Diary of a movie fan

[Bogie]

I did a similar thing on the TCM boards but after being encouraged to, i'm going to try it out here. I'm not very good at synopses so I will use IMDB synopses as they are available. If I need to expand on them I will. Unfortunately for me the first movie doesn't have one. Luckily the story is pretty straightforward

Anyways my old thread was restricted to films on TCM but now I have better access to movies and I will be detailing all the movies I see. Some will be more recent then others and so on so forth.

So let's give this a shot starting with my next post.

[Bogie]

The Nevadan 1950
Viewed on: Encore Westerns
Studio: Columbia Pictures


Starring

Randolph Scott ... Andrew Barclay
Dorothy Malone ... Karen Galt
Forrest Tucker ... Tom Tanner

Frank Faylen ... Jeff
George Macready ... Edward Galt
Charles Kemper ... Sheriff Dyke Merrick
Jeff Corey ... Bart
Tom Powers ... Bill Martin
Jock Mahoney ... Sandy (as Jock O'Mahoney)


Plot:

An outlaw (Tucker) escapes the law on the way to the US Marshall. In the midst of his escape he runs into a stranger (Scott) who he reluctantly becomes friendly with. The two men go to a bank where Tucker receives a mysterious map of his which leads to gold. Unbeknownst to Tucker and Scott the old gang that Tucker rode with sees what has happened and tries to get the map for themselves.

Unfortunately for the gang things don't go over so well for them. Tucker and Scott become more friendly overnight but during the night Tucker escapes and Scott follows him to a small town. That's where Scott meets Karen (Malone) with whom he becomes enamored with as he trades his lame horse for a better one.

Anyways, the gang works for a shady rancher (Faylen) who controls the town and he wants the gold come hell or high water. Scott catches on to things and protects Tucker.


My Thoughts

Well that should be a juicy enough summation of events without spoiling the movie. This was the beginning of the stoic hero phase for Randolph Scott and for westerns in general. It's a pretty routine movie with the standard cliches but Scott and especially Dorothy Malone make it worth watching. There is quite a bit of humor in the film as two of Faylen's gang are brothers who are always bickering about a gal that one of them loves. An example of this is when one of em says that he's going to give the gold because she's his gal the other brother quips with "She's the gal for every guy in Nevada!"

There are a couple of aspects to the movie that I didn't like. One of which was the dynamic between Scott and Malone. Oh they have good chemistry and all but the movie never really puts them together. They don't seem to ever fall in love onscreen which leads to one of the weakest ending lines in a movie i've ever heard!

Nonetheless this was an ok popcorn flick even if it was the beginning of the standard uber stoic good guy western.

2 1/2 stars out of 5.

[cinemalover]

Hi Bogie!
I'd have to agree that this is not one of my favorite Randolph vehicles. It's not terrible, but he has so many others that are so much more fun.

[Bogie]

Voltaire 1933
Viewed on: TCM
Studio: Warner Brothers


Starring


George Arliss ... Voltaire
Doris Kenyon ... Mme. Pompadour
Margaret Lindsay ... Nanette Calas
Alan Mowbray ... Count De Sarnac
Reginald Owen ... King Louis XV
Theodore Newton ... Francois
Gordon Westcott ... The Captain
David Torrence ... Dr. Tronchin
Murray Kinnell ... Emile, Voltaire's servant
Doris Lloyd ... Mme. Clairon, Actress


Plot

The great french philosopher, poet and playwright Voltaire agitates the King of France Louis XV over the persecution and mistreatment of the public by the authorities by having pamphlets calling out for revolution among the people. As a means to show the King what he's been doing is wrong Voltaire decides to take up the cause of Calais, whose father had been tried and killed wrongly.

Voltaire has the ear of the King's mistress Madam Pompadour and enlists her help in having him write and perform a play showing the King how wrong his actions have been.


My thoughts:

I don't know much about Voltaire but George Arliss gives him a strange portrayal in some ways. Voltaire is portrayed as a sickly, old man who's a little shall we say, eccentric? There's a scene where Voltaire is looking for the right wig before meeting M. Pompadour and he's more or less jumping around and acting like a fool. Luckily tho, Arliss chooses to add gravity to the portrayal in the last quarter of the movie when the King through the machinations of his dastardly adviser De Sarnac becomes so angry at Voltaire and what he's done that he orders Voltaire to the bastille.

As for the other players in the film, Reginald Owen does a pretty good job at portraying Louis XV as a bit of a browbeating dimwitted monarch. In fact Louis XV was easily manipulated by the scheming De Sarnac as played by Alan Mowbray. De Sarnac is a man with naked ambition as he uses his position with the King to oppress the people. He even says in one scene that he shall sweep Pompadour out the of the way so that he alone can have influence with the king.

This was a fairly decent movie and I enjoyed it. The only thing that takes away from it is the strange portrayal of Voltaire. I do not know enough about the historical personage to tell if it was too fanciful but I believe Arliss could've toned down the theatrics a bit.

2 1/2 out of 5

[jdb1]

I vaguely remember seeing this movie. I can tell you from my years of slogging through Voltaire and Rousseau in French in college that "foolish" was never a word that could be applied to Voltaire. If he ever acted the fool, and he probably did, it was with full knowledge of what he was doing and saying. He was a brilliant writer and humanist with a scathing sense of humor that he was not afraid to use, even towards the monarchy. He was able to get away with it in part because he was a favorite of Mme. de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress (at least I think it was Louis XV).

Voltaire was jailed occasionally for his "lampoons," but he managed to live to a ripe old age, and made plenty of money from his books and plays. He did not live to see the revolution in France, an event he would have applauded. You might say that he served the same sort of purpose in pre-revolutionary France that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert do in this country today.

[Bogie]

Well I was supposed to add a couple movies but first someone distracted me (darn msn messenger!) and then I got too busy to get back here.

Well here I am and here are the two movies


The Life of Emile Zola 1937
Viewed on: TCM
Studio: Warner Brothers


Starring


Paul Muni ... Émile Zola
Gale Sondergaard ... Lucie Dreyfus
Joseph Schildkraut ... Capt. Alfred Dreyfus
Gloria Holden ... Alexandrine Zola
Donald Crisp ... Maitre Labori
Erin O'Brien-Moore ... Nana
John Litel ... Charpentier
Henry O'Neill ... Col. Picquart
Morris Carnovsky ... Anatole France
Louis Calhern ... Maj. Dort
Ralph Morgan ... Commander of Paris
Robert Barrat ... Maj. Walsin-Esterhazy
Vladimir Sokoloff ... Paul Cezanne
Grant Mitchell ... Georges Clemenceau
Harry Davenport ... Chief of Staff


Plot

Paul Cezanne and Émile Zola were friends when both were starting their careers. Through ups and downs Zola became financially successful long before Cezanne. He was married and had a successful career as an author. Paul Cezanne then decided to live in the country far away from the city, and told Zola not to be part of the establishment but to fight for truth and justice again. He is approached by Lucie Dreyfus, who's husband was unjustly court martialed and sent to Devil's Island because he was accused of betraying his country by disclosing military secrets.


My Thoughts

What a fantastic movie! Paul Muni was robbed of an Academy award for his role as Emile Zola. Muni gave a passionate and effective portrayal. The movie is interesting in that it feels like two movies in one. The first part of the movie shows Zola's struggles as a writer trying to make a living while maintaining his ethics. He quickly gains the reputation as being critical of French policy and especially the army with his book THE DOWNFALL. After the publication of said book Zola is told to tone down his writings and zola being smart decides to do so. He becomes a great writer of the virtues of France and the people of the country.

The 2nd part focuses on the Dreyfus affair. Some facts were left out with the most notable being the fact that Dreyfus was persecuted for being Jewish. This is understandable because quite frankly no movie made in that era was gonna touch on that subject. Nonetheless Zola is talked into defending Dreyfus after the latter has been jailed at Devil's Island for years. The fascinating thing about the movie was that it showed that a government was willing to cover up its mistakes (in reality it was another member of the General Staff who was committing treason) and it blatantly showed the corruption of the French General Staff.

I know this wasn't the intent of the film makers but it truly highlighted the arrogance and fossilization of the armed forces which in turn led to World War I later on. Looking at the movie in hindsight you can see that because WWI was basically a stalemate that the French command never learned their mistakes from the dreyfus affair and the army got into an even deeper malaise that led to their being overrun by Hitler's Germany.

The acting in the movie was generally pretty good but the courtroom scenes which made up the bulk of the last quarter of the movie was chaotic to say the least. I know the trial system in Europe is different but it was truly something to see as Zola's lawyers would get into near shouting matches with the witnesses and judges! The movie was wonderful in all phases and I have to say the socio-political aspect was quite deep for a movie of that period.

5 out of 5 stars

[Bogie]

The Yellow Cab Man 1950
Viewed on: TCM
Studio: MGM


Starring


Red Skelton ... Augustus 'Red' Pirdy
Gloria DeHaven ... Ellen Goodrich (as Gloria De Haven)
Walter Slezak ... Dr. Byron Dokstedder
Edward Arnold ... Martin Creavy
James Gleason ... Mickey Corkins
Jay C. Flippen ... Hugo
Paul Harvey ... Pearson Hendricks
Herbert Anderson ... Willis Tomlin (as Guy Anderson)
John Butler ... Gimpy
John Indrisano ... Danny
Polly Moran ... Bride's Mother


Plot

Pirdy is accident prone. He has been denied insurance from every company in town because he is always getting hit or hurt in some way. On the day that he meets the lovely Ellen of the Yellow Cab Co., he also meets the crooked lawyer named Creavy. Pirdy is an inventor and when Creavy learns about elastic-glass, his new invention, he makes plans to steal the process. With the help of another con man named Doksteader, and the boys, he will steal this million dollar invention no matter who gets hurt.


My Thoughts

This is generally viewed as one of Red Skelton's best movies and I have to agree. Skelton is positively charming as the accident prone Pirdy. A lot of the laughs are generated from Pirdy's total trust in the con men who are trying to steal the formula for his Elastic-Glass.

The movie is pretty short and the length serves it well as the jokes don't get too old or repeated. The funniest set up of the whole movie is when Pirdy is learning to be a cab driver and he's all alone having to deal with a mother's kid who's just a total brat. I don't want to give away the jokes but let's just say he ends up driving the cab all over the place, unwillingly picking up a couple that just married and having the cops believing that the ticking in the mailbox is a bomb!

The movie is littered with some very talented actors and it's always a pleasure to see one of my favourite character actors in James Gleason in the movie. He doesn't do too much but it just warms my heart to see him on screen. Gloria DeHaven was exceptionally cute in this movie as Skelton's love interest but the actor who stole the show for me was Walter Slezak as "Dr" Dokkstedder. Slezak does something in his first extended scene in the movie that you don't see very many actors do today. He has a cane which he uses to punctuate his points, move things around, and sit Pirdy on the couch etc etc. It's very intriguing to view and if you ever see this movie I urge you to pay special attention to that scene.

One last thing before I give my rating, this movie has one of the more creative ways of putting up the credits. Skelton is in bandages and casts etc etc and the titles are shown on them. It lends a quaint and charming quality to things I think.

I give this movie 2 1/2 stars out of 5

[cinemalover]

Hey Bogie,
I love the Yellow Cab Man and I do think it was one of the few movies that used Red to his best abilities. Well written review. Keep up the good work.

[movieman1957]

WIth both of you posting reveiws I can't wait until you find one to disagree over. I wonder if there is a TV show there?

[cinemalover]

I'm not sure if a TV show would be in our future, I've been told I've got a face fit for blogging!

[Bogie]

I also get camera shy so no dice LOL

[Bogie]

I woke up in the middle of the night last night and in my quest to find something to watch I stumbled upon a 1980s action movie that I've heard about.


Cobra 1986
Viewed on: Cinemax
Studio: Cannon Group through Warner Brothers


Starring


Sylvester Stallone ... Lieutenant Marion 'Cobra' Cobretti
Brigitte Nielsen ... Ingrid
Reni Santoni ... Sergeant Gonzales
Andrew Robinson ... Detective Monte
Brian Thompson ... Night Slasher
John Herzfeld ... Cho
Lee Garlington ... Nancy Stalk
Art LaFleur ... Captain Sears (as Art La Fleur)
Marco Rodríguez ... Supermarket Killer (as Marco Rodriguez)
Ross St. Phillip ... Security Guard
Val Avery ... Chief Halliwell
David Rasche ... Dan
John Hauk ... Low Rider
Nick Angotti ... Prodski
Nina Axelrod ... Waitress


Plot

A gang of neo-fascist thugs, led by the self-proclaimed 'Night Slasher', are breaking into people's homes & cars, then killing them at random. When one of these thugs holds up a food store & takes hostages, Lt. Marion Cobretti (Stallone) - an intense, take-no-prisoners cop, is brought onto the scene to end the hostage-taking. Ranting bizarrely about a 'New World', the man levels a sawed-off shotgun at Cobretti, who hits him with a knife, then guns him down when the man refuses to put down his weapon. Later that night, another murder occurs, attributed to the Night Slasher - and the next day, another one. This one is witnessed by a young woman, Ingrid Knutsen (Nielsen). She drives away before the thugs can kill her, but it isn't long before some creepy-looking people start making attempts on her life - and Cobretti's. Cobretti plans to move the only witness to the blood spree upstate, but with inside information, the thugs follow them. And a battle for survival rages between Cobretti and the thugs.


My thoughts

Heh, that IMDB plot summary nicely tells the whole story Yes, the plot isn't that deep or complicated but it was the 1980s. As you can see from the details above this movie was produced by the famous (or infamous) Cannon Group which was headed up by two Israelis who made it relatively big in Hollywood during that decade. This fact alone tips off the viewer that the movie is going to be relatively cheap and chock full of action. (Chuck Norris did some films for them)

Anyways, one of the things that surprised me is that they got the services of one of the top action stars of the day to star in this film and you immediately find out why in the credits as Sly is credited as the screenwriter. Interestingly enough, while researching the movie I found out that most parts of this script was in Stallone's script for BEVERLY HILLS COP which he was signed to star and script but Paramount felt it was too expensive for them. As noted above Stallone's the intense, take no prisoners Cobra of the movie title. The portrayal is actually interesting. He had this gritty, rogue look to him but with his partner and the woman he's protecting he actually shows that he's human.

Speaking of his partner Gonzalez the actor and the script clearly cribbed the look and style of Robert Blake's BARETTA. I found that to be a little comical. The banter between the two was also pretty funny in some ways. There's a part where after Cobreti and Gonzalez are told to shake down the city for the Night Slasher when this exchange happens:

Gonzales: You know, when this is over with, I'd like to celebrate, by punching a hole in Monte's chest!
Marion Cobretti: You know what the trouble with you is? You're too violent!

Not terribly funny on paper but within the context of the film it's pretty ironic and funny that way.

The movie is pretty violent, I'd almost say it's a bit on the cartoony side but there's too much blood for that to be the case. It does fall into the conventions of some 80s fare in that the actual death scenes aren't that gruesome. The action sequences are well filmed and edited and there's actually some tension to them especially during the scene in the hospital where the Night Slasher is bashing the washroom door with a spiked object while Ingrid is screaming her head off for help.

The actual death of the Night Slasher is pretty interesting as well. I won't give it away but the Night Slasher and the cop that was on the inside to help him confront Cobreti and Ingrid in some factory with a ton of fire and heat.

I know this isn't exactly "classic" but I found it interesting. The movie is loosely based on a book called Fair Game which later got another adaptation in 1995 starring William Baldwin and Cindy Crawford.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

[Bogie]

I'm going to do something a little different for the film franchises being shown on TCM this month. I won't be specifically reviewing all the movies I watch from them HOWEVER, I will give an overview of the series and the characters and actors. I will then write up a review of the best of the movies i've seen.

I watched three of the Torchy Blane movies today and the concept is interesting and fun. Glenda Farrell played Torchy in most of the movies along with Barton MacLane. Torchy is a sassy newspaper reporter/criminologist who gets under the skin of police detective Steve McBride eventually as the series progress they become lovers. McBride has a big lug of a partner named Gehagan who isn't all that bright and has a penchant for poetry.

Farrell and MacLane fit in their roles like a glove and have a natural chemistry that lights up the screen. Farrell can come off as a bit annoying but you gotta love the hardboiled and sassy attitude she has in these movies. I saw Torchy Blane in Chinatown (fair movie but lost steam 20 minutes in) Torchy Runs for Mayor (very good and will be reviewed in a bit) and finally the Jane Wyman-Allan Jenkins Torchy Blane...Playing with Dyamite. The latter film was ok but Wyman and Jenkins don't have the chemistry nor the same kind of performance. This is especially true with Wyman who tries well to copy Farrell but she's way too sweet to have that hardboiled attitude to her.

and now onto the review of


Torchy Runs for Mayor 1939
Viewed on TCM
Studio: Warner Brothers


Starring


Glenda Farrell ... Torchy Blane
Barton MacLane ... Steve McBride
Tom Kennedy ... Gahagan
John Miljan ... Dr. Dolan
Frank Shannon ... Captain McTavish
Joe Cunningham ... Maxie - Editor
George Guhl ... Desk Sergeant Graves
Joe Downing ... Spuds O'Brien
Irving Bacon ... Hubert Ward
John Butler ... Chuck Ball
Charles Richman ... Mayor John Saunders
John Harron ... Dibble


Plot

Torchy Blane is investigating the political career of Dr. Dolan, who has installed a corrupt leadership in the Mayor's office. She demands a new election, and after the opposition's candidate is murdered, she decides to run for mayor


My Thoughts

Well the plot summary above simplifies things just a tad but I think that'll suffice. Dr. Jeff Dolan is a corrupt man with ties to the underworld who has total control over the mayor as he's funded the Mayor's rise to office. The Mayor is pretty much a sack of bricks as he is plainly in way over his head. Torchy is investigating the corruption and has found out about Dolan's Little Red Book which contains financial information about his political dealings. Torchy however is caught bugging the Mayor's office and Dolan takes this opportunity to force her newspaper to stop running her stories.

She finds the Little Red Book and writes up a hot story confirming that the Mayor has received backing from the underworld but she must find another newspaper to publish it. She finds a kindly small paper publisher who publishes the story but in doing so he ends up getting killed.

As serious as the above sounds it was handled in a pretty breezy manner. In fact there's more things going on in this hour long flick then you'd find in most features today. Torchy carries the "ahem" pardon the pun torch for justice while her boyfriend Steve is trying to find the book for Dolan but he soon realizes that Torchy is right that Dolan is a bad individual especially after the publisher is killed.

I dunno about you, but I love these muckraking type films where you have people fighting for justice and exposing corruption in order to bring peace to the land. The movie also has an exciting finale where Steve and Gehagan are off the force and racing to save Torchy who's been kidnapped. The scene with everyone fighting and shooting each other was pretty exciting and made for a great finale.

I thought it was a pretty good film that had a good message that anyone can change things for the better if they try hard enough and it was a very tight script except for the obviously loophole where Steve believes some garage man killed the publisher even though death was caused by toxic chloride.

2 out of 5 stars.

[Bogie]

Gunman's Walk 1958
Viewed on: Encore Westerns
Studio: Columbia Pictures


Starring


Van Heflin ... Lee Hackett
Tab Hunter ... Ed Hackett
Kathryn Grant ... Clee Chouard
James Darren ... Davy Hackett
Mickey Shaughnessy ... Deputy Sheriff Will Motely
Robert F. Simon ... Sheriff Harry Brill
Edward Platt ... Purcell Avery
Ray Teal ... Jensen Sieverts
Paul Birch ... Bob Selkirk
Michael Granger ... Curly
Will Wright ... Judge


Plot

Rancher Lee Hackett is one of the old breed, used to making his own laws and settling things with a gun. He has tried to make his two sons in his own image, and with the elder he has more than succeeded, to the extent that he is accused of murdering a half-breed. But his younger son is different, eschewing the old rules and even becoming drawn to the sister of the murdered man. Lee starts to find that his way of doing things is no longer working.


My Thoughts

Wow! this movie blew me away. It was one of those happy accidents as I wasn't quite tired at that hour of the night and stumbled upon this. The progam guide was very vague about the story but seeing that Van Heflin was in it, I just had to watch it. I'm glad that I did.

The movie starts off pretty simple with the differences between the elder and younger son and you get the sense that this will be some run of the mill film where the good son has to stop his evil brother but the movie quickly turns into a somewhat complicated examination of the methods of Lee Hackett and the raising of his two sons. As noted above Hackett is one of a dying breed and can't accept the fact that the old way of doing things just doesn't work anymore. You kind of feel sorry for the guy as he wants to instill the good virtues of the old way (respect, gunmanship, strength) into his sons.

An early scene in the movie shows how different his two sons are when he's trying to show his youngest son Davy how to quick draw. You can clearly see that Davy is uncomfortable and wants nothing to do with it which upsets his father but he chooses to brush it off. The elder son Ed comes into the picture and is practically guns ablazin'. At one point when Lee is setting up a can for Ed to shoot Ed just shoots the can off his father's hand!

So you can see right there that the elder son is hotheaded and seriously has some problems. In fact, the film hints with great nuance that Ed feels trapped in the shadow of his father and uses violence and hotheadedness to show that he is bigger and better then his old man. I must say Tab Hunter did a fantastic job and one can't help but wonder if he was channeling the frustrations and loneliness of being a gay man in 1950s Hollywood. He was forceful and angry to the point that it doesn't really feel like it's acting.

The movie deals with some very interesting subjects such as the changing attitudes towards indians and this is seen by the blossoming love between Davy and Clee. Lee obviously is against it and hurls some rather harsh words against the indian helpers who rode helped ride the horses into town with his boys as they spotted Ed killing one of them by running him off a cliff. Lee also hates the fact that his son is seeing a half breed and literally makes his son persona non grata.

The other aspect of the film is the changing times. Lee desperately wants to keep things the way they were but the violent, over the top actions of Ed clearly shows that the virtues and life of the old west just doesn't work anymore. In fact, Lee does everything he can to keep his son out of trouble but Ed's recklessness and violence forces a showdown between father and son.

This is one of the best westerns i've ever seen and has solid acting throughout except for James Darren who was just a little TOO meek for my tastes but that could just be the script.

I give this movie my heartfelt and full recommendation

5 out of 5 stars!

[movieman1957]

I didn't see it last night but I have seen this before. While I don't rate it as high I thought it was a fine film. You think it's going to be one of those ok but run of the mill westerns but....

The most interesting thing does turn out to be the relationship of Hefin and Hunter. It's not really the relationship between the brothers.

A good film. Likely will run often on the Westerns channel this month. (Now if only they would wise up and show it in widescreen.)