Michael Curtiz

"Curtiz was a very excitable guy, and very sadistic...er..would go out of control a great deal....."

Who could watch this and not want to see the whole film? It looks incredible.

http://www.youtube.com/v/d2e6uqSWk_g

http://www.basilrathbone.net/films/captainblood/cb101.jpg

http://www.posteritati.com/jpg/A3/ADVENTURES%20HUCK%20FINN%20CST%203.JPG

My horny adolescent self remains grateful for Captain Blood as well as Robin Hood.

I'm not sure those kind of star vehicles need an "extraneous" directorial personality to compete with the lead's.

http://www.worth1000.com/entries/318500/318841aFhE_w.jpg

I do not consider him a hack at all. A tradesmen, a bit rote and conservative, sure, but not at all hackish.

He was no great stylist, but he made commendably solid genre flicks - knew how to eek great scenes from so-so material, mastered pacing and sequencing structure, really knew how to keep a boring movie from seeming boring.

Film Forum is showing something of his called The Strange Love of Molly Louvain tonight.

Do not know. Available on VHS though.

The Breaking Point is terrific, likely a better film than the first version, To Have and Have Not. An essential John Garfield performance, and Phyllis Thaxter is unexpectedly strong as the wife who ears she's losing him. Also a great last shot that openly critiques Hollywood racism.

The Breaking Point on Criterion

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4824-the-michael-curtiz-method

The Breaking Point is terrific, likely a better film than the first version, To Have and Have Not. An essential John Garfield performance, and Phyllis Thaxter is unexpectedly strong as the wife who ears she's losing him. Also a great last shot that openly critiques Hollywood racism.

Agree for the most part, and Curtiz understands deep focus and atmospheric location. But the gangster scenes are a wheez. Many of the Patricia Neal scenes have acting overemphatic even for the time, but John Garfield managed to star in many a movie where this is the case.

The juxtaposition of the crying children and Juano Hernandez's son looking for dad is devastating. Curtiz knew what he was doing.

movie confirms my longstanding Garfield crush

new Curtiz bio out, read a good review in Film Comment (print only)

LA retro

https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2018/michael-curtiz-life-in-film

The Sea Wolf is well worth seeing for Edw G Robinson's committed villainy. Garfield and Lupino also give their stock characters some sizzle.

I can't remember if I ever saw White Christmas as a kid--wasn't one of the big holiday films in my house. I've stopped on scenes over the years. Because I've been doing these film nights in town, the community center here contacted me about introducing it before a screening they're having this week. I jumped at the chance, assuming the film would be quite innocuous.

I'll be speaking to a room with nothing but white seniors, but having just watched it in advance, it'll be pretty much impossible not to talk about race: exactly one African-American in the whole film (the guy who serves them drinks on the train--I don't think he gets a line), with zero servicemen in the opening scene in a room with dozens; a song that nostalgically looks back on the days of minstrel shows; the title song (the film came out just a few weeks before the Drifters recorded their version, the one used in Goodfellas); Rosa Parks and rock and roll just around the corner.

I don't think I'll even get into the Danny Kaye character.

Curtiz: consider Casablanca overrated (or maybe just over-familiar), surprised it remains on S&S's Top 100; think Mildred Pierce is a very good noir, although I like Todd Haynes' remake even more; saw Angels with Dirty Faces ages ago, don't remember anything. Those three and now White Christmas are all I've seen.

Was mostly unimpressed with White Christmas when I finally saw it last year. Saw it back-to-back with a first viewing of Holiday Inn so the racially insensitive elements of WC seemed positively restrained in comparison.

OTOH, just recently watched Captain Blood on a whim with no foreknowledge or expectations and thought it was pretty damn spectacular. The best pirate movie ever? Would love to see it on a big screen.

No way is Casablanca overrated btw

consider Casablanca overrated

See, we don't disagree all the time

As much as I am not a Casablanca fan, looking back at what it was up against for the best picture Oscar, I'm glad it won. The only thing in the lineup that I regard as clearly superior is Heaven Can Wait.

Just about every Curtiz film between 1937 and 1948 is worth a watch. A special prize to the absolutely bonkers Flamingo Road.

OL: I knew about the blackface scene in Holiday Inn (haven't seen it; I assume TCM plays the film intact with a warning?); I was going to mention that too.

Those three and now White Christmas are all I've seen.

No King Creole? Elvis Noir!

I've seen like two Elvis movies--Loving You and Jailhouse Rock and I think that's it. (Not even VLV, no.)