What Classics Did You See Last Week (June 22–June 28)

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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Film and Television Discussion

unex — 9 months ago(June 29, 2025 11:58 AM)

What did you watch?

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unex — 9 months ago(June 29, 2025 11:58 AM)

42nd Street (1933) - Another Lloyd Bacon/Busby Berkeley musical. It's a little like Footlight Parade, covering the lead-up to a musical stage production but this one is probably the better film. It is a good look at the caprices of show business which Hollywood is particularly suited to depict. I really like Warren Baxter as the director.
Alexander Nevsky (1938) - I never watched this one before because I could only get poor quality versions. There are restored versions but the one I watched wasn't one of those, having both poor image and audio. Eisenstein was held back on this so it's not as visually impressive or creative as his other work. I did really like everything about the Teutonic Knights though and there were some great sets for the cities. I think I need to watch a better version to fully appreciate it.

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PygmyLion — 9 months ago(June 29, 2025 08:11 PM)

Loose Ankles
1930 Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Inez Courtney. Light romantic comedy. The highlight of this movie is seeing a young Loretta Young and a young Doubglas Fairbanks jr working together. ***
Beauty for Sale
1933 Madge Evans, Una Merkel, Otto Kruger - Letty (Evans) gets a job in a ritzy beauty shop with her friend Carol (Merkel). Carol has already developed a relationship with a rich older man, and soon Letty finds herself falling for the rich husband of one of her clients (Kruger)… ***
Our Betters
1933 Constance Bennett, Violet Kemble Cooper, Anita Louise, Gilbert Roland. From a Somerset Maugham play. 1/2
The Girl from Missouri
1934 Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone, Lionel Barrymore, Patsy Kelly - Comedy Romance. Edith (Harlow), a chorus girl is out to find a rich husband. ***
99 River Street
1953 - John Payne, Evelyn Keyes, Brad Dexter. Solid film noir. ***
Cause for Alarm!
1951 - Loretta Young, Barry Sullivan, Bruce Cowling - Ellen Jones' (Young) husband (Sullivan) is sick at home with a bad heart condition and writes a letter implicating Ellen and his doctor in trying to kill him. After Ellen posts the letter, Sullivan tells her about it.*

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JohnnyBoy — 9 months ago(June 29, 2025 09:12 PM)

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Rufus-T — 9 months ago(June 30, 2025 03:59 PM)

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6263850/
This is the 3rd installment of the Deadpool movie. Each by different director. This time is Shawn Levy. The first two was entertaining but not too exceptional. The movies tried to be crude and played around with the audience breaking the forth wall. This one went even further by bring in the multiverse idea, so that Wolverine supposed to be dead in the movie Logan is brought back. They even bought in many other version of Deadpool from other universe. I am not a big fan of any movie of multiverse. Anything can happen out of a wimp. That is what happened here. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as Deadpool and Wolverine respectively were fun knocking each other out and played off to each other. They brought in the little girl, now a young woman, from Logan. However, too much went on. Many bloody actions. The movie got a bit too crazy for me.
A Different Man (2024)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21097228/
A depressed disfigured man fell for a beautiful neighbor. A medical treatment helped him with the disfigurement. Does that helped him with his attitude? Well yes and no. Directed by Aaron Schimberg, this is a very good comedy with a good message. Sebastian Stan played the disfigured man. Renate Reinsve played the neighbor. She was very good in The Worst Person in the World. The one I am most impressed was Adam Pearson who is a disfigured person in real life and had appeared in several other films already. Despite the disfigurement, he played a very upbeat person, totally opposite of the Sebastian Stan character.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2049403/
Almost 40 years after the success of Beetlejuice, Tim Burton again directed this sequel. Many of the cast returned including Michael Keaton and Wynona Ryder, but much older. Wynona Ryder of course no longer a cute teen. She has a daughter played by Jenna Ortega. She accidentally re-open the portal to the undead and got trapped in that world. At the same time, Beetlejuice is brought back continue to pursue the Wynona Ryder character as the first movie. I love the first movie. This one was not as good. There are many stories happening at the same time, so it can get confusing. I still enjoyed it mostly. Michael Keaton is still outstanding as the over the top Beetlejuice.
American Murder: Gabby Petito (2025)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35590630/
A young couple went on a cross country trip. Only the boyfriend return. This is a tragic story happened during the latter part of pandemic. It was all over the news, as presented in this 3 part Netflix documentary. For some reason, I missed it during the reporting. This is one of the good crime documentaries on Netflix. The event lead to a campaign to fight domestic abuse.
The Wild Robot (2024)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29623480/
A robot deserted on a wild forest island during a accident during its transport. The robot befriend a newly hatch chicken and a fox that originally wanted to eat the chicken. The robot and the fox raised the chicken together. Cute and light-hearted, but with many corny jokes.
No Other Land (2024)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30953759/
People in a West Bank village being expelled by the Israelite military who wanted to use the land for military training. A Israelite report befriend a Palestine activist to fight against the expulsion. A lots of dialogues and chit-chatting were shown. I don't know how and why that was recorded. Was the camera on them all the time? You don't get to hear the side of Israel, or if there were agreement during the expulsion. The people still get their electricity and internet afterward. Regardless, the tearing down the house which the family lived over a hundred years can break your heart. It works very well to make one angry at what the Israelite military is doing. Excellent revelation that I think much of the world did not know about.

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spiderwort — 9 months ago(July 01, 2025 02:02 AM)

First viewings:
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
(1991). A superb documentary about one of the most notorious film shoots of all time,
Apocalypse Now
, produced fifteen years later. There are a lot of clips from the film, of course, and interviews with many of the actors (interesting to see Laurence Fishburne, who was fifteen when he was in the film, ruminate on it as an adult); also writer John Milius, and, of course, Coppola himself, all put together by Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper. But I especially appreciated Eleanor Coppola’s contribution through her own documentary shooting and her personal narration, chronicling the filming with an empathetic and frank point of view of her husband’s passion and, at times, insanity. I doubt there was a more chaotic production in film history. A must-see for fans of the film, and for those interested in the struggle for artistic perfection. Highly recommended. (Available on YouTube)
Other Men’s Women / William Wellman
(1931). A romantic triangle develops among a train engineer (Regis Toomey), his wife (Mary Astor), and a friend (Grant Withers) who recently moved in with the couple. It’s a much better film than I would have anticipated, with a simple yet touching story that’s very much dedicated to the good side of the human condition. And Wellman's direction is outstanding, shooting so much outdoors at night, with heavy rains and floods abounding. And James Cagney and Joan Blondell both have supporting roles in their third screen appearances, the year before Wellman made Cagney a star in
Public Enemy
. It’s a film I’m glad I watched. (On MAX and available on TCM through July 26. It’s also on YouTube, though the quality isn’t that good.)
Re-watches:
Hachi: A Dog’s Tale / Lasse Hallstrom
(2009). A college professor (Richard Gere) forms a lasting bond with a dog he finds on a train platform. Inspired by the 1987 Japanese film
Hachikō Monogatari
, it’s based upon the true story of Hachikō, an Akita dog who’s remembered for his remarkable loyalty to his owner. A really beautiful film under Hallstrom's sensitive direction. Highly recommended. (Streaming on Roku.)

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PygmyLion — 9 months ago(July 01, 2025 03:38 PM)

TCM put up a bunch of pre-code 1930s movies on watchTCM. I have watched a number of them as you can see by my list above. I will probably get to
Other Men's Women
before too long. It sounds like it is worth watching according to your review.

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spiderwort — 9 months ago(July 02, 2025 01:04 PM)

I think it is. Not a great film, but a very good one with so much humanity in it.
And you sure did see a lot of those pre-code films! I meant to watch most of them, none of which I've seen, but just didn't get to it. Didn't have enough time. I'm particularly interested in
The Girl From Missouri
, especially because Jean Harlow was from Missouri herself.

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CoriSCapnSkip — 6 months ago(September 09, 2025 08:05 PM)

Sorry to say, I did not watch any movies this week which is unusual for me. I was heavily involved in photo editing for my high school class reunion and too preoccupied to decide on any movie. I continued to watch
The Wild Wild West
every night. I might actually go into withdrawal if I can't see it. I was also watching another series,
Mr. Lucky
, but it is not a must and some nights I was too tired to watch it.

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What Classics Did You See Last Week (June 22–June 28)