What was the last movie you saw?

BUCK RODGERS (1939) I actually watched the whole 12 episodes, though over a period of a week. BR & his adolescent friend Buddy, are frozen under an avalanche, and thawed and revived several centuries later. BR's leadership is immediately recognized & he is commissioned as an officer in THE HIDDEN CITY's air force, & goes about foiling the villain "Killer" Kane's (Anthony Warde) plot to conquer the city.

That STAR WARS was inspired by this is obvious, from the scrolling text that vanishes into the distance, to the rebels fighting against the evil empire, etc. Fortunately, Lucas wisely omitted the character Buddy!

In this rather silly story, everybody knows how to do everything! Nobody, neither BR nor even Buddy needs to be taught how to fly spaceships, etc.

KK has a way of rendering his enemies helpless lobotomized slaves by fitting them with these rather unnecessarily large helmets containing his mind-numbing devices which are rather small.
BUCK RODGERS, 08, 1158.jpg

BR has the rather small mind-numbing device in his right hand, helmet in left. Removal of the helmets and thus the devices restores normal IQ etc. The man on the right had been wearing that helmet, and has just now recovered his mind.

Rather amusing to watch!
 
paranoid marvin said:
And Mars with bright blue skies....

I agree, it really is a must watch for anyone who hasn't seen it. Plenty of memorable moments, the most memorable for me being the Martians in their 'sand ships' pursuing Parkhill.

Bit of a surprise that this hasn't been remade by Netflix or Amazon.
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Those sandships were cool. It was an amazing scene.

Yea, the blue skies..., not to mention oxygen, habitable temperatures, canals full of running water, and exactly 1G gravity. I love vintage SciFi !

And you're right, it's ripe for a proper remake.
 
Jeffbert said:
BUCK RODGERS (1939) I actually watched the whole 12 episodes, though over a period of a week. BR & his adolescent friend Buddy, are frozen under an avalanche, and thawed and revived several centuries later. BR's leadership is immediately recognized & he is commissioned as an officer in THE HIDDEN CITY's air force, & goes about foiling the villain "Killer" Kane's (Anthony Warde) plot to conquer the city.

That STAR WARS was inspired by this is obvious, from the scrolling text that vanishes into the distance, to the rebels fighting against the evil empire, etc. Fortunately, Lucas wisely omitted the character Buddy!

In this rather silly story, everybody knows how to do everything! Nobody, neither BR nor even Buddy needs to be taught how to fly spaceships, etc.

KK has a way of rendering his enemies helpless lobotomized slaves by fitting them with these rather unnecessarily large helmets containing his mind-numbing devices which are rather small.
View attachment 90862
BR has the rather small mind-numbing device in his right hand, helmet in left. Removal of the helmets and thus the devices restores normal IQ etc. The man on the right had been wearing that helmet, and has just now recovered his mind.

Rather amusing to watch!
Click to expand...
I remember watching this and the Flash Gordon -- also Crabbe -- serials on Baron and His Buddies, a local afternoon kid's show featuring Baron Daemon. BD was a local news personality who would dress up as and imitate the voice of Lugosi's Dracula. He even had a minor song hit, "Transylvania Twist." Anyway, along with various cartoons, the Rogers and Gordon serials were big draws for preteens. Preteen boys anyway.
 
TCM is currently showing FLASH GORDON on the same Saturday morning time slot.
 
KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988; dir. Stephen Chiodo; starring Grant Cramer, Susan Snyder, John Allan Nelson, John Vernon, Royal Dano)

Underneath the quality productions of 1980s s.f. and horror like E. T., Poltergist, The Empire Strikes Back, etc., there's a sub-stratum of really odd movies, some of which sort of hold up. This is one in large part because the premise is so quirky, the production values for the time fairly good, and the acting passable -- I found it interesting that the two male leads have gone on to lengthy careers according to IMDB, and Snyder's list of roles extends well past this movie, too.

Teens hanging out at lovers' lane see meteor flash past, follow it and discover a circus big top. Entering they find it populated by clowns using clown technology. Attacked by the clowns, they manage to escape and alert the authorities who instantly spring into action by assuming they are drunk or nuts. Then townspeople begin reporting odd clown sightings.

Goofy, '80s fun with Vernon essentially turning his Animal House character into a small town cop.
 
I havent seen the Martian Chronicles in a long time.
I should rewatch some time.

What-ever
happ-ened
to
Randolph
Scott?
I don't know but he is in this movie: Ride The High Country 1962 (yes it came out 60 years ago this month). He stars alongside Joel McCrea and judging from their rapport they must have made a few movies together--I wouldn't know because beyond their names, I have seen them in nearly nothing. I know the latter from the Most Dangerous Game and I think I saw Scott in a civil war movie but anyway there's many familiar people in this. Warren Oates, RG Armstrong and fellow initialed actor LQ Jones. I did not know Mariette Hartley started so early--I figured she came along around the time of Star Trek. A veteran by then.

McCrea was almost Jack Driscoll in the KING KONG--I think Cabot was a better choice because he had a sinister quality which worked better as someone who is meant to make you appreciate Kong more as a rival.
I have never been interested in westerns unless it had dinosaurs or vampires but this was ok.
 
NOIR ALLEY:
BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955) Late 1945 John Macreedy (Spencer Tracy, whom Muller noted was too old for this role) disembarks from the train that normally does not stop at the California desert town of Black Rock, & the town's residents immediately know this means trouble. Macreedy has lost the use of his left arm, whose hand he keeps in his jacket pocket. As one who likewise suffers, I had hoped Muller would have had something to note about an actor who obviously normally uses both arms, pretending one was paralyzed, but, not a word on that.

Macreedy's purpose for visiting Black Rock is not revealed until near the end, but when he goes to a certain burned-down home, the local folks begin hassling him.
Macreedy was saved by Komoko's son; Komoko, a man of Japanese descent, who bought a piece of land that the seller thought was worthless, actually found water when he drilled deep enough, was murdered and whose home was burned down by the local folks, who were bigots, and also angry that this guy had made the land assumed worthless, fertile. That son, had been posthumously awarded a military decoration that Macreedy, thought should be given to his father, seeing Macreedy owed his life to the man's deceased son, etc. Macready, was unaware that the father had died, much less that he had been murdered.

All the town's adults knew about the murder, and were complacent in the cover-up. Yet, a few were shamed into helping Macreedy.

In his follow-up comments, Muller spoke about this film being unique in that it dealt with this subject at that time in history, when such was going against the grain, etc.

Supporting cast is stellar, fit their roles perfectly. Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) is the town boss, who even gives orders to Sheriff Horn (Dean Jagger); others, such as Hector David (Lee Marvin) & Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine) take it upon themselves to make Macreedy's visit unpleasant. Doc Velie (Walter Brennan) is the only half-decent guy in town, & empathizes with Macreedy, even when he knows his purpose.

Siblings Pete Wirth (John Ericson) & Liz Wirth (Anne Francis) are also half-decent, but neither wants to become involved with a stranger going against the town boss.
 
JunkMonkey said:
...if the rumours I've read about Randolph Scott, who was at one time linked romantically (and lived) with Cary Grant, have any basis - maybe they made made than more than movies together.
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I heard that too but I felt it unnecessary to link performance skills to sexual orientation trivia. ;)
 
Down Three Dark Streets (1954; dir. Arnold Laven; starring Broderick Crawford, Ruth Roman, Martha Hyers)

FBI agent is killed (Kenneth Tobey, known to s.f. fans as Captain Hendry from The Thing from Another World) and his FBI agent buddy, Crawford, takes on three of his cases, one of which they're sure is involved in his death. Entertaining flick, a TCM Noir Alley presentation, the host mentioning that this was the first movie to use 3 story lines that eventually led to the resolution of the overarching story line.
 
KGeo777 said:
I heard that too but I felt it unnecessary to link performance skills to sexual orientation trivia. ;)
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Hah!



Back on Topic: last film I tried to watch was Tokyo Gore Police - two minutes in I had firmly formed the idea that it was crap. Three minutes in I'd come to the conclusion it was also the wrong sort of crap. That's as far as I got. I suspect the director was 15 and had been given a film crew for Christmas.
 
The Wild World of Batwoman (MST3K) - A gentle introduction to the terrible film making of Jerry Warren for Number One Son in the company of Mike and the Bots. This is one where they just scream, "END! END!" at the screen. Next week: Teenage Zombies!
 
Foxbat said:
Cross Of Iron. Sam Peckinpah’s only war film. It did poorly at the box office when released and was panned by quite a few critics but it’s one of my personal favourites.
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A very good, very realistic WWII movie about duty, honour, cynicism and betrayal. Some great actors with Mason, Coburn and Warner.
 
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