Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 8: THE LONG DARK HALL (1951) and THE FOUR POSTER (1952)

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For this week’s Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode we watched two films pairing acteur Lilli Palmer with then-husband Rex Harrison. We discuss the potential relationship of thriller/courtroom drama The Long Dark Hall (1951) to the scandal plaguing their marriage at the time and consider The Four Poster (1952) as a “marriage film,” and what it has to say about that social and spiritual state. And in a packed Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we talk about five films from the TIFF Cinematheque’s “Alone in the Arena” series: Rounders (1998), When We Were Kings (1996), He Got Game (1998), Any Given Sunday (1999), and The Color of Money (1986). Elise reveals that one of these movies finally made her understand what it feels like to care about a sport. 

Time Codes:

0h 00m 45s:      THE LONG DARK HALL (1951) [dir. Anthony Bushell & Reginald Beck]

0h 20m 06s:      THE FOUR POSTER (1952) [dir. Irving Reis]

0h 37m 37s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – TIFF Cinémathèque’s “Alone in the Arena” series – Rounders (1998) by John Dahl, When We Were Kings (1996) by Leon Gast, He Got Game (1998) by Spike Lee, Any Given Sunday (1999) by Oliver Stone & The Color of Money (1986) by Martin Scorsese

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

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Special Subject- Silent Ozu Sampler – TOKYO CHORUS (1931), I WAS BORN BUT… (1932), and PASSING FANCY (1933)

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For our January Special Subject, we look at three silent “family comedies” by Ozu, Tokyo Chorus (1931), I Was Born, But… (1932), and Passing Fancy (1933), although we argue that “comedy” doesn’t entirely encompass the emotional range of these films. We argue that the melancholy of late Ozu is already discernible in these tales of father-son conflict and confrontation with life’s disappointing nature, although Passing Fancy offers a different kind of father-son relationship and unique brand of comedy. Then in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we discuss Robert Rossen’s The Hustler as a blacklisting allegory and the cinematic pyrotechnics of Brian De Palma’s Snake Eyes. 

Time Codes:

0h 00m 45s:      TOKYO CHORUS (1931) [dir. Yasujiro Ozu]

0h 26m 53s:      I WAS BORN, BUT… (1932) [dir. Yasujiro Ozu]

0h 38m 36s:      PASSING FANCY (1933) [dir. Yasujiro Ozu]

0h 57m 41s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – The Hustler (1961) directed by Robert Rossen & Snake Eyes (1998) directed by Brian De Palma

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

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Acteurist Oeuvre-view – Lilli Palmer – Part 7: MY GIRL TISA (1948), NO MINOR VICES (1948) and HANS LE MARIN (1949)

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This Lilli Palmer Acteurist Oeuvre-view episode tackles two more films made with leftist colleagues, Elliott Nugent’s My Girl Tisa, a Popular Front-style tale of early 20th century immigrants and the American Dream, and Lewis Milestone’s quirky, stylistically inventive comedy No Minor Vices (written by Arnold Manoff). We also watched François Villiers’ fascinating Hans le Marin (also known as Wicked City), a vehicle for Maria Montez co-starring and co-written by her husband, Jean-Pierre Aumont, which Elise considers the Frenchest movie she’s ever seen; Palmer co-stars as the Romani rival to Aumont’s obsession. And in our Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto segment, we talk about Kira Muratova’s The Long Farewell (1971), a saga of the tormenting love between a mother and her teenage son, told in a distinctive style that did not find favour with the Soviet authorities during the Brezhnev era. 

Time Codes:

0h 00m 45s:      MY GIRL TISA (1948) [dir. Elliott Nugent]

0h 25m 40s:      NO MINOR VICES (1948) [dir. Lewis Milestone]

0h 41m 02s:      HANS LE MARIN aka THE WICKED CITY (1949) [dir. François Villiers]

0h 57m 41s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – The Long Farewell (1971) directed by Kira Muratova

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* Listen to our guest episode on The Criterion Project – a discussion of Late Spring

* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s piece on Gangs of New York – “Making America Strange Again”

* Check out Dave’s Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

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Hollywood Studios Year-by-Year – Warner Brothers – 1945: SARATOGA TRUNK & DANGER SIGNAL

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For this round of Warner Bros. 1945, we take on a very successful movie with two very big stars and one very terrible reputation, Saratoga Trunk, with Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper, and a fascinating little B noir, Danger Signal, with Zachary Scott being his usual cheeky self and getting women upset. We discuss the stylistic risks of Saratoga Trunk, the genius of Ingrid Bergman, the subtleties of Gary Cooper, and Danger Signal‘s unusual feminist screenplay (from a novel by FOTP Phyllis Bottome). And in Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto, we deliver a quick verdict on the final entry in TIFF Cinematheque’s Lubitsch series, Design for Living. 

 

Time Codes:

0h 00m 45s:      Warner Brothers Overview, 1945

0h 03m 59s:      SARATOGA TRUNK (1945) [dir. Sam Wood]

0h 35m 05s:      DANGER SIGNAL (1945) [dir. Robert Florey]

0h 55m 38s:      Fear and Moviegoing in Toronto – Ernst Lubitsch Retrospective at TIFF Cinémathèque: Design For Living (1933)

 

Studio Film Capsules provided by The Warner Brothers Story by Clive Hirschhorn

Additional studio information from: The Hollywood Story by Joel W. Finler

                                   

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* Marvel at our meticulously ridiculous Complete Viewing Schedule for the 2020s

* Intro Song: “Sunday” by Jean Goldkette Orchestra with the Keller Sisters (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

* Read Elise’s latest film piece on Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours, and the Narrative role of comedic scapegoating.

* Check out Dave’s new Robert Benchley blog – an attempt to annotate and reflect upon as many of the master humorist’s 2000+ pieces as he can locate – Benchley Data: A Wayward Annotation Project! 

Follow us on Twitter at @therebuggy

Write to us at therebuggy@gmail.com

 

We now have a Discord server – just drop us a line if you’d like to join! 

Check out this episode!

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