WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[feaito]

Since I am reading Maureen O'Hara's Bio 'Tis Herself I watched two of her films in a row:

- First I revisited "The Spanish Main" (1945) in which Maureen plays the daughter of the Viceroy of Mexico en route to marry the Viceroy of Nueva Granada (Walter Slezak). Her boat is captured by the pirate Barracuda (an improbable Paul Henreid, who anyway gives a fine performance). They fall in love and....Since this film was directed by Frank Borzage, there are touches of his talente for romance in the scenes between O'Hara and Henreid. Beautifully filmed in Technicolor. Binnie Barnes plays Annie Bonney. John Emery plays another slimy character and Jack La Rue has a small role, as Antonio Moreno. Entertaining.

- Secondly I saw Richard Wallace's "The Fallen Sparrow" (1943), a good psychological drama in which John Garfield plays a damaged man who escaped from Spain after being tortured by the Franco Regime. He fought for the Republican side; but the friend who helped him out, was killed in NYC. He has been away in Arizona to recover his sanity... Patricia Morison is a society lady who used to be his sweetheart; Martha O'Driscoll. another childhood friend. Walter Slezak is a Norewgian refugee and Maureen O'Hara the lovely granddaughter of an Italian prince.....Garfield tries to discover what happened to his pal, but gets mixed in a web of deceit and lies....of espionage and treason....Fascism galore. Good film and Garfield is very good.

[feaito]

I also revisited a very little-known 1936 film, mainly cited as the first film in which Tyrone Power had a featured role: Irving Cumming's "Girls' Dormitory", IMO an excellent and sensitively handled movie which introduced lovely French actress Simone Simon to American audiences. The plot is about a young student's infatuation with the Director of the Swiss Finishing School (Herbert Marshall-Herr Dominik) she's attending. Simon is exquiste as Marie Claudel, but Ruth Chatterton (as an understanding teacher) gives perhaps the best and more nuanced performance of the whole show; arguably one of Chattertton's greatest performances as the caring, sweet, tender and good-hearted Anna, a professor that's secretly in love with the Director. Beautiful film all the way and pretty realistic and plausible.

The film is based upon a play by Ladislas Fodor, who was responsible for the screenplay of "Le Bal" (1931), for the source of "Jewel Robbery" (1932) and for the story of "The Great Sinner" (1949), among others. The story has a definite European flavor and some very good actors in the cast, like Constance Collier, John Qualen, Frank Reicher, etc. A film that deserves to be rediscovered as much more than Power's first feature.

[charliechaplinfan]

I left this on the George Raft thread but the film has so many stars that I thought I'd post a copy here too. Spoilers contained

I don't often cry at movies, hardly ever, so I was glad I was in the house by myself today watching Spawn of the North, it got my twice, the first time when he was lying injured in the hotel with tars in his eyes after bawling out Jim in front of Red Skein, the second time which really did get me going was when Slicker jumped ont othe boat near the end and he told him to go away. Those who dare criticise the acting talents of George Raft should watch the end of this movie, rarely has a movie sacrifice been as powerful, why isn't this scene more well known, strapped to the wheel and caerring into the iceberg? (Give poppa a kiss, oh my goodness it was cute at first, it was harrowing at the end)

The movie should carry a warning, never act with seals or John Barrymore because they are going to steal their scenes.

I was suprised at the billing but only because Henry Fonda is an acting legend in my books, I didn't think it'd make a good screen combination but I'm beginning to think that George raft could play buddies or brothers with any other leading man, he has that easy nature. I thought Henry Fonda was great too and Dorothy Lamour a great screen partner for George. John Barrymore is John Barrymore I can hardly look at anyone else but I wonder if he'd given up acting by this stage and was just adopting quizzical expressions for the camera. My first thought was that Raft was going to die, it was the way his character was set up. The film was fast moving with some great location work and scenes of icebergs breaking up. I had never heard of this movie before reading your book which is surprising because Henry Fonda is someone I've looked out for in the past.

[RedRiver]

Hmm...The store down the street has an interesting DVD. Something counter culture. Late 1960's, I'd guess. Barbara Hershey, Michael Sarazin? Looks like it could be pretentious. But you never know. For some reason, I can't remember the title! Any feedback?

I did buy another one. A live TV version of FAIL SAFE. Not from the Playhouse 90 era. Something George Clooney did ten years ago. I don't remember that either. FAIL SAFE is not my favorite movie. I prefer SEVEN DAYS IN MAY. But this looks intriguing. And Executive Producer Clooney is not one to toss mediocre projects around. This feels like a good bet.

[JackFavell]

I saw that version of Fail Safe, Red, it was performed live on TV, the first live production in years. I thought it was pretty darn good. It also has Noah Wyle in it, I believe.

The Pursuit of Happiness is the film you saw, with Sarrazin and Barbara Hershey.

Going way back, I always liked Grand Theft Auto, directed by and starring Ron Howard. There were a couple of really good car movies in the seventies, and this was one of them. My other fave was The Gumball Rally with Raoul Julia and Michael Sarrazin, Red.

[ChiO]

There were a couple of really good car movies in the seventies

Don't forget VANISHING POINT (1971).

[CineMaven]

I wasn't so crazy about the George Clooney "Fail Safe" version, but I would love to see a major television channel do the Playhouse 90 thing and have actors perform live on television.

Live wha'?? HA!! What am I saying? Many of today's actors are not trained to do live theatre. Just small sound bytes of acting. They wouldn't dare take a chance to perform like that. Oh well.

Have been a Barbara Hershey fan from waay back. As for Michael Sarrazin...has anyone here ever seen "THE REINCARNATION OF PETER PROUD"??

[JackFavell]

Vanishing Point! Of course!

I never saw The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, Maven, but I'm on the lookout for it. Really love Michael Sarrazin.

[CineMaven]

It is a pretty 70's movie. Margot Kidder appears in it as well. Something about it just made me watch the movie several times straight in the theatre. Related but unrelated JackaaaAaay, you might look out for Ann Harding in the 1950's with Jock Mahoney in "I'VE LIVED BEFORE" with the same premise as "...Peter Proud."

I thought Sarrazin had a cute nose.

[JackFavell]

He does!

[MikeBSG]

Yesterday, I tried watching Guy Maddin's "Archangel."

Okay, I realize that it isn't a historical film based on the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, because Maddin doesn't seem especially interested in the real world, but I found that the misuse of the Cyrillic alphabet and giving a Russian woman a male patronymic (Petrovich instead of Petrovna) just drove me up the wall and made me eject the DVD. These slips struck me as very simple things to avoid, which is why they irritated me so much.

So far, the only Guy Maddin films I have liked are the feature "Careful" and the short "The Heart of the World." The rest of the time he leaves me baffled.

[RedRiver]

FAIL SAFE is OK. Not a great show, but live TV is fascinating. When one of the actors stumbled over a line, I was thrilled! The cast is good. The premise is interesting, if nothing else. Does anybody else have this problem? Once you've seen "Strangelove" a few times, it's hard to take FAIL SAFE seriously. I keep waiting for somebody to say, "You can't fight in here. This is The War Room!"

[charliechaplinfan]

After watching Cinemaven's Movie chat programme on youtube all about Shadow of a Doubt I decided to revisit the movie which I've only seen once before. I'm far more into Hitchcock these days and his trademarks, some of which might have passed me by in earlier years. First thing I picked up on instantly was The Merry Widow waltz, a couple of seconds delay there because I was confused why the start of a Hitchcock movie would remind me of Maurice Chevalier, then I realised. Notice it's the only way it's implied by Hitchcock until later on in the movie, we know he's done wrong because he's being followed. He pretends to be ill on the train, I automatically think he's a weasle but given young Charlie's reaction to him, perhaps I'm mistaken, then I see how he stands back whilst everyone else carries his bags, I'm back to not liking him. Small town America takes a bow in this movie, it's utilised for many scenes. Another Hitchcock touch is the woman who won't stop talking in this case Charlie's sister, one thinks if she takes a breath she might realise the tension around her table. Brillant use of the two smaller children, especially Anne. That survey doesn't fool Charlie for a minute, he's evil, unremittingly so and I felt that only Charlie could take him down, she isn't like her uncle at all, she's the antithesis of him. A Hitchcock gem. If anyone wants the movie dissected further I recommend you watch Cinemaven's movie chat programme on youtube.

[Robert Regan]

Thank you, Alison, for your kind words about Theresa's and my discussion of Shadow of a Doubt. It was a tremendous pleasure to talk about such a great movie with a dear friend and fine critic. Towards the end we talk about finding more things that we hadn't seen the next time we see the film and, sure enough, more things came to me just seeing the clips that Theresa added. One that especially stands out is the resemblance between Charlie and Louise, her high school classmate. It's not extreme, but it's there, as though the latter is the girl next door from the other side of the tracks. Also, that wonderfully disturbing restaurant scene is one of the few times we see soldiers, reminding us that there was a War going on. The casting throughout is perfect. Janet Shaw is just right as Louise, and Macdonald Carey, nice, but more than a little dull, couldn't be better. I guess a great film is one you can keep talking about forever.

[MikeBSG]

I saw "Moonrise Kingdom" today and I liked it a lot.

I didn't expect to like it, because I had tried watching "Rushmore" once and couldn't finish it, and I had avoided everything by Wes Anderson ever since. However, I had been intrigued by the trailer for this one and gave it a try.

I liked it. I especially loved Kara Hayward as Suzy, the heroic girl. She got me to believe in this story of two misfit kids running away from their troubles. The rest of the cast was superb, and I liked the way the relationships between the adult characters were sketched in so that the kids (in the film) could ignore them (mostly) but the adults in the audience could see what was going on. I also liked having an on-screen narrator who spoke directly to the audience. The mid-Sixties atmosphere was wonderfully filled in. The movie gives us the era as a child would have perceived it.

Maybe the end of the film troubled me or disappointed me a little. In some ways, it was too neat, as if, at its heart, "Moonrise Kingdom" was really a Disney film about two spunky kids. But then that could just be me and my preference for darker/more extreme endings.

Definitely worth a look.