1940's Hall Of Fame Part I

looking forward to it, clazor, thanks!

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I never said that he broke any rules. In fact, if you remember, I didn't even ask him to change his nomination. I just dropped out immediately so I wouldn't have to watch it, and nobody would have to watch my nomination. (And just for the record, he changed his nomination long after I dropped out. I never asked him to change it, and I didn't rejoin the HoF. I even told him he could keep it in because I wasn't rejoining.)

I just tried to get a discussion going so that we didn't have the same type of problem in future HoFs, but it turned into a disaster. I've been very careful not to nominate any musicals or other movies that I know that most people will hate. I just thought it would be nice if other people would do the same.

And I'm done talking about this too. I just wanted to get my point across, but I'm not looking to restart this whole mess again.


Thank You.

I'm slowly getting back into them, but I'll probably only stick to the themes that I think are "safe". I'll stay out of the general HoFs where anything is eligible.

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OPEN FLOOR.

Thief of Bagdad

First off, thanks Cricket for the link for this - very much appreciated!

A lot of fun, a little cheesy at times and effects that go from the outlandish to the intriguing definitely sums up this film.
It definitely runs the spectrum of what may be considered an epic fantasy adventure. Especially in the final third of the movie and I found myself traversing from enjoyment to eye rolling as I watched this.

On a side note: I did continually see all kinds of distinct references where Disney used this film for for their animated Aladdin. Many of the characters specifically looked damned close for it not to be a coincidence. Though I kept thinking it funny that the thieving Abu would become a monkey in Disney's rendition.

When watching movies I often go to IMDB to see what else they have done and I remember CR noting on how "nobody plays evil like Conrad Veidt." and wandered to see the amazing list he had of characters. The first I recognized was The German officer in Casablanca and I was VERY surprised to see that in the movie The Man Who Laughs he would be the inspiration that Bob Cane used when creating The Joker


How cool is that?

Another thing I agree with is that the actor who played Ahmed reminded me very much of Errol Flynn. It was a bit uncanny.

Thanks Raul for nominating this

My point in bringing up that he didn't break the rules was that later you were saying that you didn't think it belonged in the HOF when as a horror-comedy it did because it wasn't breaking any rules. As well as that you said something along the lines of "i thought this was a movie forum clearly it's actually a horror forum", which is what i think got under peoples skins and caused them at the time to think you were being unreasonable. I understand that you won't watch those films but i think (again at the time) people were annoyed because the HOFS are supposed to be partially about expanding your horizons and they thought you were trying to get certain films disallowed from the hall of fames. Fact is it was an unfortunate and ugly situation, JJ did nothing wrong by nominating Dead Alive but he maybe could've been a bit more sensitive to you; again though he was under no obligation to do so and i think your initial position that it shouldn't have been allowed was what riled people up because it wasn't breaking any rules.

And yeah i said he eventually changed it.

Also that's fine that you want to get your point across, but i specifically left it vague with saying both sides are wrong so there was no real point in getting your point across. I didn't put across either side or misrepresent anything that happened or you said.

Anyway glad you are back in these

My biggest gripe about the resurgence of this debate is GB's continual misunderstanding of what defines the horror genre. Understandable cause it's not her genre, but STILL!

Seriously though, let's nip this in the bud guys. No use bringing it back up, it's wasted energy.

I agree. The only reason i've continued was that after i left my answer to Clazor purposefully vague saying both sides were wrong, gbg quoted both of my posts with "what he left out" which i admit annoyed me a bit because i left everything out deliberately then gbg proceeding to tell only her side of it makes out that i didn't also leave out JJs part of it.

Anyway yeah this is old news, the dark ages they called it. Was gonna make a joke that we should discuss another ancient debacle but i don't even want to mention it just in case

Waterloo Bridge

Good film. It was interesting going down the unexpected opposites route. By that i mean Roy the Army Captain was the more sensitive and romantic one and Myra the ballet dancer came across alot more cynical; if you were told who the characters were before watching i'm sure most would expect the reverse roles. This kept things interesting during the actual romance part that otherwise could've felt familar and boring until the twists happen. That's when i'd say it really picks up: when Myra reads that newspaper, think i'll keep one of my write-ups (mostly at least) spoiler free for once so all i'll say is jesus, absolutely didn't expect it to go the way it went after that and i really enjoyed it. Was genuinely surprised by a few events and it turned out alot darker than i was expecting. Good film, very tragic and beautiful.

Was really stoked to see this is a Vivien Leigh film. I've only saw two of her other performances: Gone With The Wind which is one of my all time favourite performances an A Streetcar Named Desire she is excellent in that too. I also picked up on Citizen saying earlier that she was only in 20 films or whatever, had no idea it's that low and i'm interested in seeing them all since she is one of my favourite actresses. I liked her alot here, i did prefer her in those other two but that's because those were alot more 'dramatic' and 'about her', for a fairly standard (in comparison to those other two) romantic film she was great. Robert Taylor who i'm not familiar with was good too, did all that was asked of him. He was very charming and likable which made the story more tragic. Maria Ouspenskaya was the only actress i personally didn't think did well. She killed the scenes she was in i thought, and i feel bad because the reason this is is because english is not her first language and she was talking very slow with a thick accent. At least she was Russian, i was terrified that i'd look her up after it was finished and find out she was an American.

Good film, thanks for nominating it Citizen, i'd never even heard of it before so i doubt i would have given it a chance. Just three left for me.

Glad you liked Waterloo Bridge. I really like Vivien Leigh too. I had another of her movies in mind for this Hof. Well maybe next time Sidewalks of London (1938) is another favorite of mine of hers. It's a British film she made with Charles Laughton right before making Gone With The Wind.

You only have three left Camo?!? Hell, I'm slacking.

Never heard of that, looks good i really like Laughton will keep it in mind. It actually says it was released in the US in 1940 which i assume is why you were considering it for this?

And yeah Raul: The Little Foxes, The Suspect and How Green Was My Valley.

On that note if anyone has a link for The Little Foxes it would be appreciated, i have the other two ready.

No, I wasn't considering that one for this Hof.

I need a good link for your movie. I tried watching it last night, but the speed was off and when people moved it was slightly jerky, like an old silent film sometimes are.

Sidewalks of London is on Youtube under a different name: St. Martins Lane if anyone is interested in checking it out:



Citizen, i'll message you in a minute.

I ordered Pursued on DVD last night. If anyone wants dibs on it, I will send it to you after I watch it. Maybe we can get a chain going. US requests only please.

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Letterboxd

streets of london DOES look interesting and I see why youtube has it under St Martin's Lane - its the original title.
THANKS for posting the link, Camo and thanks for posting the suggestion, CR

Discrimination! Oh well, i'll buy it then deliver it to Daniel on horseback.

The Camo Pony Express!

Fire Over England is in the public domain. That's the one i think looks the most interesting as well. It has Laurence Olivier and apparently her performance was one of the main reasons she was cast as Scarlett.

The Suspect

Another film that I had not heard of prior to it being nominated. This one I really liked. Above all the film worked because it showed rather than telled (told). The answers were never that obvious and it required us to continually watch to form an opinion on what had happened. In particular I really thought the scene with Laughton and the inspector at the staircase was really well done. The dialogue between the two of them in that scene was definitely what I would call the highlight scene of the movie. It was very well done. The film was anchored by a really great role by Charles Laughton, who has certainly become an actor of interest for me. The supporting roles held their own too, I specifically liked the performance of Laughton's wife as she seemed to be illustrated as a woman on the edge of sensibility.

The story was another strong point as I've stated. It's just really good storytelling and a pretty good job of directing by a director that I don't believe I have previously ever heard of. This seems to be something of a potential hidden 1940s gem so I'm really glad that it was nominated.

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VERY glad to hear you enjoyed it, Raul.
Gem is a very elegant description since it was "discovered" before I even watched it. I saw it was Laughton starring in it, the plot sounded very good and I had that lil cinema voice in my head telling me "this is the one,"

The scene on the stairs WAS very well done. I also enjoyed the scene with the neighbor attempting to blackmail Laughton as well along with the ending, of course.