What Classics Did You See Last Week (November 9–November 15)
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sheetsadam1 — 4 months ago(November 16, 2025 01:41 PM)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938, Michael Curtiz)
- Phenomenal gangster film! I should have gotten around to this one much earlier!
9.5/10
The Rookie (1990, Clint Eastwood) - An obvious attempt to cash in on the success of
Lethal Weapon
, but lacking the humor that made that franchise so successful.
4/10
Also watched:
Bring Her Back (2025, Danny & Michael Philippou) - A brilliant, emotionally devastating Australian horror film. Sally Hawkins gives one of the best performances I've seen in a long time. One of the year's best!
Caught Stealing (2025, Darren Aronofksy) - An entertaining '90s-set crime thriller with some comedic elements. A pretty uncharacteristic entry in Aronofsky's filmography that mostly works.
Poker Face season 2 (2025, Peacock) - Fans of
Columbo
or creator Rian Johnson's
Knives Out
film series will love this series and it hasn't lost any steam from the first season.
Only Murders in the Building season 5 (2025, Hulu) - After going a bit far afield with the two previous seasons, this series takes a back-to-basics approach with the fifth season and it pays off in a big way.
Draft Barron Trump
- Phenomenal gangster film! I should have gotten around to this one much earlier!
-
spiderwort — 4 months ago(November 16, 2025 05:10 PM)
I
love
Angels with Dirty Faces
, sheetsadam1. It's a wonderful film, with a meaningful script and great performances by all the cast. It received 3 Oscar nominations, for Best Actor (Cagney), Best director (Curtiz) and Best Writing, Original Story (Rowland Brown). I'm always amazed at how many wonderful films Curtiz made in his long career. What a director he was.
I'm sorry that I haven't seen any of your other titles. -
sheetsadam1 — 4 months ago(November 16, 2025 11:21 PM)
I'm always amazed at how many wonderful films Curtiz made in his long career. What a director he was.
Yes, and across so many genres!
Mildred Pierce
is probably my favorite of his but this one came very close. All three Oscar nominations were well-deserved. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any of Cagney or Brown's competition in those categories so I can't weigh in on that. I'd likely have given Curtiz the nod over Capra (
You Can't Take It With You
), but that seems like a matter of personal taste. Both were absolute masters.
Draft Barron Trump -
PygmyLion — 4 months ago(November 16, 2025 03:16 PM)
Smart Woman
1948 - Brian Ahearn, Constance Bennett - Crime/Courtroom - **1/2
The Locket
1946 - Lorraine Day, Brian Ahearn, Robert Mitchem - ***
The 39 Steps
1959 - Kenneth More, Taina Elg - **1/2
Pillow to Post
1945 - Ida Lupino, William Prince, Sydney Greenstreet - Comedy. Jean Howard (Lupino)needs a room near an Army base. The only open room is for couples, so Jean finds herself a Lieutenant Mallory (Prince) to fill the role for registering - but things get involved. Lupino does nicely in a comedy role - ***
Smart Girls Don't Talk
1948 - Virginia Mayo, Bruce Bennett - Crime - **1/2
The Silver Cord
1933 - Joel McCrea, Irene Dunne, Francis Dee, Eric Linden, Laura Hope Crews - Clinging mother (Crews) breaks up her younger son's (Linden) engagement (Dee), and then starts working on her older son's (McCrea) marriage (Dunne). ***
Macao
1952 - Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Gloria Grahame, William Bendix, Brad Dexter - Film noir - **1/2
Video -
Der Zigeunerbaron
(1975) - "The Gypsy Baron" - Operetta - Siegfried Jerusalem, Ivan Rebroff, Wolfgang Brendel, Ellen Shade - Music by Johann Strauss. Lots of tuneful waltz-like music is one highlight of this operetta taking place in Hungary in the early 1800s. ***1/2 -
spiderwort — 4 months ago(November 16, 2025 05:29 PM)
Of your titles, PL, I've only seen
The Locket
and
Macao
and agree with your ratings for both.
I've been wanting to see
Pillow to Post
, but it keeps escaping me. One of these days, I hope to get to it. And I would love to see
The Silver Cord
. I love the cast, the story, and the director John Cromwell (actor James Cromwell's father). Hope I can find it. -
PygmyLion — 4 months ago(November 17, 2025 12:47 AM)
I believe
The Silver Cord
comes from a play. I watched it off the link on filmboards.
Another one of those 1930's movies that I run across and find that I like. Last week, it was
Private Number
(1936) and also
The Unguarded Hour
(1936). I started off this week with another one:
What Every Woman Knows
(1934). -
spiderwort — 4 months ago(November 19, 2025 11:33 PM)
I believe The Silver Cord comes from a play. I watched it off the link on filmboards.
Oh, man! I don't know why, but I am not able to watch any film on filmboards. T'is a mystery to me, despite people trying to help me. But I'll keep an eye out for it. Sounds like one I'd really like. -
spiderwort — 4 months ago(November 16, 2025 04:57 PM)
First viewings:
Ivan’s Childhood / Andrei Tarkovsky
(1962). During World War II, 12-year old Ivan (Nikolay Burlyaev) works as a spy on the eastern front, able to cross the German lines unnoticed to collect information. Three Soviet officers try to take care of him along the way. It’s so beautifully directed by Tarkovsky, but it’s also profoundly disturbing, leaving a haunting vision of war and what it does to children. I’ve read Takovsky’s great book about directing, “Sculpting in Time,” but this is the first of his films I’ve seen, and now I want to see every one of them. There’s no question that he’s a great director, and I would consider this film, his film debut, a masterpiece. Highly recommended. (Streaming on Plex)
Overlord / Stuart Cooper
(1975). A film that combines a fictional story about a young British soldier (Brian Stirner) training for D-Day with actual footage of the war shot by British military cameramen. Director Cooper brilliantly intercuts the archival and dramatized footage into sequences that make the events seem to occur simultaneously. And the cross-cutting from the bomb-droppings to the reality of charred corpses on the ground superbly conveys the film’s powerful anti-war sentiment. Meanwhile the fictional narrative provides a subjective viewpoint of the war, capturing the anxiety, excitement, and despair of going into battle. I can’t believe that I never even heard of this film before now. It apparently slipped through the cracks after its initial release, then, when it was shown at the Telluride Film Festival in 2004 and was re-released, it finally received some well-deserved recognition. It’s one of the best war films I’ve seen. Highly recommended. (On Max and YouTube)
What Every Woman Knows / Gregory LaCava
(1934). Three Scottish brothers help educate a young man so that he will marry their sister, a spinster. She helps him in his political career, advancing him to Parliament. Based upon a J.M. Barrie play, it’s a wise, sentimental comedy with fine performances by Hayes and Aherne, who get solid support from Donald Crisp, Lucille Watson, Henry Stephenson, Donald Meek and Madge Evans. It’s a film that I had never even heard of, but I loved it. It’s a delight, with wonderful performances and a wonderful script.
The Invention of Cinema: Cinema Finds its Voice / Eric Lange
(2021). A documentary about the development of sound in motion pictures, it covers work on films from back in the late 1890s until the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927. Fascinating and full of so much more than I already knew, it’s a must-see for those interested in film history. (On TCM until December 13.)
Re-watches:
Shoes / Lois Weber
(1916). A young girl (Mary MacLaren) is worn out from supporting her family because her father won’t work, and she desperately wants a new pair of shoes that won’t hurt her feet while she’s working. It’s a very touching 50 minute film by Lois Weber, the first prominent female director, writer, and producer in Hollywood. She was the first woman to direct a feature film and to own her own studio, and her films were almost always directly engaged with social issues like abortion, capital punishment, birth control, and power imbalances between men and women — all at a time before women could vote. This is my favorite of her films I’ve seen so far, though without question I've appreciated the others, too. From 1911 to 1934 she directed at least 140 films (probably more), though regrettably many are now lost. Here’s the film, colorized, but still good quality:
And here are two 7 & 12 minute documentaries about Lois Weber, absolutely worth viewing.
And here’s another 12 minute one, from “American Masters” on PBS:
https://www.pbs.org/video/she-was-first-woman-direct-feature-length-film-nl5qxb/ -
sheetsadam1 — 4 months ago(November 16, 2025 11:43 PM)
I’ve read Takovsky’s great book about directing, “Sculpting in Time,” but this is the first of his films I’ve seen, and now I want to see every one of them.
You're in for a treat! His next film
Andrei Rublev
is my favorite of his and is available officially on YouTube.
Also, before you get to
Solaris
you may want to rewatch Kubrick's
2001
since Tarkovsky made his film in response to it.
Draft Barron Trump -
spiderwort — 4 months ago(November 19, 2025 11:20 PM)
Andrei Rublev
is next on my list, though I have to say I wish it wasn't so long. But the subject really interests me, so I'm willing to give it a go. But
Solaris
is long, too, and its subject doesn't appeal to me as much, so I may not get to that one. We'll see. -
spiderwort — 4 months ago(November 20, 2025 01:47 AM)
P.S.
@sheetsadam1
:
Stalker
, also very long, looks quite interesting to me. Have you seen it and what did you think of it? Also,
Mirror
, which is shorter, looks interesting. Have you seen that one? I have to say that Tarkovsky's subjects are quit profound, something I think I realized from reading his "Sculpting in Time" book decades ago. -
PygmyLion — 4 months ago(November 17, 2025 01:06 AM)
I watched "What Every Woman Knows" this afternoon. Like you, I had never heard of it, but I enjoyed it. I thought Helen Hayes was outstanding. A young Brian Aherne seemed almost unrecognizable with the mop of hair. The supporting cast was very good.
Also a bit of a romance. While I kenned some of the humor. I felt like I missed some of it too; being a person of the latter half of the twentieth century and never really knowing any Scotsmen, whereas most people back in 1934 (in America), probably knew a few 1st or 2nd generation Scotsmen. -
spiderwort — 4 months ago(November 19, 2025 11:29 PM)
Oh, I'm so glad you liked it, too. And Hayes was indeed outstanding. I thought young Aherne was pretty great, too, and you're right, I almost didn't recognize him at that age and with all that hair. I was very impressed by all the great Scottish accents.
It was a real joy. Again, I'm glad you enjoyed it, too. -
CoriSCapnSkip — 4 months ago(November 17, 2025 03:40 AM)
Let It Be
(1970) on November 9
The Sandlot
(1993) on November 12
Now and Then
(1995) on November 13
The Mouse on the Mayflower
(1968) on November 14
The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't
(1972) on November 15 -
Rufus-T — 4 months ago(November 19, 2025 05:47 AM)
Frankenstein (2025)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1312221/
At first, I don't understand Guillermo del Toro want to remake a Frankenstein movie. Then I heard somewhere that it is a project he wanted to do in decades. Having seen many of his film, I can imagine what his Frankenstein will be like. I expected it to be visually striking, beautiful and grisly at the same time, and that is what it was. I don't think it follow the book closely, not to the extend of the Kenneth Branagh abomination in the 1994. It has a better gothic story than that one, but not frightening. The film broke into two parts, from Victor Frankenstein's perspective and from the creature's perspective. There was an overlong prologue took place in the artic. Oscar Isaac was decent as Victor Frankenstein. Jacob Elordi also was decent as the creature though nothing like the iconic Boris Karloff. Mia Goth played the love interest. The behavior for her role was a bit inexplicable to me. Just feel she was miscast too. The story turned the table to make Victor Frankenstein more like the villain. Interesting idea, but not well written. Still much better than the 1994 version, but not as good as the James Whale version.
Collateral (2004)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369339/
This could be the most underrated Michael Mann movie. Taking over a night, a cab driver picked up a passenger turned out to be hit man. The hit man forced the driver to bring him to different destiny. Jamie Foxx was outstanding playing the cab driver, who I consider a lead, but got a supporting actor nomination at the Oscar. Tom Cruise equally or better as the hit man. I think this may be the only time Tom Cruise played a villain. He could have gotten an nomination too. Jada Pinkett Smith played one of the passenger the cab driver picked up earlier, who turned out to be important to the story later on. This is an exceptional suspense slow burn thriller. I love it the first time saw it back then, and it still hold up very well.
Match Point (2005)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416320/
I am a big fan of Woody Allen movie. Of all the comedies he made, my favorite turned out to be this suspenseful thriller revolved around a British tennis tutor went into London befriending a student who comes from a rich family, started dating his sister. However, fell for the friend's American girlfriend. The theme was very much like that of Woody Allen's other movie Crime and Punishment, but I thought this was better executed and smoother style. Opera sprinkled throughout the movie as the soundtrack. The cast was outstanding with Jonathan Rhys Meyers played the lead. Matthew Goode as the person he befriend. Emily Mortimer played the sister of his friend. Scarlett Johansson could not be more seductive as girl he fell for. The movie gives much food for thought. -
spiderwort — 4 months ago(November 20, 2025 01:57 AM)
Rufus, I haven't seen any of your titles. I was considering watching
Frankenstein
when I had a chance, but based upon your thoughtful comments I think maybe I'll just stick with the James Whale version of that one.
And the others sound interesting, and I appreciate your evaluations of them, but they're probably not things I would watch right now. I've been watching a lot of old things these days. But I'll keep them in mind, especially
Match Point
, which sounds like a real departure for Allen.