Latitudes

That was one of my complaints that his voice wasn't always that great. Sometimes he sounded good but not always. It's cool that you watch it though.

I'm glad that I watched it, but I'm not likely to watch it again. I'd probably prefer to just listen to a Frankie Valli CD than to watch the movie again.

Havana Widows (1933)
Director: Ray Enright
Stars: Joan Blondell, Glenda Farrell, Guy Kibbee, Allan Jenkins
Genre: Comedy
Length: 62 minutes

Two blonde, gold digging chorus girls, Mae (Joan Blondell) and Sadie (Glenda Farrell), sweet talk some money out of a gullible older man Herman (Alan Jenkins). Then off they go to Havana, Cuba, posing as rich widows hoping to snag a couple of rich millionaires in a frame up scheme.

Gal pals Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell are paired again in this precode comedy. The story is pretty light yet amusing: two down and out chorus girls without a dime in their pockets go seeking riches in Havana. Their plan, hook up with a sleazy lawyer and set up a couple of unsuspecting rich playboys and then sue the pants off them. Hey, it was the Depression after all.

Both Joan Blondell and Glenda Farrell are amazing. They made a lot of these early precode films at Warner Brothers studios.

Havana Windows features many of the regular Warner Brothers character actors. At 62 minutes this is a short movie indeed. Reportedly this film holds some sort of record for words spoken per minute by the ultra fast talking Blondell and Farrell. The one line wise cracks, fly like bullets. The dialogue crackles with sassy wit:


Early precode comic actor Guy Kibee along with character actor Alan Jenkins adds to the cast making this a fun early movie.

Another one I haven't seen yet, good work though

I watched "The Second Best Exotic Margold Hotel" last night. I don't know if I liked the second one better than the other. I guess I did. I think the story was better. And I think people, overall, might like the second one better. I also think people could watch this one without ever having seen the first one and understand the characters and stories without any knowledge of what happened the first time around. But it was alright. It is nice to watch a movie like that every now and then, anyway.

This makes me think of her movie "The Old Maid". Have you ever seen that one?

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

I've Got Your Number (1934)
Director: Ray Enright
Stars: Joan Blondell, Pat O'Brien, Allen Jenkins, Glenda Farrell
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Length: 69 minutes

Two telephone repairmen, wise guy Terry (Pat O'Brien) and his goofy side kick pal, Johnny (Allan Jenkins) pursue women as they go about repairing telephone lines. Marie (Joan Blondel) is a hotel switchboard operator and catches Terry's eye, when he works on her phone lines. Meanwhile a gangster tricks Marie into using her switchboard for a horse racing scheme, which lands Marie in hot water.

A really fun and entertaining movie and the only film I've seen that's about the going ons of a telephone company. Odd as that may seem, the stuff about the telephone line repairs and the switchboards was pretty cool and interesting to see.

This is the funniest role I've seen Pat O'Brien play too. Usually he's stuck as a priest or as the good cop. Here he's a wisecracking, irresponsible, dame chashin' guy.

Allen Jenkins is a veteran character actor and appeared in 100s of films. Often as a non-to-bright thug. He's really quiet good and should get more recognition.


The blondes are Joan Blondell who gets top billing and her friend Glenda Farrell. Blondell made a lot of films mostly for Warner Bros, usually comedies and musicals. She often plays sassy blondes with a heart of gold. Farrell another Warner Bros. comedian, is a fast talking, brassy no non-sense gal.

Into all this, through in a grouchy but humorous Eugene Pallette and you get a darn good early comedy.

I'm looking forward to the spin-off thread about longitudes.

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Ha

It was either this thread or I'd have to go the Angeline route

Ex Machina (2015)

Director: Alex Garland
Stars: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Length: 108 minutes

"A young programmer is selected to participate in a ground-breaking experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breath-taking female A.I."

I really liked this one. It's a unique sci fi film. One of my favorites for 2015

Ex Machina is an intimately shot, personal film. I had envisioned a different ending, but directors seldom listen to me

Ex-Machina is probably my third favorite movie of the year so far, glad you enjoyed it so much. I really like the atmosphere you talked about and Isaac was fantastic. The ending isn't great but I didn't hate it. Solid film.

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Letterboxd

Hey! I'm glad someone else liked it. I haven't seen many films from 2015 but I've seen a lot of sci fi and this is the kind of sci fi I like. It reminded me of the type of shows done on The Outer Limits (1995-2002). I mean that as a compliment as some of the best anthology sci fi I've seen, was on that show.

I've only even heard of Purple Rose, WWZ and Ex-Machina!

Woody irritates some people, with neurotis behaviour, he even gets to me, but the good largely outweights the bad. Some of the most physically painful laughs I had were due to him. I like Mia too.

WWZ is an original and exciting tale.

I have seen only the first 15 mins of Ex-Machina. I really have trouble enduring a film recently. I just can't take it no more!

Why can't you set still for movies these days?

I guess I simply had enough. Does one get bored of everything, be it movies, music, math, anything? What do you think?

Math? Yup! I was bored with math by the 8th grade.

Movies? I guess I can burn out if I watched too many. I watch 1 movie a night and then watch an old TV comedy just for fun. So far so good....but there is times I don't want to set and watch a long movie.

I on the other hand love math, even though I suck at it.

That's what happened to me - I watched a few a day for decades and it was too much. I need a break!

Song One (2014)
Director & Writer: Kate Barker-Froyland
Stars: Anne Hathaway, Johnny Flynn, Mary Steenburgen
Genre: Drama, Music
Length: 86 minutes

Not a musical...but a movie about music and the power that it contains.

Franny (Anne Hathaway) returns home to her estranged family when a traffic accident leaves her brother comatose and in the hospital. She's not seen her brother in years and does not know the person that he has become. So she begins uncovering the life of the brother she doesn't know by reading his journals and talking to his friends. She then finds he's been an aspiring musician. Franny also discovers his love for music in the process. After she attends a concert that he had tickets to, she becomes romantically involved with her brothers favorite musician, James Forrester (Johnny Flynn.) Together by playing music for her brother they try to wake him from his comatose state. Mary Steenburgen plays her mother in a smaller supporting role.


Song One, is a very simple, low key, indie film shot in semi documentary style. It looks good as it's shot on the streets of New York City which lends to the indie look.
This might look like a romance movie but it's about the exploration of music. There's lots of original music in the film. I think anybody with artistic or musical endeavors might find some truth in this film and would enjoy it.

Hugo (2011)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Lee
Genre: Fantasy Adventure
Length: 126 minutes

"Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton."

A very unusual movie for Martin Scorsese to direct. Hugo shows that Scorsese is as comfortable with kids in a fantasy adventure story as he is with gangsters. This is a PG film aimed at families, not my usual type of film but I found it engaging, not overly sappy and it looks great. Set in the 1930s Paris in this huge train station, the lighting and sets are stunning.

that rating could be even higher for those who love this type of movie.

I only saw Higo the one time at the theater. I keep thinking I should show it to my kids. I think I would rate it about the same as you.

I saw Hugo a while back, and I remember liking it, but I don't remember much about the movie.

It wasn't a movie that was on my watchlist, so I didn't know anything about it before watching it, except that it had something to do with clocks and a train station. My father-in-law told me to get him the DVD, so I did, but it turned out to be the wrong movie. He wanted to see Argo, but he remembered the name wrong.