd have liked, I'd rather have got more of his ideas. But really I found myself not much interested in Harvey Pekar.

I found myself more curious about Joyce his girlfriend and then wife. My favorite part of the film was when she starts dropping psychology labels on Harvey and his circle. Also, when she says very early on in their relationship that they should drop the idea of dating and just get married.

I also liked some of the drawings for the Amer Splendour comics more than the writing, and would have been up for seeing how an artist goes about designing the layout. And the different approaches by the artists. But Pekar's grumpy complaints about his daily life and the comic series itself didn't interest me (never was a comic book guy, don't watch the spate of comic book superhero films, etc)

I also found myself more interested in re-watching the R Crumb doc from Terry Zwigoff. Coincidentally the highlight of that film is also a side/minor character, Robert Crumb's brother. Anyway, Am Splendour is fine enough, i just didn't need to see it again.

Last edited by gromit on Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:18 pm; edited 1 time in total
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

whiskeypriest

Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 8:44 pm

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

bartist wrote:

Unless you watch Ladykillers. But that would be intolerable cruelty...unless you had a proxy to watch for you.

The best Coen flick starting with H is the Swedish director's (Tydlum?): "Headhunters."

Zookeeper's Wife. Better than Hail Caesar.

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

bartist

Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 11:51 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6954 Location: Black Hills

Spouse says it's a multi hanky. Haven't seen it, am feeling over due for a Chastain catch up fest - Miss Sloan, Molly's Game, and tZW at least. She's a major talent. Reads an interesting phone directory.

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

knox

Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:54 pm

Joined: 18 Mar 2010 Posts: 1246 Location: St. Louis

Saw "Lured," which Gromit mentioned while back. YEah, kind of telegraphed the ending, you could see the villain coming a mile away. But the Boris Karloff red herring scene was pretty funny, and you could see glimpses of the Lucille Ball to Come, in scattered amusing repartee and body language.

whiskeypriest

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 1:06 pm

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

bartist wrote:

Spouse says it's a multi hanky.

Well, it is a holocaust story.

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

carrobin

Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 11:03 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

Back in the '50s I had a major crush on Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and suffered through some pretty lame flicks for him, but his first film, "House of Strangers," has been showing up lately on one of the movie channels, and it's probably the best he was ever in. (Well, except for "Wait Until Dark," in which he had only two scenes.) The stars are Edward G. Robinson, as the patriarch who runs a bank in Little Italy, and Richard Conte, one of his four sons--the only one who isn't working at the bank, having become a lawyer instead. Susan Hayward is the challenging client who shows up with man trouble, and their chemistry sparks instantly, although he's engaged to a nice Italian girl from the neighborhood. Zimbalist is the youngest son, a well-tailored wimp--the oldest is a resentful bully, and the third is a not-too-bright wannabe boxer. True to the film title, they all hate each other, mostly because their father believes criticism makes them tough. But then there are problems at the bank that demand Conte's best legal efforts, and Robinson could go to prison for years--but Conte thinks he can maneuver to get his brothers light sentences instead and spare their father. But of course they hate their father, and Conte winds up taking the fall. When he gets out of prison, he's willing to forgive if not forget, but they don't understand that attitude, convinced that he's come back for revenge. He barely escapes the house alive, but he's still got Hayward, and that's all he needs.

I hadn't seen the film for maybe 50 years, and it was great to see it again--back in the day, I didn't even know it was a noir (or what a noir was, for that matter). The performances are excellent and Conte and Hayward are hot stuff together, with some smart sharp dialogue as they attract/repel each other. Zimbalist was pretty good as well, in his few brief scenes. He should have been a bigger star (I blame Warner Bros.). I also love the location--the big brownstone, probably on the Upper West Side, practically a character in itself. I'd love to find it someday--but it's probably been replaced by a skyscraping condominium by now.

bartist

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 12:57 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6954 Location: Black Hills

"Happy Death Day" is a surprisingly (good horror is hard to find) entertaining 2017 horror/comedy that basically combines Groundhog Day and the Scream franchise.

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

gromit

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:21 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9008 Location: Shanghai

The Tattered Dress (1957) is a solid courtroom drama, or should I say dramas. Jeff Chandler is good as the tough shrewd NY lawyer. Jack Carson is very effective as the two-faced Nevada sheriff.
Solid supporting cast too, though Edward Platt doesn't have much to do as a foil to the lawyer. Youtubed here.

Found it quite enjoyable and solid, even if a few things struck me as odd/wrong. 1) the smart criminal lawyer threatens to kill his client and beat up another lawyer, both with witnesses present. it's just tough talk, but not what a smart lawyer would do 2) No idea why the lawyer's wife sits at the defense table when her husband represents himself 3) in such a small town you'd think it wouldn't be hard to find out about the relationship between the sheriff and the one juror/witness.

The double twist/surprise at the end is fun, but not really well-explained or that believable.

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

carrobin

Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:45 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

TCM is showing Paul Newman flicks today, and this morning I got hooked by "The Prize," which I'd never seen. It's a Hitchcock-style thriller in which prize-winning scientist Edward G. Robinson is kidnapped shortly before the Nobel ceremonies and replaced by a doppelganger, who fools everyone except prize-winning author Paul Newman, who meets Robinson briefly before his capture and then meets his double a few hours later. Newman also writes mystery novels to make a living (his Nobel literature isn't lucrative), and he pursues the puzzle although nobody believes any of his reports. He manages to fit in a romance with Elke Sommer, who isn't convinced until the villains take her hostage, but he's on his own in the very amusing scene at a meeting of a nudist society where he takes refuge from evil pursuers (he uses the same technique that Cary Grant does at the auction in "North by Northwest"). It's all extremely improbable but good fun, with a breathlessly just-in-time finale--as Leo G. Carroll, manager of the proceedings, sighs with the thought that he's always afraid something will go wrong but nothing ever does. Clever plot, and if you have to borrow from Hitchcock, "NxN" is the best.

bartist

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:15 pm

Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6954 Location: Black Hills

whiskeypriest wrote:

No qualms at all about Florence Foster Jenkins, which reminded me that as good as Maryl Streep is drama, she is remarkably adept at finding the human in the comic roles. Which is necessary because it would be very easy to have FFJ a mere comic personna. But Streep made her comic and touching and loveable and human. Grant is as good as anything I have ever seen him in. But even with Streep, Simon Helberg stole every scene he was in, as her pianist who properly always seems like he is trying to prevent himself from exploding, even as he comes to admire and love FFJ. And also, I suspect, played him as a man so thoroughly closeted he was even closeted from himself.

The pianist went on, in real life, to judge bodybuilding competitions, so perhaps he found an operable doorknob in his closet. Double entendre intended, and somewhat regretted. Agree with all you said, and would have easily put it on my top ten list for 2016.

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

Syd

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:39 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12902 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

The Prize was adapted from one of Irving Wallace's early novels. I used to read them all in the 1960s and followed him to the People's Almanacs and the Books of Lists (which apparently haven't been adapted). One I missed was The Chapman Report which was made into a movie that help launch Jane Fonda's career.

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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

gromit

Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2018 4:37 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9008 Location: Shanghai

I had a stack of lesser known Newman films and watched them all about 6 years back. Ranging from the good Somebody Up There Likes Me to a stinker like Quintet. But not familiar with The Prize. I think I had two different Newman sets totaling 9 films.

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

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