From Hell (2001) 6.5/10 I liked this quite a bit, even if Heather Graham is entirely too beautiful to be an 1880s "unfortunate." Funny, I never gave her a thought until I saw her all "Retroed up" in Victorian-era costume and she's quite a looker! Ian Holm is one of the world's great actors and he proves that again here. The depiction of drug abuse is also well chronicled. They sure used some serious drugs in the 19th Century! And the boomers thought that *they* invented substance abuse... I would have liked to have known more about the Inspector Abberline (Johnny Depp) character, though.
Tulsa (1949) 3.5/10 Finally got Turner Classic Movies back after an eighteen month hiatus(!) and this was the first movie I watched. It held my interest only because Susan Hayward is in it, and she is the best thing about this by-the-numbers tale. In fact, in The Films of Susan Hayward book, there’s a still from this movie of an oil-splattered Hayward and yet she still looks ravishing! Unfortunately, the print of this film was just ravaged and must be public domain because the one TCM aired was washed out and damaged.
Lilies of the Field (1963) 5.5/10 Hard to believe I'd never seen this movie before and while it's a pleasant diversion, with Jerry Goldsmith's score eminently listenable (it's fun to hear the Hour of the Gun similarities), the movie is no masterwork. Sidney Poitier should not have won Best Actor over Albert Finney that year. Oh well. Sidney's overdubbed "singing" (it obviously wasn't him) didn't endear me to the film, either.
A Patch of Blue (1965) 7/10 Much better Poitier here, with an assuredness and relaxed characterization that shows what a great screen actor this guy is. This has a great performance by Shelley Winters (Best Supporting Actress) and Elizabeth Hartman acquits herself nicely, considering she had to share the screen with those titans. A gem of a Jerry Goldsmith score. The variation of the theme when the two are making beaded necklaces is absolutely charming.
The Mechanic (1972) 7.5/10 The Mechanic is warmly nostalgic! The fact that a movie about assassins qualifies as “warm nostalgia” says just how up in the clouds I was as a kid...I guess you could say, as they do in the movie, that "I lived in my mind." I watched it when I was 13 one Saturday afternoon and was completely fascinated by it. Now, having seen it recently, I appreciate it on a whole new level. There's a scene that never left my memory all these years: when Bishop (Charles Bronson) takes McKenna (Jan-Michael Vincent) to a martial arts exhibition and discusses the concept of the "old master" and the "new master." I'd forgotten which film that came from; it turned out to be this one. I think I may be becoming obsessed with this movie, mainly because the Bronson character is sophisticated, philosophical, and a man of taste! He listens to Beethoven while plotting his next hit and admires paintings by Bosch in his Mulholland Drive home. Yes, Charles Bronson: Man of Taste. It's an interesting take on action movies. The two principals have a teacher-student relationship and I like the old master imparting his wisdom on the talented newcomer. The movie boasts a knockout of a music score, an edgy, prickly, avante-garde effort by the “other” Jerry, Jerry Fielding (1922-1980). I just paid big bucks for three CDs of his that I foolishly passed on when they were first announced. I’m dumb like that.
.jpg)
