Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I'm interested in the Women's Directors, but I''m wondering if my submissions will be duplicates of other members. I have some researching to do. Thanks, bud!

I should explain a a bit more. It's not like a HOF, as it's not about watching movies others have on their voting list.

Everyone who votes, sends in a ranked voting list of whatever movies they've seen in the past (that were directed by women).

The host will tally up the points and the movies with the most votes, end up on the countdown and the movie with the highest points is the winner at #1.

Director: Raoul Walsh
Writers: Vincent Lawrence & Horace McCoy (screen play)
Cast: Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance


This was one fun movie! Errol Flynn was one of the great on-screen personalities. Come to think of it, he was one of the great off-screen personalities too. And this is a star powered movie....it frames Errol and his likeable roguishness to a tee. Errol gives the movie that same roguish charm as the son of a poor Irish family, headed by one of the hardest working character actors in the biz, Alan Hale. Hale of course being the real life father of Alan Hale Jr,...The Skipper on Gilligan's Island.


Anyway it's the cast that makes this film fun...one of my favorites was Ward Bond as the aging heavy weight boxing champion who Gentleman Jim goes up against. Ward Bond almost always gives a heart felt performance, as he does here at the party scene when he gives Jim a gift, thus teaching Gentleman Jim a lesson in humility...a touching scene and my favorite.

Jack Carson as the non to bright friend was a strong point in the movie, Jack's always good for laughs. Oh and I liked the actress who played the mom too, Dorothy Vaughan.


Alexis Smith was decent as the rich girl that Jim chases around. I did like their on-off again...love-hate-love relationship which added a light touch to the movie.

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I liked it! I didn't think I would, but I did...It was a simple tale and sometimes those are the best. I'd never seen any version of Beauty and the Beast before, so I had no preconceived notions of what the story should be like. What struck me about this story is how similar it is to Cinderella.

After the movie I watched a 26 minute documentary from 1997 with the two lead actors, Jean Marais, Josette Day and the cinematographer Henri Alekan. It was neat because they talked about the spectral effects that gives the film it's other-worldly feel...and to me that's one of the highlights of the movie, the way it made me feel I was in this magic place that existed outside of time. I liked the way the Beast's kingdom was both paradise and nightmarish. A neat juxtaposition of heaven and hell on earth.

The sets in the movie, both Belle's house and the Beast's hidden kingdom, were amazing, because they weren't sets at all (at least not the exterior shots). I learned in the documentary they were real places that the director and cinematographer had found in France. The costumes and set decorations were a feast for the eyes and that's important to me.


And what can I say about Belle (Josette Day) she was very lovely! nice eyebrows too... (I don't know why I noticed that about her but I did)....The Beast was played by an actor who looked rather animistic, Jean Marais. He was well cast in his duel role in the movie. As the Beast I liked the look they gave him, the stripes on the forehead were a nice touch too. Kudos to the makeup artist.

I was never quite sure how Belle went from expecting to be killed by the Beast after she arrived, to coming to the living arrangement she had? It seemed like a scene was missing and should have came right after she arrives on the white horse.

Just one more thing, the director decided he wanted his film to look like a Dutch painting by Vermeer in the way the lighting and shadows looked. I think he succeed in that too. The score was perfect for the film as well.

+

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Disney covered that part with a musical montage (and anthropomorphized inanimate objects)... of course.

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Now CR dont be harsh on this film and you know why.. Have you seen the 2014 version?

Nope I haven't seen any version other than that one. I liked it, too.

because you dont like trailers :P

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty...ast_(2014_film)

Have you seen the 2014 version and the original French version that I reviewed?

What do you think? LOL

Mr Minio sent me the Russian cartoon version.. the Scarlet Flower..

Did you forgot that Im a fan of the story?

I remember we talked about that before. Just didn't remember if you seen the older version or not. And I guess you have!

Just a refresher...

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...23#post1340123

Yes I have seen several.. and there is still more out there..

Even read some books..

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24485589-hunted
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...-heart-s-blood

and a few others....

Hey @Citizen Rules

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...er.php?u=80538
https://letterboxd.com/MovieGal/

Ahh, I see it there! I have to get me one of those letterboxd accounts.

lol you say that but havent signed up yet! Just do it!!!

A very enjoyable film made so by the charisma of Rex Harrison and the other worldliness of Gene Tierney. Yeah, I know it appears I have that backwards as Rex Harrison who plays the ghost should be the one with the other worldliness quality. And he's great in his role, really commanding, as a ghost of a sea captain should be. And Rex plays it with just a bit of an old salt softie that we can warm up to his otherwise stern character. It's one of the screen's great performances.


But it's Gene Tierney who seems to be of another world...Her eyes are a million miles away as if she's an ethereal spirit that haunts the story with her wiser than her years deep gaze. She possess the other worldliness, and that's why the impossible love between the two, seems all so right...as the ghost and Mrs Muir are kindred spirits.

Towards the end of the film when it seems the story is over and she's resting in a chair and looks at the painting of the captain, she says something about it all being like a dream. I wish they had ended the movie right there. But then we get an epilogue that ends in a fantasy scene and to me it felt anti-climatic.


I loved the setting on the seaside which gave the film a life of it's own and the house too made a really cool background for a special story to be told.

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Director: George Stevens
Writers: DeWitt Bodeen (screenplay)
Cast: Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oskar Homolka
Genre: Drama, Family


I Remember Mama is a simple yet effective story, that keeps it all grounded so that you feel like you're actually transported back to the 1900s San Francisco. It does 'world building' perfectly, even the music score and cinematography fits the style of the film... and that's key to believing what you're seeing.

The entire cast and crew, a total of 178 people took a train to shoot on location in San Francisco. That was basically unheard of in Hollywood at the time, and the cost was very expensive. The effect is we just don't see a few seconds of stock footage from San Francisco, we see the cast on Telegraph hill and on the actually streets of the city. San Francisco becomes part of the movie.


I thought the cast was stand out, especially Irene Dunn (Mama), Ellen Corby (Trinia), Barbara Bel Gedded (Katrin) and Oskar Homolka (Uncle Chris)...all who were nominated for an Academy Awards. I really like Irene Dunn in this as she embodies the frugal, hard working, family dedicated Norwegian woman who's moved to America and has made it her home.

At first I thought Uncle Chris was going to be a silly caricature and too over the top. But I grew to like him and understand him too. And even though he was loud he was believable in his actions.

If you can't find a time machine, you scan still step back in time to San Francisco 1910s with I Remember Mama.

This is a fascinating film which draws the viewer right into the drama of the Hanson family. It was so popular that it was turned into a TV series --Mama-- which ran from 1949-1957. The series captured a large part of the TV audience of its time, and I remember as a kid tuning in every week to watch the show. I didn't see the '48 film until years later.

It surprised me to read that, despite its popularity and critical acclaim, the film lost money due to its high production costs-- mostly location shooting.

The time frame seems like such ancient history now, but when the film was done, it was similar to today doing a film set in the 1980s. Kind of puts it into perspective, don't you think?

~Doc

Doc, did I Remember Mama remind you of The Waltons? It did me.