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| Navy Secrets (1939) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 24 2016, 04:45 AM (226 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Mar 24 2016, 04:45 AM Post #1 |
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![]() Navy Secrets (1939) Dir. Howard Bretherton Attempting to deliver some rare stamps for a shipmate, CPO Grant Withers apparently stumbles into a den of foreign spies. Which side is the shipmate's mysterious girlfriend, Fay Wray, on? Fairly abysmal Pre-War "thriller" without thrills; the movie is filled with men with foreign accents sitting around looking extremely glum in nightclubs where Navy personnel frequent; they'd have been corralled in seconds flat by the FBI. Even the MGM Crime Reporter would've spotted THESE mooks. As for me, I spent the whole hour wondering what the hell happened to Fay Wray's career. Million-dollar Dialog: Out nightclubbing, Grant discovers he's run short of cash so Fay loans him some. Grant: "Ten dollars! Gee, I didn't know girls carried that much money!" There's no action in the film (well, a couple of guys get socked inna puss, but it happens fast) and no humor, except for a long scene where our two stars (such as they were in 1939, we'd better use the term loosely) are trying to neck on a park bench and a kid on a bike keeps interrupting them. The way the sequence is shot and played, it's actual the only suspense and drama in the whole picture. The thing's a stinker, but I discovered something: I watched the first third (Alpha DVD) on my regular TV, and it looked average for Alpha, which is lousy for anyone else; then I moved over to my computer, smaller screen, and it looked better; then I watched the last 15 min. on my smartphone, and the picture looked much better. Watch Alpha discs small is the lesson to be learned, my friends. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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| The Batman | Mar 24 2016, 07:03 AM Post #2 |
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Charter Member
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No offense, LG, but that will be the day I watch a movie on a smartphone. |
| Always be yourself! Unless you can be Batman...then always be Batman! | |
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| riddlerider | Mar 24 2016, 08:25 PM Post #3 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Size doesn't matter in this case. I acquired a near mint 16mm print of this film and saw it for the first time projected on a eight-foot screen. Razor-sharp image and crystal-clear sound. Didn't mean a thing. The first screening was also the last. I sold the print as fast as I could. Fortunately, in the early '90s, you could still get rid of rare Monograms pretty easily. |
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| Laughing Gravy | Mar 24 2016, 09:29 PM Post #4 |
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Yes, even by Monogram standards, which are fairly meager to begin with, this one's poor. |
| "I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley | |
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6:30 AM Jul 11