What was the last movie you saw?

Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967)

The "hillbillys" (sic!) are actually a country singer, his blonde, curvaceous co-star, and their manager. You can tell he's the comedy relief (in a comedy!) because his name is Jeepers and he constantly acts nervous, in a Don Knotts kind of way. They're driving along in one of those big, fancy cars decorated with fake guns and rifles, and a big pair of longhorn cattle horns on the front. They run into a gun battle between cops and a couple of spies. It seems that the local metropolis, Acme City, has a missile plant, and there are spies all over the place. Well, our trio winds up in the tiny community of Sleepy Junction, with no place to stay but the local abandoned mansion, which is said to be, you guessed it, haunted. Down in the cellar are Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, and Basil Rathbone, along with a boss lady named Madame Wong, a gorilla named Anatole, and a bunch of electronic equipment. Of course, they're spies, and are faking the haunting stuff to cover up their activities. A whole bunch of country songs and supposedly comic antics follow. There's also a real ghost, very briefly. The Good Guy spies work for M.O.T.H.E.R. (Master Organization to Halt Enemy Resistance.) The comedy relief gets to say "weirdwolf" for "werewolf." The biggest country star in this thing, Merle Haggard, shows up on the television the three dragged into the mansion. After an hour of this nonsense, we get a full twenty minutes of a country music concert. The End. Amazingly, this is actually a sequel, to the equally misspelt Las Vegas Hillbillys.


Oh, man. Ferlin Husky and Joi Lansing? I recall Lansing as a TV equivalent for Marilyn Monroe, and rather less annoying than some other MM imitators like Mansfield and Van Doren. This wasn't her first foray in hillbilly territory, either. I remember her from The Beverly Hillbillies and IMDB reminds me she played Lester Flatt's wife. Husky was maybe best known for the song "Wings of a Dove," during which his twang was occasionally punctuated with a throb, as I recall. Mostly I remember the name from all the ads for Time/Life CDs of the old Country hit songs.
 
Rocket Attack U.S.A. (1958)

Bottom of the barrel atomic paranoia flick. Sputnik goes up, so an American spy goes to the USSR to see what its purpose might be. Sneaking into the Soviet Union consists of being flown in a small plane just over the border, then having the ever-present narrator tell us it will take "one to five weeks" (?) for the hero to reach Moscow on foot, then cutting to the guy in a Moscow nightclub (a small room with some tables and a belly dancer.) His contact is a woman who is the mistress of the Minister of Defense who talks too much when he's drunk. It turns out that Sputnik just gave the Soviets enough information to prepare their ICBM for launching at the USA. Our two heroes, after a little smooching, sneak into the missile base (it seems to be guarded by one guy) and attach a bomb to the ICBM. Wonder of wonders, they fail in their mission and both get shot down. Then we get scenes of the Soviets launching the thing, and folks in the USA listening to air raid sirens and such. New York City gets blown up. Nuclear armageddon has never been so dull. Tons of stock footage, lots of scenes of folks talking in tiny rooms, plenty of padding. The belly dancing scene and the missile launching scene seem to go on forever.
 
Echo in the Canyon (2018) d: Andrew Slater

Unfocused and uneven documentary about the 60s Los Angeles music scene - specifically the folk rock era between 1965 and 1970. It's also a story that has been told over and over in both print and film (and internet bloggers and YouTube content creators.) The more recent documentary, Laurel Canyon, is much better.

Anyway, Jakob Dylan sort of hosts Echo in the Canyon - he leads us around LA anyway. There is a panel of modern performers Beck, Regina Spektor, and Cat Power sitting around a coffee table in an upscale LA house. But for the life of me, I can't figure out what they're doing there. They weren't even born yet, and the houses lived in by the Laurel Canyon crowd weren't swank by any means. Tom Petty is featured quite a bit as well, but he didn't move to LA until later in the 70s. Still he had to have known the LA music scene well. Also I did like Eric Clapton's comparison of the recording industry in London to its counterpart in LA. And both he and Ringo Starr talk about their encounters in Laurel Canyon in the 60s.

We do finally get to the real Laurel Canyon scene - interviews with musicians who lived and recorded there: Michelle Philips, Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Jackson Browne, and Brian Wilson. Notably MIA was Joni Mitchell.
 
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Godzilla vs. Kong
Walks a thin line between epic and parody. Substantial property damage ensues.
I just watched this. An interesting case study on how to make an interesting concept boring and dull. The trick is to have awful characters and dialogue, pump it full of overused tropes and cliches, and sprinkle in some plot holes.
 
Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967)

The "hillbillys" (sic!) are actually a country singer, his blonde, curvaceous co-star, and their manager. You can tell he's the comedy relief (in a comedy!) because his name is Jeepers and he constantly acts nervous, in a Don Knotts kind of way. They're driving along in one of those big, fancy cars decorated with fake guns and rifles, and a big pair of longhorn cattle horns on the front. They run into a gun battle between cops and a couple of spies. It seems that the local metropolis, Acme City, has a missile plant, and there are spies all over the place. Well, our trio winds up in the tiny community of Sleepy Junction, with no place to stay but the local abandoned mansion, which is said to be, you guessed it, haunted. Down in the cellar are Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, and Basil Rathbone, along with a boss lady named Madame Wong, a gorilla named Anatole, and a bunch of electronic equipment. Of course, they're spies, and are faking the haunting stuff to cover up their activities. A whole bunch of country songs and supposedly comic antics follow. There's also a real ghost, very briefly. The Good Guy spies work for M.O.T.H.E.R. (Master Organization to Halt Enemy Resistance.) The comedy relief gets to say "weirdwolf" for "werewolf." The biggest country star in this thing, Merle Haggard, shows up on the television the three dragged into the mansion. After an hour of this nonsense, we get a full twenty minutes of a country music concert. The End. Amazingly, this is actually a sequel, to the equally misspelt Las Vegas Hillbillys.
I know I have seen this! :giggle: not for discerning viewers.
Rocket Attack U.S.A. (1958)

Bottom of the barrel atomic paranoia flick. Sputnik goes up, so an American spy goes to the USSR to see what its purpose might be. Sneaking into the Soviet Union consists of being flown in a small plane just over the border, then having the ever-present narrator tell us it will take "one to five weeks" (?) for the hero to reach Moscow on foot, then cutting to the guy in a Moscow nightclub (a small room with some tables and a belly dancer.) His contact is a woman who is the mistress of the Minister of Defense who talks too much when he's drunk. It turns out that Sputnik just gave the Soviets enough information to prepare their ICBM for launching at the USA. Our two heroes, after a little smooching, sneak into the missile base (it seems to be guarded by one guy) and attach a bomb to the ICBM. Wonder of wonders, they fail in their mission and both get shot down. Then we get scenes of the Soviets launching the thing, and folks in the USA listening to air raid sirens and such. New York City gets blown up. Nuclear armageddon has never been so dull. Tons of stock footage, lots of scenes of folks talking in tiny rooms, plenty of padding. The belly dancing scene and the missile launching scene seem to go on forever.
I want to see this!



CURSE OF THE CANNIBAL CONFEDERATES (1982) TROMA made this, and it likely classified it as TRASH-O-RAMA. It is the 1st movie I watched on DVD for many months.

So, there were these long dead Rebel soldiers who placed a curse on their graves? :ROFLMAO: Six young adults out on a camping trip, just happen to defile their graves. Zombie attacks follow, but even at 1.5x it was too slow.

Simply awful.
 
The Possession (2012). I’ve seen plenty of possession or exorcism movies over the years. I usually enjoy them, or at least find them creepy, but I couldn’t tell you which one stood out. They are generally similar. This one had a slightly different style with Jewish involvement instead of Catholic.
 
BACKFIRE (1950) Two ex-Army buddies intend to invest in a cattle ranch, but one Steve Connolly (Edmond O'Brien) suddenly vanishes, while the other Bob Corey (Gordon MacRae) is recuperating in the hospital. After leaving the hospital, Corey goes on an intensive search for his friend; though the police try to dissuade him, because Connolly is suspected of murder.

A very good drama, with whodunit elements throughout. Best of all, I had no memory of having seen it before! Good supporting cast!



KIND LADY (1935) Mary Herries (Aline MacMahon) is a wealthy woman living in England, Just days before Christmas, she encounters a man drawing sidewalk art with colored chalk near her home. Henry Abbott (Basil Rathbone; whom we already know is the villain, merely because he is not Sherlock Holmes!) He is obviously cold, and asks for a cup of tea; she invites him in, & after he leaves, with her expensive cigarette case in his pocket, that seems to end the thing. Yet, a few days later, he returns, also returning the case, apologizing, with a sob story about his ailing wife and infant. The next thing the woman knows, half-a-dozen more people have come, all intending to stay. They make her a prisoner in her own home, and insist she sign over the titles or whatever is used for valuable paintings. They also have intents on her bank account.

Saw this a few years ago, but with that villain of villains as the villain, I watched it again. :devilish: The guy is smooth!


Oh! almost forgot that I have been trying to get a good view of the cigarettes they used, but the pack seems pure white.
 
MARU MARU (1952) Gregory Mason (Errol Flynn) AND Andy Callahan (Richard Webb; NEVER HEARD OF HIM BEFORE) are post WWII marine salvage guys who become involved in a treasure hunt. It turns out that the PT boat they both served on, and were the only 2 survivors of its sinking, carried a small case filled with diamonds. Bad guy Brock Benedict (Raymond Burr), learns of it, & believing that nobody but these two guy know where it sank, he wants to hire them to recover it. But, he has no intention of sharing the wealth.

Another good drama that I do not believe I ever saw before!



Pépé le Moko (1937) NOIR ALLEY, and the usual in-depth treatment by Muller. Pépé le Moko (Jean Gabin) is a notorious criminal who lives in the Casbah in Algiers, whose inhabitants and structure shield him from the police. He, and his friends freely steal from the wealthy who are so unfortunate to venture into the Casbah. But he falls for a wealthy woman, not just her jewels.

Muller compared Gabin to Bogart, Tracy, & one other, whose name I forgot.

The American 'version' if it can be called that, is Algiers (1938), starring Charles Boyer as the title character. It is this one, though as I understand it, it was cut from the film, had the famous line about the taking her to the Casbah.

I intend to watch Algiers sometime this week.
 
Alps (2011) is a movie by Yorgos Lanthimus, one of my favorite filmmakers. He makes weird, out of the box movies. You may know him from The Favourite (2018). It's a good movie, but it's not weird because it's not written by him.
 
Hacksaw Ridge follows the similar path of Full Metal Jacket, dealing with the trials and brutality of basic training during the first half of the film then without pausing to “take five” jumps into the fire pit of battle. Conscientious objector Desmond Doss trains as an army medic and follows his unit up the cliff and over a World War One like wasteland during the Battle of Okinawa. Realistic butchery hard not to watch but seemed a thin platform to showcase the exploits of a pacifist medic. But all fighting must stop if only temporarily and during the lull in the battle is where the real tension begins. Well made and exciting. Interesting how director Gibson made sure that the man who would not kill did not leave the island until he had blood on his hands.
 
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GANGSTER WORLD (1998) As the title suggests, a rip-off of WESTWORLD. Watched on DVD from NF, & I might have played this at 1x, but for the fact it was fast approaching my nightly Anime watching time. I thus, cannot fairly evaluate the quality. But, its Wikipedia page has a mere 2 sentence paragraph describing it.
:unsure:
 
Every Thursday is movie night at my house, where my mum and I cuddle up on the couch together while my dad and sister go out for a weekly paddle tennis tournament. We rewatched Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time yet again, but I still love the plot.
It follows Dastan as he tries to clear his name after being accused of murdering his adoptive father, who happens to be the king. He discovers a dagger that can turn back time using special Sands of Time, which is the reason the whole plot unfolds in the first place
Most people I know haven't seen it, which is kind of depressing because it is incredible and, my favourite trait, original. Definitely recommend it to anyone who loves the "rebel royal" archetype
 
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Story of tragic love affair between Queen Christina and a Spanish ambassador in 17th Century Sweden. Slow but interest never seems to lag. The initial meeting of the lovers holed up in the inn during a snow storm kinda kinky.
 
ALGIERS (1938) o.K., so it is a direct rip-off of Pepe le Moko, which I mentioned earlier.

The pros:
  1. cast consists of more than just 1 guy with who I am somewhat familiar
  2. could relax as it is in English, did not need to read subtitles
  3. Alan Hale's character was quick with jokes
the cons:
  1. a rather weak ending, as the Hayes code demanded
  2. I think this descended into the public domain; hence the SD quality (or lack of it) Pepe le Moko got the full CRITERION treatment, including HD.
As I recall, Muller said something about inspiring CASABLANCA. Referring to the endings, I can see it. I should have watched these in the other order, this 1st, Pepe le Moko, 2nd. I think I would have enjoyed both better, if I had.
 
Hot Cars (1956)

Efficient little crime flick. Our hero is a guy who loses his job as a car salesman because he's too honest. It turns out he's being checked out as a front man for a stolen car racket. He figures out what's going on, but he needs the money for an operation for his sick infant son. The boss has a voluptuous girlfriend who strings the hero along, too. When the cop trying to shut down the hot car racket is murdered, they frame the hero for the killing. Only an hour long, so it doesn't waste any time. There's some sharp dialogue, a nifty jazz score, good use of Los Angeles filming locations, and a fistfight on a moving roller coaster.
 
Running Wild (1955)

William Marshall (the Squire of Gothos himself) stars as an undercover cop passing himself off as a hot rodding punk in order to infiltrate a stolen car racket run by Keenan Wynn, of all people. A very young John Saxon recognizes him, but just wants to get out of the racket. He gets killed. Wynn has a sullen girlfriend. Her attitude is understandable, as Wynn's only hold over her is the fact that her father, a concentration camp survivor, is in the country illegally. She's the key to cracking the case. Second-billed Mamie Van Doren has a small part as the girlfriend of one of Wynn's young hoods. She gets to jitterbug to a song by Bill Haley and the Comets, but otherwise doesn't do much. A little slow-moving, but not too bad.
 
Missile to the Moon (1958)

Who knew that Cat-Women of the Moon (1953) needed a remake? Two young guys escape from prison and hide out in a fellow's private rocket ship. He forces them to act as his crew on a flight to the moon. Our movie's hero and his girlfriend happen to accidentally get locked inside, too. During the mandatory meteor storm, a big piece of equipment lands on the rocket guy's head, killing him after he gives the hero a medallion and mutters something about "Lido." On the moon, after getting way from humanoid rock monsters, the four find what's left of the lunar civilization in a cave. The queen is "the Lido" for some reason. She happens to be blind, so she doesn't realize that the hero isn't the rocket guy. You see, the rocket guy is actually from the moon, sent to Earth about twenty years ago to try to find a way to save his world, which is losing what little is left of its air in the cave. Besides the Lido, the only inhabitants of the moon are women too young to remember what the rocket guy looked like. They're all played by beauty contest contestants, and wear leotards with capes. (The Lido gets to wear a metallic jump suit.) One of them was betrothed to the rocket guy as a child, and turns out to be our film's villainess. She stabs the Lido to death, takes over her title (and jump suit) and uses mind control to force the hero to obey her will, getting ready to marry him and send his girlfriend to be killed by a goofy-looking giant spider. Add in a big pile of huge diamonds for the bad convict to lust after, and a self-sacrificing moon girl for the good convict to fall in love with. It's all delightfully ridiculous.
 

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