Movie Classic Films — Let's Discuss

[Asgardian]

Last night I watched Among the Missing, made in 1934. Directed by Albert S. Rogell of Heaven Only Knows (1947) fame. Starring Henrietta Crosman, Richard Cromwell, Billie Seward & Arthur Hohl.



The Motion Picture Production Code (aka Hays Code) began being enforced in 1934, this picture certainly shows that it was produced under its banner.

Wealthy elderly lady, Martha Abbott (played by Henrietta Crosman) has taken off from her grasping relatives all who have her money as their focus, apart from them making a pest of themselves with the police, this sub-plot is completely discarded from the film. Martha has made her way to some parklands in the evening when a young man, Tommy (played by Richard Cromwell) comes across her. Tommy has been up to no good, a part of a robbery, so trying to be inconspicuous, he sits down with Martha creating a story about his missing puppy, wanting to know if she has seen it. Tommy takes the opportunity to slip some of his stolen goods into Martha's overcoat pocket, knowing that when the police get there he will be searched, but not Martha.

Things go well for Tommy, the police come & go, then his boss arrives, they talk about the fictitious dog, Tommy filling in his boss that the stash is hidden in Martha's pocket, they offer her a job as their landlady and cook, she eagerly accepts, thinking looking after a nice young man like Tommy will be wonderful. Once at their abode the stash is recovered, without Martha's knowledge, and she sets about cooking.

The crime boss has given her Tommy's room, much to his annoyance, which he does not hide from Martha, however the crime boss starts to like her being around because when the police turn up to do a search she proves very helpful when the police do not search her room. He thinks keeping her around will be very good.

The next day Tommy's girlfriend, Judy (played by Billie Seward), who knows nothing about his life in crime, turns up and gets along with Martha famously. She also lets it slip that Tommy has never had a puppy, Martha starts to become very suspicious. Martha proposes a picnic with Judy who loves the idea, making a very reluctant Tommy agree to come along. Once there Martha surprises Tommy with a puppy for him. He knows she knows he didn't have a puppy, she knows he knows that she knows he didn't have a puppy, but nothing is said, a pregnant pause or two, but that's all.

Tommy is starting to believe that a life in crime is not for him and tells his boss he wants out, but the boss needs he for the next job, a real big one, robbing a diamond merchant, so he convinces Tommy to help with this one & it can be his last, Tommy agrees.

The heist commences, but unknown to the crooks is that Martha has found out about it, so while it is underway, she arrives at the building, catching a very guilty looking Tommy with a bag full of diamonds on his way to get out of the building. Unexpectedly one of the jewelers has managed to trip the alarms and in very quick order cops are starting to swarm all over the building. Tommy feeling very desperate, refuses to put the diamonds back, goes to leave by the fire escape, as he does so, Martha snatches the diamonds away from him, slamming the window shut & locking it, all Tommy can do is leave without the diamonds, she intends to return the diamonds. Martha, thinking fast, has grabbed a cleaning woman's bucket and starts scrubbing floors, the diamonds being hidden in the bucket of water. The police arrive on that floor of the building before she can get the diamonds back to the store, thinking nothing of Martha, they start their search. However unfortunately for Martha a very loud and vocal cleaning woman turns up wanting her bucket and wanting to know who on earth Martha is, the police see this, becoming suspicious, want to know what is going one, when in the struggle between the ladies the bucket falls & the diamonds land on the floor.

Martha is taken away to police headquarters, where she tells them everything truthfully up to the point of who did the heist, she refuses to tell them about Tommy. Because she is a lady and elderly, the police feel inhibited, they cannot employ their usual roughhouse methods of interrogation to find the truth, and Martha keeps on telling the truth, up to a point. Finally the police captain, with a fearsome reputation who would beat up his own mother, turns up wanting to know the progress, when he learns there is none, he takes over the interrogation, but Martha is more than a match even for him.

As night becomes day the police have gotten nowhere with Martha, but Tommy is feeling very guilty by this stage, tells Judy everything, so off they go to rescue Martha from the police and make a confession. Tommy admits everything including who was his boss & gang members, Martha is set free & Tommy is put under probation with Martha to help look after him.

Film ends full of sugar & roses ...... bah humbug.

Just imagine if this film was made just a couple of years earlier, even one year earlier.

Judy would have had a far meatier role as the crooks moll.

Tommy & the gang could have been real bad guys.

Martha would probably have ended up in a coffin.

But because of the new Motion Picture Production Code, with Will Hays in charge, there has to be ---

good endings

crime cannot pay

old ladies cannot be harmed

double beds were banned, married couples had to have their own single beds

There could be no passionate long kissing

no sex, innuendo, etc.

For the next 35 yeras movie producers, directors, writers & actors sought ways to circumvent the *** damned Motion Picture Production Code, not always successfully.

What a blight on the industry ...

Anyway, I give this movie, based on what is there, rather than what should have been there ---

3.5/10

 

[Asgardian]

Finally caught up with a movie that has a rather poor reputation, maybe it's to do with the 3D gimmick?

I'm guessing it is also a movie that the Coen brothers like, as it is used in No Country for Old Men, called Flight to Tangier, made in 1953. Directed by Charles Marquis Warren, notable for his associations with several westerns. Starring Jack Palance, Joan Fontaine, Corinne Calvet, Jeff Morrow (Exeter in This Island Earth), Marcel Dalio & Robert Douglas. It really is a very good cast for what was a "B" picture.



At the Tangier airport a motley assortment of characters are eagerly awaiting the arrival of a special flight. It turns out to be a very special flight as it is arriving with no pilot & no passengers. We go back a bit in time and see that there is only one passenger & one pilot, who leaves the controls, set on auto-pilot, puts on a parachute and pushes the passenger to the hatch, whilst they are still several thousand feet up, that's all we see of them. Fast forward to the plane coming in towards the airport, the air control cannot get any response from the plane, which comes in low and crashes just past the airport, to the extreme disappointment of several of those who were waiting for it.

It seems that the plane was bringing in a passenger who had 3 million in cash, the local crooked kingpin, Goro (Dalio), had arranged for it to come in. His clients were shady characters led by Danzer (Douglas), they turn out to be agents from behind the Iron Curtain. The lovely Nicki (Calvert) is mixed up with them, plus is very useful because she is female and beautiful to boot. American Gil Walker (Palance), a local ex-army hero, is waiting by for his pal, the pilot of the ill-fated plane about to arrive. American Susan Lane (Fontaine) is just waiting, why is not yet known.

Once the plane has crashed the police cordon off the area so it can be investigated next morning, but overnight Walker has his own plans so he goes for a look, so to dose Lane, who tells him she is a reporter & the former pilots fiance. Naturally they are caught by the police guarding the area, but police colonel, Wier (Morrow) has nothing substantial to hold them for, so they are release, the copper wants them tailed though.

Danzer & Goro get a hold of them, wanting to know what they have to do with that plane, flight & people on board, thinking they may know where the pilot & the 3 million dollars are now. The police arrive, late as usual, they split up to surround the building & look for a way in, just as the crooks were going to leave, they open a door, see a copper and one of the crooks shoots, killing the cop, then slamming the door sut with Walker on the outside. The other coppers come running and see Walker taking off, thinking he is the killer, they take off after him through the maze like old city area.

One of the crooks catches up with Walker, but he's too tough for him, knocking him out & taking his gun. The rest of the crooks then catch up with him, but he takes the two women away from them and darts off to places unknown. By this time the cops catch up to the ral bad guys, but knowing nothing of their involvement, let them go. Miss Lane lets it slip that if something went wrong, she was to meet up with her pilot/fiance at an airstrip near a little town about a 100 miles away. The problem is that Tangier is a walled city and the police have it boxed in tight, all exits are strongly guarded.

However the story requires Walker & the two women to escape the city, so they do, unfortunately they also have the crooks & the foreign agents in tow. They manage to lose them for a while, but not completely so our heroes take off by foot, after Nicki accidentally / on purpose alerts the crooks as to Walker's presence. The chase is through a farm and sheds, our heroes win that little diversion, taking off in the car again, heading to that airstrip, still the crooks are not too far behind.

They finally reach the airstrip which turns out to be a storage location of 100's of US army planes, vehicle and equipment, which is all guarded by Goro's goons dressed up as US soldiers. Walker, Lane & Nicki in hiding, spot Lane's fiance, he has that aircraft passenger with him, so they take off to meet up with the pilot. Meanwhile Goro & the foreign agents are discussing how they'll get that pilot, passenger and the 3 million. It turns out that the agents have no intention of letting Goro have any of the money as they kill him, then bribing Goro's goons to work for them and get those other people who are at the airstrip

Moving over to Walker and the rest of them we find out his buddy the pilot is actually an American government agent, so to is Miss Lane, they want to stop these "behind the Iron Curtain" types from getting all this American hardware, planes etc, with American markings, and doing some no good stuff with it all and letting the Americans get the blame.

Finally we get a gun fight, belatedly the police arrive.

Can you guess all the action that happened?

Flight to Tangier is really a better movie than what it's reputation would make you believe, it's no classic, but it is an entertaining, if somewhat predictable, hour & a half.

I give it 6 / 10

 

[Asgardian]

Caught up with a very odd little Pommy movie, Saloon Bar, made in 1940.

Directed by Walter Forde, of The Ghost Train fame, both versions, 1931 & 1941. The 1931 version is infamous because it only partially survives. Starring Gordon Harker, Mervyn Johns, Elizabeth Allan, Joyce Barbour, Anna Konstam, Cyril Raymond & Judy Campbell.



It's only and hour & a quarter long with a threadbare theme that should be explained in only a couple of sentences rather than my usual number of paragraphs.

Essentially it is set in a London pub one evening where the conversation is ablaze with talk of another pub regular who is due to be executed in a few hours time for murder. The murderer's girl, Queenie, works at the pub, but she is nowhere to be seen until the last 20 minutes of the film. Up until then the regulars are certain Eddie Graves, the accused murderer, is innocent, but have no way of proving it nor of making anyone in authority believe them ... until ... one of the barmaids takes a pound note over the bar, checks it against the police list, lo'n'behold, it's a very hot note. That pound note was one of the stash that was stolen during the crime that Eddie Graves has been convicted for.

Suddenly all the pub patrons, and barmaids, become amateur sleuths. I should also mention the ongoing joke that the publican's wife is upstairs, never seen, and is about to give birth. The rotund publican is up and down the stairs more often than a strippers knickers is up & down, each time only too happy to accept a gin if a patron pays for it for him.

The chief sleuth, Joe Harris played by Gordon Harker, is uncannily clever with his powers of sleuthing, following the trails that pound note has taken, even to the pub, which is a classy establishment, across the street, pinning down the barmaid there who took in that note & tried to not get involved, dropping it in a beggar's bowl who passed it onto our pubs bar.

All of our sleuths are able to put together a shady background for another patron who has not yet shown up for a drink. It seems he is living under an assumed identity, one that he hopes will make his past invisible to all but the most vigourous examination, which our pub regulars seem to be able to do.

When he finally turns up, assumed identity securely attached, he seems to ride out the initial storm of accusations, satisfying the many sleuths ... until ... he is confronted finally by Joe Harris with the falseness of his identity, so he takes off for the hills, with Joe in close pursuit. Up hills & down dales (woops, too excited there), between one set of dingy tenements then the next our crook goes, only to make the mistake of going upstairs, out onto a balcony, up onto a roof and finally hanging precariously from a goblin roof ornament, with chief sleuth Harris in tow. Well this is a happy movie, the crook, who I did not reveal, fell to his death, one that satisfied the authorities, along with the new evidence, sufficiently that they set Eddie Graves free.

All a bit of fun nonsense really, I give it 5.5 / 10

 

[Asgardian]

Decided to write about a mainstream movie this time.

The Key, made in 1958. Directed by the great Carol Reed, who can count on many highlights, Night Train to Munich (1940), Oliver! (1968), The Fallen Idol (1948), The Way Ahead (1944), The True Glory (1945), The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) and especially The Third Man (1949).

Starring William Holden, Sophia Loren, Trevor Howard, Kieron Moore, Bernard Lee & Oskar Homolka.



American / Canadian? Capt. David Ross (Holden) is newly arrived in WW2 England to serve as a Captain on an ocean going rescue tug, the tugs in question go out to bring to port, in all types of seas, war damaged cargo ships, or any other type that needs assistance. These tugs have practically no defenses by way of armour plating, they have a small caliber Pom Pom which is just about useless against the far bigger guns of the wolfpack U-boats, and they are always sailing into trouble, where a merchantman has already been attacked & the U-boat is lingering to pick off any tid-bits.

Ross reports for duty to the Commodore (Lee) and immediately meets an old friend Capt. Chris Ford (Howard), who is also a rescue tug captain. Each tug is shared by two Captains & two crews, so it is always ready to go to sea, the Captains & crews take it in turns for orders to sea. The Commodore orders Ross to go out with Ford who is about to go rescue a merchantman, just to see how they do things in that branch of wartime service. It has been a while between ocean jobs for him, so naturally the Atlantic is the perfect place to make him seasick, apart from that he gets a first hand view of just how badly the tugs are matched up against the U-boats. However if the tugs are lucky the merchantman's gun is still operational, a gun which is usually big enough to successfully trade blows with the U-boats. On this occasion the U-Boat takes of for a better hunting ground, allowing the tug to successfully tow in the crippled merchantman.

Ford invites Ross to come to his place for a drink & meal, where he meets Stella (Loren), who is strangely detached, lovely, but seemingly not caring about life. Ross makes comment about his new poorly fitting Captain's jacket, so Stella tells him to follow her, to the bedroom where, in the wardrobe, she has many captain's jackets hanging. The weirdness of the sight is not lost on Ross, but he remains quiet, enjoying his time with Ford over a drink & meal. Ford wants to "howl at the moon" a bit so they go out for more drinks where the secret of Stella is disclosed.

She was engaged to marry a rescue tug Captain, they lived at the same flat which she still occupies, but the day before the wedding he was killed out at sea on a rescue job. Hearing of the flats availability another tug Captain grabbed it, for some reason, Stella came with the flat, he needing it because of the accommodation shortage, she because she maybe felt dead inside and had nowhere else to go. That Captain made an extra key for the flat, giving it to Ford, telling him he could have the flat if anything happened to him, it did and Ford moved in, with Stella staying put.

Now Ross has arrived Ford got a spare key made and gave it to him, under the same arrangements. It becomes complicated for Ford though because he loves Stella, so they make plans to marry, but again fate interferes. Ford has to go out on a rescue job, this time the small tug is attacked from the air, with German planes strafing it, Ford copping it across the chest and goes overboard, impossible to be picked up. This time Ross moves in, he too proves to be a caring man, someone who can love and be loved, eventually he & Stella fall in love. However this time Stella seems to come out from her prison of the mind, this time Stella may actually be in love, this time she leaves the flat to do some shopping instead of having others do it for her, this time she actually feels some emotions instead of just going through the motions.

War is a terrible time for love, Ross is given an assignment to rescue a merchantman who is not following convoy rules, he has broken radio silence and keeps on repeating his situation and location over and over again, creating a beacon for every U=Boat and German plane within hundreds of miles. Neither Ross nor his crew is keen on this job, but finally the comply with orders to go and rescue the merchantman. Just before leaving port Ross sees Ford's replacement, Kane (Moore) his old first mate, and throws a key for the flat to him, they then get underway. Arriving at the location they find the merchantman firing her gun continuously, but then stops, she signals the tug she is out of ammunition, leaving both vessels virtually defenseless.

A U-boat appears out of the fog attacking the tug, pounding it to blazes. On fire with no hope of saving her Ross orders full ahead and then abandon ship, but he stays on board. He ties off the wheel, making directly towards the U-boat, then he too jumps overboard, the sub Captain concentrating on the merchantman, fails to see the tug making straight for him until the last moment, but it's too late, the tug rams the sub and then blows up, taking both of them to the depths of the Atlantic.

The merchantman still signalling asks for another tug, relating the tale of what happened to the first one. In the meantime Kane knowing Ross' tug has gone down, goes to the flat, Stella seems surprised, asking if Ross gave him a key, which he says yes to. She immediately seems to withdraw into herself again, into her own mind, it looks like her emotions have again been cut out of her.

Unknown to both of them the second rescue tug arrived in time to pick up survivors of Ross' tug, including him, and was able to tow into port the merchantman. The tale of Ross' heroics is soon spread, with the merchantman's Captain wanting to shake his hand for saving him, Ross however punches him for breaking radio silence, the Commodore breaks it up and settles things down, but Ross suddenly thinks of Stella, Stella and the flat, Kane has a key. Barging in, surprising both Kane and Stella, both thought him dead, Stella's emotions suddenly re-arises, exploding at Ross to get out, she breaks down in tears, it seems that Kane's key was the last straw. Ross leaves, heading for a bar to drown his sorrows, where Kane catches up with him, saying Stella has left, by train, for London, for good, and wanting to share the flat 50/50 with Ross. Hearing this Roos suddenly knows that he wants Stella more than anything in the world, he and Kane race to the train station, but it's too late, as we see Ross (Casablanca style) break through the fog after the train, in vain.

Inside the train Stella gets her ticket out for the conductor, also grabbing her key, the conductor leaves and Stella stares at the key, after a pregnant pause Stella jams the key down between the seats as a closure to that part of her life. On the train platform Ross promises that he'll find her, he insists on it to Kane, who is dubious, but who can doubt our hero ... THE END.

This is a really good movie, I give it 7.5 / 10

 

[DEVO]

On Friday night I sat down at watched one of the most bizarre films I've ever seen in my life, NECROPOLIS, an Italian film made in 1970 by Franco Brocani and starring Nicoletta Machiavelli, Tina Aumont and Pierre Clementi. Some of the characters in the film include Attila the Hun, Frankenstein's monster, Countess Elizabeth Bathory, King Kong, Montezuma and one of the strangest portrayals of Satan.

In the late 60's and early 70's there were numerous surrealist and experimental films being made, Bunuel, Pasolini and Faraldo are fairly well known, and their films were accessable and enjoyable, but this one defies belief and description, it is impossible to describe what happened in the film, because I have no idea. I don't think there was a plot at all, only a number of weird and not so wonderful set pieces.

By the 70's the Italian film industry appeared to be on it's last legs, all the great directors had either moved to Hollywood or stopped making films altogether and the industry was bereft of new ideas, it was just churning out poor imitiations of successful American and French films. Here is the proof.

 

[Asgardian]

From a mainstream film to one that is absolutely unknown, I watched Forbidden Heaven, made in 1935 tonight.

Directed by Reginald Barker, known only for his work in silent movies, Forbidden Heaven is the last film he directed, and probably the last film he was involved with. It was also the very first film Republic Pictures Corporation produced. For that fact alone this film is worth finding.

It starred Charles Farrell, Charlotte Henry, Beryl Mercer, Fred Walton, Eric Wilton & Phyllis Barry, in reality an undistinguished cast.



Set in the middle of the Depression in London, specifically a park in London, we are given the information that His Majesty's Parks are closed of an evening & will open the next morning. Anyone caught within the Park by the police, out of hours, will be prosecuted & jailed. However because of the times, 1,000's & 1,000's unemployed and homeless, the Park is an attraction because it offers some areas of shelter out of the cold & elements. On one cold winter's night two elderly transients are sheltering under a footbridge within the Park, when they are joined by a young well spoken but shabbily dressed man. They are trying to warm themselves around a pitiful fire when they hear a splash from the nearby river, investigating they find a young woman who looks likely to drown, so the young man dives in and saves her, which is not what she was hoping for, suicide on her mind.

The young woman is unconscious, the young man and the two transients, an elderly man and woman, decide that they must find better, warmer shelter, or the young lady will die. So they break into the tearooms which are not used in the winter because of the lack of customers. They get a fire going in the fireplace, find some tea and tin of biscuits and do what they can for the girl. She is soon revived but expresses her disappointment at still being alive, but the old couple, Agnes and Pluffy along with the young man, "His Nibs", manage to cheers her up. Her name is Ann and she admits she is not brave enough to try the river again, so after more tea and biscuits they manage a warm night out of the cold.

Agnes has let it slip that all she wants is balloons she she can sell them to the children and make a few pennies, so when "His Nibs" and Pluffy go out looking for day by day work they manage to get enough to earn a shilling or two. Pluffy spends his share on buying balloons for Agnes and she is naturally overjoyed. His Nibs has bought some food for them all, so they have a decent feed instead of going hungry as usual, they also find that the tearooms are a good place to hide in as it gives cover plus the police never check it, believing it to be locked up over winter. The next day with Agnes selling her balloons, Pluffy, Ann and His Nibs chatting, they discover that His Nibs is a street smart operator with something to say and loves it on a soapbox to say it. It turns out that he has political ambitions, as far fetched as they may be, but he does have a way with words and a talent for making others listen plus a mind keen enough to make a whole lot of sense about the political and social goings on of the times.

On one occasion, on a soapbox, he is heard by a politician who is taking a walk through the Park with his daughter who is in her twenties. He hears His Nibs and stops and listens, finding him to be lucid, intelligent and making good sense, so he asks him if he'd like to attend a political sppech he is giving that night for some of his constituents, which His Nibs readily accepts. Naturally Ann has seen the pollies daughter and figures she is no show up against her, but accepts it quietly. At the political meeting as the night progresses things become heated, with His Nibs getting knocked out cold, so the pollie takes him to his home to recover, Ann, Agnes and Pluffy go there and check with the butler to make sure he is okay and then go back to the tearooms.

The next day the pollie offers His Nibs a job, buys some new clothes for hi and gives him an advance of some money. This new goldmine is not to be wasted, so he buys gifts for the other three plus food and drink fit for a banquet, which they all thoroughly enjoy at the tearooms. After their feast, huddling around the fireplace talking, Agnes has a turn, it's her heart, so with her three friends around her, trying to see the night through, Agnes does not make it, her last words as dawn is breaking is to tell Pluffy to let her balloons go in the sky. As the three of them leave the tearooms the police are now aware of them and take them into custody.

However what we next see is Pluffy, dressed to the nines, chatting to a chauffeur about his sixty day stay in the lock-up, when we learn that they are outside a church where His Nibs and Ann are getting married, His Nibs with a long political career assured.

The End.

This is a short movie, just over an hour long, with very little in the way of action, but that doesn't matter, it's about four people who society has no use for, has completely forgotten, but they have not forgotten they are human and they have feelings and they can make a difference.

It's a charming little picture, I give it 6 / 10

 

[JoondalupJ]

Watched a relatively modern (for me) film last night, The Hellions, made in 1961. Starring Richard Todd, Jamie Uys, Lionel Jeffries, James Booth, Anne Aubrey, Zena Walker & Ronald Fraser. Directed by Ken Annakin, well principally by Annakin, but producer Irving Allen also stuck his nose in to get a screen credit.

Irving Allen is an interesting character, not to be confused with sci-fi TV shows & disaster movie impresario, Irwin Allen.

Irving Allen was a partner with Cubby Broccoli, later of James Bond fame. In the latish 1950's when the two were discussing bring Ian Fleming's character to life, Allen was of the opinion the stories were not good enough, Broccoli knew they were, the partnership split & the rest is history.

Irving Allen later tried to cash in on the super spy genre by casting Dean Martin as Matt Helm in a few terrible Bond rip-off's.

View attachment 41342

Anyway, back to business, The Hellions is a High Noon rip-off. That's about it, sometimes scene by scene. I'll try to do it justice.

An older bloke, Luke Billings, and his four sons, Matthew, Mark, John & Jubal. Notice the Biblical reference? Well they are a bunch of no good dirty rotten thugs on horseback set in late 19th century South Africa, when barbed wire is starting to be introduced to the pastures. The Billings, led with an iron hand, whip & gun by Luke do not like barbed wire because it gets in their way, so coming across the property owner who has started using it, they impress their will on him by gun & a bullet in his leg. The farmers wife gets him onto a dray to take him to the nearest township where the local sheriff is Sam Hargis, a man with whom the Billings have a personal hatred.

The shooting is no accident, it is meant as a message from Luke Billings to Sam Hargis. So to is the next confrontation a bloke has with the Billings. Ernie Dobbs is the local hardware store owner and agent for the barbed wire manufacturer, he comes across the Billings with his dray loaded with the wire for another customer. The Billings are only too happy to make his acquaintance, especially so they can cut some wire & use it to whip him, another message for the sheriff.

Now the sheriff isn't stupid, he can read, and so can his pregnant wife who begs him to leave town & get away from the Billings, something he'd like to do, but cannot. Meanwhile Ernie Dobbs has made it back to his store with his son who saw him whipped, now Dobbs is a meek & mild man, he doesn't even know how to work a gun except for the quick instructions the salesman gave him when delivering the goods. His wife also wants to get out of town before the Billings move in & try to take over.

Now the good folk of this frontier town wont take the threat of the Billings lying down, they order, through the Mayor, that the sheriff has to take care of this new problem, however they are all a bit too busy to help.

Finally the Billings arrive and they are in no hurry, they see the sheriff and piss him off with threats, stares & bad intentions, however before they finally confront him, they have some drinking to do first, along with any other mayhem they can think of. Luke makes his way to the hardware store gets all over Dobbs' wife, they boys generally scare nearly to death anyone they see while having some good whisky. One of the sons, Mark, decides to go to the hardware store to get a new gun, by this time Dobbs is back and shows him the gun, damn near scared to death, and tries to show him how to load it, but the gun goes off, killing Mark. Dobbs panics, so does his wife, so they try to hide the body and take off as fast as they can to the railway station to get out of town to safety. However as the train starts off, he finds out from his son that Luke damn near had his way with his wife, in a rage to temper, he jumps the train heading back to town to confront the Billings.

By this time the sheriff is starting to get in on the act. The sheriff & Dobbs start to fight Luke & Jubal, while this is going on Matthew & John are about to be confronted by the local citizenry who seem to have grown a pair & in numbers.

I wont give away all of the ending.

It's not a bad rip-off, set in an unusual locale with some good steady actors, I give it 5.5/10

Speaking of rip offs. Last night I watched about ten minutes of El Dorado , John Wayne , Robert Mitchum ,I caught the saloon scene where the drunken sheriff Robert Mitchum with a hangover catches the wounded crook inside the saloon shoots him and arrests the wealthy landowner or business man , well my favorite Western Rio Bravo has been pinched here , or the other way around. That scene is the exact almost, of the same saloon scene from Rio Bravo with Dean Martin as the sheriff with a drinking problem.Wayne is the same , Mitchum is good , but no match for Deano and Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan, Wayne again is the same in Rio Bravo, big and tough but plays the same thing every time. Why would they do that sort of thing , it must be the same story.

 

[little graham]

I watched Top Gun last night on the 40 inch. It really is very well done.It is very low on American properganda and politics (which in military movies is a hard thing to do). It shows these guys has humans, with faults. It shows the women as strong, as they are and have to be in military environments.

Lets be honest, the story is weak as piss and old, but the setting in which they put it in, saves the day. The best of the best of the best naval aviator all trying to be top of their class.The music was chick flick s**t, the sex scenes would of been classed as to soft for days of our lives, Meg Ryan looked liked a junky.

the scene at the end gets me, with two tomcats doing a roll, the control of the wingman as he follows his leaders lead, i can watch all day every day, the exquisite touch, at such speed. One of the best closing scenes in movies you'll ever see.

 

[DEVO]

I haven't seen one of Tom Cruise's films, I've seen a couple of trailers, including a really stupid one back in the 80's with him dancing around in his underwear. In total I've probably seen 5 minutes of his entire career and that is 5 minutes too many.

 

[benji2]

I watched Top Gun last night on the 40 inch. It really is very well done.It is very low on American properganda and politics (which in military movies is a hard thing to do). It shows these guys has humans, with faults. It shows the women as strong, as they are and have to be in military environments.

Lets be honest, the story is weak as piss and old, but the setting in which they put it in, saves the day. The best of the best of the best naval aviator all trying to be top of their class.The music was chick flick s**t, the sex scenes would of been classed as to soft for days of our lives, Meg Ryan looked liked a junky.

the scene at the end gets me, with two tomcats doing a roll, the control of the wingman as he follows his leaders lead, i can watch all day every day, the exquisite touch, at such speed. One of the best closing scenes in movies you'll ever see.

Top Gun - an old movie? Oh crap, it is !! 28 years!!

 

[little graham]

I haven't seen one of Tom Cruise's films, I've seen a couple of trailers, including a really stupid one back in the 80's with him dancing around in his underwear. In total I've probably seen 5 minutes of his entire career and that is 5 minutes too many.

He plays some very good roles.For a short arse pointy jawed s**t, he has overcome alot of things to make it.

 

[RobbyRoy]

I haven't seen one of Tom Cruise's films, I've seen a couple of trailers, including a really stupid one back in the 80's with him dancing around in his underwear. In total I've probably seen 5 minutes of his entire career and that is 5 minutes too many.

You're missing out. Not with Top Gun though, that's rubbish.

 

[Asgardian]

Is there any interest in my "old" movie reviews starting up in this thread again?

 

[little graham]

There is, if only for the admiration of your skill and passion.

 

[HARKER]

Watched Frankenheimer's Seconds the other night.

Thrilled for the themes in this one and not sure whether it's recognized as a classic but it should be.

 

[JoondalupJ]

Is there any interest in my "old" movie reviews starting up in this thread again?

Of course.

 

[JoondalupJ]

He plays some very good roles.For a short arse pointy jawed s**t, he has overcome alot of things to make it.

Yes Cruise can act when he wants to . I think he's better than some of his early movies . What ever he does in his private life , well who knows the media gets onto him, but Scientology is a quite strange , so I guess that publicity mangles his reputation too.

 

[little graham]

Hollywood has seen alot of people flip out. The spies, the mafia, the musicians,the polies are all attracted to hollwood like flies to cow dung in the desert.

I would give Cruise more credit for his choices than some may.

 

[spinynorman]

Yeah, to dismiss Tom Cruise altogether would be to avoid top work from some of the best directors - The Colour of Money, Born on the 4th of July, Mission Impossible, Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut, Minority Report, Collateral etc. I think he's better than he's often given credit for.

 

[RobbyRoy]

I rate Cruise's Magnolia work as highly as anything.

 

[djrossie16]

Cruise in Interview with the Vampire and Collateral immediately come to mind. Good actor when he wants to be imo.

 

[Asgardian]

I haven't seen one of Tom Cruise's films, I've seen a couple of trailers, including a really stupid one back in the 80's with him dancing around in his underwear. In total I've probably seen 5 minutes of his entire career and that is 5 minutes too many.

Top Gun - an old movie? Oh crap, it is !! 28 years!!

Tom Cruise stuff sure as hell does not belong in a "Classic Film" thread.

 

[spinynorman]

Tom Cruise stuff sure as hell does not belong in a "Classic Film" thread.

That's true enough, although I think it's always an interesting question of "How recent can a classic film be?" I mean, I hear some people refer to the Lord of the Rings movies as "old movies".

I'd probably argue up to 1980 would be my measurement, but I would guess yours would be earlier?

 

[Asgardian]

"How recent can a classic film be?"

Anything post 1960 should not be in a classic film discussion, IMO.

But the line does blur around that 1960 mark.

 

[Asgardian]

Watched a really good film-noir tonight

The Street with No Name made in 1948 USA, directed by William Keighley of 'G' Men (1935), Special Agent (1935), Bullets or Ballots (1936), The Prince and the Pauper (1937), Each Dawn I Die (1939), The Fighting 69th (1940), Torrid Zone (1940), No Time for Comedy (1940), The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941) & The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) fame.



Played as if it's an FBI & Twentieth Century Fox collaborative semidocumentary highlighting the evil return of gangsterism.

Some masked crooks invade a nightclub, wanting everything there from the club's takings to the customers wallets & jewellery, however one lady patron is so scared she tries to take off and is gunned down. A solid gold lead is found, an ID card at the club is found discarded, the owner picked up and booked for robbery, but there is no other evidence against him. Within a few hours he is bailed out to the surprise of the cops, who are further surprised when the bloke is found dead. Then we see another crime, another murder, what is the connection? It is not long in coming, going along a tour through the FBI we follow the bullet from the second crime and find it is from the same gun used to commit the first crime. From the scant descriptions from both crime scenes the FBI agent, Inspector George A. Briggs played by Lloyd Nolan, placed in charge of the investigation, because it has become a federal offense, determines he needs someone new, fresh faced, in short a newly qualified FBI agent. So he goes out to the training base, Quantico, Virginia, where we get another FBI tour of how their agents are trained. Agent Gene Cordell, played by Mark Stevens, is selected. He is given a run-through by Briggs on how he is to go about his task of trying to infiltrate this unknown gang. The only lead he has is the apparent youth of the crooks, hence Cordell, or as he is now to be known as George Manly, is to arrive in Center City (catchy hey?) and take up residence in "skid-row", to mix in, try to become known, try to be someone the gang might like to recruit.

Manly now drifting through all the penny arcades, pool joints, anywhere that type of crook might hang out turns up at the local boxing club where there is plenty of betting going on, he figures he may be noticed if he starts to give a boxer advice while he is sparring, much to his managers ire. He is about to be thrown out when someone asks if he can do better than the boxer, naturally the reply is yes, so the big shot says he'll give him $5.00 a round if he can last in there, but Manly says no, $10.00, which is accepted, well in he goes and spars around for two rounds not getting hurt because of his FBI training. Then picking up his $20.00 he leaves. Unknown though while he was in the ring someone went through his gear where an ID card was found and taken. This card was later left at the scene of a minor crime so Manly was arrested, fingerprinted etc and put through the usual wringer, but his true identity is not disclosed because the Inspector Briggs had anticipated something like this would happen so when the local cops tried to find out about Manly, all they got was his carefully created cover story.

Manly is then bailed out by the same guys who framed him, the same guy who inquired about his boxing skill, Alec Stiles, played by Richard Widmark, gets talking with him and spills the beans about the frame-up, Manly is surprised, but then Stiles shows him a complete copy of his police rap sheet. He was sent to prison by Stiles just so he could get his hands on that information, now obvious to the viewers and Manly, Stiles must have an informer within the police department. Based on the information that Stiles now has, Manly is invited to join the gang. He is invited the Stiles apartment where he meets the rest of the guys and is given a rundown of the next heist. Once the meeting is over, Manly goes to a coffee joint for a cuppa where he is able to slip the details of the upcoming job to his undercover contact. Soon he is shown where the gang have their arsenal hidden as they get ready for a new job, immediately spotting a Luger and knowing that is the type of gun used in the earlier murders, he asks if he can use that one, but it is declined as he is told that gun belongs to the boss, Stiles.

Due to the tip-off, the FBI and local police are ready to apprehend the gang as they commit their newest crime, but just before leaving, Stiles gets a call and is told it is a trap, obviously by his police informant, so it is called off. Manly gets word to the FBI about the cancellation, then is determined to get a bullet from the Luger identified as the bosses. He breaks into the cellar hiding place gets the gun fires off a shot retrieves the bullet and send it to the FBI, however Stiles has seen someone messing around, but does not know who it was. He decides to check up what had happened in his secret storeroom, finding out someone has fired his Luger, so he takes it, carefully, to his police buddy to get the fingerprints lifted, they are found to be Manly's.

The pace then picks up. Inspector Briggs finds out that Cordell/Manly's cover has been blown by accident as an officer tells him about the gun & fingerprints. Stiles and some of his boys pick up Manly telling him they have a new job on and it has to be done fast, trying to intercept Manly, his undercover contact, now informed the cover has been blown, calls Manly, but he doesn't take the call not knowing its importance. The contact, played by John McIntire, sees Manly out of his window heading off with the gang, so he hurriedly gets a cab and follows them, once the gang arrives at a manufacturing plant they head inside to do the heist. The contact is dropped off there by the cabbie who is told to get to the nearest phone and contact Inspector Briggs at the FBI, leaving to contact to follow the crooks as best he can to try and protect Manly. Inside the office where the safe is located Stiles tells Manly he knows it all, and that he is setting Manly up. He tells him his police contact has arranged for the local cops to be there in force and that Manly is to be killed by them, thus Stiles and has gang would have nothing to do with Manly's murder, he also tells him the cops have left a route out of the factory so they would not be caught.

Manly is then slugged from behind and given a thorough kicking, his unconscious is left draped over the safe, giving a good silhouette for the trigger happy cops, meanwhile a noise is heard, so a crook named Shivvy investigates, finding the undercover contact snooping about, so he knifes him. By this time the FBI with more local cops arrive at the scene, Stiles and his gang goes to take off, but Manly's body falls off the safe, so Shivvy is instructed to put him back, but just seeing the shadow, the trigger happy cops open fire killing the crook. Stiles is already on his way out, Inspector Briggs finds the stabbed contact, still alive, who tells them what he has seen, by this time Manly has recovered and not being shot, takes off after Stiles. A factory chase ensues, Stiles and Manly have a shoot out, then Stiles opening an outside door is immediately peppered with bullets by his crooked cop & his trigger happy cohorts.

Briggs then catches up with Manly and all just in time to put the cuffs on the crooked cop.

The FBI get their men!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Richard Widmark was fresh out of his debut as crazy killer, Tommy Udo in "Kiss of Death". It is obvious Widmark is on his way up the Hollywood ladder.



If you can wade through the propaganda, it's not too bad a noir, I give it 6.5/10