Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

Very nice review of a beautiful movie-musical movie, CitizenRules! Way to go!

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"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

The California Kid (1974)
Director: Richard T. Heffron
Writer: Richard Compton
Cast: Martin Sheen, Vic Morrow, Michelle Phillips
Genre: Action, Drama

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Crossfire (1947)
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Writers: John Paxton (screenplay), Richard Brooks (novel)
Cast: Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Sam Levine
Genre: Crime Detective Drama, Film-Noir

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that is a pretty great tagline!

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Director: Mark Robson
Writers: Peter Viertel (story), Daniel Mainwaring (screenplay)
Cast: Robert Sterling, Gloria Grahame, Claude Jarman Jr., John Ireland
Genre: Western

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I haven't heard of The California Kid, but between the cast and the comparison to Spielberg's Duel, it sounds interesting, so I added it to my watchlist.

Director: Phil Karlson
Writers: Ted Sherdeman (screenplay), Walter Roeber Schmidt (screenplay)
Cast: Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen, Vic Damone
Genre: Biography, Drama, War

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Director: James Whale
Writers: Robert E. Sherwood (stage play), Benn W Levy (adaptation)
Cast: Mae Clarke, Douglass Montgomery, Doris Lloyd
Genre: Pre-Code Drama


What impressed me most about Waterloo Bridge, was Mae Clarke's body language. She brought her character to life by deliberately using poor body posture. She's slumped over with rounded shoulders and her head tilted down. That folded into herself body language, matched the self loathing expression on her face. That's method acting, as she's 'feeling' the emotions of her character, a woman who hates herself for becoming a prostitute.

Waterloo Bridge is considered one of Mae Clarke's finest performances. She reminded me of another early actress who I really like, Miriam Hopkins.

Had Waterloo Bridge been made only 3 years later it would have been quite different in story presentation. In 1933 the Hays Production Code took effect which was Hollywood self censoring itself, so that the Catholic Decency League wouldn't go through with their threats to get federal laws passed to control movie making. So...all of that makes this a pre code film, a cinema term that applies to sound films made before 1934.

This is the 1st of three film versions: Waterloo Bridge (1931), Waterloo Bridge (1940), and Gaby (1956). All of which are based on the 1930 play by Robert Sherwood. The play itself was based on a true story of Robert Sherwood meeting an American girl in wartime London who's circumstance were like Myra's in the movie.

OK back to the movie....Kent Douglass was surprisingly naturalistic, I really believed him as a solider who fell in love with a poor American girl with a secret she desperately wants to keep. I thought he was real good in this, he pulled over naivety and sincerity well. I'm not sure why he didn't have a bigger career.

The woman who played his mother was real good too and surprisingly sympathetic, whilst showing her motherly concern for her son, who she doesn't want to marry Myra.

Bette Davis shined in her small role in what was only her 3rd film, and in the very first year of her movie career. She already showed promise as someone who demands attention from the camera.

Waterloo Bridge (1931) is a noteworthy pre code film, directed by James Whales and it's quite different in structure and feeling than the 1940 version of Waterloo Bridge.

I laughed out loud at some of it. Mr Freedom was so gung-ho that it was hard not to like this overbearing, one track minded, ultra imperialistic bearer of democracy

There's some clever stuff here if you take this movie
in context with the time in which it was made, and with the social-political changes that were happening in the world....French students at the time took to the streets in massive protest of the French government's policy which was seen as being nationalistic & imperialistic. The student protesters wanted among other things, self rule for the countries that were under French colonial rule. The protest were so forcefully, that France rewrote it's Constitution.

Today's movie watcher might not be aware of that fact, but the makers of this film clearly had those events in mind, thus labeling the French students as communist ciphers.


And of course Mr Freedom's idea that he will bring democracy to France by bombing half the country to destruction, thus making them negotiate, and accepting a U.S. style democracy, was the U.S. policy in the Vietnam war at the time.

Hint...don't miss the LBJ mask that Mr Freedom has in his secret dressing room. The mask and the JFK wanted for treason poster, both at the start of the film make the intentions of the film perfectly clear.

The actor who played Mr Freedom was perfect for the role and the red headed French woman was a hottie! There's lots of fun crazy costumes and historical references in this strange political satire.

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Rules, was Mr. Freedom a foreign (French) film?
Is it in English? If so, was it dubbed or are there sub-titles?
I'm asking because I never even heard of it - and I'm kind of up on films pertaining to superheroes, especially those that existed before the genre was a genre!

It's an American film in English. It's an experience! It's on Youtube but you have to sign in to prove your age, as there's some toplessness in it, and I don't mean Mr Freedom takes off his shirt

Director: Tom Tykwer
Writers: Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger, Tom Tykwer (screenplay) Patrick Süskind (novel)
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman
Genre: Fantasy Drama


I thought this was pretty great, very stylish and very unique. It reminded me of a Grimm's fairy tale, I love those...This was done with more flair than graphic violence...and that's why I warmed up to it. Hell I even liked Jean-Baptiste Grenouillem, the man with a nose that could discern all the scents in the world. I actually was rooting for him, at times.

I thought it was fascinating how his world was so different than other peoples, and how he too was very different. I liked the actor Ben Winshaw, in this, he was properly different to be the man with no scent, a man who could not love or feel. He seemed almost alien in his behavior and that worked wonders for building the mystery of scent and it's power over humans.


I was captive by the original story line, I've never seen anything quite like this, and the 2.5 hour run time, flew by. And for me that means I was into the movie. There might be a few minor things I wasn't into, but overall say 99% of the movie worked for me. I think the key to enjoying this is to remember it's genre is mystical-fantasy...or just do as I did and think of it as an unpublished Brothers Grimm fairy tale brought to vivid life.

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Director: Terence Young
Writers: Frederick Knott (play), Robert Carrington (screenplay)
Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna
Genre: Thriller

This was great fun! I'd seen it before but forgot just how entertaining this was. At the get-go it's interesting and that interest builds and builds until the final climatic scene. Never a dull moment, never a moment wasted.

And this could have been just a run-of-the-mill film if it wasn't for the talented Audrey Hepburn. It's Audrey who makes this far fetched story, very believable. She does that with her 'reaction shots'. She reacts so realistically that it lends credence to what otherwise would have been a long ago forgotten movie.

She makes a very believable blind woman who's recently lost her sight. I like that she wasn't all self determined to do everything for herself. Instead she seemed unsure of herself and would ask for help. Where as in most movies she would have been demanding that people let her do the task all by herself. That seemed believable to me.


So too was the way she held her gaze and her eyes. She sold me on the believe that she was blind, and that's necessary for the movie to work. And her blindness is what ultimately saves her...All of that was well done.

But the real deal maker was Audrey's reaction shots to Alan Arkin. She was terrified and so real in the way she reacted...that then Alan Arkin becomes all the more threatening to us. Much in the same way that Jodie Foster through her reactions makes Silence of the Lambs work.

I haven't read the other write-up of Wait Until Dark, but something tells me tons of praise was heaped on Alan Arkin, and very little on Miss Hepburn. Without Audrey's fine performance the film would fall apart.

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I've always been a fan of Alan Arkin - I don't know of any other films where he played the bad guy except for Wait Until Dark, do you?

Thanks, Rules!
I've begun to watch this on YouTube.

Surprised I never heard of it before... and I'm the guy who watched Abar: The First Black Superman (1977) - one of the most bizarre, cult, bad blaxploitation superhero movies ever made!

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...62#post1491562

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122116/

Have you finished watching Mr Freedom? What did ya think? I've not heard of the other film you mentioned.

I started watching it, but my computer use is rather limited these days.

And don't watch Abar unless you are in the mood for really bad blaxploitation (some of the movies from that genre are quite entertaining, and some are "so bad they're good," but Abar is mostly bad - it's got a few "laughably bad" moments, but mostly just bad.)

OK, I'll skip it.

I'm enthused to see Donald Pleasence in Mr. Freedom (looks like he's the only big name in the film).

I'm a fan of Pleasence: The Great Escape, Fantastic Voyage, Halloween, Escape from New York, etc.!

I like Donald Pleasence too, he makes a good creepy-intelligent guy. I forgot his role in Mr Freedom but I think he was head of CIA and the handler of Mr Freedom. We mainly see him on a TV monitor.