What Classics Did You See Last Week (October 20–October 26)
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unex — 1 year ago(October 27, 2024 12:50 PM)
Three Elvis movies.
Clambake (1967) - His worst movie by his own estimation. It really is bad. These movies are more about Elvis singing rather than plot but when the main song is Clambake you've got trouble. It seems like he often portrays a race car driver in his 60s movies but in this one he races a boat. He is mostly passive in this so it's rather boring.
G.I. Blues (1960) - This is his first after leaving the Army. I remember some of his films from the previous decade being good, King Creole in particular, but in the new decade they seem to have given up on quality and went solely for quantity. The plot is typically thin. It never really builds on its premise, which wasn't very compelling but would have provided something for Elvis to overcome.
Fun in Acapulco (1963) - This is better than the other two. Better songs, more depth to Elvis, better overall production. There was actually some conflict in the story but the script was jumbled and I didn't quite understand Elvis's motivations. That's maybe a stupid complaint for an Elvis movie though. As in the others Elvis did a good job as his Elvis character. The worst mistake was ending the movie on a song sung in Spanish. Sing something the audience can understand. -
spiderwort — 1 year ago(October 27, 2024 02:11 PM)
Yes, indeed, unex, Elvis' films got worse and worse over time, thanks to his manager, Colonel Parker. But I, too, liked
King Creole
, which was based upon a Harold Robbins novel. And I thought he was good in his first film,
Love Me Tender
, and even better in his second film,
Loving You
. But my favorite of all his performances was in
Wild in the Country
. I strongly recommend that one, if you haven't seen it. It was adapted from a terrific novel, "The Lost Country" by J. R. Salamanca, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Anyway, for my money that was Presley's career best performance. -
EdwardVP — 1 year ago(October 27, 2024 01:29 PM)
1952 THE MEMBER OF THE WEDDING - Julie Harris plays a twelve year old who begins to have tantrums approaching her brother's wedding day. Her mother is dead and her father is busy with his business. She feels an outsider when it comes to her schoolfriends. Wise Nanny Ethel Waters tries to put her straight while she herself nurses a feeling of abandonment of a kind. Ace moment is when Julie and Ethel and a bespectacled Brandon De Wilde hug each other as they sing His Eye Is On The Sparrow. (IMDb 6.8)
1956 A CRY IN THE NIGHT - Raymond Burr is a creepy yet pitiful prowler who stalks the local lover's land car parking area. He kidnaps Natalie Wood after knocking out her boyfriend and takes her to his secret den. Brian Donleavy is the police captain whose job it is to track down Natalie. Edmond O'Brien is also in it and there's a wonderful campy performance from Carol Veazie as Burr's doting mother. I reckon this is an interesting B-Noir. (IMDb 6.0) -
spiderwort — 1 year ago(October 27, 2024 01:52 PM)
I love A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING, Edward, as I noted to you elsewhere. Julie Harris is great in it, her only Oscar nominated performance. She was 26, brilliantly playing that tormented 12 year old girl. And I think the IMDb rating is far too low. I'm not good at the ten point rating strategy, preferring the 4 stars one instead, so I'd give it a 3.5 rating. In any case, it's definitely a must-see for Harris' performance alone.
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spiderwort — 1 year ago(October 27, 2024 02:22 PM)
First viewing:
Roald Dahl's Esio Trot / Dearbhla Walsh
(2015). A shy and lonely bachelor (Dustin Hoffman) secretly loves his neighbor (Judi Dench), but she only shows affection for her pet tortoise. Things change when he comes up with a way to help her. A gentle, poignant BBC film with wonderful performances by Hoffman and Dench and strong support from James Corden who narrates and intermittently appears on screen to tell the story. Strongly recommended. (Available on various streaming services)
Re-watches:
Lonely Are the Brave / David Miller
(1962). A cowboy (Kirk Douglas) who rejects modern life gets himself locked up in jail so he can help an old friend escape. When his friend decides to stay for the sake of his family, Douglas escapes alone, and is pursued by a posse across the desert. A beautiful, haunting film with so much to say about the struggle between the old and the new, it was Douglas’ personal favorite of all his films. Dalton Trumbo’s outstanding script, beautifully directed by Miller, and Douglas’ powerful performance make it a film that should be seen. Highly recommended.
October: Ten Days that Shook the World (Oktyabr) / Sergei Eisenstein & Grigoriy Aleksandrov
(1927). A documentary style masterwork about the months leading up to the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, created through the use of many explosive montages on the streets of St. Petersburg. Brilliantly directed and totally captivating, especially for film students interested in the use of montage, of which Eisenstein was the master. Highly recommended. (Available on tubi and plex)
Chocolat / Lasse Hallström
(2000). A single mother (Juliette Binoche) and her young daughter arrive in a rural French town in the winter of 1959 and open an unusual chocolate shop that disrupts the moral fiber of the strictly Catholic townsfolk and mayor. The film received five Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress (Juliette Binoche), Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), Best Screenplay (Robert Nelson Jacobs) and Best Music (Rachel Portman). Beautifully directed by the very talented Hallström, whose humanity enriches all of his work. Highly recommended. -
Rufus-T — 1 year ago(October 28, 2024 03:35 AM)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/
Perhaps the last great epic movie. I can't think of any since then match up to the scope of this one, and the trilogy as a whole. Sure that much of it is CGI, but the result looks so damn good. The only part I wasn't crazy about it the first time was the ending seems to drag on. On repeat viewing, the ending made a lots of sense as epilogye and didn't bother me anymore. In fact, I felt I wanted more. This is the theatrical version available on Amazon Prime. I have the extended version as well, which I will rewatch sometime in the future. Fantastic finale to a grand trilogy.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072251/
One of the most suspenseful heist movie of hijacking a New York City subway. Help by outstanding performance by Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, among others. The editing was very effective. The Joseph Sargent version is much better than the letter Tony Scott version which I was not crazy about. The movie has plenty of humor too.
Ex Machina (2014)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/
I remember this was my biggest pleasant surprise that year. A thought provoking Sci-Fi. Slow moving at times, but well worth it. The male performances (Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander) was a bit flat, but Alicia Vikander made up for it. Director/Writer Alex Garland made another excellent Sci-Fi later on called Annihilation. I should check out his two other features I haven't seen: Men, and Civil war.