Breaker Morant

The Grey Fox

I haven't seen The Grey Fox. I'll look for it.

Great movie.

1957 movie about an American Destroyer and a German U-Boat in WWII. Playing suspense filled cat and mouse games for about a 100 minutes. Robert Mitchum plays the US Skipper. I’m partial to WWII movies about the Navy. This ain’t Pearl Harbor but the action and acting are outstanding. My favorite WWII movie for decades. Worth seeing.

Hardly anybody mentions it when they talk about Scorsese, but I loved it and think it's a true masterpiece.

One of the best foreign-language films I've ever seen, IMHO, and also one of the best science-fiction films I've ever seen, and yet, it seems, almost nobody has ever heard of it. It's a psychological study of isolation, and survival. Wow, I love this movie. You can watch it free on YouTube.

But I gotta throw in the Black and White 1973 Comedy gem Paper Moon with Ryan O’Neil and his daughter Tatum. Conman Man Ryan and moral compass Tatum roving around 1930s Kansas looking to score a Buck. Madelyn Kahn was over the top. The emoting hooker with “a bladder the size of a peanut.” Lots of laughs and a happy ending.

But it doesn't fit in this category because it is not forgotten, overlooked, under-appreciated, or anything of the sort. Tatum O'Neal won Best Supporting Actress. I just watched it a week or two ago on one of the movie channels I get on cable. As I said, it doesn't fit in this category.

-- Ron

Ben Whishaw plays an olfactory savant in 18th-Century France who had been abandoned by his mother because she was repulsed by the infant's lack of body odor. With his extremely discerning nose he becomes obsessed with finding the perfect fragrance, eventually murdering young women to capture their natural redolence. An incredibly odd and sometimes visually breathtaking film that manages to evoke the sense of smell and, like Hitchcock's Vertigo, convincingly portray obsession.

It was far more recent. Probably a copycat, which is sad. I found it really disturbing. Found it - called "Base Notes". Published in 2022. Benefit of the doubt would be accidental copycat. Took place in New York if I remember right. I haven't seen the movie. I guess there could be a trove of differences.

It's full of sumptuous detail and period flavor. It is so good at evoking the sense of smell that when I learned there was a movie version I was curious whether the movie could do the same. I think it did.

Murder porn! I'm so tired of "great" suspense books that involve the murder of women but purport to be about something else.

This book, as an example, could include the serial murders of young men instead of young women. Why doesn't it? because violence of women is endemic.

...this movie has been released as The Blonde Witch. In case anyone wanted to track it down.

Some fascinating responses, here. Mostly stuff new to me.

David Bowie should have gotten an Oscar for that one.

Difficult movie to watch, but worth it for one of the most hauntingly beautiful endings in movie history.

The Canterville Ghost (1944)

People Will Talk (1951)

It Happened to Jane (1959)

Start the Revolution Without Me (1970)

it is hilarious!

I'd reschedule almost anything to watch this one again (I first saw it on the old "Night Flight" ). It's about as quirky as they get:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104922/?ref_=ext_shr

Young adult immigrants come to the United States from everywhere and the adjustments and the attempts to
fit in are always fascinating.

The ending of this movie is a reminder that family roots spoken of over time and places can be
just as fascinating and mysterious to the generations watching as their family adjusts.

Tikki
John Lurie is in this movie.

“Dead Man” with Johnny Depp
bonus: music score by Neil Young

It was very good.

It has some extremely comic moments, too. (It was also recently available On Demand).

Extra bonus points for having a female lead.

Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. It came out in 1973 and I saw it in a bunker on an Air Force Base in Maryland.

A very powerful movie with some great performances.

An Australian movie released in 1971 about 2 children finding themselves alone in the Outback and trying to survive.

With William Holden and Ricky Schroeder.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080671o/

I haven’t see Walkabout, but Rabbit-Proof Fence is about 3 young aboriginal girls who escape the Christian boarding school they’d been confined to against their and their families’ will and travel across Australia by following the fencing erected to stop the spread of the invasive rabbits. It’s haunting and very good and based on a true story.

"Seconds."

Plus you don't get to see Grandpa Walton as a bad guy very often.

John Frankenheimer and Martin Ritt might never have crafted a great film, but they made some really good ones.

I'm inclined to think that his own keeping of a secret life, functionally the wearing of a second identity, might have helped him find his way with that role, but I don't know of it.

I think I might even own that one, lol.

... that movie was better than than good sum of it's parts. It should have been a blockbuster.

The original film it was taken from was really good, too.

The Wages Of Fear

Witness for the Prosecution is a 1957 American legal mystery melodrama film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, and Charles Laughton, with Elsa Lanchester and John Williams. The film, which has elements of bleak black comedy and film noir, is a courtroom drama set in the Old Bailey in London and is based on the 1953 play of the same title by Agatha Christie. The first film adaptation of Christie's story, Witness for the Prosecution was written for the screen by Wilder and Harry Kurnitz and adapted by Larry Marcus.

The film was acclaimed by critics and received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It also received five Golden Globe Award nominations including a win for Elsa Lanchester as Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Additionally, the film was selected as the sixth-best courtroom drama ever by the American Film Institute for their AFI's 10 Top 10 list.

In the film, a man accused of killing a wealthy widow who had named him as the main beneficiary in her will undergoes a trial during which his wife testifies against him.

All the plants on Earth have died. Flora is preserved on a spacecraft but the guy in charge has been ordered to destroy it. He disagrees. 1972.

It wasn’t a box office hit when it was released but gained a following over time. One of my favorites.

Ran - 1985. Not Akira Kurosawa's last movie, but his last big movie, and simply overwhelming. It's King Lear set in Japan during the Warring States period. Stylized by American standards, but powerful, with some of the most amazing shots of any movie on record and (I would argue) the greatest battle scene on film. Cool trivia - the actor portraying Lord Hidetora, the Lear figure (Tatsuya Nakadai) was the protagonist in "Hara Kiri" (1962).

who were given a respite from the fight to visit Bette Davs, who is Amercan, her home in DC. Lukas is injured and intends to go back.

Davis' mother and brother live in a grand home and have house guest from Europe, a former lesser royal from eastern Europe turns out to be a nazi to visit the German embassy. A conflict arises with the Davs/Lukas resistance fighters and the nazi and drama unfolrds.

It's a film noir flick, a favorite film era of mine.

Also known as "Sammy Going South" w/ Fergus McClelland as the orphan + Edward G Robinson
as the "white hunter"/diamond smuggler...

from 1994, with Dennis Hopper. I am told that it is a sequel to Cast a Deadly Spell. I have not seen that one.

It is set in 1950s Hollywood, where everyone practices witchcraft. Hopper is a private detective who does not practice witchcraft. The political witch hunts of the 1950s should be an obvious clue. It is a fun and clever movie.

Overlooked? At the time, not really. It won some awards (Golden Globe for soundtrack), but it wasn't even nominated for Best Foreign Film by the Oscar crowd.

It also made money ($16 million on a $6 million budget), but couldn't be considered a blockbuster.

Is it forgotten? I don't see it brought up these days as an all-time classic, but think it should at least be in that conversation.

Morse.
One of the funniest films ever.

Not a flick you'll get a great deal of pleasure from, if you've recently buried a loved one (and yes, I'm speaking from personal experience).

The Lives of Others....

Akira Kurosawa. Overshadowed by "The Seven Samurai" and "Ran," this film has humor, adventure, and wonderful cinematography. It has often been credited as being the inspiration for the interactions between C3PO and R2D2 in "Star Wars." My personal first choice for an introduction to Kurosawa.

Absurdist comedy wrapped tightly around existential questions. Meg Ryan. Tom Hanks. Awesome!

Has the best “I quit” scene in cinema history.

Every frame is a masterpiece, and I only know a handful of people that have seen it.
A stunning film.

but they are two comedy moves that I enjoy:
Hudson Hawk
https://m.

I recommend "A New Leaf" starring Elaine May & Walter Matthau

2nd funniest movie ever made.

This is one of the movies I was thinking about when I started this thread. You cannot find this movie on DVD or any streaming service, and it's hysterical.

Humphrey Bogart's character was falsely imprisoned for murdering his wife.
Lauren Bacall and others help him change his identity and face so he can clear himself.

Elliot Gould, Christopher Plummer, Suzannah York

Miles Cullen, Toronto bank teller (Gould) discovers a discarded holdup note revealing an imminent robbery. Suspecting the mall Santa Harry Reikle (Plummer), Cullen secretly hides $48,300 from his transactions in a lunchbox, giving Reikle only a small amount during the robbery. Realizing he's been shorted, Reikle stalks and threatens Cullen, who must outsmart Reikle in a "cat and mouse" type struggle with the potential to turn very deadly.

Roger Ebert, in his March 30, 1979 review in the Chicago Sun-Times, awarded three-and-a-half of a possible four stars to the film, calling it "a thriller that is not only intelligently and well acted and very scary, but also has the most audaciously clockwork plot I've seen in a long time." Ebert described it as "worthy of Hitchcock."

Now I want to drag out our copy and watch it

It is THE arthouse movie of arthouse movies. Watch it and you won't forget it.

Heartbreaking love story starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, two stars from different Hollywood galaxies. But their chemistry in this movie is genuine and the film is heartbreaking.

1937. Caught it twice on TCM. They rarely show it.

It is not an easy watch. It will rip your heart out, and then stomp it to pieces on the ground. Have tons of Kleenex nearby.

One of the finest films I have ever seen. Highly recommend trying to find it to watch it. Has an 8.1 rating on IMDB. So that should tell you something. Don't read spoilers, if by any chance you are lucky enough to find the movie to watch it.

Starred Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman and Rex Ingram. Grant is a prison escapee
who was being tried for arson and murder when the factory he worked in burned down costing
the life of the factory foreman whose body was never recovered. Believe or not, this is actually
a screwball comedy with Colman as a law professor up for a Supreme Court nomination who
sets out to prove Grant's innocence. The IMDb page explains it better than I can.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035417/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Talk%2520o

This one is from 1973.

Fresh out of prison for car theft, Dick Kanipsia (James Caan) goes to visit a fellow ex-con, Harry Moss (Richard B. Shull), and arrives just in time to see him gunned down by faceless assassins. Dick tracks down Harry's friend Barry (Peter Boyle), who reveals that he and Harry had a small fortune they entrusted to a shady investment expert years ago. Dick and Barry form an uneasy partnership and, with the help of a sexy drifter named Kitty (Sally Kellerman), try to trace the money.