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

[Reza]

La Habanera (Douglas Sirk, 1937) 9/10

A German film (produced by the Nazi era UFA studio in Berlin) set in Puerto Rico (but shot in the Canary Islands during the Spanish Civil War), starring the "Nazi Garbo" - Zarah Leander (the exquisite Swedish star - an amalgam of Garbo, Dietrich and Jeannette MacDonald) and directed by Douglas Sirk who would go onto Hollywood and make even more melodramatic films. This is also melodrama - an impulsive Swede jumps ship in Puerto Rico, charmed by the calling of the song "Habanera" and the exotic pull of a former bullfighter (Ferdinand Marian - also a huge star at UFA). Ten years later: She has a blonde son (Nazism personified) and is stuck in a hellish marriage to a control freak. To the rescue comes a Swedish doctor, in town to fight an epidemic, who in the nick of time proves her savior and she manages to flee from the "savages". Nazi propaganda to the core, courtesy of Josef Goebbels, with a plea to German expats to return home - America also gets a couple of digs in the script. The plot is pure kitsch but the film is an important showcase for the leading lady and a director whose visual style would get much greater acclaim in the land of non-savages - Hollywood aka America. A must-see.

[Reza]

Monsieur Klein (1976), Joseph Losey.

This film leaves me speechless. It's one of the most complex, intriguing as a concept movies I've ever seen. Since I didn't find any discussion about it on this board, I'd like you to write down your feelings about it in case you have seen it. If you haven't, I advise you to do so as soon as possible. It's an unknown gem.
Starring Alain Delon, with Jeanne Moreau and Michael Lonsdale. Screenplay by Franco Solinas and Costa-Gavras (uncredited). Outstanding art direction by Alexandre Trauner.
Delon's best performance.

It''s hardly an unknown gem. One of Losey's many great films.

[CalWilliam]

Monsieur Klein (1976), Joseph Losey.

This film leaves me speechless. It's one of the most complex, intriguing as a concept movies I've ever seen. Since I didn't find any discussion about it on this board, I'd like you to write down your feelings about it in case you have seen it. If you haven't, I advise you to do so as soon as possible. It's an unknown gem.
Starring Alain Delon, with Jeanne Moreau and Michael Lonsdale. Screenplay by Franco Solinas and Costa-Gavras (uncredited). Outstanding art direction by Alexandre Trauner.
Delon's best performance.

[Reza]

Suite Française (Saul Dibb, 2015) 3/10

The Germans occupy France and soldiers forcibly become lodgers of the french population. Boring and stilted WWII soap about a timid married frenchwoman (a miscast Michelle Williams) who is attracted to the cultured german officer (Matthias Schoenaerts) who moves into her house where she lives with her stern mother-in-law (Kristen Scott Thomas). There is no sense of fear or dread and events take place as if by rote with characters going through the motions without any emotions. Williams plays such a dull character that it's difficult to root for her in the inanities on display - the "action" scene at the tail end seems clipped on in a hurry although the story is based on fact. Schoenaerts at least manages to create an interesting character though the script is of no help. Scott Thomas, looking elegant, is wasted. Period details are very good though. A big disappointment.

[Reza]

Secret of the Incas (Jerry Hopper, 1954) 5/10

Pulpy adventure film with great possibilities that unfortunately do not live upto the premise - a brash crook (Charlton Heston), working as a tour guide in a Peruvian village high up in the Andes, is in fact out to steal an ancient Inca relic from inside a tomb in Machu Picchu. The plot is lacklustre but Heston is wonderfully animated (his character was the inspiration for Spielberg and Lucas' Indiana Jones - wears the same brown leather jacket, fedora and carries a satchel and gun; they added the iconic whip) and full of sexual innuendos (the repartee with matronly tourist Glenda Farrell is hilarious). The sets are studio bound (except for Machu Picchu in longshot) and the supporting cast (Robert Young, Nicole Maurey, Thomas Mitchell) is totally wasted. Pity it could not be more action packed.

[Reza]

5 Flights Up (Richard Loncraine, 2015) 8/10

A long married couple put their Brooklyn apartment on the market after living in it for 40 years. Their old dog has surgery. There is an abandoned bus on the Brooklyn bridge and the Muslim driver is suspected of being a terrorist - it's just another day in Brooklyn or Beirut or Islamabad. Old fashioned character study - the witty script has very funny things to say about real estate and the way people behave around property that is up for sale. In the end what really makes this little film such a delight is the extraordinary chemistry between the two old pros - Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton - who effortlessly lift this piece of romantic froth to great heights. And finally that camera moving slowly over the New York skyline during the closing credits as the theme song plays is a perfect end to a charming film.

[Reza]

The Prowler (Joseph Losey, 1951) 6/10

Hysterical little noir with nasty and greedy cop (Van Heflin) prowling around a lonely woman (Evelyn Keyes), seducing her and then shooting her husband. There is a sense of dread throughout as these two lonely people hook up with each other for very different reasons. Needless to say there is not a happy outcome.

[Reza]

The Man Who Cheated Himself (Felix E. Feist, 1950) 7/10

Nifty little noir with Lee J. Cobb in a lead role as a cop who sees his mistress (a badly miscast Jane Wyatt) shoot her husband and then proceeds to cover up the crime. John Dall is the younger brother, also a cop, who smells a rat. The San Francisco locations add to the edgy scenes of suspense.

[Reza]

Danger Route (Seth Holt, 1967) 5/10

Tiresome spy thriller, one of many that graced the 1960s in wake of James Bond, has more talk than action. A secret agent (Richard Johnson) desperate to get out of the service is duped by his boss (Harry Andrews) into one last assignment. Johnson's scenes with the various women in the plot - Barbara Bouchet, Carol Lynley, Diana Dors, Sylvia Syms - are great fun and come off best although the strong supporting male performers - Gordon Jackson, Maurice Denham, Sam Wanamaker - also make their mark. If only there was more action.

[Reza]

They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1945) 7/10

Stiring account of the Navy's PT-boat division in Philippines in 1941 just after the attack at Pearl Harbor, a terrible period for the Americans in the Pacific during WWII. Straightforward, almost documentary like, account of a Navy squadron who prove their mettle using PT-boats to torpedo the enemy ships. The film focuses on two officers played by Robert Montgomery (who also directed part of the film) and John Wayne - the latter also gets to enact a few romantic scenes with nurse Donna Reed. The film was Ford's return to film making after his stint in the Navy during the war so it is clearly an ode to the institution he spent time in. The sea battles are beautifully photographed and the screenplay downplays heroics in favor of realistic scenes of wartime devastation.

[Reza]

The Long Voyage Home (John Ford, 1940) 7/10

Sailors on a ship homebound from the West Indies during WWII. Ford stacks it with his usual colorful characters, brawls and drunken scenes. Based on four one act plays by Eugene O'Neill, the film is memorable for the superb lighting by cinematographer Gregg Toland who uses a variety of high concept lighting effects and deep focus. The result is stunning with each frame like a black and white painting. No Ford film would be complete without his usual stock players - Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald, John Wayne, John Qualen and Mildred Natwick - and each of them create memorable and very distinct but unsentimental characters (Ian Hunter is especially very good) full of melancholy, fear, suspicion and joy as their life of loneliness and cameraderie bring them all close to each other during the voyage.

[Reza]

Night Train to Munich (Carol Reed, 1940) 10/10

A forgotten gem from the wartime era which uses flippant British wit to throw wicked jabs at Germany and the Nazis. Made when Britain had already declared war on Germany the plot revolves around a Czech scientist wanted by both countries. A double crossing Nazi (Paul Henreid) dupes his daughter (Margaret Lockwood) into capturing him. To their rescue comes a British agent (Rex Harrison) disguised as a Nazi. The film was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's "The Lady Vanishes" and most of the plot revolves around a suspenseful journey on a train and includes the two delightful cricket obsessed characters (Naunton Wayne & Basil Radford) from the previous film who are instrumental in coming to the rescue in the nick of time. The witty screenplay (nominated for an Oscar) superbly balances comedy, drama, suspense and the obvious propaganda - the ingenious way Hitler's Mein Kampf is presented is an absolute scream. Harrison's lanky charm is nicely balanced with Lockwood's acerbic wit creating romantic sparks. And nobody was a more suave and romantic Nazi in films at the time than Paul Henreid until he abruptly switched sides in "Casablanca" making him even more appealing. An outstanding film in need of re-discovery.

[Reza]

Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939) 9/10

This is THE most famous western ever. It doesn't come up short but it has a certain raw quality to it which compares unfavorably to many later more refined westerns made by Ford himself and many others as well. It is the first modern western and Ford's first sound western returning to the genre after 13 years. It was this film that made famous that old hoary plot of gathering together a bunch of undesirable individuals and putting them on a journey fraught with danger thus allowing the characters to show their true colours by the end. A cliché but this film invented it. On the stagecoach are a virtuous whore (Claire Trevor), a gambler (John Carradine), a snobbish pregnant woman (Louise Platt), a drunk doctor (Thomas Mitchell, who won an Oscar), a whiskey salesman (Donald Meek), a crooked banker (Berton Churchill), a Sheriff (George Bancroft) and the driver (Andy Devine). And then there is the outlaw, the Ringo Kid, the role that made John Wayne into a huge star. Once Wayne appears - and Ford ensures he gets the full star treatment with the camera zooming onto him as he flips his shotgun - the film comes alive. The famous set piece is of course the stagecoach being chased by the Apaches which is a remarkably directed and edited sequence full of suspense and horror (as horses buckle and fall during the scenes when each Indian is shot - many of the horses (off camera) became disabled and had to be shot. There are far better westerns but this is the one that really kick started a dying genre. A must-see!!

[Reza]

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Paul Newman, 1972) 8/10

This is a quiet little film where nothing much happens. A chamber piece by Paul Newman who directs this adaptation of a Pulitzer Prize winning play as a showcase for the talents of his wife Joanne Woodward. She plays a slaternly, alcoholic, lower middle class woman for whom life has passed by and she has nothing much to show for it. Her husband ran off (and died in a Holiday Inn) and two daughters live with her - the elder (Roberta Wallach, daughter of Eli Wallach & Anne Jackson) is a boy crazy, epileptic, baton twirling high schooler who appears to be on the same path of failure as her mother and the younger (Nell Potts, daughter of Newman & Woodward) is an introvert and a serious student working on a science project at school (which is the title of the film). Newman dispenses with any visual flourishes and instead focuses on the characters' sadness, joy, anger and heartbreak without making the film sentimental. Woodward, playing against type, is superb and won a prize at Cannes for her performance.

[Reza]

Indian Summers (Anand Tucker, David Moore, Jamie Payne & John Alexander, 2015) 5/10

During the British Raj the Government would leave the boiling hot plains of India in the summer months and move upto the cool hills in Simla every year. The series covers the lives of a group of people - both British and Indian - during a period when Indians were rising up against British rule. Extremely promising idea is sabotaged by poorly developed characters involved in boring soap opera theatrics. Sadly this is no Jewel in the Crown.