What are you watching?

[Deimos]

I caught this short story about Jules Verne on France 24 last night:

Not emphasized is the history of poor English translations; British and American publishers treated -- and promoted -- his works as for children and "young people", cutting out, and even severely altering, whole sections, and in general "dumbing them down". Recent decades have seen better translations, but due to their public domain status, the old ones continue to be reprinted.

I'd love to have some of the editions shown in the story! 😁

omg.... this is so true... don't even get me started on it. But.....too late! 😄
There is a website devoted to the works of JV which I came across when trying to determine which translations were the best .
It goes into detail about all the translations made, and yes, some were just awful; the wholesale excising of paragraphs, the renaming of characters with "proper British names".
Oxford University Press (OUP) has the best ones for Twenty Thousand Leagues and Journey to the Center of the Earth, the two in which I was at that time interested.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Softie-Southerner is back with this. 🥺

 

[herlig9]

Softie-Southerner is back with this. 🥺

Looks like AI. That's sad

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Was there some question in that regard? 😵‍💫

 

[Eljorahir]

I rewatched this one last night.

I first disliked James McAvoy because of his role in one of the worst movies I've seen, "Wanted".
Then I saw "Split", and his performance(s) here turned me into a fan.

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

He played a heroic Naval medical officer a few years after "Kiss":

It seems familiar but I don't recall watching it before. Wow Jack Palance and Richard Widmark in the same film! What a great actor Jack Palance was. Again he could play good guys as well as bad guys. He's fantastic in Attack (1956) and of course as the hired gunman Wilson in Shane.

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

Another film I watched recently was the 1952 Ivanhoe with Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, George Sanders and Joan Fontaine. This is often compared with the 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood which garnered more awards. But I prefer this film. It has a stronger story (though Walter Scott might not have been amused) and it seems more serious, less comic book. And then there's Elizabeth Taylor (as Rebecca the Jewess). She's so beautiful it's hard to look at her. And this is part of the plot. Joan Fontaine, who was also quite beautiful, has to remark in the film about Rebecca's superior beauty. How did Joan Fontaine feel about that?

What appeals to me most in this film is the complex love quadrilateral involving Ivanhoe, the Saxon Lady Rowena (Fontaine), Rebecca and the Norman de Bois Guilbert. Robert Taylor, as Ivanhoe, comes across as a rather cold fish and the most passionate person is de Bois Guilbert who is prepared to sacrifice his position in society for Rebecca, though he does insist at one point that she would need to convert to Christianity. Then there is the fantastic jousting scene in the middle of the film and the inevitable showdown between Ivanhoe and de Bois Guilbert at the end - both their shields took a battering.

You can watch it free here:

https://archive.org/details/ivanhoe-1952-1080p-esp

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

@Erestor Arcamen asked me -- 6 years ago! -- about "Space 1999". I just noticed Season 1 is on YouTube, for anyone interested:

Space: 1999 | FULL EPISODES

The crew of Moonbase Alpha must struggle to survive when a massive explosion throws the Moon from orbit into deep space. Space: 1999 stars Martin Landau, Bar...

youtube.com

 

[Deimos]

Another film I watched recently was the 1952 Ivanhoe with Robert Taylor, Elizabeth Taylor, George Sanders and Joan Fontaine. ...
What appeals to me most in this film is the complex love quadrilateral involving Ivanhoe, the Saxon Lady Rowena (Fontaine), Rebecca and the Norman de Bois Guilbert. Robert Taylor, as Ivanhoe, comes across as a rather cold fish and the most passionate person is de Bois Guilbert who is prepared to sacrifice his position in society for Rebecca, though he does insist at one point that she would need to convert to Christianity. Then there is the fantastic jousting scene in the middle of the film and the inevitable showdown between Ivanhoe and de Bois Guilbert at the end - both their shields took a battering.

You can watch it free here:

HAHA.... once again George Sanders is cast as the villain, or maybe just a not very appealing character.
Here he is Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert.

Some of his other villainous roles...

Lord Everett Stacy in LLoyd's of London (1936)
Jack Favell in Rebecca (1940)
Jaffrey Pyncheon in The House of the Seven Gables (1940)
Major Quive-Smith in Man Hunt (1941)
Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
Miles Fairley in The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947)
The Saran of Gaza in the sword-and-sandal Samson and Delilah (1949)
Addison de Witt in All About Eve (1950)... a very nasty, manipulative character for which he won an Oscar (Best Supporting Actor)
Albert Richter in Witness to Murder (1954)
Henry Landru in Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons (1960)
Thomas Ayerton in Disney's In Search of the Castaways (1962)
Mr. Freeze in Batman (TV Series 1966)
Shere Khan [voice] in Disney's Jungle Book (1967)... smooth, oh so smooth, almost seductive.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

But -- self-sacrificing hero in Village of the Damned,1960.

 

[Deimos]

It seems familiar but I don't recall watching it before. Wow Jack Palance and Richard Widmark in the same film! What a great actor Jack Palance was. Again he could play good guys as well as bad guys. He's fantastic in Attack (1956) and of course as the hired gunman Wilson in Shane.

And Carl Grissom in Batman (1989)

"Is that you, Sugarbumps?" 😆

 

[Deimos]

But -- self-sacrificing hero in Village of the Damned,1960.
View attachment 43887

Yes, I was going to list that as an exception, and there were others.
But he was more often cast as bad guys or at least as unpleasant characters.

He portrayed Gordon Zellaby in Village, which is based on the Book The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham.
His portrayal of Zellaby was excellent, he nailed it. Even now when I [re] read the book (for the umpteenth time) I see and hear Sanders.
Btw I cannot recommend Midwich Cuckoos enough... one of those quietly suspenseful stories of mounting fear.
Oh, and I might add, the movie was well done, followed the book closely and had the same atmosphere of quiet suspense.

 

[Eljorahir]

This morning I watched this, and I found it strangely motivating.
My task today is to do more than this shrimp.
I think I can.
No! I know I can! (That's better.)

 

[Deimos]

This morning I watched this, and I found it strangely motivating.
My task today is to do more than this shrimp.
I think I can.
No! I know I can! (That's better.)

It's been done already 😄 (about 2:00)

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

What a great actor Jack Palance was.

His (uncredited) film debut, as Landis says. One thing he didn't mention: for the scene where he knocks Widmark on the head, he was given a rubber prop gun, but substituted the real one, knocking Widmark unconscious for several minutes. Haha, fun prank. I don't know the story behind that.

The movie is grouped with film noir, but it seems to me Kazan was more influenced by Italian Neorealism, especially in the use of regular citizens of New Orleans. And several scenes reminded me strongly of Fellini.

 

[Deimos]

His (uncredited) film debut, as Landis says. One thing he didn't mention: for the scene where he knocks Widmark on the head, he was given a rubber prop gun, but substituted the real one, knocking Widmark unconscious for several minutes. Haha, fun prank. I don't know the story behind that.

The movie is grouped with film noir, but it seems to me Kazan was more influenced by Italian Neorealism, especially in the use of regular citizens of New Orleans. And several scenes reminded me strongly of Fellini.View attachment 43895

Alec Baldwin, call your office. 😬

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Post-Avengers Diana Rigg! 😍

 

[Deimos]

Post-Avengers Diana Rigg! 😍

Background info: Minikillers
I didn't care for the 10 minutes I watched.
The "no dialogue" wouldn't have been so tedious if the [soundtrack] music were better.
Some movies and TV shows in the 60s (too many, imo) used that pseudo-jazzy music. And always, at some point, employed brushes used on a snare drum to give a "swishy, sweepy" sounding effect. 🙄

But yes, Diana Rigg... always worth watching, or at least an extended look-see. 😉

 

[Rivendell_librarian]

HAHA.... once again George Sanders is cast as the villain, or maybe just a not very appealing character.
Here he is Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert.


View attachment 43886

Some of his other villainous roles...

Lord Everett Stacy in LLoyd's of London (1936)
Jack Favell in Rebecca (1940)
Jaffrey Pyncheon in The House of the Seven Gables (1940)
Major Quive-Smith in Man Hunt (1941)
Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
Miles Fairley in The Ghost and Mrs Muir (1947)
The Saran of Gaza in the sword-and-sandal Samson and Delilah (1949)
Addison de Witt in All About Eve (1950)... a very nasty, manipulative character for which he won an Oscar (Best Supporting Actor)
Albert Richter in Witness to Murder (1954)
Henry Landru in Bluebeard's Ten Honeymoons (1960)
Thomas Ayerton in Disney's In Search of the Castaways (1962)
Mr. Freeze in Batman (TV Series 1966)
Shere Khan [voice] in Disney's Jungle Book (1967)... smooth, oh so smooth, almost seductive.

Yes that Mr Freeze episode is one I remember well. Great actor that he was George Sanders fitted in well with the camp comic nature of that series.

 

[Deimos]

Yes that Mr Freeze episode is one I remember well. Great actor that he was George Sanders fitted in well with the camp comic nature of that series.

It's too funny how these A-list actors** just hammed it up. They probably jumped at the chance to let their hair down and ad lib to their hearts' content.

**Burgess Meredith
Cesar Romero
George Sanders
Vincent Price
Frank Gorshin
Victor Buono
Julie Newmar
Anne Baxter
Roddy McDowell
Joan Collins
Cliff Robertson
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Tallulah Bankhead
Glynis Johns
David Wayne