joclmct Reviews

Applause (1973 TV Movie)

Ok but not Broadway

[8/10 · 27 June 2023]

Applause was a fun, sharp, sophisticated & very successful Broadway musical. What we are reviewing here is the tv version which is less successful. Some shows don't translate well to television. Applause is one of them. To have seen it in person & felt the joy of a live performance & then have to compare it to this version is slightly sad. It's still a tight show & Bacall is magnificent. (in spite of the nasty queen's insulting review here. He apparently has no taste. Just a viscous tongue & poor eyesight) But it's all we have & if we can stretch our imagination, we can still see how thrilling it must have been on Broadway. It won several Tony awards including Best Musical & Best actress for Bacall which it deserved. We have no other version left for us other than a cast album and so I am grateful for this flawed time capsule video version. Flawed? Yes but still, I love it.

Ted Lasso (2020–2023)

Not a fan

[2/10 · 24 October 2021]

I do not like this show mainly because Sudeikis is obnoxious. He is the most smarmy "comedian" to come out of SNL since Chevy Chase. I am also prejudiced against it because I hate sports themed movies and tv shows. Ted Lasso is apparently very popular & winning awards which is an example of the poor state of current tv quality. Sudeikis is supposed to be charming but he isn't. He hasn't the acting ability to override his innate arrogance & the show bores me. I'm happy for you if you like Ted Lasso. I don't. I hate it.

Clash by Night (1952)

Almost camp-fabulous

[8/10 · 16 July 2021]

Overwrought. Overacted. Trashy. These are all compliments in my opinion & just the kind of description that draws me to a movie. I love when mature actresses are put into roles obviously meant for someone younger & yet, in countless other movies, we are forced to accept some old male actor making love to a girl 20 years younger w/ no questions asked. I don't have any problem with Stanwyck's age of 45 but her having a baby, though not be impossible, may have been a little unusual & honestly given a more surprise reaction from others. I love older actresses still getting lead actress work, overacting, camping it up. I think Stanwyck was one of our greatest completely unique actresses. She's great in this. So is Monroe. So is Ryan. Paul Douglas is his usual shlub character. The purple dialogue adds to the consistent entertainment value & the burning desire bubbling under the surface until it explodes is hilarious. The happy ending is ridiculous & I don't believe it for a moment. The woman is a sex crazed tramp. But who would want overweight smelly fisherman Douglas over Robert Ryan anyway? I also love the plot gimmick of the baby. No one is ever taking care of it. I imagine it lying in a crib wearing a dirty diaper for days.

The Little Foxes (1941)

Davis impressive & completely wrong

[6/10 · 1 July 2021]

Davis insisted on playing Regina, not as written, not as Wyler wanted & she misinterpreted the role badly. In the play, Regina was the victim of her malignant brothers machinations. Davis, ridiculously over the top w/ chalk white ghostly makeup, decided to make Regina the villain & succeeded only in hogging screen time. She destroys the original structure of Hellman's play. I guess she thought she was a better writer than Hellman & a better director than Wyler. Her excuse was she didn't want to copy Tallulah Bankhead's performance but that wasn't what Wyler wanted either. She had the talent to make Regina her own & stay true to the play but she refused & even walked off the set. She should've stayed off. Davis fought terribly w/ Wyler & they never worked together again. It's a shame because she needed a strong director to reign in her mannerisms. Wyler had previously brought out one of her best performances in The Letter. Is she entertaining here? Of course she is. She hilariously displays a performance that is pure camp. From here on, w/ the exception of her most brilliant Margo Channing in All About Eve, something hard infused into her acting & she became a bad parody of her former talent. The rest of the cast plays it well. Tallulah should've played it.

Love in the Afternoon (1957)

Awful on so many levels.

[1/10 · 21 June 2021]

The most obvious complaint is the often stated unbelievably bad casting of the male lead. An utterly charmless & awkwardly uncomfortable Gary Cooper is depressing to watch as he utters his lines w/ no emotion whatsoever. He is filmed in shadow w/ gauzy filters & often from behind in an attempt to detract from his ancient looking face. He looked decades older than his real age but even if he looked his real age, being sexually involved w/ such a (supposedly) young girl feels sleazy. Billy Wilder must've thought child sexual abuse by a senior sexual predator was perfectly acceptable. The girl's father is complicit in sex trafficking his daughter & the abuse of a tiny dog is supposed to be funny. The song "Fascination" plays endlessly throughout the movie in order to make the unacceptable seem romantic. It fails. Parts of it were filmed on location in Paris but even as a fan of black & white movies, filming this in color would've @ least made the movie prettier. Wilder should've been ashamed. Cooper should've been embarrassed & ashamed & only w/ a younger leading man could it have even been slightly more believable but it still wouldn't have eliminated the hideous misogyny in the script. Only delusional old men who think attractive girls & young women are attracted to them could come up w/ this crap. I hate this movie.

Some Came Running (1958)

It's almost camp but not quite funny enough to qualify.

[4/10 · 7 June 2021]

I hate this movie. Sinatra is a terrible actor and is rotten in this movie too. It is incredible to even think Sinatra, as an ex-GI, could ever be a successful author. That alone is hilarious. Dean Martin gives the same dumb blank Dean Martin performance he always gives. Shirley MacLaine does the best she can w/ a demeaning misogynistic role as Ginny, a stupid "Floozy". In the book, the Sinatra character, Dave, is the one who dies @ the end after getting shot in the face. But this is a Sinatra movie & he can't possibly die so poor Ginny, the floozy, gets shot & dies. If Sinatra's Dave had been shot in the face @ the end, I may have ended up liking the ridiculous movie a little bit. I will say the finale, filmed @ a carnival, with spinning color lights & a packed crowd is well filmed and Minnelli uses the cinemascope screen exceedingly well.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Funny but...

[7/10 · 31 May 2021]

Who the hell would rise to the top in a fabulous job & have the finest in fashion to wear & smart talented people to interact w/ & leave it all for a commonplace dull life w/ an ugly boyfriend/husband? It's like a story directly out of the 40s when a woman realized her place was in the home, cleaning and cooking & homemaking for her husband & probably popping out children (who ruin all adult fun in life) because that's how it's meant to be if a woman is to be fulfilled as a woman. Meryl is great but I needed more of her and less of the dumb main character. It's fun to watch when the story isn't being frustrating but it could've been so much more satisfying. I know that may not be the direction the book originally took but no book is so sacred, artistic license cannot be employed to make the story better. Especially if it's from a junk book.

Travels with My Aunt (1972)

It's very okay

[7/10 · 13 May 2021]

I didn't read the book. I don't care if a movie is accurately or loosely based on a book. I don't care if it's nothing like the book. I simply judge a movie on what it is. A complete book can never be filmed anyway so stop complaining. This movie is not great but it has it's moments and some of them are very good. Maggie Smith deserved her Oscar nomination. I like the contrast between Maggie Smith's performance as a young Augusta Bertram compared to her performance as the older Augusta which borders on caricature but she is fun to watch. I have had aunts who behaved similarly & so the Augusta I see here is very real to me. The stuffy nephew is obviously necessary but his character's story arc barely interested me. The color, the costumes, sets & locations are lush but the movie has the worst, cheap sounding bad background music. The complete musical score is perfectly awful. It makes an average but pleasant movie almost unbearable because it is constant & becomes an unwelcome unnecessary additional character who never leaves. Other than that, the movie is perfectly okay.

The Girl He Left Behind (1956)

Great eye candy

[8/10 · 11 May 2021]

Seeing a shirtless Tab Hunter was good enough for me & all those men in uniform kept the movie pleasantly interesting throughout. Too bad he had a girlfriend when all those men were available.

Our Town (1940)

Beautiful & terribly sad

[9/10 · 20 April 2021]

This is a beautiful movie filled w/ great performances. The ending is changed which kept me from giving it 10 stars but I also know Thornton Wilder approved the change. He said because it's a film, the characters are too close to the audience & the original ending would be unbearably sad. I don't understand or agree with that decision because the ending is the heart of the play's lesson. We don't know how precious every moment is in life until we've lost it. I can,however, ignore the changes while remembering how the original play ends, apply it and love everything that comes before it. There are some on here who have called it slow & even boring. Lol. It demonstrates how shallow people can be. How removed from empathy are they? Are they too self involved & incapable of experiencing the depth of the story it tells? I'm afraid, yes. Our Town is not boring. It moves at an appropriate pace. I even wish it had lingered longer in some scenes. Those raised on a constant barrage of comic book heroes & fantasy junk probably won't care about these characters & the heartfelt representation of family, love, tragedy & acceptance of what is. If you want to watch what is one of our finest plays, well adapted to film, seek it out and let it unfold. If you have the ability to empathize with others & let their story be reflected in your own life, you too will love this movie. It is a masterpiece but make sure you have a handkerchief or a box of tissue close by.

Go Naked in the World (1961)

A Bad Movie I Love

[10/10 · 14 April 2021]

I love everything about this movie. The clothes, her apartment, the innocent middle age son who has no idea she's a prostitute in spite of having just gotten out of the service, the LOUD father who also had sex w/ her, the entire straight male San Francisco population who apparently also had sex with her, Acapulco, the doomed love affair, the torment, the balcony, the white dress, the sea, the birds, the tragedy. What's not to love? Gina Lollobrigida is bodacious beautiful. Anthony Franciosa is ridiculously miscast & daddy Ernest Borgnine is, as mention above, LOUD. It's in glamorous widescreen CinemaScope filmed in lush saturated color cinematography. It's a sexy 60s morality tale treasure. If you are blessed w/ an innate appreciation of Camp, do not miss any chance to watch this movie.

Pépé le Moko (1937)

A virtuoso masterpiece

[10/10 · 1 April 2021]

Simply put: Its one of the greatest films I've ever seen. If you don't get it, I pity you. You must have an artless soul.

Kiss Me, Stupid (1964)

Cynical & great

[9/10 · 31 March 2021]

The critic's insincere highbrow critique of the film's smutty immorality should be ignored until after you see the movie. Then roll your eyes & have a laugh @ their false shock. This is one of Wilders best & definitely most underrated films. Have no expectations prior to watching it. Just sit back & take it in. Wilder takes an honest hard look @ sex & relationships an era of prettied up phony sexless movies. Dean Martin, who I have never liked, is hilarious & Kim Novak is sweet & touching as Polly the Pistol. I would've given it 10 stars but Ray Walston's mugging & as usual, annoyingly bad performance, is the only mistake in an otherwise great movie.

All Fall Down (1962)

Angela Lansbury offers the only value.

[4/10 · 30 March 2021]

This is a cliche ridden Kane & Abel inspired black & white turgid mess of a dysfunctional family movie. We've seen variations of it umpteen times before. It should've been called Berry Berry which is the preposterous name of Warren Beatty's character. It seems no one in the movie can start a sentence without saying his stupid name, Berry Berry. Berry Berry must be mentioned so many times it becomes a sort of aural Chinese water torture. Good, younger brother idolizes bad older brother, Berry Berry. Mother's has an incestuous Jocasta complex for older son Berry Berry. Young brother's girlfriend falls for older brother, Berry Berry, gets pregnant by Berry Berry & commits suicide. Blah blah blah. Warren Beatty, as Berry Berry, gives us his best James Dean impersonation unsuccessfully but he is @ least beautiful to look at. Brandon deWilde is good. Eva Marie Saint gives us a tender performance & Karl Malden is fine but it is Dame Angela Lansbury who walks away with the film and is the only reason to bother to watch. This film was released the same year as The Manchurian Candidate & she won the National Board of Review best supporting actress award for a combination of both movies. The screenplay, by William Inge, based on a book by James Leo Herlihy, presents us yet another misogynistic parody of women. Here we have a sexually frustrated incest suppressed mother & an innocent virgin girl who must be sacrificed for her sins. Hedonistic older brother, Berry Berry, is finally seen as a selfish mess to be viewed contemptuously. Younger brother, who up to this point has only been seen as an innocent boy, walks away from Berry Berry, having grown up, into a man. Music swells. The end. Yawn. You will never want to hear the name Berry Berry ever again.

Romeo and Juliet (1936)

Poor casting cannot be ignored

[5/10 · 29 March 2021]

The Adrian (and Messell) costumes are magnificent. The sets & cinematography are beautifully realized & director George Cukor does the best he can with what he has been given but the absurd casting of actors 20 years, or more, too old cannot be ignored. Juliet is supposed to be around 13 & Norma Shearer is in her mid 30s. Romeo is to be approximately 16. Leslie Howard is in his mid 40s. The foolish, romantic & tragic path taken by Romeo & Juliet is because of their youth. With these 2 way too old actors, it makes the characters behave as if they are developmentally challenged. It is not how adults behave. I'm am not a student of Shakespeare but I've read the play. Many necessary cuts were made to the text in order to get it to the screen or it would've ended up being over 4 hours long. I don't complain of these cuts. I don't complain of the line readings by some actors. I respect how the studio & Thalberg put the money & attention to detail into the production. Accomplished Shakespearean acting coaches were brought in to get the best performances from the actors. I believe Norma Shearer worked hard to do her best but oh my. She is not Juliet. Leslie Howard is ok but both wouldve been better cast as Lord and Lady Montague or Lord and Lady Capulet. It is a lush & lavish production. I can admire it as a beautiful elegant bauble. If I don't pay close attention to the actors, I can enjoy the spectacle but I cannot accept Shearer & Howard as the lead characters. It's a distraction I cannot pretend isn't there. That they are too old is a valid reason to critique the movie harshly.

The Savage Is Loose (1974)

Ludicrous & a complete disaster

[1/10 · 18 March 2021]

This is one of the worst movies I've ever endured & 90% of the blame goes to the arrogance of the director & star, George C Scott. The remainder of the blame goes to the scriptwriter's unbelievably bad screen writing. As the 2 hours drag on for what seems an eternity, nothing happens except a sex showdown between the father's & the son's sex urges for wife & mother! The son could've just masturbated. The entire production is seedy, ridiculous & unbearable. Giving it 1 star is the best that can ge said for it. Avoid @ all cost unless you are a masochist who's into incest.

Yolanda and the Thief (1945)

If Fellini had made a musical

[9/10 · 25 February 2021]

It was a flop and it deserved better but is as typical of Americans, they need to be lead around by a ring in their nose and have everything explained to them as if they were dumb. This is a feast for the eyes. The extravagant color. The magnificent Irene Sharaff costumes. The superb talent. A plot is barely there but who cares? It's a fantasy musical. It unfairly ruined the career of the multi-talented Lucille Bremer when it's box office failure squarely rested on the shoulders of Arthur Freed who pushed it to be made as a vehicle to promote Miss Bremer. Did it ruin the careers of any of the men involved? Of course not. Men in Hollywood rarely paid for their failures. And even though it failed @ the box office, it didn't fail as a musical film. Look @ it as you do a painting. You don't have to know what the artist meant or his inspiration to paint it. You take it in and appreciate it for the emotions it stirs within you. Yolanda and the Thief is a brave, bizarre, glorious musical overflowing w/ extraordinary talent throughout. If you can't see that, I pity you. Go back to the movies that need to be watched by realist people w/ no imagination and no appreciation of art. This one is spectacular.

The Star (1952)

Bette hamming it up

[4/10 · 22 February 2021]

This is trash but it's hilarious trash w/ Bette giving one of her worst performances but it can be enjoyed for its camp value. Bette has several scream fest scenes that alone make the film a hoot & her drunken drive through town with her Oscar in hand is classic camp. Bette is a great actress but many actresses give horrible performances @ some point in their careers. The Star ranks (& I do use the word rank intentionally) as one of her worst. The screen test scene where she gives a ridiculous terrible performance is no different from her performance in the entire movie. Perhaps her decision to mock her nemesis Joan Crawford came back to bite her in her derrière. Sometimes revenge can end up a boomerang. Grab the popcorn, add extra butter & prepare to watch an unbelievably unintentional comedy of the highest order. That is if you are clever enough to appreciate camp.

X, Y & Zee (1972)

Elizabeth Taylor @ her best

[9/10 · 17 February 2021]

Performances by the great actors Michael Caine & Susannah York, are eclipsed by Elizabeth Taylor in a performance that is brilliant. I think it is her best. She had unapologetically grown into the role of vulgarian she pretended to be in Virginia Woolf. As a young actress, she was great but I think these 2 films perfectly bookend her adult performances (It would make a most perfect double bill.) & she has never been so much fun to watch. The rest of the movie is well written & acted by the entire cast but it's electric when Elizabeth Taylor's Zee is onscreen. I wanted more of her. It's also a peek @ chic boho early 70s London plus we get to see Margaret Leighton in a dress w/ see-through bodice & later on, in a pink Afro wig. The movie is rarely shown anywhere. I haven't seen it broadcast in over 30 years. I bought the DVD, which is rare itself, and reacquainted myself & it didn't disappoint. It's as good as I remember. But you may have to be Gay to get the jokes & understand the campiness. Straight men won't understand how wonderful it is. Sorry boys. It's not for you.

Roman Holiday (1953)

I fell in love w/ Audrey Hepburn

[10/10 · 14 February 2021]

If this perfect jewel of romance & fantasy were made today, it would be be given a ridiculous ending w/the princess running away w/ the journalist. This movie makes the hard decision to give us a more realistic yet bittersweet conclusion. It may be a romantic comedy fairytale but the writers and the superb director William Wyler were smart to give us the only believable ending possible. The story is effortless. It goes as deep as it needs to go considering everything happens in one day & it's packed full of adventure & charm. Only the most hardened individuals wouldn't respond to it w/ enduring affection. It is a sweet story of another time & it's a great joy to spend this day w/ these characters. There are insufficient superlatives to speak about Audrey Hepburn's elegant performance. It was unlike anything before it & it is as luminous today as it was then. Gregory Peck is surprisingly effective as a romantic lead. The usually very stoic actor has never been so charming. Eddie Albert brings his superb comic timing and he is used well. Pay no attention to the 1 or 2 foolish detractors in these user reviews. Watch it. It's a great movie you will not forget, for all the right reasons.

Party Girl (1958)

The roaring 20s?!

[8/10 · 12 February 2021]

Beautiful color makes for gorgeous eye candy, although Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar has cinematography so eye-popping it's feverish & surreally magnificent. Cyd Charisse is as beautiful & sensual as ever. And those legs are a sight to cherish as perfection. The story however is, to be kind, slight. Robert Taylor looks horrible. I guess this is what too much liquor & cigarettes will do to a once pretty face. Of course his acting is as stiff & awful as ever. Nicholas Ray does the best he can w/ what he has been handed. I figure he was perfecting his talent. The compositions & sets are lavish, but it is not the Roaring 20s @ all. Why didn't they just update it to the 50s. Gangsters have been around for ever anyway. I almost wish it were a semi-musical w/ more dancing so we could see more of Cyd's swinging 1958 era nightclub routines. The hairstyles, the makeup & the costumes are pretty but laughably inappropriate for the era. And the music? Ridiculous. Why studios, directors & actors didn't insist on authenticity baffles me. Did they think the audiences were that stupid? It's still fun to watch. It's stylish, it has Cyd & it provides a lot of unintended laughs.

Bachelor in Paradise (1961)

Lana Turner falls for Hope!?

[6/10 · 12 February 2021]

It's a cute cornball fantasy interpretation of the early 60s. I'm sure it was considered a risqué adult sex comedy @ the time. The movie isn't great but it's not bad either. Lana Turner is not complimented by the matronly hairdo & unflattering makeup but it's Lana Turner! She's only 40. Others have commented negatively about her age but nothing about old Hope, 18 years older than Lana. Maybe she was made up that way to make their extreme age gap less unbelievable. There is no onscreen chemistry between them & I don't believe for a moment Lana's character would fall for Hope but I reiterate, it's only a silly comedy. It has an impressive supporting cast.

Ever Since Eve (1937)

Marion Davies is a delight

[8/10 · 11 February 2021]

Marion Davies was a accomplished comedienne & actress who has been unfairly maligned because of her long standing affair & association w/ WR Hearst. He bankrolled & heavily promoted her career. This was her final film & she was 39 or 40 when she starred in it. She is still very attractive & 40 isn't old but for a woman in Hollywood, it's the death knell for an actress's career. She was past her time to play an ingenue & she knew it. She quit & devoted herself to Hearst until his death then donated a fortune to children's charities. She also had difficult later years because of alcoholism & cancer but she was not the tragic character, Susan Alexander Kane, portrayed in Citizen Kane. The fictional character was forced by Kane to be an opera singer in spite of no talent. Marion Davies had talent but was neither respected nor appreciated. Ever Since Eve is a minor but successful swan song for her career. The supporting actors perform well especially the very gifted comedienne Patsy Kelly.

Private Lives (1931)

Oh that Shearer

[3/10 · 10 February 2021]

Noel Coward was a extraordinarily witty man. Perhaps this thing played well onstage with better actors but this version is exasperating. Shrill, arch & irritating is the best I can say. Talking talking talking with tears screeching & arguing in between. I forgive Una Merkel because I adore her but the other 3! Shearer is sheer torture. The whole thing doesn't work because the actors can't get the necessary rhythm going to sell the comedy & the wit. The Noel Coward lines are dead as the actors shriek, squawk & bleat them. Call the mortician because this thing was dead on arrival. Read the play but avoid this unbearable movie.

Below the Belt (2003– )

Hilarious

[10/10 · 9 February 2021]

This 13 part cheeky series plus the 1 hour special needs to be made available to watch in the USA in it's entirety, uncut & uncensored because it is a comedy treasure. The Baroness Coral von Reefenhausen is camp comedy platinum w/ diamonds & the whole series is fabulous.