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Of the two, I prefer THE BIG HEAT. Grahame’s “Debby Marsh” is one the great Film Noir “moll/ femme fatale.” Dan Callahan, writing in https://brightlightsfilm.com/fatal-instincts-the-dangerous-pout-of-gloria-grahame/ (after Debby goes into hiding after she is disfigured):
But this is the last time Debby will fool herself. She sets about putting things right, and gets her revenge on Marvin by throwing coffee in his face. When she takes off her bandages, the scarred Grahame looks like a monster in a horror movie, something from the Black Lagoon, but inside she’s finally whole and righteous. Grahame movingly makes a case for Debby, and all the girls like Debby, with the size of her conception and the depth of her compassion, which is informed by her own outsized demons.
For me, it is telling that while Glenn Ford’s Dave Bannion has a personal motive to take down the mob (they just killed his wife), it is only when Grahame’s character aligns with him, that the deal is actually closed. The “we’re sisters under the mink” scene where she blows away Bertha Duncan (played with great sleaze by Jeanette Nolan BTW) is an all-timer.
Lang’s HUMAN DESIRE is actually (I’m sure you know this already!), a remake of a 1938 film called “La Bête Humaine” – which I believe was itself a remake of an earlier version. About two years ago, actress Dana Delaney did the intro for HUMAN DESIRE on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) here in the US. Ms. Delaney is a MAJOR Gloria Grahame fan and had just written an extensive “ACTOR to ACTOR” piece on Ms. Grahame’s career for Noir City Magazine. And as she stated on the TV broadcast, the ending and Gloria’s character in general was a bit of a head scratcher. It was almost as if Lang said: “How should I end this film. I know - blame the woman!”
I’ll have more to say about Ms. Grahame over in the Film Noir Thread, next month.
If you liked Metropolis and M (and who doesn't?), I highly recommend that you watch Lang's first two Dr. Mabuse films - one still silent, the other an early talkie - as well as Spione (Spies) - maybe the first real thriller movie ever - and also Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon), which in surprising and still valid scientific detail portrays a rocket trip to the moon (although it becomes less credible when the protagonists manage to walk around up there without any special suits and oxygen masks, but hey...). For the latter movie, the scientific adviser was one Hermann Oberth, who in turn was the teacher of Wernher von Braun, the guy who (as a member of the SS) first developed the V2 rocket and afterwards was seamlessly adopted by the U.S. to head the NASA space program, including the Apollo moon landing missions.
Lang's German films after his return from the U.S., however, were rather banal and by today's standards occasionally cringe-inducing. Der Tiger von Eschnapur (The Tiger of Eshnapur) and its sequel Das indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb) sport German and other European actors in brownface portraying Indians (although one of the lovelier brownfaces is Luciana Paluzzi), while the third Dr. Mabuse movie (Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse/The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse) is decidedly inferior to its predecessors from thirty years earlier (and in spite of Gerd Fröbe being in it).
Gonna start adding these to my Watchlist then. Thank you!
"Let me show you where the Iron Crosses grow!"
Sam Peckinpahs only foray into War movies, tells things from the German side against the Russians in WW2. James Coburn is Steiner, a battle hardened decorated soldier whose new Captain, the cowardly Stransky (Maximillian Schell) will do anything by nefarious needs to win an Iron Cross! Also starring James Mason and David Warner, and filmed in Yugoslavia. Peckinpah orchestrates the action with his customary skill and unique editing style, ( an attack by a squadron of tanks is particularly impressive!) but comes a bit unstuck in some surreal scenes, which dont really work. Its well shot, and has a memorable score, and the opening titles have some rare archive footage, its not Peckinpahs best,but its very watchable!
When a friend is left paralysed following an attack, a Vietnam veteran becomes a vigilante on the streets of New York. Violent and a bit tasteless, and surprisingly NOT a Cannon film!
The original English-language title is "The Hoax".
It's actually a very good movie, based on true events, but twisted into a somewhat satirical mode, and directed by Swedish director Lasse Hallström. It's based on a true story (with certain twists, I'm sure), but I do remember the basics of what happened from the early 70s: Initially promising, but then more or less failing novelist Clifford Irving - his real name - (Richard Gere) decides to produce a fake autobiography of Howard Hughes, the reclusive aviator (see the eponymous Scorcese movie) and billionaire. He manages to obtain a million-dollar down payment from McGraw Hill with the help of his friend Dick Suskind (Alfred Molina in what may be his best role) and his somewhat estranged Swiss-German wife Edith (Marcia Gay Harden). He even receives information from unknown sources that show Hughes bribed the Nixon administration to allow a merger of Hughes' TWA with another airline. Unfortunately, the rest of the scheme comes tumbling down, with Irving being relegated to the slammer finally...and the Nixon corruption findings going down with it.
Bond connections: It took me until the closing credits to find out, but the sometime mistress that Irving had in real life as well as in the movie, played by French actress Julie Delpy, was supposed to be Nina van Pallandt, the Danish singer (once married to a Dutch aristocrat, hence her Dutch last name) who sang "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown" in OHMSS. And of course leading man Richard Gere was married to Carey Lowell, one of my favourite Bond girls, for 14 years (although now to Cindy Crawford).
Watch the fourth film (it picks up from there!). Skip the fifth (it's not terrible, just pointless as they retcon it immediately). Enjoy 6 and 7 for the campy delights they are - ideally back to back. Then call it quits.
4, 6 and 7 are my favourites. I enjoyed the remake too, though.
I’ll give it a go! I am somewhat oddly compelled to keep going based on what I’ve heard. I just finished Part 3 when I wrote that post and I think I wasn’t in the greatest of moods due to all the obnoxious 3D tricks they try to pull in that film.
First three F13s are my favorites
I remember seeing that poster in the local VHS rental store back in the day.
Halloween III is a much watch for me every year! Love that movie.
Agreed. I prefer Halloween to F13 though, and I like 4 the best out of the sequels. I quite love it really, that ending is pretty haunting.
As for F13, my favourite is the second one.
Overall impression: not bad, but no better than the original Henry King Jesse James movie.
Tonight I kept on exploring Fritz Lang's movies by watching (and I'm rather sure RE-watching since I had forgot much of it, but remembering enough of it to come to this conclusion):
This is really a good "noir" and WWII propaganda movie (1943) at the same time to enjoy as such. Ray Milland as the good guy, initially relegated and getting out of an asylum for "murdering" (i.e.having assisted in the suicide of) his terminally-ill wife, gets released and suddenly involved in a scheme involving German spies in the UK because some concealed microfilms somehow get released to him as resuzlt of a mistake. You can't take anyone as trustworthy, and none of them really aren't
My only gripe is: There is no ministry here that plays a role...and none "of fear". I was rather expecting something like the "Ministry of Silly Walks". So I guess this is really an early case of clickbait.l
More good times with Poiré and Clavier, this time joined by Gérard Depardieu. The first half-hour is fun, but I feel the film really hits its stride when they get on the plane back to France. I especially loved the scene with the burning car, and seeing Depardieu lose his s**t was always funny (his guardian angel, also played by him, reminded me of the simpleton he played in Tais-toi !). I know this film was conceived for Depardieu from the get go, and he was damned good in it, but my bias toward my man Jean Reno means I probably would've enjoyed the film a bit more had Reno starred in it, reuniting with Clavier. Speaking of Reno, the plot of this movie is quite reminiscent of 2001's Wasabi, in which Reno starred.
Also, Jean-Marie Poiré is the Michael Bay of French comedy, and that's not a complaint. This is another relentlessly-paced movie. It also features another one of his trademarks: a single instance of gruesome violence, very briefly witnessed early on in the film. I remember this happening in like three of his movies.
I'd have to rank the Poiré films I've seen like this:
Tier A:
L'opération Corned-Beef
Les visiteurs
Les couloirs du temps : Les visiteurs 2
Just Visiting
Tier B:
Les anges gardiens
Tier C:
Les visiteurs : La Révolution
I bet that was quite the killer double feature. I have a deep love and appreciation for both of those.
-Five Days One Summer (with Connery!)
-The Equalizer 3
-Hawks (with Dalton!)
-Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match
-Killers of the Flower Moon
Have naturally watched both multiple times before, but it's been awhile for each. Ronin really put into perspective for me, in my thoughts immediately after on the plane, how they really don't make them how they used to: who would greenlight a lower budget star-driven Euro actioner with TWO car chases required these days, with minimal computer effects (though I did notice the computer-generated smoke from the tires this time around), with a culturally-complicated title and a plot that's just some lower-tier criminals working for a terrorist organization!!! It just wouldn't happen today and come out like this did. Miami Vice makes a little more business sense and I won't be surprised when it's rebooted again.
What did you think of KOTFM?
I'll also forever be disappointed that we won't get that Miami Vice sequel out of Mann. Even if it wasn't a box office disappointment, I think the on-set issues with Jamie Foxx have ensured it'll never happen unless they recast him.
South Park: Joining the Panderverse
They pull no punches here, they totally destroy Disney and college.
I enjoyed it. I felt it could have been a few minutes shorter toward the end, but overall, it didn't feel like a three and a half hours film. Interesting ending in how
I really liked seeing De Niro "on" in this role. He was bland in The Irishman, but despite my not enjoying that performance that much, I'm ambivalent about whether that was a bad thing, considering the whole point of that film was telling the story of a man who always did what he was told, a man who was kind of empty on the inside.
Edit: The film made the very Scorsese-ian choice to largely tell the story from the point of view of the bad guys, thus making it a story about guilt and regret, like The Irishman. However, it did not sideline the Osage, who were the point of the whole thing anyway. Also, I couldn't help but think about Mississippi Burning while watching this, as I found both films downplayed the detective work in favor of portraying the ugliness of what was transpiring.
Yeah alright, it's a pretty decent film in my opinion. Granted, I dropped the bar low enough to avoid major disappointment. Then again, it's an Indy film that was released 42 years after the original, starring Harrison Ford around the age of 80. Other "treasure-hunting" adventure flicks have borrowed heavily from the previous Raiders films, always looking for ways to do things bigger and more grandiose. A modern Indiana Jones film that cares more about nostalgia than innovation -- which makes perfect sense given that this is most likely Dr. Jones' swan song -- is no longer a big draw for younger audiences who expect to see the film turn up in their Disney+ list soon anyway. And I realize that I too, against my better efforts, have inevitably been influenced by some of the more modern blockbusters.
And yet, I didn't go in with my arms folded. I noticed the CGI and de-aging technology, but I wasn't bothered by them. In fact, about an hour into the movie, I realized I was actually having a lot of fun, not at all bothered by the color palette or callbacks to the previous films. I could tell what parts of the score were simply pulled from Williams' previous scores, but I still enjoyed the music very much. I, too, regret that Short Round never returned to the series, but it's not something that annoys me. And while PWB can be a bit much for some, I was more than pleased with her in this film.
The plot feels like something out of a Wolfenstein video game, but I have sort of been waiting for this story for a long time. I get that the climax may seem too farfetched to many people, but I want to applaud the film's audacity to actually take us there--and if you ask me (which you don't), I'd say that the film handles it with dignity.
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this fifth Indiana Jones film, and I predict that some of its furious detractors will come around in the next few years. It has its qualities, and they are easy to spot, as long as one accepts that this isn't Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and never was going to be Raiders Of The Lost Ark. At the very least I rank TDOD higher than KOTKS, and somewhat on the same level as TLC. Nothing beats ROTLA, though. And TTOD is my personal favorite, so...
I don't understand why some people think the climax was too farfetched. It makes no sense to me at all.
Edit: Visually, the climax is not dramatically out of place with the rest of the film. It's not like they go to a futuristic planet or something-- it's in line with the visual style of these movies. Thematically, it fits perfectly, not only within the story of this film, but within Indiana Jones' line of work. The climax also offers the requisite supernatural or otherwordly touch, but in moderation-- once the event itself happens, the rest of the climax is about the characters dealing with the immediate situation at hand, within realistic parameters, rather than any more extravagant stuff. When people express disapproval at the climax, it sounds to me like they want their Indiana Jones endings to fit within exceedingly specific and limited constraints. Maybe some of the crazy stuff in the previous film had an effect on their perception.
Agreed. It works for me, very well, in fact.
While the character didn't work entirely for me, I think PWB has got charisma in spades.
Me too. I had never seen a movie with her, just know that she was asked to tinker around with the NTTD script (an honour if there ever was one for a screenwriter unconnected to Bond), but I really think she absolutely stole the show in spite of not being affable or even lovable for most of the time. I don't wish for an Indiana Jones spin-off of any kind, but if the producers think it has to happen, it should feature PWB in the leading role. Maybe with a bit of better writing of the character, but still.
And I also agree that DOD's climax is fully in line with the previous IJ movies. Anyone who accepts Nazi faces melting away caused by some force out of a supposedly biblical "arc of the covenant", or an Indian guru ripping people's hearts out while they keep on living as a sort of zombie before being relegated to fire (plus three stones being placed together providing power), or finding a "holy grail" guarded by 800-year old crusade knights (and I won't even get into the things in KOTCS) should not complain about the time travel in DOD being unrealistic, or even un-Indiana-Jonesy (sic).
EDIT/DISCLAIMER: I had the impression that this was on the DOD thread, where it maybe belongs, too. But ok, no harm discussing this movie somewhere else as well.
Watched it late last night. 4k tape, I concur with someone who suggested Greig Fraser as cinematographer for Bond 26, it looks fab. I really liked this very dark take on The Caped Crusader when I saw it in the cinema. And it was worth buying on bluray. Robert Pattinson makes for a very strong depiction of Batman and Paul Dano is chilling as The Riddler. Plot is quite convoluted and its too long, but I love the whole Detective side to Batman here, and the action is excellent ( cracking car chase in the rain!) And good score from Michael Giacchino. Looking forward to the sequel!