1946. dir. Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall.
Seen it before? No.
The whole time I was watching this movie I had Bertie Higgins' Key Largo playing in my head! GAH! Did you know that Lauren Bacall was twenty-five years younger than Humphrey Bogart? I sure as hell didn't.
Sam's right...again...this movie was pretty difficult to follow but was interesting enough for me to stay awake...as opposed to my other half who fell asleep halfway through the film.
The one thing that Sam didn't mention was that, despite the delivery of his lines, Bogart was the George Clooney of his time (-the looks)...charming - in a flirty way despite not being terribly good looking...and a ladies man (yes, I went there). There were at least ten dames in the film and all of them flirted with him in such an embarrassing way. I swear that the suits he was put in were being worn high (think of Urkel from Family Matters). Also, I know this is blasphemous but his head looked bigger in proportion to his body...the entire movie!
Lauren Bacall has a great voice and her streak at the in-home casino was just awesome...I mean, come on, winning $28,000 in one spin of roulette? AWESOME! And adjusting for inflation...well, that's a nice chunk of change (roughly $305584.57 in 2008).
Would I watch it again? Yes, because you have to watch this movie more than once to get it.
Would I own it? It's on Netflix on Demand for now.
Showing posts with label The Big Sleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Big Sleep. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
#33 The Big Sleep: $25 a day plus expenses
1946. dir. Howard Hawks, starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall.
Seen it before? No.
So here we go with another ridiculous 40's film noir, this one adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel. (William Faulkner was one of the screenwriters.) I'm going to be totally honest: I don't like Humphrey Bogart. He can't act as well as Orson Welles or Marlon Brando, and he doesn't have the charm of Cary Grant or Spencer Tracy, so why am I supposed to like him? It seems like he was good at being a movie star; you know, being glamorous, that sort of thing, but why should I care about that?
This movie stars Bogart as Philip Marlowe, who is a private detective hired to track down the people who are blackmailing the Sternwood family. Specifically, it's the two daughters, one of whom has a gambling problem, and the other one was involved in pornography. I think. Hays Code era means you couldn't discuss it directly. The plot gets more convoluted from there, to the point where it becomes just totally confusing.
Lauren Bacall is okay, but Bogart is in pretty much every scene, and he says every one of his lines the same way. The villains are hastily sketched and interchangeable. A movie like this needs good supporting players... think of all the colorful characters in Casablanca, which is a Bogart movie I actually liked. Not this one. It was boring and hard to follow. Release the hounds...
Position on the list: 138
Lauren Bacall: Still alive, and still acting. Her IMDB page is a sad state of affairs. Her most recent finished project was something called "Scooby-Doo and The Goblin King". What the hell? Did she lose all of her money or something?
Seen it before? No.
So here we go with another ridiculous 40's film noir, this one adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel. (William Faulkner was one of the screenwriters.) I'm going to be totally honest: I don't like Humphrey Bogart. He can't act as well as Orson Welles or Marlon Brando, and he doesn't have the charm of Cary Grant or Spencer Tracy, so why am I supposed to like him? It seems like he was good at being a movie star; you know, being glamorous, that sort of thing, but why should I care about that?
This movie stars Bogart as Philip Marlowe, who is a private detective hired to track down the people who are blackmailing the Sternwood family. Specifically, it's the two daughters, one of whom has a gambling problem, and the other one was involved in pornography. I think. Hays Code era means you couldn't discuss it directly. The plot gets more convoluted from there, to the point where it becomes just totally confusing.
Lauren Bacall is okay, but Bogart is in pretty much every scene, and he says every one of his lines the same way. The villains are hastily sketched and interchangeable. A movie like this needs good supporting players... think of all the colorful characters in Casablanca, which is a Bogart movie I actually liked. Not this one. It was boring and hard to follow. Release the hounds...
Position on the list: 138
Lauren Bacall: Still alive, and still acting. Her IMDB page is a sad state of affairs. Her most recent finished project was something called "Scooby-Doo and The Goblin King". What the hell? Did she lose all of her money or something?
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