What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

"Larceny, Inc." 1942

• A mishmash of recycled plots - bank robbers move into the store next to a bank to tunnel in - but discover they can make legitimate money in the store they took over and initially dismissed.
• Too much screwball comedy stuff - they hit a water line tunneling toward the bank (yawn, funny if seeing grown men get soaked by water and sliding around is funny)
• But Edward G Robinson and speed make it work anyway.
  • Robinson is an actor who can create memorable characters when given excellent material ("Double Indemnity") and can add credibility and carry a movie when it's, basically, a weak effort like this
  • This one is all his show and he propels it along with intensity, irony and his force-of-nature presence (inside that stocky, mis-shappened, diminutive body)
  • There's an echo of Cagney's later performance in "One, Two, Three" where, in this case, Robinson's energy and rapid-fire delivery of the dialogue whips the movie past its plot flaws and silliness
  • Jack Carson - alway better not hamming it up as he does too much here - and Jane Wyman - disconcertingly as a blonde - try to provide a romantic spark, but had they teed up someone for Robinson, it would have been better

Also, the store they take over is a luggage store, so some great bags, trunks and other luggage store "stuff" for Fedora Lounge fun.

Watching basically affable crooks discover they can actually make an honestly living provided the best spark of fun in the movie.

 

[2jakes]

Hotel Berlin on TCM. I wanted to buy it on DVD but it's not available. I really need to invest in a DVR at some point.

I've had a DVR for some time.

It's great for recording
favorite movies to watch
whenever you like and can
fast forward on movies that
included commercials.

(One reason I stay with TCM is
no commercial interuptions).

The only drawback is that when
the DVR breaks (and they will)
all the recorded contents are
lost.
The good news is that my cable
company will replace the DVR
at no charge.

But I have to start over when
my favorites come on again.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Are they offering the newish so-called "Multi-Room DVR"? That's what I have these days.

It's merely an enhanced cable box: it contains no hard drive. "Multi-Room DVR" basically just points to the network address of the movie or show you tell it to "record"... out wherever it lives in the cable system's storage. If the device fails (not that it should, it has no moving parts), you lose nothing, because all your pointers are also stored in the cloud. There is no physical storage limitation, though for my $15/month I can only "record" 300 hours of content - a limit I've never reached, even though I have a couple of dozen films/TV episodes I consider "permanent". By promptly deleting "ordinary" shows and films after viewing that I don't want to retain, I've typically been running at 60-70% capacity.

Anyway, it's very civilized, and you can't lose anything as long as you stay with the same provider.

 

[AmateisGal]

Currently watching The Flying Leathernecks.

 

[2jakes]

Leatherheads.
George Clooney.

At least the old-time football gear
was nice.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I'm watching Casablanca.

 

[Fading Fast]

"Genius" based on the book by A. Scott Berg "Max Perkins: Editor of Genius." The man who edited Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Wolfe (plus several other notables) - not a bad career.

• A bit of an inside-baseball movie - editing Thomas Wolfe's novels (the focus for the movie, not the book) is not the mass-appeal story one would think it would be
• But if it does work for you, it is really well done (but, as always, not as enjoyable as the book)
• Colin Firth, as Max Perkins, uses subtle body English and nuanced facial ticks to express emotions behind a surface of laconic calmness
  • Had I seen it before the Oscar nominations, I would have given Frith a good shot at a nomination (and I'd have been very wrong)
  • Regardless, his intense, but surface-placid performance carries the movie and engages you at all times
  • Although, I did want him to take that hat off indoors, especially when he was home at night
• Jude Law does an admirable, if a bit over-acted, job as the hyper-passionate and self-absorbed Wolfe
• Nicole Kidman brings a spark and some needed rancor as Wolfe's married girlfriend (tsk tsk)
• The dialogue and character development drives the story and conflict - that alone makes it worth watching versus most movies today
• And for Fedora Lounge fans, the clothes, cars, architecture and details drop you right into 1930s New York City (several nice train scenes too)
  • Although, in a small error, steam trains never came in or out of Grand Central as they are in tunnels for several miles and were always brought in and out with an electric engine. But a steam engine looks so much cooler, I'm sure the director didn't worry about geeks like me and just wanted whatever would look the best on screen
• Overall, it is very, very good, not great, but well worth watching (and I want Jude Law's watch from the movie - a '20s Swiss trench watch, I think)

N.B., Lizzie, I could see this one playing well with your audience (Laura Linney has a small but strong role and I bet she's a favorite with your movie goers as they all know her from PBS).

Edit Add:
This ⇩ shot is shown prominently in the movie (with the glass skyscraper "removed") - set in the '30s - so I had to go walk over today and take this shot for everyone. About two or so years ago, this sign was "ghosted," and now it is - as seen in the movie - restored. I wonder if they restored it for the movie, but can't believe it wouldn't have been cheaper to CGI it to movie perfection.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I watched it a couple of weeks ago. It did nothing for me. Jude Law was too manic, Colin Firth too reserved. The outstanding supporting cast left almost no impression. I mean, I'm a dedicated retro guy, a professional writer, and a former English major... but I didn't find the editorial process shown here especially interesting, much less genius.

And what's with Perkins never taking off his hat (until the last scene, where it's presented as some kind of grand emotional gesture), even in fancy restaurants?

 

[AmateisGal]

The Guns of Navarone

 

[Fading Fast]

The Guns of Navarone

Good one.

 

[AmateisGal]

Good one.

It's in my top ten WW2 movies list.

 

[AmateisGal]

Currently watching All About Eve on TCM. Betty Davis is so amazing in this.

 

[Stearmen]

It Started With A Kiss (1959) The real star of the movie was the Lincoln Futura Concept car. This was of course the car George Barris would turn into the most famous Bat Mobile of them all. A great performance by the nicer of the Gabor sisters. Plus a nice cameo by Henry Morgan, was there a movie made in the 40s-50s he wasn't in?

 

[2jakes]

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12.
Jesus, does anyone?" (Gordie)

 

[Benzadmiral]

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12.
Jesus, does anyone?" (Gordie)

Grand film, probably one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King story ever. (People to this day are astonished when I tell 'em the original novelette was King's. Don't these people look at credits?) (Never mind, don't answer that --)

 

[Benzadmiral]

. . . And what's with Perkins never taking off his hat (until the last scene, where it's presented as some kind of grand emotional gesture), even in fancy restaurants?

In Berg's biography, we're told that was an actual trait of Perkins in real life. Began when he was an adult and working at Scribner's, though I don't recall what started it.

 

[Fading Fast]

Currently watching All About Eve on TCM. Betty Davis is so amazing in this.

Via TCM, I've just happened to have seen several lesser-known Davis movies recently - she is an incredibly talented actress. Truly one of the greats of all time.

Sure, I always knew that from the "big" ones - "All About Eve," "Dark Victory," "The Petrified Forest," and "Now Voyager -" but seeing her in some of her work-a-day movies like "Dangerous," "June Bride," and "The Catered Affair," you realize the range and depth of her talent and her commitment to nailing every role, every scene - and without vanity.

She is an actress through and through. I also saw "The Man Who Came to Dinner" over the holidays. While Montey Woolley drives the movie to the edge, it is Davis who, atypically playing the calming influence, keeps the movie from falling over.

Like all of us, I've read that she was no easy person in real life - at times, full-on impossible. Who cares, she existed to create a body of work that not only stands the test of time, but set a standard that will be hard to ever top.

 

[Fading Fast]

In Berg's biography, we're told that was an actual trait of Perkins in real life. Began when he was an adult and working at Scribner's, though I don't recall what started it.

As Doctor Strange highlighted - it is annoying as all heck and seems out of character for a man who projected a low-key elegance and attention to etiquette and social norms. And it was a time when not taking your hat off in certain situations was seen as rude, which is very out of character for Perkins.

Who knows, unstable, egotistical authors at work and five young daughters at home would wring any washcloth a little too tight - maybe it was his way of coping with all the crazy.

 

[PeterGunnLives]

I'm on a classic western kick... except that I generally avoid Spaghetti westerns; to me, they represent a turning point from grand, idealized fun to a more cynical, nihilistic outlook.

I'll be watching John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn in the next few days. I understand it didn't do too well at the box office, but it looks pretty interesting.

 

[AmateisGal]

I'm on a classic western kick... except that I generally avoid Spaghetti westerns; to me, they represent a turning point from grand, idealized fun to a more cynical, nihilistic outlook.

I'll be watching John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn in the next few days. I understand it didn't do too well at the box office, but it looks pretty interesting.

There are times when all I want to do is stay inside and watch westerns from the 40s and 50s all day long. Rio Bravo is probably my all-time favorite.