What did you watch?
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Rufus-T — 3 months ago(December 21, 2025 09:26 PM)
Die Hard (1988)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095016/
I have watched bit and pieces over the year when it was shown on TV. This is my official full watch for the year. For those few who lived under rock and don't know the movie, a NY cop go to LA to visit his estranged wife for a company party. Only that a terrorist targeted the company that night. He is the only one who was not held up and fight alone against the terrorist. When I first saw this in the cinema, I felt this was something special. After almost 40 years, it is still one the most talked about action films. Bruce Willis was perfect as the NY cop John McClane. Other than Darth Vader, Hans Gruber could be the best villain. Thanks to outstanding performance by Alan Rickman, his first feature film role. All the small role were memorable including Reginald VelJohnson played the LA cop as the contact with McClaine. De'voreaux White played the goofy limo driver. William Atherton played the a-hole reporter. Excellent direction by John McTiernan based on the novel "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Roderick Thorp. Explosive movie full of funny of one liners. It got 4 Oscar nomination, but didn't win any. It should have won at least the Best Editing. The question is, is this a Christmas movie? I consider it is.
Lifeforce (1985)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089489/
A bizare Tobe Hooper directed Sci-Fi horror movie about 3 comatose people found in space brought back to earth. One of the person was a beautiful girl played by Mathilda May turned out to thornier and hornier than her look, created havoc in London. Based on the novel "The Space Vampire" by Colin Wilson, this is basically a zombie movie. Instead of eating people, the infected person suck the life energy dry from the other person. The girl being beautiful and fully nude most of the time, very tempting for men to be lured to her trap. It started out very mysterious, but gotten somewhat crazy and chaotic at the end. Worked quite well as a horror.
Mayerling (1936)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027951/
Based on a real life tragic star-crossed romance that indirectly led to WWI. Directed by Anatole Litvak, this French movie is adapted from the novel with the same name by Claude Anet. The Crown Prince of Austria was very much controlled by his father Emperor of Austria agreed to marry the princess of Belgium for political reason. He fell in love with a very young Baroness. Of course his father disapproved. Very good performance by Charles Boyer as the Prince, and Danielle Darrieux, who I recognized in "The Earrings of Madame De…", as the Baroness. It is a slow moving movie, but very effective thanks to the performances. There was a later Hollywood remade starring Omar Sharif and Catherine Deneuve.
Fury (1936)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027652/
The first Fritz Lang Hollywood movie, starred Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney. A man travel across states to meet up his fiancée. Only to be stopped by a patrol accused him as the kidnapper. Without even a trial to present evidence, the whole town already assume his guilt and want to destroy him. I thought this would be something like The Ox-Bow Incident. It turned the direction I didn't expected. Outstanding performance by Spencer Tracy. This one I highly recommended.
Excalibur (1981)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082348/
Knowing both Siskel & Ebert voted "no" to this movie, I wanted to revisit it. I loved it when first watch on the theater. Loved it still more than 20 years ago when I first go the DVD. Now trying to see it with a more critical eyes, I still love it. Early 80s was a golden age of mythological fantasy, this retelling of King Arthur was one of the best in those years. The visual was gorgeous, getting a well-deserved Oscar cinematography nomination for Alex Thomson. Directed by John Boorman and co-wrote with Rospo Pallenberg, I can see certain flaws in the structure of the story. It can be clunky at time and sword fight were not that smooth. Sure it was no Lord of the Ring, the story was clear enough to make it a magical epic journey to experienced through. Ebert did praise Helen Mirren as Morgana and Nicol Williamson as Merlin, but dismissed others. I thought Nigel Terry, Cherie Lunghi, Nicholas Clay, and Paul Geoffrey were decent as King Arthur, Guenevere, Lancelot, and Perceval. Running 2 1/2 hour, I never felt bored a bit. Besides Helen Mirren, a couple of then young unknown actors appeared in important roles: Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson, and Patrick Stewart. If you like mythological fantasy, this is the one to go to. -
spiderwort — 3 months ago(December 24, 2025 03:46 PM)
Rufus, I loved
Fury
! An outstanding film with great performances and a great script, to say nothing of Lang's as always brilliant direction.
And I haven't seen
Mayerling
, but based upon the cast and your comments, I feel that I should. I'll see if I can find it and thanks for the introduction. -
PygmyLion — 3 months ago(December 22, 2025 01:15 AM)
Chances
1931 - Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rose Hobart, Anthony Bushel. World War I. Brothers Jack (Fairbanks) and Tom (Bushel) are off to the war. Tom is in love with their neighbor Molly (Hobart), but she has her eyes on Jack. Some WWI trench warfare here. - ***1/2
Captured!
1933 - Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Paul Lukas - World War I. Captain Allison (Howard) is in a German prison camp, and is joined there by his friend Lt. Jack Digby (Fairbanks) after a while - not knowing that Digby was having an affair with his wife. ***1/2
Holiday Affair
1949 - Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh, Wendell Corey, Gordon Gebert - Christmas time romantic comedy - ***1/2
I Like Your Nerve
1931 - Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Loretta Young - Larry O'Brien (Fairbanks) visiting in some Latin American country chases after Diane Forsythe. Like many of the romantic comedies from the 1930's this doesn't have much of a story but I enjoyed seeing youthful Fairbanks and Young working together. - ***
The Shop Around the Corner
1940 - Margaret Sullavan, Jimmie Stewart, Frank Morgan, Felix Bressart. Dir Ernst Lubitsch. - ****
Kind Lady
1935 - Aline MacMahon, Basil Rathbone, Frank Albertson - A middle-aged, well-off woman (MacMahon) invites a struggling young artist (Rathbone) into her house at Christmas time. Only to find that he and his cronies take over her life. - ***1/2
Cash On Demand
1961 - Peter Cushing, Andre Morell - a bank robbery a few days before Christmas. - ***
The Harder They Fall
1956 - Humphrey Bogart, Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling. Boxing Flick. Ex-sportswriter is hired to promote a boxer Argentina, Toro, who is big but doesn't have much boxing ability. *** -
spiderwort — 3 months ago(December 24, 2025 02:23 PM)
Wow, what a list of good ones you have there, PL, although I haven't seen several of them yet –
Chances, Captured, I Like Your Nerve
and
Cash on Demand
, but based upon your ratings it seems like I need too.
And I'm a big fan of all the others, especially
The Shop Around the Corner
and
Holiday Affair
, which are two of my favorites. -
PygmyLion — 3 months ago(December 24, 2025 04:40 PM)
Chances
and
Captured!
I particularly liked because they are WWI movies. I remember about 15 years ago discussing WWI movies on a forum and we only got about 10, you know, the usual suspects:
All Quiet on the Western Front
,
Sgt York
,
Wings
,
Dawn Patrol
(1938),
Paths of Glory
,
Gallipoli
, … . WWI was really big in the early 1930s, and recently I have found a lot more.
One of the other things, I liked about
Chances
is that I found the female star, Rose Hobart had a nice tomboyish appeal to her.
In
Captured
, you also get Leslie Howard, who is always good to watch.
For
I Like Your Nerve
, one has to be into Douglas Fairbanks jr's schtick and Loretta Young's beauty. Otherwise stay away.
I've watched quite a few of Douglas Fairbanks jr's movies:
Loose Ankles
(1930)
The Dawn Patrol
(1930) - TCM lists this as
Flight Command
Little Caesar
(1931)
Chances
(1931)
I Like Your Nerve
(1931)
The Life of Jimmy Dolan
(1933)
Morning Glory
(1933)
Captured!
(1933)
The Prisoner of Zenda
(1937)
Having a Wonderful Time
(1938)
Gunga Din
(1939)
——
Cash on Demand
is another of those low-key British crime dramas that is fairly watchable. -
spiderwort — 3 months ago(December 26, 2025 02:25 PM)
Thanks for all that important info. I'll keep an eye out for both
Chances
and
Captured
. I haven't seen a lot of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. films, only
Little Caesar
and
Gunga Din
, but it sure looks like I have some interesting catching up to do. -
PygmyLion — 3 months ago(December 26, 2025 06:16 PM)
Of those you haven't seen, I would put these 3 at the top of the list to watch
1)
Prisoner of Zenda
(1937) - Ronald Colman gets the lead role as an Englishman who looks like the king and has to impersonate the king. Douglas Fairbanks, jr is on the opposite side playing Ruppert of Henzau. An outstanding cast: Raymond Massey, C.Aubrey Smith, David Niven, Madelleine Carroll, and Mary Astor.
2)
Morning Glory- Katherine Hepburn earned an Oscar for her performance as an eccentric young girl from the country aspiring to be a great stage actress. Fairbanks gets the role of being a young writer, who really admires her, and helps her.
The Life of Jimmy Dolan
- Fairbanks gets the lead role here as a boxer who kills someone and is on the run. He ends up destitute at a farmhouse out west, where Aline MacMahon and Loretta Young are looking out for 3 orphans (Anne Shirley, Mickey Rooney and Allen Hoskins). Familiar faces show up through the movie: Lyle Talbot, Guy Kibbee, John Wayne, and Edward Arnold.
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CoriSCapnSkip — 3 months ago(December 22, 2025 05:37 PM)
Began watching
The Dick Van Dyke Show
(1961) on December 14.
Almost Angels
(1962) on December 15.
This is Spinal Tap
(1984) on December 16.
Watched the unaired 1968 pilot to
All in the Family
entitled
Justice for All
on December 18.
Watched the unaired 1969 pilot to
All in the Family
entitled
Those Were the Days
on December 19.
These pilots were virtually identical to each other except each had different actors for Michael, in these pilots named Richard, and Gloria. Differences with the series were that Richard and Gloria were already married and living with Archie and Edith, whose last name was Justice and not Bunker. Otherwise much of these pilots eventually made it into the series.
The Million Dollar Duck
(1971) on December 20. -
spiderwort — 3 months ago(December 24, 2025 02:36 PM)
Very interesting stuff, Cori. I love
The Dick Van Dyke Show
, but I haven't seen any of the others, not even
The is Spinal Tap
(hard to believe, I know).
And I especially love your info about the pilots to
All in the Family
. I had no idea! How on earth you found them to see is beyond me, but I'm so glad you shared all of that with us. Amazing, but not surprising, really, given the process of film and television production in Hollywood. -
CoriSCapnSkip — 3 months ago(December 24, 2025 05:33 PM)
The two original pilots to
All in the Family
, titled
Justice for All
and
Those Were the Days
, are on YouTube, as is the pilot for
The Dick Van Dyke Show
, titled
Head of the Family
. I saw that last night. -
spiderwort — 3 months ago(December 26, 2025 02:30 PM)
Unbelievable! Thanks so much for sharing. It's so hard to keep up these days, but if I find the time, I'll see if I can at least watch the
All in the Family
shows. Those would be the most important to me. Thanks again for the info. -
Paul P. Powell — 3 months ago(December 25, 2025 07:59 PM)
I've seen a bunch of classics and foreign flicks this month.
But I now think that –rather than bury my reviews in these weekly roundups –I'm going to start placing my remarks under each film's page.
I'm starting to lose track of where my comments reside, is why.
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player -
Paul P. Powell — 3 months ago(December 26, 2025 03:22 AM)
True, it is valuable as a way to remind people about history.
For me, it's just that yesterday –as I was getting ready to enter my latest finds this week –I caught myself unable to remember what titles I had already rattled off the week before.
And that means keeping a spreadsheet or something! So I need to do some experimentation with different methods.
Paul P. Powell, Pool Player