What was the last movie you saw?

[Randy M.]

Yes! I saw that a few years ago. Goodnight My Love.
It was a black comedy-noirish detective story.
Boone was a burned out Sam Spade.

The Last Dinosaur I need to revisit as well.

I used to watch Have Gun, Will Travel.

Me, too.

I loved this show as a kid. Now when I read the plot summaries they look pretty sketchy.

Yeah, me, too, again, but my impression of the show's position in television history is that it helped mature the TV version of Westerns. Then TV Westerns became so mature they mostly died off ...

 

[KGeo777]

He did a series of tv movies called Hec Ramsey--I saw the pilot and have been seeking to check out the movies.
A western age detective who uses the technology of the time--early finger print and evidence gathering.
It was part of the rotation of tv-movie series like Columbo, McCloud...

 

[Randy M.]

He did a series of tv movies called Hec Ramsey--I saw the pilot and have been seeking to check out the movies.
A western age detective who uses the technology of the time--early finger print and evidence gathering.
It was part of the rotation of tv-movie series like Columbo, McCloud...

I remember that, enjoyed it and was sorry to see it cancelled after one season.

 

[Jeffbert]

CHAMBER OF HORRORS (1966)
This so-called horror film failed to deliver horror, but did deliver laughs. It featured a so-called horror horn and fear flasher that were intended to cause the audience to close their eyes, or turn away so as to miss the fact that nothing horrible actually happened. Actually, it was not bad, but the horror horn etc., created an expectation that was hardly met.

This lunatic (Patrick O'Neal) forced a minister to perform a marriage ceremony between himself and a corpse. Captured and sentenced to death for the murder of the woman, he escapes, and plots revenge against the judge, the cop, and the detective who caused his troubles.

Oh, he escaped by severing his right hand.
​

 

[KGeo777]

The horror horn. I remember that.

CHALLENGE OF THE GLADIATOR 1966 is a late peplum and it shows. It's rather bland with Spartacus fighting a Nero impersonator and learning about Christianity from a woman who isn't really a Christian. That's the new twist.

THE NIGHT STALKER 1972 - Premiered 50 years ago this night. It's interesting that all the players in this were doing various things-- tv movies etc--and they all came together to make a film (only an hour and 14 minutes) which was the highest rated tv-movie at the time. It feels like 1972 was the peak year for horror in movies and tv, and vampires were so prominent. Cheap FX for the day--with contact lenses being the hi tech novelty.
But it works mainly due to the performances--you feel everyone is invested in it.

 

[AE35Unit]

DON'T LOOK UP.
Weird pre-apocalyptic tale with Leanordo da cappucino. Sort of a comedy but not quite. I think they call them black comedies.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Blackmail (1947)

The character "Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective" was pretty popular in the pulp magazines of the 1930's and 1940's. This is his only theatrical appearance, although he would show up many years later in a made-for-TV movie (and, apparently, the pilot for an unsold series) called, logically enough, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective (AKA The Raven Red Kiss-Off on video, which may be the most hardboiled title I've ever seen.)

Anyway, this is an entertaining little B private eye yarn. Turner gets hired by a wealthy stage-and-radio producer type, who relates his problem in flashback. It seems that he won a ton of money at a gambling joint, then ran into an old flame (as fits tradition, she's a nightclub singer) who doesn't seem to resent the fact that he dumped her and failed to get her the radio spot he promised. She gives him a drink that knocks him out, then blackmails him with photographs. (We don't see these, or get a clue what they show, but to be worth fifty thousand bucks -- a price which keeps going up during the course of the film -- they must be pretty racy for 1947.) Then the dame fell out of a hotel window -- or was pushed -- and the rich guy looks like the best suspect.

Out of the flashback, the dame's partner in blackmail shows up, has the first of three long and really impressive fistfights we'll see in a film that lasts just over an hour -- Republic Studios did a bunch of serials, too, so had great stuntmen -- with Turner and runs off. Somebody we don't see shoots the guy dead, and he lands in the wealthy guy's pool. The rich fellow stupidly picks up the discarded gun, making him another prime homicide suspect. His current girlfriend shows up, and with the help of a chauffeur with a phony French accent, the body get hidden to protect her man.

The movie has just barely begun at this point, and it gets a lot more complicated. The screenplay is full of wisecracks, maybe the most smart aleck remarks per minute in any movie I've ever seen. You'll figure out who's behind the blackmail and murders, but it's still a lot of fun.

 

[Toby Frost]

Enjoyed this and looking for recommendations of more like it...

Have you read Danse Macabre by Stephen King? He liked this film, too, and has some interesting things to say about it. Some of his other recommendations might be of interest.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

Have you read Danse Macabre by Stephen King? He liked this film, too, and has some interesting things to say about it. Some of his other recommendations might be of interest.

I haven't yet - but I'll give it a go.

 

[Jeffbert]

CARL LAEMMLE (?) a documentary about the guy who founded UNIVERSAL PICTURES. I had no idea he was so important a guy! Not only defeated Edison in hundreds of law suits, not only horror films, but also racial equality, saved 100s of families from Hitler, etc. I had heard that the problem was not in escaping Germany, but having some other nation that was willing to take them, but this made it very clear.

 

[JunkMonkey]

saved 100s of families from Hitler, etc. I had heard that the problem was not in escaping Germany, but having some other nation that was willing to take them, but this made it very clear.

How little times have changed.

 

[pogopossum]

Goodness Gracious y'all love horrid (literally) movies.
I wonder if this is truly representative of SFFC or just posters responding with similar selections to what was mentioned previously.
To vary the tenor of choices - -
Just before Christmas I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol with my daughter and 4 year old grandson and 6 year old granddaughter.
With the exception of Michael Caine's singing I recommend it unequivocally.
My grandson, fierce destroyer of video game monsters, was afraid of the Ghost of Christmas Future. But I knew that Gonzo would protect us all.
It had not only the charm of the Muppets, but the slapstick humor of which they were the prime practioners.
We also watched the animated Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation.
Actually sort of charming. But a good movie to watch with young grandkids, while also reading a book. It does have Mel Brooks voicing one of the characters.

 

[KGeo777]

CARL LAEMMLE (?) a documentary about the guy who founded UNIVERSAL PICTURES. I had no idea he was so important a guy! Not only defeated Edison in hundreds of law suits, not only horror films, but also racial equality, saved 100s of families from Hitler, etc. I had heard that the problem was not in escaping Germany, but having some other nation that was willing to take them, but this made it very clear.

The irony with Edison's lawsuits is that now no Americans control American film studios. Is there any European American owner of a studio?
I think Europeans have been completely removed from the cultural stream and they invented the art form. So much for racial equality rhetoric. Some buys outs, some blackmail and who knows what else. The same thing happened to American theater in 1900. And publishing. Lovecraft and Capote were incensed about that-- greatly offended that some literary voices were prevented from exposure by so-called American book publishers.

The sorry state of film expression today--a big part of the blame does rest with the foreigner studios which came in and sought to take over. They did not want competitors. They had the money and contacts to squeeze out the natives.

I will give Laemmle credit for putting a note at the end of his earliest films asking people to write to him on their opinions of the films. I can't imagine a studio head doing that today.

But the big studios were too controlling. That is why Walt Disney, Orson Welles and others started SIMPP--so they could have more creative freedom than offered with Universal, MGM, Warner Bros, etc.

 

[SC Wade]

This past weekend I watched "Infinite" a movie currently playing on Paramount+
Haha...it wasn't very good. I actually really liked the premise, but the execution wasn't done well, in my opinion. You could tell what they were trying to do... and they did try. But it was unimpressive.
It started out pretty good, I liked the idea, and then... I contemplated whether I should finish watching it. Ha.

 

[KGeo777]

Just watched Adios Sabata,an OK spaghetti western I only watched because Yul Brynner was in it. Pretty average with the usual whistling music(why do they all have that?)
Apparently its the second of a trilogy,the other two having Lee Van Cleef as Sabata. Why do the TV channels always show just one of a trilogy rather than showing all 3?

I have seen all three--I re-watched Return of Sabata tonight.
The first is the best--the Yul Brynner oneI don't think it's actually the same character.
This one is watchable but it's not particularly enjoyable. It has style and doesn't look cheap but not much there to recommend.
There's an acrobat who I have seen in a couple of other movies.

As the song lyrics

If you want to get money,
if you want to get rich,
if you want a good life
then you got to be a son of a...

 

[AE35Unit]

I have seen all three--I re-watched Return of Sabata tonight.
The first is the best--the Yul Brynner oneI don't think it's actually the same character.
This one is watchable but it's not particularly enjoyable. It has style and doesn't look cheap but not much there to recommend.
There's an acrobat who I have seen in a couple of other movies.

As the song lyrics

If you want to get money,
if you want to get rich,
if you want a good life
then you got to be a son of a...

Crikey when did I post that? I don't remember that film!

 

[Randy M.]

Crikey when did I post that? I don't remember that film!

2009. It takes a pretty good -- or extremely bad -- movie to leave much of a memory over 10 years.

 

[AllanR]

Cold Journey 1975 --Canadian film about a teenager who goes to residence school and the attempt to assimilate native cultures. The main character has difficulties fitting both white society and Indian society. (ie -When he goes home for the summer, to his own society, he can't speak Cree --his brother has to translate for his mothers words for him.)

The bleakness of the story is thrown right at you from the start.

It's a NFB (National Film Board) production so it is free to stream.

 

[KGeo777]

Crikey when did I post that? I don't remember that film!

I did some time traveling.

It's a strange feeling to see yourself posting something from the past and realizing it's you saying it and there's no memory of it.
I have a pretty good memory for useless things so I usually remember a movie--it's rare when I watch a movie and them realize I have seen it before..little bits come back to me.

 

[JunkMonkey]

My Dinner With Andre - a New York actor/play-write and a theatre director meet for a meal and talk. The theatre director endlessly goes on about his existential crisis and search for the meaning of just 'being'.... and the Actor/play-write/audience substitute tries not to laugh/get angry/argue with the pompous prick as he prattles on and on and on like some condensed version of every self-obsessed artistic wa*ker you have ever had the unfortunate experience of meeting. It is strangely funny. Even strangely funnier is seeing the names Lloyd Kaufman (director of such delights as the Toxic Avenger movies and Class of Nuke 'Em High) as the Production Manager and a thanks to Troma Studios for use of facilities in the end credits.