What was the last movie you saw?

[Jeffbert]

Gentleman's Agreement (1947) Philip Green (Gregory Peck) is a writer for a magazine, whose boss wants him to write a series on anti-Semitism. Well & good, but that had been done before, & the boss wants a fresh approach. But what to do? GP decides that since he has dark hair and eyes, he might pass himself for a Jew.

The title refers to an unwritten policy among the Gentiles of discriminating against Jews (and likely others, also). So Gregory Peccary goes around identifying himself as Phillip Greenburg rather than Green, and, not only he, but his son experience discrimination.

Spoiler

When his old army buddy Dave Goldman (John Garfield), whom he had been consulting tells him he has seen it all. he abandons the name Greenburg, and begins submitting the work to his boss, whose daughter, he had intended to marry. But her do nothing attitude about anti-Semitism, had offended him, & nearly destroyed their relationship.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Phobia (1980)

Modest little Canadian murder mystery/suspense thriller. Psychiatrist treats a small group of phobic patients, each of whom has a police record, by exposing them to the things they fear. One who seems to be making good progress gets killed when a bomb, apparently intended to kill the psychiatrist, goes off while she's waiting to meet him at his apartment. Further deaths of the patients follow. Whodunit? One of the patients? The psychiatrist's lover? The psychiatrist's ex-lover? The resolution is fairly predictable, and telegraphed a bit. Overall, it's a fair-to-middling way to pass the time. Amazingly, it was directed by the great John Huston, although there's no indication that it wasn't the work of a moderately competent journeyman director.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Teenage Gang Debs (1966)

Low-budget black-and-white juvenile delinquency flick. With its clean-cut but brutal gang members, its jazz soundtrack, and its implied-but-not-shown sexual content, it feels more like an Adults Only movie of the 1950's than anything else. New girl shows up in town, quickly makes herself the woman of the president of the local gang. The president wants to carve his initials in her skin, so she dumps him and goes after a new guy, goading him on to kill the president and take his place. She continues manipulating the new president, leading to deadly rumbles and the like. Padded with dance sequences that really seem out of place compared with all the violence. Cheap and sleazy, but with a certain raw power.

 

[REBerg]

The Highwaymen
Slooooow. I realize that the law enforcement side of this legendary story was probably duller than the outlaw side, but I expected more wisecracking back-and-forth between Costner and Harrelson than was delivered.

Spoiler

No change in the ending. Bonnie and Clyde still die, although the death scene was the first clear look at the couple this film provides.

 

[Jeffbert]

Those are both great films.

There were a lot of those life-after-death fantasy films during and after the Second World War, which makes sense, given the immense loss of life during the conflict, and most of them are quite good.

One of my favorites is one story told in two different films, one of which has Sidney Greenstreet as the guy/angel who is essentially the cruise director on the ship to the other worlds.

Between Two Worlds (1944), One passenger was a woman who had committed suicide, and thus, whom everyone, including herself was sure she was heading to Hell. Some other passengers had very bad attitude toward her. Greenstreet version.

Outward Bound (1930) is the other version. Both are entertaining films, even from the perspective of an agnostic.


NOBODY LIVES FOREVER(1946) Noir Alley, but because they decided to omit the Sunday 10AM showing, I missed recording it. Fortunately, it was available on TCM.com.

This is about con men, who have moved to LA, and by sheer chance, stumbled upon each other. The one of them, knows of a rich widow Gladys Halvorsen (Geraldine Fitzgerald), whom he would fleece, if only he had the money for the set-up, that would make him also seem rich.

Nick Blake (John Garfield) is the con man with the $50k, which he had 'earned' before going into the military. So, he returns from the war, with some unseen wound, and finds his girl has been living with the guy, Chet King
(Robert Shayne, I knew this guy's voice was that of the top cop on the SUPERMAN show!) who fleeced her out of his Money. Clobbers the guy, recovers the dough, and with his best pal, Al Doyle (George Tobias, seen him before, just never knew his name until now). So, they go from NY, NY to LA, where several old associates had unbeknownst to them, moved. The Doc (George Coulouris), has lowdown on the widow, but, as already stated, lacks the resources. So, they strike a deal, and agree on the payouts before starting. But, Nick, while trying to persuade the widow to 'invest' her money in a non-existent business, falls in love with her, and wants to back out of the con. Needless to say, none of his associates are happy about that.

Muller had a twisted tale to tell about this film, or was it the screenplay, that was made into a novel, that was then bought by WB, which had been dragging its feet on the 1st version of the screenplay, thus, essentially buying it twice. But that the role had originally intended for Bogart, I just can not visualize him as a con man!

In this film, there are just too many characters who knew Nick from other towns. The bellboy knew him from Florida, Pop Gruber (Walter Brennan) knew him from NY, as well as the others, already mentioned.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Sanguinary Floral Gialli of 1972 Double Feature:

The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972)

Begins in true giallo fashion, with a gloved killer stabbing a woman to death. Not much later, another woman who lives in the apartment building where the first murder took place is drowned in her bathtub by the same killer. With the apartment now vacant, two models move in, one of whom is our heroine, stunningly beautiful Edwige Fenech, who starred in a bunch of these things, as well as a lot of sex comedies. The body count continues, and we get a bunch of suspects and red herrings. There's the architect of the building, who offers the newly vacant place to the two women, who becomes Fenech's lover, and who has a blood phobia. There's Fenech's ex-husband, who forced her into a group sex cult and who is now stalking her. There's the various tenants of the building; an elderly woman who turns out to be hiding something; an elderly man who plays the violin at all hours of the night; and the man's lesbian daughter. The murders are sudden and shocking, but not particularly explicit. There's also a fair amount of humor, which, amazingly, doesn't detract from the suspense. Overall, an enjoyable example of the genre.

Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972)

Begins in true giallo fashion, with a gloved killer stabbing a woman to death. No, I'm not repeating the same review. The one above took place in an elevator, this one takes place in the woman's home. There's a photograph of a young woman next to the middle-aged woman's bed. This first murder never comes up again in the police investigation, by the way, and is never fully explained. I can only assume that the killer was tracking down his real first target, the woman in the photo. Anyway, she shows up pretty quick as one of dozens of streetwalkers picking up clients off the highway. She gets killed next, and the murderer leaves a little metal object in the shape of a half-moon with astrological symbols on it. In a seemingly unrelated murder, an artist is killed and the same object is left on her body. The third victim is on her honeymoon, and this is our heroine. We cut to her funeral, and we have to wonder if the filmmakers are taking a cue from Psycho and killing off the woman we assumed was the main character fifteen minutes into the movie. Well, not really, as the cops are having her pretend to be dead and hiding her out. Husband and wife play amateur detective, and quickly figure out that all the victims were at a certain hotel at a certain time, either as employees or guests. The cops try to protect the other women there at the time, but the killer outwits them (although he makes one mistake that adds an interesting twist to the plot.) It's more of a why-dun-it instead of a who-dun-it, as the couple and the cops try to figure out the motive. It's more gruesomely violent than the one above, and completely without a trace of comedy relief, but otherwise it's similar, and equally enjoyable.

 

[Phyrebrat]

The Silence. Monsters abound so everyone has to keep their big mouths shut. Had its moments but it was so derivative of the superior A Quiet Place.

Yup, watched it for Stanley Tucci’s presence.

When it ended I wondered how the producers hadn’t been sued. Notwithstanding it coming from a book, why make a movie like so soon after A Quiet Place?!

pH

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

European Sci-Fi of the Swinging Sixties Double Feature:

Mission Stardust (1967)

Perry Rhodan (a character in a huge number of German science fiction novellas) is the leader of a mission to the Moon to get some valuable metal. Hilariously, we're told that it's important because it's denser than cobalt or lithium; as are many, many metals, particularly since lithium is, I believe, the least dense of all metals. Anyway, a crime lord who thinks he's in a James Bond movie has a secret informer about the mission, and is after the stuff. When our heroes get to the Moon, all their equipment goes haywire, their Moon buggy gets disintegrated, and they find an alien spaceship. It's pretty cool, in a retro-futuristic kind of way. Big, hulking guys in spacesuits, who turn out to be robots, take them aboard. The real inhabitants are a pair of extremely human aliens. One is an older man, who happens to be dying of leukemia, although we're told that these aliens eliminated all diseases long ago. The commander is a cold-hearted, gorgeous young woman in a platinum blonde wig. She also wears a skin-tight jump suit, with circles over her breasts that are, to say the least, extremely distracting. Our heroes agree to get a newly developed cure for leukemia from a physician in East Africa. For the next hour or so the movie turns into a Eurospy flick, with chases, explosions, and so forth, all set in Kenya, with nothing remotely futuristic going on until we get back aboard the alien spaceship. Suffice to say that the good guys win, the bad guys lose, and the icy alien woman learns to enjoy smooching an Earthman. (We'd earlier seen her tease our hero, and the audience, by stripping behind a translucent screen, although you can't really see anything. Thank goodness, she changes into a different skin-tight jumpsuit without the distracting circles. Our hero then shows what a red-blooded he-man he is by forcing a kiss upon her.) The movie slows down to a crawl when it stops being science fiction, but otherwise it's goofy comic book fun.

Star Pilot (1966)

Something falls on the island of Sardinia from space, leaving a big white splotch on the land. A scientist, his beautiful but scatterbrained daughter, and another guy go investigate. A couple of other guys are already at the place. Some Asian spies show up, thinking the thing, now buried underground, is a secret weapon. In the film's funniest line, they say they are Oriental, not Chinese. Anyway, there's a big fight in the caves with the very human aliens from the crashed spaceship and their robots, which, once again, just look like big, beefy guys. One of the Asian spies gets killed, everybody gets taken aboard the ship to help the aliens get back home. The commander is, once again, a gorgeous but cold woman. This time she's got a bright red wig, and wears a light blue mini-tunic, connected to a floor-length translucent blue cape, over a black fishnet bodysuit. Various stuff happens as they take off from Earth, get lost on another planet where guys in bad ape-men costumes kill off the two remaining Asian spies, and find a Russian spaceship with skeletons aboard. There's footage stolen from other films, and it all makes even less sense than I've made it sound. When folks go outside the spaceship for one reason or another, they just put little plastic things in their mouths -- "space respirators" -- without protecting the bare skin of their faces. The scientist's daughter wears outrageous costumes and acts silly all the way through this thing. There's a downbeat ending that changes the mood completely. In most ways, it's a terrible film, but great for mocking.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Roger Corman Obscurities Triple Feature:

Five Guns West (1955)

The first film Corman directed. Late in the Civil War, the Confederacy pardons five criminals in exchange for their services. Their mission is to intercept a stagecoach carrying a Confederate turned traitor before he tells the Yankees what he knows. Oh, and he's also got $30,000 in gold intended for the troops. Apparently the Confederacy wants the man a lot more than they want the gold, as it's just assumed that the crooks are going to run off with the riches. Our Dirty Dozen Minus Seven consists of two young brothers, both hotheads and one plumb loco; an old-timer, the only one who wasn't facing a death sentence; a no-nonsense type, who becomes the de facto leader of the gang; and a handsome, smooth schemer (Mike Connors, when he was still calling himself Touch Connors.) They face a long, hard ride through the desert, hostile Comanches, and their own squabbles among themselves. At last they arrive at the stagecoach station, run by a weak, hard-drinking old man and his young, pretty niece (Dorothy Malone), whose presence adds to the tension among the bunch. The movie slows down to a crawl as they wait, and so do we. At last the stagecoach shows up, we find out the truth about one of the gang, and we get our big shootout. It's a decent, modest horse opera.

Carnival Rock (1957)

Tragic melodrama, or melodramatic tragedy, disguised as a rock 'n' roll flick. Middle-aged Greek guy owns a shooting gallery/dancing girls/peanuts-and-popcorn kind of carnival, as well as a small nightclub. He's obsessed with a lovely young singer (Susan Cabot, best known to me in the title role of The Wasp Woman.) Her affections lie in the direction of a younger guy who is a wheeler-dealer. The Greek guy owes some folks three thousand bucks, or he'll lose his business. Faced with this, and with his nearly psychotic attraction to the singer, he foolishly gambles away everything he owns in a game with the young guy. To add insult to injury, he accepts a job under the carnival's new boss as a baggy pants comedian, wearing clown makeup. (Shades of The Blue Angel!) It all leads up to a downbeat ending. In between this depressing story we get some rockabilly, a song by the Platters, the only big name group in the movie, and a couple of songs by Cabot herself. Corman favorite Dick Miller has a good role as the Greek guy's loyal right hand man. Despite the story and the music mixing together as well as oil and water, it's watchable.

Ski Troop Attack (1960)

Germany, December 1944. Five American soldiers (should this be called Five Guns East?) on skis are reconnoitering behind enemy lines. They witness (via stock footage) the Germans making a push forward, apparently in what later became the Battle of the Bulge. The German-hating Sergeant wants to fight and then go back to rejoin their unit, the Ninety-Day Wonder Lieutenant wants to stay out of sight, remain behind the lines, and relay information about German movements to headquarters. The three Privates want to stay alive. During their trek they wind up at a small farmhouse, where they get food from the only inhabitant, a woman loyal to the Third Reich. Later they blow up a bridge. Filmed in South Dakota in deep snow, the outdoor scenes -- nearly all of the movie -- are convincingly wintry. Some of what happens definitely gets the idea across that War is Hell. It's a decent little war movie, emphasis on little.

 

[HanaBi]

Rabid (1979) - Marylin Chambers

Summary (Credit to Rotten Tomatoes) -

Marilyn Chambers stars as Rose, an attractive young woman who becomes horribly injured in a motorcycle accident. Spirited away to the clinic of Drs. Dan and Roxanne Keloid (Howard Ryshpan and Patricia Gage), a pair of experimental plastic surgeons, Rose becomes an unwitting guinea pig in an operation that grafts genetically modified tissue into her body. Waking from her coma to find she is unable to ingest normal food, Rose unwittingly feeds on human blood by means of a phallic organ that emerges from a vulval orifice in her armpit. Within hours of providing Rose with sustenance, her victims fall prey to an incurable, highly contagious disease that turns them into raving lunatics who foam at the mouth and attack others indiscriminately. Soon, Montreal is under martial law, but nobody can find the Typhoid Mary whose vampiric urges are driving the epidemic

As an Easter bank holiday treat, I thought I would dig out and watch my David Cronenberg DVD collection during his 70s and 80s era, starting with this early horror film.

Despite the gory special effects there is not much to recommend here; the script is rather silly and uneven; the acting is pretty poor (Chambers' main claim to fame before this was as a porn actress in the highly controversial "Behind the Green Door"); and Cronenberg's direction is disappointing to say the very least: lacking in pace, tension or anything else a good director should be delivering.

The low budget certainly doesn't help matters, but Cronenberg doesn't seem to have progressed much past his earlier offering, "Shivers", which to all intents and purposes is far better than this mess of half-baked ideas.

A not very engaging film at all.

1/5

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Watched a war classic Where Eagles Dare, some great action with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. German body count is 90 plus,most killed by Lieutenant Schaefer (Clint Eastwood. ) 9/10

 

[HanaBi]

Scanners (1981) - Michael Ironside

Summary (Credit to Rotten Tomatoes) -

The title of this David Cronenberg sci-fi horror film refers to a group of people who have telekinetic powers that allow them to read minds and give them the ability to make other people's heads explode. The children of a group of women who took an experimental tranquilizer during their pregnancies, the scanners are now adults and have become outcasts from society. But Darryl (Michael Ironside) decides to create an army of scanners to take over the world. The only person who can stop him is his brother Cameron (Stephen Lack), who wants to forget that he was ever a scanner.

A far superior Cronenberg effort compared to his tepid offering with "Rabid". The gore is still there, but the story seems to have been put together with a great deal more thought, and as such delivers plenty of suspense and false alarms throughout.

The acting, however, was a mix between the rather excellent and ever dependable Ironside, and the godawful hamminess of Stephen Lack (of "Dawn of the Dead" fame).

But the script and the editing keeps you from overthinking too much about such things, helped somewhat by a memorable score and of course one of the most famous gore moments ever put to celluloid - the "exploding head" scene! (looks dated now of course, but back then it really was a shocker in its own right!)

3/5

 

[Anthoney]

Despite the gory special effects there is not much to recommend here; the script is rather silly and uneven; the acting is pretty poor (Chambers' main claim to fame before this was as a porn actress in the highly controversial "Behind the Green Door"); and Cronenberg's direction is disappointing to say the very least: lacking in pace, tension or anything else a good director should be delivering.

Before the porn she was the Ivory Snow girl. Pure as the driven snow!

 

[Jeffbert]

Great work, all!

The Green Pastures (1936) An all black cast in a film that I would assume contemporary Blacks might find offensive because of the slave-type dialog, such as the main character's name, De Lawd (Rex Ingram). Taking several major stories from the 1st 6 books of the Bible, & telling them in an unusual way, with very much musical/singing, etc.

The only name and voice I recognized was that of Noah (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson). Even though I had up until recently had a dim view of musicals, even I enjoyed this.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Crazy, Mixed-Up Kids Triple Feature:

Teenage Devil Dolls AKA One Way Ticket to Hell (1955)

In flashback, we learn how a troubled teenage girl went from hanging out with a motorcycle gang, who introduced her to marijuana, to heroin addiction. Along the way, she gets married to her decent high school sweetheart. It seems to be the stress and boredom of being a housewife that drive her to, first of all, getting tranquilizers from her doctor, then to taking downers. She gets picked up with the cops from time to time, goes back and forth between her parents and husband (who eventually just drops out of the story) and various institutions, and eventually runs away. A chance encounter with another a woman addicted to heroin leads them to support their habit by selling marijuana; we're told that buying it from women is a novelty. This gets them in trouble with a big time pusher, gets the teenager addicted, and eventually leads to a chase across the desert when she gets mixed up with a gang stealing cars and taking them into Mexico to sell for drugs. Most notable for having no audible dialogue, by accident or design; the whole thing is narrated by the cop on the case. Despite that major flaw, some intense scenes during the climactic chase, and some interesting scenes of the less glamorous parts of Los Angeles.

Lost, Lonely and Vicious (1958)

Set in Hollywood. After a bit of stock footage of the place, Hollywood is played by the city of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The main character is a troubled young actor who has just released his first film, which is expected to launch him into stardom. He's also death-obsessed, painting a portrait of himself as a corpse. He gets in fights with a less successful actor who is, to be fair, quite annoying. His slightly older, foreign-accented drama teacher is obviously in love with him, although she denies this and it's mixed with some motherly concern. He gets involved with a nice girl, and they talk a lot, in some pretty odd dialogue. As a matter of fact, most of this movie is talking, usually at some kind of ice cream/coffee/beer joint. Other characters include a couple of platinum blonde would-be starlets and the good girl's dad. There's also the annoying guy's buddy, who doesn't say anything and is always seen eating popcorn from a paper bag. After a really violent fight, the main character drives off, and we wonder if he's going to die in a wreck or turn around and go back to the good girl. It's an odd little drama.

Naked Youth AKA Wild Youth (1960)

Starts with some young inmates at a prison farm, a few of who throw rocks at a passing truck carrying migrant workers. This leads to a fight, with one guy pulling a switchblade. It seems that Decent Guy, who took the rap for Wild Girlfriend in an incident involving a stolen car, is going to escape the minimum security place with Switchblade. Wild Girlfriend shows up in a car, they get away with her. Switchblade immediately starts smooching on her, over Decent Guy's feeble objections. She doesn't mind too much at first, although later she'll fight off his more aggressive advances. Meanwhile, an undercover cop buys a pack of heroin from some guy in a bullfighting ring in Juarez, Mexico. He gets stabbed to death pretty quick by a guy who steals the stuff. Killer and Addicted Wife hide the stuff in a doll and manage to get across the border into the USA. Because of the murder, there are roadblocks all over the place. By this time, the young folks' car has broken down, and they start hitchhiking. Killer picks them up, the idea being that they'll look like a family and seem less suspicious. It's isn't long, however, before they get a flat tire, Switchblade pulls his knife on Killer, and the kids get away, removing the car's distributor cap for good measure. They also take the doll, on a whim, ignorant of what's in it. This freaks out Addicted Wife, of course, but she can't stop them. This all leads to a multiple chase of the cops trying to get the escapees and the killer, and the killer trying to get the kids. It's a decent suspense story, more professionally made than the other films above.

 

[Jeffbert]

Ah the good ol' days when popcorn was not so easy to get! Lost, Lonely and Vicious (1958) . I remember a 10 cent / bag popcorn vending machine, in a no-longer existing drugstore chain. "Open bag wide to get it all" I think it was Drug Fair, or something like it.

Poor guy, as I understand it, dialog adds $$ to actors' paychecks. Those coming of age 1950s - 60s dramas were made by the dozens. I have seen a few of them, and while they usually have their unique elements, they also usually have their similarities. Peer-pressure leads to trouble!

You Were Never Lovelier (1942) I am not a fan of Fred Astaire, but Adolphe Menjou always makes me laugh. So, FA is Robert Davis, a dancer who is live in South America, but is out of both money & luck. Xavier Cugat as himself, is a band leader who knew FA from the USA, and is employed by Eduardo Acuña (Adolphe Menjou), who has 4 daughters, whom he insists must marry in their birth order. Absolutely no younger ones becoming married before the elders! No exceptions. So, the younger 3 are eager to marry, and the elder one is the obstruction, though her wedding is soon. Maria Acuña (Rita Hayworth) is the eldest, engaged to some guy other than FA, but that will soon change.

FA tries to get a few minutes with AM, but is tossed out. Eventually, he weasels his way in, when AM writes anonymous love letters to his own daughter (I forgot why), and FA, rather than the secretary, takes them to the daughter, who assumes he is the lover.


Lovely to Look at (1952) Red Skeleton & 2 buddies are entertainers, but for lack of $$, they cannot put on a show. So RS inherits a share in a French dress maker shop, & the 3 guys go to France, hoping to sell RS' share, get the $$, and return to USA, etc.

Max Fogelsby (Kurt Kasznar) was my main reason for watching this film, though I do enjoy Skelton's films. So, there are these young attractive women, who co-own the dress shop, and are taken aback, upon learning the intentions of the Americans. Plenty of female talent also, but not going into that.

 

[Jeffbert]

Impact (1949) Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) is the CEO of a business, whose wife Irene (Helen Walker) and her lover Jim Torrance (Tony Barrett) hatch a failed plot to kill him. The plot involved him giving a lift to her presumed cousin, who was actually her lover. As they drive along a mountain road, the 'cousin' who was driving at the time, pulls over onto a very narrow shoulder, and says the right rear tire is flat. He had sabotaged the valve stem, earlier. So, BD, trusting this guy, turns his back, and the guy conks him with the tire iron, tosses him over the edge, and prepares to drive away. but, a moving van stops to offer assistance. The guy panics, not wanting the crime revealed, and drives up the wrong side of the road to avoid the guys in the van. Oopsie! head-on collision with a gasoline tanker truck, and he is incinerated.

Spoiler

So, the guys in the van try to help, but the 'cousin' is dead. BD, revives, and climbs into the rear of the van. next thing he knows, he is in the Midwest, and starts a new life, realizing that his wife tried to murder him. He collects newspaper clippings about her murder trial. Finally, he confides in his new girlfriend, who pressures him into returning to LA, and making known that he is alive.

So, things then turn to crap, and the murder charges against her are dropped, and he now faces the murder charge of the 'cousin'!

Lt. Tom Quincy (Charles Coburn, who played a similar role in that serial killer film with Lucy a few pages ago).

 

[Happy Joe]

Avengers Endgame; Saw it yesterday; overall a good finish to the series, IMO.
I would give it a 4 (almost 5) star rating out of 5.
Good effects.
Well written.
Good acting
Some surprises.
Some humor
Some sadness.
There are a lot of thing happening in this flick; if a person not familiar and up to date with most of the movies in the Marvel universe they could easily get lost/confused.
This one will definitely be added to my movie library.

Enjoy!

 

[Hilarious Joke]

I also saw Avengers Endgame and I also enjoyed it (though I did think some of the plot was a bit silly). Love the new Thor

 

[Rodders]

2001: A Space Odyssey was on the TV last night.

I have only seen this once and I was about 12 so I have always considered it somewhat overrated. However, watching it with fresh eyes as an adult, I was astounded at the level of detail that Kubrick gave to the movie. A very good movie. Maybe I should try to catch this at the cinema when it’s next on.