What was the last movie you saw?

Superb film about big business polluting the environment - - - and us.
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THE GREAT ESCAPE -1963

"And that, I'm sure you'll all remember, is the voice of the Nelles warbler Let's turn our attention to this gentleman -the masked shrike. Lanius nubicus. The butcherbird. The shrike impales his foes on the spikes of thorn bushes. Not a very lovable character, you see. Let's have a look at the colouring. Uniform black above, from head to tail. A black rump, a black crown with a bold white flash, and a white line over the eye.
The shrike lives in lightly wooded country...Ah. Hendley. Sit down. You'll find drawing materials on the table."
 
Shock (1946) - A psychiatrist takes charge of a young woman who has fallen into a state of catatonic shock after having witnessed a murder. A murder he committed.

I'd guess this minor noir was riding on the coat tales of Hitchcock's Spellbound of the previous year - there was a very Hitchcocky feel to some of it. Nice performance from Vincent Price as the troubled guilt-ridden psychiatrist (though he didn't have much competition, the rest of the cast were pretty limp), off the shelf 40s noir lighting with one standout set up in front of a fireplace and a not badly done little nightmare dream sequence which, for one moment had me convinced I'd found a very early rack focus shot (what was the first use of this? I must find out) but I quickly saw that it was the character stood in front of a back projection of a zoom shot.

The plot resolved with a couple of characters jumping to conclusion out of nowhere and rushing to the rescue. But on the whole far better than I was expecting. The sort of interesting second feature Val Lewton was producing at RKO - but just not as good.
 
JunkMonkey said:
Shock (1946) - A psychiatrist takes charge of a young woman who has fallen into a state of catatonic shock after having witnessed a murder. A murder he committed.

I'd guess this minor noir was riding on the coat tales of Hitchcock's Spellbound of the previous year - there was a very Hitchcocky feel to some of it. Nice performance from Vincent Price as the troubled guilt-ridden psychiatrist (though he didn't have much competition, the rest of the cast were pretty limp), off the shelf 40s noir lighting with one standout set up in front of a fireplace and a not badly done little nightmare dream sequence which, for one moment had me convinced I'd found a very early rack focus shot (what was the first use of this? I must find out) but I quickly saw that it was the character stood in front of a back projection of a zoom shot.

The plot resolved with a couple of characters jumping to conclusion out of nowhere and rushing to the rescue. But on the whole far better than I was expecting. The sort of interesting second feature Val Lewton was producing at RKO - but just not as good.
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Never heard of it, until now. Shame on me, as a Vincent Price fan/enthusiast.
 
Crooked House

This is a very enjoyable ghost story written by Mark Gatiss, who has a love of horror, M R James and the anthology movies of the 60s and 70s, and there are plenty of references to both James and the Amicus anthologies (especially 'From Beyond the Grave').

Chap finds an odd door knocker in the grounds of his house, and shows it to the local museum curator (Gatiss) who goes on to tell him scary stories relating to it.

Apparently this was originally 3 x 30 minute tv episodes; I saw the seamlessly edited 90 minute movie.

At times it tries a little too hard, but it's better than 90% of the 'horror' that's out there today.

If you like the Amicus horror anthology movies this is a must, and free to view with a Prime subscription (or on YouTube)
 
Charlie Chan's Secret (1935) Dir. Gordon Wiles; starring Warner Oland, Rosina Lawrence, Charles Quigley

Missing heir, no longer missing, gets murdered. What was the motive, and whodunit? Chan is on the scene early as he's been engaged by the heir's mother to find him, and so is immediately involved in the case. A couple of seances in an old house offers some atmospherics and gives the movie a slight Gothic feel.

No longer just mindless entertainment, but political hot potatoes, questions of appropriation certainly are legit. But it's interesting to note that the screen writers (and maybe even the creator, Earl Derr Biggers -- been too long since I read the novels) gave Chan credit for early forensics work and a working knowledge of chemistry and electronics. As for the movie, if you enjoy the old B-movie mysteries, chances are you'd enjoy this one.
 
Toby Frost said:
I saw the three episodes of Crooked House when it was on TV. I think the last episode was a bit OTT, and I wished that Gatiss himself was less arch, but I remember it being pretty good overall.
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Yes it's classic Mark Gatiss - both the good and the bad. But still better than most of the attempted horror on TV these days.
 
Cat People - bloody awful, overlong, over sexualised, over everythinged needless remake of a bloody genius minor little chiller. I love the original. It's creepy, understated, low budget film making at it's finest. They implied, and disguised, and hid all the stuff that they couldn't afford to show - and made it all the more creepy because of it. This was just painful to watch. Everything in your face and when all else fails jump scare the audience awake again. Some of the gags from the original were just shoehorned in because.... they were in the original? The indoor swimming pool scene, the hand dragged down the material leaving scratches, the bus (one of THE great jump scares of all time) all were just so badly done it made me wonder why they had bothered.
 
I'm viewing this one right now on YouTube (I've saved it to my playlist and I'll finish it tomorrow) last time I watched it was about 45 years ago.
Hannibal Brook starting Oliver Reed.
A WW2 POW escapes from a German camp and crosses the Alps - with the help of a circus elephant!
It contains the classic war movie line "For you Tommy, the war is over"
 
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For Men Only aka The Tall Lie (1952)

Paul Henreid produced, directed, and stars in this drama about college fraternity hazing.

Student gets abused by the head frat bully (Russell Johnson, a long way from his role as the Professor on Gilligan's Island) but draws the line at being asked to shoot a cute little dog as a "blood sacrifice." Shockingly, another guy going through "Hell Night" to get into the fraternity actually shoots it (off screen.) As if that were not enough, the guy who refused is told he can redeem himself by drinking the dog's blood! He doesn't, of course, and runs off to tell the cops.

The frat boys cover up the crime and psychologically abuse the guy so much that he gets in a car wreck, eventually dying. Heroic pathology professor Henreid tries to end hazing on campus and prove the dead fellow was telling the truth, but risks losing wife and job in the struggle. Things get worse when Johnson gets the campus Bad Girl to frame Henreid for assaulting her.

It's a good, modestly budgeted drama, quite intense at times. Well worth a look.
 
The Corpse Vanishes - MST3K version with #1 Son. Which apparently I hadn't seen before. I could have sworn I had but somehow I had it swapped in my head with Scared to Death which is narrated by a corpse.

With the unerring eye for random connections my film watching habits throw up, I recognised actress playing the countess in this cheapo Bela Lugosi mad doctor flick as the same actress who had the memorable "my sister" one line appearance in the original Cat People - the bloody awful remake of which I watched last night.
 
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