herbiehancock

No 46 - On the Waterfront Director - Elia Kazan I only really knew one thing about this film... So I was interested to know what the rest of the film was like.... as even the crappest films can have a brilliant iconic line. The film is set during tough times when people are scrabbling for work and where the mobs control the streets. This is a film about that mob losing their control, as things fall apart around them. For the most part, Brando is quite underplayed, his tough boy attitude makes him seem cold and expressionless.... so for a long time I didn't really find myself warming to him. Especially as he is utterly overshadowed by the fiery passion of Father Barry , played with energetic and feisty zeal by Karl Malden . He is a force to be reckoned with, his every scene not only benefiting from the passion in his performance but also in the tension that trickles out amongst everybody else. Malden's performance seems to cause everybody else to up there came. So as Barry ...

No 277 - On The Town Directors - Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly Well thank you Channel 4, I was just wondering what to do with my afternoon and then this cropped up.... This film follows three of the campest sailors in the world as they run around New York, excited with their 24 hours of shore leave. They're planning a fun filled day seeing all the sights and a fun filled night macking all the hunnies . I don't know much - if anything - about Jules Munshin , but the other sailors are Swing God Frank Sinatra and song, dance and falling over hero Gene Kelly . So we're in good musical hands. Within one tiny musical montage, Gene Kelly's Gabey has fallen in love. With a girl on a poster. Bless the poor old sap. Vera Ellen plays Ivy Smith, the star of Miss Turnstiles, though we don't know quite what that title means. But we do get to see inside Gabey's campy imagination as he ponders the information on the poster. I love how it starts quite mundane and gradually ge...