Destroy: "Grumpy Old Men"
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 8 January 2004 00:08 (twenty years ago) link
― joday (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 8 January 2004 00:49 (twenty years ago) link
I second The Front Page, there's also a Dean Martin movie where WM plays a Polish gangster.S: The Fortune Cookie--I think it's a Billy Wilder job, and it costars Lemmon.D: Manhattan Suite
― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Thursday, 8 January 2004 15:00 (twenty years ago) link
― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 8 January 2004 15:14 (twenty years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 01:41 (twenty years ago) link
http://crushedbyinertia.blogspot.com/2005/02/charley-varrick.html
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 20:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 20:38 (eighteen years ago) link
― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 20:45 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 20:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 21:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 21:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 21:57 (eighteen years ago) link
(The BAM cinematheque here is running a 4-film series: Shelley Winters vs the Water.)
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 22:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 21 March 2006 23:04 (eighteen years ago) link
hell yes
― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 01:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 14:32 (eighteen years ago) link
It's really strange to see his dramatic pre-stardom parts where he's just a cog in the plot, like A Face in the Crowd and Bigger than Life. Or Fail-Safe, where he's the Teller/Strangelove figure!!
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 22 March 2006 14:46 (eighteen years ago) link
Denzel is playing his role in the Pelham 123 remake. :p
(Travolta as Robert Shaw)
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link
Megaton destroy: The Sunshine Boys. Maybe the worst performance ever nominated for an Oscar. Worse than Begnini.
― Eric H., Wednesday, 27 February 2008 15:44 (sixteen years ago) link
No one's mentioned The Laughing Policeman? I like that one.
― ian, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 20:07 (sixteen years ago) link
Eric, your position on TSB is as well known as your hatred of Irene Dunne and Sidney Poitier. Ask me knock-knock-knock.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 20:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh nuts, I didn't mention it because I think I may have started a thread about it after I watched, but MEGA-S: The Laughing Policeman. -- Huk-L (Huk-L), Wednesday, March 22, 2006 2:32 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link
― n/a, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 20:10 (sixteen years ago) link
oooooops.
― ian, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 20:11 (sixteen years ago) link
No, he doesn't post anymore
― nabisco, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 20:12 (sixteen years ago) link
Was oops male???
― ian, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 20:14 (sixteen years ago) link
so is Charley Varrick worth renting?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 20:58 (sixteen years ago) link
hell, yes.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 21:01 (sixteen years ago) link
charley varrick is amazing. i can't believe dr. morbz even likes it. it's so entertaining. laughing policeman fucking rules too.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 22:46 (sixteen years ago) link
hmm CV sounds interesting - out on DVD...?
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 23:30 (sixteen years ago) link
I am going to rent the Laughing Policeman this weekend. Or maybe buy it.
― Dr. Superman, Thursday, 28 February 2008 05:11 (sixteen years ago) link
yes scott, it's entertaining. NOT amazing, except maybe for Sheree North's scenes.
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 28 February 2008 13:56 (sixteen years ago) link
The book is great.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 28 February 2008 21:56 (sixteen years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b0/Dennis_the_menace.jpg/200px-Dennis_the_menace.jpg
― Abbott, Friday, 29 February 2008 00:53 (sixteen years ago) link
watching hopscotch for the first time
― remy bean, Tuesday, 4 October 2011 20:32 (twelve years ago) link
not enough mention of the odd couple, morbs on charley varrick makes it sound like a must-see
― holby city thrilled b cosby (darraghmac), Tuesday, 4 October 2011 22:20 (twelve years ago) link
Hopscotch is rather painful -- a square trying to recreate Charade, with Glenda Jackson, the least frivolous actress who ever lived.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 October 2011 22:22 (twelve years ago) link
Charley Varrick is great!
― unorthodox economic revenge (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 4 October 2011 22:22 (twelve years ago) link
QT definitely took notes on that one
this is tonally... weird. wordplay is witty, but Matthau & Jackson are p. unconvincing, and there are a lot of bizarre interstitial b-roll shots of vehicles i.e. "hovercraft" "seaplane" "truck on back road" that disrupt the flow of the narrative. we're told repeatedly how likeable WM is, but he's kind of inert except for about three spasmodic gleeful moments.
― remy bean, Tuesday, 4 October 2011 22:44 (twelve years ago) link
Odd Couple is fantastically good.
― pass the duchy pon the left hand side (musical duke) (Hurting 2), Saturday, 19 November 2011 17:29 (twelve years ago) link
yes
― ₪_₪ (darraghmac), Saturday, 19 November 2011 19:04 (twelve years ago) link
it's incredible.
& i nearly died laughing at his section of "california suite".
― jed_, Saturday, 19 November 2011 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
saw A New Leaf recently, pretty good
― some dude, Saturday, 19 November 2011 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
decided to watch Charley Varrick tonight. Good stuff. Def some homage to it in No Country for Old Men, no?
― pass the duchy pon the left hand side (musical duke) (Hurting 2), Sunday, 20 November 2011 05:01 (twelve years ago) link
I don't know about you, but there is something really resonant about their times in the Bad News Bears and Matthau's Buttermaker is a big part of why it works. I think he captures the lovable loser in that movie in a way that is pretty similar to Jeff Bridges as The Dude in the Big Lebowski. Buttermaker cleans pools for a living and puts his divorced ex-girlfriend's daughter on his little league team.
― earlnash, Sunday, 20 November 2011 07:26 (twelve years ago) link
that'd be it then
― til the power failure (darraghmac), Sunday, 15 January 2012 20:40 (twelve years ago) link
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_msb7eQA-RFY/SXVAZDrwhHI/AAAAAAAAAwM/boJipY_A2JI/s640/walter-matthau-taking-of-pelham-one-two-three-obamicon.gif
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 March 2012 15:21 (twelve years ago) link
http://s.mlkshk.com/r/XRO3
― Dan I., Friday, 7 March 2014 21:06 (ten years ago) link
jeez, smoking keeps you thin huh
I saw an interview where he talked about playing Iago in a live-TV Othello!
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Friday, 7 March 2014 21:10 (ten years ago) link
It's amazing how much Charley Varrick there is in Breaking Bad.
― Virginia, Plain and Tall (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 7 March 2014 21:12 (ten years ago) link
Laughing Policeman (most recently seen Matthau) is great, love seamy 70s San Francisco. Sullen noirish hard-boiled Matthau is a treat. (Slapping Crosby!)
No one's mentioned Cactus Flower, fun. Goldie Hawn especially great.
― drash, Saturday, 8 March 2014 07:24 (ten years ago) link
(NB the Cathy Lee Crosby slapping is cringey LOL.)
― drash, Saturday, 8 March 2014 07:32 (ten years ago) link
That picture was shot while on location for Cactus Flower!
― Dan I., Saturday, 8 March 2014 10:27 (ten years ago) link
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is probably my favourite action film ever. Except for a couple of shrill performances--Dick O'Neill, who plays Correll, and the Puerto Rican woman on the train who has to scream and scream again--I think it's close to flawless. They're more than made up for by Matthau, Shaw (HOF villain), and everyone else. Took notice this time of how prominent, but in a no-big-deal-way, African-American characters are--love how Julius Harris (Daniels) kind of rolls his eyes at Matthau's "I thought you'd be...shorter." Another freeze-frame ending, one of the best.
― clemenza, Sunday, 23 March 2014 23:47 (ten years ago) link
the score's pretty rad too
― très hip (Treeship), Sunday, 23 March 2014 23:49 (ten years ago) link
his JFK scene on the plane is great.
― piscesx, Monday, 24 March 2014 02:01 (ten years ago) link
The Dissolve is dissecting Pelham 1 2 3 this week:
http://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/871-new-york-plays-itself-in-the-taking-of-pelham-one-/
http://thedissolve.com/features/movie-of-the-week/872-the-lost-new-york-of-the-taking-of-pelham-one-two-/
― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 7 January 2015 22:42 (nine years ago) link
Hopscotch now on Criterion
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4830-walter-matthau-sings-and-other-delights-of-hopscotch
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 14:28 (six years ago) link
Glenn Kenny calling WM's work in Varrick and Pelham "uninspired" is clearly bananas.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 14:32 (six years ago) link
That's a good overview of Neame's career.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 14:34 (six years ago) link
XP
Huh?
Matthau did not give up serious roles after that. Indeed, his work as an exceptionally resourceful criminal in Don Siegel’s Charley Varrick, as a glum cop putting together a seemingly impossible case in Stuart Rosenberg’s The Laughing Policeman, and as a transit police officer matching wits with an implacable terrorist robbery crew in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three—pictures made pretty much one after the other in the early seventies—is uniformly inspired.
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 15:04 (six years ago) link
well, either i misread that or a typo was quickly fixed. sorry.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 15:10 (six years ago) link
He's pretty good in A Face In the Crowd where he's playing a bit of a nerd journalist who delivers the great end speech.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 15:13 (six years ago) link
the role of Oscar Madison made Matthau a star at age 45, after almost 20 years on stage, screen and TV, so we should thank Neil Simon for that.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 August 2018 16:30 (five years ago) link
I posted a minor Walter Matthau meme on Twitter and ever since then the occasional Matthau picture in my replies has made the place tolerable.
― Elvis Telecom, Monday, 27 August 2018 19:25 (five years ago) link
Is Pete 'n' Tillie worth watching? It's on TV in a couple of hours. I usually get something from even the most old-fashioned early-'70s films, but I've got a bad feeling--looks like it takes two funny people and gives them the Academy Award treatment.
― clemenza, Saturday, 2 May 2020 23:51 (four years ago) link
There's finally a Charley Varrick Blu-Ray in the US! I had to overpay for a Japanese Blu a few years ago, and it looks like this one comes with a bunch of interesting extras. Amazon link
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 3 May 2020 00:24 (four years ago) link