Hey all, Mike here. I wrote last time that I didn't think there would be any more revivals in August to bring up. But things changed. 2 titles that I attempted in the past but couldn't catch for whatever reason, are back. So I'll do this as a rerun edition. I didn't think I'd be available for these at the time of the last post, but I'm glad that's changed.
Like I mentioned before in the previous re-run edition, I'm basically cutting and pasting from a previous post, with maybe a slight edit or update at best. Saving time on my end, nothing more. Here we go:
DEATH ON THE NILE- Thurs Aug 27 at 7 and 9:30 for 7.50- Clearview Chelsea Cinema- W. 23rd and 8th Ave- For those who like Agatha Christie mysteries, murder mysteries in general, travel porn (I mean seeing exotic locations!), or the British in general, here's an easy going film for you. Peter Ustinov makes his first appearance as Hercule Poirot. I don't know if I would put him over Albert Finney's version, and I wouldn't put him over David Suchet's great interpretation on tv. But this is Ustinov's best film as Poirot. The time, money and care was put into this. The wonderful Egyptian locales and the Oscar winning costume design helped create a fabulous look.
Once again, Poirot must stop his vacation and a solve the murder of an heiress (future Bond babe Lois Chiles) aboard a ship on the title river. A wonderful cast. David Niven assists Poirot, and the suspects include Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Olivia Hussey, Angela Lansbury, Jack Warden, Maggie Smith, Jane Birkin, and George Kennedy. C'mon, not every film has to be serious, they can be fun too. And for a cheap price why not.
Note that the 7pm screening is one with some jokes as it goes on with Brini Maxwell (including a pre-show bit), while the 9:30 screening is just the film.
IN A LONELY PLACE- Fri Aug 28 at 9:50 and Sat Aug 29 at 5:30, 7:40 and 9:50- Film Forum- A new 35mm print for this; originally the start of a Nicolas Ray retrospective. Not the biggest hit of the day, but has gotten respect over the years, to the point that it was picked for preservation two years ago by the National Film Registry. The kind of that Curtis Hanson, when preparing to direct L.A. Confidential, showed some of his cast this film and said basically, This is what I'm going for.
Missed it when it played last month. At one point it came down to seeing this or Titus. The choice was made to see Titus, and it was a wonderful choice. But bye-bye went In A Lonely Place. But apparently, when this was played at the Forum, critics went ape-shit in joy over this and apparently business was real good at the Forum. So good, that this film was brought back for a nine day engagement. Sorry I'm only getting around to listing this on its last two days, but I'm posting only when I can do it. Because of the fact that I've only seen a few minutes of it, don't know it very well and would like to catch it, I'm forced to copy and paste from the Forum site, and let their description try to be a draw:
(1950) Humphrey Bogart a vicious killer? Okay, he’s a hard-drinking, log-sized-chip-on-his-shoulder screenwriter with a sardonic cynicism so deep he enlists a hatcheck girl as overnight novel summarizer so he doesn’t actually have to read the trashy book he’s agreed to adapt, stopping to take a poke at an asking-for-it producer’s son-in-law along the way. Even when she winds up dead, and he’s being grilled by old army buddy Frank Lovejoy, it turns into an occasion for girl-across-the-courtyard (an exact reproduction of Ray’s first Hollywood pad) Gloria Grahame to give Bogie an alibi — and to get to know better an “interesting” face. But as their love affair progresses, Bogie breaks his fussbudget longtime agent’s glasses, creeps out Lovejoy and wife Jeff Donnell with his too-real “imaginative” reenactment of the murder, and is barely prevented from braining a motorist he’d already sideswiped and beaten senseless. An agonizingly inevitable — but still surprising — resolution looms. Ray boasted “I took the gun out of Bogie’s hands” in altering his screen image (“a radical demystification of the classic Bogart hero” – Robert Sklar); while his own marriage with Grahame ended during the filming — they kept it a secret, fearing Ray would be kicked off the production. "Bogart's performance shares most of the characteristics of his classic performances except that the tie between the killer and the lover is laid bare, without the romanticism, the genre conventions, or the political ideology which underlay it in previous films.... There are no moments for audiences to cheer as he pumps lead into a noxious villain - surely not when he extols the wonderful feeling of crushing a throat, or with his hands around one. The role of Dixon Steele is among the most interesting examples of a performer's critical reevaluation of his screen persona, and surely belongs on the list of Bogart's great performances." – Robert Sklar. Approx. 93 minutes
Let me know quickly if there's interest. Later all.
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