1940's Hall of Fame II

My wife also loves it and you might too. I think it's on one of the MoFo lists.

It's on the 90's list. That's one of the lists i've almost completed so i look at and consider watching Happiness pretty regularly haha.

I was doing the same and found myself considering The Apartment, though one movie I've always wanted to see, though it is 2 1/1 hrs is Papillon with McQueen and Hoffman

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

You've not seen The Apartment? Damn it's great, one of my fave Wilders. I personally think it's better than Some Like It Hot.

The Apartment is Love that film. It was Sean's nom in the Hof 2 and it won.

Oh the blind nomination Hof idea, cool, I like it.

Happiness I wrote a three word review in the Comedy Hof for that as I hated it so much. Why? it was the pedophile stuff, way too creepy for this mainstream guy.

nope, The Apartment is one of those Must See's I just never got to and really need to - which would have made it such a strong contender for the Blind Grab HoF. VERY glad to hear it won. It does seem to rank pretty high in the Lists, which actually kinda made me feel a little bit like I would be cheating by picking such a favorite lol

Haha, I do the same. I've got seven films left to go on that but they're all ones like Happiness, Funny Games (which I'll probably never watch), Naked Lunch and Man Bites Dog so I'd have to be in the mood for a marathon of disturbing movies to complete that list.

My excuse for not completing the Millennium list is that I've got two films to go and they're both remakes and I feel like I should watch the originals first but that makes it two films watched twice and I never quite summon up the enthusiasm to tackle either. Especially since I also think I should read the book of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo before watching either of the films...

It's a Wonderful Life i think that is my best film of 40s....

I am done. I have been done since last week, I think. Maybe more than that. I am really not sure anymore. It was a little bit of time before I posted the review for Flesh and Blood because I watched that and The Sea Wolf two days in a row, and that was what I needed to watch last here.

I have reviews written. I haven't posted them because I wanted to do some editing, but I had to deal with some other stuff in life these past few days that took up some time. I will finish anything I want to correct in them tonight, and I will definitely start to post them tomorrow.


But @Citizen Rules, should I just hold off on posting something about Gentleman Jim? I honestly haven't even begun to write anything for that one. I kind of haven't felt like taking the time to do so when I don't know what is going to happen.

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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

Don't bother writing about Gentleman Jim (unless you want to of course) I'm 99% sure it will be disqualified.

Out of the 12 films nominated, I've settled on the 3 I liked the most, and there was only one that I couldn't really get into at all. However #4-11 on my list is proving extremely difficult to rank. Why did everyone have to nominate solid films?

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Pretty much the exact same here. I've got my top three definite then most likely my next two as well, i felt roughly the same about #6-11 though and it's gonna be weird having a film last that i like.

Kinda hoping Blix doesn't come back because Gentleman Jim looks like something i'll like and that'll make it much harder haha.

Edit: I should say kinda hope he doesn't come back in time for Gentleman Jim to still be in, he's a good member i do hope he comes back.

For me there were 5 films that were knock outs...the rest were worthy contenders. Really no bad movies in the bunch. I have no idea which movie will win? I could see it being between two of the noms.

Would be really surprised if Double Indemnity doesn't win. Doubt it will be a landslide like it was with Laura, but i think it's got the most general appeal.

Odd Man Out

Before anything else, I have to say this first. Criterion, PLEASE have the subtitle option available on your DVDs! If I watch a movie on my computer that the company has released on DVD, there is the option to use the subtitles, but I don’t want to watch it that way (especially because I had to get a new monitor, which is so big it isn’t pleasant for my eyes). I want to watch it on my television. And, quite frankly, it does tend to take away from the experience of watching a film. I don’t ever want it to affect the film itself, but sometimes it does, which is what happened with this one. I could barely hear it. I had the volume quite loud, in fact. And if you want to know how bad it was for me, when I read some of the other reviews on here, I kept thinking “When did that happen?” and “That is what was going on in the film?”. I can’t help the fact that a good portion of my hearing is gone in my right ear (due to, of all things, a Monkees concert!), but it is what it is. And it does affect the movies that I watch when they are the English language Criterion films. The movie did sound like a bunch of whispering and I don’t think that had anything to do with my poor hearing, but it didn’t help it any. James Mason seemed to whisper more than anyone else. And the music was far too loud for such a quiet film.

When I was watching it, I thought it was a little slow to get going, but that may have had something to do with the fact that it was hard for me to follow along, dialogue wise. As it went on, it got better, and I think that was because I had a lot of visuals to go by rather than just the dialogue. As for the visuals, I absolutely loved them. The cinematography was beautiful. I am so in love with anything that portrays the atmosphere that this film did. My favorite shot was that of the 3 men running down the alley. It looked very, very good.

As for anything else, I don’t know what to say. I can’t really praise or criticize any performances because they weren’t what I need in order to criticize them in any sort of way because it was, again, hard for me to hear. I will say that I guess I felt bad for James Mason. How much more could the guy have gone through?

I just really feel bad writing this because I honestly feel as though I have been cheated of a possibly really good movie-watching experience. And, therefore, I feel like I am cheating the film out of giving it a higher rating than I will give it today. For that, I really do apologize. I think I will have to, at some point, see if another company has a DVD out of this (some of those Criterion films are available through non-Criterion companies). Then I will watch it again. And, hopefully, it will give me the experience that will allow me to give the film the rightful respect that I have a feeling it deserves.

Now, will this be the last film on my list? No. Not at all. It was a beautifully shot film. I have this thing where I call a certain dark, foggy atmosphere “Ripper Weather” (you can guess what inspired the title – I even have a board on Pinterest full of images that I would put in that category). And what this film did was give me some beautiful Ripper Weather. And that is a major, major plus for it. I thought it was a great film, visually. Let’s just hope I can get the opportunity to watch it again and see if I can enjoy the rest of the film as much as I enjoyed how it looked.

Beauty and the Beast

This was a re-watch that was a long time coming (but it is also a film that I saw a couple of times before – but it has been years since the last viewing).

I think this movie is alright, but it does have its flaws. Flaws that I mentioned previously. My major one is that I don’t care for

At least that is how I felt about it.

Another issue is the sound of the Beast’s voice. It just didn’t seem to fit with what he was. I couldn’t really point out my issue with it other than it just didn’t sound right. Something was off about it.

Finally, I found that the music was just too loud for what was, essentially, such a quiet picture. It almost felt overpowering at times.

Otherwise, I don’t have anything too negative to say about it. I know enough about the original story that I wish it would’ve been a little more like that one.

But for a person who really loves the animated Disney film, it is hard to find another version of the story that I would ever like as much as that one. In that sense, the Disney film kind of taints anything that I might see after that one. I would never try to compare the two (they are, actually, very different, minus the basic premise of the story). But I think when I like one version of the story so much, I then want to like every other version as much as the one. It isn’t really anything against this film itself. It is just the way my mind is molded because of the first version I ever saw of the story.

Anyway, I really didn’t mind the acting. I loved the look of the sets and I am still impressed with the visual effects. I think they are pretty good. And I absolutely loved the costumes. Belle’s dresses were incredibly gorgeous.

All-in-all, this is a movie that I think is fine. I do plan on giving it another go sometime in the not-too-far future.

Day of Wrath

I am just going to get this out of the way and state the fact that this film didn’t create any sort of emotional impact on me. It just didn’t. In fact, I was kind of cold during the whole thing.

I suppose my negativity started with how quiet it was. I shouldn’t have to have the volume on my TV set all the way to 50 in order to hear it. Yes, they aren’t speaking English and I could just read the subtitles, but I do still want to hear the actors speak!

Also, while I know others liked the pace of the film, I actually thought it was a little too slow for something that was only 97 minutes long. And as I have said before, I like long movies. I’m just not overly crazy about ones that seem long because the pace seems to drag.

Anyway, the story itself. I didn’t care about the old lady. I’m not lying. I didn’t care for her at all. I didn’t even care about what the outcome would be. In fact, I kind of wish her part of the story would’ve played out sooner. It felt like it took too long to get to the final result. And when it came, all I thought was

As for everything else in the story, I swear that man (I can’t think of the character’s name at all right now) looked older than the woman playing his mother. I didn’t mind the character of Anne until I just didn’t like her. As the film went on, and her story played out, I got really tired of her. And, quite honestly, I was really happy that things ended the way that they did for her. Very happy, in fact.

I thought Martin was kind of a joke. No, I didn’t like him at all.

In fact, the more I think about it, there really wasn’t a reason to like anyone in this movie. At least I can’t find a reason.

Anyway, the look of this one was really good. I loved the gloominess to it. The light and dark seemed to be displayed at the right time and in just the right places. One thing in particular that I really liked was the sound of the wind. That was a very nice aspect of the film.

I honestly get the message going on with this one, and I can understand the feelings that people have for the movie. The fact is, though, while I really liked the presentation of the visuals and the audio, I wasn’t crazy about the story itself and how that was presented. I should’ve liked it more than I did. It is the kind of thing that I would normally like. With this one, it just didn’t work for me. And, perhaps, the pace played a part in that. It was still a good movie. It just isn’t one that I would ever put on a list of favorites.

Body and Soul

I didn’t know how I would feel about this one. Mainly because I watched Gentleman Jim first. Of course they were going to be completely different films, but I really liked Gentleman Jim. So, with this one being so different, I didn’t know how much I would like this one, if at all. It was going to be a more serious, “darker” film than the other one. Not that I am one who doesn’t like “darker” stories. I just haven’t been in the mood for them as much lately. That is why I think Gentleman Jim was a highlight out of all the HoF’s lately for me. Anyway, that alone was the thing that made me a little wary about watching this one.

I wasn’t as into this film when it started as much as I was later on. I thought it had a slow start, but when the film got good for me was when he started to become a success. Yes, we’ve seen these types of storylines before, but I have never minded them because, essentially, they are all different. There is the standard corruption, greed and the shady characters to go along with it, but it is OK. As many times as a story like this can be told, it is different each time because each of those stories that are told are basically different. Even if the characters are sometimes similar, they still have their own unique characteristics to make them not be exactly the same as another on film. I liked this one.

Like others, the film does remind me of Raging Bull, and I would find it hard to believe if there wasn’t some sort of inspiration there from Body and Soul. The cinematography (which was pretty good) definitely has a touch of similarity to it.

I thought all of the acting was fine. Hazel Brooks did nothing for me, though. I just wasn’t all that impressed with her. Otherwise, I thought the cast did a fine job. They all seemed suited to their parts, and they played them well.

At first I wasn’t overly thrilled with the ending. I don’t quite know what it was that I didn’t like about it. There was nothing particularly wrong with it. I just didn’t care for it. But as I have thought about it since then, I am OK with the way that it ended. Overall, this was a very good movie. So I am not going to let that affect my opinion of the rest of it.



As a side bit of nonsense, John Garfield always reminds me of my father. I brought that to my mother’s attention and she actually got irritated with me over it. She doesn’t see it, and I told her that they have the exact same shaped head (among other similarities)! And she said, really irritated with me, “They are nothing alike. Even your father always said that he and Charles Bronson should be brothers”. I said “I don’t know why you are irritated with me over that. I would think you would prefer that Dad looked more like John Garfield than Charles Bronson!”. I don’t see what I said that was wrong. But then again I am talking about my mother. The same person who said throughout this movie “Oh, what is that woman’s name?”, or “I can’t think of her name”, and I would reply with Lilli Palmer, and she would say “No, that’s not it”. In the end, she suddenly said to me “That’s Lilli Palmer”. What is that??? I said “I’ve been telling you that”. She said “I didn’t hear you”.

The Sea Wolf

You know when John Garfield walked into that bar in the beginning? The singer was singing a song that made me chuckle (I can’t help but chuckle whenever I hear it – I am simple –what else can I say?). Then I spent the rest of the movie with this song going through my mind. It almost made it hard to concentrate.

Right off the bat, I will say that I also agree that the romance was pointless. And I don’t think I need to go on again about how I feel towards what I think are unnecessary romances in stories. We all know I am not a fan. Just because her character was in the film, it didn’t mean that they needed to create some sort of romance between the characters. To be honest, the way that Garfield’s character became because of the romance, that seemed to make him somewhat of a simpering sort of guy, which just seems completely out of character for what kind of person he was supposed to be. But I suppose love with do that to you, huh? I just wish they didn’t feel it was necessary to have her character in here at all.

Speaking of John Garfield, I was surprised to see a role that wasn’t a little bit bigger. To give him third billing, you’d think it would’ve been bigger than that. Too bad. I liked the others in the film, though. Not that I didn’t like Garfield. He just didn’t have much to work with except to be the reason the ship was introduced into the story, and to have this weak romance with Ida Lupino. Edward G. Robinson was clearly the standout. I can honestly say that I think this is one of his best performances. I like the twist to his character, too. It added more depth to it rather than just being the harsh captain of a ship.

I loved the look of it all. I particularly liked the introduction of the ship. It looked great with it coming into view as if The Ghost was a ghost ship appearing through the fog. It added a touch of eeriness to it that almost made me wish the film would’ve gone along the lines of a thriller like a ghost story rather than a dramatic/adventure story. I don’t know how the quality of it was for anyone else. Mine wasn’t too good (and I paid to see it!). It was one of those cases where I will say the movie looked older than a silent film. It just looked OLD. I don’t know why. But having said that, that just goes to show what a great job the cinematography was for it to look that good even in the film’s quality, which wasn’t that great.

All-in-all, a good picture.

I'll post the rest of my thoughts sometime tomorrow.