reviewId int64 363k 588k | userId int64 33.9k 15.9M | itemId int64 1 1.42M | rating float64 1 10 | title stringlengths 1 10.9k ⌀ | content stringlengths 81 11.6k ⌀ |
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409,153 | 2,567,136 | 76,313 | 5 | Bad Blood | I've just been reading the previous comments and what emerges is 1 ) these people are easily pleased and 2 ) not only have they not read the novel which was the jumping-off point but they are clearly unfamiliar with Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series of ' police procedurals ' in which the 87th itself is the hero rather t... |
410,050 | 2,567,136 | 20,335 | 5 | Nile Desperandum | Frank Borzage is widely revered as a master of romantic film-making in a career that ranged from the Silents through the early days of the Talkies . It's difficult - and would be unfair to do so - to judge this film which is incomplete but what appears to be the central love story involving Charles Farrell and Mary Dun... |
410,026 | 2,567,136 | 418,239 | 5 | Not QUITE The Ticket | Alas , I have to disagree with the only other poster's academic quasi socio-economic reading and declare this a disappointment . On the other hand knowing that Ken Loach was one of the three directors involved I was prepared to be clubbed over the head with his Left-Wing fanaticism and I also knew that Valeria Bruni Te... |
409,106 | 2,567,136 | 408,790 | 5 | Wings Ain't What They Used To Be | Unfortunately there are so many posted comments on this entry that to read them all would take more time than I can spare but it's a reasonably safe bet that some of them at least found the same glaring flaws as I did . To nutshell the plot a recently widowed young woman is taking the body of her husband from Berlin , ... |
410,116 | 2,567,136 | 463,872 | 5 | Galling | I haven't seen the previous Asterix movies and nothing I saw in this one made me want to catch up with them though I can imagine that Christian Clavier would be light years better than Clovis Cornillac - who is far better at drama than comedy - as Asterix . In a cinema packed with French children it garnered very few l... |
409,169 | 2,567,136 | 452,624 | 5 | Mad Kraut Disease | This Casablanca-lite couldn't have opened at a worse time because the Original totally Brilliant Casablanca is still playing in its Digitally Remastered version so it's all too easy to compare the two . It's difficult to figure out why it's so DARK all the time ; Casablanca was nothing if not well-lit and the outdoor s... |
408,961 | 2,567,136 | 47,574 | 5 | The Hoke's On Us | Irving Berlin was the only one of the so-called ' Big Five ' ( Porter , Rodgers , Gershwin and Kern being the other four ) songwriters associated with Broadway who never had a biopic devoted to him . Not as such , perhaps , but time and again - Alexander's Ragtime Band , White Christmas , Easter Parade , etc - Hollywoo... |
409,235 | 2,567,136 | 29,855 | 5 | The Shriek Of Araby | After reading several of the comments on this one my immediate reaction was they've got to be kidding ; to give them a break it appears that most of them hadn't seen the great Duvivier movie Pepe Le Moko which was released the previous year . We tend to think of Hollywood retreads of French Classics as something compar... |
409,439 | 2,567,136 | 26,029 | 5 | An Air That Kills | This is only the second Hitchcock thirties film I've seen , the other being The Lady Vanishes ; both films deal with spies and music is a vital element ( from what I've read about The Man Who Knew Too Much , music features again ) so it's no wonder I tend to dismiss Hitchcock as something of a vastly overrated Johnny-O... |
410,078 | 2,567,136 | 31,747 | 5 | The Little Louse On The Prairie | This is one for collectors ; when those personifications of Urban gangsters Cagney and Bogey are transplanted to an Oklahoma territory that is so far ahead of progress that it boasts an electric door-bell Cagney rings it long and hard on two separate occasions ) it shows that les freres Warner spared no expense on rese... |
409,708 | 2,567,136 | 490,166 | 5 | Brighton Wreck | This is one they're going to love on the Festival circuit where apparently they find the chronicling of sleaze ' meaningful ' . With a title as lacking in imagination as London To Brighton there's not a great deal of point in looking for imagination in the film itself . The only possible target audience for this drek w... |
408,755 | 2,567,136 | 62,767 | 5 | Leak Soup | For a one-idea plot this is reasonably entertaining if you're prepared to overlook the dubious morality of the eponymous character who not only had unprotected sex with three different men in three weeks but cynically accepted monthly checques from each of them for 20 years which by extension depended on convincing and... |
409,040 | 2,567,136 | 450,615 | 5 | Dilute To Taste | On paper this might have seemed viable or even plausible ; two very different types of men thrown together by circumstance and embroiled in a ' caper ' , just the sort of thing in fact that Francis Veber does with one hand behind his back . Alas , this is a Francis Veber type film sans Francis Veber so that the result ... |
410,057 | 2,567,136 | 52,953 | 5 | It's Not Easy Being Green | I'm glad I got the chance to see this movie - courtesy of a very generous French guy who , knowing how much I love French films , especially those made by the Old Brigade , very kindly sends me copies of the rarer titles that appear on French TV and are unlikely to be shown in the UK - because it combined the writing o... |
409,649 | 2,567,136 | 464,059 | 5 | Bombay Duck | It's strange to see Clovis Cornillac in a selection of suits and ties , living in an ultra modern and pristine apartment and enjoying a lifestyle that includes a classy girlfriend , Alice Taglioni , and allows him to take expensive vacations seemingly at will . He's also saddled with a friend , Pascal Elbe , who has ma... |
409,031 | 2,567,136 | 52,933 | 5 | The Strain In Maine Is Mainly Due To Jane | On paper this must have seemed a pretty good bet , after all Little Man Takes On The Big Guys is always good for a premise so Little GAL takes on the Big Guys must be worth twice the money ; cast Doris Day as the little Gal and you're rounding third while the ball's still climbing and how about that new guy Lemmon to c... |
409,693 | 2,567,136 | 37,800 | 5 | Scotch Mistral | Oh , dear , here we go again ; where everyone else apparently sees a monarch attired in velvet and ermine I see a gent naked as a jaybird but try saying the king has no clothes on here . On the other hand this one is easier to take than most of the Powell / Pressburger stuff that's been surfacing lately but perhaps per... |
409,744 | 2,567,136 | 45,513 | 5 | Six O'Clock Low | From my summary you are entitled to think I found this an inferior rip-off of Twelve O'Clock High and you'd be correct . Dirk Bogarde was no Gregory Peck and though he gives the battle fatigue resulting from leading 80 + missions his best shot he doesn't quite cut it . Of course , if you haven't seen Twelve O'Clock Hig... |
409,948 | 2,567,136 | 393,109 | 5 | The Big Schlep | Those who had a problem figuring out who killed the chauffeur in The Big Sleep might as well not even bother checking this one out . It was sold - to me , at any rate - by the reviews comparing it to Chandler and Hammett ; okay , it has SOMETHING in common with Chandler ; it's set in California but that's about it . Es... |
410,272 | 2,567,136 | 880,440 | 5 | If It Ain't Broke . . . | I have nothing but the highest regard for Gerard Jugnot , Josie Balasko and Christian Clavier , all of whom are multi-talented and more than capable of directing a film like this so why they were content to put themselves in the hands of a guy whose directorial career peaked with Taxis 2 , 3 and 4 is anyone's guess . U... |
408,996 | 2,567,136 | 47,396 | 5 | Tenement Symphony | Hitchcock buffs often point out that his serious movies are laced with laughs and this one has a terrific laugh toward the end . Murder suspect Raymond Burr has been lured out of his apartment in order that Grace Kelly and Thelma Ritter can dig up the flowerbed . Frustrated to find nothing Kelly enters his apartment in... |
409,769 | 2,567,136 | 31,968 | 5 | The Film In Schtook | I could just as easily have summarized this review as Minority Report as it's a certain twelve-to-seven I'll be outnumbered by those lining up to genuflect at ANYTHING bearing the name Michael Powell and if I had a piece of the saliva concession I'd be one happy bunny . I am , of course , equally prone to anticipate ne... |
409,328 | 2,567,136 | 58,453 | 5 | Selling The Sizzle , Not The Steak | Even if you haven't seen the ( until recently ) elusive La Fete Henriette from which George Axelrod ripped off his screenplay this is still pretty dire . There's nothing wrong with the basic premise - it did , after all , produce a masterpiece as written by Henri Jeanson and directed by Julien Duvivier - and nothing wr... |
409,253 | 2,567,136 | 29,811 | 5 | This One Won't Go Super Nova | Another freebie , one of six given away last week with The Times . It's marginally less hard to take than some of the others and the story - man accused falsely of murder , goes on the run , meets a nubile girl who , for no reason whatsoever , decides to help him - was creaking even in 1937 yet even Mank would use it i... |
409,408 | 2,567,136 | 67,952 | 5 | The Fall Of Little Voice | Just about the only selling-point for this film was Richard Burton and his magnificent voice so to hear him attempting - and missing by a mile - a cockney accent and effectively strangling his outstanding timbre needed something really exceptional - like a non-hackneyed plot - to offset the disappointment . This is ano... |
409,573 | 2,567,136 | 35,403 | 5 | Johnny Wrong Note | I'm not really qualified to criticize this entry on grounds of accuracy as my knowledge of Hector Berlioz himself , the musical climate in which he was active and the period in general leaves much to be desired but the same , alas , can be said for this film in terms of the grounds on which I do feel more or less quali... |
408,976 | 2,567,136 | 43,046 | 5 | Hatchet Job | This might have made it under the wire as a passable comedy in 1950 but seen today ( yesterday , in fact , on British TV ) it is just this side of dire . Husband and wife team Richard Sale and Mary Loos ( neice of Anita ) came up with one of those ' train in trouble ' plots that enjoyed a mini vogue in the fifties ( se... |
409,113 | 2,567,136 | 42,786 | 5 | Deus ex Machina | This is one of those entries in which it is possible to read anything to support a point of view so that for academics ' teaching ' film it is manna from heaven . Made at the height of the Cold War when titles like The Iron Curtain were tumbling off the assembly lines an obvious reading is a metaphor for Light versus M... |
409,114 | 2,567,136 | 64,072 | 5 | High Planes Drifter | This is a victim of The Longest Day syndrome in that it attempts to fill too large a canvas with insufficient paint . Whilst it is definitely a tale worth the telling it might have been more suited to a multi-episode BBC treatment than trying to cram too much on to a big screen . All the usual suspects are wheeled out ... |
409,512 | 2,567,136 | 104,008 | 5 | Could Leave You Cold | With the exception of Godard , of whom one was enough , I've seen fewer films by Rohmer than by any French director - this is about the third - and I can't honestly say that I'm in a hurry to see any more . If , as in the case here , I see a DVD in my library that carries a modest rental I'll give him another try but s... |
409,782 | 2,567,136 | 362,246 | 5 | A Myth Is As Good As A Mille | Other than good , bad or indifferent it's difficult to classify this one . Okay , it's based on a Myth so the director needs to find modern equivalents but this still leaves unanswered questions . Number one must be why Laurent Lucas picked this particular hooker to kidnap . There's no indication that they had met prev... |
408,849 | 2,567,136 | 31,592 | 5 | Ev'ry Little Breeze . . . | . . . seems to whisper Puh-LEEZE . This is primarily a movie for the curious ; Abel Gance directing light Opera ! This I have to see . Ginette Leclerc , Cadaver Extraordinary To The House of French Cinema - known as ' the most murdered woman in France ' because of her proclivity for winding up dead in the bulk of her f... |
409,961 | 2,567,136 | 31,491 | 5 | Strange Interlude | In 1939 Leslie Howard made a meal out of noble suffering and he did it equally well when the budget was a stick of gum as here or when it ran into the young millions as in Gone With The Wind . This is a movie you Want to like not least because it marked the English-speaking debut of Ingrid Bergman who was just as gorge... |
409,536 | 2,567,136 | 144,183 | 5 | Judas Priest | At the beginning of this year I was fortunate enough to see several titles in a season of Danielle Darrieux films at one of a number of cinemas du quartier in Paris that takes these things seriously and among the titles I saw was Caprices , directed by journeyman Leo Johannon and my total enjoyment of the film predispo... |
409,983 | 2,567,136 | 49,602 | 5 | All I Want For Christmas . . . | . . is not to have to watch Gilbert Becaud trying to play ONE role let alone two , and that's before he starts to sing . There were , of course , only two male singers of popular song in twentieth century France ; Yves Montand and all the rest and Montand could have acted Becaud off the screen with one gesture tied beh... |
410,031 | 2,567,136 | 40,080 | 5 | Blow Out | I learned as a child - when I was taken to see them regularly by my parents - not to expect too much from British films so when I bought this DVD on the strength of Simone Signoret's star billing I was prepared to be disappointed and the film didn't let me down . Whoever cast Gordon Jackson as Signoret's ' love interes... |
408,983 | 2,567,136 | 443,841 | 5 | All ? Or Nothing At All ? | It's always arguably foolish to call anything All because you are no longer limiting yourself to a given area of investigation . When the ' all ' is a person you are on even more dangerous ground because you have implied full disclosure of private life and public career . In this case Michel Ciment either with or witho... |
409,662 | 2,567,136 | 199,414 | 5 | Dog Days | Arguably Jean Tarride set a precedent when he directed his father Abel , who took the role of Maigret in this fairly dismal movie . It's probably just as well that he didn't aspire to be a John Huston ( who , of course , memorably directed his own father , Walter , in both The Maltese Falcon , uncredited , and The Trea... |
409,654 | 2,567,136 | 49,434 | 5 | Wagon Wealds | Alas , this is another victim of over hype . It was shown as part of the London Film Festival and the brochure talked a great game . Any film with Richard Widmark is , by definition , never a total loss but even actors of his calibre can't work miracles . Likewise helmer Delmer Daves has some fine credits yet somehow t... |
409,736 | 2,567,136 | 1,194,616 | 5 | Sophie's Choice . . . | . . . yes , folks , she really is and it was a nice , albeit shrewdly cynical to have her playing the mother to the kind of daughter she herself played in her breakthrough debut Boum in 1980 . To be honest I never much cared for Marceau the surly teenage rebel , a part she was saddled with for several years but she has... |
408,773 | 2,567,136 | 49,408 | 5 | Fit To Be Thai'd | First I suppose I should declare an interest : I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Larry Hart fan and though I understood the reasons why Dick Rodgers finally decided to call time on Larry and throw in his lot with Oscar I've never really forgiven him . There's a paper waiting to be written on why the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadw... |
409,273 | 2,567,136 | 379,865 | 5 | By George , He Hasn't Got It | I read most of the negative reviews and went to see it anyway . I'm lion-hearted . I didn't expect to get much out of the sporting element not being a grid-iron maven but I was hoping for something on the screwball comedy front . Alas . . . For me the main problem was that neither Clooney nor Zellwegger is actually cut... |
409,404 | 2,567,136 | 178,764 | 5 | Off-Key Pirandello | A man loses his memory whilst dressed in clothing totally unconnected to his everyday life . Now why does that sound familiar ? Oh , yes , Pirandello , Henry IV . Great play but this can't be it because there were no songs in Henry IV . What we have here is a road company Henry IV by a writer who wrote only one other s... |
409,505 | 2,567,136 | 40,000 | 5 | Three Blind Mice | After sitting through this film in total bemusement I turned to the eight comments posted here in search of anything that may help me make sense of it . There seems to be a consensus that Renoir suffered a touch of the Orson Welles ' inasmuch as a potential masterpiece was butchered by the studio . There may be grounds... |
409,695 | 2,567,136 | 48,728 | 5 | Purrs For Effect | Not being a Hitchcock buff the selling point for me was Charles Vanel in a supporting role ; in that same year he also appeared in Clouzot's Les Diaboliques and it's a pity that ' Master ' Hitch didn't check that one out to see how the Big Boys do it . It is , on the whole , a reasonably albeit instantly forgettable ro... |
409,656 | 2,567,136 | 48,711 | 5 | They Shoot Garbage , Don't They | Horace McCoy , arguably best known for his Depression novel They Shoot Horses , Don't They , subsequently adapted into an Oscar-winning film , is credited with the story and screenplay here and clearly phoned it in . The only possible reason anyone would want to spend time with it is the presence of Claudette Colbert i... |
409,605 | 2,567,136 | 373,926 | 5 | Translation : It'll Kill A Couple Of Hours | I was intrigued to see , in the pre-credit sequence , Yvan Attal , well-known in France as a triple-threat ( writer-director-actor ) but barely a blip on International radar screens , and figured with him on board this might be better than I figured . Alas ! Attal wound up with about seven or eight minutes of screen ti... |
409,809 | 2,567,136 | 473,444 | 5 | Fleur du mal | This is yet another Chinese movie to give ironists pause in that non-Violence viewers in the West are drawn to these films by the sumptuous settings which aspire to eclipse each previous film and this from a country known for its extreme poverty under Communism . This time around we get a story of sorts , a dynastic po... |
409,896 | 2,567,136 | 119,395 | 5 | Laughing Hyenas | This is one for the undemanding popcorn junkies at the Multiplex who wouldn't mind having their intelligence insulted even if they possessed any . Even if we overlook the closest thing to a hero - a dyed-in-the-wool-fully committed IRA terrorist recruited out of necessity ( making him a sort of Dirty One ) we're expect... |
409,981 | 2,567,136 | 38,262 | 5 | Stealing Heaven | It's a given that the best musicals , be they stage or screen , feature the best music , best lyrics and best books ; think of ( to confine ourselves to movies ) Meet Me In St Louis , A Star Is Born ( Garland version ) , Young At Heart , High Society . All with strong books , flesh-and-blood characters , great music , ... |
409,001 | 2,567,136 | 33,868 | 5 | Souls At Sea | No doubt influenced by the success of Pygmalion producer / director Gaby Pascal followed up three years later with a second GBS polemic masquerading as a play , in this case that old chestnut God versus Mammon best out of three , Major Barbara . Wendy Hiller had scored a personal triumph as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion... |
409,327 | 2,567,136 | 25,586 | 5 | Any Bonds Today ? | Essentially this is a visualisation of the old joke about the two strangers who meet in a bar . ' I'm a masochist ' , says one , ' I'm a sadist ' replies the other . ' Beat me ' , implores the masochist , ' No ' replies the sadist . You have to hand it to Willie Maugham for turning a nine-word joke into a 600 page nove... |
410,012 | 2,567,136 | 81,076 | 5 | Sleazy Does It , Maurice | I used to think that Isabelle Huppert became interested in sleaze in the late 90s , around the time she made School Of Flesh but now I see that as far back as 1980 she was inserting a toe into murky waters . Watching this film you get the impression that Pialet has seen Tennesee Williams ' A Streetcar Named Desire and ... |
409,549 | 2,567,136 | 232,083 | 5 | Will The Real Mika Please Stand Up | Both Huppert and Chabrol are prolific and last year they worked together yet again on a movie light years ahead of this one but when one is prolific one is playing the percentages and winds up with a high chaff to wheat ratio as both have done here . Perhaps most risible is the scene towards the end that appears to be ... |
409,244 | 2,567,136 | 55,605 | 5 | Oh ! Henry | Okay , you really dig French movies ; you come across one written by Jean Aurenche and Hernri Jeanson , directed by Claude Autant-Lara and featuring - or so you're led to believe - Danielle Darrieux . What's not to like . Nothing , right , but this is where the expression ' too good to be true ' comes into play . Basic... |
409,436 | 2,567,136 | 362,015 | 5 | Three For The Showdown | This was one of two TV versions made in the same year ( 2003 ) of the old Cocteau warhorse and the best we can give it is that is has three of the best French actors on board in the shape of Jeanne Moreau , Nicole Garcia and Francois Berleand . I suppose it's not too difficult to see the attraction in this story of a m... |
409,274 | 2,567,136 | 49,357 | 5 | Ill Met , Period | even allowing for the fact that Ican take or leave Powell and Pressburger either as a team or working individually this is still pretty ho hum . It's not just that it's yet another true-life adventure torn from the annals of World War II - and boy , were they glad to get rid of it - it's more that it's exciting or engr... |
408,757 | 2,567,136 | 53,740 | 5 | Hard Time | This is yet another example of a film that was probably impressive when released yet seems risible today . One really expects a little more class from Alun Owen and it's quite possible that the uncredited Jimmy Sangster contributed the lion's share of the Shooting Script given that it bears all the hallmarks of Hammer ... |
410,089 | 2,567,136 | 86,551 | 5 | Sunday , Bloody Sunday | I don't know just how ill Truffaut was when he shot this , his last film , but I'd guess extremely . It's understandable that he'd want to throw a film to Fanny Ardant given that they were an item and had a child together and whilst I certainly have no quarrel with Ardant getting the lion's share of any movie I wish sh... |
409,321 | 2,567,136 | 35,931 | 5 | Seven Characters In Search Of A Plot | Okay , it's 1943 and presumably there's no indication of when the war will end , no sign of any breakthrough and D-Day is still a good twelve months away so why not shoot a little propaganda-lite ; a sort of visual blend of ' The Lady ' and ' Women's Companion ' magazines ; a little about food , a little about clothes ... |
408,972 | 2,567,136 | 34,012 | 5 | Serenade In Blue | It seems that once again I find myself out of step with the majority - of those I've read - in failing to succumb to the charm , style , skill that apparently has other posters rolling over and playing dead . Ironically I found what on paper must have seemed a stylish gimmick - having the camera Iris In / Iris Out on t... |
410,022 | 2,567,136 | 67,571 | 5 | Slow Curtain | Eight years after shooting his last film for the big screen Renoir shot this for TV so whichever way you look at it it was his swansong and it's a shame he couldn't have gone out on a higher note . Renoir introduces each of the four segments talking directly to camera , a technique first employed by Somerset Maugham in... |
410,086 | 2,567,136 | 59,319 | 6 | File This Under ' Ho Hum ' | Seeing a film like this today it's difficult to know what the target audience was even at the time ; there is virtually no ' action ' and no sex . At one point Harry Palmer ( Michael Caine ) engages in a half-hearted fight with a heavy that is filmed in Long Shot so that the few blows that are struck lose any impact th... |
408,999 | 2,567,136 | 52,561 | 6 | One Angry Manion | This is yet another Hollywood entry that made a lot of noise in its day but now seems dated . It top-bills Jimmy Stewart as a small-town lawyer in North Michigan who is asked to defend serviceman Ben Gazzara on a murder rap . Seems Gazzara's wife , Lee Remick , got herself raped by one Barney Quill following which Gazz... |
408,820 | 2,567,136 | 56,417 | 6 | The Occidental Tourist ( s ) | As swan songs go this could have used a decent cygneture tune . The best bit is right at the beginning when , continuing the tradition , Bing and Bob are seen as vaudevillians singing , dancing and pattering their way through ' Teamwork ' , with a lyric from Sammy Cahn , who had replaced Johnny Burke as Jimmy Van Heuse... |
410,234 | 2,567,136 | 33,029 | 6 | Astaireway To Ho-Hum | Let's begin by saying that Fred Astaire is watchable in ANYTHING such is his charisma , vocal and dancing ability but having said that this vehicle needs all the help it can get . Maybe in 1940 Paulette Goddard was considered leading lady material but even Joan Fontaine ( who co-starred with Astaire in A Damsel In Dist... |
410,092 | 2,567,136 | 70,460 | 6 | Tru Faux | I found this more interesting in my capacity as a student of irony than my capacity as a movie buff . It was pleasantly rewarding to see the iconoclast and arch advocate of the ' auteur ' school shooting a film about making a film that showed just how much of a team effort film making actually is yet even then he could... |
409,466 | 2,567,136 | 795,370 | 6 | Second Best | This bombed in France last year but one doesn't write off the likes of Alain Corneau and Daniel Auteuil lightly so when it surfaced at the French Film Festival in London I was present and correct . By a strange coincidence Phil Corneau - apparently no connection with Alain despite copping a prestigious French Award - m... |
410,043 | 2,567,136 | 869,994 | 6 | La Ronde Squared | If you're shooting a valentine to Paris count me in , even if your name is Cedric Kaplish onlie begetter of the vastly overrated L'Aubere Espanol and , yes , even if your nominal lead is the even more overrated and under talented Romain Duris , for whom you seem to have a permanent hard-on . Alas , the best-laid scheme... |
409,047 | 2,567,136 | 160,664 | 6 | Wearing The Rue With A Difference | The previous poster is incorrect in stating that this was the first Maigret movie , they had in fact been appearing for more or less a decade ; be that as it may I find a strong sense of irony in a film titled after a real street in Paris which is kick-started by the discovery of a body in that very same Rue Picpus . S... |
408,754 | 2,567,136 | 252,503 | 6 | The Best-Laid Scams . . . | This is a typical David Mamet ' caper ' movie which means that he found the plot concealed behind a spiral staircase and fleshed it out using a corkscrew in lieu of a pen . As is usual in Mamet movies his wife , , Rebecca Pigeon is on hand as a leading character , in this case the younger wife to Gene Hackmans ' old-ti... |
409,655 | 2,567,136 | 43,885 | 6 | The Grimy Half Dozen | Two names , one in front of and one behind the camera , imply a touch of Class that is largely absent here . Gregory Peck was one of the most underrated actors in the history of film and writer Harry Brown had a string of fine credits from A Walk In The Sun onwards . Sadly producer Jimmy Cagney was seemingly reluctant ... |
409,193 | 2,567,136 | 384,686 | 6 | She Makes Every Second Count | It seems fairly clear that the night club owned by Ralph Fiennes and named The White Countess is meant to be seen as a sort of Rick's Bar East , from its cosmopolitan clientele ' , political overtones , the need for ' papers ' and last , but not least , a backdrop of war , in this case the Sino-Japanese variety . It's ... |
409,338 | 2,567,136 | 45,810 | 6 | Little Rocks , Big Gals | This is something of a contradiction in terms , a ' musical ' with only five songs , three of which are all that survive from a full Broadway score by Jule Styne and Leo Robin and two tacked on which were commissioned from Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson . Even then the movie is dominated by Diamonds Are A Girls ' ... |
409,374 | 2,567,136 | 37,017 | 6 | Dead In The Water | One of the most interesting things about this effort is the presence of a Black man amongst the survivors because the Tallulah Bankhead character is playing a variation of Gene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones , as she gradually loses all vestiges of the civilised life she represents . Bankhead , in fact , is the main reaso... |
409,828 | 2,567,136 | 66,181 | 6 | My Future Just Passed | It would be easy to dismiss this as The Three Faces Of Eve with songs but it is , actually , a little more than that . Alan Lerner had a lifelong interest in ESP and toyed with the idea of basing a musical on it for years before finally getting around to it in the mid sixties more or less a full decade after My Fair La... |
408,871 | 2,567,136 | 110,776 | 6 | Yvonne The Terrible Beauty | What can you say about a film by a leading director that flopped at the box office and whose leading lady was never heard from again ( shades of Les Portes de la nuit and Nathalie Nattier ) yet has drawn a half dozen sympathetic comments on this very board . For me the twin selling points were Patrice Leconte and Jean-... |
410,028 | 2,567,136 | 68,205 | 6 | Shaw Thing | When Irwin Shaw wrote a short story called ' The Girls In Their Summer Dresses ' and placed it with the New Yorker he probably had no idea it would become one of the most anthologized American short story of the 20th century and would possibly inspire Eric Rohmer to take it as the starting point of the last of his Six ... |
409,947 | 2,567,136 | 61,439 | 6 | Nero , My God ! | The trick with watching this is to close your eyes and just bask in one of the great Broadway scores , maybe not quite up there with Kiss Me , Kate , Guys and Dolls , Pal Joey etc but still very much in contention . Josh Logan has a bizarre track record of directing hit shows on Broadway then turning out off-centre Hol... |
409,083 | 2,567,136 | 1,087,851 | 6 | Swede Smell Of Success | It's quite possible that this movie wouldn't have got made if Jean-Pierre Darroussin hadn't agreed to play the lead . I'm basing this on the fact that writer-director Anne Novion lacks the profile of the leading female directors in France - Danielle Thompson , Toni Marshall , Anne Fontaine , Nicole Garcia , Ann Vernoux... |
409,546 | 2,567,136 | 457,430 | 6 | Finding Neverland | The Symbolistas are going to have a field day with this one to say nothing of the Referentialist . From the Peter Pan reference in the title to the Tinker Bell-like fairy who makes initial contact with the heroine to the almost too numerous to mention Alice In Wonderland nods - the descent into an alternative world , k... |
409,729 | 2,567,136 | 52,644 | 6 | Swishbuckler | This is , of course , a much-filmed story like Robin Hood etc and each generation will have its favourite version . In my case I found the best thing about it was the colour and I advise potential viewers to avoid travelling to the cinema by bus lest they drive a hole through the plot . Jean Marais is no Errol Flynn or... |
410,117 | 2,567,136 | 41,871 | 6 | 40-Watt | There's a world of difference between Cornel Wilde's previous film , Roadhouse , and this one and it's not entirely due to the casting - Roadhouse boasted a great quartet in Wilde , Richard Widmark , Ida Lupino and Celeste Holm , whereas her we get Wilde , period , and Jean Negulesco handled Roadhouse better than Dougl... |
410,273 | 2,567,136 | 41,866 | 6 | Peanut Brittle ( s ) | It doesn't get any easier - me watching John Ford westerns and finding myself unable to genuflect along with a clear majority . A local shop that features used dvds is having a four-for-the-price-of-three month so , eager to give them a chance I bought all three of the ' cavalry ' westerns and now have only Rio Grande ... |
408,748 | 2,567,136 | 43,744 | 6 | The Bland Leading The Bland | This is a bit of a rum do and no mistake . For a start we have the solid mahogany Richard Todd leaving a trail of sawdust in his wake whilst Zachary Scott who can and does act Todd off the screen doesn't even appear until about reel # 6 and is woefully under extended . Ruth Roman might have done really well as the femm... |
409,485 | 2,567,136 | 103,190 | 6 | Portrait Of The Artist . . . | The problem with making a biopic of an artist is the temptation to compose every frame as a painting ; Vincente Minnelli already had this tendency so he was a logical choice to make Lust For Life , which I've yet to see . No one ever accused Maurice Pialet of either artistic or poetic tendencies given his predilection ... |
409,238 | 2,567,136 | 953,382 | 6 | Board Of The Flies | If you're a frustrated hybridologist who's always wondered what a cross between Lord Of The Flies and Bugsy Malone would look like eat your heart out because somebody just beat you to it . I checked this one out blindly on the strength of Carole Bouquet and Gerard Depardieu on the marquee but wouldn't you know it's tha... |
409,481 | 2,567,136 | 41,546 | 6 | That Laddie In Ermine | The first thing that struck me about this movie - which was one of several Ealing Comedies that are currently being given away with a National newspaper - was its similarity to Sascha Guitry's Le Roman d'un tricheur ; Guitry is writing his memoirs at a cafe table rather than a prison cell and one of the earliest is how... |
409,359 | 2,567,136 | 39,306 | 6 | Crime Without Passion | The ' perfect crime ' novel , play , film became so ubiquitous that audiences tended to judge them on how credible the ' flaw ' that proved the murderer's undoing and in this case it would struggle to rate . Director Arthur Crabtree began behind the camera where he had credits on the like of Waterloo Road ; he never re... |
409,167 | 2,567,136 | 499,592 | 6 | Mills Bomb ? Not Really | It's doubtful if this propaganda short has seen the light of day since it's initial release but it was both interesting and informative to catch up with it as part of a mini-season of Jessie Matthews at the NFT . It's very much in the area of the Crown Film Unit , The Turners Of Prospect Road etc and seen today it tips... |
409,632 | 2,567,136 | 407,131 | 6 | Playing With Fire | In Greek legend Prometheus stole fire from the Gods and laid it on Man . For this he was chained to a rock and each evening an eagle would peck out his liver . It may help to know that before watching this film . On the other hand . . . Clearly there's a metaphor in there somewhere and Marcel L'Herbier - who made the w... |
409,027 | 2,567,136 | 457,495 | 6 | Storm In A Stryofoam Cup | This will probably do well with its target audience and it certainly passes 90 minutes relatively painlessly . However if you don't do Referential then it may not be for you . Bill Goldman , a far better writer than the author of this series , created in Marathon Man a fairly bland , mild character who idolised his old... |
410,168 | 2,567,136 | 790,751 | 6 | Nixed Doubles | I sometimes get the feeling that the only reason people make films like this one is so that people like me , who like to go to the cinema at least once a week , will have an alternative to the cgi / slasher / American pie formulaic garbage that fuels the multiplexes . In other words fairly pleasant , fairly harmless mo... |
409,698 | 2,567,136 | 89,613 | 6 | It Shouldn't Happen To A Vet | Whimsy is as good a word as any to describe this entry from Jacques Rouiffio , a fairly undistinguished Writer / Director with some 13 more or less mediocre ' domestic ' movies on his CV . Michels Serrault and Piccoli are two middle-aged and distinguished members of the Acadamie Francaise more than susceptible to the n... |
410,228 | 2,567,136 | 32,842 | 6 | Once Out Of The Well . . . | This was billed as a comedy-drama but the laughter that filled the NFT at a recent showing was less an appreciation of any humorous content in the script than a reaction to the risible construction . Time after time director Reed and screenrights Launder and Gilliat rework the classic anecdote of the penny dreadful wri... |
410,019 | 2,567,136 | 823,715 | 6 | In German Yet | It's tempting to rate this just because one of the two people speaking is Billy Wilder but alas , the other one is Volker Schlondorff so I find myself paraphrasing the well-documented definition of golf as a good walk ruined ; substitute talk for walk and you'll see where I'm coming from . For reasons best known to him... |
410,047 | 2,567,136 | 87,712 | 6 | On The Lam | On paper this has all the hallmarks of an excellent film ; the true story of a criminal who , for a time , was the Most Wanted man in France , who attempted an audacious mass prison break , who escaped himself and went on a Bonnie and Clyde type rampage for some eighteen months before perishing - as Clyde before him - ... |
408,950 | 2,567,136 | 444,418 | 6 | According To Hoyle | Those who love to detract female directors will probably opine that it is just as well that Nicole Garcia is still acting ( her latest movie is in the Cutting Room even as I write ) and though I confess , as a fan of Garcia the realisateuse , to being a tad disappointed with this entry I can't go along with that lobby ... |
410,087 | 2,567,136 | 363,163 | 6 | Bunker Hell | I put off seeing this film until it was the only game in town and although I've been known to nod off even in 90 minute fare I remained awake for all two and a half hours of this . Its strength is to remain detached from the actual combat it is recording so that we never actually SEE the Allies in action but only the e... |
410,042 | 2,567,136 | 171,343 | 6 | Early Autumn | Definitely not for the short attention-span set . This takes its own sweet time to get anywhere and even then you're not quite sure where it's taken you . It kicks off with a long opening sequence resembling nothing more than a pre-war black and white documentary on traditional wine-growing in Georgia and I may as well... |
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