What's on your Daily Viewing List? (5 Viewers)

[Thomas T]

I have said this before. I don't think any still images are necessary at all, even posters and covers. Some postings really should be saved for a "print your own flip book" thread. I never look at these anyway and it is really tedious to have to keep scrolling through them to get to the text.

Personally, I prefer a film poster to "text". A movie poster answers the thread question ("What's on your daily viewing list?"). What "text" do you want? Film reviews?

 

[Robert Crawford]

I think it's a bit weird that someone would purposely avoid a thread because of the use of images, but to each their own; I still don't know exactly which "posts" Robert was indicating should be avoided in terms of examples above, as when I clicked on his links, it took me to pages of posts...I'm not sure what is considered okay and what isn't in this particular thread.

As I already stated in my prior post, see below. Now, we have sidetracked this thread enough. Let's get back to posting about movies that we recently have watched.

One image per movie is all we want in this particular thread.

 

[bujaki]

Personally, I prefer a film poster to "text". A movie poster answers the thread question ("What's on your daily viewing list?"). What "text" do you want? Film reviews?

Well, skip my posts. Personally, I like poster art, but I'd like to read a bit about your thoughts as well. To each his own.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Anybody watch any movies lately? I'll be posting my latest viewings in the next few hours.

 

[Dave Moritz]

To tired to watch anything after work but will be posting movies this weekend.

 

[Thomas T]

Well, skip my posts. Personally, I like poster art, but I'd like to read a bit about your thoughts as well. To each his own.

Truly I'm not pushing my blog but if you're truly interested in my reviews, I have almost 6,000 capsule reviews going back to 2010

 

[Robert Crawford]

Wednesday's movies were the following:

 

[Robin9]

Anybody watch any movies lately? I'll be posting my latest viewings in the next few hours.

Two days ago I watched a Glenn Ford movie I'd never seen before: Mr. Soft Touch, an untidy blend of comedy and crime drama. I enjoyed the film but I doubt I'll watch it again. I've also recently re-watched Dr. No and Ronin, both on very good Blu-ray discs I hadn't viewed for about four years.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Two days ago I watched a Glenn Ford movie I'd never seen before: Mr. Soft Touch, an untidy blend of comedy and crime drama. I enjoyed the film but I doubt I'll watch it again. I've also recently re-watched Dr. No and Ronin, both on very good Blu-ray discs I hadn't viewed for about four years.

I'd always liked that film and have watched it several times.

 

[BobO'Link]

Still goofy, cheesy, fun.

 

[Robert Crawford]

View attachment 79422

Still goofy, cheesy, fun.

One of my favorites from my childhood. It's a shame that Criterion never released this on BD. Anyhow, I'll be watching my Criterion DVD this month in honor of Halloween.

 

[BobO'Link]

It's a shame that Criterion never released this on BD.

I agree - at least their DVD looks excellent! I'd be thrilled to see them do more of those 50s/60s SF/Horror films on DVD based on how good this one looks. I'd like it even better if they'd release them in DVD/BR combo packs (which they've apparently abandoned).

 

[Kaskade1309]

 

[bujaki]

4 truly rare films, only one is an old acquaintance. I'll enter them separately.
Bright Lights of Broadway (1923) Streamed from the University of Toronto. Directed by obscure director Webster Campbell, once married to Corinne Griffith; co-written by Edmund Goulding; but wait, shot by future director, the great Clarence Brown, doing a magnificent job. The print is toned and comes from a department store 16mm rental (!), that passed into a private collector's hands and then to the University.
The story is hardly original: young woman dreaming of B'way, in love with future pastor. She is lured by B'way producer/cad and she succumbs and her name goes up in lights. They marry, and on their wedding night, still a virgin, young man enters apartment, struggles to save her, gun goes off, ex-mistress dies, cad accuses boy who is sentenced to die because her testimony can't be entered into the record. Standard melodrama, but beautifully lit.
Then the film kicks in with exciting cutting and lighting: boy is about to fry; girl extracts confession from cad at gunpoint; she rushes in car to Sing Sing; cad follows in cab. Lots of cross cutting. Girl has to jump on a train; cad jumps on another train: follow that train!! Boy walks to chair. Another train rushes toward cad's train. CRASH! Girl gets to prison with 30 seconds to spare. Lever is about to be pulled...It's really a very exciting ending.
The leads are Doris Kenyon and Harrison Ford as the young lovers; Lowell Sherman as the Producer; Tyrone Power, Sr. as the District Attorney.

 

[HawksFord]

He Ran All the Way (1951) - This was our first time seeing this film noir which we watched on the Kino Lorber blu-ray. John Garfield, in his last film role, plays a not too bright criminal on the run who can't help but dig himself in deeper and deeper. Shelley Winters is the shy, lonely, young woman who crosses paths him. Both turn in terrific performances. There are no major plot twists -- you know how the story has to end from the opening scenes -- but it is a well told, suspensful story. In reading about the film, I was surprised at the number of people involved who ran afoul of HUAC and the Hollywood blacklist: Garfield, director John Berry, writers Dalton Trumbo and Hugo Butler, and cast members Selena Royle and Norman Lloyd.

 

[bujaki]

Film #2:
False Faces 1932. Restored by UCLA. Directed and starring Lowell Sherman (his last film before his untimely death), and once again playing the cad. Independently produced, and therefore an orphan film whose elements were not well kept, the film was saved in the nick of time using a variety of sources. It looks quite good, considering.
Sherman plays an unethical doctor who's chased from a NY hospital, settles in Chicago and starts practicing plastic surgery without any knowledge of it. His malpractice and his womanizing finally catch up with him. Following a sensational trial where he delivers an impassioned speech in his defense, which earns his acquittal, the fates intervene in an explosive melodramatic flourish.
Well played and directed. Based on a true story (except for the finale). Too bad Sherman's life was cut short.

 

[bujaki]

Film #3:
I promessi sposi aka The Betrothed 1922. Streamed from Pordenone, Italy. Based on the eponymous Italian 19th century novel by Manzoni, made and remade countless times. This version was directed by Mario Bonnard and runs 140 minutes. They do fly by thanks to the fast pacing of multiple events befalling the hapless couple on their way to the altar. A nobleman's lust causes them to separate on their wedding day; civil unrest; abductions; war and pillaging; plague; religious vows; final resolution. It's quite breathless and hardly static. The crowd scenes are remarkable. The sets and costumes are lavish. The cinematography (sets and location work) is stunning. The acting is never exaggerated. The restored print included the original tones and looked quite good. A bona fide Italian silent classic. So glad I finally got to see it.
Edit: One of the director's last films was the Steve Reeves' version of The Last Days of Pompeii (where is that release?).

 

[bujaki]

Film #4 and the only one I'd seen before at MoMA. However, I don't recall whether I saw it with English intertitles. This print had them. A big help.
The New Babylon 1929. Streamed from Pordenone, Italy. As Norma Desmond said: We had faces.
This Russian silent film revels in those faces. Each face tells a story. No need for dialogue. No need for intertitles. Those closeups tell all. Remarkable cinematography. Remarkable montages. Remarkable faces.
New Babylon is a gigantic department store in Paris, 1870, eve of the Franco-Prussian War. All of Paris is intoxicated with war fever. The opening montage in the store pulsates with febrile hysteria and grows along with Shostakovich's original score to a climactic orgasm followed by the deflation of the news of defeat. France defeated, the curtain goes down on a stage actress representing France, alone, dejected.
Scenes of misery, hunger, cold, want. The score plays an adagio movement. A soldier and a shop girl connect. The people decide to unite and form the Commune. They want to keep their weapons and not turn them over to the Prussians. The French army is opposed to the plan and want to turn their weapons on their countrymen. The petit bourgeoisie sides with the army and want the Commune destroyed. The soldier and the girl are separated.
The Commune (a new kind of government by the people, for the people; not communist, not Marxist) is destroyed by the army. Torrential rain washes everything away including what had been between the soldier and the girl.
He digs graves while the Commune members, including the girl, are shot.
This is a magnificent film with unforgettable images and a great score.
Directed by Grigoryi Kosintsev and Leonid Trauberg; DP, Andrey Moskvin (extraordinary). A true example of the Russian school of montage.
I'm glad to have seen this classic film once more.

 

[Kaskade1309]

 

[BobO'Link]

Last night: