TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Crisopera]

Boy, Sharpie66, do you have some treats in store!  I'd begin with her two most iconic performances, in Double Indemnity and The Lady Eve.  In two movies she moves effortlessly from chilly evil to wisecracking charm.  And you can see if she appeals to you.  After that...you're on your own.  (Although if you like pre-Code movies, give Baby Face a look.  It's still pretty surprising, even if made 83 years ago!)

Milburn Stone - check out the spoiler tag now.  I added more of the plot.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Crisopera

[Rinaldo]

I second @Crisopera on the two to start with. For one thing, they're both classics that come up all the time in movie-buff conversations; for another, they do indeed show the very different characters she could inhabit so well.

She's also one of the Hollywood legends with a nickname for close friends that became general knowledge: John Wayne was "Duke," Elia Kazan was "Gadge," Lauren Bacall was "Betty," Bernard Herrmann was "Benny." And Barbara Stanwyck was "Missy." 

[Milburn Stone]

2 hours ago, Crisopera said:

Milburn Stone - check out the spoiler tag now.  I added more of the plot.

Oooooh, that's goooood. 

Although I can see why they needed to change it. Not just

Spoiler

to tack on a "Hollywood ending," although that was part of it. That bleak ending just wouldn't work for the whole rest of the movie that preceded it. You're pulling for Stanwyck from the first frame! All you want is for her to be happy. Even though your head knows she's guilty of deception (and, gasp, unwed motherhood), there's no sense in which your heart feels she deserves a deliciously dark fate. If they were going to conceive the first 95 minutes the way they did, with Stanwyck playing her the way she did, I think they had no choice but to make the last 3 minutes be what they were.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[Crisopera]

Milburn, I completely agree with the necessity for a different ending.  Stanwyck is so sympathetic and deserves a happy ending.  I remember reading the book on the subway, and finishing it, re-reading the ending to be sure I got it and just sitting there, going, "Oh.  Oh.  Oh that's awful."  Not awful in quality - just bad.

[ratgirlagogo]

Okay, Barbara Stanwyck.  This one I can actually do since she and Myrna Loy are my two favorite Golden Age actresses (unlike Five Faves Before 1980, sorry, NO), but still annoyed that I can ONLY do FIVE.   Off the top of my head I'll go with Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve, Night Nurse, Miracle Woman, and Baby Face.  THERE. Plus everything else she was ever in because she was always wonderful!

Edited November 29, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[Pyralis]

Night Nurse is one I hadn't heard of before I saw it on TCM and always watch if I'm able.  I also try to catch The Mad Miss Manton as well in addition to the more well known films listed above.

[Padma]

Just a heads up for an interesting TCM showing tomorrow (day time) of "O.Henry's Full House"--5 short stories with some noted directors (Hawks, Hathaway, ) and actors (Laughton, Monroe, Widmark). All introduced by John Steinbeck.  (9:30 am. PST) "The Clarion Call,'' "Last Leaf,'' "Ransom of Red Chief,'' "Gift of the Magi,'' and "Cop and the Anthem.''

Also, nicely timed for Crisopera's choice of Barbara Stanwyck films this week, there's "Meet John Doe" at 11:30 a.m. PST with Gary Cooper, and "Christmas in Connecticut" with Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan (3:00 pm PST).

Edited November 30, 2016 by Padma

[SeanC]

My review of The Major and the Minor:  what the hell, Billy Wilder?

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, Pyralis said:

Night Nurse is one I hadn't heard of before I saw it on TCM and always watch if I'm able. 

I, too, will stop and watch that film every time I happen upon it.  It's not one of my top ten, twenty, thirty, forty, even fifty favorite films, but if I'm channel surfing and it's on, I have to watch.

[Crisopera]

Night Nurse is one of the very best pre-Codes.  "You mother!"  Great stuff.  My parents got to know Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels when we lived in London in the 1960s.  They said they were wonderful, down-to-earth people.

[Rinaldo]

12 hours ago, SeanC said:

My review of The Major and the Minor:  what the hell, Billy Wilder?

Billy Wilder obviously has a number of fine achievements to his credit, but he gets more than one "what the hell?" from me. Two of the biggest: The Front Page (surefire material, I would have thought, and ideal for Matthau, till I saw the actual result) and Fedora. I would throw in Kiss Me, Stupid too (I understand about cynical satire but the tone is so wildly inconsistent, it just makes me feel foul).

[Padma]

14 hours ago, SeanC said:

My review of The Major and the Minor:  what the hell, Billy Wilder?

Even TCM asked how much that premise (an older man's lust for a young girl) would Wilder have had to change to make the movie today. (Yes, it was a woman playing a young girl, but still.  It was supposedly a comedy. It wasn't Lolita. )

Edited November 30, 2016 by Padma

[SeanC]

9 minutes ago, Padma said:

Even TCM asked how much that premise (an older man's lust for a young girl) would Wilder have had to change to make the movie today. (Yes, it was a woman playing a young girl, but still.  It was supposedly a comedy. It wasn't Lolita. )

"Character in disguise" movies generally hinge on the disguised person forming some sort of romance-tinged relationship with somebody else while disguised, whether intentionally or not (e.g., Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, or the characters in Wilder's own Some Like It Hot).  This is basically impossible when the "disguise" involves a character pretending to be twelve years old, so Milland seems preoccupied throughout with trying to make sure his character doesn't come across like a pedophile.

It also has one of the laziest endings I've ever seen in a movie, let alone from screenwriters of Wilder and Brackett's calibre, between the bad fiancee running off with some other dude offscreen with no prior indication and then the most important moment in this sort of premise, the reveal, being brushed off.

[Crisopera]

The Major and the Minor definitely couldn't be made today.  Even though the real teenager (played by Diana Lynn) knows immediately that Ginger's character is no twelve-year-old, there's no way that ANYBODY today would think she was twelve.  She plays it way too babyishly, which makes it even creepier.  That premise is difficult enough to swallow when it's 40-playing-25 (see the tv show Younger).  Mind you, it was a smash hit. 

Rinaldo, I always think that after The Apartment, Billy Wilder went downhill in a big way - and sharply.  I always want to like  The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, but it always defeats me.  Nice score, though.  Avanti! is not terrible, but in no way comparable to his great movies.  And I completely agree about Kiss Me, Stupid.  Ugh.

 

Just wanted to add - December's Star of the Month is MYRNA LOY!  And the lineup is fabulous!

Edited November 30, 2016 by Crisopera

[ratgirlagogo]

10 hours ago, Crisopera said:

"You mother!"

My favorite line in the movie!

[bmoore4026]

Cheesy campy fantasy movies on today,  peppered nicely with swords and sandals.

I missed much of The Colossus of Rhodes but Captain Sinbad, Atlas, Atlantis The Lost Continent, and She look promising.

Edited December 1, 2016 by bmoore4026

[Sharpie66]

Aww, I missed the cheese! I always loved Ray Harryhausen films when I was a kid, and seeing the very cheesy Clash of the Titans in the theater when I was in high school just delighted me to no end. The cheesy fantasy flick that I simply hated was Flash Gordon, which just stank to high heaven, even with the wonderful Brian Blessed in it.

[Rinaldo]

On 11/21/2016 at 6:13 PM, Milburn Stone said:

Also, I know a guy who went out with Mary Costa...

I'm resurrecting this sentence from a page ago, because it came to my mind when watching the 1972 remake of The Great Waltz, long waiting on my DVR. If I were out with Ms. Costa, I would be constantly biting my tongue to avoid asking her, "How do you handle knowing you've landed in a real stinker, and have to keep shooting for months? Do you just grit your teeth and do your bit every day, do you go into denial and convince yourself it'll work, or what?"

Because this one is the absolute pits. And I love musicals, I love European operetta and waltzes (Johann Strauss II in particular), and I love Mary Costa and Horst Buchholz. But I remember when this was released, in the dwindling years of the great movie-musical extravaganzas, and how it seemed to vanish from screens with magical speed and I never heard it mentioned again. Now I know why. One preposterous decision after another, and apparently nobody to say "no." Perhaps the first tip-off, and it recurs throughout, is the narrator-tenor (Frank Patterson) who periodically sings the next development in Strauss's life to some perky polka. And there's the way it can't decide whether it's an actual musical -- scene after scene will go by with only "source" music (people waltzing in a ballroom, or singing onstage or in a bandshell), and then suddenly the principals will burst into unmotivated song.

Those songs, by the way, are of surpassing banality, and sometimes unintentional hilarity. I'm not one to make a fuss about words in lyrics that have changed meaning over the years -- it happens, and no big deal. But the idea that in 1972 Wright & Forrest could have one tavern-goer after another cheerfully sing "Two drinks, and I was slightly gay!" makes me think that they were even more out of touch than I already thought. And there's lots more silliness, which unfortunately doesn't add up to much fun. Oh well, I always wanted to see it, and now I have.

[bmoore4026]

Might Joe Young is on today!!!  The sweeter, gentler King Kong.

[bluepiano]

On ‎11‎/‎30‎/‎2016 at 0:17 PM, Crisopera said:

The Major and the Minor definitely couldn't be made today.  Even though the real teenager (played by Diana Lynn) knows immediately that Ginger's character is no twelve-year-old, there's no way that ANYBODY today would think she was twelve.  `

Last week TCM showed another movie with a similar theme, Too Young to Kiss. It's even creepier than The Major and Minor, with more overt lusting by the adult man after the supposed 14 year old girl. And also less believable, because Van Johnson knows both the adult June Allyson and the  "younger sister' she's pretending to be, and supposedly doesn't realize it's the same person. As if combing her hair differently and wearing a young girl's dress is enough to convincingly turn a twenty-something woman into a 14 year old.

Thanks Crisopera for the detailed Barbara Stanwyck list. She's my favorite actress, and her never getting an Oscar is to me the most unforgiveable Academy slight of all time.

 In her long varied career she was in many great movies, but also a lot of clinkers. But even the clinkers she makes watchable by her skill and personality. I love how even in something like Lady of Burlesque, an obviously minor movie with (other than Barbara) a B movie cast, she throws herself into the part with complete abandon, and appears to be having such fun that you can't help but have fun along with her. (and love her dancing)

In addition to the ones already mentioned, another outstanding performance of hers was in Clash by Night, directed by the great Fritz Lang. She brings so much nuance and multiple levels to what might have been, with a lesser actress, the somewhat clichéd part of a world-weary "fallen" woman who returns home to pick up the pieces of her life. She and Robert Ryan are a great match in terms of their emotional intensity. And I love her scenes with a very young, fresh-faced Marilyn Monroe.

For another great pre-Code Stanwcyk movie, check out Miracle Man from 1931 in which she plays a fake faith healer. It was directed by Capra, and I think it's the first time they worked together.

[Milburn Stone]

26 minutes ago, bluepiano said:

Last week TCM showed another movie with a similar theme, Too Young to Kiss. It's even creepier than The Major and Minor, with more overt lusting by the adult man after the supposed 14 year old girl...

OK, it's been a long while since I've seen The Major and the Minor, but in my recollection, it deserves a defense from all these charges of perviness.

Surely the humor in TMatM derives not from the audience's supposition that Ray Milland is lusting after a young girl, but from the exact opposite. Ray Milland's lizard brain may be lusting after the Ginger Rogers character, but that is because she is an adult woman! It's hardly his fault as a red-blooded American male that his lizard brain responds to the presence of a healthy sexual adult female! His consternation comes from his higher-order brain not realizing that this is what is going on. (Take as a given, just for the moment, that her disguise is convincing; clearly, the movie means us to think that.) He feels guilt because he's a good person who believes his lust is violating a taboo, but the audience knows better--he's a good person whose lust is not violating a taboo! And the audience enjoys seeing him twist himself in knots over this.

Edited December 3, 2016 by Milburn Stone

[ratgirlagogo]

2 hours ago, bluepiano said:

Miracle Man from 1931

Miracle Woman.  Yes, that's a great one, and in my five list.

ETA:  Barbara Stanwyck's  last theatrical film is showing tonight on Svengoolie, on MeTV. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058403/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_10

The Night Walker, directed by William Castle.  I'm sorry to say that it's not that great, and apparently not that successful commercially.  Probably one of the reasons she switched over to working on television.  But if you love her like I do you will want to see it anyway, and Svengoolie will make the experience a lot more fun than it would be otherwise.

Edited December 3, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[Crisopera]

Miracle Woman was the second collaboration between Stanwyck and Capra; the first was 1930's Ladies of Leisure.  It's not very good, but Stanwyck is terrific (of course), playing a tough party girl whose life is transformed when she poses for a society artist (played by the sadly plank-like Ralph Graves).  Stanwyck and Capra were involved romantically at this time (Capra said that he would have asked her to marry him if they had been free), and she looks gorgeous in it.

[mariah23]

Another for TCM Remembers: Billy Chapin, who played John in 1955's The Night of the Hunter has died at age 72.

[Crisopera]

Just watched a terrific, terse (73 minutes) Western, Ride Lonesome (1959).  Directed by Budd Boetticher and written by Burt Kennedy, it does have some cliche sub-plots (Indian chief wants a young widow for his squaw), but the ending was a genuine surprise.  This is one of a series of wonderful B westerns made by Boetticher and his star, Randolph Scott.  Scott is a bounty hunter escorting a young murderer through Arizona (actually Northern California, breathtakingly photographed in wide-screen by Charles Lawton, Jr.).  But he has ulterior motives.  

Spoiler

The older brother of the young killer murdered Scott's wife by stringing her up at a "hanging tree," so Scott is traveling slowly enough to flush out the older brother.  Once he kills the brother (with very little fuss), he turns the younger over to two minor outlaws who hope to get amnesty by bringing in the younger brother.   The last shot is of Scott watching the hanging tree burn.  

It does have one problem, however - Karen Steele, the gorgeous but not notably talented actress who plays the young widow, looks like she sauntered onto the set out of a 1950s beauty salon, looking as though she'd been shot in the back by twin torpedoes, and her hair in a long platinum blonde pageboy.

 

Anyway, it's available on Watch TCM, if you have access to it (I do not - grrrrr), until December 10.  Definitely worth a look.

[Charlie Baker]

I love Ms. Stanwyck and would endorse all the movies mentioned.  I would re-iterate the pre-Code women's prison picture Ladies They Talk About, which is kind of wacky and irresistible.  Then there's the Frank Capra directed The Bitter Tea of General Yen, in which she plays an American caught up in intrigue in China. This movie was discussed here quite a while back. I won't say much about it beyond that it casts quite a spell. Nils Asther, who was Swedish and was cast as a Chinese warlord, is so good you can almost forget how inappropriate that was. He's a good match for the full steam Ms. S. 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Charlie Baker

[Rinaldo]

FAVORITE PRE-1950 MUSICAL FILMS

 

I originally said "pre-1949" because I wanted to exclude On the Town and The Barkleys of Broadway (basically the start of the classic decade of MGM Technicolor musical movies), but then I decided that was rather silly, and possibly confusing to others. (But please do observe the date limitation! No matter how many later movie musicals you like -- as I do too -- keep it pre-1950.)

What do we think are the great old film musicals? Here are mine as of this moment. (On another day I might have included The Wizard of Oz or Pinocchio or the 1936 Show Boat.)

----------

5. Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). Not one of the world’s great cinematic achievements, I guess, but a fine piece of studio product from the period (fifth and last of the Broadway Melody series), with elements of greatness in it, including a Cole Porter score (mostly new, but memorably including one older song, cited later) and particularly the this-time-only teaming of Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell. They’re both immensely appealing here (practically the only time she got to sing onscreen in her own voice), as well as technically brilliant of course; their lengthy duet to “Begin the Beguine” (first in flamenco, then dazzling tap) is what pushes the film into immortality.

4. 42nd Street (1933). I confess: the Busby Berkeley extravaganzas are not really my most cherished type of musical; even among backstage musicals, I prefer that the onstage numbers be realistic stage presentations that an audience could conceivably be watching. But this one is pretty irresistible, what with the varied appeal of Bebe Daniels, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers, and Warren-Dubin songs like “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” and the title song. (Seriously considered as an alternative: Gold Diggers of 1933, which adds Joan Blondell to the mix, and has Rogers singing “We’re in the Money” in Pig Latin.)

3. Cover Girl (1944). I’ve confessed in past conversations here that I’m more an Astaire than Kelly guy, but Gene Kelly can certainly be great, and never more so than here, paired with impossibly young, gorgeous, and talented Rita Hayworth. Add in a Jerome Kern / Ira Gershwin score and expert support by the likes of Phil Silvers and Eve Arden, and it’s sheer pleasure.

2. Love Me Tonight (1932). This could have made #1. So early in the talking-picture period, and so very sophisticated musically and technically. The magic of Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald contributes a lot, the direction of Rouben Mamoulian keeps it all fluid and magical, and Rodgers & Hart land everything they're after with songs like “Mimi,” “Lover,” and especially “Isn’t It Romantic?” The last of those, which makes its way step by step from a tailor’s shop to a princess’s boudoir, hypnotizes me every time. 

1. Swing Time (1936). I’ve included Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers separately above, and my #1 choice of course has to have them together. The more I see their six crucial collaborations (the ones starting with The Gay Divorcée and ending with Shall We Dance), the more remarkable I find it that Astaire actually achieved his artistic goal onscreen, and that audiences went for it: treating popular American dance as an almost abstract classical medium in the manner of ballet, with no emoting or kissing because all the emotion is subsumed in the dance -- yet without pretentiousness and without losing the fun. For this, Rogers was molded into his ideal partner. Hard to choose just one of their titles (I briefly thought of having all five of my choices come from this series, but that wouldn’t be playing the game), but if it’s to be just one, I have no hesitation choosing Swing Time. It has a splendid Kern / Dorothy Fields score, including “Pick Yourself Up,” “The Way You Look Tonight,” the Waltz in Swing Time, “A Fine Romance,” and “Never Gonna Dance.” The final shot, with the two stars unexpectedly singing the two big ballads in counterpoint while the sun finally comes out, is as joyous a culmination as anything I've seen.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Rinaldo

[Milburn Stone]

4 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

expert support by the likes of Phil Silvers...

"I'll feed myself on artichokes/Until that Nazi Party chokes."

[ratgirlagogo]

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

especially “Isn’t It Romantic?” The last of those, which makes its way step by step from a tailor’s shop to a princess’s boudoir, hypnotizes me every time. 

Absolutely amazing.  And such a great song, too.

[bluepiano]

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Cover Girl (1944). I’ve confessed in past conversations here that I’m more an Astaire than Kelly guy, but Gene Kelly can certainly be great, and never more so than here, paired with impossibly young, gorgeous, and talented Rita Hayworth.

It's probably the movie in which she's at her most beautiful, and that's saying a lot. Watching her in it makes me a little sad, knowing the ups and downs she would later experience.

I feel like with the later focus on her personal life, and the "Love Goddess" moniker, it's often forgotten just how talented she was. I know she's not listed among the great Hollywood female dancers, but I love watching her musical numbers with both Astaire and Kelly, and that would seem to show some versatility to fit in with their different styles. She was also a convincing romantic lead in movies with both of them.

Question for the movie musical experts out there. How many dancers worked on screen with both Astaire and Kelly? The other one that comes immediately to my mind is Vera-Ellen.

[Padma]

4 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

FAVORITE PRE-1950 MUSICAL FILMS

 

I originally said "pre-1949" because I wanted to exclude On the Town and The Barkleys of Broadway (basically the start of the classic decade of MGM Technicolor musical movies), but then I decided that was rather silly, and possibly confusing to others. (But please do observe the date limitation! No matter how many later movie musicals you like -- as I do too -- keep it pre-1950.)

What do we think are the great old film musicals? Here are mine as of this moment. (On another day I might have included The Wizard of Oz or Pinocchio or the 1936 Show Boat.)

----------

5. Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). Not one of the world’s great cinematic achievements, I guess, but a fine piece of studio product from the period (fifth and last of the Broadway Melody series), with elements of greatness in it, including a Cole Porter score (mostly new, but memorably including one older one) and particularly the this-time-only teaming of Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell. They’re both immensely appealing here (practically the only time she got to sing onscreen in her own voice), as well as technically brilliant of course; their lengthy duet to “Begin the Beguine” (first in flamenco, then dazzling tap) is what pushes the film into immortality.

4. 42nd Street (1933). I confess: the Busby Berkeley extravaganzas are not really my most cherished type of musical; even among backstage musicals, I prefer that the onstage numbers be realistic stage presentations that an audience could conceivably be watching. But this one is pretty irresistible, what with the varied appeal of Bebe Daniels, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, and Ginger Rogers, and Warren-Dubin songs like “Shuffle Off to Buffalo” and the title song. (Seriously considered as an alternative: Gold Diggers of 1933, which adds Joan Blondell to the mix, and has Rogers singing “We’re in the Money” in Pig Latin.)

3. Cover Girl (1944). I’ve confessed in past conversations here that I’m more an Astaire than Kelly guy, but Gene Kelly can certainly be great, and never more so than here, paired with impossibly young, gorgeous, and talented Rita Hayworth. Add in a Jerome Kern / Ira Gershwin score and expert support by the likes of Phil Silvers and Eve Arden, and it’s sheer pleasure.

2. Love Me Tonight (1932). This could have made #1. So early in the talking-picture period, and so very sophisticated musically and technically. The magic of Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald contributes a lot, the direction of Rouben Mamoulian keeps it all fluid and magical, and Rodgers & Hart land everything they're after with songs like “Mimi,” “Lover,” and especially “Isn’t It Romantic?” The last of those, which makes its way step by step from a tailor’s shop to a princess’s boudoir, hypnotizes me every time. 

1. Swing Time (1936). I’ve included Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers separately above, and my #1 choice of course has to have them together. The more I see their six crucial collaborations (the ones starting with The Gay Divorcée and ending with Shall We Dance), the more remarkable I find it that Astaire actually achieved his artistic goal onscreen, and that audiences went for it: treating popular American dance as an almost abstract classical medium in the manner of ballet, with no emoting or kissing because all the emotion is subsumed in the dance -- yet without pretentiousness and without losing the fun. For this, Rogers was molded into his ideal partner. Hard to choose just one of their titles (I briefly thought of having all five of my choices come from this series, but that wouldn’t be playing the game), but if it’s to be just one, I have no hesitation choosing Swing Time. It has a splendid Kern / Dorothy Fields score, including “Pick Yourself Up,” “The Way You Look Tonight,” the Waltz in Swing Time, “A Fine Romance,” and “Never Gonna Dance.” The final shot, with the two stars unexpectedly singing the two big ballads in counterpoint while the sun finally comes out, is as joyous a culmination as anything I've seen.

I've been looking forward to this category and your list. So glad that you made it pre-1950 as it would have been impossible otherwise. Even so, my "runners-up" would have made a good list on their own: "42nd street", "Top Hat", "Snow White"; "Show Boat" and "On the Town".  I like "42nd Street" for kind of the opposite reason you listed--for Berkeley's incredible directing of the big numbers that is not at all like watching a stage production. I always think "what a mind to visualize all that" when I watch it. Amazing.

All your other choices I enjoy a lot, too, except that that I've never seen "Love Me Tonight". (Must remedy that. That is one reason why voiceover's idea of these lists was so cool.)

I couldn't give a top five for the past two categories/weeks, but I can for this one, including a film that you mentioned, but didn't choose.  In no particular order:

"The Wizard of Oz" (1939). Apart from the wonderful music and performances, this movie with the bw then bold and unusual colors, strange characters, and unusual settings is always a bit surreal to me--certainly for 1939--and in a good way. Everyone here knows all about it so I'll just mention Yip Harburg's often overlooked contributions to the script.  He didn't just write the lyrics, but per his son (and biographer), he "also wrote all the dialogue in that time and the setup to the songs and he also wrote the part where they give out the heart, the brains, and the nerve, because he was the final script editor."  Oz had eleven screenwriters, but "he pulled the whole thing together, wrote his own lines and gave the thing a coherence and unity which made it a work of art. But he doesn't get credit for that. He gets 'lyrics by E. Y. Harburg'."

"Fantasia" (1940) For wonderful musical selections (and recording), incredible animation and imagination, and tremendous ambition--and an artistic ambition more than a commercial one. Plus, for me, as ambitious as "Fantasia" is for the time, it's completely successful.

"Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942). One of the best musical biographies with so many songs that have entered the American songbook and some wonderful, if highly stylized, dancing (esp. the title number).Cohan wanted Astaire to portray him, but I think Cagney gives the movie a virility and vitality that Astaire--great as he was--wouldn't have duplicated and which makes Cohan's robust scrappiness (which you can hear in the music) really come through. 

"Easter Parade"  (1948) Fred Astaire and Judy Garland play off each other so well with so many classic Irving Berlin songs and varied numbers--from the comedy of "A Couple of Swells" to the wistful "Better Luck Next Time" (and several more famous ones). Judy and Ann Miller wear gorgeous clothing (and hats), Ann has an impressive tap solo, and I always enjoy it when Fred has a drum number -- mixing it up of course by drumming also with his feet. So many good numbers in Easter Parade. Even Peter Lawford, in one of his better performances, is a good "friend to all" -- and charming with Judy on "Fella with an Umbrella".

"Swing Time" -- I agree with you, Rinaldo. Ginger, Fred, the memorable choreography and music of Jerome Kern & Dorothy Fields. What's not to love? 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Padma

[Rinaldo]

5 hours ago, bluepiano said:

I know [Rita Hayworth is] not listed among the great Hollywood female dancers, but I love watching her musical numbers with both Astaire and Kelly, and that would seem to show some versatility to fit in with their different styles. She was also a convincing romantic lead in movies with both of them.

Actually, Hayworth is often listed among the great dancers on film, so no worries there. She certainly had the training from an early age, and it emerged wonderfully onscreen. Some writers on film have said that her pairing with Astaire didn't work out too well in stylistic terms, but I have never felt that way: I think they're great together in You Were Never Lovelier. (I've never caught their other teaming, You'll Never Get Rich.)

5 hours ago, bluepiano said:

Question for the movie musical experts out there. How many dancers worked on screen with both Astaire and Kelly? The other one that comes immediately to my mind is Vera-Ellen.

Let's see: Besides Rita Hayworth and Vera-Ellen, we have Leslie Caron, Cyd Charisse, and Judy Garland. And the two men danced with each other once (twice, if you count the That's Entertainment 2 interstitial bits.) I think that's it?

[Crisopera]

Oh, Rinaldo, what a great list!  I would say that my list pretty much agrees with your, except I would substitute either Golddiggers of 1933 or Footlight Parade (not only Joan Blondell, but Cagney dancing with Ruby Keeler!).  And I would substitute the 1936 Showboat for Broadway Melody of 1940. And - oh, dear - I think I'd have to substitute Meet Me in St. Louis for Love Me Tonight, much as I love it.  However, I could never give up Cover Girl ("Long Ago and Far Away" is one of my favorite songs of all time) or Swing Time (sheer perfection).  So, I guess it doesn't completely agree, but I love your list.

BTW - has anyone been watching today's lineup of Vitaphone short subjects?  Fascinating.  Rinaldo, you might want to see if you can find Paree, Paree (1934) - it's a 20 minute version of Fifty Million Frenchmen, and finds time to include 5 songs from the original (including "You Do Something to Me").  The leads are played by Bob Hope and Dorothy Stone, neither of whom were in the original, but who were both working Broadway actors at the time (Hope had just made a splash in Roberta, and Dorothy Stone was the ingenue daughter of a famous-at-the-time theatrical family).  It's very entertaining. Trouble in Toyland (1935) is rather disturbing.  It seems to be a sort of audition reel for Gus Edwards, who had a troupe of kiddie performers who are either terrified or terrifyingly well-trained.  The oddest thing about it is that it was directed by Joseph Henabery, who played Lincoln in The Birth of a Nation.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Crisopera

[Padma]

Perfect timing for TCM to show "The Jazz Singer" (1927, first movie with synchronized sound--though on the songs only).  I'm such a Jolson fan, but had never seen him. What a treat to see this great classic.

[Rinaldo]

4 hours ago, Crisopera said:

Rinaldo, you might want to see if you can find Paree, Paree (1934) - it's a 20 minute version of Fifty Million Frenchmen, and finds time to include 5 songs from the original (including "You Do Something to Me"). 

@Crisopera, thank you so much! How did you happen to know this? Did you just watch everything? I would have missed it for sure. Fortunately they've put it online On Demand till December 12. I loved this, a real time capsule into musicals of the time (you have to see the dancing to believe it!), more so than most of the official feature-length musical adaptations of the period. Amazing.

Edited December 6, 2016 by Rinaldo

[Crisopera]

I happened to be home sick today, and just kept TCM on all day - voila!

[voiceover]

Well, @Crisopera, I spent so long puzzling and worrying over this Five that I forgot to post ANYthing.  Eh, I had a stroke a few months ago; blame that.

Anyway.

I am intrigued by your Five, and will follow up.  I confess I came to Stanwyck fandom late (like, in the past few years) — Bette & Kate & Myrna & Greer got to me first, and my only Barbara reference was 1983’s Thorn Birds.  And I thought she was awful.  But if I had known then what I know now about her career, I would have said, Wow: the right person to play Mary Carson!

But the problem with now is that I don’t have a Five-favorite, because I haven’t seen much more than five.  And I didn’t want to present *that* list.  So I give you instead: Three of Stanwyck’s films that I love on their own turf:

3.  Night Nurse (1931): This is my most recent find, and I think I could watch a weekend of THIS broad.

2.  Christmas in Connecticut (1945): In my 30s, I identified so much with the leading character, emotionally speaking, that I could barf.

1.  Remember the Night (1940): My favorite Sturges, too — probably because other hands directed.  This is It’s a Wonderful Life for women, if at the end of Capra’s, George HAD gone to jail.  Funny and sexy and shockingly raw (her scene with her mother).  Heartwarming, too.  I am glad to have #1 & #2,  balance my holiday movie saccharine with a little Stanwyck saltiness. 

@Charlie Baker, thanks for the reminder of The Bitter Tea of General Yen.  I could watch a night of that & Shanghai Express back-to-back, in a smoky room, with questionable liquor.

Edited December 6, 2016 by voiceover
Because I had two 3s and no 1. No one! Bwah!

[psychoticstate]

My absolute favorite Stanwyck is Baby Face.  Pre-code gold.  She is marvelous in it.

I also love Sorry, Wrong Number, Christmas in Connecticut, Stella Dallas and, of course, Double Indemnity with the wildly underrated Fred MacMurray. 

[SeanC]

I watched Cape Feare last night, which was interesting.  Certainly, of the two famous Robert Mitch-chasing-children movies, I liked this one a lot more.  Some excellent scenes, and the film is (for the time) remarkably explicit in making the villain a sexual predator.

However, I kind of wondered, while watching, if it would have been better to cast somebody other than Gregory Peck in the lead role.  Not because he's bad, but the 6'2 Peck, with his broad shoulders and deep voice, is not the sort of person you would ever doubt could take Mitchum apart in a fight if it came to that (as it inevitably does).

[Padma]

On ‎12‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 7:39 PM, Rinaldo said:

FAVORITE PRE-1950 MUSICAL FILMS

 

I originally said "pre-1949" because I wanted to exclude On the Town and The Barkleys of Broadway (basically the start of the classic decade of MGM Technicolor musical movies), but then I decided that was rather silly, and possibly confusing to others. (But please do observe the date limitation! No matter how many later movie musicals you like -- as I do too -- keep it pre-1950.)

What do we think are the great old film musicals? Here are mine as of this moment. (On another day I might have included The Wizard of Oz or Pinocchio or the 1936 Show Boat.)

----------

5. Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). Not one of the world’s great cinematic achievements, I guess, but a fine piece of studio product from the period (fifth and last of the Broadway Melody series), with elements of greatness in it, including a Cole Porter score (mostly new, but memorably including one older song, cited later) and particularly the this-time-only teaming of Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell. They’re both immensely appealing here (practically the only time she got to sing onscreen in her own voice), as well as technically brilliant of course; their lengthy duet to “Begin the Beguine” (first in flamenco, then dazzling tap) is what pushes the film into immortality.

It's on today. That duet was amazing and the movie was so enjoyable. I always love seeing Fred play drums, but here he solo'd on piano on an up-tempo "I've Got My Eyes On You" -- then danced, as if some people just live and breathe music.

[Rinaldo]

And they've put it On Demand, so those who missed it have until Dec 15 to catch up with it. (@Padma, had you seen it before?)

[Crisopera]

Well, if you want to see a couple of bizarre musical numbers, take a look at Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), which TCM showed as part of the Vitaphone series.  It's an inconsequential early-talkie musical, but it's interesting for the glimpses of Hollywood filming of the time.  The two big numbers are, however, weird.  In the first, "I've Got My Eye On You," Alice White and the chorus emerge from an enormous grinning clown's head.  Odd enough, but in the second, "Hang on to a Rainbow," there's a mass of indistinguishable chorus girls arranged as a rainbow formation (I wonder if it was supposed to be filmed in color), and toward the end of the song, they raise their skirts over their heads in unison - and they stay that way until the end of the number, leaving a rainbow of bare legs and panties.  Bizarrely memorable, if nothing else.

[prican58]

Watching the unearthed 1966 tv version of Glass Menagerie with Shirley Booth. Man, I really think Booth was a fantastic actress. Not everyone's cup of tea but she is under valued gem. 

After this TCM is showing Period Of Adjustment from 1962 with Jane Fonda, Jim Hutton, Tony Franciosa and Lois Nettleton. I have seen it before as I really like seeing Fonda's early career and the rest of the cast is good. I am a real fan of Nettleton. Her career was so varied from stage, film and TV. I once looked her up and found that she dedicated all her papers to DePaul University in Chicago. Her Twilight Zone  "Midnight Sun" episode is a classic. 

[Rinaldo]

25 minutes ago, prican58 said:

Watching the unearthed 1966 tv version of Glass Menagerie with Shirley Booth. Man, I really think Booth was a fantastic actress. Not everyone's cup of tea but she is under valued gem. 

I just tuned in on it -- somehow I totally missed it when I scoped out the week in advance! I agree about the praise of Shirley Booth (I mentioned her here recently in connection with the Matchmaker movie). It's also interesting to catch Hal Holbrook and Pat Hingle as near-juveniles, before their "ol' trouper" personas took hold. (It's also interesting to see the same two roles in the telefilm with Katharine Hepburn just a few years later, where they're played by the first two Law & Order DAs, Michael Moriarty and Sam Waterston.)

There's also an earlier movie version from 1950 (one of the few chances to see Gertrude Lawrence onscreen in an extensive role). But in my opinion by far the best filmed Glass Menagerie is the most recent, the one directed by Paul Newman with Joanne Woodward, Karen Allen, John Malkovich, and James Naughton. Newman put it all together beautifully, and it's the first thing I'd point to as evidence of Malkovich's greatness as an actor.

33 minutes ago, prican58 said:

After this TCM is showing Period Of Adjustment from 1962 with Jane Fonda, Jim Hutton, Tony Franciosa and Lois Nettleton. I have seen it before as I really like seeing Fonda's early career

I have the same liking for early Jane Fonda (she's really delightful in Barefoot in the Park). Just a few weeks ago I recorded and watched Sunday in New York for the same reason.

[ratgirlagogo]

4 hours ago, Crisopera said:

Well, if you want to see a couple of bizarre musical numbers, take a look at Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), which TCM showed as part of the Vitaphone series.  It's an inconsequential early-talkie musical, but it's interesting for the glimpses of Hollywood filming of the time.  The two big numbers are, however, weird.  In the first, "I've Got My Eye On You," Alice White and the chorus emerge from an enormous grinning clown's head.  Odd enough, but in the second, "Hang on to a Rainbow," there's a mass of indistinguishable chorus girls arranged as a rainbow formation (I wonder if it was supposed to be filmed in color), and toward the end of the song, they raise their skirts over their heads in unison - and they stay that way until the end of the number, leaving a rainbow of bare legs and panties.  Bizarrely memorable, if nothing else.

Leaving people like me to wonder, why did they ever STOP making them that way?

My fave five musicals before 1950, not in any particular order:

1) The Wizard of Oz.  A sentimental favorite for many people my age for whom it was maybe the first full-length Old Movie they ever watched on TV.  I really love the Harold Arlen melodies and appreciate even more today  Yip Harburg's populist lyrics.  And it still seems to me that the fact that the movie that almost created Gay America, is at the same time a massively genuinely popular American classic - should make every American proud.  It's so fantastical, and yet so moving.

2)  Hollywood Revue of 1929.  Every single scene in this was a voyage of discovery when I first saw it at Theater 80 St Marks in the 80's - whether it involved performers I knew like Jack Benny and Joan Crawford, or the many I didn't, like Cliff Edwards and the Brox Sisters (in that nutty giant slicker!).   That everything was shot on an obvious stage complete with painted scenery made it seem as though it might just as well have been the Hollywood Revue of 1829, or 1729.  It was fascinating! And the 20's arrangements of the 20's pop songs are the arrangements that suit them best.  Similar to this is

3)  Paramount on Parade which I love almost as much and is even more of a plotless kind of  TAMI show of 1929 (so THAT'S Helen Kane!  so THAT'S Lilian Roth!  and who knew Clara Bow could sing?) but technically somewhat cruder and plus, incomplete (thus intriguing).

4) Duck Soup.  It's hard to choose among the five Paramount Marx Brothers if you're thinking of them as musicals - in fact I'm tempted to go with Horsefeathers just cause Everyone Says I Love You is my favorite of all their songs and all four of them sing - but twist my arm, Duck Soup is the best of their films on many levels so it wins this one too.

5) It's hard to pick my favorite Astaire-Rogers but I think I'll go with The Gay Divorcee, partly because it's the first one I saw and it's the one that inspired me to see all the others.  The songs and dancing are magnificent (but that's true of all the 30's ones) but that whole running gag with "Chance is the fool's name for FATE!" makes me laugh till my stomach hurts. So Gay Divorcee it is.

Could also have gone with - okay no.  Won't even say. A LOT OF OTHER MOVIES.

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, prican58 said:

After this TCM is showing Period Of Adjustment from 1962 with Jane Fonda, Jim Hutton, Tony Franciosa and Lois Nettleton. I have seen it before as I really like seeing Fonda's early career and the rest of the cast is good. I am a real fan of Nettleton. Her career was so varied from stage, film and TV.

I love Jane Fonda, for reasons that are probably obvious, and Lois Nettleton, for reasons likely less so.  Among her many credits, the latter is most memorable to me from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and her guest starring role on The Golden Girls, as Dorothy's friend who develops a crush on Rose.

[bluepiano]

6 hours ago, Crisopera said:

Well, if you want to see a couple of bizarre musical numbers, take a look at Show Girl in Hollywood (1930), which TCM showed as part of the Vitaphone series.  It's an inconsequential early-talkie musical, but it's interesting for the glimpses of Hollywood filming of the time.  The two big numbers are, however, weird.  In the first, "I've Got My Eye On You," Alice White and the chorus emerge from an enormous grinning clown's head.  Odd enough, but in the second, "Hang on to a Rainbow," there's a mass of indistinguishable chorus girls arranged as a rainbow formation (I wonder if it was supposed to be filmed in color), and toward the end of the song, they raise their skirts over their heads in unison - and they stay that way until the end of the number, leaving a rainbow of bare legs and panties.  Bizarrely memorable, if nothing else.

I really enjoyed Show Girl in Hollywood, shown as part of TCM's all-day focus on Vitaphone, especially as I'm an Alice White fan from her supporting performances in several pre-code Warner Brothers movies, like Picture Snatcher with Jimmy Cagney. Show Girl might be the first movie I've seen in which Alice White was the lead, and later this night through early morning (Pacific time) TCM is showing several other Alice White starring vehicles. I'm stoked.

She was an odd little thing. Like several other actresses of that era she was very slight and gamin-like in appearance. But unlike say, Bessie Love or Janet Gaynor and other "nice girl" types, she was quite overtly sexual. I would never call her a great actress, but she did have personality.

An interesting aspect of Show Girl in Hollywood was the performance by former silent film star Blanche Sweet, in what I believe was her last or close to last role. She's pretty much playing herself as a now forgotten former star, who tells Alice White's character than as a woman when you're 32 in Hollywood you're washed up, because they want "young legs." Blanche Sweet was 34 at the time.

That day of Vitagraph shorts was a joy for me. It's like a window into the past, to see leading vaudeville performers of the time doing their thing. I got a kick out of seeing Burns and Allen so young. But the biggest thrill for me, as a fan of early jazz, was to see and hear so many great African-American jazz bands, singers, and dancers. In a time when these great artists were frozen out of mainstream Hollywood feature movies, there was apparently a more open attitude towards featuring them in shorts.

Edited December 9, 2016 by bluepiano

[Padma]

20 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

And they've put it On Demand, so those who missed it have until Dec 15 to catch up with it. (@Padma, had you seen it before?)

Just clips, here and there. I have read several places where Astaire really admired Powell and loved working with her ("She 'put 'em down like a man', no ricky-ticky-sissy stuff with Ellie. She really knocked out a tap dance in a class by herself.", per his autobiography) :) ) Fun to watch them together and what a great tap dance "Begin the Beguine" is.  I'm not sure Powell is as well remembered now as a great tap dancer as she deserves to be.

I also wonder if girls are still interested today in learning to tap.  Not to look cute in competition, or to have a talent for a pageant, but from serious dedication to an art form that they love.  We know boys still do.  I'm not sure about girls. 

[Charlie Baker]

Quite a Myrna Loy day for the Star of the Month.  Animal Kingdom earlier today, Penthouse in the wee small hours, and the aforementioned, totally wonderful Love Me Tonight in prime time tonight.  Plus a sampling of her "exotic" period.

The Glass Menagerie awaits me on the DVR.  Looking forward to watching.

[Rinaldo]

11 minutes ago, Charlie Baker said:

the aforementioned, totally wonderful Love Me Tonight in prime time tonight.

Really, those who've never seen it: seize the chance!