TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Rinaldo]

I didn't make it through all of Robin & Marian last night (not for lack of trying, but it was late and I was tired).  I've seen all of it, piece by piecemeal, but I'd forgotten how wonderful that first scene of the reunion was. 

 

Jeremy-freakin'-Brett stealing the show with "On the Street Where You Live".  Just thinking of him hitting that high note ("Let the time go by;  I --- I -- I...don't care if I....") gives me goosebumps.  Perfection.  

Just the idea of Robin and Marian with Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn is magical. I remember when filming was announced, thinking "those are the exact two people, out of the whole world, whom I want to see play Robin Hood and Marian. I'm so glad someone made it happen." And the beginning is, as you say, pitch-perfect. The end, though, sours the whole thing in retrospect for me. (Yet my father loved it; go figure.)

 

As for the high note in "The Street Where You Live"... in fairness it should be noted that Jeremy Brett's singing was dubbed by Bill Shirley (otherwise perhaps best known for providing the voice for the prince in Disney's Sleeping Beauty). 

[voiceover]

You're really killing my buzz.  Thanks for nothin'.

[Rinaldo]

Sorry! It was the tail end of that era when the big studios' music departments were eager to provide voice doubles for everyone, in some cases unnecessarily so.

 

The whole subject of voice dubbing over the years is an interesting one to me. There are a couple of terrific YouTube compilations that I find both educational and enjoyable:  "Dubbing Through the Decades" and "Martha Mears -- the Busiest Dubber in Hollywood." The latter is especially impressive, hearing how she changed the sound of her voice to suit the actress (including, again, one who absolutely didn't need a double, Patricia Morison who would soon star in the original Kiss Me, Kate). The same excellent compiler also lists a number of other fascinating videos in a similar vein, including Natalie Wood's original tracks for West Side Story (in which we can hear that she'd worked hard and was almost good enough; it's just such a demanding score).

[Milburn Stone]

You're really killing my buzz.  Thanks for nothin'.

 

I hope that comment was meant to be facetious. I think information makes the movies we love even more fascinating.

 

(And I happen to remember Bill Shirley from all the hours I spent listening to, and poring over the credits of, the Disney Sleeping Beauty soundtrack album when I was ten.)

 

In addition to the YouTubes that Rinaldo cites, an invaluable source of information as to who-dubbed-who is this webpage, which collates the behind-the-camera singing talent for more than 600 movies:

 

http://www.janettedavis.net/Dubbers/dubberslist.php

[voiceover]

Of course.  I didn't think this was an emoticon kind of place, or I would have added a wink.  #jokingofcourse

[Rinaldo]

I didn't think you were mad, but unhappily disillusioned seemed a possibility. Thanks for the clarification. 

 

That page with all the dubbers' names is a handy one that I've used often. It's inevitably incomplete, of course, and the inclusion of a few voices for animated movies strikes me as odd; they can't hope to cover everyone in that department, and it's really not the same thing as voice doubles. I suppose they just aimed to cover famous or interesting names that did older cartoons, which I guess is fair enough.

 

I too was obsessed with Sleeping Beauty when it came out. It gave me an introduction to the talents of Mary Costa, whom I saw later in recital, the repurposing of Tchaikovsky music is fun, and I still think the movie is a beautiful and distinguished piece of visual design.

[Milburn Stone]

I too was obsessed with Sleeping Beauty when it came out. It gave me an introduction to the talents of Mary Costa, whom I saw later in recital...

 

An older friend of mine was romantically linked with Mary Costa for a while, and when he first told me about this episode in his life, I immediately blurted out "Sleeping Beauty!?!?"

[Crisopera]

I watched The Hard Way again this weekend (Gladys George day), and will always think (no matter how much I love it) how great it could have been with someone else playing the Joan Leslie part.  Joan Leslie had a career that will always baffle me - she certainly was pretty, but she was the female lead in some of the biggest 1940s movies (Sergeant York, Yankee Doodle Dandy) with no evidence of any outstanding talent.  (She wasn't terrible - just mediocre.)  This really doesn't matter in those movies (nobody was looking at her in them), but it is a serious deficit in The Hard Way, since her character is supposed to be a singer-dancer, whose charisma knocks out everyone she comes in contact with.  Can you imagine how great it would have been with someone like Judy Garland playing that part?  (I think Anne Blyth was on contract at Warners then.)  Ida Lupino would have had someone really to go toe-to-toe with.  I love the movie - it's the first movie where I thought of Ida Lupino as something other than Warner Bros.' second-string Bette Davis, the small-time show biz milieu is really well done, Jack Carson is heartbreaking, and it must have been a relief for Dennis Morgan to play someone complicated and cynical for once.

[Milburn Stone]

Somehow The Hard Way has escaped my notice my entire life. Thanks for the review, Crisopera; I will remedy that as soon as I can.

 

Speaking of Joan Leslie leading roles (and I do kind of like her), let's not forget her opposite Fred Astaire in Sky's the Limit!

[3pwood]

The Hard Way is said to be based on Ginger Rogers' relationship with her controlling mother.  Whether or not that's true, it is a good movie & I've always enjoyed it.

 

Joan Leslie may be a little boring from time to time, but Ida Lupino never is.  The older sister role was offered to Bette Davis, who declined it -- she would have been perfect, but Lupino may be even better.

[Rinaldo]

Speaking of Joan Leslie leading roles (and I do kind of like her), let's not forget her opposite Fred Astaire in Sky's the Limit!

However much we try... no, I go too far; as @Crisopera says, she wasn't awful or even bad really, just mediocre. She's better than a placeholder (unlike the Holiday Inn gals -- when I see them, I always drift off into wondering who Paramount tried & failed to get, that they ended up settling for Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale), but not by much. It doesn't help that she and Fred are involved in one of those numbers with a last-resort-of-the-desperate lyric, making reference to their real-life careers -- I enjoy metareference a lot in suitable contexts, but what are their wishes that she had Cagney and he had Hayworth (their last previous costars) again doing in a fairly serious story like this one?

[Milburn Stone]

It doesn't help that she and Fred are involved in one of those numbers with a last-resort-of-the-desperate lyric, making reference to their real-life careers -- I enjoy metareference a lot in suitable contexts, but what are their wishes that she had Cagney and he had Hayworth (their last previous costars) again doing in a fairly serious story like this one?

 

I actually love that meta, breaking-the-fourth-wall moment in what is basically a frothy number. (Albeit froth at the very highest level of froth, from Mercer and Arlen.)

 

While I have never not enjoyed Joan Leslie, I will admit that it took me a long time to tell her apart with any certainty from Priscilla Lane.

[Crisopera]

Rinaldo - you are so not kidding about the Holiday Inn ladies.  Apparently the Marjorie Reynolds character was first offered to Mary Martin, who at least would have been better (although she never caught on in movies) - at least she could sing (Reynolds was dubbed by Martha Mears).   I can barely hold on until Fred does his firecracker dance.  It's not just the ladies that make the movie a little hard to watch - there's that gross blackface number "Abraham" as well.

[Julia]

It's not just the ladies that make the movie a little hard to watch - there's that gross blackface number "Abraham" as well.

 

and what a tragic waste of Louise Beavers _that_ was.

[One Tough Cookie]

Oh, TCM.  How could you have Thelma Ritter day and NOT show 'All About Eve.'

 

Birdie: 'What a story. Everything but the bloodhounds snapping at her rear end."

 

Please, post your favorite lines.

 

 

Margo to Bill and Eve the night of Bill's welcome home party"

"Remind ME to tell you about the time I looked thru the heart of an artichoke"

Eve:  I'd love to hear it.

 

Margo:  Some snowy night by the fire.

 

Later in the movie:

Addison DeWitt:  You are too short for that gesture {to when she tried t get him to leave her room}

 

and who could forget:

SHE'S A LOUSE {Margo to Bill, Karen and Lloyd at the Cub Room}.

 

[Constant Viewer]

"Look closely Eve.  It's time you did.  I am Addison DeWitt. I am nobody's fool, least of all yours."- Said, dripping with contempt, as only George Saunders could.

 

"Nice speech Eve, but I wouldn't worry too much about your heart.  You can always put that award where your heart ought to be."-- Margo to Eve

 

"That cynicism you refer to I acquired the day I discovered i was different from little boys.'- Karen to Lloyd

 

Actually, the entire movie is quote worthy.

[LuciaMia]

"Hepburn's Cockney is so grating,"

*********

I generally like to avoid the scene when she first comes to Higgins' abode for voice lessons and he drags her into his experiment.  If you had a drinking game on how many times she says 'I'm a good girl, I am' you'd be on the floor.

And one more quote from 'All About Eve'

Margo: (Reading Eve's pleading note)...'Please, and this is underlined, meet me in the ladies room!'

Bill: I hear she's now the understudy in there.

 

(Do you believe the censors wanted to take that out?)

[dalek]

@Constant Viewer, the Harold Russell scenes in Best Years of Their Lives kill me every time.  When I was a kid, the one that made the biggest impression was when his sister and her friends are watching him do woodwork and he sticks his hook hands through the glass pane on the door and starts yelling at them.  

 

As an adult, I have a much greater appreciation for the quieter, less dramatic scene where he's giving Cathy O'Donnell's character one last chance to back out of their engagement and he takes off his prosthetic arms and proceeds to tell her just how helpless he is when they come off for the night, with the implied subtext being "our marriage isn't going to be what you imagined, including our sex life." It's such an intimate scene.

[ratgirlagogo]

One more All About Eve quote:

 

MARGO: There are some human experiences, Birdie, that do not take place in a vaudeville house - and that even a fifth-rate vaudevillian should understand and respect! (to Eve) I want to apologize for Birdie's-
BIRDIE: You don't have to apologize for me! (to Eve) I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, kid. It's just my way of talkin'...
EVE: You didn't hurt my feelings, Miss Coonan...
BIRDIE: Call me Birdie. (to Margo) And as for bein' fifth-rate - I closed the first half for eleven years an' you know it!

 

I mention this one because the point of it always escaped me until I got  interested enough in vaudeville history to do some reading.  I  didn't realize that any act that closed the first half of the bill was a big, solid crowd pleaser - I always thought the opposite, that she was saying she was kind of the queen of the curtain jerker acts.

 

Watched Ghosts - Italian Style on Sophia Loren day.  Pretty dire - I like these Old Dark House comedies in general and Sophia Loren is beautiful as always (and all the more striking since she spends much of the movie dressed in shapeless housedresses), especially when pretending to be a Barbara Steelesque ghost.  But this was more a kind of frantic confusing 60's sex farce and ultimately not very funny.  The best part is probably the uncredited cameo by a major star at the end.

[Rinaldo]

Was it Frank Sinatra? In that period, an uncredited cameo by a major star was almost always Sinatra.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Was it Frank Sinatra?

Nope, since it was a Sophia Loren movie it was  of course 

Marcello Mastroianni

[aradia22]

God damn it. They took away my DVR and all my movies are gone again. Night Nurse is on again September 5. I will make this happen.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Night Nurse is on again September 5. I will make this happen.

Harrrumph.  

[One Tough Cookie]

Actually, the entire movie is quote worthy.

 

 

I have seen that movie so many times I can do the WHOLE THING from memory, EVERYONE'S part.

 

"I know nothing of Lloyd and his loves, I leave that to Louisa May Alcott."  {AD}

 

My dear, I think your next attempt should be television {AD to Marilyn Monroe}

Tell me, do they have auditions for television?

That's all television is, my dear.

 

GOD, I LOVE THAT MOVIE

Edited August 28, 2014 by One More Time

[LuciaMia]

Joseph Cotton day.  'Portrait of Jenny' tonight.  If anything, that film is one beautiful photographic valentine to NYC.

[Bastet]

September is a good month on TCM this year.

 

"Friday Night Spotlight" features pre-Code films (including several of Myrna Loy's, so I'm doubly happy) and includes two airings of the Thou Shalt Not documentary my satellite decided to crap out 10 minutes into last time.

 

Melvyn Douglas is Star of the Month for the first time.  (Which leads to another airing of The Americanization of Emily, for those who missed it during the James Garner memorial marathon.)

 

As previously noted, the Lauren Bacall tribute planned for her 90th birthday has been expanded to a 24-hour memorial marathon.

 

The "Projected Image" series focuses on the Jewish experience on film.

 

"Essentials" includes several musician biopics, and there is also some Hitchcock, a mini-marathon of '40s crime dramas, a Richard Linklater introduction, a tribute to the Telluride film festival, and quite a few more goodies in this month's mix.

Edited September 1, 2014 by Bastet

[voiceover]

That Chuck Workman "100 Years" is probably the best montage, ever.  I get chills.  I was happy to see it being screened last night.

 

Ah, The Crying Game.  I b'lieve it was RuPaul (or Lady Bunny) who said at the time, that the "shocking twist" was no shock at all ("Now, if it turned out Miranda Richardson had a dick...").  I still love Stephen Rea in that role.  And that first act of camaraderie between Fergus & Jody is really the best part of the whole film.

 

The years have dimmed my opinion of Dill, however.  Whiny, needy, codependent (and I HATE that word) mess.  Sure, I get WHY she'd be that way, but...eh.  At least she redeems herself a bit at the end in the scene with Richardson.

[Charlie Baker]

Nice to catch Adam's Rib this morning. In some ways the sexual/gender politics have dated, in some ways they haven't.  The chemistry between Tracy and Hepburn is surely evident, and the supporting cast is pretty delightful.  Fun to see Jean Hagen playing a cruder version of Lina Lamont. The script is pretty sharp and funny, and I like Cukor's long takes and staging of the gags--when Tracy storms out, slamming the door after Hepburn asks him not to, and sets in motion a Rube Goldberg-style playing of a record, for example.

 

ETA: Great location shooting in NYC too.  Forgot there was as much of it in the movie as there is. 

Edited September 3, 2014 by Charlie Baker

[voiceover]

I thought of this gang when Mr Blandings... showed up on the dial tonight.  Thanks to you guys, I make everyone in the house watch the "paint color" scene.

[Bastet]

I was watching a Cold Case marathon, but switched to Blandings during every commercial break ... and made sure to watch the morning routine that opens the film, the paint color selection, "In case of emergency, break glass," and the scene the first night in the house where Jim gets all bent out of shape about Muriel having been in love with Bill way back when.  I love her reaction upon realizing he's jealous, and especially her response when he asks why she married him:

 

"I'm beginning to wonder! Maybe it was those big cow eyes of yours, or that ridiculous hole in your chin. Maybe I knew you were going to bring me out to this $38,000 icebox with a dried-up trout stream and no windows.  Or maybe I just happened to fall in love with you, but for heaven's sake don't ask me why!"

 

Adam's Rib is probably my favorite of the Hepburn/Tracy collaborations (if Woman of the Year had retained its original ending, that would walk away with it).  Amanda, especially, gets great dialogue throughout; the script is sharp.  The courtroom scenes bear no resemblance to reality, but are entertaining in their outlandishness.  And the home movies are delightful.

 

I also love watching Katharine Hepburn and Judy Holliday together knowing the backstory - that newcomer Holliday was terrified of performing alongside the venerable Hepburn, and Hepburn thought Holliday deserved a bright future in Hollywood and talked her up all over town.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Bastet

[Crisopera]

I'd like to make a serious recommendation to those of you who haven't seen this masterpiece - Forbidden Games, a French film from 1952, directed by Rene Clement.  The title sounds like porn, but it is the farthest thing from that.  It's about two children in World War II France, and it will absolutely break your heart.  I'm begging you to set your VCR for this - it's on Fridaymorning at 4AM.  The last scene - I'm tearing up just thinking about it.  Keep an entire box of tissues handy.

[LuciaMia]

Every time I watch 'Mr. Blandings...' and we come to the scene where one of the carpenters asks him,

 

"On those second floor lintils between the lolly columns. You want we should rabbit them or not?'

 

I'm always going to look up what exactly that means.  Still don't.

[aradia22]

I'm having TCM withdrawal. I decided to start watching The Most Dangerous Game today both because it's one of those movies I feel I should see and because of that whole discussion about how attractive you all said Joel McCrea was. It's a good enough start other than the somewhat silly shipwreck special effects and the count's interesting choice of accent. It's more adventure than highbrow drama but I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

[LuciaMia]

 

Nice to catch Adam's Rib this morning.

I love the scene where Tracy demonstrates that a man crying can be just as effective as a woman's tears.

[3pwood]

LuciaMia, the mysterious phrase in Mr. Blandings is rabbeted (i.e., notched) lintels (i.e., crosspieces above windows or doors) -- spoken by Lex Barker, star of many '50s Tarzan movies & one of Lana Turner's husbands.

 

 

[Bastet]

Every time I watch 'Mr. Blandings...' and we come to the scene where one of the carpenters asks him,

"On those second floor lintils between the lolly columns. You want we should rabbit them or not?'

I'm always going to look up what exactly that means.  Still don't.

 

Lintels are horizontal pieces that are jointed to two vertical pieces (columns, in this case), and rabbet is a type of joint.

[One Tough Cookie]

I watched a movie with Alan Ladd last night--"Man in a Net".  Carolyn Jones also starred.  I am flummoxed at how Mr. Ladd became a star????? He was so low energy and mumbled his lines to the point where I had t turn on CC, only to find that movie had no CC.   Does he get any better? because from where I'm sitting I think I'd go out of my way to avoid seeing him in any more movies.

Edited September 7, 2014 by One More Time

[aradia22]

So I finished up The Most Dangerous Game (1932). I imagine it was like seeing one of those pulp action novels from the drugstore brought to life. He-man action hero battling with his wits and a knife. Scantily clad heroine smart enough to recognize danger who then completely falls to pieces for the rest of the movie so the guy can save her and show off how competent he is. The acting wasn't great but I was impressed with the island set even if there was a lot of running around. All in all, it was like a long episode of The Twilight Zone without a satisfying big moral at the end. I'd say watch it if you like this kind of story but otherwise it's not must-see like The Mummy. 

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I imagine it was like seeing one of those pulp action novels from the drugstore brought to life.

Bingo.  Unlike so many other movies which attempt to bring the blood and thunder, The Most Dangerous Game  succeeds on all counts for me.  It's one of my favorite movies, and not even  because of Joel McCrea (well, OK, maybe partly because of Joel McCrea).  Zarnoff is the whole film for me, in a way - by the way that's not a horror makeup on his face - the left side was paralyzed because of nerve damage from a wound Leslie Banks suffered in WWI. 

 

I was impressed with the island set

which the producers used on their next film, King Kong.  I think this was the first version of this story and I love how they manage to keep the action moving, and to pack so much into a little over an hour.  All the subsequent film versions have been at least twice as long.  If it were made for television it might go two or three seasons (without ever reaching a conclusion).

 

I really like this guy's blog entry on this film:

http://criterioncollection.blogspot.com/2005/12/46-most-dangerous-game.html

He makes nice use of screenshots, and I especially like that he points out first, that one of the creepiest things about the story is how explicit it is in showing us that Zarnoff is sexually aroused by hunting and killing, and second, that McCrea is able to save Fay Wray and himself using what are basically Zarnoff's methods, in  a way.  Mileage may vary, blah blah blah, but this film, for me, absolutely IS must see (as is The Mummy, of course).

[aradia22]

 

 

I was impressed with the island set

which the producers used on their next film, King Kong.

Oh, that reminds me. Door knocker and tapestry? What was that about? Does it make sense in the original short story? I thought the door knocker was just a reference to King Kong. And then the tapestry looked more like a centaur. And neither one really had anything to do with hunting or Zarnoff or the plot of the movie besides kind of being barbaric. Zarnoff just wasn't that threatening to me. I think it was the accent and the crazy eyes (vs. actual acting). He didn't give off a threatening sexual energy though they made that part very explicit. I didn't believe he'd know what to do with Fay Wray if he'd actually won. YMMV

[ratgirlagogo]

 

And then the tapestry looked more like a centaur. And neither one really had anything to do with hunting or Zarnoff or the plot of the movie besides kind of being barbaric.

In the blog entry I linked to above, you can see screen shots of the tapestry and the knocker, which both show a centaur carrying a woman, with an arrow piercing his chest.  I think this is Nessus carrying away Deianira from Heracles (because of the arrow, which is how Heracles kills him) but there are several Greek myths that involve centaurs raping human women. In other words it is an image that explicitly links hunting and rape.

[Mindymoo]

Voiceover, I'm with you about the first act of The Crying Game. Every time I watch it, I still hope against hope that it turns into a buddy film of Fergus and Jody escaping the IRA, even though I know what's to come. Despite Forrest Whitaker's awful British accent, I love that movie so much. I watched it with my wife recently, with her knowing nothing about the film, and she called out the twist of Dil as soon as she saw her cutting Fergus' hair. "Those are man hands! She's trans, isn't she?" Yes dear, she is.

[aradia22]

 

In the blog entry I linked to above, you can see screen shots of the tapestry and the knocker, which both show a centaur carrying a woman, with an arrow piercing his chest.  I think this is Nessus carrying away Deianira from Heracles (because of the arrow, which is how Heracles kills him) but there are several Greek myths that involve centaurs raping human women. In other words it is an image that explicitly links hunting and rape.

Hmn. I know the myth but that isn't the first connection I'd make. Maybe it's because the King Kong image is so iconic now. Didn't the Nessus story have something to do with a river/boat? Is the hunting in this case the hunting of the centaur? I feel like the division of subject kind of dilutes the connection. But it's not that important. It just threw me a little because it was the first image and I was always taught to pay close attention to those things... first pages, first chapters, opening scenes, etc.

[ratgirlagogo]

Well, okay. But jesus. To get into the house you walk up to the door that has a knocker in the shape of a guy with an arrow in his chest holding what looks like an unconscious naked woman in his arms - and to enter, you have to grab the woman's body and bang the door with it.  This doesn't seem to portend some kind of creepiness inside the house to you?  Especially when a little later on you meet the master of the house and it appears his entire life revolves around hunting?

 

ETA: I guess I'm saying you don't have to recognize the classical reference - I'm not sure I'm right about it, and I guarantee the makers of the film didn't expect the audience to instantly get it either - they just expected them to think it was kind of off.

Edited September 7, 2014 by ratgirlagogo

[aradia22]

 

This doesn't seem to portend some kind of creepiness inside the house to you?  Especially when a little later on you meet the master of the house and it appears his entire life revolves around hunting?

Oh, I definitely feel like it foreshadows creepiness. I just don't think it's a great symbol for the specific plot. I don't know if you could foreshadow the specific plot without ruining that part of the movie. You could foreshadow the count's madness since that plays a big role.

[Charlie Baker]

Just a few Pre-Code observations: 

 

Ex-Lady was most interesting for its subject matter--essentially open relationships/marriages, which of course would be a Code no-no, but it was honest enough to demonstrate that the concept is not necessarily an easy one to navigate--and for its leading lady, a young, very blonde Bette Davis.  You could see the beginnings of her star persona; and she had a pretty credible leading man in Gene Raymond.  This is a remake of an earlier Stanwyck movie (also pre-Code) called Illicit, which I haven't seen.

 

Footlight Parade is just silly--the Berkeley numbers can be pretty mind-boggling, and Joan Blondell is as terrific as always, but my favorite parts of this movie are the tantalizing moments when Cagney full out dances.

 

My discovery this go-round was Virtue.  The plot may be full of those contrivances of misunderstandings which would be totally cleared up if people only talked to each other, but the cast sells them.  I'm not a huge Pat O'Brien fan, but he and Ward Bond are pretty engaging as a couple dumb lugs.  Jack LaRue, Shirley Grey, and especially Mayo Methot are very good as friends/enemies from the heroine's seamy past.  And that streetwalker-trying-to-go-legit-for-love heroine is played by Carole Lombard, and she is subdued, soulful, and brittle and funny when she needs to be. This is a Columbia movie that looks like it could have come out of Warner Brothers.

 

Still planning to watch Safe in Hell, which I've never seen.

[Julia]

Footlight Parade is just silly--the Berkeley numbers can be pretty mind-boggling, and Joan Blondell is as terrific as always, but my favorite parts of this movie are the tantalizing moments when Cagney full out dances.

 

I think My Forgotten Man was astonishingly socially progressive, to the point where I don't think they'd've been allowed to make a lot of those points if they hadn't been put to music.

 

Keep in mind that Patton and Douglas MacArthur (Eisenhower was there too) led cavalry and tanks on the Bonus Army, WW1 veterans who were trying to get the demobilization bonus the government welched on, at right about the time Footlight Parade was being made. President Hoover ordered the attack.

 

There are people who think that's why Roosevelt was elected, but at the time the official story was that the veterans deserved what they got because they were trying to overthrow the government. It was kind of brave to take their side.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Julia

[Rinaldo]

"Forgotten Man" is in 42nd Street, not Footlight Parade.

[Julia]

"Forgotten Man" is in 42nd Street, not Footlight Parade.

 

Ack, you're right, it's not Footlight Parade. It's Gold Diggers of 1933.

 

Oh well. Shanghai Lil was a good number until Ruby Keeler showed up...

[ratgirlagogo]

 

My discovery this go-round was Virtue.

Yes, I first saw this one last year during one of the pre-Code days, and I was knocked out by it as well.  I really like the way in which it appears to be showing that a woman just can't escape a Past, since no Decent Man can be expected to let it slide - and yet ends up ultimately showing the opposite.  And having watched it a second time I was even more struck by how the women basically stick up for each other - even Gert ends up

getting killed because she's trying to get back the money she swindled from the Carole Lombard character and return it to her.

  I always prefer women's films that are based on an idea of female friendship.  I do like Pat O'Brien also - he's not an obvious leading man and he's always very good.

If you live in an area where you pick up the GetTV network they seem to be showing  Columbia studios catalog pretty exclusively - they showed this a few times over the summer.  I know what you mean about Warner Bros. but Columbia in its own way was kind of gritty also - certainly sort of lower budget anyway.

 

Safe in Hell is a trip.  I will wait to comment until you have seen it.