What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Zombie_61]

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The Circus Clown (1934) with Joe E. Brown and Patricia Ellis


At the end of the silent era and into the talkies, Joe E. Brown carved out a niche in B movies where he usually played the same type of lead character: a down-and-out braggart smitten with a girl out of his league, but somehow he'd bully his way to success and the girl's heart.

Brown will work for you or not. He's bloviating and obnoxious, plus his trademark is an irritatingly loud scream/screech that must have appealed to his fans. Thankfully, though, in The Circus Clown, he downplays those awful traits to almost become a not unlikable human being.

I've only seen Joe E. Brown in small roles in two movies: Some Like it Hot (1959), and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Would you suggest I watch The Circus Clown if I can find a copy somewhere, or would I be better off selecting some of his other movies? Or should I just not bother? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Just curious.

 

[Fading Fast]

I've only seen Joe E. Brown in small roles in two movies: Some Like it Hot (1959), and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). Would you suggest I watch The Circus Clown if I can find a copy somewhere, or would I be better off selecting some of his other movies? Or should I just not bother? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Just curious.

I'd say skip him altogether. The only reason I watched this movie is because a friend of mine asked me to participate in a project he has going on another forum where he and I review what he calls neglected films. I've done it for a few years and it has definitely expanded my movie knowledge, but sometimes I get stuck watching movies I'd normally turn off in five minutes.

I respect that Joe E. Brown has some talent, but my God do I not enjoy his movies. If you really want to try one out, then yes, I'd go with "Circus Clown" as it's one of his less obnoxious efforts and Patricia Ellis is insanely adorable.

 

[Harp]

Last nite, I took EngProf's suggestion and tuned in several Seabiscuit documentary tuber offerings,
catching brief supremely dressed trackside elegance displayed Basil Rathbone and James Stewart.
''Gentlemen rankers out on a spree; Damned From Here To Eternity,'' as put Rudyard Kipling. And later,
while surfing, came upon a Heddy Lamar interview circa 1970s, wherein she praised costar Jimmy Stewart's on set kindness and professionalism.

Golden nuggets that glisten like diamonds.

 

[Fading Fast]

Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) with Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor, Daliah Lavi, and George Hamilton


It's close at times, but Two Weeks in Another Town falls short of being a really good movie and stands more as a neat collection – almost a curio – of famous actors shot on location in Italy – all in beautiful color. It's equal parts travelogue, movie, and Hollywood navel gazing.

Kirk Douglas plays a washed-up, alcoholic actor who gets asked by a famous director, played by Edward G. Robinson – who himself is trying to regain his former touch – to fly to Italy to help him complete a movie on time. He and Douglas were once a successful movie-making team.

Once there, there's no role for Douglas other than to supervise dubbing, but just being in the orbit of a movie set is lifting Douglas' spirits. Those spirits, though, get shot down when his ex-wife, played by Cyd Charisse, shows up looking glamorous and s*xy, married to a wealthy man.

Douglas, fresh out of a "rest home" (high-end rehab for its day), came to Italy for redemption, but got a busted-flat career boost and his ex thrown in his face. Nevertheless, he's a handsome man with a thin patina of Hollywood glamour still on him, so he is attractive to many women.

One in particular is Daliah Lavi, playing the young and ridiculously s*xy girlfriend of the movie's temperamental young star, played by George Hamilton. She switches teams mid-movie, giving Douglas a boost, which is furthered when a sick Robinson asks Douglas to direct in his place.

Douglas takes the reins, speeds up production, sets Hamilton on a good course, and is lauded by almost everyone – it's the movie's best sequence. But Robinson's shrew of a wife, played with venom by Claire Trevor, poisons Douglas to Robinson: "He's stealing 'your' movie."

This sets Douglas off on a bender into the climax, which is not quite what you expect, but you'll want to see it fresh. After that, there's a brief epilogue as both the movie and the movie within the movie wrap.

Douglas and Robinson were huge stars for a reason; they can carry mediocre material along on their talent and screen personality, which Robinson, in particular, has to do a lot of here. Somehow, the story, a reasonably good one, never quite gels.

While Robinson is doing the yeoman's work of keeping the material moving forward, Douglas adds true sparkle as the man is clearly committed to his role. Depressed, excited, or pensive, Douglas is an actor who makes sure you know it, and it works well in this one.

He lights up even more in his scenes with Lavi, a very pretty young woman who shrinks a bit opposite Douglas, personality-wise, but youth and beauty are great assets to fall back on, which Lavi does in several form-fitted and revealing outfits.

Hamilton, a hit or miss actor, misses until the last few scenes, but he, like Lavi, has ample reserves of youth and beauty to carry him through. Charisse, aging out of her youth and beauty phase, doesn't do much but wear expensive clothes and jewelry to taunt Douglas.

Who truly deserves note is Trevor, playing Robinson's vicious wife who tears him down brick by emotional brick, but woe be the person other than her who tries to do that. They have a badly broken relationship – they communicate by yelling – but somehow it works for them.

The last star of the movie is – and she's a big one – Italy itself. This is not the war-torn mid-century Italy of a Rossellini picture, but the glamorous expat community, recovering-with-gusto Italy of The Talented Mr. Ripley – you'll want to time travel back to this version of Rome.

Hollywood usually makes very good takedown-of-itself movies – heck, Douglas and director Vincente Minnelli, the director here, made an outstanding one ten years earlier in The Bad and the Beautiful – but somehow this one just stumbles along as okay.

Maybe a tweaking of the script, maybe something got lost in editing, or maybe this is all it had, but you can't help feeling that Two Weeks in Another Town was close to being a much better movie than it turned out to be.

For fans of the stars, the director, or post-war Italy – or the awesome-sounding and looking 1960 Maserati 3500 GT that Douglas' character drives (at high speeds) – it's still a fun film, even better the second time when you can focus on the eye candy and not its average plot.

 

[Harp]

^ Another excellent review old boy.

Always loved Kirk, film fixture actor of boyish fascination with world seen Hollywood film prism.

And Cyd Charisse aged quite splendidly. Her sensual striptease in The Silencers opening credit roll
easily matched ingenue Rita Moreno's leggy youthful West Side Story dancing.

Italy gave boyhood Gina Lollabrigida and Sophia Loren. I visited the Acropolis whilst a teenager, and stood
near the Erectheion where Sophia stood in the film, Boy On A Dolphin. The hell with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.