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

Reza
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The Three Maxims (Herbert Wilcox, 1936) 5/10

Anna Neagle's long running business association (they would marry in 1943) with Herbert Wilcox continued as star-director in this rather silly film about two trapeze artists (Leslie Banks & Tullio Carmenati) in love with their female partner (Anna Neagle). Both male leads are far too old and not convincing at all as lovers. Anna Neagle is lovely and spirited but the corny plot is full of clichés. Avoid this.
Reza
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Lilies of the Field (Ralph Nelson, 1963) 5/10

An aimless drifter (Sidney Poitier), driving through a desert, comes upon a farm inhabited by a group of German speaking nuns. As he is a good handyman the Mother Superior (Lilia Skala) asks him to build them a chapel which he reluctantly takes on after initially balking at the responsibility. A well acted feel-good movie that quickly grows tiresome thanks to the annoying nuns and a cloying plot. The film's claim to fame in the history books is the Oscar Poitier won for the film - the first time a black actor was awarded one in the lead category.
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This Man Is News (David MacDonald, 1938) 6/10

A famous London newsreporter (Barry K. Barnes) gets in over his head during various murder investigations as stories he makes up for his harried editor (Alastair Sim) come true and it becomes a race against time trying to catch the culprit. British screwball comedy that apes the American "Thin Man" series with the reporter and his daffy wife (Valerie Hobson) getting inebriated at the drop of a hat as bodies drop around them, shots are fired, the cops are in a perpetual confused state allowing the couple to turn into amateur sleuths as they try to solve the mystery. The two stars have good chemistry but the overall production is pretty shoddy as if it was a quota quickie shot on a very low budget.
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Liberal Arts (Josh Radnor, 2012) 6/10

A college graduate (Josh Radnor) returns to his alma mater, a Midwestern college, at the invitation of his English Professor (Richard Jenkins) to attend his retirement dinner. Introduced to a student (Elizabeth Olsen) he finds himself not only falling in love with her but also confused and weary about the 16 year age difference between them. Charming, if slow, Rom-Com almost uses the device of Richard Linklater's "Sunset" trilogy where the two leads talk about books, relationships and life. This is familiar material which almost plays like a sitcom but made fresh by the hang-dog quality of director-star Radnor and the charming and fresh candor of Olsen. The film has one absolutely raucous moment between Radnor and Allison Janey, playing his former Professor of Romantics, who he is dismayed to find is shockingly far removed from the subject she teaches. Janey is an absolute scream playing a terribly jaded-by-life character with acidic dead-pan delivery. Radnor understands human interaction and the film soars in the scenes between the two lovers but more often deflates when the camera focuses on other peripheral characters (Zac Efron as a kook for one) who are just not as interesting.
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Isle of Forgotten Sins / Monsoon (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1943) 5/10

A treasure hunter (John Carradine), a brothel madam (Gale Sondergaard), gold beneath the sea, various double crossing varmits and a monsoon typhoon which resolves the plot. Ulmer's low budget foray into the adventure genre is a South Seas yarn filmed in his typical economical way using close-ups, stock shots and back projection to try and disguise the cheap sets. Carradine and Sondergaard seem to be having great fun and their chemistry shows.
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Crow Hollow (Michael McCarthy, 1952) 6/10

A newly-wed woman (Natasha Parry) moves with her doctor husband (Donald Houston) into his family mansion where reside his three elderly eccentric aunts and a sexy maid who gets a lot of attention by everyone. Things soon go bump in the night as attempts are made on the bride's life - poison in her soup, a tarantula in her dress. Gothic elements (all these films signal the far superior "Rebecca") are the highlights along with the charming presence of Natasha Parry in this little murder-mystery.
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Murder is My Beat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1955) 6/10

The shabby production values notwithstanding this is a nifty little mystery courtesy of Ulmer. The plot involves the usual noir suspects - a dead body, a femme fatale (Barbara Payton) accused of the crime and the foolish but hardboiled cop (Paul Langton) assigned to transport the prisoner but who ends up falling for her charms and decides to prove her innocence. This has the makings of a very good film but alas the endless use of back projection and stock footage almost does it in. Starlet Payton plays well in her last film performance and comes off much better than her uncharismatic leading man.
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Club Havana (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945) 9/10

Ulmer's superb melodramatic pastiche was filmed in just six days as he uses his prowling camera to explore the lives of various people - cold-blooded hoods, betrayed women and desperate characters trapped in tough situations - in a nightclub setting during the course of one evening. It is remarkable that he manages to do this with such ingenuity considering his shoestring budget and shooting time. Murder, infidelity, love, loss are just some of the many activities going on in the lives of the characters at the club. And the drama is all played out with rhumba music in the background along with two songs - "Tico Tico" & "Besame Mucho" - sung by Lita Baron. One of many Ulmer films that need to be rediscovered and given their rightful place in film history.
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The Brasher Doubloon (John Brahm, 1947) 8/10

Phillip Marlowe (George Mintgomery) is hired by an eccentric matron (Florence Bates who is deliciously malevolent) to find a stolen coin. Along the way he tangles with her suspicious son (Conrad Janis), her secretary (pretty Nancy Guild) who hates being "touched" by men and assorted detectives and other grotesque suspects. Superbly directed "B" noir - John Brahm brings an eerie, brooding gothic quality to the proceedings - is based on Raymond Chandler's "The High Window" with a screenplay full of witty, hardboiled quips. Montgomery is surprisingly very effective and holds his own against other more famous Marlowes on screen - Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell, Robert Montgomery and Robert Mitchum. This is a little gem that needs to be rediscovered.
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Fast & Furious 8: The Fate of the Furious (F. Gary Gray, 2017) 5/10

Compared to the high energy level in the last installment this episode in the franchise is a shocking bore. The film has its share of thrills but nothing we haven't seen elsewhere and countless times too. We know that the series involves cars - fast cars - but here there seems to be an emphasis on newer ways to destroy as many cars as possible. The set pieces here involve a drag car race in Cuba with Vin Diesel (on honeymoon with Michelle Rodriguez) doing his thing followed by a prison break sequence which allows Dwayne Johnson to do his thing. They both flex their muscles while driving and beating up people respectively. The main plot involves a villain (Charlize Theron) who blackmails Vin to do her bidding which gets the old gang together to find out what's going on. The friendly cop on the beat (Kurt Russell) forces scowling Jason Stathman to join the gang to bring down the cunning villain who is involved with nuclear submarines which leads to a car chase across Arctic ice. All very deja vu but in a stale way. Oh yes, Dame Helen Mirren makes a brief appearance as Stathman's nicotine stained cockney mom which hardly adds any positive ripples to this rather messy affair. Skip this one and let's hope the next episode kicks some real ass!!
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Desire (Frank Borzage & Ernst Lubitsch, 1937) 9/10

Sophisticated battle of wits between a not-so-bright American auto engineer (Gary Cooper), on holiday in Spain, and a sultry European jewel thief (Marlene Dietrich). Elegant and witty romantic comedy superbly directed by Borzage with the Lubitsch "touch" evident throughout. The two stars have great chemistry with Cooper falling for the charms of Dietrich (dressed to her teeth in Travis Banton gowns) who is surprised to find herself reciprocating. Charles Lang's cinematography greatly aids the lavish romanticism and the supporting cast - Alan Mowbray, Akim Tamiroff, John Halliday, Ernest Cossart - make strong impressions in their brief parts. Not to be missed.
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Chandni (Yash Chopra, 1989) 8/10

One of Yash Chopra's many blockbuster romantic films came at the close of a decade which saw mainly action oriented films. It's success was not due to it's ordinary screenplay which repeated a variation of countless similarly plotted films from the past. A simple but vivacious small town girl (Sridevi) falls head over heels in love with a rich boy (Rishi Kapoor). They soon get married despite opposition from his family. An accident paralyses him - he falls out of a helicopter while serenading his lady love by showering her with rose petals from up above - and he turns his wife away leading her into the arms of a widower (Vinod Khanna) who falls in love with her. The film's massive success was based on the film's hit soundtrack ("Mere Haathon Mein Nau Nau Choorian", O Meri Chandni", "Aa Meei Jaan", "Parbat" & "Mitwa" in which Sridevi's stunning saree clad look was repeated by Chopra for all his subsequent leading ladies - Juhi Chawala, Madhuri Dixit, Karisma Kapoor, Priety Zinta, Katrina Kaif and which was in turn carried forward by Aditiya Chopra and Karan Johar via their leading ladies Kajol, Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukherji, Kareena Kapoor & Anushka Sharma) and the incredible chemistry between Kapoor and Sridevi who became an even bigger star - she had lost a lot of weight for the film and played a character quite unlike the larger than life women she usually portrayed on screen. The usual Chopra traits were all present - melodious romantic songs (sung by Lata Mangeshkar), Switzerland as a backdrop where the leading lady (dressed in chiffon sarees) dances across lush meadows beneath snowcapped mountains. The absurd exaggerated acting by the supporting cast is offset by the natural performances by the two leads - chubby Rishi Kapoor wearing his trademark sweaters and bouncy Sridevi who gets to display her dancing skills throughout - she gets two song sequences where she gets soaked in the rain - there is nothing more sexy than a woman writhing in wet grass, getting drenched while wearing a saree ;) . The plot even manages to rip off a major plot point from the Broadway play "Whose Life is it Anyway?". Watch this strictly for the songs, the two leads, lovely Waheeda Rehman in a small part and Juhi Chawala making a special appearance as Vinod Khanna's late wife.
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Hiroshima Mon Amour (Alain Resnais, 1959) 9//10

Alain Resnais’ first feature film is a landmark French New Wave film that featured innovative flashback techniques that altered the narrative’s chronological order and used silence to indicate the past. One of the most influential films it changed the course of how films could be made and perceived. The film serves as a bridge between the linear films coming out of Hollywood and most of the world and paving the way for modern filmmakers to make innovative non-linear films.

Fourteen years after the atomic bomb was dropped, a married French actress (Emmanuelle Riva) making an international peace film in Hiroshima has an affair with a married Japanese architect (Eiji Okada). The film concerns a series of conversations over a 36-hour period in her hotel room as they both reminice about their past and how war has altered their lives and what Hiroshima means to them. The story shows how the Japanese man’s life was changed forever when he experienced the bomb first hand as a young man of 22 living in that city while the memory of war was devastating for the French woman who carries emotional scars from a traumatic past involving a love affair in Europe as an 18-year old during WWII.

For all it’s surreal imagery, it’s unconventional love story, and non-linear storyline, this allusion shows that the film is still the classic ‘’same old story, a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die’’. Both characters are just two people struggling with the imagery of a distant war and the fate of their own relationship. The film remains as stark and impressive, as touching and demanding, as it was in 1959
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Images (Robert Altman, 1972) 9/10

Altman's study of madness is strongly influenced by Polanski's "Repulsion" and Bergman's "Persona" but has none of their claustrophobia. Instead the story is played out not only inside a farmhouse but also in the wide open spaces of the Irish countryside (beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond). A lonely writer (Susannah York) of children's stories hallucinates about sex and death while writing a new book holed up in her country house. She interacts with three men - her husband (Rene Auberjonois), a former lover (Marcel Bozzuffi) who years before died in a plane crash and an amorous neighbour (Hugh Mallais) who has the hots for her. Reality and fiction intermingle as Altman borrows shock effects from the thriller genre to superbly create a woman's terrifying descent into madness. John Williams' Oscar nominated score accompanies the strange goings on which eventually end in murder. Or has it all been an enactment in the schizophrenic woman's mind? Superbly directed film has one of Susannah York"s greatest performances for which she won the best actress award at the Cannes film festival. This is one of Altman's most underrated and neglected films which needs to be rediscovered.
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When Thief Meets Thief (Raoul Walsh, 1937) 6/10

A crook (Douglas Fairbanks Jr) is framed for a murder by his equally crooked partner (Alan Hale) and they part company. Years later they meet up when one of them falls in love with the other's girl friend (Valerie Hobson). Minor caper film with the theme of redemption built in and smartly acted by the three leads.
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