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If I had to nitpick anything in this film is that I think the ending musical number goes on just a bit too long. Finney is great, though.
Here he's in the Father Christmas outfit.
The streets are quite busy for Christmas Day I must say.
I love Scrooge delivering gifts to Cratchit's kids.
DRACULA
and I'm once again watching it in it's original Technicolor. I love that this Blu-ray has both the theatrical version as well as John Badham's desaturated edition.
At the funeral for Mina. Wonderful locations and settings in this film.
Trevor Eve as Jonathan Harker differs from other Harkers as he sports a classic 1979 mustache and hairstyle.
The film is set in 1913.
Donald Pleasence eats candy or some other food in practically every scene he's in.
A technique to steal the scene and a lot himself more screen-time.
Sir Laurence Olivier as Van Helsing looks incredibly frail in this film.
Aside from an HBO showing of LOVE AT FIRST BITE, this was the first Dracula movie I specifically sat down to watch.
I had seen the 1931 Lugosi film at my Grandpa's the Halloween previous, but only the beginning scenes. Then there was the children's special THE HALLOWEEN THAT ALMOST WASN'T with Judd Hirsch as Dracula.
I remember expecting The Count to have a Lugosi accent and was surprised Langella simply spoke in a clear authoritative voice. Interestingly, neither Langella, George Hamilton, Judd Hirsch nor Lugosi ever wore fangs in their Dracula performances.
I didn't get to see a fanged Dracula until the Jack Palance film aired the next Halloween season.
It's very nearly sundown- still daylight yet cloudy enough not to affect The Count as he rides up on his horse. He looks damn cool here with his flowing cape.
Langella wears several capes in this film and while he was doing the stage play of DRACULA sent capes back and forth to the studio while prepping for this film. He wanted the collar sizes to be not too big and not too small. Very particular in The Count's physical look.
Never bothered me and I love Maurice Binder anyway.
The romantic Dracula. His hair does look quite blow-dried and sprayed into place.
Love John Williams score for DRACULA. I like it as much as his STAR WARS and SUPERMAN music. Although it gets nowhere near that kind of recognition.
Some of the score reminds me a bit of the INDY films.
Could this be a pretty much forgotten John WIlliams score? I never see it discussed anywhere.
They also laughed when the butler cuts his finger and we get Langella's reaction. I didn't realize it then , but they were laughing at Frank's moving eyes.
We had a great cinema that played double features of older films: Elvis double features, Bogie, Indiana Jones, etc. My Dad took me to several . NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD with DAWN OF THE DEAD was one of the most fun times I had going to the movies in my entire life. That was a blast.
We also saw CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE in 3-D. I remember that was on a school night when I was in 5th grade.
The DRACULA night was great except that we left during THE COMPANY OF WOLVES. my mom was grossed out by that film, and my dad and I thought it was boring. I'd probably love it now.
Thrilling ending, which I love to this day.
Great viewing of this, one of my favorite Dracula films.
I have that score as a Spotify playlist.
The Michael Caine television version with Cheryll Ladd as his love interest.
He's about to drink the potion that morphs him into Hyde.
I remember when this originally aired in 1990.
Entertainment Tonight did a segment and interviewed Caine.
The make up isn't bad. The effects were state of the art for their time.
I think it looks better than most CGI today.
NSNA's Ronald Pickup is in this.
Directed by David Wickes who a few years later would direct a TV version of FRANKENSTEIN.
Caine looks great in this film.
Been 25 years since I read the book, though.
The Jack Palance version is my favorite TV adaptation. This, however is quite good.
In honor of John Travolta's birthday.
Night Fever.
The hair drying bit is pretty funny.
The audience cheered at the shot of Tony zipping up.
He wears a sheet over his shoulders at the dinner table LOL.
Watch the hair!!!!!
They slap each other at the dinner table.
Been awhile sine I watched this.
The dialogue is funny.
In this day and age, though I think the PG rated version is more likely to hold up.
I could see audiences today cringing at some of the lines in the R rated version.
There seemed to be a nostalgia for the 1970's in the mid '90's. I saw this film at a revival theater with my Dad. As the curtain rose there was a huge sign taped on the screen saying " Nicole, will you marry me?"
Some charming chap used the screening to propose to his girlfriend.
The audience clapped when she said "yes".
Still my fave Travolta film alongside PULP FICTION.
Mike Hammer (Robert Bray) pops into a coffee shop to call Velda (Pamela Duncan) .
OFF MY BACK, CHICK! I'M TIRED!
Bray barks his dialogue as Hammer.
Here we go. He makes chit chat with a prostitute named Red. (Jan Chaney)
LAY OFF THE KID AND FIX ME A SANDWICH TO TAKE OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHOPPED EGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here we go...................
Mike Hammers a client of Red who gives her a hard time. He kicked his a$$ (Richard Garland) and threw him out.
Richard Garland was in that SUPERMAN episode "Flight to the North" where Chuck Connors delivers a pie to him in Alaska.
Mike finds our from Pat Chambers (Booth Coleman) that Red was murdered. Now he flips out and is on the case.........................
Gina Core was on THE ADVENTURES OF JIM BOWIE once.
She offers Mike straight gin (vodka perhaps?) in a coffee mug. He readily accepts.
So far I'm madly enamored by the three female characters in this film.
Jan Chaney did a little TV work : ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS, FATHER KNOWS BEST, a few others. Not much.
Gina Core, more or less the same. She was also on MAN WITH A CAMERA starring Charles Bronson.
I think Pamela Duncan is my favorite Velda (after Tanya Roberts).
Duncan did some Roger Corman films. She was also in the BEAVER episode "Beaver the Sheepdog".
Mike follows Richard Garland all over L.A.
Little chase scene with wonderful 1957 L.A. scenery. Time capsule.
This leads him to a beachfront house to chat with the film's main female lead, Nancy (Whitney Blake of HAZEL fame). She was also on MAVERICK and starred in -30- with Jack Webb.
Yes, he wears a fedora. No trench coat, though.
Mickey Spillane didn't care for any of the early Mike Hammer films, except for the one he starred in.
He particularly didn't like KISS ME DEADLY. Screenwriter A. I. Bezzerides didn't care for the novel and did his own thing giving that film's plot the iconic nuclear briefcase McGuffin. He had also turned Hammer from a New York detective to an L.A. divorce detective.
That film turned out to arguably be the best in the series and certainly the most famous.
I think this one is a bit truer to it's source, except Hammer is still in L.A. , and the plot involves stolen Nazi jewels rather than the novel's prostitution ring.
This is very much a B movie noir. The sets are very minimal and remind me of the office sets on ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN.
I'd say this is the tail end on the classic noir period. Anything after TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) feels more like a throwback to noir then neo-noir. THE GIRL HUNTERS (1963) still has a noir feel, but not quite the same to me.
Mike flirts with another blonde beauty (Patricia Donahue) which leads to a MALTESE FALCON style scene with Holloway. This reminds me of Spade and Gutman discussing talking. Hammer loses his temper and smashes his glass like Bogart did. Very much a remake of that scene.
This is nowhere near as slick and polished as KISS ME DEADLY. However I love it all the same. This is actually my favorite of the early Hammer films. Robert Bray was born for this role as was Meeker.
Robert Bray is great. Loved him as the bus driver in BUS STOP. He teaches Marilyn Monroe's obnoxious suitor (Don Murray) some manners by pounding him in the snow in front of her. Bray was also great on LASSIE.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938)
Although I generally agree with popular opinion that the 1951 Alastair Sim version is the definitive , I do really like this MGM take on the classic tale.
Scrooge's nephew is goofing off and sliding on the ice. I did that last year unintentionally and fell flat on my back. I was out of commission for at least a week. Damn that hurt.
I did perform my rendition of the Roger Moore, OOOOOOORRRHHHHHH sound as it happened, though.
I love the Dicken's period style wintery sets here, and the costumes are superb.
Reginald Owen looking a bit like a caricature. Wearing an obvious wig/skull cap.
Pity MGM didn't have legendary make-up artist Jack Pierce to do the honors here.
Owen plays the part a bit like a caricature, actually. Not that it's a bad thing. I think his performance works for the rather light hearted nature of this version.
I was just a kid and to be honest it was the last Christmas Eve I actually thought Santa was going to somehow enter our humble abode as we slept and leave some goodies.
A family friend came over that night bearing gifts and as I remember watched
A CHRISTMAS CAROL with us. On Halloween he had joined us as our local stations were playing both the Bela Lugosi and Jack Palance versions of DRACULA.
That was fun to compare.
On this night however, I was thrilled to open the gift he had for me: an 8X10 black and white photo of Sean Connery as Bond. The famous publicity still of Connery during FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE in which Sean posed with an air pistol.
I had that picture for decades.
I liked that this film didn't have the elaborate special effects the Albert Finney film had. More subdued and low key. The sets and costumes did all the work as far as I was concerned.
He'd probably have been great.
Here we go........the Ghost of Christmas Past.
Damn! Ann Rutherford. I think she's now officially my favorite Ghost of Christmas past.
Okay, the flying effects are bad at all. Something like this could have been used for the Krik Alyn SUPERMAN serials.
Okay he looks alright . Lionel Braham. This is the only film I've seen him in.
If I have any reservations about the legendary 1951 version, is that Tiny Tim in that film looks a bit too old for the part to me.
DARK PASSAGE (1947)
I love noirs filmed on location- this one in San Francisco.
Lauren Bacall's apartment in this film has had many noir fan visitors over the decades.
POV from Bogie during the first third of this epic. Similar to LADY IN THE LAKE (1947), but works far better here, IMO.
Similar plot of THE FUGITIVE- Bogie, imprisoned for murdering his wife, escapes San Quintin to clear himself and find the real killer.
Maybe he escapes just to be free of all the BS as his marriage wasn't exactly a happy one.