What was the last movie you saw?

[Victoria Silverwolf]

@Victoria Silverwolf havr you reviewed ‘The House with the Smiling Windows’ by any chance? I’ve been watching it over the last few nights on YouTube and it’s reminded me of your giallo reviews.

pH

I gave it a try, but the only version of it I found on YouTube was in Italian only. If you have a link to an subtitled or dubbed version, I'll give it a look.

 

[Jeffbert]

I watched The Dambusters, recently a cracking classic film. I'm not sure if you could get away with some of the outdated language. Ie. Nigger the dog, which when he gets killed and is remembered as a code word for the destruction of one of the dams. Brilliant 10/10.

I saw this a few years ago. Very good drama; as I recall, it showed the actual way they got the bombs to explode right where they wanted them. Unless you know about it, you will have no appreciation for the difficulty in keeping the bombs from simply rolling or sliding right over the top of the dam, and exploding where the least damage would result. Thanks for the review, Ian Fortytwo; I had forgotten about this film.


Trapped (1949) This past Sunday's Noir Alley film. Lloyd Bridges as a counterfeiter who, in hopes of a reduced sentence, cooperates with Treasury Agents in finding the plates he had made. Once out of prison, he turns crooked again, hoping to collect his share of the real money his gang got from passing phony money.

Mueller's before and after was actually just as entertaining as the film. It seems LB fell sick during production, and was written out of the script. His character was just a wee bit abruptly caught again, and never seen again. The Femme fatale, Meg Dixon had nothing on the actress portraying her. Barbara Payton was not a nice girl!


The Pink Panther (1963) apparently David Niven was supposed to be the star, hoping to redo what Raffles did for him in an earlier decade. But Peter Sellers apparently stole the show.

Sequels to run each Saturday at 12 Pm.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets [2017] written and directed by Luc Besson
First of, I’ve not seen the printed source stories, so I’m only looking at is a film and not as an adaptation and there is probably a minor spoiler in the review. It is a spectacular candyfloss of a film that looked amazing and had enough plot to justify the run time. I though Cara Delevigne was more than up to the role of Laureline and there was a nice mix of the expected and unexpected in the casting but what went wrong with Dane DeHaan as Valerian? I don’t remember the Actor in other roles, and I’m not surprised. There was no charisma coming from him on screen and no spark between him and Cara Delevigne as the two leads [apparently deeply in love – or at least headed that way, with each other]. I wanted Laureline to end up with someone better.
...Oh, he was prepared to give up his “play-list” to be with her… Big deal!
Laureline! He isn’t worth it.
I’ve liked Luc Besson as a writer and director from the first time I saw Léon: The Professional. [possibly Gary Oldman's best role - and that is saying a lot, Jean Reno and an incredible Natalie Portman]. And if you haven’t seen them: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec or [the first and French original] Taxi – go watch them! Not "deep" films but a lot of fun. He has an aesthetic [along with Jean-Pierre Jeunet, admittedly often much darker] that I just don’t see in American films.

I liked it too. I think the aesthetic you're thinking of is this (or close to it): Cinéma du look - Wikipedia

 

[Phyrebrat]

I gave it a try, but the only version of it I found on YouTube was in Italian only. If you have a link to an subtitled or dubbed version, I'll give it a look.

This is the one I’m watching. I wonder if it’s not available in the States. You may need a VPN.

incidentally I’m not sure it’s in the giallo tradition but the opening credits suggested it might be.

pH

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

This is the one I’m watching. I wonder if it’s not available in the States. You may need a VPN.

incidentally I’m not sure it’s in the giallo tradition but the opening credits suggested it might be.

pH

Thanks! This one works for me. I usually get my gialli on YouTube from the collection of a person called Der Joker. Some of them are dubbed; some of them are subtitled; some are both, weirdly, with dubbing that doesn't match the subtitles; and some are in the original language, usually Italian.

Most sources call this film a giallo with supernatural elements, and it has a pretty favorable reputation, so I should enjoy it.

 

[J Riff]

All righty this is special, a special moment, as Horror of the Blood Monsters aka Vampire Men of the Lost Planet 1970 - cobbled together using footage from a lost Filipino caveman movie - has finally been located. Total spoilage of course, and we start with a dramatic voiced-over Vampire voice, explaining how vampires came from outer space.
Now the space mission, headed for the new solar system recently discovered by John Carradine, and the inevitable collision with a meteor. They fix the ship up though, and make it to a planet in a couple days.
First we see some Brontosauri, then some stock footage of lizards fighting, but then cave men and women appear, running around and fighting. Our intrepid team guns down 3 of them to save a girl, then they insert a translator device and she tells them about her tribe and the other tribe with the cheap plastic fangs, while Carradine, who has had a minor heart attack, grumpily gives orders from the ship.
This planet has a red haze in the air, so the colorize filter is applied, but they change it a few times, yellow, blue, so we know we are on an alien planet and not just in the desert outside LA.
Now...back on Earth, our mission commader guy and his GF are making out in their spare time, while wired up to some kind of computer, in a room full of beeping and what look like flashing aquarium light bulbs...* - cut to a huge battle between the tribes on our new planet...
- back to Cmdr. guy informing us that 'dangerous chromatic radiation is sweeping over unidentified planets we've been investigating." aha- it's the chromatic radiations that are causing the color changes in the atmosphere. Pretty slick writing.
Cmdr. has a gizmo, all wrapped in copper wire.. that changes the color in the room, which he demonstrates.. Then he switches on the make-out machine and we get beeping, groping and flashing for quite a time, while back on the now-blue planet, the Vampire tribe is causing trouble, but they go down if hit by arrows, so... anyway they have to find 'firewater' crude oil, to keep the tribe alive, and so Carradine can distill some and fix the cooling system so they can leave and the movie can end.
Suddenly, a big Crab-Man appears and attacks the tribe as they cross a river. In the petroleum cave? Swooping Bat-people!
A few more Dinosaurs.. tribal brawling, and bad news from Carradine re: poison atmosphere: 'our white corpuscles are eating the red ones" and everyone on the planet is doomed to die. Our crew will be fine back on Earth however, so they blast off and leave everyone to their fate. Carradine monologues briefly about Earth being destroyed by stupidity some day and it's The End.
All through this movie, in all settings, you hear that liitle 'bleep' chirping noise like on the Star Trek bridge, it never stops.
* * * * *

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The House of the Laughing Windows (La casa dalle finestre che ridono, 1976)

I had mistakenly thought this giallo had an element of the supernatural to it. However, it's so moody, with a constant feeling of unseen dread, that it feels like a ghost story. The protagonist goes to a small, isolated village to restore a particularly gruesome painting of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. (It shows him being stabbed to death rather than being shot full of arrows, which is relevant to the plot.) We soon find out that the dead (or is he?) painter, known as the Artist of Agony, was obsessed with painting the dying. (During the eerie credit sequence, we've already heard his incoherent ramblings about colors, blood, death, and purity.) The protagonist's friend tries to tell him about the Very Bad Things that happened at the artist's place, but is soon killed by being pushed out a high window. In typical giallo fashion, the protagonist is a witness, but doesn't really see what happened. The film moves very slowly after this, as the protagonist discovers more things about the artist. We don't get more killings until about twenty minutes before the end, but they then come at a rapid pace, leading to a gruesome discovery and the traditional twist ending which a giallo requires. Unlike the typical giallo, with its blazing bright colors, this one is filmed in washed-out sepia tones, which adds to the quietly creepy mood. Recommended.

Thanks to Phyrebrat for the link.

 

[Vareor]

I watched Toy Story 4 last night and it definitely lived up to what the ending movie of a legendary series should be like.
It did a great job on displaying the passing of time and the naturalness of passing the baton to younger generations. I also liked how they emphasized the importance of choosing one's path as well as facing the consequences associated with said choice.
And there were a lot of scenes so funny that no matter how many times I rewound them, they never depleted their humor.

 

[Jeffbert]

All righty this is special, a special moment, as Horror of the Blood Monsters aka Vampire Men of the Lost Planet 1970 - cobbled together using footage from a lost Filipino caveman movie - has finally been located. Total spoilage of course, and we start with a dramatic voiced-over Vampire voice, explaining how vampires came from outer space.
Now the space mission, headed for the new solar system recently discovered by John Carradine, and the inevitable collision with a meteor. They fix the ship up though, and make it to a planet in a couple days.
First we see some Brontosauri, then some stock footage of lizards fighting, but then cave men and women appear, running around and fighting. Our intrepid team guns down 3 of them to save a girl, then they insert a translator device and she tells them about her tribe and the other tribe with the cheap plastic fangs, while Carradine, who has had a minor heart attack, grumpily gives orders from the ship.
This planet has a red haze in the air, so the colorize filter is applied, but they change it a few times, yellow, blue, so we know we are on an alien planet and not just in the desert outside LA.
Now...back on Earth, our mission commader guy and his GF are making out in their spare time, while wired up to some kind of computer, in a room full of beeping and what look like flashing aquarium light bulbs...* - cut to a huge battle between the tribes on our new planet...
- back to Cmdr. guy informing us that 'dangerous chromatic radiation is sweeping over unidentified planets we've been investigating." aha- it's the chromatic radiations that are causing the color changes in the atmosphere. Pretty slick writing.
Cmdr. has a gizmo, all wrapped in copper wire.. that changes the color in the room, which he demonstrates.. Then he switches on the make-out machine and we get beeping, groping and flashing for quite a time, while back on the now-blue planet, the Vampire tribe is causing trouble, but they go down if hit by arrows, so... anyway they have to find 'firewater' crude oil, to keep the tribe alive, and so Carradine can distill some and fix the cooling system so they can leave and the movie can end.
Suddenly, a big Crab-Man appears and attacks the tribe as they cross a river. In the petroleum cave? Swooping Bat-people!
A few more Dinosaurs.. tribal brawling, and bad news from Carradine re: poison atmosphere: 'our white corpuscles are eating the red ones" and everyone on the planet is doomed to die. Our crew will be fine back on Earth however, so they blast off and leave everyone to their fate. Carradine monologues briefly about Earth being destroyed by stupidity some day and it's The End.
All through this movie, in all settings, you hear that liitle 'bleep' chirping noise like on the Star Trek bridge, it never stops.
* * * * *

DOES THIS film have a guy with lobster claws? If so, I have seen it, and it is wonderfully laughable!


SPARTICUS (1960) My 1st time seeing the whole thing, nearly 3:15! I had no idea there was so much politics in it. I thought that the current political world was dog-eat-dog, but the Romans were much worse.

Obviously most was embellished, as it seems much about the man was contradicted by other's writings on him. I am surprised that the Romans even recorded anything about him and the events in which he took part. I would have thought they would have been very embarrassed to admit that a slave revolt had ever occurred.

Anyway, it was entertaining, if not brutal (by the 1960s standards, anyway). I had to watch it in two viewings, nearly two hours on the 1st.


GHIDORAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964) Takashi Shimura in, yet a 3rd role; this time as psychiatrist Dr. Tsukamoto (塚本 博士 Tsukamoto-hakase) . Ghidorah is a very powerful creature, and the three Godzilla, Rodan, & Mothra work together to defeat it.

Scarface (1932) Antonio Camonte (Paul Muni) is an ambitious gangster, obviously modeled on Al Capone. Tom Gaffney (Boris Karloff) is the Bugs Moran gangster, who by chance, arrives 5 minutes too late to be the 8th victim of the famous massacre. This occurs later in the film. Interesting to see him in a supporting role, 1 year after Frankenstein.

Guino Rinaldo (George Raft) is his buddy, also a gangster serving the same boss.

While the boss had been careful not to do business in the North side, Tony Camonte has no such cautions, and recklessly pursues his goals. Sensing that the Boss is too cautious, even timid, Scarface betrays his boss and takes over the gang. Raft is now his subordinate.

Spoiler

Scarface has a younger sister, about whom he is very protective. No man is good enough for her; when he sees her in a dance hall, he grabs her, drags her home, and forbids her to do it again. She is outraged at his treating her like a child. After the Massacre, Scarface takes a month-long vacation, during which time his precious kid sister marries Rinaldo. Since nobody is good enough for her, when Scarface returns, he is too quick to anger, and rather then hearing the explanation, he kills Rinaldo.

Given the other murders for which he was responsible, it seems odd that this time, he shots it out with the cops, thus ending his life.

Very good depiction of the brutality of such gangsters, especially given that Robinson and Cagney were typecast in such roles, while Paul Muni was not. In fact, this was only his 3rd film, & the 1st 2 were poorly received.

 

[Nozzle Velocity]

We caught Hitchcock's North By Northwest (1959) at a local cinema. It's always a treat to see older films the way they were intended to be experienced. (Albeit, it's not really film these days, but that's another topic.) I've always believed a larger screen brings out the acting above all other elements. Strong arguments have been made that Hitch's best years were under Selznick, but these widescreen extravaganzas of the 1950s and 60s were bold, colorful crowd pleasers while still pushing the boundaries of what's possible with film. You can still see the wheels turning in Hitchcock's head as he's giving the producer the bare minimum of cuts. It's the director's film, and the less the studio editors have to play with, the better. This can lend a slightly sterile, clockwork nature to some of Hitchcock's films. In this case, that effect is leavened by Cary Grant who provides the perfect amount of comedy in a symphony of intrigue and paranoia. It's one of his greatest performances. Also, Bernard Herrmann's score in stereo sounded fantastic in that room.

Disney's Alice In Wonderland (1951) is still loud and tedious. It's fair to call it an overly Americanized version of what should be a particularly English dreamscape of philosophy and wit. But it's even more accurate to identify it as evidence that Warner Brothers animation department dominated the post-war years with its non-stop insanity and hilarity. Matching every action on screen with obvious musical cues works with six or eight-minute shorts, but it gets tiresome when grafted onto Alice or The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or The Wind in the Willows (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in1949). Let's face it, what's being said in Alice merely needs to be heard, not enhanced. Meanwhile, Disney's color department, always the best in the business, continued to improve every year. Alice is still visually stunning and a real breakthrough for its time in saturation and color palette coordination. Seriously, this Blu-Ray on Ye Olde Plasma looks like God's Own Color Test. There's a reason the counter-culture of the 60s turned this into a midnight movie. I kept turning the volume down because it distracted from the beauty of what was onscreen. That's a mismatch Disney would correct as they eventually settled down and found a way to compete in a faster paced world without going overboard.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Finally managed to watch more than the first ten mins of @Victoria‘s giallo The House with the Laughing Windows on YouTube. Really enjoyed it (my earlier struggles weren’t anything to do with the film itself, just my own tiredness).

There was something about the ending that reminded me of Don’t Look Now.

pH

 

[Rodders]

I watched the Ultimate cut of Watchmen last night.

I've never read the graphic novel, so I have no references to critique this movie. It's very much a film about the darker, violent side of human nature. A pretty good movie in my opinion.

 

[hitmouse]

I liked it too. I think the aesthetic you're thinking of is this (or close to it): Cinéma du look - Wikipedia

I dont think this really cinema du look. That refers to a bunch of highly stylised 1980s French films about acheingly cool and diffident characters living on the margins of French society. Diva and Subway are good examples.
Valerian's closest cousin stylistically is probably The Fifth Element. Both take heavily from some of the French Bandes Desinees, which have very distinct visual and narrative styles. The Valerian comics are well worth checking out.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

I dont think this really cinema du look. That refers to a bunch of highly stylised 1980s French films about acheingly cool and diffident characters living on the margins of French society. Diva and Subway are good examples.
Valerian's closest cousin stylistically is probably The Fifth Element. Both take heavily from some of the French Bandes Desinees, which have very distinct visual and narrative styles. The Valerian comics are well worth checking out.

Besson is considered one of the three iconic directors of the Cinema du Look.

 

[clovis-man]

Queen of Outer Space. So bad, it's great.

 

[Jeffbert]

The Vikings (1958) The pommel from a royal sword is fastened around the neck of the boy born of rape of the widowed queen by Viking Ragnar Lodbrok (Ernest Borgnine), in hopes that he might be recognized later in life, as the heir to the throne; which had since been usurped by another. The boy is sent by ship to Italy, in hopes he will be safe from the usurper there, if the usurper ever learns of his existence. The boy is captured by Vikings, who enslave him. as a grown man, Eric (Tony Curtis) runs afoul of the Viking King's son Einar (Kirk Douglas) whom his falcon wounds in the face, thus earning his wrath. Neither knows that they are half-brothers.

Things happen, and Ragnar Lodbrok is captured by the English, and is to be thrown with hands tied into a pit filled with ravenous wolves. Eric is present when Ragnar, accepting his fate, asks to die like a Viking, with sword in hand, so that his soul can ascend to Valhalla. The usurper forbids it, but Eric, being closest to Ragnar, cuts his bonds and gives him the sword. Ragnar leaps into the pit with gusto. The usurper severs the hand that offended him. That scene was the only thing I remembered about this film for the longest time.

The priest or monk who had tied the pommel around Eric's neck when he was an infant, sees it now, and works to protect him.

Eric has no love for the English, so he returns to the Vikings. I find that odd, since they had enslaved him. Anyway, a good action-packed film, with a few unlikely plot elements, but far from the only film with them.

Spoiler

The ending seemed a bit unlikely, as the man who had been enslaved by the Vikings, had become a leader of them, and granted the right to marry the English Princess. Which of the Vikings would be inclined to believe that the slave was Ragnar's son?

The Tiger Makes Out (1967) Funny, but not so much that I would ever watch it again. Benjamin Harris (Eli Wallach) is a mailman who just cannot attract a female companion, so, he decides to abduct one. The one he grabs, by covering her with his trench coat, is not his intended victim, but middle-aged housewife Gloria Fiske (Anne Jackson). Note that the abduction occurs about halfway through the film, as the beginning shows the guy moaning and groaning about his lot in life, and constantly plotting to take what he wants by force. Also shown is Gloria's husband, who constantly complains about her to his coworkers and carpool buddies.

A really funny part occurred when the guy goes to some government agency to complain about his landlady's treatment of him and her failure to fix problems in his apartment. He goes to the window, demanding to speak to someone in charge. The guy behind the window gives him a card with '110' on it, and says to take a seat and wait. Just then, number 15 is called. The guy goes ballistic. He is on his lunch hour, and it is clear, he will be waiting all afternoon.

 

[J Riff]

The Invasion of Astro-Monster 1965 - terrific Tanaka Toho, this, and another hard-to-locate one that finally shows up. We get Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah but they are almost incidental characters, because Planet X - the hidden 13th moon of Jupiter - has been discovered.
Of course there are humanoid aliens there, with cool black and silver unis, and an undergound base. Ghidorah, named 'Monster Zero' on Planet X, does a lot of rampaging up on the surface, so when our Earth astronauts arrive, the aliens make a deal with them to 'borrow' Godzilla and Rodan (Monster Zero One and Monster Zero Two) in order to use them to beat down the troublesome Monster Zero.
The ETs come to pick up the monsters on Earth but of course it's all a trick. They offer a cure for cancer to the Earth in trade for borrowing the monsters but then they turn around and attempt to take over the planet. Our funny inventor guy has made a gizmo - a weird sound gizmo, that conveniently drive the ETs mad, and that works out well, and the monsters do their thing, but it isn't really about them, and we get cool UFO action galore, plenty explosions, great sets, wacky music and cool costumes - and all the alien women have the exact same face, very pretty, so that doesn't hurt.

 

[clovis-man]

The Vikings (1958) The pommel from a royal sword is fastened around the neck of the boy born of rape of the widowed queen by Viking Ragnar Lodbrok (Ernest Borgnine), in hopes that he might be recognized later in life, as the heir to the throne; which had since been usurped by another. The boy is sent by ship to Italy, in hopes he will be safe from the usurper there, if the usurper ever learns of his existence. The boy is captured by Vikings, who enslave him. as a grown man, Eric (Tony Curtis) runs afoul of the Viking King's son Einar (Kirk Douglas) whom his falcon wounds in the face, thus earning his wrath. Neither knows that they are half-brothers.

Things happen, and Ragnar Lodbrok is captured by the English, and is to be thrown with hands tied into a pit filled with ravenous wolves. Eric is present when Ragnar, accepting his fate, asks to die like a Viking, with sword in hand, so that his soul can ascend to Valhalla. The usurper forbids it, but Eric, being closest to Ragnar, cuts his bonds and gives him the sword. Ragnar leaps into the pit with gusto. The usurper severs the hand that offended him. That scene was the only thing I remembered about this film for the longest time.

I read the book upon which the movie was based while in high school. Thought it was great and looked forward to the movie. I liked the film, but saw it as being a little too Hollywoodized, Still, I have a dvd copy and watch it occasionally.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I just watched a movie short, The Railrodder, starring Buster Keaton. Brilliant entertainment. Under 30 minutes. 10/10.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I just watched another Buster Keaton short film The Goat. 10/10.