What Classics Did You See Last Week (July 20–July 26)
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unex — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 12:08 PM)
Come and See (1985) - Rewatch. A war movie about Belarus during World War 2. Most war movies usually show heroism but there is none of that in this one, just a stark depiction of the war and the trauma it causes. For that it is often considered the best war movie of all time and I agree.
Johnny O'Clock (1947) - A noir about some sad and lonely people. There's also some murder but mostly they just want to be loved. It goes over the same ground as many other movies but I thought it was good. -
spiderwort — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 03:15 PM)
Boy, Come and See sounds like a real winner, unex. I would love to see it, though it would probably be a bit too hard for me to watch right now. Maybe later (I know it's on Kanopy).
And I enjoyed Johnny O'Clock. A good film with a good cast and director. -
Rufus-T — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 07:09 PM)
spider, Come and See is a heavy movie. Usually I would say the movie is too dark for you. However, this one you should see at least once. My movie fan colleague lend the imported DVD for me before I ever heard of the movie nor was it available in the US then. He said I should see it. The cinematography, the direction, and the horror blew my mind. The movie landed on my top 100 immediately.
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spiderwort — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 08:15 PM)
Thanks, Rufus. I'm so glad to have your recommendation, too. It may take me awhile, but I'll definitely watch it when my life calms down a bit. Between you and
@unex
, it sounds utterly amazing – though I'm sure it will be disturbing to see. I already have it on my to-watch list on Kanopy. -
spiderwort — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 03:24 PM)
First viewings:
EO / Jerzy Skolimowski
(2022). A deeply moving film about a donkey who wanders around Europe, encountering good and bad people on his journeys, and experiencing both joy and pain along the way. A vision of modern Europe seen through his eyes, it’s a real beauty, though at times a bit heartbreaking, too. Oscar nominated as Best International Film (Poland). Highly recommended. (On Max)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning / Karel Reisz
(1960). A rebellious, hard-living factory worker (Albert Finney) juggles relationships with two women (Shirley Anne Field and Rachel Roberts), one of whom is married to another man but is pregnant with his child. Don’t know how I missed this Reisz feature film debut all those years ago, but I’m certainly glad that I finally saw it. The excellent semi-autobiographical script by Allan Sillitoe, the superb performances by all the cast, especially the young Albert Finney, and Reisz’s sensitive direction make this a very important film to see. (Available on TCM until July 31st and on YouTube, though I don’t think the quality there is as good.)
Re-watches:
Street Scene / King Vidor
(1931). A pre-code adaptation of Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer Prize winning play about people living in the Hell’s Kitchen section of New York over the course of twenty-four hours during a summer heatwave. There’s idle chitchat, gossip, jealousy, racism, adultery, and suddenly but not unexpectedly, a murder. And true to the play, we never go inside; rather, director Vidor shot the entire film on a single set depicting half a city block of apartment fronts on one city street, using artful camera angles to make the film highly watchable and cinematic. The stellar performances of its cast, including Sylvia Sidney in one of her early films and Beulah Bondi in her screen debut, do that as well. And Alfred Newman also contributes a great deal to the film with his first film score, which in some way manages to speak for the city itself. Highly recommended. (Available on several streaming services, YouTube, and the Internet Archive, but I recommend Tubi, which features a restored version like the trailer below).
The Brave One / Irving Rapper
(1956). One of my childhood favorites, it's a simple but affecting movie based on a true incident about a brave Mexican boy (Michel Ray) who enlists the President of Mexico’s help to save his pet bull from certain death in the bullring. Written by then Blacklisted Dalton Trumbo under the pseudonym Robert Rich, it won the Oscar for Best Motion Picture Story, though Trumbo didn’t receive it then. When the "blacklist bylaw” was repealed in 1959, it allowed Trumbo to reveal his authorship, and in 1975 he received an official Oscar with his name on it, not long before his death. Strongly recommended for those interested in its moving story and Trumbo’s historical significance. (Available on several streaming services.) -
PygmyLion — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 08:11 PM)
I like
Street Scene
quite a bit. It gives us a little bit of a feel for what life was like in a lower class section of NYC at the time.
It is interesting contrasting David Landau's role as the tough, jealous father in
Street Scene
with the nice, laid-back dad in
As the Earth Turns
. Landau died in 1935, but has been in a number of movies that I have watched like
I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
(1932),
Taxi
(1931),
Horse Feathers
(1932),
The Cabin in the Cotton
(1932),
Lawyer Man
(1932),
She Done Him Wrong
(1933), … Obviously a top character actor of the early 1930s. -
spiderwort — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 08:35 PM)
Glad you like
Street Scene
, PL. I think it's a pretty special film, primarily for the reason you mention – and because of Vidor's exceptional direction.
And I agree with you 100% about Landau. He was a fine character actor. I didn't realize he left us so soon. In addition to
Street Scene
and
As the Earth Turns
I've also seen him in
I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Taxi
and
Gabriel Over the White House
. And
The Cabin in the Cotton, Lawyer Man
and
She Done Him Wrong
are on my list. Thanks for the reminder. -
Rufus-T — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 07:02 PM)
Jaws 2 (1978)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077766/
Just when you thought it is save to get back to the water after brody blew up the shark in Jaws, another shark is roaming the shore. No Spielberg directing this one, but directed by Jeannot Szwarc. Roy Scheider & Lorraine Gary returned playing the Brody parents. The older son Mike is now a teenager interested in girls and hanging with other teenagers who were in trouble with the shark. There was no way this can even came close to match up with the first one. On its own, I really find this one quite good. Brody concern for town's safety vs the town's interest in profit continued to clash. There was a very suspenseful moment of the shark going after the water skiing girl, which the promotion poster used as the image. The Jaws franchise should have stop here. The next 2 were forgettable.
Family Plot (1976)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074512/
This is my first viewing of this Hitchcock swan song. A fake psychic played by Barbara Harris with the help of her cab driver boyfriend played by Bruce Dern, tried to swindle an old lady by looking for her sole lost heir. This is as much as a comedy then a mystery. It started out slow. As the Bruce Dern character find out more about the heir, the story gotten more interesting. William Devane and Karen Black were excellent as the villain. Excellent score turned out to be by John Williams. Adapted from a novel called "The Rainbird Pattern" by Victor Canning, Hitchcock still has his touch towards the very end.
Airport '77 (1977)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075648/
The 3rd installment of the Airport franchise again filled with an all star cast with James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland, Christopher Lee, etc., with Jack Lemmon played the lead as the pilot. You also get to see the very young Kathleen Quinlan. Again, like Airport '75, the only link to the earlier movies was George Kennedy though a smaller role. This time, a airplane heist turned into a disaster. The movie is a rescue mission. I don't remember seeing it before, but some scenes seem familiar. Like '75, the technical quality was not as good as Airport, it has enough of the good quality for a decent suspense movie. There were some questionable moments though, but nothing too silly. There were some slow moment in the beginning unlike '75 which got through the drama very quickly. Much of movie captured my attention. -
PygmyLion — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 08:37 PM)
Strange Cargo
1940 - Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker, Ian Hunter - This movie about a bunch of men trying to escape from a French Penal Colony could have been quite good, but the writers decided to include a messenger from god, Canbreau (Hunter) which makes it sort of silly. The ending is also sort of weak, probably due to the code. **1/2
Strange Lady in Town
1955 - Greer Garson, Dana Andrews, Cameron Mitchell, Lois Smith - Dr.Judith Garth (Garson) travels out West from Boston to be with her brother (Mitchell), only to find her brother has gone bad. Luckily, there is a love interest in Dr. O'Brien (Andrews). Lois Smith gets an interesting role as O'Brien's tomboy daughter - Spurs. **1/2
Killer's Kiss
1955 - Frank Silvera, Irene Kane. Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Good film noir done on a low budget. *** -
spiderwort — 8 months ago(July 27, 2025 09:05 PM)
Haven't seen
Strange Lady in Town
or
Killer's Kiss
, PL, but the Kubrick film sounds like one I should see. I really liked his
The Killing
from that era.
As for
Strange Cargo
, I haven't seen it in ages, but I remember loving it back in the day. Frank Borzage is one of my favorite directors, especially for so many of his films in the silent and early sound era. He had a sensibility that really appealed to me. And in
Strange Cargo
, I thought he got excellent performances from the cast, especially from Joan Crawford in the first and probably the only film I remember seeing her in when she wasn't plastered with make-up. But I haven't seen it in so long, I'm sure I need to give it another look.
Anyway, about the two time Oscar winner Borzage, if you haven't already seen them, you might want to check out
7th Heaven
(1927),
Street Angel
(1928),
Lucky Star
(1929),
Man's Castle
(1933), and
The Mortal Storm
(1940). -
PygmyLion — 8 months ago(July 28, 2025 05:57 PM)
I agree with about Joan Crawford in
Strange Cargo
.
The first half of the movie is pretty good with the men escaping from the penal colony, Verne (Gable) in a separate way, and picking up Julie (Crawford) along the way through the jungle. Verne and Moll (Albert Dekkar) fight for leadership of the gang.
Then they get on the boat and at sea the movie changes to a morality thing with many of the criminals doing good things just before they bite the dust, and Cambreau talking about who will live and die… This was not very good in my opinion. The ending was sort of weak as I mentioned. It's like I would rate the first half of the movie *** and the 2nd half of the movie **. -
CoriSCapnSkip — 6 months ago(September 09, 2025 10:51 PM)
The weeks previous to this were very busy preparing for and experiencing my high school reunion.
On July 20 I finished watching
The Wild Wild West
for the second time this century, then I had to find something to do while waiting for the DVD set, which the library finally ordered, to come in. For a couple of days I only watched YouTube videos.
On July 23 the DVDs became available and I rushed down to the library and checked them out. The DVD set is excellent! It contains a lot of special contents such as commentary, introductions, and interviews. Episode 1 has a full commentary by Robert Conrad. I was hoping this would be true for all 104 episodes but alas, it seems episode 1 is the only such one. I can see how it wouldn't be practical for Robert Conrad, who was 70 at the time, to sit making comments for 104 hours but one can hope. He did do cute little introductions for the first season episodes.
This is all I watched this week.