I think the photography was the best part.
It was alright.
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
Streamed all of these on TCM the past couple days.
The Sea Wolf (1941). Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Alexander Knox, Gene Lockhart, Barry Fitzgerald. Bristling Jack London tale of brutal but intellectual sea captain Robinson battling wits with accidental passenger Knox, as brash seaman Garfield and fugitive Lupino try to escape. Script by Robert Rossen. 3½ stars.
Robinson is his usual great self but this is not a 3½ star movie. 3 at best; it feels a little dated.
I Wake Up Screaming (1941). Betty Grable, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, Elisha Cook, Jr. Entertaining whodunit with Grable and Mature implicated in murder of Betty's sister, pursued by determined cop Cregar. Twist finish to good mystery. 3 stars.
I'm not sure I'd say there's a twist ending but I'm certain you won't see it coming. If you think about who actually "dunit", however, you'll probably be right. Hell, you could probably guess now. But as for the "twist", no, you won't see that coming. A good film noir; 3 stars is accurate.
p.s. I'm not sure how Victor Mature ever became a star.
Just finished The Far Country (1954). James Stewart, Ruth Roman, Corinne Calvet, Walter Brennan, and John McIntire. Harry Morgan, Royal Dano, Jack Elam, and Kathleen Freeman all have bit parts. Robert Wilke plays Gannon's hired gun. You may not recognize the name but you'll recognize the face. He played a lot of villains over the years. And starting in 1950, he had a lot of guest parts on TV.
Maltin's synopsis: Cattleman Stewart, a confirmed loner, brings his herd to Alaska and finds nothing but trouble; solid Western set against colorful backdrop of mining camp towns. 3 stars.
According to Ben Mankiewicz, this was the 4th of 5 westerns Jimmy Stewart made with director Anthony Mann. The other four are Winchester '73 (1950), Bend of the River (1952), The Naked Spur (1953), and The Man from Laramie (1955). I'm not a fan of westerns and I'm especially not a fan of Jimmy Stewart in westerns, but if the other four are as good as The Far Country, count me in! Altho, now that I think about it, I've seen Winchester '73; I just don't remember much about it.
BTW, Stewart & Mann collaborated on three other movies in the 50s: Thunder Bay (1953), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), and Strategic Air Command (1955).
As for the rating, I thought it was better than a 3 star movie but not quite as good as a 3½ star movie. There were a couple of clichés, one contrived plot point, and the last scene was rather corny. Also, you have no idea through 99% of the movie if Ruth Roman is trustworthy; not sure if that was intentional. But overall it was pretty entertaining. Walter Brennan was his usual entertaining self providing a little comic relief. Corinne Calvet, an actress I've never seen or heard of, is the highlight of the movie, playing a young Canadian-French woman attracted to Stewart.
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
I watched the second half of The Sea Wolf the other night. Can't wait to see the whole thing next time.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
"Captain Blood" and "The Sea Hawk" are on TCM tonight. Time for some swashbuckling!
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Winchester '73 is on later this week.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
At 12:45 is the '35 version of Mutiny on the Bounty, with Charles Laughton and Clark Gable.
And after that, at 3:15am, is The Crimson Pirate from 1952. It stars Burt Lancaster, Nick Cravat, and Christopher Lee.
Maltin's review: Lancaster and Cravat swashbuckle their way across the Mediterranean in one of the great genre classics of all time. Cult film offers loads of thrills and laughs to both children and adults. 3½ stars.
I wanna see that!
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Blah, blah, blah.
I know this thread was started to discuss B&W movies but anything before 1960ish is fair game, imo. So, bite me.
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
It's not bad, but he got some well-deserved criticism for the theme acting. Once you've seen Laughton's performance...
She cracks me up in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World." Apparently, her 32-day marriage to Ernest Borgnine was something to behold.
His 32-day marriage to Ethel Merman notoriously imploded when he got more attention than she did during their honeymoon; later, Merman’s memoir included one blank page in reference to the marriage. Borgnine discovered the book while in a tiny town in Iowa. “We went into this bookstore, and someone saw the book and said, ‘Look at this blank page!’ and I said, ‘Thank goodness.’ ”
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
That's fantastic
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
Is Paris Burning--another war films, but worth a watch.
Captains Courageous (1937). Maltin gave this 4 stars. It's hard to argue with that.
The Crimson Pirate. Maltin gave this 3½ stars. Man, was this a disappointment. In fact, I thought it was stupid and am amazed I sat through the whole thing. Maybe I just don't like those family friendly type swashbucklers. 2 stars.
“From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe
The world's facing a pandemic, the economy has collapsed, my business was already hurting and we just euthanized our dog last night.
This is the worst day of the worst month of the worst year.
Fuck it. I'm going to escape this BS and watch "My Darling Clemetine" tonight on TCM.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
I know words can be hollow at times but chin up. We're all on the bottom but the wheel has to turn sometime. And stay out of the OK Coral. It isn't much better there either.
The older I get, the better I was.
This to shall pass
I DVRed Sea Hawk and Crimson Pirate when they aired, we watched Crimson Pirate last night. Wow, it was like watching the old "Raging Queen" skit on SNL. There was as much homoerotic subtext there as Top Gun: Lollo and Ojo couldn't keep their hands off each other, prancing around in colorful capris. Entertaining as all hell but not in the way I expected.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
^^ Glad I missed it. I had a feeling it might be a bit too flamboyant. It's not surprising, considering it's not from the Golden Age.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
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