What Movie Did You Watch This Weekend? The Third.

[morrobay]

this probably won't generate a discussion  ...from The Film Detective on IG.  i have seen this one, a classic to make fun of...

thefilmdetective
Wishing a very happy birthday to Virginia Leith! ⁣
⁣
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Virginia made a debut in “Fear and Desire” (1953), and joined the likes of Ginger Rogers and Robert Wagner for performances in “Black Widow” (1954) and “A Kiss Before Dying” (1956). By the 1960s, Virginia's film contract was behind her and her roles dwindled down to the occasional television appearance. However, in 1962, Virginia was “headed” for her most well remembered role in the cult classic “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” (1962). Lovingly coined as “Jan in the Pan,” Leith took on the role of Jan Compton, whose severed head is kept alive in Dr. Cortner’s lab in the hopes that he can transplant Jan’s head onto a new body. Discover the fate of “Jan in the Pan” in “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” (1962) on The Film Detective!

[BlueAmber63]

Hi Lyle,

There is some thing I posted on "Lets get serious about Jake".
It's some technical jargon about actors and movie making and wondered
if you could explain a little of what he is talking about if you know.

Thanks in anticipation. 

[CellarDweller115]

Discover the fate of “Jan in the Pan” in “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” (1962) on The Film Detective!

   I've never seen that one, but I've heard of it.  "Jan in the Pan" is a new phrase to me!  Perfect!!!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I'll go look!

Hi Lyle,

There is some thing I posted on "Lets get serious about Jake".
It's some technical jargon about actors and movie making and wondered
if you could explain a little of what he is talking about if you know.

Thanks in anticipation. 

[Flyboy]

Watched Joker last night. IMHO, I think Phoenix used some of Heath's characterization in his portrayal. Maybe every time we see the Joker in film we'll always be looking for sign of Heath's interpretation, no? Whatever, unusual film showing the beginnings of Joker. I loved seeing Frances Conroy as his Mother, she was great in Six Feet Under! DeNiro must have been forgettable to me, I didn't even KNOW that was him! hahaha... ....

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Joker has some elements of the 80's film, King of Comedy. Don't you agree?
I also appreciate why the title of the film is Joker and not The Joker.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Pillow Talk

A friend and I revisited this film I've seen a few times before, but I never saw it in widescreen as it was intended and the way it should be seen!

I love in the opening credits when the actors names appear and each name gets a pillow thrown at it and it amuses me when they throw a pink pillow at Rock Hudson's name.

In this film when the Universal logo appears, in the left hand corner it says:

Edward Muhl
In charge of Production



I remembered in the book The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson, about the notorious gay talent agent Henry Willson, the stories of Rock Hudson...one of which is that when he was filming at Universal, during long breaks he'd go up to Edward Muhl's office and those two would have sex with each other.

I'm just assuming people have seen this film before. It was Doris Day's only Oscar nominated role, though a couple others were deserved. There's an interesting seen where Rock Hudson is actually pretending he's gay, in a 1959 way. It's one of those lavish set decorated films Universal put out in the late 50's, early 60's, with apartments the size of movie sound stages. Some of those movies are great to watch just because of that and not much else.

This kind of film is tame by today's standards, but it's innocence can be affecting, if one is open to it.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Guest Wife

Oddly enough, this film from 1945 is more daring than Pillow Talk in it's dialogue concerning male/female relationships. This one stars Richard Foran, Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert. There are quite a few movies that have a plot where a woman, married or not, has to pretend she's someone else's wife because the boss thinks a guy is married or something, and this is one of them. Richard and Claudette are happily married and are about to embark on a second honeymoon of sorts in NYC. Don Ameche was a famous war correspondent who is returning to get an award from his publisher, who thinks he's married, and he wants Claudette to stand in for him for an hour or so. What could happen?

Though the plot is familiar enough the execution and the stars make it quite enjoyable. I laughed quite a bit at this roaming farce. There are also some character actors peppered throughout who add the necessary spice. It's a trifle, but a good one, IMO. The poster for the film has a war-time cache to it for audiences of 1945. It says, "She does everything she shouldn't...when she's a lend-lease wife." LOL!

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Niagara

I've seen this movie twice before and always thought of it as pretty good. A friend of mine bought a Blu-ray version recently and showed me some of it and the picture seemed like something I'd never seen before, the colors and clarity so great that he lent it to me and I loved it. The film stars Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten and Jean Peters. They're all staying at cottages around Niagara Falls, where most of the movie was filmed (around the same time my parents honeymooned there, I might add) and they make great use of the scenery around there.

The movie is a color film noir and Marilyn is trying to off her husband to be with a much younger man, and if you saw the man, you might think such a thing, too. Frankly, Joseph Cotten never seems a likely husband of a girl like Marilyn. Anyway, the plans go awry and start involving another couple staying there. It is so interesting to see Marilyn Monroe play such a devious woman. She's so gleeful about it it's horrifying.

I like the movie and I loved the Blu-ray presentation of it.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

This year I know two people who are on the SAG nominating committee for the film awards. One I know through a friend, but the other one is a very good friend. For a couple months now they have been invited to many personal movie screenings, several a week, and had Q&A's and meet and greets with a lot of the stars of the movies and the people that worked on them. This week they were invited to this (for free) which was also a ticketed event anyone who bought a ticket could go to:

Rocketman at the Greek Theatre

This week there was a showing of the film Rocketman at the Greek Theatre, an outdoor concert venue in Griffith Park here in Los Angeles. A live orchestra performed the music of the film while it played. After the film, Elton John and Taron Egerton came out and performed a couple of songs for the crowd.

My friend was telling me about it last night and I said, "Boy, they sure are trying to get your votes, aren't they?

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Judy

I liked this film and thought Renee Zellwegger did a great job interpreting Judy Garland at the time this story takes place in the late 60's. Everyone knows Judy battled with a lot of demons, brought about by family issues and her treatment by Louis B. Mayer and M-G-M in her early days, which led to her becoming dependent on various drugs. The public never cared about her faults, though, she had, and still has a loyal following. There were even a couple thing sin this film I never knew about.

At some point in the film I wondered about celebrities like her. How do you save them from themselves when they're on the wrong path? What can one do? People like her, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson and others. All seemed headed for bad things, yet no one seemed to be able to do anything about getting them off their paths.

This film mostly takes place in London while Judy was headlining a concert date in the hopes of making money so that she could keep her children together with her. There are some flashbacks as to how she was treated by her mother, Louis B. Mayer and other studio reps while she was working on The Wizard of Oz. I didn't take to the actress who played her in these scenes.

Not just while I was growing up, but Judy Garland has always been one of those people gay men adored, like Streisand and Madonna. During this movie I wondered what gay teens and twenty-somethings, even thirty-somethings know or feel about her? Anyone know? And who do they "adore" nowadays?

[Gazapete]

This year I know two people who are on the SAG nominating committee for the film awards. One I know through a friend, but the other one is a very good friend. For a couple months now they have been invited to many personal movie screenings, several a week, and had Q&A's and meet and greets with a lot of the stars of the movies and the people that worked on them. This week they were invited to this (for free) which was also a ticketed event anyone who bought a ticket could go to:

Rocketman at the Greek Theatre

This week there was a showing of the film Rocketman at the Greek Theatre, an outdoor concert venue in Griffith Park here in Los Angeles. A live orchestra performed the music of the film while it played. After the film, Elton John and Taron Egerton came out and performed a couple of songs for the crowd.

My friend was telling me about it last night and I said, "Boy, they sure are trying to get your votes, aren't they?

  Well, they seem to be very aware of the attempts.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

--Just Mercy

This film is based on a true story about a young black Harvard trained lawyer who goes to Alabama and tries to help wrongly convicted inmates escape being executed. (Set in the late 1980's to mid-90's.) It stars Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson and Tim Blake Nelson. There are, unfortunately, quite a few movies, documentaries and television programs devoted to these kinds of stories and most of the satisfaction in watching one of them is on how the justice of the matter works out. This one is in the vein of a courtroom drama, rather than the detective or police work to solve a crime.

I liked it and there are a couple performances that are noteworthy. As a film itself, it isn't anything that rises to great art, but it would be worth your time if interested.

Some of the film takes place around Monroeville, the town where Harper Lee wrote and set To Kill a Mockingbird and this information is used in the movie to some effect here and there.  As many films as I've seen like this over the years, where a particular southern mentality is shown, I just don't understand what these people get out of being so negative to others. That can't be healthy and positive to carry such attitudes and resentments around. And they don't let it go. There is a particular prickly Sheriff who keeps at it when he ultimately has to know he's wrong about his actions. Then at the end of the movie (not a spoiler really) we find out that after the events in the movie he was re-elected by the community there SIX more times until he retired just this year.

If there are those that don't know, this is the same state that had the Senate race to fill a two year vacancy last year where the Republican candidate was Roy Moore, someone who was reported to have dated and assaulted young girls over the years and worse, and whose career as a Judge there got him reprimanded more than once by the Supreme Court. (He would not allow same sex marriage in the state, as required by law for one example.) He was supported by the entire Republican party both state and nationally. He lost very narrowly and might even run against the current Democrat (Doug Jones) who won the seat, next year for the full six year term. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

[morrobay]

31 hours of horror...the Film Detective


https://vimeo.com/295904755

[Lyle (Mooska)]

31 hours of horror...the Film Detective

This is a documentary about the day of the election of 2016 and into the subsequent morning of 11/9.