have "only" seen: 1944 Double Indemnity1945 The Lost Weekend1950 Sunset Boulevard1951 Ace in the Hole1953 Stalag 171957 Love in the Afternoon1957 Witness for the Prosecution1959 Some Like It Hot1960 The Apartment1974 The Front Page
and it's undoubtely The Apartment. Hurray for Gin Rummy.
― Ludo, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 15:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Favorite things in A Foreign Affair:Dietrich singing "Black Market" with accompaniment by the composer Frederick Hollaender.Millard Mitchell telling the GIs to tone it down at the beginning- "Some of you PX millionaires have found out you can parlay a pack of cigarettes into something more than twenty smokes."
But probably gonna vote for the other Berlin movie, One, Two, Three.
― Ruudside Picnic (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 15:58 (fifteen years ago) link
It's not going to get much love in this poll, but Irma La Douce is a pretty great little movie.
― Manchego Bay (G00blar), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 16:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm just waiting for Morbs to return so he can rap my knuckles about my calling Wilder "vulgar" a few years ago.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 16:03 (fifteen years ago) link
I think it's fair to say we're all waiting for that.
― Manchego Bay (G00blar), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 16:12 (fifteen years ago) link
You're gonna be Jean Arthur to Morb's Marlene, Alfred.
― Ruudside Picnic (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 16:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Morbs is not sultry.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 16:25 (fifteen years ago) link
in season, I am.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link
The Apartment is going to win this, but it shouldn't
― Vichitravirya_XI, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 17:05 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm tempted to rent Fedora and Buddy Buddy to find out if there're as awful as they look.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 17:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Fedora is an interesting variation on Sunset Blvd., Holden and all.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 17:16 (fifteen years ago) link
"Buddy Buddy" is a version of that French film with Jacques Brel in it?
― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 17:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Irma la Douce's view on prostitution is kinda odd, even for a comedy made in 1963, but it's also quite charming in an old-fashioned way, and very funny too, so I think I'm gonna vote for that.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Though I guess in the Hollywood of 1963 the mere idea of making a comedy about prostitution was still outrageous, no matter what the actual movie was like.
― Tuomas, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:11 (fifteen years ago) link
Irma is nowhere in the ballpark of his previous Lemmon comedies, or even One Two Three.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Lots of terrible things on this list, as I wrote on another Wilder thread: The Major and the Minor, Love in the Afternoon, Kiss Me Stupid, Witness for the Prosecution, to name a few. Sure, Hawks, Cukor, Ford, Hitchcock, etc, made lots of duds too, but when Wilder, very much a member of the point-and-shoot school of directing, is off his game, he comes up with something akin to Bowie's Never Let Me Down.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:14 (fifteen years ago) link
watching Sunset Boulevard the other night, a film I like, I was struck by how much damn voice-over is on the thing.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:15 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah that is weird, considering how big wilder was on "Show! Don't Tell!"
― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:18 (fifteen years ago) link
OK Alfred, none of those are terrible, even if Gary Cooper is a stiff in LitA.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:24 (fifteen years ago) link
have you seen the uncensored version of Kiss Me Stupid?
TMATM = coy; has rotten pacingLITA = unpleasantness of Gary Cooper (he looks like he reeks of BO and Automats), Hepburn's hair, forced Lubitsch 'sophistication.'KMS = just stupid. Some of the worst one-liners I've ever heard from a purported genius writer of clever banter. Wilder is rarely as funny as he thinks. WFTP = My God. The movie stops for Laughton fat jokes, like the handrail lift. Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power "acting" (she's particularly terrible in the last ten minutes).
Ace in the Hole is really overrated.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:33 (fifteen years ago) link
feel like I haven't seen enough of these to really vote... hard to choose.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:36 (fifteen years ago) link
I think the only ones I haven't seen are Mauvaise Graine and Death Mills
― Ich Ber ein Binliner (Tom D.), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:39 (fifteen years ago) link
iF ONLY aPATOW COULD EQUAL Kiss Me Stupid!
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:41 (fifteen years ago) link
seeing as how Apatow's only directed 2 movies compared to Wilder's two dozen we maybe shouldn't be encouraging that TS poll just yet
― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 18:57 (fifteen years ago) link
that Lindbergh/Stewart movie's gotta be a bore, right?
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:00 (fifteen years ago) link
voted ace in the hole. it not only sustains the unbeleivability of douglas's comically oversized character but actually just keeps building on it, asking you to suspend rational thinking by degrees. and it's message remains intact but never detracts from wilder's primary goal of *entertaining*.
― rent, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:26 (fifteen years ago) link
I still think Douglas' attack of conscience weakens it substantially, tho it's one of BW's best non-comedies.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:32 (fifteen years ago) link
i'm shocked s1ocki hasn't shown up yet to condemn "love in the afternoon"
― modernism, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:35 (fifteen years ago) link
I could go on, if you like.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:36 (fifteen years ago) link
i voted for "the apartment" because it's really the only one i care about, tho some of the others are funny.
― J.D., Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I wonder what Alfred thinks of Joe E Brown in Some Like It Hot? or in anything else?
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:38 (fifteen years ago) link
ZOWIE!
http://www.movieactors.com/photos/slihot89.jpeg
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:41 (fifteen years ago) link
I wonder what Alfred thinks of Joe E Brown in Some Like It Hot? or in anything else
Nobody's perfect.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:44 (fifteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, December 9, 2008 1:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
suggset banlevard
― Ron Polarik, PhD (and what), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:44 (fifteen years ago) link
I love Ginger Rogers so I have a weird affection for The Major and the Minor even though it is creepy. I didn't vote for it, though.
― Nicolars (Nicole), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:46 (fifteen years ago) link
i cant believe the witness for the prosecution hate on this thread
― Ron Polarik, PhD (and what), Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:48 (fifteen years ago) link
Lots of unpleasant performances in Wilder films. Besides Power and Dietrich, there's Nancy Olsen, Cooper, Ray Milland, Richard Gaines...
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 19:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Carol Burnett, of all people, in The Front Page
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 20:06 (fifteen years ago) link
i saw buddy, buddy when it came outpretty dire despite presence of klaus kinski
― velko, Tuesday, 9 December 2008 20:43 (fifteen years ago) link
is avanti! any good?
― negotiable, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 12:32 (fifteen years ago) link
I saw Ace In The Hole only the other night, and while it wasn't bad, I fail to see why it's considered a classic. I vote Double Indemnity.
― Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 13:51 (fifteen years ago) link
I remember liking Avanti! long ago. Juliet Mills, oo la la.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 14:26 (fifteen years ago) link
i'd rank the ones i've seen like this, best to worst:
1944 Double Indemnity1950 Sunset Boulevard1959 Some Like It Hot1961 One, Two, Three1964 Kiss Me, Stupid1960 The Apartment1945 The Lost Weekend1953 Stalag 171951 Ace in the Hole1974 The Front Page
the only stinker is the last one.
― abanana, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 15:09 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Tuesday, 16 December 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
So
Alfred : Wilder :: Me : screwball
― Eric H., Tuesday, 16 December 2008 01:31 (fifteen years ago) link
but I can watch Wilder!
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 16 December 2008 01:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Double Indemnity vs. Sunset Blvd vs. Ace in the Hole
― Someone Still Loves You Evan and Jaron (Tape Store), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 03:52 (fifteen years ago) link
Eric watches screwball, don't believe the hype.
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 16 December 2008 19:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Wednesday, 17 December 2008 00:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Dont know this one, put it on my watch list
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 7 June 2018 02:58 (six years ago) link
It's one of BW's most enjoyable movies and it's a shame it's not more well-known. Even John Lund is good.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 7 June 2018 03:20 (six years ago) link
it has real emotional depth, i think due to Wilder and Dietrich's biographies.
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 7 June 2018 03:27 (six years ago) link
The Fortune Cookie, which i hadn't seen in at least 20 years, is obv second-tier but better than i remembered. Matthau is positively Fieldsian.
I don't think the NFL would cooperate with this script today.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 16:16 (five years ago) link
Some of Whiplash Willie's best line are throwaways ("Unwed mothers... I'm for that").
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 December 2018 16:23 (five years ago) link
Kino Lorber Studio Classics drops A Foreign Affair on Blu August 6th!
― a large tuna called “Justice” (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 20:59 (five years ago) link
tried to watch Avanti! a few wks ago and got about as far as the kitch-y coroner w/ the color-coded italian forms and turned it off. none of it was funny or charming and there was no reason to think it'd get better imo. there was a line where jack lemmon outright refers to juliette mills' character as fat that seemed really mean-spirited and would probably draw protesters today― johnny crunch, Sunday, February 14, 2010 2:05 PM
After 1964 the guy totally lost it.― Inculcate a spirit of serfdom in children (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, February 14, 2010
wrong and wrong!
Rewatched Avanti! last night and it's pretty good. Lemmon and the screenplay make no attempt to present him as much more than a blinkered louse for the first half of the movie. Clearly the female lead should've been cast with a plus-sized actress, but they only got character roles then. Also Wilder wanted to rescue Juliet Mills from her "Nanny" sitcom, and she comes through charmingly. Clive Revill is a great poised fixer/hotelier. And the last line of the film has Lemmon recanting his fat-shaming. (Also, the coroner scene is not "kitschy" but marvelous.)
In the "lost it" late period I also like the Holmes movie and Fedora.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 00:45 (four years ago) link
also i rewatched Some Like It Hot last night and the skeptics can go to hell, or Spats Colombo's place.
Much of the Lemmon and Curtis interviews on the CC are to do with their costuming.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:38 (four years ago) link
Are there really a lot of Some Like it Hot skeptics out there?
― 🚶♂️💨 (Eric H.), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:41 (four years ago) link
apparently, Woody Allen!
I also saw a Letterboxd comment that it's now "problematic." [redacted]
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:42 (four years ago) link
I watched Avanti! on Amazon last month: leaden and way too long.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:46 (four years ago) link
A little too long, othwise disagree.
I do think one layer of Some Like It Hot now lost on almost everyone under 50 is its feeding off the pop culture, particularly the movies, of 1929-33 or earlier films about the period (Raft, Pat O'Brien, George E Stone, Rudy Vallee refs etc).
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:48 (four years ago) link
admit a lot of those references do go over my head, still a fun movie tho
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 26 February 2020 17:49 (four years ago) link
I mean I know George Raft and Rudy Vallee but I don't doubt there's stuff I miss
Joe E Brown was kinda the Jim Varney of early '30s comedy.
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 19:05 (four years ago) link
ok, Fedora isn't bad. definitely his best post-Irma movie. Avanti is good but way too long, and Fedora slows to a crawl once the interminable flashbacks begin. But there's pleasure in any Wilder because he never shot any coverage and every shot means something. and the bits of business he gives everywhere, like Antonia with the gloves (looking like Mario 64). really lush colors in this music, elegiac, again not bad for his second to last movie (I think), and yes, it is very nice to see Fassbinder actors in a Wilder movie. Gottfried John grabbing William Holden from behind? there are moments here
― flappy bird, Monday, 7 December 2020 06:15 (three years ago) link
Showed Double Indemnity tonight for the small-town film club/society/whatever I've been trying to launch. (Fourth monthly screening. Total attendance to date, including me: 18.) Someone noticed that Walter Neff wears a wedding ring the whole way through. Which is...an oversight, a mystery, evidence that Fred McMurray was one devoted husband.
― clemenza, Friday, 10 February 2023 02:48 (one year ago) link
Sabrina is nearly flawless filmmaking, I’m stunned to come here and see zero votes. Any NYers catching the Film Forum retrospective?
― Josefa, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 01:48 (one year ago) link
Haven’t made it over there yet
― Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 02:40 (one year ago) link
Saw Sabrina there tonight and sensed the astonishment in the audience. It got applauded.
― Josefa, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 02:58 (one year ago) link
I remember enjoying the first hour a lot, but then drifting as the romance takes precedence over the comedy
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 10:44 (one year ago) link
^^^ same.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 11:48 (one year ago) link
Fedora is the real sleeper.
― Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 13:36 (one year ago) link
I can't with the late Wilder: he loses any semblance of rhythm, tonality, humor.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 13:49 (one year ago) link
Yeah, Fedora just seemed like an especially dull giallo, though it was nice to see Gottfried John outside of RWFworld.
― Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 13:53 (one year ago) link
UCLA’s new restorations of The Major & the Minor and A Foreign Affair look absolutely gorgeous
― beamish13, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 15:12 (one year ago) link
Love love love Foreign Affair.
Now I've finally watched some Lubitsch on Criterion, it's tarnished Wilder for me very slightly -- it's easier to see what he was aiming for but (sometimes) missing.
Unrelatedly: when I was younger I never understood The Apartment, but I just hadn't been disaapointed by life yet.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 16:03 (one year ago) link
Foreign Affair is pretty good, but I mostly feel bad for Jean Arthur in that.
― Live and Left Eye (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 28 July 2023 18:11 (one year ago) link
Kiss Me, Stupid tonight. I was really with it for the first 40 minutes or so when it felt like a pretty funny, kinda sharp satire (on mid century American society blah blah blah). Then the sex farce mechanics kick in and the film loses much of its weight. Kim Novak, though physically right for the role, is not good here. Ray Walston was fine but original casting choice Peter Sellers would’ve been much better in his role. I was expecting some kind of dark twist at the end but it ends quite conservatively. Btw why is this film in black & wihite, it screams out for color.
There was an overloud laugher at my screening, it felt like having a constant intrusive laugh track.
― Josefa, Saturday, 29 July 2023 01:10 (one year ago) link