Movies Watched -- High Sierra (1941)

99 minute running time … I never liked Humphrey Bogart or saw his appeal, he often played a tough, but he always struck me as a little, weasel-like, weird guy … this was an unusual movie though (thanks to David Lehman for the reco), I didn’t hate it, but it also wasn’t good enough to recommend. “Look, she’s a cripple too!” Interesting class commentary from 40s America: “What’s an outfit like that doing in Tropico anyhow?” And the cop sniveling around the rich guy.

Excerpts from Imogen Sara Smith’s essay: High Sierra: Crashing Out

“The film is many things: a hybrid of gangster movie, western, and proto-noir; an elegy for the Depression-era archetype of the noble outlaw … America’s perverse love affair with violent men … Nostalgia pervades the film, for both a lost world of agrarian innocence and a vanished age of outlaw glory [well said!] … Roy’s foolish reverence for middle-class respectability and ‘decency’ inspires a grotesque fantasy of marrying the daughter of the family, Velma, who is happy to accept his charity but repelled by him as a suitor. [right, good ] … outlaws are romanticized, demonized, and commodified, packaged as entertainment and edifying moral lessons … The big shot’s downfall is a kind of ritual, a collective reminder not just that crime does not pay but that ‘crashing out’ is only a fantasy that keeps you going as you serve your time.”

Joan Leslie and Ida Lupino Face-off

Movies Watched -- Young Man with a Horn (1950)

112 minute running time so about 15 minutes too long … Kirk Douglas plays a good fake trumpet … Harry James played the trumpet parts and that really is Doris Day singing … I liked this one, Lauren Bacall plays a great crazy hot rich girl … the only drugs you see are alcohol, none of the cocaine and heroin and other hard stuff that drove the jazz scene… this is a green-go, recommended movie… this was a David Lehman recommendation and I thank him for it.

Jazz is purely African … it’s a sort of cheap mass-produced narcotic

Movies Watched -- Real Life (1979)

99 minute running time … Albert Brooks had kind of a cute idea, but the execution isn’t great … ahead of his time with the reality TV show angle … some of the bits are very funny, but as a whole, I wasn’t thrilled with it… Charles Grodin plays early Charles Grodin.

Movies Watched -- Me, Myself & Irene (2000)

116 minute running time with very long end credits so maybe only 10 minutes too long … Jim Carrey madcap and lewd comedy (Farrelly Bros.), it’s funny but you have to be in the mood for it … I’ve always loved Renée Zellweger, I wonder if there are guys who aren’t attracted to her? Probably not. This is over 20 years old now, sheesh, time flies…

The supplies

Movies Watched -- Murder By Contract (1958)

81 minute running time … unusual movie, B picture from Columbia, super low-budget but that doesn’t mean it’s bad ... the politics of it were interesting to me, Irving Lerner directed and you can quickly see why he was blacklisted … it’s not a green-go because the story and writing and acting aren’t great, but there is something special about it, so if you’re a true 50s film buff, you should see it. This was a Jonathan Rosenbaum recommendation, and I’m not sorry I saw it. There’s a short blurb on the DVD by Martin Scorsese talking about how much the movie influenced him.

And what do they do to the guy that throws a grenade, fires a mortar shell, aims a navy gun, drops the airplane bomb, or presses a button that sends a missile 5,000 miles with a hydrogen warhead?

Movies Watched -- Man of the West (1958)

100 minute running time… I liked The Naked Spur and Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote that he thought Man from the West was Anthony Mann’s greatest western, but I wasn’t thrilled with this… Gary Cooper is too old and he sort of phones in his performance, his heart wasn’t in it (he was dying of cancer after all) … I didn’t realize Julie London the singer was also an actress… Lee J. Cobb chews up the scenery, overacting in every scene (King Lear, I guess) … there were probably a lot of hidden messages in this movie, but I didn’t care … ridiculous fistfight with young Jack Lord where Cooper tries to strip him after beating him (fey Farr: “the famously gritty, rough-and-tumble fight scene”) … I just didn’t think the story was any good, and the acting was so-so. John Farr recommended it too, but I say give it a miss.

“At the time of release, the film was largely panned by American critics [RIGHTFULLY SO!], but it was praised by Jean-Luc Godard [ OH NO, NOT THE FRENCH NEW WAVERS]. Decades after the film's release, it has gained a cult following [OF SUCKERS] and greater acclaim, with film historian Philip French [WHO?] claiming the film to be Anthony Mann's masterpiece [GOD, NO], containing Cooper's finest performance. [NO, THAT WOULD BE HIGH NOON, SIX YEARS EARLIER]”

Julie London and her lovely décolletage

Movies Watched -- They Live (1988)

94 minute running time … John Carpenter movie (the guy who made Halloween) … I think Carpenter was an old hippie who hated the Reagan era and yuppies … this stars Rowdy Roddy Piper, a pro wrestler, maybe he thought he’d break into the movies this way … low budget, bad acting, cheapie special effects, weird and ultimately kind of dumb story, some shotgun violence, a strange alleyway pro wrestling-ish fight scene … I guess this is probably a “cult classic” in some quarters, but you can give it a miss. No idea how it ended up in my queue… surely not a David Lehman reco…

- So your name's Holly? - Holly Thompson. That's a pretty name.

Movies Watched -- L'enfance Nue (1968)

In French. 83 minute running time. A story about a French foster child, a handsome little psychopath named Francois, kind of looked like the kid from The 400 Blows (1959) (which I didn’t like) … anyway he’s a little monster, but not always, so it’s tough to hate him completely … he’s just a screwed-up 10-year-old … I didn’t hate this, but I wouldn’t call it entertaining. I can see why Criterion saved it, since it’s Pialat’s debut movie…

That is Raoul, not Francois, with Agnes, the one attractive female in the movie

Movies Watched -- The Naked Spur (1953)

92 minute running time … I’m not a fan of Westerns generally, but this one wasn’t bad, in fact I’m close to recommending it. Jimmy Stewart, Janet Leigh (pre-Psycho, pre-mom to Jamie Lee Curtis) … villain is played by that big handsome bastard, Robert Ryan, who has a great smartass smirk throughout this movie… filmed in Technicolor in the Rockies, I guess I’ll make it a green-go, John Farr also liked it.

Anthony Mann made two more movies that are in my Permanent Collection: “He Walked By Night,” and “The Furies.”

Can you do me?

Movies Watched -- The 7th Victim (1943)

71 minute running time … Val Lewton (Vladimir Ivanovich Leventon, a Russian Jew) “horror” movie for RKO with Jacques Tourneur (the son of a famous French filmmaker) directing … the story wasn’t any good (demonic cults, come on), but it wasn’t super terrible for a “B” movie … the best Val Lewton movie that I’ve seen is Cat People (part of my permanent collection). You can give this one a miss, unless you’re a Lewton / Tourneur completist.

Not Janet Leigh, 17 years before Psycho