Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I'd never seen this movie before, though I had seen a clip from it in the Warner Home Archives promo that plays every time I get one of their movies on DVD, "Never give a sucker an even break!"...That's the line I've heard from this movie and it aptly describes what Mr Lucky aka Cary Grant is all about.

Cary is a Boss Gambler, which means he runs the rackets. Grant is way too cool in this movie. Hell, forget James Bond, Grant did it better and first, right here in this movie. It's part comedy, part drama and a whole lot of fun, thanks to the wonderful cast.


Besides Cary Grant who's always good...Laraine Day was a perfect balance for the film and much more than just another ice cream flavor of the week. I've seen her in a couple of things before and always liked her.

The little old ladies who ran the women's auxiliary for war relief were perfect too and gave a lot of memorable moments. I especially like Gladys George and Florence Bates who I've seen many times before. And Charles Bickford is always fun to see, though he doesn't have much screen time.

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I love a good seafaring movie. There's just something about a ship on the sea, that sends the imagination soaring. In a way the ocean is like the vastness of the universe and a sailing ship is adrift in a strange world, where nature and not man commands.

Edward G. Robinson is one of the greats! He's equally at home playing a sadistic power mad sea captain or a more, quiet reflective man, which was closer to his true personality. Eddie makes this movie, he was my favorite by far. He showed a complexity to the Captain that made him much more compelling than had he just been a purely evil man.


I'm not the biggest fan of John Garfield, I think he's limited in his acting range, sometimes he's cast in a film where his abilities can soar, but not here. I found him two-dimensional and the script doesn't help him either, as we never learn why he's so angry!...well except that he's John Garfield and he's always angry!

I didn't really care for Ida Lupino here either. Maybe it's the script but she doesn't add much and her romance with Garfield seemed to come out of the blue. I read that Ida Lupino urged the screen writer to include romance scenes for her with Garfield, perhaps that's why they seem not to fit the movie.

I did like Alexander Knox who looked like Humphrey Bogart, so I was amused when I learned his characters first name was indeed Humphrey. He looked like Boogie but reminded me of Leslie Howard, who was Bogie's best friend. So that's an odd coincidences.

But..besides all of the film's short comings, I still liked it as it had the great Eddie Robinson and the ship scenes really looked good.

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It’s not my normal type but I thought it was excellent.

Perhaps so, yes. But to be honest I was way too hip in those days to watch a show like The Waltons. Funny thing, that superciliousness somehow fell to the wayside between then and now... Still, "John Boy" was spread a little thick.

~Doc

Does The Waltons remind you of Spencer's Mountain (1963)?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057523/?ref_=nv_sr_1

It does me and I thought I had reviewed it and even said that but I don't see a review from me. Good movie too. Oh and I liked The Waltons.

I watched this as I'm a fan of slow cinema and I want to explore Sofia's filmography. So far I've only seen Lost in Translation and The Beguiled of her movies.

I liked the film, and yes it was slow, but never boring. I was always engaged in what was happening and that says a lot because nothing too much happens, and I mean that in a good way. I say that because it's not a movie that is plot heavy. Hell I don't think there was a plot. Nor is it deep on character arcs, it doesn't need to be.


The beauty of the film is that it quietly observes it's subject. We go along for the ride, like were an invisible first hand observer. The subject is an actor played by Stephen Dorff, who's not sure where his life is going or even who he is.

The moments he spends with his daughter played by a young Elle Fanning were just like having a kid and not having to deal with the expense! And those father daughter scenes helped to balance how empty his life as a movie star really was. As he only seems alive when he spends time with his daughter.

Anyway I thought it was pretty refreshing compared to the usual fare...and while I'm not a total fan of Sofie Coppola's, I'll keep watching her movies.

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Good review, glad you liked it.

I've just got Marie Antoinette left of her features which i'm watching soon. Similar to you not being able to find that Reichardt short to finish her filmography i haven't been able to find a short of hers: Bed, Bath and Beyond. Oh well. I did watch her other short film Lick The Star. It's not good exactly but it's an interest student-y (i say student-y coz most students couldn't get Peter Bogdanovich to star in their films , Sofia is totally self aware though her films often examine privilege) film about teen cliques, it's nice to see some of her themes already present. I thought for the whole thing the main girl was Brittany Murphy but apparently not. It's on youtube and is only 13 minutes:

I thought you reviewed it too!
Just watched it recently. It's based on the same book as was The Waltons (thus the similarities).
Strangely enough Spencer's Mountain takes place in modern times (or, what was the same time as it was made in 1963) whereas The Waltons was set in the depression - which, I think was part of the series success - I don't know if it would have lasted if it was set in the 70's.

I gave up on that Reinhardt short, oh well. I'm going to rewatch Meek's Cutoff as it's been awhile though I've seen it twice before. Then I'll work on Sofia's films. I think The Virgin Suicides will be next. I'm sure if I will check out all of her stuff, but I'll give it a good look over. Did you ever finish watching Reinhardt's films?

No. I have Old Joy ready to watch, got a kind of mental image of my next 10 films or something and Old Joy is in there so i'll see it soon. Will just have Rivers of Grass and the two short films i can find after that.

She's releasing one this year: Undermajordomo Minor. No news on the cast or anything. This is the blurb on Letterboxd:

I really liked this from the start. I've never seen an older movie set in Ireland about the IRA. Even if they weren't named, we know that's who they are. I loved the care that went into the cinematography. The composition, the angles and the shadows...all of that was top notch. And of course the director is Carol Reed who's best know for The Third Man which would actually be made two years later in 1949.

I'm a big fan of James Mason and I thought the British actor did a pretty good Irish accent too, which isn't always easy to pull off. In fact I really liked him in this movie.

I thought it was interesting how we see the robbery at the start of the film and then it goes wrong...then it's about James Mason who's been wounded trying to get back to a safe place. Each time he thinks he's found safe harbor he's turned out again into the cold, wet night. That reminded me of the Edgar Allen Poe story, The Pit and the Pendulum.

I was really liking this film until the last 40 minutes. Then I got a bit tired of the ever changing situation for Mason. By the time they got to the crazy guy with all the birds and the equally crazy artist who only wanted to paint him, the film started losing some intenstiy, as then it began to feel farcical.

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The bar heavily featured (but not filmed in, they built a set to mirror it) in Odd Man Out was one of my haunts in my drinking days. It's a lovely old place .... with far too many poncy tourists.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

I've literally just had a pint in it!!

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Too weird to live, and too rare to die.

Interesting that you reviewed this film at this particular time. I'd just decided to re-watch The Fallen Idol, which is my second favorite of Reed's films behind his The Third Man.

Odd Man Out is a dark, humorless film that must have taken a little courage to make, given the status of the IRA in the late '40s. I always thought that Mason was an unusual choice for the Johnny McQueen role, but he did a magnificent job. Everyone was pulling for Mason and his girlfriend at the end, but that couldn't have been allowed in those days.

No one could evince atmospheres like Carol Reed could.

~Doc

To Tacitus and The Samoan Lawyer:

"May you always have a clean shirt, a clear conscience, and enough coins in your pocket to buy a pint!"

Cheers!
~Doc

See what I mean?

What a uniquely different film noir Ride The Pink Horse was! I don't even know how to describe this? It's one of a kind, that's for sure. I do know I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish.

It works quite well as a mystery, but it's not the more usual who-done-it mystery...The mystery part is: why the characters are so enigmatic? I've never seen characters like this before in a noir and that was refreshing.

Gagin (Robert Montgomery) seem to be in another world. Is Gagin a tough ex G.I on a mission of revenge? Or was he shell shocked from the war? He's a mystery...the walking wounded.

Pila (Wanda Hendrix) she was a complete mystery to me. Her behavior was so odd that we're left wondering if she is mentally slow or what? She too was very ambiguous and that made her character fascinating.
I love the dialog in this, it's so clever and so very odd.

Robert Montgomery not only stars but directed and he does one helluva job here. The movie flows seamlessly and never seems formulaic, like so many noirs were. The scene where Pancho is beaten by two thugs shows Montgomery's skill as a director. Instead of going with close ups, we see the beating from the viewpoint of the children who are on the carousel. We see their little faces turn to horror as they watch the helpless Pancho be brutally beaten...then the carousel stops and they run screaming away. Brilliant.

The ending of the movie was something I never expected either and I'm so glad it wasn't the typical Hollywood ending...the film ended on a enigmatic note.

This sounds like a very upsetting movie. Sorry you had to endure it, man.