Favorite Films (lists up to participating site members)

[RockySullivan]

Of course scarface is of the three greatest films ever made and yes I've seen all the early cagney movies many many many times. I'm looking for the more rare forgotten stuff, and thanks DJa I do frequently reference those wiki pages when looking for films they are helpful

[Rosella]

Have you seen 'I am a Fugitive from a Chain gang' with Paul Muni? Not exactly a gangster movie but very good. 'City Streets' with a very young Gary Cooper was released in 1931. I like all the early James Cagney gangster movies, including 'The Public Enemy'.

[DJA]

Anyone know some good precode gangster movies that aren't talked about much or anything from the 30s through the 70s

Scarface 1932

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1930s_crime_drama_films

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1940s_crime_drama_films

[RockySullivan]

Can anyone recommend some older less known gangster movies. Some that I like a lot are "show them no mercy" w Cesar Romero,
The rise and fall of legs diamond 1960
Lucky Luciano 1973
Al capone 1959 with rod steiger


Anyone know some good precode gangster movies that aren't talked about much or anything from the 30s through the 70s

[Mayerling]

Jeff, I thought you might have mentioned "Oh Mr Porter" and Buggleskelly.

Alas I forgot that classic. Ah yes, "Buggleskelly" and the train engine, "Gladstone" - "Good for another 100 years!!!"

Jeff

[Robert]

Jeff, I thought you might have mentioned "Oh Mr Porter" and Buggleskelly.

[Mayerling]

I'm waiting to see what Jeff chooses first for a film set in Northern Ireland.

Hi Robert,

I feel a little ashamed of myself here. The only film I can think of is the following for "Northern Ireland" specifically - but it is a great movie.

Northern Ireland:

01. Odd Man Out (James Mason, Robert Newton - director, Carol Reed).

It remains the only film I know of set in Belfast.

Jef

[Robert]

I'm waiting to see what Jeff chooses first for a film set in Northern Ireland.

[DJA]

https://archive.org/search.php?query=tod%20slaughter

Four of his movies which are legal downloads.

[Mayerling]

Hi DJA and Rosella,

Pity that in his film career, wherein he was the first "definitive" Sweeny Todd, and "Squire" William Corder in "Murder in the Red Barn" Slaughter never did "Jack the Ripper". He probably was quite good at it. He also, except in a short that still exists, never filmed his relatively sedate villain, "Sir Francis Leveson" from "East Lynne". If you catch that short on You Tube it is astounding how restrained an actor Slaughter could be when he wanted to be.

He's worth watching, because he is hamming it up but enjoying every moment of it. William Everson in a book about movie villains said Slaughter could be planning some wholesale act of murder but stop a little bit to make a dishonest pound or two along the way. Furthermore, he actually is doing a favor to modern audiences catching his performances. Slaughter was the last of the "barnstormers", putting on these old and wheezy Victorian melodramas way into the 1950s. And they were still popular! Except for one other actor whose name escapes me (who played Dr. Grimesby Roylatt in "The Speckled Band" and "Professor Moriarty" in two of the Arthur Wontner film - his name is Lyn Harding) Slaughter was the only actor of note who left a film record of these dramas, which (unfortunately for serious British drama) really dominated the 19th Century.

I only wish Tod had made more of them.

Jeff

[Rosella]

Tod Slaughter was the definition of a ham wasn't he? He'd practically chew the scenery. Great fun, though! I've never seen the version of 'The Corn is Green' with Bette Davis, only the Hepburn version. How was Bette with accents?

A lot of Welsh films seem to have been set in mining villages in remote valleys before the war. 'Tiger Bay (1959) was set in Cardiff, though. Burton did a version of Dylan Thomas's 'Under Milk Wood' in 1972, with Elizabeth Taylor and Peter O'Toole. 'House of the Long Shadows' (1983) starring Vincent Price, was also set in Wales.

By the way, thank you for mentioning 'The Halfway House'. I saw it on a Saturday morning matinee, (the session specially for kids only in British cinemas in the 1950's and '60's) when I was about ten. It must have stuck in my memory as over the decades I could remember brief details of parts of the plot. I tried to trace it a few times but it's difficult when you can't remember the title. Now I know!

[DJA]

"The Greed of William Hart" starred Tod Slaughter

Jeff

He used to perform "Jack the Ripper" on stage.

[DJA]

[QUOTE=Mayerling;348026]

"Whatever did happen to that Burton character?"


He did the voice over for "Zulu".

Stanley Baker,a close friend of Burton's,played Lt. John Chard VC of the Royal Engineers.

Charles Warren had joined RE 22 years earlier.

Might have been where BS man got those shoulders.

[Mayerling]

"The Last Days of Dolwyn".

Some Welsh guy named Richard Burton in his first movie.

Thanks Robert and DJA for "The Last Days of Dolwyn" and "A Run For Your Money".

Whatever did happen to that Burton character?

The film about the hotel I haven't seen. "Any Number Can Play" was unique among early Seller films - he did not wear make-up as in the others. Cast included Raymond Hunley and Richard Attenborough.

Stretching the scene a bit, one can include "Zulu" because the soldiers at Rorke's Drift (I think) were Welsh, and during the concluding attack sing "Men of Harlech".

I forgot about "Brigadoon" DJA. Thanks again.

Jeff

[DJA]

Films set in Scotland in whole or part.

Jeff

Brigadoon.

Magical movie.

Not filmed in Scotland due to budget and weather.