I am a massive fan of The Thin Man movies, though it can’t be denied that the stories markedly decline as you go. But I think that’s mainly because at a certain point the filmmakers recognized that the real assets were Powell and Loy so they pretty much gave up any pretext of creating a mystery for them to solve. They are never not fun to watch.
Robin and the Seven Hoods is a good Rat Pack movie too. Well, it’s a Rat Pack movie.
I feel the same way. I can start anywhere and watch until the end.
Yeah, it’s solidly the runner-up Rat Pack movie to Ocean’s Eleven.
I think Nick is hilarious. And he might have a problem…
Oh, they’ve both got a problem, looking back on it. When Nora finds Nick at a bar and asks how many he’s had, and then orders six martinis to catch up? But I still love these guys, I don’t care if their livers would be charcoal briquettes at this point.
Excessive drinking could be viewed as comic in the '30s. WC Fields wouldn’t have had an act at all otherwise.
Bringing Up Baby was a treat, the ending is priceless. It was a fun romp.
Well, tonight I watched Stalag 17 for the first time this Century. And I think he is a bigger schmuck in Kwai, but just barely.
Billy Wilder + William Holden again…and Preminger…
Dragged this one out of my VHS collection, and it still holds up really well. Powerful stuff, if a bit melodramatic at the end (it is noir after all). I loved this as a teen, and still love it now. I believe this was Kirk Douglas’ first film:
Edit: Holy shit. The whole thing is up on YouTube. It looks right too, i.e. the whole picture is shown; none of this zoomed-in crap people do on Youtube sometimes.
Foster Brooks, Crazy Guggenheim (Jackie Gleason show), Otis Campbell (Andy Griffith), and Arthur (Dudley Moore) are sorry you don’t remember them as well!
I think the only way you can make comic hay with drunkenness now is if it’s accidental. The character somehow drinks or takes some kind of substance inadvertently and gets to act incapacitated for laughs.
I dunno…
I think Alcoholism is verbooten. Abuse of substances and self-destructive behavior are still fair game.
I’d forgotten about Arthur. Gave me a smile.
Point taken, but the comedy is of them sober the next day, trying to figure out where their friend is. And of course they did get roofied by Galifianakis to manage to lose their friend as well.
So I watched The Agony and The Ecstasy today. Carol Reed?! I didn’t know that.
Heston, Rex Harrison. What could go wrong?
I took a couple of really refreshing naps while watching it…
I was…ok…turgid, I thought. Free on Amazon Prime. I wouldn’t watch it again.
Gorgeous shots though; interesting to see Reed working in color.
@Navaronegun are you renting these or is there a decent stream for some of these older movies? Beyond this one, anyway. What’s kind of annoying is even with the big 2 streamers (Netflix, Amazon) I find a surprisingly high number of old classics NOT streamed unless they are rented or purchased, which is really a failing of this post-Blockbuster era if you ask me. Not every old title needs to be a rental FFS, some should be included in the streaming service itself. I did recently get Turner Classic Movies again, I hope to join you in some Grandpa Movie watching soon.
Personally I use a DVD rental service for old movies. There are some “classics” focused streaming services, at least in the UK (BFI Player springs to mind, but there are a couple of others — MGM and Universal also have their own in-house streaming channels), but none of them are comprehensive enough to beat DVDs if you’re after specific films.
Amazon Prime Video, having previously been terrible for old movies, now seems to have quite a few, but a) the vast majority are sub-B movie dross, and b) a lot of the classics are fucking colourised versions.
With these, the comedy was acting drunk. Fields and Powell seldom, if ever, appeared drunk.Their comedy was in their appetite for liquor. Fields in Never Give A Sucker An Even Break:
Skipper,I use Amazon Prime (with its failings listed below by Ginger), Filmstruck (which in the US is now Criterion, TCM, and has licensed Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros) and sometimes YouTube. When I do pay, I usually go with Amazon (not iTunes) , because there I find the best price.
It might be an Amazon UK thing, Ginger. I don’t find he colorization to be very prevalent in Amazon Prime stream selections, but I do see a lot of “B” selections in there.
I will say this, in the US Flilmstruck is really worth it. I actually signed up when my Warner Archive subscription was ending, and notified me that it was merging with Filmstruck.
What is the gain of the Criterion collection over Filmstuck standard?
EDIT: Nevermind, I found a write up on some of the Criterion content. It’s a lot more older stuff as well as some independent films over a broad range of time.