WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[movieman1957]

A Wikipedia synopsis lists 30 stage plays for Cronyn. He won a Tony for "Hamlet" in 1964 with Richard Burton. His imdb listing also credits him with two Hitchcock screenplays. His film debut was in "Shadow of A Doubt.

[JackFavell]

Pretty impressive film debut.

Hey Chris, did he by any chance win that Tony playing Polonius? It's a perfect role for him.

[RedRiver]

He's kind of admirably sleasy in "Postman." Not exactly an ***hole. Just crafty! The actor was good at that tightrope walk. Good guy? Bad guy? Well...neither! Somewhere in between!

[JackFavell]

Something that crawled out of the muck and somehow passed the bar... but with maybe one scruple left if it suits him to use it.

[CineMaven]

Muah ha ha!! I'll bet he could get a showgirl. Look at those beady little eyes. He's got what Melvyn Douglas has...but on the other end of the snaky end of the spectrum. I'll bet he knows what's what.

What?

I just love when he tells Lana and Garfield: "I'm handling. And that means I'm handling it." I'd trust him to win my case just this side of scruples.

[JackFavell]

You are totally right! Hahahahahaha! I bet he could get a tall spangly leggy gorgeous woman! And he would win your case, but YOU'D feel terrible after.

[movieman1957]

Wendy:

He did win the Tony for playing Polonius.

[Bogie]

Regarding Brute Force:

I love that movie and Cronyn really surprised me. He played his character with great gusto and I was surprised at how sadistic and A-hole-ish he could be. I basically know Cronyn from the 1980s as a kid so I never thought of him as being that evil and pretty much a b******.

Anywho I watched a couple of pre-codes over the weekend. This is what I wrote (with some edits) on the other board I go to:

Jewel Robbery (1932)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023074/

Plot Summary:

When a baroness is present during a robbery at a jewellers in Vienna, she finds the gang's debonair leader more attractive than either her husband or her love

This is a very stagey film as it's based on a Hungarian stage play but quite a bit happens in the short 68 minute run time. We see Francis and her friend going on about how men are only good for their money and giving jewels etc etc and we meet Francis' husband and lover (unbeknownst to the hubby) and the innuendo goes flying all over the place. We also meet the proprietor of the jewelers and his rather flamboyant mannerisms. The movie really overdoes it on the "going crazy over jewels" aspect of Francis' character. She's shallow, vain, begs her husband (rather annoyingly too) to buy her this huge diamond ring and the hubby and the other guy (who's a diplomat) coerce the jeweler to come down on his price and gets the ring for Francis.

Truth be told at this point I was starting to really hate this movie but then along comes William Powell as the debonair robber and indeed, he fit the bill to a tee as he comes into the store with a top hat, cane and a coterie of men as one of them hands Powell a small case which reveals a gun and he holds up the entire store and goes on about the fancy and upper class way he likes to steal from the place. This is where the byplay by Powell and Francis comes in as she's immediately smitten by him and he to her as well. Unfortunately I could never fully warm up to it as Francis was utterly unwatchable, making goo goo faces and acting like a terrible brat. Powell makes the movie watchable and so I watched the whole thing rather begrudgingly.

The one really funny part of the whole movie was the Vienna Protective officer who was charged with looking after the store. He was a total idiot with no clue and ends up being given a box of drugged cigarettes (they don't say what it is but it's probably pot or something) then later on when all the witnesses are at the police station and leave said officer gives the police president a cigarette and before you know it they're totally out of it with the officer on the phone going on about how he's Napoleon and the president saying he can't be Napoleon and they're laughing like maniacs. It's all pretty stupid but humorous all the same.

Anyways this movie doesn't get a recommendation from me but if you happen to come across it and don't have anything to do you might as well take a peek.

1 out of 4 stars (mainly for Powell)


A far better picture from the previous year was directed by the great William A. Wellman and is called:

Safe in Hell (1931)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022335/

The stars in this movie are pretty much unknown to me so I can't give much detail but the lead actress in this movie was VERY good. It's a shame she didn't act much past this as I think she would've been very well cast as the moll/tough girl during the gangster movie cycle in Hollywood. This movie is a lot more serious and quite honestly bleak as hell.

Here's the summary:

Sought by the New Orleans police for killing her rapist, a prostitute flees to a Caribbean island. She must wait for her sailor among lecherous criminals. It almost works out until the treachery of the local police chief leaves her but one choice to gain her freedom

That's a little foggy in some details but it keeps from spoiling a lot of the twists and turns in this flick.

I do want to talk about the atmosphere and utter despair of this film. The main character Gilda goes through so much turmoil and everything bad that could happen to her does. She's whoring herself out because she can't get a job and then she kills the rapist that entraps her and very nearly loses her sailor boyfriend but when hearing the police sirens he saves her by taking her on his boat and sends her to an island with no extradition laws as they try to let things blow over. They get married in the island in one of the most touching marriage scenes as the priest is not there (as he died a week previous) but they make their vows in front of a cross in a very intimate and loving way.

As for the leaving her in the island part, well the hotel is a total dive inhabited by some of the biggest lowlifes you could ever encounter. In fact, here's the hotel checking in scene:

[youtube][/youtube]

As you can see the atmosphere is just disgusting with the sweat, heat, and overall depressing nature of the place. That's the overall feeling generated by the movie as you see Gilda's plight which gets worse as the local boss (executioner/law man) of the place wants her for himself and so he frames her so he can have her or so it seems.

I won't say more as it'll totally spoil the movie but it's one that should be watched. I felt so bad for the Gilda character throughout but the last third where there is redemption and sacrifice totally cinches this as a minor classic.

4 out of 4 stars! You gotta check it out!

[JackFavell]

I love Safe in Hell, but then, I love Jewel Robbery too! I'm glad you liked at least one of them.

Dorothy Mackaill is the actress in Safe in Hell, and she's amazing. What I liked best was how she kind of transforms the lowlifes into a family of sorts. And her decision at the end, well, you've just got to admire her. This movie is almost the definition of a pre-code, why we like them so much.

[CineMaven]

Spoil on Bogie. Spoil on. "SAFE IN HELL" is a favorite around here. We had a nice discussion of the film on an earlier thread. Click on to this saucy picture of Dorothy Mackaill and peruse the thread:



Her final act makes her a pre-code 1930's heroine for me. ALL HAIL MACKAILL!!!

[MikeBSG]

Yesterday I watched the 2011 "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy."

This film never worked for me. Well, it did work when Benedict Cumberbatch was onscreen. He seemed alive. Everyone else seemed trapped in layers of amber. I have never read the novel, nor had I seen the earlier mini-series, but this film remained stuck in "inert mode" for far, far too long.

Does anyone remember the "Game, Set and Match" mini-series from the Eighties with Ian Holm and Amanda Donahoe? It was based on three Len Deighton novels. I loved "Game, Set and Match," although I guess it was a ratings disaster for PBS as I understand.

[JackFavell]

I thought the earlier Tinker version was exactly as you so perfectly described - 'trapped in layers of amber" great analogy.

[CineMaven]

WhatEVER happened to Amanda Donahoe?!!! She was great. Loved her in the "The Lair of the White Worm." Probably was too strong an actress. She was good though.

[charliechaplinfan]

Hume Cronyn is one of my favourite supporting actors and today I watched another of my favourites, Paul Douglas, I love that fella, he has the same quality that Broderick Crawford has, which when I#ve looked at his bio I realise that he was the guy who played Judy Holliday's lover in Born Yesterday on stage.

The film I watched with Paul Douglas is The Maggie, thank you Wendy, you knew I'd love this one, I'm going to watch it again with Chris as it's the kind of movie he'd love. The moral is how this successful, monied American is won over by the love of an old boat and the men who sail her, even though they are the most incompetent bunch that's ever put out to sea, they seem to roam from port to port taking in a great deal of beer at each stop as they go. There are so many good characters in The Maggie, starting with Douglas himself as Calvin Marshall, playing straight as an American businessman up against the wily captain and his crew. Alex MacKenzie is the salty old skipper, Tommy Kearins, the wee boy who is the most perceptive of all the characters. Pusey, Marshalls hapless PA who manages to get arrested for poaching before even boarding the boat and hiring the boat in the first place because the crew are in the office where he trying to hire a boat, not realising that he's hired a wreck that gets stuck on top of the subway as it makes it's way out of Glasgow port transporting cargo of a personal kind for Marshall. Soon the papers get hold of the story and Marshall is a laughing stock. It's full of British quiirks, the PA carries an umbrella and briefcase everywhere he goes, he also seems to be the only one who doesn't know of The Maggie and her hapless crew. Some cracking location work, including a pier pulled apart by the boat. The crew are the most exasperating men alive but never once did my loyalty waver from them, even though Douglas seemed to be a reasonable man. There's more than one lesson though, Douglas learns that his devotion to his work isn't always what a wife wants. So very amusing a film, it feels very lovingly made.

[MikeBSG]

Regarding Amanda Donahoe, it seems like she never really caught on in movies. Her most famous films of the 90s seem to have been "The Madness of King George" (where Helen Mirren seems to have gotten all the praise among the female cast) and "Liar, Liar." (Does anyone notice anyone other than Jim Carey in a Jim Carey movie?)

She seems to have made a successful British TV career however, with "Murder City," "Bad Girls" and "Emmerdale." She also played Mrs. Robinson onstage. She has also done voice work for cartoons, such as "Batman Beyond." (Obviously not as Batman.)