A Long Way Down (2014)

 

A LONG WAY DOWN  (2014)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Pascal Chaumeil

    Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Imogen Poots,

    Aaron Paul, Sam Neill, Rosamund Pike

On New Year's Eve, four people meet on the roof of a tall building, all planning to kill themselves by jumping off. Instead, they make a pact - written on the back of a suicide note - agreeing to put off ending it all till at least Valentine's Day. A potentially dark comedy that's neither too despairing nor too sweet, its troubled, imperfect characters sympathetically played by all four leads. A sleeper, and not a bad choice for New Year's Eve. Really. See it before you jump.

Bombshell (1933)

BOMBSHELL  (1933)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Victor Fleming

    Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan, 

    Pat O'Brien, Franchot Tone, Una Merkel,

    Ted Healy, Louise Beavers, C. Aubrey Smith

A rapid-fire, pre-Code comedy starring Jean Harlow in her signature role as a movie star who's a lot like Jean Harlow. Art imitates life sometimes, and sometimes the movies do, too.

Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)

 

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS  (1943)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: David Butler

    Eddie Cantor, Denis Morgan, Joan Leslie,

    Edward Everett Horton, S.Z. Sakall, Ruth Donnelly,

    Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, John Garfield,

    Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino Ann Sheridan,

    Jack Carson, Alan Hale, Hattie McDaniel,

    Dinah Shore, Spike Jones, Humphrey Bogart

An all-star wartime musical, really just a series of musical numbers strung along a flimsy plot in which Eddie Cantor plays both a look-alike double and an obnoxious version of himself. Slow going in places, but a rare chance to hear Errol Flynn, John Garfield and Bette Davis sing. (Davis, being Davis, doesn't let the fact that she's in the middle of a song prevent her from lighting a cigarette.) Dinah Shore's first movie appearance (she was a Cantor protégée), and the screen debut of Spike Jones. 

La Femme et le TGV (2016)

LA FEMME ET LE TGV  (2016)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 

    D: Timo von Gunten

    Jane Birkin, Lucien Guignard, Gilles Tschudi

It's been more than 50 years since Jane Birkin played one of the teenyboppers who frolicked with David Hemmings on the floor of his photography studio in "Blow-Up" (1966). In this movie, she plays an old woman who runs a pastry shop and goes to the window of her house every day to wave at the bullet train as it goes speeding by. A couple of things happen that suggest her life might be winding down, but that might not be the case. An Oscar-nominated short film from Switzerland, apparently based on a true story. Quietly contained and beautifully done, with a radiant performance by Birkin. 

It Happened On Fifth Avenue (1947)

 

IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE  (1947)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Roy Del Ruth

    Don Defore, Victor Moore, Charles Ruggles,

    Gale Storm, Ann Harding, Grant Mitchell,

    Edward Brophy, Alan Hale Jr., Dorothea Kent

The premise of this movie gets more timely as time goes on: A bunch of homeless people move into a Fifth Avenue mansion whose millionaire owner has left for the winter. When the owner comes back early and finds out what's going on, he moves into the house himself, posing as a panhandler. A somewhat overlooked Christmas movie that's gotten renewed attention over the years, thanks to annual screenings on TCM. Frank Capra was originally scheduled to direct, but backed out to make "It's a Wonderful Life". Storm and Defore would both find stardom on 1950s television. 

Snow Steam Iron (2017)

SNOW STEAM IRON  (2017)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Zack Snyder

    Samantha Win, Wayne Dalglish, Allen Jo, Jim Rowe,

    Ross Kohnstam, Wesley Coller, Victoria Jacobsen

A man in an alley with a meat cleaver. A cop in an alley with a nightstick. A woman in an alley with a gun. A severed head. Some broken teeth. Laundry on a clothesline. Fish in a bucket. Whiskey in a glass, Some women in a brothel. A woman being whipped. A camera. Snow. Blood. You don't want to mess with the woman in the red dress. That's all I've got to say. 

They Drive By Night (1940)

 

THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT  (1940)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Raoul Walsh

    George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino, 

    Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Alan Hale,

    Roscoe Kearns, John Litel, George Tobias

Raft and Bogart play long-haul truckers who dream of owning their own operation someday. Sheridan plays the truck-stop waitress Raft falls for, and Lupino plays the boss's wife, who's up to no good. It's hard-driving, tough-guy stuff till the final reel, when Lupimo's character cracks wide open. When she goes nuts, she really goes nuts. A remake, more or less, of the Paul Muni/Bette Davis movie "Bordertown", released in 1935. 

The Brain Eaters (1958)

 

THE BRAIN EATERS  (1958)  ¢ 1/2

    D: Bruno VeSota

    Ed Nelson, Cornelius Keefe, Alan Jay Factor,

    Joanna Lee, Jody Fair, Orville Sherman,

    David Hughes, Henry Randolph, Leonard Nimoy

Parasites start to attack the good people of Riverdale, attaching themselves to the back of the neck and turning their victims into robotic zombies. Not only that: The parasites are organized, and they've got a plan. Can a tough-talking senator and a pipe-smoking scientist stop them before it's too late? The picture only lasts an hour, so it won't take long to find out. You never get a good look at the parasites, which are kind of like big cockroaches, except when they're hidden behind a lot of smoke and fog, and then you can't see them at all. That's just as well, since producer Ed Nelson apparently made them out of wind-up toys, pipe cleaners and pieces cut from an old fur coat. Also somewhere in all that smoke and fog is Leonard Nimoy, and you can't see him at all, either, but there's no mistaking Mr. Spock's voice. In a movie like this one, the pointy ears would not have helped. 

My Darling Clementine (1946)

 

MY DARLING CLEMENTINE  (1946  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: John Ford

    Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Linda Darnell,

    Walter Brennan, Cathy Downs, Ward Bond

    Tim Holt, Alan Mowbray, John Ireland,

    Jane Darwell, Roy Roberts, Grant Withers

The gunfight at the O.K. Corral, directed by John Ford. Walter Brennan plays an old guy and Linda Darnell plays a woman named Chihuahua. Victor Mature recites Shakespeare and Henry Fonda demonstrates the fine art of leaning back in a chair.

The Midnight Man (1974)

 

THE MIDNIGHT MAN  (1974)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Roland Kibbee, Burt Lancaster

    Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, Harris Yulin

    Cameron Mitchell, Catherine Bach, Ed Lauter,

    Morgan Woodward, Robert Quarry, Peter Dane,

    Charles Tyner, Linda Kelsey, Lawrence Dokken

A good, workmanlike thriller starring Burt Lancaster as an ex-cop-turned-security-guard, out on parole and investigating a coed's murder. There's a noirish tinge to the story, and some nice work by Lancaster and a solid supporting cast. Lancaster and Kibbee co-wrote the story, and Burt's old circus buddy, Nick Cravat, who's often mute onscreen, turns up in a brief speaking part as a gardener. For a guy working the midnight-to-eight shift, Burt's character spends a lot of time walking around in broad daylight carrying a flashlight. 

Screen Test / Take 17

 

Match the following actors with 

the movies they appeared in:

                                     1. Dennis Hopper

                                     2. Gregory Peck

                                     3. Marlon Brando

                                     4. Richard Basehart

                                     5. Henry Fonda

                                     6. Humphrey Bogart

                                     7. Sidney Poitier

                                     8. Robert Mitchum

                                     9. Richard Widmark

                                   10. Peter O'Toole

                              a. "The Night of the Hunter"

                              b. "Night tide"

                              c. "The Night of the Generals"

                             d. "Night and the City"

                             e. "He Walked By Night"

                              f. "The Long Night"

                             g. "They Drive By Night"

                             h. "Night People"

                              i. "In the Heat of the Night"

                              j. "The Night of the Following Day"

1-b / 2-h / 3-j / 4-e / 5-f / 6-g / 7-i / 8-a / 9-d / 10-c

Eternal Beauty (2019)

ETERNAL BEAUTY  (2019)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Craig Roberts

    Sally Hawkins, Penelope Wilton, David Thewlis,

    Alice Lowe, Billie Piper, Robert Pugh, Boyd Clark

Sally Hawkins plays a head case who's off her meds. The movie's a one-way buggy ride to hell, but Hawkins is good in it. Shot on location in Wales. 

Dark Habits (1983)

 

DARK HABITS  (1983)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Pedro Almodovar

    Cristina Sanchez Pascual, Marisa Parades, Carmen Maura,

    Lina Carnalejas, Chus Lampreave, Julieta Serrano

After her boyfriend ODs on some bad heroin, a nightclub singer takes refuge in an unconventional convent, where the nuns have names like Sister Rat, Sister Damned, Sister Manure and Sister Snake. Early Almodovar, a sacrilegious comedy in the manner of Luis Buñuel. (I wonder if Luis and Pedro were both altar boys.) Carmen Maura, who plays Sister Damned (the one with the pet tiger) would become Almodovar's favorite leading lady in the years ahead.