Classic movies discussion thread

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Kristatos
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Classic movies discussion thread

Post by Kristatos »

From a brand new movie to a very, very old one. I watched The Scarlet Pimpernel on TV the other day, one of those classic movies that I'd somehow never seen before. I only watched it because there was nothing else on, but to my surprise, actually found it hugely enjoyable, despite its great age. Leslie Howard was terrific as both the heroic Pimpernel and his foppish alter ego, Sir Percy Blakeney, and Merle Oberon was incredibly beautiful as Lady Blakeney. It was a lot more fun than the TV series with Richard E. Grant. I normally like Grant, but found his performance mannered and irritating in that show.
Last edited by Kristatos on Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Classic movies discussion thread

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My recent post about The Scarlet Pimpernel looked a little out of place in the "Last Movie You Watched" thread, which is mostly about more recent films. So I thought I'd start a new thread especially for discussion of older movies and move it here.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

Post by carl stromberg »

How about Lisbon starring Ray Milland? Is that a classic film? I love watching Ray Milland. It also starred Claude Raines who turned in one of the campest turns in cinema history.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

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carl stromberg wrote:How about Lisbon starring Ray Milland? Is that a classic film?
I was really using "classic" to denote age rather than quality, like a classic car. I haven't seen Lisbon (at least not that I remember), so I can't really comment on whether it deserves classic status or not. Of course, different people will have different opinions on what constitutes an "old movie" as well. For example, a teenager might count A New Hope, whereas for me, it's a film I saw in the cinema as a kid, on its initial release. I'll have to see what Leonard Maltin uses as the cut-off date for including a film in his Classic Movies Guide, as opposed to the standard TV Movies and Video Guide (though the latter also includes the genuine classics like Casablanca, Citizen Kane and the rest of the canon of great movies as defined by critical consensus).
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

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I checked and it's 1960. Arbitrary, perhaps, but as good a date as any.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

Post by carl stromberg »

I watched Mysterious Island, the adaption of the Jules Verne book. Some American Civil War partcipants escape on a balloon, get caught in a storm, and end up on an island with giant animals. It always reminds me of the Tintin book The Shooting Star. The music is by Bernie Hermann, and Herbert Lom plays Captain Nemo!

I always used to buy the Leonard Maltin film guide every year.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

Post by katied »

The Leonard Maltin book is a good one to have on hand.

I think you guys have Turner Classic Movies in the UK? I have been liking the U.S. version. They have really good movies on there and sometimes they'll have whole days dedicated to a certain actor or director.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

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katied wrote:The Leonard Maltin book is a good one to have on hand.

I think you guys have Turner Classic Movies in the UK? I have been liking the U.S. version. They have really good movies on there and sometimes they'll have whole days dedicated to a certain actor or director.
Yeah, we have TCM over here, but unfortunately, it's not in our channel lineup :cry:
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

Post by katied »

Yeah, we have TCM over here, but unfortunately, it's not in our channel lineup :cry:
Ah,that's too bad.

My parents like watching it on Saturday nights.They had an old Gene Hackman movie( The Conversation ) on a couple of Saturdays ago.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

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Just found a DVD I didn't know I had, one of those free ones that comes with the Sunday papers. It was the 1950s version of Moby Dick, starring Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart, directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Huston and Ray Bradbury, which I hadn't seen in many years. The film stands as a rebuke to those purists who regard fidelity to the source novel as the sole criterion for whether a literary adaptation is any good or not. Great chunks of Herman Melville's mystical prose is quoted verbatim. Trouble is, while it may read great on the page, it simply doesn't work as movie dialogue, sounding stilted and unnatural (Peck himself has said as much). I haven't seen the more recent TV version with Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab, so I don't know how it compares.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

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Kristatos wrote:Just found a DVD I didn't know I had, one of those free ones that comes with the Sunday papers. It was the 1950s version of Moby Dick, starring Gregory Peck and Richard Basehart, directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Huston and Ray Bradbury, which I hadn't seen in many years. The film stands as a rebuke to those purists who regard fidelity to the source novel as the sole criterion for whether a literary adaptation is any good or not. Great chunks of Herman Melville's mystical prose is quoted verbatim. Trouble is, while it may read great on the page, it simply doesn't work as movie dialogue, sounding stilted and unnatural (Peck himself has said as much). I haven't seen the more recent TV version with Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab, so I don't know how it compares.
I don't buy any weekend newspapers so do not ge the free DVDs! I can't remember seeing this so presumably it has not been on the telly for year.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

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I watched The Day The Earth Stood Still with the fascist robots!
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

Post by carl stromberg »

I watched the classic film noir Build My Gallows High (which is called Out of the Past outside of the UK!) with Robert Mitchum on Bank Hoiday Monday. I watched it in the afternoon and I do think it is better to watch it late at night.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

Post by carl stromberg »

I watched the 1941 classic The Ghost Train - always makes me laugh.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

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carl stromberg wrote:I watched the 1941 classic The Ghost Train - always makes me laugh.
Written by Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey from Dad's Army), IIRC.
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Re: Classic movies discussion thread

Post by carl stromberg »

Kristatos wrote:
carl stromberg wrote:I watched the 1941 classic The Ghost Train - always makes me laugh.
Written by Arnold Ridley (Private Godfrey from Dad's Army), IIRC.
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