What was the last movie you saw?

EASY TO LOVE (1934) John (Adolphe Menjou) is a two-timing husband, who, when he discovers his wife's feigned infidelity, becomes very angry with her. But she had discovered his affair, which he had been saying was his time to play polo, when one of his associates mentioned that it had been several months since he had been seen at the polo place.

When their adult daughter learns of their intended divorce, she says, rather than marry her fiancee, they will just live together. The scheme brings their parents together again.

Thoroughly enjoyable!
 
RED RIVER (1948) A man Thomas Dunson (John Wayne) with one bull and a youth Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift, as the adult version) with one cow end up with thousands of cattle a decade or so later. But there is no demand for beef in Texas, so they must drive the herd to Missouri, 1,000 miles away.

Nadine Groot (Walter Brennan) is the guy on the chuck wagon, & there are plenty of cowboys who sign-on for the drive. But there are numerous difficulties, & tension abounds. Dunson regarded the cattle drive as a ship on the sea, anyone who defied his authority, was a mutineer, and faced extreme consequences. Groot & Garth did their best to steer Dunson away from tyrannical leadership, but eventually had to depose him, & leave him behind. He swore he would kill them, if ever he caught-up-to them, etc.

One thing that I found interesting, is when they were going to drive the cattle across a river, they first took their horses in, and walked them around, verifying that the river bed was firm. Apparently, there is a thing about quicksand in river beds, some of which was found, and thus, avoided.

Good film!
 
Anonymous (2011) - once I'd got past the nagging wondering how director Roland Emmerich would work in his signature helicopter chase through a canyon sequence into a film set in Elizabethan England I really quite enjoyed this. The central idea is the old idea that the plays we know as Shakespeare's were in fact written by Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford and how this came about. I'm sure the film plays fast and lose with history - but then 'Shakespeare' wasn't one to let historical accuracy stand in the way of a good story - and it looks gorgeous, with some top talent doing a great job. The structure left me behind from time to time as we had flashbacks within flashbacks and then "Forty Years Earlier" captions which left me scrabbling to catch up from time to time - especially earlier in the show when I was really floundering trying to remember who was who and who grew up to be whom - but by the end I was on top of it.
 
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965): A horror anthology film featuring Christopher Lee and Donald Sutherland. Five men on a train meet Dr. Schreck (his German surname translates to "terror"), who uses Tarot cards (his "house of horror") to predict their fates, one by one. In order, the stories are about a werewolf, a sentient vine, a voodoo curse, a reanimated hand, and a vampire. I really enjoyed this. The first and last segments in particular have really neat twists. Horror movies ain't what they used to be.
 
Occupation (2018) - Aliens invade Australia! Well, they invade the rest of the world too but, for a change, we get to watch heroic Australians save the human race from extinction instead of Americans. Overlong and a little confused in the third act - what was the McGuffin of Doom why was it so badly guarded in the abandoned factory? But it had its moments. Someone in production design, and whoever was in charge of wrangling the background artists, needs to get an award for creating a credible-looking makeshift encampment. (Though from what I've seen of rural Australia the whack it together out of a couple of sheets of corrugated iron and an old bed end school of building is the local vernacular architecture.) Some nice - if predictable - character development. But it could have done with a serious trimming during the action sequences which do take up a stupidly large proportion of screen time.
 
So I've been watching a lot of Amicus' horror anthology films...

Vault of Horror (1973): Another group of men discuss their nightmares as a framing device. Meh.

Tales from the Crypt (1972): Five tourists stray from an underground passage and meet a man who tells them their futures. This was better.
 
I love Vault of Horror.
"This elevator has no push buttons!"

The Tom Baker episode--
"Arthur Gaskill, art dealer. You lied to me. You told me that my pictures were worthless and that you couldnt handle them. You won't handle anything again."
This one is so hard to get uncensored. I have yet to get a WS version of it without the stupid freezeframes.

It's too bad the infamous ghoul walk was never shot. I think it was intended to be in the film but something went wrong with the footage.



vaultofhorrorsequencesml.jpg
 
BLUE THUNDER 1983
There is a goof in this film that always bugs me. When Lymangood removes the tape from the helicopter and leaves--why would be depart and not wait for Murphy? They both are in trouble and the next we see Lymangood he is returning home from shopping. Why would he so casual when he knows that they know that he knows? And the tape box--it seems to me he would have removed the tape case immediately so as to prevent them from trying to erase it--what's this code stuff? He didn't need a code. That's a goof in the script. The way they have the tape box removed just in time to prevent erasure was kind of lame. The movie seems rather naive now about the freedom of the press.

"Who are you fooling with that phony radio bulls**t? Jesus Christ, Frank, that went out three days after Marconi invented the fu**ing thing!"
 
KANSAS CITY PRINCESS (1934) Rosie Sturges (Joan Blondell) & Marie Callahan (Glenda Farrell) are manicurists working in a barber shop. Sturges' boyfriend Dynamite Carson (Robert Armstrong; guy who made King Kong the 8th Wonder--) is an ill-educated gangster, who wants to marry her, and is not about to give her the option of turning down his proposal, when he shoves an engagement ring on her finger. She is surprised, and does not dare offend him, but wants to escape his attentions. Comedy follows, as she tries to evade him.

During their flight, they meet Junior Ashcraft (Hugh Herbert) who is en route to France by ship to determine if his wife is having an affair with her psychiatrist Dr. Sascha Pilnakoff (Ivan Lebedeff), though it is obvious that she is.

Worth watching!
 
BOOMERANG (1947) A priest is murderd by a man who had taken him into confidence, & who believed the priest would inform authorities of his activities, the nature of which, were only implied, and left to the viewers' imagination. The police are at a loss to solve the murder, but what makes this film more interesting than the standard crime film, is the political pressure from Paul Harris (Ed Begley), who worries about the coming election, and is desperate to ensure his victory at the polls. He is not only angry with the police to make an arrest, but especially so with the State's attorney Henry L. Harvey (Dana Andrews) to prosecute and convict the accused man.

Also is the newspaper & one particular reporter Dave Woods (Sam Levene), & T.M. Wade (Taylor Holmes, never heard of him before), the publisher, and the conflict between them and the police, among them, Detective. Lt. White (Karl Malden), & Chief Harold Robinson (Lee J. Cobb).

Very satisfying Noir!
 
Timechaser (MST3K) - not one of the show's best but they didn't really have a lot to work with. I spent a lot of my time watching the director crossing the line and - for the first time that I can recall (this may be unique in the annals of movie history) crossing the line in a face to face dialogue between an actor having a conversation with himself. Going back in time, the lead meets himself and, with the standard double in the same costume with his back to the camera setup, has some meaningful OTS conversation with himself. Only the director, who obviously has no idea of the concept of the Line of Action makes a confusing situation worse by flip flopping across the line between, shots making a bit difficult to keep track of which version of the bad actor is actually talking at any moment.
 
Raw Deal (1948)

Great film noir. Guy breaks out of prison and goes on the run with his girlfriend. The crime boss who owes him fifty grand for taking the rap helped him get out, but expects the cops to get him so he won't have to pay. The guy manages to evade the cops, so the crime boss sends a killer after him. Meanwhile, the guy has kidnapped the female social worker who tried to get him paroled and takes her along on his race to get to the crime boss. This sets up an eternal triangle among the three on the run.

The film is narrated by the girlfriend, whose voiceovers are accompanied by Theremin music on the soundtrack, as if this were a science fiction film. Gorgeous black-and-white cinematography and a brooding sense of violence add to the impact. Raymond Burr is outstanding as the completely evil crime boss, who does things like throw a bowl of flaming Cherries Jubilee into a woman's face when he gets mad. There's an odd subplot in which B movie favorite Whit Bissell, before he had white hair, plays a hysterical, guilt-ridden guy who killed his wife and deliberately gets the cops to kill him.

I have to admit that one reason I watched this is because Vic and Blood see it in Harlan Ellison's story "A Boy and His Dog."
 
They Them 2022

Pretty decent film with Kevon Bacon revoving around a gender reassignment camp for teens with gender identity issues, takes a few suprising turns and the slasher side of the film is pretty much absent from the first hour (apart from a brief opening scene), Killer identity was a suprise but reason for it wasnt and overall the wife and I enjoyed it.
 
Guttersnipe said:
So I've been watching a lot of Amicus' horror anthology films...

Vault of Horror (1973): Another group of men discuss their nightmares as a framing device. Meh.

Tales from the Crypt (1972): Five tourists stray from an underground passage and meet a man who tells them their futures. This was better.
Click to expand...


The 'horror anthology' movies seemed to be a pretty popular thing in the mid 60s to mid 80s. I seem to remember 'Creepshow' being very good, probably because you've got the fantastic combination of Stephen King writing and George A.Romero directing (King is so much more effective as a horror writer when writing shorts).

From memory, of the earlier ones, Peter Cushing (who else?) as the owner of an antiques shop in 'From Beyond the Grave', and stories of the experiences of his customers, was very good. The last story of a mysterious door stayed with me for quite some years after watching it.
 
paranoid marvin said:
Jabberwocky
Click to expand...
Where did you see that?

In the Loop (2009). Effective movie lateral spin-off of The Thick of It, with the confusing feature that although Peter Capaldi reprises his role as Malcolm Tucker, all the other familiar actors play different people from the series. Doesn't have quite as strong or credible an ending as it deserves, but still worth a watch.
 
HareBrain said:
Where did you see that?

In the Loop (2009). Effective movie lateral spin-off of The Thick of It, with the confusing feature that although Peter Capaldi reprises his role as Malcolm Tucker, all the other familiar actors play different people from the series. Doesn't have quite as strong or credible an ending as it deserves, but still worth a watch.
Click to expand...

It's included on Amazon Prime at the minute. One of the great things I like about Amazon's streaming is that they throw up a bunch of old movies that you just wouldn't get to see anywhere else (apart from maybe Britbox).
 
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