Li'l Duce's Reviews Palace

[titoli]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeHqMB93uSI

This is one of the best 50's italian comedies, there are scenes i'm never tired of watching (and I've been watching the movie for 50 years, ever since I saw it in a theatre). But I doubt english subtitles can render the surrealism of Totò and Peppino's dialogues. Anyway, maybe worth a try. 9/10

[cigar joe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeHqMB93uSI

This is one of the best 50's italian comedies, there are scenes i'm never tired of watching (and I've been watching the movie for 50 years, ever since I saw it in a theatre). But I doubt english subtitles can render the surrealism of Totò and Peppino's dialogues. Anyway, maybe worth a try. 9/10

I got about 2/3rds of the way through it (pretty funny) before I had to go to a 4th of July fireworks celebration. I'm at the part where, just after his son comes back from the Alps and they first discover the counterfeit 10,000 lira notes floating around town. 

What are the scenes you never tire of watching?

[dave jenkins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeHqMB93uSI

This is one of the best 50's italian comedies, there are scenes i'm never tired of watching (and I've been watching the movie for 50 years, ever since I saw it in a theatre). But I doubt english subtitles can render the surrealism of Totò and Peppino's dialogues. Anyway, maybe worth a try. 9/10

Mustafa - 10/10.

[titoli]

What are the scenes you never tire of watching?

The ones featuring Totò and Peppino (and Giacomo Furia). Especially the dialogues when Totò keeps on distorting Peppino's surname (Lo Turco). But the sequence where Totò pays a visit to Peppino's print shop and from there they go to the bar and then to the metro station and to meet Furia is simply masterful.   

[cigar joe]

The ones featuring Totò and Peppino (and Giacomo Furia). Especially the dialogues when Totò keeps on distorting Peppino's surname (Lo Turco). But the sequence where Totò pays a visit to Peppino's print shop and from there they go to the bar and then to the metro station and to meet Furia is simply masterful.

Yes those were good but like you mentioned the dialog didn't work as well when you had to read it in subtitles, having to get rid of Mustafa was pretty funny also.

[titoli]

Yes those were good but like you mentioned the dialog didn't work as well when you had to read it in subtitles, having to get rid of Mustafa was pretty funny also.

But it is not only that you have to READ the dialogue, but that lots of things get lost, inevitably, in the translation (and in THIS translation, specifically).

[dave jenkins]

Yes those were good but like you mentioned the dialog didn't work as well when you had to read it in subtitles, having to get rid of Mustafa was pretty funny also.

But even funnier was when Mustafa came back and Toto tried to explain it really wasn't him.

[titoli]

An Enemy of the People (1978) Steve McQueen playing Ibsen?  I had forgotten about it. How he came to star in this poor production is probably the most interesting part of the whole affair, but I never read a McQueen's bio and don't intend ever to. 6/10

[titoli]

American Made (2017) Tom Cruise hasn't learned to act after all these decades in business, still sporting that grin or half grin that it's all he can manage to show he can vary expressions. But he's usually able to provide entertainment. In this case, even something more, as the story is very engrossing, the rhythm is fast and, as it deals with USA dirty dealings in Central America, it is less superficial than the usual Cruise's broth. Still there's no preaching, just letting facts speak for themselves. A solid 8/10. Strange that nobody here, unless the search button, as usual, doesn't work, took notice.   

[cigar joe]

American Made (2017) Tom Cruise hasn't learned to act after all these decades in business, still sporting that grin or half grin that it's all he can manage to show he can vary expressions. But he's usually able to provide entertainment. In this case, even something more, as the story is very engrossing, the rhythm is fast and, as it deals with USA dirty dealings in Central America, it is less superficial than the usual Cruise's broth. Still there's no preaching, just letting facts speak for themselves. A solid 8/10. Strange that nobody here, unless the search button, as usual, doesn't work, took notice.

Never heard of it.

[titoli]

Some famous scenes featuring Totò with english subtitles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui3ybjNiH2U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWdF5fSKCiU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwIzOSCcYEY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzJ4n0B_Ysw

Another movie entirely subtitled, but I can't remember how bad or good it was:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rNsgAmF7jQ

[titoli]

Gunn (1967) Unfortunately couldn't find subtitles so I lost about 50% of the dialogues and couldn't make out the why and wherefore of the schemer's plot. but I can tell that this is based on rehashing of  old material: see the first episode of the Gunn series itself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTMVMRJtF68), the Spillane's "Juno was a man" trick; even the final song is an unashamed steal from  The Vogues Five O'Clock World. The problem with all these movies made in the mid- sixties is that they lack grittiness, they all look too slick, both as to locales and as to characters. And I include the Harpers, the Tony Romes and the rest. It will be Don Siegel who, gradually, will change the look of the detective stories starting from Madigan, through Coogan's Bluff and finally with Dirty Harry, the first of the new breed.  Edwards tries to include some Bondism (the moronic kill with the spear gun), some  nudity, some torture (the squash) but all subdued and unimpressive. Still the plot, as far as I could make out, was intriguing and the rhythm was good. Halfway between 6-7/10. 

[titoli]

A classic "italian comedy" from the Golden Age (the 60's) (among the best 10 ever? Probably):


I  Knew Her Well:

Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xt2jIx5IEM

You can download the english captioned movie here:

https://k2s.cc/file/5a3d466a3a12e/I_Knew_Her_Well.mkv

[titoli]

Der Untertan (1951) A solid plot based on a novel which caused a lot of discussion and the movie itself didn't escape censorship in Germany for its harsh satire on nationalism (the toilet paper scene must have caused discussions, I presume). The characters, especially the protagonist, seems to have been inspired, figuratively, by Grosz's drawings which came 20 years after the years in which the action here is set. But the whole story should have had a better director to give more force to the images. 7/10   

[titoli]

Nachts wenn der Teufel kam (1957) This is based on the serial killer (but there's no certain proof he was such) Bruno Lüdke during the last years of Nazi rule. The movie starts  off as a thriller, with the search by a cop for the killer of a woman for whose crime an innocent (Werner Peters) was accused and waiting for execution. Mario Adorf is playing the killer by imitating Jerry Lewis (half open eyes, pouting lips) and staring at the floor like in a Rohmer's movie. I don't think he's that good. Much better are Karl Lange and Hannes Messemer as the SS  bonze. In fact it is when the political aspect of the affair becomes predominant that the movie gets more interesting. I don't think that even CJ could dub it as a Nazi noir. But still a good movie from Siodmak. 7/10