TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[Charlie Baker]

Yes! Penguin Pool Murder is pretty delightful.  It was one of a series of movies (based on books, I think?) of starchy schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers and hard boiled cop Oscar Piper solving crime together. Edna May Oliver and James Gleason are perfectly cast,  I'm dating myself here, but they made a TV movie with Eve Arden and James Gregory as the characters (again, good casting) in the 70s but a series did not result.  I think the attempt at the early film series didn't fly because EMO only did the first three and the other three had pretty bad scripts. 

[Rinaldo]

24 minutes ago, Charlie Baker said:

It was one of a series of movies (based on books, I think?) of starchy schoolteacher Hildegarde Withers 

Yes, the series of novels and short stories about Hildegarde Withers by Stuart Palmers is one of the important contributions to early 20th-century American mystery fiction. It's a shame the series of film adaptations sort of fizzled out, but Edna May Oliver is certainly perfect casting, and it's fun to see her for once as the smart central character, not a supporting bit or an adversary. I've seen one other in the series on TCM, and I'm sorry to have missed The Penguin Pool Murders this time around.

[benteen]

Yeah, Oliver's great and her chemistry with James Gleason is fantastic.  Both of them were Oscar nominees for later films.

[AuntiePam]

If anyone has Fog Over Frisco on the DVR from a couple weeks back (Bette Davis, 1934), you can safely delete it.  It's worth watching only for Bette, the fashions, and the decor -- the art deco touches in Bette's bedroom are wonderful.  The plot is about stolen securities, but it functions more as a polemic on sensational journalism.  I don't think that was the intent, however. 

Dialogue is all superficial with people shouting orders at servants and employees, taking action before they have information, running when they could walk.  There are no characters -- the people are just pieces to move the plot.  It's just a mess, and worse, it's a long mess. 

Bette was great, as usual, and I liked seeing a young William Demarest, but other than that, this movie is a stinker.

[roseha]

8 hours ago, benteen said:

Yeah, Oliver's great and her chemistry with James Gleason is fantastic.  Both of them were Oscar nominees for later films.

I've just watched two of the three, Penguin Pool Murder and Murder on a Honeymoon.  I think I've got the second, Murder on a Blackboard, on my Tivo.  I just love the chemistry between Oliver and Gleason, and the way they play off each other.  They really are brilliant.   It's notable in Honeymoon, when Withers is convinced a fellow plane passenger on a flight to Catalina has been murdered and when she tells Piper by telegram, he recognizes the name as an informant against the mob and is alarmed that Hildegarde will be in danger.  As much as they insult each other, they are actually very affectionate and it's charming.

Edited November 5, 2019 by roseha

[AuntiePam]

Fog Over Frisco is on again tonight, Nov. 5.  Second opinions welcome. 

Of Human Bondage is also on.  I always have to forget the book when watching the movie, because it's so different. 

[Rinaldo]

4 hours ago, AuntiePam said:

Of Human Bondage is also on.  I always have to forget the book when watching the movie, because it's so different. 

That's often true with book adaptations, of course, but it does seem especially so with Maugham -- all three films of Of Human Bondage, and both versions of The Razor's Edge.

TCM occasionally pairs movies with the same source material, and they could offer a fascinating triple bill of the three Bondages -- they've shown the first two (separately) multiple times, but never as far as I know the third one, with Kim Novak and Laurence Harvey. We were shown at least some of the Bette Davis one in high school, and I remember when the Kim Novak one was later shown on TV I actually preferred it! It must have been my callow young self preferring acting that was more like what I saw every day on TV. But I'd like the chance to make the comparison with my presumably wiser present-day mind.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 11/4/2019 at 10:25 AM, benteen said:

Saw a fun precode film on TCM Demand, The Penguin Pool Murder.  Anyone ever see that?

One of my very very favorite romantic comedies.  Seriously it's up there with Ninotchka for me.  The unlikeliness of the two leads is everything - that of course they don't look the part but the way they fall in love through the sheer delight of each discovering a brilliant mind in the other.  So wonderful.  Also as a bonus look at the racial diversity of Hildegarde's class - much more the way a NYC class would look in the early 30's than what we generally saw.

Edited November 5, 2019 by ratgirlagogo

[roseha]

I'm a few days late with this but the fine Nitrateville forum made note that the major American child star of the silent era, Baby Peggy, now known by the name Diana Serra Cary, has just celebrated her 101st birthday!  There's some basic information about her life and career on her Wiki page.  I know TCM at one point showed a program of  a documentary, several of her few surviving shorts along with the feature (I believe) Captain January; she has great charm and screen presence and it's hard to remember that she was so young when she made these films. She underwent the abuses that many child actors did (including being physically endangered during silent era filming at times) but after time passed she became an accomplished writer on the subject of child actors and on Hollywood and has made appearances at film showings since being rediscovered.  Happy 101 Diana Cary!

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 11/3/2019 at 9:27 AM, freddi said:

Looking at the monthly schedule, I see that “Blue” with Juliet Binoche (1993) will air at 6:00 AM on November 27 (so, 3:00 AM on the West Coast). It is a remarkable depiction of the husk of numbing grief, with tiny steps out of it.  I don’t recall seeing this previously on TCM, or its companion films “Red” and “White” (different casts, part of a “Three Colours” trilogy by Krzysztof Kieślowski). 

That's a Wednesday.  They showed Red in February, late on a Tuesday/early on a Wednesday (depending on time zone).  They usually have the more artsy foreign stuff on Sunday nights.

I haven't watched my recording of Red yet.  I'll guess I'll give it a year to see if they show White.

[Simon Boccanegra]

Red is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I love Blue as well. White would look slight on its own, but as the (fittingly) lightest of the trilogy, it works as a linking piece and as contrast.  

There are interesting echoes and parallels within the trilogy that register more when they're watched close together than they did when they were coming out over a year, with several months between. An example is the different reactions of the main characters to the stooped old woman who can't reach up high enough to get the glass bottle into the receptacle. Juliette Binoche as the young widow in Blue has her eyes closed and doesn't even notice the old woman. She's trying to achieve "liberty," even if that means cutting off human connection. Zbigniew Zamachowski's down-and-out divorcé in White does see the old woman, but he just smirks.  He can be smug in "equality," as someone else is struggling. Irène Jacob, the compassionate young model of Red, is the only one to approach and help—"fraternity." 

These were big art-house and video-store hits of the early '90s. It's amusing now to watch the awful trailers that Harvey's gang at Miramax put together to sell them to the U.S. audience. The one for Red, with its rapid cutting, and its pulsing soundtrack heard nowhere in the film, makes it look like the most beautifully photographed direct-to-video thriller ever.

Edited November 6, 2019 by Simon Boccanegra

[Rinaldo]

On 11/5/2019 at 1:27 PM, AuntiePam said:

Fog Over Frisco is on again tonight, Nov. 5.  Second opinions welcome. 

I've watched it now, and would certainly offer a definite dissenting opinion to your "delete it." Agreed that the only reason to pay much attention to it is Bette Davis, but (for those of us interested enough to watch TCM at all) that's actually quite a good reason in this case, especially if watched with awareness of where it came in her career (1934).

Davis is said to have especially enjoyed this role, and I can see why, and can see her enjoying it. After an awkward start in movies as conventional ingenues, gun molls, and vaguely shady ladies, here she is as a venal socialite who gets a real kick out of being bad, and I can feel her gleefully bursting loose from constraints, while staying in character. At one point one of her men won't do what she wants, and she just hauls off and smacks him one, with delight in her eyes.

She gets bumped off partway through (it's a secondary role despite her star billing), and it isn't as much fun after that, but at a fast-paced 68 minutes it doesn't overstay its welcome. Definitely worth a look for those who enjoy seeing future stars find their assurance onscreen.

[AuntiePam]

5 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I've watched it now, and would certainly offer a definite dissenting opinion to your "delete it." Agreed that the only reason to pay much attention to it is Bette Davis, but (for those of us interested enough to watch TCM at all) that's actually quite a good reason in this case, especially if watched with awareness of where it came in her career (1934).

[snipped]

Reconsidered.  Yes, watch for Bette, but what happens next is beyond the pale.  The newspaperman "hero" uses Bette's death to get ahead with his boss, allows (even encourages) taking a photo of Bette's body for the front page, blasting the sordid story all over the news -- and then Bette's step-sister ends up with him.  Whoever wrote that plot line gave zero thought to how a normal person would react. 

[voiceover]

Musing over tonight's Sunrise, and thinking -- not for the first time -- how leading man George O'Brien was so very, **very handsome.  And not in the typical silent-star, powdered-perfection way.  Especially in the first half, before The Shave: he's a modern-day bad boy heartthrob.

Certainly he's deserving of more woman than that drippy Janet Gaynor.  Would adore to have seen him swapped out with Lars Hansen (in The Wind and The Scarlet Letter) to give Lillian Gish someone who could match her steely femininity with his rugged grace.  Maybe even replace John Gilbert's Rodolfo in La Boheme (even though I like Gilbert in the role).  George & Lil might've generated some powerful, smoke-if-you-got-'em, sexual heat.

And what else is the point of pre-code silents, but the genius cinematography, and the profound desire to watch the two leads get it on?  At least for me.

Edited November 7, 2019 by voiceover

[voiceover]

I've tried watching a whole Agnes Varda film.  It's not like I hate all French New Wave (I actually like Eric Rohmer's movies).  I just can't last longer than about twenty minutes into those overlapping face shots before I start rolling my eyes to the ceiling and yelling, "This is why people hate foreign films!!" and "I've already seen Meshes of the Afternoon!"

<clears throat>

Just had to get that off my chest.

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 11/9/2019 at 10:23 PM, voiceover said:

I've tried watching a whole Agnes Varda film.

But she and JR were such a charming duo in Faces, Places, the 2017 documentary in the French countryside.

On 11/9/2019 at 10:23 PM, voiceover said:

 "I've already seen Meshes of the Afternoon!"

You're a higher order of human than I am.

I don't know how others manage the TCM schedule, but I look at it online, and sometimes the synopses really tickle me.  Like this, for The Hitch-Hiker:  "A dangerous madman kidnaps two businessmen on a hunting trip."  I like specifying that he's both a madman and dangerous.

Plus that one's showing this Saturday night, and again on Sunday morning.  Some movies will have a couple of showings within a few days, but I think this is the closest one I've noticed.  I assume it has to do with themes, which I've never figured out how to find.

[Rinaldo]

I just watched Dangerous, the movie that won Bette Davis her first Academy Award. Everyone seems to agree that it was a "compensation win" for ignoring her Of Human Bondage the year before, and for once, everyone is right. Even Davis herself publicly agreed, saying that it should have gone to Katharine Hepburn for Alice Adams.

Davis herself makes a handful of scenes come to life, when she decides to be flirtatious with Franchot Tone, and comes back to vivacious life after (we're told) years of being convinced she's a jinx who hurts everyone. But otherwise... yikes, what a stinker. I wanted Dan Aykroyd, back in the early days of SNL and "Bad Theatre," to pop up afterwards to superciliously sum up for us, "Well... that wasn't very good, was it?" Oh, the drahmah and the suffering, and deliberately driving into a tree to kill herself or her ex-husband (but in fact they're still married and he won't divorce her) or both, and being a bitch to Tone so he'll go back to his society fiancée so Bette can suffer nobly caring for the husband she maimed in the accident... it's a role that should have been claimed by Crawford or Shearer, specialists in this kind of masochism.

[Wilbur Whateley]

On 11/12/2019 at 11:27 AM, StatisticalOutlier said:

The Hitch-Hiker:  

Plus that one's showing this Saturday night, and again on Sunday morning.  Some movies will have a couple of showings within a few days, but I think this is the closest one I've noticed.  I assume it has to do with themes, which I've never figured out how to find.

It's a Noir Alley feature, which for the past few years has had double showings on that schedule.  I think it's the only thing on TCM that gets that privilege (double showings)  - I guess it's popular enough to justify it.

[voiceover]

I'm thinking of calling in sick tomorrow and breaking out the dressing gown, cocktail glasses, and expensive perfume, because all day TCM's screening some of my romance favorites.  Esp the Dunne/Boyer Love Affair and Francis & Powell in One-Way Passage.

Watch this space.

[Rinaldo]

I recorded all 4 of the Guest Programmer movies last night (To Kill a Mockingbird, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cool Hand Luke, The Pink Panther) just to hear Sterling K. Brown's commentary on them from an actor's (and, going into the past, a young boy's) perspective. I was fun hearing him describe Paul Newman as his first man-crush and seeing him genuinely, delightedly surprised at the behind-the-scenes stories (how Peter Sellers and Peter Ustinov basically swapped roles in TPP and Topkapi, mere days before shooting).

[elle]

On 11/6/2019 at 6:07 PM, AuntiePam said:

Reconsidered.  Yes, watch for Bette, but what happens next is beyond the pale.  The newspaperman "hero" uses Bette's death to get ahead with his boss, allows (even encourages) taking a photo of Bette's body for the front page, blasting the sordid story all over the news -- and then Bette's step-sister ends up with him.  Whoever wrote that plot line gave zero thought to how a normal person would react. 

I know, right?! My exaggerated sigh of exasperation woke up the dog and she came over to see if I was okay.  I told her just watch she'll end up with him in the end. Doesn't matter if your boss threatens your job, you do the only thing you should in that situation that is tell the family and the police!  you shouldn't have called him in the first place!  And then, because he doesn't tell anyone she winds up being kidnapped! She should have slugged him on sight and then sued him and the rag he worked for.

I watched Fog over Frisco after I had watched Fashions of 1934.  That movie had Bette paired with William Powell.  The intro explained that the studio gave Bette a "glamour makeover" for the role. The "Greta Garbo" wig did not seem so bad but the eye makeup was weird.  Bette and William are fine together but not special.  The problem was there wasn't much to the role, something Bette herself commented on.  Other than a romance angle she could have been replaced by a man or the character eliminated all together. 

I was happy to see It's Love I'm After (1937) is available. Fun screwball comedy with Bette, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland.  Great to see the trio show their comedic skills.  Has an excellent supporting cast too: Eric Blore, Spring Byington, Bonita Granville, Patric Knowles.

[Robert Lynch]

Seeing The Innocents now, I was amazed how much this movie used to freak me out when I was a kid. Now I am wondering how Mackenzie Davis would capture the essence of Deborah Kerr's performance. Finn Wolfhard's Miles, too.

[vb68]

On 11/15/2019 at 12:10 PM, Rinaldo said:

ogrammer movies last night (To Kill a Mockingbird, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Cool Hand Luke, The Pink Panther) just to hear Sterling K. Brown's commentary on them from an actor's (and, going into the past, a young boy's) perspective. I was fun hearing him describe Paul Newman as his first man-crush and seeing him genuinely, delightedly surprised at the behind-the-scenes stories

I did, too. I thought he was quite funny talking about watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? for the first time and knowing nothing about Burton and Taylor. He wondered how two people could be married when they seemed like they hated each other. Then he got married. 😂

Edited November 16, 2019 by vb68

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, Robert Lynch said:

Seeing The Innocents now, I was amazed how much this movie used to freak me out when I was a kid.

I'm just impressed that anyone saw The Innocents at all as a kid -- multiple times, going by "used to." Despite being in my teens when it was first released, I never saw it till it turned up a year or two ago on TCM, though I've seen Benjamin Britten's opera based on its source (The Turn of the Screw) many times -- it's one of my top 3 operas. 

The Innocents itself I find a magnificent achievement, with some of the best ghosts ever seen on film, a skillful preservation of the story's ambiguity, and a performance by Deborah Kerr that's a miracle of "rightness" in a role filled with traps for an actor.

[Robert Lynch]

2 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I'm just impressed that anyone saw The Innocents at all as a kid -- multiple times, going by "used to." Despite being in my teens when it was first released, I never saw it till it turned up a year or two ago on TCM, though I've seen Benjamin Britten's opera based on its source (The Turn of the Screw) many times -- it's one of my top 3 operas. 

The Innocents itself I find a magnificent achievement, with some of the best ghosts ever seen on film, a skillful preservation of the story's ambiguity, and a performance by Deborah Kerr that's a miracle of "rightness" in a role filled with traps for an actor.

That is why I am a little iffy on The Turning which is probably just a modern remake of The Innocents. I mean, it is awesome to film it entirely in Ireland, but this movie with Finn Wolfhard and Mackenzie Davis, I don't know. We will have to see. I mean, it is tough to top the other actor that played Miles from Village of The Damned. 

[Rinaldo]

The Turn of the Screw has been dramatized for the screen, large and small, countless times, in several languages. The role of the Governess is catnip for an actress with a gift for instability (Geraldine Page, Ingrid Bergman, Claire Bloom, Amy Irving are among those who have played her). My favorite casting trivia from the various versions is that a 1989 telecast had David Hemmings as the uncle who hires the governess -- and Hemmings, as a boy soprano, had created the role of Miles in Britten's opera in the 1950s (he can be heard on its classic recording).

[Rinaldo]

As I set up DVR recordings for the coming week (a Sunday-morning TCM ritual for me), I see the usual ration of super-short films to even out the schedule, each with its own short description. I see that coming up on Saturday morning, we have Summer of '63, whose complete summary is "Teenagers spread syphilis among their friends." Of course I know that STDs are a genuine and serious issue in real life. But as a breezy plot summary this cracks me up: it makes syphilis sound like a summer project, a hobby to share like gardening.

[Robert Lynch]

1 hour ago, Rinaldo said:

The Turn of the Screw has been dramatized for the screen, large and small, countless times, in several languages. The role of the Governess is catnip for an actress with a gift for instability (Geraldine Page, Ingrid Bergman, Claire Bloom, Amy Irving are among those who have played her). My favorite casting trivia from the various versions is that a 1989 telecast had David Hemmings as the uncle who hires the governess -- and Hemmings, as a boy soprano, had created the role of Miles in Britten's opera in the 1950s (he can be heard on its classic recording).

That is why I am surprised they cast a 17 year old like Finn Wolfhard to play Miles. I am not ageist at all, but I was possibly surprised at that casting decision. 

[Milburn Stone]

55 minutes ago, Rinaldo said:

I see that coming up on Saturday morning, we have Summer of '63, whose complete summary is "Teenagers spread syphilis among their friends." 

I enjoy these descriptions, because they mean someone at TCM is having fun. The next time they air one of the film versions of Hamlet, I hope to see "A ghost and a prince meet, and everyone ends in mincemeat."

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, Robert Lynch said:

That is why I am surprised they cast a 17 year old like Finn Wolfhard to play Miles. I am not ageist at all, but I was possibly surprised at that casting decision. 

"Possibly" surprised -- you're not sure? 🙂 🙂  Seriously, I do understand being puzzled by it -- I am too (I'm not familiar with Mr. Wolfhard, so I needed your description). But it sounds like they're re-conceiving the material in a very different way. Which is fair enough, I guess, after several dozen more faithful versions. I suppose, with an older boy, they're going to invent more sexually explicit "corrupting" that Quint initiated with Miles. Which to me seems contrary to the whole spirit of the novella -- we can never be sure what happened, or even if anything at all did -- but of course they don't care the slightest bit what I think.

(It's amusing to recall that when the movie The Innocents came out, the popular reviewers slammed it for changing James's story, when in fact -- as Pauline Kael memorably pointed out -- it's far more faithful than most movies ever are to their source material. And she knew her James, having read his complete works.)

Edited November 17, 2019 by Rinaldo

[Robert Lynch]

That why I was judging from the trailer I saw a few weeks ago. I just decided to watch The Innocents again and it is just seems so odd with that Miles casting. I heard he was really good in The Goldfinch according to some reviews, but I am wondering how he would pull that out here. 

[tennisgurl]

Tuesday is Now, Voyager, and I am so excited! Its one of my moms favorites movies ever and her showing it to me for the first time was a full on event. Bette Davis is so great, and I love her whole story about finding her inner strength and breaking away from her abusive controlling mother, and even helping a little girl who reminds her of herself at a young age. While there is a quite lovely romance, its more of a story of a woman finding herself, not just her finding a man, which is pretty awesome, especially for that time period. Its also a sympathetic early look at mental health at a time when that often wasnt talked about in "polite" society, and in the end Charlotte is using her money and newfound independence to help others who are struggling, which is a great ending for her, and very well earned. 

My mom and I always debate about whether or not Charlotte ended up with Dr Jaquith after the movie ended. Mom says that she didnt, I said that she did, even if she had gotten to the point where she needed a man for her to find her freedom from her mother. Maybe its just my Claude Rains crush coming out!

[Chaos Theory]

I just finished watching Running On Empty.    I had it on my DVR mostly because of River Phoenix and he is really really good in it.  It’s the movie that definitely makes you wonder what kind of actor he would have become if he hadn’t died young.   

[Robert Lynch]

River Phoenix is an interesting curiosity. I think Stand By Me showed River at his best. Director Rob Reiner asked River to think of an unhappy moment to make that crying scene work. It is one of those scenes you felt sorry for him and whatever happened to him then. It must have been an unpleasant experience.

Edited November 19, 2019 by Robert Lynch

[Rinaldo]

22 hours ago, Robert Lynch said:

Director [Rob] Reiner asked River to think of an unhappy moment to make that crying scene work.

That is, after all, pretty much how any actor manages an emotional scene, though each has their own way and degree of accessing the memory -- and it's likely to change with experience too. It's interesting to read about actors who express disdain for some newer "method," only to inadvertently reveal that they do pretty much the same thing. River Phoenix did seem, at his best moments, to have an unusually pure conduit to extreme emotions, and I agree that it's hard not to wonder what more he might have achieved. I know I sometimes go overboard with quoting Dan Callahan's books about American screen acting here, but he devotes a whole chapter of the second book to River Phoenix, and these are among his comments (which nobody has to agree with, of course);

Quote

Phoenix was very beautiful, of course, with his James Dean–like hair and his perfect little pointed nose and beautifully proportioned body, and he had a soft but resonant voice so that he could seem both totally vulnerable and commanding at the same time, and in too much pain to stand it much longer. He did not smile easily. And he seemed to have things on his mind that he could not share or speak about.... Phoenix never had any education, and did little socializing with other kids outside his family, so it was hard for him when he got his first job... Phoenix was dyslexic, but no one bothered to diagnose or help him with this, even though he starred in an afterschool special called Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia in 1984.... 

Leonardo DiCaprio took on many of the roles that Phoenix probably would have played had he lived, and surely Phoenix would have played them with more poetry and more kindness.

(I shouldn't leave the impression that Callahan is generally down on DiCaprio, who gets a whole chapter of the book too. Just that each (good) actor has his own distinctive qualities.)

[Robert Lynch]

They are very different in their own way of acting. I don't think there is a comparison between them. River just turned a disability with dyslexia into a ability to further his career as an actor, which is one of the most important points to make there. I still wondered if River Phoenix would have made it had he not taken that drug cocktail. I think he would have been regulated to dad type roles late in his career, possibly in films or tv shows. Possibly a Stranger Thing guest spot as an old date of the main characters' mother or playing as the father to Jacob Tremblay in most of those coming of age films, including Good Boys. I am not saying anything negative about him, but judging how Hollywood has that age thing where the actor is too old to play young love interest or a very naive good person who does good, I would bet River would have had two options left at this point of his career. Or possibly grow to be a music producer. We may never know. It's hard to say.

[Bastet]

Had Phoenix lived, he may well have largely transitioned out of acting by now, since he was most passionate about his activism.  I could see him concentrating on that and his music, occasionally taking a role because it and/or the project resonated with him in some way.  It's sad that we'll never know.  It also saddens me to think about what a shit show those kids grew up in -- no education, no structure, limited socialization outside the cult, all pushed into the entertainment industry to support the family, etc.

[elle]

Is Bette Davis the spotlight star for this month?  It seems there have been a lot of her movies on demand the past few months. I've seen a couple of them show up again to view.  Would it be safe to say that George Brent was her most frequent co-star?

Has anyone read Julie Andrews' new book about her Hollywood years?

[Robert Lynch]

13 hours ago, Bastet said:

Had Phoenix lived, he may well have largely transitioned out of acting by now, since he was most passionate about his activism.  I could see him concentrating on that and his music, occasionally taking a role because it and/or the project resonated with him in some way.  It's sad that we'll never know.  It also saddens me to think about what a shit show those kids grew up in -- no education, no structure, limited socialization outside the cult, all pushed into the entertainment industry to support the family, etc.

That is why I get pissed off at some of these former child star's parents because they rely on the breadwinner and live a lifestyle that is not their own. I just hope today's child star's parents learn to love and educate them when they have these different career paths. Sometimes a parents' love is all they need. 

For the record, River's father, John, begged him to quit acting and get away from Hollywood to recover from the drugs that he was abusing so much. I remember River did say he would have done that, but he had three film projects he wanted to do so badly that he never gotten to finish: Dark Blood, Total Eclipse, and Interview With The Vampire. The whole thing just makes it more tragic. There is a lot of what if moments about River Phoenix. I wondered if he would have survived the 2000s. If not for that cocktail mix that killed him, would he survived against Leonardo DiCaprio's rising fame? I think with the current administration he would have been active in social change and quit acting right there. Same with Rudolph Valentino. How would he have survived the talkies? Lot of what ifs there.

Edited November 20, 2019 by Robert Lynch

[Rinaldo]

16 hours ago, elle said:

Has anyone read Julie Andrews' new book about her Hollywood years?

I have. It goes up to the 1980s or thereabouts and seems reasonably frank (co-written with her daughter). I'm not sure what to say of it beyond that. Although one element links to the River Phoenix discussion: her success at an early age went to support her parents, and it wasn't until the late 1960s, when she cautiously began therapy, that she realized how this determined all her choices. She writes of her first two weeks of daily sessions being filled mostly with her crying, as she started to let go of the survival shell and her therapist asked her to consider that she too was allowed to be happy. (It was also around this time that it became clear that her dream marriage to her longtime best friend was falling apart, and it wasn't because of fault on either side.)

Edited November 20, 2019 by Rinaldo

[elle]

9 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

I have. It goes up to the 1980s or thereabouts and seems reasonably frank (co-written with her daughter). I'm not sure what to say of it beyond that. Although one element links to the River Phoenix discussion: her success at an early age went to support her parents, and it wasn't until the late 1960s, when she cautiously began therapy, that she realized how this determined all her choices. She writes of her first two weeks of daily sessions being filled mostly with her crying, as she started to let go of the survival shell and her therapist asked her to consider that she too was allowed to be happy. (It was also around this time that it became clear that her dream marriage to her longtime best friend was falling apart, and it wasn't because of fault on either side.)

Thank you, Rinaldo!  I'm debating whether or not I want to get this from the library or get the audio book.  I have read that Julie reads the book herself and it is really good.  Should I expect more stories about her personal life  than stories about making movies?  I know they are intertwined.  Just wondering about on which is the most emphasis.  Did you read her first book?

[Robert Lynch]

I honestly did not know about that from Julie Andrews. The more you know.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 11/17/2019 at 10:29 AM, Rinaldo said:

e that coming up on Saturday morning, we have Summer of '63, whose complete summary is "Teenagers spread syphilis among their friends." 

Since these are the shorts that follow the exploitation slot the key word is always "campy."  At least this STD one isn't screened over and over, unlike the one that follows, The Corvair in Action which hand to God I swear they run every other fucking week.

[Rinaldo]

9 hours ago, elle said:

Thank you, Rinaldo!  I'm debating whether or not I want to get this from the library or get the audio book.  I have read that Julie reads the book herself and it is really good.  Should I expect more stories about her personal life  than stories about making movies?  I know they are intertwined.  Just wondering about on which is the most emphasis.  Did you read her first book?

(I've speed-read the first book in a library, for the "good parts," without checking it out, skipping a lot of her early life.)

I'm in no position to advise about the audio book, as I never get them (though I've been told that some are excellently read) -- I get impatient because I can read so much faster. I got the Kindle -- though I much prefer physical books, after a lifetime of reading I have to ask myself sternly on each purchase whether I need it crowding my houseful of overstuffed shelves, or whether having it on my laptop/phone will be enough.

I would say that it's equally balanced between personal life and accounts of movies. I understand your concern, because some such books seem to care only about only one (usually the former). This isn't disappointing in that way. And the real-life stuff is more absorbing than it often is: there are elements like buying out her original British agent who had bound her to an unfair longterm contract -- but doing so took most of her savings so there are pressures like "I'd better bring in some income soon," which we don't think of as applying to her level of success. 

[Charlie Baker]

I've read both Julie Andrews memoirs and I would concur with much of what Rinaldo said.  The first one I thought went into things a little more in-depth, particularly her performing process, but that might also be due to the sheer amount of events professional and personal she needed to cover in the second.  Both are well worth reading, and I hope there will be a third volume bringing things up to the present.  I didn't post about it when they were airing it, in full and in fragments, but the interview she did on TCM leading up to her guest programmer appearance was very good. 

[elle]

9 minutes ago, Charlie Baker said:

I didn't post about it when they were airing it, in full and in fragments, but the interview she did on TCM leading up to her guest programmer appearance was very good. 

Thank you, Charlie Baker, for your input too!  

One thing I really miss about getting the TCM channel is hearing the interviews like the one with Julie Andrews.  Occasionally, the on demand versions will include the intro/outro but it is a rare treat.

[EtheltoTillie]

 Did nobody watch The Anderson Tapes last week (or in the past)?  It’s a hoot.   I don’t know how I managed to miss it all this time. It’s a great caper plot an a treasure trove of old NYC scenes of my teen years. Plus some crazy casting, such as Alan King as an Italian mobster and Martin Balsam as a gay decorator. There’s one politically incorrect comment about Balsam’s character (the other F word), which he reacts with a knowing shrug. 

[Rinaldo]

On 11/22/2019 at 10:15 AM, GussieK said:

Did nobody watch The Anderson Tapes last week (or in the past)?  It’s a hoot.   I don’t know how I managed to miss it all this time. It’s a great caper plot an a treasure trove of old NYC scenes of my teen years. Plus some crazy casting, such as Alan King as an Italian mobster and Martin Balsam as a gay decorator. There’s one politically incorrect comment about Balsam’s character (the other F word), which he reacts with a knowing shrug. 

My DVR had it thanks to my looking out for Ralph Meeker credits (he gets high billing but shows up only near the end, as the police captain). I saw the movie when it was new (I'd even happened to read the book it was based on), but this was my first look since then.

It really does give a picture of the city as it was the early 1970s, the look, the people, the language (vocabularies were evolving, and new terms were far from universally accepted, as @GussieK suggested). It was, as Ben M said, Connery's first non-hairpiece role; and for all practical purposes it was Christopher Walken's first movie (he was still considered a "chorus boy" who couldn't land movie roles), it was Margaret Hamilton's last, and it has a vivid small part for Garrett Morris, years before SNL began. It's filled with real NYC faces like Alan King, Richard B. Shull, Val Avery, Dick Anthony Williams. Even the fact that the caper fizzles out in the end seems characteristic of the time.

[Milburn Stone]

8 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

It really does give a picture of the city as it was the early 1970s, the look, the people, the language...

It is definitely among the most Lumet-y of all Lumet films.

Like you, I haven't seen it since it came out. The thought of it makes me nostalgic for the era that we went out to movies a lot--even for movies that, arguably like The Anderson Tapes, didn't promise to be fantastic but did promise to be fun. I'll look for it On Demand.

[EtheltoTillie]

8 hours ago, Rinaldo said:

My DVR had it thanks to my looking out for Ralph Meeker credits (he gets high billing but shows up only near the end, as the police captain). I saw the movie when it was new (I'd even happened to read the book it was based on), but this was my first look since then.

It really does give a picture of the city as it was the early 1970s, the look, the people, the language (vocabularies were evolving, and new terms were far from universally accepted, as @GussieK suggested). It was, as Ben M said, Connery's first non-hairpiece role; and for all practical purposes it was Christopher Walken's first movie (he was still considered a "chorus boy" who couldn't land movie roles), it was Margaret Hamilton's last, and it has a vivid small part for Garrett Morris, years before SNL began. It's filled with real NYC faces like Alan King, Richard B. Shull, Val Avery, Dick Anthony Williams. Even the fact that the caper fizzles out in the end seems characteristic of the time.

Thanks for remindIng us about all those other amazing cast members. I loved baby Christopher Walken.