Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Thanks Gideon, I had never seen The King of Comedy before. I'll be watching Taxi Driver for the first time, hopefully soon.

I liked it pretty well, but didn't love it. I don't remember what other films were up against it for Best Picture?

I felt sad for Jerry Lewis, but no, not because he was kidnapped, but before that. He's powerful, popular, famous and when he comes out of his show and onto the street he's mobbed...it's like he's a bee trapped in a small jar. He seemed downtrodden and sad to me. I was thinking who would ever want to have his life? Rupert I guess!


Good point here, I think they drove the point home where he walks by that woman on the phone who asks him to say hello to her son on the phone and when he refuses, she says "I hope you die from cancer!"

There were eight other best picture nominees:

La La Land
Hell or High Water
Manchester by the Sea
Hacksaw Ridge
Fences
Arrival
Lion
and winner...Moonlight

In that second screenshot you posted, the guy sitting next to William Holden smoking is a dead ringer for James Dean...I'm pretty sure it's not him, but damn, the resemblance is startling.

Thanks, now I remember. I never did see Moonlight. I'd say Hidden Figures was at lease on par with Hacksaw Ridge & Lion and Arrival.

I'd have voted Best Picture: La La Land if I could.

Meh, King Of Comedy is so overrated by those that think it's underrated

Enjoyed this review and will be adding it to my watchlist. I love Lois Smith...she has had a long and distinguished career, but to me, she will always be Aunt Meg in Twister.

I'm very curious as to what you will think of this movie. I'll be looking forward to your review.

It will be at least a week before I get to it.

That's funny - I thought the EXACT SAME THING when I saw that picture in Rule's review!!!
I even looked back at Rule's cast listing to see if James Dean was there!

Well, I think those that think it's underrated do so because it failed at the box office yet was really a tremendous movie.

You guys are looking for Dean in the wrong spot. Look again

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Glad you liked Night Moves and The King of Comedy so much Citizen, both are favourites and the latter was actually in my top ten at one point. Must admit i've always been paranoid of recommending you films because i have it in my head that we have opposite tastes for some reason, think it's just that you've not reacted well to a couple of films i really love and now i expect you to hate everything i like. Now thinking about it i actually think you agree with me alot more than say Cricket or Raul agrees with me it's just that Cricket and Raul have seen alot of the same films as me and your focus is in decades i haven't explored very well which is why i don't post in this thread regularly.

I'm sure there's a bunch of movies we both would really like. Another one was Buffalo 66. I remember you top favorites movie thread, there was a number of films there that I really liked too.

I have River of Grass and Ode of Kelly Reichardt's films to watch + a couple of her shorts, then she will be the first director I've watched their complete filmography for.

Directors: Edgar Ulmer
Writers: Herb Meadow (screenplay), Ben Ames Williams (novel)
Cast: Hedy Lamarr, George Sanders, Louis Hayward
Genre: Drama

New England 1820's, in the town of Bangor, Maine... a poor alcoholic man has a manipulative, callous daughter named Jenny Hager. She grows up to be a beauty and even more manipulative than ever before. She sets her sights on marrying the richest man in town, then promptly falls in love with his son who she also uses and discards.


Decent movie about a conniving and evil woman, played by the stunningly beautiful Hedy Lamarr. She really twists men and uses them like disposable tools. George Sanders is pretty good in this one too and the only man with a backbone. Then again he's always good and always has a backbone!

This is called a film noir in some circles. It's based on the 1941 novel of the same name, but to me it feels more Gothic, than noir.

Short run time, makes this an easy and fun watch.
+

Hey, waddya know, I watched that six months ago and gave it roughly the same rating. Thought Ms. Lamarr was very good in it.

Director: William Castle
Writers: William McGivern (screenplay), Ursula Curtiss (novel)
Cast: Joan Crawford, John Ireland, Sara Lane, Andi Garrett
Genre: Teen Thriller, Suspense
Length: 1h 22min

Two mischevious teenage girls are left alone for the evening in a large country house. Libby and Kit decide to entertain themselves by making prank phone calls to complete strangers. Things go wrong when they tell one man, I saw what you did and I know who you are...The man (John Ireland) has just killed his girlfriend and believes the girls are witnesses to the crime. To make matters worse Libby decides to drive past the man's house and look into his windows!


This was a well made movie, it's both fun and shocking. The teen girls are played by two actresses full of energy, who bring a sense of teen mischief and coming of age to the movie...Meanwhile the murder in the shower is more shocking than the famous scene from Psycho.

First the film lulls you into believing you're watching nothing more than an easy going Disney film with Halley Mills...then almost out of nowhere comes this really violent murder scene. Then next thing we know we're back following the antics of these two fresh faced, giggly teen girls.


Well if that wasn't all oddly satisfy enough, we get Joan Crawford in her very last American movie appearance. Joan chose her own wardrobe and jewelry and damn what a crazy looking necklace she chose to wear in the movie! The thing must way 10 pounds. I'm surprised she could even stand up right.

Joan gives her all, as always and she's good, as always. I loved the part where this older woman is so desperate to get married to the killer (John Ireland) that she blackmails him by saying if he doesn't marry her, she'll tell the cops about the murder. Its nuts! I tell ya! And in a good way.

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Director: Gary Sinyor
Writers: Roi Cooper Megrue(play), Jean C. Havez
Cast: Chris O'Donnell, Renée Zellweger, Artie Lange
Genre: Rom Com

Jimmie Shannon (Chris O'Donnell) is a commitment phobic bachelor. All of his single male friends have been lassoed by young fillies and got hitched, one by one. Leaving only Jimmie to run free like a wild Mustang. That's his analogy, the wild Mustang.

Well wouldn't you know it right when he's breaking up with another girlfriend who wanted to get too serious for him, a woman...Anne (Renée Zellweger) is seated at the table behind him and flirts...and he's hooked.

So the movie starts this way. And we see the couple fall in love, though truth be told they didn't have much chemistry. I like
Renée Zellweger and I wish she had more air time, but Chris O'Donnell was mediocre. Not bad, just not great, then again the movies not that great either. It tries too hard to be funny and seldom generated a laugh for me.


The best part was all the 1000's of brides chasing the bachelor down the street. See his friend puts an add in the paper saying if he marries one of them he will inherit 100 million dollars. I loved the scenes filmed on location in San Francisco, but that's not enough to make the film special.

A decent film, just don't expect too much.

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Director: Joshua Logan
Writers: Paul Osborn (screenplay), James Michener (novel)
Cast: Marlon Brando, Miiko Taka, Miyoshi Umeki, Red Buttons, Ricardo Montalban, Patricia Owens
Genre: Drama, Romance


About: A U.S. Air Force Major (Marlon Brando) who opposes his friends upcoming wedding to a Japanese woman, falls in love with a beautiful Japanese dancer and runs afoul of the U.S. Air Force who discriminates against US men and their Japanese wives.

Review: Based on the James Michener novel of the same name, the movie was a big budget film shot in wide screen Technirama and on location in Japan. The film is a melodrama about two American service men both who fall in love with Japanese women, which at the time was strongly being discouraged by the the U.S. armed forces.


Red Buttons is excellent in this as an everyday enlisted service man who holds his ground and fights great odds to have a normal life with his Japaneses wife. The actress playing his wife is Miyoshi Umeki, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. This made her the first Asian actor to ever win an Oscar. Later she would endear herself to millions as the housekeeper in TV's The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

Miiko Taka is the love interest for Marlon Brando's character and she is quite good in this and very lovely.

I was impressed that all the key Japanese actors were indeed played by Asians, with the sole exception being Ricardo Montalban playing a Japanese dancer, which really seemed out of place in this otherwise authentic looking production.


I'm sorry to say that Marlon Brando stunk in this movie.... Right off the bat he had this really stupid southern accent and a country bumpkin persona that didn't match his character's background, which was a West Point educated, son of a General. And he generally acted like an idiot who didn't care what was going on around him and that's 180 away from what his characters motivations were.

So after the movie I did some reading at IMDB and was amazed to read this:

... Marlon Brando insisted on playing Ace Gruver with a Southern accent, against the will of the director and producers. Brando adopted a nondescript Southern accent for Gruver, despite the objections of director Joshua Logan, who didn't think that a general's son who was West Point-educated would speak that way.

But what really pissed me off was when I read what Brando had said about Sayonara in an interview:

This is from IMDB:
And that is sacrilege for any actor to do to a movie...But even with Marlon Brando thumbing his nose at the audience, this is still a worth while film to see for it's cutting edge interracial subject matter.




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