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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 1, 2019 0:06:11 GMT
Sorry buddy I can't recall what's been cut but the 80m version was definitely inferior and some of it had to do with plot too - might bump your score a little bit but I think not to raise it above the 7's. It's a fascinating picture to me because Young is charming and slyly reptilian at the same time against type. I could never watch Marcus Welby again I'll tell you that. I never saw much from Pinchel but I thought he was solid but I'm not sure how much he did in noir because noir brought out the best in him here (or I just like noir more  ) The screenwriter is the key iirc - same guys who wrote The Big Clock and The Glass Key, Night Has A Thousand Eyes - that guy - whose name escapes me was a crime writer and I think only wrote wrote crime/noir which is pretty cool - a man of the moment sorta....... |
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Post by longtallsally on Sept 1, 2019 20:22:58 GMT
To Be or Not to Be (1942), Ernst Lubitsch - 10/10
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Post by TerryMontana on Sept 5, 2019 18:28:22 GMT
A Man for All Seasons - rewatch
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Post by Mattsby on Sept 5, 2019 21:29:04 GMT
Did a down-unda-double-feature....
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1978)
Sunday Too Far Away (1975)
Two essential Aussies, 7.5ish to 8/10. Chant is extremely well made, difficult, devastating. Sunday, much lesser known, is far merrier with a lot of catchy characters - it's Tom Roberts 'Shearing the Rams' sprightly come to life and feeling like a classic at times but also by the end feels chopped and a bit unfinished, unlike Chant.
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Post by JangoB on Sept 6, 2019 22:39:33 GMT
The Four Feathers - This 1939 war adventure is an impressive Technicolor production which gives similar Hollywood films of its time a run for their money with its well-staged battle sequences and emotional impact but I would've liked it more if not for two things. First off, the central premise was a little bit tough to fully buy, especially in terms of how easy it was for a British officer to just go and blend in with the local tribes by having a mark burned upon his forehead and contorting all the time. It just looked a touch ridiculous, not to mention that the plan itself seemed a bit over-the-top and complicated when simply rejoining his fellow soldiers would've probably done the trick. Of course, it all neatly works out in the end but the premise was a bit hard for me to buy when it kicked in after a wonderful opening stretch.
My second issue was with Ralph Richardson. This is probably an unpopular opinion but I find myself not responding to his acting style in general, and in this particular movie his performance was too theatrical at times. Especially when he had to portray the initial shock of losing his eyesight - it's like he plays it so that people who are 10 miles from the screen can see his acting. He's better in the quieter scenes though.
Other than that, the movie is a rather engaging experience. Strong color cinematography is a good example of its power - it's Technicolor all right, but it doesn't look overpainted or too stagey. It's actually fairly naturalistic in its visual approach and that helps the movie feel more modern than your average 1939 film (even though I do like that heightened glossy look too).
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Post by Viced on Sept 7, 2019 21:49:01 GMT
 Solid but underwhelming. Widmark was excellent as a scum-of-the-earth character, but there isn't nearly enough of him! Poitier quite good in his film debut... kind of crazy that he was only 22 here. Movie is kind of all over the place... wastes too much time on characters that don't really seem necessary and the plot was too thin to give the whole thing the weight that the subject matter requires. And the big brawl that was being hyped up was cut away from after 5 seconds... what a disgrace! One amazing example of prime noir lighting though that really made me happy. 6.5/10 |
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Post by JangoB on Sept 7, 2019 22:42:42 GMT
Had a Douglas Sirk double bill today:
Written on the Wind was just wonderful, one of the truly great cinematic melodramas and Sirk operating at the height of his abilities.
Magnificent Obsession, while good, was a little bit too much from time to time. The material is just too damn ridiculous at points. Still, the Sirk touch keeps it all at a level of good art even when it gets closer and closer to falling into the abyss of utter silliness.
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Post by Viced on Sept 8, 2019 4:41:05 GMT
 Excellent Westlake adaptation that perfectly captures the vibe of the first Dortmunder novel. Perfectly paced and the plot never gets exhausting (which I was somewhat worried that it would). Cast is a lot of fun and Quincy Jones' score was pretty great. 8/10 |
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Post by Mattsby on Sept 9, 2019 19:05:29 GMT
Solid but underwhelming. Widmark was excellent as a scum-of-the-earth character, but there isn't nearly enough of him! Poitier quite good in his film debut... kind of crazy that he was only 22 here. Movie is kind of all over the place... wastes too much time on characters that don't really seem necessary and the plot was too thin to give the whole thing the weight that the subject matter requires. And the big brawl that was being hyped up was cut away from after 5 seconds... what a disgrace! One amazing example of prime noir lighting though that really made me happy. 6.5/10Widmark is amazing here - how his racist vitriol is swirled around by his slight grief and personal failure, but he's a very knowing manipulator and very happily hateful, probably bc it's a feeling of power which he's lost (arrested, injured etc). Poitier is pretty good too, his best line reading is the last line I think, "Don't cry, white boy...you're gonna live." I like the movie itself more than you (7/10 or higher) - yes some scenes are preachy or abrupt, the worst short-cut is the telling of Poitier's bout of madness instead of getting us in there to see it... But mostly it's well made by the talented Mankiewicz, and I've liked everything I've seen from him. Little things - the sound of the city behind Widmark's tirades, Poitier looking around for the medical tools, or when him and his superior see the girl in the apt building and we see the neighbors curiously looking on, how Ossie Davis repeats his joke "he can deliver a baby but he couldn't deliver no letters" - how the superior has no wife and clearly kinda desperately wants to befriend Poitier; and the language which would be shocking today let alone 1949 when it filmed (three months before the director did All About Eve, impressive back to back). |
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Post by Mattsby on Sept 9, 2019 19:25:20 GMT
 Private Property (1960) 7 "You don't know what it means to a guy like me....to take a dip....in a private pool..."I dig these manipulative psycho-interloper type movies and this one is noticeable as budget-less, it's homemade, a little sloppy and not very well acted, but I liked it. Lead actress was married to the Director, they shot the movie in their home too, though a few years later they divorced and she committed suicide (34-yo). Cinematographer did East of Eden and, the year before, The Hanging Tree. Those are spectacularly shot, painterly. B&W here, a lot of soft focus, tight visuals and shooting thru barriers - windows, fences, cages, glass cups. Two delinquents posing as working men, there's the class angle, there's the housewife's good manners and the sexual element of mutual repression. There's even, not so much a twist, but a surprise towards the end that takes this into pretty dark and haunting territory, kinda like a b-horror. And a phenomenal, ripe dance sequence that highlights the tense, sensuous character complication.... |
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 11, 2019 14:29:15 GMT
Corruption (1968) - Between a 5.5-6.0 - really close to a 6 actually Very dated, very campy and too dumb to work as horror BUT it's on to something in it's central image of a gentleman doctor out of place in a world of shallow trendsetters. Make it now as a giant middle finger to the millenial social media generation and you'd be on to something........and this screenplay which is just surface level enough to suggest something else and very violent in a way that suggests self-loathing, utter contempt and modern cultural decay........the doctor is in......sane! The doctor is out..........of his mind! 
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Post by Mattsby on Sept 11, 2019 16:30:31 GMT
pacinoyes Haven’t seen the movie but love that shot of Cushing. Speaking of.... What are your fave Cushing perfs? I haven’t seen much - would go with Cash on Demand, Hammer production but not horror that I’ve posted on here about - and I’m starting to put together my October watchlist and gotta cushion it a bit... 
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 11, 2019 18:21:04 GMT
pacinoyes Haven’t seen the movie but love that shot of Cushing. Speaking of.... What are your fave Cushing perfs? I haven’t seen much - would go with Cash on Demand, Hammer production but not horror that I’ve posted on here about - and I’m starting to put together my October watchlist and gotta cushion it a bit... Well, I like him weirder in a lot of stuff but he's got those classic roles that he's so associated with that just dwarf everything he tried - Sherlock Holmes (Hound of Baskervilles), Dr. Frankenstein (Hammer classics Revenge of .........and Curse of.........) and especially Dracula '58 (better than the original there, I said it!) as Van Helsing. When he leaves that classic stuff he's still great fun to watch - Cash on Demand is one of his best.......I like him in all the 70s anthologies : Tales From The Crypt, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum, From Beyond The Grave, they are cheesy but very fun to me and go well with TV anthologies like Night Gallery, etc. and that goes for Madhouse too - critics be damned! Fear In the Night is a good buried treasure (that is screaming, pun intended for #metoo era remake! - it's basically a less tight update of Taste of Fear, not as good but more advanced and interesting undertones) for fans of him Night Creatures and The Skull are fun too from the 60s. What a distinguished gentleman he was |
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Post by Viced on Sept 11, 2019 19:42:45 GMT
 Sam Fuller's second credited screenplay (not solo), Singin' in the Rain rip-off (released 15 years earlier, lol)... strange movie but not without its charms. Somewhat sunk by the bland lead (though Fay Wray was bae) and some of the goofy stuff with the kid, but the absolutely wild ending almost made me bump this up to a 7... but for now I'll stick with a 6.5/10. |
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Post by TerryMontana on Sept 11, 2019 20:17:36 GMT
Re-watch  |
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Post by longtallsally on Sept 11, 2019 20:51:55 GMT
Ten Days Wonder (1971), Claude Chabrol - 8/10
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Post by longtallsally on Sept 12, 2019 20:01:24 GMT
The Sicilian Clan (1969), Herni Verneuil - 7/10
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Sept 12, 2019 20:33:25 GMT
watched Frank Perry's Play It As It Lays (1972) a couple nights ago and it was quite a trip. Excellent performance from Tuesday Weld as a psychologically-deteriorating actress on the cusp of being washed up at 30 ( at 30!!) coasting through life from meaningless tryst to meaningless tryst, holding out hope that she'll have some kind of future with her institutionalized brain-damaged daughter. Weld is aloof and disconnected here (reminded me of Stefania Sanderelli in I Knew Her Well), a woman with impossible dreams steadily coming to terms with the impossibility of those dreams. She makes a habit of speeding down lonely desert highways shooting roadsigns just to feel anything. The film distances itself from your basic critique of the Hollywood lifestyle because it operates more as a character study of one particular woman on the fringes and I think it's more about her relationship with her daughter than about how Hollywood "made her this way". On top of that, Perry's confident filmmaking elevates it to near-greatness. It's a strange and challenging film, the fragmented narrative pieced together by vignettes and strung together by the millueu and a couple consistent plot points (the daughter, Weld's troubled marriage, her difficulty in finding work, etc), but this is more a freeform mindtrip down the rabbit hole that has more in common with Easy Rider than Inside Daisy Clover. I just love the jumpy, frenetic editing in these counterculture pieces ( Medium Cool and Midnight Cowboy also come to mind) and this piece definitely fits snugly into that aesthetic. Performance by Anthony Perkins is also worth noting. He plays Tuesday Weld's nihilistic gay bestie. I've never seen Perkins like this; a gay character let alone a massively depressed and cynical one. He feels old here, like he's seen a lot of shit and it's starting to catch up with him. It's quite underseen and I guess hard to find until recently (I found it on rarefilm which is a freaking goldmine). I hope people check it out because I feel like folks around here would like it quite a bit. I'd give it an 8/10. I've only seen four Perry films so far but this is my favorite right behind Last Summer which I think broke me.  |
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Post by Mattsby on Sept 13, 2019 19:03:51 GMT
 Gaslight (1940) 7/10 I'd say on par with the remake from MGM (who tried to obliterate this movie's existence), it's better in some ways - the beginning here is Argento-esque, I like the very ending better, and I prefer Anton Wolbrook over Boyer. As for Diana Wynyard she's no Ingrid Bergman but does a fine job and really aces that "Are you suggesting this is a knife I have in my hand?" scene. Not as gloomy or substantial as the remake, this at 84ish mins is fairly vibrantly directed with a lot of clever transitions and hints at the side-eyed upper-class. |
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Post by Mattsby on Sept 14, 2019 21:51:45 GMT
 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) 8/10 or so "They just wanna see a little misery out there..."First watch - never even seen a scene, how the! This is like a sweaty cinematic drop-kick and Sydney Pollack directs in powerful strides - like those amazing derby scenes. It's acted very well, all fugue and physical withering, especially Fonda, and I like how Gig Young adds an element of accepted tedium and fatigue. It plays under several metaphors, the entertainment industry, Depression-era America and the economic straits, the cycle itself of social ritual, relationship proxy, mental imprisonment.... I'm still mulling over whether I liked the ending or not, but overall a very compelling, punishing pic.....  |
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Post by longtallsally on Sept 15, 2019 20:25:50 GMT
Oliver! (1968), Carol Reed - 8/10
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Post by Mattsby on Sept 16, 2019 22:26:16 GMT
The Dance of Death (1969) 7.5+ "As soon as he begins to lie, pretend to believe him."
Strindberg's play pries into a relationship's lingering psychological condition with hysterical fisticuffs and darkly complex recesses. Sort of like his Miss Julie but aged, less sexual - in that Julie demands "Kiss my shoe" and here the wife demands her cousin "Kiss my foot." Dominance and manipulation is an essential part as the wife, a former actress, feels she's wasted herself and her life on her husband, a retired captain with a grand-delusion mental illness - asked why she married him she says "Because he..... took me." Olivier is raving and volatile as overcompensation for his inner fog and former glory. The wife, Geraldine McEwan (never heard!), is brilliant too - overly postured, deadpan in how she humors Olivier, sarcastic ("What haven't I been thru?"), a little mad, cruel, manipulatively minded and ultimately fogged as well - "You may laugh....but I must have loved that man." The ending shot is outstandingly hauntingly perfect, and this was a followup to the cinematographer who did 2001: A Space Odyssey! I know pacinoyes is a big fan - it was added this month to this goldmine of a site - rarefilmm.com/2019/09/the-dance-of-death-1969/Other versions of the play - McKellen, Mirren, & David Straitharn in 2001 in NY, and last year Judy Davis directed a well received Sydney production!
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Post by jimmalone on Sept 17, 2019 11:48:58 GMT
Die Brücke (1959, Bernhard Wicki)
Rewatch.
Still one of the most haunting and disenchanting war films ever, presenting the horror of it in a very simple and effective way.
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Post by longtallsally on Sept 17, 2019 20:06:59 GMT
Nevada Smith (1966), Henry Hathaway - 7/10
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 17, 2019 22:31:32 GMT
This is what I wrote about The Devil (1972) - in October 2017 and now almost 2 years later and re-watching it I found it weirder and more direct at the same time - I'm convinced it's the best thing he ever did and that includes Possession which I'm a fan of. A real must see I think from a fascinating era - highly recommended.
Zulawski's The Devil (1972) - had never seen this before though it has quite a reputation and it's a striking piece of work imo. Some scenes have a mad power especially early on. Not as all out nuts as Possession but more coherent, some of it functioning as pitch black comic grotesque vignettes too. Some of it reminded me of The Witch, surprisingly in its compositions.
I'd be curious what people think of it if you've seen it, I think if I knew the political overtones I'd like it more too or at least the stuff that didn't make literal sense may have made a bit more allegorical sense at least.
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