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Sometimes the passage of time and the clouding of memories will make a cultural event seem like an old girlfriend — better in the recesses of the mind than revisited in person. Recently on a cross-country flight, I had the opportunity to see a film that I enjoyed greatly in my youth but had not seen in at least a quarter-century.
The shining performance in Arthur (1981) was Sir John Gielgud as Hobson, the title character’s valet. He is both the proper English gentleman and the man with the cutting sarcastic wit. (“What shall I wear?” “Steal something casual.”) He took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor* in that role and the performance was every bit as fresh and hilarious as the first time I saw it.
What performance has pleased you as much in the revisit as it was the first time you experienced it?
* Gielgud was an EGOT, among just 12 people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
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I love “Giant” with Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor every time I see it. Another movie I watch at least once a year is the BBC/A&E series of “Pride and Prejudice” with Colin Firth as the best Darcy ever.
Dirk Bogarde in “Sebastian” (1968) really shines in an imperfect but unjustly forgotten film about coding, decryption and spies. He plays what amounts to a straight version of Alan Turing. Mr. Sebastian is a Sheldon Cooper-esque mastermind who supervises a gaggle of 100 young women, NATO’s sharpest codebreaking team. It’s a museum piece of swinging London in the Sixties, and Bogarde is quite good.
Bogart, in just about every roll that he ever played.
A related question for the Ricochet legal community: is it true that there are no expiration dates on restraining orders?
James Stewart, in everything except “Strategic Air Command”.
Robert Mitchum, in “The Friends of Eddie Coyle.” Peter Boyle, too.
Madeline Khan, What’s Up, Doc?
Pretty much the entire supporting cast on that one.
How appropriate that you of all people would be the one to remind me, the Judge (Liam Dunn) nearly steals the entire movie there at the end.
I can’t for the life of me figure out how this question is related to anything but in any event, the answer is that it depends on what the judge says in the order. Time frames or expiration dates are common in restraining orders and injunctions, but not necessary or universal. Often such orders are effective “until further order of the court.”
It had to do with revisiting old girlfriends. Never mind.
Just rewatched Full Metal Jacket for obvious reasons. R. Lee Ermey is perfect.
One of my favorite movies. I’m not ashamed.
Stanwyck and MacMurray in Double Indemnity. Great casting. Edward G. Robinson’s also a gem. Though I think the OP leans more towards less known or semi-forgotten films.
I thought How the West Was One was his weakest.
Anything involving Mel Brooks/Gene Wilder/Ms. Garr/Ms. Kahn…
Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau is a guilty pleasure…
Arthur is sadly forgotten. Made worse by the awful Russell Brand remake.
I regularly re-watch Fortunes of War, starring then-married Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh, and I especially enjoy Ronald Pickup as the sad-sack down and out Russian Count Yakimoff. Robert (?) Kay is also superb as the British foreign office bureaucrat.
I saw “The Producers” when it opened in 1968. I like it; I think Mel Brooks is a bit overrated in general, though. But my favorite moment from “The Producers” is set in the bar across the street from the theater. Bialystock and Bloom think their scheme is working perfectly. Then a mob of people come in at intermission (I’ve actually seen this at Broadway bars), gabbing loudly and laughing. To their horror, Mostel and Wilder find out that the audience thinks something they’ve just seen is hilarious, the next “My Fair Lady”. Wilder, of course, freaks out. Mostel tries to steady him. “Leo. Leo. Relax. There’s a lot of musicals playing on this street, and not all of them are called Springtime for Hitler“.
At that very moment, the man behind him says, in a Yiddish inflected New York accent, “And who’d ever think I’d love a musical called Springtime for Hitler?”
I won’t argue–at least 100% argue–but some consideration, some mitigation for the actors is due here: they felt with some justification that they were mere bit players in a world’s fair or theme park attraction, and played it broadly. This was the first of only two Cinerama features that would ever be shown in “normal” theaters. Like IMAX, its spiritual child or grandchild would start out, Cinerama was a rare, big city novelty, mostly a one-in-a-city one.
At the dawn of the Sixties MGM had been the dominant studio for almost two generations, the Microsoft or Oracle of movies. So the only two MGM-3 screen Cinerama releases, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, and How The West Was Won, represented an establishment embrace of a controversial new film technology. I liked How The West Was Won when I saw it with the rest of my boy scout troop in 1962.
Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn in “The Lion in Winter”. They were perfect.
Jackie Gleason, Smokey and The Bandit.
How about Harry Morgan in Support Your Local Sheriff? And speaking of Harry, The Shootist is another one where the entire supporting cast is solid.
Re # 6
The book, which I didn’t read until this past year, is as good as or better than the movie. I mean, it’s gritty and horrible but it’s very good.
Edward Woodward and Jack Thompson as Lt. Harry Morant and Maj. Thomas, respectively, in Breaker Morant.
Much of the movie dialog (monolog?) was taken directly from the book. Both book and movie are excellent. I wish “Killing Them Softly” had done similar justice to “Cogan’s Trade.” George V. Higgins filmed in New Orleans? What were they thinking?
Janis Paige’s performance in Please Don’t Eat the Daisies. Since the rest of the movie is forgettable, maybe the director gave her no help except to get out of her way.
Here’s an opposite reaction —
I saw Billy Jack as a college freshman and left the theater thinking it was awesome. Only a few years later, I saw it again and could not believe how painfully bad it was. Evidence the brain is NOT fully developed at age 18.
“Let’s rap it out.”