MoFo LISTS: reactions, reviews, checklists

You misunderstand, Sinny. My rant wasn't against you but against whoever told you The Maltese Falcon was just average. It's not. But even in that post I agreed with you that The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is even better. Walter Huston richly deserved his Oscar for that role; even Bogart couldn't steal your attention when Walter Huston was sharing the screen. That said, however, Fred C. Dobbs and the way Bogart played him is probably the best character study ever filmed. Dobbs starts out as a basically decent person, down on his luck but ready to work when given an opportunity; ready too to stand up for himself and a buddy when trouble comes; even ready to share his small windfall to stake the search for gold. But then you see his deterioration as greed and paranoia overtake him.

John Huston exhibited a deft touch in his direction of that film and the bit part he played. And he introduced a great character actor in that movie—the Mexican actor who did the “we don’t need no stinking badges” speech (can’t recall his name, but he was also was the one who put Gregory Peck up on Ol’ Thunder in The Big Country. Turned up in comic or heavy roles in lots of Westerns, including some with Randolph Scott).

I recall once on a TV talk show Huston said at least one member of the Mexican gang, presumably one of the three who murder ol’ Dobbs, was a real bandito. Didn’t indicate which one, however.

Well, Huston's/Bogart's The Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre are both so good, or, maybe I should say... perfect, that I don't think it's really worth debating which one is better. You can have a personal favorite, but, by all means, watch and love them both, over and over.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Yes, they are both indeed great pieces of cinema. And I've already watched and loved Treasure over and over, as I'm sure I will The Maltese Falcon too.

No one told me that. It was Angels With Dirty Faces that I heard was average.



Anyway... Brief Encounter and Bringing Up Baby are amoungst my many, many favourites now. I still haven't gotten around to watching Butch & Sundance or Doctor Zhivago yet, been busy with work and college and what not. I've not even had time to go to the cinema (which I'll be making up for with an Eastern Promises/Rendition double-bill tomorrow). I've had Buster Keaton's The General at home for a while now, waiting for me to watch it. I'll get there, though. I have a lot more free time now, so stay tuned...

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TOP 100 | "Don't let the bastards grind you down!"

Any joy with these yet, HP?

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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 used to watch The Railway Children with my grandmother when I was a small boy. Love that flick...

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Finally got round to watching The Treasure of the Sierra Madre this afternoon. Wouldn't say I loved it like some on here, but it was decent enough. I agree with rufnek that the deterioration into greed and paranoia of Bogart's character was pitched perfectly so as to be completely believable.

Just watched Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid. A very entertaining film that had me laughing out loud quite a few times.

This is just a great idea, I've got a ways to go just to finish the lists I have now. Is anyone kicking around some other lists, like maybe more genre specific? I know there's plenty of sites out there that have there own lists as well.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Ok! Just checked off two very good films off the lists. First we had High Noon with Gary Cooper and the extremely lovely Grace Kelly. I really enjoyed the film. I caught my wife enjoying it as well a couple of times.

Next we watched The Thin Man And this time I didn't have to catch her, she was on the floor laughing with me! Alas it will be a few days before we get back to the lists because I happen to have the whole set of Thin Man movies 6 in all and when she decides she like something classic I try to cram them all in before she changes her mind.

The rest of The Thin Man movies are as follows for anyone who hasn't seen these I would guess that they will be just as enjoyable as the first one.

After The Thin Man
Another Thin Man
Shadow of The Thin Man
The Thin Man Goes Home
Song Of The Thin Man

and if you get what I have which is The Complete Thin Man collection it comes with another bonus disc called Alias Nick and Nora with some very interesting documentaries on the both of them. I'm going to watch it all and drink it all in and I suspect enjoy every second of it.

I really don't enjoy classic films - unless they have a really good reputation , as far as the number of old films I've seen there are a very few good films that are still good today : and then there are boring films that compared to newer films - lack a ton of things.

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Glad you enjoyed High Noon. It's a good'un.


Yeah, the subsequent outings are a little less and less amazing as they go - they become very formulaic. But what a formula! The things that never gets old is the on-screen chemistry of Powell & Loy. They're definitely all worth watching, especially as you're already an instant Thin Man fan. And Powell & Loy did a bunch of non-Thin Man movies together too, if you need a fix after this series is done.

I like the first sequel the best of the others, if only because you get a young Jimmy Stewart and Penny Singleton! But there are stars-to-be in just about all of them, including Donna Reed, Ruth Hussey, Gloria Grahame and Dean Stockwell.

Lots o' fun.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

For anybody in the U.S. who hasn't seen or doesn't own The Thin Man, the first five films in the series are being shown all day tomorrow on Turner Classic Movies. Starting at 11:00amEST/8:00amPST with the original The Thin Man. Then they'll run After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man and The Thin Man Goes Home in succession.

Okay, today I watched Blazing Saddles on AMC. It was fun, but it took me a half hour to get into it. Clevon Little, Harvey Korman, and Madeline Kahn were outstanding. I do like some of Brooks' other films better, like High Anxiety, and Young Frankenstein, but it's because of the genre of film, not the acting.

I just finished Notorious, and it was fantastic! Grant and Bergman were top notch. That one guy that played the scary nazi was cold and malevolent. As Alex was left behind by Grant and was called by that man, and was walking up the steps to his house I was so nervous! Great film. I'm glad I saw it.

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If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

Johann von Goethe

You mean watching punchlines and even complete scenes cut out between commercials and cropping the picture so that you lose more than a third of the image every single instant it's being broadcast made it difficult to get into?

Stee-range, I says.
















Gee, I thought this was supposed to be funnier.

Don't hold back, Gunslinger.
Tell me how you really feel about AMC.

I think they're muther****ing ****heel ********ers who ******* ****ing destroy ******* cinematic integrity without a ****ing **** of consideration for the ******* ****ing classic movies they ****ing say they ****ing champion.

Four ****ing wheels and a ****ing seat.

Here in Australia I grew up with mostly english movies and TV, so all the English movies are very familar and much loved. My Father was a keen movie goer and I went with him (my sister and brother stayed home ) he was a keen Westerns fan so, as movies didn't have ratings in those days I saw everything my Dad was interested in, I consider my self lucky
Now I am very unlucky because where i live the Video shops suck but i am working on rectifying that, as I settle into my new life I am slowly get things together, I am hoping to get cable on soon, I am goingto join fetch movies (like netflix) so i will be able to catch up to you holden

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

OK, my biggest obsession with movies, outside of seeing as many as possible, of course, is owning an unreal amount. At around 5,000 to date, I'm having a blast with these lists, because they give me yet another reason for purchasing films, AND, they are some of the best films ever . . . for the most part . . . in my opinion. Outside of a very few that I am purposely avoiding, I aim to own each and every one of these. Mark, the reason I'm avoiding Titanic, is simply because it did not look like anything I would enjoy watching. Also, I'm usually turned off by films that focus on "true life" disasters. As far as the other film that I'm avoiding . . . to sum it up quickly . . . Tom Cruise. I couldn't stand him, back when I was in high school, and The Outsiders was my all-time favorite movie. I've seen it too many times to count, and I know pretty much all of it by heart. From Robert Frost's poem, Stevie Wonder's song . . . but DAMN . . . Tom Cruise.

Two of the films that I have viewed, are now on my top 10 lists.


Chinatown (1974)

Jack Nicholson ... J.J. 'Jake' Gittes
Faye Dunaway ... Evelyn Cross Mulwray
John Huston ... Noah Cross
John Hillerman ... Russ Yelburton
Diane Ladd ... Ida Sessions

Chinatown was great, but with pretty much any Noir that I've ever viewed, the ending leaves you asking . . . "Do what?" . . . I normally wish that it would end differently, but this keeps it on a more-so realistic level. I really enjoy both Jack Nicholson, and Fay Dunaway, and they are a perfect match in this film. The only part that bothered me, was the father/grandfather situation. That part of the film, I truly wish had ended differently. Oh, and once again, I love what Jerry Goldsmith did with the theme music.



North by Northwest (1959)

Cary Grant ... Roger O. Thornhill
Eva Marie Saint ... Eve Kendall
James Mason ... Phillip Vandamm


North by Northwest is also a great film. It's no Psycho, or Rebecca, but that's probably just me, and my love for horror, and suspense. It's still a top ten, in my Hitchcock favorites. It also reminded me of something I wish to do, before I die. I want to take a very long train ride. A few days, if possible. It seems as though it would be very romantic, with the right company.


I'm about to finish up with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). So far, so good. Then I will watch Gaslight (1944), Laura (1944), and Night of the Living Dead (1968).

Also, the free movies on "On Demand", are running a few of these mofo movies, for the next 2 months.

Have you seen one of the most visually stunning movies - Days Of Heaven?

I rented and watched one of the few Westerns I hadn't seen on the new list of 100: Faccia a Faccia - Face to Face (1967 - Sergio Sollima). Along with Django and A Bullet for the General they are the only non-Leone "Spaghetti Westerns" on the list, and this is by far the most obscure of that trio (at least in the U.S.A.).



Face to Face stars a familiar name in that subgenere, the Italian actor Gian Maria Volontè, who was most memorably for international audiences the villain in both A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More. This time he plays the main character and hero, as far as that term goes. He starts as a Harvard History Professor who is forced to take a leave of absence in the dry desert air of Texas to convalesce from tuberculosis. While there he does get better physically, but he also meets and becomes intrigued by an outlaw named Beauregard (Thomas Millian). Initially he is intellectually curious about this tough, independent bandit, but eventually he too learns to shoot and is even planning bank heists and taking over the gang when Beauregard is captured and imprisoned. There's some good Spaghetti action and Volontè gets to show a broader range of his acting chops as he transforms from Professor to Brigand. It's a pretty simply allegory about how the power of violence can seduce even the intellectual in a Fascist state that would have more natural resonance for an Italian or Spanish audience than American, but along the way there are some good performances and plenty of fun requisite action.

It's one of the better Spaghetti Westerns I've seen. There were hundreds and hundreds of them made in the '60s and '70s, so many that most are interchangeable and forgettable. Face to Face does stand out, though truthfully I don't like it as much as The Great Silence, Death Rides a Horse, Sabata, The Big Gundown or My Name is Nobody, all of which I would recommend before Face to Face. But it's definitely better than the average Spaghetti Western, and it may be Volontè's best work in these films.