Favorite Films (lists up to participating site members)

[Steadmund Brand]

Hi Stead

Well, without having recourse to Shakespeare : Orson Welles in The Third Man.

Good one!!

I was thinking Anthony Quinn in La Strada.. you hate him the entire film but in that final scene you feel for him... and then ask yourself " why should I care about him" yet your heart bleeds for him... mine does anyway..

Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

Hi Stead

I'm afraid I haven't seen that one.

I don't know whether you'd agree with me, but I was perversely disappointed when Nigel Patrick was reduced to a pitiable state in The Pickwick Papers, and I was hoping to hear that he was up to his old tricks again abroad.

[Steadmund Brand]

Hi Stead

I'm afraid I haven't seen that one.

I don't know whether you'd agree with me, but I was perversely disappointed when Nigel Patrick was reduced to a pitiable state in The Pickwick Papers, and I was hoping to hear that he was up to his old tricks again abroad.

This may be shocking... But I have never seen the Pickwick Papers (you are talking the 1952 version correct?) I have heard the Orson Wells Mercury Theatre On The Air version though... and I saw a few parts of the BBC miniseries (but was unimpressed by this). Plus.. I will admit that I have never read it either (Shame on me I know)

Steadmund Brand

[Robert]

Stead, shame on me too for getting stuck and not reading the whole book - however it is quite long.

Here is the film. Go from 3.00 to 4.55.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDIuvwPwu5A

[Mayerling]

Hi Stead

I'm afraid I haven't seen that one.

I don't know whether you'd agree with me, but I was perversely disappointed when Nigel Patrick was reduced to a pitiable state in The Pickwick Papers, and I was hoping to hear that he was up to his old tricks again abroad.

Hi Robert,

Blame it on Boz.

Jeff

[Mayerling]

Critics Choice

There were two unsympies that I felt for (and one I cheered on) in two film classics.

1) Waldo Lydecker in "Laura" - I am a Clifton Webb fan, and his snide, intellectual critic impressed me (as it did audiences in the 1940s, propelling him to sudden Hollywood stardom). He's sympathetic to a point because he loves Laura (Gene Tierney) and is driven to homicidal rage due to her fancying strong looking men like Jacobi the painter he ruins, Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), Det. Mark MacPherson (Dana Andrews). At the end even Tierney runs over to the mortally wounded Waldo.

2) Addison DeWitt in "All About Eve" - The epitome of a theatre critic, who has a wonderful set of verbal barbs (witness his comments to "Miss Casswell of the Copacabana School of Acting" (Marilyn Monroe) - "You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point!" Addison is disliked because of his attacks on Margo (Bette Davis), but what most people fail to keep in mind is Addison does love the theatre and can see that while Margo may still have great parts in her future she can't keep playing young women, whereas the equally talented Eve (Anne Baxter) can. That Addison shows a sexual interest in Eve can't be denied, but he later admits that he thought they were two of the same type and would have eventually gotten to realize it.

Poor Addie. He's better than Eve, being not only talented but far more intelligent. He is the only one of the (as he puts it) "children" she's been playing tricks on who fights back and wins*. The scene in the hotel room in Hartford, Conn., is one of my all time favorite come-uppance scenes in movies, with me (and I suspect every movie audience) cheering George Sanders on as he pulverizes Baxter. He takes the trouble of double checking her story, and her life, and finding those well hidden lies. She can't win with him.

At the end, you sense Addie actually realizes she's hardly worth his efforts (although he probably is happy he helped get her performance on stage). She is shooting a movie (something he feels ruins good acting) despite him. At the end he encourages the young girl Phoebe to stay with Eve and learn about acting success. Addie still will have a final victory over Eve.

[*Actually, after thinking this over, Addison is not the only one who does not get taken in by Eve. Birdie (Thelma Ritter), Margo's maid and factotum, hears the heart wrenching story that Eve tells Margo, Bill, Lloyd, and Karen about the death of her husband in the war and the fascination she had (and comfort) watching Eve's performances on stage. Birdie, unlike the others who are saddened, makes a comment to the effect that the only thing not in the stories were a pair of dogs snapping at Eve's ass. Margo turns angrily on Birdie at this, so the latter remains quiet. But if you watch, she never trusts Eve. Nor does she have any reason to actually have to defeat Eve like Addison does (for his own self-esteem). I might add that when Eve makes a play for Bill (Gary Merrill), he rejects it quite forcefully, and after that Bill's relationship with Eve is only a business one about directing her.]

Jeff

[Paddy Goose]

Random Harvest
Picnic
Bridge on the River Kwai
Vertigo
Psycho
From Russia with Love
Zulu
The Fugitive
Terminator II
Silence of the Lambs

I want to switch out Zulu and put in The Odd Couple instead if that's OK

Another change please, switch out Picnic for The Hustler

[RockySullivan]

Favorite Gangsta flix:

Scarface (1932 obviously)
Little Caesar
Public Enemy
Lady Killer
angels with dirty faces
roaring Twenties
High Sierra
G-men
Little giant
Kiss tomorrow goodbye
Black Tuesday

[Steadmund Brand]

Favorite Gangsta flix:

Scarface (1932 obviously)
Little Caesar
Public Enemy
Lady Killer
angels with dirty faces
roaring Twenties
High Sierra
G-men
Little giant
Kiss tomorrow goodbye
Black Tuesday

I love that you put obviously next to Scarface, I take it you agree with me that the De Palma Scarface is one the most overrated films, I have no idea why people love it so much, I just think it’s a bad film….

Also, I know it’s an over played film, but The Godfather really should be on any list of gangster films.. as I said, it’s become cliché and all, but think back to the first time you saw it… it’s a fantastic film really!!

Great list, but If I may I would like to add a few

1- Black Friday 1940- Lugosi and Karloff, written by Curt Siodmak (off the Wolfman fame) and hokey “gangster” dialog delivered in a Hungarian accent, what more could you want!!
2- The Criminal Code 1931- Non Horror Karloff role, interesting little film
3- Smashing the Rackets- 1938- Chester Morris not playing Boston Blackie!!
4- Miller’s Crossing-1990- there are some good modern films 
5- Get Carter-1971- Sorry this was a great film that DID NOT NEED A REMAKE!! And oh what a remake eh…if you didn’t see it consider yourself lucky!!
6- Performance- 1970- Ok this one is hard to put on the list, I know that it is not for everyone (none of my friends that I have shown it to have liked it) but I really dig this film, so I’ll add it, but if anyone searches it out, watches it and hates it, please don’t blame me.

Steadmund Brand

[Mayerling]

Gangster films involving crime planning

01) Asphalt Jungle
02) The Killing
03) High Sierra
04) The Killers (1946)
05) White Heat
06) Rififi
07) Topkapi
08) Desire (a comedy, but it has a clever jewelry heist at the start - with Dietrich as the thief)
09) Gambit (two films in one: Michael Caine outlining the perfect theft crime to John Abbott in the first twenty minutes, and ninety minutes of Shirley McClaine and Herbert Lom screwing it up).
10) The Hot Rock (Robert Redford, George Segal, Zero Mostel, trying to steal an important jewel, again, and again, and again....).

Sorry if I became a little facetious, but in thinking of all those "perfect crime" films, I began remembering (starting with "Topkapi" all the ones that start out well but get messed up.

Honorable mentions:

1) The Lavender Hill Mob
2) The Ladykillers (Bravo Mrs. Wilberforce!!!) (1955 version, naturally)
3) Larceny, Inc. (Undeservedly forgotten Robinson comedy in which he has to purchase a luggage shop to rob a bank vault, aided (?) by Broderick Crawford).
4) The Green Man (Alistair Sim finding his plot against Raymond Huntley being derailed by George Cole with or without the assistance of Terry-Thomas).
5) Babes in Toyland (1934) (when Stan and Ollie - all too briefly - try to burglarize Barnaby's home - "Christmas, in July?!")
6) The Wrong Arm of the Law (Peter Sellers and Lionel Jeffries - with Bernard Cribbins - going after a new gang dressed as policemen)
7) Two Way Stretch (Sellers and Cribbins again, assisted by criminal mastermind Wilfred Hyde White about a robbery with a perfect alibi - and Lionel Jeffries in pursuit this time).

[sdreid]

Absolutely on Asphalt Jungle Jeff-a gangster film, a caper movie and a film noir all rolled into one. Louis Calhern should have gotten at least a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

[AlanG]

the Dark Knight, Captain Phillips, Jurassic Park, The Lion King & Toy Story

[Mayerling]

Another good caper movie, that "The Killers" with Burt Lancaster frequently hides from sight, is his later film, "Criss Cross" with Yvonne DeCarlo and Dan Duryea. It also deals with a carefully plotted crime that is destroyed by inter-gang problems.

[RockySullivan]

I love that you put obviously next to Scarface, I take it you agree with me that the De Palma Scarface is one the most overrated films, I have no idea why people love it so much, I just think it’s a bad film….

Also, I know it’s an over played film, but The Godfather really should be on any list of gangster films.. as I said, it’s become cliché and all, but think back to the first time you saw it… it’s a fantastic film really!!

Great list, but If I may I would like to add a few

1- Black Friday 1940- Lugosi and Karloff, written by Curt Siodmak (off the Wolfman fame) and hokey “gangster” dialog delivered in a Hungarian accent, what more could you want!!
2- The Criminal Code 1931- Non Horror Karloff role, interesting little film
3- Smashing the Rackets- 1938- Chester Morris not playing Boston Blackie!!
4- Miller’s Crossing-1990- there are some good modern films 
5- Get Carter-1971- Sorry this was a great film that DID NOT NEED A REMAKE!! And oh what a remake eh…if you didn’t see it consider yourself lucky!!
6- Performance- 1970- Ok this one is hard to put on the list, I know that it is not for everyone (none of my friends that I have shown it to have liked it) but I really dig this film, so I’ll add it, but if anyone searches it out, watches it and hates it, please don’t blame me.

Steadmund Brand

The original scarface is just incredible in fact it's damn perfect. Pacino does a good job of imitating muni. I love how Oliver stone is credited with writing scarface....the vital scenes are nearly exactly the same as the original all the day did was add a ton of filler, coke and cheesy 80s colors.

Larceny inc is great the idea of stuffing suitcases full of dirt from digging To the bank next door is just too funny. If you like little Caesar check out EGR as cobra collins in this gem: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IO4bYj85OK4

[Robert]

Two more old British crime comedies : Crooks Anonymous - a thief addicted to crime seeks the help of an organization which claims it can reform him. And, The Big Job - a gang of crooks hide the loot from a bank robbery inside a hollow tree. When they come out of prison they find that the area has been developed and the tree is now a few feet inside the walls of the local police station.