Thursday, October 11, 2018

Thursday Movie Picks #222: The Dark/Night



This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is "The Dark/Night". I had been thinking it was just "Darkness", which would have allowed me to use a lineup of very dark comedies, but alas. I had to think about three more conventional movies with major scenes set at night, that I haven't already used before. As it turns out, I used both Wait Until Dark and Night of the Hunter last October for a TMP week on dolls, so they're out this time. Instead, I came up with:

Night and the City (1950). Richard Widmark plays a small-time hustler who gets ideas above his station about promoting wrestling matches, except that he doesn't have the money for it, which leads him to go to his girlfriend (Gene Tierney) and his boss's wife (Googie Withers) for it. The boss figures out what's going on, and tries to stop Widmark. Notable for its London location shooting, and rises far above a plot that's been done before.

Night on Earth (1991). Jim Jarmusch anthology of five stories, all of which take place simultaneously although each story is presented as its own individual story. That means the Los Angeles story (starring Gena Rowlands) takes place as night falls, while the last story, an extremely sad story in Helsinki that's mostly just a cabbie talking, takes place near daybreak. In between, there's Rosie Perez and an East German clown in New York, a blind woman in Paris, and Roberto Benigni and a dead priest in Rome.

Night Train to Paris (1964). Leslie Nielsen plays a PR man for an airline's office in London who gets approached by an old spy friend from their Korean War days about getting to Paris on New Year's Eve because they just have to get a tape to some guy there. They end up taking the train because all the planes are booked solid, and all sorts of hijinks ensue as the spies working for the bad guys try to get a hold of that tape. To be honest, I only picked this one because it was a third movie with a title beginning with "Night", and because I watched it not too long ago when it was in the rotation on FXM Retro. It's an OK enough time-passer, but nothing special. Fun to watch young Leslie Nielsen, however.

2 comments:

joel65913 said...

Hey a little theme within the theme! Good work.

LOVE Night and the City. Richard Widmark is one of my top 5 favorite actors so that helps but the film is just so well put together and directed.

You're right about Night Train to Paris, it's always interesting to see Leslie Nielsen in his early work but the film was run of the mill though entertaining enough.

We match on Night on Earth.

I stayed away from horror too and went with three that have nighttime settings.

Night on Earth (1991)-Quintet of narrative tales set in cities around the world as a taxi driver in each city picks up a fare at the exact same moment and we share their lives and stories during the rides. A fable directed by Jim Jarmusch populated with quite a cast including Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Rosie Perez and Armin Mueller-Stahl.

The Night Before (1988)-Nerdy high school senior Winston Connelly (Keanu Reeves) regains consciousness late at night in an alley dressed in a tux. Problem is he has no idea how he ended up there, where exactly in L.A. he is nor where his car, wallet or more importantly his date (Lori Loughlin) are either! As he stumbles around he recalls getting sidetracked on the way to the prom and that now Tito the pimp is trying to kill him. It sounds like a drama but is played for comedy, goofy but harmless.

After Hours (1985)-Oddity of poor snook Paul Hackett (Griffin Dunne), a button down computer processor who through a series of crossed wires and misunderstanding spends one surreal night in downtown Manhattan in a seemingly futile attempt to get back uptown. Dunne is perfect in the lead surrounded by a bunch of zany characters enacted by among others Teri Garr, Rosanna Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Catherine O’Hara and Cheech & Chong. Nominated for the Palm d’Or with Martin Scorsese winning the Cannes director prize.

Birgit said...

I haven’t seen any of your films but I like Richard Widmark and would like to see that one. The other 2 sound good as well and I will be on the lookout for them.