I used to watch a lot of movies, but these days, it's unusual for me to watch even 1 movie in any given week, even just on television, and I have a lot of access to movies with Netflix and Criterion. But I watched 2 in the past week — both highly recommended:
October 31, 2021
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Love the Asphalt Jungle. Probably Sterling Haydn's best role. And Jean Hagen. what an actress. Amazing range, did "Singing the Rain" as Laura Lamont. Marilyn Monroe as the "Niece". But my favorite is Louis Calhern as the Slimey Lawyer.
People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on 24 hours a day, every day in the year. And that's not exceptional, that's usual. It's the same in every city in the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had... just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over.
Daniel Johnston - I play that music in the car and everyone is like "what the heck?" Still, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Your Grevience is a classic.
I too concur on Asphalt Jungle. I'll toss in an excellent Joan Crawford movie called Daisy Kenyon, which is prime 1940s but after the war and with more modern points of view and depiction. Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda both rise to the occasion throughout the movie, too. Joan starts the picture tough but gets very nicely humanized as the script moves along. Not a typical Hollywood. Preminger directed.
Probably Sterling Haydn's best role
Boy, That's saying something! i'll have to check it out
Watched Asphalt Jungle last month, and agree, Sterling Hayden's best role. Been meaning to thank Ann for the Criterion Channel recommendation. Better than anything else I make monthly payments for.
I've tried a number of times to be hip and get into classic (pre-50s) movies, and failed miserably. Just can't take the stiff, hammy acting. I suppose that I'm a hopeless philistine, missing something obvious, but I sure don't know what it is.
Only in "The Asphalt Jungle" will you hear a guy touting a movie using a Bela Lugosi accent...
'Asphalt Jungle'?
Jungle...that's some racist shit right there.
Did it feature a lot of Hillary's super predators?
Or were they still vilifying Italians at that point?
Ah for the days when movies were acclaimed by famous authors.
"People are being cheated, robbed, murdered, raped. And that goes on 24 hours a day, every day in the year. And that's not exceptional, that's usual. It's the same in every city in the modern world. But suppose we had no police force, good or bad. Suppose we had... just silence. Nobody to listen, nobody to answer. The battle's finished. The jungle wins. The predatory beasts take over."
Yeah, as I said to my son John, who'd rated it one of the best movies of 1950, "I enjoyed the defund the police discourse."
" Probably Sterling Hayd[e]n's best role."
"Long Goodbye" and "Dr. Strangelove" are hard to beat, but he's so much younger in "Asphalt Jungle," and his good looks are very inspiring and disturbing given he's such a nasty guy. And then there's the unforgettable line, "Don't bone me."
"Watched Asphalt Jungle last month, and agree, Sterling Hayden's best role. Been meaning to thank Ann for the Criterion Channel recommendation."
I believe that movie will go off the channel after today. That's why I made a point of watching it when I did. Didn't want to miss the opportunity.
“The trouble with people is that they don’t watch enough movies” - The Grand Canyon (1991)
I went down the Daniel Johnston rabbit hole around 2008-9. Fascinating song writer and story. The best musical event I have attended in years was a memorial concert for him at the Kessler in Dallas in December of 2019. Several artists came up from Austin and other Texas locales to participate. His art work was displayed, some already owned by the guy who owns the Kessler. Kathy McCarty was there and sang Living Life and many others. She told stories of Daniel coming to Austin and how he would come to work with her where she got paid per piece to roll crepes, and he played his little keyboard and sang for her while she worked. Her cover of Living Life is probably my favorite of the many covers of his songs.
Sterling Hayden was also in a similar good movie, "The Killing".
I mean, Bennett Cerf! And 80 minutes doesn't sound like a long time, really.
But Prof, please clarify--are you highly recommending the movies, or just describing why you watched them?
I highly recommend both
I get Asphalt Jungle mixed up with Blackboard Jungle. Two very different movies, though perhaps both sharing a certain sort of cynical attitude. More familiar with the latter.
Sterling Hayden to me will always be Jack D. Ripper. He has a pretty wooden role in Bette Davis's The Star, which TCM shows a lot. Typically seemed wooden to me. Don't much remember him very much in Asphalt Jungle (or much else about the movie).
Louis Calhern is always a hoot.
>>And Jean Hagen. what an actress. Amazing range, did "Singing the Rain" as Laura Lamont.
Love Jean Hagen. The character in SitR was LINA Lamont. Tons of great lines. Undoubtedly my favorite (I remembered the gist but had to go to IMDB for the exact quote): "They can't make a fool out of Lina Lamont. They can't make a laughing stock out of Lina Lamont. What do they think I am? Dumb or something? Why, I make more money than - than - than Calvin Coolidge! Put together!"
I've always thought that the last line was a bit of a riff on something Babe Ruth said when told that he had made more money than the President (i.e., Calvin Coolidge): "I had a better year than he did." I think the "put together" is a specific reference, but I can't remember to what.
--gpm
Yipjump weekend to you.
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