"Identify A Movie For Me!" Thread: Part 3D

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > "Identify A Movie For Me!" Thread: Part 3D

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I am looking for a movie about a guy who travels to a US state looking for a dude who disappeared down there years earlier. The local authorities try to sabotage him because they were complicit in killing the dude or lynching or something. In the end, the main character defeats the bad guys by figuring out that they have been stealing his mail, which makes it a federal matter!

Also, it turns out the the guy was just there to hand over a medal to the missing dudes family, because he was a war hero or something, and if the bad guys hadn't freaked out and assumed he was out to get them, they would probably have been fine.

Does this ring a bell for anyone else?

Edit: This was an old movie.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Jan 24, 2021

# ¿ Jan 24, 2021 17:04

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 01:51

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

SimonChris posted:

I am looking for a movie about a guy who travels to a US state looking for a dude who disappeared down there years earlier. The local authorities try to sabotage him because they were complicit in killing the dude or lynching or something. In the end, the main character defeats the bad guys by figuring out that they have been stealing his mail, which makes it a federal matter!

Btw, this was an old movie, 70's at the latest, I think.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2021 17:55

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

MarioOnTheComputer posted:

Bad Day at Black Rock.

Yes! Thank you! I remembered it as a "red rock" and couldn't find anything under that title.

Turns out the federal issue concerned a telegram and not a letter.

Bad Day at Black Rock posted:

MACREEDY
(evenly, to Smith)
I think that's for me.
(he takes the message
from Smith's hand
and quickly glances
at it. Looking up at
Hastings)
Where's the answer?

Hastings is silent. A brittle expression of bemusement crosses
Smith's features.

SMITH
You expect an answer -- to a wire
that's never sent?

Macreedy's mouth compresses in a harsh grin.

SMITH
What's so funny?

MACREEDY
Nothing. Just a thought --
(his eyes turn to
Hastings. Hastings
wilts)
-- a thought dazzling in its purity...

Macreedy takes a step toward Hastings. The telegraph agent
bounces away.

MACREEDY
(slowly)
You're in a jam, Hastings. You gave
my telegram to Smith.

DOC
(excitedly)
You warty wretch! That's a federal
offense!

MACREEDY
(to Smith)
You're in deep, too.
(grins hard)
Like I said, it's getting tougher
and tougher.
(to Tim)
Sheriff, you'd better do something
about this.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2021 20:24

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

ynohtna posted:

Running Scared, 2006, with Paul Walker. The whole film has a twisted, abstract fairy tale aspect to it.

I love it when movies are old enough that you can read the Roger Ebert review:

Roger Ebert posted:

Speaking of movies that go over the top, "Running Scared" goes so far over the top, it circumnavigates the top and doubles back on itself; it's the Mobius Strip of over-the-topness. I am in awe. It throws in everything but the kitchen sink. Then it throws in the kitchen sink, too, and the combo washer-dryer in the laundry room, while the hero and his wife are having sex on top of it.

I never tire of quoting the French director Truffaut, who said that he was interested only in movies that were about the agony of making cinema or the ecstasy of making cinema. "Running Scared" eliminates the middle man. It's not even about making cinema. It's just about the agony and the ecstasy.

The movie stars Paul Walker. You won't catch him acting in "Running Scared." The movie never slows down enough. He simply behaves, at an alarming velocity. After an opening flash-forward that features a car crash, the movie flashes back to a drug deal that goes bad. All the crooked cops and drug dealers in the room are killed, except for Joey Gazelle (Walker) and a guy who tells him to take all of the guns and lose them. Actually, maybe some other guys survived, too. This is the kind of movie where the next scene starts before the body count.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2023 21:48

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Gripweed posted:

I feel like some movie or TV show must�ve had a character do the Sherlock Holmes thing where they deduce another character�s whole backstory on first sight based on tiny visual cues, only to eat poo poo and get every part wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKQOk5UlQSc

There is a neat sketch making fun of how little sense the deductions in "Sherlock" make.

Edit: If you haven't seen Sherlock, the stuff in the beginning is near verbatim from the show. Like how a smartphone is a "young mans gadget" :allears:

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Jun 17, 2023

# ¿ Jun 17, 2023 08:20

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

I remember reading about an old choose-your-own-adventure movie from the 60's or 70's, where they only filmed one outcome and just told everyone that this was what the majority had chosen. People would hold up signs with their choice in the theater, and the screen would say something like "you chose option A!" and then continue showing the movie. Since this was a garbage b-movie, no one watched it more than once anyway. I think Roger Ebert wrote about it, but I can't remember the title.

Edit: The closest thing I can find is Kinoautomat, in which the ending was fixed, but there was genuine interactivity during the movie. I distinctly remember this being an American b-movie, though.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 09:02 on Jun 21, 2023

# ¿ Jun 21, 2023 08:57

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

therattle posted:

That sounds like a classic William Castle gimmick, so I looked up William Castle and it looks like it�s Mr Sardonicus

Yes! Thank you! This was surprisingly hard to google.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2023 09:53

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 01:51

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Alan Smithee posted:

isn't that the one that gives away like the entire movie

That's every trailer nowadays.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2024 14:56

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > "Identify A Movie For Me!" Thread: Part 3D