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dhenke
Reviews
Timberjack (1955)
Great memories of this flick.
I remember watching this movie back in '55 in Great Falls, Montana. It was a fun flick. Sterling Hayden did his usual Sterling Hayden performance. It was not Godfather worthy, but acceptable. The scenery was familiar to us, being Montanans. I actually did some lumber jacking in my college years. It is heavy work. After the movie, we stopped at a soda fountain. I stuffed the jukebox with a couple of quarters and punched in the song, "Timberjack". It was set to play twelve times. (If you put in a quarter instead of a nickle, you got six plays.) After the fourth play, the proprietor came over and unplugged the jukebox. We laughed our way out of the place.
Back to the Streets of San Francisco (1992)
Steve Keller's car
I was excited to see this television movie because, in a sense, I was personally involved in the original series. I provided my own personal Porsche, a 1973 Targa, as Steve Keller's personal car for the last two years of the series. I was totally surprised when they made the TV movie to learn that Steve Keller still drove a 1973 Porsche Targa. Karl Malden even had a line in the movie about it. An aide said that Steve drove a 1973 Porsh, sic, and had the license number. Karl dismissed him with, "I know the car." Later it was fished out of the bay, but I was surprised that the car they pulled out was a silver Targa, not the Agate Brown Metallic one that he drove in the series. They probably couldn't find one in the right color that they could dump in the bay. It was a pleasant surprise that they included it since 17 years had passed since the end of Michael Douglas' appearance in the show.
On the Beach (1959)
GREATEST KOOL-AID MOVIE EVER MADE! possible spoiler
This one reminds me of Jonestown. You of certain age remember Jonestown in the 1970's. While dramatic at the time (I saw it in 1961) and certainly was on the minds of everyone who, as a child, had to duck under their desks when a nuclear alert was sounded, it certainly was timely. But the melodrama took over the fear as the years passed. I saw it recently on TV, and having discarded the fear, found it overly done in that respect, and almost unwatchable. "Waltzing Mathilda" stood the test of time however. It is played almost constantly throughout the movie, not only sung, but as a haunting melody. Gregory Peck did an outstanding job as only Gregory Peck can. Ava Gardner was as beautiful as ever and did a journey woman's job in her role. I didn't think much of Anthony Perkins in his role. I think he was miscast. The best part of the movie was the suspense created by the Morse code signals. It really provided the hope that someone was still alive (as well as the seagulls and the cop in S.F.) When they found out what it was it really slammed home the fact that it was over.
The Departed (2006)
Plagerism
This movie is fantastic, and one of Scorsese's best until the end. I won't go into specifics. I don't want to spoil the movie, but I have to point out the one scene in the movie that was lifted out of the movie, "The Third Man". Remember when Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton) gets out of the jeep and waits for Anna (Alida Valli), and she walks right past him without acknowledging his presence. It was the greatest brush off scene in movie history, and was beautiful to watch. Well, Scorsese puts this exact scene into this movie, and without giving anyone credit. Shamefull. Also, I can think of several endings that would have been more intelligent than the one they came up with.