Just saw Birdman of Alcatraz for the 1st time. Very good.
How would you compare other Burt movies? Here to Eternity? Which one did you like the best? Not like?
haven't seen Birdman, but I want to. Haven't seen Eternity either.
Last Burt Lancaster movie I saw was The Crimson Pirate, a pretty good old pirate swashbuckler movie...
ST may not be the best place to discuss these movies. Many here have probably never seen one of his movies.
Birdman is an excellent film, but I can't rate it as my favorite Burt Lancaster film. And as acclaimed as Eternity is, the character he played didn't hold much appeal for me. There are several of his films that are included in my "All Time Favorite Movies" list. His greatest performance, I believe, was in Elmer Gantry. My personal favorite is Sorry, Wrong Number mainly because of my favorite actress, Barbara Stanwyck. After those two the Burt Lancaster films I hold in highest regard are Jim Thorpe--All American; Come Back Little Sheba; The Rose Tattoo; Judgement at Nuremberg
Atlantic City. Susan Sarandon showed her s.
boy are those big
one day i'll see ben hur and ten commandments
one of my favorite movies everone day i'll see ben hur...
True, probably not enough overdone specialFX and mindless violence for most.
But mrsmaalox reviews are very helpful so the thread was worth it to me.
The Crimson Pirate might be one of his obscure ones?
Eternity the character he played didn't hold much appeal for me.
Me either. When he left her hanging on marrying i just couldn't buy it. Along with the tired old stereotype of guy who gets as much tail as he can is a stud, girl who does is a ho. A movie of contradictions. Of all the romanaces (Burt and Boss' wife, Prewitt and Donna Reed), they'd take turns falling for each other then take turns rejecting the others idea of commitment (marriage). Altho i did have someone tell me thats the way it was in the military. They never did state why Donna Reed was a ho. That should have been filled in, esp when she talked of buying her mother in Oregon a house. Why did she turn down Prews proposal? "Because you're a soldier". Huh?
Why was it so hard for Prewitt to just tell someone (military) the reason he didn't want to box was because he accidently blinded his buddy? Too far fetched that he would keep putting up with the extra duty crap, esp after the fight.
Movie sponsored by the alchohol and tobacco industry, sheesh. A drink and/or a smoke in every scene in those 40s and esp post war and 50s movies. Barf.
Elmer Gantry yet to view
Sorry, Wrong Number ytv
[i]Jim Thorpe--All American ytv
Come Back Little Sheba ytv
The Rose Tattoo: Liked viewing it, but the pace of uber slow followed by the 30 second climax i did not like. Was as if they ran out of budget money and so cut the ending wayy short.
Judgement at Nuremberg have in house just need to X out 4 hours.
Just saw Double Indemnity.
Liked it.
The other movies on your list are not stocked at the library. Not sure why not.
I've tinkered with getting Netflix, esp since now one can do the computer download thing and avoid mailing discs.
Perhaps my favorite Burt Lancaster film is Tough Guys...He is one of the few men of Hollywood who could play the lead tough guy for 50 years…The Phantom of the Opera, Tough Guys, Airport, Birdman of Alcatraz, Apache...
BTW- ST has some of the most knowledgeable film & TV Fans/Critics on the Internet…
On Sundays, Ive been watching the Turner Classic Movies channel ad nauseum.
I used to dislike black+white flicks on general principal, but now its like there is this whole library full of excellent, all-time great films I have been ignoring for far too long.
Watched 12 Angry Men again this weekend. Last weekend I watched Judgment at Nuremberg, f-ing great flick.
EDITED: ...and holy ! By total coincidence, Judgement at Nuremberg actually stars Burt Lancaster.
I was going to mention TCM as well. I check their schedule online every month and plan with that. Same with IFC. Those movies will be the only time my tv will be on during the day. If you catch Burt Lancaster as the Star of the Month, you'll see his movies all evening on Mondays.
I guess it just depends on what you are comfortable with. My favorite films are dialogue driven, not visually driven----flashing lights and explosions of color are not relaxing to me.
There's another thread right now that argues the validity of comparing decades of films for quality. Because it's all a matter of taste I think it's absolutely valid. I am terminally stuck in the 1940's film-wise. In my opinion, there is no other decade to compare. I find black and white to be revealing and very graceful. And speaking of grace, the music is amazing. The dialogue is over the top in innuendo and pacing; I love that some of the funniest things I have ever heard are said while the actors are standing perfectly still. The acting is superb, and without knowing the exact year I can tell the difference in a 40's performance by my favorites (Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier) from one of any other decade. You don't see a difference in acting methods by actors in recent decades, they change characters but not style.
I love movies from every decade, but I'll always gravitate to the 1940's. Probably because that's when my mother grew up and she and her sisters made it a point to share their favorites with us. My cousins and I all share the same love of 1940's films.
Tough Guys with Kirk Douglas in the 80s is a guilty pleasure.
You're confused Burt Lancaster with Charlton Heston. And for my money, Chuck can't hold Burt's nuts.
Anyhow, best Burt Lancaster movies are (in no particular order):
Elmer Gantry
Criss Cross
Atlantic City
The Sweet Smell of Success
From Here to Eternity
The Leopard
I haven't personally seen, but know they are among his best:
Birdman
The Train
Seven Days in May
Watched Apache a few days ago. It's interesting seeing a Western from an Indian's point of view but Burt Lancaster seemed so out of place playing a Native American.
How is The Furies with Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston?
Well anything with Stanwyck is my favorite movie ya' know. This is good stubborn father butting heads with his strong-willed daughter. He's a rich New Mexico rancher and has a huge dowry to marry her off with but she loves his mortal enemy, likes Mexicans, and is smarter at the family business than he is. Stanwyck and Huston are great of course. But who I enjoyed the most was Judith Anderson as the dad's golddigger girlfriend. I don't know if you know her, but she is my favorite female villain (Mrs. Danvers) from the 40's. Seeing her as the "love interest" was funny; she is of course still a villain. Oh and Robert Ryan always delivers.
I think you should see it, I like it a lot
^^like it.
Great camera work, good cast, good show. Made you feel like you were there.
Plot was real, however i was totally let down when Stanwycks character Vance Jeffords asked Juan Herrera
to give up the fight against she and his peoples battle against her evil egomanical father, TC Jeffords. TC and his band of ass kissing demons were just about to blow up the hilltop home of the Herreras, when Mom Herrera had TC lured right in her gunsights. Vance intervenes by batting her eyes at Juan and thus Juan gets mom and family to stop and let TC go. After Juan mercifully lets TC go, sure enough TC hangs Juan. That part sucked for me, Juans overdevotion to Vance above everything and everyone, including his own Herrera family. She must have given Juan some good stuff thus are we to believe he was just so pussywhipped by her? Actually the way they wrote it you cannot tell whether or not they ever swapped DNA. Was Juan just smitten by her personality?
Small sidepoint the incesty looks between Vance and TC at the start of the show. WTF was up with that? I know she was his daughter and i know she reminded him of his deceased wife but that was skeevy. Did Stanwyck and him have some elbow rubbing off camera? eeesh.
Did Stanwyck play in another movie that seems to have been shot in that exact same house? One where she is the owner of a home that ends up having nothing but outlaws living there in hiding?
Just saw Ball of Fire with Stanwyck and Gary Cooper.
Great setup, very creative script. One too many flip flops by Sugarpuss on loving Bertram Potts, otherwise this was great.
haven't seen very many stanwyck movies, except for Double Indemnity... and I don't see how many could be better than that one. One on tonight called Stella Dallas... might watch it.
Ps: interesting review on the furies... I'll try to catch it sometime.
Great play on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" huh? Gary Cooper at his absolute yummiest nerdnessCooper and Stanwyck team up on "Meet John Doe" for something a little more socially conscious, but wonderful too.
Heyyy Bender, long time no see
In case you decide to check out "Stella Dallas", be sure to wipe your mind clean of "Double Indemnity" first! It's a sappy tearjerker and nothing else. But it demonstrates one more extreme in Stanwyck's range and probably the only role I've seen her in where she plays a character who just isn't very intelligent. I think Stanwyck is wunnerful
I'll watch the occasional sappy movie.... but I prefer the darker, gritty, film-noir types of movies usually.
been keeping track of what's on TCM and IFC... and DVRing what I want to see later...
Last edited by Bender; 05-08-2011 at 03:07 PM.
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