Movie Classic Films — Let's Discuss

[CURVE]

Nope. I started the collecting films about 25/30 years ago and have a library full of VHS tapes (488), DVD's (4,236) and Blu-Rays (605). Also have about 300-350 books about film including scripts, biographies etc. The Ginger Rogers biography is pretty good.

 

[Asgardian]

Nope. I started the collecting films about 25/30 years ago and have a library full of VHS tapes (488), DVD's (4,236) and Blu-Rays (605). Also have about 300-350 books about film including scripts, biographies etc. The Ginger Rogers biography is pretty good.

Do you have a want list?

 

[CURVE]

I have a partial list, we have some films from France, Italy and Spain that don't have sub-titles, they haven't been included.

 

[Asgardian]

I have a partial list, we have some films from France, Italy and Spain that don't have sub-titles, they haven't been included.

Send along your want list, I'll see if any of my sources can help

This is my "Want List"

13 Men and a Gun 1938
Alaska Patrol 1949
Always Another Dawn 1948
Body and Soul 1931
Boy from Stalingrad 1943
But Not in Vain 1948 (presumed lost?)
Case of Sergeant Grischa 1930 (presumed lost?)
Conquered City 1962
Crossing of the Rhine 1960
Deadly Game, The 1941

Desert Hell 1958
Englishman's Home, An aka Mad Men of Europe 1940
Escape to Danger 1943 (presumed lost?)
Five Were Chosen 1942
Flag Lieutenant 1932
Folgore Division 1955
French Leave 1937
Heartbreak 1931
Here Come the Jets 1959
I Was a Criminal AKA Passport to Heaven 1945

Madame Spy 1934
Man's World, A 1942
Mizar 1954
Naked Brigade, The 1965
Night Invader 1943 (presumed lost?)
Operation Diamond 1948
Promise, The 1969 (presumed lost?)
Schweik's New Adventures 1943
Scotland Yard 1941
Secret Door, The 1964

Secret Journey 1939
Shanghai Madness 1933
Silent Battle, The 1939
Sky Hawk 1929
Soldier, Sailor 1944
So Little Time 1952
Spies of the Air 1940
Squadron Leader X 1943 (presumed lost?)
Sunset in Vienna 1940
Suspense 1930

Tell England 1931
They Are Not Angels 1947
This Mad World 1930
Three Russian Girls 1943
Torpedo Bay 1963 (in english)
Torpedo Boat 1942
Uncensored 1942
Valiant, The 1962
War is Hell 1962 (the complete movie)
We Are the Marines 1942

Welcome Mr Washington 1944 (presumed lost?)
Who Goes Next 1938
Windmill, The 1937 (presumed lost?)
W Plan, The 1930
Yank In Indo-China, A 1952
Yank in Viet-Nam, A 1964
Young Eagles 1930

 

[Asgardian]

Just received a nine delivery

Westfront 1918 (1930)
The Woman Racket (1930)
Scotland Yard (1930)
A Man from Wyoming (1930)
Five Star Final (1931)

The Front Page (1931)
Shanghai Express (1932)
While Paris Sleeps (1932)
This Is the Night (1932)
Skyscraper Souls (1932)

The Conquerors (1932)
Power (1934) aka JEW SUSS
Crime and Punishment (1935)
Dracula's Daughter (1936)
Men With Wings (1938)

Victory (1940)
Murder in the Air (1940)
Queen of the Mob (1940)
Enemy Agent (1940)
The Shanghai Gesture (1941)

They Dare Not Love (1941)
Valley of the Sun (1942)
Junior Army (1942)
Destroyer (1943)
Someone to Remember (1943)

The Underdog (1943)
Flesh and Fantasy (1943)
The Racket Man (1944)
China's Little Devils (1945)
That's the Spirit (1945)

The Dark Mirror (1946)
Singapore (1947)
I Walk Alone (1948)
State Department: File 649 (1949)
The Crooked Way (1949)

Kill the Umpire (1950)
Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951)
Lightning Strikes Twice (1951)
He Ran All the Way (1951)
Apache Drums (1951)

Mara Maru (1952)
Storm Over Tibet (1952)
U-238 & the Witch Doctor (1953)
Man in the Attic (1953)
Miss Sadie Thompson (1953)

Eight O'Clock Walk (1954)
Secret of the Incas (1954)
The Bounty Hunter (1954)
Mad at the World (1955)
A Cry in the Night (1956)

Strange Intruder (1956)
The Rack (1956)
Screaming Eagles (1956)
The Story of Mankind (1957)
Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam (1957)

Under Fire (1957)
From Hell it Came (1957)
War of the Satellites (1958)
Space Master X-7 (1958)
The Lost Missile (1958)

Missile to the Moon (1958)
Crack in the World (1965)
Le soldatesse (1965)
La 317ème section (1965)
La Battaglia dell'ultimo panzer (1969)

Marooned (1969)
Hero Commandos (1975)
The Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory (1987)
The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988)

If there's any there anyone would like to know about just ask.

 

[Asgardian]

Back by popular demand ..................... okay, okay, I ****ing lied, no-one cares or wants to read my crap ...

A couple of good little unknown gems

Storm Over Tibet made in 1952



A not too bad tale of guilt & sought redemption. During WW2 fliers had to make the dangerous journeys over the Himalayas taking vital war freight to China from the Allies based in India. One of these trips is altered, the pilot had to be changed, it strikes trouble & goes down never to be heard from again. The pilot who missed out on that trip blames himself & begins to think he should have died instead of his pal. Naturally we end up again in the Himalayas with the pilot trying to find the crash site & if his mate survived.

Plenty of hocus pocus with Tibetan monks & their gods influencing a trek & the native porters, not all will go to plan, & what the pilot finds may not be what he's expecting.

Also watched Mad at the World made in 1955



A minor film that takes itself very seriously. It's about the juvenile problem threatening to burst the seams throughout 1950's America. The focus is on an incident where some kids in a pinched car takes on a chap with his wife & baby son. The kids throw a scotch bottle at them, hitting the baby, causing skull fractures putting its life in danger. The father becomes a force of wrath & vengeance, lashing out & breaking the law himself, in his pursuit of the juvenile delinquents who have hurt his family. The movie is done no favours by having adults play the roles of the teenage trouble-makers. The film-makers tried to give this picture an air of authenticity by having a US Senator address the audience setting out the issues the film tries to tackle.

Overall it's not too bad, but could have been a lot better.

 

[nicky]

For those interested in European cinema, a couple of minor masterpieces arrived on my doorstep yesterday, Luchino Visconti's "Sandra Of A Thousand Delights" (Vaghe Stelle dell'Orsa) and Pasquale Squitieri's "Blood Brothers" (I guappi), both starring Tunisia's greatest export, Claudia Cardinale (who turns 72 today. Happy Birthday CC, if your reading this ).

Visconti followed his most famous film, "The Leopard" (Il Gattpardo) with Sandra, which is on a totally different scale to The Leopard. The Leopard is expansive, lavish and perhaps a little melodramatic on accassion, similiar in style to some of the great Hollywood epics such as Gone With The Wind, and it's in colour. Sandra is dark, and at times disturbing and claustrophobic, which is only enhanced by the Black and White photography, it has a definite film noir look and feel to it, as does the subject matter of a young woman going back to her hometown and comfronting all the demons and desires of her troubled past. Visconti is one of Italy's greatest directors having made some wonderful films including "Obssessione", "Senso", "Rocco And His Brother", "The Damned" and "Death In Venice", but Sandra is probably my favourite.

Blood Brothers is a period piece about a young man with the honorable goal of becoming a lawyer (he believes it's honorable) only to discover that because has blood relations in high ranking position of the Mafia people are reluctant to help him. He tries to breakaway from the family but there grip is too strong and he falls into a life of crime. Not as good as Sandra, but an enjoyable melodrama nonetheless.

I have another CC film which I hope will arrive today, "Don't Make Waves", a Hollywood film also starring Tony Curtis and Sharon Tate.

I'm not into Classical hollywood cinema at all but love old Italian cinema; visconti, fellini and antonioni in particular. "Rocco and his brothers" was always one of my all time favourite films.

 

[Asgardian]

Watched a couple tonight, one of the absolute A grade.

The Dark Mirror (1946) starring Olivia de Havilland, Lew Ayres & Thomas Mitchell. Directed by Robert Siodmak.




de Havilland plays a dual role as twins who between then commit the perfect crime. One did the murder, one had an A grade alibi, but there was no way to tell which sister did what. Mitchell is the frustrated cop who knew he had the murderer, well between a choice of 2 anyway, luckily for him a psychologist knew the girls, well he knew one of them, but which one he didn't know, because the girls would often swap jobs & dates with no-one the wiser. Now by chance this psychologist is an expert about twins & is involved with ongoing research, naturally when finding out about the twins he wants to include them in his research, one wants to as she is attracted to him, the other not so, but she goes along anyway coz she reckons she can out smart anyone. What happens from then I aint gonna tell you, buy this movie, anyone into film-noir, post WW2 crime films, etc will love this movie.

The other movie was Lightning Strikes Twice (1951) starring Richard Todd, Ruth Roman & Mercedes McCambridge. Directed by King Vidor.



This one's ambitions are not so lofty, but still, a very acceptable murder mystery. Roman is after a holiday out west in the desert with its clean air, little knowing she'd become a pawn enabling others to approach the key juror who acquitted a murder suspect, Todd. He was supposed to have killed his wife, did he do it, looks like it, but there is some doubt. Roman & Todd fall in love and get married, but will Roman become scared very nearly to death on her wedding night, watch it & find out.

 

[CURVE]

I'm not into Classical hollywood cinema at all but love old Italian cinema; visconti, fellini and antonioni in particular. "Rocco and his brothers" was always one of my all time favourite films.

It's hard to go past Visconti, he would be in my list of the ten greatest directors of all time, and ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS is one of his finest works, and a little under rated in my opinion. It often gets overlooked when talking about the "re-invention" of Italian cinema after the neo-realism period that followed for a decade or so after WWII. As good as Visconti early films were, for me RAHB was the start of his golden period, following with THE LEOPARD, then SANDRA, THE STRANGER and THE DAMNED all during the sixties. An amazing run of films that are highly regarded and cherished by all those who are fortunate enough to have seen them.

 

[nicky]

I studied Italian cinema at Uni so was lucky enough to be exposed to them in that environment. Your posts on the topic have inspired me to go through another Italian cinema obsessive phase.

 

[CURVE]

I've been watching a few Italian films myself of late, in particular films starring Monica Vitti, who was one of Italy's great stars of the sixties and seventies but seems to be forgotten at the moment. I've got to try and get my hands on a few of her finest works such as L'AVVENTURA, L'ECLISSE, RED DESERT or LA NOTTE because I haven't seen them for decades. I recently watched a film she made with Cardinale called BLONDE IN BLACK LEATHER (Qui comincia l'avventura) which was a little bizarre, but both ladies were brilliant.

Claudia Cardinale, Sophia Loren, Gina Lollabrigida, Monica Vitti, Silvana Mangano, Stefania Sandrelli. I feel a little sorry for today's movie going public because Hollywood can't get anywhere near the quality of actresses Italy had during their golden age.

 

[Asgardian]

I've been watching a few Italian films myself of late, in particular films starring Monica Vitti, who was one of Italy's great stars of the sixties and seventies but seems to be forgotten at the moment. I've got to try and get my hands on a few of her finest works such as L'AVVENTURA, L'ECLISSE, RED DESERT or LA NOTTE because I haven't seen them for decades. I recently watched a film she made with Cardinale called BLONDE IN BLACK LEATHER (Qui comincia l'avventura) which was a little bizarre, but both ladies were brilliant.

Claudia Cardinale, Sophia Loren, Gina Lollabrigida, Monica Vitti, Silvana Mangano, Stefania Sandrelli. I feel a little sorry for today's movie going public because Hollywood can't get anywhere near the quality of actresses Italy had during their golden age.

They've all been released commercially & are available on Amazon

 

[CURVE]

I know, they will ordered in the next few days.

 

[Asgardian]

I know, they will ordered in the next few days.

Do you use American Amazon, or the British Amazon?

I find the shipping costs using the British Amazon are a lot better for us in Oz.

 

[CURVE]

Do you use American Amazon, or the British Amazon?

I find the shipping costs using the British Amazon are a lot better for us in Oz.

At the moment British because the exchange rate against the pound is at an all time high, making buying from Britian incredibly cheap and they tend to arrive a few days earlier than from the States. I also get a number of DVD's and Blu-Rays through my daughter who is currently attending Cambridge University. She is due home next week with a suitcase full.

 

[Asgardian]

Caught up with a few neat films tonight

A Cry in the Night made in 1956 with Natalie Wood, Edmond O'Brien, Brian Donlevy & Raymond Burr




Quite a neat little film-noir has a young couple in a lover's lane only the hear someone spying on them. The boyfriend goes to check it out & is cold-cocked, allowing the perv to take off in the guys car kidnapping his girl in the process. She happens to be a policeman's daughter & the cops get all huffy & puffy. A young Natalie Wood is lovely as the kidnapped & Raymond Burr is very good as the mentally impaired kidnapper. Worth seeking this one out.

Eight O'Clock Walk made in 1954 starring Richard Attenborough & directed by Lance Comfort



Dickie is a taxi driver, with a new young wife, trying to get ahead & buy his own cab & new house. He also likes kids & give the neighbourhood children sweets, but there is nothing sinister about him .... maybe. On April Fool's Day the kids take to it doing tricks on all the local adults, one of them, a girls tricks Dickie into thinking she has lost a doll, so he goes to help her find it on an old bombsite, this is post WW2 Britian, she laughs saying April Fool's Day, Dickie shakes his fist at her & leaves, or does he? Problem for him is that 12 hours later the girl's body is found on the bombsite, strangled to death, & as Dickie was seen with the lass, he is in the gun, charged with murder & up for trial. Will his lawyer be able to dig through to the truth? Buy the movie & find out. I love these 1950's Pommy dirty film-noirs.

Also watched The Ghosts of Berkeley Square made 1947 starring Robert Morley & Felix Aylmer.



http://akas.imdb.com/name/nm0000277/Morley & Aylmer are a couple of old military men in 18th century England who happen to die together accidentally in their newly acquired house. They are cursed to send their time haunting this mansion until it is visited by a reigning monarch. As you'd expect, this is a perfectly whimsical turn of British comedy well worth looking out for.

 

[Asgardian]

Had a look at a couple of 1950's movies tonight

The Rack made in 1956 with a fine cast including Paul Newman, Walter Pidgeon, Edmond O'Brien, Anne Francis, Lee Marvin & Wendell Corey.



A US army officer, Newman, is returned home after being a POW in Korea. Upon his return he is labelled a traitor and is put up for court martial due to giving in to the Chinese during his stay in the prison camp. A big hunk of the movie is the court martial, prior to that is the arrival & shaming segment. It's not the best movie I've seen on this subject, but stilll, it's pretty good.

Mara Maru made in 1952 starring Errol Flynn, Ruth Roman & Raymond Burr.

It's a familiar tale, some desperate people after sunken treasure, some of them are good desperate, most of them are bad desperate. If this is your genre, there are far better movies to watch.

 

[Asgardian]

Tonight's selection

Shanghai Express made in 1932 starring Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Warner Oland & Anna May Wong. Directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Shanghai Lily (Marlene) is a lady of questionable morals. She & her fellow passengers on the express to Shanghai are held up by a Chinese warlords troops, allowing the warlord, who was travelling incognito, to leave the train. He desperately wants a hostage to bargain for the release of his number 1 man, so he interviews his fellow passengers, even torturing one of them because he was rude to the warlord on the train. Naturally he chooses the love of Lily's like, British soldier/doctor, Captain Harvey. What will Lily do to gain his release? What will lily's friend, Hui Fei, do to the warlord who had his way with her? This is a movie worth every effort to buy & watch.

I also watched I Walk Alone made in 1948 with a killer cast, Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey & Lizabeth Scott.

Convict Lancaster has just been released from jail & he figures his old "business" associates will keep their word from 14 years ago about equal shares of the "business". Old pal Douglas doesn't see it that way, coz he reckons to old business was wound up & what he has now is all his, damn the 14 years his pal took in jail for him. Douglas has the money, clout & heavies (like Mike Mazurki) to enforce his will. He loses the floozy though, coz she wants to help Lancaster.

This is a superior example of film-noir.

 

[Asgardian]

Watched a couple of interesting films tonight

Victory made in 1940, starring Fredric March, Betty Field, Cedric Hardwicke, Jerome Cowan & Sig Ruman.



Victory is about a bloke (March) who has retreated from the world to his own island paradise in the south Pacific. He has been branded a swindler because a business he had has gone bust, so while he is visiting a resort island he is not the most popular bloke there. Meanwhile a visiting all girl band & conductor is due to move on soon, however the resort manager has his eyes on one of the girls, so he buys her contract from the band, she is not happy about this coz the manager, Sig Ruman, is after the obvious, and she is not putting out. So along comes the hermit to take her away to his island. The manager is furious about this, so he concocts a story that the hermit has a fortune on his island & tells this to a small band of thugs & cut-throats, who naturally decide to go a visiting. I'll leave it there, the story is well worth the effort of finding the DVD.

The 2nd movie was the rather bright & breezy comedy, This Is the Night, made in 1932. Starring Lili Damita, Charles Ruggles, Roland Young, Thelma Todd & in his movie debut, Cary Grant. Directed by Frank Tuttle.



Set initially in France, this is a pre-code bedroom romp. Young is keen on, & having it off with Todd, trouble she is married to Olympic athlete (javelin), Grant, who shows up from the Olympics, catches them in a slightly awkward moment, although they seem to talk their way out of it, kinda. It seems they had 2 tickets to go to Venice, so Young invents a wife for himself, saying the tickets were for them. Grant decides he & Todd should go to Venice also with Young, so the poor bloke has to employ a girl, Damita, to fill in as his make believe wife. There is a running gag throughout the movie where Todd is always losing her clothes in public coz the get caught in car doors or elevators or whatever. It also seems that Grant isn't the clueless fool he made out to be. Not a bad little comedy.

It also nearly spelt the end of Cary Grant's movie career coz he felt the part he played was of an idiot, weak sap

 

[Catfish Alley]

Watched Rear Window last night. Hadn't seen it for a long time and had forgotten a lot of it. Grace Kelly sure was a beautiful woman. 'Miss Torso' added a little bit of eye-candy as well. Although, I only just learnt that she turned 18 during filming so probably shouldn't say that! The set of the courtyard was very elaborate and I enjoyed Hitchcock's panning camera across the different apartments. A lot of people like to 'people watch' and imagine what everyone gets up to in their daily lives. At first you think Jimmy Stewart is just being paranoid but there is a nice slow build. Lots of tension but also some nice humor. Great movie!

 

[Asgardian]

Didn't watch any movies tonight, was watching the Bombers win

Anyway, on Thursday night I watched 2 very different movies, the 1st one was --

Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison made in 1951 starring David Brian, Philip Carey, Ted de Corsia & Steve Cochran.



Now this is one hell of a tough prision movie, maybe as tough a one as I've ever seen. The warden, Ted de Corsia, believes in breaking prisioners ... physically, for any transgression & especially for attempted escape. When one happens & is crushed, the ringleader is beaten so badly, by the warden, there were rumours he was now paralysed. The captain of the guard was killed in the break, so new captain, David Brian, comes on board with ideas of reform & a more humane environment, which the warden hopes will crucify his new captain of the guards. This movie has it all, stoolies, murder, more breaks, militia ... I highly recommend this one.

The 2nd movie was The Conquerors made in 1932, starring Richard Dix, Ann Harding, Guy Kibbee & Edna May Oliver. Directed by the great William A. Wellman, who also directed Wings, The Public Enemy, Beau Geste & The Ox-Bow Incident among others.



It starts in the 1880's in the American east, but doesn't take long for a newly married couple to move west and begin their own banking business. From humble beginnings this movie gives us the picture of life moving forward, through an economic depression, deaths in the family, weddings, suicide, financial growth and fortunes made, World War One where a grandchild enlists & survives, the boom of the roaring twenties until the crash of the Great Depression. And not one moment is without entertainment and an involvement with the characters on the screen. This is the work of a great director, & it shows. Get this movie if you can.

 

[Neese]

My favourite is Arsenic and Old Lace. It's brilliant

The public library I work at has had a vintage movie collection for nearly 2 years now and they fly off the shelves as often as the other movies.

 

[Asgardian]

Watched a couple of movies that are (sadly) unknown

He Ran All the Way made in 1951. Starring John Garfield (in his final movie), Shelley Winters & Wallace Ford.



Perpetual loser (Garfield) & his friend pull a payroll heist that doesn't go to plan. Garfield gets away with the money, but he's the kind of guy who is scared of his own shadow & sticks out like a sore thumb even when he hasn't done anything wrong. By chance he fumbles his way to freedom, but in doing so he has shot down a cop. Trying to hide he goes to a public swimming pool where he meets Winters, she's the 'plain Jane' next door kind of girl so when Garfield takes notice of her, she's all a flutter and takes him home to meet her parents. Garfield, being the loser he is, cannot play it cool so out comes the gun and the family is suddenly his hostages. It gets very interesting from there on, this is a hell of a good film-noir.

Man in the Attic made in 1953, starring Jack Palance, Constance Smith & Byron Palmer. Adapted from Marie Belloc Lowndes novel, The Lodger, which was the source material for Alfred Hitchcock' 1927 film, "The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog".

Ostensibly this is a "Jack the Ripper" tale, with several liberties taken. Palance is a secretive type who takes lodgings in a house that will soon be home to the occupants niece (Smith), who is a showgirl just returned from the stage in Paris with her own all new show for London with lots of can can dancing. Flatfoot (Palmer) is keen on using new investigative methods, like fingerprints, to catch the Ripper, he's also keen on scoring the lovely Smith, but so is Palance from outward appearances, but he's just so strange. Being a Ripper tale you'd know the ending, but I wont let on how we get there ...

 

[Asgardian]

After the footy I watched as Aussie film tonight, Walk Into Paradise made in (1956) starring Chips Rafferty




It's a joint Australian / French production set in New Guinea. An adventurer makes his way out of the jungle to a settlement where he reports that his brother has died, plus that he has discovered oil deep in uncharted territory. He goes on the expedition to verify his claim and to help the initial stages of bringing civilization, by way of a camp & new landing strip for light aircraft, to the remote area. The expedition, led by Rafferty, has a female United Nations doctor studying malaria along for half the journey, much to Rafferty's displeasure. Things go wrong, naturally, (this is the movies) and some of the remote tribesmen prove to be less than friendly, as are their pet snakes. It's quite a good movie that is hardly known or talked about.

 

[Asgardian]

Watch two very different movies tonight

Hitlerjunge Quex: Ein Film vom Opfergeist der deutschen Jugend (Hitler Youth Quex) made in 1933

This is a Nazi propaganda film in German with English subtitles. It is not for everyone but if you want to know about the times & period in world history, it's an important film. A young German lad, whose parents are proud communists, decides he doesn't want to join the communist boys club, rather he wanted to join the Hitler Youth. Trouble, misunderstandings, etc happen, but in the end the boy is killed by communists when he is delivering Nazi literature in a communist area. The Nazi's by this time in power, made the most of a true event to get this film made. It can be a bit of a slog to get through, & sometimes it's very unpleasant, but I do recommend watching it.

The other movie was Derelict made in 1930, starring George Bancroft, William 'Stage' Boyd & Jessie Royce Landis.

Two sailors friends fight over a girl, until one is promoted to captain, he then becomes business like, the other smuggles the girl on board, the ship flounders and the new captain is busted. He then joins a derelict boat to follow his former friend & the girl, on the repaired boat, into the teeth of a hurricane. Naturally he saves the day. Pretty standard fare & not a bad time filler.