TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

[elle]

That is tricky question.  I love "The Prince and the Showgirl" for Marilyn's performance.   She shows so many facets, she's funny, sweet, smart.  I find it a subtle performance.  Olivier, otoh, is chewing scenery left and right.  Somehow the two together work for an enjoyable movie.  If you watch it for the little American to upend a Balkan duke's plans, ones that he has used many times before, and save him at the same time, you might enjoy it.  Give it a chance and forget all the hype of the making of the movie.

 

As a bonus, if you understand a bit of German or French, there are a couple of surprises, ones that are also revealed in the movie, but fun to get before then.

[LuciaMia]

" He filled in for the boyfriend, or husband, or whatever the script called for, did the job and moved "

I feel the same way about Ralph Bellamy. So often, he plays the hapless boyfriend/fiance (Like in 'His Girl Friday), the poor schlub that you know is always gonna get dumped in the end.

[LuciaMia]

Checked out the late October schedule. I don't think I can ever take 'Village of the Damned seriously' every since seeing that Simpson's episode.

And two haunted house movies back to back.

"The Haunting" (1963) Excellent.

"Burnt Offerings" (1976) Meh.

[Milburn Stone]

I feel the same way about Ralph Bellamy. So often, he plays the hapless boyfriend/fiance (Like in 'His Girl Friday), the poor schlub that you know is always gonna get dumped in the end.

 

Sometimes I wonder about character actors who repeatedly get cast as the poor schlub, or (in William Atherton's case, among others) the asshole, or (in Vincent Schiavelli's case, among others) the character who exists for no other reason than that he's uglier than sin. Does it do a number on their self-esteem that Hollywood considers them perfect casting for these parts? Or are they happy for the paycheck and what it validates about their professional skills? Or a little of both?

[Julia]

Sometimes I wonder about character actors who repeatedly get cast as the poor schlub, or (in William Atherton's case, among others) the asshole, or (in Vincent Schiavelli's case, among others) the character who exists for no other reason than that he's uglier than sin. Does it do a number on their self-esteem that Hollywood considers them perfect casting for these parts? Or are they happy for the paycheck and what it validates about their professional skills? Or a little of both?

It doesn't seem to have done Gig Young any favors.

[Rinaldo]

I finally got to Swing High, Swing Low. I know Crisopera was planning (like me) to get to it this weekend, and I hope others who know it will chime in. Because it's an odd little thing, and I'm still not sure what to make of it, or how high to evaluate it.

 

It starts screwball, with a kicky choral rendition over the main titles, and banter between Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray as she passes through Panama (she's on a boat pretending to be a beautician, he's a soldier completing his service that day). After some random little adventures, she misses her boat and stays, he gets in a bar fight with a very young Anthony Quinn (speaking only Spanish here), and they set up housekeeping with his pal Charles Butterworth -- it almost feels pre-Code, with the casual living arrangements, though it's 1937. He plays trumpet, sometimes loses everything gambling, they do eventually get married, young sultry Dorothy Lamour tempts him off to a good NYC gig, while Carole (rather inexplicably, to my mind) stays behind in Panama till he makes it big. They fall out of touch (partial blame to that minx Lamour), she gets a divorce which makes him hit the skids though they both put a good face on it (one of those "if only somebody had said how they really felt" stories), and finally she helps him through a crucial broadcast by re-creating their old act wherein she sings while nestled in his arms while he's playing.

 

They sure liked their comedy and romance and melodrama all mixed together then, didn't they? I can't make up my mind whether it works in some oddball way or whether the pieces really don't fit together. Lombard does look surpassingly beautiful here at times -- not like a pretty ingenue, but like a woman who's seen a few things and thought about them. And their big "Call To Arms" song together is sticking in my mind. She isn't much of a singer -- it's in the plot, with someone asking her early on if she sings, and she says "not very well" -- but for this story the way her voice keeps threatening to crack is just right. One of those "two unexceptional but well-intentioned people trying to muddle through and find each other" movies. It's got something, in all its muddle of genres.

[prican58]

Since yesterday whenever I try to access the Message Board at TCM.com  I get a screen that says Account Suspended. It isn't my account that's suspended as I am not even signed in. I can access everything else but that. Anyone else have the same issue? 

[Rinaldo]

Same for me. It looks like just a meaningless screen they're putting there while the board is closed.

[aradia22]

I started watching Double Harness (1933) today. The leading lady is a little bland so far but the script seems good. I'm not sure when I'll have time to get around to the rest of it.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

Sometimes I wonder about character actors who repeatedly get cast as the poor schlub, or (in William Atherton's case, among others) the asshole, or (in Vincent Schiavelli's case, among others) the character who exists for no other reason than that he's uglier than sin. Does it do a number on their self-esteem that Hollywood considers them perfect casting for these parts? Or are they happy for the paycheck and what it validates about their professional skills? Or a little of both?

Yes, I've always wondered (actually worried would be a better word - I always hope these people I enjoy watching so much on screen had a good time doing it, at least) about this too.  How does it feel to be Rondo Hatton?  I kind of feel like it would be better to be Rondo Hatton than Ralph Bellamy in the sense that Rondo found a career playing a human anomaly because he had an incurable disease that ended his earlier career as a journalist (and of course his life, too, eventually).  If you have to walk around in real life looking like you're wearing a monster mask at least you're getting to do creative work and getting paid for it.  Poor Ralph Bellamy though, kind of got typecast as the Guy Who's Going To Lose The Girl and in a way there doesn't seem any really good reason why he couldn't have played more leads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondo_Hatton

 

"The Haunting" (1963) Excellent.

"Burnt Offerings" (1976) Meh.

Couldn't agree more,  but boy, Burnt Offerings is a huge cult favorite for a lot of people.  Back when IMDB started and still had live staff people answering movie trivia questions it was one of the movies that got the most inquiries.  I've never really understood why. 

Edited October 12, 2014 by ratgirlagogo

[LuciaMia]

 

or Ralph Bellamy though, kind of got typecast as the Guy Who's Going To Lose The Girl

And always played in a way that the  question to the audience is what did the Girl see in him to begin with?

[Rinaldo]

... his niche filled in later years by Bill Pullman. (While You Were Sleeping, Sleepless in Seattle)

[3pwood]

And always played in a way that the  question to the audience is what did the Girl see in him to begin with?

 

Never more so than in His Girl Friday, where it's impossible to believe that Roz Russell's character would ever even notice a guy like that, let alone agree to marry him. 

[MulletorHater]

I had the pleasure of watching Stella Dallas again Saturday night and loved the commentary by Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore.  Drew indicated she could definitely relate to the mother-daughter relationship in this movie, particularly the moments of embarrassment.  This movie never gets old for me.  I think Saturday night's theme was class differences.  On a personal note, I also had a mother who sometimes embarrassed me and made me want to crawl into a hole and die.

 

Barbara Stanwyck indicated this was her favorite movie performance.  Someone asked upthread about favorite tearjerker moments.  For me, it has to be when poor Lollie and Stella realize that no one is coming to Lollie's birthday party.  Neither one had no way of knowing that it was Stella's behavior with her male friend that caused the snub.  Another heartbreaking moment was when Lollie realizes that the woman everyone was laughing at for her cheap clothes, heavy makeup and gaudy jewelry was none other than her mother.  When Stella walked into that soda shop and Lollie saw her through the mirror, my heart just broke.  Of course, when the two of them were on the train and they both overheard those catty girls making fun of Stella, I cried some more because both of them pretended not to hear it. The final teary moment for me was when Stella comes to the realization that her former husband and Helen could give her daughter a better life.  By the time the wedding took place, I was reduced to a puddle of tears!

 

[Crisopera]

It's too bad that Swing High, Swing Low was such an awful print.  I'm guessing that Paramount (or whoever owns it now) thinks it's not worth a restoration.  I enjoyed it, but I agree with Rinaldo that it's a bit of a mish-mash.  Screwball, soap, musical - something for everyone.  The performances are terrific though.  It's a (very) loose remake of The Dance of Life (1929), which was a movie version of the play Burlesque, which made Barbara Stanwyck a star on Broadway (however, they replaced her with a more established movie star, Nancy Carroll, unfortunately).  There was a further remake in 1948, When My Baby Smiles at Me, with Dan Dailey and Betty Grable as the leads.  The play and the other two movies were set in the world of vaudeville, however, not Panama (or swing, for that matter).  But they all have the same basic plot line - guy gets success, it goes to his head, he neglects his woman, has a fall, and she supports him back to health/stardom.  None of them are bad movies - in fact, Dan Dailey got an Oscar nomination (and deserved it).

[elle]

 

or Ralph Bellamy though, kind of got typecast as the Guy Who's Going To Lose The Girl

I think Ralph Bellamy is one of those actors that outlived his typecasting.  He went to a lot of TV shows, and Broadway.  His most famous movie role is probably his turn as FDR with Greer Garson.  For younger viewers, he is one of the Duke brothers who trick Dan Ackroyd out of his position in "Trading Places" or the sympathetic shipyard magnate in "Pretty Woman"

 

"Mr. Lucky" was just on.  It is one of my favorite Cary Grant movies.   I think Lorraine Day is great in it.  However, I recall a spot on her where they were saying that she was beautiful but didn't seem to have the spark needed to be a great actress or the studios didn't know what to do with her.  What are your thoughts?

Edited October 13, 2014 by elle

[Rinaldo]

It's too bad that Swing High, Swing Low was such an awful print.  I'm guessing that Paramount (or whoever owns it now) thinks it's not worth a restoration.  

Apparently it's fallen into public domain through lack of renewal, so nobody "owns" it or feels responsible for it. And I thought I'd read (though I can't verify it at the moment) that only this one print has survived, and none of the original elements. So this may be as good as it's going to look, unless some genius is either crazy-devoted enough or is given enough $$$ to do a digital frame-by-frame correction (if that's even feasible).

[Bastet]

Oh, thank you, TCM.  I have a thoroughly frustrating day, come home and endure an equally frustrating football game -- at which point I order up the best dim sum in the neighborhood as I'm too tired to cook and tune in TCM to discover Bringing Up Baby, a film I could watch weekly and never tire of.  Although I can watch it any time on DVD, it is just perfect timing.

 

I've noted before that I take Howard Hawks' point that he'd have gone back and made one character "normal," a stand-in for the audience to observe the craziness all around her/him, and I think that helps many a screwball.  But I love this one as it is. I recite a good 2/3 of the film alongside the characters as I watch.

 

And thus, I shall get in bed and do precisely that.

 

"I was born on the side of a hill." 

[Charlie Baker]

I watched The Stranger's Return last night, partially because of Leonard Maltin's high praise of it in Classic Movie Guide.  I might not think quite as highly of it as he does, practically terming it an undiscovered classic, but there's definitely a lot of good things in it.  The story is low key and takes its time, establishing the environment that a young woman enters, sort of a prodigal, even if she didn't know the place at all, a farm community where she moves in with her grandfather after the break-up of her marriage.  She falls for the married farmer next door and stops just short of scandalizing the whole community. I haven't seen a lot of Miriam Hopkins' work, but the few things I have (Trouble in Paradise, for one) she seems more consistent than she does in this performance, which maybe hasn't aged well.  She often comes off artificially here, as compared to her cast mates. Maybe straightforward and heartfelt were not her strengths?  Lionel Barrymore as the grandfather and Franchot Tone as the farmer are solid. Ms. Hopkins does have good chemistry with both of them. This is definitely the kind of film I love discovering on TCM.  I wish the print had been in a little better shape.

[elle]

Movies with beautiful people in beautiful clothes today, including Wife vs. Secretary.  

 

Did people really dress like that, not just in the movies, but ever?

 

And then there are movie that are fun to watch for the clothes like, Lady With a Past, but have awful storylines.  What a hypocritical jerk Donnie was before and after Venice had gone to Paris.  And the movie ends with her more or less accepting his awful proposal, dreck!

Edited October 15, 2014 by elle

[Julia]

There's a short subject called Hollywood: Style Center of the World which is on, I think, my The Women DVD (sorry, they're packed for a move) which tries real hard to make the case that everyone dressed like that because people in the movies did. In reality, I don't think anyone back then had enough money.

[prican58]

Folks, is anyone having problems signing into TCM.com? It isn't the same issue re a suspended account but it is telling me my password is incorrect. I just changed the pswd 3 days ago and was able to enter the site itself. I'm thinking whatever the IT guys did maybe I have to change it yet again. Not the worst thing but I'm pretty tired of having to come up with new passwords.

 

We now return to our regular classic film discussion. Thank you for your support. 

[Luckylyn]

"Mr. Lucky" was just on.  It is one of my favorite Cary Grant movies.   I think Lorraine Day is great in it.  However, I recall a spot on her where they were saying that she was beautiful but didn't seem to have the spark needed to be a great actress or the studios didn't know what to do with her.  What are your thoughts?

She kinda reminds me of Myrna Loy.  I'm surprised studios didn't see a spark with her.  I'm very fond of Mr. Lucky. I pretty much stop what I'm doing to watch whenever a Cary Grant movie comes on.

[elle]

Myrna Loy had tons of sparkle.  The studios just thought it was exotic for too long before someone finally gave her a break.  With Larraine Day it seemed as if she got caught in the good girl role and even in the unusual movie like "The Locket" she really didn't seem to get to stand out.  I often mix her up with Teresa Wright.   I wonder if that was part of the problem, too many looking too much alike.

 

"Wife vs Secretary" - I will never understand Gable's reasoning for not including his wife in his plot to take over the other publishing company.  What better way to hush up your reason to go to Havana than to have a romantic week with one's wife?

 

eta:  Norma Sherer this morning in "Let Us Be Gay".  This is the movie I keep mixing up with "The Divorcee" because of the dramatic change in Norma's appearance.  It was only a photo she used to convince her husband to let her make that movie.  In this one, she transforms after her movie husband leaves her.  One wonders why she didn't bother before.

 

The thing I find mesmerizing about this movie is all the glitches.  Often one feels as if it is a play being filmed and not filmed too well.  Equipment is seen, a shot of an empty room is held too long before someone wanders by.  So often in these pre code movies, I wonder why the heroine goes back to the cad that dumps her, as I said above about "Lady with a Past".

Edited October 16, 2014 by elle

[aradia22]

I didn't feel like watching Pete Kelly's Blues so I just fastforwarded through the narrative and watched the musical numbers with Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee. They sounded gorgeous but they didn't really sparkle on film. I think it was partially the way they were shot during the musical numbers and then just their stage presence. I don't know if it was something that didn't translate to film. Weirdly, I thought Ella was better in her second more somber number than first one which should have been more upbeat. I don't know. I've listened to a lot of Ella Fitzgerald but not a lot of Peggy Lee. There are like a bajillion Spotify albums because they keep re-releasing different compilations. Any recommendations?

[Milburn Stone]

I've listened to a lot of Ella Fitzgerald but not a lot of Peggy Lee. There are like a bajillion Spotify albums because they keep re-releasing different compilations. Any recommendations?

 

You could literally start anywhere and not go wrong. But I'll tell you where I'd start, if it's available to you. Her 1965 Capitol album Then Was Then and Now Is Now. Ironically, since you're inundated by compilations, it too is a compilation--but a compilation of recent singles that was put together then, so the program has more integrity and authenticity than your garden variety career-spanning smorgasbord. (It also avoids the "greatest hits" problem that makes so many compilations sound like so many other compilations.) It's a great overview of her work in one of her best periods, and includes some killer swingers and ballads. In the latter category, the title song, written by Lee and Cy Coleman. 

Edited October 16, 2014 by Milburn Stone

[ratgirlagogo]

 

I didn't feel like watching Pete Kelly's Blues

Useless trivia fact of the day: during the famous drug bust of the Rolling Stones at Keith Richards' house in 1967, the movie playing on the TV in the living room with the sound off was Pete Kelly's Blues. 

 

You may return to your previous focus on Classic Films.

[Crisopera]

My favorite Peggy Lee tracks are "Why Don't You Do Right" and an incredibly gorgeous version of "The Way You Look Tonight" with Benny Goodman.  Also the songs she co-wrote for Lady and the Tramp, especially "He's a Tramp."  Love her.

[LuciaMia]

Looks like last night's theme was 'One big white hunter and lots of brown native porters'  Tho this was the first time I saw 'Mountains of the Moon; about Burton's trek to find the source of the Nile.

[prican58]

Foreign Correspondent. My head was down because I'm not really watching it. But I had to look up at hearing Herbert Marshall, George Sanders and their dueling sonorous voices in the same scene. OMG, such voices! All we would have needed was a cameo appearance of James Mason and history would have been made. 

[elle]

"After Office Hours" with Clark Gable and Constance Bennett - fun little movie about newspapers and a murder mystery, Columbo style with Gable figuring things out.  A little bumpy in parts, but fun.

 

Gable could give Cary Grant a run for his money in the fast talking department and it has a great supporting cast who make the movie worth a watch.

 

Gable: Gimme a ticket to Kansas City!

Clerk:  Which one?  We got two!

 

 

[Bastet]

Usually, unless it affects sports channels, I don't much care about the temporary loss of access that goes on during disputes between networks and providers.  But Turner and Dish's pissing contest is denying me access to TCM during the month in which they show classic horror films, and that I just cannot abide.  Assholes.

 

Carry on.

[mariah23]

DISH is costing me my TCM.  They must pay.  Thank God I was able to borrow my uncle's Direct TV password to watch TCM online.  That's the only thing that is getting me through this.

[Charlie Baker]

These disputes suck.  And they aren't going to stop anytime soon.  My current irritation is Time Warner does not give me access to Watch TCM.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

My current irritation is Time Warner does not give me access to Watch TCM.

Seconded.  Every time they remind me about Watch TCM at the end of every movie I get pissed off about it all over again.

Edited October 24, 2014 by ratgirlagogo

[elle]

"Above Suspicion" with Fred McMurray and Joan Crawford - set in '39 made in '43.  Also of note, it is Conrad Veidt's last movie!

 

This is a couple of years before "Mildred Pierce" but Joan is already wearing that bang-hair style.  During the movie, she wears her hair in an updo and with a hat that hides the bangs.  She looked so much better with her hair off her face.

 

Basic couple going undercover to spy for Allies.  Nice movie with lots of good supporting characters.  The couple are supposed to go to Southern Germany for their honeymoon.  All through the movie, their place of travel is referred to as Germany or Southern Germany.  The first time I heard that when the next line was that they were going to Salzburg, it bounced me right out of the movie!  Then they were off to Innsbruck, or nearby.  It took me a few moments to realize that at the time they made this movie, there was effectively not a separate country called Austria.  However, I thought it really odd that a movie would make that a point in their story.  In fact, when they meet Conrad Veidt's character, he goes out of his way to say that he is not German but Austrian.  This was the first movie where I have seen an acknowledgement of the annexation treated so casually.

[Julia]

Seconded.  Every time they remind me about Watch TCM at the end of every movie I get pissed off about it all over again.

 

Third. I would subscribe to it independently if they would let me.

 

I am so looking forward to my move and the FIOS that hasn't been available in my area.

[aradia22]

I think I only started getting TCM in 8th grade so *mumbles* years ago. However, now that I've experienced life with TCM I can't imagine life without TCM.

[Charlie Baker]

Caught just a few minutes of Cass Timberlane--so I can't really evaluate.  But there in a courtroom scene, in a small part as an attorney, was one Milburn Stone. :-)

[Milburn Stone]

Caught just a few minutes of Cass Timberlane--so I can't really evaluate.  But there in a courtroom scene, in a small part as an attorney, was one Milburn Stone. :-)

 

I get around.

[elle]

Oh, thank you, TCM.  I have a thoroughly frustrating day, come home and endure an equally frustrating football game -- at which point I order up the best dim sum in the neighborhood as I'm too tired to cook and tune in TCM to discover Bringing Up Baby, a film I could watch weekly and never tire of.  Although I can watch it any time on DVD, it is just perfect timing.

I know how you feel, Bastet, sometimes TCM just seems to know when one needs a old favorite.

 

"Murder Most Foul" (aka Mrs McGinty's Dead) was on tonight.  Just the music for the Margaret Rutherford "Miss Marples" make me happy!

[Rinaldo]

Murder Most Foul cracks me up. Not only is its source, Mrs. McGinty's Dead, a Poirot novel, in which they blithely substituted Miss Marple, but the opening sequence (a murder jury deadlocked by one stubborn old lady) is swiped from the opening chapters of Dorothy Sayers's Strong Poison. Still, Margaret Rutherford is always a kick, and it's pleasant to recall that these movies, late in her life, turned her into an international favorite.

[aradia22]

Just a heads up for those of you who might be planning to visit NY. The Lauren Bacall exhibit announced at the Museum at FIT will open in March. In the meantime they've made some photos of the clothes she donated available online. http://fashionmuseum.fitnyc.edu/view/objects/aslist/5406?t:state:flow=e4f54edb-672d-4bdc-9ac9-5018bff8263d

[ratgirlagogo]

This morning I caught the last hour of a Rin Tin Tin movie.  Clicked on the remote to find out the name of it and here was the description:

 

Tough Guy (1936) "A rich kid (Jackie Cooper) runs away with his dog (Mischa Auer) and ends up hiding in the woods with a gangster (Joseph Calleia)."

Damn! That Mischa Auer was even more versatile than I thought.

[Crisopera]

I assume he was playing a Russian Wolfhound.

[elle]

"My Favorite Blonde" on tonight's schedule with Bob Hope and "Hitchcock fav" Madeleine Carroll.  There is a scene on a train very reminiscent of North by NorthWest, with a very confused Bob trying to figure out what is going on.  This movie precedes the other by 15+ years, but I wonder if Hitch saw it and decide to make the straight version of this very burlesqued "who's the spy"/ train compartment sequence.

[Coffeecup]

Does anybody else enjoy reading the TCM articles about the movies?  I mean the articles you can see when you're reading the daily schedule, then click "Expanded," then click "Article."  The most popular movies have several articles each, and you can pick up additional information about the movie from each one. Some articles will be about the experiences of the directors, some will include the comments of the actors, and others will concentrate on the reviews from the time the movie first came out.

 

Anyway, for the November Star of the Month, instead of an individual actor, TCM is featuring silent movies. I am not a huge silents fan, but I watch them sometimes and like many of them. I have a book, "Hollywood Babylon" by Kenneth Anger, that has lots of lurid gossip about the silents stars and interesting historical photos. (Old book from 1975 that's still in print.) Most of it sounds like today's tabloid stories, meaning that much of the gossip is either exaggerated or not even true, but it's a fun trashy read. I am going back and forth between reading the TCM articles about the silent movies and the HB book.

 

I especially want to see "The Winning of Barbara Worth," a silent Western about two men in love with the same woman, on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 7:30 a.m. (I'm not a morning person, but I can prop my eyelids open long enough to watch it.)  The stars are Ronald Coleman and Vilma Banky, but the person I really want to see is Gary Cooper, who plays the cowboy in love with Banky; his rival is Coleman. I love Cooper, and I'll watch anything he's in. I love Westerns, so this film is a "two-fer' treat.  Also I'm always interested in watching the stars who started out in silents and went on to have good careers in the talkies, such as Cooper, Greta Garbo and Loretta Young. I think of them as Hollywood survivors. The transition from silents to talkies was a huge technological change, and many of the great silent stars fell by the wayside.

[ratgirlagogo]

 Kenneth Anger made some amazing movies, and Hollywood Babylon is a classic trashy read.  I love HB but you have to realize that it's basically almost 100% bullshit. Clara Bow banging the entire USC football team, etc.  Oh, please.  But all the folks who have written more fact-based books since then kind of assume that everyone reading them has read Hollywood Babylon so , it's worth reading because it's useful to be aware of what the famous gossip of the day was with regard to these Golden Age figures. 

 

I am TOTALLY digging the silent movie focus, except I need like a thousand hour storage DVR.  There is no way I can see everything I want to see that they're showing this month.  So frustrating.  As opposed to October when I had the opposite kind of frustration.  They hardly showed any horror movies except on Halloween itself.  Just the Hammer mummy movies on Saturdays and I think Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula. 

ETA:

 

I love Westerns

Forgot to say, OMG FINALLY.  Somebody else here besides myself who's into Westerns. Even if we don't like the same kind I'm stoked to talk to you about them.

Edited November 8, 2014 by ratgirlagogo

[ratgirlagogo]

Also, in my classic movie news of the week, in this week's episode of Arrow, Oliver comes over to visit his sister Thea in her new loft apartment and they settle in to watch Possessed with Joan Crawford and Clark Gable on her giant-ass TV.  FYI.

[aradia22]

Oh my God. We've discussed how that's the movie that probably really set off my Joan Crawford/Clark Gable obsession, right? It reminds me of how Gossip Girl would always be making references to old movies and classic books.