Australian Politics Forum

The ABC used to put on old movies after midnight five days a week. Some of them were pretty ordinary but some were very good, classics even. For some time now there have hardly been any - sometimes none at all. This week there are two, but they don't sound very interesting.

Frances wrote on Aug 15^th, 2011 at 3:43pm:

They been having some goodies on late saturday nights on ABC2 for the last few weeks.

A few dollars more
The good the bad and the ugly
High plains drifter
and so on, and so forth...

I'm sure theres more, but they're the ones I've noticed. And too bad if you don't like westerns, but seriously, who doesn't like westerns?

... wrote on Aug 15^th, 2011 at 3:58pm:

seriously, who doesn't like westerns?

Me....

Frances wrote on Aug 15^th, 2011 at 4:08pm:

... wrote on Aug 15^th, 2011 at 3:58pm:

seriously, who doesn't like westerns?

Me....

GAH!

Maybe you'd like them if you got to know them....

Perhaps, but I still think I wouldn't like them. There's only one other genre I like less than westerns, and that's war movies - although, that said, there are a handful of movies set in a war that I like, although they generally are ones that have some other theme, such as 'The Spy In Black' which is set during First World War and stars Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson.

Well they did have guess whos coming to dinner on the other day. I didn't watch it though - not enough shootin' for my liking.

Not one of my favourite movies either. I've seen it once and I'm not inclined to revisit it. Not that I'm saying it's a bad film, it's just that I didn't like it much.

'The Moon Is Blue' wasn't bad :-) Well okay it was bad, but it's the sort of stoopy I like in old movies.

I thought about recording "The Moon is Blue" because it has a good cast, but after reading what the plot was all about, decided not to.

Tonight's movie is "The Clay Pigeon". It might be OK (some B grade films noir can be really good) but somehow I have my doubts. Might be worth recording it to watch later though - I can always throw the DVD out if it's no good....

ABC 2 tonight was The Manchurian Candidate.

Deborahmac09 wrote on Oct 16^th, 2011 at 1:27am:

ABC 2 tonight was The Manchurian Candidate.

Maybe it's time I got a set top box :-) I'd've liked to have seen that, but the last thing I need is more tele... decisions decisions.

The Clay Pigeon is an okay sort of movie..I just like few scenes of the movie..

Get rid of the name, sock.

Like Barbarella ? ;)

If I was to ever switch teams, Anita Pallenberg would be the reason.

Annie Anthrax wrote on Nov 8^th, 2011 at 10:56am:

If I was to ever switch teams, Anita Pallenberg would be the reason.

There's no accounting for some tastes ;D

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1241743/Anita-Pallenberg-What-drag-retired-rock-chick.html

Agreed....Few movies such as Forbidden Planet,My Fair Lady and Brighton Rock have no comparison...They are my all time favorite movies.

David124 wrote on Nov 16^th, 2011 at 9:53pm:

Agreed....Few movies such as Forbidden Planet,My Fair Lady and Brighton Rock have no comparison...They are my all time favorite movies.

Welcome to the forum David.

Yep, it would be better to fill time with movie classics than recent repeats and woeful. Have you seen the 2010 Brighton Rock with Sam Riley and Helen Mirren?

Yes,I had seen the 2010 Brighton Rock..It is based on the novel of the same name by Graham Greene..It's one of my favorite novel..And this movie was excellent.. i just thought it had been updated to the 60s,So might be it would not go that well..But I was wrong.. It worked well..

Grey wrote on Nov 8^th, 2011 at 2:14pm:

Annie Anthrax wrote on Nov 8^th, 2011 at 10:56am:

If I was to ever switch teams, Anita Pallenberg would be the reason.

There's no accounting for some tastes ;D

Yes, but when she was in Barbarella ... hmmm old memories. I actually preferred Jane Fonda at the time, I haven't seen Brighton Rock on full format (just on a flight) I agree that it worked well although Pinky didn't really conform to my expectations from the novel.

On the subject of movies, I've been watching Love in the Time of Cholera on and off today. I love the book, but the film misses the mark for me. I was quite surprised cos Javier Bardem is all-round brilliant. Talented and gorgeous to boot. But while he's good in this, he's too masculine to be the Florentino of my imagination. When he weeps, I want to smack him :( I don't feel that way when I'm reading.

Grey, she looks awful. A poster child for the reasons not to take up smoking cigarettes.

It's a Wonderful Life is on tonight on one of the ABCs.

Annie Anthrax wrote on Nov 19^th, 2011 at 9:19pm:

It's a Wonderful Life is on tonight on one of the ABCs.

I’ve seen it a couple of times, it is in my personal list of Greatest Films of All Time. Everything about this movie is perfect.

... one NOT to be missed

WAKE IN FRIGHT
Broadcasting 9.30 pm on ABC2 (digital) (Channel 22)

Wake in Fright, the lost classic which was at the forefront of Australia's cinematic renaissance in the early 1970s, is now fully restored and will have its Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival on Saturday 13 June, prior to a national (and New Zealand) cinema release through Madman Entertainment.

Wake in Fright made its first appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, in competition in 1971. This critically acclaimed landmark Australian film challenged the way Australians saw themselves and their environment. Based on the novel by Kenneth Cook and directed by Ted Kotcheff (Rambo, First Blood), Wake in Fright starred the late Donald Pleasence, Gary Bond and Chips Rafferty (in his last feature film role) and marked the first feature film appearance of a young Jack Thompson. Wake in Fright follows a young outback schoolteacher whose eagerly anticipated summer holiday becomes an alcohol-fuelled descent into violence and despair.

The film of Wake in Fright was long-believed lost until Anthony Buckley traced the original negatives to a vault in America marked for destruction.

The film elements, later determined to be in poor state, were safely recovered and shipped back to Australia by the NFSA with the assistance of Ausfilm. With careful archival matching of the negative components, Wake in Fright has since been digitally restored to pristine condition by Atlab/Deluxe and the NFSA.

http://www.urbancinefile.com.au/home/view.asp?a=15653&s=news_files

Wake In Fright
Rated M
Review by David Stratton

John Grant, (GARY BOND) is a schoolteacher bonded to the NSW Education Department and assigned to a tiny school in a remote community in the far west of the state.

While returning to Sydney for the Christmas summer break, he stops overnight at Bundayabba, popularly known as The Yabba, where he discovers that the friendliness and the hospitality of the locals, led by local cop Jock Crawford, (CHIPS RAFFERTY), has a decidedly sinister side to it.

Having lost all his money in a two-up game, Grant finds himself stranded in The Yabba and accepts the invitation of Tim Hynes, (AL THOMAS), to stay with him and his daughter Janette, (SYLVIA KAY). Among Hynes’s mates are Dick, (JACK THOMPSON) and Joe, (PETER WHITTLE). Grant also meets Doc, (DONALD PLEASENCE) who seems to have an agenda of his own.

The film version of Kenneth Cook’s scathing novel premiered in competition at Cannes in May, 1971, and was released in Australia later that year, though it failed to find a substantial audience despite critical support.

After years in which it was unavailable, a newly restored copy is enjoying a short re-release before it goes to DVD – I sincerely hope on Blu-Ray as well as standard DVD - and it’s just as remarkable as ever it was.

The book was published in 1961, and Joseph Losey was originally to have made it with Dirk Bogarde in the lead: that would have been a very different film from the one Canadian Ted Kotcheff made, but Kotcheff – a brief visitor to Australia – was able to pick up on all the menace many people find in outback Australia where, in this reading, a mindless brutality is caused by the almost fanatical adherence to mateship and manliness.

Stunningly photographed by Brian West and impeccably edited by Tony Buckley – the horrific kangaroo shoot is a masterpiece of assembly – the film still shocks and startles.

GARY BOND’s Grant is a bit of a blank page, but that suits the role; DONALD PLEASENCE makes the disgustingly seedy Doc, a genuinely strange character and everyone else in the cast is superb.

Best of all is that Aussie icon, CHIPS RAFFETY who brings such menace to the role of the friendly cop. Sadly, Chips died in May, 1971, just after the Cannes screening and before the film was generally released

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/txt/s2590361.htm

One of Britain's film channels - Film Four (Channel 15 on Freeview) - had a week or two dedicated to old films a few months ago.

I quite enjoyed watching the 1925 Russian film "The Battleship Potemkin" which presented a dramatised version of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers of the Tsarist regime.

buzzanddidj wrote on Dec 14^th, 2011 at 3:56pm:

Wake In Fright

I've got that one on my computer. It's incredible to think that Australian outback life was once like that. It redefines cultural cringe.

The scene where he's having sex with the local girl while totally repulsed by her body odour (or halitosis), is definitive. It's like the rest of the film - it both intrigues and disgusts at the same time. I'm still not quite sure what is supposed to have happened in the scene before Grant unsuccessfully attempts suicide. We're left guessing at the exact details.

The local cop is fairly typical of outback cops in that era. He turns a blind eye to after hours drinking (as long as he's part of it), two-up and the attempted suicide/ hunting accident.

Last night I started watching "The Last King of Scotland", which is not an old movie, but it will eventually be a classic.

I only watched the first half. I started feel physically sick, because it brought back old memories of corrupt African authorities. It was too close to reality. I must watch the rest of it though.

The Pink Panther was fun last night :-)

Australian Politics Forum
http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl Member Run Boards >> Film, Television and Radio >> Where have the old movies gone? http://www.ozpolitic.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1313387015 Message started by franfran on Aug 15^th, 2011 at 3:43pm