TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[voiceover]

On 2/10/2019 at 9:50 AM, Audpaud said:

Love TCM, especially NOIR ALLEY.  It's not back 'til March 9th. 😞

I feel your pain...Imyselfpersonally spend February mourning "Silent Sundays" and "TCM Imports".

p.s. @ratgirlagogo: Thanks for the clarification.  Then when I hit the formerly-known-as-"like button", a menu of emojis popped up!  Mystery solved.

But I'm still Get off my lawn-ing over the changes.  Readers of my column (lol) may recall my whining over the new TCM hosts. I'm surrounded by upgrades that make my favorite things either 1. taste funny 2. unworkable 3. a crap new color.

[voiceover]

Just watched My Favorite Year for the 100th time.  I love Peter O'Toole in...anything, really; and though this is a flawed film (for starters, Mark Linn-Baker was an over-emoting nightmare, though he did have his moments), it's one of his best performances.  He was always a spot-on comic performer ("Ladies are 'unwell'...gentlemen vomit."), and his Errol Flynn impersonation here is hilarious and raw and very moving.

Linn-Baker *does have that great speech as Benjy, when he's trying to bully O'Toole's petrified matinee idol into performing on live TV: "...don't tell me this is you life-size. I can't use you life-size. I need Alan Swanns as big as I can get them!"   Isn't that an echo of what beats in the hearts of classic movie fans everywhere?

I love the climactic fight, when he joins Joe Bologna's King Kaiser in dispensing with the bad guys.  After it's over, with a snark he can't help but utter ("What took ya so long?"), the monstrous egomaniac King leads the studio audience in an ovation for the movie star.  And I always burst into tears.

[voiceover]

More on Peter O'Toole!  Blame the TCM app; I've watched his Goodbye Mr Chips every day since it posted.  Not one memorable song in the whole thing, but thanks to Terence Rattigan's reworking of the 1939 script, it's funnier and sharper and smarter than the first film (which I also love).

Petula Clark: surprisingly the right choice for the schoolmaster's love interest.  She commits thoroughly to the role of weary showgirl Katherine.  You believe her when she insists to an incredulous Chips that she's ready to chuck all that for the life of a Don's wife.  Later on in the story -- after she's run away in an attempt to do the Right Thing (there was a question of her "suitability") -- he corners her in a friend's kitchen with a speech that's both romantic AND pedantic:

"But how you could ever imagine that a word like 'suitability' -- which is only in Webster, mind you, not in the Oxford -- could ever prevail over a word like 'love' -- which is in all the dictionaries..."

Her Katherine collapses, weeping, in his arms, muttering that he'd lose "everything you hold dear!"  "Every thing I hold dear," Chips replies, "I'm holding now." *swoon*

And mad props to Sian Phillips (Mrs O'Toole at the time) as the Theda Bara-esque Ursula, who boxes up the few scenes she's in.  I used to imitate her leave-taking at every theatre gathering ("You must come to one of myyyyy little parties...very informal; just 'Come as you are', whatever that is...")  That throaty voice purring out every syllable, ripe with suggestion!  The response to "I hope you like early English perpendicular" is one of the great exit lines in cinema: "Darling! I revel in 'early English perpendicular'!"

Edited February 12, 2019 by voiceover
wow have I been chatty today

[Charlie Baker]

This man's story should be of interest here.  He was instrumental in restoring Vitaphone shorts, a lot of which turn up on TCM,  

Ron Hutchinson, Restorer of Early Sound Films 

I didn't remember that there had been a marathon of them on the channel a few years ago.

[Audpaud]

It's been awhile so thoroughly enjoyed The Thin Man late last night and finished up with Mrs. Miniver this a.m. (I've had a few days off work - sadly, it's back to reality today). 

So glad I found this forum! Love the comments and the ideas for future time off you've all given me.

[voiceover]

Sorry for the language in this particular forum, but what the f...hell with the Academy's decision to cut editing/cinematography/makeup from the broadcast?

Makeup was a fairly recent addition anyway, meant in part to draw in a certain viewer.  And the editing award is a pretty good predictor of Best Picture.  And excuse me: what are films without a friggin' camera??

People who don't tune in won't suddenly change their minds because of this.   The ceremony is what it is.  Imyselfpersonally stopped watching when they dropped the Hersholt award, which I always thought was the coolest anyway.

Thank heavens for TCM.  Without it...movies and me, we'd be divorcing about now.

[ruby24]

The Philadelphia Story is on. As much as I love this movie, the whole message that Katharine Hepburn has to forgive people their faults (based on the very, VERY bad fault of her father having a mistress that he flaunts in front of the whole family with no shame apparently) and be cut down to size is sexist and annoying. Her dad was a jerk!

I don't mind the class snobbery by the reporters toward the uber rich in general, but the Hepburn stuff bugs. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

32 minutes ago, ruby24 said:

The Philadelphia Story is on. As much as I love this movie, the whole message that Katharine Hepburn has to forgive people their faults (based on the very, VERY bad fault of her father having a mistress that he flaunts in front of the whole family with no shame apparently) and be cut down to size is sexist and annoying. Her dad was a jerk!

I don't mind the class snobbery by the reporters toward the uber rich in general, but the Hepburn stuff bugs. 

Yeah, that's why The Philadelphia Story has never been my cup of tea. Tracy never struck me as cold, imperious, and haughty, she's fabulous! She's spirited, witty, assertive, strong-minded, and is fiercely loyal towards her family (except her dad, but that's his fault, not hers). Tracy is not the one who needs to learn a lesson, sanctimonious boozehound Dexter and her philandering asshat father should. 

I do love the part where Tracy and Dinah turn the tables on the reporters by weirding them out by acting like rich lunatics (Virginia Wiedler's off-key rendition of "Lydia the Tatooed Lady" is a gem). 

Edited February 15, 2019 by Wiendish Fitch

[ruby24]

Now it's Father of the Bride. This movie, I've never liked. It just feels like the epitome of "first world problems" to me. I actually think the Steve Martin remake is better (at least it's funnier).

[Bastet]

The Philadelphia Story is one of the few films where it seems general consensus has moved far beyond "well, that's how it was then" to "yeah, the story sucks, but the performances are sublime."  Of course there are unequivocal fans out there, but it's probably been a good ten years since I heard/read a defense of the narrative treatment of Tracy.  Good thing, because they can all eat dirt; she's right.

And Father of the Bride is one of a short list of films I vastly prefer the remake to the original.  Given the writers, director, and cast of the original, this is truly surprising, but I would watch the remake twice in a row before I'd watch the original again.  George's lunacy getting lumped in with his perfectly reasonably objections is a frustrating movie-long false equivalency, but it's overall a charming, enjoyable film.

[tennisgurl]

The Philadelphia Story is kind of a disappointment to me, as the performances are so wonderful, and there is a lot of sharp witty banter in the way that comedies of that era often were, but the plot itself is just such crap. I cant even get behind it as a "well, that was how it was back then" kind of way like with some aspects of other older movies that I still like. But, you cant ignore it, its the main plot of the story!

[Rinaldo]

A longtime friend with whom I first bonded through our shared love of old movies (in the 1970s, when it wasn't so easy to see them, and all our college classmates seemed to know only current ones) understood why I liked The Philadelphia Story, but insisted that what I liked about it, I would find better done and more fun in Holiday. And so it turned out to be. Still Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, dialogue by Philip Barry, and direction by George Cukor, but a much pleasanter story and vibe. This is what she wrote about it on her blog.

[Hyacinth B]

On 2/11/2019 at 9:25 AM, Milburn Stone said:

How long before we see The Emoji Movie? (Unless it's already happened.)

Not sure whether that was a Whoosh, or maybe a Nudge Nudge Wink Wink, but your prayers have been answered. Or maybe you saw a trailer and your horrified mind blocked it out? ☺️

Seven percent on RottenTomatoes-

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_emoji_movie

[BooksRule]

TCM finally aired 1973's 'Tom Sawyer'.  (I think they also showed it a few months ago, and I missed it.)  I hadn't seen it in decades, and wanted to give it another watch.  Definitely a family-friendly movie (it was a production of Reader's Digest), I remembered most of the songs and certain scenes (the riverboat smashing the raft, Muff Potter stashing liquor bottles all over town, Tom having the knife flung at him when he was in the witness chair).  Maybe not a 'classic' in the scheme of things, but I enjoyed a bit of nostalgia for my childhood when I watched it again.  I do remember going to see it at least three times when it was originally at the theater.  I can only attribute that to the huge crush I had on Jeff East ('Huck') at the time! 

Now if TCM would only show 'The Truth About Spring' (starring Hayley Mills, John Mills and --my other childhood crush-on-an-older-man -- James Macarthur) I would be happy. 

[Rinaldo]

TCM has also shown the same team's followup Huckleberry Finn several times, with Jeff East reprising his role. It's not as good, but then the book is a greater one and thus tough to live up to.

I too have a fondness for this Tom Sawyer. It of course simplifies and sweetens the material (the getting-lost-in-the-cave business lasts minutes rather than days), but it's a pleasant enough entertainment. Good supporting casting, what with Warren Oates as Muff Potter, little Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher, and especially Celeste Holm as an ideal Aunt Polly. And making the most of the Sherman brothers' score, the skills of John Williams providing orchestrations and musical continuity.

[ratgirlagogo]

And some degree of sanity prevails:

https://deadline.com/2019/02/oscars-reverse-decision-categories-live-show-controversy-1202558670/

[voiceover]

I'm glad for the nominees' sake -- it was always a stupid idea -- but at this point the drama surrounding the ceremony is reading like a super-dull version of Hearts of Darkness (the doc exploring the mess of filming Apocalypse Now).  

[Sharpie66]

Boy, I haven’t thought about that ‘73 version of Tom Sawyer in years! I remember seeing it in the theater, and for 7 year old me, it was a great film. We visited Hannibal, MO the following year, so I was able to understand the various story-related sites much better after seeing the film. 

I never saw the Huck Finn sequel. I do, however, recommend the Elijah Wood version from 20 years later. Lots of great actors in that film, and you see why Wood was lauded as one of the best child actors of his generation. Not as nuanced as he would get as he got older, but for a 12-year-old in his first lead role, he is excellent. 

[Audpaud]

Recently enjoyed Dodsworth and The Window.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 2/11/2019 at 12:47 PM, voiceover said:

Just watched My Favorite Year for the 100th time. 

I've seen it only twice--when it first came out, and a couple of years ago because Mr. Outlier had never seen it and I remembered how much I loved it. 

Yet despite having seen it only that one time, I used one of the lines from it since the first time I heard it, every time there's an opportunity:  "Welcome to my humble chapeau."  Cracks me up every time, and people just look at me.

I also use, "Two years at the Sorbonne and she still gets it wrong" whenever possible.

.

On 2/15/2019 at 6:38 PM, tennisgurl said:

The Philadelphia Story is kind of a disappointment to me, as the performances are so wonderful, and there is a lot of sharp witty banter in the way that comedies of that era often were, but the plot itself is just such crap. I cant even get behind it as a "well, that was how it was back then" kind of way like with some aspects of other older movies that I still like. But, you cant ignore it, its the main plot of the story!

I'm shallow so this sort of thing almost never registers with me, which is a very good thing in this case because that means I get to enjoy Virginia Wiedler's performance over and over, which I'm sure I raved about upthread somewhere.

.

On 2/15/2019 at 8:20 PM, Rinaldo said:

A longtime friend with whom I first bonded through our shared love of old movies (in the 1970s, when it wasn't so easy to see them, and all our college classmates seemed to know only current ones) understood why I liked The Philadelphia Story, but insisted that what I liked about it, I would find better done and more fun in Holiday. And so it turned out to be.

That's how I found out about Holiday, too!  A college friend said, "If you like The Philadelphia Story, you'll love Holiday."  And so it turned out to be.

The absence of Virginia Wiedler is assuaged by the presence of Lew Ayers and the Potters (I knew Edward Everett Horton only by his voice on Bullwinkle).  I so badly wanted to be with friends with them in the movie (which I can't say about The Philadelphia Story.)

But my tipster friend wasn't an expert by any means--she just knew about Holiday, for some reason.  In fact, she once said, "There's an old movie playing at the Paramount that I don't know anything about, but it's named after me, so let's go."  Her name?  Rebecca. 

[In the very small world department, I was looking at some photos from Mr. Outlier's childhood (he's 10 years younger than I am), and there was one of his boy scout troop marching down Congress Avenue in Austin, and the Paramount is in the background, with Rebecca on the marquee.  I said, "Wait a minute."  And asked his mother (who was also the den mother), "Could this have been in 1976?"  And she toted it up and said yes, it was.  Our paths had crossed, thanks to Alfred Hitchcock and Daphne du Maurier.]

But back to TCM, if anybody wants to dip a toe into some subtitles, they're showing Umberto D on Friday morning.  I saw it only once, in a theater in New York City, knowing nothing about it, and I'll just quote the end of TCM's blurb:  "Shattering, all the way up to the tear-jerking conclusion."

I came out of that movie a changed person.  Good lord, I loved that man and his dog.  I've gotten soft as I've gotten older, so I can't watch that sort of thing any more, so that one time will be it for Umberto D and me, but I'm very very glad I got to experience it once. 

It kind of reminds me of professor I had at a random film class I took at NYU back in VCR days, who asked, "Who hasn't seen The 400 Blows?"  A few hands went up, willing to suffer the embarrassment, and the professor said, "I'm jealous, because you're going to get to experience seeing it for the first time."

.

[voiceover]

2 hours ago, StatisticalOutlier said:

"I'm jealous, because you're going to get to experience seeing it for the first time."

A thing I repeat to Nephew de Voiceover with every TCM/Fathom Events viewing.  At least I refrain from looking over at him right before Something Big Happens, just to see him react.

This also puts me in mind (again: IIRC this story is on the 2015 part of this thread) of the last time I saw Casablanca on the big screen.  And it was a big freakin' screen, too -- multiple stories high & wide.  

The first shot of Humphrey Bogart (playing chess against himself) caused half the theater to burst into applause -- and the other half (me included), a second later, to burst into laughter.  Because we were all kicking ourselves for not bursting into applause.

[Audpaud]

Loved the recent courtroom/trial themes. I'd never seen or even heard of MADELEINE. (Scotland/arsenic). Really enjoyed!

[voiceover]

A recommendation for today's Inn of the Sixth Happiness (FMC used to run this weekly; glad to see it's crossed over).  It features Ingrid Bergman in one of her earlier "Woman of a Certain Age" roles (1958), and next to my cherished Cactus Flower, it's my favorite of them.  No makeup; shapeless clothing; yet she's just luminous throughout.

Based on a real-life story, Bergman plays an Englishwoman who, after being turned down for missionary work by short-sighted local clergy, takes off for China on her own.  In no time at all, she's mentored by a crotchety spinster and adopted by the local mandarin (Robert Donat, who gives an intelligent, slyly humorous performance; it would be his last).  To help her gain acceptance in the community, the Mandarin awards her the title of Foot Inspector (she's meant to curb the practice of foot-binding).

Over the years, Bergman's Gladys embraces the locals, the culture, and the children.  Curt Jürgens is quietly sexy as the half-Chinese, half-Dutch military commander who can't help but fall for her.  This midlife romance between two good people is one of the film's greatest charms.

The farewell scene between Bergman & Donat rips right through me.  Her missionary had long ago abandoned the "conversion" part of her ministry. But when the Japanese invade, and the villagers are forced to flee the approaching army, the Mandarin holds one last meeting with his council.  There he makes a final proclamation: he will convert to Christianity to honor the religion of his dear Foot Inspector!  Donat's voice cracks with emotion as he makes the announcement, and Bergman breaks down utterly. [ugh, personal story follows: Watching, I am pulled back to my time in the Peace Corps, *my last week in my village, *my broken heart as I said goodbye to *my colleague & friend.]

A perfect companion piece (and a shockingly missed opportunity by TCM) is Gregory Peck's Keys of the Kingdom.  He's a Scottish priest sent to China at the turn of the century.  He faces terrifying opposition, suspicious-then-welcoming locals, and his own UST with one of the nuns sent to work with him.  Both films were nominated for Academy Awards (Actor/Director/Cinematography/Score); both tell engaging stories of the trials of the Westerner, Abroad; both are powerful reflections on faith.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 2/19/2019 at 3:53 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

But back to TCM, if anybody wants to dip a toe into some subtitles, they're showing Umberto D on Friday morning.  I saw it only once, in a theater in New York City, knowing nothing about it, and I'll just quote the end of TCM's blurb:  "Shattering, all the way up to the tear-jerking conclusion."

Plus many many ones.  A beautiful movie.

[Milburn Stone]

On 2/17/2019 at 6:33 AM, Rinaldo said:

I too have a fondness for this Tom Sawyer...Good supporting casting, what with Warren Oates as Muff Potter, little Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher, and especially Celeste Holm as an ideal Aunt Polly. And making the most of the Sherman brothers' score, the skills of John Williams providing orchestrations and musical continuity.

Like @Sharpie66, I haven't thought about this movie in 46 years! Now that it's back in mind, I have only two memories: 1) I liked it, even though I can't remember why, except the one thing I do remember is 2) I liked the music. But I bet Celeste Holm was a reason, too.

[mariah23]

It’s the end of an era.

Stanley Donen, the last surviving major director of Hollywood’s Golden Age, has died at the age of 94.

[Wiendish Fitch]

2 hours ago, mariah23 said:

It’s the end of an era.

Stanley Donen, the last surviving major director of Hollywood’s Golden Age, has died at the age of 94.

Singin' in the Rain will be my favorite movie until the day I die. Fred Astaire's ceiling dance from Royal Wedding is my favorite of his solo numbers*. Two for the Road is one of Audrey Hepburn's most underrated films. Stanley Donen was a fabulous director with an array of classics under his belt. I sure as hell won't forget him.

*Fun fact: Donen also directed Lionel Richie's "Dancin' on the Ceiling" video, and used the same special effect.

[Charlie Baker]

Stanley Donen received an honorary Oscar and gave one of the best acceptances ever. RIP, sir.

[Rinaldo]

It really is the end of an era, though I knew the day couldn't be too far off when this would happen.

My father, a director of commercials and industrial/educational films in Chicago, belonged to the DGA, a union that provides a good pension. (Indeed my mother, about to turn 99, still benefits from it.) It's based on years of membership, so Dad, who joined in the late 1940s, would joke that only Stanley Donen got a better pension payment than he did. (This was right after a couple of the old-timers, like Fred Zinnemann and Billy Wilder, passed away.) Now we'll need a new standard of comparison.

Donen was of course known for his musicals, and I needn't list them. But I have a special fondness for the nonmusical movies he made in the 1960s: Bedazzled, Charade, and (if you remember what I've written here year after year, you know this is coming) Two for the Road. I'll even sneak in a good word for the spoof double bill he made later, Movie Movie. Mr. Donen won't be forgotten while I'm around.

Edited February 23, 2019 by Rinaldo

[voiceover]

Thanks for posting the Donen speech.  Hate to be all Get off my lawn!, but I will: it reminds me of what I used to love about the Oscars, and that sense of movie history that's gone missing.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 2/23/2019 at 3:54 PM, Rinaldo said:

and (if you remember what I've written here year after year, you know this is coming) Two for the Road. 

Even in my extreme annoyance at Donen's absence from the death tribute, I thought of you when they used a clip from Two for the Road in Albert Finney's segment.

Quoting myself from a different forum:

Quote

Among those unmentioned in the In Memorium death tribute:

 Carol Channing (!), Ricky Jay (!), Sondra Locke (!), Verne Troyer, Kaye Ballard,  Dick Miller,  Julie Adams, R, Lee Ermey, Aretha Franklin, Clint Walker, Joseph Campanella.

Stanley Donen - although  Albert Finney's  film clip was from the great Two for the Road, directed by Donen.

I feel like the snub to Sondra Locke is almost the worst one, since she was so shit on by the industry press when she died.https://jezebel.com/this-is-how-a-woman-gets-written-out-of-her-own-obituar-1831097072?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_facebook&utm_source=jezebel_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR1cEOhHih5jrXGEX5kepNwm4W1vE56EODvRyfV3ozGGiDIC-pUyBTY9cX4 Gee, Academy, thanks for that last Hollywood fuck-you.

I mean, Carol Channing and Ricky Jay are kind of ridiculous even if they did so much stage work, but the Sondra Locke snub seems outright nasty.  

[Crisopera]

They left out Dorothy Malone, WHO WON AN OSCAR. She died in January of last year, and wasn't included in last year's, either.

[chitowngirl]

Seriously, how hard is it to keep a legal pad or an Excel spreadsheet with a list of the names of people who have passed away??

[tennisgurl]

Its not the Oscars until they forget someone important in the memorial segment...

Edited February 28, 2019 by tennisgurl

[Milburn Stone]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

Its not the Oscars if they forget someone important in the memorial segment...

I think you mean it's not the Oscars unless they forget someone important in the memorial segment.

[mariah23]

Another one for TCM Remembers: Andre Previn has died at the age of 89.

Edited February 28, 2019 by mariah23

[Robert Lynch]

Seeing Joan Crawford films, it is so strange seeing what a difference she looked when the 40s kicked in. Those thick eyebrows, clownish makeup, and those shoulder pads. It is strange how muted her look was in the 20s and 30s. She looked like a completely different person.

[Vixenstud]

Watched two of my faves during the 31 Days of Oscar programming....The Great White Hope and The Heiress.

The Great White Hope - James Earl Jones was brilliant in this role and should have won the Oscar!  My favorite scene is 

Spoiler

When Jack cruelly cuts Eleanor out of his life for her sake, not thinking she would kill herself afterwards.

 The Heiress - Olivia de Havilland as an allegedly 'plain' rich girl who Montgomery Cliff tries to grift.

Spoiler

Loved Catherine's metamorphosis from naive milquetoast to ice cold woman once she realizes that her father doesn't love her and when Morris left her once discovering that she didn't care about her inherited money.

Edited March 5, 2019 by Vixenstud

[chitowngirl]

Victor/Victoria-worth it to stay up late to watch Robert Preston do the Shady Dame from Seville. Never gets old and he looks like he had a blast doing it!! One take and the same dress. 😆

[Charlie Baker]

The 31 Days gave me a reason to revisit an all-time favorite I hadn't seen in a good while--The Last PIcture Show. Some may find this movie a real downer, I generally see it as cathartic.  It wrecks me pretty good and then I feel better.  It's so skillfully done--definitely impressive for using ambient sound on a soundtrack (Radios, tv, jukeboxes) to comment on scenes.  That has rarely been done as well since.  The cast is sublime, and with this viewing I note again how Eileen Brennan didn't get the attention of some of the other actors and she totally deserved it. So real and so touching. 

Bogdanovich in Conversation

A recently posted, long, fascinating, and pretty disconcerting Peter Bogdanovich interview, should anyone be interested. 

[Rinaldo]

I'll certainly speak up for The Last Picture Show any time. In its unassuming, unashamedly old-fashioned (even at the time) way, it's one of the great movies, I think. It gives a picture of a particular time and place, and in so doing, says something universal about community and changing times and growing up and finding one's place in the world, not without lots of mistakes. I agree with @Charlie Baker about its masterful use of source music, and it was also, I think, the first Hollywood picture to be shot in black-and-white as an artistic choice, after the demise of routine making of B&W films around 1967. And the cast really is sublime; perfectly chosen and matched at every point.

[Inquisitionist]

On 2/11/2019 at 1:47 PM, voiceover said:

Just watched My Favorite Year for the 100th time.  I love Peter O'Toole in...anything, really; and though this is a flawed film (for starters, Mark Linn-Baker was an over-emoting nightmare, though he did have his moments), it's one of his best performances.  He was always a spot-on comic performer ("Ladies are 'unwell'...gentlemen vomit."), and his Errol Flynn impersonation here is hilarious and raw and very moving.

I have loved this movie for years despite its notable flaws.  My husband and I quote it a lot.

On 2/19/2019 at 2:53 PM, StatisticalOutlier said:

Yet despite having seen it only that one time, I used one of the lines from it since the first time I heard it, every time there's an opportunity:  "Welcome to my humble chapeau."  Cracks me up every time, and people just look at me.

I also use, "Two years at the Sorbonne and she still gets it wrong" whenever possible.

Yup, and we use "You like it?  I only wore it once." quite a bit.  Also, "You think I was born a minsk-a-pinsk?"  and "Well, we know he can do that."  Also, totally not politically correct but my Jewish in-laws loved the line regarding the the lack of pork in the Filipino pork'n'beans:  "You can't!  There's Jews here!"

[Inquisitionist]

21 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I'll certainly speak up for The Last Picture Show any time. In its unassuming, unashamedly old-fashioned (even at the time) way, it's one of the great movies, I think. ... it was also, I think, the first Hollywood picture to be shot in black-and-white as an artistic choice, after the demise of routine making of B&W films around 1967. And the cast really is sublime; perfectly chosen and matched at every point.

Finally caught BlacKkKlansman last week, and there is a brief scene early on where a white police officer is looking at a magazine spread about Cybil Shepherd and kind of taunts the young black recruit for saying he thought Shepherd was a talented actress rather than the 1970s equivalent of "I'd hit that."  The white dude also admits he hasn't seen The Last Picture Show because he doesn't like B&W movies.  

[Milburn Stone]

Watched the first half-hour or so of Night Train to Munich, which I must have DVR'ed from TCM recently. It's for sure the earliest Carol Reed film I've seen (1940), and based on the portion I saw, I'd say it gives Donen's Charade a run for its money in one respect: namely, the accolade Charade always receives that it's "the best Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made." I'm not sure NTtM is great, but if you'd told me it was minor Hitchcock, I'd believe you. I think Reed had to have been highly influenced by him. 

It happens to feature Hitchcock heroine Margaret Lockwood. Along with "Paul von Hernreid" (we know him as Paul Henreid) and Rex Harrison. There's a sequence near the beginning in which Harrison sings perfectly adequately, and while it could be dubbed, it sounds an awful lot like him. Which would give the lie to the legend that he had to "talk-sing" his way through My Fair Lady because he had no other way.

[Rinaldo]

46 minutes ago, Milburn Stone said:

Harrison sings perfectly adequately, and while it could be dubbed, it sounds an awful lot like him. Which would give the lie to the legend that he had to "talk-sing" his way through My Fair Lady because he had no other way.

That legend is inaccurate in a variety of ways. First of all, Harrison does recognizably sing portions of the score -- certainly much of "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face." He did have a singing audition before he was hired, and could indeed "sing a little," as the expression goes. But he was understandably apprehensive about putting his singing voice on the line in live circumstances, eight times a week. No doubt performing opposite Julie Andrews made him more so -- despite being half his age, she was twenty times more used to (and comfortable about) singing onstage with an orchestra (and in an era when only the most gentle general amplification was used, with a few microphones at the edge of the stage). So he, with Loewe, and Allers and others, figured out how he was going to handle each moment, where he was going to really sing and where he could talk instead, or mix the two.* And even so, it took him a while to become confident (the story about the first Boston preview is true: he announced that he would not perform, and and it took the combined efforts of everyone else, including his own agent, to persuade him back).

[*Loewe left the pitches in the published score, though, for the benefit of future Higginses.]

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that Harrison "singing a little" in a movie doesn't surprise me at all; he was clearly capable of it.

But I'm very glad indeed to be alerted to Night Train to Munich, which I somehow missed when alerting the DVR. I can still catch it On Demand, and I will: as I've said here before, I'm a major fan of Carol Reed, and so far every movie of his I've seen is worth seeing. And I haven't been able to catch enough of his earlier work, so this will be a treat.

[Milburn Stone]

5 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

But I'm very glad indeed to be alerted to Night Train to Munich, which I somehow missed when alerting the DVR. I can still catch it On Demand, and I will: as I've said here before, I'm a major fan of Carol Reed, and so far every movie of his I've seen is worth seeing. And I haven't been able to catch enough of his earlier work, so this will be a treat.

I'll be interested to hear what you think of it. (And if you pick up whiffs of Hitchcock as I did.)

[NowVoyager]

On 3/5/2019 at 2:25 PM, Vixenstud said:

Watched two of my faves during the 31 Days of Oscar programming....The Great White Hope and The Heiress.

The Heiress - Olivia de Havilland as an allegedly 'plain' rich girl who Montgomery Cliff tries to grift.

  Reveal spoiler

Loved Catherine's metamorphosis from naive milquetoast to ice cold woman once she realizes that her father doesn't love her and when Morris left her once discovering that she didn't care about her inherited money.

I missed this on TCM, but I read your message & caught it On Demand. I just 💞LOVE💞 this film: Olivia de Havilland's "Catherine's" insecure, awkward beauty; her sincerity & longing to be loved; watching her internal strength growing in stages. Montgomery Clift "Morris" in all his beauty (before that terrible car accident coarsened his features--- although I always thought he remained handsome afterwards) strutting about in that enormous top hat, soo transparent, yet so charming. & I thought Miriam Hopkins as Auntie & Ralph Richardson as father played their roles beautifully.... There was nuance & subtlety. The Auntie loved her & tried to guide her, but pitied her; the father loved her & tried to care for her, but the resentment of her mother dying in childbirth overwhelmed him for the rest of his life & he couldn't hide it for a minute....

*** I LIVE for the ending of this film!!! One of my favorite movie endings ever!***

[Milburn Stone]

4 hours ago, NowVoyager said:

I missed this on TCM, but I read your message & caught it On Demand. I just 💞LOVE💞 [The Heiress].

Even though I've never seen this film, I adore Aaron Copland's music for it. (Or at least a suite from it that appears on an RCA Red Seal disc conducted by Leonard Slatkin called Copland: Music for Films. It's out of print but available used from Amazon and other places. There's also a more complete recording of the score, taken from the actual soundtrack, on Intrada, which I don't have.) A fancier of practically all things Copland, I might put the suite from The Heiress at #1.

So thank you for letting us know the movie is On Demand. I'll find it there or on Watch TCM forthwith.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Milburn Stone

[Vixenstud]

1 hour ago, Milburn Stone said:

So thank you for letting us know the movie is On Demand. I'll find it there or on Watch TCM forthwith.

I believe it will be on On Demand for about a week.

Glad to know there are fans of the film, OdH's Oscar win was well deserved.

[Rinaldo]

I find The Heiress fascinating, as a film, as a play, in the original James -- as @NowVoyager said, there's nuance and subtlety. In particular (perhaps more in the play, which I saw in the great production starring Cherry Jones, than the movie, which tilts things a little more toward Catherine-vs-villains) the way in which everyone has their reasons for behaving as they do, and one can understand if not empathize. Watching the stage production (a reaction I carry over to the movie), I sometimes thought that even though Morris was after her money, she might as well have fooled herself with him as with anyone else; he would have been careful to treat her well and keep her happy while enjoying her wealth. Maybe that's just my general cynical outlook.