TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Milburn Stone]

The Mitchell Leisen biography (most of which comes from oral histories from those he worked with) 

 

Is that this?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-director-career-Mitchell-Leisen/dp/B0006CGD1C/

I had always heard that [Danny Kaye] was a most difficult and rather obnoxious man. 

 

The Martin Gottfried biography of Kaye, Nobody's Fool, describes him as a horribly depressed man. I recall a tableau in it of Kaye coming home from the completion of the taping of one of his weekly variety shows, sitting down in his living room chair, and not getting up from it for three days. That might have had something to do with it.

[Rinaldo]

That's the one, Milburn Stone.

[Crisopera]

In my early teens, when I first got interested in old movies, Channel 44 in the SF Bay Area used to show them every Sunday afternoon, and they showed a TON of Danny Kaye movies.  I adored them (and him).  But now I find him almost unwatchable.  Since he was obviously hugely gifted, it's sad that he never made a real classic.   (The Court Jester certainly comes the closest.)  Maybe Preston Sturges could have toned him down.  I mean, look what he did for Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken, two other huge 40s stars who are unbearable in anything but The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero.

 

PS: rinaldo, I was surprised to find that "Choreography" was an actual Irving Berlin song - I thought it was another of those annoying Sylvia Fine interpolations.

Edited July 16, 2015 by Crisopera

[Rinaldo]

rinaldo, I was surprised to find that "Choreography" was an actual Irving Berlin song - I thought it was another of those annoying Sylvia Fine interpolations.

Ha! It sounds like it, doesn't it? I wonder if she gave Mr. Berlin some "advice" on what it needed to say. (Referring to my previous post on the subject, I'll also concede that another good reason not to use the song in the stage score is that its satirical target is pretty much unintelligible today: "We used to have fun dance numbers, now we have high-toned balletic stuff." But for us, the gap has long since been bridged, and beautifully blended, by decades of Robbins, Champion, Fosse, Bennett, Tune, Marshall, Stroman et al. And we rightly can't see any conflict there. But also, it's a dumb song that brings out the worst in Kaye.)

[elle]

Re the Stanwyck movies on line:  my cable provider Time Warner does not give me access to Watch TCM, a continuing mega-irritant.  

I feel your pain.  Comcast moved TCM to a "premier" package with no warning.  One month it was there, next month gone.

 

Thank goodness we can still come here at talk about movies we are missing! :-)

[Charlie Baker]

I like White Christmas the movie a lot, but there are items in the score, besides "Choreography" that aren't top drawer Berlin.  "Snow," "What Do You Do with a General?," "Love You Didn't Do Right by Me"--not awful, maybe, but...

Edited July 16, 2015 by Charlie Baker

[prican58]

ratgirl, I didn't find the Odd Couple moment particularly funny when I first heard/saw it. But when I later  saw Homolka in a movie I remember thinking "That's Oscar Homolka?" Felt like I had discovered America. 

[Coffeecup]

I'm another big fan of Westward the Women. It's one of my favorite Westerns, and I try to watch it every time TCM shows it. We didn't see much from Hollywood in those years that gave realistic portrayals of the women of the West. Frontier women had to be as tough as their men, and needed skills such as riding, driving wagons and shooting to survive with their families in isolated places.

I am glad the movie was filmed in black and white. It made the landscape look more forbidding, and allowed us to concentrate on the actors. If it had been in color, we might have been distracted by the scenery -- pretty blue sky, red rock cliffs, etc.

I hated it when the little Italian boy died in the gun accident too, but that was a reflection of reality. The frontier was hard on children.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

ratgirl, I didn't find the Odd Couple moment particularly funny when I first heard/saw it. But when I later  saw Homolka in a movie I remember thinking "That's Oscar Homolka?" Felt like I had discovered America.

prican58,  that is such an inspired way of putting it.  That's how I've always felt about discovering these things whether in books or movies or music or radio or sports or whatever.  It's such an explosion of understanding, and you sit there on your little chair in your house, silent, with a wild surmise.  Damn if I don't thank god every day for TCM.

[3pwood]

Damn if I don't thank god every day for TCM.

 

Or at least Ted Turner (in spite of colorization).

[prican58]

That feeling is never more true than when watching Batman reruns. I'm a kid watching the show back then and not knowing the bad guys were all played by famous Hollywood actors. So later as I became a classic film freak I started seeing these folks and got that Chris Columbus moment especially with the Burgess Meredith's, David Wayne's and Cesar Romero's of the world. Not so much with the likes of Vincent Price and Roddy McDowell because they were still very visible on tv shows of the late 60's and 70's. Re those names, they are some of my favorite Hollywood actors and I'm always trying to view their movies.  

[elle]

I'm another big fan of Westward the Women. It's one of my favorite Westerns, and I try to watch it every time TCM shows it. We didn't see much from Hollywood in those years that gave realistic portrayals of the women of the West. Frontier women had to be as tough as their men, and needed skills such as riding, driving wagons and shooting to survive with their families in isolated places.

I am glad the movie was filmed in black and white. It made the landscape look more forbidding, and allowed us to concentrate on the actors. If it had been in color, we might have been distracted by the scenery -- pretty blue sky, red rock cliffs, etc.

I hated it when the little Italian boy died in the gun accident too, but that was a reflection of reality. The frontier was hard on children.

You have been lucky then to not have seen the colorized version of the movie.  It does exist and will show up on other channels, but not TCM.  I do wonder if Mr. Turner came to regret that particular decision.

 

(It is not just that the boy is killed it the accident that caused it that is so heart-wretching; I have hope for the mother in the end meeting a fellow Italian)

[CMH1981]

I watched Night of the Hunter the other night when it was on, and my goodness that movie was creepy as hell.  

 

I don't think I will ever be able to hear "leaning on the everlasting arms" the same way again.  

 

Robert Mitchum was pure terror to me, and by that I mean the middle of the road guy who is able to fool everyone but deep down is pure evil.  The sad thing is there are so many people like this out there that blend in with society.  He played these characters so effectively, just like Cape Fear.

 

The scene of Willa in that car dead was creepy as can be.  Just tied up and her hair flowing all about.  It looked so much like Shelley Winters.

 

I'm sad that this movie wasn't as popular when it came out b/c it did deprive us of more films directed by Laughton.

[magicdog]

Mitchum did do a great job being the creep his character was, but when I saw it I started thinking the chase was turning into a spoof.  With all the effort the kids put into ditching him, Mitchum's character just kept on popping up even when you think he couldn't possibly have found his way there.   I figured his greed was stronger than anything else.

[ratgirlagogo]

I love Night of the Hunter and also regret that Laughton never directed anything else.  The casting is wonderful,     Mitchum is so terrifying, and poor lovesick Shelley Winters.  And Lillian Gish with her shotgun, just like all those beautiful tough girls back in the silents!

[elle]

I don't think I will ever be able to hear "leaning on the everlasting arms" the same way again.

I recall reading somewhere that though Mitchum and Gish are singing the same tune, they are not singing the same song.  Gish is singing the original, considered real, version - one sings in the refrain: Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.  while the other sings: Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus, leaning on the everlasting arms.

 

Couldn't you just take the girl Ruby and try to shake some sense into her?

[Rinaldo]

There's a very good discussion of Night of the Hunter in Simon Callow's biography of Charles Laughton. Being an actor and director himself (as well as a fine writer), he brings a lot of insight to his analysis.

[CMH1981]

I wanted to slap little Pearl Harper, more than Ruby.  I understand she was a little girl and didn't know any better and was doing what was told by the adults, but good grief...the trouble she caused her brother.

 

After the kids escape on the boat I do agree the movie starts to become a farce in a sort, but I just loved Lilian Gish's character.  Powell did let the money get the better of him when he was so smart before.  He makes his way into the house when he knows she has a shotgun then rushes her?!  If anything he should have set the house on fire to force them all out.

 

I loved how Mrs. Cooper seemingly understood that John was keeping his secrets for a reason, and that allowed them to have an instant bond.  I thought for some reason when we found out she was just a religious as Powell, that we would find out she was Powell's mother and she was taking in these stray children b/c her own son had run off.

 

Why did Powell think that people would think him a preacher when he had those two tattoos on his fingers, I mean to me that would be a giveaway, even if he was reformed or not.

[elle]

prican58,  that is such an inspired way of putting it.  That's how I've always felt about discovering these things whether in books or movies or music or radio or sports or whatever.  It's such an explosion of understanding, and you sit there on your little chair in your house, silent, with a wild surmise.  Damn if I don't thank god every day for TCM.

Back to The Court Jester - This was never more true, that explosion of understanding, than when I saw a *young* Angela Lansbury (I know, imagine!).  She was beautiful!  I had not recognized her in National Velvet until later, so this was the first time for me to see her.

 

Speaking of young and beautiful and not realizing who it was - Glynnis Johns! - I can not think of another movie were she looks more beautiful, only knew her from Mary Poppins until then.

 

And I most say a word or two for both Basil Rathbone (suave!) and Mildred Natwick (versatile!)

[Julia]

If you ever get a chance, look for Glynis Johns as Lady Mabel in An Ideal Husband, with Paulette Goddard as the wicked Mrs. Chevely.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Julia

[prican58]

And I most say a word or two for both Basil Rathbone (suave!)

 

And isn't he just! First time I ever saw him was in David Copperfield when I was about 12 or 13 and he scared the bejeesus out of me! So nasty and mean!  Who knew that I'd totally fawn over him as I got older. That nose and that clear, precise voice! He's just delicious!  

[Rinaldo]

As prican58 has mentioned David Copperfield, may I branch off and ask if anyone knows the 1969 film of the same book, shown as a TV movie in the US? It's one of those "I have an idea" productions: David alone and distraught after his friend's death, flashing back to everything that ever happened to him, until in the end he realizes how to write "the story of his own life," just as Agnes arrives. Very much of its time (doing your own thing, plus finding a purpose, just like Benjamin Braddock, or Pippin), and I couldn't call it entirely successful in that respect.

 

But oh my, the cast! It's a feast of everyone you would want in a David Copperfield at that date. David himself is Robin Phillips, who soon pretty much left acting for directing, and became the director of the Stratford Ontario Festival. James Donald as Mr. Murdstone. Laurence Olivier and Richard Attenborough as the schoolmasters. Edith Evans as Aunt Betsey! Cyril Cusack as Barkis. Megs Jenkins, Michael Redgrave, and young Sinead Cusack as members of the Peggotty family. Current favorites from The Forsyte Saga Nicholas Pennell (Traddles) and Susan Hampshire (Agnes). Pamela Franklin as Dora, Corin Redgrave as Steerforth, Ron Moody as Uriah Heep. AND Ralph Richardson and Wendy Hiller as the Micawbers. They add up to sufficient reason for me to give it an occasional viewing.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Rinaldo

[ratgirlagogo]

Geez!  What a cast!   I wish I HAD seen it.  On Amazon it looks like it's not really in print anymore.  Has it ever shown on TCM?

[Bastet]

Wendy Hiller

 

I really like her.  I watched the '78 version of The Cat and the Canary a gazillion times as a child (and still watch it from time to time), and then I saw her in The Elephant Man and some early '80s TV movies and miniseries, soon realizing she was one of those actors I liked in just about anything.

[Rinaldo]

Geez!  What a cast!   I wish I HAD seen it.  On Amazon it looks like it's not really in print anymore. 

It seems to be available new, used (for a penny), or for Prime Instant viewing. I should add that its "in print" status for home video has sometimes been a matter of semantics, as the DVD I bought a few years ago was a less-than-pristine, rather wobbly dubbing from a well-used source. (It looked like a typical bootleg, in fact; perhaps some marginal distributor had acquired the rights because nobody else wanted them.) And though the box cover displayed on Amazon is different from mine, which might suggest a new and better transfer, it doesn't inspire confidence with its lifting of Olivier (in defiance of actual billing order) above the title while blatantly misspelling his first name.

 

Edited to add: As I'm a Prime member, it cost me nothing to check out the start of their online stream. It's kind of hilarious (dismaying, if you aren't ready) that it begins with a dump of the DVD extras: the animated menu (which isn't interactive, of course) and the portrait gallery, all with musical accompaniment. But then after a minute or two it settles into the actual movie. I haven't checked it beyond that point except to note that the wobble remains.

 

One fun detail that I'd forgotten is that the opening credits give each name in the cast a separate "card," each of which adapts one of the famous "Phiz" illustrations to incorporate the actor's likeness. 

Edited July 20, 2015 by Rinaldo

[Crisopera]

Bastet, if you like Wendy Hiller, you must see the 1938 version of Pygmalion and the 1945 I Know Where I'm Going.  For me, she is the definitive Eliza Doolittle.  And the other is just the most gorgeous, romantic movie - one of Powell & Pressberger's best.  Luckily, TCM shows them both every so often.

[Rinaldo]

Bastet, if you like Wendy Hiller, you must see the 1938 version of Pygmalion and the 1945 I Know Where I'm Going.  For me, she is the definitive Eliza Doolittle.  

Yes! I was going to mention this earlier. I don't like using the D-word about performances (roles exist to be done by many interpreters, each with different nuances)... but over the years Hiller's Eliza does start to add up more and more as definitive. What sets her performance apart from others I've seen is that her Eliza is the same person throughout: when she's portraying a "lady" at Mrs. Higgins's house, we can see the effort it costs her, even when she's successful. Most Elizas, when they reach this point in the story, are visibly relieved to be able to drop the Cockney accent and be "themselves" and look pretty. But for Hiller it's almost painful how hard she has to work. It makes her resentment at Higgins's callousness, and her despair at the uselessness of her new position in life, really make sense.

 

When I teach My Fair Lady in my History of Musicals course, I do side-by-side comparisons of scenes from the two movies. Generally the students prefer Rex Harrison as Higgins (as I do too) because he's such a master of that sublimely unaware callousness that it becomes funny and almost forgivable; but they prefer Wendy Hiller (even against the attractions of Audrey Hepburn in color) because of her truthfulness.

[Charlie Baker]

I saw that Copperfield movie--it may have been my first exposure to the story.  Definitely one to seek out.

 

I love those movies with Ms. Hiller, too, Crisopera.

[elle]

Geez!  What a cast!   I wish I HAD seen it.  On Amazon it looks like it's not really in print anymore.

 

I found this on YouTube.  Can't vouch for the quality or the length, but it is an alternative if you don't have access to Prime.

 

 

 

Who knew that I'd totally fawn over him as I got older. That nose and that clear, precise voice! He's just delicious!

Back to Basil Rathbone - he is my favorite movie Sherlock Holmes right along side the lovely Jeremy Brett from TV (and who knew then that he was "Freddy" in My Fair Lady?).  My favorite tribute to him in Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective" - Basil of Baker Street; with Vincent Price voicing the villain of course.

 

A big THANK YOU to the makers of this site for including the "auto save content" feature!  Saved me from a headache/rant more than once!  :0)

[Sharpie66]

Bastet, if you like Wendy Hiller, you must see the 1938 version of Pygmalion and the 1945 I Know Where I'm Going.  For me, she is the definitive Eliza Doolittle.  And the other is just the most gorgeous, romantic movie - one of Powell & Pressberger's best.  Luckily, TCM shows them both every so often.

 

 

I Know Where I'm Going is one of my all-time favorite films. I had never heard of it until around 1990, when I was going through the movie listings in the back of the local paper's tv guide, which had the time and channel, number of stars from the paper's movie reviewer, and a very brief description of the film. The description for IKWIG was along the lines of "The most romantic film ever made." My sister and I figured we'd check it out, and both just fell in love with it.

 

Before then, I already knew Wendy Hiller from Pygmalion as well as Murder on the Orient Express (and boy, did my young self have difficulties reconciling that it was the same actress, separated by several decades!), and really liked her abilities.

[Bastet]

Bastet, if you like Wendy Hiller, you must see the 1938 version of Pygmalion and the 1945 I Know Where I'm Going.  For me, she is the definitive Eliza Doolittle.  And the other is just the most gorgeous, romantic movie - one of Powell & Pressberger's best.  Luckily, TCM shows them both every so often.

 

Yes, I've seen both of those.  The latter I watched only because of her, as I don't tend to seek out the romance genre (screwball comedy, I'm all over it, but romantic drama, take it or leave it), and I liked it.

[Julia]

I thought she was heartbreaking in Separate Tables and A Man for All Seasons.

[Rick Kitchen]

 

the lovely Jeremy Brett from TV (and who knew then that he was "Freddy" in My Fair Lady?).

 

Although his singing voice was dubbed by Bill Shirley -

[Rinaldo]

Although his singing voice was dubbed by Bill Shirley

... who also provided the voice (both speaking and singing) for the prince in Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

[Rick Kitchen]

And Roger in 101 Dalmatians.

[elle]

And the funny thing was, I did not make the connection until it was laid out for me by Jeremy Brett when he narrated a "making of" for My Fair Lady

 

fyi Bill Shirley also provided voices for The Jungle Book (wolf) and The Little Mermaid (Grigsby).

Edited July 21, 2015 by elle

[prican58]

A Man for All Seasons.

 

Oh! This is one of my top 10 films! When I was in the 8th or 9th grade my English teacher told us we had to watch the television airing of this film. I very willfully did not want to see it. Didn't care. 

 

Well, was I ever wrong! I couldn't tear myself away. It's so breathtakingly gorgeous and the acting is crazy great!  Robert Shaw was a force of nature as Henry VIII. It put him on the map for me.

 

Wish it would air a bit more frequently.

[elle]

Oh! This is one of my top 10 films! When I was in the 8th or 9th grade my English teacher told us we had to watch the television airing of this film. I very willfully did not want to see it. Didn't care. 

 

Well, was I ever wrong! I couldn't tear myself away. It's so breathtakingly gorgeous and the acting is crazy great!  Robert Shaw was a force of nature as Henry VIII. It put him on the map for me.

 

Wish it would air a bit more frequently.

Wow!  Cool teacher and lucky you!

 

I had a similar experience in 12th grade English with Becket.  That is when I really saw how great Richard Burton was as an actor.  And Peter O'Toole!  So far from "Mr.  Chips"! What amazed me was how enthralled my classmates were, there were loud protests when we had to stop the movie because our time was up.  Our teacher reassured us that we would get to see the rest the next day!

[mariah23]

British actress and Hitchcock leading lady Nova Pilbeam has died at age 95.

[Rinaldo]

Someone had fun with today's programming:

 

6:30 AM    Star Of Midnight (1935)

8:00 AM    Between Midnight and Dawn (1950)
9:45 AM    Twelve O'Clock High (1949)
12:00 PM   High Tide at Noon (1957)

3:00 PM     3:10 To Yuma (1957)

4:45 PM    The Devil At Four O'Clock (1961)

[jjj]

Someone had fun with today's programming:

 

6:30 AM    Star Of Midnight (1935)

8:00 AM    Between Midnight and Dawn (1950)

9:45 AM    Twelve O'Clock High (1949)

12:00 PM   High Tide at Noon ..........

Yes, I look at the listings on my onscreen guide most mornings to see if I can identify the theme, and this one made me laugh! 

[mariah23]

Oscar-nominated actor Theodore Bilkel dies at 91.

[Julia]

Oscar-nominated actor Theodore Bilkel dies at 91.

 

Oh, no. I liked him. 

 

Also he was the first Captain von Trapp in Sound of Music on Broadway.

[Sharpie66]

He was Worf's dad on Star Trek: TNG, too.

[Rinaldo]

And rival phoneticist Zoltan Karpathy in the My Fair Lady film.

 

He played Tevye in many a stage production of Fiddler on the Roof -- according to online sources, more performances than any other actor who undertook the role. I had forgotten that he had an Academy Award nomination to his credit (for The Defiant Ones), and I never knew that he understudied both the leading men in the first London production of A Streetcar Named Desire, and eventually took over the role of Stanley opposite Vivien Leigh.

Edited July 21, 2015 by Rinaldo

[Julia]

Not to mention a great Columbo villain.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Someone had fun with today's programming:

Those are always my favorite theme days.  I loved the one a year or two ago when they showed a bunch of TCM-era movies that had the same titles as current films.  

Edited July 23, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[prican58]

elle, I also had a teacher who showed us Hunchback of Notre Dame w/Laughton and it was another awakening to the sheer beauty of Maureen O'Hara! She was so young and just gorgeous!  

 

Yet another English teacher had us read To Kill a Mockingbird, and I wasn't quite up for it. But damn if that didn't become my all time favorite work of fiction and then when I saw the movie, well I'm sure most who have seen it felt the same.

 

Such influences, these English teachers. I thank them all.

[elle]

Oscar-nominated actor Theodore Bilkel dies at 91.

What?  No!

 

So much love the man - My Fair Lady, Enemy Below, The Russians are Coming!The Russians are Coming!, and the small cameo in African Queen.

 

It was said that Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the song "Edelweiss" specifically for him to perform on Broadway in 'The Sound of Music'.

 

Now I will never get to see my dream interview of Theodore Bikel speaking of *what he said* while dancing with Audrey Hepburn.  He had said that he did many things well but dancing was not one of them and that he was so nervous to be dancing with the lovely Audrey, but she put him at ease.  The look like they are having so much fun in the scene, love her smile, that I wonder what he said to her.

Edited July 22, 2015 by elle

[elle]

Found this on a search for TCM.  "TCM Noir: Into The Darkness Study Group"

 

TCM will remember Omar Shariff in a September triple play

 

==========================================

I really hope they will be doing the same for Theodore Bikel.  Right now I have not seen anything about his death on either the IMDB or TCM sites.