Last Movie You Watched

[LKB]

For favorite Hitchcock, North by Northwest in a tie with Rear Window. The Birds would be third, and Rope round's out the list on the strength of its sheer audacity.

[Cato]

Perhaps the only omission which really surprises me is the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much.

True, along with the absence of Saboteur, which has the great chase up the Statue of Liberty!

[SonicMan46]

As @Cato has observed, an interesting list. Shadow of a Doubt was said to be Hitchcock's own favorite, and yet is so overshadowed in the general awareness by the later triumphs, that I wonder if its appearance as #1 here means that the "Nerd Vote" is overweighted in this ranking. The only one I've not seen is Foreign Correspondent. I find it peculiar that Vertigo should rank so low. Also (we might say) that Frenzy makes the list at all. Not that I think it bad, you know, only I'm not sure I would own it, had it not come as part of a Collection. Glad to see Marnie on the list, a film which gets insufficient love, I think. Perhaps the only omission which really surprises me is the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much.

For favorite Hitchcock, North by Northwest in a tie with Rear Window. The Birds would be third, and Rope round's out the list on the strength of its sheer audacity.

True, along with the absence of Saboteur, which has the great chase up the Statue of Liberty!

For the Hitch fans, I expanded my previous chart and added two more rankings which of course show expected rearrangements (note - The Man Who Knew Too Much is the '56 version) - then I added up each movie in the Rotten Tomatoes list by their 3 placements, i.e. films w/ the lowest points are the overall 'best' ones from this analysis - top ten shown below (sad not to see The Foreign Correspondent there).  Dave

Rear Window (11)
Psycho (12)
North by Northwest (13)
Vertigo (15)
Strangers on a Train (16)
Notorious (17)
Shadow of a Doubt (19)
The Lady Vanishes (21)
Rebecca (24)
The 39 Steps (25)

[Todd]

That reminds me, a friend recently acquired a copy of a propaganda film called "Carol for Another Christmas" and I'm supposed to go visit him and watch it. It's a United Nations propaganda version of "A Christmas Carol," where Scrooge is an isolationist and he is visited by three ghosts who convince him to support the UN. It stars Sterling Hayden, Peter Sellers, Ben Gazzara, Eva Marie Saint, and Robert Shaw.

That's quite the cast.  Apparently it was written for television by Rod Serling, to boot.  Fortunately we live in an era when the entertainment industry does not pump out propaganda.

[Florestan]

That reminds me, a friend recently acquired a copy of a propaganda film called "Carol for Another Christmas" and I'm supposed to go visit him and watch it. It's a United Nations propaganda version of "A Christmas Carol," where Scrooge is an isolationist and he is visited by three ghosts who convince him to support the UN.

Let me guess, the three ghosts are, in order of appearance: The League of Nations, Saddam Hussein and Muammar al-Gaddafi. 

[Karl Henning]

Let me guess, the three ghosts are, in order of appearance: The League of Nations, Saddam Hussein and Muammar al-Gaddafi. 

You've got to trust Rod Serling not to be cartoonish. I suppose it's possible to deride Carol for Another Christmas as "UN propaganda," as it is possible to deride No Way Out as "anti-bigotry Woke propaganda. Both were directed by Jos. L. Mankiewicz, and yes, both are intentional in messaging.

[Karl Henning]

That reminds me, a friend recently acquired a copy of a propaganda film called "Carol for Another Christmas" and I'm supposed to go visit him and watch it. It's a United Nations propaganda version of "A Christmas Carol," where Scrooge is an isolationist and he is visited by three ghosts who convince him to support the UN. It stars Sterling Hayden, Peter Sellers, Ben Gazzara, Eva Marie Saint, and Robert Shaw.

Sterling Hayden visiting Jim Shigeta's clinic is quite powerful, I thought.

[Karl Henning]

Ted Bonnitt and Phil Proctor interview Carl Gottlieb, largely about his experience with Jaws.

[Karl Henning]

You've got to trust Rod Serling not to be cartoonish. I suppose it's possible to deride Carol for Another Christmas as "UN propaganda," as it is possible to deride No Way Out as "anti-bigotry Woke propaganda. Both were directed by Jos. L. Mankiewicz, and yes, both are intentional in messaging.

In my brain-fatigue after PT, I must have come across as heavier-handed than I ought to have. I fault neither @Brian for the description "UN propaganda," nor @Florestan for pivoting on that description in jest. It's worth considering that the Dickens source is itself a social tract. In his adaptation, Serling struck notes which were near to him (he was a WWII veteran), judging from the fact that these were themes he touched on in The Twilight Zone. Overall, I think Carol for Another Christmas a success. It's time, too, that someone mention that Henry Mancini wrote the score.

[SonicMan46]

Any Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) fans in the house? 

Clash of the Titans (1981) - partial cast below w/ Olivier as Zeus (check link for much more) - loved this stop-action film for years (esp. when Judi Bowker emerges from her bath toward the end -  ) - below is an IMDB listing of Ray's films ranked by their system - I've seen most of these movies and own about 8 or so - comments and favorites?  Dave

Clash of the Titans is a fantasy adventure film directed by Desmond Davis and written by Beverley Cross, loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Starring Harry Hamlin, Judi Bowker, Burgess Meredith, Maggie Smith and Laurence Olivier; the film features the final work of stop-motion visual effects artist Ray Harryhausen. (Source)

 

[Florestan]

In my brain-fatigue after PT, I must have come across as heavier-handed than I ought to have. I fault neither @Brian for the description "UN propaganda," nor @Florestan for pivoting on that description in jest.

No worries, Karl, no offence taken. My jest was more on the UN than on the movie, which I haven't seen.

[relm1]

Any Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013) fans in the house? 

Clash of the Titans (1981) - partial cast below w/ Olivier as Zeus (check link for much more) - loved this stop-action film for years (esp. when Judi Bowker emerges from her bath toward the end -  ) - below is an IMDB listing of Ray's films ranked by their system - I've seen most of these movies and own about 8 or so - comments and favorites?  Dave

 

It's crazy to think he retired so young and lived another 32 years after Clash of the Titans.  So, I wonder what he might have thought of Jurassic Park and computer animation replacing stop motion monsters since he lived through all that.

[SonicMan46]

It's crazy to think he retired so young and lived another 32 years after Clash of the Titans.  So, I wonder what he might have thought of Jurassic Park and computer animation replacing stop motion monsters since he lived through all that.

Well, take a look at a 2005 interview w/ Ray HERE -    Dave

[LKB]

Well, take a look at a 2005 interview w/ Ray HERE -    Dave

I actually had that copied and ready to paste here, you beat me to it.

Great minds think alike ( and so do ours    )...

[Karl Henning]

Again: The Green Mile. Basically a QC watch, as the first blu-ray disc that came in skipped. 

[71 dB]

IT FOLLOWS (David Robert Mitchell, 2014)

This small budget ($1.3 million) horror movie has a good reputation online and now I had the change to watch on TV. I can see why this movie is considered artistically successful: It is original, effective and uses its small budget cleverly on things that matter the most. This is a great example of how much you can get out from limited money resources in cinema when you use your brain. What is scary? What is terrifying? How to build creepy mood? The camerawork is great: Very good balance of still camera, smoothly moving camera and shaky camera. Only wide lenses are used making the movie look reality rather than a movie to uphold the creepiness. I really like the music by Disasterpeace aka Rich Vreeland which supported the mood of the movie greatly. While the end of the movie isn't maybe as strong as the beginning and I get wondering where are the parents, this is a "How to make movies wisely" -movie that puts a lot of big budget movies to shame. 4/5.

[Karl Henning]

Walking the Mile, Constantine Nasr's documentary of the shooting of The Green Mile. 

[Karl Henning]

Walking the Mile, Constantine Nasr's documentary of the shooting of The Green Mile.

Shooting a scene in a church, a scene which we're probably all happy was cut from the film.

[Karl Henning]

Shooting a scene in a church, a scene which we're probably all happy was cut from the film.

Not saying the scene itself (whereof this documentary gave us but a snippet) was bad, but this scene does not add anything in particular to the movie, whose running time is already sufficiently long. And which, as I've already said, is fine.

[Karl Henning]

DVD 1: Portrait of Alberto Ginastera