Last Movie You Watched

[Karl Henning]

Because it's been awhile (and because I saw George Sanders last night as the original Mr Freeze) ... Hitchcock's Rebecca.
"picturization!"

[Karl Henning]

Because it's been awhile (and because I saw George Sanders last night as the original Mr Freeze) ... Hitchcock's Rebecca.
"picturization!"

Ah, when Mrs Danvers says, not "it was the first Mrs De Winter's room" but simply,  "it was Mrs De Winter's room."

[Number Six]

Ballerina

Some killer action pieces, a great training montage, a gorgeous leading lady, and judicious use of Wick himself.

I dig it.

[AnotherSpin]

Yesterday, on TV:



Very well acted by Angelina Jolie, and very chic and glossy artistic direction, but Pablo Larrain's Maria bored me to tears, and I quit watching it after about 45 minutes.

The musical selections are dubios and seem to aimed at the "wider public": in the part I saw, O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi and the Ave Maria from Otello are repeated over and over again, and I cannot think of two arias less associated with Callas (although admittedly she did include the Puccini piece in her ill-fated 1973 comeback tour).

Much style with little substance, I'm afraid...

It seems to me that Callas performed and recorded this aria long before the 70s. If I'm not mistaken, the most popular rendition, often included in anthologies, was made in Milan in the 50s.

I agree that Lauretta's part can hardly be counted among Callas's more significant roles. I'm not aware of any full staging of this Puccini's opera featuring her.

As for the film, I simply couldn't manage 45 minutes, more like 5 or 7, as the suspension of disbelief never quite took hold.

[ritter]

Indeed, Callas did record both arias (Lauretta's in her 1954 Puccini arias disc, and Desdemona's in 1964), but did not perform either rôle onstage.

[Cato]

Recently we watched Sunset Boulevard and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre: Mrs. Cato had never seen the former, so it was a new experience for her.



Of interest is that one of the cameos by former silent-movie stars was done by Anna Nilsson, who was 62 at the time (1950).  She was, in one sense, a real Norma Desmond! But in the teens and twenties of the 1900's, she was one of the most popular stars of the new art.  An immigrant from Sweden, she had been voted the most popular actress of 1926 and received c. 20,000 letters per week from fans!

But when sound hit the movies, her career crashed practically immediately.  Apparently her voice (accent ?) did not sound like what the studios wanted.

The only acting jobs she could find were tiny parts for which she received no screen credit!  Almost overnight, she became a nobody!

Even in Sunset Boulevard she has no real speaking part ("Two hearts" in a card game scene).

Anyway, great musical score by Franz Waxman!

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre still holds up well: you might not know a wonderful Bugs Bunny cartoon, wherein Humphrey Bogart's character Fred Dobbs is satirized three times.  Very funny!

In the movie, Dobbs approaches American tourists in Mexico and says: "Could you stake a fellow American to a meal?"

The satirical scenes start c. the 4:00 minute mark, but the whole cartoon is worth the 7 minutes!

Also interesting is the author of the book, B. Traven, whose real identity has been a mystery for decades.  He seems to have been a German, perhaps a deserter from the German Army in World War I, who remained fearful of governments in general and seemed to prefer to be in hiding, even when his adventure books were selling well and being made into movies.

Wikipedia says his identity is still under dispute!  I recall reading scholarly German journals with debates about who he really was.

This has some interesting comments on the mystery:


https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-myster-of-b-travern-270-v16n12/

[Mister Sharpe]

Saw this over the weekend, one of the few Losey films that has escaped me.  As usual, Alain Delon excels.  He also produced the film. 

[Karl Henning]

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) Olivia de Havilland's film début as Hermia. Victor Jory as Oberon. Choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, at-times-curious musical adaptations by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Jas Cagney as Bottom and Dick Powell as Lysander are not bad, but are perhaps more interesting artifacts of the time than engaging in their performance. Rising above that threshold, arguably, is Joe E Brown as Flute/Thisbe. Overall I enjoy this a good deal, yet I come to it quite seldom, probably because Mickey Rooney waxeth surpassingly annoying.

[Cato]

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) Olivia de Havilland's film début as Hermia. Victor Jory as Oberon. Choreography by Bronislava Nijinska, at-times-curious musical adaptations by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Jas Cagney as Bottom and Dick Powell as Lysander are not bad, but are perhaps more interesting artifacts of the time than engaging in their performance. Rising above that threshold, arguably, is Joe E Brown as Flute/Thisbe. Overall I enjoy this a good deal, yet I come to it quite seldom, probably because Mickey Rooney waxeth surpassingly annoying.

I have not seen that in decades!  I remember James Cagney and Mickey Rooney in their roles, but yes, Joe E. Brown was always an all-around fave!   

You remind me of the all-star Julius Caesar from the early 1950's with Marlon Brando surprisingly unmannered as Antony, and James Mason as a Brutus agonizingly unwilling to be an assassin, with a host of great character actors (e.g. Edmond O'Brien, John Hoyt, John Doucette (usually a cowboy-movie villain), and Alan Napier (later known as Alfred the Butler in the great satirical version of Batman).

Maybe it is time to revisit that movie!   

[Karl Henning]

I have not seen that in decades!  I remember James Cagney and Mickey Rooney in their roles, but yes, Joe E. Brown was always an all-around fave! 

You remind me of the all-star Julius Caesar from the early 1950's with Marlon Brando surprisingly unmannered as Antony, and James Mason as a Brutus agonizingly unwilling to be an assassin, with a host of great character actors (e.g. Edmond O'Brien, John Hoyt, John Doucette (usually a cowboy-movie villain), and Alan Napier (later known as Alfred the Butler in the great satirical version of Batman).

Maybe it is time to revisit that movie! 

Yes! I especially enjoyed Diana Rigg as Portia pleading with Brutus to level with her.