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Thanks Gideon, have you seen Little Shop of Horrors (1986)? If so what did you think of it? I respect your opinion as you know your musicals!
Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review
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Merton of the Movies(1947)
Director: Robert AltonCast: Red Skelton, Virginia O'Brien, Gloria Grahame
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Length: 82 minutes
Based on the original Merton of the Movies (1924) a silent film which is now a lost film. It was remade as Make Me a Star (1932) which was a pre-code film featuring Joan Blondell. Finally in 1947 the film was made for the third time...
Synopsis: A klutzy, small town movie usher Merton Gill (Red Skelton) accidentally catches the eye of Mammoth Studio when he inadvertently lampoons a major silent film star. The studio brings him to Hollywood for a cheap publicity stunt, but poor gullible Merton thinks he's there to become a star...Heartbroken and poor he ends up near starved, when his fortunes change...he gets a staring role in a film but is made to lampoon his favorite actor.
I doubt many here have seen this one, it's not well known. It's light fare, with a sentimental comic touch, heart breaking at times. The best part is Virginia O'Brien, a forgotten star who after making this movie had her contract dropped by MGM...She's very good in this too.
Gloria Grahame best known for It's a Wonderful Life and In a Lonely Place gets a nice role as a silent film diva. She's looking good.
Red Skelton is well...Red Skelton, you either like him or not, I didn't like him here as he wasn't a good love interest for Miss O'Brien. Still a fun movie as it's set in 1926 and about Hollywood during the silent movies.
Last edited by Citizen Rules; 05-22-16 at 10:22 PM.
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Make Me a Star (1932)
Director: William BeaudineCast: Joan Blondell, Stuart Erwin, Zasu Pitts, Ruth Donnelly, Ben Turpin
Genre: Drama Comedy Romance
Length: 86 minutes
A simple store clerk and big dreamer, Merton Gill, has big plans to become a cowboy movie actor. When he gets fired from his job for slacking, he heads to Hollywood to find fame and fortune. There he finds out he can't act and he can't get a job.
This is the first 'talkie' film based on the novel Merton of the Movies, which would latter become a play, then a silent film...and finally remade as Merton of the Movies (1947), which I just reviewed.
Make Me a Star is my type of movie! I found it much more engaging and emotional than the 1947 version with Red Skelton. At times Make Me a Star is heart breaking as we watch poor Merton digging through the garbage trying to find a meal. This was made during the Depression era with themes of a down and out guy struggling to survive, while trying to maintain his dream. This is something the average film goer could relate to in 1932.
Joan Blondell, who's a favorite of mine, really gets to shine and do what she does best...playing brassy but sweet roles. She has a heart of gold in this film and as always, comes off as genuine.
Many top Paramount stars of the day are seen in brief cameos as they walk around the fictional movie studio, such as: Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Tallulah Bankhead, Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, and Sylvia Sidney.
I loved this film, I doubt many here would but I sure did. It's sweet, it's heartbreaking, it's romantic and it provides an actually look at a Hollywood studio in the early 1930s.
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Last edited by Citizen Rules; 05-22-16 at 10:42 PM.
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You know it bro!.....I've tried to watch everything she was in, well at least when she was younger
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Written on the wind looks like a movie i`d like!
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A pic of Joan Blondell from the 1930s, she was under contract to Warner Brothers studios and made a lot of Precode films (early 30s). She might have the record for appearing in the most films 160! if not she's close. One of her last films was in Grease (1978). She's a real talent and like I said one of my favorite actresses.
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Written on the wind looks like a movie i`d like!
I loved it; give it a shot for the 50's list
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Magnificent Obsession (1954)Personally, I liked Written on the Wind, but I liked those other two better.
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Clint Eastwood lays an egg in White Hunter Black Heart (1990)
Cluck, cluck, cluck...plop!...who wants an omelette?...With director, actor Clint Eastwood's box office flop, there's plenty of eggs to scramble.
White Hunter Black Heart is a thinly veiled, pseudo-biography of directors John Huston's time in Africa making The African Queen (1951) and is based off a 1953 novel by Peter Viertel. Peter Viertel also co-wrote the script to the movie and indeed much of the film is from his viewpoint...as played by the character Pete Verrill. Yes the names of the real people were changed slightly, though and egg is still an egg.
The number one problem: Clint Eastwood's portrayal of the larger than life John Huston. Eastwood comes off as a caricature of Huston. Eastwood is visibly uneasy playing such a verbose character. His lines come off flat and contrived. Like a rotten egg broken on the sidewalk, this is a sore sight to see...And I knew this was going to happen. Eastwood in real life is a quiet, reserved, even shy man and he just didn't have the kahunas for playing John Huston.
Second problem: It's a weak script that plays out like a retelling of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. The entire idea that Huston, err I mean Wilson is fixated on killing a trophy elephant is a writers contrived idea. We don't get to see what we want to see, the trials and tribulations of making The African Queen in the wilds of Africa. Hell the fake Bogie only has a few lines and the actresses who plays his wife, Lauren Bacall, doesn't even speak. Nuts to that!
Do yourself a favor and just watch The African Queen, I guarantee there's no bad eggs in it.
White Hunter Black Heart is a thinly veiled, pseudo-biography of directors John Huston's time in Africa making The African Queen (1951) and is based off a 1953 novel by Peter Viertel. Peter Viertel also co-wrote the script to the movie and indeed much of the film is from his viewpoint...as played by the character Pete Verrill. Yes the names of the real people were changed slightly, though and egg is still an egg.
The number one problem: Clint Eastwood's portrayal of the larger than life John Huston. Eastwood comes off as a caricature of Huston. Eastwood is visibly uneasy playing such a verbose character. His lines come off flat and contrived. Like a rotten egg broken on the sidewalk, this is a sore sight to see...And I knew this was going to happen. Eastwood in real life is a quiet, reserved, even shy man and he just didn't have the kahunas for playing John Huston.
Second problem: It's a weak script that plays out like a retelling of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. The entire idea that Huston, err I mean Wilson is fixated on killing a trophy elephant is a writers contrived idea. We don't get to see what we want to see, the trials and tribulations of making The African Queen in the wilds of Africa. Hell the fake Bogie only has a few lines and the actresses who plays his wife, Lauren Bacall, doesn't even speak. Nuts to that!
Do yourself a favor and just watch The African Queen, I guarantee there's no bad eggs in it.
I've never heard of White Hunter Black Heart, but I love your review of it. And based on your review, I'll bet that your review is better than the movie.
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I don't remember much about it, but I'm pretty sure that I've seen Merton of the Movies. Your synopsis sounds vaguely familiar, and I'm sure that I have not seen Make Me a Star. I might have to watch it again when we get around to the Top 1940's Movies list.
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If you guys like Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind, you should really give a look at two of his other 50s films:
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Magnificent Obsession (1954)Personally, I liked Written on the Wind, but I liked those other two better.
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
Magnificent Obsession (1954)Personally, I liked Written on the Wind, but I liked those other two better.
I thought I watched Written on the Wind so I looked it up to see if it was the movie that I thought it was, and I think I finally figured out why I thought I saw it.
I watched the movie The Tarnished Angels (1957), which also starred Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone, and Robert Stack, and it was also directed by Douglas Sirk.
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i should prob be ashamed being such a huge movie fan,but ive never heard of Rock Hudson before. so handsome,
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i should prob be ashamed being such a huge movie fan,but ive never heard of Rock Hudson before. so handsome,
I can't even remember a time when I didn't know who Rock Hudson was. My mom loved him, so I grew up watching his movies, and his TV show, "McMillan & Wife".
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Well,the good thing then is that i have alot to catch up on! Looks like my days are planned this week
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Well,the good thing then is that i have alot to catch up on! Looks like my days are planned this week
I'm looking forward to reading some good reviews of Rock Hudson movies.
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thanks! but I dont think i`d have any talent for writing reviews,i let y`all know if i liked them or not though
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thanks! but I dont think i`d have any talent for writing reviews,i let y`all know if i liked them or not though
I don't have the talent for writing reviews either. You don't have to write a whole novel like some people on this site. Just a short statement, (one or two lines), about what you liked or disliked about the movie is good enough.
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A bit more about Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
I watched it the other night because it had John Candy in it and I'm watching his films. I didn't care for the movie, for two reasons... I didn't care about the story line (I was never emotional involved in it) and I didn't like Ellen Greene (her voice annoyed me) and her makeup and custom was way too hot for a believable romance between nerdy Rick Moranis and herself.
I wish they would have toned her look down and got rid of the Judy Holliday bit. (I do like Judy Holliday, but not imitations).
I liked Steve Martin and Rick Moranis too. But I hated the plants eating the city end scene. That was too silly. I read that the theatrical version had a different ending, IMO that would have helped.
I think overall it was just too silly of a concept and I didn't care about what was happening.
I watched it the other night because it had John Candy in it and I'm watching his films. I didn't care for the movie, for two reasons... I didn't care about the story line (I was never emotional involved in it) and I didn't like Ellen Greene (her voice annoyed me) and her makeup and custom was way too hot for a believable romance between nerdy Rick Moranis and herself.
I wish they would have toned her look down and got rid of the Judy Holliday bit. (I do like Judy Holliday, but not imitations).
I liked Steve Martin and Rick Moranis too. But I hated the plants eating the city end scene. That was too silly. I read that the theatrical version had a different ending, IMO that would have helped.
I think overall it was just too silly of a concept and I didn't care about what was happening.
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L u r e d (Douglas Sirk,1947)
On the dark streets of London, young women are being abducted in the middle of the night and are never seen again. The police are helpless and only have two clues: the murder is meeting women through the newspaper personal columns...and he taunts the police by sending them cryptic poems describing the fate of his next victim.
After a taxi dancer disappears, the police enlist the help of the missing girls American friend, (Lucille Ball), who is used as bait to draw out the killer.
After a taxi dancer disappears, the police enlist the help of the missing girls American friend, (Lucille Ball), who is used as bait to draw out the killer.
What a surprise this film was. I was expecting to watch one of director Douglas Sirk's famous glossy technicolor melodramas...instead I was treated to one of his earlier black & white works, which is a mystery-thriller, that plays out like a Hitchcock film from his British film making days. And like a Hitch thriller, this film is set in the dark foreboding streets of London and filled with fine British actors: George Sanders, Cedric Hardwicke and Boris Karloff...Heck I expected Hitch to make an appearance in the film. Even the use of light comedy and misdirection was Hitch like.
The main highlight (besides the enjoyable story and it was enjoyable) was Lucille Ball. That's right, Lucy as in I Love Lucy TV show is in this! And of all the dramas I've seen her in she is at her most personable here, she's relaxed, she's real and good. She plays the brassy and smart American and she does it to the nines. And she needs to, as George Sanders is on his game here.
There's enough twist, turns and misdirection to keep any fan of thriller mysteries interested.
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Last edited by Citizen Rules; 02-14-24 at 12:04 PM.
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