What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Touchofevil]

TCM on in the background this morning. Mother Nature is not sure if she wants it to rain or not, but either way it is perfect weather for a TCM and coffee morning.

 

[Fading Fast]

This was a film that as a kid I would confuse with El Dorado. The major characters seemed to mirror those of Rio Bravo. Robert Mitchum was the drunken sheriff, james Caan was the gunslinger, Arthur Hunnicut/Bull as the classic sidekick who while older than the rest was stiil effective and delivered the funny, Charlene Holt took on the part of you have to have at least one woman in the movie, and Ed Asner as the Bad Guy who has enough bad guys employed to hold the town hostage. I have always enjoyed both movies but thought it odd that Wayne made two movies that so closely resembled each other.

Agreed, it's odd that he did that. There must be some inside story behind it.

 

[Touchofevil]

The Wild North and Out of the Past on TCM. Both are entertaining for the scenery. Out of the Past is also an entertaining movie. It is a movie that I tend to stop and watch when I see that it is on.

 

[Zombie_61]

Agreed, it's odd that he did that. There must be some inside story behind it.

Sure there's a story behind it: John Wayne wanted to get paid.

 

[Harp]

We finally watched Lawrence of Arabia, 50th Anniversary blu-ray, in its 60th anniversary year!

Thought the disk was wonky, as there was no picture for 5 minutes. Turns out, it is a literal copy of the theatrical release, with the orchestral build up AND full intermission.

At the start, I advised my wife, who had never seen the film, that it was based on T.E. Lawrence's book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and that like the book, two events have been disputed as to their actually happening.

She turned and looked at me, and asked "you mean this is about a real person"?

She thought L of A was fiction!

Bless her...

Let me guess...

1.) The Rape
2.)Death-accidental, or suicide

T.E. Lawrence as did Charles Gordon, cut a dashing figure, and while the former wasn't as prolific
an author, with the help of Lowell Thomas, Lawrence was revealed to the world.
Also, like Gordan, he is presumed to have lived a celibate life, dying a virgin.

Lawrence's death eludes resolve. However, it is reasonable to assume that with everything else
in his enigmatic life, suicide it most probably was.

 

[Harp]

Carol. Kate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are cast coupled in 1950s Manhattan.
An elegant, most enticing lesbian love stricken thunderbolt right to the heart.

 

[basbol13]

I Walk Alone

I think one of Burt Lancaster's best.

 

[Harp]

Carol. Kate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are cast coupled in 1950s Manhattan.
An elegant, most enticing lesbian love stricken thunderbolt right to the heart.

I should have remarked this film's painstaking attentive-to-detail wardrobe.
Outstanding. Hats galore. Fedora, homburg, caps. Sweaters, overcoat, scarves.
And ladies wear superb.
Honorable mention automotives. Iron parked all over the place, driven.

 

[MisterCairo]

Let me guess...

1.) The Rape
2.)Death-accidental, or suicide

T.E. Lawrence as did Charles Gordon, cut a dashing figure, and while the former wasn't as prolific
an author, with the help of Lowell Thomas, Lawrence was revealed to the world.
Also, like Gordan, he is presumed to have lived a celibate life, dying a virgin.

Lawrence's death eludes resolve. However, it is reasonable to assume that with everything else
in his enigmatic life, suicide it most probably was.

Yes on the Turkish officer thing, but the other I have seen discussed is his shooting, execution, of a member of his force. Both in SP of W, and both used in the film, with the usual artistic license.

I in fact have read only a little of the debate on his death, but am of the view the general consensus is accident.

We saw a bit of the film using the feature where trivia and history pop up. I was surprised to learn a couple of things.

One, a film of his life in Arabia was proposed during his lifetime. He was open to the idea, but it did not come about.

His brother controlled his estate, and another project also failed to materialize. He went along with David Lean's film, but retained the right to view the film before release, to approve, or refuse, the right to call it by its hoped-for title - Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

For reasons not set out, he refused the right to the book's name. It had been pre-arranged to call it L of A in the event of refusal.

Little known even among those familiar with the man, is that after retiring from the army as a full colonel, he re-enrolled - in the Royal Air Force as a humble airman.

Fascinating individual any way you see him.

 

[Harp]

Carol is adapted from Patricia Highsmith's The Price of Salt, an excellent though
clearly dated literary effort, which a more perceptive director such as Hitchcock could
have done much more with. Hitchcock grabbed Highsmith's literary deflower Strangers On A Train.

 

[PrivateEye]

Pitfall (1948) - Dick Powell as an insurance adjuster facing a midlife crisis, meets and falls for Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott), the girlfriend (Lizabeth Scott) of a man in prison for embezzlement. Raymond Burr plays a private detective employed by the insurance company, who also falls for and has an obsession for Mona, such that he poisons the mind of the soon to be released inmate in an effort to have him eliminate his rival.

A fine film noir – good, but not great. Always been a big fan of Powell, especially after his transition from song and dance man, but really thought Burr was the best of this movie. Jane Wyatt was also good as Powell’s wife.

 

[Worf]

This was a film that as a kid I would confuse with El Dorado. The major characters seemed to mirror those of Rio Bravo. Robert Mitchum was the drunken sheriff, james Caan was the gunslinger, Arthur Hunnicut/Bull as the classic sidekick who while older than the rest was stiil effective and delivered the funny, Charlene Holt took on the part of you have to have at least one woman in the movie, and Ed Asner as the Bad Guy who has enough bad guys employed to hold the town hostage. I have always enjoyed both movies but thought it odd that Wayne made two movies that so closely resembled each other.

Of the two I prefer Rio Bravo. I think there are enough changes and quirks to keep the whole film from descending into a "trope fest". Like Nelson's character being smart enough not to "mix -in" till circumstances force his hand. He's young and fast but not looking for a fight to prove his manhood. For me, Brennan steals the film. Every scene he's in crackles. I watch the film when it's on.

Worf

 

[Harp]

Yes on the Turkish officer thing, but the other I have seen discussed is his shooting, execution, of a member of his force. Both in SP of W, and both used in the film, with the usual artistic license.

I in fact have read only a little of the debate on his death, but am of the view the general consensus is accident.



Little known even among those familiar with the man, is that after retiring from the army as a full colonel, he re-enrolled - in the Royal Air Force as a humble airman.

Fascinating individual any way you see him.

I recall having read Seven Pillars of Wisdom while in the Army off a commander reading list report
or early in college; wine and cheese party converse about the film, its rape scene, Lawrence's
subsequent incongrous RAF enlistment, motorcycle death. The proverbial Churchillian enigma,
wrapped inside a riddle within a mystery. Lawrence was often a topic converse in Special Forces.
Early proponent desert hit-run tactics. Field execution personnel. Absolutely fascinating soldier.

 

[Stray Dog]

Last "good" movie I watched ... was "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" directed by John Cassavetes.
Disjointed story, grungy cinematography but a classic about desperation to fulfill one's vision.

 

[Touchofevil]

Of the two I prefer Rio Bravo. I think there are enough changes and quirks to keep the whole film from descending into a "trope fest". Like Nelson's character being smart enough not to "mix -in" till circumstances force his hand. He's young and fast but not looking for a fight to prove his manhood. For me, Brennan steals the film. Every scene he's in crackles. I watch the film when it's on.

Worf

I agree, he does steal the show. He was also great in Support Your Local Sheriff. Jack Elam, James Garner, and Walter Brennan, no wonder it was so entertaining to me.

 

[Harp]

Novturne. Adequate, but disjointed horror genre; drug usage at a prestigious fine arts high school,
sexual encounters filmed against a classical music competition. Some fairly interesting, well
scripted scenes but the cumulative composition fails to score a masterpiece.

Nocturne could have been far better with some restraint.

 

[Fading Fast]

Vivacious Lady from 1938 with Ginger Rogers, James Stewart, Charles Coburn and Beulah Bondi


In the good old days of the early 1930s ('30-'34), before the Motion Picture Production Code was more strictly enforced, "pre-code" movies addressed all the normal things humans do carnally - pre-marital sex, casual sex, "extra" marital sex, hookups, unwed mothers, abortions (yes), etc. - in a pretty modern way. Although, there were fewer of the gratuitous images that have turned many movies today into soft and not-so-soft porn.

Once the code was more strictly enforced, inconsistently in 1934 and, then, more consistently from 1935 on, Hollywood's answer to the "no sex out of wedlock" edict was the "screwball comedy." This is an offshoot of the romantic comedy where farce and physical humor dominate and act as a loose-fitting surrogate for sexual desire and frustration.

Vivacious Lady only makes sense seen in that context. Young, Midwest university professor Jimmy Stewart, on a brief trip to New York City, meets and marries, all in twenty-four hours (I can't even go there), nightclub performer Ginger Rogers.

Knowing that his staid university president father and mother won't easily embrace his choice of a wife, he doesn't immediately tell anyone he's married when he returns; instead, he passess his new wife off as a just-enrolled university student.

Not helping matters, Stewart is engaged to a local girl his parents approve of - he's a bit of a cad, but not with intent - while his cousin begins to make him jealous by softly hitting on his new wife. It's all hijinx and screwball from here.

Stewart's fiancee immediately susses out that something is up between Stewart and "that blonde" (Rogers) that just arrived. Stewart's dad takes an immediate dislike to Rogers, as well, even before he learns she's his son's new wife. Yet, Stewart's mom, inadvertently, meets Rogers and the two hit it off.

With that mainly behind-the-eight-ball start, Stewart spends most of the movie trying to find a way to tell his parents about his new wife, while also appeasing Rogers who, sitting on ice, rightfully, is beginning to feel like something the cat dragged in.

When she finally does get fed up, and it's the movie's best scene, Rogers verbally spars with Stewart's condescending fiancee before finally saying "the heck with it" and they turn to blows. Rogers is cute, blonde, sarcastic and can throw a mean right cross. That checks just about every box.

Running throughout this screwball comedy is the "risque" sexual subtext that because of all these obstacles, Rogers and Stewart, weeks in, still haven't been able to consummate their marriage. The newlyweds who are constantly thwarted trying to christen their nuptials is a stock gag of the screwball genre. Knowing the creativity of humans in the throes of passion, this one takes more than the usual suspension of belief.

(Spoiler alert if you don't know that almost all screwball comedies have happy endings) Stewart's mom, seeing the true value and goodness in Rogers, manipulates her husband into seeing it as well.

That women must manipulate men to get them to do the right thing is a regular trope of screwball comedies. It plays to the Code by showing women in a supporting role, but it also subverts the Code as the implied message is women are smarter than men.

Vivacious Lady is much better than the average screwball comedy owing to a decent script, but even more so, to the acting talents of Rogers, Stewart, Charles Coburn as Stewart's father and Beulah Bondi as Stewart's mother. It's a shame the Motion Picture Production Code forced movies into these silly boxes, but even with that handicap, Hollywood still put out some solidly entertaining pictures.

 

[Harp]

^Great review and background Code history. ...and, can't let it go---I was a dozen feet away
and thirty seconds too late to get Ginger Rodgers' autograph. I was fourteen or fifteen,
Ms Rodgers encircled by mature ladies, Chicago's Water Tower Place, I was ready-set to dash
over, and one of the ladies asked Ms Rodgers if she had ever slept with Fred Astaire....
-----
Saw The Immitation Game earlier this evening, allabouts Professor Turing and MI6 cracking
the German Enigma machine. Read the book, film sliced a piecemeal out, ran with it-not bad.
Not good either, beer went flat with all the ancillary homosexual background. Stick-to-script
works just so much. But not far enough. Good period piece, nice tweed. A better book flick.

 

[Touchofevil]

Last night, Cleaner, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, and Eva Mendes. It starts out pretty nicely, but starts to fall apart midway through. By the end, I was ready for it to be over.

 

[Touchofevil]

A rainy day today so we’ve had The Andy Griffith Show and TCM on in the background. Watched most of The Asphalt Jungle and Kansas City Confidential. Nice way to spend the day.