"I never killed a man who didn't need killin"

[Mayerling]

Perhaps at this point it would be better to return this thread to Hardin, and other desperados of the Old West.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Hi Robert,

Hawtrey plays one of his obnoxious "know-it-all" students in the film "Go To Blazes". You Tube has a sequence from the film that involves Hay, Moffatt, and Marriott trying to put back the sliding pole in their firehouse which they managed to remove while cleaning it. In the end they managed to create total pandemonium in the neighboring streets lugging this huge pole about, and managing to dragoon about thirty or forty men into assisting them. At the same time they decide to follow Hawtrey's advice (yes Hawtrey's!) on how to get it back up to roof and down using physics!! Needless to say Hay puts it into effect only to forget one cardinal point in the operation.

There is also a lovely moment in "The Ladykillers" for Cecil Parker, when "Claude" tries to tell a tale of sadness and woe to Mrs. Wilberforce about how he had fallen onto hard times and joined these ruffians for the sake of an elderly lady not unlike Mrs. W. When she won't budge from her moral position despite the "hearts and flowers" approach, Parker says , "Madam, you are cruel!"

Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

I'll check out those Rathbone films you mentioned.

A couple more Hay films : The Black Sheep of Whitehall where his co-star is John Mills. This has an entertaining car chase in which an economics professor in a bath chair is towed behind Hay's car, with Nazi fifth columnists in hot pursuit. The other one is The Goose Steps Out in which Hay poses as the instructor of a class of trainee Nazi spies in Germany, and contains the scene where he invites the class to give the traditional English form of greeting, which turns out to be a two-fingered salute. He tells them to turn and face the painting of the Fuhrer on the wall when giving the salute. This film, like the Ghost of St Michael's, has Charles Hawtrey.

I loved the Ladykillers scene where 'Mrs Lopsided' has stepped in to chastise Frankie Howerd for being cruel to a horse, and the camera pans from one crook to another as they stare in astonishment at her capacity to inject chaos.

Also I've an idea that when Greene is chasing Peter Sellers under the illusion that he's murdered Mrs Lopsided, a terrified Sellers lapses into his Bluebottle voice when he says "Where's your sense of humour, One Round?"

And of course there's Mrs Lopsided's "I'm going to stay buttoned up."

The whole film is simply marvellous.

[Mayerling]

hmm top 10... that is REALLY hard.. there are so many films I love....

1- My Favorite Year
2- City Lights
3- Eraserhead
4- Duck Soup (or Horse Feathers or Monkey Business)
5- La Strada
6- Harvey
7- not fair to have to pick 1 classic Universal Film!!!
8- The Hustler
9- Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
10- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

now as it has been said before, this list would change daily.. depending on my mood etc....

Might be better for me to list top 10 films of each genre... but I won’t do that now... unless others want to start that kind of thread

Steadmund Brand--

Hi Steadmund,

Your suggested thread is acted upon - your "wish" is our command.

Jeff

[Steadmund Brand]

By classic Universal I mean classic Universal Horror ( not that Universal didn't make other good films as well)

Steadmund Brand

[Steadmund Brand]

hmm top 10... that is REALLY hard.. there are so many films I love....

1- My Favorite Year
2- City Lights
3- Eraserhead
4- Duck Soup (or Horse Feathers or Monkey Business)
5- La Strada
6- Harvey
7- not fair to have to pick 1 classic Universal Film!!!
8- The Hustler
9- Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)
10- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

now as it has been said before, this list would change daily.. depending on my mood etc....

Might be better for me to list top 10 films of each genre... but I won’t do that now... unless others want to start that kind of thread

Steadmund Brand--

[Mayerling]

Hi Jeff

Yes, I had to stop myself adding just about all the Universal, Hammer and Amicus films, just about all Laurel and Hardy, and so on.

The scene I always remember from the Ladykillers is Guinness at the old ladies' tea party, hunched over the piano, totally and utterly defeated.

I would add The Ghost of St Michael's, another film Hay did with Hulbert.

Also Tales of Terror, which has the immortal wine-tasting scene with Price and Lorre.

And then there's Harvey, and Scaramouche....

Hi Robert,

I have to see "The Ghost of St. Michael's". Hay (with or without Moffat and Marriott) is a joy that was reserved for my retirement years due to You Tube.
I have seen Price's bit of hamming in the wine-tasting scene and Lorre's ironic quiet gaze at his target's preparations. It is good. Actually both actors (and Karloff) were good in comic parts when they got them. Rathbone did not have as many chances (best bits is his reactions to first Spencer Tracy and later John Carridine in "The Last Hurrah", his greedy, overbearing relative in "We're No Angels" with Bogie and Ustinov, and his "Oliver Courtney" the famous composer who hires Bing Crosby and Mary Martin - unknown to each other - to compose the lyrics and music for his songs while he is undergoing a temporary writing block in "Rhythm on the River"). The latter has Rathbone playing his most melancholy romantic soul out about how his lost love left him, while his assistant (Oscar Levant, of all people) keeps puncturing this sad, sad image by reminding Rathbone his girlfriend married a pasta tycoon, and got fat!!

The scene you refer to in "The Ladykillers" is cute because "Louis" (Herbert Lom, the only realist among this bunch) comes back from parking the getaway car, and finds Guinness, Sellers, Parker, and Danny Greene helplessly assisting these old ladies, and Guinness is at the piano helping to play "Silver Threads Among the Gold".

My favorite "Ladykillers" moment (there are several) is when the gang is requested by Mrs. Wilberforce to help her, as her pet parrot has escaped it's cage while getting some bird medicine. Graciously they all leave, except of course Lom, whose damned if he's getting involved in this nonsense - understandably, as they were discussing how the robbery is to be carried out. Keep in mind, the key to the deception is the record of a string quintet playing that piece by Bocherrini. The record is played (much to Lom's dislike - he's not into music that much, especially classical) when the door is shut, to sound like they are practicing. But when Mrs. Wilberforce comes and four of them go to assist her, the record is still playing. There is immense crazy destruction and confusion on the main floor and in the parlor, but upstairs (from time to time) Alexander McKendrick switches back showing an angry, quietly seething Lom sitting on one of the beds and just staring ahead. Green (One-Round) in trying to assist manages to break a wicker seat chair, and it causes a tremor that makes the phonograph needle skip again and again at the same spot. Without a change of expression, Lom removes the arm of the phonograph, lifts up the record, looks briefly at the label (as though to remember what this piece was), and smashes the record as he turns his head back to the original position. My heart actually went out to him, and I like that piece of music.

Jeff

[Robert]

Hi Jeff

Yes, I had to stop myself adding just about all the Universal, Hammer and Amicus films, just about all Laurel and Hardy, and so on.

The scene I always remember from the Ladykillers is Guinness at the old ladies' tea party, hunched over the piano, totally and utterly defeated.

I would add The Ghost of St Michael's, another film Hay did with Hulbert.

Also Tales of Terror, which has the immortal wine-tasting scene with Price and Lorre.

And then there's Harvey, and Scaramouche....

[The Good Michael]

Slingblade.

Finished.

Mike

[Mayerling]

I won't compile a list, but I will mention a few that I don't think have been mentioned so far :

Night of the Demon (Curse of the Demon in USA)
Dr Terror's House of Horrors
Dead of Night
Duel
The Bedford Incident
The Ladykillers
The Court Jester
Hans Christian Anderson
The Pickwick Papers
School for Scoundrels
Oh Mr Porter
Twelve Angry Men

Ah yes, "The Ladykillers" (I take it the one with Guinness, Lom, and Katy Johnson).

[Mrs. Wilberforce has just left the room after reminiscing about how her coming out party on January 20, 1901 ended early with the announcement that the "old Queen had died".]
One Round: "What's she talking about..."Old Queen" who?!!"

I would have added

Ask a Policeman"
Go to Blazes
My Learned Friend
The Body Snatcher
Bedlam
The Night My Number Came Up
Mr. Denning Drives North
Black Friday (1939)
The Black Cat (1934)
The Comedy of Terrors

[I know I put down ten already, but when I saw the references to horror films and films with Will Hay in them, I got reinspired - sorry.]

[Robert]

I won't compile a list, but I will mention a few that I don't think have been mentioned so far :

Night of the Demon (Curse of the Demon in USA)
Dr Terror's House of Horrors
Dead of Night
Duel
The Bedford Incident
The Ladykillers
The Court Jester
Hans Christian Anderson
The Pickwick Papers
School for Scoundrels
Oh Mr Porter
Twelve Angry Men

[Amanda]

All time favourite...

My all time favourite has to be Leon, starring Jean Reno.

Absolutely brilliant!

Amanda

[Mayerling]

Let's cut to the chase. Greatest 10 movies of all time.

Apocalypse Now
Lord of the Rings
Fargo
Wizard of oz
Star Wars
Angel Heart
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Chinatown
American Grafitti
It's a Wonderful life

These lists always fluctuate

Citizen Kane
Casablanca
Maltese Falcon
Make Way For Tomorrow
Dodsworth
Stagecoach
Duck Soup
Way Out West
The General
Modern Times

[Sorry if none are older than 1943 - I find it hard to decide on post 1943 films, although I'd include Monsieur Verdoux, Letter From An Unknown Woman, Letter to Three Wives, Sunset Blvd., All About Eve, Pat and Mike, and Touch of Evil on a far longer list, including titles by Hitchcock and other directors. So many films, so little time.]

[kensei]

[QUOTE=Steadmund Brand;321760]

by the way... did you have an example of an Oscar decision that really upset you? or does anyone have an example?

Steadmund Brand

Daniel Day Lewis in "Gangs of New York," losing to Adrien Brody in "The Pianist." That one got me miffed. It was the time when Brody planted the huge liplock on Halle Berry when he came up to accept the award.

I still enjoy the Oscars. I know there's tons of phoniness to it, but it does still have its moments. One of my favorites had to do with "Titanic." People tend to either love or hate that movie, but after hamming it up by shouting "I'm King of the World!" when accepting for Best Director, James Cameron played it so very classy when he mounted the stage for the second time to accept for Best Picture. With wording approximate, he said, "You know, with all the hype surrounding this movie it's easy to forget that this was a real tragedy that happened to real people. So with your indulgence, I'd like to ask for a moment of silence for the 1,513 people who lost their lives on Titanic." And he got it, dead silence for 20 or 30 seconds. I'll never forget that.

Julia Roberts accepting Best Actress for "Erin Brockovich" telling the band, "Please don't start the music because I might not be up here again for a really long time!" and then forgetting to actually thank Erin Brockovich- funny stuff.

Sandra Bullock accepting for her Oscar, thanking her mother and then elaborating off the top of her head about how "because I wasn't always the greatest daughter" (at least as I remember it), and then getting choked up by that-- well, I just like those moments. I guess I'm a sucker for real sentiment in the face of extreme cheese.

[Abby Normal]

Let's cut to the chase. Greatest 10 movies of all time.

Apocalypse Now
Lord of the Rings
Fargo
Wizard of oz
Star Wars
Angel Heart
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Chinatown
American Grafitti
It's a Wonderful life