Seven Waves Away
(1957) - 7/10
Two O'Clock Courage
(1945) - 8/10
The Kiss Before the Mirror
(1933) - 7/10
Week-End in Havana
(1941) - 6/10
Jason Bourne
(2016) - 5/10
Deathtrap
(1982) 7/10
The Formula
(1980) 6/10
Seeds of Yesterday
(2015) - 4/10
Divine Madness
(1980) - 7/10
The Lobster
(2015) - 6/10
Something to Live For
(1952) - 7/10
Fifth Avenue Girl
(1939) - 8/10

Actually that should read "first we take Manhattan, then we take outer space"
I have seen them all now! This one was fun, I mean I aint watching them to be scared, stalk and slash movies stopped scaring me when I was still at school! I wanted to complete the cycle by catching up with the ones I haven't seen or reviewed yet. I can now safely say that
Jason X (2001)
is my favourite of the whole series
Though
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
is an absolute riot.
Next up, the
Halloween
sequels I've not seen yet.
The
Spikeopath

Hospital Number
217

Good review of Jason's Manhattan Spike.Out of the 6 or so Friday flicks I've seen this one is near the top,due to there being so much 80's cheese on show!

The Lost Moment (1947)
Dead among the living and living among the dead.
The Lost Moment is directed by Martin Gabel and adapted by Leonardo Bercovici from the Henry James novel, The Aspern Papers. It stars Robert Cummings, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead and Eduardo Ciannelli. Music is by Daniele Amfitheatrof and cinematography by Hal Mohr.
Lewis Venable (Cummings) is a publisher who travels to Venice in search love letters written by poet Jeffrey Ashton. Insinuating himself into the home of the poets lover and recipient of the letters, Juliana Bordereau (Moorehead), Venable finds himself transfixed by the strangeness of the place and its inhabitants, one of which is Juliana's off kilter niece, Tina (Hayward).
A splendid slice of Gothicana done up in film noir fancy dress, The Lost Moment is hauntingly romantic and ethereal in its weirdness. It's very talky, so the impatient should be advised, but the visuals and the frequent influx of dreamy like sequences hold the attention right to the denouement. The narrative is devilish by intent, with shifting identities, sexual tensions, intrigue and hidden secrets the orders of the day. Cummings is a little awkward and his scenes with Hayward (very good in a tricky role) lacks an urgent spark, while old hands Moorehead (as a centenarian with an outstanding makeup job) and Ciannelli leave favourable marks in the smaller roles. Mohr's (The Phantom of the Opera) photography is gorgeous and bathes the pic in atmosphere, and Amfitheatrof's musical compositions are powerful in their subtleties. As for Gabel? With this being his only foray into directing, it stands as a shame he didn't venture further into the directing sphere. 7/10
The Sign of the Ram (1948)
The Tremerrion Tribulations.
The Sign of the Ram is directed by John Sturges and adapted to screenplay from Margaret Ferguson's novel. It stars Susan Peters, Alexandev Knox, Phyllis Thaxter, Peggy Ann Garner, Ron Randell, Dame May Witty and Allene Roberts. Music is by Hans J. Salter and cinematography by Burnett Guffey.
Wheelchair bound Leah St. Aubyn (Peters) manipulates everybody around her
"It's the sign of the ram. People born under this sign are endowed with a strong will power and obstinacy of purpose"
The setting is a cliff top mansion, a lighthouse is nearby, its purpose is to steer ships out of the fog and away from harms way. This is the fictitious Cornish place known as Tremerrion, and our play unfolds in the mansion known as Bastions. It's film that has proved to be a bit illusive to pin down, for whatever reasons, and that is a shame because there are plenty things for fans of such devilish dramas to be excited about. The backstory of its leading lady is itself tragic, for Susan Peters would be paralysed from the waist down after a freak hunting accident, this would see her appear in her last film, she gave up on life, tortured by pain and the loss of her ability to walk, she would stave to death and pass away four years later. Thankfully, and it's not sympathetic praise here, she's excellent, leaving a fitting farewell to the movie world.
"Haven't you sensed it? The undertone, like a warning drumbeat"
Stripped down it's the story of a woman who manipulates everyone close to her, cunningly so, her reasons deliberately shaded in grey, and the question constantly gnaws away as to just how come her family and confidants can't see it? Sooner or later something is going to give, and it's the waiting that gives the pic an edginess that's most appealing. This woman has no shame, we are told by her loyal spouse that she's not bitter about her accident, but she so is, but wears it well. She's not only spell bindingly pretty, but she's pretty spell bindingly devious too. The fog rolls in, the waves crash against the coast to marry up with the psychological discord being set loose in Bastions. Salter's music swirls and bites, while genius cinematographer Guffey turns in some class frames (one scene involving criss cross shadows is film noir nirvana).
"They will stop at nothing to accomplice their purpose - and sometimes meet a violent death"
Pulsing with jealousies, betrayals, suspicions and a whole host of devious machinations, this be a crafty old devil, a pic deconstructing the human condition with malicious glee. 7/10
The Lone Gun (1954)
Cruze Missile and the Three of Spades.
The Lone Gun is directed by Ray Nazarro and written by Don Martin, Richard Schayer and L. L. Freeman. It stars George Montgomery, Dorothy Malone, Neville Brand, Frank Faylen, Skip Homeier, Robert Wilke, Douglas Kennedy and Fay Roope. Music is by Irving Getz and cinematography by Lester White (color by Color Corporation of America).
"The history of any frontier region . . . such as the great expanses of the new State of Texas . . . offered many examples of the strange way in which a few men of great evil could dominate whole communities of well meaning, but passive citizens
And examples, too, of men who rode out alone for law and order, with

I remember my family splitting up to see HAUNTED HONEYMOON and THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE that summer of 1986. I was supposed to see HH with my dad and brothers, but the trailer convinced me it was going to be too scary, so I went with my mom and sisters to see the more 'kid friendly' DETECTIVE, where I was laid witness to intense, potentially nightmare-fuel scenes whenever Ratigan and Fidget showed their bad sides.
Due to having a major CLUEfanboyism at the time, HH was an attraction (the big hallway, the lights going out, etc.). As TrevorAclea attests, Wilder makes nods to old house films (the cinematic floating will from THE CAT AND THE CANARY; Dom deLuise's 'Laughter and Sin' monologue from THE OLD DARK HOUSE). I tried to view it on its 30th anniversary last summer, but couldn't find the VHS.

I managed to find it for a bit less through a combo of a 10% off sale, a store discount for a previous botched order and a freakishly favourable exchange rate the day I ordered, but I must admit I was on the fence about getting it because of the price for a long time. But fair dos to Madman, they clearly put the effort into the disc, which is more than Universal did with their Blu-ray releases.
"Security - release the badgers."

Good to know that the Blu-ray of
Journey to the Far Side of the Sun
is worth it. I have the Universal UK DVD in my collection (the film was long unavailable in any form down here) but the exorbitant price has always put me off upgrading. If memory serves correct, the main DVD/Blu-ray retail outlet over here wants $35 for it. Oh, and I agree that the choice to rename the film
Dopplegänger
is unfortunate. I was well aware of the alternative title when sitting down to watch the film, which made it a tad easy for me to predict what was going on.
Most people think I'm mad. At least I know I'm mad.

There's a tendency to label every black and white thriller from the 40s and 50s as a film noir, but in the case of 1946's
Criminal Court
a potentially nourish premise is given a more conventional courtroom thriller approach, and while its hero may find himself caught between a rock and a hard place, it's never given the sense of a nightmarish descent to the point of no return that's only accelerated by bad judgement and character flaws that is the very dark heart and soul of noir. Tom Conway's showy lawyer running for District Attorney certainly shows bad judgement when crooked nightclub owner Robert Armstrong ends up dead in a struggle over a gun and he leaves the scene of the crime apparently unnoticed, but as soon as girlfriend Martha O'Driscoll is in the frame for the crime he's so noble that he immediately fesses up to the crime only to find no-one believes it's anything but another of his courtroom stunts and the local crooks see the perfect win-win scenario to knobble his career. Curiously the film never makes much of the fact that the love of his life is facing the chair and what little tension there is revolves around whether Conway will find out that the only witness to the incident is his own secretary, who was feeding Armstrong information on her boss. But if it's short on sweaty palms and stylish visuals, it's still an entertaining enough B-movie, the kind of thing the studios churned out to fill out double-bills and sometimes give up and coming directors, in this case Robert Wise, a chance to show what they could do. He certainly did much better, and often, but he does well enough here to keep things moving smoothly along, Conway's charm carrying the film even if it never really gives him much of a chance to stretch himself.
Aside: just what is the aforementioned secretary doing on the poster picking her nose or about to insert a foreign object (possibly a banana) into it?
https://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/208/MPW-104042
Gene Wilder's final film as a director and one of his last as an actor, 1986's loving homage to 40s old dark house comedies,
Haunted Honeymoon
, is one of those films that gets a lot right it recreates the look and old-school practical effects of the old Bob Hope-Paulette Goddard comedies and has a more than decent supporting cast (Peter Vaughn, Jonathan Pryce, Bryan Pringle in what was obviously meant to be a Marty Feldman role), many of whom look like they'd have fit right in that era (Jim Carter looks strikingly like Lugosi in a few shots) but is much less successful at actually providing the laughs. Despite the terrible reviews and box-office failure it's not awful, just very flat. Part of the problem is that, nostalgia aside, many of the films it's pastiching weren't that funny to begin with, but a bigger one is that Wilder doesn't manage to bring a new spin to the old tropes the film ticks off, making it at times feel like a Monogram script that was given an MGM budget. (Larry Blamire's low budget Dark and Stormy Night managed to get a lot more comic mileage out of similar material with a fraction of the budget in 2009.)
At times it feels like some of the situations are too well-worn to find much to do with that's new or still works: the opening golden age of radio performance is more a recreation than a send up despite the potential for straight-faced absurdity that Woody Allen tapped into with Radio Days the following year. Wilder doesn't give in to his worst excesses as an actor, but he's outshone by a tremendously appealing Gilda Radner, who's terrific here despite not really being given anything to work with (neither is Dom DeLuise, dragging it up as Wilder's aunt): you'd never guess for a moment that she was ill throughout the shoot. A couple of scenes sort of work a little, but the best you can really say about it is that it's harmless and well-intentioned and that co-writer Terence Marsh's production design is excellent.
Led by ideas (or rather a single idea) rather than action,
Journey to the Far Side of the Sun
is closer to the hard sci-fi Gerry and Sylvia Anderson would explore in the first season of Space: 1999 than their popular SuperMarionation shows like Thunderbirds, but at heart it owes more to The Outer Limits with the kind of story Leslie Stevens could have done much more eerily in 52 minutes. Where The Twilight Zone was often led by the twist in its tales, The Outer Limits generally went further to think through the consequences, emotional as well as practical, of what it would be like for a person to live through and try to make sense of that twist, and while that does take up the film's second half, it suffers from having much weaker character writing. As a result it's hard to care about what astronaut Roy Thinnes is going through when he finds himself disorientated after crashlanding on Earth three weeks into a six week mission while insisting that he actually have made it to a newly discovered planet behind the Sun that's Earth's

I saw some of those
Saint
films a few years ago, the ones starring George Sanders. He was very good in the role.

Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen
=

"We will bury you"-NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV

That's Paul Guilfoyle and he got the spotlight as I did see him in two Saint movies on Jan 20. As I explained, my criteria for selection is that it has to be a character actor who shows up twice within 48 hours, my way of honoring the lesser players, the ones who show up unexpectedly. Often I'll tune in to a movie because of a given lead, say Bogart or Randolph Scott. I'll forget that perhaps a Steve Brodie or Allen Jenkins is in the cast, so such can be a pleasant surprise.
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me

I am going to guess that it is
Paul Guilfoyle
who I mention twice in my Saint reviews.
mf
I know that, in spite of the poets, youth is not the happiest season"

can't wait to find out!
"We will bury you"-NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV

I tried watching the Kilmer film on HBO - turned it off after about 30 minutes. There was a TV movie dated last year which was filmed about three years earlier that as far as I know, hasn't screened in the U.S.
The Saint (2016)
I was catching the Moore series when it was running on one of those digital channels - maybe Me-TV. I was especially enjoying the early ones but they yanked it from the schedule to my regret. I didn't get to see many when they were first aired in the US as it ran at 1130p on Sunday nights, mom insisted that I go to bed as I was just starting junior high at the time.
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me

Thanks. I did know that a single Saint movie had been made in 1954 with Hayward. My first intention was to end those reviews with a small paragraph about later Saint productions incl. the Hammer, the TV series with Roger Moore, and the Val Kilmer in 1997, but decided that I had gone on too long already. I haven't seen the 1954 Hammer and have but vague memories of the Moore and Kilmer so thought it best not to make judgments about stuff I didn't know anything about - although that doesn't stop some people.
mf
I know that, in spite of the poets, youth is not the happiest season"

Just want to tip you off that Hayward did return as The Saint many years later in
The Saint's Girl Friday
which was made by Hammer in 1954, just before they started their foray into gothic horror. He's a bit older but still charming and while a notch below his first time out, it's certainly watchable. You should be able to find it on YouTube, it was there just a couple of months ago.
It ain't easy being green, or anything else, other than to be me

The Saint in New York (1938)
/ Ben Holmes
. Louis Hayward takes the role of Leslie Charteris' hero from multiple short stories and best-selling novels. He is brought in by Inspector Fernack (Jonathan Hale, who appears in several of the Saint films) as a wild card because the police can't stop the crime wave lead by the mysterious Big Fellow. The Saint (for the first and only time in these films) proves to be a master of disguise as he goes about disposing of the Big Fellow's top mobsters. The identity of the Big Fellow is easy to deduce once a valuable piece of the puzzle is delivered late in the game. Paul Guilfoyle and a young, pre-celebrity Jack Carson are two henchmen. Familiar face/unknown name Charles Halton is a weasely mob lawyer. Sig Ruman (a frequent foil of the Marx Brothers) appears as one of the gang's middle men. Some good stunt work makes the Saint into more of a man of action than he became in later films. This was the only film in which Louis Hayward appeared as the title character because he moved from RKO to United Artists. One of the movies he made shortly after was
The Son of Monte Cristo (1940)
/ Rowland V. Lee
. Hayward plays the son of Edmund Dantes, the original Count of Monte Cristo. When he learns that the Grand Duchess Zona of Lichtenburg (Joan Bennett) has been made a prisoner of her Regent, Gurko Lanen, who has his sights on the throne, Cristo pretends to be a useless fop of a banker who has come to negotiate a loan to Lichtenburg. By night, he dons a mask and cape as The Torch. In this guise, he helps the rebels who support Zona. It is high-adventure and daring-do with hints of Zorro and The Prisoner of Zenda. UA brought in Rowland V. Lee to direct. Lee had helmed the 1934 classic Count with Robert Donat. For the key role of the clever villain, George Sanders, who was already busy as the Saint over at RKO, faced his predecessor in the role. Sanders, as you might expect, creates a vivid and complex evil character beyond what is in the script. Without Sanders, this film would not have worked nearly as well, or not at all, in spite of an attractive couple (Hayward and Bennett) at the top of the cast. Clayton Moore has a fairly substantial supporting role as one of Lanen's soldiers who is spying for the rebels.
The Saint Strikes Back (1939)
/ John Farrow
.
. This was Sanders first appearance in the role. For the self-confident private detective, Sanders brings all of the superiority, smugness, and verbal condescending that made him famous in caddish roles. When a low-life complains about how tough life is, Sanders can bring a world of insincerity to How distressing. Even though this is a low-budget programmer, director John Farrow (who did the wonderful
Five Came Back (1939)
the same year) opens the film with a almost one-minute one-take of a New Year's Eve crowd in a night club, swinging the camera out and over the room, focusing in of three people at a table and then following one of them as he moves to a concealed position and draws a gun. This film has a clever and complicated mystery possibly because it was based on a Charteris novel, She Was A Lady (1931). Allan Jenkins is along for the ride, doing his usual shtick as The Saints sidekick. This is Jenkins' only appearance in the series. The only feature that lets the film down is a rushed ending as the identity of the mysterious criminal boss is tossed off rather lightly. As far as these detective second feature series go, this is top-notch.
The Saint in London (1939)
/ John Paddy Carstairs
. Templar and an adventurous young women (Sally Gray) encounter a man, almost dying, fleeing some evil doers. This puts them in the middle of a dastardly plot to counterfeit one million pounds. Like all of these Saint films, there is little to zero mystery about the whole story except: is The Saint going to collar the Bad Guys before they kill him or the police arrest Templar for their crimes? What do you think? The Saint's sidekick this time (he changes every picture) is a reformed pickpocket played by American Broadway actor David Burns. Burns appeared in the original productions of The Music Man, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum, and Hello, Dolly. (He was replaced in the movie versions by Paul Ford, Michael Hordern, and Walter Matthau.) This entry is slight but enjoyable, mainly for Sanders.
The Saint's Double Trouble (1940)
/ Jack Hively
. This is a fun entry. George Sanders plays a double role: he is, of course, Simon Templar but Templar has a look-alike named Duke Bates. The two men stay unaware of each other until near the end of the tale. The plot is some nonsense about smuggling diamonds inside Egyptian mummies and there is the usual fights with people being captured and escaping. It is mostly fun to watch but also interchangeable with earlier Saint movies. What enlivens this is the comedy of misunderstandings as cops and sidekicks take Bates for Templar while thugs and minions defer to The Saint, thinking he is the

Con Air (1997)

• 6
  The Mechanic (2011)
• 7
  The Expendables 2 (2012)
• 8
  Pilot (2010)
• 9

3:10 to Yuma (1957) for the hundredth time.
AlamoScout210

I watched some old faves, along with two first-time views:
Love With the Proper Stranger
(1963): Most of this movie is excellent drama, with some humorous moments thrown in. Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen are perfect in the leading roles. The plot is as follows: a woman had tracked down a man with whom she had a fling a couple of months earlier, and she tells him that she's pregnant and that he is the father. She asks him if he knows the name of a doctor (for an abortion, which was illegal back then). As they try to work out this issue, their relationships grows, but they run into snags because she's from a traditional Italian background and she has a very overprotective family. Only the last 20 minutes (or so) are spoiled because the film seems to take on the tone of an annoying modern romantic comedy at that point. (Maybe some modern rom-com scriptwriters got some ideas from the last 20 minutes of this film?) Also, Tom Bosley's character really should have been left out completely. His character was very poorly written and was unnecessary to this story IMHO.
Someone had recommended this film to me several months back, someone who is also a fan of
The Honeymoon Machine
. If this person is still posting, I'd just like to say "THANKS" for the recommendation!
It Happened to Jane
(1959): fun fluffy film starring Doris Day and Jack Lemmon. Not much more to say about this film except that it's probably going to be a nice escape film to watch when I'm in a bad mood. Beautiful scenery in this one as well. I think that the late 50s and 60s were a good time for romantic comedies.

Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen
=

Just occurred to me - as Paterson to Paterson, so Driver to Driver ;). This is my favourite film of the year, and Jarmusch's best since Dead Man.
If they organise the revolution like they did this meeting, what'll happen?

Suddenly (1954)
I think is very good. I wonder if you think I have overrated it?
God and the Gun!
Show me a guy with feelings and I'll show you a sucker.
Sinatra was never comfortable with his role in Suddenly, even before he "requested" it be removed from circulation post the assassination of his friend JFK in 63, there was a feeling within the Sinatra camp that playing such a despicable character would harm his image. More so as it came a year after his Oscar winning performance in From Here to Eternity. Blue Eyes would even try to make good on the characterisation by reversing the roles as it were for The Manchurian Candidate 1962, but of course a lot of things changed after November 22nd 1963. This all gives Suddenly a curiosity value that it actually doesn't need, for it's a gripping thriller capable of standing on its own two feet, and it's boosted by a terrific performance from Sinatra, one of his best in fact.
That it was hard to see for quite some time is a shame, because it deserves to be better known. The makers take a hostage scenario and give it a noir edge by way of the conspiracy angle, some paranoia, a family in peril and a strong noir staple of a returning soldier from a war badly scarred by his experiences. In this case John Baron (Sinatra) has the taste for killing, as he is taunted by chief hostage Sheriff "Tod" Shaw (Hayden) about his means and motives, that Baron just likes to kill, Baron repeatedly rants that he was a Silver Star winner, that he killed 27 German soldiers, but this doesn't hide the fact that he has no compunction about killing the President for money. To him the President is just a mark of no significant interest, Baron is a real cold fish and Sinatra gives a thunderously twitchy coiled spring portrayal.
Sinatra is backed up by Hayden doing one of his strong macho type turns, and Gleason scores best of the support actors as a wise old boy who himself was once in the Secret Service. These two bastions of Americana off set the near irritating characterisations of Ellen Benson (Gates) and Peter Benson III (Charney), the former the hysterical female, the latter the annoying kid saying illogical things. However, these two stereotypes don't harm the picture, because director Allen manages to keep the group under duress dynamic ticking away, smothering it with claustrophobic atmosphere to then unleash all for the explosive finale.
It's set in daylight and visually it's nothing to get excited about, in fact much of the film is set in one living room, while the patriotism over traitorism is a necessary piece of thematic flag waving. But this comes highly recommended as entertainment as sleepy small town Americana is jolted out of its stupor. 8/10
7th Cavalry (1956)
I'm a fan of, and I seem to remember
Clore
being one as well. Majority verdict on site does side with yourself though.
Yellow Hair and the real meaning of Horsepower.
Set after the Battle Of Little Big Horn, 7th Cavalry sees Randolph Scott playing Captain Benson, who returns with his future bride to his post commanded by Indian fighter, Colonel Custer. Custer however was gone, he had taken the famous 7th Cavalry to war with the Sioux at Big Horn and lost badly. Guilt ridden and tarnished by whispers of cowardice, Benson volunteers to lead a dangerous mission back to Big Horn to reclaim the bodies of the fallen soldiers.
There doesn't appear to be much much love for this 1956 Columbia Pictures Oater. Seems it's either damned for being too talky, or on the flip side, it's too hokey within its plotting to actually merit worth. Well that's a shame for this has something of a vintage feel to it, the themes of guilt and redemption are Western standards, whilst the story also takes in interesting arcs such as religious beliefs and spiritual meanings. Yes this is definitely a "talky" picture - aside from some mano mano action and single horse pursuits that is - but it's a well thought out screenplay by Peter Packer (adapting from Glendon Swarthout's story). Instances such as a military enquiry and an exchange between Benson and a young Indian warrior are intelligent passages in the story (with Scott doing fine work in the process). What it lacks in gusto action it more than makes up for with the characterisations.
Other plus points are that it's also nicely shot in Mexico, the Technicolor doing justice to the splendid costumes on show. Backing Scott up in support are admirable performers such as Jay C. Flippen, Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon, Michael Pate and Harry Carey Junior. Although the ladies (Jeanette Nolan & Barbara Hale) aren't given too much to do and the score conducted by Mischa Bakaleinikoff is at odds with the tempo of the film, 7th Cavalry still deserves a better reputation than it currently has. If you prepare for a work of fiction that is most assuredly dialogue driven, then hopefully your expectations will at the least be met. 7/10
The
Spikeopath

Hospital Number
217

I have no problem with Frank Borzage being the first person to win an Oscar as Best Director (for SEVENTH HEAVEN), and the fact that he wound up being the first person to win two Best Director Oscars doesn't bother me, but i am puzzled by BAD GIRL. For years, it was unavailable, yet the films from this period of his career include a number of wonderful films (A FAREWELL TO ARMS, LITTLE MAN WHAT NOW?) and one outright masterpiece (A MAN'S CASTLE), so how bad could BAD GIRL be? Well, it's not really bad, but it's not really good. And though James Dunn and Sally Eilers are personable, they're not exactly luminous: Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor they're definitely not. I think the attempt to render the "salacious" material palatable played into the Academy recognition.
When Val Lewton's unit at RKO was dissembled, a lot of people came out with solid careers, such as Mark Robson and Robert Wise. Jacques Tourneur had been part of the B unit at MGM, when he moved over to RKO to become part of Lewton's unit; he flourished there, and made some of the most stylish films of the period (CAT PEOPLE, LEOPARD MAN, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE). Tourneur always brought a stylishness to his movies, and EASY LIVING is a solid example of his craftsmanship. One note is that i find Lucille Ball's career during the latter half of the 1940s to be the most interesting part of her career: i find her dramatic performances in movies like THE DARK CORNER, LURED and EASY LIVING to be quite intriguing. The timing which she would exploit in comedy seemed to give her characters an edge in these dramas.
In the midst of a series of "classic" roles (A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, VIVA ZAPATA, JULIUS CAESAR), THE WILD ONE was a real "pop" venture for Marlon Brando. Yet the whole iconography (the leather jacket, the sunglasses, the motorcycle) which came from this movie is such a part of our culture. And it was also important in establishing Marlon Brando as an iconic movie star: he was proving himself as an actor, but this was different, and he passed this test with ease.
One of the most spectacular comebacks in show business history was that of Frank Sinatra. He'd been washed up in the early 1950s, and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY re-established his career, plus it brought him a reputation as a dramatic actor. He would work a lot in the next two years, trying to prove his versatility: six movies in 1954 and 1955, including SUDDENLY, YOUNG AT HEART, NOT AS A STRANGER, GUYS AND DOLLS, THE TENDER TRAP and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM. SUDDENLY was made immediately after FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, it was a small indie and helped to show that Sinatra was serious about acting.
Randolph Scott devoted his career to Westerns from the late 1940s on (so did Joel McCrea, for that matter); aside from the ones done with Budd Boetticher, most of them were competent. A movie like 7TH CALVARY is a prime example: it's really not much more than a longer TV episode, a little short on action and rather unexciting.
By the late 1950s, both Rossellini and De Sica were recycling WWII, Rossellini with the ironic GENERALE DELLA ROVERE, and De Sica with TWO WOMEN. It's hard to explain the shock of seeing TWO WOMEN when it came out: the sexual violence was horrifying, and very disturbing. And it would also be hard to explain how shattering Sophia Loren's performance seemed.
By the 1960s, Bob Hope was wearing out his welcome in the movies. CALL ME BWANA, A GLOBAL AFFAIR, I'LL TAKE SWEDEN, BOY DID A GET A WRONG NUMBER: it's hard to pick which one is worse. One thing about Tuesday Weld: if she decides a movie isn't worth it, she doesn't hide her boredom! And she's bored in I'LL TAKE SWEDEN! (But this movie was done between movies like SOLDIER IN THE RAIN, THE CINCINNATI KID and LORD LOVE A DUCK, which were movies which showed just how talented she was.)
Elvis as a doctor working in the slums, and Mary Tyler Moore as a nun: who thinks up these things? Once is enough: if CHANGE OF HABIT ever comes on, i try to avoid it. And the therapy for autism is offensive.
Yes, there are often movies or TV shows which do reveal talent, before the official breakthrough. Actually, Sally Field also credits STAY HUNGRY as an important milestone in her career. But she was trying to find her way in made-for-TV movies in the early 1970s, and MAYBE I'LL COME HOME IN THE SPRING, which is far too schematic, nevertheless shows Field really trying for a character.
Kevin Kline can sometimes have a goofy charm, and that helps made the premise of DAVE seem so likable. At times like these, any fantasy which helps to bring some humor into the political arena is welcome.
I loved PATERSON, it just seemed to be one of those movies that ambled along, but by the end of it, it presented a cohesive picture of a aingular American life. And i thought Adam Driver was exceptional. It's not easy to make poetry convincing.

Hard to believe such a film caused such an outrage back in the day that not only was it banned in Boston but it was banned in England for years!
Yeah, banned in UK till 1968 since it "encouraged criminal behavior". Who knew Mr. Kimble and Jerry Helper were such bad boys?