Ann Harding wrote:
For Heston (who isn't a favourite of mine) I would suggest The War Lord, a really astonishing film taking place in the Middle Ages.
The War Lord is indeed an astonishing movie, hardly the Medieval costumer that most potential viewers might assume. It has at once an introspective & starkly animal nature that's rare among period pieces.
Besides giving Heston a refreshingly deep character to play in the title role, it is undeniably a huge break for co-star Richard Boone, who must have been proud to put this piece of work at the top of his resume', and deservedly so!
He's actually good...and everyone else is even better.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
Charlton Heston in (almost) anything but a Bbilcal Epic means playing against type. Granted, he was commendable on "The Big Country" and "Planet of the Apes" but to my knowledge those were his best roles. Casting him as a Mexican in "Touch of Evil" was stretching him way too far.
My favorite Heston role: The Private War of Major Benson.
Yes, that's right -- Heston in a comedy with cute little boys in soldier suits, and very nicely done, too.
Judith, I love that movie. He is so....big... compared to all the little guys in uniform. Seeing him trying to adapt to children was very funny. He did "exasperated" quite well. Wasn't Julie Addams the love interest in that one? Whatever became of Tim Hovey? He sure was a cute little guy.
knitwit45 wrote:Judith, I love that movie. He is so....big... compared to all the little guys in uniform. Seeing him trying to adapt to children was very funny. He did "exasperated" quite well. Wasn't Julie Addams the love interest in that one? Whatever became of Tim Hovey? He sure was a cute little guy.
Hovey was an adorable little boy. He was also in Toy Tiger with Jeff Chandler, wasn't he? Very small boy, very tall leading men.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Hovey stayed very adorable. He was involved with the Grateful Dead in some capacity - road manager, maybe, and he passed away of a drug overdose in the late 80s, as I recall.
Was not that Damon Wayans endeavor Major Payne something of a ripoff of Major Benson, only not nearly as good? A better remake of the original wouldn't be a bad thing for family audiences -- there are plenty of hulking leading men around (artificially enhanced or otherwise) who could play Major Benson.
How sad. I think that even with the requisite aches and pains of aging, I'm glad I missed out on the 70's and 80's. I was busy raising 2 little guys who also missed out on those years...thank heavens! I did my share of rebelling, but drugs were just something the "beatniks of NYC" did. And what the heck was mary ja wanna????? Glad that party was over before I knocked on the door......
I like the early Brando but find him very hard to defend.
I remember viewing Brando after seeing James Dean's three movies and some Montgomery Clift films, I expected him to be like them. Channel 4 ran a season of his early films and the first one I saw was On The Waterfront, even now I think that performance is one of the most natural and powerful performances on film. Remember when he walks with Eve Marie Saint and picks up her glove and puts it on, he's so coy, she's so far beyond him in terms of education, it's very sweet and well, that scene is still as powerful.
I saw that same performer in Streetcar, Young Lions, Sayonara, OneEyed Jacks and even Guys and Dolls. I wish I'd had chance to watch Julius Caesar but I've never seen it. I think Marlon Brando possessed one of the biggest talents the screen has ever seen yet he didn't make the most of it, in fact he seemed to resent it and that is why I find him very hard to defend. Did his talent embarrass him because it came too easily? Is it because he never went back to the stage and stuck to the movies where he could make big money? Or was too much expected of him back in the '50's?
There are negatives about Brando and lots of flashes of brilliance. He peeked again in the early 70's. In The Godfather and LastTango In Paris, I think he showed his true acting talent again. I've not seen all his movies, I've seen a few bad ones to balance up the good ones. I read three books about him including his own. I guess I just wish he'd made more films like On The WaterFront and he feel slightly annoyed with him that he didn't. I wish he'd embraced his talent instead of making inferior films.
Last edited by charliechaplinfan on February 18th, 2009, 4:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
moirafinnie wrote:Since at various times, I found many of these actors obnoxious as well, (except for Burt Lancaster), these are the following movies I usually try to get people to see who say they don't like certain actors....
Don't like Kirk Douglas?...have you seen Lonely Are the Brave?
Don't like Charlton Heston? ...have you seen Will Penny?
Don't like Robert Mitchum?...have you seen The Sundowners?
Don't like Burt Lancaster?...have you seen The Swimmer?...The Rainmaker?...Jim Thorpe, All American?...Local Hero?...Rocket Gibraltar?
I haven't seen any of those movies. Love Robert Mitchum and would love to see The Sundowners. I've seen Heaven Knows Mr Allison and I loved the pairing of Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr, they were made for one another.
I've definetly changed my mind about Burt Lancaster after seeing TheLeopard and Judgement at Nuremberg.
It is possible that I might change my mind regarding Kirk and Charlton in due time.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Yesterday night I watched an excellent Douglas Sirk drama titled "There's Always Tomorrow" (1956) about a man's marital boredom and the prospect of a more exciting rejuvenating life with an attractive woman from his past. Superior performances by Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck. While I was watching this film I was realizing that both actors had already been paired in such masterpieces as "Remember the Night" (1939) and "Double Indemnity" (1944). Many powerful scenes, especially when Stanwyck confronts MacMurray's son and daughter (William Reynolds and Gigi Perreau) and tells them they have neglected their father. Joan Bennett is very good as the wife, but I wanted to shake her and make her come to her senses each time she rejected Fred, because of their whiny daughter. Great adult marital drama.
This film is based upon a story by Ursula Parrott ("The Divorcée" (1930)and "Strangers May Kiss" (1931)). This story was originally filmed in 1934 with Frank Morgan in MacMurray's role, Binnie Barnes in Stanwyck's role, Lois Wilson in Bennett's role and Robert Taylor in William Reynold's, although as far as I know this version has been out of circulation.
I saw Pat and Mike, thanks to Alison. It was very enjoyable. I was surprised. By now I've grown slightly used to the Hollywood movies where independent ambitious women are put in their place. By contrast Pat and Mike was refreshing. With Catherine Hepburn I might have known. I've always liked her, even when she's obnoxious.
I don't think it's completely a feminist film though. Pat isn't very driven from the start, she sort of slips into the world of athletics and needs constant affirmation that she is capable of doing what she does, and as she also states to Spencer Tracy, she wants someone to protect her. It was different to see Kate Hepburn in this role, she usually has so much confidence. It rang true though, considering the husband-to-be that Pat had. He was constantly undermining her, expecting her to fail in work and athletics and drop hints that she ought to let it go and become a house wife. He could not wrap his head around the fact that she might have other ambitions, or any serious thoughts at all. Seeing her free herself from that chauvinist was immensely satisfying.
Spencer Tracy was very good, a very likeable character which was also a surprise to me because I've never liked him before. I'll have to look up Adam's Rib next.
Tonight I watched Shadows and Fog with my family. This is Woody Allen's try at German expressionist cinema. It's partly a horror film, partly a comedy, but under all that it's about the meaning of life. I liked it, with all the fog, for me it definitively worked.
CIRCLE OF DANGER (Tourneur) -- Enjoyable mystery noir with the ever cranky Ray Milland traveling from London to Wales (had to see a coal miner) to Scotland to London to Scotland in search of the reason his brother was the only casualty in a raid just before D-Day. Does not rank with Tourneur's best.
CHINA GATE (Fuller) -- A revisiting of Fuller's thrilling tale of men (plus Angie Dickinson) confronting death in war, which is just the context for his polemic against racism. Not THE STEEL HELMET or FIXED BAYONETS!, but still a wonderful film.
MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ (Cassavetes) -- In the "Movies That Make You Cry" thread, I should have just posted "John Cassavetes". No matter how often I watch each of his films, there is always a new moment or two that hits me harder than the time before. This time, in what is perhaps his most underrated film, it was: Gena Rowlands' monologue on how "movies are a conspiracy - they build up your expectations but life isn't like that" (I saw her lips move, but I sensed Cassavetes laughing behind the camera at the humor of his words); and, the kids telling Dad (Cassavetes out-of-frame), "Mom is on the floor of the bathroom crying", then they go to comfort her and Dad never enters the frame. Oh-My-God. And, of course, it has my favorite Timothy Carey performance. Not only is it a brilliant improvisation, you can see Seymour Cassell's hatred for Carey (he really did despise him) in each of Cassell's strained smiles and pauses.
POIL DE CAROTTE (Duvivier) -- Did anyone make movies like this in the US in 1932? Poetic and seriously dealing with a child's traumas and fears. Touching and bordering on cynical. The film I was reminded of that comes as close to making me feel the pain and burden a child has when thinking he or she is alone in the world is MOUCHETTE.
SISTERS OF THE GION (Mizoguchi) -- Wow! One of those movies that is so subtle, yet overwhelming, that when its over I'm not sure I saw anything because there is so much to see. Demands a re-viewing. The only other Mizoguchi films I've seen are SANSHO THE BAILIFF and UGETSU, so this foray into his movies is getting me excited.
F.B.I. GIRL (Berke) -- A police procedural cheapie noir with Cesar Romero, Audrey Totter, O.Z. Whitehead (one scene only -- rats!) and the man-I-love-to-hate, Raymond Burr. The governor in Capitol City has a secret -- under another name, as a young man, he committed an unsolved murder (gotta love noir reality). A crime commission is going to investigate allegations of corruption in his administration (oooo, this is sounding prescient), so the corrupt power behind the throne, Raymond Burr, convinces an F.B.I. "girl" working in the Fingerprint Division to pull the fingerprints of the governor (filed, of course, under his previous name) so he can't be connected with that long ago murder. A trail of dead bodies results. From the director of COP HATER, what fun! Oh, and Joy Lansing appears in negligee, smiling and sighing -- and somewhat laughing at the painful comic antics on a TV program of "Tom & Pete" (Tommy Noonan & Peter Marshall).
TOUGH ASSIGNMENT (Beaudine) -- A real cheapie noir by the hardest (or, at least, the fastest) working director in movies, William Beaudine. One knows it's going to be a great one when the opening dedication is to the hardworking people of the Livestock Identification Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A newlywed couple, he a reporter and she a newpaper photographer, inadvertently take a picture of three thugs as they leave a butcher shop where they'd beaten the owner. They've stumbled upon a cattle rustling and bootleg beef racket! They go undercover as hired hands at the ranch that does the rustling. And in glorious Beaudine style, there is a comic subplot -- Sid Melton (!) mugs throughout as the gang member that the boss won't let do anything except drive a truck because he's such a schnook.
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
Chio I love Mizoguchi, I've just ordered his Fallen Women series, can't wait.
I'd promised and promised I'd go with my husband to watch Quantum ofSolace. Perhaps I'm the only woman on this earth that doesn't slobber at the sight of Daniel Craig but he just doesn't do it for me ladies. Neither do Bond films apart from some Connery ones. It does have a storyline and isn't just gadgets and explosions. Hubby loved it, I really liked the hair colour of one of the Bond girls. My problem with the Bond films is that I don't like too much violence in films it makes me uncomfortable, I much prefer implied violence, I've got a good imagination I can fill in the blanks.
Guys will enjoy it and so will ladies with a crush on Mr Craig. Have I ever sounded as much like a girl .
I watched The Road Home the next film on my list of Yimou Zhang films. I liked this more than Red Sorghum, the photography is stunning as always and the evocation of rural China. A city dweller comes back home because his father, the schoolmaster has died. His mother wants his father carried home to the village but the village hasn't enough young men to carry the body back. The son pays the mayor to get men to carry his father but the men won't accept the money such was the reputation of the teacher. Interwoven with this is the story of the mother and father's love. Ziyi Zhang is lovely as the woman who waits and longs for her love.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Yesterday night I watched Douglas Sirk's "Sleep My Love" (1948), an interesting psychological thriller starring Claudette Colbert, Bob Cummings and Don Ameche. It was kind of weird watching the stars of one of my very favorite comedies (Midnight) in such a different, dramatic film, reminiscent of Gaslight and Suspicion. Still, Claudette had her tongue-in-cheek moments, especially during the Chinese wedding sequence. Don Ameche is good as the cold villain of the movie, but the character who stole the show -IMO- in the brief sequences in which she appeared was sultry, alluring, dazzling Hazel Brooks. Oh my God! What a female! She's simply gorgeous. I always thought that the Jessica Rabbitt character was inspired either on Lauren Bacall, Rita Hayworth or Lizabeth Scott, but after watching this film I think that Hazel was the direct inspiration...she exudes sex-appeal from every ounce of her body; she's the definitive femme fatale! A great surprise. A joy to behold! Also in the cast is lovely Rita Johnson as an air-head. She's very funny. Raymond Burr plays a policeman. A very interesting film to watch.
Thanks to Christine I watched the brilliant Raoul Walsh Western "Colorado Territory" (1949), starring Joel McCrea and Virginia Mayo, who are both excellent. It's far from the typical western because there's much dmore pth in its characters. McCrea is superb as a man on the wrong side of the law and you really have an excellent director and story when you are truly sympathizing with an outlaw and overlook his transgressions. He's a doomed anti-hero. Virginia Mayo gives the performance of her life as Colorado, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who falls in love with Joel. Dorothy Malone plays a spoiled, double crossing "lady". Beautiful cinematography and haunting locations. This is the kind of film that should be seen on a big screen.
Superior, more honest and believable than the 1941 "High Sierra".
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