There is a composer named Robert Israel, who also did several Harold Lloyd / Buster Keaton comedies. You can tell apart his work that he primarily uses theatre organ. The music you remember - is it an orchestra or just an organ or piano?
It's a bit of both. It seemed to have the Hooray for Harold Lloyd theme as an opener, but without the lyrics dubbed over if I recall. Then it had a piano-like pleasant dawdling sort of tune for when Harold might be chatting up a girl or going behind the boss's back. It had a ragtime fast number for the chase scenes at the end, plus a ponderous, melancholic melody for moments of suspense. I can whistle them all, but what use is that! I just assumed that was the music the films always came with.
watching LTK as I type...it's been too long, Commander Bond...
seriously, I've been neglecting our man FAR too much lately...
Shame on you!
My oldest son (14) has company sleeping over tonight, so we just watched QoS B-) His buddy had seen CR, but not the follow-up...dads like me live for this Good time had by all...
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
watching LTK as I type...it's been too long, Commander Bond...
seriously, I've been neglecting our man FAR too much lately...
Shame on you!
My oldest son (14) has company sleeping over tonight, so we just watched QoS B-) His buddy had seen CR, but not the follow-up...dads like me live for this Good time had by all...
*hangs head in shame*
I always do love showing Bond to my friends. I remember when some friends and I went to see CR for the first time...the credits rolled and they IMMEDIATELY turned to me and went "well?" ) saw it a further 13 times in theater...must have been good.
Hey! Observer! You trying to get yourself Killed?
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
Things had been quiet on the Bond in my house of late, but he's getting a revival...last week we had another friend of my sons over, and we watched TMWTGG...maybe time for some old-school Connery B-)
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Well, I haven't quite had the same respect for John Barry since he score Howard the Duck
I need glasses, I thought that said scored with Howard the Duck.
Awaydays
Totally taken by surprise by this. It's a film about football hooliganism so I was expecting more Danny Dyer type garbage, but this is a sensitive coming-of-age tale set in the post-punk era. Ex-art school ponce joins a bunch of football hooligans led by the menacing JJ (Stephen Graham) as they spend away games fighting with opposing fans. One of his comrades is a troubled music lover with a taste for heroin and an impossible dream of escaping to Berlin for a new life. He's also gay and in love with the protagonist, who never even begins to understand this though one of the few female characters in the film picks up on this straight away. The soundtrack is great; who knew Ultravox were once quite good before they went all Vienna bombastic?
SpectreIsland and I are astronomy buffs and 3D buffs so we decided to check out this film now playing at Imax theaters across the country about the Hubble Space Telescope. Clocking in at about 60 minutes, the movie chronicles Hubble's history, its many discoveries and the Space Shuttle missions undertaken to repair and refurbish the telescope, Hubble 3D is an eye-popping experience that is also quite educational.
The movie uses a combination of live action footage (much of which was actually shot in space with an Imax 3D camera) and CGI imagery to come about as close as possible to making you feel like you're taking a trip into outer space. You get to travel into Earth orbit to witness the shuttle missions close up and even to the furthest depths of outer space to see planets, galaxies, nebulae and stars being born, all based on images taken from Hubble. Several sequences were practically vertigo inducing including a clever CG rendering of how one space shuttle might launch a rescue mission if something ever went amiss. The 3D effect is quite convincing; the 70' x 65' screen fills your peripheral vision and the imagery often seems to be mere inches in front of you.
If you have an interest in science or astronomy, or are looking to take the kids to something a little more educational than the usual movie-going fare, check it out.
Ghost Writer with Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Ewan’s character is hired to replace a writer who dies unexpectedly before being able to finish ghost writing the memoirs of a former prime minister played by Brosnan. Shortly after starting work McGregor starts to uncover secrets that lead him to believe his predecessor may have been murdered. This is a good political thriller that is definitely worth seeing.
"A blunt instrument wielded by a Government department. Hard, ruthless, sardonic, fatalistic. He likes gambling, golf, fast motor cars. All his movements are relaxed and economical". Ian Fleming
Excellent film, full of tension and extremely efficient, with nary a scene nor word of dialogue wasted. Jeremy Renner is extraordinary as the lead bomb technician who is by turns cocky (but never cavalier) and overwhelmed. The rushes of adrenaline he gets -- which are both helpful and harmful -- are palpable. I'm not sure it is the tour de force the Academy would have us believe, but it is well worth 130 minutes of anyone's time.
Timeless (aside from a poster of Definitely Maybe on a bedroom wall) French movie by the late Eric Rohmer, who came to my attention on account of his snuffing it this year. I confused him with Eric von Stroheim, though the name ER is a pseudonym taken by the director, who was a lecuturer on film and named himself after other directors.
It's a really lovely tale about a holidaying student, a bit adrift and morose like Benji in The Graduate, who arrives on the north coast of France and meets a waitress who is studying too. It's summer, natch, and the plot thickens from there. Shallow to say, but the two main gals in it are very appealing, and you see them in their bikinis but there's no Baywatch rubbish, they've got a bit of meat on them and a bit flat chested, very sensuous and unHollywood mind. Being a French film it goes at its own pace and has no great resolution at the end (I tend to attribute this gallic shrug style to being a victim in the war, unlike Anglo-Hollywood stuff where there has to be a 'victory' and conclusion to the storyline).
Topaz
This Hitchcock film got a good review a few pages back, but I can't go with it. It's a mess. It's Hitch in the 1960s Cold War era, a bit James Bond, a bit Harry Palmer, but this is neither fish nor fowl. These Cold War thrillers have to be one way or another; the arrogant chauvinistic swagger of Bond, a propoganda vehicle, or the Harry Palmer downbeat we're all as bad as each other, nobody wins miseryfest (which ironically QoS somewhat resembled).
The lack of star power hurts, but more than that you can't quite see for the first 30 mins who the main protagonist is meant to be. The actor it turns out to be is handsome in a bland sort of way, makes George Lazenby seem like Cary Grant. Actually the actor talks a bit like Grant, and has the confused narrowing of the eyes you saw Roger Moore do all the time. YOLT's Karin Dor shows up, and enjoys the pivotal Hitchcock classic scene - she doesn't look too Cuban however. Ironically, the most sympathetic, charismatic actor is the Cuban villain, a Fidel Castro lookalike. Otherwise, way too much plot and exposition and the sense of it going on forever, rather like Exodus, another story by Leon Uris. Some of this film really is quite ridiculous and you sense Hitch is just going through the motions to get it finished. The problem with the Cold War thing is that Hitch's protagonists, having been wrongly branded guilty, were more often than not up against the Establishment, or wolves posing as Establishment figures. You don't really get this here.
Some awful back projection too. The music, by Maurice Jarre, is mostly awful too, intrusive and inappropriately comic at times. Hitch shot a few endings, available to watch on the DVD with a good documentary by Leonard Maltin.
A 1952 film starring Errol Flynn as a Royal Navy Officer sent to infiltrate the pirate stronghold of Madagascar. Anthony Quinn is Captain Brasiliano one of the top pirates of Madagascar and Maureen O’Hara is Spitfire Stevens, another top pirate who once shot a man in a formal dual for putting his hands on her. It isn’t long before O’Hara sets her sights on Flynn, however Quinn has his sights on O’Hara.
The movie is at its best when O’Hara with her thigh high boots and Flynn with his featured hat are on screen together. They have great chemistry and O’Hara really is a spitfire, looking quite handy with a sword. The film has some twists and turns and even though you pretty much know how it is going to end, it is fun getting there.
Maureen O’Hara will be 90 this year and has been involved in film since 1938, according to IMDB she rumored to be playing a role in a film called Connemara Days. She is one of my favorites and I cannot believe she has never received a life time achievement award from the Academy. God bless her.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
I still have a crush on Maureen O'Hara :x
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Sort of easy to mix up, as she was opposite Scarlet O'Hara, and they're the same vintage, but there was an interview with Olivia De Havilland in the Evening Standard magazine last Friday.
planning to watch the GOOD "version" (I really don't want to have to say version when talking about this movie, it's a disgrace that Hollywood felt like remaking it...) of DEATH AT A FUNERAL tonight.
I fully plan to boycott this remake.
Hey! Observer! You trying to get yourself Killed?
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
edited March 2010
"Valkyrie"
Had the opportunity to read this script a few months before the film came out, and was very impressed with writer Christopher McQuarrie's work---tight and economical, not overwrought or overblown; a wise decision to let history carry the narrative. The story is about the last of more than a dozen attempts (by Germans) to assassinate Adolf Hitler, centering on Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a hero of the Third Reich's ill-fated North African campaign, and his recruitment by the German resistance movement. One element in the script which ended up being given short shrift in the film was Stauffenberg's relationship with his wife (probably trimmed for length, to keep the running time at 120 minutes), which is unfortunate, as it gave an extra bit of depth to the man.
Clearly Tom Cruise is miscast here, although I actually thought his performance was quite good. The others---Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp and Eddie Izzard---are also excellent. The direction by Bryan Singer is also solid, and a nice departure from his recent forays into superherodom.
Like many true stories set in this place and time, a haunting irony seems to cast a shadow over the events. If the meeting had been held in the bunker instead of the cottage (but it wasn't)...if the briefcase hadn't been placed behind the wooden beam (but it was)...if Hitler hadn't had the luck of the devil (but he did)...there's no telling how many lives would have been saved---on all sides of the European war---if Hitler hadn't lived those extra nine months.
3.5 out of 5 stars...and if you think this needed spoiler tags, read some history
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Another pirate swashbuckling tale, this one from 1942 starring Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara. Former pirate Henry Morgan, played by Laird Cregar, is made Governor of Jamaica with the understanding that he will resolve the pirate issues. The former Governor and some other politicians suspect Morgan wants to aid, not capture the pirates, so Morgan enlists the help of his fellow pirate Tyrone Power to hunt down the remaining pirates to prove Morgan’s worthiness.
O’Hara is the daughter of the former Governor and is involved with another leading politician that opposes Morgan so she has no use for the former pirates, but Tyrone Power has an eye for her and spends time trying to charm her away. He doesn’t make much progress so before sailing away to take on the pirates, he kidnaps her and takes her with. While on board they have several confrontations, but later due to some unfortunate events and for their own survival they are forced to pretend they are married, which is when O’Hara starts to fall for Power.
This is the second pirate movie I have seen in the last few nights that stared O’Hara alongside well known leading men. IMO, Against All Flags was the more entertaining movie as in that film O’Hara was a handful, challenging men and sword fighting right alongside the other pirates. In The Black Swan, she is more of proper lady, a little more reserved which when placed alongside Tyrone Power who does not have the screen presence of Errol Flynn reduces the charm of the film. It is still an enjoyable picture, just not as fun as Against All Flags.
I rented it because I understand it is similar to Captain Blood, being set in the same era (late 1600s) only being about an ex-pirate who has gone straight and is part of the Establishment,
as Flynn's fictional pirate is at the end of his film
Hope you enjoy it NP and my apologies if I spoiled anything, didn't figure on someone watching it right after I did. Looking forward to your review.
Let me add that at about the 30 minute mark there is a scene where the camera gets quite a revealing shot under O'Hara's skirt. Just a little something to keep you paying attention.
watched RED DRAGON last night for about the billionth time...
this movie never fails to give me shivers...prequel to the Silence of the Lambs.
Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes are all superb.
the last line ALWAYS gets me.
Personally I prefer its original version, Michael Mann's "Manhunter". It has the typical 80's atmosphere and music which really appeals to me. But hey, each his own :007)
Hope you enjoy The Black Swan NP and my apologies if I spoiled anything, didn't figure on someone watching it right after I did. Looking forward to your review.
Let me add that at about the 30 minute mark there is a scene where the camera gets quite a revealing shot under O'Hara's skirt. Just a little something to keep you paying attention.
It's hardly Basic Instinct is it!
I watched this last night. It's visually sumptious, with all the glorious satuated colour of Flynn's Robin Hood, but didn't feature in the two seafaring films of his, Captain Blood or The Sea Hawk. There are some great shots of the ships coming into bay in South America and Tortuga Islands.
Though Captain Morgan - who would later give his name to a brand of rum - features, I found it hard to place the film, but it's set prior to Captain Blood, around the time of Charles II, that's about 1660ish.
But for me the film was let down by its leads. Tyrone Power I've not seen much of though the name is famous; on this showing I can see why. He is handsome - a cross between George Clooney, Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jnr, and is handy with a sword, but is very bland. Flynn had a number of different modes: flirtation, righteous anger, goading one-upmanship with villains, and a strangely thoughtful, reasoning way about him; Power has none at all.
I didn't fancy Maureen O'Hara much, though she looks good in the picture above. I like a certain hauteur when it hints of erotic depths, but here it's just hauteur and the battle of sexes between them, where she wants nothing to do with him, is painful to watch because there's no sexual chemistry between the two. Unfortunately the battle of sexes lasts almost the entire duration of the movie. I wasn't crazy about the plot either - pirate goes straight, wow! but it does get going after an hour.
I think NP's review is about spot on. O'Hara and Powers do not have much chemistry, nothing like O'Hara had with John Wayne in the many films they did or Errol Flynn in Against All Flags. Power's screem charisma is minimal, you are not drawn to him like you are with Flynn. O'Hara is probably my all time favorite actress, but in this film she is playing the part of a proper lady and is subdued, O'Hara is best when playing a firecracker, also she look better in her natural red hair. Having said that, I did enjoy the film. Looking forward to seeing her in The Spanish Main, Sinbad the Sailor and At Sword's Point.
watched RED DRAGON last night for about the billionth time...
this movie never fails to give me shivers...prequel to the Silence of the Lambs.
Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes are all superb.
the last line ALWAYS gets me.
Personally I prefer its original version, Michael Mann's "Manhunter". It has the typical 80's atmosphere and music which really appeals to me. But hey, each his own :007)
I haven't seen MANHUNTER...I'll have to go check it out sometime.
The Black Swan rules. I only wish the production wasn't restricted to filming on lakes rather then take to U-boat infested oceans.
George Sanders vs Tyrone Power. (the tragic irony being Power suffered a stroke and died years later while filming another sword duel with Sanders)
Tyrone Power isn't Errol Flynn. He's Jamie boy! And he's awesome. Get that straight Naps.
Sorry, that's all I have to say.
Jamie Boy! 8-) You gonna make me say it three times?
I hadn't realised this was a 1942 film, it did seem a decade later. I was wondering what you meant by U-boat infested seas. I wonder what became of the footage of that film? Today I was thinking about films that died in the making: Laughton's I Claudius, Flynn's William Tell, arguably Warhead... Great Films That Never Were.
There's a charming dvd commentary with Maureen O'Hara. Have you seen Power in the Mark of Zorro, where he and Basil Rathbone give one of the best sword duels ever caught on film?
Cliche and CGI filled "end is near" film that did big box office last spring. The earth's core is overheating and it is about to blow, who will escape with their life and who won't. Along the way we get John Cusack as the unsuccesful divorced dad who gets one last chance to show his wife and kids that they can believe in him. We get a Government bureacrat who has a plan to save only those willing to pay and those deemed necessary, everyone else in expendable. We get the good hearted scientist who wants to try and save everyone, we also get a noble President who will only think about his citiizens. Stop me if you think you have seen this before, because you have.
Now the movie isn't completly a waste of time, because some of the special effects are pretty good, Cusack and Amanda Peete provide some good performances and the writers were smart enough not to make the new husband a total jerk. But, I was expecting something more, something a little more cerebral, instead I got a lot of vehicles moving just fast enough to keep from having the earth swallow them up. I paid a buck for this from the Red Box and I got my dollars worth of entertainment.
Comments
Roger Moore 1927-2017
seriously, I've been neglecting our man FAR too much lately...
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Shame on you!
My oldest son (14) has company sleeping over tonight, so we just watched QoS B-) His buddy had seen CR, but not the follow-up...dads like me live for this
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
*hangs head in shame*
I always do love showing Bond to my friends. I remember when some friends and I went to see CR for the first time...the credits rolled and they IMMEDIATELY turned to me and went "well?"
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I need glasses, I thought that said scored with Howard the Duck.
Awaydays
Totally taken by surprise by this. It's a film about football hooliganism so I was expecting more Danny Dyer type garbage, but this is a sensitive coming-of-age tale set in the post-punk era. Ex-art school ponce joins a bunch of football hooligans led by the menacing JJ (Stephen Graham) as they spend away games fighting with opposing fans. One of his comrades is a troubled music lover with a taste for heroin and an impossible dream of escaping to Berlin for a new life. He's also gay and in love with the protagonist, who never even begins to understand this though one of the few female characters in the film picks up on this straight away. The soundtrack is great; who knew Ultravox were once quite good before they went all Vienna bombastic?
SpectreIsland and I are astronomy buffs and 3D buffs so we decided to check out this film now playing at Imax theaters across the country about the Hubble Space Telescope. Clocking in at about 60 minutes, the movie chronicles Hubble's history, its many discoveries and the Space Shuttle missions undertaken to repair and refurbish the telescope, Hubble 3D is an eye-popping experience that is also quite educational.
The movie uses a combination of live action footage (much of which was actually shot in space with an Imax 3D camera) and CGI imagery to come about as close as possible to making you feel like you're taking a trip into outer space. You get to travel into Earth orbit to witness the shuttle missions close up and even to the furthest depths of outer space to see planets, galaxies, nebulae and stars being born, all based on images taken from Hubble. Several sequences were practically vertigo inducing including a clever CG rendering of how one space shuttle might launch a rescue mission if something ever went amiss. The 3D effect is quite convincing; the 70' x 65' screen fills your peripheral vision and the imagery often seems to be mere inches in front of you.
If you have an interest in science or astronomy, or are looking to take the kids to something a little more educational than the usual movie-going fare, check it out.
Excellent film, full of tension and extremely efficient, with nary a scene nor word of dialogue wasted. Jeremy Renner is extraordinary as the lead bomb technician who is by turns cocky (but never cavalier) and overwhelmed. The rushes of adrenaline he gets -- which are both helpful and harmful -- are palpable. I'm not sure it is the tour de force the Academy would have us believe, but it is well worth 130 minutes of anyone's time.
Timeless (aside from a poster of Definitely Maybe on a bedroom wall) French movie by the late Eric Rohmer, who came to my attention on account of his snuffing it this year. I confused him with Eric von Stroheim, though the name ER is a pseudonym taken by the director, who was a lecuturer on film and named himself after other directors.
It's a really lovely tale about a holidaying student, a bit adrift and morose like Benji in The Graduate, who arrives on the north coast of France and meets a waitress who is studying too. It's summer, natch, and the plot thickens from there. Shallow to say, but the two main gals in it are very appealing, and you see them in their bikinis but there's no Baywatch rubbish, they've got a bit of meat on them and a bit flat chested, very sensuous and unHollywood mind. Being a French film it goes at its own pace and has no great resolution at the end (I tend to attribute this gallic shrug style to being a victim in the war, unlike Anglo-Hollywood stuff where there has to be a 'victory' and conclusion to the storyline).
Topaz
This Hitchcock film got a good review a few pages back, but I can't go with it. It's a mess. It's Hitch in the 1960s Cold War era, a bit James Bond, a bit Harry Palmer, but this is neither fish nor fowl. These Cold War thrillers have to be one way or another; the arrogant chauvinistic swagger of Bond, a propoganda vehicle, or the Harry Palmer downbeat we're all as bad as each other, nobody wins miseryfest (which ironically QoS somewhat resembled).
The lack of star power hurts, but more than that you can't quite see for the first 30 mins who the main protagonist is meant to be. The actor it turns out to be is handsome in a bland sort of way, makes George Lazenby seem like Cary Grant. Actually the actor talks a bit like Grant, and has the confused narrowing of the eyes you saw Roger Moore do all the time. YOLT's Karin Dor shows up, and enjoys the pivotal Hitchcock classic scene - she doesn't look too Cuban however. Ironically, the most sympathetic, charismatic actor is the Cuban villain, a Fidel Castro lookalike. Otherwise, way too much plot and exposition and the sense of it going on forever, rather like Exodus, another story by Leon Uris. Some of this film really is quite ridiculous and you sense Hitch is just going through the motions to get it finished. The problem with the Cold War thing is that Hitch's protagonists, having been wrongly branded guilty, were more often than not up against the Establishment, or wolves posing as Establishment figures. You don't really get this here.
Some awful back projection too. The music, by Maurice Jarre, is mostly awful too, intrusive and inappropriately comic at times. Hitch shot a few endings, available to watch on the DVD with a good documentary by Leonard Maltin.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
A 1952 film starring Errol Flynn as a Royal Navy Officer sent to infiltrate the pirate stronghold of Madagascar. Anthony Quinn is Captain Brasiliano one of the top pirates of Madagascar and Maureen O’Hara is Spitfire Stevens, another top pirate who once shot a man in a formal dual for putting his hands on her. It isn’t long before O’Hara sets her sights on Flynn, however Quinn has his sights on O’Hara.
The movie is at its best when O’Hara with her thigh high boots and Flynn with his featured hat are on screen together. They have great chemistry and O’Hara really is a spitfire, looking quite handy with a sword. The film has some twists and turns and even though you pretty much know how it is going to end, it is fun getting there.
Maureen O’Hara will be 90 this year and has been involved in film since 1938, according to IMDB she rumored to be playing a role in a film called Connemara Days. She is one of my favorites and I cannot believe she has never received a life time achievement award from the Academy. God bless her.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23816660-hollywoods-sweetheart-olivia-de-havilland.do
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I fully plan to boycott this remake.
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Had the opportunity to read this script a few months before the film came out, and was very impressed with writer Christopher McQuarrie's work---tight and economical, not overwrought or overblown; a wise decision to let history carry the narrative. The story is about the last of more than a dozen attempts (by Germans) to assassinate Adolf Hitler, centering on Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a hero of the Third Reich's ill-fated North African campaign, and his recruitment by the German resistance movement. One element in the script which ended up being given short shrift in the film was Stauffenberg's relationship with his wife (probably trimmed for length, to keep the running time at 120 minutes), which is unfortunate, as it gave an extra bit of depth to the man.
Clearly Tom Cruise is miscast here, although I actually thought his performance was quite good. The others---Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp and Eddie Izzard---are also excellent. The direction by Bryan Singer is also solid, and a nice departure from his recent forays into superherodom.
Like many true stories set in this place and time, a haunting irony seems to cast a shadow over the events. If the meeting had been held in the bunker instead of the cottage (but it wasn't)...if the briefcase hadn't been placed behind the wooden beam (but it was)...if Hitler hadn't had the luck of the devil (but he did)...there's no telling how many lives would have been saved---on all sides of the European war---if Hitler hadn't lived those extra nine months.
3.5 out of 5 stars...and if you think this needed spoiler tags, read some history
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Another pirate swashbuckling tale, this one from 1942 starring Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara. Former pirate Henry Morgan, played by Laird Cregar, is made Governor of Jamaica with the understanding that he will resolve the pirate issues. The former Governor and some other politicians suspect Morgan wants to aid, not capture the pirates, so Morgan enlists the help of his fellow pirate Tyrone Power to hunt down the remaining pirates to prove Morgan’s worthiness.
O’Hara is the daughter of the former Governor and is involved with another leading politician that opposes Morgan so she has no use for the former pirates, but Tyrone Power has an eye for her and spends time trying to charm her away. He doesn’t make much progress so before sailing away to take on the pirates, he kidnaps her and takes her with. While on board they have several confrontations, but later due to some unfortunate events and for their own survival they are forced to pretend they are married, which is when O’Hara starts to fall for Power.
This is the second pirate movie I have seen in the last few nights that stared O’Hara alongside well known leading men. IMO, Against All Flags was the more entertaining movie as in that film O’Hara was a handful, challenging men and sword fighting right alongside the other pirates. In The Black Swan, she is more of proper lady, a little more reserved which when placed alongside Tyrone Power who does not have the screen presence of Errol Flynn reduces the charm of the film. It is still an enjoyable picture, just not as fun as Against All Flags.
I rented it because I understand it is similar to Captain Blood, being set in the same era (late 1600s) only being about an ex-pirate who has gone straight and is part of the Establishment,
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Let me add that at about the 30 minute mark there is a scene where the camera gets quite a revealing shot under O'Hara's skirt. Just a little something to keep you paying attention.
this movie never fails to give me shivers...prequel to the Silence of the Lambs.
Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes are all superb.
the last line ALWAYS gets me.
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Personally I prefer its original version, Michael Mann's "Manhunter". It has the typical 80's atmosphere and music which really appeals to me. But hey, each his own :007)
It's hardly Basic Instinct is it!
I watched this last night. It's visually sumptious, with all the glorious satuated colour of Flynn's Robin Hood, but didn't feature in the two seafaring films of his, Captain Blood or The Sea Hawk. There are some great shots of the ships coming into bay in South America and Tortuga Islands.
Though Captain Morgan - who would later give his name to a brand of rum - features, I found it hard to place the film, but it's set prior to Captain Blood, around the time of Charles II, that's about 1660ish.
But for me the film was let down by its leads. Tyrone Power I've not seen much of though the name is famous; on this showing I can see why. He is handsome - a cross between George Clooney, Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jnr, and is handy with a sword, but is very bland. Flynn had a number of different modes: flirtation, righteous anger, goading one-upmanship with villains, and a strangely thoughtful, reasoning way about him; Power has none at all.
I didn't fancy Maureen O'Hara much, though she looks good in the picture above. I like a certain hauteur when it hints of erotic depths, but here it's just hauteur and the battle of sexes between them, where she wants nothing to do with him, is painful to watch because there's no sexual chemistry between the two. Unfortunately the battle of sexes lasts almost the entire duration of the movie. I wasn't crazy about the plot either - pirate goes straight, wow! but it does get going after an hour.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
George Sanders vs Tyrone Power. (the tragic irony being Power suffered a stroke and died years later while filming another sword duel with Sanders)
Tyrone Power isn't Errol Flynn. He's Jamie boy! And he's awesome. Get that straight Naps.
Sorry, that's all I have to say.
I haven't seen MANHUNTER...I'll have to go check it out sometime.
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Jamie Boy! 8-) You gonna make me say it three times?
I hadn't realised this was a 1942 film, it did seem a decade later. I was wondering what you meant by U-boat infested seas. I wonder what became of the footage of that film? Today I was thinking about films that died in the making: Laughton's I Claudius, Flynn's William Tell, arguably Warhead... Great Films That Never Were.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Cliche and CGI filled "end is near" film that did big box office last spring. The earth's core is overheating and it is about to blow, who will escape with their life and who won't. Along the way we get John Cusack as the unsuccesful divorced dad who gets one last chance to show his wife and kids that they can believe in him. We get a Government bureacrat who has a plan to save only those willing to pay and those deemed necessary, everyone else in expendable. We get the good hearted scientist who wants to try and save everyone, we also get a noble President who will only think about his citiizens. Stop me if you think you have seen this before, because you have.
Now the movie isn't completly a waste of time, because some of the special effects are pretty good, Cusack and Amanda Peete provide some good performances and the writers were smart enough not to make the new husband a total jerk. But, I was expecting something more, something a little more cerebral, instead I got a lot of vehicles moving just fast enough to keep from having the earth swallow them up. I paid a buck for this from the Red Box and I got my dollars worth of entertainment.