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mariah23

By mariah23
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Rinaldo
Rinaldo

Never have I valued TCM as much as I did Sunday afternoon, after a tense visit to the ER Saturday afternoon and the OR Sunday morning. (Spoiler alert: the surgery solved everything, I got sent home Mo

Charlie Baker
Charlie Baker

An item I copied from a Hollywood Reporter news round-up: Carol Burnett, 90, Proves You’re Never Too Old to Pitch At the Paley Center premiere of the Bob Mackie bio-doc Naked Illusion in May

Rinaldo
Rinaldo

He had mixed feelings about it for a while; he had a genuine fondness for Julie Andrews, for instance, but (as with many performers) he got annoyed that he was known to the world for one popular movie

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EtheltoTillie

EtheltoTillie

On 11/26/2024 at 9:16 PM, Charlie Baker said:

The Big Combo, a pretty hard core gritty item, recently played Noir Alley and is still on Watch TCM.  In his closing remarks, Eddie remembers an interview with Earl Holliman about him and Lee Van Cleef pushing censorship boundaries in playing two hit men as a gay couple. EH said it was intentional on everyone's part and that they didn't think too many people would catch on.  That was then--as Eddie says it's quite obvious to a viewer today.

Thanks for this reminder.  I just searched for it and was reminded that when you choose "list by A to Z," don't be fooled by TCM's odd choice of alphabetizing with the word The. 

I actually watched this recently and was really captivated by Richard Conte, aka Barzini from The Godfather.

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EtheltoTillie

EtheltoTillie

(edited)

I really got a laugh out of rewatching Carol’s famous Went With the Wind skit. Co-starring Dinah Shore!  The costume budget must have been huge. So many hoop skirts. I also enjoyed her interview with Dave Karger. 
 

Speaking of Vivien Leigh, the film 21 Days, starring Mr. and Mrs. Olivier, was showing last night on TCM for Larry O Day. It’s one of the worst ever. Apparently made in 1937 and not released. Released in 1940 after Gone With the Wind made it seem potentially worthwhile.

Edited by EtheltoTillie
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Rinaldo

Rinaldo

(edited)

I enjoyed Carol Burnett's "Torchy Song" inordinately. I remember seeing it when it first aired, not knowing what it was referring to (as she said in her conversation with Dave Karger, Torch Song wasn't really well known to 1970s audiences, but she wanted to do the spoof anyway), but still finding it incredibly funny. I still do. The distillation of the Joan Crawford attitude and aura, and of course the focus on That Stance, make it unforgettable.

Torch Song itself remains negligible, as far as I'm concerned. But it does contain one of my all-time favorite movie quotes. After her new pianist makes a series of criticisms of her musical choices, La Crawford snarls back at him, "Well, I happen to like it unorthodox, arbitrary, and abrupt!" 

Edited by Rinaldo
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Charlie Baker

Charlie Baker

Both "Raised to be Rotten" and "Torchy Song" were a lot of fun.  Born to Be Bad can't be taken seriously for a minute, so on that level it's a good time, but it's not a good movie.  Then there's Torch Song.  Campy--but I like Marjorie Rambeau's Oscar-nominated performance as JC"s mother, and she also brings out a casual, lower-key Crawford that is a nice break from her heightened playing in the rest of the movie.  Then there's "Two-Faced Woman" which has to be one of the worst musical numbers from an MGM movie.  If I remember correctly, they used the same track for a Cyd Charisse number in another movie and it didn't make the final cut. (I think this is noted in That's Entertainment III?)  Torch Song also recycles some dance music from Royal Wedding. 

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MissAlmond

MissAlmond

(edited)

https://www.tcm.com/articles/Programming Article/021953/in-memoriam?icid=homepage-carousel1-in-memoriam--dec-2024

The above is not the year-end TCM Remembers but instead a list of movies will air featuring actors who died this year.  You can click the link above or go directly to TCM.com for complete information. 

Remembering Maggie Smith: December 10 at 8pm | 5 Movies

Nowhere to Go (1958)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

Travels with my Aunt (1972)

A Room with a View (1985)

Young Cassidy (1965)

In Memoriam: December 27 at 8pm | 6 Movies

Alain Delon - Le Samourai (1967)

Shelley Duvall - 3 Women (1977)

M. Emmett Walsh - Blood Simple (1984)

Anouk Aimée- Lola (1961)

Janis Page - Romance on the High Seas (1948)

Darryl Hickman - Fighting Father Dunne (1948)

 

Edited by MissAlmond
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Rinaldo

Rinaldo

5 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

It really is a good idea to show the movie spoofs alongside the original films.  It shows just how much attention to detail Carol's writers put into the project. 

And the magical contribution of costume designer Bob Mackie, once singled out in passing by Pauline Kael as "the wittiest costuming television has seen." Mackie was primarily known as a couturier, especially dressing entertainers for public appearances; but his commitment to The Carol Burnett Show throughout its long run shows his brilliance at theatrical design as well. He not only captured period style when needed, he provided just the right kind of comic exaggeration whenever it was needed.

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EtheltoTillie

EtheltoTillie

(edited)
26 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

And the magical contribution of costume designer Bob Mackie, once singled out in passing by Pauline Kael as "the wittiest costuming television has seen." Mackie was primarily known as a couturier, especially dressing entertainers for public appearances; but his commitment to The Carol Burnett Show throughout its long run shows his brilliance at theatrical design as well. He not only captured period style when needed, he provided just the right kind of comic exaggeration whenever it was needed.

He was a genius.  I sew, so I have always been interested in costuming.  I may have posted this before, but I had the privilege to see a Bob Mackie tribute at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) years ago, and I was able to take my mother with me and we had so much fun.  We saw all the Carol Burnett and Cher costumes up close.  We used to watch the show together every week.  That's why I mentioned those hoop skirts upthread.  They were perfectly executed. 

I commend the FIT museum to everyone.  It's a free museum that is part of the university.  They always have wonderful exhibits while the Met gets all of the credit.

Edited by EtheltoTillie
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Rinaldo

Rinaldo

(edited)

No matter how many times I see The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, I'm enthralled every time.

 Muriel Spark's novella was assigned reading in my freshman English class in 1965 (at which time it was only 4 years old), and its unique flavor stayed with me. When trailers for the movie appeared, they put me off -- they acted as if the story had been updated to make it "relevant" in the style of the moment ("out of her classroom comes a whole rebellious generation of Miss Brodies!"). But when I finally talked myself into seeing it, I was immediately captivated. It was intensely true to the book after all, with only the smallest and most forgivable of deviations (the art teacher is allowed to have two arms, two of the girls are combined into one, Miss Brodie and Sandy get a culminating in-person confrontation).

The dialogue remains crisp and revealing, providing a succession of classic Maggie Smith quotable lines ("She seeks to intimidate me by the use of quarter hours"). The acting is beyond praise (has any actor ever risen to the challenge of a verbal sparring match with Maggie Smith, and winning, better than young Pamela Franklin?), I now have the pleasure of being familiar with Celia Johnson and seeing how charmingly she aged, and every time I see it I'm amazed by the trickery of aging the girls from preadolescence to assured young women before our eyes (when the filming took place, of course, over a matter of mere months). A gem for sure.

Edited by Rinaldo
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Rinaldo

Rinaldo

21 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

Ditto to what @Rinaldo says. I will enjoy re watching. I retain so many lines and scenes from Ms Brodie. It’s so compelling. . I have never seen Travels With My Aunt so I will watch that.  Any opinions?  

If one has never seen it, certainly see it and decide for yourself. If you're asking my opinion, though, I don't think it works at all. Somehow that amazing actress Maggie Smith feels inauthentic in the role (I can't think of many other such instances from her), and this time her characteristic mannerisms seemed to me like a big of tricks rather than part of a coherent characterization. Maybe others feel differently about it.

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EtheltoTillie

EtheltoTillie

2 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

If one has never seen it, certainly see it and decide for yourself. If you're asking my opinion, though, I don't think it works at all. Somehow that amazing actress Maggie Smith feels inauthentic in the role (I can't think of many other such instances from her), and this time her characteristic mannerisms seemed to me like a big of tricks rather than part of a coherent characterization. Maybe others feel differently about it.

Since I first posted I watched some of it.  It's like a bad Auntie Mame.  I see it was written by Jay Presson Allen, who wrote the Miss Jean Brodie script, but further research indicates it was rewritten by Kate Hepburn, who was to star, but then she pulled out, but script still credited to Allen.  I have never read the source novel.  It was interesting to see a little of Cindy Williams, who was about to break out as a star of American Grafitti. 

StatisticalOutlier

StatisticalOutlier

Well this is annoying.  On the schedule at the TCM website, the runtime for the movie isn't the actual runtime, but the amount of time between the start of this movie and the start of the next one, which I am capable of calculating on my own.

It probably doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, but why can't anything just be correct these days?

Rinaldo

Rinaldo

Maybe this is the right time and place to mention that if one wants to see some no-tricks great acting from Maggie Smith, devoid of the snappy putdowns for which she's rightly considered incomparable, look up Alan Bennett's 50-minute monologue "Bed Among the Lentils." I'm by no means the first to single this out, but it should be better known:

 

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Rinaldo

Rinaldo

Carol Burnett's "The Lady Heir" sketch (after The Heiress, of course) was a special delight to me for two reasons.

1, it happens that I'd never seen it before. 2, it served (as the best parodies can) as an act of criticism of the source material. Please understand: I'm very fond of The Heiress -- I'm touched by it in the intended way, and I admire the writing, acting, direction, everything. Still, a furtive bit of me thinks that Catherine could have reacted in other ways. She might have had a final satisfying confrontation with him and told him what she thought. Or she could have reacted less self-destructively and decided that even if this gentlemen turned out to be a cad, someone else might not and she should keep a positive attitude. Or she could be pragmatic and decide, "He's going to be careful to treat me well and keep me happy, and I might as well fool myself with him as with someone else."

Or of course she could do what Catherine did in this sketch.

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EtheltoTillie

EtheltoTillie

Further quick reviews:

In the end I could not rewatch They Shoot Horses. Too depressing and since I knew what would happen I did not care  to subject myself to it. I stuck it out for about a half hour. It’s such an allegory for existential dread. 
Schwarzer Kies was this week’s noir selection. A German film. Worth watching. 
Little Old New York was a silent curiosity worth a little time. I didn’t watch all of it. Marian Davies as Yentl. 

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Wiendish Fitch

Wiendish Fitch

5 minutes ago, Notwisconsin said:

They just aired FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT, about the making (sort of) Jerry Lewis' THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED. The footage of the film included looked awful. The reason why it was never released was that he was swindled. Jeez.

I would love to watch the documentary, but I have zero desire to actually see The Day the Clown Cried. The premise sounds utterly revolting to me (it doesn't help that I never liked Jerry Lewis).

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

(edited)
3 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I would love to watch the documentary, but I have zero desire to actually see The Day the Clown Cried. The premise sounds utterly revolting to me (it doesn't help that I never liked Jerry Lewis).

Just reading the Wikipedia summary alone scarred me for life.

Edited by Spartan Girl
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Wiendish Fitch

Wiendish Fitch

(edited)
11 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Just reading the Wikipedia summary alone scarred me for life.

I appreciate stories about being positive in rough situations (Pollyanna, A Little Princess, Cinderella, etc), but things like this and, say, Life is Beautiful* absolutely turn my stomach. Optimism is one thing, shameless sentimentality that trivializes the most horrific event in comparatively recent history is another. It's not that I don't have perverse curiosity about certain things, but The Day the Clown Cried is absolutely not one of them. I have limits, dammit.

*Though I realize TDtCC goes in a much darker, more sinister direction.

Edited by Wiendish Fitch
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Milburn Stone

Milburn Stone

19 hours ago, Fool to cry said:

I didn't get Jerry Lewis until seeing when he was teamed with Dean Martin. The dynamic between this smooth ladies man and this manic live action cartoon character was so fun and unpredictable. Its no wonder they were so huge in the post-war era.

They were great, and I'd add that to fully understand the appeal of early solo Jerry Lewis, you have to have been a child when his first few movies came out. Eight-year old me never saw anything as funny in his life as Geisha Boy. It was orgasmically funny, as much as an eight-year old can achieve climax. So was Who's Minding the Store. (Both movies directed by Frank Tashlin, but without Jerry Lewis, nothing.)

Now, as for The Day the Clown Cried, I can't even believe I'm saying this, but I have read one account--from someone kind of credible who somehow saw the whole movie--saying that you have to see the whole movie to understand why it's great. Don't blame the messenger!

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Rinaldo

Rinaldo

Of the Martin & Lewis films, one, the 1954 Living It Up, is of some interest to TCM addicts, because it's a gender-flipped remake of the 1937 comedy Nothing Sacred, by way of the 1953 Broadway musical Hazel Flagg, with Lewis in the Carole Lombard role (Homer Flagg instead of Hazel Flagg). Janet Leigh takes over the Fredric March role, retaining the name Wally Cook. Dean Martin sings a couple of the Jule Styne songs from the musical, and Martin & Lewis together sing the best-remembered number, "Every Street's a Boulevard in Old New York."

It's just such a bizarre circumstance that this happened: Paramount bought the rights to a musical, and unlike most such cases when the musical bombs (only archival fanatics like me remember it), went ahead and actually made the movie, with two of their biggest stars. Here's the big number:

 

Milburn Stone

Milburn Stone

(edited)
6 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Here's the big number:

What a magnificent way to end a movie!

I've never made it through the whole thing. Did the plot involve the Dean character losing his medical license? (Thereby ending up as a street cleaner alongside Jerry ?) Or was that final shot just a fun payoff, with no logic necessary? Works for me either way! In fact, gives me goosebumps either way. (Of course, their being in top hat and tails before that is equally logic-free.)

I've seen numbers that purported to take place on a theatrical stage even though they couldn't possibly have. And I've seen numbers that purported to take place in a real exterior even though they clearly didn't. But I've never seen a number that purported to take place in an exterior and then built a follow-spot into the gag! "We want you to believe this is a real New York street, and then we're going to totally destroy the illusion on purpose. And then we're going to pretend it's a real New York street again." So meta, before meta was cool.

Fun fact: That brownstone they dance up the steps of, the one tricked out to look like a Chinese restaurant? I shot a Taster's Choice commercial on those stairs and front doorway in 1982. Only we used it as a brownstone where a young lady lived, being escorted home by her date in the snow. She stands at the top of the stairs, he remains on the sidewalk, shivering, falling snow collecting on his shoulders. He all but begs to be invited inside for a cup of coffee because it's so cold out. Cue the campaign's theme song ("Times Like These Are Made for Taster's Choice") as we dissolve to the two of them tête-à-tête over a cup of coffee in her apartment.

Shooting on Paramount's New York Street (as they called that portion of their backlot) was a pinch-me experience. I've now seen that portion of the New York Street in any number of Paramount movies and TV shows, pre-82 and post. (Although I don't know if it still exists. Paramount sold off a portion of its backlot sometime this century, sadly.)

 

Edited by Milburn Stone
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MissAlmond

MissAlmond

(edited)
9 hours ago, Linda956 said:

It's December 20th.  Has TCM started airing the TCM Remembers memorial for those that died this year yet?  I've been watching for the last few days but I haven't seen anything yet.

Here you go @Linda956 and @mariah23 (and the entire TCM board).👇

TCM Remembers 2024

 

Edited by MissAlmond
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Wiendish Fitch

Wiendish Fitch

11 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

Here you go @Linda956 and @mariah23 (and the entire TCM board).👇

TCM Remembers 2024

 

That was decent, though I thought the stills looked kind of awkward. Last year's montage looked more seamless. I appreciated the "outside the box" choices for clips (they didn't use Darth Vader or Mufasa for James Earl Jones, for example). 

They excluded OJ Simpson. I am 100% okay with that. As I've mentioned before, I would have loved if they'd used one of the goofy, slapstick scenes from The Naked Gun, but again, his exclusion is fine and dandy.

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StatisticalOutlier

StatisticalOutlier

On 12/16/2024 at 2:15 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

In the end I could not rewatch They Shoot Horses. Too depressing and since I knew what would happen I did not care  to subject myself to it.

Mr. Outlier and I watched it tonight on Watch TCM.  We'd seen it back in 2001;  the Paramount Theater in Austin has a summer classics series, and it was a double feature with Klute.  And tonight, neither of us remembered what the ending was gong to be.  That's typical for me, because I never remember the end of anything, but Mr. Outlier's pretty good at it.  Guess it didn't leave an impression.  😀

The horrifying thing is that I know I saw it when it first came out.  I would have been 12.  Twelve!  No doubt one of those Saturdays when my mom would drop the kids off at the picture show.  Gosh, I hope I was alone, because my 11- and 9-year-old brothers didn't need to be seeing that.

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