Saturday Evening Movie Thread 07-14-2018 [Hosted By: Moviegique]

Ben Hur:

According to Wikipedia, 1959 saw the popularization of the sword-and-sandal epic through a smash-hit Italian film distributed in America as Hercules, starring Steve Reeves. No citation is given for this, but one wonders if another little film—you probably haven't heard of it—called Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ was a factor as well. A box-office monster, this film ranks #14 in the all-time adjusted-for-inflation box office—and as I like to point out, the adjusted-for-inflation does not adjust for population. Just as with TV 60 years ago, movies like this had an outsized influence compared to, say, the #15 film Avatar.

It won 11 Oscars, an honor only shared with two other movies, Titanic and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. And while Ace's love of 1982 is not unfounded, 1959 can give any year a run for its money: Some Like It Hot, North by Northwest, Rio Bravo, Pillow Talk, Anatomy of a Murder, Imitation of Life, The 400 Blows and on and on. As host Ben Mankiewicz pointed out in his intro, this film was so popular, the merchandising for it was bananas, and for years after it came out. You could even get Ben-His and Ben-Hur robes. As Mankiewicz doesn't point out, making this movie 10 years later would've been utterly unthinkable.

None of us had ever seen Ben-Hur, but not one of us balked at the three-and-a-half-hour running time. (And when movies of yore ran this long, they put in an intermission at least!)

TFW you have to pee and you're not sure when the intermission is coming.

The plot is basically Gladiator, if that film had a fourth act where the hero meets Jesus and comes to eschew revenge. Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) is a wealthy Jewish prince whose childhood friend, Messala (Stephen Boyd) has returned to Judea to help put down the rebellious Jews. Miffed by Ben-Hur's refusal to betray his people, Messala frames him and has him sentenced to a slave galley. Through a twist of fate, Ben-Hur survives the galleys only to become a prominent figure in Rome, whereupon he uses his freedom to return to his homeland in search of revenge. INTERMISSION. (In other words, you still have half the movie to go!)

This movie is jam-packed. There is no padding here. In fact, it feels kind of breakneck, with lots left out—probably due to the fact that it's based on the 800 page smash-hit book that unseated Uncle Tom's Cabin as the most popular book of the 19th century. We learn, for example, that Ben-Hur drove chariots in Rome but we never see that. He's on the galleys for years but we only see a little of that. He journeys from Rome to Jerusalem, where he meets Balthazar and lays the groundwork for the ultimate chariot race—and that's about all we see of that journey. It's practically a highlight reel, with no time to spare.

As a result, the acting burden falls primarily on Charlton Heston. We can only experience things through him. He won the Oscar for this role and it's well-deserved. It was de rigeur to deride his acting skills when I was a kid, and his iconic apocalyptic roles in Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man are cheesy—but that '65-'75 period was a cheesy time. Put Heston in a big, heroic Biblical role like this (or The 10 Commandments) and he shines.

The lovely and moving Haya Harareet, a Palestinian from back when "Palestinian" meant "Jew".

Even so, this movie works because of William Wyler, the director of some of Hollywood's greatest films, like The Best Years of Our Lives and Roman Holiday, as well as one of the other great religious movies of all time, Friendly Persuasion (which has the most mature treatment of the challenges of faith I've seen from a Hollywood film). Wyler had turned down Ben-Hur repeatedly because he wasn't a Big Spectacle picture kind of guy. Ultimately, producer San Zimbalist convinced him by saying the movie needed intimacy—the spectacle would take care of itself. So Wyler brought the human interest, and let the spectacle take care of itself. (Wyler didn't even direct the chariot scene!)

And it is a spectacle! A glory of mattes, rear projection, models, set design and lighting, all skillfully blended give a sense of real time and place. It all reads beautifully, even if it's not perfect. The long shots of the fleet of galleys are pretty clearly models, and if you're really paying attention, you can see the little stick figures. But you do have to be looking, for the most part. (I do look because as much as CGI bores me—a bunch of guys like me typing on computers to move pixels around—I love practical effects and all the various crafts involved.)

The chariot race is still spectacular. It's Mad Max: Fury Road level of breathtaking, with horses and chariots flying everywhere and miraculously no stunt men dying.

Me trying to merge onto the 101 in the morning.

What takes the movie beyond the traditional sword-and-sandals revenge flick is that the chariot race, which is the climactic action set piece of the film is book-ended by Ben-Hur's redemption, where he realizes revenge isn't going to save him or restore his mother and daughter. The peripheral-character-in-the-life-of-Jesus trope was a common one for centuries and it is done expertly here. The Flower especially appreciated the trope of never showing His face.

Helluva flick, is what I'm saying. And crazy influential, too, of course. Obviously the inspiration for the Coen brothers Hail, Caesar!, we also couldn't help but notice that Life of Brian leans heavily on this (and Spartacus) for its portrayals of the Romans in Judea. What sort of surprised me was how some key points of Army of Darkness were echoes of this movie. For instance, the opening narration "My name is Ash, and I'm a slave." is shot in a very similar way to Ben-Hur's enslavement and the music cribbing from Miklos Roza's brilliant score. To say nothing of the bizarre windmill scene where the tiny Ashes yell "Ramming speed!"

Those just leapt out at me. I'm sure a brief review of IMDB's connections page would reveal much more.

We all loved it, and are primed for next month's classic: True Grit.

"Stwike him, Centuwion! Vewy woughwee!"

Posted by: OregonMuse at 07:56 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Thankfull not fishing

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 07:56 PM (BbGew)

2 A box-office monster, this film ranks #14 in the all-time adjusted-for-inflation box office -- and as I like to point out, the adjusted-for-inflation does not adjust for population. Just as with TV 60 years ago, movies like this had an outsized influence compared to, say, the #15 film Avatar.

As far as I'm concerned, the only metric that makes sense when you're judging movie popularity is number of tickets sold, adjusted for population size.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 07:57 PM (jrTqB)

3 Hello

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 07:58 PM (KOCKb)

4 "It was terrible! They got Roman naval tactics all wrong!"
-Expert in Roman naval tactics

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 07:59 PM (zZbCU)

5 I watch my Ben Hur DVD about once per year. It holds up *amazingly* well.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 07:59 PM (jrTqB)

6 Ben Hur is a great movie, and does pretty well on the historical record.

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 07:59 PM (BbGew)

7 Only movie I've ever seen in the theater with an intermission was Gettysburg[/1] in the Commodore Theater in Portsmouth.

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 08:00 PM (XAYDB)

8 Also has the 1926 version. Pre-Hayes Code, you can see nekkid wimmins dancing during some of the outdoor scenes.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:00 PM (jrTqB)

9 Gods and Generals had an intermission. Probably needed two.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:01 PM (jrTqB)

10 I'm old enough to have seen this flick. And I'm old enough to remember when movies actually had an "intermission" that everyone got up went to the bathroom/or bought popcorn. The flick would stop, the lights went on, music played. I think they might have been about 15 minutes long. Then lights out, and the next "roll" got put on the projector.

Posted by: Sally at April 20, 2019 08:01 PM (sBDDH)

11 Also has the 1926 version. Pre-Hayes Code, you can see nekkid wimmins dancing during some of the outdoor scenes.
Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:00 PM (jrTqB)

=====

A small part of me prefers the silent one, purely for the stunts. They were crazy dangerous and ridiculous.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:01 PM (zZbCU)

12 Yay another movie thread! How long has it been, three weeks?! Anyway thanks Moviegique!

And it's true, epics like Ben-Hur just couldn't be made today. If the idea were presented to HBO or Netflix in 2019, it would have to be presented as an entire TV series, or on network TV, a "limited series," and producers still wouldn't want to go as all-out with the budget as MGM was willing to do in 1959.

It especially drives me crazy that whenever I watch a new film, instead of there being just one logo opening (such as Leo the Lion for MGM), there's oftentimes at least FIVE of them. I believe it's because studios today are so risk-averse, no single one wants to cough up the money to produce any movie today, even a fairly standard-budget one. By sharing the budget, they share in the risk (and minimize it per party).

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:02 PM (miE9U)

13 7 Only movie I've ever seen in the theater with an intermission was Gettysburg[/1] in the Commodore Theater in Portsmouth.
Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 08:00 PM (XAYDB)

There are classic movies playing in theatres again.

Saw the Sound of Music on the big screen last year, with intermission.

This week is 'Singing in the Rain'... which I find interesting as its EASTER.

Posted by: Don Q at April 20, 2019 08:02 PM (NgKpN)

14 God's and Generals on a poll at the miniature site I think was voted one of the worst war movies.

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:03 PM (BbGew)

15
That Centurion in the last picture looks like Eric Swallowell.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Rapscallion of a Poperin Pear at April 20, 2019 08:03 PM (f1Vqw)

16 How the hell did the formatting end up that way?

Oh well, at least not Barrel-worthy

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 08:03 PM (XAYDB)

17 Gods and Generals had an intermission. Probably needed two.
Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:01 PM (jrTqB)
-----
Gods and Generals needed better editing and writing.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:03 PM (IFKOp)

18 4 "It was terrible! They got Roman naval tactics all wrong!"
-Expert in Roman naval tactics
Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 07:59 PM (zZbCU)

I thought Roman naval tactics consisted of Ram! Drop the ramp (which has a spike in it it keep the two ships from separating)! Board with the century of group troops you've been carrying as supercargo for the last week! Convert a naval battle into a land battle.

Posted by: King of Siam at April 20, 2019 08:03 PM (MwFQu)

19 14 God's and Generals on a poll at the miniature site I think was voted one of the worst war movies.
Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:03 PM (BbGew

====

It's first half is interminable. The second half is actually pretty good.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:04 PM (zZbCU)

20 Oh thank goodness, the movie thread is back.

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:04 PM (kQs4Y)

21 They did remake Ben-Hur...last year? The year before...hmmm...2016 per the Internet. I can almost not imaging watching it.

But I can imagine getting the DVD for the 1925 silent version, and just general re-watching.

Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:04 PM (CcUfv)

22 "The Song Remains the Same" has an intermission - John Bonham's drum solo.

Posted by: Guy Smiley at April 20, 2019 08:04 PM (+/7JY)

23 Little details get me. During the chariot race there is a line of golden dolphins used to denote how many laps have been run. After each lap another dolphin is positioned down. They're shown so quickly (maybe 4-5 times) they're easy to miss but once I discovered them that's what I have to see every time I watch the movie.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 08:04 PM (aBR7R)

24 As I recall it, Gods And Generals has a ton of talking/exposition/philosophy discussions about war, slavery, humanity, etc etc between opposing generals.

Never had much interest in seeing it.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:05 PM (miE9U)

25 I remember intermissions at movies, theater and drive in

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:05 PM (BbGew)

26 Somebody kill me now.
Mrs D is into yet another Hallmark movie.
Numbness in my fingers.
Creeping up my arms.
Vision slowly fading.
Grey.
Ugh

Posted by: Diogenes at April 20, 2019 08:05 PM (0tfLf)

27 Since it's the movie thread, I'll again share a question I posted on the ONT several nights ago:

What are the Horde's all-time favorite SILENT films?

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:06 PM (miE9U)

28 Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:02 PM (miE9U)

A Jew becomes a Slave and then gets adopted by a Roman Senator?

Actually, Super easy, barely an inconvenience!

Posted by: Don Q at April 20, 2019 08:06 PM (NgKpN)

29 23 -- JuJuBee

Loooved the dolphins. It's such a great touch. I don't remember now if we saw them at scale. It might have just been a tiny model.

Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:06 PM (CcUfv)

30
So a few weeks ago I watched "The Angel" and then the documentary "The Spy Who Fell to Earth" about the subject of the movie. Very interesting to see what was included in the movie portrayal vs. the doc. I recommend watching them both in that order.

Also a movie on Netflix called "Tinker" also gets my recommendation.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at April 20, 2019 08:06 PM (r+sAi)

31 Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:02 PM (miE9U)
-----
Yeah, the number of vanity plates is getting ridiculous, though I believe that at least one of them is for the distributor.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:06 PM (IFKOp)

32 There's so much to like in this movie, I have to note one exceptional element you didn't mention - The Musical Score! This is another one of those movies I will watch over and over again just to listen to that magnificent score - every piece is strong! A good score will have one or two really good musical themes - it's hard to count how many great themes there are here! The Nativity, the Galley, the Battle, the Chariot Race, the Finale - every one of them equally great, it is some of the best orchestral music of the 20th century.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 08:06 PM (V2Yro)

33 25 I remember intermissions at movies, theater and drive in
Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:05 PM (BbGew)

Let's all go to the lobby! Let's all go to the lobby! Let's all go to the lobby! And get ourselves a drink!

Posted by: Fox2! at April 20, 2019 08:07 PM (MwFQu)

34 A small part of me prefers the silent one, purely for the stunts. They were crazy dangerous and ridiculous.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:01 PM (zZbCU)

They were nuts. One silent film (I forget which one) had the heroine unconscious on some breaking-up ice flowing toward a waterfall, and the hero had to hop and skip from ice chunk to ice chunk, pick her up, and get her off the river before going over the side. They actually went out in the dead of winter to film this, no stunt doubles, no special effects, no nothing. Took them 26 takes before the director got what he wanted. That's insane.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:07 PM (jrTqB)

35 qdpsteve--

My favorite silents (not counting anachronistic ones like '30s Chaplin or '70s Mel Brooks) are:

Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Kaligari, Faust, The Gold Rush and The General, which is probably the funniest movie I've ever seen.

Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:07 PM (CcUfv)

36 27 Since it's the movie thread, I'll again share a question I posted on the ONT several nights ago:

What are the Horde's all-time favorite SILENT films?
Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:06 PM (miE9U

=====

The Passion of Joan of Arc.

I just watched Speedy on YouTube this week. Good, funny stuff from Harold Loyd.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:08 PM (zZbCU)

37 Letterbox versus tv screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m1-pP1-5K8

You've probably seen this, but Martin Scorsese shows how resizing to fit a typical square t.v. screen totally changes the dynamic of the famous chariot sequence.

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:08 PM (kQs4Y)

38 moviegique, thanks!

I also saw at Amazon, The Last Laugh. Looked interesting.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:08 PM (miE9U)

39 Good post OM, and I'm not a movie guy, but Ben Hur is one I will watch every time.

Posted by: Eromero at April 20, 2019 08:08 PM (qBNEP)

40 Tom Servo!

I did mention it! "For instance, the opening narration "My name is Ash, and I'm a slave." is shot in a very similar way to Ben-Hur's enslavement and the music cribbing from Miklos Roza's brilliant score."

And I was loving the score all the way through. Rosa was great.

Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:09 PM (CcUfv)

41 TJM, thanks!

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:09 PM (miE9U)

42 Saw "Bad Times at the El Royale" yesterday. Recommended.

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:10 PM (kQs4Y)

43 Watching Ben Hur at the moment and Messala just became a drag racer.

Posted by: Ben Had at April 20, 2019 08:10 PM (x29ff)

44 -
--
God's and Generals on a poll at the miniature site I think was voted one of the worst war movies.

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:03 PM

-------------------------------

I've no dog in the Gods and Generals fight but any poll that relies on modern human's responses is unreliable because modern humans themselves are unreliable.

Posted by: cranky old dude at April 20, 2019 08:10 PM (RVcmP)

45 21 They did remake Ben-Hur...last year? The year before...hmmm...2016 per the Internet. I can almost not imaging watching it.
But I can imagine getting the DVD for the 1925 silent version, and just general re-watching.
Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:04 PM (CcUfv)

The new version of Ben Hur was made by Roma Downey, a very earnest, very well-intentioned Christian lady, and it stunk on ice. I could not finish it.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:10 PM (jrTqB)

46 I thought Roman naval tactics consisted of Ram! Drop the ramp (which has a spike in it it keep the two ships from separating)! Board with the century of group troops you've been carrying as supercargo for the last week! Convert a naval battle into a land battle.
-----
The "corvus" boarding bridge was pretty much only used during the First Punic War, when the Romans really hadn't developed a fleet or fleet tactics. The major issue with the corvus was that it added a lot of topside weight and made the ships less seaworthy, especially in rough seas. They dropped it once they got a handle on naval warfare.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:10 PM (IFKOp)

47 1926 Buster Keaton The General
I often say if you don't think you would like a silent film watch that first.

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:11 PM (BbGew)

48 I also got tickets to see the Rifftraxx spin on "Octaman", and also a documentary next month on Deep Space Nine.

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:12 PM (kQs4Y)

49 Absolutely wonderful movie, stunningly composed, and puts almost all modern movies to shame. Still, calling a revenge story a "tale of the Christ" is a little cheeky.

Posted by: Caliban at April 20, 2019 08:12 PM (QE8X6)

50 True story.
My mother claimed she was asked out by Stephen Boyd when he was Billy Millar way back in Belfast in the fifties and said she turned him down.

That my mum said it was true doesn't mean it happened because I heard Boyd liked to...well...travel on the other bus.

But fair doos, my ma was a bit of a looker back then and knew Van Morrison.

Posted by: Rudi Von Starnberg. at April 20, 2019 08:13 PM (OFzX4)

51 The only silent I can think that I've watched at any length is "Metropolis". It's...different.

I'd really like to see Abel Gance's "Napoleon".

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:13 PM (IFKOp)

52 47 1926 Buster Keaton The General
I often say if you don't think you would like a silent film watch that first.
Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:11 PM (BbGew)

=====

Comedy in general, but The General in particular, yeah.

Chaplin had more pathos, Loyd more everyman charm. It depends on your audience who worl would be best.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:13 PM (zZbCU)

53 Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:07 PM (jrTqB)
---
That sounds like "Way Down East".

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:13 PM (kQs4Y)

54 Favorite line, from Balthazar:
"Your whole life is a miracle"

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at April 20, 2019 08:14 PM (iouK0)

55 In the book, Masala didn't die. He was crippled and bankrupted. I.E. totally destroyed. And all of his friends that bet on him also lost bigly.
IMHO, they could have found a more appealing actress for the role of Esther.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:14 PM (KOCKb)

56 There are classic movies playing in theatres again.

I saw "2001" a little while ago and it had an intermission.

Posted by: rickl at April 20, 2019 08:14 PM (sdi6R)

57 I forget what happens to Ben's wimmen in the movie.

They became lepers but first were prostitutes I think.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 20, 2019 08:15 PM (Z+IKu)

58 Glad you liked the movie. I watched this as a youngster on TV as I grew up.

I think it is cute how you reference things in an older movie by using a newer movie, like the older movie used the newer movie as a basis. Of course we all know it is the other way around where the newer movie used things in the older movies as guides.

Posted by: zogger at April 20, 2019 08:15 PM (SKahJ)

59 Does no one want to take in an old Steve Reeves movie?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at April 20, 2019 08:15 PM (6qErC)

60 OM I think the ice flow movie you're remembering is Way Down East with Lillian Gish.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 08:15 PM (aBR7R)

61 57 I forget what happens to Ben's wimmen in the movie.

They became lepers but first were prostitutes I think.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 20, 2019 08:15 PM (Z+IKu)

Nope, caught Leprosy in Prison.

Posted by: Don Q at April 20, 2019 08:15 PM (NgKpN)

62 Ice floe. I hate my phone.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 08:16 PM (aBR7R)

63 51 The only silent I can think that I've watched at any length is "Metropolis". It's...different.

I'd really like to see Abel Gance's "Napoleon".
Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:13 PM (IFKOp)

====

I love that movie. The 6 hour version is amazing. The tripdic sequence jaw dropping. The first sequence with Napoleon as a child overseeing a snow fight is some of my favorite filmmaking.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:16 PM (zZbCU)

64 I believe it's because studios today are so
risk-averse, no single one wants to cough up the money to produce any
movie today, even a fairly standard-budget one. By sharing the budget,
they share in the risk (and minimize it per party).
Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:02 PM (miE9U)

I hadn't thought of that, I thought it was like construction here in 2008. A prime contractor hired a sub to do construction who was actually three guys in an office, and they hired a sub, who was a father and son who had a PO box and some heavy equipment and a line on getting construction materials, and they hired a sub who had a name in the construction industry because he was really good at invoicing and running payrolls, but he didn't have any employees, so he hired 15 Mexicans as "independent contractors" who had their own tools and at least one guy who could read a blueprint, and that was how you built that community medical clinic on grants to the regional hospital.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 20, 2019 08:16 PM (TN7xY)

65 Ten Commandments on right now. Another great one.

Posted by: Pete Seria at April 20, 2019 08:16 PM (7ZQe3)

66 -
--
I also got tickets to see the Rifftraxx spin on "Octaman", and also a documentary next month on Deep Space Nine.

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes

--------------

I was once small.

Posted by: Big McLargeHuge at April 20, 2019 08:17 PM (RVcmP)

67 Kindltot, LOL. :-) Also a good point...

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:17 PM (miE9U)

68 The Roman Consul, not a Senator know Judah Ben-Hur's father, personally.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:17 PM (KOCKb)

69 Thanks to everyone for all the great silent movie recommendations. I want to add them all to my collection...

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:17 PM (miE9U)

70 Interesting note about the author, Lew Wallace, a Civil War General for the Federals. At the Battle of Shiloh, U.S. Grant commanding, Lew Wallace was in command of a relief column of 20,000 men that Grant desperately, needed, as he was getting his ass kicked. Wallace and his column got lost, they could hear the shooting of the battle but they could never actually find it, and only get there at dark, as the fight was ending. Grant was furious, blamed Wallace personally, and never forgave him.

Later on, when Grant was President, Wallace has enough influence to merit an appointment from Grant - but since he still didn't like him, he made him the Territorial Governor of New Mexico, which would park him as far away from D.C. as possible. Sitting in a dusty office off the dusty town square in Santa Fe, with very little else to do, Lew Wallace wrote Ben Hur.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 08:18 PM (V2Yro)

71

Mother and sister.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 20, 2019 08:18 PM (aKsyK)

72 TCM played a lot of Able Gance's Napoleon probably well over 10 years ago, maybe 15.

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:18 PM (BbGew)

73 And to be accurate, the winning chariots would run wide, apexing near the middle (not a lot of braking available)

Posted by: Anon a mouse at April 20, 2019 08:19 PM (6qErC)

74 I have seen Ben-Hur a bunch but I always wait for the chariot race.

I'm going to settle in and watch "The Passion"

Posted by: Ben Had at April 20, 2019 08:19 PM (x29ff)

75 52 47 1926 Buster Keaton The General
I often say if you don't think you would like a silent film watch that first.
Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:11 PM (BbGew)

Amazing thing about "The General" is that it's based on a True Story.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 08:19 PM (V2Yro)

76 Lessee, it been so long since the last movie thread, I saw a buch of stuff, so-

1) "Hellboy" forget the poor reviews by critics and GDT fanboys.

"Hellboy" is a lot of fun and just wants to entertain you. It plays like "a week in the life of Hellboy", you know, without retelling Hellboy's origin all over again.

There's an overarching "end of the world" plot a well as a few side trips, which fit in as well just to keep things constantly moving.

Good script. Good acting. Some fabulous action scenes, super creepy Baba Yaga. and horrific hell critters on Earth.

CGI great except where it isn't. The speaking to the dead scene looks like I did the CGI on a Commodore 64.

Lots of fun. Check it out.

2) Santa Clarita Diet Season 3: Netflix

More undead fun. A bit more SJW than previously but not oppressively so.

If you haven't seen this one, you're missing out on a very good comedy.

This season could be considered the end, unless they wish to go on.

3)Shazam! is fun though fairly childish. If you have younguns around, this would be a pretty good choice.

Scary but not too scary. Violent but not tooo violent.

It's good.

4) "Pet Cemetery" is surprisingly worse than the old version.

At least, the old version finally brought the horror at the end and ended up being very creepy for those las t few minutes.

The new one can't even do that. Several changes which undercut the theme and horror.

Uneven acting. Great horror but poor script. Poor directing consisting of jump scares throughout.

They never give you the existential and parental horror at the cent of "PS".

See it on cable if you wish. Don't spend your money.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 20, 2019 08:20 PM (CRRq9)

77 It was de rigeur to deride his acting skills when I was a kid, and his iconic apocalyptic roles in Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man are cheesy-but that '65-'75 period was a cheesy time.

I think it depended more on the movies. He was still making good movies in that time period. He made Major Dundee, the Agony and Ecstasy and The Warlord in 1965. Khartoum in 1966, and the first Planet of the Apes movie he was good in. I thought he was good Cardinal Richelieu in the Three (1973) and Four Musketeers (1974). He was very hammy in Omega Man, Soylent Green, Airport 1975 and Earthquake but those movies were pretty 70s cheese.

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 20, 2019 08:21 PM (ljwAy)

78 Glad you liked the movie. I watched this as a youngster on TV as I grew up.
-----
I remember watching Ben-Hur on TV when I was in high school. I believe it was on one of the local L.A. stations. Anyhow, they advertised it as having the first hour and a half as being commercial-free, a big deal at the time. However, they made up for the commercial-freeness by saturating the latter half of the movie. Toward the end, they'd show 5 minutes of movie, and 5-7 minutes of commercials. It became a real death march.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:21 PM (IFKOp)

79 It played Sunday and Wednesday on the big screen.

I went both days.

The time just flew by!

I used to watch it once a year, but in the recent decade, I've slowed that pace a bit (much to my wife's relief!).

It's just damned well the best movie ever made.

Posted by: RKae at April 20, 2019 08:21 PM (vP0jg)

80 Ben-Hur is in my top 5 favorite movies. Charleton Heston was a MOVIE STAR. You don't find those much anymore.

Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 08:21 PM (WNAuL)

81 Watched "The Passion" yesterday. Enough tears. That's the day for it. Now that the Sun is down, the Easter Vigil Mass has begun.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:21 PM (KOCKb)

82 >>32 There's so much to like in this movie, I have to note one exceptional element you didn't mention - The Musical Score! This is another one of those movies I will watch over and over again just to listen to that magnificent score - every piece is strong!

We watched "The Robe" last night for that very reason. Stunning, absolutely stunning score by Randy Newman's uncle.

Posted by: Caliban at April 20, 2019 08:21 PM (QE8X6)

83 They were nuts. One silent film (I forget which one)
had the heroine unconscious on some breaking-up ice flowing toward a
waterfall, and the hero had to hop and skip from ice chunk to ice chunk,
pick her up, and get her off the river before going over the side. They
actually went out in the dead of winter to film this, no stunt doubles,
no special effects, no nothing. Took them 26 takes before the director
got what he wanted. That's insane.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader Pants Monitor
Griffith's "Way Down East"?

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 08:22 PM (gfZsX)

84 It would make sense if the movie that's been mentioned with the impossible stunts, was a DW Griffith flick.

From what I've read, DW was kinda crazy.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:22 PM (miE9U)

85 Zogger--

I was trying to explain "Ben Hur" to some people younger than me, and I realized, oh, yeah, it's just like "Gladiator"--so they got it from that. =)

As for Napoleon, I remember about 35 years ago when they played it live here with Carmine Coppola conducting the score. A six hour marathon for a not young man.

Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:23 PM (CcUfv)

86 I loved Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green and The Omega Man.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:23 PM (KOCKb)

87 Fuck, Blues power play

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 08:23 PM (XAYDB)

88
I've really been enjoying the site tubi.tv.com. They have a ton of movies and TV shows on there for free. They just added a ton more including The Passion, The Six Million Dollar Man and DW Griffith's Intolerance (the hour and a half version)

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 20, 2019 08:23 PM (ljwAy)

89 I had free Cinemax last weekend and saw the first hour of Blade Runner 2049, I took a shot with old vcr to tape the rest but haven't seen if it worked or not.

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:23 PM (BbGew)

90 Sean Connery: werewolf
George Lazenby: vampire
Roger Moore: vampire
Timothy Dalton: werewolf (disputed, small chance he is instead a vampire)
Peirce Brosnan: vampire
Daniel Craig: werewolf

Posted by: BourbonChicken at April 20, 2019 08:24 PM (rnAwa)

91 Did they ever make a Soylent Green lunchbox? Cuz that would have been cool.

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:24 PM (kQs4Y)

92 One thing I will say about Miklos Rosa, however:

The music in Ben-Hur is awesome!

...but every other movie I've heard him score sounds like the Ben-Hur soundtrack over and over. Doesn't matter if it's a western or whatever, the music is still Ben-Hur.

I don't think he had a lot of tricks in his bag, but that bag works well in Ben-Hur.

Posted by: RKae at April 20, 2019 08:24 PM (vP0jg)

93 How the hell did the formatting end up that way?

Oh well, at least not Barrel-worthy

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 08:03 PM (XAYDB)
---
close tags in your nick are your friend.

Posted by: The Barrel at April 20, 2019 08:24 PM (ER1jH)

94 Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 08:18 PM (V2Yro)
-----
Wallace didn't get lost so much as use a very inefficient method to get his column turned around (he was marching away from the Shiloh campsite at the time they heard the fighting break out).

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:24 PM (IFKOp)

95 Nope, caught Leprosy in Prison.
Posted by: Don Q at April 20, 2019 08:15 PM (NgKpN)

I believe it, I believe it. I don't know why they keep saying I won't believe it.

I believe it.

Thanks Don Q!

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 20, 2019 08:25 PM (Z+IKu)

96 'Watched "The Passion" yesterday.'

That reminds me. It's on tomorrow for free on PlutoTV.

Posted by: freaked at April 20, 2019 08:25 PM (UdKB7)

97 Favorite silent film...
Restored version of the pieces of what could be found of Napoleon (1927)
Music by Carmine Coppola in the restored one.
I went every day for a week to see it at the Drexel Theatre in Columbus

Posted by: Appycay at April 20, 2019 08:26 PM (8G3+Q)

98 Ulysses S. Grant - Werewolf
William Tecumseh Sherman - Werewolf (duh - look at his photo)
Robert E. Lee - Vampire

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:26 PM (kQs4Y)

99 I loved Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green and The Omega Man.
Posted by: JAS

----

Same here. Perfect films that freeze that time period for me.

Posted by: RKae at April 20, 2019 08:26 PM (vP0jg)

100 Speaking of nutty silent movie stunts, we have to bring up the classic Keaton one where the house frame falls down around him, but he's in the window, so he's okay. None of the crew wanted him to do that one.

Also, Keaton did a stunt where he fell off a train, jumped up and ran back to jump on it again. Decades later, suffering from migraines, the doctor looks at his x-rays and says, "When did you break your neck?"

lol...tough old birds

Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:26 PM (CcUfv)

101 As for Napoleon, I remember about 35 years ago when they played it live here with Carmine Coppola conducting the score. A six hour marathon for a not young man.
Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:23 PM

I have a miniatures war game magazine with a article/ advertisement on that

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:26 PM (BbGew)

102 The scene where Heston says 'Hello Massala' is incredible.

Posted by: MikeN at April 20, 2019 08:26 PM (o/eHL)

103 tubi.tv is good too. I like free.

Posted by: freaked at April 20, 2019 08:27 PM (UdKB7)

104 Oh, don't get me wrong: I also love the Heston apocalypse trilogy.

But they are corny and cheesy, albeit better made than their modern counterparts like "The Day After Tomorrow".

Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:27 PM (CcUfv)

105 The Ten Commandments has a great scene that can put me into an ASMR trance every time. Nefreteri's tinkly jewelry in her hair, hypnotic movements by the servants piling up fabric, Nefreteri going through the gossamer fabric, I'm half asleep at this point with all the soothing sights/sounds and then the kill-joy servant comes in and ruins everything. Yeah, I'd throw her off the balcony too.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 08:27 PM (aBR7R)

106 And....
Thank you, OM, for the thread and for your observations. Ben Hur is a treat to watch.

Posted by: Appycay at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (8G3+Q)

107 .

Posted by: redc1c4 at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (ER1jH)

108 -
--
I loved Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green and The Omega Man.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:23 PM

_
--

I think I understand what it says about me, but I've always found "last person on earth" stories to sound a bit like heaven.

Posted by: irright at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (RVcmP)

109 I would love to see Napoleon.

I guess I will have to wait for a screening, as there's no DVD available of the full version. Is there any digital version of it available for watching online or for download?

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (miE9U)

110 William Tecumseh Sherman:
Feeling cute, might burn down Atlanta later IDK

Posted by: BourbonChicken at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (rnAwa)

111

Viacom's Pluto TV Inks BBC Studios Deal for 700 Hours of Content, Including Classic Doctor Who Episodes

https://tinyurl.com/y69qkdcr

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (aKsyK)

112 I loved Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green and The Omega Man.
Posted by: JAS
-----
"Get your paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" Every kid in the theater cheered that line.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (IFKOp)

113 I had the greatest lunch of all time "Rat Patrol".

Posted by: freaked at April 20, 2019 08:29 PM (UdKB7)

114 Yes, it's Lillian Gish in Way Down East on the ice floes. And I think it's Ramon Navarro in the silent Ben Hur.

I watched The Mule last weekend. Got it for my husband. It's well done.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 20, 2019 08:29 PM (Lqy/e)

115 favorite silents:
Man with a Movie CameraNapoleon (the snowball scene is great, but my favorites are the storm at sea intercut with the Congress in Paris, and the reintroduction of - argh! - Napoleon's chick)The General, and - if you like The General, you have to see - Our HospitalityKeaton shorts - The Boat, CopsStrikeThe Gold RushSafety LastGreed is pretty damned funky - one of the great endings of all timeohhhh - Broken Blossoms!!!!
I'm sure I'm forgetting a bunch

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 08:29 PM (gfZsX)

116 Sitting in a dusty office off the dusty town square in Santa Fe, with very little else to do, Lew Wallace wrote Ben Hur.
Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 08:18 PM (V2Yro)

And as a follow up, he also wrote "Blazing Saddles".

True story.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 20, 2019 08:29 PM (Z+IKu)

117 "Lunchbox" I mean.

Posted by: freaked at April 20, 2019 08:29 PM (UdKB7)

118 I loved Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green and The Omega Man.
Posted by: JAS

----

Same here. Perfect films that freeze that time period for me.
Posted by: RKae at April 20, 2019 08:26 PM (vP0jg)

Yes. Chuck watching the movie Woodstock in Omega Man. Pure 70s cheese

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 20, 2019 08:29 PM (ljwAy)

119 21
They did remake Ben-Hur...last year? The year before...hmmm...2016 per the Internet. I can almost not imaging watching it.

But I can imagine getting the DVD for the 1925 silent version, and just general re-watching.

Posted by: moviegique
I have the Special Edition of the 1959 Ben Hur and it came with the 1925 version added along with other extras.

Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 08:29 PM (WNAuL)

120

Sheik Ilderim:
Balthasar is a good man. But until all men are like him, we must keep our swords bright!

Judah Ben-Hur:
And our intentions true! So I must leave you.

Sheik Ilderim:
One last thought... there is no law in the arena. Many are killed. I hope to see you again, Judah Ben-Hur.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 20, 2019 08:30 PM (aKsyK)

121 109 I would love to see Napoleon.

I guess I will have to wait for a screening, as there's no DVD available of the full version. Is there any digital version of it available for watching online or for download?
Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (miE9U)

=====

I watched it through download. There's B region bluray. I think it's region locked.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:30 PM (zZbCU)

122 Did they ever make a Soylent Green lunchbox? Cuz that would have been cool.
Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:24 PM (kQs4Y)

Apparently there was, but it was recalled before it could get to the stores. The colors were off due to a misprint, and it turned out that the Soylent Green was purple.

https://tinyurl.com/yat7vlef

Posted by: Kindltot at April 20, 2019 08:30 PM (TN7xY)

123 They became lepers but first were prostitutes I think.
Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 20, 2019 08:15 PM (Z+IKu)

No. They were thrown in prison to rot, and they did. Rot, I mean. With leprosy.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:30 PM (jrTqB)

124 Rat Patrol, Combat! and 12 O'clock High are all on YouTube, watched them all

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:30 PM (BbGew)

125 As a kid I saw The Ten Commandments in the theatuh (my first Intermission!) and fell in love with it. I liked the first half a little more (I'm shallow -- it was more fabulous).

Is there anything creepier than the green mist silently killing the firstborn?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJcd1NFw5JY

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:31 PM (kQs4Y)

126 Here's the list of silent movies I have from you all to see, thus far...

- Napoleon
- Metropolis
- Faust
- Cabinet of Dr Caligari
- Nosferatu
- The General
- Way Down East
- Intolerance
- Haxan
- Speedy
- Safety Last
- The Passion Of Joan Of Arc
- The Gold Rush
- The Kid
- City Lights
- Nanook of the North
- Spite Marriage

...anything missing?

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:31 PM (miE9U)

127 100
Speaking of nutty silent movie stunts, we have to bring up the classic
Keaton one where the house frame falls down around him, but he's in the
window, so he's okay. None of the crew wanted him to do that one.

Steamboat Bill Jr.

Also, Keaton did a stunt where he fell off a train, jumped up and
ran back to jump on it again. Decades later, suffering from migraines,
the doctor looks at his x-rays and says, "When did you break your neck?"

Sherlock Jr

lol...tough old birds

Posted by: moviegique

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 08:31 PM (gfZsX)

128 108
I think I understand what it says about me, but I've always found "last person on earth" stories to sound a bit like heaven.

Posted by: irright at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (RVcmP)

It's all fun and games until you break your glasses.

Posted by: Burgess Meredith at April 20, 2019 08:32 PM (sdi6R)

129 TJM, where were you able to download it from? I'll take a look.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:32 PM (miE9U)

130 Very unhygienic living conditions can cause leprosy

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:32 PM (BbGew)

131 >> I've always found "last person on earth" stories to sound a bit like heaven.

It's great until you break your glasses.

Posted by: Burgess Meredith at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (f1Vqw)

132 Oops, also:

- Greed
- Wings
- Sunrise
- Ben-Hur original silent version

I also already have Hitchcock's The Lodger.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (miE9U)

133 129 TJM, where were you able to download it from? I'll take a look.
Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:32 PM (miE9U

======

My "library". Torrent.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (zZbCU)

134 charlton Heston as John the Baptist in the Greatest Story Ever Told is all kinds of awesome. What an actor. It's on now.
v

Posted by: vivi at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (11H2y)

135 If you are looking for interesting silent movies, The Big Parade with John Gilbert is a very good movie about WWI

Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (Lqy/e)

136 -
--
It's all fun and games until you break your glasses.

Posted by: Burgess Meredith at April 20, 2019 08:32 PM

------------------

That one WAS a bit scary.

Posted by: irright at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (RVcmP)

137 qdpsteve
You have to add
Man with a Movie Camera
Our Hospitality
Broken Blossoms

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (gfZsX)

138 51
The only silent I can think that I've watched at any length is "Metropolis". It's...different.

I'd really like to see Abel Gance's "Napoleon".

Posted by: Captain Obvious

Probably the only one I've seen all the way through too. The music video for Queen's Radio Ga Ga relied heavily on "Metropolis".

Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (WNAuL)

139 Posted by: Kindltot at April 20, 2019 08:30 PM (TN7xY)

You bastard!

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:34 PM (kQs4Y)

140 Blues goal

Jets have 'em right where they want 'em

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 08:34 PM (XAYDB)

141 Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (miE9U)
-----
Wasn't "Greed" uncompleted, or now no longer complete in some way?

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:34 PM (IFKOp)

142 Later on, when Grant was President, Wallace has enough influence to merit an appointment from Grant - but since he still didn't like him, he made him the Territorial Governor of New Mexico, which would park him as far away from D.C. as possible. Sitting in a dusty office off the dusty town square in Santa Fe, with very little else to do, Lew Wallace wrote Ben Hur.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 08:18 PM (V2Yro)

That's a great story.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:34 PM (jrTqB)

143 132 Oops, also:

- Greed
- Wings
- Sunrise
- Ben-Hur original silent version

I also already have Hitchcock's The Lodger.
Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (miE9U

======

Stuff with Douglas Fairbanks.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:34 PM (zZbCU)

144 Hunt For Red October is on right now, and Betelguese with Alec Baldwin BEFORE he became a dedicated fulltime professional ahole.,

Posted by: Eromero at April 20, 2019 08:35 PM (qBNEP)

145

The SCTV version of Ben Hur

https://youtu.be/7j2X1JC62sE

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 20, 2019 08:35 PM (aKsyK)

146
I highly recommend the Youtube channel the CRITICAL DRINKER in which he shares his hilariously sarcastic thoughts on movies and television.

Here's his latest:

The Rise of Skywalker - Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love This Bomb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdo_6bRd8X4

Posted by: Soothsayer, A Journailst and a Climate Expert at April 20, 2019 08:35 PM (w5QtQ)

147 Speaking of nutty silent movie stunts, we have to bring up the classic Keaton one where the house frame falls down around him, but he's in the window, so he's okay. None of the crew wanted him to do that one.

Steamboat Bill Jr.

Also, Keaton did a stunt where he fell off a train, jumped up and
ran back to jump on it again. Decades later, suffering from migraines,
the doctor looks at his x-rays and says, "When did you break your neck?"

Sherlock Jr

lol...tough old birds

Posted by: moviegique
Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 08:31 PM (gfZsX)

Keaton was incredibly talented and funny. Miles ahead of the Chaplin

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 20, 2019 08:35 PM (iwX68)

148 141
Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (miE9U)

-----

Wasn't "Greed" uncompleted, or now no longer complete in some way?

Posted by: Captain Obvious

It was cut way down from Stroheim's original edit. It was originally hours long. Probably the one time a studio was right to cut a film down.

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 08:36 PM (gfZsX)

149 -
--
It's all fun and games until you break your glasses.

Posted by: Burgess Meredith at April 20, 2019 08:32 PM (sdi6R)

--------------------------------------------

I've always found "last person on earth" stories to sound a bit like heaven.

It's great until you break your glasses.

Posted by: Burgess Meredith at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (f1Vqw)

---------------------------------------------------
Damn. This place is TIGHT.

Posted by: irright at April 20, 2019 08:36 PM (RVcmP)

150 Square Hammer, Ghost

https://youtu.be/VqoyKzgkqR4

Big metropolis influence

Posted by: BourbonChicken at April 20, 2019 08:37 PM (rnAwa)

151 It can be pie time
Lemon meringue

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:37 PM (BbGew)

152 ...anything missing?
Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:31 PM (miE9U)

Salome, if you dig that Beardsley/Wilde vibe

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:37 PM (kQs4Y)

153 Keaton was incredibly talented and funny. Miles ahead of the Chaplin
Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 20, 2019 08:35 PM (iwX6

----
I'll dispute that mildly - their styles of humor were rather different. Chaplin was indisputably the better businessman, though.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:37 PM (IFKOp)

154 My "library". Torrent.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:33 PM (zZbCU)

Thank you. Downloading it right now.

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:38 PM (jrTqB)

155 151
It can be pie time

Lemon meringue

I prefer Boston Creme Tango.

Posted by: pep at April 20, 2019 08:38 PM (T6t7i)

156 The lovely and moving Haya Harareet, a Palestinian from back when "Palestinian" meant "Jew".

Hiya Haya !

Posted by: JT at April 20, 2019 08:38 PM (uvoRF)

157 151 It can be pie time
Lemon meringue
Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:37 PM (BbGew)

Key lime!

Posted by: OregonMuse. AoSHQ Thought Leader & Pants Monitor at April 20, 2019 08:38 PM (jrTqB)

158 149
Damn. This place is TIGHT.
Posted by: irright at April 20, 2019 08:36 PM (RVcmP)

Or just predictable.

Posted by: rickl at April 20, 2019 08:38 PM (sdi6R)

159 Vertov, thanks.
Also thanks to everyone for further silent movies to see.

Captain Obvious, per Greed, Wiki says that once Irving Thalberg became head of MGM, he grabbed Erich Von Stroheim's original (and very long) cut of Greed and whittled it down to 140 minutes. (Thalberg had already fired Stroheim once in the past on another production, so they had a history of bad blood.)

Also per Wiki, today's 'restored' version of Greed is 239 minutes. Stroheim's original, which only a handful of people ever saw, was 462 minutes.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:38 PM (miE9U)

160 The General is great but I also have a special fondness for Sherlock Junior. Buster Keaton did so many innovative things in that one. Also if he'd been taller he could've been a romantic lead. Really. (Louise Brooks thought he was hot too.)

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 08:38 PM (aBR7R)

161
I don't need glasses, and I got to bang Elizabeth Montgomery.

You said last *man* on Earth.

Posted by: Charles Bronson at April 20, 2019 08:39 PM (f1Vqw)

162 152 ...anything missing?
Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:31 PM (miE9U)

Salome, if you dig that Beardsley/Wilde vibe
Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:37 PM (kQs4Y)

======

My favorite hilariously bad movie. Everything about it is wrong. It's fantastic. And on YouTube!

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:39 PM (zZbCU)

163 27 Since it's the movie thread, I'll again share a question I posted on the ONT several nights ago:

What are the Horde's all-time favorite SILENT films?
Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:06 PM (miE9U)

Strictly speaking, it was not silent but one of my favorite was Mel Brooks The Silent Movie. One word was spoken, by Marcel Marceau, "No!"

Posted by: JB1000 at April 20, 2019 08:40 PM (kSMyj)

164
PIE!

PIE'S COMIN'!

Posted by: Geico pie people at April 20, 2019 08:40 PM (aBR7R)

165 Stuff with Douglas Fairbanks.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:34 PM (zZbCU)
---
Yes!

The Thief of Bagdad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ8KCfCu23I

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:40 PM (kQs4Y)

166 Also per Wiki, today's 'restored' version of Greed is 239 minutes. Stroheim's original, which only a handful of people ever saw, was 462 minutes.
-----
Yikes!

Not for weak bladders. Thank goodness for the Pause button.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:40 PM (IFKOp)

167 JB1000, thanks!

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 08:40 PM (miE9U)

168 Doing my bit to make sure that no need to be upset, Frau Doctor Eris.

Posted by: Kindltot at April 20, 2019 08:40 PM (TN7xY)

169 Dad took Mom to Ben Hur for their first date in Corvallis in 1959. As I recall, he said the tickets were $5 a piece which was expensive back then. Anyway, it turned out well for them. Been married 69 years and still going strong.

Posted by: Duke Lowell at April 20, 2019 08:41 PM (gC2IV)

170 Viacom's Pluto TV Inks BBC Studios Deal for 700 Hours of Content, Including Classic Doctor Who Episodes

https://tinyurl.com/y69qkdcr
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 20, 2019 08:28 PM (aKsyK)

Thanks for that info

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 20, 2019 08:42 PM (iwX68)

171 59 years.

Posted by: Duke Lowell at April 20, 2019 08:42 PM (gC2IV)

172
And if the last woman was Brie Larson, I would've shot her.

Posted by: Charles Bronson at April 20, 2019 08:42 PM (f1Vqw)

173 My sister loved that movie. She even bought the vinyl album of the Miklos Roza score and pretty much wore it out playing it. Great movie. Going to watch it tonight for Easter.

Posted by: Mrs. Leggy at April 20, 2019 08:42 PM (Vf4Y7)

174 I don't need glasses, and I got to bang Elizabeth Montgomery.
You said last *man* on Earth.
Posted by: Charles Bronson at April 20, 2019 08:39 PM (f1Vqw)

Yup....great "Twilight Zone" episode.

Plus Beth had dark hair in that one which made her more....approachable.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 20, 2019 08:43 PM (Z+IKu)

175 $5 in 1959? Your dad is bullshitting you.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:43 PM (KOCKb)

176 PIE!

PIE'S COMIN'!"

Eli too?

Posted by: Anon a mouse at April 20, 2019 08:44 PM (6qErC)

177 For their 50th anniversary I gave then a script of Ben Hur signed by the original cast. First time I ever saw my father speechless.

Posted by: Duke Lowell at April 20, 2019 08:44 PM (gC2IV)

178 They used to hand out thick, full color playbills for movies back in the day. I still have my parents' booklets from "Cleopatra" and "Fantasia".

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:44 PM (kQs4Y)

179 -
--
And if the last woman was Brie Larson, I would've shot her.

Posted by: Charles Bronson at April 20, 2019 08:42 PM

-----------------------------

Don't aim at her ass.

Posted by: Statistics at April 20, 2019 08:45 PM (RVcmP)

180 160
The General is great but I also have a special fondness for Sherlock
Junior. Buster Keaton did so many innovative things in that one. Also if
he'd been taller he could've been a romantic lead. Really. (Louise
Brooks thought he was hot too.)

Posted by: JuJuBee
Agreed. Funny thing - Keaton said they had a lot of the basic gags worked out, but realized they were too - unrealistic? - for a feature story. Which is when they had the idea that the whole thing had to be a dream, thus the incredible "entering a movie" sequence. Some of that was actually shot on the movie theater stage, while other parts were film shot elsewhere. They used surveyors instruments to make it work.
No love for Man with a Movie Camera?????

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 08:45 PM (gfZsX)

181 There are classic movies playing in theatres again.

I saw "2001" a little while ago and it had an intermission.
Posted by: rickl

I saw "2001" in 1968, in "Cinerama", which had a big wraparound screen. It was awesome. But yes, it has an intermission, that takes place when Dave Bowman and Frank Poole are talking in the pod and HAL reads their lips.

Other movies I saw back then with intermissions: How the West Was Won, Ice Station Zebra, Exodus

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....living on the prison planet at April 20, 2019 08:45 PM (TYC2c)

182 They used to hand out thick, full color playbills for movies back in the day. I still have my parents' booklets from "Cleopatra" and "Fantasia".
Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:44 PM (kQs4Y)
----
I should have one for "Around the World in 80 Days" somewhere.

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:46 PM (IFKOp)

183 My favorite hilariously bad movie. Everything about it is wrong. It's fantastic. And on YouTube!
Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:39 PM (zZbCU)
---
It's. Genius.

But splendiferously gay.

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:46 PM (kQs4Y)

184 Oh, the train/broken neck thing was Chaplin, not Keaton, sorry.

Keaton can seem better because Chaplin has all the positive press, so when you discover Keaton you can feel like he got short-shrift. But they were both great with very different styles.

And, yeah, Keaton screwed up big time business-wise. It's kind of a tragic story.

Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 08:46 PM (CcUfv)

185 175 $5 in 1959? Your dad is bullshitting you.
Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:43 PM (KOCKb)

-----------

It was a special showing with dinner and drinks and such. Still expensive for a first date.

Posted by: Duke Lowell at April 20, 2019 08:46 PM (gC2IV)

186 My parents took the family to the Roxy for "Thunderball." I am pretty sure that I fell asleep after the Intermission. I was 7 at the time.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:47 PM (KOCKb)

187 >> Plus Beth had dark hair in that one which made her more....approachable.

Her sister Serena was a brunette. And a fun girl.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Rapscallion of a Poperin Pear at April 20, 2019 08:47 PM (f1Vqw)

188 Oh, and Eris, a friend claimed that Douglas Fairbanks Junior was on a train with his grandfather, and accidentally walked off with his grandfather's luggage. He said his pop always referred to Douglas Fairbanks Junior as "the thief of Dad's bag"

You can find that link again, right?

Posted by: Kindltot at April 20, 2019 08:47 PM (TN7xY)

189 Keaton had zero sentimentality. Makes him much more modern than Chaplin. I think Chaplin is overrated. His personal life was repugnant. Rich lefty but hated paying taxes, knocked up teenage girls, pretentious artiste. Fled the US in high dudgeon. Good riddance.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 08:47 PM (aBR7R)

190 Dinner and drinks? Well then, that was special.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:48 PM (KOCKb)

191 Heston was great in The Big Country

Posted by: JT at April 20, 2019 08:48 PM (uvoRF)

192 181 I saw "2001" in 1968, in "Cinerama", which had a big wraparound screen. It was awesome. But yes, it has an intermission, that takes place when Dave Bowman and Frank Poole are talking in the pod and HAL reads their lips.

Other movies I saw back then with intermissions: How the West Was Won, Ice Station Zebra, Exodus
Posted by: Bozo Conservative....living on the prison planet at April 20, 2019 08:45 PM (TYC2c)

======

That intermission is interesting, especially the placement. It happens with less than a hour left in the movie, well more than halfway through, but it's at the exact moment you realize HAL is gonna do something. It provides a dramatic pause for the audience to consider what's going to happen.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:48 PM (zZbCU)

193 184
Oh, the train/broken neck thing was Chaplin, not Keaton, sorry.

No, it was Keaton on Sherlock Jr. I'm sure.

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 08:48 PM (gfZsX)

194

Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:48 PM (kQs4Y)

195 They had movies in 1959?

Yer shittin' me.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero) at April 20, 2019 08:48 PM (lnki2)

196 191 Heston was great in The Big Country
Posted by: JT at April 20, 2019 08:48 PM (uvoRF

=====

Also directed by William Wyler.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 08:49 PM (zZbCU)

197 Keaton had zero sentimentality. Makes him much more modern than Chaplin. I think Chaplin is overrated. His personal life was repugnant. Rich lefty but hated paying taxes, knocked up teenage girls, pretentious artiste. Fled the US in high dudgeon. Good riddance.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 08:47 PM (aBR7R)

THIS!

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 20, 2019 08:49 PM (qqMKJ)

198 Well, I'm off to have my dinner and warch a movie. Ciao, bambini!

Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:49 PM (IFKOp)

199 Chaplin: a good businessman and a Commie.
Reminds me of Bernie Sanders.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:49 PM (KOCKb)

200 A truly magnificent film, perhaps the greatest in cinematic history. From the story to the directing to the cinematography and Miklos Rozsa's epic musical score it could hardly be any better.

The only minor off-note (for those who picked up on it) was Gore Vidal's rewrite subtly implying that the enmity between Ben-Hur and Messala was really about a broken homosexual relationship, which of course was never in Lew Wallace's original 1880 novel. But then, that was Vidal--always dragging everything down to his debased level.

Posted by: Anonymous 7 at April 20, 2019 08:49 PM (DwzBO)

201 Ben Hur: Red-Necks Going In Circles

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at April 20, 2019 08:50 PM (+y/Ru)

202
The didn't even have smart phones in 1959. What did people do?!

Posted by: Millennial at April 20, 2019 08:50 PM (f1Vqw)

203 190 Dinner and drinks? Well then, that was special.
Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:48 PM (KOCKb)

-----------

They've been married for 59 years so I would say it was.

Posted by: Duke Lowell at April 20, 2019 08:50 PM (gC2IV)

204 They had movies in 1959? "

I know, huh?

They were right next to the rocks.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at April 20, 2019 08:50 PM (6qErC)

205 161

I don't need glasses, and I got to bang Elizabeth Montgomery.

You said last *man* on Earth.

Posted by: Charles Bronson
"Two" A favorite TW episode of mine. She was smokin' in that episode. She was looking a hot in a movie called "Johnny Cool" which is a pretty good gangster movie. Henry Silva was the lead. Came out in 1963.

Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 08:51 PM (WNAuL)

206 They used to hand out thick, full color playbills for movies back in the day. I still have my parents' booklets from "Cleopatra" and "Fantasia".
Posted by: Frau Doktor Professor All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:44 PM (kQs4Y)
----
I should have one for "Around the World in 80 Days" somewhere.
Posted by: Captain Obvious at April 20, 2019 08:46 PM (IFKOp)

I have my moms from Gone With The Wind.

Posted by: LASue at April 20, 2019 08:51 PM (XROPS)

207 169 Dad took Mom to Ben Hur for their first date in Corvallis in 1959. As I recall, he said the tickets were $5 a piece which was expensive back then. Anyway, it turned out well for them. Been married 69 years and still going strong.
Posted by: Duke Lowell at April 20, 2019 08:41 PM (gC2IV)

Son, we need to talk about mom.....

Posted by: Dad at April 20, 2019 08:51 PM (9uYWN)

208 The didn't even have smart phones in 1959. What did people do?!

Princess Phones. In or around 59 or 60, IIRC.

Posted by: Anon a mouse at April 20, 2019 08:52 PM (6qErC)

209
Heston was great in The Big Country
Posted by: JT

They took a long time to say goodbye.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 20, 2019 08:52 PM (aKsyK)

210 169 Dad took Mom to Ben Hur for their first date in Corvallis in 1959. As I recall, he said the tickets were $5 a piece which was expensive back then. Anyway, it turned out well for them. Been married 69 years and still going strong.
Posted by: Duke Lowell at April 20, 2019 08:41 PM (gC2IV)

--[Does math]

1959 was less than 69 years ago.

Ace's time machine?

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 08:52 PM (XAYDB)

211 Keaton broke his neck making Sherlock Junior. Yanked on the chain of a water tank, the water came down and slammed him against raillroad ties with such force he broke his neck but didn't find out until years later. Suffered blinding headaches for awhile.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 08:52 PM (aBR7R)

212 Watching "The Lobster." So far it just seems weird for the sake of weird, without any underlying "logic" to the story.

Colin Farrell can certainly act when he wants to.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at April 20, 2019 08:54 PM (l9m7l)

213 195
They had movies in 1959?

Yer shittin' me.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero)

Remarkably, the Constitution was written only a few years later.

Posted by: Tommy Vietor at April 20, 2019 08:54 PM (T6t7i)

214 There was the line in there about Ganymede and someone, implying that Judah and Masala were fags.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:55 PM (KOCKb)

215 Watched all 5 Death Wish movies last night and today on Prime. Relevant for today IMHO.

Posted by: literally serious at April 20, 2019 08:55 PM (9uYWN)

216 1959 was less than 69 years ago.

Ace's time machine?
Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 08:52 PM (XAYDB)

--I see you corrected yourself.

My dad took me and my brothers to a Planet of the Apes Marathon at a drive-in when I was six.

I snoozed.

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 08:56 PM (XAYDB)

217 Bring up my idea for a twilight zone episode
A modern actor has a accident, wakes up or revived and is in a B&W world and no sound only a bubble above a person with just a short sentence of the paragraph they spoke.

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 08:56 PM (BbGew)

218 It was not in the book.

Posted by: JAS at April 20, 2019 08:56 PM (KOCKb)

219 I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey and Journey to the Far Side of the Sun as a double feature in a drive in back in the olden days.

At the time, I thought Journey was the better movie.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 20, 2019 08:57 PM (Z+IKu)

220 Crashing wifi router is my personal favorite. Just thought i'd throw that in.

As you were

Posted by: weirdflunky at April 20, 2019 08:57 PM (77jVU)

221 The remake will be called Ben Xer.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at April 20, 2019 08:57 PM (cEOj9)

222 I would like to have a copy of Fantasia. Yeah, that's what I said.

Posted by: Eromero at April 20, 2019 08:58 PM (qBNEP)

223 -
--
Keaton broke his neck making Sherlock Junior. Yanked
on the chain of a water tank, the water came down and slammed him
against raillroad ties with such force he broke his neck but didn't find
out until years later. Suffered blinding headaches for awhile.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 08:52 PM

-------------------------

And you say these headaches were "blinding"?

Posted by: Paul Pelosi at April 20, 2019 08:58 PM (RVcmP)

224 201 Ben Hur: Red-Necks Going In Circles

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at April 20, 2019 08:50 PM (+y/Ru)
---

I never thought about it that way, but it really is just like NASCAR.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 08:59 PM (kQs4Y)

225 It would make an incredible book to write about the relationship between Keaton and Chaplin. It would take a lot of research, probably not possible now, to tell the real story. They knew each other well, but never really talked about each other. Keaton would only say Chaplin was the best, and that was it. But there's reason to believe he knew he was Chaplin's equal. I don't know that Chaplin ever talked about Keaton - but Keaton was good friends with Arbuckle, which put him squarely in Keaton's orbit.

Ever see - ahh, the Chaplin picture from the '50's, where he's an old washed-up vaudville guy. Climax of the picture is Chaplin reuniting with his old vaudville partner for a charity gig. And it's played by Keaton. Which is hilarious in a way because English Charlie's old partner has the most American, non-English accent you've ever heard. And it's the only time Chaplin even pretended to have a partner/equal.

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 08:59 PM (gfZsX)

226 If I remember correctly, when Doctor Zhivago comes back from intermission, you see a black screen and hear train running on tracks sounds. Suddenly the screen explodes and you see a beautiful snowscape. The passengers in the box car have smashed the ice frozen across the door blocking the view.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at April 20, 2019 08:59 PM (+y/Ru)

227 Eromero, it's available at Amazon.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 09:00 PM (miE9U)

228 -
--
They didn't even have smart phones in 1959. What did people do?
Posted by: Millennial at April 20, 2019 08:50 PM

---------------

We had smart people instead.

Posted by: Oldster at April 20, 2019 09:01 PM (RVcmP)

229 Oops Eromero, ignore that comment. The version at Amazon is Region B/2, not playable on American players.

I have the American bluray, but I admit it cost me a pretty penny a few years ago.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 09:01 PM (miE9U)

230 >>Oh, the train/broken neck thing was Chaplin, not Keaton, sorry.

No, it was Keaton on Sherlock Jr. I'm sure.

I retract my correction.

The corrector has been sacked.

Posted by: moviegique at April 20, 2019 09:02 PM (CcUfv)

231 Fantasia was where Disney could put boobies in a kid's cartoon because it was Art.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 09:02 PM (V2Yro)

232 Heston carries the film, but there is a terrific supporting cast. Hugh Griffith won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, as Sheik Ilderim, the man who loves his horses.

Posted by: Gref at April 20, 2019 09:03 PM (AMIL/)

233 I've got a Fantasia DVD, had it a few years, didn't realize it wasn't currently available.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 09:03 PM (V2Yro)

234 One more silent movie:

"The Phantom Carriage" is very very good.

Chaplain called it the best movie he'd seen, and Ingmar Bergman stated that it was the movie which made him decide to become a film maker.

It's on the Criterion collection.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 20, 2019 09:03 PM (CRRq9)

235 Definitely Keaton on the broken neck thing.

His wife tells the story in 'A Hard Act to Follow.'

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at April 20, 2019 09:03 PM (cEOj9)

236 As a result, the acting burden falls primarily on Charlton Heston. We can only experience things through him. He won the Oscar for this role and it's well-deserved. It was de rigeur to deride his acting skills when I was a kid, and his iconic apocalyptic roles in Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man are cheesy...

===

Let us not forget his magnificence in Earthquake and The Towering Inferno.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at April 20, 2019 09:03 PM (EZebt)

237 231 Fantasia was where Disney could put boobies in a kid's cartoon because it was Art.
Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 09:02 PM (V2Yro)
---
Demon boobies!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 09:04 PM (kQs4Y)

238 There's actually ONE new movie I want to see...

Dragged Across Concrete.

Am hearing it's an entertaining, and actually un-PC, crime thriller, Unfortunately I've also heard it suffers from Michael Cimino syndrome, i.e. too much length, not enough story.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 09:04 PM (miE9U)

239 234 One more silent movie:

"The Phantom Carriage" is very very good.

Chaplain called it the best movie he'd seen, and Ingmar Bergman stated that it was the movie which made him decide to become a film maker.

It's on the Criterion collection.

Posted by: naturalfake at April 20, 2019 09:03 PM (CRRq9)

======

The director starred in a couple of Bergman's earlier films. He was a conductor in To Joy, and Dr. Both, the main character, in Wild Strawberries (one of Bergman's best movies).

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:05 PM (zZbCU)

240 naturalfake, thanks!

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 09:05 PM (miE9U)

241 Vertov, I never saw Man With a Movie Camera. I looked it up, sounds good. A Russian The Cameraman?

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 09:05 PM (aBR7R)

242 Ugh....Dr. Borg. Stupid autocorrect.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:05 PM (zZbCU)

243 226
If I remember correctly, when Doctor Zhivago comes back from
intermission, you see a black screen and hear train running on tracks
sounds. Suddenly the screen explodes and you see a beautiful snowscape.
The passengers in the box car have smashed the ice frozen across the
door blocking the view.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler

Yep.

Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 09:05 PM (WNAuL)

244 Greetings:

Intermissions, hell, what about double features ???

Posted by: 11B40 at April 20, 2019 09:05 PM (evgyj)

245 Hugh Griffith has a lot of great lines, and he makes his part very memorable. He gets furious at one of his servants 'You're treating my horses like Animals!!!"

or when the Roman insults Arabs and he says calmly "Bravely Spoken."

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 09:05 PM (V2Yro)

246 Maybe I can borrow Tom Servo's copy of Fantasia?

Posted by: Eromero at April 20, 2019 09:06 PM (qBNEP)

247 "Two" A favorite TW episode of mine. She was smokin' in that episode. She was looking a hot in a movie called "Johnny Cool" which is a pretty good gangster movie. Henry Silva was the lead. Came out in 1963.
Posted by: Puddleglum

Speaking of which, Henry Silva is a bad guy in "The Manchurian Candidate", which Shibumi and I are watching right now on cable. The original one, with Frank Sinatra.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....living on the prison planet at April 20, 2019 09:06 PM (TYC2c)

248 Ben Hur the book is very good I thought but it doesn't sustain the good. By the time you get to the end its losing steam and its harder to focus on the story. And its quite fabulist, I mean the beginning sequence of the wise men is wonderful reading but completely invented and without the slightest Biblical or historical basis.

Still, the movie does well with crushing a huge book into a film largely on the charisma of Heston.

Speaking of box office smash, while the film Paint Your Wagon (rightly) gets a lot of grief for putting two of the least musical men in history in a musical... it worked pretty well anyway, and the opening sequence with Lee Marvin growling Wandering Star actually is pretty good.

That film made $14,500,000 in 1969.

http://tinyurl.com/y4ydjfk9

That's 1969 dollars. Data is pretty limited for budget back then but there's no way in hell it cost even a quarter that much to make.

In today's money that's over 100 million dollars. I mean in terms of Marvel blockbuster that's nothing special but a singing cowboy flick? Starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 20, 2019 09:06 PM (39g3+)

249 Back before smart phones we churned butter and sewed dirndls for fun.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 09:07 PM (aBR7R)

250 145

The SCTV version of Ben Hur

https://youtu.be/7j2X1JC62sE
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at April 20, 2019 08:35 PM (aKsyK)

Heh. I hadn't seen that before.

Posted by: rickl at April 20, 2019 09:07 PM (sdi6R)

251 My brother, 10 years older, had to take me to a movie on a date with his girlfriend (now wife) when I was about 11. They chose "A Clockwork Orange". Hoo boy, did I learn some stuff.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at April 20, 2019 09:07 PM (r+sAi)

252 If I remember correctly, when Doctor Zhivago comes back from intermission, you see a black screen and hear train running on tracks sounds. Suddenly the screen explodes and you see a beautiful snowscape. The passengers in the box car have smashed the ice frozen across the door blocking the view.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks

Ah yes. Dr. Chicago. What a good movie. I saw it on cable a few years ago (2012?), and it really made me sad, when I realized it could now happen here.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....living on the prison planet at April 20, 2019 09:08 PM (TYC2c)

253 232
Heston carries the film, but there is a terrific supporting cast. Hugh
Griffith won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, as Sheik
Ilderim, the man who loves his horses.

Posted by: Gref

IMO, Dr. Zhivago was kind of the opposite, no offense to Omar Shariff and the so beautiful it hurts Julie Christie. Alec Guiness, Rod Steiger, and Tom Courtenay were Tour De Forces in that film and they were not in every scene.

Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 09:08 PM (WNAuL)

254 Speaking of which, Henry Silva is a bad guy in "The Manchurian Candidate", which Shibumi and I are watching right now on cable. The original one, with Frank Sinatra.
Posted by: Bozo Conservative....living on the prison planet at April 20, 2019 09:06 PM (TYC2c)

Yup....I love the part where Angela tells him, "Ching Chang Choo, or whatever your name is, go cook me a steak, so and so minutes per side and be quick about it". Reminds me of someone we all know.

And he does.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at April 20, 2019 09:09 PM (Z+IKu)

255 My understanding is that there are no talking ape men in this one, so I'm not sure I'm willing to give it three and a half hours.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at April 20, 2019 09:09 PM (H5knJ)

256 Doing an intermission from Crazy Rich Asians right now. Gonna serve dessert (key lime pie and fresh berries) then crank it up again.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 09:10 PM (aBR7R)

257 RE Keaton and Chaplain, apparently they had a contest of who could put in the fewest cue cards in their movies (the part where the film stops and they show words on a card to explain something or add dialog). Keaton says that Chaplain won but they both wanted the action and acting to tell the story without needing talk as much as possible.

Keaton was the primary influence over Jackie Chan, and between the two he's by far my favorite. I love Harold Lloyd as well. Chaplain just... he's brilliant but his stuff feels forced, like he wants to preach at audiences more than entertain. His films always had a message, where Keaton and Lloyd just wanted you to laugh and forget a while.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 20, 2019 09:10 PM (39g3+)

258 Greetings:

Intermissions, hell, what about double features ???
Posted by: 11B40

Double features, like baseball double headers, are .....gone with the wind.

Used to go to afternoon double features at the local theater when we were kids. The kids would get so rowdy sometimes, the movie manager would stop the movie and come out and yell at the kids.

Posted by: Bozo Conservative....living on the prison planet at April 20, 2019 09:10 PM (TYC2c)

259 In today's money that's over 100 million dollars. I mean in terms of Marvel blockbuster that's nothing special but a singing cowboy flick? Starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood?"

I remember one critic's comment that always cracked me up - anytime Clint sings, he always looks like he's scanning the horizon for enemy aircraft. I watched it again with that in mind, and it's true!

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 09:10 PM (V2Yro)

260 251 My brother, 10 years older, had to take me to a movie on a date with his girlfriend (now wife) when I was about 11. They chose "A Clockwork Orange". Hoo boy, did I learn some stuff.
Posted by: Guy Mohawk at April 20, 2019 09:07 PM (r+sAi)
---
Ah, the old ultraviolence!

Or, wait, did you mean from watching your brother and his date?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at April 20, 2019 09:10 PM (kQs4Y)

261 241
Vertov, I never saw Man With a Movie Camera. I looked it up, sounds good. A Russian The Cameraman?

Posted by: JuJuBee

Yes, it's a Soviet "documentary" made in 1929. It's mind-blowingly complicated. So I would suggest not even trying to understand what's going on the first time you see it. Just let it wash over you.
It's a day in the life of Russia. It's a celebration of filmmaking as a new international language of communication; hence all the special effects. It's the story of the revolution. And the filmmaker was a bit crazy, so add that in. It's like nothing you've ever seen. Let me look on YouTube.

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 09:10 PM (gfZsX)

262 IMO, Dr. Zhivago was kind of the opposite, no offense to Omar Shariff and the so beautiful it hurts Julie Christie. Alec Guiness, Rod Steiger, and Tom Courtenay were Tour De Forces in that film and they were not in every scene.
Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 09:08 PM (WNAuL)

Very good movie. Great, great novel.

Posted by: Caliban at April 20, 2019 09:11 PM (QE8X6)

263 The Ten Commandments is on.

Charleton Heston. Now that's a real man.

Posted by: antisocialist at April 20, 2019 09:12 PM (2shuf)

264 Or, wait, did you mean from watching your brother and his date? <<<<<<<
The ultra violence, the ol in out, and the boobs (not my SIL's)

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at April 20, 2019 09:13 PM (r+sAi)

265 254 Speaking of which, Henry Silva is a bad guy in "The Manchurian Candidate", which Shibumi and I are watching right now on cable. The original one, with Frank Sinatra. "

That's the movie that let me know that Frank Sinatra really was a seriously good actor, when he had a director that could push him into it - but he was lazy and let himself spend most of his time in weak movies with sloppy scripts, where he didn't have to make any effort.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 09:13 PM (V2Yro)

266 >> Princess Phones.

I use Princess Plugs.

Posted by: Mayor Pete Buttplug at April 20, 2019 09:13 PM (f1Vqw)

267 261 241
Vertov, I never saw Man With a Movie Camera. I looked it up, sounds good. A Russian The Cameraman?

Posted by: JuJuBee

Yes, it's a Soviet "documentary" made in 1929. It's mind-blowingly complicated. So I would suggest not even trying to understand what's going on the first time you see it. Just let it wash over you.
It's a day in the life of Russia. It's a celebration of filmmaking as a new international language of communication; hence all the special effects. It's the story of the revolution. And the filmmaker was a bit crazy, so add that in. It's like nothing you've ever seen. Let me look on YouTube.
Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 09:10 PM (gfZsX

=====

Early Soviet filmmaking is legitimately great. They didn't have a lot of money for basics like film stock, so they developed a style to deal with it which was shooting really small pieces and then assembling them together.

Strike is my favorite of the genre/era.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:13 PM (zZbCU)

268 I have the book I downloaded for free from Guttenberg and tried to read it. Put it down after thew first chapter. I just re-downloaded it from Amazon for 99 cents so I could get the cover with it. I'll try reading it again.

Posted by: Vic at April 20, 2019 09:14 PM (mpXpK)

269 Oh fuck a duck

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 09:14 PM (XAYDB)

270 maybe so, eromero.

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 09:14 PM (V2Yro)

271 Speaking of which, Henry Silva is a bad guy in "The Manchurian Candidate", which Shibumi and I are watching right now on cable. The original one, with Frank Sinatra.
Posted by: Bozo Conservative....living on the prison planet at April 20, 2019 09:06 PM (TYC2c)

The original one is the absolute best. The remake, well, it was OK, but Angela Lansbury was one bad ass bad lady.

Posted by: antisocialist at April 20, 2019 09:14 PM (2shuf)

272 That's the movie that let me know that Frank Sinatra really was a seriously good actor, when he had a director that could push him into it - but he was lazy and let himself spend most of his time in weak movies with sloppy scripts, where he didn't have to make any effort.

Yeah he was really good in some films, then just phoned it in most of them. Frank wasn't the hardest working guy in show biz but he could really shine, too.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 20, 2019 09:15 PM (39g3+)

273 For the person who wanted the list of Best Silents, how about King Vidor's The Crowd? Lead actor in that one went from instant fame and riches to (a few years later) no career and living on the east coast doing tricks (not those kind) for drinks in bars. Died a broke alcoholic. He's great in The Crowd but was a flash in the pan.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 09:16 PM (aBR7R)

274 They chose "A Clockwork Orange". Hoo boy, did I learn some stuff.

-
William Tell wasn't only for the Lone Ranger?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at April 20, 2019 09:16 PM (+y/Ru)

275 Hello, hope you are having a nice Easter week-end.

I watched Ben-Hur once, that was enough.

It must be just me, but the acting in most of those old movies was pretty bad.

Posted by: ALH at April 20, 2019 09:16 PM (PN4U+)

276 274 They chose "A Clockwork Orange". Hoo boy, did I learn some stuff.

-
William Tell wasn't only for the Lone Ranger?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Tyrannosaur Wrangler at April 20, 2019 09:16 PM (+y/Ru)

======

I'm just singing in the rain.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:17 PM (zZbCU)

277 Oh fuck a duck

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 09:14 PM (XAYDB)

Was that the sequel to Lord, Love a Duck?

Posted by: TheQuietMan at April 20, 2019 09:17 PM (4rn6F)

278 JuJuBee, thanks! I'll look for that one too.

Re fallen celebs, I know that Fatty Arbuckle went from one of the biggest stars in Hollywood to, after the Virginia Rappe scandal in 1921, someone no one would touch with a 50-foot pole.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 09:18 PM (miE9U)

279 I only watch Dr Zhivago for the scenery and the misery of communism

Posted by: Skip at April 20, 2019 09:18 PM (BbGew)

280 Re fallen celebs, I know that Fatty Arbuckle went from one of the biggest stars in Hollywood to, after the Virginia Rappe scandal in 1921, someone no one would touch with a 50-foot pole.

Unjustly too. I have always wondered who he upset to be ruined like that. Personally I don't find his films all that funny but nearly every great silent movie comedy star worked under his direction and learned from him.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 20, 2019 09:19 PM (39g3+)

281 275
Hello, hope you are having a nice Easter week-end.

I watched Ben-Hur once, that was enough.

It must be just me, but the acting in most of those old movies was pretty bad.

Posted by: ALH

STONE THE HEATHEN!!!!

Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 09:19 PM (WNAuL)

282 Skip, good reasons :-)

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 09:20 PM (miE9U)

283 272 That's the movie that let me know that Frank Sinatra really was a seriously good actor, when he had a director that could push him into it - but he was lazy and let himself spend most of his time in weak movies with sloppy scripts, where he didn't have to make any effort.

Yeah he was really good in some films, then just phoned it in most of them. Frank wasn't the hardest working guy in show biz but he could really shine, too.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 20, 2019 09:15 PM (39g3+)

Try "Von Ryan's Express"

Posted by: Caliban at April 20, 2019 09:21 PM (QE8X6)

284 Dammit!

C'mon, Jets!

L'audace!

L'audace!

Toujours l'audace!!!!

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 09:21 PM (XAYDB)

285 STONE THE HEATHEN!!!!
Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 09:19 PM (WNAuL)

Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.

Posted by: ALH at April 20, 2019 09:21 PM (PN4U+)

286 Watched Bernie last night. Jack Black is an asshole but he played a good part as well as Matthew McConahey.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at April 20, 2019 09:21 PM (LEHKq)

287 Christopher R Taylor, from what I understand, LAPD was famously corrupt, crazy and rotten during Hollywood's early heyday.

I think it wasn't until William Parker became chief of police that LAPD even began to have any kind of decent reputation.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 09:22 PM (miE9U)

288 'the acting in most of those old movies was pretty bad. '

ALH you better quit trolling it looks bad on you.

Posted by: freaked at April 20, 2019 09:22 PM (UdKB7)

289 Isn't it about time for the ONT?

Posted by: ALH at April 20, 2019 09:22 PM (PN4U+)

290 MrAspirin Factory, Bernie is a fantastic film. I loved it.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 09:22 PM (miE9U)

291 Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton were best buds. qpdsteve, there is a novel called I, Fatty by Jerry Stahl that's pretty good, imagining what his life was like.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 09:22 PM (aBR7R)

292 Sinatra was good in Cannonball Run.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at April 20, 2019 09:22 PM (LEHKq)

293 It's all fun and games until someone loses a protectorate.

Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at April 20, 2019 09:23 PM (uiTiW)

294 Linklater makes great movies.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at April 20, 2019 09:23 PM (LEHKq)

295 JuJuBee, true. In fact I think I read that Keaton was helping Arbuckle get back into the industry, and finally succeeding, when Fatty died suddenly.

Posted by: qdpsteve at April 20, 2019 09:24 PM (miE9U)

296 JuJuBee - this is just the credits and the build-up to the first climax. Check it out.

https://tinyurl.com/y2dehccb

And, yeah, The Crowd is great. It's about yuppies.

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 09:25 PM (gfZsX)

297 I'm not trolling, really. I am just not a fan of old movies.
I used to like them, but not so much any more.

Posted by: ALH at April 20, 2019 09:26 PM (PN4U+)

298 What do you get when you cross a chicken with a thistle?

Hen Burr.

Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at April 20, 2019 09:27 PM (uiTiW)

299 286 Watched Bernie last night. Jack Black is an asshole but he played a good part as well as Matthew McConahey.
Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at April 20, 2019 09:21 PM (LEHKq)

I loved Bernie - of course that story was in my neck of the woods. The DA played by McConahey is the first cousin of a good friend of mine. She said "well that's one part that ain't right, Danny Buck NEVER looked that good!"

Posted by: Tom Servo at April 20, 2019 09:27 PM (V2Yro)

300 An obscure Soviet one the movie and Cold War geeks should like is "I am Cuba". Saw it when it was first released, really, which was in the west in the late 80s/early 90s, I think. It didn't turn out the way a Soviet film was supposed to, so was never released in the USSR (again, as I recall). Memory is shaky, but I might have seen it at the urging of my Russian tutor at the time, who had once been high up at the Moscow Film Institute. As I recall it was pretty good.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 20, 2019 09:27 PM (QDnY+)

301 Was 9 when Ben-Hur came out and saw it with my parents. Great movie, but 3 1/2 hours for a nine-year old is truly unbearable.

I bought a DVD pack of both B-H and The Ten Commandments at a rummage sale recently, but haven't had time to watch them yet.

A ziesen pesach to JJ and all my Ace landssmen.

Posted by: emanations & penumbras at April 20, 2019 09:28 PM (WusEB)

302 The DA went after Fatty to make a name for himself. Hollywood was viewed as easy pickins because of several sexual/drug/murder scandals. Also Virginia Rappe's friend saw an opportunity to exploit her death for money and publicity.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 09:28 PM (aBR7R)

303 I've never understood the people who claim the acting in PoTA is purely cheesy. I mean, yes most of the meme worthy lines are, but the scene that sticks with me is when Taylor casually threatens Zaius, only to have it immediately thrown back in his face. I imagine it had to contribute to his full on breakdown at the end.

There's something fucked up about the way people discount the raw despair when Taylor realizes he is literally the last of the human race. And more: that we, and he, deserved that fate.

Posted by: trev006 at April 20, 2019 09:29 PM (DpTgw)

304 I think "I am Cuba" began with an amazing scene where the camera moved from underwater at a rooftop pool at a Havana tourist hotel up to the bar, slightly higher up. Or maybe I'm imagining that.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 20, 2019 09:30 PM (QDnY+)

305
There's something fucked up about the way people discount the raw despair when Taylor realizes he is literally the last of the human race. And more: that we, and he, deserved that fate.

And he begins as a guy fed up with the human race, and winds up defending it at the end.

Posted by: Mr. Peebles at April 20, 2019 09:30 PM (cEOj9)

306 The DA went after Fatty to make a name for himself. Hollywood was viewed as easy pickins because of several sexual/drug/murder scandals. Also Virginia Rappe's friend saw an opportunity to exploit her death for money and publicity

Well, and its not like Fatty was a saint, he really was involved in these debauched parties with underaged girls and so on. But so was everyone else, and he didn't kill that girl.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 20, 2019 09:30 PM (39g3+)

307 Re Arbuckle - it was this simple. The SF DA wanted to run for governor. Three trials. The last ended not only with an aquittal, but an apology letter from the jury.
Arbuckle helped direct some Keaton pics after that. Keaton suggested using the name Will B. Goode, but that waqs a little too obvious. But when you see William Goodrich, that's Arbuckle.
Fatty wasn't that good? Heh - check out first 5 minutes:

https://tinyurl.com/y7djhcov

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 09:32 PM (gfZsX)

308 304 I think "I am Cuba" began with an amazing scene where the camera moved from underwater at a rooftop pool at a Havana tourist hotel up to the bar, slightly higher up. Or maybe I'm imagining that.
Posted by: rhomboid at April 20, 2019 09:30 PM (QDnY+)

====

I am intrigued.

I will find it and watch.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:32 PM (zZbCU)

309 No love for "Prime Cut"?

Posted by: Burger Chef at April 20, 2019 09:35 PM (RuIsu)

310 My kids watched the cartoon version dozens of times.

Posted by: Jean at April 20, 2019 09:35 PM (bk3t/)

311 Big Buff GOAL!

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 09:35 PM (XAYDB)

312 JMU, I'm surprised and gratified I brought something new to your attention in this field, which ain't mine. But I remember enjoying the movie quite a bit, and as a Soviet and Cold War geek, it of course had even more meaning. I would imagine something like that is now available from various sources, and I encourage the Horde to check it out if they have an interest.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 20, 2019 09:35 PM (QDnY+)

313 Arbuckle and Keaton used to disagree on tone and content of the films. Arbuckle basically assumed his viewers were retards, and targeted a childlike level of humor and visuals and Keaton wanted something more sophisticated and grown up. Those early movies were so amazing for people to watch that pretty much anything was neato but by the time Keaton got his solo career going, they'd gotten past the initial amazement and needed something more toothy.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 20, 2019 09:36 PM (39g3+)

314 Watching "Beat the Devil" right now. No idea what's going on, but with all these ultras, and an exotic location, who cares?

Posted by: Caliban at April 20, 2019 09:36 PM (QE8X6)

315 303
I've never understood the people who claim the acting in PoTA is purely
cheesy. I mean, yes most of the meme worthy lines are, but the scene
that sticks with me is when Taylor casually threatens Zaius, only to
have it immediately thrown back in his face. I imagine it had to
contribute to his full on breakdown at the end.

There's something fucked up about the way people discount the raw
despair when Taylor realizes he is literally the last of the human race.
And more: that we, and he, deserved that fate.

Posted by: trev006

Well, he wasn't exactly the 'last'. He had 'Nova' (Linda Harrison) with him. She was pretty hot.

Posted by: Puddleglum at April 20, 2019 09:37 PM (WNAuL)

316 Army of Darkness is hilarious. Embeth Davitz was gorgeous in that.

Posted by: Sharkman at April 20, 2019 09:37 PM (smc0A)

317 Just put Ben Hur in the player.
Also have NbyNW and Rio Bravo.
Maybe a few others from '59'.
Woop. Overture over.
Later

Posted by: teej at April 20, 2019 09:38 PM (E9vLe)

318 312 JMU, I'm surprised and gratified I brought something new to your attention in this field, which ain't mine. But I remember enjoying the movie quite a bit, and as a Soviet and Cold War geek, it of course had even more meaning. I would imagine something like that is now available from various sources, and I encourage the Horde to check it out if they have an interest.
Posted by: rhomboid at April 20, 2019 09:35 PM (QDnY+)

=====

Soviets seemed to have trouble controlling their artists. Exhibit A would probably bre Tarkovsky.

I also fully expect everyone I talk to to have seen stuff I haven't. There's just way too much out there.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:39 PM (zZbCU)

319 Bunch of young folks on this thread. Brfore there were smart phones, we had party lines.

Posted by: Notsothoreau at April 20, 2019 09:41 PM (Lqy/e)

320 JMU just a quick online search, and reading the first few lines of the hits, and I'm wanting to see it again. Unless I'm *really* having a false memory, it was never released in the USSR because it was far too ambivalent for a propaganda film. I haven't yet even read further into the online sources to see if I recall this correctly, but I'm fairly confident. And the time of US restoration/release (mid-90s) confirms that my then-tutor would have made sure I saw it. Miss that guy. A classic of his type.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 20, 2019 09:42 PM (QDnY+)

321 313
Arbuckle and Keaton used to disagree on tone and content of the films.
Arbuckle basically assumed his viewers were retards, and targeted a
childlike level of humor and visuals and Keaton wanted something more
sophisticated and grown up. Those early movies were so amazing for
people to watch that pretty much anything was neato but by the time
Keaton got his solo career going, they'd gotten past the initial
amazement and needed something more toothy.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

I'll disagree with you to this extent. The difference was between shorts and features. Keaton talked about how they could just get away with almost anything if it was a short. But when he started making features, you had to have a solid underlying story. Thus, The General, like somebody mentioned, based on a true story. Our Hospitality. Shorts were like weekly tv shows. Features had to have meat on the bones.

Posted by: Vertov at April 20, 2019 09:44 PM (gfZsX)

322 While other John Wayne movies might be 'better', I love Rio Bravo the most.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 20, 2019 09:47 PM (ycWCI)

323 I'll disagree with you to this extent. The difference was between shorts and features.

Well, let's put it this way: that was how Keaton depicted their disagreements on style. Arbuckle might have disagreed. But I agree, the length changes the kind of content you can have.

Its like a short story vs a novel. Short stories usually have little to no character development or conflict: there's just not room for it.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 20, 2019 09:47 PM (39g3+)

324 The acting in silent movies was certainly different from sound movies. Lots of gestures, very obvious. The Ten Commandments from 1956 is a hoot because deMille looks like he had the actors do many of their lines silent style.

Posted by: JuJuBee at April 20, 2019 09:49 PM (aBR7R)

325 322 While other John Wayne movies might be 'better', I love Rio Bravo the most.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 20, 2019 09:47 PM (ycWCI)

=====

The Man who Shot Liberty Valance.

You are a bad person because you have a different opinion than me about art.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:49 PM (zZbCU)

326 While other John Wayne movies might be 'better', I love Rio Bravo the most.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 20, 2019 09:47 PM (ycWCI)

-----------------------------

I like that one a lot, but McClintock! is my favorite. Probably because Maureen O'Hara.

Posted by: Calm Mentor at April 20, 2019 09:50 PM (ffYR/)

327 Shit, what an ignominious way for the Jets to get booted.

Fuck.

That said I'll be cheering for the Blues and Bruins here on out.

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 09:51 PM (XAYDB)

328 The Man who Shot Liberty Valance.

You are a bad person because you have a different opinion than me about art.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:49 PM (zZbCU)

I must be a bad person because my favorites are "The Quiet Man" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon."

Posted by: Caliban at April 20, 2019 09:52 PM (QE8X6)

329 I am also old enough to have seen a lot of the massive epics. When first released, they would only be shown at theaters with big enough screens and enough seating for massive audiences. They'd hang out there for a year or more, depending on when the next epic was released. They'd hit your friendly neighbourhood movie house much later. I think the last movie I saw with an intermission was Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. Or was it The Great Race? Either way, the three-and-a-half or four hour movies were dying. (Nope, it was The Sound of Music. Sorry.)

Miklos Rozsa was the epic music composer in those days. Who Vadis, Ben Hur, El Cid. I have both the El Cid and Ben Hur complete scores, and I don't think Rosza repeated himself very much at all. Especially when you stack him up against John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, or Maurice Jarre. I've always thought Jarre, especially, stole from himself. Enemy Mine and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome were practically note for note, as were Crossed Swords and Shogun.

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin at April 20, 2019 09:53 PM (ebZss)

330 325 322 While other John Wayne movies might be 'better', I love Rio Bravo the most.
Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 20, 2019 09:47 PM (ycWCI)

=====

The Man who Shot Liberty Valance.

You are a bad person because you have a different opinion than me about art.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:49 PM (zZbCU)

--Nope.

The Cowboys.

Not even cose.

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 09:53 PM (XAYDB)

331 Quo not who. Damn autocucumber.

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin at April 20, 2019 09:54 PM (ebZss)

332 Hey Jets, tighten up next season.

You have the talent to hoist the Cup.

Just get your mental shit together.

Posted by: logprof at April 20, 2019 09:55 PM (XAYDB)

333 Nope. Big Jake.

"Suit yourself, Martha. You always did."

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin at April 20, 2019 09:55 PM (ebZss)

334 Can we talk about Reds?

Posted by: Little Lupe at April 20, 2019 09:57 PM (EgshT)

335 The Man who Shot Liberty Valance.

You are a bad person because you have a different opinion than me about art.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison's Phone, read some movie thoughts at April 20, 2019 09:49 PM (zZbCU)

Although, it is quite a good movie and actually has a surprising amount of depth, character development and Valence is a great villain (played by Lee Marvin.)

Even though Wayne rejects her (Wayne essentially destroys himself), I always think a bit less of the woman in question. She goes for the guy who profits off a lie. She kind of comes off as a starfucker.

Have at you knave! Rio Bravo has Angie Dickenson, who has her head on straight!

Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 20, 2019 09:57 PM (ycWCI)

336 Lee Remick in 'Anatomy of a Murder'

even in b & w you can admire the red hair. And her, you know, other Admirable Features

plus Jimmy Stewart doing his best Jimmy Stewart impersonation.

the guy playing the judge was the "Have you no decency, sir?" guy. Annoying in the movie, tho

Posted by: the Man who Burps in French at April 20, 2019 09:58 PM (9HuGt)

337 There's nothing better than a good commie love story!

Posted by: Little Lupe at April 20, 2019 09:58 PM (EgshT)

338 Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

I remember that when I was a kid. I think they constructed modern replicas of very early airplanes for that movie.

Posted by: rickl at April 20, 2019 09:59 PM (sdi6R)

339 And Dean Martin who plays, against type, as a reformed drunk.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 20, 2019 09:59 PM (ycWCI)

340 Mmmm, Lee Remick. I saw her in... Wheeler Dealers(?) with James Garner and was in love.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at April 20, 2019 10:00 PM (ycWCI)

341 Cowboys is my favorite John Wayne film, and probably always will be. But both the Rio films are great, I agree.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at April 20, 2019 10:01 PM (39g3+)

342 ONT is up.

Posted by: Calm Mentor at April 20, 2019 10:03 PM (ffYR/)

343 3 38 -- Terry Thomas. He was so veddy, veddy British. Same thing in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World. (Actually, everyone was great in that one.) I was very sad when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. You always knew you would have a good time at any movie Terry Thomas was in.

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin at April 20, 2019 10:03 PM (ebZss)

344 Was young when the long epics would play in the big theaters, but still remember enjoying them.

Much later, went to see the restored Lawrence of Arabia at the restored Senator theater in Baltimore. Whole thing, including the long orchestral overture that played before the curtains even opened.

THAT was a movie experience.

Posted by: rhomboid at April 20, 2019 10:04 PM (QDnY+)

345 334 -- I chased Lawrence of Arabia all over South Jersey. I think I hit every movie house within reasonable driving distance at least twice. My mother was so sick and tired of dropping me off, then picking me up. But you had to those days. No DVDs, no CDs. Once it the the theaters, the next time you saw it was diced, sliced, and julienned on the Saturday Night Movie.

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin at April 20, 2019 10:09 PM (ebZss)

346 Favorite silent films? I like the German ones a lot: Metropolis (of course), The Last Laugh, and there's a pseudo-documentary called People on Sunday, which is fun. Young Billy Wilder was one of the credited screenwriters of the last one, I believe.

Posted by: Pete in TX at April 20, 2019 10:14 PM (2RBkF)

347 I saw Gloria Swanson in an off-broadway production of Butterflies are Free...she played the boys' mom, natch. She was great, wonderfully expressive gestures, of course...you could tell she was a silent screen star. She was a tiny little thing, still had star quality.

Posted by: vivi at April 20, 2019 10:21 PM (11H2y)

348 favorite silent film? Mark of Zorro. Doug Fairbanks, yowza!

Posted by: vivi at April 20, 2019 10:23 PM (11H2y)

349 Anybody mention Second City TV's 15-minute version of Ben Hur? Hilarious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j2X1JC62sE

Posted by: butch at April 20, 2019 10:26 PM (hXu8T)

350 329 Miklos Rozsa was a student of the Shillinger System, a system of composing by using mathematical formulas. It's an amazing approach to composing but pretty complex. (When I was in music school I heard about Joseph Shillinger and checked out his two-volume book on composing. The second volume was filled equations.)
Every time I watch Ben-Hur I'm amazed by the score. And to think it was all done by the numbers.

Posted by: Rich at April 20, 2019 10:41 PM (t9Nxd)

351 They should remake it woke and call it Ben Her.

Posted by: doug at April 20, 2019 10:51 PM (XH1fU)

352 Swap Peter O'Toole and Chuck Heston in Ben Hur and Lawrence of Arabia.

Posted by: Burger Chef at April 20, 2019 10:53 PM (RuIsu)

353 10 I'm old enough to have seen this flick. And I'm old enough to remember when movies actually had an "intermission" that everyone got up went to the bathroom/or bought popcorn. The flick would stop, the lights went on, music played. I think they might have been about 15 minutes long. Then lights out, and the next "roll" got put on the projector.
**********

I'm old enough to remember when movie theaters offered fudge sundaes during intermission, and how we kids would dip our straws, still in their paper wrappers, into the fudge
, blow on the open end and shoot it into air during the film's showing.

Not only did we create streaks of black whizzing across the screen, but when the lights came up, you could see tiny white stalactites dangling from the ceiling.

heh

Posted by: Noam Sayen at April 20, 2019 11:29 PM (ooMrJ)

354 Doesn't that smug centurion look an awful lot like the asshole CA congressman Eric Stalwell?

If C4 were dynamite, he wouldn't have enough to blow his frickin nose.

Posted by: Noam Sayen at April 20, 2019 11:34 PM (ooMrJ)

355 Asking questions are actually good thing if you are not
understanding anything totally, but this paragraph
presents pleasant understanding yet.

Posted by: minecraft at April 21, 2019 01:14 AM (2xL9P)

356 Favorite silent movie: The Last Command starring Emil Jannings and William Powell. I cry every time I watch it. I think it was Powell's first movie.
Favorite scene in Ben Hur: on the wreckage with the Roman guy. Loin cloth. Wow.

Posted by: Bean Countress of Rohan at April 21, 2019 01:54 PM (eZfF5)

357 Now that you've become my go to movie reviewer, I'll have to watch this movie for the first time.

Posted by: LukeHandCool at April 21, 2019 02:09 PM (i/5Jz)

358 12 It especially drives me crazy that whenever I watch a new film, instead of there being just one logo opening (such as Leo the Lion for MGM), there's oftentimes at least FIVE of them. I believe it's because studios today are so risk-averse, no single one wants to cough up the money to produce any movie today, even a fairly standard-budget one. By sharing the budget, they share in the risk (and minimize it per party).

It seems to me that at least 80% of Hollywood's output since about 1970 has been remakes of earlier Hollywood films, which divide into two main categories: (1) The original version was better in every way and should never have been remade. (For instance Ocean's Eleven and its sequels; The Longest Yard; and everything Peter Sellers did while still alive.) (2) The story being filmed is stupid and should not have been made even the first time.

All of which only reinforces my determination never to give another dime to today's Hollywood, which uses its revenue to subsidize the Democrat run media and to continue to sell its "mainstream" narrative to people with attention spans of one sound bite. Hollywood's past may merit preservation, but its present doesn't and its future needs an abortion.

Posted by: jdgalt at April 21, 2019 02:35 PM (3SFo/)

359 1. The chariot race in the silent version (Ramon Novarro & Francis X Bushman) is wayyyyyy better. Thrilling and terrifying bc it's real.
2. Ben-hur had a sister not a daughter.

Posted by: Shopgirl #PatrickIsMahomesie at April 21, 2019 07:50 PM (QjY7s)

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