For Classic Movie Fans

[Jet]

Stanwyck and Suspense!

Sorry Wrong Number
Double Indemnity
The File on Thelma Jordon
Jeopardy
The Two Mrs. Carrolls

[Venus007]

Just finished watching "Mr Hobbs Takes a Vacation"
I absolutely LOVE the script, it was so witty Nunnally Johnson wrote it based on a novel by Edward Streeter. I am a very big Jimmy Stewart fan and he was great in this, he always reminds me of my Pop so his movies make me nostalgic.
One of the things I really like about movies such as this is the sense of honor the characters have, even when things are screwball there is still integrity and honor.

[dark_crystal]

we (the library) didn't have any of the "Stanwyck and Suspense" titles so i had to settle for plain old Stanwyck- specifically, The Lady Eve.
I thought the acting was really amazing right from the very first line- one second i was laughing up my sleeve at the hokiness of the "Amazon" set and the next thing i knew i was totally swept up in the story! And what an unusual story! The plot suprised me over and over.

i do not really find stanwyck beautiful, but in some scenes she was charming- esp. the one with her mirror and her narration of the scene behind her.

I also didn't like her wardrobe. I am assuming within the context of the time and place it was "the mode," will have to research. Shocked by the bare midriff at dinner!

Ways the plot surprised me: did not expect her to admit she was in love as quickly as she did, but it made sense once i realized the boat story was only half of what was going to happen.

Sir Alfred felt kinda shoehorned in...wish his existence had been foreshadowed in earlier dialogue...prolly it was but thos frames fell to editing

LOVE LOVE LOVE Pike, Sr. and was utterly charmed by the pre-party chaos at Pike Manor.

Also: "C'mon let's out on the feed bag"??? WIN

Was totally not expecting the wedding to actually happen, and then to happen uninterrupted. In the last couple of decades it has become a cliche for the wrong people to get to the altar and have the climax occur before the vows can be finished...SO sick of it

The sight gags are I guess the reason why Wikipeida and IMDB call this a "screwball romance," but to me they felt superflous...although i did like the "pull in your head, We're coming to a tunnel" sign

my overall impression was "WOW! Really original!" Two thumbs up!

[Martina]

i watched "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" night before last. i love Deborah Kerr. And Robert Mitchum. There are some sweet scenes. Directed by John Huston.

[Jet]

I'm done with classic movies for a time. I'm sick of them. Nobody really cares anyway and its a very select topic that few know about.

[dark_crystal]

Jezebel (Bette Davis, 1938)

IMDB Summary:

Set in antebellum New Orleans during the early 1850's, this film follows Julie Marsden through her quest for social redemption on her own terms. Julie is a beautiful and free spirited, rapacious Southern belle who is sure of herself and controlling of her fiancé Preston Dillard, a successful young banker. Julie's sensitive but domineering personality--she does not want so much to hurt as to assert her independence--forces a wedge between Preston and herself. To win him back, she plays North against South amid a deadly epidemic of yellow fever which claims a surprising victim.

Personal Impressions:

There is a scene about fifteen minutes in, at the dressmakers, where they get Jule (Davis) out of the white ballgown she's in fittings for and you see that she is sitting knees apart on a stool under a crinoline cage- that's a brilliant shot

the perv in me was turned on by this quote in the next scene:

"None of my business anyhow, but speaking abstractly, and nothing personal intended, your generation don't understand the darlings...Woman, sir, is a chalice-- a frail, delicate chalice to be cherished and protected, ..
..Think your father would have allowed the lady of his choice to come surging into his business?"

"What would he have done?"

"He'd have cut him a hickory and flailed the living daylights out of her, then helped put lard on her welts and bought her a diamond brooch- That's what he'dhave done, and she'd have loved it."

and my Axis 2 issues liked this:

"You're wrong. That dress could cause trouble. Folks would keenly resent you coming to the ball in it."
"They're petty and narrow-minded."
"They got rules, and they go by them, same as you and i."
"Do you prefer to go by your rules?"
"I always have, miss julie."
"Then I'm sorry I troubled you"

(i am totally into structure, rules, protocols, traditions. it is odd b/c i am seen (and see myself) as a non-conformist- but any refusal to conform to a particular set of guidelines can always be traced back to a conflict with a higher-level set that may or may not be self-constructed.)

Quibbly Quibbles:

the movie could have started when they got to Halcyon Plantation...everything that came before that is re-explained in the first plantation scene.

The mosquito bite that gave Preston yellow fever was the only mosquito bite in the movie...i wish a couple of other people could have been shown slapping mosquitos earlier in the film or mosquitos could have been mentioned in the dialogue somewhere...it just felt heavy-handed to me

[dark_crystal]

OMG Alice Swallow, Dr. Huxley's fiancee- entire Women's Studies Masters' Theses could be written about THAT dynamic, despite it's being barely hinted at and the character disappearing. i guess she has to be unsympathetic or she wouldn't "deserve" the jilting that is so clearly in store...

My first impression of Susan was that she was so cool and collected!...it was not until she lost the back of her skirt that she came across as "harebrained"

-they say Twiggy started the too-skinny look that created our (my) body dysphoria- but Kate is making me hate my thighs and this is decades earlier....please tell me she was considered too scrawny for beauty?

i must note that slapstick usually leaves me cold and pretty irritated but so far this is ok...

they should re-make this movie with Parker Posey and...a Wilson brother? Luke?

and then there's this:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A8U6aUPW48"]YouTube- ‪Bringing Up Baby - "Gay All of a Sudden"‬‎[/nomedia]

were you allowed to say "gay" in 1938?!!! i personally, having the perfect Baptist childhood, got in trouble for saying "gay" as recently as 1982!

aaaaaaaaaaand the second leopard was my slapstick limit. After that i was watching it just to finish.

[Duchess]

[Jet]

I love Billy Wilder with a mad passion. He's the Grand Master, whose touch is the coup de gras, the magnificent, writer of writers and director of directors, the talent of talents, the film genious of geniouses. My God, the man far exceeded his craft.


But I hate Some Like It Hot like no one's business.

And the reason is Marilyn Monroe. I don't care if anyone takes issue with this because we are all entitled to our likes and dislikes. I wouldn't put you down anymore for liking her than you would put me down for disliking so intensely. We're all different and we're all entitled. My view of Some Like it Hot is just my .02 alone and remember, it won't really matter in the long run.

But I could rattle off Billy Wilder movies that I think are far more interesting.
Again, just my.02

j

[Jet]

Now, some may agree or disagree with my thoughts on David Lean's Ryan's Daughter filmed in the early 70's. This film is intoxicating because of Lean's treatment of the entire film and particularly the affair between a married woman from Ireland and a very wounded British officer in the early 20th century.

This scene is the summit of passion and intrigue and all the things desired in a sexual affair be it damned or not. It is hot, beautifully choreographed in nature and filmed in Lean's epic and rich style.

This is scene is roughly 7 minutes, subtitled because I couldn't find an English version.

If there is erotica and much left to your own desires, passion and imagination, this would be it in my opinion. Enjoy this scene from David Lean's Ryan's Daughter.

The film starred Sarah Miles, Robery Mitchum and Trevor Howard.




I am also posting the theme to Ryan's Daughter By Maurice Jarre which is mezmerizing and beautiful. Rosie's Theme which carries more of the melody is much more beautiful, but it's not on YouTube, sorry.

[Duchess]

Had to revisit my favorite, Some Like It Hot.


Love Roman Polanski.


Basil Rathbone will always be my favorite Sherlock Holmes.


This is my favorite Cary Grant movie.

[Jet]

Why there are dimensions in that scene you haven't begun to touch. — Kirk Douglas as Jonathan Shields in The Bad and the Beautiful

[Jet]

Finally saw Treasure of the Sierra Madre all the way through. Great movie and great acting especially by Walter Huston.

One of the best God'll-get-cha-in the end movies with great character studies like the parallel of Caine and Abel and how greed drives men over the edge.
In the end, good men are worth more than gold.

Humphrey Bogart as a parnoid schizo much like his Captain Quigg in The Cain Mutiny A real son of a bitch. I recommend this flick...a lot, If you pick it up...enjoy.

5 stars for this flick.

[Jet]

I finally saw Sweet Smell of Success tonight. Carmen had been after me for along time to catch it.

It's okay. I didn't save the recording of it. It has great lines, but that would be expected from Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman—two giant writers with huge credits. It's not my favorite, but I did pick up on the casting. Burt Lancaster with that icey treatment of J.J. Hunsecker and Tony Curtis who's played the hustling Sidney Falco. This movie was about columnist Walter Winchell who is said to have flew into a rage when he saw it. It's a pathetic statement on the cruelty and power of the press. Personally, I'd give 3 stars for the clever lines.
Just my .02.

I didnt save my recoding of it. I erased it with The Defiant Ones which I didn't have in my collection. It's a favorite Tony Curtis movie of mine.

[Jet]

An amazing look at the unrecognizable Tony Curtis.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...ng-Hitler.html

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by Jet

An amazing look at the unrecognizable Tony Curtis.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...ng-Hitler.html

Now i totally want to see The Black Shield Of Falworth lol...not sure if it is even on DVD but the library def. does not have it. We do have The Defiant Ones, though. I am having staff pull it for me (lazy!) and hopefully i can watch it this weekend!

[dark_crystal]

i watched The Defiant Ones tonight- truly amazing. Such rich symbolism- the two races shackled together, the ravening dogs, the tempting seduction, the final realization that falling together was preferable to sacrificing the other. just- whoa.

i looked it up and saw that it was adapted from a story. I was suprised, it felt to me like it had originally been written for the stage. I can imagine a stage production with minimal sets for the interiors and the exteriors projected onto scrims, stark lighting, you know?

[Jet]

Watching Made for Each Other
good movie, haven't seen it in a long time

[Jet]

Manhattan Melodrama, the movie John Dillinger saw the night he was gunned down by Melvin Pervis and G-men outside the Biograph Theater in 1934 Chicago. He had a crush on Myrna Loy. This is a great movie, btw, I have it in my collection.





Short news reel on Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson

[Jet]

Originally Posted by Jet

I finally saw Sweet Smell of Success tonight. Carmen had been after me for along time to catch it.

It's okay. I didn't save the recording of it. It has great lines, but that would be expected from Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman—two giant writers with huge credits. It's not my favorite, but I did pick up on the casting. Burt Lancaster with that icey treatment of J.J. Hunsecker and Tony Curtis who's played the hustling Sidney Falco. This movie was about columnist Walter Winchell who is said to have flew into a rage when he saw it. It's a pathetic statement on the cruelty and power of the press. Personally, I'd give 3 stars for the clever lines.
Just my .02.

I didnt save my recoding of it. I erased it with The Defiant Ones which I didn't have in my collection. It's a favorite Tony Curtis movie of mine.

crummy post. should read "....is said to have flown into a rage..." just now caught that.