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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

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17,109
Location
New York City
"I'll Be Seeing You," with Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotton and Shirley Temple. It is a Christmas movie that I like, but wish it worked better than it does. The premise - Rogers on "Christmas" release from jail meets Cotton a soldier suffering from battle fatigue on a train at Christmas time, but they keep their respective challenges a secret. When they arrive in her home town, they start seeing each other with the tension building as their relationship grows but they continue to keep their secrets.

All the element of a Christmas movie are here - picturesque small town with fluffy white snow everywhere, wonderful loving and understanding family, enough but not too-much conflict and lessons about humanity, charity of heart and belief in redemption. But if feels stilted - the story, the dialogue and the acting (overall). I am a fan of both lead actors, so it isn't that I don't like them, but they seem to be unsure of the material and never fully embrace their characters. That said, still a fun, tier-II Christmas movie.
 
Messages
13,668
Location
down south
"The Mummy's Hand" (1940) In this one, the Mummy's name was Kharis......about halfway into the movie my youngest son says "Dad....Maurice isn't a very scary name for a monster."

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Messages
11,981
Location
Southern California
"The Mummy's Hand" (1940) In this one, the Mummy's name was Kharis......about halfway into the movie my youngest son says "Dad....Maurice isn't a very scary name for a monster."
I've heard that some people call him Maurice 'cause he speaks of the pompatus of love. :D

I'd say The Mummy's Hand is arguably the best of the direct sequels to Universal's The Mummy (1932) if only by virtue of the fact that it was the first and least ridiculous. They're all fun to watch, but definitely suffered from Universal's "on the cheap" method of filmmaking.

Emperor of the North (1973). In 1933, a hobo called "A-Number-One" (Lee Marvin) takes up the challenge to ride the number 19 freight train all the way to Portland despite it's ruthless and sadistic railway conductor Shack (Ernest Borgnine) who has sworn that no hobo will ride his train for free. Just to make things more difficult, a young blowhard "wannabe" hobo named Cigaret (Keith Carradine) insists on tagging along. It's a relatively simple "battle of wits" story, much of which takes place off of the train, with a solid pace that moves the story along without wasting footage or time. Borgnine's performance as perpetually hot-headed Shack and Marvin's performance as laid-back veteran 'bo A-No.-1 are convincing and sell the movie's premise well. Rounding out the cast with Carradine are Malcolm Atterbury, Harry Caesar, Charles Tyner, Matt Clark, Elisha Cook Jr., Simon Oakland, Vic Tayback, and Sid Haig. Definitely worth seeing at least once.
 
Messages
17,109
Location
New York City
"Mr. and Mrs. Smith" the 1941 one with Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. Taking it as a post-code-enforced movie, it is very enjoyable, moves along at a good pace and deals with the conflict of a married couple learning, three years after their marriage, that, owing to a technicality, they aren't legally married with code-enforced high jinks. But you can't help thinking how much more interesting this movie would have been in the pre-code days when they could have really explored how this couple would have dealt with the opportunity to opt-out of remarrying. But the code seemed to dictate that other than in a we-know-you-aren't-serious way, this couple has to want to marry each other again.

That's what always bugs me about the code - it's not that under the code some outstanding movies, nor a lot of good ones, weren't made, it's that the pre-code movies show how much more interesting movies would have been without the code's guardrails forcing outcomes and attitudes.
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
Lucy. Not bad for a made for TV movie. They did deal with Desi's womanizing, and his genius for production. They were maybe to kind to Lucy, making her kind of a saint. By all accounts she was really moody, probably why they got married in the first place! It's a shame Desilu productions could not survive, they made some great TV!
 
Messages
11,981
Location
Southern California
...It's a shame Desilu productions could not survive, they made some great TV!
Most people don't know this, but Desi Arnaz and his cameraman Karl Freund were largely responsible for developing the multiple-camera method of filming, using film rather than kinescope so that home audiences would receive better visual quality, and filming in front of live audiences, which is how most sitcoms are still produced to this day.
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
Most people don't know this, but Desi Arnaz and his cameraman Karl Freund were largely responsible for developing the multiple-camera method of filming, using film rather than kinescope so that home audiences would receive better visual quality, and filming in front of live audiences, which is how most sitcoms are still produced to this day.

Arnaz's insistence on using film was resisted by the network. They told him if he insisted on film, he would have to pay for it. Desi said fine, but if we pay for it, we own the rights to the show. The network agreed.

Desilu Studios started a trend, and they made a mint on the show. Desilu would produce a little show in the 60s called Star Trek.
 

MisterCairo

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,005
Location
Gads Hill, Ontario
I have watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E. twice over the last three days.

Fantastic!

I will certainly buy this on bluray when I get home.

I've never seen the original tv show, so I have nothing to compare it to, I just enjoyed it for what it is. Alicia Vikander, Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill were brilliant. Jared Harris did the best American impression I've heard. He looked and sounded more American than an American!

;-)
 
Messages
11,981
Location
Southern California
Arnaz's insistence on using film was resisted by the network. They told him if he insisted on film, he would have to pay for it. Desi said fine, but if we pay for it, we own the rights to the show. The network agreed.

Desilu Studios started a trend, and they made a mint on the show. Desilu would produce a little show in the 60s called Star Trek.
I don't know if it was by design, instinct, or dumb luck, but Arnaz was a pretty shrewd businessman.
 

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