Li'l Duce's Reviews Palace

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A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995) This is a good introduction to movies for beginners. For other more experienced viewers may be a source for some unknown title (I personally caught a couple) to check. But I would like to check on Scorsese's  other movie travel (on italian cinema) before assessing this one. Anyway well worth 8\10.

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Casualties of War (1989) Good war melodrama, marred by Penn's performance (probably one of his worst, though I still have to know if he ever did a best one) and a not very inspired score by the Maestro (his usual arpeggios and pedali, with pan flute OUTA-like numbers). Still the story is gripping and in spite of the flag waving at the end I give it 8\10.

[Groggy]

I liked Penn in The Assassination of Richard Nixon but not much else.

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The Party (1968) One of the two best collaboration between Sellers and Edwards. Doesn't make you ROTFL but it's funny throughout. 8\10

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La bete humaine (1938) This has a great performance by Simon: probably bought her the profitable (artistically) trip to Hollywood. One of the best performances by a female actress I remember, she plays very well on the nuances of her role in the same take. Gabin is excellent as usual and so the rest of the company with the exception of the director himself who can't play at all. The plot is a promising thriller which unfortunately turns to melodrama (and with little credibility at that: never heard of Gabin's hereditary illness before) which almost spoils it all. Atrocious OST. 8\10 only because of Simon.

[cigar joe]

The Party (1968) One of the two best collaboration between Sellers and Edwards. Doesn't make you ROTFL but it's funny throughout. 8\10

I agree, I do like this one too, especially accidental the blowing up of the set by Sellers stepping on the plunger, I've always wondered if it was a sly reference to the premature blowing up of the bridge in GBU.

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I agree, I do like this one too, especially accidental the blowing up of the set by Sellers stepping on the plunger, I've always wondered if it was a sly reference to the premature blowing up of the bridge in GBU.

It's a gag taken from a Laurel and Hardy movie.

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The World of Henry Orient (1964) I don't know what they wanted to do with this: a comedy, a melodrama? they ended up doing both and failed at the mixture. I also suspect that Sellers was an added ingredient to a project in which he played a secondary part and producers exploited his presence. But the film doesn't work. An added minus is Lansbury's already bloated face. 5\10

[Richard--W]

I agree, I do like this one too, especially accidental the blowing up of the set by Sellers stepping on the plunger, I've always wondered if it was a sly reference to the premature blowing up of the bridge in GBU.

The Party is the funniest movie I've ever seen. I relate.  The spirit of the thing is captured by Jack Davis in the poster art, whose name some of you may recognize from Mad Magazine:



The full poster:

[cigar joe]

Nice posters  

My favorite Sellers films are of course The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, After The Fox, The Bobo, and this one, then the rest.

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Nice posters  

My favorite Sellers films are of course The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, After The Fox, The Bobo, and this one, then the rest.

Being There?

[cigar joe]

Being There?

I don't like it as much as those mentioned to tell you the truth.

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Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) The movie is great until Graziano meets his future wife. Then it veers toward melodrama and loses steam. Still it has good reenactements of Graziano's fights thanx to Newman who looks better on the ring than Ryan, Stallone or De Niro. He must have practiced before being an actor, I presume; or he was fast learning before the movie. Also, I laughed at 2-3 jokes. Everett Sloane is great as usual. I am not convinced throughout by his performance though. What does CJ thinks of his brooklyneese? 7\10

[cigar joe]

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) The movie is great until Graziano meets his future wife. Then it veers toward melodrama and loses steam. Still it has good reenactements of Graziano's fights thanx to Newman who looks better on the ring than Ryan, Stallone or De Niro. He must have practiced before being an actor, I presume; or he was fast learning before the movie. Also, I laughed at 2-3 jokes. Everett Sloane is great as usual. I am not convinced throughout by his performance though. What does CJ thinks of his brooklyneese? 7\10

I haven't seen it in a while, so I couldn't say 

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(The performance I'm referring to is Newman's not Sloane's).