'Leslie escaped with a chicken!?'
Sep. 8th, 2011 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
litlover12I've been recording a lot of stuff off TCM lately. Here are a few brief reviews (with the occasional small spoiler) . . .
The Passionate Friends (a.k.a. One Woman's Story), 1949, starring Claude Rains, Ann Todd, Trevor Howard
Oh, Claude. My darling Claude. Why did they always cast you as the cuckolded husband? Did they ever actually LOOK at you? Or hear you speak? As if any woman could want anyone else if she had this guy. (Except for when he was playing a Nazi, of course.)
But then, the woman in this film was no mastermind. This is the kind of woman who won't marry the man she loves because she wants to belong to herself. Fine, then DON'T GET MARRIED. Instead she goes and marries poor Claude for his money, and makes his life a living hell. By the time he saves her life, I'm not kidding, you almost don't want him to.
Though the big love affair between Todd and Howard makes one want to throw things at both of them, the film is worth watching for Rains's magnificent performance. When the Ditz Queen finally gets him wrought up to the point where he barks at her to get out -- and small blame to him -- he's so explosive that I jumped. (Literally. I felt my feet leave the floor.) He was such a marvelous actor. It's just a shame he didn't get to play a happy husband once in a while.
So Long at the Fair, 1950, starring Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, David Tomlinson
I recorded this because Jean Simmons is one of my favorite actresses, and Dirk Bogarde is the best Sydney Carton I've ever seen (yes, even a little better than Ronald Colman! That's Bogarde as Carton in my icon, above). Neither of them disappoints in this British thriller about a distraught young woman searching Paris for her missing brother. Bogarde is the artist who helps her search, and he's a total dreamboat -- bohemian enough to be living the artist's life in Paris, but proper enough to say, "Excuse me," before kissing Simmons in order to deceive someone who's just discovered them plotting together. I watched that scene three times -- not for the kiss, but for the "Excuse me." (I'm hopeless, aren't I?) The story is well conceived and told, and the suspense builds nicely, though the tension slackens just a bit at the end. I did guess the solution to the mystery, but it took me quite a long time, so I give them full points for that. Altogether an excellent little film. Unfortunately, it's quite hard to find on DVD -- too many of the good ones are -- so it's not leaving my DVR until I can snag myself a copy.
The Great Race, 1965, starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood, Peter Falk
Why did no one ever tell me how funny this movie is? Well, that's not fair -- some people did, but I didn't realize just how gloriously funny they meant it was. Reminiscent of a Looney Tunes cartoon in its antics, the film also slightly resembles It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World but is MUCH better. (I never could get into Mad World, hard as I tried.) Though it drags a bit in spots, like many '60s-era blockbusters, even the draggy parts manage to keep your attention, and the good parts are SO good, and so plentiful, they make you want to watch again and again.
I have to wonder: Has anyone ever rooted for Tony Curtis to win the race? You take Jack Lemmon and give him an evil laugh, a Snidely Whiplash moustache, and Peter Falk for a henchman, and how is it humanly possible to root for anyone else?
Because![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
modernelegance and msantimacassar have gotten me hopelessly hooked on gifs, I leave you with a couple from this great farce. Jack and Peter, how I miss you both.
The Passionate Friends (a.k.a. One Woman's Story), 1949, starring Claude Rains, Ann Todd, Trevor Howard
Oh, Claude. My darling Claude. Why did they always cast you as the cuckolded husband? Did they ever actually LOOK at you? Or hear you speak? As if any woman could want anyone else if she had this guy. (Except for when he was playing a Nazi, of course.)
But then, the woman in this film was no mastermind. This is the kind of woman who won't marry the man she loves because she wants to belong to herself. Fine, then DON'T GET MARRIED. Instead she goes and marries poor Claude for his money, and makes his life a living hell. By the time he saves her life, I'm not kidding, you almost don't want him to.
Though the big love affair between Todd and Howard makes one want to throw things at both of them, the film is worth watching for Rains's magnificent performance. When the Ditz Queen finally gets him wrought up to the point where he barks at her to get out -- and small blame to him -- he's so explosive that I jumped. (Literally. I felt my feet leave the floor.) He was such a marvelous actor. It's just a shame he didn't get to play a happy husband once in a while.
So Long at the Fair, 1950, starring Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, David Tomlinson
I recorded this because Jean Simmons is one of my favorite actresses, and Dirk Bogarde is the best Sydney Carton I've ever seen (yes, even a little better than Ronald Colman! That's Bogarde as Carton in my icon, above). Neither of them disappoints in this British thriller about a distraught young woman searching Paris for her missing brother. Bogarde is the artist who helps her search, and he's a total dreamboat -- bohemian enough to be living the artist's life in Paris, but proper enough to say, "Excuse me," before kissing Simmons in order to deceive someone who's just discovered them plotting together. I watched that scene three times -- not for the kiss, but for the "Excuse me." (I'm hopeless, aren't I?) The story is well conceived and told, and the suspense builds nicely, though the tension slackens just a bit at the end. I did guess the solution to the mystery, but it took me quite a long time, so I give them full points for that. Altogether an excellent little film. Unfortunately, it's quite hard to find on DVD -- too many of the good ones are -- so it's not leaving my DVR until I can snag myself a copy.
The Great Race, 1965, starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood, Peter Falk
Why did no one ever tell me how funny this movie is? Well, that's not fair -- some people did, but I didn't realize just how gloriously funny they meant it was. Reminiscent of a Looney Tunes cartoon in its antics, the film also slightly resembles It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World but is MUCH better. (I never could get into Mad World, hard as I tried.) Though it drags a bit in spots, like many '60s-era blockbusters, even the draggy parts manage to keep your attention, and the good parts are SO good, and so plentiful, they make you want to watch again and again.
I have to wonder: Has anyone ever rooted for Tony Curtis to win the race? You take Jack Lemmon and give him an evil laugh, a Snidely Whiplash moustache, and Peter Falk for a henchman, and how is it humanly possible to root for anyone else?
Because
modernelegance and msantimacassar have gotten me hopelessly hooked on gifs, I leave you with a couple from this great farce. Jack and Peter, how I miss you both.
