ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[Ellemeno]

==Comment==
Any fans of Michael Tolkin out there?  He only directed two movies, this one and The New Age.  Very strange films but I like them a lot.

I love The New Age.  What an awful movie.   And Adam West was born to play his role.  I love that their store was called "Hipocracy."


Michael Tolkin also wrote The Player, one of my top favorite movies.

[Ellemeno]

A humorous heist film directed by Jules Dassin.  With Melina Mercouri and Maximillien Schell.  Those humorous (romantic comedy) heist movies were the thing back then.




Next U 1963

[oilgun]

I love The New Age.  What an awful movie.   And Adam West was born to play his role.  I love that their store was called "Hipocracy."


Michael Tolkin also wrote The Player, one of my top favorite movies.

You're the only other person I 'know' who's seen The New Age!  Well, except for the friend I went with who also thought it was awful,  .  I loved the humour, it was so cutting.  I'd love to get the DVD sometime.  I thought Peter Weller was so sexy in those days and he & Judy Davis are great together.

[southendmd]

Next:  "V" from 1962

[Lynne]

Directed by George Pollack - here's a summary of the NYTimes review:

"When a traveling salesman arrives to hawk his wares in an economically depressed Italian village, the last thing he expects is to be assailed by the most beautiful single girls in town, but that is exactly what happens. The reason for it stems from the fact that all but one of the town's eligible bachelors have left to find work. The only available man left is a wealthy emigrant. He is looking for a wife and the impoverished parents of the daughters push their children to compete for his love. This creates considerable conflict until the village elders step in and decide that the rich man's bride will be selected by the first outsider to enter the village." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide



Next up "W" from 1961  (somebody tell me if I don't have the gist of this new game  Thanks!)

[dot-matrix]

From IMDb
Elvis Presley as a hell-raising juvenile delinquent? I don't think so. That's what `Wild in the Country' would have us believe, but in reality he's the only honest and decent male in the movie. He plays a misunderstood young man from a poor white trash background who is sent to a psychologist as part of his parole after he gets into trouble (which he often does through no real fault of his own, naturally). Hope Lange plays the `older woman,' who discovers a budding literary talent in her charge. However, according to director Philip Dunne's memoirs the part was originally offered to Simone Signoret (!). Contemplating this pairing is more exciting than anything that happens in this movie.

[Ellemeno]

You're the only other person I 'know' who's seen The New Age!  Well, except for the friend I went with who also thought it was awful,  .  I loved the humour, it was so cutting.  I'd love to get the DVD sometime.  I thought Peter Weller was so sexy in those days and he & Judy Davis are great together.

You know, I really misspoke - I meant there was much awfulness of values and behavior in that excellent movie.  I really enjoyed it and would like to see it again too.

[oilgun]

==Comment==
The Talented Mr. Ripley

[MaineWriter]

==from IMDb==

Buñuel's second and final English language film (his first being Robinson Crusoe in 1954) is a racial issues movie, albeit quite a bit more complex than your average Stanley Kramer type of stuff. Traver (Bernie Hamilton), running from a false rape accusation, lands his boat on an island somewhere off the coast of a Southern state. That island is inhabited by only two people, although a third has only recently passed away. Evalyn (Key Meersman) is an uneducated teenager. Her grandfather is the recently deceased. Her grandfather's partner (they cultivate honey on the island) is Miller (Zachary Scott, the star of Jean Renoir's The Southerner). Miller, an older man, has designs on young Evalyn. He is also a vile racist, and delights in treating Traver cruelly. The film is very good in most regards. The script is fine, the performances (save that of Claudio Brook, a Mexican actor who delivers his English lines very awkwardly; either that, or they were dubbed badly by someone else) are wonderful. My only complaint is that the movie's denouement is a little weak. It's a gripping picture most of the way through, and it's a tad disappointing that it doesn't build to all that much. Still, a very good and underrated flick. Please note that Lionsgate's new Buñuel box set, which also includes Gran Casino, his first Mexican film, has the two films mislabeled. I popped in Gran Casino, only to get The Young One. I've confirmed that disc labeled The Young One does have Gran Casino on it. So if you want one from Netflix and not the other, keep this in mind.

[southendmd]

With Guy Williams, who played John Robinson on "Lost in Space".

Next:  "A" from 1958.