Jon Savage recommended Rebel Without a Cause (1955) in Movies (curated)
West Side Story (1961)
Movie Watch
Award-winning musical retelling the story of Romeo and Juliet on New York's west side. The struggle...
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)
Movie
Documentary-filmmaker Bob Sanders and his wife Carol attend a group-therapy session that serves as...
Andy K (10821 KP) rated West Side Story (1961) in Movies
Jan 1, 2019
Some of the situations and dialogue are dated now some 60+ years later and the movie is maybe 20 minutes to long, but when it works it is magic.
Songs like America, Somewhere, I Feel Pretty and Tonight anchor the film and the dance sequences are astonishing.
Hard to believe Spielberg is going to try and remake this. The politically correct culture we live in now doesn't seem like it will like another version of this unless they make it very authentic and not have Natalie Wood play Maria this time around.
We shall see...
Hollywood Obscura: Death, Murder, and the Paranormal Aftermath
Book
Hollywood is no stranger to murder, and some of the murderers are the most vicious killers known to...
West Side Story by Stephen Sondheim
Album
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of West Side Story, one of the best-loved musicals of all time,...
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated The Great Race (1965) in Movies
Jul 6, 2018
Reteaming Tony Curtis (as the brave, virtuous and good "The Great Leslie") and Jack Lemmon (as the sinister, dastardly and evil "Professor Fate"), The Great Race is great fun watching these two cartoon characters spar and parry with each other throughout the course of this 2 hour and 40 minute farce.
Lemmon, in particular, relishes in dual roles as the menacing Fate, always dressed in black, twirling his mustache and coming up with scheme after scheme to derail Leslie (think the Coyote in the RoadRunner cartoons). His overacting and hammyness in the character is perfect for the tone that this film has set. And his maniacal laugh is one to remember - unless you are remembering the childlike guffaws of the other character Lemmon portrays, the doppelganger of Fate, Crown Prince Frederick. Both these characters are fun to watch and Fate, especially, plays well against his bumbling assistant and foil, "Max", played in utter buffoonishness by the great Peter Falk.
Joining Curtis for the "good guys" is Natalie Wood as Suffragette and Newspaper
Reporter Maggie DuBois (obviously tailored after real life Suffragette and Newspaper Reporter Nellie Bly). It is said that Curtis and Wood did not get along on set (they had worked together in 2 other films and grew to dislike each other), but their on-screen chemistry cannot be ignored and they are fun together. As is the great Keenan Wynn as Leslie's mechanic and friend Hezekiah Sturdy.
But it is not the characters that makes this film go it is the set pieces and frenetic pacing that Director Edwards put before us. From thrilling chase scenes to a Western barroom brawl, to a trip through a blizzard with a polar bear to the "largest pie fight ever put on screen", this film delivers the goods in a wholesome, 1960's way that makes me truly say...
"They don't make 'em like this anymore".
8 out 10 stars and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)
Big Shots: The Photography of Guy Webster
Book
A stunning retrospective of noted celebrity and rock photographer Guy Webster's work in 1960s Los...
Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director
Book
"The cinema is Nicholas Ray". (Jean-Luc Godard). The visionary filmmaker Nicholas Ray spent his...
American Titan: Searching for John Wayne
Book
From the veteran New York Times bestselling biographer comes a major, in-depth look at one of the...