Recently Watched Films

All 4.5 hours of it. Replaces Metropolis as the oldest film I've seen and Once Upon a Time in America as the longest. 

Well that was fucking twisted. 

Fritz Lang's third and final western. I enjoyed Western Union previously, but this one is better. 

Don Siegel film. Originally written with Eastwood in mind, who turned it down. Bit of a gem even without him. 

Slow burn western drama about an old cowboy at the end of the Old West era. 

Another John Huston gem. 

Pre-Code gangster movie from 1931. While not as good or as extreme as Scarface (which remains 15 rated here in the UK where this is just PG) it's an essential piece of genre history. There's also something more authentic about watching prohibition gangster movies from this era. These actors and filmmakers lived it. 

WW2 spy movie with some noirish qualities (wouldn't call it a full noir myself though). A weaker one from Fritz Lang, but still very solid. He's fast become a favourite director of mine, especially among those active in the 1930s or earlier, along with Hitchcock. 

I may be committing sacrilege by saying this, but I found this movie corny as fuck. Somehow I still really enjoyed it. 

It's a solid enough war drama, but they stand around talking about it more than actually fighting the war it seems. 

Stylish & violent, with a great cast that includes Brolin, Gosling and Penn among others, it should be one hell of a gangster movie. Only it isn't. Not bad per se but so much less than the sum of its parts. 

Re-watch via a quality DVD rather than that piece of shit upload available on Amazon Prime. There's no contest for me that this is the best film of the 1930's I've watched so far. Not that that's many, but still, it's a tough act to beat.

Brilliant. 

My first silent film and also takes over as the oldest film I've seen. In some ways it seems pretty corny, but it's also impossible not to be wowed by the fact that this was released in 1927 and I also cannot say for a minute that I wasn't entertained in spite of the long length (I have the restored 2.5 hour version), though I was forced to watch it in three instalments between last night and this morning, taking breaks to keep up with shows live on TV and then because I simply couldn't say awake to finish it, but I don't think it would have been hard to watch it one sitting otherwise. What started as something I felt obliged to watch in order to call myself a self-respecting sci-fi fan quickly turned into a movie I was floored by. Everyone should see this, though make sure you see the restore 2010 version of course!

Bogart's penultimate movie. Great home invasion thriller/noir. Could have been really brutal had the Hollywood Production Code not still be in force at the time. 

Re-watch on a remastered DVD. Honesty don't recall if the version I originally watched on Amazon was the same or any worse, but this was a very good copy. A must for film noir and/or Fritz Lang fans.