TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[mariah23]

TCM just scheduled their 24-hour tribute to Maureen O'Hara on Friday, November 20.  Films include the The Quiet Man, McClintock!, Big Jake, and Jamaica Inn.

[MissT]

I always like the movie Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation with Maureen O'Hara.  She was gorgeous in that movie and she had to be in her 40's.   She was a good match for Jimmy Stewart.    But I basically like her in any movie, especially How Green Was My Valley. 

[3pwood]

Yes, but what about Margaret Sullivan? :)

 

Don't let Ogden Nash see how you spelled her surname:

 

Margaret Sullavan, star alone,

Spell it your own sweet way;

The fairest of sights, in twinkling lights

Is Sullavan with an a.

[Inquisitionist]

Maureen O'Sullivan was Jane, both for Tarzan and in Pride and Prejudice, and had the Farrow children (which means that she's the one in Hannah and Her Sisters).

 

But then who's the husband modeled on in Hannah and Her Sisters?  According to her Wikipedia bio, O'Sullivan's first husband, director John Farrow, died in 1963, long before Woody met Mia (who was only 18 when her father died).  O'Sullivan married her second husband 20 years later, in 1983; James Cushing was not a performer.

 

For some reason, I always remember that O'Sullivan was a few years ahead of Vivian Hartley (aka, Vivien Leigh) at the Catholic boarding school they both attended.

[Charlie Baker]

I don't think Woody Allen meant to model Hannah's father on any specific person, just that her parents were both veteran actors. (And Lloyd Nolan played him, such a reliable pro he was.) Also interesting that Woody replaced Ms. O'Sullivan with Elaine Stritch as Mia's movie star mom in September.

[Julia]

I have an embarrassing admission to make. All these many years I've been alive, I've never been clear in my mind on Maureen O'Hara vs. Maureen O'Sullivan. (I know: all Maureens with Irish surnames are indistinguishable... shame on me.) No excuse: I just hadn't seen enough of their movie work to form a crystal clear picture of the difference.

 

But I made myself work on it for 10 minutes (it took only 10 minutes! why hadn't I don't this before?), and I've got it now. Maureen O'Sullivan was Jane, both for Tarzan and in Pride and Prejudice, and had the Farrow children (which means that she's the one in Hannah and Her Sisters). And Maureen O'Hara did everything else. Yes, I know it's more nuanced than that; but I now feel reasonably confident about a subject that always made me nervous before. So, progress.

 

Well, too (and the Tarzan thing would probably serve as a memory aid for this) Maureen O'Sullivan was a waifish little thing, and Maureen O'Hara was what my dad's generation would have called a fine figure of a woman. Also, the red hair.

 

Yes, but what about Margaret Sullivan? :)

 

The third Mrs. Harriman's second husband's ex? I'm actually kind of sad about her, because I think other than The Shop Around the Corner she's been sort of forgotten.

 

bluepiano, thank you. I felt sure someone here would be able to feed me some context.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Julia

[Rinaldo]

Maureen O'Sullivan wasn't originally intended to play that role in Hannah and Her Sisters, so I wouldn't think that either of the screen parents were modeled on anything to do with Mia. The part was cast with Eve Arden, but that's when her husband became ill, and she withdrew from this movie and a stage revival of Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes (in which she was replaced by Dina Merrill) to look after him. O'Sullivan came readily to mind as someone who'd be both suitable and available at short notice to play Hannah's mother.

[Inquisitionist]

Ah, got it!  For some reason, I thought Hannah's parents were supposed to be modeled on Mia's own experience.  O'Sullivan and Nolan were wonderful in their roles!

 

Sullavan was wonderful in The Shop Around the Corner, but she spent a lot of time away from Hollywood, preferring Broadway -- only 16 films between 1933 and 1943.  Reading about her later years makes me sad. 

Edited October 27, 2015 by Inquisitionist

[bluepiano]

Thanks for the Wikipedia link. What a tempestuous life. I knew that she was married to the powerful agent Leland Hayward, with whom she had a daughter Brooke who wrote the memoir "Haywire." I did not know that she had been married as well to Henry Fonda (briefly) and the great director William Wyler. But for all the ups and downs and turmoil in her life, we can still remember her for that sublime performance in The Shop Around the Corner.

 

Probably a lot of younger movie fans know that Mia Farrow's mother was Maureen O'Sullivan, but may not know what a talented director her father was. John Farrow made many stylish movies in a variety of genres, but I think that his film noirs really stand out. Check out The Big Clock with Ray Milland (and wife Maureen O'Sullivan) and a less well known but intriguing movie called Where Danger Lives, starring Robert Mitchum and sci-fi B movie queen Faith Domergue.

 

I love the interview clip that TCM sometimes runs with Maureen O'Sullivan, where she talks about her skimpy outfit in the famous "risqué" swimming scene in Tarzan and his Mate. And also how the censor insisted she be married to Tarzan, so presumably Cheetah performed the ceremony! She seemed like a really nice lady.

Edited October 27, 2015 by bluepiano

[voiceover]

Maureen O'Hara!  One of the "Last of the Great Broads".

[WendyCR72]

Funny the talk has turned a bit to Maureen O' Sullivan. I went to a little Catholic-based Franciscan college. It was private so, naturally, it was more expensive. Anyway, my family, not being rich, used TAP and Pell grants. However, I was also, because of financial need, given the James P. Cushing Scholarship! Mr. Cushing, MOS' second husband, was apparently from my area and attended the same college I did, and he and MOS set up the scholarship.

 

So my parents used to joke how I was now Mia Farrow's newfound sister or whatever.  :-)

[Milburn Stone]

So my parents used to joke how I was now Mia Farrow's newfound sister or whatever.  :-)

 

God knows the question of who is and isn't a member of her family has always been ill-defined. So I'd say you had a shot at it.

[Rinaldo]

I generally scout the TCM listings a week ahead each Sunday, so I can set up recordings of things I might have missed -- so I had noticed this already. But today Leonard Maltin blogs about the next Disney on TCM day, coming up tomorrow.

 

I'm happy that these happen, but I must say that in this case none of the material seems all that rare or obscure -- though of course it's of interest to those who haven't seen them before and don't own the videos. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad has remained available on home video, and it's undoubtedly seasonal for Hallowe'en, with that terrifying image of the Headless Horseman. Escape to Witch Mountain has never done much for me, but for those who feel otherwise here it is. The Disney Sunday-evening hour segment "The Plausible Impossible" was one of the ones they reran most often, but it's certainly worth seeing for those new to it. And there are shorts and extras throughout the evening.

[elle]

I generally scout the TCM listings a week ahead each Sunday, so I can set up recordings of things I might have missed -- so I had noticed this already. But today Leonard Maltin blogs about the next Disney on TCM day, coming up tomorrow.

 

It is too bad that tptb at TCM could not have switched things quickly to add "The Parent Trap" for Maureen O'Hara

 

I found a screen cap of my favorite dress from that movie.  I don't know about the rest of you, but if I had been "Vicki", I would have smiled, turned on my heel and said 'Goodbye, Mitch!'  

[Julia]

I'm happy that these happen, but I must say that in this case none of the material seems all that rare or obscure -- though of course it's of interest to those who haven't seen them before and don't own the videos. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad has remained available on home video, and it's undoubtedly seasonal for Hallowe'en, with that terrifying image of the Headless Horseman.

I live down the road from Tarrytown / Sleepy Hollow, and that movie is a feature of the tours if you visit Washington Irving's home. I must have seen it two dozen times on school trips and divorced kid's custodial weekends...

[bmoore4026]

Big Cinemascope epics during the day, largely forgotten Disney cartoons tonight.

 

Good day, good day!

 

Missed How the West was Won.  Intend to watch The Great Race and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

[Milburn Stone]

Big Cinemascope epics during the day...How the West was Won, The Great Race and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

 

I saw that triptych on the grid and said, "Oh, the theme must be bloated, top-heavy, elephantine misfires." 

[bmoore4026]

I saw that triptych on the grid and said, "Oh, the theme must be bloated, top-heavy, elephantine misfires." 

 

But I like them :(

[Milburn Stone]

That's fine.

[Rinaldo]

Before last year, I would have exempted The Great Race from that description -- I'd always enjoyed it since practically my entire junior class in college trooped out to the theater to consume it. And it still has its appealing lighter moments. But I rented it last year and found a lot of it leaden, alas. Too many segments build up for a payoff that misfires (the two Tony Curtises, the pie fight). Too bad; I hate losing longtime favorites like that.

 

More than Cinemascope, How the West Was Won and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World were released in Cinerama -- albeit the latter in the new single-camera version rather than using three synchronized projectors side by side.

[bmoore4026]

Rather enjoyed the Disney stuff they showed tonight.

 

it's a shame The Three Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf are largely forgotten now because, in looking at Disney paraphernalia of the past, they were rather prominent.  Kind of makes me sad.  It is, however, easy to see why the Warner Bros. and MGM animation departments poked fun at this particular series of cartoons - they're irritatingly sweet.

 

Ichabod and Mr. Toad was nice but I was thinking what British actors could do the parts today, if the Disney Company ever revived the characters. (Again characters that have been forgotten that could be revived.  Some needs to get on this!)  A lot of actors who have played The Doctor went through my mind, with David Tennant as Mr. Toad being most prominent.  Also, Mole and Rat make for nice Heterosexual Life Partners.  On the Sleepy Hollow part, I must confess, I've always had a crush on Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane.  And the whole Headless Horseman sequence is one of the best things ever put to celluloid.  Yet at the same time, all I could think of listening to Bing Crosby was "You fuck up your kids every night, dontcha, Bing?"  Of course, no one knew at the time.  But we know now.  That makes listening of watching things he's done feel....awkward.

 

The Old Mill short always freaked me out when I was little.  I was so scared for the mother bird and her just hatched babies.  

 

They showed a Walt Disney Presents episode that featured the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence from Fantasia, along with the uncensored angry harpy boobs, which amazed me quite frankly.  Uncle Walt refers to the monster from the peak of Bald Mountain as Satan rather than Chernobog, so I'm wondering when the Disney Company started calling the monster that name.

 

All in all, watching these makes me wish Disney would make a channel dedicated to their past works instead of bashing us over the head with all this COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! shit.

[voiceover]

A head's-up for Thursday night:
Nicole Holofcener's Walking and Talking: don't go by the description proffered by TCM or DirecTV.  This is one of the best and truest "girlfriends" pictures, ever. 

 

My favorite moment is when Catherine Keener begs her ex (Liev* Schreiber), to go into the video store where her current boyfriend works, and "...just take a look and tell me how he's *feeling*?"  GOD.   An unbelievably spot-on representation of years of neurosis, wrapped in a single dialogue exchange.  I taught this scene in my screenwriting class for years.

 

*fucking autocorrect...his name is NOT "Live"

Edited October 29, 2015 by voiceover

[Julia]

A head's-up for Thursday night:

Nicole Holofcener's Walking and Talking: don't go by the description proffered by TCM or DirecTV.  This is one of the best and truest "girlfriends" pictures, ever. 

 

My favorite moment is when Catherine Keener begs her ex (Liev* Schreiber), to go into the video store where her current boyfriend works, and "...just take a look and tell me how he's *feeling*?"  GOD.   An unbelievably spot-on representation of years of neurosis, wrapped in a single dialogue exchange.  I taught this scene in my screenwriting class for years.

 

*fucking autocorrect...his name is NOT "Live"

I'm not in the least intending to invalidate you, because I'm not clear what you're saying. but what are you calling out?

[Inquisitionist]

I also love Walking and Talking -- and pretty much anything by Nicole Holofcener.   W&T has excellent early work by Keener and Screiber, as well as Anne Heche and Kevin Corrigan.

 

Another heads up for fans of Italian cinema:  TCM has Fellini's I Vitelloni (1953) slated for the wee hours of Monday,  Nov. 2.  Both Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese have cited the influence of this B&W character study of "aimless" young men in an Adriatic coastal town, post WWII. 

[Bastet]

I also love Walking and Talking -- and pretty much anything by Nicole Holofcener.

 

When I first heard about Friends With Money, I thought, "This could go either way."  Then I saw it was written and directed by Holofcener, and thought, "I'm in."  I didn't like it as much as I wanted to, but it has things going for it.  Keener is in that one, too, as well as Enough Said.  I love the casts of so many of her films.

[bluepiano]

I saw that triptych on the grid and said, "Oh, the theme must be bloated, top-heavy, elephantine misfires." 

 

That's how I used to think about Mad Mad World, but lately I've taken to feeling more kindly towards it, as kind of an archival collection of some of our greatest comics. Including people like Jonathan Winters, Buddy Hackett, and Dick Shawn who had relatively few movie parts. It also has cameos by silent movie greats (Buster Keaton, Ben Blue) and a slew of old-time character actors (including Edward Everett Horton, Charles McGraw, Sterling Holloway, Mike Mazurki, Andy Devine, even Leo Gorcey from "The Bowery Boys").

 

It's just too bad that the movie was directed by Stanley Kramer, who had previously given us such laugh fests as Inherit the Wind and Judgment at Nuremberg. Kramer was not a comedy director and was so clearly out of his element. As the movie's producer he should've put his ego in check and hired someone like Frank Tashlin to direct.

Edited October 29, 2015 by bluepiano

[Rinaldo]

I know, Kramer had a habit of publicizing his name on so many movies he produced but didn't direct (people used to think he'd directed a lot more films than he really had, because his name was always so heavily featured) that he might just as well have done it this time too. 

 

I did watch a stretch of it this time around -- I don't like parroting received wisdom (I did more than enough of that in my callow youth), I want to react for myself -- but I have to say it didn't raise much of a smile from me, and it sure was trying dreadfully hard. I could tick off the famous names here (someone has also compiled a YouTube video that does this), but it's not much of a memorial if they're not doing anything funny.

 

Now that I've cringed from Dick Shawn here and in The Producers, can someone recommend a movie in which he really is genuinely funny? He sure has a reputation, and it must have been earned by something.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

(the two Tony Curtises, the pie fight).

Do you mean the two Jack Lemmons? As you know I still love The Great Race.  How the West Was Won is completely unwatchable for me.  It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is kind of "eh" and I retain a fondness for it mostly because it's a favorite of some of my best friends.  My favorite cousin just laughs himself sick over it every time.

 

If you don't like Dick Shawn in The Producers I don't think you like him period.  You laugh or you don't.

Edited October 29, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[elle]

Now that I've cringed from Dick Shawn here and in The Producers, can someone recommend a movie in which he really is genuinely funny? He sure has a reputation, and it must have been earned by something.

My first thought - He was fun as the Snow Miser in "The Year Without a Santa Claus."  Seriously!

 

I had to look up his imdb page to find something other than the three movies already mentioned.  He plays the psychologist in Penelope with Natalie Wood.

[Rinaldo]

A head's-up for Thursday night:

Nicole Holofcener's Walking and Talking: don't go by the description proffered by TCM or DirecTV.  

Where is this playing on Thursday (which I take to mean tonight)? I don't see it on my TCM schedule.

[Bastet]

It will be on tonight at 10 Eastern/7 Pacific.

[Rinaldo]

OK, thanks. Now I get the admonition to "pay no attention to the cable etc.'s description." It would have us believe that this is a documentary with that title for a subtitle. But the online TCM summary is clearly of the Holofcener film.

[Shriekingeel]

Look, I like Val Lewton as much as the next guy, but how can you let Halloween come and go without even one Universal monster film? Not even one?

[Inquisitionist]

When I first heard about Friends With Money, I thought, "This could go either way."  Then I saw it was written and directed by Holofcener, and thought, "I'm in."  I didn't like it as much as I wanted to, but it has things going for it.  Keener is in that one, too, as well as Enough Said.  I love the casts of so many of her films.

 

Keener is almost always excellent, in my book.  I don't understand why people cast Jennifer Aniston in down-and-out "serious" character roles, such as this movie and The Good Girl. I just don't find her credible in them.

[Rinaldo]

Catherine Keener became so thoroughly "typed" in slice-of-life independent films (often from this director), it was a bit of a shock to discover that (a) she was in an early episode of Seinfeld, and (b) she was one of the stars of a big shiny wide-release Warner Bros. film, Death to Smoochy. (Which then bombed, but you can't have everything.) After all that "real acting" in the Holofcener movies, I bet she even enjoyed director Danny De Vito's gleeful assertion on the DVD commentary that "Catherine Keener has the best legs in the business."

[Milburn Stone]

She impressed me in the recent HBO mini-series Show Me a Hero, about integrated housing in Yonkers circa late eighties. One reason is that in so many of her movies she's been "Catherine Keenerish" (to a fault), and in this piece I literally didn't know it was her until the end of the first episode. Ultimately it was the timbre of her voice that gave it away, but until then her inhabiting of the character was so thorough that it never occurred to me who was playing her.

 

I don't mean to complain about those earlier performances. Whenever she'd show up in a movie, I'd always go, "Oh good! Catherine Keener is here, doing her Catherine Keener thing. The movie will not suck!" But after many such performances, I grew jaded. It was nice to see her stretch.

Edited October 31, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[Bastet]

And to think, there are probably people who only know her from The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

[NewDigs]

Look, I like Val Lewton as much as the next guy, but how can you let Halloween come and go without even one Universal monster film? Not even one?

I know! This is the time of year I usually get my Creature from the Black Lagoon fix. Durn.

And in other troubling news: a Creature remake?

Aww, just no.

[Amello]

I have to add to the Catherine Keener love fest. I first saw her in the TV movie, An American Crime, where she plays that horrible witch of a mother to Ellen Page. Ever since I've been a fan. She's one of the actors who I instantly smile at seeing when watching a film. It happened in the underrated Begin Again and the recent Canadian film, Elephant Song.

[voiceover]

I'm not in the least intending to invalidate you, because I'm not clear what you're saying. but what are you calling out?

 

 

Not sure which part you were asking about, but if you meant my cursing the autocorrect, the asterisk is there for <Liev>...a/c kept turning it into "Live".

[editorgrrl]

A head's-up for Thursday night:

Nicole Holofcener's Walking and Talking: don't go by the description proffered by TCM or DirecTV. This is one of the best and truest "girlfriends" pictures, ever.

I'm not in the least intending to invalidate you, because I'm not clear what you're saying. but what are you calling out?

My programming guide said this was a documentary called "Big Shoes: Walking and Talking." Thanks to voiceover's post, I knew it was actually Walking & Talking (1996): http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/444173/Walking-Talking/

I discovered (and revisited) so many good films during TCM's "Trailblazing Women"

festival: http://trailblazingwomen.tcm.com

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Look, I like Val Lewton as much as the next guy, but how can you let Halloween come and go without even one Universal monster film? Not even one?

You COULD take a break from TCM from 10 PM to midnight tonight and watch the 1931 Frankenstein on Svengoolie (on MeTV).  Warning: you need to have at least a tolerance and at best an affection for the super-cornball brand of classic old-school TV horror host humor showcased here - I find it completely charming, especially on Halloween - but the rest of you may find it lowbrow/silly.  I love the Soupy Salesness of it.

Edited October 31, 2015 by ratgirlagogo

[voiceover]

My programming guide said this was a documentary called "Big Shoes: Walking and Talking." Thanks to voiceover's post, I knew it was actually Walking & Talking (1996):

 

Okay, THAT'S hilarious! my DirecTV was just referencing "yuppie angst in Manhattan" -- which, is like calling Citizen Kane a newspaper story.

[Milburn Stone]

Okay, THAT'S hilarious! my DirecTV was just referencing "yuppie angst in Manhattan" -- which, is like calling Citizen Kane a newspaper story.

 

Sometimes I get the impression the humor is intentional. Seeing some TCM program descriptions on DirecTV that seem to miss the point entirely, I get the impression they were written by TCM staffers with a knowing touch of whimsy. 

[Charlie Baker]

The Trailblazing Women series was commendable, wide ranging, good stuff. 

[Milburn Stone]

Caught up with William Castle's Macabre after DVR'ing it. I appreciate how TCM is airing his oeuvre. I love how with Castle, the strange, twisted, impossibly effed-up events are explained ultimately by something entirely rational, some perfectly rational (if evil) character fooling other characters into panicking over the impossibly horrific when actually he is calmly and cleverly pulling strings, in perfect conformance with the known laws of the universe, to achieve his nefarious ends. You might say the films are a form of autobiography.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Milburn Stone

[Sharpie66]

Every time I hear the name "William Castle," my mind goes to the wonderful tribute to Castle's type of films, Matinee. I haven't seen it in years, but I thought it was really charming. John Goodman is perfect in the Castle-like role.

[bmoore4026]

Funny that they're showing rain titled movies today considering it's been raining all day where I live.

[prican58]

Charade is on now, people. So very entertaining and a must see if you've never....and even if you have... several times.

[ratgirlagogo]

One of the more annoying movie things of recent years was with the remake of Charade ten or so years ago - well , first, that they would remake a classic, but even more that the POSTER for the remake gave away one of the crucial surprises in the film 

that the rare stamps were the valuable inheritance - the poster had Thandie Newton standing in a hail of postal stamps!

 The poster!

Edited November 8, 2015 by ratgirlagogo