Old Movies of the '30s, '40s, '50s and '60s.

[Toni]

For Christmas I was bought a Bette Davis boxset. I already owned most of the films but there was one I hadn't yet seen. The Old Maid from 1939. Tonight I watched it. Bette and Miriam Hopkins as battling cousins both hiding a deep secret. Bette is wonderful as per usual. And she does what she does best, playing a woman through her full adult life, starting as a young beauty and going right through to the titular old maid. I don't think I have ever seen a Bette film or performance that bored me. She's just so darn watchable. And in the beginning of this film she's really quite beautiful. Like strikingly so. I'm sure I have seen Miriam Hopkins in other films but I cant think what they were. She seemed almost like a new face to me.

I think I am going to re-watch the rest of the films in the box set over the next few nights. Next up is 1946's Deception.

"The Old Maid" is a great movie in every aspect, though maybe not a masterpiece, but who needs them anyway? I suppose you know about that "other" feud between Davis and Hopkins. The latter was an even bigger b¡tch than Crawford in a bad hair day, Davis told in her memories that she constantly tried to boycott her performance and used every knowledge of the profession that she had to make her look, act and walk worse. It´s a fantastic read, though I´m not sure if she said it about this one or "Old Acquaintance", another underrated and highly entertaining movie, also with Miriam Hopbeech.

Oh and have noticed that Miriam has a certain resemblance with one of our most beloved soap divas...

Of course, Joannie has never (and never will) aged a year since "Knots"...
​

About "Deception", wow...it´s delicatessen. Not "The Little Wolves" but, as I said, who needs copycats of other films (aside from today´s producers)? It´s superbly photographed, flawless played and written, and it features the best actors Warner ever had (if Ms. Crawford who is in the Wire-less Heaven allows...): Bette, Claude Rains and Paul Henreid, who was such a handsome man...Oh and the movie has an amazing staircase scene!!! Not to be missed!!

 

[darkshadows38]

"Old Acquaintance" i think is a far better film than Old Maid even though both are brilliant films. having said that one wonders why the studio would put 2 people who hate each others guys and weren't shy about it together not just one time but twice and i forget if they've done other films together. though Bette Davis i dunno when it started but at some point she was able to pick her leading man in whatever picture it was.

i dunno about the leading lady she was going to work with. though she did suggest some names at times though if i'm not mistaken, if people hate each other that much that it's hard to even be in the same room with them without wanting to kill one another even if none of them even say a word to each other beforehand. it's stupid to put them together and yes it did come across the screen when it needed to but still. that had to be one long ass shoot not only for the cast but for the crew as well on both films. Deception though is a favorite of mine too

 

[Jessie]

Watched “East of Eden”

Article :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_of_Eden_(film)
The film stars Julie Harris, James Dean (in his first major screen role), and Raymond Massey . It also features Burl Ives , Richard Davalos , and Jo Van Fleet , and was adapted by paul Osborn.

Although set in early 20th century Monterey, California, much of the film was actually shot on location in Mendocino, California. Some scenes were filmed in the Salinas Valley.

Of the three films in which James Dean played the male lead, this is the only one to have been released during his lifetime and the only one Dean personally viewed in its entirety.

The film, along with Dean's other films Rebel Without a Cause and Giant , has been named by the American Film Institute as one of the best 400 American films of all time. In 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The Trask family have a farm. There are two sons Cal and Aron. They live with their Father the Sons think their Mother is Dead. Cal finds out she is actually alive.

Aron has a girlfriend named Abra who is also attracted to Cal.

Cal is bitter he feels his Father only loves Aron.
I really enjoyed the film, wonderful cast.

I would like to read the books by John Steinbeck.

 

[Jessie]

 

[Jessie]

Trailer

 

[darkshadows38]

east of eden i have not seen actually so i can't say how good or bad it is

 

[Jessie]

I love this movie

The Apartment
C. C. Baxter, a clerk in an insurance company, lends out his apartment to the executives to carry out their extramarital affairs. However, a spanner is thrown in the works when Baxter falls in love.

Starring

• Jack Lemmon
• Shirley MacLaine
• Fred MacMurray
• Jack Kruschen

Shirley MacLaine was awesome in the film so was Jack Lemmon. It is a topic, I could see in films made today. It is pretty shocking that a man lets his Bosses have his apartment on certain nights . They were married men who were having affairs. I loved the neighbours they were funny. It is a movie I would watch again.

 

[Jessie]

Trailer

 

[Jessie]

 

[Seaviewer]

Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) ~ Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball

I saw this on TV recently. It's about two showgirls in burlesque. It's interesting to see the two actresses before their best-known eras. Ball as the star exotic dancer is a somewhat nasty manipulator quite different from the "Lucy" persona she would later develop, while O'Hara maintains a dignity befitting her Miracle on 34th Street mother as she tries to fulfill her real ambition of ballet.

 

[Alexis]

For anyone who is in the UK, the BBC iPlayer has added a load of old RKO Studios movies. Including the original King Kong, Citizen Kane, and Hitchcock's Suspicion and a whole load more. Lots of Cary Grant etc, all from the '30s and '40s.

Last night I watched two Hitchcock films I hadn't seen yet. The first, Suspicion with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. I don't usually like Fontaine but I did in this. She's not as uptight and purse lipped in this which is strange as that's who the character is supposed to be. She's a lot more relaxed in this though than in other films I have saw her in. It was an enjoyable little distraction. Not one of Hitchcock's best but I did enjoy it. Then I found Spellbound on YouTube and watched it straight after. Staring Ingrid Bergman and a Gregory Peck. Who are both stunningly gorgeous in it. I much preferred this film to Suspicion and found that it was suspenseful and thought I was sure that Peck's character wasn't the villain he appears to be, I wasn't expecting the revelation about what happened when he was a child. It was kind of shocking but classic Hitchcock. This made me realise I need t see more of both Bergman's and Peck's films. Two great actors that I somehow forget about.

Last week I also ordered a few films that I had been wanting to see for a long time. Susan Hayward's Tap Roots, which sounds intriguing to say the least. As well as her film I'll Cry Tomorrow. I also bought Barbara Stanwyck's Stella Dallas which I could never seem to find. And the Claudette Colbert version of Cleopatra as it was brought up when discussing historical epics in that thread.

 

[Crimson]

The first, Suspicion with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine. I don't usually like Fontaine but I did in this. She's not as uptight and purse lipped in this which is strange as that's who the character is supposed to be. She's a lot more relaxed in this though than in other films I have saw her in.

Fontaine ranks high among my least favorite classic film actors, possibly right behind Deborah Kerr. Unlike Kerr -- who always seemed to be the same -- I have a harder time explaining why I dislike Fontaine. Her technique as an actress was solid; she may have been even more varied than Olivia. Fontaine could be fey, fluttery, skittish, uptight or bold, as the role required; but no matter her approach, I find her work un-enjoyable. That she (rarely) seemed to relax on screen may be the explanation.

 

[Crimson]

Last night, a double feature of DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) and MY LITTLE CHICKADEE (1940), two westerns made by Universal with major stars from the early 30s whose careers had declined.

DESTRY has been called a comedy-western (or even, weirdly, a spoof), but it's a pretty straightforward western with a sense of humor. James Stewart gives one of his least mannered performances, and Dietrich is at her liveliest. She could be an awfully good actress but, in most of her films, doesn't seem to bother.

DESTRY was a career revival Dietrich but CHICKADEE, an even bigger hit, did nothing for Mae West's career; she would make only one more forgettable film before retiring from the screen for decades. She wrote the script and shrewdly negotiated better billing for herself, but WC Fields stole the film. His solo sequences are hilarious, while hers are only mildly amusing. In their shared scenes, they make a great pair; but she is largely reduced to his straight-man.

For relatively cheaply made films (Universal was just a step above a poverty-row studio in those days), both movies are surprisingly well filmed with lush cinematography and some impressive depth of field camera work.

 

[Alexis]

I am isolating for 10 days as my brother and stepdad both have covid. I was very bored and have watched a few old films that I just thought I should try and see while I have little to do. The first was Another Time Another Place, a British/American film starring a young Sean Connery who somehow even then looks older than me now. He's gorgeous in it, but doesn't look 28! It must have been an early role for him, and pre-Bond. The big star of the film was Lana Turner and she's well, Lana Turner in it. It also featured Glynis Johns as Sean Connery's widow. Lana Turner is having an affair with Connery and then when he dies she goes back to his home town in England for some inexplicable reason and then goes and stays with his widow and their son. It's very strange, and none of the plot felt natural or logical. I couldn't work out why in the world anyone would do what Lana Turner's character would do. It was a dull melodramatic semi soapy story. I most shocked and also impressed to find Syd James from the Carry On films pop up in it. Syd James and Lana Turner!

I also watched How To Steal A Million with Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole. I just wanted something kooky from the '60s to watch with pretty sets and not too much emotional investment. I love these kind of films from that time. Gorgeous to look at and not at all taxing on the mind.

Then I watched finally, Reflections In A Golden Eye, with Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. I had wanted to see the film for years and finally watched it on Amazon Prime. It was alright, though it was only about half way through I realised it was supposed to be set in the 1940s. I thought it was meant to be contemporary (to the 1960s) as Elizabeth Taylor is wearing totally '60s fashions and has very bouffant quaffed '60s hair do with a long ebony fall and headband. That was distracting once I new it was supposed to be the '40s. Why did they always do this in the 1960s?

Brando is still really attractive in it playing a henpecked cuckold husband of Taylor's who's fabulously taunting and goading. She oozes sex appeal and likes to walk around naked and belittle him. He's a closeted homosexual, though given the times it's all very implied and hinted at. I don't normally like remakes but I think this story could do with one where things are a bit less vague. It's a really weird plot. Julie Harris plays the wife of the man Taylor is almost openly having an affair with. Harris' character has some mental disorder that's not really specified. She probably had depression after the loss of her baby, but she's very erratic and has cut off her nipples with garden shears. I told you it was weird. There is also a very handsome, gorgeous soldier who likes to ride around an army base naked on Liz Taylors, wild stallion Firebird. A horse that Brando can't tame or ride, I guess this symbolises his impotence and lack of manliness, despite him being a high ranking military man. The film was bonkers but I did really enjoy it. I have been on a bit of an Elizabeth Taylor kick recently. I also watched her film Ash Wednesday, with Henry Fonda as her husband and Helmut Berger as a eurotrash playboy. The kind of character he should have been on Dynasty but lord knows that's all been said before. Ash Wednesday is from the early 1970s though. I think I liked it much more than Reflections. It has a particularly gorgeous score, and main theme. The film feels small and intimate even though it's filmed in some gorgeous locations and has expansive shots.

 

[Crimson]

Why did they always do this in the 1960s?

It is an oddity of 1960s cinema that they couldn't put aside current fashion trends for something reasonably historically accurate. I suppose all films set in the past are filtered through the lens of the 'present', but it was so distracting in the 60s.

This doesn't exactly scream 1935 does it?

 

[Alexis]

It is an oddity of 1960s cinema that they couldn't put aside current fashion trends for something reasonably historically accurate. I suppose all films set in the past are filtered through the lens of the 'present', but it was so distracting in the 60s.

This doesn't exactly scream 1935 does it?

View attachment 28391

That's from Harlow isn't it? Yea, that's an awfully distracting film because of how it looks. It's so distracting because the styles of the 1960s fashion, hair and makeup even are so of that time that it just eats up the screen and takes you out of the feeling.

 

[ClassyCo]

HARLOW is a pretty bad film, even though I actually liked Carroll Baker as Jean.

 

[Crimson]

I liked Carroll Baker more in THE CARPETBAGGERS than in HARLOW, although, again, she's playing a 1930s movie star while looking purely early 1960s. Plus, the movie is ponderous; more interesting in theory than actuality.

 

[ClassyCo]

Yeah, every time I think about that movie (HARLOW, that is) I think about how Marilyn Monroe had signed to do a biopic on Jean Harlow shortly before she passed in August 1962.

Monroe had longed to play Harlow, but it wasn't to be.​

 

[darkshadows38]

iv'e never seen Harlow at all to be honest