Ha! I actually stumbled upon "Never So Few" last week and had forgotten that I even owned it! It's on a 'Triple Feature' DVD with 2 other war movies. Yes, "Von Ryan's Express" is gr-r-reat!
The DVD collection is getting out of hand. I need to reorganize it again.
There's over a thousand titles now, which I have listed alphabetically. The other night I noticed Von Ryan's Express in the list, so I knew it had to be somewhere.
The thing is, for me it's one of those films that when I see or hear the name, I remember the train, and forget the whole POW part. A bit like Hannibal Brooks - it's just a film about elephants, right!
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Byrne
I'm not knocking Sinatra, Stoo...but he's all wrong as an action hero.
Me three.
You can't knock Sinatra, though I'm not a huge fan of crooning, or of warbling for that matter (Yma Sumac!). He's just not a guy I can imagine playing a rough and ready Indy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by James Byrne
Cagney was small of stature, but such was the power and energy of his performances, that I could watch him in anything.
Incidentally, there's some decent commentary on Secret of the Incas (and Sumac) here, at Dave Kehr's blog.
As per Sinatra, I suppose there's no accounting for taste. I've never been that crazy about Heston's work myself, that scene in Wayne's World II notwithstanding. I suppose sitting through Ben-Hur will do that to you. He's effectively cocky in Secret, however.
(Besides, Heston gets a lifetime pass for - as at least one story goes - making Universal give the Touch of Evil directing job to Orson Welles.)
Incidentally, there's some decent commentary on Secret of the Incas (and Sumac) here, at Dave Kehr's blog.
As per Sinatra, I suppose there's no accounting for taste. I've never been that crazy about Heston's work myself, that scene in Wayne's World II notwithstanding. I suppose sitting through Ben-Hur will do that to you. He's effectively cocky in Secret, however.
(Besides, Heston gets a lifetime pass for - as at least one story goes - making Universal give the Touch of Evil directing job to Orson Welles.)
You don't like BEN-HUR, Attila?
Why?
I think it's a great movie in every way. It's the only film I have attended at a London cinema where the audience stood up and applauded for three minutes, some shouting "Bravo!"
These were real film fans as well, not a gathering of STAR TREK geeks.
You don't like BEN-HUR, Attila?
Why?
I think it's a great movie in every way. It's the only film I have attended at a London cinema where the audience stood up and applauded for three minutes, some shouting "Bravo!"
These were real film fans as well, not a gathering of STAR TREK geeks.
No, I don't. There's little in it that actually work for me, predominantly the chariot race and the portions at sea. There are epics that I like, but I find there to be very little air or life in Ben-Hur. It's hard to conceive that it and the absolutely superb Best Years of Our Lives are the work of the same director. For Wyler/Heston collaborations, I'd much rather take the prior year's The Big Country, with that absolutely phenomenal fight, in long shot, between Peck and Heston. There's a film whose moments in the epic style proceed, to me, more directly from character and less from a desire to operate in a historical framework, as Ben-Hur's greatest hits rendition of the life of Christ and the contemporaneous Roman empire often plays to me.
Whether that dynamic is replicated with Secret of the Incas, with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as its bombastic, incoherent junior partner, I'll leave to someone who's more familiar with the Jerry Hopper film. It's certainly modeled in the relationship between Raiders and Crystal Skull.
BEN-HUR is a cinematic masterpiece, in my opinion, Attila, so I strongly disagree with your views on it.
I'm in total agreement with you on THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES and THE BIG COUNTRY, though. Wyler is in my top five favourite directors, along with Ford, Zinneman, De Mille and Hitchcock.
It's on a 'Triple Feature' DVD with 2 other war movies. Yes, "Von Ryan's Express" is gr-r-reat!
