Last Movie You Watched.

After, The Greatest Story Ever Told (curious film. All made Stateside, John Wayne is a centurion...) onto one of the best and with respect to Fields, unintentional teasing!

A Night to Remember

Today is the anniversary of her collision with the iceberg and so this film, for me, remains the best. In a way it's British cinema of the day, at its best. Imagine doing this now, there's not enough British actors with respect to provide a cast as rich as this one. The documentary style would be...well, it'd be Titanic (1997) wouldn't it?
And that therein is also the beauty of this film. It's just under two hours long, it starts on the 14th about ten minutes in (after we see Titanic launched in 1911, then our introduction to Kenny More's Lightoller and various passengers from first to third classes) and strikes the berg just under forty minutes in.

The attention is giving equally, first class is shown (fantastic actor with Molly Brown in the dining room. His utterances of his lines make you chuckle), second and of course third. This film set the blueprint of the others. There's hardly any soundtrack but what there is, is quite moving in its way and dramatic (the music for the sinking is top notch).
Who needs a love story when the human tragedy is enough? (Love is seen in this film be it Lightoller and his wife or the third class duo from Ireland quietly coupled with a lady from Ireland and one from Russia respectively) and of course, Honor Blackman and her husband, John Merivale, who stoically, classic British, meets his fate.
When I saw this film as a child, I'd be in floods of tears when the little boy emerges not long before the final plunge screeching for his mummy. But now, there's a lump in the throat, a shiver of the spine, when Merivale says quietly to his sleeping son in his arms, "Goodbye my son" and the camera cuts to More's Lightoller who clearly is torn between a father saying goodbye forever but the need to get the boy into the boat.

Bits of the film were taken from the then-mostly lost 1934 Nazi film Titanic (it's a laugh as you do now. The first officer is German and he sees through the 'lies' and capitalistic filth of the Jews and others...), such as Titanic steaming in daylight and some bits as she sinks but for 1958, the model-work is top notch. She was 'sunk' in a lido/boating lake just outside London. Marked contrast to Cameron virtually rebuilding the ship itself in Mexico.

Everyone feels on form here. This film helped cement, when I was a snapper, in liking More (Lewis Gilbert always said he wasn't the best actor going but KM always did his best regardless) but everyone top down is good. Laurence Naismith capturing what Smith surely felt as his command slipped beneath him (you don't see his death), More and Lightoller's sense of duty and bravery, Michael Goodliffe as Andrews, the members of the band, Frank Lawton as Ismay (the shot of him cowering in the lifeboat with Titanic sinking behind him is done exactly in Titanic) and the ensemble making up the passengers and crew. With special mention to Anthony Bushell as the commander of the Carpathia, Royston.

Keep your eyes peeled for Desmond Llewellyn and Peter Burton (our two Connery Q's...), Bernard Fox and others. I still can't see Connery.

Now what Titanic '97 had going was attention to detail and I guess rebuilding the ship plus a depiction of the sinking that was accurate but that's all I'll say for this film had the facts as they were in 1958. The ship hadn't been found, there still were enough survivors alive (including the fourth officer, Boxhall) to provide facts firsthand and yet those facts from 1912 on were at best sometimes muddled. Some said the ship split, others said it went whole etc.

So there we have it. CGI, a love story and 3hrs of length are smoke and mirrors to a story that in 1912 signalled the ending of the Edwardian age and provided a quiet harbinger to the horrors of the First War.

Nice write up. I decided to have another look online and found a blu ray version on auction ending in 6 hours. Made an offer. Let's see.

Gave Mr. Turner a watch a few days ago and yet it's still with me. Perhaps the most effective period film I've seen in a long time. Masterful performances, photography and direction and a script as sharp as ever. Need to seek out more Mike Leigh films. I believe Vera Drake and now this are the only two I've seen.

When I become Lord Emperor GB, I'll sort out opening up Australia to the idea of importing these films properly. :)

Mr Turner is quietly impressive, I read a book on him other week, impressive life he had too. I mention Fighting Temaraire on the bus but his work for the fire at Parliament in 1834 is as good.

Single White Female - ah, that awkward moment when your new flatmate turns out to be a homicidal nutter. The 'yuppie in peril/home invasion' type of thriller cycle kick-started by Fatal Attraction in '87 still had 'legs' in '92, the twist here being that the protagonists are both women (Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh).

This descends into OTT-ness for its finale, but is pretty enjoyable up to then with both leads sportingly spending some screen time in various states of undress (Leigh particularly).

Hilly wrote:

When I become Lord Emperor GB, I'll sort out opening up Australia to the idea of importing these films properly. :)

As I've said off the forum, I wholly endorse your idea to change the name of Australia to 'Lazenbyland' once you become Lord Emperor.

Quote :

Mr Turner is quietly impressive, I read a book on him other week, impressive life he had too. I mention Fighting Temaraire on the bus but his work for the fire at Parliament in 1834 is as good.

I remember when the film was released I snubbed the trailers. Don't know why, but I did. It's simply a piece of art. I admit I googled his life upon finishing the film. A tough last 25 years of his life, as documented by the film.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Single White Female - ah, that awkward moment when your new flatmate turns out to be a homicidal nutter. The 'yuppie in peril/home invasion' type of thriller cycle kick-started by Fatal Attraction in '87 still had 'legs' in '92, the twist here being that the protagonists are both women (Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh).

This descends into OTT-ness for its finale, but is pretty enjoyable up to then with both leads sportingly spending some screen time in various states of undress (Leigh particularly).    

What a cast (and probably in their prime)! I'll have to see if I can get my hands on a copy in Oz.

Takers/The Driver - a heist-themed double-bill, as it were. Takers isn't bad, but it's not got much on Walter Hill's late 70s slice of rubber-burning tyre-squealing enigmatic coolness.

Jane Eyre (Fukunaga)

Wasn't crash hot on this upon release. Gave a second go a few years back and it seemed to confirm what I'd already thought. Gave it a third go yesterday, to re-evaluate. I really enjoyed it this time round. It's a beautifully shot film and going by NTTD's trailers, I have no doubt, at the very least, it will look stunning. I also like the performances he drew from his actors.

But Jane Eyre is a classic text, so a good film would always naturally come from esteemed source material. No Time to Die, with Spectre (and the rest of the Craig era) as its foundation, is far from classic status. A pretty frame won't be enough to jolt a good film from a script that may not amount to much.

things I do for my Plummer fandom...

Starcrash/ Star Crash

Now, Caroline Munro's unending torrent of hotness aside, what a turkey. One of the strangest films to have a John Barry score at least (I do wonder if ol' JB was fully aware of what he was scoring or, like They Might Be Giants, did the music and left someone to put it to film).

The effects are weak, to put it mildly and the film plods along with a degree of dodgy acting. I can't tell if some of it's down to dubbing (Munro seemed dubbed in some scenes and I'm sure she said something without moving her lips). Marjoe Gortner, that perennial TJ Hooker bad guy, has his moments veering from hammy acting to possibly trying his best. The Hoff (who matches Gortner for cury hair) likewise goes full tilt in places and not in a good way. Joe Spinell masters the art of evil laughing and then dear Christopher Plummer. From the off, his three days worth of shooting, look like he realised what he let himself in for before filming ("Halt the flow of time!").

Apologies if anyone does like this but there we go.

There must have been very few sci-fi flicks that didn't get greenlit in the wake of Star Wars.

Very true. I read that the director said he had the idea of this film before Star Wars but it's blatant, especially when you have Gortner wielding a lightsaber in all but name.

Even Saturn 3 ripped off the opening of Star Wars in 1980. (Another disastrous film, I like Douglas, I like Fawcett-Majors but just bad)

The List of Adrian Messenger

in spite of it's lowly IMDB score, I found myself quite entertained by this film. Perhaps it was the cast which included Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum. The London locations, the fact it bubbled along nicely.
However, above all there is George C. Scott. The moment he appeared I was quietly enthralled. By this, in the past couple of years there's something about Scott that is magnetic. Maybe I consider the stories I've read (such as in Plummer's memoirs) or his role in Patton seeming larger than life. Otherwise, this was one of the finest actors of the 20th Century who'd surely have something to say on the current state of Hollywood. The kind of person who if he had a Twitter or Facebook, would use it for withering put downs.
(I'd suspect, Scott would turn his back on it and see mates like Plummer from time to time).

Thank God for YouTube, for on the quiet I've managed to see a few films via it, including this one. (Star Crash also).

Always liked Adrian Messenger. Not a well known film sadly despite the cast and being directed by John Huston. It's a fun mystery and a must for George C. Scott fans. Kirk Douglas was was also particularly good in it.

Strangways&Quarrel wrote:

Always liked Adrian Messenger. Not a well known film sadly despite the cast and being directed by John Huston. It's a fun mystery and a must for George C. Scott fans. Kirk Douglas was was also particularly good in it.

It was for Douglas I initially watched it. Got to like how they made out at the end Lancaster played the fox hunt protester despite being somewhat taller than the woman seen in film.

I'll have to see about getting this on DVD.

A Night to Remember arrived in the mail today, Hilly! I'll endeavour to watch it within the week.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

A Night to Remember arrived in the mail today, Hilly! I'll endeavour to watch it within the week.

Nice one. Hopefully you enjoy it. Nice glass of liquor might go along with it.

Hilly wrote:

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

A Night to Remember arrived in the mail today, Hilly! I'll endeavour to watch it within the week.

Nice one. Hopefully you enjoy it. Nice glass of liquor might go along with it.

If you say so. Any excuse to down one or two I'll take.

via Youtube...One day I might break onto this here Amazon Prime thing.

Waterloo Road

classic Gainsborough film in that it's effectively a soap. It's nothing too flash but has its moments. For one, some fantastic shots of Waterloo Station 1944/45 (it has changed on the quiet a great deal until now, least of all the 1990s Eurostar terminal) and wartime Lambeth (to say the war changed it is an understatement).
It's also for the fact it has John Mills and Alistair Sim in it. Stewart Granger is but for some reason I'm not a huge fan, maybe I'm tempered by Roger Moore's words in his books. Mills' wife is up to no good with Granger's spiv and goes AWOL. The finale is cracker in a way- a punch up between the two as the bombs start pounding the area. Millsy' gets some fantastic hits in. Not a long film, a snip at 72mins.

The Two-Headed Spy

Dear Jack Hawkins playing a double agent, a Britisher at the heart of the German High Command. Loosely based on reality (Hawkins' character in real life was at MI19, where high level prisoners were interrogated in London) it is an intriguing film to me. One of these films that British actors are playing Germans (some bother with an accent like Naismith, others don't like Hawkins) but also solely set in the Reich. For the late 50s it's a slightly complex film and is a serious one at that. It includes the Battle of Berlin, perhaps one of the few depictions on film, certainly a Western film and including the Fuhrerbunker at that (with a reasonable attention to detail).

Michael Caine pops up as a Gestapo man (possibly dubbed. I refer you to Eagle Has Landed for his German accent coming and going), Donald Pleasance and a host of familiar faces too. Including it must be said Kenneth Griffiths...
...as Hitler. Fortunately you don't see his face, so it's done from behind.

Midnight Run - bounty hunter Robert DeNiro has to bring embezzlin' Mob accountant Charles Grodin from New York to LA, but naturally things don't go smoothly.

I hadn't seen this late 80s buddy action comedy since its VHS release ... still a very entertaining movie, 30+ years on. The 2 leads are a hoot, and the supporting cast includes Yaphet Kotto, Joe Pantoliano and Dennis Farina.

Hilly wrote:

The Two-Headed Spy

Dear Jack Hawkins playing a double agent, a Britisher at the heart of the German High Command. Loosely based on reality (Hawkins' character in real life was at MI19, where high level prisoners were interrogated in London) it is an intriguing film to me. One of these films that British actors are playing Germans (some bother with an accent like Naismith, others don't like Hawkins) but also solely set in the Reich. For the late 50s it's a slightly complex film and is a serious one at that. It includes the Battle of Berlin, perhaps one of the few depictions on film, certainly a Western film and including the Fuhrerbunker at that (with a reasonable attention to detail).

Michael Caine pops up as a Gestapo man (possibly dubbed. I refer you to Eagle Has Landed for his German accent coming and going), Donald Pleasance and a host of familiar faces too. Including it must be said Kenneth Griffiths...
...as Hitler. Fortunately you don't see his face, so it's done from behind.

BI wrote:

PostSubject: Re: Last Movie You Watched.   Last Movie You Watched. - Page 20 EmptyYesterday at 8:29 pm Reply with quote Edit/Delete this post Delete this post View IP address of poster
Midnight Run - bounty hunter Robert DeNiro has to bring embezzlin' Mob accountant Charles Grodin from New York to LA, but naturally things don't go smoothly.

I hadn't seen this late 80s buddy action comedy since its VHS release ... still a very entertaining movie, 30+ years on. The 2 leads are a hoot, and the supporting cast includes Yaphet Kotto, Joe Pantoliano and Dennis Farina.

A bittersweet thing about this forum... So many interesting film recommendations from across the globe, so little chance of seeing them in Oz. Though Midnight Run might be easier to get a hold of.

sorry Fields, but if it helps the films I mentioned are on YouTube and look to be accessible in all countries.

But I do love myself Midnight Run, a fan of Charles Grodin (he has a fantastic little cameo in So, I Married an Axe Murderer)

--

yesterday, I reached into YouTube and went back in time almost 87 years. Incredible how cinema was in those days and the fact we're now able to watch this on the internet.

Hyde Park Corner (1935)

little comedy about misdemeanours in London. Curious film in that it starts in 1740 with a crime and you have the actors therein who then reappear as different characters when the story shifts to the then-modern day. So Eric Portman, Charles Harker et al all playing two characters or at least the modern versions of their 18th century counterparts. Everyone has a blast in it.

Britannia of Billingsgate (1933)

Now officially the oldest John Mills I've seen (incredibly he was 25 at the time). Millsy plays a small part as the focus is elsewhere. However, a nice shot of a time long forgotten. Though not filmed at the old market (1216 to 1980), it captures what must've gone on in a snapshot. For, as noted, the market moved on to Canary Wharf in 1980 removing almost seven hundred years of London tradition.
Light, breezy, typical of the 1930s and with actors who were mostly born in the late 1870s, early 1880s which I find fascinating.

from BBC iplayer

Score

not a film as such but 90-odd minutes about film music. Touches upon John Barry and Bond and goes all over really, I wouldn't call Brian Tyler a proper composer, he says snootily (swine drives a Ferrari!) but no mention of James Horner. Granted he had his critics (his scores were quite similar, they were rip offs, etc) but he was one of the 'Class-A' composers alongside Goldsmith, Barry and Williams.
Anyway, it's on the iplayer for another few days and curiously can't seem to find it on DVD anyway.

live on Film4

The Greatest Show on Earth

the last time I saw this I sort of gave up and indeed modern assessments of the movie are not kind. At a good 3hrs 15, folk say it was undeserving of its Best Picture Oscar and indeed claim it got it because of the anti-McCarthyism message of High Noon. Is High Noon a better picture? Yes.
The Razzies book includes this film as one of the worst in history...

...and yet this time round I went with the flow. DeMille clearly never did things by half. I saw the Ten Commandments a week or so ago (and that's longer at about 4hrs/4hrs 15)

It's an epic in how they did movies back then. Circuses aren't my thing and not really a thing nowadays like they were but as a spectacle on film, not too bad. The cast is good -Heston became a name after this and yet it sort of gets left aside. Apparently a fan wrote DeMille saying the actors were good and Mr Heston was a good manager to work with these actors well.

I forget Jimmy Stewart was in this until I heard his voice. He never is out of his clown make-up. At the very end the voice of the announcer is good ol' Edmond O'Brien.

However, in something that should have me bringing in my Hilly's Women of Yesterday thread, the actresses are alluring in their way. Betty Hutton was the main actress in the film but you have Gloria Grahame who was in It's a Wonderful Life with Stewart and has enough sass to sink the Bismarck in this one. "Sugar" this and "sugar" that to guys. Plus she's a brunette in this film.
And then there's Dorothy Lamour. Weird to see her not acting with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby in their Road movies but she too has sass and streetwise. She was a beauty in the day. Can you believe her last movie was Creepshow 2?

Anyway, that was my films yesterday. Before lockdown I wouldn't watch as much in a day (with the tour job I was lucky to average 10 movies in a month) but there we go.

Never watched a film on YT. Might have to.

A Night to Remember.

An expertly crafted film. What a visual treat it must have been back in the day. Still is. The mind wonders about the tragedy - it's a story that always sticks with you. The lives lost. The what ifs.

The strength here over the Cameron version is its economy. How it doesn't play on the melodrama as it's a dramatic enough scenario. The consistent set recreation is incredible among both versions. The attention to detail and the replication of the ship makes me think of Leo and Kate running along the decks. To think Jack and Rose's story could be happening simultaneously to the many stories of these characters is something that crossed my mind. And Molly Brown. Just as good as Kathy Bates's version.

Nice to see Llewelyn pop up, albeit masked by a gate. And Honor. Billed so highly, even to have her face pictured on the blu-ray cover, to have only two dialogue scenes. But they're done so well, especially her second scene. Any case, as I said elsewhere, nice to see pre-Bond Pussy!

Oh and Kenneth Moore... What a missed opportunity not to have cast him as Tanner in the 60s. Might have been a little long in the tooth but could absolutely see him alongside Connery. Maybe in Goldfinger assisting Bond at the golf course. He'd know the game!

I have YouTube on my TV's Amazon firestick thingy, so it's as good (if the quality of the film is) as putting in a DVD.

---

Excellent and glad to see you enjoyed that film, Fields. Not often I can rave about a film and it passes on so.

Both Molly Brown's utterly personify the legend that was the Unsinkable Molly Brown (the musical of the same name in her honour more or less in the 1920s I think).

Didn't think about Blackman being highly billed but two lines. Reminds me of these epic films or other films where say John Wayne, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas or whomever are billed on the poster but have one single line in the film (Greatest Story Ever Told is a good example).

Glad to see another backer of More in a Bond film. Incredible what if I think, if he had stepped in to replace Bernard Lee in LALD or a Tanner in the 60s. Even a long in the tooth Kenny was worth his salary. 1960 was the start of the end really, no longer a leading man and almost a stereotype (like Richard Todd et al to be fair) of stiff uppers, cheeky chappy etc. He did his best for Night to Remember though, talking to Lightoller's widow to get it right. Complete contrast to the chap in Titanic.

Kenny did know the game, ha. Could even see him with Moore out in Louisiana with Hedison's Felix.
"You're his friend."
"Yes but you're his boss."
"Oh I wish I wasn't at the moment."

Nice one Fields. I need to get it on blu-ray then. Mine is the ITV disc of the Kenneth More boxset. (Useless boxset, five films and one of them he's barely in).

before I hop over to a Bond, so to speak:

Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

starts off well enough and indeed it has pace in parts, all way style, substance and fun. However, into the middle when the romance starts I sort of slightly lost interest. Not the fault of the stars, it just felt that the film sagged a little. Indeed, Brosnan and Russo might be no McQueen/Dunaway (no one is a McQueen let's be honest), they're not bad. They make the film their own and Russo is a striking enough woman in her own right. Brosnan feels understated, not a critique by any stretch. As this was around the time of TWINE, it's a marked contrast to Bond. He looks slimmer too and above all, as with his Bond films, he wears a suit well. If the man hasn't advertised for Savile Row, he needs to once this lockdown's over.

Along for the ride is the late great Ben Gazzara and the also late Fritz Weaver (one of my favourite TV guest stars. Always seemed to be popping up in things). Conti's soundtrack does the job though I wasn't mad on the heist music. Didn't seem to know what it wanted to be, late 90s or regular music.

Just read that McTiernan in 2014 said whilst "in prison" (as you do), he wrote a sequel. Er, Thomas Crown and the Lioness...

However, since then, if you look at IMDB there is a reboot/whatever in the works. Michael B. Jordan, but it's in development with no cast or whatever.

And no one wants my Raise the Titanic reimagining. Tut, tut

King Solomon's Mines (1985) - Cannon Films strike again, with H. Rider Haggard's classic adventure novel adapted as a cheapjack Indiana Jones rip-off.

'Highlights' include some truly appalling back-projection scenes, the rotor of a helicopter being used for an aerial shot appearing in said shot, part of some sort of crane/frame (that people who are meant to be dangling upside down from jungle vines are clearly dangling from instead) also appearing in shot and a giant spider of such ineptitude that it would've shamed a mid-60s movie, never mind a mid-80s one.

I can only assume that Richard Chamberlain's movie offers were thin on the ground in the 80s ... as for John Rhys-Davies, how he couldn't spot that this was basically Raiders done badly after having been IN Raiders Christ alone knows. The fact that Sharon Stone was cast in this accidentally (producers asked for 'that Stone woman', meaning Kathleen Turner) tells you everything. Still, at least her legs being on show throughout is a minor saving grace.