What's on your Daily Viewing List? (2 Viewers)

[bujaki]

I re-watched Hilda Crane today. If, like me, you enjoy very personal dramas this film is irresistible. David Raksin's score is excellent and so is the screenplay. The entire cast is good. Guy Madison, an actor the camera didn't like very much, is really good in a role difficult to pull off. Most of all there's Jean Simmons. I'm going to watch another of her films tomorrow: possibly Desiree, possibly Guys And Dolls, perhaps The Robe.

Jean Simmons in anything!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Recently viewed The Way I See It a documentary by Pete Souza who served as an official White House photographer in the Reagan administration and documented Barack Obana's time as a senator and became the official White House photographer in 2008 during Obama's second term. It has a definite point of view that will split audiences but some of the photographs featured in the documentary are iconic and many I had never seen before (from both the Reagan and Obama terms in office.)

A secondary aspect of the documentary details Souza's life and his progression in his role as a photographer. Quite the life.

Not for everyone, but I enjoyed it immensely.

- Walter.

You got my attention with that description, Walter! Thx.

 

[Thomas T]

 

[Dave Moritz]

October 29th, 2020 Thursday

Old Yeller (1975)
HD Digital upscaled to 4K
4K Apple TV
Stereo

 

[bujaki]

Busy night:
First Love (Amazon Prime) 1970. Nominated for Best Foreign Film (Switzerland); directed by Maximilian Schell; based on a Turgenev novella; starring Schell, Dominique Sanda (sigh); John Moulder-Brown and Valentina Cortese. Shot by Sven Nykvist (hampered by poor mastering of the print). Czarist Russia, 1915. 16-year old falls in love with 21-year-old princess. He idealizes her but things are not what they seem. She taunts him, cruelly, tenderly. Is she selling herself to suitors? His father embarks on an affair with her. Years pass. It's bittersweet.
Lost in Yonkers (TCM app) 1993. Neil Simon fleshed out his play and made it so much better. Martha Coolidge directs two great performances from the original cast: Mercedes Ruehl (the soul) and Irene Worth (the strength). There's humor, but more than that, there's a keen observation of human beings through a lens of empathy. Wonderful film.
Kill or Cure (TCM app) 1962. A British farce that doubles as a murder mystery. And it had me in stitches. A cast of British comics that's who's who of great around that time. Highly recommended for a good time. Old transfer, unfortunately.
The Erl King (TCM app) 1931. Based on Goethe's poem that Schubert musicalized, this short 45-minute film visualizes the journey a father and son take, its fateful conclusion preordained. Many quasi-surrealist visual effects are involved which lend the film a strange, ghostly beauty. Directed by Marie-Louise Iribe, who directed only 2 films and married into the Renoir family, dying at age 39.
The Runaway Bus (TCM app) 1954. Val Guest directed this British comedy/heist/thriller with Frankie Howerd, Petula Clark (not singing) and the indomitable Margaret Rutherford in a surprising role. A bus is lost in a fog and it's carrying a load of stolen gold. One of the passengers is part of the gang of thieves. It is funny and suspenseful and surprising.
Mara Maru (TCM app) 1952 Late Flynn vehicle pits him against heavy Raymond Burr in a treasure hunt for diamonds. Ruth Roman comes along for eye candy and the end is full of religious imagery and redemption. Better than it sounds.

 

[bujaki]

View attachment 81166

So did you buy a Bogarde collection?

 

[Thomas T]

So did you buy a Bogarde collection?

No, just a coincidence. Actually I'm not much of a Bogarde fan.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Has anybody seen Man-Trap (1961) starring Jeffrey Hunter, David Jansen and Stella Stevens? iTunes has the digital on sale for $4.99 which is cheaper than the Olive BD. This is one title that must have slipped by my radar screen because the BD was released back in 2012.

 

[Thomas T]

Has anybody seen Man-Trap (1961) starring Jeffrey Hunter, David Jansen and Stella Stevens? iTunes has the digital on sale for $4.99 which is cheaper than the Olive BD. This is one title that must have slipped by my radar screen because the BD was released back in 2012.

Yes, I have. Again, here's the capsule review I wrote for my blog:

Stuck in an unhappy marriage to a shrewish, boozed up nymphomaniac (Stella Stevens), a housing developer (Jeffrey Hunter) receives a visit from an old Korean war buddy (David Janssen) who lures him into helping rob a South American dictator of three million dollars. But they're both amateurs, dangerously out of their element and, of course, everything goes horribly wrong. Directed by the actor Edmond O'Brien (THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA), this should be better than it is. It has all the elements of a classic film noir but O'Brien can't seem to combine all the ingredients into a satisfying whole. It has an almost surreal quality to it like Hunter's neighborhood which seems populated entirely of alcoholic wife swappers. The film has a killer twist Hitchcockian ending just waiting to happen that I saw coming but it doesn't!!! To be fair, some of the problems may be inherent in the source material by John D. MacDonald (CAPE FEAR) but I haven't read the novel it's based on, TAINT OF THE TIGER. It doesn't help that potentially complex characters are played by such uninteresting actors as Hunter (who's weaker than usual) and Janssen which leaves Stevens' slut to take center stage. The film is nicely shot in wide screen B&W by Loyal Griggs (SHANE). With Elaine Devry, Bob Crane, Virginia Gregg, Frank Albertson, Perry Lopez and Dorothy Green.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thanks, I guess that means I'll like it because unlike you Hunter and Jansen, I like both actors and enjoy their work.

 

[Robin9]

View attachment 81166

I saw that when it first came out. I've never seen it a second time and until your post, I'd forgotten about it. Is this the film where Dirk Bogarde at some point says "perhaps he's just a dirty old man?"

 

[Thomas T]

I saw that when it first came out. I've never seen it a second time and until your post, I'd forgotten about it. Is this the film where Dirk Bogarde at some point says "perhaps he's just a dirty old man?"

It is!

 

[Robin9]

Has anybody seen Man-Trap (1961) starring Jeffrey Hunter, David Jansen and Stella Stevens? iTunes has the digital on sale for $4.99 which is cheaper than the Olive BD. This is one title that must have slipped by my radar screen because the BD was released back in 2012.

Yes, I have. Again, here's the capsule review I wrote for my blog:

Stuck in an unhappy marriage to a shrewish, boozed up nymphomaniac (Stella Stevens), a housing developer (Jeffrey Hunter) receives a visit from an old Korean war buddy (David Janssen) who lures him into helping rob a South American dictator of three million dollars. But they're both amateurs, dangerously out of their element and, of course, everything goes horribly wrong. Directed by the actor Edmond O'Brien (THE BAREFOOT CONTESSA), this should be better than it is. It has all the elements of a classic film noir but O'Brien can't seem to combine all the ingredients into a satisfying whole. It has an almost surreal quality to it like Hunter's neighborhood which seems populated entirely of alcoholic wife swappers. The film has a killer twist Hitchcockian ending just waiting to happen that I saw coming but it doesn't!!! To be fair, some of the problems may be inherent in the source material by John D. MacDonald (CAPE FEAR) but I haven't read the novel it's based on, TAINT OF THE TIGER. It doesn't help that potentially complex characters are played by such uninteresting actors as Hunter (who's weaker than usual) and Janssen which leaves Stevens' slut to take center stage. The film is nicely shot in wide screen B&W by Loyal Griggs (SHANE). With Elaine Devry, Bob Crane, Virginia Gregg, Frank Albertson, Perry Lopez and Dorothy Green.

I bought the Blu-ray disc when it first came out and I watch it every now and then. The last time was about three months ago. I've also read the source novel which, going from faded memory, was better than the film which is mediocre at best. The Blu-ray disc has good picture quality.

 

[bujaki]

A Touch of the Poet (Irish Repertory Company) Recorded remotely by the cast and edited almost seamlessly onto a set, this powerful rendition of Eugene O'Neill's play was worth every donated dollar. If this is going to be the way theater is going to survive till the pandemic is vanquished (not any time soon in spite of what you hear), then so be it.
It Felt Like Love (Criterion Channel) 2013. Eliza Hittman's look at a 14-year-old girl's budding sexuality and experimentation with an older and rather dangerous group. Her infatuation might have felt like love, but she comes out stronger and exorcised of facile illusions.
The Blazing Sun (Netflix) 1954. Starring Omar el Chariff, yes, he of El Aurens, in his film debut, and already every inch a blazing star. Directed by one of Egypt's most important directors, Youssef Chahine. A story of greed, corruption and murder involving the wealthy class against the peasants (expendable people); justice and retribution where the son has to avenge the murder of a father outside the law; and a love story between the murderous Pasha and the young man (Sharif) whose father's death by hanging he engineered. Beautifully restored.
Someone Has to Die (Netflix HD HDR) 2020. 3-part series dealing with Franco's Spain in 1954. Repression of homosexuality is brutal (life imprisonment under merciless conditions). A son and a friend (a hetero male ballet dancer) arrive in Spain. The son has been away for 10 years. Rumors fly. The noose tightens because an old friend is a repressed gay man with a shared secret. The end is a bloodbath worthy of a Jacobean tragedy. Unfortunately, the theme of gay life as tragic to its members and how they could offer support to themselves in the midst of the repression is left unexamined.

 

[Thomas T]

 

[Robin9]

Yesterday I watched Desiree which stars Jean Simmons and Marlon Brando. I can see why many people have always disliked this film but I enjoy it. The music score is superb.

In view of today's very sad news, I'll be watching a Sean Connery film tonight. Not sure yet which one it will be.

 

[RICK BOND]

The Flintstones Collection I have been watching for 2 days. Daughters of Darkness 4K is coming today ! Then some Hammer Films and Universal Monster Blurays . Happy Hammer Halloween !

 

[Dave Moritz]

October 30th, 2020 Friday

The Mandalorian S2 E1 - The Marshal
4K Digital / Disney+ / 4K Apple TV
Dolby Atmos 7.1.4

Christine
4K Digital / 4K Apple TV
Dolby Atmos to Auro 3D 7.1.4

 

[Matt Hough]

My Kino order arrived today. I had planned on watching "Love Me Tonight" first out of this box of worthies, but I don't want to be interrupted by any Trick-or-Treaters I might have, so I'll hold it for tomorrow and watch "The Cat and the Canary" tonight. More appropriate for Halloween anyway!

 

[Thomas T]

R.I.P Sir Sean Connery