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

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Conspirator (Victor Saville, 1949) 5/10

Absurd melodrama has the unusual teaming of 16 year old Elizabeth Taylor, in her first lead as an adult, playing a naive 18 year old in love with a much older Major (Robert Taylor who was 38 but playing 31). Set in Cold War London and Wales the relationship runs afoul when she discovers he is a communist and tries to kill her. The only thing going for this ridiculous melodrama is MGM's teaming of their two most glamorous stars although most of the excitement took place when the camera was not running. Liz found their teaming most uncomfortable as her co-star made clumsy efforts to seduce her off the set while he had informed the camera technicians to focus above his waist in order to hide his "growing attraction" to her. Artificial and shallow film has an interesting supporting cast - a young Honor Blackman, Robert Flemyng, Wilfred Hyde-White, Marjorie Fielding, Helen Haye, Marie Ney and Thora Hird playing assorted British types.
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Night Without Sleep (Roy Ward Baker, 1952) 2/10

Lifeless mystery about a failed playwright (Gary Merill) who wakes up from a drunken stupor trying to remember which of three women he has murdered - his wife (June Vincent), his mistress (Hildegard Kneff) or a beautiful actress (Linda Darnell) with whom he also had an affair. The film's flashback within a flashback structure is confusing and the main character is so unappealing that one really does not care what went wrong for him or who he killed. A crashing bore that only gets points for Linda Darnell's beauty.
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Zero Hour! (Hall Bartlett, 1957) 7/10

"Our survival hinges on one thing - finding someone who not only can fly this plane, but didn't have fish for dinner". And this line of dialogue sets the tone for this dramatic and suspenseful film which was not only one of the first air disaster films, a percursor to all the "Airport" series (the first of which was based on the book by Arthur Hailey who wrote this screenplay) and was much later hilariously parodied by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker Brothers in "Airplane". A commercial plane flying across Canada faces disaster when some of the passengers and both pilots fall ill due to acute food poisoning. The culprit was the fish. The only person traveling on board who can fly a plane is a former Air Force pilot (Dana Andrews) who hasn't flown in years and blames himself for the death of his squadron members when due to a wrong decision they all crashed. Also on board is his son (also ill) and his estranged wife (Linda Darnell) both of whom find themselves occupying the pilot seats and attempting to fly the plane to safety. Helping them from the ground via radio is his former co-pilot (Sterling Hayden) who hates his guts. There is also a stewardess who flits about offering useless advice unlike Karen Black, who flew the Boeing 747 in "Airport 1975", and who is sorely missed. A lot of the serious dialogue in this film was used word-for-word to hilarious effect in the parody so listening to it here brings back amusing memories of that film. The tense ending as the plane comes into land with a sweating Andrews and a cool Darnell next to him barking instructions on the radio is both exciting and very funny. This high-budget B-movie works remarkably well despite all the more popular imitations that came later. It was after this film that FAA regulations forbade the serving of the same type of meal (fish, meat or fowl) to a pilot and co-pilot to guard against food poisoning.
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So This Is Love (Gordon Douglas, 1953) 3/10

Uninspired and rather bland screen biography of ambitious singer Grace Moore who gradually rises via musical comedies on Broadway to become a major star of the New York Metropolitan Opera. Lots of musical numbers with pretty Kathryn Grayson in fine voice but it's all very dull and by the numbers with no real drama to give the story a kick.
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All I Desire (Douglas Sirk, 1953) 7/10

Sirk strips bare small-town America's bourgeois life and it's dull ideas of morality - a theme he would perfect in a series of subsequent films during the decade. A second rate vaudeville actress (Barbara Stanwyck) receives a letter from her daughter inviting her to a performance of her highschool play. Ten years before she abandoned her school teacher husband (Richard Carlson) and three children and had run off from their small town after having an affair with a local store keeper (Lyle Bettger). Her dramatic return causes heads to turn - the store keeper wants to resume their affair - and tongues to wag. Her husband and one daughter are hostile, the elder daughter (Lori Nelson) is thrilled as she idolizes her mother and the young son is confused. Also incredulous, but charmed by her, is the husband's colleague (Maureen O'Sullivan) who is in love with him. Sirk's camera turns a microscopic view on these characters and takes great delight in stripping bare their repressions, fears and desires. Producer Ross Hunter insisted on the ending which somewhat rings false but is in keeping with 1950s mores in upkeeping family values. Stanwyck takes charge of the part and runs with it using her breathy voice to great effect. This was Sirk's first in a series of melodramatic films set in small provincial towns and he would go on to use dramatic colour and the staging of camera movements which would take this genre to great heights.
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Broken Lullaby (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932) 9/10

This film marked a complete but brief u-turn in the career of the great Ernst Lubitsch who until then had made a name for himself as a director of saucy operettas and sparkling sophisticated comedies bearing his famous "touch". In sharp contrast this film, based on the 1930 Maurice Rostand play L’homme que j’ai tué, is full of despair, guilt and sorrow in the face of horror. A frenchman (Phillips Holmes) kills a young german during the waning years of WWI. He suffers terrible remorse and decides to visit the dead man's family to reconcile with them in order to put to rest the terrible guilt. However, upon meeting the family - the old father (Lionel Barrymore) who hates the french, the devastated mother (Louise Carter) and the pretty fiancé (Nancy Carroll) - he is unable to confess and is mistakenly thought to be their son's friend and welcomed with open arms. He is looked upon by intense suspicion by the men and women of the small town who spread vicious gossip. The old man confronts his friends and puts a stop to all the hatred making a speech denouncing the war which took the lives of sons in both France and Germany. The film's anti-war message is loud and clear and Lubitsch superbly uses the medium of sound and his constantly moving camera to briefly depict the horror of war through a montage of marching boots and the sound of gunfire. His "touch" is very evident in the scene depicting the gossiping women as they pass words from window to window in the village which has almost a musical rhythm. The performances are in perfect pitch to the melodramatic material with Barrymore in great form who, for a change, keeps the ham in check. Holmes comes off rather theatrical with his body language but is moving nevertheless. This film needs to be rediscovered and held in the same esteem as the director's other classic films which are continuously revived. The story was remade as "Frantz" in 2016 by François Ozon.
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Lady Bird (2017) - 6/10
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Just to Be Sure (2017) Carine Tardieu 4/10
Downsizing (2017) Alexander Payne 7/10
The Little Hours (2017) Jeff Baena 5/10
Culloden (1964) Peter Watkins 8/10

Repeat viewings

Baby Face (1933) Alfred E. Green 8/10
The Fallen Idol (1948) Carol Reed 8/10
The Man in the Moon (1991) Robert Mulligan 7/10
Exhibition (1975) Jean-Francois Davy 6/10
St. Martin's Lane (1938) Tim Whelan 6/10
The Whales of August (1987) Lindsay Anderson 7/10
Cinderella Liberty (1973) Mark Rydell 6/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

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Get Out (2017) - 7/10
Reza
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Call Me By Your Name (Luca Guadagnino, 2017) 10/10

Guadagnino's extraordinary film seeths in a European sensibility which glorifies food, wine and architecture along with a sense of free spirited sexual longing and passion. The extremely literate screenplay by James Ivory, who at 90 years old, manages to invigorate this cautiously conducted coming-of-age story of a precocious 17 year old boy (Timothée Chalamet) and his attraction for a young American (Armie Hammer) who arrives at the 17th century home of his parents as a research assistant to his father (Michael Stuhlbarg). The film, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman, is a set of dreamy vignettes as the family eats, drinks, play music, entertain friends from the village while the two young men form a growing attraction. The screenplay glorifies culture which is reflected in the characters and is an ode to the heady intoxication of youthful love full of flirtation and sexual desire with the painful realization by both parties that their summer romance is finite. The extraordinary Timothée Chalamet is on screen throughout with the camera catching in closeup every flickering emotion on his face as we get to see the story mainly filtered through his young eyes. Arnie Hammer is equally good as the object of desire, confident and sensitively perceptive to the young boy's insecurities as they converse and circle each other. The film's sun drenched images intoxify the senses as we roam (alongside the characters) through the beautiful Italian countryside as the camera saunters through villages with its cobbled streets, old buildings that reek of history, cycling jaunts through fields, dips in ponds and lakes and treks up mountains. Intelligent and extremely poetic this is also one of the year's best and most moving films.
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The Easiest Way (Jack Conway, 1931) 5/10

Depression era problems faced by a poor girl (Constance Bennett) who leaves her job as a low paid clerk to become a model, catches the eye of a rich man (Adolphe Menjou) and becomes his mistress in order to send money for her parents. She is rejected by her sister (Anita Page) and her husband (a young Clark Gable) for the life she is leading but falls in love with a reporter (Robert Montgomery) and promises to leave her sugar daddy. But can she? One of many similarly plotted films at the time that showed the extent to which people could go to in order to alleviate a life of abject poverty. Blandly directed film has an appealing performance by Bennett. Due to censorship this adaptation of the 1909 play had its central character changed from a prostitute to a clerk. This was Gable's second film.
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Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932) 10/10

Stylized classic film by the great von Sternberg has one of Marlene Dietrich's signature roles where she early on describes herself by saying, "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily". The entire film is set on a train traveling between Peking and Shanghai as a group of diverse passengers are being evacuated. The film is uniquely shot so that all the dialogue and action simulate the train's rhythm. At the center of the plot is the emotionally charged romance between the notorious woman who has lived a scandalous life and driven many men insane with desire and an army captain (Clive Brook) who was once the love of her life. The passengers on board are more horrified with Lily's presence on board than with the danger of the civil war raging in China. The passengers - a snooty lady (Louise Closser Hale), an opium smuggler (Gustave von Seyffertitz), a gambler (Eugene Pallette) and Lily's equally exotic companion (Anna May Wong) - are forced to band together when a fellow passenger, an embittered Eurasian businessman (Warner Oland), turns out to be the head of the revolutionaries and holds the captain hostage. When he threatens to blind the prisoner Lily offers herself to him in exchange for her lover's life. The film hasn't aged a bit and remains as fresh today as it was 85 years ago. The superb screenplay, the shimmering oscar winning cinematography by Lee Garmes, the sets, the exotic costumes by Travis Banton and especially the mesmerizing performance by Dietrich perfectly mesh together to create this bizarre and exciting classic. Both the film and von Sternberg won richly deserved Oscar nominations and it is a shame that Dietrich was overlooked. A must-see.
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Night Song (John Cromwell, 1947) 4/10

Overheated melodrama about a rich socialite (Merle Oberon) falling for a blind and embittered piano player (Dana Andrews) who has lost all interest in finishing the great symphony he has started. When he spurns her she feigns blindness and secretly funds his eye operation so he can go onto triumph at Carnegie Hall. Once his eyesight is restored and he gets to conduct his symphony (with offscreen help from the great Arthur Rubinstein) he promptly forgets the "blind" friend who supported him. Both stars overact and come off rather silly through all this heavy breathing nonsense. Oberon looks lovely throughout photographed by her husband Lucien Ballard and dressed to her teeth in chic Orry Kelly gowns.
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Battle of the Sexes (Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, 2017) 5/10

The "historic" 1973 tennis match between former champ and hustler, Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell), and the world number one female champ, Billie Jean King (Emma Stone). Along with their personal rivalry on the field the film covers their personal and more complex issues. He faces a gambling addiction and a loyal wife (Elisabeth Shue) who is fast getting fed up. While she struggles to come to terms with her sexuality in her close relationship with Marilyn Barnett (Andrea Riseborough) who would become her partner. Well acted but bland film which is strictly like a television film from the 1970s making points about male chauvenism and female emancipation.
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This Love of Ours (William Dieterle, 1945) 5/10

Sappy soap opera with the plot manipulated by an obnoxious and spoiled child causing grief for her parents - with a little discipline and a tight smack across her face this child would certainly prove less annoying. But then there would be no melodrama and tears. A young girl (Sue England), living with her adoring but dull doctor father (Charles Korvin), creates a shrine to the memory of her mother who disappeared from their lives. Enter a grim piano player (Merle Oberon) who comes into the life of the doctor who marries her and much to their dismay find the young girl on a hatred campaign for the stepmother. After a lot of hand wringing and stiff upper lips quivering things get sorted out. The film comes alive with the appearance of Merle Oberon who plays her character as brittle and jaded which is a far cry from her usual artificial performances. Matching her every step of the way is Claude Rains as her entertainer partner who lifts the dull plot each time he appears.
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