Jingle Bones Movie Time

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Out of the Past aka Build My Gallows High (1947)

Out of the Past aka Build My Gallows High (Dir: Jacques Tourneur, 1947).

Originally posted on Instagram 10/02/19:

Adapted from his own novel by Geoffrey Homes, this classic thriller from the golden era of film noir stars Robert Mitchum as a former PI with a shady past and Jane Greer as the femme fatale he is hired to find by louche businessman Kirk Douglas in a star-making performance.

Mitchum has a new life and new girl in very un-noirlike rural Bridgeport California. But his past soon drags him back to his sordid big city life and back into the arms of his client’s cheating, murderous gal.

This terrific movie is like a film noir checklist with cutting dialogue, shadowy cityscapes and moody atmosphere to spare. Out of the Past is a classic of it’s genre.

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

My aim is to review every movie I watch this year. I began on 1st January on Instagram and have been slowly rolling it out across other platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Thanks to some positive feedback on social media, I have decided to launch Jingle Bones Movie Time as a fully fledged blog!

I would love people to engage in discussion so you are welcome to interact. Please keep it nice as I would like this to be a friendly space. I have never blogged before and am not especially tech savvy so this whole proccess may be slow going!

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_ on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early posts are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

The Wild (2006)

The Wild (Dir: Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams, 2006).

With animation farmed out to Toronto based CORE Feature Animation, The Wild (Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams, 2006) is a Disney animation in name only.

The movie follows Sampson the lion as he breaks out of Central Park Zoo and heads to the wild in pursuit of his estranged son. He is joined on his quest by animal pals including a giraffe, a snake and inexplicably, an English koala. Cue some lessons in the value of friendship, of being true to oneself and some eventual father / cub bonding via lots of unsubtle humour.

The Wild was originally released within months of rival studio DreamWorks’ similarly themed Madagascar and as such feels incredibly derivative of the earlier movie. In truth, The Wild had been in production for much longer, dating back to the mid 1990s when production was delayed due to similarities with The Lion King. With it’s theme of a lion father / son relationship, a gazelle stampede and a wildebeest song and dance number reminiscent of The Lion King’s ‘Be Prepared’, The Wild has a distinct air of over familiarity.

In its favour the film does have a couple of genuinely impressive moments including the Lion King-esq ‘Really Nice Day’ musical number and a sequence where the animals take a nighttime ride through New York City in a dump truck. This scene is a rare welcome moment of calm in an otherwise frantic, noisy film.

While The Wild could not escape the shadow of the far more successful Madagascar, it is a visually more impressive feature. However, of the two, I think Madagascar is, ultimately, a lot more fun.

Birds of Prey aka The Perfect Alibi (1930)

Birds of Prey aka The Perfect Alibi (Dir: Basil Dean, 1930).

Originally posted on Instagram 30/01/19:

Movie number 13 Birds of Prey aka The Perfect Alibi (Basil Dean, 1930) is an early British talkie co-scripted by director / producer Dean and A A Milne.

Based upon Milne’s play The Fourth Wall, this creaky thriller has little of the whimsical charm of Winnie the Pooh. Rather the story concerns the murder investigation, by Frank Lawton and Dorothy Byrd, of their uncle and guardian C Aubrey Smith.

In effect, Birds of Prey is a murder mystery in which the audience know the identity of the murder. As such, its mild thrills are to be gleaned from how and when the killers will be caught.

The whole affair is rather jolly and somewhat predictable. However, Nigel Bruce, in a supporting role here as a blustering major, is always entertaining and keep an eye out for an uncredited appearance by future British film legend Jack Hawkins.

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early reviews are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947)

The Loves of Joanna Godden (Dir: Charles Frend, 1947).

Originally posted on Instagram 30/01/19:

I will admit to knowing little about movie number 12 before watching. Yet The Loves of Joanna Godden (Charles Frend, 1947) is an Ealing Studios production of some pedigree, with a screenplay by H E Bates and music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Somewhat atypical of Ealing, The Loves of Joanna Godden is a romantic period piece starring Googie Withers as a young woman who inherits a sheep farm and is determined to make it a success without the aid of a husband.

This proto-feminist plot is unusual in post-war British cinema and especially so from Ealing whose protagonists are almost always men. This is certainly to be commended. As is the beautiful Romney Marsh locales and the realistic depiction of the devastation caused by an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. It is perhaps here where The Loves of Joanna Godden most belies its Ealing roots as the studio was paramount in the British documentary and social-realist movement.

Watching Miss Withers juggle the duel concerns of lambing and of finding or fending off potential suitors is not exactly thrilling; yet the film is enjoyable and worth a watch as an unusual release from the years when Ealing was at the peak of its powers.

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early posts are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

Suspicion (1941)

Suspicion (Dir: Alfred Hitchcock, 1941).

Originally posted on Instagram 30/01/19:

Cary Grant is a decidedly dodgy geezer and Joan Fontaine his timid bride who suspects him of murder in movie number 11: Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941).

Let’s be honest; this is not quite top drawer Hitchcock. It is, however, very, very good. Lacking much of the gallows humour and nail-biting set pieces which characterise Hitchcock’s later work, this is still a thoroughly entertaining romantic melodrama-cum-thriller.

Some slightly artificial Hollywood sets stand in for the English countryside, but otherwise the whole thing is beautifully shot and expertly played by a stellar cast, especially Nigel Bruce as Grant’s bumbling, naive business partner.

Highlights include a grizzly conversation about autopsy over a chicken dinner, a tense game of ‘Anagrams’ and the single most suspenseful glass of milk in movie history! Great stuff!

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early review are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

An Affair to Remember (1957)

An Affair to Remember (Dir: Leo McCarey, 1957).

Originally posted on Instagram 29/01/19:

Soon to be wed playboy Cary Grant and in-a-relationship Deborah Kerr engage in a chaste shipboard romance in movie number 10: An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey, 1957).

After some smart comedic attempts to avoid the attention of the fellow passengers, the couple arrange to rendezvous atop the Empire State Building six months later to circumstantiate their affair. Tragedy, however, intervenes before the lovers can reunite (hankies at the ready ladies).

I am fully aware that this movie is considered a romantic classic and is loved by many (most famously Sleepless in Seattle director and co-writer Nora Ephron) but I, alas, am not among them.

Yes, Milton Krasner’s Deluxe Color CinemaScope photography is beautiful. Yes, the leads are very attractive, although Grant at 53 was getting a bit long in the tooth to play these playboy types. But the addition of the toothsome children’s choir, some laboured shipboard farce and the manipulative sentimentality of the second half just doesn’t do it for me. It is certainly worth a watch for its leading players and some genuinely smart dialogue from McCarey and cohorts.

If you like this sort of thing you may well love this glossy and glitzy cinematic equivalent of pink champagne. I personally would rather stick with Ephron’s superior rom com tribute Sleepless in Seattle.

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early posts are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

All About Eve (1950)

All About Eve (Dir: Joseph L Mankiewicz, 1950).

Originally posted on Instagram 28/01/19:

Fasten your seatbelts for movie number 9: All About Eve (Joseph L Mankiewicz).

This backstage drama made cinema history with 14 Oscar nominations, a record it held for almost half a decade until Titanic equalled the feat in 1998.

Both Bette Davis and Anne Baxter we’re nominated in the Best Actress category, although both went home empty handed (see previous post). In truth the movie is more of an ensemble piece, with above the title Celeste Holm and George Sanders equally important to the narrative.

Mankiewicz’s highly quotable screenplay is witty and waspish by turns and, as director, he elicits excellent performances from the entire cast, including a pre-stardom turn from ingénue Marilyn Monroe.

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early reviews are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

Born Yesterday (1950)

Born Yesterday (Dir: George Cukor, 1950).

Originally posted on Instagram 27/01/19:

Movie of the year number 8, Born Yesterday (George Cukor, 1950) is an absolute classic.

Judy Holliday’s recreation of her Broadway role as the uneducated mistress of bent junk magnet Broderick Crawford is one the greatest comedic performances in cinema history. Maybe the greatest. Completing the trio of fine star performances is William Holden as the journalist who Crawford hires to smarten Holliday up. All three are excellent but the movie is really Holliday’s; deservedly winning her the Best Actress Oscar in a tough category including heavyweights Bette Davis (All About Eve) and Gloria Swanson (Sunset Boulevard).

Perhaps slightly betraying its stage origins, this is still a cinematic gem with Cukor handling the intelligent razor sharp Garson Kanin dialogue with his usual class.

Born Yesterday is truly classic Hollywood at its finest. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early posts are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

Monday, May 20, 2019

King of Thieves (2018)

King of Thieves (Dir: James Marsh, 2018).

Originally posted on Instagram 26/01/19:

After about a three week hiatus my quest to watch as many movies as I can in 2019 continues with movie number 7: King of Thieves (James Marsh, 2018).

Based on the true story of the Hatton Garden safe burglary of 2015, King of Thieves is something of a sweary throwback to the British crime caper films of yore. The Italian Job’s Michael Caine stars as criminal mastermind Brian Reader and, as his criminal cohorts, is supported by a top notch cast including Ray Winstone, Jim Broadbent and various other Harry Potter cast members.

The real-life crime was as audacious as its perpetrators were ultimately careless and is neatly told here against the London locations on which it took place.

While King of Thieves won’t change cinema history it is stylish, old-fashion (in a good way), frequently humorous and well worth a watch!

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early posts are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

Satan Met a Lady (1936)

Satan Met a Lady (Dir: William Dieterle, 1936).

Originally posted on Instagram 07/01/19:

Movie number 6: Satan Met a Lady (William Dieterle, 1936). Hollywood’s second adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon is, in spite of the presence of Bette Davis, its weakest. Davis is reputed to have referred to this comedy take on the famous thriller as ‘trash’. That said, Ms Davis is never less than watchable and I could forgive her almost anything. Even trash.

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early posts are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

The Maltese Falcon (1931)

The Maltese Falcon (Dir: Roy Del Ruth, 1931).

Originally posted on Instagram 05/01/19:

Movie number 5; the original version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (Roy Del Ruth, 1931), which I guess makes it the grandaddy of film noir. Lacking both the charismatic presence of Humphrey Bogart and the sheer style of the 1941 version, it is still entertaining enough and being made pre Hays Code means it’s a little bit saucier than the remake!

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early posts are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The Maltese Falcon (Dir: John Huston, 1941).

Originally posted on Instagram 04/01/19:

Fourth movie of the year; the daddy of film noir and an absolute classic The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941). Also, one of the rare occasions when a remake is superior to the original.

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early posts are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!

The Secret of the Lock (1934)

The Secret of the Lock (Dir: Milton Rosmer, 1934).

Originally posted on Instagram 03/01/19:

My quest to watch as many movies as I can in 2019 continues with movie number 3: The Secret of the Loch (Milton Rosmer, 1934). It’s a little bit ancient, a little bit silly and a little bit entertaining.

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Hey there! My name is Mike and I LOVE movies! All movies. Old movies, new movies, good movies bad movies. I also love talking and writing about movies.

Apologies to my followers on social media as, for the time being at least, these posts will be familiar to you. I also intended to continue posting to the sites I already post on, so look me up on those too if you care to! I am known as jingle_bones_movie_time on Instagram and Jingle Bones Movie Time elsewhere.

Also, these early posts are kinda brief but please stick with them. They do improve!

Anyhow, if you enjoy movies, please join me on my viewing adventures. Thanks folks!