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  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    The Gunfighter

    A 1950 western starring Gregory Peck as a famous gunslinger whose reputation precedes him everywhere he goes, with the result that young whippersnappers all over the west can't resist taking him on to measure their prowess against the legend. The film also features a really good supporting performance by Millard Mitchell as a former partner of Peck, who is now a US Marshall who is wary of the trouble that Peck's arrival in his town could bring.

    This is a lean, 85 minute film filled with tension, good character filled scenes and some striking black and white cinematography. I hadn't come across it until it was featured recently on a podcast called How the West was 'Cast. I recommend both the film and the podcast most highly.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,704MI6 Agent
    Under Capricorn (1949)

    This isn't a typical Hitchcock thriller. This is a romantic drama … set in the 19th century ….. in Australia.
    It's really well made, og course. but to be honest I wouldn't have watched it if Under Capricorn wasn't directed by Afred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman wasn't so stunningly beautiful.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    Under Capricorn (1949)

    This isn't a typical Hitchcock thriller. This is a romantic drama … set in the 19th century ….. in Australia.
    It's really well made, of course. but to be honest I wouldn't have watched it if Under Capricorn wasn't directed by Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman wasn't so stunningly beautiful.
    yeh I watched that a few years back, and it was more of a period costume drama than any sort of thriller. I don't remember much else about it, so I must have found it boring.
    Usually there's at least one incredible image that I never ever forget from any given Hitchcock film.

    Odd, because he was just about to enter his greatest period, but perhaps in the 40s he was still being made to do things by the Hollywood studio bosses?

    On the positive side, there are two absolutely essential 1940s Hitchcock films with Ingrid Bergman.
  • The Spy Who Never DiesThe Spy Who Never Dies UKPosts: 644MI6 Agent
    What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

    Very good performances from Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. A film about a family and the struggles they face especially with dealing with an autistic brother. I found it very moving.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Number24 wrote:
    Under Capricorn (1949)

    This isn't a typical Hitchcock thriller. This is a romantic drama … set in the 19th century ….. in Australia.
    It's really well made, of course. but to be honest I wouldn't have watched it if Under Capricorn wasn't directed by Alfred Hitchcock and Ingrid Bergman wasn't so stunningly beautiful.
    yeh I watched that a few years back, and it was more of a period costume drama than any sort of thriller. I don't remember much else about it, so I must have found it boring.
    Usually there's at least one incredible image that I never ever forget from any given Hitchcock film.

    Odd, because he was just about to enter his greatest period, but perhaps in the 40s he was still being made to do things by the Hollywood studio bosses?

    On the positive side, there are two absolutely essential 1940s Hitchcock films with Ingrid Bergman.

    This was the one film where, some time into filming, an exasperated Hitch suddenly declared 'This film is going to be an absolute disaster!' and so it proved.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    The English Patient
    M was good in this film, wasn't he?

    I'd forgotten the story was about a team of cartographers.
    We need more epic romances about cartographers, they lead exciting lives!

    Was there ever any talk about Fiennes being the next James Bond around this time?
    (I guess he did play John Steed so that was close)

    That film left me emotionally scarred. I left the cinema and literally couldn't breath because I was crying so much. Felt drained for about 24 hours later!!

    I've never watched it again. Bridges of Madison County was another one I've never watched again for similar reasons.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Get Carter - the Caine one of course.

    One of those films like The Wicker Man - also early 70s, also with Britt Ekland - that you might watch on telly late on a Friday night and after a slow start be gradually drawn into the best film ever.
    Get Carter is like a Bond classic in that it's one great scene after another, no padding.

    One thing I don't get suddenly after many viewings. The place where Jack Carter visits his dead brother in his coffin - is that meant to be the same place he lodges later with the lecherous landlady? It doesn't make sense and it never occurred to me before. But as he peruses the joint, he visits a room where purple knickers are hanging and he clocks them. This brings on his later comment to her: 'I know you wear purple underwear' which I thought was just some random guesswork. Guess it wasn't.
    But what was his brother doing living in a B&B? Or was he her live in lover? Where was the daughter then?

    The extent to which Carter's London boss was trailing him all the time escaped me on earlier viewings.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • FrigilianaFrigiliana Posts: 164MI6 Agent
    get.jpg

    I remember seeing this photo of Ted Lewis supposedly on the set of Get Carter doing a quick rewrite , don't know if it's true but how cool does he look fag in his gob .
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    I've been on a bit of a Guy Ritchie kick, revisiting some films that I've seen and crossing others off of the list that I haven't seen.
    What about his King Arthur film?

    What do you think about his use of flashbacks?
    That seems to be consistent in every film of his I've seen. Does it serve the story or draw too much attention to the filmmaking?
    I actually thought it was appropriate to Sherlock Holmes, where Holmes is supposed to be explaining to Watson what he was too foolish to observe for himself.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    The English Patient
    Lady Rose wrote:
    That film left me emotionally scarred. I left the cinema and literally couldn't breath because I was crying so much. Felt drained for about 24 hours later!!
    it's a three hanky weeper!
    even creepy ol' Willem Dafoe was moved by the Patient's story when he finally got to the end!



    _____________________________________________________________

    I was thinking this morning: it's not just that the characters are cartographers, but geography plays a major symbolic role in telling the story.
    Geography, and the idea that we can define the land and claim ownership.

    The framing sequence is set in an abandoned Italian monastary. Presumably abandoned because of the War. When it was built there would have been no unified Italian state, but dozens of independent citystates. But Italy has since united as a single nationstate, and allied itself with Germany which also unified at the same time. Germany imposed an ethnic ideal upon a diverse population, dont know if Italy did the same, but this imposed Nation ultimately led to the War which has just devastated Italy.
    So this artificial creation of nationStates has led to the wreckage the characters now find themselves in.

    The flashbacks take place in the Sahara desert, with some shorter scenes in Cairo.
    In one key bit of dialog, László tells Katherine he does not believe in ownership nor borders, which justifies their affair.
    Yet he is doing a surveyors job, out there in the endless desert, mapping the unmappable.

    We can see not only are there few recognisable landmarks in the land they are surveying, but the land itself is constantly changing shape. in another key sequence, László and Katherine are caught in a sandstorm and the land they are exploring has completely rearranged itself when they emerge. It is right after this shifting sands sequence they begin their affair.

    I think László is mapping the desert for sheer intellectual pursuit. Katherines husband is mapping it to provide information for the British government in preparation for the war (thus resulting in the crucial maps traded to the enemy at the end).

    Cartography is the art of reducing the endless world we live in to a quantifiable objective set of data. We each experience our landscape subjectively and incompletely, but the great renaissance cartographers like Mercator figured out how to synthesise travellers' tales to a solvable mathematical problem.
    And it was done so that the powers that be could claim ownership. Surveying in particular is all about defining legal ownership of land, and cartography in general developed so that the competing Great Powers could establish claim to their Empires.
    Katharine's husband is helping the British claim ownership of the unmappable desert, László says he does not believe in ownership, and he trades that data to the enemy in the end in a failed attempt to save Katharine's life.

    László turns out to be a Hungarian Count, which of course is what dooms Katharine and himself when forced to identify himself. But following the symbology: what is important is a Count is Landed Gentry. His ancestors owned land when most humans were chattel. Perhaps his lands were lost in one of Hungary's wars, or perhaps he has chosen to renounce his heritage, but now this Landed Gentry is exploring the unmappable desert denying the concept of Ownership.
    Then when the British confront him with this unwanted identity it costs him and his lover their lives.

    Katharine said she didn't want to be left in the desert, she wanted to be buried in her parents garden in England. Unlike László, the idea that she is of a specific piece of land is important to her sense of identity. And it is because László is trying to honour her dying wish he is shot down in the film's opening scene.

    One more bit of geographic symbolism in the film: I think in their first key scene together, László follows Katharine as she tries to navigate the market in Cairo. I've never been to Cairo, but I have been to Fez in Morocco, and you need to be a cartographer to find your way out of that ancient medina.




    That's probably all discussed in every English course that studies the book, right? nothing original there, I'm sure. But that did all come to me over breakfast this morning as I was procrastinating "working from home". and trying to put my thoughts into words has successfully gotten me all the way to "lunchbreak"!
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    Biggles Adventures In Time (1986)

    Truly terrible movie, which I watched simply because it was the last film of one of my favourite actors, Peter Cushing. The time-travel plot gave him the opportunity to do what he was always best at- speaking complete nonsense totally convincingly.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    Barbel wrote:
    Biggles Adventures In Time (1986)

    Truly terrible movie, which I watched simply because it was the last film of one of my favourite actors, Peter Cushing. The time-travel plot gave him the opportunity to do what he was always best at- speaking complete nonsense totally convincingly.

    This is my ultimate guilty pleasure film. I won't try and argue that it is a good film, but nonetheless I am very fond of it. I first saw it at the of 8 or 9 when I was a sucker for any film involving aeroplane action. After many rewatches over the years, I do still think that Neil Dickson's performance as Biggles is pretty decent, and Cushing brings some class.

    I can imagine how the development of the film might have unfolded...In the early 80s a period adventure film in the style of Raiders of the Lost Ark, based on a beloved literary character involving nasty Germans, duelling biplanes and other WWI action must have seemed a recipe for success. But then during the pre-production process Back to the Future became a smash-hit and the story team pivoted to add in a time-travel plot which also allowed them to include a modern American lead to star alongside Biggles.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    :) Each to his own- I bet I like a lot of films you think are awful!
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,033MI6 Agent
    Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I just loved this. Tarantino captures the era so well. Brad Pitt delivers a superb performance and Leo is excellent as usual. I think it does help if, like me, you lived through this period, it enables you to recognise how bang on this movie gets it right. I remember Lancer very well even though I have never seen it since the original run.

    I read that Tarantino is making a TV series of Bounty Law, the fictional TV series portrayed in the movie.
    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    The Graduate
    that Mrs Robinson was one intimidating seductress!

    Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Buck Henry, Mike Nichols, Simon and Garfunkle, even Mr Roper from Threes Company is in this one!

    That's some very funny people responsible for this, so even though it doesn't look like a comedy, the most awkward or disturbing scenes lead to gutbustingly funny payoffs, very cathartic when those laffs come.


    The premise is correct: leaving university and being stuck in the real world sucked.
  • The Spy Who Never DiesThe Spy Who Never Dies UKPosts: 644MI6 Agent
    Danger Within (1959)

    Escape from P.O.W. camp film with Bernard Lee and Richard Attenborough. Different angle to this type of film.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,033MI6 Agent
    Yesterday. Another Richard Curtis scripted movie which is pretty good, relating a world where The Beatles never existed through a worldwide electricity burnout which changes history. One musician remembers the songs and becomes famous. Robert Carlisle portrays a stunningly convincing John Lennon. Worth watching but I don’t think a repeated viewing will be on the cards.
    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,704MI6 Agent
    Brief encounter (1945) by David Lean

    This is another British classic I've watched for the first time. For those who haven't seen it Brief Encounter is about a married woman with children who falls in love with another man. In some ways it's about big feelings meeting ordinary life. I think it's a well-made and smart movie that's also emotional. A love drama. I'm glad I saw it, but I don't think I'll see it again.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    First Spaceship On Venus (1960-something)

    This was an East German/Polish production based on a novel by Stanislaw Lem, who wrote Solaris- a highly regarded Russian movie which was much later remade in the USA starring George Clooney (the remake is ok, but I prefer the original). The book was fascinating.

    Unfortunately, the version I watched was cut, missing key scenes, and poorly dubbed, to the point of incoherence. I can't recommend this and can only hope to see the full version one day.

    German members- the original title was Der Schweigende Stern (The Silent Star) which apparently is far better than what I got to see.
  • The Spy Who Never DiesThe Spy Who Never Dies UKPosts: 644MI6 Agent
    5 Card Stud (1968)

    With Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum. Also Yaphet Kotto (Mr. Big in LALD) A group of card players lynch a cheating player and face the consequences.
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    Gymkata wrote:
    We watched SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS. This was everything that I was hoping that the first film would be.

    I had almost no interest in Sherlock Holmes when I went to see A Game of Shadows in the cinema when it came out, but I really enjoyed that film. I think Jared Harris' performance as Moriarty was one of the things I really liked about it. It felt at the time that he should be a Bond villain. Since seeing that film I went on to watch all of the Basil Rathbone Holmes films, the Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch TV series and read all of the Conan Doyle books. That's quite an impact for one film to make!
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    edited May 2020
    Espionage in Tangier

    a 1965 Spanish/Italian ultra low budget spy thriller starring Luis Dávila as Agent S 077 Mike Murphy (Marc Mato in the undubbed version)

    available streaming here on Shout! Factory TV's website.


    Mike Murphy is sent to Tangiers to recover stolen plans for a secret weapon that will bring world peace, on my terms, ha hoo haha.
    He gets in nasty fistfights every five minutes or so. As the "plot" develops, he is drawn into the schemes of two competing sexy enemy spies who are also after the plans (José Greci and Perla Cristal). He gets to slap both of these ladies around with extra slappy sound effects while they each ooh and ahh as they are hit, before making love.
    He himself, our hero, tortures one of the bad guys with a blowtorch to the foot, then later witnesses one of the lady spies torture another man by tightening a loop of wire through his belly.

    All the various villains have met Murphy before (so he must have lots of Unseen Missions), and all brag about being double agents for sale to the highest bidder. This is actually a philosophical theme developed through the plot!
    One villain says something to the effect of there being no point working for less than two employers at the same time. Whereas our hero repeatedly states he is motivated by "Loyalty", while the rest of the characters in his world mock him for his naivete.


    Some online commentary claims Lazenby has a cameo in this film, but I didn't notice him, and the 1965 timeline doesn't make sense.
    Probably mixing it up with some other lowbudget eurospy cash-in, which is understandable, because...
    Espionage_in_Tangier.jpg

    ...I'm real confused about Agent 077. There seem to have been at least five Italian made 077 films made almost all round the same time. see wikipedia.
    Three Italian films starring Ken Clark as Agent 077 Dick Malloy. I guess these are the official series and the others the near simultanous ripoffs?
    Then the film I saw, Espionage in Tangier, about Agent 077 Mike Murphy/Marc Mato,
    and also Espionage in Lisbon, a Spanish/Italian/French film starring Brett Halsey as Agent 077 George Farrell

    Could anybody in the Mediterranean make a Agent 077 adventure in 1965 and it was all legal just so long as they didn't accidentally call it 007?
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1934
    Hitchcock's first spy film, and Peter Lorre's first English language film.
    Lorre plays the big baddy and steals every scene he's in.


    A young family vacationing in the Alps witness the murder of a man they've just met, who secretly slips the wife a note: he's a spy, investigating a planned assassination in London. The young daughter is kidnapped before the parents can contact the authorities, and they have to rescue their daughter and stop the assassination on their own.

    Involves a trip to the dentist, a scene at a cult temple, a big scene at the Royal Albert Hall, and a prolonged bloody police siege in a dense neighbourhood in London. Dozens of police are mowed down in the street, while a huge mob of looky-loos crowds in behind for a better view.


    The husband (Leslie Banks) does most of the investigating, and gets himself captured, while it is the wife (Edna Best) who does the heroic deeds and twice saves the day before the film ends.
    At the film's start, we first see the wife in a rifle shooting competition, but losing to another man because her daughter distracted her. That same man later turns out to be the assassin.

    in the Royal Albert Hall sequence...
    ...she correctly spots the target of the assassination attempt, then in the vast space spots the assassin's rifle and spoils his shot with a well timed scream
    you see the symmetry?
    (incidentally, I think the end of the Manchurian Candidate owes something to this scene)

    Then at the end of the siege sequence, the daughter escapes her captors, and is spotted trying to climb a steep roof high above the street, while the assassin follows close behind...
    ...the police snipers are afraid to take the shot for fear of hitting the child, so the wife grabs one of their rifles and plugs the assassin with one bullet. The films closes with her killing the same man she lost the competition to in the opening scene, and this time she was not distracted by the presence of her daughter!!!
    I've seen some feminist critiques of Hitchcock, particularly over Vertigo.
    But in this one it is the Hitchcock blonde does all the heroics and saves the day!
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    We watched SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS. This was everything that I was hoping that the first film would be.

    I watched that the other day too. I found it very watchable. Jared Harris would be excellent in a Bond film in some form or other.

    Just watched London Has Fallen Another enjoyable romp.
  • Lady RoseLady Rose London,UKPosts: 2,667MI6 Agent
    Gymkata wrote:
    Lady Rose wrote:
    Gymkata wrote:
    We watched SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS. This was everything that I was hoping that the first film would be.

    I watched that the other day too. I found it very watchable. Jared Harris would be excellent in a Bond film in some form or other.

    Just watched London Has Fallen Another enjoyable romp.


    They know what they are and don't pretend to be any different. I'll catch up with 'Angel' in the next few weeks.


    Those HAS FALLEN movies are a lot of fun. Decent DIE HARD ripoffs.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    Is Spanish Fly an 'enjoyable romp'?

    A mid-70s Britcom, with stalwarts Terry-Thomas and Leslie Phillips.
    It's the sort of post-Brexit film that pops up on new knackered old channels like Talking Pictures.
    It exerts a grim fascination though I've seen worse...
    The stars seem to play two salesmen of the kind who get to travel abroad and bed young lovelies half their age by dint of having a car, a blazer and the ability to pay their way.
    Phillips - it is a given - will bed all the women thrown his way by the company on his travels, it is odd but then not dissimilar to a plot line in Love, Actually when young Kris Marshall unexpectedly gets to bed all the women thrown at him while abroad. Difference is, perhaps, in the earlier film it's almost 'expected' while in Curtis' film the joke is that it goes against all expectations. It's all in the nuance.
    In one scene the Aussie lady gets in the shower and we from the front see her knockers (it's the lingo for the times) in all their bouncy, unabashed glory but of course, really how is that worse than any modern day porn? It isn't, it's quite wholesome. The fact that Phillips is urged to soap her down - her back, anyway - while being bashful and at arms length means it's actually social distancing, so quite in vogue.
    Amazingly, Phillips is still going in his 90s, last was heard he married his East European carer - if the cynics thought it would lead to him being knocked off his perch in a year while she copped the money, well, seems it gave him a new lease of life!
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,239MI6 Agent
    The Gauntlet

    The same year as Roger Moore dodged a helicopter in his white Lotus in The Spy Who Loved Me, Clint Eastwood starred in this low-budget romp about a cop who finds he's being fitted up by his own side AND the mob.
    In some ways it anticipates Midnight Run, released just over a decade later, though it's not as funny nor meant to be, and less long-winded I guess.
    It turns into a bit of a road film, albeit not a very long road, being set in Arizona and going from one state to another. Eastwood - not as different an actor to Moore as you might think, both have a limited if effective range - is joined by his then partner Sandra Locke whom he has to turn in to bear witness, of course she knows too much.
    What is interesting is that Clint plays a cop who is not the sharpest tool and she - a prostitute - has to fill him in on what is going on and how he is being set up. There's some very good dialogue here. 'Welcome to the ranks of the disenchanted!'
    It isn't quite as right on as it seems, he doesn't seem too grateful to her.

    It's disturbing how straightforward it is that of course cops are bent, I guess it's the same here now but not openly acknowledged as a narrative by the press, same with social services. You have to read between the lines - see Haringey Council and paedophile abuse in today's press - basically a lot of local authorities appear complicit in various paedophile rings but all family court judges have to express 'incomprehension' at all this - but I digress!

    The action in The Gauntlet becomes more incredible as it goes on for the kind of film it is, and while it fits the imperialistic idea of the film - the Enemy shooting at our heroes from on high, never from on the ground where they might get a decent shot - it is rather implausible.
    The chopper/chopper chase is good fun but a bit implausible.
    The mega OTT shoot outs echo the finale of Bonnie and Clyde, as if to make a point.
    That said, our hero is no member of the counterculture, as an encounter with a bunch of hippies/hells angels reveals.
    I first saw this film as a scout - they showed it in the early 80s on a small portable colour TV - a treat! Looking back, it does seem 'inappropriate' for 11 year olds, lots of raunchy talk and so on. I lobbied for a Bond film to be shown - Live and Let Die to be precise - but I'm not sure it was available on video back then.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

    A lavish and outlandish fantasy that delighted me a lot more than I went in expecting it to. The stunning visuals and effects are all the more impressive considering they were made in the pre-digital age, and I suspect that the film might not be as charming were it made with all the modern CGI effects possible today.

    I am not well versed in the work of Terry Gilliam apart from his Monty Python contributions, but my experience with Baron Munchausen will certainly encourage me to watch more of his films.
  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff
    First up: Gemini Man, with Will Smith as an assassin and his clone. For about the first hour I wondered what all the bad reviews were about: it seemed a nifty spy thriller with a sci-fi premise. Then, once Will meets his clone and starts talking to him it becomes a weird family melodrama. Clive Owen is also aboard as the villain, doing his godawful attempt at an American accent. There are so many great actors from the UK (and Australia as well) who can do flawless U.S. accents; Owen typically tries to mix up Brooklyn and Chicago accents and then mumble throughout.

    Next: Parasite, the South Korean film that surprised everyone by winning the Best Picture Oscar. What surprised me by this is that it's actually a dark comedy that skewers class relations. Is it the Best Picture? Who knows? Who cares? I enjoyed it.
    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    Golrush007 wrote:
    I am not well versed in the work of Terry Gilliam apart from his Monty Python contributions, but my experience with Baron Munchausen will certainly encourage me to watch more of his films.
    Be sure to watch Brazil,
    my personal subjective opinion: it might just be the finest motion picture ever filmed!
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