Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[The Original BJ]

It's always so interesting to me how once relatively easy to find films can now be obscure, and vice versa. Case in point: Bad Girl, which it seems like Mister Tee has been searching for for quite a while. Well, a couple months ago I decided to get through the last couple Oscar Directing winners I hadn't seen, went on to Netflix, and easily added Bad Girl to my queue. I would have had no idea it has been so elusive over the years.

One of the things that's always struck me about Frank Borzage is how dynamic (and ahead-of-his-time) his staging was. I don't think Bad Girl hits the level some of his silents do, but it certainly seems to have an awareness of screen space in a way a lot of early sound films don't. (Though, as you say, it's thin stew both visually and narratively when held up to The Crowd.) Plus, Bad Girl is also the kind of film which I think really could have benefited from stronger actors in the lead roles -- it's easy to see why those two remained unknown, as neither made much of an impression for me. The title's also curious -- it certainly suggests a much more scandalous story than the one we're presented with, which doesn't much have to do with a bad girl at all. Certainly the film isn't anything really special, but it's an interesting reflection of the era.

And to comment on 3:10 to Yuma as well, yes, that ending is RIDICULOUS. I have a really low tolerance for movies where two men spend the whole picture trying to kill/harm/destroy/capture/etc. one another, only for both to step back and come to respect one another's swaggering manly machismo in the last reel. The film has a rugged, old-fashioned western sensibility that I found welcome at the time...but then a couple weeks later I saw The Assassination of Jesse James and that's the end of that story.

[Mister Tee]

Catching up on a few oldies:

I finally tracked down the long-elusive Bad Girl, director/screenplay Oscar winner of 1931/32. I can actually see why it won those two categories and failed at best picture, because it really felt like a thin premise elevated by sensitive execution. The writing isn't brilliant -- certainly not in terms of plotting (it feels like a more pedestrian version of The Crowd) -- but the way the characters interact is just off-center enough (e.g., the way the heroine's best friend insults the husband to his face but lets the heroine know he' s agreat catch) to make the whole thing feel fresh. And of course you can always count on Borzage, like McCarey, to make his characters feel fully human.

I also caught up to The Bride Wore Black the other night, another film that's stayed out of my reach for years. I found it extremely enjoyable, though perhaps not as complex as the same film might have been under the direction of Truffaut's muse Hitchcock. (Truffaut's obsessions, esp. womanizing, were much on display, but they didn't seem to gibe thematically as well as the subtexts in Hitichcock's films typically did) Very clever film, though, with a nifty ending.

Finally, something far more recent, but too late for me to write about in an individual thread...I watched the '07 remake of 3:10 to Yuma. It was engaging enough, but, unless I missed something important (alot of dialogue was mumbled), Russell Crowe's actions in the final act were beyond ludicrous. I was supposed to believe this guy who cold-bloodedly killed a compatriot would essentially turn himself in because he admired Christian Bale's moxie? And how ridiculous is it when the kid says, Dad, you did it; you got him here? Well, it's a lot easier when the prisoner actively aids in his capture; had he wanted to escape, he could have done it ten times over. I'm not much for westerns in general -- not at Oscar Guy level of antipathy, but enough that even an above-average example of the genre has to work to pull me in. This was nowhere near that level.

[Penelope]

Easy Virtue (2008; Stephan Elliott) 4/10

[Included here due to recent US release.]

Uneven, unsatisfying adaptation of Noel Coward play; Elliott's direction is a scattershot mess, and young leads Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes are easily out-shined by experienced pros Kristen Scott Thomas and Colin Firth.

[Heksagon]

Requiem (Hans-Christian Schmid, 2006) 2.5/10

Ganes (J-P Siili, 2007) 6/10

Getaway (Sam Peckinpah, 1972) 3.5/10
--A terrible screenplay not redeemed by good direction

Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Kevin Smith, 2008) 4.5/10
--Some good ideas, but overall, it just doesn't work

A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956) 10/10
--By far my favourite Bresson; I hadn't watched it in a long time

Reprise (Joachim Trier, 2008) maybe between 7.5 and 8/10
--I'm very much drawn about this film. I still need to think about it.

[Precious Doll]

Shall We Kiss (2008) Emmanuel Mouret 4/10

The Year One (2009) Harold Ramis 5/10

I Love You Man (2009) John Hamburg 6/10

An American Crime (2007) Tommy O'Haver 1/10

Nasty Neighbors (2000) Debbie Isitt 4/10

The Escapees (1981) Jean Rollin 5/10

Hot Saturday (1932) William Seiter 4/10

Home Sweet Home (1982) Mike Leigh 6/10

[Big Magilla]

It was nominated for four Oscars and won numerous other awards, but it was never a best picture contender.

As I recall, initial reviews were mixed. It was generally considered daring on one hand and timid and silly on the other.

[mlrg]

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) - Paul Mazursky

8/10

Great screenplay and Dyan Cannon gives an awesome performance.

I wonder how this film was received back in 1969? Was it a major oscar contender? How were the reviews?

[Big Magilla]

Death of a Salesman is available on commercial DVD.

Ashfault has hard to find selections but the quality is often crappy. The copy I bought of Private Worlds is almost unwatchable. The faces are virtually featureless. Sound quality is good, though.

Generally speaking if a film has been out of circulation for a long time, the bootlegs are going to be taken from old VHS tapes of local TV broadcasts from the early 80s.

[Mister Tee]

Thanks, Magilla and Precious Doll, for the info. Magilla, that site seems to have a number of the long-unavailable-to-me Oscar candidates (A Medal for Benny, Death of a Salesman, Private Worlds just at first glance). Would that I had the spare cash right now to buy them.

[Big Magilla]

Still catching up on TV series and films I have to review for my DVD report, but a couple of others that I've watched in the last few days:

Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948) Basil Dearden 6/10

Flora Robson is the whole show here as she proves Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Playing a German countess whose lover (Stewart Granger) dumps her for Joan Greenwood, the wife of the England's future George I (Peter Bull), she plots the lovers' demise. Historically questionable, but largely accurate though rather bloodless. Ripe for updating.

This Can't Be Love (1994) Anthony Harvey 5/10

Made-for-TV movie was one of Katharine Hepburn's last. Plying a retired actress pretty much like herself, she's involved in a plot by down at heel Anthony Quinn, a former co-star who was secretly married to her for five days fifty years earlier. He needs her sign-off on his pending memoirs. Slight but engaging.

Quinn did not become a star until late in his career so the alleged pairing of the two fifty years earlier hardly makes sense, but then all the major stars of the era who might actually have been Hepburn's co-stars then, Tracy, Grant, Boyer, Fonda, Olivier, were gone.

[dreaMaker]

The Hangover

7/10

Very funny.

[mlrg]

The Heartbreak Kid (1972) - Elaine May

7/10

Very entertaining and well written. Julie Berlin and Eddie Albert were very solid and deserved their oscar nominarions. And Cybill Sheperd was really hot back in her day.

[Precious Doll]

They Knew What They Wanted (1940) Garson Kanin 4/10

Precious, where did you find this film? I've been on the lookout for it for 30 years.

From DaaVeeDee. It's a Spainish disc with forced English subtitles. Picture and sound quality are satisfactory but any major Hollywood studio would produce a much better print.

[Big Magilla]

I got it from Ashfault's two years ago. It's not listed on their website but I would think they would still have it.

http://www.ashfaultsclassicmovies.com/productlist.html

[Mister Tee]

They Knew What They Wanted (1940) Garson Kanin 4/10

Precious, where did you find this film? I've been on the lookout for it for 30 years.