TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[StrictTime]

3 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

The thing I've always liked about Raindrops in Butch Cassidy is that while it is such a 60's song in every way and thus ought to seem glaringly out of place - it perfectly suits the characters in the film, the way they are living in the moment and refusing to think or plan for what they must KNOW is going to happen.

Also really was startled by the TCM Remembers bit they put together for Jerry Lewis - a few shots of his famous mugging, but mostly quiet reaction shots.  Very unexpected, at least by me, and moving.

http://w.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/1348525/TCM-Remembers-Jerry-Lewis-1926-2017-.html

ETA:  also unexpected was the Labor Day programming - basically all women's pictures, and not Norma Rae type stuff either.  Well I guess Woman of the Year and Annie Oakley involve women on the job, but unless some kind of point was being made about housekeeping being as much work as a paid job (which, yes) why were they showing Penny Serenade and I Remember Mama?  or Alice Adams (husband-hunting as a job?)?

As a retired SAHM, I approve! Lol!  Maybe no point is being made at all--it's all entertainment, perhaps.

[voiceover]

11 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

The thing I've always liked about Raindrops in Butch Cassidy is that while it is such a 60's song in every way and thus ought to seem glaringly out of place - it perfectly suits the characters in the film

I was (still am) a huge fan of The Sting, and by extension, the Scott Joplin ragtime -- via Marvin Hamlisch -- that provided the soundtrack.

So much so, I bought the album when it was released, and I still remember the liner notes (IIRC, back -cover-of-the-album notes), written by director George Roy Hill, who'd also helmed Butch Cassidy.

Hill explained his decision to use Joplin for the movie, even though it was music from an earlier time than the Depression-era setting.  He said the high spirits of the ragtime connected perfectly to the mood he wanted for the film, and that this was a "thing" of his ("I'd even consider using jazz for a picture set in Ancient Rome -- well, I probably wouldn't, but you see what I mean.").  He referred back to Butch's "Raindrops..." number as an example.

Side note: Hill also confessed to playing the piano for the first rough cut of the film.  The head of the studio's music department told him after listening to the track that, he'd made a good decision to choose directing over music, and they encouraged him to stick to it.

[voiceover]

9 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

 The use of that song was a bold move, but one that makes the movie as iconic a piece of countercultural pop art as it is. 

Hal David/Burt Bachrach/BJ Thomas = pop, yes; "counterculture", really?  Maybe if it was Dylan singing "Mr Tambourine Man", sure.

[MisterBluxom]

On 8/13/2017 at 10:23 PM, ratgirlagogo said:

I love this movie.  It's not just her, it's Gary Cooper as the sexy nerd, and the endlessly wonderful supporting cast of unworldly old Encylopediasts.  But she should have won the Oscar for it.  Is it my #1? certainly always circling around that in my endlessly changing carousel of  Stanwyck favorites.  

Ball of Fire was great. Maybe even Stanwyck's greatest. (Or maybe The Lady Eve is her greatest). But for some reason, after reading about some of these films, I feel compelled to urge you all to see The Dark Corner starring Lucille Ball. She plays a character that is nothing like the screwball Lucy character. It is definitely my favorite LB movie and for those people who have never seen it, I think you may find it to be a real revelation that she could play other kinds of characters and play them really well. In this movie she plays the secretary to a private detective and it's a love story. She comes across as a very lovable and sympathetic character - nothing at all like Lucy from the I Love Lucy show. If you ever get the chance, I strongly suggest you give it a try. Please excuse me if I have posted about this movie before in this thread. I can't remember.

P.S. I love B&W films and collect them. I have several hundred and I'd like to post some of the very best of them here. I will put these titles in a Spoiler Box so as not to annoy people who are not interested. The first five are probably my Top 5

 

 

Stalag 17 1953 Rated 8.1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046359
Wonderful movie. Possibly one of the best top ten of them all. When two escaping American WW 2 prisoners are killed, the German POW camp barracks black marketeer, J.J. Sefton, is suspected of being an informer. Comedy.  
William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto Preminger

Mystery Street 1950 Rated 7.8
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042771
A small town cop is helped by a professor when the remains of a pregnant woman turn up on a beach.  Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett

Murder My Sweet 1944 Rated 7.6
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037101
After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit. This is a forerunner of Farewell My Lovely

The Naked City 1948 Rated 7.7

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040636

New York City film noir about two detectives investigating the death of an attractive young woman. The apparent suicide turns out to be murder.

Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart

The Dark Corner 1946 Rated 7.1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038453
Excellent film. Very, very enjoyable. You won't hardly recognize Lucille Ball. She plays a dramatic role and she is nothing like the character she plays in, "I Love Lucy". Secretary tries to help her boss, who is framed for a murder.  Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix

5 Fingers 1952 Rated 7.8
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044314
I love James Mason and this is one of his best films. During WW2 the valet to the British Ambassador to Ankara sells British secrets to the Germans while trying to romance a refugee Polish countess.  James Mason, Danielle Darrieux, Michael Rennie

12 Angry Men 1957 Rated 8.9
https://www.google.com/search?q=imdb+12+angry+men&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
A jury holdout attempts to prevent a miscarriage of justice by forcing his colleagues to reconsider the evidence.  Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam

Anatomy of a Murder 1959 Rated 8.1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052561
Lee Remick is unbelievable sexy in this film. In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?  James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara

Caged 1950 Rated 8.9
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042296
Excellent film about a womens' prison. A naive nineteen year old widow becomes coarsened and cynical when she is sent to a woman's prison and is exposed to hardened criminals and sadistic guards.  Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Ellen Corby

Detective Story 1951 Rated 7.6
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043465
On one day in the 21st Precinct squad room, assorted characters form a backdrop for the troubles of hard-nosed Detective Jim McLeod.
Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix

Impact 1949 Rated 7.0
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041503
A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding, and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy.  Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn

Kansas City Confidential 1952 Rated 7.4
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044789
An ex-con trying to go straight is framed for a million dollar armored car robbery and must go to Mexico in order to unmask the real culprits.
John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster

Lady In The Lake 1947 Rated 6.6
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039545
IMHO, this film is very under-rated. It never got the kind of reviews it deserved. The lady editor of a crime magazine hires Philip Marlowe to find the wife of her boss. The private detective soon finds himself involved in murder.  Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan

The Asphalt Jungle 1950 Rated 7.9
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042208
A major heist goes off as planned, until bad luck and double crosses cause everything to unravel.  Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen

The Big Steal 1949 Rated 7.1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041178
An army lieutenant accused of robbery pursues the real thief on a frantic chase through Mexico aided by the thief's fiancee.  Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix

I love this film. Great comedy/drama.

The Killers 1946 Rated 7.8
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038669
This film is about an insurance agent who investigates a killing that involves a beautiful but deadly woman.  Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner & Edmond O'Brien.

The Killing 1956 Rated 8.0
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049406
Well worth seeing. This film is about a daring daylight robbery at a race track. It was one of director's Stanley Kubrick earliest films.
Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards.

The Lady Eve 1941 Rated 8.0
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033804
A magnificent comedy / love story. If you enjoy Preston Sturges films, you will almost certainly love this one. A trio of classy card sharps targets a socially awkward heir to brewery millions for his money, until one of them falls in love with him. Directed by Preston Sturges.
Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn

The Maltese Falcon 1941 Rated 8.1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033870
A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette.
Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George

The Treasure of Sierra Madre 1948 Rated 8.3
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040897
IMHO, this was Bogart's best film. Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.  Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt

White Heat 1949 Rated 8.2
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042041
A great gangster movie. One of the best. A psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist. Shortly after the plan takes place, events take a crazy turn.  James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien

Witness For The Prosecution 1957 Rated 8.4
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051201
A veteran British barrister must defend his client in a murder trial that has surprise after surprise.  Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Charles Laughton

Oh well. I hope this is enough to keep you busy for a while. But not too much for those people who will object to my posting this list.

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2017 by MissBluxom

[Crisopera]

Nice list, MissBluxom.  And I agree about The Dark Corner - one of Lucy's best straight roles.  I do think her best one is the nasty Gloria in The Big Street.  The great film critic James Agee wrote of her:

Quote

"pretty Lucille Ball, who was born for the parts Ginger Rogers sweats over, tackles her 'emotional' role as if it were sirloin and she didn't care who was looking."

It's a very weird movie, though.  Full of that "quaint" Damon Runyon dialogue and Henry Fonda plays one of the most masochistic characters ever on film.  I also love her in Dance Girl Dance and Without Love - she steals the latter right out from under Tracy & Hepburn's noses.  Just learned that she tested for Ball of Fire - she probably would have been wonderful, but I have to say I'm glad that Stanwyck got it!

Edited September 7, 2017 by Crisopera

[Rinaldo]

It's also interesting to see Lucille Ball as a one-step-up-from-extra in a couple of the Astaire-Rogers musicals. She walks through as a model in the climactic fashion show in Roberta, and she's one of the group of gals encouraging Harriet Hilliard to glam up if she wants to catch a man. (Harriet is so convincing as a mousy nonentity that it's amusing to recall how, two decades later, she became one of TV's iconic sitcom mothers, and a fairly funny one, on Ozzie and Harriet.)

[MisterBluxom]

22 hours ago, Crisopera said:

Nice list, MissBluxom.  And I agree about The Dark Corner - one of Lucy's best straight roles.  I do think her best one is the nasty Gloria in The Big Street.  The great film critic James Agee wrote of her:

It's a very weird movie, though.  Full of that "quaint" Damon Runyon dialogue and Henry Fonda plays one of the most masochistic characters ever on film.  I also love her in Dance Girl Dance and Without Love - she steals the latter right out from under Tracy & Hepburn's noses.  Just learned that she tested for Ball of Fire - she probably would have been wonderful, but I have to say I'm glad that Stanwyck got it!

OMG! I have never even heard of Dance Girl Dance or Without Love. Some afficinado I am, huh? I don't even know how to spell afficinado. I will try to find a copy of those two but so far, my primary sources are coming up empty. Thanks very much however. Sure do appreciate learning of new good movies. (new to me, that is).

BTW, it is spelled "afficionado".  I learn something every day.

 

P.S. You may call me Blux or Bluxie    *BLUSH*

Edited September 8, 2017 by MissBluxom

[Bastet]

5 hours ago, Crisopera said:

I also love her in Dance Girl Dance and Without Love - she steals the latter right out from under Tracy & Hepburn's noses. 

She and Keenan Wynn.

[wilsie]

Keeping with Lucille Ball movies, TCM just showed Lured  that is a fun mystery watch for her movie fans.  It also stars George Sanders in a most charming role and the always wonderful Charles Coburn.    And that's just the beginning a really great cast including  Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke and George Zucco.

[MisterBluxom]

Yippee! I found Lured and I will watch it tonight. Thanks ever so much!

[Milburn Stone]

5 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

Lucille Ball [is] one of the group of gals encouraging Harriet Hilliard to glam up if she wants to catch a man. (Harriet is so convincing as a mousy nonentity that it's amusing to recall how, two decades later, she became one of TV's iconic sitcom mothers, and a fairly funny one, on Ozzie and Harriet.)

I'm glad you included the part about funny, @Rinaldo. For years (until I knew better) I thought Ozzie and Harriet was pablum. When I rediscovered it, I realized it was a pretty darned good show! Owing to both Ozzie and Harriet. (Even the wooden Ricky and David get laughs, and not just the canned kind on the soundtrack.)

[wilsie]

Quote

Yippee! I found Lured and I will watch it tonight. Thanks ever so much!

@MissBluxom  I'm so glad you're going to watch it.  Please let us know how you like it.  

[wilsie]

@MissBluxom and anyone who watches Lured  notice Lucille clothes.  I thought the gowns were just beautiful and her other outfits were really stylish.  She was a very beautiful and talented woman.

[MisterBluxom]

15 hours ago, wilsie said:

@MissBluxom  I'm so glad you're going to watch it.  Please let us know how you like it.  

I loved it. I can't believe I'd never seen it before. My favorite part was how about 2/3 of the way through, I figured it was over (when the South American got clocked in the park). But then, there was a whole lot of movie left. That was a great surprise. I really like the American phrases that she used during the movie to all those staunch British men.

Thanks very much for telling me about this one. It is definitely going into my collection.

P.S. You may call me BLUX or BLUXIE.     *BLUSH*

 

By the way, I should tell you that I just use the name "Miss Bluxom" because I find that I get better treatment when I use a feminine name. But, in reality, I am a 65 year old man and wouldn't want to lead you on dishonestly. I just figure it's best to come clean with you.  Sorry.

Edited September 8, 2017 by MissBluxom

[ratgirlagogo]

19 hours ago, MissBluxom said:

I will put these titles in a Spoiler Box so as not to annoy people who are not interested. The first five are probably my Top 5

I am also a fan of The Dark Corner, as I am of Dance Girl Dance.  Thank you for your courtesy in hiding your list  - although lists don't really require spoiler tags.   Besides,  while I am not that keen on lists myself you must have noticed that there are a number of posters here who love them (not that I'm thinking of anyone in particular

Spoiler

voiceover, queen of lists

Edited September 8, 2017 by ratgirlagogo

[MisterBluxom]

5 hours ago, wilsie said:

@MissBluxom and anyone who watches Lured  notice Lucille clothes.  I thought the gowns were just beautiful and her other outfits were really stylish.  She was a very beautiful and talented woman.

I'm feeling so sad and regretful now that I watched Lucy for years and always looked down on her - thinking her talent was kind of stupid. But, in reality, she was fabulously talented and capable of most any role. She was deserving of so much more acclaim than she ever got. At least, I'm happy that she made a bazillion dollars and was a Hollywood powerhouse. It could not make her happy during her lonely nights. But it sure did make up for a whole lot of the abuse she took. (by abuse I just mean people talking badly about her).

Edited September 8, 2017 by MissBluxom

[MisterBluxom]

22 hours ago, Crisopera said:

 

Sorry. I messed up this edit.

[voiceover]

15 hours ago, ratgirlagogo said:

Besides,  while I am not that keen on lists myself you must have noticed that there are a number of posters here who love them (not that I'm thinking of anyone in particular

  Hide contents

voiceover, queen of lists

Damn.  Too bad we can't have tag lines here, because that would be mine.

(That, or "born too late for Navarro")

 Fitzcarraldo was part of Werner Herzog night.  That ending -- with the singers & the orchestra in full force; an incandescent Claudia Cardinale on the shore; Klaus Kinski's contented grin -- as purely emotional as anything in his oeuvre.  And it reminded me what the addition of opera can do for a film (Moonstruck comes immediately to mind) & for a film's plot.

The Audience Channel has been screening Grizzly Man (Herzog's documentary about the man who devotes his life to grizzly bears, and ends up being eaten by one).  Watching Fitz & Kinski (and Burden of Dreams, the "making of" doc) and you walk away muttering, Wow, water does seek its own level.

[MisterBluxom]

Wow! Wowsers! I just watched Lured for a second time. The first time I watched it, I was half asleep and didn't really remember all of it. But this time, I was fully alert and I loved it. It was probably even better than The Dark Corner. The ending was so rewarding. Boris Karloff was kind of a disappointment but he was only on screen for about 5 minutes so no big deal.

But the three lead characters were just fabulous acting jobs. Lucy, Charles Coburn and George Sanders.

Wilsie, thank you ever so much. So very much. If you have any other reccos for me (especially B&W films), please? I'd be so very happy to hear from you again.

[wilsie]

Quote

                                                

Wow! Wowsers! I just watched Lured for a second time. The first time I watched it, I was half asleep and didn't really remember all of it. But this time, I was fully alert and I loved it. It was probably even better than The Dark Corner. The ending was so rewarding. Boris Karloff was kind of a disappointment but he was only on screen for about 5 minutes so no big deal.

But the three lead characters were just fabulous acting jobs. Lucy, Charles Coburn and George Sanders.

Wilsie, thank you ever so much. So very much. If you have any other reccos for me (especially B&W films), please? I'd be so very happy to hear from you again.

@MissBluxom  I'm so glad you enjoyed it.  I really love it.  I thought George Sanders was at his most charming and there were so many fun things in this murder mystery.   I'll try and think of some other movies.  The people who post here are great at finding and sharing movies that are worth giving a look. 

[Rinaldo]

Today's an interestingly varied day on TCM. This morning, a series of Jimmy Durante movies, progressing through the years to Jumbo, in which he had appeared on Broadway 3 decades previously (though the stories are entirely different, it's still a bit of history). And his costars in the early ones are bits of history too: Buster Keaton, Jack Pearl. (I wish they'd show one of Joe Cook's movies sometime -- he made only two, but he's a huge figure in stage comedy c. 1930 and I'm curious about him.)

Then this evening is another Disney one: Swiss Family Robinson (every kid who ever saw it at the right age wanted to live in that house, right?), Kidnapped (one of their British live-action adventure stories), Blackbeard's Ghost, and two early Jodie Foster movies, including the good version of Freaky Friday.

And then late Tuesday morning, A Man's Castle, a pre-Code classic (Spencer Tracy and Loretta Young "live in sin" in Shantytown). This is an entry in the "why they were stars" sweepstakes we had here a long while back, for Loretta Young. She's simple and real and altogether luminous, quite irresistible (and I say that as someone who finds many of her later appearances thoroughly resistible).

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

Today's an interestingly varied day on TCM. This morning, a series of Jimmy Durante movies, progressing through the years to Jumbo, in which he had appeared on Broadway 3 decades previously (though the stories are entirely different, it's still a bit of history). And his costars in the early ones are bits of history too: Buster Keaton, Jack Pearl. (I wish they'd show one of Joe Cook's movies sometime -- he made only two, but he's a huge figure in stage comedy c. 1930 and I'm curious about him.)

I so wanted to believe Jumbo was an unfairly maligned movie, but when I finally caught up with it the last time TCM showed it, I had to conclude it was fairly maligned. But it had so much going for it on paper, included Charles Walters' direction! Sadly I couldn't make it more than a half-hour in, though I skipped ahead to the last five minutes. Doris' singing is wonderful (of course), and it's fantastic to hear lesser-known Rodgers and Hart (like "Over and Over Again"--Bobby Short's is the only version I'd heard previously--and "Circus on Parade").

Re the score, @Rinaldo, you're the only one around here (or one of the few) who might know the answer to this. The IMDB credits the movie's finale, "Sawdusts and Spangles and Dreams," to Rodgers and Roger Edens. Did Rodgers compose new music for the film, or is this a trunk song that Rodgers pulled out for Edens to write new lyrics for? Or is it an amalgam of some music by Rodgers and some by Edens, with words by Edens? Or is the song really all Edens, except for a brief Rodgers quote here and there sufficient to require a credit? 

[Rinaldo]

29 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

But it had so much going for it on paper, included Charles Walters' direction!

And the participation of Busby Berkeley (uncredited, I find, though I've somehow always known about it -- it was his last film work, and a decade after his previous one). Yes, it's a disappointment. At least we still have Durante's "What elephant?" bit repeated from the stage show. (Which must have been quite a spectacle, unrepeatable, turning the 5000-seat Hippodrome into a circus tent with actual circus acts and the Paul Whiteman Band.

36 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

The IMDB credits the movie's finale, "Sawdusts and Spangles and Dreams," to Rodgers and Roger Edens. Did Rodgers compose new music for the film, or is this a trunk song that Rodgers pulled out for Edens to write new lyrics for? Or is it an amalgam of some music by Rodgers and some by Edens, with words by Edens? Or is the song really all Edens, except for a brief Rodgers quote here and there sufficient to require a credit? 

Alas, I have no special knowledge about this. Rodgers could have supplied new music for the movie -- he was far from finished -- but I don't find any statements that he did. In fact, rather the contrary: The R&H organization, who you'd think would be protective of Rodgers's credit if anybody would, lists it as entirely the work of Roger Edens, words and music. I haven't seen the film lately: are there quotes from other songs in the finale as performed? If so, that would explain crediting RR. Or else it was a courtesy, or a contractual requirement.

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

Alas, I have no special knowledge about this. Rodgers could have supplied new music for the movie -- he was far from finished -- but I don't find any statements that he did. In fact, rather the contrary: The R&H organization, who you'd think would be protective of Rodgers's credit if anybody would, lists it as entirely the work of Roger Edens, words and music. I haven't seen the film lately: are there quotes from other songs in the finale as performed? If so, that would explain crediting RR. Or else it was a courtesy, or a contractual requirement.

Interesting! The R&H link shows the song is published by Williamson Music, which as I know you know (but others may not) was R&H's publishing wing. Ordinarily, a song written entirely by MGM stalwart Roger Edens would be published by Robbins or Feist (MGM's music publishing wings). Rodgers must have insisted on the publishing. 

[voiceover]

Watching Swiss Family Robinson, and the fuss that goes down once Roberta shows up.  If only the boys had been able to follow Baloo's advice to Mowgli: "Fuhgeddabout those, they ain't nuthin' but trouble!"

*sigh*

Quite a few life lessons in Jungle Book.

[PaulaO]

Watching Portrait on Jennie simply for Jo Cotten.  And Ethel Barrymore.  I adore Jo Cotten.

[bmoore4026]

Been a while since I posted here.  I've been wrapped up in other things.

Anyway, today's theme for TCM daytime is the police.  Coppers, the fuzz, flatfoots.  I'm thrilled.

http://www.tcm.com/schedule/index.html?tz=CST&sdate=2017-09-13

[Milburn Stone]

3 hours ago, bmoore4026 said:

Been a while since I posted here.  I've been wrapped up in other things.

Anyway, today's theme for TCM daytime is the police.  Coppers, the fuzz, flatfoots.  I'm thrilled.

http://www.tcm.com/schedule/index.html?tz=CST&sdate=2017-09-13

This is a true copper/fuzz/flatfoot tangent, since it's on another channel, but Starz has been showing all three Naked Gun movies in heavy rotation. I will watch a Naked Gun movie anytime, anywhere.

[Crisopera]

Did anyone else watch Harold & Lillian: A Love Story last night?  What a beautiful movie.  And educational!  I learned a lot about storyboards and movie research (my ideal job, apparently).  Not to mention it is a true love story.  If it's on Watch TCM (damn you, Time Warner!*), I can't recommend it highly enough.

*I'm on the verge of moving from NY to NC and hope that I can access Watch TCM down there.

[PaulaO]

Was the movie about Harold Lloyd and Lillian Gish?????

[Crisopera]

My bad - the actual title is Harold & Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story.  No, it was a documentary about Harold and Lillian Michelson.  He was a storyboard artist and she was a researcher for movies.  They were both highly influential in Hollywood over many years. Really a wonderful movie.  TCM was showing it as part of their series about the Motion Picture Relief Fund - she now lives at the Motion Picture & Television Country Home.

[Jordan Baker]

On ‎9‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 8:28 PM, PaulaO said:

Watching Portrait on Jennie simply for Jo Cotten.  And Ethel Barrymore.  I adore Jo Cotten.

We watched this, too, and I too love Joseph Cotten, but that was an odd movie. My first time seeing it.  And I hope this isn't an incredibly naïve question, but does that portrait actually hang in the Met?

We stumbled on the second half of Casablanca tonight. This was a favorite of the local station that showed classic movies when I was very young. My parents loved it. The one scene that stayed with me from those early days was the singing of La Marseillaise to drown out the Germans. The other scene I know well is the goodbye scene between Rick and Ilsa, but that's because of Play It Again, Sam.

What struck me this time was how beautifully it was filmed. The lighting, the shadows, the way Ingrid Bergman's face is just luminous . . . it's all just top-notch. And so much more careful, it seems to me, than recent films. I know I'm being Captain Obvious, but what a great film.

[PaulaO]

I thought Portrait of Jennie was quite bizarre also.  Did he not realize that Jennie was dead?  He was so shocked when the nun told him she died. I've seen Casablanca a number of times, yet the last time I watched it (a few months ago) I realized it is as near a perfect movie as you can get.

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, PaulaO said:

I've seen Casablanca a number of times, yet the last time I watched it (a few months ago) I realized it is as near a perfect movie as you can get.

I'm highly susceptible to Casablanca, just like most of us, but I'd hesitate to call it "near perfect." No matter. What it does have going for it, more than any other movie I know, is how "full of quotations" it is -- rivaled in the English language only by Hamlet (which first inspired that joke) in that respect. And much more than quotations in both cases -- they're stuffed with phrases that have passed into the language so completely, nobody thinks of them as quotations. Hamlet has lines like "method in my madness," "brevity is the soul of wit," "trippingly on the tongue." "mad north by northwest," and many more -- they're just idioms that we use without thinking. And Casablanca, beyond the famous lines that remind us of their source (principally, of course, "Play it, Sam," but there are others like the joke about "the waters") has these:

• Of all the [whatever] in the world, she walks into mine.
• (Round up) the usual suspects.
• I'm shocked, shocked to find....
• I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
• You’ll regret it, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow....
• Here's looking at you, kid.
• We'll always have Paris.

People are apt to say any of those without even thinking of Casablanca. That's an amazing achievement.

[chitowngirl]

I'm familiar with all of those expressions, know that they come from Casablanca, yet I have never seen the movie.  I've been meaning to get to it for the past 30 or so years. My grandma started pestering me about it when I was in college. I'll get to it.

Edited September 16, 2017 by chitowngirl

[Rinaldo]

Yesterday: Hand Across the Table. I knew background on it from my Mitchell Leisen book, but hadn't had the chance to see it before. It certainly is determined to double down on the "screwball" in screwball comedy, what with Fred MacMurray making his first appearance (in his first starring role) playing hopscotch in the hotel corridor, and Carole Lombard doing her nasal phone-operator voice while Fred is trying to have a series phone call with his fiancée. Both of them are determined to marry elsewhere for money, but of course they can't stop LOVE. There are the inevitable couple of moments that make for uncomfortable viewing now, and Fred's inexperience (as leading man and as comedian) shows on occasion, but on the whole it's very likable, and it's easy to see why the two stars would be paired again (3 more times, in fact). Poor Ralph Bellamy is The Wrong Man again, and this time he's very handsome, wealthy, and generous (a former flying ace now confined to a wheelchair) -- a good case could be made that he's the preferable choice. Leisen did nice work on the look of it, as he generally did, especially the bustling hotel hair/nails salon. Did well-off men really get manicures all the time in the 1930s?

I'm still trying to get through Beat the Devil, after hearing about it most of my adult life. I must be bringing the wrong attitude to it; it's supposed to be riotously funny, and I'm not cracking a smile. Aside from Jennifer Jones, who's different in it from any other role of hers I've seen, and good fun. But I'd appreciate advice from anyone here who knows and likes the movie.

[voiceover]

16 hours ago, chitowngirl said:

I'm familiar with all of those expressions, know that they come from Casablanca, yet I have never seen the movie.  I've been meaning to get to it for the past 30 or so years. My grandma started pestering me about it when I was in college. I'll get to it.

The TCM/Fathom Events series is showing it nationwide, November 12 & 15.

I highly recommend waiting to see it on the big screen.  Years ago I attended a special screening, and I'll never forget -- the first time Bogart appeared onscreen, half the theater burst into applause.  About a second  later, the other half burst out laughing, because we knew that the ovation had been the perfect reaction. And we'd been too stunned to give it in time.

[SeriousPurrs]

23 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I'm still trying to get through Beat the Devil, after hearing about it most of my adult life. I must be bringing the wrong attitude to it; it's supposed to be riotously funny, and I'm not cracking a smile. Aside from Jennifer Jones, who's different in it from any other role of hers I've seen, and good fun. But I'd appreciate advice from anyone here who knows and likes the movie.

Jennifer Jones did not have a good time shooting this film:

https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2016/02/jennifer-jones-john-huston-west-of-eden

[Rinaldo]

21 minutes ago, SeriousPurrs said:

Jennifer Jones did not have a good time shooting this film

None of the actors did, as far as I can tell -- certainly not Bogart, who after its release expressed his contempt for it publicly. He had an additional reason to feel betrayed by the whole experience; he'd put his own money into it. All sources seem to agree that the script was indeed being written on location (by Capote and others) in scraps day by day, and the actors given neither any time to prepare, nor an overall picture of what their characters were about. 

The question seems to be, can one nevertheless enjoy the result? (I've seen it referred to as a borderline case, maybe a "dangerous" one.) I still haven't made it through. Many thanks for the link, in any case. That letter was new to me, and it reads as hyper-emotional yet completely rational.

[StatisticalOutlier]

Thursday night, TCM is showing some music documentaries.  I never miss a chance to see Gimme Shelter, the Maysles documentary about the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont.  It's amazing how you can feel the evil.

And I'm finally going to get to see Don't Look Back, which I'm looking forward to even though I'm not a Bob Dylan fan.

I wonder why they aren't showing them in chronological order, since the progression from Monterey Pop to Woodstock to Altamont is interesting.

[voiceover]

Enjoying the hell out of Greta Garbo's birthday today.

My favorite of hers (Ninotchka) reminds me of the film scenes that are pure joy, every time I watch them.

Now: this is no Top 5 ?, but I include the drunk scene between Garbo & Melvyn Douglas; the archery lesson in Pride & Prejudice; Rosalind Russell breaking the unwelcome engagement news to Cary Grant in His Girl Friday.

*sigh* Like a tray of petit fours.

[Bastet]

5 hours ago, voiceover said:

My favorite of hers (Ninotchka)

One of the few films with Melvyn Douglas as a leading man in which I enjoy his performance.  (Lubitsch directing certainly helps.)  I almost always enjoy him in the supporting roles that came later in his career, but he generally did nothing for me in this era, with Ninotchka as a significant exception.

[Crisopera]

Bastet - have you seen Theodora Goes Wild?  His character is kind of a dick, but he's very charming in it, and has terrific chemistry with Irene Dunne.

[Bastet]

On 9/19/2017 at 10:55 AM, Crisopera said:

Bastet - have you seen Theodora Goes Wild?  His character is kind of a dick, but he's very charming in it, and has terrific chemistry with Irene Dunne.

I like that film, love Dunne in it, and certainly don't dislike Douglas in it, but I'm not sure it's on my short list of leading man roles of his I truly enjoy, either.  Maybe, because it's a good performance overall, but there are some moments played way too broadly that give me pause.

[Padma]

In case any Bogart fans haven't seen Nicholas Ray's "In A Lonely Place", it's a film noir murder mystery, with an excellent Bogart performance, probably my favorite.  Gloria Grahame is good as the love interest. Louise Brooks said Bogart's character is the closest to the man she knew than any other role--probably not such a good thing, but he certainly understands all the elements of it beautifully. One of those few times when a good film came out of making radical changes to a good book.

[Luckylyn]

TCM is having A Star Is Born marathon of all three versions on September 29 starting 8pm.   I'm thrilled to finally get to see the first one.

[Rinaldo]

10 hours ago, Padma said:

In case any Bogart fans haven't seen Nicholas Ray's "In A Lonely Place", it's a film noir murder mystery, with an excellent Bogart performance, probably my favorite.  Gloria Grahame is good as the love interest. Louise Brooks said Bogart's character is the closest to the man she knew than any other role--probably not such a good thing, but he certainly understands all the elements of it beautifully. One of those few times when a good film came out of making radical changes to a good book.

Carrie Rickey wrote a good essay about that in her entry devoted to In a Lonely Place on the Library of America blog "The Moviegoer" (devoted to literary works turned into movies).  It's an addictive blog in general; often the writers are more forgiving of changes than I would be, but that's part of the fun of reading it -- getting a different viewpoint.

It's a biweekly blog, but they took the summer off; I hope they get it going again soon.

[ratgirlagogo]

It seems Jerry Lewis disinherited all his children from his first marriage:

https://www.avclub.com/jerry-lewis-actual-kids-excluded-from-his-will-1818664266

[mariah23]

20 minutes ago, ratgirlagogo said:

It seems Jerry Lewis disinherited all his children from his first marriage:

https://www.avclub.com/jerry-lewis-actual-kids-excluded-from-his-will-1818664266

I know it’s wrong to speak ill of the dead, but  fuck you, Jerry!

Edited September 22, 2017 by mariah23

[Milburn Stone]

I hope his sons at least knew that was coming. (And had years to accommodate themselves to it.) The idea that they just found out when the will was read makes me ill even to consider.