WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[JackFavell]

I understand guys, I have a bit of a love hate relationship with Stevens, and what he thinks is funny sometimes. Dreadful situations, embarrassment, whining, to me these are not always funny. Sometimes he makes me squirm, as in Alice Adams at the dinner party, or Woman of the Year's Tess trying to make toast. Or certain scenes in Giant. But there was a point for me (quite recently) where I just gave in and accepted it, because so much of what he does is worth watching, even in the same 'flawed' movies (by my estimation only).

I feel that The More the Merrier has fewer of these situational problems than some of his other comedies. Talk of the Town is oddly built, some of it is off, but then it's so satisfying in other ways. I tend to like half or 2/3rds of a movie by Stevens, with a few exceptions. Quality Street, I Remember Mama, and Gunga Din are more successful films to me, because we don't have to watch someone painfully struggling, or worse, painfully trying to blend drama and comedy. I also think Shane, A Place in the Sun, Vigil in the Night, Penny Serenade and Annie Oakley are more successful, because they are all of a piece. And yet, I can say that as much as I abhor sitting through the dinner scene in Alice Adams, it works as part of the story perfectly - things aren't always nice or easy when you want them to be. People don't always do the right thing. So for me Alice Adams is fantastic and deep as a whole work of art. The later scenes would not work nearly as well without the earlier AWFUL one, as much as I hate it.

I think The More the Merrier is all of a piece, therefore it works for me, though I tend to agree that it's stretched a bit at the end. I still love it, and it's grown on me even more since I first saw it.

I decided to like the more flawed Stevens movies recently because films aren't always set in stone. These were his experiments, and if I look at them as such, I can be more forgiving. He was definitely after something in those embarrassing scenes. I just don't always know what it was.

[RedRiver]

I couldn't agree more, Wendy. None of these movies are bad. But SHANE, A PLACE IN SUN, GUNGA DIN, these show the genius of a most creative director.

I abhor sitting through the dinner scene in Alice Adams

It can't be any worse than reading the book. Lord, that thing is dull!

[JackFavell]

Oh it's pretty horrible, red.

Oh yeah, I forgot SWING TIME (saw your post on FB, Larry!) and any Laurel and Hardy movies. Although I can't stand the pants with cuffs bit.

[movieman1957]

I think the pants with/without cuffs is funny to a point. If you stop and think about it what man would really care? I've always thought that Astaire wore a suit as well as Powell and Grant but the cuffs are just a bit too far.

[JackFavell]

It annoys me for some reason, Chris, maybe just because I've seen the movie so many times. It's such a good movie, something's got to be imperfect about it!

[charliechaplinfan]

Yes Theresa I could watch The Women more than once, I'm sure it's one of those films that can be watched numerous times with more nuances caught time and again.

I'm still in a haze of State Fair Wendy. I'd only heard one song from State Fair, Spring Fever before but have found myself humming 'Our State Fair' and 'It's a Grand Night for Singing' continually. Jeanne has the same lovely smile that Paulette Goddard has, the girl next door kind of thing but when you look twice you realise they are far from the girl next door, they are beauties. I really like Vivian Blaine too, for years I only knew her in Guys and Dolls as a blonde, she's way more attractive than that, Dick Haymes falls a little flat for me, I guess he and Vivian were the only ones not dubbed though.

I've watched perhaps the best Dana films of the best so far, Where The Sidewalk Ends he plays a tough cop, really down on gangsters, always tailing them and roughing them up, continually in trouble with the department. He gets involved with a gangland murder and accidentally kills one of the gangsters, instead of coming clean he covers it up, then he meets Gene the widow of the guy he killed. It really gels together nicely as a movie, no reminder of Laura even though it has so much in common with it's predecessor. Karl Malden is the lack lustre leiutenant and Dana's back story is quite heart touching. one of the best crafted noirs I've seen in a long time.

[charliechaplinfan]

Yesterday I took a break from Dana Andrews movies, I think I've exhausted my collection and watched Conflict starring Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith and Sydney Greenstreet. I haven't seen this film before but aspects were fimiliar, especially the murder and the car going over the edge. Has this story line been used in other films? I'm unsure because I didn't guess the ending, not completely. Bogie, as usual had a part he could get his teeth into but Alexis didn't which is often the case with her, she's too often just the pretty face in films with Warner's leading men, occasionally she gets chance to shine as an actress but this isn't one of them, she seemed to lack chemistry with Bogie, perhaps to drive the plot forward, I'm too fimiliar with her and Errol Flynn who seemed to get along like a house on fire that her pairing her was a little jarring but then so was her part in the film, the younger sister of Bogie's wife who he loved. I did like how Bogie was presented as normal throughout despite us knowing what had happened to his wife, this muddied the waters further, I wondered if he was going to have dreamed it all. A good Warner's movie and a fine chance to see Rose Hobart again as Bogie's wife.

[RedRiver]

I'd love to see CONFLICT. This is not the first intriguing post I've seen about it. A WB crime story is almost always worth a look.

[MikeBSG]

As for George Stevens, I really love "Shane," and I think it is one of the great Westerns.

I am also a big fan of "Alice Adams." I find the dinner scene real. It is very funny, but there is a reality there beneath the humor. Perhaps I think this because I grew up with someone who was frantic about the way things "should" be as opposed to accepting things as they are. I see the dinner scene as something that would happen in real life, but with humor letting out some of the tension so the scene is bearable. And after it all goes kerplop, the hero is there to tell Hepburn that it is okay, which prevents the scene from being crushing.

(On the other hand, the "trying to keep the schedule" scene in "More the Merrier," felt like an attempt to force two performers into a Laurel & Hardy routine. It just felt artificial to me.)

And "Swing Time" is one of my favorite Fred & Ginger movies. The stagings of "Start All Over Again" and "The Way You Look Tonight" could not be bettered.

[charliechaplinfan]

It is worth it Red, it's an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.

I watched Skyfall at my son's request. It's been months since he saw it at the pictures and it hasn't dimmed to him. I am immune to Daniel Craig's charm I'm afraid but Chris and Joe had talked it up so much I was really looking forward to it. I did really enjoy some aspects of it but then I lose it because it is so far fetched, I think I'd be more gripped by something that really could happen, I'm not wowwed by explosions either, all the things that Joe is wowwed by but I did enjoy it. There's a nice continuity in one character that goes and an actor, a favourite of mine that succeeds them. I'm never going to be a big fan of the franchise but as Bonds go it is a good one.

[RedRiver]

This is why I think the first two 007 films are the best. They're less fantastic; more believable. Granted, Dr. No's secret nuclear plant is pretty far fetched. But up until that point, the story is well grounded.

[RedRiver]

As for George Stevens, I really love "Shane," and I think it is one of the great Westerns.

I call this the director's best work. A PLACE IN THE SUN is thought provoking. GUNGA DIN a rousing adventure. But SHANE is the one where everything comes together. Story, cinematography, and some of the sharpest editing I've ever seen. It's no wonder the usually urban, modern, ponderous Woody Allen loves this classic. It's one of the great movies.

[CineMaven]

I watched Skyfall at my son's request. It's been months since he saw it at the pictures and it hasn't dimmed to him. I am immune to Daniel Craig's charm I'm afraid but Chris and Joe had talked it up so much I was really looking forward to it. I did really enjoy some aspects of it but then I lose it because it is so far fetched, I think I'd be more gripped by something that really could happen, I'm not wowwed by explosions either, all the things that Joe is wowwed by but I did enjoy it. There's a nice continuity in one character that goes and an actor, a favourite of mine that succeeds them. I'm never going to be a big fan of the franchise but as Bonds go it is a good one.

Glad you saw the movie even if it didn't get to you. I was head over heels for it. I like the fantasy- aspect of it all. Why have you been inoculated against Daniel Craig? I very much believe he is James Bond and there is a fantasy aspect to all of 007. If the powers-that-be over in Her Majesty's Secret Service's studio production wants to up the ante, they need to get Christoph Waltz to play the next Bond villain. I don't want him being over the top crazy cuckoo in his world domination. He's a good actor. I'd like to see him go up against Bond, "M" or "Q."

[feaito]

I understand guys, I have a bit of a love hate relationship with Stevens, and what he thinks is funny sometimes. Dreadful situations, embarrassment, whining, to me these are not always funny. Sometimes he makes me squirm, as in Alice Adams at the dinner party, or Woman of the Year's Tess trying to make toast. Or certain scenes in Giant. But there was a point for me (quite recently) where I just gave in and accepted it, because so much of what he does is worth watching, even in the same 'flawed' movies (by my estimation only).

I feel that The More the Merrier has fewer of these situational problems than some of his other comedies. Talk of the Town is oddly built, some of it is off, but then it's so satisfying in other ways. I tend to like half or 2/3rds of a movie by Stevens, with a few exceptions. Quality Street, I Remember Mama, and Gunga Din are more successful films to me, because we don't have to watch someone painfully struggling, or worse, painfully trying to blend drama and comedy. I also think Shane, A Place in the Sun, Vigil in the Night, Penny Serenade and Annie Oakley are more successful, because they are all of a piece. And yet, I can say that as much as I abhor sitting through the dinner scene in Alice Adams, it works as part of the story perfectly - things aren't always nice or easy when you want them to be. People don't always do the right thing. So for me Alice Adams is fantastic and deep as a whole work of art. The later scenes would not work nearly as well without the earlier AWFUL one, as much as I hate it.

I think The More the Merrier is all of a piece, therefore it works for me, though I tend to agree that it's stretched a bit at the end. I still love it, and it's grown on me even more since I first saw it.

I decided to like the more flawed Stevens movies recently because films aren't always set in stone. These were his experiments, and if I look at them as such, I can be more forgiving. He was definitely after something in those embarrassing scenes. I just don't always know what it was.

So perfectly expressed WEN. I agree completely.

[charliechaplinfan]

I watched Skyfall at my son's request. It's been months since he saw it at the pictures and it hasn't dimmed to him. I am immune to Daniel Craig's charm I'm afraid but Chris and Joe had talked it up so much I was really looking forward to it. I did really enjoy some aspects of it but then I lose it because it is so far fetched, I think I'd be more gripped by something that really could happen, I'm not wowwed by explosions either, all the things that Joe is wowwed by but I did enjoy it. There's a nice continuity in one character that goes and an actor, a favourite of mine that succeeds them. I'm never going to be a big fan of the franchise but as Bonds go it is a good one.

Glad you saw the movie even if it didn't get to you. I was head over heels for it. I like the fantasy- aspect of it all. Why have you been inoculated against Daniel Craig? I very much believe he is James Bond and there is a fantasy aspect to all of 007. If the powers-that-be over in Her Majesty's Secret Service's studio production wants to up the ante, they need to get Christoph Waltz to play the next Bond villain. I don't want him being over the top crazy cuckoo in his world domination. He's a good actor. I'd like to see him go up against Bond, "M" or "Q."

I only meant in terms of his manly attributes, it seems I'm in a group of my own as everyone I know seems to be gaga over him, including my own mother whereas I see him only as a good actor. I do like M in both incarnations and I do like the move away from silly gadgets. There's no doubt that the Brosnan films got too silly for me, I couldn't believe them at all, apart from Goldeneye. I'm also in a minority of 1 when it comes to thinking Timothy Dalton was the closest to how I see Bond but Connery remains my favourite, I don't think it's for Connery himself but the whole era, fashions and believability of the stories.

On Chris's behest I watched Django Unchained, I love Tarantino, he's a bright spot in modern movies for me, admittedly I rarely watch modern fare so I'm not the best critic, I don't partake because there rarely comes along something I want to watch. So I sat down to this full of hope, one thing I've got from Tarantino before is not to expect anything, he changes his storytelling everytime, shifting to different times and different subjects that are quite diverse. I knew nothing of this story and admittedly it was a little slow at first, if I was watching it solely for Leonardo I think I'd have lost patience but Tarantino's roster of stars is the creme de la creme with Jamie Foxx, Samuel L Jackson (in a cracking role) Christoph Waltz and Leonardo Di Caprio. There are two things that mark it out as Tarantino, a good soundtrack and violence. Once it got going I think he was making a statement, he was confronting us with the horrors of slavery and the lot of the black slave and the callousness and cruelty of some of the whitemen and even of the black servants. It's a Tarantino, not his best and I'm unsure how this one will have gone down with the critics but we enjoyed it and will watch it again.