What Classics Did You See Last Week (August 3–August 9)
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PygmyLion — 7 months ago(August 10, 2025 09:33 PM)
Passage to Marseille
1944 Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Phillip Dorn, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre. Director Michael Curtiz. Five Frenchmen escape from a French penal colony, hoping to get back home and fight the Nazis. ***
Casablanca
1942 - Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains. Director Michael Curtiz. Won Best Picture Oscar in 1944. ****
Mr. Skeffington
1944 Bette Davis, Claude Rains, Walter Abel. Ths movie was a bit too long and slow for me. It probably should have been called Mrs. Skeffington (Davis) as it seemed to be more about her. **1/2
The Witness Chair
1936 - Ann Harding, Walter Abel. Short (1 hour and 4 minutes) murder mystery/courtroom drama. Watchable. **
Dancing Co-Ed
1939 Lana Turner, Richard Carlson, Artie Shaw, Ann Rutherford. Not much of a story here, but I imagine if one had been a fan of Artie Shaw and his orchestra back in the day, this might have been fairly enjoyable as they perform a number of pieces. **
These Glamour Girls
1939 - Lew Ayres, Lana Turner, Tom Brown, Jane Bryan, Marsha Hunt - A drunk Phillip Griswold meets a taxi dancer Jane (Turner) and invites her to come up to his ritzy college's weekend party the next weekend. She decides to go but finds the other women there rather snobby. This movie could have been pretty good, but it seems to get stuck between being a comedy and a social commentary, and it doesn't really work. **1/2 -
spiderwort — 7 months ago(August 11, 2025 12:29 AM)
I need to see
Passage to Marseille
again, PL. It's been a long time. Haven't seen the others except for
Mr. Skeffington
, which I don't remember very well.
As for the masterpiece
Casablanca
, I literally have to stop myself
from
watching it. I've seen it so many times I have it memorized. And I'm not alone in that. I remember having a dinner with friends in the business in L.A. a few years ago, and
Casablanca
had been on tv the night before. I told them that I had started watching it, intending only to watch a few minutes, but that I ended up watching the whole thing. Well, of course, they all said they did the same thing! When one considers that that film was basically being written as they went along, it's brilliance is amazing. To this day, I believe the Writers Guild of America considers it the best American screenplay of all time. -
PygmyLion — 7 months ago(August 11, 2025 02:40 PM)
Casablanca
is a pretty special movie.
I had my usual comments about the movies, but unfortunately I was using the preview button to check out the images - and then forgot to hit the "Create Post" button before moving on to other sites - and I didn't feel like typing it in again right away. I might start adding them in over the next couple days. -
spiderwort — 7 months ago(August 12, 2025 02:11 AM)
I look forward to any an all comments about your films.
And I found the link to verify that the WGA still holds
Casablanca
as the best American screenplay:
https://www.wgaeast.org/101-lists/101-greatest-screenplays/list/ -
PygmyLion — 7 months ago(August 12, 2025 03:09 AM)
That's nice, but I have rather eccentric tastes particularly liking movies from the 1930's and 1940's. I wouldn't go out of my way to watch any of the other movies in that list's top 10. I think one could describe this list with a line from Casablanca:
"Round up the usual suspects"
I believe I would have to go all the way out to #19
To Kill a Mockingbird
to get a 2nd movie that I would put in my top 50 movies. So I don't know that being at the top of this list means much to me.
Sullivan's Travels
at #27 seems almost like an anomaly for the list. -
MissMargoChanning — 7 months ago(August 10, 2025 09:52 PM)
The Age of Innocence from the 90s.
I was in the mood for romance and lost love…
I remember seeing the 1930's version late one night back in my teens while babysitting.
I will have to go back and check this one out again….
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night! -
spiderwort — 7 months ago(August 11, 2025 12:38 AM)
Don't know how I missed the 1993 version, Margo. Thanks for the reminder, and I'll see if I can find it. It seems an unlikely film for Scorcese to direct, but sometimes his non-gangster films are among his best (i.e.
Hugo
). And I haven't seen the 1934 version either, but I'm a big fan of Irene Dunne, so I probably should look for that one, too. -
MissMargoChanning — 7 months ago(August 11, 2025 01:00 AM)
That's the best thing about these types of threads. We can discover films we haven't been aware of from others.
You asked a pretty question; I've given you the ugly answer.
Fasten Your Seatbelts….
It's Going To Be A Bumpy Night! -
Rufus-T — 7 months ago(August 11, 2025 12:58 AM)
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120794/
Late 80s to early 2000's was a golden age of Disney animation. There were also very good non-Disney animation. This is one of them. My first viewing. It is a animated shorter version of The Ten Commandments which I used to watch almost every Easter on TV. I always fascinated by the Moses story. The animation emphasized more of the closeness between Moses and Ramses. It also depicted the emotional pain of Moses what was done to the Egyptian in order to release the Hebrews from Egypt. The animation was also a musical with one of the song won the Oscar. Nowadays, these musical animation are few and far between. Outstanding animation, especially you are into Biblical stories.
Amy Bradley Is Missing (2025)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37439438/
A 3-parts documentary about a mystery of a young woman disappeared on a cruise ship back in 1998. Seeing that the series mentioned that the story was featured in America Most Wanted, Dr. Phil, and other news show, I didn't know it was a high profile story. It went into many speculation, and many unconfirmed witnessing. Later, I got curious and look into YouTube about the case, and realized this series left out at least a couple of important events. I found it 3 parts is long, and I felt frustrating about all those maybe's. I think you can learn just as much about this in a half hour videos on YouTube. You just don't get the interviews.