Nikan
Based
Posts: 3,173
Likes: 1,572
|
Post by Nikan on Sept 12, 2023 20:29:24 GMT
Finally watched that 3rd Dunne + Grant picture Penny Serenade... which got me thinking about making a thread and ask you guys and gals about another Georgie from classical Hollywood era; Mr. George Stevens... and the trigger was yet another screwball-sounding (or I had thought) comedy-drama that turned out to be way more devastating than whatever one would had in mind from The Awful Truth and My Favorite Wife. I'm still waiting for something to beat A Place in the Sun for me, but this boy came closer than usual...
|
|
|
Post by ibbi on Sept 12, 2023 20:56:50 GMT
It's a damn shame the pesky war got in the way, because his career from the mid-30s up till he packed it in and started making all those war chronicles was great, and then the 50s run... That's the stretch that really puts him in the pantheon for me. As good a consecutive quintet as anyone ever produced.
|
|
Nikan
Based
Posts: 3,173
Likes: 1,572
|
Post by Nikan on Sept 14, 2023 9:19:06 GMT
|
|
|
Post by countjohn on Sept 14, 2023 17:16:08 GMT
Unpopular opinion time, but I really hate his two wins which I think are hammy melodramas that people thought of as "great movies" at the time but have not aged well at all.
He still has Diary of Anne Frank, Shane, all those screwball comedies, and Greatest Story Ever Told is pretty solid too. He's one of those Wyler type guys where he's not really an auteur and just churned out good movies, although not with the batting average of Wyler.
|
|
|
Post by therealcomicman117 on Sept 15, 2023 15:17:21 GMT
I've seen A Place in the Sun, Shane, The More the Merrier, The Talk of the Town, and The Greatest Story Ever Told, one of my mom's favorite movies, she used to show it to us all the time. In my estimation, he's probably one of those directors who deserves a whole lot more recognition.
His son George Stevens Jr., who does a lot of short intros on DVD's of his films, made a documentary on the man called George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey, that I highly recommend.
|
|
SZilla
Badass
Posts: 1,464
Likes: 996
|
Post by SZilla on Dec 19, 2023 22:46:54 GMT
Always respected Stevens. Shane is probably my favorite of his, but Gunga Din, Swing Time, Giant, Penny Serenade, The Greatest Story Ever Told and A Place in the Sun are all good to great films.
I recently caught The More the Merrier on the TCM app earlier this month, and it was so good it made me want to check out some of his other higher rated works that I'd yet to see. Today I watched his Nazi Concentration Camps and dear God is this one of the most harrowing things I've ever seen. This is purely a documentary in the purest sense of the word - even being used as evidence against the Nazis during the Nuremberg trials. I respect Stevens for not shying away - this footage is crucial to see. Just absolutely devastating.
|
|
Nikan
Based
Posts: 3,173
Likes: 1,572
|
Post by Nikan on Jan 1, 2024 22:42:54 GMT
First 2024 title - The Diary of Anne Frank... what in the hell!?
George Stevens was a G.
|
|