Movies Watched -- The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965)

112 minute running time which means it’s 12 minutes too long and I do wish they had tightened this one up a bit because it’s a good story with some really excellent writing (John le Carré) pretty well told … despite being overly long and plodding at times, this is a green-go, recommended movie. Richard Burton a stage actor, but he does chew up the scenery too badly here. Claire Bloom of course is Jewish. Both John Farr and David Lehman also recommended it, and now I do too.

We're witnessing the lousy end to a filthy, lousy operation to save Mundt's skin... to save him from a clever little Jew

Spoiler:

What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not. They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me. Little men, drunkards, queers, henpecked husbands... civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong? Yesterday I would have killed Mundt because I thought him evil and an enemy. But not today. Today he's evil and my friend. London needs him. They need him so that the great, moronic masses you admire so much... can sleep soundly in their flea-bitten beds again. They need him for the safety of ordinary, crummy people like you and me.

Top Ten Post-WWII Femme Fatale Characters

On the commentary track of Angel Face, Eddie Muller names his top ten femme fatale characters of the post-WWII period. Muller notes that the one common characteristic of all these women is that they did not work.

1. Jane Greer — Out of the Past

2. Rita Hayworth — The Lady from Shanghai

3. Joan Bennett — Scarlet Street

4. Ava Gardner — The Killers

5. Gene Tierney — Leave Her To Heaven

6. Yvonne De Carlo — Criss Cross

7. Marie Windsor — The Killing

8. Ann Savage — Detour

9. Claire Trevor — Murder, My Sweet

10. Jean Simmons — Angel Face

Movies Watched -- Dishonored (1931)

91 minute running time … von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich yet again … Marlene as war widow turned streetwalker turned spy for Austria (World War I) … she’s clearly enjoying herself, and isn’t a bad actress … it’s not terrible, but I can’t recommend it either.

Jonathan Rosenbaum's Alternate List of the 100 Greatest American Movies (sorted chronologically)

I like movies and I like lists, so I especially like lists of movies, especially iconoclastic lists of movies, like this one by Jonathan Rosenbaum from 1998 (sorted chronologically) … there are a lot terrible movies on this list, but also a few good ones:

Intolerance (1916)

Broken Blossoms (1919)

Foolish Wives (1922)

Nanook of the North (1922)

Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Greed (1925)

Sunrise (1927)

The General (1927)

The Crowd (1928)

The Docks of New York (1928)

Lonesome (1929)

Thunderbolt (1929)

Laughter (1930)

Freaks (1932)

Love Me Tonight (1932)

Scarface (1932)

Trouble in Paradise (1932)

Hallelujah, I’m a Bum! (1933)

Man’s Castle (1933)

Judge Priest (1934)

The Black Cat (1934)

The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)

The Great Garrick (1937)

Christmas in July (1940)

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

The Strawberry Blonde (1941)

Cat People (1942)

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

The Seventh Victim (1943)

This Land Is Mine (1943)

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Scarlet Street (1945) Gilda (1946)

Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

Force of Evil (1948)

Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)

The Lady From Shanghai (1948)

Panic in the Streets (1950)

Stars in My Crown (1950)

The Sound of Fury/Try and Get Me! (1950)

Ace in the Hole/The Big Carnival (1951)

The Steel Helmet (1951)

My Son John (1952)

Park Row (1952)

The Big Sky (1952)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

The Naked Spur (1953)

Johnny Guitar (1954)

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Track of the Cat (1954)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

The Phenix City Story (1955)

Bigger Than Life (1956)

The Killing (1956)

While the City Sleeps (1956)

An Affair to Remember (1957)

The Wrong Man (1957)

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)

The Tarnished Angels (1958)

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Rio Bravo (1959)

Shadows (1960)

The Hustler (1961)

The Ladies’ Man (1961)

Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

The Nutty Professor (1963)

Vinyl (1965)

Point Blank (1967)

The Shooting (1967)

Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son (1969)

Scenes From Under Childhood (1970)

Woodstock (1970)

Zabriskie Point (1970)

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971)

Wanda (1971)

Avanti! (1972)

The Heartbreak Kid (1972)

Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1974)

11 x 14 (1976)

Mikey and Nicky (1976)

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977)

Eraserhead (1978)

Killer of Sheep (1978)

The Scenic Route (1978)

Real Life (1979)

Love Streams (1984)

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

Housekeeping (1987)

Do the Right Thing (1989)

To Sleep With Anger (1990)

That’s Entertainment! III (1994)

Dead Man (1995)

Movies Watched -- Bigger Than Life (1956)

95 minute running time … this is a strange one from Nicholas Ray made during the McCarthy era … Ray is interested in obliquely criticizing American middle class conformity among other things: pharmaceutical drug abuse, white privilege, racism, the nuclear family, domesticity, the medical establishment, the benefits of drinking whole milk, the public education system, homosexuality (Walter Matthau’s incredible physique from smoking two packs a day), class distinctions, all kinds of stuff. What I took away from this is that Barbara Rush had great tits.

I can’t recommend this, but it was sort of interesting and definitely a movie mainstream critics would ever recommend or even mention. It’s probably considered a “cult classic” in some quarters.

“… it's only fair to tell you that if we don't get a whole lot of high-class service, and in a hurry there's likely to be a terribly embarrassing scene in this sanctum.”

Ella Grace -- Live at Parish Hall

Ella Grace a nice discovery early on in 2023… thanks to the Spotify algo. I like the lead song best.

I took a massive tax loss on my Spotify, sold the “long-term” position in the stock … still like the service though, just paid a bad price for the stock:

I've Only Known Careless Love

Bob Zimmerman song covered by some Scandinavians, My bubba with You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go. I like it when the girl with crimson hair across her face takes that verse. I dig it:

Movies Watched -- How to Marry a Millionaire (1953)

95 minute running time the perfect length and it opens with six full minutes of Alfred Newman score with full symphony … Marilyn Monroe an underrated comic actress, Lauren Bacall with her sexy smoker’s voice, and I’m not familiar with Betty Grable but she also had good comic instincts … it’s a cute, feel-good movie (pre-WOKE), well-written, I enjoyed it, but it’s a little too light to recommend…

Not in the market for gas-pump jockeys

Movies Watched -- Angel Face (1952)

91 minute running time so the perfect length… this movie was GREAT … good story, good writing, good acting (Mitchum and little Jean Simmons, sort of an Audrey Hepburn-ish waif) and an INSANE ending … this was a David Lehman reco and I thank him for it … this is a green-go, highly recommended!

Ten minutes after I left Harry's I was in the sack. I can believe that.

Movies Watched -- The Getaway (1972)

123 minute running time so at least 20 to 30 minutes too long … absolutely awful early 70s score by Quincy Jones … Ali McGraw is beautiful but can’t act … Steve McQueen has beautiful blue eyes and can act … there are some interesting bits and funny bits (like getting trapped in a garbage truck), but the movie is no good in the end, too much senseless violence, and as Canby said, an “aimless enterprise that runs on and on … The action and the violence of ‘The Getaway’ are supported by no particular themes whatsoever. The movie just unravels.” I think Peckinpah was a creep, he was interested in sex and violence and more specifically violence against women, which makes for uncomfortable viewing … check out busty Sally Struthers stroking the man’s gun:

You don't always have to take your gun out.