Two great shows from TCM

[Scuffy]

I work a swing shift at one of my jobs and it happens to be in the harbor at a lift bridge. Saturday mornings I work 1st shift so I really don't get alot of business from boaters going in and out until closer to noon. Needless to say I do a hell of a lot of reading or when it strikes me I flip on the televison and check out TCM or AMC. I was in luck this week because I got a chance to see two great movies that I've always seemed to miss when they were on before. The first was Arsenic and Old Lace and the latter was Detour. Two excellent movies. I have to say that the character that made Arsenic and Old Lace for me was Peter Lorre. I get a kick out of his voice and mannerisms. The movie Detour was also amazing. A great noir film. Easy to relate to becuase I can just see my luck running sour and mimicking the chain of events that follow the lead role. Though thank God it hasn't happened!

Anwho, have any of you seen these? What's your opinion on them?

Scuffy

 

[HaraldTheSwede]

Detour is a classic. I've watched it at least five times, absolutely great. Arsenic and Old Lace though I'm not that fond of. The humor just didn't sit all that well with me. But Lorre is always good.

 

[Flitcraft]

What's the skinny on Detour?
Never heard of it before.
Who's in it, so I can look it up?

 

[Scuffy]

Detour is an interesting show. I starts off with a gent who's been trying to hitch a ride for some time and stops into a diner. After hearing a song it brings on a series of flashbacks that pretty much describe how he came to be in his current state. I won't go into too much detail about it for those who haven't seen it. Pretty much it spotlights how bad luck/things can happen to people at any time. "Accidental" deaths and running from the law, stolen cars- it's all in there and it makes it nice because of the fact most can relate to it. It alls seems possible and not a Hollywood story that blown out of preportion... Then again it may not be as it seems! This is kind of a "choose your own adventure" type of film. Much is left for the interpretation of the viewer.

Here's a couple links for ya to check out regarding "Detour". :cheers1:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037638/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...ref=sr_1_1/102-0893145-0739332?v=glance&s=dvd
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...ref=sr_1_2/102-0893145-0739332?v=glance&s=dvd

This one is a definitive telling of the story for those who have seen it or want to know more about it. (I wasn't about to give out too many details here! )
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/31/detour.html

 

[Flitcraft]

Thanks!
Appreciate the tip!

 

[EstherGinger]

I saw a bit of "Arsenic and Old Lace", but ah, I didn't like it too well so I turned it off. I may give it another chance when it comes on again, but it was alright. "Detour" was a great film, on the other hand. I've only seen it once (as with that type of movie, some of them I can only watch once since I already know the ending), but it was rather interesting when Robert Osbourne came in at the end and remarked that the girl (I can't recall her name -- the one who hitches the ride from the lead guy -- whom he met recently, was one of the sweetest women he'd ever met, most contrary to her role in the movie. A bit usual, for the person to be completely opposite of their roles, but it was interesting to me since she played such a nasty woman.

 

[Doctor Strange]

A dissenting view on "Detour"...

It's a cheap piece of junk, a grade-Z poverty row production that is nothing special. It's worth seeing once to satisfy your curiosity, but it *pales* alongside the true classic noirs, which have tremendous style and layers of feeling and meaning.

I just saw it for the first time (on TCM a few months ago), and as a film buff/scholar of 35 years, I was very seriously disappointed. After reading about it endlessly, it just didn't remotely live up to the hype. It's a trashy little cheapie that barely makes any sense - it's not in the same league as the great noirs like The Lady From Shanghai, Double Indemnity, Out Of The Past, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and many others.

Nothing against director Edgar G. Ulmer, he was definitely a great stylist even with a low budget (I love "The Black Cat"), but this movie is more along the lines of an inane Ed Wood production, or maybe Reefer Madness. There's no logic, sense of time/place, the usual noir sensibility that gets you thinking about the big questions, or much of anything, except an admittedly riveting over-the-top peformance from the femme fatale.

It plays more like a failed attempt at making a bogus-noir for laughs than a real film. It is inept on every level. Masterpiece?!? Not in my opinion... If you want to see a good noir, stick with films from directors like John Huston, Billy Wilder, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, etc.

 

[Senator Jack]

I saw Detour long before I had read reviews of its being a B-movie noir classic, so I went into it without preconceptions. What do I remember about it? The accidental death, and something about his buying a car for $50 or soemthing like that. I remember liking it when I watched it, but seeing as how the plot really hasn't stayed with me I guess Dr. Strange has a few valid points.

I've loved Arsenic and Old Lace since I was about six or seven years old. Maybe it has a special place in my heart because it takes place in Brooklyn which is where I grew up, and there's the whole intro about how crazy people in Brooklyn are. (Or were. Now they're a different kind of crazy) I think this is one of those films you have to watch as though you were in the era and not make comparisons to films that are out now. I find that many people, even in my own age group, can't understand screwball comedy. For some reason they try to make sense of the plot even though most dramas today have even less of a plot. And how can you not like a character named Mortimer Brewster?

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Scuffy]

35 years?! Jeez Dr. S! Unfortunately I am fairly new to the noir scene. I've seen quite a few but not nearly enough to really give me a background or feel for them to compare. They all seem pretty darn good at this point. I can say that I do like the majority of them better than a good many of the movies that have come out lately!

Thanks for dropping a few names- as it'll lead me to look for them on TCM! I've read through the latest thread on what's on the top of the recommended list here and that's been a great help too.

All I've got to say is I love this place! :cheers1:

 

[Doctor Strange]

It might even be more than 35 years at this point - I'm actually pushing 51, and my dad is quite the film buff himself, so I got a very early start. I was lucky to get pointed to classics directed by guys like Wilder, Huston, Welles, Hitchcock, Stanley Kramer, William Wyler, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, Powell & Pressburger, etc., from a very young age. Then, I far outstripped him in my own film studies and collecting (I started collecting movies on Super 8 and 16mm film long before the advent of cable and VHS, not to mention DVD!), and I have done the same thing with my kids: given them an excellent grounding in everything from silent films to classic Hollywood fare and foreign masterpieces by Bergman and Kurosawa. They are not allergic to watching stuff in b/w!

It makes me very sad when I talk to young folks I meet at work, etc., and I typically hear stuff like, "My dad's favorite movie is Star Wars." There's nothing wrong with Star Wars, of course, but there are so many *great* films out there! Wonderful windows into the past and other points of view, with great performances and ideas...

 

[Scuffy]

I'm just 24 but my parents have raised me on anything from the majority of Ennio Morricone's westerns to a good many of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy's films. The Marx brothers movies rank up there in my favorite comedies of the period. I've got to say that very few films have the quick wit and humor of these films. Slowly but surely I'm getting there. Also, being a fan of photographer George Hurrel has helped a bit. I've tried to catch as many of the shows containing actors and actresses that he's photographed. That has broadened my palette of movies by a good measure!

Hell, whenever I can catch a good movie I will!

 

[Quigley Brown]

A dissenting view on "Detour"...

It's a cheap piece of junk, a grade-Z poverty row production that is nothing special. It's worth seeing once to satisfy your curiosity, but it *pales* alongside the true classic noirs, which have tremendous style and layers of feeling and meaning.

I just saw it for the first time (on TCM a few months ago), and as a film buff/scholar of 35 years, I was very seriously disappointed. After reading about it endlessly, it just didn't remotely live up to the hype. It's a trashy little cheapie that barely makes any sense - it's not in the same league as the great noirs like The Lady From Shanghai, Double Indemnity, Out Of The Past, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and many others.

Nothing against director Edgar G. Ulmer, he was definitely a great stylist even with a low budget (I love "The Black Cat"), but this movie is more along the lines of an inane Ed Wood production, or maybe Reefer Madness. There's no logic, sense of time/place, the usual noir sensibility that gets you thinking about the big questions, or much of anything, except an admittedly riveting over-the-top peformance from the femme fatale.

It plays more like a failed attempt at making a bogus-noir for laughs than a real film. It is inept on every level. Masterpiece?!? Not in my opinion... If you want to see a good noir, stick with films from directors like John Huston, Billy Wilder, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, etc.

That's a very closed-minded view you have there. With the good there has to be the bad...and sometimes the bad can be fun. Maybe Ulmer knew he was making a bad one. Every flick can't have all the big names in it. Sure, all the directors you named are the the best, but I'm not just going to just 'stick' with their work. After a while I get bored watching those 'masterpieces' and watch the ones you took a date to on a Saturday night down at the corner theater 60 years ago. I like having fun with movies...good or bad. Actually I've had some very fun times with friends watching those 'trash' cult films.

 

[Doctor Strange]

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the forties films directed by Preston Sturges (The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, Sullivan's Travels, etc.) These are some of the greatest dialog comedies ever, with just as much cynicism and verbal wit as in the Marx Bros. thirties films.

Gotta love Hurrell's photos! I may be going to an exhibit of his work with male stars this weekend (at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY). Clarence Bull did great portrait work back then too. (Since my parents were pro photographers, and my dad learned back in the 30s/40s, I've had some firsthand experience with the hot lights/big negative/heavy retouching approach to portraits.)

They had faces then!