Crawdaddy's "Random Thoughts" about Home Video, Film & TV (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

By the way, Howard Da Silva was one very good actor!

 

[bujaki]

By the way, Howard Da Silva was one very good actor!

The original Judd Fry in Oklahoma!, not forgetting The Cradle Will Rock and 1776 in all of which he displayed his musical talents.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

I'm pretty sure Eddie is married as he mentions his wife in some of his commentaries.

I figured as much and was just being a wiseass. My office is cluttered like his with memorabilia (and 500 or so blu-rays, as many CDs, and a few hundred books), and I've noticed lately that it's become a storage dumping ground for odd things my wife can't or doesn't want to put anywhere else.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm so excited as a bunch of Blu-rays arrived today for me to start watching today.

• Barbara Stanwyck Collection
• Brighton Rock
• Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
• The Captive Heart
• Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema II
• The Flame of New Orleans
• The Song of Songs
• Indiscretion of an American Wife
• Lonely are the Brave
• The Long and the Short and the Tall
• The Night My Number Came Up
• Pool of London
• The Sound Barrier
• Billy Liar
• The Cold Blue
• The Man from the Alamo/They Came to Cordura
• Hollywood Story/New Orleans Uncensored

 

[Matt Hough]

I got my Kino order today, too. Beau Geste will probably be first.

 

[Cranston37+]

I didn't see last week, but is this the first time Muller hosted from his home? Which means he taped this back in March when the California lockdown first started. It's fun to see all the film paraphernalia he has in the background. Was that a signed drawing of Batman by Bob Kane in one location he uses? And you gotta love the mannequin femme fatale in leopard-skin. He uses three different angle locations, but if any of those are shared quarters and not just his office, he's definitely not married. The Marie Kondo Klutter police would be all over him.

It's the first time he has used his home for Noir Alley, but he has used it for various social media. He posts one from his kitchen once a week.

The Batman was drawn for him by Neal Adams at the very first Comic Con.

The mannequin is named Doll, was rescued from an abandoned Oakland department store, and he says Ben Mankiewicz has asked for her number.

And yes, Eddie has a dame!

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm so excited as a bunch of Blu-rays arrived today for me to start watching today.

• Barbara Stanwyck Collection
• Brighton Rock
• Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
• The Captive Heart
• Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema II
• The Flame of New Orleans
• The Song of Songs
• Indiscretion of an American Wife
• Lonely are the Brave
• The Long and the Short and the Tall
• The Night My Number Came Up
• Pool of London
• The Sound Barrier
• Billy Liar
• The Cold Blue
• The Man from the Alamo/They Came to Cordura
• Hollywood Story/New Orleans Uncensored

So much for me watching any of those Blu-rays. I got sidetracked by a home project. Anyhow, I did watch the following on TCM:

Eddie and Monty Alexander comments were interesting about this fine film and jazz musicians in general. This film was one of the reasons why I fell in love with Doris Day. I could listen to her singing all day long. I, too was surprise by the ending, but that's Hollywood for you.

Later today, I'm going to watch "The Five Pennies". Well, maybe, I'll watch it.

TCM Spotlight: Jazz in Film

Join TCM every Monday and Thursday in June for Jazz in Film, a collection of 40 films that celebrate the art of Jazz.

www.tcm.com

 

[Angelo Colombus]

I'm so excited as a bunch of Blu-rays arrived today for me to start watching today.

• Barbara Stanwyck Collection
• Brighton Rock
• Bluebeard's Eighth Wife
• The Captive Heart
• Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema II
• The Flame of New Orleans
• The Song of Songs
• Indiscretion of an American Wife
• Lonely are the Brave
• The Long and the Short and the Tall
• The Night My Number Came Up
• Pool of London
• The Sound Barrier
• Billy Liar
• The Cold Blue
• The Man from the Alamo/They Came to Cordura
• Hollywood Story/New Orleans Uncensored

I also have a bunch of them arriving this week:

1) The Satan Bug
2) The Sound Barrier
3) Morgan, A Suitable Case for Treatment
4) War of the Worlds (Imprint)
5) Laurel & Hardy, The Definitive Restorations
6) The Grand Budapest Hotel (Criterion)

 

[Robert Crawford]

I also have a bunch of them arriving this week:

1) The Satan Bug
2) The Sound Barrier
3) Morgan, A Suitable Case for Treatment
4) War of the Worlds (Imprint)
5) Laurel & Hardy, The Definitive Restorations
6) The Grand Budapest Hotel (Criterion)

Yeah, I got Imprint's "The War of the Worlds" and "Sorry, Wrong Number" on their way to me that I'll probably get in the next day or so. Also, some more Kino collections are in route "Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema" Volume 3 and "Western Classics 1".

 

[Robert Crawford]

I missed the following last night, but I do have memories of watching this movie by myself in a downtown theater when I was about 10 or 11. Talk about having your eyes wide open. I didn't mention this movie to my parents as they probably thought I was going to see another western.

A Man Called Adam

A guilt-ridden jazz trumpeter blames himself for a car accident that killed his family.

www.tcm.com

 

[bujaki]

So much for me watching any of those Blu-rays. I got sidetracked by a home project. Anyhow, I did watch the following on TCM:

View attachment 73871

Eddie and Monty Alexander comments were interesting about this fine film and jazz musicians in general. This film was one of the reasons why I fell in love with Doris Day. I could listen to her singing all day long. I, too was surprise by the ending, but that's Hollywood for you.

Later today, I'm going to watch "The Five Pennies". Well, maybe, I'll watch it.

TCM Spotlight: Jazz in Film

Join TCM every Monday and Thursday in June for Jazz in Film, a collection of 40 films that celebrate the art of Jazz.

www.tcm.com

Young Man with a Horn...another dignified performance from the great Puerto Rican actor, Juano Hernandez.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Eddie on "The Pledge":

 

[HawksFord]

I missed the following last night, but I do have memories of watching this movie by myself in a downtown theater when I was about 10 or 11. Talk about having your eyes wide open.

We watched A Man Called Adam last night and both of us liked it a lot. There's a powerful and still relevant message there about race relations along with some terrific music. I did think the film was too set-bound and would have benefited by giving the audience a better sense of place particularly when the Sammy Davis Jr. character leaves New York City. But that would come at a cost, and art versus commerce is another theme of the film.

 

[Robert Crawford]

For those interested, it looks like Eddie is hosting this interactive live streaming event on June 12th at 10:00 p.m. ET.

Free Live Screening of TOO LATE FOR TEARS (1949)

Join this live screening (with Q&A) on a laptop using the latest version of Google Chrome.Finally! One of the great missing films of the classic noir era—resurrected! Rescued and preserved after a five-year crusade by the Film Noir Foundation, this 1949 classic is at long last available in a...

www.cya.live

Hell, I forgot all about that event last night. What a dope, I am.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I hope Martin Scorsese is right about this movie. For some reason, I never got around to watching my 2009 DVD of this 1958 movie. Perhaps, it's Vince Edwards because I always thought of him as Dr. Ben Casey and not a contract killer.

Updated TCM's Noir Alley 2020 schedule:

03-07-20: Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
03-14-20: I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
03-21-20: Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
03-28-20: Crime Wave (1954)
04-04-20: Address Unknown (1944)
04-11-20: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
04-25-20: Wicked Woman (1954)
05-02-20: Fallen Angel (1945)
05-09-20: Mildred Pierce (1945)
05-16-20: The Crimson Kimono (1959)
05-23-20: Cornered (1945)
05-30-20: A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
06-06-20: The Underworld Story (1950)
06-13-20: Murder by Contract (1958)
06-20-20: Underworld U.S.A. (1961)
06-27-20: The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
07-04-20: The Sign of the Ram (1948)
07-11-20: Bodyguard (1948)
07-18-20: Three Strangers (1946)
07-25-20: The Breaking Point (1950)

 

[Matt Hough]

I hope Martin Scorsese is right about this movie. For some reason, I never got around to watching my 2009 DVD of this 1958 movie. Perhaps, it's Vince Edwards because I always thought of him as Dr. Ben Casey and not a contract killer.


View attachment 74033

Updated TCM's Noir Alley 2020 schedule:

03-07-20: Ride the Pink Horse (1947)
03-14-20: I Wake Up Screaming (1941)
03-21-20: Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
03-28-20: Crime Wave (1954)
04-04-20: Address Unknown (1944)
04-11-20: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
04-25-20: Wicked Woman (1954)
05-02-20: Fallen Angel (1945)
05-09-20: Mildred Pierce (1945)
05-16-20: The Crimson Kimono (1959)
05-23-20: Cornered (1945)
05-30-20: A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
06-06-20: The Underworld Story (1950)
06-13-20: Murder by Contract (1958)
06-20-20: Underworld U.S.A. (1961)
06-27-20: The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
07-04-20: The Sign of the Ram (1948)
07-11-20: Bodyguard (1948)
07-18-20: Three Strangers (1946)
07-25-20: The Breaking Point (1950)

Looking forward to seeing it for the first time tomorrow.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Looking forward to seeing it for the first time tomorrow.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to reading yours as well as other people's thoughts on this movie. I can see why Scorese fell in love with it back in 1958.

 

[Bert Greene]

"Murder By Contract" (1958). Another one I hadn't seen in over thirty years. But it was very much as I remembered it, quirky, tongue-in-cheek, agreeably diverting... but not really my cup of tea. I actually appreciated how it didn't adhere to the typical crime-drama milieu, in terms of both script and atmosphere. I consider that its main virtue. Yet in other ways, the film really didn't add up to much for me, between its somewhat cheeky attitude and occasional bits of (unwelcome) philosophizing. Sitcom noir. Enjoyable in its novelty, but not a film I'd be inclined to revisit often.

The last I remember hearing of Vince Edwards was when he was down here in southeast Texas filming a crime-drama cheapie in the mid-1980s. Some auto-dealer lent him some wheels while he was in town, but Edwards drove off and kept the car, claiming it was given to him. Led to a lawsuit that seemed to percolate in the local news for a long time, far outlasting the brief spurt of excitement over the rare occurrence of the vicinity being utilized for a movie backdrop.

 

[Dave Blair]

Regarding the intermission in Taza: per 3dfilmarchive.com

“BONUS QUESTION: Why do 1950's 3-D movies have an intermission?

All Golden Age 3-D features had a built-in intermission point around the 50 minute mark. This point was known to the creative team during production so the scripts were written with an intended break at a crucial moment in the plot. Various shorts, newsreels, cartoons and trailers (either flat or 3-D) would be shown after the feature.

The films were shown in polarized 3-D on two projectors with interlocked 35mm prints representing the left and right sides. The largest reels available at the time were 24-inch which could accommodate up to 5,000 feet of color film and 5,500 feet of black and white. In addition, the largest carbon arc rods used for the light source could not burn for more than an hour. The vast majority of theaters had two or three projectors in the booth so a break was necessary in order to change reels. Usually the intermission would last for 10 minutes which was enough time for the operators to re-thread both projectors and install new canon rods.”


This site has a wealth of accurate and entertaining information about 3d films

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Murder by Contract. Quirky to say the least. Ben Casey never had an monologues as terse or juicy as Claude. You had to appreciate that every character in this film was definitely... a character. The economy of style actually worked to set it apart from the predictable or usual crime drama. It even bordered on simply playing as a dark comedy. Hell, I'll just call it a dark comedy. I can also see some of that which Scorcese took from this. "You think I'm a funny guy?"

And almost all the violence was off camera, leaving it to your vivid (or not) imagination. I guess the more apt Noir title, The Big Stall wouldn't have been such a draw at the box office, and it's too bad the production couldn't have afforded more of Claude's sightseeing trip to L.A. Wasn't that the Malibu pier in rear screen projection on one scene?

The music really was a repetitive earwig you wished you could get out of your head. It reminded me of the constant plucking refrain of the balalaika in The Third Man, but I'm not so sure I mean that in a good way. Cough up a dime for a few more instruments or a couple more bars, please.

Nice print. And I marginally put this in the thumbs up category. But I almost thought Muller made a mistake plugging next week's Noir as the same one we saw last week, The Underworld Story. But no, it's Underworld U.S.A. And I hope this one is actually about the underworld, and I'd be okay if the title tune was also by the Beach Boys.