Calling all Classic Film Lovers!

I watched the The Captive Heart about British PO Ws. It was okay. Interesting take, but I don't think it really showed how tough it was for the men inside. It's no Stalag 17.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."

• Lydia: Merle Oberon is the titular character who in quite intricate flashbacks reminisces with her old beaus. As far as "women's pictures" of the era go, I think this one is a cut above. It's rare that we don't get a happy, clear-cut ending but rather a musing if whether she should've decided for practical love or that heart-pounding kind. I was surprised that Joseph Cotten didn't get proper billing here, but I think this was before he was a big star in Welles' roster.

• This Happy Breed: A good Noel Coward/David Lean film about a British middle class family in England from 1919-1939. Good, quiet film which I enjoyed a lot.

Edited by LongTallShorty64 on Apr 20th 2019 at 7:09:58 AM

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."

Watched The Marx Brothers' Monkey Business from 1931. It's okay, but some of their other movies like Duck Soup and Animal Crackers are clearly superior if you ask me. The laughs in this one were fewer and farther between.

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

Duck Soup is their absolute best. It has gags a minute, crazy hijinks, and Groucho one liners for days. It's the best one.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."

Lazy as I am, I only watched Duck Soup because most popular.

Watched the fluffiest of fluffy screwballs, The Divorce of Lady X. Laurence Olivier in a comedy?! Yeah, it's fine, but nothing special other than it being in Technicolor (!) which is very rare for a comedy of the 1930s and an English one no less. Merle Oberon is also okay like she usually is.

Edited by LongTallShorty64 on Apr 29th 2019 at 7:40:21 AM

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."

Watched the Swedish silent film Gösta Berlings saga from 1924, the film that put Greta Garbo on the map. In it, a drunkard priest who has been cast out by his community struggles to atone and regain his honour and dignity. It's a bit overly dramatic at times, as silent films are wont to be, but I thought it was perfectly okay. I watched it with my partner who had never seen a silent film before, and apparently it's a pretty good introduction to silent films.

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

You should make a wiki for it. Garbo is always better in her silents than in her talkies. Ninotchka being the exception.

Edited by LongTallShorty64 on May 1st 2019 at 9:20:58 AM

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."

Watched Alfie. Ooo boy, the sexism is strong in this one. I mean, I liked the film and Michael Caine somehow manages through charisma and charm to make the selfish asshole likeable. But, wow, like it seems sexist even for the '60s. I don't think I've ever watched something as blatantly sexist like this from the 40s. But I guess their sexism is more subtle. Anywho, good film. I'm slightly intrigued by the remake only because it seems to make it lighter and softer which defeats the whole purpose.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."

I'll always hold the opinion that The Karate Kid Part II is better than the original.

The stakes were believably higher, Miyagi was amazingly fleshed out, and Daniel's continual growth pushed the franchise above being just Rocky but for teens and with karate instead of boxing.

It also explored Japanese and Okinawan culture authentically and respectfully, and shifted away from the cliche high-school-bullying plot.

Thanks for participating in our thread but we have a cut-off date of 1967 when discussing classic films.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."

Apologies. Thanks for the info!

In that case, I'll just gush about The Longest Day.

A classic war film that shows the entire scope of D-Day, from the Allies to the Axis, tackles War Is Hell, has a Cast Herd with Loads And Loads Of Characters that are still fleshed out and still have their own spotlight and story arcs, and best of all it's appropriate for the whole family!

I'mma start watching Laurel and Hardy movies now because...uh...I actually don't know what prompted me, but hey, they are very much shorter than most movies these days so why not.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

Just watched A Matter of Life and Death—I'd seen parts of the trial before, but never watched the whole movie. Suffice to say, I enjoyed it a lot, even though I was never entirely sold on the short timespan in which Peter and June fell in love.

they're gonna find intelligent life up there on the moon/and the canterbury tales will shoot up to the top of the best-seller list

It's a great film.

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I just watched The Flying Deuces from 1939. I have to say that Laurel and Hardy were not as funny as The Marx Brothers, but the ending is great.

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EDIT: I also watched the 1949 Film Noir The Reckless Moment directed by Max Ophuls. It's not your typical noir; it focuses a lot on the frustrating aspects of being a housewife in that era and focuses a lot less on the crime aspect than I expected. James Mason is great as always.

Edited by TompaDompa on May 13th 2019 at 11:40:05 AM

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

During a class, I watched The Sprinkler Springkled, one of the Lumière Films. Hell, it's probabaly THE very first comedy film, IIRC.

I find this little short film rather impressive; it's one-minute long, but it has all the basic plot structure and cinematography. The lecturer pointed out how after the springkler gets sprinkled, he pursues the following boy to nearly edge of the screen and brings him in the center shot, and then smacks and sprinkles the boy in turn, making the action clearer to the audiences.

Edited by dRoy on May 22nd 2019 at 3:43:14 AM

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

That's really cool!

I've never watched those shorts before and it seems so dumb to ignore them since they're so short and so significant.

"It's true that we had a gentleman's agreement, but unfortunately, I am no gentleman."

Watched Luchino Visconti's 1963 Costume Drama The Leopard. It's gorgeous thanks to glorious Technicolor and beautiful cinematography, but it's also three hours long and really feels like it. It's a very melancholy piece about the End of an Era.

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

Just watched Judgment at Nuremberg—there's a lot of parts that are deeply affecting, mainly people's speeches on the nature of justice, but if you took a shot for every time the camera circles around someone or zooms in abruptly for no good reason, you'd be totally wasted by the end.

they're gonna find intelligent life up there on the moon/and the canterbury tales will shoot up to the top of the best-seller list

Watched The Cranes Are Flying, a Soviet anti-war film from 1957. It shows the war mostly from the perspective of the civilian girlfriend of a young Red Army soldier, which is an interesting variation on the usual setup. This being the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, everything of course gets worse for everyone. I gather that the movie is historically important for being one of the earliest post-Stalin Soviet productions to tackle WWII, and it did so in a decidedly non-glamorizing (some would say outright cynical) way.^note The war was of course a massive national trauma to the Soviet Union, which becomes even more clear if one watches the later productions The Ascent (1977) and Come and See (1985). The cinematography is great, with some very effective zooms, Dutch Angles, and camera movements. The acting is more so-so, and I never really felt an emotional connection to the characters (though I can safely say that if I had, it would have been a harrowing experience).

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

Watched Elevator to the Gallows, a French Film Noir from 1958. I liked the plot quite a bit – there are some clever twists and turns and quite a bit of Dramatic Irony. However, I never really felt much sympathy for the characters because the movie didn't give me any reason to root for them. This meant that some sequences that should have been really suspenseful were only kind of suspenseful, because I wasn't particularly invested in the outcome. I think all it would have taken for me to consider the movie great instead of good is 5-10 minutes of characterization in the beginning. It's a damn shame too, because I really wanted to love the movie instead of just liking it, but it strayed too close to Eight Deadly Words territory for me. Maybe I would've loved it had I watched it on a different day.

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

Watched Flaming Creatures, an experimental film from 1963. I've said before that I'm not a big fan of experimental films (though come to think of it, I did like Koyaanisqatsi), and this movie is no exception. It's garbage, frankly. The only reason I watched it in the first place is that it's on the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list. It's available online (apparently it's in the public domain?) if anybody else wants to subject themself to it.

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

Watched He Walked By Night, a 1948 Film Noir. It revolves around a manhunt for a Cop Killer. I tend to be a fan of Police Procedurals (Fritz Lang's M and Akira Kurosawa's High and Low are both fantastic), and this one was good. It makes good use of complete silence, which I thought was interesting.

Ceterum censeo Morbillivirum esse eradicandum.

I discovered He Walked By Night after becoming a fan of Dragnet and tracking down Jack Webb's early film appearances. It's very easy to see where he took inspiration from the movie.

Gone to Faerie, no forwarding address. (AO3)

I keep on watching the wrong versions of films in an attempt to get into fandoms (or at minimum, understand others).

I see everyone talk about Little Pet Shop Of Horrors so I watch The Little Pet Shop Of Horrors. Turns out people are talking about a separate version. I can't get into the musical after watching the original. It's just not the same.

A Star Is Born is a famous film so I watch it... the original 1930s one. I just can't get into the remakes. Apparently the Judy one is better, but it just feels shoddy compared to the first.

I almost did the same thing with Heathers because I keep on seeing it all over fan-sites, but then I noticed people were talking about the Heathers musical, not the film.