Showing posts with label Charlton Heston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charlton Heston. Show all posts

Sunday, 18 August 2013

The Ten Commandments (1956) - ★★

Director: Cecil B. Demille
Writers: Twas a large collaboration
Stars: Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Paget, John Derek, Cedric Hardwicke, Nina Foch, Martha Scott, Judith Anderson, Vincent Price

I think critics forgive a lot of faults when it comes to epic movies. In particular, Cecil B. Demille epics. The Ten Commandments is a movie so grand in scale that people don't sweat the little stuff, and focus on the amazing special effects and cinematography. As for me, I found there were too many unforgivable problems to call this a good movie. The acting was atrocious by almost the entire cast, and the dialogue was highly laughable (for it was a terrible mixture of Hollywood cheese and Bible-esque speech). The story itself is highly interesting, but it drags on so long in this movie that I lost almost all interest in the film. The only thing that kept me going was the hope for an epic 'plagues of Egypt' sequence.

Sunday, 14 April 2013

Touch of Evil (1958) - ★★★★

Director: Orson Welles
Writers: Orson Welles (Screenplay), Whit Masterson (Novel 'Badge of Evil')
Stars: Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Marlene Dietrich

Touch of Evil is an incredible film. Everything about this film screams 'masterpiece.' It's an extremely gutsy film, considering it was made in 1958. Some of the themes included were: hard drugs, gangs, kidnapping, corruption, and murder. I think there were a few problems with the editing department, for at times it felt either sloppy or unfinished.