Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I read Dragonwyck back when my mum read all the Anya Seton books . I wasn't allowed an adult library ticket cos I was too young but my mum gave me hers so I used to pretend I was getting books for my ma. I loved her books, they were so dramatic, maybe even melodramatic but nice to remember back then

Never heard of The Hired Hand before, but I just looked it up and it sounds very interesting. I put it on my watchlist.

Cricket, if you watch it let me know. If you post about it to the, Rate The Last Movie You Saw, please message me as I don't always look at that thread. I'm very interested in hearing what other MoFo's think of this film.

Will do

After falling in love with Easy Rider, I watched several movies starring Peter Fonda, stuff like Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, The Trip, Race with the Devil, as well as The Hired Hand. I'm surprised to see anyone review it, since it is a very obscure film, but it didn't leave much of an impression on me. I'd probably give it . I thought Fonda's intentions were well-meaning, but that he tried too hard to make the film artsy and meditative without the technical skill behind the camera to really pull it off. To be honest, though, I don't remember much about the film as a whole. If I get a chance to revisit it at some point, maybe it will make more of an impact on me.

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Captain, it's good to hear someone else watched, The Hired Hand and seen my review. The movie struck a cord with me, so I'm hoping a few people will give it a chance.

You mentioned watching other Fonda films after you had seen and fallen in love with Easy Rider...I think a lot of people have done that and found Easy Rider is one of a kind. Even when The Hired Hand was first released, people loved Easy Rider and were disappointed they didn't get the same character. The studio trailer and print advertising did not help.

Do these look like what you seen in The Hired Hand?



In some ways The Hired Hand is an antithesis of Easy Rider and that goes against it. But on it's own it's a unique quiet film.

Scaramouche (1952)

Director: George Sidney
Cast: Stewart Granger, Janet Leigh, Eleanor Parker, Mel Ferrer
MGM studio
Technicolor 115 minutes


Scaramouche isn't a foreign film, though it's set during the French Revolution. It isn't a swashbuckling matinee movie, even though it has one of the most elaborate fencing scenes ever done. It's not a comedy and not a musical, though there's humorous moments and the costumes are elaborate.

What Scaramouch is... it's a well done, sophisticated telling of a 1921 novel about nobility and revenge during the French Revolution. The film contains elements of intrigue, heroism, romance, danger and action. All the things you might find in a 'sword and costume' movie. But look deeper and you'll see strong acting, with an intelligent story and high production values.

If you've never see Stewart Granger in a film, he's excellent in his role as a man who must disguise himself from the authorities with a clown's mask, a scaramouche. His adversary Mel Ferrer, is a powerful, ruthless nobleman who takes great pleasure in sword duels, as he is undefeated. Both men give their all to their performances and studied vigorously for the fencing scenes which adds to the believablity of the duels.


Elanor Parker is looking lovely in this film, but the main draw is her superb acting. Three times in her life she was nominated by the Oscars for Best Actress. In this film she plays a fiery stage performer and plays it with gusto.



Equally lovely is a young Janet Leigh, who plays a ingénue in Marie Antoinette's court. She has the misfortune of being pursued by both Granger and Ferrer. This is one of her first films where she had a substantial part. Fans of Miss Leigh will not be disappointed.

The care that went into making Scaramouche shows in the decadently amazing costumes and sets...and with the beautiful technicolor print, each scene is a visual feast for the eyes.

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That's another I've never heard of that sounds extremely interesting.

I wasn't planning on writing any reviews for awhile BUT I seen it and just had to let you guys know about it.

Can I ask you (or anybody), is the font size that I used for the review hard to read?

It looks very good to me on my iPhone.

Cool, thanks bud! I'm heading out for now.

Looks good and i agree with your thoughts. Here's the longest "review" of mine I could fimd for it.

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Wow that's 2 strong recs turning it into a must see.

Thanks for posting your review Mark. I enjoyed reading it.

I looked for other reviews here of Scaramouche but couldn't find any, so I'm glad to read that someone has seen this film.

BTW, I should 'borrow' your word skewered, I like that, very colorful verbiage.

I agree with you when you say: "in many ways, is reminiscent of The Three Musketeers"....I'd say Scaramouche has a much less campy-comic feel to it. It's more serious, with an intelligences to the story that is aimed at adults. Like you said, "The plot is extremely strong"...it is indeed and that's what I liked about it.

If Netflix doesn't screw up, I'll be watching Scaramouche next Saturday.

On March 31 1957, TV broadcast history was made when 120 million people tuned into CBS to watch the Rodgers and Hammerstein made for TV musical, Cinderella. What made this production so special was it was performed live on TV and marked the first time Rodgers and Hammerstein had wrote especially for TV audiences.

The broadcast was performed live at CBS Studio 72 in New York. The highly anticipated broadcast was show in color and starred a fresh new face, Julie Andrews. At the time of the broadcast Julie Andrews was starring in one of the hottest Broadway shows, My Fair Lady.


Cinderella was well received by the audiences. However it was never shown again on TV and considered lost until a black and white kinescope recording was recently discovered.

The show itself is charming. It's the traditionally telling of Cinderella with a little jazzing up of the story. The musical numbers are as good as any by Rodgers and Hammerstein. There's 14 numbers total and 9 of those are songs with lyrics.



The cast was composed of talented people, mostly stage performers. Julie Andrews is charming as Cinderella. The prince is played by then newcomer Jon Cypher. The stepmother (Ilka Chase) was wonderful in her role as was the two step sisters played with comic gusto by Alice Ghostley and Kaye Ballard.

The quality of the kinescope to DVD is better than must transfers but not high quality. The sound is mono and doesn't do the music score justice. The sets are on a relatively small set and this was performed live, so it doesn't have a polished production look. But it does have one thing, a young Julie Andrews along with a fun energetic cast and great music numbers.






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I love the Julie Andrews version of Cinderella, but I've never been able to find a good quality copy of it anywhere. It's watchable, but I'd love to see a nice restored version released on DVD someday.

I think Julie Andrews has one of the most amazing voices ever.

The DVD I had was an official release made by Image Entertainment.

This is what it looks like. (and I seen other DVD covers so those might be cheaply made copies?)

I never heard of that Cinderella; I'll watch it for the 50's list.

I doubt it will make a showing on the 50s list. But how knows, maybe I will vote for it.