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Watched two movies with Vincent Price, who's one of my favorite actors.
The first was The Bribe (1949). It stars Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Vincent Price (natch!), and the great Charles Laughton. Good, but not great noirish flick with undercover cop Taylor in Central America, trying to track down whoever is stealing plane engine parts. Everyone is good in their parts, but it's pretty easy to figure out who the bad guy is even before the revelation about halfway through the movie. It's a bit slow-moving, but always interesting. There is good action at the climax with a chase/shootout through a carnival-type fireworks celebration. The real interesting thing (at least for me) is that several scenes from this movie were used in the Steve Martin movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. In the Martin movie, there is also the clue "Friends of Carlota" that keeps coming up. In The Bribe, Carlota is the name of the island that Robert Taylor investigates. Now that I've seen this movie, the Steve Martin comedy will just be all the better.
The second Price movie was Champagne for Caesar (1950). Price, as usual until the 60's and 70's, got second or third billing, even if he had more screen time than certain actors. Here, it's third billing but he has a large role. The lineup is Ronald Colman, Celeste Holm, Vincent Price, Art Linkletter (a famous talk-show/game-show host from the 50's through the 70's in America), and Barbara Britton as Colman's sister. This is a hilarious movie where super-intellect Colman works his way onto to a quiz show hosted by Linkletter (NOT playing himself). He gets every question right all the time. But, he refuses the money, which continues to build up. This drives network owner Price crazy and he tries to sabotage Colman for fear of losing his station to him. It's really a kick seeing usually serious actors Colman and Price play it for laughs. Price especially takes the cake as the greedy, scheming studio boss. He's not really a bad guy, but he does do bad things. Is that a contradiction?
And oh, by the way, Caesar is an alcoholic parrot that Colman and his sister own and who is voiced by Mel Blanc! Non-stop fun.
The first was The Bribe (1949). It stars Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Vincent Price (natch!), and the great Charles Laughton. Good, but not great noirish flick with undercover cop Taylor in Central America, trying to track down whoever is stealing plane engine parts. Everyone is good in their parts, but it's pretty easy to figure out who the bad guy is even before the revelation about halfway through the movie. It's a bit slow-moving, but always interesting. There is good action at the climax with a chase/shootout through a carnival-type fireworks celebration. The real interesting thing (at least for me) is that several scenes from this movie were used in the Steve Martin movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. In the Martin movie, there is also the clue "Friends of Carlota" that keeps coming up. In The Bribe, Carlota is the name of the island that Robert Taylor investigates. Now that I've seen this movie, the Steve Martin comedy will just be all the better.
The second Price movie was Champagne for Caesar (1950). Price, as usual until the 60's and 70's, got second or third billing, even if he had more screen time than certain actors. Here, it's third billing but he has a large role. The lineup is Ronald Colman, Celeste Holm, Vincent Price, Art Linkletter (a famous talk-show/game-show host from the 50's through the 70's in America), and Barbara Britton as Colman's sister. This is a hilarious movie where super-intellect Colman works his way onto to a quiz show hosted by Linkletter (NOT playing himself). He gets every question right all the time. But, he refuses the money, which continues to build up. This drives network owner Price crazy and he tries to sabotage Colman for fear of losing his station to him. It's really a kick seeing usually serious actors Colman and Price play it for laughs. Price especially takes the cake as the greedy, scheming studio boss. He's not really a bad guy, but he does do bad things. Is that a contradiction?
And oh, by the way, Caesar is an alcoholic parrot that Colman and his sister own and who is voiced by Mel Blanc! Non-stop fun.
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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."
