Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Reza]

Two Years Before the Mast (John Farrow, 1946) 7/10

The classic 19th century seafaring novel by Richard Henry Dana gets an old fashioned rousing treatment by John Farrow. The novel exposed the barbaric conditions during long voyages captained by cruel men - here Howard Da Silva gives Captain Bligh of "Bounty" fame a run for the money although plays the part with a calm and dead-pan demeanor. The story is about the voyage of the "Pilgrim" - a U.S. Merchant Marine ship - from Boston to Cape Horn and onto San Francisco with the author (Brian Donlevy) on board incognito to find why his brother died on the same ship during a previous voyage. Also on board is the playboy son (Alan Ladd) of the ship's owner who gets shanghaied on board and lives to see first hand the cruelty on board - floggings, starvation, torture, death - and leads a mutiny against the evil Captain. The superb supporting cast - William Bendix, Barry Fitzgerald, Albert Dekker - play assorted colorful crew members. The resulting trial after the mutiny resulted Congress ensuring better conditions for sailors.

[Reza]

Black Widow (Nunnally Johnson, 1954) 7/10

The film has a whiff of Mankiewicz's "All About Eve" in that it's set amongst the sophisticated Broadway lot - a famous producer (Van Heflin), his star-actress wife (Gene Tierney) and the bitchy and gossipy star (Ginger Rogers) in his play who is married to a mousy man (Reginald Gardiner). However, the resemblance ends there as the plot veers off into B-movie territory and becomes a whodunnit with a young girl's (Peggy Ann Garner) death by hanging. She kills herself in the producer's condo and suspicion falls on him when the cop (George Raft) on the case says it's murder. Glossy film shot in cinemascope - the scenes are mainly set inside apartments making the action seem like a stage play. It's all quite second rate but the starry cast is game with Heflin the perfect noir hero getting deeper and deeper into a mess as he starts looking for answers. Rogers has a small part although top billed and has a field day sashaying around being a total bitch. Tierney is merely required to look lovely as she briefly drifts in and out of scenes - the actress was unwell at the time and on medication which would a little later stall her career due to suicidal depression. Garner, the lovely child-star from the 1940s, playing the moody femme fatale is made up to look like Anne Baxter's conniving "Eve" is quite good although her adult career never took off.

[Reza]

The Man Who Finally Died (Quentin Lawrence, 1963) 5/10

A mystery whodunnit begins well but quickly disolves into a mess with far too many red herrings and characters not making any sense. Stanley Baker sails through it all, very Bond-like, looking cool wearing dark shades throughout. He is summoned to Europe by a mysterious voice on a phone who claims to be his father. Upon arrival he discovers the man died and has been buried. The problem for him is that his father had died twenty years before and all his efforts at trying to find out about the recently deceased person are thwarted by a motley lot - the man's widow (Mai Zetterling who is wasted in a nothing role), a slimy doctor (Peter Cushing), the vicious Inspector of police (Eric Portman) and his sergeant (Nigel Green). The initial intrigue and suspense quickly gives way to confusion with a score that emphasises every melodramatic moment. The cast is excellent though and the film's crisp black and white cinematography is outstanding.

[Reza]

Hamari Adhuri Kahani / Our Incomplete Story (Mohit Suri, 2015) 2/10

Old fashioned, corny film has a lousy screenplay (by Mahesh Bhatt of all people) that seems to have inspired Vidya Balan to give a bad performance. An acclaimed actress who never took a wrong career move is forced here to play a character who is not only stupid but she gives an incredibly amateurish performance. She is not helped by her wooden co-star, Emraan Hashmi, whose expressionless mannequin stance throughout is annoying to say the least. A sad, single mother (Vidya Balan) is given a job by a rich hotel owner (Emraan Hashmi). She has led a difficult life raising her son when her husband (a miscast Rajkummar Rao) mysteriously walked out on them. Just when her life is getting better and she is starting to fall in love with her rich employer, who happens to be obsessed with her, the wayward husband returns into her life with a price on his head for being a terrorist. Archaic cheesy dialogue is delivered by the actors, their eyes glistening with tears, as their lives mirror mythological religious figures. The screenplay also attempts at speaking against the unequal treatment of women by men who try to hold onto them as possessions. Every scene is directed in an overwrought fashion and the actors play to the gallery. The hit title song plays in bits throughout but is heard in full during the hilariously corny ending. Skip this film like the plague.

[Reza]

Great Day (Lance Comfort, 1945) 8/10

WWII propaganda piece nestled in what is basically a charming slice-of-life drama set in a small English village awaiting the arrival of Mrs Roosevelt for a visit. The plot captures a group of village folk during wartime - the lady of the Manor (Isabel Jeans), a depressed alcoholic WWI veteran (Eric Portman), his sensible wife (Flora Robson), their daughter (Sheila Sim) who is trying to decide between two suitors - the reliable old rich farmer (Walter Fitzgerald) and her former boyfriend a young RAF officer (Phillip Friend) - and assorted gossips and others. The film is also an ode to the Women's Institute, a voluntary organization, and their contribution to the war effort. Well acted by a solid group of character actors.

[Reza]

The Green Scarf (George More O'Ferrall, 1954) 5/10

Extremely talky and convoluted murder mystery. A deaf and mute man (Kieron Moore) is arrested for the murder of his friend (Michael Medvin). An elderly french lawyer (Michael Redgrave) thinks he's innocent and with the help of the man's wife (Ann Todd) and mentor (Leo Genn) goes all out to prove his innocence in court. Redgrave plays the part in old man get-up complete with white hair and a huge bushy beard doddering around annoyingly. Todd does her usual frigid-wife role in a deadpan manner. The surprise ending takes too long to get there and when it does it's quite a damp fizzle.

[Reza]

The Damned (Luchino Visconti, 1969) 9/10

Visconti's operatic and deliciously overblown account of the rise of Nazism as seen through the eyes of a German industrialist family (supposedly based on the Krupps) during the 1930s. The elaborate decadence is reflected in the family members some of whom are either vying for power on the coattails of the Nazis while others fall prey to savage instincts of greed and murder. The plot moves at full steam when the aged head of the family is murdered on his birthday by the lover (Dirk Bogarde) of his evil widowed daughter-in-law Sophie (Ingrid Thulin) whom she plans to place as head of the steelworks. They implicate the Vice President (Umberto Orsini) of the firm who is the old man's liberal son-in-law (Umberto Orsini) married to his young daughter (Charlotte Rampling). A power struggle breaks out for the steelworks between Sophie, the brownshirt officer heir to the works and a cousin (Helmut Griem) who is an SS leader. Adding to the chaos is Sophie's effete son (Helmut Berger), first seen performing in Marlene Dietrich drag, who goes from being a weak momma's boy to transforming himself into a rabid Nazi. Along the way he molests a young child and rapes his dope addicted mother. The film hysterically captures the era with scenes set in opulent drawing rooms, in beer halls, Nazi rallies on the streets, book burnings, a trasvestite orgy and the Night of the Long Knives. The graphic sex scenes add to the hysteria and horror. This is not Visconti's best film by any means but it has enough moments in it to make it very controversial and one is riveted to the screen watching in open mouthed wonder. As with all of his films it has sumptuous production values. A must-see.

[Reza]

The Driver's Seat / Identikit (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1974) 1/10

Extremely bizarre film (based on the book by Muriel Spark) becomes an awful star vehicle for Elizabeth Taylor. What made her accept the part? Money? The need to appear on screen several times in a see-through bra? A chance to create a record for the worst performance EVER by a two-time Academy Award winner? Probably all of the above. A haughty (and mentally disturbed) spinster arrives in Rome in search of someone to kill her. Along the way she comes across a pervert (Ian Bannen) on the plane, a dotty old coot (Mona Washbourne) who accompanies her on shopping trips and assorted terrorists who either blow up cars or run around shooting people at airports. Liz sails through all of this with a pinched look on her face barking orders at everyone around and throwing hissy fits at the drop of a hat. The film's Eurotrash look along with the "murder" element of the plot makes this the closest La Liz got to starring in a Gialo. Awful score, ugly sets, inane dialogue and a confusing story keep this from being a camp classic.

[Precious Doll]

The Untold Story of Armistead Maupin (2017) Jennifer M. Krout 7/10
Genius (2016) Michael Grandage 4/10
Don't Blink - Robert Frank (2016) Laurel Israel 6/10
I Am Not Your Negro (2016) Raoul Peck 8/10
Norman (2017) Joseph Cedar 5/10
Melody (1971) Waris Hussein 7/10
Tschick (2016) Fatih Akin 7/10
The Climber (1975) Pasquale Squitieri 6/10

Repeat viewings

La Cérémonie (1995) Claude Chabrol 10/10
In Cold Blood (1967) Richard Brooks 10/10
Vision Quest (1985) Harold Becker 6/10
The Big Heat (1953) Fritz Lang 10/10
Housekeeping (1987) Bill Forsyth 7/10

[Precious Doll]

Snatched (2017) Jonathan Levine 4/10
Alien: Covenant (2017) Ridley Scott 4/10
Spencer's Mountain (1963) Delmer Davis 7/10
Dead or Alive: Final (2002) Takashi Miike 2/10
Nocturama (2016) Bertrand Bonello 7/10
Viceroy's House (2017) Gurinder Chadha 5/10
Tunnel (2016) Seong-hun Kim 4/10
Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) Song-soo Hung 6/10
Love Meetings (1964) Pier Paolo Pasolini 6/10
The Age of Shadows (2016) Jee-Woon Kim 6/10

Repeat viewings

Throne of Blood (1957) Akira Kurosawa 8/10
Bobby Deerfield (1977) Sydney Pollack 8/10

[Precious Doll]

Get Out (2017) Jordan Peele 7/10
Brimstone (2017) Martin Koolhoven 7/10
A Dog's Purpose (2017) Lasse Hallstrom 3/10
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017) Niki Caro 4/10
Contact High (2009) Michael Glawogger 5/10
Four Days in France (2016) Jerome Reybaud 7/10
American Pastoral (2016) Ewan McGregor 6/10
Detour (2017) Christopher Smith 5/10
Maire-Octobre (1959) Julien Duvivier 6/10
Kaili Blues (2016) Gan Bi 6/10

Repeat viewing

Elle (2016) Paul Verhoeven 10/10

[Precious Doll]

Uncertain Glory (2017) Agusti Villarong 7/10
Free Fire (2017) Ben Wheatley 4/10
Jota de Saura (2016) Carlos Saura 6/10
Redes (1936) Emilio Gomez Muriel & Fred Zinnemann 7/10
The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) Andrew Ovredal 5/10
Salt and Fire (2017) Werner Herzog 1/10
Frank & Lola (2016) Matthew Ross 7/10
Lovesong (2017) So Yong Kim 6/10
Rules Don't Apply (2016) Warren Beatty 4/10

Repeat viewings

The Beyond (1981) Lucio Fulci 2/10
Eye of the Needle (1981) Richard Marquand 9/10
Pretty Poison (1968) Noel Black 10/10
Saint Jack (1979) Peter Bogdanovich 9/10

[Big Magilla]

Thanks for the clarification.

I wouldn't say it was bizarre that New York didn't get Stevie until three years after L.A. It was unusual, but the original distributor went out of business in1978. It was picked up by the Samuel Goldwyn Company three years later.

Probably the most bizarre L.A. to N.Y. delay occurred with 1977's Opening Night which had its premiere in L.A. on Christmas Day, 1977 and was nominated for Best Actress (Gena Rowlands) and Supporting Actress (Joan Blondell) at the Golden Globes, but was not given an actual theatrical release in the U.S.at that time. It was shown at the N.Y. Film Festival in 1988, the year before Cassavetes' death, but still not given a theatrical release until it opened in New York on May 17, 1991.

[Reza]

The Incredible Sarah (Richard Fleischer, 1976) 5/10

Half baked screen biography of Sarah Bernhardt (Glenda Jackson), considered to be one of the greatest french actresses. The screenplay goes through all the usual clichés which make up a typical star's life - her audition and the start of her stage career as a teenager at the Comèdie Française, her increasingly eccentric behaviour (she liked to sleep in a coffin), loud temper tantrums, having a child out of wedlock by a nobleman (Simon Williams), her relationship with a playwright (Daniel Massey) and ultimate marriage to an actor (John Castle) who couldn't act. There are scenes recreated from Bernhardt's many stage performances - "Le Passant", "Phaèdre", "La Dame aux Camèlias", "King Lear" and her greatest triumph "Joan of Arc". Jackson strides through the role like a bully bellowing her lines and stops just short of being camp. It was her last star vehicle on screen and it's a pretty dismal effort.

I wouldn't say that. She was in 16 more theatrical releases through 1990 and had either first or second billing in most of them. She was still winning awards as late as 1981 with Stevie, the year of its New York release. She had considerable critical and box-office success with House Calls in 1978, Hopscotch in 1980 and to a lesser extent, Turtle Diary in 1985.

Her worst film was probably The Class of Miss MacMichael in 1978, the last film in which she played the title role. That one was even more of a pretty dismal effort.

A star vehicle in terms of a project specifically created for her. Yes Stevie came two years later - we shall discount the fact that it played in N.Y. in 1981 (although it was shown in L.A. in 1978 which is quite bizarre in itself that NY would not get to see it in its year of release). Her other successes with Matthau were not created for her.

[Big Magilla]

The Incredible Sarah (Richard Fleischer, 1976) 5/10

Half baked screen biography of Sarah Bernhardt (Glenda Jackson), considered to be one of the greatest french actresses. The screenplay goes through all the usual clichés which make up a typical star's life - her audition and the start of her stage career as a teenager at the Comèdie Française, her increasingly eccentric behaviour (she liked to sleep in a coffin), loud temper tantrums, having a child out of wedlock by a nobleman (Simon Williams), her relationship with a playwright (Daniel Massey) and ultimate marriage to an actor (John Castle) who couldn't act. There are scenes recreated from Bernhardt's many stage performances - "Le Passant", "Phaèdre", "La Dame aux Camèlias", "King Lear" and her greatest triumph "Joan of Arc". Jackson strides through the role like a bully bellowing her lines and stops just short of being camp. It was her last star vehicle on screen and it's a pretty dismal effort.

I wouldn't say that. She was in 16 more theatrical releases through 1990 and had either first or second billing in most of them. She was still winning awards as late as 1981 with Stevie, the year of its New York release. She had considerable critical and box-office success with House Calls in 1978, Hopscotch in 1980 and to a lesser extent, Turtle Diary in 1985.

Her worst film was probably The Class of Miss MacMichael in 1978, the last film in which she played the title role. That one was even more of a pretty dismal effort.