What Classics Did You See Last Week (July 27–August 2)
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PygmyLion — 8 months ago(August 03, 2025 09:52 PM)
Comrade X
1940 - Clark Gable, Hedy Lemarr, Oscar Homolka, Felex Bressart, Eve Arden. Comedy Spy Spoof. Clark Gable plays a reporter in the USSR. ***
Honky Tonk
1941 - Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Frank Morgan, Claire Trevor. Western. **1/2
Crossroads
1942 - William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Claire Trevor, Basil Rathbone, Felix Bressart - David Talbot (Powell) has earned an important position as a French Diplomat and just married Lucienne (Lamarr). Talbot has had amnesia since 1919 and Sarrou (Rathbone) and Allaine (Trevor) try to blackmail him for things that occured in 1919. ***
Gentleman's Agreement
1948 - Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield. Celeste Holm. Director Elia Kazan. Won the 1948 Best Picture Academy Award. ****
The Lady Vanishes
1938 - Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, May Whitty, Paul Lukas. Director - Alfred Hitchock. ****
Captain Kidd
1945 1945 - Charles Laughton, Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton, John Carradine - Swashbuckler that doesn't have quite enough buckling. **1/2
Chase a Crooked Shadow
1958 - Ann Baxter, Richard Todd - some people seem to like this movie, it gets a 7.0 on IMDB. For me, it seemed rather implausible and reminded me of the type of fare one would get in a 1970's made for TV movie. ** -
spiderwort — 8 months ago(August 04, 2025 01:27 AM)
I love
Gentleman's Agreement
and
The Lady Vanishes
, PL. Two of my favorites, and one of the best for both Kazan and Hitchcock. I've been meaning to watch
The Lady Vanishes
again for awhile now and need to do it soon. Thanks for the reminder. I'm always up to date on my Kazan films, given that he's my favorite director
And I haven't seen
Crossroads
, but it looks like a film I would enjoy. Love the cast. And I think I saw
Comrade X
decades ago, but I'm not remembering it very well. It also seems like one I would enjoy, so I'll keep an eye out for both of them. -
Rufus-T — 8 months ago(August 04, 2025 05:05 PM)
I like
Gentleman's Agreement
a lot too. I remember back in days when I was first discovering movies, this was often cited as the worst Oscar Best Picture winner. I never get it. Maybe have to do with Kazan. I don't know. I would rather watch
Gentleman's Agreement
than many of the Best Picture winners in the last couple decades. -
spiderwort — 8 months ago(August 04, 2025 09:07 PM)
I would rather watch
Gentleman's Agreement
than many of the Best Picture winners in the last couple decades.
Oh, Rufus, I couldn't agree more!! I'm so disappointed with so many films that are made these days. It's really discouraging and fills me with despair. -
spiderwort — 8 months ago(August 04, 2025 12:34 AM)
All first viewings this week:
The Man with a Cloak / Fletcher Markle
(1951). A 19th-century murder mystery set in Manhattan in which a man (Joseph Cotton) tries to help a young woman (Leslie Caron) escape a murderous housekeeper (Barbara Stanwyck). Louis Calhern as the wealthy master of the house gives one of his best performances. A gothic noir that I found quite intriguing and entertaining, thanks to its cast and its remarkably literary story, to say nothing of the great cinematography by the 13 time Oscar nominated George Folsey. I’m surprised it didn’t get more attention when it was first released; even more surprised that I never even heard of it before I saw it. Highly recommended. (On Max)
Compensation / Zeinabu Irene Davis
(1999). Inspired by a 1906 poem from early African American writer, Paul Laurence Dunbar, this unique drama explores aspects of Black culture in both the turn of the 20th century and in present day 20th century Chicago through two parallel love stories, both of them about the relationship between a deaf woman and a hearing man, with the same actors playing the characters in each generation. The film utilizes silent film techniques to tell both stories, although the film isn’t silent, but the use of those techniques is mesmerizing. And apparently, while it has screened at festivals and in special series, it has never been run in theatres. If it ever gets a distribution deal, it could then become a new release, making it eligible for Oscar consideration, which it certainly deserves. It's a wonderful homage to film history, black history, and to those who are disabled. It also garnered a metacritic score of 100 on IMDb, and it was recently restored by The Criterion Collection, The UCLA Film and Television Archive, and The Sundance Institute. Kudos to the remarkably talented director Zeinabu Irene Davis for her great work in this, her feature film debut. I think it’s truly a masterpiece. Highly recommended; even a must-see. (I watched it on TCM, where it’s available until August 27. Don’t hesitate to seek it out. And the trailer doesn't begin to to it justice.)
History is Made at Night / Frank Borzage
(1937). A wealthy divorcée (Jean Arthur) falls for a charming Parisian (Charles Boyer), but her insanely jealous ex-husband (Colin Clive) will do anything to get her back. One of Borzage’s best films, filled with his usual romantic sensitivity. Highly recommended.
Cynthia / Robert Z. Leonard
(1947). A small town teenager (Elizabeth Taylor) who has been a sickly child for years is overly sheltered by her parents (George Murphy, Mary Astor). Although they have sacrificed their own ambitions in life to care for her, she’s struggling now to find a sense of normal life for herself. Based upon the play “The Rich, Full Life” by Vina Delmar, it’s a sweet if predictable film. I watched it to see Elizabeth Taylor in one of her early teenage roles, maybe the first in which it’s possible to see the great beauty that she was going to become. Also, for me, it was reminder of a time when things in life were kinder and simpler than they are now. Worth viewing for that and for the fine performances by Taylor and all the cast. -
PygmyLion — 8 months ago(August 04, 2025 02:41 PM)
I've watched
The Man with a Cloak
a couple of times, although not recently. It is an interesting movie. I like Joseph Cotton in it. It's a role somewhat akin to his role in
Gaslight
(1944). "Gothic noir" is a nice description.
I watched
Cynthia
a number of years ago. Like you I watched it to see a teenaged Elizabeth Taylor. I was noticing it was up on watchTCM, and thinking about watching it again. I remember it being a watchable movie. I recently saw a young Elizabeth Taylor in
Julia Misbehaves
(1948). -
spiderwort — 8 months ago(August 04, 2025 09:19 PM)
Glad you liked
The Man with a Cloak
, PL. And I don't think I've seen
Julia Misbehaves
, but I have a feeling it's one I would enjoy. Will see if I can find it. I love the cast, and I could use a few good laughs right now. -
spiderwort — 8 months ago(August 04, 2025 09:48 PM)
I've only seen
Cry Havoc
, which I very much enjoyed. But I'm a big fan of Joan Blondell, so I would probably enjoy
Miss Pacific Fleet
, too.
And
A Blueprint for Murder
sounds really interesting. Excellent cast and director. I will keep it in mind if it shows up where I can see it. -
Sophienoire — 8 months ago(August 04, 2025 10:00 PM)
i'm also a big fan of Joan Blondell and i'm going through her filmography at the moment. Miss Pacific Fleet is not a bad movie by all means and especially Joan is memorable and gives her usual snappy-soft performance here, so fans of her will love that, but she's sadly not the main focus of this film. that would be Allen Jenkins and Hugh Herbert doing silly shenanigans to each other which gets tedious real fast. i just wish there was less dumb men doing dumb stuff and more of Joan Blondell shining like a star.
the sound of your racing heart -
CoriSCapnSkip — 6 months ago(September 09, 2025 10:56 PM)
The Other
, 50th anniversary viewing of the classic 1972 horror film, which I first saw in 1975 and then again in 1977 and don't believe I had seen it since till this July 27. It holds up well.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
on July 29.
As usual, posted spoiler-free reviews.
