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Previously on MovieFanFare guest blogger Karen Burroughs Hannsberry presented an assortment of her favorite film noir quotes. Today she's back with more of her favorite selections of hard-boiled dialogue:
You gotta love the language of film noir. Hard-boiled, cynical, straight to the point and unmistakable — this era of filmmaking offers some of the best quotes in all cinema. Here, I offer for your consideration, Part 2 of my favorite noir quotes — and these ain’t no idle threats . . .
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Guest blogger Marsha Collock writes:
Why do we love pre-Code films? Fast pace? Check. Great stories? Check. Great casts? Check again. Oh, come on. Let's be honest. It's the sex, depravity and lingerie!
I consider all pre-Code films guilty pleasures. Each generation seems to think it is the first to discover sex. To be honest, the biggest kick I get out of pre-Code films is the fact that we are seeing depravity and sex before the big Hollywood clean up. It's kind of like watching a movie of your grandparents dirty dancing. Many of the pre-Codes are terrific and have marvelous stars, but I'm being honest when I say I'm in it for the sex, drugs, depravity, slips and frilly undergarments. There.
That being said, Three on a Match, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, is one of my favorite pre-Codes. It has all of the above-mentioned ingredients, plus kidnapping, child neglect and so much more. And - it's all done in 63 minutes. It comes from my favorite 1930s studio, Warner Brothers. Their early 1930s films have that make-it-quick "ripped from today's headlines" look, but are loaded with so much talent that these tawdry stories are elevated to an art form. In 1932, the year of Three on a Match, the Warner's roster consisted of James Cagney, Paul Muni, Edward G. Robinson and our delicious cast of characters.
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Guest blogger Julie Sesnovich writes:
They can't all be winners.
Even the strongest, smartest, most talented directors will misfire occasionally. It happens, and it's forgivable. But what about the works that lie between masterpiece and failure? The films that, far from being nonentities, are proudly second-tier? It often seems that you can learn more about a director from these films than from their best works. Sometimes in plumbing the depths of a director's filmography I'll discover a film that I either consider generally underrated or actually superior to the anointed classics. But that's not what I'm talking about here - today I'm celebrating films that, despite being far from the big leagues, are still worth your time. After all, you have to have SOMEWHERE to turn after you've seen all of the best and brightest. So here are some of my favorite second-tier films, listed by director - because "minor (name of director)" doesn't always have to be an insult.
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Guest blogger David Lobosco writes:
Cary Grant (1904-1986), in my humble opinion, is the patron saint of all leading man. Sure, there were actors out there that might have had more of an acting range, but Cary could make any movie he was in seem great. It took a lot of work for him to get the scenes just right, but when the audience sees the finished work on the screen, he made it look so easy. That is a person who has a great understanding of his craft.
The following is a list of my five favorite Cary Grant films:
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Guest blogger Allen Hefner writes:
There are many names that shine when you think of silent movies. Buster Keaton (1895 - 1966) is certainly one of them. But he was not always a star. In fact, his star shown brightest for only a few years in his long acting career of over 150 titles.
Joseph Frank Keaton started acting at age three in his parents' vaudeville act, often appearing on bills with Harry Houdini (1974 - 1926), who may or may not have given young "Buster" his nickname. From what I have read, it was a tough act for Buster, who was tossed about and manhandled on stage in the act in search of laughs. He took all the punishment, and always came up with his stone face in the end, a trait he never lost. His father's problem with alcohol finally ended the act, and I hope it was before Buster was seriously injured.
His first small part in film came in a 1917 short, The Butcher Boy, starring rotund comic Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (1887 - 1933). The two became fast friends and, over the next several years, would appear in over 20 films together.
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Guest blogger Brian (aka Classicfilmboy) writes:
I grew up in a small central Illinois town with no movie theater. So, as a kid with five older siblings, going to the movies was a rare treat, as it was nearly impossible for my parents to logistically corral all of us and find a film that worked for everyone.
Prior to turning eight, I remember being taken on two excursions, both involving Disney films at Peoria theaters that no longer exist: The Love Bug at the Peoria Drive-In (where I spent more time playing with siblings) and Never a Dull Moment at the Rialto (where I fell asleep).
Still, through all of my older brothers and sisters, I was aware of movies, even if I wasn’t old enough to see them. In 1972, one of my sisters saw What’s Up, Doc? with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal and reported back that it was appropriate for the family, which my parents verified by checking the ratings in the Catholic Post.
So, on one spring evening before turning nine, my family went to the Fox Theatre for “What’s Up, Doc?” and it holds the esteemed honor of being the first film for grown-ups that I ever saw.
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Guest blogger David Lobosco writes:
The movie Some Like It Hot (1959) is one of the great classic comedies of all time, so it's almost pointless to write a review of the film. However, I recently watched it on TV and even though this film is over 50 years old, it is still one of the finest comedies Hollywood ever produced. I watched the film as I was going to sleep in bed, and needless to say I stayed up to the very end of the movie. I just had to!
The film is a remake by Billy Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond of a 1935 French movie, Fanfare d'Amour, from the story by Robert Thoeren and Michael Logan, which was itself remade in 1951 by German director Kurt Hoffmann as Fanfaren der Liebe. However, both the French and German films were without the gangsters that are an integral part of the plot of Some Like It Hot. Wilder's working title for his film was Fanfares of Love, then Not Tonight, Josephine before he decided on Some Like It Hot as its release title.
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Guest blogger The Lady Eve writes:
I'm looking forward to spending some time with one of my favorite families over the coming Thanksgiving weekend, Hannah and Her Sisters (as well as her other relatives and friends).
Hannah and Her Sisters, Woody Allen's, by turns clever and outright hilarious 1986 classic, has been judged by many as his best film of the 1980s, but I think it might well be the best of his best work. Allen's own Oscar-winning script is a tour-de-force testament to his dazzling facility as a screenwriter - with a record 14 screenplay Oscar nominations to his credit, he's won two (the first for Annie Hall in 1977). Two members of the film's superb ensemble cast, Dianne Wiest and Michael Caine, were awarded supporting Oscars for their portrayals. Allen himself delivers one of his very best performances, and Max von Sydow (who has some of the film's best lines, which is saying something) and Lloyd Nolan are especially memorable in slightly-more-than-cameo roles.
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Guest blogger Will Silver writes:
From the moment in 1987 when I first heard the title RoboCop, I knew that I had to see this film. I never saw it in the theater, but I clearly remember renting it shortly after its VHS release. Re-watching it now, I’m a bit shocked that I was even allowed to watch such a violent movie at the time. Perhaps this one rental spawned my obsession over horror movies and physical gore FX. I hadn’t watched RoboCop in about four or five years, so obviously a re-watch was my destiny. This was all put on the fast track when conversing with a couple of co-workers, and we discovered that one of us had never seen it. We’re all roughly the same age, so there is an expectation that we’ve all seen the big cinematic touchstones of our times such as RoboCop. How do you get through the 80s as a male and not see RoboCop? We hounded him to watch the film, assuring him that it was actually a very good film and one hell of an action movie.
This all led me to re-watch the film myself, and even I was not prepared for just how good this film is. I watched it twice in the space of a couple of days. Beyond the cool gun and all that macho shit, it’s actually an impeccably well-made movie. There are loads of incredible Steadicam tracking shots, most notably during the opening section of the film in the police locker room and in the OCP board room. Paul Verhoeven’s shot selection and framing is perfect and RoboCop is easily one of the best edited action films of all time. It even got nominated for a Best Editing Oscar, if you can believe that! I’d buy that for a dollar!
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Guest blogger Rick 29 writes:
At Mushnick’s Florist, a small flower shop on skid row, Seymour (Jonathan Haze) is an unassuming employee. To avoid losing his job, he brings in a special plant he’s been nursing. The plant, Audrey Junior -- named after Seymour’s beautiful co-worker, Audrey (Jackie Joseph) -- is frail and apparently dying. Seymour’s care seems to have no effect until that evening at the shop when, quite by accident, Seymour learns that Audrey Junior is responsive to his blood. The strange plant brings in some customers, but it quickly returns to its feeble state. Seymour considers his next move, and Audrey Junior clears up his indecision by stating bluntly, “Feed me.” That night, the lowly employee is lucky enough to happen upon an accidental death, and Audrey Junior grows in size and popularity. Meanwhile, the plant’s appeal for sustenance is vigorous and persistent, and suddenly Seymour is at a loss as to where he might find food. But let’s face it: with a sadistic dentist (John Shaner) who enjoys inflicting pain on his patients, how hard can it be?
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MovieFanFare is thrilled to have Leonard Maltin returning for another guest post today:
It’s a cultural crime that the greatest comedy team of all time has been so forsaken on DVD…until now. Therefore, I’m happy to report that Laurel & Hardy The Essential Collection (Vivendi) fully lives up to its name. It includes all of the team’s talkie shorts—including the ones they made in foreign languages for the international market—and most of their feature films for producer Hal Roach. (A handful of these films were released several years ago, but in slipshod fashion, using syndicated TV masters with fade-outs for commercial breaks!)
I know many people who were so desperate to have this material that they purchased all-region DVD players just so they could play the British boxed set of L&H comedies some years ago. That nicely-packaged collection also included colorized editions, which most fans wouldn’t bother to watch.
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Guest blogger Sophie Stephenson writes:
In Sofia Coppola’s films The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, themes of troubled adolescence, nostalgia, romance and distanced family relations are present throughout them all. Other aspects which mark her out as an auteur are trendy music, such as the 80s pop soundtrack that accompanies Marie Antoinette; shooting on location – Versaille in Antoinette and Tokyo in Lost in Translation, the pastel colors which are present in all the above movies; and casting the same actors, mainly Kirsten Dunst.
I think in Bree Hoskin’s article on The Virgin Suicides, the observation by A.O Scott that the film looks as though it has been filmed through a layer of gauze is also true of Lost in Translation. Both films have a certain hazy look about them. In one specific scene in Lost in Translation, we see Bob (Bill Murray) playing golf on a course with a Japanese mountain behind him, the mountain can barely be seen and is very dreamlike. The bright lights of Tokyo are also used to great effect, and the pastel pink colors are evident in Charlotte’s (Scarlett Johansson) lipstick, the flowers she hangs in her hotel room and the wig she adorns when singing karaoke.
Previously on MovieFanFare guest blogger Karen Burroughs Hannsberry presented an assortment of her favorite film noir quotes. Today she's back with more of her favorite selections of hard-boiled dialogue:
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