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  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters
    edited July 2021

    THIRTY SECONDS OVER TOKYO (1944)

    The Doolittle Raid of 1942, as told on film two years after the actual event. I’m always slightly nervous when watching a war film made within the duration of the conflict. Will it be a full on propaganda piece? Or will it be a film that stands up after the event? I think this film falls into the latter category. I don’t claim to be a well read historian, especially in connection to the raid in question, but the film does a good job of telling the events as I know them. The film boasts a good cast including Van Johnson, Spencer Tracy, Roberts Walker and Mitchum. However, like a number of other old war movies it includes a dull domestic subplot involving one of the pilots and his wife. As tedious as this can be, the flying scenes are nicely shot featuring genuine period aircraft and some decent model work. At 140 minutes it’s a bit overlong - Cutting some of the soapie bits would have helped. In the last 2 decades we’ve had retellings of the Doolittle Raid from Michael Bay (rubbish) and Roland Emmerich (much better). I enjoyed seeing an account made during the time period of the actual events. Recommended for WWII movie fans.

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    edited October 2021

    Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, 1966

    Dino De Laurentiis's entry into the mid60s spyspoof craze

    stars Michael Connors from Mannix as a completely forgettable CIA agent investigating a case in Rio de Janeiro. Film opens with a spectacular chase scene inside and on top of the giant sized Christ the Redeemer statue. Like the ending of Hitchcock's Saboteur. Not so slick maybe as the cable car scene in Moonraker but more dangerous looking, Mannix even did his own stuntwork because the real stuntman said "wuddaya think I'm crazy? I'm not doing that!"

    Mannix is investigating a typical charming Latin playboy character with dozens of stunningly beautiful ladyfriends who keep disappearing. Latest ladyfriend is played by Dorothy Provine (Milton Berle's wife from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and more relevantly Rip Torn's wife from The Man from UNCLE: One Spy Too Many). Turns out she's a British agent, and she plays it precisely like Lady Penelope from Thunderbirds. She is by far the best part of this film. She rides around in the back seat of a Rolls Royce driven by her chauffeur, played by Terry-Thomas. also from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. He also is a far more memorable character than Mannix.

    When the American and British spies finally recognise each other, there is a scene were Lady Penelope pulls a variety of girlish accoutrements from her dainty purse and they are all deadly gadgets, that's how Mannix ID's her as British Intelligence. sound familiar?

    The Rolls itself is full of endless gadgets, and when cornered in a chase across the mountain switchbacks, camouflages itself as an advertising billboard. Yes there is a prominently placed advertising billboard along a mountain road outside of Rio. sound familiar? Sorry I didn't take notice what product was being placed.

    as for the villains diabolical plot...

    ...he is deriving a poisonous gas from orchids that causes sterility. He is about to launch a rocket that will release the gas into the atmosphere and sterilize the entire planet. Except somehow for himself, and the dozens of missing beautiful women who he has kept cryogenically frozen...

    ...final scenes take place in a rather impressive villains headquarters, complete with countdown til doomsday...

    ... though the important bit where Lady Penelope escapes the rocket and her chauffeur sabotages it are not shown, just exposited about afterwards...

    ...That's kinda weird, like a missing reel, yet the dialog acknowledges the crucial scenes are absent.


    A while back I watched a cheapie EuroSpy film (008: Operation Exterminate) with scenes in Cairo that seemed prototypical of the first half of the Spy Who Loved Me. EON couldn't actually used the contents of Fleming's book so had to look for plot ideas elsewhere, fair enough. But that similarity was minor and probably coincidental compared to this. Moonraker on the other hand was a perfectly good thriller novel that EON had the full rights to, I wonder why they threw out so much of Fleming's plot just to replace it with so much of this? Did anybody notice at the time, or was this film already completely forgotten by 1979?

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    This old thread may be of interest- 'A View To A Kill' - ripped off? — ajb007

    I'm sure this subject has come up in another thread which I remember contributing to, but I can't remember the details. I do remember seeing "Kiss The Girls..." in the cinema and enjoying it, though!

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,176MI6 Agent

    @caractacus potts thanks for that review. I've wanted to watch Kiss the Girls... for some time. You've rather whetted my appetite. I think you're right in that a lot of the Euro-Spy movies were forgotten- some almost as soon as they were made ! But perhaps not by Christopher Wood...

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent

    Out of Africa (1985)

    Sidney Pollack's multi-Oscar winning movie is just as good as remembered it. The characters are layered and interesting, the acting very good, the story is moving and the locations exotic and breath-taking. I didn't notice Robert Redford's accent when I watched it at the cinema, but an American accent simply sounds wrong from enyone named Denis Finch-Hatton 😂

    The director now regrets not making the movie in widescreen, but other than that the movie seems flawless.

    There are connections to Bond. Of cource there's the beautiful score by John Berry. Klaus-Maria got nominated to an Oscar for his role as Karen Blixen's husband, but we also ser Michael Kitchen as Finch-Hatton's friend.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    edited August 2021

    Jojo Rabbit (2019)

    Zis mofie iz brilliant und I order yoo all to go zee it!

    This movie is about the ten year old boy Jojo who's in the Hitler Youth and has Hitler as his imaginary friend. Scarlett Johansson plays his single mother does what she can in a crazy world, Sam Rockwell is the flamboyant war veteran Hitler Youth leder and Taika Waititi (What we do in the shadows, The hunt for the Wilderpeople, Thor: Ragnarok) both directs and plays imaginary Hitler. One day Jojo discovers his mother is hiding a teenager Jewish girl (Thomasin Mackenzie) in the attic. I saw the young actress in "Leave no trace" earlier. She's an up-and-coming star. Jojo is a fanatical nazi, but he can't tell the Gestapo because they'll take his mother if he does. The tone of the movie is bizzare and comical, but it also has pathos and bite when needed. There is a lot more to be said about Jojo Rabbit, but basically it's a big mistanke not to watch it.

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent

    High Society

    In this 1950s psychological chiller, a stalker infiltrates the wedding of his former wife and - by way of Southern charm - sets about sabotaging it by ingratiating himself with her family - casting aspersions and insinuations, and carrying out a subtle, gaslighting character assassination of his first wife. First insulting her to her face, then conjuring up memories of happier times by offering a sick wedding present consisting of the yacht on which they honeymooned. It is a chilling masterclass in coercive control, with the humiliation of the groom-to-be as a callous afterthought.

    The final scene, in which the narcissist walks the bride into the church to re-marry her - watched by the unsuspecting friends and family of the groom - is possibly the most sadistic and disturbing end to a film, on a par with the church finale in Cruel Intentions.

    The films was remade as simply Society in the 1980s, though the ending was made very different - though equally disturbing.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    Napoleon, that was hilarious! 😀😀😀😀

  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent

    At 2am I remembered I'd missed out the way the blue-eyed Southern sociopath plies the bride to be with alcohol all the better to frame her so she thinks she slept with somebody but didn't.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters

    My last film watched... COME AND SEE (1985 - Elem Klimov)

    This is a film that I've been eager to watch for quite a while. It has the distinction of having the second highest average user rating on Letterboxd. It is also a World War II film, which is one of my favourite subjects in film. Made in Soviet Union in mid-80s, it depicts a teenage boy's experiences in Belarus during the latter stages of the war.

    Sometimes anticipating that a film is going to be great can be detrimental to the experience and I was a little concerned that would be the case here. For the first 90 minutes or so I was enjoying the film, but not as much as I'd hoped. But then the last 45 minutes or so blew me away with both the brutality of the events depicted, as well as the filmmaking technique. It is an extraordinary film, not just in the sense of being very good, but also in that it is not quite like anything I've ever seen before. I particularly enjoyed some of the subtle camera movement, the use of the old-fashioned 'academy' aspect ratio and the repeated use of close-up portraits of the characters which are particularly striking in the nearly square shaped frame. Also in the latter stages some split-diopter cinematography gives certain compositions a particularly unique look. The central performance by the young teenager Aleksei Kravchenko is also quite striking, his face vividly displaying the horror of war as he transforms from a fresh-faced child at the beginning of the film to a worn and haggard looking figure by the end.

    It's a film that was hard to digest on first viewing and no doubt I will go back and rewatch it in the future, but it is certainly a film that will linger in my mind for a good long while.

  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff

    THE SUICIDE SQUAD. Note the THE. This is not SUICIDE SQUAD, the godawful mess from five years ago--the director of which has since disowned and suggested that Warner Bros. did to him what they did to Zack Snyder and JUSTICE LEAGUE--this is a sequel/reboot/apology that is an absolute blast from start to finish. Margot Robbie (IMHO the best actress--if I can still use that term--working today) as Harley Quinn is the one member of the original squad who returns for this outing (Jai Courtney only cameos as Captain Boomerang, and Joel Kinneman and Viola Davis are back as the squad's controllers), but she's only one delight here. Fast, funny, foul-mouthed and gleefully violent--if you like your superhero movies, you'll like this.

    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent

    Hi HB, thanks for recommending Cruella a few months back - that was a blast.

    Would I need to see Suicide Squad before The Suicide Squad? Would it benefit me in any way? I haven't seen either.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    edited August 2021

    There is nothing good about Suicide Squad ...

    I remember each Squad member got two introduction sequences before the "plot" even started 😂

  • HardyboyHardyboy Posts: 5,882Chief of Staff

    Hi NP--no, the new film rehashes the premise of the first in about five seconds and that's all you need. It stands alone. And I will disagree with Number24 on one thing--the first SUICIDE SQUAD had one good thing: it introduced Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. Every time she was on screen the proceedings perked up and I kept wishing for a solo movie about her. WB/DC pretty well delivered with BIRDS OF PREY and now this.

    Vox clamantis in deserto
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent

    Thank you all for your responses! I may pop along to see it this week - I tend to pick a matinee and see how many folk are there, I prefer even more to go for the John Travolta sitting alone in a theatre in Get Shorty experience these days, due to Covid.

    Hmmm. did the Bond trailer get shown with it? Still trying to avoid that (in UK screenings). Some British posters may recall the Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads episode where Bob and Terry try to avoid hearing the results of a football match until they can sit down in the evening with a couple of cans and enjoy it... it's a bit like that for me, only spread out over two years or so!

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent

    The Operative

    This recent low-key suspense drama passed me by at the time but I caught it on UK's Classic Movies channel last night. It features Diane Kruger - with whom I'm unfamiliar - as an undercover operative of the title who works for Mossad (the sweetener for her involvement wasn't clear to me, I may have left the room at that time) and is encouraged to work in Tehran to, over time, gather information on the State. Her 'handler' is played by Martin Freeman, a name familiar to every Brit, due to his role in the original Office. This actor has had a remarkable career - he was good in The Office but you'd never imagine he'd have gone to to appear in Sherlock, the US Fargo or other reputable big screen movies, esp as his follow-up after The Office was a basic sitcom set in a hardware store - not rubbish but not great either.

    The film starts off with some John Barry Bond-like music and I don't know who wrote it but they should be in consideration. It is an infiltration movie not dissimilar to Hitchcock's Notorious. You can't call it a thriller really but it is an absorbing quality effort. It doesn't play the three-card trick that most movies do to make the thing appear more interesting than it really is (the film is based on a book) but it has what so many of these current thrillers lack - authenticity. Among its jet-setting it takes you into Tehran (or appears to) and your eyes are opened to the flavour of the place. Iranians are not depicted unfavourably but the Mossad agents are shown to have a hard, ruthless side as befits their job. There isn't really a false or cheating note in the movie, which makes it unusual. The leads - indeed the whole cast - are brilliant.

    Some complain about the abrupt ending which I won't reveal but if you paid attention throughout you may get it or, like me, think you do.

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • The Red KindThe Red Kind EnglandPosts: 3,119MI6 Agent

    Thanks for the write-up NP. It's on my list to watch but I had read unfavourable reviews so had moved it down the list. You've reignited my interest, so will give it a go. I like Martin Freeman, such a down to earth, realistic actor and let's face it anything with Diane Kruger in has to be worth watching!😍

    "Any of the opposition around..?"
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent

    As this is now a new page, and will stay that way for the next six months (they're very long these days, it's like scrolling down the dam in the GoldenEye pre-credits) I will point out that the film @The Red Kind is referring to is The Operative, a low-key thriller set mostly in Tehran. Review on the previous page!

    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    edited September 2021

    Nosfaratu - eine symphonie des graues (1922)


    This movie isn't recent. In fact it may be the oldest movie ever revieved here. This is a vampire movie, in fact it's a Dracula movie in all but name. To avoid copyright they changed all the names, but especially those who've seen Coppola's Dracula movie there are many simularities. Nosfaratu is a black and white silent movie, but generally it's still effective. There are unusually many exterior shots for a movie that old and the gothic locations in Germany are put to good use. Shadows, framing and other techniques are used better than in many far newer movies. The acting style is very much of the time, but it actually works fine for the title character. The actor couldn't have had a better name: Max Schreck! Nosfaratu isn't just of historical value, I enjoyed watching it.

    White it is shot in black and white, but some filters are used. Parts of the movie are even yellower than SPECTRE!

  • hehadlotsofgutshehadlotsofguts Durham England Posts: 2,107MI6 Agent

    I've been a member of Netflix for a while now and i've seen a lot of films. Most recently i watched The Foreigner, with Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan. Pierce is a great baddie and some fantastic stuntwork from Jackie.

    Jackie Chan is a restaurant owner,whose daughter is killed in a bombing. Pierce plays a politician who is linked to a terrorist group.

    Pierce does a Northern Irish accent in this. Wonder what @Thunderpussy thoughts are on it. I thought it sounded decent.


    It was directed by Martin Campbell. So it was nice that he worked with Pierce again after all these years

    Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?"

    " I don't listen to hip hop!"
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff

    Just to add some details- the filmmakers apparently thought that since Bram Stoker was dead, all they needed to do was change the names (eg "Dracula" to "Orlok") and they'd be ok. This opinion was not shared, however, by Mrs Stoker and her lawyer who demanded that every copy of the film be destroyed. A few copies did survive, fortunately.

    "Shreck" was the actor's real name and is more or less "fright" in English. "Grauens" in the subtitle I'd say is "dread". If Higgins reads this he can correct me!

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    edited September 2021

    Hondo (1953)

    For some unexcusable reason I didn't see this western classic inntil last night. It starts with Hondo (John Wayne) coming in from the wilderness with a dog and carrying a saddle and a rifle. He finds a farm where a woman and her young son, the husband is unaccounted for. The peace treaty with the Apaches has been broken by the whites and the Apache are om the warpath again. I don't want to give away much more of the plot, because unlike many westerns Hondo isn't formulaistic (speiling?).

    John Wayne plays half Apache and his relationship to the woman and the Apache tribe is interesting. So is the woman's relations with the Apaches and their chief. The locations, cinemography and music is also good. Hondo is easily probably among my top westerns now.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,701MI6 Agent
    edited August 2021

    My darling Clementine (1946)

    Another western classic I've neglected to watch for far too long. This is a John Ford movie starring Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp. It felt strange watching Fonda as an upstanding hero after knowing him best as the evil Frank in "Once upon a time in the west", but in real life he was cast as Frank because of his history of playing morally upright characters.

    This is yet another version of the famous gunfight at OK Corral. Earp actually told John Ford the story of that gunfight back in the 1920's, but Ford decided to print the legend. But this doesn't make it a bad film, not at all. I enjoyed watching it a lot and "My darling Clementine" deserves its status as a classic. I want to mention the gunfight especially. It's wonderfully shot and I love how the scene is shot without a single note of music.

  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters

    Two classic Westerns there Number24. I first got into Westerns when I was at university and Hondo and My Darling Clemetine were two of my early favourites. I haven't seen either of them in a really long time, and I'd love to go back and rewatch them. But there's so many films on my watchlist at the moment! Luckily both are fairly short (especially Hondo as I recall) so I should be able to slot them in sometime.

    Yesterday I watched LE SAMOURAI (1967), a classic French crime thriller starring Alain Delon as Jef Costello, a laconic assassin who makes a kill at the start of the film, and then spends the rest of it evading both the police and the people who hired him. Very stylishly lensed, with minimal dialogue (I think it was 10 minutes before a single word was uttered in the film). Good build of suspense as well, I particularly enjoyed the chase scene on the Paris metro as the police try to track the slippery Jef.

  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent

    We have a member called @Le Samourai. I think his avatar was taken from the film. Not seen him on here in a good while.

    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Golrush007Golrush007 South AfricaPosts: 3,418Quartermasters

    Yes indeed. In fact, when I first saw the cover art of the Criterion edition I immediately recognised the image from our Le Samourai’s avatar.

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,176MI6 Agent

    Le Samourai is an excellent film. I haven't seen it for more than 30 years, but I remember suddenly understanding how important silence was in a film.

  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    edited August 2021

    The Liquidator, 1965 (but not released til late 1966), a Boysie Oakes adventure

    Based on a book by John Gardner, outrageous title song by Shirley Bassey (over animated credits), and co-starring Jill St John (so that's three of ours). Director is Jack Cardiff, whom I've never heard of, apparently better known as a cinematographer.

    A darker than usual spyspoof, revealing the unspoken truth of the double oh job is nothing but top secret government sponsored assassination.


    Rod Taylor (The Birds) stars as Boysie Oakes, played as a big dumb American despite all the dialog telling us he is English. (the actor is actually Australian)

    Jill St. John on the other hand speaks with a posh English accent. Unlike Diamonds Are Forever, her character is revealed to be smarter than originally thought as the film reaches its end.

    Best performance of all is Trevor Howard, as Oakes's cruel bullying boss. This character really drives the plot, recruiting Oakes for his job, dominating his new life, and ultimately responsible for the crises in the last half of the story. He seems to have an encyclopedic awareness of all that goes on, acts instantly with terrifying efficiency, yet is motivated by emotion (his jealousy over Jill St John) and has a made a huge mistake from the get-go in even hiring Oakes, a mistake he still hasn't noticed by the last scene.


    wikipedia says the film has never been released on dvd, so lets review this plot setup with massive spoilers:

    The British Secret Service decides it needs a top secret assassin to quickly eliminate spies and defectors without their existence having chance to become a scandal. Howard is ordered to find such a man, and remembers a tank sergeant he met in WWII who he witnessed kill two Nazis at close range. (Oakes did it nearly by accident, but in doing saved Howard's life). Howard then reintroduces himself to Oakes, now a small town barkeep, and bullies him into accepting this new top secret job, baiting him with a fabulous new big city bachelor pad and promise of "a bit of crumpet on the side". Howard is always seen accompanied by his secretary St John, whom is the bit of crumpet Oakes really fancies but Howard repeatedly goes into a rage (controlled yet frightening) whenever he catches them together.

    It is only once Oakes has accepted this seductive new lifestyle he is told what his new job will actually be. Oakes however is not the natural born killer Howard thinks he is, and resorts to hiring a gangster hitman to carry out his own orders without telling his boss, while continuing to enjoy all the benefits of his new job and flirting with St John.

    First half of the film establishes this premise. Second half is the crisis, precipitated when Oakes and St John take an unannounced weekend trip to Monte Carlo to consummate their mutual lust away from the eyes of their overbearing boss. Things get very complicated from here, and I really have no idea what precisely is going on, except Oakes does stumble into the middle of an actual spy-plot in which he must act to save the world. The photography of the Riviera is more beautiful than anything we've seen in a Bondfilm for decades, and there is a dangerous looking fight scene on the hood of a car tipping over the edge of a switchback.


    The dark satire that makes this so unique:

    In our Bondfilms, our hero has a near identical job, but we are never led to believe a top secret government assassin is anything less than heroic. Kills Bond makes early in each film are usually in self defense, and the bulk of the film builds the case the big baddy is so dangerous to the future of civilization as we know it his death is in the interest of all. So we cheer when Bond kills.

    Whereas in this film, the concept is introduced when Howard's boss argues the existence of foreign spies within England would be an embarrassment if revealed to the press (or even the elected government), thus due process is better avoided. Only Howard, his boss, and the man he is to recruit shall know what is happening. Then once Oakes is hired, Howard's boss tells him he has no idea of what he is talking about from this point on. And of course, those kills Oakes must make are all done by the subcontracted hitman, to various harmless looking individuals we have no reason to wish to see killed, and are presented as nothing but coldblooded arbitrary murders. Then there is Howard's attitude, which generates only antipathy towards the official giving the orders.

    This story is so clever, both in its dark satire and its telling, how is it when Gardner got the job of writing Bond continuation novels he cranked out such bland unimaginative product?

    I must say I cant imagine where this premise goes from here, it seems so cynical it should be a one shot. But Gardner wrote eight volumes and four more short stories of Boysie Oakes adventures, and an ongoing film series was planned until the spymania fad waned.



    In the coincidence(?) department: The black and white precredits is a flashback to Oakes making his first two kills (!) Double coincidence: in this precredits, Trevor Howard is introduced in one of those public lavatories in the middle of a street (!!) So somehow it anticipates the precredits sequences of both the "funny" and serious versions of Casino Royale!


    wikipedia claims this has never been released on dvd. If you don't mind dodgy Russian video streaming sites, it may be found here on ok.ru (you may wish to use an incognito browser)

  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,176MI6 Agent

    Thanks @caractacus potts I will look that up - although currently I have too many projects on the go so goodness knows when it'll be. Has @Silhouette Man seen The Liquidator? Isn't he big on Gardner? Halliwell's gives it one star. I see Lalo Schifrin scored the film and those British stalwarts Wilfred Hyde White, Eric Sykes and Derek Nimmo are cast listed. Jack Cardiff was Oscar nominated as director for Sons and Lovers, which also brought Trevor Howard his only nomination. Quote: "Fairly lively James Bond spoof which is never quite as funny as it imagines."

  • Bond fan from OzBond fan from Oz Posts: 88MI6 Agent

    JURASSIC PARK (1993). No need to say anything about this movie that everyone already knows; it's one of Steven Spielberg's (and John Williams') best pieces of work.

    4/5

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