They should have won an Oscar

[Filmboydoug]

I agree with some of the screw jobs posted, especially Bette Davis. I think the all time screw job has to be Anthony Quinn not winning for Zorba The Greek.

[birddog]

"Eric Roberts (yes Julia's brother and much more talented) in The Pope of Greenwich Village."

"Charlie, Dey took my Tumbs..."

A classic, haven't seen it since it first came out.

[skippy_ps]

Originally Posted by soundmotor

First time I saw it was in '82 (I think) on limited release. Really, it could not have been in the theater for more than a month. I was nuts about anything containing Harrison Ford thanks to Star Wars & Raiders. So I saw the film with my old GF. She hated it, I was stunned & blown away. However, there was one aspect about the film that surprised me. That being the incredible violence in 3 scenes. A year or so later, the film comes around again. I get a bunch of my buddies together and we go see it. I came away thinking that I must have really been in an odd way the first time I saw it because it was nowhere near as violent as I recalled it. Hmmmm.

In '95 or thereabouts, I borrowed the Criterion Laser Disc of Bladerunner. By now, I had the movie on VHS & RCA Selectavision CED! They were the watered down versions that I saw in '83. And which version do you think the Criterion LD version was? Yep, the very first version I had seen in '82.

There is Leon pushing his fingers deep into Deckards eyes, Roy Batty doing the same to Tyrell with blood rushing past, & Pris beating the living crap out of Deckard & lowering him to the floor with her fingers jammed up his nose before he plugs her 3 times & then gives her the coup de gras!

Is this the version you were referring to? AFAIK, the only version like this is on the LD.

I have the director's cut dvd and I think I have the narrated version on vhs. I'll have to watch the dvd again (I just watched it a week ago) to check on the "extra violence" and see if it's there.

It seems that the narrated vhs version is no longer available new - at Amazon, anyway.

Murray

[danj]

Originally Posted by Filmboydoug

I agree with some of the screw jobs posted, especially Bette Davis. I think the all time screw job has to be Anthony Quinn not winning for Zorba The Greek.

Definitely!

[whell]

I'd consider George C Scott for his performance in Dr. Strangelove, but he'd probably give the Oscar back.

[Wornears]

Robert Mitchum: The Night of the Hunter

B&W and only film directed by Charles Laughton (Captain Bly of an early "Mutiny on the Bounty" -- not the one with Mel Gibson <G>) and has Mitchum as the psychotic preacher with L-O-V-E tattoed on one hand and H-A-T-E on the other trying to get $10K hidden by two kids. Unbelievably intense and beyond scary.

Another vote for Bette Davis as Margo Channing,too. Just saw "All About Eve" again the other day on cable: "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night!" Has a great cameo of Marilyn Monroe, too. Here's an exchange with her in "Eve" as Claudia Caswell as the consort of acidic Addison DeWitt (The Wit, get it? perfectly played by Russian-born Brit George Sanders):

[a butler passes by]
Miss Claudia Caswell: Oh, waiter!
Addison DeWitt: That is not a waiter, my dear, that is a butler.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Well, I can't yell "Oh butler!" can I? Maybe somebody's name is Butler.
Addison DeWitt: You have a point. An idiotic one, but a point.
Miss Claudia Caswell: I don't want to make trouble. All I want is a drink.
Max Fabian: Leave it to me. I'll get you one.
Miss Claudia Caswell: Thank you, Mr. Fabian.
Addison DeWitt: Well done! I can see your career rise in the east like the sun.

They don't make films like these anymore.

[soundmotor]

Originally Posted by Wornears

Robert Mitchum: The Night of the Hunter

Films like this are one of the reasons I toy with subscribing to Netflix. I've never seen it but everytime I read the commentary on it, I know I need to.

Night of the Hunter

Thanks for the nudge. Mitchum is an all time favorite.

(See also "Mr. Moses" & "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" for other great & offbeat Mitchum films.)

[Wornears]

My daughter and her boyfriend are big movie buffs, not so much into the older ones like I am, and they've had Netflix for a couple of months and are very pleased with it. I have too many external addictions as it is...

[soundmotor]

Originally Posted by Wornears

My daughter and her boyfriend are big movie buffs, not so much into the older ones like I am, and they've had Netflix for a couple of months and are very pleased with it. I have too many external addictions as it is...

OT -

We usually just buy the DVD at Best Buy, Wally World, or Amazon when they hit the ~$7 threshold. I figure I'll watch it at least one more time and the rental is near $5 at Blockbuster. My local Blockbuster just closed so Netflix is beginning to look viable.

I had it in 1998 but let it go. What I didn't like is that to really make it economical you need to watch the movies as they come in. We often rent on the weekends, not plow into a film on a Tuesday.

[Wornears]

I don't know the Oscar pedigree of this film, but it is one of my all-timers:

Orson Wells -- A Touch of Evil

see: http://www.filmsite.org/touc.html

Has Charlton Heston playing a Mexican detective (!!), whose attractive wife is kidnapped by local thugs, and Wells as the long-time corruptible lawman of the border town. This movie is the definition of film noir -- just incredible B&W photography and an opening tracking shot (aka dolly shot) that is unbelievable. Check this out from Wikipedia on "tracking shot"

"Studio mangling by superimposing credits and titles over the opening tracking shot in Orson Welles' Touch of Evil was not resolved until the fourth release of the film."

Wells was not a studio boy, that's for sure, so I doubt he got an Oscar for this film. In fact, according to the link -- the whole film was snubbed. Shows you what the Academy knew.

[donoghue]

I love "All about Eve", I haven't seen Sunset Boulevard so I can't comment on whether Bette Davis was robbed or not, but she might be my all-time fave actress. I'm also a fan of "A Touch of Evil", one of the few Orson Welles films you can see the way he meant it to be, or pretty close anyways. There is a deluxe edition of Citizen Kane with documentaries about Welles where you can learn the sad story of his rise and fall, some his own fault, mostly the interference of others. My nomination for the most unjustly snubbed film is "M", a 1931 film by Fritz Lang, who also directed Metropolis, maybe the best silent film. M stars Peter Lorre as a serial child killer, which is probably why Hollywood snubbed the film, along with the fact that it was a German film. The energy in this film and the virtuosic filmaking is unmatched in modern films imo. Fritz Lang had it going on to the nth degree

[Wornears]

oops. Sunset Blvd by the incomparable Billy Wilder starred Gloria Swanson as has-been screen star, Norma Desmond, and a young William Holden as her kept man. Very twisted movie and more unmatched B&W photography. See it.

see: http://www.filmsite.org/suns.html

[soundmotor]

Originally Posted by Wornears

oops. Sunset Blvd by the incomparable Billy Wilder starred Gloria Swanson as has-been screen star, Norma Desmond, and a young William Holden as her kept man. Very twisted movie and more unmatched B&W photography. See it.

see: http://www.filmsite.org/suns.html

Beat me to it.

"And they fished me gently, ever so gently, from the swimming pool with a pruning hook."

Holden had a lot of great lines over the years but few came close to that one in Sunset.

My biggest Oscar disappointment was Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth in Schindler's List. He was nominated, but Tommy Lee Jones won that year for The Fugitive. What a joke.

As far as Bladerunner goes, one of my absolute favorite films ever. The narrated version is so much better in my opinion. The monologue that Rutger Hauer delivers at the end in brilliant.

[donoghue]

How about Marty Scorsese? Nominated for best director many times but never won. Wasn't nominated for Taxi Driver. He's destined for an "honorary" oscar, or has he already got one?