WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
I watched Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground today, a strange mixture of city cop noir flick and scenic snow bound love story, it is a film of two halfs with some actors appearing in only the first half and others in the second held together by Robert Ryan's character a maverick cop. at first they are pursuing a cop killer and Ryan is not above beating the living daylights out of the accused to get a confession, after getting into two lots of trouble he's sent to the wilderness to investigate the killing of a young girl, the girl's father Ward Bond is tracking the criminal bent on assassinating him and Ryan takes the opposing side to Bond by protecting the criminal whilst coming across the criminals blind sister played very well by Ida Lupino, always very watchable and making her best of her roles but I've never seen her better than here and the chemistry between the two main characters was tender and very touching. With all this the atomosphere so splendidly built up on the streets of the city and then taken into the wilderness and the beauty and despair of the desolate landscape.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
Wow, you really captured it well. It's such a different film, moody, hard as nails and then soft, but it all holds together. I can't think of another like it. Ryan, Bond and Lupino are really fantastic.
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
I think On Dangerous Ground makes an interesting move from the city to the country, but it IS unexpected in a noir film. Fortunately, I like the unexpected. To me, it remains balanced, because Ray keeps the right tone throughout. Both sections work because the focus is on what Ryan sees. Ryan is only able to step back and see himself when confronted with Ward Bond's anger in contrast to Ida Lupino's warmth and inner peace.
I really liked The Wreck of the Mary Deare, much more than I thought I would. Coop gives Heston a lesson in underplaying.
I really liked The Wreck of the Mary Deare, much more than I thought I would. Coop gives Heston a lesson in underplaying.
Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
This is a fine crime film, though I'm the odd man here. I prefer the urban, edgy scenes. Is that the great Ed Begley as Ryan's boss? "The way they cook peas here..." Dude! Enough with the peas! The primary story works well. The cast is good. (Was Robert Ryan ever not good?) The outdoor scenes are pretty and poetic. But, like the people, the pace begins to trudge through the snow. What starts as an intense, brutal police drama becomes a more psychological duel.
It's all good. But I wanted a little more excitement, a bit less analysis. Maybe I wanted Jacques Tourneur instead of Nicholas Ray. But those peas...
It's all good. But I wanted a little more excitement, a bit less analysis. Maybe I wanted Jacques Tourneur instead of Nicholas Ray. But those peas...
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charliechaplinfan
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
I like the hardboiled city bound crime dramas let the change in ODG was unexpected and as such a relief from the tension and strains of being a city cop. The switch in Ryan's character from being unable to see what ails him and his anger to encountering Ward Bond who has a genuine reason for vengeance makes Ryan step back coupled with Lupino's blind but soul seeing perfromance make him reappraise himself and his life. His immediate response to Lupino's character was a shock to him, this warmth that flooded out of him in response to her needs, I like how he assimilates this new feeling, liking it and making him behave honourably towards both boy and woman.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
You make good points, as do the other posters. ON DANGEROUS GROUND has a lot going for it. Last night I watched Howard Hawks' THE DAWN PATROL (retitled FLIGHT COMMANDER). This primitive 1930-ish production is quite good once you adjust to the style of the time. Over stated. Painfully overt. But that rough, scruffy quality provides a personal air. War is not slick and theatrical.
The flying scenes are as thrilling as thrilling can be. They hold up well even today. No small accomplishment. I love the way the men make friends with captive Germans! Can't remember if that happens in the Errol Flynn vehicle or not. Overall, I like the Hawks film better. It's not the director's best work. It's pretty awkward by modern standards. But 1930! The sound era was in its infancy.
Hawks took to the air several times in his adventurous career. AIR FORCE, CEILING ZERO, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS. None of these films rank among the all time greats. But you won't be bored. Bored and Howard Hawks don't often appear in the same sentence!
The flying scenes are as thrilling as thrilling can be. They hold up well even today. No small accomplishment. I love the way the men make friends with captive Germans! Can't remember if that happens in the Errol Flynn vehicle or not. Overall, I like the Hawks film better. It's not the director's best work. It's pretty awkward by modern standards. But 1930! The sound era was in its infancy.
Hawks took to the air several times in his adventurous career. AIR FORCE, CEILING ZERO, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS. None of these films rank among the all time greats. But you won't be bored. Bored and Howard Hawks don't often appear in the same sentence!
Last edited by RedRiver on October 10th, 2011, 3:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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JackFavell
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
I really enjoyed the parts I saw. God, I love early Hawks.
I just barely realized in time that Flight Commander was The Dawn Patrol, a movie I've been dying to see for years. I saw the blurb on TCM at the last minute, and sprung into action so I could get it recorded. Whew! I didn't know I could move so quick! Thank goodness I did, it looked fabulous. I was busy doing last minute cleaning up around the house, but heard my Frankie McHugh burst into drunken song at one point.... he must have bought it, because by the time I sat down again he was nowhere to be seen. Doug Jr. was excellent, especially for 1930. The final scenes are breathtaking, Hawks doesn't spare us - he keeps us dangling right to the last second of the movie.
I just barely realized in time that Flight Commander was The Dawn Patrol, a movie I've been dying to see for years. I saw the blurb on TCM at the last minute, and sprung into action so I could get it recorded. Whew! I didn't know I could move so quick! Thank goodness I did, it looked fabulous. I was busy doing last minute cleaning up around the house, but heard my Frankie McHugh burst into drunken song at one point.... he must have bought it, because by the time I sat down again he was nowhere to be seen. Doug Jr. was excellent, especially for 1930. The final scenes are breathtaking, Hawks doesn't spare us - he keeps us dangling right to the last second of the movie.
Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
.
Unfortunately your description of the script, direction, and stars explains why it's not doing well at the box office. Hollywood has been aiming at the younger set for so long, they're no interested in seeing strong, important material - give them blood sucking and buildings blowing up instead. I felt this way several years ago when Clooney directed Good Night, Good Luck but seemed to have no backers. Most of Clooney's movies deal with hard facts and vital information and much of it is based on things his dad saw and set him off on searches for the truth, but with history no longer being taught in schools, kids are not learning the old adage of ' history repeats itself ' and that's a real shame.
.
Unfortunately your description of the script, direction, and stars explains why it's not doing well at the box office. Hollywood has been aiming at the younger set for so long, they're no interested in seeing strong, important material - give them blood sucking and buildings blowing up instead. I felt this way several years ago when Clooney directed Good Night, Good Luck but seemed to have no backers. Most of Clooney's movies deal with hard facts and vital information and much of it is based on things his dad saw and set him off on searches for the truth, but with history no longer being taught in schools, kids are not learning the old adage of ' history repeats itself ' and that's a real shame.
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Anne
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Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
Of course, "doing well" can be defined in a variety of ways, but the estimates for this past weekend that I saw put it at #2 for weekend gross.Unfortunately your description of the script, direction, and stars explains why it's not doing well at the box office.
And GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK grossed over four times its budget during its run in the theaters. Add foreign distribution and DVD rentals, etc., and it would appear to have had "backers." The state of current film is never quite as gloomy as it first appears.
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
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
Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
ON DANGEROUS GROUND: REDEMPTION IN THE SNOW
“Sometimes people who are never alone are the loneliest.”
“ON DANGEROUS GROUND” is a good solid little movie. I’ve read a bit of discussion on “tone” in films; what works...what doesn’t work. “ODG” doesn’t have a big grandiose sweeping story. It has a simple one, in fact. But THIS is a good example of what it looks like when tone is handled right. This movie has two halves and I think they mesh seamlessly and the tone for each half is appropriate.
Robert Ryan plays Detective Jim Wilson who works the night shift and catches The Bad Guys by any means necessary. And most times, what's necessary...is a beatdown.
WHY DO YOU PUNKS MAKE ME DO IT?!”
When Jim asks rhetorically, “Why do you punks make me do it?!!!” My answer'd be... “Because you want to do it Jim, that’s why.” And when Jim gets the come-on by blonde bombshell CLEO MOORE (I’m in the midst of exploring her work having recently seen “One Girl’s Confession”) you just know that their dalliance will not include a bed strewn with rose petals. Jim can “work out” all prior societal rejections suffered b’cuz of his line of work, with this soft hard blonde. Who’d have thunk redemption would come to our hero through actually catching a murderer.
Director Ray draws us into the second half of the movie where a savage murder is introduced into a tight-knit rural community upstate. He does this slow and easy with a car ride from an urban jungle to a snow-covered bucolic setting. He lets us get our bearings slow and easy, just as Jim gets his. We watch Jim’s heart melt in the snow. His brutishness is washed clean in the face of a blind woman he meets.
Mary...
My god, IDA LUPINO...I think she’s just fantastic here. Forget her brittle sexiness as (the eventual crazed) Lana Carlson in “They Drive By Night” or her conniving manipulativeness as Helen in “The Hard Way” or her “questionable” prison warden in “Women’s Prison.” (Well actually don't forget it. That's what makes Ida...Ida. Ida...I idolize ya!) Here on dangerous ground Ida gives a heartfull performance. She’s as gentle as can be. She has strength...but it’s a different kind. Not hard and brassy, but one filled with trust & faith (“I have to trust everybody.”) And not in a saccharine way either. By the sheer force in her belief and her goodness, she gets tough hard brutal Jim Wilson to make her a promise; a promise to bring her brother, the young girl's murderer, to justice safely. And he doesn't commit to this promise easily.
As Jim’s heart and point of view shifts, we have Ward Bond as Mr. Brent, the grieving father of the murdered girl. Let me tell you, his anger and grief are ferocious. Right off the bat it's country vs. city slicker. Actually, he seems like Detective Jim’s former self: brutal, wild, shoot first and ask questions later...maybe. (Ha! At that moment I thought the only actor alive not scared of Robert Ryan would be Ward Bond). Brent is where Jim used to be. When they tussled, it felt to me like Jim was maybe fighting his former self.
There’s a thread here in the Oasis about music scores and composers. Korngold’s music was accused of leading and bludgeoning the viewer a la “The Constant Nymph”(...or like Raymond Burr and that oar in the courtroom). I’m not sure which side of the musical metronome Hermann falls with people, but my heart strings will always follow Bernie’s violins, anywhere. Hey, what do I know? I call myself Phoebe... But besides the music, which I think underscored and enhanced, I felt I was led by events; ...by Jim’s promise to Mary...by Brent’s venge-filled intent...by a boy...by the chase...by Mary pleading with Jim to leave. And Jim’s long drive back to Mary...back to love.
Its his promise to her that begins his redemption. And he doesn’t make this promise easily.
Out there in the cold, white snow...there's forgiveness and redemption. And I think Nicholas Ray handles it seamlessly and wonderfully in "On Dangerous Ground." As for Robert Ryan. Wellllllll, the man is a chameleon. He plays good guys. He plays bad guys. He plays good bad guys and bad good guys. Such a variety of roles throughout his career. If you want to get a handle on ROBERT RYAN's screen persona, you just have to remember one thing:
He will make you believe anything.
“Sometimes people who are never alone are the loneliest.”
“ON DANGEROUS GROUND” is a good solid little movie. I’ve read a bit of discussion on “tone” in films; what works...what doesn’t work. “ODG” doesn’t have a big grandiose sweeping story. It has a simple one, in fact. But THIS is a good example of what it looks like when tone is handled right. This movie has two halves and I think they mesh seamlessly and the tone for each half is appropriate.
Robert Ryan plays Detective Jim Wilson who works the night shift and catches The Bad Guys by any means necessary. And most times, what's necessary...is a beatdown.
WHY DO YOU PUNKS MAKE ME DO IT?!”
When Jim asks rhetorically, “Why do you punks make me do it?!!!” My answer'd be... “Because you want to do it Jim, that’s why.” And when Jim gets the come-on by blonde bombshell CLEO MOORE (I’m in the midst of exploring her work having recently seen “One Girl’s Confession”) you just know that their dalliance will not include a bed strewn with rose petals. Jim can “work out” all prior societal rejections suffered b’cuz of his line of work, with this soft hard blonde. Who’d have thunk redemption would come to our hero through actually catching a murderer.
Director Ray draws us into the second half of the movie where a savage murder is introduced into a tight-knit rural community upstate. He does this slow and easy with a car ride from an urban jungle to a snow-covered bucolic setting. He lets us get our bearings slow and easy, just as Jim gets his. We watch Jim’s heart melt in the snow. His brutishness is washed clean in the face of a blind woman he meets.
Mary...
My god, IDA LUPINO...I think she’s just fantastic here. Forget her brittle sexiness as (the eventual crazed) Lana Carlson in “They Drive By Night” or her conniving manipulativeness as Helen in “The Hard Way” or her “questionable” prison warden in “Women’s Prison.” (Well actually don't forget it. That's what makes Ida...Ida. Ida...I idolize ya!) Here on dangerous ground Ida gives a heartfull performance. She’s as gentle as can be. She has strength...but it’s a different kind. Not hard and brassy, but one filled with trust & faith (“I have to trust everybody.”) And not in a saccharine way either. By the sheer force in her belief and her goodness, she gets tough hard brutal Jim Wilson to make her a promise; a promise to bring her brother, the young girl's murderer, to justice safely. And he doesn't commit to this promise easily.
As Jim’s heart and point of view shifts, we have Ward Bond as Mr. Brent, the grieving father of the murdered girl. Let me tell you, his anger and grief are ferocious. Right off the bat it's country vs. city slicker. Actually, he seems like Detective Jim’s former self: brutal, wild, shoot first and ask questions later...maybe. (Ha! At that moment I thought the only actor alive not scared of Robert Ryan would be Ward Bond). Brent is where Jim used to be. When they tussled, it felt to me like Jim was maybe fighting his former self.
There’s a thread here in the Oasis about music scores and composers. Korngold’s music was accused of leading and bludgeoning the viewer a la “The Constant Nymph”(...or like Raymond Burr and that oar in the courtroom). I’m not sure which side of the musical metronome Hermann falls with people, but my heart strings will always follow Bernie’s violins, anywhere. Hey, what do I know? I call myself Phoebe... But besides the music, which I think underscored and enhanced, I felt I was led by events; ...by Jim’s promise to Mary...by Brent’s venge-filled intent...by a boy...by the chase...by Mary pleading with Jim to leave. And Jim’s long drive back to Mary...back to love.
Its his promise to her that begins his redemption. And he doesn’t make this promise easily.
Out there in the cold, white snow...there's forgiveness and redemption. And I think Nicholas Ray handles it seamlessly and wonderfully in "On Dangerous Ground." As for Robert Ryan. Wellllllll, the man is a chameleon. He plays good guys. He plays bad guys. He plays good bad guys and bad good guys. Such a variety of roles throughout his career. If you want to get a handle on ROBERT RYAN's screen persona, you just have to remember one thing:
He will make you believe anything.
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JackFavell
- Posts: 11926
- Joined: April 20th, 2009, 9:56 am
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charliechaplinfan
- Posts: 9040
- Joined: January 15th, 2008, 9:49 am
Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
What a wonderful description of On Dangerous Ground. I believe you about Robert Ryan, I haven't watched a great deal, only his tough guy roles so far but I do believe he could play anything.
Today I watched Samuel Fuller's Naked Kiss, I found the music too jarring at the beginning but I think I was meant to, this was a bald prostitute beating a man to a pulp andthen we flash forward a couple of years and Kelly the prostitute appears in Grantville where she turns her last trick with the police officer. Soon she finds a job in a handicap children's hospital, a job she's obviously born for and has a loating of her past life. We are only gradually let in to what has happened to Kelly, we see her to be a woman of moral courage and a caring nurse who catches the eye of the doctor. A new life opens up for her, she comes clean about her past but learns a terrible truth about her fiance. I'm unsure about this movie, in some part I really quite enjoyed it, the cinematography, the soundtrack, the knowledge being only revealed gradually and the fact that it treated it's audience like adults who could read behind the lines. Yet I wasn't completely won over although I don't know why, perhaps it was the male stars who just failed to shine for me or the slightly saccaharine portrayal of Kelly as a nurse. I would watch again though.
Today I watched Samuel Fuller's Naked Kiss, I found the music too jarring at the beginning but I think I was meant to, this was a bald prostitute beating a man to a pulp andthen we flash forward a couple of years and Kelly the prostitute appears in Grantville where she turns her last trick with the police officer. Soon she finds a job in a handicap children's hospital, a job she's obviously born for and has a loating of her past life. We are only gradually let in to what has happened to Kelly, we see her to be a woman of moral courage and a caring nurse who catches the eye of the doctor. A new life opens up for her, she comes clean about her past but learns a terrible truth about her fiance. I'm unsure about this movie, in some part I really quite enjoyed it, the cinematography, the soundtrack, the knowledge being only revealed gradually and the fact that it treated it's audience like adults who could read behind the lines. Yet I wasn't completely won over although I don't know why, perhaps it was the male stars who just failed to shine for me or the slightly saccaharine portrayal of Kelly as a nurse. I would watch again though.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
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feaito
Re: WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?
Today I revisited two films with my sister and bro-in-law (first time for them):
-The Blu-Ray edition of "The Searchers" (1956) is of superb quality. It's my favorite Western and in my top ten list for sure! The glances and exchanges between Ethan and his sister-in-law were more apparent this time around! Dorothy Jordan and John Wayne are superb in these scenes! I'll never get tired of watching this masterpiece. Grand film.
- "The Best of Everything" (1959). A film which predates TV soap-operas; a super-de-luxe Women's film. My sister kept saying that Hope Lange reminded her of Grace Kelly. Suzy Parker is most attractive; Sis loved Louis Jourdan; and I liked very much the characters played by Lange, Aherne, Crawford and Boyd...a most entertaining film.
-The Blu-Ray edition of "The Searchers" (1956) is of superb quality. It's my favorite Western and in my top ten list for sure! The glances and exchanges between Ethan and his sister-in-law were more apparent this time around! Dorothy Jordan and John Wayne are superb in these scenes! I'll never get tired of watching this masterpiece. Grand film.
- "The Best of Everything" (1959). A film which predates TV soap-operas; a super-de-luxe Women's film. My sister kept saying that Hope Lange reminded her of Grace Kelly. Suzy Parker is most attractive; Sis loved Louis Jourdan; and I liked very much the characters played by Lange, Aherne, Crawford and Boyd...a most entertaining film.