Movies Watched -- Man of the West (1958)

100 minute running time… I liked The Naked Spur and Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote that he thought Man from the West was Anthony Mann’s greatest western, but I wasn’t thrilled with this… Gary Cooper is too old and he sort of phones in his performance, his heart wasn’t in it (he was dying of cancer after all) … I didn’t realize Julie London the singer was also an actress… Lee J. Cobb chews up the scenery, overacting in every scene (King Lear, I guess) … there were probably a lot of hidden messages in this movie, but I didn’t care … ridiculous fistfight with young Jack Lord where Cooper tries to strip him after beating him (fey Farr: “the famously gritty, rough-and-tumble fight scene”) … I just didn’t think the story was any good, and the acting was so-so. John Farr recommended it too, but I say give it a miss.

“At the time of release, the film was largely panned by American critics [RIGHTFULLY SO!], but it was praised by Jean-Luc Godard [ OH NO, NOT THE FRENCH NEW WAVERS]. Decades after the film's release, it has gained a cult following [OF SUCKERS] and greater acclaim, with film historian Philip French [WHO?] claiming the film to be Anthony Mann's masterpiece [GOD, NO], containing Cooper's finest performance. [NO, THAT WOULD BE HIGH NOON, SIX YEARS EARLIER]”

Julie London and her lovely décolletage

Movies Watched -- They Live (1988)

94 minute running time … John Carpenter movie (the guy who made Halloween) … I think Carpenter was an old hippie who hated the Reagan era and yuppies … this stars Rowdy Roddy Piper, a pro wrestler, maybe he thought he’d break into the movies this way … low budget, bad acting, cheapie special effects, weird and ultimately kind of dumb story, some shotgun violence, a strange alleyway pro wrestling-ish fight scene … I guess this is probably a “cult classic” in some quarters, but you can give it a miss. No idea how it ended up in my queue… surely not a David Lehman reco…

- So your name's Holly? - Holly Thompson. That's a pretty name.

Movies Watched -- L'enfance Nue (1968)

In French. 83 minute running time. A story about a French foster child, a handsome little psychopath named Francois, kind of looked like the kid from The 400 Blows (1959) (which I didn’t like) … anyway he’s a little monster, but not always, so it’s tough to hate him completely … he’s just a screwed-up 10-year-old … I didn’t hate this, but I wouldn’t call it entertaining. I can see why Criterion saved it, since it’s Pialat’s debut movie…

That is Raoul, not Francois, with Agnes, the one attractive female in the movie

Movies Watched -- The Naked Spur (1953)

92 minute running time … I’m not a fan of Westerns generally, but this one wasn’t bad, in fact I’m close to recommending it. Jimmy Stewart, Janet Leigh (pre-Psycho, pre-mom to Jamie Lee Curtis) … villain is played by that big handsome bastard, Robert Ryan, who has a great smartass smirk throughout this movie… filmed in Technicolor in the Rockies, I guess I’ll make it a green-go, John Farr also liked it.

Anthony Mann made two more movies that are in my Permanent Collection: “He Walked By Night,” and “The Furies.”

Can you do me?

Movies Watched -- The 7th Victim (1943)

71 minute running time … Val Lewton (Vladimir Ivanovich Leventon, a Russian Jew) “horror” movie for RKO with Jacques Tourneur (the son of a famous French filmmaker) directing … the story wasn’t any good (demonic cults, come on), but it wasn’t super terrible for a “B” movie … the best Val Lewton movie that I’ve seen is Cat People (part of my permanent collection). You can give this one a miss, unless you’re a Lewton / Tourneur completist.

Not Janet Leigh, 17 years before Psycho

Movies Watched -- The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965)

112 minute running time which means it’s 12 minutes too long and I do wish they had tightened this one up a bit because it’s a good story with some really excellent writing (John le Carré) pretty well told … despite being overly long and plodding at times, this is a green-go, recommended movie. Richard Burton a stage actor, but he does chew up the scenery too badly here. Claire Bloom of course is Jewish. Both John Farr and David Lehman also recommended it, and now I do too.

We're witnessing the lousy end to a filthy, lousy operation to save Mundt's skin... to save him from a clever little Jew

Spoiler:

What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not. They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me. Little men, drunkards, queers, henpecked husbands... civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong? Yesterday I would have killed Mundt because I thought him evil and an enemy. But not today. Today he's evil and my friend. London needs him. They need him so that the great, moronic masses you admire so much... can sleep soundly in their flea-bitten beds again. They need him for the safety of ordinary, crummy people like you and me.

Top Ten Post-WWII Femme Fatale Characters

On the commentary track of Angel Face, Eddie Muller names his top ten femme fatale characters of the post-WWII period. Muller notes that the one common characteristic of all these women is that they did not work.

1. Jane Greer — Out of the Past

2. Rita Hayworth — The Lady from Shanghai

3. Joan Bennett — Scarlet Street

4. Ava Gardner — The Killers

5. Gene Tierney — Leave Her To Heaven

6. Yvonne De Carlo — Criss Cross

7. Marie Windsor — The Killing

8. Ann Savage — Detour

9. Claire Trevor — Murder, My Sweet

10. Jean Simmons — Angel Face

Movies Watched -- Dishonored (1931)

91 minute running time … von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich yet again … Marlene as war widow turned streetwalker turned spy for Austria (World War I) … she’s clearly enjoying herself, and isn’t a bad actress … it’s not terrible, but I can’t recommend it either.

Jonathan Rosenbaum's Alternate List of the 100 Greatest American Movies (sorted chronologically)

I like movies and I like lists, so I especially like lists of movies, especially iconoclastic lists of movies, like this one by Jonathan Rosenbaum from 1998 (sorted chronologically) … there are a lot terrible movies on this list, but also a few good ones:

Intolerance (1916)

Broken Blossoms (1919)

Foolish Wives (1922)

Nanook of the North (1922)

Sherlock Jr. (1924)

Greed (1925)

Sunrise (1927)

The General (1927)

The Crowd (1928)

The Docks of New York (1928)

Lonesome (1929)

Thunderbolt (1929)

Laughter (1930)

Freaks (1932)

Love Me Tonight (1932)

Scarface (1932)

Trouble in Paradise (1932)

Hallelujah, I’m a Bum! (1933)

Man’s Castle (1933)

Judge Priest (1934)

The Black Cat (1934)

The Scarlet Empress (1934)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Sylvia Scarlett (1935)

Make Way for Tomorrow (1937)

The Great Garrick (1937)

Christmas in July (1940)

The Shop Around the Corner (1940)

The Strawberry Blonde (1941)

Cat People (1942)

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

The Seventh Victim (1943)

This Land Is Mine (1943)

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Scarlet Street (1945) Gilda (1946)

Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

Force of Evil (1948)

Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948)

The Lady From Shanghai (1948)

Panic in the Streets (1950)

Stars in My Crown (1950)

The Sound of Fury/Try and Get Me! (1950)

Ace in the Hole/The Big Carnival (1951)

The Steel Helmet (1951)

My Son John (1952)

Park Row (1952)

The Big Sky (1952)

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

The Naked Spur (1953)

Johnny Guitar (1954)

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)

Track of the Cat (1954)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

The Phenix City Story (1955)

Bigger Than Life (1956)

The Killing (1956)

While the City Sleeps (1956)

An Affair to Remember (1957)

The Wrong Man (1957)

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)

The Tarnished Angels (1958)

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Rio Bravo (1959)

Shadows (1960)

The Hustler (1961)

The Ladies’ Man (1961)

Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962)

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

The Nutty Professor (1963)

Vinyl (1965)

Point Blank (1967)

The Shooting (1967)

Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son (1969)

Scenes From Under Childhood (1970)

Woodstock (1970)

Zabriskie Point (1970)

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971)

Wanda (1971)

Avanti! (1972)

The Heartbreak Kid (1972)

Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (1974)

11 x 14 (1976)

Mikey and Nicky (1976)

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)

Last Chants for a Slow Dance (1977)

Eraserhead (1978)

Killer of Sheep (1978)

The Scenic Route (1978)

Real Life (1979)

Love Streams (1984)

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

Housekeeping (1987)

Do the Right Thing (1989)

To Sleep With Anger (1990)

That’s Entertainment! III (1994)

Dead Man (1995)

Movies Watched -- Bigger Than Life (1956)

95 minute running time … this is a strange one from Nicholas Ray made during the McCarthy era … Ray is interested in obliquely criticizing American middle class conformity among other things: pharmaceutical drug abuse, white privilege, racism, the nuclear family, domesticity, the medical establishment, the benefits of drinking whole milk, the public education system, homosexuality (Walter Matthau’s incredible physique from smoking two packs a day), class distinctions, all kinds of stuff. What I took away from this is that Barbara Rush had great tits.

I can’t recommend this, but it was sort of interesting and definitely a movie mainstream critics would ever recommend or even mention. It’s probably considered a “cult classic” in some quarters.

“… it's only fair to tell you that if we don't get a whole lot of high-class service, and in a hurry there's likely to be a terribly embarrassing scene in this sanctum.”