tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-796981167052462008.comments2020-12-20T20:55:45.341-08:00Chynna’s Movie EssaysChynna Moorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01857709217067584091noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-796981167052462008.post-82901235539632634852020-12-20T20:55:45.341-08:002020-12-20T20:55:45.341-08:00Hi Ken, I'm glad I could jog your memory! (The...Hi Ken, I'm glad I could jog your memory! (These days, that's hard for me to do with my own memory!)<br /><br />The film turned a profit, but seemed largely forgotten outside of Wilder fans and Matthau and Lemmon fans for quite some time. With the North American Blu-ray release in 2019, the critical consensus seems to be "it's not great, but it's not as bad as others say". I, while disliking "Buddy Buddy", can't really muster up a totally improved view of this film. <br /><br />There really is so much that's good about it, but the whole film has an air of "something missing" during its runtime, and Wilder's efforts to make every line heard clearly (a decision Lemmon later regretted) drag down a story that's so critically dependent on timing.<br /><br />Thank you so much for your kind comments. This film's exterior shots (and final train station scene) were filmed in San Francisco, so you might be able to recognize them. ��<br />Chynna Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01857709217067584091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-796981167052462008.post-42424473953412871362020-12-20T20:00:01.139-08:002020-12-20T20:00:01.139-08:00Being a huge Carol Burnett fan and having loved &q...Being a huge Carol Burnett fan and having loved "The Odd Couple" when I was young, I was very eager to see "The Front Page" when it came out. But it was a Christmas season release that opened on the very same day as THE TOWERING INFERNO and AIRPORT 75...and you know how I love disaster movies. So I never got around to seeing this until it was almost gone from the theaters. Our entire family went, however, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Me, I have never seen it since 1975 and I remember next to nothing about it. SO I thank you for your wonderful post with its great screencaps that helped jog a memory or two. It really is a great period-looking film. But like as they reference in the DOLEMITE film, I don't suppose it had many laughs! Thank you, too, for your generous links to my blog. That's very kind of you. I found your piece very enjoyable and informative in structurally breaking down where some of the film worked for you and where it didn't. Ken Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04940648971296673233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-796981167052462008.post-85279824971205948872020-05-07T20:07:57.727-07:002020-05-07T20:07:57.727-07:00Hi Ken, why should I be surprised that "Star ...Hi Ken, why should I be surprised that "Star Wars" got the flows of people going to the theater again? 😂<br /><br />I actually didn't know about the "Pussycat" call-back. Given the inclusion of Burt Kwouk, this film's writing would certainly keep to that vein. <br /><br />I think I come off as more even-handed compared to a lot of other reviews because of several things. One, the passage of time and how transitional the late-70s/early-80s really were. Critics had just seen a new side of Sellers in "Being There", and seeing a regression this stark in this film probably gave them whiplash. Also, it was clearly trying to be a Sellers comedy throwback to older Fu films, but with the differing standards of the 70s, it led to the tonal whiplash we see here. (Some of "The Front Page"'s subtleties gave way to added profanity and more in Billy Wilder's 1974 remake.) Basically, the other reviews always came off to me as if they were describing "Superman IV", though I can certainly see where they were coming from.<br /><br />Also, because my experience as an Asian-Canadian is different than most (looking "white-passing", for lack of a better term, and my mother being raised in Beijing, not Canada), I somewhat look at this film with a sort of bemusement, like "Really? This is what white Americans thought was funny about the Chinese? Even satirically?". It's weird that Bruce Lee's cultural impact was so great at the time, but the same studio that released "Enter the Dragon" also released this. (To add, the creative freedom afforded by Orion Pictures was likely why this film wasn't cut to ribbons.) <br /><br />I did like the Chinese restaurant scenes, however, since the layout of the food was quite accurate (at least for Mandarin, not Cantonese (Dim sum) cuisine), though in China itself, tables usually have a turntable in the center as well. John Sharp's subplot also accurately captures white people's affinity for Chinese food, if you ask me.<br /><br />Truthfully, this film did kind of burn me out as far as "watching a movie just to make fun of it" goes. It's almost worse to me than "Blood Alley" in terms of how it looks at its Chinese characters, since in that film they at least drive the plot, are normal, close-knit people, and are viewed with more dignity than even Fu's henchmen. Culturally, this film was probably a lost cause and at a fast rate. ("Big Trouble in Little China" was good in all the ways this film is bad, and that was less than a decade later.)<br /><br />Mirren is the best part of this film by far. I guess after surviving "Caligula", anyone would play her role with such relish. (No wonder Sir John Gielgud was so good in "Arthur"!)<br /><br />But yeah, this film was bad. In the age of "BvS", "Suicide Squad", and increased awareness of troubled productions, this movie is bad in a way we almost never see anymore. (Insurance alone is one reason, even just a few years later.) <br /><br />Thanks for your comments. All I can imagine now is the poor staff at Mann's shooing out the last posters, etc. for this film and slating "Star Wars" back in!<br />Chynna Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01857709217067584091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-796981167052462008.post-70791054803726261922020-04-14T02:13:56.271-07:002020-04-14T02:13:56.271-07:00Hi Chynna
Glad you covered this ignored/reviled m...Hi Chynna <br />Glad you covered this ignored/reviled movie so even-handedly. I saw it on cable TV a year or so after its initial release here in LA at Mann's Chinese Theater. Attendance was so low that they got rid of the film before its booking was scheduled to be over and threw in like the 9th re-release of Star Wars to pick up the slack.<br />I didn't really like the film and only remembered Helen Mirren being pretty good, and liking the scene where she sings Daddy Wouldn't Buy Me a Bow Wow. But thanks to your terrific essay and the highlighting of specific jokes and gags that worked, I came to recall that there were one or two bits that did amuse me (you probably know this, but that "Cheap cinematic trick" joke was a callback to "What's New, Pussycat?" as a line said by his wife in that film when he takes advantage of a little movie magic to escape from her).<br />I very much enjoyed this informative and funny post, and thank you for you very considerate "Lost Horizon" link. <br />With so many full-tilt negative reviews of this movie floating around out there, your balanced essay offers the curious a broader canvas from which to judge. Ken Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04940648971296673233noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-796981167052462008.post-42075592491502555732020-02-07T10:26:07.894-08:002020-02-07T10:26:07.894-08:00Hi Ken! Thank you for being my first comment here!...Hi Ken! Thank you for being my first comment here! (I'm not at all surprised it would be from you :)<br /><br />Overall, while I do prefer <i>Evil Under the Sun</i> to this one, I do love Ustinov and Niven and it's too bad the latter wasn't in that film too. <br /><br />And I don't miss those old days on IMDB, mostly because I wasn't all that articulate in writing then and was quite a bit over my head, so that only ups my embarrassment attached to this film. <br /><br />I noticed in your review of this film that your copy was probably a U.S. print, since the title card of mine (likely the 2017 Region B Blu-ray) has an EMI Films copyright on it.<br /><br />Thank you for your kind words, and I'm so happy you've gotten some joy from these essays. (They're quite fun to write, and it's been a strange trip revisiting some of these films, to say the least.)Chynna Moorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01857709217067584091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-796981167052462008.post-33263675227405316612020-02-07T04:51:15.053-08:002020-02-07T04:51:15.053-08:00Enjoyed your revisit to this arguably uneven Agath...Enjoyed your revisit to this arguably uneven Agatha Christie outing! It certainly has its share of pluses and minuses (well-taken points about the shifting tone, the horthand characterizations, and abrupt violence) while still managing to be a very entertaining entry in the Poirot series. <br />Laughed at your reference to IMDB's mercifully defunct message boards! Love your new site and looking forward to more of your essays!Ken Andersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04940648971296673233noreply@blogger.com