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Post by Fading Fast on Jul 3, 2024 7:55:24 GMT
Out of the Fog (1941)
Starring Ida Lupino, John Garfield, John Qualen, Aline MacMahon, Eddie Albert, Thomas Mitchell.
I watched this for Ida Lupino, as she is one of the actresses on my "old Hollywood (& a few new Hollywood) actresses to watch more from in 2024" list. I daresay that title could be trimmed down, but at the moment I can't be bothered. Any suggestions?
Ida plays a young woman who is tired of her ordinary, hum-drum life who meets Garfield; through making his acquaintance, she is confronted with the chance to escape her small fishing town. Garfield is a crook with a Capital C, who bullies the local fishermen/dock-workers into paying him for "protection." One of these victimized men is Ida's own father, played by Mitchell. Mitchell and friend Qualen start to feel trapped by Garfield's demands, and come up with a plan to get rid of the hoodlum once and for all (Ida's dalliance with Garfield is another factor in their decision to do something drastic).
I thought this one was alright, very middle-of-the-road for me, but I am glad I watched another film from Ida's catalogue. And for those of you curious who all is on my list, I will share down below:
Jean Simmons, Ida Lupino, Bette Davis, Jeanne Moreau, Anouk Aimee (rip), Vivien Leigh, Francoise Dorleac, Diahann Carroll, Catherine Deneuve, Ingrid Bergman, Deborah Kerr, Joan Crawford, Cyd Charisse, Lena Horne, Jean Peters, Katharine Hepburn, Eleanor Parker, Joan Bennett, Rita Hayworth, & Shirley MacLaine. **if I do this again, I would like to include Susan Hayward and Carole Lombard**
Addendum: Thanks Fading Fast for inspiring me to get back into writing little reviews on here 
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Post by topbilled on Jul 3, 2024 16:37:17 GMT
About five years ago, a very nice woman on the old TCM message board named Janet sent me some rare Paramount flicks from the 1930s. Well, actually, her husband was the kind soul who put them in the mail to me. This was before some of them eventually found their way to various online sites.
Janet passed away a short time afterward, but I never forgot her generosity and her love of the classics.
For some reason, I only watched half the discs they sent me...there were about ten discs. So the other day, I was cleaning a cabinet and I found them. The discs I did not watch contained Sylvia Sidney films. She made 17 movies at Paramount between 1931 and 1939, some of these are real gems and have never been released on home video or even aired on TCM.
The past few nights I have been watching these five Sylvia Sidney films that dear Janet and her husband sent. I started with LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE (1931) which costars Gene Raymond...naturally, I'd pick this one first since I'm a Gene Raymond fan. Then I watched CONFESSIONS OF A CO-ED (1931) which is very much a precode. Followed by ACCENT ON YOUTH (1935)...my review for ACCENT ON YOUTH will be posted in the Paramount Neglected films thread tomorrow. Last night I watched MARY BURNS, FUGITIVE (1935) which I really enjoyed...and I think this is the only one that has aired on TCM-- it costars Melvyn Douglas. Tonight after work, I plan to watch the other one, BEHOLD MY WIFE! (1935) which re-teams Miss Sidney with Mr. Raymond.
There's a reason people like Sylvia Sidney, Gene Raymond and Melvyn Douglas had careers that lasted decades. They just don't make stars like this anymore!
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jul 3, 2024 18:01:16 GMT
Out of the Fog (1941)
Starring Ida Lupino, John Garfield, John Qualen, Aline MacMahon, Eddie Albert, Thomas Mitchell.
I watched this for Ida Lupino, as she is one of the actresses on my "old Hollywood (& a few new Hollywood) actresses to watch more from in 2024" list. I daresay that title could be trimmed down, but at the moment I can't be bothered. Any suggestions?
Ida plays a young woman who is tired of her ordinary, hum-drum life who meets Garfield; through making his acquaintance, she is confronted with the chance to escape her small fishing town. Garfield is a crook with a Capital C, who bullies the local fishermen/dock-workers into paying him for "protection." One of these victimized men is Ida's own father, played by Mitchell. Mitchell and friend Qualen start to feel trapped by Garfield's demands, and come up with a plan to get rid of the hoodlum once and for all (Ida's dalliance with Garfield is another factor in their decision to do something drastic).
I thought this one was alright, very middle-of-the-road for me, but I am glad I watched another film from Ida's catalogue. And for those of you curious who all is on my list, I will share down below:
Jean Simmons, Ida Lupino, Bette Davis, Jeanne Moreau, Anouk Aimee (rip), Vivien Leigh, Francoise Dorleac, Diahann Carroll, Catherine Deneuve, Ingrid Bergman, Deborah Kerr, Joan Crawford, Cyd Charisse, Lena Horne, Jean Peters, Katharine Hepburn, Eleanor Parker, Joan Bennett, Rita Hayworth, & Shirley MacLaine. **if I do this again, I would like to include Susan Hayward and Carole Lombard**
Addendum: Thanks Fading Fast for inspiring me to get back into writing little reviews on here Nice review of Out of the Fog (looking forward to more!). The producers at Warners were really trying to find the right type of film that would feature Ida's talent and decided to pair her again, with Garfield after the successful The Sea Wolf, but as noted Out of the Fog is only Ok. At least the Garfield character had no redeeming qualities, because the film is too sappy as it is (especially the Eddie Albert character). Note that in order to promote Ida WB loaned her out for 3 films after Out of the Fog: Ladies in Retirement, Moontide, and Life Begins at Eight-Thirty. Ida was back on the WB lot for what may be her best film while under contract: The Hard Way. Bottom line for me is that WB didn't utilize Ida to her full potential. One of my favorite Ida films is the first one she made for 20th Century Fox after her WB contract ended. 1948's Road House. The Lilly Stevens character is the type of role Ida could sink her teeth into. |
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nickandnora34
Full Member
Just a grease spot on the L&N
Posts: 102
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Post by nickandnora34 on Jul 4, 2024 0:19:26 GMT
Nice review of Out of the Fog (looking forward to more!). The producers at Warners were really trying to find the right type of film that would feature Ida's talent and decided to pair her again, with Garfield after the successful The Sea Wolf, but as noted Out of the Fog is only Ok. At least the Garfield character had no redeeming qualities, because the film is too sappy as it is (especially the Eddie Albert character). Note that in order to promote Ida WB loaned her out for 3 films after Out of the Fog: Ladies in Retirement, Moontide, and Life Begins at Eight-Thirty. Ida was back on the WB lot for what may be her best film while under contract: The Hard Way. Bottom line for me is that WB didn't utilize Ida to her full potential. One of my favorite Ida films is the first one she made for 20th Century Fox after her WB contract ended. 1948's Road House. The Lilly Stevens character is the type of role Ida could sink her teeth into. Thanks! Yes, I'm really interested in Road House. I have seen Ladies in Retirement and Moontide and thought those were a bit better than Out of the Fog. Hopefully one day I will have completed her filmography.  |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jul 4, 2024 10:48:14 GMT
The Makioka Sisters from 1983, a Japanese movie
To fully appreciate The Makioka Sisters, the movie, you have to first read The Makioka Sisters, the novel by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. A classic of 20th-century Japanese literature, Tanizaki's opus follows the travails of the upper-middle-class Makioka family in the late 1930s.
It's an engaging melodramatic tale of four adult sisters somewhat stuck in the rituals and glory of their prestigious family's past, while trying to navigate the shifting sands of Japanese culture and modernization with the world on the brink of a global war.
Tradition demands the sisters marry in age order, yet when the shy but strong-willed third sister rejects one family-approved suitor after another, the youngest sister, embarrassingly for the family, tries to elope.
Tradition also has the oldest sister resisting her husband's career-driven transfer from Osaka, the site of their "main" house, to Tokyo.
These and many more "small" dramas play out in a large book that adds up to a revealing look at the country. Today, it is also a wonderful time capsule of pre-war Japan. It's a long novel that engrosses you in the lives of the sisters with a series of side stories and narratives.
It's also too long to bring to the screen in a movie with even a two-hour-plus runtime, as the story is too hard to boil down and the characters too complex to capture in a single film. If ever a book needed serialization (a 1970s-style miniseries), The Makioka Sisters is it.
This is not a slight against noted Japanese director Kon Ichikawa who, working with a small budget, captured some of the beauty and intricacy of the novel in his attractive and thoughtful film that, perforce, chose to focus on only a few characters and narratives from the book.
The wonderfully named third sister, Yukiko, centers the drama. Her refusal to marry one of the family-selected suitors "stops the production line," as the fourth sister can't marry until Yukiko does. The fourth sister, very Western in her thinking and attire, isn't sitting still though.
You will, however, probably be an hour into the movie until you've sorted the four sisters and their names out unless you've read the book or Googled them. The other story captured from the novel is the oldest sister's husband's struggle to assert his authority as head of the family.
In Japan, a man might choose to take his wife's family's name if it is a prominent family lacking male heirs, as the Makiokas were in the 1930s. The husband of the oldest sister then becomes the titular head of the clan, but earning everyone's respect is a different story.
It is hard from the movie to understand all this nuance even though it is eventually explained. The aforementioned move to Tokyo, which will take the Makiokas away from their traditional base of power and respect, Osaka, is a strong point of contention within the family.
Taken on its own, those two plotlines fail to capture the sweep of the novel. Too many story intricacies, mini-dramas and character traits are dropped for the movie. Many wonderful details of the culture, such as the importance of the very expensive kimonos, are lost or sped past.
Ichikawa, however, effectively shows the emotional growth of the sisters and their relationships maturing over the course of the movie. These siblings come to better understand and respect each other's struggles and challenges.
When the oldest sister finally considers her husband's position at work and not just her desire not to move, you see a woman and a marriage mature before your eyes. The same maturity is felt when the family comes to respect Yukiko's approach to marriage. It's real-life growth.
Ichikawa also captures some of the beauty of Japan from that time – the kimonos do get briefly showcased, as do the Kyoto cherry blossoms, much beloved by the Makioka Sisters who make an annual trip to see them in bloom – but he has to leave much from the novel behind.
While using only limited exterior on-location shooting, Ichikawa, in a few scenes, gives the viewer a sense of how Japan looked back then: the cities are modern, bustling, and well served by trains and trams, while the beautiful countryside resembles pre-industrial-revolution Japan.
The way to enjoy The Makioka Sisters, if you've read the book, is to ask little of the movie and just delight in its visually beautiful capture of 1930s Japan. If you haven't read the novel, and if you can keep the names and cultural nuances straight, you might like the film's condensed story.
Some books don't translate well to the screen. None of the several attempts to film The Great Gatsby have done the book full justice. The Makioka Sisters sits in the same category, as Tanizaki's story is meant to be appreciated slowly and lovingly by turning the pages of his novel. |
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Post by christine on Jul 4, 2024 15:25:15 GMT
Fading Fast, I am in complete delight when I read your analysis of movies/books. Your love of reading is infectious! I would probably never seek out a story like this but am now very interested. In the past I have read novels about women and the Japanese way of life and found them intriguing, so I am going to put this on my long reading list (someday I hope to tackle everything on it - I thought that's what retirement would be for but somehow I'm busier now than when I worked! LOL)
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Post by Fading Fast on Jul 6, 2024 12:43:12 GMT
HBO surprised me by running "The Wizard of Oz" this morning. I came in toward the end, but one of the scenes I saw is the one where the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion are sneaking into the Witch's castle, disguised as castle guards, to save Dorothy. The three are at the end of a line of guards entering the castle, with the Lion being the last one. Just as they are about to enter the castle, his tail starts swishing up and down, thus showing through his guard costume, which would expose him if seen. So he tries to swat it down with his hand. It's freakin' hilarious. They didn't miss a detail in this movie.
You can see the tail starting to act up at the 00:35 mark in this clip (the HBO copy was beautifully restored, so the scene was much lighter than in this clip, allowing this detail to be more easily seen):
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Post by NoShear on Jul 6, 2024 23:43:58 GMT
Its Hitchcockian elements, suggested to have been inspired by 'VERTIGO', seem like Alfred Hitchcock brought the influences full circle with FRENZY - even the Anna Massey hint. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jul 7, 2024 7:53:30 GMT
That's a very good writeup, thank you. It has an echo, just a tiny echo, of the plot from 1966's "Blow-Up," which is more about the 1960s Mod cultural shift, but still, a camera and murder frame the plot. My comments on "Blow-Up" here: "Blow-Up"
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Post by NoShear on Jul 7, 2024 15:04:57 GMT
That's a very good writeup, thank you. It has an echo, just a tiny echo, of the plot from 1966's "Blow-Up," which is more about the 1960s Mod cultural shift, but still, a camera and murder frame the plot. My comments on "Blow-Up" here: "Blow-Up" Fading Fast's book, The Sociology of Film, is due out soon. I can't wait to watch him opposite Ben Mankiewicz on T CM... Just a brief comment about BLOW-UP which I posted on the SSO site, Fading Fast: "I found BLOW-UP staid and drab despite its Swinging London backdrop with most of the Carnaby color relegated to the extras seen within the RICKY-TICK mockup..." David Hemmings' switched-on photographer displays stoned indifference to the lost life, but his hyper personality otherwise refutes Cannabis use, so this suggests that for Thomas it's the chase, not the capture. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jul 7, 2024 15:32:07 GMT
That's a very good writeup, thank you. It has an echo, just a tiny echo, of the plot from 1966's "Blow-Up," which is more about the 1960s Mod cultural shift, but still, a camera and murder frame the plot. My comments on "Blow-Up" here: "Blow-Up" Fading Fast's book, The Sociology of Film, is due out soon. I can't wait to watch him opposite Ben Mankiewicz on T CM... Just a brief comment about BLOW-UP which I posted on the SSO site, Fading Fast: "I found BLOW-UP staid and drab despite its Swinging London backdrop with most of the Carnaby color relegated to the extras seen within the RICKY-TICK mockup..." David Hemmings' switched-on photographer displays stoned indifference to the lost life, but his hyper personality otherwise refutes Cannabis use, so this suggests that for Thomas it's the chase, not the capture. |
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Post by NoShear on Jul 7, 2024 15:39:14 GMT
Fading Fast's book, The Sociology of Film, is due out soon. I can't wait to watch him opposite Ben Mankiewicz on T CM... Just a brief comment about BLOW-UP which I posted on the SSO site, Fading Fast: "I found BLOW-UP staid and drab despite its Swinging London backdrop with most of the Carnaby color relegated to the extras seen within the RICKY-TICK mockup..." David Hemmings' switched-on photographer displays stoned indifference to the lost life, but his hyper personality otherwise refutes Cannabis use, so this suggests that for Thomas it's the chase, not the capture. Laughing, Fading Fast: Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie character gave the antidote to the tennis match mime. |
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Post by NoShear on Jul 7, 2024 15:50:43 GMT
The Makioka Sisters from 1983, a Japanese movie
To fully appreciate The Makioka Sisters, the movie, you have to first read The Makioka Sisters, the novel by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. A classic of 20th-century Japanese literature, Tanizaki's opus follows the travails of the upper-middle-class Makioka family in the late 1930s.
It's an engaging melodramatic tale of four adult sisters somewhat stuck in the rituals and glory of their prestigious family's past, while trying to navigate the shifting sands of Japanese culture and modernization with the world on the brink of a global war.
Tradition demands the sisters marry in age order, yet when the shy but strong-willed third sister rejects one family-approved suitor after another, the youngest sister, embarrassingly for the family, tries to elope.
Tradition also has the oldest sister resisting her husband's career-driven transfer from Osaka, the site of their "main" house, to Tokyo.
These and many more "small" dramas play out in a large book that adds up to a revealing look at the country. Today, it is also a wonderful time capsule of pre-war Japan. It's a long novel that engrosses you in the lives of the sisters with a series of side stories and narratives.
It's also too long to bring to the screen in a movie with even a two-hour-plus runtime, as the story is too hard to boil down and the characters too complex to capture in a single film. If ever a book needed serialization (a 1970s-style miniseries), The Makioka Sisters is it.
This is not a slight against noted Japanese director Kon Ichikawa who, working with a small budget, captured some of the beauty and intricacy of the novel in his attractive and thoughtful film that, perforce, chose to focus on only a few characters and narratives from the book.
The wonderfully named third sister, Yukiko, centers the drama. Her refusal to marry one of the family-selected suitors "stops the production line," as the fourth sister can't marry until Yukiko does. The fourth sister, very Western in her thinking and attire, isn't sitting still though.
You will, however, probably be an hour into the movie until you've sorted the four sisters and their names out unless you've read the book or Googled them. The other story captured from the novel is the oldest sister's husband's struggle to assert his authority as head of the family.
In Japan, a man might choose to take his wife's family's name if it is a prominent family lacking male heirs, as the Makiokas were in the 1930s. The husband of the oldest sister then becomes the titular head of the clan, but earning everyone's respect is a different story.
It is hard from the movie to understand all this nuance even though it is eventually explained. The aforementioned move to Tokyo, which will take the Makiokas away from their traditional base of power and respect, Osaka, is a strong point of contention within the family.
Taken on its own, those two plotlines fail to capture the sweep of the novel. Too many story intricacies, mini-dramas and character traits are dropped for the movie. Many wonderful details of the culture, such as the importance of the very expensive kimonos, are lost or sped past.
Ichikawa, however, effectively shows the emotional growth of the sisters and their relationships maturing over the course of the movie. These siblings come to better understand and respect each other's struggles and challenges.
When the oldest sister finally considers her husband's position at work and not just her desire not to move, you see a woman and a marriage mature before your eyes. The same maturity is felt when the family comes to respect Yukiko's approach to marriage. It's real-life growth.
Ichikawa also captures some of the beauty of Japan from that time – the kimonos do get briefly showcased, as do the Kyoto cherry blossoms, much beloved by the Makioka Sisters who make an annual trip to see them in bloom – but he has to leave much from the novel behind.
While using only limited exterior on-location shooting, Ichikawa, in a few scenes, gives the viewer a sense of how Japan looked back then: the cities are modern, bustling, and well served by trains and trams, while the beautiful countryside resembles pre-industrial-revolution Japan.
The way to enjoy The Makioka Sisters, if you've read the book, is to ask little of the movie and just delight in its visually beautiful capture of 1930s Japan. If you haven't read the novel, and if you can keep the names and cultural nuances straight, you might like the film's condensed story.
Some books don't translate well to the screen. None of the several attempts to film The Great Gatsby have done the book full justice. The Makioka Sisters sits in the same category, as Tanizaki's story is meant to be appreciated slowly and lovingly by turning the pages of his novel. If haven't read yet, Fading Fast, you might enjoy Ian Fleming's insights into Japan offered in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1964) which was published on the eve of the first Tokyo Olympics... Kon Ichikawa also arguably yielded the most significant documentary this side of NANOOK of the NORTH (1922):  |
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Post by BunnyWhit on Jul 7, 2024 18:35:23 GMT
FadingFast said: "That said, if that stupid fake tennis-match scene didn't end, I was considering suicide as an alternative to continuing to watch it."
Please, FadingFast, do me a solid and kill me first! |
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