Movie Chat

Double Indemnity
Does anyone know why Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler changed the names of the book to the movie.

Plot summary for "Double Indemnity".

"Double Indemnity" is a terrific movie. Unfortunately, as I have mentioned elsewhere, it is not currently available on dvd.

Hopefully it's in restoration for DVD -- TCM shows the film pretty regularly and the print is decent.

Has any one seen REMEMBER THE NIGHT (1940)? it also stars Fred MacMurry and Barbara Stanwyck directed by Preston Sturges
It's a Christmas film about a woman who gets caught shop-lifting
and ends up going home for the holidays the prosecuting lawyer

Fantastic news in today's New York Times (registration required) regarding the future release of Harold Lloyd's silent films:

Although Lloyd lost part of his right hand - and, temporarily, his sight - in an explosion on a movie set in 1919, his trademark was daredevil physical comedy, finding laughter in his own peril. Sony Pictures apparently believes that his sunny take on life has durable appeal: A deal was announced this week for a remake of "Safety Last!" Next year, some of his feature films will be re-released theatrically, with new orchestral scores, and a larger number will come out on DVD.

Well, a remake of "Safety Last" isn't really good news (remember when Buster Keaton's "Seven Chances" was remade as "The Bachelor?"), but the promise of a "large number" of Lloyd films to appear on dvd is excellent news.

I love Harold Lloyd films. I shall be watching for these.

i love scary movies i absoloutly adore them exept if theyve got spiders then im lik totally freaked and humorus ones and i also lik love movies sometimes they mak you cry if there rely sad.

I cried when I bought a copy of Meet the Parents. Luckily I was able to donate it to the apartments' movie library.

Many years ago I watched portions of The Santa Fe Trail on a 20" television. At the time it did not hold my interest enough to pay attention to the story line. It is a 1940 tale of John Brown, starring Errol Flynn as Jeb Stuart, Ronald Reagan as affable all around good guy George Custer, Raymond Massey as John Brown and also featuring Olivia de Havilland, Alan Hale and Van Heflin. From the start abolitionists are portrayed as the bad guys, with Jeb stuart saying, "The south can address the issue of slavery without interference from the north." The only supposed voices of reason are those of Jeff Davis, R. E. Lee and the like. Throughout the movie the only good person who agrees with freeing slaves, Custer, remains tight lipped. It concentrates on a John Brown so fanatical he allows the burning of a barn that contains not just Jeb Stuart, but a black family, the very people he is sworn to free. As that family gets saved, the woman says, "Lawsy me. Them people brung us out of salvery with no jobs, no way to make our way. We just wants to go back home (to slavery in good old Texas in this instance)." A not so thinly veiled racist movie in my estimation.

The other night I spent so much time watching Little Rascals I finally went to sleep in my chair. The collection I bought has some silents, but more than half are talkies. I selected this two vhs set because it predated most of the episodes always presented, with Spankie, Darla and Alfalfa. It was an excercise in nostalgia. I was a kid last time I saw some of these features.

I recall the red-hot days of Trini Lopez. He sold lots of records. I read once that he had signed a deal to appear in ten movies. Then he sort of vanished. Sure, he lived and continued to work, but was no longer a big star that I could tell. All these years later I dug around in a Half Price bookstore and found a VHS movie starring him. It co-starred Larry Hagman. Filmed intirely in Peru, it told how an American businessman got stuck in a poverty-stricken village with a brand new Mercedes car that wouldn't start. Trini gave him lots of assistance, but the local mechanic couldn't get his vehicle started. As Hagman boarded a bus out of town he got Trini to sign a piece of paper. Turns out he bequeathed the Mercedes to him. Trini's conscience won't let him keep it. His friend notes a loose connection under the hood and the car is fine. So Trini takes his family and sets out driving to return the car to Hagman. It's a simple film, with Trini Lopez showcased for the good and humble man I believe him to be in real life, and Larry Hagman does alright as the flamboyant American. It is not a great film, but it gives a pretty good travelog of much of Peru's cities and scenery

When I was a lad, I wanted very badly to see certain Disney movies that no one would take me to see. They were Peter Pan, Bambi, Pinnocchio and Song of the South. Eventually I saw them all. I enjoyed Peter Pan and Bambi, but could never make up my mind about Pinnocchio. I did not see Song of the South until this evening. It is on a list of withdrawn movies in this country. I think it may be available in Britain. I got it on the internet, a possible bootleg. I guess because I grew up in the culture that felt great affection for this film, I had mixed feelings watching it. That it perpetuates a myth that life on the plantation was nostalgic, graceful and harmonious for all is unquestionable. Many whites in that time believed it. Song can be viewed in much the same way as Uncle Tom's Cabin, another work now in disfavor. Both make the pitch that the two races are artificially divided. Tom is a good man, a wonderful person, as is Uncle Remus. One of the defining moments of Song is at the end where the little white boy's hand is in the black hand of Uncle Remus. In both cases I don't think the authors realized how hateful the finished presentations can seem.

I dig in the bins of $1 DVDs, searching out old movies I missed in the past. An interesting one was Death of a Prophet, about the murder of Malcolm X, with Morgan Freeman and Ossie Davis. Another was Kansas City Confidential. What made that one interesting was the cast. I'm not used to John Payne playing a tough guy in a cops and robbers thriller. He is backed up by three guys I always watch for - Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef and Neville Brand. They made good gangsters.

I don't remember seeing Kansas City Confidential, but it certainly does have a good bunch of gangsters. I read on IMDb that John Payne was the first person in Hollywood interested in making the James Bond novels into a film series. In 1955 he paid a $1,000 a month option for 9 months on the Bond novel Moonraker, but eventually gave up the option when he learned he couldn't retain the rights for the entire 007 series. Kansas City Confidential was before Payne was in a terrible automobile wreck, I think in 1962, in which he suffered extensive, life-threatening injuries. In his later roles, facial scars can be detected in close-ups. He didn't make many pictures after that, but did appear on a few TV programs, and in 1973 he was reunited with Alice Faye in a touring revival of the old college musical "Good News." But he invested wisely and owned a ranch in Montana and property in California.

Payne was a constant in the movies of my youth. One thing, he didn't fall into a single category, which makes him more interesting.

Hey, edgar and Raggedy. John Payne. I do believe he was from Roanoke, Virginia. Our friend, who was a real talent, grew up with him.

Last night I watched Clay Pigeon with Joaquin Phoenix. Anyone see it? Very different and Phoenix's co-star was excellent. Ending was good, too.

I've not seen Clay Pigeon, Letty. I'll keep a lookout for it. Yep, John Payne was born in Roanoke and attended Roanoke College before Drama School and Juilliard. His first two wives were Anne Shirley and Gloria deHaven.

A bit of trivia: John Payne, actor, is a direct descendent of John Howard Payne (1791 - 1852), composer of the classic song "Home, Sweet Home" ("Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.").

Upon my word, Raggedy. Home Sweet Home? My dad used to sing that with my mom in conjunction with My Silver Bell. Good grief. I had forgotten that.

Just remembered the movie Sentimental Journey with John Payne.

I had forgotten all about Sentimental Journey with Maureen O'Hara. That was a real tear-jerker. I think of Miracle on 34th St. when I hear John Payne's name, and another movie with Sonja Henie (Iceland, I think).

Wasn't there a remake of Sentimental Journey?