What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Fading Fast]

Billy the Kid (1930) with John Mack Brown, Wallace Beery, and Kay Johnson


Billy the Kid the movie is not meant to be an honest account of the life of Billy the Kid. Once you forget about the historical Billy the Kid – once you let go of facts and history – you can enjoy this oddly entertaining early-talkie riff on the famous young g*nslinger.

Focusing on the Lincoln County War, Billy, played by Johnny Mack Brown, is a young hot-shot g*nslinger who leads a group of men to avenge the shooting of their boss, which leads to a months-long battle of retribution and counter-retribution, commonly known as a feud.

What matters is that Billy is engaging, friendly, and only kills for honor, not profit. He also has an undefined girlfriend, Claire, played by Kay Johnson, the fiancée of Billy's now dead boss. Claire seems to hang around out west, just waiting to have the occasional moment with Billy.

Billy spends the movie avenging the death of his boss and then running or hiding from those who are coming for him. One of them is Billy's friend, sheriff Pat Garrett, played by Wallace Beery, who goes after Billy reluctantly as he clearly values friendship over his job responsibilities.

Shot in proto-widescreen by director King Vidor, the movie has a lot of early-talkie clunkiness. Yet it also rises above those annoying tics in several captivating scenes, such as when Billy is caught with others in a house and the stress of being under siege is intensely felt.

Others crack, but Billy keeps his resolve and cool. When the house is set on fire to "smoke them out," you forget you're watching a clunky 1930 movie and are just rooting for Billy to get out alive. He, though, tries to help the others to escape first.

There's another scene of Billy trapped in a cave that is short and powerful, as Billy is cracking. The movie is all but one long chase, with interludes for Billy to chat up Claire, who needs no chatting up, or to talk with his friend Garrett, who doesn't really want to catch him anyway.

The relationship between Billy and Garrett – more than the off-the-shelf one of Billy and Johnson – is the emotional heart of the movie. These are two men who genuinely like and respect each other, trying to navigate a world that puts them on opposite sides of the g*n.

The climax is another capture-escape-chase-down-again sequence that has you on edge as you don't know how it will end: historically accurate or Hollywood feel-good. Smartly, most of that scene plays out with the only three characters you care about: Billy, Garrett, and Claire.

Brown would go on to a long career in supporting roles in Westerns as his heavy southern accent, something it's very unlikely the real Billy the Kid had, and modest range precluded starring roles. Yet his likability makes him perfect for this version of the g*nslinger's story.

Beery, who often mugs for the camera, gives a smartly nuanced performance here as a man balancing a lot of external pressure on his own sense of personal honor and loyalty. Beery would also have a long career, and you can understand why, seeing him here.

Johnson, seemingly by choice, had a more modest career, and in truth, looks too delicate and sweet to be a frontier woman pining for an outlaw. Yet in her scenes with Billy, you forget all that and just want this sincere and lovely-looking wan blonde to find her happily ever after.

From that era, Joan Crawford, Wynne Gibson, Bette Davis, or Glenda Farrell, to name just a few, were better suited to play a frontier woman, as these women read grit, not delicacy. Still, darn it, you can't help liking Kay Johnson, trying hard to look like all that dust isn't bothering her.

Vidor's Old West is, well, a dusty and grimy place as it historically was – it only became more elaborate and cleaner as movies got more expensive over time – which gives the picture an almost quaint believability or sense of honesty despite its basically made-up story.

Today, you watch 1930's Billy the Kid if you like one or more of the stars or enjoy early talkies, but you don't watch it for historical accuracy or expect a polished modern-made Western. Still, bring a forgiving attitude and it provides a solid ninety-plus minutes of entertainment.

 

[Harp]

Not a huge fan of Lancaster, but I did enjoy his performance in Sweet Smell of Success.

Still on the back burner but his 1980 comeback, Atlantic City is essential film.
This guy only got better with time, capable script, and directing.

 

[Harp]

Elizabeth, The Golden Age (2007)

Not bad. Cate Blanchett as the Virgin Queen and her entanglement with Walter Raleigh,
toss in a cutie pie blonde babe lady await, pious Phillip II-and the Spanish Armada wrecked
hurricane but wrong nautical latitude-and presto, a historically contrived but still workable script.

Cate cuts it with her Elizabeth portrayal and presents a multi-layered complex female
(but-aren't they all?) played off Clive Owens' Raleigh set amidst Fifteenth Cent skullduggery
that includes her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots beheading for treason. Some intricate legalese
argued convincingly by Lord High Chamberlain William Cecil against the Queen's advocatus
diaboli lingering doubt.

Marred chick flickits political correctitude with superfluous scenes of a mounted armor-clad
Cate doing the Mel Gibson Braveheart bit, but watchable. Gentleman's C catch-as-can catch overall grade.

 

[Edward]

Currently nearing the end of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Dumb (1984). The wife and I were having trouble finding something we'd both like to watch, and...well, neither of it consider it a favorite--in fact it's the second-worst Indiana Jones movie right behind that Dial of Destiny rubbish--but it's better than most of the other rubbish on TV at the moment.

It's a funny picture that one. It was my first Indy. Saw it in the cinema when I was ten, and until I was told by a friend his mother was taking us to see it that night, I had never so much as heard of Indiana Jones. Rural north of Ireland, 1984... Into the old ABC cinema in Belfast (a much talked about place in those days as it had *four* screens. The first multiplex I'd ever encountered. Still had to queue outside. I remember the very long que the other side of the building for the first Police Academy picture that night.

I still have a lot of affection for Temple, even if it's some way down my list (I actually prefer Dial, but I genuinely liked Dial as a conclusion to the series). It's certainly the one that has dated the most awkwardly, and the White Saviour narrative is something I doubt would fly to day. That said, it's also in many ones one of the truest to the period it sought to emulate, in part I think down to its faithfulness to some of the very same tropes that are considered problematic nowadays. Making allowances for that, it's a film I always enjoy far more on a rewatch than I expect. It's much darker than I tend to recall, and the bit that in theory ****les me - the insertion of a kid - is also a much darker element. Note the way Jones treats Shortround. He's not treating him like a kid, more like an adult. Indy has a sidekick, but he doesn't strike me as a man embracing the role of fatherhood. By the time of Skull, things go in a different direction with Mutt (via Crusade, in which we get to see Indy relate to actual family for the first time, as a son himself, opposite the best performance of Connery's career, imo). A level of character development that is sometimes missed across the series.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Speaking as someone who was already an adult when Raiders opened...

Raiders ****
Temple **
Crusade ***
Skull *
Destiny **

As I'm sure I've said here before, I saw Raiders on opening day in 1981 in a packed Times Square theater with ZERO spoilers - and at the time I was completely plugged into both the movie trade press and the geek publications like Starlog... and literally the only three things we knew beforehand was that it was a Lucas/Spielberg collaboration, it starred that Han Solo guy, and it was an homage to the 30s/40s adventure serials.

But... unlike later cohorts, we had actually SEEN those serials years earlier, because they were standard afternoon kiddie show fare along with vintage cartoons in the days when old b/w stuff was common, before most broadcasting and most TV sets were color. So we'd already recognized how much Star Wars had taken from the serials, especially Flash Gordon - the fast pace, constant action and firefights, crazy technology, villains in black and heroes in white, frequent cliffhanger escapes, the "wipe" scene transitions, THE OPENING TEXT CRAWL BEGINNING EACH CHAPTER...

Anyway, going in completely blind to Raiders was simply one of the greatest filmgoing experiences of my life - we were not prepared to experience arguably the best thrill-ride film of all time! And... I bought my first leather jacket soon after.

 

[Harp]

^ Lucas ran a television series octogenarian Indy feature format twenty or thirty years ago
that was quite good. I only caught a single, though singular episode set inside a museum
photographic exhibit centered the 1917 Russian Revolution. Exceptional quality.

I've habitually pitched the Jonesy film canon to youngsters, hoping they'd catch on to
some classic exceptional product.

 

[Edward]

Speaking as someone who was already an adult when Raiders opened...

Raiders ****
Temple **
Crusade ***
Skull *
Destiny **

As I'm sure I've said here before, I saw Raiders on opening day in 1981 in a packed Times Square theater with ZERO spoilers - and at the time I was completely plugged into both the movie trade press and the geek publications like Starlog... and literally the only three things we knew beforehand was that it was a Lucas/Spielberg collaboration, it starred that Han Solo guy, and it was an homage to the 30s/40s adventure serials.

But... unlike later cohorts, we had actually SEEN those serials years earlier, because they were standard afternoon kiddie show fare along with vintage cartoons in the days when old b/w stuff was common, before most broadcasting and most TV sets were color. So we'd already recognized how much Star Wars had taken from the serials, especially Flash Gordon - the fast pace, constant action and firefights, crazy technology, villains in black and heroes in white, frequent cliffhanger escapes, the "wipe" scene transitions, THE OPENING TEXT CRAWL BEGINNING EACH CHAPTER...

Anyway, going in completely blind to Raiders was simply one of the greatest filmgoing experiences of my life - we were not prepared to experience arguably the best thrill-ride film of all time! And... I bought my first leather jacket soon after.

That must have been something. I suspect I'm the youngest end of the generation that had that experience. Kids' Summer tv in the UK often featured those old serels in thexearly eighties, and weeknight early evenings on bbc 2 (when both the other channels had only news, yuck) were old seriels, movies, old Doctod Who, Laurel and Hardy.... I'd seen the Buster Crabbe Flash before I saw any other, King of the Rocket Men, the 30s Buck Rogers (which I preferred even when the later one came on tv over here). Zorro... I suspect that's part of why Ibdy resonated with me, and still does even long after I've grown out of Star Wars.

^ Lucas ran a television series octogenarian Indy feature format twenty or thirty years ago
that was quite good. I only caught a single, though singular episode set inside a museum
photographic exhibit centered the 1917 Russian Revolution. Exceptional quality.

I've habitually pitched the Jonesy film canon to youngsters, hoping they'd catch on to
some classic exceptional product.

Sounds like the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. I liked that show too.

Halfway hoping Disney put together an equally good series that covers the period 1939 to 1956, between Crusade and Skull. Indy's war and postwar years. Chasing the Spear of Destiny, or some mystical Korean artefact during that... police action. Could work well. I'd like to see Steven Knight have a crack at the writing, I enjoyed his blend of real and imagined history in Peaky.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Clue (1985), right now an Arte.

WHAT A CAST!!

 

[Fading Fast]

How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980) with Susan Saint James, Jane Curtin, and Jessica Lange


Have you ever wondered what a 1970s sitcom, a 1950s heist movie, and a 1930s screwball comedy would look like as a mashup? Hopefully not, or you need better things to wonder about. Still, if you have, the answer would be How to Beat the High Cost of Living.

Despite being released in 1980, this is a 1970s movie, with inflation even worse than today's, as prices for food, gas, insurance, and practically everything else seemingly went up daily. "Stagflation" – stagnant economic growth combined with inflation – was the neologism of the era.

Sitcoms in the 1970s captured this daily stress with dispirited humor, which is also how How to Beat the High Cost of Living addresses it. Its three stars – Jane Curtin, Susan Saint James, and Jessica Lange – are all demoralized seeing their lifestyles squeezed by rising prices.

Inflation also plays into their failing or thwarted relationships. Separated, Curtin can't pay the bills for her upscale lifestyle; Lange and her husband, played by Richard Benjamin, regularly fight about money; and Saint James and her fiancé can't afford to get married.

If you lived through the 1970s, you'll recognize the signposts: each trip to the gas station or grocery store is another round of sticker shock; inflation is covered as part of the normal news, not just the business news; and everyone talks about how the cost of living is crushing them.

So these three seemingly normal women hit on the infinitely stupid idea of stealing money to solve their problems: Pretty women like this do not want to find themselves in jail. Regardless, they plan to rob a giant transparent ball of money at the local mall that's part of a promotion.

Despite the sitcom jokes flying back and forth, the women start to plan the heist in a manner reasonably familiar to 1950s heist-movie fans, but here it's an all-women team: Casing the joint (the mall), writing up the plans, and assigning responsibilities are all classic heist preparations.

A local police officer, who pulled Curtin over for speeding, develops a thing for her, which has him coming around often – the last thing women planning a heist need, but movie plots need tension. Curtin and the cop also have an aborning romance that adds some s*xual frisson.

Everyday-life complications, from grampa showing up to getting dinner on the table to having a foot caught in the glove box during, umm, extracurricular activities in a car – all very sitcom-like – bump up against smooth heist planning. It's hard to be both a woman with a family and a criminal.

Eventually, we get to the heist, and it's a good scene at first that eventually devolves into a 1930s screwball comedy, 1970s style, as Curtin does an attention-diverting striptease while Lange and Saint James steal the money but then run into canoeing and swimming problems.

Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow, and Katharine Hepburn would have been very much at home with this part of the script. A few more wrinkles like in a screwball and then it's on to the epilogue and credits.

Does it work? Yes and no. The women are appealing. Curtin is excellent as the weary wisecracking one. Saint James is the cute downmarket woman who misses a lot but is loyal as heck. Lange, arrestingly pretty, proves to have more grit than you'd imagine.

The sitcom stuff is a bit much to take in a movie that should have a better quality of humor, and the screwball stuff here, as always, feels forced and undermines the thin thread of believability all movies need, but the heist sequence generates some real 1950s crime drama.

Lange shines in the heist's planning and execution scenes, so much so that you realize, almost accidentally, that this very pretty woman can act in both comedic and dramatic roles. She's way more than just another Hollywood hottie.

Darn it, you like the women. That's what sells the movie. The men are mainly idiots, the story trips all over itself with plot holes, but the three women are appealing personalities whom you enjoy spending time with.

The movie feels more genuine and is funnier when it's just the three of them in a scene. Watch for the hardware store "break in" or, even better, the post-heist debrief on the fly, but you feel like you're watching three old friends kid each other, fight, and get along like three old friends will.

In only a few years, Hollywood would star Saint James and Curtin in a popular sitcom Kate & Allie. One guesses somebody maybe noticed their on-screen chemistry here. Lange's movie career took off, but she would have been a nice addition to the sitcom's cast.

How to Beat the High Cost of Living isn't a good movie except for the fact that, being generous, it's fun: the women are fun, the heist is fun, and the time travel to the 1970s is fun.

Sure it's dated and has too many sharp elbows tossed at men, but feminism always had a sleeve of anti-man bias. "So what," you ask? The "so what" is enough of that, and feminism becomes something contrary to its mission: a bias for or against one s*x.

 

[Harp]

Sounds like the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. I liked that show too.

Halfway hoping Disney put together an equally good series that covers the period 1939 to 1956, between Crusade and Skull. Indy's war and postwar years. Chasing the Spear of Destiny, or some mystical Korean artefact during that... police action. Could work well. I'd like to see Steven Knight have a crack at the writing, I enjoyed his blend of real and imagined history in Peaky.

Mousehouse remains a tad punch drunk after the hit took Dial box office.
Word is back to Genesis with a new Adam; instead of embarking any unknown shores or imaginative forays.