Loki Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Not really seen that much Stewart, but he's been solid in everything I've seen. Really good in The Shootist bringing the empathy to counterbalance Wayne's grit. The Man Who Shot... is obviously fucking brilliant. And he was great in How The West Was Won, which I saw for the first time recently. Â I would day though that he's one of those squeaky clean American actor types that I find hard to like. I'd take the battered bad boy of Mitchum any day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ReturnOfTheMack Posted November 16, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted November 16, 2011 Its A Wonderful Life is far and away my favourite film. Christmas isnt Christmas without having seen it at leats once. Its the only B&W film my wife enjoys (the wierdo). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wh1007 Posted November 16, 2011 Share Posted November 16, 2011 Fantastic thread this. Great call on these films.Stewart is probably best know for his work with Hitchcock and it's easy to see why.The pair worked brilliantly together wiith Vertigo and Rear Window being two of Hitch's best films period.It's hard to believe that Vertigo was somewhat of a failure on release and that Hitchcock blamed Stewart in part for it(meaning Stewart was bumped from North By Northwest in favour of Cary Grant).Vertigo is undoubtably Hitchcock's masterpice with Stewart turning in a career best performance as a man pushed to brink of insanity and then that little bit beyond.Everything in the film just hits a pitch perfect note,location,score,acting and direction. Â Rear Window is all the more impressive given its single location.In the hands of a lesser actor(or director)it would be easy to lose interest but Stewart keeps you hooked throughout.Nobody was better at playing the everyday everyman than Stewart. The perfect example of this is It's A Wonderful Life.This gets a watch from me on Christmas Eve every year without fail and never fails to produce he waterworks from me. Â Aside from the above mentioned films the only other Stewart films I've seen are Mr. Smith Goes To Washington(Stewart and regular collaborator Frank Capra on fine form again as Stewart does the everyman who goes to Washington with a somewhat naive view on politics.His attempts at doing the right thing and his filibustering scene are heart tugging emotional cinema at it's near finest)and Destry Rides Again(though that's moe Marlene Dietrich's film than Stewart's). A great actor that rarely put a foot wrong and impossible to hate,Stewart was one of cinema's all time best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gadge Posted November 16, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted November 16, 2011 Gladstone - Glenn Miller Story needs a watch, it makes my mum cry... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted November 16, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 16, 2011 The only problem with that is that my wife hates Glenn Miller so I'll probably have to watch it and pretend I'm working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Chest Rockwell Posted November 17, 2011 Moderators Share Posted November 17, 2011 I love that you will be watching the Glenn Miller story but pretending to be watching porn. Brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted November 17, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 17, 2011 I love that you will be watching the Glenn Miller story but pretending to be watching porn. Brilliant. Â Â "What site are you reviewing?" "Erm, Harsh Handjobs." "How much did they have to pay to use Pennsylvania 6-5000 on their videos?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted November 27, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 This week, 1940s film noir for your viewing pleasure. Â Like I say, this is a selection that I've seen as I've not seen them all obviously, so there will be some glaring omissions that anyone might want to throw out there:- Â THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS HERE! Â * The Maltese Falcon (1941) - Rather stupidly named in some quarters as the first major work of film noir (despite the fact that it was a remake of an original that pre-dated it by 10 years), it's possible that this version would never have been made if a planned re-release of the original had not been banned by the Hays Code. This version still sneaks in some sexually suggestive dialogue, but is more remarkable for one of the very best casts of the decade. Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade is ably supported by underrated femme fatale Mary Astor, but Peter Lorre playing the slimy partner of the film's best performer, the great Sydney Greenstreet, also provides typically ace back-up. They even manage to outshine one of my all-time favourites, Walter Huston, as a police captain. An acting masterclass among many other things. Â * GLADSTONE'S CHOICE - Double Indemnity (1944) - Ridiculously, I only saw this for the first time a few months ago and it had quite the effect on me, as you can see from the fact that it is the top choice for me. I'm still baffled as to why Fred MacMurray would never come close to emulating his stunning performance in this, but I don't think anyone would deny that Edward G Robinson is the true star here anyway - as he was in almost all his films. Barbara Stanwyck's double-crossing role is perhaps the greatest femme fatale of all time for me -she really brings everything necessary to this role. The scene where she and MacMurray bump off her husband really is one of the most nervewracking and perfectly timed scenes I have ever seen. But the whole film is almost flawless - I would definitely put this into the category of 'I don't like people who don't like this'. In fact, if you didn't like it, fuck off. Go on. Twat. Â * Murder, My Sweet (1944) - Often also known as Farewell, My Lovely, I think it's almost certain that if they had gone for the easy Bogart casting as Phillip Marlowe that this would get greater recognition. And that's a shame because Dick Powell, for me, gives the best Marlowe performance I have ever seen. He was mostly known for comedies and musicals before this - you wouldn't know it, though. Mike Mazurki steals it from him as Moose Malloy, however - Mazurki was actually a former pro wrestler turned actor who is now in several wrestling halls of fame and he is far more than just muscle. I absolutely love this film. Â * Detour (1945) - Detour is a very strange film. It's not very well acted, it looks very cheap, it is badly shot - and yet there is something about it that has led to it enduring in a way that practically no other B-movie crime thriller / noir ever has. I think it's because the story is so wonderfully well told despite the restrictions the director had to deal with (Edgar Ullmer would go on to mostly make terrible sci-fi and horror B-movies) and that there is a genuinely unnerving air to all the characters and their desperation with their respective plights. It's now available in the public domain because no-one at the time really thought it was worth a shit. How wrong they were. Here it is, and it's well worth 68 minutes of anyone's time:- Â http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBVyA9Dqr00...tton&wide=1 Â * The Big Sleep (1946) - It's probably renowned as much for its labyrinthine and occasionally overwhelming complex plot as it is for the now iconic chemistry between Bogart and Lauren Bacall, but no discussion about film noir from any decade should gloss over The Big Sleep. Amazingly, Bacall was criticised for her performance in some quarters upon its release, accused of lacking depth in her performance, but such criticisms look nonsensical now. It was disappointingly remade in 1978 with Robert Mitchum, James Stewart and Joan Collins (!). Â * The Blue Dahlia (1946) - Alan Ladd also featured in two other superb noirs from this decade, namely The Glass Key and This Gun For Hire, but this is the best of three both in terms of his performance and indeed the general quality of film. It's a testament to how good William Bendix is as his mentally disturbed friend that he outshines Ladd, while the quite ravishing Veronica Lake, often criticised wrongly for the quality of her acting, drums up some of the chemistry they had already shown in the aforementioned films and that they would serve up again in Saigon. Indeed, they are arguably Hollywood's great underrated on-screen male/female pairing. Â * The Stranger (1946) - It's amazing enough that Detour is in the public domain, but that this Orson Welles classic (both as star and director) is also available freely is doubly so - the company forgot to renew its copyright in 1973. Edward G Robinson once again completely dominates proceedings, almost proving to be a proto-Columbo in the way he torments Nazi fugitive Welles as he closes in on him, winding him up at dinner parties and the suchlike before a terrific climax. Perhaps a more forgotten Welles classic, but almost as worthy as a certain other movie of his that will be talked about shortly. The full film is here:- Â http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU3zy1b28mI...tton&wide=1 Â * Out Of The Past (1947) - Originally (and still often) called Build My Gallows High in the UK, this is Robert Mitchum reaching heights of performance that even he would struggle to emulate thereafter. Jane Greer's ruthless femme is one of the very, very best female characters and performances in this genre - utterly irresistible and repulsive at the same time, while Kirk Douglas grins away in the background as the crime lord who Mitchum just can't quite seem to shake off. In terms of using a jumbled timeline narrative, they rarely come better than this. Â * Key Largo (1948) - Perhaps the most unorthodox noir on the list as Edward G Robinson once again takes over, this time on villain duties, as he and his hoodlums terrorise and hold to hostage a hotel full of 'innocents' in the titular key. Bogart and Bacall are back together and as great as expected, but a support cast of Lionel Barrymore, Claire Trevor and the shamefully forgotten Thomas Gomez means that this has one of the finest casts of any of the noirs in this decade. It's one of the least convoluted of its type of the decade making it perhaps the most instantly accessible film on the list. Â * The Third Man (1949) - The Third Man is unlikely not be the biggest star turn of ANY list, let's face it. It has so many memorable scenes, so much perfecty pitched dialogue and so much quality in its acting that you do wonder if it could be the perfect film. I certainly can't think of anything wrong with it. Orson Welles isn't introduced on-screen until past the halfway mark in a move unlike that which you will see in many Hollywood films when you're talking about the pivotal character. Anyone ever in any doubt about his acting abilities should bear in mind that he steals the film from Trevor Howard, Joseph Cotten and Wilfrid Hyde-White here - and you will struggle to find more accomplished actors than them. The ending may never have been bettered in any film since. Â Not decided on the next theme yet, so there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Kookoocachu Posted November 27, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted November 27, 2011 The Blue Dahlia is one of my favourite films of all time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted November 28, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 It's fantastic, I only watched it fairly recently as well. It was pretty much Veronica Lake's last notable film, and she was only 24. If she wasn't such a massive alcoholic you do wonder what a career she could have had. It's probably about time there was a decent biopic about her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members chokeout Posted November 28, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Great list. I'd add Notorious in there as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted November 28, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 Shit, of course! Completely forgot about it. I guess it's because it's been so long since I've seen it. I might have to do a Cary Grant list next, then, and make sure I include it in that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 I'm struggling with the Decades format, as I can never remember when b&w films were made. But The Asphalt Jungle is a superb noir film that was made around that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted November 28, 2011 Author Paid Members Share Posted November 28, 2011 The Asphalt Jungle was 1950, so near enough. I'll be doing a 1950s one at some point, I would imagine, and that would definitely be included. Â The next category I'm doing will be race-related films, by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted November 28, 2011 Share Posted November 28, 2011 Guess who's coming to dinner, The Color Purple, that sort of thing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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