WHAT FILMS HAVE YOU SEEN LATELY?

[RedRiver]

12 ANGRY MEN has been adapted for the stage with a mixture of the genders more than once. 12 ANGRY JURORS in one case. I don't know about all women. And of course, there's the shorter ONE ANGRY MAN, which features Rob Petrie doing more than his civic duty!

EASY LIVING is a classy, witty comedy. I like everybody in the cast, including RAYMOND Milland. I also like Jacques Tourneur's football drama of the exact same title. That drives me crazy. I'm always thinking I have the title wrong for one of them!

[Rita Hayworth]

Masha - Attack on Leningrad is a very difficult movie for anyone to write up and I'm applauding your critique of this film because I saw this movie with my dear friends back home because it's a war movie made by a respected Director by the name of Aleksandr Buravskiy of whom I was introduced to him for the first time. My friends is an Aleksandr Buravskiy fan and he told me that this film is one of his best works ever. I saw this film when its first came out in 2009 and I haven't seen it since. I would love to see this film once again and you have done a great job recapping it. I just wanted to let you know that.

[CineMaven]

Mr. Arkadin posted this video on our Oasis' FaceBook page. A great montage of scenes from "BLACK NARCISSUS" with some wonderfully atmospheric music.



What a find. Click on the foto and check it out when you get a chance.

[Rita Hayworth]

Paddy O'Day 1936 Film





I really enjoyed this film and its so enduring and wonderfully made. Jane Withers, Pinky Tomlin, and Rita Cansino all were very entertaining to watch and the music was uplifting and has some comedic moments too. I just also loved Paddy O'Day's dog Tim and loved the scene of the dog and the cat was chasing all over the house and closing musical number too. I just loved this film and I was charmed by all this. Jane Withers was so adorable in this movie and I was stunned by her love and charisma in this film back in 1936. Anyway, I also loved this scene on the ship ... Jane Withers was delightfully entertaining.

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And, rightly so. She was a terrific singer, dancer, and a joy to watch too. Anyway ... I'm glad that I watched this movie tonight on TCM.

[CineMaven]

I watched “SCARLETT STREET” yesterday and what a nasty grim little movie this is. Maybe because I wasn’t facing the tv while watching, I was more listening to the story and could really feel the sordidness. JOAN BENNETT and DAN DURYEA were pigs. Yeah, I hate to put it like that but there’s just no other way. He used her...and she lapped up every debasing minute of it. EDWARD G. ROBINSON got all mangled up in their shenanigans. Plus he had a shrewish wife, got a gold watch for working at the same company for the last thirty years, ( a jolly good fellow! and did you see my Sammykins? ) and never pursued his real dream, of being an artist. He gets used and used and perhaps he might really have to take responsibility for that. Guess it would take a man of steel to walk away from Joan Bennett. But I can’t help feel sorry for him. Bennett toys with his emotions like a cat with a mouse. No one really wins at the end of this dark Fritz Lang film.



I love this exchange between my two 1930’s gals JOAN BENNETT ( ‘Kitty’ ) and MARGARET LINDSAY ( ‘Millie.’ ) Millie knows exactly who and what her room mate is. Both actresses are pros at tossing a line:

MILLIE: “Why don’t you go back to work. That figure. If you weren’t so darned lazy.”

KITTY: “Who do you think you are, my guardian angel?”

MILLIE: “Not me honey. I lost those wings a long time ago.”

KITTY: “That’s what I thought.”

MILLIE: “No wonder you got fired. You’re so darned snippy. You never could get to work on time after you met that Johnny. Honey, what’s happened to you?”

KITTY: “Don’t you wish it could happen to you. I’m in love. Crazy in love.”

MILLIE: “With a man who kicks you around the way I wouldn’t push a cat around.”

KITTY: “You leave Johnny out of this.”

MILLIE: “You have the looks and figure to any man you want.”

KITTY: “Sure, but there’s only one I want.”

MILLIE: “Yeah and he’s making a tramp out of you.”

KITTY: “You wouldn’t know love if it hit you in the face.”

MILLIE: “If that’s where it hits you, you oughta know.”

Dames! They don't make pals like that anymore. << SIGH! >>

[JackFavell]

Damn! You make me sorry I didn't watch yesterday. That darn baking got in my way. You'd never see Kitty baking goodies for a bake sale....

[feaito]

Tess, thanks for taking the time to reproduce that marvellous exchange. SS is a film that deserves many viewings (I have seen it thrice and the last was the best, thanks to KINO's flawless print included in their DVD release).

[RedRiver]

Anyone doubting Robinson's range as an actor should watch the famed tough guy in this meek, domesticated role. That man could play practically anything! SCARLET STREET is a beautiful noir. It preys on thought as much as sensation. Not so much creepy, moody atmosphere as, "Holy ****! I can't believe they did that!" I know of no better evidence that it doesn't take a huge budget and advanced technology to make a good movie. What you need is a story!

[JackFavell]

And it's funny.

Ok in a tragic sort of way.

[Rita Hayworth]

I saw this movie with my dear friends back home

I thank you for your kind words. I find it sad to find that the most powerful movies are the most hard of which to write. One may dash off a few lines for many films but it is not easy to reduce a movie which sweeps through tragedy and glory and love and desperation.

I must wonder what you mean by: "back home." I hope you do not mind my asking if you are from Russia. My mother's family were from Saint Petersburg and so I feel an affinity. I was born and raised in Ukraine.

Back Home in Washington State ... Sorry about the confusion Masha and I happen to see this movie somewhere in my State and I just can't recall where I seen it.

I'm not from Russia - I'm actually a German/Dutch/Holland/Scotland Ancestry

Hope this clears things up.

[JackFavell]

I saw French Cancan (Renoir, 1954). What an absolutely great movie! This is now my second favorite movie musical of all time, after Singing in the Rain. I never thought I'd find a movie I liked as much. I found French Cancan funny, sad, beautiful, dramatic, colorful, worldly and tremendously exciting. The french settings were superb, the cast a dream. The story is a mere trifle, but the execution of it was just plain masterful, full of charming stars outdoing themselves and each other to present a postcard of Paris at the Belle Epoque.

I had no idea it was about the beginnings of the Moulin Rouge, not until they finally said the name of the brand new showplace about a third of the way through the film. It made me gasp when I realized that they were building us up to the opening of this real place, that the film was a valentine to Renoir's father's period. The setting and characters were wonderful, just my kind of movie, lots of backstories and character actors. For once, the musical number at the end lived up to its build up, it even surpassed my expectations - it was filmed with such gusto I don't know how anyone could watch and not feel good - it was like being at a big, glorious, FUN party with the most amazing dancing ever, the dancers flinging themselves around in perfectly planned wild and colorful abandon. It made me wish I was still in theatre, the people of it are so grand, and I think this is what Renoir was truly getting at - don't try to label or turn a theatre person into anything else. it's truly in their blood and they can never settle down to a regular life once bitten by the arts. Renoir speaks to us of the concerns of the artist, something he knew well, and his father passed on to him.

Is it possible that Gabin could play ANY role? I especially loved the sincere but fickle Gabin and his vixen, the raven haired Maria Felix. I've heard about her for years but never saw her in anything. The country laundress who becomes a stage star and Gabin's next lover was attractive, acted and danced beautifully. One could see the raw clay which Gabin saw within her, his Galatea. The twist with Gabin at the end was perfect, ironic. Such a simple backstage story, but told well, and with more fascinating themes of patronage and humanity. Gabin simply being himself, explaining that he is only human and therefore never going to settle down really lent the film a terrific denoument. I loved his irritated speech about how art is his lover and he cannot be anything but what he is. I liked that he was what he was, and there was no judgment of him in the end, quite the contrary. Wonderful. A terribly exciting film. It's joie de vivre is catching.

[RedRiver]

To be honest, I didn't know Renoir directed a musical. Was that rare for him? I like RULES OF THE GAME just as much as GRAND ILLUSION. But push to shove, I'm all-American. If there's an ocean between me and the filmmaker, I probably haven't seen it!

[JackFavell]

It's a wonderful movie that I think any classic film fan would like, red, there's a lot of ....hm....how shall I say it? ...there's a lot of movie-isms in this film...recognizable themes and stories from the 50's which make it comfortable for Americans to watch, not artsy at all, unpretentious. I'm sorry but I just realized I kind of left a spoiler in my review! I didn't mean to, but hopefully people will have forgotten what I said by the time they see the film. I didn't know it was even going to be a musical, frankly. It's best going into it cold, with no knowledge of it at all except the title and the director's name.

It's just a great colorful movie, just what you would expect from someone named Renoir, and even a little more boisterous than you would imagine, if that's possible. A really great backstage musical.