The 19th Hall of Fame

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If feels like every time I see her she's an absolute doll. Maybe that's why I like her so much.
Oh heck I forgot she was the love interest in one of my top 10 movies, The Big Country. Yeah she played it sweet there.

Hmm. Maybe it's because I've only seen her in a handful of swords-and-sandals type flicks, but I've never found her creepy.
I mostly know her from Angel Face and from repeat viewings of Star Trek Next Generation ep: The Drumhead. In that she was frightfully powerful and manipulative.


A unique noir for sure. The film always seems somehow contemporary in feel to me. You're right about Simmons: sort of a "black widow spider" type. The ending is always a shock, even though it was adequately forewarned. I never felt that the Mitchum character deserved the outcome...

~Doc
I thought on the 1st watch Mitchum would have been too street smart to fall for Jean Simmon's character. But on a 2nd watch, we see it's not the usually savvy Mitchum, but more of a loutish 'regular joe' Mitchum. What I really appreciated in the film is the way his first girlfriend (Mona Freeman) handled some sticky situations: both at lunch with Simmons and later in her apartment when Mitchum makes a reappearance in her life. Good movie!



I like what you wrote, so a few of my thoughts on your thoughts
Tombstone 1993 (re-watch)
nominated by: Citizen Rules

This is the first time I have revisited Tombstone since I saw it on the big screen in ‘93. I loved it back then and it has never left my all time Western top ten since.
Me too, sometimes I think about the scenes in Tombstone, like the one you posted with Billy Bob Thornton and especially about the Val Kilmer 'Doc' scenes...and I hadn't seen it like in 10 years or more, so it's kind of amazing that I still think about it from time to time.

Big budget, star packed cast movie with very well balanced never too serious or dramatic performances. Features some of my favorite actors in great roles; Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, and Kurt Russell. Although not one of my favorite actors, Val Kilmer really stole the show, haven't checked his catalog in awhile but I think this may be my favorite Kilmer performance.
Like you said, not too serious of performances...and not too over the top either...but played larger than life...as these people where LARGER than life! That's for sure.

You might check out Val Kilmer in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)



I like what you wrote, so a few of my thoughts on your thoughts Me too, sometimes I think about the scenes in Tombstone, like the one you posted with Billy Bob Thornton and especially about the Val Kilmer 'Doc' scenes...and I hadn't seen it like in 10 years or more, so it's kind of amazing that I still think about it from time to time.

Like you said, not too serious of performances...and not too over the top either...but played larger than life...as these people where LARGER than life! That's for sure.

You might check out Val Kilmer in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Agreed, good decision on the acting and fitting for the actors capabilities it just worked/still works. Lot's of classic movies have this approach I've noticed.

Seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang twice, it's on my fav xmas movies list # 8 and my TOP100 of the 2000's.. Good rec CR



Agreed, good decision on the acting and fitting for the actors capabilities it just worked/still works. Lot's of classic movies have this approach I've noticed.

Seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang twice, it's on my fav xmas movies list # 8 and my TOP100 of the 2000's.. Good rec CR
A lot of mid 80s to 90s movies had the same not too serious but very entertaining feeling that Tombstone had.



A lot of mid 80s to 90s movies had the same not too serious but very entertaining feeling that Tombstone had.
Whereabouts would you place it on your Westerns list? The Western hof hasn't started yet so you can still speak freely..



Whereabouts would you place it on your Westerns list? The Western hof hasn't started yet so you can still speak freely..
Good question, but a hard one! I know Tombstone would make my Western List, but I'm not sure where, there's sooooo many great westerns...and they span from the silent era to today. They've never went out of style. I think 1950s westerns are the most fun for me to watch, but not necessarily the best.


You know the funny thing about all the Earp/OK Corral movies I watched was in everyone of them the best character was Doc Holiday. Doc always was the most colorful and forlorn character, and generated the most emotions.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
You know the funny thing about all the Earp/OK Corral movies I watched was in everyone of them the best character was Doc Holiday. Doc always was the most colorful and forlorn character, and generated the most emotions.
That's true, Doc is very much a Bad Boy and a Bad@ss and, along with the pending demise of his sickness there is SO MUCH to get caught up in as viewers and so much for an actor to work with.
Wyatt is tricky since he is the silent, brooding lawman with a painful past and with only one thing on his mind: to secure him and his family (brothers) a lucrative life.
That's a very hard individual to get behind and quite difficult to pull off for an actor.
Perhaps that's why their friendship (Doc and Wyatt) is such a great one to watch. So much connection and so much difference in outlooks of life that, for cinematic intentions, it's just pure gold.
I can easily place their friendship very highly in the realm of literary friendships.
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Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Tombstone 1993 (re-watch)
nominated by: Citizen Rules



Locations are very town based, it's a bit light on cinematographic wide open landscape shots we usually get from Westerns. (Could also be I was just too spoiled by my last Western nom viewing Open Range which had this aspect in abundance.)
I didn't remark on it directly in my review, but I'm pretty sure watching my all time favorite western so close ( a space of less than a week) to watching this dampened my normal enjoyment of it.
I may rewatch it near the end of this HoF and see just how strongly that affected me.



I thought Victor Mature made a terrible Doc Holliday, but then I didn't care for My Darling Clementine at all.
He was one of my favorite Docs, along with Caesar Romero in Frontier Marshal (1939) I'm not a big fan of My Darling Clementine either.



I didn't remark on it directly in my review, but I'm pretty sure watching my all time favorite western so close ( a space of less than a week) to watching this dampened my normal enjoyment of it.
I may rewatch it near the end of this HoF and see just how strongly that affected me.
After re-reading your review, I think it's your passion and knowledge about the real story behind it and it's potential with this budget and stars that dampened the enjoyment, I don't think yet another watch will change that.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
After re-reading your review, I think it's your passion and knowledge about the real story behind it and it's potential with this budget and stars that dampened the enjoyment, I don't think yet another watch will change that.
Perhaps, but I did love it when it came out and have enjoyed it quite often since then. Even with my bias toward Wyatt Earp that came out near the same time (1994). Which has been a while since I last watched it so it wasn't as prominent in my judgment as any of my past viewings.
I am pretty sure with all the substance of a recent watch of Open Range, I did find myself faulting Tombstone for the lack of it, it instead of enjoying all that it does offer. Beyond Kilmer's Doc, I mean.

Speaking of, it's been far too long since I've seen My Darling Clementine, to remark on Mature's portrayl and almost as long for Gunfight at the OK Corral with Kirk Douglas. Whom I remember being good but more Douglas than Holliday.
So, I'd have to go with the two more recent renditions with Kilmer's panache and Dennis Quaid's more coarse versions. Both of which brought forth the perfect Doc Holliday for the films they were doing.

And how I DO LOVE Quaid's quote: "You all can suck my rebel d!ck."



Speaking of, it's been far too long since I've seen My Darling Clementine, to remark on Mature's portrayl and almost as long for Gunfight at the OK Corral with Kirk Douglas. Whom I remember being good but more Douglas than Holliday.
That's exactly my problem with Mature's Holliday. He was just Victor Mature dressed as a cowboy. The man could not act - which normally is what I love about him, but it just didn't work for me in that movie.



Y'all make a good point about Holliday being the most interesting character. Although I personally like Burt Lancaster's W. Earp from the 1957 film.

But a rebellious, bawdy character is always going to be more interesting than is a straight one. That's why so many actors lust after the naughty and the villain parts..



Let the night air cool you off
Open Range


Most of the dialogue in this film is either not very good or too on-the-nose. I can't necessarily put my finger on it, but it feels like people just saying words and not people living what they say. There is a pretty great line delivered in one of the better non-shootout scenes of the film that I should at least mention; the bit about things gnawing at a man worse than dying is a pretty good line. The music in the film is almost always overbearing and noticeable in a bad way. The Diego Luna didn't do anything for me. I really didn't care for most of Costner's performance. I hated how they acted like the dog dying was worse than Mose dying. The romantic subplot didn't do anything for me at all.

The scenery looked pretty good. I like the chroma keyed skies. I liked the muddy town. I liked the look of the bad guys in the baldknobber masks. I liked Mose. I liked the shoot out. I don't think I liked anything else.




Gashlight (1944

Gaslight...launched the career of Angela Lansbury and further made Ingrid Bergman a household name. Indeed both actresses act up a storm here and that's the strong point of the film.
It'sconsider one of the great films, but was it really all it's cracked up to be? While it's a good film with strong performances by the actors, the script which was padded out to 2 doesn't have enough meat in it to sustain the suspense. To make matters worse, the audience knows who 'done it' almost immediately. We know poor Ingrid isn't really crazy, and we know it's her manipulating husband played by Charles Boyer that is the culprit...and that takes the suspense out of it.

Now the film could be still amazing if it was a deep character study, but it's not...Or the film could have had a couple subplots going, that could have added extra dimensions, but it doesn't.

The film does hint that the young maid played Angela Lansbury, might be having an affair with the husband, or at least it seemed that way, but that issue is never explored. So instead we have two hours of Ingrid being slowly driven mad by her husband and I got bored. The film would have been better at 90 minutes.



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
I know I said I would start with Raging Bull but I changed my mind and will start with Open Range instead.

Time has been hard to come by but hopefully I can make the first deadline and not get kicked out.





The Virgin Spring (Jungfrukällan) (Ingmar Bergman, 1960)
Imdb

Date Watched: 06/04/19
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: The 19th MoFo Hall of Fame, nominated by rauldc14
Rewatch: Yes.


If my count is correct, then I've seen eleven of Ingmar Bergman's films. For the most part, I've enjoyed his work and the few I haven't liked I've at least respected (with the exception of The Passion of Anna, which I hated so much I couldn't finish it). The Virgin Spring, which I've seen before, falls into that latter category - but only barely.

As with all of the other Bergman films I've seen, it looks good. The costuming, sets, and cinematography leave nothing to be desired. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the performances or the story. It all felt very contrived. The character of Ingeri in particular felt both poorly written and poorly acted. She was more caricature than character. At no point in the film did she feel like a real person. The bridgekeeper was even more ridiculous, but his role was mercifully small. The remaining characters also seemed artificial, though to lesser degrees. The whole thing just felt irritatingly like I was watching a stage play that had been filmed, which is especially frustrating because I know just how moving a Bergman film can be.

+



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Open Range



I had either never heard of this film before or it completely slipped my mind. It seems like something that I would have wanted to see for all this time so I was glad to see it nominated.

I was quite surprised with how well structured the film was. Costner does a good job when he is the director, certainly no different here. I love the locations that he uses for his films settings, it gives the film a real Western authentic vibe. He really did an outstanding job with that shootout scene too, my favorite part of this film.

The top parts of the film are highlighted by the very solid performances of Costner and Robert Duvall. The two made a very good pairing and played off of each other real well.

I would say the negative of the film was the performance of Annette Bening as Sue, I didn't care for her character all too much and at times the love story seemed forced. Not enough to kill the movie, but I did really think that it could be done better.

Overall well worth the watch. Too bad it will get lost among the Giants in this HOF. It will certainly score higher than a few of them for me personally.

+



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Open Range



Overall well worth the watch. Too bad it will get lost among the Giants in this HOF. It will certainly score higher than a few of them for me personally.

+
just happy to spread some love for it. Glad to hear you enjoyed it.