"I'd hate to take a bite out of you. You're a cookie full of arsenic."

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Name that movie.

I just rented it again tonight. I hadn't seen it in years. Goddamm, nobody writes movies like this anymore.

I was in the video store today looking at all the new arrivals, and there wasn't one freaking thing in the "New Releases" section I wanted to rent. And it occured to me that none of these were actually movies. Where are all the MOVIES?

Every film today is some high energy, high concept CGI headache, or an oversexed, over-arch smarmier-than-thou erotic thriller, or something just plain snotty. Not that I mind TNT, tits and 'tude, but when I want to see a MOVIE I invariably have to go back at least 30 years.

Yeah, yeah, I've seen "Crouching Tiger" and "You Can Count on Me" and "Traffic" and, damn, they're good, but generally you can figure on each studio releasing only one actual MOVIE per year. And that sucks celluloid on a Sunday matinee.

So I rented the classic movie with the above quoted line of dialogue, and I was wondering how many people remember it, or know it?

 

[Siren]

I give

 

[Handy-Andy]

I'd hate to take a bite out of you, Sidney. You're a cookie full of arsenic!

The sweet smell of success

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

Bingo.

Burt Lancaster. Tony Curtis. Co-written by Clifford Odets. Nothing better. And it's amazing how pertinent the movie still is. Columnists like Winchell no longer reign supreme, but the star machine is still slave driven. The pound of flesh factor is still very much in play.

And I loved all the location shooting. The movie looks like it was shot on the sly all over Manhattan.

I also rented the original "The Man Who Knew Too Much" with Peter Lorre. Excellent, if techincally primitive.

I'm in a black and white mood. Maybe tomorrow I'll pick up "Stage Door" and "20th Century".




"Match me, Sidney."

 

[*Lazer*]

I remember watching the "Cape Fear" with Robert Mitchum done in b&w with my grandfather. It scared the pants off me. I saw the one with BD and was angered by the over acting and bullshit. I rented the orginal and it had held up to my memory and still scared the crap out of me. Hollywood! (shaking my head) ...... Sometimes.........