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Post by dash on Mar 5, 2015 18:36:20 GMT
Excellent reviews! Poor Little Peppina sounds especially interesting; I wish they'd provided some sort of score.
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Post by rmichaelpyle on Mar 6, 2015 14:38:49 GMT
I watched "Sea Legs" (1930) with Jack Oakie, Eugene Pallette, Lillian Roth, Harry Green, and others. This little comedy with some music looks as if it began as a musical, then was cut down to just one tune. I like it the way it is, and if it hadn't the one song, it might have been better. Only regret, Lillian Roth doesn't have a chance to sing. Oh, well, cute comedy anyway. Even Harry Green didn't bother me too much, but the way Hollywood abused him with his stereotypical overripe Jewish character always surprises me. Evidently, the Jewish moguls in the glitter city didn't mind a little humor aimed at them. Today's PCness doesn't turn a blind eye toward such things; but, then, maybe today's lack of humor at itself is the fomenting cause of the violence that burns us to the soul. Jack Oakie in "Sea Legs" does get a chance to show his ability to do some fancy-dance foot work. Eugene Pallette and Oakie make a fine team, by the way. Here they're a couple of gobs, but the ship is French. All the orders are in French. Turns out, the men are American, but they're in the French navy. The total explanation of that never is made crystal clear, only through a glass darkly. The commander, however, is definitely American, and he has six daughters, one of whom is Lillian Roth. Are you beginning to see some light? Anyway, Oakie has been paid a sum to change his name to one who has seemingly deserted the navy. Oakie's taking his place on this boat. Everybody seems to know that the other guy deserted. Of course, that makes Oakie loved by all. Uh-huh! Fortunately, Oakie is also a champion boxer. It all sounds contrived as can be; it IS as contrived as can be; and, still, it's funny! Truly enjoyed this early transition film. It's a definite crowd pleaser. Easy and simple-minded. Perfect before a good on-coming snooze.
I stayed up anyway. So, next, I watched "Beware of Ladies" (1936) with Donald Cook, Judith Allen, George Meeker, Goodie Montgomery, Thomas Jackson, and many more. Turns out I'd watched this only about a year ago. The set up is interesting because the lead, Donald Cook, is left out and only talked about until all of the theme plot is totally set up and all the other characterizations are drawn. Cook doesn't show up until about 15 to 20 minutes in, and the film's only a tad over an hour! I'm not much of a Cook fan, but he acquits himself rather well in this potboiler. It's about a man running for district attorney against a very crooked machine of ward heelers and their nasty party man. Judith Allen works for a newspaper and befriends the seemingly misogynistic Cook. After a while, of course, a nice relationship develops. The ending is a bite your nail piece. It could have been absolutely heart-stopping with someone else besides Cook and Allen, but Irving Pichel does a good job of directing the pair, and the film is quite good after all. In the day, this possibly reminded a few of Thomas Dewey running against the machine in Manhattan when he won the district attorney job and went after the gangsters in the arena. Recommended.
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Post by rmichaelpyle on Mar 8, 2015 12:51:47 GMT
I watched a couple I'd not seen for a long time with Spencer Tracy. First was "The Murder Man" (1935), with Tracy, Virginia Bruce, William Collier, Sr., Lionel Atwill, Harvey Stephens, Robert Barrat, and, in his first credited role, James Stewart (as 'Shorty'). You'll also find William Demarest, Louise Henry, Robert Warwick, Lucien Littlefield, and several other very recognizable character actors and actresses in this one. At one point I told my wife, "The prosecutor there is Francis X. Bushman!" Well, I was wrong, it was his son, Ralph Bushman (sometimes billed as Francis X. Bushman, Jr.). He looked so much like his father at one point in his career that I mistook him!
This is one of those films that plays very well because it's so well acted and directed. It's very contrived, but that's the fun of it, really. Tracy plays a drunken newspaper reporter who always seems to have a handle on murders. One occurs, and Tracy outstrips all of the other reporters getting the story. There's a good reason. I'll leave it at that. This is a good character study, too. Stewart has almost nothing to do, but he has enough recognizable charisma to draw attention. This is recently released from Warner Archive Collection.
Next up I watched "They Gave Him A Gun" (1937) with Tracy, Franchot Tone, Gladys George, Mary Treen, Cliff 'Ukulele Ike' Edwards, and a host of other well-respected character actors. Gladys George was on a roll when she made this, having just played Carrie in "Valiant is the Word for Carrie" (and for which she was nominated for Best Actress) and just about to make the re-make of "Madame X". She's fantastic in the role of a nurse from WW I who both nurses Franchot Tone back to life after a shattering explosion and, too, falls in love with the character played by Spencer Tracy. Tone plays a hayseed from the stix who enters WW I and learns to control a gun to his advantage, especially necessary when he takes out a German machine gun haven during a nasty battle. When Tracy disappears, George and Tone marry. Tracy later rediscovers both of them, by then Tone a gangster with a gun. Things turn against him, of course. This is a great movie. Directed by W. S. 'Woody' Van Dyke, it's stylish, sassy, and has things about it that are never, ever boring in the least. Highly recommended for performances, direction, and writing.
Lastly, I decided to stay up for one more, and so I watched "I Give My Love" (1934) with Paul Lukas, Wynne Gibson, Eric Linden, John Darrow, Sam Hardy, and many others of note. Lukas gives a fine, measured, steady performance as an art instructor. It's Wynne Gibson's performance, though, that is simply astonishing! It's not good, it's great! Academy Award stuff. She kills her abusive husband and goes to jail for ten years. Meanwhile, she's had a child by John Darrow, her husband, but he's raised by Paul Lukas as the father. Lukas has always loved Gibson. Gibson gets out of prison and goes on a permanent bender. Her looks, from rather brassy beauty to deteriorated bum, is a masterpiece of acting and make-up! Of course, in the end her son finds out the truth. It's the only way in these films. But, instead of thinking, "Oh, yeah, what a potboiler...", this is a well-acted, beautifully paced, gracefully directed, very watchable piece of film-making. Very highly recommended! This last one can be had from Loving the Classics, and the print is really good.
What struck me at the end of the evening was thinking about the performances of Gladys George and Wynne Gibson. Both ladies looked at the top of their game, both look-wise per se, and also performance-wise. Each gave performances that were memorable and which should be viewed much more often. Each is little remembered today, and that is truly a shame. May I recommend both. For Gladys George, see "Valiant is the Word for Carrie", "Madame X", "They Gave Him A Gun", "The Roaring Twenties", and, of course, "The Maltese Falcon", the last where she has little to do, but plays Sam Spade's partner's wife, and she does it memorably. For Wynne Gibson, "I Give My Love" is superlative, but she's even better in "The Crime of the Century". "The Strange Case of Clara Dean" and "The Captain Hates the Sea" also feature Gibson in decent roles.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2015 17:17:06 GMT
I decided I missed Mary Pickford after referring to Peppina, so I dug out my own restored (several years ago now) print of M'liss (1918) with Mary, Thomas Meighan (sigh!), and Theodore Roberts being his usual funny self and re-watched it after many years. This was one of my favorites of Mary's: I had gone through all 176,000 plus frames of it, methodically fixing damaged frames, and then added a nice orchestra score to it.
I loved Mary's and Tommy's chemistry in this silent. She was her usual spunky self and he played the schoolteacher who comes to town whom she falls in love with.
My favorite scene is when Tommy goes to jail for something he didn't do and Mary sneaks to his prison cell to visit him. No title cards were required for this beautifully shot scene, where they silently stare at one another, with all the love and affection their characters had for each other swimming in their eyes. This is yet another scene where I think people's souls are most evident through their eyes.
It's been a while since I watched a silent, but sometimes you have to go back to your first love.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2015 4:48:43 GMT
I signed up for Warner Archives on the ROKU, I get the first month free, so it will be nice to watch some old favorites when I'm recovering from surgery this coming weekend and into the next week. Already tonight Tina and I watched Athena (1954) which is one of our personal favorites because the script is so hilarious and the music is gorgeous, and 1943's The Constant Nymph, which was nice to see again this time in HD. Years ago I had bought a bootleg of it on VHS so the sharper quality was appreciated. I think I still prefer the Ivor Novello British silent better, but I still like Joan Fontaine as the young girl. The film isn't nearly as haunting as Joan in Letter From An Unknown Woman; Joan had far better chemistry with Louis Jourdan than she had with Charles Boyer.
I see they have a bunch of pre-codes: I'll probably watch some old favorites again after many years absence. Don't think the hospital has TCM on their telly system. I think I remember looking for it last time I was in there and it wasn't on their roster. But I can always watch on my laptop too.
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Post by rmichaelpyle on Mar 10, 2015 12:30:23 GMT
To see how far we're removed from the popular culture of the 1930's, all you have to do is to watch "Old Man Rhythm" (1935) with Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Barbara Kent, Grace Bradley, George Barbier, Betty Grable, Erik Rhodes, Eric Blore, Donald Meek, John Arledge, Johnny Mercer, Evelyn Poe, Lucille Ball, and so many others. This really isn't much of a movie with a plot as it is a review with loads of talent. In fact, the plot is so worn that it's no longer just see-through, but has holes so large you wonder where the cloth is! But the talent...now, that's another thing. Just watching Betty Grable toe tap is an eye-opener! The first song, had it been a short movie, would have been fine. As it is, it opens the show, goes about eight minutes or so (!!!), and you wonder if it'll ever end! The plot's about guys and gals in college (sure, Barbier goes back to college!!) and life in the frat and soror house... For the record, this college must be posh. I don't quite remember digs like these... Anyway, you'll be transported back to a time so innocent seemingly that you'll think there's a malt shop on every corner of every city in your state. I won't watch this again, but I'll not forget Betty and Evelyn, or Sonny Lamont (a Fatty Arbuckle looking guy playing a part called Blimp) dancing incredibly deftly and doing back flips and forward flips so athletically for his size that you would stare from a mile away, or even Grace Bradley - bless her - for being such a creep in this - but - compared to today's creeps - jeepers creepers! Just for the record, if you see any resemblances, see if you can spot Erich von Stroheim, Jr., Carlyle Blackwell, Jr., Claude Gillingwater, Jr., or Bryant Washburn, Jr. They're all playing students in this one...
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Post by rmichaelpyle on Mar 11, 2015 11:54:58 GMT
Am re-watching "The Falcon" series. Watched "The Falcon in Mexico" (1941) last night. The Falcon is played by Tom Conway. In this movie, his co-stars are Mona Maris, Martha Vickers (listed in the cast as Martha MacVicar), Emory Parnell, Nestor Paiva, Mary Currier, and others, including Bryant Washburn (remember him in that awful silent version of "The Wizard of Oz"?). This is one of the best of the entries! The entire series was re-released a few years ago in two sets by Warner Archive Collection.
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Post by rmichaelpyle on Mar 14, 2015 15:04:39 GMT
Have watched four more of "The Falcon" series. "The Falcon Out West" (1944), "The Falcon In Hollywood" (1944), both of which also feature a very young Barbara Hale, "The Falcon's Alibi" (1946), and "The Falcon in San Francisco" (1945). Fun re-watching all of these again.
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Post by dash on Mar 14, 2015 22:51:04 GMT
Just catching up on the reviews after several days. I've never seen M'Liss. I have to check that one out. I'm also interested in Old Man Rhythm; that one sounds like it might be up my alley.
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Post by reader17 on Mar 17, 2015 3:11:25 GMT
Since my daughter laptop broke we sat and watched 10 Things I hate about you, It's Complicated, and then tonight we watched Mister Roberts (1955 movie).
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Post by rmichaelpyle on Mar 18, 2015 13:34:41 GMT
I watched a serial, "King of the Texas Rangers" (1941) over several days. This is a 215 minute, 12 part serial with Sammy "Slingin' Sammy" Baugh, Neil Hamilton, Pauline Moore, Duncan Renaldo, Monte Blue, Stanley Blystone, Kermit Maynard, Roy Barcroft, and so many other fine character actors of the twenties, thirties, and forties, most of whom were known for Western bad-guy roles. I'm not much into the masked hero (or bad-guy, for that matter) type of serial, so this rather straight-forward Western was more my style. The story is a fifth columnist, WW II Western that takes place in Texas, but calling this a propaganda film would not really be totally accurate; but, then, calling this strictly a Western is also not correct. It's fascinating to realize, however, that this was released two months before Pearl Harbor!! The really, really bad guys are in a dirigible far above Texas! The action was magnificent, the staging of the scenes much, much better than most. In fact, the action scenes - which are nearly non-stop - are as good as any "A" picture of those times. Interesting, too, to see Neil Hamilton doing serviceable bad guy stuff in a serial at the outset of the forties. Not quite his leading role thing that he'd had only a decade before this! Duncan Renaldo makes a fine second, and he's a lot less heavy than when he turned up as the side-kick Pancho years later! Most interesting was watching the nation's top football hero play a Texas hero. Although he seems to have an ever so light speech problem - perhaps even a small lisp - he handles his part well. He's rather wooden delivering lines, but he's a good action hero, nevertheless. I really, really enjoyed this! It became available through Grapevine Video recently on two DVDs, and it was less than $8. Quite a bargain for this movie which is in nearly perfect condition. There are some who think this the finest sound serial ever made. Others, however, would argue for square-jawed heroes in masks in the later thirties, but... Oh, well, high recommendation if you love Westerns, serials, and the like.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2015 15:51:08 GMT
I've always liked Monte Blue. Liked his Mona Lisa smile and all the varied roles he played, esp. in the silent era. There was always an intelligence there.
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Post by rmichaelpyle on Mar 18, 2015 16:20:47 GMT
Monte was a truly fascinating man, too. He and his brother were raised in an orphan asylum in Shelbyville, Indiana, a little over a half hour away from where I live. A friend of my wife's and mine has done a tremendous amount of research on the subject, and one of these days I may write an article about the subject. Dave Smith, a local film historian who has written some really fine works on film has noted the Blue connection with Indiana.
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Post by rmichaelpyle on Mar 19, 2015 13:44:35 GMT
Shame on me for not having watched several of the films on the "American Treasures 5, The West: 1898-1938" anthology. I've owned this group of DVDs for several years now! Last night I watched "Salomy Jane" (1914). Thought lost for decades, this was re-discovered in Australia in 1996. At 87 minutes, it is one of America's first feature-length films. I wasn't necessarily expecting much, but instead was amazed at how wonderful an experience this became! It began rather slowly, taking its good time with half a reel at the beginning simply introducing the characters and by whom they were being played. Then the show got going - and it didn't slow down until the end. And - what a rough group of characters! Based on a story by Bret Harte, it had been expanded in the late 1890's into a play. The play had only recently (1913) been seen on stage, and supposedly the characters and their costumes, too, - which had played very well on the stage according to notes - became the basis for the characters and costumes of the film. The film stars Beatriz Michelena as the eponymous heroine. The man with whom she falls in love is played by British-born House Peters, Sr., an actor who had quite a run of popularity as a matinée idol, but who is nearly completely forgotten today. I have four of his films, and will search to see if more are available. If you've never heard of Beatriz Michelena, it wouldn't surprise me. According to notes made for the DVD, she was probably the first Latin American star of American film. Although she was born in New York City, her father was a Venezuelan immigrant and opera tenor. Beatriz was on stage from age 11, and by age 17, as a soprano, was deemed "America's Youngest Prima Donna." She quit making films in 1920, and she died at the young age of 52 in 1942.
The film begins with a completely captivating shot of Beatriz coming out of a bark of one of the most majestic American redwoods. A camera shot is done of the tree. From the angle of the shot, it simply looks like a normal tree. Then the camera pans down from the top to the bottom, where the audience is shown Beatriz on a white horse. The tree is at least one hundred times as tall as the two! Honest! Simply an amazing shot. Some of the camera work was done by Hal Mohr, a future Academy Award nominee. The camera work for the entire picture is astonishing for the period, and it captures a time in America that doesn't much remain except in historically designated nature areas. The "local color" - a facet for which Bret Harte is justly famous - is truly captured in the scenes of both family and individual life in the '49 area of California in 1852, and both the family dwellings and "town" dwellings as well. All will be fascinated by seeing the stage coach near the beginning and its door that simply refuses to close! Of course, upon close inspection, it is easy to see that it is badly warped and quite sprung! The roughness of the ride on the road is a hoot.
The stage is robbed by poor man/drunkard "Red Pete" and an accomplice, and this at about the same time House Peters is killing a man for the way he treated Salomy Jane. All are caught and "Red Pete" is hanged. His accomplice was already shot down trying to escape in a lake. Peters escapes, then goes through several other escapades. Meanwhile, a family feud, one which has followed Salomy and her family from Kentucky, has caught up with itself and another murder occurs, one which actually isn't as it appears. Salomy Jane's father is accused, then exonerated when it appears that Jane herself is guilty. Peters actually had killed the man in self defense. Now he's guilty of two murders. He DOES escape, of course, as does Salomy and her father. The end finally arrives in the form of a kiss as Salomy is lifted onto the horse of House Peters to ride into the sunset - and hopefully some peace and possible marital concord...
You won't think this is a film from 1914. It has all the makings of a film made a decade later. I'm not so sure it isn't the best film of 1914 I've ever seen. For fluidity and style, for acting and camera work, for nearly everything, it's a winner that should not be overlooked. Made by a company called California Motion Picture Corporation, the company was already out of business two years later. A fire in 1931 destroyed all of the camera negatives and remains of any film material. Only this one survives because of its discovery in Australia about twenty years ago.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2015 14:14:22 GMT
Wow, fascinating. Too bad you don't know how to do screen captures, I'd love to see that shot of the tree.
Bret Harte wrote M'liss too. It was more like a short story, appearing in an anthology of other works. I read that one first and then read the others (but of course I thought M'liss was the best). Frances Marion wrote the script for Mary Pickford's 1918 silent.
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