What was the last movie you saw?

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children on TV last night. I'd always wanted to read the book but never got round to it. Really enjoyed the film.
 
Venus Meets the Son of Hercules (Marte, dio della guerra, 1962)

In this one, the so-called "son of Hercules" is none other than Mars himself. The English dubbing gives him some other name, and when Jupiter shows up, it calls him Hercules. Well, forget about that. What's really going on is that Mars goes down to Earth to help a city under siege by invaders. The opening battle sequence is quite impressive, and overall this film looks a lot better than most sword-and-sandal flicks. Mars falls in love with a mortal woman, and gets Jupiter to make him a mortal. Jupiter, who isn't crazy about the idea, also gives him three solidified thunderbolts that will make Mars immortal again, I guess temporarily, when he breaks one. Meanwhile, palace intrigue once again raises its head. It seems that there's some guy who wants to marry the princess, so he can obtain the throne some day, but also wants to mess around with the woman Mars loves. The princess simultaneously despises and loves the guy, so she arranges to have the other woman locked away at a temple of Venus as a priestess. Mars sneaks into the temple, but Venus grabs him for herself, taking him into her cloudy realm, while disguising herself as the woman he loves. The woman is condemned for blasphemy for letting her lover into the temple. (I would have thought Venus wouldn't want virgin priestesses, but what do I know.) She manages to sneak out to visit an oracle, who shows her Mars and Venus making out. Mars eventually sees through the wiles of Venus, goes back to Earth, battles the scheming guy who, by this time, has wound up killing the princess. It all leads up to a fight with a giant plant monster! As you can see, a heck of a lot goes on. I haven't mentioned the avant-garde modern dance routine performed at the temple, the truly weird torture device used on a deaf-mute servant, the bizarre and often quite beautiful sets, the giant pyre used to burn the bodies of those dead in battle, and a bunch of other stuff. Not the typical film of its kind.
Is there some sort of Hercules only channel where you live? I think we have something similar, only it's for Everybody Loves Raymond
 
The Terror of Rome Against the Son of Hercules (Maciste, gladiatore di Sparta, 1964)

Once again our hero is Maciste, although the English dubbing calls him Poseidon. He's introduced as a gladiator, successfully fighting off four gladiators who have just defeated their opponents. The Roman Emperor is named Vitellius, so I guess it's supposed to be the year 69; that fellow ruled for only eight months that year. Anyway, the victorious Maciste wins the favor of the Emperor, the romantic interest of a lady of the court, and the enmity of the head of the Praetorian Guards, who is interested in the lady himself. The first battle between the two rivals is an odd blindfolded sword fight. They both survive that, although a nearby slave is accidentally killed; a death which is treated very casually. Maciste happens to save a Christian woman from being arrested by the Guards, and it's love at first sight. In an interesting twist for this genre, the lady of the court does not become his deadly enemy after her love is scorned. Instead, she does everything she can to help him and his true love. Well, Maciste goes on to fight a guy in a gorilla suit in the arena, in the movie's silliest scene. He also rescues a bunch of Christians from prison. The effort to rescue their leader, who is kept in the dungeon under the arena, leads to a bunch of rebellious gladiators also being freed, so we get a big fight scene with the Guards. It's all nicely filmed. It's not clear who the Terror of Rome might be, or it the title refers to the persecution of Christians. The Emperor is the most interesting character, casually ordering people killed or greatly rewarded whenever the whim takes him, and much more interested in food and drink than anything else.

Is this the one where these dishes like "pheasants in wine stuffed with Dormice" on these huge platters are brought in on the backs of sweating slaves and the Emperor shakes a hanky whereupon they are hauled off? One ot the better scenes of wretched excess I remember.
 
Hellboy with David Harbor - it was so gory and violent I actually felt sick, and way too much profanity. Pet Sematary with Jason Clarke - Not too bad, the ending strays very far from the book and the mid movie pivotal scene is also a twist. Well acted at least but not as good as the new It movie.
 
Captain America: The Winter Soldier was o TV on Saturday. It's my favourite Marvel movie so far and a vast improvement over The First Avenger. (I haven't seen Civil War yet, though.)
 
Catching up a bit.

Victoria, I'm assuming Paul Frees stood in for Walter Winchell, who did a similar narrative shtick over the old TV show, "The Untouchables." With his voice, I'd think he'd be even more effective than Winchell.

I still remember Paul Frees as the narrator saying something about various doomed characters, on the last day of his life, or words to that effect. :lol: This guy was Boris Badenov & Poppin Fresh, too. What a range!

Frees' voice was everywhere. I recall having viewer whiplash the first time I heard his voice from an actual person on screen: He played one of the Arctic scientists in The Thing (From Another World). "Wait! That's Boris!/Santa Claus!/John Lennon!/George Harrison!/etc.!" (Yup. The mid-'60s Beatles cartoon series didn't have the boys doing their own voices; Ringo and Paul were voiced by another actor.)

Over the weekend saw two movies:

Poltergeist (1982), dir. Tobe Hooper; starring Jobeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight; scenes stolen from everyone by Zelda Rubinstein

Haven't seen this in over 20 years and I'd forgotten how efficient a narrative machine this was. There's no waste, characters shown and sketched in quickly, almost too quickly and so nearly one-dimensional, but over the course of the movie the actors carry the load well. Seems there's poltergeist activity of an intensity heretofore unknown, but really what's most important is the family dynamic, how the parents who initially seem a bit goofy and self-involved react to the threat to their children and each other. Supposedly it's directed by Hooper, but the producer's thumbprint is all over it: Spielbergian camera angles and the bright California colors of his early movies. Still the success of this one contributed to Hooper getting the financing for Lifeforce which I mocked earlier this year.


Inherit the Wind (1960) dir. Stanley Kramer; starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Gene Kelly, and several faces familiar from my TV set in the '60s

First time I've ever seen the entire movie. I've wanted to for years, and I'm glad I finally did. Excellent movie based on the play based on the Scopes Trial from the 1920s, among the first of the "Trials of the Century". March might over-act a bit in spots, but he's one of the few in the Hollywood of the time who could stand toe-to-toe with Tracy and give as good as he got. (See Bad Day at Black Rock for another example, that time with Robert Ryan.)

Tangentially, I'm always a bit taken aback by how quickly the stars of that generation aged. It might be partly make-up, but Tracy would have been 59 or 60 shooting the film, but easily looks 10 years older. Cagney and Gable held up decently (though Gable only had another 3 years), but Cooper didn't and Bogart, Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power were dead by then. But only Cary Grant looked his age and not a decade older. Drinking, smoking and poor diet were all contributing factors, but even the next generation or so -- Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman -- fared significantly better with aging.

Randy M.
 
Last edited:
Shield for Murder (1954)

Edmund O'Brien as a crooked cop who kills a bookie for the $25K he's found out he's carrying.

Things spiral out of control, as he soon discovers a deaf mute had witnessed the murder. He accidently kills the witness, makes it look like the man fell down the stairs - but doesn't know the man had already wrote down his testimony! When the 'good cop' finds the letter, he goes to arrest the 'bad cop. Bad cop gets the upper hand and for a moment, contemplates killing him, too. He only knocks him out, though, and tries to run. The witness' note drops the Blue Shield and every copper in the city goes after the bad seed.

A simple story, but very well acted. One case of bad casting though: Caroline Jones in a small part as a barhop hitting on O'Brien's character. Problem is, she's both prettier and a better actor than the lead female - not wise!

I liked it!

EDIT: Can't believe I forgot to mention the great climactic chase scenes and shoot-outs! Some of the best action scenes pre-1970s!
 
Last edited:
Escape Plan3, the Extractors - I wanted this to have some, just any cool 'escape' aspect to it but nah it's just shoot n' stab and the usual nonsense.

A Man Escaped 1956 - b and w, stark and simple, escape from the Nazis, very straightforward, but does he make it? The title suggests yes, but...
 
Sherlock Holmes in The House of Fear (1945)

Another Rathbone & Bruce team-up.

A group of friends are dying off after receiving orange seeds while dining together. An insurance agent wants Holmes' help in determining if they are murders.

In my opinion, this movie's creators were trying to adopt Conan Doyle's story, Five Orange Pips, but finding that story too convoluted for these short movies (this one was 1:09), they opted on changing... most everything, but kept in the pips.

Still, these two were always the best Holmes/Watson team and this movie was no different, in that regard. Wonderfully acted, as usual!

But the storyline seemed forced, the direction poor. Holmes is staying at an Inn, but is invited to stay with the surviving friends. The maid has to enter a second time before Holmes asks her to see the letter - meant, of course, for the member not present at the time. Watson is saying things that are nearly moronic, they're so obvious.

You can't ruin a Holmes picture with these two in it, but the screenwriter and the director seemed to have made a gallant effort at doing so!
 
I know I have seen Shield for Murder, must have been at least a year ago. I hope Noir Alley has not shown it yet!

I never knew so many Hercules films existed; though since you also provided the original titles, I guess there are not so many, as it seems to American viewers. Thanks, Victoria Silverwolf! I saw at least half-a-dozen similarly titled films; though differing in plots, they all have more than a few similarities.

I guess the old damsel in distress thing is a thing of the past; not too likely they will make any more of them.
 
My review of Shield for Murder from a while back.

Shield for Murder (1954)

Pretty good film noir with Edmund O'Brien (who also co-directed) as a cop who kills a bookie in cold blood in order to grab the huge wad of cash he's carrying. He covers it up as an accidental shooting while the guy was trying to escape arrest. Not only do a couple of sleazy "private detectives" (hired thugs) try to get back the money for their crime boss employer, there was a deaf and dumb man who witnessed the murder, and O'Brien's honest partner (B favorite John Agar) conducts his own investigation of the case. Lots of familiar character actors show up. Moves along briskly, with some intense, if not explicit, violence, and an extended chase sequence near the end, partly involving a running gun battle in a crowded gymnasium/swimming pool. The only unbelievable element is that the rather sweaty, doughy O'Brien not only has a gorgeous girlfriend twenty years his junior (B favorite Marla English) but also gets picked up at a bar/Italian restaurant by the always striking Carolyn Jones, with platinum hair here. She steals the picture and has some of the best lines, but I'll admit she has nothing to do with the plot.

There were a huge number of Italian sword-and-sandal movies in the late 1950's and 1960's. (Just as there were lots of the horror/mystery films known as gialli, hordes of space movies, a bunch of Gothic chillers, and scads of spy flicks. The Italians don't fool around!) Most of them didn't feature Hercules. The most common character was Maciste, who goes back to the silent days, and who could show up in any time period from prehistoric to, at least once, in the 17th century.
 
Watched A Few Good Men on Sunday with the family - everyone really enjoyed it. The character interplay was absolutely superb.
I'm a fan of any of Aaron Sorkin's writing but this is one of the best...
Last film I saw...
In the Heat of the Night [1967]
I can't think of a bad note in the film. From Rod Steiger as one of the best good-bad guys, and Sidney Poitier's "They call me MISTER Tibbs" via the Ray Charles Title song and Quincy Jones' music and some beautiful location shooting...
Fifty years on and it still feels fresh and new.
 
Forbidden Planet. It had been some time since I'd watched this classic. Wonderful science fiction on every level. We need to go back to this sort of science fiction film today. Great story, solid acting, minimal effects.
 
Watched three Noah Baumbach movies over the last three days: While We're Young (2015), The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), and Frances Ha (2012). The latter was my least favorite one. I'd tried to watch it before but quit after 20 minutes. Liking the two newer movies convinced me to give it another try. At least within the narrow slice of society on which Baumbach focuses, sometimes these movies are so accurate in their observation it's painful. He's basically a new, sharper version of Woody Allen, which we have long needed, since version 1.0 lost his edge at least two decades ago. Sharper, probably smarter, and less desperate to display his NY intellectual credentials.
 
Sherlock Holmes in The Spider Woman (1943)

A woman proves she's nearly the equal of Holmes, and comes very close to killing them in their own rooms on Baker Street!

Includes lots of nasty spiders and a nasty little boy to boot!

Despite the intriguing woman, this movie doesn't live up to Rathbone and Bruce's standards, mostly because the pace seems off. And I have two other complaints: First, Holmes is a great detective, not a psychic. He could not have 'predicted' the use of a suitcase to move the little guy around in, since he never saw the suitcase, nor knew that they kept him hidden. The director also purposely lingered on a palm reader's sign at the fair. Perhaps the director (Roy William Neill) had an unfavorable opinion of the great detective?

Second, if you're going to have Holmes tell a joke at the end, at least make it groan-worthy!
 
A Nero Wolfe Mystery: The Golden Spiders (Pilot Episode, 2000)

This made-for-television movie series starred Maury Chaykin (Wolfe), Timothy Hutton (Goodwin) and R. D. Reid (Sergeant Stebbins), all excellent choices!

The series kept pretty faithful to Stout's versions, and was the best mystery series on television between 2001 and 20003. Despite being A&E's 4th most watched show ever, they inexplicably canceled ir!

This pilot is based off Rex Stout''s 1953 novel.

Having read several of Stout's books, I can honestly say this series retains the feel of the fat protagonist's and Archie's antics. Quite an enjoyable romp, always. But sometime, like this story, heart rending.

A young boy, believing he's witnessed a crime, comes to Nero for help. The next day, the boy is murdered. Nero is outraged... and if it's one thing a criminal doesn't want, it's an outraged Nero Wolfe , focusing on a crime you committed!

Everyone goes into action - Archie Goodwin physically, Wolfe mentally. Archie can go from campy to romantic in a second - that's why Hutton was such an excellent choice (though I always thought Tim Curry would also have made a fine Goodwin). In this opener, though, Archie is mostly campy - perhaps an attempt to counter the horror of a little boy being murdered?

An excellent movie, an excellent series. Catch any episode - you won't be disappointed!
 

Similar threads


Back
Top