TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Padma]

On ‎10‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 10:54 AM, Rinaldo said:

...This makes a good cue for a favorite question of mine: who has done the most convincing fake piano playing onscreen (restricting it to classical, rather than jazz etc.)? Mary Astor certainly belongs at or near the top of the list. I also think of Richard Chamberlain in The Music Lovers and Alan Alda in The Mephisto Waltz. I found The Competition so laughable in all its particulars that I'm afraid I was in no position to judge the miming of keyboard playing by the six contestants. No doubt I've missed some good additional examples.

Interesting question! I cast my vote for Dirk Bogarde as Liszt in "Song Without End". I haven't seen it for quite a while, but I remember him as being quite amazing for a non-pianist playing such difficult music so convincingly.

Edited October 7, 2017 by Padma

[Crisopera]

Ooops.  MissBluxom,, you are of course correct..  

My favorite music faking is John Garfield in Humoresque,. Two violinists stood on either side of him, one bowing and one fingering (surely there's another term for that?), so all Garfield had to do was stand there and look torturedly artistic, which he accomplished quite well.  The actual recording is by Isaac Stern, which must have helped.

Edited October 7, 2017 by Crisopera

[voiceover]

20 hours ago, Crisopera said:

  it's hard to believe that Mary Astor and Bette Davis are fighting so hard over George Brent.

Yeah.  The only time I ever bought him as swoon-worthy was in 1939's The Rains Came.  He's the playboy second lead to noble Ty Power, but his transformation to hero is moving, believable, and pretty romantic.  

A close second is 'Til We Meet Again (the remake of One-Way Passage), mostly because he had great chemistry with Merle Oberon.  The first time I saw the original (William Powell & Kay Francis), IIRC, it was known as an "old movie".  I wondered the other day: when did "classic film" replace "old movie" in the vernacular?

Or was my childhood lacking?

[Crisopera]

Actually, I'm quite fond of George Brent in The Gay Sisters, but in general he's the Snore Who Walks Like a Man.  Apparently, in real life he was quite something, but it just doesn't register on screen very often.  According to IMDb, he was tested for the title role in Captain Blood - no, just...no.

voiceover - I've never seen Til We Meet Again, only the original (which I love).  Since I don't like either Brent or Oberon, I could never imagine them replacing Powell and Francis.  But I'll check it out.

Edited October 7, 2017 by Crisopera

[Wiendish Fitch]

Just now, Crisopera said:

 According to IMDb, he as tested for the title role in Captain Blood - no, just...no.

Praise the heavens that good judgment prevailed. Errol Flynn may have been lower than pond scum in real life, but he had more charisma in his baby toenail than Brent could ever conceive of having in his whole body.

[Rinaldo]

2 hours ago, Crisopera said:

My favorite music faking is John Garfield in Humoresque,. Two violinists stood on either side of him, one bowing and one fingering (surely there's another term for that?)

That's another classic that I have yet to catch up with; I will. (The SCTV parody certainly primed me.) 

And no, "fingering" is precisely the term used by violinists.

2 hours ago, Crisopera said:

The actual recording is by Isaac Stern, which must have helped.

Off at another tangent (but what's one more?), I would salute Isaac Stern as the perfect aural embodiment of the titular Fiddler on the Roof. His juicy, soulful attack embodies what the movie's about. And John Williams created a nice mini-concerto for him during the opening credits, so we can get a good listen.

[HoodlumSheep]

Dropping in here to say that i watched scaramouche for the first two days ago. I really enjoyed it! The costuming was absolutely gorgeous. The only things that bummed me out a bit were who André ultimately ended up with and the fact that when Ben M. Intro'd the movie i'm pretty sure he said the big swordfight was 8 minutes long and i clocked it in at 6. Either i misheard the length of time or what i considered the start and end of the fight are different from what he considers to be the start and end. 

[voiceover]

8 hours ago, Crisopera said:

he's the Snore Who Walks Like a Man

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this.  Spontaneous, or is it a label you've been hiding from us?

8 hours ago, Crisopera said:

I've never seen Til We Meet Again, only the original (which I love).  Since I don't like either Brent or Oberon, I could never imagine them replacing Powell and Francis.  But I'll check it out.

Part of the reason it works is the rest of the cast, including Geraldine Fitzgerald as a newlywed who proves to be a good friend to both of them.  Plus, it's just such a great -- if wildly improbable -- story, it was worth the remake.  Like Love Affair/ Affair to Remember.

And I'm not even going to reference the Captain Blood thing, because I don't have a Valium handy.

eta: Brent didn't have a moustache in And the Rains Came.  And believe me: an improvement.

Edited October 7, 2017 by voiceover

[bmoore4026]

On tonight's TCM Underground is Madonna's Who's That Girl.  That is all

http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?isPreview=&id=1359755|1361032&name=Who-s-That-Girl

[Crisopera]

voiceover - thanks!  It's fairly spontaneous, although it derives from somebody's description of Cornel Wilde as "the block of wood that walks like a man".  I find it almost infinitely useful.

[elle]

22 hours ago, voiceover said:

A close second is 'Til We Meet Again (the remake of One-Way Passage), mostly because he had great chemistry with Merle Oberon.  The first time I saw the original (William Powell & Kay Francis), IIRC, it was known as an "old movie".

and

20 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

That's another classic  (Humoresque) that I have yet to catch up with; I will. (The SCTV parody certainly primed me.) 

The reminder of that movie and the comment about SCTV is a prompt/excuse for me to ask something I've been wanting to ask which is how many of us have had our idea of classic movies colored by first seeing a Carol Burnett, SCTV, or other type parody?  With the show being rerun on MeTV, I've been catching up with some of them.  I think just about everyone remembers the Burnett take on Gone with the Wind, but there were so many of every genre.  I remember the Carol Burnett/James Coco parody of  'Til We Meet Again/One-Way Passage and now having seen both I think they were more influenced by the Oberon/Brent version.  (and I would argue that anything is better with William Powell in it!) The first time I saw Random Harvest, I thought it seemed vaguely familar and then it dawned on me that it was because of a Carol spoof.  I blame Carol for my inability to take Mildred Pierce seriously or really most of Joan Crawford's work from that era.  I was so happy to rediscover the early Joan Crawford films on TCM to appreciate the actress that she was.  

Quote

 I wondered the other day: when did "classic film" replace "old movie" in the vernacular?

Or was my childhood lacking?

For movies, cars, music I generally guess "old" is 5-20 years ago ( or 5-20 seconds these days), once past the 20 year milestone things become classic.  Or about the time tptb start missing their youth. ;0)

And if you got to watch old movies in your childhood, it was not lacking!

Edited October 8, 2017 by elle

[Charlie Baker]

Not true for me, but Carol Burnett's recurring Nora Desmond skits totally wrecked Sunset Blvd. for more than one person I know.

[Milburn Stone]

5 hours ago, elle said:

I blame Carol for my inability to take Mildred Pierce seriously...

Speaking of this...Last week Emma Stone did an SNL walk-on during Ryan Gosling's monologue, and something about how her hair was pulled back, putting more focus on her eyes and eyebrows, made me realize she would have been the perfect casting to play Crawford in Feud. Put a Mildred Pierce wig on her, and they would have been separated at birth.

[Rinaldo]

I saw Gone with the Wind long before Carol Burnett (though I still thought her version was the funniest thing ever when I saw it), and knew most of her other targets at least by reputation before I saw her spoofs, but she often introduced me to their actual stories. She must really have cared about Rancid Harvest, because they took half the show for it, and treated the plot in detail. Another half-hour takeoff that never gets reshown is Little Miss Showbiz, which is basically a Shirley Temple movie but takes in other tropes of that period too (and she had musical guests that week who could really pull their weight -- Anthony Newley and Bernadette Peters). I'd love to see that one again.

SCTV's version of Humoresque was fairly straightforward (with an actual violinist as guest star, and Catherine O'Hara sporting shoulder pads that hindered her passage through doors), but most of their movie spoofs got positively baroque in their multiple references. Play It Again, Bob was actually almost simple, for them, as it was only about Woody Allen (Rick Moranis) "wooing" Bob Hope (Dave Thomas) to work with him, as if it were a twisted romantic comedy. But then there was their Christmas special, Neil Simon's "Nutcracker Suite", with actors and situations from all his moves blended together. And a Fantasy Island phantasmagoria that was simultaneously that, a Fred and Ginger movie, a Crosby-Hope "Road" movie, Casablanca, and no doubt a few other things I've forgotten. At their peak, that show was absolutely brilliant.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 10/7/2017 at 11:52 PM, Crisopera said:

voiceover - thanks!  It's fairly spontaneous, although it derives from somebody's description of Cornel Wilde as "the block of wood that walks like a man".  I find it almost infinitely useful.

I remember Gore Vidal describing his stepfather Hugh Auchincloss as The Bore That Walks Like A Man in one of his (many) autobiographical essays in the seventies.  It would be interesting to know who first came up with this bon mot.

 

ETA:  Damn!  Here it is in Dawn Powell's novel The Wicked Pavillion, written in 1940. 

 

Quote

"Dalzell Sloane, as I live!" boomed a male voice that belonged, as Dalzell knew, to no one but Okie, the indefatigable, omnipresent, indestructible publisher, refugee from half a dozen bankruptcies, perennial Extra Man at all the best dinners, relentless ractonteur, and known far and wide as The Bore That Walks Like A Man.

One of my favorite writers (and one of Gore Vidal's as well - in fact he wrote a  wonderful funny essay about her work).  So he might have borrowed it from her or maybe it was just a catchphrase of the time. 

Edited October 9, 2017 by ratgirlagogo

[voiceover]

17 hours ago, bmoore4026 said:

On tonight's TCM Underground is Madonna's Who's That Girl.  That is all

Sigh.  Since right before that they screened After Hours, I rolled my eyes & said, Griffin Dunne Festival.  Because the only Madonna movie that earns the right to be on TCM is Desperately Seeking Susan.  Which is the definition of "fun Saturday night flick".

[Rinaldo]

Tomorrow (Monday) at 7:30 p.m. ET, we're again getting Paree, Paree, the short film that turns out to be an adaptation of Cole Porter's musical Fifty Million Frenchmen, starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Stone. Into its 20-minute running time they manage to fit a title song, "You Do Something To Me," and (if memory serves) two other songs, and it's a real picture of how musicals were done onstage then, because it apparently doesn't try to "transform" them as the big movies did.

Later on the week, I'm noticing a George Pal / Puppetoon theme, and a "hotel" theme.

[elle]

11 hours ago, Charlie Baker said:

Not true for me, but Carol Burnett's recurring Nora Desmond skits totally wrecked Sunset Blvd. for more than one person I know.

Not true for me either, I think because that one was so over the top.  It just goes to show how much of an influence that show had on people's perceptions.

11 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

(snip), but she often introduced me to their actual stories. She must really have cared about Rancid Harvest, because they took half the show for it, and treated the plot in detail. Another half-hour takeoff that never gets reshown is Little Miss Showbiz, which is basically a Shirley Temple movie but takes in other tropes of that period too (and she had musical guests that week who could really pull their weight -- Anthony Newley and Bernadette Peters). I'd love to see that one again.

SCTV's (snip) At their peak, that show was absolutely brilliant.

I had hoped to find a youtube clip of that particular takeoff but no luck.  There are clips of the shows on there, so it may be a matter of a more through search.

It was fun to discover movies that I first saw as spoofs on her show and now it is fun to see movies I know now being spoofed, a discovery in reverse or come full circle.

I wish someone would reair the SCTV shows.  I would love to see their take on the movies.  I know in Carol Burnett's case, as she has said as much, that she adored movies, it sounds to me that is the case with SCTV.  There is a love behind the humor rather than being mocked for just a laugh.

Can you tell me, was it not SCTV who did a skit of a TV station showing a monster movie, I think King Kong, that goes awry and then the staff act out the rest of the movie? 

11 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

Speaking of this...Last week Emma Stone did an SNL walk-on during Ryan Gosling's monologue, and something about how her hair was pulled back, putting more focus on her eyes and eyebrows, made me realize she would have been the perfect casting to play Crawford in Feud. Put a Mildred Pierce wig on her, and they would have been separated at birth.

With the "new" Blade Runner movie out the "classic" Blade Runner is being shown on TV (and has it ever been on TCM?), I wonder if anyone was inspired by seeing Sean Young in a Joan Crawford homage to find out about that inspiration.

[bmoore4026]

7 hours ago, voiceover said:

Sigh.  Since right before that they screened After Hours, I rolled my eyes & said, Griffin Dunne Festival.  Because the only Madonna movie that earns the right to be on TCM is Desperately Seeking Susan.  Which is the definition of "fun Saturday night flick".

What about Dick Tracy or A League of Their Own or are they too soon?  Evita was pretty good, too.

Right now, Billy the Kid vs Dracula is on.  God, this Billy the Kid blander than Wonder Bread.  At least Buster Crabbe gave him more of a backbone while also being wholesome.  I do like the old doctor lady, though.  She's tough and awesome :)

On tonight's TCM Foreign Cinema, we have two classic Japanese horror films - Jigoku and Tokaido Yotsuya kaidan.  Really, no one does horror better than the Japanese.  I mean, western and American horror is good, too, but it's almost always tied to sex and the body - vampires seduce their prey and drink their blood, werewolves change from the unassuming to something primal, zombies pull and tear and rend and force to the ground.  Japanese horror is more spiritual and is often tied to the violation of social taboos or reflect what's going on in modern Japanese society, especially trying to hold on to old customs in an increasingly modern world. 

[voiceover]

2 hours ago, bmoore4026 said:

What about Dick Tracy or A League of Their Own or are they too soon?  Evita was pretty good, too.

1. Crap. 2. Already screened; IIRC via "Women in Film" month; plus her character not prominent 3. Eh.

Excluding Evita, IMO almost all her films were mimeograph (not even xerox) copies of Susan in Desperately Seeking Susan.  No doubt it was script- and director-related reasons for this being her best picture.  She was better as herself, *as herself*, in Truth or Dare.

[Rinaldo]

9 hours ago, elle said:

I wish someone would reair the SCTV shows.

Me too. I bought all the DVD boxes as they appeared (minus the final Cinemax one, with most of the biggest names gone and Martin Short added as a less-then-fair trade). Unfortunately, the early syndicated years (half-hour episodes) are represented only selectively, with 10 episodes. I understand the problem -- they reused sketches so often to fill out subsequent shows, a complete collection would involve either massive repetition, or 10-minute episodes if rerun segments were removed -- but I'd still rather have everything.

[voiceover]

A few years ago, Conan O'Brien hosted some Johnny Carson interviews with classic film stars (they reappear as filler from time to time).  Why not have, say, someone like Michael McKean (who's done some great guesting for them already) host the Carol Burnett and/or the SCTV spoofs?

Let's get on that!

As much as the whole "Women in Film" theme makes me rme (h/t Nora  Ephron), I do enjoy Illeana Douglas.  Nice convo with Callie Khouri about Adam's Rib tonight.

eta: Oh crud.  Cabaret is the midnight movie, and I can never resist, even though I *own it*(There's a Top 5: Movies You Own but Can't Resist Watching on TV).  Especially the goodbye scene at the end, which I adore: "Darling, I'd love to come down to the platform & wave a tiny white handkerchief, et cetera...". I borrowed that line once for a bittersweet goodbye of my own.  

Edited October 10, 2017 by voiceover

[Rinaldo]

10 hours ago, voiceover said:

makes me rme (h/t Nora  Ephron)

I need an interpreter for this (I do know who Nora Ephron is).

[Milburn Stone]

Just now, Rinaldo said:

I need an interpreter for this...

So did I. I looked up rme. Turns out it means "rolling my eyes." I already knew what h/t means. (It means "hat tip to," as in "a tip of the Hatlo hat," an acknowledgment, a recognition of the source.) So, did Nora Ephron roll her eyes at the notion of women in film? That's what I'm putting together.

[aradia22]

Sigh... we have a new DVR. All my movies are gone. No warning. I feel like I had so much Joan Crawford stuff I was excited to watch. I did just get Umbrellas of Cherbourg from the library so I'll report back after I've seen it. 

[Crisopera]

I feel your pain, aradia.  I just moved down to North Carolina, and had to abandon several French movies I had stockpiled, including 2 by Jacques Tati.  

[bmoore4026]

On tonight's TCM Underground are the Blaxploitation classics Blackula and Scream, Blackula, Scream.  I have never seen either, so I have got see them tonight.

[voiceover]

One of the greatest comedies ever is tonight's Late Night Flick (argh!!): Peter Bogdanovich's salute to screwball, What's Up, Doc?

This is my favorite Streisand film, too.  She's smart and quippy and sassy and sexy.  She sings Cole Porter ("You're the Top") and "As Time Goes By".  And she has Teh Chem with Ryan O'Neal.

It "introduces" Madeline Kahn as the uptight fiancée to nerdy musicologist O'Neal.  When I was an undergrad, I would drink too much at parties and imitate Kahn: "Those are Howard's rocks!  What are you doing  with Howard Bannister's rocks?" (doesn't sound like much but trust me, I killed).  

And the penultimate courtroom scene is genius.  Buck Henry's script proves that exposition can entertain -- Ryan pretty much recites the plot back to Judge Liam Dunn, and I'm dying ("Is that clear?" "No, but it's consistent!").

[Rinaldo]

I'm very happy to join in the love for What's Up, Doc? At times I kind of feel I shouldn't enjoy it as much as I do, because it's such a blatant grab bag of elements from the classic screwball comedies (the uptight academic [with nagging humorless fiancé] who needs rescuing, the free-spirited footloose gal who's wise in her own wacky way, the MacGuffin that everyone's after). But then I tell myself to get over myself and just enjoy it, because it's so fun and funny.

I remember taking my parents to see it when they visited, back when it was new. They both had kind of absorbed negative impressions of Streisand without actually seeing her in anything, and seeing this changed their minds instantly; they were knocked out by her comedic skills, and her star charisma. I wouldn't guarantee that this is my favorite Streisand movie (because I like her in other flicks from that time too), but she's certainly a delight, as is nearly everyone. (Sorrell Booke tackling Mabel Albertson in a hotel corridor gets me every time.) Being a musicologist, it tickles me that one of our conferences plays such a pivotal part. (Everything about that aspect is preposterous, actually, including Ryan O'Neal hitting his rock with a tuning fork and then listening to the fork -- but who cares? not I.)

On a trip to Germany a year later, I had the pleasure of catching it dubbed into German, as Is' was, Doc? Sometimes when I watch it, the lines pop back into my head in their German form.

[Milburn Stone]

I love it too.

I seem to recall that at the time, Warner Bros. cartoons hadn't quite become the object of film study they later became, and so I loved that here was a film by a hot (at the time) director that went out of its way to pay them their due. (While also doing a bang-up job of paying Howard Hawks his due.)

[Bastet]

Bringing Up Baby is one of my favorite films, so I'm predisposed to dismissing What's Up Doc? as an inferior knock-off, but in fact I find it a love letter to it (and screwball comedies of the era in general). Peter Bogdanovich loves movies, and it really shows here.  I think it's a terrific comedy in its own right.  I'm not a non-fan of Streisand or O'Neal as actors by any means, but I'm not overly excited by either one of them, either.  Yet I love them in this film.

[voiceover]

4 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

(Sorrell Booke tackling Mabel Albertson in a hotel corridor gets me every time.)

The corridor, the lobby, the elevator ("Use your charm!").

I didn't catch the homage to Hawks & co. until years & years later, because this came first for me.  So when I saw Bringing Up Baby, I was all, Why is this familiar? (Cue horrified gasps)

Actually, I got the whole Love Story punchline/in-joke before the screwball stuff.  And, IMO, Madeleine Kahn was far more memorable in the nagging fiancée role, than any of her 30s predecessors.

Last night I was gasping for breath during the courtroom scene -- my usual combo of laughing my ass off while reciting the dialogue verbatim ("Is there more?" "Yes." "There's more!")

[Milburn Stone]

9 hours ago, Bastet said:

Bringing Up Baby is one of my favorite films, so I'm predisposed to dismissing What's Up Doc? as an inferior knock-off, but in fact I find it a love letter to it (and screwball comedies of the era in general). Peter Bogdanovich loves movies, and it really shows here.  I think it's a terrific comedy in its own right.  I'm not a non-fan of Streisand or O'Neal as actors by any means, but I'm not overly excited by either one of them, either.  Yet I love them in this film.

A perfect summary, I think.

We can be grateful that Warner Bros. "greenlit" Bogdanovich's film. (They would have crazy not to, but you never know.) His title, the line of dialogue that repeats the title, the bit of Bugs-Fudd cartoon that kicks the ending up to the next level--what would he have done if he'd had to take the film to Fox or Paramount? The mind shudders.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Milburn Stone

[Rinaldo]

Showing tonight (and starting right now), 3 TCM premieres in a row, as Ben M just confirmed: the "Sissi" trilogy, starring Romy Schneider as the title character (eventually Empress Elisabeth of Austria) and Karlheinz Böhm as Emperor Franz Joseph. I happened to see them a few years ago, courtesy of a colleague who owned them on DVD -- they are objects of enormous sentimental loyalty in Austria, as is the idea of Sissi herself. (One can buy Sissi souvenirs there.) Completely romanticized fluff, with a certain fascination as a cultural phenomenon. (The Empress's son was the Prince Rudolf of the Mayerling incident; in the movie of that name, Sissi was portrayed by Ava Gardner.)

[ratgirlagogo]

I was in love with this image of Empress Elisabeth in my late teens, early twenties (oh, who am I kidding, I still am) :

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Winterhalter_Elisabeth_2.jpg

The whole idea of insisting on taking up a huge amount of physical space felt like a crucial feminist statement to me at the time, when I was a punk and constructing my own big-ass outfits from thrift store prom dresses and bridal gowns.  So much fun.

Edited October 19, 2017 by ratgirlagogo

[mariah23]

Danielle Darrieux has died.  TCM celebrated her 100th birthday on May 1st.

[Charlie Baker]

Book recommendation: Warner Bros.: The Making of an American Movie Studio by critic and historian David Thomson.  It's part of Yale University Press's Jewish Lives series: "interpretative biographies". The book is short but manages to touch on the brothers' rise, a large number of the significant movies they released, how the movies reflected and influenced their time,  the stars they made.  You might not always agree with Thomson's observations, but they are intelligent and considered. And you may find some information you hadn't been exposed to before. One example for me:  a pre-code movie called Convention City.  Star Joan Blondell called it "the raunchiest thing there has ever been."  It evidently was "banned," pulled from release, and "all prints destroyed"-- a willfully lost movie.

[Crisopera]

I love David Thomson's books.  He's highly opinionated, but I find that I agree with his assessments more often than not.  I could not recommend his novel Suspects more.  Its structure is unique, as far as I know.  This is the description from the Amazon page:

Noah Cross, Norma Desmond, Norman Bates, Harry Lime—these are a few of nearly 100 names that inhabit the mind of the narrator as he starts to compose short biographies of some of the most famous characters in the history of film noir. He sketches in whole lives, lives as intense as the dreams put up on the screen. The book begins to become a novel when the characters start to meet each other outside their respective films—as if they were real people with needs and passions. The names and faces are familiar to us—Jake Gittes from Chinatown, Laura Hunt and Waldo Lydecker from Laura, Rick and Ilsa from Casablanca—but is it true that Noah Cross and Norma Desmond were lovers in the 1920s, that she and Joe Gillis had a son who grew up to be Julian Kay in American Gigolo? The narrator is not merely the author, he has a mission to carry out—a lost family link to find, a thread to pull so that nearly all these disparate characters come together to form a kind of society. Ultimately this examination on how movies affect audiences—not only shaping perceptions and memories, but in some ways coming to stand in for them—can also be read as an unsettling examination of identity and the construction of self through the medium of narratives; or simply as a fascinating take on movie fandom.

It's one of my  favorite novels of all time.  In fact, I have two copies, just in case I lose one.

[Milburn Stone]

For anyone interested in Warner Bros., the book I recommend more highly than any other is Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951), by Rudy Behlmer. Like his previous Memo from David O. Selznick (which attained moderate best-seller status in its day), it's a book of primary research--a collation (under Behlmer's strong and sure editorial eye) of actual executive and production staff memos and letters, in this case from the Warner Bros. archives, organized to tell a reader-friendly story.

The fact that my name appears in the acknowledgments is just a bonus. :)

https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Warner-Brothers-Rudy-Behlmer/dp/0670804789/

[BigBeagle]

On 10/17/2017 at 10:54 PM, Bastet said:

Bringing Up Baby is one of my favorite films, so I'm predisposed to dismissing What's Up Doc? as an inferior knock-off, but in fact I find it a love letter to it (and screwball comedies of the era in general). Peter Bogdanovich loves movies, and it really shows here.  I think it's a terrific comedy in its own right.  I'm not a non-fan of Streisand or O'Neal as actors by any means, but I'm not overly excited by either one of them, either.  Yet I love them in this film.

(Streisand's character): "Love means never having to say you're sorry."

(O'Neal's character): "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

[ratgirlagogo]

3 hours ago, Crisopera said:

I could not recommend his novel Suspects more.  Its structure is unique, as far as I know.  

 

3 hours ago, Milburn Stone said:

the book I recommend more highly than any other is Inside Warner Bros. (1935-1951), by Rudy Behlmer

Thanks! I've never read either of these and now I will look for them.

 

On 10/19/2017 at 2:12 PM, Charlie Baker said:

Book recommendation: Warner Bros.: The Making of an American Movie Studio by critic and historian David Thomson

On my list but haven't read it yet.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 10/19/2017 at 11:30 AM, mariah23 said:

Danielle Darrieux has died.  TCM celebrated her 100th birthday on May 1st.

She was so great in so many things, but any of you who haven't seen La Ronde or especially The Earrings of Madame De - you need to get on that.

[elle]

On 10/9/2017 at 8:34 PM, voiceover said:

Why not have, say, someone like Michael McKean (who's done some great guesting for them already) host the Carol Burnett and/or the SCTV spoofs?

One can only hope that someone from TCM is reading these boards and is inspired by them!

On 10/17/2017 at 9:54 PM, Bastet said:

Bringing Up Baby is one of my favorite films, so I'm predisposed to dismissing What's Up Doc? as an inferior knock-off, but in fact I find it a love letter to it (and screwball comedies of the era in general). Peter Bogdanovich loves movies, and it really shows here.  I think it's a terrific comedy in its own right.  I'm not a non-fan of Streisand or O'Neal as actors by any means, but I'm not overly excited by either one of them, either.  Yet I love them in this film.

I have similar feelings.  Not a fan of Bagdanovich or O'Neal, okay with Streisand, but I love this movie.  I was thrilled watching in the first time with the slowly dawning realization that this was a love letter to my beloved screwball comedies (someone else gets it!).  It is a terrific comedy in its own right and it beautifully uses the location of San Francisco.  All the stars aligned for this one!

On 10/16/2017 at 6:56 PM, voiceover said:

And the penultimate courtroom scene is genius.  Buck Henry's script proves that exposition can entertain -- Ryan pretty much recites the plot back to Judge Liam Dunn, and I'm dying ("Is that clear?" "No, but it's consistent!"

Love that scene, it captures the beautiful absurdity at the heart of the story.  I always wait in expectation for Barbra Streisand's line!

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 10/17/2017 at 8:54 PM, Bastet said:

Bringing Up Baby is one of my favorite films, so I'm predisposed to dismissing What's Up Doc? as an inferior knock-off, but in fact I find it a love letter to it (and screwball comedies of the era in general). Peter Bogdanovich loves movies, and it really shows here. 

He doesn't love them enough to STFU when he's seeing them in an audience.  A friend and I were at a movie many years ago, and Bogdanovich was there with Louise Stratten (who looked exactly/creepily like her sister Dorothy).  The theater was full, and in our row it was me, then my friend, then Bogdanovich, then Louise.  Bogdanovich has that really deep voice, and he was yakking to Louise constantly and my friend finally told him to shut up. 

Afterward, I told my friend who it was he'd shushed. 

I can overlook an ascot, but I can't abide rude people. 

I recently saw For Pete's Sake for the first time since it came out.  I think I had conflated it with What's Up, Doc? by remembering a lot of screwball comedy that I think was actually from What's Up Doc? and adding some pork bellies actually getting delivered, but it turned out to be cattle.  I think I'm straightened out now.  What's Up, Doc? is a much better movie.

[elle]

6 minutes ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

He doesn't love them enough to STFU when he's seeing them in an audience.  A friend and I were at a movie many years ago, and Bogdanovich was there with Louise Stratten (who looked exactly/creepily like her sister Dorothy).  The theater was full, and in our row it was me, then my friend, then Bogdanovich, then Louise.  Bogdanovich has that really deep voice, and he was yakking to Louise constantly and my friend finally told him to shut up. 

Afterward, I told my friend who it was he'd shushed. 

Fun story!  Did your friend know recognize the Bogdanovich name after you told them?  Was Bogdanovich even talking about the movie?  He may be so excited about the movie that he can not help but talk about them while they are playing.   I'll do that when watching them at home, but never in a theater!

Edited October 21, 2017 by elle

[StatisticalOutlier]

It looked to me like he was explaining things in the movie to Louise (this was some artsy movie at a film festival), but I may have just been projecting, still seeing Louise as Dorothy's baby sister that he had inappropriately latched onto/molded after the murder.  It was mostly an indistinct rumble from that deep voice.

I'd seen them walk in and recognized both immediately, but my friend hadn't noticed them at all, so he didn't even think to look at who was sitting next to him.  That's why I thought it was so hilarious he shushed him.  I would have done the same, eventually, but admit I would probably give him more leeway because he's Mr. Famous Director And Film Expert.  My friend did not.  But was impressed with his inadvertent chutzpah, when he was told it was Peter Bogdanovich.

[Padma]

Three tonight on TCM by Noel Coward. "Brief Encounter", "The Astonished Heart" and--the one I've never seen and don't want to miss "In Which We Serve".  Yes, it's a propaganda film for Britain during WWII, but a much praised one, with narration by Leslie Howard, Coward in the Mountbatten-inspired role, and the great John Mills. It's directed, at Coward's request, by both Coward and David Lean (script and music by Coward).

[Rinaldo]

How were they, @Padma? (Well, many of us here are already familiar with Brief Encounter.) I saw about an hour of the middle of The Astonished Heart last night and was intrigued, though perhaps not sufficiently to go back and see all of it. For one thing, I had seen Margaret Leighton only in her "elegant dowager" phase, not her "hot babe" years. And Celia Johnson is always a pleasure, though good lord, weren't they all terribly stiff-upper-lip and civilized about all this (whisper) adultery? That's also quite a story about Coward demanding, a week into shooting, that Michael Redgrave be fired and replaced with himself, reshoots be damned. I've always found Coward an elegant and persuasive actor, but it's hard for me to imagine that Redgrave was inadequate.

Of themes this week, I see that Tuesday is Arizona day. Wednesday evening we get Russian epics, with Doctor Zhivago, Nicholas and Alexandria (the only movie I've ever walked out on in a theater), and two Rasputin movies. I guess that continues historically to Soviet espionage throughout Thursday until we get dystopian futures in the evening. Jack Carson through Friday, until we resume focus on Anthony Perkins in primetime. Among the latter, I especially remember liking Pretty Poison when I saw it a couple of years after its release. I'll have to find out what I think of it now; I remember Tuesday Weld being excitingly good in it, though apparently she loathed the whole experience, and playing another creepy neurotic certainly didn't help Perkins break out of the post-Psycho Hollywood typecasting.

[Milburn Stone]

Old Acquaintance (which I've never seen--one of those "disgraceful lacunae" we talk about) is playing without sound in the living room as I do other things, but every time I glance up at it, just from the visuals alone my internal monologue says "My God this was well-made." Gives me new respect for director Vincent Sherman. Sadly I'm not DVR'ing it but I see that it's available from the iTunes Store so will probably stream it on the old Apple TV soon.

[Gemma Violet]

Quote

Three tonight on TCM by Noel Coward. "Brief Encounter",

Darn, I missed it.  It's one of my all-time favorite movies.  I've seen it at least 25 or 30 times, but I always try to catch it whenever it replays on TCM.