-
The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.
What Was The Last Movie You Watched?
- Thread starter Amy Jeanne
- Start date
AmateisGal
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 6,126
- Location
- Nebraska
Knives Out for the third time. I just love this movie so much. I continue to pick up little odds and ends that I missed upon first viewing. It's just a fantastic script and the performances are terrific.
Weird to see Chris Evans, i.e. Captain America, in a villainous role, but he does it well!
Weird to see Chris Evans, i.e. Captain America, in a villainous role, but he does it well!
Julian Shellhammer
Practically Family
- Messages
- 855
San Quentin (1937) with Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, and Ann Sheridan. O'Brien is an Army captain hired to organize the the eponymous prison, Bogie is young guy who's gone wrong, and Sheridan is a nightclub singer involved with both. The ending seemed abrupt.
Gun Crazy (1950) with Peggy Cummins, John Daly, and a host of others. Despite the low budget feel, the performances of the leads and director Joseph H. Lewis' stunning use of the camera tell a gripping story. If you haven't seen it, look it up and give it a view. The scenes of 1950s Los Angeles are a visual time capsule.
Gun Crazy (1950) with Peggy Cummins, John Daly, and a host of others. Despite the low budget feel, the performances of the leads and director Joseph H. Lewis' stunning use of the camera tell a gripping story. If you haven't seen it, look it up and give it a view. The scenes of 1950s Los Angeles are a visual time capsule.
- Messages
- 10,379
- Location
- vancouver, canada
"Anne of a Thousand Days". Burton's performance was THE best portrayal of King Henry VIII ...ever. Genevieve Bujold was a great Anne Bolyn. Overall a great movie.
- Messages
- 16,854
- Location
- New York City
I Confess from 1953 with Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter and Karl Malden
Compared to Hitchcock's best, this one comes up a bit short; but compared to most other movies, it's outstanding.
While several of the classic Hitchcock elements are here - a man wrongly accused of murder, a beautiful icey blonde (Baxter) shattering lives left and right, a dogged detective (Maulden) and an artisically filmed final shootout scene - instead of a MacGuffin (a plot driver that is confusing or unimportant), the center of the story is a murder committed by the caretaker of a Catholic Church.
The twist is that he confesses his crime immediately, but to a priest (Clift) in a confessional meaning the priest, by vow, can't reveal what he knows to the police. This problem becomes a whole lot bigger when the priest himself is accused of the murder.
And just to amp things up more, the aforementioned blonde is married to the state's lead prosecutor, whom she married even though she was still in love with Clift, with whom she had had a love affair before he became ordained. With priest Clift under investigation by the police (the lead detective is the always outstanding Maulden), his prior affair and ongoing friendship with Baxter hardly reflect well on his character. Also, this relationship might provide a motive for Clift to have committed the murder.
With that set up, the rest of the movie is watching Clift twist internally knowing that he might be found guilty despite also knowing that he could easily prove his innocence. At the same time, Baxter tries to help Clift, but can't really as her efforts to finesse her way out of a few too many lies (about the men she's been with) thwarts the greater good. And, of course, playing on throughout is Maulden's pleasant but relentless pursuit of the murderer, who surely appears to be the priest.
Filmed in wonderful and crisp black and white - fitting the darker mood of this one versus some of Hitchcock's lighter efforts - and using the beautiful Province of Quebec for a backdrop, I Confess proves to be an outstanding, even if less-popular, Hitchcock effort.
Worf
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 5,174
- Location
- Troy, New York, USA
Saw this one years ago... What struck me most about it was its depiction of mob mentality. When a crowd gets its "wind up" nothing and no one is safe. Things get out of hand quickly. I enjoyed it. Never knew it was a Hitchcock piece though...
Worf
- Messages
- 16,854
- Location
- New York City
Agreed. That was notable and it wasn't put in the movie accidentally. I'm sure it was in response to something going on politically at the time. It's also why pure democracy is dangerous to individual rights and why we have a Republic and not a pure democratic form of government - it was an active choice made by the framers.
Julian Shellhammer
Practically Family
- Messages
- 855
My Darling Clementine (1946), dir. by John Ford, with Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature, Walter Brennan, and a good many more. Ford's telling of the gunfight a the OK Corral. Visually, sort of a noir western, with high contrast blacks and whites, but at the same time looks like an epic, with Ford frequently filling two-thirds of the screen with sky. If ever a film should be in wide screen, this one is it, set against landscapes in Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona.
Interestingly, studio chief Darryl Zanuck had Lloyd Bacon re-shoot some scenes, and change the ending somewhat.
One of my favorite films; the Missus also liked it, never having seen it before.
Interestingly, studio chief Darryl Zanuck had Lloyd Bacon re-shoot some scenes, and change the ending somewhat.
One of my favorite films; the Missus also liked it, never having seen it before.
- Messages
- 16,854
- Location
- New York City
1917 from 2019 with Dean-Charles Chapman and George MacKay
- In WWI, two front-line British soldiers must deliver an urgent life-saving order to a remote unit of 1600 men by crossing on foot through no-man's land and enemy territory
- Homeric in its "Odyssey" like struggle, this is a "personal" view of war that takes the perspective of two soldiers engaged in a nearly impossible task (it's a bit like the recent Dunkirk movie, but with a little more context)
- Along the way, the waste, killing and destruction of war provides the backdrop as the two men are forced to continually reassess the morality of the war and their commitment to their mission
- If you've seen a lot of war movies, nothing is really new here - right down to "the challenge of balancing personal loss against some greater good" theme - but it's a solid entry in the war-movie genre
The Marrying Kind from 1952 with Judy Holiday, Aldo Ray and Madge Kennedy
- A look at an on-the-rocks marriage that combines an odd mix of humor, anger, sadness and despair
- Judy Holiday and Aldo Ray end up in divorce court after seven or so years of marriage where a sympathetic judge (Kennedy) sits down to just "talk" with them - leading to a story told through flashbacks
- We see everything from the happy falling-in-love moments, through the bumpy early years and, then, to some good and, finally, tragic moments
- It feels very real to life, which makes the screwball-comedy moments seem out of place and, also, shows that reality doesn't always make for the most easy viewing
- The location shots of 1952 New York City and all the other time-capsule items - cars, clothes, appliances, kitchens, architecture, etc. - are fantastic (the clips of a 1952 postal-sorting facility, where husband Ray works, are awesome)
- Credit where credit is due: other than its occasion drift into silliness, this is a serious look at the failing marriage of two humanly flawed and decent people. Unfortunately, it's sad because it is so much like life
- Messages
- 10,379
- Location
- vancouver, canada
I really like Monty Clift and any time I see him listed I will watch the movie...kid could act! I will keep an eye out for this one.
- Messages
- 10,379
- Location
- vancouver, canada
"The Informant". We wanted some mindless entertainment last night and this one fit the bill. Joel Kinneman, Rosamund Pike, Clive Owen and a bunch of Polish guys. It was much better than I expected. Good performances, absence of McGuffins and overall a good two hours of escapism.....not that there is anything wrong with that!
- Messages
- 16,854
- Location
- New York City
Without seeing a list of his movies, I'd say this is the one he most impressed me in. It's his movie and he owns it. Maulden is great in a supporting role, but Clift is the lead here.
- Messages
- 11,907
- Location
- Southern California
I've only seen Montgomery Clift in three movies--Red River, From Here to Eternity, and The Misfits--but his performances in all three were solid and I'd like to see more. Based on what little I've read about him it seems he didn't lead the happiest of lives, and I think that comes through in his performances.
- Messages
- 16,854
- Location
- New York City
Great observation. I've probably seen him in six or seven movies and, in everyone, there is a general sadness about him (even when he's playing happy).
- Messages
- 16,854
- Location
- New York City
The Talented Mr. Ripley from 1999 with Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Phillip Serymore Hoffman and Cate Blanchett
- Very good story in "a stretches credibility but is just so delicious you don't care" way
- Set in the 1950s, the father of a young playboy (Law) living frivolously on his allowance in Italy sends a poor, young social-climbing man (Damon) to retrieve his prodigal son
- Once there, the errand boy inserts himself into the playboy's life, which includes the playboy's pretty blonde girlfriend (Paltrow). The errand boy is just excited to be "in" with the class of people he aspires to
- (Spoiler alert) After initial acceptance and fun, literally, all hell breaks loose as Damon has to lie, cheat, steal, commit fraud, identity theft and a few murders to keep himself in his new world of wealth and status: the talented Mr. Ripley is a talented sociopath
- As noted, it's not really believable, but oh what fun it is plus the more-beautiful-than-they-ever-probably-were period details, especially of post-war Italy, make this movie a visual treat
- And finally, the cast is basically a cheat sheet of several young actors who went on to become major stars for the next two decades
Bodyguard from 1948 with Lawrence Tierney and Priscilla Lana
- This B-noir plays like an antecedent to all those '60s and '70s TV shows (Mannix, Cannon, The Rockford Files, etc.) where a former cop/detective - who's a bit of a maverick - leaves or is thrown off the police force and becomes a private eye always trying to prove he's better than the force which rejected him
- Tierney is the do-it-his-way detective who gets tossed from the force (great scene when he gets fired and punches out his smug boss) and, then, in TV-like fashion, reluctantly takes on a suspicious case
- The plot itself is something, something wealthy meat-processing family, cheating son-in-law, murder, cover-up, wrong person accused, Tierney set up to be the fall guy, etc. It's a very TV-like plot; The Rockford Files used this one a bunch of times
- Just as in its later TV incarnation, the former cop also has an "insider" at the police to help him do all the policey stuff he needs to succeed - in this case, adorable Priscilla Lane who is too cute and peppy for this one (think Nancy Drew in noirland)
- That's it, it's a good-enough 62-minute-long effort with some great time-travel locations shots of late-'40s LA
- Messages
- 12,734
- Location
- Northern California
Bad Day at Black Rock on TCM. I have seen it many times and there it was this morning so I had to watch it with my coffee. A really good cast, nice cinematography, a very entertaining story, top notch acting, how can I not watch it again? 
- Messages
- 16,854
- Location
- New York City
Bad Day at Black Rock on TCM. I have seen it many times and there it was this morning so I had to watch it with my coffee. A really good cast, nice cinematography, a very entertaining story, top notch acting, how can I not watch it again?
Everything you said, with a special emphasis on the top-notch acting.
- Messages
- 16,854
- Location
- New York City
Lady from Shanghai from 1947 with Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles and Everett Sloan
What do you do after your directorial debut is a film-industry-defining classic? You reach for greater heights and end up making artistic, crazy, confusing, interesting, but not necessarily good, movies like Lady from Shanghai.
The TCM Noir-Alley host Eddie Muller sums this one up pretty well when he calls it a "hot mess." It tries too hard to be what? Noir, groundbreaking, moving, alluring - all of those, I don't know.
The plot, while confusing, doesn't rise to the confusing heights of, say, The Big Sleep, as you kinda get it even before it's ploddingly explained at the end.
Hayworth married an older and partially crippled wealthy criminal attorney (Sloan) who resents his wife for marrying him for, we and he guess, his money.
On a long cruise aboard his yacht, where he has hired a young sailor (Welles) to join the crew, Sloan cruelly needles both Hayworth and Welles (and anyone else in his surround), which serves to drive those two together. And, yes, Welles sporting an intermittent Irish brogue and Hayworth with cropped platinum blonde hair and an "are you kidding me" body are attracted to each other.
However, it's hard to take Welles seriously in this one as he takes himself waaaaay-too seriously. And while Hayworth looks beautiful, her aloofness combined with Welles' character's pretentiousness leave you all but disinterested in Welles-and-Hayworth's struggle to get together and out of her husband's clutches.
Thrown into the mix is a confusing-for-confusing-sake plot about Sloan's law partner wanting Welles to help him fake his murder (for insurance money and to get away from Sloan). It goes horribly wrong (no surprise there) leading to a trial followed by a Hitchcock-on-steroids final chase scene in a house of mirrors and Lady From Shanghai staggers to a close.
We all know the Welles story: the boy-genius director of Citizen Kane spends the rest of his career running from or trying to top Kane with neither effort often leading to good results. Lady From Shanghai seems to be a "top Kane" effort that spun horribly out of control. It's worth the watch for some good or, at least, interesting parts, but also simply because it's another piece of the more-interesting Welles' life saga.
MisterCairo
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 7,005
- Location
- Gads Hill, Ontario
How does it end?
Similar threads
