What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Doctor Strange]

Excellent version! The 2007 BBC adaptation with Sally Hawkins is also very good.

But I gotta say: I don't like the 1940 Pride and Prejudice. The actors are too old, the performances are stiff, and the costumes are all wrong.

My favorite Austen adaptations are the 1995 Sense and Sensibility directed by Ang Lee and the 1999 Mansfield Park with Frances O'Connor (though I know many serious Austen fans don't like its changes from the text.)

 

[Fading Fast]

Excellent version! The 2007 BBC adaptation with Sally Hawkins is also very good.

But I gotta say: I don't like the 1940 Pride and Prejudice. The actors are too old, the performances are stiff, and the costumes are all wrong.

My favorite Austen adaptations are the 1995 Sense and Sensibility directed by Ang Lee and the 1999 Mansfield Park with Frances O'Connor (though I know many serious Austen fans don't like its changes from the text.)

All your points about the 1940 version are very fair, but still, when Greer Garson stands up to Edna May Oliver's Catherine de Bourgh, I'm all in. I also like the Keira Knightley 2005 version, but mainly because Knightly looks so freakin' beautiful in it even though the modern SJW angle started sneaking in already and that was two decades ago.

 

[Harp]

^ Off Topic, yet quite salacious nonetheless is Greer Garson's secret affair with Richard Ney, the actor who played her teenage son in Mrs Miniver. Director William Wyler and co-star Walter Pidgeon supposedly knew of the fling; otherwise across set a stage secret.

 

[Fading Fast]

Two O'Clock Courage (1945) with Tom Conway, Ann Rutherford, and Jane Greer


In the 1940s, Hollywood loved a combination murder mystery and amnesia tale with a comic-relief character and, of course, a romance wrapped around it.

If it could keep it near an hour in runtime and on a B-movie budget, it would love it even more. As a result, we have movies like Two O'Clock Courage.

If you just take the ride, enjoying the attractive actors like Tom Conway and Ann Rutherford, and the fun studio sets, it's good, humble entertainment. Don't, for the love of God, try to solve the idiotic mystery as you go along – usually it won't make sense even after it's explained.

Handsome Tom Conway is the amnesia victim who, late one night, stumbles into a cab driver, played by Ann Rutherford, who tries to help him discover his identity. Yes, it's another movie where the male lead is simply prettier than the female lead – it happens in Hollywood.

So far the story is okay, but now the mystery writers go a bit crazy and take you on a confusing-as-heck journey about stage plays, murder, affairs, stolen royalties, a suspicious chauffeur (that old trope), an angry actress, and a lot of confusion, obfuscation, and, eventually, dead bodies.

Through it all, Rutherford, who has enough positive energy for five people, never loses faith in Conway, who looks a bit suspicious in Act II – which is par for the amnesia-story arc. Evidence appears that explains why the police are after him, now that he's learned his identity.

That, though, is the problem, as it looks like he might have forgotten his identity, but the police have not forgotten the crime his identity committed, which is – wait for it – murder. That is absolutely not what you want to learn comes attached with your identity.

"Good news, buddy, your name is Joe Smith." Joe Smith is now all smiles. "But, um, well, uh, oh heck, there's no easy way to say this: you are wanted for murder, and your picture is in all the papers." "Seriously!?"

More plot and confusion are introduced, along with more characters, including a young and pretty Jane Greer seemingly playing an old friend/antagonist of Conway's who nonetheless fires up Rutherford's jealous gene: "I loved him when he didn't even know his own name."

"Well, I'm seven-years-and-a-lot-of-smooth-skin younger than you, old lady, so we know who will win this battle." "Oh, do we, Ms. Youth and Beauty who looks like she never lived an honest day in her entire life. Character matters, too. Hey, stop laughing."

Eventually, after a lot of running around, false leads, red flags, twists, and turns, most everyone winds up in the same room, and the hero, Conway, untangles the mess. Then there's one more twist, which causes all hope to look lost again, and finally the true "I love you" epilogue.

These were formula films – the comic relief here is provided by Richard Lane playing a reporter who seems to have never gotten a story right in his career – shot on sets and small budgets, but as always, acting talent can lift a production up.

Tom Conway – George Sanders' brother – is in his element here as a suave amnesiac who finds out he moves with the swells, as he looks scripted out of central casting to, well, move with the swells. He plays these roles, like his signature role as The Falcon, with an easy confidence.

Rutherford adds the spark as the cabbie with a big heart and a passion for Conway – "I found him; he's mine." Watch her eyes in scenes when others are talking as they often drift to Conway – a smart actress always stays in character even when others have the lines.

This is Jane Greer's first credited part, and she acquits herself well, but it's her beauty that overwhelms. In only a few short years, she'd play her career-defining role as the viciously selfish and cold-hearted femme fatale in Out of the Past (1947); here she's just cold hearted.

Today you watch Two O'Clock Courage because you enjoy the genre, 1940s B movies, or any of the actors, all of which are viable reasons, as it's an easy-to-like piece of fluff that knows what type of movie it is – and since it plays by the rules, it ends quickly.

 

[Fading Fast]

The Sheep Detectives (2026)


The Sheep Detectives is a family movie that works for kids and adults and doesn't vomit political ideology all over you (it's there, just not in heaving spasms). Instead, quite creative minds put this story and its visuals (thank you, CGI) together in a solidly entertaining movie.

A shepherd, played by Hugh Jackman, on a pleasant farm in England, reads detective mysteries to his sheep every night, assuming they just enjoy hearing the words, but never suspects that his sheep understand English and talk to each other – but not humans – that way.

Jackman is then found dead on the property, and the local, none-too-bright police officer rules it death by poisoning. The sheep, distraught at Jackman's death and aware the local officer is an idiot, decide to solve the mystery themselves.

After all, they are experts, having read so many mystery novels. The story builds like a clichéd English mystery – dead body, too many suspects, a dramatic will reading (making more suspects), a stranger visitor (another suspect), and a bunch of shady locals (all suspects).

The sheep, led by Lilly (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), begin their own investigation mainly by hanging around the humans and listening, then interpreting the evidence with sheep and mystery-book-plot logic.

Eventually, the climax comes as they do in most mysteries like this with the wrong person arrested and the bad guy about to get away with it all. Will the sheep let this stand? It's a family movie, so you know the answer, but you'll have to watch to see how it plays out.

It is a witty little mystery, but you don't really come to this one for the mystery as much as for the charm: for seeing, mainly, adorable sheep and, mainly, nice flawed humans work on dual paths to solve one murder mystery. It's no shock that the sheep prove to be better at it.

Based on a 2005 novel by Craig Mazin, Three Bags Full, it's hard to say who deserves the most credit – Mazin, the screenwriters (which includes Mazin), the director, Kyle Balda (who had a heck of a vision), the actors, or the CGI experts, who created adorable sheep.

They all do, of course, as this is a genuine joint effort. Mazin created a wonderful universe where sheep live dual lives – the baaing one the humans see and a nearly human-like one amongst themselves – it's the foundation of the movie.

The sheep have some peculiar beliefs – they don't die but turn into clouds, they forget unpleasant things and truly can't remember them, they discriminate against winter sheep (the few sheep born then versus in the spring), and they are scared to leave their own farm.

All these beliefs will get tested as they push themselves past their own fears (is there an obvious lesson in there?) for the greater good of finding the killer and bringing him or her to justice. But the real joy in the sheep is just watching them in their anthropomorphized state.

When they need to see into a room, the small ones stand on the larger ones' backs, which starts to annoy the larger ones. Some are too scared to cross the road since they never have, but then a chicken goes blasting across and, well, we've all been shamed into doing things.

They are basically a fun lot, with the complainers not being really bad, but there are a few truly mean ones that, surprise, can either be taught to become nicer or fought off by the nice sheep banding together (again, there might be a too-easy lesson lurking in there somewhere).

The humans, too – Jackman, Emma Thompson as the trust attorney (somebody had to write and read the will), Nicholas Braun as the slow-witted officer, and more – have a charm juxtaposed with the sheep, who they still think are just sheep: you know, dumb farm animals.

One incredibly endearing nuance is when a few of the humans get suspicious that the sheep might be more than just dumb farm animals – they can't prove anything, but darn it, those silly sheep seem to keep being in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.

You can't miss it, but there is a scene in the local prison (think family-friendly, one-cell, English-village, harmless prison) where the sheep really do their thing in a way that makes it all but impossible for the humans to dismiss it completely – it's adorable for kids and adults.

That could be the tagline for the movie "Adorable for Kids and Adults," or maybe go with "Charming," but you get it. The Sheep Detectives is a smart, pleasant, mystery/comedy that works on several levels while charming everyone.


N. B. Will there be a sequel? Who knows what the economics of movies (and TV shows, etc.) really are in the era of streaming, but The Sheep Detectives did well, albeit not blockbuster well, during its theatrical run, so a second one might be made at some point.

 

[Pensacola Native]

I watched Thunder Road this afternoon.

 

[Harp]

View attachment 802532
The Sheep Detectives (2026)


The Sheep Detectives
N. B. Will there be a sequel? Who knows what the economics of movies (and TV shows, etc.) really are in the era of streaming, but The Sheep Detectives did well, albeit not blockbuster well, during its theatrical run, so a second one might be made at some point.

Perverse prequel sequel plot has a rapacious shepherd pounding mutton and slain by a jealous ram's vengeance, though even Hollyweird won't venture so far out on studio tree limb.
Still, sell it over at Mouse House for a little toss and pitch.

 

[EngProf]

I watched Thunder Road this afternoon.

A great movie... One of Robert Mitchum's best - and he wrote the screenplay and the title song for that one.
It treats Southerners as intelligent people - not the "Deliverance-style" monsters lurking in the bushes.
One of my favorites...

 

[Fading Fast]

The Devil's Holiday (1930) with Nancy Carroll, Phillip Holmes, Hobart Bosworth, Paul Lukas, and James Kirkwood


Most of the early talkies, like The Devil's Holiday, require some perspective to enjoy today: the technology is clunky, the silent-era style still casts a shadow, and the culture is planets away from our modern one – and even from the one coming to movies in only a year or two.

To his credit, director Edmund Goulding opens The Devil's Holiday with a modern-looking montage of shots of men and a hotel switchboard operator trying to find Hallie Hobart, played by Nancy Carroll, whom we learn is, well, a high-priced esc*rt who helps salesmen close deals.

Its oddly modern rapid pace of flickering images and overlapping dialogue soon gives way to a traditional movie, which for 1930 means a movie that can often feel like a filmed stage play as the actors stand around a set saying too many lines from the same position.

Ned Sparks – he of the deadpan-delivery fame – hires Carroll to rope in a young man, played by Phillip Holmes – sent by his Bible-belt farmer father to the city to buy some farm equipment. Carroll's job is to steer Holmes to Sparks. Incredibly innocent Holmes is immediately smitten.

Holmes' brother, played by James Kirkwood, shows up, denounces Carroll to her face, warns his brother she's no good, and leaves. Holmes doesn't believe it; Carroll is spitting mad with offense; and in warp-speed time they're married as Holmes is in love and Carroll wants revenge.

Now at Bible-thumping Dad's farm – Dad is played by Hobart Bosworth – Carroll bargains a large sum of money out of Bosworth to leave his son, while Kirkwood has a fight with Holmes that results in Holmes sustaining a severe head injury.

Carroll goes back to Chicago to spend her big pot of money frivolously, while at the farm, a doctor, played by Paul Lukas, believes Holmes needs Carroll to return for him to recover.

Act III sees Kirkwood and even Bosworth come to Chicago to try to coax Carroll back to save Holmes, but she sees them as jokes... until she starts to realize that most of her friends are just hanger-ons happy to help her spend her money.

Will she return? Would it work if Holmes learns that she left for money? Would Kirkwood and Bosworth ever accept her? As is typical of these early talkies, a lot gets smashed together in the climax, but kudos to Carroll, in particular, for fireman-carrying this movie along.

This is her picture from start to finish. The twenty-seven-year-old silent-film actress has the talent and screen personality to infuse this off-the-shelf tale with energy and frisson every time it starts to flag, which is anytime she's not on screen.

It's not that the rest of the cast is bad; even wooden Holmes is reasonably good as the love-struck dunderhead, but the only modern-feeling passion here comes from Carroll, who could step onto a movie set today and still be a star.

Bosworth brings an old style of acting – each word is quite properly enunciated – but it fits his throwback character who sees God as actively guiding everyone's life and the Bible as a tick-and-tie instruction manual for living. It's a version of Footloose fifty years early.

It's also a reminder of the massive cultural change the country has undergone in the past decades. Back then, even the "sinful" cities understood Christianity as it was the warp-and-woof of the country. It's hard to believe today, but it was deeply embedded in the culture.

A movie like The Devil's Holiday was more than just a cute title, it framed the cultural battle between the "heathen" big cities and the "faithful" rest of the country. We think we have a similar divide today, but that misses how much more culturally integrated Christianity was back then.

It's not a great movie and it definitely shows its age in style, technology, and ideology, but stepping back, there is something timeless about parents thinking their children are straying in their choice of a spouse. Plus, Nancy Carroll is worth seeing for her infectious verve alone.

Some of these older movies take a little understanding to be appreciated, but in return, they offer an incredible window into the past for those willing to take a thoughtful look.

 

[Edward]

View attachment 802532
The Sheep Detectives (2026)


The Sheep Detectives is a family movie that works for kids and adults and doesn't vomit political ideology all over you (it's there, just not in heaving spasms). Instead, quite creative minds put this story and its visuals (thank you, CGI) together in a solidly entertaining movie.

A shepherd, played by Hugh Jackman, on a pleasant farm in England, reads detective mysteries to his sheep every night, assuming they just enjoy hearing the words, but never suspects that his sheep understand English and talk to each other – but not humans – that way.

Jackman is then found dead on the property, and the local, none-too-bright police officer rules it death by poisoning. The sheep, distraught at Jackman's death and aware the local officer is an idiot, decide to solve the mystery themselves.

After all, they are experts, having read so many mystery novels. The story builds like a clichéd English mystery – dead body, too many suspects, a dramatic will reading (making more suspects), a stranger visitor (another suspect), and a bunch of shady locals (all suspects).

The sheep, led by Lilly (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus), begin their own investigation mainly by hanging around the humans and listening, then interpreting the evidence with sheep and mystery-book-plot logic.

Eventually, the climax comes as they do in most mysteries like this with the wrong person arrested and the bad guy about to get away with it all. Will the sheep let this stand? It's a family movie, so you know the answer, but you'll have to watch to see how it plays out.

It is a witty little mystery, but you don't really come to this one for the mystery as much as for the charm: for seeing, mainly, adorable sheep and, mainly, nice flawed humans work on dual paths to solve one murder mystery. It's no shock that the sheep prove to be better at it.

Based on a 2005 novel by Craig Mazin, Three Bags Full, it's hard to say who deserves the most credit – Mazin, the screenwriters (which includes Mazin), the director, Kyle Balda (who had a heck of a vision), the actors, or the CGI experts, who created adorable sheep.

They all do, of course, as this is a genuine joint effort. Mazin created a wonderful universe where sheep live dual lives – the baaing one the humans see and a nearly human-like one amongst themselves – it's the foundation of the movie.

The sheep have some peculiar beliefs – they don't die but turn into clouds, they forget unpleasant things and truly can't remember them, they discriminate against winter sheep (the few sheep born then versus in the spring), and they are scared to leave their own farm.

All these beliefs will get tested as they push themselves past their own fears (is there an obvious lesson in there?) for the greater good of finding the killer and bringing him or her to justice. But the real joy in the sheep is just watching them in their anthropomorphized state.

When they need to see into a room, the small ones stand on the larger ones' backs, which starts to annoy the larger ones. Some are too scared to cross the road since they never have, but then a chicken goes blasting across and, well, we've all been shamed into doing things.

They are basically a fun lot, with the complainers not being really bad, but there are a few truly mean ones that, surprise, can either be taught to become nicer or fought off by the nice sheep banding together (again, there might be a too-easy lesson lurking in there somewhere).

The humans, too – Jackman, Emma Thompson as the trust attorney (somebody had to write and read the will), Nicholas Braun as the slow-witted officer, and more – have a charm juxtaposed with the sheep, who they still think are just sheep: you know, dumb farm animals.

One incredibly endearing nuance is when a few of the humans get suspicious that the sheep might be more than just dumb farm animals – they can't prove anything, but darn it, those silly sheep seem to keep being in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.

You can't miss it, but there is a scene in the local prison (think family-friendly, one-cell, English-village, harmless prison) where the sheep really do their thing in a way that makes it all but impossible for the humans to dismiss it completely – it's adorable for kids and adults.

That could be the tagline for the movie "Adorable for Kids and Adults," or maybe go with "Charming," but you get it. The Sheep Detectives is a smart, pleasant, mystery/comedy that works on several levels while charming everyone.


N. B. Will there be a sequel? Who knows what the economics of movies (and TV shows, etc.) really are in the era of streaming, but The Sheep Detectives did well, albeit not blockbuster well, during its theatrical run, so a second one might be made at some point.

This looks like a lot of fun. I think it's on one of the streamers i the UK now, I'll have to see if it's on the "included" tier yet. I did see the trailer a while back and marked it out as one to see. I do think Jackman has a comedic strength, and seems to enjoy sending up the "alpha" image other people have built for him, which appeals to me.

Sunday afternoon I picked up on a couple of films I'd not seen before, chosen at more or less random on the BBC iPlayer.

Gold Run (Gulltransporten) is a 2022 Norwegian picture, set around the events of the invasion of Norway in 1940. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18092672/ Specifically, it covers the rushed operation mounted to get the Norwegian gold reserves out of the country, and ultimately to the (then neutral) USA, thus prevent the Germany's WWII-era leaderships from taking a stranglehold on the nation's finances. I am not sufficiently familiar with the real events to know what liberties, if any, were taken with the historical facts, but as a work of historical entertainment, it works well. Very much the sort of story I prefer, this and escape-type pictures, over those depicting the big 'battle' events of the war, or Private Ryan-type fare.

One Life (2023) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13097932 Anthony Hopkins plays the older Nicholas "Nicky" Winton in 1987, covering the lead up to his story coming to attention via British television programme That's Life (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That's_Life!), while Johnny Flynn plays the 29 year old Nicky in flashbacks, though which most of the story is told. Winton's achievement was quite remarkable. Winton became involved with the work of friends who were volunteers seeking to help refugees in Prague in early 1939. The Refugees had come directly from the Sudetenland following the Germany's WWII-era leadership occupation thereof (many of then had previously fled there from Germany and Austria). In particular, there were a high number of unaccompanied, often orphaned, children. These children, mostly Jews, did not qualify for the official Kindertransporten run by the British government as that part of what is now Czechia was not considered to be in danger. Winton and his team mananged to fundraise, complete the paperwork, and find British foster parents for the 669 children that were able to get out of Prague. A final train, with 250 on it, failed to get through due to the outbreak of war, and it is believed they perished in the camps.

The film tells Winton's story well - what he did, but also the fact that it was never made a thing of. Winton didn't seek publicity; it all only came to wide public attention in 1987 when, as the film depicts, Winton found the old files while clearing out his home office, and thought the looming 50th anniversary of the outbreak of war (for the UK) would create some interest in promoting public engagement with the plight of modern day refugees, an issue on which he had continued to work and campaign across his life (there are a couple of very pointed scenes in the film aimed at the Daily Mail, which had originally declined Winton's story as a sympathetic angle on refugees didn't fit with the paper's editorial stance). In the final act, the picture recreates the 1987 episode of That's Life in which Winton appeared, believing he was to meet one or two of those whose lives he and his team saved, only to discover that the entire audience around him were survivors of the Winton Train. (The original, real clip is available on Youtube, but be warned it's an emotional watch if you have even the merest hint of a soul.)

It's a picture worth seeing, and an important story that was largely lost to history for five decades.

 

[Fading Fast]

Love in the Afternoon (1972), a French film


Give the French credit, nobody drags out philosophical angst better. Married Americans, like the French, try to avoid having affairs, but most Americans wouldn't have an eight-month platonic affair while deciding whether to have s*x: Americans make faster go/no-go decisions.

The French however luxuriate in the frisson of the decision – in the philosophical schism – so in Love in the Afternoon, the male protagonist, Frédéric, carries on a long non-s*xual flirtation with an old friend, Chloé, during his wife's second pregnancy.

Frédéric is a lawyer who chose to have a small practice so that he'd have more freedom and control in what today we call his work-life balance. So when Chloé shows up out of the blue, he has the freedom to spend time with her during the day.

To be fair to Frédéric, Chloé is like a predatory cat stalking him s*xually, which she even tells him a few times: (paraphrasing) "my plan is to have s*x with you." For perspective, Chloé is ridiculously attractive and s*xy, and she knows it – and wields it like a pheromone-laced cudgel.

Frédéric's wife, Hélène, is equally attractive and s*xy but in a not-predatory way. She's also pregnant, which of course presents its own domestic challenges even in this pretty good marriage. These two clearly like and love each other, but in a reserved or not-fully-there way.

A few friends float in and out of the story, a hot au pair shows up (and flashes by naked in one scene), and Frédéric's two pretty secretaries frame his office setting, but this is mainly an unacknowledged love (or lust) triangle with Frédéric and Chloé and Frédéric and Hélène.

Director Éric Rohmer uses Paris, where Frédéric has his office and spends his time with alluring Chloé, to showcase youth, vitality, and a street-energy s*xuality. The suburbs, where Frédéric lives in a small apartment with Hélène, feel suffocating and s*xually uninspiring. Get it?

Frédéric is a tall, nice-looking man who will never be accused of living the unexamined life as his thoughts narrate, and he thinks about himself, his life, and his desires All. The. Time. It's self absorbed and exhausting, but the point is to show a man facing a major crossroads.

Much of the movie is a scene of Frédéric at home, caring for one child and helping prepare for the second one followed by two or three scenes of Frédéric in the city at his law office surrounded by his pretty secretaries or spending time with but not sleeping with Chloé.

Rohmer loved juxtaposing Frédéric's domestic home-life scenes, which seem sedate, with the heart-pounding s*xual verve of the city and Chloé. Time and again, Rohmer turns the libido down in the suburbs only to ramp it up using a split second transition to a city scene.

Other than the climax – does naked Chloé succeed in luring not-naked Frédéric into bed – that you'll have to watch to learn the answer to, that is the movie: one man, two women, one decision, and a lot of wash-rinse-repeat that, for the most part and surprisingly, works.

In that go-for-broke "I'm getting this man in my bed" scene, note the seemingly pure joy that Chloé conveys while lying naked on her bed inviting Frédérick to join her. Knowing there is a full crew looking on says she is either a heck of an actress or liked being naked in front of others.

It helps that everything is so wonderfully early-1970s French: hair is long, clothes are loud, babies smoke, apartments are small, and the streets are crowded. It's an outstanding time capsule that will have you wondering why they allowed smoking in clothing stores.

Frédéric, played by Bernard Verley, is a bit boring as the man at the center of it all, but that's not so much a knock on the actor as the way the role was written: "wishy-washy man takes a long time to decide if he's going to cheat on his pretty wife with the pretty woman throwing herself at him."

The pretty woman, Chloé, played by the actress, model, and swinging 1960s icon Zouzou has a ball in the fun role of a s*xual 1960s vamp coming on hard to a man, while smoking up an entire tobacco plantation in one movie.

Hélène, played by Françoise Verley (yes, Bernard's real-life wife) has the smallest role of the three and is stuck playing the pregnant wife for most of the movie. Still, she is very pretty and shows some s*xual passion here and there that makes you understand her allure too.

Being French, all of this is framed with way too much philosophizing and angst – the French love the word bourgeois and wield it like an all-purpose put down. Still, philosophizing is the point: sometimes our ideals and real life smash into each other and we have to decide.

In Love in the Afternoon, the faithful-to-my-spouse vs s*xual-freedom conflict gets to dance around intellectually and physically for a little over an hour and a half in a pretty good version of something the French do well: examine a moral conundrum ad infinitum.

 

[Harp]

Being French, all of this is framed with way too much philosophizing and angst – the French love the word bourgeois and wield it like an all-purpose put down. Still, philosophizing is the point: sometimes our ideals and real life smash into each other and we have to decide.

In Love in the Afternoon, the faithful-to-my-spouse vs s*xual-freedom conflict gets to dance around intellectually and physically for a little over an hour and a half in a pretty good version of something the French do well: examine a moral conundrum ad infinitum.

Nothing appeals to us except the contest; not the victory.---Blaise Pascal, Pensees

Long ago and far away, a teenager visited The American Bookstore in Thessalonikki, Greece,
then stopped at a taverna featuring live music. Placing his book buys atop the bar, he ordered
a Miller Lite and started in on his purchases; before a lovely woman in her mid thirties approached
and offered to buy him a drink. He actually resented her intrusion with his books, and began a
converse with himself as to his extract away from the woman, a German frau banker from Munich.

I've always had a fascination with the concept of individual sovereignty over the body---
heart, mind, and ethereal soul. Within which domain the individual reigns supreme-in theory; but not actual fact as attested law and temporal reality. However, a demarcation can be drawn that effectively holds the secular aspects at reasonable bay. A film that depicts the inward struggle to fix linear bounds is personally appealing.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Ronin (1998)

I want my boat house dialogue!

 

[Edward]

View attachment 803465
Love in the Afternoon (1972), a French film


Give the French credit, nobody drags out philosophical angst better. Married Americans, like the French, try to avoid having affairs, but most Americans wouldn't have an eight-month platonic affair while deciding whether to have s*x: Americans make faster go/no-go decisions.

The French however luxuriate in the frisson of the decision – in the philosophical schism – so in Love in the Afternoon, the male protagonist, Frédéric, carries on a long non-s*xual flirtation with an old friend, Chloé, during his wife's second pregnancy.

Frédéric is a lawyer who chose to have a small practice so that he'd have more freedom and control in what today we call his work-life balance. So when Chloé shows up out of the blue, he has the freedom to spend time with her during the day.

To be fair to Frédéric, Chloé is like a predatory cat stalking him s*xually, which she even tells him a few times: (paraphrasing) "my plan is to have s*x with you." For perspective, Chloé is ridiculously attractive and s*xy, and she knows it – and wields it like a pheromone-laced cudgel.

Frédéric's wife, Hélène, is equally attractive and s*xy but in a not-predatory way. She's also pregnant, which of course presents its own domestic challenges even in this pretty good marriage. These two clearly like and love each other, but in a reserved or not-fully-there way.

A few friends float in and out of the story, a hot au pair shows up (and flashes by naked in one scene), and Frédéric's two pretty secretaries frame his office setting, but this is mainly an unacknowledged love (or lust) triangle with Frédéric and Chloé and Frédéric and Hélène.

Director Éric Rohmer uses Paris, where Frédéric has his office and spends his time with alluring Chloé, to showcase youth, vitality, and a street-energy s*xuality. The suburbs, where Frédéric lives in a small apartment with Hélène, feel suffocating and s*xually uninspiring. Get it?

Frédéric is a tall, nice-looking man who will never be accused of living the unexamined life as his thoughts narrate, and he thinks about himself, his life, and his desires All. The. Time. It's self absorbed and exhausting, but the point is to show a man facing a major crossroads.

Much of the movie is a scene of Frédéric at home, caring for one child and helping prepare for the second one followed by two or three scenes of Frédéric in the city at his law office surrounded by his pretty secretaries or spending time with but not sleeping with Chloé.

Rohmer loved juxtaposing Frédéric's domestic home-life scenes, which seem sedate, with the heart-pounding s*xual verve of the city and Chloé. Time and again, Rohmer turns the libido down in the suburbs only to ramp it up using a split second transition to a city scene.

Other than the climax – does naked Chloé succeed in luring not-naked Frédéric into bed – that you'll have to watch to learn the answer to, that is the movie: one man, two women, one decision, and a lot of wash-rinse-repeat that, for the most part and surprisingly, works.

In that go-for-broke "I'm getting this man in my bed" scene, note the seemingly pure joy that Chloé conveys while lying naked on her bed inviting Frédérick to join her. Knowing there is a full crew looking on says she is either a heck of an actress or liked being naked in front of others.

It helps that everything is so wonderfully early-1970s French: hair is long, clothes are loud, babies smoke, apartments are small, and the streets are crowded. It's an outstanding time capsule that will have you wondering why they allowed smoking in clothing stores.

Frédéric, played by Bernard Verley, is a bit boring as the man at the center of it all, but that's not so much a knock on the actor as the way the role was written: "wishy-washy man takes a long time to decide if he's going to cheat on his pretty wife with the pretty woman throwing herself at him."

The pretty woman, Chloé, played by the actress, model, and swinging 1960s icon Zouzou has a ball in the fun role of a s*xual 1960s vamp coming on hard to a man, while smoking up an entire tobacco plantation in one movie.

Hélène, played by Françoise Verley (yes, Bernard's real-life wife) has the smallest role of the three and is stuck playing the pregnant wife for most of the movie. Still, she is very pretty and shows some s*xual passion here and there that makes you understand her allure too.

Being French, all of this is framed with way too much philosophizing and angst – the French love the word bourgeois and wield it like an all-purpose put down. Still, philosophizing is the point: sometimes our ideals and real life smash into each other and we have to decide.

In Love in the Afternoon, the faithful-to-my-spouse vs s*xual-freedom conflict gets to dance around intellectually and physically for a little over an hour and a half in a pretty good version of something the French do well: examine a moral conundrum ad infinitum.

Ah, smoking in shops.... pretty much a thing of the past in my lifetime (even decades before the legal smoking bans), but I sure don't miss it in restaursnts and elsewhere. In one music venue I spent a lot of time in in Belfast in the 90s, the girl the worked the cloakroom was a chain smoker. If you left a coat in for the evening, it was well known you'd collect it and go home smelling like a sixty a day man.

I work a few days in Paris annually now. They definitely smoke a lot less these days!

 

[Trenchfriend]

@Edward

Just a fun question:
Would you count the Rowing Club House in Hereford as a "boat house" or just a landbased club house?

 

[Trenchfriend]

I got a question on Alien 3 Assembly Cut, always circling in my mind.

Can anyone here guess, if the huge Weyland Yutani shore mining installations make technical sense? What they would hieve up the cliff?

 

[Fading Fast]

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) with Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Ida Lupino, and George Zucco


Basil Rathbone starred in fourteen Sherlock Holmes movies from 1939 to 1946, defining that era's on-screen Sherlock Holmes. The first two had big budgets and were faithful to the source material, but they are not better than the smaller-budgeted "updated" ones that followed.

The series began as two A pictures at 20th Century Fox, with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes being Fox's final effort. Oddly, the pictures gained a little oomph when they moved to Universal Studios, were set in the contemporary 1940s, and were produced as B pictures.

In this last Fox entry, Rathbone as Holmes faces off with his infamous adversary, Professor Moriarty, played by George Zucco. Sitting in between them is the lovely Ida Lupino playing an heiress whose family is being killed off. With her turn coming up, she comes to Holmes for help.

She tells Holmes her fears – she just received an illustration that matches the ones her father and brother received just before they were murdered – and he promises to protect her. Then he lets her leave alone, which is something he does quite often.

You'd think, at minimum, he'd send someone to protect her, but his mind doesn't work that way. Instead, he thinks he sees the plan and will intervene when the time is right and he usually does. This explains why he's Sherlock Holmes, and the rest of us have day jobs.

Lupino, meanwhile, shows why she had a long and successful career. Rathbone as Holmes can swallow an actor up, but petite Lupino has an inner tenacity and God-given screen presence that allows her to easily hold her own in scenes against the towering Rathbone.

Concomitantly, Sir Ronald Ramsgate, the Constable of the Tower of London – played by Henry Stephenson – owing to a threatening note he received, asks Holmes to help him protect "The Star of Delhi," a valuable emerald being shipped to the Tower to join the other crown jewels.

It's a confusing story, not based on an original Conan Doyle story (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes and wrote the original Holmes tales). Instead, it's loosely based on a play and a screenwriter's imagination, which probably accounts for its bumpiness.

Holmes half knows, and we know, that Moriarty has sent Holmes the Lupino story to divert him from the Tower jewel story, but Holmes rates the potential murder of lovely Lupino above the potential theft of some musty jewelry locked in the Tower. A reasonable normal-person choice.

If you've read any of the short stories or novels or have seen any of the other movies from this series, then you know there will be more twists, more banter between Holmes and Watson, played by Nigel Bruce here, and some last-minute running around trying to prevent the crimes.

What you really come for, though, is what all that produces: a picture of Sherlock Holmes that is fun and engaging. Rathbone's Holmes is a 1940s-era, movie-safe version who shows Holmes as single-minded and sometimes brusque, but almost never rude or obnoxious.

His mind needs constant stimulation, which is why you see him experimenting with fruit flies, reading old texts, or racing around from one crime scene to another even though he's just a dilettante detective. The implication is that part of his genius is a mind that he can't shut off.

It's fun that he's not perfect but is usually pointing in the right direction. In addition to Watson, Holmes often has to shepherd Scotland Yard's Inspector Bristol to the criminal, with both Watson and Bristol skeptical until, well, yes, Holmes is (usually) proven right.

Rathbone's interpretation of Holmes speaks of an actor quite familiar with the famous sleuth of the books, but also one who understands the landscape of 1940s cinema. His Holmes is occasionally a bit curt, but basically he's a singularly focused giant brain solving a crime.

Rathbone's Holmes is also somehow in control even when he's racing like mad to stop a crime or find a suspect. He has an underlying respect for others that has him being kind to friends, while he simply ignores idiots if he can. He doesn't use his giant brain as a cudgel for sport.

The climax in this one sees Holmes busy saving Lupino's life while giving everyone a lesson about bolas, until he discovers Moriarty's real plan is to steal the crown jewels, so off to the Tower he races. Impatient while waiting for the hack's driver to return, he jumps into the driver's seat.

Speeding to the crime scene – as much as a horse-drawn hack can speed – Holmes unintentionally gives us a lesson in sticking to your professional lane. Then, finally meeting the film's early promise – no spoilers coming – Holmes and Moriarty face off alone in the Tower.

These action sequences are well done and the highlight for many, but the heart and soul of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are the quieter moments when Holmes is explaining his process to Watson or showing thoughtful kindness to Lupino. It's when he's being human.

What Rathbone as Holmes does bring to the action scenes, however, is the ability to show Holmes still actively thinking right in the middle of a fight or chase. It's exactly how you'd expect Holmes to be and displays, again, why Rathbone defined the famous sleuth for generations.

For the series, after this, it was goodbye to Fox and hello to Universal, the 1940s, and smaller budgets. It's in those twelve additional movies, however, that Rathbone had the time to lay down his claim to a Holmes interpretation for the ages.

 

[Trenchfriend]

@Fading Fast
Sounds good!

 

[Harp]

^ Ida Lupino as remarkable an actress with unmistakable femme fatale allure, is even more interesting as a film director who intimidated male colleagues by her brilliance. I believe she also directed several Have *** Will Travel television episodes.

I'll make note to watch this Rathbone sometime this winter. He clearly claimed the throne of Holmes; while taking nothing away from later thespian suitors.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I grew up on the Basil Rathbone Holmes films, they were standard local-station fare in the early/mid-sixties when much of TV broadcasting was still in b/w, back when most folks didn't yet have color sets. They inspired me to read ALL of Conan Doyle's stories over about a year when I was 14 or 15.

Fading, your observation that the contemporary-set B pictures are actually far more fun than the first two Fox A pictures set in Victorian times is dead on. For me, Rathbone will always be the definitive interpretation of the character. I know that the folks a bit younger than me were entranced with the Jeremy Brett series - but I was already in my thirties when it first aired. Obviously, there have been loads of great interpretations of Holmes over the years.

That said, it makes me sad that the kids of today will mostly be first encountering the character via the Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr. films, and they'll think Holmes is a quippy action hero...

Oh, and Ida Lupino - she was a tremendous talent.