New Stuff: Casbah

 

The Movies I Watched in September

Antz 1998  8/10

A Bug's Life 1998  7/10

El Conde 2023  7/10

 Criss Cross 1949  7/10

Doraibu mai kâ 2021  7/10

Ehrengard. Forførelsens kunst 2023  5/10

The Elephant 6 Recording Co. 2022  6/10 

Emily 2022  6/10

Gertrud 1964  6/10

Hallam Foe 2007  7/10

 Heli 2013  7/10

Hotaru no haka 1988  8/10

 

Infinity Pool 2023  710

 

Lauf Junge Lauf 2013  6/10

Lucky 2017  7/10

Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal. Season 2 2023  6/10

Narayama bushikô 1958  6/10

Noruwei no mori 2010  7/10

The Oklahoma Kid 1939  6/10

Painkiller 2023  6/10

Ratcatcher 1999  8/10

A Royal Night Out 2015  6/10

65 2023  5/10

The Swan 2023  7/10 

Tár 2022  6/10

Turning Red 2022  7/10

Under the Silver Lake 2018  6/10

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar 2023  7/10

Yvonne De Carlo

 

McLintock! (1963)

Cattle baron George Washington McLintock fights his wife, his daughter, and political land-grabbers.

Another wildly entertaining John Wayne - Maureen O'Hara variation on The Taming of the Shrew. Not suitable for feminists.

On rewatching: Male-bonding festivity looks like they intended to have as much of fun as possible on set and imagined it would reflect onscreen - unfortunately it does.

Halliwell*: "Sub-Ford Western farce borrowed from The Taming of the Shrew, with much fist-fighting and mud-splattering, and rather too much chat in between."

Maltin***: "Rowdy slapstick seldom stops - a giant mud pit free-for-all and a public spanking for O'Hara are just a few of the stops along the way in this Western version of The Taming of the Shrew. Not recommended for feminists."

Yvonne De Carlo

Yvonne De Carlo

Yvonne De Carlo

Brute Force (1947)

At a tough penitentiary a prisoner plans to rebel against the power-mad chief guard.

Relentlessly dark, tough and intense prison drama with a large cast of characters and subplots (including flashbacks) that never loses the focus to the main plot and its inevitable ending.

Halliwell**: "Vivid and rather repellent prison melodrama leading to an explosive climax; its savagery seemed at the time to break fresh ground."

Maltin***1/2: "Tingling, hard-bitten prison film with its few cliches puched across solidly."

Yvonne De Carlo

The Ten Commandments (1956)

The Egyptian Prince, Moses, learns of his true heritage as a Hebrew and his divine mission as the deliverer of his people.

The classic monumental movie to end them all, basically though a naive picture-book version of the Old Testament.

Halliwell *: "Popular but incredibly stilted and verbose bible-in-pictures spectacle. A very long haul along a montonous route, with the director at his pedestrian worst."

Maltin ****: "Vivid storytelling at its best....Few subtleties in DeMille'ssecond handling of this tale (first filmed in 1923) but few lulls, either. Parting of the Red Sea, writing of the holy tablets are unforgettable highlights."

A Global Affair (1964)

As an employee at the United Nations building in New York City, Bob Hope finds himself in charge of an infant abandoned at the UN.

The original idea notwithstanding this is a pedestrian and quite unfunny comedy.

Halliwell (no stars): "Flat sentimental farce which embarrassingly tries to say something about the UN."

Maltin**1/2: "Unwitty Hope vehicle..."

Tomahawk (1951)

In 1866, a new gold discovery and an inconclusive conference force the U.S. Army to build a road and fort in territory ceded by previous treaty to the Sioux...to the disgust of frontier scout Jim Bridger, whose Cheyenne wife led him to see the conflict from both sides

Well-crafted standard western with good intentions concerning the cause of the Native Americans.

Yvonne De Carlo