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So I watched The Power of the Dog on Netflix. My thoughts: The Power of the Dog is beautifully filmed and well acted, but I didn't find it very compelling or interesting. There isn't enough substance here to make an impact for me. I'm sure it will get lots of Oscar nominations and may win a few, but I don't think this is one of the best pictures of the year. My rating is a



I forgot the opening line.

By impawards, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10571243

Gettysburg - (1993)

I've never read much about the American Civil War so what I do know comes from a mixture of sources, television, films and documentaries included. This whopping 254 minute film (which was released theatrically as well as a mini-series on television) tells us what happened fairly succinctly and successfully. It's rare a film this long doesn't wear me down (though I did separate it into two clunks) so it never lost me or had me impatient, and the period costumes and old items were mostly real antiques or provided by enthusiastic recreators. It all made for a very genuine experience. The only thing it doesn't really capture is the terror or war - there's nary a drop of blood, amputation or decapitation throughout the whole film - so it feels fairly painless and we focus mainly on the generals and their decisions. From the lower ranks of those who died we don't see as much, although a few high ranking soldiers did die in the battle. Jeff Daniels is really tested out in an unusual role for him - and Martin Sheen, Tom Berenger and Sam Elliott provide heft. A shame about the terrible fake facial hair though - a failing of films all through the ages. This is supposed to be very much based on fact - so I feel educated.

7/10
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Zodiac (2007)--enjoyable procedural with some gorgeous film of San Francisco. It really is beautifully filmed.
I give it 4/5 popcorn boxes and a handful of milk duds.
Oh yeah, I love Zodiac; it's definitely in my top three of 2007, and considering how great a year that was on the whole for film, that's really saying something.



Malignant (2021) 6/10

Hated it until the reveal. Bring on the sequels!



Movie Forums Stage-Hand
Last Duel
9/10



GUN CRAZY
(1950, Lewis)
A film noir



"We go together, Annie. I don't know why. Maybe like guns and ammunition go together."

Gun Crazy follows Bart Tare (John Dall), a young man that has been obsessed with guns since he was a kid. This obsession took him from reform school to the Army, and eventually back to his hometown. When he meets circus sharpshooter Annie Starr (Peggy Cummins) during one of her performances, the two become infatuated with each other. Is it love, or is it that gun obsession again?

Eventually, Bart and Annie embark on a crime spree across the nation. With Annie's ambitions and Bart's obsession, the idea of losing each other is so unbearable that they disregard law and morals in favor of a life on the run. Both Dall and Cummins are fantastic transmitting this attraction in a way that's believable, and both charming and toxic at the same time.

Grade:



Full review on my Movie Loot
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Le Silence de la Mer aka The Silence of the Sea (1949)
With this, I believe I have fulfilled my exploration as far as a well-rounded sojourn into the cinematic excellence that is, for me, Jean-Pierre Melville.

I have continually stated (for D@MN good reason) that this particular year has been an extraordinary one regarding not only discoveries but a brand new crop of endeared favorites. It is a very far past due exploration of various directors and their craft, from a deeper exploration of Kurosawa to first-time visitations of Fellini and Rossellini and an introduction to Russian cinema. Along with a growing appreciation of Bergman, which I have previously balked at and now no longer. I have also delved deeper into several French directors, including Renoir, Carné, Bresson, Clouzot, Becker, and this gentleman whom I have gorged on a wide selection of films.

Previously, while still highlighting his brilliance of direction, there has been a penchant for the visceral, and here, in his debut, I have witnessed a more cerebral, artistic presentation - a kind of Arthouse essay with philosophical soliloquies and film technique.

It was adapted from a fellow Resistance, Vercors, a clandestine short story written in 1942. At first, without his permission and eventually after seeing the film before distributing the said film.

Through the winter and into the spring during the German occupation of France, without consent, a German Lieutenant has commanded an older man and his niece's cottage. They do not speak or even acknowledge his presence in their home in a kind of silent protest. They treat him like a ghost. He turns out to be a courteous ghost that begins a pattern of changing out of his uniform each night into civilian attire before visiting them for a few minutes of one-sided dialogue before bidding them good night.
Howard Vernon plays Lieutenant Werner von Ebrennac. He is a musician, composer, a learned intellectual with a poetic heart and genuine love of and for France. He waxes philosophical in these short visits before retiring.

Very much a minimalistic film, he is almost the only speaking part except for the Uncle's narration which I assume comes directly from Vercors' story.
I was initially concerned that I would grow bored. Still, much like the Lieutenant's stone silent audience, I began to find a more profound admiration and enjoyment and, finally, a love for this cinematic experience.
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Five Came Back - 1939 adventure starring Chester Morris and Lucille Ball. Nine passengers, two pilots and a steward board a flight in Los Angeles on their way to Panama City. The flight encounters bad weather and the plane is blown off course and is forced to land in the jungle far to the south of where it was headed. You can guess the outcome based on the title.

The passengers include the young and well to do Judson Ellis (Patric Knowles) and his secretary Alice Melhorne (Wendy Barrie), eloping over their respective families objections; older couple Professor Henry Spengler (C. Aubrey Smith) and his wife Martha (Elisabeth Risdon); hard-bitten Peggy Nolan (Ball), a woman with a supposedly checkered past; Tommy Mulvaney (Casey Johnson), the young son of a gangster and Pete (Allen Jenkins), one of his fathers hired guns charged with his protection. The last two are Vasquez (Joseph Calleia), a Central American insurgent charged with the assassination of a high ranking official. He is being escorted by bounty hunter Crimp (John Carradine), who's counting on a big payday once he delivers Vasquez to what will surely be a death sentence. The crew consists of pilot Bill (Chester Morris), co-pilot Joe Brooks (Kent Taylor) and steward Larry (Dick Hogan).

This disparate group of twelve strangers will have to band together in order to survive and clear enough jungle to attempt a takeoff while Bill and Joe try to repair their plane. They also quickly learn that they've landed in headhunter territory and it's only a matter of time before hostiles show up. The cast works well together and the script gives each character a nice arc with each contributing something of value to the plot. There is no dead weight.

Before watching this I had only seen character actor Joseph Calleia playing heavies or Lotharios but he's given a plum role here and makes the most of it. Lucille Ball also displays some of the star power that made her a future household name. This is a quick (75 minutes) and decent little melodrama.

80/100



GUN CRAZY
(1950, Lewis)
A film noir

Gun Crazy follows Bart Tare (John Dall), a young man that has been obsessed with guns since he was a kid. This obsession took him from reform school to the Army, and eventually back to his hometown. When he meets circus sharpshooter Annie Starr (Peggy Cummins) during one of her performances, the two become infatuated with each other. Is it love, or is it that gun obsession again?

Eventually, Bart and Annie embark on a crime spree across the nation. With Annie's ambitions and Bart's obsession, the idea of losing each other is so unbearable that they disregard law and morals in favor of a life on the run. Both Dall and Cummins are fantastic transmitting this attraction in a way that's believable, and both charming and toxic at the same time.

Grade:

Full review on my Movie Loot
A great film, and one of the greatest noirs. I love that long take sequence while the couple were driving to the bank heist. Very innovative for its day.

And Peggy Cummins was such a sweet Irish lassie to play such a psychopathic femme fatale killer. And the kinky sexual turn-on from guns and murder was pretty suggestive for 1950..

I'm sure that the screen writers for Bonnie and Clyde (1967) were strongly influenced by this landmark film.



A great film, and one of the greatest noirs. I love that long take sequence while the couple were driving to the bank heist. Very innovative for its day.
I thought that long take sequence was massively impressive. I was reading some trivia about that scene earlier today and I was even more impressed!

The bank heist sequence was done entirely in one take, with no one outside the principal actors and people inside the bank aware that a movie was being filmed. When John Dall as Bart Tare says, "I hope we find a parking space," he really meant it, as there was no guarantee that there would be one. In addition, at the end of the sequence someone in the background screams that there's been a bank robbery - this was actually a bystander who saw the filming and assumed the worst.
To get the shot entirely from inside the car, the back of it was stripped out and replaced by boards and a jockey's saddle. The boards were greased so the camera could easily slide and change angles. Director Joseph H. Lewis and several crew members were crammed into the back. The only lights they had for the actors were two small key lights operating off batteries. The sound was recorded with microphones hidden in the sun visors. To get the dialogue on the sidewalk when Laurie gets out to distract the cop, Lewis placed two sound men with boom mics on the roof; they were strapped up there the entire time the car drove up to the bank and sped off.
That's resourcefulness at work!

And Peggy Cummins was such a sweet Irish lassie to play such a psychopathic femme fatale killer. And the kinky sexual turn-on from guns and murder was pretty suggestive for 1950..
Yeah, there was definitely a lot of suggestive wink, wink on that performance she does at the circus when they meet.

That's another bit of trivia I read that I found quite funny...

In an interview with author Danny Peary (1981), director Joseph H. Lewis described how he instructed lead actors John Dall and Peggy Cummins: "I told John, 'Your cock's never been so hard,' and I told Peggy, 'You're a female dog in heat, and you want him. But don't let him have it in a hurry. Keep him waiting.' That's exactly how I talked to them and I turned them loose. I didn't have to give them more directions."


I'm sure that the screen writers for Bonnie and Clyde (1967) were strongly influenced by this landmark film.
I think that Bart and Annie are obviously inspired in the real-life Bonnie and Clyde, so I suppose things go full circle with the Bonnie and Clyde film being strongly influenced by this one.



Quite surprisingly, I've kept going on with my James Bond rewatches.

From Russia with Love (1963)

A minor upgrade from the first. Still similar to the first film and not a "real" Bond movie. I guess my rating is rounded up to create a wider range for the series.

--
Goldfinger (1964)

The first "proper" Bond movie. Has one of the best-named female characters of all time. The plots keep getting pulpier (and campier). Again, maybe a slight round-up on the rating, but it's actually quite an entertaining film.

--
Thunderball (1965)

The worst of the series thus far. The underwater action scenes are terrible and the speeding boat sequence near the end makes me want to facepalm. And it's quite a bit longer than the previous films, too. I'm hoping this is the low-point of the Connery era.

--
You Only Live Twice

Not that much better than the previous, really, but the campy representation of Japan (with ninjas and all) makes it a tad more entertaining. Also, has the best opening song this far (possibly because Nancy Sinatra is just awesome).

--
The Whole Truth (2021)

A break from the Bonds didn't go too well. A Netflix horror from Thailand that is way too long for the weak and predictable story it offers. The 30+ minutes of fluff just underlines the amateurishness of it all. There are maybe one or two decent scenes in the whole film.
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Shadow of the Vampire (2000) 8/10

Great companion piece to Nosferatu (1922).



Victim of The Night
Quite surprisingly, I've kept going on with my James Bond rewatches.

From Russia with Love (1963)

A minor upgrade from the first. Still similar to the first film and not a "real" Bond movie. I guess my rating is rounded up to create a wider range for the series.
This was, by family dogma, the Best James Bond movie according to my family, growing up from the time I was old enough to watch movies. To suggest otherwise, even if you'd just seen Bond fly a kit-helicopter into a volcano-lair or run across the backs of crocodiles, was heresy.
On the one hand, I am pleased that my family had an official Best James Bond Movie. On the other, The Spy Who Loved Me is also pretty good. And despite what you say, I personally love Thunderball.



I forgot the opening line.

By Universal Pictures, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44093934

The Dressmaker - (2015)

This is normally the kind of movie I'd hate, but for some reason I came out of The Dressmaker liking it a great deal. There's something utterly absurd about it, and I think that was the crucial element for me - I'd be at it all day describing the plot in full, so best to say young woman Myrtle Dunnage (Kate Winslet) comes home to a country town that she was shuttled from after being blamed for the death of a young boy. It's a town full of eccentrics, which includes a cross-dressing policeman (Hugo Weaving), Myrtle's senile mother (Judy Davis) and a bunch of the cruelest vipers on Earth. Myrtle has learned and excelled at dressmaking, and she uses this like a weapon while unearthing what really happened when she was a child and coming to terms with it and the town. Nearly everything that happens from the film's halfway point onward would be the climax of a normal film - but in this is just another plot point. It makes for an interesting explosion of drama and break-neck (plus lop-sided and unusual) pacing. It shouldn't be a good movie - but I give it the score I do because I enjoyed it that much. To top it off Winslet does a pretty decent Aussie accent.

8/10


By Heritage Auctions: [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32367362

Once Upon a Time in the West - (1968)

And what can I say about this? This has stayed with me the day after watching it, after initially being worried about not liking it. Whenever I watch a huge movie for the first time it's "What if I don't like it?" It doesn't come any bigger or more grand than this. I must say that Sergio Leone seems to have come to the conclusion that it's all in the eyes. I can still see Bronson's stare, Fonda's expression and Robards sweaty, dirty bearded face. This feels like a biblical story with blood and betrayal - and a story about the birth and death of a murderous kind of capitalism in a lawless land reaching beyond the boundaries of civilization - but it's civilization that's closing in, meaning those who deal in bullets and murder either die or move on. For a family and a bunch of killers, the railroad's progress will be fateful. I certainly enjoyed my first viewing of Once Upon a Time in the West.

9/10