I Just Watched...

[NickandNora34]

Finally able to log back in to this website haha.... I have a lot that I've watched during my unplanned hiatus, but will just briefly go over the more recent watch:

Written on the Wind (1956)
This movie was thoroughly engaging throughout the entire run-time, and I loved the performances. Dorothy Malone was perfection as the spoiled and nearly-sadistic sister of Robert Stack. I found it quite easy to sympathize with both Rock Hudson and Lauren Bacall's characters. I think this is my favorite Sirk I've seen thus far (All That Heaven Allows, Magnificent Obsession); "Imitation of Life" is also on my priority list, and I'm excited to get to it. It's always great to see how lovely the cinematography is in Sirk's films.

[CinemaInternational]

Salome's Last Dance (1988)

A playwright goes to a brothel and is given a surprise performance of his recently banned play with his friends and prostitutes playing the parts.

This movie encompasses three major timeframes: 1) the biblical story of Salome, 2) the Victorian world of Oscar Wilde and 3) today's audience which has been exposed to: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

This is a Ken Russell movie. Dichotomies abound. Excess is personified. It is wondrously beautiful and disgustingly ugly. The actors are consummate professionals portraying rank amateurs. The transparency of the special effects reinforces the realism of an ad hoc production.

The performance by Imogen Millais-Scott as Salome was ethereal. Bits of artless hamming flowed into captivating soliloquies. Her passion was intense while her heart was ice. She has a commanding presence while remaining completely aloof.

She was so perfectly wonderful in all regards that I had to investigate why she did not become a major star. I will not reveal her personal situation at the time of filming because it would prejudice any viewer's appreciation for her presentation. All I can say is that it is a tragedy that she was in only three movies.

I am quite sure that this is a love-it-or-hate-it movie. Embracing the idea that you are watching an in-story amateur production and judging it by that standard might be a bit of a stretch for some people. Expecting a typical Wilde play or not understanding Russell's style might taint it for others.

My personal recommendation is to watch this movie and then watch it again in a year if it seemed to not be to your taste the first time.

8.4/10

The availability of this movie appears to change virtually week by week. It will at times be available for viewing for free with commercials on one or two streaming sites, it will at times be available only on subscription services, it will at times be available only as pay-per-view and there are times when it will completely disappear for a month or more. We used the digital credits from Amazon deliveries to purchase it so that we will have it available at all times.

Thanks for writing this up. It does have a bit too much of the Russell excess at times, notably one very.... fleshy moment, but I should have listed this earlier as another one of Russell's better hours. I saw it earlier this year as part of a marathon of Glenda Jackson titles after her passing this June. She's not in it much, but is very good, and Imogen, as you mentioned, has a lot of onscreen charisma.

[LostHorizons]

This morning on TCM, the audio to the Smartest Girl in Town was behind the movie by about half a minute. It’s sad because I was going to watch that. It might be an issue with all prints available of the film in which case they just shouldn’t have scheduled it if there aren’t any decent copies.

[ziggy6708a]

thanks, LH
noticed this bad sound sync also, but thought maybe it was DTV prob.
Obviously no one @ TCM checks this stuff BEFORE airing

[TikiSoo]

This morning on TCM, the audio to the Smartest Girl in Town was behind the movie by about half a minute. It might be an issue with all prints available of the film in which case they just shouldn’t have scheduled it if there aren’t any decent copies.

I'm sorry, but if a movie has an out-of-synch soundtrack, it just should NOT be broadcast. TCM especially should know better.

Is it an equipment problem? Either on TCMs end or the broadcaster? I don't know how these things werk.
I'll ask MarkP, he worked at a TV station broadcasting movies back in the analog days & may have insight.

[txfilmfan]

It's present in the on-demand versions from both WatchTCM and YouTube TV, so it wasn't a transmission problem.

[Masha]

Salome's Last Dance (1988)

Thanks for writing this up. It does have a bit too much of the Russell excess at times, notably one very.... fleshy moment, but I should have listed this earlier as another one of Russell's better hours. I saw it earlier this year as part of a marathon of Glenda Jackson titles after her passing this June. She's not in it much, but is very good, and Imogen, as you mentioned, has a lot of onscreen charisma.

I believe that I know which scene that you mean. It was crude, offensive and quite, quite inappropriate. I loved it! It was utter perfection on several levels. I believe that no viewer expected or anticipated it and so would not have noticed if it had been left out of the final cut but it was pure Ken Russell genius to conceive of it and present it so smoothly. I feel that most of his films are a roller coaster ride and this scene was a fast trip down a very steep slope and a sudden turn at the end slams you into a brick wall. Then you are through it and all around act as if nothing special happened.

I rank it very highly in the list of very best two-second shots in movie history.

[LostHorizons]

thanks, LH
noticed this bad sound sync also, but thought maybe it was DTV prob.
Obviously no one @ TCM checks this stuff BEFORE airing

I left the whole thing on in the background hoping it would fix itself somewhere down the line but the entire movie was off all the way through. The programmers really dropped the ball on that one. In TCM’s defense, their line up is much more diverse than most other channels and with hundreds of different movies playing each month one or two errors slipping through the cracks is nothing. It’s not like AMC or whatever where each week it’s the same ten movies in constant rotation.

[HoldenIsHere]

This morning on TCM, the audio to the Smartest Girl in Town was behind the movie by about half a minute. It might be an issue with all prints available of the film in which case they just shouldn’t have scheduled it if there aren’t any decent copies.

I'm sorry, but if a movie has an out-of-synch soundtrack, it just should NOT be broadcast. TCM especially should know better.

Is it an equipment problem? Either on TCMs end or the broadcaster? I don't know how these things werk.
I'll ask MarkP, he worked at a TV station broadcasting movies back in the analog days & may have insight.

The last three times I've watched THE SNAKE PIT on TCM or Watch TCM the video and audio have ben out of sync.
These viewings took place over a period of two or three years.
Maybe this movie has always been out of sync in this way, but I don't remember noticing it when I first saw the movie sometime in the early 2000s.

[Allhallowsday]

THE EXORCIST (1973)

[Lorna]

You know, I have a feeling I would catch hands from anyone actually living in 1942 for saying this, but OH WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!!

I say this because I tripped quite by accident over an absolutely delightful little OLD DARK HOUSE MURDER MYSTERY THRILLER/UNINTENTIONAL LAUGH RIOT from WARNER BROS. called THE HIDDEN HAND made in 1942.



I have never seen anything quite like it- well, not that's not true- I have- the film itself is basically the result of someone throwing ONE FRIGHTENED NIGHT and NIGHT MONSTER and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE and THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE and YOU'LL FIND OUT and HOLD THAT GHOST and THE OLD DARK HOUSE into a BLENDER and the end result was directed by ED WOOD.

I would not have been THE LEAST BIT SURPRISED if THE ANDREWS SISTERS had showed up at the end.

I am sorry that I cannot ENLARGE PRINT HERE, because truly it needs to be said IN BOLD IN COLOR AND IN ALL CAPS AND IN SIZE 42 FONT THAT THIS MOVIE IS BANANNERS.

I'm going to copy and paste the plot from imdb because I don't have the mental capacity to recap it and I doubt my own sanity 12 hours after seeing this.

Peter Thorne (Craig Stevens)is a young attorney who works for an eccentric old woman, Lorinda Channing (Cecil Cunningham), who uses her insane brother, John Channing (Milton Parsons), to frighten her other relatives because they are after her money. Further complications arrive when another murderer arrives on the scene and plants the blame on John Channing.

(end paste)

CECIL CUNNINGHAM (AUNT PATTY from THE AWFUL TRUTH) is OPENLY HOSTILE TO BEING IN THIS MOVIE, she is OBVIOUSLY NOT HERE IT, MOTHER. And while I don't ENTIRELY BLAME HER, because she's not right for the part (who the HELL would be is A WHOLE OTHER QUESTION) her costar MILTON PARSONS invests himself in the role of THE MANIAC KILLER 110% in spite of the fact that I'M SURE it was QUITE OBVIOUS to ALL INVOLVED that this movie was not going to rival CITIZEN KANE in terms of its impact on cinema of the time.

it's like watching JOHN MALKOVICH play THE RAYMOND MASSEY PART in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.



I guarantee you HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS MOVIE!!!! (well, you HAVE, but you've never seen it DONE LIKE THIS)

THERE IS A SCENE AT THE VERY END THAT I REPLAYED 20 TIMES AND I LAUGHED HYSTERICALLY EACH TIME.

Oh man, people in 1942 really needed this movie, I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE SEEN AN AUDIENCE REACTION.

[Swithin]

You know, I have a feeling I would catch hands from anyone actually living in 1942 for saying this, but OH WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!!

I say this because I tripped quite by accident over an absolutely delightful little OLD DARK HOUSE MURDER MYSTERY THRILLER UNINTENTIONAL LAUGH RIOT from WARNER BROS. called THE HIDDEN HAND made in 1942.



I have never seen anything quite like it- well, not that's not true- I have- the film itself is basically the result of someone throwing ONE FRIGHTENED NIGHT and NIGHT MONSTER and ARSENIC AND OLD LACE and THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE and YOU'LL FIND OUT and HOLD THAT GHOST and THE OLD DARK HOUSE into a BLENDER and the end result was directed by ED WOOD.

I am sorry that I cannot ENLARGE PRINT HERE, because truly it needs to be said IN BOLD IN COLOR AND IN ALL CAPS AND IN SIZE 42 FONT THAT THIS MOVIE IS BANANNERS.

I'm going to copy and paste the plot from imdb because I don't have the mental capacity to recap it and I doubt my own sanity 12 hours after seeing this.

Peter Thorne (Craig Stevens)is a young attorney who works for an eccentric old woman, Lorinda Channing (Cecil Cunningham), who uses her insane brother, John Channing (Milton Parsons), to frighten her other relatives because they are after her money. Further complications arrive when another murderer arrives on the scene and plants the blame on John Channing.

(end paste)

CECIL CUNNINGHAM (AUNT PATTY from THE AWFUL TRUTH) is OPENLY HOSTILE TO BEING IN THIS MOVIE, she is OBVIOUSLY NOT HERE IT, MOTHER. And while I don't ENTIRELY BLAME HER, because she's not right for the part (who the HELL would be is A WHOLE OTHER QUESTION) her costar MILTON PARSONS invests himself in the role of THE MANIAC KILLER 110% in spite of the fact that, yes obviously, this is movie is not going to rival CITIZEN KANE in terms of its impact on the art form of film.

it's like watching JOHN MALKOVICH play THE RAYMOND MASSEY PART in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.



I guarantee you HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS MOVIE!!!!

THERE IS A SCENE AT THE VERY END THAT I REPLAYED 20 TIMES AND I LAUGHED HYSTERICALLY EACH TIME.

Oh man, people in 1942 really needed this movie, I WOULD HAVE LOVED TO HAVE SEEN AN AUDIENCE REACTION.

Rarely has a post made me want to see a movie as soon as possible, the way this post has! Can't wait -- I see it's on YouTube.

[Lorna]

YES INDEED, THE HIDDEN HAND IS ON YOUTUBE IN FULL.

I hope I have not "oversold" it, I LOST THE PLOT COMPLETELY 45 minutes in. ALSO, there is a RACIST STEREOTYPE and a lot of SURPRISINGLY HARSH violence against women. Quite a few female members of the cast are strangled.

nonetheless, it's only a little over an hour and they cram A LOT of AUDACIOUSLY STUPID DIALOGUE and PLOT DEVICES into that hour and some change

ALSO ALSO, SECRET PASSAGEWAY AND TRAP DOOR ENTHUSIASTS, THIS ONE IS RIGHT UP YOUR ALLEY (Which I presume lies behind a bookshelf triggered by a light fixture.)

[Masha]

ALSO ALSO, SECRET PASSAGEWAY AND TRAP DOOR ENTHUSIASTS, THIS ONE IS RIGHT UP YOUR ALLEY (Which I presume lies behind a bookshelf triggered by a light fixture.)

Put the candle back!

[Allhallowsday]

STORM FEAR (1955)

Not good, ham handed... DAVID STOLLERY plays David...!