What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Worf]

On TCM tonight in glorious black & white.

Watched about 3 hours last night and will hit the rest up this afternoon. Wow those early Batman costumes were from hunger... And that first "Boy Wonder" looked like an extra from "Reefer Madness". Still it was all great fun!

Worf

 

[2jakes]

Watched about 3 hours last night and will hit the rest up this afternoon. Wow those early Batman costumes were from hunger... And that first "Boy Wonder" looked like an extra from "Reefer Madness". Still it was all great fun!

Worf

Except for “Commander Cody” (50s serial) which I saw at the local movie house,
the rest were before my time & originally watched them on television as a kid.
They were the best thing on this planet!

Watching them again last night was a bit challenging .
I have gotten spoiled by the technology applied today with science-fiction films.

If only I could go back with a kid’s mentality & enjoy them as I did then.

Nevertheless, it brought good memories!

 

[Fading Fast]

Just watched the first Superman one (DVR'd them last night). They covered a lot of mythology in 23 minutes, wow - Krypton, council, explosion, rocket to earth, found by earth parents, raised, given values, becomes Superman all in 23 minutes. That they used animation for special effects didn't work, even for the time. Still very, very enjoyable as a historical curio. Fun.

 

[2jakes]

^^^^
Max Fleischer’s “SUPERMAN”

Animation at it’s best! (1940s)

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ I love animation, but using it only for some action sequences, just didn't fit the feel of this not-animated series. It completely broke the "reality" vibe. Cheesy - by today's standards - special effect would have been much better.

 

[2jakes]

^^^

Cheesy by today’s standards? You bet!
But for kids back then, it was “Super”!
Check this out & what they tried to do to make Superman “fly”.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^ Great find 2jakes, really enjoyable.

 

[Worf]

^^^^
Max Fleischer’s “SUPERMAN”

Animation at it’s best! (1940s)

You got that right! I loved this early stuff so much.... I bought it!

Worf

 

[Doctor Strange]

I bought my first Fleischer Superman cartoon (the first in the series) on Super 8 sound film in 1972. Over the years, I've owned a bunch on VHS, DVD, and a couple on 16mm.

Best. Dramatic. Theatrical. Cartoon. Shorts. Ever. Made. (And the primary inspiration for my beloved Batman: The Animated Series.)

And re the discussion of the superhero serials above, I am old enough to have seen most of them (Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Phantom Empire, Undersea Kingdom, Commando Cody, Captain Marvel) daily on afternoon kids shows on local TV stations back in the late 50s/early 60s. I didn't see the Batmans and Supermans until later. I watched the Supermans with my son weekly on AMC on Saturday mornings back in the 90s; I always referred to them as "serial Superman"... which I'm sure he interpreted as "cereal Superman"! Those serials are hard for younger folks to get into, given their low budgets, terrible acting, and silly stories. But for those us to whom the George Reeves Superman was the gold standard superhero of our childhood, they were loads of fun! And of course, by the time the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films were raiding them, it was all very familiar.

 

[AmateisGal]

Bridge of Spies w/ Tom Hanks as an American insurance lawyer in 1957-1961, orchestrating the exchange of Rudolf Abel the Soviet spy for Francis Gary Powers the U.S. pilot and a imprisoned U.S. student. A more different film from a James Bond spy story could hardly be imagined. The conflict is about negotiation, how Hanks's character uses negotiating skills and superb argument first to save his client (Abel) from being condemned to death, and then to achieve the exchange. Nicely done.

And it had some neat details: Hanks's stingy-brimmed fedora, for example, the period automobiles (including a Volvo P1800 sports coupe), and the marquees of the movie theatre in West Berlin. All the films listed (Spartacus and One, Two, Three, for example) were correct for the period.

Watched Bridge of Spies tonight, too. Good review, Benzadmiral, and I agree with you. Hanks was excellent in his role.

 

[Zombie_61]

I watched 'Bone Tomahawk' a few days ago & I'm still recovering...

Bone Tomahawk

Awesome.

...It was a fun flick. A bit slow for a while, but it picked up. I didn't mind the slowness, though, because it allowed you to enjoy and connect with a bunch of characters you wouldn't have cared about otherwise. Even if Indian hunter you could grow to like and care about him when he dies.

I finally saw Bone Tomahawk (2015) today. The plot is fairly simple--at some undefined point during the 1890s, Sheriff Hunt (Kurt Russell), "backup" deputy Chicory (Richard Jenkins), former Indian hunter Brooder (Matthew Fox), and ranch foreman Arthur O'Dwyer (Patrick Wilson) set off to rescue O'Dwyer's wife Samantha (Lili Simmons) and Deputy Nick (Evan Jonigkeit) after they are kidnapped by a troglodyte clan of cannibalistic Indians.

Where Bushman describes the pacing as "slow" (understandably), I'd describe it as "deliberate"--the majority of this movie is character-driven, and the pacing allows the viewer to get to know the four protagonists as the story unfolds. Richard Jenkins, in a standout performance as the older, off-kilter, not-too-bright backup deputy, could easily have stolen this movie if Russell, Fox, and Wilson had not been so effective in their respective roles. That said, this movie isn't for everyone--it contains some adult language, a bit of non-gratuitous nudity, and the scenes of violence are not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. But if none of these "issues" deter you and you like movies that don't follow the usual "Hollywood formula", I think you'll enjoy it.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Kurt Russell made 'Bone Tomahawk' & ' The Hateful 8' back to back which is why he was sportin' the face whiskers in this movie because he needed 'em for Tarantino's flic.

 

[Zombie_61]

Kurt Russell made 'Bone Tomahawk' & ' The Hateful 8' back to back which is why he was sportin' the face whiskers in this movie because he needed 'em for Tarantino's flic.

To hear him (Russell) tell it, he grew the whiskers for Bone Tomahawk and Quentin Tarantino liked them. So, in order to be able to differentiate between the two, Russell just grew 'em longer for The Hateful Eight.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Yeah I think he changed the story in every promo interview as he probably got fed up talking about it....below is a little snippet from this longer interview http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20160101/ENTERTAINMENTLIFE/160109918/?Start=1

Russell: That was really strange. This movie had been on and off for two and a half years. And then Quentin's movie just happened. The only reason I look the way I look in 'Bone Tomahawk' is because I was getting ready to do 'Hateful Eight,' otherwise I probably would have done this with quite a different look. But there's nothing you can do about that. So it's like a halfway house. I'm halfway to where I'm going in 'Hateful Eight.' That's full blown.

Either way it was a great look.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^^
Max Fleischer’s “SUPERMAN”

Animation at it’s best! (1940s)

As these are in the public domain and it isn't stealing, I watched two episodes on youtube and was blown away. Felt very ahead of its time for the early '40s. And so much of what followed - the opening voice over about faster than a speeding bullet...or "...Truth and Justice," I guess "American way" came later, even how Superman morphs into Clark Kent - were used, altered a bit, in the later TV series.

The artistry is impressive - these are just beautiful to watch. And while Lois was "saved" by Superman, she was a strong woman who aggressively challenged her male boss and flew her own plane - great to see that portrayal of a woman in a '40s cartoon. Looking forward to seeing more of them, but can't get over the artistry, just wonderful.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The overall format, including the opening sequence, was lifted from the "Adventures of Superman" radio show, which was just then picking up steam. The lifting would go both ways -- Sammy Timberg's "Superman March," the theme music for the cartoons, would be used on the radio show starting in 1946.

The lead voices in all the Fleischer Superman shorts are done by the radio show cast -- Bud Collyer (yes, the same fellow who would host "Beat The Clock" and "To Tell The Truth" in the fifties and sixties) is Superman/Clark Kent, and Joan Alexander is Lois. Collyer and Alexander would also do the voices for the Filmation Superman cartoons on TV in the 1960s.

These shorts were a major contributor to the downfall of the Fleischer Studio -- because of the lavishness of their production values, they ran way over budget, and Paramount, which owned a majority interest in the studio and advanced the money for production lost patience with the Fleischer brothers. Max and Dave were deep in a dispute themselves and weren't even speaking to each other -- and Paramount finally decided it had enough, and called its loans, forcing the Fleischers out. The second and final season of the Superman shorts would be produced by "Famous Studios," the remaining husk of the Flesicher operation under full Paramount control.

 

[Fading Fast]

The overall format, including the opening sequence, was lifted from the "Adventures of Superman" radio show, which was just then picking up steam. The lifting would go both ways -- Sammy Timberg's "Superman March," the theme music for the cartoons, would be used on the radio show starting in 1946.

The lead voices in all the Fleischer Superman shorts are done by the radio show cast -- Bud Collyer (yes, the same fellow who would host "Beat The Clock" and "To Tell The Truth" in the fifties and sixties) is Superman/Clark Kent, and Joan Alexander is Lois. Collyer and Alexander would also do the voices for the Filmation Superman cartoons on TV in the 1960s.

These shorts were a major contributor to the downfall of the Fleischer Studio -- because of the lavishness of their production values, they ran way over budget, and Paramount, which owned a majority interest in the studio and advanced the money for production lost patience with the Fleischer brothers. Max and Dave were deep in a dispute themselves and weren't even speaking to each other -- and Paramount finally decided it had enough, and called its loans, forcing the Fleischers out. The second and final season of the Superman shorts would be produced by "Famous Studios," the remaining husk of the Flesicher operation under full Paramount control.

"Bewitched" in '64> "Bell Book and Candle" in '58 > "I Married a Witch" in '42> and who knows what before that. Everything is derivative of something. It is amazing how the more you learn, the more things you thought were "fresh," "groundbreaking," "new" were just iterations on an earlier incarnation. I bet there was a super Roman Gladiator that Superman was based on - just kidding, but don't some argue that all superheroes are derivative of the Golem - an ancient Hebrew Mud-Monster or something like that.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a pretty convincing argument to be made that Superman is Jewish. Siegel and Shuster certainly seemed to know their way around Jewish legends of deliverance enough to incorporate a lot of that in the characters mythology. Like Moses, Superman was sent forth by his parents into an unknown world to act as a protector of the downtrodden -- a Supermensch, if you will -- and the themes of his earliest stories really played up that angle. And Jerry Siegel himself was the visual model for the earliest drawings of Superman, just as Siegel's future wife, the Hungarian-Jewish Joanne Kovacs, was the visual template for Lois.

It's not coincidental, I think, that most of the leading comic-book creators of the late thirties and early forties were Jewish. The golem legends were very popular among Eastern European Jewish immigrants of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries -- and these immigrants were the parents of many kids who grew up to work in comics.

 

[Doctor Strange]

One of my complaints with the recent interpretations of Superman - notably Superman Returns and Man of Steel - is that they treat him as Jesus rather than Moses. (Even the 1978 Superman has Marlon Brando pompously intoning, "Therefore I sent them you, my only son"!) Superman was inspired by Moses, with a touch of Samson and the Golem of Prague. The other aspect of Superman clearly revealing his first-generation American Jewish creators is that he hides his heritage and "passes" as a WASP. As one of the characters in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay observes, "Nobody but a Jew would call himself Clark Kent." As Lizzie noted, the original Superman comics feature him fighting for the downtrodden with a surprisingly liberal/progressive POV, compared to the conservative figurehead he'd morph into by the fifties.

Re the opening narration, I've always thought that the addition of "... and the American Way" in the George Reeves series of the fifties was highly representative of the paranoid concerns of the McCarthy era in which it was made.

As to the Fleischer cartoons themselves, I already stated my undying love for them earlier in this thread. As Lizzie pointed out, the back half of the series was made by "Famous Studios" - essentially the Fleischer studio minus its distinctive heads - and a rapid falloff in quality is evident. Since these "Famous" Supermans were made in the dark early days of the war, several were designed as morale builders. But a short like "The Eleventh Hour" - a grim, humorless story of Clark and Lois (unbelievably) on assignment in Tokyo, with Supes sneaking out every night and performing awful acts of sabotage on the Japanese war machine - is pretty hard to watch now. Not quite "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" horrifying, but distressing enough.

Of course, the different purposes to which these modern-myth characters have been put as society has changed over the decades is one of the endlessly fascinating things about them.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Please don't tell me Batman was a muslim...