What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[1967Cougar390]

The Final Countdown (1980)

I still love it. You just can't have a bad evening with this "old leather". Douglas, Sheen, Durning. Not too much heroism.

Perfect german synchro, bringing much atmosphere.

How realistic is Cpt. Yelland?

What a great movie. I saw it in the theater when I was 13. I was so excited when they launched the F14 Tomcats to defend the USA “regardless” of what year it was. I was so sad when they had to return when the storm open the door back to present day. I will have to see if I can find it on demand and watch it again. Thanks for sharing.

Steven

 

[Touchofevil]

Came in on the tail end of The Glass Key on TCM’s Noir Alley this morning. Wanted to see the whole thing but forgot it was on. It’s a Dashiell Hammett story so I figured it had to be at least okay. Pulled it up on xfinity’s on demand and I am watching it right now.

 

[Fading Fast]

Came in on the tail end of The Glass Key on TCM’s Noir Alley this morning. Wanted to see the whole thing but forgot it was on. It’s a Dashiell Hammett story so I figured it had to be at least okay. Pulled it up on xfinity’s on demand and I am watching it right now.

I was only going to watch Muller's intro and then move on as I've seen it several times and, most recently, in the last year or two. Well almost two hours later, I was done. It's a darn good movie.

Now I'm not watching "The Hucksters."

 

[AmateisGal]

I, too, watched The Glass Key this morning. Thank goodness for Watch TCM! I really hope they make a streaming service available just for TCM.

I'm watching The Big Heat with Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Lee Marvin right now. Noir done right.

 

[PrivateEye]

Another for The Glass Key. Never miss Noir Alley.

My daughter got me the TCM companion book "Into the Night" for Christmas. Good read with info on all the noir films if you're a fan.

 

[Fading Fast]

Bell Book and Candle from 1958 with Kim Novak, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon and Janice Rule

And I wish I been out in California
When the lights on all the Christmas trees went out
But I been burnin' my bell, book and candle
And the restoration plays have all gone 'round

- From the Rolling Stones song "Winter."


Some movies get better after you've seen them a few times as the plot is almost a distraction to the movie's more enjoyable style and verve, as in Bell Book and Candle. I've always liked this one, but now in my third or fourth viewing in, well, three or four decades, I found I really enjoyed it because I took it in more as a stylized 1950s experience, than a plot-driven story.

Sure, there's a plot: a comely, cat-like witch, Kim Novak, bored with living amongst, but culturally separate from, humans, wants to fall in love with a human, which will cost her, her sorceress powers. Her amorous target is her upstairs neighbor, successful and conservative book publisher James Stewart, who is a bit too old for the role of a middle-aged bachelor.

All the stuff you expect to happen in this normal witch-human love story (see I Married a Witch and most episodes of Bewitched) happens: she initially casts a spell on Stewart to win his affections; his life gets turned upside down; her witch and warlock friends warn her to not give up her powers and try to sabotage her efforts at love; he discovers (after haughtily dismissing the idea of witches) what happened and angrily leaves her, but things work out in the end as he, ultimately, falls in love with her of his own free will.

Okay, that's a good story, which is why Hollywood keeps telling it, but the fun and frolic in Bell Book and Candle is the stylized look into a witchy world acting as a surrogate for 1950s' Beatnik culture centered around New York's Greenwich Village.

Here, women wear pants and men turtlenecks (except some of the jazz musicians who wear Ivy-league suits as that was a thing then) while the witches' potions and herbs are, one assumes, a stand-in for drugs and weed. Basically, it's witches and warlocks as a proxy for mid-twentieth-century Village bohemians.

Hence, where Stewart's society fiance, Janice Rule, is fussily dressed, bejeweled, status conscious and uptight, Novak is cool, aloof, casually (but highly witchily) styled and overtly sexual. Coincidentally, Novak and Rule were rivals when they both attended Radcliffe years ago. Adding to the present day frisson and friction, Stewart, under Novak's spell, dumps Rule, on the day of Stewart and Rule's wedding - ouch.

Sure, witch Novak is weird as heck, but Stewart - under a spell or not - could sense the difference between a passionate female and a calculating woman. And that's just one contrast in this movie of contrasts as Stewart's upscale and conservative apartment and office looks worlds apart from Novak's coven-like flat and the dark and smokey underground clubs and stores she frequents.

And nothing contrasts more than publisher Stewart, in his tailored suits, running around Greenwich Village with clad-in-body-hugging-black-slacks-and-top Novak. But that is also part of the charm as it's enjoyable seeing fish-out-of-water Stewart go from skeptic dismissing witchcraft to believer as his love for Novak evolves from spell driven to heartfelt, despite having his world turned topsy turvy.

While not a Hitchcock effort, director Richard Quine produced a somewhat Hitchcock-like movie where the style is so visually captivating and the people so engaging, that the story fades as you just enjoy the ride.

And no one is more engaging in this one than Novak channeling her inner witch to be both mysterious and vulnerable as she finds love more fulfilling than power. When she runs out barefoot into the snow to find her lost partner in witchcraft, her cat Pywacket, as she simply can't stand losing both him and Stewart (they're on the outs at this moment) at the same time, your heart aches for her.

There's more going on in this one - Ernie Kovaks in the role of an offbeat writer of witch stories and Jack Lemmon as Novak's warlock and mischievous bongo-playing brother - but it's Novak as the witch in search of love who centers and drives the story. A highly stylized movie about a witch falling in love with a human is a tightrope effort, but Bell Book and Candle pulls it off with an enthusiastic confidence that only makes repeated viewings more enjoyable.

 

[Touchofevil]

I, too, watched The Glass Key this morning. Thank goodness for Watch TCM! I really hope they make a streaming service available just for TCM.

I'm watching The Big Heat with Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, and Lee Marvin right now. Noir done right.

I had planned on watching that one too, but got busy with watching some NFL and doing some schoolwork.

 

[Touchofevil]

The Social Dilemma on Netflix.

 

[Edward]

Watched a few good flicks recently. Thoroughly enjoyed revisiting Dredd (2012) on Netflix. Christmas Eve I caught the latest, animated version of The Grinch, which had me roaring with laughter at many of the visual jokes. I enjoyed the Carey version well enough, but the animation was much closer the look of the original illustrations and overall it just had so much charm with it. The same night we watched a TV broadcast of It's a Wonderful Life, which made the wife bawl, and that set me off. (I swear, I cry easier as I get older, it's bizarre.) Christmas Day one of the things I watched was the Spectre Craig-Bond flick. Fun enough - not as good as Skyfall, but vastly better than Quantum. Fun to see a scene set in my favourite restaurant of all, Rules. A few nights ago, I also watched The Wanderers. I'd always been curious about this one; as a fan of The Warriors I had always read that the latter was rushed out by the studio for fear that the two would hurt each other's markets both supposedly having similar content. In reality, they are very, very different beasts. The Warriors is set in "the near future", whereas The Wanderers is set in 1963 and is very much a nostalgia piece. The narrative is a bit vague as to why the Ducky Boys instigate the final rumble, but it's a fun film nonetheless. It has that interesting vibe of much pre-Kennedy assassination Americana (for most of it - the Kennedy assassination is included in the film, and forms a pivotal point that suggests a major social change to come just as key characters are becoming adults themselves), when the calendar said it was the Sixties but really the fifties aren't done yet.

Also watched the latest Clooney flick on Netflix. Not much of a story, though worth a casual view for the quality of Clooney's performance.

 

[Harp]

^^^^Bell, Book, & Candle is a flick I haven't seen since high school.
Stewart was Shepard McCloud? Book publisher. Is that Elsa Lancaster with Jack Lemon and gorgeous?

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^^Bell, Book, & Candle is a flick I haven't seen since high school.
Stewart was Shepard McCloud? Book publisher. Is that Elsa Lancaster with Jack Lemon and gorgeous?

Yes it is. And, "with Jack Lemmon and gorgeous?"

As noted above, the style and feel of the movie is its charm along, of course, with Gorgeous.

 

[Harp]

Yes it is. And, "with Jack Lemmon and gorgeous?"

As noted above, the style and feel of the movie is its charm along, of course, with Gorgeous.

Elsa is a fascinating gal with an appeal all her own. And the Village/Big Apple background.
Read a Stewart bio I found at the VA and he led a far more sophisticate and complicated life
than might be assumed. Perhaps a bit long in the tooth for Kim here, but the entire cast is a draw.

 

[belfastboy]

"The Children Act"...Netflix. Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci in a great adult picture. Emma is brilliant...another master class in acting. It didn't receive great reviews from the critics but have learned to discount their blatherings.

 

[AmateisGal]

The Man Who Came to Dinner. Great movie!

Now watching The Out-of-Towners with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, an old favorite. I need a silly comedy right now.

 

[Worf]

Watched a few good flicks recently. Thoroughly enjoyed revisiting Dredd (2012) on Netflix. Christmas Eve I caught the latest, animated version of The Grinch, which had me roaring with laughter at many of the visual jokes. I enjoyed the Carey version well enough, but the animation was much closer the look of the original illustrations and overall it just had so much charm with it. The same night we watched a TV broadcast of It's a Wonderful Life, which made the wife bawl, and that set me off. (I swear, I cry easier as I get older, it's bizarre.) Christmas Day one of the things I watched was the Spectre Craig-Bond flick. Fun enough - not as good as Skyfall, but vastly better than Quantum. Fun to see a scene set in my favourite restaurant of all, Rules. A few nights ago, I also watched The Wanderers. I'd always been curious about this one; as a fan of The Warriors I had always read that the latter was rushed out by the studio for fear that the two would hurt each other's markets both supposedly having similar content. In reality, they are very, very different beasts. The Warriors is set in "the near future", whereas The Wanderers is set in 1963 and is very much a nostalgia piece. The narrative is a bit vague as to why the Ducky Boys instigate the final rumble, but it's a fun film nonetheless. It has that interesting vibe of much pre-Kennedy assassination Americana (for most of it - the Kennedy assassination is included in the film, and forms a pivotal point that suggests a major social change to come just as key characters are becoming adults themselves), when the calendar said it was the Sixties but really the fifties aren't done yet.

Also watched the latest Clooney flick on Netflix. Not much of a story, though worth a casual view for the quality of Clooney's performance.

Ahem... Ahem ah say.... Dredd in 2012 is one of the finest graphic novel adaptations I've ever seen. I'd heard nothing about the film then when I watched it on the small screen I was blown away. They got it so right. As for crying during "It's a Wonderful Life" welcome to the club bub. If you've any smidgeon of a heart in ya that one'll make you blubber like a 5 year old. And YES all us rough, tough hombres cry easier as we age... comes wit da territory.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

The Man Who Came to Dinner. Great movie!

Now watching The Out-of-Towners with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, an old favorite. I need a silly comedy right now.

Over many years, I went from kinda liking "The Man Who Came to Dinner" to loving it. It's been in heavy rotation on TCM recently and I've had to force myself to stop watching it. There's so much in it - so much good dialogue, fun asides and inside jokes - that you need to see it several times to catch them all.

 

[Edward]

Ahem... Ahem ah say.... Dredd in 2012 is one of the finest graphic novel adaptations I've ever seen. I'd heard nothing about the film then when I watched it on the small screen I was blown away. They got it so right. As for crying during "It's a Wonderful Life" welcome to the club bub. If you've any smidgeon of a heart in ya that one'll make you blubber like a 5 year old. And YES all us rough, tough hombres cry easier as we age... comes wit da territory.

Worf

I wonder does it come with being secure enough as we age to be vulnerable as well...

Dredd was beautifully done. The uniforms - a matter of such controversy with the abysmyl 1995 Stallone version - were probably the most perfect "to-real-world" translation of what was on the page I've ever seen. Karl Urban clearly perfectly understood both the source material and the nature of Dredd - his delivery of Dredd's sarcasm and gruffness - and his simple indication at the end of Anderson having earned his respect - was note-perfect. I still have my fingers crossed for the Netflix series. I'd like to see Anderson kept on (Olivia Thirlby was great) - would be a great way to introduce the Psi-Department. There are also so many wonderful story arcs in the source material, some of which could be stand-alone spin-off series, potentially. I'd love to see them tackle the Apocalypse War, Chopper, the Cursed Earth Saga, the Dark Judges (Andy Serkis for Sidney De'Ath, please!!). The 'America' story would make an excellent spin-off series. The Walking Dead has certainly proven that a good comic book series with a wealth of source material can be commercially viable. I just hope Urban is still available when the current project comes to fruition - he has indicated that if he is, he'd love to do it.

Over many years, I went from kinda liking "The Man Who Came to Dinner" to loving it. It's been in heavy rotation on TCM recently and I've had to force myself to stop watching it. There's so much in it - so much good dialogue, fun asides and inside jokes - that you need to see it several times to catch them all.

There's nothing like finding something new in a well loved old film. I must have seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show in the region of several hundred times (not counting rehearsals and when I was stood in front of it in various roles), but I still sometimes spot something in the background, details that after closing in on a quarter of a century of fandom I still somehow had previously missed. The DVD era has done a lot for details that way, with the option of perfect freeze-frames to better see certain details.

 

[GHT]

There's nothing like finding something new in a well loved old film.

Following Sean Connery's death, one of the TV channels have been showing re-runs of his 007 days. Last night I watched Goldfinger. The scene where the raygun is melting the table that Bond is strapped to, where the ray is getting ever closer to the crown jewels, was missing. I can only assume it was film damage, but I missed: "Do you expect me talk?" "No Mr Bond, I expect you to die."

Burt Kwouk gave the game away on a TV chat show. The table Bond lays upon is two halves soldered together. There's a welder with a welding torch underneath the table, melting the solder. I didn't believe that, I definitely saw a raygun.

 

[Edward]

Following Sean Connery's death, one of the TV channels have been showing re-runs of his 007 days. Last night I watched Goldfinger. The scene where the raygun is melting the table that Bond is strapped to, where the ray is getting ever closer to the crown jewels, was missing. I can only assume it was film damage, but I missed: "Do you expect me talk?" "No Mr Bond, I expect you to die."

Burt Kwouk gave the game away on a TV chat show. The table Bond lays upon is two halves soldered together. There's a welder with a welding torch underneath the table, melting the solder. I didn't believe that, I definitely saw a raygun.

That's a sore loss - not only one of the most memorable scenes in the film, but of any Bond film! Surely it must be the most quoted Bond-villain line ever, even if Auric Goldfinger himself is less identified in popculture than Blofeld in his Donald Pleasance incarnation?

 

[Edward]

Though for me, Connery's own career-best, one-liner was in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - "She talks in her sleep." Then the little cheeky smile and raised eyebrow at Ford's double-take. Beautifully delivered, I can't imagine any comic actor in history could have bettered that delivery.