[4] Guys and Dolls pits men against women and vice against virtue in a light-hearted movie musical adapted from the popular Broadway play. Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra headline as two New York gamblers who make a bet that Brando can’t woo a female missionary (Jean Simmons) to a dinner date in Havana. The date unexpectedly results in true love, but the budding romance is …
[7] Marlon Brando stars in Sydney Lumet’s adaptation of Tennessee Williams Orpheus Descending. (Williams co-wrote the screenplay with Meade Roberts.) Brando plays a young man trying to shed his criminal background and start a new life in a new town. But the new town has three women in it who all find Brando alluring. Joanne Woodward plays the reckless party animal, Maureen Stapleton plays the …
1980 Theatrical Version [7] 2006 Richard Donner Cut [7] Three space criminals clad in shiny black suits come to Earth and force Superman into a confrontation, just as he’s decided to give up his powers for a normal relationship with Lois Lane. Superman II was shot concurrently with Superman: The Movie, both under the direction of Richard Donner (The Omen, Lethal Weapon). But after Donner had …
[5] Marlon Brando is terrific as Marc Antony in the centerpiece scene, rallying Rome to condemn Caesar’s assassins. The supporting cast, sets, Miklos Rozsa’s score, and the cast of thousands are impressive. But I’ll be damned if this movie didn’t have me fighting off sleep on more than one occasion. Maybe I need to see it again later, or maybe James Mason’s voice just puts …
[6] Marlon Brando plays Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard takes on the mantle of the sadistic Captain Bligh in this remake from director Lewis Milestone (All Quiet on the Western Front). The bloated run time (three hours) doesn’t help the movie, and neither does a scarcity of closeups in the super-70mm framing. You never get into the minds of the leading characters and Brando is …
[4] George C. Scott stars as a police officer who follows a murder case that gets him embroiled in a mystery involving the Nazis and big oil. The film’s ahead of its time in vilifying the oil companies, represented here by none other than Marlon Brando. Scott’s character hits the nail on the head when he tells Brando: “You’re not in the oil business, you’re …
[7] In the tradition of Lost in La Mancha and Jodorowsky’s Dune comes this documentary chronicling the conception and nightmarish execution of the infamous 1997 mega-flop The Island of Dr. Moreau. Director Richard Stanley (Hardware) is the focus of the first half of the film as we hear him talk about his vision for the piece and his increasingly difficult interactions with the Hollywood brass. …
[7] I usually appreciate an interesting mess more than a tidy bore. So sue me: Yes, I like one of the most famous bad movies of the last few decades. You wanna fight about it?
[7] Director John Huston unites Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor for their only screen pairing in this adaptation of the perverse Carson McCullers novel. Brando plays a sexually repressed Army major who turns a blind eye to his wife’s (Taylor) extramarital affair while simultaneously finding himself drawn to a mysterious young cadet who spends his days running naked through the woods and his nights as …
[6] An American colonel (Glenn Ford) is tasked with enforcing democracy in a small Okinawan village but slowly begins to embrace the villagers’ hedonistic lifestyle in this off-kilter comedy based on the play by John Patrick. It’s a sweet and exuberant film, though Marlon Brando’s performance as an Okinawan interpreter earns some notoriety. My favorite scene finds Ford being forcibly disrobed by a geisha girl …
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