What was the last movie you saw?

Psycho Killers of the Old West Double Feature:

The Fiend Who Walked the West (1958)

Our hero participates in a bank robbery, his first crime. He gets caught and sent to prison, other guys go free with the cash. He spills enough info to his boyish, ingratiating cellmate to enable the latter to track down and kill one of the guys after he's released. By the way, he also shoots the guy's elderly mother with an arrow in the process. With the cash, he sets himself up in the town where the hero lived and bothers his pregnant wife, causing her to lose the baby. Along the way, he kills some more folks. That's not enough, so he has a mistress he treats like a slave, beating her savagely. The authorities are suspicious enough about our psycho to allow the hero to escape, so he can get the goods on him. Unfortunately, the insane killer is acquitted. (The evidence of an escaped convict isn't good enough.) Can you predict that it becomes a cat-and-mouse game between hero and psycho?

Supposedly this is a remake of Kiss of Death (1947). Instead of Richard Widmark, we have Robert Evans, later much better known as a producer, in the role of the maniac. From reviews I've read, people either love or hate his portrayal of the wheedling, childish murderer. I thought it was good. Not a bad film.

Knife for the Ladies (1974)

Somebody is knifing women in a Western town. Detective gets hired to investigate. Tension develops between this fellow and the local Sheriff (Jack Elam), to the point of a fistfight. Of course, they learn to work together. Meanwhile, some folks take the law into their own hands and lynch the guy they think is the killer. The good guys have to deal with them, too, leading to our movie's only shootout. There's a Shocking Twist Ending you'll see coming a mile away.

The whole thing seems like an episode of a television series from the time, with a tiny bit more blood and mild profanity than that would allow. The guy playing the detective comes across more like a pretty boy teen idol than an American Sherlock Holmes. Not a good film.
 
The Pope’s Exorcist. Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s lead exorcist, travels to Spain to exorcize a powerful demon that has awakened because of an American family doing construction work on an ancient church.

Watched this as I was looking for something (anything) to do while waiting for a test that would take place days after. So I went to the cinema with low expectations. You know, commercial, Sunday afternoon horror movies are not exactly A24 masterpieces. But this one was good enough to exceed my (low) expectations and leave me with the feeling of well-spent money.

Russel Crowe is an established actor, and he’s very comfortable as a foul-mouthed, drunken exorcist that defies the Vatican establishment. The rest of the cast also has satisfactory performances.

The possession scenes are also good. The possessed boy looks terrifying by the ending. Kudos for the make-up team.

The presence of the American family is obvious: to keep the movie in English, for English-speaking audiences.

All in all, it was a competent possession horror movie (all things considered).
 
Jeffbert said:
BUT judging things made nearly 100 years ago, by current standards--
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Still uncomfortable, as is the blackface number in Holiday Inn. Even at the time, use of blackface was fading out so questioning the decision to use it isn't unreasonable.

And now, for something completely different ...

HOUSE (1985) dir. Steve Miner; starring William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll, Kay Lenz

Horror/comedy. Katt (Carrie; Greatest American Hero) plays Roger who inherits a house from his late aunt, whose paintings show some of the ways in which her house is haunted. Roger is a writer of horror (what else?), which has a tangential impact on the proceedings, and a Vietnam vet plagued by memories of his experiences there, which is a major plot point. He's also divorced from Lenz's character, Sandy; Lenz was one of the more appealing actresses of the '80s and criminally underused here. They lived at the house with the aunt and their son, who was suddenly lost. He disappeared while Roger was supposed to be watching him and no one has seen him for some time, which led to their divorce.

Katt's neighbor, Harold (Wendt), tries to be friendly with limited success until he's sucked into helping Roger. Not surprisingly Wendt (Cheers) provides some of the funnier moments (from IMDB):

Harold: Hey, it's great to have a new neighbor. Woman lived here before you was nuts. Biggest bitch under the sun. Just a senile old hag really. Wouldn't be surprised if someone just got fed up and offed her. Know what I mean?
Roger: She was my aunt.
Harold: Heart of gold though. Just uh, a saint really. And uh such a beautiful woman, for her age.

Wendt sells these lines and his role via a straight-faced, low-key delivery from a character desperate fro companionship. Meanwhile, Katt does a good job of playing desperate, bewildered and just shy of demented as the haunting escalates. Also, relatively early, small roles as cops for Alan Autry and Steven Williams, which seems like early typecasting for both.

There is also a funny sequence when the requisite beautiful but oblivious neighbor appears and Roger has to keep a demon from grabbing her without tipping off what is happening, and a cute scene with Roger bathing that neighbor's kid (which seems improvised) after the neighbor foists him on Roger and the kid is nearly snatched by the house.

This seemed funnier when I first watched it in the '80s, but is still entertaining as long as you don't ask questions about things like the obvious stage setting for Vietnam flashbacks, or a woman shoving her kid onto Roger to babysit after meeting him just once with no reason given for why, or how Roger's son reappears at the same age as when he disappeared.
 
The Last Kingdom (2023). I quite enjoyed it as I love the Last Kingdom stuff. But was disappointing really. Not much of a story. An excuse for a battle basically. Seems like Netflix trying to cash in.
 
Jeffbert said:
BUT judging things made nearly 100 years ago, by current standards--
Click to expand...

I know.

But this was a film made by white people for other white people and, even with an understanding of context and history, it still doesn't make blackface look any less than patronising paternalism. The only black actor in this film played a servant. He got about three lines and his character was basically ignored.
 
Randy M. said:
Still uncomfortable, as is the blackface number in Holiday Inn. Even at the time, use of blackface was fading out so questioning the decision to use it isn't unreasonable.

And now, for something completely different ...

HOUSE (1985) dir. Steve Miner; starring William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll, Kay Lenz

Horror/comedy. Katt (Carrie; Greatest American Hero) plays Roger who inherits a house from his late aunt, whose paintings show some of the ways in which her house is haunted. Roger is a writer of horror (what else?), which has a tangential impact on the proceedings, and a Vietnam vet plagued by memories of his experiences there, which is a major plot point. He's also divorced from Lenz's character, Sandy; Lenz was one of the more appealing actresses of the '80s and criminally underused here. They lived at the house with the aunt and their son, who was suddenly lost. He disappeared while Roger was supposed to be watching him and no one has seen him for some time, which led to their divorce.

Katt's neighbor, Harold (Wendt), tries to be friendly with limited success until he's sucked into helping Roger. Not surprisingly Wendt (Cheers) provides some of the funnier moments (from IMDB):

Harold: Hey, it's great to have a new neighbor. Woman lived here before you was nuts. Biggest bitch under the sun. Just a senile old hag really. Wouldn't be surprised if someone just got fed up and offed her. Know what I mean?
Roger: She was my aunt.
Harold: Heart of gold though. Just uh, a saint really. And uh such a beautiful woman, for her age.

Wendt sells these lines and his role via a straight-faced, low-key delivery from a character desperate fro companionship. Meanwhile, Katt does a good job of playing desperate, bewildered and just shy of demented as the haunting escalates. Also, relatively early, small roles as cops for Alan Autry and Steven Williams, which seems like early typecasting for both.

There is also a funny sequence when the requisite beautiful but oblivious neighbor appears and Roger has to keep a demon from grabbing her without tipping off what is happening, and a cute scene with Roger bathing that neighbor's kid (which seems improvised) after the neighbor foists him on Roger and the kid is nearly snatched by the house.

This seemed funnier when I first watched it in the '80s, but is still entertaining as long as you don't ask questions about things like the obvious stage setting for Vietnam flashbacks, or a woman shoving her kid onto Roger to babysit after meeting him just once with no reason given for why, or how Roger's son reappears at the same age as when he disappeared.
Click to expand...
I also really enjoyed House 2, which I must have seen around 1988.
 
I came across an Italian historical film from 1961 called THE MERCENARIES and to my surprise, as I started watching it, Debra Paget was listed as the star even though IMDB doesn't have her in the movie at all and there are no user reviews for it either. I wondered if it was some strange title goof but then, when they get to a gypsy camp 1/3rd through the movie, she appears as Esmeralda, a fiery love interest for the hero (if you can call him that) who spends half the film as a prisoner and the other half romancing three different woman. No wonder the gypsy girl wants to kill him when she isn't dancing. She does not have the main woman part and her voice is dubbed by someone else--which is too bad because she has quite an emotive role although it is a disjointed narrative that jumps around. Part of it centers on the selection of a new pope--and they pass over a Medici candidate for some humble guy who is liked by everyone--but once he gets selected, he goes totally power mad and starts executing people for carrying cutlery knives. It did have some interesting twists.
 
The Savage Seven (1968)

Motorcycle gang rides into a tiny desert town inhabited by Native Americans exploited by the local white boss. The three-way alliances and enmities shift around a lot. It gets complicated, but it boils down to the bikers helping the Native Americans (by stealing a ton of stuff from the only store in town) against the boss, then the boss hiring the bikers to attack the Native Americans, then the bikers backing out of the deal and partying with the Native Americans, then a biker getting blamed for raping and killing a Native American woman, then the Native Americans getting blamed for killing the biker, then both sides figuring out the boss's guys did both atrocities. By the end, everybody loses. Unfortunately, the lead Native American roles are played by folks who are utterly non-Native American. This contrasts badly with many of the extras, who are clearly the real thing.
 
Guttersnipe said:
Renfield (2023): loosely based on the madman in the novel Dracula. Fun and entertaining, lots of ridiculous gore. The only thing I really fault it for is the short run time.
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Reasonably entertaining comic book fun ( with inappropriate over use of the f - bomb ) .

But I had anticipated a more " camped up " performance from Cage ( Dracula ) perhaps even breaking the fourth wall , or was Hoult ( Renfield ) breaking it anyway ?

I found the short run time quite refreshing . Too many films these days are overly long . I left the cinema into bright daylight and had time for a sneaky light ale before meeting the S. O. for a meal !
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
The Savage Seven (1968)

Motorcycle gang rides into a tiny desert town inhabited by Native Americans exploited by the local white boss. The three-way alliances and enmities shift around a lot. It gets complicated, but it boils down to the bikers helping the Native Americans (by stealing a ton of stuff from the only store in town) against the boss, then the boss hiring the bikers to attack the Native Americans, then the bikers backing out of the deal and partying with the Native Americans, then a biker getting blamed for raping and killing a Native American woman, then the Native Americans getting blamed for killing the biker, then both sides figuring out the boss's guys did both atrocities. By the end, everybody loses. Unfortunately, the lead Native American roles are played by folks who are utterly non-Native American. This contrasts badly with many of the extras, who are clearly the real thing.
Click to expand...

We interrupt this response, to critique modern language:

I know this is too late to do any good, but the term "native American" applies to anyone born there, including myself. It irks me when I see or here the new use of such old terms, whose meanings have recently been changed. I believe there are actual terms appropriate to describe such people, perhaps indigenous peoples, Indians, Injuns, members of a tribe, etc.

We now return you to whatever:

They always use prominent white folks to depict other races, and support them with a few actual members of those races.
 
King of New York

Good gangster film that fails to live up to the best movies in its genre, despite a decent cast. The storyline was more than a little disjointed and in many parts not convincing.
 
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