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Originally Posted by El Loro:
Originally Posted by Baz:

The last two films I saw were Quatermass 2 , and Hitchcock's Suspicious  

Did you know that most films made since those films are in colour

 

The oldest film I remember seeing in the cinema was The Wizard of Oz. I also saw Gone with the Wind in the cinema which was made around the same time. And Pinocchio which was made shortly afterwards.

(I should say that I saw them on re-releases rather than when originally released )

I love old B&W films El !oro....the first of thone new fangled  coloured films I can remember seeing are Snow White ( about 1951 ) & Davy Crockett ( about 1953/4 ) I think But Gone With the Wind is my all time favourite film  

Baz
Last edited by Baz

Watched Evolution (2001) which starred David Duchovny and Julianne Moore and was directed by Ivan Reitman. The film was originally going to be a serious science fiction film but was changed to a comedy. Only problem is that it's not very funny, unless you like stupidity. Poor film compared to Reitman's Ghostbusters.

 

El Loro

I resaw The Stranger (1946) directed by and starring Osron Welles. Also starring Edward G Robinson and Loretta Young.

Investigator from the War Crimes Commission on the trail of a Nazi war criminal.

 

Good film and includes one of the more unusual film demises of the villain.

 

Just as well that Welles was a strong man as the scene where he is holding on to Loretta Young with one hand whilst she is dangling from the top of a ladder in a clock tower is not a special effect according to IMDB/

 

El Loro

Watched Pygmalion (1938), an outstanding British classic film. Play and script by (George) Bernard Shaw (George is not shown on the credits). Leslie Howard as Professor Henry  Higgins and also co-directed with Anthony Asquith. Edited by David Lean. Wendy Hiller was Eliza Doolittle (the credits say introducing Wendy Hiller but this was her second film).

 

I didn't spot him but Patrick Macnee was an extra in the film making his film debut. I did spot Anthony Quayle in a one liner scene - his second film.

 

El Loro

I saw Summertime (1955) which starred Katherine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. Middle aged woman visits Venice and finds romance with a married man. Good of its type. The main reason for me watching it was that it was directed by David Lean and is the film he made between his English classics career ending with Hobson's Choice and his international epics career starting with The Bridge on the River Kwai.

In a way it could be regarded as some similarities with his Brief Encounter with the core story of a doomed romance. Also there is some use of a train with Hepburn's arrival and departure,

Good location cinematography by Jack Hildyard who later worked on The Bridge on the River Kwai.

 

El Loro

Watched The Winslow Boy, the 1999 version which had Nigel Hawthorne (compared to Cedric Hardwicke in the classic 1948 version) and Jeremy Northam (Robert Donat). A good adaptation with a well chosen cast.

Neil North who played the part of the First Lord of the Admiralty was the Winslow boy in the 1948 version.

Rebecca Pidegon, the daughter in the film, is married to David Mamet who directed the film, and is Matthew Pidgeon's sister - he played the part of the older brother.

El Loro

I resaw after many years The Masque of the Red Death (1964), one of Roger Corman's adaptations from Edgar Allan Poe. One of the best horror films of the 1960s and a chillimg memorable ending. Vincent Price is excellent, gearing up for his later Witchfinder General.

 

Very stylish film and clearly influenced by Bergman's The Seventh Seal.

 

Red obviously is key in the film as per the title. One aspect of this is that at the end of the film Price unmasks the Red Death character robed in red and then dies. A parallel could be drawn to Donald Sutherland in Don't Look Now when he dies at the hands of the mysterious character in the red cape. Nicholas Roeg was the cinematographer of The Masque of the Red Death, so this is a real possibility.

El Loro

Watched the 1945 film Scarlet Street which was on the Talking Pictures TV channel. A Fritz Lang film starring Edward G Robinson, Jean Bennett and Dan Duryea. Dark film-noir. A remake of the French Jean Renoir film La Chienne (1931) and I could sense a Gallic touch to this. That title is an appropriate description of the Jean Bennett character but it would be have been impossible for a film to be given the English transalation at that time.

 

The leads are excellent in this darkly ironic film. Just watch this very short clip - Robinson is an amateur artist in his spare time.

 

 

El Loro
Last edited by El Loro

Watched The Wandering Jew (1933) on the Talking Pictures TV channel
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024750/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_1

 

The version shown is the shortened version rather than the original which presumably is lost - some 30 minutes shorter.

 

An extremely dated British curio of a film. The first 3 segments are very stagey and hard going. The last segment (Seville and the Spanish inquisition) is more watchable and has quite an effective end.

 

Based on legend and not a Biblical story.

El Loro

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