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message 201:
by
Betsy
(new)
Aug 17, 2025 07:12AM
Definitely whisky plays a big part in the story, but there's also the idea that a section of Britain is a law-unto-itself, like Pimlico.
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Feliks wrote: "Forced at last to purchase a DVD of 'Le Trou'. It is available nowhere else"I have done that recently for a few things that I want to make sure I have a copy of ...esp. if you buy a digital copy, you have no idea if that service or version will be always "yours" and available....
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So far, I've only figured out the principle of 'renting' and even that is skeevy enough to me.
Even archive.org --a site I would ordinarily respect --participates in such shadiness.
I'm far from comfortable casually divulging my billing info to a gaggle of faceless strangers from who-knows-where.
I hear you on that. I used to have a credit card that I used just for online purchases, but that has kind of gone by the wayside when a hairstylist I used once charged her services to "lovers" something or else, and I had to go through the whole rigamarole of changing my billing on everything.
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I agree, Feliks. I didn't like that film at all.
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Ordered, paid for, and en route to me at this moment, via United States Postal Service:
~Ernst Lubitsch: 'Trouble in Paradise'. Favorite movie of Alistair Cooke. Long heard about it, never actually seen it.
~FIVE complete and entire Brit comedies featuring Alistair Sim. I've never seen him in anything except Dickens.
~'Million Dollar Legs': the storied comedy with WC Fields & Jack Oakie. Once and for all, must track this down.
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I'm hardly familiar AT ALL with actor Richard Dix.
He was a big deal back in the day but it is just as well that you don't know much about him. He is one of my least favorite actor and I never saw the reason for his popularity. I have seen Ghost Ship but only because it was a Val Lewton film.
I rewatched Carl Reiner's 'Where's Poppa?' (1970) with George Segal and Ruth Gordon. It's a crass comedy, at times very funny )if you dig excruciatingly dark humour) and with a few jokes that have aged very badly but I'm inclined to forgive it its bad taste (though I'm struggling with a couple of scenes) because the best bits are truly hilarious.
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But --a young Neville Brand in the lead role?
A scrawny, gangly, young Neville Brand? Not sure I can stomach it.
In my mind he is always a brawny, glowering, no-goodnik; surly & scowling.
Never on the side of the angels; never a nice guy
He was a great guy in the TV series, Laredo. Loved him in that show.
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Time to do something about this ASAP
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You probably know this anyway, but just for the record, Kurosawa wrote but didn't direct 'Snow Trail'. But he liked Mifune (isn't 'Snow Trail' he debut?) so much, he directed him in all but one of his next 15 films.
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Rewatched THE LADYKILLERS (1955) with my sweets, who hadn't watched it before...and it was just as funny as ever. Alec Guiness is pure magical genius, as is baby Peter Sellers. The whole cast is perfection. So much fun! Worth the rewatch!
Laura wrote: "Rewatched THE LADYKILLERS (1955) with my sweets, who hadn't watched it before...and it was just as funny as ever. Alec Guiness is pure magical genius, as is baby Peter Sellers. The whole cast is pe..."I couldn't agree more, a total joy.
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Not quite sure why. I know that I disliked Alec Guinness' strange Tod-Browning-makeover with the Kenneth Tynan mismatched dental work. He was simply not pleasant to look at. His face was freakish.
His character is supposedly a mastermind --this was one-dimensional as far as I was concerned. But then it isn't even delivered consistently. He makes childish errors in handling his gang.
[The scene with the escaped parrot; the scene in the phone booth; and also the fact that he lets his gang vote on big decisions]
And --if he is such a mastermind --why doesn't he realize that his carnival-freak face itself, is enough to make anyone suspicious of his activities?
The heist itself was ingenious; but I hate that it failed because of (the classic trope of) 'one fatal slipup'.
That gaffe? Contrived; artificial. A suitcase lid which wouldn't close properly. The case snags on a doorjamb, but instead of freeing it carefully the gangmember yanks it. His share of the money spills out on the pavement for the landlady to view. Conveniently, no one else in the gang is paying attention when this happens.
I was groaning. This gang just commendably pulled off an extraordinary heist --but when they take their leave of their lair, they struggle to make it through the doorway of the flat?
And then they agree the witness must be murdered? No. In reality a gang would simply scatter and disappear.
I hated the scene where --against all logic --they return to the flat and attempt the patently transparent hogwash of fibbing and lying to the landlady about what just happened.
Major disappointment. I had high hopes for this famous comedy to score big with me.
I saw 'Ladykillers' years ago, and enjoyed it. Alec Guinness was certainly a versatile actor. He could do it all.
Apparently Guinness' part was originally written for Alistair Sim who for some reason or other didn't end up appearing in the film so Guinness bascially did a Sim.
That's interesting. Two great actors, why not? ☺ Isn't there a saying about 'imitation being the sincerest form of flattery'?
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Sim and Margaret Rutherford are at the top of their form in 'Happiest Days'--not to mention the 'little dears' they are in charge of.
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I think that Sim never made a wrong move but he must have had some bad films. I just don't know what they were.
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'Rolling Thunder'.
I notice that its available to view at no cost.
In light of the fact that Paul Schrader wrote, it's a must-see for me.
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Classic strangers-thrown-together opening (Charles Boyer in slouch-brim hat; breathy befuddled Jean Arthur).
A chum also recommends 'Jewel Robbery' with William Powell & Kay Francis, 1932.
Saw a rather unusual film last night. First of all, it was Lucille Ball in a very straight role as a tough-talking nightclub singer, second Henry Fonda was a mild-mannered semi-shlemiel named Little Pinks; third it also had a great cast including Agnes Moorehead, Eugene Pallette as Nicely-Nicely and Ray Collins as the Professor. 'The Big Street' (1942) is based on a Damon Runyon story which you might guess from some of the names.Lucille Ball did a good job as a spoiled looker who opened her mouth once too often. The rest of the players were there mainly to showcase her plight after a creep paralyses her. From then on Little Pinks virtually becomes her subject. He even calls her 'Your Highness'. In one of the most unbelievable scenes he pushes her in a wheel chair from NYC to Miami because she's 'cold'.
It is a bizarre movie in many ways, but you keep hoping for a happy ending anyway.
I am not particularly a fan of Damon Runyon's work but also watched this film. No thanks. I didn't like it at all and agree that it was unusual, as you said, Betsy.
It does take getting used to, Jill, especially since all the characters are 'exaggerated'. I kept wondering why all of them were willng to do so much for someone who probably didn't deserve it.
