The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937)

Title: The Emperor's Candlesticks

Release Date (US): July 2, 1937

Runtime: 89 min.

Production Co: MGM

Director: George Fitzmaurice (one of his last films)
Producer: John W. Considine Jr.
Story: Based on a book of the same name by Baroness Emmauska Orczy c. 1899 (known for writing The Scarlet Pimpernel)

Costumes: Adrian

Music: Franz Waxman

Cast:

William Powell
Luise Rainer
Robert Young
Maureen O'Sullivan
Frank Morgan

Summary: The son of the Russian Czar, the Grand Duke Peter (Young), is kidnapped while at a costume ball in Vienna, along with his aide (Morgan). The girl who lured him away (Sullivan) wants him to write to the Czar and tell him to free her father, a Polish patriot. Powell is chosen to deliver the letter, which is hidden in a compartment in a pair of fancy candlesticks. Rainer, a Russian agent, is also delivering a candlestick, one that contains  warrant for Powell's arrest. The candlesticks are switched, leading to a merry chase all the way to Russia as each tries to retrieve their candlestick. When both candlesticks are stolen, they must work together to get them back. During the process they fall in love, even though they must continue to outwit each other to fulfill their duty to their respective countries.

Young and Morgan

Young and Sullivan

 

Sullivan

Staying at the same hotel

Discovering the mix-up

 

The candlestick is delivered

Your Highness, we are free.

 

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this movie. You knew how it was going to end but it was fun to watch them keep running into each other and getting so close to getting the correct candlestick back only to lose it again. The secret compartment in the candlesticks was really cool. A typical William Powell movie.

The only clip on YouTube. However, TCM has several clips plus the original trailer.

 

You may also like: Remembering Luise Rainer (with two other Powell movies!)

 

This post is my entry to the Russia in Classic Film Blogathon, hosted by Movies Silently.

All images found via Pinterest.

Other sources used: TCM, Wikipedia, IMDb

The Bourne Identity (2002)

Genre

Action | Thriller

Director

Doug Liman

Country

United States | Germany | Czech Republic

Cast

Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Clive Owen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Gabriel Mann, Julia Stiles, Josh Hamilton, Walton Goggins, Orso Maria Guerrini, Tim Dutton

Plot

A man (Matt Damon), with a pair of bullet wounds in his back, is pulled from the Mediterranean by Italian fisherman. Suffering from amnesia, he tries to rebuild his memory based on clues. He soon realizes that he is being hunted and takes off with Marie (Franka Potente) on a search to find out who he is and why he is being hunted.

Opinion

The Bourne Identity is an excellent spy film - the best I have seen so far - and the most realistic one. Forget about James Bond, the gadgets, the fantastic sports cars and the ladies: Jason Bourne is  a vulnerable human being.

Directed quite well by Doug Liman, the film has a good cinematography and great action scenes.

Matt Damon is an excellent choice as the CIA operative Jason Bourne, and he easily slips into the character; Franka Potente is great as Marie; Chris Cooper's performance is great.

Quotes

Nykwana Wombosi: If you are going to kill me, kill me dead!

Rating

8.0/10

The Weekly Movie Watch Volume 33

This week I watched Predestination, Hello, Dolly!, Breathless, Cabaret.

I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.

Predestination - Does he choose to pour the beer or is he destined to pour the beer.

Predestination (2014)
Watch Predestination
Written by: Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig (written by), Robert A. Heinlein (story "All You Zombies")
Directed by: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor 
Rated: R

Plot: 
A barkeep is more than he seems when he promises a patron the chance to exact revenge on the person that ruined her life.

Review:
Predestination is a great movie full of twists, turns, and loops. It's solid sci-fi that doesn't need the disclaimer of being good for a sci-fi film. It stands on it's own while being fairly straightforward. The story is phenomenal due to an amazing adapted screenplay. It's a mind bender that ends up being explained exceptionally well.  Ethan Hawke does a great job, as do the directors, in a film that is impressive all around with good direction.

Watch it.

Hell, Dolly! -Who knew anyone could fall for Walter Mathau?

Hello, Dolly! (1969)
Watch Hello, Dolly!
Written by: Michael Stewart (book), Thornton Wilder (based on "Matchmaker"), Ernest Lehman (written for the screen), Johann Nestroy (play, uncredited)
Directed by: Gene Kelly
Starring: Barbara Streisand, Walther Matthau 
Rated: G

Plot: 
Matchmaker Dolly attempts to find a match for a wealthy unmarried man, and falls for him herself.

Review:
If the film inspired the titular character Wall-E, it is a film I need to see. It's a classic tale, told well with great performances around. Be forewarned, it is a musical. It's a cute movie, the bickering characters presented humorously. It's a bit cliche at this point, but nonetheless enjoyable.
It depends.

Breathless -The first of the French New Wave films.

Breathless (1960) aka À bout de Souffle
Watch Breathless
Written by: Francois Truffaut (story)
Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg
Rated: --

Plot:
A sociopath steals a car, shoots a cop, and tries to get a girl to runaway to Italy with him.

Review:
The radical and acclaimed Jean-Luc Godard's first film. It's a great character study that stands the test of time. Being a foreign helps it age a bit better. The aesthetics could be due to location rather than date. There are more than a few jump edits, while due to trying to cut the length down, are still jarring. The story is compelling, and the character of Michel is well written, despite what a terrible person he is.

It depends.

Cabaret -It's okay, she's a dancer.

Cabaret (1972)
Watch Cabaret
Written by: Joe Masteroff (based on the musical play "Cabaret" book), John Van Druten (based on the play), Christopher Isherwood (storeis), Jay Presson Allen (screenplay)
Directed by: Bob Fosse
Starring: Liza Minnelli, Michael York
Rated: PG

Plot:
Based on the Broadway play, Sally works at the Kit Kat Club, seducing an academic and a playboy.

Review:
The historical backdrop and setting are what make this film. Set during the Nazi riser to power, the cabaret club is depicted as immoral without going completely over the top if it had been made today. The lead performances are solid, and Liza Minella embodies the flighty, fragile, dancer seeking attention.
It depends.

New in March: A Few Good Things

At first glance I wouldn't call March a particularly stellar month in the history of Netflix streaming�especially in light of all the painful expirations since December. But nearly every category gets a few worthy additions, joining obvious headliners like Top Gun (1986), Twilight (2008), Crash (2004), and Groundhog Day (1993), as well as returning greats Donnie Brasco (1997) and Taxi Driver (1976).

NEW RELEASES

Netflix, of course, likes to promote its original series, so you likely already know about the arrival of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock's new sitcom, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The premise�irrepressible young woman hits the Big City after being locked in a bunker for 15 years�doesn't exactly set the toes a'tingling, but as the creator of 30 Rock and Mean Girls, Fey's cred is unimpeachable and I'll definitely give this one a look. Later in the month brings the complete runs of A Different World and 3rd Rock from the Sun, the first half of Mad Men's final season, and another Netflix original, Bloodline.

I'm a big fan of Dan Harmon's cult sitcom, Community (unforgivably absent from Netflix), so I was especially excited by the arrival of 2014's Harmontown. Documenting the cross-country tour of Harmon's live podcast�a free-form, often drunken mix of comic geekery, group therapy, and audience love-in�the film takes a peek inside the brain, and conscience, of a brilliantly creative man whose warring id and ego are at times painfully on display, but which remain inseparable from his razor-sharp wit and intimidating comic imagination.

Read more �

Footnote (2011)

Original Title

הערת שוליים He'arat Shulayim

Genre

Drama

Director

Joseph Cedar

Country

Israel

Cast

Shlomo Bar Aba, Lior Ashkenazi, Alisa Rosen, Alma Zack, Daniel Markovich, Micah Lewensohn, Yuval Scharf, Nevo Kimchi, Yona Elian, Tsipi Gal

Plot

Eliezer (Shlomo Bar Aba) and Uriel Shkolnik (Lior Ashkenazi) are father and son as well as rival professors in Talmudic Studies. When both men learn that Eliezer will be lauded for his work, their complicated relationship reaches a new peak.

Opinion

Donald Clark, The Irish Times, said, "It remains painful to live in a world where Jack and Jill makes it into commercial cinemas and this superb Israeli film gets kicked into the underbrush.", I could not agree with someone more. Footnote is an outstanding Israeli film, whose topic differs from what the international audience is accustomed. Joseph Cedar does not deal with the Palestinian conflict or terrorism, but with the rivalry between father and son, both Talmudic scholars, taking, in my opinion, a huge risk because this film could get stuck in the Jewish community, or be boring to outsiders.
The performances from Shlomo Bar Aba, who plays the father, and Lior Ashkenazi, who plays the son, are incredible. 

Quotes

Eliezer: That's a very nice idea, very nice... but wrong.

Uriel: I will tell you something that my father told me once: Your work has many things correct and many things innovative. Unfortunately, the innovative things are not correct and the correct things are not innovative.

Rating

9.0/10

Upcoming Blogathons and an Announcement

This month I am participating in several blogathons (to help increase my following), so it may seem like I'm just posting on several random movies. Here's the line-up:

March 9: The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937) - Russia in Classic Film Blogathon

March 14: Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) - The Cinemascope Blogathon

March 16: The Films of Dennis Morgan - The Luck O' the Irish Blog O'Thon

March 31: Platinum Blonde (1931) - The Pre-code Blogathon

Also, I had planned to go up to 1969 on my "Countdown to the Oscars" but due to the fact that the Oscars have now passed I will save 1946-1969 for next year's countdown.

I would also like to announce that May will be Romantic Comedy Month. I chose May so that it would coincide with Mother's Day and the recently announced 2nd Annual Great Katharine Hepburn Blogathon.

The Awful Truth

Before Sunset (2004)

Genre

Drama | Romance

Director

Richard Linklater

Country

United States

Cast

Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Vernon Dobtcheff, Louise Lemoine, Rodolphe Pauly, Mariane Plasteig, Diablo, Denis Evrard, Albert Delpy, Marie Pillet

Plot

Nine years after Vienna, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is in Paris promoting his best selling book, This Time, inspired by that night. As the media scrum at the bookstore nears its conclusion, Jesse spots Celine (Julie Delpy) in the crowd, she who only found out about the book when she earlier saw his photograph promoting this public appearance. Much like their previous encounter, Jesse and Celine, who is now an environmental activist, decide to spend time together until he is supposed to catch his flight back to New York, this time only being about an hour.

Opinion

Before Sunset is fantastic and delightful. I enjoyed every single second of it, and I liked this one even more than the original. Making a sequel to Before Sunrise was undeniably a hard thing to do, but Richard Linklater did brilliantly. This gem of him shows how to make a film about feelings, mostly love, without slipping on the soap opera drama. The dialogues, once again, are just brilliant.

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have grown with their characters, and their performances are wonderful once again.

Quotes

Celine: Even being alone it's better than sitting next to your lover and feeling lonely.

Jesse: I feel like if someone were to touch me, I'd dissolve into molecules.

Celine: There are so many things I want to do, but I end up doing not much.

Celine: Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts / Let me sing you a waltz / About this one night stand / You were, for me, that night / Everything I always dreamt of in life / But now you're gone / You are far gone / All the way to your island of rain / It was for you just a one night thing / But you were much more to me, just so you know / I don't care what they say / I know what you meant for me that day / I just want another try, I just want another night / Even if it doesn't seem quite right / You meant for me much more than anyone I've met before / One single night with you, little Jesse, is worth a thousand with anybody / I have no bitterness, my sweet / I'll never forget this one night thing / Even tomorrow in other arms, my heart will stay yours until I die / Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my blues / Let me sing you a waltz / About this lovely one night stand

Rating

9.5/10