Rate The Last Movie You Saw

[PowerRR]

Interesting. Did you watch it via the newly released DVD? I'm definitely curious.

yeah I got it off of Samurai DVD. The colors look very washed out, I'm not sure if this is due to the transfer or if it has justaeays been like this due to it being 1970 Japanese TV. Otherwise it looks fine - no menus or anything, pop in the DVD and it starts running. 73 minutes.

[Novecento]

Thanks - might check it out.

[dave jenkins]

Rear Window (1954) - 10/10. Thirty-fifth viewing. I get something new out of this amazing film every time. This time I noticed yet another bit of virtuoso filmmaking during the Lisa-in-Thorwald's-apartment scene. The composer is doing an instrumental run-through of his new song with all the musicians in his apartment. We later learn that the name of the song is "Lisa" when the completed work is played on phonograph for Miss Lonelyhearts at the end of the picture. The run-through commences right at the beginning of Lisa's charge up the fire escape and ends exactly when the scene does with the police rescue. And of course, the music is supposedly diegetic. Brilliant.

[cigar joe]

I Mobster (1959) Directed by Roger Corman stars Steve Cochran, Lita Milan, Robert Strauss, Lili St. Cyr, Grant Withers and Yvette Vickers. Could have been a lot better than it is, shot without much style till the end chase in the night time wrecking yard where it goes a bit noirs-ish. Lili St. Cyr does her famous bathtub strip, unfortunately it's 1959 and you just get the jist of what it was. Entertaining enough 6/10.

[dave jenkins]

Paterson (2016) - 7/10. Paterson is a city in New Jersey, the setting for this recent Jim Jarmusch film. Paterson is also the name of the film's hero, a bus driver who composes poems while driving, who at the end of the day goes home to the wife (Golshifteh Farahani, a real honey), takes the bulldog (Marvin played by Nellie) for a walk, visits a bar. Daily. The routine is part of the interest in this film, also the departures from that routine. Paterson is also the name of a book by the famous free verse poet, William Carlos Williams, himself a resident of the town some moons ago. This is just to say.

[noodles_leone]

Rear Window (1954) - 10/10. Thirty-fifth viewing. I get something new out of this amazing film every time. This time I noticed yet another bit of virtuoso filmmaking during the Lisa-in-Thorwald's-apartment scene. The composer is doing an instrumental run-through of his new song with all the musicians in his apartment. We later learn that the name of the song is "Lisa" when the completed work is played on phonograph for Miss Lonelyhearts at the end of the picture. The run-through commences right at the beginning of Lisa's charge up the fire escape and ends exactly when the scene does with the police rescue. And of course, the music is supposedly diegetic. Brilliant.

 

I had never noticed that! I saw it (34th viewing so I have excuses) about a month ago.

[dave jenkins]

 

I had never noticed that! I saw it (34th viewing so I have excuses) about a month ago.

I had to go back and watch that scene again. I didn't have it exactly right. When Lisa starts up the fire escape the musicians are still warming up (you can hear snatches of the melody). The actual run-through doesn't start until Lisa actually enters Thorwald's apartment. The take plays all the while Lisa is in danger; it finishes with the arrival of the police. The bits afterward--Lisa revealing the ring to Jeff and, inadvertently, Jeff's location to Thorwald--are done with only ambient noise.

There is no soundtrack album for RW. If there were, though, there would have to be a cue called "Lisa Fremont: Danger Girl."

[drinkanddestroy]

I just saw HUMORESQUE for the second time. (Played on TCM a while ago; I dvr'd and just watched.)

 My opinion is the same as the first time I saw it: this movie is a 6/10. The script is dumb. It's two characters - particularly Garfield's - acting in a ridiculously contrived manner, just because characters getting emotional and screaming at each other works better for movie script than characters not getting emotional and screaming at each other. Garfield's character seems to get upset all the time over dumb shit - either he is upset at Crawford's, or she at him; they're never both happy at the same time - because, hey, it's a movie, so let's make them act that way even though it's ridiculous.

I enjoyed reading that Slant review I linked to a few posts back, more than I enjoyed the movie. As DJ says, Oscar Levant has funny lines and good delivery; as Slant says, sometimes it seems as if his character is in a different movie than the others'!

I'm not a big fan of John Garfield and I find Joan Crawford extremely unattractive. Maybe a good actor and a truly pretty woman could have made the movie better. But as I said, the main problem is the script. The movie has plenty of good stuff - some good performances (Oscar Levant and J. Carrol Naish), gorgeous cinematography, music, interplay of music and imagery (sorry Frayling, but interplay of imagery and music was not invented by Leone/Morricone; [though HUMORESQUE vs. Leone is not an apples-to-apples comparison, as the music in HUMORESQUE is generally diegetic]).

And of course, the shtick with Isaac Stern playing the violin as it's tucked under Garfield's chin is great; good point DJ made that this may not have been able to happen if the movie was made in the widescreen era.

[cigar joe]

The Underworld Story (1950) Director Cy Endfield, stars Dan Duryea, Herbert Marshall, Gale Storm, Howard Da Silva, Gar Moore, a nice little noir about the newspaper business and a falsely accused black woman. 7/10

[XhcnoirX]

The Accountant (2016): Autistic accountant for every crime organisation under the sun takes on a legit job. Which is not nearly as legit as it seemed. Good thing he was raised by his army dad to be a cross between the Karate Kid and American Sniper. As silly as that sounds, it was pretty entertaining until the last 20 or so minutes, which were meh. 7-/10

[cigar joe]

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964) the second feature of Ray Dennis Steckler, it's a really fucked up cult classic, part Twilight Zone, part Musical, part Noir, part Zombie (bad zombie) flick that very amusing.

The Good

It's a very noir-ish film with some amazing color sequences of

The Pike (amusement park), Long Beach, California, USA, and its twin roller coaster great nightime sequences
A carnival fortune teller sequence
A striptease sequence at a nightclub.
Great shots of Angels Flight funicular and Third St. Tunnel and the Sunshine Apartments in Bunker Hill, L.A
Nightclub acts where the dancers do the twist.

The Bad

The storyline is dumb, dumb, dumb
The musical sequences are full sequences.

The Ugly

Hallucinogenic sequences that go on too long.
The zombies have paper mache looking masks.  

For those interested it's on Youtube watch it quick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZUQkFVieWI

[PowerRR]

Babo 73 (1964) - 2/10
Eeechk. Barely watchable.

[drinkanddestroy]

Babo 73 (1964) - 2/10
Eeechk. Barely watchable.

Then why did you watch it?

[XhcnoirX]

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964)
...
For those interested it's on Youtube watch it quick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZUQkFVieWI

Thanks! I downloaded it, just in case 

[XhcnoirX]

Been checking out the 'Richard Diamond: Private Detective' TV series regularly, and David Janssen is great in it, so decided to check out one of his last movies.

The Golden Gate Murders (1979): A priest jumps off SF's Golden Gate Bridge, but nun Susannah York thinks it's murder. Crusty police detective David Janssen is ordered to keep her under tight reigns, but he also has doubts. Good made-for-TV thriller with Janssen excelling as a gruff worldweary man who slowly warms up to a nun. Could've done without the sickly sweet epilogue however. 7/10

Can be found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhP5MJgHQYM